THE LORD’S PRESENCE REALIZED
E. M. Walkinshaw
Exodus 33: 12–20; Matthew 18: 19, 20; John 14: 15–23
I have been exercised recently, dear brethren, about the realization of the presence of the Lord. I am sure that we would all agree that the realization of His presence must be exceeding joy. One has been concerned not simply to have the faith of it, but to have the consciousness of it, to be assured of His presence by that means. It seems to me to be of the utmost importance that we should
be conscious of the Lord’s presence with us, peculiarly at the Supper and in the service of God. Then His presence with us in the testimony too; we may take it for granted, but I think the Lord would always raise an exercise with us as to the conditions that are suited to Him, because He obviously cannot dwell anywhere, in anybody, in any state. Now if I think of His presence in what I might call an objective way, it must be ecstasy, as it will be when we are with Him. If I place my experience alongside of that then I have to question how far I have realized it.
Perhaps we could all think that over, not with a view in any sense to our being discouraged, because when the Lord calls attention to various truths and exhorts us as to various experiences, as He is doing in these days, it is never to discourage; it is always to encourage us. So that if, for example, He raises the question with our younger brethren as to the reception of the Spirit, or with any of us as to how much room we give to the Spirit, it is not to discourage us by self-occupation but to encourage us to get to Him that we might receive the Spirit, and as giving more place to Him might be aware of His dwelling with us in unhindered conditions.
Now Moses was evidently very concerned about this for the people. Previously he had cast God back, so to speak, on His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Israel (see Exodus 32: 13); not Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When you come to Elijah he does the same thing, he casts God back on His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Israel (see 1 Kings 18: 36). That is to say, those two men understood, in days when the people had broken down, that God’s thoughts were centred in Israel, that is, they looked at his spiritual name rather than his name of responsibility where he had the discipline of God.
Now Moses is most urgent with God about the bringing up of the people and His presence going with them—“If thy presence do not go, bring us not up”. I think we can see the force of it, dear brethren, because Moses would understand that the wilderness was a very barren place, full of dead bodies, dead bones, and of everything that would contaminate. If a path was made in the desert it would very soon be covered by the sand and very many other things, so that the desert would become, as we used to sing, pathless; hence the need of divine guidance. The same is true today; the world, or the wilderness, to us is full of dead bodies and dead bones; a union is a dead body; that is just an example. Many other kinds of associations are but dead bodies in the wilderness, things which are contaminating, and of which the Lord has spoken to us and from which, through His grace, we are free I believe. Nevertheless, the desert insofar as the saints are concerned is pathless and apart from the presence of the Lord there is no guidance in it. Now this raises a very sobering question for us, as to how far we realize the presence of the Lord and divine guidance. I think we have it, but we need to be increasingly exercised both as individuals, in our local companies, and generally, as to the presence of God and His approval.
I believe the anointing involves the approval of God, and hence the question arises as to how far we may be in the power of that. Jesus was anointed and approved of God, as He says, “He has anointed me”, (Luke 4: 18), and He preached the glad tidings in the power of the anointing, the power of the Holy Spirit; but now for us, dear brethren, in these days when things are so broken—and I suppose there have never been days like it—it seems to me that if there is one thing of all moment that we need to consider it is the presence
and support of the Lord and that, as having some consciousness of it, we should, like Moses, be urgent with the Lord that we might be aware of His presence and so be brought into God’s purpose for us. So he says here, “And now, if indeed I have found grace in thine eyes, make me now to know thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thine eyes; and consider that this nation is thy people!”. God says, “My presence shall go, and I will give thee rest”. What a promise that is, and the promise I believe is for God’s people, but despite that fact Moses is still urgent that God should be with them; he says, “If thy presence do not go, bring us not up hence”.
It seems to me that to that man, of whom God says He knew him face to face, the presence of God meant even more than being in the promised land, because he says, “If thy presence do not go, bring us not up”, as much as to say, What would the bringing up be, what would the land be, what would all its fruitfulness be, without the presence of the blessed God? In other words, what would the blessings be without the Blesser? How often we dwell upon the blessings without reaching the Blesser and without understanding the Godward aspect of the work of Jesus which has in mind that God should be glorified and praised and blessed among His beloved people. Let us then think more of this Godward aspect of the work of Jesus and let us be even more concerned about the realization of the presence of the Lord than we may be about accurate doctrine. Thank God for the doctrine, and thank God for those we know among us who have a knowledge of the doctrine and can help us; may they continue to do so; but I believe that what is of primary importance is that we should be assured of, and realize, the presence of God.
