Well, folks, take your Bibles and let's go back to the old part of the book. We're going to Isaiah again as we pick up on another installment of the prophetic words concerning our Lord's coming from the prophet Isaiah, and what a powerful and masterful and perfect portrayal we see here, that both had meaning for ancient Israel, particularly Judah in this case. We kind of just say the word Israel, but in this time, the kingdom's divided, as you'll know. Relatively little insignificant Judah, the southern kingdom made up primarily of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin. They are being threatened by the northern kingdom of Israel, the 10 tribes that broke off from the southern kingdom, the chief tribe being Ephraim.
And then the Syrians or Arameans, they're sometimes called. So the Syrians or Arameans are coming together with the northern kingdom of Israel. They're planning to march south and conquer tiny Judah and depose King Ahaz, who's king of Judah, and put up a puppet in his place. So King Ahaz of Judah and all the people of Judah, the Bible's already told us, are just shaking in terror, just trembling over this threat of these two nation armies to the north that are coming to destroy them.
And God over and over through the prophet Isaiah keeps saying to King Ahaz of Judah and saying to Judah, the southern kingdom, trust in the Lord. Do not put your hope in man. Do not put your confidence in anything else. Do not devise your clever plans.
Just trust me. And he uses some very unique ways to communicate that. Instead of some sign of a mighty, warring, conquering entity, let's say, God tells Isaiah, take your little boy that I'll give to you through your wife and name him Shear Jashab, and Shear Jashab means a remnant will return, and go show him to King Ahaz. As a matter of fact, go up there to where King Ahaz is checking out the water supply.
You know, in those days especially, you had to make sure the water supply was good because that was a major way to defeat your enemies, cut off their water. Go up there because Ahaz is pacing the floor trying to wonder what's going to happen. And go up there and say, Hey, King, have you met my boy? Shear Jashab is his name, which means a remnant shall return. And the point of that is you're not going to be destroyed.
A remnant's going to return and remain. And then a little while later, Isaiah has another baby boy, and his name is Meher or Maher-shalal-haspas. And Maher-shalal-haspas means speedy to the blunder, swift to the prey. Speedy to the plunder, swift to the prey. What he means by this is those two kings that are threatening Judah and threatening you, King Ahaz of Judah, are not going to go anywhere swiftly.
I'm going to plunder them and swiftly I'm going to destroy them. Just trust me. Don't make your own plans.
Don't devise your own creative, clever ways to do it. A lot of pastors need to hear that today about the way they pastor their churches. Stop all of this silly, culturally relevant entertainment nonsense and just get back to God's way to do it. Can I get Amen there? And God will take care of it.
My heart goes out to a lot of men. I think they're good men, but they get in my age bracket, and they've built the church on one trend after another, and they don't have anything. They're getting too old to come up with another trend. They're getting too old to be cool anymore.
But if you bid it on the right stuff, the right way, then it never gets old. Jesus never gets old, does he? But anyway, King Ahaz of Judah, the prophet says, trust the Lord. He's going to plunder those nations that are opposing you. But Ahaz has already compromised.
He thought, I've got to do something. So he went out and made an alliance with mighty Assyria. Gave them all kinds of treasures and gold and silver and basically told Tiglath-Pileser, what a name, Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria, I'll be your servant.
You just protect me from those two other kingdoms. Well, Assyria did that. They marched in, destroyed the northern kingdom, destroyed Syria, deposed their kings. But they didn't stop there. Then they turned and they marched toward Judah and almost completely destroyed tiny Judah. But God said, nope, they're my covenant people. I will not let Assyria completely destroy you, but I'm disciplining you. I am correcting you for not trusting me. And he used Assyria as his tool to do that. So now we come to this third installment.
Well, I hate it. I forgot one of the babies, did I not? Shear Jacob, may her, shall I'll hash fast? But in between that and Isaiah 7 14, you have another baby that has a lot more mystery and intrigue about him. This child we born to you, the Bible says, a virgin shall be with child, the Bible says, Isaiah 7 14, and you shall call his name Immanuel, which of course is God is with you.
