SPEAKER_00: Well, grace and peace to you, friends.
SPEAKER_00: We typically study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if this is your first time here, maybe you're at the Christmas Festival this Friday.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad you're here after this service.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we have our Meet and Connect.
SPEAKER_00: It's right downstairs in the living room where you can meet some of our staff and try to uh connect, if you will, at the TV at TVC.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_00: Typically we study through books of the Bible right now, though, during the Advent season, we are pausing briefly to give a wider scope of what the scripture has to tell us about what God has done in history through his Son Jesus in his coming and his promised coming again when he will finally and decisively make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: That's something you hope for.
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like a paper copy of the Bible, just lift up your hand and someone will bring one along to you.
SPEAKER_00: It would be good to have the Bible in front of you, whether it's on your app or an iPad or a paper copy.
SPEAKER_00: Also, whether you're watching online from Loosdale, Mississippi, or Portland, Oregon, or from Nairobi, Kenya, welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Well, this week, I don't know if you're like me, but I was flipping through some of my regular morning uh news sources.
SPEAKER_00: And an article came across my feed from The New Yorker.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not that sophisticated.
SPEAKER_00: I don't actually read The New Yorker, but it came through my feed anyway, and an article caught my eye.
SPEAKER_00: And the title of the article was Do You Have Hope?
SPEAKER_00: And I clicked on it, and the subtitle was also interesting.
SPEAKER_00: And if not, how can you get some?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have hope?
SPEAKER_00: And if not, how can you get some?
SPEAKER_00: Now that article was framed essentially as a reflection on the mood of a nation after a contentious election.
SPEAKER_00: The spread of war and violence that we're seeing in the news.
SPEAKER_00: And just an overall sense of disenchantment, of distrust, if you will, in institutions.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure what Joel Rothman, the author of this article, I don't know what his faith commitments are.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know much about him.
SPEAKER_00: Great writer, though.
SPEAKER_00: But at several points throughout the article, he was asking questions, and there were longings that were revealed that parallel the themes of the Advent season, waiting and watching, expectation and hope.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have hope?
SPEAKER_00: And if not, where can you find it?
SPEAKER_00: Those aren't just big philosophical questions, they are those, but they're real gritty boots on the ground, everyday questions asked since the fall in the garden, which we studied last week, when Adam and Eve turned away from God and turned toward the voice of the serpent.
SPEAKER_00: And turning away from God, minds and hearts, our minds and hearts, all of creation was darkened, was dimmed because sin had entered the world.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what sin is.
SPEAKER_00: It's turning away from God, living as if he doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: It's turning away from the light of his truth, and it's stumbling around, confused in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: That beautiful song that we just sang, that curl, the first Noel, the first birth is what that means.
SPEAKER_00: In poetic language, that second verse, it combines themes from the Nativity story from Luke, but it also combines the prophetic words of Isaiah penned 700 years before, of God's grace coming in to dispel the darkness that sin had brought.
SPEAKER_00: To the earth it gave great light.
SPEAKER_00: And who doesn't want more of that?
SPEAKER_00: In this dark and dim world, and for many among us this week, it's only heightened our longing for more of that great light that we just sang about.
SPEAKER_00: The scriptures tell us the truth about where we are, the world and our own hearts are actually darker than we even realize.
SPEAKER_00: But the scriptures also are brimming with the good news about what God intends to do about it.
SPEAKER_00: And indeed it is good news.
SPEAKER_00: All throughout the book of Isaiah, the prophet points forward to the hope that would come in the person named Emmanuel, God with us.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to put up on the screen just a summary of some of the promises that we see in the massive book of Isaiah, the Christmas prophet, as many people call him.
SPEAKER_00: He, that's God, will swallow up death forever.
SPEAKER_00: The eyes of the blind shall be open.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will be your everlasting light.
SPEAKER_00: For behold, I create new heavens and new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
SPEAKER_00: That's just a few of the promises that we read in Isaiah, the coming King.
SPEAKER_00: And in an act that should never cease to astonish us, he himself, as we've been singing this morning, has made a way for us to step out of the dark and into his glorious light.
SPEAKER_00: He himself has really come, really come, and really will come one day again to make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose sight of that reality.
SPEAKER_00: No other major religion makes that kind of a claim.
SPEAKER_00: He has come and he will come again.
