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Alright, so Isaiah chapter number seven, we're going to dig right in here. This is, there's events here now in these chapters that we're going to be dealing with for the next few chapters that are also dealt with in other passages in the Kings and Chronicles. So I'm going to spend a little bit of time this evening because this story takes place over multiple chapters. We're going to actually look at some of the other chapters. We're going to read a little bit here first and then kind of go back and look at some of the supporting scripture to help us just get a clear picture of what's going on during this time. I think it's always helpful to see from other passages to get the most clear picture you can of everything that's going on. Now obviously, there's even more places that we can turn to. I believe it's the book of Hosea takes place during about the same time as this does and also, what was the other one, I was just studying this yesterday, there's one of the other books that specifically mentions that it takes place during this time, especially during the time of Ahaz. So the kingdom of Ahaz, that's the time frame of Micah. That's what it was. It was during the book of Micah as well as Hosea. So if you're interested, read those books this week. Go through and read them. As we're going through Isaiah, you get yourself into the right time frame here. I mentioned from chapter one, there's four kings that reign during the time of Isaiah's prophecies. Now, we're already, though, kind of fast-forwarded all the way to the days of Ahaz. So in Isaiah chapter seven, verse number one, it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah. That reason the king of Syria and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it but could not prevail against it. So this is now starting the time frame. Of course, during this reign. And other prophets like Micah and Hosea, I think they might start during Isaiah but definitely they have a time of their prophecy during Ahaz as well. So you can read through those and you can start making connections with different events that are going on. But what's really interesting, and I've said this before, you know, when I preached on chapter one, how there's multiple good kings in here. Ahaz is a bad king. Ahaz is a king that did not follow the Lord. He goes down in history as being a wicked king. But the other three kings were recorded as being, you know, overall just good kings. They weren't bad, they weren't wicked. But even though those kings were good, the people were really, really wicked. The people were extremely wicked. And the more you read Isaiah, you read Micah, you read Hosea, you're going to see, like, man, the people were actually really wicked and really bad. So everything doesn't just depend on the spirituality of the person in charge of a country, right? Like, one of the things that we're going to learn, especially hopefully, I've reiterated this multiple times, you know, don't get hung up on who the political leadership is. Now, would to God, we'd have a godly political leadership, because when that's the case, you're going to be able to experience more freedom in general. But at the end of the day, they're not going to save you from God's judgment if you as a people are living wickedly. If we had the most libertarian, freedom-minded political leader that could possibly take the office of presidency, if we had Ron Paul and he, like, brought the government down to a more constitutional size and everything else, hey, that would be great, I would like to see that. But you know what? None of that would matter if our culture continues to go down this horrible, just reprobate type of direction that it's going in right now. And then, you know, that's not going to save us, right? God's still going to bring His judgment and He's still going to preach the doom and gloom through His prophets for the people to repent and warn of the judgment that's to come. Because that's exactly what we see. You read through the book of Isaiah, especially these early books, until we get later on, it's a lot of negative messages against the children of Judah and the children of Israel. So anyhow, I just want to bring that up again. So these are some of the things you learn at higher levels when you're starting to put everything together in the Bible and you start to see, really, everything that's going on. So I encourage you to look in those books, there's always too much to put into one sermon anyway. So anyhow, let's keep reading here Isaiah 7, verse number 2 of the Bible says, And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. So you have the, you know, the Syrians now have joined up with Ephraim, Ephraim's supposed to be, you know, of, you know, their brethren of Judah, right? But we know after the split of the kingdom, there's, there was different people who rose up and there's wars between Israel and Judah, there's some times that they were working together, and then other times, like we see here, where they're pitted against each other and we see now, we got Syria and Ephraim are yoking up together, it says, And his heart was moved in the heart of his people, as the trees of the water moved with the wind. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shear Jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field. And say unto him, Take heed and be quiet, fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of reason with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. So what, and I'm going to get into this a little bit more later, but what's really interesting about this too is that, I said before, Ahaz is a wicked king, yet we still see here that God is in charge, and we're going to see that later, that when God decides, No, no, no, I don't want this to come to pass, it's not going to come to pass. So another thing that we could take comfort in is that regardless of our leadership, right, if God wants something to happen, it doesn't matter who's in charge, because God ultimately is in charge. So we don't need to fret, we don't need to get upset, we don't need to worry and be anxious about all these things that can go out in the world that you have no control over anyways, right? We just need to stay focused on, Hey, we're going to serve the Lord, we're going to try to get other people to serve the Lord, we're going to go out and try to get people saved, we're going to try to get people baptized, we're going to try to make disciples and get people to follow and obey the commandments of the Lord, and just see how many more people we can get, and we can persuade, and we could have an impact on the people around