A couple of scripture readings. The first one is from Isaiah, two different places, chapter 7, verse 14, and then chapter 9, verses 6 and 7, they're actually connected. The greater context goes from the beginning of chapter 7 through chapter 12, but this is what God says through his prophet Isaiah. Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. And then from chapter 9, for to us, a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and 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 in on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. From this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will it do this. And then from the New Testament, Luke's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 26 through 38, I love the sound of hearing pages turned, I would say take your time, but I won't say hurry up. God's Word says in this place, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a Virgin, be trod to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the Virgin's name was Mary, and he came to her and said, greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you, but she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a Virgin? The angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the son of God, and behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age has conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God, and Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word, and the angel departed from her. Our children are, if you are going to follow along in the Scriptures today, you have to let your fingers do the walking, maybe a little trotting or galloping, we will be looking at all the passages that we have used in the service, pretty much at least the call to worship and the advent lesson as well as the Scriptures that I read to you earlier in the service. Before we look at it, though, I want to make just one more announcement. We need some help in the nursery, volunteers in there, and you don't have to be a parent of a nursery-aged child to work in there. In fact, it's kind of nice if people, men and women, volunteer who don't have children in the nursery so that the parents are able to come and to worship, and if they have young children, Lord willing, they'll stay awake in the service as they may not be getting all the sleep they need at night, and you can minister to them greatly by helping out in that ministry. Consider it and put some feet to your faith if that's an area that God would call you to serve. So today is the first Sunday in Advent. We begin what we call the Advent season. There's four Sundays in Advent and there is a tradition and various churches have various traditions about the prophecy candle or the hope and joy and love and peace in the various aspects of the lighting of an Advent candle and such, and we aren't very careful or we don't hold to a specific tradition that you have to like prophecy candle the first week or third week or anything like that, but we do use the time to think about our Lord Jesus Christ and to put the theme of the services to remembering the prophecies concerning the coming of Jesus, both for his first visit, first Advent as well as the fact that he will be coming again. And this year, the kind of the focus goes this way, well today we'll look at the promises regarding the coming of the Messiah, just a couple of them obviously. Next week we'll talk about preparation for the Messiah, you think about the ministry of John the Baptist and Isaiah 40, comfort, comfort, G my people, prepare a way for the Lord that passage. The third week in Advent we'll talk about the propitious prophet speaking of course of our Messiah and in the fourth week the purifying priest, but this morning we're talking about the promises of God and you may have noticed that we are focusing specifically on those promises that speak of our Lord Jesus Christ and even at that just a few of them, but that's the theme, the promises of God, there's three very simple points and Lord willing, he'll bless us to us and encourage us with things that we kind of already know but can grow in our relationship with him as we focus on them and think about them. So here's the first point, very easy for us to grasp. God makes and keeps promises to people, see in that easy God makes and keeps promises to people. We've seen that in the readings today, the call to worship talked about the covenant that God made with David, the oath that he swore to him and that's the language of the Scriptures and keeping promises, a covenant promise, a covenant oath where he swears by himself that he will bring it about. We saw the promises reiterated in the Advent reading about how the Psalmist said in verse 20, I have found David my servant with my holy oil, I have anointed him and listen to this, this is an amazing promise, the nine verses, twenty through twenty nine are just filled with promises. Here's one, so my hand shall be established with him, my arm also shall strengthen him. I just find that amazing when God says my hand will be established with him, he's saying that he himself, God the Father, Almighty will establish the work he is doing through this promised Messiah, the Son of David and it's one promised promise after another, the next one, verse twenty two says, the enemy shall not out with him, the wicked shall not humble him, I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. Now we're not going to focus on this particular section a lot later on, so let me just mention right now you may hear that promise and say, what's up with that? They killed the Lord Jesus Christ, that was humbling, humiliating and this sort of thing and well yeah there's an aspect about it, but only if we look simply at what God does on earth in a very temporal sort of way, but from the eternal perspective and from the mind of God and the will of God, Jesus won the victory, he