The Glory of God 1 - The Nature of Glory

[00:00:00] Exodus, chapter 33 and verse 18. [00:00:10] We'll read from verse 17 to 18. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found favour in my sight, and I know thee by name. [00:00:29] And Moses said, show me, I pray thee thy glory. [00:00:38] Show me, I pray thee thy glory. It was an extraordinary thing. I've often stopped here after I had made the discovery that this was after a tremendous amount of expense. [00:00:58] When you think of Moses life, when you think of the way that the Lord met him in the burning bush and spoke with him out of the burning bush and said, take off the shoes from off thy feet, for the ground whereon thou standest is holy ground. And said, my name is unspeakable. I am that. I am Jehovah. And revealed his name to Moses and much else, and then sent him to Pharaoh. And when you think of the way that Moses went in and out of pharaoh, backwards and forwards all through the ten plagues, when you think of the Passover night and all that happened in that tremendous deliverance on the Passover night, when the angel of death went over, you would think that Moses had seen the glory of the Lord. You would think there was no need for him to say, after so much, show me thy glory. [00:01:55] When he saw the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, which came between the children of Israel and their enemies and which led them, you remember after the Passover, when they went down to the Red Sea, and the Red Sea opened, it was the pillar of fire that took its position behind them and came between them and Pharaoh's host. And then you think of all that happened in the wilderness, years and years of genuine experience. [00:02:30] Manna from heaven every morning by which they lived, water out of the rock. A miracle every time it happened. [00:02:41] And you think of them, of the giving of the Ten Commandments. All this had taken place. By Exodus 33, the Ten Commandments had been written with the finger of God. [00:02:53] And Moses had actually seen this miracle take place before his eye. [00:03:01] He'd been shown the pattern of heavenly things in the tabernacle. All that had been revealed to him, this dwelling place of God, which Moses understood was but a symbol, a picture, a pattern of the divine reality that God sought for more than anything else, the house of God, the dwelling place of God, the home of God. All this Moses had seen. And now here in this 33rd chapter, he's having a talk with the Lord. And he has said to the Lord that if he does not go with them, then if his presence doesn't go with them. Then don't carry us up hence. And the Lord had said to him, my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. [00:03:54] And then Moses turns back again to the Lord and says, Lord, show me thy glory. [00:04:05] Now I wonder whether you and I, as those who've been redeemed through the grace of Goddesse, really realize to what God has called us. Have we just become little christians that can sing a hymn, that can say our prayers, that can read the Bible? Have we become people who have a knowledge of the faith? [00:04:30] Are we people, in fact, that can work miracles and signs and wonders? Are we people who know that God can do it? Are we a people who know the power of God, the provision of God, the miraculous provision of God? We may know all those things and still not touch the heart of the matter. [00:04:53] Dear, dear child of God, you and I have been saved, that we might become the receptacle, the dwelling place of God's glory. [00:05:08] Now what does that mean? Does it excite you? [00:05:11] I fear sometimes it doesn't. [00:05:14] Because we are often more thrilled with other things than the thought of glory. What is glory? [00:05:22] Glory is the presence of God in absolutely full and committed way. [00:05:32] When God finally commits himself, it's glory. [00:05:36] It's absolute glory. You will remember that it was the God of glory that appeared unto our father Abraham. And it was that vision, perhaps imperfect, but that vision of eternal glory that apprehended Abraham and tore him away from the culture and the civilization of which he was part and made him go out into the desert just to be what some have rather, in a deriding way, called a wandering Bedouin. [00:06:09] He was no wandering Bedouin. He came here. His culture, his understanding, his education, his insight, his perception would put us all to say. [00:06:20] But so was he gripped by the God of glory who appeared to him that he went out into the desert and forgot ur of the Chaldees and forgot all his education and background. He never ever obtained the land which had been promised. But he sought for the city which has the foundations which we're told in the end will be the vessel of the glory of God. [00:06:51] You see, this matter of glory is something I want to say really belongs to maturity, is