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Chapter 8

THE OPEN GATE TO THE GLORY OF GOD

THE LORD WILL GIVE GRACE AND GLORY

^"And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy - everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

"When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,

then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion,
and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day
and the shining of a flaming fire by night.

"For over all the glory there will be a covering.
And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat,
for a place of refuge,
and for a shelter from storm and rain."

Such is the forecast of Isaiah 4:3-5. Grace will provide things glorious, and there will be protection of this glory from defilement, and the hearth of it will be in the Messiah, here given preliminary identification brought to completion in Isaiah 32:1-4, as such. Here He is seen in symbol, there in face.

One may wonder at this situation, shown in Isaiah 4. There is to be a gigantic washing to change the structure of Jewish society, and with this, "the spirit of judgment" and "the spirit of burning" which suggest a rubbish heap on fire as the things unclean are disposed of once and for all. This, it is not according to the latest psychological statistics or desires for comfort, self-esteem and self-fulfilment with a thousand means to those ends, but with truth as criterion and purity as a result.

Just such works seem to have been done in the Gentile world,  in places such as the USA in the second half of the nineteenth century, and writings such as those of Edwin Orr are often filled with features of the arrest and overwhelming cleansing operations which spread through the land, so that spiritual things could stab like a dagger, lift like a jet-craft and cleanse like a flood.

From The Midnight Herald, USA, July 1999, there comes a reference to Professor's Orr's great work on revivals, such as "The Second Evangelical Awakening".

A major illustration is that relating to New York, down-town city missioner Jeremiah Lanphier, who on Wednesday September 23, 1857 launched a weekly noonday prayer meeting. Six people attended the first, 20 the second and 40 the third, so Lanphier decided to make it a daily instead of a weekly event.

Edwin Orr reports, "In the same week, extraordinary revival of religion swept the city of Hamilton in far away Canada. Within six months, ten thousand business-men were gathering daily for prayer in New York, and within two years, a million converts had been added to the American churches."

This is the sort of amazingly speedy, deep and masterly challenge and change that has worked in many societies in the name of Jesus Christ, and especially in that period.

In his work. "The Light of the Nations", sub-titled Progress and Achievement in the Nineteenth Century, Professor Orr deals with such sweeping changes in Christ's name in such areas as Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as well as America.

Sprague's volume,  Lectures on Revival contributes more.

At times there is a mourning, at times a weeping, at times a drawing apart and a welling up of godly sorrow, leading on to release, relief and comfort, joy and vision, illumination and godly fear, to love and repentance leading to restoration, with whole communities changed, some even stopping work for some day, as the charge  and the transformation proceeds.

Stultification and formalism are swept to one side, unbelief and hideous caricatures of Christianity as a social event or psychological crutch, an occasion for getting together or a name for your club, these tend to pass, though islands of resistance and even vehemence can remain. The reality of actually knowing God becomes as clear as the day, and the power which He confers to do His work is to be seen in action very openly.

The glory of the Lord appears to many, and they see with a new vigour and vitality, such as might make the crowd's sense of 'glory' in same challenging games such as soccer or rugby, become pale by comparison. There is a new uplift, a departure of the old and cramped, crabbed and quaint with a relish for reality, mercy, shown to others as well as received oneself, a new interest in Christian missions and a sense of Christian work not as a duty merely but as a joy; for to serve such a Lord as this is a joy, privilege and experience in itself.

In this Chapter, GLORY of the Lord is the topic, but it is considered in the special feature, its relationship to man. In Psalm 84:4-12 you see the point:

"Blessed are they who dwell in thy house: they will be still praising You. Selah.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in You; in whose heart are the ways.

who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well;
the rain also fills the pools.

"They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appears before God.

"O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
 

"Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed.
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield:
the LORD will give grace and glory:
no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

"O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in You."

The Lord will give grace and glory, we read, while acting as a shield to His friends, who find one day in His courts better than a thousand, who would rather be a door-keeper, humble but useful, in His house than to take due place where evil is the topic of the day. Indeed, no good thing will God withhold from those who walk in Him, even such a death as that of Stephen (Acts 7) being the service that may be accorded.

That, it is not irony. His face shone like the face of an angel, he saw the Son of man at the right hand of God; he had challenged a nation, shown the love of God in practical mercy, been used to pierce the hearts of the blind if by any means they might see and had been a blessed and refreshing influence among the brethren: do you want more than that ?

Of course I do! someone might reply. Very probably, for this is the work of the Spirit of God applying the Gospel of grace by which God gives grace and glory. By no means all have found Him. As we read in II Corinthians 3:18, the Spirit of God, working on the saints, changes or transforms our spirits from glory to glory.

What is this glory ? In seeking to display man's relationship to it when he belongs to the Kingdom of Heaven, is a Christian, has forsaken all for Christ and trusted Him, has sin pardoned and peace provided, it is all the same thing, each being but an aspect of the whole: one needs to find what this glory is.

Let us then look in the word of God to find. It is God who knows, and if it is man who experiences, it is God who defines; for sin seeks always to strut and abut, and ajut, and it is time to be careful with the things of God, ideally far more than many a medical officer may feel he has time to be, with the things of the flesh; for those perish, though they matter greatly to us as we use them, yet these are imperishable. This, it is not to disparage medical passion, but to set the needs when it is of God that we speak, in their proper light.

First from Psalm 84, we find that glory is something that GOD CAN GIVE TO MAN. At once we must be clear. It is not FOR MAN TO TAKE AS HIS OWN AT ALL. Thus we read that some would "provoke the eyes of His glory" This is found in Isaiah 3:8:

"For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen:
because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD,
to provoke the eyes of his glory."