Now, God having committed Himself in this way,
Moses says, ‘Show me Thy glory’. We know he was put in the cleft of the rock; that has been likened to the ‘in Christ Jesus’ position. That does not break down. So we are taken into favour in Him, we are all one in Christ Jesus, and it is most noticeable that in the epistles to Timothy, and particularly in the second, so much is emphasized as being “in Christ Jesus”, that is, it is beyond any breakdown; it is a rock. “His purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time” (2 Timothy 1: 9): Paul, so to speak, is establishing that young man in the cleft of the rock, the rock of God’s purpose.
We have “in Christ Jesus” in chapter 1 before he brings in the facing of all the problems and the sorrows, and the necessity to withdraw from iniquity, in chapter 2. First of all he says, so to speak, Timothy, you can rest assured that all is in the rock, “in Christ Jesus”; “be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus”; and he speaks of the “promise of life, the life which is in Christ Jesus”. Others have likened it to the cleft in the rock; that is where Moses was put.
You know, he would feel very secure there, dear brethren, would he not? I think as we sit here this morning we can be very secure and realize that we are secure because everything is immutably settled in that blessed Man at the right hand of God. Presently everything will be put into effect and we shall be with Him in the full actuality of what belongs to us; there is no doubt about that. My concern for myself and for my brethren is that we should realize, if I might use that word, the presence of the Lord increasingly among us.
Now in Matthew 18 the Lord speaks very simply. He has spoken about the assembly before this, as we know. The light of it was brought out in chapter 16 and then He speaks of it in this chapter, “tell
it to the assembly” (Matthew 5:17); we know the passage very well and I do not wish to dwell on it, but in the verses I have read He says, “Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens”. One has tried a little before to speak on this passage, and I do not think one can say anything very fresh about it, but what I find in it is very testing. It seems to me that the Lord is speaking to persons whom He credits with being committed to His testimony. Hence what they would ask would not be for personal advantage or gain; the idea or motive of ambition would not be with them; what they would ask of His Father in heaven surely would be something for the glory of Christ, and if for the glory of Christ, for the glory of the Father. He says, “it shall come to them from my Father who is it the heavens”. Are you in the faith of that? You are entitled to ask me the same thing.
Am I in the faith of that?
Any “two of you”, as we have been taught, and the context of the passage seems to make it perfectly clear, is two of the assembly, however small things may become; and if the Lord is anticipating the breakdown here, as it has been suggested He is, He says any “two of you”.
“For” or ‘because’, I judge—“where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. “Two or three”; we are more than that, are we not, at the present moment; most localities are more than that. I would like to emphasize the words of the Lord Jesus; I find it essential to read Scripture word by word; read it first without amplification or interpretation; read what is written first—“where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. “Gathered together”; it is fairly easy to be gathered without being together,
and I suppose it is fairly easy to be together without being gathered properly, I judge that when the Lord used the words “gathered together”, what He would have in His mind for days of breakdown would be assembling; He would be speaking in the light of the assembly.
You see, some of us were tested in the forces when we came into contact with various persons in various denominations who suggested that, on the basis of this verse, we should come together to read the Scriptures, and to pray, and maybe if thought appropriate to break bread. That suggestion was not too easy to meet, as you can imagine. Maybe most of us now who are much older would be able to meet it more easily, but when we were young men it was not so easy. Why not? “Two or three”; we will come together, and the Lord will be with us; but I believe the Lord has deliberately, and skilfully, included the words “gathered together”, and I fail to see, as we were then helped to see, how persons who belong to different groups of believers who are alienated from one another could possibly be considered as being “gathered together”; both words are needed, and I think the ground we need to be on, dear brethren, is being “gathered together”. I believe, as I have said, that in anticipating days of breakdown, the Lord uses the words “gathered together”, as much as to say, Well, you can come together in the light of the assembly, but if you are to have the functioning of the assembly you must have assembly formation.
That is what the Lord is doing at the present moment in the service of the ministry, a ministry that is reaching us, and, thank God, is reaching many others in printed form. It has in mind that there should be a reception of the truth, and a readiness to be governed by the truth, that there should be assembly formation and assembly function.
I believe these verses in a general way would have that in mind. It is not, as we know, the Supper but seems to be more general as to those gathered together. And He adds, “there am I in the midst of them”. Now I wonder if we have experienced this, whether we are aware of it.
