The Wonderful Counselor

[music] want to say happy Thanksgiving. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving this week and time with friends or family or whatever your traditions are. Uh when it comes around that ours are crazy because we get together with about 60 other family members and we stay at the same place from Wednesday until Saturday and um for about 98% of the time it's actually pretty harmonious. And so if you can if you can believe that it's it's pretty good. But uh but that does turn our attention the first Sunday right after Thanksgiving is is according to the lurggical calendar that's been going on for several hundred years. Um they practice something called advent.

And the reason why the the early church uh sort of inundated this idea of advent was because we are prone to forget things at times. And they wanted to incorporate this idea of, hey, we need to remember this event that happened 2,000 years ago where Jesus came as a baby born in a manger. And so, it's super important that the church, the people of God, they were awaiting this arrival because there had been so many prophecies uh throughout history that were talking about this coming king, this coming Messiah, this coming Christ. And so because that time was so important in what God did in shaping and molding his people to look forward to this arrival, the same thing is now for us as well. We're just looking forward to the second arrival. And there's a lot that God is doing in our lives that forms and shapes us when we are in the middle of the waiting.

And that's exactly what Advent is. It's just it comes from the Latin word advent which just means uh waiting or an arrival or a coming. And so we are in the middle of that and we are beginning that today. It's the four Sundays that lead up to the celebration of Christ's birth as we refer to as Christmas um that we will celebrate on December 21st. But what we're going to be doing in this Advent this year is walking through four titles that were given to this child to be born. wonderful counselor, uh, mighty God, everlasting father, and prince of peace.

And so each Sunday we will be covering one of those titles so that we know the child that was to be born, who he is, and what he came to accomplish. Because it wasn't just that they were looking for any child to be born. They were looking for the child to be born, the one that was prophesied. And what's great about Isaiah 9 is this is a this is a prophecy that was given 700 years prior to Jesus's birth. And if you want to go down the route of looking at the different statistics um or probabilities of even one prophecy being fulfilled or even eight prophecies being fulfilled. There's actually a phenomenal study that was done by um a college out in California on the more than 400 prophecies that were actually fulfilled in the person of Jesus.

But the idea what they did was they looked at probabilities like if someone uh was able to complete one of them and like for example the baby to be born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a very specific thing. And what they looked at around the time of Jesus for a child to be born in Bethlehem within that region would be a probability of around 1 in 300,000. And that would be like you going to the Indianapolis 500 and marking somebody with an X and then blindfolding yourself and walking around and finding that one person. That's the probability of Jesus being born in Bethlehem in his day and age. At the same time, they then said, um, to take it a step further, him fulfilling eight prophecies would be like you taking a pile of quarters that were a foot thick or a foot deep that covered the state of Texas and then you marking an X on one of them and him going and finding that one quarter in the state of Texas would be the probabilities of him actually fulfilling eight prophecies of again the more 400 that he actually fulfilled.

And so what that does for us is that should draw your attention to who was this child to be able to in their lifetime fulfill more than 400 prophecies and promises that were given from God to his people over the course of 1500 years. And it's just absolutely amaz amazing. Which is why it should inspire in us a sense of awe when we look back on what he was able to accomplish. But not just what he accomplished, ultimately who he is. And that's what we want to draw our attention to today. And so the verse that that my son read for to us a child is born.

Isaiah 9:6 to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace. And I even want to go on to verse seven. of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forever more. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. The reason why I want to draw attention to that as well is because anytime you throw in that term government, people's ears perk up a little bit and maybe even right now you're a bit nervous. What's he going to say [laughter] regarding government?

Which side is he on? Who is he who did he vote for? What are we going to talk about? That's that's actually not what I'm going to talk about. What I'm actually going to say is at the end of the day, if we put our faith, if we put our hope, if we put our assurance of the quality of the life that we live on any type of political leader, regardless of what party you affiliate with, you're always going to be let down. It's never going to check off every single box that you're looking for.

Doesn't matter which side it is. it's never going to accomplish the type of life that your heart is actually longing for. And so when we look at Jesus and we look at this idea of him having a government that rests on his shoulder of which there is no end, then we need to think about that a little bit. We need to dwell on that. We need to meditate on that and discern and discern from the scriptures what does that mean? What does that mean?

