ALONE WITH GOD

W. Lamont

Exodus 2: 15–17; 3: 1–6; Luke 1: 80; John 3: 27–34; Galatians 1: 15–19

There are certain exercises that the believer, young or old, must face if he or she is to advance

spiritually. We have referred to one already today—the exercise of piety. Piety is an important exercise in the life of a believer; there are many others to be faced if spiritual progress is to be made. We have read of Moses, John the baptist, and Paul, in certain circumstances involving a journey—a physical journey in their case, but moral in ours, the exercise of having to do with God where there is nothing to minister to the flesh. It is a necessary and important lesson that the believer must learn, and the sooner the better.

Scripture abounds with men who faced their exercises alone with God. Enoch “walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5: 24), then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Jacob had to arrive in his journey not only at the thought of Bethel, the house of God, but at El-Beth-el, ‘God of the house of God’, Genesis 35: 7. Samuel as a young lad had to do with God alone in the night when God said to him, “Samuel, Samuel!”, 1 Samuel 3: 10. These men are interesting studies, spiritually and morally profitable.

Here we get it in Moses; God says to him, “Moses, Moses!”, the repeated use of his name showing that God would speak intently to him—and to you. He is interested in you. It is a wonderful thing that God is interested in us. The fact that we have come here today gives God great pleasure—it shows that we are interested in the truth, in Himself, and in one another. Everything that is morally beautiful is seen in Christ, the One who, when every one else went to his own home went to the mount of Olives (John 8: 1). What for? To be alone with God. That involves the mystery of piety—every one else going to conditions of rest and natural satisfaction, and Jesus, in perfect, dependent manhood, going to the mount of Olives in the intimacy of His relationship with the Father. Then, what we sang of, the most affecting thing of all, ‘On that cross alone, forsaken’ (Hymn 302), a Man alone with God, having to do with the whole issue of good and evil, the whole issue of sin and sins—alone with God in regard to it, a matter which no one else could face. That brings into relief His glory as the One who was the great sin-Bearer. John the baptist draws attention to Him, “Behold the Lamb of God” and, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, John 1: 36, 29.

In Moses we see a man who had many lessons to learn. He had to learn what it was to come to a judgment of the world. He was brought up in it. John the baptist was brought up in a protected area away from the influence of the world. He grew up in the desert, away from it all; he was protected from the affinities of man in the flesh. But Moses was brought up in the midst of it all, the world as it then existed in all its awful detail—its enmity against the people of God, the murderous spirit that prevailed there. Is it changed today? The world today is the same—pervaded by a murderous spirit. Paul gives us a picture of it when he says of man “the way of peace they have not known”, Romans 3: 17. Moses had to learn to come to a judgment of it—to make his choice. We have read of the second and third phases in the life of Moses. His life, as recorded in Scripture, is divided into three periods of forty years—the first forty in Egypt, the next forty in the circumstances, of which we have read in Exodus 2, and the third phase the last forty years of the one hundred and twenty years of his life. God was preparing him to be useful for Himself, and that is what God is doing with us today in speaking to us, drawing our attention to certain things. He has in mind that we should be useful for Him, not for this world!

Moses had to come to that; he would say to himself, ‘I am not for this world; I am not going to commit myself to that kind of thing’; When we are young especially—alas, sometimes when we are old too—we may get our eye on the things of the world and think they are very attractive, and perhaps commit ourselves to them. It is morally and spiritually disastrous! Moses had to come to that, to make his choice, and he chose rather “to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin”, Hebrews 11: 25. What a choice that was! It affected not only Moses’ history personally, but the history of the testimony as it then was and the history of God’s people. What Moses came to was that he was not for Egypt and Egypt was not for him.

His lot was going to be with the people of God. Oh, that is a wonderful thing to arrive at in your life, that you are not going to commit yourself to the world and the things of the world, but to the people of God and everything that that means. You can be sure if you do that God will most definitely bless you.

Well, Moses learned certain things and he did certain things with the best of motives. He thought that in slaying the Egyptian he had solved the problem, but he found immediately that he was rejected, even by those he had saved. That must have been a terrible experience for Moses in the history of his, soul. He tried to save these people, and in the very doing of it they would have nothing to do with him. It is seen in the life of the Saviour—“He came to his own, and his own received him not”, John 1: 11. Then Moses comes to this position in the land of Midian, away from the world as he had known it, “and he sat by the well”. It is an important experience in the life of the believer, and one that is absolutely necessary, to know what it is to sit by the well, that is, there is another resource than the flesh. Moses could have drawn on all the wealth of Egypt; he had it all at his fingertips, but he had to learn to get away from it all—for him it was a physical, geographical journey; for us it is a moral exercise to take our place by the well. It means that you have to come to realise that the resource for the believer is the Spirit of God. Romans 8 teaches us these great lessons, the greatness of the Spirit of God, and to make use of the power and resource that God has so freely given.

