This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Christmas” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 25, 1988.
About this sermon
In Scripture birth means hope and barrenness means hopelessness, and God shows his power where hope has run out. In Isaiah 9:6, God’s barren people give birth to Christ. The child rules with strength.
Sermon transcript
Tonight we are reading from the prophecy of Isaiah. We are beginning with a part of the 8th chapter and we will be reading into the 9th. This is Isaiah chapter 8 beginning with verse 16. bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will even look eagerly for him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.
And when they say to you, consult the mediums and the wizards who whisper and mutter, should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living to the law and to the testimony? If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
And they will pass through the land hard pressed and banished And it will turn out that when they are hungry they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. Then they will look to the earth and behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be driven away into darkness.
But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In earlier times he treated the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people The walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.
Thou shalt multiply the nation. Thou shalt increase their gladness. They will be glad in thy presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou shalt break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult and the cloak rolled in blood will be for burning, fuel for the fire. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish.
Father, there is every obstacle to our devotion compounded for. even at these times where you are to be so central to our thinking. You are pushed from our consideration by concerns for the world, concerns for ourselves. We are even liable to make idols out of things that should not, must not be worshipped. Our children, our families, thinking more of them than we do of you. O Lord, we beseech you, teach us your truth from your word, that we might live as pleases you.
For Jesus’ sake. Amen. In the Bible, through the life, it is the child, the child, again and again, that becomes the sign of hope. It is the child that becomes the sign of hope. Let your mind wander back across Scripture. Think of things from the beginning. The circumstances after the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. Think of the man and his wife who received a message of hope in the figure of a child.
There was the promise given to Eve. Her seed would come, triumphing over Satan in time. That seed would crush the head of the serpent, while in fact his heel would be bruised. Did Eve have this promise in mind when Cain was born? You can read the opening of the fourth chapter of Genesis. There we are told that Eve brings forth her firstborn.
She gives him the name Cain, a name that signals something related to the idea of the coming or the appearance of the man. She had received the man from the Lord. Was it that she saw in this one something of her hope? Of course, her hopes were dashed as Cain turned out to be a murderer. He killed her second born, Abel.
And then there came Seth, and once more hopes revived through Seth, that the line of promise is yet intact. We move on in the story of redemption. We come to the sixth chapter of Genesis. We read of a man named Lamech. His son is named Noah. And Lamech looks at that child as if in that child he perceives the fulfillment of the promise, the realization of the hope. The name Noah means rest. Would then God give humanity rest through this one Noah who had been born? the child, again and again, a signal, a sign, a quote.
And that is precisely the way it is when we come to the prophecy of Isaiah. Once more, it is the child, the child, that is to be the sign the signal of God’s redemptive purpose and power. This child, spoken of in Isaiah’s prophecy, shall in fact be assigned to Jerusalem, concerning her deliverance during the days of a particularly wicked king by the name of Ahab.
The king does not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He does not believe in the God of Isaiah. He is one who epitomizes unbelief. And when the prophet comes to him in good faith, at the direction of the Lord, and invites him to ask for a sign, he rejects the sign and the God who extends it to him. But then there comes the response of the Lord through the prophet, and Isaiah tells Ahaz, Therefore, even though you disbelieve The Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and she shall call his name Emmanuel. Translated it means, God with us. Here I am quoting from the 7th chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, the 14th verse. As with the birth of a child, new life not only appears but touches everyone around. So it is in the person of this child, for through this child spoken of by the prophet, God preaches hope to his people, a hope which means for them an entirely new start a completely new beginning. But as hope springs up within hearts at the birth of a child, at the event of that birth, so by contrast, by reversal Hopelessness.
Hopelessness is seen to be joined to the tragedy that stalks humanity in barrenness. With birth, hope. With barrenness, hopelessness. Therefore, as we run through scripture and we take into account the series of births through which hope is revived, we are also there instructed by many stories that speak to us about barrenness.
Barrenness over against hope and life is a testimony to inability, futility, a testimony to death. over against birth and hope, barrenness communicates then inability and places one before God in such a way that one must confess, accept God at my situation. Our situation is utterly, completely hopeless. What woman can make herself unbearable? Who can make themselves able to produce? Who can alter the predicament as we review the stories in Scripture? Do you remember Sarah? A woman who could not conceive?
She will never mother a child. So impossible is her circumstance unless God intervened himself. Think of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the prophet. She too was barren. Her reproach, her disgrace within the nation of Israel remains unless God, in His mercy, Here’s her prayer and answers. These women then, in their barrenness, are lessons to us concerning the people of God as a whole. For it says, if in the woman is the people, in seeing them, the woman, you see the people as a whole. that for which the people then hope, cannot be realized by them left to themselves. That for which they hope cannot be conceived, it cannot be brought forth, except by God.
Note the circumstances in Israel’s day. The nation is divided, North and South. to the north of the ten tribes called Israel proper to the south are two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, described as Judah, with Jerusalem as the capital. In Israel’s case now, the northern tribes, for them Hopelessness has settled in upon these people painfully, as they are confronted with their dissolution as a nation, the destruction of their capital, and the exile of the people.
