remain standing for the reading of God's word. Our New Testament lesson comes from the Acts of the risen Christ through his apostles, the book of Acts, chapter 2. Acts 2, verse 5. And they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful, works of God. So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what could this mean? Others, mocking, said they are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire. and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it. This is the wonderful word of God. Turn now to our Old Testament lesson in Isaiah chapter nine. My plan is to spend five weeks, not merely in Isaiah, but in the ninth chapter, indeed in the sixth verse. Let us read Isaiah nine, six, and seven together. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince. of peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice. From that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. May the Lord bless the reading and proclamation of these words. Amen. You may be seated. For those of you visiting with us, the last two years during December, it's become our custom of late to look at texts used in Handel's Messiah. And to be more technical, to look at the texts in the libretto arranged by Handel's friend, Charles Ginens. If you look at what was going on historically when Handel's Messiah was done, it was a time of great challenge to Orthodox Christian faith. Deism and the Enlightenment were picking up steam, and Charles Ginens, as a devout Anglican, wrote a libretto for his friend Handel that emphasized the reality of fulfilled prophecy, the reality of divine intervention in human history and the fact of the incarnation of the Son of God. He wanted to lead with and forefront and highlight the supernatural in an increasingly secular age. I've shared this before, but I got the idea of preaching through these texts from the example of John Newton, known to most of you as the converted slave ship captain who penned Amazing Grace. The one thing you may not know about John Newton is in the year 1785, he was pastoring in London, and he knew that there were gonna be several performances of Handel's Messiah in the metropolis, and he was concerned that people in his congregation Perhaps like you, we're going to go during the holiday season to hear Handel's Messiah played. And in hearing the music, you might not pay attention to the words. And Newton wanted to correct that, and so he preached 50 sermons on the texts used in Handel's Messiah. With his venerable, reformed precedent in mind, I believe it would be imminently fitting for us to do the same, for at least two reasons. First, so that when you hear Handel's Messiah on the radio, or in a concert hall, or in your car, you will not miss the words. You'll get the words and the music together. And second, because I think that this will help us frame our thoughts as a congregation. to celebrate the glorious appearing of Christ in the world. Not because we follow a church calendar, no, the Sabbath is the holy day that we celebrate every week, but providentially and culturally, this is a time of the year when the first coming of Christ is on everyone's minds. Even unbelievers hear carols on the radio and they're attuned They're ripe for a gospel message of the coming of Christ, and as we celebrate that event, these texts will prepare us to do so. The first seven movements of Handel's Messiah come primarily from Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3, with just a little smattering of Haggai 2. Now, besides Matthew 1, 23, the next five movements come entirely from the book of Isaiah. In fact, Isaiah gets a lot of air time and handles Messiah. Of the 81 verses in the entire work, 21 come from this prophet. And in these five movements, Charles Jennings, who wrote the libretto, moves from chapter seven to chapter 40, to chapter 60, to chapter nine, concluding with our text we just read, Isaiah 9.6. Now in context, Isaiah 9.6 has the prophet giving reasons for the joy mentioned in verse three. Look back at verse three. It says, you have multiplied the nation and increased its joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. If you're reading Isaiah, Isaiah is living in a time when the Assyrians are about to invade and assault Jerusalem. And you might wonder, with the coming of the Assyrians, why are people rejoicing? What's the reason? Well, he then gives three reasons in a row for joy, each one is fronted with the word for. You see that in verse four, verse five, and verse six. Three reasons, each marked by the word for. Look, first of all, in verse four. For you have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. Verse five, four, every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle in garments rolled in blood will be used for burning and fuel for fire. The reason there's gonna be joy is there's going to be victory, and it'll have the spoils and plunder of war. There's a third and final reason for joy in verse six. A reason for joy in the midst of darkness, in the midst of misery, in the midst of death. A reason for joy. Four, unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. Unto us. Not merely is Christ promised to be with us, that's the Emmanuel promise, but Christ is for us. Unto us a child is born. A promise. hundreds of years prior of the coming of the Son of God into the world, the glorious fact of the incarnation. That 2,000 years ago, from our standpoint, the eternal Son of God became man and so was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. He became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her yet without sin. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Unto us a child is born. Unto us A son is given. Yes, Isaiah is telling us that this Messiah will be a son of David, but there's more here. This is really language of the son of God, the eternal, only begotten son. A son is given. What does that make you think of? John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave. His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This is a gospel call implied in what Isaiah is saying. When he says, a son is given unto us, a child is born unto us, a son is given, this is a call to Offer Christ to the nations, to look unto Him, all the earth. If there's anyone here who doesn't know Christ, come to Christ. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and if you will but receive him in faith, you shall be saved. Isaiah continues, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. Not merely a child born of a woman, the Son of God given for us, but a king. The government should be upon his shoulders. That's a picture of kingly authority. If you keep reading Isaiah in chapter 22, he talks about Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who will have the key of the house of David on his shoulder, and he shall open and no one shall shut, and he shall shut and no one shall open. A child, a son, A king. Who is Isaiah speaking of? Who is this child? Who is this son? Who is this royal figure? Well, here we come to, tempted to call it the holy of holies in Isaiah chapter nine, because we have enumerated for us five glorious titles of Christ. Five messianic titles, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Five messianic titles. E.J. Young, the great commentator, says of them, they are a healing balm in which the Christian soul will find comfort and strength throughout time and eternity. It is one of the saddest points in the entire history of exposition that so many have refused to see the true import of these glorious names. And if you're not sold on the fact that we're gonna spend five weeks in one verse, hopefully E.J. Young's point convinces you that these five titles are a balm comfort and strength. Do you feel weak? Go to Isaiah 9.6. Do you feel discouraged? Go to Isaiah 9.6. Marinate your soul in Isaiah 9.6. And my plan is to look at each of these titles in turn, beginning with wonderful, wonderful. Now the first two, technically, could be taken and read together. And often you'll find this in more modern translations. Wonderful counselor, or even a wonder of a counselor. But I, following the older translations, believe it's fitting to look at wonderful in a kind of splendid isolation. That's what we're gonna do tonight. Simply his name shall be called wonderful. Our approach is very simple. We're gonna ask two questions of our text. First, what does it mean to be wonderful? And then second, how is Christ wonderful? What does it mean and how is Christ wonderful? First, what does it mean to be wonderful? It's a term much like beautiful and love and even awesome that has to some degree been diluted through frequent use and sloppy use in our English language. And so part of the challenge is to get back to the grandeur of this title and not allow our minds to settle for something lower and lesser than it really is. This Hebrew word means literally wonder. And his name shall be called wonder. In the sense of wonderful, or we could say full of wonder. This person is a wonder, he is wonderful, he is full of wonder. It's used to describe things that are unusual, extraordinary, a miracle, a marvel, a mystery, something that's hard to grasp, something that's hard to put into words, something that for humans like us is incomprehensible. You think of a tree. Out here, you can touch a large oak tree, or perhaps you go to California, the giant redwoods, or a sequoia. You can touch that tree, you can apprehend it. You try to put your arms around it, you're never gonna get to the other side, because it's simply beyond you. You cannot comprehend it. Well, in an infinitely greater way, this person is wonderful, incomprehensible, beyond. Humans are fascinated with things that are beyond us, with things that exceed our understanding. In fact, the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke said that anything, what's he say? He says that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. For instance, if someone from, Several hundred years ago or to time travel to our era and they came into our sanctuary and hit the light switch and the lights came on and off. They would say, this is magical. This is wonderful. I can't understand it. We're obsessed with things that exceed our ability to put them into words. Aristotle said, it is owing to wonder. that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize. Aristotle says that the bedrock of all philosophy, whether it's Plato or Schopenhauer or whomever, is this human wonder, this amazement, this marveling at the world and trying to understand it. In the Hebrew scriptures, the word used here, this is really important, It's only ever used for God and his works. I know of no instance in which this Hebrew word is ever used for a mere human, a mere mortal. It's used of God, it's a divine title. For example, in Psalm 78, 12, marvelous things or wonderful things he did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt in the field of Zoan. The psalmist says that God's leading his people out of Egypt. He's leading them across the wilderness, leading them to a promised land. This was a wonderful thing. These were marvelous works. One of my favorite examples of the use of this word is actually in the book of Judges, chapter 13, 18. Remember the story of Samson? Perhaps the children remember that story? Do you remember his parents? Manoah was his father. And he had an encounter with an angel, a messenger from the Lord. And he goes to ask the angel, what is your name? And the angel says, why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful? And then the angel ascends in the smoke of the altar into heaven. We get a glimmer that this was not merely a created being. This was not just any messenger, this was THE messenger of Jehovah. This was the pre-incarnate Christ appearing to Manoah, a Christophany. And it's intriguing that he says, why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful? So when Isaiah says, of this child, son, king, and his