us. That's all we can do. That's all we can do. There's no reason to worry and stress over all the things that you can't control. And at the end of the day, if God is going to do something, then He's going to do it. If He's going to allow things to happen, He's going to allow things to happen, if He's going to allow us to go into bondage, we're going to go into bondage. That is what it is. It'll be a result of judgment, but that's why all we can do is serve the Lord to the best of our abilities, and things are going to play out the way they play out. Which means you can have joy in your life, regardless of what's going on all around you. And truly, this is what, if you're at the camping trip, what Pastor Anderson was talking about when he mentioned that meme of the dog where everything's burnt, your house is burnt, everything's around him, and you're like, this is fine. Because when you're serving God, that's how, I mean, what else are you going to do? Right? We're going to be thankful, we're going to be content with what we have, we're going to serve the Lord, and it is what it is. There's a peace and a comfort with that, and with just trusting in God. Now turn back, if you would, to 2 Kings, chapter 15. And I'm going to try not to preach too much through these books, I just want to give the back story of where we jumped into here in Isaiah, chapter 7, because we kind of just jumped, you know, Isaiah is sequential, but we're just kind of popping in at different moments of time in history. So we're jumping in here with the reign of Ahaz, king of Judah. And we're going to see a little bit of the history of Israel first, in 2 Kings, chapter 15. The Bible says in verse number 23, in the 50th year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, began to reign over Israel in Samaria and reigned for two years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel a sin, but Pekah, the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him. So this is that mention of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, which is also being referenced in Isaiah, chapter 7, verse 1. So this is why we're going back here, so you can see a little bit about who is this guy, how did he become to be king of Israel, who is this person? It says here that when Pekahiah was reigning over Israel, he was only a king for two years, and then this is just one of his captains, this is someone that he had in charge, someone who was at a high level underneath him, but one of his subordinates conspired against him and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, with Argeb and Aria, and with him 50 men of the Gileadites, and he killed him and reigned in his room. So he basically just takes over the kingdom. That's who this guy is, he's someone who's just going to come in, and he takes over the kingdom and just says, well, I'm going to reign. And then it says in verse 26, and the rest of Acts of Pekahiah and all that he did, behold they are written in the book of Chronicles of kings of Israel. And in the two and fiftieth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah, the son of Remaliah, began to reign over Israel and Samaria and reign 20 years. So this is just the beginning of him starting to reign, obviously he reigned for 20 years, so in Isaiah 7, we're not at the beginning of his reign, it's probably closer to the end. But anyhow, just keep that in mind, we'll keep reading in verse number 28, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel a sin. In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, came Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, and took Ijon and Abel-Bithmaica and Genoa and Kadesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. And Hoshea, the son of Elah, made a conspiracy against Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and smote him and slew him and reigned in his stead in the 20th year of Jotham, the son of Uzziah. And the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. So Pekah's not a good guy, and it says in verse 32, in the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, began Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, to reign. Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Jerusha, the son of Zadok, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He did according to all that his father Uzziah had done, albeit the high places were not removed. The people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the Lord, and the rest of the acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. In those days the Lord began to send against Judah Reason, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah. Flip over to chapter 16 of 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 16, and we'll start reading verse number 5. Then Reason, king of Syria, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to war, and they besieged Israel. Now, before I even get into this, I just want to just real briefly, in the kings you have a little bit of jumping around, and you probably noticed that right there, because there's facts and statements that the Bible is making about, like, okay, he started reigning now, and he ended reigning here, and this is how he died and everything else, right? And it just says, like, basically as it can, but then it goes back now and it's starting to tell another story about them coming up against Jerusalem later on in the chapter. That happens a lot, so you just have to be paying attention when you're reading the Bible. Don't let it confuse you, all it is, and, you know, it's really not that complicated, the Bible's just trying to finish, like, complete thoughts, right? And then going back and describing other things in more detail, one of the most common problems that people will bring up, or atheists will bring up about the Bible and these critics of creation, is they'll bring up, like, you're like, oh, this contradiction in Genesis chapter 2, after, like, you know, Genesis 1 goes through all this creation, like, well, when were Adam and Eve actually created, what day were they created on, he already rested on seventh day, and now we're seeing Adam being formed out of the dust, you know, it's like, look, he went over the week of creation, and then goes back in a little bit further detail to give us more info on what happened on day six. Like, it's not that hard to understand, but these people want to try to bring up, make an issue out of nothing, because they just don't even understand how to read, ultimately, because if you have reading comprehension, you don't even have to be saved to have reading comprehension and understand that, yeah, you can have a section of time, complete thought, let's