“The Case for Christ - Emmanuel” - (part 7)

John’s triumphant opening in his Gospel was an astounding announcement to this world.

Listen to it again: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us...full of grace and truth.’

This is an amazing, wonderful revelation of Jesus coming among us in the form of human flesh.

Without the revelation of Christ’s Incarnation, we have nothing more than a biography of His life, nothing more than a recounting of some good man who was virtuous and did exemplary things to help people in their oppressions and woes.

But John’s disclosure of His Incarnation tells it all.

As we noted last week, God gave Himself in Jesus - Jesus was His Divine Gift to the world Who pitched ‘...His tent by us, to live where we live’, to experience all we experience.

And, this was not so much that He, in His humanity, would become our compassionate Advocate, as integral and important a part as that is in the divine blueprint.

But - and please note this carefully and be sure to give it much thought and consideration - His Divine Gift, this ‘Holy Thing’, held an important, distinctive promise in His coming.  

Look at it with me in Isaiah 7:14 where it was first given: ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name, Emmanuel, which is being interpreted, ‘God with us’.’

God was acting copiously: His Son, Who is of the same Substance as God, in His Divinity, was given!

And what was this Divine Gift broadcasting to the world?

It was boldly trumpeting the promise of His divine and continual Presence with man!

What more lavish Gift could He impart to man?

What more could we ask for - the Gift of His Son Whose Life is the Holy Being in and with man!

If you read through the context of this Isaiah passage in chapter seven, you will see that this was the prophetic word from God spoken through Isaiah to the king of Judah, King Ahaz.

When this particular prophecy came to King Ahaz, it was at a precarious time.

The capital city, Jerusalem, was about to be attacked by the allied forces of Israel and Syria.

They were planning to overthrow the reigning family of David from the throne there.

King Ahaz was well aware of this threat and, of course, needed to ready himself and his armies for the attack.
     
The prophet, Isaiah, came and reminded Ahaz that God would keep His covenant of preserving the throne for David’s seed - he need not fret about it!

God would stand with Ahaz in the siege if Ahaz would seek the Lord out for His presence and guidance to the assault.

Ahaz, however, did not respond favorably at all - he had his own plans, his plans of using his own arsenal - he did not need the Lord’s hand with him.

Besides, he would form an alliance with the great power of Assyria that would increase his chances of victory.

Yes - ‘some trust in chariots and some in horses...’ - that is precisely what Ahaz did!

But - Isaiah saw right through this vain, heathen-inspired man who had such reluctance to trust the Lord.

To encourage him to step toward the right direction, Isaiah suggested he ask God for a sign to let him know that God would honor His Word.

‘But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.’

It sounded pious but what a shameful exhibit of hypocrisy it was!

Actually what he was saying was: ‘No - I do not need a sign from God - the resources I have are sufficient, are adequate enough - I will just do it my own way!’

In Jn 8:37, Jesus pinpointed the exact reason for such a Pharisaical attitude when He said: ‘...because My Word hath no place in you.’

But, Isaiah kept the course and told him, ‘Well - the Lord is going to give you a sign anyway!’

You see - nothing - nothing - gets beyond the sight of God’s vision to see what is in the heart of man.

Ahaz - as we all do - needed a ‘sign’ to show Ahaz how powerless he really is without the presence of God with him - man just cannot deliver himself without the ‘Sign’ of God!

Let me just say this quickly - and hold on to this for it is important: in any siege - in any siege - in the spiritual battles we face, the presence of God is absolutely vital!

We will come back to this in a moment.

Isaiah went on to reveal to Ahaz what the ‘Sign’ would be: ‘...a virgin shall conceive, and bare a Son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is ‘God with us’.’

Now, let us go ahead to Mt 1:22-23.

These same words of Isaiah were now being thrust forward to New Testament times.

God’s prophecy to Ahaz was going to be fulfilled in the Virgin Birth of Christ.

An angelic Being was sent from God to announce the actual coming of His Divine Gift of Emmanuel.

Ahaz ignored Isaiah’s prophecy then and men today generally ignore this parallel passage in Matthew uttered by the angel of the Lord. 

