Let us pray once more.
Lord, we are so glad to be in Your presence. Lord, we are so glad to belong to You.
Now we thank You, Lord, for saving us and keeping us and bringing us to this place, Lord, and reminding us again of Your love, of Your sacrifice, and of Your promises. We do love You, Lord.
Lord, we believe that You have this time that we might hear You speak in the midst of us. And, Lord, we say, “Oh, by Your Holy Spirit, we believe we will be able to open our hearts to You,” and we so desire to have free reign in us, Lord.
How we bless You and thank You. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, we have just eaten the broken bread. We have just drunk of the cup of the new covenant, remembering the Lord as He told us to.
Some of us may simply have come because He told us to do so. Some of us have come with the understanding that He is here among us and that we are to share this with one another.
And some of us, brothers and sisters, have come together in the presence of the Lord to rejoice before Him and share the loaf and the cup that He has given to remember Him—to add to the testimony of angels our own testimony that He is alive, that He has saved us, and that we believe His word: that He is here among us.
How wonderful it is to have this great privilege to be with you today. How wonderful it is to be in His presence with you today.
My wife, Diane, reminded me yesterday of a word that our brother Dana gave to us last summer. Dana did not remember it when she reminded him of it, but he agreed with it.
He said, “Do you believe what you believe?”
It is a very important question: Do you believe what you believe?
Not double-talk. You know, we believe many things in our minds. We have much teaching. But do we have living faith that really believes what we say we believe—what we believe, even that we believe?
You know, that is a very good question.
There are two things I want us to look at together this morning. One of them is the presence of the Lord in our meeting right now, and our experience of it. The second is the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ among us in glory, and our response to it and our preparation for it.
Now, first, as to the presence of the Lord in our meeting, I believe probably everyone here could quote Matthew 18:20:
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
I do not think that is a new thought. But how many of us really have a living faith in His presence with us this morning? Where does that living faith come from?
We believe it because He has said it. It is really important to simply believe what He has said.
The Lord spoke those words, and it is recorded for us in the Scripture. You know, He did not leave us without strong witnesses to that word.
There is the Scripture. There is the witness of the Holy Spirit among us, bringing things to our memory, moving among us, revealing Him to our hearts. There is the reality of the Spirit when we individually have communion with Him, have fellowship with Him, have intimate times. How wonderful those are.
There is another witness when we come together: there is the witness of the body of Christ.
You know, brothers and sisters, we are gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus. We have that word completed in us.
Is it not wonderful that we all do not have to be gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus to have Him in the midst of us? If two or three are gathered together, He is in the midst of us. He is here.
Do you believe that? Do you believe that He is here?
When you look around you, you see the body of Christ. You see the members of the body of Christ. Do you believe that because the members are here, we are gathered in His name?
What does it mean to gather in His name? Well, for one thing, the negative is that we do not gather to another name. The positive is that we are one with all who bear the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we come together with this declared intent and purpose: to gather to His person, to see Him, to hear from heaven—the One whose head is in heaven, and yet He is here in the midst of us. It is a wonderful thing.
You know, let me read a few very familiar verses, and let us hear them with anointed ears. I am not going to read a new verse. These are not new verses for most of you. Oh, but that we might hear them by the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, just listen to the verses as I read them, and let the Holy Spirit work in your heart.
Romans 12:4-8.
For even as we have many members in one body,
and all the members have not the same office:
so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and severally members one of another.And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us,
whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith;
or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry;
or he that teacheth, to his teaching;
or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting:
he that giveth, let him do it with liberality;
he that ruleth, with diligence;
he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.
1 Corinthians 12:20-27.
But now they are many members, but one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee:
or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary:
and those parts of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor;
and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness;
whereas our comely parts have no need:
but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked;
that there should be no schism in the body;
but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it;
or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof.
You are the body of Christ, and members of it individually.
Ephesians 1:22-23.
And He put all things in subjection under His feet,
and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body,
the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
Brothers and sisters, these are not new verses. These are familiar verses. We know them. We believe them in our minds, perhaps, but are they in our hearts by faith? It is a good thing to look and see.
You know, I ask you, brothers and sisters: can my hands be in this room and my head not be present?
