Isaiah’s Gospel

Transcript

GRM 944
12/25/2006
Isaiah’s Gospel
Isaiah 1-11
Gil Rugh


I want to turn our attention for a time this morning to the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. And that’s one of those books along with Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, right about the middle. So if you open your Bible to the middle, chances are you might hit Isaiah. It’s after Psalms, but it’s before Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Isaiah is usually considered the greatest of the writing prophets. Most would say Elijah would probably have the honor of being considered the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. We’re not going to get into a discussion or a debate over that, but there’s no doubt among the writing prophets. Elijah did not write any of the books in our Old Testament, but Isaiah has written perhaps the greatest prophetic book in the Old Testament. He’s often called the evangelical prophet, because so much of the message of the gospel is contained. Remember many, many years ago reading a little writing called The Gospel According to Isaiah, and Isaiah talks about sin. He talks about the birth of the Savior, he talks about the suffering and death of the Savior, he talks about the reign of glory of the Savior who is the Messiah of Israel. A marvelous message by this great prophet. And you know we know almost nothing about his personal life. That’s true of Jeremiah to a large extent, true of Ezekiel to a large extent. They are famous in the realm of God’s people because God used them as His mouthpiece.

And for Isaiah it’s true like the other prophets of the Old Testament. He had a glorious ministry, and we praise God today centuries after his ministry for that ministry, and it continues to impact us and bear fruit in our lives. But you know Isaiah wrote in very difficult times, as did the other prophets who came to represent God. In fact Jesus said, which of the prophets were not persecuted? It was the universal characteristic of the prophets that they came to address God’s people in difficult times, in times of spiritual decay and decadence. And they were not well received among God’s people. Remarkable, isn’t it, that we talk about the greatness of Isaiah’s ministry and message, but it was not a message well received in the day in which he gave it.

Isaiah prophesied over a long period of time, from probably about 760 B.C. down to about 680 B.C. We’ll just talk about 700 to keep things simple. So he’s about 700 years before Christ with his ministry, and yet he’s going to give some of the clearest, most detailed information regarding Christ that we have in the Bible, because he does not originate his ministry. He is simply a man speaking as he was moved by the Spirit of God, who put the message in his mind and in his mouth, and directed him in the writing of it so that God’s Word could be preserved for us.

Start out with Isaiah 1, and we’re going to highlight several passages and then look just a little more at one of those passages. I mentioned that Isaiah carried on his ministry in a time of spiritual decline in Israel, particularly in Judah, the southern kingdom will be the focus of his ministry. Israel is divided now into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom, happened under Solomon’s son, you remember. Isaiah’s ministry will cross the time when the northern kingdom will cease to exist as a kingdom. Remember we said that Isaiah carried on his ministry from about 760 B.C. to about 680 B.C. And within that period, around 721 or 722 B.C. the northern kingdom would be carried into captivity by the Assyrians. And something of those events are in the background of much of Isaiah’s writing. The northern kingdom will be carried into captivity because of their sin and ongoing rebellion against God, and that becomes a warning to the southern kingdom, Judah, and the capital there, Jerusalem. And that’s where Isaiah will focus his ministry.

Look at Isaiah 2:1, the word which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. The bulk of his ministry is directed, now he will have something to say about the northern kingdom. He will have something to say specifically about a number of the nations of the earth, but his ministry centers in Judah and Jerusalem. Chapter 1 shows you something of the spiritual condition of God’s people. And the long ministry of Isaiah is laid out for us in verse 1, and the kings that ruled in Judah during his ministry. And then you have the tragedy, verse 2, listen oh heavens, hear oh earth, for the Lord speaks. Pay attention, God is talking. Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against me. An ox knows its owner, a donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Something that you see among the animals, they know where they belong, they know their master, they respond to his call. But my people Israel, no response. Ongoing rebellion.

