Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
All right, well, we're going to go ahead and start our Bible study
here this evening.
We have just finished up our study in first, second and third
John.
And I told you last week that we're going to be starting a a new
series in the month of December looking at the various Old
Testament prophecies of Jesus fulfilled in the New Testament.
And we don't have enough time in the month of December to go through
all of the prophecies because there's so many fulfilled in Jesus
Christ.
Again, another confirmation of his truth.
But I felt like it would be important to go through some of them,
maybe some of the more well known prophecies fulfilled in Jesus
Christ.
And many folks call these the Messianic prophecies, prophecies
that we see in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in Jesus.
And we actually started the study on Sunday night.
So if you want to kind of get the second part of all of these messages,
you can come on Sunday night or you can watch online.
But we're going to be doing this series on Sunday nights and
Wednesday nights in the month of December.
Well, the reason why we started this is because In Luke chapter
24, if you want to turn there with me, just by way of review, In
Luke chapter 24, we see that Jesus himself references the fact
that he is seen throughout all of the Old Testament.
And there's some folks that might say we don't need the Old Testament,
or there's some folks that might say that the Old Testament
really isn't for us today.
And certainly there are elements of the Old Testament like
the Levitical law that we don't, as the New Testament say says
we don't have to follow anymore.
But we do know that the story of Jesus is a story from Genesis
to Revelation.
If we think that Jesus story is only in the New Testament or only
in the four Gospels, we're missing the point that from the very
beginning Jesus is mentioned.
And we talked about this on Sunday night.
This is a reference for you to write down if you weren't here.
But Genesis chapter 3, verse 15 speaks of something called the
Proto Evangelium, which is the first mention of the Gospel.
And that's the mention after the curse, after Adam and Eve, sin.
God says that there is going to be one that comes, the seed of
the woman.
And we looked at Sunday night.
Jesus is the seed of the woman.
It says that the serpent, the evil one, will bruise the heel of
the seed of the woman, but the seed of the woman would crush the
head of the serpent, which speaks to Jesus's ultimate defeat
of Satan and in his death on the cross and his conquering death
through the resurrection and the ultimate fulfillment of that,
as we see in the book of Revelation.
And so last week on Sunday night, we talked about how Genesis
to Revelation is a story of Jesus.
But I want you to see this in Luke chapter 24, by way of review.
There are two individuals that are walking on the road to Emmaus,
and they come across a man.
We know it's Jesus.
They don't know it's Jesus.
And they're discouraged.
Why are they discouraged?
Because at this point in time, Jesus died on the cross.
It had been three days.
And for them, their expectations were not fulfilled.
They were expecting Jesus to be the type of Messiah, the anointed
one, to free them from the immediate bondage of Rome.
But we know that Jesus was coming to free them from more than
just a political victory, but he was there to free them from the
power of sin and death.
And so they're talking about all these things, and Jesus says,
well, what.
What happened?
And they talk about how they're hopeless now.
And it even goes further to say that in verse 21 and Luke 24,
he says, but we trusted that had been he which should have redeemed
Israel.
So what they're basically saying is this.
We trusted that Jesus was going to redeem us.
And in their minds, he hadn't.
Yet in their minds, he didn't do what he said he would do.
And they said, and beside all this, today is the third day since
these things were done.
Meaning it's been three days.
So it's pretty much over.
It's pretty much done.
Our.
Our hope is gone.
And Jesus essentially calls them out.
He says in verse 25.
Then he said unto them, oh, fools and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken, meaning this.
They.
They've missed it.
They've missed what the prophets have said.
And so that means that we as believers today can look back to
the prophets and see the message of Jesus right then and there.
He says, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to
enter into his glory?
Meaning this is God's plan.
This is God's purpose that Jesus would come and that he would
die, and so that he would be able to redeem those in their sin.
In verse 27 it says, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
himself, meaning he went back to Genesis, he went back to Moses,
he went back to the prophets.
And he said, this is Jesus here, this is Jesus here, this is
Jesus here.
And essentially what he's saying is, is I am the.
I am the one that is fulfilling all this prophecy.
And we know that even in the Gospels it says Jesus came not to
destroy the law, but but to fulfill it.
We know that Jesus is a fulfillment of all of this.
