On the evening of December 31st
of the year that has just passed, we gathered here to worship our
God on his own special day. And on that occasion, I began
a brief series of messages, a series that I will conclude tonight. Using the analogy or the extended
metaphor of the place of ballast in seagoing vessels of a bygone
day, I've asserted that there are certain central foundational
truths which function like ballasts in the souls of the people of
God. And taking the occasion of the
new calendar year, I stated that we, as God's children, must grasp
and apply these truths if we are to move steadily through
the uncharted waters of the coming years. I'm sure that by now you've
come to the conclusion that these truths in reality have little
to do with the calendar, but that they are the steady state
stuff of spiritual stability. It is unlikely that any believer
will go any great period with anything that one could call
stability if he does not have some understanding of these fundamental
truths and is not relating to them in present actings of faith. And so tonight we come to the
final message in this series on these things that act like
ballast in the soul. Just to refresh your memories,
and for those of you who are not with us, I will simply state
the major heading of each one of these barrels of ballast. The first was the truth that
God is on His throne, governing all things in this universe as
an absolute sovereign. Secondly, that the crucified,
risen and exalted Lord Jesus shares that throne, administering
all things to a glorious, redemptive consummation. Thirdly, that the
God upon His throne is my loving, all-knowing, kindly disposed
but principled Father in heaven. And then that the enthroned Christ
is my advocate and intercessor, my indwelling life and strength. Well, tonight we conclude the
series by adding these words, the enthroned Christ is not only
advocate and intercessor, indwelling life and strength of his people,
But the enthroned Christ, every believer can say, is my guide,
protector, and companion. When I originally set out the
structure of this series, I had had three couplets. He is our
advocate and intercessor, indwelling life and strength, and then I
was going to conclude with guide and companion. But as I examined
the passages that in a very wonderful way highlight Christ's relationship
to us as his people, as our guide, I found that those passages point
almost invariably to his relationship as protector as well as guide,
and so I've expanded into the three words. The enthroned Christ
is my guide, protector, and companion. So let's take a few moments and
simply open up some very clear scriptures that point to our
Lord Jesus in this wonderful relationship to his people. And remember, we're not doing
this as an intellectual exercise. We're doing this, I trust, in
the conviction that these are the things revealed to us that
we might lay hold of them in faith and know the blessedness
of the realities which they convey. so that when we say the words,
the enthroned Christ who shares the government of the universe
with His Father, bringing everything to a glorious consummation in
the new heavens and the new earth, that this Christ is not so occupied
with the affairs of the kingdom that He cannot be to every single
one of His children both guide, protector, and companion. First of all, then, the enthroned
Christ is our guide. Now, the moment we think of our
identity as sheep, we are drawn into a very rich vein of biblical
teaching concerning Christ's relationship to his sheep as
their shepherd. For example, in 1 Corinthians
1 Peter chapter 2, Conversion is described in the shepherd-sheep
imagery. Writing to people who, for the
most part, were raw Gentile pagans before they came in touch with
the gospel, Peter, in 1 Peter 2.25, describes their conversion
in these words. For you were going astray like
sheep. You were like a flock of lost
sheep. vulnerable, exposed to danger,
not knowing your way. You had left the side of your
rightful shepherd. You were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned, now notice, unto the shepherd and overseer
of your souls. What does it mean to become a
Christian? It means that Christ becomes to you shepherd and overseer. You come under the gracious influence
of His rod and His staff, under the gracious influence of His
guidance and direction, and you're glad that it is so. That's the
picture of conversion. from a rebel who wants to do
his own thing by his own standards to his own ends, and says fully
on God and anyone concerned about God, to be a Christian is to
be returned unto our rightful shepherd and overseer. And this
Lord Jesus then is described in this very epistle, chapter
5, as the chief shepherd in verse 4 of 1 Peter 5, and when the
chief shepherd shall appear." Speaking to the under-shepherds,
the pastors of these people, he calls the Lord Jesus the chief
shepherd, and in Hebrews 13 and verse 20, he is called the great
shepherd. Now, while he is these things,
yet he is especially the shepherd to his sheep in terms of being
their personal guide. I want you to turn to John chapter
10, and then we shall look also at Psalm 23, the great shepherd
chapters in our Bibles. Psalm 23, the great shepherd
passage in the Old Testament. John 10, the great shepherd passage
in the New Testament. Follow as I read here in John
chapter 10, verses 1 to 4. Truly, truly, I say unto you,
he that enters not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but
climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that enters in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. Now notice, to him the porter
opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep
by name. and leads them out. And when
he has put forth all his own, he goes before them, and the
sheep follow him, for they know his voice." Now do you see the
very intimate, personal nature of the relationship between the
shepherd and his sheep? The picture is of the sheepfold
made of stone and raised up to a height that the sheep could
not jump over it. And there is an opening at which
the porter, the guard, stands or lies at night. And when the
true shepherd comes, the porter steps aside, lets him go in among
