Please turn with me tonight to that familiar portion of Scripture in Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah 9 as we read together the first seven verses. First seven verses. Our focus being on verse 6, the last part of verse 6, in particular, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9, beginning at verse 1, as we now give our attention to the Word of God. Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future, He will honor Galilee of the Gentiles by way of the sea along the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. you have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Beloved in Christ the Lord, it's no secret that we are in that time of the year again that seems to turn the world a little bit upside down. I think you know what I mean. Many people are a little bit different at Christmas time. Some for the better. Maybe some for the worse. But some are definitely a little more nice this time of year than they are the rest of the year. Others are more generous than other times of the year. It's a time of giving. It's a time of celebration. It's a time of Christmas spirit. It's a time of holiday cheer. And some even announce that it's a time of peace on earth and goodwill toward men. The world, in a sense, says the rest of the year we can fight, we can disagree, We can hurt each other, but at Christmas time, let's have a little bit of Christmas peace. Yet the sad truth is the world doesn't really know what true peace is all about. Isaiah says again, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. he will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. You see, Isaiah understood what true peace was all about. As he looked, as it were, through his binoculars some 700 years into the future, he looks into the manger where the Christ child lay and he saw the One who was going to have dominion over all things. He saw the One who was the wonderful Counselor, whose Word is sure, who is the mighty God, whose power is beyond compare, who is the everlasting Father, whose kingdom would have no end. He saw the One who would indeed be the King forever and evermore, as God had promised to David, one of David's sons. He saw the One whose rule would be in the realm of perfect peace. He saw the Prince of Peace who would come to bring peace. And therefore, in connection with that title, Prince of Peace, we consider tonight Isaiah prophesies of Christmas peace. And I simply mean the peace of Christ. The peace that Christ came to bring. And in connection with that, we want to consider its necessity. The necessity of that peace. And also the nature of that peace. First of all, it's necessity. Now, there's no secret, I trust, that there is a call for peace. There's a call for peace in the world. Again, in this season, there's a call for seasonal peace more than the rest of the year. It's the holidays, so let's put aside our petty differences. Let's put aside our intolerance and let's get along for a while, at least after Black Friday. You know that Friday, that day after Thanksgiving when the mobs are out there in the stores purchasing. Maybe some of you were in those mobs too. but in those mobs where there's a little bit of lack of tolerance, that I'm here to get my stuff and I want to get it at my price. After that, we can talk about peace. But it's a time of peace, the world says, in our families. It's a time for peace with our acquaintances. It's a time for peace in our country. It's a time for peace among nations. And beloved, we would indeed agree that there is a need for peace. how true that is. But even aside from the seasonal peace that the world calls for, life's experiences call for peace, don't they? Wouldn't it be great if we lived in a world where there was only good news to report? Boys and girls, wouldn't it be wonderful, wouldn't it be nice if we lived in a world where only good things happen? Unfortunately, that's only a make-believe kind of world. a world of our imagination, right? It's a storybook kind of life where we will all live happily ever after. And the sad truth is that the media is filled with reports of robberies and murders and kidnappings and rapes. Think about the news we've heard just in this past week. It's filled with reports of natural disasters and from time to time stock market crashes and the need for cures, not to mention Iraq and Al-Qaeda and Iran and hatred among national leaders, even among our nation's leaders. We have all these things that are being poured out upon us day by day before our eyes and into our ears. We're flooded with these reports and therefore in some way Isaiah's prophecy of a Prince of Peace is really kind of a magic name, isn't it, in a world of woe and unrest. man has always suffered, beloved, from wars and wounds and weakness which come in different shapes and sizes and experiences in the ages past, but also today. And besides those news reports that we hear, there are a multitude of wars going on. The drug war, the AIDS war, the cancer war, the abortion war, the homosexuality war, the war on terrorism, and other wars that you can think of. And even things that hit closer to home. there's discord there's disunity at times in our homes and even in our churches our children and our young people are fighting the battle of peer pressure and the devil's temptations of life the world and life's experiences call for peace they call for peace but what is the peace that the world is thinking about what is the peace that maybe sometimes we too are calling for right alongside with the world. To the world that peace is simply nothing more than getting along. It's bridging the division, the separation from fighting and