And so we looked at a couple of those references on Sunday night.
And again, I encourage you to look back at that.
Genesis 3:15.
And then we left off in Isaiah 7:14.
So I want you to turn to the book of Isaiah with me, and I want
us to look at a few of these Messianic prophecies that are fulfilled
in Jesus Christ.
And then I want us to look at what they mean.
What, what are the implications of these prophecies?
Because a prophecy is essentially this.
A lot of times we think of prophecy in foretelling something
of the future.
And certainly that's what these are in the book of Isaiah.
They're foretelling something to come in the future.
But the prophet also had a role of speaking forth the truth.
So there's foretelling and forth telling in prophecy.
And so in prophecy, this is what's going to happen in the future.
And this is why this is so important.
And so in Isaiah, we see that there is foretelling of what Jesus
would be and who he would be.
But also it tells us in fourth, telling the truth of who
Jesus was and what he would be.
So Isaiah 7:14, some of you know this verse, and you know where
I'm going with this.
This is a Messianic prophecy speaking of Jesus being born of a
virgin.
A very important doctrine to be taught within the church.
And it says, Isaiah 7:14.
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall
call his name Emmanuel.
And so this is obviously fulfilled in the book of Luke, Luke,
chapter one and chapter two.
Mary the virgin.
She was betrothed to her husband Joseph.
But at that time, you have to understand what marriage was.
Marriage was different back then as it is today.
At that time, there was something called the betrothal period.
And betrothal is similar to today, what we would call the engagement
process.
And so, yes, she was espoused to Joseph.
There was the betrothal period, but it was in the period
of time in which she was waiting for Joseph to prepare his
father's house for her to come in and to live there.
And so at that time, Mary knew no man.
Remember, she said to the angel Gabriel, how can I have a child?
I. I have not known a man.
And so this is certainly a reference to the virgin birth of
Jesus Christ.
And that's a reference back to Genesis 3:15.
Remember, Jesus would be the seed of the woman, and that would
make him distinct, that would make him different.
And, and, and we know that in John chapter one, the word became
flesh and dwelt among us, which we're going to talk about in
a little bit.
But there's significance to the fact that Jesus is the seed of
the woman because he's coming to fulfill the prophecy of the conquering
Victor.
And it says here that his name shall be called Emmanuel.
And so some people struggle with this.
They say, well, Jesus comes in the New Testament, and they don't
name him Emmanuel.
They name him Jesus.
Well, that.
That doesn't mean anytime you see that his name is.
It's also in the Jewish culture, a reference to his character.
It's a description of him.
And so Emmanuel, if you know what Emmanuel means, it's a description
of who Jesus is.
Emmanuel is God with us, God in the flesh.
That's all of John chapter one.
That's Philippians chapter two.
It's important to note that Jesus is 100% God, which we will
talk about.
But the Bible also teaches that he is 100% man.
Some people say, explain that to me.
And I say, okay, I can't.
That's something beyond my comprehension.
How God can be 100% man at the same time as he's 100% God.
In Jesus Christ.
John chapter 1, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld his glory.
But it speaks of the Word was God, and the Word was with God.
And so in this case, we see that God with us is a reference to
Jesus.
John 14:6.
Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
Other references in the New Testament speak of Jesus equating
himself to the Father.
He's not the same as the Father in the concept.
They're different in the.
The Trinity.
There's different persons in the Trinity.
And I know this is going to get Kind of hairy in our minds.
But ultimately, what he's saying here is this, that when Jesus
would come, he would not be a figment of people's imagination.
He would not be a creation of God.
He would not be an angel on earth.
There's a lot of different philosophies of who Jesus was, but
the only philosophy that is true and biblical is that Jesus came
as God, but also as man.
God with us, God in the flesh.
He has a personal relationship with us, we have a personal relationship
with Him.
And that's the beauty of what we have in our faith, is that we
have a God who cares about us.
We have a God who is present, we have a God who is transcendent,
meaning he's above all.
If we could equate to God and He could understand the same things
we understand, and we understand the same things he understands,
that would mean that he's not God because He's not above us.
So God is transcendent in the concept that he's not bound by space
and time.
He's not bound by our limited human understanding.
But at the same time, we have a God who is imminent, which means
God is personal.
