{"id":99,"date":"2008-12-27T13:18:25","date_gmt":"2008-12-27T18:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=99"},"modified":"2008-12-27T13:18:25","modified_gmt":"2008-12-27T18:18:25","slug":"immanuel-god-with-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2008\/12\/27\/immanuel-god-with-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Immanuel, God With Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

(This is an excerpt from Charles Spurgeon’s sermon on Isaiah 7:14-15, “The Birth of Christ,” preached December 24, 1854. I read this excerpt at our Christmas Eve service. You can read the entire sermon at this link<\/a>.)<\/small><\/p>\n

The Virgin Mary called her son Immanuel, that there might be a meaning in his name, <\/em>\u201cGod with us.\u201d My soul, ring these words again, \u201cGod with us.\u201d Oh! it is one of the bells of heaven, let us strike it yet again: \u201cGod with us.\u201d Oh! it is a stray note from the sonnets of paradise: \u201cGod with us.\u201d Oh! it is the lisping of a seraph: \u201cGod with us.\u201d Oh! it is one of the notes of the singing of Jehovah, when he rejoices over his Church with singing: \u201cGod with us.\u201d Tell it, tell it, tell it; this is the name of him who is born to-day. . . . <\/span><\/p>\n

This is his name, \u201cGod with us,\u201d\u2014God with us, by his incarnation, for the august Creator of the world did walk upon this globe; he who made ten thousand orbs, each of them more mighty and more vast than this earth, became the inhabitant of this tiny atom. He, who was from everlasting to everlasting, came to this world of time, and stood upon the narrow neck of land betwixt the two unbounded seas. \u201cGod with us\u201d: he has not lost that name \u2013 <\/span>Jesus had that name on earth, and he has it now in heaven. He is now<\/strong> \u201cGod with us.\u201d Believer, he is God with<\/strong> thee, to protect thee; thou art not alone, because the Saviour is with thee. Put me in the desert, where vegetation grows not; I can still say, \u201cGod with us.\u201d Put me on the wild ocean, and let my ship dance madly on the waves; I would still say, \u201cImmanuel, God with us.\u201d Mount me on the sunbeam, and let me fly beyond the western sea; still I would say, \u201cGod with us.\u201d Let my body dive down into the depths of the ocean, and let me hide in its caverns; still I could, as a child of God, say, \u201cGod with us.\u201d Ay, and in the grave, sleeping there in corruption, still I can see the footmarks of Jesus; he trod the path of all his people, and still his name is \u201cGod with us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But would you know this name most sweetly, you must know it by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. <\/em>Has God been with us? . . . <\/span>What is the use of coming to chapel, if God is not there? . . . Unless the Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ, and applies them to our heart, it is not \u201cGod with us.\u201d Otherwise, God is a consuming fire. It is \u201cGod with us\u201d that I love. . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

Now ask yourselves, do you know what \u201cGod with us\u201d means? Has it been God with you in your tribulations, by the Holy Ghost’s comforting influence? Has it been God with you in searching the Scriptures? Has the Holy Spirit shone upon the Word? Has it been God with you in conviction, bringing you to Sinai? Has it been God with you in comforting you, by bringing you again to Calvary? Do you know the full <\/strong>meaning of that name Immanuel, \u201cGod with us\u201d? No; he who knows it best<\/strong> <\/span>knows little of it. Alas, he who knows it not at all is ignorant indeed; so ignorant that his ignorance is not bliss, but will be his damnation. Oh! may God teach you the meaning of that name Immanuel, \u201cGod with us\u201d! . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cImmanuel.\u201d It is wisdom’s mystery, \u201cGod with us.\u201d Sages look at it, and wonder; angels desire to see it; the plumb-line of reason cannot reach half-way into its depths. . . . \u201cGod with us.\u201d It is hell’s terror. Satan trembles at the sound of it; . . . the black-winged dragon of the pit quails before it. Let him come to you suddenly, and do you but whisper that word, \u201cGod with us,\u201d back he falls, confounded and confused. Satan trembles when he hears that name, \u201cGod with us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the labourer’s strength; how could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake, . . . if that one word were taken away? \u201cGod with us.\u201d ‘Tis the sufferer’s comfort, ’tis the balm of his woe, ’tis the alleviation of his misery, ’tis the sleep which God giveth to his beloved, ’tis their rest after exertion and toil. Ah! and to finish, \u201cGod with us,\u201d\u2014’tis eternity’s sonnet, ’tis heaven’s hallelujah, ’tis the shout of the glorified, ’tis the song of the redeemed, ’tis the chorus of angels, ’tis the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky. \u201cGod with us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, a happy Christmas to you all; and it will be a happy Christmas if you have God with you. . . . Go your way, rejoice to-morrow; but, in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem; let him have first place in your hearts. <\/span>(me) All glory be to HIM \u2013 Immanuel, God with us.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This is an excerpt from Charles Spurgeon’s sermon on Isaiah 7:14-15, “The Birth of Christ,” preached December 24, 1854. I read this excerpt at our Christmas Eve service. You can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[296,625,780,1001],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","tag-christmas","tag-god-with-us","tag-immanuel","tag-meaning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}