IMMANUUEL GOD WITH US
Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 53:1-End
“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign, behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
Many Christian teachers etc talk about spiritual warfare, in particular Ephesians Ch6:12 our battle is not against flesh & blood but against principalities and powers.
But spiritual warfare started in Genesis Ch3 when Satan tempted Eve in the garden of Eden. As Adam & Eve fall God declares war on Satan and the battle has gone on ever since.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, it shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen 3:14-15)
Effectively God is saying that Satan will harm this child but the child will ultimately destroy him.
As we look through scripture we can see this battle unfurling and Satan must have looked in horror at the giants of the Old Testament.
Was Cain the one, no he was a murderer, Noah,no he gets drunk, and then the godly Enoch who lived for 365 years before being taken up to heaven
And then Abraham, Satan must have been happy when Sarah was taken into a harem by pharaoh, he will probably impregnate her, but God protected her.
Abraham’s concubine gave birth to Ishmael, meaning God will hear, but he was not the seed.
Satan was in heaven and would have known the Lord but he was thrown out so would not have known the plan, but he did know the scriptures very well.
He would have scanned them for a clue as to where this seed was coming from.But the big clue came when Nathan prophesied to David
"The Lord telleth thee that he will make thee a house, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever, I will be His Father and He shall be my Son" (2 Samuel 7;5, 11-14)
This is referring to the Lord Jesus.
From there on in Satan attempted to wipe out the line of seed leading to Jesus and once our Lord was born Satan uses Herod to kill all the infant children to try to destroy the Christ child.
We then need to fast forward to the cross of Calvary the prophesy of which we read from Isaiah, Satan thought he had killed Jesus, the powers of hell were celebrating.
But after three days Jesus rose from the dead and the power of sin and death was broken, Jesus had risen from the grave.
Satan had bruised Christ's heel but Jesus had crushed Satan’s head, the battle was won.
Having achieved this Jesus puts in place the basis of the Christian movement with Peter,John and the other apostles and Jesus then returns safely to heaven and is sat at the right hand of the Father.
Now the obvious question is why then has the battle continued, well it is God’s desire that nobody should be lost so the end has not yet come.
To give an example when we invaded France on D Day the war was effectively won but there were still battles to be fought before Germany surrendered and that is where we are at.
The end is not in doubt but we have spiritual battles still to fight, because our enemy Satan is still about devouring people like a roaring lion.
When you become a Christian Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit lives in us, we carry that seed and it is that which Satan wants to destroy.
He is too late to get at Jesus so he turns his attention towards us.
It is, to coin a phrase, a battle for hearts and minds as Satan seeks to dethrone Jesus from our hearts and to install himself that is why he puts temptation in our way.
Revelation tells us Satan will send a flood to destroy the woman.
As we look around us we see so much evil in the world that only Satan himself could have unleashed it, killing on a huge scale, famines, laws at odds with God’s word, things that were good now being seen as bad, things that were bad now being seen as good.
Why is all of this happening quite simply if Jesus sits on the throne in your heart, He rules your life, directs your actions and decisions, then you are a target.
Temptations, trials, despair and discouragement to weaken your faith in Immanuel, but the good news is in the midst of this God is with us.
You may be struggling to stay afloat it may be you think you are sinking but when you cry out to the Lord He will come to your aid.
Isaiah proclaimed this "Take counsel together and it shall come to nothing, speak the word and it shall not stand, for God is with us, (Isaiah 8:10)
David Cameron said "We are all in this together" whatever your politics you knew this was not true.
But as a body of believers here at the Chapel we are all in this together, we need to pray for and support one another, there are challenges ahead but Immanuel God is with us, we are not in this battle on our own.
From reports I hear from around the nation and further afield Aslan has entered the battle field, the final battle is not far away.
To Him be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen.