Lo, I am with you always

"And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Exodus 33:14.

"Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters." So speaks the Psalmist, in allusion to the church's passage through the Red Sea. In speaking so, he points out, not only the unsearchableness of God's procedure, but also the awful depth and greatness of those miseries, which give room for the display of God's redeeming love and power. As the whale cannot swim in a shallow, but wishes for open sea-room, so those, who see need of only a little trifling salvation, and a little trifling comfort, give no room for God to appear great, as the God of salvation. He will, therefore, if this blindness continues, appear great in their damnation and misery.

The sorrows, and the comforts, of God's people are equally a mystery to the world. "The heart," says Solomon, "knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy."  You may consider God himself as addressing these words to you: "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." And if you are specially interested in these words, you will desire to understand them more clearly, and to drink more deeply into their divine sweetness. It belongs to the Spirit of truth, to open these treasures to the view of Christ's disciples. But he works by his own means. I shall, therefore, lay before you the following particulars, for illustrating the comfort here promised.

I propose,

To show how the divine presence is vouchsafed to God's people, so as to give them relief and consolation, suited to those evils which make them weary and restless in spirit.

For this purpose,

I. God comes near his people, so as to give them a sense of his attention, and perfect knowledge, respecting all their distresses. This was the comfort suggested to the ancient church in Egypt, Exod. 3:7. "And the Lord said, I have surely seen," (or, as it is translated by Stephen, in his dying speech), "I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry, by reason of their task masters: for I know their sorrows." David, having tasted of the sweetness of this comfort, speaks thus: Ps. 31:7. "I will be glad, and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble, and thou hast known my soul in adversities." This stands opposed to the disconsolate apprehensions of sense and unbelief. It is an easy matter for those who are whole-hearted, to enter speculatively into this sentiment. But, I am speaking of things which concern persons who have been cast down, so as to appear to themselves, as it were, out of God's sight. They seem at a vast distance from God's gracious regard; they seem plunged in a gulf, where no eye looks upon them; their bitter feelings seem too intricate and perplexed, to be known by any besides themselves. Men cannot so much as understand their maladies, and God is out of sight. Such is the disconsolate gloom, which gave occasion to many expressions found on the Scripture record: "But joy cometh in the morning." Beams of celestial light are darted into the gloomy dungeon of the heart. The soul, which seemed to itself alone, and groaning under unknown miseries, realizes the presence of God. It cries out, with Asaph, when emerging from his sad thoughts, Ps. 73:23. "Nevertheless, I am continually with thee." The throne, and the eye of Jehovah come into view. The soul apprehends itself, and its miseries, as under the inspection of God: and as being an object of his closest attention. Now, God appears, looking to the bottom of all the evils, which the soul hath felt or dreaded; and intimately acquainted with the methods of deliverance; even as an able physician looks deep into the case of his patient, and then takes an extensive survey of the sources of healing.

Thus, there is a reviving communion between God and the souls of his people, respecting their manifold grounds of complaint, when they practically and experimentally feel such expressions as these: "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations." "The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him; upon them that hope in his mercy; to deliver their soul from death." "When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path." "He hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary, to hear the groaning of the prisoner."

In such a manner as this, God and his disconsolate children come together, into familiar intercourse, with a view to their relief and consolation. And, when the matter is advanced thus far, the believing soul feels, under it, at least, a solid stay and support.

II. Another step of this communion, essentially requisite, both for the glory of God, and the relief of the soul, is God's visiting the soul, so as to bring it down to a sweet submission and acknowledgment of his righteousness, as to all the occasions of its own disquiet.

There is, naturally, in the heart, a rebelliousness, and a quarreling with the justice of God, which exasperates the soul's anguish, under its various burdens. No healing medicine, not even the sweet balm of redeeming love, can fix upon the soul, till this irritative poison is removed. It is self-evident, that, while the sentence of justice is disputed and contended against, the overtures of mercy cannot be cordially regarded. A criminal, sentenced to die, if he considers his sentence as an injury, or if the severity of justice appears to him hateful and cruel, cannot receive pardon in a proper manner. Such a criminal may be glad to escape death at any rate; but, if such are his views, his escape appears to him, rather as the repairing of a wrong, than as any overflowing of unmerited compassion on the part of his sovereign. So it is with men in their transactions with God. There can be no true rest in that soul, which holds out, in its natural enmity, against divine justice. The ideas of grace and mercy cannot possibly enter such a soul. I might here lay open a world of close hypocrisy, among people who make noise enough about orthodox opinions. They take shelter under grace, while they mortally hate the holiness and justice of God: They will confess themselves worthy of hell; but this they will not do, till they think they have got out of its reach. This, however, is only an artificial juggling with God. I know well, what places of Scripture are corrupted, wrested, and darkened, for the defence of such hypocrisy; and how hard a business it is, to dislodge this devil, where he hath once fixed his hold. But the nature of this discourse will not give leave to pursue hypocrites, through their caverns of darkness.

