Good morning. The last couple
lines in that hymn, I was thinking about Peter in the boat when
he said, Lord bid me to come unto thee. That's our prayer
this morning. Lord bid us to come unto thee.
Call us. Isaiah chapter 42, verse 8 says,
I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory will I not give to another,
neither my praise to graven images. Our God reigns sovereign. We've
come here this morning to bow before him and worship him in
the power of his spirit and according to the truth of his gospel. And
we're completely dependent upon him for both of those things.
May he enable us to worship. David said in Psalm 115, not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Angus is still under the weather,
but he's feeling better this morning, but not going to be
able to be with us. So I've prepared to preach this
morning. So I'll do that in Angus's place. Something else I was going to
say. Can't remember what it was. Didn't write it down. So let's
pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we do ask that you'd be pleased
to send your Holy Spirit in power to enable us this morning To
know from our hearts what David wrote under the inspiration of
your spirit. Truly, it is not unto us, it
is not unto us. It is unto thy name. Be all glory
and all praise. Lord, open that which no man
can shut. Open the windows of heaven. Rim the heavens and come
down. Open our hearts, open your word.
break the bread of life and feed our souls on thy dear son. We thank you for your hand of
strength on Angus and pray Lord that you would give him full
recovery. Lord, we know that you work all things together
for good for them that love thee and those that are called according
to your purpose. We thank you for this this time
to be here and thank you for bringing us here. Bless us now
for Christ's sake. Amen. Come. What e'er my God ordains is right. ? His holy will abideth ? ? I
will be still whate'er he doth ? ? And follow where he guideth
? ? He is my God though dark my road ? ? He holds me that
I shall not fall ? Wherefore to him I leave it all. Whate'er my God ordains is right,
His Son will not deceive me. Christ is my all, my only hope,
He promised not to leave me. His life, His death, His perfect
faith, ? Hath pleased the Father holy ? ? So now I can come boldly
? ? Whate'er my God ordains is right ? ? His loving thought
attends me ? ? The sin that kept me far from Him ? Christ bore
it all at Calvary. My God is true each morn anew. He gives me faith, the gift of
grace. Christ is my life unending. Whate'er my God ordains is right. He is my friend and Savior. He suffers not to do me harm,
though many storms may gather. Now I may know both joy and woe. Someday I shall see clearly. ? That he hath loved me dearly
? ? What'er my God ordains is right ? ? Here shall my stand
be taken ? ? Though sorrow, need, or death be mine ? ? Yet I am
not forsaken ? My savior's care is round me there. He holds me that I shall not
fall. And so to him I leave it all. Thank you, Tom. What great comfort
we have knowing that our God reigns over all the armies of
heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me, we're going to begin in Exodus chapter 33 this morning,
Exodus chapter 33. read this passage Friday night
when we first began this meeting and have been so impressed and
blessed by Moses' prayer. I thought this is every believer's
heart's desire, what Moses asked the Lord for in Exodus chapter
33 verse 18. When Moses said, I beseech thee, Lord, I plead with thee, show
me thy glory. Show me thy glory. Now, Moses, beginning in Exodus
chapter three, saw the glory of God at the burning bush, a
bush that was on fire yet not being consumed Clearly a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross suffering the wrath of
God's fiery justice and yet not being destroyed. He heard the
voice of God there in Exodus chapter 3, when God said, take
off thy shoes from off thy feet for the ground on which you stand
is holy ground. He heard the voice of God. Moses was led to go into Egypt
and he saw the power of God in the ten plagues that the Lord
sent to bring his people out of Egypt. Most clearly in all
those plagues would have been the death angel who came and
the blood of the Passover lamb that was placed on the door and
God saying to him when I see the blood I'll pass by you and
not one Israelite was harmed by that death angel. Moses saw
the glory of God, saw the power of God. He saw the dividing of
the Red Sea, walking across on dry ground. He watched the drowning
of the Egyptian army. He saw the manna falling from
heaven every day, the smitten rock bringing forth water. All these things pictured the
Lord Jesus. He saw Joshua defeat Amalek and
Moses saw the building of the tabernacle already by Exodus
33, the Ark of the Covenant, The mercy seat. And in chapter
33, if you look up just a few verses in verse 11, the Lord
spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend.
