By E L Thornton
Sermon 13
Ps 8:1-9 “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitist him. For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
Where is heaven? — Well, heaven is up. Now we knew that, didn’t we? But no matter what part of the globe I stand on, it’s still up. In Ephesians Paul reminded us that when Jesus came to earth, He descended, and when He left earth, He ascended. In Acts 1, the angels told the early disciples that Jesus had been taken up. In 1 Thessalonians 4 when the Lord comes, He will come down, and when the church meets the Lord, it will go up. In Psalms we read that when God contemplates His creation, He looks down, and when His creatures gaze at God, they look up.
In Revelation when John was about to be given a tour of heaven, he was invited to come up. When the new Jerusalem is ready for occupancy, we’re told in Revelation, it will come down. Heaven is up. It’s up above the atmosphere, the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, It’s beyond the galaxy, it’s beyond the thousand million galaxies in our universe.
(Acts 7:49) “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: ———–.”
(If you will stay in your place, God will stay in his place.) This scripture shows the physical greatness of God. Not only does He use the earth as a footstool, He made the footstool.
It is unimaginable and unfathomable that the God of glory, who passes through the celestials like a whispered breath, who could play with the earth like a child with a kick ball, who can hold his hand over the sun and the whole universe lament and languish away because of the thick darkness, who with one stroke of the hand or with one word from His mouth cause the heaven’s and the earth to pass away, every would need a man to have a relationship with.
But from the time of the forming of Adam, until this very hour, it seems as though God wants a relationship with man. Man is concerned with a relationship toward one another and would rather leave God out, but God wants a relationship with man. The Bible proves this fact. God talked with Adam in the cool of the day.
(Gen 3:8) “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: ——-.”
In the Old Testament, God visited with many of the old patriots. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, King David, Elijah and Elisha, and other of the Prophets.
It’s as though God wants to get closer to man, although I can’t understand why, so He says I’m going to become Emmanuel. So He became ——-
I. GOD WITH US:
(1) Matt 1:23 “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.”
(2) Luke 2:25-32 “And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. 26And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, 28Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: 30For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 31Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
32A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”
(3) Luke 7:15-16 “And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. 16And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.”
(4) John 14:17 ” the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, ——.”
(5) Why God with us? Heb 2:17-18 “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
I Jn 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiate (appeasement) for our sins.”
What a relationship, God with us. Never has man seen such glorious works, never had man heard such astounding teaching. Jesus didn’t quote scripture as much as he made scripture. “Ye have heard it said of old,— But I say unto you, —-.”
II. GOD FOR US:
If you think it’s grand for God to be with us, you wait until I tell you he became God for us. At Calavary, yes at Cavalry he became God for us.
Jesus startled them one day with his teachings. John 14:1-2 “Let not your heart be troubled: ———I go to prepare a place for you.” This did trouble them, because they didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about, when He began to prepare them for what was coming.
John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 18:37 “———To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, ————–.”
Why God for us? Heb 9:22-28 “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
III. GOD IN US:
Acts 2:1-4 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.———-12And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
14But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 15For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
And thus He became God in us. Jesus told them about it.
John 14:17-18 “——but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”
John 4:14 “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Col 1:26-27 “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27To 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:”
IV. GOD AGAINST US:
Zech 14:3 “Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.”
Rev 2:16-17 “Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches;——-“