He's with us.
And what an amazing truth that is, that we have a God that's way
bigger than us, but we have a God who wants to be with us in a
personal way.
And that's what we see in Isaiah 7:14.
So the.
The Messianic fulfillment of that is Jesus coming to earth.
And a lot of times we think about in the Christmas season, Luke
2, as an awesome passage to speak of Jesus's birth.
And it is.
But I would encourage you in the Christmas season to go through
John chapter one, at least the first 14 verses, because in John
chapter one, it speaks of not only Jesus's humanity, but also Jesus's
deity and the fact that he is full of grace and truth, as verse
14 says.
And the Bible really clearly lays out who Jesus is in that passage.
So let's go to another passage, Isaiah, just maybe a couple
pages over in your Bibles.
Isaiah 9, 6, another popular Christmas passage.
You might have seen this on a Christmas card or heard it quoted
at some point.
But again, this is another reference to the Messiah.
The Messiah.
That would be the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting
Father and the Prince of Peace.
And we're going to break down each one of those here this evening,
and we're going to try to cover as much as we can in this passage.
And I hope that it's a passage of scripture that you're familiar
with.
But maybe you'll learn something new tonight, or maybe just
be reminded of something that you've learned before.
So Isaiah, chapter 9, verse 6, it says, for unto us a child is born.
Again, another reference to the idea that Jesus was born as a
human.
Isaiah uses what we would call repetition or parallelism in Hebrew
literature.
For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given.
He just says it two different ways.
But essentially in Hebrew culture, when something wanted to
be emphasized, when a writer was trying to emphasize something,
he would state the same thing, but basically two different ways.
And that's what he's saying here.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
Isaiah uses this tool of repetition to emphasize his point.
Point that Jesus came and at the same time he was 100 God, but
yes, 100 man as born as a child.
And so the glorious prophecy of the Messiah reminds us that victory
came to the earth through Jesus Christ.
He would be a man, and he would live as a man among other believers,
among other people that struggled.
And the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4 that he was in all points
tempted like we as.
Like, like we were, yet without sin.
And so the distinction of Jesus is not that he was different
in just his makeup, but Jesus was completely different in the concept
that he was tempted like we are.
He went through the same physical struggles.
He went through the things like hunger and thirst and betrayal,
but at the same time, he did it without sin.
And so that's what makes him so different.
And so the child was born.
And that's.
That's an amazing thing to think about.
And one of the passages I would have you go to in this realm,
in this topic, would be Philippians chapter two.
Philippians chapter two talks about how Jesus emptied himself and
became as a man.
He became a man.
He came to this earth, he left his heavenly abode and came to this
earth.
And I mentioned this on Sunday, Sunday, I believe what an
amazing truth it is that Jesus was born in a manger.
A manger is not a glorious place to be born.
It's actually a feeding trough.
It's probably the most humble place to be born.
Jesus was born probably in a cave in the.
In the middle of the shepherding fields of Bethlehem.
The reality is, is that Jesus could have been born anywhere as
God.
He left a place of perfection and came to this earth.
Why did he do that?
The Bible says that he did that because he loves us.
And so Philippians chapter 2 is a awesome Passage that speaks
of the humility of Christ, the fact that he could have come and
had every advantage, but yet he humbled himself, he emptied himself
and limited to some degree with his own decision what he would
have.
Because obviously we know that Jesus was hungry.
He could have just filled his belly, right?
He could have spoken into existence, but he limited himself
to be identified with those that he is saving.
So what an amazing truth that is.
So that that is something that is referenced here.
This child would be a man, but he was not just a man.
He was also the eternal Son of God.
And so we go further here.
He says, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
What's that referencing?
Well, ultimately we know that this is going to be fulfilled in
the millennium and for eternity, when Jesus will rule as
King of Kings and Lord of Lords for all eternity.
So the ultimate fulfillment of this promise is.
Is waiting.
But at the same time, we can still see that he is in control.
And in many ways the government still rests upon his shoulders.
And God promises us both ultimate fulfillment of this, but
also at this time, right now, that Jesus is in control.
And so I think that this is important to think about as well,
because as many people think today, that, hey, you know what,
maybe evil is winning, maybe we aren't going to win.
Maybe God isn't in control.
