It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas | Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah chapter seven.

If you have your Bibles with you, that's Isaiah chapter seven.

No, it's just last week that Haley and I were invited

to go out to Perth concert hall

to go and see Handel's Messiah.

Now, if you've never heard of Handel's Messiah,

let me tell you it is one of the most powerful proclamations

of the gospel that one can hear in opera form.

That's right, the Perth concert hall was completely sold out

and packed full of sandgroopers hearing the proclamation

of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It was absolutely wonderful indeed.

And that was George Frederick Handel's whole objective.

He wanted for his audience to hear the gospel

of Jesus Christ loud and clear.

And so he wrote a beautiful piece of music,

many pieces actually, to carefully selected scripture

so that his audience could be mentally and emotionally drawn

into the good tidings of Jesus Christ through opera.

However, what I really appreciated

about this gospel work was where George started

the whole thing.

And that actually wasn't where most people would have thought

to have gone with the little baby Jesus born in Bethlehem.

Now, he actually thought about the whole picture,

the whole story of God's glad tidings

and took his starting point all the way back

in the book of Isaiah, to the very scripture

that we are going to be looking at this morning,

to the prophecy that Isaiah gave nearly 700 years

before the birth of Jesus Christ.

And so what I wanna do this morning

on this beautiful Christmas Eve is to also take you,

the church, back to that wonderful prophecy

that Isaiah gave about Jesus being born to the Virgin.

And then tomorrow on Christmas Day,

we'll look further in detail as to why Matthew,

under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

used these very words of Isaiah as proof

that the Christ had really been given to the world.

And so if you have your Bible with you this morning,

again, we're going to be looking predominantly

at Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14,

but we wanna have a look at the whole chapter

just to have a bit of context

to see why this prophecy was given.

But before we do any of that,

let's come to our Father in prayer.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we are so grateful to be here this morning.

And Father, as we look in anticipation to tomorrow,

we ask that you would help us to know this scripture

as your people looked in anticipation

to the birth of Christ.

But there is such hope for the people of God

because when you give your word,

you work it out in your world.

Father, we ask that today, tomorrow would indeed be

a great celebration of your work

and that we would look forward in anticipation

to the final work being done,

where you will take us to be where you are.

We love you, Lord, and we ask that you administer to us

through your word this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen.

These are the words of God, Isaiah 7.14.

Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son.

And he will be called Emmanuel.

Now, not many people know that the context

to our passage this morning was actually given

right in the middle of a war.

That's right, this incredible word of hope

was given in a horrid time of Jerusalem's history.

And God gave his people this word

because he wanted his people to trust in him

against all the odds.

And so God sent the prophet Isaiah

as he wanted his people to hear from him

so that they would trust in his word

over their current external pressures.

And if you look at verse one,

the current external pressure was actually an invading army.

Now, what's really sad to note here

is that the invading army was none other

than Jerusalem's own kindred, the northern kingdom.

That's right, the northern kingdom of Israel

was coming against the southern kingdom of Israel,

which had come to be known as Judah or Jerusalem.

Now, what's so sad about all of this

is that they were once one people.

But as you might remember, under Solomon's reign,

the north and the south,

well, they split into two different kingdoms.

The north committed apostasy

in that they built their own temple

and they had their own idols,

yet the south remained somewhat committed to God

by knowing him through the Levitical priesthood.

However, what is worth noting and important here

is that the king of the south was always one of David's heirs.

Now, that's important because God promised David

that he would always have one of his sons on the throne.

And so, with that said,

the southern kingdom had the temple,

they had the priests,

and they had the king that was given to them by God,

yet the north had completely fallen away.

They'd fallen away from the true worship of God

and from the true leadership of the God of Israel.

And so, verse one of our chapter this morning

starts with incredible tension

with the north versus the south.

Now, Isaiah doesn't tell us in great detail,

but the reason that the north,

and it come against the gates of the south

was because the world power at that time,

the Assyrians had their eye on the whole land of Palestine.

And so, the northern kingdom was getting pretty nervous

and they looked to make a federation with the south

as they had already done with the pagan nation of Aram.

However, king Ahaz, he says no,

he doesn't want the federation.

Now, to cut a very, very long story short,

they pretty much say,

well, if you're not gonna join us,

we'll just invade Jerusalem,

we'll set up our own army,

we'll put our own general there,

and we will have safety in numbers.