And what does it mean that this government that rests upon his shoulders, the one upon which it is resting on is considered the wonderful counselor. The wonderful counselor. And that's what I want to talk with you about today to show you what this prophecy meant by wonderful counselor. Now the idea of counselors in today's and I'll say it this way overmedicated society would refer to um therapy. When we think of counselor, we think of someone that you spend $150 to go see for one hour where they listen to you talk for 45 minutes and then for the final 10 or 15 minutes, they'll give you a bit of advice and then they'll schedule another time for you to meet with them in a couple of weeks. That's the first thing we tend to think of when we think of counselors.

And again, I'm not anti that. I think that is that is right. That is necessary. I myself have benefited from formal counseling. Absolutely. There's a time and place for that.

And I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it. But the title given to Jesus is much much more than someone who merely gives you good advice. It's way more than that. When Abraham Lincoln became president, he famously filled his cabinet with actually people who did not like him. political leaders who were actually against him. Historians call it the team of rivals was what he put together.

And Lincoln said he did it because he needed counselors who could tell him what he didn't want to hear. Voices that could see what he could not see. Wisdom beyond his own wisdom. And historians say that this was a brilliant strategy. But as brilliant as that strategy was, not one of those counselors could stop a war with their words. Not one could heal a country with their counsel.

Not one could speak galaxies into existence, bind up a broken soul, or stand in a courtroom of heaven as your advocate. Not one of them could do that. So it doesn't matter how many earthly counselors we put around ourselves, we need the wonderful counselor. And so what is prophesied in Isaiah in a context of a world that is stumbling in darkness because that's what's going on in the context of Isaiah. The world is dark. I mean it's dark.

Everyone's doing whatever they want to do in their own eyes. And in this darkness there comes this word given to these people. To us a child is born. To us a son is given. And he shall be called wonderful counselor. Again this is not just good advice.

It's not a heavenly therapist giving coping strategies. It's not a divine consultant charging by the hour. That's not what is being provided to these people. This is the son who has always existed in infinite wisdom of the triune God stepping into human history with counsel so powerful that his counsel creates creates his counsel convicts convicts like the the the issue with counsel today is we walk into whether it's a friend who's going to provide advice or whether it's someone we're going to listen to on a media outlet or it's scrolling our Instagram feed, listening to reals, listening to people who are uh exercising their opinions or whether or not it's podcasts that we're jumping on. What we do today is we come into all of those scenarios with our minds already made up just looking for people to affirm what we already think. That's what we're doing.

We're not actually open to counsel that convicts us because we actually might be wrong and then changes and transforms us to a better way. His counsel not only convicts, but it restores, it redeems, it fixes things that are broken. And what I want to do is explore four ways that Jesus is the wonderful counselor for us. Number one, before creation, there was an external or an eternal council known as the Trinity. So before creation, there was counsel. Before you get to Bethlehem, before you get to Isaiah, before you get to in the beginning, before you get to any of that, Jesus already existed in the eternal fellowship of the Trinity.

This is the Father. This is the Son. This is the Holy Spirit forever, for all eternity, giving, receiving, and delighting in perfect counsel. Perfect counsel. So, a lot of times when people look at the scriptures, they like to think of things of like, well, they'll pick and pluck. Well, that that was okay to be heard or taught 2,000 years ago, but today's different.

And what we need to see is that we're not picking and plucking certain advice and opinions and truths that were okay 2,000 years ago, but today is different because history is different. We're talking about a word of God that preexists any culture and context and a word of God, an idea of how life should be lived that comes from a council that is eternal, not one that is temporary. And so the council of God, we need to understand that any truth that is drawn from the scriptures is truth that is rooted in eternity amongst the father, son, and holy spirit. So, it's not truth once again that we look at and say, "Well, that was okay 2,000 years ago to be taught." But today, it's different. No, no, no.

It's truth that yes, 2,000 years ago came from eternity into our temporary, but it first came from eternity past. Tim Keller once said it this way in regards to the father, son, and the holy spirit that they have been orbiting one another in self-giving love and truth for all eternity. That's how this council exists. Actually, like brother Mike over here is something he put on social media a couple of weeks ago. He put it this way. The trinity exists as one will and three persons.

