Isaiah

The Book of Isaiah

Common Grace – Part 1

Theme: Good people or bad people?
This week’s lessons teach the doctrine of common grace, and how it should lead everyone to the praise of God and, through saving grace, to faith in Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Isaiah 26:10

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The Book of Isaiah

Common Grace – Part 2

Theme: Good Things Do Happen
This week’s lessons teach the doctrine of common grace, and how it should lead people to the praise of God and, through saving grace, to faith in Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Isaiah 26:10

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The Book of Isaiah

Common Grace – Part 3

Theme: Common Grace on Mars Hill
This week’s lessons teach the doctrine of common grace, and how it should lead people to the praise of God and, through saving grace, to faith in Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Isaiah 26:10

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The Book of Isaiah

Common Grace – Part 4

Theme: Even Bad Things Can Be Good Things
This week’s lessons teach the doctrine of common grace, and how it should lead people to the praise of God and, through saving grace, to faith in Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Isaiah 26:10

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The Book of Isaiah

Common Grace – Part 5

Theme: When Bad People Misuse Good Things
This week’s lessons teach the doctrine of common grace, and how it should lead people to the praise of God and, through saving grace, to faith in Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Isaiah 26:10

This brings us to the final text I want to consider in this study of common grace. It is Isaiah 26:10:
Though grace is shown to the wicked,they do not learn righteousness;even in a land of uprightness they go on doing eviland regard not the majesty of the Lord.

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The Book of Isaiah

The Suffering Servant, Part 1

Theme: A Prophecy Fulfilled
 
This week’s lessons explain how Isaiah 53 clearly points to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Suffering Servant who would accomplish salvation for his people.
 
Scripture: Isaiah 53
 
I do not know of any chapter of the Word of God that gives greater proof of the blindness of the human heart to God’s truth than Isaiah 53. This is very evident in regard to Jewish people.

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The Book of Isaiah

The Suffering Servant, Part 2

Theme: Jesus’ Humble Origins
 
This week’s lessons explain how Isaiah 53 clearly points to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Suffering Servant who would accomplish salvation for his people.
 
Scripture: Isaiah 53
 
Many of the phrases in verses 1–3 speak of the Messiah’s humble origins, but the one that strikes me particularly is in verse 2: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.” That is an unusua

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The Book of Isaiah

The Suffering Servant, Part 3

Theme: Jesus’ Vicarious Suffering
 
This week’s lessons explain how Isaiah 53 clearly points to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Suffering Servant who would accomplish salvation for his people.
 
Scripture: Isaiah 53
 
Beginning with verse 4, we have the Messiah’s vicarious suffering.

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The Book of Isaiah

The Suffering Servant, Part 4

Theme: Jesus’ Exemplary Life and Divine Commissioning
 
This week’s lessons explain how Isaiah 53 clearly points to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Suffering Servant who would accomplish salvation for his people.
 
Scripture: Isaiah 53
 
The third section deals with the Messiah’s exemplary life.

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The Book of Isaiah

The Suffering Servant, Part 5

Theme: Jesus’ Glorious Victory
 
This week’s lessons explain how Isaiah 53 clearly points to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Suffering Servant who would accomplish salvation for his people.
 
Scripture: Isaiah 53
 
That is the point to which we come in the last verses, for these speak of the Messiah’s glorious victory. His death was not without effect. Jesus accomplished everything He came to accomplish.

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His Name is Wonderful

Monday: Wonderful Prophecies

It is appropriate at Christmastime to think together about this wonderful person Jesus, and consider why He was given this name that, so far as we know, is given to absolutely no other man or woman. I want to mention a number of things.

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His Name is Wonderful

Tuesday: Perfect Man and Fully God

We talk about our Lord’s conception and we say, yes, His name is Wonderful, for our Lord’s divine nature is wonderful. Jesus was a true man; we confess that and we confess it gladly because He became like us in His humanity. He identified with us in all of the sufferings that we know. The Bible says He became like us in every respect, except in the fact that we are sinners and He was sinless.

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His Name is Wonderful

Wednesday: His Life and Teaching

Jesus’ teaching was truly unparalleled. On one occasion, the chief priests and Pharisees sent the temple guards out to arrest Him, and they came back a while later not having done it. When the religious leaders heard this, they asked, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” The guards replied, “No one ever spoke the way this man does” (John 7:45-46). Can you imagine a policeman refusing to arrest someone whom he was sent to arrest because the man spoke wonderfully? Yet, that’s what happened in the case of Jesus Christ. So wonderful were His words, so wonderful was His teaching, that His enemies were unable to effect His arrest until He Himself brought about His own arrest in order to line things up for His own crucifixion.

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His Name is Wonderful

Thursday: His Atoning Death and Triumphant Resurrection

Seventh, the Lord Jesus Christ is wonderful in His death for others. First of all, it was a voluntary death. He didn’t need to die. At His arrest, when one of the twelve disciples drew a sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest, Jesus rebuked the disciple and said that if He wished, He could call forth legions of angels. God would send them to His aid to defend Him. We read in the Bible that death is the penalty for sin. Jesus was sinless, and therefore didn’t need to die. Yet He did die, nevertheless, for the sins of others. He did it voluntarily and He spoke about it on numerous occasions.