wasn't outwitted, when Satan came to tempt him, Satan was not able to get him to sin and when Jesus was put to death he won the great victory at the cross and beat Satan at that point, so that Colossians chapter two will speak about that and say that in verse 15, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, triumphing over them through his cross, that's just kind of an amazing truth, it is true and the promises of God are there made and we can see they're a little bigger than David they go to us, but God made promises to David about his son, descended of his, he made promises to Ahaz, Ahaz is the king that's in view who Isaiah is talking to with that passage about Isaiah 714, I'll give you a sign myself, the Virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel, that promises actually based on some other promises, we'll talk a little bit more about it in the other points, but this is a very simple point, God made promises to not only David but to Ahaz, the king, the promises in the second reading from Isaiah chapter 9 that passage I think we're all familiar with, especially if you listen to Handel's Messiah, 4 unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders, that's in the same context, it's actually filling out the name of God, it's kind of interesting, his name is Emmanuel, wonderful counselor, Prince of Peace, mighty God, these kind of terms and in the New Testament when the promise is made to marry his name is simple, it's Jesus because he will save his people from this sin, so the Messiah has and goes by many names and they all speak about his ministry, but there's promises to David, promise to Ahaz, promise to Mary, the promise to Mary is just beautiful, you will conceive in your room and bear a son, he will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end, profound promise and clearly built upon the Old Testament promises through the prophets earlier on and I just want to say he makes promises to us, it's clear by extension, we'll talk a little bit more about this in the third point, but just for now we can see that it was a specific promise to David, to King Ahaz, to Mary, but as he speaks about promises concerning the coming of the Messiah, they have ramifications that impact us, how can he be Almighty God, Prince of Peace, God with us Emmanuel, these sorts of things without it impacting not only the person the promise is made to, but all of us, they do have impact to us and even the gospels make it clear that we should understand it that way, Paul, in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 2 says, for all the promises of God find their yes in him, that is why it is through him that we utter are amen to God for his glory, all the promises find their yes in Jesus Christ, all the promises concerning Jesus impact the lives of us even when they're made to the particular, to David, to King Ahaz, to Mary and such, so that's an easy point, we've got that one done, let's go to the second point and just think a little bit deeper about this, some of God's promises seem obscure or impossible, some of the promises of God seem obscure or impossible, let's talk about the narrower search to just the scripture readings from Isaiah and Luke, and the promise made to King Ahaz, Ahaz is the King in Judah during the time called the divided kingdoms, if you don't know what that is, if you're new to the faith or something, don't worry as you grow in the faith, you'll understand, something of Israel's history that King David was kind of like the great and glory King, he was the second King in Israel, and by the time of his grandson, the 12 tribes of Israel divided and there was a northern and southern kingdom, King Ahaz is like the 13th King of the South during the time of the divided kingdom, don't be impressed by that little bit of scholarship, I've got a little chart and I just 1, 2, 3, 4, and who knows, I may have miscounted at that, but I think he's the 13th King of the southern kingdom during the divided reign, he is, this promise comes to him based on a previous promise, this is what was going on in Israel at the time, the northern kingdom, sometimes called Ephraim, and in Isaiah chapter 7 called Ephraim, was planning to attack the southern kingdom of Judah, and not only them, but the Syrians too had allied themselves with the northern kingdom, and together they were planning to attack Judah and King Ahaz's city of Jerusalem, and he was geared, and God said, listen, you don't have to be afraid, I'm going to take care of it, they're not going to come in, in fact within I forget, I think at 67 years, Ephraim will be no more, they'll cease to be a nation, sure enough, 722, Ephraim, the northern 10 tribes, cease to be a nation, but God said, don't fear, I'm going to do this, but God because he's incredibly merciful, often wants to give us the benefit of the doubt and strengthen our faith, and that's what's going on, he says to Ahaz, look, just ask for a sign, and I'll prove to you that this is the way it's going to be, ask for any sign you want, as high as the heavens has brought us the earth, whatever, and Ahaz, not in belief, but in kind of like this self-righteous platitudes, oh, I won't test the Lord by asking for a sign, like he spiritually mature something, I have enough faith to trust, it's not true, he's not spiritually mature, he's not going to trust in God, he's going to go turn to the king of Egypt to look for help, but that's the context where when he says, oh, I won't ask for a sign, God says, I'll give you a sign anyway, the virgin will give birth to a son, and you shall call him Immanuel. Now there's some obscurity to that, the scholars don't necessarily agree with one another, there's various interpretations as to what Isaiah meant to King Ahaz in the moment, kind of complicating the fact is the word that is translated virgin, in Hebrew can just mean young