PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
John Strachan
There is only one Person to whom this verse in Isaiah could refer, that is our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s beloved Son. I want to speak of Him tonight. This message from Isaiah was presented to God’s earthly people, perhaps seven or eight hundred years before the Lord Jesus came. When He did come, He was refused and rejected. Now God’s earthly people are waiting for the day to come when He will be recognised by them. The present time has become our opportunity, we of the nations. That is why I read that verse in Romans, “in him shall the nations hope”. The door has been opened for us to come to know this wonderful Person. He was refused by His own. “He came to his own, and his own received him not” (John 1: 11); but there are persons who receive Him; there are persons who believe. The point of God going on with the preaching is that persons should believe, believe in this wonderful Person, and that the God of hope should fill such persons “with all joy and peace in believing”.
I think he would do it by filling our hearts with the glory of this wonderful Person who is presented to us in this verse in Isaiah. What a Person He must be to carry these titles! No one else could carry them. You can scan the whole history of mankind. You can look at great leaders on the earth, but you could not find any one who could carry these titles. I know this will come out publicly in a day to come, when He will take up the reins of government: “the government shall be upon his shoulder”. And for a thousand years He will accomplish on the earth what no one else has been able to do. Rulers are raised up and they rule for a little time, but He is going to reign for a thousand years. Just think of that! Someone who is capable of holding the whole earth in a condition of peace for a thousand years! That is the Person, our Lord Jesus Christ. So it says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given”, that is, He came here amongst men, came here into the condition of humanity as a babe. How wonderful that is! He came here, a child born, a son given, and, thank God, there are persons who recognise Him. Although He was not recognised by those He came to immediately, there were some who recognised Him and got the benefit of His incoming here.
Now, it says, “his name is called Wonderful”. I just want to go over these names He is given. There is no one to compare with Him, no one: “his name is called Wonderful”. Let us consider the greatness of this Person. Although He has been rejected by the people He came to, His earthly people, He has been received in heaven. He is in heaven tonight, a living glorious Man in heaven. That is who we are speaking about, His name is called Wonderful and persons have proved that. The point in the preaching of the word is that others should come to know it. If there is anyone here who has never come to realise what the Lord Jesus is as Wonderful, here is your opportunity right now. God is towards you, presenting Himself in this Person whose name is Wonderful. I wonder why He should have such a name. Because for one thing He is the Saviour of mankind, a Saviour who is available for everyone on the earth, without distinction of class or creed or social status or any other kind of distinction you like to think of. He is the Saviour of mankind, He is available for everybody because He has given Himself a ransom for all.
So God is presenting Him to men under this name Wonderful. I want to say something about how He has suffered. He has died here and the sufferings were no ordinary sufferings: His sufferings were atoning sufferings. He suffered at the hand of God, “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”, 1 Peter 3: 18. He suffered on the cross. For three hours in darkness on the cross He took up the whole matter of sin and sins that stood between man and God and He dealt with it completely. He removed the whole matter from the sight of God before the universe, so that God can be righteous in coming out towards men in blessing in full and free forgiveness. What a free hand God has because of the work of Christ! And He not only suffered for our sins but He died, He delivered up His spirit. No one else could do that. His name is Wonderful. He has done things that no one else could do. The great work of redemption He has accomplished and no one else could do it. Because of that we can have full and free forgiveness of our sins.
Is there anyone here this evening still conscious of being troubled about their sins? You can have full and free forgiveness. You can come to know this Person as your Saviour. Just think of what it means that you will be saved from eternal banishment from God. Sins keep men at a distance from God, and if men remain in their sins, it will keep them at a distance from God eternally. They are facing nothing but the judgment of God. But God has found a way by which He can forgive sinners, and have them back in His presence, and bless them according to His own thoughts; that is all through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The great work of redemption gives God a basis, a platform, to come out in the fulness of His heart towards men and declare that He wants to bless men, He wants to forgive them. He wants us to enjoy the blessing of the forgiveness of sins. It is available for each one of us, available for you in this room tonight if you have never known it before. God is ready to forgive; “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared”, Ps 130: 4. Now it involves that we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and come in repentance towards God. That is, you come to see that you have been a sinner and you take sides with God against yourself. What a day that is when you can take sides with God against yourself! You can see that God is for you in the fulness of His grace and you can acknowledge that you are a sinner. That is where you stand before a holy sin-hating God, but you put your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. You accept the terms that God sets out. We do not come to God on our own terms. God has set the terms, repentance towards Him and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Now persons can come into all the fulness of divine blessing that is being presented in the glad tidings.