I have presently to do with those, who are spiritually fair, candid, upright, and opposite to guile. And I am sure of the concurrence of every such soul, in the train of sentiments which I am now endeavouring to set in your view. Every such person will be ready to own, that one chief aggravation of all his distresses is, an opposition to the justice of God, manifested in these evils: and that, while this opposition prevails in the breast, there is no quiet; and no touching of grace or mercy, so as to derive thence solid relief. And, when God comes near to give relief, this is the very beginning of his work, the opening and dissolving the heart into an ingenuous approbation of God's holy severity, in the worst distresses. And this is indeed a great work: It is a great work to bring the heart over to the side of God's justice against sin, where we ourselves are concerned. This work of God begins at conversion; but it is not completed, till the moment of glorification. And how does he perform it? How does God begin and carry forward his submissive prostration of the soul, before his awful justice? I answer, He first of all brings forth to view, out of its dark, lurking places, the opposite evil. Then, the rage and the malignity of this disposition is felt -- a disposition to contend against God's just severity. The soul finds its other burdens rendered doubly galling, by this rebellious perverseness: at the same time, it finds itself unable, by any reasonings of its own, to quiet the inward tempest. Then Jesus Christ appears, walking on the seas, and rebuking the winds and the waves. The soul is enlightened, to see the greatness and glory of God, and the evil of its sins against him, in such a manner, as that, instead of disputing his justice, it falls down before him in humble adoration of his glorious purity, and in admiration of that patient forbearance, which has suspended the full execution of just vengeance. Then, the evils which have caused much uneasiness, seem little, light, and few, in comparison of the desert of sin. Thus, the sting and poison of these evils is partly removed, and the wounds, thus cleansed, lie open to admit further healing.

The whole of this part of God's procedure, I shall illustrate by these Scripture examples: though I know, there are many, who would be glad, no such thing could be proved from the Bible, because it condemns their rotten hypocrisy, and overturns their fictitious gospel.

The first example I refer to, is in the thirty-second Psalm at the third verse, where it is thus written, "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old: through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah." What kind of silence was this? Not the silence of sweet submission, but of sullen rebellion against divine justice. It was a silence directly opposite to the open, ingenuous confession, which he describes in the next verse. He was silent, even when roaring all day long, under the distressing sense of divine wrath. He kept silence, that is, he endeavoured to stifle the voice of conscience, to defend himself, by extenuations of his guilt, and to avoid a full sense of his ill-deserving. And, while this continued, matters became worse and worse with him, till he was brought to extremity. How, then, was he delivered? Did God reveal mercy to him, while that sullen obstinacy continued? No. He could not then touch mercy, so as to take comfort. How, then, was he relieved? He informs you, plainly enough, in the fifth verse. "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid: I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord." That is, the Spirit of God came upon him when he was in that perverse frame, pulled down his stubborn pride, gave him a just view of his unworthiness, and opened his heart, to pour itself out before God, in free and full confessions of sin, in justification of God's righteousness, accompanied with earnest desires of reconciliation. Then, and not till then, the sweet beams of pardoning mercy began to shine comfortably upon his soul; "Thou forgavest," says he, "the iniquity of my sin. Selah."

Similar to this was the experience of Job. Though Job was an eminent saint, and had committed no remarkable transgression to be the occasion of his great trials, yet he discovered too much of a disposition to assert his own integrity, and in such a manner, as to darken the glory of God's infinite justice. Job did not directly intend any such thing as this: but the disease was secretly festering in his breast; and many of his expressions, when carried to their full extent, implied in them a very grievous charge against the righteousness of God's procedure. This was, for a time, Job's situation. Now, let us attentively consider the method of the divine physician, in curing his distemper, and bringing him forth to comfort. Does he immediately melt him down, with a sense of mercy alone? That is the method which numbers have pretended to, whose after-rebellions have shown, sufficiently, that the plague of their heart never was touched, and that the true power of religion never reached their hearts. But God's method of dealing with souls is not so unskillful as this. The wounds which he heals must be fairly opened, and searched, and the purulent matter washed away, before the balm of comfort is applied. For God will not mix his balm, and the devil's putrefaction together, so as to make one plaster of both. The case of Job seemed to require very tender treatment. But, when God came near him, he seems at first to address Job, as though he had been an avowed blasphemer against his majesty, "Who is this," says God, from the whirlwind, "that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" If you look through the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of that book, you will find, that Job's humiliation did not begin with views of mercy, but with views of majesty, sovereignty, and infinite perfection. And even, after Job began to relent, and to call back his rash speeches, still the awful voice of God continued thundering over his head. And, at the eighth verse of the fortieth chapter, the disease, which God saw in his heart, and designed more thoroughly to remove, is marked out in express terms, "Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?" But Job's heart was really a heart of flesh, a broken and contrite heart, though so unseemly a distemper prevailed in him for a season. Therefore, instead of hardening himself against God, instead of murmuring and kicking at the words of God, he falls down under them, lower and lower, through fresh influences of grace, till he was, in the eyes of God, low enough to receive consolation. Then, the vision of mercy did not tarry. The Lord turned the captivity of Job, when, as a fruit of sincere humiliation and contrition before God, he prayed for forgiveness to his mistaken friends. I recommend this whole passage -- I mean the five last chapters of the book of Job -- to your serious and deliberate consideration; as it contains a large and distinct view of God's way of introducing comfort into troubled souls.

