The Presence of the Lord #3

[00:00:00] We do bow in thy presence and we do worship thee for all that thou art to us. We thank thee, dear Lord, that thou hast enabled us to come into thy presence and to come into thy presence with praise and with worship. We pray for our country, Lord, thou seest this sad distress, disunion that is throughout this country. [00:00:31] O Father, we pray that by thy spirit, even today, wherever thy children gather in this nation, thou breathe upon them peace and life and strength and power. We pray, dear Lord, that we may in shine with that light which is thine. O Father, we pray that somehow in all the sadness of this land we think of Ulster as well as of this island. We pray, beloved Lord, that thou wilt somehow reach men and women with thy saving grace and love. [00:01:19] To that end, lord, strengthen every single one who proclaims the gospel. [00:01:24] O we pray, Father, that they may be enabled under the anointing, through that power of thy holy spirit to truly preach Christ and him crucified. [00:01:39] We pray, Father, for those who in one way or another are particularly in particular suffering as a result of this industrial trouble. We think of those, dear Lord, who are old, who are on their own. We pray that thou wilt somehow make every one of us sensitive, Lord, to any in our roads or nearby to us we can call in to see. [00:02:06] O Father, we pray that many may discover in the Lord Jesus Christ the true light and salvation of this world. And now, Lord, as we turn to thy word, we pray that thou just make it live to us. Only thou canst do that. Lord, we pray by thy spirit thou'lt take thy word and break it to us. And we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:02:41] I want very simply this morning to take up the matter upon which I have spoken two times previously about the presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord. You remember that some weeks ago we spoke from Isaiah and chapter 63 and verse nine. 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. We thought a little about the angel of his and we thought also about another phrase that we find in Exodus, the show bread, or the literally the bread of his presence. And then on another occasion we spoke not only about the presence of the Lord leading us and the presence of the Lord, as it were to be received. We've got to feed upon him to abide in us. But we spoke from Exodus and chapter three. That tremendous account when God met with Moses in the desert. And you remember that when the Lord met him from out of the burning bush, that the Lord said to him, when he asked, whom shall I say? [00:04:21] He said, I am. [00:04:24] Say to them, I am hath sent me. [00:04:30] And we thought for a little while just what that means. I am. It's not just theology, but the fact is that it is the living presence of the living God with us. Fear not, for I am with thee. [00:04:50] And it is the most wonderful thing to realize that the one who has made the universe and the one who himself became flesh and the one who has won our salvation on the cross is actually with us. [00:05:03] I am. [00:05:07] I am. [00:05:09] And in a sense, it is, as you will remember, like a blanket check. We can fill in anything that we need. Do we need love? God says, I am love. Do we need power? God says, I am power. [00:05:25] Do we need strength? God says, I am strength. Whatever it is that you need, I am. Moses was facing the whole might of Egypt. He was facing pharaoh. God said to him, Moses, I am. [00:05:45] That's all. You can add anything that you want to my name. I will be that I am. [00:05:53] Now, this morning, I just want, finally, to take it one step further. [00:05:59] I want just to speak about the tabernacle. [00:06:04] If you turn to Exodus and chapter 25 and verse eight. [00:06:13] Exodus, chapter 25, eight, we read the words of God to Moses, and let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. [00:06:30] And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. The whole point of the tabernacle was that it was something symbolic. It was something that it represented a tremendous spiritual reality and truth. It represented the desire of God to dwell amongst people, to be found amongst us, to be intimate, direct, practical association and relationship with us. [00:07:10] Let them make me. [00:07:15] Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. It wasn't just to be some great edifice, some sort of architectural monument. [00:07:30] The whole point of that tabernacle, it was a thing of beauty. [00:07:34] But the whole point of that tabernacle and later of the temple, was that the presence of the living God was there. [00:07:44] He was located. [00:07:46] He could be found later on in deuteronomy. God said to Moses, not once, but a number of times, you shall be careful that you do not make your sacrifices anywhere that you shall choose, upon any of the mountain tops or anywhere where your heart desires. [00:08:09] But you shall come to the place where I will cause my name to dwell. [00:08:14] There you shall make your sacrifice, and there I will meet with you. [00:08:21] It