the flock, and then notice he calls his own sheep by name. There's nothing more personal
to you than your name. to be in a crowd of a thousand
people, and if someone speaks your name, suddenly there is
a connection between you and the one who speaks your name. Christ's relationship to His
people is intimate. It is personal. It is name-defined. He calls His own sheep by name,
and notice, He does not drive them out. The shepherd does not
go to the back side of the fold and looking toward the opening,
the door of the fold, crack a whip and whack the sheep on the flanks
and drive them out. No. He addresses them by name. Then he himself goes out and
leads them. He brings them behind him. When
he's put forth all his own, he goes before them. The dumb sheep
only have to keep their eyes upon the shepherd. He is their
God. Where his feet go, their feet
are to follow. And the Lord Jesus emphasizes
that again in verse 27 of the same chapter. My sheep hear my
voice and I know them. I stand in a relationship of
deep love and personal knowledge and they Follow me. Here is the language of the Lord
Jesus as the shepherd of His people, being their guide. As the shepherd, He goes before
them. He leads them out. And He does
so in personal intimacy and by His personal presence. The shepherd
who calls them by name is the shepherd who leads them. Now
turn over to Psalm 23, and we see the same emphasis in this
great shepherd psalm. Now some of you are aware, I'm
sure, that there is a debate among commentators that we may
have a shepherd psalm and a gracious host psalm. And the transition
coming in verse 5, and some insist that verses 5 and 6 point to
the Lord as the gracious host who prepares the table anoints
the head of the guest with oil, but be that as it may, our attention
for now is focused on the earlier part of the psalm. The Lord is
my shepherd. I shall not want, that is, I
shall not lack anything that is for my good. He makes me to
lie down in green pastures, now notice. He leads me besides still
water. He restores my soul. He guides
me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. What does it mean to you, David,
that Jehovah is your own personal shepherd? Notice the language,
how intimate and personal it is. There are other psalms that
declare the Lord is the shepherd of Israel, and that's true. He is the shepherd of all His
people, but David says, The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not lack any necessary
thing. He makes me to lie down. He leaves me besides waters of
rest. He restores my soul. He guides
me in the pans of righteousness for His name's sake. Here is the picture of the Lord
Jesus as the shepherd of His people, being to them the guide
who brings them to places of refreshment, who leads them in
paths that reflect the standards of God, paths of righteousness. And He does this to magnify His
own name, that He might have the reward of His sufferings
in His dear sheep. And then over in Isaiah 40, one
more shepherd-sheep passage. And the contrast is a striking
one, for in this chapter the exalted being of God is set before
us. The majesty of his exalted place
as creator and sustainer of the universe, and yet in the midst
of all of that wonderful almost poetic language of the prophet
Isaiah, we find these words. Verse 11, He will feed His flock
like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in His
arm and carry them in His bosom, now note, and gently lead those
that have their young. Seeing the ewes with their little
lambs, having to stop and let the ewes, let the lambs suckle. The shepherd is so conscious
of the state of the sheep that he gently leads those that have
necessity for unusual gentleness. And this experience of the Lord
being the guide of His people, particularly as He is set before
us as our shepherd, is not something that is limited to this life.
For when God pulls back the veil and gives us a picture of the
life of heaven, the life of the age to come, notice how this
same emphasis comes through so clearly in Revelation chapter
7. Revelation chapter 7 and verse
13. One of the elders answered, saying
unto me, These that are arrayed in white robes, who are they,
and where did they come from? And I say unto him, My Lord,
you know. And he said unto me, These are
they that have come out of the great tribulation, and they washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and they serve him day and
night in his temple. And he that sits on the throne
shall spread his tabernacle over them, They shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun strike upon them
nor any heat. For the Lamb that is in the midst
of the throne shall be their shepherd and shall guide them
unto fountains of waters of life, and God shall wipe away every
tear from their eyes. The Lamb shall be their shepherd
and guide them. The Lord Jesus has begun here
and now what He will do with us forever in the eternal state. There He will be our shepherd
and guide us. Here the image is the waters
of life. Here is the Lord Jesus committed
to be the guide of His people even when all danger is passed,
when all possibility of sin is passed. When all mental darkness
and crookedness and twistedness is all past, He is still the
Shepherd who will guide us as His sheep. And it is the privilege
of the child of God, here and now in this life, in all the
various circumstances of life, to know what his Savior is to
him, that he may act faith towards him and upon him in that particular
facet of his relationship. And there are times when faith
needs to fasten particularly upon the reality that Christ
shares the throne of God. He is administering the affairs
of the entire world with respect to the building of his kingdom,
and faith needs to feed upon that reality that he has said,
I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. But there are times when the
believer in the midst of uncertainty and confusion and perplexity
about what should I do, where should I go, what shall I think
about this decision and that decision. Christ is not to be
forgotten as the Christ upon the throne, but faith is to fasten
upon this dimension, this aspect of what He is to His people.
