The Glory of God 3 – The House of My Glory

[00:00:00] We can't go back over what we have said in the last two weeks about the glory of God, because if we do, we shall spend the whole of the little time that we have left to us simply reiterating what has been said. But you will remember that we began in exodus, chapter 33 and verse 18, where Moses said, show me, I pray thee, thy glory. [00:00:31] And the thing I have sought to point out is that Moses made this request when, in fact, he had seen more than most children of God. He had seen the most extraordinary things. He had been a man who had acted in faith and had seen the mighty works of God again and again and again. And furthermore, the most extraordinary fact I pointed out last week was the simple fact that the glory of God had appeared twice already, and the children of Israel had seen it, and so had Moses. In one instance, Moses had actually entered into the cloud of the glory of God. [00:01:24] So it is quite clear that Moses realized that glory was more than the outward manifestation. It was more than the fire, more than just the light, more than just the acts. It was the committed presence of God himself. [00:01:41] And the more Moses saw, and the more he was involved, and the more God used him, and the more he became aware of his own frailty and weakness, the more there came into him a quenchless yearning, a desire that was born of the spirit of God. And which seemed, I suppose, in the end, to envelop the man. And it's contained in this simple little show me, I pray thee, thy glory. [00:02:18] It is a very blessed thing, I believe, as a Christian, to be brought so far that suddenly we have within us, born of the spirit of God, a yearning which will never be satisfied until we stand before God's face. [00:02:37] Thank God for every time he meets us and every time he fills us. Thank God for every experience we have of his fullness. But, oh, to be preserved from those people who know their full. [00:02:51] To be preserved from an experience which makes us, as it were, proof against the sweet and gentle and gracious workings of God's holy spirit. So that we feel we've got it, and all we have to do is to tell others, or we've got it in such a way that if we lose it, we've just got to get it again. Like some kind of drug. [00:03:17] No, dear child of God, that is not christian maturity. That is not spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is when a man gets to the place that Moses got to, and there is nothing else that will satisfy the yearning in his heart than the glory of God. In other words, the committed presence of God, that committed intimacy of God, where he dwells forever in us. Well, now we must say no more about that. [00:04:01] What I want today is to take another line in this matter of glory, a ramble again through scripture as we sought to the last two Sunday mornings. And it's rather a good thing in one way, because the scriptures speak to themselves. And all I've got to do is just make a few connecting remarks, providing my voice, laughs, and God gives it the strength. [00:04:31] Now, the whole point I want to say this morning is this, that whilst the story of God is fundamentally, to begin with, a personal thing, it is not a personal thing in its objective. [00:04:50] In other words, each one of us must be transformed into the same image as the Lord. From glory to glory. That's a personal thing. God doesn't do it in a mass production line. He takes you and me into different circumstances, in different ways. He takes us from experience to experience, point to point, from glory to glory, from a smaller capacity for glory to a greater capacity for glory. He's enlarging us, he's bringing Christ into us, he's increasing Christ. And every time there is something more of Christ, it's glory. We may not feel it down here, but one day all that has been worked in us through the years will be glorified. [00:05:37] It won't be the husks of our old men. It won't be the wood and the hay and the stubble of our old flesh or the old creation. But everything that God has put into us of Christ, however small, will be the capacity for glory, the committed presence of God in its full and final manifestation. [00:06:01] Now, if you turn to Isaiah, end chapter 60 and verse seven, we read these wonderful words, and I will glorify the house of my glory. [00:06:17] I will glorify the house of my glory. Here, then, is our theme for our ramble through the word this morning. The house of my glory. [00:06:29] I will glorify the house of my glory. [00:06:37] You see, you do not have to look far in the word of God to find that glory is intimately and directly related to the temple God, to the house of God, to the dwelling place of God, to the home or habitation of God. Wherever you look, you will find that glory is not just a personal thing. [00:07:04] The glory of God finds its resting place, its dwelling place, its vehicle of manifestation in a house, in the temple. [00:07:16] And we know that that temple is a temple not made by human hands, but is eternal in the heavens. It is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We, who are the living stones, have been quarried out of the rock which is Christ, and are being built together for a habitation of God in the spirit. That's what it says in Ephesians two. We are being built together. As the whole building grows, its several parts grind together into a habitation for God in the spirit. [00:07:54] The house of my glory. [00:07:57] I will glorify the house of my glory. If you look at this chapter, verse one, listen to it. Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples. But the Lord will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. [00:08:25] His glory shall be seen upon thee. To whom does the Lord speak when he speaks to his people? And these words were fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:08:38] He is the one who shall lift up his eyes round about verse four and see. They all gather themselves together. They come to thee. Thy son shall come from far. Thy daughter shall be carried in the arms. Then thou shalt see and shall be radiant. It says, the Lord Jesus that it's speaking. But of course, the Lord Jesus is the head of the church. We are the body. A head and the body belong to each other. So these words are not only for our Lord Jesus are fulfilled in the person of our Lord Jesus and in his work, but they are fulfilled in us who have believed on him and have been joined by the spirit of God to him. So it goes on in verse seven. I will glorify the house of my glory. This is the house of my glory. These people are the house of my glory. I will glory, glorify the house of my glory. Verse 13. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee. The fir tree, the pine and the box tree together to beautify the place of my sanctuary. And listen to it. What an extraordinary statement. I will make the place of my feet glorious. [00:09:57] What an extraordinary statement. I will make the place of my feet glorious. Oh, I mean, if you look at yourself now, dear chair, dear friend, some of us have large feet. Some of us have small feet. But the largest feet in this place, now I could tell you whose they belong to too. But the largest feet in this place do not take up very a large amount of space. What an extraordinary statement I will glorify. I will make the place of my feet glorious. No, it is not extraordinary. When you think of it as our Lord Jesus. He is the glorified head. [00:10:35] He will make the place of the feet of the body glorious. The whole, the whole work, the whole thing. He will glorify head and body. The Lord Jesus has gone into heaven as the earnest of glory. He's gone into heaven as the author, the captain, the pioneer, the fire leader of our salvation, who is bringing many sons unto glory. [00:11:01] He says, I will make the place of my feet glorious. Not only will the head be filled with glory and glorified, but the place of the feet shall be made glorious. [00:11:14] Verse 19. [00:11:16] The sun shall be no more thy light by day neither. For brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, but the Lord will be unto thee an everlasting light and thy goddess, thy glory. [00:11:28] There you have, I think, the closest thing to a definition of glory. Thy God, thy glory. The committed presence of God. [00:11:39] Verse 21. Thy people also shall be all righteous. They shall inherit the land forever. The branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. [00:11:51] If you read on forgetting the chapter division, you read, it's about the Lord Jesus. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. [00:12:03] He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, and so on and so on. Verse the last part of verse three, that he may be glorified. [00:12:23] Well, you see, if you start now to look through scripture in the light of this, all kinds of things begin to fall into place. You turn back to Isaiah 43. [00:12:33] Isaiah 43. [00:12:36] Now listen to this wonderful word again from verse five. Isaiah 43. Five shall note, for I am with thee. I will bring thy sea from the east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far, my daughters from the end of the earth, every one that is called by my name. And whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yea, whom I have made. Now you see, although it's in one sense a personal thing, everyone whom I have formed for my glory, it is a corporate thing. They come from every side, from east, from north, from south, from west. They come from all sides. His sons and his daughters. Every one that he has scorned for his glory. You turn over the page to verse 21, last part of verse 20. To give drink to my people, my chosen, the people which I form for myself, that they might show forth my praise. [00:13:46] There you are. Everyone that I have formed for my glory. The people that I have formed, that they might show forth my praise. [00:13:57] Oh, what a lawless calling. [00:14:02] No wonder, Paul, as it were finds it too much when he sits down and writes that letter to the church at Ephesus. He keeps on diving off at different points. He starts a parenthesis in chapter three and gets so involved and so lost in glory that in the end, well, we've gone on a different tack altogether in one sense. Then we come back again and he says, if you look at it in Ephesians, Ephesians and chapter four, I, therefore the prisoner in the law, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith you were called. But you see, in this chapter three, in chapter two, he's got to the place where he says, no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and the household of God. Verse that's verse 19, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom each several building fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the spirit. For this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles and any. [00:15:20] And then for the whole of the chapter, he dives off into, well off the deep end, really quite honestly, and he starts to talk about the mystery, which has always been a headache for people ever since. [00:15:34] He starts to talk about the mystery and his insight into the mystery, his stewardship of the mystery. And the more you read it, it's colossal. He says in verse six, what is this mystery, to wit? That the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel. And