“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Who's ever heard Isaiah 7:14 before? Anybody ever heard this? Maybe you've seen it on a Christmas card. We went on Etsy, and we printed up some Christmas cards with Isaiah 7:14. And they have the verse on there, and they've got some nice plans on there as well, you know. And then here's one, we lost the first line on this one, we took out that “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.” And in this one, which is like, some trees and some hills, it just says, “Behold the virgin …” And then this one we lost “Behold,” and it's just like a Christmas tree. And it says, “The virgin.” And I'm not against Christmas cards by any means, but what happens is we are making an art of taking verses out of context. And I would imagine that many of us have heard Isaiah 7:14, but how many of us are familiar with Isaiah 7:13? Or Isaiah 7:15? We wouldn't even know there's a place you could go called Isaiah 7:11. We don't even know about these things. Okay. So today, what we're going to do is we're going to look at more than just the Christmas card, and we're going to say, if there's an amazing prophecy of a virgin giving birth to God with us, I want to learn everything we possibly can about this.
We're going to roll up our sleeves and do some real Bible study this morning. And I want to invite you to open your Bible and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 7. And we're going to study this prophecy in its original context in which it was given, so that we can hopefully increase in not only on understanding, but in our faith here together today, because I think for a lot of us, prophecy kind of becomes a matching game. It's like, oh, I know the reference of where the prophecy was said Isaiah 7:14, and oh, I know where it was fulfilled, Matthew 1:23. Check! I got that prophecy. I know that one. And I think there's actually a lot more going on than just knowing the verse, where it was said, and the verse where it was quoted later on. And so out of respect for God's Word, I'm going to read this entire chapter of Scripture. And I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for this public reading of Scripture, even everybody out on the front lawn, or watching online. Will you please follow along as I read all 25 verses of Isaiah chapter 7. Maybe we've never been to a church service where we studied Isaiah 7 before, but let's do it here together. Please give your full and undivided attention.
“In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, ‘Syria is in league with Ephraim,’ the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. And the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, ‘Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,’ thus says the Lord God: ‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’ The Sign of Immanuel. Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: ‘Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.’ But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.’ And he said, ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!’ In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures. In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also. In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey. In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.”
That's the reading of God's word. Please go ahead and have your seat. And you can see why right away we can't fit that all on a Christmas card. All right. So, you can see that. Okay. And maybe some of that is like, what is even going on here? Well, let's look at it together. And let's start with a little bit of mappery here to help this geography make sense to us. Okay? We're talking about three different nations here. And God is speaking to King Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah, who is in Judah. Judah is the southern kingdom of God's people. They split, and the northern kingdom is known as … what everybody? Israel is the northern kingdom, and Israel has allied with Syria. And we got the names of all these guys, there's Rezin in Syria, and there's Pekah the son of Remaliah there in Israel. And so, it's the two guys up top coming against Judah down there, on the bottom of the map. Okay? And so you got to understand the geography, to see that you’ve got the two northern kingdoms allying, coming against the southern kingdom. And we can all understand that two is more than one, and so Ahaz is shaking like a tree in the wind, because they've allied together against him. And that's how we begin here.
If you go back to Isaiah 7:1, they come up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they haven't attacked yet. And you get this line here in verse 2, an important line when the house of David was told Syria is in league with Ephraim. So, I understand this is complicated. If you don't really think about it, you’ve got three different nations with three different kings’ names. And sometimes it's even going to refer to these nations by their capital city. Right? So, it's going to refer to Judah, and the capital city in Judah is what, everybody? Jerusalem. Right. And then Israel, it's going to refer to as Samaria, and then Syria, the capital city, you might know is Damascus. Okay? So, you’ve got to know three nations, three kings, three capital cities. And if that wasn't enough, Israel will often not be referred to it as Israel, there's another name for it, which is Ephraim. And you're not going to understand the story if you don't know whenever you hear Ephraim, that's just another name for Israel, which is that northern kingdom that is allied with Syria against Judah. And so, there's some geography to help you see what's going on here. Two kings and two nations are coming together against Ahaz, king of Judah. And if you go back to verse 2, and this is really significant how it says it here. This is something that Scripture where Isaiah when he's writing this, he expects us to understand the meaning behind this phrase, verse two, when the house of David was told. Okay. The house of David, the kingly line of David, that's supposed to have real significance to us. And in fact, this is going to help you understand all of the prophecies of Scripture, if you know that in 2 Samuel chapter 7, God made a promise to King David. And sometimes it's referred to as the Davidic Covenant that the line of his kingship would last forever.