Having been given a place to show forth God's praises to the nations, they failed, were wilful, intemperate, lacking self-control, even turned to idols and were in many ways just like many Gentile nations today, leaving their moorings and thinking they are growing up, when they merely allow their ruin and their fall, as has been the lot of many proud nations over historical time! Hence after centuries of some revival eroded by constant national decline, their ruin was first predicted (indeed it was predicted at the outset in such places as Deuteronomy 32, Leviticus 26, though it is not entirely permanent), and given in acute detail, and thenimplemented.

Implement ruin ? you ask. What does that mean ? If this is your question, that might show that you are not accustomed to look at things in history from the divinely provided perspective. God works things; in Ephesians 1:11 we find that He works ALL THINGS after the COUNSEL of His own will. He implements things. Matter is an  envelope, spirit is the recipient and history has many messages which many fail to read. The word of God IS message, and many refuse to look.

God works blessing and reproof, and His servants serve Him. Prophets served in appealing, exhorting, revealing things to come, challenging and seeking restoration, in weeping and in joy, as they showed the word of God; and sometimes there was restoration as in the days of King Josiah and King Hezekiah, and sometimes tricky deceptiveness as in the days of King Ahaz (Isaiah 7), who seemed to have almost a franchise on formality and a lien on hypocrisy.

In his case, God offered prodigious blessing and deliverance from a perilous political and military situation, and the man refused to believe the prophet who provided this choice. Rather he indicated in his cold, and futile formalism that he would not TEST or TEMPT the Lord by asking for what was at that very moment being freely offered by the Lord! Hence the blessing was missed and his own sins surrounded him like an army, the worst army of all!

It is thus possible to "provoke the eyes of His glory", that is, to alienate and stir Him because of something more than mere sin: obdurate, chronic, arrogant and foolish continuance in it in the very face of mercy.

Again, in Isaiah 2, we see that it is possible to find that one's own 'glory' of imagination becomes a detestable thing, becoming a vain and arrant competitor with the reality of the Lord's glory, so that it needs to be humbled, indeed abased. This is not always a conscious glorying in oneself, though it may be, but rather a spirit which pervades the personality, which is its own king, prince, lord, ruler and recipient of praise. It forgets its Maker, or its mercy, or its Creator, or its offered Redeemer, and acts as if it were sound and all the world a mere place to operate for its own benefit, a fish farm for profit.

You see this in Isaiah 2:12-19:

                   When He arises to shake the earth mightily."

"In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious;

And the fruit of the earth will be excellent and appealing

For those of Israel who have escaped."

There is therefore a systematic action which, in its time, comes to bear on false glory, where certain of the creatures of God, those whom God made and made in His own likeness, each with its measure of might and marvel, having seized these things as if they were innate, endemic and self-created, are brought to the end of their illusions. Man ignoring God is like the surfers ignoring skin cancer, or the thin ignoring food.

Reality in the end, will out! It is better of course to repent and realise as in the revivals, the situation which is before you, as a creation of God, and seeking Him, to find Him where He may be found, as in Isaiah 55: Seek the Lord while He is near, and call upon Him while He may be found!

Our present point however is this: that the GLORY to which God gives man access is not something to be possessive about, and the appropriation is of God, towards man, not of the glory of God by man. Yet it is given.

It is HOW IT IS RECEIVED, which is here crucial. It is a matter of SEEING the glory of God, having the glory of God UPON YOU, being GLORIFIED by God at the end (as in Romans 8:17, 30). "Those whom He justified, He glorified."

You find the pith of the matter in another aspect in Matthew 17-18, where Jesus having just told them of His approaching vicarious death, where He would be manhandled, crucified and killed, then rising from the dead, and that for their redemption (as in Matthew 20:28), finds them arguing about the question of WHO IS THE GREATEST in the kingdom of heaven! In Mark 9:33, we find that at one point they were disputing among themselves on the topic who would be the greatest!

Jesus took at one stage, a little child as we have seen in the account provided in the sermon on The Site ^*1. Then He taught them a lesson. Whoever receives a little child in His name is showing a certain greatness. In Matthew we find further of this teaching method, and that he who humbles himself like the little child is the greatest. In Matthew 20:23-28, we find that dominion over people is not the criterion of greatness but that he who becomes like a slave in his ministrations, this is the greatest. All these things have been considered earlier, but enter into our present theme.

Self-esteem, self-affirmation, self-gratification are all wholly irrelevant to greatness in the kingdom of heaven; or put differently, these things involve a perspective, when given place, which is alien to the kingdom of heaven. This is not what it is about! With glory, it is neither possession nor obsession which is to the point: it is a certain spiritual attitude and atmosphere, resultant upon pardon, peace and empowerment by God, and that consequent upon His redemption being applied to one's heart.

This involves a sense of HIS GLORY, which accompanies HIS ACTION in terms which are just and true, so providing joy. It is after all HE who is glorious, and it is a glorious thing to accompany Him in His ways. His glory is never dimmed, and it shines like the sun on one's countenance. Here is a sunshine which brings no cancer, but blessing undisguised (cf. Malachi 4:2).

DISTINGUISHING ELEMENTS

Before we look at history showing us illustrations of what both is and may be the relationship of man to the glory of God is, we need to clarify one point.

It is this. A certain pride, arrogance and self-will, self-acclaim is noxious generally among men. They do not like it, are often quick to attribute it to each other, and love to see its fall. It seems apt. It is not your opinion of yourself which is what they want to see, but your account of yourself in action. They tend to prefer your products to your noise, and your testimony in fruit to your tedium in claim.

This is merely one offshoot of the matter however. Many pretend humility to escape this, or to use the lowly look in order to contrast it with the adept action when the time comes, using guile, conscious or otherwise. There is little to choose between these two noxious elements of pretence and self-will. However, there is the final arena of account: the direct relationship of man to the glory of God. As we have just seen, man may provoke the eyes of God's glory, meaning that he makes himself foul before God in terms of pretence, pretentiousness or plain odious oblivion of the reality which sustains him, make him and has life for him.

God will abase the glory of all flesh, we have also seen, and He alone will be glorified in that day when judgment comes not so much like a prowling wolf, but rather as a cataract from a reservoir suddenly released (cf. Matthew 25, Isaiah 59, Revelation 19, Isaiah 2, Micah 7).

Thus the ultimate oblivion of reality, ignoring God, with its consequence of taking too much upon yourself AUTOMATICALLY, is heinous. It is part of the program of man, of flesh by which light has come into the world, and men have preferred darkness to light (John 3:19,36). Obscuring the glory of God is one way of wrongly relating to it; and it is a foul way, for it appears abundant in hypocrisy. How is it so ? you may ask, for does not this imply that all who reject God are hypocrites ? Assuredly it implies that all who reject the God who has declared Himself and are aware of His declaration are in this boat, for does not Christ clearly state this of those in His own generation on earth, who had CLOSED their eyes LEST they should see and He should heal them! (cf. Matthew 13:14-15).

Is this hypocrisy ? Consider the cases. Concerning God, perhaps you say that you do not know, when it is actually clear but merely skirted by your own obduracy. DO you then really not know, or are you merely aloof ? If aloof, how is this sincerity! Again, you say that you are not sure, and prefer what is sure; but then NOTHING is more sure than the word of God, the Bible which for nearly three and one half millenia has proved incorrigible in declaration, information and prediction. Science changes as often by contrast, and in figure, as people in a pantomime changing costumes.

Does not Christ Himself address the people of His day who were reluctant to believe Him, in just this sort of way! Look for example at Matthew 16:1-4.

"The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired Him that He would show them a sign from heaven. 

“He answered and said to them,

‘When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather:
for the sky is red.
And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day:
for the sky is red and lowering.

‘O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky;
but can you not discern the signs of the times ?

‘A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah.’

            "And He left them, and departed."

Certainly those to whom He spoke were knowledgeable about Christianity, but then those who CLOSED their eyes had reason for not being knowledgeable, and it was not the unavailability of the relevant knowledge which was the problem!

There is thus the divine challenge to all who have heard and have availability and some familiarity with these things, that their disinclination is hypocrisy; for they follow reason and evidence in terms of what is available in other things, but when it comes to the domain of God, lacking nothing, frequently they yet refuse to pursue the obvious. This is precisely the testimony of Ephesians 4:17-19 and Romans 1:17ff..

The point then is this: that while pride coming before a fall is the common observation and often the desire for the self-vaunting on the part of watching man, yet this fault is frequently unjustly limited. The pride of life has to be considered too: that which refuses to acknowledge, seek and find God, when the means have been proclaimed, evidenced and verified, uniquely valid and obstreperously available (cf. Chapter 7, *2 above). This too is a form of pride, and this too will be abased. You may be rich, powerful and popular; but it avails nothing. No one can by any means redeem his brother (Psalm 49:,15), and one must find God personally.

If man wants to see the braggart lowered, God intends to see the hypocrite exposed, or the eye-shutter exposed to light. The human diving away from divinity, or just as bad if not worse, contriving to create their own idols while ignoring the obvious reality of the true God, will meet the light; and if like cockroaches before light, they would want to scurry, or to use Isaiah 2 and Micah 7, hide in the rocks, is this not one form of the abasement of pride. If it is not pride AMONG MEN, then it is pride BEFORE GOD!

The former is folly; but the latter is an aggravation of it to the uttermost. The resolution is most simple (cf. TMR Chs.   2,   3).

  HISTORY SHOWING SUCH GRACE AND GLORY

Nor is this an all or nothing affair, only. While it is certainly all or nothing when it comes to receiving, believing in and following Jesus Christ (Luke 14:27-33), there are other ways than total rejection in which grave errors may occur.

Thus, it is possible to exalt oneself almost momentarily, in a phase of dark wilfulness, even in losing one's temper, and this too is contrary to what the Lord requires. Take Moses. It would seem that if ever there was a man who, though a sinner, redeemed, was patient outside Job ... Consider the provocations, humiliations and perseverances which he showed. It is a marvel; and for this, one glorifies God.

He first of all was CONCERNED for the Hebrew slaves (he being a Hebrew who had by a marvellous deliverance, become like a son to a Princess, and hence was rather like a prince in that once so powerful land of Egypt). Hence in a scuffle, he became guilty of manslaughter at least, and fled. He was only wanting to deliver the Hebrew slave who was being abused by an Egyptian. However this is what it led to ...

For 40 years, in self-imposed exile (knowing his life was ready to be removed for him, if he was to be seen in Egypt under the then current monarch or Pharaoh), he dealt with animals, married.

That was a long pastoral period for a man of culture, learning and accustomed to moving where the power lay!

God called him to deliver the Israelite slaves. When assured by careful enquiry, that it really was God who was calling him (Exodus 3-4), he went. Then for tempestuous days he came and went before the new Pharaoh, telling him that God REQUIRED His people to go to the wilderness for a sacrifice, and indeed to go and serve Him. Pharaoh reacted with pride, and made life harder for the Jewish slaves.

God then dealt further with Moses, indicating the power He would use to deliver the slaves, and sending Moses into a concerted program of confrontation with the Pharaoh (Exodus 6).

Now the requirement which led to confrontation with Pharaoh was this:

"Let My people go that they may serve Me!"

the message from the Lord.

After the ten plagues, the land ruined by divine intervention, the people let the slaves go, but Pharaoh followed with an army which God disarmed in the mud and flood of the sea, which He caused to part for the slaves who went on dry land, but to resume for the Pharaoh's army, by whatever means, direct, indirect or both (cf. The Exodus Escape in Biblical Blessings Ch. 15).

