The Presence of the Lord #2

[00:00:01] Now shall we bow our heads together in prayer. [00:00:08] Dear Lord, we want very especially now. To remember before thee. Those who are in need of one kind or another. We praise thee for bringing Sally Merenisnov that danger list, Lord, in the hospital. We do thank thee for that. And we're trusting for full recovery, Lord. There. And the same with Joanna Lawson, Lord, we remember her before thee. And Georgina pope as well. Lord, we remember these ones who are laid aside. We praise thee for thy power to heal. And thy power, as it were, to bring us back to full health. O beloved Lord, we thank thee. And we commit them to thee. And others we may not know about. We remember also misses aylward before thee, Lord. And we remember Derek's father and mother. We believe thou art going to save them, Lord, if thou has not already done so. And we commit them to thee. Especially misses Adams, in these failing moments. [00:01:10] And then, beloved Lord. We do want to pray for Bob in Pembroke. That thou be with him. Cause an anointing to be upon him, Lord. That thy word may be given in the power of the Holy Spirit. And may mean something to thy people there. O, we commit him to thee. And likewise, Doug, also, Lord, we remember him before thee. That thou wilt cause an anointing to come upon him, Lord, for this day's ministry and service. [00:01:44] And, Lord, we do commit ourselves to thee. What days we live in, Lord. How we need to know inwardly in our own experience. The things we believe. [00:01:54] O Father, we pray in the days that are left to us. Before the coming of thy son, our Lord Jesus Christ. By thy spirit. Prepare us, Lord. Instruct us. Educate us, Lord. Train us for these times that come upon the face of the whole earth. And so, Lord, we ask thee that as we turn to thy word. Thou wilt make it live to us, Lord, by thy spirit. Make it vital. Write it, Lord, upon our hearts. And we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:02:38] The other Sunday, I spoke about the presence of the Lord. [00:02:48] The angel of his presence. In Isaiah 63 nine. If you would like to turn to it. [00:03:02] In all their affliction, he was afflicted. And the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity. He redeemed them. And he bare them and carried them all the days of old. The angel of his presence, I suppose, above everything else. That's the thing that we believers need more. [00:03:36] We need to know the presence of the Lord personally. We need to know the presence of the Lord. I think the world is tired of the truth. That sometimes we tend to just mouth easily the platitudes that so easily come out of our lips, the trite little phrases about this and that, what we agree with or what we don't agree with, it's not that we shouldn't with our lips, make known our position, nail our colours to the mask. But what we need is the presence of the Lord. [00:04:15] There were once some gentiles who came to the disciples and they said to one of them, we would see Jesus. [00:04:23] I don't think the world's need has ever been met except by seeing the Lord Jesus beholding the lamb of God, who has borne away the sin of the world. We need the presence of the Lord. [00:04:38] All the way through the word of God, we find it is the presence of the Lord or the absence of the Lord that has dictated things. You could have all the temple service, you could have all the routine, you could have all the knowledge, you could have all the sacrifice. But if the presence of the Lord was there, the glory had departed. [00:04:59] In actual fact, it was nothing but an empty shell when the presence of the Lord had gone. [00:05:07] When you think of the tabernacle, there was no meaning to the tabernacle. It wasn't some beautiful building filled with costly things. [00:05:16] Beautifully woven veils and curtains, wonderfully covered articles of wood, gold or silver, made out of bra cunning work, as it says in the authorized version, beautiful work, artistic work. That wasn't the meaning of the tabernacle. The tabernacle wasn't just to dazzle people with something like the rest of the world. The meaning of the tabernacle was this and the glory of the Lord came upon it and no one was able hardly to go into it or lift their head up to behold it, because the glory of the Lord filled it. When Solomon finally built the temple, and that was one of the great points in the history of God's dealings with his people. It was a magnificent structure, absolutely magnificent. The people of God had never seen anything like it. But it wasn't the structure that in itself meant anything. It was the fact that when that moment of dedication came, the presence of the Lord filled the whole place and no one was able to enter in because the presence of the Lord was there. [00:06:40] We can say that again and again. The early church, what were they? Where was their theological training? What seminary had they been in? Why, even the three years they'd spent with the Lord, they'd failed him again and again, failed even to understand him, although they had in fact been quite successful in what they'd done in his name. [00:07:00] When it came to the heart of the matter. They failed him. They denied him, they forsook him. [00:07:09] But when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, it wasn't to exhibit things. It wasn't