Lord Jesus, You, by Your grace, have brought me under Your gracious
guidance and government and protection as my chief shepherd, as the
shepherd and overseer of my soul. And Lord Jesus, You said that
You, as the shepherd of Your people, You call us by name. that you go out before us and
that you mark out the path for us. Lord Jesus, you moved your
servant David to write that as his shepherd you would guide
him into paths of righteousness. Lord Jesus, be to me the guiding
shepherd in this situation. Just as surely as five minutes
later, faith may need to fasten upon the reality of Christ dwelling
in us by the Spirit. and becoming to us our life and
strength. And we may be acting faith upon
Him, not so much as our guiding shepherd, but as our indwelling
life and strength. And it is the privilege of the
child of God, as He grows in the knowledge of His Savior,
to act faith upon every new dimension of what we discover Him to be
as we see Him in the Scripture. Now I'm not addressing the specifics
of how He leads us as our guide. I commend to you the excellent
little book by Dr. Ferguson called Discovering God's
Will, a lovely little paperback, or the chapter in J. I. Packer's
Knowing God, chapter 20, Thou Our Guide, wonderful, helpful
counsel on how does the Lord Jesus specifically, individually
guide His sheep. or Pastor Hartland's wonderful
series of messages preached at the men's retreat on decision-making
and discernment and the will of God. I'm not going into the
mechanics, but I do want us to grasp afresh that we will be
determined, as never before, particularly as we've had, at
least began to have a few weeks ago, a fresh start in the new
year, to live with this truth constantly before us that the
Christ upon the throne is indeed our guide. And we'll be able
to say, in the language of a beautiful hymn from an old InterVarsity
hymn book that I use in my devotions, Take thou my hand and lead me
along life's way, Until earth's night is banished by radiant
day, I would not take a single step apart from Thee, Where Thou
dost walk or tarry, there let me be. Within Thy grace so tender
I would abide, Thy perfect peace my portion would e'er be tied. I kneel, dear Lord, before Thee,
believingly, Thy helpless child would trust, though it cannot
see. I may not glimpse thy footprints
nor feel thy power, yet thou dost draw me goalward, though
dark the hour. Then take my hands and lead me
through storm-swept night, till earth's devious ways have ended
in heaven's pure light. Take thou my hands and lead me,
Lord Jesus, you have committed yourself to be my guide. I trust
you to be to me what you've said you are. But then secondly, we
must think of our Lord, the enthroned Christ, not only as our guide,
but as our protector. And here, when we come back to
the shepherd passages, the shepherd sheep imagery, the extended metaphor
of the reality of Christ's relationship to us, This concept of shepherd
as protector is again a dominant note. Go back to Psalm 23 with
me. Psalm 23. No sooner does David say that
Jehovah, who is my shepherd, restores my soul, verse 3, guides
me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Now he waxes
bold. And he said, so confident am
I of the relationship of Jehovah to me as shepherd, yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, though I
walk through the valley of deep darkness, darkness the symbol
of the unknown, the foreboding, the threatening, the terrifying,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil. Why? For you are with me, your
rod and your staff may comfort me." He said, I'm confident that
as my shepherd I may not see the danger I may not be aware
of the dangers. I know that the valley of deep
darkness is a dangerous place, but you are with me, and with
me as a shepherd, and a shepherd who's got a rod and a staff with
which to beat the head of a predatory beast that would seek to make
a meal out of me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me." Now, I'm fully aware that some say the rod would be the
thing with which the shepherd would deal with with enemies
to the sheep and the staff, that by which he guides them and puts
around the neck. But I've never read anything
that persuades me that that distinction is a valid one. One thing is
clear, when David wrote these words, his comfort in darkness
was not only that the shepherd was with him, but he was armed. The shepherd was armed. The sheep
were defenseless. The sheep were vulnerable. But
the shepherd is armed to deal with anything that is a threat
to the life and the well-being of the sheep. So that we can
say as the people of God with David, the enthroned Christ is
not only our guide, but he is our protector. so that when He
guides us, goes before us, and we follow His footsteps into
a valley of deep darkness, into circumstances unusually threatening
and foreboding, circumstances from which we cannot see light
at the end of the valley of darkness, we know that the One who brings
us in is with us and He is armed and well able to handle any danger
that would threaten us. See again this emphasis in the
New Testament shepherd sheep passage, John chapter 10. And you see why, as I got back into
these passages, I said, no, it cannot be that Jesus is to us
just our guide, but the theme of protector comes through so
clearly. Verse 10, The thief comes not,
but that he may steal, and kill and destroy, I came that they,
my sheep, may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his
life for the sheep. If it is a hireling and not a
shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, behold, the wolf comes,
leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and
scatters them. He flees because he's a hireling,
and he does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd,
not a hireling. I know my own, and my own know
me. There's the emphasis upon the
intimate, mutual knowledge. Even as the Father knows me,
and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. For the interest of the sheep,
my life, Jesus said, is expendable. unlike the hireling. He sees
