Joseph Hart, if you read the
hymn book of his, he wrote nearly all of his hymns in a period
of just two years of his remarkable activity of the Lord in the life
of that young man, and prior to him even becoming a preacher.
Anyway, I commend our friend Mr Hart to your remembrance and
delight. Okay, we might turn in our scriptures.
I just have a simple phrase to look at today, but they are very
significant words. The Lord said to Paul, he spoke
to him in a vision by night, Acts 18, 9. And he said, be not
afraid, but speak. We imagine Paul being, and we
imagine the apostles being bigger and better and stronger than
us. And one of the comforting things to remember and to know
that all of the saints that wrote the scriptures and all of the
remarkable men that we read of in the scriptures were no different
to you and I, brothers and sisters in Christ. Whatever strength
they had was a strength that was given from God above. At
the time of God's choosing, And so, you know, the reason the
Lord said those words to Paul was Paul said of himself in 1
Corinthians chapter 2 verse 3, he said, I was with you in weakness
and fear and in much trembling. in weakness, in fear, and in
fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
were not with enticing words of man's wisdom. What didn't
come to them was someone who spoke with great eloquence and
great flowery phrases and things. He spoke as simply as he possibly
could. They weren't with the enticing
words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and
of power, and he had a reason. He had a reason for not speaking
in flowery language. No doubt he could have been well
trained, and he probably was in his early days in all of those
gifts of oratory which were so esteemed in those days. The reason
is, if you read in verse 5 with me in 1 Corinthians 2, that your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. Your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Therefore the Lord came to this
man who was weak, whose speech was contemptible, his physical
presence was nothing. You could just walk down the
street of all of these fancy cities, whether it's Jerusalem
with the Jews, whether it's Athens with all the philosophers, whether
it's Corinth with all of the wealth and power of the esteem
of the works of men in this world. You could walk down those streets
and if you looked at Paul, You'd walk by him and think of him
as an absolute nothing. That your faith would rest in
the power of God. So that's why, that's the background
to this word from the Lord to Paul, isn't it? He says, don't
be afraid. 18 verse 9, don't be afraid but
speak. And he reinforces it again. And
hold not thy peace. Don't you be silent, Paul. You
might be fearful, and your speech might be contemptible to other
men, but you keep on speaking, Paul." And then he says these
three words, these three extraordinary things, isn't it? He says, 18
verse 10, he says, "'For I am with thee, and no man shall set
on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city.'" I've titled this message the
Words of Comfort. They are the great words of comfort
and great words of consolation, aren't they? There is the comfort
of the presence of God. I am with thee. We know that
our God is omnipresent. Paul said to the Athenians that
in him we live and move and have our being. You cannot escape
the presence of God in any part of this creation at all. But
nevertheless, when God says to Paul, as He did to Jeremiah and
to other saints, He says, I'm with you. He's saying that I'm
with you in a special way and I'm with you in exclusion to
all those other people. I'm with you. I'm with you. It's much more than physical
presence. He's with you. Spiritually, He's
with you in all that He has sent you to do. That's the presence
of God, isn't it? And it's the protection of God.
No man shall set on thee to hurt thee. We need, as vulnerable
people, we need the presence of God and we need the protection
of God. And we need to know that in all
things God has a purpose, doesn't he? He says, for I have much
people in this city. He has them. They belong to Him. They belong to Him. So you preach on, Paul. See,
the greatest needs of a wife, the greatest needs that the Bride
of Christ finds, she finds so beautifully, beautifully wrapped
up in the presence and the protection and the purpose of God. To be
abandoned, to be left alone is to be vulnerable. to be left
in this world to your own will, to your own wisdom, to your own
worth, is actually the greatest judgment of God upon rebellious
people. He gave them over, he says in
Romans 1. He gave people over. See, we think, and people think
that they look upon the activities of men in their freedom and their
success in their rebelliousness against God, and we think that
they're exercising great freedom. God gave them over. God gave
them over. You can read it in Romans 1.
He said it three times. That's the greatest judgment
that God can bring on rebellious sinners, is to leave them to
themselves. As Jeremiah said in Jeremiah
10.23, he said, Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in
himself. It is not in man that walketh
to direct his footsteps, to direct his steps. Paul knew that if
people were going to be directed into the love of God, it was
going to be a spiritual activity of God himself. That's why he
said to the Thessalonians, the Lord direct your hearts into
the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. It's so common, isn't it, in
this day for people to say, well, you trust your heart. Trust your
heart. Follow the desires of your heart. What does God say? He that trusteth
in his own heart is a fool. Proverbs 28, 26. That's why we lean not on our
own understanding and always acknowledge him and he will direct
our path. We need the presence of God with
us, and God is only known by revelation. He reveals himself
to people, and he reveals himself through the preaching of the
gospel, which is why the Lord said to Paul, you keep speaking.