just, as it were, that each one might have a gift to exhibit. It wasn't that each one might feel a kind of self satisfaction, that they were important. [00:07:28] The meaning of that day of Pentecost was that the Lord had come home to his temple. [00:07:35] He filled it with glory. He filled it with power. [00:07:40] He filled it with another kind of character, a divine character, a heavenly life and nature. And that really is the book of acts. We find that its the presence of the Lord that matters. When they stand up to speak. It is to be the mouthpiece of the presence of the Lord. Men and women had already noticed that the Lord was in their midst, that the Lord was with them. And when they spoke, it was in demonstration of the Holy Spirit and of power. [00:08:13] Oh, how we need the presence of the Lord. [00:08:18] Never has there been a need for every christian to be filled with the Lord as there is today. [00:08:25] On every avenue, the enemy has coming to rob us of our inheritance, to rob us of our birthright. It's not just now that we face the enemy. The Christians in this country have always faced the enemy. But now in our education system, in the mass media, we are facing a threat that we've never faced before. And the tragedy is, as we heard last Sunday morning from Jim Handezein, the tragedy is that the spirit of the age is getting into us so that there is no longer any fear of the Lord in our eyes, so that we can cheatly take the things of God in a slovenly, careless, carefree manner. We think we can treat God like some char, get him cleaning out this, doing that at our beck and call. He's always there if we're in need, forgetting that love has dignity, love has dignity. [00:09:36] You can't just treat the Lord like that. Love will not allow itself to be treated like that, not by those it has redeemed. [00:09:48] And so you see, this matter of the presence of the Lord is an all important matter. It's a vital matter if we're to face these inroads that are being made upon us. The spirit of the age that's getting into it. The only answer is that we personally might know the presence of the Lord. I'm not talking about emotions. I'm not talking about feelings. I'm talking about the presence of the Lord in us, the angel of his presence in all their affliction, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity, he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old, that's what we need. [00:10:37] So that in our circle of unsaved friends, in our homes, in our offices, in our schools, in our colleges, wherever we are, we take the presence of the Lord with us. [00:10:52] I suppose there's never been a day in which we've needed christian families, christian homes, christian households as we need them today. [00:11:03] The very spirit of disruption has got into christian homes. Oh, the number of near divorces there are amongst believing people today, a thing you'd never heard of before. [00:11:16] Separation, breakup. All the need we have today for christian families that are not just church going and not just Bible believing, but in whose homes the presence of the Lord is a known reality. [00:11:38] You can tell the moment you step into some home, you know, whether the Lord's there or not. When I was first saved, because I never had any christian background, sometimes I thank God for it, but I never had any christian background. I never read the Bible when I was, as you know, twelve years of age. But when I was saved, I used to get into such trouble in the church I was in because I was a bit outspoken, I suppose, as a youngster. And of course, in those days it wasn't considered quite the thing for youngsters to say too much. But, you know, as a youngster, when you went into different homes, because I came from an unsaved family, all different homes sort of adopted me, felt they must do their duty and look after me and so help me. They knew we had no Bible at one time. They knew that our Bible was taken away from us. So they what they could to help us. But, you know, I could have told you there were some homes, as soon as you stepped in, you knew the Lord was there. And there were other homes where it was all talk, talk and more talk. Some of them were like walking biblical lexicons, concordances they could discuss for hours at the coming of the Lord and all the intricacies of it. But the Lord wasn't there. [00:12:55] There were other homes where the sweetness of the Lord's presence was so real. There was a family altar. The Lord was given his place. There was a place where things were sorted out before God together. There was an order. It wasn't just that it was a well oiled machine. It was the presence of the Lord. And, you know, when you're young in the Lord, that's the thing that counts more than anything else. [00:13:16] You must all know the experience, and you young ones know what I'm talking about, I'm quite sure, are those frightening ogres amongst the Lord's people, who know everything and can put you absolutely unfailingly right upon any detail, but from whom you would flee a thousand miles rather than share a bedroom or the have to sort of spend some hours in their presence. Has not the presence of the Lord? [00:13:50] Publicans and sinners were drawn irresistibly to the Lord Jesus Christ. Those in need were drawn irresistibly to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the