And as you are, if you would turn with me in your copies of God's word to Isaiah's prophecy, Isaiah and chapter seven. This evening, the intention is that we would, with God's help, come to the end of this chapter. But instead of reading the entirety at one go, I'd like just to read the first nine verses and then we'll pick up our reading as we continue in our time together. So that's Isaiah chapter seven. We'll commence our reading there at the first verse. Here once again, the word of our God. It came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Amalia, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shir Yahshub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pole in the highway of the fuller's field, and say unto him, take heed and be quiet. Fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tales of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of resin with Syria and of the son of Amalia. Because Syria, Ephraim and the son of Amalia have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, let us go up against Judah and Vexit. Let us make a breach therein for us and set a king in the midst of it, even the king, even the son of Tabeo. Thus saith the Lord God, it shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, the head of Damascus. is resin, and within three score and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Romaliah's son." We'll pause our reading of God's word just there. We are at this moment in time, somewhere between five and 10 years removed, from the last verse of chapter six. We find the prophet has in that period of time done nothing that has been recorded at least for us in scripture. We can infer from his commission in chapter six that he has been incessant in his preaching. His commission was to preach and to do so constantly. And so it's right for us to assume that he did so. But in terms of anything noteworthy, this is the first account that we have of the prophet since the vision of the Lord in the temple. And as we see the timestamps in chapter 6.1 and chapter 7.1, we recognize that there is somewhere between five and 10 years that have elapsed. Now in this time, in relative obscurity, we know that the prophet was, as we already said, doing his work as a minister of the gospel. He's preaching. We also know that he has a family. In fact, we know from this text that sometime between the end of chapter six and the beginning of chapter seven, he has a son. And his son is named Shir Yahshuv. Now, why is that significant? Significant because Shir Yahshuv, as you might note in perhaps the margin of your translations, it means that a remnant shall return. What's striking is the very name actually appeared in chapter 6 and verse 13. Or at least it's cognate. You remember in 6.13 we're told that a tenth shall return. The word there in the Hebrew is shur yashuv, very much. reminiscent of what we have here in the text. And so some commentators have suggested either that the son was named so, either by a divine command directly, or simply Isaiah, looking with faith upon the promise that was given to him in 613. And indeed, you and I, we shouldn't see those two things as being mutually exclusive. Even if the Lord God did command him to name his son so, beloved he, the prophet would be willing to do so. because they believed what God had revealed. Well, what we find in our texts is the prophet coming out of a period of relative obscurity and coming on to the national stage of Judean politics. He intervenes as God's prophet in this moment. And friend, you and I, we note that when the prophet intervenes, Judah is in a case that has not been thus far in Isaiah's ministry. You remember under the days of Uzziah, Judah was a prosperous kingdom. In fact, her prosperity was only surpassed by that of Solomon. She was in a position of strength. Economically, she was booming. But now, even as we read from 2 Chronicles 28, things have changed. You remember that in that text that we just read moments ago, that actually Judah had been ravaged by war. She had been defeated by Israel and by Syria already. And only for the intervention of God's prophet, did those who were captive make a return to Judah. And so friend, though she was miraculously rescued beforehand, she as a kingdom was certainly demoralized. And now after that defeat, The prophet goes to the fuller's field as Ahaz the king looks upon the horizon and he sees thunderclouds of another affliction. He sees once again, the very nations that had destroyed or nearly destroyed him previously are now gathering once again around Jerusalem. And it's in that moment that our prophet enters once again into our focus. He stands there in the fuller's field with Shir Yeshuv, his son, standing before Ahaz and Ahaz's men. And friend, the threat that's on the horizon is the Syrio-Ephraimite alliance. It was an alliance between Israel, that's the northern tribes, and Syria, that's the kingdom of Syria that bordered to her north and east. And this alliance was, we actually know quite a lot about it, both from the pages of scripture and even through Assyrian records, but the alliance essentially was an attempt, one of many attempts, to pull themselves out from under Assyrian control. That was the empire further to the north and to the east. Both the kingdom of Syria and the kingdom of Israel wanted