[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agape Baptist Church in George South Africa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen the cash fees.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've ordered bless you this time of year and especially joyous time of year as we think about
[SPEAKER_01]: The coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and as Daniel said last week, we think about the coming of the Lord, and only His first coming, but His coming again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And many times those are mixed together, especially in the prophecies, the Old Testament predictions, of the coming of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what he will accomplish in such a text, we have before us this morning in Isaiah chapter nine.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you'd like to find your place there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Isaiah chapter nine, and we'll look at this prophecy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one that most people would have be familiar with, especially at this time of year, because it is a prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Many of you are familiar with Handel's Messiah, and that great work that he accomplished in praise to the Lord and the compositions.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of those is for unto us, a child is born unto us, a child is given.
[SPEAKER_01]: encourage you to go on the YouTube and just look it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of those will be from Isaiah chapter 6, this verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's only words from this verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about four minutes or so long and it's incredible praise to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while you're there, just go ahead and look up the
[SPEAKER_01]: The second coming of the Lord, and from Revelation chapter 19, and the rejoicing, that we will have, but all of heaven, and jealous, at the coming of the Lord and His victory.
[SPEAKER_01]: a child is born to us, a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
[SPEAKER_01]: And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: No doubt, you've heard that, at least most of you have heard this prophecy.
[SPEAKER_01]: But many will not have heard or understood why
[SPEAKER_01]: or to what does the four at the beginning of this verse refer to?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is the four there?
[SPEAKER_01]: And to know that we need to back up a bit into chapter eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there, the prophet is for telling of the coming invasion upon Israel
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it is a prophecy of judgment in chapter 8, and the reason for this judgment is because Israel, as a nation, have rejected the Lord and His Word.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they are not willing to listen to the prophet when the Lord called Isaiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: you remember that he also at that time tells Isaiah that they will not listen.
[SPEAKER_01]: How would you like to be commissioned and called to a ministry?
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Lord tells you, you go and preach and tell them, but they're not going to listen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, Isaiah does that, that is his ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: for answers, for salvation, for deliverance.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they have rejected the word of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Isaiah chapter eight with me beginning in verse 19, and we can see there the prophet writes to the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, now, verse 19, now when they say to you
[SPEAKER_01]: There is referring to the fact that the people had turned to the spiritus that those that would try to call up the dead for answers in communication.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're following in the pagan practices of the world around him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He goes on to say, should not a people inquire of their God?
[SPEAKER_01]: should they inquire of the dead on the half of the living and we we could agree with the with the profit that that is that is not what the people of God should do.
[SPEAKER_01]: It should not be calling upon those that are dead to for answers like King Saul did you remember for his end of his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: when he had rejected God and God to reject at him as King and would not give him answers.
[SPEAKER_01]: He goes to a medium and tries to get an answer from the dead Samuel.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he might be thinking how terrible that is for Israel.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be given so much that they would reject God and God's prophet.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're not really that much different from our world today, aren't we?
[SPEAKER_01]: With we look around us, we see people there when they run into trouble or troubling situation, they look everywhere else except unto God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when they get an answer from God's Word, they say, don't you have another answer?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or they go to someone else, they go to another church, another pastor, another counselor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Until they get an answer that suits what they already want to do, or have determined to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we must not just leave our thoughts with those out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: We must ask ourselves, what do we do, where do we turn when
[SPEAKER_01]: We have difficult situations and problems.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do we look to the world for advice?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do we go to the internet?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do we look to our psychologists or a friend or anyone?
[SPEAKER_01]: It will give us an answer that we want to hear rather than what God has said.
[SPEAKER_01]: Time and again, people come to the Word of God or they come to a pastor or a counselor.
[SPEAKER_01]: that they get from God's Word, and so they begin to look elsewhere, and they say, well, that was counsel for way back then, things have changed now, things are different.
[SPEAKER_01]: We live in a different society, in a different culture, and they want an answer that fits in with their thinking, the worldly thinking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 20 says, if you look with me in chapter 8, verse 20, to the law and to the testimony,
[SPEAKER_01]: This is God's answer through his prophet, go to God's word, go to the testimony of God in what God was communicating through the prophet.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can see this symbolism of the light here and referring to the
[SPEAKER_01]: the sunrise of a new day, but he says these people who speak a different word, they do not have a new day.
