The Sign of Immanuel: How God’s 750-Year-Old Promise Defeats Our Greatest Fear

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Savior of the nations, come, Virgin Son, make here your home.
[00:00:23] Marvel now, O heaven and earth, that the Lord chose such a breath.
[00:00:26] Please join me in standing if you're able for our call to worship.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Our call to worship this morning comes from Galatians 4 verses 4 through 7.
[00:01:06] But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
[00:01:16] And because you were sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
[00:01:21] So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
[00:01:28] Our opening hymn this morning is number 218, Angels from the Realms of Glory.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Angels from the realms of glory, Wing your flight o'er all the earth.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Ye who sang creation's glory, Now proclaim Messiah's birth.
[00:02:21] Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the newborn King.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Shepherds in the fields abiding Watching o'er the flocks by night God with men is now residing Yonder shines His infant light Come and worship, come and worship Worship Christ the newborn King
[00:02:51] Seek the great desire of nations, he hath seen his natal star.
[00:03:07] Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King.
[00:03:18] Thanks be for the altar bending, watching all in hope and fear.
[00:03:41] Suddenly the Lord descending in His temple shall appear.
[00:03:42] Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King.
[00:03:45] All creation join in praising God the Father, Spirit, Son, and for all your voices raising to the eternal three in one.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Let's pray together.
[00:04:17] Father God, we do thank you for this day.
[00:04:19] We thank you that we are able to join with all creation in worshiping you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the great things that you have done for us.
[00:04:26] We come to you during this season of Thanksgiving.
[00:04:28] We have much to be thankful for, but nothing more than the fact that you sent your Son into history, born of a woman, born under the law, for the sake of those who could not free themselves from the curse of the law.
[00:04:39] So we are so grateful to you for your salvation,
[00:04:42] For the great things you have done for us through Christ Jesus, and we pray that you would help us to set our minds and our hearts towards those things this morning.
[00:04:49] Help us to worship you in spirit and truth the way you have called us to, for you are certainly worthy of it.
[00:04:53] We ask all these things in the mighty name of Christ Jesus.
[00:04:56] Amen.
[00:04:59] Our corporate voice of faith this morning is taken from the Heidelberg Catechism, question 35, which you can find printed in your bulletin.
[00:05:06] This catechism question deals with the incarnation of Jesus, which is a concept we often hear about during the Advent season, but sometimes has words we may not really be all that familiar with.
[00:05:16] The work of God the Father in bringing His Son to earth as a man is one of the great mysteries of our faith, and one that can lead to some pretty serious errors if we don't handle it carefully and limit ourselves to the teaching of Scripture.
[00:05:29] And that's part of what the Heidelberg Catechism is trying to help us do rightly this morning.
[00:05:34] As we consider these questions.
[00:05:35] With that in mind, let us read Catechism Question 35.
[00:05:38] I'll read the question and then we'll respond together with the answer.
[00:05:43] Christian, what is the meaning of conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary?
[00:05:49] That the eternal Son of God
[00:05:52] who is and continues true and eternal God took upon himself the very nature of man of the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy Spirit so that he might also be the true seed of David like unto his brethren in all things except for sin.
[00:06:18] Please be seated.
[00:06:26] Our New Testament reading this morning comes from Matthew 1, verses 18 to 25.
[00:06:32] The sermon series that Pastor Andrew begins today deals with promises kept, and he's going to help us walk through many of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah that were fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament.
[00:06:43] One of those deals specifically with the prophecy of Emmanuel, that God would enter our world in flesh and blood and be with us to redeem His people.
[00:06:52] While that would be miraculous enough in itself, the Lord also chose to do that in an even more miraculous way by having His only Son conceived in the womb of a virgin and coming from a family that also fulfilled the promises made all the way back in Genesis to the tribe of Judah and then later on to David in redemptive history.
[00:07:10] So this passage in Matthew gives us the fulfillment of that promise which we find in Isaiah 7, the passage that Pastor Andrew will preach on in just a few minutes.
[00:07:19] So hear now the word of the Lord from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 1 starting at verse 18.
[00:07:26] Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
[00:07:29] When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
[00:07:36] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
[00:07:51] 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.
[00:08:03] She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
[00:08:09] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
[00:08:12] Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us.
[00:08:19] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
[00:08:23] He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.
[00:08:30] The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
[00:08:34] Amen.
[00:08:36] At this time, I'd like to invite our children down front for the children's message and our first Advent candle.
[00:08:40] There's fire involved, so Pastor Andrew is not letting me take part in that.
[00:08:44] So he is going to lead that, but children, if you guys will come down front, he'll meet you there.

