Isaiah 9:1-7

Good evening. Be in the Old Testament this evening in the book of Isaiah.!

I should have wore a Christmas tie tonight. Need to establish before we get into this.

Context being that this is rather a lengthy passage of Scripture. Or it's in, I should say, a lengthy passage of Scripture. We're only going to read through seven verses tonight.

But you can actually go back to Isaiah chapter 7 to start finding the context that we're in. Isaiah, of course, being prophet of God, one of the major prophets as far as what man considers him to be.

We've got four books of major prophets, and then we have the minor prophets, Isaiah being a major prophet. But Isaiah ministered mainly to Judah.

And he mentions Israel many times. Judah being the southern kingdom, Israel being the northern kingdom. So the division of kingdoms happened not too awful long after Solomon's reign.

Solomon, of course, died about 930 B.C. And, of course, his son Jeroboam and then Rehoboam got involved and so on.

And anyway, things didn't go as the people wanted. Solomon had laid taxes heavily upon the people and had burdened them.

And people were split with who to follow. And that's when the kingdom split. Folks, it wasn't just because of all that political stuff the kingdom split. But God said, told Solomon, because of his idolatry, because of his following after the idols of his many, many wives, that the kingdom would be ripped from him, that the kingdom would be taken away from him.

And it was. And it was ripped into the northern kingdom Israel, the southern kingdom Judah. Isaiah mainly ministered to the southern kingdom of Judah.

If you go back to Isaiah chapter 7, you'll see that Judah is facing distress. They're facing threatenings not only from Israel, but from Syria as well.

And God tries his best to get Ahaz, the king of that time, to trust in him for deliverance. Ahaz fails.

So God tells Ahaz that he's going to send Assyria to be his instrument of judgment upon them. And you read on through Isaiah chapter 7, you read about that.

One of the promises of the Messiah being born of a virgin, or the promise of the Messiah being born of a virgin, is found in Isaiah chapter 7, because God said he would give that as a sign.

Isaiah chapter 8 is this actual invasion of Assyria. And we end chapter 8 with a very bleak picture for Judah.

In fact, we're going to read the last couple of verses of Isaiah chapter 8, just for contextual purposes here. So then we get to Isaiah 9, which is where we'll be reading from tonight.

So all that being said, I hope that didn't confuse anyone. I hope that was helpful for the context. We'll read verses 21 and 22 of Isaiah chapter 8 here.

It says, Isaiah chapter 9 brings hope.

So all that being said, Isaiah chapter 9, beginning at verse 1. And after the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea beyond Jordan and Galilee of the nations.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy.

They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, and the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood. But this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

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 Wonderful Counselor, 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 with justice from henceforth, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Back to verse 1 in Isaiah chapter 9. Nevertheless, the dimness shall not be as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

And afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea beyond Jordan and Galilee of the nation. So, as I said during the intro to this, if you'd like to call it that, that word nevertheless is very important here.

Because the 8th chapter ends on such a black, sour, and negative note that the inhabitants are going to be facing.

It says, again in verse 22 of chapter 8, it says, And they shall look to the earth, and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be driven to darkness.

And then chapter 9 begins with this word, nevertheless. And folks, that gives me encouragement. I'm sure that the people of Judah and Isaiah's day, that would have given them some kind of encouragement.

This word, nevertheless. And folks, I'm here to exhort you tonight and to encourage you tonight, that no matter what you may be going through in your life, no matter what darkness may have presented itself to you, no matter what plane you may be in, no matter what realm you may be seeing, whether it be this or that, there is a nevertheless with Almighty God.

God has promised that He will be with us all the way, even to the end of the world. God has told us in His word that there is a day coming where you and I will be translated into a promised kingdom, where there will be no more sin, there will be no more sickness, there will be no more troubles, there will be no more trials, there will be no more temptation.

So while we are here on this earth, while we are surrounded by darkness, and we are just as these people, as the people of Judah were, these people of Judah, they were surrounded by the Assyrian army, they were surrounded by invaders, they were surrounded by the enemy.

And you and I here are in no different circumstance than what they were when this prophecy here was written. We are surrounded by the enemy. I'm not talking about necessarily family and friends that aren't saved.

I'm talking about demons. I'm talking about the nymphs of the devil. I'm talking about the devil himself. I'm talking about the ways of the world, the wicked powers which run this world.

The Bible says itself that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. We are surrounded by these enemies. But God says, nevertheless, I will bring you out of this one day.

