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Now, in Psalm 95, I'm going to
use verse 2 this morning as our text. But I want to read from
verses 1 through about verse 7 just to kind of get the context
here of this psalm. And I want to use verse 2 as
a springboard to begin our message this morning because he speaks
of the presence of God. And that's the title of my message
this morning. is the presence of God. This has been the meditations
of my heart for many, many weeks. I started to preach on this a
few weeks ago. And I just feel that it's time
for me to go ahead and speak on that this morning. And the
question that we must ask ourselves is that have we truly sought
the presence of God or have we just sought salvation and the
knowledge of God. Now, I want you to just think
about these this morning as we go through this. I've got a three-point
outline. We're going to be speaking this
morning of the reality of God's presence, the pursuit of God's
presence, and number three, the experience, or we could say the
practice of God's presence. Now, you'll notice with me as
we read from verse 1, He says, O come, let us sing unto the
Lord, and let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence
with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. For
the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. In His hand
are the deep places of the earth. The strength of the hills is
His also. The sea is His, and He made it,
and His hands formed the dry land. Oh, come and let us worship
and bow down and let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for
He is our God and we are the people of His pasture and the
sheep of His hand today, if you will hear His voice. Now, Lord,
we thank You for this day and the privilege that You've given
us again after another week to assemble together. Lord, we just
pray this morning for Your anointing and blessing to be upon the reading
of Thy Word. Lord, as I've been thinking about
this subject for the last many weeks and been praying about
it and studying about it and meditating upon it, Lord, I pray
this morning that You'll help me to convey what's on my heart
and mind to the congregation here. Lord, I pray that You'll
just open our hearts and, Lord, our eyes this morning to truth
from Thy Word, for it's in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. And you may be seated. A. W. Tozer, said in a book that
he wrote, I believe it is The Pursuit of God, he said, I want
the presence of God Himself or I don't want anything at all
to do with religion. I want all that God has or I
don't want any. And I got to thinking about that
statement, and I was reading a little bit of his material
this past week, and I'll say more about that in a few moments.
I've got a chapter out of his book laying here that I'm going
to give to you this morning. But I got to thinking about this
as I've been studying and contemplating and meditating upon the presence
of God. And when we come here and consider
this, there's always two extremes when you come to this subject.
There are those who believe that God is unapproachable, that He
is too holy for you and I to be able to come into His presence.
Then there are those that say that God is very accessible and
say that, well, God is just one of the guys or He's my buddy
or whatever. And both of those concepts are
wrong. And I want us to bring a balance to this today. Now,
as we come here, you'll notice with me, that this psalm begins,
obviously, with dealing with the subject of worship. He said,
O come and let us sing unto the Lord and let us make a joyful
noise to the rock of our salvation. In verse 2, let us come before
His presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to Him
with psalms. Verse 3, The Lord is a great
God and a great King above all gods. And we find here in verse
6, "...O come and let us worship, and bow down, and let us kneel
before the Lord our Maker." When we come to the Word of God, we
must believe that it is the words of the living God. We find that
as we come and consider this subject or any other subject
that we may be studying, We must believe that when we open up
this book, that God is speaking to you and I in the present tense. This is not just a book of records,
a historical book of records. We must come to God and when
we open up His Word, we must believe that He is speaking to
us in the present tense. Until we can see this and understand
this, we'll never know anything about the presence of God. Jesus
Christ Himself in John 1 is called the Word, showing us the emphasis
that is placed upon the Word of God. He was God incarnate,
and we have the Word of God. Think about Him being called
the Word, showing us the importance of God's Word. He brought God's
Word. to this earth for mankind. This
is a living book that we hold in our hand this morning, and
we must expect that when we come to it and when we read it, that
God will speak to us, and I believe that He will. Even in the Old
Testament, when God had given Moses and the children of Israel,
He had given them the tabernacle and the sacrifices and all the
ceremonies He was trying to point them to a holy and righteous
God. Everything that they did under
the law, we said, well, all those ceremonies and all those things,
all of that was trying to point His people to a righteous and
holy God because they had come out of Egypt where there was
much idolatry. And so God was trying to refocus
their thinking, and so He gave them His commandments, His laws,
His statutes, the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the ceremonies,
all of these things God gave to them that they may point to
the fact that God loves them and He's a holy and a righteous
God. Now notice with me as we come
back here to verse 2, and I want you to notice this again, and
I wanted to start here this morning because it speaks of the presence
of God. He says here in verse 2, he said,
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a
joyful noise unto Him with songs. So in this case, he's talking
about coming into the presence of God to worship similar to