In fact, if you're if you're taking notes, you could write down 2 Samuel 7:16, or maybe even put that in the Bible next to the house of David there, because that's the promise that God made to King David, “your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established for forever.” God has made a promise to David that his house and the throne, the kingdom that's represented in his house, will be established for… how long did God say, everybody? Forever. The house of David. When he talks about the house of David here, yes, we understand that there are two nations coming against one nation, but that one nation has a promise from God that the house of David will be established forever. And so, when the house of David is shaking like a tree in the wind, we're supposed to read that and think, oh, these people don't have faith. These people don't trust the promises of God. King Ahaz is not a guy who really believes that he's in the kingly line of David, that God is with him, and going to be good to him, and that nothing could stop the house of David from enduring forever. No, he thinks these other two nations might be able to stop it. And he's shaking like a tree in the wind. So that might seem like ancient geography and politics, but let me ask you how many of us over the last two years have heard current events and political news and started shaking like trees in the wind when we had the promises of God the entire time?
That's what's happening here. A king who should be leading people in faith is shaking because his enemies are coming, even though God has promised to be with him, and to give him a future as the house of David. And so, God is not okay when people don't have faith. When people who claim to believe in God don't actually believe in God, God takes that personally. See, we might be like, oh, I just have little faith. Yes. But God doesn't just think you have little faith. He thinks you have little faith in him. He thinks it's between you and him. And so, God, he's going to address Ahaz’s response of shaking like a tree in the wind, and he's going to send Isaiah the prophet in verse 3. In fact, he sends Isaiah the prophet and his son Shear-jashub, and they meet the king at a certain place. And look what they say to him in verse 4. “Be careful, be quiet, do not”… keyword here, do not what, everybody? Fear. Hey, it is not okay for you to be afraid. It's not okay that you're letting your heart… and look at how it describes these two other nations here. You're letting “your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands.” Like hey, do you realize these two nations, their fire is going out? These guys are not world conquerors. No one here has heard of Rezin, king of Syria or Pekah, the son of Remaliah. We can barely pronounce their names. We don't know these guys. They aren't these guys. Why are you afraid of these guys? These smoldering stumps that fire is going out there. And then it's like almost sarcastic here. It's like kind of making fun the fierce anger of Rezin and it won't even call Pekah. It just disrespects Pekah. Throughout this text, we don't even use his name. We just call him the son of somebody else, the son of Remaliah here. Like you're afraid of these guys, when God has made a promise that your house will be established forever. You're afraid of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands. Like what are you doing here? Ahaz Do you realize what they're saying? Verse 6, this is their plan. “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it.” Hey, let's go put the son of Tabeel as king again. We won't even mention the guy's name because he's not worthy of mentioning. Let's go put this other guy as king over David's house, when we've already made a promise to the house of David that that line will be established forever. So, is this something that we should be afraid of? No, we should not, because God has already prophesied. God has already promised. God has already spoken. And it has already been written. And when God says it's going to happen. Can I get an Amen from the congregation? I wonder how many people here have wasted days of your lives being afraid of things that were never going to happen. Because God didn't say they were ever going to happen. I mean, look what God says. He's like, I'll let me speak a word to you right now. He has the word of God is where faith comes from. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. Ahaz you're shaking like a tree in the wind. Let me speak to you “thus says the Lord God,” verse 7. “It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.” I'm going to tell you right now that those two nations will not come and get you. That is not going to happen. You are making much ado about nothing, king Ahaz. You are freaking out when there is really nothing to fear, because God has already promised to be here.
In fact, let me start, now that we're going to start making some prophecies on top of saying that you're not going to be invaded, now let me start telling you what is going to happen. And let's go to Syria, where there's Damascus, and Damascus is where there's Rezin. And then let me tell you this, and right there in the middle of verse 8, this is a prophecy “within sixty-five years.” Ephraim, or the northern kingdom of Israel, will be shattered from being a people. In fact, not only should you not be afraid that they're going to come and get you, I'll tell you what, within sixty-five years, the northern kingdom of Israel will cease to exist. And so, this is a prophecy that had a fulfillment in the near future because Assyria does come in. Does anybody know what year Assyria came in, and really took it to the northern kingdom of Israel. Anybody know? 722 BC, which is shortly after this prophecy, and by later on, there's like nothing left in the land. In fact, by the time of Jesus, we know that that area, Samaria, that used to be the northern kingdom of Israel, the Jews don't even consider that their territory anymore. They like walk around that place because that's not even Israel anymore. There's like Israel above it, and Israel below it. But we don't even recognize that it is Israel anymore, because they get so wiped out in response to this prophecy right here in Isaiah 7. And so, he's explaining to Ahaz, they're not going to come and get you. They're actually the ones that are going to end up destroyed. And then he says this, and this is a great line for everybody to write down, for everybody to think through, at the end of verse 9. “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” When you hear current events, when you hear what's happening in the in the nations of the world and in the politics of our nation, do you start shaking like a tree in the wind, or are you firm in your faith? Do you have the promises of God as an anchor for your soul? Do the prophecies of God really give you a direction for the future of your life? Or are you being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and shaken around by every current event that takes place. If you are not firm in your faith, you will not be firm at all. See, he's an example to everybody here, this guy, this king that maybe we hadn't even heard of until we read this passage together this morning. He is now an example of how foolish fear looks when you see it from the perspective of the future. Okay, fear seems very important in the moment, when it's like things are out of control. I don't know what's going to happen. But when you fast-forward to the future, and nothing happened, see, why were you so worried? Why were you so afraid?