They do not have three wills as if there were three different councils. They have one divine will expressed through three personal roles. They never act separately or in disagreement. Every action of God is one action but with distinct personal contributions. The father plans, the son accomplishes, the spirit applies all in perfect unity. This was the council that existed before we ever get to in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Therefore, Jesus doesn't come to earth to figure out how to fix the mess. He he doesn't arrive and assess the situation and then decide what to do. As I said a couple of weeks ago, he's never chasing ambulances. You know, a lot of times when we hear that word, he comes to restore and redeem, we think of restoration crews who show up like my family, you know, they had a a pipe burst a couple of years ago that flooded the my my parents down in Tennessee that flooded their upstairs which then caved in the roof downstairs which then they had a gas leak that blew up, put them in the burn unit. The whole situation was crazy. And I remember I a couple of friends of mine that I went to school with, they were the ones who came with a restoration company, but they had to come on the scene and they had to assess the damage.

They had to look and figure out what they could fix and what they could not fix. That's not how Jesus operates. Jesus doesn't show up on the scene and say, "Oh, you got a lot of work. I don't know if I can actually get it complete or not." Before he ever spoke creation into existence, he already knew in his infinite wisdom and counsel exactly what was going to happen and exactly what they were going to do in sending Jesus to be the child to be born. I I have to imagine I I don't think this is a big jump but I have to imagine when we look at Isaiah 6 if you were to go back a few chapters and there's this famous mi miss missionaries love this verse because again missions exist because worship doesn't all over the world and so we need to be sending people all over the world in order to bring Jesus where he is not where he's not being worshiped And what Isaiah 6 ultimately says is is there's this kind of question going on.

Whom shall I send? Who will go for me? And Isaiah is having this conversation with the Lord. Now, now God's not asking these questions because he doesn't know what to do. He's not saying, I don't have anybody who will go for me or I don't have anybody who who who can who's going to step up. And Isaiah's like, hey Lord, um I've got this.

Send me. I'll go. That's not what's going on. What I actually think is going on, this is a bit of conjecture, so bear with me on this, but actually think that it's allowing us to see into the council of God when they are having a conversation about solving the problem of the earth, of the brokenness of humanity, of sin. And in that Jesus in his counsel and his in his wisdom is telling the father here I am send me send me because Jesus is always the fulfillment of everything we see in scripture and he is sent by the father to come and be our counselor our wonderful counselor. Again, Jesus never made a miscalculation.

He's never had a delayed realization. He's never said, "Let me think on that and get back to you." His counsel pre-exists anything that we think to be true. This should encourage us because if the counsel you need today flows from the one who has always had all wisdom, then your life is not too complex for him. Your wounds are not too deep for him. Your questions are not too big for him.

He's the wonderful counsel counselor and his counsel pre-exists all of creation. Which means when we have all these big questions about what's the meaning of life, what's the purpose of life? Why do all these bad things happen to me? Why do all the bad things happen in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? Again, always want to answer that question when I have the opportunity to answer that question.

That's only ever happened one time in all of human history when bad things happened to one good person and that person was Jesus Christ because there is no other good person other than Jesus Christ. That's it. It's only ever happened one time in all of human history. We've made the bed that we're laying in. When we sinned in the world, we brought sin and all of the collateral damage that comes with it. We brought that into the world when we sinned.

So the question actually should be why do good things happen to bad people? Why did God send Jesus to be something good for us who are enemies of him who are bad? It's because he comes to take away our badness, our sin, everything that's deserving of death and punishment. And he becomes it so that we might become good. So that we might become righteous. This wonderful counselor has counsel that pre-exists all of creation.

And then the second thing I want you to see is that Jesus then exercised his counsel in creation. In creation. Listen to this in um Colossians 1:15-17. The New Testament says the world was created through him and for him. I want you to see this. He that's being Jesus.

He is the image of the invisible God. All right. So this this incarnation, this child to be born would become for us the visible representation of the invisible God. And so again, you want to know who God is, look to who Jesus is. He's the firstborn of all creation. That's not meaning that he was a born figure like what other world religions would say.

He was not a created God. Him being the for firstborn of all creation is actually more of a reference towards him being the first one resurrected from the dead as we all then follow in that as we are going from dead in our sins and trespasses to raised to walk in a newness of life in Christ. the church being ultimately what he has created to then exist for all eternity and enjoying God forever. For by him all things again for by him all things all things. That's not some things. Nothing got past him.

Nothing got created that he didn't already think about. All things were created in heaven and on earth. That's just another way of saying there's no other options. Those are the categories in heaven and on earth. Everything that was created in case we're missing anything visible and invisible, which you need to know that the world is not just stuff. It's not just material.

