I'll turn now to the prophet Isaiah, chapter 7. I'll read verses 1 through 16. Let's hear the word of God. And it came to pass, in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Ramaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved. and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. Then said the Lord to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shear-Jashep thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field. And say to him, Take heed, be quiet, fear not, needn't be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria and of the son of Ramaliah, because Syria, Ephraim and the son of Ramaliah have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, Let's go up against Judah and vex it. And let's make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabial. Thus saith the Lord God, it shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria. And the head of Samaria is Ramaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou uphorest shall be forsaken of both her kings." Thus far, the Word of God to us this morning. Dear congregation, the Lord has given us His Word and He has also given us many other confirmations of the very same thing we find in His Word. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are two of them. They do not save, but they direct this to the one who saves, as does the Word. Baptism doesn't save anyone, Lord's Supper partaking doesn't save anyone, Jesus does. Only those that take refuge to Him and plead that blood. God has, in His grace, given us way more than the word speaking coming by hearing. He has given us many ways in which He, especially in the Old Testament, has given us visual confirmations of the audible truth. In the Old Testament, not that long ago, we heard about the sign of Jonah. And we know that The sign of Jonah was not so much about Jonah at all, but about Jesus. The passage we read today is about another sign, also about Jesus, given to a wicked king's children. Do you remember? Jonah was a prophet, but how good of a prophet was he, really? It's an embarrassment, really, if you think about it, of a Christian. And now God again comes to a very wicked man, this time a king, Ahaz. God has a message. He comes to sinners. Because he doesn't find anyone else. And we have this sign expressed in the name Immanuel and the birth of Immanuel. We want to consider Isaiah 7 verse 14. Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. He said it to the unbelieving wicked King Ahaz. God will give you a sign. You don't want one, but God will give you one. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Now that's indeed a sign because a virgin cannot conceive. If a woman conceives, she's no longer a virgin. And children, do you know what the word Immanuel means? Immanuel. means God with us. And that's our theme. Immanuel. God with us. Amazing. You would think God against us would be more suitable. God with us. The first thing you want to see is an undeserved sign. Undeserved because it was not wanted, it was not desired. It wasn't even asked for. We'll see. Second, an unfathomable promise beyond comprehension. And third, an unspeakable reality. So Immanuel, God with us. An undeserved sign. King Ahaz is a picture of you and me by nature. He was one of the people of God. He was the king of Judah. Of the two tribes. He reigned in Jerusalem. He was one of God's people but he was not saved. He was a wicked man. Lived in rebellion and hatred against his God. Just like us. By nature we don't want God. We don't want to come to God. We don't go to God. But God came and comes to man. That's the amazing thing of the Bible. Man doesn't come to God. God comes to man. It already started with Adam, children. What happened when Adam and Eve sinned? What did they do? Did they hide? But what did God do? He came after them and called them, Adam, man, red earth. That's what the name means. Where are you? And the amazing thing is he didn't come after Adam to destroy him, but to save him. So he comes after us today. Even though we don't by nature ask for it. And so it comes to those who don't deserve it, as it is then, was then, so it is today. He's the ever-coming One. Lo, I come, He said already, before the earth was created, to do Thy will, or good pleasure. So He comes and came already. He came already in eternity in the mind of God. He already declared it to His Father. before the earth was even created, before you and I were even alive. And I find it such a beautiful picture in Baptism too, when God comes to this little child today, and the child has got no idea. Totally ignorant of it. God says, I'm the first. I'm coming to you. He came to Abraham. He came to seed. He comes to us. I want to set you apart. You're going to be one of my people, so that when you grow up you may serve me. What a picture of who we are, even in baptism. Helpless, ignorant. How could we possibly serve the Lord as a baby if God would not provide families in the context of His people, the Church? So how does God come? Like He came to Ahaz. Ahaz was one of the people of God. He was an Israelite. But a wicked one. Well, we read the story. Maybe not so familiar, but Ahaz, the king of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, was assaulted by the Ten Tribes. It was like a civil war, and the Ten Tribes had an alliance with Rezin, the king