Alas sinful nation, people weighted down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly. They have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him. Is it any wonder Isaiah was not very popular? He didn’t come to build up the self-esteem and tell them how wonderful they are and no one is perfect, and you have to learn to love yourself. He came to tell them something drastically wrong. You are guilty before the Lord, you have despised Him, you have turned away from Him. You love your sin, you do not love Him. In fact He’ll compare them to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Look at verse 10, hear the Word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the instruction of God, you people of Gomorrah. I mean how more direct can you be? Sodom and Gomorrah have not been in existence for some 1300 years, God had destroyed them back in the days of Abraham. But they are infamous for their wickedness. And here Isaiah addressed the people of God, the nation of Israel, and He calls them Sodom and He calls them Gomorrah. That’s how God sees your character, sees your conduct. Remarkable, the decadence. And yet there’ll be a gracious invitation in verse 18, come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. What a verse, in such a context. Such people, so horribly wicked and decadent that he could address them as Sodom and Gomorrah, and yet it can all be washed away and you can be clean, you can be forgiven. Any wonder we love Isaiah today? To know that the worst of our sin can be washed away, and God graciously holds Himself out to those who have rejected Him, those who have despised Him, those who have revolted against Him and says I would love to cleanse you and make you clean.

Israel will not accept the message. The northern kingdom will go into captivity. The southern kingdom will continue its rebellion and long about 586 B.C. they will be carried away by the Babylonians, and the nation lives, dominated by the Gentiles right down to our day, under the judgment of God for their sin and rebellion. But you know God is not done with Israel.

Turn to Isaiah 2:2, we already read verse 1, now it will come about in the last days, and those last days are yet before us as it becomes clear in this prophesy. In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. Will be raised above the hills and all the nations will stream to it. The exaltation of Israel, and particularly Jerusalem, the capital of the nation, will rule over all the kingdoms and all the nations, be the chief of the mountains. A mountains depicts in symbolic form a kingdom. All the nations will stream to it. There is coming a time when Jerusalem will be the capital of the world and all the nations of the world will journey to Jerusalem. Many peoples will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. And Jerusalem on Mt. Moriah, exalted above all. To the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His way, that we may walk in His paths. For the law will go forth from Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples. And they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. In spite of the fact they put that on the United Nations’ building, that cannot happen until Jesus Christ reigns in Jerusalem. And He is sovereign over all. That is a promise, a prophecy yet to be fulfilled that Isaiah lays out so clearly, so distinctly.

Turn over to Isaiah 9. Go to chapter 11, we’ll come back to chapter 9. Chapter 11. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And here we’re reminded the nation Israel, if you will, is going to be cut down like you cut a tree down. But you’ve experienced this. You cut a tree down but you don’t take the stump out, pretty soon with the passing of time you may see a shoot coming out and the tree is growing again. And out of Jesse will come the Messiah. Jesse was the father of David. Remember the Messiah of Israel will sit on the Davidic throne as the descendent of David, whose father was Jesse. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. When Jesus Christ was born, here was the One with this wisdom, this knowledge who could fitly rule, but He was rejected. And in some of Isaiah’s prophecies you would expect some of it would pertain to the first coming of Christ, some of it would pertain to the Second Coming of Christ. Christ came the first time 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, He will come again to rule and to reign.

He will delight in the fear of the Lord, He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear. But with righteousness He will judge the poor, decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be the belt about His loins and faithfulness the belt about His waist. You see that one described in verse 2 will rule with might and power and absolute authority when He sits enthroned in Jerusalem.

The characteristics of His kingdom? Well remember we read in chapter 2 they won’t learn war anymore, there will not be fighting among the nations any longer because the Prince of Peace will reign. And in the animal world there will be complete peace. So verse 6, the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. A little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play on the hole of the cobra, the waned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, in all of His holy kingdom which encompasses all the earth. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Now I trust you are alert enough on this Christmas morning to know this is not the present condition in our world. We’re not even close. In fact it seems like we’re going backwards, and we are, because we will hit the lowest point before Jesus comes. In the 7 years prior to His return to the earth we will have what is known as the tribulation.

In that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and His resting place will be glorious, and so on. And we could go through Isaiah and see unfolded this promise of the reign of the Messiah. In chapter 34 where the desert will bloom like the crocus, we have glory encompassing the earth with the presence of the Son of God again on earth. But not walking in humility, despised and rejected, but reigning in glory.

Go back to Isaiah 7, let me just read you a verse in Isaiah 5:24, the last part, they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, they have despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel. And you have the glorious testimony of Isaiah’s conversion and induction into ministry in chapter 6. Chapter 8, Israel, the ones who have rejected God, have revolted against Him, have despised Him, have rejected His Word, have filled the void that is left by gods of their own making. And they worship the demons. And so in Isaiah 8:19, when they say to you consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony, which is the Word of God as the had it. If they do not speak according to this word it is because they have no dawn. They have no light, they live in spiritual darkness. Verse 22, then they will look to the earth, behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. They will be driven away in the darkness, but there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulon, the land of Naphthali with contempt. But later on He shall make it glorious by the way of the sea and the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. Here we are told of the coming of the Messiah to earth. We have the land of darkness (we’re coming back to Isaiah 14, it wasn’t a wasted page), lives in darkness, they live in gloom. When Christ came He brought light. Remember we looked at the gospel of John for those who weren’t here for our previous study. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. And He was the light in the darkness, but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. When Christ was born, carried on His ministry in Galilee, He was a light.