SPEAKER_00: About 175 years ago, a pastor in London, Charles Spurgeon, who we quote often, he said this those little arms in the manger will one day grapple with the monster death and destroy it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Those little feet shall tread on the serpent's neck and crush that old deceiver's head.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah's right.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord intends to put a decisive end to every dark corner of our world, and we pray for that day to come.
SPEAKER_00: Well, this morning, if you would turn with me to Isaiah chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look starting at verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: And we're looking briefly at the world of that prophet Isaiah, around, like I said, 700 years before the birth of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It also was a time of great darkness, not unlike our own.
SPEAKER_00: Moral ambiguity, anxiety, fear.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah was a prophetic voice, and he's actually speaking most of the time to the people of God who had moved God from the center of their lives, both individually and corporately, to the periphery.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're going to start reading here.
SPEAKER_00: God's people have actually moved God to the sidelines, acting as if he didn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: And they tried to rid themselves of the darkness with everything but God.
SPEAKER_00: And naturally that led them to despair and anxiety and fear and confusion, asking, really, I think, similar questions to the New Yorker.
SPEAKER_00: Where can we find hope?
SPEAKER_00: And they were looking everywhere else but God.
SPEAKER_00: But Isaiah cries out to the people, and this is the good news: turn back to the Lord, there's still time.
SPEAKER_00: Come back to the Lord, his word, his wisdom, his ways, the light of his truth.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have to stumble around in the darkness anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the good news of Advent.
SPEAKER_00: That's the good news we have to share this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So he gives that same invitation to us.
SPEAKER_00: So let me pray for us if you'd allow me, and then we'll begin our study of Isaiah 9.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we give thanks that your presence is already here.
SPEAKER_00: Your word is before us.
SPEAKER_00: May your Spirit open it to us, soften our hearts to hear it, and lead us to our only hope, your Son, Jesus, in whose name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: We all said.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 9, starting with verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be reading from the English Standard Version this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
SPEAKER_00: Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shone.
SPEAKER_00: I'll pause here for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: There's some important things that we can miss in the English translation there.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, the word there for darkness in Hebrew is shalmawet, it's the same word that's used in Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_00: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
SPEAKER_00: So those who have dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them a light has shone.
SPEAKER_00: And that idea there of a light shining on this dark world, on the darkened hearts here, it's not light that just comes brimming up from the earth.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually coming on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: It's an outside source.
SPEAKER_00: It's God Himself that's shining his light on us or on them.
SPEAKER_00: The word there for shown can be flashed or it dawned on them.
SPEAKER_00: We see the initiative of God, his grace here in this section of Isaiah's prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: We'll continue with verse 3, and he's going to actually go back in history and recount what the Lord has already done.
SPEAKER_00: You, Lord, have multiplied the nation.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about Abraham here, the promise to Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: You have increased its joy.
SPEAKER_00: They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, here's Moses and the people under the slavery of Egypt and Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor you have broken.
SPEAKER_00: As of in the day of Midian.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's talking about Gideon, the story from the book of Judges, where God smites the enemies of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: So we have Abraham, we have Moses, we have Gideon, verse 5 for every boot on the tramping warrior and battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God will bring full victory.
SPEAKER_00: So he looks back in history.
SPEAKER_00: Now with verse 6, he's actually going to look forward to a time yet to come for him.
SPEAKER_00: For to us a child is born.
SPEAKER_00: To us a son is given.
SPEAKER_00: And the government shall be on his shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: The government of the universe will rest on this one.
SPEAKER_00: And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor.
SPEAKER_00: Mighty God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace and of Shalom, 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 forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
SPEAKER_00: Here's our promise.
SPEAKER_00: And the word zeal there, there's a lot of meaning in there.
SPEAKER_00: It could be translated the red-faced passion of the Lord will accomplish this.
SPEAKER_00: You can take it to the bank.
SPEAKER_00: This is our Advent promise.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord from the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah, in this beautiful text, he gives us, I think, a wide overview of God's work of grace in redemption history.
SPEAKER_00: Or to put it more simply, Isaiah wants us to know with confidence that God has made promises and God intends to keep his promises.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah, as a prophetic writer, he often moves between those three directions I mentioned, speaking about the past work of God, speaking to the current situation of his time, and pointing forward to a time yet to come, all three directions.