of Syria. So as it were, two nations against one. Ten plus Syria against the two. They were overwhelmed. No wonder they were scared. It says their hearts were moved. It literally says they were shaken. But they were safe within the city. They read that they could not prevail against it. They had not yet lost. So, they were shaking with fear. Come on Ahaz, cry to God! Go to God! Wouldn't you think that? Wouldn't you think that, children, that if you would be like that, you would pray? Well, he doesn't. We read nothing of that. So, it's not only undeserved, but really that sign that's going to come is unasked for. Undesired. He didn't ask God. And yet we read that God sent Isaiah with His Word. So they were moved with fear, shaking with fear, and in verse 3 we read, Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz. You and Shear-Jashub, your son, take your son with you, and meet at the end of the conduit of the upper pool and the highway of the fullest field. someplace, meet the king, and take your son along. That's another way in which prophets often convey their message, the message from God, in their own name, as well as in the name of the children, or sometimes other things they have to do to visualize the message. And Shir Yashuv is a beautiful name. You probably think, what in the world does that mean? Shir Yashuv. Actually, you should say Yashuv. Because the last part of the word, Shuv, is return or repent. Shiar, Jashuv, is a remnant shall return or a remnant shall repent. Even of that wicked Israel. They're all doomed to go into captivity. But God says, a remnant shall return. So, even the very fact that God says, take this boy along with you, Isaiah, and let this name of this boy be a testimony. Not only a warning, not to destroy, but to save a remnant shall repent and be saved. Even though you are going to go into captivity, there will be a remnant to return. Even the name of Isaiah. Children, do you know what that means? all the ones. Isaiah means the very same as Joshua. Yahweh saves. Just a different pronunciation of the very same name. Yahweh saves. Joshua. Joshua. Isaiah. Jesus in the New Testament. Yahweh saves. That's a name that keeps coming through So the Old and the New Testament. So Isaiah is a prophet. A very different prophet from Jonah. It's about 100 years after Jonah. Of course by nature the same. Jonah was not faithful. He rebelled and he was angry with God about God being good. Isaiah has a total different calling, a different calling and a different way of experiencing that calling. You should read chapter 6 where you read about Isaiah meeting with God and he was just overwhelmed when God appeared to him. He said, Woe is me, chapter 6, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. But then the Lord does something very remarkable. He sends an angel with coals of fire, and touching his lips, not to hurt him, but to equip him, as it were, a picture of the Holy Spirit, to enable Isaiah to speak the Word of God, and to purge him. I laid it upon my mouth, verse 7. I said, Lord, this has touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. You're ready to be my servant and my prophet. And Isaiah says, I heard a voice, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. So then he's willing to go. And he's going to bring the Word of God to the people. But listen to this. This is what the Lord says, go and tell these people, hear ye indeed, but understand not. See indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of these people fat, make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. Now that's quite nice. So go tell these people, but I tell you, head of tied to bone, they won't listen to you. I can imagine Isaiah saying what he said. Then said our Lord, how long? If they're not going to listen, how long am I going to do this? And God said, until the cities be wasted without inhabitants, and the houses without men, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, the captivity, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land, but, God says, but, yet in it shall be a tent, and shall be eaten as a tail tree, and an oak, and so forth, the holy seed, There will be a part that shall return. A remnant shall return. Shear jashab. A remnant shall return. A holy seed. So Ahaz is told not to fear the enemies because they won't prevail yet. They will perish. The time of captivity has not yet come. Both Israel and Judah are still there. Now it's very clear that Ahaz doesn't believe it at all. He not only didn't ask for a sign, but he didn't even believe the truth of what Isaiah was telling him. It's very clear if you read in verse 9 how God tells him to go, to not be afraid. And neither be faint-hearted, don't give up hope, for these two tails of these smoking firebrands, it's just like he says, they're about to already be extinguished almost. They will not prevail. For seven, thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand, neither shall come to pass, But you can read in verse 9 and 11, even though it's not explicitly stated as such, Ahaz does not believe. You can read in verse 9 that almost as if Isaiah is trying to overcome the unbelief of Ahaz, he says, if you will not believe, surely you shall not be established, you will not stand, you will not see salvation. If you don't believe, you will not be established. And still today, if you don't believe, you'll be lost. And it looks like that Isaiah is going in other time, because if we stand we read, Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz. It may have been the same time, but a new word. It may also be a second time that Isaiah goes to Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God. Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. So it very clearly appears that Ahaz doesn't believe it. So, Isaiah, by the command of God, tells Ahaz, ask for a sign and it will be given to you. Ask any sign. I mean, it's like an open and it's like a blank check. Ask the sign of the Lord thy God. Ask it either in the depth or in the height below. What is it? And I will do it. to show you, to prove to you that what I'm saying is true. But then we read, but Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. It's almost like piously saying, I don't want to sin. I don't want to tempt the Lord to ask for a sign. As if he doesn't want to put God to the test. Well, God has proven himself already so many times in the past. I'm not quite sure how to understand it exactly, what he is saying here. Is he piously refusing to put God to the test or is he just going to shut down Isaiah? Whatever it is. It is so identifiable. Can you identify with that and say, you hear the word of God, you know it is a fact, it is true, if you repent and you confess your sins, your sins are gone, and yet you still feel that. Maybe you've been thinking about, if I only knew this, or if I only had that experience, or if I only would have that great overwhelming peace and joy. Maybe you can identify a little bit with that. moments in your life that you wondered, is it really true? Immanuel, God with us, is it really true? How many signs do we have already? Not only baptism in the Lord's Supper, but we had the sign of Jonah, we saw how that worked out. Now with this sign, God himself, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. So it's an undeserved sign. In Jonah's day, The people didn't deserve a sign. In AS day, the people didn't deserve a sign. Today, we don't deserve a sign. But God moves along. And He gives an unfathomable promise. God with us. In the end, fathom of promise, the word fathom means measurement. It's a measurement of six feet, actually. That's what the sailors used to measure how much water was underneath their ship. They would have a rope that would go down with the weight. And every six feet, that's one fathom. And it would need a certain number of fathoms to see it's safe to go on sailing there. So unfathomable means there is no end to that depth. Nor the height. Because even that promise, He said, whatever you will ask, either in the depths or in the height above, you could not out ask God for a sign because of this thing signified is far greater. The unfathomable promise is not necessarily the virgin having a child, but really the unfathomable promise is God with us. Calvin says, do we tempt God when we accept what he offers to us? Do we tempt God when he offers to us something and then we accept it? Calvin says certainly not. Ahaz is tempting God by not believing and by not asking for a sign. It's entirely the opposite of what he thinks. And of course it's unfathomable what God is going to do with sinners and what he still does with sinners, even to Ahaz. Salvation is always undeserved. But God is gracious. He is sovereign. He loves the unlovable. to persuade him, to turn him, to make him lovable and loving. And to come to us while we are yet sinners. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Calvin again, a comment here, he says, it's the highest virtue to ask nothing beyond the Word of God. Yet if God chooses to add anything to His Word, it ought not to be rejected. So in other words, it's an offense to God not to believe Him based on His word alone. It's an insult to injury, what Ahaz was doing. That's what Isaiah said, Hear ye now, O house of David. He talked to Ahaz. Is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will you weary my God also? my God. And did you notice earlier in verse 9, 11 rather, when Isaiah says to Ahaz, the king, ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God. So Isaiah speaks about my God and he talks to Ahaz about your God. It's one thing to weary people, to offend people, To not believe man, because man are by nature liars, but to not believe God? You're asking, are we allowed still today to ask for a sign? I remember I said it earlier already, it kind of sometimes comes to your mind, I wish I had some confirmation beyond what God has already given. Remember the story about Gideon? Children? When he had talked about a fleece? Gideon was doubting whether God would help him fight the enemies. At first he asked, Lord give me a sign. Let this fleece, this wool of a sheep be wet and then the rest of the land be dry. So the next day that happened. Then Gideon was still doubting. He said, Lord let it be the other way around. Let the fleece be dry and everything around it be wet. And God did it. May we do so today? It's a question. Jesus says in the New Testament, in Matthew 12, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. We just recently heard about that. As Jonah was three days and nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So we're living in the New Testament time and God says, I've