“God With Us”

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, DECEMBER 26, 1875,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"They shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God
with us." Matthew 1:23.

THOSE words, "being interpreted," salute my ear with much sweetness.
Why should the word, "Emmanuel," in the Hebrew, be interpreted at all?
Was it not to show that it has reference to us Gentiles and, therefore,
it must be interpreted into one of the chief languages of the then
existing Gentile world, namely, the Greek? This, "being interpreted,"
at Christ's birth and the three languages employed in the inscription
upon the Cross at His death, show that He is not the Savior of the Jews
only, but also of the Gentiles.

As I walked along the wharf at Marseilles and marked the ships of all
nations gathered in the port, I was very much interested by the
inscriptions upon the shops and stores. The announcements of
refreshments or of goods to be had within were not only printed in the
French language, but in English, in Italian, in German, in Greek and
sometimes in Russian and Swedish. Upon the shops of the sail makers,
the boat builders, the ironmongers, or the dealers in ship supplies,
you read a mixture of announcements setting forth the information to
men of many lands. This was a clear indication that persons of all
nations were invited to come and purchase, that they were expected to
come and that provision was made for their peculiar needs.

"Being interpreted" must mean that different nations are addressed. We
have the text put first in the Hebrew, "Emmanuel," and afterwards it is
translated into the Gentile tongue, "God with us," "being interpreted,
"that we may know that we are invited, that we are welcome, that God
has seen our needs and has provided for us, and that now we may freely
come, even we who were sinners of the Gentiles and far off from God!
Let us preserve with reverent love both forms of the precious name and
wait the happy day when our Hebrew Brethren shall unite their,
"Emmanuel," with our, "God with us."

Our text speaks of a name of our Lord Jesus. It is said, "They shall
call His name Emmanuel." In these days we call children by names which
have no particular meaning. They are the names, perhaps, of father or
mother, or some respected relative, but there is no special meaning, as
a general rule, in our children's names. It was not so in the olden
times. Then names meant something. Scriptural names, as a general rule,
contain teaching and especially is this the case in every name ascribed
to the Lord Jesus. With Him names indicate things. "His name shall be
called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace," because He really is all these.

His name is called Jesus, but not without a reason. By any other name
Jesus would not be so sweet, because no other name could fairly
describe His great work of saving His people from their sins. When He
is said to be called this or that, it means that He really is so. I am
not aware that anywhere in the New Testament our Lord is afterwards
called Emmanuel. I do not find His Apostles, or any of His disciples,
calling Him by that name literally. But we find them all doing so in
effect, for they speak of Him as, "God manifest in the flesh." And they
say, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of Grace
and truth."

They do not use the actual word, but they again interpret and give us
free and instructive renderings while they proclaim the sense of the
august title and inform us in many ways what is meant by God being with
us in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a glorious fact, of
the highest importance, that since Christ was born into the world, God
is with us! You may divide the text, if you please, into two
portions–"GOD," and then, "GOD WITH US." We must dwell with equal
emphasis upon each word.

Never let us, for a moment, hesitate as to the Godhead of our Lord
Jesus Christ, for His Deity is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian
faith. It may be we shall never fully understand how God and Man could
unite in one Person, for

who can, by searching, find out God? These great mysteries of
godliness, these "deep things of God," are beyond our measurement. Our
little skiff might be lost if we ventured so far out upon this vast,
this infinite ocean, as to lose sight of the shore of plainly revealed
Truth.

But let it remain as a matter of faith that Jesus Christ, even He who
lay in Bethlehem's manger and was carried in a woman's arms, and lived
a suffering life and died on a malefactor's cross, was, nevertheless,
"God over all, blessed forever," "upholding all things by the word of
His power." He was not an angel–that the Apostle has abundantly
disproved in the first and second chapters of the Epistle to the
Hebrews–He could not have been an angel, for honors are ascribed to
Him which were never bestowed on angels. He was no subordinate Deity or
was elevated to the Godhead, as some have absurdly said–all these
things are dreams and falsehoods.