[SPEAKER_01]: They do not have light that comes up.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says that they have no dome.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can always find those even within the church that are willing to give a different answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: a different voice, and the prophet is writing here in saying that God is the answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: These people who would give a worldly answer, answer this different from God's Word.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying that there is no rising of light of the truth of God in them.
[SPEAKER_01]: because they have rejected God's Word and they have substituted it for another answer, the answer from the world around them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the condition that Isaiah is ministering in.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the people that he's ministering to and hold.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's always a remnant of believers then
[SPEAKER_01]: Israel, but the nation as a whole had rejected, and they were rejecting the testimony of the prophet, and God is pronouncing judgment upon them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice verse 21, and He says, and they will pass through the land, hard pressed and hungry.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it will be that when they are hungry, they will be angry and curse the king and their God as they face upward or look upward.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 22, they then, they will look to the earth and behold, distress and darkness and gloom of anguish and they will be banished into thick darkness.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, these people had cast off God, cast off his word, and now God has cast them off into this judgment, this coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this is a very dark picture here that Isaiah,
[SPEAKER_01]: is painting, he's delivering this message, and as we look at the world around us today, we can also see this darkness can't wait.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everywhere around us, we see the signs of people that are just groping and darkness and hopelessness.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's a truth that you see over and over again
[SPEAKER_01]: When there's no light, that's when the glorious grace of God is best seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: When things are in your life that is so low and so discouraging is when the goodness of God's grace shines the brightest.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you and I, as believers, keep our
[SPEAKER_01]: faith in Christ and our testimony for Him, even when we don't know what God is allowing things to happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't understand when we turn to Him in faith, believing, trusting His light shines the brightest.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this, what brings us to chapter 9, as I chapter 9 verse 1, it's not a break, it really
[SPEAKER_01]: As you notice, though, in verse 1, there's a butt there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And many times in Scripture, God interjects a butt.
[SPEAKER_01]: The situation is so bad, but God does something.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, in verse 1, but there will be no more gloom for her
[SPEAKER_01]: In earlier times, he treated the land of Zebulen and the land of Naptoli with contempt.
[SPEAKER_01]: But later on, he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of Jordan, the gattily of the Gentiles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now what's he talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about this northern region of Israel, the region of Zebulen and Naptoli.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's revealing through the prophet here that God into this darkness is bringing a light.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the prophet would not have known this, but it would be over 700 years before this light would come.
[SPEAKER_01]: This light that he's prophesying about is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the prophecy, although it's looking way ahead into the future, it reads like a current event.
[SPEAKER_01]: As you read the description, you'll, instead of, in many cases, instead of appearing words like, it shall be, it reads like it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's happening right now, or it's already happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so certain is the prophecy of God that the prophets could use this kind of language,
[SPEAKER_01]: language that speaks as if things have already happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so God is revealing about something specifically about this region of Zebulin and Napthalai.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why does he pick out those areas?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, they were the first to come under this judgment from this areas.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would have, series would have marched down.
[SPEAKER_01]: into their region first, and so they would be the first to come under attack and first to be captured.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that area would be the first that Tiglath plays are.
[SPEAKER_01]: The third would make as his province.
[SPEAKER_01]: It became an a Syrian province.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's why it's referred to here as the gallele of the Gentiles.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it came under derision, as the wording there in verse 1 says with contempt.
[SPEAKER_01]: God brought contempt upon this region.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why Jesus came as prophesied.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we read in Matthew chapter 4, verses 12 to 14, the fulfillment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Matthew points out the fulfillment of this prophecy concerning this region, not just concerning the coming of Christ, but very specifically about this area.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll read for you, Matthew 4 of verse 12 to 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now when he speaking of Jesus, heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.
[SPEAKER_01]: And leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, the territory of Zebulin and Naptholi.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that it was spoken by the prophet, sorry, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so every aspect of what God has spoken of come about, just as he said,
[SPEAKER_01]: and Mark makes a point of that coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we want to see three things this morning concerning the coming of Christ that the prophet writes about.
