Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 1, and we'll read through our text, verses 22 and 23. 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. Matthew chapter 1 verses 22 and 23. and it is referring to the passage that we read in Isaiah, in Isaiah 7, verses 10 to 16, a prophecy that was made some 750 years before this time, before our Lord came, and here it is fulfilled.

Emmanuel, God with us, is the thought and the message for this morning. the amazing truth and reality of the Eternal God to be with us.

I want to just make some comments before we come to some clear points. But firstly, to really consider what and who God is, if we are to realize the great blessing and wonder of God with us as dwelling upon this earth, we need to remember who God is. When we think of God as revealed in the Word, He is the Eternal God. So He is a God that has no beginning and no end. The easy way that we can really comprehend that is just with a ring, a wedding ring or anything, that you can't see a beginning or an end. Or if you take the world and you go round from the east to the west, and it all joins together, there is no end. But we cannot grasp eternity. But when we think of God in those terms, and then think that he is going to come in time, and to be where there is beginnings and end, then we see the wonder of what actually was brought about with God with us.

We think of the Lord as sovereign, all that He does, He doesn't consult anyone else, He is in complete control, There is none that move him, who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass when God commandeth it not. And it is this God that was made flesh and dwelt among us.

We think of a God that is everywhere, present at one time, omnipresent. Right through this world, right through the universe, there's no place where God is not. And we have this set forth in the Psalm 139, where the psalmist David speaks of God's presence, that there's no place where he is not. He says, Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me. thy right hand shall hold me." And David had that sense of the presence of God in every place, and yet when we think of Immanuel God with us, then he is coming to one place, and we read of him moving from one place to another upon this earth.

What is actually involved in that incarnation in comparison with His Godhead. And we must, and we look at this in more detail later with God manifest in the flesh, we must remember that when He was manifest in the flesh, that He was to be truly God and truly man.

But I want first to really get a picture of God as he is, in all his holiness, there cannot be any part of sin or unholiness that is with God, perfectly pure, perfectly holy, thrice holy as we have set forth in Ezekiel. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. And we have him as being righteous, everything that he does, He's good, he's righteous, he's just, there's no fault in him, there's nothing that it can be said that he's not just. He is so in everything that he does. He's all-powerful. The power that he has, there is nothing that he is unable to do. The great power and might of God. And of course, these things have been seen and known, demonstrated through history. We'll mention this a bit later as well.

But when we think of God with us, sometimes we lose sight of the greatness of God and the wonder of the miracle of what it means for God to be with us. And one thing we must never lose sight of, and I don't want to lose sight of this morning, is the reason why he came. We can look at all of the facts, we can look at what God has done and how our Lord has come, but we must not lose sight that this is for sinners, this is for men and women and children to be saved, to be delivered from eternal condemnation, saved from their sins, we think of the word just before, our text, she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins.

Let us not look at the wonder of what God has done and just think well this is just for men and women generally, but it's for individuals, it's for individual sinners and to realize that in the miracle of this season of the year that we try to remember, and try to remember in a way we don't get hardened within.

Now, some perhaps have attended many carol services. They may have had many services and had read the same chapters we have just in Matthew and in Luke covering the birth of our Lord. And they may have heard these read many, many times. They're very familiar with us. And when that happens, sometimes we can get heartened. We fail to really realize what we're reading, a wonder we are reading, what a miracle we are reading. Sometimes when things are put perhaps in a different way than it comes through, we realise that. But our prayer should always be as we read these passages, Lord, Open thy word, make it more fresh, more real, make it so that it is applied to my heart.

It wouldn't help us if everyone else in the world was saved and we were lost. It must be a personal salvation, a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving the benefit and the blessing of what the Lord came to do.

When we think of our text, Immanuel God with us, and then we think of the one attribute as God being everywhere, omnipresent, then there is a distinction that is made. The whole idea is that this is a presence that is different than his omnipresence. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a great thing at all. Someone would say, well, he's always been with us. He is everywhere. He is with us. But it is in a different way, and we'll see that a bit later, in a very special way. And we need to remember that in many aspects of the Christian faith as well, because many people do get confused, and they think, well, God is everywhere. So why is it a special blessing when it is said that God is with us, or where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst? They will say, well, God is everywhere. It's not referring to God's presence in that way.

But in the very incarnation, it's pointing out There is a special way in which God's presence is, not just in, as the verse I quoted, used in church discipline, but wherever God's people are, unto him shall a gathering of the people be, and no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him. And of course, our Lord on earth, he was not in all places at once, he went from one place to another, and where the Lord was present was a special blessing to those that he visited. So I want to look at three points to confine our thoughts more carefully. First, God with us, God manifest in the flesh. And then secondly, God with us, his words and work. And thirdly, God with us in his people by his spirit and by His grace.

