Remain standing for the reading of God's holy word. As we turn to John 20, verse 24, and we'll read down to verse 31. John 20, 24. Now Thomas, called the twin, one of the 12, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, we have seen the Lord. So he said to them, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days, his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, peace to you. And he said to Thomas, reach your finger in here, and look at my hands, and reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. This is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's turn now to our Old Testament lesson and sermon text. Turning once again to Isaiah nine, verse six. As we continue our series on text used in Handel's Messiah, and as we continue our mini-series on these five titles of the Lord Jesus. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of God stands forever. Amen. You may be seated. People want heroes. People need heroes. Someone to aspire to. Someone you find inspiring. Leader of men. This is reflected in ancient mythology. You have Gilgamesh among the Akkadians, Heracles among the Greeks, Thor among the Norsemen. This is reflected in history. Charles Martell taking his stand at Tours, John Paul Jones aboard the Good Richard. I have not yet begun to fight Winston Churchill during World War II, his finest hour. And even today, in our jaded times, Marvel and DC comic books perpetuate and project our desire for the heroic. That's why we instinctively want to rally around a man with blood on his head, his fist in the air, chanting, fight, fight, fight. We long for some glimmer of the heroic. People want heroes. People need heroes. It's a good time to reflect tonight on who your heroes are. Who are your heroes? To whom do you look for model behavior and moral courage? Whose story, whether in history or in literature or right around you in your daily life, whose story do you find enlightening, inspiring? Who are your heroes? Perhaps a better question, is this, who is the hero of the biblical story, the biblical history, the covenant history of scripture? Who is the hero of the Bible? Who is the champion of the scriptures? Congregation, the Bible contains many heroes. Some are great leaders like Moses, And Samuel, think of Moses, who led God's people, not merely through the Red Sea, but for 40 years in a dry and barren land. Or Samuel, who is the last of the judges, prepared the people for a king, anointed both Saul and David, and from what we can tell, developed a kind of constitution, a royal constitution for the monarchy. Other heroes in the Bible are great warriors. Samson, who takes the city gates upon his shoulder, or David, who has slain his 10,000. Lots of heroes. But who is the ultimate hero? The hero, with a capital H in the Bible. And tonight, we come to the third of five messianic titles that belong to Jesus, and it reveals something to us of who that hero is. It's the title, Mighty God. Mighty God, which could be translated God Hero. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, God, especially God the Son, is the ultimate hero of the Bible and of human history. Although it's natural, It's appropriate to have various heroes in your life. Jesus is the ultimate hero you should admire above all. He is the unique hero that each of you desperately needs. Mighty God. God, hero. That's who Jesus is. We're gonna consider this title with three questions. First, what does this title for Christ mean? Second, why is this title necessary? And third, how should we then live? How do we live in light of this biblical teaching? First, what does this title mean? Mighty God. His name shall be called Mighty God. Well, this translates to the Hebrew phrase, Eil Gabor. Now, ale is a Hebrew word that means God, and gebor means hero, or we could say mighty man of valor. It's used of Boaz and of David's mighty men. It suggests the idea of a strong soldier, a mighty warrior, or a great hero. In this case, he's called mighty God, or God hero. And just think for a moment about the relationship between these two words. Eil, gebor, God, hero. It's actually similar to the relationship between wonderful and counselor. If you put those titles together, he's wonder of a counselor, and thus, a wonderful counselor. Well, here the idea is either he's a hero of a God, and thus, he is a heroic God, a mighty God, or the idea, is that he is a God of a hero, and thus a divine hero. So either Isaiah is talking about God in a special respect, he's heroic, he's mighty, or a special kind of mighty warrior, a special kind of hero, one who is divine. Now, so far, all the commentators you're gonna pick up basically agree, but some scholars, especially those of a liberal or skeptical persuasion who want to cancel out the supernatural in the Bible, they seek to diminish the significance of this title. They wanna water it down. They claim it is merely a figure of speech, that the Messiah, in their estimation, will certainly be like God, He will be God-like in his heroism, but according to them, he will fall short of full deity. At the end of the day, they say a mere man. After all, these scholars will point out that sometimes men and angels are referred to as lowercase g gods. We saw that last week in our discussion of the divine council where the psalmist refers to the created angels as sons of God or as gods. Likewise, it's clear that whatever else he may be, this figure in Isaiah 9-6 is clearly a true man. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. He has true, full humanity. But when Isaiah calls him mighty God, Is that all that title means? Does it just mean that the human Messiah will be like God or God-like in his heroism? Is that all it entails? Well, congregation, this unbelieving, liberal interpretation does not pass muster. It doesn't do justice to the wording of this title, either its usage in the Bible or its context. And so bear with me a moment as we consider the full weight and significance of what it means that Jesus is the mighty God. In the Bible, it's true that when the plural Elohim is used, Although it most often refers to the Lord, it sometimes refers to men and angels. Nevertheless, as far as I can tell, any time the Bible uses the singular ale for God, it refers exclusively to deity. This is not a title used in the singular that God shares with his creatures. If Isaiah had intended to communicate only that the Messiah will be God-like, he would have used the plural, Elohim. But by using the singular, El, Isaiah ups the ante. He insists that this anointed one will not merely be like God, rather he will be God, God. incarnate God in the flesh, God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. In fact, when mighty and God are paired together in the Bible, they invariably refer to the Lord himself. For example, in Deuteronomy 10, 17, for the Lord, Jehovah, your God, is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God. In the Hebrew, that's the same phrase, El Ybor. Nehemiah 9.32 speaks of the great, the mighty, and awesome God. Same phrase. Jeremiah 32.18, the great, the mighty God whose name is Jehovah of hosts. Congregation Mighty God is not just a Davidic title. No, it is a divine title. It suggests the portrait of a divine warrior king as Moses describes the Lord himself in his song at the sea. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Mighty God. Jehovah himself. The one who is who he is, the great I am, from everlasting to everlasting, eternal, infinite, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, the creator. of all things. Indeed, if you go to Isaiah, Isaiah just bends over backward to emphasize the distinction between the creator and the creature, between God and man. For instance, in Isaiah 31, he says, now the Egyptians are men. and not God. And their horses are flesh and not spirit. The prophet is just hammering home that there is a radical distinction between God and man, the creator and the creature. When he says mighty God, he's talking about Jehovah. He's talking about God himself. In fact, the icing on the cake is the context of Isaiah 9-6. In Isaiah 9-6, he says the Messiah's gonna be mighty God. You turn just one page after that in Isaiah 10, and here's what he says. The remnant of Israel will never again depend on him who defeated them, but will depend on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel in truth. Clearly it's talking about Jehovah, the one true and living God. Then in verse 20 he says, the remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. It's the exact same title. Used of Jehovah in chapter 10, used of the Messiah in chapter nine. It's the same title. When Isaiah says, we take all this data together, that the Messiah shall be called mighty God. He is not indulging a metaphorical flourish. He is making a metaphysical claim. about the identity of this Messiah. This one will not merely be like God, but is God himself. Specifically, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. As the great commentator E.J. Young puts it, in the light of the New Testament, we learn that this revelation was an adumbration of the doctrine of the Trinity. that there is one God who exists eternally in three persons. He goes on, Isaiah, in other words, is now giving a glimpse of the fact that in the fullness of the Godhead, there is a plurality of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And congregation, this is absolutely vital. In fact, providentially, this past Saturday, I come home from an appointment, And a couple people came to my door, and they were Russellites, by their own description, Jehovah's Witnesses, and we had a discussion about who Jesus is. And what does the Bible say about Jesus? And we went to Isaiah 9-6, and we looked at the mighty God, and how the singular L is used throughout the Old Testament, and how these two words put together are used throughout the Bible. And we had a discussion, and we didn't get very far, but a stone in the shoe, something to think about, but a vital point. Who is Jesus? Fully God. fully man. Christ, who is the eternal son of God, remained God in his incarnation. Even when the Lord crushed him according to his humanity, he enjoyed unbroken fellowship with his father according to his deity. That's what mighty God means. Nothing short of divine warrior king. That's the first question, what does the title mean? Second, why is this title necessary? Why was it necessary for Isaiah to ascribe mighty God to Jesus Christ? Sometimes faithful theologians spend a lot of time defending sixth day creation, the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, all vital doctrines in the scriptures, but sometimes they do so without bothering to ask the question, why? Why is this important? Why is it necessary? Well, at this point, I wanna share with you the beautiful summary of Westminster Larger Catechism, question 38, which says, why is it requisite, or necessary, that the mediator should be God? that the Messiah is God. Answer, it was requisite that the mediator should be God, that he might sustain and keep the human nature from sinking under the infinite wrath of God and the power of death, give worth and efficacy to his sufferings, obedience and intercession, and to satisfy God's justice, procure his favor, purchase peculiar people, give his spirit to them, conquer all their enemies, and bring them to everlasting salvation. As Dr. Piper likes to say, he had to be man to be a suitable Savior. He had to be God to be a sufficient Savior. And as I had that conversation on Saturday, we talked about if there is to be any hope of salvation for mortal men, then the Savior cannot merely be a man. He needs to be the God-man. Our sin is an offense against an infinitely holy God. We deserve condemnation in hell forever. If someone is going to come and offer a sacrifice that is sufficient for all, that has infinite value, then that mediator must be God in the flesh. A God who is mighty to save, a God who has a strong hand and an outstretched arm to redeem a people, to purchase a bride, to go to hell and back. Crucified, dead, and buried, he descended into hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead. We need a divine warrior king who is mighty to save, who is able to save, who is willing to save, who is able to save to the uttermost all those who call upon him. A sufficient savior in congregation as the mighty God. as God hero, a hero of a God, a God of a hero, heroic and divine, Jesus is all sufficient to save you from your sins. All sufficient to cancel the debt. All sufficient to regenerate you. All sufficient to conquer the dominion of sin. All sufficient to adopt you into his household. All sufficient to set you apart as holy. All sufficient to deliver you from the bondage of besetting sin as Matthew Henry says, he is the mighty God, God the mighty one. As he has wisdom, so he has strength to go through with his undertaking, he is able to save to the utmost. And such is the work of the mediator that no less a power than that of the mighty God could accomplish it. Paul says that if Jesus is not risen, then our faith is futile. If there is no resurrection of the body, then Christ is not risen and our faith is worthless. We're still in our sins. Well, likewise, congregation, if Jesus was not fully God and fully man, we are still in our sins. If he was merely a man, perhaps he could provide a good moral example, but he could not be a substitute. a vicarious sacrifice for sinners who takes our sins away as far as the east is from the west, who throws our sins behind God's back, who plunges them beneath the depths of the sea and they are remembered no more. He had to be mighty God, God, hero. That's why it's necessary. Because without this, there's no gospel and there's no hope. If Jesus is not God, we are still in our sins. That's why it's so vital. That's why when you have a conversation with a Russellite or an unbeliever, and they deny the deity of Christ, the full divinity of Christ, nothing less than the salvation of souls hangs in the balance. This isn't an esoteric doctrine. This is absolutely vital for your salvation. Do you believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, mighty God? Final question, and that is how should we then live? What's the cash value of this title? Well, two applications, salvation and worship. salvation, personal salvation, and worship. I'm gonna quote E.J. Young again. He says this, with this revealed truth, may our hearts delight. For he who is born the mighty God is therefore able to save all those who put their trust in him. He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. If you are a stranger to grace, if you are not a Christian, if you are not a believer, or maybe you profess it with your mouth but it's not true in your heart, then my urgent plea with you is to come to Christ, the mighty God, believe on his name, and you will be saved. That's the promise of the gospel. He will turn away none who come to him, and those who come to him, he will not cast out. He's able to save. Perhaps some of you tonight are converted. You've come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. You're trusting in him, alone for salvation, and yet you're struggling with assurance of salvation. You're struggling with assurance that you're truly a child of God. Well, realize that the same God who reached out his hand to deliver you and pluck you as a bran from the burning, no one is able to pluck you from his hand. His mighty hand, his outstretched arm, he is able not only to save you, but to keep you from stumbling all the way home to glory. There's nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing. Famine, sword, fire, nothing. can wrench you from his almighty grip. He's God. Almighty, he's the mighty God. Perhaps some of you tonight are converted. And whether you struggle with assurance or not, you are struggling with indwelling sin, that civil war between the spirit and the flesh. And perhaps some days, as you consider your pet sins, besetting sins, personal challenges, you begin to despair. You despair that I keep committing the same sin over and over again, it's become a pattern with me. and I confess it when it happens, but I'm not really forsaking it. Like a dog, I return to the vomit of my previous sins. I keep coming back and committing them again. I'm like the Israelites who were delivered out of Egypt, but all I want to do is go back and eat leeks and onions by the Nile. I'm like the children of Israel who have, like conquerors, come into the land of Canaan, but then all I want to do is worship the idols of Canaan. and intermarry with pagan wives. I keep going back to that vice. I keep going back to that addiction. I keep going back to that lust. I keep going back to that outburst of anger. I keep going back to that bitterness. I keep going back to that same old tragic, wretched song. What congregation? That's true of you. Realize the same God who saved you, saved you by the same power by which he raised up Jesus from the dead. The God hero who went to hell and back for