That would be an atheistic view. This is all there is. And he's saying, "No, no, no. There's more than just the stuff that you see, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities." Again, going back to political figures. It doesn't matter who's in charge.

All things were created through him and for him. For him. And he is before all things and in him. I love this. All things hold together. Hold together.

You continue to exist because Jesus said so. It snowed because Jesus said so. That snow is going to melt because Jesus said so. When you eat food and you taste flavor, that happens because Jesus said so. If you had that wonderful 50 shades of brown plate on Thanksgiving, it happened because Jesus said so. All things are held together because of him.

Spurgeon once said, "There was no guesswork in creation. Every atom was arranged by his infinite counsel. We need to know who this child is. Because it's way bigger than just some good guy who lived 2,000 years ago. Think about that. Every mountain range was carved by divine counsel.

Every ecosystem was balanced by divine counsel. Every star was positioned by divine counsel. Here's the wonderful thing that's going on right now in our society is there used to be a day where science was pitted against Christianity where Christianity is just a bunch of people who have blind faith and believe in things that they can't prove or that they can't see. And science over here is actually figuring out what's going on in our society. What's going on with splitting of atoms? that's going on with with how far we are away from the sun and all this.

And what they're actually finding out is the more that they dive into it, the more articles that are now being published and journals being published, what they're finding out is that there's more order to this design than there is chaos and happen stance. In other way, what they're saying is is we've been following along or at least teaching in our education system that everything came from chaos. that there was nothing and then something happened we call a big bang and from chaos we then got order that that that the earth was positioned so perfectly in its rotation around the sun that if it was one degree closer it burns up and if it was one degree further it freezes to death. And what they're figuring out is maybe that didn't happen by chance. like as we just exploded and everything is being formed that all of a sudden it figured itself out and says, "Let's stay on this little trajectory right here.

This is the best way for life to exist." And scientists right now are saying there there there's maybe something that maybe someone placed us there and they're figuring it out. And we just keep saying science is just catching up to faith. Like the more discoveries they're just figuring out, like the fin when they got the microscope, they're like, "Oh, this is going to be the clincher." And then they're like, "Why is this little strand so uniquely put together that it feels like it was written?" Let's just call it DNA.

You think it happened by chance? Absolutely not. You think every fingerprint happened by chance? Absolutely not. There's a reason why we're able to identify people by their DNA and by their fingerprints that no one else has or has ever had. It's because someone wrote you into existence.

From their counsel, you were created. And that's why John 1 1-4 puts it this way. where we like to where where where the world likes to say out of chaos came order. We know what we came out of that created the order. It's not chaos. We call it logos.

And this is what it says in John 1 1-4. In the beginning was the word. And that word is logos in the Greek. That's the word for it. In the beginning was logos. And the logos was with God.

And the logos was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. That's where we came from. We came from the counsel of God.

That's what we were created out of. Which means your life is not random chaos. It's under the same wise counsel that holds the universe together. And if Jesus's wisdom designed galaxies, he can handle your grief. He can. It's not too big for him.

If his counsel ordered the cosmos, he can order your next chapter. If he can speak light into darkness, he can speak light into your marriage, your anxiety, your weariness, your confusion about the world. Again, this child, this Jesus is a wonderful counselor. But how does he counsel us? That's a good question. I'm glad I asked it.

Jesus counsels the world through his word. He counsels the world through his word. He doesn't leave us guessing. He doesn't leave us trying to go on these random meditative journeys where we hope we find some some similarity of truth or some enlightenment experience in which we can come back and say, "I found my true self." No, no, no. He says, "I don't want you to leave it up to any chance.

I'm actually going to write it down for you. I'm going to package it together in 66 books written by more than 40 authors that were inspired by him to write his words down. So, it's actually not them just saying, "What do we think we should write?" It's dictated by them. God speaking and them recording over a span of 1500 years without any of it contradicting itself and actually over 63,000,000 cross references of one another in order to make sure that we as a humanity don't miss what God is wanting to reveal to us. That's what the Bible is all for.

That's what the word of God exists to do for us. Jesus didn't just create the world. He counseledled the world by giving us scripture. Tim Keller once said, "When you open the Bible, God's voice is as real as if you heard it audibly." Audibly. I remember one of my mentors when I was kind of wrestling through how do we hear from God?

