Would you take God's Word this morning please and open to the Old Testament passage of Isaiah chapter 7 verse number 14. We've been dealing with Old Testament prophecies that speak about the coming of the Messiah, his first advent, and this is one of the more well-known ones. And I want to talk about Isaiah's Christmas prophecy. One of the greatest ways to prove that the Bible is the inspired word of God is through prophecy. It was Justin Martyr who said, to declare a thing shall come to pass long before it comes to pass, and then bring it to pass. This or nothing is the work of God. Only God knows the future because God determines the future. The Bible says that God said that he declares the end from the beginning, He said, from the ancient times, things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, I will accomplish all my purpose. And this is true with Bible prophecy, specifically with respect to the prophecies about the Lord Jesus Christ. According to one Old Testament scholar, there are 456 prophecies about the coming of Jesus Christ, and Jesus fulfilled them. We're going to look at one of them here this morning. This is Isaiah chapter 7, verse number 14, where it says, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Now this morning there are three basic things I want you to see from this prophecy of the Old Testament that to me are amazing about it. Number one, if you're taking notes, write down a sign given. A sign given. Notice where it says, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Now we have to understand this passage in the context in which it was given. So if we look back to verse number one and verse number two, what we find out is that there is a threat from two evil kings. First, see two evil kings here. One is Rezan, the king of Syria. The other is Pekah, king of Israel. You have to remember that the nation of Israel was divided, remember, into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel, southern kingdom of Judah. The northern king of Israel, Pekah, was an evil man, and he wanted to take over the southern kingdom of Judah. And so he makes an alliance with another evil king, Rezan, the king of Syria. And they're going to come against King Ahaz, who is a son of David, in the line of David, and they wanna basically pull him off the throne, and they wanna put on the throne a puppet king, a man by the name of Tabeel, who's mentioned in verse number six. And so basically, what they wanna do is they wanna wipe out the Davidic line, the Judean kings in the southern kingdom. Now think about that. If they were gonna be able to do that, you know what that means? If they were able to wipe out the house of David, that means there's no Messiah. Because God promised that the Messiah would what? Come through the house of David. That means no Messiah, no Jesus, no salvation. All of the promises that God made with reference to the coming Messiah would then fail. But God's word is not going to fail. So I want you to see next a prophet and his son. God sends a prophet to Isaiah. or excuse me, to King Ahaz, his name is Isaiah. Look in verse number three. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and sheer Jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field. Verse four, and say to him, take heed and be quiet, fear not, neither be fainthearted, for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce wrath of reason with Syria and the son of Ramallah. So God sends Isaiah the prophet to King Ahaz to encourage him. Interesting, and don't miss this, because a lot of people do. When God sent Isaiah to the king, he didn't send him alone. What did he say? Take your son Sheer Jaseb with you. when you go. Now, Mrs. Isaiah had just given birth to him. So he was just a little infant. So when you picture this, when he goes to meet King Ahaz, and King Ahaz is out there checking the city's water system. If they're gonna be surrounded by an evil army, they need to make sure they have enough water for a siege. And so Isaiah meets him there, and he's holding in his arms a little baby. All right, just think about that when we look at the rest of this. And notice what, Isaiah says to King Ahaz, as he's inspecting the Jerusalem water supply, look at verse number seven. 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 reason. And within three score and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. In other words, Isaiah gives a message of hope and of confidence. Ahaz, don't be afraid of Syria and Israel. In about 65 years, they're gonna be broken. Now, God just gave this wonderful promise to King Ahaz, but here's the problem. King Ahaz is a hard-hearted man. He doesn't really believe. And that's just his lack of faith. If he really believed what God had just said, he would have broken off the secret alliance he had made with the Assyrians. Actually, he's depending more on his neighbors for help than he is for God. If he really believed God, he would have broken off that alliance. He would have called the nation to praise and prayer based on the promise of God, but he doesn't. And so I want you to see a sign offered. In order to bolster his faith, God offers to Ahaz a sign. Look in verse number 10. 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. How would you like God to ask you that? Ask me for a miracle. Ask me for a sign. And notice what Ahaz does in verse 12. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. He pretends to be real spiritual. Oh, I'm not going to ask for a sign. I don't want to tempt God. But actually, what Ahaz is doing is saying to God, I don't need your sign. I've already got this covered. He appears to be humble, but really, again, he's hard-hearted. He's stubborn. And so God doesn't really appreciate that response. Look at verse number 13, what the Lord says. 