The sermon by Peter Allison, titled 'Jesus' Messianic Work,' explores Isaiah 9, emphasizing the transformation from darkness to light brought by Jesus Christ. It begins with the historical context of the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, which were burdened by darkness and oppression due to foreign invasions, particularly by the Assyrians. The speaker draws parallels between the physical and spiritual darkness faced by Israel and the contemporary world, highlighting the moral confusion and spiritual blindness prevalent today. Isaiah's prophecy is interpreted as a promise of grace and redemption through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. The sermon discusses how Jesus' coming fulfilled this prophecy, bringing spiritual light and salvation to the people. It highlights the significance of grace, which comes to the undeserving, and the engrafting of Gentiles into the covenant people. The sermon uses the account of Gideon's miraculous victory over the Midianites as an analogy for God's saving power, emphasizing that salvation is solely the work of God. The use of past tense in prophecies is explained as a reflection of God's eternal perspective, where His decrees are certain and already accomplished. The sermon concludes by affirming the certainty of God's promises and the power of His word.

Isaiah chapter 9 this morning. I will read verse 22 because it ties in with the next verse. So beginning of chapter 8 verse 22. Hear God's word. Then they will look to the earth and see trouble and darkness, gloom and anguish, and they will be driven into darkness.

Nevertheless, the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first he lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan in Galilee of Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them a light has shined. You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy of the harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

For you have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle and garments rolled in blood will be used for burning and fuel of fire. The testimonies which Jehovah has commanded are righteous and very faithful. Heavenly Father, grant us to hear your word this morning with ears that understand, with a heart that has been opened by your spirit, with hands that are, and feet that are ready to obey your word and I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips for this task this morning of proclaiming the riches of the glory of Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.

In the days of the judges, in times of backsliding, they would be oppressed often by the Philistines. And in the times of great prosperity under David and some of their godly kings that followed him, these nations around were subdued. But in the times of backsliding that followed the divided kingdom, the land of Israel was also plundered and afflicted by enemies, usually coming from the north because they came around that fertile crescent, they would go up following the river valleys and they would come down from the north, either Aram or Syria. And in later years of the kingdom, the Assyrians, there are two different nations, the Assyrians were particularly troubling. The very first regions that would be impacted or affected when these enemy raiders crossed the border were the tribes on the northern border.

They bore the brunt of these military foyers into Israel. These people lived under the shadow of death and under the threat of these invading armies destroying their gardens and flocks and burning their homes and killing them or their family members and carrying them or their family members away in chains, never to be seen again. These are the people that Isaiah here is talking about as the people that walked in darkness. And he says, particularly the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, because remember, those two tribes inherited land that was on the northern border around the Sea of Galilee. And for example, about 30 years before the Northern Kingdom finally ceased its independent existence, it's having its own king, Tiglath-Pyleser, who was the Assyrian king, invaded that land, and he took a bunch of cities captive from around the land of Galilee.

There's a number of them, five or ten of them. And he carried them off into captivity. And when they conquered a country, the Assyrians would typically deport all the people, all the inhabitants of this conquered land and scatter them in other countries far away. And then they would move people from other nations that they had captured and bring them back to the newly captured land. Of course, you can easily imagine that displacement on this scale will totally gut a culture.

It disrupted families and destroyed any ability and any will to resist on the part of these nations that they had conquered. This was how they built and sustained their world empire, and they did have a world empire. And this, of course, this sort of nation building continues today, by the way. There are millions of people that are forced to flee their homelands and tens and hundreds of millions that are displaced from their homes. And while the art of ethnic subjugation and empire building has changed its form and changed its tools and rhetoric over the years, it still goes on, even today, around the world, because these are the consequences that the Lord sends on nations that persist in rebelling against him.

God's expectations of civil magistrates and of nations hasn't changed. Righteousness still exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. And so these are the covenant sanctions that are brought on all covenant breakers, whether in the time of Israel, under Ahaz or the Northern Kingdom, or today. For example, in Deuteronomy 28, which is one of the chapters that lists these sanctions in quite exhausting detail. It says in verse 41, You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.

And so Isaiah here describes this distressed condition of Israel as walking in darkness and dwelling in the land under the shadow of death. Now when you walk in darkness, I think even the little ones among us here, no, you can't see where you are going, can you? And it makes it much easier to crash into any little obstacle in your path. When I was growing up, my brother and I slept in a one room shed in the backyard of the house. And so at night, when we went to bed, usually after dark, we would have to go from the house to this room where our bed was.