what we've done this morning as we come to worship the Lord. Now, turn with me please to Psalms
139. We just sang a few verses from
this psalm. Now, my first point this morning
is this, and I'm really working my way down to point 2 and 3. That's where I want to place
the emphasis at. But my first point this morning
is the reality of God's presence that we see given to us in the
Word of God. And it is mentioned many times
in the Bible from the first book of Genesis to the last book in
the book of Revelation. There are three dimensions of
God's presence that we find in the Word of God. First of all,
there is God's universal presence. No matter where you would go
in this universe, you will experience God's presence. You can't hide
from Him, and you can't get away from His presence. No matter
whether saved or lost, every individual is influenced by the
presence of God. And we're going to be reading
here in this chapter. Even in Jonah 1 and verse 3, I went down to Tarshish, I forget
the city there, but he went down and he tried to go out from the
presence of the Lord. And he couldn't get away from
the presence of the Lord. And Isaiah chapter 6 and verse
3 says, "...the whole earth is filled with His glory." Acts
17, 28 and 29, the Bible tells us that the Lord is very near
all of us and we are His offspring. And so, first of all, when we
talk about the reality of God, we find in the Word of God, we
see that God's universal presence, omnipresent, God is a Spirit
and He is not limited to space and time. Now, notice as we come
to this passage, and by the way, let me just go ahead and give
you the second area, and we're going to read this in just a
moment. But we also find God's dwelling in the believer. We
find God's dwelling in 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16. God dwells in
the believer. So there's God's presence. God
dwells in you and I by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says we are
the temple of God. So there's the presence of God.
This may be a mystery to us. We may not understand it, but
the Bible tells us that God dwells in us by His Holy Spirit. Now notice as we read from verse
7 here in this chapter, in verse 7, we're going to read through
verse 7 through verse 12, we have these words. He said, Whither
shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy
presence? I'm coming back now to the thought
of His universal presence. And he said, verse 8, "'And if
I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in
hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say,
surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me, yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night
shineth as the day, and darkness and the light are both a light
to thee." So no matter where you would go, you can go to the
bottom of the sea, you can go into hell, you can go into heaven,
you can get out and hide somewhere in the darkest night, and there's
no way that we can escape the presence of God in this universe. Secondly, as I said, God dwells
inside of every believer. Number three, and I want you
to turn with me to Psalms 27. Number three, I'm still under
the first point, the reality of God's presence. The third
area is that God manifests presence. God's manifest presence. That
is, God manifests Himself in particular ways at specific times to certain individuals. God will
manifest Himself in particular ways in specific times to certain
individuals or maybe even groups of individuals. And as we started
in Psalms 95 and verse 2, we know that as we assemble ourselves
together, we desire God's presence, do we not? We desire to come
into His presence. And he actually said in Matthew
18 and verse 20, where two or three are gathered together,
he said, there will I be. So we know that God throughout
the centuries has manifested Himself in special ways to either
individuals or even as a nation with Israel or as churches or
groups of people. So the reality of God's presence
exists in the Word of God in a universal way, in an indwelling
way, and then in a manifested way. And now I want to come to
our second point, the pursuit of God's presence. Now what we're
going to see here is the psalmist, and especially David, pursuing
the presence of God. Now, we pursue many things in
life, do we not? I mean, you can just sit back
and watch folks, and we're pursuing many things in life. But how
many people do you know that are honestly pursuing the presence
of God? I'm not talking about just the
knowledge of God or the salvation of God. But how many people do
you know personally that are truly pursuing the presence of
God? Now, I want you to just think
about that. Silence is not golden to many people in the world today.
As a matter of fact, there is so much noise and so much things
going on in our lives that if you put some people in the room
with total silence for five minutes, they would be insane. And Hudson
Taylor said it is the secret to spiritual living. silent with the Lord and allowing
the Lord to speak to you. Most people have got to have
something going, something listening to something, some kind of music
going, some kind of noise going. I love this time of year and
also the spring because you get down to the place where you don't
have air conditionings and heaters and fans. and things like that
running, and you can literally lay in bed at night and hear
the birds or hear some noises and whatever, you know, the animals
and those kind of things. I love silence. And many hate
silence. They can't stand silence. And
many cannot even sit down and be still for a little while.
They're very impatient, and it just kills them to have to sit
down. Well, if you can never get quiet and never have silence
and can never just sit down for a while, then how in the world
can God speak to you? I want you to think about this
morning. I've been meditating upon this for weeks. And how
many do we know today that are pursuing the presence of God? to practice or experience the
presence of God as we're going to get into in our third point.
