The child of Christmas is Immanuel, God with us.

~~~

A title given to the child of Christmas comes in Matthew chapter 1 verse 23.  This is one of the great, great titles that he bears.  “‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’”  He is not only Jesus, He is Immanuel.  And to see that at this time of year is to see a great reality. 

Note that verse 23 is a quote from the Old Testament.  It is taken from Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14.  Here, the angel of the Lord speaking to Joseph quotes Isaiah 7:14. 

Let me tell you a little bit of background about that because you might wonder as you study the Bible why do you read along and all of a sudden, boom, here’s a prophecy about Messiah? 

Well, let me just give you a little bit of the background.  The scene in Isaiah chapter 7 is during the reign of King Ahaz in Judah. You remember that after Solomon’s life the kingdom was split, Israel and the north ten tribes, Judah in the south with just Judah and the tribe of Benjamin.  The northern kingdom was apostate.  The southern kingdom at times was true to Jehovah God.  It is in the southern kingdom that Isaiah is prophesying. It is in the southern kingdom that Ahaz is king.  Ahaz, by the way, is the son of one of the great kings, Uzziah. 

But Ahaz, though son of the great Uzziah, filled Jerusalem with idols.  He reinstated the worship of the pagan god Molech, which required, by the way, sacrificial burning of babies, and he burned his own baby on the altar to Molech.  He was so wicked and so evil that even wicked kings around him were upset at what he was doing. 

Two of them, a man named Rezin, who was king of Syria, and a man named Pekah, who was ruling over the area of Israel, that territory, decided to get rid of Ahaz.  So these two kings, Rezin and Pekah, were going to move against Ahaz to get him out.  In the face of such a threat, he decided to strengthen his hand, not by turning to God to preserve the Davidic line and preserve the people, but he decided to turn to the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser, feeling that if he made an alliance with this great Assyrian monarch, Rezin and Pekah would think a long time before they would attack him because of the formidable nature of this man and his powerful army.

In fact, he was so adamant about it that he went and plundered the temple, stole all the gold and silver and gave it to Tiglath-Pileser to buy him and buy his allegiance.  It was precisely at that time that God said, “Isaiah, you need to go have a talk with Ahaz.”  And so God sent Isaiah to Ahaz to confront him, to tell him not to trust the Assyrians, but trust God, the living God. In spite of all of his evil, he said, “God will preserve your people and God will preserve the Davidic line.  He will deliver you from those two kings.  You don’t need this alliance with the Assyrian.”  Ahaz refused to listen.  And it’s at that juncture that the prophet said this.  “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel.”

What’s he saying?  How does this fit?  He’s saying, “Look, God is saying to you no one will be allowed to destroy the people of God and no one will be allowed to destroy David’s royal line.  “The virgin shall be with child, shall bear a son, shall call his name Immanuel.”  This thing is going to go off the way it was planned.  That’s what he’s saying.  Even if the armies of Rezin and Pekah come against you, the virgin-born son of God who is Immanuel will come.

Now what does that mean?  Listen carefully to this.  What Isaiah is saying to him is God has promised not to forsake His people.  That’s what he’s saying.  You don’t have to fear these two petty kings.  God won’t forsake you.  In fact, when the Messiah comes, it will be God with us.  God not only will not forsake you, He will come among you. That’s the point.  Just trust Him.  He won’t forsake you.  Don’t you know His promise is to come and dwell among you?

What does Immanuel mean? It means God lives among us. It means God became a man.  God will be present with His people. The child of Christmas is Immanuel, God with us.  That child that was born that day, though fully human, was also fully God.  In the Old Testament, the presence of God was in the tabernacle. The presence of God was in the temple. And now, in the New Testament, the presence of God is in a body in the person of Christ. God with us. / Adapted from a message, “The Power of Christmas Truth” by John MacArthur.

~~~

Matthew 1:21-23

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated,

“God with us.”

Hymns of History / Dodd Cummings

The Problem of Evil

Dodd Cummings / Elder, Calvary Bible Church

History, Types, Worldviews, Responses

History of Evil

“If there is no God, why is there so much good? If there is a God, why is there so much evil?” -Augustine
“The sufferings of millions of the lower animals throughout almost endless time are apparently irreconcilable with the existence of a creator of unbounded goodness.” -Charles Darwin, 1856

Why do bad things happen to good people? – That only ever happened once, and he volunteered for it! - Unknown

Epicurus (341-270 BC)

Epicurus is generally credited with first expounding the problem of evil, and it is sometimes called the “Epicurean paradox’, the “riddle of Epicurus”, or the “Epicurean trilemma”:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent

Is He able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is He both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call Him God?

