Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 7. I'm going to start reading at verse 10. Isaiah 7, starting at verse 10. I'm going to read the passage and pray. I'll jump right into the sermon. Hear now the word of God. the Lord your God, let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahab said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. He said, Hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Thus ends the reading of God's holy, inherent Word. May its truth be ever written on our hearts. Let us pray. Dear God, we thank you that you are a God who speaks, and that long ago you spoke through the mouths of prophets, but today, in these final days, you speak through the will of the Savior, May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be ever pleasing and acceptable in your sight, the Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. I want to start tonight by asking a simple question that might be harder to answer than you can imagine. Do you trust God? Not do you believe that there is a God. Not do you believe God cares about you. Do you trust God? When nothing in your life seems to be going the way it should, do you believe that it is God's plan for you? When your kids won't talk to you, when your stairs are about to get fired, when your retirement is knocking on the door and you have nothing in savings, do you trust God to provide, to defend, to support you? When you say, when you fall short, when you don't do the things you know you're supposed to do, Look into the future at your eternity. Do you trust beyond a shadow of a doubt? Perhaps the only reason you're here is because your family dragged you here and you're not even sure if there is God. If there is a God out there, how can you know that he cares about you? Let me say, Chris' story is one of the surest ways that we know we can trust God's promises to us. Perhaps you have been going to church your entire life, you have been faithful, you read the Bible, you pray, and yet you still feel like I'm not really sure that any of this makes any sense after all. If God is really out there, why do these things keep happening? Why do bad things keep happening? Where is God in all of this? Christmas, the birth of Jesus, is one of the greatest signs that we can trust God's promises. I'm sure these kind of feelings, the feeling of God not being there, God not supporting you, is the same way A has Ahaz was a king in the southern kingdom of Judah around 730-715 B.C. Remember, the southern kingdom of Judah was the group that maintained the kingly line of David. Which means Ahaz is a descendant of the great king David and a forebearer of Jesus more than 700 years before Jesus joined together in order to go up and attack the war against Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom. These kings want to kill Ahaz in order to take control of the kingdom of Judah. And so God sent a prophet named Isaiah to try to calm the king Ahaz so that Ahaz would know that God had his back. And in verses three through nine, at the end of verse 10, or verse 9, sorry, if you are not firm in your faith, you will not be firm at all. You see, he's telling Ahaz that if he does not believe, if he does not trust God to have his back, he won't have anything at all. If he is not firm in his faith, his standing in this world will no longer be firm. of Israel and the king of Syria are about to rise up against him and he knows it's going to happen. He knows he's not strong enough to defeat them. He knows his army is no match for theirs. He knows he is about to die. And God is asking Ahaz to trust him. God is asking Ahaz to trust him. And Ahaz wasn't a particularly holy man. He wasn't a good According to 2 Kings 16 verse 2, it says Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And he did not, did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. But even though he had not done what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, gospel in a nutshell? That despite our sins, despite the fact that we have turned against God and been in a front towards Him in our own lives, that we haven't always done what God wanted us to do? That God chooses to save us even when we don't deserve it? Even when we've been against Him? Isn't the good news of the gospel that God, in His love for us, chooses to save us in all we Despite his sin against God, God himself, in his kindness and mercy, is offering Ahaz salvation from his enemies, protection from the king Tuana. when the kings rise up against him. He has to trust God so much that he doesn't raise up his own army to defend him. He has to trust that God isn't just out there in the cosmos somewhere waiting for things to happen. He has to believe that God is going to work in this world, in his life, in order to save things. God, Ahaz, has to trust God to save him. And then in verses 10 through 17, Isaiah comes to Ahaz The Lord says to Ahaz, ask the sign of the Lord your God, whether it be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven. Basically, God is saying, ask whatever you want, ask whatever you like of me, and I will give it to you so that you can know without a shadow of a doubt that I will keep my promise, that I will save you. But look at what Ahaz says in verse 12. He says in verse 12, but Eyal said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Now when you first read this, this seems pretty nice, right? This seems like a good, holy, mature Christian response. This is the same thing that Jesus says to Satan when he is tempted in the wilderness. I will not put my Lord to the test. It comes from Deuteronomy. the Lord your God to the text. It sure seems like Ahaz knows his Bible, like he's got some stuff put together, right? But look at how Isaiah responds. Verse 13, and he said, Isaiah, God, God, speaking through the prophet, hear them, O house of David. Is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also? Sudden translation, You see, he is tiresome to everyone he knows. Isaiah is saying, you are a pain to every person you ever have come across, and now you're being a pain to God. You weary God now. You are being a nuisance and trying his patience. You see, what Ahaz is saying is not a sign of spiritual