We're reading kings that as they started

to implement that plan,

that the northern kingdom was pretty successful

in taking some of Judah,

but they couldn't take Jerusalem.

However, they didn't stop trying to take Jerusalem.

They didn't stop harassing the southerners.

And as we see here in verse two,

Jerusalem was getting very nervous

and we're told that the heart of the king and his people

were shaken as trees in the forest

that is shaken by the wind.

Now, church, we don't need to use our imaginations

that much here, do we?

Because the context of our text this morning

is somewhat like we have seen on our screens

in just the last few months with modern day Israel.

An invasion means slaughter and carnage,

and the people of Jerusalem were shaking in their boots,

thinking about what could happen.

And it's in that context that God sends

his faithful messenger, Isaiah,

to the king of Jerusalem with a message to trust him.

Now, before we have a look at that

and have a think about it,

I just want you to notice one small detail

here in our passage.

We read that God told Isaiah to go meet the king

near the upper pool.

That's in verse three,

to go meet the king in the upper pool.

Now, at first glance,

we might just read over that little detail

that Isaiah went to see the king in the upper pool,

but this is the thing.

If a city is going to come under attack,

the first thing that the enemy will do

is either cut off the water supply or taint it

so that the people would be in serious trouble

and forced to come outside the walls.

So obviously, King Ahaz in his band were preparing for war

and preparing to do something

about keeping their water supply in good flow.

In other words, as we read through this,

you're meant to feel the tension.

You're meant to feel the trepidation and nervousness.

Anyway, Isaiah goes to him and he says, be careful,

keep calm, don't be afraid,

don't lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs

of firewood.

Now, if you think, well, if you're not sure

if God has a sense of humor,

then right here you have a little taste of it.

You see, what God is doing here

is he's telling Ahaz not to worry about the two kings

that have come to invade Jerusalem

because they're nothing more than a couple of stubs

of firewood.

In other words, God is making fun of these kings

because he sees them as a couple of useless bits

of splinter which is only good for the fire.

It reminds us of Psalm two, doesn't it?

Why do the nations conspire and the people's plot in vain?

The kings of the earth rise up

and the rulers band together against the Lord

and his anointed, the king, saying,

let's break their chains and throw off their shackles.

The one enthroned in heaven laughs.

The Lord scoffs at them.

Hear that?

The one enthroned in heaven laughs.

The Lord scoffs at them.

That's how God views the enemy of his people.

Nothing more than the laughing stock of the heavenly realms.

Now this isn't to make light of the situation

and the very, very real enemies

that are a very real threat to the people of God.

But the point is this,

though the people might be shaking in their boots,

God isn't.

No, he wants the king of Jerusalem to know

that he isn't on his throne in heaven

worried about what's going to happen.

No, not at all.

In fact, he sees the enemy, his enemy, our enemy

as something to be laughed at, to be scoffed at.

So why aren't the people of God?

Why isn't the king that God has put on the throne

doing the same thing?

Why is all Jerusalem like trees shaking in the wind

and the king plotting in how to keep the city from ruin?

Maybe even contemplating making a deal with the enemy.

Well, my notes suggest to you this morning,

it comes down to fear.

That's what we're seeing here.

The people are scared of the threat before them

because they have taken their eyes off God

and they've put them squarely on their circumstances,

on the situation that they see right before them.

And might I say, isn't that the root of all our fears?

I mean, I don't know about you brothers and sisters,

but when I forget the promises of God,

when I forget how he chose me

before the foundation of the world,

how Christ died for my sin

and that my debt has been paid,

how all things work for the good of those who love God.

When I forget those simple promises

held out to the people of God,

I find that the many, the many complex

and difficult situations before my eyes

tend to grip my heart and fear is the result.

Well, that's happening in our texts.

The people of God, they had the promises of God.

They had the promise that he would preserve his people.

He would preserve a remnant.

They were living in the city of Jerusalem,

the remnant city.

They had the temple where he would make his presence known.

They had the Levitical priesthood

who lived to minister to them

and they had God's chosen King leading them.

Yet despite all of that,

they were scared because they had taken their eyes off God

and concentrated on what was right before them.

And fear was driving them.

It was driving them.

So God comes to his people and says,

through Isaiah in verses five through to nine,

that it was all going to come to nothing.

I love what God is doing here.