[SPEAKER_01]: It speaks of in this prophecy.
[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, the coming of Christ brings light.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's read their inverse to the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
[SPEAKER_01]: on them as light shown.
[SPEAKER_01]: The imagery of light and darkness is often used in the scripture to contrast the kingdom of God as light and the kingdom of Satan as darkness it is the contrast between truth and
[SPEAKER_01]: He came as this bright light shining in the midst of the darkness of men's sin and spiritual ignorance.
[SPEAKER_01]: As he says here, the land of the shadow of death or the deep darkness that he's referring to here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're a believer, if you've come and turned to Christ, you know experientially what
[SPEAKER_01]: He brought understanding to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He delivered you out of the, out of the darkness, out of your ignorance, out of your sin, and it brought you into his own kingdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus would say in John 12 verse 46, I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me will not remain
[SPEAKER_01]: And also, in one John 1, verse 5 and 7, he says, this is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we say if we have fellowship with Him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if we walk in the light as He is in the light,
[SPEAKER_01]: We have fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter what your situation is this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter how dark it may seem.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you turn to the Lord in faith, trusting Him, as your Savior, He will bring you into His light.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will bring into your life a new donning, a new day, a new day in Christ, because when the Lord comes, He brings light.
[SPEAKER_01]: And only that, He brings joy, notice verse 3, He says, You have multiplied the nations, You have increased His joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: They rejoice before You as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the
[SPEAKER_01]: when the Lord gives light, He also gives joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The prophet could not have foreseen this, but he's foretelling of two Cummings of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And only his first coming as a baby to grow, live as a man, and to die for us, but also the second coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: In his first coming, he became the ransom for our sins to take our sins away, to provide way that we could have life.
[SPEAKER_01]: In his second coming, he comes with power in glory, and he will establish his rule on the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: We refer to that as the millennial reign of Christ or the millennial kingdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it is a time that is also going to be characterized by joy,
[SPEAKER_01]: But due in eyes, believers, we don't have to wait until the Lord comes again to have this joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord has come and has saved us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's given us His joy and we can live in that joy today.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can live in that light today because the Lord is at work in our lives and our hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we yield to Him,
[SPEAKER_01]: He produces that joy in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice how Peter says it in one Peter 1, verse 8 and 9.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, though you have not seen him, you love him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as we submit and follow the leading of the Spirit of God and obedience, His Word, we are able to live in that joy, because He produces joy, it's a fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the third thing that the prophet writes about is peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's coming peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says,
[SPEAKER_01]: or you shall scatter the yoke, I'm sorry, shatter the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their task masker, master as at the battle of Median.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's talking about deliverance.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about victory.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about a time of peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he refers to the battle of Median and Newwood.
[SPEAKER_01]: recognize that from Judges chapter 7 where Gideon and his 300 men, the Lord chose and uses in a miraculous way to have a victory over the medianites.
[SPEAKER_01]: The medianites had come into the land and oppressed and they were there in their thousands.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get in mustard's up, the best that he can find.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that was 10,000 soldiers, but they were still nothing in compared to the vast medianites.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the Lord tells him what?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's too many, it's too many.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he reduces it down to 300.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that teaches us something doesn't it?
[SPEAKER_01]: It teaches us that God wants to glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: When God does something in our life or in someone else's life, He doesn't want us to take the credit.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants all the glory and honor and recognition to be turned to Him so that He is praised for who He is and what He has done.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Lord gave them the great victory.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He says, it's the kind of joy that they had in that day.
[SPEAKER_01]: the Lord brought about this great miracle of deliverance.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Christ came into the world, born as a baby, he was attacking the stronghold of Satan, upon the hearts and the lives of people.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Christ died, he delivered those who turned to him in faith, believing from Satan's power.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were delivered and transferred into the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice verse 6, the description there, is the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the eternal Father, the Prince of Peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are words that speak of a victor, a commander, a leader of armies.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the eternal Father, the Prince of Peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wins the victory for us and sets us free.