SPEAKER_00: And he pulls the thread, I think when he does that, he pulls the thread of God's grace all the way through Abraham and Moses and Gideon, and he points forward to the one who had come, who has all power and authority placed on his shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: And why does Isaiah and many of the biblical authors, why do they do that?
SPEAKER_00: Why do they go back from to the past and today and to the present and to the future?
SPEAKER_00: Well, at least one reason, because we're forgetful.
SPEAKER_00: We forget what he's promised, we forget what he's already done, we forget what he's promised that he's going to do again.
SPEAKER_00: Paul Tripp says that we suffer from gospel amnesia.
SPEAKER_00: I do from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: Turn with me, if you would, for a moment, just a few paragraphs back to chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me, if you would, at verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Here he's describing God's people of his day, so this is the present moment, who had turned away from God, like I said before, they had forgotten him, they had stopped worshiping him alone, which led to all kinds of foolishness and disorder and confusion.
SPEAKER_00: So chapter 8, verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: And when they, that's the people of God who've turned away, when they say to you, Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God?
SPEAKER_00: Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?
SPEAKER_00: This is a little bit of holy sarcasm if you haven't caught it.
SPEAKER_00: A little holy sarcasm.
SPEAKER_00: They had forgotten God, and not only that, they'd turned not just away from the Lord, but towards foreign spiritualities.
SPEAKER_00: Idol worship.
SPEAKER_00: Unless we think we don't do the same, we do, I do.
SPEAKER_00: I place ultimate hope in lots of other things.
SPEAKER_00: We can place it in politicians, in money, in relationships.
SPEAKER_00: We're the big one nowadays, technology, AI is somehow gonna elevate humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: To the teaching and to the testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Underline that.
SPEAKER_00: Highlight that.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of my favorite phrases in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah says, none of that foolish and foolishness anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to the teaching and to the testimony, to the word of God, is what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: If they will not speak according to this word, it's because they have no dawn.
SPEAKER_00: They will pass through the land greatly distressed and hungry.
SPEAKER_00: And when they're hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God and turn their faces upward.
SPEAKER_00: That's a sign of disrespect.
SPEAKER_00: And they will look to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: They'll look to the earth for the resources they need, but behold, distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust into deep darkness.
SPEAKER_00: But let's go back to chapter 9, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: But the people who walked in darkness has seen a great light.
SPEAKER_00: So they turned away from him, but God, in his pursuing grace, has come after them, even in the valley of their own foolishness, and all that that foolishness caused, on them a light has shone.
SPEAKER_00: Fleming Rutledge, a theologian, Bible teacher, she says it this way: God is on the move toward us, not the other way around.
SPEAKER_00: In the very midst of our confusion and incapacity, we are met by the oncoming Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's the storyline of the Bible in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00: As we watch and wait in a world that is still dimmed by darkness and confusion, turned away from God, Isaiah gives the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: He gives the invitation to us look what God has already done.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he's doing today, and you can stake your life on the truth that this one on whom the whole government of the universe rests, God will finish what he has started.
SPEAKER_00: God's initiative, his pursuing grace is always decisive, and it's always a reversal.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great reversal.
SPEAKER_00: Did you catch it there?
SPEAKER_00: They were in dark.
SPEAKER_00: And God in his mercy shines light.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's pursuing grace is an invitation to new life.
SPEAKER_00: In the Gospel of John in the New Testament, the Gospel actually begins, or at least towards the beginning, talking about this one who would come and has come on this side of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 4 through 5 of chapter 1, in him was life.
SPEAKER_00: And the life was the light of men.
SPEAKER_00: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
SPEAKER_00: And later on in the Gospel of John, Jesus Himself says, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_00: He invites us to walk in the light of his wisdom, in the light of his ways.
SPEAKER_00: That's where our deepest longings and our greatest need is met.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't just for people in Isaiah's time, it's for you and it's for me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You who perhaps have been, maybe you've been considering the claims of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard it, heard him talked about here or elsewhere, but you've yet to turn to him.
SPEAKER_00: There's life on offer here for those who turn to him.
SPEAKER_00: It's good news for those who desperately long, who hunger for, like we see there in chapter 8, who hunger for something.
SPEAKER_00: That's a mighty God, an everlasting Father, a wonderful counselor and prince of peace.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation, though, is also for those who have been walking in the light perhaps for years, but circumstances or confusion or complacency or grief has dimmed the light.