the wolf coming and he flees. Why? There is no bond of commitment
to the sheep. Jesus, as the Good Shepherd says,
I am prepared to expend life itself in the interest of my
sheep. The Lord Jesus, who laid down
His life for us, lives in His risen, resurrected, risen life
and power to be not only the guide, but the protector of his
people. And there's a wonderful example
of this in the testimony of the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy chapter
4. 2 Timothy chapter 4, many of you
will remember Paul wrote this from a Roman prison. He knows
that he is soon to be executed as a martyr for Jesus Christ. And he's giving some closing
remarks to Timothy at the end of chapter 4. And note what he
says, beginning in verse 16. At my first defense, that is
the first time I was brought before the Roman tribunal and
asked to give a defense of who and what I was as a gospel preacher,
that I was not a political rabble-rouser, I was not someone seeking to
foment anarchy in some different parts of the Roman Empire. At
my first defense, no one took my part. but all for sickness,
may it not be laid to their account." What a gracious statement. They
all for sickness. People for whom Paul had expended
himself, no one would come forward and stand next to him and affirm
that what Paul bore witness to of what he was and what he did
and what he did not, none would stand with him. But Paul says,
in the spirit of his Lord Jesus, who from the cross said, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. He said, May it
not be laid to their account. But, but, though no one took
my part, but the Lord, now notice, stood by me and strengthened
me that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and
that all the Gentiles might hear. Now notice this strange description,
and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. The Lord will
deliver me from every evil work and will save me unto his heavenly
kingdom, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. See what Paul is saying. Yes,
my fellow mortals, none of them came and stood with me, but the
Lord stood by me. Now, is he describing a theophany? Did the Lord Jesus come in a
visible way there into the court of the Roman tribunal? There's
no indication of any such thing. But he says, the Lord nonetheless
stood by me. And as the Lord stood by me,
he strengthened me, and furthermore, he delivered me out of the mouth
of the lion. Now is Paul saying that had he
not stood with me and so superintended the minds and judgments of those
in the tribunal, I would have been condemned to death there
and sent to the lions in the arena? Possibly. But I rather
think, with his mind steeped in his Bible, that what the apostle
could well be doing, I'm not prepared to die for this, But
when you read those words and you're familiar at all with a
well-known shepherd in the Old Testament, you can't help but
wonder, is there a connection? Turn back to 1 Samuel chapter
17. 1 Samuel and chapter 17. You remember that great overgrown
steroid pumped up military man called Goliath was standing out
there flexing his lats and his pecs and his biceps and triceps
and all the rest and bellowing out all of this blasphemous language
and he pecks his David's soul and he says, who is this Philistine
dude? You're all shaking in your boots
as though there were no God in Israel. I'll take him on. Well,
they didn't like to hear that. They said, you know, this is
a kid and this is an able, experienced giant of a soldier. Verse 33,
Saul said to David, you're not able to go against this Philistine
to fight with him. You're but a youth and he a man
of war from his youth. David said unto Saul, your servant
was keeping his father's sheep. And when there came a lion or
a bear and took a lamb out of the flock, I went after him,
and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when
he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him,
and slew him. Thy servants smote both the lion
and the bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine
shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the
living God." If you can read that, and not at least imberly
get the goosebumps, something's bad in you. He wasn't a little
boy. He wasn't a little two-year-old.
He was a young man. But here this young man stands
there, and he's not being cheeky and presumptuous. He said, I've
proven God. I've known what it is. When a
predatory animal came and got one of my lambs, got one of my
sheep, and had him between his feet, the moment I became aware
of it, the disposition of my soul was this. There's going
to be a dead lion or a dead bear or a dead shepherd, but no dead
sheep. I went and yanked it out of its
mouth, and with my own hands smote him and slew him, both
the lion and the bear." That's heavy stuff. Now, did Paul know this story?
Sure he did. And I wonder, when he says, he
delivered me out of the mouth of the lion, the Lord stood by
me. Could it be? I'm only asking, could it be?
Paul was thinking of David's greater son, the great shepherd.
who has committed himself to protect his sheep so that they
are invisible until their work is done. Hence, whether Paul
was thinking of that or not, whether he's speaking of literal
deliverance from being thrown to the lions, I don't know. But
the truth certainly is taught in the Scriptures, that our shepherd
is so committed to us that there is nothing that would devour
us He will not intervene and deliver us. Hence, we can say
with Paul, that deliverance that God granted me on that occasion
was not singular and unique. The Lord will deliver me from
every evil work and save me unto his heavenly kingdom. I am invincible,
so my work is done. That's true of the weakest, most
timid, fearful, reticent, backward, non-aggressive, use all the adjectives
you want, sheep of Christ in this place, your great shepherd
is your protector, and you are invisible in your working style. You see, that takes young men
and makes them look straight out at this giant flexing his
muscles and bellowing out in all of his carnal braggadocio.