This confrontation period required much; but PATIENCE to keep at it in the face of increasing fury, and unpopularity on all sides, was one of the prime needs. Moses showed it greatly.

Then as they went to the promised land, there were complaints all but continual:

about the food not being varied enough,

about the fear of no water - so God provided both in abundance,

about Moses' use of authority, in the part first of Miriam and Aaron, his partners and helpers, and then on the part of the people.

They complained at the lack of leeks and onions, cucumbers à la Egypt, and they complained at the presence of divine discipline as they wandered from the point and failed in patience over just one mere year of trial, as they journeyed with these miraculous provisions to their open door destiny.

Just a year to get there, but for failure which came, to enter, they had 40 years of frustration, wandering in the desert. Many in our own time spend their lives, spiritually if neither monetarily nor socially, in just such a situation, and call in psychiatrists, as if they could help the woes of the soul, before that true God whom a vast majority ignore, or decline to acknowledge in any systematic or practical way.

Their surging troubles came to Moses, to resolve, till the Lord provided elders, some 70, to help with the cases. They even threatened to return to Egypt, and at one time, to stone Moses; but he cried to the Lord, to this effect. AM I THEIR FATHER ... that I should have to bear them in my arms! (Numbers 11:4-15).

“Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said:

 ‘Who will give us meat to eat?

"We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!’

 ^“Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium.
The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry
prepared with oil. And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.

^“Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused; Moses also was displeased.
 

"So Moses said to the Lord,

‘Why have You afflicted Your servant?
And why have I not found favor in Your sight,
that You have laid the burden of all these people on me?

‘Did I conceive all these people?
Did I beget them, that You should say to me,

‘Carry them in your bosom,
as a guardian carries a nursing child,’

to the land which You swore to their fathers?

‘Where am I to get meat to give to all these people?
For they weep all over me, saying,

‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’

^“I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me.

^“If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now -
if I have found favor in Your sight - and do not let me see my wretchedness!’ ”

Perhaps here his patience was wearing thin, but think how great it was and to what an extent he had humbled himself, used to royal palaces and power, to do all this work, and to meet with equity all these challenges, and how he had impoverished himself to lead them for God, he who had only their food and their drink, and feet like theirs as he traversed the desert area!

When however things had reached the horrid anti-climax that they ARRIVED where they were to go, and out of CRAVEN FEAR refused to so much as enter the Promised Land, things became very difficult. Moreover, Moses earlier, when they had made their golden calf, a religious affront to God, and sought to return to Egypt, had even interceded lovingly for them, telling God to blot him out of the book of life rather than kill the rebels! (Exodus 32:32ff.). He was not interested in some other 'glory' for himself, but in the mission and his people (Exodus 32:10). Moses passed this test wonderfully well. Now that later, they had refused to enter Canaan in fear, in fright, in frigidity of will, he again appealed to the Lord with heartfelt passion, to spare them.

Yes he was loving. However in one later episode (Numbers 20), surrounded with criticism, dissatisfaction and complaint, he became irate. When asked for water, he said: MUST WE bring forth the water for you rebels! and in this way allowed it to appear that it was HE who had the power to produce it, instead of being a servant of God who, on instructions (as was in fact the case), would ask for miraculous delivery of this need of abundant water, to be met through the smiting of the rock.

For that eruption of self-vaunting (in the context of his former arousals no doubt!), God resolved that he, Moses, would not enter the promised land. Already, the adults would not enter, because, after so many so sustained miracles and such kindness, they had REFUSED to enter; but now, in a different  category, Moses their leader would not enter either. There was to be no papacy or anything in the very slightest degree approaching it. No one WORKED anything but the deity Himself.

GOD alone did the works, held the primacy, and all who served Him, were servants not masters, precisely as Christ showed in Matthew 23:8-10.

Here is one of the most luminous cases. God will not ALLOW anyone serving Him, and working in His presence with His power, to get the glory which is His alone. NO ONE can be God Almighty on earth but God Almighty!

It is partly just a factual matter. Did man create his own body ? or the world ? or wisdom ?
or divine power ? Why then does he ever act with that autonomous arrogance as if he did!
Did Moses have the power to produce water simply by smiting a rock with a rod given
for the purpose and actually a symbolic lesson from the Lord, for future time as well^*2,
as well as for that ? Of course he did not.

Was it not therefore only fitting to be MOST careful NEVER to let it appear that the power was his own, or to act as if he were boss cocky, leader, master, the pope, or some other abomination and appalling blasphemy (cf. I Peter 5)! Yes it was. Nevertheless, this was an outburst of folly, even if it had some preliminaries; and one must feel intensely sorry for Moses.

Yet one must also remember that in his case his power (by gift for the purpose from God) was immense, greater than that of any mere king or emperor. Abuse of it could be a fatal flaw in the operation.

What was NEEDED for the deliverance from Egypt and the entry to the Promised Land was PROVIDED, and provided day by day in every way. Miracles were an option. Thus it was a crucial point to keep it that way, and to be no more available even for the misconception that it was his own will or power, than would any physicist (we hope) be likely to allow people to think that the power of the atom was in some way his own creation, so that the bomb was a marvel of scientific power, not of divine storage released.

God's absolute refusal to give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8) is partly based squarely on fact. HIS is the power and the majesty, the dominion, the creation and the redemption (Hosea 13:14); and it is He who is the Creator of all the magnificence in munificence, and indeed of the curse which brings in vanity as a reminder to man of his sin (Romans 8:18-22, 5:1-11, Genesis 3).