I wonder if all of us could go back and make a list of how many times you freaked out when there was actually nothing to fear. How long would your list be? I mean, I don't even know maybe our brains got a little bit of fog. Like we can't even remember BC before COVID. Let's just go like the last two years. Like how many of us, even just in the last two years, how many times did we act like this is the end of the world as we know it, and start shaking like trees in the wind, when God's promises did not change over the last two years? God's word was just as sure. In fact, the promise that the house of David is going to have a king who's then going to be established forever, like that promise is still out there going. So, you see here, there's a rebuke of the king not having faith in what God has already said. And this story is for all of us to see I don't want to be the person in the future who didn't have faith in what God said was going to happen. That's what we're all supposed to be seeing here now. Then now we're going to address it again. Look at verse 10. Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz. And this is classic right here. So, God is going to now give Ahaz another chance. And he's going to say, ask a sign of the Lord your God. Hey, I can tell you don't have faith, I'll give you a sign to help increase your faith here. And look at this, this sign could be anything as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven. So, I mean, supernatural miracle kind of a sign, something like all the way from the place of the dead, all the way up to the glory of God on his throne in his holy splendor. Like, go ahead, what do you want to see? I asked for it. And then he gives the classic church answer right here. But he has said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” Isn't that awesome? The guy clearly has no faith. And then you say, hey, you have no faith. Let me encourage your faith. And the guy immediately says, of course, I have faith. I don't need to test the Lord. Right? This is classic.
What church people do is they act like they don't really believe God. And then you say to them, hey, do you really believe God? And they're like, how dare you question my faith? Of course, who am I to test the Lord? Of course, I trust God, I don't need a sign, because an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, and I don't need a sign. I believe. Well, no, you don't believe God, and now you don't even take a sign when God offers you one, because he knows you don't have faith. And so, Isaiah, he gets a little perturbed here when he says in verse 13, “And he said, ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?’” Ahaz, you are wearing us all out, you're wearing God out at this point with your no faith. And then of course, you have faith, like you're just wearing us out. And see what God says. Okay, so you don't want to ask for a sign, you don't want to have faith? Well, I've got a sign that I want to give you. And then God says right here in this context, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,” the virgin shall be pregnant, “and shall call his name Immanuel.” It's in this moment, where the house of David has shaken like a tree in the wind that God wants to get even more specific on his promise to the house of David with this prophecy. You want me to show you something that I'm in control, and then I have the future, and then I really know what I'm doing? Well, someday a virgin will give birth, and then you'll know that God is with us. I mean, to talk about going as high as heaven with a sign. Not just to say that it's going to happen in the future, but to say a virgin will give birth, something that just seems humanly impossible. I mean, God here he's like, no, I want people to believe when I speak to them. That's what God is saying here. And in fact, it says in verse 15, that this son, see, here's the part we don't really get to on the Christmas card, that son that's going to be born of a virgin is going to “eat curds and honey...” That's interesting … “when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.” And then he goes and says in verse 16, “for before, the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.”
Now, there's something happening in the Hebrew here that you might want to take notes on. Or you might even have it in the footnote of your Bible there. If you've got the ESV translation, it says, down at the bottom, that, hey, in the Hebrew that “you” is different in some of these verses, like if you read verses 13 and 14, the “you” there is in the plural, and then if you start in verse 16, here, the verse that “you” there is in the singular. So, this is something you can't tell by reading it in English. But if you were reading it in Hebrew, when it said there in verse 13 here, “O house of David,” you would see that's addressing many people. And then in verse 16, where it says that there's a boy and the land whose two kings, “you” dread now, that's singular, that's just talking to Ahaz. So, I think there are actually two prophecies that get delivered here, about two different boys, one in the plural to “you,” as in all the house of David, to the house of David there's going to be born from a virgin, Immanuel, God with us, and he's going to eat curds and honey, but before this boy knows how to choose evil and choose to refuse the evil and choose the good. Notice that in verse 16, it says before the boy, almost like we're pointing to a boy, or a boy is there. And which boy is there actually in the story? Isaiah, his son, Shear-jashub. Remember, go back to verse 3. Remember how God told him to bring Shear-jashub, if we know even a little bit of what that means Shear-jashub that Hebrew name. If you paid attention to the Hebrew that we've been talking about here at the church shub is a Hebrew word you might know. Shub means to turn, we often use shub to repent. And so, this boy's name means a remnant will return. And so it seems like in verse 16, where he says before the boy or you could even say before this boy like Isaiah and verse 16, might be pointing to his own son who might even be in his arms, or holding his hand, a very young boy, and he's saying, before this boy even knows how to refuse the evil and choose to good, before he really even fully understands, right and wrong., this is going to happen that the two kings that you're so afraid of, they will be deserted there. They're going to be wiped out before this boy even has a chance to really grow up. That's how fast God is going to act.