But what we understand is that ultimately God is in control and
the victory is already won, though there are still some battles
to fight.
The war is over.
And I tell people all the time, you know, I've read the end
of the book, and if I believe what the book says, I know what happens
at the end.
And our God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He wins.
And then by extension we win if we are part of his family.
And so the government shall be upon his shoulder.
And his name, Remember we talked about what his name would
be?
He's not literally named these things.
But this mark's aspects of his character in his name shall be called
wonderful.
What does that word, wonderful mean?
Well, in this Hebrew, it's, It's.
It's glory.
It's amazement.
The glory of who he is and what he has done for us fills the
world with wonder.
And I think that's the really the only proper response to knowing
who God is and what he has done and his type of love for us.
And Jesus coming to this earth and doing what he did for us, really
the proper response is to be filled with awe and amazement and
wonder and thanksgiving.
And really, ultimately we'll never be able to completely Comprehend
on this side of heaven what Jesus Christ did for us.
He's wonderful and he will fill our hearts and minds with awe
and amazement.
Think of the word awesome.
I mean, it's a word that we use a lot today.
And you know, we say like this game is awesome or this food is awesome,
or whatever it is.
But if you think about the word awesome, literally it means
to be filled with awe, to be speechless, to be overwhelmed.
And, and that's the result of who Jesus is.
When we recognize him in all of his glory, when we recognize him
for all of his power, when we recognize him for what he has done
for us, the glory of who he is and what he has done for us should
fill us with this sense of wonder and amazement.
So he's characterized by wonder.
It's a reference to his deity, it's a reference to his power, it's
a reference to his omnipotence, it's a reference to
his omniscience, his all knowing nature.
It's a reference to how great and grand he is.
And so there's another thing here.
It says that wonderful counselor.
The Bible speaks of Jesus as the One to fit all of our needs into
his heart and take that on and bear those burdens.
And our immediate, our immediate counselor should be Christ.
I mean, obviously there's a time and a place for counselors,
other human counselors, but the Bible speaks of this case is
that our greatest counselor is Jesus Christ.
We can use his presence and his provisions and his power in our
life for words of comfort, for words of assurance, for words of
clarity, for words of strength.
We go to him in time of need.
The Bible says to, to run to Him.
The Bible says to draw near to God.
Draw nigh to God, James, chapter four, verse eight and he'll
draw near to us.
The Bible says that we can cast our care upon him because he
cares for us.
And there's times in our life where we carry those burdens.
And really we might not even have a human counselor that can understand
our biggest struggle or maybe understand what we should do next.
But the Bible says that he is the great counselor.
And so we really need Jesus in every way when it comes to the One
who is teaching us, the One who is guiding us, the One who is
confirming in our hearts the type of counsel that we all need.
And by the way, the Holy Spirit works in our life in many
capacities.
But I believe one of the greatest capacities that the Holy
Spirit works in our life is as a teacher to teach us the truth,
to teach us the wisdom to teach us to strength, to teach us
the comfort.
And so Jesus is our counselor.
And I think that it's necessary for us to go to Jesus in
times of need.
And I think that's one of the many reasons why God allows us to
come to places of difficulty in our life.
Because the temptation sometimes is to think of ourselves
as our own counselor, that we've got it all under control, that
we are smart enough, that we're prepared enough.
But there are going to be times in our life, and I think all
of us to some degree have had this experience where God is going
to allow certain things to happen to get us to a place in our
life where we recognize our need for his counsel, we recognize
our need for his wisdom, for his strength.
And there's going to be times where we don't know what to do.
And if we had more time, I'd preach a sermon from the book of
James called what to do when you don't know what to do.
But essentially it's this.
The Bible says in the book of James, chapter one, if we lack wisdom
to ask God to give it to us, and he'll give it to us.
And it says that he won't hold it against us, that he'll liberally
pour it out upon us.
And so the Bible says to ask in faith, and he will give us those
things that we are asking for specifically in the concept of wisdom
and teaching.
So wonderful, counselor, the mighty God that's self explanatory,
but it says here that he is not just a God, one of the gods,
but that he is the mighty God.
He is God of all creation.
He is God of all glory, the Lord who rules and reigns, the one,
the only one who is worthy of our worship and our praise.