given you enough signs, enough evidence of my faithfulness. So that's why we don't need a sign. Because we have the thing or the person signified. He has come, the Lord Jesus Himself. All the promises are yea and amen in Him. Confirmed not only by the Word and all these signs in the Old Testament, but also by baptism in the Lord's Supper. That there is forgiveness. There is cleansing and purging. And now here again, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. God says this word to Ahaz, you don't want a sign, but I'll give you one anyway. They think it's impossible for a virgin to conceive? It's nothing compared to what is being pictured here, signified. You won't believe it, A.S., but others will. And how do we know it's a sign? Well, the same as we know from Jonah, we know it from the New Testament confirmation. Because this very text, Isaiah 7, verse 14, is quoted in Matthew 1, where children remember that Joseph heard that Mary was expecting a child, and they weren't even married yet. And the angel came to Joseph and told him, and said to him, For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And then we read in verse 22 of Matthew 1, Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled what was written by the Prophet. And in verse 23, what was written by the Prophet? Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. That's where our text ends. But in Matthew, we read in addition to that, the word Immanuel, what it means. Now they shall call his name Immanuel, which is being interpreted, God with us. So we know from the New Testament that this indeed is a fulfilled promise, sign, pointed to Jesus. And the greatest miracle is not that a virgin conceives and has a child, but that God will be with us. With sinners. Confirming the mother promise. It's interesting, isn't it, that Adam and Eve sinned and Adam bears the responsibility. And that God would establish a seed, not the seed of a man, but the seed of a woman. The seed of the woman will destroy the seed of the serpent. Seed of a woman. Eve, her name was called, mother of all living. And now Mary. Joseph was never his real father. But Mary was his real mother. Galatians 4 we read, When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman. So God is with man. The God-Man Jesus Christ. And that brings us to the third point, an unspeakable reality. So God with us, Emmanuel, undeserved sign, unfathomable promise, and an unspeakable reality. It cannot be fathomed and it cannot be expressed in words, not even in all eternity. that God, a holy God, would have fellowship with people such as we are, even in our best. Ahaz, we're so prone to look down on those people. Ahab and Ahaz and Jonah and we see these people in the world like Nineveh. But you see, even these prophets and the apostles were stumbling over words to get this expressed. You read 1 Peter 1, verse 10. This is what Peter says, salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. Verse 12, angels desire to look into it. They were peering at it. They were trying to wrap their minds as it were around it. They couldn't. The prophets couldn't. Even the angels couldn't. Romans 16, verse 25. The preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, revealed. and the Scriptures by the Scriptures of the prophets. In other words, now looking back, we understand by what these prophets were saying, but we still are touching only the surface, with all our New Testament knowledge. Looking back, we can understand that Ahaz, even Isaiah himself, marveled at this mystery. But now it's made manifest. It's revealed but doesn't mean it's understood. We have maybe a bit of an understanding of the basics that we may come as a sinner to God. But do we really understand it? How we can possibly be one with God? God with us and we with God. Even if you consider but one hour of your life. So many sins we commit. And He forgives, and He forgives, not to excuse any sin, but to magnify the grace of God. How long would you be able to bear a person that keeps sinning against you, and again, and again, and again? But now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, the faithful God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. So the obedience from faith, That's the only way obedience is acceptable. Flowing of faith in that Messiah, the same Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Old Testament, and so today. Another text, 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. Great is the mystery of godliness. God-likeness. God was manifest in the flesh. God made visible in the flesh the infinite. God made visible, manifest in the flesh, the mystery of godliness. How can ungodly people be perceived godly in God's sight? Emmanuel, through Emmanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man, Jesus. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9 verse 15, Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. We see that even the New Testament Apostle Paul couldn't describe it. Unspeakable. Indescribable. Stammering a few words. God becoming man. Speechless and yet there is speech. Because Jesus is not only Emmanuel. He is the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. So the angels were looking into it all the Old Testament time. And when they saw that when that babe was in Bethlehem, I've said it before, as it were, heaven was bursting open and the angels had to come out and sing glory to God. They suddenly began to realize how it was going to happen. They were looking into it all the time. Glory to God in the highest on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. Now they saw how God could be with men. by becoming man, doing for us what we cannot and would not do, will not do by nature. As a real man, born from the Virgin Mary, it would have been already an immense miracle if he would have been just born from another woman. They make much of the fact that he was born from a virgin, and it's good, but that was to fulfill the promise of the Old Testament. But the real miracle was not that. The real miracle was that God was born from man. The God-man Christ Jesus. He remained God. He added to his divinity a human nature, a true human nature. He had to eat, to drink, sleep, had to grow up, had to learn to talk. All for one purpose. Look at verse 15. Butter and honey shall he eat. Remember that when Jesus, after his resurrection, he gave, he asked for some food to eat? To show that he was not a spirit? Butter and honey shall he eat, that in order that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. What Adam failed, he would do right. And he did. We read in Luke 2, verse 52, that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. How could He possibly increase in wisdom? If He knows already, He is wisdom. Yes, as God. But as man, He increased. He learned things, children, just like you and I. Except He had a far better memory. He soaked it all up. Remember as a 12-year-old when He was in the temple, how these Pharisees marveled at the learning of this young boy, this 12-year-old. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Perfect obedience. Perfect sacrifice. Perfect, lifelong obedience. He never disobeyed. And then He had to do a perfect sacrifice, even though He had never done any sin. So that He could be the go-between God and man. God and man. God with us. so that we would be with God. God with us, so that we could be with God. God being the first. It's amazing. Emmanuel, and if that's not enough, he still cares. His work on earth is finished in one sense, that he obeyed perfectly lifelong, that he sacrificed, that he was sacrificed, that he died an infinite death as God-man. Luther says, God forsaken of God, who can grasp it? None can. Eternity will be needed to continually begin to grasp it and to appreciate it. Oh, I wish I would have a taste of it more than I do, to treasure it more than I do. How can I be so casual about it? God with me? And I'm not consumed? Remember how Isaiah responded to God coming to him? Remember John, the apostle on Patmos, when God appeared to him, he fell at his face as dead. And yet he didn't die. Because God comes not to destroy, not yet anyway. He still comes today to save. Emmanuel. And not, as I began to say, not only what he has done already, live the lifelong obedience and die an infinite death, but he continues at the right hand of the Father to make intercession for us without ceasing. Children, Jesus never sleeps. When you sleep, he still is praying for his people. God the Father never sleeps or slumbers. In addition to that, not only does He pray for us, but He gives us His Word and Holy Spirit to groan within us with groanings that are unutterable. Forgive me, we don't know what to pray for and how we should pray. So have God the Son at the right hand of the Father, God the Holy Spirit in us, if you're believers. And if this is already so amazing and so good, what will heaven be for the believer when sin will be gone? If this is already unspeakable reality, what will heaven be? Who could ever put it into words? It's incredible. And the word incredible means unbelievable, yet we're called to believe it. Just like the Queen of Sheba had such a hard time believing about Solomon, it was too good to be true, but then when she came and saw him, she said, oh, the half hasn't been told me yet. There's way more yet. This is the God who came to us this morning. Wow. He did not come to a whole host of other people today, but he came to us. Because we're better? God makes a difference when there is none. by nature. Oh, that we would treasure it, that we would realize what it means. Emmanuel, God with us. This is truly fitting the rest of scripture. Impossible with man, but possible, more than possible with God, certain with God, for all those who come. and seek Him, and get to know Him better, that we may grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus without ever arriving, undeserved sign, unasked for, unwanted. I mean, how long would you deal with people that wouldn't want you to help them? You offer it once, twice, and they say, forget it. Thanks be to God He doesn't act to us like that. He is faithful. That's what it means that we have a faithful covenant-keeping God. He sticks with His people, even though not all of His people are saved. But those who repent and believe will be established. But if you will not believe it, if you will not believe, surely you, that's us, who do not believe, shall not be established. That's a solemn thing to reflect upon. Have you really believed? Are you really treasuring this? We hope to speak more about it this afternoon and about God's precious redemption. Surely this is precious, priceless. Amen.