You say, who is this character before the living God? Does that do anything for you, child
of God? Does it give you a sense that in my life this day and
tomorrow and whatever days unfold, I do not need to go about nervously
biting my nails wondering in what way The devil or any of
those whom he is going to stir up are going to try to hinder
or thwart the purposes of God for my life. All of us, under
the care of our great Shepherd, that enthroned Christ who is
our Shepherd, is not only our guide, but He is our protector. And He is that to us in all of
our seen and unseen dangerous, and we need to act faith towards
Him in that way that honors Him when He sees His people taking
seriously what He says He is to them. How do you think the
Lord feels, if I may use that statement, how do you think the
Lord feels when He sees His people to whom He's made a commitment
to be their protector, as well as their guide, acting as though
He were not? It's an insult to him. He loves
it when his people boast in the commitments of his grace to their
well-being. Well then, thirdly, if we would be stable, if we
would face the turbulent seas of our lives and, by God's grace,
ride them through, steady as she goes, straight to our port
on another shore, then we must be, as God's people, convinced
and act faith in the reality that the enthroned Christ is
not only our guide and our protector, but the enthroned Christ is our
companion. Our companion. I wanted to make
sure that that was the right word. Next to my Bible, I took
out the book that I use the most, my dictionary. And I found out
something I never knew. Common word companion. You know
what it comes from? It comes from two Latin words.
Come, one that means with, and the last half of it refers to
bread. So, the word would be used of
someone with whom you ate bread. It's a beautiful picture. You eat bread with the person
who is something more than a passing acquaintance, someone with whom
there is mutuality of openness and commitment and confidence
in each other's goodwill. Well, the enthroned Christ, and
this in no way detracts from his majesty, but that enthroned
Christ is the companion of his people. You remember in the Upper
Room Discourse, beginning in John 13, that passage that Pastor
Lamar preached on several years ago, When the Lord Jesus made
it plain that he was going to leave them, sorrow filled their
hearts. We find a summary statement in
John 16 and verse 6 as we're coming toward the end part of
the Upper Room Discourse. And Jesus said, Because I've
spoken these things unto you, sorrow has filled your heart. They're filled with sorrow. Jesus
is going to leave them. He who has been their companion
day and night, with some of these for three plus years. They slept
where He slept, out in the open field or in a borrowed home or
in Peter's house. They walked with Him. They were
there by the shore of Galilee when He pushed out in the boat
and preached to the multitudes, when He made the loaves and the
fishes to feed the thousands. He had been their companion. They were bread eaters together. They lived They labored together. And now he says, I'm going to
leave you. And it felt like orphans. Jesus had to say in the well-known
words of John 14.1, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let
it be afraid, because I told you these things. Sorrow filled
your heart. And what is his great consolation to that sorrow? He
tells them that he's going to send another companion, another
helper. And that Helper who is the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit of the ascended glorified Christ, He says, when
He comes, I come to you in His coming. So that this language
found in the Upper Room Discourse, John 14, 16-18, is calculated
to take away their sense of loss. If you love me, John 14, 16,
I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom
the world cannot receive, for it beholds Him not, neither knows
Him. You know Him, now notice, for
He abides with you and shall be in you. Who is that? The Spirit
of Truth. Who is the Spirit of Truth? The
other Comforter, the other Helper, the other Paraclete. But now
notice what He goes on to say. I will not leave you desolate. I come unto you. Well, does the
paraclete, the Spirit of truth come, or does Jesus come? It's not either or. The Spirit
comes, and He comes as the Spirit of Jesus. And in this ministry
and presence and person of the Spirit, we have Jesus something
better than merely at our side. We have Him within us. by the
Holy Spirit, and He wants us to cultivate communion with Him
as our companion. That's the glory of the ministry
of the Holy Spirit, that in His ministry to us, we have Christ
with us as well as Christ in us. A number of years ago, it
fell into my hands a book that I wish were a lot more popular
called The Abiding Presence. by Dr. Hugh Martin, a Scottish
preacher, theologian of another generation. And I shall never
forget the first time I read the opening chapter of this book. Since then, I have read it one,
two, three, four, five, six or seven times. It's one of those
things you come back to again and again. And follow with me
now as I try to take you through what he calls his principal stating. title of the book, The Abiding
Presence, is speaking of the abiding presence of Jesus with
his people. And he takes the first and the
last verses of the Gospel of Matthew. Look at them with me.
