LivePrayerSermon 1270. "God With Us"
(No. 1270)
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 interpretedat all? Was it not to show that it has reference to us Gentiles and, therefore, it must be interpreted into one of the chieflanguages of the then existing Gentile world, namely, the Greek? This, "being interpreted," at Christ's birth and the threelanguages employed in the inscription upon the Cross at His death, show that He is not the Savior of the Jews only, but alsoof 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 interestedby the inscriptions upon the shops and stores. The announcements of refreshments or of goods to be had within were not onlyprinted in the French language, but in English, in Italian, in German, in Greek and sometimes in Russian and Swedish. Uponthe shops of the sail makers, the boat builders, the ironmongers, or the dealers in ship supplies, you read a mixture of announcementssetting forth the information to men of many lands. This was a clear indication that persons of all nations were invited tocome 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 areinvited, that we are welcome, that God has seen our needs and has provided for us, and that now we may freely come, even wewho were sinners of the Gentiles and far off from God! Let us preserve with reverent love both forms of the precious nameand 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 childrenby names which have no particular meaning. They are the names, perhaps, of father or mother, or some respected relative, butthere is no special meaning, as a general rule, in our children's names. It was not so in the olden times. Then names meantsomething. Scriptural names, as a general rule, contain teaching and especially is this the case in every name ascribed tothe Lord Jesus. With Him names indicate things. "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The EverlastingFather, 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 couldfairly describe His great work of saving His people from their sins. When He is said to be called this or that, it means thatHe really is so. I am not aware that anywhere in the New Testament our Lord is afterwards called Emmanuel. I do not find HisApostles, or any of His disciples, calling Him by that name literally. But we find them all doing so in effect, for they speakof 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 proclaimthe 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 JesusChrist. It is a glorious fact, of the highest importance, that since Christ was born into the world, God is with us! You maydivide the text, if you please, into two portions-"GOD," and then, "GOD WITH US." We must dwell with equal emphasis upon eachword.
Never let us, for a moment, hesitate as to the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, for His Deity is a fundamental doctrine ofthe 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 shoreof 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'sarms, and lived a suffering life and died on a malefactor's cross, was, nevertheless, "God over all, blessed forever," "upholdingall things by the word of His power." He was not an angel-that the Apostle has abundantly disproved in the first and secondchapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews-He could not have been an angel, for honors are ascribed to Him which were never bestowedon angels. He was no subordinate Deity or was elevated to the Godhead, as some have absurdly said-all these things are dreamsand 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 thegreat strength of our hope be gone, but as to this text the sweetness would be evaporated altogether. The very essence andglory of the Incarnation is that He was God who was veiled in human flesh. If it were any other being who thus came to usin human flesh, I see nothing very remarkable in it, certainly nothing comforting. That an angel should become a man is amatter of no great consequence to me. That some other superior being should assume the nature of man brings no joy to my heartand 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 Godin the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men." This was worthy of the foresight of seers and Prophets, worthy of anew star in the heavens, worthy of the care which Inspiration has manifested to preserve the record. This, too, was worthyof 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 isworthy of a holy life to illustrate its blessed influences and worthy of a joyful death to prove its consoling power. Hereis 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," inspiresus 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 ofone 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 personallyto 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 inthe bush stood a little back and took his shoes off, feeling that the place where he stood was holy ground. This is a wonderfulfact! God the Infinite once dwelt in the frail body of a child and tabernacled in the suffering form of a lowly man. "Godwas in Christ." "He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a Servant, and was made in the likeness ofmen."
Observe first, the wonder of condescension contained in this fact, that God, who made all things, should assume the natureof one of His own creatures! That the Self-Existent should be united with the dependent and deprived, and the Almighty linkedwith the feeble and mortal! In the case before us the Lord descended to the very depth of humiliation and entered into alliancewith a nature which did not occupy the chief place in the scale of existence! It would have been great condescension for theInfinite and Incomprehensible Jehovah to have taken upon Himself the nature of some noble spiritual being, such as a seraphor a cherub. The union of the Divine with a created spirit would have been an immeasurable stoop-but for God to be one withman is far more.