It won't always be this way. You will come to dwell with me forever in a land where you won't witness these things anymore. You won't see these things anymore.

You won't experience these things anymore. Such as you are experiencing here in this life right now. And I say amen. Praise God. And hallelujah for the promise of God that he has saved our souls and promised us such a future.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Nevertheless, God says. Nevertheless, he says the dimness shall not be as was in her dexation. When at the first, he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

Now, folks, we've got to understand. Isaiah is talking about an actual historical event that happened here. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, which were cities of the north, which were the first ones to be besieged by Assyria.

This is something that actually happened that the people here could relate to because they knew that it actually happened. And the scripture here says they had lightly been afflicted.

They'd lightly been afflicted as compared to what? As compared to the nevertheless of the Lord. As compared to the Lord's deliverance. As compared to the promise that the Lord makes in this passage of scripture that we are going through this evening.

It says he first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. And afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea beyond Jordan and Galilee of the nations.

And in verse two, it says the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath light shined. And I say praise God for that, folks.

This was something that Isaiah was seeing far into the future. The people here in these two lands in Zebulun and Naphtali. They didn't experience this. They didn't see this.

Isaiah was making a prophecy out of a historical event that had taken place. God being the one who inspired Isaiah to make such a prophecy.

But it says the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. And Matthew does a wonderful job in his gospel in Matthew in chapter four by attributing this prophecy to Jesus Christ himself.

When Jesus Christ came and began his ministry, where did he begin his ministry? It was in the land of Galilee, of Galilee of the nations, Galilee of the Gentiles.

It was in Galilee. He was headquartered in Capernaum, which was a city in Galilee. Hey, folks, Jesus Christ is the light that was promised to these people of Zebulun and Naphtali.

He is the promise to the people all over the world who walk in darkness, who have not seen the light. God has promised them that you can see the light in Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah. Amen. Jesus Christ is the light himself. No matter the darkness that you're going through, no matter the darkness that these people were going through. Folks, and scripture, scripture has example upon example upon example of this very thing.

Not only of people in darkness. You take Israel, for example. You take Israel, God's very own chosen people. How many generations did they spend in bondage in the land of Egypt?

But God delivered him with a mighty and strong right arm. He delivered them through the Red Sea. He sustained them in the wilderness. And he brought them into the land that he had promised our father Abraham.

You think of things like that. You can go all the way back to Genesis. Go all the way back to Genesis. Genesis chapter 2. How is the world described? Genesis 1.1 says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1.2 says, The earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. Genesis 1.3, what does God say? God says, Let there be light.

And there was light. And God specializes in bringing light to the places that are dark. Hallelujah. Whether it's the world itself.

Whether it's a group of people. Or whether it's you as an individual. If you are in a dark place, God can and does bring light. Jesus said himself that he was the light of the world.

John says in John chapter 1. In him was life. This life was the light of men. Jesus says in John chapter 8. He who followeth after me shall not walk in darkness.

But he shall have the light of life. Christ is the light. Folks, it doesn't matter what you're going through. It doesn't matter what you've been through. It doesn't matter what's coming down the path somewhere for you to go through.

You will go through dark places. You will go through dark valleys. Hey folks, there's people all over Scripture that have been in those same places. You look at David. David had King Saul pursuing after him.

Wanting to kill him. But years later, David is the very one that said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will bear no evil.

Hallelujah. David wrote that. After being pursued by a king. And that king wanting his life. He said, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, a dark place, I will fear no evil.

For thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. He knew that God would be there. Folks, what does light do? Light reveals to us what we couldn't see before. Light shows us the path.

The psalmist says in Psalms 119, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. The light shows us the way to go. Jesus, being the light himself, showed us the way to God.

He shows us the way to God presently through His word and through His Spirit. The light shows us things that we could not see before. I've told you all before, before I was saved, I knew a lot of Bible.

I knew a lot of Bible. I knew a lot of history about the Bible. But I did not know the writer of the Bible. I did not know the inspirer of the Bible. But once I was saved, once I was saved, and the light started to shine on those pages, and the Holy Ghost started to instruct me and teach me, folks, then I truly knew the Bible.

I don't know it as well as I wish I did. I don't know as much about it as I'd like to. But I know enough to tell somebody the Gospel. I know enough to tell somebody that they're a sinner, but God is a wonderful, powerful, and mighty Savior, and He is able to save them through the blood of Jesus Christ, and wash them clean, and make them whole and pure in His eyes.

And He does that through the light of this world, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy.