He was as surely God as God can be, One with the Father and the
ever-blessed Spirit. If it were not so, not only would the great
strength of our hope be gone, but as to this text the sweetness would
be evaporated altogether. The very essence and glory of the Incarnation
is that He was God who was veiled in human flesh. If it were any other
being who thus came to us in human flesh, I see nothing very remarkable
in it, certainly nothing comforting. That an angel should become a man
is a matter of no great consequence to me. That some other superior
being should assume the nature of man brings no joy to my heart and
opens no well of consolation to me.

But, "God with us," is exquisite delight! "GOD with us"–all that,
"GOD," means–the Deity, the Infinite Jehovah with us! This, this is
worthy of the burst of midnight song when angels startled the shepherds
with their carols, singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will to men." This was worthy of the foresight of seers and
Prophets, worthy of a new star in the heavens, worthy of the care which
Inspiration has manifested to preserve the record. This, too, was
worthy of the martyr deaths of Apostles and confessors who counted not
their lives dear unto them for the sake of the Incarnate God.

And this, my Brothers and Sisters, is worthy, at this day, of your most
earnest endeavors to spread the glad tidings! It is worthy of a holy
life to illustrate its blessed influences and worthy of a joyful death
to prove its consoling power. Here is the first Truth of our holy
faith–"Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, God was
manifest in the flesh." He who was born at Bethlehem is God, and, "God
with us." God–there lies the majesty! "God with us"– there lies the
mercy. God–there is glory! "God with us"–there is Grace! God alone
might well strike us with terror, but, "God with us," inspires us with
hope and confidence!

Take my text as a whole and carry it in your bosoms as a bundle of
sweet spices to perfume your hearts with peace and joy. May the Holy
Spirit open to you the Truth of God and the Truth of God to you. I
would joyfully say to you in the words of one of our poets–

"Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the Incarnate Deity! Pleased as
man with men to appear, Jesus our Immanuel here."

First, let us admire this Truth of God. Then let us consider it more at
length. And after that let us endeavor personally to appropriate it.

I. LET US ADMIRE THIS TRUTH OF GOD. "God with us." Let us stand at a
reverent distance from it as Moses when he saw God in the bush stood a
little back and took his shoes off, feeling that the place where he
stood was holy ground. This is a wonderful fact! God the Infinite once
dwelt in the frail body of a child and tabernacled in the suffering
form of a lowly man. "God was in Christ." "He made Himself of no
reputation, and took upon Him the form of a Servant, and was made in
the likeness of men."

Observe first, the wonder of condescension contained in this fact, that
God, who made all things, should assume the nature of one of His own
creatures! That the Self-Existent should be united with the dependent
and deprived, and the Almighty linked with the feeble and mortal! In
the case before us the Lord descended to the very depth of humiliation
and entered into alliance with a nature which did not occupy the chief
place in the scale of existence! It would have been great condescension
for the Infinite and Incomprehensible Jehovah to have taken upon
Himself the nature of some noble spiritual being, such as a seraph or a
cherub. The union of the Divine with a created spirit would have been
an immeasurable stoop–but for God to be one with man is far more.

Remember that in the Person of Christ, Manhood was not merely a
quickening spirit, but also suffering, hungering, dying flesh and
blood. There was taken to Himself by our Lord all that materialism
which makes up a body and a body is, after all, but the dust of the
earth–a structure fashioned from the materials around us. There is
nothing in our bodily frame but what is to be found in the substance of
the earth on which we live. We feed upon that which grows out of the
earth and when we die, we go back to the dust from which we were taken.
Is not this a strange thing that this grosser part of creation, this
meaner part, this dust of it, should, nevertheless, be taken into union
with that pure, marvelous, incomprehensible, Divine Being of whom we
know so little, and can comprehend nothing at all?

Oh, the condescension of it! I leave it to the meditations of your
quiet moments. Dwell on it with care. I am persuaded that no man has
any idea how wonderful a stoop it was for God thus to dwell in human
flesh and to be, "God with us." Yet, to make it appear still more
remarkable, remember that the creature whose nature Christ took was a
being that had sinned. I can more readily conceive the Lord's taking
upon Himself the nature of a race which had never fallen. But, lo, the
race of man stood in rebellion against God and yet Christ became a Man,
that He might deliver us from the consequences of our rebellion and
lift us up to something higher than our pristine purity. "God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, has condemned sin in the
flesh." "Oh, the depths," is all that we can say as we look on and
marvel at this stoop of Divine Love.