First of all the forgiveness of sins: we must have the question of our guilt settled. So He was “delivered for our offences”, Rom 4: 25. I wonder if you are conscious of that? Could you put yourself in there and say, He was delivered for my offences? You may come into the blessing of the forgiveness of sins. Remember how the Lord Jesus spoke to Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7. There was a woman who was a sinner who came to Jesus in repentance, taking a very low place in His presence. Luke says, “Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee. And he says, Teacher, say it. There were two debtors of a certain creditor: one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty; but as they had nothing to pay, he forgave both of them their debt”, Luke 7: 40-42. That was the attitude of the creditor. That is like God’s attitude, He is ready to forgive. And the Lord said, “say, which of them therefore will love him most?” And Simon answering said, “I suppose he to whom he forgave the most”, (vv 42,43). It is a great thing to be conscious of being forgiven, and whether you are a great sinner or a lesser sinner, owing five hundred denarii or fifty denarii, then to have your heart drawn out to Christ as the One through whom forgiveness has come. So you love Him because you have received forgiveness through Him. How much that woman loved Him. “Seest thou this woman?” He says. How the Lord would love to call attention to a forgiven sinner, someone who has come to take advantage of what is being presented in the gospel.
Following that He “has been raised for our justification”, Rom 4: 25. There was only one Man, selected by God and raised from among the millions that lay in death at that moment when Jesus was raised. Is this not a wonderful Person that God selected out of all the millions in the graves at that moment and raised Him for our justification? So God wants us to have a place before Him that is perfectly suited to Him. Forgiven sinner, yes, but more than that, a justified believer. You are given a standing before God that is equal to the standing that Christ has. He has accomplished the work of redemption. It does not have to be repeated. So now as believers we have a standing before God, we are brought into such wondrous favour in the presence of God and can stand in His presence like Christ can. That is not going too far. That is the place that God would give us in His own presence. What tremendous favour is available for men, and therefore we can have peace towards God. We can be conscious that everything in our history is settled before God, and we can have “peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ”, Rom 5: 1. How it magnifies this Person to us.
Through what came in by Adam, the whole race became involved in sin, and death is the penalty for sin; through one man’s disobedience the whole race was brought down; and not only through Adam’s fall, but because of our own sinnership too. Let us not forget that! Let us not blame Adam for everything! We have to be convicted in history that we have been sinners before God and the penalty for that was death. There was one Man Jesus Christ who came in here and could meet all that and bring in life for those who believe on Him. “For as indeed by the disobedience of the one man, the many have been constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the one the many will be constituted righteous”, Rom 5: 19. So we are brought into justification of life, that is we are made to live in relation to Christ. He must be a wonderful Person indeed to set persons free from their sins and bring them into life in relation to Himself, life according to God. People talk about life in this world, but really God wants to see persons enjoying life according to His thoughts of life. So we are brought into these things through our Lord Jesus Christ. What a Person He is! Have you proved how wonderful He is in your own history? It is all right about Him in the Scriptures, but you can prove these things in the faith of your own soul, by coming to trust Him. He wants us to share in the wonderful blessings that He has made available for men.
Now, one other thing I want to speak of is the gift of the Holy Spirit. John the baptist was a great person. The Lord Jesus says of him “there is not arisen among the born of women a greater than John the baptist”, Matt. 11: 11. What a distinguished person he was and yet John says, “I indeed baptise you with water, but the mightier than I is coming … he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire”, Luke 3: 16. There is nobody else who could baptise with the Holy Spirit. Only the Lord Jesus is able to do that. He was glorified on high, but on the way to that He lay for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He was buried, then He rose again, and was taken up to heaven. He was glorified and from that glorified position He gave the Holy Spirit so that persons should be set up here in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. What a gift that is! God is proposing this to men as a free gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Think of having a divine Person indwelling you. How wonderful that is! The Lord Jesus is the Person who has made that available; through the work of redemption and His glorification, those who believe can have the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is our contact with the Man who is in heaven and, in addition to that, it is power in the world to live here in a completely different way, to live here in newness of life, to live here in life and righteousness. Believers can discharge every obligation that might be theirs as believers and live in the power of that life by the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus has made that wonderful gift available, and not only is the Spirit the means for contact with Christ, but also for contact between believers down here, because “in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body”, 1 Cor 12: 13. How wonderful it is that there are persons here who, on account of having individual faith in Christ and having received the Spirit, are baptised into one body and are linked with other believers. It is the same Person who has become wonderful to us, who is the means of putting us together and holding us together in contact with each other in this one glorious entity, the body of Christ.