And again, you can read about that in Matthew 4. For the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell on the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Not upon those that were all right. Not upon those who were righteous. Not upon those who were deemed worthy by God. But upon them that lived in the shadow of death.

Those that lived in darkness. Folks, this wasn't just a visit to darkness that we were talking about. Their very environment was darkness. It's where they dwelled. It's where they lived according to the Scriptures.

And God shone a light in there. My goodness, it's just like when God, in the book of Exodus, when God was introducing the plagues, and the plague of darkness come, all of Egypt, all of Egypt, and I personally, I'm convinced, all of the entire earth was in darkness.

Except for one little place. Except for one little place. And that's where God's people were. That's where God's people were. That's the only place that there was light. That darkness was so thick, nobody could see to do anything.

But the darkness was there. Folks, you think about the disciples for just a moment. The man that they had followed around for three plus years. The man that they believed in to be the Messiah.

The one that they had listened to His teaching. They had listened to His preaching. They had seen His healing. They had seen everything to do with His ministry. And on a Friday afternoon, they saw Him killed.

They saw Him crucified. They saw Him die. And with Him died their hope. Don't believe me, read Luke 24. Then two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Moping down the road. Saying, we thought. We thought that He would be the one to deliver Israel. We thought. But just as S.M. Lockridge preached so many years ago, Sunday was coming.

That Friday afternoon, the Savior died. He died. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. But praise be unto God, Sunday was coming. Hey, that Sunday with the resurrection, that was the lie to those disciples that found themselves in darkness just a couple of days before.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ was their lie. Verse number 3. Thou hast multiplied the nation and not increased the joy. They joy before thee according to the joy in the harvest.

And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. Isaiah here again prophesying. Propesying that there was deliverance coming. That there was a lie that was coming to the land of Zebulun and Naphtali and ultimately to the entire world.

He's prophesying of this lie. And now he's prophesying of the joy that people are going to have because of this lie that we read about in verse number 2.

Because of the promise in verses 1-7 that are made here. These people will joy. And he compares it to something that they will be well familiar with. He compares it to the harvest.

He says they joy before thee according to the joy in the harvest. Hey folks, there's something about it. Now I haven't done it too many times in my life. I haven't had too many gardens, but I have had some.

But there's something about planting the seed. There's something about working that ground. There's something about tending to it. There's something about planting the seed and continuing to work that ground and waiting through the season and to see it sprout up and to see it finally produce fruit.

There is something very satisfying about that. And that brings us joy when we see that. To know that our labor and to know that our work, to know that our effort has done that.

That's the type of joy that Isaiah is saying that these people here have because of the deliverance, because of the light that has been shown to these lands, because of the light that has been shown in the darkness to them.

That's the kind of joy they'll have. And he compares it with another thing they would be well familiar with. The spoils of war. The spoils of the battle. When one army would go in and defeat another army, they would spoil their goods.

They would split it amongst themselves. And that caused great joy. And folks, both of those things are talking about two things. The joy of the harvest and the joy of the spoil of goods is talking about abundance and it's talking about provision.

That God is providing for His people in a time of darkness. I praise God for Daniel chapter 2. It says God knows what's in the darkness.

Preached a whole sermon on that one verse one time years ago in Kingsport. But God knows what is in the darkness. and the joy that you and I should feel as saints of God as those that have been redeemed by His grace.

We should have joy like Isaiah was talking about there in verse number 3. Verse number 4 For thou hast broken the yoke of His burden and the staff of His shoulder the rod of His oppressor as in the day of Midian.

He says for thou who is thou? For you, for God. God has done these things. Folks, Naphtali and Zebulun all of Judah and quite frankly all of Israel the northern kingdom none of them were able to break the yoke of any oppressor that came in.

It always took God to deliver them. It took God to deliver Israel out of Egypt. It took God to deliver them from the Midianites. It took Him to deliver them from any enemy that ever took them in bondage.

any enemy that ever overtook them period. It took God to bring them out of it. You read in the book of Judges over and over and over Israel sinned.

Israel cried out to God. God delivered them. Israel praised God for a little while. Israel sinned. Israel was delivered into bondage. Israel cried out to God. God delivered them and they praised God for a little while.

And that cycle goes over and over and over in the book of Judges. But here it says for thou has broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder the rod of his oppressor as in the day of Midian.

It takes God to break the yoke. What is the yoke? Yoke is something that is put over an animal's head so that it can be trained so that it can be taught and so that it can stay in a line when plowing.