You can look at Isaiah 7:14, therefore the Lord will give you a sign. Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son and she will call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. Immanuel, God with us. The virgin will bear a child. And we’re well familiar with this as Matthew unfolds it particularly in the first chapter of his gospel, as the angel told Joseph of what would take place. This was a sign. The context here is Isaiah is addressing the king, Ahaz, and he told Ahaz to ask for a sign. There is a conflict. The king of Israel, the northern kingdom, and the king of Syria wanted the southern kingdom to join them to fight against the Assyrians, because the Assyrians are bringing pressure. Rather than do that the king of Judah decided he would seek an alliance with Assyria. Disastrous. He invited the camel into the tent. And he does. And in the plan of God, the Assyrians storm ultimately into Israel and carry the 10 tribes of the north into captivity. Israel learns no lessons. Isaiah will tell them, you ought to learn a lesson. They don’t learn a lesson. The prophets will tell them, you ought to learn a lesson. They don’t learn a lesson.

And in this context God says He will give a sign. And here is how He is going to send the Savior, the Deliverer, the Messiah to the earth—through the virgin birth. The One who sits enthroned in glory, we didn’t take the time to read Isaiah’s account of his own induction into the prophetic office in chapter 6. It was in the context remember where he said, I saw the Lord, lofty and exalted, sitting on a throne and the train of His robe filled the temple. And the seraphim were crying, holy, holy, holy. And in John 12:41 the Spirit of God directs John to write, Isaiah wrote about that when he saw the glory of Christ. Remarkable. That one enthroned in glory, chapter 6, now will be born of a virgin so that He can be the God/Man prepared in such a special supernatural way to be the judge of all men, to be the ruler of all creation.

When you come to chapter 9 we read when Christ was born of the virgin, then in chapter 9, He will come into His public ministry and those in the greatest darkness will see the greatest light. And the Galilean, as we refer to Him sometimes, songs are sung of Him this way, brings light to those in darkness. Verse 6, for a child will be born to us. How can this happen? How can we go from the depths of sin, the depths of spiritual darkness to light? Well a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. That’s what we read about in Isaiah 7:14, the virgin will conceive and bear a son and you will call his name Immanuel, God with us, God with us in a fuller and greater way than even Isaiah could have grasped at that time. And it would literally be God in human flesh, so that Paul would write to the Colossians in Colossians 2, all the fullness of deity dwelt in Him in bodily form. Amazing, remarkable.

A child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, the government will rest on His shoulders. He is born to be king, and of course He is suited in every way to be the King of Kinds and Lord of Lords. So we go on to see the names given to Him—four names that describe Him, His character and, if you will, His qualifications to be King. But He hasn’t been King. Well, He had to suffer and die so that there would be people redeemed by God’s grace through faith in God’s Son and would be prepared to receive Him when He comes to rule and reign in glory.

The government will rest on His shoulders. Turn back to Luke 2:11 (don’t lose Isaiah, we’re coming back). The angel announces the birth of Christ in Bethlehem to the shepherds in the fields and says to them in verse 11, for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord—the long-promised anointed Messiah, the sovereign God. Look further on in chapter 2. The angels join in celebrating the birth of Christ. Verse 31, you have your events in the temple a little further down now, shortly after the birth of Christ, in verse 31 you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. See that theme of the One who brings light, spiritual revelation and knowledge, not only for Israel, but for Gentiles. And most of us celebrate and glory in that truth, because most of us are Gentiles here. And Jesus Christ came to be not only the Savior of Israel, but the Savior of the Gentiles. Back in Luke 1, in connection, we don’t have time to read all this, with the birth of John the Baptist, Zacharias was told that John the Baptist, his son, would come to prepare the way for the coming of the One who would be the King of Israel.