Now you have the people in the South looking northward. They look northward only to see the ten northern tribes annihilated, destroyed for their sin. That judgment which they have observed to the north is presently moving southward. It is being brought through the Assyrian army, who were described as the Nazis of the ancient world.
The Assyrians are besieging Judah and Jerusalem, and Isaiah has made it clear that the reason why this assault has come is because of the sin of Judah and the tragedy of the life of the nation. Irreversible judgment seems imminent. That irreversible judgment sealed for the tribes in the north and now looming on the horizon in the south.
That judgment we are told As we look at the end of the eighth chapter of Isaiah, which we’ve read this evening, brings with it famine, brings with it such insurrection that no authority within the land will be able to prevail, brings with it the blasphemous rejection of God himself. Before the eyes of those judged Nothing appears in the land now but the stress and darkness, the bloom of hopelessness, and the next stop, oblivion. That’s a rather bleak picture as you come to the end of the eighth chapter of Isaiah.
But now, seemingly, it is all reversed. For man is brought to the limit. He is exposed as one who has no strength in himself, one who in fact brings judgment upon himself for his sin, only then to see God intrude upon him, his life, in order to resurrect hope. Hope will come from no one else but from God. So now, as the ninth chapter begins in Isaiah, God is stepping in to announce that just when things are bleakest, when they are completely and utterly hopeless, just then he will act.
Why? Because then it will be apparent that only he can save. Only he can save. Maybe you’re confused about your life. You don’t understand why things are going the way they are. Things don’t improve, they just get worse. Life seemingly more complicated all the time. You’re distressed at your wit’s end. Learn the lesson. God will bring you to the end of yourself, that you might begin afresh.
He acts precisely in that environment where nothing but himself can bring hope, where no one but him and his purpose can bring resurrection. Thus it is that The prophecy of Isaiah makes such a point of bringing before us the fate of the northern tribes, already judged and vanquished. And it’s precisely to that territory that the prophet turns in his message. He turns to Galilee of the Gentiles. He turns to the land of Zebulon and Naphtholat. Those are northern tribes. already judged, already vanquished. From that territory, says the prophet, from the barren north, the glory of the Lord and the dawn of his redeeming grace will shine forth.
And now it is through this ninth chapter, this almost incomparable ninth chapter of Isaiah, the magnificent picture builds for us through the imagery of the irrepressible light, that he’s going to shine forth from God and his activity in answer to the darkness and gloom. If there was the void and the darkness at creation, into which God spoke and said, let there be light, now you see the gloom and the darkness overshadows once more, compounded all the more because of the threat of death and the tyranny of death. God speaks once more about light. There will be the multiplication of joy in answer to distress and hopelessness.
Liberation is effective. Such liberation as is comparable to when Israel in the days of the judges was under the yoke of Midian and through that rather bizarre and surprising hero Gideon, the nation, is liberated. What do we do with the figure of Gideon? I know what we do with him. We try to turn him into some sort of spiritual hero.
You missed the point. Gideon wasn’t a great man of faith. He didn’t have any faith at all. You know, he used to put the Lord to the test. He said, well, if the dew is on the fleece and not on the ground, then I’ll go dwell. This time, put it on the ground and not on the fleece, then I’ll believe you. He wasn’t a man of faith. He wasn’t a man of great strength.
It was through this man who seemingly epitomizes weakness that God effected his deliverance. At the end of all of this that the Lord is accomplishing for the sake of his great name, there is the perpetuation of a rule, a rule of peace. the fifth verse of that ninth chapter, every soldier’s boot will be burned. Every sponge used to mop up the blood will be destroyed. And the source, the source of this great reversal The reason for the end of the hopelessness and the despair, the darkness and the gloom, the reason for the arrival of such blessings as are spelled out for us here, it is the birth of a child. Through one so utterly weak and helpless, God is going to manifest His power, and that’s the mystery of the kingdom.
You don’t expect it, you don’t even recognize it. In the figure then of the child, hope is preached and hopelessness is answered. We are told in this sixth verse of the ninth chapter, we are told this, for a child will be born to us. Now, I want you to catch hold of the imagery of that line, for a child will be born to us. You might think that, well, he’s just referring to the fact that there’s a child born into the family and all the light and the birth of the child. Well, that’s not the power of the line at all.
You see, the people altogether, the us of that passage, are conceived out here as the mother. You are the mother. The people of God are the mother, giving birth to the child. The people then are seen. under the figure of the mother as, if you will, giving birth to this one who is their hope.
But that birth of hope is not to be understood as some sort of natural occurrence, as if the power to do and accomplish such a thing resided with the people, resided with the people of God, resided with us. Could be brought about by our own strength. For you see, the prophecy goes on. It says a son will be given, underscore that, given to us.
The son must be given to us, because we as a people, conceived under the figure of a woman, are as a barren woman, incapable of producing a child by our own strength. God alone, then, accomplishes the mighty work. And the fact that he must give the Son accents, magnifies, his grace. What is grace? It’s God’s gift, undeserved. His love, extended, undeserved. how great that work appears.
However, when running it through once more in positive lines, we observe the degree of difficulty compounded infinitely. For the woman chosen, through whom ultimately the child will be born, is not one who is simply barren. who needs simply a rearrangement, we might say physiologically or with respect to chemistry, in order to produce a child.
No, you see, the woman in view ultimately will be not just one barren, not one barren at all, but, as we were told in Isaiah 7.14, a virgin. A virgin. all of the power of God, all of the power of God.
The calling of this child, even though here a child ascribed to us is to rule, a child who rules seemingly from birth And he shall rule in a way, in such a way, so as to contrast the misrule that has been observed in Israel to the north and is presently observed in Judah in the south.
No longer moral and spiritual indulgence at the expense of Jehovah the Lord. Neither is this one ill-suited for rule. as if childish or irresponsible. He always remembers, you see, whose child he is. He is the one who has been given by God, but he is, after all, our child. He is the child of the people of God. He rules for us, and his rule is faithful.
So he alone has strength to bear the load. How peculiar a child with strength to bear the load of righteous governance. Calvin says, the discharge of his office will not be daintily with his fingertips, but with the full strength of his arm of might.
The Shorter Catechism says that Christ is our King, in that he subdues us to himself, in that he rules and defends us, in that he restrains and conquers all his and our enemies. But it is specifically now as child that he is portrayed here in this prophecy. He is portrayed in power as a child, and once more that mystery of the kingdom hits us full face. The irony of God’s dealings with the world That irony being that our powerlessness is remedied by one who is himself seemingly so absolutely powerless. But note how the verse ends. You see, this child is portrayed here as our child. And as our child, we name him. We name him. And what is the name that we give to him?
He is the counsel, the wonderful counsel, or, as a counselor, a wonder. In his counseling, in his wisdom, incomprehensible, exceeding all human capability, dumbfounding even those who have been schooled in all that the tribes of Israel could produce with respect to wisdom. before him and his counsel, we, with them, are left speechless. He is the last counselor, the counselor who has no need of any other counselor. He needs no staff of advisors.
And when we see that we have been preserved by his counsel, his wonderful counsel, then we name him, confess him, as that wonderful counselor, the one in whom is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. But we call him also Mighty God. Here is no king who needs, who leaves his advice suspended in air, who leaves his political theory somehow in the realm of the theoretical dangling, if you will. He is not one who is just there giving you pious advice, offering you words that would come forth from the sages of our time, sort of an intergalactic Dear Abby. Nor is he one who is to be cooped up in the sterile quarters of a counseling center.
Rather, he executes his counsel by the power of his might, for, you see, in his might he is a god. And he proves the match for any created force that would arise to counter his rule. and in him we are enabled to endure against all forces, seen and unseen.
Although our child, he is our God. Although our child, he is also our Father, for that is what the passage says. Irony of ironies, we call him the eternal father, or if you will, the father of eternity. That is, the one from whom issues the age to come. All eternity springing forth from him. In him we behold the author of eternal life. He is the father of it all. Life eternal proceeds from him. And as father to his children, those who would name him as such, he gives life in the age to come and tenderly cares for them that they might attain unto it.
And finally, we named him the Prince of Peace. What of that former anguish, that former distress, that former hopelessness, we are ones congregated before this one, and in his presence, anguish, distress, darkness, gloom, hopelessness are banished forever. There is peace that comes that is more than a mere word. There is peace that comes that is more than a warm feeling. Here is peace that transcends this world and its ability to give the same. Here is peace that is everlasting, not of this world, but of the world to come. A peace which passes all understanding, capable of guarding heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
We have confessed the song by naming him. All human titles are inadequate as we take our place in the train of all those who have so acknowledged. Will you stand with Isaac? Or do you keep company? with Ahaz. It’s as simple as that. It’s as simple as that. You stand with Isaiah or you keep company with Ahaz. There are only two choices.
To stand with Isaiah means that you will stand with Thomas, who, before the risen Lord, fell to his knees, confessing, My Lord and My God. To stand with Isaiah puts you in the company of the fathers of the Church, who at Nicaea confessed that Jesus was God of God, light of light, very God of very God. And it puts you in the line of the Westminster Assembly that confessed Jesus Christ to be the very eternal God. So what have you seen?
Can you pick up your Bible, can you turn to Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6, can you read that verse as if you in it were naming the child? Is he, is he after all your wonderful counselor, your mighty God, your eternal Father, your Prince of Peace. Well, if He is, let me say this, you will live forever in light and blessings. If He is not, your judgment has already been prefigured by the destruction and dissolution of Israel. Our Lord, at this time of year, may we take to heart the message that is laid before us, and that clearly, Will we not then name the child? O Lord, and name him with that full appreciation and comprehension of who he is. A child for us, a son given to us, through whom our hopelessness and despair due to sin and death has been removed. Praise be to You, our God.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.