Wonderful Counselor (Part 3 of 3)

One of the names given to the anticipated Messiah in the Bible is a wonderful counselor.

But what exactly does that mean, and why does it matter? We'll hear the answers today on Truth for Life as we continue a series titled, A Child Is Born. Here's Alistair Begg teaching from the book of Isaiah. We're in chapter 9 verse 6. Two questions. One is, what does this mean?

And the other question is, why does this matter? Now, we'll be helped by turning back in our Bibles to the Psalms and to Psalm 78, simply because of the adjective wonderful. In the original, it's not an adjective. It's an abstract.

It's made an adjective in our English version in order to help us. And in Psalm 78, the men of Ephraim in verse 9, though they were armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle. Why? Well, they didn't keep God's covenant, and they refused to live by his law. Is there a reason why that happened? Apparently, verse 11, they forgot what God had done. Well, like what? Well, the wonders he had shown, the miracles in the sight of their fathers. And then he goes on to delineate the nature of these wonders—the dividing of the sea, the water stacked up like a wall made firm, the cloud pillar, and the fiery pillar, and the rocks being split in verse 15 and giving them water as abundant as the seas.

They forgot the wonders he had shown them. You remember in the sixties we had a song, Who took fish and bread, lonely people fed? Who turned water into wine? Who made well the sick? Who made sea the blind? Who torched earth with feet divine? And the refrain was, Only Jesus, only Jesus.

Why? Because he is this wonder counselor. Now, the Jewish mind, you see, was looking for the fulfillment of all the messianic promises. And when Isaiah takes and speaks us from God in this way and declares that this child who is to be born, a son, and the government will be upon his shoulders, it would be no surprise to them, really, to discover that he was described as this wonderful counselor—this one who defines, if you like, wonder in himself. They had already, in chapter 7, been told that the virgin would be with child and would bring forth this son, and he would be Immanuel. El be in the name of God.

It's El that is used here in 9 as well. God with us in chapter 7, God for us in chapter 9. In other words, when you take the extent of these prophetic words—you have the same in chapter 11— when you take the depth and the breadth of these prophetic statements, you realize that it takes the incarnation to fill it out and make sense of it. Because no one else that lived before the time of Isaiah would be able to fulfill all that was said of this child. Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace—who is this?

That's why the prophets were always looking forward. Kings were known in some measure by their counselors. What kind of king has no advisers? What kind of king has no counselors?

This king. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 13, who has understood the mind of the Lord or instructed him as his counselor. Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him? Or who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? The end of chapter 28, still in Isaiah, it says of this one, he is wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom. In the prophecy that opens chapter 11, you have the exact same thing fulfilled.

What about this branch from the stump of Jesse that's going to bear fruit? And what will this person be like? Well, verse 2 of 11 tells us, the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. In other words, this is no ordinary child. This is the child with no beginning. This is the predicted child.

This is the one in whose very essence wonder is defined. Now, we can't tease it out because we don't have time, but turn with me just once to Luke and to chapter 2. Jesus and his parents have gone to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover.

He's twelve years old. You remember the story well, don't you? Luke has recorded it for us. He told us that he was doing his gospel, talking to eyewitnesses and servants and, after careful investigation, writing everything down in an orderly way. And so here we have part of his orderly account. Mary and Joseph head back. Jesus doesn't go back. They go on their way.

They turn around. They have to look for him. And when they didn't find him back to Jerusalem, they came. Verse 46, And after three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

And everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and at his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.

Well, why were you searching for me? He asked, didn't you know I had to be in my father's house? But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Of course they didn't. No more than she understood at the time of the birth, the angelic announcement.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. This is not theological lumber, folks. No. Well, you say, Well, I can't get this. I can't get to this.

I can't quantify it, nor can I encapsulate it in any way. Well, you shouldn't. Of course you can't.

No one can. And the very fact that it defies our attempts at that speaks to the wonder of it, because all of these prophetic words are surrounded both by mystery and by the evidences of the supernatural, so that they are not irrational, but they are suprarational. And unless you read it, as it were, with your Old Testament eyes, unless you read it from the perspective of the Jewish mind, it is easy to go very quickly wrong. Because, remember, the Jew was looking for the consolation and the hope of Israel. They knew that there was one who was to come who would embody all of these things, who would fill out, if you like, flesh out all of these messianic expectations. And their hope was not an abstraction. Their hope was not an impersonality. But their hope was a person.