Note, next, as you view this marvel at a distance, what a miracle of
power is before us. Have you ever thought of the power displayed in the
Lord's fashioning a body capable of union with Godhead? Our Lord was
Incarnate in a body, which was truly a human body, but yet in some
wondrous way was prepared to sustain the indwelling of Deity! Contact
with God is terrible–"He looks on the earth and it trembles. He
touches the hills and they smoke." He puts His feet on Paran and it
melts, and Sinai dissolves in flames of fire. So strongly was this
Truth inwrought into the minds of the early saints that they said, "No
man can see God's face and live!" And yet here was a Manhood which did
not merely see the face of God, but which was inhabited by Deity.

What human frame was this which could abide the Presence of Jehovah! "A
body have You prepared Me." This was, indeed, a body curiously worked,
a holy thing, a special product of the Holy Spirit's power. It was a
body like our own, with nerves as sensitive and muscles as readily
strained. It was a body with every organization as delicately fashioned
as our own and yet God was in it! It was a frail boat to bear such
freight. Oh, Man Christ, how could You bear the Deity within You! We
know not how it was, but God knows. Let us adore this hiding of the
Almighty in human weakness, this comprehending of the Incomprehensible,
this revealing of the Invisible, this localization of the Omnipresent!

Alas, I do but babble! What are words when we deal with such an
unutterable Truth of God? Suffice it to say that the Divine power was
wonderfully seen in the continued existence of the materialism of
Christ's body–which otherwise had been consumed for such a wondrous
contact with Divinity! Admire the power which dwelt in, "God with us."
Again, as you gaze upon the mystery, consider what an ensign of good
will this must be to the sons of men. When the Lord takes Manhood into
union with Himself in this matchless way, it must mean good to man. God
cannot mean to destroy that race which He thus weds onto Himself!

Such a marriage as this, between man and God, must mean peace. War and
destruction are never thus predicted. God Incarnate in Bethlehem, to be
adored by shepherds, foretells nothing but "peace on earth and mercy
mild." O you sinners who tremble at the thought of the Divine Wrath, as
well you may, lift up your heads with joyful hope of mercy and favor,
for God must be full of Grace and mercy to that race which He so
distinguishes above all others by taking it into union with Himself! Be
of good cheer, O men born of women, and expect untold blessings for,
"unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given."

If you look at rivers you can often tell from where they come and the
soil over which they have flowed by their color. Those which flood from
melting glaciers are known at once. There is a text concerning a
heavenly river which you will understand if you look at it in this
light–"He showed me a pure river of the Water of Life, clear as
crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb." Where
the Throne is occupied by Godhead and the appointed Mediator, the
Incarnate God, the once bleeding Lamb, then the river most be pure as
crystal and be a river, not of molten lava of devouring wrath, but a
river of the Water of Life! Look to "God with us" and you will see that
the consequences of Incarnation must be pleasant, profitable, saving
and ennobling to the sons of men.

I pray you to continue your admiring glance and look upon God with us
once more as a pledge of our deliverance. We are a fallen race. We are
sunk in the mire. We are sold under sin, in bondage and in slavery to
Satan. But if God comes to our race and espouses its nature, why, then,
we must retrieve our Fall–it cannot be possible for the gates of Hell
to keep those down who have God with them! Slaves under sin and
bondsmen beneath the Law, hearken to the trumpet of jubilee, for One
has come among you, born of a woman, made under the Law, who is also
Mighty God, pledged to set you free! He is a Savior, and a great one!
He is able to save, for He is Almighty, and pledged to do it, for He
has entered the fight and put on the harness for the battle.

The champion of his people is one who will not fail nor be discouraged
till the battle is fully fought and won. Jesus, coming down from
Heaven, is the pledge that He will take His people up to Heaven! His
taking our nature is the seal of our being lifted up to His Throne!
Were it an angel that had interposed, we might have some fears. Were it
a mere man, we might go beyond fear and sit down in despair. But if it
is "God with us," and God has actually taken Manhood into union with
Himself, then let us "ring the bells of Heaven" and be glad!