We see the hands and the feet—my hands and feet physically. We see one another, the members of the body; but do we see them spiritually? Do we see this one as necessary? Do we see this one as fulfilling the ministry that God has given him? Do we look to one another to give and receive from one another? Do we bring life, and do we take it?
Brothers and sisters, if we can see this in one another, can we not also see that He who said these words to us has told us the absolute truth? He is here in the midst of us. He is here this morning. He is present.
You know, is it logical or sensible that we should not believe, being able to see the members? You know, it really is not. But we cannot by logic see; it is only by faith, and that faith which is alive.
Let me mention one other thing, and perhaps it does not need to be said. Certainly, it needs to be emphasized. We gather to the throne of our Lord Jesus; we do not gather to the cross. Our message is the cross.
Praise the Lord for the cross. When we gather together, we come to Him, even our Lord Jesus, and He is on the throne.
When we see Him lifted up on the cross, we are saved by looking to Him as our Savior. He is our sin offering. It is as when Moses lifted up the brass serpent in the wilderness, when the people were complaining that all they had was this manna and there was no water.
And all who looked upon that serpent that was lifted up were saved. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for the cross. He is our sin offering.
We remember His suffering on the cross for our sin and our shame at His table, and He wins our hearts anew. We bless Him, and we thank Him, and we adore Him.
Praise the Lord.
We remember Him in His death, in His burial, and His resurrection, and His ascension, and His soon coming again. We give our own testimony of His power to save, of our oneness with Him and with one another. We proclaim His death till He comes again.
We can never forget, nor neglect, nor take this remembrance lightly. How could we forget One who has loved us so much to the uttermost?
It is given to us corporately, as the body of Christ, to lift up our Head, who is in our midst. And He is glorified now. He has come through all this.
And even now, as my head is lifted by my body, you and I are given to lift our Lord Jesus—to lift Him up, to hold Him up. You can see my hands. You can see my head. But you do not see my arms and my legs; they are covered, and yet how necessary they are.
We are given, brothers and sisters, to lift up the Lord Jesus together, to give Him praise and honor, to see Him as He is right now. And He is full of glory.
He is our Savior. He is our Messiah. He is the One whom God has given the highest place, the name that is above every name. He has given Him all the glory, all the honor, even as we have this morning.
It is at His name that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. It is our Lord Jesus whom we will praise in that day for His great salvation, and praise Him even now. He is the One who is in the midst of us even at this time.
You know, He has given us peace. He has brought us into fellowship with the Father and the Son. And He has given us fellowship with one another.
He is with us. This is the One that we come to, the One who is full of glory. He is the brightness of the glory of God, it says in Hebrews. We will read that in just a little bit.
Let us read a couple of verses, and let us look at how the Scripture reveals God dwelling with His people.
You know, His desire has always been to dwell with His people. And He is dwelling with His people. He is here in the midst of us.
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 4:6.
Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness,
who shined in our hearts,
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, that light is in His face. And He is the brightness of the glory of God.
Hebrews 1:1-4.
God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners,
hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things,
through whom also He made the worlds;
who being the effulgence of His glory,
and the very image of His substance,
and upholding all things by the word of His power,
when He had made purification of sins,
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
having become by so much better than the angels,
as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they.
This is the One that we lift up.
You know, in Exodus 40:34-35, I am going to read those two verses. It is about the presence of the glory of God filling the tabernacle Moses constructed.
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting,
because the cloud abode thereon,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
It says it twice. God dwelt in Israel, in glory, in His house.
In 2 Chronicles 5:11-14, we see the glory of God filling the temple that Solomon built. It is very instructive to us.
And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place
(for all the priests that were present had sanctified themselves, and did not keep their courses;
also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun,
and their sons and their brethren, arrayed in fine linen,
with cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar,
and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets);
it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one,
to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord;
and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music,
and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His lovingkindness endureth for ever:
that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord,
so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud:
for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
You know, Ezekiel described the heavenly view of the Lord leaving the temple because of His people’s sin and turning from Him. Ezekiel 10:18-19:
Then the glory of the Lord went forth from over the threshold of the house,
and stood over the cherubim.
And the cherubim lifted up their wings,
and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went forth,
and the wheels beside them;
and they stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house;
and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
The Lord departed. The glory departed. When the Lord was present, the glory was there. It was behind the veil, but it was there.