Moses stood in the cloudy pillar in the door of the tabernacle
and God spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his
friend. So, Why would Moses now say, ah,
beseech thee, Lord, show me thy glory, after having seen so many
glorious things? Well, the Lord answers that.
If you read on with me in verse 19, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord
before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, canst
not see my face." That's what Moses wanted to see. Moses wanted
to see the face of God. So when he's pleading with the
Lord to show him his glory, Moses knows from all the things
that he's already seen God do that the glory of God must be
in his face. He knew that it wasn't in man's
face. The scripture says that man's glory shall come to naught.
And the Bible tells us that every man at his very best state is
altogether vanity. Oh, we glory in ourselves, but Lord ever is pleased to show
us glimpses of His glory, we will know that it's His face
that we need to see. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter
9, if you will. Jeremiah chapter 9. Look at verse 23. Thus saith
the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither
let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory
in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which
executeth loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth,
for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. The saddest, most sinful demonstration
that man makes of his own glory is not the sports star or the
politician or the wealthy man. The saddest and most sinful demonstration
of man trying to glory in himself is the free will works gospel. He believes that by something
that he does he can stand in the presence of a holy God. A prayer that he prays, a decision
that he makes, a work that he performs, something that he abstains
from will earn him favor and give him merit before God. That's
the worst demonstration of man glorying in himself. Moses had
seen by now enough Demonstrations of God's glory to know that he
had nothing to glory in. He wanted to see the face of
God. In the Bible, the face represents
the whole person. Moses has seen bits and pieces
here and there. He wanted to see the whole person. In 2 Chronicles chapter 6, O
Lord God, turn not away thy face, the face of thine anointed. Lord,
don't turn your face from me. Turn us again, O God, and cause
thy face to shine upon us. And if you do that, we'll be
saved. We'll be saved. In Numbers, when the Lord was
telling Moses what to say to the children of Israel, he said,
say this, the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious
unto thee, the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give
thee peace. Moses desired the salvation that could
only come from God. And he knew for that to happen,
the Lord was gonna have to show him the fullness of his person. And so if you go back with me
to our text in Exodus 33 at verse 21, and the Lord said, you can't see my face, But the Lord
said, behold, there is a place by me and thou shalt stand upon
a rock. And it shall come to pass while
my glory passeth by that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock
and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. These are all. pictures of the
Lord Jesus Christ who is the rock of ages on whom we stand
for all of our acceptance before God and we must be found in him
in the cleft of that rock not having our own righteousness
which is of the law but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Christ. So the Lord is answering Moses
prayer but he's telling him how he's going to see the wholeness
of his glory and his person. And then he says, I'm going to
put my hand over the opening of that cave. The hand in the
Bible is a picture of works. We're told that if we put our
hand to it, we've defiled it. Who shall stand in his presence?
They that have clean hands and a pure heart. The Lord Jesus
Christ, He was wounded for our transgressions. Why was he wounded
in his hands? Because our works are filthy
rags before God. And his hands are the only hands.
And so the Lord is saying to us, you wanna see my face? You wanna see my glory? You're
gonna have to stand on this rock near unto me. I'm gonna put you
in this cave. I'm gonna cover you with my works. My works. Your works are not acceptable.
I'll cover you with my works. In verse 23, and I will take
away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face
thou shalt not see. We're gonna see the glory of
God, we're gonna have to look back. We're gonna have to look
back to Calvary's cross and see what God accomplished for his
people when he laid down his life for sheep. All the glorious attributes of
God are on full display at Calvary's cross. And so, the Lord's saying,
you wanna see my glory, you're gonna have to look back. And we look back even farther
than that, don't we? Because what happened at Calvary's
cross was purposed of God in eternity past in the covenant
of grace. When the Lord Jesus became the
lamb slain before the foundation of the world. That was everything
prior to the cross led to the cross. Everything now leads back
to the cross. In order for man to see the face
of God, God had to become a man. He had to be made in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He had to be born of a woman
made under the law in order to redeem them that are cursed by
God's law. The Lord Jesus is the God-man,
fully God, fully man, God's perfect man and man's perfect God. And
only in him, this is what the Lord is telling us when, because
this is our prayer, show me thy glory, I beseech thee, Lord,
I want to see thy glory. Here's how you're going to see
my glory. The scripture tells us in John
chapter 1 verse 1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was
God. The Word was with God and the
Word was God. The divine Word of God in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ and then in verse 14 it says,
and the Word became flesh. And he dwelt among us and we
beheld his glory. as the glory of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and full of truth." Here's the
face of God. The face of God is in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
