All right, if you will, please go ahead and turn your Bibles to Isaiah 9, verse 6. And we actually have put down miscellaneous texts. That's kind of what we have. And we will be looking at these seven passages that are here for us this morning. And so we may have about a two-hour sermon today. So I know you're all ready for that. You'll be good for lunch afterwards. For those in the parking lot, I am joking. All right, Isaiah chapter nine, verse six, or if you want to, you can follow along in your bulletins and they're right there for you as well. Isaiah nine, verse six. Hear you then the word of the Lord. For unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever and ever. Father, we do thank you, Lord, for thy holy word. We pray, grant us understanding, O Lord. Help us, Lord, as we approach with fear and trembling. Lord, inscribe it upon our hearts by thy spirit. Father, we ask and thank you in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Now, if you, not talking about right this moment for those outside, but if you were to turn on your radios or your TV, perhaps you may be likely to run across various modern day so-called prophets. We don't have prophets today anymore, not like they did back in the New Testament days or the Old Testament time. We don't have those kind of prophets with the passing of the last of the apostles. But these people today will claim to have received or are getting direct revelation from almighty God. And they say that they are speaking for God. And I can remember more than one occasion where you've had some of those say, if you question what they were saying or teaching, they will simply decide touch, not the Lord's anointed referring to themselves. And, and I would say, wow, if you hear that, you need to get up and walk out. All right. I remember some way back when, when one of these types took the Bible. You can remember this too, but I'm not going to mention the name. He took a Bible in his hand, he threw it to the ground and he said that you don't need this anymore because they have him. That's the epitome of arrogance and a false teacher. He was a horrible false teacher and a false prophet. And when they, saw him do that and heard him say that, everyone there should have immediately known, they should have known he was, seeing all that, what he was, who he was. They should have gotten up and they should have really walked away or ran very very quickly. Because as a result of that individual, many many people died. Now in the Bible, if a person claimed to be a prophet, you better be 100% correct. You had to be 100% accurate. Not like today, when those who claim to be prophets say, well, it just depends. Maybe it's later, or they try to get around it, beat around the bush, and they basically won't admit that they were wrong. But yeah, you had to be 100% if you were claiming to be a prophet. Otherwise, they would stone you to death. Now, you suspect many today when they hear of that, if that was going on, you think that would stop the false shenanigans. If the penalty like that existed today, they would certainly stop, at least saying that God told me to tell you this. However, back in the Bible, God did speak to his people through various chosen prophets who were directed to give his word to the people. If anything was false, if he was wrong, He was executed as a false teacher and a false prophet. So yeah, that was tough days now. He couldn't just be a false teacher back then. If he taught contrary to God's revealed word, he was false and he was to be dealt with appropriately and very quickly. And yet God spoke through some carefully chosen instruments to bring his word to his people. And they will know what God's law is. They will know that they are sinners. They need to know that so that they would realize that they need a redeemer. And they will know that God has promised to send the Messiah and send him he did." So this morning we will look at various passages as Christ was revealed in the Old Testament, as he was seen there. This is only a smattering, a handful of passages, though I've chosen seven of them, and of course that seems to be a good number of them. I thought that might work out well. But there were many prophets and many passages, but we will only consider these few. In fact, we will look at seven specific prophecies given about the Messiah who is coming. Okay, this is in the Old Testament, looking forward to the first coming, the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking forward to the Messiah to come. Now much has been revealed, of course, about this coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Old Testament and because of that we must go to the Word of God. Because God has given great and many indicators to the Jews as to what to look for and how they could and should recognize Him. So when Jesus came on the scene, they were all familiar with these passages about the Messiah. According to the prophets, look at verse Isaiah 9, 6, the prophets revealed his divinity. They revealed that the Messiah will be God, Isaiah 9, 6. Now realize that these prophecies the people of Israel would know what to look for and here in Isaiah one of the greatest of all the prophets in the entire Old Testament and he was recognized as one of the greatest prophets in all of Jewish history. Here God revealed to him and to the people that this coming Messiah will not be what they usually would expect. No, this coming Messiah will be divine. He will be God. Okay, so the Messiah to come will be God. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. So far, so good. God has promised to send a man child to be ruler over Israel and to sit eternally on the throne of David. But we continue. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Can speak of anyone else? No one else. Is there anyone born among men that we could call mighty God? No, there was not. How about everlasting father? No, there was not. The prince of peace? No, there was not. Can the speak of David? No, certainly not. He lived and died. So who is the only one that all history, the only one that can be called God? That is only the Christ of the prophets. The Christ of the prophets, only the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked on water, calmed the storms, called forth the dead, healed the lepers, gave sight to the blind, forgave sins, and rose from the dead, seated at the Father's right hand, ruling and reigning over all heaven and earth. Even now, only Jesus, the Son of God, who is very God, a very God, who is the second person of the Holy Trinity, he is God. The prophets declared it. The Jews should have been ready for it when Christ came on the scene. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has a light shone, as you see in that same chapter as well. Isaiah said, this Messiah promised by God will be and is God in the flesh. and of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end, and on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. Well, there's no other human being in history that this could refer to, but only the Christ who is God and man. So no mere man can rule and reign for all eternity. He would not be able to do so. Only one who is called God, meaning Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen. This is the Messiah who loves you. This is the Christ who knows you, who cares for you, who knows his sheep and calls him by name. He will always be there for you. How? Because he is God. And he sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for you. and for me, and he does so remembering us who we are, and he bears the scars. But let us press on because the prophets have much more to say for us and to reveal, not only have they revealed his divinity, But Genesis 22, 18, the prophets reveal his nationality, just in case they were not sure, they reveal his nationality. In Genesis, God revealed to Moses that which is recorded here for us, but also for Israel, the angel of the Lord. call to Abraham a second time. This is after Abraham showed that he was willing to offer up his only son Isaac and God promised to bless him. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. Will they be blessed by physical Abraham himself. No, they will not. They will be blessed by his seed, his offspring. And as we see over in Romans, usually the seed is singular speaking of the Messiah of the Christ because a promised Messiah will be a son of Abraham, the only one who can bring the blessing and salvation to all the nations of the earth. Could Abraham do that? No. his seed could, which is Christ the Messiah, and he did bring salvation and blessing to all the nations of the earth. So Christ, the chosen seed of Abraham, the one through whom Abraham's offspring will be as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the seashore for their great numbers. He will bring blessing to the ends of the earth for he himself has chosen offspring among every nation, tribe, and tongue, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah who is God, the Messiah who is a son of Abraham. We know his nationality. All of these will be seated on that great day with this promised Messiah from every nation, tribe, and tongue next to this Messiah, who is God, the son of Abraham. People from Israel, from Greece, from India, from the continent of Africa, North and South America, and even the islands of the world, wherever they may be, because of Christ, the blessings of Abraham will come to you. will come to you by faith in the promised Messiah. Those blessings are yours. Because you're in Christ, who is the promised seed of Abraham. And if you're in Christ, you are of the seed of Abraham, the children of Abraham. Those blessings belong to you. If you're in Christ, then you claim them. They belong to you. You're a child of Abraham by faith in Christ. You are a child of God by faith in Christ. You are the inheritors of the covenant. You are. And so we rejoice before the Lord, our God and savior. And we long for the coming of this Messiah again. Yes, we do. We long for the return of the Messiah who is coming again. And third and Micah chapter five, verse two, we see that the prophets reveal his place of birth. Just in case they need to be zeroed in a little bit more, they know that he will be a Jew, that he will be a son of Abraham. And so now the Lord is getting very specific for them, the very place of the birth of the Messiah. So all that they would be prepared, and also that they would recognize him when he comes. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, for you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient of days, because he is God." This is very, very specific for us. because there were two towns called Bethlehem, and so God points out which one it is. Okay, so there'll be no confusion. This is the very town of David's birth, the city of David, even though the line of earthly kings would cease. God will raise up a king. This will be the king of kings, of all kings, the promised Messiah who will also be the son of David to rule and reign for all time. And he would be born in the little obscure town of Bethlehem. Where was Jesus born? In the little town of Bethlehem. The name itself meaning house of bread. Jesus, remember what he said, I am the bread of life. And so the bread of life came into the house of bread there in Bethlehem. So Christ himself, the bread of life. He will come