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? God, in essence, was saying, look, you're trying my patience. And so God says, I'm gonna give you a sign anyway. And actually, he's not really giving the sign now to King Ahaz, because who does he turn to speak to? He speaks to the whole house of David. I'm gonna give the house of David a sign. And what is the sign? Look in verse 14. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Beautiful, beautiful verse, a beautiful prophecy. Now, many hundreds of years later, Matthew pointed out that this prophecy was fulfilled by the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter one, verse 22, this is what Matthew says. Now, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Now, would you believe that there is a lot of scholarly debate over the way Matthew quotes this verse? And let me just tell you why. Of course, there are people that don't want to believe the Bible is the Word of God. And prophecies like this really prove that the Bible is the Word of God. So you have people debating about how Matthew quotes this Old Testament prophecy. Let me give you four different approaches that people use today. First of all, there is the proof texting approach. There are some critical scholars that look at this Matthew and the way he quotes this verse and they say, well, you know, what Matthew is doing here is he's proof texting. What does that mean? They said, well, Matthew basically found a passage in the Old Testament that sounded similar to the event that happened at the birth of Christ. And he quoted this verse just to convince his readers that Jesus was born according to the scripture. But actually, Matthew ignores the whole historical context in which it was given. It really isn't about Jesus, that Old Testament passage. Matthew is just pulling it out of its context. and he's using it here to fool people. Now, obviously, we don't believe that view because Matthew was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when he wrote his gospel. And he pointed back to this prophecy under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So we reject that view. But then there's a second view that scholars take, and they talk about the double fulfillment approach. Double fulfillment. That is, you say, what's double fulfillment? That's the idea that a prophecy when it's given in its day is fulfilled. There's a near fulfillment and then a far fulfillment of the verse. I don't watch Sesame Street much, but... But I do remember there was a character on there, a little blue guy, and he's teaching little children the different meanings of words, and he was teaching them the difference between near and far. He'd start out in front of the camera and go near, and then he'd run way back and say far. then he'd run back up and go near, run back and say far. Well, you know, that's a good way to interpret some prophecies in the Old Testament. Because the truth of the matter is there are prophecies in the Old Testament that have an immediate partial fulfillment, but then it also has a far-off ultimate and final and greater fulfillment, we could say. And a lot of Old Testament prophecies do have that kind of dynamic going on. But the question is, is that's what's going on here? Is this a case of a double fulfillment? Now, those who believe this will say, well, when Isaiah says that a virgin will conceive and bear a son, The actual Hebrew word Alma can also mean a young woman of marriageable age. And the near fulfillment was Isaiah's wife, she had a son, and they'll point to chapter eight, verse number four, where Isaiah basically says, you know, that basically, actually verse three of chapter eight, I went into the prophetess and she conceived and bear a son, then said the Lord to me, call his name Meher Shalahazbaz. Kind of a long name there. Meher Shel Ahazbaz. And then later on, it talks about that this young man in chapter eight, verse 18, that he says, lo behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs. In other words, Isaiah is saying, you know, my children, God is using them as signs to the nation of Israel. So some people say that was the near fulfillment. Mrs. Isaiah had a little boy. Meher Shel Ahazbaz is Emmanuel. And so it was fulfilled there, and then later on it had a far fulfillment when Jesus Christ came into the world. Now, I don't agree with that interpretation, and let me tell you why. First of all, it says because a virgin would conceive. In order for there to be a near fulfillment, the woman would have to be a virgin. And Mrs. Isaiah already gave Isaiah one son, we know that, Shir Jashub, because Isaiah took him with him when he made this prophecy to King Ahaz. And as far as this Hebrew word meaning young woman, I would just say this, that Alma, many times, most of the time in the Old Testament is translated virgin. It can mean young woman. The context would determine that. But we also have to look at the context in which it was given. What did God say to King Ahaz? Ask me a sign. Now, the sign here is not a small sign. It's a big sign, a miraculous sign, right? And so to say that the answer to that would be a young woman is gonna have a child, that doesn't match. That's not a sign. That's not a miraculous sign. That happens all the time. The Hebrew word for sign is ot, something big, something miraculous. And even in a way God asked the question implies that. Ask me a sign either in the depth below or in the height above. Ask me for a big sign. Ask me for a miraculous sign. Okay, here's the sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive. Now that is a miracle. Now that is a big sign. So it would have