Often we don't think about the role of Jesus in creation.
But the Bible actually says in the New Testament that Jesus spoke
the world into existence out of nothing.
And Jesus is the creator.
We think about the idea of all the beautiful creations that he's
given us in our life.
Even we are a product of his creation.
But then we also think about how often we turn to the creation
instead of the Creator for worship.
By the way, I want you to think about that word worship, because
we use that word worship quite frequently.
But a lot of times we don't know what we're actually saying when
we say worship.
We think that alone worship is just, we got to get the lights to
the right, you know, setting.
We got to make the right ambiance happen in the room and we
have to sing just at the right tune.
And certainly worship can happen in the midst of a song service.
And there's certain capacities of, of circumstance around us that
can allow us to have a better, more focused worship time.
But the Bible tells us that we can worship at any place in our life.
Doesn't have to just be in a church setting.
That's corporate worship.
And I think the Bible does speak of the importance of corporate
worship.
But the Bible tells us to live a life of worship no matter where
we are.
The Bible says that whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it thy
might.
Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all
to the glory of God.
So the Bible says that no matter what we do, it could be an
act of worship when we give him glory.
So what does that word worship mean?
Well, it just basically is talking about worth.
Worth ship.
Meaning he is the only one worthy of everything that we give
him in our worship, in our lives and our talents and our gifts
and everything.
He is worthy of everything.
And so we are praising him.
And often we praise with our mouths, but we don't praise with
our hearts.
We don't praise with our minds.
We just praise with something out of our mouth saying, oh, I love
you, Lord.
But the Bible teaches us what it means to, to love God.
If I.
What does the Bible say we saw in first John?
If I say I love God, but I hate my brother, I'm a liar.
So if I say I love you, Lord, in worship, but I don't connect that
love to the action in which the Bible says is the manifestation
of my love, I'm not really worshiping him.
That's called empty worship.
That's called bringing an offering or a sacrifice to God with
a impure heart.
The Bible says that before we go and worship.
This is in the book of Matthew.
Before we go and worship, if we have something against our brother,
if we have a sin in our life, take care of that before we offer
any worship to the Lord.
And so here in Isaiah, he says he is the mighty God.
He is the only one worthy of our worship.
He's the only one worthy of our praise.
And so he is the creator.
So sometimes we fall into the trap of worshiping the creation.
We think of the gift as the ultimate blessing instead of the
gift giver.
The question would be, is, would I still love God if everything
that I had other than my salvation was taken away?
That's a tough question.
That's a really tough question.
I mean, all of us in our, all of us, in our, in our Christian mechanics
and our Christian thinking that we've been taught to say, oh,
of course I love Him.
But the true test is to say this.
Is God enough for me?
Is.
Is my relationship with.
With him enough?
Is it sufficient enough?
Or do I need more?
Like, I have you, God, but I also have all these other things
that make me more secure in you.
Now, that's not how God works.
God gives us life and life more abundantly.
And so He.
He showers us with blessings.
We know that.
But again, at the heart of it, do we demand those blessings for
any type of worship, or do we worship him just for who he is?
Do we worship him for our salvation?
You know, if, if, if salvation was the only gift that he gave us,
that would be enough.
But again, he gives us gifts after gift.
And then we think about it from the perspective of, wow, look
at this gift.
And we begin to shower that gift with our love and our attention
and our praise instead of thanking the Lord for giving us these
great things.
I've used this analogy many, many times.
But, you know, if I got my kid something for Christmas, and my kid
looks at me, doesn't think me, but thinks the actual gift itself,
you know, thank you, Mr. You know, basketball hoop, you're a blessing
to me.
And he goes out and talks to the basketball hoop, gives hugs the
basketball hoop, and I'm going, well, hey, I'm the one that
gave that to Him.
Why isn't he thanking me?
That's.
That's absurd, right?
But the reality is that's sometimes how we are with the Lord.
He gives us a gift, and we go and hug that gift and spend time
around that gift and invest in that gift and forget about the One
who gave us that.
And so that's something to think about as well.
So he says, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father.
Now, this is not saying that Jesus and the Father are the same,
because we know that they're distinct in the Godhead.
Why do we know that?
Because in Jesus's baptism, God the Father speaks about Jesus.