And it was a reality you had to deal with every night. You couldn't really run there when it was dark and you couldn't see what was there. And I can remember many times trying to run and crashing into something that I forgot was there in the dark. So you can't run very fast. You have to walk rather slowly and tentatively if you're walking in the darkness.

You feel your way. And so to be in a spiritual darkness is to be in a state of chaos and mental confusion. It's a state of ignorance and moral blindness. See, those who are walking in sins like the nation of Israel were, and like our nation today, are blind to their condition. They're blind.

They call their moral perversions love and tolerance. They call their idolatry religious freedom. They call their lies freedom of speech. They call their theft social justice. That is a state of mental confusion, of spiritual blindness, because they know in their heart that these things are wrong.

Their conscience testifies against them. But they ignore that conscience and they suppress that truth. See, the Israelites were under the shadow of death from the Assyrian army, but that's also an analogy for their spiritual condition. They are under the shadow of death from the Assyrian army, but that's also an analogy for their spiritual condition. They are under the shadow of death because their sins bring them under the condemnation of the righteous judge of all the earth.

Metaphorically, darkness and death are synonymous. Darkness is the absence of light. Darkness doesn't drive light away. Light drives darkness away. And death is separation from God, who is light.

And so to be separated from God is to be without the light of His Word, without fellowship with Him. But here this morning, Isaiah's message to these people who are in darkness and under the shadow of death is that a light has shown upon them." What an amazing statement. This can only mean For a light to shine upon these people in darkness and under the shadow of death, this can only mean that they have come into the presence of Jesus Christ in some way. He is the light of the world. He alone is the light of the world.

Without Him there is no light. The darkness of sin can only be dispelled by the one who is light, who created light, who dwells in unapproachable light. It can't be reproduced or produced by any human effort. So for them to have a light shine on them is to come into the presence of Christ. And this is indeed exactly how the New Testament writers understood this very passage.

Matthew writes in his gospel, Matthew four says, now, when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he departed to Galilee. Remember, this is the land, the land of Galilee, Galilee of the Gentiles that Isaiah's talking about. Jesus departs to Galilee and leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum which is by the sea. By the way of the sea Isaiah says beyond the Jordan. He came and dwelt in Capernaum which is by the sea in the regions of Zebulon and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and those, and upon those who sat in that region and shadow of death, light has dawned." This is a verbatim quote, applying this prophecy that here in Isaiah chapter 9 to Jesus Christ in His physical coming to this earth.

He is the light. Christ is the light that shone upon the people of Zebulon and Naphtali, who sat under the shadow of death. Thus Paul can say in 2 Corinthians 4, for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Christ is the only light of the world. So the promise of light here is a promise that grace would be poured on this land.

The people that were spiritually blind and unable to see the light would be given the ability to see the light. That's the promise here. It's a gracious promise. The people who are under the shadow of death will be delivered from the sentence of death. And they will be restored to fellowship with God.

These people would not only see the light as if they're seeing something from afar, But the light, Isaiah says, would shine on them. They would live in the light. They would be restored to fellowship with Jesus Christ, the triune God. And the very people who bore the brunt of this Assyrian oppression would be the land to which this light first comes. It wasn't Jerusalem or Judah that first received this light.

It was the despised lands, these northern lands, farthest from Jerusalem that first received the light. Remember when Philip found Nathaniel and he told him about Jesus. Remember that occasion? And he said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And what was Nathaniel's response?

Can anything good come out of Nazareth a rhetorical reply But it shows how the people of the north were viewed This was they were viewed as a lesser people. People from whom nothing good could come. I mean, he just that was his natural reaction. That's what just spilled out of him. And when Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him.

He commented in his hearing, Behold an Israelite in whom is no deceit. That was Jesus' reply. He had spoken what was on his heart. He wasn't being any guile in that. And so this is the place, this despised place that people thought could have nothing good come out of it.

Is the place that God chose on which to shine first. You see, grace doesn't come to the deserving, does it? Otherwise, it wouldn't be grace, would it? It would be wages. Grace comes to the undeserving.

It comes to those who are poor in spirit, who know they deserve nothing but the wrath of God, comes to those who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. Grace does not come to those who think that they are deserving of it. Notice also that this light comes to the Gentiles. It comes to the Galilee of the Gentiles. And this is a number, one of a number of places in Isaiah that speak of the engrafting of the Gentiles, joining them to the church, joining them to Israel.