it not an extraordinary fact that you and I, as Christians, everything which is right and legitimate in the christian life turns sour? [00:07:11] Why? [00:07:15] Everything? In many ways, those things which we read of and which we are enthralled over, in the end they lose their guilt edges and we become used to them and familiar with them and they don't anymore satisfy. Oh, how I see it as I move around all sides, all different kinds of christians, once they become familiar, once they become used to it, it's turned somehow to contempt. In one way, they're thankful for what God has done. They're all deeply conscious. There's something more, there's something more, there is something more, and there is something more. And that something more is summed up in the word, the one word glory. [00:08:01] If you were to take a concordance and look at the word glory and go through the whole Bible, you would be overwhelmed by the amount that is in the word of God about glory. [00:08:17] You see, at the end, not at the very end of his life, but certainly after very much experience, certainly enough experience to create two or three Bible colleges and run two or three theological courses and start a healing campaign, and I'm quite sure write a number of books of my experience through the Red Sea or the night I was in Egypt when the angel of death passed over, or how I saw water come out of the rock in the desert. Oh, Moses could have done it all. [00:08:51] But at the end of it all, with all that behind him, he says to the Lord, show me thy glory now. Why? [00:09:07] And furthermore, the Lord does not answer him by saying, run now, Moses, I have showed you my glory. Did you not see me when Sinai smote with fire and cloud? Did you not see me in the pillar of cloud and fire? [00:09:23] Did you not see me in the burning bush? [00:09:26] The Lord never said that. He said to Moses, I will, if you read the next few verses in Exodus 33, I will. He said, I will put you on a rock, and when I pass by, I will hide you in a cleft of the rock, and I will put my hand over thee so that you shall only see my back. [00:09:54] In other words, glory is not an attribute. It is the person of God. It is the most intimate, the fundamental thing about his presence and his being. So so, if you like, so intimate, so so him that God will not cheapen himself by just exposing himself to the gaze of any child of God. [00:10:25] Or we can put it this way. The glory of God, the inner person of the actual presence of God, is so powerful that it would destroy us. [00:10:44] Even a redeemed child of God could be damaged if God exposed himself too suddenly. [00:10:56] We forget these statements. Our God is a consuming fire. [00:11:05] Sometimes we feel we've seen something of the Lord, but we touched only the fringes of his ways, the outskirts of his way. They're tremendous things when the Lord touches us. But it's only the fringe of his way. [00:11:22] Now, don't just forget what I say, but really, you go back and look at this book of Exodus, and you'll find that what I've said is true. [00:11:31] If you had the experience that Moses had, I'm sure that you'd feel you were somebody. [00:11:39] You'd be sitting there in your seat saying, quite good, quite good, what he's saying. [00:11:44] Because I've had a lot of experience. I mean, I wish I could share it with. Might help him. [00:11:51] We are something, not Moses, in other words. It leads me to say this, that whenever we have a genuine, real experience of God, we thirst for more. [00:12:04] The more knowledge we have, the less knowledge we've got. [00:12:09] That's true. [00:12:11] The more we know, the more we know. We don't know, the more experience we have, the grace of the longing and desire in our hearts for something more. I cannot understand these people who say they've got everything. I just can't understand them. As far as I can see, they must be dead fish. [00:12:35] It just isn't true to the word of God. There is not a thing person in the whole word of God touched by God, who didn't long for more. And don't come to me and say that. The New Testament says that you've got it all. Of course you've got it all. But what about the apostle Paul? I count all things but loss. I press on. They said, once God has apprehended you, once you've had genuine experience, an appetite is created which will never be satisfied by anything here on earth. Never. [00:13:09] And never will it be satisfied, even by any spiritual experience here on earth. And mark what I say. Should anyone be seeking for something they think is going to be the end all and be all of everything down here, never. [00:13:24] It will only do something in you and carry you on with something more of God. For whatsoever the Lord doeth, it is forever. [00:13:31] You will go on with something more done in you forever. But it will, in the end, only create a greater capacity for him, a greater