And this yoke was placed over God's people. And Isaiah here is seeing this prophecy and he is writing this prophecy. He says for thou has broken the yoke of his burden.

Folks, every one of us had a yoke. Every one of us had a burden. Every one of us were under a bondage called sin and it took God to break that yoke of bondage off of us.

Jesus Christ said himself, if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Jesus is the very one that delivers us.

Jesus is the one that lifts the yoke off of us. Not only does he lift the yoke force, Jesus didn't just come to help us manage the chains that we had. He came to break those chains off of his people and make them free of him.

And he has made us free. Those of us that have believed on him and repented of our ways, we are free. We are set at liberty in Jesus Christ. We were once bondage to sin, now we are servants to Almighty God through Jesus Christ.

And I thank God, I thank God that Jesus Christ died to make me into that kind of shape. To make a way that I could be a servant of God.

Thou has broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder. The rod of his oppressor as in the day of Midian. He specifies a particular event here, Isaiah does, as in the day of Midian.

I actually brought this up in Sunday school this morning down in the teen class. What is the day of Midian? Folks, when the Israelites were being oppressed by the Midianites, the Israelites, they would have their areas, their little villages, whatever you want to call it, they would plant their crops, the Midianites would come in, they would raise their crops, they would destroy them and leave them for dead.

Leave the people for dead. And this was a terror to those people. What is the day of Midian? That's when the Midianites come in and done this, but it's also the day when Gideon, God called Gideon, God raised Gideon up to be a judge.

And instead of having the army of thousands upon thousands of people, God reduced Gideon's army to 300. But He told them why?

So that you will know, so that you will know that it was God that delivered you. So you cannot boast in your own power. So you will know that God broke the yoke off of your neck.

That God delivered you. That God saved you. And I will remind you, I know I've said it a thousand times since I've been here, and I'll say it a thousand words because we must be reminded we had nothing to do with getting saved.

It was all the plan of God. It was all of God. It was through the work of Jesus Christ, not our own works, lest any of us should boast. We had nothing to do with salvation.

All that is required of us is to believe on the one who made salvation possible. But it is God who gave us a mind to believe. It is God who gave us the good sense to believe.

It is all of God. Every bit of the Lord is salvation, salvation is of the Lord. The things that the scripture teaches. Verse 5, For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood, but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

He is painting the scene now going back to a war or a battle scene. He says, For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood. Talking about the noise of battle and the things that are heard in the battle and garments that are rolled in blood.

Talking about the blood spill that is in battle, but he goes on to say, but this, but this, what is this? This is the deliverance. But this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

He is saying, this deliverance that I'm prophesying right now, this light that's going to shine in Zebulun and Naphtali, this light, this Savior, this Messiah that is coming, it will be final.

This will be it. And Jesus Christ was and is it. Jesus Christ is the last word spoken of Almighty God. He is the only way, He is the only truth, and He is the only light.

And we must believe on Him. He says, these battles, they go on with noise, and they go on with bloodshed, but this, what's coming, will be burned, will be burning and fuel of fire.

It will completely destroy war. It will completely destroy battles. And folks, Maka, he makes a very similar prophecy to this.

Maka, in Maka chapter 4, he talks about the enemy beating their weapons into prune shears.

Sorry, I'll get it right here in a second. But beating their weapons into prune shears. And making weapons of war into instruments that cultivate life instead.

He's talking about the same thing. There will be an end to war. There will be an end to battle. And folks, that is not going to happen until Christ returns. Until Christ makes all things new again, we will continue to war.

We will continue to battle. Not just nation against nation as we do now. And not just country against country. Not just region against region. But folks, the saints of God will continue to war with the spirits of this world, with the spirits of Antichrist, which we find this world with our own flesh.

That war will continue until Christ makes all things new. but then when it is done away with, it will be done away with completely, totally, and utterly, and finally.

Now thank God for that. Verse number six, 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 Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

We normally only think about this verse during one season throughout the year for about a month. From the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Day is when we think about this verse.

But folks, this was part of this prophecy, of the prophecy that Isaiah, that we've been going through from Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 1 up to here.

This is part of it. This is the light. This child, this child that is to be born, he is the light. Think about everything that we've talked about thus far.

Think about everything that I've preached about thus far. The darkness and what God's going to do about the darkness. Verse number 6 and verse number 7 is what God is going to do with the darkness, what he is going to do in the darkness.