And that's what makes this so dramatic. This child is the one who will deal with your distress and with your darkness and with your sin and with your oppression both then and now. Without that, how do we explain what's going on with old Simeon in Luke chapter 2 in the temple? Where, when they bring the child Jesus into the temple to do for him after the custom of their culture, Simeon took the child in his arms and said, I mean, you've taken a lot of babies in your arms, haven't you?

You said all kinds of things, like coochie-coo, and looks like his mom, and, whoa, what lovely eyes. But I bet you never took a child in your arms and said anything that even approaches to what Simeon said. Simeon took the child in his arms and said, Lord God in heaven, Yahweh, you can let your servant now depart in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation, a light for the Gentiles and a hope for my people Israel. That's what's happening. That's what's happening. Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord, who is Messiah Jesus. Yes! I was in a gas station in somewhere the other day, and as I was pumping gas, I turned around, and they had a sign in the window, and it said exactly that.

That's why it's in my mind. Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And then underneath it said, And this is what Christmas is all about. And I knocked on the window and said, Yay!

Yay! It is what Christmas is all about. And we dare not devalue it. Have your eyes seen God's salvation? You won't get here by intellect.

If you're trying to do this mathematically, you can't stay up late at night enough. It will not happen. When we sing the little song, Open my eyes, Lord, I want to see Jesus, we're not asking that we could see Jesus in his physical presence.

At least I'm not. We're recognizing that our eyes are darkened to who Jesus is. And it's going to take the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to open our eyes so that we can see Jesus for who he is. And when we see Jesus for who he is, then we say, Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is Savior. But until we do, we may continue to content ourselves with the fact that Jesus is a great teacher. Or Jesus is a wonderful example.

Or Jesus is a whole host of things. Why does this matter? We'll finish here. Why does it matter? Well, because of the darkness. What darkness? The darkness that's outside and the darkness that's inside. The people walking in darkness, verse 2, have seen a great light. That darkness is emblematic of all the darkness within them.

They were looking up and saw nothing. They were looking down and felt distressed. They were sorrowful. They were ignorant.

They were sinful. People walking in darkness is an apt description of life lived without this wonderful counselor. And no matter how bright and breezy we may appear to be to our friends, the Bible actually describes us by nature as living in the dark.

Living in the dark. Let me quote to you from Ephesians on this. I tell you this, says Paul, writing to them, and insisting in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are—listen—they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

That's not a very nice description of people, is it? But that's what I must tell you the Bible says this morning. That unless the light of Jesus has shone into our darkness, we still live in the dark.

We're actually separated from the life of God. And Jesus takes it a step further when he says that not only do people live in the dark, but they like living in the dark. Remember in John 3, he says, men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil.

I daren't mention this without it making it sounding like I'm spending my time in unprofitable ways. I can assure you I'm not, and you can check in every way you may like, but I know the difference between buildings that have windows in them and buildings that don't have windows in them. I know when the light shines bright on the outside of a building that has no windows in it, beckoning me in. That is beckoning me into the darkness. Why is it that it's so dark in those places?

Why are the dens of dirtiness dark? Well, people don't want their faces to be seen. They're moral beings. They know this is wrong.

They know this is evil. Turn the lights down. Turn them up on the outside.

Turn them down on the inside. Living in the dark. Liking it in the dark.

Liberated from the dark. You see, that's what Jesus came to do. On that great day, when they were lighting all those candelabras in the temple, and it was ablaze with all the wonder of the lights, Jesus stands up in the middle of it all. And remember what he says in John chapter 8?

It's recorded for us. Verse 12, he says, Excuse me, I am the light of the world. What? I am the light of the world. Is he? Or isn't he? I can tell you, if he's a created being, he is not the light of the world.

I can guarantee it. If he's a created being, he cannot be a savior. For only God can save, and only a man needs to die. Therefore, it's going to have to be the God-man. And if this man is a created man, then he is not God. Therefore, he's a fraud. Therefore, he should be rejected.

Surely only the devil himself would invent such a corrupt story. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And he who does not follow me will continue to walk in darkness and will not have the light of life. Have you ever come to this counselor? This wonderful counselor? He knows you personally, he diagnoses you properly, and he will deliver you from your condition powerfully.