How do we know God is speaking? How do I whether I'm praying? How do I know when God's going to answer my prayer? Like it would. And I remember saying to him, I was like, it'd be just so good. I mean, he's he's obviously infinitely powerful.

Why can't he just verbally speak to me and say, Dwayne, do this? And this is exactly what my mentor said. He goes, "Give me your Bible." And I said, "Okay, here's my Bible." And he said, "All right." He's speaking.

This is the exact same thing as him being to you. Read it. Literally, my message is manuscripted. What you're hearing me say right now is written to where I could send it to you and you could read it. And it's the same thing. It's the same thing whether you're hearing me say it or you're reading it.

That's what this is. I just would love to hear from God. Open your Bible. Open your Bible. That's how we hear and receive his counsel. If we're honest, this is where many of us struggle.

We treat scripture like it's just the recipe for life instead of it being the meal itself. Right? We have our life kind of figured out, but we don't know what should go first or how many ingredients should be put in. Well, let's just go to the Bible real quick and let's just see what the ingredients are. Let's let's help it be the recipe for our life that we've already put together for ourselves instead of realizing that this is the meal for our entire life. And what we need to do is instead of trying to get the Bible to match up with what our plans are, we need to get into it and get it into us so that it ultimately then shapes our plans, reorders our plans.

Because if we're being honest with ourselves, what we need to do is stop listening to all of these cliches that the world is giving us. Because what God does not give us are cliches or fortune fortune cookie wisdom like follow your heart. Follow your heart. You do you. Live your truth. I mean how many times have we heard that?

That's what every song is being sung right now. That's what every movie that's being produced right now. That's what every like that's what higher education is teaching us. I'm not saying that you shouldn't go to college, but I'm just saying that this is what they are saying is we don't know what's going on. And if we can't find it out there, maybe you can find it in here. So, just follow your heart.

Figure it out. I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong. And if I say anything about Jesus, they're going to say, "Jesus wasn't like that. Jesus was loving. Jesus was affirming of everybody. Jesus was caring.

Jesus was compassionate. Jesus was empathetic. He never came in and made someone feel uncomfortable. He never came in and and made someone feel guilty. He never came in and shamed anybody. Everything I just said, he did at the uh with the woman at the well.

And the crazy thing is that's the story they'll jump to. Look how compassionate Jesus is. Really, if that was today, Jesus is going to the woman at the well and and then posting all of her junk on social media saying she's got five affairs going on right now. But then also saying, "And I'm going to die for all of it so that you don't have to. Instead, I want you to live free from your belief that you need this. And I want you to walk in freedom.

And I want you to walk away from this lifestyle. And I want you to enjoy me and not what you think you're enjoying. That's actually lesser. And I want you to go and I want you to sin no more. He exposed what she thought was right but was wrong. And it actually so changed and transformed her life that what does she do?

She goes and wins a whole town by sharing Jesus with them. Not the other way around. If he just showed up and said, "You know what? It's okay. I understand times are hard. Money's hard.

You got to sell yourself. I get it." you know, just as you're on this journey figuring out your inner truth and who you truly are, I don't want to disrupt that in any way. I I want you to know that I'm here for you. I'm carrying. I love you.

Um just maybe when you hit rock bottom, come back and see me. That's not what he does. That's not what he does. He exposes and then he restores and redeems. I mean, when he shows up on the scene, the first counsel he gives in the sermon that he preaches is repent. Repent.

First word in his ministry is repent. And if you don't know what repent means, it means literally stop and start. Stop whatever you're doing. Stop whatever you're believing. Stop whatever you're thinking. Stop whatever actions you're doing.

Whatever it is, stop that and then follow me and start doing this. Repentance is a turning around. It's a stop living life your own way. Again, going back to the context of Isaiah, they were doing whatever they want to do that was right in their own eyes. And Isaiah is showing up on the scene and and and and as God is sending him to these people, unfortunately, what happens if you keep looking in in chapter six, he says, "Preach to them." them, but they're not going to understand.

He comes in actually telling them to repent, but they're going to continue on in their darkness. And unfortunately, that's what we're seeing happen in our world today. And that's why when we preach and when we show what Jesus has come to accomplish for us, we're going to keep doing that because even though there are going to be some who still walk in in their misunderstanding and still walk in confusion and still walk in in just their way of life that they think is right, there are still going to be some who feel the conviction in their heart and in their mind that yeah, you know what I do have this feeling that life could be better and I don't really know where that's coming from, but I know that I'm not fully satisfied in the way that things are going. And maybe there is more. And what I'm trying to tell you right now is that that more is Jesus alone. It's nothing that you're going to get from this world.