How many do we know that this is their number one desire? There's been a number of times
in my life that I've felt very near with God. There's also been
those times I've felt very distant. Can I get an amen? There's times
that you feel distant from God and you desire that closeness,
like being away from a spouse or someone for a period of time. But there have been times in
my life where many times that I have experienced that unique
presence of God. And I'll be honest with you,
as A.W. Tozer said, if I can't have that, I don't really want
much of anything, because that should be the desires of our
heart. And as we come to the Bible, we're going to focus in
on the psalmist, but we find it here as we're going to read
in the book of Psalms in just a moment in chapter 27, that
especially with David, his whole heart was centered around the
presence of God. Now here's a few other verses
I'm going to give you before I read here. But in Hebrews 10.22
it says, "...let us draw near with a true heart." Psalms 34
and verse 18 said, "...the Lord is nigh unto them that are of
a broken heart." Genesis 3 verses 8-11, the interesting thing is
that Adam and Eve walk in the presence of God, and then after
they sinned, we find that they ran and hid from the presence
of God. You see, piety prepares us for
God's presence, and sin hinders us according to Isaiah 52 and
v. 8 and Psalms 66 and v. 18. In Genesis 4 and v. 8, the Bible
says that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. In
Genesis 28 and v. 16, Jacob said, God was in this
place and I knew it not. And Philippians chapter 3 and
verse 8, the apostle Paul cried out and he said, that I may know
Him. Read the text there and look
at that. That I may know Him. In Exodus chapter 33, we're going
to turn there later, Moses cried out, O God, show me Thy glory. Deuteronomy 4 and verse 29, God
reveals Himself to those who earnestly seek Him. In 2 Chronicles
15 and verse 2 it says, "...the Lord is with you while you be
with Him. And if you seek Him, He will
be found of you. But if you forsake Him, He will
forsake you." And 2 Chronicles 16 and verse 9 says, "...the
eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to
show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect
toward Him." So we find many times in the Word of God, the
believers, those who are trusting the Lord, that they feel a distance
from God and we see them pursuing a holy and a righteous God. I'm saying to you this morning
that our chief concern today should be is to ensure God's
presence with us. whether it be as an individual,
as our family, or as our church. The presence of God is more than
just a Sunday experience. And I'll explain that a little
bit more later. We ought to be seeking God's
presence, enjoying God's presence, desiring God's presence, and
the fear of losing God's presence. David cried out in Psalm 51,
verse 11, and there was a fear that he would lose the presence
of God. He did not want God's presence
to be taken away from him. Now notice as we come to this
passage, we read here in chapter 27 and verse 4, the book of Psalms,
chapter 27 and verse 4, We have these words. Now notice
this, "...one thing have I desired 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." Notice he said, "...one thing that I desire."
This one thing that I want, this one thing that I desire more
than anything else, he said, that I will seek after, that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord, that I may behold the beauty
of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. He said this one
thing, this is all I want. Notice with me as we come down
to verse 8. He said in verse 8, He said, When thou saidest,
Seek ye My face, My heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will
I seek. Turn to Psalm 16 and notice here. I'm going to go through four
or five different psalms and just point out. I want you to
see that David was a man that sought after God. David was a
man that pursued God. He wanted God's presence in his
life. Notice in Psalms 16 and verse
11, he said, "...Thou wilt show me the path of life, and Thy
presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures
evermore." Notice that he said in verse 11, "...In Thy presence
is fullness of joy." There is no true joy, no peace, no calmness
without the presence of God in our lives. Turn with me please
to Psalms 42. As I said a moment ago, there's
been a number of times that I have felt distant from God. And those are times that you
don't really enjoy. And there's times that I've felt
very near to the Lord. And also, I've had God to speak
to me. Now, I'm not talking about in
an audible way. There's one time in particular
that I've set aside three days by myself just to pray and to
seek God, and how that God just overwhelmed me with His presence
and His love and His mercy. Sixteen years ago, I spent one
summer in this sanctuary on my face for three and four and five
hours a day, praying and seeking God and spending time in the
Psalms and God coming and speaking and leading and guiding me through
those months, some things that we were going through in the
ministry. I remember one time years ago
when I was in construction work, I began to be bothered thinking
that I was not doing enough for the Lord, or I needed to be doing
something else for the Lord, and maybe there's something else
that God would have me to do. And this was a few years back
before God had called me to preach. And I remember being near the
foot of a mountain there in Evansville, Tennessee, and out in the field
praying, and God come to me. It was so real. Now, I didn't
hear bells, and I didn't hear whistles, and I didn't see lights
flashing, and I didn't hear an audible voice, but God spoke
to me there in that field seeking Him and pursuing Him. and asking
Him, what is it, Lord? What do You want me to do? Do
You want me to do something else? And I loved being a brick mason. I loved being my own boss. I
loved getting out and doing that type of work. And the Lord spoke
to me and He said, You are in My will. Keep doing what you're
doing. And you know what, from that
day forward, I got such a satisfaction and peace, I got up every morning
and I left in every brick I laid for Christ's sake. And that was
just as good as somebody preaching the Word of God. I felt like
I was in the perfect will of God. But I had to pursue God
and had to get that peace and had to experience that presence.
