MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Revised: 2015)
A. In Exodus 33:15-23 we have a conversation between Moses & the Lord God Himself. Listen as I read from that passage.
Exodus 33:15-19 says, "Then Moses said to Him, 'If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that You are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?
'What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?'
"And the Lord said unto Moses, 'I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.' Then Moses said, 'Now show me your glory."
"And the Lord said, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.'
Continuing on with Exodus 33:21-23, "Then the Lord said, 'There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
'Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.'
That’s an intriguing passage. Moses boldly asks God to reveal His glory. Job did something like that, too. Mankind has often asked God to show Himself in some special way.
"God, just reveal yourself to me, & I will be your boldest witness in all the world. God, just heal all the people that I know who are sick. Just perform some miracles & we will know beyond any doubt that it is You."
How strong our faith would be, if we could just catch a glimpse of God now & then & know that God is real.
But when Moses said something like that to God, the Lord replied, "Moses, the first thing we need to get straight is that I am going to do this my way, not yours. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
Then He said, "I will pass before you. My glory will be there. But you're not ready to see it. So here is a rock, & you stand on it & get ready. The moment I pass by I will take you & put you in the cleft of the rock & cover you with my hand. Then I will pass by.
"Once I have passed by I will remove my hand & you will see my back. But you are not ready yet to see my face."
B. That passage of Scripture tells us something about the way God reveals Himself, even to us today.
First of all, it says that God sometimes passes so near that you can feel His presence. You can know that He is there. But at the same time, there is a dimension to God that you & I will never be able to see or understand.
ILL. Fosdick compared our understanding of God with our understanding of the sea. He said, "I know the sea but I don't know the vastness of the sea.
'There is a part of the sea that washes up on the sands of my life. I can bathe in it. It lulls me to sleep with its waves. And yet, I know only a very little part of the sea."
It is the same way with God. He is so close we can almost reach out & touch Him. And yet, He is so magnificent that we will never completely understand all about Him.
C. I think there are times when God reaches down & helps us in special ways, & we realize beyond any doubt that it's the Lord doing it.
ILL. I love a story told by Fred Craddock. In one of his lectures he spoke about a time when he says that God revealed Himself in a very special way.
He said that he was riding in the non smoking section of an airplane where he always sat. (Now you can tell that this is an old story because it happened back when smoking was allowed in certain designated areas in an airplane.)
While he was sitting there, a man across the aisle lit up one of these long black cigar type cigarettes & started puffing away & blowing smoke into the air.
Just then this lovely stewardess came by & Craddock motioned to her & asked, "Isn't this the non smoking section?" She said, "Yes, it is."
He said, "Well, the man across the aisle is smoking." She looked over & said, "He sure is." Craddock asked, "Could you do something about it?" So she went over & politely said, "Sir, this is the non smoking section. Would you mind moving back to the smoking section? There are plenty of seats back there."
The guy took a big drag on his cigarette, blew smoke right into her face, & defiantly stayed in his seat. She turned back to Craddock & shrugged her shoulders like, "What do I do now?"
Craddock shrugged his shoulders back at her like, "I don't know what you do now. You're the one in charge." Then this very beautiful stewardess turned around & went to the back. He thought maybe she was going to check with her supervisor or something to find out what to do next.
She didn't come back for a while. But when she did come back she had a tray of soft drinks & was passing them out to the passengers. It was obvious that she had decided not to do anything about it at all. This guy was still puffing away & the smoke was still in the air.
But just as she got even with Craddock & the fellow who was smoking, the plane hit an air pocket. Suddenly, all of the drinks on that tray spilled over on that guy, dousing out his cigarette, splashing all over his suit & tie, & ending up in his lap.
"And then," Craddock said, "she fell into my lap." "Now," he said, "You tell me that there is no God."
PROP. I want to talk about the nearness of God this morning. Let me share 4 areas where I think we can sense the nearness of God.
I. IN THE NATURE THAT SURROUNDS US
A. First of all, I think we can see God in the nature that surrounds us. Many passages of Scripture come to mind. Let me read a couple of familiar ones from the book of Psalms.
The first is Psalm 8:3, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon & the stars, which you have set in place . . ."
Here is the psalmist out on some moonlit night, staring up at the sky. He experiences the serenity of the evening & realizes that it is God who has made the heavens & put the moon & stars in their proper places.
And listen again to Psalm 19:1-2, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge."