But firstly, God with us.

There is first the very coming of God to this world. I want to make a contrast right at the beginning here. In the Old Testament, there were several times when God was manifested to men as a man. Abraham had three angels, or three men, he saw three men come to him, and they came to him, and then they gave the promise of the seed, which was Isaac to be born, and then two went to Sodom and Gomorrah. We read that two angels went to Sodom and Gomorrah, to Abraham they appeared as men, And then when those two angels went to Sodom and Gomorrah, then we read, the Lord remained and talked with Abraham. He spoke to Abraham as a man to man. And yet that was in a vision, if you like, a pre-incarnation appearance, a spiritual appearance. And I mention this because this happened several times.

We have with Jacob when Esau was coming and he put his family over the brook and he wrestled with the angel. And he says, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And God changed his name. We read there, there wrestled a man with him to the breaking of the day. But God changed his name from Jacob to Israel because, "thou hast wrestled with God and with man, and hast prevailed." That is another pre-incarnation appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But again, the emphasis is, He is appearing just as a spirit, not real flesh. It is appearing as a man, but very different to what we have in our text, and we have the same with Gideon, we have the same with Manoah, and each time Gideon, Manoah, they asked for the name, but the answer was, why ask us after my name, seeing it is secret? Well, secret is one of the names that is given to the Lord, but here now in this chapter we are given his name, thou shalt call his name Jesus, no longer secret, he has a name, a name that was not used. Yes, in the form of Joshua it was used, the name was used, but not in this name until this time. And so there is a contrasting.

We're told in Hebrews that he took on him not the form of angels. Now the form of angels is just spirit, but the seed of Abraham. So He didn't take on Him the form of an animal. An animal just has a body, just flesh and no soul. But He took on Him the seed of Abraham. The seed of Abraham is body and soul. And the Lord came to redeem and to save His people from their sins, to redeem their souls and their bodies. When we die, when God's people die, their soul immediately returns to God that gave it. They are brought to be with the Lord. Stephen, when he was being martyred, looked up and he saw the Lord standing at the right hand of God to receive him. And yet when he died there, his body was still there on the earth. The same as the dying thief, the Lord said, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise. His soul was with the Lord in paradise. His body was still on the cross and our Lord's body laid in the tomb.

And so, we have a soul and body, and at the last day in the resurrection, then the body also shall be raised up new and joined with that soul, both marred by sin, both affected by sin, the soul is dead, the body is corrupt, it's going down to the grave. Dust thou art, unto thus thou shalt return, but there shall be a new creation, and the soul and body united with no conflict between them as perfect. And so the seed of Abraham is very important. This is why in this chapter here, Matthew, it begins the book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. And we read through that list. When we read it, I put in the Hebrew names. Those in Matthew here, they're using the Greek version of the names. But the emphasis is that the Lord Jesus Christ, as God manifest in the flesh, is the seed of Abraham. He took on him the form of those that he came to save and that he came to redeem. And it's very important for us to realise that. God manifest in the flesh.

Timothy, when he is written to by the Apostle Paul, we read in 1 Timothy, and chapter three, verse 16, "and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness." It is a mystery. We struggle to understand it. God was manifest in the flesh, or seen in the flesh, shown in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. But it is this first, God was manifest in the flesh.

And so those who would say, well, the Lord had some kind of different body than what we are. There are those who object and say, our Lord wasn't a real human, and that his soul, the place of the soul, was taken by his divinity, by his Godhead. No, he was truly man. And that is shown clearly when we see those pre-incarnation appearances. What is emphasized in the Word is that His coming was different, because He was truly born as we are born. The only difference was in His conception. That is why it is supposed that he was the son of Joseph, but God was his father. The Lord said to those that sought him when he was 12 years of age, when his mother said, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing, when he'd been three days away from them, found in the temple, he said, how sought ye me? Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business? very clearly referring not to Joseph, but to his Heavenly Father.