This will mean you'll have to think for a few moments, but
I think you'll find your thinking worthwhile. Matthew chapter 1
begins in such a way as to let us know we're confronting real-life
history concerning a real-life person who had a a bona fide
generational, bona fide, what's the word that I want? Here we
have the genealogy, that's it, the bona fide genealogy tying
him back to David and to Abraham. The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. We're not
being introduced into fantasy. We're not being introduced into
something that is allegory. We're being introduced to the
life of one called Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. And then we read of his genealogy
traced back to Abraham, and then we are told in verse 18, now
the birth of Jesus was on this wise. This is the way it actually
happened. And we read of His miraculous
conception, the information being passed on to Joseph, then the
well-known Christmas story in chapter 2, and then the baptism
of Jesus, and then the beginning of His ministry right on through
to the end. And now notice the last words
of the Gospel of Matthew. What are the last words of the
Gospel of Matthew? This Jesus, who has died and
risen from the dead, has just commissioned his apostles to
go into all the world to make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them and teaching them, and what are the last words?
And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. I am with you always. not something
that closely approximates me, I am with you. Now, if you were
a disciple and you had spent, one of the apostles had spent
three years with him and he said, I am with you, what would you
think? The Jesus to whom we were introduced
on the Galilean shore, the Jesus whom we saw turn the few loaves
and fishes into food sufficient for 4,000, for 5,000, and many
basketfuls left over, that Jesus who spoke and raised people from
the dead, that Jesus who spoke and cast demons out of demon-possessed
people, that Jesus is going to be with us, and not only with
us, but those who come after us in this task of making disciples,
baptizing and teaching them, for He's committed His presence
to the very end of the age. to the consummation of the age. Now, what Hugh Martin seeks to
do is to lay before us what would it be like if all we had was
a bona fide biographical sketch of the life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus. If we just had the history, what
would that be like? And he draws that out until your
mind shares with him the sense it would be deeply frustrating
What do you feel when you read the biography of mighty men of
God such as Whitefield and Spurgeon and some of the other worthies?
You feel a sense of loss. Oh God, that I could have heard
him preach just once, just once. That I could have spent an afternoon
talking about the work of God and about Christ and His kingdom. When you read a biography of
a noble, useful life, It always brings with it not only aspirations
that you might see some of those graces in your own life, but
a great sense of frustration and loss that that life is done
and gone and behind us. It is, in that sense, embalmed
in a record. And he said if all we had was
the record of who Jesus was and what He did, reading the Gospels
could only fill us with that sense of holy nostalgia and disappointment. Yes, He spoke to sinners then,
saying, Neither do I condemn you, go, sin no more. But would
He say that to me as a sinner? He invited the broken and the
shattered to Himself in the days of His flesh, and they came,
so much so that the religious snobs said, Look at it, eating
and drinking with sinners. He hobnobs with a Palestinian
mafia. He's known in the circle of the
union of call girls there in Palestine. Yes, he welcomed sinners
there, but would he welcome sinners now? You see, if we only had
the biography, it would be frustrating. It would be spiritually torturing. That's what he was. That's what
he did. But that doesn't meet me at the place of my need now,
here, in this day. And he says, now suppose all
you had was the promise of the presence, but no biography. At the picture now we've got
biography, but no promise of the presence. Now we've got the
promise of the presence. I am with you, but no biography.
And Martin says, then you just have a haunting sense that someone
mighty and powerful who can be with all of his people in all
places at one and the same time and that for the end of the age,
that's an awesome Marvelous, wonderful thing, but it's kind
of spooky. He's with us, but who is he? How can we expect him to react
to our stumblings, to our blindness, to our ignorance, to our aspirations,
to our longings? We would know if all we had was
the promise of the presence, but no biography. Then he says
that God has given us both. He has given us the biography
that, with the promise of the abiding presence, it is not that
we simply read in the Gospels that Jesus received sinners and
ate with them. That Jesus is with us, and therefore
we know that He still receives sinners and eats with them, and
all that He was and did He is and is able to do for his people
now. Now, granted, there were certain
facets of his work that were validations of his messianic
identity. I'm not saying we can expect
Christ to heal every person. No, no, I'm not saying that.
Don't put me in that category. I'm not there. But grasp the
essential principle. We have Christ himself. The Holy Spirit and his presence
and ministry is that which mediates the living Christ to the people
of God here and now in all of the full spectrum of our need
and of our concerns. And we need to come to grips
with this reality and constantly act faith upon it that the Christ
who is upon his throne is the Christ who is not only with me
as guide and protector, but as my constant companion. I can cultivate personal, intimate,
warm, and if nobody else is around, even verbal communication with
the Lord Jesus. I miss it I miss my wife something
terrible when she's gone. But I do one thing I don't do
when she's home. The Lord and I are just carrying on conversations
all the time in the house when she's not there. I just talk
to her. Because he said he'd be with
me. Does he mean it? Well, is he
with me as the Christ who welcomes the questions, the concerns of
his disciples in the days of his flesh? Did he? He said, henceforth
I no more call you slaves, for a slave doesn't know what his
master does. I call you friends. I'm going to disclose my heart
to you. Is it fanaticism? When you've
mislaid your keys and don't know where they are, say, Lord Jesus,
you know where they are. And I'm not going to dishonor
you by letting my spirit get all riled up and frustrated and
grieve you. Lord Jesus, You know I've got
to go such and such a place, got to be there on time, it'd
be a bad testimony if I'm late. Lord Jesus, help me find my keys."