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God's Gift

Friday: Wonderful Impact and Love for Sinners

I commend this wonderful Jesus to you, and I ask, are you His follower? Do you know Him? Is he your Savior? If not, don’t let Christmas go by without making what is the greatest decision anyone can possibly make in this life, the decision to follow Him faithfully as your Savior and your Lord. And if you are a Christian, rejoice over the wonderful Savior you have. Moreover, don’t merely rejoice privately, although we all need to do that. But go out and tell the world that the wonderful Savior, indeed, has come!

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God's Gift

Monday: Wonderful Counselor

There are many wonderful texts in the Old Testament that prophesy the coming of Jesus Christ. But one of the most remarkable of all is Isaiah 9:6. It’s part of Handel’s Messiah, so we have heard it sung and no doubt we’ve recited it. We have heard it read many times at Christmas: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

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God's Gift

Tuesday: Acting Wisely

When you begin to ask even the simplest of questions about your own identity, you’ll soon find yourself plunged into a realm that goes far beyond anything you and I could answer by ourselves. Where are we going to find a counselor who can help us with those questions? Isaiah says that there was to be a child born who will give us counsel. Moreover, this Messiah is God come in human form.

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God's Gift

Wednesday: Mighty God

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be our Counselor and be with us. And John writes that Jesus is also our Counselor as He reigns in heaven. I should point out here that this word parakletos, one who is called alongside another to help, is the Greek equivalent of the Latin word from which we get our word “advocate.” Jesus comes alongside as our advocate, as a lawyer does when he represents his client. Both the Son of God in heaven and the Holy Spirit present here in us on earth act as our divine Counselors, always acting wonderfully toward us.

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God's Gift

Thursday: Everlasting Father

Someone might conclude that all of this is interesting, but ask how it is that this term “Everlasting Father” is used of Christ. After all, Jesus is the Son, not the Father. What is Isaiah talking about when He speaks of the coming Messiah as the “Everlasting Father”? By using this name of the child who will be born, Isaiah is identifying this child with Almighty God. We need to remember that toward the end of Jesus’ ministry Philip asked Him to show the disciples the Father. And Jesus’ response was, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9). Jesus was affirming the unity of His divine nature with the Father.

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God's Gift

Friday: Prince of Peace

And then finally there is the title Prince of Peace. That title more than any other is associated with Christmas because it’s what the angels were talking about. They said “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” You and I need wisdom. We need power. We need this kind of all-embracing home. And we also need peace, because in ourselves we are not at peace. James describes the wicked—which is what we are apart from the work of Christ—as a troubled sea that has no rest. Somebody has said that the chief problem with the human race is that human beings don’t know how to sit in their room and be still. We’re always up to something. We’re always restless. We’re churning around inside. We just cannot sit quietly and contemplate God and be content. Jesus is the One who comes to bring peace because He Himself embodies peace, and give His peace to us.

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Four Gifts for Christmas

Monday: The Need to Know

What happens when a baby is born? Well, if you’re close to the family, you often bring a gift. Here’s a case where the child Himself brings gifts because, by virtue of who He is and what He should do, He brought gifts to men. What’s very striking about these gifts is that they match our needs, which is what I hope to show as we look at them one at a time.

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Four Gifts for Christmas

Tuesday: Power from God

When Jesus came to be a wonderful counselor and then by the resurrection and ascension return to heaven, He did not leave us without wisdom. Rather, He continues to provide the wisdom we need. James talks about it. He says, “Do any of you lack wisdom?” Any of us who have any wisdom at all at that point say, “Indeed we do! We lack it a great deal.” And then he says “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who upbraideth not but giveth to all men liberally (or generously), and it will be given him.” And he goes on in that same chapter to say, “Every good gift comes from God.” If you value wisdom, ask God for it, and He will give it to you. It comes through Jesus Christ, our Wonderful Counselor.

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Four Gifts for Christmas

Wednesday: Everlasting Father

In a sinful and increasingly unrighteous world, we may feel that we lack power. It can seem as if the evil all around us is winning. But before Jesus’ ascension, He told his disciples, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). And with that message and that assurance they literally went out and transformed the world.

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Four Gifts for Christmas

Thursday: Family Privileges

One of the great privileges that comes from being made a member of God’s family is prayer, because now we can come to God not as aliens but as sons and daughters. Because of this, we’re encouraged to come to God in prayer, knowing that our Father knows all about us and loves us and cares for us and encourages us to come. Furthermore, He promises to answer our prayers that are pleasing to Him. The Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers by interceding for us before God, even when we do not know what we should pray for, or how.

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Four Gifts for Christmas

Friday: The Gift of Peace

Sermon: Four Gifts for Christmas
Scripture: Isaiah 9:6
In this week’s lessons, we look further at the four names of Christ seen in Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the child to be born.
Theme: The Gift of Peace

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