And there's been many other times in my life that these things
have happened. Has God revealed Himself to you
and give you perfect peace and joy in your heart about what
you're doing, the direction you're going, what vocation you should
be in, where you should be, all those kind of things? Have you
really pursued God and asked God about these things? Many
times we make decisions and then ask God to bless it, do we not?
We go and make our decisions and say, God, would You sanctify
this? Would You bless this? Because this is what I'm going
to do and this is what I want to do. Notice as we come to Psalms
42, and I pray this morning that you'll be blessed by this. I
pray this morning that you'll get out of this what I've got
out of it for about six weeks, and praying about this and studying
about this and meditating upon this, that it will be our vocation
that we will pursue the presence of God. Not just His salvation,
not just His knowledge, but that we will desire to experience
His presence. In Psalms 42, the Bible says
here, notice with me, and I'm not going to read the entire
chapter, we could, but in verse 2, he says here, My soul thirsts
for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? I challenge you to read the surrounding
verses. Now, this is a man that is saved.
This is a man that knows God. This is a man that's walked with
God. And here he's crying out and
he said, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When
shall I come and appear before Thee? He said in verse 1, As
the heart panteth after the water broke, Sol paneth my soul after
thee, O God." Here's a man that is in pursuit of God. Here, in
effect, here's a God chaser. Can I use that word? Here's somebody
that's chasing God, pursuing God. Here's somebody that's desiring
God and seeking God. He not only wants to know about
God, but he wants God's presence in his life. Turn with me to
chapter 62 and notice here. In chapter 62, notice here. Let me come to chapter, you can
write down verse 1 and verse 5, but come to chapter 63. And
notice what I mean in verse 8, and I challenge you to read this
entire psalm this week or this evening. But notice what it means
when we come here. He said in verse 8, now look
at this again, I believe this to be David. And it says here
in verse 8, it says, My soul followeth hard after thee, thy
right hand upholdeth me. Here's a man chasing God. Here's
a man desiring to be in the presence of God, to be in the perfect
will of God. And he said, my soul followeth
hard after thee. Notice with me one other time
in the book of Psalms. I'm going to be reading in Psalms
chapter 84 this time, verses 2 and in verse 5. You see, the
Bible said in Psalm 46.10, we sing that psalm, it says, Be
still and know that I am God. The majority don't know how to
be still. The majority don't know what it means to be still.
The majority don't know what it means to get rid of the noise
and the distractions in their life. They've got to have some
kind of game, something to look at, something to listen to, something
always has got to be going on. But the Bible says, Be still
and know that I am God. God cannot speak to us with all
the distractions that we bring into our lives. We live in a
noisy world. Notice he says here in chapter
84, and I'm going to be reading two verses. Verse 2, he said, yea, even fainted for the courts
of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God." Notice in verse 5, he said, "...blessed
is the man whose strength is in thee, and whose heart are
the ways of them." We find here in these verses again somebody
pursuing God. Turn with me to the book of Exodus
now, and notice with me in Exodus chapter 33. In Exodus chapter
33. Now notice carefully as we come here
to Exodus chapter 33. Now, let's come to our third
point this morning, and that is the experience of God's presence,
or many would say, the practice of God's presence. Now, we see
that God's presence, number one, is a reality. God is everywhere
in the universe. Amen? God also dwells inside
of the believer by the Holy Ghost. And also, God has manifested
Himself to individuals or groups or even a nation at different
times in their lives, and so we know that God is present in
this world and working in the lives of individuals. And we
also can see by the verses we read and many other verses, there
are those who their life's goal was to pursue the presence of
God. They wanted to walk in God's
will. They wanted to be in God's presence. They did not want to
be out of God's will at all. And they wanted to experience
God in a very unique and a special way. They wanted to be with God. This should be our goal. It should
be our chief aim in life is that we would experience the presence
of God. Now what do I mean when I use
the word experience? That is, the personal experience
to enjoy God and to practice His presence. You say, what do
you mean by that? Well, there's things that accompany
the presence of God. We're going to read of three
different things here in this passage. There are things that
