are planning some wonderful time together as family. Reality is, though, even if things don't turn out exactly like you want them to in Christmas this year, if your joy is in Jesus, then it's all good, right? In that sense, your joy is in Jesus. And so I want to encourage you, make sure you don't worship family time today or tomorrow. Don't worship your time that you have with extended family. Don't worship a certain plan or schedule. We all get trapped into that, don't we? Let's worship Jesus and enjoy the gifts that He gives us. And if we worship Jesus, then no matter how things go, we're gonna find our joy in Him, and it'll be a time of satisfaction in Him. Isaiah chapter 11. I've entitled the message this morning from Isaiah 11, The King of Christmas. And as we read through this chapter, try to understand why this passage teaches us about the King of Christmas. Let's read the text together and then we'll pray and get into our time together. Isaiah chapter 11, if you'll follow along, we're going to read verses 1 through 10. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord, and he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt around His loins, and faithfulness the belt around His waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together as the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand over the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Father, Savior Jesus, Spirit of God, we want our hearts to be informed with what is to come because of what has already been. And we want to rejoice in the branch from David. We want to rejoice in our Savior. Would you help us as we consider these words? We know they're breathed out by you. And we know that if we are to really receive the profit that you have for us, Your spirit, who was part of the recording of this down for us as your people, must also be part of this time together. He must illumine our hearts and give us the significance of these things. We can study this like we study anything else, like we try to understand anything, and we must. But we must study it and try to understand it like nothing else, because it is Your Word. And so Spirit of God, we pray. Proclaim Christ to us. Magnify Christ before us, we pray. It's in His name we ask. Amen. I saw a picture taken out of a window of an acquaintance of mine. in the city, a picture of the sunrise on Thursday morning. My understanding was that was the shortest day of the year. And it was a sunrise out over Queens and it was beautiful. If you were to look at a picture of that sunrise and consider the fact that it was the dawn of the shortest day of the year, it's almost symbolic of the fact that the darkness is passing. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad that it's not going to be 430 and get dark soon? It's a little tough, isn't it? The days are going to get longer. There's going to be more and more light in the coming months since that day. You could say the longer days of light have dawned. The longer days of light have dawned. A sunrise is a marker for new beginnings, isn't it? It's a turning point. It's a precursor to what is to come. And when you look at the sunrise peeking over the horizon, you are looking at a taste at what is to come. You know because the sun rose, is rising, it's going to be the noonday sun soon, isn't it? Everything that is to come in terms of the light of that day would not be without the sunrise, without the dawn. Did you know that Christmas is a celebration of a sunrise? Did you know that? Christmas is a celebration of a sunrise. When the eternal Son of God became a man, conceived in the Virgin Mary's womb by the Holy Spirit, it was as if it was the dawn. It was the sunrise. It was the dawn of the shortest day of human history, meaning the days were going to lengthen, there's going to be more light. It was the dawn because it was Christ's birth. It was a sign that darkness of this world was going to come to an end. because the sun is rising. In fact, when Zacharias prophesied of Christ's birth, this is what he said in Luke chapter 1, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. He called Jesus what? The sunrise from on high. Sometimes there's great confusion when Christmas is sung about and heard about in our culture. In fact, isn't it wonderful though that during this time you can go into a secular store and hear the gospel sung? Isn't that amazing? That is God's common grace to our area here, isn't it? It also shows the blindness of sinners that they're not offended by this. They're so blinded that this is being sung, they're not offended by it. But later on, if someone told them about the very same things, they'd be offended. Right? But praise God, it's being sung. Right? But there is confusion because we sing of Christmas and we sing of peace. And of course, part of the thing that makes the world think, because of their blindness, they think, well, this can't be true because there's not what on the earth? There's not peace. So is Christmas about peace or not? Is Christmas about light or does darkness remain? This is what we want to consider this morning as we think about our Savior Jesus and His birth into this world. And one of the best ways for us to answer this question is for us to go back to the Old Testament. Because in the Old Testament, the revelation about Jesus is put together. Old Testament prophecies often look at the whole picture of Christ's ministry in one picture. Old Testament prophecies speak of the fact that the Messiah would come and suffer. They do that sometimes, but a dominant note in the Old Testament prophecies is that He's going to come and reign. When Jesus, which of course involves peace on earth, when Jesus was on this earth, He spoke of Himself like this, I am the light of the world. I'm the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Clearly, it's appropriate for us to think of God's plan of salvation through His Son as light coming into the world. The question though is, does the light coming into the world at the incarnation is enfleshment? Does that mean all the darkness