and he will shepherd his people, not only Israel, but true Israel, made up of all those sharing in the blessing of Abraham through faith in this Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, because they knew where he was to be born. They knew. When Herod inquired of the chief priests and the scribes, he said, where is the Messiah to be born? They pretty much rolled off the top of their tongues there. Bethlehem of Judah. Bethlehem of Judah. So they knew right away where the Messiah was to be born. And they pointed out to this very verse in Micah. And so God condescended to make this known for his people. His son, our Messiah, was born in the city of David in Bethlehem, the house of bread, where we find the bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ, which leads us to even more so to consider as well here from Genesis 3.15, because our prophets reveal the very humanity of Christ. Yes, he is and must be God, but he also is man. He had to be man if he would be one of us. After the fall of man, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit, even then God promised to send a savior, even then a deliverer. And so, yes, as we have seen, one who is God. But as fallen humanity, we need a savior like one of us, yet without sin. The promised Messiah will be and must be man. He must be very God, a very God, and fully man, just as us, with a human nature, with a real body and soul like one of us, if he will be our substitute. He must be one of us. He must be. Genesis 3.15, God said, I will put enmity between you and the woman. Remember the serpent that was there? I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Here offspring would be a better seed in her case as there's only one. The Messiah must be God and man. If there will be redemption then he must be. If the penalty will be paid he must be man as well as God because there will be hostility that he says between your offspring, the ungodly reprobate, he says to the devil, and to her offspring, the redeemed of the Lord. There will be hostility, there will be enmity, there will be a war against one another. And so the promised Messiah will be born of a woman, made man, yet fully God. And Christ will triumph over Satan himself. And though Christ will suffer, and he will suffer severely, and yes, he will be bruised and crushed, and he will be crucified, and yes, he will, and he must die. Remember, he didn't shed his blood with a pinprick on his finger. He must pour out his blood on the death. The penalty, the wages was death. And so the Messiah had to die. And so yes, Christ shall deliver the crushing blow. Though Satan would bruise his heel, as you picture one today wearing a, if you've seen TV where they wear a little snake, I forget what you call those things, almost chaps that go around a leg. You know, they step on a snake and they can't bite through that. If you were to stomp on a snake, on the top of the head of the snake with your bare foot, you might get a bruise in the bottom of your heel. But here the idea is not that he's just going to bruise the head of Satan. The idea here is he's going to crush it and grind it underfoot. Because this is the Messiah who is fully God and fully man. And he will have triumph over the devil and he has had triumph and the victory. And so Christ would suffer, but he will deliver the crushing blow, and he has delivered the crushing blow to the head of the serpent. And how has he done that? Because death cannot hold him down. Death could not keep he who is life itself, because Christ is the life, and he rose again from the dead, bringing freedom from the kingdom of darkness. and liberty as redeemed of the Lord, living in the kingdom of the light of Christ, and so great and mighty and powerful as our Deliverer. who is God and man. So we praise God for the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully man. He had to be both of these. If he was going to save your soul, he must be God and man. And that is the promise of God all throughout the Bible. Even the prophecies that are given, many, many more that are there. And so we praise God for our Messiah, fully God and fully man, because he is a mighty God. And he has come to bring redemption to Jew and Gentile, the entire body of Christ, true Israel, made up of Jewish believers and Gentile believers, one body of Christ, one church of the redeemed of the Lord. And so God would have Israel know even more, look at Genesis 49 verse 10 because the prophets here reveal Even his tribe even his tribe and narrowing it down even Mars if he's really Condescending for the people of God so they would really recognize when Messiah comes near the end of his life Remember Jacob, Jacob is blessing his sons. But in verse 10 here he prophesies, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Okay, the idea of Shiloh comes when tribute comes. a prophecy confirmed in the covenant with David, but fulfilled in the greatest son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who will rule over all the nations. This one comes from the tribe of Judah. And so he has narrowed it down, birthplace, tribe, what his nationality will be, what he will be like, because the scepter shall not depart. It shall never be taken because it is placed into the holy hands of Messiah who is king of kings, and all shall bow the knee before the one of the tribe of Judah. All will bow and confess that Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, Lord. Messiah will rule and he shall reign and his dominion will be over all things and the people will hear him and they shall obey. And so even here in the times of Christ upon this earth, Jesus came from the tribe of Judah and they know it. They know where he'll be born, and they know his tribe, they know all of his background in this kind of manner. But even more so, Isaiah 11-1, the prophets reveal his family. They reveal his family. Now at this time in Israel's history, the kingdom of David has been decimated. It has been decimated. The sons of David have been cut down, leaving, if you will, only the stump. Okay, that's the idea we see pictured here. And God has brought judgment on these stiff-necked and rebellious children of Israel at this point in biblical history. And yet, even in the midst of judgment, God still speaks of mercy. We read, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. The trees of David have been cut to the ground, if you will, and only a stump The stump is David's father, Jesse here. And so God will bring forth the branch from his roots, the branch of the Messiah, the son of David, the son of God. The king would come. The promised Messiah has sprouted. A shoot has formed, a shooting out with great strength and great power. Okay, so the shoot has come out. And he will bear fruit, far, far greater fruit than David could ever dream of, because his king will come and has come, the promised Messiah has sprouted from the stump, and his name is Jesus Christ. and he is our branch. He is the shoot there from the stump of Jesse as promised. And why is that? Because the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding as we read more there in that chapter. the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He is the righteous judge of all the earth. He is holy, and he is just, and he is perfect in righteousness. And to him the nation shall flee to for salvation and forgiveness and holiness. And the sheep shall be called. They'll be called from the four corners of the globe. The sheep shall hear his voice, and they shall come unto him. And finally, Coming to the perfect number seven, if you will, God gives more here in Daniel 925. The prophets reveal the time of his coming. Not only the family, not only his tribe, not only his humanity, his place of birth, and all of this that's there for us, but even the time of his coming. In the days of the New Testament, the time was ripe for the coming of Messiah. The people knew this, and they longed for Messiah. They'd been under Roman oppression, severe and hard, and so they're looking for Messiah to come. And the people knew it. And he longed for it, even though he came unto his own, and his own received him not. All that God has shown, all that God has declared through his prophets, and his own received him not. Nevertheless, the Bible says, know therefore and understand from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, to the coming of an anointed one, a prince. There shall be seven weeks. God told them in 70 weeks, okay, if you read the entirety of the chapter, in 70 weeks, Messiah will come. 70 weeks of sevens, of 490 years. And the temple was rebuilt. And eventually the Jews returned to Palestine. And God said that it would happen. And the Jews knew that it would happen. And Jesus came to fulfill all that was needed to save his people from their sins. And so the anointed one was cut off. He was crucified and dead and buried. But on the third day, in fulfillment of the scriptures, on the third day he rose again, King of kings and Lord of lords. And he says, behold, he is coming again. And he comes with the angels of God. He comes with clouds. He comes as he did when he ascended up into heaven from the earth. He comes bodily. He comes in great glory. And what do we learn from all this? We learn that God has kept his word. God keeps his promises. God has done it. He has said it, and his people rejected it, and they rebelled against him. And though he would save a remnant, he has saved his sheep, and he will continue saving them until every one of those come into the fold. And when every one of those that come unto the fold, he comes to judge this world. This is the day of second chance. The second chance is today. We don't know what tomorrow may hold, and tomorrow it may be too late, but today is a day of salvation, and we believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of our souls. The second chance is now, not later, not a year from now, not seven years from now. The second chance is now. Now, today is the day to repent. Today is the day to turn from sin. Today is the day to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, the Christ of the prophets. The Christ of the prophets. Look what God revealed to Israel there in the Bible. He said, this is my Messiah. That is not me doing that. And he must be believed upon. and we must trust in him. And I pray to God that if you have not done so already, that you will. And if you have done so, then we praise God from whom all blessings flow because the blessings of heaven are all yours in Christ. The blessings when Christ returns to this world and we rule beside him with our savior, our king. And we'll rejoice together with one another on that great day. It could be tonight, but we rejoice together on the day when Jesus comes. Father, we do thank you, Lord, for this morning. Father, we thank you for thy holy word. We do praise you, Lord, for the promises that you have given, the promises that you have kept, and the promises that is coming again. And we long and we look for that day, Father. Oh, Lord, forgive us of our many sins. Lord, forgive us of our many trespasses. Help us to turn from them, Father. Help us to walk faithfully before you all the days of our lives, even if it be but one more. But, Lord, that we'll be found faithful in Christ. And, Father, we do thank you and praise you in Jesus' holy name. And now receive the Lord's benediction.