S. Jesus, the Christ of Prophecy

JESUS, THE CHRIST OF PROPHECY Scripture Readings: Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:1-7; Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 2:8-14. TEXT: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulders: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace Isaiah 9:6. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To Him give all the prophets witness. All the Scriptures - the law, the prophets and the psalms testify of Him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence. Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many Messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour. He shows us the world full of sin and enveloped in gross darkness, whose inhabitants are the lawful captives and prey of the terrible one. Selfishness, greed and oppression crush the helpless. Covetousness joins house to house and lays field to field until the poor have no room for a home. Debauchees rise up early in the morning to follow strong drink and sit up late at night to inflame themselves with wine. Their fame is to be expert in mingling among liquors and to be mighty in drinking them. The wicked draw iniquity with cords of falsehood and sin as with a cart-rope. They reverse the standard of morals and call evil good and good evil. They put darkness for light and light for darkness. Repudiating all modesty and humility for inordinate conceit, they become wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Justice, righteousness and equality are outlawed. Hell enlarges its desire and opens its mouth without measure. Even the chosen nation has become a brood of vipers, formalists, hypocrites, thieves and robbers. Chastisement has vainly beaten them. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. There is no room to place another stroke. From the sole of the foot even unto the crown of the head there is no soundness in it only wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. The land is desolate, and the people, perishing for lack of knowledge, grope and shudder under the shadow of death. Across this horrible background of gloom the prophet begins to sketch in startling strokes of light the images of a coming Redeemer. First, he delineates Him as a little child born of a Virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity “a child born” and yet the “mighty God” and the “everlasting Father.” Next the child is grown and has become a teacher. And such a teacher! On Him rests the seven spirits of God -the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equity in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and His very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals. Then succeeds on the prophetic canvas a miracle-worker. In His presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like an hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. A sadder portrait follows: We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startles, all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on Him. The iniquity of others is put on Him. It pleases the Father to bruise Him until He has poured out His soul unto death as an offering for sin. Finally we behold an avenger. He comes out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the wine-vat. Then under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of His kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men. A kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood “And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; … And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.” So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until shores are illimitable. War ceases. Garments rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. Cow and bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child plays safely over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realm none destroy nor hurt, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream? But this is Christmas time. Our men today must not aspire to grasp all the panorama of glory that swept before Isaiah’s eyes. We have to do with the beginning only. We commemorate the birth of a child. Our text declares: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” The “for” refers to the preceding context, which tells us that she who was under the gloom shall have no more anguish. That the people who walked in darkness behold a great light. That the land of Zebulon and Naphtali on which divine contempt has been poured is now overflowed with blessings. That with light has come liberty, and with liberty peace, and with peace joy, and the joy of harvest and of victory, for this child is born. The coming of this child is assigned as the reason or cause for all this light, this liberty, this peace, this joy. Marvelous child to be the author of such blessings! Humanity is unquestionably here. It is a child, born of an earthly mother. But mere humanity cannot account for such glorious and eternal results. A mere child could not bear up under the government of the world and establish a kingdom of whose increase there should be no end. What is his name? It cannot be Alexander, Caesar or Bonaparte. Their kingdoms were not of peace, and light and joy and liberty. Their kingdoms perished. But what is this child’s name? It staggers us to call it His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace! If this be not divinity, words cannot express it. And if it be divinity as certainly as a “child born” expresses humanity, then well may His name be “Wonderful,” for He is a God-man. Earth, indeed, furnished His mother, but heaven furnished the Sire. And if we doubt and inquire, “How can these things be?” it must be literally true as revealed and fulfilled later: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore, also