I love this because he's showing such incredible grace

and mercy to his people.

I mean, think about it, time and time again,

the Jews lost their faith in God

and they turned to other so-called gods, the boughs.

They turned to other things time and time again.

Time and time again, they lost trust

and tried to work things out in the flesh.

Yet God again in his mercy and in his grace

comes to his scared children in the dark

and lets them know that these clowns

with their party plans were going to come to nothing.

So might I say to you all here this morning

that the biggest threat to God's people

isn't actually our enemy, but our own faithlessness.

I think that's what we're meant to see here.

There was a very real enemy, that's not denied here,

a very real enemy knocking at the door.

And there was a very real bigger enemy behind them,

Assyria, they were real threats.

However, what was even more dangerous than military might

was the people of God losing trust in their God

and thus not trusting his promises,

which was causing this crippling fear

in which they were acting out of.

And that is the thing, church.

When we take our eyes off God and put them

onto our circumstances and fear grips our heart,

we tend to act out of that fear

and try to take the situation into our own hands.

And when we do that, when we lose trust in God's goodness

and his sovereignty and look to solve every problem

in our own strength and means,

that's when we start to spiral out of control.

That's the warning God gives here in verse nine.

If you don't stand firm in your faith,

you won't stand at all.

In other words, if your face is turned to the problem

and not to God, when, not if,

but when the enemy comes knocking on your door,

you'll crumble like cottage cheese under a truck.

Church, just this week, I sat with our dear sister, Hennie,

and had the great privilege of praying

with an incredibly faithful woman

who was looking forward to meeting her Lord face to face.

There is no denying that the enemy of death

has indeed come knocking on her door.

She has in the midst of it, a sense of excitement

to see how God is going to conquer her greatest enemy.

She is a woman who in spite of it all

has turned her face to God.

And as the enemy of death comes near

with its taunting, its trepidation,

its history of destruction,

she sits in absolute confidence

that God has done everything

that is needed to be done in Christ

so that her enemy's final sting

will ultimately pass her by.

It's like she said several times,

be still and know that I am Lord.

Now as I said before, the people of God,

they're like scared children behind the walls of Jerusalem

in this dark room, but instead of rebuking them,

God in his mercy, we see in verses 10 through to 11

that he was actually willing to give a sign

in order to build their faith,

a sign to strengthen his weak children

to help them, to remind them to be still

and know that he is Lord.

However, what we see in our passage this morning

is a really interesting response to God's grace and mercy.

And I say it's interesting

because we're going to look at verse 12 very quickly

and it seems quite faithful,

quite pious some might say.

But Ahaz said, I won't ask,

I won't put the Lord to the test.

He sounds a bit like Jesus there,

but as we're going to see,

his heart isn't as pure as one might think.

You see, what's really going on

is that Ahaz doesn't want to follow God's direction.

He doesn't want to sign to be given

because he doesn't want to believe the word of God.

Now why do I say that?

Well, it all comes down to the plans that Ahaz had.

Again, it's like we saw before,

Isaiah meets Ahaz where the upper pool was,

where he could see the enemy,

where he was planning and plotting

to take care of things in his own way,

in his own strength.

Yet what has God just said?

God has just said,

none of the enemy plans will come to fruition.

Verse five, it won't take place, sorry, verse seven.

It won't take place, it won't happen.

God wouldn't let anything happen to his people.

So God said, Ahaz, just so you know

that you can trust me,

I'll give you a sign to remind you to be still

and know that I am Lord.

But as we see here, Ahaz rejects the word of the Lord.

This is where it gets really interesting

because in verse 13, God says,

I'm going to give you a sign anyway.

Now I want you to notice this language

because it's terrifying.

The language shifts in verse 13.

Ahazia begins by saying, House of David,

but ends by saying,

will you try the patience of my God?

Notice that shift.

Ahazia comes to Israel's king and says,

this is what our God is going to do

for his king and his people.

Yet Ahaz rejects the word of God

and thus Ahazia finishes by saying,

this is what my God will do for his people.

Anyway, so we might notice a couple of things going on here.

There's going to be a sign given.

And in one sense, it's going to be a sign of judgment

on Israel's king for rejecting the word of the Lord.

Yet in another sense, the very same sign

will be a sign of hope

because God is going to bring his true,

his obedient, his righteous,

his righteous, his righteous,

his obedient, his righteous king into this world.

So he says, therefore,

the Lord himself will give you a sign.

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son.

And they will call him Emmanuel.

God then tells the king in verses 15 and 16

that within three years,

the threat of the northern kingdom

will completely disappear.

But then in verse 17, judgment is pronounced.

Assyria will come.

They will invade Jerusalem.

And Ahaz will be destroyed.

So, dear ones, it's as I pointed out before,

this chapter is all about trusting God's word.

But we also see right smack bang

in the middle of this passage

that God gives an incredible promise to his people.

You see, God is in total and sovereign control

over all there is.

To Ahaz, he made that clear

in that he is the author of all history

and that nothing would happen outside of his plan.

Yet Ahaz rejected the word of the Lord.

He comes under judgment.

To God's people,

our God promised to always have a king on the throne.

A king in the line of David

who would rule over his people.

And God said that he would bring that king

into this world from the womb of a virgin.

Now, I say that God intended to bring his true king

into this world from the womb of a virgin

because this is exactly how Matthew understood

the birth of Christ to have come about.

Now, as I said before,

we'll look at this in greater detail tomorrow.

But for now, I'd like to make a couple of very quick comments.

First, Matthew makes it clear in the first chapter of his book

that Jesus Christ, whom he followed in his earthly ministry,

was the fulfillment of this promise made 700 years prior.

It's right there in chapter 1, verse 23, if you want to check it out.

Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem,

which in and of itself is absolutely incredible.

But believe it or not, it's actually the second thing

that is most mind-blowing.

And it's to do with what Isaiah said they will call him,

which Matthew interprets for us, Emmanuel.

It means God with us.

In other words, this Jesus, who is the Christ,

who is the Son of David,

is the one who would be called God with us.

That's why wonderful poetry, musicals, operas have been created,

why Christians all over the world come to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

It's because it's a time where we remember when God himself came into this world,

as Matthew says, to save his people from their sins.

Church, Jesus is so much more than a king.

He is God himself who came into this world

to rule this world from the throne of his Father.

In other words, Jesus is the true king who came to defeat our greatest enemy,

sin and death, and he raised victorious over the grave.

And as at this very moment, seated at the right hand of God,

where he will come to gather his people.

And so as we bring this passage to an end, what is the message for us?

What is the message for us?

It's very simple.

There are two ways to live in this world.

To be or not to be like Ahaz.

To be or not to be like Ahaz.

You see, God has given his promises to us in his word.

And all people, every single person who has been made in the image of God,

is called to trust in the promises that our God has made.

Matthew makes it clear in his Gospel that the Son, who would be born through the Virgin,

would grow up to be the sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.

And so we are called to trust in that, rather than me, myself and I,

and our own attempts to get right with God,

through our own good works and our own assessment of things.

We're called to trust God, called to trust and put our faith in the Son that he sent into this world.

To put all our hope in him.

And the promise of God is that if you trust in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

you will be saved from your sin.

Brothers and sisters, there is only two ways to live in this world.

Trusting or rejecting the promises of God.

There is no middle ground with our Creator.

And there is such a dire warning given in our passage this morning to anyone

who stands in rejection to the words of God, like we see with Ahaz.

But in saying that there is such hope in our passage this morning.

Hope that anyone, who so ever trusts in the Word of God, who puts faith in Jesus Christ, will be saved.

So dear ones, might we ask for God's wonderful grace on this beautiful Christmas Eve

to trust in his wonderful promises and for us to be still and know that he is Lord.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we are indeed so thankful to be here this morning.

So thankful to come around the words of eternal life.

So thankful that your people haven't gathered to hear from me, but from you, from your Word.

And Father, as we pray week in and week out, we ask that you would hold your Son high in our midst

and by your Spirit that you would show us more of him, that we would be conformed to his image.

Father, we are so thankful that you sent your only begotten Son.

We are so thankful that he lived a perfect life, died the death we deserve,

was raised victorious so that we might come to you in the assurance of your grace.

Father, we would ask that gospel truth would grip our heart,

that you would invade the walls that we've put up towards you, Lord, by trying to do things in our own strength.

That Father, you would capture our hearts and cause our eyes to look to the true King, to the Messiah, the Christ,

and that we would work out our salvation.

We love you, Lord, and we ask for you to change us. In Jesus' name, amen.