go back with a little bit more of a microscope and examine what happened more closely on a particular day or a particular time frame. That's what's going on here. So I just want to make mention of that, and I don't want anyone trying to shake your faith, and you know what, if you get a little bit confused, then just go back, reread it, and you know, write some things down. Just write it down, write down, okay, well, he started here, and just start writing down facts, and then you can see how they fit together, if it just sounds real confusing, right? You can take a person and say, okay, here's a person, I'm just going to write facts about him, here's another person, I'm going to write facts about this person, and then see how they fit together. And that'll help you, and it'll stay with you, it'll help you to know the people of the Bible more, and then when you're reading these stories, you won't be worried about being confused about those things, and you can start learning other things that the Bible's actually trying to teach, because you already got some of those basics down. Anyways, just, let's keep reading here, in 2 Kings 16, I'm going to reread verse number 5, the Bible says, then, Reason king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war, and they beseeched Ahaz, but could not overcome him. This is kind of the point where we're at in Isaiah chapter 7. I wanted to give how Pekah came into being king, and things like that, before we got into this, but this is more what Isaiah 7 is dealing with specifically, is Reason and Pekah joining up, yoking up, to war against Jerusalem, beseeching Ahaz, which means they surrounded the city to try to cut off the resources, and choke them out, and starve them out, but they weren't able to be successful with that, so they could not overcome him. Verse 6, at that time, Reason king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath, and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day, and this, I think, I can't remember, this is off the top of my head, this might be the first reference of the word Jews being used, I know it's pretty close to this area if it's not, because the Jews are being referred to those in Judah, not, you know, because obviously Israel and Syria are on the same team, and this is referring to the Jews, like the Jews from Judea, so, anyhow, side note, don't want to get distracted on that either. Verse 7, so Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pelisir, king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son, come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me, and Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria, and the king of Assyria hearkened unto him, for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Ker, and slew reason, so, we see here, Ahaz is completely just relying on an arm of flesh, he's not relying on the Lord, he doesn't worship the Lord, he's not a godly man, he's just, he's actually taking, you know, the silver and the gold out of God's house, out of the Lord's house, to try to pay off this guy to come and help him out, and we saw in 2 Kings 15 that this Tiglath-Pelisir, he comes and he conquers all kinds of cities from Israel, he takes a lot away from Israel, right, when they come to wage war against Jerusalem. Flip over to 2 Chronicles chapter 28, 2 Chronicles 28, and these are all just facts that you don't find in Isaiah 7, it's one of the reasons why I want to cover this, and we can see a little bit, get some insight into Ahaz, get the insight into Pekah, and, as well as reason. 2 Chronicles chapter 28, verse number 1, and this is basically the parallel to 2 Kings 15 and 16, 2 Chronicles 28, verse 1, by which Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, but he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord like David his father, for he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Balaam. Moreover, he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. So, I mean, we're really starting to understand, this isn't a good guy at all. I mean, he's doing these child sacrifices, as he sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. So this guy's a real piece of work, right? He's following just basically the ways of Israel, yet we're going to see that God still protects him, not because he has respect to Ahaz at all, but for his own purposes. And again, I'm going to get into that, and I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself here. Let's keep reading, verse number 5, the Bible reads, Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria, and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus, and he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter. For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. So there's a little bit of insight, too, on what Pekah the son of Remaliah did in Judah. It says he slew a hundred and twenty thousand valiant men. Again, I mean, those are like these tough warriors. That's a lot, especially for considering this is just for Judah, for Jerusalem, right? But this is what God does when you forsake him. And as we are going to see, and as we continue to read, you know, it wasn't just the king that was wicked, the people were wicked, too. Jump down to verse number 19 there in 2 Chronicles 28, the Bible says, For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord. And Tilgath-Pileser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not. For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the Lord, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria, but he helped him not. And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord. This is that king Ahaz, for he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him, and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Assyria helped them, therefore will I sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. And I'm not going to continue reading, but keep hearing, this is the guy, this is the king that conquered people, he won in a battle, and then decided to take their gods and serve them. They didn't help the people that were serving that false god, and now you're going to say, Oh, I'm going to build this altar now unto these gods. Like, you're an idiot. The god didn't even save his own people, and now you're going to pick up the torch for that god, for that false god? You know, it's ridiculous, obviously that makes God angry and God judges him for that, but to me it's just kind of stupid. But you know, people have these weird ideas when you don't know who God is. I mean, it's just all kinds of bizarre ideas about God that are just illogical and make no sense without just understanding who the Lord is and worshiping Him. Our God is a God of truth, which is why He makes sense, because it's true, it's real, it's reality. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 7, I didn't want to spend too much time on that, but I kind of want to just get more of the background of what's going on here. Isaiah chapter 7. So I'm going to reread verse number 4, we read that already, but it says, And say unto him, Take heed and be quiet. So this is Isaiah speaking to Ahaz, King Ahaz, a wicked King Ahaz, we saw a lot about who he is and what he did. So God's message to Ahaz is, Take heed and be quiet, fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tales of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of reason with Syria and the son of Remaliah, because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have taken evil counsel against these, saying, Let us go up against Judah and Vexit, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel. So their plan, Syria, Ephraim, and Remaliah, was to go in, conquer Jerusalem, and then set up their own king. Like, well, we just want to have someone else ruling this area, and they could be confederate with us, and then we could just, you know, have more power and build our kingdom or whatever that we're, they're all working together. So their plan was to set up a new king in Jerusalem. Verse 7 says, Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. So God's saying, Nope. Nope. And in the house of Judah, you know, God had made promises for the king, right, for David and for his line to reign over Judah. And throughout that whole kingdom, you see, like, in Israel, there's different people taking over and conspiring, and they become king, and then some other person of another tribe comes and becomes king, right? After Jeroboam and some Nebat, it was not this perfect succession of a kingly line. It was taken over by force from different people, Omri, Zimri, you had all these other kings that came into power and just took it by force, whereas in Judah, you still had the house of David, the lineage of David, that was continuing to reign. And I think that's one of the reasons why God just foiled their plans. He said, No. No. Even though Ahaz is wicked, he's going to be judged, there's going to be another king that's going to come up after him, and God's deciding it's not time for this judgment to come upon Judah yet. Obviously they're going to end up being taken captive and going to Babylon and everything else, but God says, No. It's not going to happen now. It's going to happen in his timing. So he foils the plans. Verse number 8 says, For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is reason. And within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. So he's saying, You know what? Their plans aren't going to stand. He's saying, Actually, within 65 years, Ephraim's just going to be so completely broken that they're not even going to be like a nation, they're not even going to be a people anymore. You don't have to worry about them at all as being a power. I mean, think about that, just knowing that there's this strong people, they've got a group of people, a nation or a state or whatever you want to call it, right? Within 65 years, they're just going to be decimated, it's going to be like nothing. They're going to be a byword, nothing at all to worry about. They're not going to be a people. Verse number nine, and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Ramaliah's son. And I love this verse here, If you will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Obviously you can take that verse and apply it so many ways, right? I mean, even just our own salvation, hey, if you're not going to believe, you're not going to be established, right? We have to believe, we have to put our faith in the rock, in that foundation, that Jesus Christ, and that's going to establish you and build you. But even in this sense, he's saying, you know, because obviously it's a great passage, but even here in context, he's just saying, look, I'm telling you the future. I'm telling you what's going to happen, but hey, if you're not going to believe, if you're not going to trust me, if you're not going to rely on me, if you're not going to understand and just be able to walk by faith, that Ephraim's not even going to be a people, and do what I say, then you're not going to be established. And Ahaz doesn't believe in him, and we see him just going off and running off and depending on other kings. Verse 10 says, Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, ask it either in the depth or in the height above. Now this is incredible, God's giving Ahaz this great chance, he's saying, look, just believe and you'll be established, and I'll even grant you a sign. Isaiah's bringing this great testimony to Ahaz, and he's saying, just ask a sign. You want proof? You want proof that the Lord is going to protect you? That he's already prophesied that Ephraim's going to cease to be a people after 65 years? You want to understand? Just ask a sign. What do you want to see? You come up with it, and God will do it. But Ahaz, the fake humility of Ahaz, says in verse 12, But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. Well, I'm not going to tempt the Lord. I'm not going to tempt God. Look, you're being told to ask so that God can show himself powerful, and you're not doing it. The Bible says that an evil, wicked generation seeketh after a sign, but this isn't a generation seeking after a sign. This is God saying, hey, I'm going to give you a sign. You tell me what you want. There's a huge difference there. This is God saying, no, I'm going to do something. Now you tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it. That's not just someone going, oh no, we need to see a sign from you, and like the wicked Jews who weren't believing on Christ, even though he did so many signs and miracles and wonders, they still weren't believing on him, and they're saying, oh, well, what sign do you show us? You know, Moses gave us manna from heaven. What sign? Are you blind? And yeah, the answer to that is yes, they were. They were very blind. That's exactly why they didn't see, because God had hardened their hearts, and they were blind. And I went over that last week, so if you didn't hear Isaiah chapter 6, go back and listen to that sermon. It's a very important doctrinal sermon. So he answers, well, I'm not going to test God. Verse 13, and he said, hear ye now, O house of David. Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? So this is his response saying, like, you know, it's a small thing for you to weary men, right? You don't want to place any big burden on men, but are you going to weary God? Do you think you're going to tire God out? Do you think you're going to say something that's going to be, oh, man, that's too hard for God to do? I don't want God to have to work. It's God. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Are you going to weary my God also? Like, who do you think you are? Oh, you're going to cut God some slack? What's really interesting, keep your place here, too, because there's another passage in 2 Kings. 2 Kings, chapter 20. And this is just kind of a cool little nugget, they'll call it a nugget, right? It's nothing that's going to, you know, change your life forever. This isn't that type of piece of truth that you're going to be keeping with you till the day you die, man, like, I'm glad Pastor Burson showed me this because it really changed my life forever. But maybe it will be, I don't know. Maybe you'll find some more truth and meaning into this than I'm going to preach. But I think what's really cool about this is there's another time where God is basically asking someone to, you know, hey, I'm going to show you a sign. So what do you want to see for the sign here? And this is with Hezekiah. And Hezekiah comes not that much after Ahaz, right, Hezekiah's reign. In 2 Kings, chapter 20, verse number 9, the Bible says, and Isaiah said, this sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He has spoken. So God's trying to prove, like we just saw in Isaiah 7, He's saying, look, don't worry about these people, they're coming against you, don't be afraid, don't be afraid of all the rumors of them coming and trying to establish another king, don't worry about it. In fact, in 65 years, Ephraim's not even going to be a people, you don't have to worry about them, don't worry about it. And he says, just ask me, I'll prove it to you, I'll prove to you that I'm going to do these things. Well, now he's doing essentially the same thing with Hezekiah. You know, Hezekiah was a good king, Hezekiah feared the Lord, and Hezekiah takes him up on this, and he says, you know, that the thing that the Lord will do the thing which He had spoken. He said, just, what do you want? I'll show it to you, just to prove to you that I'm going to do the things that I'm telling you I'm going to do. Shall the shadow go forward 10 degrees or back 10 degrees? Now, the shadow, he's talking about a sundial, right, because that's how I used to tell time before we had all the pocket watches and digital and everything else. You set up the sun, you all know what a sundial is, right, so depending on where the sun is in the sky, the shadow will tell you what time of day it is. So basically, he's asking, do you want the shadow to go down 10 degrees or back or forward, so do you want it to get, you know, later by 10 degrees, or do you want it to get earlier in time by 10 degrees? And I love what Hezekiah does here, because he doesn't think anything is too hard, he's not going to weary God, he actually wants to tell you, okay, Hezekiah answered, it is a light thing for the shadow to go down 10 degrees, you know what, it's not that big of a deal if it just gets a little bit later, a little bit faster, right, like if it just, now obviously they're both, they're both like, say equally miracles, you know, you can't just go, like boom, now it's just that much later. But since that's the progression of time, like going that direction, he's like, I don't have to go the other way, let's go backwards in time, right, let's go back in time. This is the original Back to the Future, right, going back to 2 Kings, he said, let the shadow return backward 10 degrees, and Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow 10 degrees backward by which it had gone down, look at this, in the dial of Ahaz. There you go, Ahaz, there's a testament to you, that sundial that you erected, that the sundial of Ahaz, you didn't want to weary the Lord, but Hezekiah's doing it and God's proving it on your sundial. I thought that was pretty cool, because it's, like why else would it reference the dial of Ahaz, except for the fact that Ahaz, he doesn't want to tempt God, he doesn't want to weary God and have God do any miracles for him. But now of course, going back to Isaiah chapter 7, we have this very famous passage, how God is going to perform miracles anyways, see God's wanting to show Himself strong, and Ahaz is just not going to allow it, he's answering just with no when God's ready to show Himself strong in a people. So God decides, we know it, I am going to show it, I am going to give you a sign. Verse 14, therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. No, you're not going to choose a sign, well I'm going to give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Awesome foreshadowing. The book of Isaiah is going to be great, I mean we're just getting started, we're in chapter 7, there's so many prophecies that are referenced, scriptures that are referenced back in the New Testament, so we're going to get an opportunity to see these, and actually if you will, keep your place here of course and flip over to Matthew chapter 1, and we're going to see this reference, and there's so much that we can learn from quotations in the New Testament from the Old Testament, okay, and if you want to learn good doctrine, it's not what this sermon is about, but here's a little piece of information, if you want to understand how God feels about translations of His word, we can get it from His word itself, because the Old Testament was recorded in Hebrew language, and the New Testament in Greek, by and large, right, I know it was Aramaic, but whatever, but when you have quotes then in the New Testament quoting the Old Testament, and both of them are translated into English for us, you're going to find time and time again that the quotes are not word for word, every single word exact matches, way more often than not, they're not identical every single word for word is exactly the same, well did they misquote the Bible? No, no they didn't misquote the Bible, well why is it like that, because those were the words, the Greek was translated exactly the way it was supposed to be, exactly the way it was written, that is translated, those were the words that were used, the Hebrew likewise, when it's translated into English, those were the words that were used, that's what those words mean, that's what the translation is, they were both acceptable and right in English, but then why aren't they word for word, because God's showing us, now look, don't get me wrong here, because I believe that every word of God is true, and every word of God is important, and I believe in every word of God, and when we do our Bible memory, it's every word