Love God First

Q: What does the Bible say about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ?

The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is not dependent on human recognition or belief. In John 12, it is evident that the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is intrinsically linked to God's purpose. Jesus states that His glory is not determined by public perception or the praises of men. This is highlighted by the fact that even while miracles were performed, many did not believe, yet this did not diminish His glory. True glory comes from the Father who has purposed to glorify His Son through His actions and sacrifice, underscoring that Christ's worth is not contingent on human acknowledgment but rooted in divine decree.

Q: How do we know that Christ will be glorified?

Christ will be glorified because it is God’s eternal purpose to do so through His works. The assurance of Christ's glorification is grounded in God's sovereign will. Throughout Scripture, we see that the Father has not only glorified Christ but will continue to do so. In John 12:28, Jesus asks the Father to glorify His name, to which the Father responds, affirming that He has glorified it and will do so again. This underscores that Christ's glory is predetermined by God's plan, which will be fulfilled through the work of salvation, regardless of human belief. This cosmic design assures us that His glory is secure and eternal.

Q: Why is seeking the glory of Christ important for Christians?

Seeking the glory of Christ is essential for true spiritual fulfillment and identity. For Christians, the pursuit of Christ's glory is paramount because it aligns our hearts with divine truth. Jesus highlights this when He mentions that true seekers, like the Gentiles in John 12:20-21, approach Him with a desire to see Him. This reflects a fundamental longing in the human heart to understand and experience the glory of God in Christ. Such seeking leads to spiritual illumination and a richer understanding of one's relationship with the Lord. In a world full of distractions, the focus on Christ's glory sharpens our faith and ultimately defines our identity as children of light.

Q: What role does unbelief play in relation to Christ's glory?

Unbelief does not diminish the glory of Christ; His glory remains intact regardless of human response. In John 12:37-40, we learn that despite the many miracles Jesus performed, many did not believe, highlighting a stark reality: the glory of Jesus is not contingent upon human belief or acknowledgment. Unbelief cannot reduce His glory, as it is anchored in the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son. Even when faced with rejection, Christ's supremacy and glory are unaffected. This doctrine provides comfort to believers, assuring us that God’s purpose to glorify Christ is unwavering, regardless of human hard-heartedness or skepticism.

Q: How can Christians see the glory of Christ?