There must be brighter and happier days! There must be salvation for
man! There must be Glory to God. Let us bask in the beams of the Sun of
Righteousness who now has risen upon us–a Light to lighten the
Gentiles, and to be the Glory of His people Israel! Thus we have
admired at a distance.

II. And, now, in the second place, let us come nearer and CONSIDER THE
SUBJECT MORE CLOSELY. What is

this? What does this mean, "God with us"? I do not expect, this
morning, to be able to set forth all the meaning of this short text,
"God with us," for indeed, it seems to me to contain the whole history
of redemption! It hints at man's being without God and God's having
removed from man on account of sin. It seems to tell me of man's
spiritual life, by Christ's coming to him and being formed in him the
hope of Glory.

God communes with man and man returns to God and receives, again, the
Divine image as at the first. Yes, Heaven itself is, "God with us."
This text might serve for a hundred sermons without any more drawing.
Yes, one might continue to expatiate upon its manifold meanings
forever! I can only, at this time, give mere hints of lines of thought
which you can pursue at your leisure, the Holy Spirit enabling you.
This glorious word, Emmanuel, means, first, that God in Christ is with
us in very near association.

The Greek particle here used is very forcible and expresses the
strongest form of "with." It is not merely, "in company with us," as
another Greek word would signify, but "with," "together with" and,
"sharing with." This preposition is a close rivet, a firm bond,
implying, if not declaring, close fellowship. God is peculiarly and
closely "with us." Now, think for a while, and you will see that God
has, in very deed, come near to us in very close association. He must
have done so, for He has taken upon Himself our nature, literally our
nature–flesh, blood, bone, everything that made a body–mind, heart,
soul, memory, imagination, judgement, everything that makes a rational
man.

Christ Jesus was the Man of men, the Second Adam, the model
representative Man! Think not of Him as a Deified man any more than you
would dare to regard Him as a humanized God, or demigod! Do not confuse
the natures nor divide the Person–He is but one Person, yet very Man
as He is also very God. Think of this Truth, then, and say, "He who
sits on the Throne is such as I am, sin, alone, excepted." No, 'tis too
much for speech, I will not speak of it! It is a theme which masters
me, and I fear to utter rash expressions. Turn this Truth over and
over, and see if it is not sweeter than honey and the honey-comb–

"Oh joy! There sits in our flesh, Upon a throne of light, One of a
human mother born, In perfect Godhead bright!"

Being with us in our nature, God was with us in all our life's
pilgrimage. Scarcely can you find a halting place in the march of life
at which Jesus has not paused, or a weary league which He has not
traversed. From the gate of entrance even to the door which closes
life's way, the footprints of Jesus may be traced. Were you in the
cradle? He was there. Were you a child under parental authority? Christ
was, also, a Boy in the home at Nazareth. Have you entered upon life's
battle? Your Lord and Master did the same. And though He lived not to
old age, yet through incessant toil and suffering He bore the marred
visage which attends a battered old age.

Are you alone? So was He, in the wilderness and on the mountain's side,
and in the garden's gloom. Do you mix in public society? So did He
labor in the thickest crowds. Where can you find yourself, on the
hilltop, or in the valley, on

the land or on the sea, in the daylight or in darkness–where, I say,
can you be, without discovering that Jesus has been there before you?
What the world has said of her great poet we might with far more truth
say of our Redeemer–

"A man so various that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's
epitome." One harmonious Man He was, and yet all saintly lives seem to
be condensed in His.

Two Believers may be very unlike each other, and yet both will find
that Christ's life has in it points of likeness to their own. One shall
be rich and another shall be poor. One actively laborious and another
patiently suffering, and yet each man, in studying the history of the
Savior, shall be able to say–His pathway ran hard by my own. He was
made in all points like unto His brethren. How charming is the fact
that our Lord is "God with us," not here and there, and now and then,
but forever! Especially does this come out with sweetness in His being
"God with us" in our sorrows. There is no pang that rends the heart–I
might almost say not one which disturbs the body–but what Jesus Christ
has been with us in it all.