of God, but here's the thing, is that when it comes to God's word, and you see synonyms used, God didn't have a problem with those being the quotations from the Old Testament to the New Testament, that there was no problem when the Bible said here, we're going to see, and this is an important truth, obviously I think there's things that we could learn from this, and there's even more reason, there could be even greater reasons why the, you know, the New Testament quotes were spoken the way they were, to give us some extra teaching and knowledge, and I think one of those reasons is because of the fact that if you have a translation of God's word, that literally, you know, the perfect example would be eternal versus everlasting, that mean exactly the same thing, I'm not saying there's a reason to switch it, but if, you know, we've seen time and time again between the Old Testament and the New Testament, that when that happened, it's still considered God's word. Now obviously, you don't just go and say, whoa, well, let's see what we could change, because what would be the point of that? There is no reason to do that at all, and you don't want to mess with something that's already been done, and it works, and it's great, and it's perfect, not just good, I mean, it's right. But to get so hung up on, you know, on people who even would say that that's a possibility if our language were to change enough to warrant, well, we need to have this right in the common language, that's ridiculous, and we can have the Bible teach us itself. I mean, are you going to say that Matthew was wrong, because here's a, let's read it, you're in Matthew chapter 1, I'm going to reread, Isaiah 7 14, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Is that right? Is that a right translation? I believe it is, it's in English. Matthew 1 22, now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, now this is a claim in the book of Matthew that the Lord spake by the prophet, the prophet Isaiah, and said these words, Behold, a virgin shall be with child. But Isaiah 7 14 says, Behold, a virgin shall conceive. Well, one of them must be wrong then. No, no, no, one of them doesn't have to be wrong, but they use different words, they sure did. But the quote on that passage is, say, that's what God said, that's what God said. He said, this is what God said. You can't get away from that, this is what the Lord said. Because that is what he said, because conceiving and being with child are the same thing. Now obviously we could learn, and I thank God that he did that. That when holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost to give us Matthew 1 23, everything can still be correct. Now some people say, oh, well, the reason he did that, because God can do that, and this is God's word, and Matthew 1 23 is this, and Isaiah 7 14 says that, and they're both just God's word because God's the one that said it. But my point is, Matthew 1 22 is saying that's what God said, that this is what God said, when clearly it says, the actual word for word says something different. Now it's not different, but there's different words being used. So you know that tells me that there is a level of acceptance with God when you're going to quote Scripture and attribute a quote to God saying that this is what God said, well, that's acceptable. And I think we could also use that with translations, because these are both translations. This is a translation from the Hebrew into Greek. Where are we going to get a standard from if not from the translation found in the New Testament of the Old Testament? I mean, you want translational standards that are biblical, how about we go to the Bible for those translation standards? I mean, don't be afraid, because look, I love the King James Bible. I do. It's the Word of God. I stand on it, and I'm not advocating any changes to the Bible at all. I don't think they're necessary. We don't need to have them. But people will have a tendency to take things too far. You have to ask yourself, what were people using before 1611? Did God's Word exist before 1611? Yes, it did. Yes, it did. You better believe it did. And you didn't have to have, well, only in the original Hebrew it did. No, God's Word has existed in other languages as well since that time. Now, there's no reason to go to anything else. 1611, KJV, I mean, that's an excellent, I mean, that's the Word of God. It's perfected. It's gone through. It's been purified seven times. It's this great work. And God used those people, and God has preserved His Word. And we don't need to look anywhere else. But God's Word has existed prior to that as well. And if there was a translation in English that said something slightly different, you can still call that the Word of God. If you use a different word. How about this? Like in the Tyndale version, right, which the King David Bible is revising, because the King David Bible wasn't just 100% all its own work. It's a revision of previous works that were done before. The translators were working. Yes, they did translating, but they were using work and, you know, using the work that had been done prior to their work. Definitely. Definitely, you know, looking at and working with what they had to work with prior to them. And my mind just went blank. And yeah, the Tyndale, so the word Passover is a new word in English that was created. And it was transliterated into English. So you know what word they used to use? Easter. Easter. And in the translations leading up to the King James Bible, the word Easter was used way more often until the King James Bible was only used one time. And it's not an error either. See, other people want to say, oh, that's an error, shouldn't use Easter. But you can't say that those other versions were wrong when using that word when the word didn't even exist. When Tyndale's the one who actually created the word and started introducing it, because it's a good word. I mean, it makes a lot of sense. It's a perfect transliteration of the Pascha. I'm probably not pronouncing that right, but that's where the word came from. But Passover, that's what it means. It's what the underlying word means. It just didn't exist in English, and now it does, and being used. But that Easter meant the same thing. And that's also how we know that it's not just based off of this pagan thing and everything else, because that's not how it was used. It's not how it was being used at all. That wasn't how it was understood to be meant for any reason. Christ was referred to as the Easter lamb, where now we're looking at the Passover lamb. Anyhow, let's get back into looking at this passage, because that's one lesson we could learn over and over