Ahaz’s evil nature, like a disease, has passed from one generation to the next!

And - each generation has come and gone, and with each new generation there has always been that pull of sinful domination and the pollution of its own hereditary natures.   

And - when we take time to listen to the surface sounds of each generation, we see such a pitiful longing in each for  some kind of fulfillment, some measure of completion of life.

It is a longing for some break - some deferment - in the tyrannical affairs of human nature. 

We see it in our day - it is a generation of all kinds of outrageous affairs and pursuits - you know them well - I do not need to enumerate!

There is a relentless searching for an identity, for something that completely satisfies, for an inner, lasting contentment - anything - anywhere at all - just to get off this constant, driving treadmill that persists in its search.

The world comes up with no end of ideas to keep itself going - round and round - over and over again.

And - if you would probe into these ideas, you would find that there is really nothing new under the sun in them: they are just a rehash and an expansion of ancient heathen thought!

And, yet, the old refrain echoes itself down through the ages, as it did with Ahaz - ‘No - I do not need a ‘Sign’ from God - I do not need His hand upon me - I do not need His means of deliverance from this endless drive for completion!’

What a lack Ahaz suffered! What a needless, painful deficiency he had when he refused God’s ‘Sign’ of His Presence!

But - thankfully - God thrust His Word forward and we see it in these New Testament times - Christ’s virgin birth opens the door to man’s insufficiency: ‘God with us’!

And, here is where we have come to the final issue of all things.

I say ‘thank God for Ahaz’ - do you know why?

Ahaz and his insistence in rejecting the presence of God can show us how shamelessly insincere and deceptive we can be and not even give it one honest, heartfelt thought!

Remember Job’s caustic remark in Job 21:14-15: ‘Therefore say they unto God: ‘we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways...’ (or: ‘...we do not choose to learn Your ways’).

What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit should we have if we pray unto Him?’ 

‘We do not choose to learn Your ways! What good does it do us?’ 

That is man’s temper!

That was Ahaz - he could stand alone, he could fend for himself.

And he could do it on the pretense that he was serving the God of his fathers!

He ‘desired not the knowledge of God’s ways’ - not to have God’s presence with him - God’s Word had no place in him.

And his predicament became threefold.

How?  What did he not have that were the most significant factors in the battle?

First, he could not offer any lasting or real assurance of hope and comfort in his mortal ways - no - not even a shallow and quick victory could have done that!

Second, which is as weighty as the first, he could not give the promise of divine approval that would cover his conflicts - no - that, too, was not in his power to give.

And, third, he most certainly could not guarantee his armies any promise of the presence of God among them - he had brazenly negated it altogether!

Not only did he cancel it - but he refused the dominion of ‘Emmanuel’ God had pledged.

He rebuffed the Lord - yes, he actually rebuffed the Lord - he disregarded and overlooked Him - he rejected Him - he flatly refused to acknowledge and embrace ‘Emmanuel’ with him.

Now - tell me - is that not a serious matter? Is that not the issue of all things?

Please listen carefully - please hear me well and - do not think you have heard this all before - that is the surest way to miss the point of God’s Divine Gift to us.

And - this is where I must refer you to the passage that speaks of those who call out to the Lord, ‘Lord, Lord, have I not done this - and have I not done that - and the Lord will say to them: ‘Depart from Me ...I never knew you!’

What a spiritual catastrophe that would be?

Now - let me go on.

The Son of God, manifested upon earth as a human, did not come to man as some sort of an unapproachable, supernatural Being Who men could not touch.

For this, He became One as we are, and therefore, is a faithful, and capable Advocate for us when we do miss the mark.

And what is the significance of this?

We find the answer in Heb 2:18: ‘For, because He Himself, in His humanity, has suffered in being tempted, tested, and tried, He is able immediately to run to the cry of those who are being tempted...’. 

How is He able to immediately run to the cry of those who need His Advocacy?

And, here is the issue that is so important: Christianity, in general, has failed in not understanding and in not embracing this.

So, please listen - and listen well!

He took on Himself humanity, and we can relate to Him in His humanity - that we know beyond any doubt.