Christ reveals His glory through His word, the testimony of the Father, and the light of the gospel. To see the glory of Christ, there are crucial elements that must align. First, Christ Himself must reveal His glory to believers, as seen in John 12 and throughout scripture, showing that understanding spiritual truths is dependent on divine revelation. Furthermore, there must be a 'voice from heaven'—the clear proclamation of God's word that testifies to His glory. Lastly, the light of the gospel must shine in our hearts, enabling us to grasp these profound truths. Together, these elements shape how Christians can perceive the vast glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once our blessed Christ the beauty
Was veiled off from human view But through suffering, death
and sorrow He has rent the veil Yes, He is with God the Father. Enter seating there for you. For He is the mighty conqueror,
Since He rent that veil in two. Lord, He is the mighty conqueror,
since He wrent the vale in two. Holy angels bow before Him, Men
of earth give praises to Him, For He is the well-beloved, Since
He rent that veil in two. Says he rent the valentine He
is that mighty conqueror Says he rent the valentine Throughout
time and endless ages Heights and depths of love so true He alone can be the giver, since
he rent the bed to two. He is the mighty conqueror, since
He rent the vale in the morn. Oh, He is the mighty conqueror,
since He rent the vale in the morn. I am thankful to the Lord for
the privilege of standing here once again today and endeavoring
to proclaim to you something that is way beyond my capabilities. I've been doing a lot of reading
these last couple of months in medical journals, medical reference
books. It started when my brother-in-law
suffered from a heat stroke. I didn't ever know anything much
about a heat stroke, so I started studying it out. I even got on
the ham radio and contacted a doctor in New York who got on the radio
and gave me some information about it. One of the other preachers
in Ivory Coast suffered from an abscess way down in his throat,
about the same time that Doug was in the hospital. I was doing
all I could to learn something about that abscess. No antibiotic
would cure it, it just wouldn't respond. They finally had to
operate and go in, and I wanted to know everything I could about
operating on a neck, getting down through those nerves and
whatnot. And now with my wife, just as
recent as this morning, I get a phone call. She said the doctor
was in and said she had heart valve dysfunction. So we got the old journal out
and started looking through it again to find out about it. It
doesn't make you a doctor, does it? You can read a lot of things,
you can study, you might be able to even explain a lot of things
in scripture, but it doesn't mean that you're able necessarily
to fully understand these things. But in reading through all of
these different materials, I found a phrase that just keeps coming
up. It talks about some conditions
that even the best of doctors aren't able to see or to diagnose. And it says it takes an astute
doctor to pick some of these things up. An astute doctor.
Somebody that's got a sense for it. When he walks in, he puts
his finger on it. Well, that's what I'd like to
be this morning, if God would help me. An astute doctor, somehow. Just be able to put my finger
on this subject and help you, help me, to understand it. Something
about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man glorified. That's not an easy subject. It's
not an easy subject. Just like our brother sang, he's
rent the veil in two. He's the glorious conqueror.
That veil's been rent and set apart, but you know what? There's
an old veil in this old heart here that just needs to be rent
one more time. Somehow pull back, pull the curtains
back, let the light in, show us something of Christ and God's
glory. Well, that's the subject, the
Son of Man glorified. And the text, I asked your pastor
to read as much of the chapter as possible, but particularly
for this message I'd like to have us concentrate on verses
17 through 28. That's the heart of this message,
John 12, verses 17 through 28. There are some things that I'd
like to bring out here by way of introduction before really
getting into the subject. The first thing that I'd like
to point out is that the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is not
dependent upon what men make of him. That's something I see
in scripture, that's something I've learned down through the
years in preaching the gospel. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
is not dependent upon what men make of him. or what men say
of him. That's the problem with modern-day
religion today. We're looking for too many testimonies
of men. I work in the part of the ministry
out there that's translating literature into French, and we
try to get good literature that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I'll tell you, every day someone walks into our shop down
there and asks, Do you have any testimonials? I want to hear
what experience so-and-so had, what's the latest, what's the
best seller. See, that's what men in religion
are interested in, what men have to say about man, about God,
about Christ. I want you to understand, as
we read the scriptures, that the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
is not dependent upon what men make of him. You go back here
in verse 9 of our of our text, John 12 and verse
9, we see a little bit about the setting here. It's good to
do that when you read the Scriptures. Go back and look at the context.
