The Presence of God

The atmosphere of the presence of God is the most wonderful atmosphere. There are basically two ways of understanding the presence of God. First, the conscious presence of God. That's what we all like. That's what we pray for. That's what we want. But the worst mistake you can make is to underestimate the unconscious presence of God. The unconscious presence of God, which we tend to underestimate, is something that I want to talk about today.

Now, the difference between the conscious presence of God and the unconscious presence of God is this, the conscious presence of God.

Is when he pleases us. He makes us happy with his presence, but the unconscious presence of God is an invitation to please him. Now I want you to think about it. Conscious presence of God when he pleases you. Unconscious presence of God. It's an invitation to please him. Now here's the question I want to put to you, which gives you more satisfaction, the presence of God that you feel or the unconscious presence of God when you feel nothing.

Well, I can understand if you would say, wow, I want the conscious presence of God. Well, let me put it to you like this, which gives you more satisfaction when it pleases you or when you have an opportunity to please him. Now, this set of Inuk in Hebrews chapter 11, verse five, the in ACC had this testimony that before his translation that he pleased God, uh, that isn't referred to many times in the Bible.

That phrase, when a person can actually please God and in it did it. And as a consequence, he, he got so close to God that the best way I know to Politik God said in a, you know too much, you have come up here where I am. He was translated that he wouldn't see death. And that was the thing. His testimony was that he pleased God.

Do you know what it would mean? That you please God, this is the most wonderful opportunity. And I may be addressing somebody that you're feeling nothing and you notice how people are worshiping today. Maybe you are doing it and you were really not feeling much, but you did it anyway. Here's the thing.

When you have an opportunity to please God, you need to take it with both hands because there's nothing more rewarding. Down the road. Then when you accepted the invitation to please him, and this is when you have his unconscious presence. Now here's the thing you need to know. He's always with you. He said I will never leave you.

I will never forsake you. So you need to know that God is always there. He's always present, but there are times when, as Isaiah put it, he hides his face right in the middle of Isaiah chapter 45 verse 15 proudly just says, truly, you are a God who hides. Oh God of Israel, the savior. He found that out.

I bet you found it out. That you're just doing fine. You're feeling his presence, can you, it's like the wind is at your back. He's answering your prayers. You sense his presence, guidance, clear, unmistakable, and then without notice, he's just not there. In fact, without notice, sometimes you hit a wall. And he's like, what on earth is going on the hiding of God's face when you feel nothing you think was I deceived when yesterday he was so real to me?

What happened? Right? Here's the problem with when God hides his face, he never gives you advanced warning. If only while you're on a roll and you're feeling his presence and, and, and he's answering prayer and you know, you're reading the Bible, the letters leap out at you, like they're golden. And he says, Oh, by the way, uh, RT, next Tuesday afternoon, about four o'clock, you will notice the withdrawing of the light of my countenance.

Uh, don't panic. Next Tuesday, at four o'clock I'll be hiding my face from you. But it doesn't do that. He gives you no advanced warning and it's strange. You're feeling his presence. It's just going on for days. And you think, I have finally discovered God's ways and I now have the victory and, and, and now I'm there.

I have arrived. And then without notice, you hit a wall. Okay. Maybe it's a financial reverse. Maybe it's a bad report, ill health, you lose a friend, you're betrayed by a friend and something goes wrong and your world falls apart. And he'd say, Lord, what on earth is this? What is it? What is it? Well, that's what I mean by the unconscious presence of God.

Never forget this. He's always there, but you don't always feel him. And what I want you to see today. And I have a feeling there's somebody here that needs this, maybe more than once, but if it's just one, that's all, that's all we need for you to feel that God is on your case. You say RT, that that describes me.

I, I just don't feel him right now. And maybe you, you know, graciously stood while ago and worship God. And by the way, let me say something right in the middle of the sermon. The atmosphere in this church is totally different than I've known over the years. I mean, you all made a turn. It's amazing. It's wonderful.

I don't have them come here to butter you up or butter up the pastor or Jenny's to go by Jenny. He didn't know, didn't want to butter her up. You don't know what she will do next. No, seriously. This is your new church. It's just wonderful. But I never say there's somebody here. R T I know what you're talking about.