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Well, good morning, everybody.
[00:09:05] How's everybody doing today?
[00:09:07] Good.
[00:09:08] You notice anything different when you walked into church this morning?
[00:09:11] Anybody notice anything different from a normal Sunday?
[00:09:13] Yes, ma'am.
[00:09:14] What?
[00:09:15] The tree?
[00:09:16] Yep.
[00:09:16] What else did you guys see?
[00:09:18] What else?
[00:09:18] Yes, ma'am.
[00:09:19] The wreaths on the windows?
[00:09:21] Absolutely.
[00:09:22] Why do we have all this?
[00:09:22] What's going on?
[00:09:24] Yes, sir?
[00:09:26] It's Christmas.
[00:09:27] It is.
[00:09:27] We're getting closer to Christmas.
[00:09:31] What's that?
[00:09:34] You like Christmas?
[00:09:35] Good.
[00:09:36] I am glad to hear it.
[00:09:37] This is the Christmas season.
[00:09:38] We've entered into the season of Christmas, or if you want to learn a big word today, the season of Advent.
[00:09:46] You ever heard that word before, Advent?
[00:09:47] Some of you have.
[00:09:48] I know some of you have been here in years past.
[00:09:50] We talk about Advent.
[00:09:51] Advent's a word you don't hear very often.
[00:09:56] Yeah, we're going to light that in just a second.
[00:09:59] The word Advent is an unusual word.
[00:10:02] We don't use it very much, but Advent means arrival.
[00:10:10] You saw it at Mimi's house?
[00:10:12] Okay.
[00:10:12] Well, let me tell you a little bit about what we're going to do, and then you want to help me light the Advent wreath this morning?
[00:10:18] Would you like to help me do that?
[00:10:20] Okay, we'll do that in just a second.
[00:10:22] So Advent is kind of a funny word, unusual word, but it tells us about Jesus coming to earth.
[00:10:28] That's what the word Advent means.
[00:10:29] It means to come, to arrive, to appear.
[00:10:32] And Jesus long ago came to earth.
[00:10:36] I bet some of you know this story, don't you?
[00:10:39] When was he born?
[00:10:39] Where was he born?
[00:10:40] Does anybody remember?
[00:10:41] Yes.
[00:10:42] In Bethlehem, that's exactly right.
[00:10:45] Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
[00:10:47] He was born, as we heard just a moment ago, from Matthew to his mother Mary.
[00:10:51] And it was the fulfillment of all the promises that God had made through the Old Testament.
[00:10:58] In fact, throughout the month of December, we're going to consider some of the promises God makes in the Old Testament that find their answer, that find their fulfillment in the New Testament.
[00:11:10] But it's a long season, the season of Advent.
[00:11:12] Today is still November, and there's 26 more days till we get to Christmas, to the day that we celebrate the birth of Christ.
[00:11:20] And one of the ways we mark that is with this wreath, with these candles.
[00:11:24] Each Sunday, we'll light a candle, a new candle, and we'll talk about how it helps us to anticipate our celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
[00:11:34] And the first candle we're going to light today, we're going to call the Hope Candle.
[00:11:39] Hope.
[00:11:40] Now hope is a word we use a lot, but sometimes we don't always use it in the way I mean it today.
[00:11:45] Sometimes when we say hope, we mean it like wish.
[00:11:48] Like, I hope I get a new bike for Christmas.
[00:11:50] That's my wish.
[00:11:51] I wish I could get a new bike for Christmas.
[00:11:54] That's not what we're talking about when we say hope as we light this candle.
[00:11:58] When we say hope, we mean something that we have confidence in.
[00:12:02] We have a confident expectation that God is going to fulfill His promises to us and that's based on what God has already done.
[00:12:12] He's already kept so many of His promises and we remember as we light this candle that we have great hope in who God is and what He does for us in Jesus Christ.
[00:12:24] So in the season of Advent we're doing two things.
[00:12:27] On the one hand, we are looking back, and we are celebrating what God has already done in giving us a Savior, Jesus Christ.
[00:12:36] But there's something else we do in Advent, and that's look ahead.
[00:12:39] And we look forward to the day when our Savior Jesus returns.
[00:12:45] So we're looking back, and we're looking ahead, and in all of it, we have great hope that what God has promised, He will bring about.
[00:12:54] So, Bailey, you want to come up and help me light this candle?
[00:12:58] Come here.
[00:13:00] Come here.
[00:13:01] You want to help me?
[00:13:03] I'll help you.
[00:13:05] Come here.
[00:13:08] Okay.
[00:13:09] All right.
[00:13:09] You want to help me?
[00:13:10] Come on.
[00:13:12] We'll let your big sister help.
[00:13:13] All right.
[00:13:13] So we're going to light this very first candle, and we're going to call it the Hope Candle.

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
All right.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Thank you very much.
[00:13:25] Will you all pray with me?
[00:13:26] Let's pray together.
[00:13:27] Dear God,
[00:13:29] We thank you for giving us hope.
[00:13:35] Thank you for Jesus, for His birth, but also for His death and resurrection.
[00:13:47] We thank you for the good promise that He is coming back.
[00:13:57] We thank you for this.
[00:13:59] In Jesus' name, amen.
[00:14:03] All right, you may return to your seats.
[00:14:13] Let's turn again in our hymnals, this time to number 213.
[00:14:17] Standing together, we'll sing, What Child is This?