And lo and behold, it pops into your head, oh, you did this and
that, you go and you get your keys, and you say, thank you,
Lord Jesus. Is that ludicrous? Is that silly? No. You talk to Him. You commune with Him. He's your
companion. He is with you in all the openness. in all of the friendliness of
his self-commitment to his disciples whom he's loved enough to die
for them and to draw them to himself. You see, that's what
makes the true child of God a puzzle to the world. John says, wherefore
the world knows us not because it knew him not. They live in
the reference of only what is seen and touched. and can be
demonstrated in the lab is reality. They see you in the midst of
circumstances that ought to make you frustrated and angry and
touchy and cautery, and yet that gracious smile plays off the
corner of your mouth when you see them. Because you have a
companion who's with you, who's cheering your heart by his presence,
who's bearing your burdens with you, who is All that He claims
to be with respect to you as His child. This is something
of what David meant when he said in Psalm 16 in verse 8. I love
this verse. I don't fully understand it,
but I love it. I have set the Lord always before me, for He
is at my right hand, and I shall not be moved. Well, how did He
get from before me to my right hand? Can you figure that out?
I've been trying to figure that out for a long time. I have set
the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand. Well,
is He before you or at your right hand? Well, I don't claim to
understand fully what David was saying, but I think it maybe
goes something like this. I have set the Lord always before
me. In every circumstance, I realize I must, in a present act of faith,
recognize the presence of my Lord in that set of circumstances,
and when I do, I find Him at my side, communing with me as
I commune with Him. As I set Him before me, He lets
me, as it were, catch up with me and locks arms. He said, I
am with you always, even unto the end of the age. When you're
on your commute on 287 or Route 80, or making your way to the
Holland Tunnel, you can talk to Him. He's there with you in
the car. He's your companion. He wants. He wants. the reciprocation
of your unfettered fellowship and communion with Him. He died
to secure it. Well, I've tried poorly, but
at least I've tried to set before you the truths that I believe
with all my heart are vital if we are to be stable Christians
If we are to be those who, in those many tribulations which
God says will come to us in this life, are to ride steadily on
our way to glory, we need this ballast in the hull of our souls. May God grant that we will, by
His grace, appropriate to ourselves all that He is to His people
by His grace. Now I want to speak a word to
you who are not Christians. As I've contemplated these things,
a verse from Romans 11, 14 has come back to my mind several
times as I've sat at my desk. Here in Romans, Paul is speaking
about how God has dealt with the Jewish nation and then the
Gentiles and how He set aside one and incorporated the other.
And he says that I'm telling you these things, verse 13 of
Romans 11, But I speak to you that are Gentiles, insomuch that
I am an apostle of the Gentiles. I glorify my ministry if, now
notice, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy them that
are of my flesh, that is, my fellow Jews, and may save some
of them. Paul says, I'm telling you what
I'm telling you, and I do what I do in my ministry if by any
means I may provoke to jealousy my kinsmen, them that are of
my flesh, and may save them." Now, is Paul here saying he has
the power to save people? No. But he is saying this, I
passionately long to be the instrument in God's hands for the salvation
of my fellow Jews. And one of the ways I go after
them to try to win them is I tell them the glorious things God
has done in His saving mercy now funneled down upon the Gentiles. Because in their unbelief they
were set aside. And it's as I do this to provoke
them to jealousy that Jews will say, look at all we're missing.
