Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20021201.htm

JESUS CHRIST IN OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY
Part XVI: Hoping In God's Deliverance When Our Leaders Fail Us
(Isaiah 7:14 with Matthew 1:22-23)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

International, national, state, county, town, business, school and family overseers are all supposed to minister for the welfare of their subordinates or constituents as the case may be.

However, even this Christmas season, there is a great amount of failure at all of these levels of oversight:

(1) Internationally, we have heard on the news that twelve wealthy business leaders from a Middle Eastern nation that is supposed to be a friendly nation to America has funneled millions of dollars toward Osama Bin Laden's terrorist organization. Even the American Central Intelligence Agency refers to these men as the "dirty dozen," and has intensified its effort to track down the money that has come from our purchase of that nation's oil.

(2) Nationally, our country reels under the weight of pressure from leaders who are pressing public schools to teach about various forms of sexual conduct, godly and otherwise to the point that kindergarten children are learning from older classmates about oral sex. This has gained the attention of conservative talk show host Sean Henessy out of New York City who is preparing to investigate the matter.

(3) Locally, we have problems as well. In the town where I live, our city mayor was arrested for driving and crashing a city owned sport utility vehicle while he was drunk! The judge is going to have to decide if he must undergo special counseling!

(4) I read in the Torrington Register-Citizen headlines this past week where local police numerous times are called to homes where domestic violence occurs. Many leaders in our area's homes are failing their children!



This Christmas season when we like to think in terms of peace and joy, unfortunately, on the international, national, local and even family levels, leaders are letting down their subordinates! What can the subordinates do about it?



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



Need: "This Christmas season when we speak of peace, I admit I am concerned over the way leaders who are supposed to protect us FAIL to do so! Is there an answer for this concern this season?"
  1. The RISEN Jesus told the disciples on the road to Emmaus how He fulfilled Old Testament Messianic prophecies, Luke 24:25-27.
  2. As these men were edified by Christ's teaching of those passages (Luke 24:32), we also view them, following the list of prophecies named in the Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, s. v. "Messianic Prophecies."
  3. God's prophecy about Messiah Christ's VIRGIN BIRTH given in Isaiah 7:14 and its FULFILLMENT in Matthew 1:18-25 both teach how GOD HIMSELF helps His people achieve His will for them when their human leaders fail them at ANY level of relationship.
    1. The context of the original Isaiah 7:14 prophecy shows God Himself helps His people when national or international leaders fail them:
      1. When Isaiah gave this prophecy, Judah's king Ahaz worried about an invasion by Syria and Israel, so he had gone out to the conduit of the upper pool beside the city wall probably to inspect his water supply, Isa. 7:3b; E. J. Young, Isaiah, v. I., p. 271-272.
      2. To encourage Ahaz to trust Him for help, God had Isaiah take his son whose name meant "a remnant shall return" as a symbol of hope for Ahaz, 7:3b; Ibid., p. 271. In the process, Isaiah met Ahaz at the conduit, and told him God would deliver Judah were he would trust God, Isa. 7:4-9a. Yet, WERE Ahaz NOT to trust in God, Ahaz would himself not last as Judah's king, Isaiah 7:9b.
      3. Isaiah then urged Ahaz to ask for an encouraging sign from God proving God really intended to help him, Isaiah 7:1-4, 10-11.
      4. Well, Ahaz failed to ask for a sign, sealing his own fate, Isa. 7:12.
      5. Yet, God overrode Ahaz' unbelief, giving Israel the sign of the virgin birth: He would see that Israel and Syria would themselves fall before a virgin gave birth to Messiah, Immanuel, Isa. 7:12-14.
      6. These nations fell in 12 years (Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, ftn. to 7:14-16).
      7. Later, an event occurred in connection with the conduit where Isaiah gave that prophecy to encourage Israel HE would HELP her in light of the failure of international leaders to help them:
        1. At the conduit where Isaiah gave the virgin birth prophecy, the Assyrian official, Rabshakeh later blasphemed Israel's God: he there claimed God was not able to save Judah from his Assyrian army, Isa. 36:2b with 7:3b, Ibid., Young.
        2. When Judah's king Hezekiah then trusted God, GOD killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers to deliver Judah, Isaiah 37:36-38.
        3. Thus, Ahaz's unbelief or Rabshakeh's blasphemy could not thwart God's promised help via the Isaiah 7:14 prophecy that was given at the SPOT where BOTH men failed Israel!
    2. The context of the prophecy's fulfillment reveals God Himself helps His own if a marital leader intends (for some reason) fails them:
      1. When God caused the virgin, Mary to become pregnant with His Son, Jesus, her espoused husband, Joseph, planned to divorce her, thinking she was with child through immorality, Matthew 1:18-19.
      2. Had Joseph divorced her, Mary and Jesus would have been social outcasts much to their harm in many ways!
      3. In His goodness, God sent His angel to tell Joseph Mary was pregnant by God's working, and to take her as his wife, 1:20-21.
      4. Joseph heeded God, and so God superintended the fulfillment of the ancient Isaiah 7:14 virgin birth prophecy, Matt. 1:22-23, 24-25.
    3. The theological context of Isaiah's virgin birth prophecy and its fulfillment reveals God Himself takes over to help His people when no human can protect himself from his own eternal damnation:
      1. Adam's sin caused all men to fall into condemnation, Rom. 5:12.
      2. Thus, when left to himself, every human being will end up in eternal hell as a sinner, Romans 3:20; Revelation 20:12, 15.
      3. However, in grace, God sent His Son born miraculously of a virgin in fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14 as sinless, thus bypassing Adam's sin nature in the Person of Christ, Lk. 1:30-31, 34-35 with Heb. 4:15b.
      4. God then sent His sinless Son to the cross to be our qualified Substitute to atone fully for every human's sin, 2 Cor. 5:19, 21.
      5. Thus, when one believes in Christ as Savior, God pronounces him righteous so he is given everlasting life, John 3:16; Romans 3:24.
Application: For (1) ETERNAL deliverance from sin, we must believe on Jesus Christ for salvation from hell and the gaining of eternal life, John 3:16. (2) Then, if FAMILY or COMMUNITY or NATIONAL or INTERNATIONAL leaders fail to help us, we can look to GOD in HOPE of HIS help for what protection and equipping we need to do HIS WILL!