that Holy One who shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” But it is far from my purpose today to discuss the import of these names which express the nature and power of the child, and account for His work. I entreat your consideration rather of a lowlier line of thought whose application is designed to be intensely practical and helpful. The New Testament tells us that the light, liberty, peace and joy of the prophecy were fulfilled in the land of Zebulon and Naphtali when Jesus and His disciples came among the people dwelling around the Sea of Galilee, and preached His gospel and healed their sick and delivered their demoniacs; that His gospel was light, a great light. All knowledge is light. Whatsoever maketh manifest is light. And this gospel brought the knowledge of salvation in the remission of their sins. It revealed their relations toward God. It revealed God Himself in the face of Jesus Christ. It discovered their sins and brought contrition and repentance. It revealed a sin-cleansing and sin-pardoning Saviour. Its reception brought peace by justification and brought liberty by dispossession of Satan. And with light, liberty and peace came joy unspeakable. To just as many as received Him came the light, the liberty, the peace, the joy. And this opens the way to the practical line of thought which it is hoped will be helpful to us all. Are we not prone at times to fall into errors of interpretation concerning the Kingdom similar to those which led ancient Israel so far and so harmfully astray concerning the advent of the Messiah? Either we so fill our minds with the sublimity of world redemption as applied to the race in the outcome, so satisfy our hearts with rhetorical splendor in the glowing description of universal dominion that we lose sight of its application to individuals in our day, and the responsibilities arising from the salvation of one man, or we so concentrate our fancy upon the consummation that we forget the progressive element in the development of the Kingdom and the required use of means in carrying on that progress. The former error breeds unprofitable dreamers, the latter promotes skepticism. The preacher is more liable to be led astray by the one, the average church member by the other. Perhaps the most unprofitable of all sermons is the one full of human eloquence and glowing description excited by the great generalities of salvation, and perhaps the most stubborn of all skepticism is that resulting from disappointment in not witnessing and receiving at once the very climax of salvation, both as to the individual and the race. Such a spirit of disappointment finds expression in words like these: “The prophet’s vision is 2,600 years old. Nineteen centuries have elapsed since the child was born. Wars have not ceased. The poor are still oppressed. Justice, equity and righteousness do not prevail. Sorrow, sin and death still reign. And I am worried and burdened and perplexed. My soul is cast down and disquieted within me.” In such cases we need to reconsider the false principles of interpretation which have misled us, and inquire: Have we been fair to the Book and its promises? Will you kindly bear with me while I submit certain carefully considered statements: First of all, the consummation of the Messiah’s kingdom was never promised as an instantaneous result of the birth of the child. The era of universal peace must follow the utter and eternal removal of things and persons that offend. This will be the harvest of the world. Again, this consummation was never promised as an immediate result; that is, without the use of means to be employed by Christ’s people. Yet again, this aggregate consummation approaches only by individual reception of the kingdom and individual progress in sanctification. It is safe to say that the promises have been faithfully fulfilled to just the extent that individuals have received the light, walked in the light and discharged the obligations imposed by the gift of the light. These receptive and obedient ones in every age have experienced life, liberty, peace and joy, and have contributed their part to the ultimate glorious outcome. And this experience in individuals reliably forecasts the ultimate race and world result, and inspires rational hope of its coming. This is a common-sense interpretation. In the light of it our duty is obvious. Our concern should be with our day and our lot and our own case as at present environed. The instances of fulfilment cited by the New Testament illustrate and verify this interpretation, particularly that recorded by Matthew as a fulfilment of our context and other prophecies of Isaiah, in Matthew 4:1-25, Matthew 5:1-48, Matthew 6:1-34, Matthew 7:1-29, Matthew 8:1-34, Matthew 9:1-38, Matthew 10:1-42, Matthew 11:1-30, Matthew 12:1-59, Matthew 13:1-58, inclusive, of his Gospel. What dispassionate mind can read these ten chapters of Matthew, with the parallel passages in Mark and Luke, without conceding fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecies uttered seven centuries before? Here is the shining of a great light, brighter than all the material luminaries in the heavens which declare the glory of God and show His handiwork. This, indeed, is the clean, sure and perfect law of the Lord, converting the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, enduring forever, more desirable than gold and sweeter than honey in the honey comb. Here are judgments true and righteous altogether. Here in sermon and similitude the incomparable Teacher discloses the principles and characteristics of a kingdom that unlike anything earthborn must be from heaven. Here is a fixed, faultless, supreme and universal standard of morality. The Teacher not only speaks with authority and wisdom, but evidences divinity by supernatural miracles, signs