Isaiah 42 and 49 also speak of light coming to the Gentiles. Isaiah 56 speaks of foreigners who will join with the covenant people. But it's throughout the Old Testament, throughout every part of the Old Testament in the Torah, in the writings, and in the prophets. And so these New Testament Jews that we read about who didn't think that the Messiah was the Messiah of the Gentiles too. They just didn't know their own scriptures.

They were ignorant of them. Well, that's grace. Isaiah is saying grace would be poured upon this land. And he then goes on to enumerate the blessings of this grace that is poured on the land. The first blessing that flows from the grace that's poured out on them is that their land is multiplied.

This nation is multiplied. You have multiplied the nation. One of the sanctions of nations that do not obey the voice of Jehovah and carefully keep all his commandments is that they would become few in number. Go back to Deuteronomy 28 again, right? This is where all these judgments, these curses are spelled out in great detail.

And verse 62 says, You will be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the heaven in multitude. Because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. You would become few in number, whereas before you were as the stars of the heaven in multitude, now you're going to be few because you don't obey. And so when Christ comes bringing light and salvation, That curse is reversed and they are multiplied. And indeed, this is something that we saw repeatedly as we went through Acts and the birth of the church in the New Testament in Acts 6 1 the number of the disciples was multiplying in Acts 12 the Word of God grew and multiplied and in Acts 9 the churches throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria were multiplied.

Interesting that normally you think of Judah and Samaria as describing the New Testament era, but Judah, Galilee, and Samaria. The church has continued multiplying to this day all around the world. Yes, there are regions and epochs, periods, where the church grows fat and lazy at ease in Zion. And it falls into a barrenness and the light gets very dim or goes out. But Christ's kingdom throughout this world continues to grow and it always will.

It always has and it always will. In Revelation 7, the believers are pictured as a crowd without number. John sees a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. That is the church. Multiply in fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy here.

God will multiply this nation. Secondly, The second blessing of this grace that's poured out is that their joy is multiplied, they're increased. Her mourning and sorrow is turned to rejoicing. And there are two similes that Isaiah uses to describe this joy, and Both are descriptive of Christ's kingdom being multiplied. This joy is first according to the joy of the harvest.

The joy of the harvest. Maybe that's a little strange to us city goers, but actually not. We probably all have had gardens, and what joy to pull the produce off of them. In farming country, there are big harvest festivals, often in October, after the harvest has brought in from the fields. You know, we living in the urban world don't live in that cycle and probably don't think in terms, in those kind of terms.

For us, it might be more like celebrating a World Series victory or a Super Bowl victory, of course, which ought to say something about the poverty of our land. Who puts a leather sphere in a certain place more times than someone else is really of little consequence to anything of importance. A large harvest, though, is something to rejoice over. It means you can eat well for the next year. And the gathering of the saints by the preaching of the gospel is likened to this harvest.

As people are brought into the light, the host of heaven and the saints of the church rejoice. Rejoice in the salvation of sinners. It's also likened to the dividing of the spoils of war. Harvest and victory of war. We battle against the world, the flesh, and the evil one.

And it is a cause to rejoice in these victories, just like a victorious army will celebrate their victory. This joy is the result of the yoke on their necks, the staff on their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressors all being broken. Verses four. This joy flows from being delivered from bondage. When the yoke of sin is broken and there is victory over the sins that so easily beset us, there is joy.

There is joy when grace triumphs and a sinner is made a trophy of grace. That is what Christ came to do and that is what only he can do. And this is what He actually does to all who call upon Him. Gives victory over the bondage that we are under. And there is victory in Christ for every possible yoke that you might be under.

Christ is that strong man who can bind the evil one and plunder his kingdom. And he does. He can deliver from every sin and set you free. There is no sin that is too powerful. There is no enemy too powerful for him to defeat.

And this deliverance is likened to a deliverance from Midian in the days of Gideon, As in the days of Midian. We recently read about that account as we were reading through judges. You know the Midianites and the Amalekites And all the countries of the East gathered together against Israel because Gideon had led Israelites away from Their idol worship and torn down the idol of Baal. And this was a massive army that had assembled against the land of Israel. Judges doesn't give us an exact number, but it does say the army was as numerous as locusts and their camels were without number as the sand by the seashore in multitude.

So it was a large army. Josephus states that just the casualties alone from this battle That came against in this army that came against Israel was a hundred and twenty thousand people soldiers. Which is consistent with an army that is like the sand by the seashore. So this is a massive army, hundreds of thousands of soldiers. And the Israelite army that Gideon gathered together when the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he sounded a trumpet in the land was a mere thirty two thousand people.