then he goes on. And he goes on. And then we come to this tremendous thing, verse 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. [00:16:18] Then he puts the last bracket back, he finishes the parenthesis and he says, I therefore to prisoner in the law, beseech you to walk worthily of the high calling. [00:16:31] Wherefore he calls the calling, where we hear called. Here is the calling. You have been called to be part of this corporate vessel which is for the glory of God, to contain and express the glory of God throughout eternity. [00:16:48] You know, dear friends, you and I were redeemed of the Lord. We are as eternals God, because the spirit of God has been given to us. We've been joined to our Lord Jesus Christ. We have become the body of which he is the head. [00:17:08] You think of it, eternity. What are we going to do through all eternity? [00:17:13] What do we. What are our hands going to be filled with? What are our minds going to be filled with? But it's not just going to be a kind of glorified hymn singing session. [00:17:25] Some people get the idea from revelation that it's just a kind of hymn singing session, you know, sort of forever and ever and ever. This just isn't like God. I mean, God's not just interested in sort of a kind of enormous, innumerable choir without end. [00:17:43] Can you imagine it? No wonder agnostics and atheists smile at us and say, well, if that's their idea of him, it's a little bit of art, isn't it? [00:17:52] God is he that he just wants to kind of choir around him the whole time for all eternity without din no night. [00:18:00] Well, go to bed and sort of say, well now, tomorrow we'll start again at 09:00. [00:18:06] You see? I mean, what are we going to do? We don't really know. But what we do know is that God is forming at a price that is simply beyond computation. [00:18:25] He is forming a vessel for himself with an objective that has not yet been revealed. [00:18:37] We know that this world is a fallen world, and yet in it we see so many things that are beautiful. [00:18:45] We see something of the design, rather like one of those ruined roman buildings or greek buildings, where we see something of the original idea, but it's ruined. [00:18:58] So when we look in this universe, we see something of the original idea, and yet it's in such a mess that it's very difficult for us to determine exactly what it did look like and what it was meant to be. In the beginning, sin has got into the very fabric of the universe, into every part of it. [00:19:20] But, you know, when this world is released from its bondage to corruption, when somehow it breaks the vicious circle that it has lived in for millenniums, then it will start to achieve what was God's original plan? We don't know what it is. [00:19:41] What I am quite sure of, God is God. God is a person, if I may put it without seeming to be blasphemous, God is a person. God, God is creative. [00:19:55] God is not a machine. [00:19:58] And to me, I am quite sure that God has tremendous plans on foot. He has schemes which have been laid aside for millenniums because of sin, because his chief creation, man, took the wrong path. [00:20:17] And you see, this vessel of glory we're talking about is the pivotal point of all, that God is going to do in eternity to come, that city of God. Why does the Bible end with a city? The Bible ends with two. A bride and a city. [00:20:37] And as I have often said, there were two ways of looking at marriage. One is it's the end, and the other is that it's the beginning. [00:20:45] Are there two ways you can look at marriage? It's either the end or the beginning. [00:20:51] Well, I'm sure most of us who are, I trust more balance, see it as the beginning. It's the beginning of some, the end of one phase in a relationship, the beginning of another. And isn't it rather beautiful that the Bible ends with the wedding of the church, Christ in the church? [00:21:11] One phase is finished. Now a new, eternal phase begins. [00:21:18] What is a city? [00:21:20] A city is, as it were, the center of administration. A headquarters, as it were, of administration for a whole area. The center of commerce, the center of government, the center, if you like, of national intercourse. [00:21:36] That's a city. Why does the Bible take a city as its symbol and plants it right at the end? In the last chapters of the Bible? [00:21:44] Doesn't it give us some glimpse into the future that this, this city is to be the center of government? They shall reign forever. [00:21:56] He shall sit down with me in my throne, says the Lord. Isn't there some glimpse there of something lying beyond when the holy city near Jerusalem becomes the centerpoint point of all God's activity for eternity to come? [00:22:18] Well, you see, it is this city which is the habitation of his glory. [00:22:26] This house of God, this temple, however you like to look at it, this is the vessel of his glory. And that's if you and I would be part of it. [00:22:39] Every one of us who's been born of God is potentially a member of the city. [00:22:45] Every one of us who is born of God is potentially a member of the bride. I personally do not believe that we shall all be there willy nilly. [00:22:57] I can only say with John Newton's saviour, if of Zion's city I through grace Amemeram, let the world deride or pity I will glory in thy name. [00:23:13] It's all grace, dear child of God, but it's the way you appropriate the grace that matters. [00:23:21] God has made every one of us potentially part of that eternal city. [00:23:29] He has given every one of us the potential to be part of the bride. [00:23:38] And it is grace which will get us there. [00:23:42] It is