I believe it to be true; that is quite obvious; I would leave the company with whom I walk if I thought it was other than true that they are gathered together unto His name, and that He can say, “there am I in the midst of them”. You will have troubles; would you expect otherwise in the testimony? If you are going through enemy territory do you expect to be unmolested, undisturbed? Do you expect that if something precious of Christ is being formed amongst the saints Satan will not attack it? Of course he will; but I believe that what is essential for all of us to realize is this, “there am I in the midst of them”.
Now that gives the heart strength, and comfort, it also gives the heart the realization that if He is amongst them they are safe and will have guidance in what I have referred to as the pathless desert. Apart from His presence, dear brethren, saints must of necessity be lost in the wilderness; it has happened, alas, to many of God’s people. To try to pick your own way through the desert is an impossibility; you must have the presence of the Lord and the presence of the Spirit if you are to find your way where there is neither track nor signpost, except that which the Lord gives in His grace as present with us. Now may the Lord exercise us about this. I suppose I am quoting another when I say, if you have no exercise, then it is a poor look-out for you. Is everybody here exercised to realize the presence of the Lord and not just to take it for granted? You come to the meetings; you may come because you must come; perhaps father says you must come, and you are too
young to resist. You may come in later years in respect for your father or your mother; but what I would desire is that, as coming, the Lord would give you some sense of His presence, and if you have the sense of His presence I think you would want to come again.
Maybe if the dear brethren in many places who are sitting at home doing nothing, supposedly thinking that everything has gone (which, incidentally, is a reflection on the Lord Himself), came amongst those where the Lord’s presence is known they would get a touch that would quicken their affections towards Him, and get some impression that the Lord is there. I believe others have said that it is as persons come amongst the saints where the Lord’s presence is realized that that really moves them and helps them, and they outgrow the system in which they may be. You say, We do not see much of it; but we see something. We see perhaps one or two green shoots, a little hair growing here and there, one or two added.
Where the ones and twos are added it is surprising how quickly a company can grow.
I think I am right in saying that in the Glanton division one company was reduced to very few persons. And yet through God’s work and through the ministry that the Lord gave (I suppose primarily through our brother Mr. Taylor) they increased again in number. There were subsequent sad divisions, but even now in God’s mercy that company numbers something like eighty persons. We see that, where the Lord’s presence is known, where the Holy Spirit can work unhinderedly, and where the brethren are acting on the principles laid down in Scripture, one by one God can increase assemblies not only spiritually but numerically. We would desire that, but whether we shall see it
is in His hand. What we are seeing we are thankful for, but my concern is this—and I say with frankness and truth it is my concern for myself—that I might not only have the faith of His presence, but the consciousness of it, and that I should be exercised to have suitable conditions in myself so that His presence might be known.
Now we read in John 14, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me; but he that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him”. Now I am sure that most of us here would have thought about that expression, “will manifest myself to him”. You will, I am sure, appreciate my quoting what I heard Mr. Taylor say in Croydon. Someone said to him that this would be at the Supper, to which he replied. Well, I would prefer to leave the scripture as it stands, “I ... will manifest myself to him”. In other words his exercise was that, while without any doubt it would be appreciated at the Supper in a very full way, you must leave the Lord free to manifest Himself to any individual anywhere who keeps His commandments. As coming up to the Supper, dear brethren, I believe we should be concerned not to come up formally; not arise from our beds, if I may be very practical, at the latest possible moment and get there on time and then perhaps be preparing throughout the meeting. I think we should be exercised to come together in faith’s anticipation of the Lord manifesting Himself to us, and if we did I believe we should not only speak of these things, as we rightly do, but we should realize them. As I said before, if I think of the presence of the Lord objectively I can only think of it as ecstasy.
Nothing can I think of that could be greater than the consciousness of the presence of the Lord.
and it is that that gives the quickening touch for the service of God; and again, as another has said, if there is no quickening there is no service of God because there is no life. You will have the formula and the order, the right hymns and maybe the right thanksgivings, but if there is no quickening then there is no service of God. The quickening, when everything bursts into life, is when the brethren are conscious that the Lord has come in. May we be exercised about it so that we may understand that christianity is real; it is not a teaching simply, it is not philosophy, as one has said before, I find I have been largely in my life a christian philosopher, and not a very good one at that. But one is beginning to realize that what the Lord is looking for is reality—and one of the last addresses Mr. Raven gave was on
‘Appearances or Realities?’ (‘Ministry of F. E. Raven’, Vol. 19, p.455). May these few thoughts exercise us as to the realization of the presence of the Lord, both as individuals, in our local companies, and generally with those among whom we walk. May it be so for His glory.
Address at St. Albans
7 October 1978