-The Epicurean Paradox, - 300BC

Philosophical View of the Problem of Evil (Philosophical Syllogism)

1) If an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God exist, then evil should not exist.

2) There is Evil in the world

3) Therefore, an Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnibenevolent God does not exist.

Types of Evil

-Natural Evil – Earthquakes, Draughts, Hurricanes, cancer, pandemics etc..

-Moral Evil – People
-Sovereign Evil (Not our position, but the charge against God)

-What does the world deserve?

-Doesn’t eternal Damnation seem kind of extreme? Sovereign Evil Responses

-Car example (Junk Yard vs. Lamborghini)
-Sin against God is infinite Evil, because, he is an infinite being.
“Our obligation to love, honor and obey any being is in proportion to his loveliness, or and authority. Therefore, sin against God, being a violation of an infinite obligation, must be a crime infinitely heinous and so deserving infinite punishment. If there is any evil in sin against God, it is infinite evil.”

-Jonathan Edwards

World Views & Evil

All stories, books, movies and even worldviews have the same basic elements: -How we got here, what is our purpose, what went wrong, how do we fix it and

where are we going. Ask these questions to anyone with any worldview...

Atheism/Naturalism, Materialism –
How could a good God allow...............?
Removing God solves nothing... they still have the problem............

But the non-Christian needs to respond to evil as well.
William Lane Craigs reply to Bertrand Russell
Hinduism – The problem of evil does not apply to most Hindu traditions. Evil as well as good, along with suffering is considered real and caused by human free will, its source and consequences explained through the karma doctrine of Hinduism.
Buddhism – As a non-theistic religion, does not assume, assert, or have an answer to the problem of evil. It just is.
Theism – Islam, Judaism and Christianity
-Islam – The omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent god in Islam thought, creates everything including human suffering and its causes (EVIL). Evil was neither bad nor needed more Justification from God, but rewards awaited believers in the afterlife. The faithful suffered in this short life, to be judged by God and enjoy heaven in the never-ending afterlife.
Judaism – The ancient books of the Hebrew Bible do not show an awareness of the theological problem of evil, and even later biblical scholars did not touch the question of the problem of evil. The first systematic reflections the problem of evil by Jewish philosophers in traceable only in the medieval period. The problem of evil gained renewed interest among the Jewish scholars after the moral evil of the Holocaust. The all-powerful, all-compassionate, all-knowing monotheistic God presumably had the power to prevent the Holocaust, but he didn’t.
Christianity – “Christianity is the best explanation for the way things are.” G. Koukl

Responses to Evil

Theodicy – an attempt to provide a plausible justification, a morally or philosophically sufficient reason for the existence of evil.

A term coined by a German Philosopher by the name of Gottfried Leibniz in 1710. A believer, he argued that this is the best of all possible worlds that God could have created.

First
-Understand from where the question comes? Is this:

-An intellectual question or

-An emotional question
-Romans 8:28 answer or “God’s plan for your life” may not be sufficient.

The question of evil and more importantly, the Christian response needs to be handled carefully. Believers and non-believers have undergone and are undergoing real issues. Death, disease, and suffering. Christians need to be so sensitive to these real issues when answering. Perhaps the best response to the woman who lost her husband, or a child with medical issues is to love her and listen. Show her Jesus by your actions and not always your words. Hopefully, this will give you the opportunity to share Jesus with her so she can see where real hope comes from.

Natural Evil Responses (4 Options – one or more, correct?)

-Natural evils are the result of the fall of man, which corrupted the perfect world created by God, or

-Natural evils are the result of natural laws; or (If a tree falls in the woods..) -Natural evils provide us with a knowledge of evil which makes our free

choices more significant than they would otherwise be, and so our free will more valuable, (Climate Justice); or
-Natural evils are a mechanism of divine punishment for more evils that humans have committed and so the natural evil is justified.

Moral Evil Responses Practical Response

-First, do you want to eliminate evil or just punish evil? This will happen tonight at midnight.

-Eliminate? - Where will you be at 12:00 tonight?

-Punish? – Where will you be at 12:00 tonight?

-Turn with me to Luke 13:1-5
Jesus talking about the murders in the temple and the wall falling and killing people.
In short, Jesus is not making an excuse for evil but rather justifies it.
The focus was not on evil but on their salvation. We live every minute of every day by the grace of God. We are owed nothing...

