Wonderful (Isaiah [9]1-7)
His Name Is Wonderful
Text: Isaiah 9:1-7
Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)
Date Preached - (12/22/02)
Introduction:
EXPLAIN Context of Isaiah 9
The Dark days of King Ahaz after, Uzziah and Jotham.
The PROPHETIC TELESCOPE – EXPLAIN
ILLUS: On a stormy day you see a brief glint or glimmer of golden light on the far distant horizon.
WONDERFUL - to be marvelous; to be wonderful; to be surpassing; to be extraordinary / miraculous
to do an extraordinary or hard or difficult thing; to make wonderful; to do wondrously; to show oneself wonderful or marvelous.
to separate by distinguishing action / yet unsolveable & unknowable / INCREDIBLE!!
Judges 13:18 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? (Same Name as Wonderful)
Wonderful is the exquisite perfection and delicate finish of the tiniest of insects.
Wonderful by contrast are the world’s largest trees.
Record Trees
What was the tallest tree of all time is a matter for conjecture. In 1872, in Victoria, Australia, lumberjacks felled a mountain ash that was believed to have been 500 ft. tall. But there is no official record of this.
There are claims that the tallest-ever title should go to a Douglas fir felled in British Columbia in 1940 and said to have measured 417 ft.
The tallest non-sequoia alive today is also a Douglas fir at Quinault Lake Park Trail, Washington. It is 310 ft. tall.
The stoutest living tree is in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is a Montezuma cypress, called the Santa Maria del Tule, and has a girth of 112-113 ft. at a height of about 5 feet from the ground.
In 1770 an European chestnut, known as the Chestnut of the Hundred Horses, measuring 204 ft. in circumference, was found on the edge of Mount Etna in Sicily.
The seeds of all these tremendous trees weigh only about 1/6000th of an ounce.
Wonderful is the great sun risen in the day, fountain of light and heat.
Power From Sun
French scientists have built high in the Pyrenees the world’s largest solar furnace. This amazing furnace, with its complex of nearly 20,000 mirrors, can concentrate enough sunlight to create temperature in excess of 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to Time, “Anchored against a reinforced concrete office and laboratory building, the huge concave mirror consists of 8,570 individual reflectors. For the furnace to operate efficiently, these small (18 inches square) mirrors must be precisely adjusted so that light will converge exactly at the parabola’s focal point 59 feet in front of the giant reflector.
“It takes only a minute for the powerful light from the reflector to cut a fiery hole through 3/8-inch-thick steel plate.”
Wonderful is heaven's high archway by night, studded with glittering worlds of light.
Wonderful is your outward frame and mine:
Psalms 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
The Heart
The heart is a hard-working marvel. It can keep on beating automatically even if all other nerves were severed. And what a beat!
It beats an average of 75 times a minute, forty million times a year, or two-and-a-half billion times in a life of 70 years. At each beat, the average adult heart discharges about four ounces of blood. This amounts to three thousand gallons a day or 650,000 gallons a year—enough to fill more than 81 tank cars of 8,000 gallons each.
The heart does enough work in one hour to lift a 150-pound man to the top of a three-story building, enough energy in twelve hours to lift a 65-ton tank car one foot off the ground, or enough power in seventy years to lift the largest battleship afloat completely out of the water.
and much more Wonderful the immortal soul which resides therein.
Contemplate the Creation / Wonder at the World / Marvel at the Material and we find.....
All is Wonderful, wherever we focus our gaze.
All we can see and sense and feel, experience that is good and right we can say is wonderful!!
But passing WONDERFUL is He in Whose Name we celebrate this season!!
Revelation 15:3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
God in the Person of His Son Hath all His mightiest works outdone.
Here " admiration fails us altogether-words are inadequate."
Dwell a moment on the following points:
I. He is WONDERFUL as a MAN.
A. His Birth
Unique, unlike all others; for He was miraculously born of a virgin?
His birth was the fulfillment of scores of OT Prophecies and types.
His lineage, The place, time and circumstances of His birth were foretold.
B. His Life
Separate from everyone else; for where shall one be found, but He, unstained with sin!
Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
WONDERFUL in Public (EXAMPLES – Miracles/teaching)
WONDERFUL in Private (EXAMPLES – Devotion/prayer – Agony in Garden)
He was WONDERFULLY Consistent!!
C. His Death
Alone and unapproachable; for it was a sacrificial death.
Upon everyone else there rests the weight of his own sins...
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ezek. 18 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die...”
....but upon this Man "was laid the iniquity of us all."
LOOK UP & READ Isaiah 53:4-6
There never was such a man before Him; there never will be after Him. "He is the FIRST and He is the LAST / The ALPHA & OMEGA.”
II. He is more WONDERFUL still as GOD.
As Man, He was created; as God, He is the Creator.
1 Timothy 6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
There is no searching of His nature. It is higher than heaven; it is deeper than hell.
Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
He is past finding out, and will ever remain the Infinite Unknown.
Proverbs 30:4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?
MANY Thousands of people and things are given names they do not deserve.
Only one is worthy of being called WONDERFUL!!!
But must we not stop here? What can be more WONDERFUL than God? Why this
III. He is WONDERFUL as GOD and MAN combined in One Person.
It is and ever shall be the Wonder of wonders.
Well may the Prophet call His name WONDERFUL....
· who is the Mighty God and the Child Given,
· the Everlasting Father and the Son Born,
· Eternal and yet born of a woman
· the Equal of God and the Companion of man!
LOOK UP & READ Philippians 2:5-8
DISCUSS – Humility of Christ
- Self-emptying
- Submission to the Cross
And is there not something more WONDERFUL still?
IV. He was the most WONDERFUL Sufferer that ever was.
All that apostate angels, after long ages of experience, were capable of inflicting in their most malignant cunning and defiant hatred....
All that Roman barbarity, violence, and scorn could invent.....
All that Jewish treachery, malice, and despite could think of....
....were ruthlessly emptied into the overflowing cup of suffering which He was to drink.
But was this the whole of the dreadful compound? Not so. The most bitter ingredients of all, none can analyze. His heart alone knew their full bitterness.
But in vain we try to dive into the mystery of these verses...
Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Matthew 26:39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Truly, our heart’s conclusion lies with David....
Psalms 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
When we think to know this, it is too painful; too difficult to search into, too WONDERFUL to find out.
Paul described it this way...
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
We can only gaze, and admire, and bow down before this great mystery of Godliness requires to make you truly blessed-and withal, One who is waiting to reciprocate your love, and longing to bless you forever and ever!
Conclusion: (Review)
1). He was Wonderful in the PAST
(As seen above)
2). He is Wonderful in the PRESENT
Intercessor / Advocate Etc.
3). He will be wonderful in the FUTURE
- He is coming again
- He will rule and reign in perfection
- He will take us to be in His presence