The Virgin . . . Will Give Birth To A Son

THE VIRGIN.....WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON

Isaiah 7:10-14 - December 21, 2003

ISAIAH 7:10-14

10Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11"Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."

12But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test."

13Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:

From time to time in our lifetime we have probably seen and realized that the Lord does many things, which are impossible. We limit ourselves to those things which we know that we can do, those things which seem humanly possible. But the Lord says He can do even the impossible. Today, our text tells us: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. That is impossible, but the Lord says He can do it and He will. We realize as we celebrate the birth of Christ who was born of a virgin, the Lord does the impossible. So God’s will is always done even though sometimes we might not agree with it or we might not consider it to be what we want done. How thankful we can be that it is God’s will that is done. Solomon wrote in Proverbs: "Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails"(PROVERBS 19:20,21). That is what we hear this morning from the Prophet Isaiah. It is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. He says:

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. This reminds us:

I. Man cannot change

II. What God wants done

I. Man cannot change

We have heard these words before--this prophecy. This morning we are going to look at the deep meaning that it had at the time Isaiah spoke these words. We are going to look a little bit at the history of the children of Israel. We may remember for ourselves that God had delivered the children of Israel into the Promised Land, the land that was flowing with milk and honey. As they settled that land, God gave them one thing to do. That one thing was to drive out the inhabitants that were already living there. Now, over the years they drove out most of them but not all of them. Because of that, the Israelites began to pick up all the bad habits from the unbelieving inhabitants who lived first in the Promised Land. They were bad habits of not following God, the bad habits of following false gods, the bad habits of looking for different leaders. So it was the children of Israel changed their whole government, their whole system of thinking. Before the time of kings God had led and directed his people both in their spiritual lives and in their daily living. The people came to the Lord and said, "We want something else. We want different leaders." The Lord provided them with kings. In today’s text we have King Ahaz. Of course, you already know that if they are going to have kings, men leading them instead of God, they are not always going to have the best leadership. The fact is that the Israelites discovered very quickly that they had more bad kings than good kings. Ahaz was one of the worst.

We are told in our text: 10Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11"Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights." The Lord came to Ahaz and was giving him a second chance. What had happened is that Ahaz looked around him and realized the enemies of Judah were great. So Ahaz thought, "I better take care of this and defeat these enemies of God. He went out of his way to do what he wanted to do. He hired foreign armies to defeat his enemies, but he never once asked God. He never once considered what God wanted done. Ahaz never once thought God could help him, and God comes to Ahaz and gives him a last chance. In other words the Lord says, "Ahaz, ask me anything. Ask for a sign. I will give you a sign. Ask Me what I want done, and I will tell you." What is Ahaz’s response? 12But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test." This reply almost sounds reasonable. Ahaz says he doesn’t want to test the Lord. But there is a deeper meaner as Ahaz says, "I am not going to ask what the Lord wants. I am going to do what I want." Ahaz was very rebellious and stubborn. Ahaz really already knew what God’s answer might be. Because God’s answer would not be what Ahaz wanted to hear he was not too willing to do what God wanted done. Ahaz trusted in himself and not God.