no part with the Assyrian empire. And so they formed an alliance. And we also know that at this time, this alliance at this stage was in negotiations with Egypt. Egypt was interested as well in opposing the Assyrian Empire. And friend, what this meant simply was that if this alliance was to be formed, there needed to be free movement of troops and supplies between Egypt, Syria, and Israel. The only problem was Judah, stood directly between the alliance and Egypt. And so, both the Syrio and Ephraimite counselors contrive a plan. And the plan is recorded for us in our text. The plan is not to decimate Judah. The plan is not to ruin it, not at all. The plan is really to engage in a coup d'etat. to overthrow the house of David, to overthrow Ahaz because Ahaz had already pledged himself to Assyria. And so the idea was by force, Syria and Israel would remove Ahaz and the entirety of the house of David from the throne. That's the crisis. It is a crisis most pointedly, most directly for the house of David, not principally for Judah. Judah really was supposed to serve in the alliance by supplying forces as they continue to resist Assyria to the north. That's the context. And friend, as you look at the text, you notice that what we've read, we were told directly that this was the plan. They were intending to make a breach for themselves so as to put the king, that is the son of Tebiel in place of Ahaz. Again, you find that in verse six. But the prophet stands there to tell Ahaz that none of it will come to pass, none of it. And so friend, he describes very pointedly what will come. And note how he says it here in verse 8, he says, the head of Syria is Damascus, the head of Damascus is Rezan. Within three score and five years shall Ephraim be broken. Then down to verse 9, and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Romaliah's son. Note what he's saying, he's saying, look, these kingdoms and these capitals will only have influence within their own bounds. In other words, they will not succeed in subjugating Judah and removing the house of David from the throne. That's what he's saying. These kings will stay in their places regardless of their ambitions, regardless of their conspiracy, and even Ephraim, that is Israel, will be destroyed. Now friend, that's where we leave the text. But as we continue through this passage this evening, you'll notice that that really the focus isn't even on the crisis. Most of the text is devoted to dealing with Ahaz's response to the promise that has just been given. Most of this text is concerned with Ahaz's very apparent unbelief. This is a crisis for the house of David. The fear was not that Judah would be destroyed, but that Judah would have a different king, a different dynasty. And Ahaz trembled. He feared that it might be so. Now friend, what really was at heart in that fear? What lay at its foundation? Friend, quite a lot. Was it not the case that the house of David had been promised by God that it would be through the Davidic line that Shiloh would come, that is the one to whom the scepter of Israel belonged, he would come. And it would be in Shiloh, that is the person who is Shiloh, that the throne of David would be established forever. In other words, that Messiah would come. that he would reign and in him David's throne would be everlastingly preserved. All of that had been promised well before. And friend, that means then that Ahaz's unbelief in this moment was really a very direct rejection of all of those promises. The promise was that the house of David would be preserved in the Messiah. and Ahaz now is terrified that the Syrio-Ephraimite forces will somehow destroy the plan of God. Now friends, as you look at this text, you recognize that this is then a clear rejection of Christ, Ahaz is unbelief. But I want you to notice as well, just very briefly that this is perhaps the most, no, this is by far as most commentators agree, the most complicated text in the prophecy of Isaiah. It's complicated for Jewish expositors and understandably, because they do not wanna see the Lord Jesus in this text. But even for Christian commentators, this text is incredibly difficult. Even among our most Orthodox men, as many men have made comments on this, there seems to be just as many variations on the text. But I wanna say this, there is one point of clarity friend, and that is that this text is to direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ. I submit to you if we keep that medium, that this text actually, it actually does become quite clear. This text is about the Lord Jesus. But as it is a text, friend, that points us to Christ, it also is a text that exposes to us the folly of unbelief. It sets in contrast the one who really does believe in the promises of God. and the man who will take himself to any and every other savior. It's a text, in other words, friend, that shows us that only faith in Christ secures souls. And for us to see that, I want us to go back to the text and we'll resume our reading there at the end of verse nine. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. 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. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said, Hear now, O house of David. Is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will you weary my God? You and I, we see the prophet standing there with Shir Yashuv, perhaps a boy no older than five years old. They stand there in the fuller's field and friend, as we see them in the text, the promise that was just made, you imagine it echoing across the field. It shall not stand. The friend interrupting that echo is that last line of the ninth verse. No longer is the prophet concerned with what is to happen, he's concerned with Ahaz. He's concerned especially with Ahaz's response to the promise. And our text reads, he says, if you will not believe, surely you shall not be established. In the Hebrew, literally it is, if you will not believe, ye shall not believe. I suppose that's somewhat difficult for us to understand, but even in our marginal notes, it is smoothed out for us. The sense is, if you will not believe, it's because you have not faith. If you will not believe, it is because you have no real habit of faith. That is, you have no real inclination to believe. To put it even into the vernacular for us, the sense, friend, actually in the original is, If you do not believe, it is because you will not believe. But the Lord, through the prophets, says, well, ask a sign. Ask a sign. If you will not believe and you wish to have your faith strengthened, ask a sign and I'll confirm. A friend behind that, of course, is a tacit question, isn't it? Ahaz, do you want to believe? If Ahaz wanted to believe, Then friend, here's his opportunity. If he is flagging in faith, if he has any faith at all, then here is a sign that is supposed to encourage him. Ask a sign. To which Ahaz responds, I will not tempt the Lord. Now, in verse 12, we have Ahaz's response, but verse 13 really, really, really helps us to understand how we're supposed to read Ahaz's reply. Because there the prophet very tersely rebukes the king. He says directly, is it a small thing for you to weary men? Will you weary my God also? The word weary there is the same word in the Hebrew for grieve. The sentence is, are you grieving men? And Ahaz certainly was a grief to the godly in the land. And now he comes to the king and he says, will you grieve God? Who comes to you now so extraordinarily? Who comes to you now so particularly? Will you grieve him? Friend, what you and I recognize then is that Ahaz's response in verse 12 was not pious. It was not from humility. In fact, friend, what you and I hear in this text is a man who says, I won't ask a sign of the Lord because I'm not interested in the Lord's help. That's ultimately what it is. The sense, friend, in this text is that Ahaz really is not interested in a sign because Well, he's made other arrangements. That's the idea, and in fact, he had. As we read from 2 Chronicles 28, and as we read also in 2 Kings 28, Ahaz had established an alliance with the king of Assyria. He did not need the salvation of God, and so he did not need to ask a sign. I think there are two basic lessons, friend, that you and I can learn from Ahaz. I think Ahaz really epitomizes, in one sense, the natural man and his response, his natural response to the offer of God's grace. Here you have a man, friend, who has no interest in salvation from God's hand. He's a political, a practical man. A man who has his own connections and will rely on his own ingenuity and on his own politicking to get himself out of a difficult place. He doesn't need God. He sacrifices to his net. He trusts in his industry. He does not need the Lord. That's exactly what we find in the king. Friend, we also find a man here who shows us that if you will not trust in Christ, and Ahaz did not trust in the promise of Christ, as is evident in this text, then you'll make another savior. I want you to notice how Ahaz describes himself to the king of Assyria. He says, he describes himself as servant and son to the Assyrian overlord. King of Judah. son of David, but makes himself son and servant to a heathen king. What you see here is a man who relies upon a counter alliance, not upon God. A man who relies upon his politics and not upon divine promise. And beloved, we even see this in how he engages in idolatry. He burnt incense in the valley of the Son of Canaan, and burnt his children in the fire. He burnt incense in the high places, 2 Chronicles 28. And all that friend, as we find in that text as well, it was simply a means to save himself. And beloved, all false religion is. All false religion is simply an instrument devised by men so as to save themselves. Beloved, if you will not take the Lord Jesus Christ, Ahaz epitomizes what you will do. You'll find another savior. You'll entrust yourself to anyone and anything else. Beloved, the question for us as we look at just these first few verses is, is Christ alone your hope? Christ in the promise. As he's held forth to us in the gospel, is he sufficient for you? Or are you looking for some other kind of security? We need to use lawful means. We're commanded even diligently to use lawful means, but never to trust in them. Our calling is to make the Lord God in Jesus Christ, our refuge. And only in him to trust. And so is it Christ alone friend this evening, upon which your life hangs? Our second point this evening begins really with what you could say is the crux of this entire chapter. It is the sign provided by God, and we find that from verse 14 and following. So if you would look back with me in your copies of God's word, Isaiah 7, and we'll resume our reading there at the 14th verse. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For behold, the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou aborest shall be forsaken of both her kingdoms. The Lord says he will give you a sign. He will provide the sign himself. And there's a command in the text, it's behold, look. And he's saying to Ahaz, look now, look now. And he says, this is the sign. A virgin shall conceive and bear a son. The word virgin there should be taken as a young woman who has never known a man. She will conceive and bear a son. To that next line, and you'll notice this even in the margins of our authorized versions, the next line is not addressed to Ahaz. It's in the feminine singular. The next line is addressed not to Ahaz, but to the virgin. And thou shalt call him Immanuel. Thou shalt call his name Immanuel. What's going on here? Friend, I want you to notice that he addresses the Virgin here. And then if you would look over at chapter eight and verse eight, the prophet addresses Emmanuel himself in the text. And he addresses both presently. It's as though the prophet is looking through the corridors of time, as though present. And he's calling them to this moment. and he's calling Ahaz's attention to them presently at this moment as well. One of our forebears, J. Gresham Machen, paraphrased it this way. It's as though the prophet says, I see a wonderful child whose birth shall bring salvation to his people. As though he's looking through the corridors of time and seeing Christ presently. And before such a period of time shall elapse, as would lie between his conception and his coming to years of discretion, Israel and Syria shall be forsaken. There we're looking at the last two verses that we read, verses 15 and 16. The idea being there that the prophet is really looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying, there is your sign. There is your sign. And the sense of verses 15 and 16 run thus, that in the normal lapse of time it would take for a child to mature from conception to adolescence. In that same lapse of time, you will see those kingdoms that are your enemies overthrown. Now friend, take the text that way. You might ask the question, well, what benefit was that to Ahaz? The prophet speaking of a Christ who is to come hundreds upon hundreds of years after this moment. Friend, the answer is that this was not necessarily to be a benefit to Ahaz, was it? Ahaz had the opportunity to have a particular sign given to him and he refused it. He refused it outright. And this sign you'll notice is not addressed to Ahaz. It's addressed to the house of David and friend, the pronouns are in the plural. This is a sign to the house of David. a house of David for the running centuries to see and to believe. Furthermore, friend, if Ahaz at all is supposed to understand this text, he should understand this as a rebuke to his own unbelief. You remember that even the Lord Jesus, he does that kind of thing with the Pharisees and the scribes. When they ask a sign after receiving so many personal signs from him, he says, finally, well, you'll receive the sign of Jonas. For the scribes and the Pharisees, friend, it would be an unintelligible statement. It was something that certainly would confound them. But friend, it was given as a testimony against their unbelief. And we note here that this sign was given in indignation, just indignation by God for Ahaz's refusal. Friend, what you and I see in this text is the prophet pointing to the very one in whom the promises to the house of David were to be found. In other words, he points, ahas, to the Christ whom he's rejected. And he says, behold him. See the one whom you doubt, whom you so doubt that you think that the promises of God may falter. See him. Ahaz didn't. But friend, it was so that the people of God were supposed to see that in the Lord Jesus Christ, they had signified in him their security and even in him, of course, that security was accomplished. Christ was then both signifier and secure of the church's salvation. And all that the prophet is doing is he's saying, look to him. Look to him. Friend, I want you to notice that David did that. It's a striking text and we don't have time to go at any length through it, but you remember at the end of David's life, he makes this very connection himself. He says, the God of Israel, these are the last words of David, he says, the God of Israel said, the rock of Israel said unto me, he that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, even in the morning, without clouds, as the tender grass, springing out of the earth, by clear shining after rain. What's interesting, friend, is in the original, the words are that he is the just one that reigns over men. And then he goes on to describe what the just one will do. He will come up as the day spring friend from on high. To put it in other words, he sees the branch out of the root of Jesse. And what is David's response as he sees this one? He says, even though my house be not so, even though the house of David be rocked with all kinds of afflictions that David himself would not have wanted to see, yet he says this, an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. This is what he looks to, and this is his conclusion. For this is all my