1. God. who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in times past unto our fathers by the prophets.
God is speaking in types and shadows, in laws and ceremony,
revealing glimpses of his glory. Moses had seen that, but Moses
wanted to see the fullness of God's glory. And this God, who had shown us
parts of his glory all throughout scripture, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also He made the worlds. Who is the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person? Moses, you'll see my glory. You won't see Christ. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. No mortal man can look on the
unveiled glory of God. And the humanity of the Lord
Jesus Christ is his veil. We see that at the Mount of Transfiguration.
When the Lord Jesus took Peter, James and John on the Mount of
Transfiguration and the veil of his humanity was taken away. And the radiance of his glory,
the Bible says, shone like the noonday sun. And Moses, Peter,
yeah, Peter, James, and John were forced to the ground to
bury their faces in the dirt. They could not look upon that. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter four. 2 Corinthians chapter four. God has put into the hearts of
his people to see his glory. And in Hebrews chapter 4, I'm
sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, beginning at verse 3, if our
gospel be hid, it is hid from them that are lost, in whom the
God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, our Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. This gospel begins right at the
beginning. In Genesis chapter one, when
the world was without form and void and darkness was upon the
face of the deep, there we have a picture of our condition, without
form, empty. Darkness can't see God, can't
behold His glory. And God said, let there be light. So this light that shined out
of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what Moses wanted to see. He wanted to see the face of
God. The face of God being the full
radiance of His glory. All the demonstrations of God's
glory that were given to His people in the Old Testament were
pre-incarnate manifestations of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just
take one, for instance, Isaiah chapter six. When Isaiah said,
in the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, I saw him. And
he was high and lifted up. His train filled the temple and
he was so glorious that the seraphim that hovered over him had to
cover their eyes, they could not look upon him. And when I
saw him, the first words out of my mouth was, woe is me, I'm
undone, I'm a man of unclean lips, I live among a people of
unclean lips, I've seen the king. Isaiah knew that seeing God would result in his damnation. Woe is me. That's what damnation
is. Woe is me. And then the Lord sent one of
those seraphims to take a coal from off the altar and touch
his lips. And the Lord said, you're clean. What's that? That's
the altar that the Lord Jesus died on. It's Calvary's cross. It's the fiery wrath of God's
justice touching our lips and making us clean. And John tells us in John chapter
12, he tells us about that experience
that Isaiah had in Isaiah chapter 6 when he said, these things
said Isaiah When he saw his glory and spake of him, it was the
Lord Jesus that was on that throne. We're gonna see the glory of
God. He's gonna have to do something for us. Turn to me, if you will, to 2
Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3. Verse nine, for if the ministration of condemnation, now what is
the ministration of condemnation? That's the law of God. The Lord
is using Moses' experience on Mount Sinai. Moses went on Mount
Sinai and when he came down, the reflection of God's glory
so radiated from Moses' face that people couldn't look upon
him, they had to put a veil over his face. And Moses is a picture
of the law. In order for men to have any
interaction with Moses, they had to cover the radiance of
his glory. And if the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness
exceed in glory. If the law was so glorious that
you couldn't look upon Moses, how much more glorious is the
gospel of God's free grace when the Lord Jesus came and made
Himself sin, was made to be sin for us. We might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Verse 10, for even that which
was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of
the glory that exceleth. The excelling glory of Christ
is so much greater than the law that the Lord's telling us that
the law has no glory at all now compared to Christ. No glory. For if that which is done away,
still talking about the law, If that which was done away was
glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. The glory of that which remains
overshadows the glory of the law. Seeing then that we have such
hope. We use great plainness of speech. We don't preach a yea-nay gospel. We don't mix our works with his
work. He gets all the glory or he gets
no glory. We cannot share in his glory.
