Well, if you're visiting this morning, we recently completed a study in the book of Revelation, and I'm inviting all of you together this morning to turn to the book of Isaiah. We're going to look at Isaiah 7, sort of an overview of 7 through 9. This morning we'll just be on chapter 7, as we have the wonderful Emmanuel sign announced here in chapter 7. In a somewhat obscure passage and challenging passage, it seems to me as I was reflecting on this this week, this is how the Lord loves to work to give us surprises in the moments of greatest darkness. And that is the intent here in Isaiah chapter 7. That is found on page 727 in your pew Bible if you're looking for that. Isaiah chapter 7, and we'll read the entirety of the chapter. This is the word of the Lord. In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezan, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, Syria is in league with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. and the lord said to isaiah go out to meet ahaz you and share jashub your son at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the washer's field and say to him be careful be quiet do not fear and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of fire brands at the fierce anger of resin and syria and the son of ramallah ramallah because syria with ephraim and the son of ramallah has devised evil against you saying let us go up against judah and terrify it and let us conquer it for ourselves and set up the son of tabiel as king in the midst of it thus says the lord god it shall not stand and it shall not come to pass for the head of syria is damascus and the head of damascus is resin and within 65 years ephraim will be shattered from being a people and the head of ephraim is samaria and the head of samaria is the son of ramalia and if you if you are not firm in faith you will not be firm at all again the lord spoke to Ahaz ask a sign of the Lord your God let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven but Ahaz said I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the test and he said here then O house of David is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the king of Assyria. and that day the lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of egypt and for the bee that is in the land of assyria and they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the rocks and on all the thorn bushes and on all the pastures and that day the lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the river with the king of assyria the head and the hair of the feet and it will sweep away the beard also in that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep and because of the abundance of milk that they give he will eat curds for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey in that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver will become briars and thorns with bow and arrows a man will come there for all the land will be briars and thorns and as for the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe you will not come there for fear of briars and thorns but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread well in the reading of God's word there one of the things that we often find the Lord doing in the scriptures is testing. He is testing us more and more to live by faith in his word of promise. That is what we find throughout the scriptures, even all the way back from Genesis chapter 22 with Abraham and Isaac, that it said that whole narrative began with, and the Lord tested Abraham. The reason that the Lord does this is that it often shows that we are compelled and often in the course of our lives, trying to take situations into our own hand to find the answer in the big thing. We forget that the Lord delivered Noah by means of an ark. We forget that God saved Gideon and his army with, and Israel with 300. When we celebrate this morning, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, our celebration really does come down to one great issue, one major issue that's before us. The birth itself, even though none of us have ever seen him, comes as a sort of test when we study it. It comes this way to us. It's presented this way in the scriptures as a sort of test. What are we really celebrating? What are we thinking about? What are we doing when we think about christmas and the coming of the messiah are we celebrating it as we should and the very celebration of what we call christmas was years ago in the days of isaiah the prophet the very test for israel which is a fascinating thing to think about that the very thing that we're celebrating right now and seeing fulfillment was the heart of the test to judah what did the celebration of christmas mean what was the test and here we are presented with it as you saw that beautiful little statement in the midst of this of the sign of emmanuel god with us the greatest test had come before the king of judah and he had a choice the choice was a real simple one to figure out here. It's not a hard one. Would he trust in what God was promising him? Would he listen to God's Word? Would he believe what God is saying? Or would he lean on his own understanding and take the former path, take an old path that got Israel into many problems in times past? Or would he look to the Lord for the way of deliverance? We're going to look at this this morning into this somewhat complex situation and i always like to uh to see in these complex situations and passages that are not so easy just to say i want to go preach i'll be honest you kind of want to avoid isaiah to go preach it