again in Scripture. You see that happening, where there's slight differences, and it's not word-for-word, and we don't have to worry about that, because it is exactly the same thing. But what I love about this passage also, though, is that it does teach us that a virgin conceiving is being with child, because that has been under attack now for a long time with the abortions. We say, well, when someone's pregnant, I mean, you've got idiots that'll say that, well, someone doesn't really become a person until they breathe their first breath. That's the ruckmanite, retard position of trying to justify abortions and whatever else, whatever kind of wickedness, saying that, oh, that's not really a person until they're born, until they're born out of the womb. Are you crazy? Being referred to with child, it means you have a child in your womb. That's a child. There's a person, there's a real human being inside there, and that's a child, being with child, that's a child from conception, and even the scripture will define what it means to conceive, because guess what? It's not, conceiving isn't implantation. Conceiving is a moment, and you can get this from Hebrews 11, if you want to turn to Hebrews 11. A person, a woman, a woman, yeah, I'm using genders appropriately, because only women can get pregnant, and women can give birth, and women, you know, it's only women that can do that. Some real hard preaching for you. It's crazy. Conception, conceiving, happens when the seed of the woman and the seed of the man come together. That's conception. That's being with child. Hebrews 11, verse 11 says, through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed. So that word conceive, the conception is the conceiving of the seed, because after that point the seed no longer exists. The seed of the man, no, it's formed into something new at that point. You can, you know, once that union happens, you're no longer referring to the seed as something separate. The seed, the egg, right, that's no longer something separate. That conception makes, that's that new life, and that's when you have a child. That's when the child is formed in the womb. Now obviously it continues to be formed and fashioned, and from that moment then, after that moment is when, you know, the implantation happens, and you do as well, and starts to grow, and get more sustenance up, but see people want to try to find these loopholes, because they want to lay with people like they're married, and they're not married, and they don't want to have the consequences of having that type of relationship of actually, you know, having children. Oh, what am I going to do now? Oh, I'm not prepared for this. Oh, well then, what are you doing hollering around then? So they want to get rid of it. They want to kill the child, and they want to justify it in their own mind, saying, oh, well it wasn't really a child. I'm sorry, if you believe the Bible, if you call yourself a Christian, you believe the Word of God, these passages prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that once you conceive, you are with child, and no, taking the morning-after pill, hey, if that conception has taken place, and you take that morning-after pill, you've murdered your child. So all it's doing is not allowing the implantation to take place. It's not really a child yet. Yes, it is, because once that seed is conceived, that's a child. That is a child, and if you are doing things to murder your child, then you're a murderer. Plain and simple. And I know that there are tons of women in the world today that have had abortions, and it doesn't change the truth. It's murder. It's murder. And there's nothing more selfish than ending someone else's life because, oh, it's going to cause you problems. Oh, I'm not ready for it. Oh, I need more money. Oh, I don't love this person. Whatever. Wicked as hell. I'm making it now so you have no opportunity to lie to yourself. You can't deceive yourself. It's a child. Child from birth, from conception. So if you're going to do anything to get rid of that child, that's on you. I didn't know. People have made mistakes and done things, and you know what? It's no less wicked. It is still wicked. But now you know. If you didn't know before, you know now. You know now. And for anyone who's guilty of that, you need to get on your face if you haven't already and confess your sin to God and beg Him for mercy and never even think about doing that again. Conceiving is being with child. Conception. You don't wait till they're born. It's not at nine months. It's not at six months. It's not at three months. It's at second one. Millisecond one. At union. Conception. That's it. From then on, with child. Not with fetus. Not with blastocyst. Not with child. It's a child. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 7. Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Verse 14. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name Immanuel. And I didn't read this in Matthew chapter 1 because I started going on in the translations and such. Behold, a virgin shall be a child shall bring forth a son and they shall call His name Immanuel which being interpreted is God with us. So just that word Immanuel by itself, that name means God with us. So what a great prophecy all the way back in the book of Isaiah saying hey there's gonna be a virgin. Virgin hasn't known a man that's going to conceive and actually give birth to a son and that son is going to be God with us. Now you want to talk about trying to figure out well what's the Word of God? Where is the Word of God? How about you go to the book that prophesied hundreds of years before the event and has irrefutably been part of scripture and history and written history. Wasn't gone back and added later and oh this event happened now we're gonna predate and write this back into history as if this was written hundreds of years earlier. Prophesied such a critical event in human history that a virgin was was able to conceive and bring forth a son and it's God with us because that's who Jesus Christ is. Proven so many ways in scripture. It's prophesied. Prophesies came true. It's from God. Let's keep reading here Isaiah 7 verse number 15. Butter and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. Now real quickly on this just on this one passage you know one of the best ways to spot things that are bad and identify bad things is to just know and engulf yourself in what's good. When you really know what's good and you know it really well you'll be able to spot the bad. You'll be able to spot the frauds a lot easier. So you want to you know if you wanted to spot counterfeit money you know you're gonna do you're gonna study