to mean that this woman would be a virgin. And besides that, there's one other thing that I would say here about this. The word for virgin in the Hebrew has the article in front of it. So it's not just virgin, it is the virgin, not two virgins, but one. The virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son. So the question is, who is this virgin? And of course, Matthew will tell us that later on. But I would also say that when the Hebrew scriptures were translated into the Greek, This was by the Septuagint, the 70 scholars who put together the Hebrew scriptures in Greek. It's called the Septuagint because of the 70 scholars. When they came to this verse, they took that Hebrew word Alma and they used the Greek word Parthenos, which in the Greek can only mean virgin. This was 200 years before Christ. So 200 years before Christ, these 70 scholars looked at this word and together they collectively agreed that this word Alma means virgin. So they translated it with the word Parthenos. And so because of all those reasons there, I do not believe that this is a double fulfillment. I don't take that view. And then there's another view that says, well, this is a typological fulfillment approach, which basically says that this verse, Isaiah 714 isn't really talking about Christ, but what Matthew does is he looks back and he sees it as a type of Christ, and he lifts it out of the Old Testament saying that that passage really is a type of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But again, I don't believe that view for all the reasons I just gave you about the double fulfillment. All those Arguments could be used to argue against this being just a type that's used in the Old Testament, which leads to the fourth and final view, my view, which may I humbly say is the right view. I've learned this from others by the grace of God, okay? I call it just simply the direct prophecy approach. It's very simple. When God gives this sign to Isaiah, this was about Christ. The sign, the virgin is Mary. And Emmanuel can be none other than Jesus Christ, God with us. Now, the reason people argue against that interpretation, I'll tell you why, is because they say, well, the problem with this is that this wouldn't be an encouragement to King Ahaz. I mean, the sign would have to make sense in his day. How would this encourage him? How would this encourage the people in that day? It would have to encourage them as well as point to the future Messiah, that's why some people don't take the single prophecy approach. And my response to that would be simply this. We have to remember that first of all, King Ahaz, he rejected the sign. He didn't want the sign. And so what God does to this hard-hearted, foolish king is he basically gives a sign not just to him, he kind of almost overlooks King Ahaz and says, you know what, I'm going to give a sign, but I'm going to give a sign to the house of David. In fact, in verse number 14, where it says, the Lord himself shall give you a sign, circle that word you there in verse 14, and then put next to it, it's plural in the Hebrew, not singular, it's you plural, not you singular. He's not talking to King Ahaz now, he's talking to the whole house of David, okay? That's what we have to see here. So God was saying to the house of David, for generations to come, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. I'm not gonna let any evil king come in and wipe out the house of David. You know why? Because I have made a promise something's gonna happen through the house of David. And 700 years from now, a Messiah will be born. A virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son." And so God was giving this sign to the whole house of David. But also we have to see this in Isaiah. That is, there are two prophecies that are given here in chapter 7. You say, what do you mean by that? There is a long-term prophecy that is given And then there's a short-term prophecy that is given. What's the long-term prophecy? Look at verse 14. We just looked at it. A virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. That's the long-term prophecy. That's going to happen many hundreds of years later. That's a sign to the whole house of David and really to all of Judah. and all of the world for that matter. But there's a short-term prophecy here, and that prophecy is in verse 15 down to verse 25. Now in verses 15 down to verse 25, God's going to encourage King Ahaz, even though he doesn't deserve it, God's going to encourage him, but he's also going to chastise him for his lack of faith. The line of David will continue, but God will also chastise King Ahaz because of his lack of faith. Judgment will come and bring hardship because of his unfaithfulness, but the house of David will survive. Now, here's the key. In verse 15, when he says this, read verse 15, 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, the vow of Horus, shall be forsaken of both her kings." Now, when scholars look at verse 15 and verse 16, they say that the child mentioned in verse 15 and 16 is also the same child mentioned in verse number 14. That's where the problem comes in. They think that Emmanuel is the child that will eat, in verse 15, butter and honey. The word butter in the Hebrew, King James translates it butter. It could mean, you know, yogurt, actually, or actually what they used to feed babies back in that day, kind of a yogurt made from milk and a honey. It's kind of baby food, really. So the food that this child will eat, they say, well, that's Emmanuel. 