Do you feel the sorrows of poverty? He "had not where to lay His head."
Do you endure the griefs of bereavement? Jesus "wept" at the tomb of
Lazarus. Have you been slandered for righteousness' sake and has it
vexed your spirit? He said, "Reproach has broken My heart." Have you
been betrayed? Do not forget that He, too, had His familiar friend who
sold Him for the price of a slave. On what stormy seas have you been
tossed which have not also roared around His boat? Never a glen of
adversity so dark, so deep, apparently so pathless, but what in
stooping down you may discover the footprints of the Crucified One. In
the fires and in the rivers, in the cold night and under the burning
sun, He cries, "I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am both your
Companion and your God."

Mysteriously true is it that when you and I shall come to the last, the
closing scene, we shall find that Emmanuel has been there! He felt the
pangs and throes of death. He endured the bloody sweat of agony and the
parching thirst of fever. He knew the separation of the tortured spirit
from the poor fainting flesh and cried, as we shall, "Father, into Your
hands I commend My spirit." Yes, and the grave He knew, for there He
slept and left the sepulcher perfumed and furnished to be a couch of
rest and not a morgue of corruption. That new tomb in the garden makes
Him God with us till the Resurrection shall call us from our beds of
clay to find Him God with us in newness of life!

We shall be raised up in His likeness and the first sight our opening
eyes shall see shall be the Incarnate God! "I know that my Redeemer
lives, and though after my skin worms devour this body, yet in my flesh
shall I see God." "God with us." I in my flesh shall see Him as the
Man, the God. And so to all eternity He will maintain the most intimate
association with us. As long as ages roll He shall be "God with us."
Has He not said, "Because I live you shall live, also"? Both His Human
and Divine life will last on forever, and so shall our life endure. He
shall dwell among and lead us to living fountains of waters and so
shall we be forever with the Lord. Now, my Brothers and Sisters, if you
will review these thoughts, you shall find a good store of food. In
fact, a feast, even, under that one head. God, in Christ, is with us in
the nearest possible association.

But, secondly, God in Christ is with us in the fullest reconciliation.
This, of course, is true, if the former is true. There was a time when
we were parted from God. We were without God, being alienated from Him
by wicked works. And God was also removed from us by reason of the
natural rectitude of character which thrusts iniquity far from Him. He
is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, neither can evil dwell with
Him. That strict Justice with which He rules the world requires that He
should hide His face from a sinful generation. A god who looks with
complacency upon guilty men is not the God of the Bible, who is in
multitudes of places set forth as burning with indignation against the
wicked. "The wicked and him that loves violence His soul hates."

But now the sin which separated us from God has been put away by the
blessed Sacrifice of Christ upon the tree. And the Righteousness, the
absence of which causes a gulf between unrighteous man and righteous
God, that Righteousness, I say, has been found, for Jesus has brought
in Everlasting Righteousness! So that now, in Jesus, God is with us,
reconciled to us–the sin which caused His wrath is forever put away
from His people.

There are some who object to this view of the case, and I, for one,
will not yield one jot to their objections. I do not wonder that they
quibble at certain unwise statements which I like no better than they
do. But, nevertheless, if they oppose the Atonement as making a
recompense to injured Justice, their objections shall have no force
with me. It is most true that God is always Love, but His stern Justice
is not opposed thereto. It is also most certainly true that towards His

people He always was, in the highest sense, Love, and the Atonement is
the result and not the cause of Divine love. Yet, still viewed in His
rectorial Character, as a Judge and Lawgiver, God is "angry with the
wicked every day," and apart from the reconciling Sacrifice of Christ,
His own people were "heirs of wrath even as others."

There was anger in the heart of God, as a righteous Judge, against
those who broke His holy Law, and the reconciliation has a bearing upon
the position of the Judge of all the earth as well as upon man. I, for
one, shall never cease to say, "O Lord, I will praise You, for though
You were angry with me, Your anger is tamed away and You comfort me."
God can now be with man and embrace sinners as His children, as He
could not have righteously done had not Jesus died. In this sense, and
in this sense, only, did Dr. Watts write some of his hymns which have
been so fiercely condemned.