because it you look at you think that just doesn't feel a lot like christmas celebration stuff does it it's a bit of a struggle there's nothing really sentimental about it. But it's in the midst of this dark, obscure passage that we have the greatest light announced and exactly in what we're celebrating. So an answer is here that we should consider. To listen and believe then what God has said is his answer to us is here in front of us in a unique and powerful way. The first thing I want you to notice here, if you look in the scriptures and look at isaiah chapter 7 is that an hour of crisis had come upon judah an hour of crisis king ahaz king ahaz king of judah you'll notice here uh is is the king now but if you were to compare with uh other statements for instance what the kings say about ahaz this was not a good man oftentimes we find this with the kings that these kings had greatly defected against the lord and did things that were terrible this is the description of ahaz in second king 16 he walked in the way of the kings of israel indeed he made his son pass through the fire you understand that i trust he sacrificed his son he burnt alive his son to false gods according to the abominations of the nations whom the lord had cast out from before the children of israel he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places on the hills and under every green tree that's a bad list but this morning we studied the beginning and the most important and actually terrible of his great choices in this life that led to that kind of course in the whole course of his life this was before us the event that led to his downfall the event you'll notice that this uh huge crisis has come upon judah you look at verse one in the days of ahaz son of jotham son son of uzziah king of judah resin king of syria and pika son of remaliah the king of israel came up to jerusalem to wage war against it but could not yet mount an attack against it when the house of david was told syria is in league with ephraim that's israel the northern kingdom the heart of ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind the announcement was made a strange uniting had just happened of syria and the northern kingdom they've aligned and they're coming right for judah they're coming right to destroy judah it's hard to um to somewhat bring a threat like this home to us, isn't it? I thought about it. It really is. It would be like North Korea and China uniting, and they are coming within three days by the millions in droves to the U.S. to conquer, invade it, and destroy it. A massive army. That's what this is. This massive army is mounted up. They're three days away. The verse leaves us with a powerful illustration of how scared Judah was at this that Ahaz and all of Judah's hearts were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind swaying in fear utter panic in the nation ever watched forest trees and strong winds it looks like the whole forest is shifting and moving it's exactly what the nation is doing they are absolutely horrified at this thought here is one of the great moments of testing a great moment utter panic i don't know how many of us have ever been in utter panic in life absolute panic uh what is about to happen is so distressful so be honest most of us are so comfortable and have had such a comfortable life uh we have not been in this kind of situation i was thinking the other night when that rocket thing from vandenberg spacex shot up and i'm looking at it thinking what if i thought that was a north korean nuke coming right at me right now right i might get a sense of the panic everyone's talking nukes and bombs and these sort of things in verse three in the midst of all this distress of the nations and all the upheaval of all the unrest psalm two here comes here comes god's prophet I love moments like this. Here comes the prophet. Here comes Isaiah. And Isaiah comes, this preacher, to the forest-moving house of Judah. The real truth of the matter now is put before Ahaz, King Ahaz. And the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear Jashub, your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the washer's field and say to him, be careful, be quiet. Don't fear. Don't let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps. I love the Lord calls them stumps. Firebrands at the fierce anger of Rezin in Syria and the son of Remalia. Because Syria with Ephraim and the son of Remalia has devised evil against you saying, let us go up to Judah and terrify it. Let us conquer it for ourselves and set up the son of Tabiel as king in the midst of it. So Emmanuel's land is threatened. It says that later in chapter 8. Thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand, it shall not come to pass. It's an amazing moment in the midst of the most terrifying event that could happen that the Lord is coming and saying, do not fear. When the Lord says, do not fear, he means, do not fear. He's been saying this to us our whole lives, hasn't he? Do not fear. The Lord sends Isaiah and his son to meet Ahaz at the aqueduct, the pool, their water supply. It's clear what's happening. Ahaz is worried about that. Ahaz is concerned if they take out the water supply, it's over. So you can imagine him coming out and looking at the water supply, thinking of how to fortify it, how to defend it. Without water, it would only take a few days and they would be done. I remember years ago in Phoenix that one of the guys who I talked to worked for the waterworks there. He said, all it would take in Phoenix. I noticed there's some people from Phoenix