Among the last recorded words that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke before He ascended to heaven were these: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). They were addressed to His disciples; yet not only to those who were with Him at that time, who before long were to be His representatives in establishing the Christian Church. This was a promise addressed to the Christian Church in every generation, even “unto the end of the world”. When the Saviour had suffered and died, He was no longer with them in His human nature, until on the third day He rose again. Then they could again recognise His presence with them.
Not only that, but He was promising to be with them always; He would never forsake them. When He would ascend to heaven, they would not be able to see Him in His human nature, but He was God as well as man. As God, He was present everywhere after His ascension; so He would always be with the 11 disciples, wherever they might be and whatever their difficulties. And He will be with His Church everywhere throughout the ages, until the end of the world, no matter the troubles she may have to face. He is with His Church today, and He is with all His individual disciples – and will be with them until time will be no longer.
Whatever the troubles believers may meet, the divine Saviour will be with them. Matthew Henry thinks of Him as saying, “I will be with you on Sabbath days and weekdays, fair days and foul days, winter days and summer days”. Henry speaks of God’s people: “Wherever we are, the word of Christ is nigh us, even in our mouths, and the Spirit of Christ nigh us, even in our hearts. The God of Israel, the Saviour, is sometimes a God that hideth Himself (Is 45:15), but never a God that absenteth Himself; sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance.” Let us notice some of the troubles God’s children experience and the help that the Lord Jesus is able to give, for He is always with them.
1. Guilt. Every believer is a sinner, albeit a saved sinner. They have been forgiven all their sins, for the sake of Christ and because of what He has done for them. Sin is no longer on the throne of their hearts, yet sin is still there.
Believers deserve to be punished for every sin that they commit. Guilt is to be associated with every sin – a liability to punishment. Peter, for instance, was guilty when he denied his Master, but he was also guilty whenever, in any degree, he came short of God’s glory – not loving Him with all his heart. It is so with all God’s children: nothing that they do is free from sin. Accordingly, they always incur guilt, for they continually come short by not loving God with all their heart, and wholehearted obedience is the standard that He has set for them.
What then can believers do when they are conscious of sin? They are to go to Christ, remembering His promise never to leave them, His promise that He will always be with them. Christ is the great Prophet of His people; He is always near them to teach them by His Word and Spirit in relation to all kinds of spiritual matters, not least in connection with their guilt. He comes where they are in their need to teach them that His blood goes on cleansing them from all sin (1 Jn 1:7). So, because of His death in their place, their guilt is continually being removed. He teaches them also that God does not impute iniquity to them (Ps 32:2); their guilt is not put to their account.
2. Sinfulness. God’s people want to be pure, but they know that they are not. Paul, eminently godly though he was, had to confess, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not”. And he asked, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Yet he knew something of the answer to his own question, for he added, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:18,24,25). It was for the sake of Christ, who would always remain near to him – who would never forsake him – that Paul could be made perfect, as he now is.
The Lord would continue that good work of sanctification which the Holy Spirit had already begun, at the moment of Paul’s regeneration, on his way to Damascus, full of enmity against the Lord Jesus and His followers. Christ made intercession for Paul before the Father, expressing His will that the Holy Spirit would work in his soul. And Christ went on making intercession for Paul that the Spirit would continue His work of subduing sin in his heart and stimulating more and more every grace that had been planted in his soul. That work has long since been completed.
Other believers may feel that they are very far behind what Paul was in this world. But the same Christ is always with them; the same Holy Spirit continues the work of sanctification in their hearts and lives; and they will be brought to the same haven of rest, in God’s time, just as Paul and all the other Christians of the past have been brought to their heavenly home.
3. Satan and temptation. Satan is far stronger than the most steadfast of
believers and, if left to themselves, they could very easily be overwhelmed by temptation. But Christ is with them; He is their King. He comes where they are to defend them. If Satan is the “strong man armed”, Christ is the “stronger than he” (Lk 11:21,22); Christ has overcome him. If He sees it to be necessary, the Lord may leave His children to the extent that He allows them to succumb to temptation, so that they may recognise their weakness and vulnerability more than before, as happened with Peter, for instance. But Christ was near him to give him a look of rebuke, through which He delivered him from Satan’s snare. And although today’s believers do not have Christ physically near them, they have His spiritual presence, and He will most certainly protect them from the wiles of the evil one.
4. Ignorance. God’s children know that they are slow to learn. There is so much that they do not know, after all that they have read and heard of God’s Word. But, as we have noticed, Christ is near them as their Prophet. They need not only to know the facts revealed in Scripture, but also to make a practical use of what is revealed, so that they may trust in Christ more continuously and more readily than they have yet done.
The Psalmist prayed, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end” (Ps 119:33). He realised his need of divine teaching and he went in prayer to the One who was able to teach him. Only through that teaching could he walk more consistently in the paths of new obedience, the ways of God’s statutes. Let God’s children today, however ignorant they may feel, be thankful for the Prophet who is not only able to teach them the truths of Scripture, but also to apply these truths to their souls so that they grow in grace. He, remaining with them, will bring them, in spite of their ignorance, safely through this world and into a world where ignorance will no longer trouble them.
5. Troubles in providence. Christ warns His people – it is part of His teaching – that “in the world ye shall have tribulation”. They will have troubles of various kinds, such as ill-health, concern for relatives and friends, and difficulties in personal relationships. But their Saviour is always with them, and He goes on to encourage them: “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). Because they do not have the strength to bear these troubles themselves, they are directed: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee” (Ps 55:22). If the Lord will not remove the trouble, He is undertaking to draw near to His child and support him or her. Accordingly His children will never be totally overwhelmed by their circumstances. Therefore, as Christ, the sympathetic High Priest, is so near to His children always, let them “come boldly unto the throne of grace, [where He sits], that [they] may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16).