Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz19981220.htm

THE FATHER'S CHRISTMAS GIFTS TO US IN HIS SON "Gift Three - Christ as Our Fatherly, Eternal, Protector/Loving Provider" (Isaiah 9:6c)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

(1) As these notes were written, the House of Representatives was poised to vote on impeaching the President of the United States!

legal perjury! His "lawyerspeak" lingo assertion, though it may work in a courtroom , doesn't cut it with many voters!

fatherhood in our nation.

admit that he lied under oath and suffer its costly legal consequences as the truly courageous thing to do, he still enjoys the support of many Americans to remain in his father figure role as Presiden t!

(2) Then, Thursday night while the ABC Evening News was covering both the bombing in Iraq with the impeachment issue, the story unfolded that the new Republican Speaker of the House, Representave Livingston himself was considering resigning due to news of his having had several adulterous relationships! This deficiency of morals so opposite what we have come to expect of good fathers afflicts not only the President, but many other in our nation's capitol!

(3) This lack of a good fatherhood afflicts us at the grassroots in America as well:

(a) In his book, Fatherless America, David Blankenhorn notes that "Fatherlessness is the engine driving our most urgent social problems, from crime to adolescent pregnancy to domestic violence." ("Life Without Father," USA Weekend, Feb. 24-26, 1995, insert in the Torrington Register-Citizen, p. 4-5)

every child, a legally and morally responsible man."

What can fill the void of good fatherhood in our country?

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "The events surrounding the House vote on impeaching the President has exposed a dearth of good fatherhood in our country's leaders, a sample of our NATIONAL lack of good fathers! What can fill that void and encourage us this Christmas Seaso n?!"

When Isaiah wrote Isaiah 9:6 predicting Messiah's birth, the nation Israel faced a dearth of fatherly protectors and providers:

Long before, the godly patriarchs, Abraham and Jacob had passed away so that Isaiah's generation and their children were beyond the help and protection of these able but ancient leaders, Isaiah 63:16.
Israel's kings had influenced the people into sinning against God, resulting in a loss of blessing. This led to famine and hungry subjects cursing their king and God, Isaiah 8:21, Young, Isaiah, v. I, p. 321.
In all, the dearth of godly, fatherly protectors and providers had helped leave the people in a depressed state of hopelessness, Isaiah 8:22.

In His grace, God led Isaiah (cf. 2 Pet. 1:21) to declare MESSIAH ministered as Israel's Fatherly, Eternal, Protector/Loving Provider:

The term of Isaiah 9:6c describing Messiah as "the Everlasting Father" is clarified in the Isaiah 63:15-16 context, revealing Messiah's works:

The single other Isaiah passage in which God is pictured as an "Everlasting Father" figure to Israel besides Isaiah 9:6 is Isaiah 63:15-16, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, p. 337.
That context pictures three fatherly qualities God asserts for Israel:

First, Isaiah beseeches God to show zeal and strength as a Fatherly PROTECTOR to save Israel from enemies, 63:15a.
Second, Isaiah asks God to show compassion as a Fatherly LOVING PROVIDER in nurturing His failing people, 63:15b.
Third, Isaiah reveals that with the decease of great patriarchs, Abraham and Jacob, though Israel lived in a vacuum of such great men, God was the PERPETUAL Father to Israel, 63:16!

These qualities are more fully illustrated in other Old Testament texts:

In Micah 5:2, we know Messiah is eternal: though he was be born in Bethlehem He will already have existed (as the Hebrew text says) from "days of immeasurable time." (B.K.C., O.T., p. 1486)
God the Son is seen compassionately pleading with the Father for Israel's restoration in Zechariah 1:12-17. (The Angel of the Lord there is the Preincarnate Christ (cf. Zech. 3:2), Ibid., p. 1550.)
In doing so, God the Son sits astride a red horse as the Commander of angelic scouts sent out on military reconnaissance, Zech. 1:8-11. As such, God the Son is Israel's Warrior Protector!

Accordingly, where human fathers or father figures (as the sinful kings of Israel) failed, God took up the slack providing Messiah, God incarnate, as her Eternal Protector and Loving Provider!

By way of application, Messiah Jesus ministers to the believer in the Church era today in these very same roles (as follows):

First, Hebrews 13:8 describes Jesus as eternally changeless, the same yesterday, today and forever.
Then Hebrews 13:20 pictures Jesus as the Great Shepherd of His Church, the One Who protects and provides for Christian believers.
The way Jesus ministers as our Fatherly, Eternal, Protector/Loving Provider is taught in Scripture. Here are a few samples of that work:

Jesus Christ, forever changeless, promises never to leave or forsake believers so that their material needs required to do God's will are always met in this earthly life, Hebrews 13:5,8.
Jesus Christ, forever changeless, also promises to protect the believer so he can do God's will, and thus need not fear what other people can do unto him, Hebrews 13:6,8.
Jesus Christ, forever changeless, promises to use the Holy Spirit to guide the godly into all truth so that he need not be like an insecure orphan, Jn. 16:13f; 14:16-18 NIV. In so doing, God's Spirit has penned the Scriptures (2 Pet. 1:21) so that they contain all we need for effective living until the rapture, 2 Tim. 3:15-17.
Jesus Christ, forever changeless, promises through Paul's writings even to protect the believer from error and its wayward effects if he relies on the Holy Spirit for discernment, 2 Timothy 1:13-14!

Application: To gain the security of an unimpeachable, eternal, loving, providing, protecting Father figure, (1) believe on Christ as personal Savior from sin and enter the fold of Him, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, Jn. 3:16. (2) Then, through necessary confession of sin (1 Jn. 1:9) and dependence on God's indwelling Holy Spirit for behavior control (Gal. 5:16-23), we can obey God's Word and find all we need as promised in Scripture for protection, provision, guidance and encouragment on a RELIABLE basis!

Lesson: If one believes in Christ so that Jesus becomes his Shepherd, and then fellowships with Him, all he needs to do God's will is HIS. He is PROTECTED and N URTURED in every way under his unimpeachable "Eternal Father" figure in the Lord Jesus Christ!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

A Christian family in our Church this past year came into financial hardship due to challenges outside of its control.

Feeling it inappropriate for a variety of reasons to ask help from other people, the father in the family privately asked the Lord in prayer for $5,000.00 above his regular income to meet his family's needs. The man reported this prayer to his wi fe, and he thinks he recalls making this request of the Lord sometime this last October.

Since then, this man or his family has received either income or gifts above the usual family income from a variety of sources that total over $7,750 in value! That is $2,750 in excess, or over half again beyond what the man had originally asked from the Lord in prayer!

Christ, the Great Shepherd, the PROTECTOR and PROVIDER of the Sheep, has AGAIN met the needs of His own people!

The legacy this man can leave for his family, and then in turn to our whole body by way of his allowing me to share this testimony with you, is his claim to this truth: the unimpeachable, eternal, loving, providing FATHER-FIGURE in the Lord Jesus Christ has not let him down. Though our nation's leaders may fail us as father figures, our LORD and "Everlasting Father" figure in Jesus Christ will never let us down as we turn to Him.

May we avail ourselves of faith in Christ and a walk with Him that we might benefit from His "Everlasting Father" mercies this Christmas!