So, there's a prophecy in the plural about a future virgin bearing a son, and that son is going to eat curds and honey. And then there's a prophecy that before Isaiah, his son can even grow up all the way, the two kings that you're so afraid of, Ahaz, their lands are going to be deserted. And the Lord's going to do this by bringing upon you at the end of verse 17, “the king of Assyria.” And this is all something we know from history happened, that Assyria came in, and they took over Syria, they destroyed Israel, and they started oppressing the land; they started reigning over the land. And that's what all these descriptions in verse 18, verse 20, verse 21, verse 23, when it says in that day, it's referring now to a prophecy of the future reign of Assyria. And see, when you have an oppressor, when you have another nation ruling over you, see, now you kind of go into hiding, and now you can't really just plant your fields, you can't really live off the full bounty and produce of the land. No, now you’ve just got like a one cow and two goats, and you're going and looking for wild honey out there. And so that's the idea of this curds and the honey, like someone is oppressing you, and you are just getting whatever food you can. And a big herd at this time is like one cow and two goats, and you're just getting curds from their milk, and you're going and looking at the wildflowers for honey, and that's all you've got to eat because you're under the oppression of the Assyrians. So we have a prophecy that works in the near, that before Isaiah’s son can even come up, watch out, here come the Assyrians, and they're going to take Syria, and they're going to take Israel, but even the son who will be born as from a virgin, and whose name will be Immanuel, even that son is going to eat curds and honey, which means that that son will be born at a time when Israel is oppressed by another nation. And that's referring to the Roman Empire at the time of Joseph and Mary.
Will you go with me to Matthew chapter 1 now that we understand the full context of the prophecy here in Isaiah? Let's go to Matthew chapter 1, and let's read about this disciple, because he wants to talk about the birth of Jesus Christ. And notice how Matthew begins his gospel is with a genealogy, going back to the promise to Abraham, and the promise to David, and then the prophecy of the exile. And he's wanting to show that the whole story that God has been writing, with the covenant with Abraham of a nation and the land, and the covenant with David of a house and the king, and even the exile where God judged his people, all of this has been leading down to Joseph, down to this guy that we now meet. Joseph is of the house of David, he's in the kingly line. And it says here in Matthew 1:18. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,” which we now get, which means God with us. “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”
So, this is a time period from when Isaiah says that the King Ahaz in Isaiah 7, to Joseph, having this angel come to him in a dream, this is a time period of seven hundred years. I want to throw this chart up here so we can all fully appreciate, it's not just turning a few pages, okay. David lived one thousand years before Christmas, when God promised David that his house would have a throne that would be established forever. Isaiah prophesied over seven hundred years, in the seven hundreds, he that's when we got even more specific that a virgin in the line of David would give birth to a son, Immanuel, God with us seven hundred years later, a descendant, and we have his genealogy in the line of David is going to get married to Mary and the betrothal at this time in the first century, once you got betrothed, even though you were engaged, as we think of it, legally you were already married. So even though you hadn't been married yet, you would already need to divorce to get out of that betrothal. And so, when Joseph finds out that Mary is great with child, okay, that she is pregnant, his first thought is not this is a fulfillment of a seven-hundred-year-old prophecy. Okay? That's not what anybody in Nazareth was thinking. When Mary became big, and it became clear to everybody that Mary is great with child, people were thinking scandal, people were thinking, and especially Joseph, you can imagine this man, his heart must have been broken. He was going to marry this girl, and now she's pregnant. And he knows he had nothing to do with it. I mean, this must have been just a heartbreak for him. But he doesn't want Mary to get embarrassed publicly. He doesn't want to make a big deal about it. He's just going to end it quietly. And that's when the angel of the Lord says, hey, Joseph, hey, son of David, and immediately this angel starts referring to a promise that God made thousand years before Joseph. And then he starts quoting a prophecy seven hundred years before Joseph. So, when Joseph wakes up from this dream, do you think everybody in Nazareth is going to believe him when he says, hey, Mary is still a virgin? Everybody? Do you think anybody's going to believe that? But see, Joseph believes. Joseph, he's the opposite of Ahaz. When Joseph hears a word from the Lord, when he understands that the promises of God are coming true, and he believes the prophecies, here's a man who acts on faith, here's a man who takes God at his Word. Here's a man who's going to marry Mary, and who's going to keep her a virgin. And when that child is born, he's going to let everybody know his name will be Jesus, because that's what he got told by the angel. And he believes all the promises of God, and he acts upon them.