Paul says, it's yours in Christ if you'll have it. I hope with all my heart I've
made some of you jealous. You sit here tonight and as you
think of your life, think of it. Come on, think of it. Man,
woman, boy, girl, think of your life. You're exposed to all the
dangers of sudden physical calamity. You're exposed to all the potential
for degenerative diseases, the seeds of which are in your body
and mind. You're exposed to cruel, heartless,
self-centered, unprincipled people. that mark most in our society. You are the brunt of their angry
looks, of their insensitivity, their impatience, their cutthroat
business tactics. Everyone willing to exploit another
for the sake of his own gain. That's the world you live in,
isn't it? Wouldn't you love to know that in the midst of all
of that, you have someone who was committed to guide you through
this minefield of this world, so that you will be a reflection
of what it is to be a creature made in the image of God, reflecting
His love, His righteousness, His purity. Wouldn't you like
to be found in the company of a people who, by the grace of
God, regard one another better than themselves? And by the grace
of God, do not seek to exploit one another, but in honor prefer
one another and seek one another's temple and eternal good. Wouldn't
you like to know that there's someone committed to go before
you, to guide you into making the great decisions of life in
such a way that you won't come to your middle age years and
say, what a wretched, stupid fool I've been. I made that crazy
decision. about my career back then, about
a life partner back then, and it's been my curse for 30 years. I can't go back and undo it. Haven't I made you jealous? You
might have someone who says, look, my child, I'll guide you
and make a decision about your life partner that will bring
you blessing and enrichment and comfort. and guide you about
your decisions about your life's labor and work, that you'll come
to your later years and look back and say, Oh God, thank you
that I've not wasted my life. And we made you jealous that
someone who can bear the burden of every sinner, every confused
saint in the whole world and never, never increases heart
rate or get out of breath doing it, to have Him at your side
as your protector, your guide, your companion. Come on, be honest. Wouldn't
you like to be in that place? You can be. You can be. But you say, I'm
not worthy. No, no, it's not a matter of
you're worthy. Those of us who are there, we came in the language
of the hymn, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood
was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee O Lamb
of God, I come. In the language of that wonderful
gospel hymn we sing, let not conscience make you linger, nor
of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to feel your need of him. This he gives you. This he gives
you, tis the Spirit's rising being. Unsaved child, young person,
young adult, have I made you jealous? If so, I want you to
know I've been trying to make you jealous. I want to make the
Christian life so attractive, so wonderful, not at the expense
of truth. But I've only touched the edges
of it, and the best is yet to come. Aren't you jealous? You ought to be. If you're one-tenth
in touch with reality, do you want to go on in your present
course of life? The emptiness, the gnawing of
your own soul in which you feel at times like your insides are
feeding upon your soul. Emptiness, purposeless, bitter. Life's a joke. Everything's a
joke. No, my friend, it isn't. Christ said, I'm come that they
might have life. I've come to give life to my
sheep and that more abundantly. Yes, in a fallen world. with
the wicked devil who has not yet been fully dealt with in
space-time history, as he will be, the dear unconverted friend. And you're prepared to say, oh
God, I don't know any of those realities. And I see my life
is a fouled-up mess now. What will it be a few years from
now? Lord Jesus, in all my spinking, rotten, confusion, vileness,
pollutedness, Lord Jesus, I cast myself upon you. Be to me everything
you said you'd be to your people. He's sealed with blood his commitments
to do sinners good. It's not holy blow with Jesus. It's not pious overstatement. The one who said, come and I'll
give you rest, went to the cross and was swallowed up in the abandonment
of hell upon that cross. when he cried, my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? All his invitations have been
sealed with his own blood. They've been validated by Joseph's
empty tomb. He's been raised from the dead,
and in his livingness, by his spirit, he is here to receive
you as really when he stood on the Galilean shore, and when
people came to him, he welcomed them. He welcomes you now in
the word and promise of the gospel. Oh, that I could provoke you
to jealousy, that I might save some. And dear child of God,
you know when sinners are most likely to get jealous? It's when
they see in the rank and file of God's people something of
the outshining of the wonder and glory of what it is to belong
to Jesus that is preached from the pulpit. And when what is
preached in the pulpit is validated in the pew, that's when God is
most likely to cause others to say, I want to join that bunch. I'm not talking about joining
the church. I'm talking about joining the ranks of those who
have fallen in behind Jesus. May God help us as His people
that in the days to come our lives may be growing monuments
of the fact that we have internalized these wonderful truths, and these
are but a few of the things that Christ is to His people. And
that one who now tonight sits upon the throne is the one who
is our advocate and intercessor, so that if you sin tomorrow morning,
if you sin tonight before you leave this building in thought,
in motive, in response, in attitude, He's there. If any man sin, we
have an advocate. He is there representing us.
He is there taking up the case of the defense. We have legal
representation in heaven, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And
when you think of the demands upon you and say, they're beyond
me, remember, He's your indwelling life and strength. I can do all
things through Him who strengthens me. And when you're perplexed
and you're not sure of the way to go, remember, He is your guide. And when you're fearful, when
you feel exposed, He is your protector. And there's no reason
for a Christian in the truest sense of the word ever to be
lonely, for he has Christ not only within him, but at his elbow.
Willing to disclose his heart and to receive the reciprocation
of your heart to him, may God help us to know the blessedness
of a faith that feeds upon Christ for all that he is to his people.
Let's pray. What can we say when we have,
as it were, just caught a glimpse of the edges of your ways with
your people? Lord Jesus, we thank you that
you are keeping your promise, that you are with us as your
people, that you have been with us tonight, that we have been
conscious that we have not been just trafficking in words and
ideas, but that the fingers of our souls have touched reality. and the mouth of our souls is
tasted reality. And Lord, what we've touched
and tasted makes us hungry for more. O Lord Jesus, come in ever-increasing
measures of Your Spirit's presence and power. We pray for those
who are not Yours. Lord, may they this night resolve
that they will not go another day wedded to their sins, under
your curse and your wrath. Oh, that they may run to Christ
and find refuge in Him. Help us as your people. We are
ashamed, Lord, that you've lavished so much upon us and that we've
given so little returns in that practical faith that magnifies
and glorifies your commitments to us. Forgive us and help us. May the blessings of your presence
rest upon us I plead in Jesus' name, amen.