here today, sorry. One barrel to be dumped in that water to pollute the whole thing. Somebody to sabotage the water source in Phoenix. here comes isaiah water source mounting armies coming it's interesting what isaiah's son his name means share jashub a remnant will return a remnant will return so isaiah has a sign in his own son right there as a matter of fact two signs are coming in his son there's another son isaiah has in the next chapter and it comes with a powerful message to judah be careful be quiet do not fear don't let your heart become faint because of these firebrands because of these stumps that i'm going to deal with they may have fierce anger they're not going to do anything it shall not stand it shall not come to pass you listening to me ahaz you see those great armies over there they're going to make no headway they're not going to touch you they're going to have no real power as for ephraim as for the northern kingdom in 65 years they're done and that happened. That happened. Now, why this story in the midst of all of this? What is the Lord wanting us to see and what is the Lord wanting us to learn from it? These two kingdoms have announced their plans, but here comes the human and divine perspective of things. There's no way, humanly speaking, Ahaz can save himself. There's no way. There's no way, humanly speaking, he can stop this and that gets to the heart of things that gets to the heart of the passage this morning if things were on just mere uh whims of chance and fortune and that was the determining factor of what was to happen then we could live in fear but if there is a god who is the god of israel if there is a god who is the god of jerusalem if there is a god who is in control of it all why then are we trembling is not god enthroned does he not live does he not reign it's been the entire perspective of the book of revelation hasn't it is he not king does he not hold all things in his hand what can man do to you you should be calm ahaz you should consider your ways ahaz for your fear and your swaying as a wind of the tree doesn't it all belong to a believing heart it won't succeed so so the choice the choice is right there in front of them you can look at the mountain of armies that are coming against you and if you do there's one conclusion if you look that way at things there's one conclusion you have we will not make it we will not make it or you could listen to the words of the prophet the preacher In hope, you could believe against hope, God will save you. You see it? That's what you have right now. Mounting armies and the prophet's words, the preacher's words. By the way, is this sounding any bit familiar to life? Hopefully, I'll get there. What's presented is the heart of the matter. if you will not believe verse 19 you will not be established it's what it says here if you're not firm in faith you will not be firm at all that's the heart of this isn't it faith all of this may seem somewhat disconnected from you you exist right now maybe um depending on how life is going you're a little bit out of touch with reality like I often am buried in my own little life no idea of how humanly speaking everything is against us everything sin is too powerful many of you right now are stuck in sins and you know how powerful it is and you are guilt ridden over it or if we're like simple or sloth we don't care i don't know this is mounting armies against us a spiritual realm of darkness that comes at us all the time and throws everything it can at you and you go every day unwilling to realize how the lord keeps you from all of that been a good life i've had a good life but it's his preserving that's kept me to this day and the reality is i look at life and i'm worried all my worry and all the fear proves that i'm trying to preserve life myself all the fear all the worry proves that there are moments though when these distressing events come in the course of one's life there are moments when these distressing events come and then we're tested as to where we are. God is always coming in the midst of this. God is always coming. This is what pastors are supposed to do. That's why the message has to be the same all the time because people are always in different places and in different periods of life and then these distressing moments come. Some come now for some. Some come tomorrow. But the pastor always is giving the same message isn't he god is always calling come trust me i've taught you what faith is your whole life deep leaning of reliance upon my word deep uh leaning and trust that i can and will deliver you what do you have to fear imagine the scenario there stood isaiah with his son a remnant shall return are you the remnant have you believed if you put your trust in me you'll be established how how look at that look at look at what's mounted up look what's coming here we come to the most important moment of anyone's life it really is you see how the gospel call always unfolds to us in every place. The decision to trust in the Lord has far-reaching consequences. Judah, depending on the direction they would go, would be established or what would happen to them for the next 2,000 years. The crisis and test that has been set before Ahaz comes as a call to faith. A call to faith. Will you believe me? And the Lord asks that us today. Will you believe me? Will you believe me? Sloth, will you believe me? Simple, will you believe me? Formalist, will you believe me? Presumption, will you believe me? Hypocrite, will you believe me? God had promised to David there would never fail to sit on the throne a king and that that kingdom would be established forever. And then God does something remarkable here, doesn't he? At the moment of this crucial time in Judas history of one of the greatest crisis that has ever happened god does something absolutely remarkable ask a sign of me ask a sign of me i don't want you to worry about it if you can go as far down or as high as you want ask the sign i'll give it to you ahaz i will not ask nor will i test the lord that's the hypocrite right there that sounds pious but he wants nothing to do with faith he has already made up his mind you know what ahaz had decided well second kings tells us then resin king of syria and pika the son of remalia king of israel came up to jerusalem to make war and besieged ahaz but could not overcome him. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, saying, ready, I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me. Stop. What? Assyria, come up and save me. Save me from the hand of the king of Syria and the hand of the king of Israel who rise against me. Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the house of the lord he's selling the house and in the treasuries of the king's house and he sent it as a present to the king of assyria his mind was made up boy well notice the formal hypocrisy here i will not test the lord he had already decided in his mind that's the only way i can be saved i can be saved he knew that if he asked a sign of something from the Lord, guess what? He'd have to believe it. He'd have to believe it. You expect me to believe that? His course was planned. It was already decided. It was John Wesley who once said, if we will not believe God, we will believe anything. It's so true. So true. It was at this moment that the fate of Jerusalem was decided for thousands of years. And all that had to do with this moment and this test. This test. In fact, I should say that one of the most troubling things about Israel's history was the generational struggle to believe. You had pillars in one generation who built, the kingdom was built. Look at what happened. And these saints believed the gospel. These saints listened to God's word. And then it was like the next generation. And then the generation that came after that completely abandoned it. They became simple. They became sloth. They became presumption. They were so wise, though, in their own thinking. And they cast off the Lord. You've got an entire study of the nation of Israel to see this problem of generational departure from the Lord. What happened? And it goes on today. It's been a striking thing to see the conviction of the generations thrown out by new ones. Striking. All with a rolling of the eye in arrogance. That's this. That's this. What was the heart of it? Here's the heart of it. God's work among us is little. God's work among us is little in our estimation. God's work among us. One verse in chapter 8, look over to. This is worth every bit of looking down and seeing it. In as much as these people refuse the waters of Shiloh that flow softly. That verse is, I'll look at it tonight. It's just a remarkable, remarkable section here. Actually, it's verse 6. It's a statement saying God's work is not very exciting among us. God's work is just not very much among us, and we're not very impressed with God's work. That was the attitude. This is exactly why we give more attention to anything and everything in this life that brings us more happiness, we think, than the Lord. And the result is we give Him only what we have to because we're not that impressed with Him. We're not that impressed with Him. Sports is way more, at least it's something we could see, at least it's something powerful. This is just not that impressive. So we'll give Him what we have to. Well, the preacher responds, Hear now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will you weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Stop. This is an amazing moment. If God says, okay, you don't want the sign, I'll give you the sign. Well, it could have been a sign of judgment, couldn't it? In some ways it would be. This child would be destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel. But this is a wonderful sign He's about to give. What would it be? You'd think He'd rend the heavens and show us something absolutely glorious so that we would believe, right? He'd give us the biggest thing ever. Yeah, He would. Yeah, He would. What is it? Behold, the virgin shall conceive. And bear a son. And you shall call his name. Emmanuel. Translated, God is with you. Remember what I said at the beginning. In the darkest moments of Scripture comes the greatest announcements. Remember Genesis 3? When the fall came, came the greatest announcements. Of announcements. What a God you have. You treat him this way and he responds this way. What a God you have. Behold, a virgin shall conceive. I'm going to do something wonderful. I'm going to give you a child. Behold, Adonai will give you the sign. The all-powerful one will come and do it for you. Listen to the sign. He is Emmanuel. He is the bringer of salvation for you. Ahaz, you're looking to Assyria to save you. This is the sign. This is the sign. What you refuse and consider and think God's way is little. God's not doing much for you. God's not helping you is the biggest answer he could ever give you. He just gave you him. And now, I believe Dr. Godfrey tomorrow is preaching Matthew 1. Now you understand it, don't you? Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take you Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins. And don't miss who Jesus is. So all that was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet Isaiah. saying behold the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel which is translated God with us Jesus is God with us Ahaz wouldn't believe and the consequence for Judah for years was generational the Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people in your father's house days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from judah darkness enveloped the people of god you know a lot of darkness between these two testaments of the old and the new to tell us to think about this ahaz would trust in his own understanding he would soon call this assyria for aid and not the lord he would covenant with them he would sacrifice to their gods he would burn his own sons in the fire oh my and in response god would turn assyria on ahaz and destroy him that's what happens with idolatry it turns around and consumes you and you see this becomes the great point of the passage today does the lord test us this morning what do we find great what are we celebrating let me ask you this is the lord little in your eyes today is his work unsatisfying to you do you think there's power in this i think there's real power in this or do you say who knows if all this is true who knows again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who on finding one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it god comes to you testing you today the way of deliverance will never seem to fix anything in your lives at present at times it may seem little foolish in the eyes of the world but it's precisely the nature of saving faith to believe in him and the things that are little in our eyes as the way of his deliverance as the way of his help here was a choice to find deliverance in the mighty king of Assyria or a baby born to a virgin what strength is there what strength is there and here's your choice you go forth in this test and some test will come and choose what you think is the way as we are bent to solve all of our problems and distresses of this life and have our best life now and then bring darkness upon yourself or look to his answer. Believe his answer and find real strength because the kings and the chronicles tell us the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him. He wants to show Himself strong for you. He has spoken in His Word. He's made promise after promise. And the heart of the entire Word of God, it comes down to this central truth. This is the heart of the Word of God this morning. If you haven't understood anything about the Bible, you can get to it right here in this simple truth in the middle of this obscure passage. This is the heart of it all. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. He'll do it. God cared so much for you. Think about the gift he gave you this time of year. Boys and girls, you all are excited to get gifts. My kids are excited to get gifts. The greatest gift has been given to you. God gave his son who is Emmanuel, God with us, to save you. To deliver you, to love you, to remove the bars, to give you life. God has given you a king, that's tonight, and a kingdom that can never be shaken. The government's going to be on this child's shoulders forever. The Lord comes to you today. Do you need a sign? Do you need a sign? What are you fearing? I want to close here with the words of Martin Luther. Fear not, said the angel. I fear death, I fear the judgment of God, the world, hunger, and the like. The angel announces a Savior who will free us from fear. Not a word is said about our merits or works, but only of the gift we are to receive. When I die, I see nothing but sheer blackness except for this light. Unto you is born this day a Savior. The Savior will help me when all else fails. When the heaven, the stars, and all the creatures glower, I see nothing in heaven and earth but this child. If for the sake of this child a man could count all gold and goods, all power and honor as blackness, if compared with this child the stars in heaven and all the treasures of the earth was nothing, then he would know the true use of the angel's message. What a beautiful statement. That's the issue. Do you know what you have? Do you know what you've been given? If you do, then you know the one who is strong to save you. You know the one who has delivered you from all your sins. You know the one who's promised you heaven. You know the one who's given you life. God Himself is with us. Why are you fearful then, O my soul? Psalm 42. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God. The help of my countenance and my God. He is your joy. Rejoice. Born to this day in the city of David is the Savior who is Christ the Lord. Believe in him and you will live. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for these words. This morning from the book of Isaiah for encouraging us because we're so much like Israel. We are at times so much like these figures of John Bunyan who mentioned sloth and simple and presumption and formal and hypocrite. Let us be believing today and treasure this joy that You've given to us in the birth of Your Son who not only lived but died and rose again and believing may we know that we have life in his name and would that give us such confidence and peace in this life but that's the real peace that matters peace between god and man and when we have that we have everything help all those who doubt today turn their hearts to you in belief and thank you for your wondrous word it gives us such a precious answer in the birth of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.