Born to Reign, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace.

The teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Christmas marks the great invasion. God breaking into enemy-occupied territory to rescue the enslaved race of man. Isaiah 9 tells us that Jesus would shine light upon the people who walk in darkness. This dark world is desperate for a savior. Pastor Rich unpacks Isaiah 9-6, showing us Isaiah's description of the kind of savior that would come. And what a wonderful savior he is.

Let's listen in. If you would turn in your copy of the scriptures to Isaiah chapter 9, another prophecy of Messiah, Isaiah 9. In our Advent Bible studies, we have been going through the names of Messiah, Jesus, who was born. He's the one we celebrate at Christmas time. And these are his titles. These are his names. This is what he does.

That's why we're studying this. The title of this series, this today and next week, is Born to Reign, from Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 and 7. Today, we'll look at the king. Next time, we'll look at his kingdom. Isaiah chapter 9. Look with me at verse 6. For unto us, a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness.

From this time forth and forever more, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Christmas is a season of choices. Choice is all about—it's what we're all about as Westerners, isn't it? We have so many choices. If you want to buy—for Christmas, if you want to buy a food processor, Amazon has 2,000 types.

If you want to buy a drill, there are more than 40,000 options. This is no exaggeration. I counted them.

No, I'm just kidding. Choices can be wonderful. They can be confusing. They can be empowering.

They can be overwhelming at the same time. And in the West today, this is the same thing with God. We have a choice of which God we want to worship.

There are a lot of choices out there. There's a huge array of deities to choose from, including no deity at all. Let me quote J.D.

Greer. He says, we walk through an airport or a shopping mall anywhere, and you'll be walking past countless people who believe and know God, plenty of people who believe that there are many gods, and another great multitude who believe there is one God, but who have very different thoughts on what that one God is like and what he thinks. For some, God is kind of a distant grandfather looking down benevolently and wanting us to be happy. To others, God is a harsh task master, counting up your good and bad actions and weighing up whether he's going to have mercy on you in the end. To others, God is an impersonal force that wound the universe up and is now off doing other stuff while we get on with it down here. To others, God is the universe. There are so many options to choose from.

How do you know? How can you choose, and what does it matter? Isaiah's claim was that the baby that we celebrate, the baby who would be born the first Christmas, would be Mighty God. For all that Israel needed, for all that they lacked, for all that they could never be in themselves, they had God, the Great I Am.

The Mighty God, a purifying, ever-present, shepherding, proving, healing, defending God. Let's talk about some historical context to this prophecy of Isaiah. It's about seven centuries before Christ was born. So in this particular area between the 10th and 8th centuries BC, a time frame of about 200 years, Israel was a divided kingdom. There was the northern kingdom, which was called Israel. That northern kingdom had 19 kings, not one of them was righteous. And then the southern kingdom was Judah and Benjamin. They had 20 kings, eight of them were righteous. And because Israel, the northern kingdom, had forsaken Jehovah God for false objects of trust, they became as wicked as the nations that they had displaced in the land, that God had displaced for them. 2 Kings 17 makes that clear. The Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets, so Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, and they were scattered. Now Judah was not faring all that much better. A little over a century later, Judah would be overrun by Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar.

Why? Because, as it says in 2 Chronicles, they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of God arose against his people till there was no remedy. This is the story of humanity. It's not just Israel, it's the story of humanity always looking for something to trust and satisfy us other than the one who made us.

Humans are easily led astray by luring voices and self-serving leaders. And because of that, as nations across the globe reel from one crisis to another, the Collins English Dictionary has just revealed its 2022 Word of the Year. That word is permacrisis. Permacrisis is a noun defined as, quote, an extended period of instability and insecurity, especially one resulting from a series of catastrophic events. There's a blog post on the Collins dictionary website noted that the term rings true because of the wars like the war in Ukraine, political instability, and the surge in inflation. And the blogger goes on to say the term embodies, quote, the dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another, end quote, as people wonder what new horrors might be around the corner.

Permacrisis. That's the condition of the world. And here we are today celebrating the mighty God, the one who will rule, the Prince of Peace, everlasting father. And so we get into chapter nine of Isaiah, and Isaiah tells us that the light shines upon the people who walk in darkness. And indeed, this world is a people who walk in darkness, but the light has shown. A verse that has meant so much to me recently, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6, God who said, let light shine out of darkness.

What is that? That is when God created initially, ex nihilo, God created. Let there be light. And what? And there was.

You and I can't do that. God can and God did. That same God has, as Paul says, shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God where? In the face of Jesus Christ. So as we sang in the song, the one who is the creator who made the stars and spread them out in the heavens, he was the one that was grasping his mother's breasts that night in Bethlehem. That's the one we celebrate. That's the one that God has given to us. And so we look at him, Isaiah chapter 9, let's look at verse 6 today. For to us a child is born.

A child is born. The context of darkness. And even in the first century when this happened, the darkness, it was a time of darkness. Darkness means confusion, aimlessness.

There was social, political angst because Israel was under the dominion of Rome. And they weren't the nicest people in the world. But spiritual darkness as well, because as John says, clearly the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

He is the father of lies. So it was a spiritually dark time as we see today. And then there was an obscure birth in a small town. And this birth was a gift from God. The God who came to rescue us. And this rescue is not the result of human effort.

It's not the result of a grand army. It's the result of a child that is born. It is the result of divine initiative. The God who has come to rescue and has given us his son. God has intervened.

The divine has invaded our world. And yet it wasn't in great pomp and circumstance. It wasn't in great power. It was in innocence as opposed to intrigue. And it was in humility as opposed to hubris.

It's what we see in so much of the world leadership today. So a child is born, then it says a son is given. In Homer's Odyssey, nothing is valued more highly than a worthy son. Nothing is valued more highly than a worthy son. And here we are looking at and celebrating today the only begotten son of God. The worthy son.

There's no one more worthy than he. And this is the birth of an heir. This is a momentous occasion. And a gift is given. The son is given by the tender mercies of holy God.

And the title son points out his divine nature. Let's not miss that. He's also human.

He's born human. Let's not miss that either. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.