THE GOD BEFORE WHOM I STAND
Text: 1 Kings 17:1-5
We often marvel at the sheer courage and boldness of men like the prophet Elijah. When we read of their exploits and consider their courageous words and actions, our hearts are humbled. We feel ourselves to be very weak and insignificant when we compare our lives to those of Elijah or Daniel or Paul, or any of the other heroes of the faith whose lives stand out against the common current of their day.
If we are going to grasp how they lived in such a manner, we must first remember a great precept of the Christian life recorded in the Word of God. It is found in 2 Timothy 1:7 and reads thus:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Paul then goes on to state the specific area in which this God-given boldness is to be exhibited. Look at verse 8.
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
In every endeavour Christians undertake in this life, we are called to be a bold testimony for our Lord; a boldness that is evidenced by being unashamed of Christ and His Gospel!
Most men would fear to stand before a king like Ahab, a despot like Nebuchadnezzar, or an emperor like Nero, and give a clear statement from the Word of God. This would be especially true if the message involved a personal warning to them about God’s judgment on their sin.
But, it wasn’t terrifying to Elijah or Daniel or Paul. Why was that? Very simple; they made a practice of standing before God. It was their habit, and when a man gets used to standing in the presence of God, he loses all fear about being in the presence of men.
This truth is borne out in several portions of Scripture. Let me point out just one: it is found in Isaiah 51:12,13
I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
Notice in these verses how the fear of man is linked to ‘forgetting’ the Lord. In other words, the less we think of the God who created man, sustains him and sovereignly rules over all his affairs, the more fear we will have of men who are but frail creatures of the dust.
Elijah lived his life in the presence of God. He stood before the Lord and served Him. What does that mean? Well, it means, at least in part, that he was humbled daily in the sight of God’s might and majesty; that he opened up his heart, soul and mind to be searched by the Spirit of God; that he held nothing back from the all-searching eye of the omniscient God whom He served.
This is a matter of supreme importance! The very idea can fill us with great consternation at first. It was something that King David faced in his life and even wrote a Psalm about it. You can read it in Psalm 139. Look how it opens in verse one. David prays, “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me”.
In the following verses David writes how intimate God’s knowledge of him was and how utterly impossible it is to escape that sovereign scrutiny. My friend, it is a most solemn matter to realize personally that God knows our every action, every word, as well as every motive behind those actions and words! He even knows our thoughts. David says in verse 3, “thou understandest my thought afar off”.
That is a phrase that should make us sit up and take notice. It is more than the fact that God knows our thoughts from a great distance, but He knows our thoughts when they are far from us; even before we have thought them ourselves and long after we have forgotten them!
But then, as we open ourselves up to the Lord, and deal with all that He reveals to us about ourselves, soon our consternation turns to comfort. Look how David ends his prayer in this Psalm in verses 23 and 24. Far from a matter of consternation he prays,
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
David started out fearing God’s omniscient and intimate knowledge of himself. But as he contemplated and meditated upon this truth, he grew to find it a great comfort and sought to be drawn even deeper into that communion with the Lord.
So then, what happens when we spend much time in the presence of God? The answer is that we become consumed with a passion for His honour and a zeal for His glory. It is then, and only then – once we are consumed with a passion for the glory of God – that we lose all fear of men and the enemy.
What is a Pharaoh or Ahab or Jezebel; what is a Nebuchadnezzar or Nero when we live in the presence of the living God who created these men and has power to remove them from their thrones or take their lives? They are but one heartbeat out of eternity and God has the power to make the very next heartbeat to be their last.
A fearful Christian is one who does not spend much time in God’s presence. They are not living their lives as God intends His people to do, living each day in the experience of God’s greatness.
Would you be a fearless witness for Jesus Christ? Then it starts right here. You must spend time in God’s presence.
Would you be as bold as Elijah or Moses, or Daniel or Paul? Then learn this lesson from their lives and the lives of countless others who like Elijah “stood before the Lord” – you must hold regular communion with God as they did. The secret of their boldness was not in their genetics, but in grace. It was not in their education, but in their daily experience of standing before God.
This boldness for the Lord to live and speak courageously flows from our communion with Him as we stand before Him. And because we are ‘accepted in the beloved’, we therefore have a sure foundation upon which to stand when we come before the Lord.
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. (Hebrews 13:5,6)
Our hearts must not be filled with covetousness, but with Christ. And if that is the case, we may ‘boldly say, the Lord is my helper’.
I remind you that boldness is not brashness. True spiritual boldness comes from a humble spirit that recognizes its dependence upon the Lord.
What can men do to us? Nothing. Nothing at all that does not first get the approval of God. Even the devil must ask God for permission to touch Job, but he could not go one step beyond that which God permitted!
We will all have to face our ‘Ahabs’ in this life. But our comfort is in knowing that every one that we meet is under the sovereign control of God. If our first and main concern is to faithfully stand before the Lord, we will never need to be concerned with our standing before men. As the Puritan preacher John Flavel once said, “Only the servant of sin should be the slave of fear”.
I’d like to close with a good illustration of this truth from the Reformation. England has been blessed with many great preachers and courageous men of God. When we think of that number, the name of Hugh Latimer must certainly be reckoned among those whose courage outshone many others. For his faithfulness to his Lord, on October 16, 1555, at the age of 70, he was burned at the stake as a martyr alongside his friend and fellow Reformer, Nicholas Ridley. Ridley’s last words were, “So long as breath is in my body, I will never deny my Lord Christ and his known truth.”
As the flames rose about them, and the fire intensified, Latimer encouraged the younger man with those famous words, ““Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England, as I trust never shall be put out.” Those are courageous words indeed.
But those final words of Bishop Latimer were not some spurt of courage at the end of his life. Rather, they were words from a man who had lived his life boldly for the Lord. When he was sentenced to death by burning, his response was, “I thank God most heartily that He hath prolonged my life to this end, that I may in this case glorify God by that kind of death.”
Some years before his death, Latimer was called upon to preach to the adulterous King Henry VIII. He chose on that occasion to preach on the biblical teaching against divorce, and he did so with great boldness and earnestness. Henry was furious with the subject of that sermon and demanded that Latimer must apologize the following week and recant his teaching.
The next Sunday arrived and King Henry VIII was there expecting an apology. Latimer solemnly stood and commenced his sermon with the following prayer:
“Latimer! Latimer! Do you remember that you are speaking before the high and mighty King Henry VIII; who has power to command you to be sent to prison, and who can have your head cut off, if it so please him? Will you not take care to say nothing that will offend royal ears?”
Bishop Latimer paused and then continued.
“Latimer! Latimer! Do you not remember that you are speaking before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; before Him, at whose throne Henry VIII will stand; before Him, to whom one day you will have to give an account yourself? Latimer! Latimer! Be faithful to your Master, and declare all of God’s Word.” And Latimer proceeded to fearlessly preach the same truths again.
That is what it means to stand before the Lord and consequently lose all fear of man. Hugh Latimer possessed the “spirit and power of Elijah”. He stood before the same God that Elijah did and served Him in his generation as Elijah did in his.
And now the Gospel torch has passed down through the years and generations, and has been handed to us. Now it is our turn to take it up and stand for God in our generation as Elijah did in his. Let us resolve to stand before the Lord so that we can more boldly stand for the Lord. Being much in communion with Him let us face the enemies of the gospel in our day and stand for Christ with courage and testify for Him with boldness.