If anyone, the devil or the arrogant man or woman, tries to act differently, it is in the most prosaic of terms, a LIE! Moreover, it is a lie not about man’s relations with other creations,  but about God! It is taking glory where it does not belong. It is an entire reversal of the truth. It is more flagrant than kicking a king in the bottom as you leave his presence, or than putting an advertisement in the paper to the effect that you are king, and you know nothing of this other guy, this Your Majesty type, whoever he may think he is!

Christ having shown the face of God in flesh, if you realise the meaning of that (cf. II Corinthians  4:1-6), does not for that matter appreciate just such an attitude to that Christ Jesus in whom, as predicted and to the very date foretold incarnation (cf. SMR Ch. 9, Highway of Holiness Ch. 4), He performed this crux of history, this work of redemption through crucifixion and resurrection following the blessed wonder of the incarnation.

Thus in I John 2:22, you read these words:

"Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ ?
He is antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son."

All the unity movements, away from the Bible, to mix in Buddhism, or politics,  or humanism or liberalism or Islam or to make a compound of them all and so forth, ignore the nature of the case (f. Dizzy Dashes Ch.    6, News 121, 122, 82, 89, Lead Us Not into Educational Temptation!).

Christ is as immiscible as truth, more powerful than the base for all the universe, since it is He who MADE it, is God Himself, and as unbreachable as eternal life, which must be yours if you are to live for ever rather than inhabit the abode of the lost! (John 5:11-12).

Though he came as man, He is the Prince

	whom nothing can demote,
	whom death cannot destroy,
	whose body could not rot,
	whose miracles could not be faulted,
	whose words were secure and still are,
	whom a civilisation could not crush, and
	who simultaneously performed with exactitude all that He had to do, as prophetically prescribed, in life and through death.

Ignoring Him is far more liable to penalty than was ignoring Moses, which was severe enough. In His case, His IS the glory (Philippians 2, John 17, 8:58), so that there is no danger of arrogating it to Himself; and like what is genuine and sincere, He has no need or desire to arrogate His own, as if a true statement, personified, should lust to be a true statement. It is one one already!

Hence He continually abased Himself, as sent indeed from heaven, the only begotten Son of God in fact, but in the form of man with a mission of suffering and humiliation, and as man subject to His Father in heaven. He was assuredly as foretold, humble and having salvation, riding on an ass's colt, as Zechariah by divinely accorded vision accurately depicted it (Zechariah 9:7).

He did indeed allow scoffing and spitting while engaged in the sacrificial business of dying as a sin-offering, exposed to the be the butt of sin and sinners (as foretold in Psalm 22, Isaiah 50, 52-53, Zechariah 12:10). Even He however spoke what His Father commanded (John 12:48-50), and sought His will (Luke 22:42).

If Moses, virtual type of patient endurance, could have this significant penalty for perhaps gradually, but certainly in one gross instance, coming to lose the sense of proportion, how much more is there for those who systematically, chronically and at times even purposely derogate the glory of God by taking to themselves the criteria of His power, will or purpose!

Yet in focussing the short lapse in Moses, we must not curtail the sense of GLORY which shone upon him as he worked in his normal labours. II Corinthians 3:13ff. reminds us that Moses, being in the near presence of God, would come out and need a veil over his face, since the radiance was too great for those to whom he would then speak, otherwise (Exodus 34:29-33). In Exodus 33:9, the pillar of cloud which in that form, or as fire by night, had led them, came and stood by the door of the tabernacle as Moses spoke with the Lord, just as it had come between the Egyptians and the Israelities when they were being cornered, pressed virtually into the sea by the surrounding army pursuing them when, after so much borne for so long, they were at last on their way OUT of it all!

It was then (Exodus 33) that Moses sought that the Lord should SHOW him the DIVINE GLORY, which God did. Exposing His nature and character (Exodus 34:ff.), He nevertheless did not allow Moses to see Him face to face, while yet,  hiding him in a hollow in the rock, He allowed him to see Him as it were, in going, sensing not only the grandeur of His power and the majesty of His presence but the reality of His Being more directly.

This association of the cloud and pillar with the presence and power of God, is here seen to lead into the glory of the God who by these visible means had signified His presence and geographically showed them the way.

When Mirian and Aaron became emulous, vaunting themselves and narrowly examining Moses' role, the Lord similarly manifested Himself in a related way, actually making it clear that power and glory were His, and He would act as He chose.

You see this in Numbers 12:4-10.

^"And the LORD spoke suddenly to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, Come out you three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.

^"And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: therefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and He departed.

^"And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous ..."

The Lord was merciful, and after a week healed her.

In Exodus 40:35, just as above, you see the closeness of the association between these visible signs by which such actions were done, and the glory of the Lord:

"Moses could not enter the meeting tent,
because the cloud settled down upon it
and the glory of the LORD filled the Dwelling."

Here note that Moses does not go IN where the glory is dwelling, but it is standing there by Him and communing with him. We do not HAVE this glory, but it is UPON YOU (Isaiah 60:2).

                     And kings to the brightness of your rising."

This is that sublime Israel whose walls are salvation, where salvation dwells and the Lord is in the midst in power and brightness; and in this context, we remember that Israel means 'prince of God'.

Thus to man there can be given a certain brightness because of the Lord about him and in him, and the Lord can ARISE upon those who are His, even making them reflect of His light and glory, to those about; and good reflectors of course have to keep clean.

It is in this context that II Corinthians 3:18 can be seen, for here the power of God is actually imparting character and form, moulding the spirit of man and making his nature receptive to, ready for communication with and agency on behalf of God. Nevertheless "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (3:17), so that it is no mechanical act, but one of intense and immense personal involvement. Such is love and liberty, for both of which God has created an access for those in the format of man. Access ? yes, but not possession, for God does not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8).