I am the Lord. I share not my glory with anybody. If we're going to see the glory
of God, His glory is going to be all the glory there is. Let
him who glorieth, glorieth in the Lord. We don't say, well, you know,
there's a sense in which God loves all men, or there's
a sense in which you have to do something, you have to, we
don't add, that's why I said, The most sinful demonstration
of man glorying in himself is making salvation in any way depending
on something he does, robbing from God his glory. Verse 13, and not as Moses, which
put a veil over his face that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. Now,
the glory that shone from the face of Moses was what he was
asking for. I want to see your glory. And
now, but they couldn't look at his glory. They couldn't. The
end of the law, well, Romans chapter 10. Men go about trying
to establish their own righteousness. They have a zeal for God, ignorant
of the righteousness of God, not knowing that Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
So, they couldn't see that the radiance of Moses' face was the
end of the law. They had to put a veil over his
face. But their minds, verse 14, were
blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ." Men read the Bible. The Bible's
full of exhortations. It's full of admonitions. It's
full of commandments. It's full of laws. I just speak for myself, every
time I read something the Lord's admonishing me to do, the very
first thought that I have is, what can I do to put that in
practice? What can I do to be better at that? How can I exercise
some commitment and some behavior that's going to somehow satisfy
what what God's required of me. You see, the law of God is not
just the Ten Commandments, it's the whole, it's all of God's
will and purpose. I think of trying to make a commitment
and a determination to obey God and whatever outward appearances,
if that becomes our, you see, this is what This is the veil that's upon
the face of Moses, trying to do something to satisfy
God's requirements. Whatever outward appearances
of success I might have, if I approach God's law that way, I get the glory for it. Or, now look at the next verse. But even unto this day, verse
15, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts. If we read
God's word and conclude that there's something
that we can do in the power of our own flesh to satisfy what
God's requiring, the veil is upon our face. Nevertheless, when it, when what? The heart. When the heart is
turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now what
is it when the heart's turned to the Lord? It's when God speaks. And I'm slayed by what God says. Paul said, I was alive once without
the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. When God tells me something that
I should be doing, it slays me. It causes me to
see, Lord, there's no way I can satisfy that. And the heart is turned, is turned
to Christ. The law of God exposes me, it
strips me naked of my power and all of my righteousness and puts
me at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. The law was not given to us as
a, the Bible's not given to us as a rule book for Christian
living. The law is not given to us as
something that we look to to try to clean up our lives. Walk the straight and narrow. The law was given to make sin
utterly sinful. I'm not talking about just the
Ten Commandments. I'm talking about every law.
Men, God says to you, love your wives as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it. And what's the first thing that,
well, I'm gonna figure out a better way to love my wife. And we ought
to do better. Lord, I can't do that. As Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. Let's just take one example,
forgiveness. Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another. And what's the first thought
that comes to mind? Well I need to be more humble and more respectful
and more concerned for other people and less self-centered
and let me figure out a way to put this into practice. Let me
figure out something I can do to be more forgiving. Even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you. You see if we look in our hearts
to try to find some way that we can do better And if we look to Christ outside
of ourselves, being able to forgive is the
result of being forgiven. David said in Psalm 119, make
thy face to shine upon us and teach me thy statutes. Lord, if you'll make your face
to shine upon me, then I'll learn, then I'll learn. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
three. Look at verse 22. But the scriptures
hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up under the faith, which should afterwards
be revealed. Come into this world under the
condemnation of the law, the judgment of the law. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. Schoolmaster was that servant
in the house that took care of the children. The children were
instructed to obey the schoolmaster. Children became of age, and the
schoolmaster now, that they took instructions from their whole
lives growing up, is now their servant. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster,
and notice the next three words are in italics. The translators
put those words there because they thought that was better,
clarify the meaning of the scriptures. And I have found in my experience
that most of the italicized words that are in the Bible, the verse
reads better without them. And certainly that's the case
here because the law never took anyone to Christ. The law doesn't take you to Christ.
It's the goodness of God that leads to repentance. It's the
grace of God. It's Christ that leads us to
Christ. It's the gospel. That's what the Lord's saying
to Moses back there. Moses, there's a place by me. I'm gonna stand
you on a rock, put you in a cave. I'm gonna cover you with my hand.
I'm gonna let you see my backside. And so what's the Lord saying
in verse 24? The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. Now that we have Christ, we don't
need that schoolmaster anymore. Now the schoolmaster, we love
God's law. But what I'm trying to say is
that the law is not our guide. The law's not our, we're not
under the law. We're under grace. We have the law written upon
our, James called it the law of liberty. It's called the law
of grace. It's called the law of Christ.