You speak to these people. You preach. You keep preaching
the gospel to these people. You preach it in fear, in trembling,
and you preach it in much weakness, but you keep preaching the gospel.
And he sends his gospel in the hands of his ambassadors, those
witnesses, his servants, his ministers, and he sends that
gospel in power into the hearts of his own. So the gospel doesn't
come in word only. It comes in power, says God,
and in the Holy Ghost. I do love that verse in Acts
3 verse 20. It says that there are times
of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord, and
He shall send Jesus Christ, which was before preached to you. The great hope of our souls,
isn't it? The great hope of eternal life is the presence of God.
He will send, He will send Jesus Christ. We don't want to be directed
and we don't want to be left to ourselves. We don't want to
be left vulnerable. We don't want to be left in our
own way. We need God to come to us. And
we might think that this is something that is at the beginning of the
Christian life, but the reality is it becomes more and more a
need as you go on in the Christian life. If you have become and
grown more independent of God, then you're in trouble. God's
children grow like children. They grow to be like children.
Unless you're wise, people become like children. You can't enter
the Kingdom of God. Children are needy. Children
are dependent. Moses had received the most extraordinary
revelations of God. He had met the Lord Jesus Christ in picture form and in word form
and in presence at the foot of Mount Sinai. He'd seen that burning
bush which was consumed with the fire of God's wrath, and
yet the bush wasn't burnt up. It was a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he said, this is holy ground, Moses. You're
standing on holy ground, and I'm sending you back to Egypt.
You ran away as a coward 40 years ago, and here you've been a shepherd
for all these years. You're an 80-year-old man. I'm sending
you back there to bring out this great I'm sending you back there
to a superpower. I'm sending you back there into
the courts of Pharaoh. And you're going to bring these
people out with great signs and wonders and judgment. And Moses
says, I can't do it. My speech is hopeless. I'm tongue-tied. Or whatever it might have meant. See, the issue is not ever, the
issue is not ever the power and the strength of a man. It's in
the purposes and the protection and the presence of God, which
is why Paul and Moses in Exodus 33, I relate these verses so
often because it's the easiest thing in the world, isn't it,
to gather some people around you in some form of religion
and then you can gather a following. Yeah, there are 16 million people
in this world, according to my friend Toby, who follow Mormonism. If you asked any Mormon to explain
what Mormonism started like, they would be embarrassed to
tell you about Joseph Smith and these great glasses and salamanders
and these gold plates and this civilisation, all of which mysteriously
disappeared. You have this god called Moron
I, Moroni, and they fought 16 million intelligent people. One
of them ran for the President of the United States a few years
ago. My point is that I don't want
to be part of something that the Lord's not a part of. I don't
want to be involved in all of the trials and tribulations that
life as the believer brings to God's people in this world without
the presence and without the protection and without the purpose
of God. Moses had seen these remarkable
things and yet at the foot of Mount Sinai, having been on that
mountain, having seen all of the deprivations of men, left
to themselves at the foot of Mount Sinai, and Aaron throwing
some gold into a fire and miraculously producing this calf, and then
telling these people, telling these people, this is the God
that brought you out of Egypt. Give me a break. See, in religion,
you never find silly people until you find silly people in religion.
Absolute ridiculous nonsense. But Moses Moses was a man who
found grace. Turn to meet with me in Exodus
33. I know we read these verses often, I just want to read them
to you again because... People can gather people to themselves
and religions can grow and they can be big. There are 1.5 billion
people in this world who are worshipping the Pope and thinking
that they're worshipping God. There are hundreds of millions,
hundreds of millions of Pentecostals and Jews. There's nearly a billion
Hindus. There's over a billion Muslims.
It's just, people are inherently religious. But like Paul, I don't want to
go anywhere where God's not there, and I don't want to be anything
other than in the presence of God, under the direction of God,
the God of the Scriptures. See, Moses was a man who had
found grace in the sight of God. In verse 12, Moses said unto
the Lord, Seeing thou hast said unto me, Bring up this people,
and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me.
Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found
grace in my sight. See, if He knows you by name,
if you are known of Him and you've been found to have grace in His
sight, this is the prayer of the gracious person. This is
the prayer of the person who has found grace in the sight
of God. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. that I may know thee, that I
may find grace in thy sight." If you are a recipient of grace,
you'll be wanting more grace, brothers and sisters. If you're
wanting God to be gracious to you, again, you won't want God
to deal with you on the basis of any of your works or activity.