Remember, Christ had raised Lazarus from the dead, and here Christ
was in his home. Martha, Mary, you can imagine
a little bit the setting, you know, a time of rejoicing. Lazarus
had been dead. No one ever expected to see him
pick up that spoon or fork again, sit down, and here he was. And
the one that brought him back was sitting there right in front
of him. You can imagine a little bit
the excitement. It says in verse 2, they made
him a supper, and Martha served But Lazarus was one of them that
sat at the table with him. Sort of a homecoming meal, a
meal of honor. But then all around here we see
the word getting out, people starting to come. No one ever
paid attention too much to this little house before, but now
they did. They ran. In verse 9, because of this,
much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there. And look
at here, they came not for Jesus' sake only. And you could just
take that little word, only, out of there. In reality, if
it's not for Jesus' sake only, then it's not for Jesus' sake.
Isn't that right? That's that one little word that
people get upset about when you say it's all dependent upon Christ's
work alone. That's what people get upset
about today in religion. They want it to be Christ's work
plus their decision, Christ's work plus their experience, their
speaking in tongues, Christ's work plus miracles. And it's
always been that way. Says here, they came not for
Jesus' sake alone, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom
he had raised from the dead. And I suppose that's where all
the attention was. Here's Christ. Here's the creator of the universe. Here's the Lord of heaven and
earth, sitting there at that table. And when people came,
they came running in, and all eyes were on Lazarus. Can you
believe it? Why? He looks well. He's got his color
back. Got his color back. Doesn't look
quite as pale. Not quite as stiff as what he
did when he saw them a few days ago. That's the way people are. Verse 12, on the next day, you
see, much people that were come to the feast when they heard
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees.
You can imagine the scene. Now, if in modern religion to
look at this, what would they say? There's a revival. There's
a revival going on down there at Jerusalem. Look at the masses
of people coming. Look at the people flocking out. And they cried, Hosanna, verse
13, blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the
Lord. It says they cried. They were singing. I imagine
it was quite a musical. People blend in their voices
together. All the right words. All the right words. You can
hear some good things from people who really don't know the Lord.
You can hear some good things. They can say some right words.
And I'll be honest with you, when I turn on the TV set, some
of this looks pretty appealing. When it's the right words and
you get somebody with a good voice, nice music, background,
it just draws you. You sit there and you think,
that was good. But whose mouth was it coming
out of? Somebody that probably doesn't even know who they're
singing about. But see, what we say when that
happens, we're saying, well, God's being glorified. And this
is helping the cause of God. This is what I wanted to bring
out here in this passage, in the midst
of all of this excitement. Here's Christ. Let's put away this crowd. Let's
turn down the volume a little bit. Let's get settled down,
and let's see if we can hear the voice of Christ. What is
Christ saying in all of this? And here's his statement. You
look at it all the way down there in verse 23. You hear these people
coming after him, coming to hear, wanting to know something. And
Jesus answered them, saying, what? The hour is come that the
Son of Man should be glorified. In other words, it's not men's
praise, it's not these curiosity seekers. that are going to glorify
me. I'm going to glorify myself. I'm going to be glorified by
somebody other than a mere creature. I'm going to be glorified by
my Father. Now, if we can get a hold of
that, I think we'll have a little edge on what this thing is when
we're talking about the Son of Man being glorified. It's not
our glorifying him. That's part of it. He receives
glory when we glorify him, but his true glory is in what the
Father purposed to do through him. And whether or not men hear or
not, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ just isn't dependent upon
what men make of him. That encourages me when I go
into some new areas and preach the gospel, and I just get a
hard response. I get people gritting their teeth. I get, you know, you get a nasty
letter and you wonder sometimes whether or not anybody's hearing
anything. I can rest in this fact that
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ isn't dependent upon what men
make of him. And I can add to that this second
point by way of induction, that the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
is not diminished by men's unbelief. whether men believe or not. It's
not diminishing one wit from the glory of God, from the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that here in this text,
too, because this whole time, you see, you've got three groups
of people here. You've got curiosity seekers. Then you've got these
religious leaders opposing. Verse 19, "...the Pharisees therefore
said amongst themselves, Perceive ye..." They're starting to blame
each other. "...Perceive ye how you prevail, nothing. They're
blaming one another. You're not doing your job. They'd
already had a council over there in chapter 11, verse 47. It says, Then gathered the chief
priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we for this
man doth many miracles? What's our plan? What's our plan
of attack here? We've got to stop him. They opposed
And even down in verse 37, you see, this is a proof here that
physical miracles do not lead men to Christ. Because it says
in verse 37, But though he had done so many miracles before
them, yet they believed not on him. Yet they believed not. But man's unbelief does not diminish
one wit the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't keep
him from being glorified. I hope that this is something
we can get a hold of here, because we all have unbelieving friends.
We've got unbelieving family. We've got unbelieving acquaintances. They've got the scriptures. We've
given them tapes. We've invited them. They've come
and heard the gospel proclaimed in this place. We've given them
literature, and yet they remain in that unbelieving state. Now,
is that a weakness on the part of God? Is somehow Christ not
being satisfied here? No. As you read on in this text,
just as your pastor read it a little while ago, this was all part
of God's purpose and plan. to glorify his son. God will
be glorified when a sinner does believe, because it's God that
gives him that faith. And God will be glorified when
a sinner doesn't believe, because that's God's righteous judgment
upon that sinner, just leaving him to himself. Leaving him to
himself. And that's what the Lord said,
that the saying of Isaiah is, The prophet might be fulfilled
which he spake. Lord, who hath believed our report?
Isaiah cried that out. Who believed? And to whom hath
the arm of the Lord been revealed?" It's not that the arm of the
Lord is short, but in order for anybody to say something of the
glory of God, the arm of the Lord must be revealed. But it says here, "...therefore
they could not believe." Why? Verse 40, "...he hath blinded
their eyes, and hardened their hearts." You mean to tell me
God would do that? He's done it in the past, and
he's continuing to do it, and he will do it. He just doesn't
have to save anybody. And the glory of his Son, Jesus
Christ, is not dependent upon whether or not you believe. He's
already glorified his Son. You're too late if you think
he's sitting around there waiting for somebody to glorify. He's
already glorified him. And he'll be glorified through
all eternity if from now on he just wrapped up all the rest
of the human race like you bundle up a bundle of wood and throw
him to hell. He'll be glorified. See, the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is not diminished by man's unbelief. But here's a third and final
point on this introduction. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the object of every true seeker. We can't add to the glory of
Christ. And we can't take away from it, but one thing's for
sure, if there is a true seeker anywhere, their one object, their
one purpose, their one goal is to know something of that glory.
And that's who we have represented here in this passage. You see,
the Jews who should have received Christ with open arms, they were
divided. Some were curious, some were
opposed. But here are some Gentiles. And
you have to remember, in the eyes of the Jew, a Gentile was
nothing but a dog. So who do we have represented
here? Just some outcasts of society, some people that were considered
to be second-place citizens. Here they are, and what are they
doing? It says in verse 20, And there
were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the
feast. They were evidently proselytes.
In other words, they had been told that in order to come to
God, they had to become a Jew. Obviously, they had already probably
been circumcised, just like today. Maybe some that have already
been baptized or gone through the ceremony, because they were
told that it's in the church. But in this whole confusion and
melee about Lazarus, being raised and watching
all of these people running about, seeing some of these Pharisees
with stiff necks and hard faces looking on. It says, They came
therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida, of Galilee, and
desired him. You see their humility. They
might have tried even to come directly to Christ, but they
knew the one before whom they were. I believe that. They were
drawn, but how do we get to him? And they said, Sir, we would
see Jesus. Sir, we would see Jesus. I believe
that's the desire of the heart of every true seeker. Every true sinner that wants
to know something of the glory of God This is what he'll say. Sir, we would see Jesus. That's what you're going to say
to your pastor when you come next time to hear the word preached.
Sir, we would see Jesus. That's not what religion is asking
for today, is it? And that's why religion is going
to hell. That's why religious people are going to hell. Sir,
we'd have a little entertainment. Sir, we would see some miracles.
Sir, we would like to know something about this experience of speaking
in tongues. Sir, we'd like to know a little
bit about this new thing of the latest in Christian psychology."
So many things like that. But, sir, we would see Jesus. Can you say that today? Can you
say that? Is that the desire of your heart?
See, we're talking about the most important thing in this
world, the Son of Man glorified. Would you see Him? Would you
see Him? I know this. To understand something
of that glory, there are three things that have to take place.
I've thought a lot about this. I go out and preach the gospel.
Your pastor preaches to you here. You have other preachers in.
What's it going to take for sinners like you and I to see something