It's called the law of love. It's on the heart. When the heart
is turned from the veiled law, the radiance of Moses' face showing
forth what Moses had prayed for, show me thy face, had to be covered
because they could not see. How'd the verse go? Go back with
me to that verse in 2 Corinthians chapter four, or chapter three. 2 Corinthians chapter three. Verse 13. Moses had a veil over
his face that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that which was abolished. They couldn't
see the face of God. They couldn't see the radiance
of Christ. All they could see was the law. And what'd they
say when God gave them the law? Oh, we're gonna do that. We'll do that. God said, you can't keep my law.
And Moses had to make a blood sacrifice. As I say, My own experience is
that every time I read something in God's word, my first thought is to try to
find a way to make that happen. And when that happens, the veil
is on the, it's not until God turns my heart to Christ that
the veil is taken away. Now, now, the law of God's not
burdensome. I have the hope of knowing that
the Lord Jesus satisfied all the demands of God's law. Todd,
you dealt with this the other day when the Lord told John the
Baptist, let it be so for now that we might fulfill all righteousness. The Lord Jesus fulfilled, he
didn't come to destroy the law, he came to fulfill it. And so
when we look to Christ, we have the hope of knowing that God's
laws satisfy. Sorry, can you turn that off,
please? I never thought that would happen.
My hearing aids are tied to my phone and somebody just called
me on my phone and it went off in my ear. Never considered that. When the disciples, Peter, I
think it was, said, Lord, how many times should I forgive my
brother? Seven times? And Peter was proud of the fact
that, you know, I'm gonna be gracious. I'm gonna do the right
thing. I'm gonna forgive my brother
seven times. And the Lord Jesus said to him, he said, not seven
times, seven times 70. And he didn't mean 490. He meant,
you keep forgiving. And what did Peter say? Oh Lord,
increase our faith. Increase our faith. What did the Lord Jesus say to
Peter in response to that? If thou had faith of a mustard
seed, you could say unto this mountain, be thou cast into the
sea and it would be, it'd be removed. What was the Lord Jesus saying
to Peter? Same thing he's saying to me. Well, if I can just figure
out a way to muster up more faith, if I can just be more faithful
and more committed and more put these things, what was the Lord
saying? Peter, it's not the amount of
your faith, it's the object of your faith. You don't need more
faith, you need more of me. Your heart has to be turned.
to set your affections on things above where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. They that are after the flesh,
they mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
things of the spirit, the flesh profiteth nothing. This is a
walk of faith. And this faith can only be had
when God shows us his glory in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Read the rest of this. Verse 16, we're back in 2 Corinthians
3. Nevertheless, when if the heart
is turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now where
the Lord is, now the Lord is that spirit, I'm sorry. And where
the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty, there's freedom. You're
not under the law. Stand fast in the liberty where
the Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. Do we want to be followers of Christ? We don't follow him by the law. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. Verse 18, but we all with open
face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed
into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit
of the Lord. When we look to Christ, which
these people couldn't do, they couldn't see the radiance of
the glory of God, they had to put a veil over it because they
were still looking to the law as a means of getting right with
God. But when the hearts changed and
we look to Christ And that beholding as in a glass that
we just read in that verse, that's a mirror. So what the Lord's telling us
is when we look to Christ, we see the Lord Jesus Christ in
his glory and his glory becomes our glory. As he is, so are we. In this world, this is our boldness
in the day of judgment. This is our boldness in coming
to the throne of grace. We come to the throne of grace
with boldness. How can we come boldly before
the presence of a holy God? Only if we're without sin. How
are we gonna be without sin? Looking unto Jesus. Trying to
figure out a way to be less sinful? Trying to figure out a way to
put into practice the thousands of precepts and admonitions and
laws and statutes and commands that are in the Bible? I'm gonna
be a better person, I'm gonna start doing this. No. No. It's having the heart turned. And when the heart's turned by
the Spirit of God, you see that in verse 17, the Lord is that
Spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. This can't be done by determination. This can't be done by commitment.