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Our child is distant, lay to rest, on Mary's lap is sleeping.
[00:14:50] The angels greet with anthem sweet While shepherds watch are keeping This, this is Christ the King Whom shepherds guard and angels sing They stage to bring Him laud The Babe, the Son of Mary
[00:15:24] Where oxen and ants are peeping The Christians before sinners sing A silent word is pleading
[00:15:39] Let's hear, shall pierce him through the cross be born for me, for you.
[00:15:55] Hail, hail, the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary.
[00:16:01] The King of Kings, Salvation brings, Their loving hearts enthrone in.
[00:16:29] Praise, praise the song of life, The Virgin sings her love of life.
[00:16:30] Joy, joyful Christ is born,
[00:16:31] Let's pray together.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
O Lord, our God, we do thank you for this child that you have given, this son who has been born, even Jesus Christ, our Savior, the hope of the world.
[00:16:50] Father, you indeed have given us all things from your gracious hand, and we have opportunity now as we continue in worship through the giving of your tithes and our offerings to respond to your grace.
[00:17:03] through returning these things back to you.
[00:17:06] And we pray that as we do, not only will you be well pleased with the gifts as they are given, but we also ask that you would use them to further the spread of this good news of a Savior who is given to mankind.
[00:17:19] And so we pray this, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.
[00:17:23] You may be seated.

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Let us pray.

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
[00:20:16] Praise Him all creatures here below.
[00:20:16] Praise Him above the heavenly host.

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
You may be seated.
[00:20:29] I certainly hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday this past week as you gathered together perhaps with family and with friends.
[00:20:36] I pray that it was a sweet time as you've reflected on the Lord's blessings to you and your family in the last year and in the last years as well.
[00:20:44] One of the things I'm thankful for that I didn't mention during announcements and I should have is for Elder Ben Kiesler assisting in worship, the first part of worship this morning while Pastor Luke is away.
[00:20:53] He's preaching this morning up at the New Sterling ARP Church.
[00:20:56] And speaking of that congregation, some information I want to relay to this congregation.
[00:21:03] Their former pastor, Tim Watson, died suddenly this past week.
[00:21:07] Tim, of course, was a member of this church back in the 90s, then went into seminary and became a pastor and served the New Sterling congregation for some 22 or 23 years.
[00:21:18] If you were familiar with Tim, you know that in the last 8, 10 years of his life he had been dealing with chronic health issues.
[00:21:24] and this last week was hospitalized with those same issues and it was in the Lord's providence his time to go into passing to glory and to earn his reward.
[00:21:34] So we ask that you be praying for Tim's family, his wife Judy, their daughter and grandchildren as well.
[00:21:41] If you are interested, there will be a funeral service tomorrow morning, a visitation at 10 o'clock with a service at 11 o'clock at Christ Church over in Denver, North Carolina.
[00:21:52] Christ Church, of course, the daughter church of this congregation.
[00:21:55] Maury Lawing will officiate that funeral tomorrow.
[00:21:58] Again, a visitation at 10 o'clock, a funeral at 11 o'clock.
[00:22:02] But please be in prayer, not only for the Watson family, but also for the New Sterling congregation.
[00:22:07] It was just a couple of years ago that Tim retired from ministry.
[00:22:11] Let's be praying for them.
[00:22:14] With all that said, let's go to the Lord now in a time of prayer.
[00:22:24] Lord our God, we come before you this morning on this first Sunday in the season of Advent, and we are reminded again of the great hope that we have in Jesus Christ.
[00:22:36] that you have not left humanity in sin and misery but you have entered in to history through the person of jesus christ the god man the second member of the godhead who took on flesh and dwelt among us in order as the angel told joseph to save his people from their sins
[00:22:59] And indeed, Lord, that is what we celebrate when it comes to the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
[00:23:06] That He did not come to give us a holiday, but He came to give us salvation.
[00:23:11] And Father, we understand that a celebration of Christmas, a celebration of His Advent necessarily means remembering that Christ came to die.
[00:23:20] To take the punishment that we so richly deserve, to suffer in our place so that we might receive His reward, indeed eternal life in Him with you forever and ever.
[00:23:33] And so Father, we give you thanks and praise for the great hope that we have in Christ.
[00:23:38] And how timely that is as we consider the grief that many feel this morning at the news of the passing of Tim Watson just a few days ago.
[00:23:46] Lord, we thank you for the hope that his family and these friends have.
[00:23:50] That Tim was a man who loved Jesus Christ, that served as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that ran his race well.
[00:23:58] Father, we thank you that you have brought him to his finish line, that he has passed into your presence and indeed has received his reward.
[00:24:05] And we pray, Father, that you would comfort his family and his friends with this good message of hope.
[00:24:12] We would pray especially as they prepare for tomorrow's service.
[00:24:15] That you would uphold, that you would strengthen them, that you would ready them for this emotional day, and then that you would abide with them as they adjust to life without Him there.
[00:24:27] So Lord, would you comfort this family, would you comfort this congregation during this time of loss.
[00:24:34] Father, we give you thanks as well, because you are a good God to us.
[00:24:38] As we leave a season of thanksgiving as a nation, we do want to be mindful that you have blessed us in so many ways, and we always want to be a grateful people.
[00:24:49] And so, Father, help us to be a people who remember.
[00:24:52] who take time to reflect on the things that you have done for us even bringing us through hardships bringing us through seasons of grief and loss or of pain and illness father we see your good hand even in those things because it's often through our most difficult moments that you draw us close to yourself that you help us to learn what it means to trust and to rely on you and you alone in the strength that you provide
[00:25:21] So Father, we again thank you for all the blessings that we have, that you have given us from your gracious hand.
[00:25:28] And we pray all this this morning in Jesus' name.
[00:25:31] Amen.

