Christian Quotes

Matthew 1:18-25

I want to speak to you for a few moments from the latter part of verse 23: “And they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”

Emmanuel is one of the names given to Jesus. Nowadays when we give names to our children, the names don’t necessarily mean anything. Often we call our children by the names of a near relative or someone we specially admire. Sometimes we call them by a name that just sounds good—we like the sound of it. This was not the case in Bible times. Names had meanings and contained teaching, and this was never more true than in the case of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has many names, and those names are all full of meaning and instruction. The name Jesus, for instance, means “God saves,” or simply “Saviour” as we saw in verse 21 of this passage: “for He shall save His people from their sins.” Isaiah tells us that “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” And here in our text He is called Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”

It’s interesting that there’s no record of anyone actually calling Jesus Emmanuel in the New Testament writings. In fact, this verse is the only place that the name is used. But the meaning, or teaching, or doctrine that is behind the name—Emmanuel, God with us—is everywhere in the New Testament. For example, 1 Tim. 3:16 says that “God was manifest in the flesh”—in other words came to dwell with us. John 1:14 says, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.” And so, although they don’t use the actual name “Emmanuel,” the New Testament writers continually refer to the fact that when Jesus came, it was God coming amongst us—God with us.

I want to speak to you tonight from a verse in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It reads like this: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

This is God speaking—Jehovah, the One True God, the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Living God. And He is saying, “Look unto me, and be ye saved.” Or another way we could put it is, “Look and live!”

What does God mean when He tells us to Look and be saved, or Look and Live?

I think it would help us to understand what God means if we look at an illustration from further back in the Old Testament, so I’m going to read you a short portion from the book of Numbers, chapter 21. This story occurred during the time that God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, were wandering through the wilderness. They had left Egypt, you remember, and were on their way to Canaan—the promised land. I’ll begin reading at Numbers 21:4 through verse 9.

John 17:1-10

I want to speak to you for a few minutes tonight about ETERNAL LIFE.  My text is found in verses 2 & 3 of the passage I just read: “…that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

These words are part of what is sometimes called the High Priestly Prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. The prayer forms the concluding part of what we call the upper room chapters of John’s Gospel—chapters 13 through 17. Here we find Jesus at the end of His earthly ministry, on the eve of His crucifixion. He is giving some parting instructions and words of encouragement to His disciples.

To begin with, He washes the disciples feet and then inaugurates the Lord’s supper. Then He goes on to talk about the many mansions in Heaven, the vine and the branches, the persecution that they can expect from the world, and He also talks to them about the Comforter—the Holy Spirit—whom He will send once He has gone.

Psalm 51:1-13

This is one of David’s penitential Psalms—a Psalm of repentance or godly sorrow. You recall that he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then ordered the destruction of her husband, Uriah. Some time later, Nathan the prophet confronted David about his sin, and this Psalm was the result.

I want to talk for a few moments tonight on this subject of repentance or godly sorrow.

What is godly sorrow?

Godly sorrow is sorrow for sin combined with a deep concern for God’s glory.

Godly sorrow results when the Holy Spirit sends conviction to our hearts, and the realization dawns upon us, as it did upon David, that our sin is an affront to God’s holiness and His holy law.

This is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible. The Apostle Paul is talking here about reconciliation. Reconciliation of course has to do with RELATIONSHIPS. If two people have a falling out and don’t talk to each other and don’t see each other, then the relationship is ENDED. There is hostility. There is estrangement. And so in order for these two to come together again, and for peace to be restored and hostilities to cease, there has to be a RECONCILIATION.

Now the Bible teaches us that there is hostility between God and man. There is a severed relationship. Why? Because SIN has come in and separated man from God. Sin is disobedience to God’s commands; and the Bible teaches us that man has rebelled, he has disobeyed, he has sinned. And so there is hostility between God and man. The relationship that once existed between God and man has been broken by man’s sin and disobedience. On man’s side there is unbelief and sin and fear; on God’s side there is wrath. God is holy, and because He is holy, His wrath is extended to mankind. In Romans 1:18 Paul says that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever. –A. W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God

Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this. –John Wesley

Time will convince even the blindest and most frivolous of us that happiness is no more to be found in the places we usually look than it is to be dug out of the earth. But the man who knows the secret of prayer lives at the top of human happiness. –William Law