Moses finds that the priest of Midian had seven daughters who came to draw water, and the shepherds drove them away—those who should have taken care of them. “But Moses rose and helped them, and watered their flock”—that is the mark of a pious man, that he is helpful.

In Corinthians in the list of gifts that Paul gives “helps” is one (1 Corinthians 12: 28). We can all help in anything that needs to be done; perhaps not all by yourself, but you can help. First Moses sits by the well, then he drives away these harmful elements. How many harmful elements there have been; how many there are in our hearts, things you have learned by the Spirit of God to judge that do not belong to the believer—they have to be driven away. Then you can commit yourself to this line of helping. I would love to be in my local meeting as one who helps, not one who hinders—thus you are a contributor, bringing in something that soothes and refreshes. That can only be as a result of sitting by the well. There is a remarkable parallel in John 4 with this passage; the Lord says, “The water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. Then, in chapter 7, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7: 38), bringing in things that would bring refreshment to the people of God and help to build them up.

Moses then in chapter 3 goes behind the wilderness, “and came to the mountain of God—to Horeb”, and he is still with the flock. I think this shows, that Moses was not spasmodic in his exercises. One thing that would mark a pious man, a spiritual man, is consistency—a greatly needed thing. A man who sits by the well is marked by spiritual consistency in all his exercises. So Moses leads the flock behind the wilderness, and he comes to Horeb. It is not Sinai there, it is Horeb, God known in grace.

“And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a thorn bush”. A burning bush may not have been an unusual sight, but what impressed Moses was that this bush was burning yet not being, consumed, so he became interested and turned aside to see. It is a great thing to become interested in God’s things. God will bless you if you show interest; Moses showed interest and God speaks to him. God has nothing for persons who are uninterested. Everything is, available, of course; it is all there, whether you are interested or not—the truth, the blessedness of its scope and the greatness of it, are available to all, but it is there for you to enjoy if you are interested, and if you show the least spark of interest then God will encourage you. He will give you more and more, till you find, like the prophet, that not only is there water to the ankles, to the knees, to the loins, but waters to swim in (Ezekiel 47: 3–5). There is plenty of scope for spiritual movement and spiritual enjoyment.

So Moses turns aside to see this great sight, which is typical of God as among His people. Moses refers to it, “the good will of him that dwelt in the bush”, (Deuteronomy 33: 16). God is going on with His people, that is the lesson. These thorny conditions might jag you up a bit if you get too close to them, might irritate you. You have to learn to get past the natural features that mark one and another and see that God is going on with His people. The bush is not consumed—everything is not finished, as some might say, everything burnt up, everything gone. That is not so. God is going to see His people through. The Lord says, “And behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, Matthew 28: 20. The Lord has pledged His support. I am not saying that He is going to support everything; it is not that at all; but “with you”, I suggest, is the “them” of Matthew 18: 20, “there am I in the midst of them”. It is that kind of person to whom the Lord has pledged His support “until the completion of the age”, and He is not going to withdraw it or He would not be who He is.

What more holy ground could we be speaking of than the greatness and glory of the Person and humanity of Christ, those holy sufferings of which we have sung? As we speak of them we sense that we are on holy ground.

Then God says, “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”. The reaction of Moses was that he “hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God”. I think that means that Moses knew that in the line of continuing exercise he had certain things to face in his life in order that he too should know this blessed relationship with God that was known by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord says, “God is, not God of the dead, but of the living”, Matthew 22: 32. It is a wonderful thing to be alive. The world is dead, morally dead; it is not life persons are enjoying, it is moral death, and it is going on to final and complete destruction. Moses came to that; Pharaoh’s servants came to it too. They came to Pharaoh and said, “Dost thou not yet know that Egypt is ruined?” (Exodus 10: 7), they knew it was ruined, but at present this is the day of God’s grace. He is not willing that any should perish but “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Timothy 2: 4.

In Luke’s, gospel we have John the baptist, a remarkable man—“And the child grew and was strengthened in spirit; and he was in the deserts until the day of his shewing to Israel”. I think this scripture teaches us that God would say, ‘See what I can produce’. Men say, ‘Look what we have done’, but God can say, ‘See what kind of man I have’. “Jehovah hath set apart the pious man for himself”, Psalm 4: 3. So, “He was in the deserts until the day of his shewing to Israel”. I think that suggests that John the baptist learned what it was to grow up without being affected by adverse influences. We read what his clothing was and what his food was; he learned what it was to grow up, we might say, under God’s influence, because we read, “There was a man sent from God, his name John” (John 1: 6); he moved into his public service from the presence of God. It is a very necessary exercise to see how easily we may be affected or influenced wrongly by some who say this or some who say that. What a thing it is to be in the presence of God and get the divine viewpoint on everything, and from that standpoint to move forward. “Until I went into the sanctuaries of God; then understood I their end” (Psalm 73: 17)—you are thus free from every wrong human influence and learn from God Himself—then you find that that is a basis for what is collective. You meet with persons who have similar exercises and you can fit together in relation to the truth and the things of God.