And that's the basis of all of their security that God in a unique and special way was with Judah and would keep Judah and would protect Judah. But we struggle with this little baby knowing who he is. There's not much information. It's left mysterious. While Shear Jacob was a type of an Immanuel child, Shear Jacob was a message, a sign God was with Israel. May her, shall I'll hash fast the other little boy that was born. He's a sign. He's a message to Judah that, hey, God is with you.
Trust God. But this Immanuel child is different. He's not just a message. He is God with us.
That's just the way it leaves us. Even the land is called Immanuel's land. So this couldn't have been Shear Jacob and it could not have been May her, shall I'll hash fast because they didn't own the land. Only the one and true holy child, the God man Jesus Christ, could be the one who owns the land. So this points to Jesus Christ. So now we come to this section of Isaiah chapter 9 to unpack another aspect of this child motif and the way it powerfully points only to Christ.
Let's look at it together. Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7. Here we go again. Fourth time a child is referred to in these three chapters of Scripture. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. And there will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. From then on and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. So here we have a child born and not just the message that God's going to protect Judah from their immediate enemies, but a message that this little child is going to be born and he's going to be the son that God has designated to be the heir of everything. And he's going to rule all things and rule all things forever.
So here's the message. Emmanuel, God is with us. You can trust him with your eternal future. You can trust him with your eternal future. So here we have this child, this son given, and we see his conquest.
That's our first major point here, his conquest. Now subpoint A would be, notice, a child will be born to us. A child, that's in verse 6, a child will be born to us. Now again, Isaiah has been urging King Ahaz and Tiny Judah to trust in the Lord. He's reminded them through these signs of little baby boys that God is with us. You can trust God in the crisis. That was our first message. They had a crisis.
These two northern kingdoms were about to attack them. And God kept saying, trust me, trust me. And then they failed and God let Assyria march down on him as a part of their chastening or their discipline and correction.
And they thought they would be consumed. And then we had Emmanuel, God is with us. We can trust him when we fail.
What a joy that is. You know God's faithful to you when you fail. You and I fail and we're not always faithful, but when we fail, God's always faithful to us. Now thirdly, we come to this aspect where the prophet brings out a glorious truth under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit working through him. That this child will be born to us and he's a child of conquest. He is their God. The God who called them out of Ur of Chaldees through their father Abraham.
The God who made them his special elect chosen people. You know and you can go through the far realms of Arminian theology. Those who believe man has a part in saving himself. And you go into the far realms of Augustinian, Pauline or Calvinistic theology. Those that say behind it all is the perfect sovereignty of God.
He saves his elect. But whether you're on the far end of Arminian thinking or the far end of Calvinist, Augustine or Pauline thinking, it doesn't matter. Everyone agrees Israel was God's elect people. Everybody says that.
It's kind of funny. Everybody believes that when they get to the New Testament. Okay, election's off. Predestination's off. God choosing a particular, that's off. Now we believed it for the Old Testament.
Of course you have to. Abraham's in Ur of the Chaldees minding his own business. And God says, go somewhere else.
I'm going to make a great nation out of you. Abraham didn't seek God. God sought Abraham. So here we have God saying, I've chosen you. I've called you. I'm going to be faithful to you. I have a covenant with you. So you can trust me now and with your eternal future. I am for you for my own namesake. I am for you for my own glory.
Now if I could just get off on a little rabbit here just a moment. Brothers and sisters, that's how you know that the God who initiated to save you, will keep you, will save you. He may correct you. He may discipline you. But he's going to keep you because his own namesake is on the line.
His own reputation is on the line. That he finishes and completes what he starts. And that which he promises.
So God had promised tiny Judah that she would have victory over her enemies. Promised her through the signs of the baby boys. Shear Jashup, may her shell out hashpaz and the Immanuel child. And then here again, a child will be born to us. Probably reflects back on 714, the one true Immanuel child.
So here's the coming of the child agents again. But obviously, this child that is going to be born. This child that will be, the text tells us all the government will be on his shoulders. This child that will be the mighty God. This child that will be the eternal father.
This isn't may her shell out hashpaz. This isn't Shear Jashup. This is the Immanuel child.
The one true Son of God that's being prophesied here. This is the one who is the victor. He's not a sign like may her shell out hashpaz or Shear Jashup. Got him backwards. Shear Jashup comes first.
Then may her shell out hashpaz. He's not one of those two boys who are a sign of God with us and a sign of victory. He is the victory.
He is the victor. That's who Jesus Christ is. If someone promised to break the yoke of your burden, if someone promised to free you from the rod of your oppressor, you know what you're going to think naturally?
Well, this person's going to come in with greater aggression, greater strength, greater oppression than the one who's oppressing me. But that's not the way God does it. When God comes to deliver us from our yoke and our oppressor, he did not come, humanly speaking, with greater power and might. No, he comes as a meek and humble, humble baby, and a meek and humble baby who will have conquest of and conquer his foe. Jesus, you see, is the final full fulfillment of the Emmanuel child prophecy. He is the physical embodiment. He is the absolute reality of God with us. Well, Jesus became that little baby, born of the Virgin Mary, and the promise of victory over our enemies was sealed.
Sin, Satan, death and hell are all conquered in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Virgin and the child of Isaiah 7-14, a virgin will be with child, and you'll call his name Immanuel. They are types of Mary and types of Jesus. They're to point to. They're to be a foreshadowing.
They're a picture of the reality that would come one day through Mary and Jesus themselves. Now, back to our historical context here. We have King Ahaz of Judah and Judah themselves saying over and over and over, all the prophet Isaiah tells us about are little babies. And I'm facing this horrid, marching torrent of an enemy. I had the northern kingdom against me. I had Syria against me. And then a little bit later, I had the mighty Assyrians themselves, the greatest fighting force of the ancient world coming to destroy me. And all Isaiah gives me is this little baby.
A child will be born. Perhaps if God sent some sort of outward military might, maybe even a great angel from heaven. You know, the Bible tells us in one night, one angel from heaven came down and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. We don't see a mighty soldier.
We don't see a mighty angel. We see a virgin mother, Isaiah 7-14. We see a baby being born called Immanuel. We see, verse 6 of chapter 9, a child being born to us.
A son is given. That's the way God sends his victory. He doesn't do things our way, does he?
You have to have faith. He's not like us. He's infinitely superior to us. So Jesus comes to us as a tiny baby, not a warring soldier, not a political giant. And man still to this day, just like King Ahaz of old, has a hard time resting his trust in that provision of God. Let me remind you again of Isaiah 55-9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. A child will be given to us, and he's the conqueror. He will make conquest of our enemies for time and for all the eternal future. Then we go a little further.
Notice the next phrase here. A son will be given to us, verse 6, chapter 9. A child will be born to us, then a son will be given. Now we move now from just the simple child motif to the life and work of Jesus Christ and the future reign of Jesus Christ. His victorious conquest is seen that when God says, Oh, there's so much that we can unpack here, and I want to be careful because our time is limited, but so much we can unpack here as God made man to be the monarch of the earth, to rule and reign on earth under and according to God's righteousness and for God's glory.
But as mankind has reigned on the earth, they have failed and not ruled and reigned in righteousness and not ruled and reigned for God's glory, but for their own glory. So you know what God says? I have to send my own boy down there to get this straightened out. I'm going to give you the son. You know how kings have sons that take over the kingdom? Well, here God says, it's my kingdom anyway. It all belongs to me.
I'm going to send my son to get things straightened back out. He will be the human man who will actually rule in righteousness. He will be the human, the man who actually lead for my own glory and exaltation.
Well, men don't look at it that way. We look for something strong and mighty and powerful and to mankind when Jesus walked the earth, he seemed to grossly disqualify for any real saving effect or saving power. He was falsely accused. He was rejected. He was nailed to a rugged cross. He had a spear plunged into his side and a brutal crown of those long Judean thorns pressed into his head and mockery and abuse. He was the picture of shame, humiliation and weakness as far as men were concerned. But that's the way he was gaining his victory.
That's the way he was gaining his conquest. You see, because men, naturally speaking, know not the wisdom of God, for in that selfless, humble, meek and serving act of the cross, he was taking our place and on that cross completely vanquished his enemies and our enemies. That's the son that was given and not just given to us, but given on the cross for us. Sin and Satan and death and hell are conquered in Christ, who came first as this meek, seemingly, from man's perspective, weak little baby.
Listen to how 2 Corinthians 13, 4 sheds a little light on this. For indeed he was crucified because of our weakness, yet he lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in him. In other words, we come to recognize that we are weak and have no ability, but we look to him to be our strength. We come to recognize that we are weak in him and we shall live with him because of the power of God directed toward you.
1 Corinthians 1.25, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. So he has devastated and demolished his enemies and our enemies, but he did it by coming in meekness, and he did so by coming in humility. So just think what it's going to be like in the unveiling, the revelation of Jesus, when he comes again in all power, might, and authority.
My, my, my. Read Revelation. You'll see it. Back to our historical context. Here's King Ahaz of Judah, shaking in his boots.
He did not have the wisdom to place faith in God's promise through a little child. So he made an alliance with mighty Assyria, looked like it was working. Then Assyria turns on him. So it is with modern man. Everything you put your hope in other than God is going to turn on you to devour you.
I mean, there's Assyria everywhere out there. Trust this politician. Trust this political party. Trust this wisdom. Trust this teacher. Trust this advisor.
Trust the science. On and on we could go. All of these Assyrias. Jesus made the conquest to the throne of the universe through what the world would call weakness.
A child born to us and a son given to us. That's the way he made conquest. But let's expand this further. He makes the conquest. He's coming to rule and reign. Now let's notice his character. We've seen his conquest and how he did it, but now his character. How powerfully this unfolds. And we are affirmed anew without any shadow of doubt that as you look at the description of the character of this child, this son given to us, this can be no one other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
No one. Shear Jaseh, the little boy Isaiah had, is assigned to King Ahaz and Judah. Mehershalal-Haspas, the other little boy that God allowed Isaiah to have through his wife was another message.
But they in no way, shape, or fashion come close to filling up to the character traits that God says this special child will have. So first of all, notice A in our outline. The government will rest upon his shoulders. Again, God made man to rule the earth. Did you know that? We have dominion over the earth. And have you noticed how Satan, and boy it's really accelerated in recent years, has warped that perspective to where plants and trees and animals now have about equal rights with mankind. That's unbiblical.
God didn't make that part of creation to rule over the rest of creation. He made man to rule over creation. And God saw that man has failed in that rulership.
Man has miserably failed. So God said, I'm sending a son. I'm going to give you a son and that son will be one who will take over all the government of all the world.
That day's coming. And he will rule the earth in righteousness and for the glory of God. In all the ways that men failed, he will succeed and in perfection. Now Satan has controlled this world up until the time Jesus returns. That's why the Bible says Satan is God of this world, 2 Corinthians 4.
That's why the Bible says in Revelation 12, 9, Satan deceives the whole world. That God says, I'm sending my son and he will set everything right. God sending Jesus to rule over the earth is a powerful picture. Matter of fact, in ancient days, the king and his responsibility are maybe an official who had an office with the king would have an insignia on his shoulder that spoke of his office and what he was responsible for.
So the shoulder was a significant emphasis, if you will, in who you were ruling or what your responsibility in leadership was in the government. And so the Bible just says all the world and all the leadership of all the world would be placed on his shoulder. I mean, if you looked at the shoulder of Jesus and looked at what his office oversees, it would say everything.
Might have him in some points, earth, heaven, the universe, angels, just go all through it all. He's king of everything. It's all going to be on him. And by the way, he's adequate for the job.
He's perfect for the job. He's the son God gives. Where all of man has failed, he will succeed in perfection. All the elements of government resting on him and he will rule, not harshly, not aggressively, not oppressively like so many before him.
They, you see, ruled out of their weakness, out of their fallenness. But when he sets up his kingdom, all past judgments will be eliminated and all that will be left in his rule is love and peace and wisdom for all the earth's inhabitants. He will vindicate earth from the misuse of sinful and fallen man and he will rule in righteousness and for God's glory. Exodus 19-5 reminds us that all the earth is mine, God says. Psalm 50 verse 42 says, the world is mine and all it contains and I'm sending my son back to reclaim it. So again, not with an attitude and a viciousness, but with a meekness and a love and a humility. And his kingdom will be such as he rules with all of it on his shoulders that men will have neither the attitude to oppose him or the audacity to try. His infinite wisdom is far above merely human wisdom and people then will call him, our second point, a wonder of a counselor.