The glory is Himself and its impact is on those who draw near. Hence while He may abide in a person, intimate His love and liberty to a person, enable a person with power and illuminate a Christian with understanding, deliver a nation with massive marvels of an express kind, and discriminate for man what is the nature of the format for his social action; and while He may leave as in the death of Stephen, a glow like that of an angel on the face of the one looking in His impactive presence, at His glory through the glass of faith, yet it is He who possesses His creation. Each belongs to the other, but only one is Lord.

Thus, it is a presidential residency that He has and not an integumental participation. He is Lord and we are not; He is God and we are not; His is power (Psalm 57), and ours is to receive it at His will for His purposes.

For all that, the glory of the Lord can be upon a person, a group, a people, as He moves in their midst to accomplish His will. Your love and your beauty you may not actually give to someone else in the sense that they possess it, but they can benefit by its action and appreciate its presence. With God it is of course vastly more intimate, but it is not other in this, that it remains HIS, and all His power, presence and wonder are HIS OWN.

Thus in Psalm 17, we see that as he passes to the fulfilment of this life, at death, David declares that

"I will be satisfied with Your likeness."

It can also mean "in Your likeness". Both are true (I John 3, Revelation 22). We shall be like Him, says John here: like Him who become man, was resurrected and then glorified. Creatures yes, but redeemed; fallen yes, but lifted; and at that ultimate time of the general resurrection,  enabled to see Him in glory, face to face.

In Haggai 2:6-7, we see that the Lord will fill the Temple with glory, and will also shake the whole earth, for as Christ declared, heaven and earth will pass away, but not His words! (Matthew 24:35). 

The Temple being the symbol of Himself meeting the needs of His people, again we find that although He is separate, yet in His glory He communes and comes near.

"For thus says the Lord of hosts:

‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.' "

Even in earlier days, the glory of the Lord could indeed appear (Numbers 20:6-7) as God spoke:

"But Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the meeting tent, where they fell prostrate. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to them,  and the LORD said to Moses ..."

Near the first in Isaiah, at Ch. 6 in fact, you see the prophet who “saw His glory” (John 12:41). What is involved ? First there is vision, secondly there is a sense of His Majesty, and of His Holiness. With this, the prophet becomes aware of sin, his own and that of the nation, while to this is added a purging by burning of his sin, a coal FROM THE ALTAR touching his lips, and a call.

Will he respond ? Yes he does and he is sent with a message together with an awareness of the basic negative response to come in general, from the nation.
To this however is added what is for all nations and for all time, the Gospel of the Messiah, and the detailed data concerned it, which are fulfilled as Spring fulfils Winter.

THE PROPHETS ARE ALIGHT WITH THIS GLORY,

AND THE NEW COVENANT PRESENTS AWE AT THIS MAJESTY

In the Zephaniah passage just cited, as in Isaiah 60, you see the grace and wonder of the Messiah in their midst, while in Isaiah 66 you find those who know Him, going to bring the way home and to glory, to those who have not seen this glory (66:19). Meanwhile in Isaiah 11 you find the rule on earth of this Lord, before it is swept away (as in Isaiah 51:6), when the whole earth “shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea” (11:9). It is then that His resting place will be found to be “glorious”.

This it is already, but then it will be in a world no longer whirring with deceit, as it moves to its last arising and final departure.

When indeed, this world and its works are finally burnt up - though so glorious are the wonders of its creation, marred but still exhibiting the glory of God in that the discipline is needed, and residue has splendour -  then the millennia of evil will be dismissed without regret. Their day will have been long enough.

Again, we find in Zephaniah 3:15-18, some of the beauties of His holiness in His glorious communion available to man:

                                To whom its reproach is a burden."

Here as in Isaiah 27:5, 32:17 and of course 53:4-11, you see that justification by faith which David knew (Psalm 32), but which would have its basis incandescently portrayed in Christ, the Messiah who provided it by His death and authenticated it by His resurrection. Here indeed:

"the work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever."

These things in the way always found in the Bible, mutually indicate each other: they come as babes, or children, grow as youths, mature in strength and blend as a family. It is like a teacher whose work in a single teacher school goes on to all ages; for the unity is apparent always, and utterly so at the end.

When Christians are persecuted for Christ's sake, as Moses assuredly was, then I Peter 4:24 tells us that

"the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you".

This author has found this to an intense degree, so that as with Stephen, what does it really matter that you are defamed, slandered, cast out and disregarded where possible, assailed where needed:
 

it is all your work, your service of God, who matters infinitely more than all that men are, can do or say. It is true that love impels one, love of God and of what He loves, His creation mankind; but His glory is the objective, and it goes with His own people. It draws as well as impels, so that Jude 24 tells us the practical reality when he says:

             Amen."

That, it tells the relationship: HIS is glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever, but He presents us in Christ, covered by His blood, pardoned by His grace, the justifier, the just for the unjust, faultless in the presence of His glory. What He has justified and sanctified, He receives with the hand of love into the realm of perfection where neither pain, sin nor suffering dare come (cf. Revelation 21:27.

Thus Christ as the Captain of salvation does bring in Himself, and by Himself, and through Himself, many children to glory (Hebrews 2:10). It is this glory which successively left Israel in the day of Ezekiel, who was enabled to trace it as it went, using the visible symbol provided (Ezekiel 8:4, 9:3, 10:4-6,18).

Sad and intensely grievous as this was, much better things are in store. Thus, in the vision of the temple shown later in Ezekiel, you see the glory of the Lord come in by the East Gate.

In the vision of the temple shown later in Ezekiel, you see the glory of the Lord come in by the East Gate.

This gate, the Golden Gate as now known, was to be the One by which the Lord came in, and it is that where the PRINCE enters (Isaiah 9:6-7), where He eats; and it is this which is to be closed, as it is and long has been over centuries (Ezekiel 46:7).

