The Prince of Peace

That I believe.

Aren't you, man?

What a tremendous song.

Appreciate again the music this morning.

Turn if you would this morning to the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah, chapter nine began.

Just a small series of messages that will run tonight, this

morning, tonight and next Sunday morning.

Look forward to the choir next Sunday morning and our children singing

next Sunday morning.

I hope your plans to be back and be here and be a part of that.

It's always we are so blessed to have so many talented people in

our church with great voices and our kids do a wonderful job and

those that work with them do a fantastic job.

And so next Sunday we'll be along the theme of Prince of Peace,

which runs right into the message that we'll be preaching as

the Messiah is called the Prince of Peace.

So look at Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

And this again is the prophet Isaiah, 700 years before Christ was

born, giving us insight as to who or what the Messiah would be,

who he is and describing him.

All right, so these are attributes or characteristics of

the Messiah who would come.

Now we know the Messiah has already come.

And so they Isaiah is looking forward to 700 years.

And we look back 2000 years and we see the Messiah.

So Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6.

Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

And the government shall be upon his shoulder.

And his name shall be called Wonderful counsellor.

The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of

Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall

be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order

it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth,

even forever.

And the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your dear son Jesus who came

into this world, who came to seek and to save that which is lost.

Lord, he came to die.

And I praise you and thank you, Lord.

And wonder as David did at why you would do such great things for

us.

Lord, we thank you, Lord.

Help us to be a thankful people, Lord.

Help us to see Jesus Christ afresh this morning.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Just a couple of chapters back we read Isaiah, chapter 7, verse

Isaiah 7:14

14.

And the Bible says that therefore the Lord himself shall

give you a sign.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and thou

shalt call his name Immanuel.

And we compared that with Matthew chapter one.

And when again the angel came to Joseph and said, his name shall

be called Immanuel, God with us, he shall be born a virgin.

And he Will be God in the flesh.

Isaiah, chapter 9.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

Isaiah is speaking of and talking about prophecy concerning

Israel, but mainly the prophecy concerning the Messiah who

would come.

This is during the reign of King Ahaz.

And he prophesies that the Messiah would come and that Samaria.

So again, the Samaritans had just defeated the northern kingdom

and they just defeated the 10 tribes on the north, to the north.

And God is telling them, telling Israel through Isaiah that

the Samaritans will not defeat the southern kingdom, that they will

not destroy the southern kingdom.

This northern kingdom was carried into captivity by the Assyrians,

but the southern kingdom would be spared at least for another hundred

years actually.

So Isaiah is giving them this promise.

He also gives them the promise of this light that will return.

We see this in verses one through five of chapter nine.

And we won't read it tonight, but we will read it on the candlelight

service.

We read it every year during the candlelight service.

And so I hope that your plans will be here on the Christmas Eve

and join us for that.

But Isaiah, chapter 9, verses 1 through 6 or 1 through 5, Isaiah

Isaiah 9:1–6

prophesies of the light that would return.

That's why you have the Pharisees and the religious rulers

asking if John the Baptist was the light.

And John the Baptist says, I am not the light, but I was sent

to bear record of the light that all men through him might believe.

He said, I'm not here, I'm not the light.

So the light, capital L, I G H T is referring to the Messiah, without

a doubt, because the New Testament tells us that it is that

Jesus Christ indeed he said, I am the light of the world.

And so that's what you have here in the first five verses.

That the light would come to Zebulun, which is Nazareth, and the

light would come to Nephitali, which is Capernaum.

The so you have, you have the home of Jesus Christ.

Not where he was born, of course, he was born in Bethlehem,

but he was raised in Nazareth.

And 700 years before he was born, 700 years, it prophesied the

light would return to Nazareth, to Jesus hometown.

And then it says to Capernaum Naphtali, which is Capernaum, which

is the home base of Jesus ministry.

That's not coincidence, folks, that's Isaiah 700 years prior saying

the light is coming to Nazareth.

The light is coming to Capernaum, the light is going to

return.

That light that departed from the Temple Mount, that light is returning.

And we know that it did.

Jesus Christ was born the wise man Saw the star so much.

There again, Isaiah is describing the light.

He describes the light as a child.

He says a child was born.

A child is born.

That's God in the flesh.

That's God with skin on.

We call it the incarnation of Christ.

Incarnation.

You realize that when the disciples bumped into Jesus, they

bumped into God.

They didn't fully comprehend it until after his resurrection,

but they bumped into God.

God in the flesh.

Just as much God as though he'd ever been man and just as much

man as though he'd never been God.

He is the eternal God who humbled himself.

Great is the mystery of God in us.

First Timothy 3:16 says, God was manifest in the flesh.

1 Timothy 3:16

What a truth.

We just sang about it a moment ago, the first hymn.

By the way, that first hymn is the most biblical doctrinal song

in our hymnbook.

Veiled in flesh the God had seen.

Hail the incarnate Deity.

What a song.

What a hymn.

Veiled in flesh.

Deity.

Veiled in flesh.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As a child he was born, but as a son he was given.

As a son he was given.

By the way, he was the greatest gift ever given to mankind.

For God so loved the world that he what gave his only begotten

Son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting

life.

The greatest gift ever given was Jesus Christ.

As a child he was born, but as a son he was given.

Given by God to us undeserving sinners.

His name shall be what called.

It says shall be called.

Well shall be.

Future shall means it's going to happen.

And he shall be called Wonderful.

Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of

Peace.

And we know that that is true today, but certainly will be true

in the future as well.

He is called Number one.

He's called Wonderful.

We preached on this one before, even last year, and so I

won't take as much time.

Maybe we'll just see about this.

But the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Lord that we serve.

The root word here is wonder, by the way.

The wonder.

If you have any, you know, any interest in the wonders of the world,

it is amazing.

You have the ancient wonders of the world, which includes like

the pyramids in Egypt and many other things.

Then you have the wonders of the world of today, and that includes,

like, Chichen Itza and there's many other things that are included.

But then you have the seven wonders of the natural world.

And I just kind of looked that up, you know, in most of those lists,

the Grand Canyon makes It there, in fact, in nearly every list

I looked at, the Grand Canyon was in the list of the seven wonders

of the natural world.

That's the entire world.

You know, of course, the Victoria Falls in Africa, there was

many other.

The seven beautiful, beautiful natural things that God created,

God made.

I said this here recently, that when we went to the Grand Canyon

for the first time, I'd seen pictures of it.

But you cannot truly appreciate the grandness, the vastness

of the Grand Canyon unless you visit it.

Pictures do not give it justice at all.

Do it justice at all?

Not at all.

I told you, when I stood there on the rim of the Grand Canyon, we

were on the north side and I looked back behind me.

I promise you, it looks like a picture.

I don't think that's real.

It doesn't look real.

It can't be real.

But then you start walking around, it's real.

It's amazing, isn't it?

And we began to do what?

We began to wonder at it.

We wondered how big and vast and beautiful the Grand Canyon is.

It's amazing, amazing natural wonder, the world here recently.

And I saw especially those out towards Springtown and out that direction,

people taking pictures in Texas of the Northern lights.

The Northern lights are on most of those lists of the seven

natural wonders of the World.

Beautiful even this far down them, taking pictures.

And how red it was in the sky, even in Texas doesn't do that very

often.

But we just wonder at it.

We say, that's amazing.

I wonder.

That wonder just simply means I don't completely.

Can't completely wrap my head around it.

The wonder of it all.

Can I tell you, compared to the Grand Canyon or compared to the

Northern Lights or whatever natural wonder you want to put Jesus

Christ up against, there is no comparison.

It's amazing too, that the wonder of nature.

You know, you go to the Rocky Mountains, go to Colorado, spend

some time.

If you stay there very long, it don't take you but just a few

days, you began to lose the wonder of it all.

Anybody who lives and moves or moves and lives in Colorado Springs,

it don't take them long.

And they may have Pike's Peak right out their window.

But when they look out, over time as they look out, they begin

to lose the wonder of it.

Familiarity is a sad thing, isn't it?

And it can become a sad thing when it comes to us as Christians

as well.

We began, if we're not careful, to lose the wonder of it

all.

The wonder of Christ.

Why is he wonderful?

Well, he's wonderful.

For what he's done for us, what he did for us.

It's an amazing thing.

You think about what he did for us.

The eternal existent One, begotten of the Father, not created.

By the way, Jesus was not created.

No matter what the Mormons say and some of the others.

He was not created.

He was begotten of the Father, God, the Father, God the Son, God,

the Holy Spirit, Co equal coexistence, eternal triunity of

the Godhead.

The wonder of it all.

That word wonder, wonderful means miraculous.