is going to be gone? What the Old Testament prophecies typically do is speak of Christ's mission in terms of being the blazing noonday sun. You read Isaiah 11, and the sun is in the sky, and it is warm, and there's no shadows. It's wonderful. That's what the Old Testament prophecies do. And of course, biblically speaking, there is going to be no setting of the sun, is there? Once He rises and He is in the noonday sun, as it were, His purpose is, there is going to be no sunset. And that day is coming. But if all you did was read the Old Testament, and you would come to the New Testament thinking, when the Messiah comes, there's going to be no darkness. And he's going to usher in peace on earth. And it is true that that's going to come. But when he came the first time, it was the sunrise. It was the dawn. The noonday sun is still to come. During this time of the year, we're celebrating Christ's birth, the beginning of his redemptive purposes on this earth. And so when we think of Christ's birth, we think of it like the dawn and think about what is to come. What we want to do this morning is look at Isaiah 11 and walk through a prophecy that's an Old Testament prophecy. And what we want to do is we want to do it in light of the New Testament. And we want to recognize what is to come and how that relates to what we're rejoicing in today. We don't have time to spend a lot of time on the background of Isaiah, but Isaiah is a book that was written by the prophet Isaiah. It's a record of his ministry as a prophet from 739 BC to 686 BC. So the prophecies that we read about Christ in this book of Isaiah are over 600 years before Jesus ever comes. And that's been demonstrated through the manuscripts that have been found. These are prophecies that were made long ago before Christ came. The book of Isaiah is really all about God's old covenant people, Israel, trusting in the Holy One of Israel alone. That's really a summary of Isaiah. Because they so tended to trust in everything other than Him. So trust in the Holy One of Israel alone. And part of that message of calling them to trust in the Holy One of Israel alone are the prophecies about the future Messiah that would come and that would reign. In fact, we won't turn there, but these are very familiar texts. In fact, we read them on Friday evening. If you were to study Isaiah to this point in Isaiah 11, you would come across several places, two of which are very familiar to us, that talk about the Messiah. Isaiah 7.14, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, talking about a sign to the house of David. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. Israel, in other words, you're not going to be destroyed. The context of Isaiah 7 is this. You're not going to be destroyed, Israel, because I'm going to give you a sign. There's going to be a virgin. She's going to have a baby. That's a sign. And He's going to be God with us. Isaiah 9, 6. For a child will be born to us, a son, a Davidic son, will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now listen to this. So, Christmas, was a son given at Christmas time? What we're celebrating? A son was given, right? But listen to the next verse. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over the kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of the hosts will accomplish this. Has that happened yet? Not fully. And do you see how they're together like that? They're right together. You can see how those bring those together. Scripture is like a novel. When you read a novel, you're reading it and you're learning the story and you're going along and you think these two events are right next to each other in terms of what happened, but later you find out that actually there was other things in between the author didn't tell you yet. You ever read a book like that? If you were to study a novel like that, which most of us don't study novels, unless you're a literature professor, right? Or being required by a literature professor to do that. But if you were to study a novel, you'd find out that you'd go back and you'd say, well, wait a minute. It acts like these two things are together, but I know later they're not. There's something in between. Right! Because later it's revealed. That's exactly what's going on in Scripture. And so what we want to do today is look at how this portion of the story of redemption puts everything together, and we're going to talk about the future plot and what Jesus does as well. God's redemptive plan was unfolded over centuries, and we're part of it if we've trusted in Christ. We're going to look at four points today. Our King's roots, our King's empowerment, our King's reign, and our King's inheritance. It's important for me to point out though, I keep saying our, and I wanna just keep pressing on this. Our King, and the reason I'm doing that is because we're gathered together as God's people. This is the time for God's people to gather to worship, and we're so glad to have people here, no doubt, that are not yet a child of God. You have not yet trusted Christ, but I'm speaking to God's people here, and I'm assuming something here, but I don't want you to assume that. Have you ever Admitted you were a rebel against the King? Have you ever admitted that you were a sinner and that your only hope is Jesus the King who laid His life down on your place on the cross and rose again? Have you ever done that? If you haven't, I want to invite you to do that today. Accept the gift of Christmas. and then he would be your king. Well, let's consider our king's roots. Look at verse 1. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. Let's look at our king's roots. Sometimes we speak about our roots or someone else's roots. When we do that, what are we talking about? Well, we're often talking about their ancestry, right? These are their roots. And no doubt all of us have heard advertisements that you can give your DNA and have it tested and told where your ancestors were and what famous people are on your line. So when we speak of someone's roots, we may be speaking of ancestry. But we might be speaking of something else too. I grew up in Easley, South Carolina. And now whenever I go home to South Carolina, I go to Simpsonville because that's where my parents live now. And I really have no reason to go back to Easley too much. There's no family there and a lot of people moved on. But if I were to go back there to Easley with my children, I could say to my children, these are daddy's what? Roots. Not only ancestry, but also circumstances of someone's childhood, right? Their roots. And so what we want to do is look at both of those aspects of the roots of our King Jesus. Number one, our King came from the stump of Jesse. He came from the stump of Jesse. Now that sounds funny, doesn't it? Look at verse one. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his root will bear fruit. In verse 1 we've got some parallelisms going, okay? So you could do this. You could take the word shoot and circle it and draw a line to the word branch and circle it. And you've got shoot and branch are talking about the same person. Alright? And then you could circle stem and circle roots and draw a line and you've got stem and roots. That's talking about the same thing. Okay, you see that? Alright? So, who is the shoot or the branch that's going to come from the stem or the roots of Jesse? Who is that? That's Jesus. Already in chapter 4 Isaiah has spoken of the future days of the Messiah who would come as the Savior King and Isaiah called him the branch. So the shoot or the branch is the Messiah and he's going to come from the stem or the root of Jesse. You could say the branch, who is the Messiah, is going to come from the stump, which refers to Jesse. Now, the word there for stem could be translated stump. Alright, that's the idea. So, why is it important to know that the Messiah would come from the line of Jesse? Well, turn with me to 1 Samuel if you can. If you can find that, turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 16. 1 Samuel chapter 16. Why is it important to know that the Messiah would come from the stump of Jesse? Or from the line of Jesse? Well, when it became clear that Isaiah's first king, Saul, had completely failed in his mission and obedience to the Lord, the Lord told Samuel to do something. Look at chapter 16, verse 1. Now the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go, and I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for myself among his sons." Alright, so it's important to recognize this because the branch would come from the one whose son was anointed, right? Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 11. Jump down to verse 11. And there we read this. So after we've been told from the Lord that all the sons of Jesse that were present were not to be anointed king, we read this, verse 11. And Samuel said to Jesse, Are these all the children? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep. Then Samuel said to Jesse, Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here. So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then David took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah." Later on, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 7. So you've got Saul failed, and so a new king had to be anointed, and it was the son of Jesse, it was David, right? Look at 2 Samuel chapter 7, and look at verse 12. 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 12. And there we read this. When David wanted to make a house for the Lord, the Lord said, no, I'm going to make you a house. Verse 12. When your days are complete, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom, and shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom. What? Forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me when he commits iniquity. Now sometimes that throws people off. Alright, but the reality is there were kings after David that were sinners, right? But they all died. So He's talking about a covenant with the house of David which would involve kings that were sinners still. Right? But look at verse 14 again. But my love and kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever." And of course, the reality is we know that there's only two ways that could happen. Either he would have a continuous person on the throne, which we know didn't happen, or there would be one of his descendants that would be for how long? King forever, which of course is Jesus. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 11. So when Isaiah says that a branch will shoot out of the stem or the stump of Jesse, we're supposed to think of God's choice to anoint a king from among Jesse's sons and we're to think about the covenant that God made with David that there would be a future descendant that would reign on his throne forever. So when we think about our king who was born in Bethlehem, we need to think about his roots in terms of what family he came from. He came from the family of Jesse. Most importantly, we know his son David and the covenant that he made. So our king came with the stump of Jesse. But also we need to consider the roots of our king in terms of the circumstances surrounding his birth. What are the circumstances surrounding our king's birth? Let me ask you, when you think of a stump, what do you think about? You think about a tree that was what? Cut down, right? I can think of the trees around my house in Easley, South Carolina that kept encroaching in on our house and we had to get rid of them because they were about to fall or because they were taking away all the sunshine in our house. We cut them down and over time there were little what? Little shoots, little branches coming up around the stump. That's the picture here. Isaiah is saying that the Messiah would be like a branch or a shoot springing from a stump. Now, Isaiah is saying that is the case. But again, what does a stump represent? It represents a tree having been cut, right? In fact, look at the first word of verse 1 in chapter 11. Then a shoot will spring. Normally when you say then, it means something that was important to happen before that to connect to this, right? Then this is going to happen. Well, let's look back. Isaiah chapter 10. In Isaiah chapter 10, we're told this, that Assyria is going to come up against Israel. And he says that even though they come up against Israel, God is going to protect Israel. And look at verse 33. Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash. Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down, and those who are lofty will be abased, and will cut down the thickness of the forest with an iron axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One." In other words, Assyria is going to be cut down like a what? Like a what? Like a tree. They're going to be a stump, right? But unlike Assyria, look at verse 1 of chapter 11, then a shoot will spring from the stump of Jesse. In other words, the assumption is, what's going to happen to Israel as well? Israel's going to be left in shambles, right? They're going to be a stump. But unlike Assyria, there's going to be a shoot that springs from them. There's going to be life. So, when you consider that, Isaiah 11 speaks of God's nation like this. What we understand is this. Our king not only came from the family of David, but our king came from the Davidic throne. He came when the Davidic throne was what? The tree was cut down, so the throne was what? What would you say? If there's a throne but no king, the throne is what? It's empty, right? In other words, our king came when the Davidic throne was empty. Remember the covenant that God made with David? Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. And yet what we're told here is that the house of David could be spoken of as a stump of Jesse. And what we know from the rest of Scripture is that in 586 BC, Judah fell to Babylon. And there was no Davidic king reigning. And then there were 400 years in between the last revelation of the Old Testament to when Jesus came of silence. And no king. And then there was a shoot, a branch from the stump of Jesse. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He was born as a son of David in a line of the covenant that God had made with David. He was born when the Davidic throne was empty, and He was a branch. He was a sign. He was the fulfillment of what was to come. That throne would no longer be empty. In verse 2, we see what I'm going to call our King's empowerment. Now, the great story of Christmas is that the eternal Son of God became a human being. Let me ask you, how powerful is God? He spoke everything into existence, and this is His Son through whom everything was made. So does it sound weird to you for me to say the empowerment of our King? King Jesus is who? He's God! And yet I'm talking about the empowerment of our King. We're told in John 1, 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And yet what we're told here in verse 2 is the empowerment of our King. If our King is the eternal Son of God, why does He need to be empowered? Isn't He the eternal Son of God, one with the Father? The answer, of course, is yes. But the miracle of Christmas is that the eternal Son of God added to His person a human what? A human nature. such that Jesus the man was born into this world, but as a person he had always been, but he added to his person humanity. Now he is one person with how many natures? Two, divine and human. Does his divine nature need to be empowered? Yes or no? No. Does his human nature need to be empowered? if He's going to be our substitute. Okay? Here's the point. When we talk about His empowerment, we're talking about His empowerment as a real human being. Philippians 2, 6, "...who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped." Doesn't mean He laid it aside. Doesn't mean He no longer was God. It means that He didn't grasp it. He did not voluntarily exercise His deity. He put Himself in submission to the Father in His life on this earth as the God-man. And He, in His humanity, willingly, voluntarily laid aside the exercise of His abilities as the Son of God. He made us, folks, think about this. The Christmas story is about the story of humanity. It is about God bringing everything back to what He intended for humanity. He made us to be His vice-regents. He made us to be His representatives on this earth. He made us to rule over His creation, reflecting His glory and His goodness. He made us to glorify Him by reflecting Him perfectly in His creation. But of course, sin entered and the purpose for humanity was dealt a blow, not a death blow. It was a blow that God certainly knew about and certainly within His great plan to magnify His grace and His glory was not without His control. So God enacted His eternal plan of redemption that He ordained for His glory and His glory alone. And He worked, folks, think about this. He worked all of human history. Every real choice and accountable choice that everyone has ever made, God ruled over to bring everything to this moment. Galatians 4, when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. He worked everything to that moment. And for the eternal Son of God to be the Savior, He would have to become one of God's image bearers. And He would actually have to fulfill what Adam failed. He would actually have to be a perfect human being, perfectly reflecting God, and ruling over His creation like God intended for His image bearers to be. But He would also have to live a life of perfection and He would have to go to the cross and die for the mess that we've made. For our forgiveness and atoning for our sins and then rise again. That meant as a human being He needed to live a life of complete obedience to God in His what? Humanity. Not aided by His deity. Which means, He needed to live a life as a man, empowered by God Himself to live a life of complete obedience and surrender to the Father, so that He might be our perfect substitute. And that's what we're told about in verse 2. Look what it says, the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him. Who's Him? The branch from the stump of Jesse. It's Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding. The Spirit of counsel and strength. The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. This is our King's empowerment. In just a few words, what would you say? What's the empowerment? Who is going to rest on Him? The Spirit of the Lord. The empowerment is the Holy Spirit. Who was His empowerment? The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on that King that will spring from the stump of Jesse, from the Davidic line that had not yet had a King on the throne for many years. And you can see that in verse 2, after the first phrase there, the word Spirit, every time Spirit shows up, refers to who? The Holy Spirit. So if your translation, like mine, doesn't have it capitalized, I encourage you to capitalize it. Because it's very clear that's what it's talking about, okay? Look at verse 2. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. Who is that Spirit? The Spirit of wisdom and understanding. The Spirit of counsel and strength. The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. In other words, we're told about who in this verse? The Holy Spirit that rests on the shoot from the stump of Jesse. So we're going to talk about this. As believers, we're told to be filled with the Spirit and we will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Isn't that a wonderful promise? But do we? Are we always filled with the Spirit? It's a wonderful promise, but until we see Jesus, we're not going to carry that out perfectly, are we? But Jesus was not a saved sinner. He was a perfect Savior. And every moment of his existence as a human being on this earth, he was fully submitted to God. He was filled with the Spirit in a sin curse world. John 3, 34, listen to what it says. He whom God has sent, that's Jesus, speaks the words of God. Why? Because the Father gives the Spirit to him without measure. So number one, we see He was empowered by the Spirit who produced in Him wisdom and understanding. That means that our King was and is and will be wise. He has the perfect ability to apply all of His knowledge in practical, skillful ways. He has perfect understanding. He could and can and will one day reign as King on this earth. and be able to discern between right and wrong in every situation. Folks, maybe this week, and certainly sometime this coming year, and certainly sometime this last year, you were faced with a situation that was so complex you couldn't figure out what in the world to do, right? We have God's Word, we have understanding from Him, but there are some situations that are so entangled with sin and complexities that we just, we want to obey God in this, but we're just confused, what do I do? Right? God's Son, Jesus, in His humanity, had the Spirit upon Him and He was full of understanding. That's our Savior. Number two, He was empowered by the Spirit who produced in Him counsel and strength, verse two. He could come to right conclusions every time. In fact, Isaiah 9, 6 says He's the wonderful counselor. He doesn't need a bunch of counselors. He is the counselor. He's the wonderful counselor. He has the strength to carry out his counsel. Look what it says, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength. Not only does he come to the right conclusions, but he can bring about the right conclusions. Next, he was empowered by the spirit who produced in him knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Look what it says, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. The spirit who would produce knowledge and the fear of the Lord. That is, he had the knowledge, and because the next phrase speaks of delighting in the fear of the Lord. I think we should understand this to be that He had knowledge of who? He had perfect knowledge of God. Of course, the eternal Son of God knew God. He was and is one with God. And yet, in His humanity as the God-man, the Spirit produced in Him a perfect knowledge of God. He grew in His knowledge. Luke chapter 2 verse 52 says this, And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Do you understand that? Jesus, the eternal Son of God, the deity, did not increase. He is God. But in His humanity, He increased in wisdom and understanding because He was submitted to the Spirit. It only makes sense that as the Spirit rested on our King during His life here, He had knowledge of God and the fear of the Lord. Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Beginning of knowledge. Look what it says there in verse 2. The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. What is the fear of the Lord? This is something we've talked about this year. What is the fear of the Lord for us? It is the spirit produced reflex in the soul of a believer. When they consciously are understanding and seeing God's glorious holiness. All right? We see His glory and His holiness, and there's a reflex produced in us by the Spirit, and it is the fear of God, which expresses itself in devotion to God and His glory in response to His mercy to us in Jesus. For Jesus, think about this, folks. This is amazing. This is a glorious Savior. Every single moment of Jesus' existence, He had a unfettered, clear, perfect view of the glory of God. In His humanity, He saw God in His glory every moment. He feared God in wisdom and understanding. Isn't it wonderful to consider the fact that as our Savior was here on this earth, He was everything we want to be in terms of our relationship with God. How many of us would look at verse 2 as God's people and say, I don't want any of that. As God's people, we say, that's what I want. And I want everything the Bible says about how I should be like God. I want to be godly. I want to live for Him. Jesus was all of that for you and for me. Now again, at this point in verse 3, this prophecy goes from Christ's incarnation to His kingly reign. And it's clear when you look at verse 3 and following, it's talking about the future noonday sun, okay? It's talking about when He's reigning where? on this earth. So, and yet we know that Jesus, our King, already came. He was the branch that sprang, and He did have the Spirit resting on Him. That's what the New