You want him to deal with you on the basis of the perfect and
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is grace. Grace
that comes to people. that I might find grace in thy
sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he
said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And I don't know how many times
we've quoted this verse, but I love this verse, isn't it?
It says, And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me,
Carry us up, not hence. If your presence is not with
me, then don't take any of us from here. Don't take any of
us from here. For wherein shall it be known
here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight, is
it not, that thou goest with us? And so we shall be separated,
you, I, and thy people, from all the people that are on the
earth. And the Lord said unto Moses,
I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast
found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. the presence of God with his
people. Moses had no doubt about the
fact that the people of Israel were going to continue to be
as they had been at the foot of Mount Sinai. It says after
he'd In verse 9 of the next chapter, chapter 34, he said, Now if I
have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee,
go amongst us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity
and sin, and take us for thine inheritance. The Lord was saying, in those
words that we read in Acts 18 to Paul, he was just reiterating
what he'd said to his servants again and again and again. The
presence of God, the presence of God with his people. See,
I am with you. I am with you, Paul. You don't
be afraid when you speak, I am with you. The holy God, the holy
God, says to his servants, don't be afraid, you keep preaching,
hold not your peace. I am with you. I am with you. I'm with you in trials. I'm with
you in all the tribulation. I'm with you in all of what it
means for you to stand in this world and bear witness to me. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you personally to feed
you and to nurture you." I love what he said to Jeremiah. Of
all the prophets, I in some ways have the greatest empathy for
poor Jeremiah. Imagine preaching and being told,
as Isaiah was told, that you're going to preach. You're going
to preach to this nation and you're going to watch it being
destroyed. You're going to keep preaching to this nation and
they're not going to believe you. They're not going to believe you. They'll abuse you and they'll
abuse my word." And then what did the Lord say to Jeremiah
in 31? He says, for I have satiated
the weary soul. I've satisfied the weary soul
and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Presence of God
with his people is what John calls fellowship, isn't it? He says in 1 John, All of these things that we have
seen and heard, this apostolic testimony, this life that was
manifested, and we saw it and we bear witness and show unto
you that the eternal life which was with the Father and which
was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us. And
truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son,
Jesus Christ. to have the presence of God and
to be in His fellowship, to just simply believe the testimony
of God about His Son. See, that's what John was saying,
wasn't he? We write these things unto you, that your joy may be
full. In the presence of the Lord is
everlasting joy. His presence, His presence goes
with His people. That's what he said to that thief
on the cross, didn't he? He said, today, this very day,
that thief who had been abusing and cursing the Lord Jesus Christ,
What a miracle, what a glorious picture of the Lord's salvation
of his people. One moment he was there cursing
and reviling the Lord Jesus with the other thief. There he looked
no different to the other thief. All of his life he looked no
different to that other thief. And then the Lord does something
in his life, doesn't he? And he looks across to that bleeding
man on the cross next to him. And he says, I deserve to get
what I'm getting. He owned his sin and he owned
the holiness of God. He's done nothing wrong. And
he looks across and he preaches that remarkable sermon, doesn't
he? That remarkable sermon, don't
you fear God, he said to those other people there, to those
Jews that were flocked around that cross and to the man on
the other cross nearby. And then he says, that glorious
declaration of a repentant heart, isn't it? Lord, remember me. Lord, remember me. And what did
the Lord Jesus Christ promise that man on Calvary Street? He said, today you will be with
me in paradise. With me in paradise. You'll be with him. And he's with him now. And that
man was unable to do anything. Those nails, those cruel nails
in his hands and his feet were the one thing that stopped him.
from going to his saviour and embracing him for a salvation
which is by pure and sovereign grace. It's with him. The presence of God with his people
He's with you as a sovereign ruler over all things. He's with
you in love, brothers and sisters in Christ, with everlasting love
He's loved you and therefore with loving kindness He draws
you to Himself, Jeremiah says. He's with you in grace. He's with you not because of
what you do, He's with you because of what He's done for you. He
can be with you in mercy. He can be with you in justice.
He's with you as a man. He's with you as God and He's
with you as a man. He's with you touched with the
feelings of your infirmities. He's with you in your weakness,
he says to Paul. Paul was there in Corinth in
weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And he looks around
at the task before him and he says, who's sufficient for these
things? Who's sufficient for these things? And the Lord says,
your sufficiency's not on the basis of who you are, Paul. Your
sufficiency is from me. He's with you in your failings.
He's with you in your fallings and your sins and your temptations.