He knows you personally, he'll diagnose you properly, and he's the only one who can deliver you powerfully. I wonder if there aren't some here this morning who, like these people in the eighth century BC, were looking up and finding nothing, looking down and finding nothing, looking around and finding only fearfulness. And the description of their condition is the same then and now. There is no dawn in their hearts. That's how he puts it there at the end of chapter 8.

There's no dawning in their hearts. Remember I said last Sunday that you should all go out and rent the movie Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery? You may recall a number of wonderful scenes in there, but one of the scenes involves Wilberforce with William Pitt, the younger who was the prime minister. And William Pitt is on his deathbed, you recall.

And Wilberforce goes to visit him, and Pitt is lying there, and Pitt says to his friend Wilberforce, I am afraid. I am so afraid. Should he be?

Yes. Why? Because he was living in the dark, and he was about to go out into utter darkness. Why? Because no one had ever told him?

No. Because in the course of the friendship between Wilberforce and Pitt the younger, Wilberforce took his friend, the prime minister, to listen, at least on one occasion, to a well-known Anglican preacher by the name of Richard Cecil. And on the day they went together to the equivalent of the Christmas concert, the fellow inviting him, Wilberforce and his friend the prime minister—I think you'd keep an extra seat for him if he came—but anyway, in they went together, and when they came out, Wilberforce said that in the preaching he felt as though his soul had been raised up to heaven. When he heard the preaching, his soul was raised up to heaven. And turning to his friend Pitt, he said, And how about you? Pitt said, I am the faintest idea what that man was talking about. I felt my soul lifted up to heaven. I'm not the faintest idea what he's on about.

What's the difference? Light and darkness. Light shining into the soul of Wilberforce.

Pitt remaining in the darkness of his unbelief. I think we began the service this morning with a prayer. We all sang it together. Did you mean it? Oh, come to my heart, Lord Jesus.

There is room in my heart for you. You won't misunderstand me when I say this to you, I hope. But I have more than a sneaking suspicion that this service is significantly populated by unconverted believers, individuals who in their heads have given mental assent to orthodox truth concerning Jesus in the Bible.

But that is all they have done. That intellectual assent has never been matched by their willingness to bow down before Jesus and cast themselves upon his mercy. And that explains why you remain unchanged.

Because all that you have done is reckon things in your head, but the Holy Spirit hasn't come to live in your life. And if anyone is in Christ, they're a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. In other words, the light has dawned in their hearts. My concern for you folks is not simply that you would understand orthodox Christianity, but that you would come to bow your knee to the lordship and the saviorship of Jesus. And today would just be a terrific day to do that.

In fact, today is always the day to do that. To do that is Alistair Begg with an urgent message for what he referred to as unconverted believers as well as unbelievers. You're listening to Truth for Life, part three of a message titled Wonderful Counselor. Alistair will be back in just a minute to close with prayer, so please keep listening. If Alistair's description of living in darkness sounds like your experience, if you'd like to learn more about God's light and the hope it provides, we want to invite you to watch a couple of short videos on the Learn More page on our website.

Just visit truthforlife.org slash learn more. Well, today is the last day I'm going to mention the book Spurgeon on the power of scripture. If you've not already requested your copy, be sure to do so today. Charles Spurgeon once compared the Bible to a lion in a cage.

He said, doesn't need to be defended, you just need to let it out of the cage and it'll defend itself. In this book of seven of Spurgeon's sermons, he unpacks the scripture in all of its power. Be sure to request your copy of the book Spurgeon on the power of scripture when you make a donation to Truth for Life today. Click the image of the book you see on our app or visit the website truthforlife.org slash donate. You can also call to request the book at 888-588-7884. Well, we are quickly wrapping up 2021, looking forward to the coming year, and if you've not already gotten your copy, plan to get the new year off to a great start with Alistair's newest book, The Truth for Life Devotional.

You can use it to spend time in God's word every single day. This is a beautiful hardcover book. It's available at our cost of just $8.

Shipping is free no matter how many copies you order. You can make your purchase at truthforlife.org slash features. Now here is Alistair to close with prayer. Father, look upon us in your mercy. Shine the light of your truth into the darkness of our hearts, where they are indifferent or rebellious. May your pursuing love break down our resistant wills.

Some of us are going to all kinds of counselors for all kinds of things, without ever having come to you, the wonderful counselor. Grant that the words of our mouths, the meditation of our hearts may be found acceptable in your sight. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest upon and remain with all who believe, now and forevermore. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Join us tomorrow as we find out how the whole Bible, not just the New Testament, is about Jesus. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.