longing for him, so that if you go on with the Lord at the end of the journey, you will long for him more than ever you did at the beginning. [00:13:52] That is the work of grace through life to make us long for him more and more. More and more and more. [00:14:04] Well, there you are. That's Moses experience. Now for the ramble through the scripture. [00:14:10] First of all, if you will turn to one Peter, chapter five. Now, I'm just literally going to take you through a whole ramble through scripture and hope saying a few comments on these verses and hope that that does the work. The Lord will do the rest. [00:14:27] One peter, chapter five, verse ten. Now listen to these words. One Peter, chapter five, verse ten. Does anyone there without a bible share it with them? [00:14:41] And the God of all grace who called you unto his eternal glory there, the God of all grace. Here you have eternal glory. That's the objective. And here you have the God of all grace. That's the means. [00:15:05] How are you and I unworthy, difficult, complex people to be brought from the position we are into eternal glory, the maximum of glory that God can work in us and for us. How the God of all grace. I'm so glad it said the God of all grace. It would have been lovely if it had said the God of all power, because we would need such power to change people like us. But I'm even more glad that the word of God says the God of all grace, that is deeper than even power. [00:15:47] The God of all grace who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, the eternal glory is in Christ. [00:15:58] After that, ye have suffered a little while, shall himself perfect, complete, that is, establish, strengthening. In other words, he will make you full, absolutely complete. He will establish, give you good roots, good foundations, and he will empower you, endure you with power, strengthen you. But you see what it says. You can't get away from it after that you've suffered a little while. [00:16:30] That's what God thinks of this life down here, suffering a little while, we don't. But in actual fact, you know, this, this life is just like the chrysalis stage of the butterfly. [00:16:43] And in God's sight he is suffering a little while out we emerge into his eternal glory, call unto his eternal glory. Now if you turn back, you will find in hebrews and chapter two and verse nine. [00:17:08] But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for every man, for it became him for whom are all things and through whom are all things, bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Now let's look at that. [00:17:49] He that is Christ is bringing many sons unto glory. He's not just bringing us to be people who can do wonderful things, people who can preach in a glorious way, people who can work in a marvelous way. All these things are so, these are right. But God is supremely bringing us by Christ unto glory, and he has made the author of our salvation perfect through sufferings. In other words, he that is sanctified, and they that are sanctified are all one. In other words, listen. The God of all grace has laid an absolutely sure and certain foundation in the character and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ to achieve glory for us, to bring us to glory. And if you turn to a passage that was read to us a little earlier in hebrews ten and verse ten, we have exactly the same thought again, by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest indeed standeth day by day, ministering and offering, oftentimes the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins. But he, when he had offered one, sacrificed for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now there is the most wonderful statement. [00:19:35] It tells me that the Lord Jesus Christ has by the one offering of himself perfected forever, then that are sanctified, everything that you and I need to bring us right through from sin to the presence of God, to the glory of God has been provided. Everything you and I need to change ugly, worthless, sinful, vile creatures such as you and me into saints of God, into vessels of his glory, has been achieved by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all done. [00:20:14] It's not as if God's got to do something. It's done. [00:20:18] The finished work of Christ has achieved it. [00:20:22] Everything. Everything necessary for you and me personally, everything necessary for the building and completion of the church, the house of God, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, it's all been done by one offering. [00:20:38] He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now, you may not feel you've been perfected, but God, in his grace and in his mercy, has already made all the provision for bringing many sons unto glory. At every stage of the way, the provision is there. The God of all grace, who has called you unto eternal