unrest. Because when the fighting ends, there is peace. At the end of the war, we know there is a peace treaty. A peaceful life is considered to be one of tranquility or a life of contentment. A life with no problems. A life where everything is calm and comfortable. But we have to confess it. No matter how peaceful our lives might be and how good we might have it here where we are at, there's not much of that kind of peace today. Nor was there much of that kind of peace in Isaiah's day. As we think about Isaiah's audience, we know that he preached to a decaying, torn up society in the midst of war and killing and captivity. He lived and he worked in a bad time, in a sad time, as he speaks of the people walking in darkness and of those living in the land of the shadow of death. And today's audience is much the same. We don't live in that imaginary make-believe world like Isaiah's day. It's true, we need peace with our enemies. We need peace with our neighbors. We need peace with our own brothers. And the reason for this lack of peace, beloved, is simple. It's simple. It's because of sin. Well, the world wouldn't agree with that. The world says, well, we make mistakes once in a while. We have a few problems here and there. But what does that have to do with sin? We're not sinners. We're not sinful. But we know, because God has revealed it to us, God has revealed our own hearts to us, that the problem is sin. After sin entered the world, God said there would be a lack of peace. He said there would be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. He said there would be pain in childbearing. He said, curse it as the ground because of you. He said, through painful toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. There's not a lot of peace in those things. Sin is the root cause of all the suffering and the unrest and the problems in the world today and at all times in history. It causes unrest and battle not only with others, but also within each one of us. Paul says, For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do. No, the evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing. And he also talks about another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. Sin causes a lack of peace even within each one of us. Sin causes personal unrest. It causes social unrest through injustice and selfishness and dishonesty and a love of power and a lack of love for one another. And sin causes national unrest. You see, by nature, and this isn't easy for us to hear, it's not fun for us to hear, especially in the season of the year, is it? But by nature, you see, we are not peacemakers, but we are war makers. Paul makes that clear in Galatians 5 when he talks about the works of the flesh. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contention, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissension, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. That describes us by nature lost in sin. There's not much peace to be found in those characteristics. That's what natural man is like and it's because of a lack of true peace. A lack of true peace and that is peace with God. We need peace with God. You see, beloved, that's missing because sin damaged man's peace and unity and communion with God. And that peace and unity and communion has been replaced with a hatred for God and with a love for sin. And it affects all of life. A lack of peace in every single area of life and situation of life flows from a lack of true peace with God. In sin, beloved, we are at war with God. In sin, we do not see God as the sovereign ruler over all things and the one from whom all blessings flow. In sin, we place ourselves, our strength, our knowledge, are everything against God. In sin, we take our stand against the Lord and against His anointed along with the kings and the rulers of the earth as Psalm 2 says. In sin, we despise God's peace agreement, namely, His law. In sin, we have no fear or reverence for who He is and for what He is able to do. And lost in sin, beloved, we are headed for the peaceless destination called hell. In sin, we do not have a right relationship with God. We have a wrong relationship with God. A relationship of unrest. A relationship of enmity. A relationship of war. A relationship of disaster for mankind. Our only hope is that God is merciful and gracious. And indeed, that is hope. That is great hope. Jesus Christ is our hope. He came to restore that peace. That's Isaiah's message of comfort to those who needed a little good news back then. And that same good news is real and it is effective still today. In verse 2, Isaiah says, The people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death. A light has dawned. And what is that light? We know what it is. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, And the government will be on His shoulders and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And we know that darkness there represents a lack of peace with God. It represents separation from God. It points to insecurity and dread. But light points to the very opposite. It points to peace. It points to security. It points to a removal of that dread. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, who is the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy of Christmas peace. In Him we are given hope as we consider, secondly, the nature of that peace that Christ came to bring. What characterizes it? Of what kind is it? There are many things that we could say about the peace that Christ came to bring, but I want us to think about it this way. It was unexpected. It was not the kind that the world expected. We might ask again, was Christ peace simply? That this Prince of Peace would put an end to the warring and the fighting? That He would set His people free physically? That He would rule His people on earth sitting on a physical throne? Is that the kind of peace that the Prince of Peace came to bring? The Israelites would have said, Yes! That's it! That's exactly right! Because Isaiah also says in another place that this child, this Prince of Peace, would come to bind up the brokenhearted. To proclaim freedom for the captives and release from the darkness for the prisoners. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion. Yes, that's the kind of Messiah, that's the kind of peace He would bring. And the Jews in Jesus' day, Even His disciples, before they knew better, before they came to know better, they would have said, yes, that's exactly right. That is the Messiah's task. And the world, much in the same way, calls for peace from hostilities, from diseases, from intolerance, and from many material and physical situations of life. But beloved, if that's it, if that's the kind of peace that our Lord came to bring, then we have to say Jesus failed. If that's it, then He messed up. But He didn't mess up. He didn't fail. Man expected one kind of peace, but true peace is unexpected because it was and it is unbelievable. Christ's purpose was not to bring earthly peace to a world shrouded in sin. He did not come to bring superficial, temporary, outward worldly peace. His peace was not simply a truce for a little while. The news reports today are as depressing as ever. As far as the world conceives, there is no peace. But you know what? That's good news for the believer. That's good news for the believer. Now the world will say, now wait a minute you Christian. There you go again. No tolerance. You like disease. You like all those troubles. That's not what we're saying. But you see, that's good news for the believer because Jesus said in John 14, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. He did not come to give the kind of peace that the world calls out for, that the world thinks is appropriate. He came to bring a much greater peace. And how did He establish this peace? Through war. In Matthew 10, verse 34, Jesus says, Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. But doesn't that contradict what the angels sang to the shepherds? Glory to God and the highest peace on earth. If Jesus came to bring a sword, doesn't that contradict what the angels said? No. Christ came as a baby not to sing a peaceful carol, but to declare war with the sword called the cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to declare war against that which separates us from God. He came to declare war against that which severed that beautiful relationship between God and man. He came to declare war against our three sworn enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh. He came to declare war against that which we needed Him for most. His ultimate declaration of war was against sin. This prince, this ruler, this leader who took Israel out of captivity so many years ago, rescues the Christian from slavery to sin and Satan. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not come to compromise with sin that tries to prevent true peace. We're told we just have to compromise and things will be better for us. Trouble will go away if you just compromise. He didn't come to compromise with the sin that tries to prevent true peace, but He came to conquer and destroy the power of sin that tries to prevent true peace. That peace that He came to bring, beloved, is much more than temporarily stopping hostilities between warring nations. The Savior's task was far greater than just to release the Jews from the oppression of the Romans or to heal the leper or to give sight to the blind. His task was more awesome than simply to make our lives on earth easygoing, healthy, wealthy, and wise. In fact, those things might not even be involved or included in the peace He came to bring for you and for me. He came to restore peace between God and His people. He came to remove that war that was between us and God. He came to remove our certain defeat. That's His unbelievable peace. Accomplished in an unbelievable way through His life and His death on the cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ lived that perfectly sinless life in our place. He perfectly fulfilled that peace agreement called the law. And because He died in our place and took our punishment for our disobedience, we are delivered from the bondage to the law. We are delivered from the curse of the law. He paid the punishment of our sins as He was crucified, died, and was buried. And with that sword called the cross, our Lord opened the only way that we might find peace with God through His righteous life and His victorious death, He made peace with God. He made peace with God for those who believe. He has removed that enmity between God and His children. Beloved, we need to meditate on that truth. We need to think about that truth every day of our lives. At times when we are tempted to let the peacelessness of this life get us down, The difficult situations and circumstances that we might have to deal with on occasion, we need to remember and believe that that enmity, that peacelessness that was there between us and God is gone. It is no more. And we have peace with God. And this peace, beloved, is not fake like the peace that the world promotes and gives at Christmas time. This peace that our Lord Jesus Christ came to bring lasts beyond December 26 or beyond the new year. It is forever peace with God. This peace reconciles with the Father those who believe by the very same dying that the world says proved His defeat. But that wasn't His defeat. That was His victory. Isaiah says in another place, The punishment that brought us peace. That brought us peace. That is an accomplished fact. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And Paul says, Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And that peace transforms us as believers from war makers to peacemakers. Characterized by the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. all of the fruit which makes for peace. And we respond by the grace of God. As Paul says in Romans 12, if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, not the other guy, but as far as it depends on you and me, live at peace with everyone. It doesn't mean that there's never a reason, a good reason for a just war. But as we live our lives day by day, as far as it depends on you and on me, Let us live at peace with everyone. That peace, beloved, begins in the heart, a heart transformed by the Holy Spirit. See, there is no peace between man and nations if there is no peace in the heart. And there is no peace in the heart if there is no peace with God. Many cry out this time of year for a temporary, a superficial kind of peace. But there is no true peace for them because they have no peace with God. Because they have not received the Prince of Peace by faith. And these same still look around in the world and they see the suffering and they see the disease and they see unrest and they cry out, where is the peace? But for those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God, we have confidence that we have been restored to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord's table. The Lord of the Lord's table is proof of that proof that we have peace with God. We know it's not yet fine. We know that it's not yet complete. We look forward to the day, as the Bible says, that the wolf will live with the lamb and the cow will feed with the bear and their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. Now that is peace, isn't it? That is the final kingdom of peace. That is the inheritance that we look forward to with all expectation. But until then, we live in a world that experiences suffering and pain and injustice and hatred and tolerance. We live in a world where there is no true peace. We live in a world that, as well, doesn't want peace with Christians. Yet, because of the Prince of Peace and our peace with God, we can live in peace in the midst of all these things. By the grace of God and peace with Him, we can have peace when we face those difficulties. And you can name them. Read the bulletin. We have a number of them among our congregation, among our loved ones in other places. And not just physical infirmities and approaching death, but all kinds of troubles of life. Persecution as well. We can face these things with peace because we have peace with God. There's much in this life that makes for a restless, miserable, and disquieted life, yet Jesus Christ gives peace to our souls. That's the peace that the angels sang of. But it's only for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're here tonight and you do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to understand that to reject the Prince of Peace is to reject salvation. And that means all you have is hopelessness. All you have is enmity between God. All you have is that war that will never end. All you have is certain defeat. And you are called to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in whom alone there is peace both now and forevermore. And in Jesus Christ, beloved, we have that peace that passes all understanding. In fact, we don't even always understand that peace, do we? But we have that peace that passes all understanding to endure this life. The world often says, I don't know how the believer does it. I don't know how that person can face death, the last moments of death, with a smile on their face. But we are given that peace that passes all understanding to endure this life and to enjoy it as God's blessing for time as we look forward to His eternal peace. Brothers and sisters, as we anxiously look forward to that day, only God's believers can truly say we will live happily ever after. Now that's good news. That's our comfort. That's the truth of Jesus Christ. That's the good news that we are to promote every day, but especially now as the young boys and girls already helped us to tonight. As we look forward to more proclamation of that, go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born, that He has come, that He has accomplished His work. And may the world be turned upside down with the knowledge of salvation in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, sometimes it's so difficult as we look around us and we do see all the bad things in life. And even as we consider that, as the saying goes, sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes it's all depressing to us to even be reminded that that's us by nature. But yet the good news that You give to us in Jesus Christ far outweighs and outshines that bad news. Father, we thank You and praise You for Your saving grace in Christ Jesus. And may it be, O Lord, that for those who have peace with You through our Lord Jesus Christ, that we would desire to go Go tell it on the street corners and in our offices and on the job site. Go tell it on the mountains with every opportunity You give to us that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He is the Savior, that there is hope in Him. And Father, we pray that You would bring many to the light of Your truth. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen. For more information, visit www.fema.org