A wonderful counselor. In other words, every time he makes a decision, all the inhabitants of the world at that day will say, couldn't be more perfect, couldn't be more precisely what we need. How many times have you watched your president speak on TV or somewhere or on the internet somewhere and say to yourself, that man's crazy. We had Pam's daddy in the doctor when he was starting to lose some of his cognition and the doctor was talking to him and he said, do you know who the president is? And Clifford said, I don't remember, but he's a nut.
Well, you know what? Clifford was right. He didn't have all of his mind, but he was on track there.
But when Jesus is ruling, every moment of every day and every decision, we will fall down with joyous gratitude. What a wonderful, wise counselor he is. How perfect his decisions are.
Can you imagine such a thing, folks? He's the son that's coming. He's a wonder of a counselor. He's an efficient planner and every plan will be such a marvel. We'll just have to say he's a wonder of a counselor. Matter of fact, folks, everything about Jesus is a wonder.
Everything about him. Well, we got to hurry on. He's the mighty God. That's what he says. Continue on there.
And let's see. Yeah, middle part of verse six. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor and then Mighty God. So he's the son.
He's the child. He's the son of God, but he is God the Son. The idea here is every part of his perfect wisdom, by which he makes decisions, he's fully able with the power and the authority to carry it out to fruition. He lacks no strength, no power, no authority. He lacks no ability to administrate the divine wisdom that he possesses in his heart and in his mind. What he devises, he is well able to achieve.
And then D, he's the eternal father. You and I probably don't appreciate the wisdom of this. Maybe we do to some degree, but even when Israel had a good king, there was always that fear.
There was always that insecurity. What happens when he dies? I mean, the kings in those days had absolute authority.
So you are greatly dependent upon what kind of king you had. But Jesus never dies. He never diminishes. He never gets dementia. He never deteriorates. He never gets weak.
He never grows tired. He's the eternal father. It's been a kind of a characteristic through the ages that a king or a leader might refer to themselves as the father of the people. Well, Jesus will be that precious, loving, good, wise, all-powerful, all-knowing father, and he will never, ever, ever change, and he will never be deposed from his throne. The eternal father. Daniel 7, 13 and 14 tells us, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man, that's Jesus, and he came up to the ancient of days, that's the heavenly father, and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the people's nations and men of every language might serve him. His dominion, here it is, is an everlasting dominion. Same idea as Isaiah 9, 6. He's an everlasting father, and it will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
I think the word father is used there because he has such a kind and caring and considerate, paternal, familial spirit toward his people as he rules them and leads them. Oh, come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. Then he's the prince of peace, the Bible tells us, middle part of verse 6. Now peace here has a rich connotation, and it's spiritual peace that he gives us, but even more than that, it's a physical peace that he will impose over all that is. His enduring kingdom, rather, will be one of love and one of peace. Jesus came in peace. He walked and lived among us in peace. He conquered his enemies in peace, and he will establish his earthly kingdom in peace. It's not just a brutal squashing of all defiance, but a triumphant vulnerability that makes defiance pointless. There's a sense in which Christ rules with a meekness that causes all under his rule to never even think about defiance against him.
Only he could master such a thing. Of course, because of the peace that he ushers in between God and man, this will then usher in a peace between man and man. If you want to be at peace with somebody, make sure they get at peace with God.
Peace with God comes first, and then peace man to man. He continues on in verse 7, and there will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace. It just gets better the longer you're there under the rule of this son, under the rule of this child born to us, this son given to us.
The more you're there, the better it gets. The more peace, the more love, the more joy increases and increases. Matter of fact, in his kingdom, you can't say the end. Well, this is the end of that because there is no end.