real money and you're gonna know it in and out and you're study it because then and because if you if you spend your time trying well I'm gonna study and try to find all the frauds out there there's always gonna be new frauds you're gonna have endless possibilities you're never gonna learn all of those but if you spend your time learning the right one the right thing then no matter what it is you should be able to spell wait that's wrong that's wrong because I know what looks right it's the same thing with the gospel with Jesus with God you don't need to study every other false religion in order to answer the question look if you just know the right one really well you'll be able to spot all the falsehoods and all the lies and all the deception out there because you know what's right really really well you study the Word of God and you study this and you know this people come at you with false doctrine you can be like well I say that doesn't sound right because I know the truth because I know what's right that's gonna help you to refuse the evil and choose the good so yeah the butter and the honey those are good things and I don't care what fad comes along and all butters bad for you because he's got these bad look Jesus Christ was fed butter and honey that he might know to refuse evil and choose the good that's why it's butter or margarine you know I stand on that get that margarine away from me I can't believe it's not butter I can I can believe it okay it's not anything like butter it's not I had that growing up a little squirt it's not butter okay you get yourself some of that that carry gold butter and then you get that little squirt bottle and you tell me you don't taste the difference all right if you tell me there's no difference you're lying or there's something you have COVID or something seriously wrong and you can't taste anything anyways okay this I think this is a great teaching you know when you know when you know what's right in your in your in your given what's right you don't need to worry but you'll be able to spot everything else that's wrong because you know what's right verse 16 for before the child shall know to refuse evil and choose a good the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings the Lord shall bring upon thee and upon thy people and upon thy father's house days that have not come from the day of that Ephraim departed from Judah even the king of Assyria and it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria and they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys and in the holes of the rocks and upon all thorns and upon all bushes in the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired namely by them beyond the river by the king of Assyria the head and the hair of the feet and it shall also consume the beard so God not there's all this prophecy now the judgment that's going to come on these nations right cuz he's contained this is don't forget this we jumped around a lot but he's continuing to tell a has not to worry right because he asked for the sign is you know I'm gonna give you a sign and he goes on about the prophecy of Jesus Christ but now he's still going further to say hey look you know the Assyrians they're coming in and cause all this trouble that they're gonna be ashamed so when it says a razor is gonna come on them beyond the river the king of Assyria the head the hair of the feet and the beard so like like all of that just being taken away is is putting the Assyrians to shame right so that razor just coming like I'm just gonna take this razor and and and you know shave off all their all their hair basically is kind of putting them in a state of shame verse number 21 it shall come to pass in that day that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep and it shall come to pass for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter for butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the land so it's basically saying hey when you're left you know being left in land God's gonna still bring you a blessing and even when the captivity comes to like there's the people who remain in blessed and God bless the people that were left in the land and and kept on promising hey there's a blessing don't go into Egypt after Babylon came don't don't don't go and be scared and don't you know like just stay here and I'll bless you and and again we see butter and honey being a blessing so again don't tell me about your diets that that are gonna exclude butter and honey because the Bible says that they're good verse 23 and it shall come to pass in that day that every place shall be where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings it shall even be for briars and thorns so this is a curse right on the the wealth of the thousand vines and being just becoming briars and thorns verse 24 with arrows and with bows shall men come thither because all the land shall become briars and thorns and on all hills that shall be digged with the matic there shall not come to the fear of briars and thorns but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen for the treading of lesser cattle so you got someplace being being blessed and someplace being cursed and I'm gonna go more in depth this kind of leads into chapter 8 so I'm gonna deal with that next week we kind of ran out of time anyways but let's borrow that word of prayer your heavenly Father Lord we thank you so much for this passage we thank you for all that we can learn in Isaiah God I pray that you please help us to maintain good doctrine that we would have solid doctrine on all variety of issues dear Lord and you know maybe some of the things I said tonight especially about the preservation of your words you know might have rubbed people the wrong way or they've been they've been taught a certain way Lord and at the end of the day you know it doesn't matter to me I just want to know the truth and I think we can get what's true and what's right directly from your word and that these small minor differences are when there's not an exact word for word in English of these quotations Lord that we don't have to worry about them not being the Word of God or being corrupted somehow dear Lord because we know that you promise to preserve your words and since we know that and since you've kept your promise then we're gonna learn from that and from how you've kept your words dear Lord so that we can have proper standards and and know what's right and God we love you and I pray that you would please just increase our wisdom and our knowledge and help us to just do our best and in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation dear Lord we love you Jesus name we pray amen