Remember that in the Person of Christ, Manhood was not merely a quickening spirit, but also suffering, hungering, dying fleshand blood. There was taken to Himself by our Lord all that materialism which makes up a body and a body is, after all, butthe dust of the earth-a structure fashioned from the materials around us. There is nothing in our bodily frame but what isto 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 meanerpart, this dust of it, should, nevertheless, be taken into union with that pure, marvelous, incomprehensible, Divine Beingof 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 thatno 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 makeit appear still more remarkable, remember that the creature whore nature Christ took was a being that had sinned. I can morereadily conceive the Lord's taking upon Himself the nature of a race which had never fallen. But, lo, the race of man stoodin rebellion against God and yet Christ became a Man, that He might deliver us from the consequences of our rebellion andlift us up to something higher than our pristine purity. "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, has condemnedsin 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 powerdisplayed in the Lord's fashioning a body capable of union with Godhead? Our Lord was Incarnate in a body, which was trulya human body, but yet in some wondrous way was prepared to sustain the indwelling of Deity! Contact with God is terrible-"Helooks on the earth and it trembles. He touches the hills and they smoke." He puts His feet on Paran and it melts, and Sinaidissolves in flames of fire. So strongly was this Truth inwrought into the minds of the early saints that they said, "No mancan see God's face and live!" And yet here was a Manhood which did not merely see the face of God, but which was inhabitedby Deity.
What human frame was this which could abide the Presence of Jehovah! "A body have You prepared Me." This was, indeed, a bodycuriously worked, a holy thing, a special product of the Holy Spirit's power. It was a body like our own, with nerves as sensitiveand muscles as readily strained. It was a body with every organization as delicately fashioned as our own and yet God wasin it! It was a frail boat to bear such freight. Oh, Man Christ, how could You bear the Deity within You! We know not howit 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 Divinepower was wonderfully seen in the continued existence of the materialism of Christ's body-which otherwise had been consumedfor 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 Himselfin 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 Incarnatein Bethlehem, to be adored by shepherds, foretells nothing but "peace on earth and mercy mild." O you sinners who trembleat the thought of the Divine Wrath, as well you may, lift up your heads with joyful hope of mercy and favor, for God mustbe full of Grace and mercy to that race which He so distinguishes above all others by taking it into union with Himself! Beof 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. Thosewhich flood from melting glaciers are known at once. There is a text concerning a heavenly river which you will understandif 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 Throneof God and of the Lamb." Where the Throne is occupied by Godhead and the appointed Mediator, the Incarnate God, the once bleedingLamb, then the river most be pure as crystal and be a river, not of molten lava of devouring wrath, but a river of the Waterof Life! Look to "God with us" and you will see that the consequences of Incarnation must be pleasant, profitable, savingand 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 fallenrace. 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 andespouses its nature, why, then, we must retrieve our Fall-it cannot be possible for the gates of Hell to keep those down whohave God with them! Slaves under sin and bondsmen beneath the Law, hearken to the trumpet of jubilee, for One has come amongyou, 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 thebattle.
The champion of his people is one who will not fail nor be discouraged till the battle is fully fought and won. Jesus, comingdown from Heaven, is the pledge that He will take His people up to Heaven! His taking our nature is the seal of our beinglifted up to His Throne! Were it an angel that had interposed, we might have some fears. Were it a mere man, we might go beyondfear and sit down in despair. But if it is "God with us," and God has actually taken Manhood into union with Himself, thenlet 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 beamsof 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 shorttext, "God with us," for indeed, it seems to me to contain the whole history of redemption! It hints at man's being withoutGod 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 tohim 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 expatiateupon its manifold meanings forever! I can only, at this time, give mere hints of lines of thought which you can pursue atyour leisure, the Holy Spirit enabling you. This glorious word, Emmanuel, means, first, that God in Christ is with us in verynear association.
The Greek particle here used is very forcible and expresses the strongest form of "with." It is not merely, "in company withus," 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 takenupon 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 morethan you would dare to regard Him as a humanized God, or demigod! Do not confuse the natures nor divide the Person-He is butone 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 asI 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 fearto 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 marchof life at which Jesus has not paused, or a weary league which He has not traversed. From the gate of entrance even to thedoor which closes life's way, the footprints of Jesus may be traced. Were you in the cradle? He was there. Were you a childunder parental authority? Christ was, also, a Boy in the home at Nazareth. Have you entered upon life's battle? Your Lordand Master did the same. And though He lived not to old age, yet through incessant toil and suffering He bore the marred visagewhich 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 therebefore 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 saintlylives 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 theirown. 