It's not more money. It's not a bigger family. It's not a nicer house. It's not a better job. None of those things are ever going to provide the satisfaction to where you feel like you've arrived and that you can rest. It's only in Jesus, the wonderful counselor, him showing up on the scene and saying, "Stop that.

My counsel for you is to start following me." And when that happens, all of a sudden now life is full. Your joy is full regardless of your circumstances because you've received the wonderful counselor. Again, his counsel is deeper. It's sharper. It's truer.

It's more lifegiving. He gives the kind of wisdom that doesn't just manage your schedule. It transforms your soul. And because we need God the Father to see that God the Son has truly transformed us, which leads us to the last one. Jesus is our counselor in the courtroom of God. Now, this is different than just giving advice.

This is an advocate. This is an advocate. This is the climax. This is where the wonderful counselor title hits its highest note. In bib in biblical Hebrew, a counselor was often just a legal advocate for another individual, a representative who stands beside you in court, a defense attorney for all you law and order fans. So when Isaiah calls Jesus wonderful counselor, he's pointing forward to a moment when you and I will stand before the judge of the universe.

And we will stand before him guilty, condemned, and without defense. Cuz what do we have to offer God to cover our sins, to cover our mistakes, to cover our rebellion? Well, I helped an old lady cross the road one time. Well, that's cute. Well, I, you know, I went on a mission trip one time. Okay.

Was your entire life mission? No. I gave some money one time. Okay. But how much money did you keep? Jesus, the wonderful counselor, doesn't just whisper legal advice in your ear saying, "Hey, here's what you should actually say.

Take the plea bargain and he'll shorten your sentence." No, no, no. That's not how it works here. He steps forward and he says, "Don't say anything. I'm going to speak on your behalf. Get behind me."

Father, put their charges on me. That's what Jesus says for those who have faith in him. He doesn't help you defend yourself. He becomes your defense. He doesn't argue why you're innocent. He declares that his righteousness has become yours.

There is no trying to balance the scales of justice. That's every other world religion. Every other world religion. As long as you do a little bit more good than the bad, you get in. Jesus is saying that's not how it works. It's not how it works.

The wages of sin is death. Not the wages of sin is matched with what you get in eternity in the sense of a balance. So if you've got, you know, 60% of your life was doing good things and 40% was doing bad things, well, you started with a hundred over here. So we're just going to take away 40% of your reward [snorts] and you'll get 60% of it. And so you got more than not. And so why don't you come go ahead and come on into heaven?

That's not how it works. It's not how it works. Instead, because of one sin, one sin. Through Adam, all of the world became sinners. That's why Romans 3:23 says that there is no one good, not one, no one righteous, no one pursuing God, no one searching for God. That's why again, you can go on those meditative yoga journeys or whatever they call them.

None of them are going to find God. None of them. Actually, what happens is it just leads you into deeper paths of demonic spiritual. Again, remember visible and invisible. It leads you into some crazy stuff that you don't want to figure out. You don't want to find what goes down that path.

And that's why because no one is searching for him, truly searching for him. Here I am. Send me. He pursues us. He comes to us. Emmanuel, God with us.

The incarnate Christ comes to us. He enters the domain of darkness as Colossians 1 says and it says he grabs us and then transfers us to the kingdom of the beloved son. It's a rescue mission and we are drowning in our sin. To be honest, we're already at the bottom of the lake dead. Dead. And he comes in and his counsel if it's got the ability to create everything, it's got the ability to breathe life back into dead.

And he resurrects us. And by faith, by faith we follow him. We trust him. By faith, Charles Spurgeon once said, "Christ stood condemned so that we could stand redeemed." Redeemed. You see, the courtroom is real.

This is not like a judge Judy session. All right? The courtroom is real. The judge is holy. The charges against us are true. Are true.

But the counselor, the wonderful counselor, our advocate, he continues to stand for you today. Today, that's why 1 John 2:1 says that right now at this very moment, for those who have faith in Jesus, for those who have repented and said, "I'm going to stop living for this world." And so, Jesus, you're the wonderful counselor. I'm going to follow you. I'm going to trust you. I'm going to surrender my life to you.