So, this is what real faith looks like. And Matthew, he is saying, there's a reason you should believe what I'm writing because I can prove to you the genealogy that Joseph is in the line of David. And I'm telling you that this happened with Mary and Joseph as a fulfillment of prophecy. And he quotes Isaiah 7:14, like this is what happened. God said it at a time where there was no faith in the house of David, and he said it, and now it's happened seven hundred years later in the house of David, and the man Joseph believes God. So, prophecy is God's signature in the Bible, prophecy is the proof that this is a revelation that could only come from God, and you should believe it, the person sitting next to you should believe it, the people living in the house next door to you should believe it, everybody should believe. Who else could call their shots seven hundred years beforehand, that a virgin would give birth. That's God telling you, hello, everybody. This is my story. And it's about my son, Jesus Christ, and everyone here should believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. Why? Because God said so seven hundred years beforehand.
So some of you are getting really concerned because we've been talking for a while, and there are still four points on your handout, and you're like, what's going on around here this morning? Right? This is a bad scene. All right. Well, well. Let's get to number one right there on your handout: Do you believe in prophecy? I'm asking you a personal question: Do you believe in prophecy? Do you believe that this is really how it went when two nations came against the house of David? Isaiah spoke these prophecies to Ahaz in Isaiah chapter 7. So over seven hundred years before this happened with Mary and Joseph in Matthew chapter 1, do you believe that that is God telling you what he's going to do, giving you a sign so that you would have faith, a sign as high as heaven? Look what God can do. God, not only can God make a virgin give birth to a baby, but God can tell you he's going to do it seven hundred years beforehand, and he can actually make a promise to David a thousand years beforehand. And then we can prove that it goes from David all the way down to Joseph. And just in case you're wondering, well, Joseph was not technically physically, Jesus's father. Well, we've got another genealogy in the Gospel of Luke that can take it from David all the way down to Mary. So, whether you want to talk legally, or physically, Jesus came in the house of David because God keeps his promises. So, do you believe that? And if you do believe that what does that mean to you that God has prophecies in the Bible? Well, like what are the implications of believing that this is not just a book, but this is a library of books that have been written at different times, and books written fourteen hundred, thousand, seven hundred years before other parts, before other books accurately call shots way ahead of time? What does that mean to you?
See, this is God trying to show off, this is God trying to prove something to you. This is God trying to get your attention so that you would worship him because nobody else knows the future or controls history like our God, and He wants you to know it. Go back to the book of Isaiah, where we get these amazing prophecies. And we were studying Isaiah 7 today, if you want to come back next week, we'll look at Chapters 8 and 9, because there's another famous prophecy about the birth of Jesus that is on Christmas cards, Isaiah 9:6, says, you might have heard of it, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” We were going to put that prophecy in context, if you come back, we'll get into Isaiah 8 and 9. But these prophecies that God is clearly boldly making, maybe you've heard of the famous Isaiah 53 prophecy of how the “servant of God is going to suffer and be crushed, and pierced,” and how it describes Jesus on the cross in great detail. Why is God making all of these prophecies?
Well turn with me to Isaiah 41 because I want you to see what God says about these prophecies himself. This is how God wants you to think about the prophecies he makes in the book of Isaiah, and the other books of Scripture. In fact, in Isaiah, chapter 40, there's a transition in the book of Isaiah, and it becomes like, hey, behold your God, hey, let's look at who our God is. Everybody gather around, I want to bring you some good news that we have a God. Look at who God is, and that's Isaiah chapter 40. Maybe you're familiar with that chapter, like come and take a good look at who God is. And then God begins to speak in the first person. And God begins to say things about himself. In fact, what God does here in Isaiah 41, start with me in verse 21, God is going to start trash talking, he's going to start speaking against all the other gods. Remember that every nation in the world at this time, as far as we know, they seemed very polytheistic. Every nation worshipped many gods; they had many different idols that they thought did different things for them. They bowed down to these idols, they gave them sacrifices, they would even sacrifice their children to idols at this time. So, every nation had many idols that they referred to as gods. And here's how God addresses them in Isaiah 41:21. “ Set forth your case, says the Lord; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.”