[00:25:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Let all mortal flesh keep silence And with fear and trembling stand Ponder the thing earthly minded For with blessing in His hand Christ our God to work
[00:26:26] Descending comes our office to demand King of kings, yet born of Mary, As an old on earth he stood,
[00:26:55] Lord of lords in human pasture, In the body and the blood, He will give to all the faithful His own self for empty health and food.
[00:27:22] To seek the sweet, sweet Sabbath Cherubim with sleepless eye Veil their faces to the presence As with ceaseless voice they cry Hallelujah
[00:27:52] Alleluia, Lord Most High.
[00:28:05] O Lord Most High.
[00:28:07] Amen.
[00:28:12] Thank you.

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Well, I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles this morning, not to 1 Corinthians.
[00:28:23] We're going to take a pause in our study of 1 Corinthians until after the New Year during the season of Advent.
[00:28:29] I'm going to invite you instead this morning to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 7.
[00:28:34] We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 17 this morning.
[00:28:40] Well, you find it, as I told the children just a few moments ago, this season of Advent is one that is marked by hope.
[00:28:49] But the question for us is, hope in what?
[00:28:51] Or better yet, hope in whom?
[00:28:55] Well, you should know the answer to that question.
[00:28:57] Our hope is built on God and the promises that He has made.
[00:29:02] And not only the promises that He has made, but also on the promises that He has kept.
[00:29:10] In other words, our faith is not a blind faith.
[00:29:14] God does not ask us to believe based on nothing but our own conjecture.
[00:29:20] But instead, God has proven Himself over and over again.
[00:29:25] We can look back through the pages of Scripture and see that God always keeps His promises.
[00:29:33] There is nothing that ever fails to come to pass.
[00:29:39] When God tells His people He will do something, He most certainly does what He says.
[00:29:46] And this year during the season of Advent, each Sunday, we're going to consider some of those promises that God made and God kept.
[00:29:56] These are promises that many, many generations never saw come to fruition in their own day, but we now have the privilege of looking back on and realizing.
[00:30:08] Much in the vein that Paul does with the Galatians, we can see how when the fullness of time had come, God did in fact send forth His Son to redeem us from the law and its curse.
[00:30:22] And I think that doing this, seeing how God has already kept so many of His promises does give us the hope that we spoke of a few moments ago.
[00:30:32] It instills within us a confident expectation that the promises that He has now made to us on this side of the cross that haven't yet been fulfilled will, in fact, be fulfilled at the return of Jesus and His second advent.
[00:30:51] And so we begin this morning in Isaiah chapter 7 with one of the most well-known promises God makes, and that is that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call His name Emmanuel.
[00:31:05] So hear then the Word of God from Isaiah 7.
[00:31:11] 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 Ramaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.
[00:31:28] 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.
[00:31:39] And the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shir Jashub, your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the washer's field.
[00:31:51] And say to him,
[00:31:52] 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 Rezan and Syria and the son of Ramaliah.
[00:32:06] Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Ramaliah, 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.
[00:32:20] Thus says the Lord God, It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.
[00:32:27] For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
[00:32:32] And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
[00:32:36] And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
[00:32:42] If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.
[00:32:47] And again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, Ask a sign of the Lord your God, let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.
[00:32:55] But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.
[00:33:00] And he said, Hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also?
[00:33:07] Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
[00:33:11] Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel.
[00:33:18] He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
[00:33:23] For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
[00:33:31] 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.
[00:33:40] The King of Assyria.
[00:33:44] Let's pray together.
[00:33:47] Lord our God, we come before you this morning looking at this word from the prophet Isaiah.
[00:33:54] Father, we through the lens of the New Testament see the fulfillment of this sign of a virgin conceiving and a child being born who will be called Emmanuel, God with us.
[00:34:05] We pray this morning that you would help us to understand.
[00:34:09] Exactly what it is that you are saying to your people.
[00:34:13] And Father, whereas Ahaz was blind to your good promises, help us to see clearly.
[00:34:19] So enlighten our eyes by your Holy Spirit this morning, we ask in Jesus' name.
[00:34:25] Amen.
[00:34:27] So I think some context might be helpful to help understand what it is we just read from Isaiah chapter 7.
[00:34:35] You need to understand that the year in which all these events are taking place, the year is 734 BC.
[00:34:42] So 734 years before the advent of Christ.