your salvation, who descended into Hades, proclaimed his victory, took captivity captive, and ascended on the clouds of heaven, that God not only justifies you, he sanctifies you. He not only deals with the guilt of your sin, He deals with the power of your sin. He not only deals with the handwriting of ordinances that was against you, nailing it to the cross, but by His Holy Spirit poured out in your hearts, He gives you the power to say no to sin, to stand before the devil, to flee temptation, to run to Christ, and to stand in the full armor, the panoply of God. to walk in holiness, not perfectly, but sincerely, to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, not always learning, but actually coming to a knowledge of the truth, and then going on with God. Some of you, perhaps, are content with where you are in your Christian life. The congregation, the Christian life is a warfare. The Christian life is a pilgrimage, and that involves forward momentum, not running away from the enemy. But standing before the enemy. not diverting and digressing and regressing along the path, the narrow path you've been set on, but going forward, going on with God, growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, and laying hold of the promise of the gospel, not just for your justification, your right with God, but for your sanctification. being holy as he is holy. If you say, I cannot but indulge this sin, then you're denying the power of the gospel, you're denying in principle the title of this text, Mighty God. Mighty to save. Able to save to the uttermost all those who call upon him. So no matter how far you've fallen, no matter how far you've strayed, no matter how many mistakes you've made, Your problems are probably worse than you think they are. I heard a counselor talk one time of a young lady who came into his office, and her mother was insistent, her problems are about this small, and she's blowing them out of proportion. The daughter said, no, my problems are this big. The counselor said, you're both wrong. Her problems are about this big. But you know what? God is bigger. God Almighty is able to save to the uttermost. And so whether we're talking about that initial salvation, the assurance of salvation, or that sanctification, that working out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Realize this title is a place to keep coming back to as an anchor for your soul, that Jesus is mighty God. Mighty God. Second application. That's worship. These go together. Talked about this so many times, but it's nuts and bolts Christianity. You're saved to worship God. And so worship. I said at the beginning of this message that people want heroes, people need heroes. And sometimes they succumb to a kind of hero worship. They worship the gods of this age. They worship the movers and shakers, the influencers, of our worlds. What do we say to this? Well, it's natural and it's appropriate to have various heroes in your life. Although I would encourage you and I would encourage parents of children, let's not make our heroes comic book figures and sports stars and celebrities. Let's rise up, oh men of God. Let's be done with lesser things. Let's have heroes from the Bible. Let's have heroes from church history and military history. Let's find heroes among the godly. And children, let's begin with your father and your mother. You don't often think about your parents as being heroic, but realize in raising you, they actually are. Especially if your parents love you and serve the Lord with bravery, consider how they might be heroic role models in your life, or maybe your grandparents, or other seasoned saints that you can look to and say, this person is not perfect, but they love the Lord, they follow his word, and they are truly brave, courageous, and transformative in a way that the world knows nothing of. Now, of course, we must not worship such men and women, for they at their best are flawed human beings. We know that all too well. They are a man or a woman at the end of the day. But congregation, there is this need, this want, not merely for heroes, but really for hero worship. And I'm here to tell you tonight that there is a proper outlet for that desire. There is a proper kind of hero worship, and it is the worship of the heroic God. There is one hero, one only, that you are allowed to worship, and it is the Lord. God, especially God the Son, is the ultimate hero of the Bible and of human history. He is the hero of your life, or at least he should be. He is the ultimate hero you should admire above all, and he is the unique hero you desperately need. Among all the heroes of men, he is eminently and exclusively worthy and deserving of your worship. And so let us end on that note. Let us worship Jesus Christ. Let us praise him. In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus. Let Jesus Christ be praised. Let us sing of his divine glory. God of God, light of light, lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb. Very God, begotten, not created, O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord. As we raise a banner for Christ's crown and covenant, as God sets up a lampstand of presence and witness in the city of Wilmington, let us make much of Jesus. Yes, let us preach the whole counsel of God. let us have practical application that gets into the nitties, gritties of our life. Let's have our theology come out at our fingertips, yes, but above all, let us make much of Jesus that he might have the preeminence. Let us worship God, the Father Almighty, through his Son, whose name is called the Mighty God, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. One God, world without end. Amen. Let us pray.