THE PRESENCE OF GOD
J. Renton
Job 42: 1–6; Psalm 73: 13–17; Hebrews 4: 12–16; 10: 19–25
I wish to speak of the presence of God, because it is in the presence of God that we find our true measure. We may pass muster among men, and among our brethren, but our real true measure is found in the presence of God. These scriptures will give us some idea of the results of being in the presence of God. Because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ there is access for the believer into the immediate presence of God. We need to make use of that access, and to become accustomed to be before God, to be in His presence. Being consciously in the presence of God will have some results with us, which these scriptures show.
Job had much to say, but the effect of being in God’s presence was that he repented. He goes on chapter after chapter; he is able to answer all his friends, and many of the things they say are right, but Job was thinking of himself, as we all do naturally. He said, “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear”—like us all; we have all heard of God, “but now mine eye seeth thee”. That means he is conscious of being in God’s presence. The result is, he has a thorough judgment of himself. Only as in the presence of God do we have a thorough judgment of ourselves. Job had a judgment of all his friends, and all his friends had a judgment of him; but he did not have a judgment of himself. It is easier to judge others, and maybe judge rightly, but more difficult to have a judgment of ourselves.
It is possible as we are conscious of being in the presence of God, as Job said, “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. That was his true measure in the presence of God. He said, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”. He goes on to say, “therefore have I uttered what I did not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not”. This was the result of all the questions that God asked Job in the preceding chapters. Elihu speaks and, following Elihu’s word, God speaks. We read in Hebrews 4, “the word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword”. The word of God is what exposes, exposes us to ourselves, for the most difficult person to judge is self. The word of God was living and operative as expressed by Elihu; it silenced Job. Then God came in. The word of God leads to God. “The word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. Then it says, “And there is not a creature unapparent before him; but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”. The word of God leads us, if it is rightly apprehended, into the presence of God; that was Job’s experience.
The word of God in Hebrews supposes an honest and good heart. The word of God has to go beyond our heads into our hearts. The Lord spoke in the parable of the sower of four kinds of ground; only the last kind of ground yielded fruit.
According to Luke’s account, Luke 8, the Lord said, “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8: 11), and the seed only develops in the good ground, and the good ground, the Lord says, is the “honest and good heart” (v.15). We need honest and good hearts to be affected by the word of God. The word of God is living and operative. The seed is living and operative as it falls into good ground. If it falls by the wayside, the birds of the heaven devour it; if it falls amidst thorns, other things choke it; if it falls on stony ground there is no depth of earth, no depth, the result is merely superficial. We can be superficial when the word of God comes, but the good ground is opened up, there has been the work of God, and soul exercise, and the seed falls in and produces fruit to perfection, the Lord says, The good ground is the honest and good heart. So, “The word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit”. It is an inward operation, “both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. The good ground applies not only in the preaching of the gospel, but it applies to what kind of soil we have when any prophetic word of God comes to us, whether it is resultful or whether it is not. Only on the good ground will the seed produce fruit, because the word is allowed its scope inwardly to “the division of soul and spirit”, and “thoughts and intents”; it is the inward working of the word of God.
Job experienced that “all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”. Being in the presence of God will help us to judge ourselves. What an important thing it is! We need
to repent initially, but to be maintained as repenting sinners. There are repenting sinners and unrepenting sinners. May we be repenting sinners; not only to be those who repented some years ago, or some months ago, but continuing in this repenting attitude. Job said, “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee”. He is face to face with God. There is nothing more important for the believer than to be maintained in a self-judged attitude. With such persons Satan gets no advantage; if we are not self-judged he will get an advantage, and exploit it to the full. But, “now mine eye seeth thee—Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. Self-judgment is necessary to be maintained in communion. To be maintained in communion we need continually to judge ourselves in the presence of God. He will, if we allow Him, expose to us all that is working inwardly.
In Psalm 73 the psalmist goes into the presence of God to understand. This psalmist, Asaph, had part in the singing in the service of God and he wonders, ‘Is it worthwhile being exercised? Is it worthwhile continuing in self-judgment? Is it worthwhile washing my hands and purifying my heart? People around seem quite happy, seem to prosper’. Do you ever think that way? Do you, ever get unhappy or disappointed because there are exercises among the brethren, or problems or difficulties; do you wonder if it is worthwhile continuing? That is what the psalmist says here, in principle, ‘Is it worthwhile going on with this exercise, all this labour, to keep in separation and purity of heart?’ He questions it, “Until I went into the sanctuaries of God”. In the presence of God he can see it is well worthwhile, because he understood; “Until I went into the sanctuaries of God; then understood I their end”—“then understood I”. ‘O for understanding at the present time! Where do I get understanding? I get it from the Scriptures; reading ministry; I get it in the presence of God. “Until
I went into the sanctuaries”—to see things as God sees them. The psalmist in the sanctuary, in the presence of God, saw things as God saw them, from God’s point of view.
In small circumstances, in limited conditions, is it worthwhile continuing, so much responsibility falling upon us? If we get into the presence of God we will get God’s view.
God’s appreciation of persons who desire to keep themselves in purity, keep themselves in exercise, keep themselves for the pleasure of God, even in small and difficult circumstances.