I take leave to quote two verses, and to commend them as setting forth
a great Truth of God if the Lord is viewed as a Judge and represented
as the awakened conscience of man rightly perceives Him. Our poet says
of the Throne of God–

"Once 'twas the seat of dreadful wrath,

And shot devouring flames.

Our God appeared, consuming fire,

And Vengeance was His name.

Rich were the drops of Jesus' blood,

Which earned His frowning face,

Which sprinkled o'er the burning Throne,

And turned the wrath to Grace." So that now Jehovah is not God against
us, but "God with us." He has "reconciled us to Himself by the death of
His

Son."

A third meaning of the text, "God with us," is this, God in Christ is
with us in blessed communication. That is to say, now He has come so
near to us as to enter into commerce with us and this He does, in part,
by hallowed conversation. Now He speaks to us and in us. He has, in
these last days, spoken to us by His Son and by the Divine Spirit with
the still small voice of warning, consolation, instruction and
direction. Are you not conscious of this? Since your souls have come to
know Christ, have you not, also, enjoyed communion with the Most High?
Now, like Enoch, you "walk with God," and, like Abraham, you talk with
Him as a man talks with his friend.

What are those prayers and praises of yours but the speech which you
are permitted to have with the Most High? And He replies to you when
His Spirit seals home the promise or applies the precept, when, with
fresh light He leads you into the doctrine or bestows brighter
confidence as to good things to come. Oh yes, God is with us now, so
that when He cries, "Seek you My face" our heart says to Him, "Your
face, Lord, will I seek." These Sabbath gatherings–what do they mean
to many of us but, "God with us"? That Communion Table–what does it
mean but, "God with us"?

O, how often, in the breaking of bread and the pouring forth of the
wine in the memory of His atoning death have we enjoyed His real
Presence, not in a superstitious, but in a spiritual sense, and found
the Lord Jesus to be "God with us"? Yes, in every holy ordinance, in
every sacred act of worship, we now find that there is a door opened in
Heaven and a new and living way by which we may come to the Throne of
Grace. Is not this a joy better than all the riches of earth could buy?
And it is not merely in speech that the Lord is with us, but God is
with us, now, by powerful acts as well as words! "God with us," why it
is the inscription upon our royal standard which strikes terror to the
heart of the foe and cheers the sacramental host of God's elect.

Is not this our war cry, "The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of
Jacob is our refuge"? As to our foes within, God is with us to overcome
our corruptions and frailties. And as to the adversaries of the Truth
of God without, God is with His Church and Christ has promised that He
always will be with her, "even to the end of the world." We have not
merely God's Word and promises, but we have seen His acts of Grace on
our behalf, both in Providence and in the working of His blessed
Spirit. "The Lord has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the
people." "In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel. In Salem,
also, is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion. There broke He
the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle."

"God with us"–O, my Brothers and Sisters, it makes our hearts leap for
joy! It fills us with dauntless courage! How can we be dismayed when
the Lord of Hosts is on our side? Nor is it merely that God is with us
in acts of power on our behalf, but in emanations of His own life into
our nature by which we are at first, new born, and afterwards sustained
in

spiritual life. This is more wonderful, still! By the Holy Spirit the
Divine Seed which, "lives and abides forever," is sown in our souls and
from day to day we are strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man.

Nor is this all, for as the masterpiece of Grace, the Lord, by His
Spirit, even dwells in His people. God is not Incarnate in us as in
Christ Jesus, but only second in wonder to the Incarnation is the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Believers. Now is it, "God with us,"
indeed, for God dwells in us! "Know you not," says the Apostle, "that
your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit?" "As it is written, I
will dwell in them, and I will walk in them." Oh, the heights and
depths that are comprehended in those few words, "God with us"!

I had many more things to say, but time compels me to sum them up in
brief. The Lord becomes "God with us" by the restoration of His image
in us. "God with us" was seen in Adam when he was perfectly pure, but
Adam died when he sinned–and God is not the God of the dead but of the
living! Now we, in receiving back the new life and being reconciled to
God in Christ Jesus, receive, also, the restored image of God and are
renewed in knowledge and true holiness. "God with us" means
sanctification–the image of Jesus Christ imprinted upon all His
Brothers and Sisters.