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 evil and choose good, the land that thou o'er shall be forsaken of both, and so on. So what happens here is most scholars look at that and they say, well, it's the same child here in view. But I would remind you that when Isaiah comes to give this prophecy, remember, he's holding in his arms what? A little baby, a little baby. Most miss that, and I'm surprised by that. Why did God tell Isaiah to take his infant child to King Ahaz? Why did he do that? Was there a Mother's Day day out program going on that day and he had to babysit or something like that? Why does God tell him, take your infant baby with you? There had to be a reason for that. God doesn't do anything without a reason. I think that the baby that Isaiah is holding is the one that is referred to in verses 15 and 16. So think of it like this. The baby that he holds, Isaiah is basically saying, before this child shall have moral discrimination to know to choose good from evil, your problem is going to be over. These kings are going to be done with. Before this child grows to the age of accountability. So this is a short-term prophecy that God is giving. So there's a sense in which the baby that Isaiah is holding, Shir Jashub, will be a sign to King Ahaz and all the nation that God is gonna take care of their problem. Before this child reaches the age of accountability, the problem is gonna be solved. So Shir Jashub became a sign to King Ahaz back in that day, but there's also a sense in which the little baby that Isaiah was holding was also kind of pointing forward to that Emmanuel that is to come, that child that'll be born of a virgin that will come many days in the future. And so he was an object lesson, an object lesson. And by the way, all that happened, just like God said, in the next few years, God had defeated King Ahaz's enemies. God preserved the house of David so that God can fulfill the promise that he made to the world, that through the house of David, he would send his Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the sign given. Now, Let's fast forward, go to Matthew chapter one. Let's look at the fulfillment of it. Because when Matthew quotes this, I don't think he's using, quoting a type or referring to a type. And I don't think he's lifting it out of its context and proof texting. And I don't think this is double fulfillment. Look at Matthew says in verse number, Matthew chapter one, verse 21, and she shall bring forth a son and now shall call his name Jesus. for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. This is the literal fulfillment of what happens. Can you imagine, put yourself in Joseph's place, what he was feeling. In verse 18, it tells us this is how it happened. Matthew's giving us the facts. Mary and Joseph were espoused together. Look at verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise when his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Ghost. And the Bible is very clear here. They were espoused. but they had not yet come together, they had not consummated that marriage. Now you heard me say before that the Greek weddings have three stages to it, right? There is the contracting stage, which is called in Hebrew the kiddushin, a man would negotiate a contract for the bride. He would go to the father and negotiate the contract, he would have to pay a price, And I still think we should do that today, beloved. You have to pay before you're going to marry my daughter. Negotiate the price. They settle on a price. Contract is signed. They drink a cup of wine. It's sealed. And however, he doesn't take his bride immediately at that time. There's stage two of the Jewish wedding, which is the claiming stage. This is called the chuppah. Basically what he'll do, the prospective groom will go back to his father's house and he will begin to prepare for his bride. He's gonna get everything ready. You know, by the way, Jesus went to the Father's house, he's preparing for his bride, the church. That's us, all right? The contracting was already done at the cross when Jesus died. He paid the purchase price with his own blood when he died for us on the cross. And the Lord's Supper was the cup of wine celebrating that the contract was going to happen. But anyway, The bridegroom would go back to the father's house. He would begin to prepare. The bride had to be ready because she didn't know when he was gonna come. He could come at any moment. He could come at night with his whole wedding party. And the voice would cry out, behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him. So she had to always be ready. And then when he did come to receive her, there was the final stage of the wedding, which was the celebration, the marriage supper. Now the Bible makes it clear that when Mary and Joseph were husband and wife, they had only reached the first stage of the Jewish wedding, the contracting stage. That was called espousal. Mary was espoused to Joseph, but Joseph had not yet come to claim Mary as his bride. So they were legally married, but he had not yet come to claim her. The marriage had not yet been consummated. And the Bible says in verse 19, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Can you imagine how Joseph felt? Here's the woman that, legally he's already married to. He knows that he had not come together with her, and yet she was going to have a child. So look at verse 19 of chapter one. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately, put her away, the technical term for divorce. He was going to divorce her. He felt hurt. He felt grieved. He felt angry. Mary's going to have a child. He knows that child is not his. And really, he had four options. If you follow the letter of the Old Testament law, he could publicly divorce her. Mary could be stoned, according to Deuteronomy. That was the public letter of the law. He didn't want to do that. He could make a public example of her and shame her. He certainly didn't want to do that because he loved Mary. Or he could have a private divorce. That is just divorce her privately, secretly, not make a big deal about it. And that's what he was gonna do. He was gonna privately divorce Mary. But then something happens that changed all that. Look at verse number... 