[00:34:48] Ahaz is the king of Judah.
[00:34:51] And we need to remember that this is during the period of the divided kingdom.
[00:34:54] What had once been a united kingdom, the nation of Israel under David and under Solomon,
[00:35:01] Soon divided against itself under the reign of Solomon's foolish son Rehoboam.
[00:35:06] And so you had the northern tribes that retained the name of Israel, and then you had the southern tribes which were known as the kingdom of Judah.
[00:35:17] And that is who Ahaz is the king of.
[00:35:19] He is the king of Judah, the southern tribe.
[00:35:24] Well, as a result of the division of the nation of Israel, the northern tribe and the southern tribe, Israel as a whole was no longer a dominant force in that area of the world.
[00:35:35] At one point, they had subjugated all the surrounding nations under them, but that's no longer the case.
[00:35:41] Because of their sin, because of their idolatry, now they were the ones being subjugated.
[00:35:47] And what we learn is that there was a new power in the world, the nation of Assyria.
[00:35:55] And Assyria was threatening all the surrounding nations, was threatening to conquer and subject all the surrounding nations.
[00:36:01] And so, in an effort to hold Assyria off, we learn that the northern kingdom of Israel, ruled by a man by the name of Pekah, joined forces with the nation of Syria, not to be confused with Assyria,
[00:36:16] But they joined forces with Syria, which was ruled by a guy named Rezin, and they made an alliance, Israel and Syria, in order to make a stand against Assyria.
[00:36:28] But they needed help.
[00:36:29] They wanted Judah to join with them.
[00:36:32] They wanted Judah and its military might to join with them to make a combined stand against the nation of Assyria, except Ahaz wasn't willing to join with them.
[00:36:43] He didn't want any part of their alliance.
[00:36:46] And that caused Pekah and Rezin, Israel and Syria to come and make a stand to wage war against Judah.
[00:36:54] They came and surrounded the city of Jerusalem with the aim, with the goal of throwing Ahaz off the throne and setting their own puppet on the throne instead so they could have the military might of Judah as part of their coalition.
[00:37:13] That's where Isaiah 7 picks up.
[00:37:17] Israel and Syria have surrounded Jerusalem.
[00:37:20] And what we hear from this passage is that Ahaz and all the people of Judah are scared.
[00:37:26] In fact, we're told that their hearts shook like the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
[00:37:33] They are scared.
[00:37:35] They are afraid.
[00:37:36] They're in a tough spot.
[00:37:38] And it's into this that God speaks.
[00:37:42] It's into this distress, into this fear that God speaks to Ahaz through Isaiah.
[00:37:49] And the message is essentially this.
[00:37:51] Ahaz, put your trust in God.
[00:37:55] Have faith that God will deliver you and your people from these invaders.
[00:38:02] If you think about it, that's a pretty encouraging message.
[00:38:05] That's a pretty amazing word to Ahaz.
[00:38:10] But there's something you need to understand about Ahaz.
[00:38:14] Ahaz was not a man of God.
[00:38:17] In fact, he was anything but a man of God.
[00:38:20] In fact, listen to how he is described to us in 2 Chronicles chapter 28.
[00:38:25] It says that Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 16 years in Jerusalem.
[00:38:35] And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord as his father David had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel.
[00:38:44] He even made metal images for the Baals, and he made offerings in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and he burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel.
[00:38:59] And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
[00:39:09] So Ahaz was godless.
[00:39:11] He had chased after all the other gods.
[00:39:13] He made idols to the Baals.
[00:39:15] He offered up his sons as burnt offerings, as sacrifices.
[00:39:20] This was a wicked man who knew nothing of the goodness of Yahweh.
[00:39:25] And what's more, we learn in that same chapter from 2 Chronicles that when Israel and Syria came up against him, he came up with his own solution to the problem.
[00:39:40] He sent money to the king of Assyria, the nation that was threatening the whole world.
[00:39:46] He sent money to the king of Assyria to come and fight against Israel and Syria on his behalf.
[00:39:53] And where did he get the money?
[00:39:55] Well, he looted the temple of God.
[00:39:58] He went into the temple.
[00:39:59] He took out all the precious things, the gold, the silver, all the precious things devoted to the worship of God.
[00:40:05] He took them out and he sent them to the king of Assyria asking for help.
[00:40:11] So here is this pagan king of Judah who has put his trust in the military might of another nation receiving a very gracious offer from God.
[00:40:26] To turn away from his sin, to turn away from his idolatry, and turn away from his trust in other nations, and to put his faith in Yahweh.
[00:40:37] Well, that begs the question, doesn't it?
[00:40:39] Why is God doing this?
[00:40:41] You would think that this would be God's judgment on Ahaz, that God would have brought this all to pass to just sort of wipe Ahaz off the face of the earth and bring Judah to nothing.
[00:40:51] Why is God showing this gracious offer to this wicked king?
[00:40:59] Well, we have to remember that the story goes much deeper than Ahaz.
[00:41:03] These are God's covenant people.
[00:41:09] And God had made a promise to David years before that he would uphold, that he would sustain the line of David, that David would never cease to have a man sitting on the throne, and that one day there would be an heir of David who would sit on the throne in righteousness.
[00:41:31] And so it's not for the sake of Ahaz that God is making this gracious offer.
[00:41:36] It's for the sake of His covenant and His covenant promises to His covenant people.
[00:41:45] But given Ahaz's idolatry and wickedness, we see that this word of deliverance held very little weight to him.
[00:41:55] And so God doubles down.
[00:41:56] And this is where we pick up in verse 10 where God makes an astounding offer to Ahaz.
[00:42:03] We're told that again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, God is basically handing Ahaz a blank check.
[00:42:18] He's saying to Ahaz, ask for any sign you want, no limits.
[00:42:22] It can be as deep as Sheol, it can be as high as heaven, anything you want, you ask it, I'll perform it in order to verify to you that the promise I make is valid, that if you will turn and put your faith in me, I will deliver you and your people from these attackers.
[00:42:44] Wouldn't you love an offer like that from God?
[00:42:46] How many times in the course of your life have you wished that you could have a sign from God?
[00:42:51] Maybe it's when you're having to make a really difficult decision or when you were younger and you really had no direction in life and you just wanted to know, God, what do you want me to do with my life?
[00:43:01] Wouldn't it have been wonderful if God had said, here's your sign.
[00:43:05] It's exactly what you wanted from me.
[00:43:07] Here it is, confirmation of my good purposes for you.
[00:43:12] That's what Ahaz was being offered.
[00:43:14] You name it, I'll do it, and that way you'll believe me.
[00:43:22] What was Ahaz's response?
[00:43:25] We see it in verse 12.
[00:43:27] But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.
[00:43:35] Now at first reading this might sound like a fairly humble and even pious answer because indeed hadn't God warned his people do not put the Lord your God to the test.
[00:43:46] Jesus even quotes that when he's being tested by Satan in the wilderness.
[00:43:51] The people were not to put God to the test and of course the context for that is people were not to doubt God's word and thereby put him to the test but that's not actually what's happening in this conversation with Ahaz.
[00:44:05] God was the one who initiated the conversation.
[00:44:09] He is the one who made the offer and who actually commanded Ahaz, name your sign.
[00:44:14] Put me to the test and I'll confirm it to you.
[00:44:20] But Ahaz refused.
[00:44:21] And so rather than this being a humble, pious response, this is a prideful, wicked response.
[00:44:29] Ahaz is basically saying, I don't care.
[00:44:31] I don't believe in Yahweh.
[00:44:32] I don't want anything to do with Him.
[00:44:34] I've got this.
[00:44:35] I've sent for help from Assyria.
[00:44:40] We hear Isaiah's exasperation in verse 13.
[00:44:43] Isaiah says to him, Is it too little for you to weary men that you must weary my God also?
[00:44:53] And then God speaks as well in verse 14.
[00:44:58] Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
[00:45:01] Fine, Ahaz.
[00:45:02] You don't want to name your price?
[00:45:03] You don't want to ask for a sign?
[00:45:05] I will give you a sign.
[00:45:07] Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.
[00:45:15] That's actually the beginning of the sign.
[00:45:17] We actually read that there's more that comes with it in verses 15 and following.
[00:45:21] That he shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
[00:45:26] For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
[00:45:33] And 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.
[00:45:46] Ahaz refused to put his faith in God.
[00:45:50] He refused to trust in God.
[00:45:53] And so God not only gave him a sign, but gave him a word of judgment.
[00:45:58] There's some good news in this word.
[00:45:59] In verse 16, God very clearly says that Israel and Syria are going to come to nothing, that this stand they're making against Jerusalem will not succeed, that they will become a desolation.
[00:46:11] But then in verse 17, there's also a word of Judah's own desolation.
[00:46:17] In fact, the very man that Ahaz had put his hope in, the king of Assyria, would be his undoing.
[00:46:23] And this is actually confirmed to us in that same passage I read to you earlier from 2 Chronicles chapter 28.
[00:46:30] We're told that the Lord humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made Judah act sinfully and had been very unfaithful to the Lord.
[00:46:39] So the king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him.
[00:46:46] For Ahaz had taken a portion from the house of the Lord and the house of the king and the princes and gave tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.
[00:46:58] And so what we find is that Ahaz's disbelief resulted in judgment.
[00:47:05] And yet, there's still this sign.
[00:47:09] God had given a sign of deliverance.
[00:47:13] that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
[00:47:19] God even in judgment had given this sign, the sign of deliverance.
[00:47:23] How are we to make sense of this?
[00:47:25] How are we to understand this given the fact that Ahaz and Judah would still fall but God had promised deliverance?
[00:47:33] Well, we've already kind of hinted at it this morning and that's the idea of God's covenant faithfulness.
[00:47:41] You may not have picked up on it when we first read this passage from Isaiah 7, but twice in this passage there's a reference to the house of David.
[00:47:50] Rather than calling Judah by name or even Ahaz by name, house of David is used instead.
[00:47:56] That's covenantal language.
[00:47:59] And not only that, but you may not have picked up on it either at the very beginning of this passage when God sent Isaiah to meet with Ahaz in verse 3, he also told him to take his son with him.