wasn't that everyone could do what was right in their own eyes and meet God anyway, God was located. [00:08:30] God is infinite. [00:08:33] He has no beginning and no end. God is everywhere. At the same time, we can't take God. We cannot analyze God. We cannot put a circle around God and say, ive got him. But in his infinite grace and mercy, God has located himself. And that was the whole point of the tabernacle. It was a place where the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night came to rest. [00:09:09] There in the holiest place of all, symbolically, God was at rest at home, if you like, amongst his people. [00:09:21] Now, if you turn to Exodus chapter 40 from verse 33, we read these words, and Moses reared up the court round about the tabernacle on the altar and set up the screen of the gate of the court. [00:09:46] In the previous verses, it tells how every single thing has been put into position and set up. Now it's the last part. [00:09:55] So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward throughout all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and there was fire therein by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. Now, what does this mean? It means simply what ive been saying, that God had come home, if only symbolically, God had come home to this tabernacle. He was dwelling amongst men. Now, all that was a picture of something tremendous, a reality which at that time had not come into being. [00:11:17] We turn to psalm 27, and we read the cry of the psalmist, psalm 27, verse four. One thing have I asked of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple, or consider his temple, consider his temple. [00:11:55] Here we've got the same thought again. [00:12:00] It is the dwelling of the Lord. Now, what does this all mean? [00:12:04] If this tabernacle and later the temple, you will remember that when Solomon built the temple, as we have it recorded in kings and in chronicles, the same thing happened when the work was finished and when the point of dedication came, the glory of the Lord filled the temple so that no one was able to go in. Now, what does this mean? [00:12:29] The angel of my presence, the bread of my presence, found in that tabernacle, in the holy place, on that table before the veil. What does it all mean? [00:12:47] I think we have come to a tremendous truth. If we turn to John John's gospel and chapter one and verse 14. [00:13:07] And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now that word is tabernacled amongst us. [00:13:18] In other words, the tabernacle and the temple are only a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as the place where we find the presence of God. How can one put it without almost seeming to speak blasphemy? [00:13:41] The Lord Jesus is God located. [00:13:48] If we want to find God, we find him in Christ. And through Christ the word became flesh and dwelt among us. In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We meet God in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are reconciled to God. Through the life of the Lord Jesus Christ we are made one with God. The Lord Jesus Christ is this tabernacle. Everywhere we look, we see his beauty. Everywhere we look. As it were when God has brought us into him, placed us by grace in Christ. We see. We see a rent veil. [00:14:32] His body. We see the holiest place of all. We can come into it with boldness because of the rent veil. That is it tells us in Hebrews ten that is nothing less than his flesh. [00:14:49] But wherever we look, we see the lampstand, all of gold, the testimony of Jesus. We see the golden altar, the intercession of the Lord Jesus. We see that the table, the showbread table. The Lord Jesus as our food. The bread of life. I am the bread of heaven. Bread of life. He that is eateth me shall live. [00:15:19] Wherever we look, we see into the very holiest place of all. And we see what we see the ark of the covenant. [00:15:28] Who is the ark of the covenant? [00:15:32] No one less than the Lord Jesus. What do we see in the ark of the covenant? Of the covenant? The ten Commandments unbroken. [00:15:42] A law perfectly kept. [00:15:47] Perfection. [00:15:49] What do we see inside the ark of the covenant? We see a golden pot of manna. What does that speak of? The bread of life. Again, given that we might have eternal life, what do we see in that ark of the covenant? The rod of Aaron. Aaron's rod that budded divine authority. Rule thou, it says in psalm 110 of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies? [00:16:21] The Lord said to my lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies, the footstool of thy feet. Wherever we look in this tabernacle, we see Christmas. No wonder, using the words of the psalmist in a way that perhaps he couldn't use them, we can say one thing. Have I asked of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life? To behold the beauty of the Lord and to consider his temple. [00:16:55] It doesn't matter where we look, we see the beauties of the Lord Jesus Christ, the very colors of the hangings, the very gold that overlays everything, the silver. [00:17:04] It