salvation and all my desire. Friend, he looks to the just one, the day spring from on high, and he says, if he is, then I stand secured. As he sees the Lord Jesus, friends, through the spirit of prophecy, he sees that his security is indeed unquestionable. He sees the very thing Ahaz didn't. Friend, the question for us in this evening is, do you see Christ so yourself? David says, my whole life, all of my salvation hangs upon him, who is the day spring from on high. Is that true of you? Very briefly, beloved, we close just with the last few verses of this text. Turn with me again to Isaiah 7. We resume our reading there at the 17th verse. The Lord shall bring upon thee and upon thy people and upon thy father's house days that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come. It shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys and in the holes of the rocks and upon all thorns and upon all bushes. In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is higher namely by them beyond the river by the king of Assyria. The head and the hair of the feet and it shall also consume the beard. And it shall come to pass in that day that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep, and it shall come to pass for the abundance of milk that they shall give, he shall eat butter. For butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the land. And it shall come to pass in that day that every place shall be where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall be for briars and thorns. With arrows and with bows shall men come thither because all the land shall become briars and thorns and on all hills that shall be digged with a mat hook. There shall not come thither the fear of briars and thorns, but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen and for the treading of lesser cattle." What's going on here in the text? Well, friend, I want you to notice the prophet says pointedly. After he points him to the Lord Jesus Christ, as it were through the corridors of time, he turns to Ahaz and he says, the Lord will bring upon you affliction. And friend, so pervasive, so fulsome is this affliction that the Lord will bring that he says that one man, note this, you see it there in verses 21 and 22, he says, one man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep and they will produce enough for him that he will eat butter and honey. Friend, the sentence is there is that this man won't have any neighbors. The sense is that this man that he is here described as even his own home will be so decimated that the little that he has will be more than sufficient for himself. That's the idea. In fact, it's the very idea that's described there when the idea of the razor is used. The land will be peeled, cut as it were, by whom? For this is the point that I want us to close with. Who is the agent? of Judah's peeling, the one whom Ahaz called his father and his Lord, the one whom Ahaz trusted to be his savior, the Lord says will become the agent of your ruin. Whom you trust, he whom you trust will be the one who brings your destruction. Friend, what you find here is once again, something emblematic, not only for Ahaz, but for all, all who make saviors out to themselves. Friend, if you have made for yourself a false Christ, you'll find that that very thing will be the agent of your ruin. The prophet Isaiah describes this graphically. He says, he describes Egypt as a wall where on if a man lean, it will go into his hand like a reed and pierce it. The imagery is that somebody is leaning, putting its weight against a wall and the wall cracks and the reed that was there in the midst of the clay, it pierces the hand that rested on the wall. Friend, don't we see that today? We live in a society that has deified romance. Everyone now puts all of their hope and their trust in finding a partner. And friend, how many people are ruined by the very ones that they so hang their lives upon? Other people place all of their hope and security in their occupations, their jobs, and it literally extracts life from them. And friend, the list could go on and it could go on, but we see the very same thing in principle that we see in this text. If you will not take Christ, any false Christ that you take to yourself will be the agent of your ruin. And so we leave the seventh chapter friend with something of course of a solemn note. But I want you to notice Friend, as we leave this text, that we do leave with a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The house of David need not fear any destruction because the Lord Jesus Christ stood. He stood then in the promises and he ever lives now as our incarnate Christ. And friend, the prophet directs Ahaz to see him. And beloved, you and I need to see him this evening as well. This, friend, is where you and I are to turn. It is, friend, that you and I, after leaving this text, friend, we should be more of a people who hang our whole lives upon the reality that he lives. To be like David, saying that regardless of what affliction I've encountered, regardless of what may lie on the horizon. The promises of God are yea and amen in Christ. The covenant is an everlasting one. And in him, I'm secured. And beloved may it be that as we leave this evening, we do have our gaze so fixed, our faith fixed on him and for his own namesake. Amen.