He's with you when men oppose you. He's with you when the world
entices you. He's with you when Satan accuses
you. I love the fact that in the Gospel
accounts we never have a situation where the disciples are ever
asked to defend themselves. In every situation where they
are accused of breaking the law or being weak, in every situation
the Lord Jesus stands between the enemies and his people and
says, I'll deal with them. Those accusations come to me,
thank you very much. I'll deal with you and I'll deal
with them at the same time. I'll look after them. He is a
great shield, isn't he? He said to Abraham, I am your
shield and your exceeding great reward. Nothing is going to do
any harm to the children of God spiritually in this world. He's with us as God, he's with
us as man, he's with us as the Christ of God. He'll be with
you in eternity. All the children, here I am,
he says, and all the children God has given me. He was with
us as our surety in that Eternal Covenant where He stood before
His Father and they entered into that Eternal Covenant. He was
there with all of His people and the Father gave Him this
people. They were the delight of the
Father. In love He gave them to His Son, and in love His Son
said, I'll take full responsibility for them before you. I'll take
full responsibility for their holiness before you, because
your holiness will destroy any sin that they ever have. I'll
take full responsibility for all their sin. I'll bear their
own sins in my body on the tree. I'm with you, he says, in that
indivisible unity. We are, brothers and sisters
in Christ, as secure as the bond between the members of the Trinity
are. You can't be any more secure
than being a child of God, simply believing the Gospel As that
hymn writer said, near, so very near to God, nearer I cannot
be. For in the person of His dear
Son, I am as near as He. Dear, so very dear to God, dearer
I cannot be. For in the person of His dear
Son, I am as dear as He. He's with us as Lord and Christ. as the faithful one who promises."
It was with that little group. This was at the beginning of
the church in Corinth, wasn't it? There was that little group
of believers. They met in the House of Justice.
It was Paul and Timothy, Silas and Crispus. In all the eyes
of all the world, they would have seemed to have been nothings.
But the Lord says to Paul, you preach on, I'm with you, I'm
with you, I'm with you. These people heard the gospel. Didn't everyone else in the synagogue
hear the gospel? Didn't the rest of those people
around that little part of Corinth and all the other parts of Corinth
that Paul went, they all heard, they all heard. But there is
a gathering of God's people. They believed the testimony.
God gave them ears to hear. God gave them eyes to see, as
we read of the blind man in John chapter nine. God gave them life
where there was death. They have a life, a new life
from God that allows them to see and allows them to perceive
and to hear. New life that allows them to
believe. And God gathered them together,
this little band, and they were gathered together in the presence
of their enemies for the rest of the time that we know of in
Corinth. Every time they went to church,
there were the Jews walking down the same street. and going to
the very house next door. And every time they went in there,
they were saying, into their synagogue, they were saying to
Paul, you are telling lies to us about God. Our God is really
worshipped as we worship under the Mosaic law. Our God is worshipped
by our traditions. We are safe and secure in our
traditions, and Paul, you are deceiving people. You are lying
to them. See, if God is with Paul and
with that little group of believers there in Corinth, then he's not
with the others in their temples down the road and in their synagogues
down the street or even next door. He's with them. He lays, as we read in Psalm
23, he lays out a table, a feast for his people in the very presence
of their enemies. What's the feast? The feast is
the manna from heaven, isn't it? It's the body and blood,
the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Promises fulfilled, a
promise to be with them. He's with them in gospel fellowship.
See, all true fellowship, all true fellowship is the fellowship
around the truth. There's no There's no fellowship
around lies. It's all true fellowship. It's
a fellowship of light and not of darkness. It's a fellowship
of grace, not of works. As soon as you have works and
law-keeping amongst a group of so-called professing believers,
all you do is have a competition in righteousness, where I have
to look as righteous as I possibly can before you, and I want to
try and encourage you to try and emulate my righteousness. There is just one righteousness,
brothers and sisters, and it's the very righteousness of God.
All true fellowship is a fellowship of grace and not words. The true fellowship is the fellowship
that He creates and He nurtures, because the testimony of God
is confirmed, as He says, the testimony of God is confirmed
in you. God the Father's testimony about
His Son. God the Spirit's testimony about
the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Son's testimony about
Himself. We are simply repeating the testimony
of God about God. And that's why all the children
who are taught of God see eye to eye. We all love the same
Gospel because we all love the same Saviour. It's a fellowship
of a resurrected Saviour, a fellowship of a Saviour who is alive to
make sure that his inheritance and his will is done. So we enter into his rest, a
rest because the law has been fulfilled. He said, it is finished. If you could enter into what
that word it means, you would find yourself having reason to
delight for a long, long time, brothers and sisters. It is finished. It is finished. The debt has
been paid. The price has been paid. the presence of God with his
people. The presence of God leads to
the protection of God. His presence and his protection.