Testament tells us. And I believe, and I'm going to try to show you, He is right now sitting on the Davidic throne at the Father's right hand. So what the New Testament tells us is that between verses 3 and 4 is His death, His resurrection, and His ascension back to heaven, and then one day His return. You could say this, if you look at between verses 3 and 4, you're looking at... I'm sorry, verses 2 and 4. Between verses 2 and 3, you're looking at a great revelation that's really skipping some things in terms of our understanding of all the scriptures together. Look at verse 3. He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about his loins, and faithfulness the belt about his waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb. We know that has to happen, right? Okay? So this is clearly future. So what I've done, and you could either do it between verses 2 and 3 or verses 3 and 4, because there really is an overlap, because these are true of the king now. But it gets to a point where his reign is so clearly on the earth that you say that hasn't happened yet. I've put this. I put it between verses 3 and 4, but again, you could do it between verses 2 and 3. His hour and His second coming is in between. His hour, His death, His resurrection, His ascension and His second coming are all in between there. It's just not said yet. Or you could say, and I put this in my Bible, this is where I live. I live between the branch coming and His future rule one day on this earth. Before verses 3-10 could ever happen, Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension back to the Father had to happen. What's going on right now? Turn to Acts chapter 2 with me, if you will. Acts chapter 2. We're really laying the foundation for looking at the rest of this text in a much quicker way this morning. Acts chapter 2, look at verse 22. Acts chapter 2, verse 22, and we're told this. This is Peter giving an explanation of what happened when the church was birthed. He says this, verse 22. Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. Jump down to verse 32. This Jesus God raised up again to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." And that is Davidic Psalm. It's talking about the Davidic King reigning on the Davidic throne. So it's saying that Jesus is at the Davidic throne where? Right now. Father's right hand. Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. In other words, folks, you can turn back to Isaiah 11. Right now, in between verses 2 and 3 of Isaiah 11, Jesus is reigning as King on His throne in heaven. The kingdom has dawned. The sun has risen, but it's not the noonday sun yet, because not all of his enemies are his footstool yet. He's the prince of peace now, but he's giving peace like the sunrise, not in the noonday sun. He's giving peace to everyone who will look at his death on the cross and his resurrection and believe in him. He's giving them peace where? in their hearts with Him, and from Him, and able to have peace toward others. He's the Prince of Peace. And He's working that peace out in the lives of His people in every corner. It's imperfect yet, but it's being worked out. But the reality is, when verse 3 through 10 comes, the sun's going to be in the middle of the sky. And there's going to be peace where? Everywhere on earth. We live in the already, but there's coming and not yet. And so what I want to do in closing here this morning is I want to see us, let us be connected really briefly, summarizing the last few verses. What we want to see is that when we rejoice in Jesus' birth, we need to rejoice that there's going to be peace on earth one day. If He came the first time, literally in fulfillment to His promises, He's coming again the second time, and everything that was said about that coming is going to take place. What will his reign on this earth be like on the earth? Verses 3 through 10 tells us. And it refers to a future event that Revelation 20 speaks about as Christ's millennial reign, his thousand year reign on this earth. That will be, I believe, after Christ has already taken us to be with him. And seven years of judgment on the earth, and then we're coming back in glory with Him and reigning on this earth for a thousand years with Him when the noonday sun is in the sky. And what will it look like? Well, let's consider our King's reign. Folks, whenever you think of a king or someone in leadership, you think of their character, don't you? You should, okay? You cannot separate character from how you rule or lead. It's not possible. I don't care what our culture says. Character and leadership always go together. The question is, what is the character of our King Jesus? Well, look what it says, verse 3, "...the character of His reign, and He will delight in the fear of the Lord." You see, the reason why human government today fails is because those in leadership don't delight in the fear of who? Fear of the Lord. But He delights. He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also, righteousness will be the belt around His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist." Folks, there's coming a day when there's a king, and everything that's wrong is dealt with right away and perfectly, and no one can charge him with making a wrong decision. There's coming that day. Now, you might have a question. You say, I thought we're talking about when Jesus is reigning on the earth. And yet it talks about slaying the who? The wicked. Right? So the question might arise, why are there wicked people in Christ's what? His kingdom. I thought only those that are born again are going to enter the kingdom of God. Alright? Well, the answer comes from the fact That at the end of, after Jesus takes His church to be with Him in seven years of tribulation, during that time of judgment, there are going to be people that bow the knee to Jesus and trust in Him. And they're going to be believers. Right? And then Jesus is going to return with us, his glorified saints, to this earth, and those believers are going to enter into that kingdom as non-glorified believers. You