"When the prince makes a freewill offering to the LORD, or freewill peace offering
to the Lord, the gate which faces towards the east shall then be opened for Him:
and He shall prepare His burnt offerings and His peace offerings
as He did on the Sabbath day.
 

"Then He shall leave, and after He goes out,  the gate shall be closed."

The Messiah, therefore, was to leave by this gate of special significance to Him, and as in Isaiah 53, when the time came - as also in Zechariah 12:10, it would be He (as in Psalm 22, 16, 40) who would offer His own body thus concluding the sacrificial system.

After He went, in due time, the gate was indeed closed! Its symbolism remains against all 'odds' to tell this world that HE HAS GONE, and will return (Ezekiel 37:24ff.). In fact, God is very precise, and in kindness to man gives him all needed. Thus in Ezekiel 44:2 we read this staggering pronouncement from more than 5 centuries before Christ came ... and left.

The gate to the East has this to look forward to (44:2):

"And the LORD said to me,

'This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened,
and no man shall enter by it
because the LORD God of Israel has entered by it:

 therefore it shall be shut.' "

It is for what then ? It is "for the Prince".

What then is the gate which must now lie open ? It is that which now freely admits Him before His return, the gate of the human heart. If you cannot open it, you may call on His name and in repentance of sin, look for the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, rejecting the blindness of will and receiving His light (John 5:24, Acts 2:37ff., Luke 13:1-3, John 1:1-14). .

For long the Lord has drawn near in glory to the tabernacle, and when Christ came, He directed anew His glory to the Temple greater than any made of stone, the eternal word of God made flesh, as recorded in Luke 2:

"And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

"Then the angel said to them,

'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy
which will be to all people.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be the sign to you:
You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.'

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

"Glory to God in the highest,

                           And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

When the time came for the epitome of love to meet the zenith of justice in the depth of judgment, there was a thrilling prelude, like the trumpets before the battle. It was the raising of Lazarus.

The glory of God was what they would see to whom Jesus spoke, as in John 11, and this, it was fourfold. First it was that God would show that He directly and predictably answered the most amazing prayer of Christ, to raise the dead. It had to HAPPEN, to happen WHEN He asked and to be PUBLICLY OBVIOUS. He did it. The second lesson ? It was this. Christ, so far from being 'challenged' by the need to raise Lazarus, deliberately so delayed that it became necessary to raise the dead of four days! God is wonderfully kind, and to the open ear, He speaks with a crisp realism together with a vast splendour which is inimitable and altogether His own.

The third lesson ? Here in focus at this one event were many phases of divinity. The power of God was in it, the grace of God in showing man that death is not the final arbiter, but a judgment lifted in Christ, the love of God in demonstrating that this Messiah was indeed authentic and would act as Isaiah 53 prescribed, and the pity of God was in it because it showed when Christ wept, that power and pity were blended in His name as Saviour.

Moreover, and fourthly, the PERSONAL BEING who is God was shown to be correlative to man in this, that though He be Creator and we creations, though He be infinite and we finite, though WE be limited and surrounded by what we cannot control, when we are in and with Him, this is no more so, but we are surrounded by Him who controls all things.

We see fifthly, that the Person who became Jesus Christ, when poured into flesh, could call on His Father publicly and have a spectacular test made evident in a result so practical, so deep in significance and so wonderful in care that it stood at the brink of Christ's own coming resurrection, which created an epoch and specified destiny not as the result of any process, but available in a form as ready made as creation, and this time on application by faith. 

In this is seen the glory of God. As Christ declared of this to Martha:

"Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?"

NOTE

*1

APPENDIX

THE LORD and the Little Child – Matthew 18:1-5

Sermon Notes 

I.                WHAT JESUS REQUIRED

TRUST is one part of the nature of the little child. Suddenly produced into separate being, he looks naturally to the intimate source of his arrival. He comes soon to look perceptively, not with closed eyes, He is ready to respond, not dulled by prejudice, he is willing to taste and see, not waste and be, as if he were be all and end all. The child is not one to be ‘tired of it all’, nor ‘wired by it all’, but one finding out and developing with interest and fascination. He is one to respond to love, and love of parents is normal and reciprocation of their concentrated care.

The child appreciates kindness – if a child, your eyes twinkle in appreciative recognition.

You accept the perspective given, to which your apt attention continually brings confirmation. You wonder at what you do not understand and expect to be enlightened. You are not self-conscious:  you are not a mini-adult but a maxi-child, for you know your place. You are not ashamed to show your love, nor do you calculate the way best to manipulate.

Such is much of what we delight to call child-likeness. In this case, the child is symbol before the grown-ups, of what man is before the God of his creation, who delivered him as a deposit, enshrined his spirit in flesh, enabled his mind with pre-programmed utilities and best of all, made him apt to love, to choose to consider and to understand.

                                   II.       WHAT LED TO THE UTTERANCE

 

In the immediate context, two things had happened. Firstly, as in Matthew 17:24ff., Peter was asked to tell Jesus to pay Temple Tax. What would He do ? As the Son of God, He was heir of all things, and the Temple was His. As fashioned in the form of a man for the display of truth and love and the redemption of sinners, He had to respond in His new place. Hence He did it by miracle, Peter being told to fish and pay the tax. The fish had swallowed the gold, and like a piscine bank account now provided it.

HOW ON EARTH could you PLAN that! But since God decided to become man, He both used the ways of this world and stood beyond it, keeping both His humility as man and His omnipotence as God, in order to meet human requirements and yet not allow it to appear that He was other than the One He was (and is)! Peter had to trust and perform the will of the Lord, and whether here in paying tax, or later in twice being freed from prison and in the first instance, directed to continue the testimony right in the very place of his arrest (Acts 5:17-20), he was set to follow a wisdom higher than his own. Nor was he afraid to acknowledge its source (Acts 4:19,  5:29).