They might have been outnumbered five or ten to one. But God said, no, that's too many people. Tell everyone that is afraid that they can go home. They're not needed. If you're afraid, if you're in trouble, just go home.

You're fine. And 22, 000 men went home at that opportunity. That left 10, 000 people against this hundreds of thousands. But God said that's still too many people. So God had Gideon, you Remember, take the army to the water and have them drink.

And based on how they drank, God separated out 300 men and told Gideon to send the rest home. You're not needed. God said, I'll use this army, these 300, to deliver you from a couple hundred thousand men. Because you see, really, God doesn't need anybody. And that's the point.

And Gideon, though, is wondering how this could be. How's God going to deliver us from this massive army of hundreds of thousands with 300 people? So God arranges, you remember, for Gideon to sneak into the camp one night and over here a soldier dreaming, Over here a soldier relating a dream he had to his tent mate. And in this dream that he's relating a loaf of barley tumbled into the camp of Midian and struck a tent and the tent collapses and his tent mate replies immediately, well this is nothing else but the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand, God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.

Now interestingly, immediately after hearing this from the Midianite soldier, Gideon believes. And that's, I think, somewhat amazing. He was afraid when God told him to deliver him with 300 men. But when he hears the enemy soldier say it, then his fear is gone as if this word of the enemy soldier is more certain than the word of God to him. But of course, we're probably no different.

We can and often do treat the word of God in the exact same way. So then God had Gideon with his arm his men with. Trumpets torches and earthen pitchers no swords. Earthen pitchers to put over the torches to hide the light so no one could see it. And then he splits this little band of three hundred men into three groups of a hundred and has them surround this Midianite army.

An army that's five hundred or a thousand times bigger than they are. And when Gideon gives the signal then they are supposed to break the pictures, blow their trumpets and shout the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. Now imagine being one of these soldiers standing there in front of this army. You've got a torch, an earthen pitcher. You're supposed to break in a trumpet.

And with this, you're going to defeat this massive army. And on Gideon's signal, they break the pitcher. And when the sleeping soldiers are suddenly jolted awake by the blast of 300 trumpets, and they see their camp that's surrounded by all these lights that appear out of nowhere. And all around them, men are bellowing about swords. These drowsy men, awakened out of probably half-drunken stupor, are overwhelmed with fear.

And their hijacked amygdala immediately triggers a nearly involuntary response to grab their sword and attack the threat who happens to be their tentmate. And so in this crazed response, they kill each other off. While the Israelite army watches. They watched. They didn't lift a sword.

Because this is how God saves. We do nothing to save ourselves. It is all the work of God from start to finish. And it's all of grace. And this is the message, the point of this passage.

What did the land of Zebulun and Naphtali do to bring this light? Nothing. Nothing. The light shined on them while they were in darkness. What did they do to break the yoke of their burden and the rod of the oppressor?

Nothing. Christ broke the yoke and the rod of the oppressor. And this was the object lesson that God gave that God has given his people throughout history. He gave it to the Israelites on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba. As they were hemmed in by the sea, these mountains and the Egyptian army behind them.

They watched God destroy the Egyptian army without their help. Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. Stand still. This was the command that God gave to Jehoshaphat when Judah was attacked by an innumerable army of Ammonites.

God said in 2 Chronicles, you will not need to fight this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. This is how Jesus saves. He We contribute nothing.

We are called to believe in Him and to act in His power. And I think this is one of the reasons why the just war idea that a battle needs to be winnable in the flesh before undertaking it is so often wrong because so many of the battles that the church has fought were not winnable in the flesh when they undertook them. Our battles in Fact are not winnable in the flesh because we don't battle against flesh and blood but against Principalities and powers and so our battles are winnable only by the supernatural power of God Now notice one more thing one more thing in this passage. You probably noticed it, I'm sure. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.

A light has shined on them. You have multiplied the nations you have broken the yoke now what is odd about that remember when Isaiah is speaking here he's speaking 742 or so seven over 700 years before Christ came that's a that's a very long time But how is Isaiah speaking about them he's speaking in the past tense, you have multiplied the nation. The Those that walked in darkness have seen a great light. You have broken the yoke. How can Isaiah speak in the past tense of things that are 700 years over 700 years in the future and 700 years is just a really long time.

It's not like there's any sense of, well, it's about the same time. I mean, 700 years to put in perspective for our day, that's 200 years before Columbus. That's before Chaucer. That's when the Knights were still using chainmail and defending cities with walls. But actually this this is not unique concerning prophecies.