all speaks either of his nature or of his redemption, his redeeming work, his love for us, the sacrifice of himself for us, his presence. [00:17:20] I think we believers sometimes find this a hard lesson to learn. Having known something of the forgiveness of God and knowing something of our sins being cancelled out of peace with God, we then so often try to find somehow things outside of Christ. [00:17:41] Whereas every single thing has been given to us of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:17:53] Again, if you have kept open your Bible, the gospel according to John, in that same chapter one and verse 51, the Lord Jesus said a very strange thing to Nathaniel. [00:18:11] He said to him, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye shall see the heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. [00:18:23] Now thats a most extraordinary statement. [00:18:26] Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye shall see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. Now he just said that there was no Jacob in Nathanael and he was making a reference to that dream vision of Jacob that we have recorded in Genesis for us, where he saw a ladder which reached from the earth to heaven. And he saw angels ascending and descending on that, that staircase, that ladder. In other words, he saw communication, he saw intercourse, he saw relationship. He saw that heaven and earth were joined by this ladder and that the messengers of God, the servants of God, were going up and down, bringing messages and taking messages. [00:19:22] Now the Lord Jesus says to Nathaniel, I say unto you, ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. [00:19:35] In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the communication between heaven and earth. He is the link between heaven and earth. He is the means of communication between God and man and man and God. He is the means by which you and I can meet God and know God and God can meet us and know us. [00:19:58] Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among. [00:20:08] We find the same thing, I think, in the last chapters of the Bible in revelation 21 22, where God says, I think it's in verse three, revelation 21 and verse three, I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. The tabernacle of God is with men. [00:20:48] Who is this tabernacle of God? The Lord Jesus Christ. [00:20:54] And when we look at the city in verse nine onwards, we discover that this city, this city is the dwelling place of God. We are told, for instance, that in this city, verse 22, I saw no temple therein for the Lord God the almighty and the lamb are the temple thereof. [00:21:22] The whole thing has become part of this tabernacle of God, so that in some amazing way, these redeemed ones are so joined to God that you can hardly tell. Again, I must be careful that it doesn't sound blasphemous. Where God ends and where the belongs believers begin. [00:21:53] This city is transparent as glass. [00:21:57] There's nothing that casts a shadow, nothing that obstructs the light. [00:22:04] Who is the light? [00:22:08] God is the light. [00:22:09] God is the glory. Who is the lamp? The lamb is the lamp. [00:22:17] And somehow we have been so incorporated, so made part of Christ, so joined to Christ, that we become the means for that glory of God to be manifested in a new heaven and a new earth, the presence of the Lord. But some might say, well, now, that's a wonderful idea. That's something to do with the future. That's all in the far, far distant. [00:22:51] Perhaps not so far, far distant. [00:22:55] What about now? [00:22:57] Well, now, just a few scriptures in closing, well known ones, but ones that have a lot of bearing upon this. [00:23:05] First of all, in Matthew and chapter 16 and verse 18, I also say unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. [00:23:26] And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [00:23:34] Thou art Peter upon this rock, not the little splinter of the rock that was Peter, but upon this solid massive of the rock, the person and nature and work of Christ, I will build my church. Now, Peter explains this quite clearly to us himself, so there's no need for any controversy over the matter. In one, Peter, chapter two and verse three. From verse three, if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, unto whom coming a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect precious, ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. [00:24:52] So here we find our most wonderful and marvelous truth. [00:25:00] We find this tabernacle of God is not just and only the Lord Jesus Christ, but by the grace of God alone. [00:25:10] We have been brought in, we have been quarried out of the rock, the very life of God. [00:25:23] We've been quarried out, born of the spirit of God, made the partakers of eternal life through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now we are being fashioned as living stones and built upon that foundation. The apostle Paul puts it again in another way in Ephesians and chapter two, Ephesians and chapter two, when he says, ye are no more