Christ: My Guide, Protector, Constant Companion

Introduction: Christ as Ballast for the Soul

0:04 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 ballast in the souls of the

0:44 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 into the unchartered waters of the coming year. 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 spiritual.

1:27 If he does not have some understanding of these fundamental truths, and is not relating to them in present actings of faith.

Recap of Foundational Truths and Tonight's Focus

1:42 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. 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.

2:27 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. Now tonight we conclude the series by adding these words, the enthroned Christ is not only advocate and intercessor.

2:57 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.

3:23 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.

3:56 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.

4:16 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 and companion.

The Enthroned Christ as Our Guide

4:54 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.

5:23 1 Peter, chapter 2. 1 Peter, chapter 2. 1 Peter, chapter 2. Conversion is described in the shepherd sheep imagery.

5:32 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, 2 Peter, chapter 2. For you were going astray like sheep. You were like a flock of lost sheep.

5:55 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?

6:21 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, phooey on God, and anyone concerned about God, to be a Christian is to be returned unto our rightful shepherd and overseer.

7:03 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.

7:45 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.

7:57 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 aseth, thief and a robber, that 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

8:41 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.

9:14 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 change. There is a connection between you and the one who speaks your name.

9:50 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.

10:07 The shepherd does not go to the backside of the fold, and looking toward the opening, the door of the fold, crack a whip. And whack the sheep on the planks, and drive them out. No, he addresses them by name, and then he himself goes out and leads them. He brings them behind them.

10:29 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.

10:45 Where his 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.

11:07 Here is the language of the Lord Jesus as the shepherd of his people, being their guide. God. As the shepherd, he goes before them. He leads them out.

11:21 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.

11:45 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.

12:13 I shall not walk. 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.

12:23 Now notice. He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

12:39 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.

12:56 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.

13:09 He leads me besides waters of rest. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths 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.

13:44 And he does that. 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. In this chapter, the exalted being of God is set before us, the majesty of his exalted place as creator.

14:16 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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14:47 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15:17 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.

15:52 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.

16:18 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.

16:43 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.

17:01 Here is the Lord Jesus committed to be the guide of his people, even when all danger is past. When all possibility of sin is past. When all mental darkness and crookedness and twistedness is all past. He is still the shepherd who will guide us as his sheep.

17:25 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 ourselves. And there are times when faith needs to feed 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.

18:00 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 God, But there are times when the believer, in the midst of uncertainty and confusion and perplexity about God, But there are times when the believer, in the midst of uncertainty and confusion and perplexity about God, what shall I do, where shall I go, what shall I think about this decision and that decision? Christ is not to be forgotten as the Christ upon the throne.

18:31 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 of the sheep. As the shepherd of the sheep.

18:49 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.

19:14 Lord Jesus, be to me the guiding shepherd in this situation. Just as surely as five minutes later, faith may be 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 Scriptures.

19:58 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

20:14 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

20:58 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

21:42 whate'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 gold, goldward, 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.

The Enthroned Christ as Our Protector

22:24 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.

23:01 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, How 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,

23:42 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, they come from me.

24:02 He said, I'm confident that as my shepherd, I may not see the dangers. 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.

24:29 Now I'm fully aware that some say the rod would be the thing with which the shepherd would deal 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 valid. When 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.

24:58 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.

25:12 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 comes, 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,

25:55 in the New Testament shepherd-sheep passage, John chapter 10.

26:02 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. Verses 10.

26:20 The thief comes not, but that he may steal and kill and destroy. I came that they, my sheep, may steal and kill and destroy. They may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd.

26:35 The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He that is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, beholds the wolf come, 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.

27:01 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.

27:22 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.

27:41 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 2nd Timothy, chapter 4. 2nd Timothy, chapter 4. 2nd Timothy, chapter 4.

28:00 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.

28:25 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 superno. May it not be laid to their account.

28:56 What a gracious statement. They all for superno. 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.

29:15 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.

29:45 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.

30:04 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?

30:18 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.

30:42 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.

31:23 1 Samuel and chapter 17.

31:32 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 vexes David's soul and he said, Who is this silly 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.

32:07 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.

32:23 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. My servant smote both the lion and the bear.

32:48 This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. You can read that and not at least inwardly get the goosebumps. Something's dead in you. He wasn't a little boy.

33:01 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.

33:10 I've known what it is. When a predatory animal came and got one of my lambs, got one of my sheep and had them 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.

33:40 That's heavy stuff. Now, did Paul know this story? Sure he did. And when he says he delivered me out of the mouth of the lion, the Lord stood by me.

33:52 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 invincible 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.

34:16 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, that 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.

34:50 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.

35:05 Your great shepherd is your protector and you are invincible in your work is done. 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 and say, who is this character before the living God?

35:36 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 that enthroned Christ, who is our shepherd, not only our God, but he is our protector.

36:16 And he is that to us in all of our seen and unseen dangers. And we need to act faith towards him in that way that honors him when he sees his people. When we see how his people are taking seriously what he says he is. So the Lord feels if I may use that state, how you think the Lord feels when he sees his people, to whom he's made a commitment to be there, protector as well as their guide, acting as though he were not an insult to him.

The Enthroned Christ as Our Companion

36:56 He loves it. When his people boast in the commitments of his grace to their well-being. Well, then thirdly, 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.

37:38 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.

37:48 And I found out something I never knew. Common word companion. You know what it comes from? It comes from two Latin words.

37:54 Com, 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. Beautiful picture. You eat bread with a person who is something more than a patron.

38:15 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.

38:43 When the Lord Jesus made it plain, that he was going to leave them. Sorrow filled their hearts. You find the 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.

39:06 They're filled with sorrow. Jesus is going to leave them. He who has been their companion day and night for some of these for three plus years. They slept where he slept.

39:18 Out in the open field or in a borrowed home or in Peter's house.

39:24 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.

39:39 They were bread eaters together. They lived. They labored together. And now he says, I'm going to leave you.

39:47 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?

40:02 He tells them that he's going to send another comforter, 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, so that this language found in the upper room discourse, John 14, 16 to 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.

40:44 You know him, now notice, for he abides with you and shall, shall be in you. Who is that? The Spirit of truth. Who is the Spirit of truth?

40:53 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.

41:06 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 in person of the Spirit, we have Jesus, something better than merely at our side.

41:27 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,

41:59 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.

42:18 And follow with me now as I try to take you through what he calls his principal statement. The 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.

42:38 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 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.

43:10 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.

43:34 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.

44:05 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?

44:28 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.

44:47 Now if you were a disciple, and you had spent, one of the apostles, and 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 four thousand, for five thousand, and many basketfuls left over?

45:13 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?

45:54 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 man of God, such as Whitfield, and Spurgeon, and some of the other worthies?

46:16 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.

46:28 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.

47:03 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 snob said, what is eating and drinking with sinners?

47:26 He hobnobs with the Palestinian mafia. He's known in the circle of the union of call girls there in Palestine. Yes, he welcomes sinners there, but welcomes sinners now? You see, if we only had the biography, it would be frustrating.

47:48 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.

48:07 Get 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.

48:16 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.

48:52 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, 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 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

49:35 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.

49:45 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.

50:10 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.

50:49 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 him because he said he'd be with me. Does he mean it?

51:04 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.

51:22 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.

51:38 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, and you go and you get your keys, and you say, thank you, Lord Jesus.

51:54 Is that ludicrous? Is that silly? You talk to him. You commune with him.

52:03 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.

52:34 They live in the reference of only what is seen and touched and can be demonstrated in the lab as reality. They see you in the midst of circumstances that ought to make you frustrated and angry and touchy and crotchety. And yet, that gracious smile plays off the corner of your mouth. When you see him, it's 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.

53:15 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 it, my right hand that I shall not be moved.

53:31 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.

53:44 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.

53:56 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 and 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.

54:32 He's your companion. He wants, he wants the reciprocation of your unfettered fellowship and communion with him. He died to secure it. 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.

A Word to Unbelievers: Be Provoked to Jealousy

54:59 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, or 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.

55:42 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, I'm telling you these things, verse 13 of Romans 11, but I speak to you that are Gentiles in so much that I'm 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,

56:26 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, look at this, I passionately long to be the instrument in God's hands for the salvation of my fellow Jews.

56:50 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 he says, I do this to provoke them to jealousy. The Jews will say, look at all we're missing. And Paul says, it's yours in Christ if you'll have it.

57:18 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.

57:32 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, 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.

58:08 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?

58:46 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, eternal life? 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's partner back then, and it's been my curse. You can't go back, Emmanuel.

59:27 Haven't I made you jealous? You might have someone who says, look, my child, I'll guide you to 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. Haven't we made you jealous to have someone who can bear the burden of every sinner, every confused saint in the whole world and never,

60:09 never increase his 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.

60:25 You can be. How could you say I'm not worthy? No, no, it's not a matter of your worthiness. Those of us who were 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.

60:45 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.

60:59 Tis the Spirit's rising being, unsaved child, young person, young adult. If 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 privileges of it. And the best is yet to come.

61:27 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.

61:47 Emptiness. Purposeless. Life's a joke. Everything's a joke.

61:55 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 a wicked devil who's not yet been fully dealt with, in space-time history as he will be, the dear unconverted friend.

62:19 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 stinking, rotten, confusion, vileness, pollutedness, Lord Jesus, I cast myself upon you.

62:41 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.

62:58 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. And 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 as when he stood on the Galilean shore, and when people came to him, he welcomed them.

63:37 He welcomes you now in the word and promise of the God. 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, shining of the wonder and glory of what it is to belong to Jesus that is preached from the pulpit.

64:10 And when what is preached from 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 he speaks, that in the days to come, our lives may be growing monuments of the fact that we have internalized these wonderful truths.

Conclusion: Embrace All That Christ Is

64:45 And these are but a few of the things that Christ is to his people. 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 with any man's sin we have an apple. He is there representing us. He is there taking up the case of the defense.

65:18 We have legal representation in heaven, Jesus Christ the righteous one. 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.

65:40 And when you're fearful and 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. Our Father, what can we say

66:22 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, has tasted reality. And Lord, what we've touched and tasted makes us hungry for more. Oh, Lord Jesus, come in ever-increasing measures

67:03 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.

67:26 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.

67:48 We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.