Think of much of Isaiah chapter 53 which speaks of Christ's atoning sacrifice. It's all in the past tense. He has borne our griefs. He was wounded, was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all and so forth. It's all perfect, completed action of things that are yet hundreds of years in the future. Or Psalm 22, speaking of Christ's crucifixion, says they pierced past tense, my hands and my feet. What do we what is the significance of this? Because remember, these things are significant.

Paul argues for doctrinal points, significant doctrinal points from The single letter S in a word being there or not there. Well, first, I think this use of the past tense to speak of something that is yet to happen. It teaches us God's decree is so certain. That it is spoken of as having already been accomplished from the moment it is spoken. What God has purposed and decreed from eternity is already done.

From his perspective, this is divine certainty. Secondly, nothing can be passed to God. Nothing can be in the past to God because he equally exists in the past as he does in the present. The future and the past are relative terms to us, but they have no relation to the Creator God with whom all that is past, all that is present, and all that is future to man exists in one infinite, indivisible, and eternal now to God. God dwells outside of time.

He says one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. He's not a creator of time, but he's not a creature of it. He doesn't look forward to the future or look back to the past. That's what we do. And so the use of the past tense to speak of future events reflects God's eternal perspective.

What he has decreed from eternity is as certain, it is as real as if it has already taken place. That's the eternal perspective of God. In Revelation 1, chapter, verse 8, Christ introduces himself to John as the one who exists outside of time, says I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end who is and who was and who is to come. He's all of those at the same time. In fact, the very name Jehovah by which God revealed himself in Exodus 6 is a combination of the verb to be.

It is a combination of the verb to be in the future tense, in the present tense and in the past tense. And I have stuck that in your bulletin because you kind of have to see it in print to see it It's there underneath on the far right side to say I will be is a yeah to say he is you'd say oh that and To say he was you'd say hi, ya And if you put these three together, the future form, the present form, and the past, and you use standard English pronunciation for J and V, you get Jehovah or Yehova if you want to use the soft pronunciation, but Jehovah. Edward Lee writes, The first and most proper name of God is Jehovah, which sets out the eternity and self-existence of God, one, His eternity, in that it contains all times, future, past, and present. Yah notes the time to come, ho the time present va the time past But as well talk more About it when we get to the names of Christ in the next couple of verses That this we get to the names of the child, Emmanuel, we know that name reveals God's character.

That's His character. In His names are His character, who He is. And so, we can, by the use of these past tenses, we know first that God's decree is certain. It's as certain when it's pronounced as if it was already done. We know that it speaks of God's eternal perspective that he's present at all in the past, in the future, in the present, in the now.

And by the very name Jehovah and by his use of past tense to communicate what to us is future, we can know by faith that what is promised to us in the future is already legally and spiritually secured to us now. We don't hope for our resurrection and the redemption of our flesh and the triumph of Christ in this age over all his enemies as something pretty certain, but something that is as absolutely certain as if it had already taken place. Because to the God who created time but is not subject to it, it already has. It already has. In Romans 4, 17, Paul describes God as the one who calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

Calls those things that do not exist as though they did, because by his very calling them, they do. Whether to us, that is 700 years in the future or his return. Who knows how far in the future it already exists because God has decreed it. And this brothers and sisters is the confidence that we have in our redemption and in the hope of the resurrection. That's why we talk about the sure and certain hope of the things that God has promised.

All of his promises are yay and amen in Jesus Christ. May God give us faith to believe His word and to act in the power of His word. Yes, every day of our life. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for the beauty and the power, the simplicity, the eternal truth that is in your Word. It is a Word that is refined seven times and pure.

Every letter, every jot and tittle is perfect. Every jot and tittle will never pass away for you preserve your word. It is established forever in the heavens, established from all eternity. It is truth. And it is light to us.

Grant us to prize your word, to love it, to read it, to meditate upon it to be renewed through it your word is powerful living sharper than any two-edged sword dividing a sundered soul and spirit and joints and marrow. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our heart. Father, we ask that your Word might come to us this morning, that you would open our hearts to receive it, to receive, to know this life-giving power and to live in that power and not in our flesh. We are so thankful that we have been raised with you and seated with you in the heavenlies. Enable us to set our minds on things above and not on things here on the earth.

Renew our thinking, Lord, where it has become corrupted. Strengthen our faith where doubt has crept in. We ask this through Jesus Christ. Amen.