Come back to Isaiah 9, the government will be upon His shoulders. He will reign. I want to just look at these names with you, briefly. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor. And we’re familiar with this from the Messiah and our King James Bible takes it as two names—Wonderful, Counselor—and then the rest of them as pairs. But most are agreed today that it’s a description that should go together, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Either way you’re going to come to the same place, basically, because He is Wonderful and He’s a Counselor. Taken together He is indeed a Wonderful Counselor. It speaks of His ability, He has the wisdom to rule and to reign. Wonderful means that which goes beyond the normal. He is supernatural, He is the wonder of God. In Judges 13, we don’t have time to turn there, the father of Gideon confronts the Angel of the Lord, and then he asks Him, what is your name, why do you ask my name seeing it is Wonderful? It goes beyond comprehension, goes beyond human understanding. Jesus Christ is the Wonderful Counselor, He is the one who has all wisdom.

Look at Isaiah 28:29, this also comes from the Lord of hosts who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great. I mean where could we go but to the Lord? He is the Wonderful Counselor, He is the one who knows all, He is the one who rules and when He rules over this earth He will rule in righteousness and faithfulness, with perfect understanding. But you understand in His character, this is what He is today, that’s what He was when He was born at Bethlehem—the Wonderful Counselor. Isaiah 40:13 is quoted in Romans 11:33ff. Who has been the adviser of the Lord? Who has given Him counsel? Nobody, because He is the One who’s wiser above all. How sad that puny man thinks he is wiser than God, that he knows more than God. How pathetically sad that the people of God, rather than turning to their God and seeking His wonderful counsel, find themselves scurrying to puny man for insights and advice and understanding for their lives. How do I go to the Lord?

Turn over to Psalm 119, that’s just back a little bit in front of Isaiah in your Bibles, not too far in front. Psalm 119, great chapter on the Word of God. Psalm 119:24, and note the context here. Verse 23, even though princes sit and talk against me, your servant meditates on your statutes. The great men of the world don’t influence me, the Word of God. Your testimonies are my delight. That’s the Word of God. They’re my counselors, because when I turn to the Word of God I am turning to what He has said, the One who is the Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God. The One who has all wisdom. That’s why the book of Colossians 2:3 we are told that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That’s why Peter told us that in Christ we have been given everything necessary for life and godliness. Do you really believe that Jesus Christ is the Wonderful Counselor? Have you found Him to be so? The pressures of life, the disappointments, the discouragements, the heartaches, the good times, the blessings. Where do I go, where do I turn? Oh what will I do? Where will I go? What about to the Wonderful Counselor? And we have His promise that He’ll never leave us nor forsake us. I may be without family, I may be without friends, I may have no one to turn to in the world, but I have the Wonderful Counselor, the One whose counsel, whose wisdom is beyond understanding and comprehension. It is wonderful, and in Him I have everything.

Come back to Isaiah 9. What a world this will be when the Wonderful Counselor, the One with all wisdom sits enthroned in glory in Jerusalem and reigns over the earth. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God, Mighty God. This is a clear declaration of Messiah’s deity. In Isaiah 10:21, a remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the Mighty God, to the Might God, El Gabor, the Mighty God. This One who will be born of the virgin is the One described in Isaiah 6, the One before whom the seraphim of heaven bowed and proclaimed, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. He’s been born of a virgin in Bethlehem. He’s the One that Micah 5 said dwelt in eternity. He’s the One through whom all things came into existence, John 1 tells us. Colossians 1, and apart from Him nothing has come into existence that exists. He is the Mighty God. That’s why Isaiah 7:14 says, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call His name God with us, Immanuel, because literally He will be God in the flesh.

Can you imagine how overwhelmed Isaiah must have been with this truth that God was giving through him? We are overwhelmed by it now as we have the completed account. He’s writing 700 years before the events would unfold, and a baby is going to be born, born of a virgin. He’s going to be the Mighty God, He’s going to be Immanuel, He’s going to reign in glory and all will bow before Him. But I’m going to have to write yet about, He’s going to suffer and die and be rejected and scorned and unloved. What a story, what truth.