Oh, you think you've got gods? Okay? Let all the real gods stand up, is basically what God says right here. If you're a God, tell me the future. Tell me what is to come before it happens. Show that your god through the signature of prophecy, let all the idols come forth right now and tell us what's going to take place. Oh, you can't do that? That's because you're not God. And if God is saying here that the way he's setting forth his case, the way he is going to bring his proof to you is he is going to show you who he is through his prophecies, that God is going to tell you what is to come before it happens. He picks up on this theme in Isaiah 42:8. Look what he says here in the next chapter, Isaiah 42:8-9, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.” Would it be an amazing story that a virgin would conceive, a pregnant virgin? Is that an amazing story? Yes, it is. But it's not just amazing in and of itself. What's amazing about it is before it ever sprang forth, God told us seven hundred years beforehand, that's what's amazing. Hey, there's nobody … God is showing off. God is saying, I'm singular, I am unique, I alone am God, there is no one like me. No one else can tell you the future. There is no other religious book. There is no other worldview. There is no other system of thought that is calling impossible shots seven hundred years beforehand, that is promising kingly dynasties will last and thousand years later, here he is Joseph, here she is Mary, here they are having the promised one. There's nothing like this in all of human history, except for me, God is saying.
Look at chapter 44. Look at how God loves to drive this theme home. Here. It starts in Isaiah 44:6-7, “ Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.” This is his clear challenge. God's calling all rivals, God is calling all false gods, all kings, all other religions, all peoples. You want to prove you're on my level, tell me the future before it happens. Call your shots. Tell me what you're going to do. See, he's driving his point home. Nobody can tell us the future except for God. Can we worship him here this morning? Can we declare that there is no one like him? In fact, look, there's a response. We're supposed to have Isaiah 44:8, “Fear not.” Stop shaking like trees in the wind over current events. Okay? Stop acting like what some president or some governor or some king or some dictator says, is a reason to shake. No, “have I not told you from of old, and declared it? And you are my…” What does he say, everybody? “you are my witnesses!” See this truth that we're talking about, if you really believe in prophecy, like how could you not get deep into studying it yourself? How could your own heart not burn as you see Jesus hundreds of years before Christmas? And then how could you not want to go and testify to the greatness of our God, that there is no one like him making accurate predictions hundreds of years before they happen? I mean, this is worth sharing with everybody you know this Christmas. Like we're supposed to be witnesses. “Is there a God besides me? There is no rock; I know not any.” We have something in what we believe in the Scripture and what we believe in Jesus Christ, the prophecy that we have is singular, there is nothing like it in the entire history of planet earth. There is only God who has prophesied like this. And we should be his witnesses. We should be not just believing this, but sharing this.
Go one more chapter 46. I just want you to see how God keeps saying this. In fact, in the midst of all of this, he mentioned Cyrus, he mentions this king, like hundred years in the future. And he says there's going to be a king Cyrus who will send the people back from the exile. He mentioned a foreign king who's going to send his people back, before that king is around or born. Like, he just throws a prophecy in to prove his point while he's saying all of this, and this is why he makes this point. Isaiah 46:8-10, “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” God knows how fickle we are, God knows how faint of heart and how little faith we can easily be… and he’s saying to everybody here. Remember this. Hey, next time you're going to shake like a tree in the wind because of some current event or some political situation is trying to knock you around, remember who your God is, remember that his counsel shall stand, that his purpose will be accomplished. And if you don't have faith, you're not going to stand firm at all. But if you really believe in prophecy, see nothing else is going to knock you around because you know, well, God has said it, and it will be. See, if we really believe the prophets, we would have a stronger faith. If we really remembered we would stand firm. That's what God is saying. So, God put these prophecies in the book, not really for king Ahaz. The story happened with king Ahaz; it wasn't written down for his benefit. No, Isaiah 7 was written down for your benefit, so that you could finally, maybe after a long time, study it in context, and get the full story, that this isn't just a prophecy of Jesus being born, that's kind of out there. This is a prophecy for me. This is for my faith, that I would stand firm, that the next time I would start shaking like a tree in the wind, I would remember the story of Ahaz, I would remember the promises of God to the house of David, I would remember the prophecies, that even if something seems impossible like a virgin being pregnant, if God says it, it's going to happen, and I would build my life on the firm foundation of God's Word, so that I could stand firm.
See, do you really believe in prophecy? I'm asking you a personal question. And fact number two: Do you believe in the incarnation? Do you believe in the incarnation? Do you believe in the name that is given, the title that is given, Immanuel, God with us? Like we're saying that Jesus is the Son of God, yet born as a baby and laid in a manger? We are saying that the word according to John 1:14, the Word of God, who was with God, who is God, the Word put on flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Do you believe that Jesus is the God-man, that God put on flesh and dwelt among us? See, the virgin birth is impressive, but God being a man, that's the real mind-blowing thing here. I mean, let's go back to the mindset of a Jewish person living at the time of Moses, living at the time of the tabernacle, like we read about this week in Leviticus 16 where, on one day of the year Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest, he can dare to go into the holy place where God is. Like, one man, if he does everything right, he's got to light this incense, he's got to do this sacrifice, and he’d better do it, it says multiple times in Leviticus 16, so that he may not die, because you're a man and you don't belong in the holy presence of God. And so, one man, one day of the year, if he does everything right, will be able to go into God's holy presence, and he won't die if he does everything right. And now you’re telling us from the Jewish mindset, now you're telling us when one man, or a high priest even, the anointed one, when he could only go into the holy presence one day of the year, now, you're telling us that God has come, and God himself is dwelling with us? Pfft. Right? I mean, we're sweeping up brain chunks for days after that one. Right? I mean, God, the God who dwells in holy splendor and glory that we are not worthy of above, that God is now with us? That’s what? I mean, this is hard math for a lot of people, but it seems very difficult for people to put together that Isaiah 7 comes after Isaiah 6. It seems like it's a hard thing for us to realize. Like we just read it on a Christmas card. Oh, yeah. Virgin’s going to have a son, Immanuel, God with us.