of the glory of God? What's it going to take for us
to be able to know something of him? Well, right here in this
context, we have some keys that are important. I just want to
give you these three real quickly here. First of all, Christ must
reveal himself. We're talking about the Son of
Man being glorified. If we're to know anything of
Christ and his glory, Christ himself must reveal himself. Otherwise, we'll be just like
these people. We'll see a lot of things, we'll
hear a lot of things, but we'll remain in our unbelief. Maybe
that's the problem with some here already this morning. You've
been here a long time. I don't know. I don't know who
you are. But if you're yet in your unbelief, I'm telling you,
plead with God that Christ might be pleased to reveal himself
in you. Otherwise, you'll know the same
conclusion, the same end as these people here. Boy, what a judgment
to have had the Prince of Glory himself before our eyes and before
our ears and not to have known him. Not to have known him. That scares me. That scares me. That's what we see here in verse
16. This was the problem of the disciples. These things understood not his
disciples. You see how easy it is? I mean,
these are men that walk with Christ every day for three and
a half years. I'm not just talking about seeing
him through a preacher. or hearing them through the voice
of another man, they heard him, his voice, saw him, watched him,
slept with him, ate with him. And yet we come down here and
says, these things understood not his disciples. But happily,
it doesn't stop there. It goes on, at the first. At
the first. When God's pleased to do a work
in any sinner's he'll not leave them in his ignorance. That's
a sign that God is working in your heart this morning. If you
can look back, maybe there are a lot of things you don't understand
yet, but what light God has given you, what you have heard, you're
rejoicing in, and you continue to rejoice. See, this is God's
work. This is God's That's the first
they didn't understand. But when Jesus was glorified,
then remembered they that these things were written of him. Their
minds were taken back where? To the scriptures. To the scriptures. And that they had done these
things unto him. And you can go back and look at Luke 24.
I'm sure it's a passage that you know very well. Luke 24. This was after Christ's resurrection. says, And he said unto them,
These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was with you,
that all things must be fulfilled, which were written of me in the
law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me." There's the subject of all the scriptures of Christ. And we see that. We read these.
How long, how many times we've read the scriptures. and yet
never seen Christ. See, that's what causes us to
cry out, Sir, we would see Jesus in the Scriptures. We would see
Him. That's a true seeker. Well, how
are we going to see Him? Verse 45, Then opened He their
understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. Then
opened He their understanding. How is it that we're going to
know anything of the glory of Christ? come beyond this state of ignorance,
Christ has to reveal himself. Christ must do it. Happily, he will do it for those
that are his, those for whom he died. He will do it. Secondly,
to understand some of the glory of Christ, not only must Christ
reveal himself, even as we have here in the Scriptures, there
must be that voice from heaven. There must be that voice from
heaven. In all of this activity, all of Christ's teaching, you
see, is that voice. In verse 28, it says, He cried
out, Father, glorify thy name. You see, our salvation has to
do with a work of of God the Father and God the Son. It's
a work of salvation. Father, glorify thy name through
what I am doing. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and I will glorify it again. This is a sure thing. There's nothing sure about our
work. There's nothing sure about the work of these hands. But
I'll tell you There is a sure work, the work of the Father
through his Son, Jesus Christ, for the salvation of sinners.
I have glorified your name and I will glorify again. It will
be glorified throughout all eternity. See, and there's that voice that
came from heaven. That's the purpose. glorify his name. Why? Because
the Father glorified it and will glorify it again. I'd like to
believe he'll glorify it again today. Through his word, through
Christ's faithfully preached, he's worthy of all glory. But
see, that's that voice from heaven. But now wait a minute. Just hearing
a voice won't convince anybody. You look at the following. The
people, therefore, that stood by and heard it, they heard a
voice. What did they say? They said it thundered. Well,
that won't save anybody. It thundered. Others said, no, an angel spake
to him. An angel spake to him. They're already off track, aren't
they? A man left to himself, no matter how clearly Christ
is preached, a man left to himself won't know him. Maybe that's, again, one of the
problems some of you have here. It isn't that there hasn't been
a voice. I believe every time a man stands up here and faithfully
declares Christ, you're hearing a voice from heaven. You don't
have to think of some mystical thing. You're hearing a voice
from heaven. But there has to be that inner
working of the Spirit to make that voice heard where it needs
to be heard, in the heart. For it's from the heart that
man confesses Christ unto salvation, from the heart. And that's out
of our hands. I'll tell you what, it makes
me feel like getting down on my knees and just pleading to