But - and I repeat - but - it is His Divinity that is the agency for release from sin’s hold.

And, - just as important - not only is there release from the hold sin has. 

But - but - there is also a sure, unfailing release from the stronghold in man’s thinking where he imagines - he imagines - he has no need of God’s ever-present deliverance and help from sin’s hold!

The reason we are still the same way in following our old sinful ways and habits that we were doing five, ten, even twenty years ago, or who knows how many years now, is because we are not seeing ‘God with us’ in Christ.

We do not understand that ‘God with us’ in Christ is the power we need to overcome these habitual and sinful ways.

And when I speak about His power, I am not speaking of magic nor of the Santa Claus mentality some Christians have of the power of Christ.

I said earlier that in any siege - in any siege - the presence of God is absolutely vital!

It is a precarious time - a very pivotal time in spiritual progress!

For, believe me - we are talking about forces that do not capitulate, do not surrender, do not give up easily - they call for nothing less than the might and the ascendancy of Christ in us!     

Remember - when Christ came, He took upon Himself all sin.

And, when He did that, He made sin an unthinkable course of action - it is not an option - ‘to sin or not to sin’ - for any believer! - I repeat - it is not an option!

To refuse to ‘put away’ sin, and to refuse to ‘put on Christ’ is to rebuff God’s presence with us in Christ.

It is - and I am putting this very strongly, I know - but, it is shameless Ahaz-animated heathenism!

He should have been whirling with a powerful disturbance within himself when he flatly refused God’s Presence with him.

And every Christian ought to be also so affected! 

Not to heed the alarm would be eternally disastrous: to hear: ‘depart from Me - I never knew you!’ would be a terrible thing!
  
If we are not seeing ourselves getting stronger and more spiritually healthy day by day, week by week, year by year, in the power of Christ’s abiding presence, we are deceiving ourselves when we call ourselves Christians!

Yes - we go from ‘strength to strength’ and ‘...he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.’ (Job 17:9; Ps 84:7)

If we continue and, I repeat - if we continue - to feel comfortable in exposing our rotten selves to our spouses, to our children, to our parents, to our bosses, to anyone at anytime, then we are rebuffing the presence of God in Christ in us.

And - just as the inner man is judged, the outer man is concurrently being judged

For - if we still feel comfortable in exposing our bodies unbecomingly and/or using our bodies for any other reason than the temple of the Holy Spirit, then we are rebuffing the presence of God in Christ in us.

‘Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin.’ (Jn 8:34)

We all need to heed this - all of us!

Listen - Emmanuel, God with us, is no small thing! We live under His constant presence of support and guidance.

It is Emmanuel Who reassures with the hope that He will deal aright with these things for: ‘...He is able to give immediate help to those who are exposed to temptation...’.

‘...I will strengthen...you...I will hold you and retain you with My victorious right hand of rightness and justice.’ (Isa 41:10) 

It is in Emmanuel Whose divine approval rests upon man, Who gives ‘...wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore.’ (1 Kings 4:29)

Yes - The Incarnate Word came in Emmanuel - God with us - Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise of this!

I must close, but let me just say this one more thing. 

Now - I keep admonishing you to think about it - believe it - pray about these things we are considering concerning Jesus Christ our Lord - embrace them - and I hope each one is doing that deep within the heart.

To embrace them by making them your own - as Ahaz should have done - is just to trust the Word that has been given from the hand of God.

And that gives His hand free rein - it gives His Hand the place and the authority to reveal His effectual Presence.

He is an ever-present help...and ‘He is faithful, by Whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord!’ 

So very seriously and deeply, I urge you to consider the Ahaz-animated life and his independent, heathen ways as dead!

And esteem only ‘Emmanuel’ - God’s presence in Christ - the Incarnate Word with us. 

Meditate upon these things; (take pains with these things: make these matters your business and be absorbed in them) give yourself wholly to them; that thy profiting, [your progress, your improvement] may appear [or: be evident] to all.’ (1 Tim 4:15)

May the Lord bless this to your hearts in an abundant measure this week!   Amen!

So be it!

Let us pray!