I felt him yesterday. I thought him for days and I don't feel anything. What have I done wrong? Have I offended him by grieved him? What is it? Well. The unconscious presence of God. I want you to see it as an invitation to please him. And the way you do it is by faith. Now that there are two kinds of faith, here is what you could call the world view, the secular atheist view.

Uh, they have faith and you know what it is? I believe it when I see it. That's the secular atheist view. I believe it when I see it, but then there's the biblical view. Faith is the substance of fame's hope for the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11 one where you just believe that you don't have evidence, so you have polar opposites.

The biblical view, you believe it, but you don't see it. The secular atheist view. You don't believe it until you see it. But here's the thing. If you see it and believe it, it's not faith anymore. You can't call it faith. Now, the atheist says, well, I won't believe it till I see it, and that's the way it was at the cross.

Remember how the chief priests and the soldiers mockingly cried out? Hey, son of God come down from the cross so we can see and believe. So we can see and believe. You see, it's not faith anymore. It's not faith anymore. It's only faith when he hides his face and you believe him anyway. And so the unconscious presence of God, it's, it's when we feel nothing.

And as I say, don't forget this. Does it mean he's not there? It's just that you don't feel him. And when is consciously present, he is pleasing you. But I'd like to challenge you to get your satisfaction from pleasing him. You may not get that invitation every day, but it's the most rewarding thing in the world when he hides his face.

And now you show her that you really love him. Over the years, you've probably heard me talk about Arthur bless it is the man who carries the cross around the world is 47,000 miles. He's carried across. He's got the Guinness book of records for the longest walk. Uh, he never intended to do that. He just started walking, uh, with his cross on Christmas day, think it was 1967 66.

And, uh, he's been carrying the cross all over the world. People laughed him to scorn. Uh, but, uh, I dare say when we get to heaven, we'll find that Arthur Blessitt led more people to the Lord on a one to one basis than any human being ever. But I don't want to get on the wrong track here. The point I want to make is Arthur was carrying the cross in Northern Israel.

Usually, he would plan where to put his cross for a night and, but he didn't and it was dark. And you found a bus stop in Northern Israel, but there was no covering. But he's always sleeping on the, on, on the bench there, bus stop. And he laid down to sleep and it started raining. And the rain just continued, and so Arthur just sat up and said, in the name of Jesus, stop.

What is supposed to happen? It rained harder than ever. It began to pour lightning thunder and there's the water being in Arthur's face. He says, God, I love you.

Can you do that? That should give you more satisfaction. It's an invitation to please him. You see, we're living in a, in a generation, so man-centered, so self-centered. People only want to ask one question, what's in it for me? Well, I would like to challenge you to be the reverse of the trend in our day, that if God hides his face and you hit a wall, there's your chance.

It may not come around again like that, just to please him. You see, when you feel nothing, you underestimate what, what is actually happening. Oh yeah. You must know this, that a week ago. We celebrated the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's beginning of the reformation. Uh, TBN, TV, uh, religious channel flew me to Wittenberg and, uh, in Germany where I had.

Okay. Maybe the greatest experience of my whole life. I think maybe it was a dad. It gets better than this. I stood at the door of the Wittenberg castle church where Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses and uh, he wrote those theses because he had found out what I hope you have already found out, but thanks to Martin Luther, it's become.

You know, just standard orthodoxy. But Martin Luther being in the church where they were selling indulgences, uh, the reason they did that is that the big church in Rome, st Paul's, St Peter's in Rome, they needed money. And so in those days, people didn't have Bibles, they didn't know anything. The Roman Catholic church, uh, for, forgive me for mentioning that name, cause we're not here to offend anybody, but just the fact they defined faith as mental assent to the doctrines of the church.

Or you just say, if a church believes it, I believe it. They didn't want you to think for yourself. They just wanted you to say, we'll do your thinking for you. Just trust us. And uh, so that was what pays is, is, uh, sent to the doctrines of the church. And the people didn't have their Bibles and they were ignorant.

They didn't know anything. And because of ignorance. They got away, the church did selling indulgences, you, you pay, uh, to know that maybe you won't spend as much time in purgatory and uh, you, you, they, they call them indulgences. And in the meantime, Martin Luther, uh, uh, was trying to find that it pleased God and he wanted to do that more than anything in the world.