God to help me to hear, have me hear a voice beside the voice
of the preacher, hear the voice of Christ himself. That's the
voice we have to hear. Look at John 5. Just go back
a few chapters. See, this is the whole theme
of the of the book of John, the son of man glorified. Come back here in John 5. It says in verse 20, For the Father
loveth the Son. That's all that's important.
Why is God the Father glorifying his Son? Because he loves him.
He's loved him from eternity. It doesn't matter whether a man
believes or not. It's enough to know that the
Father loves the Son. Now, it's an honor when God causes
people to believe, causes sinners to believe. We just get in on
something that's already taken place. We get in on a love relationship
that's from eternity. You see that? That's what's important. The Father loved the Son and
showeth Him all things that Himself doeth. That's eternal. That's
eternal. and he will show him greater
works than these that ye may marvel." What were those greater
works? Those greater works were how
the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God,
should come and suffer. Suffer that. That was yet to
be revealed. It was just an outworking, a
revealing again of that love relationship between the Father
and Son from all eternity. Why? that ye may marvel, that
the people of God might marvel." That's what we do every time.
We don't fully understand it. When we hear and read about the
incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't fully understand,
but we marvel. Marvel. Great is the mystery
of God in this. God became flesh, dwelt among
men. We marvel. It says, For as the
Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the
Son quickeneth whom he will." Whom he will. He doesn't have to quicken us
this morning. He doesn't have to cause us to
hear his voice. But he will do it, according
to his good pleasure. He will do it. For the Father
judges no man So you try to set Christ apart, and you say, I'm
going to come down on my experience. I'm going to come to God on the
basis of my works, or whatever. Listen, the Father judges no
man. You'll not have to deal with God the Father, but have
committed all judgment unto the Son. That's where your attention
better get. Unto the Son. That all should
honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father. which is sent him." Well,
how are we going to honor the Son? How are we going to come
to him? It says in verse 24, "...verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word." That's where
it starts, but it's not hearing with this ear. He that heareth
my word has ears to hear. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. God has to give ears to hear. But he that heareth my word,
and believeth," you see the order? The order is very important.
You have to hear before you can believe. "...he that heareth
my word, and believeth on him that sent me," look it here,
"...hath everlasting life." It doesn't say, shall have everlasting
life, as if that is a result of our hearing and believing.
No. We hear and we believe because Christ has already given us eternal
life. The hearing and the believing
are the result of that giving. And it says, "...and shall not
come into condemnation, but," look at it again, "...is passed
from death to life." Why does a man believe? Why does a man
hear? It's because he's already passed from death to life. When Christ said, Lazarus, come
forth, how did he hear? Because Christ had already given
him the life. His ears were open. Can a dead man hear? No. Can
a dead man see? No. He needs life, first of all.
And having life, he'll believe, he'll trust. And that's what's
necessary. The glory, to understand something
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ must reveal himself. And secondly, there must be that
voice from heaven. There must be that hearing that
God alone can give. And thirdly, to understand something
of that glory, There must be the light of the gospel, the
light of the gospel. These are all the same thing.
We're all talking about the same thing, but just different ways
of expressing it, isn't it? Christ revealing himself, that
voice from heaven. They're all right here in this
text. That light, that's what John refers to over here in verse
35 and 36. Then Jesus said unto them, yet
a little while is the light with you. Now think about that. Today, if you hear his voice,
harden not your heart. Yet a little while is the light
with you. Walk while ye have the light,
lest darkness come upon you. What's your attitude right now
in hearing this message? thinking about that roast, thinking
about where you're going for dinner, thinking about some of
these other things and problems. This might just be the last time
that this light has shone to any of us. See the seriousness
of that? We take it so for granted, so
close to death. This is one thing these last
few months of talking. I've spent a lot of time in emergency
rooms and intensive care units, just standing there and watching
people. At one moment, I mean, the other night I was down there
when they took Doug back in the hospital, and I saw some of these
people being admitted and going through all the tests and then
not finding anything, so the doctor releasing them. the change
of their faces as they were coming in somber, sober. They were sensing
the reality of the seriousness of it. But when the doctor said,
It's okay, up they went, and they were bounding out and happy. One woman that was seen to me
on her deathbed, when the doctor said they were going to release
her, she let out a yelp, a yell, happy. I said, Boy, if we could