We know that in other places in Scripture, Jesus prays to the
Father.
And so again, that's one of the mysteries of our faith, is the
Trinity and the work between the three persons of the Trinity.
But the Messiah as the Everlasting Father is not saying
that Jesus is the same as the Father.
What it's referencing this is that Jesus is the source and the
author of all eternity, all power, all salvation.
Jesus is the author and finisher of our Faith.
And so it does not mean that Jesus himself is the person of the
Father of the Trinity.
It's simply speaking of Jesus's authority over us.
It's speaking of Jesus's sovereignty over us and his power
as God.
And then we see finally there the Prince of peace.
The Messiah is the Prince of peace.
He is the one who makes peace between God and man.
And I want us to think about this.
And this is something that I find very interesting.
And it was something that the Lord revealed to me not too long
ago, it was about a year or so ago, that to.
To have the peace of God in our lives because we all want the
peace of God.
The peace of God, as Philippians chapter four says, it's
the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
So it's a type of peace that God gives to his children that cannot
be experienced by the world outside of true faith and Holy Spirit
indwelling.
And so what the Bible says is that we all want to have the peace
of God, but to have the peace of God, we have to have the peace
with God.
How do we have peace with God?
Well, I want you to keep your finger there in Isaiah chapter 9,
but I want you to go with me to Romans chapter five, Romans chapter
five.
So we're going to get to Philippians chapter four, where it
talks about the peace of God.
And I think that that's something that all of us desire and
that all of us have promised to us if we go to the Lord in faith.
But there are people in this world that possibly might be looking
for the peace of God without finding peace with God.
And so they're.
They're like, if, let's say someone came up to me and they said,
how can you have peace in the middle of this struggle?
And I turn to them and I say, well, my peace is found in the peace
of God.
And they say, well, I want to find that type of peace.
And I tell them, well, you have that type of peace because all
of us are children of God.
If they are not truly a child of God, if they have not trusted
in faith in Jesus Christ, that is a promise that I cannot give to
someone because they do not have peace with God.
Because the Bible says, before we come to peace with God, we are
enemies of God.
If you doubt that, read Ephesians chapter 2.
The Bible says, before we came to faith in Jesus Christ, we were
enemies of God.
It says that we are enmity with God.
We were not children of God, but we were children of Satan.
We are children of the enemy.
But so.
So before we come to Jesus in faith, the Bible says that we are
not at peace with God.
We are not in his good graces, we are not in salvation.
So Romans chapter 5 tells us verse 1, how we can find peace with
God so that we can find the peace of God.
And it says in verse one, therefore, being justified.
What does that word justified mean?
Justified means to be declared righteous, to be forgiven, to to
not be held guilty of the sins that we have committed.
Therefore, being justified by what?
By faith.
So it's the only thing that can save us, the only thing that
can give us declared righteousness of God is our faith
in Him.
It says, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So it's faith in Jesus Christ that brings us to a place of justification.
And that justification brings us to a place of peace with God,
by whom also verse 2.
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we
stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God, meaning the.
The hope, the rejoicing, the joy only comes after we find peace
with God through faith.
Then after that point, we go to Philippians chapter four.
Philippians chapter four tells us more about how we after find.
After we find peace with God, we can understand and rest in and
live in the peace of God.
So Philippians chapter four, verse.
Well, verse four says, to rejoice in the Lord always.
And again I say rejoice.
And then jump forward to verse seven.
Says, in the peace of God which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
We see a theme.
So the peace with God is found through Jesus Christ, and the peace
of God is found through walking in Jesus Christ.
Salvation and sanctification.
Salvation is our.
Our justification.
That's what makes us righteous in the eyes of God.
But then the process continues on in our spiritual growth.
That's called sanctification.
So, so we trust in God to save us.
We trust in God to grow us.
And in that spiritual growth comes what we see there in verse
seven.
The peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts.
So our emotions and our minds, our thoughts, so we can find peace
in our emotions, we can find peace in our thoughts when we bring
everything to the lord.
And verse 6 tells us, Be careful or anxious for nothing, but
in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God.
And so that's how Jesus is, the Prince of peace.
He comes to extend peace to this world because a lot of people
Say, well, Jesus is the Prince of peace.