maiden, not necessarily literally a virgin, now the Greek translation of this verse and quotation in the New Testament does use virgin, but at the time, and when Isaiah was speaking, it's just not clear what was in his mind, what is he saying? Here's a sign for you, and if that was going on, then we can be sure that the sign was clear to King Ahaz and he saw it, but it could be that when he rejected the sign, God said, I'm going to give you a sign, you're not going to see it in your lifetime, it's going to take another 700 some odd years, but this is what's going to happen. Now whether there was a twofold fulfillment, in other words a sign for Ahaz that he was aware happened, and a prophecy of the Messiah, I don't know, but that it's a prophecy of the Messiah, no doubt about it, absolutely clear, not only because of its clear connection with what is said in chapter 9, we're unto us and child is born unto us and son is given and the governor etc, but we're told in the New Testament, when Joseph learned that his wife or betrothed Mary was pregnant, he was thinking about divorcing her because even though they had not consummated their relationship, the betrothal was as though they were already married and he would need to divorce her, so he was thinking about that when the angel came to him and explained things to him, kind of like what we saw the angel say to Mary and then Matthew tells us this was in fulfillment of what the prophet said and he quotes that prophecy in Isaiah 714 that the Virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son and be called Emmanuel, so there's no doubt about it, the New Testament clearly teaches us that this is prophetic but it's obscure, there's enough security to it and a sense of impossibility to it, we might not see that but he saw it, big time King Ahaz did, he's getting ready to be attacked by two kingdoms and he's scared to death about it and this prophecy from God, he's not trusting God, he's not walking with God, so the promise is bringing him no sense of peace, no sense of security, no sense of hope, instead what he does is he takes matters into his own hands and he looks for a human way out, interesting to think about when you're considering the promises of God, it happened just like God said it would, God makes and keeps his promises even when they seem obscure or impossible but Ahaz having no faith had no peace, no joy, no confidence, the prayer of confession that Brian let us in, he had it in spades, only he didn't confess his sin, he didn't repent of his sin, he kept in his unbelief and his fear and his refusal to trust God, Mary on the other hand is a different story, incredible, just the beauty of the text is amazing and the continuity of the promise carried on from the Old Testament to Mary and what we have in the New Testament but think about how it would be for Mary, she's receiving this promise as a virgin and when she receives it, when she says how can this be since I'm a virgin, you don't get any sense that there's unbelief, there's just kind of how can it be, it's like okay I believe you but how and interestingly the Lord again he loves faith, even a weak faith he loves and the angel doesn't mind saying oh this is how it'll be the power of the old mighty will come upon you and overshadow you and that's why it'll be a holy child and just to encourage you a little bit more, hey your relative Elizabeth, old lady, barren all her life six months with a son, that's basically what the angel says and then he said those words that are important right, for with God nothing is impossible, God makes and keeps his promises, they may seem obscure and even impossible but with God all things are possible and the difference between those two is important, we'll come to it again in our third point, the third point is simply learn to recognize and trust God's promises for your life, learn to recognize and trust, I want to talk about recognize under just two quick kind of like application points and then we'll focus on this trust for a minute but under recognizing the promises of God it's important that we recognize them for what they are and receive the benefits that come to us, the promises that come to us appropriately and not bend and twist them inappropriately, this is what I mean, if a couple is struggling with infertility it's a terrible struggle but if they were to take these promises made to David or to Mary and say God promised David a son, God promised Mary a son, God gave Elizabeth a son, therefore he will give me a son, that would be an improper implication from the text, God isn't promising you that he will give you a child if you're struggling with infertility, I pray God gives you children, I don't mean to be harsher or mean spirited toward anyone here today struggling with infertility but just to help you to understand how to receive the promises of God and not to misuse the word of God in your pain or sorrow or earnest desire for the good gifts of God, okay. Another temptation is to take a literal promise of God but to take it out of its context and apply it very similar I guess to the first one and we have what's called the health and wealth gospel or the prosperity gospel, you know the name it and claim it, lab it and grab it, that kind of thinking to where if you believe it hard enough, if you say it hard enough, it'll be yours and there's a doctrine that's built on that and there's lots of verses that can be taken because God has blessed some people with a lot of wealth, Abraham, Job, others but think about the context of Job's life too, right. Abraham as well an alien and a stranger but there's a context to the promises of God and understanding those promises in their context is incredibly important and so I want to go back to the promise to Ahaz and the promise to Mary and the ramifications as it belongs to us as we think about how God has made