[SPEAKER_01]: And do you remember the story of David and Goliath no doubt that you've ever been in Sunday School growing up or reading through the Bible?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a wonderful story of God's deliverance.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that story Goliath, you remember how he comes out and he is going to fight on the half of the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's calling for a champion.
[SPEAKER_01]: from Israel, to come and fight on behalf of their people.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they are standing for their nation, for their people, and the Victor wins the victory for their people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know how that God used little David, in comparison to this giant, he was just like a child.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Goliath Caledema dog would come out with sticks.
[SPEAKER_01]: and stones.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God gave the victory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, God stands for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He comes and fights for us and wins the victory for us so that we can have salvation so that we can be delivered.
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice
[SPEAKER_01]: Two mults in every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are words of the peace that comes after the battle.
[SPEAKER_01]: No more need for these warrior implements, but it's only when the Lord comes back that we will have this peace and the end
[SPEAKER_01]: wars and conflict.
[SPEAKER_01]: We hear a lot about especially from political leaders.
[SPEAKER_01]: We hear a lot about peace, world peace and reconciliation and all of those kind of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there will never be an end to wars and conflicts until the Lord comes again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is what the prophet is writing
[SPEAKER_01]: peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: But all the people that, especially the political leaders around the world, even sometimes religious leaders will talk about peace, but many times they leave out the most important part and that is the prince of peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: They talk about what we can do to bring about peace, but not about what God has done to accomplish peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when He comes back,
[SPEAKER_01]: He will bring that peace with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will bring the victory with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice how the Psalmist says it in verse chapter 46 in verse 9 and 10.
[SPEAKER_01]: He speaks of that day when he returns.
[SPEAKER_01]: He makes war cease to the end of the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.
[SPEAKER_01]: He burns the chariots with fire.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be still.
[SPEAKER_01]: and know that I am God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I spoke of handles in Messiah, the hell of the Eucharist, that's what that is all about.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about the rejoicing that comes when the Lord comes back, and all of heaven will
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice verse 7, he says, there will be no end to the increase of his government or peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore, the zeal of Yahweh of host will accomplish this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is bringing in the peace?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's certainly not the political leaders.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not even the church that's bringing the peace of this kingdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is the zeal of the Lord, Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Samadhi El, he is the one that's going to accomplish this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this prophecy tells us that he is zealous to bring it about.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's zealous to fulfill his word.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's going to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can be so sure of it,
[SPEAKER_01]: write about it as if it's already happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you ready?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you ready for his coming?
[SPEAKER_01]: It may be today that he will come again.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is coming and He's going to bring with him judgment upon those who have rejected him and His bringing, His bringing with him, His light,
[SPEAKER_01]: those that are ready to meet him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the only way to be ready is to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not by being good or trying to do good, but by being in Christ, by being clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you receive this plothing, this imputation of righteousness when you put your simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
[SPEAKER_01]: Turning from yourself to him and believing in him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for those of us that have done that, we know Christ, we know this joy, we know this light, God has given us peace in our hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's delivered us from the judgment.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's delivered us from the kingdom of Satan and brought us into his light, his righteousness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the challenge for us is to continue, to be steadfast in the Word of God, to not turn away from God's Word, and do not seek wisdom in the world for how to live your life, how to have joy, how to have peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't look at all the things that the world would advertise and say, this is what you need.
[SPEAKER_01]: You must have this in order to be happy, to have joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord has given us all of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be content in Him, trust Him, obey Him, walk with Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when He comes back, when He's brightness fills the sky, and He comes back, we will be ready.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not because we are good, not because we have done something, but because we are trusting Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen, thank you, Father, for this great message, this prophecy concerning the coming of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, only in His first coming, but in His second coming, He's He comes and fulfills the prophecy concerning this time of great joy and peace.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the brightness of His light will fill the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank You, Lord, that You have been so gracious unto us.
[SPEAKER_01]: and that we can know you, that we can know this joy, and our hearts can be filled with peace because we know you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you, we praise you, and Jesus' name, Amen.