I'm going to bend my knee to you. I'm going to like because everyone's going to do that eventually. Every knee will bow before Jesus the King. But for those who bow their knee before that day, those who bow their knee now, First John 2:1 says, "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Here's what's happening every single day of your life right now is there is still an accuser and an advocate. And what the accuser is doing is it's actually not God who's accusing you.

Satan is an accuser who is coming to you every single day saying, "No, you don't deserve Jesus." Which is true. You don't deserve to get to heaven, which is true. You don't deserve righteousness, which is true. There's a famous, I say not famous, it's probably more underground, but there was a Shane and Shane song a long time ago that talks about the accuser and the accusations he makes. And the reality of everything that Satan accuses accuses us of is absolutely 100% true.

It's just he forgets the refrain. He forgets the end of the song is that God looks at us because of Jesus Christ. And if we have faith in him, trusting and following him, all those accusations, though they are right and correct, Jesus has taken them and placed them on himself and has become the accused, has become condemned, became our sin, and then resurrects us and grants us to be righteous, to go from sinners to saints. And so though Satan accuses us of continuing to be sinners who don't deserve, Christ stands then in our place and to the father the judge says, "Though the accusations are true, I have taken all of the punishment and the charges upon myself and I have then given them my righteousness. I have given them my goodness. I have given them every pure thought that I have ever had.

I have given them the status that I myself have which is a son of God. He has then given it to us to be sons and daughters of God. He then tells the father they are good to be adopted and you can now bring them home and they can be with you forever. And so the accusations fall short because we have a wonderful counselor who is advocating for us every single day. Every single day. And that's why you will never be lost from the hand of Jesus.

Because when Jesus is advocating, he never loses a case. He never loses a case. He's a wonderful counselor. And so what does Isaiah want us to feel from this? Awe, hope, relief, relief, rest. Joy is the season for joy.

You don't need to navigate life alone. You don't need to guess your way through suffering. You don't need to perform your way into righteousness. You just need to trust Jesus as the wonderful counselor, the eternal counselor, the counselor who created all things, the counselor who speaks through his word, the counselor who stands for you in heaven, and the counselor who came once as a child, but will one day come again as a king. As a king. As we come to our time of communion, communion is where the wonderful counselor stops being your advisor and becomes your advocate.

That's where this is played out. He doesn't just stand beside you in God's courtroom. He takes your guilt. He bears your punishment. And then he stands before the father saying this. their debt is paid.

Their sentence is served. You're free of all charges. And as Romans 8:1 tells us, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's straight from his word. And so you can hear that. I I want a word from the Lord today.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This week if you yelled at another family member, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If on the way back from Thanksgiving there was some road rage, y'all know how I feel about that. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you're walking in here this morning confused about whether or not you follow Jesus, right now is an opportunity for you to believe in Jesus so that there will be no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you have a family member or a co-orker, a friend, a neighbor, someone who you know right now, maybe they're still following the way of this world.

They're still like the context of Isaiah. They're just living in darkness and they don't know the light. They don't know the truth. They don't know the counsel that has come from eternity past. Right now, there's a word that you can take to them. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

If you're in the world, condemnation. But if you're in Jesus, none. None. Just meditate on that for a second. What does it feel like? What does it feel like to hear that in Jesus?

Anything you've ever done that's wrong, anything you've ever done that's hurt someone else, anything you've ever done that has been a sin or an outright rebellion against God, all of it is gone. And God does not condemn you. What is that well up in your soul right now? There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you want that to be true over you and you've never placed faith in Jesus, you've never believed him, you've never said, "Okay, he's told me to repent, so I'm going to stop doing this. I'm going to start following him and I want to do that today."

Hey, if you've never done that, if you've come with somebody or you know someone here, I want you to just talk to them and just say, "Hey, I want to follow Jesus. I want that spoken over me." That there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I want my debt paid. I want my sentence served. I want to be free of all charges.

If you all now turn your attention to the table again, communion is the place where the wonderful counselor presents his final, you know, at the end of every court case, there's always a final statement that's given on behalf of the accused. Communion is where we come together as a family of believers under one final statement that Jesus made before he breathed his last breath. And he spoke and said, "It is [music] finished. It is finished." In a world that is weary and exhausted, how good is it to hear that it is finished? It's finished.

Everything needed to be done and accomplished in order for us to be restored into relationship with God. Christ finished it. Finished it. There's nothing left for you to earn. It's done. Father, we thank you this