accompany the presence of God. I could give you a list of eight
or ten things. You could write down probably fifteen or twenty
more. We know that peace and joy comes along with the presence
of God. We also know that contentment,
you go through the Bible and read the different times that
covetousness and discontentment is compared with contentment
and peace and joy. We know that contentment comes
along with the peace of God. We know that satisfaction, delight,
rest comes along with the presence of God. We also know that with
the presence of God, we have power over sin. We also know that when the presence
of God is true in our lives, we have no fear of man. We only
fear God. We also know that when we are
in the presence of God, that there is courage and that we
are calm and that we are confident. We have confidence in what God
has called us to do. And again, you could add to that
list. So there's many things that accompany the presence of
God, and we're going to look at three different ones right
here in this particular chapter. We need to live, we need to walk,
we need to abide in God's presence. Listen to this, church. We need
to be conscious of God's presence when it is there. God came near many holy men and
women in the Old Testament and the New as well. God came near
to them when their heart was turned toward the Lord in a special
way. When they pursued Him and they
desired Him more than anything else. Now notice, as we come
to chapter 33 in the book of Exodus, and first
of all, let me read verse 14 and verse 15. He says here in verse 14, and
he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee
rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me,
carry us not up fence. This is Moses and God having
a conversation. And Moses is saying, it sounds
like A.W. tells you, he's saying, Lord,
if your presence is not going to be with us, we're not going.
I don't want to go. I don't want to go alone. I don't want to
do this alone. Now, turn with me in this chapter
to verse 11 and notice. Moses' request is very unique. He's wanting the presence of
God. That's all. Israel had just sinned a great sin with the golden
calf in chapter 32. God killed 3,000 and then plagued
others. And so what Moses did in verse
7, he carried the tabernacle. This was not the tabernacle they
built later, but probably a tent they used for worship. But he
carried this tabernacle outside the camp in order to worship,
and it was a visible display that the presence of God is no
longer with the camp of the nation of Israel. And those who desire
God and desire His presence were to come outside of the camp. The book of Hebrews talks to
you and I the same way. Coming outside the camp in order
to experience the presence of God. Now notice what we read
in verse 5. And it came to pass that when
Moses went out into the tabernacle, that all the people rose up and
stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until
he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass that as Moses
entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and
stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses,
and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle
door, and all the people rose up and worshiped every man at
his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses..."
Notice, face to face. "...face to face, as a man speaketh
unto his friend. And he turned again into the
camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of none, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle." Now notice in verse 11, God comes
to Moses and speaks to him face What do we mean by that? Moses
experienced the divine presence of God. The face of God here
is a sign of God's presence. Where your face is, is where
you're at. Am I correct? You see, I look
out at this congregation this morning and I know that you're
here because your face is here. You are present. And God came
and spoke to Moses face to face. He revealed His divine presence
unto Moses because Moses sought that more than anything else
in life. You say, well, you don't know
the responsibilities I have. Have you considered Moses? Anywhere
from a million to three million people trying to lead them? They
just rebelled on him, built a golden calf. God had to kill some of
them. And Moses saying, Lord, all I
want is Your presence. He didn't ask for anything else.
He said, I want Your presence. Now notice as we come down in
chapter 33, I want you to notice three things in this chapter
that accompany God's presence. Now first of all is divine guidance. Notice with me as we read from
verse 13. He said, "...now therefore I pray thee, if I have found
grace in thy sight," look at it, "...show me now thy way,
that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and
consider that this nation is thy people." In verse 16 of this
chapter he says, For wherein shall it be known here that I
and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that
thou goest with us, as so shall we be separated, I and thy people,
from all the people that are upon the face of the earth?"
