The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is one of the most wonderful compositions in all literature, and we would do well to read it repeatedly, and meditate often upon the experiences it records. The thought that I wish especially to emphasize is in the words, "He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." In other words, though Moses was a man of many cares and heavy responsibilities, he lived as if continually beholding the Divine Presence, and this Presence was a shield to him and a help in all his experiences. Born a slave in Egypt, rescued from death by Pharaoh's daughter, and adopted as her own child, Moses was through her choice brought up for twelve years by his own mother. Then he was taken to the court of Pharaoh, surrounded with every luxury, and instructed in the heathen philosophy and science of the Egyptians. Undoubtedly his teachers were priests; for these men were next to royalty in Egypt, and were the leaders and teachers of the people.
The training that Moses received, the flattery which would naturally come to a youth of such promise and ability, with his prospect of being the head of the Egyptian nation, would naturally lead a young man away from God. It is a marvel that a lad of only twelve years, trained in his father's house—the but of a slave—and in his parents' religion, could be taken to the most voluptuous and licentious court on earth, and there live from twelve until manhood, and maintain his faith in his father's God. But Moses had received such training in his early life that he never forsook the religion of the Hebrew people. Amid all the folly and sin that he saw in Egypt, Moses held God in mind, and continually lived as in His presence.
There is in this brief record concerning Moses more help for us as individuals than many think. If we would seek to visualize the presence of the Lord with us in the Holy Spirit, it would be impossible to go into sin. An illustration will help to make this clear.
Many years ago I was holding meetings in a certain place, and visiting different members of the church. One evening I called upon the church elder. To reach his house, I had to walk down a narrow road, grown up to willows and other underbrush on either side, and cross a footbridge spanning a little creek. This creek was only about two rods from the house. As I came along, I heard a loud, angry voice. The man was near the bridge, at the corner of the house that I would reach first, the wife farther away, where she could not see me. When I stepped on a loose plank of the bridge, it made a thumping noise, and the elder looked up, saw me coming, and at once called to his wife, "Jenny, stop! The preacher is corning." As quick as a flash the woman stopped—not another cross word! When I came up, she was all smiles, and I had to walk only two rods to get there.
Don't tell me that we cannot control our tempers, our appetites, our fleshly desires. We can. Sin breaks out in our lives because we do not visualize the presence of God. If we would keep the consciousness of the Divine Presence with us, there would be scarcely a temptation that would lead us into sin. You have only to let your imagination picture the thought that the Divine Presence is with you, to see how impossible it would be for you to allow sin to have dominion over you.
Moses kept God before him in Egypt, and with the visualization of the presence of God, there was restraint and keeping power that held him from going into the sins that were all about him in the lives of other men. In later life, in response to his earnest prayer, "Show me Thy glory," Moses received a marvelous revelation of God. And I believe that every child of God has a satisfactory Christian experience only as he in some way comes into such contact with God that he actually has a revelation of God to himself. When a man has received this revelation, he can never get away from it. When God meets you, and speaks to you, and gives you a revelation of Himself that brings you into fellowship with Him, there is keeping power in that revelation if you will cherish and hold to that experience.
The Lord appeared to Abraham and talked with him; and never, after that revelation, did Abraham desire to return to the heathen country whence he was called, even though he wandered a pilgrim and a stranger in the Promised Land, never receiving so much as an acre or even a village lot of it. He traveled back and forth, from north to south, all the time holding to the promise that the land was to belong to him and to his children. If he had desired to return to Ur of the Chaldees, he could have done so; but as far as we know he never went back on any occasion, nor for any reason,—in sickness, in health, to choose a wife for his beloved son, or when members of his family were laid low in death.
There is a wonderful keeping power in a revelation of God. To be baptized and profess the truth, to belong to the church and keep the Sabbath, are all right and proper; but more is necessary. It will never do for us to be satisfied until we have a revelation of the invisible presence of God in our own souls. That revelation can come in a variety of ways. If you should ask me, "How can I have that Divine Presence?" I could not tell you. There is no general road laid down in the Bible that a man can follow that will bring him into the Divine Presence; but still there is something of which we are told in the Scripture that must come to every man and woman who is to receive that keeping power that will deliver from the weaknesses of the flesh and from the temptations of the enemy.
Over and over again the apostle Paul exhorts us to seek that fellowship with God that comes by a divine revelation. If a man receives it, he finds in it a keeping power that will deliver him from the weaknesses of the flesh, and lead him into a fellowship with Christ that will nullify the appeal of the world, and lift him above its enticements. Every man must seek this revelation for himself. Simply to read about what God has done for other men, and not have the experience for ourselves, is fatal to spiritual growth.
God does not reveal Himself to every man in the same way. Paul received his revelation of his Lord outside the Damascus gate; Isaiah received it in vision; Moses received it in the burning bush. God makes Himself known to one man in one way, and to another in a different way. But it matters not how the revelation comes. Every man should seek to know that he is living in the presence of God. And he should visualize this presence and prize it above everything else, until he is willing to go to the ends of the earth, and to sacrifice everything in this life, that he may retain this presence and continually live in it.
Peter had this in mind when he wrote (1 Peter 1:8) : "Whom having not seen, ye love." We are living far beneath our privileges if we do not know that the Divine Presence is with us every day. And this is not a promise alone to ministers, but it is as truly a promise to the laity. I often think that the experience recorded in Acts 19 is really applicable to us today. Paul said to certain of the disciples: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Now I put that question to you personally. Think of it just as it reads: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Let us read on:
"They said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on Him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied."
There are many today who have heard of the Holy Spirit, but have not received this gift. They were not encouraged when baptized to believe that the Holy Spirit is available for all, and that all are entitled to receive it. But if there is anything certain in the whole realm of the gospel teaching, it is that when a minister baptizes a brother or a sister, he ought to do all he can, by proper teaching and by prayer, to impart to those baptized the gift of the Holy Spirit. On no occasion should a minister baptize a brother or a sister into the name of Jesus Christ until he has done everything to entitle that individual to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And when one baptized receives that gift, he will very seldom depart from the faith. The keeping power of the presence of the Holy Spirit will bring deliverance to any sincere soul, and keep him from going into sin. Every believer who comes to the Lord is entitled to receive this gift; and if we do not labor to see that all whom we baptize have received it, we have failed as ministers of Christ to do the work that we should have done.
I. H. E.
(To be concluded)
* Abstract of sermon delivered during the Spring Council