For unto us a child is born. Unto us a child is born. This child being Jesus, of course we know that. Unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

The government, the entire world, will be upon his shoulder. He will carry the entire world. Not only, not only did Christ take the sin of the world upon himself, which he did at Calvary.

He took the your sin and my sin, everyone who ever has lived and everyone who ever will live and presently lives. He took their sin upon himself.

But here it says the government shall be upon his shoulder. He's going to carry the whole world. And he can. He can. And he does. And the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful.

Now folks, we could spend the next ten Sundays on just these few descriptions, on just these few names that are given to Christ here.

We won't do that. In fact, we won't spend too awful much time on them tonight. But his name shall be called wonderful. Let me ask you something. What about Christ is not wonderful.

Everything about Christ is wonderful. His sinless life, wonderful. His teachings, wonderful. His healings, wonderful.

His word, wonderful. His spirit, wonderful. His death, his burial, his resurrection, all of it is wonderful. The divine conception, that's wonderful.

And that is something that no one can explain. And I thank God for that. I thank God for that. How in the world could a woman conceive in her womb, never knowing a man physically?

I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because Gabriel, in the gospel of Luke, when he was telling Mary she was going to conceive, he told her, for with God all things are possible.

God. That's how. That's how. It's because it is of God that the world can offer no explanation for that. But those of us that have been born again, those of us who actually believe the true written word of Almighty God, we know how it happened.

It is because that's the way God wanted it. It's because that's the way God said it would be. Again, flip back a couple of chapters to Genesis chapter or Genesis, Isaiah chapter 7, and you'll read where it was promised that a woman would conceive a child, a virgin would conceive.

Folks, it is by God and through God that that is made possible. Everything about Christ though is wonderful. That's why we can call his name here Wonderful Counselor. Folks, why would we go to anyone else?

Knowing, knowing that Christ is omniscient, knowing that he is all knowing. I'm not saying don't go to friends. I'm not saying don't ask advice of your neighbor or pastor or whatever the case is.

I'm not saying that at all. But folks, we should go to God first. We should go to him foremost. He knows it all. And Christ, being his son, knows it all as well.

They both share in divinity. They were both there from the beginning of everything. they know it all. Why not go to them? Why not go to Christ as our counselor?

We should make it a point to go to him first. The Bible describes him as the ancient of days. The Bible describes him as the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega. It says that he knows the beginning from the end, the end from the beginning.

He knows it all. And yet we seek help in places. We seek help in books that were written by man, most of them worldly men.

We seek help in places everywhere other than God. Shame on us. Shame on us. He is the counselor.

He is the mighty God. This, of course, speaks of his union with God the Father. As I just said, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit have always been.

They have always been. They have always been in harmony with one another. They have always been in 100% agreement with one another. But here, we're describing this child, which is born unto us, being the mighty God.

This is one of the heaviest and clearest statements in all of Scripture of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Because no one can deny, no one, not Jew nor Gentile, can deny that it is the Messiah that is being spoken about here.

And the description here says that he is the mighty God. Not the mighty Son of God. He is the Son of God. Don't you all hear me wrong? Because in the mighty God.

It goes on to say, the everlasting Father, this speaks about the eternality of Jesus Christ. The eternality means exactly what we've already said.

He's always been, he always will be. He is presently and folks, he was just as much king when he spoke the universe into existence as he is right now and as he will be 300 billion years into the future.

He is just as much king and he will just as much exist then as he always has. He is the everlasting Father and he is the Prince of Peace. What have we been talking about?

Darkness. We've been talking about Assyria invading Judah. Namely, the lands of Naphtali and Zebulun. Darkness.

But here, this child that is promised, this child that is promised, is called the Prince of Peace. We were talking about war. We were talking about battle just a couple of verses before all this.

But now we're talking about the Prince of Peace. And folks, Jesus Christ is this Prince of Peace. There is no denying that he told his disciples himself.

He said, Peace, I leave with you my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives us. I'm glad that it's not a worldly peace that Jesus Christ offers us.

And folks, this should comfort us and encourage us that much more that when we find ourselves in dark situations, when we find ourselves in dark quarters, in dark circumstances, that those circumstances do not have the final word.

God has promised a Prince of Peace to these people here in Isaiah 9, and God delivered the Prince of Peace to all of the world, and to all who would believe and repent.

So when we find ourselves in those circumstances, folks, they don't have the last word. God does. God does. Remember, there's a nevertheless with God.

That first word that we read out of this passage of Scripture tonight in Isaiah 9, 1, verse 7, 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 and from henceforth!