Can we all go to Isaiah 6 for a moment and just remember how ridiculous it is, the idea that anybody is going to be with God, or in his presence, that when Isaiah had a vision, of the robe of God, sitting on his throne, that his robe, the train of his robe filled the temple, when he saw God high and lifted up, and he saw these, these creatures, these Serafim, and they're crying out, there calling to one another, what is the main word that they use in heaven over and over to describe God? Yeah, look at it right there. Isaiah 6:3-5, “And one called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” Here's Isaiah, maybe the righteous guy going on at that time, and he said, when I see the holiness of God, everything I'm saying is unclean, all the people around me are unclean, we are lost, woe is us, we are not worthy to be in the glory, to be in the midst of the holy splendor of God. Who am I to be here with you? And now in the very next chapter, God's going to give a sign that God, the Holy One is going to be with us. Like, this God is going to put on flesh. He's going to be born as a fragile little baby. There's going to be no room for him in the inn, and they're going to lay him where the animals feed, like the holy one is going to become one of us. See, this is amazing. There's never been anything like this. There never will be anything like this, that God would become a man. Like, do you really believe in the incarnation? Like I'm asking, do you really believe? I heard this phrase this week that really bothered me as I was preparing for this sermon, that people they said, we’re doing incarnational ministry. And I understand what they meant is a good goal, they want to like beat represent God to the people around them, they want to like embody all the goodness of God, and shine the light of God to the people around them. Let's just make it very clear that nobody in this room is doing anything incarnational. There is only one who is God, who became a man, Immanuel, Jesus, God with us. And it should still be blowing our minds to this very morning that the holy one in heaven, put on flesh and was born like one of us. What an amazing thing that God is with us.
And because if you believe in the Incarnation, let's roll into point number three, then what you're telling me you believe is that God is with you. God is with you. And I wonder if this is the kind of thing that he did, and I'm afraid some of us are going to do this here this morning, like, do you believe in prophecy? Of course, I believe in prophecy. I'm at church, right? Do you believe in the incarnation? Are you calling me a heretic? Of course, I believe in the incarnation. I believe that Jesus is one hundred percent God and one hundred percent men. Okay, well, then, did you live this week like God loves you so much, he would send his one and only son as a gift to you? And that Jesus loves you so much, he's willing to humble himself to be born as a baby among us and to live among us, and to be there lying in that manger because there was no room for him in the inn. Do you believe that God loves you that much that God is with you? Did you really act like God is with you this week? So that's a question like, there's a lot of people who live like I believe in the Incarnation, but then they act like they're lonely. They act like they're depressed. They act like life is so hard. And it's like they don't really believe that God is with us. See, there's a separation. Like Ahaz, I don't need to test the Lord, but I have no faith.
There's a separation many times between our theology and our practice, between what we say we believe about God, and how we actually conduct ourselves. Every single morning when you get up, is it like you have overwhelming love that has been given to you? Jesus has spoken to you mild, he laid his glories by born that you no more may die, and you have eternal life because God is with us. Do you really live like that? I mean, does joy burst from your soul? Does your heart burn from seeing Jesus in the Scripture? Do you walk into your office or your workplace or your school, and people are like, what's wrong with that guy on a Monday? Because you know that God is with you, that he gave his son for you. And if he did not spare his one and only son, how will he not also graciously give you all things? I know that God is with me, Immanuel is not something to put on a Christmas card. Immanuel is something to walk around with every single morning that you wake up. God cares about my life. He's proving it to me by giving his son, his son has proven it in his blood. What more could I have than what God has already given me in his son Jesus Christ? God is with me, say it in the mirror. Say it in the morning when your alarm goes off. Say it when you're feeling like today's a hard day. Yes, but do you really believe in the incarnation? Do you really believe that God is with us? Because if he humbled himself to leave if he left behind heaven on a seek and save mission for your soul. That's the Incarnation applied to your life.