I'm looking around the world today, and I'm not seeing a lot of
peace.
And, and I'm going to give you a clear explanation of that.
I believe that in the time frame that we're in right now, there
will not be peace.
There will not be peace until ultimately Jesus returns and institutes
his mighty rule and reign for forever.
And the Bible does teach in Philippians.
If you just go back to Philippians chapter 2, Philippians
chapter 2, verse number 10, it says that at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth.
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father, meaning everybody who has
ever, ever existed will profess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
not necessarily in salvation, because there will be people that
will be able to profess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but not in
salvation.
It'll be through judgment, because God is going to judge those
who are in rebellion to him.
If God did not judge those that are in rebellion to him, he
would not be a righteous judge.
He would not be.
He would not be holy, right?
If, if, if we had a human setting and someone committed this
heinous crime and, and they stood before the judge, and the judge
looked out at them and said, well, you know, I know you really
didn't mean to do that.
And you know, we're all humans, we all make mistakes.
And so we're going to let you off the hook on this one.
I think all of us written on our hearts, we would recognize that
that's wrong.
Like, that's that person should be brought to justice because
of their evil doing that, that's good.
God, innately, God, God naturally has placed that on our
hearts.
But at the same time, how then, how can God overlook and extend
peace with people who have committed crimes against him, committed
sins against him?
How could someone living a life of brokenness and living a life
of rebellion find forgiveness?
How can God overlook those sins?
Well, I'm going to tell you.
God does not overlook sin.
And so the way that we can find peace with God is through Jesus
Christ.
Jesus came this earth as the Prince of peace, lived that perfect
life, died on the cross for our sins, paid the price, gave the
payment, conquered death through the resurrection, and extends
that gift of grace to us.
So the Bible says that that's something called imputed righteousness.
Imputed righteousness is that God doesn't look at us and say, well,
now that person doesn't sin anymore.
Because all of us that have been saved for any amount of time
realize that we're not perfect.
We still sin.
So how can God still look upon me and call me righteous?
There's none righteous.
No, not one.
Well, he does that through imputed righteousness, which means
it's Jesus Christ's righteousness on our account.
It says in the Bible that our sins are blotted out.
That doesn't mean that our sins aren't really sins.
It just means at that point, Jesus's forgiveness wipes those away.
So when God looks upon our account, it's not that he's looking
upon us and saying, well, you know what?
I'm going to overlook that person's sin.
No, it's Jesus on, on our account.
Now, at the same time, a lot of people use that as an excuse to
say that I'm just going to continue on in sin.
Well, Paul addresses that, and I believe that there are human consequences
even for sin now.
So, for example, if I'm a Christian and I sin, that doesn't
mean I go without human consequences.
You know, I can be a Christian and forgive him, but I can go around
and doing a bunch of sinful things and I will pay the earthly
consequences for that.
And so that, that's, for example, a Christian who commits
a crime.
I believe a Christian who commits a crime should face the punishment
that the land sets up for that if it's a crime against the law of
the land, the law of God.
But at the same time, there's ultimate forgiveness in a relationship
with Jesus Christ.
And so that's how Jesus is the Prince of peace.
That's, that's how we can rest in that, how we can know that Jesus
Christ is Lord.
Because a lot of times people will use the fact that, well, I'm
forgiven so I can just keep sinning, or that person's forgiven,
so we can't hold them accountable for the sins that they're
committing.
No, obviously in the New Testament, people are held accountable
for their sins, but not in condemnation.
Romans chapter 8 tells us there's therefore now no condemnation,
which means there's no ultimate judgment upon us.
So that's how we can find peace with God.
So we go back to Isaiah 9, 6, wonderful counselor, the mighty God,
the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace.
And then we'll look at verse number seven, and then we'll be done.
We're talking about the glory of the Messiah's reign that is to
come, of the increase of his government and peace.
There shall be no end which Means this speaks of his eternal
kingdom.
This speaks to, to his eternal rule and reign forever and ever and
ever upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it
and to establish it with judgment and with justice.
We just talked about that, right?
Jesus is still a righteous judge with justice from henceforth,
even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
And so Jesus will rule on David's throne over his kingdom for
all eternity.
Now, we know that all, all of this sounds like.
Well, this hasn't happened yet.