Even forever! The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. 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.

Folks, this is direct fulfillment. What Isaiah is seeing here, what Isaiah is prophesying about is direct fulfillment of a promise that God made to David over in 2 Samuel in chapter 7.

God promised David then that He would establish His throne forever. He would establish His throne forever! forever! And Isaiah here is seen and prophesied about the fulfillment of that promise.

But it wasn't fulfilled in David. It certainly wasn't fulfilled in Solomon, nor in Solomon's son, nor in anyone that sat upon any throne of Israel since then.

But the Bible teaches, praise be unto God, the Bible teaches in Revelation chapter 11 that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of the Lord and His cross.

His throne will be established forever, His rule will be forever, His reign will be forever, and His majesty will be forever, and He will rule the kingdoms of this world with His own power, and through His grace, and quite frankly, with us by His side, with those who have been redeemed, we will be with Him.

But Isaiah is seeing the fulfillment of that. I'll be honest with y'all, I feel sorry for the Jews to an extent. I do.

Now, they had the Scriptures, they had the Scriptures that pointed directly at Jesus, they had everything that pointed at the Messiah, and the Messiah came, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, such as was prophesied by the prophet Micah in Micah 5, born of a virgin, such as was prophesied in Isaiah 7, Messiah came, and the Messiah worked miracles.

But folks, the Jews, they read this description, and they did not understand that this one description contains two different comings of Christ.

It's not that the baby was born, and immediately lifted the foot of oppression up off of the back of the Jews, or of Judah, the southern kingdom here.

It's not that that immediately happened, and to an extent, I feel sorry for the Jews, because if I had lived in that time, that's probably how I would have read it and understood it too. But folks, on the flip side of that coin, they also had the rest of the Scripture.

They had the rest of the Old Testament. They had the promise. Now listen folks, it wasn't just with David in 2 Samuel chapter 7 that God made a promise that the throne would be established forever, and that the rule from Judah would be established forever.

You can go all the way back to the book of Genesis and see that. When Jacob's on his deathbed, and he's blessing each one of his sons, and Judah's turn comes up for the blessing, Jacob tells him, the scepter shall not depart from your hand.

Meaning that your rule will go on forever and forever and forever. But Judah had no way of knowing that that would be in the form of Christ. So many years later, so many centuries later, Judah had no way of knowing that.

David had no way of knowing just how far into the future that the actual Messiah would be born. But folks, we have the entirety of Scripture. They have the entire Old Testament, the Jews did.

But folks, we have the entire closed canon of Scripture, the Old and the New Testament alike. Why do we have such a hard time believing it?

Why do we have such a hard time believing everything that the Scripture says of the increase of His government? There shall be no end of the increase and the peace. There shall be no end of it.

Folks, in that land that we are going to, there will be no end to the power and the majesty and the ruling and the reigning of God. And there will be no end to the peace that comes with that.

It comes from being in the presence of Almighty God. It says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. And I praise God for that. Because God is not depending upon me.

And God is not depending upon you to make all this come to be. To make all of it come to pass. The zeal of the Lord. What is that word zeal?

Folks, that's a passionate determination. That's what we're talking about here. The zeal of the Lord of hosts. The zeal of the Lord of armies.

The passionate determination of the Lord of armies. He will perform this. He's not depending upon anybody in Judah. He wasn't depending on anyone in Israel.

He wasn't depending on any past king. He wasn't depending upon any future king. He wasn't depending on Isaiah or Ezekiel or Jeremiah. He wasn't depending on John or Peter or Paul or me or you or anyone.

It will all be fulfilled because the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it. And that doesn't matter if the world goes along with it or not.

God will perform what he has said that he will perform. And he has delivered unto us a child. He has delivered a Messiah. Question for you this evening.

Have you believed on that child? Have you believed on that Christ? Have you believed on that Messiah? Have you trusted in his death? Have you trusted in his work? Have you trusted in his finished work?

In John 19 he said it is finished. The work of salvation was complete. Don't depend upon your own works. Don't depend upon church attendance. Don't depend upon anyone else's faith.

You must personally believe in Jesus Christ for your salvation. No one else can get you there outside of God. The Bible says that God is not slack concerning his promises as some men count slackness not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

It is God's will. It is God's want. It is God's desire that you come to repentance. You come to repentance of your own ways. You come to believe in the way that God has made in Jesus Christ.

You believe in that way and you will be saved as per the scripture. And I thank God for that. That's the message for this evening. God bless you all.