And see, there's one more thing. Go back to Matthew 1 because we don't go around calling Jesus Immanuel, we call him Jesus. And that was clarified here in the fulfillment of the prophecy, that the house of David thousand years, the virgin birth over seven hundred years, well, it's Immanuel, it's God with us. It's amazing. It's from the Holy Spirit and nothing like this has ever happened before or will ever happen after this. But we're not going to call him a man you all know, we get the definition here. We know what that means. We get the promise of it. But no, Joseph, when your son is born, you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their… What everybody? Sins.
Okay, well, so if you believe in the Incarnation, and you believe God is with you, the number four then: You believe Jesus will save you from your sins. That's the fundamental thing that you believe as a Christian is that Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many, many of us here today, that he came to seek and to save lost sinners like us, that Jesus came, he was born to die, he died on the cross to pay for your sin, so that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved, saved from what everybody? Sins. So, if you're telling me you believe the prophecy, and you believe the Incarnation, and you believe God is with you, then what you're telling me is you believe you can say no to temptation this week, and you can say yes to righteousness. See, I'm sad to say here this morning that this is not the way I hear Christians talk these days. I hear Christians talk like it is inevitable that we're all going to leave here today and go and just keep on sinning. That's how a lot of Christians talk. And so, Jesus saved us from what? Like all this prophecy, all this good news, all this great joy, it's all so you can kind of partially feel better about your sin, so you can kind of maybe not sin maybe as much as you used to? Or is it for this radical work of God in your life, to give you a new heart, to put his Holy Spirit within you to cause you to walk in newness of life and abundant life and eternal life? Because God came not to just change your life a little bit, or make you go to church on Sunday. But Jesus came to save you from your sin. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that?
See, there are things we say that we believe in the pages of the Scripture, but I'm not sure we act like we believe them in the days on the calendar. So, we say Jesus came to save us. We sing, like yeah, glory to the newborn king, but then do we act like Jesus is Lord of our life, and calls our shots, and we're living to obey Him? Or do we still act like, well, we all just kind of sit around here. And that's just what we do. Now, if you're going to call him Jesus, the reason is because he came to save you. And he came to save you from… what is it say everybody? Sin. You've been saved from your sin. God is with you. Jesus loved you so much, he left heaven to come down here for you. And just so you wouldn't get it twisted, and you wouldn't misunderstand, God wanted you to know seven hundred years beforehand, thousand years beforehand, he wanted to show that this is a story only he could write. And he's been in control the whole time, so that you would believe here today, that you would worship here today, that you would give God glory. And so, as you leave, everybody, there's going to be this prophecy chart that anyone can grab on your way out, and I want to encourage you to put this somewhere you're going to see it, where you're going to see, hey, this is what he said to David, this is what he said through Isaiah. In fact, maybe you want to be a witness and share this with somebody. I've already talked to people who were out sharing this week after the men's retreat, because we went over it at the men's retreat, and they were maybe skeptical of how it was going to work. But here they were sharing it with people, and people's eyes were being opened to see Jesus in the prophecies. Okay, if you believe in the prophecies, let's worship God. And let's spread the word as his witnesses. Let me pray for us this Christmas.
Father in heaven, we come to you in the name that you gave your son born of a virgin. We come to you in the name of our Savior who came to get us out of all of our sins, to give us a new life. And Father, we come to worship you for these prophecies. And Father, we also come to confess that we often do get freaked out and we often do shake like trees in the wind based on our current events, based on our politics; we sometimes act like things that Gavin Newsom says has a stronger pull on our life than things that you've said in the Scripture, Father. So, we want to confess that there has been among us here there has been some fear. There have been some hearts that have been faint. And we ask that today, as we study your ancient prophecies, that you would help us to stand firm in faith. We ask that today we would remember that there is no God like you. There was no one who can tell us the end from the beginning. There is no one, Father, who there is no other rock we know, not any, there is no one who dwells in holy splendor above, and yet would love us so much to give his one and only son. So, Father, we worship you right now from our hearts. And we ask that this Christmas, this December 2021, Father, we know what Christmas has become. It's become parties, it's become gatherings, it's become gifts, it's become lights, it's become food. And many people are going to miss Jesus. It's not a celebration of his birth. It's not an epic recounting of prophecies. It's not a time to give you glory in the highest. It's become about us, not about you and Jesus. And so, we pray that this December, you would turn our eyes upon Jesus, that we would look full in his wonderful face, and that the things of earth, the things of this world, would grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Father, I pray that this Christmas here at this church, that our hearts would burn as we see Jesus in the Scriptures. I pray that this Christmas here at this church, the name of Jesus would be lifted higher than it's ever been before that we would go and be your witnesses, that we would tell people of your prophecies that we would see people come here and see Jesus and believe in him and see him in all of his glory that he is the one, the son born of a virgin. God become man. Please open our eyes to see Jesus this Christmas.