We’re remembering the One born at Bethlehem is Immanuel, He is the Mighty God, He’s the Eternal Father. … a little bit surprising to find He was God the Son and then there was God the Father. Now we have Jesus Christ being the Eternal Father. Eternally a Father. But we’re not describing Christ in His relationship within the trinity, we’re describing Christ here and the names are descriptive of Him and His relationship to His people. And He is the One who has functioned eternally as a Father to His people. He is deity, as God the Father is deity, as God the Spirit is deity. And in that sense they manifest and carry the same quality, and as the Messiah of Israel in particular, and then the King of all nations. He is eternally a Father, and He is that to us. He is the One who invites, come to Me all you who labor and are heavyladen, and I will give you rest. You’ll find rest for your soul, as Matthew told us. That caring Father, the One who sees to all of our needs, the One who would have us to cast all our care upon Him because He cares for us. We understand that concept of a Father who lovingly cares for, provides for, meets the needs of His precious children. He is eternally a Father. This One who will rule and reign and have a rod of iron and crush His enemies, is to those who belong to Him, eternally a Father. The One who is the Wonderful Counselor is the Eternal Father to His people. And that wise counsel, and in the context of His loving care to us as His children.

Psalm 103:13 says, just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on them that fear Him. He is a compassionate Father. When He rules over the earth, that will be His character to His people. But that is who He is today to those of us who know Him and love Him and belong to Him.

He is the Prince of Peace. He will set up a kingdom of peace. He will rule the earth in peace. We read, there will be no wars on the earth. There will not even be any animosity between the animals. All will be peace, because the King of Peace, the Prince of Peace will rule and reign. He doesn’t rule and reign on the earth today, and there is no peace on the earth. As we are here, there are people dying in war. There are people being murdered in our own city. There are all kinds of terrible things going on—there is no peace on earth. But someday there will be. You see He is the Prince of Peace beyond what Israel understood. They would not have Him to be their King, because they were only looking for the physical benefits. They failed to appreciate they needed the spiritual life that only He could give. Because we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have the peace of God that stands guard at our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Philippians 4 notes.

God provided His Son to be the Savior so that we could be cleansed and forgiven, remember Isaiah 1:18? The scarlet crimson sins have become white as snow, white like wool. And now the peace of God has been brought into our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And even though we live in a world of turmoil, and in the world we have tribulations, as Jesus assured us. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Nothing disturbs the tranquility that the Prince of Peace has brought to my heart. And I anticipate the time when the Prince of Peace will rule and reign in glory. And because I have been redeemed by His grace, I will rule and reign with Him.

Turn over if you will to Isaiah 53 and we are done with the reading of this passage. This is probably the high point of all Old Testament prophecies, because of its clarity in unfolding that the one that Isaiah has written about and will write about yet in chapters after this, is destined to reign in glory, is going to suffer and die. Isaiah 52:13, behold my Servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so His appearance was marred more than any man, His form more than the sons of men. We’ll jump down to Isaiah 53, who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, like a root out of a parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. The One who will rule and reign in glory in Jerusalem and all the nations will come to learn from Him, and He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised. We did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, our sorrows He carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

Remarkable, isn’t it. And the passage goes on, down in verse 11, that this righteous One will justify the many, He will bear their sin. He bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. The baby born of a virgin in Bethlehem, the One appointed to rule and reign in glory over all the earth. But in the sovereign plan of God, first He must be despised and rejected, crucified on a cross. And those who crucified Him thought it was just punishment, it was really God punishing Him, and yet it was. God punishing Him as the sin bearer. He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, II Corinthians 5 says. What a beautiful plan of salvation, and the last chapter has not yet unfolded. It has been written, but we have not yet been privileged to live it. But you can be sure just as we are celebrating the first coming of Christ, there is a day when in the glory of God’s presence the redeemed will celebrate the Second Coming of God’s presence. That’s the exciting story of Jesus Christ.

Do you know Him as your Savior? Are you like Israel that revolved, that rebelled, that would not have this one be King over them? Or have you come to understand and truly believe that this is the Son of God. I don’t understand all the details of all that has happened, but I know He died to pay the penalty for my sin. I know that God’s promises are sure and true, that if I place my faith in Him, He will forgive me, He will cleanse me, He will make me whiter than snow. And I will experience the reality in my life of this one who is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the Prince of Peace. And I live with the hope and knowledge that He is coming again and will some day rule and reign and all the earth will bow before Him.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Father, that hundreds of years before your Son came to earth you unfolded through the prophet Isaiah the glorious truths of your plan of redemption. How sad that the people of Isaiah’s day turned hard hearts to his message. How sad that people today would refuse the cleansing from sin that you have provided in your Son. Lord, we thank you for such a wonderful Savior. It is our privilege to honor Him, to worship Him. And our desire is that in all of our activities of this day we would rejoice knowing that the One born in Bethlehem is the Savior who loved us and died for us. And we pray in His name, amen.