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah, he opens our eyes and he also lifts our eyes to see again with fresh clarity the truth of this promise-keeping God, who sent his son, whose glory can't even be contained in a single name.
SPEAKER_00: So he gives us four more.
SPEAKER_00: Like S.
SPEAKER_00: M.
SPEAKER_00: Lockridge said, I wish I could describe them to you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the first one, he shall be called, number one, wonderful counselor.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice in chapter 8, verse 20, there?
SPEAKER_00: It's when the people had turned away from the Word of God that they could no longer see the truth.
SPEAKER_00: The text says they had no dawn.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual darkness, they were stumbling around in the dark because they had untethered themselves from the source of truth and light and life.
SPEAKER_00: By its very nature, our sin, our rebellion, it breaks communion with God.
SPEAKER_00: It stops our ears, so we no longer want to hear the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: His word to us is both an instruction that brings light to our path, as we see in the book of Proverbs, but it also reveals our need, it gives us counsel and instruction, corrects us when we wander from our ways, from his ways.
SPEAKER_00: We live, Jesus taught us, by every word that comes from the mouth of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And there he's quoting from Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_00: It was the Word of God that spoke the universe into existence.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Word of God that brings spiritually dead men and women to life.
SPEAKER_00: It's a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word of God that brings comfort when sorrow has its grip.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you turn for counsel, for comfort, for instruction?
SPEAKER_00: That's a good question to ask.
SPEAKER_00: We live in an age of nearly endless counselors vying for our attention, for our allegiance.
SPEAKER_00: A steady stream of books and apps and podcasts, therapists, teachers can be at our beck and call at any moment.
SPEAKER_00: I was looking at the research this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The therapeutic industry alone has grown to a market of$26 billion in the U.S.
SPEAKER_00: $10 of that is for online therapy.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen a steep rise from the COVID days till now.
SPEAKER_00: I've benefited from trained counselors, and many offer good and needed wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: We have many good and wise counselors here at TBC.
SPEAKER_00: But doesn't this rise in the therapeutic market tell us something about the longings that our world is trying to satisfy?
SPEAKER_00: I think it tells us something.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you turn for ultimate counsel?
SPEAKER_00: The beauty of the gospel of grace is that He Himself shines his light on us.
SPEAKER_00: He himself comes as our wonderful counselor, pursuing us in our spiritual blindness, giving us a word that we desperately need.
SPEAKER_00: It is a miracle when the Spirit opens the eyes and unstops the ears so that we might hear the word and turn towards Him.
SPEAKER_00: That's a miracle of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We should give thanks for that.
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah calls us emphatically there in verse 20 of chapter 8 go to the teaching and to the testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Return to the Word of God and the Scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Spirit to illuminate it to you and lead you back to Jesus, the wonderful counselor.
SPEAKER_00: Alec Mattier says in Isaiah by the day, a wonderful book.
SPEAKER_00: Believers display unanxious peace, nourish their minds, and guide their lives by the word the Lord has spoken.
SPEAKER_00: They face the uncertain and cloudy future with calm and certain expectation.
SPEAKER_00: They flee constantly to the Lord Himself, who waits to welcome them and center their lives reverently on his awesome presence.
SPEAKER_00: To the teaching and to the testimony.
SPEAKER_00: We need a wonderful counselor.
SPEAKER_00: His name shall also be called Mighty God.
SPEAKER_00: On our own, apart from God, we are weak.
SPEAKER_00: We fear, we falter.
SPEAKER_00: You might have come in here today.
SPEAKER_00: In fear, gripped by fear and anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: In the condition of sin and rebellion, we have no lasting hope, no hope against the certainty of death, no resources to provide meaning and purpose to equip us for suffering.
SPEAKER_00: But with the coming of Christ, those who turn to Him are put into union with one, as the book of Hebrews says, hold Holds the universe together by the word of his power.
SPEAKER_00: That's his strength.
SPEAKER_00: The government of the universe is on his shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: And in God's upside-down economy, he chooses weakness to demonstrate his strength.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at chapter 9, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: At the very end there, he says, You've broken it as on the day of Midian.
SPEAKER_00: Go back and read sometime in the book of Judges the story of Gideon.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's referring to there.
SPEAKER_00: Gideon has 32,000 in his army that's about to go up, a hundred thousand, enemies of God and his people.
SPEAKER_00: But God decides to whittle down the 32,000 that Gideon has down to 300.
SPEAKER_00: So 300 go up against 100,000.
SPEAKER_00: Why does God do that?
SPEAKER_00: To show that the power belongs to him and not to Gideon.
SPEAKER_00: We need a mighty God.
SPEAKER_00: We need outside help.
SPEAKER_00: I try not to fear.
SPEAKER_00: I try not to get angry.
SPEAKER_00: I try not to lust.
SPEAKER_00: I try not to be God forgetful.
SPEAKER_00: But if this text tells us anything, if we're all honest with ourselves, we know that we need a strength that we do not have.
SPEAKER_00: And it is on offer here through our Lord who has come to shine his light on us.
SPEAKER_00: Through his Spirit, he offers us the spiritual resources we need to walk in the light of his ways, to grow in grace is the language we use around here.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not a strength that I conjure up on my own.
SPEAKER_00: We need a mighty God.
SPEAKER_00: In his perfect wisdom, I think it's remarkable that he sends Jesus as a little baby, needy, fully dependent on others.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, do you remember that the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus was born, tells us that Herod, Herod the Great, trembled.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Herod the Great and all of Jerusalem trembled because of this baby born in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: All the trappings of earthly strength and might couldn't compare to the power found in the one that Isaiah calls mighty God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a nostalgic story, it's a reality that meets us here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Our final enemy, death, will not have the last word.
SPEAKER_00: The deepest darkness is only temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Death is a reality now, and Isaiah even acknowledges that, but it has a time limit, and one day it will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Almighty God has defeated death by laying down his life, defying the power of that old deceiver, as Charles Spurgeon said, by walking out of a borrowed tomb on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: So we can confidently say with the Apostle Paul, who quotes from Isaiah, Death is swallowed up in victory.
SPEAKER_00: O death, where is your victory?
SPEAKER_00: O death, where is your sting?
SPEAKER_00: And those among us this morning who are in the throes of suffering, of new seasons, of aging, or of loss, because God Himself has come and will come again.
SPEAKER_00: We can and should grieve, that's true, but we do so with a genuine hope.
SPEAKER_00: Sam Alberry.
SPEAKER_00: He says this so well.
SPEAKER_00: Death is no longer a threat in the way it was.
SPEAKER_00: It has been defeated in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The signs of aging are no longer a threat, but a promise.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about that?
SPEAKER_00: Gray hair and deepening lines on my face don't need to speak to me of a past I can't recover, but of a future I can barely conceive.
SPEAKER_00: The real glory days.
SPEAKER_00: The real glory days are not behind, but ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Promises from anyone, from anyone, are true only to the extent of their power.
SPEAKER_00: I can promise lots of things, and I'm not going to be able to do lots of things.
SPEAKER_00: You can too.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have a lot of want.
SPEAKER_00: But here we see Isaiah pointing to the one who holds everything on his shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians tells us in him, in Christ, all things hold together.
SPEAKER_00: And that should give us genuine hope each morning that we wake, because there is no square inch of the universe that is not under his watchful eye.
SPEAKER_00: My times are held securely, your times are held securely in the grip of a mighty God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe it?
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Our greatest need is to be in right relationship with God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It's also our greatest longing, whether we acknowledge it or not.
SPEAKER_00: That longing etched into every human soul can only begin to be satisfied when that relationship is restored, and it's not something we can do on our own.
SPEAKER_00: The rebellion in the garden that we studied last week showed a turning away from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: That's a separation from him.
SPEAKER_00: And we hear the loving heart of the Father when he calls out to Adam and Eve, if you remember from last week, the Father says, Where are you?
SPEAKER_00: They turned away from him, and the Father reveals his love in the question, Where are you?
SPEAKER_00: And in the coming of Christ, he has made a way for us, for anyone, to be brought back into the family of God, given all the privileges and responsibilities of being a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he calls us to turn to him.
SPEAKER_00: And he is a good father, and his care for his children has no end.
SPEAKER_00: It's everlasting, it says.
SPEAKER_00: This time forth and forevermore, it says there at the end.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the promise that we're given.
SPEAKER_00: As a child of God, there will never be a moment when you are not loved by the Father.
SPEAKER_00: A good father protects his children, he provides, he corrects, he guides, he delights in his children, and he loves his children.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that love this morning?