Ultimately.
Well, yes, I.
Yes, God has made it right in salvation, but there will be one
day when all is made right, when justice and judgment will be
enacted upon those that are in rebellion, and grace and peace and
forgiveness will be enacted to all those who are in faith.
So God will accomplish His Word and God will work out his will
and his way and his plan in this earth for.
For eternity.
So that's Isaiah 9, verses 6 and 7.
There's so many more prophecies that I'd like to go through
with you, and we will in the month of December.
So if you are interested in these, we're going to be doing these
on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights.
And so if you're not able to come out on Sundays, I would encourage
you, if you'd like to, to find our YouTube page or our Facebook
and you can track all of the different things that we're doing
on, on there.
And so this is a study that I have really enjoyed myself looking
at all these prophecies fulfilled in Jesus.
And there's so many.
I mean, we're going to talk about the place where Jesus was born,
and we're going to talk about.
That's, that's, believe it or not, that's in the Old Testament,
how, how it would happen.
And, and, and the star, right?
We know that there's a star that the wise men find him under,
and that's mentioned in the Book of Numbers.
And so whether we know it or not, there's so many connection pieces
between the Old Testament and the New, and Jesus is the fulfillment
of that.
Now, why do we study this?
Do we need all of this?
Well, certainly, I think it's helpful for us to see that the word
of God is powerful, that there are no contradictions, that everything's
tied together, that Jesus is the centerpiece.
So, you know, we all.
We don't need archeological finds to prove that the Bible is
real.
But at the same time, no archeological find has ever contradicted
the Bible.
It's actually only strengthened the Bible, because of
what they have found.
And so these are all things that just strengthen what we already
have in Jesus Christ.
And that's faith.
Because we could have all these prophecies fulfilled.
We could see archeological evidence, we could see other people's
lives changed.
But if we have no faith, it will not change us.
Faith is the core to all of this.
To have peace with God, to understand God.
Faith is what opens our eyes.
And faith is only given to us by the power of God and our response
to him in the affirmative, to believe in what he says.
And so a lot of people will say, you know, the facts don't add
up.
I don't believe.
I have to see it to believe it.
Well, everything that we've ever needed is right here.
Yes, God will give you extra confirmations.
I can tell you story after story in my own life where God has
confirmed and shown me who he is.
But at the same time, we.
We see it right here.
The, the revelation, the only sign and wonder that we need is Jesus
Christ and what he has done.
And then from there, everything is built off of that.
And we get to be so strengthened in our faith through
just trusting in what his word has to say.
And so I would encourage you to grow, if you want to grow in the
peace of God, grow in your understanding and love for the Word
of God.
Right?
So, so if I want to be confirmed in the peace of God and
I want to be comforted by the peace of God, I'm only going to be
able to find those truths through the Word of God.
Because, like, if I, like, if I say to you guys, there's so many
promises out there that God has for you as a child of God, and
you're like, that's great, but if you don't know what the promises
are, how can you put your faith in those?
And so I would encourage you to look into the Word of God and
read these for yourself to grow in an appreciation for it.
I've said this many times.
I could sit up here and say, let's, let's.
Let's pretend we're in an alternate universe.
And none of you have ever tasted chocolate before.
Okay?
I'm the only person that's ever had chocolate in this room.
And I get up here and I try to explain to you what it's like.
All of you could probably identify, well, it's sweet.
It tastes like this, it tastes like that.
It makes me feel this way.
All of you could maybe in some ways get a basic understanding of
what it could be like.
But until you get to taste that for yourself, that's an experiential
knowledge to know him in a personal way.
And that's the same thing with the Lord.
And there were periods of time in my life early on that I would
have a pastor get up or someone get up and teach or preach,
and they would be talking about all these great things that
God provides and does.
And I would sit there and go, well, I've never experienced that.
There was almost a sense of jealousy in my heart.
Like, I want to know what that type of peace is like.
But for, for many years, for me it was, hey, I want to get that
the short way.
I want to take the shortcut.
I want to find the easy path.
And the reality is, is that many of these truths that we see,
that we grow in and that we understand don't come through the
easy path.
They come through trials and difficulties and testing our faith.
And so I would encourage you to think about it from that perspective
as well.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch
dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast.
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.