It's translated actually in the Hebrew and other places to miraculous.

And sometimes it's translated marvelous.

So the same Hebrew word that's translated wonderful here is sometimes

translated miraculous or marvelous in your Bible.

He is marvelous.

He is miraculous.

He's a miracle.

In fact, he's the miracle of miracles.

He is the marvel of all marvels and certainly the wonder

of all wonders.

The Bible describes him as in Psalm 45, 2, Thou art fairer than

the children of men.

Song of Solomon.

As you think about Christ being pictured there, it describes

the Song of Solomon, describes him as the chief among ten thousands

and describes him as the one who's the altogether lovely one.

The wonder of it all, the eternal existence, his incarnation,

becoming flesh, you realize the Creator of the universe became

flesh, became an infant who had to be carried as a baby.

And yet still God had to be fed as an infant.

And yet the Creator of the universe, what wonder is that that

the God of the universe would stoop that low.

The Creator became part of his creation.

The Bible describes in Psalm 8 as him becoming a little lower than

the angels.

He who created all things.

In the beginning was the Word, capital W O R D. You can look this

up later.

John chapter one.

We quoted a lot.

John 1:1:3, 14.

In the beginning was the Word talking about Jesus.

And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

So God the Father and God the Son together in the beginning.

And all things were made by him, referring to the Word, to Jesus

Christ.

And without him was not anything made that was made.

Jesus Christ was indeed the part of the Godhead instrumental

in creating the entire universe that we now occupy.

The Creator of the world, he's the primary agent of the creation

of the world.

I do believe that when you were.

If you were there at the beginning and you would have heard

Jesus say, let there be light, I thought that would have been Jesus

there, because it says he created all things.

Verse 14 says, and the Word was made flesh, capital W O R D and

the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of

the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

We beheld his glory.

He lowered himself, Philippians says, he made himself

of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was

made in the likeness of man.

Think about it.

The God of all creation humbled himself, Matthew 28.

We know he humbled himself, Philippians says, and became obedient

unto death.

Even the death of the cross.

What Christ did for us in the past makes him wonderful, because

he came.

Not only did he come and was born and became flesh and dwelt among

us, and they rubbed shoulders with him.

But for the 33 and a half years, he lived a sinless life.

And not because of sins he had committed, not because of crimes

he committed.

But he went to the cross, and there he suffered and died for us.

He went to the cross, and there the Creator of the universe

was spat upon.

He was slandered.

He was persecuted.

What a wonder that is the Creator, the curator, persecuted

by man.

I believe it.

I just truly can't understand it.

And that's why David said, what is man that thou art mindful

of him, or the Son of man, that thou visiteth him?

Oh, the wonder of wonders.

They put him in a grave.

They put him in a tomb.

But Mary approached that tomb on early on Sunday morning, and there

was an angel there.

And the angel said to her, mary, he is not here, for he is risen.

Amen.

He is risen up from the grave.

He arose with a mighty triumph for his foes.

He arose up a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever

with his saints to reign.

He arose.

He arose.

Hallelujah.

Christ arose.

Amen.

He rose from the dead, the creator of all the works of Christ.

His life, his death and his resurrection.

The Gospel.

The good news.

Man, I'm so glad there's good news today.

Amongst all the bad news, there's great news.

Jesus Christ came into this world to seek and to save that which

is lost.

Came to die for you and for me, for our sins.

What wonder there is.

And then there's wonder in what he's doing now for us.

By the way, is he wonderful to you?

Is he wonderful to you?

Salvation is free.

The gift of salvation that Christ offers, he offers to all.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Has there been a time in your life when You've accepted Him as

Savior.

That's what he's doing now.

What he's doing now is he's transforming lives.

I'm glad that Christ is still in the life changing business, that

he gives hope, peace, contentment, joy.

All the things that this world is seeking, truly seeking now.

Many seek for wealth and fame and fortune and all those things.

And they find out that.

That through fame and fortune and fun there is no peace.

There is no contentment.

Peace and contentment is only found through Jesus Christ.

True contentment.

True contentment.

He gives that abundant life to all who will come to Him.

I notice I did not say he takes away all of our problems.

No.

He picks us up, he walks beside us, he takes us through the

trials.

He never leaves us, nor forsakes us.

He helps us, carries us, encourages us, strengthens us.

Can't really appreciate the abundant life, the life of peace

and life of joy until you've gone to the depths, faced the detours,

faced the valleys.