Secondly, before this episode of Matthew 18, the disciples had been discussing who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven. What was the answer to this ? Greatness ? It is not in the presence of God a matter of being corrupted, like Satan, with the brightness of your splendour, but being splendidly willing and ready to receive what God has for you, and being faithful, loving and true to Him. Hence the child episode! A child in the midst, not ambition in a mist, this was the object lesson.

Later as in Matthew 20, James and John were the object of their mother’s ambition: she wanted them to be seated on either side of Jesus in His kingdom! Jesus there showed that not imperial power but serviceable meeting of need was greatness; nor was it appearing serviceable as an investment for self-aggrandisement in the long run, for the position was one of being like a slave, not ostentation as its reward but function as its fondness.

As illustration and zenith, Jesus showed that He would be of service, by providing His own body as a ransom for sin! Meekness has no ulterior motive, and as for Abraham, so for the children of God, the reward is first and foremost this, to have GOD Himself both as shield and exceedingly great reward (Genesis 15:1). Abraham believed God, who said this, believed His sending of the Messiah to be through his line: and God counted this for righteousness, for with God it is rests on this Messiah, and is functional because of FAITH (Genesis 15:5-6, Romans 4:25 – 5:1).

So it was not a matter of TRYING, but serving, not the selfish eye but the loving hand and heart; nor was it a matter of VYING, as in Luke 9:46-49, but rather receiving little children, attending to the little things, little ones, for in receiving ones ever so simple, they were receiving Him, the origin and source of love and ministry, growth and acceptance.

 Thus does Christ stress the transformation required EVEN to ENTER the kingdom of heaven, to be found in those whom He chose. In this way,  the PRINCIPLE enshrines that in spirit one “humbles himself as this little child” so that it is no Dickensian horror such as that of Uriah Heap, the ambitious humble hypocrite actually devious,  indirectly seeking selfish ends. Rather it is the artless resting in the reality who made you, without pretension, prevarication or eye on position. Nor is it not like a kind of real estate investment, ministering to greed and aimed at grabbing. Your object is to give.

III    WHAT IS FOUNDATIONAL FOR THE TRANSITION
      CHRIST SHOWED

In addition to the change in attitude and ambition, as well as in the ambit of thought, there is to be a change of heart: “except you be CONVERTED and become as little children” …

That is the other side of being born again as in John 3, so that though the leopard cannot change his spots, the child of God IS changed by regeneration through faith, resting on the finished work of Christ (Titus 3:3-7).

It is a change of heart, mind, spirit, soul from trusting yourself or your appointees, to trusting God, not in your lusty thrust but His benevolent goodness, not as a consultant for your ultimate wisdom, but as a servant for His, yes and a friend (cf. Acts 4:23ff., 13:1-3, and ponder these impassioned appeals to the Lord in prayer). 

It means accepting His ministry of Himself, hence like Jonah repenting of choosing your own way, and instead of such things, going as sent (Matthew 28:19-20, Romans 10:9), of seeking to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5), fortified by the fortitude of Christ, fervent in spirit (Ephesians 3:16,  Romans 13:11).  It means doing good to all men in attitude, not seeking vengeance, not acting as if you were the ‘parent’ in whose hands it all rests, but as a child, a child of GOD! He needs no supplement of human wisdom, as when Simon Peter tried to persuade Him to avoid the cross (Matthew 16:22-23). He requires of His children what is natural to the growing ‘child’ – thirst for His word, will and way (John 4).

If you become a child of God through faith in Him as Redeemer and the divine rescue ‘squad’ in one, from death, then such thirst is natural and the cry for it is not to be denied! His Spirit testifies with your spirit that you are His (Romans 8:16) and the hand of the Father is on you for good.

Without this new birth of your spirit, you cannot ENTER the kingdom of heaven, far less have reason to be concerned at ‘greatness, which is God’s own, but with it, you can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13) … who strengthens you, makes you grow (II Peter 3:18).

*2

Just as God was the Rock (as Paul declares roundly in I Corinthians 10, He alone be the rock on which any may be founded - I Cor. 3:10-11, Psalm 62), so the smiting with the rod is symbolism for the smiting of Christ. Thus it is written prophetically in Micah 5:1:

"They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek."

This is one more illustration of the total, the plenary unity of all scripture. Its sounds and resounds, like a series of letters from someone to another. Thus when Moses in anger smote the rock TWICE, and in addition cried out, MUST WE ... bring water for you rebels! he was nearer to playing the part of divinity than humanity!

More important yet, it was like a preliminary to the Roman Catholic mass (cf. SMR pp. 1086 -1088H). In this, the thing is done over and over again, ad nauseam in this, that it is specifically, emphatically and also dramatically proclaimed in Hebrews 9, that there is ONE ONLY offering on ONE ONLY occasion of ONE ONLY Messiah by ONE ONLY person, the Messiah HIMSELF. Repetition is either not a sacrifice at all, therefore, and hence an irrelevant blasphemy in that it plays on the things of God at will; or as is in fact claimed, a bloodless sacrifice; but without blood there is no remission (Hebrews 9:22), just as it is supposedly without suffering (correct, but contrary to what sacrifice in this case has to be - Hebrews 9:25-26), so that it still qualifies for blasphemy.

Moses, albeit only once and under stress, did just this sort of thing and smote the rock TWICE, as if human power could gain something more by its puny remonstrances or parades. It could obtain NOTHING more. There is nothing more to gain, for Christ (past tense) has accomplished eternal redemption and those who are HIS are "having been saved people" already, just as they are already justified and have peace with God which nothing can sever (Hebrews 9:12,27ff., Ephesians 2:8, Romans 5:1-11).

God in direct communing presence THEN would not tolerate ONE such event, let alone in the context; far less would He tolerate a whole thunderous multitude of them.