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The sermon grounds Christ’s title “Counselor” in His deity, equality with the Father, and participation in the eternal counsel of the Trinity. God’s sovereign decree encompasses creation, providence, grace, and the predestination of His people, while Christ reveals these purposes through His person and saving work. Assurance of election is presented pastorally: sinners should not speculate about the hidden decree but come to Christ in repentance and faith. Christ is also portrayed as the wise, loving, and sympathetic Counselor who guides believers, sustains the afflicted, corrects ambition, and calls the weary to Himself for rest.
Theological center: Jesus Christ is the divine Counselor, fully sharing the eternal counsel of the Triune God and revealing God’s sovereign purposes in creation, providence, and salvation.
Applications: Look to Christ for assurance · Seek Christ’s counsel · Come to Christ for rest · Christ reveals eternal counsel
Primary texts: Isaiah 9:6 · Ephesians 1:11 · 1 Timothy 1:15
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor.” Isaiah 9:6 LAST Sabbath morning we considered the first title, “His name shall be called Wonderful.” This morning we take the second word, “Counsellor.” I need not repeat the remark that, of course, these titles belong only to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we cannot understand the passage except by referring it to Messiah—the Prince. It was by a counselor that this world was ruined. Did not Satan mask himself in the serpent and counsel the woman with exceeding craftiness, that she should take unto herself of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the hope that thereby she should be as God? Was it not that evil counsel which provoked our mother to rebel against her Maker, and did it not as the effect of sin, bring death into this world with all its train of woe? Ah! beloved, it was meet that the world should have a Counselor to restore it, if it had a counselor to destroy it. It was by counsel that it fell, and certainly without counsel it never could have arisen. But mark the difficulties that surrounded such a Counselor. ’Tis easy to counsel mischief, but how hard to counsel wisely! To cast down is easy, but to build up how hard. To confuse this world and bring upon it all its train of ills was an easy thing. A woman plucked the fruit and it was done. But to restore order to this confusion, to sweep away the evils which brooded over this fair earth— this was work indeed, and “Wonderful” was that Christ who came forward to attempt the work, and who in the plentitude of His wisdom has certainly accomplished it, to His own honor and glory, and to our comfort and safety. We shall now enter upon the discussion of this title which is given to Christ—a title peculiar to our Redeemer. And you will see why it should be given to Him and why there was a necessity for such a Counselor. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ is a Counselor in a three-fold sense. First, He is God’s Counselor. He sits in the cabinet council of the King of heaven. He has admittance into the privy chamber and is the Counselor with God. In the second place, Christ is a Counselor in the sense which the Septuagint translation appends to this term. Christ is said to be the angel of the great council. He is a Counselor in that He communicates to us on God’s behalf what has been done in the great council before the foundation of the world. And thirdly, Christ is a Counselor to us and with us, because we can consult with Him, and He do…