So the reality of God manifest in the flesh, a body has thou prepared me, formed in the womb like we were formed in the womb, and yet not conceived in the same way, but by overshadowing the Holy Spirit and so not tainted with sin as we are. This was the puzzle that Job wondered how it could be. How can there be that clean which is born of a woman? The promise in Garden of Eden was the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, but Job couldn't work out how it could be that there could be one born into this world that was not a sinner. And we know through the overshadowing the Holy Ghost of Mary, that that is how, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And so the reason again to be manifest in the flesh, in the line to Abraham, or line from Abraham, is that He might redeem those for whom He came as a near kinsman, that He would stand in their place, that He would live as they lived. And we come to that in our next point in a moment. But just to realize in this first point that our Lord truly walked this world as we do. He breathed its air, He ate its food, He was weary, lying in the ship asleep, weary at the well of Samaria. The Lord was subject to all those infirmities that are not sinful ones, that we have and that we know. And above all, when we think of what we said of God as being holy and pure, He that cannot look upon iniquity without utter abhorrence, He dwelt amongst men. And when we think of what was disparagingly said of him by the Jews, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them, publicans and sinners. The Lord said, how long shall I suffer you? How long shall I be with you? It's hard for us to realize what it must have been like for our Lord.

Maybe if we were to picture, if we were to go into London, and find the most wicked and sinful and evil places we could find and we go in and we hear their language and we see what they were doing and we had to be in there for a while and to endure that. We would get a little picture of the contrast of the holy pure God dwelling amongst sinners.

And yet this very thing that was cast at him should be of great comfort, great wonder to us that God should do that, that He should be manifest in such a way that our eyes can see Him. And though no pictures we see Him in the Word set forth.

Sometimes people might say, well, how do we know the truth of these things? But it can be illustrated by if we were asked about things that happened in our father's or grandfather's life, and we might tell them quite authoritatively what actually happened, but really, we did not see those things. We only know them by them being related to us, but because we know the witnesses, because we know our father and know our grandfathers, perhaps, then we believe it is as real to us as if we had seen it.

And we have in the Word those witnesses, and it's emphasized again and again, they're speaking what they actually saw and witnessed. And those that saw God manifest in the flesh, they saw Emmanuel, they saw God with us, God was with them. He walked with them, his disciples walked with him. They testify to the reality.

Also, the way the Jews so emphasize that Thou being a man, makest thyself God, they could not see any difference outwardly to the Lord than a natural man. They couldn't see, others could. We'll look at that in a moment. But may we realize this great wonder of what it is and to realize this was done for sinners, this was done for us, that the Lord should be made flesh and dwell among us, Emmanuel, God with us.

Onto then secondly; God with us, his words and work.

In the third of John, that beautiful chapter where our Lord speaks to Nicodemus about the need of the new birth. But come to the end of that chapter, and our Lord says this in verse 34, For he whom God has sent speaketh the words of God, For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

Again, I want to do a comparison. When we think of God dealing with men right from the beginning of the world through the history of the world, God has spoken. He's spoken by similitudes, he's spoken by prophets, he's spoken by dreams. He spoke in the inspired, infallible Word. It's not a new thing that the Eternal God, God of heaven and earth, speaks to men or communicates to men His will, His commandments, His Word.

All of this was done before God was manifest in the flesh, before He was Emmanuel. And so that then sets another difference, a weight that is put on this. Here is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and as we've just read, He is speaking the words of God. This is God speaking Not like the prophets, God speaking through them, this is God Himself speaking.

If ye have seen me, our Lord said, ye have seen my Father also. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth my Father that sent me. And so, again, the wonder of God with us is that men, like you and I, walked with the Lord. People heard Him speak, they saw His works, they heard man speak and heard it. This is the words of God, the words that I speak unto you, the Lord says in John 6, they are spirit and they are life. But it's not only the words of the Lord, but also His work.

Right from the beginning of the world, we read of His works. We see His works in creation. We see His work in the flood, His destruction of the old world. You see His work in Egypt, and in the signs and wonders there, and bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt. All of God's work, we can see, we can read of it.

But how different it is when God with us comes here, and then we start to see works that only God can do being done by a man. Our Lord said, the works that I do, they are they which testify of me. He reproved those that he worked the miracle of loaves and fishes, because they followed Him for the loaves and the fishes, not for the miracles. They couldn't see what was of much more value than to have loaves and fishes and to satisfy their natural bodies. That miracle told who it was that was doing it.

We're to be brought from God's gifts to the giver. We are to be brought from the words of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to God himself. In one sense, some of the Bibles that have the words of our Lord in red, they are emphasizing that. I don't like the practice myself because it gives the idea that other words that are not in red, they are not the words of God, but they are. The whole of the Bible is the word of God.

But what it is emphasizing, is that there was a time when upon this earth, God did speak to men, as man to man. It was said of Moses that God spoke to him face to face, and yet he didn't see. He only saw a similitude. When he passed by, he saw his back parts, a wonder to us. But here on earth, men were to see works. No man doeth the works that this man doeth. No man speaketh the words that this man speaketh."

In a way, we have the whole Old Testament showing us this is God's work, this is God's words. And then we have in the new, in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the man Christ Jesus, and we have the same authority, the same words, the same gracious words, the same wonderful words, and the same works.