God is with us, too, let us remember, and leave the point, in deepest
sympathy. Brethren, are you in sorrow? God is, in Christ, sympathetic
to your grief. Brothers and Sisters, have you a grand objective? I know
what it is, it is God's Glory–therein, also you are sympathetic with
God and God with you. What, let me inquire, is your greatest joy? Have
you not learned to rejoice in the Lord? Do you not joy in God by Jesus
Christ? Then God also joys in you! He rests in His love and rejoices
over you with singing, so that there is God with us in a very wonderful
respect, inasmuch as through Christ our aims and desires are like those
of God.

We desire the same thing, press forward with the same aim and rejoice
in the same objects of delight. When the Lord says, "This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased," our heart answers, "Yes, and in Him we
are well pleased, too." The pleasure of the Father is the pleasure of
His own chosen children, for we also joy in Christ–our very soul
exults at the sound of His name!

III. I must leave this delightful theme when I have said two or three
things about OUR PERSONAL APPROPRIATION of the Truth of God before us.
"God with us." Then, if Jesus Christ is "God with us," let us come to
God without any question or hesitancy! Whoever you may be, you need no
priest or intercessor to introduce you to God, for God has introduced
Himself to you! Are you children? Then come to God in the Child Jesus
who slept in Bethlehem's manger. Oh, you gray heads, you need not keep
back, but like Simeon come and take Him in your arms, and say, "Lord,
now let Your servant depart in peace according to Your Word, for my
eyes have seen Your salvation."

God sends an Ambassador who inspires no fear–not with helmet and coat
of mail, bearing lance, does Heaven's Herald approach us–but the white
flag is held in the hand of a Child, in the hand of One chosen out of
the people–in the hand of One who died, in the hand of One who, though
He sits in Glory, still wears the nail-prints. O Man, God comes to you
as One like yourself! Do not be afraid to come to the gentle Jesus! Do
not imagine that you need to be prepared for an audience with Him, or
that you need the intercession of a saint, or the intervention of
priest or minister!

Anyone could have come to the Babe in Bethlehem. The horned oxen, I
think, ate of the hay on which He slept and feared not. Jesus is the
Friend of each one of us, sinful and unworthy though we are. You, poor
ones, you need not fear to come, for, look, He is born in a stable, and
in a manger He is cradled! You have not worse accommodation than His!
You are not poorer than He! Come and welcome to the poor man's Prince,
to the peasants' Savior! Stay not back through fear of your
unfitness–the shepherds came to Him in all their rags. I read not that
they tarried to put on their best garments, but in the clothes in which
they wrapped themselves that cold midnight they hastened, just as they
were, to the young Child's Presence. God looks not at garments, but at
hearts, and accepts men when they come to Him with willing spirits,
whether they are rich or poor. Come, then! Come, and welcome, for God
is, indeed, "God with us."

But, O, let there be no delay about it. It did seem to me, as I turned
this subject over yesterday, that for any man to say, "I will not come
to God," after God has come to man in such a form as this, were an
unpardonable act of treason! Perhaps you knew not God's love when you
sinned as you did. Perhaps, though you persecuted His saints, you did
it ig-norantly in unbelief. But, behold your God extends the olive
branch of peace to you. He extends it in a wondrous way, for He,
Himself, comes here to be born of a woman that He may meet with you who
were born of women, too, and save you from your sin!

Will you not listen, now that He speaks by His Son? I can understand
that you ask to hear no more of His Words when He speaks with the sound
of a trumpet, waxing exceedingly loud and long, from amidst the flaming
crags of Sinai. I do not wonder that you are afraid to draw near when
the earth rocks and reels before His awful Presence! But now He
restrains Himself and veils the splendor of His face, and comes to you
as a Child of humble bearing, a carpenter's son. O, if He comes so,
will you turn your backs upon Him? Can you spurn Him? What better
Ambassador could you desire? This Ambassador of peace is so tenderly,
so gently, so kindly, so touchingly put, that surely you cannot have
the heart to resist

Him?