There are many other things I could mention, but I will speak of what He is as a Counsellor. The writer of Psalm 32 spoke about the blessedness of having our sins forgiven: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven” (v 1). And he did not stop there: he went on to say, “I will instruct thee and teach thee the way in which thou shalt go; I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee” (v 8). How fine that is for a believer in his pathway here. The Lord would say, “I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee”. Do not be like a horse or a mule that need bit or bridle for restraint. I will serve you; I will keep my eye on you and I will counsel you. He sees the pathway before you. You do not know and I do not know; but He knows. And He says, “I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee”. Do you know a Person like that, “Christ God’s power and God’s wisdom”, 1 Cor 1: 24? Oh the wonder of it, that you can have such a Person giving you counsel. You could go to the most intelligent people in the world and they might be able to give you counsel up to a point, but they could not give you counsel like this. He says to the assembly at Laodicea, “I counsel thee”, Rev 3: 18. That is really a word for the last phase of the church’s history here on earth. They were claiming that they were rich and in need for nothing, and He says, “I counsel thee to buy of me”, have a transaction with me, buy things from me that you need, gold, clothing, eye-salve, whatever it might be you need. The ability to see things you can obtain from Me. How He opened people’s eyes in the gospels! You remember the man in John 9, how He put ointment on his eyes. It may be said, humanly speaking, that is making things worse; but the man was obedient and he had his eyes opened. Then it came to the point where the Lord Jesus made Himself known to Him saying, “Thou, dost thou believe on the Son of God?” (v 35). How the word must have opened his eyes to see that. It was not only natural sight, but beyond that, to see who was there, the Son of God. So it says, “And he did him homage”. “I believe”, how right that was, how fitting to do homage to such a Person! He is ready to give counsel. Do you feel you need some guidance for your pathway? The Lord Jesus is ready to be your personal Counsellor. I would encourage each one of us to take account of that. Then whatever problem may come up, whether in your everyday life, at school, at work, in going through the world as a believer, or in relation to other persons, He will have the answer. Let Him be your Counsellor, prove it for yourself!
What power there is in Him, the Mighty God! He is able to make us stand. Romans tells us that. Are you concerned about someone else? Well, his Master is able to make him stand! We were talking this afternoon about persons going to Galilee, to a despised situation, and He says, “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”, Matt 28: 18. So we just accept the reproach of the small situation in Galilee, knowing He has all power to see it through. He brought the worlds into being and He sustains them all by the word of His power. Is He not able to sustain the simplest, feeblest believer? He is able to do that, He is able to strengthen and sustain us.
Father of Eternity means Father of the age. He will be seen to be that in the millennium. People talk about someone as being the father of a country and he imparts a certain direction to it. He gives a certain support to what is in the country, but you think of the Lord Jesus as the Father of the age. How fine that is! Remember how in John 21 there were a number of believers who went off on a little expedition of their own. The Lord had just been crucified and put out of the world and I suppose they were concerned about how things were going. They went off on this fishing expedition and the Lord called to them, “Children, have ye anything to eat?” (v 5). Think of the fatherly, tender care of the Lord Jesus! We often associate care with God as Father, but this is the care of the Lord Jesus for His own and He says, “Children, have ye anything to eat?” They had nothing. It was night and they had nothing to show for all their efforts. He told them where to cast their net and they did that. There was a multitude of fishes in that net and they had to draw it to the land. There were a hundred and fifty-three great fishes. Before they came there, He was there on the land, and He had a fire of coals there and fish laid on it and bread. He had everything ready for them. I suppose they were cold and tired but He had everything ready for them. That is the Lord Jesus in His fatherly concern. Think of how He will appear in millennial conditions, how perfectly He will do everything; but He is ready to do things for believers even now. So He says, “Come and dine”. It was a dignified word, meaning it was not just a snack. He had everything prepared, and that is how the Lord Jesus would treat us as the Father of the age. And He had said, “Bring of the fishes which ye have now taken”. How gracious of Him! He would say, Now you can contribute something to this. Through His service they were recovered to what He had provided and also were able to contribute something.
Now, finally He is the Prince of Peace. The whole scene on the earth, which has been so troubled over many, many years, He will hold for a thousand years in peace. The Prince of Peace, what a personality He has! I think that is what the title Prince of Peace conveys, that He is personally equal to doing this. He would bring peace into the souls of believers now, “in him shall the nations hope”. The God of hope is ready to fill us with all joy and peace in believing. He is able to do it through this glorious Person. He is able to establish peace in our souls in relation to God. We can have peace with God, that is one thing. And He is able to establish peace between men on earth. Think of the great distance there was between Jew and Gentile, but He broke it down and He has proclaimed the glad tidings of peace. Whatever may come in between persons on the earth, between believers on the earth, He is able to provide the answer to that. He is the Prince of Peace. It is recorded in John 20 how, on the first day of the week, the disciples were gathered and He came into the midst. What did He do? He declared peace: “Peace be to you”. What an experience that was! What an experience we can have as this glorious Person comes into our midst. Then it says, “he shewed to them his hands and his side”. There was the evidence of His own service to them; there was the evidence of where they were derived from, derived from His death; and He brings in peace Himself personally. How wonderful it is to be in a setting like that where you can prove the peace that comes from the Prince of Peace!
Well, this is not just intended to be a verse of scripture. It is intended to be something that is real to our souls, that we prove this Person to be as wonderful and as glorious as Isaiah is presenting Him, so that, like those here we can say, “For unto us a child is born, unto to us a son is given”. May we prove the reality of it by faith in Him and by the power of the Spirit so that we come to know Him personally in this way. May the Lord bless the word!
BO’NESS
18 June 2000