It'll last forever. Look, Jesus is not one of many kings. Jesus is the king of kings. Jesus is the final king. This says he'll be on the throne of David. The idea that God has kept his covenant promise that he would bring the promised Messiah, the Savior, even Jesus of the lineage of David, and through both Mary and Joseph, Jesus was born, humanly speaking, of the lineage of David. Like David, he will be a victorious king and a greatly loved and admired king, but unlike David, he'll never sin.
He'll never fail. Then he says in verse 7, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness. Now, here's a vivid contrast between the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and all other kingdoms. His kingdom will be not like any we've ever known.
Other kingdoms gained their rule through brutish force. His kingdom in all aspects will flourish under divine justice and righteousness. He's the one, the only true righteous king. Just be transparent with you. I have struggled a lot with how can you get, how can you come up with a concise, accurate definition of righteousness?
And here's the closest I think I've ever come to, just in a concise way. Justice is dealing with your relationships, or rather, righteousness is dealing with your relationships according to true justice. You justly deal with others in your relationships, and that's what Jesus will do. He will come, and he will rule in a perfectly just way on earth. No side deals, no under-the-table things, no scheming and manipulating out of selfish motives, but true and perfect justice will govern every decision he makes. He's the righteous king.
He will only do that with just fully right, fully good, and fully just. If I could elaborate here on righteousness just for a moment, as I've told you many times before, God has three aspects of righteousness, if you will. There's mandatory righteousness, which God by his very nature must mandate his creatures be righteous. God cannot say you can be less than righteous, and that's okay, he can't do that because that would be a violation of his very being, so he has mandatory righteousness. Secondly, he has punitive righteousness, which means according to his very character and nature, which cannot change, he must judge and punish all unrighteousness.
Mandatory righteousness, and then punitive righteousness. But he desires the people. He desires a kingdom of people. He desires a people who can be close to him, and he can be close to them. He desires a people who are like him and can share his glory, so that's why God has a third aspect, and that is redemptive righteousness. He fulfills all aspects of divine justice in making you and I righteous in his sight. Redemptive righteousness. So Jesus comes back.
Now listen to me. Having in his own person and in his own work fulfilled all mandates of righteousness. He fulfilled all the punitive elements of his righteousness, and when he hung on the cross, punitively the weight and the judgment and the cost was laid on him for us.
So Satan cannot rise up and say, you're unjust, Jesus. You're violating your own righteousness and taking all those sinners into your kingdom. Jesus can say, did you see me on the cross?
There. I paid the penalty. The punitive righteousness my Holy Father demands was put on me, and I have exonerated them. And therefore we now walk in redemptive righteousness. No one, nowhere, at no time can bring one accusation against us because our Lord and Savior has caused us to be righteous in the eyes of God the Father. No wonder 1 John 2-11 says, he's Jesus Christ the righteous. And that's the way he comes. He comes in this kingdom with justice and righteousness. That's what upholds it.
That's what it's established upon. And then the last phrase here, and we're done. Last phrase of our text. The zeal, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. In his unquenchable zeal, he came to us. In his unquenchable zeal, he went to the cross for us. In his unquenchable zeal, he died for us. He was buried for us.
He rose for us. In his unquenchable zeal, he's ascended to heaven for us and intercedes for us at the right hand of God the Father. His zeal has accomplished this. It's God's passionate desire to establish a kingdom with his precious children, a kingdom of justice, righteousness, peace, and love. And he accomplishes it out of his own passion and zeal. Knowing the passion of his heart is to build a kingdom, a kingdom for us that is in every way infinitely superior to anything we know now.
Our question would be this Christmas, why get so attached to the kingdoms down here? So as we celebrate Christmas this year, Jesus didn't come, and here's what the liberals do wrong. They'll take the story of Jesus and take their own fallen subjective viewpoint and make the birth of Jesus mean about anything in the world they want it to mean.
That's blasphemy. This book tells us what that birth means. And powerfully and wonderfully, this book tells us in Isaiah 9, 6, and 7, he's the child given to us, child rather born to us, and he's the son given to us. And it don't end at the cradle. It doesn't end at the livestock feed trough where he was laid. He's coming again to be ruler and king and Lord forever. That's the Christmas story. That's the Christmas message.