[00:48:11] Isaiah, take your son by the name of Shir Jashub.
[00:48:15] Take him with you.
[00:48:16] Do you know what his name means?
[00:48:18] His name means a remnant shall remain.
[00:48:24] And so God is actually sending Ahaz a couple of messages.
[00:48:27] The one that's very verbally spoken by Isaiah himself, calling on him to put his faith in Yahweh for deliverance.
[00:48:34] But also a more subtle message through the presence of his son, a remnant shall remain.
[00:48:40] God is communicating, I have plans for my people.
[00:48:44] And even if through Ahaz they be unfaithful, I will still be faithful and I will retain a remnant because I have plans for my people.
[00:48:54] I have plans for David's house and they are plans of deliverance.
[00:48:58] They are plans of salvation, plans for hope.
[00:49:04] And the sign of these plans is the promise of verse 14 that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and will call his name Emmanuel.
[00:49:18] It's just that the fulfillment, the full fulfillment of this promise wasn't immediate, not even close to immediate.
[00:49:25] The full fulfillment of this promise would take almost 750 years, three-fourths of a millennia, to come to pass.
[00:49:32] And in the course of that time, kingdoms would come and kingdoms would fall.
[00:49:36] Assyria would conquer Judah, just as God said it would.
[00:49:39] But then after Assyria would arise the Babylonian Empire, who would chase Assyria off the map and then rule over the nation of Judah, eventually resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple, and God
[00:49:52] Allowing his people to be carried off into exile in Babylon.
[00:49:58] But a remnant would remain.
[00:50:01] And after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, a remnant would return and would begin to rebuild.
[00:50:07] Rebuild Jerusalem.
[00:50:08] Rebuild the Temple.
[00:50:12] And then there would be silence.
[00:50:16] Silence from God.
[00:50:17] No fresh word.
[00:50:18] No visions.
[00:50:19] For some 400 years
[00:50:22] I taught our middle school Sunday school class this morning.
[00:50:24] We talked about this, the time between Malachi and Matthew, 400 years in which God didn't speak to His people in a new way, no prophet, no angelic vision, nothing, silence.
[00:50:40] And during those times, kingdoms came and kingdoms went, and the Assyrians and the Babylonians, though long gone, were replaced by a new power, the Roman Empire.
[00:50:52] Who held Judah?
[00:50:53] Who held Israel?
[00:50:54] Who held Jerusalem under its thumb?
[00:50:57] And the people of God waited and they wondered and they watched.
[00:51:02] What about these promises God made to us by the prophets?
[00:51:05] All these messages, all these promises of a Messiah, of a Deliverer, of One who would come and free us and save us.
[00:51:14] Even the most faithful had to wonder from time to time, is God going to come through?
[00:51:20] Would the promised deliverer, that son to be born, that child to be given, would he ever arrive?
[00:51:28] Well, you know the answer to that question because we heard it earlier from our New Testament reading in Matthew chapter 1 where we're told of Mary and of Joseph and of an unplanned and unexpected pregnancy.
[00:51:42] A pregnancy that Joseph knew he had nothing to do with and as he would soon find out from angelic message that neither had any other man.
[00:51:51] Because indeed, the Virgin had conceived.
[00:51:56] And as the angel told Joseph, what was conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit.
[00:52:01] Or as the angel Gabriel told Mary, as we find it in Luke's Gospel, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
[00:52:09] Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.
[00:52:16] And as Matthew tells us quite plainly, all of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
[00:52:26] Promise made, promise kept.
[00:52:29] Did it take longer than anybody expected?
[00:52:31] Absolutely.
[00:52:32] 750 years in between.
[00:52:35] That's a long time to wait.
[00:52:38] But the promise that God made is the promise that God kept.
[00:52:42] The sign of Emmanuel, of God's deliverance, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
[00:52:48] He is God with us.
[00:52:52] And He came to set His people free.
[00:52:55] Though maybe not in the way that was expected.
[00:52:57] by those who were awaiting at the time of His birth.
[00:53:00] As we're going to see in the coming weeks, most people had placed their hopes in a Messiah who would actually sit on the throne of David, who would chase out the Roman occupiers, who would restore Israel to its former glory back when David and Solomon were in charge.
[00:53:19] But as we learn in the pages of the New Testament, Jesus really wasn't concerned with a Roman oppression.
[00:53:26] No, he was concerned with a much greater tyrant.
[00:53:30] And as the angel tells Joseph, Jesus would come to save his people from their sin.
[00:53:38] And that actually takes us all the way back to that very first promise of redemption God ever made to His people right on the heels of Adam and Eve falling into sin.
[00:53:47] As God is doling out the curse for sin, He speaks to the servant and He speaks of a day when the seed of the woman would come who would crush the head of the seed of the serpent.
[00:54:01] Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise too.
[00:54:07] 750 years before his birth, God had given an offer to Ahaz.
[00:54:14] He had offered to be with him.
[00:54:16] He had offered to deliver him.
[00:54:18] He had offered to save him.
[00:54:22] But Ahaz refused.
[00:54:25] Well, friends, now in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the very Word of God, has become flesh and dwelt among us.