-Second, God will punish and eliminate evil, but the issue is that people don’t allow God to be God. They want punishment on demand and when they want it. They want to tell God how to run the world, how to do things.

-Turn with me to Matthew 13:36-43
We know this, but we still can’t wait... we want justice NOW!
“We are like the Israelites. God blesses us and then we forget. At least until we get int the next mess. We keep God in the basement like a janitor, calling on Him when we’ve another mess to clean up. We’re not slow learners, we are just quick forgetters.” – Bob Gass

Deuteronomy 29:29 Response

The Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. -Job’s Encounter with God:
“Then Job replied to the Lord: I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted. You asked, “Who is this who conceals My counsel with Ignorance?” Surely, I spoke about things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know, You said, “Listen now, and I will speak. When I quested you, you will inform me.” I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I take back my words and repent in dust and ashes.” – Job 41:1-6

“Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn’t mean there can’t be one.” -Tim Keller
“Be comfortable with your inability to NOT get it.” – John MacArthur

-Soul Making Theodicy
Soul Making? - God is not in the business of making you happy but making you Holy.

Irenaeus, 2nd century French Theologian
It holds that one cannot achieve moral goodness or love for God if there is no evil and suffering in the world. Evil is soul-making and leads one to be truly moral and close to God. God created an epistemic distance (such that God is not immediately

knowable) so that we may strive to know him and by doing so become truly good. Evils is a means to good for three main reasons:

  1. Means of Knowledge – Hunger leads to pain and causes a desire for food. Knowledge of pain prompts humans to seek to help others in pain

  2. Character Building – Evil offers the opportunity to grow morally. “We would never learn the art of goodness in a world designed as a hedonistic paradise.”

  3. Predictable environment – The world runs to a series of natural laws. These are independent of any inhabitants of the universe. Natural evil only occurs when these natural laws conflict with our own perceived needs. This is not immoral in any way.

“The suffering of sickness and the suffering of persecution also have this in common: They are both intended by Satan for the destruction of our faith and governed by God for the purifying of our faith.”

“Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with Him has come through suffering.”

“Suffering clearly is designed by God not only as a way to wean Christians off of self and onto grace, but also as a way to spotlight that grace and make it shine.

That is what faith does; it magnifies Christ’s future grace.”
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. – C.S. Lewis

If you think about it, you’ll find that virtually every valuable lesson you’ve ever learned resulted from some hardship in your life. In most cases, bad fortune teaches while good fortune deceives. In fact, you not only learn lessons from suffering, but it’s practically the only way you can develop virtues.

You can’t develop courage unless there is danger. You can’t develop perseverance unless you have obstacles in your way. You won’t learn how to be a servant unless there’s someone to serve. And compassion would never be summoned if there were never anyone in pain or in need. It’s the adage, “no pain, no gain.”

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a fare more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory.” -2 Corinthians 4:17

Free Will response

Make a world for me that allows free will but does not allow for evil.
How much free will should God take away? (Auto Accident that kills teens)

Speeding? Drinking? Thoughts? Where would you draw the line? No, I say God must allow free will to allow Love.
If you eliminate fee will, you eliminate Love. Marie example...
If God prevented pain every time we got into trouble, then we would become that most reckless, self-centered creatures in the universe. And we would never learn from suffering. (Jumping off a building)

Story of two old men sitting on a porch.......
One says, Sometimes I’d like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine, and injustice when he could do something about it. The other man says, “I’m afraid God may ask me the same question.” -Peter Kreft
-Do something – Matthew West
-Farmland 10% - We don’t have a famine issue, we have a human issue

Greater Good Response

-Abortion issue – Allow abortions in the case that the mothers life in in danger? – Ectopic Pregnancy

Pre-suppositional Response

Know Evil, Know Good, Know Good, Know God

Ontological Response

Oughtness; Guilt, Ruler/Yard stick

Fortuitous Response

God uses pain to teach us and to prevent other problems.
-Good can come from Perceived evil
-When we perceive evil, we don’t always have the entire picture. Example – Little girl at the feet of her mother who is doing needle point
-Praying for your child to feel pain (CIPS – Congenital insensitivity to pain)

-Joseph’s life -

-As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. – GEN 50:20 -Jeremiah 24:1-7 – The story of the good and the bad figs.
-The Greatest Evil of all time brought the greatest good of all time

Glorifying Response

-God uses evil so we can glorify him. “A good sailor is not made on calm seas”. -Bravery
-A Hero

Matthew 5:43
Thou shalt love thy neighbour.