humility. It is a lack of faith. God is offering him anything he could ask for, but he doesn't even have the faith to ask for something. I wonder how many of us end up in the same boat. God has given us sign after sign of what He can do and who He is, and we refuse to honestly look and see who God is and how He's revealed Himself in the world. We expect God to do the things we want Him to do. And when He doesn't do the things we expect God to do, we get angry. We turn against God. Maybe we even start to say, God's not for me, He's against me. Or God's not there at all. Instead of looking and examining at the actual evidence and the things God said He would do to see if God is faithful to His promises. Isn't that what Christmas is about? It is a sign that God used to reveal Himself, to reveal workings in the world, God offers Ahaz a sign, and he rejects it. And therefore, God decides to give him a sign he could never have imagined. A sign so tremendous, so powerful, so fantastic, it stretches the mind just to try to think about it. Look at verse 14. name Immanuel. God basically says to Ahaz, if you will not ask for a sign, I will give you a sign you can never expect. A sign like something that's never happened before in all of history. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Now the word virgin in the original Hebrew means young maiden, which is important to chapter 8. But this is someone would in no way have any possibility of getting pregnant. And yet she will conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Immanuel, God with us." That's what Immanuel means. God with us. This is about much more than a child born of a virgin. This is about a child who will be God with us. God in human form. This is the sign that God will keep His promises. This is the sign that God will keep a king on the line with David. This is the sign that God is still at work in the world. This is the sign that God is at work in your life. And this is the sign that we can trust God to save us. This sign that a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel, that we can trust God. Now, at this point, many of you might be wondering, what does this have to do with Christmas? And I get that. The word Emmanuel only appears three times in the Bible. It appears here in verse 14, which we just read. It appears again in the next chapter, chapter eight, verse eight, to refer to a young child born of the young maiden life of Isaiah. And in the blessing that God Himself speaks upon this child, He refers to him as Immanuel. Chapter 8, verse 8. Most scholars, both on the conservative evangelical end and on the liberal end, will say that chapter 8 is the natural fulfillment of this prophecy in Isaiah 7. But something amazing happens. This same word, Emmanuel, appears one more time in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, verse 23. saved the people of Judah during the days of Ahaz and Isaiah, God is about to do something great to save the whole world. A young woman named Mary was engaged to be married but had not yet been with her husband. One night she was empowered or overpowered by the Holy Spirit, and she conceived a child, a virgin, what to make of this. He's not dumb. He knows where babies come from. Settles in his heart to send her away quietly. And if you flip with me to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. I'm going to look primarily at verse 23. It should be on the very first page of your New Testament. If you're using a large print, a few Bibles, it's on page 959. Matthew chapter 1. I'm going to start reading at verse 18. husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is His name Immanuel, which means God with us. You see, the angel comes to Joseph, the fiancé of the Virgin Mary, and says this child inside of her is actually conceived of the Holy Spirit, and that she will bear a son, just like God said would happen in Isaiah chapter 7. And when Matthew puts together the of Christ later to be revealed, in 700 years later, 700 years after this prophecy, God is faithful to His promises. And the point here is it took over 700 years, but God keeps His promise. God can be trusted. That is what Christmas is all about. wrapped and closed, God kept his promise. A child was born of a virgin and he was called Emmanuel. God kept his promise. When God gave this sign to Ahaz, he wanted Ahaz to know that he could trust God, that he could actually depend on God the doubt that you can trust God, that God keeps His promises, and that God will keep His promise to save you. Christmas is perhaps the greatest evidence that you can trust God, that even if it takes hundreds of years or thousands of years, Ahab's from the enemies who were trying to kill him. But in other words, if you have faith in Jesus, you will be saved. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. I would be negligent in my responsibilities as a minister of the gospel if I did not end tonight asking, have you trusted God to save you? When you look at eternity, do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God will keep His promise to save you? In fact, He already has through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Maybe now is the time that you have it. Maybe now is the time for you to realize you can actually trust God. And He promises that if you believe in Jesus and make Him the King of your life, that He will save you from the power of Jesus, and all you have to do is have faith in Him. The virgin birth is meant to show us that God is not done, that He is still at work in this world, and that God wants to save you. That is what Christmas is about. The birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, is the greatest sign signs that we can trust God's promises. Amen. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you that you are God that works in this world. That you are not far, that you are close to the brokenhearted. That you have come down to bring us to your side. That we know that you keep your promises and that you will keep to you today and always that we may know you and love you completely. The Lord bless this night as we go out. May we remember that Christ came for us. Emmanuel. God fill us. We pray this for our good