[00:54:34] And to all who receive Him, who believe in His name, He gives the right to become children of God.
[00:54:40] The question for us this morning, the question for us in this season of Advent is will we be like Ahaz and refuse the offer because we trust in ourselves or we trust in our own devices?
[00:54:53] Or will we put our trust in Jesus Christ?
[00:55:00] You know, we don't really ever get the signs we want.
[00:55:03] We spoke earlier of wishing we had clear signs from God sometimes about what He wants us to do, the direction we should have in this life, and it would be nice sometimes if we got that.
[00:55:14] But you recognize that in Jesus Christ, God has given us the clearest and the best and the most brilliant sign that He could ever offer His people.
[00:55:23] A sign of His love, a sign of His faithfulness, and a sign of promises kept.
[00:55:32] You see, Jesus Christ is the hope of the world.
[00:55:37] It's on Christmas Day, yes, that the Christ of our hope was born.
[00:55:41] But we can't stay there.
[00:55:42] We have to look ahead to Good Friday when the Christ of our hope died for us.
[00:55:47] And then three days later, the Christ of our hope rose from the grave.
[00:55:53] And shortly thereafter, He ascended into heaven where we get the promise that one day He will return.
[00:56:01] You see, we've seen promises fulfilled.
[00:56:04] It took 750 years, but the virgin did conceive and the child was born.
[00:56:11] You may say to yourself, well goodness, now it's been something like 2,000 years since Jesus ascended.
[00:56:16] That's an awful long time to wait.
[00:56:17] Yes, it is.
[00:56:20] But it's also a gracious amount of time for God to wait.
[00:56:24] Because He's waited, you and I and others around us have the privilege of knowing Jesus.
[00:56:30] of finding salvation and of claiming hold to these great promises that God has made that will soon one day be fulfilled that He Himself will dwell with us and we with Him in the new heavens and the new earth.
[00:56:48] Friends, what God has promised, He will do.
[00:56:52] And so may we put our trust, our hope in the God who keeps His promises both today and all of our lives.
[00:57:01] Let's pray together.
[00:57:07] Lord our God, we do thank You that You are the God who makes good promises to an undeserving people.
[00:57:14] Indeed, it would have been just and it would have been fair for you when Adam and Eve, our first parents, fell into sin to leave them and us in our sin and misery without hope in the world.
[00:57:26] But instead, you intervened.
[00:57:30] Instead, you entered into this world through Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, born of the Holy Spirit, to redeem those of us who were under the curse.
[00:57:44] Father, while on a human time scale it may seem that these things have taken a long time to bring to fruition, we know that all of these things happened at just the right time, in the fullness of time.
[00:57:58] And we know that in the fullness of time, Christ will return.
[00:58:04] And in between His two Advents, this is where You have appointed for us to live and to work out our salvation with fear and with trembling.
[00:58:15] So Lord, we would pray this morning that you would renew and restore within us the great hope, the confident expectation that what you have said, you will do.
[00:58:27] Build us up in this, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name.
[00:58:31] Amen.
[00:58:35] Our closing hymn this morning is a familiar one that we sing during the Christmas season, but I hope as you sing it this morning you will do so in light of what we've just considered of all of these promises, all of the longings of God's people in ages past that have been met in Jesus Christ that are still in some ways the longing of our heart as we look forward to His return.
[00:58:55] So let's stand together and sing number 194, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

[00:59:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lowly
[00:59:32] Rejoice!
[00:59:50] Rejoice!

[00:59:53] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel O come, O come, my Lord

[00:59:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Who to thy triumphs by my side In ancient times didst give a thought In cloud and majesty and awe
[01:00:17] Rejoice!
[01:00:22] Rejoice!
[01:00:34] Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel O come, Thou Rock of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan's tyranny
[01:00:45] From deaths of hell the people save I've given victory o'er the grave Rejoice!
[01:01:05] Rejoice!
[01:01:05] Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel
[01:01:12] O come, thou Dayspring from on high, And cheer us by thy dawning night.

[01:01:35] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight.

[01:01:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Rejoice!

[01:01:56] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Rejoice!
[01:01:57] Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
[01:02:02] O come, now be of David come, and open wide our heavenly home.

[01:02:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
They say the way that leads on high And goes up back to misery Rejoice!

[01:02:29] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Rejoice!
[01:02:30] Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel

[01:02:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Friends, as you go today, go with the blessing of the God who has indeed come to us.
[01:02:37] And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all both now and forevermore.
[01:02:46] Amen.

[01:02:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Rejoice!
[01:02:54] Rejoice!
[01:02:58] Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!