Things are difficult at the present time. There is public confusion, fragmentary conditions, few in some localities; is it worthwhile going on? If we are in the presence of God we will get God’s view of things. Think of God looking down and seeing a few in a locality seeking to preserve in the place what is suitable to Him. What a value it has in God’s sight! Where do they get that view? They get it in the presence of God—“Until I went into the sanctuaries of God; then understood I”; he understood. There is no more question of whether or not it is worthwhile going through exercises and difficulties; he has all the confirmation and understanding he needs whatever the situation may be.
In Hebrews 4 there is the throne of grace, “Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace”. It is wonderful to think that in a day like this there is the throne of grace.
Some of us are reading Revelation; out of the throne will come lightnings and thunders, and judgment follows (Revelation 4: 5). These things are going to come from the throne very soon, when the assembly’s sojourn here is completed and the Lord takes the saints to be with Him. In the meantime it is the throne of grace. God’s present attitude is grace, and help is available from the throne of grace. The throne suggests something firmly established; nothing will overthrow the throne of grace—“Let us approach
therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help”. Some seasons are more difficult than others. We have seasons of real difficulty sometimes. What is our resort? Our resort is to the throne of grace, the presence of God, where God’s grace and God’s mercy are available. It may please God to answer our prayers in mercy and extricate us; or it may please God to sustain us in the circumstances. It says, “Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy”. Mercy would extricate us, would deliver us, but then, “and find grace for seasonable help”; grace would sustain us in the circumstances. Whether it is mercy or grace needed, it is available at the throne of grace.
Then there is the priest, “a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God … For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart”. The throne of grace means that we approach God; it is God whom we approach at the throne of grace, but there is there the Priest with all His sympathy, His intercession; He ever lives to intercede. We might say there is a divine system established that nothing can shake, available to us at any moment, no matter what season it is, “for seasonable help”. We need help in some seasons more than in others; the throne of grace is always available. What a resort that is, what an encouragement for us; the throne of grace is established and nothing can shake it. The throne of grace and of divine favour is established and available; mercy and grace, whatever is needed at any moment, are available in the presence of God.
In chapter 10 we have, “boldness for entering”, and this is into the presence of God, to contemplate. Job was in the presence of God to judge himself; Asaph in Psalm 73 was in the presence of God to understand. The throne of grace is for seasonable help in all the circumstances through which we pass, and in chapter 10 we have entering into the presence of God to contemplate, to be restful. In the holy of holies in the book of Exodus there was only one article of furniture, and that was the ark. In the holiest, who is there? Christ is there; Christ as Man. What a privilege it is to get apart from all that is around! It is available to individuals, just to sit quietly to contemplate, contemplate Jesus as a Man, to come to an appreciation of Him in measure as God appreciates Him. The Lord requests at the end of John 17, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them” (John 17: 26). How is that arrived at? One way is by going into the holiest and contemplating Jesus. What a blessed contemplation is the One who occupies the heart of God; the One on whom God could open the heavens and say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, Matthew 17: 5. He is now in the presence of God, highly exalted, and He is the One who is available for our contemplation.
So it says, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness”. The boldness comes from the teaching earlier in the chapter regarding the sanctified. It says, “by which will”, that is, God’s will, “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”
(Hebrews 10: 10); then, in verse 12, “But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God”, “For by one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified” (verse 14). The understanding and appreciation of this will give us boldness to go into the holy of holies to contemplate. How we would grow in our knowledge of God, and in our appreciation of the Lord Jesus, by spending more time in this contemplation! It says, “the new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil”; that is, the Lord as Man has gone in, “through the veil, that is, his flesh”; that—was His death for the removal of any hindrance, “and having a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience, and washed as to our body with pure water”. No doubt “sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience, and washed as to our body with pure water” is a reference to the consecration of the priests in Leviticus 8, in other words, the sanctified.
All this gives boldness to persons who are real, who have been in the presence of God and judged themselves, who have understanding according to Psalm 73, and who have received seasonable help, who can be restful. What a wonderful privilege we have, dear brethren, to enter the holiest just to contemplate the Man Christ Jesus, and grow in affection for Him, in appreciation of Him, in measure to appreciate the Lord Jesus as the Father Himself appreciates Him, to love Him as the Father loves Him! How much is growth needed in our souls in this direction! This is how it comes about. Then the result is, “Let us hold fast the confession of the hope unwavering, for he is faithful who has promised”, and, “let us consider one another for provoking to love and good works”. This is not provoking to get the worst out of one another; it is provoking to get the best, “provoking to love and good works”. Then he says, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”. This shows how entering the holiest is individual, because it goes on to speak about “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”. Persons who frequent the holiest, who grow in this appreciation of our Lord Jesus Christ, come together. What wonderful times they would have! They provoke each other to love and good works; then they assemble together. Let us consider one another; there is plenty of room in our localities for considering one another.
We do consider ourselves, but the effect of taking advantage of our privilege and frequenting the holiest would be in considering one another for provoking to love and good works, and encouraging one another. It comes down to small numbers, comes down to two, “one another”. Let us encourage one another on this basis; if we are more than two there is so much the more need for this, to provoke one another to good works; to consider one another and encourage one another.
May the Lord encourage us to see the great value of the presence of God—which is available to every one of us at any time. We value the meetings we are able to have, but let this be basic to all our activities; being consciously more and more in the presence of God, for His own glory.
Address at Sydney, Australia
8 October 1989