just stay in that first state. Because there are an awful lot
of false preachers out there telling people they're OK, and
they get up and go out, but their day of death is not far. It's not far. See, walk while ye have the light,
lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not whither he goeth. Do you want God to leave you
to your emotions, to your own sentiment about this thing of
salvation and Christ? I need that light. I need that
light. That's how I'm going to understand
something of the glory of God. I need it. I need it. And while you have light, believe
in the light. Don't be sitting there twirling
your thumbs, saying, well, I wonder if I'm elect or not. God's elect. Believe. That's the sign that
they are elect. They believe the light when the
light is given. That's all you know. Do you believe? Do you believe the message you
heard this morning in Bible class? Do you believe it? Do you believe
the message you heard last night? Do you believe this message?
Do you believe this one that God has purposed to glorify?
When you have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be
the children of light. That's what it means to be children
of light. It doesn't mean to have a perfect walk that no one
can ever Chris, I don't know anybody that has that. But if
we're children of light, we believe the light. That's what it is
to be a child of light, believe in the light. Trust in the light. Who is the light? Christ. Christ. These things faked Jesus and
departed. Look at here. He gave them an illustration.
He told them the light wouldn't be with them very long. It says,
"...did hide himself from them." You know why he hides himself
from them? find out who the true seekers are. When there are no
more miracles, no more fanfare, they've shut out the lights,
it's time to go home. True seekers will continue to
seek him. Continue to seek him. Oh, to
have that light. See, a blind man, there can be
light there, and you can get him as close as you want to to
that light, but he won't see it unless God gives him eyes.
That's why we need this light. We need to hear that voice. Christ
must reveal himself. Now, all I've done this morning
is kind of whet your appetite. I want to invite you back tonight,
because I'm going to give you the rest of the message tonight.
There's another three points here, but I'm going to do it
tonight. I want to find out who the true seekers are. May God be pleased to give us
an interest in his Son. The Lord bless you. If you did not hear that message
for whatever reason, get the tape. I'm serious. I've listened to
a lot of messages, and the times I know from experience that the
Lord has spoken, and he related this in his message. From experience,
I know when the Lord spoke, it was when scripture after scripture
after scripture has been not only proclaimed, but suggested
to my heart. When message after message after
message within a message is there. And so many things kept being
suggested to me as a result of that. That's the Lord bearing
witness with his spirit, comparing spiritual things to spiritual
things. And that's what I experienced. I had a blessing out of that.
And if you didn't hear it, for whatever reason, get the tape. Let Terry make fifteen copies,
twenty copies. And if you didn't hear it, it's
a pastoral order. Get the tape and go back and
listen to it very carefully again, what was said and so many things.
Those points about Christ must reveal himself, there must be
a voice from heaven, and the light must shine, and it might
be the last time that light is shown. And true seekers continue
to seek him, and just a great message. And I thought he mentioned,
he doesn't know who's in here and who's heard what and all,
but I do. I preach to pretty much the same
faces all the time. There are some people in here
who have heard it a lot of times and haven't heard it yet. And
I suggest you take the advice that this man has given you and
go home and beg the Lord to reveal himself to you, because it just
adds condemnation. The more you hear it, it becomes
a savor of death after death after death after death. until
you're sleeping on the sound of what he said, the voice of
God Almighty. It can be a still, small voice. He doesn't have to thunder, right? And truth was proclaimed here
this morning. Get the tape and hear it again,
if you didn't hear it. Come back tonight. I want to
hear the rest. Number 50 is a good one. Number 50, and we'll stand as
we sing a few verses in. Brother Ken, I want you to go
back with me to the door in a moment. Number 50, let's sing number
1 and number 4. Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of
all nature O Thou of God, and Lamb of Son He will I cherish, He will I
honor, Thou my soul's glory joy. Son of God and Son of Man. Glory
and honor, praise and praise, Heaven and earth are full of
thee. You.

Love God First

What does the Bible say about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ?

How do we know that Christ will be glorified?

Why is seeking the glory of Christ important for Christians?

What role does unbelief play in relation to Christ's glory?

How can Christians see the glory of Christ?

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Love God First

What does the Bible say about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ?

How do we know that Christ will be glorified?

Why is seeking the glory of Christ important for Christians?

What role does unbelief play in relation to Christ's glory?

How can Christians see the glory of Christ?

Sermon Transcript

About Paul Mahan

Comments

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