But oh the wonder when Christ intercedes on your behalf, when he

comes to you in your hour of need, when he strengthens you in

your hour of need, as he done so much, so many times for me, and

then for what he's going to do.

Isaiah, chapter nine, verse six and seven, we kind of read over

it, but it does say, and the government what shall be upon his

shoulder?

And then verse seven says of the increase of the government and

peace there shall be what?

No end.

Upon the throne of David and upon upon his kingdom to order it

and to establish it with judgment and justice.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it.

Well, I'm looking forward to that day, aren't you?

With all the corruption and all the things we see in government

today and all the self serving politicians and presidents and on

and on and on.

There'll be one who will rule, who will set in order, who will sit

on the throne of David, who will bring true peace and justice

and judgment.

The one is Jesus Christ.

To order it and to establish it forever.

That's what it says.

There'll be no end.

Amen.

No end.

His name is wonderful.

He is the mighty King, the master of everything.

His name is wonderful.

Jesus, my Lord.

Not only is his name wonderful, the Bible says he is counselor.

Counselor.

That word counselor means wisdom.

Our Christ, the Messiah is all knowing and wise.

Romans chapter 11 says, oh, the depth and the riches both of

Romans 11 · chapter mention

the wisdom and knowledge of God.

There is no end to his wisdom and knowledge.

It is that God.

Christ knows everything.

First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 30 says, but of him that is

1 Corinthians 1:30

Christ, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God who is made unto

us wisdom.

So God has made to us wisdom.

Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ our counselor.

By the way, he's a perfect counselor.

A. I don't know if you've ever been to a counselor or not, but human

counselors are not perfect.

They may have some skill and some learning to help you.

Maybe they've experienced counseling so many other couples

or individuals that they kind of have an understanding of the nature

of individuals, but their counsel is never perfect.

Jesus Christ is perfect.

By Jesus Christ, God gives us counsel.

It's through Jesus Christ's teachings that we receive counsel.

By the way, his teachings are true, every one of them.

Man, With Facebook and everything else going on fake news,

fake news.

A lot of fake news out there.

I always ask my wife, she'll say something, hey, I heard this,

this.

And I said, well, where did you get that?

But you asked the same thing.

Where did your information come from?

There's not a lot of information out there being given

that we can trust on both sides of the aisle, by the way.

It's crazy, isn't it?

I'm so glad I have one I can trust.

See, when I go to somebody and ask advice, I have to weigh their

advice.

Once they give me the advice, I have to weigh it.

Just like when I see news now.

Maybe there was a day and age in America where you could watch

the evening news and you could take it as they say it.

There was a day.

That day's long past.

By the way, if you're watching the major news channels and you're

taking their word, you have definitely put your head in the sand.

But I'm just saying, even then, we have to weigh it, right?

Aren't you glad that there is some counsel that we have that we

don't have to weigh?

I don't have to weigh it.

I don't have to consider whether it's true or not true.

And I hold it in my hand.

Every word, every word, every line is true from beginning to end.

Every counsel that the word of God gives us is accurate and right

and just and true.

I don't have to weigh it.

I don't have to think, well, is this right or is this wrong or

is this true or not true?

No, no, no.

I take it as simply as what it says as being true.

I am the way, the what truth and the life.

He's the truth.

His word is truth.

I want to know how to direct My family.

I can go to a counselor.

I can go to a family counselor and I can read some books and.

And I can read some books on the family and I can get some ideas,

but I still got to weigh what I read.

No.

No.

I can read the Bible on how to raise my family.

And I know, I know without a shadow of a doubt that what it says

is true.

And if I follow it, it will work every time.

My finances, my life.

I don't have to question it.

I just take it for what it says.

Aren't you thankful for a place, a book you can go to, a person

you can go to that will always be true, always be right?

No fake news.

Proverbs says, trust in the Lord with all thy might.

Lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways.

Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.

No trust in him.

We simply accept the teachings of Jesus Christ.

We accept his word understanding that that is true wisdom,

that true wisdom and discernment are found in his word.

Sure, wisdom is found by experience as well.

A little kid learns some things by touching a hot stove.

Right?

Right.

So yeah, kids learn as they grow up about what not to do and

what to do many times by experience, or at least they used

to.

Now we have too many helicopter moms and lawnmower moms

and dads who don't want their little precious to get hurt and won't

let them go across the monkey bars anymore.

We don't have what happened.