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to walk out if you're not knowing that love this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Tim Keller said, Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace.
SPEAKER_00: And indeed, his name shall also be called Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_00: Peace is such a multifaceted word.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We long for internal peace.
SPEAKER_00: We long for external peace, relational peace, international peace.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's such a comfort that Isaiah, if you look with me at verse 7, he says, Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.
SPEAKER_00: And if we kept reading the book of Isaiah, in chapter 53, Isaiah continues to reveal the grace of God to come through his son Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He says this in Isaiah 53, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
SPEAKER_00: Shalom.
SPEAKER_00: And with his wounds we are healed.
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ has come, given himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: And we see there in verse 6 that he is given to us, he lays down his life, he has made a way on the cross, so that I, a rebel, can be at peace with God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the relational component.
SPEAKER_00: Peace with God, though, the fruit of that is the peace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Peace with God leads to the peace of God, an internal poise, a proper confidence in the sovereign king who holds the world on his shoulders, who will one day bring lasting justice and righteousness to this earth, to every corner of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And this it isn't a flimsy peace.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I hear the word peace, I don't know about you, and it seems a little flimsy, a little shallow.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a veneer of peace that simply makes sure everyone's feeling okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's not what this is.
SPEAKER_00: His peace will decisively root out all that sin has touched.
SPEAKER_00: The blight of human trafficking in our world will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: Violence will be put to an end.
SPEAKER_00: The peace he gives also offers genuine hope to marriages that are near the end, reconciliation for friendships that have long been damaged.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of peace, real peace.
SPEAKER_00: His peace is comprehensive and it comes through a bloody cross, and it's guaranteed by his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told his disciples, the peace I give you is not like the peace of the world.
SPEAKER_00: So where do you turn for counsel?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you turn for strength, for love, for peace?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you turn for hope?
SPEAKER_00: The author of that article, I mentioned earlier, suggests that some people in our day, and I'm going to quote here, some people in our day, seeing nothing to be optimistic about, hope that something new will come along.
SPEAKER_00: Some not yet existing force that will knock the world onto a better track.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah suggests that there's far more than a force, but the hope of the world rests on a person.
SPEAKER_00: God Himself, who comes not simply to set the world on a better track, but a full restoration.
SPEAKER_00: A new heavens and a new earth, a new people with new hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Darkness and death will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Matthew tells us that when Jesus begins his earthly ministry, he has a decisive victory over the deceiver in the desert.
SPEAKER_00: And then Matthew inaugurates the ministry of Jesus with the same words that Isaiah penned 700 years before.
SPEAKER_00: The people walking in darkness has seen a great light.
SPEAKER_00: This is from the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: For those dwelling in the shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.
SPEAKER_00: On them, that's you, and that's me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: That was them.
SPEAKER_00: And the hope of this world is not a vague possibility.
SPEAKER_00: It's secured in a person who took on our sin, is able to meet our deepest need.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, who has come, who is with us by his spirit now and will come again with justice and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And the peace he'll bring will have no end.
SPEAKER_00: And after quoting from Isaiah, Jesus begins to preach and he says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: And repentance is a beautiful word.
SPEAKER_00: It's a turning towards him, away from the path that we've been on, away from looking to the earth alone for what we need.
SPEAKER_00: And he pursues us and calls us and he says, Turn to me, walk with me.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to walk in darkness any longer.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to grieve without hope.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he's done for us.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he's doing now and what he'll do when he comes again.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to him, worship him, adore him.
SPEAKER_00: And the zeal of the Lord of hosts, at the very end of chapter or verse seven, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
SPEAKER_00: The red-faced passion of the Lord has promised that he will accomplish this.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, keep us from looking for our ultimate hope anywhere but in you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that by your Spirit you would remind us that we didn't make ourselves and we can't keep ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: But you have given us in your word light.
SPEAKER_00: You've given us in your son life.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I pray that in this room those who have turned away from you would turn back towards you.
SPEAKER_00: Those who have been walking with you that have the light of Christ dimmed in their heart for whatever reason it might be, Lord, open our eyes, unstop our ears, soften our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, do the work that only you can do in shining light in all the dark places.
SPEAKER_00: We confess that you're good, our Heavenly Father, mighty God, our counselor, and the peace that we so long for.
SPEAKER_00: Lord come in Jesus' name, we all said.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.