A third example of this part of God's work, in giving rest to his people amidst their uneasinesses, I shall more briefly refer to. You find it in the book of Lamentations, where, after dreadful strokes of wrath, the church pours out her heavy complaint before God, so as to bear herself off from the whirlpool of despair, and to cast anchor in the faithfulness of her covenanted God. The following expressions, intermixed with the pathetic dirge in the two first chapters, show what are the first openings of gracious exercise of soul, under overwhelming evils, and how the divine presence enters the soul, so as to give it rest. Chap. 1, verse 8: "Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore she is removed." Verse 11: "See, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile." Verse 14: "The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck." Verse 18: "The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment." Verse 20: "Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress, my bowels are troubled: mine heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled." Chap. 2, verses 5, 14: "The Lord was an enemy." "Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee; and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment." These expressions, as they stand connected, discover a sweet, submissive sense of sin and of divine wrath. But, you will see this further exemplified, in the third chapter, where the prophet emerges from his grievous mourning, by such a beam of light, as discovered the glory of divine justice, in these great calamities. Verse 22: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." That is, I have been long and bitterly complaining; but now I see our ill-deserving, the malignity of our transgressions, the glory of divine justice, in these terrible strokes. I, therefore, no longer murmur, as being hardly treated; these things we have richly deserved, and much worse. I justify God. I see that God might justly have cast us into hell; and therefore, every thing, on this side hell, is mercy -- the purest mercy.

I stand, adoring his mercy every day, in the midst of our desolations, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." And this sweet acknowledgment soon introduced the supporting and healing exercise of faith, expressed in the twenty-fourth verse. "The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him."

These examples are sufficient, to satisfy those who pay due reverence to Scripture authority; and they clearly mark part of God's procedure, in giving rest to his people, under their various complaints. We feel much uneasiness, from want of the enjoyment of God, from convictions of sin, from heart plagues, from outward afflictions, from the low state of religion in the world. But our anguish begins to abate, and the poisonous bitterness is extracted from it, when God comes near, and discovers not only his attention and knowledge, but his glorious, unimpeachable righteousness in all our evils. And we then know, that refreshing consolation and delight is at hand. For,

III. This is quickly followed with reviving discoveries of God's saving all-sufficiency, and of his abundant compassion, grace, and liberality.

I say, the one of these is quickly followed with the other, sometimes so quickly, that the distinction of time is scarcely discernible. As the motion of light is the swiftest of all things in the material world; so, God's spiritual operations, in enlightening and renewing the heart, sometimes follow each other with astonishing rapidity. A glance of celestial light darts instantaneously into the soul; and, almost before there is time for much explicit attention, the soul, having seen and glorified divine justice, is plunged into the ocean of redeeming love. This sometimes is the case. But it is more usual, as is plain from the examples above produced, that the one operation of grace is distinctly felt before the other. And often the Lord, having brought his people to the submission and humiliation already described, leaves them there for a time, with no more than a very obscure dawning of mercy and love. And this interval will seem very tedious and perplexing; still, however, the discovery of mercy, and its treasures, may be said, not only to follow, but to follow quickly, after the right view of justice.

For what is the longest delay, in comparison of that awful eternity of wrath, and banishment from God, which sinners deserve? What is the longest delay, in the compass of threescore and ten years, when compared with the eternal sweetness of divine love and its vast blessings? God says, with one breath, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help." When the one part of the lesson is engraven on the heart, the other follows. And then, indeed, the soul enters into refreshing and joyful rest. By the former discoveries of God's justice, the rebellious tumults of the soul are quieted; and the soul is placed in a proper situation for seeing, relishing, and admiring the glorious sweetness, majesty, immensity, and all-sufficiency of the love of God, displayed in Jesus Christ. And this is the chief, the most delightful discovery of the glory of God, to which other views of his relative glory are subservient. Therefore, when Moses said, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory," the answer was expressed in these terms, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." For, where there are a group of things brought together in connection with each other, it is common to mention only some conspicuous and principal part, as leading the attention to the whole group: though, by no means, exclusively of other things, though not then particularly named.

This, then, is a principal cause of that rest, which the presence of God communicates to his people. He gives them enlarged and sweet discoveries of the immense riches, and all-sufficiency of his redeeming love, venting itself through the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the church prays for, in Ps. 85:5-7. "Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation." This the Redeemer had particularly in view, when he said, John 17:26: "And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." And for this, the apostle importunately pleaded in behalf of the Ephesian church, in that glorious prayer of his, recorded Eph. 3:14-19. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." If ever you know experimentally the fulfillment of these passages of Scripture, you will see more in the love of God, than all the tongues in the world can describe.