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 likeunto 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-Imight 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 hasbroken My heart." Have you been betrayed? Do not forget that He, too, had His familiar friend who sold Him for the price ofa slave. On what stormy seas have you been tossed which have not also roared around His boat? Never a glen of adversity sodark, so deep, apparently so pathless, but what in stooping down you may discover the footprints of the Crucified One. Inthe fires and in the rivers, in the cold night and under the burning sun, He cries, "I am with you. Be not dismayed, for Iam 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 beenthere! He felt the pangs and throes of death. He endured the bloody sweat of agony and the parching thirst of fever. He knewthe separation of the tortured spirit from the poor fainting flesh and cried, as we shall, "Father, into Your hands I commendMy spirit." Yes, and the grave He knew, for there He slept and left the sepulcher perfumed and furnished to be a couch ofrest and not a morgue of corruption. That new tomb in the garden makes Him God with us till the Resurrection shall call usfrom 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 thatmy Redeemer lives, and though after my skin worms devour this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." "God with us." I inmy 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 andDivine life will last on forever, and so shall our life endure. He shall dwell among and lead us to living fountains of watersand so shall we be forever with the Lord. Now, my Brothers and Sisters, if you will review these thoughts, you shall finda 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. Therewas a time when we were parted from God. We were without God, being alienated from Him by wicked works. And God was also removedfrom us by reason of the natural rectitude of character which thrusts iniquity far from Him. He is of purer eyes than to beholdiniquity, neither can evil dwell with Him. That strict Justice with which He rules the world requires that He should hideHis face from a sinful generation. A god who looks with complacency upon guilty men is not the God of the Bible, who is inmultitudes of places set forth as burning with indignation against the wicked. "The wicked and him that loves violence Hissoul 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, forJesus has brought in Everlasting Righteousness! So that now, in Jesus, God is with us, reconciled to us-the sin which causedHis 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 wonderthat they quibble at certain unwise statements which I like no better than they do. But, nevertheless, if they oppose theAtonement as making a recompense to injured Justice, their objections shall have no force with me. It is most true that Godis 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, stillviewed in His rectorial Character, as a Judge and Lawgiver, God is "angry with the wicked every day," and apart from the reconcilingSacrifice 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 hasa 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 manand embrace sinners as His children, as He could not have righteously done had not Jesus died. In this sense, and in thissense, 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 Judgeand 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 Himselfby 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, nowHe has come so near to us as to enter into commerce with us and this He does, in part, by hallowed conversation. Now He speaksto 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 ofwarning, 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 talkwith 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 repliesto you when His Spirit seals home the promise or applies the precept, when, with fresh light He leads you into the doctrineor bestows brighter confidence as to good things to come. Oh yes, God is with us now, so that when He cries, "Seek you Myface" 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 enjoyedHis real Presence, not in a superstitious, but in a spiritual sense, and found the Lord Jesus to be "God with us"? Yes, inevery holy ordinance, in every sacred act of worship, we now find that there is a door opened in Heaven and a new and livingway 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 isnot 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 sacramentalhost 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 withus to overcome our corruptions and frailties. And as to the adversaries of the Truth of God without, God is with His Churchand Christ has promised that He always will be with her, "even to the end of the world." We have not merely God's Word andpromises, but we have seen His acts of Grace on our behalf, both in Providence and in the working of His blessed Spirit. "TheLord 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 webe 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, butin 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 sownin 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 Incarnatein 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 templesof the Holy Spirit?" "As it is written, I will dwell in them, and I will walk in them." Oh, the heights and depths that arecomprehended 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 restorationof 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 notthe 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-theimage 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 rejoicein 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 youwith singing, so that there is God with us in a very wonderful respect, inasmuch as through Christ our aims and desires arelike 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 pleasureof the Father is the pleasure of His own chosen children, for we also joy in Christ-our very soul exults at the sound of Hisname!
III. I must leave this delightful theme when I have said two or three things about OUR PERSONAL APPROPRIATION of the Truthof 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! Areyou 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 approachus-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 thatyou 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 poorerthan He! Come and welcome to the poor man's Prince, to the peasants' Savior! Stay not back through fear of your unfitness-theshepherds came to Him in all their rags. I read not that they tarried to put on their best garments, but in the clothes inwhich they wrapped themselves that cold midnight they hastened, just as they were, to the young Child's Presence. God looksnot 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 youknew 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 hereto 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 speakswith the sound of a trumpet, waxing exceedingly loud and long, from amidst the flaming crags of Sinai. I do not wonder thatyou are afraid to draw near when the earth rocks and reels before His awful Presence! But now He restrains Himself and veilsthe 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 turnyour 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 havegiven up all hope. You who think yourselves so degraded and fallen that there can be no future for you- there is hope foryou 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 thatfact 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 manhoodwhich 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 nevercan 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 watchwordthrough the year to come, "Emmanuel, God with us." You, the saints redeemed by blood, have a right to all this in its fullestsense. Drink it in and be filled with courage! Do not say, "We can do nothing." Who are you that can do nothing? God is withyou! Do not say, "The Church is feeble and fallen upon evil times"-no, "God is with us." We need the courage of those ancientsoldiers 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 talkof the old Gascon, who said when they asked him, "Can you and your troops get into that fortress? It is impregnable." "Canthe 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 outof 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." BlessedSon 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.