name shall be called wonderful, full of wonder, this is code. He's telegraphing for us. Whoever this is, he's going to be divine. He's going to be God. He's going to be God. He has divine prerogatives, a divine title. E.J. Young speaks of the significance that Isaiah begins with this title. He doesn't begin with Counselor. He doesn't begin with Prince of Peace. He begins with Wonderful. Why? Young says this, we are brought head on as it were with God himself as we hear the names of the child. From the very beginning a head-on collision with God himself. It is our first encounter with him. All the following designations are influenced by or stand under the shadow of this first majestic name. I don't have a problem, necessarily, with the translation, Wonderful Counselor, but really, this front-loading of the series of names with wonderful could be applied to all of them. Yes, Wonderful Counselor. but also wonderful, mighty God, wonderful, everlasting Father, wonderful Prince of Peace. Everything about Him is wonderful. It's a divine title stressing God's uniqueness. That's what it means to be wonderful or full of wonder. There's a second question that I want us to answer, and that is, How is Christ wonderful? How is Christ wonderful? How is this a fitting title for the anointed one of God, the Savior, the Messiah? Two reasons or two ways that Jesus is wonderful. First, Jesus did wonderful works. He did, to use language of Acts 2, he did the wonderful works of God. He was a wonder worker. And this began, in some sense, we could say, even before his incarnation, where the second person of the Trinity, as the angel of Jehovah, came and at various points in Israel's history did wonderful things. The angel of Jehovah led the children of Israel through the Red Sea. He led them. through that dry and barren land with a pillar of fire by night, a pillar of cloud by day. He led them and led through Joshua to conquer the promised land. He did wonderful things. He came to Manoah. He came to Joshua, the high priest. The angel of the Lord looms large in the Old Testament. But of course, most of you are familiar with Jesus' wonderful works on earth. What did Jesus do? Well, he preached good news, glad tidings of great joy. He cast out demons. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He walked on water. He forgave sins. You think it's a big deal that he could raise the lame man, but Jesus said the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins. He suffered under Pontius Pilate because He wasn't merely God. He was the God-man. And according to his humanity, he suffered. He was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. From there, he shall come to judge the living and the dead. Jesus did wonderful works that produced wonder in his witnesses. If you look through the gospel accounts, Jesus does remarkable feats. And the response is almost invariably one of wonder, awe, marveling, amazement. They wonder at his wonderful works. There's a second way that Jesus is wonderful. Not just his wonderful works, but his wonderful person. Yes, Jesus was a wonder worker, but he was also a wonder in himself. Jesus is wonder personified. He is God's only begotten Son, our Lord. Think for a moment just about the facts that before the world began, in eternity, God the Father, eternally unbegotten, God the Son, eternally begotten of the Father. The Father, always the Father. The Son, always the Son. The Spirit, always the Spirit, proceeding eternally from Father and Son. He's marvelous. He's wonderful. Eternally God. God's only begotten Son, our Lord. And then, in the fullness of time, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus, wonderful in his works, but wonderful in his character, wonderful in his person, as the old gospel song puts it. Isn't he wonderful? Wonderful, wonderful. Isn't Jesus, my Lord, wonderful? Eyes have seen, ears have heard, it's recorded in God's word. Isn't Jesus, my Lord, wonderful? We could go to so many places in the Bible to prove this, but think about John's gospel, the seven I am statements where Jesus says, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection of the life. I am the way, the truth, the life. I am the true vine. I am who I am. His name is wonderful. It's Jehovah. He's divine. He's God's. Or think of Psalm 45, where David says, my heart is overflowing with a good theme. I recite my composition concerning the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. We could say not just a good theme, but the best theme is Jesus, because he's wonderful. He's fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon his lips. He girds his sword upon his thigh with his glory and with his majesty. And in his majesty, he rides prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. His right hand teaches him awesome things. His arrows are sharp in the hearts of the king's enemies. The peoples fall under him. His throne. is forever and ever. The scepter of his kingdom is a scepter of righteousness. He loves righteousness, and he hates wickedness. Therefore, gods, your god, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. Ivory palaces, myrrh, cassia, aloes, and at his right hand, the queen in gold from Ophir. The king in his beauty. We should, recount the many deeds of Christ, his cross work, his resurrection, his ascension, his session, his coming again, a future event on the clouds of glory. But congregation, I urge you, do not overlook the loveliness of Jesus Christ himself. The wonderful qualities of Jesus' person. Because that's in whom we're trusting. Yes, we look to the Christ who was crucified. We look to the Christ who was raised again. But we also look to Christ. We look to him and we trust in his person. As Calvin said, Christ comes to you clothed in his gospel. That's who you're trusting in. That's the object of your affections. It's not a list of doctrines, though we need doctrinal foundations. But our trust is in a living person. It's the God-man mediator, the surety of