And, uh, he asked questions and nobody asked. He wants to know what's in it for God. Why am I not happy if salvation were by works, Luther would have been at the head of the list. He was so conscientious that when he would go to confession, he stayed there for an hour and come back an hour later, said, I forgot us in a needed to confess.

And so when it comes to blameless, impeccable living, Martin Luther is your man, but he just had no peace. And he had what he called a tower experience between 1513 1517 and he saw something when he read Habakkuk 2:4, quoted three times in the New Testament, the just shall live by faith. He sought Romans one 17 and Luther saw that faith plus nothing satisfies the passive justice of God that we're not going to satisfy God by confession or pennants or trying to be better people.

Faith alone, faith alone, and he was transformed. He never looked back. Well, he wrote these 95 theses. They're not in five statements that objected to the sale of indulgences. And the bottom line of those 95 theses is if the Pope has power over purgatory, why does it? They just let everybody out. Oh no, we can't do that.

We need the money to build st Peter's and there's this, and this is wrong. This is not right. So he nailed the 95 theses. He wrote the main Latin people, couldn't read them, only the scholars. He just wanted to debate. He had no idea that what is about to do. Well, somebody saw these 95 theses, took them down, translated them into German without Luther's permission, gave them to a printer.

In three weeks they were all over Germany. German. It was ablaze with a w. no one had ever said this before. It's like the elephant in the room. Everybody's thought it, but nobody said anything about it. Loose her dead. So this is wrong. In two months, the Pope rhythm and Luther was now a hundred man in 1520 he was called a Stan before the Cardinal and the representative of the emperor.

To give an account. You stood trial and there was a, a table, you could say a table like this, uh, with losers tracks. And they said, dr Luther, are these your tracks? And he looked at him and said, yep, these are mine. Uh, dr Luther and the name of the church, we ask you to recant what you've written in these tracks.

And, uh, he asked for 24 hours to think about it. Granted, so now he goes to his cell and he's got 24 hours, and he prays. You would have thought that God would visit him in his cell. I would have thought that God would send a thousand angels. Into Luther's cell and say, Martin, we're so proud of you. You're going to turn the world upside down.

You're going to do it. But Lusa felt nothing to talk about the unconscious presence of God. He felt nothing. He wrote out his prayer. This is that we know the story. Oh my God, where are you? Oh my God. Are you dead? No, you can't die. You only hide yourself, but it goes 24 hours. Instead of a thousand angels visiting him, he felt lonely.

Betrayed, deserted. So the next day before the Cardinal, dr Luther, are these your tracks? Yes. Dr. Lusa in the name of the church. We ask you to deny what you have written, recant, and what you've written.

He said, I do recant if you can show that they are contrary to the word of God, but if not here I stand, I can do no other. And he changed it from Latin to German and says, "God helped me. Amen."

He couldn't have known that he was turning the world upside down. He felt nothing. And so if you are in a situation, you feel God has betrayed you, unconscious presence of God, this is your moment. You'll never regret it. While it is so dark, you say, if there's a God, he surely wouldn't have let this happen to me, that's just a test.

It's a test to see how much you love him. You knew when the trial is over. If during that time you complain the whole time. You'll regret that as long as you live, but if you're in that trial, this is for you, and if you're not in it, remember the sermon because you may need it down the road. This is what pleases God.

I won't be honest with you. Sure. I get great satisfaction at the thought that I can please him. He's done so much for me. He died on the cross. Faith alone, faith plus nothing.

I'm thankful he's blessed me. It's given me you, you, and what if God decides to turn his back in some way tomorrow morning? What am I going to be. And so if there's someone here, you feel that God has betrayed you. Martin Luther also said, you must know God as an enemy before you can know him as a friend.

It's a test. And so this book that I've written, I talk about the unconscious presence of God. Now what about ? These words. David said, I have set the Lord always before me. I want to read them. Psalm 16 verse eight I have set the Lord always before me because is at my right hand. I will not be shaken on the day of Pentecost.

Peter is preaching. And he is led of the Holy spirit. To quote Psalm 16 verse eight but it changes the words. Instead of saying, I have set the Lord always before me. He says, I saw the Lord always before me because he's at my right hand. I will not be shaken. So Psalm 16 eight David says, I have set the Lord before, man, I want you to picture what this means.