You know, I used to, man, I, you know, four or five years old,

going across the monkey bars.

It was 10ft down.

If I fail, I'm going to die, you know.

No, we went across the monkey bars.

It was fun.

And I'm sure my dad or mom was watching and whatever the case is.

But we learn by experience.

But true wisdom comes from God.

We might even call it common sense, the ability to apply knowledge.

We use the word discernment.

Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived.

Think about that.

Where did his wisdom come from?

Came from God.

If any man lack wisdom, the Bible says in James, let him ask

of God.

By the way, he said he will give it liberally his will.

God's will and God's judgments are always right.

I can again truly trust him.

I can't trust myself.

I can't depend on myself.

Trust in the Lord.

The Bible says again, lean on to thine own understanding.

Jesus Christ again is the ultimate counselor.

I'm just telling you we can trust him.

He is an all wise counselor and his name shall Be called wonderful.

Counselor, the wonder that the Creator became our savior.

Is he your savior?

Do you know Jesus Christ as your savior?

Have you put your trust in him?

And let me tell you Christians, have you put your trust

in his word?

I just said a moment ago, do you trust this word?

Do you truly trust it in every area of your life?

Or have you listened to the pundits out there and you've listened

to the soothsayers out there, You've listened to the false narrative

out there that the word of God.

You know, it's okay in this area and that area, but, you know,

really.

And I always use raising family as my illustration, but raising

your children, maybe you shouldn't do it that way.

Or this.

No, no, no, no, no.

Do you trust it?

Amen.

Do you trust it?

I trust it.

You, as a Christian, ought to trust the word of God, the ultimate

counselor.

I've asked this question before to our congregation.

Why is there such a lack of wisdom in our world today?

Why do we see a lack of common sense today?

Why do we see that?

I don't believe there's a person, one who.

Who keeps up with what's going on in our society.

And if I sit down with you and I ask you the question, do you think

society as a whole lacks common sense?

Man, a lot of us would say, yeah, and it's bad.

Why is that true?

Why is it that we could go back 40, 50, 60 years ago and say,

oh, that's not true of that society.

It's not true of the society of the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s,

maybe 90s, were getting a little bit.

Just got worse and worse.

Why?

Why?

Why?

I mean, people think they came from rocks.

That's evolution.

If you believe in evolution, you think you came from a rock.

Inanimate became animate.

That's really simple as that.

Takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does creation.

I mean, people think that, oh, man, things I could get into.

I'll stop.

I mean, there's so much that each one of us could sit down and

we go, why do people think that way?

That's weird.

Sometimes it's moral issues.

You go, why would somebody think that way?

Sometimes it's ethical issues.

You go, why would somebody think that?

Why would somebody act that way?

Well, because they think that way.

You go, why has our society become that?

Understand that wisdom comes from a knowledge, from the knowledge

of Jesus Christ and his word.

Read about the Founding Fathers, even those who may not have

been just like us, but all of them read their Bible.

Benjamin Franklin is the one who said, hey, he's the one who called

for prayer.

He's the one.

Some people, you know, they said, well, he just wasn't very,

you know, he wasn't a God believing.

But he's the one who called for prayer.

He read his Bible.

This is where knowledge comes from and this is where true wisdom

comes from.

True wisdom comes from God.

That common sense comes from the Lord.

The ability to take what we know and apply it in our everyday

life, that comes from God.

And you as a parent need to pray.

God, give me wisdom.

Lord, help me.

Be my ultimate counselor.

Lord, I don't know exactly how to raise my family.

I don't know exactly how to be a good dad.

Maybe you didn't have a good dad.

And maybe you look back and go, I don't know how to be a good

dad.

Yes, you do.

The Bible gives you the answer of how to be a good father.

You can emulate the heavenly father and you got some good examples

around here.

I'm just saying, lord, help me and he will.

If any man like wisdom, let him ask of God.

Mamas, ask him.

He's the ultimate counselor.

He's a truthful counselor.

Unto us a child is born.

Unto us a son is given.

Who is us?

Well, it's me and it's you.

Oh, the wonder of it.

Oh, the wonder that he would save a sinner like me.

That he, the creator of the universe, would die for me.

Not just any death, but the death of the cross.

Despised, rejected, spit upon.

Did that for you, did that for me.

What wonder there is.

Help us to never lose the wonder.

Help us to always be confident and trust in his word as our ultimate

counselor.