20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. she shall bring forth a son thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us so Joseph has this dream And the angel makes very clear that Mary is the mother of the Messiah, the Messiah that had been prophesied in the Old Testament many, many times. And Matthew again points to this one prophecy here that Isaiah gives. Finally, a Savior given. He will be the Savior. He shall save people from their sins. You see, I would say this to you here today. In order for you to really to be saved and believe in Jesus Christ, you have to believe that he was born of a virgin. You throw that out, friend, there's no salvation. He had to be virgin born because the sin nature would not be passed on to him. And he would be sinless and take upon himself the sin of the world in order to qualify as the Savior. This had to happen. And you know what, I love the response of Joseph. He believed, he believed, he believed. But the angel said he believed in the character of Mary, and he believed in the word of God, the prophecy that came out of the Old Testament, that a virgin shall conceive, not any virgin, the virgin. Mary was the chosen mother of the Messiah that was talked about in the Old Testament. So notice what he does in verse number 24. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. So again, he believed in the character of Mary, he believed in the miraculous virgin birth, he believed in the truthfulness of scripture, he believed in the Savior, Jesus Christ, because he named him what God said to name him, Jesus, the one who has saved people from their sins. I, with all of my heart, believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. I believe he was the sinless son of God. I believe that he died for the sins of the world and resurrected. And I believe that anyone who calls upon Jesus can be saved. But you have to believe. I'll just close with this story. I love telling this story because it illustrates this. Years ago I was in Ethiopia and my host one night took me late at night on a Friday night to a big house there in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A house that was kind of out of the way, brought me into the house, a big room and sitting around a rug were about 50 men. 50 men, they were former Muslims. They heard that I was there in town. They wanted to speak to me. They weren't smiling when I went in. I was a little worried when I first went in. But then the Muslim imam came walking in the middle of the room, and he began to praise the Lord Jesus. And long story short, this Muslim imam read in the Quran that Jesus was virgin born. And he thought in his mind, you know what? If Jesus was virgin born, he couldn't be like any other man. And he had to have this settled. He wanted to know who Jesus was. And so he began to research more and more and more and more. And finally, all the dominoes in his mind began to fall. And you know what? He believed that Jesus was the Son of God. And then he believed that Jesus was the only Savior. And he put his faith in Jesus Christ and he became a Christian. And then he began to witness to all the people in his mosque. about Jesus. And long story short, that group of men that were in there in that room were all men that he had led to Christ because he believed in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. And he believed that Jesus was Lord, the true Savior. And I'll never forget him just raising his hands, shouting at the top of his lungs, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. And friend, that's so true. Jesus is the virgin-born Son of God, and that means He is Lord. Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting Lord. And friend, if you believe that, you can be saved. If you're not already, I would encourage you to put your faith in Christ. Let's bow for prayer together. Father, thank you for the Word of God and the clarity that it gives us. And Father, I thank you that the plan of redemption that you had was put into place right after man sinned. We've seen this, Lord, in one prophecy after another in the Old Testament, that right after the sin of man, you put your plan into effect to bring salvation to sinful man. Father, I pray for every soul that is here today. that they know Jesus Christ, that they believe what the Bible says, that he is the virgin born son of God and therefore savior, the Messiah, the everlasting Lord, and that they would put their full faith in Christ as savior. And with heads bowed and eyes closed, I don't want to embarrass you, but I do want to ask you, have you made that decision? Have you put your full faith in Christ? Your full faith in Jesus Christ. What I mean by that is you're not saved by any works, you're not saved by being religious, you're not saved by anything that you do at all. We're saved by receiving the gift of eternal life paid for by Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. The only thing we have to do is repent, turn from our sin, put our faith in Christ, and he will save you. The Bible says, him that comes to me I will not cast out. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if you haven't done that, I would encourage you to do that right now, right now. Reach out, say, Jesus, save me. I'm a sinner, Lord, save me. Father, bless this word to every hearing heart here today, we pray in Jesus' wonderful name, amen.