In Revelation 15:8, where it speaks of the temple in heaven:
And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power;
and none was able to enter into the temple,
till the seven plagues of the seven angels should be finished.
And, of course, Revelation 21:22-23, speaking of the new Jerusalem that had come down from heaven:
And I saw no temple therein:
for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof.
And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it:
for the glory of God did lighten it,
and the lamp thereof is the Lamb.
You know, I could go on. I could read the promise in Haggai concerning the earthly temple of the Jews—the same thing: the glory of God is in the midst of it.
Brothers and sisters, I read all these Scriptures because they are the word of God, and I read them also because they give a uniform testimony that the Lord is in our midst with His glory.
Now, I have something to ask you. This is your portion. It is your portion to come here today. There is no veil between us and the Lord. He is here.
There are many reasons we might not see His glory, but the first—the absolute first—step we have to take is to realize, to believe, that He is actually here.
And the first thing I think it takes to do that is to consider whether we really believe it.
Do we believe what we believe? Do we believe that He is really here in the midst of us in His glory?
That is the question we should ask ourselves.
You know, if we do not believe for any number of reasons, that is not a condemnation. But it is a wake-up call.
Oh, if you do not believe, if you have a question about this, there is One that you can ask who delights to tell you. God Himself delights to reveal His Son in glory to His people, to dwell with His people in glory.
Ask Him: “What is the problem, Lord? Why am I not seeing Your glory? Why am I coming out of principle? Why am I coming out of habit?”
You know, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia. You remember Stephen started his defense with that word.
I have a question: has the God of glory appeared to you?
Have you seen the face of Jesus Christ? Have you seen the brightness of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? It is your birthright. It is your portion.
Now, He is here among us. He is here among us in a different way than He is with us individually. Of course He is in our hearts. Of course we can pray. Of course we can have fellowship with Him.
But when we gather together in His name, He has His house expressed. And He wants to express Himself in His house, and He wants us to express our feelings about Him.
How can we worship in spirit and truth if we do not see Him? How can we be awed by His glory if it is an idea that we have in our head or a theology that we hold to?
It is a right theology. It is a good idea. But there is so much more. There is so much more.
Oh, Lord, what it cost Him to tear that veil. The veil was His body, His flesh. He said, “It is finished.” It is finished, and we are in the good of it.
Brothers and sisters, are we living in the good of it? Do we see Him? Do we come together expecting to see Him?
Do we come here saying, “The God of glory is going to appear to me”? Now, let me say this: I am not talking about demanding an appearance. This God of glory reveals Himself as He will.
There are many reasons that we might not see Him, but we must believe that He is here and that we come to meet Him here. Do we come prepared to meet the God of glory?
Do we come carelessly? Do we come with our sacrifice?
Do we come, you know, with the sacrifice of praise we have? Way back in the Old Testament, in the picture—this is not the picture, but in the picture—it says, “Let all of your males appear before Me. Let none of them come empty-handed.” Do we come empty-handed?
Paul writes so much about our coming and our coming with our sacrifice. We spoke about the various functioning of the body of Christ, brothers and sisters. I do not want to get off on this, but I tell you, I tell you, sometimes we come unprepared.
Sometimes we come unprepared. May the Lord awaken us from that.
You know, I do believe we come rejoicing in our salvation, and we should. And I do not believe He is far away; He is right here.
He is the Savior forever. He is our Brother, our Father. He is our Brother. He is the way to the Father. He is the Son of Man.
He is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Messiah. He is our elder Brother, for He Himself has said so.
He is the Son of God, who is God the Son, and we may worship Him in spirit and in truth.
But I do believe, brothers and sisters, if we are going to worship Him in spirit and truth, we must see Him. We must be ever seeing Him.
We must see Him every day in our lives, and praise the Lord for that. If we do not have that, we must go back to the very beginning and start over. But we must also see Him in our midst.
Praise the Lord.
Let each of us this afternoon ask ourselves: Do I have living faith, or do I have knowledge in my head?
If we will ask that question, He will both answer it and show us what the problem is. But looking for the problems first is not the right place, I do not believe.
When was the last time the God of glory appeared to you in the meeting?
Praise the Lord. He is here in the midst of us, and He is full of glory.
We can, when we come together, both lift Him up, praise Him, worship Him, give Him thanks, and be changed.
Amen.