understand that? Non-glorified, bodies like us, still given in marriage, still having what? Children. Bible teaches that when Christ reigns in his millennial kingdom, there is going to be a rebellion in the end against him. Where's that coming from? That's coming from the children of non-glorified believers that got saved in the tribulation, that went into the kingdom, that had children that were what? Sinners. But for a thousand years, every time one of them does something wrong, it's going to be dealt with right away. and there's going to be peace, and everything's going to be right, and there's never going to be any kind of rebellion for a thousand years because Jesus is going to reign so perfectly that even the unbelievers are going to be under His foot and dealt with. No, they're not going to be submitted in their hearts truly, but they're going to be completely in subjection in terms of externally. And yet, in the end, there will be a rebellion, and that is when Christ will put all of His enemies down, and He will hand everything over to God in the eternal state. But here's the point I want to make is this. When we rejoice in Jesus as our Savior, born into this world, we're rejoicing that one day, on this very earth, Port Washington is going to be for Jesus. You know that? Maybe you get discouraged sometimes, because you love Jesus, and yet you see so many people in our town and on our island that hate Jesus, or don't care about Jesus, and they love their money, and they don't even see why you care about Jesus, and you love them, and you want to show them the joy of Jesus, and you think, I wish this town and I wish this island was for Jesus. One day, it's going to be for Jesus. And everyone that's not for Jesus is going to be completely externally submitted to Jesus. That is the future for Port Washington. Because Jesus is going to be reigning from Jerusalem. And you, as a believer, are going to be in His government, as a glorified person, carrying out His will perfectly. What a future day that'll be. Folks, you're going to be able to get, you know what your whole job's going to be in the kingdom? I mean, I don't know, it's going to be all kinds, it's going to be to glorify God, right? Glorify Jesus. But you know what? Major part of our job in Christ's kingdom and administrate His rule and share His good news to all those people that don't know Him in the kingdom. Let me ask you, do you ever get tongue-tied when you tell the gospel to an unbeliever today? Do you ever think, I didn't say the right thing? Why didn't I speak when I should have spoke? Why did I say that? That was stupid. You ever do that? In that day, You're going to speak with total boldness, total love, total compassion, and for that whole time you're going to be a godly, perfect evangelist on this earth. And you're going to be totally like Jesus. Don't tell me you can't tell people about Jesus. That's your future. So if that's your future, if your future is to boldly tell people about Jesus perfectly and to live for Christ exactly, then let me ask you, if that's your future, can you humbly submit to His ways now and ask Him to move you toward that future? Can you? This is God's plan for us. Now you say, well, what is the effects of His reign? Look at verses 6 through 9, the effect of His reign. It's remarkable. The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little boy will lead them, and the cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox." How many lions do you see today that say, yes! Mealtime! Straw! Okay? Alright? Also the cow and the bear, verse 8, the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra. And by the way, does a child sometimes play around when they shouldn't? Yeah. But look what it's saying. And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den and they will not get what? They're not going to get hurt. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. What are the effects of Christ's reign? Well, we don't have time to run down all these references, but folks, what I want us to do is understand, Christmas is about this. It's the sunrise, and this is coming. This is coming. The day is coming when He's reigning and these effects are happening. Now, I want to point out, we can't go to everywhere in Scripture about this, but I want to point out that this does not mean all the effects of sin are gone during Christ's reign here. How do we know that? Isaiah 65 says that when someone dies during that time, dies, that's an effect of the fall, at a hundred, it will be considered young or early. Alright, folks, is it considered young or early when someone dies at 100 right now? No. Is death part of the fall and sin? Yes. But in His reign, it'll be pushed back like that. Among those that are not glorified. Alright? And when you consider about the curse that God placed on this earth after Adam's rebellion in the garden, where is it obvious? It's really obvious in the animal world, isn't it? One of the very obvious places is in the animal world and our relationship to it. Turn back to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1 and look at verse 26. Genesis chapter 1 verse 26. What we want to see is the relationship of the animals before sin entered the world. and our responsibility and relationship to them. Genesis 1 verse 26, Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. You see God's plan for God's image bearers to rule over his creation? Alright? Then God said, Behold, I have given you every plant-yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit-yielding seed. It shall be food for you. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food." Folks, what does every beef mean? Every beef means that lions were given what to eat? Plants. Alright? Look what it says, God saw all that he made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. So you can turn back to Isaiah 11. So if during Christ's reign here on this earth as king, if that suppresses the effects of the curse, then we would expect things to look more and more like what it was before the fall, right? Which would mean lions are not trying to eat other living beings. Okay? It means it would be more like that. It means there would be some peace between humanity and the animal kingdom. Because humanity would be reigning in Christ over it, like God intended. So if during that is the case, then when you go back to Isaiah 11, we see this, we understand what's going on. Now, do you see the reason why this is? Look at verse 9. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. Who's they there? It's the animals. They won't hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Alright? In other words, the knowledge of God is going to be pervasive everywhere. It's like a lake. You know what? The knowledge of God on the earth in that day will be like the floodwaters of Noah's day on the earth. Everything's covered. Notice that reason there. When Christ reigns here on this earth, the knowledge of God will be pervasive and that will necessarily bring about these changes under His rule. You see that? When the knowledge of God is pervasive, the effects of fall and sin are suppressed. You see that? There is a future kingdom coming, and He will reign, and the effect of His reign will be just that. Folks, We've considered our king's roots, his empowerment, his reign, and finally, our king's inheritance. What is his inheritance? Look at verse 10. Then in that day, talking about that future, not yet aspect of his messianic kingdom, in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse. What's the significance of that? The significance of the root of Jesse is that from Jesse came who? David, and God made a covenant with David that one of his descendants would reign on his throne forever. Look again at verse 10. Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious. The nations will resort to who? To the King. To the King Jesus. Our King's inheritance is what? The nations. It's the nations. In other words, during that day, the nations will go up to Jerusalem to worship their king, and if they don't, they will be judged for not doing so. If we were to continue our study in Isaiah 11 and look at verses 11 through 16, we'd see that a major point about this reign is the restoration of Israel to that land. That's what the whole passage is about. There's going to be a very Very Israel focused there to fulfill God's promises. But we as the church will be reigning with and carrying out our role within His kingdom as well. That will be a wonderful day when all the Jewish people as a whole trust in our Jewish Messiah, Jesus. Folks, this is where all of human history is going. And this is what we want to get today. This is where all of human history is going and the birth of Jesus is the what of it. It's the sunrise. It's the dawn. Jesus of Nazareth was born the son of David. The king was born. Let me ask you, do you have him as your king today? Have you ever come to realize that you are a traitor before God? That you were made by Him, but you have not lived out the reason you were made. That you have found your satisfaction in His creation rather than Him. That you have sinned. Have you ever accepted His terms of peace? He comes to you and He says, you're a rebel. This world is, in another sense, the realm of God. It is His kingdom. He rules over all in that sense. There's different aspects of His kingdom. There's this future messianic kingdom. But you live within His kingdom of this world, and He says, you are a rebel, but I offer you peace. I offer you peace that I paid for through Jesus, my son. The question is, have you ever accepted that peace? Have you ever accepted Jesus? And folks, I want to remind us again, the effects of the curse will be suppressed in that future day because the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. So let me ask you a believer, when you think of Christmas, think of this. When Jesus was born, it was a revelation of who? God. Was that a greater knowledge of God for humanity? Yeah. Alright? And when you trusted Christ and He's living in you by the Holy Spirit, are you growing in your knowledge of God and of the Lord? Yes. Alright? And as the knowledge of the Lord grows somewhere, what happens? The effects of the fall, what? Diminish. Now, listen, it's not going to be completely gone until we see Jesus. We know that I'm not teaching perfectionism, but this is what I am saying. This is why it's so important to grow in your knowledge of God and worship of him, because as you do that, the effects of your sin is diminished. Folks, the prayer of us this year should be this, Lord, until that day, would you cause, I know it's not going to be complete until that day, but would you, my heart, Lord, is would your knowledge cover my soul like the waters cover the seas? And Lord, I believe and I know one day this earth will be that way. 1 Corinthians 15 says this, When all things are subjected to Jesus, this is at the end of His kingdom reign of a thousand years, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all. The end of all of this is that everything is subdued to God and God gets all the what? To the praise of the glory of His grace. So believer, when you think of Christmas, Also think of the great need we have to let the Word of Christ richly dwell in you, because that will change you. But also think about the fact that since He came the first time, He's coming again. And though you have peace now and you love it and you long for others around you to have that peace, know this, the future of this world is peace from the Prince of Peace. The Son has risen. And it will never set. And one day it will be shining as the noonday sun. Father, we thank you so much for these promises. And we long for that day. We rejoice in you, Lord Jesus, in this time of the year. We do so with knowledge of the future. We know you're going to reign. We know you're going to bring peace. We long for that day. And until that day, we pray that the knowledge of you would cover us like the waters cover the sea, and the effects of our sin would be suppressed by your grace. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.