presence of the Lord is in a home or in a person, people are drawn there. We just get drawn because it's normality. [00:14:07] And in our hearts there's something, when even we are wrong, that witnesses to what is right. [00:14:16] We may argue and argue and argue, but we always know deep down within our heart when the Lord is present in a person or present in a family. [00:14:26] And it's the same surely, in a company such as this or any other company of God's people. What we need is not a well oiled routine, not some kind of organization or anything else into which we can fall. And, you know, we can get into as much a rut. When you have no sort of pattern as such, you can evolve your own set pattern as much as anyone else. [00:14:53] But you know, it is the presence of the Lord that matters. In the final analysis, it is whether the Lord is present amongst his people, whether in spite of all their failings are so much that's lamentable. [00:15:12] The Lord is still there and powerfully there in all their affliction. He was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. [00:15:29] In his love and in his pity, he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old. [00:15:41] Moses said in Exodus 33 and verse 15, if thy presence go not with us or with me, carry us not up. Hence he could have had everything else. [00:16:03] He'd got all his experience. [00:16:06] He'd met the Lord face to face. [00:16:09] Why, he could have said, isn't that enough? [00:16:11] I can hark back to some point where I met God in a bush, a most singular and unique experience. [00:16:22] He could have harked back to other extraordinary experiences. He could have said, I remember I was present, that I remember the judgments of God upon the egyptian people. [00:16:34] I remember confronting pharaoh in the power of God. [00:16:40] He could have said, you know, I remember the Passover night vividly. I was there. I saw it all. [00:16:47] We didn't see the angel of death. [00:16:50] But we saw the results. [00:16:54] He could have said, you know, I gone through the Red Sea. [00:16:59] I saw it split in two. We went through us on dry ground. [00:17:04] It wasn't enough when it came to a new crisis. [00:17:09] You can be converted. You may have had experiences, but it's no good just saying, well, I've had this, I've had that. [00:17:17] You know, when the apostle Paul was about finally to be executed, he didn't say, I was caught up to the third heaven. It's great comfort to me now I'm facing execution. I was caught up to the third heaven. Heard things it wasn't even, isn't even lawful to utter. [00:17:36] Think of that great comfort to me now. [00:17:40] Why, the devil could have been breathing down his neck. Of course, it was all hallucination, Paul, that being caught up to the third heaven. I mean, it was absolute nonsense. [00:17:49] And if you hadn't made all the mistakes you've made, you wouldn't be in this mess. [00:17:54] But you've done it, and now you're facing the consequences. [00:17:58] But you know what the apostle Paul said? He said, the Lord stood by me. [00:18:04] Everyone else left me. He said, the Lord stood by me. So in that moment when everything else left and he was on his own, the presence of the Lord was with him. The angel of his presence. If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Why the Lord had said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. [00:18:29] But to go back a little earlier, you remember the last time we spoke on this matter? I spoke of the bread of his presence, the angel of his presence, the bread of his presence. Because the show bread in Hebrew, literally is the bread of his presence. And the thought really is what the Lord Jesus was trying to put over to us in John six. [00:18:52] He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, the same hath life in himself. In other words, it's not just the elements, of course. It's the fact that we have to feed on the presence of the Lord. It's no good just thinking of this in a sentimental way. Ah, well, the presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord. It's such a marvelous thing to know the presence of the Lord in a kind of sentimental way. [00:19:17] How do we know the presence of the Lord? By appropriating what is ours. [00:19:23] We have to take that bread of his presence and eat it. The priests fed on that bread on the table in the tabernacle. [00:19:34] And we have to appropriate what is ours in Christ if we're going to know the presence of the Lord. Now, that doesn't happen in one single instance. Initially, the Lord may come upon you, but you've got to get into a lifetime habit. Of appropriating day by day, moment by moment, what is yours. Now, don't you think that's exactly what the Lord tried to get over to Moses? When, after 40 years in the desert, he met him on that memorable occasion to which I've referred? It's in Exodus and chapter three. [00:20:16] It was the presence of the Lord in that old thorn bush. [00:20:20] The bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. It was a dried up thorn bush. Insignificant, worthless, ugly. [00:20:30] But there was a fire in it, and the fire went on and on and on. As I've said before, it was eternal fuel for eternal fire. [00:20:40] It was the presence of the Lord. And what the Lord was trying to say to Moses, Moses, you're just like this dried up