the way you and I appropriate the grace of God and the provision made to rule that grace. He that overcometh shall inherit these things. [00:23:54] Well, now, just a few more scriptures? I talk too much, Zechariah. [00:24:02] Let's look at a few scriptures quickly. Now, Zechariah. Chapter two, verse five. [00:24:17] For I, saith the Lord will be unto her. This is this city, Jerusalem. If you look in verse four. [00:24:25] For I, saith the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about. And I will be the glory in the midst of her. [00:24:38] I will be the glory in the midst of her. [00:24:43] Turn back to Haggai. Chapter two, verse seven. Haggai, chapter two, verse seven. [00:24:54] Here is a great prophecy for the end of the age. [00:24:59] And I will shake all nations and the precious things of all nations shall come. [00:25:05] And I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. [00:25:14] The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Turn back to the psalms. Psalm 26, psalm 26, verse eight. [00:25:44] Psalm 26, eight. [00:25:49] Lord, I love the habitation of thy house and the place where thy glory dwelleth. [00:26:00] I love the habitation of thy house, the home of thy house, and the place where thy glory dwelleth. [00:26:11] Psalm 29, verse two. [00:26:19] I'm sorry. Verse nine, last part of the verse. And in his temple everything, saith glory. [00:26:27] Everything. Not just a part, but everything in his temple, everything, saith glory. [00:26:37] There is not a single thing in that temple, in that house that does not manifest the glory of God. [00:26:46] And in the eternal building that the Holy Spirit is engaged in building the house of God, the church of God, the bride of Christ, everything saith glory. [00:27:00] In other words, in there there is nothing that is not Christ. It is Christ wrought in us. It is Christ as it were increased in us. [00:27:13] All the rest is outside. So, my dear, dear friend, the more there is of you, yourself, in yourself, the less there is a glory. It's not in the house. Let us make no mistake about that. What is in the house is what there is of Christ, and what the spirit of God can produce of Christ, in you and in me. Now turn back even further to Exodus chapter 40. [00:27:44] Exodus chapter 40. [00:27:46] You remember how dear Moses prayed. Show me thy glory in chapter 33. And how the Lord showed him his glory. He stood him on a rock. He put him into the cleft of the rock as the glory passed by, and placed his hand, covered him with his hand. [00:28:08] Now, just a few chapters later, we read this in Exodus 40 and verse 34. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting because the cloud abode thereon. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. [00:28:38] Don't you think Moses thought back to what he prayed? Show me, I pray thee thy glory. [00:28:46] When he saw the glory of God personally, it was, as it were, just something that came and went. [00:28:55] But this time the glory of the Lord came and dwelt it, filled the tabernacle. [00:29:05] You see, dear child of God, the point I'm trying to make morning is that this matter of glory is, in its final analysis, a corporate thing. [00:29:17] If you turn on to two chronicles, chapter five. [00:29:24] Two chronicles, chapter five, verse 1314. [00:29:34] And it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound, to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. [00:29:43] And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praised the Lord, saying, for he is good for his loving kindness endureth for ever, that then the house was filled with the clouds, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. [00:30:13] This, of course, was the temple. So when the tabernacle was set up the very first time it was set up, the glory of God filled it. And when the temple was set up for the first time, completed at its dedication, the glory of the Lord filled it. It's just as if the Lord is saying all the way through. This is the point. This is the objective. This is the thing I am driving at. [00:30:43] If you will also just look at chapter seven, verse one. It's the same occasion. [00:30:52] Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices. And the glory of the Lord filled the house. [00:31:09] Ezekiel, you turn to Ezekiel, just only a few more. [00:31:18] Ezekiel 43, four and five. [00:31:23] Ezekiel 43, four and five. And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate, whose prospect is toward the east. And the spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court. And behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. [00:31:43] That's the great temple of Azekah. When finally Ezekiel saw it built and directed and completed, the glory of the Lord came and filled it. [00:31:56] Now turn to John 17, John 1722. [00:32:08] Listen, listen. It's the same thing all over again. [00:32:15] Verse 21. That they may all be one, even as thou, father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be in us. That the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them. [00:32:36] Think about it. [00:32:39] Just go away and think about it. And may you have a bad time if you didn't praise the Lord. [00:32:46] Think. [00:32:48] How can the Lord say such a thing? The glory which thou, father, has given me. [00:32:56] I have given them the same glory. [00:33:02] But he is without sin. [00:33:08] He has perfectly fulfilled the path of will. [00:33:13] He has always done those things which were pleasing to him. [00:33:17] He has a right to the glory. [00:33:20] In verse five it says, and now, father, glorify thou me with thine own self. [00:33:29] That's the best definition of glory. Listen to it again. Now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self. With the glory which I had with thee before the world was thyself. They were. [00:33:47] Glory. [00:33:49] Glory thy me with thyself. [00:33:53] Now the Lord turns it round. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them. How can you and I receive the same glory as is due to the Lord Jesus Christ? How can you and I, worthless, vile sinners, have the same glory? Think of it. No wonder Paul merely went spiritually berserk when he was writing letters. [00:34:15] He was so filled with it, he sore so much, he thought to himself, my goodness me, how can I express it to them? These people dabbling in sin. [00:34:27] These people can't get on with each other, colliding with another. All these awful, silly, earthly sensual problems they've got. And look at them. They are the vessel for his glory. [00:34:43] Glory. Which I have. Which thou hast given me. I have given them. [00:34:54] You know, it's so wonderful to think of it. When you go away and really think about what I've said this morning in great weakness. [00:35:01] It ought to do something for you. [00:35:04] Because what it really means is this, that the Lord makes no distinction between the glory he's going to give you and the glory he. He's got. Isn't that wonderful? [00:35:15] He doesn't say, now, look, I must have a glory that excels yours. [00:35:21] The glory which is his is given to us exactly the same. Well, I think we must finish. And we'll finish where we ought to finish with two references. Revelation 21, which has been read to us this morning. [00:35:36] Revelation 21, 1011. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem. Coming down out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God. [00:35:53] Isn't that wonderful? [00:35:55] Having the glory of God. Now look at verse 23. The city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it for the glory of God did lighten it and the lamp thereof is the lamp. [00:36:14] Now, isn't that interesting? You've got the lampstand again. [00:36:18] The lamp is the lamb, the light is the glory. [00:36:23] The lampstand is the city. [00:36:28] You're back again where we started. [00:36:31] I have set before thee a lampstand all of go the glory. [00:36:39] The lampstand really is to be the manifestation of the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [00:36:51] To all eternity. [00:36:54] To all eternity. No wonder the spirit and the bride say, come. [00:37:01] Oh, are you going to be part of it? Am I going to be part of it? Can God get a capacity for glory in me? Can he get a capacity in you? Are we prepared to be built together or are we going to play at churches? Are we just going to quibble and squabble and fight and all the rest of it? Or sort of have wonderful conferences on biblical themes and that's everything and that's all. Is that what we're going to be? Or are we going to commit ourselves to the Lord so that he can do something in us so deep, so thorough that he can give it over to Antichrist? And when it's been outwardly and publicly destroyed, every bit of it has gone into the city. My voice has come back from that to me. [00:37:46] Every bit of it has gone into the city. Don't you? And I want to be part of that instead of these silly little woolly type of denominational things that collapse the moment the communists or any other ism comes. [00:38:01] History of China stands forever as a lesson to us all. [00:38:06] Things either collapsed in a heap as the communists came in, or they went over and became communist party members and became a tool for communism and for the destruction of faithful servants of the Lord. [00:38:21] Shall we be like that? [00:38:23] Surely not. [00:38:26] We want to have something done so deeply in us. We want to be built so truly together. We want the Lord to knit us together so greatly, whatever the cost, whatever the price, that the Lord can say, I've done it all right now. Come on, Satan. You can have them, you can wreck them, you can destroy it all, you can take it away, can make a plaything of the whole thing. The vanilles have gone into heaven just like our Lord Jesus Christ. When in the garden of Gethsemane he knew that's what was coming. The father was going to hand him over to Satan and he said, o Father, if this cup can pass from thee, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, he went through. [00:39:11] Why? Because the Lord had done such a christ, had triumphed where everyone else had failed. Well, the last reference without any further comment is psalm 24. [00:39:29] Psalm 24. Now, listen to this. We won't read the whole psalm. You can read it because it's just absolutely put into words what I've said. And I'm going to read from verse seven. Lift up your heads, o ye gates. [00:39:43] And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors. Gates and doors. Gates of the city, doors of the house. [00:39:51] And the king of glory will come in. [00:39:54] Who is the king of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, o yeah. Gates. Yea. Lift them up, ye everlasting dawns. And the king of glory will come in. [00:40:13] Who is this king of glory? [00:40:16] The Lord of hosts. [00:40:19] He is the king of glory. [00:40:26] Show me. I pray thy. [00:40:32] Shall we pray. [00:40:37] And now, Lord, we pray that by thy Holy Spirit, thou wilt reveal to us the practical meaning and significance of thy house and make us a people here and wherever else thou hast thine own. A people ready at all, whatever the price for thee to work upon. And in. [00:41:05] In the light of our so great calling, we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. [00:41:16] Amen.