He is saying that when we look into the heavens we see the glory of God. The sky itself proclaims the work of His hand. Day after day, God is speaking to us. Night after night He is revealing His knowledge to us.
The book of Romans suggests that we are without excuse. Even if we never heard any gospel sermons, we are without excuse. Because nature itself reveals to us what God is like, & what God has done.
Listen to Job 12:7-10. "But ask the animals, & they will teach you, or the birds of the air, & they will tell you; or speak to the earth, & it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you.
"Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature & the breath of all mankind."
Just look around. Open your eyes & feel the presence of God. Maybe we can't see His face. Maybe we can't know all the vastness, but He is there, nonetheless.
II. IN THE MORAL ORDER OF LIFE
A. Secondly, I think we see Him & experience Him in the moral order of life. There are certain immutable laws that govern life. Like it or not, they are there. They have always been there, & they'll always be there.
Galatians 6:7 says, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." God's law says, "Whatever you sow, that's what you're going to reap." We're also told, "Be sure your sins will find you out." It is a fact of life, you see. There are certain rules that govern the way we live.
Now the world today stands in defiance of the rules of God. It says, "We'll live life our way. We don't believe in God, so there is no need to listen to His Word."
But the moral order stays in its place, & man is powerless to change it. We still reap what we sow. We still harvest the results of our sin. Our sin still finds us out. Sooner or later it will catch up with us.
B. The other side is also true. If you sow good seed, you harvest a good crop. God created us & He knows us inside & out. Since He is the manufacturer of the product, follow the rules in His book of instruction & the blessings of life are yours.
God says, "Live life the way I have designed it to be lived & you will find that everything just goes better for you." That moral order is there & it is a testimony to the nearness of God. He is always close to us.
III. IN THE CHURCH
A. I think we experience Him sometimes in our worship services. We ought to experience Him all the time when we come together for worship because He is here. You know He is here. He promised that He would be.
He said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20)
Do you realize what a blessing it should be week after week to enjoy one another's company? To enjoy the fellowship of the saints? To enjoy the food that comes from God's Word? To enjoy times of praise & worship together, & to have the Lord honor us with His presence?
There are times when God comes so close in the moments of worship that you can almost reach out & touch Him. You may not see His face but He is there nonetheless, & you can feel the wind of His presence as He walks by.
B. I think there are times also when we experience the presence of God as we see the church operating as the body of Christ, as it functions the way it was designed to function.
You feel the presence of the Lord as you see people reaching out to pray for & encourage others, sensitive to their needs - those times when people are sick or hurting & fellow Christians come to help.
How beautiful it is just to see the church operate the way it is supposed to, & in this we can feel the presence of God as He goes by.
IV. IN THE LIVES OF HIS PEOPLE
A. I think sometimes we see God in the lives of people who have lived a faithful life to the glory of God. Look at their faces, & you'll see the radiance of a life that has been lived with an awareness of God.
When you look into their eyes you can almost see the sparkle of the presence of God because they have lived faithfully year in, year out. When you look into faces like that you know God is alive & He is near.
B. Now the message of this passage is that God is so close & yet so distant. There is a part of God that is so vast that you & I will never understand. And yet there is a part that we can't miss unless we are blind & deaf to Him.
In that upper room Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." And Jesus answered, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:8-9)
So read the gospel. Read about God becoming flesh. Read about Him breathing our air & eating our food & experiencing our temptations. Read about His concern for the lost, for the ill, for the hungry, for the poor. And as you see more & more of Jesus, you will see more & more of God.
Jesus was illustrating what God is like. Moses was in the cleft of the rock. God's hand covered him as His glory passed by. Now maybe that is not a very bad place to be. Because when we are covered by the hand of God there is nothing evil in this world that can harm us.
CONCL. Today we stand in the presence of God & we are privileged to see just a little bit of Him. We can't see His face yet, but one day we will look into His eyes, & we'll see Him in all His glory.
Right now we listen & we watch & we wait & we hear & we sense & we know God is near. He is there in the rustle of the leaves. He is there in the sounds of voices lifted in praise to Him.
He is there in the moral order. He is there in the church as it works together. He is there in the people who have lived faithfully for Him.
Look & see. Listen & hear. His glory is all around, if you'll just see it.
This morning we extend His invitation. Will you listen to His appeal? Will you listen as He invites? We invite you as we stand & as we sing.
INVITATION