bush. There's nothing more to you than this bush. You've finished 40 years. Now, it's taken me to drain out all your resources, to completely break you, to bring you to the place where you are nothing more than a dead old thorn book. But, Moses, now, it's not a question of just knowledge up here. It's not a question of just truth. It's a question of the fire getting into you. And not just for a moment, but all the time. [00:21:20] Now, how did the Lord sum it up? Moses, of course, recognized to a certain extent the lesson of it all. But then he said, well, now, just wait, Lord. It's no good me going to these people. They won't believe me. Who shall I say has sent me? [00:21:39] And the Lord said, I am that I am, say to them, I am hath sent you. Now, when I was younger in the Lord, I used to find this a very boring passage. I thought the question of the thorn bush on fire was very thrilling. But I used to think this I am a dreadful, dreadful. [00:22:04] The Lord forgive me, but you understand, a dreadful type, I suppose, because we tend to speak of people as I ams. Oh, so and so. So and so is the big I am. [00:22:17] And I used to think, I don't know. It just seems a bit much that the Lord said, you say, I am hath sent you. [00:22:27] But, you know, this goes to the root of the matter. [00:22:32] Actually, in the Hebrew, it is, I will be, that I will be. But in English, that is a little too serial, too in the air. And it is perfectly right that we have I am that I am. What the Lord was saying was this to Moses. He said Moses, you're worrying about the future. I will be. That I will be just at the moment you need me, I'll be there. And I'll be everything you need for this service. [00:23:04] Now that is the presence of the Lord. [00:23:08] I am is with us. Now, will you note just one or two things? Not I was, not I was. [00:23:17] Oh, we Christians, we have such a habit of putting everything into the past. We get all mixed up. Things that should be in the past tense we don't put in the past tense. And things that ought to be in the present we put in the past. [00:23:32] For instance, we're always talking about getting ourselves crucified when we have been crucified. With Christ wandering around doing our best to put ourselves to death when the work's been done. Oh, that we could see it. [00:23:48] But here we're always talking about the has been. [00:23:53] Isn't that true? God is always the has been to so many christians. Oh, they say, I remember so and so. I remember so and so. [00:24:07] It always has been. I have been, that I have been. But the Lord never said that. [00:24:13] He said I am, that I am. Now you see, it's not I was. Times have changed now. [00:24:21] In the old days the Lord could split away through the sea. But times have changed now. It doesn't do that. [00:24:28] In the old days he led them through the wilderness. Times have changed. Of course he doesn't do that kind of thing. [00:24:35] In the old days he delivered them from their enemies. Times have changed. Doesn't do that then. [00:24:42] In the old days the walls of Jericho fell flat. Doesn't do that now. [00:24:47] In the old days people got healed. Doesn't do that now. [00:24:52] In the old days, evil spirits got thrown out. Doesn't do it now. [00:24:57] In the old days there was power upon the church in such a way that they went out to the people and spoke and folks got saved. Doesnt do it now. [00:25:09] He is. I have been, that I have been and its all in here. [00:25:18] I have been, that I have been. [00:25:24] But the Lord never said that. [00:25:28] He never said to Moses, well, Moses, times have changed, its been bit more difficult now. Pharaoh is a very, very difficult person indeed. [00:25:39] Of course, in the old days it was much easier when we didn't have pharaohs and we didn't have a great egyptian empire like we have now. [00:25:46] When I created the world out of nothing, well, of course it wasn't so hard. [00:25:52] But I mean, Pharaoh is a different proposition to creating a universe out of nothing. [00:26:00] It's rather more difficult. [00:26:03] He's got those magicians around him and those advisors and all those other occult things. It's a bit difficult. No, God never said that. [00:26:14] He didn't give any idea to Moses that it was a different a. [00:26:18] What he said was, I am, that I am. Now, I want to put it this way. Way the God who created a universe out of nothing is present here. [00:26:36] Now, Moses, if I, who created a universe out of nothing, I am. [00:26:43] I'm here. I can do the same thing again if I want to. [00:26:47] Now, then, you put against that every difficulty. What did you say, Moses, about stammering? [00:26:55] Who made the human tongue? [00:26:58] Who created the human body? [00:27:01] Who formed man out of the dust of the ground? The earth? Who created woman? [00:27:07] Who did these things? [00:27:10] Do you think that it's all a has been? [00:27:17] You think I can't do it now, Moses, I am that I am. [00:27:22] You say I am has sent you. The I am of creation. The I am of man's being, if you like, of his constitution, of his being brought into being. I am hath sent you. [00:27:40] Oh, you know what a wonderful thing that is. Just to remember, when God speaks to you and says, I am with you, fear not, I am with you. Do you know what he's saying? The I am is with you. The one who created