very great and precious promises regarding his son that impact our lives. There's another, there's kind of this context that's going on primarily in the Isaiah passage between faith and unbelief and mentioned that already. Ahaz had no sense of comfort, no sense of assurance, no hope because he did not believe in the promises of God. In fact it was, we could talk about it this way, he was having a crisis between faith and fear or between fear and faith if you will. He was afraid of real dangers, real armies that really wanted to hurt him and his people and the promise of God is in direct contradiction to real fear for him and what is he going to do. Now this does spill out in other things, there's certainly application for us just in that as far as how do we receive the promises of God by faith or with unbelief but God will take it a little bit further in chapter 8. God will address with Isaiah how this is spilling over to the nation because as you can imagine it's not just King Ahaz that's scared about the invading armies, the threatening invading armies and so there's this section in chapter 8 where he says do not fear their fears and do not be in dread of what they're in dread of and don't call a conspiracy what they call a conspiracy but God says to Isaiah as a believer and to the believers through him but I'll tell you who to fear, I'll tell you who to dread God. We can hear something of our Lord Jesus, right? Do not fear those who can kill your body and afterwards have nothing to do. Now there's an encouraging thought but fear him who after he has killed your body can send your soul to hell. Jesus says I tell you fear him. Now does it that warm your soul? You know for the believer yes yes it does because God is good and he is in control and he does bring his promises to pass. There may be people here today that are struggling with all sorts of fears. You may be fearing losing your job or maybe you've lost your job and you're afraid of how are you going to take care of your family. There may be fears about if I speak the truth into this situation with my brother, sister, mother, father, coworker, they will hate me, I'll lose my job, there'll be this problem. There may be relational fears that you're facing. You may be at some crisis in your life and you're afraid because you don't know how it's going to go. Take great comfort in Jesus Christ because he is real and he is the promise, the ultimate promise that will provide satisfaction, security, peace of conscience, peace of mind. It's very interesting to me that in all of the passages now going to what we read in the Psalm, Psalm 89, as well as in Isaiah, as well as in Luke, in all three of these passages there's a very dark background. I cherry-picked the happy text as Pauliana would say. I did. You know we could, it's beautiful music for unto us, a child is born unto us, a son is given in the guv, a man shall be, I will not take you through that any further, but you get the idea. But if you read, if you go home and read Psalm 89, you'll find that what the Psalmist is doing is he spelling out the promises of God and how they should impact the people of God, that God promised not only a son of David, but he had promises about David's, the Messiah's offspring, that would be us who live by faith. And he gets to a certain point, he says, God, what's going on? It's as though the Psalm was written after the destruction of Jerusalem in the temple, which it quite possibly could have been. He says there is no family line, there is no place of worship. These promises are, they're impossible. You go to Isaiah and there's this great fear of the invading armies. And if we would have just read the last verse of chapter 8 about the gloom and the dread and then into 9-1, but there will be no gloom, there will be no dread, and then it goes to speak of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we look at the situation of Mary, yeah, she's of the line of David, but she's a peasant girl. The line of David has not served in the dynasty and the kingdom for not decades centuries. It's hopeless. Rome is over the land. It's a very, very dark time. God has a way of speaking into those dark times. And so if you're struggling today with the darkness of your circumstances, your hope is not based on getting through these circumstances, of keeping the job, of saying the right thing, of that sort of stuff. Your hope is in Jesus Christ. That is the sure promise of God.
He is the king. He already has come. We have every reason to believe that just as God fulfilled his promise in bringing Jesus in space and time through the womb of a virgin, to live a perfect, righteous, holy life, to die, being handed over to the Romans and just the way the Scriptures predicted and all this, if God has kept every single one of his promises, he will bring it to completion. And your hope and your happiness and your security and your life are found in him
and you're comfort in that problem that you're facing really is in him. And thus we need to learn to recognize and trust the promises of God. Even when they seem impossible or obscure and you can't see how they would possibly work out in your life, God makes and keeps his promises. And they are all yes and amen in Jesus. Let's pray. Father, there are so many great aspects of your promises in this text that we've just kind of glossed over them. Grant our hearts to find great rest in security and the fact that you will establish justice and righteousness and uphold it, that the zeal of the Lord will accomplish this, that our Lord Jesus will not faint or grow weary or be disheartened until he has done all your holy will, which is good for your children. And we would pray especially for those who are struggling with some dark issue that the light of your promises in Christ Jesus would give hope and security. This day, forevermore, we ask in Jesus name