strangers, verse 19 and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom each several building fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the spirit. Now that is the meaning of the tabernacle of temple, a habitation of God in the spirit, a home of God in the spirit. [00:26:47] The Lord Jesus Christ is that supreme. [00:26:51] But by his grace and his love and his work, he has brought us into it. Is that not something to worship God for? [00:27:02] And therefore we come finally to ask ourselves practically, what then is the church? [00:27:12] What should the church be in the mind of God in the days in which we live? [00:27:19] It is not an institution. I think thats quite clear. [00:27:26] It is not an organization merely that should be quite clear from the word of God. [00:27:33] What then is the church? It is the manifestation of the presence of God in this world, the place where the living God is found, not located in bricks and mortar, not located in a particular organization as such, but in those whom God has brought into Christ and made part of Christ, that is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can't part a body from its head. [00:28:19] To do so would be to destroy a body has only any living meaning insofar as it is joined to the head and in living union with the head. [00:28:38] Head and body are one. [00:28:44] Now doesn't that challenge you? Challenge me? [00:28:48] I think so. We can play at churches, we can have our meetings, we can have our Bible studies, we can have our prayer meetings, we can have the Lord's table, we can have all these things and feel that is it. But quite honestly, essentially that is not the real meaning. [00:29:08] In revelation chapter two, the Lord Jesus warns one of the churches, the church at Ephesus. He warns it in solemn words, if thou dost not repent, he said, I will move. [00:29:24] I will remove thy candlestick or lampstand out of its place. [00:29:30] The meetings will go on, even the prayer meeting, even the Bible study, even they will head the Lord's table. They perhaps even will go out into the streets, evangelizing. They will still, at the beginning, appear to be keen on fire. Zealous sound. But the lampstand has gone. [00:29:49] The essential meaning of that church, of the church in Ephesus has gone. [00:29:57] What is the essential meaning? [00:30:00] The presence of the Lord. [00:30:04] The fact that God amongst us, the fact that God is known amongst us, experienced amongst us, manifested through us, that men and women touching us, insignificant, unworthy, ordinary human beings, touch the presence of God in us, touch the love of God in us, and the truth of God in us, the reality of God. [00:30:37] I do not think that anything else satisfies God. [00:30:45] God is not interested in our scheme or our well oiled activity or organization. [00:30:54] God is interested in us as human beings, human beings that have been saved and have been rightly related to him through the saving work and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:31:12] Human beings that have become, each one, a temple of the Holy Spirit, human beings built together as living stones, supremely as the habitation of God in the spirit, the presence of the Lord. The whole of Old Testament history from that point in exodus onwards, centers in tabernacle or temple. What happened to the tabernacle or the temple, the way it was cared for, the way it was understood, whether the Lord was there, whether the presence of the Lord dwelt there, or whether the glory had departed. [00:32:03] So it is with us. [00:32:06] Every great movement of the spirit of God in church history has been but the presence of the Lord manifested again in human beings saved by his grace. [00:32:19] And every departure has been when the Lord Jesus Christ has been put out of his plague and men, scheme, and human organization have taken over. [00:32:36] God help us. [00:32:39] God help us in the day in which we live, as the people of God, saved by his grace to be that vessel in which and through which he may weep, needy men and women. [00:32:58] Shall we pray? [00:33:10] Dear Lord, thy word speaks of this matter being a mystery, something, dear Lord, that our natural mind cannot really enter into, but which is to be revealed through the work of thy Holy Spirit. [00:33:33] We pray that every one of us may have the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that we might know and understand what it is to be in Christ. [00:33:47] Oh, may we know those wonderful words in our own experience. May the same determination be ours that moved the psalmist when he said one thing, have I desired, that will I seek of that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to see the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. [00:34:20] Now, Lord, we pray by thy spirit make intelligible spiritually what has been said. And above all, Lord, may we be here and wherever thy people abound, those who are being built together and becoming the means by which thy presence is known in this day and in this age. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:34:54] Amen.