the covenant. It's Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ himself. I love how Matthew Henry puts it. Justly is he called wonderful, for he is both God and man. His love is the wonder of angels and glorified saints. In his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, he was wonderful. A constant series of wonders attended him. and without controversy, great was the mystery of godliness concerning him. When you come to Jesus, your reach exceeds your grasp. When you think about the Trinity, when you think about the incarnation, when you think about the glory of Christ, your reach exceeds your grasp, and you're like Job and his friends, knowing but the edges of his ways. The half has not been told it. If we could write down all the stories of all the things Jesus did, even while he was on earth for those 30 odd years, there wouldn't be enough printing presses to write all the books that could be told. And then when you have eternity to think about, The glory that Christ had with the Father from all eternity. Do we not say with the Apostle Paul, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. He's wonderful. This might be a good sequel to last week's sermon where we talked about how he's worthy. Jesus is worthy for worship. He's worthy to receive every good thing. He's worthy to unloose the scrolls. He's worthy to receive your entire life of dedication and consecration. Well, congregation, He's worthy because He's wonderful. He's worthy of your worship and your service and your devotion because He is wonderful. There's no one else like Him who walked the earth. He's wonderful, and my real, my only application in some ways is to simply park and pause and ponder the wonderfulness of Christ. I wonder, is he wonderful to you? Is he wonderful to you? Or have you grown dull in your affections for Jesus? One question that used to haunt me, and does at times, is the question of, of love for Christ. Do I love Jesus? It's easy to say I love Christ, but if you're honest with yourself and you know that your affection waxes and wanes, that can be a hard and soul-searching question. Do I love Jesus? Do I love God? And I've been helped time and again by Thomas Watson in his book, All Things for Good, where he deals with what do you do when you don't feel like you love God very much? And we could substitute in, what do I do when Jesus doesn't seem very wonderful to me anymore? Perhaps when you were first converted, he was wonderful to you. You know, marvelous grace of Jesus, reaching the most defiled, and he was wonderful. It was a living reality in your life. You were walking in step with the Spirit, and somewhere along the line, he doesn't seem very wonderful anymore. He doesn't seem very marvelous. He doesn't seem very amazing anymore. It's lost its luster. What do you do? And Thomas Watson says, first of all, he says, start by looking not at your love for God, but look at God's love for you. And are we not sometimes prone to get this the wrong way around, to confuse things? As Isaiah says, later on in his prophecy. In chapter 29, surely you have things turned around. Surely you have things turned around. You've forgotten you're the vessel and he's the potter. You're the creature and He's the Creator. You're the sinner and He's the Savior. So, when you're struggling with Christ doesn't seem wonderful to me or I don't feel like I love Him, well, take your eyes off yourself for a moment and focus your sights on Him. and His love for you, and His wonderful qualities in Himself. Study the love of God. Study the grandeur of Christ. Enumerate all His blessings. Go through and meditate and ponder on all His titles, all His graces, His character, His attributes, His wonderful qualities. And then Watson says, You pray. And I tell you, don't be concerned to pray over and over again for greater love for Christ. That's a beautiful prayer. God doesn't grow tired of hearing his children asking for more ability to love him. He loves that prayer. God hears the prayers of his people and he answers all sorts of requests But what better request than to say, Lord, increase my capacity for love. Stir up my desire for you. Give me a greater sight and savor of King Jesus. Lord, I love Christ, but I want to love him more. More love, O Christ, to Thee, more love to Thee. Lord, stir up my affections. Lord, stoke the fire in my soul. Lord, give me a deeper loyalty, a richer appreciation, more of Thee. Pray, ask God to open your eyes to see the wonder of Christ, the wonder of his grace, the majesty of his person. And I tell you, just as Christ does not turn away anyone who comes to him, how can God not answer the sincere cry of your heart to see and appreciate more of the wonderfulness of his son? You think about, the scene of Christ's baptism where the Holy Spirit comes upon him and there's a voice from heaven, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. The Father is pleased when we make much of Jesus. So let's study the wonderful qualities of Christ and let's pray ardently for greater affection for Christ so that he will be wonderful to us afresh We perhaps need a revival in our hearts. Not just a reformation, but a revival. Lord, revive my soul. Give me eyes to see what is there. And if you've grown weary in your Christian life and you think those days are over, realize that not only can God restore the years the locusts have eaten, but God can say, as he does in Haggai, the glories of this latter house will be greater than the former house. Sometimes we think that the best times have come and gone, but we are to pray for greater achievements, greater works, greater glories, and even our father's song. Let's pray that Jesus would be wonderful to us. And so my only concluding application is congregation, wonder at the wonder. Marvel at the marvelous, stand in awe of the one who loved you and gave himself for you. Because at the end of the day, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, it's Jesus Christ himself. Let us pray.