glory, has made provision. He has not said. Now then, all of you come on and start a race, and we'll see how many fall out. [00:21:07] There is a sense in which many do fall out, but the point is that they fall out because of unbelief or sin that's not dealt with. The provision is there, and you can take it at every stage of the pilgrimage. [00:21:23] There is no reason why a single person in this room cannot become a vessel of his glory. May not become part of that city of God which will be the eternal expression of his glory. [00:21:39] It doesn't matter how worthless you are, how intricate, how complex, how awful your circumstances, how difficult your temperament and nature, how unbelieving by nature you are. God can do it. [00:21:54] The provision is made through the finished work of the Lord Jesus and through the outpoured Holy Spirit. That's why, dear child of God, all the battle is to stop us from taking what is ours. [00:22:12] Isn't that the battle? [00:22:15] We all know sometimes we're not what we should be. We all know as we read the word that somehow there's not a correspondence. So we run around in circles and in our mind the devil sort of says to whispers to us, you need something more. That's right. You do need something. But then he gets you on the idea that somehow God's got to do something special for you which has never been done before. It's all been done. [00:22:37] The provision's been made. The secret is to take over. Eyes that could be open to just simply see a matter like this. It will change us. There is the provision. It's all there. It's to be taken. Can I put it this way? Listen. Supposing you and I had lived in the days when we wandered in the wilderness as the people of God. 40. 40 years. [00:23:01] Supposing you were starving. Now, I said, now look here. What are you starving for? I don't know. If you're so unworthy. Now, look. The manner comes down every morning. It comes just down outside your flat door of your tent. Just outside. [00:23:16] Oh, no, no, no. I've never seen it. Don't be silly. I've seen it. I clicked it outside mine. Of course. I see it there every morning. Not gathered. It's there every morning. Provided every morning. The God of all grace has provided it. Oh, you say? No, he wouldn't speak to me. He wouldn't do it for me. Anyway, it was all done at the Passover. All right then, starve. [00:23:37] You'll die. I. What can we do? [00:23:40] You say it was all done at the Passover? Of course it was all done at the Passover. The Passover lamb was the one who achieved everything, who brought everything. But you've got to go out and collect the manna. [00:23:51] Supposing you said, why, I'm thirsty. And there was dear old Moses over there and he just spoken to the rock and the water was flowing out. I'm so thirsty. It's no good me going there. All the others. It's no good. It's there. You've got to stoop down and think. Humble yourself, that's all. Be one of the others. Don't make yourself so special. Everyone seems to think I'm a special case, you know. I'm more difficult than the others. I mean, I've got a terrible background. I'm a terribly difficult person anyway. And really I'm quite unique. I'm quite unique. I mean, God's done it all for all the others. But it's only pride, inverted pride, that's all. You think that you're somehow a special case. You're not a special case. [00:24:30] The water is there, the manna is there. Go and eat it. When the quails come and you want a change of diet, it's no good you saying, none for me, none. They've dropped on the ground. Collect them, click them, they're there for you. God has brought them for you. Go out and collect them. The provision is there. [00:24:48] It's all for you. You see what I mean? [00:24:52] He has perfected forever by one offering, one sacrifice of himself, he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. [00:25:02] It's bringing you to glory. If you don't take that manner, if you don't drink that water, if you don't take those quails, you will die. [00:25:15] You will become one of those odd, peculiar christians which are bound who can talk and talk and talk about the day they heard Ch spurgeon and the day they heard moody and the day this and the day that. They can open a biblical dictionary and tell you a door and they can say, oh, wasn't that. It's marvelous, isn't it marvellous? And they're as dead as doormails. [00:25:38] They don't know a thing when it comes to practical experience. [00:25:43] If a bomb dropped next door, they wouldn't know how to pray. [00:25:47] They just don't know what to do, that's all. As simple as that. [00:25:52] It's experience that's required. How do you get experience? Not by sitting on your haunches and saying, it's done. It's done. Of course it's done. But by appropriating what is done and the consequences of what is done, do you not realize that there are consequences from the finished work of Christ? Do you not realize that everything has been given to you? Oh, I'm not saying that you won't suffer. I'm not saying that you won't go through dark times, but there is peace for you, provided. There is life for you, provided. There is joy for you, provided. There is power for you, provided. It's all provided. And much more important than, even on the personal level, there is the building of the church. [00:26:34] It's no good us just saying now, Lord, you said, I will build my church. The. The fact of the matter is, as has been underlined over last weekend, it is the olive trees emptying out gold from themselves that are the key. We can go on saying, I will build my church. I will build my church. I, o Lord, how glad we are you're going to build your church, and nothing happens. The church is just as unbuilt as ever until we see that there are consequences. The Lord's got to do the building through us, not apart from us, but through us and with us and in us and by us. [00:27:13] And that means sons of oil. Now, all this just comes out of one thing, that it's all done. So the enemy's whole battle is to blind us to the provision. [00:27:26] That's all in all kinds of ways. False theology, a sense of unworthiness, introspection of the wrong kind, or a thing that we're all, including myself, guilty of taking out the binoculars and studying one another. [00:27:53] You know, instead of looking at the tabernacle in the midst with the pillar of cloud and fire, we've got our binoculars well trained on the tents on either side of us. What's going on inside? [00:28:03] What's happening in there? [00:28:06] What are they like? What are they not like? Are they good enough? [00:28:10] And all the rest of it. All this means we don't see the provision. We don't take the provision, and we suffer. Well, that's the end of this ramble through scripture, I'm afraid the time has gone, and unless we were to do a Badabak Singh upon you all, too, I'm afraid we shall have to finish there. Well, we'll see if we can give you more of those scriptures another time. [00:28:35] The point is that when you start, when you go through, and you really go step by step through, it's extraordinary what there is about glory. And I would have liked to have said very much more. We've stopped, I think, where we ought to stop on the matter of the finished work of Christ. [00:28:51] Christ is bringing many sons unto glory. We have no excuse. If one day there is no glory, we have no excuse. [00:29:02] The provision was made. [00:29:05] All we have to do is to take it. [00:29:10] That's all. Just take the provision and go on. I would like to have said very much more about the place of his glory, the habitation of his glory, and have pointed out for me if you read it. [00:29:27] But if you and I are going to see the glory of God, this is the reason why very few of us have ever seen the inner person of God. [00:29:34] When a person has seen the inner person of God, they're never the same. Call it what you will, you can call it any experience you like. Inner light, baptism of the spirit, second blessing, sanctification, call it what you will. But when a person sees the inner person of God, they are never the same. [00:29:59] But why can't God do that more? [00:30:04] Because the rock isn't under our feet, that's why. [00:30:09] And even if it is, we have not been hidden in the cleft. [00:30:15] That's why. [00:30:18] For once God opens his heart to us and his inner person to us, we have to know as never before the foundation under our feet. And we have to know as never before the security of Christ. [00:30:35] And we have to know as never before the covering. I will cover thee with my hand. [00:30:42] Don't think that to see the glory of God is a cheap or an easy thing. As far as God is concerned, it can happen in an instant. [00:30:53] But my dear friend, it means very much to God himself. [00:31:00] Well, may it be that into our hearts there comes a cry, show me thy glory. [00:31:08] And as I have said, perhaps not here, but elsewhere. [00:31:12] It wouldn't matter, dear child of God, if you lived a whole lifetime as long as before it's over. You've seen the glory of goddess. Because once you've seen that, you're apprehended for something more. [00:31:31] You won't rest with little things, all these other things on either side and so on. They're all good, they're right. But you'll never rest with them. Never. You're apprehended for that which I believe and know in my heart to be symbolized by the lampstand, all of gold. [00:31:52] It's the glory. [00:31:54] It's the glory. [00:31:57] It's a light to lighten the nations. And you got it. The glory of God did lighten the nations. There is no need of sun or moon or of light, because the glory of God did light in the nations. And the lamp is the lamp thereof. Who is the lampstand if it's not the city? [00:32:17] You see the glory. [00:32:21] Oh, to reach it.