Moses is saying, Show me Thy way. Separate us from the peoples
of this world. Lead us in Your way. Show us
the will of God. You and I know that there's many
decisions in life, and the farther we go along in life, and the
more technology and the complication life gets, there's more decisions
that have to be made. And Moses is saying here in the
desert, all I want is that I want divine guidance. So this is one
thing that accompanies the presence of God. When we experience, and
that's what I'm talking about, the experience of God's presence,
when we're practicing God's presence, when we're conscious of God's
presence, then we have divine guidance. And we need that in
our society. Because every day that you get
up, there's new decisions that you have to make, new problems
that you will face. Amen? A wife or a husband, there's
always decisions and problems and we need divine guidance and
it comes from one place and that is abiding in the presence of
the Lord God. How many by just raising your
hand could say, Preacher, I have experienced and enjoyed God's
presence? Can I see your hand? You really
enjoyed it and experienced it and felt it, and you say, well,
I thought you didn't believe in feelings. Well, if you don't
have feelings, you're dead. And you have felt and enjoyed
and experienced and knew that when God was speaking, that when
God was leading, you just knew that in your life. Now, we're
not talking about anything outside of the confines of the written
Word of God. We're talking about what lines
up with the Word of God. Now, the second thing that comes
with God's presence is divine rest. And oh, Lord God knows
we need this. He says here in verse 14, and
he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee
rest. You know what that is that's
peace? That's harmony. That's tranquility. That's a
quietness from restlessness that is in the world that we live
in. They're in the wilderness and there's many dangers, and
still yet going through these dangers and following the Lord,
God says, I'm going to give you rest. Jesus said in Matthew 11,
28, He said, I'll give you rest for your soul if you respond
to My invitation. He said, Come. And Psalm 37 and
verse 7, it says, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.
He says, fret not. And then in Jeremiah 6 and verse
16, it says there, he says, there is rest in the old past. We've
talked about the old past. That is God's way, not leading. But God says in the old past,
He said there's rest for the soul there. A lot of people want
to get away from the old past. They want to do it their way.
We live in a technological age, you know, today. And everything's
advancing at a fast rate and whatever. And God says, go back
to the old paths, He said, because there's rest for your soul. Notice with me as we come to
verse 18, there is also something else that accompanies the divine
presence of God, and that is divine glory. being able to see
His majesty and His power living in His presence. And I'll challenge
you to read chapter 34 through 5, verse 8, but notice in chapter
33, verse 19, notice this carefully. Well, verse 18, and He said,
I beseech thee, show Me thy glory. And He said, I will make all
My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And
He said, Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man
see Me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there
is a place for Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. And He said,
and it shall come to pass. And of course, we know that God's
glory was there in that place. You can read that later. God's
glory was in this place. Moses desired the presence of
God, and with this presence of God, he got guidance, he got
rest, and he got glory, to experience glory, because he wanted the
presence of God. Turn over to Joshua, and notice
what we mean in Joshua chapter 1. And let me give you a list of
other verses as well while we're turning there. Let me give you Genesis 21, verse
22 and the story of Abraham. Well, the Bible says there, God
is with thee in all that thou doest. Gideon in Judges 6, verses
12 and 14, the Lord is with thee. Jeremiah chapter 15 and verse
20 says, I am with thee to save thee and deliver thee. And Isaiah
43 and verses 1 through 5, the Lord said, I am with thee. And
He's basically saying, I'm with thee through the flood and through
the fire, through all the things that you go through. The Lord
is saying, I'm with you. And what about Daniel chapter
3, and I can't remember the exact verse, but what about the courage
and the confidence of the three Hebrew children. They were in
the midst of adversity. You think about that. They stood
while everybody else was sitting. They practiced and experienced
the presence of God, and in my opinion, the victory of the Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego was not coming out of the fire. The victory
was going into the fire. Because their minds were made
up. They said, we don't have to think
about this. They did not have to make a decision. The decision had been made years
ago. They would stand for God and
they wouldn't worship idols. There's many idols in the world
in which you and I live. Did you know that? There's many
idols around us. Covetousness is idolatry, the
Bible said in Ephesians 5 and also in Colossians chapter 3.