No, do not turn away, let not your ears refuse the language of His
Grace, but say, "If God is with us, we will be with Him." Say it,
Sinner! Say, "I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto Him,
Father, I have sinned." And as for you who have given up all hope. You
who think yourselves so degraded and fallen that there can be no future
for you– there is hope for you yet, for you are a man–and the next
being to God is a man! He that is God is also Man, and there is
something about that fact which ought to make you say, "Yes, I may yet
discover, perhaps, brotherhood to the Son of Man who is the Son of God.
I, even I, may yet be lifted up to be set among princes, even the
princes of His people, by virtue of my regenerated manhood which brings
me into relation with the Manhood of Christ and so into relation with
the Godhead." Fling not yourself away, O Man, you are something too
hopeful, after all, to be meat for the worm that never dies and fuel
for the fire that never can be quenched. Turn to your God with full
purpose of heart and you shall find a grand destiny in store for you!

And now, my Brothers and Sisters, the last word to you is, let us be
with God since God is with us. I give you for a watchword through the
year to come, "Emmanuel, God with us." You, the saints redeemed by
blood, have a right to all this in its fullest sense. Drink it in and
be filled with courage! Do not say, "We can do nothing." Who are you
that can do nothing? God is with you! Do not say, "The Church is feeble
and fallen upon evil times"–no, "God is with us." We need the courage
of those ancient soldiers who were desirous to regard difficulties only
as whetstones upon which to sharpen their swords!

I like Alexander's talk–when they said there were so many thousands,
so many millions, perhaps, of Persians. "Very well," says he, "it is
good reaping where the corn is thick. One butcher is not afraid of a
thousand sheep." I like even the talk of the old Gascon, who said when
they asked him, "Can you and your troops get into that fortress? It is
impregnable." "Can the sun enter it?" he asked. "Yes." "Well, where the
sun can go, we can enter." Whatever is possible or whatever is
impossible, Christians can do at God's command, for God is with us! Do
you not see that the word, "God with us," puts impossibility out of all
existence? Hearts that could never be broken will be broken if God is
with us!

Errors which never could be confuted can be overthrown by, "God with
us." Things impossible with men are possible with God! John Wesley died
with that upon his tongue, and let us live with it upon our
hearts–"The best of all is God with us." Blessed Son of God, we thank
You that You have brought us that Word. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Hebrews 1. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–249, 256 (VERS. 3, 4), 260.
__________________________________________________________________

Indexes
__________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture Commentary

Genesis

[8]1:4 [9]31:13

Exodus

[10]12:13

Joshua

[11]1:5 [12]24:15

1 Samuel

[13]17:36-37

1 Kings

[14]8:53

2 Kings

[15]7:2

Job

[16]7:1 [17]13:15 [18]13:22 [19]42:10

Psalms

[20]23:5 [21]42:11 [22]45:16 [23]71:17-18 [24]81:10
[25]100:5 [26]101:2 [27]104:26 [28]116:3-4 [29]116:8
[30]131:2

Proverbs

[31]14:14 [32]27:7

Isaiah

[33]32:2 [34]41:1 [35]44:23 [36]52:13-15

Hosea

[37]6:3 [38]10:12

Matthew

[39]1:23 [40]25:32

Mark

[41]1:29-33 [42]2:12 [43]6:52

Luke

[44]6:39-40

John

[45]1:11-13 [46]5:8 [47]5:44 [48]8:42 [49]20:19

Acts

[50]12:12

Romans

[51]8:14 [52]8:34

1 Corinthians

[53]2:2

Galatians

[54]5:5 [55]5:24

Ephesians

[56]3:15 [57]3:20-21

2 Timothy

[58]2:15

Philemon

[59]1:15

Hebrews

[60]10:35 [61]11:8

1 Peter

[62]2:7-8

1 John

[63]1:8-10 [64]5:9-10 [65]5:10

Revelation

[66]5:9-10 [67]12:11 [68]14:12-13 [69]22:2
__________________________________________________________________

This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
generated on demand from ThML source.

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