As I said earlier, he said to Abraham, I am thy shield and
thy exceeding great reward. A similar word is used in 1 Corinthians
15, isn't it? Christ died for the sins of us,
according to the scriptures. And that word for means to shield
and to defend, to hover over them. Our God has the power to enact
His protection. Our God has the power to protect
us. Dear, oh dear, what protection
we need from ourselves. My greatest enemy in this world
is standing right here beside me. It's not out there. It's the sin. It's the sin and
the entanglements of Satan in this world. The law of God stood
against us, and it just says simply, be perfect. Be ye perfect,
be holy. Be holy is what the law of God
says to you. Perfect obedience. We need protection, and there
is that glorious protection, isn't it? When Moses met the
Lord on Mount Sinai, there was a rock that was open, a split
rock. and he was hidden there, wasn't he? God put him in that
rock. He was standing on the rock, and then God put him in
the rock, and that rock was the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, under
Moses, at the end of his day, he could say, the eternal God
is thy refuge, and underneath are everlasting arms. The Lord's
servants are immortal. Paul's physical abuses just led
to the gospel being proclaimed, led to the strengthening of the
saints. Paul no doubt didn't enjoy being flogged and beaten
and imprisoned. But the Philippian jailer was
rejoicing. And the Philippian jailer and Lydia and the church
in Philippi were all rejoicing. And Paul went away rejoicing
as well. They counted themselves worthy of suffering for Christ. We have his protection because
we have his presence. And we have his peace because
he has a purpose. He said, I have much people in
this city. He didn't say, as modern religion
says, I will have them when they exercise their faith. I'll have
them when they repent. I'll have them when they obey.
I'll have them when they do anything." He says, I had them. I had them
from all eternity. They were mine. I had them as
the Father's gift. I had them as maturity. I had
them as I was betrothed in marriage to them. I owned them in creation
because I made them. And I bought and I stood in their
room instead. And I bought them. I bought them
for myself in redemption and ransom. I paid the price to have
them as mine. I've justified them. I've taken
away their sin. So all of the events in all of
the world are purposed that the one event that all this world
exists for, the death of the Lord Jesus on Calvary's tree,
He will see His seed. He will be satisfied. For the
joy set before him, he endured all of that. There is a purpose.
This world is not wandering along under blind fate or just the
caprice of men. This world is purposed. Everything
that's happened in your life is purposed. Underneath are everlasting arms. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. His covenant is an eternal covenant. It's ordered, said David, in
all things insure. It's all my salvation and it's
all my desire. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
is seen by the Father and he passes by. He passes over all
of those in love and mercy and grace. And how is the Lord's purpose
achieved in this world? What did he say to Paul? Preach
on, brothers. Preach on. Preach, told not thy
peace. The Lord's purpose, the Lord's
presence, the Lord's protection. One of the wonders of the gospel
is that in coming to sinners, The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
just give us all the blessings of God and all the promises of
God. He actually gives himself. The Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. He loves us and he gave himself
for us. If you have him, You have everything,
brothers and sisters. You see, the fellowship of the
gospel is a two-way fellowship. He comes to us, and then we come
to him. He comes to us in grace and mercy
and love. And we come to him seeking His
presence, His protection, and the comfort of His purposes. Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him and He
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for Him and we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. Have you tasted that the Lord
is gracious? That's why Peter says the coming
of people to him, his people to him, is a continual coming. To whom coming? We have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the
glory of God. He says come. He says, come to
me, all you that are weary and heavy laden. He wouldn't say
come unless his presence was there for you to come to. He comes to his own, and his
own come to him. This was Paul's assurance. These
were Paul's words of comfort from God. are the words of Paul's
comfort, the comfort that you find. The presence of our God,
the protection of our God, and the purpose of our God. Let's
pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you might cause us to find the peace that your servant Paul
has found in the promises of our God. Our Father, we do thank
you for the extraordinary promise that you promised to be with
your people as you gather them and you meet with them. in the
fellowship of your Saints, Heavenly Father, a fellowship which is
entirely created and sustained for you, and a fellowship, Heavenly
Father, in which you receive all the glory and all the praise,
and your people receive your presence, your protection, and
the comfort of your purpose. Father, guide us and direct us
as we go through our time ahead of us, Heavenly Father, that
we might know that you are faithful to what you have promised, and
you will do it. Father, we do long for us to
be used by you as a people who cause your Son to receive great
glory for the way you work amongst us and in us, Heavenly Father. Sustain us and protect us and
guide us and direct us for the glory of your Son, we pray, our
Father. Amen.