John the baptist did not form part of the assembly, though he had the distinctive place of being “the friend of the bridegroom”; the Lord says that “he who is a little one in the kingdom of God is greater than he”, Luke 7: 28. John says, “A man can receive nothing unless it be give him out of heaven”. That is in John 3 where the Lord earlier stresses the necessity of new birth, that is, an entirely new source, a new way of thinking, a new way of moving, of doing things. John goes on to draw attention to the greatness of Christ.

That is another lesson we must learn, that “He must increase, but I must decrease”. The believer has to come to it in his history that “Christ is everything, and in all”, Colossians 3: 11. John the baptist arrived at the supremacy of Christ, as unaffected by adverse human influences.

Whether you have been brought up, young friend, in sheltered conditions, in the great favour of a Christian home as seen typically in John the baptist, or whether you are a person like Moses who was of right parentage but then found himself amid all the glory of Egypt, you have to come to it that the only thing of value is experience with God. Paul had come to it—“When God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me”, not to me, but in me. A deep, inward work was involved; what an appreciation Paul had of the Son of God! He came to it—and he never left it. It says, “He preached Jesus that he is the Son of God”, Acts 9: 20. Then he says, “nor went I up to Jerusalem”; the natural way of thinking would be to go to the centre of things, where those great men the apostles were. Paul did not think that way; he says, “Immediately I took not counsel with flesh and blood”. Paul maintained that spirit and it coloured his ministry and his movements among the people of God. He never attached himself in any party spirit to any of the brethren. In fact, he told the Corinthians, “I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1 Corinthians 2: 2.

So he says, “Immediately I took not counsel with flesh and blood, nor went I up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia”. This is of deep significance. It would involve the exercises of Romans 7, arriving in exercise at “I myself”, Romans 7: 25. Later on Paul speaks about Mount Sinai in Arabia which corresponds to Jerusalem which now is. Paul went to these conditions, I think, because he knew that the essential thing was to have to do with God alone. You will remember in the gospels where the Lord took the man out of the village (Mark 8: 22–26). The Lord took him away from it all, away from these influences, .so that he was alone with the Lord.

That is like Paul here; he went to Arabia, and I have no doubt he went through deep exercises there. Then he still did not go up to Jerusalem, he returned to Damascus. Paul would learn a lot at Damascus—he was taken there to begin with after his conversion when the Lord Jesus appeared to him. What the origin of the assembly in Damascus was we do not exactly know, but Paul was taken there and there he learned deep lessons as to the assembly. Later on he formed assemblies, but he had no part in the forming of the assembly in Damascus—in fact, he was going to persecute it. So, he returned again to Damascus, then he goes up after three years to Jerusalem, and it is significant that it says, “to make acquaintance with Peter”, that is, the forging, of intimate personal relationships. Dear brethren, if there is anything needed today among the saints it is that deep, intimate, personal relationships in the truth should be formed and forged and maintained. It is essential. The enemy is very active, seeking to disrupt the saints in their relations together by whatever means he can—local difficulties or whatever it may be.

Then Paul says, “I remained with him fifteen days”; no doubt links would be forged there, so much so that later, when certain matters arose and Paul had to withstand Peter to the face.

Peter took it in the spirit in which it was given and could refer to “our beloved brother Paul”, 2 Peter 3: 15. Peter did not speak about Paul in a derogatory way. Now let us be practical. If a brother speaks to you faithfully when you are set on a wrong course, or your mind is set on certain wrong things that would hinder you spiritually, how do you react? The immediate reaction of the flesh would be that you do not like that person. We need to forge relationships in the truth; John—says, “whom I love in truth”, 2 John 1. Let us set ourselves to maintain these relationships. Paul goes on to say, “I saw none other of the apostles”—it is remarkable that he did not go among all the other apostles. I think it points to Paul’s own distinctiveness and what he received from Christ in glory, not that he was independent of the other apostles for he says he saw also “James the brother of the Lord”. I think that Paul, who had never known Jesus in manhood here, would very much want to learn from James how the Lord acted, how He spoke, how He lived. Paul would be very interested in that, and it would have to do with what he speaks of as “the mystery of piety”, 1 Timothy 3: 16.

What I have said involves necessary individual exercise, because what we are individually must underlie what we are collectively. May the Lord help us to set ourselves in this line of having experience with God as individuals, thereby to strengthen what is of God in the places where we are, for His name’s sake.

Address at Kilmarnock
7 April 1979