Lesson: The prophecy and fulfillment of Christ's VIRGIN BIRTH shows GOD is willing and able to help when our human LEADERS fail us in the international, national or even family contexts, and that GOD helps us even when we fail OURSELVES in sin!

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

 While I was preparing to type this very page on the computer screen, I heard a loud banging on the Church Conference Room door next to my office.

I opened it to find an energetic man named Joe Beadle, the Fire Marshal and Fire Chief of Winsted. He has recently been assigned to cover as fire marshal for the Town of New Hartford, and he had driven into the parking lot to tell me what we could and could not do with our Church Christmas tree.

As many of you know, the former fire marshal required us to use flame retarding chemicals on our Church Christmas tree, and made us remove the live tree boughs we once used to decorate our sanctuary windows. At first he had said we could not even have a live tree in the building, so Rick Lynn, a city planner who is used to dealing with fire marshals, and who wanted to continue donating Christmas trees to us from his tree farm, had called to negotiate with that marshal on allowing us to have the tree! Finally, the former marshal had agreed for us to have the tree providing we sprayed its leaves with fire retardant before decorating it! So, every year I had to climb the ladder with the spray bottle and dowse the pine needles with flame retardant!

However, this new marshal claims those old rules are not in the book! He said we could use live trees and boughs with electric lights without having to use any flame retardant. He only stipulated the lights had to have the "Underwriters Laboratories" approval tags, and that we could not use live flames on the trees. (Thos are guidelines we would have always kept on our own, anyway!)

I believe the Lord has arranged for a change in fire marshals so we can worship the Lord with greater liberty as to our environment! Of course, we are not saying our environment sets the tone for our heart attitude, but in this very personable way, God has become our HELPER in relation to local government oversight, and we can rejoice in Him with real liberty this year!