"Love thy neighbour." Perhaps he rolls in riches, and thou art poor, and living in thy little cot side-by-side with his lordly mansion; thou seest every day his estates, his fine linen, and his sumptuous banquets; God has given him these gifts, covet not his wealth, and think no hard thoughts concerning him.

Be content with thine own lot, if thou canst not better it, but do not look upon thy neighbour, and wish that he were as thyself. Love him, and then thou wilt not envy him.

Mayhap, on the other hand, thou art rich, and near thee reside the poor. Do not scorn to call them neighbour. Own that thou art bound to love them. The world calls them thy inferiors. In what are they inferior? They are far more thine equals than thine inferiors, for "God hath made of one blood all people that dwell upon the face of the earth." It is thy coat which is better than theirs, but thou art by no means better than they. They are men, and what art thou more than that?

Take heed that thou love thy neighbour even though he be in rags, or sunken in the depths of poverty. But, perhaps, you say, "I cannot love my neighbours, because for all I do they return ingratitude and contempt." So much the more room for the heroism of love.

Wouldst thou be a feather-bed warrior, instead of bearing the rough fight of love? He who dares the most, shall win the most; and if rough be thy path of love, tread it boldly, still loving thy neighbours through thick and thin. Heap coals of fire on their heads, and if they be hard to please, seek not to please them, but to please thy Master; and remember if they spurn thy love, thy Master hath not spurned it, and thy deed is as acceptable to Him as if it had been acceptable to them. / Devotional Morning and Evening / C H Spurgeon

‘Why are you cast down, O my soul? … Hope in God.’ Psalm 43:5

David was in great trials and afflictions, for God allows his children to fall into long and great afflictions and troubles before his deliverance comes. It is implied in the text that David was reproving his soul for being cast down. David realized that there was no good reason why he should be cast down, but there he was. It is a sin for a child of God to be too much discouraged and cast down in afflictions. The soul is cast down too much when our sorrow does not bring us to God, but away from God. There is no discouragement in any affliction or trouble whatsoever, but it is a lack of trusting in God. We may not know the reason God has allowed it, and this requires our trust. When we do not trust in God we are trusting in ourselves, and we cannot experience victory in our own strength. We need to trust in God for a constant supply. The reason why God’s children fail so, in times of trouble, is because they do not trust God for new supplies of grace. We cannot perform new duties, and undergo new sufferings, with old graces. Our soul is weak in itself. It needs something to rely upon as a weak plant that needs a support. David was in temptation, afflictions, and discouragements. Satan was tempting, and his corruptions boiling. God had withdrawn his sense of love, leaving David for a while to himself. At length, however, he broke through it all and expostulates the matter with himself. So God’s children, when they are in trouble, can recover and comfort themselves by trusting and relying on God in their extremities. The true child, in his greatest troubles, has the Spirit of God to strengthen him. He rests upon his God. In the greatest troubles, the Spirit helps our weakness. This Spirit enables us to send out strong prayers and cries, which cry loud in God’s ear.

RICHARD SIBBES, Works, VII: 51-55

DEVOTIONAL:The Valley of Vision

Christ Alone

O GOD,

Thy main plan, and the end of thy will
      is to make Christ glorious and beloved
        in heaven
  where he is now ascended,
  where one day all the elect will behold his glory
  and love and glorify him for ever.
Though here I love him but little,
  may this be my portion at last.
In this world thou hast given me a beginning,
  one day it will be perfected in the realm above.
Thou hast helped me to see and know Christ,
  though obscurely,
  to take him, receive him,
  to possess him, love him,
  to bless him in my heart, mouth, life.
Let me study and stand for discipline,
    and all the ways of worship,
  out of love for Christ;
  and to show my thankfulness;
  to seek and know his will from love,
  to hold it in love,
  and daily to care for and keep this state of heart.
Thou hast led me to place all my nature
    and happiness
  in oneness with Christ,
  in having heart and mind centred only on him,
  in being like him in communicating good
    to others;
This is my heaven on earth,
But I need the force, energy, impulses of thy Spirit
  to carry me on the way to my Jerusalem.
Here, it is my duty
  to be as Christ in this world,
  to do what he would do,
  to live as he would live,
  to walk in love and meekness;
  then would he be known,
  then would I have peace in death.

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