When He arose after being asleep in the ship, and He arose and rebuked the winds and the waves, and there was a great calm. They said, what manner of man is this, that even the winds and the waves obey Him? And they saw then what he was, God, manifest in the flesh, by His words and by what He was doing.

And of course, It all culminated in the work of redemption, the work on Calvary's tree. All the types and shadows, all of the sacrifices, all of the offerings. God's presence with his people was seen by the fiery, cloudy pillar in the wilderness, by the ark, by those things that they were given, the ordinances that they were given.

But then we have the Lord coming, with his very real presence, the anti-type of all of those types and all of those shadows. And this is what is then set before us here. And then he goes to Calvary, and he offers himself up. The Lord said that Abraham saw my day and rejoiced at it, saw the day there would come one like his Isaac, like was portrayed by the ram, that would be slain, a real man that should be slain.

Those two on the way to Emmaus, they said, we trusted it should have been he that should have redeemed Israel. But he had redeemed, he had redeemed all of his people in that one day, in that one sacrifice and one offering as God and man in one person to suffer and bleed and die as a substitutionary offering for his people, for all who should believe and trust in his name. This is the work of God with us, a redemption that is wrought by God himself.

Our Lord in John 17, the beautiful high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, he says in verse 4, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do." A work of redemption, a work of salvation. And this is what he was to do in the world. He says in verse 13, of that same chapter, and now, come I to thee and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. The wonder of the incarnation; God with us in his work and in his words.

I want to look lastly, at God with us in his people.

We read in Colossians, Paul's epistle to the Colossians chapter one and verse 27. "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Going back to the Prayer of our Lord in John 17. You have in verse 23, "I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." Then in verse 26, "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."

A great mystery that the Lord should dwell and to be with his people. When he left them, he said, Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. The Lord's presence is not bodily, for he is ascended up into heaven, but it is through his Holy Spirit and by his grace. The Spirit shall receive mine and shall show it unto you. It is the mystery of the Lord coming and dwelling and walking with his people upon this earth, the Lord's very presence with them.

This was something that marked out the children of Israel, the typical people of God, that God was with them. That marked them out from every other nation that there was. Come out from among them, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. and I will receive you. You shall be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. And so the spirit that was in the prophets in some sense mirrored it, but the presence of the Lord now, it is formed in the hearts of his people. It is his spirit dwelleth within us. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

When the new birth is given, then it is the same as when the Lord came upon this earth. The Lord comes and forms himself in his people, joins himself to them, yoked together with them, walking together with them. Yes, his bodily presence is in heaven. We must remember that. And that again is a great, great miracle, because as God is everywhere, but as the same flesh and bones that hung upon the tree, they're not on this earth, they're in heaven, and the Lord will come again with power and great glory, and then we shall see him, and see him as he is. It is a terror to us to view God as great as he is, but when he is manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the hymns speaks of it as being that to see God out of Christ is a terror to us, but when we see Christ, then we see him who's made flesh, dwelt among us, and that we can comprehend those great things of God.

We read in Hebrews, we see not yet all things put unto him, But now we see Jesus, made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and of honour. And the Apostle Paul, he says, let us run the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. Our hopes, our sights are set in heaven where our expectation is.

He is there in heaven, as he prayed, Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. We shall also be brought there and be with him. May we know these things for ourselves, It is vital that we do. That we know that which is not known by the world.

The Lord was asked, why is it the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Why can't they? Because they cannot see him. And it is by faith that we know and believe the presence of the Spirit, the power of the Spirit in our own hearts, and what Christ has been made to us.

In Isaiah 53, we read that, naturally, he is as a root out of dry ground. There's no form or comeliness that we should desire him. And we see that while he was on earth, there were many that did not desire Him, they crucified Him through envy, they blasphemed His name, but there were some that did see who He was, that did see this was very God.

Some, like the Samaritan woman, He told very plainly, I that speak unto thee, am He, same as the man that was born blind. And to know personally that the Lord is precious. "Unto you which believe He is precious." Don't ever pass it by as a thing of no consequence.

If you see a beauty in Christ, If you are attracted and drawn to Him, If you feel your need of Him, if you feel a love to Him, a love to His people, a love to those who also walk in the same path, who feel they're sinners and need a Saviour, and see in Christ and see in this wonder of the incarnation, Emmanuel God with us, all that your soul needs.

If this is you, it is the Spirit that makes these things precious to us, and where they are precious, we have a beautiful token that we are of God, because we see and value and love the things of God, and as they are revealed to us here in the Scriptures of truth.

May the Lord bless this word to us. Amen.