This can't be done by free will. This can't be accomplished by
works. This has to be done by the spirit of God. The father
seeketh them that worship him in spirit and in truth. And that
doesn't mean he's going around looking for people that have
the spirit so that they can know. He gives them his spirit. And
if you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask him? Ask him, Lord, I can't worship you. There's
two words in the New Testament that I wanna define briefly. It's the word godly and the word
ungodly. Normally, when we think of someone
who's godly, we're thinking about someone who's outwardly pious,
religious, wears the right clothes, says the right things. And the word ungodly, we think
of someone who's ungodly, we think of someone who's outwardly
profane, living a shameful life, self-indulgent, Interesting that the word godly
in both of these cases is the word worship with another word
attached to it. The word godly means to worship
well. Worship well. And the word ungodly
is the word worship with the alpha, the Greek alpha in front
of it. And just like in the English
language, when you put an A in front of a word, it reverses
the meaning of that word. And so the word ungodly literally
translated in the Bible means unable to worship God. There's a lot of very outwardly
moral religious people who have never, by the Spirit of God,
had their face turned toward Christ, had the veil taken away
from the law, the radiance of the glory of Christ shown forth,
reflecting back to them their own righteousness in Christ,
and consequently have never been able to worship God. An unregenerate person cannot
worship God. They can feign worship, they
can pretend to worship, they can put on a lot of religious
activity, but to worship God is a work of grace in the heart
done by the Spirit of God. Turn with me to John chapter
17. That's what we're talking about.
Show me thy glory. Well, my glory is manifested
to the heart by the Holy Spirit and it results in worship. It results in worship. And the The godly man worships
God well. And the ungodly man is unable
to worship God. Show me thy glory. The most godly thing that any
man can do worship God. The most God-like thing. You know, we normally talk about
somebody godly, we think of them being God-like. The most God-like
thing that any man can do is worship God. So what do you mean?
Well, let me ask you a question. What did God do? Our God's eternal. We can't even
begin to grasp what that means, but we know that he never had
a beginning. He's self-existent. So let your mind go back into
the past as far as it'll go until it just short circuits. And you
haven't even begun the beginning of God, for he has no beginning. And we know that everything in
creation is new, it's new compared to God. So what did God do for
all of eternity before he created? the heavens and the earth, before
he created the angels, before he cast the planets into the
universe, what did he do? He tells us, he tells us right
here in John chapter 17, the Lord Jesus is interceding to
our heavenly father on behalf of his church. And here's what
the Lord Jesus said, John chapter 17 verse one, these words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the
hour has come glorified thy son, that thy son also may glorify
thee as thou has given him power over all flesh. that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him, and this
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on
the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do." The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world
to glorify his father. He came into this world to finish
the work that the father sent him to do. which was to accomplish
the salvation of his people. And he is now, before he goes
to the cross, saying, Father, I've done exactly what you told
me. I've glorified you. In verse five, this is what I
want you to see. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. The Lord's telling us right there
what he did for all eternity before he created anything. He
lived in his own glory. The Father, the Son, the Holy
Spirit, the triune Godhead, worshiping themselves in their own glory
for all eternity. The most God-like thing that
we can do is worship God because that's what God does. That's what God does. We are Philippians chapter three,
verse three, we are the true circumcision which worship God
in the spirit. This can only be done by the
spirit of God. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. The face of the Lord Jesus Christ
has shined forth in that mirror. It's his face, it's his glory. I have no glory outside of him. and have no confidence in the
flesh. I can find nothing in me, in
my commitments, in my determination, in my works, in my... I've got
to have Christ. And Christ, who is our life? we shall appear with him in glory.
We see him now through glass darkly, but then face to face. We're made in the fullness of sinfulness. Whatever error men made in years
gone by concerning the things that they wrote in confessions
and creeds and catechisms, they got one thing right. The first
question in the catechism, what is man's chief end? What am I here for? What's my
purpose? To glorify God and enjoy him
forever. It's what we're gonna be doing
for all eternity. Oh, and if we've got a taste of it right
now, just a taste. The word glory is the word doxa.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory,
be doxa for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. And we have what we call the doxology.
If you open your hymnals, you'll find it on the back of your front
cover of the hymnal, the doxology. And in worship, in worship, I
want us to sing that right now. Praise God, from whom all blessings
flow. Praise Him, all creatures here
below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly
hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost.