Let us look today to Matthew
chapter one. I have a message this morning
that it's a message for every person
here today, and I pray that God will give us all ears. to hear
and hearts to receive the truth. Very simple truth about the birth
of Christ, what it means. We'll begin our reading in verse
18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ
was born on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph, Before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being
a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary, thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Now all this was done that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child. and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which, being
interpreted, is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from
sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took
unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth
her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. I want us to
consider today three words. I want to build a message around
these three words, three very important words. God with us. You see, in verse 23, we're told
the meaning of the word Emmanuel. Emmanuel, what does it mean? God with us. And I have four things to point
out to us this morning along this line. First, now, now is
God with us to be our brother. Let that sink in. Now. when Jesus Christ was born so
many years ago in Bethlehem. Now is God with us to be our
brother. Now we recognize, of course,
this has a very special meaning, God with us. God has always been
with us, or maybe I should say we have always been with God. Because there's no escaping from
the presence of God, from the creation of the world, from the
creation of the first man, Adam. God has always been in every
place and all men, as the scripture says, we have always lived and
moved and had our being in him. That's you. That's you. Every person here this morning,
you live. You have your being in Christ. Without him, you would have no
life. You live and have your being
in him. The psalmist David was inspired
by God the Holy Spirit to write this about the impossibility
of escaping the presence of God. the utter impossibility of escaping
the presence of God. When we read here, God with us,
what I'm saying, we recognize this is a special thing, a special
meeting because God has always been with us. We've always been
with God, all men, because there's no escaping His presence. He fills all space. He's everywhere
present. The psalmist said it like this,
whither shall I go from thy spirit? Where could I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? If I send up into heaven, thou
art there. Behold, if I make my bed in hell,
that is in the grave, thou art there. He's everywhere present. So when we read here in this
verse of scripture that this is the fulfillment of this prophecy,
Emmanuel, God with us, we recognize this has a very special meaning. God with us. They refer to the
fact that the eternal son of God came into this world as a
man. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. In the fullness of the time,
God sent forth his son made of a woman. He's with us in a special
sense. He became a man. In the book of Proverbs, we read
this verse of scripture. A friend loveth at all times
and a brother is born for adversity. God with us now. When Mary brought
forth her son, now God is with us to be our brother. A friend
loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity. Who can
find a friend or who can find a brother that loveth at all
times? It's only him. It's only this
one who is God with us, who is a brother who loveth at all times,
who is born for adversity. Only about this one may this
truly be said, that great passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 13,
which describes love. And one of the things it says
about love is this, love Never fail it. Love never fail it. That can only be true of this
one who was born as God with us. Only God's great love could
cause God to be with us in this matter or in this manner rather. The love of God the Father in
giving his son. Now we know that God exists in
a trinity of persons. You say, well, I don't understand
that. You don't have to understand
it. But I pray that God gives you faith and grace to believe
it because it's revealed in the scriptures. And God the Father
shows his great love in sending his son into this world. And
God the Son shows his great love in coming into this world, being
made flesh. And God the Holy Spirit shows
his great love in preparing the body that he assumed from the
virgin. So first, now is God with us
to be our brother. Let that sink in. I know, I know
you've heard this many times, haven't you? But don't let it
become old hat. This is the greatest news that
has ever been brought to this world. God with us. The second thing now is God with
us to be the surety and the mediator of a better covenant. Let me
just camp here for a minute. Now is God with us to be the
surety and mediator of the better covenant. What is a covenant? God is a covenant God. What is
a covenant? Some people go to churches for
years and they never even so much as hear that there be a
covenant. And yet the scriptures reveal
that This is all important, the covenant. What is a covenant? It's a contract, if you please. It's a pact. And there's a surety of this
better covenant and a mediator. The scripture says in Hebrews
7 and verse 22, by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better
covenant. And then in the next chapter
there in Hebrews 8 and verse 6, but now hath he obtained a
more excellent ministry by how much more also he is a mediator
of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. Now the word better suggests
comparison, doesn't it? Better. This is a better covenant
of which he is a surety and the mediator. A better covenant. It's also called the new covenant. It's called the everlasting covenant.
It's called the covenant of peace because it's only through this
covenant that any man, woman, boy or girl will ever know peace
with God, have peace with God. And it's called a covenant of
life because this is the way eternal life is brought unto
the fallen sons of Adam. And we, of course, refer to it
as a covenant of grace, a contract of grace, because everything
about it speaks to us of God's sovereign grace, of God's unmerited
favor that He would do this for such ones as you and I. He's a surety of a better testament. Now, the word surety literally
means one who draws near. One who draws near. And in that
eternal counsel of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit, it is the eternal Son who drew near to the Father and
agreed to be the surety of this covenant. I said that better,
the word better means there's a contrast with another covenant. And what is that other covenant?
That other covenant is a covenant of words. It's a conditional covenant.
It's a covenant that God made with Adam when he created him. And it was conditioned upon Adam's
obedience. There was no surety for that
covenant. Why? Because Adam had no sin. And there was no mediator for
that covenant. Why? Because God and man were
in agreement. God was holy. Man, God's creature. was holy and there was fellowship
and communion between God and man as he was placed there in
the Garden of Eden. We might say that Adam was the
surety of that covenant because it all depended upon his obedience. His obedience not to eat from
the fruit of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And
you and I know that he disobeyed. He broke that covenant of works. But this is a better covenant.
The Lord Jesus Christ is a surety of a better covenant, better
for you and I, because it's not dependent upon our works. It is dependent upon His works,
upon His obedience. upon HIS pleasing God in our
stead and in our place. It s a better covenant. He s
the surety of a better covenant. You know, just as soon as Adam
sinned and broke that covenant of works, what happened? He was
driven out of the garden. That s the way the Scripture
reads, isn t it? God drove man out of the garden
and God placed there a flaming sword cherubims with flaming
sword that turned every which way so that man could no longer
come to the tree of life, picturing to you and I that no man, no
woman, no boy, no girl is ever going to earn eternal life by
our obedience. Why? Because we're fallen, we're
sinful. God placed that flaming sword
there as a testimony No one would come back to God apart from a
mediator, apart from a surety. Now, when we think of a surety,
there's two passages of scripture, one in the Old Testament, one
in the New Testament, where we really see the work of a surety
brought out. In the Old Testament, it's Judah.
Remember, Jacob had 12 sons. One of them was sold into slavery.
He's down in Egypt. He's the prime minister, has
control over everything. Of course, they didn't know that.
And Jacob sends 10 of his sons down there. There was a famine
in the land. And they bought corn, wheat,
so they might survive. And Joseph told them, you'll
never see my face again unless you bring your younger brother,
Benjamin, with you. Well, there was no way. There
was no way that Jacob was going to send Benjamin to Egypt. But when the famine got so severe,
his other sons told their father, Jacob, we've got to go back and
buy more corn, or we're going to all starve here in this land. We'll go and buy. Well, we've
got to take Benjamin with us. The man told us, you're not going
to see my face. You're not ever going to buy
corn here again unless you bring your younger son with you. That
will prove, Joseph told them, that will prove to me that you're
not spies who've come into the land to search it out. Well,
Judah, one of Jacob's sons, told his dad, Dad, You send Benjamin
with us. You let him go with us. And I'll
be a surety for him. I'll be a surety for him. I'll
make sure that either Benjamin comes back or I stay in Egypt. I'll be a surety for him. I'll
set him here before you. I'll bring him here. And you'll
see your son Benjamin once again. That's a beautiful picture, a
beautiful type. You know, we have so many types
in the scriptures, in the Old Testament, but they all picture
to us a way of salvation, don't they? They all picture to us
the Lord Jesus Christ and his saving work. Then I said there's
a picture in the New Testament, and that's a picture of Paul,
isn't it? When he wrote to Philemon. Philemon had a servant whose
name was Onesimus. And evidently, Onesimus stole
something from his master, and he ran away. He ran away to Rome. And wouldn't you know, in the
providence of God, somehow he crossed the path with Paul. Paul
was a prisoner in Rome. And Paul, preaching the gospel
there, God saved Onesimus. And Paul sends him back to his
master. And he told him this, if he oweth
thee anything, put that on my account. I will repay it. And basically, that's what the
Lord Jesus Christ promised his assurity, to take all the sins
of his covenant people, all of the sins of those people that
God the Father had chosen in eternal election and given unto
him. The son, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, put that on my account. I will repay it. And at the cross,
at the cross, we know the scripture says he bore our sins in his
own body on the tree. And then as a mediator, we have
a picture of that in the Old Testament as well. Moses served
as a mediator for the nation of Israel. When they came out
of Egypt and they came to Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb, the scriptures
tell us that God came down on that mountain. And it describes
the mountain like this. It was fire, blackness and darkness,
tempest, and the sound of a trumpet. And God had warned them, through
Moses, you put a band around the mountain, Make sure that
no one touches the mountain, not even a beast, not even an
animal can touch this mountain. Why? Because God came down on
that mountain. You see, the holiness of God. And the people, they were so
afraid, and they asked Moses, you go up, you go up, and you
receive the message from God, and you bring that message back
to us. And Moses served in that way
as a mediator. The law was given to Moses, and
he brought it back to the people. The people, the scripture says,
entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. They could not endure that which
was commanded, the presence of God. We live in a day, and it's
sad to say this, but you know it's so, Most people today have
no fear of God. They have no reverence of God,
no awe of God. The little God that's preached
in most places today, He doesn't deserve any reverence. He really
doesn't. He's a God that you control.
He's a God that is in your hands for you to do with Him what you
please. That's not the true and living
God. That's not the God of the Bible. That's not the God and
father of our Lord Jesus Christ. No, we are in his hands. We're in his, it's not a question.
What will you do with Jesus? The question is, what will Jesus
do with you? What will he do with me? Man's
got this so turned out and so turned around so convoluted today
that that when men hear the truth about God, they think, well,
that's not my God. And they're right. It's not.
It's not. Because they've heard of a God
that's only in the imagination of men. That's all he is. The God of the Bible says, I
purpose, and I do it. He doesn't say, I'm going to
try to do this. I'm going to give it my best shot to do this. Oh, no. I purpose it, and it
shall be accomplished. God with us. Now is God with
us as a surety and as a mediator of a better covenant. Third. Now is God with us when
the Lord Jesus Christ was born. Now is God with us to be the
one acceptable sacrifice for sin. The one acceptable sacrifice
for sin. God requires a sacrifice for
your sins, for my sins. If you give your body to be burned,
would that be sufficient? If you give your firstborn to
be burned, would that be sufficient? No. There's only one acceptable
sacrifice for sins that God will accept. And it is the sacrifice
that he has provided. That is the sacrifice of his
son. And I was preparing these notes. I thought about this passage
in the Old Testament in the book of Samuel. There was a high priest
by the name of Eli. And Eli had two sons who were
wicked, Hophni and Phinehas. You see, grace doesn't flow in
the bloodline, does it? It really doesn't. It doesn't
flow from father to son and son to his child. No. It's in the purpose of God. And
this man, Eli, had two sons who were very wicked men. And Eli
told them, I want you to listen to what he told them, very good
reasoning. He said this to his sons, if
one man sinned against another, the judge shall judge him. You sinned against another man?
We've got judges here in the nation, and the judge will judge
you. But he didn't stop there. He
said, but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for
him? See, our sin, your sin, my sin,
all sin is ultimately against God. You say, well, I told a
lie. What if that were the only sin
that you'd ever committed? You know it's not. But what if
it were? The only sin, one sin in all
your life that you have committed, you told a lie one time. That one sin is enough to consign
you to hell forever. Because in breaking one commandment,
you've broken the whole law. Every sin is against God. God
is infinite. So if you only had one sin, that
one sin would be infinite in degree. As Eli asked his wicked
sons this question, if a man sinned against the Lord, who
shall entreat for him? One thing to sin against another
person, another individual, but to sin against the Lord? Who's
going to help you here? Who's going to entreat for you?
Where are you going to find a sacrifice to satisfy Almighty God? We know there's only one God
with us. God with us. When our Lord was
baptized, he came up out of the water, and the scripture said,
There was a voice from heaven which said, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. Did you notice he didn't say
with whom I'm well pleased? He was, that's true, isn't it? This is my beloved son. He could
have said with whom I'm well pleased, that's true. But he
didn't say with whom, he said in whom. in whom I am well pleased."
Wouldn't you like for God to be able to say that about you?
I sure would. I sure would like that. For God
to be able to look at me, a holy Lord God that he is, and here
I am. From the crown of my head to
the soles of my feet, full of sin, iniquity, wickedness. And for God to say to me, I'm
well pleased. You know how that's possible?
To be in Christ. To be in Christ. This is my beloved
Son in whom and everyone else who is in Christ. I'm well pleased. Paul put it like this in Romans
chapter 8 in verse 1. There is therefore now. Now. We say this today. I say this
today. I repeat this. It was true when
Paul wrote it. It's true today. Now. Today. December the 25th, 2022. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather,
that is risen again, who is at the right hand of the Father.
In whom? God with us. Now, here's the last point I
want to make. Now is God with us, confirming
the truth of God's word. I want you to look at this verse
again here that we read at the beginning in Matthew chapter
one. In verse 22, the writer says, All this was done, all this was
done, Mary being with child, the angel in a dream speaking
to Joseph. And yes, God did speak unto the
fathers in divers manners, but hath in these last days spoken
unto us in his son? And he spoke to Joseph in a dream
and told him not to be afraid to take Mary to be his wife. Why? because the child that she
was carrying was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. We read
about that in Luke chapter one. But now the writer says, now
all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
of the Lord by the prophet saying. Now which prophet is he talking
about? Isaiah, Isaiah chapter seven
verse 14. 600 years, 600 years before the birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ, give or take a few years, Isaiah,
inspired by God the Holy Spirit, said, behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bring forth a child. All this happened that the scripture
might be fulfilled. Now is God with us confirming
the truth of God's word? Actually, the night the Lord Jesus Christ
was born, I said this 600 years, the prophet predicted his birth. We go back a long way, 4,000
years. 4,000 years. And as God said, the seed of
the woman. Here he is, the seed of the woman. He didn't have a human father.
God did something that has never been done before, never done
since. A woman should be with a son,
a child, he should be called the seed of the woman. Every
one of us, we're all the seed of some man. But not him. The seed of the woman. What I
want to point out is this, that the word of God, this Bible that
you have in your hands, and I was speaking to my wife the other
day and I said, isn't it amazing when you stop and think about
it, that all that God has for us really to know is right here
in a book that I can carry in my hand. Isn't that amazing? I mean, I've got some books,
volumes of books. But here we have the Word of
God in one book. And this is kind of a big one.
I know some of you have one that's much smaller. They tell me with
the computers and all that, you can put a Bible on just the point
of a pen. And it's all that God has for
us here in His Word. Compact. And yet all we need
to know, and Satan hates this book. He does. He hates the word
of God. And he would try to convince
you that this word, God's word, you can't count on it. You can't
rely upon it. But I'm here to tell you, my
friends, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ shows, yes, God's
word is true. And just as he said in the beginning
that he would come who would bruise the head of the serpent,
so he has said he's coming again. He's coming again. And so the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, come Lord Jesus. We know he's coming again. We
don't know when. He said, in my father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare
a place for you, I will come again. He's coming again. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it
were today? Emmanuel, God with us. Now there's two other scriptures,
and I'm not going to go into this, but the Bible says, This
text tells us God with us. There's another text that says
God for us. And there's another verse which
says God in us. Amen. God for us, or God with
us rather, God for us and God in us. Christ in you, the hope
of glory. I pray that if you're here today
without Christ, you don't know him, you don't know if you know
him, you'd get serious. God doesn't
promise you another day, another hour. And I tell you, eternity,
there's no end to it. Those who know him, those who
are in him are accepted. We look forward to his coming.
But if you're here today without Christ, you have no reason whatsoever
to look forward to the coming of Christ. Because in your condition,
it will mean eternal damnation. Eternally separated from God. Nothing worse. Nothing could
be worse than to be eternally cut off from God. You say, I
don't believe that. It makes no matter whether you
believe it or not. It's true. God said it. He is the truth. Let every man
be a liar. God is the truth. I pray that
the Lord would bless His word to all of us here this morning.