This is something that I have done over the years. I don't say you should do it based what I taught at Westminster chapel. It's something I personally do. I did it today and that is, I do what David said. I set the Lord before me. What does that mean? Well, you picture him before you. In your mind, you set him right there.

Now you're not making him do that because he's already there. Since he's at my right hand. So you're setting it before it doesn't mean he suddenly shows up. No, he's already there. But when you're feeling nothing, you just picture him. Yeah. And the way I do it, I just picture him about two feet away. David did it, and by the way, I've checked it, the Hebrew complete.

That's exactly what he said. I've sat him before me because he is there, but I honor the fact that he's there and I just start talking to him. I'd just like to say, Lord, I love you. Thank you for all you've done to just start talking to him. You may feel nothing. But that's what David did. But then on the day of Pentecost, Peter says, I saw him.

It doesn't have to set the Lord before he said, I saw him always. How do you explain it? Well, I think I can do it. Jesus said to the disciples, John 1616 in a little while, you will see me no more. And then a little while you will see me and they got together and said, what on earth is this? He says, a little while, you won't see me.

Little while you will, and then Jesus sees them in a little huddle together and says, I know what you're doing. You're wanting to know why. I said a little while. You won't see me a little while. You will, and they couldn't figure it out. It make no sense to them. Well. Perhaps the meeting would be that, but he dies on the cross

and then he's put in the grave. They don't see him, and then he's raised from the dead. Then they see him. Could that be the fulfillment or over the next 40 days after he's been raised from the dead, he shows up. You see him and then he just disappears. They don't know when he's going to show up next. And they, they can't figure it out.

And so they're told not to leave Jerusalem. And at the Mount of olives, Jesus is talking to them. So they see him, they see him, and then he goes to heaven and they don't see him. Could that be the meeting? But on the day of Pentecost, Peter says, I see him. And the meaning is this, that when the Holy spirit came down, Jesus was as real to them at the spiritual level as you had better than natural level.

He was that real. I could put it to you by way of a little illustration. I think you've heard me tell this a little bit. Uh, just take a minute. Uh, October 31st, 1955. I was pastor of a little church in Palmer, Tennessee while I was a student at Trevecca Nazarene college, and on a Monday morning as I'm driving, suddenly as I'm driving right to my right, there's Jesus more real than any of you are right now.

A promise, more real than any of you. He's right here and he's praying for me and I never felt so loved and all my life. And then about an hour later as it come through Smyrna, Tennessee, just a few miles out of Nashville, I heard Jesus say to the father, he wants it. And the father replied, he can have it.

And in that moment I felt my heart warmed. I never felt such peace in joy in all my life. and then for about 30 seconds, I'm just guessing 30 seconds, less than a minute. I'm looking at his face. I can see him looking at me. Language, eyes is tender. Look at me. If I were an artist with perfect recall, I could tell you what it looks like, at least is part of it.

We're going to meet, and then it's about 10 minutes til eight that started at six 30 in the morning. I was 10 minutes to eight arrive at Trevecca campus, go to class, and all in on what on earth was that? And then a friend of mine. Who was a close friend then, but closer than ever. Now his name is bill Kerns.

He's here today. You couldn't have known, I would have told this any way, bill, if you weren't here. Bill comes running across the campus and said, RT, what has happened to you? I said, I don't know. But something has. He says, well, I can tell. He said, I saw you across the campus. You'll have to ask him what it was like, because I don't know what he saw.

Okay. He said, well, what was it? I said, I only know one thing that I'm saved. Well, of course you save. What do you mean? I said, Oh, you don't understand bill. I am eternally saved. I cannot be lost. No matter what I do between now and I go to him, I will go to heaven. And he loving. They said, well, you'll change your mind on that.

We were brought up, you know, to believe you could lose your salvation. I said, I won't change that. There's no way to tell you how deep it went. I knew, I knew I could never be lost. And that's 62 years ago. So when Peter says, I saw the Lord, I know what he's talking about. Jesus was that real. And that comes when the Holy spirit just makes you see, he is so real.

But then there are times when he chooses to hide his face to see what you will be like. And so if you're here today, you wanting to please you. Of course, I can understand in my book the presence of God. I talk about various manifestations of God's presence. There's a healing presence. Well, people get healed.

We had it in Brazil. Uh, I was there last Sunday, last two centers in Brazil. We saw people healed that didn't even get prayed for just in the service. They were healed. And, uh, there's a healing presence. Sometimes there's a presence of praise. All you want to do is praise the Lord. Sometimes there is a presence of fear of God.

My friend Bobby Connor says, the fear of God's coming back to the church, but has many ways of showing up. The question is, what will you be like when he chooses to hide his face? Well, Jesus promised another. Comforter advocate one, it comes alongside and they said, we don't want another, where would we like you?

Jesus said, no, you, you don't get it. I'm going to go away, but I'll send one who will come and when he comes, you'll have no complaints and they didn't. And then when you discover how real God is through the Holy spirit, so real. You're set, but even then, he will give you testing times to see what you would be like.

Well, I'm, I'm pretty much finished, but because of my reference to Luther and, uh, I think the best way I could honor Martin Luther on this, the 500th anniversary of this great rediscovery. Is to ask you a question. And the question is, do you know for sure if you were to die today, would you go to heaven?

Do you,

and if you were to stand before God, you will, and who would ask you? He might, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? What would you say? And suppose it were the real thing and you're standing before God and you don't have your loved ones to help you. Then nobody going to be there to coach you.

And he says, why should I let you in? And you've got to give an answer and there's only one answer and you give the wrong answer. You have to go someplace else. You don't want to go there. It's called hell. It's called eternal punishment. And so you're standing before him and he says, why should I let you in?

Do you know what you would say? Do you do, you know, thank for a moment. What if it were real source important question? It can be put to you the most important question that can be put to you. What would you say to God? What comes to your mind?

Does it come to your mind and say, well, I've tried to live a good life. I would just have to say, I believe you, but you're lost. Yeah. Well, I've, I've done my best. I believe you, but you're lost. Well, that's not fair. RT. What more can one do and is best. Is what Martin Luther was doing his best and he got no peace.

And that's because the standard to get into heaven is so high. Nobody comes up to it because God requires perfection in thought. Word Dade, 60 seconds, a minute, 60 minutes, an hour, 24 hours a day. Are you perfect? Well, how can anybody get in? Well, the answer is that God sent his son into the world to down across who fulfilled the law, 60 seconds or minutes, 60 minutes, an hour, 24 hours a day, every day of his life.

And while I was hanging on the cross and the blood dripped from his hands, his feet, and they were mocking him. Just before he died. He said it's finished. Those words, it is finished. Or the English translation of a Greek phrase, Telus, Thai tetelestai. I was a colloquial expression in the ancient marketplace that meant paid in full just before he died.

Jesus said, paid in full dear friend. If it did not come to your mind a couple of minutes ago to say, well, I would say you should let me in because Jesus died for me. If that didn't come to your mind that you're trusting his death, his blood, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes for anything in the world, but that can change right now.

That can change. Just before I turn the service over to your pastor, I can give you a prayer to pray. You don't need to say it out loud. Just say it in your heart. You ready? Lord Jesus, I need you. I want you. I'm sorry for my sins. Wash my sins away by your blood. I welcome your Holy spirit into my heart as best as I know how I give you my life.

That's it. That's it. Did you pray that prayer? Are you ashamed that you prayed that prayer. What do you ask Archie? Because Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of you. Jesus said, if you confess me before men, I'll confess you before my father. If you prayed that prayer, I'm going to ask you 30 seconds from now, mr.

standup, you sit in front of all these people. Yep. Not going to ask you to make a speech. You stand. That'll send a signal to everybody that you're unashamed. You prayed that prayer that will be confessing him.

Five, four, three, two, one. If you prayed that prayer, would you stand up? Beautiful sights remain standing. Remain standing. Sure. You can clap the man standing.

Okay. State. No. Remain steady. Remain standing. I'll let you sit down and just a minute. Now, there are two categories of people, almost certainly two categories of people that are standing. One, just maybe there's someone here that you're standing, never before. Have you done anything like this? You've never prayed a prayer like that.

You've never publicly confessed Jesus, which you're now doing. If you're the, if this is the first time for you, the Bible says you've just been born again. God says, happy birthday, but there's a second category, and I suspect several standing. You were saved before today, but when you heard the gospel put so clearly, you grabbed it cause it, you needed that assurance.

You did the right thing by standing. You can be seated. I'm finished. .