And I'm simply saying to you, is that the three Hebrew children,
when you read the story there, again, the victory was if they
were standing when everybody else was sitting. And they would
not compromise. Why? Because they knew something
about the presence of God. In Jeremiah chapter 1, you'll
notice as we read from verse 5, And there shall not any man
be able to stand before thee, God talking to Joshua, as he
would lead the children of Israel in. He said, "...there shall
not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy
life." Now notice this, "...as I was with Moses, so I will be
with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee." And he goes on to encourage him. He said, be strong and be
of good courage. In verse 6, he said, I'm going
to divide the land unto you. And he again comes back and places
the emphasis upon the Word of God in verse 8 and verse 9. Now again, is the Bible just
a historical record book to you? Or is it a living book? Is it
something that only worked for somebody in the past? Or is it
something that when you read, I don't care if it's the book
of Psalms, Paul's letters, the Gospels, or the book of Revelation,
when you read, do you see it as God speaking to you on a daily
basis and leading and guiding you? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 10. in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
I'm going to read verse 31. Now notice in verse 31, he says,
"...whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do,
do all to the glory of God." About three years ago, I preached
a message in this church on a Sunday night titled, Sacred Music. I'm going to talk about sacred
things just for a moment. And I preached a message titled,
Sacred Music. Now my whole point in that message
was to say that you and I that are sanctified and are set apart
for the glory of God, that the only music that we should sing
listen to or play should be music that glorifies God. The Christian
has no business fooling around with any secular music. Now, I want to just take some
thoughts from, again, A. W. Tozer and his book, The Pursuit
of God, chapter 10 titled, The Sacrament of Life. I'm going
to give each one of you a copy of chapter 10. And I want you
to listen to just a few thoughts. He talked about the philosophy
of sacred and secular. Now, I'm not going to quote him
verbatim, but these are thoughts gleaned from this chapter that
I'm going to give to you. And he talked about the philosophy
of sacred and secular, and he said this should not be in a
Christian's life, and I have to agree with him. He said we
divide. We are crossing back and forth
between two worlds. And we become frustrated, we
become confused, because we're always trying to divide the secular
from the sacred. Now, if you follow what I taught
you three years ago in music, you don't have to cross back
and forth. Amen? You understand what I'm saying?
If you're following what I taught you about music, you're not crossing
back. In other words, everything you
sing, play, or listen to is sacred. There is no such thing as secular
as far as the music is concerned. Many times we divide it up this
way. Sacred is what? Well, we say,
well, sacred is worship. It's going to church as we are
here this morning. It might be taking the Lord's
Supper. It may be Bible study. It may be prayer. It may be my
meditations. We say that's secular. I'm sacred
rather. And then on the other hand, we
say, well, what is secular? We may say, well, eating and
drinking and sleeping and working. We'd say that's secular. And
then we divide it all up And then we get confused and we get
frustrated. Can I get an amen? Can I get
a witness this morning? And we get frustrated as we're
divided up between these two worlds. And as we come to church,
we try to make it all sacred. As we leave here, then we figure,
well, that's the secular world and things don't matter quite
as much. Am I telling you the truth? He makes a statement in his book.
He said in John 8.29, He said, our perfect example, Jesus Christ,
made no distinctions between the two. And for the Lord said,
for I do always those things that please Him. Jesus Christ
lived in a real body as you and I live in. And at the same time,
He never performed a non-sacred act. Now, I'm taking it slow
with this. I want it to sink in. You and
I live in created bodies. Jesus Christ lived in a real
human body. And He never performed a non-sacred
act. Amen? Now, what does our text
say here? Our text says, verse 31, "...whether
therefore ye eat or drink." Or whatsoever you do. He even comes down to the little
things that we would consider eating and drinking. You say,
how can you make that sacred? Anything can be sacred. Marriage
is sacred. The marriage bed is sacred. Everything
is sacred if we want it to be sacred. Our bodies are the temple
of the Holy Ghost. And even down to our eating and
drinking should be to the glory of God. Every act of life should
be sacred. Every daily duty should be sacred. Our labors, our job, our eating,
even planting a garden can be sacred if it's done for the glory
of God. Whatever that we do should be
a sacred act, and it should be a sacred act of worship whereby
God accepts that. God accepts the things that are
done to His glory. God accepts acts of worship that
are done to His glory. And I'm saying that instead of
being frustrated all the time, switching back and forth between
the secular and the sacred and whatever, why not just live to
the glory of God? Just live to the glory of God
and consider every act of worship, every duty as being sacred and
being acceptable to God. I have to agree with this author
in this because we have come to the place that we've separated
secular and sacred to the point that the only thing that matters
to most people is a little church during the week and maybe a little
five-minute quiet time that they may read a proverb or something
and the rest of their life is secular and it's not sacred and
it's not acceptable to God. Notice in verse 31 one more time
before we turn away. He said in verse 31, "...whether
therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to
the glory of God." Do all to the glory of God, whether we
eat, whether we drink. I hear people laugh and joke
about things. I had somebody say to me not
long ago, God wanted me to be sweet, so He gave me diabetes.
You've got to be out of your mind. God wants us to live for Him.
He wants us to eat for Him. He wants us to drink for Him.
God wants us to be as healthy as possible. This temple that
He gives us is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and we can joke
about what's going on in our country. We can joke about the
obesity and the garbage and whatever, but I'm telling you something,
it's not a joke in God's eyes. We treat our cars better than
we do our own bodies. We'll put the best gas in it
and the best oil in it, and then put junk in our bodies. I'm saying
that everything that we do in life can be sacred and we don't
have to be swapping back and forth and back and forth. It can be sacred and it can be
an act of worship and it can be acceptable to God even down
to planting a garden. or working your job for the glory
of God, raising your children for the glory of God, all of
these things can be classified in the arena of that which is
sacred, and if it's sacred, then it is an act of worship, and
it is acceptable to God, and God will reward us one day for
that. Turn with me to 1 Peter 3. The Bible says in Psalm 15, who
can dwell? I believe it's in the tabernacle
of God or the presence of God. And He gives a list of things.
Here's a few. He said, He that walketh uprightly, He that worketh
righteous, and He that speaketh the truth. In Jeremiah 29, verse
13, He says, And you shall seek Me and find Me when you shall
rather search Me with all your heart. He said, you shall seek
Me and you'll find Me when you search Me with all your heart. In 1 Peter 3, notice here. In 1 Peter 3, I'm going to be
reading in verse 15. Now, as we bring this near close
this morning, the Bible said in Philippians 4-5, the Lord
is at hand. He's not talking about the Second
Coming. He's talking about the presence and nearness of God. And in that chapter, he speaks
of peace and power and the presence of God. In 1 Timothy 6, verse
6, godliness with contentment is great gain. James 4, verse
4, he said, draw nigh to God and God will draw nigh to thee.
That's what he says. He says in Hebrews 13, verse
5, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. And in the context,
he's making a contrast between covetousness and contentment.
Now, as we come here to our last passage this morning, how many
of us truly are hungering and thirsting after God to the point,
and pursuing God, and desiring these things of the presence
of God, that we're willing to come in ourselves to that? Notice as we come to this last
passage, I've shed many tears. in the last six weeks over this,
thinking about it. Thinking about the times when
I have not been near to God as I should. Thinking about the
times that I've made decisions on my own without having the
peace and joy and the presence of God Almighty in my life. And
I'm telling you, this ought to be a vocation to us. This ought
to be number one priority in our lives. that we would desire,
that we would pursue the presence of God, that it would become
more important to us than anything else in life. I believe that
it would radically change our lives. It would change our families. I believe it would radically
change our church. You don't need programs and props and gimmicks
when you have the presence of God. You don't need those things. You don't need any put on. You
don't need any of these things when you're walking and living
and praying and breathing in the presence of God. And I pray
that we as the psalmists, that we would cry for this. That we
would plead for this. He says here in chapter 3 and
verse 15, "...to sanctify the Lord, God, in your hearts, and
be ready always to give an answer to every man that answers you
a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."
I believe this. I believe that if you'll let
a man or woman sanctify the Lord in their heart, nothing is a
common act anymore. Nothing will be a common act.
And to sanctify the Lord in our heart is to give Him His rightful
place. We seek a lot of things in life.
We seek security. We seek job security. We seek
to secure a home. We seek retirements. We seek
a lot of things in this life. But I believe with all my heart
that we need to seek not just the salvation of God that we
have, and not just the knowledge of God of filling our head with
more facts, And I'm not against understanding the knowledge of
God, but I think that we need to seek the presence of God,
that He would be real in our lives. Shall we come this morning
and pray? I pray this morning that you would shed just a few
of the tears that I've shed in the last six weeks of thinking about this subject, wanting this to be true in my
own life, and to have the ability to be able to present this to
you in a proper way that it would be meaningful, that it would never be forgotten. And I know we're preparing a
meal back there, but I told my wife, I said, I want everybody
in the service, I want them to see these verses. I want to read
these. Pour my heart out to you. The
presence of God. I challenge you to study on this
yourself. And seek His presence with your
whole heart. Father, we thank You for this
day. We thank You for Your love and kindness and mercy to us. And Lord, we're so blessed, Lord. We're so thankful to You that
You have loved us. Lord, You've not only saved us,
You've not only given us life, but given it to us more abundantly.
Lord, You not only call us Your children, but Lord, You've given
us the privilege actually walk in Your presence and by Your
side. God, I pray this will be the
pursuit of each and every one in this assembly. Lord, that
we will desire You more than anything else in this world. Lord, we praise You for Your
love and mercy and kindness to us. Lord, we just ask now that
You be with us, Lord, as we continue to sing For it's in Jesus Christ's precious
and holy name we pray, Amen and Amen.
The Presence of God
| Sermon ID | 111311141397 |
| Duration | 1:00:24 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Psalm 95:2 |
| Language | English |
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