all things, the one who created your body, is there any problem to him? [00:28:04] The one who can bring things into existence that are not creating things out of nothing, he is with you. Now. Of course, we've got much more than that. We can think of the Red Sea. We can think of the way through the wilderness. I am is with us. [00:28:27] You know, Ida, if you just think for a moment about that office. Do you really think God is completely nonplussed by your office? [00:28:38] Now, think of your circumstances for a moment. Do you really think God is completely frustrated and perplexed by your circumstances? He who saw the earth was without form and void, chaos and darkness, who brought light out of darkness and form out of formlessness and beauty out of chaos. [00:29:04] Do you honestly think that your circumstances are just that little bit too much for him? [00:29:11] Do you think that something that's gone wrong, for instance, with your life, is too much for God? [00:29:19] So we could go on, and we could go on. And we could go on. Oh, if we could only see it's not I have been, that I have been, say I have been as sent you. No, God is saying to you, I am with you. [00:29:35] I am with you. Or if we could bring our circumstances to I am. If we could only bring our problems and perplexities to I am, then we will begin to see that it is the I am who is with us. These are not just things in the past. God. [00:29:54] We've been brought into living relationship with God. [00:30:01] Well, we must close. But, you know, if you've got problems about being led, problems of guidance. Or if you've got problems of provision, or if you've got problems of victory. Or if you've got problems of living the christian life at all, just remember, I am the angel of his presence. [00:30:32] The angel of his presence. I am hath sent you. I remember some years ago when Johnny Cochrane was with us. [00:30:47] And spoke on this scripture in his own inimitable way. [00:30:52] And said, of course we could talk about I am as having no beginning and no end. [00:31:05] We could talk about him being the creator of all things. [00:31:11] But having said all that, it doesn't really meet our hearts. [00:31:18] The only way it meets our hearts, I remember he said. [00:31:24] Was that God gave to Moses a blank check. [00:31:29] I am, he said, fill in the rest. [00:31:33] You need power. I am powerful. You need love. [00:31:40] I am love. You need grace. [00:31:44] I am grace. [00:31:47] You need the strength to take you through. I am the strength that will take you through. Whatever you need, add it in. Have you got the faith to do that? [00:31:59] Have you got the faith to do that? We all have different needs. And indeed, our needs will differ from week to week. As we enter into different circumstances or face different problems. But I am is the same unsearchable riches of Christ. [00:32:16] Can we fill in what we need, appropriating by faith what we need? [00:32:26] We can talk about the presence of the Lord in a sentimental way. [00:32:31] Thank God for the times when the presence of the Lord comes in in such a way. That everyone is bowed down before him. When something of the awful presence of the Lord comes upon us. [00:32:49] But you know, what we need to experience is the day to day feeding on the bread of his presence. [00:32:59] So that into our lives there comes something of his resurrection life and power. Into our lives comes something of his nature. We are partakers of his nature. [00:33:12] Into our lives comes something of himself. The union that we talk about becomes a practical, living reality. When this happens, changes take place. The way we behave, the way we dress, what we do, what we don't do. All these things are settled. It's not that we suddenly take up a book of regulations. Rather, we've come into living union with the Lord himself. [00:33:40] We begin to understand, begin to follow through with him. I am. [00:33:49] I am the angel of his presence. [00:33:55] Shall we pray? [00:34:09] Ah, dear Lord, we do pray. [00:34:13] Above and beyond everything else that we should know. We might know thy presence, Lord. [00:34:22] O that father. Somehow thy presence would be known in our lives, each one personally in our home, each one represented in our company. [00:34:47] Dear Lord, we need to know thy presence. We can talk and we can talk. [00:34:54] We can evolve methods and steps. Lord, we can say this and we can say that. [00:35:00] But, Lord, we recognize this morning in the ultimate analysis, the final analysis, it is whether thou art wither, whether thou art in the midst, whether that lampstand all of gold is there blazing with light. [00:35:18] Dear Lord, we commit ourselves to thee. [00:35:23] Oh, that men and women might see the Lord Jesus enough that they might become aware of the. Of thy presence, Lord, in us, so that our outreach, our fishing, our preaching, our gathering, all the work we do, in whatever means, by whatever means it may be, as it were, the explanation and the interpretation of thy presence already felt. [00:35:55] Dear Lord, hear us. [00:35:58] Hear us, we pray. May we know truly what it is to be the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we know what it is to be members of Christ and members one of another. [00:36:14] And we ask it all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.