and wonders. But there is here more than a teacher and wonder-worker. He is a Saviour, a Liberator, a Healer, conferring life, liberty, health, peace and joy. To John’s question-John in prison and in doubt-the answer was conclusive that this, indeed, was the One foreshown by the prophets and there was no need to took for another: “Go and tell John the things which ye hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And whosoever shall find no occasion for stumbling in me, blessed is he” (Matthew 11:4-6). The special matter here most worthy of our consideration and which ought to sink deep into our hearts is that the kingdom of heaven was not expanded by instantaneous diffusion over a community, a nation, or the world, regardless of human personality, activity, and responsibility in receiving and propagating it, but it took hold of each receptive individual’s heart and worked itself out on that line toward the consummation. To as many as received Him to them He gave the power to become the sons of God. These only who walked in the light of the gospel realized the blessings of progressive sanctification. To the sons of peace, peace came as a thrilling reality. From those who preferred darkness to light, who judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, the preferred peace departed, returning to the evangelists who offered it. The poor woman whom Satan had bound for eighteen years experienced no imaginary or figurative release from her bonds (Luke 11:10-16). That other woman, who had sinned much, and who, in grateful humility, washed his feet with tears was not forgiveness real and sweet to her? That blind Bartimeus, who kept crying, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me” did he not receive real sight? That publican, who stood afar off and beat upon his breast, crying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” was he not justified? And when the Galilean disciples went forth in poverty and weakness preaching His gospel, did they not experience the joy of the harvest in beholding the ingathering of souls? And when they saw even demons subject to them through the name of Jesus, was not that the joy of victory as when conquerors divide the spoil? When the stronger than the strong man armed came upon him and bound him, might not our Lord justly say, “As lightning falls from heaven, I saw Satan fall before you?” And just so in our own time. Every conversion brings life, liberty, peace and joy to the redeemed soul. Every advance in a higher and better life attests that rest is found at every upward step in the growth of grace. Every talent or pound rightly employed gains a hundred per cent for the capital invested, and so the individual Christian who looks persistently into the perfect law of liberty, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the Word, is blessed in every deed. Willing to do the will of God, and following on to know the Lord, he not only knows the doctrine to be of God, but experimentally goes on from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and is changed into the divine image from glory to glory. In the light of these personal experiences he understands how the kingdom of God is invincible and doubts not the certain coming of the glorious consummation foreshown in prophecy and graciously extended in the hand of promise. His faith, staggering not through unbelief, takes hold of the invisible and his hope leaps forward to the final recompense of the reward. What I would particularly impress upon your minds is the present and personal interest you all, as heirs of salvation, have in these wonderful blessings coming through the wonderful child. Do take to your own hearts the prophetic announcement: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,” and share with the shepherds the interest of the angelic proclamation: “Be not afraid, for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” Let your own lips, singing the heart’s fulness of joy, swell the ascription of praise voiced by angelic multitudes: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased.” Mark the limitation of peace on earth to those who please God. No peace, no life, no liberty, no joy, has ever been promised to the wicked. And now I doubt not there are many Christians here whose hearts are not attuned to praise. You have lost, not salvation, but the joy of it. You are without the true Christmas spirit. Some are perplexed with life’s hard business problems. Some mourn for loved ones taken away. Some cannot be happy because of back-sliding in heart and life. Others are the victims of despondency on account of ill health. Every pleasing prospect is seen through jaundiced eyes. These all say with more or less emphasis: “The child Jesus was announced as the light, liberty, peace and joy of the world. But I am sad; my soul is cast down and disquieted within me. I am in the dark. I hear the lion’s roar. The gloom and horror of the Valley of the shadow of Death make me to quake.” Oh, if I could, by divine help, bring Christmas cheer to these troubled ones! Indeed, our Heavenly Father would have us happy. He remembereth our frame. He knoweth that we are dust. His compassion is infinite. In His Word is the promise to crown the year with goodness. All the privileges of life, light, liberty, peace and joy are secured to us. We may by penitence and faith lay hold of all the riches of His grace. Why not, even now, as a congregation, seek His face? Why not every one confess his sins, and with contrite heart, seek now divine forgiveness for himself, that there may be Christmas cheer in all our souls and homes? Come ye disconsolate, where e’er ye languish, Come to the Mercy Seat, fervently kneel; Here bring your wounded heart, here tell your anguish; Earth hath no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.