I need to start over a little
bit. This 21st chapter of the book of Revelation, beginning
with verse 10, we have 17 verses here that describe the glory
of God as it is shown in the glory of the church. There is
no glory in the church by itself. We only, God's people only, the
church only, gets glory from God. There's a verse that we're
going to go to. You know it very, very much. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That's what we get by our physical
birth. We are short of the glory of
God. And I think I could say I'm very
short of the glory of God. far short of the glory of God. So what we have here is not ours
in the sense that we brought it to the mix, but it's ours
because it was given to us. We had nothing of our own, everything
in here. There's nothing that we bring
to this. It is all given to us. We have nothing to bring, not
any works of righteousness. All right, verse nine. And there
came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials
full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, come
hither. I will show thee the bride, the
lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the
spirit to the great and high mountain. And I might say this
about that verse nine. Brother Rupert brought something
up. We're engaged now. That's the bride. And there will
be a time when the church will be the wife. He carried me away
into the spirit to a great and high mountain, not a literal
mountain. There's only one place that we'll
get to see this kind of glory of the church, and that's from
Christ. He is our exceeding high mountain. He is the mount of
glory. He is Mount Zion. He showed me
that great city. It's not great in itself, but
it's great because of God. The holy Jerusalem, we didn't
bring any holiness to it. Nobody has, but it is called
a holy Jerusalem. It is holy because of God. Descending
out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light
was likened to a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear
as crystal, and had a wall great and high. It had 12 gates, and
all at the gates, 12 angels, and the names written thereon,
which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel.
On the east three gates, and on the north three gates, and
on the south three gates, and on the west three gates, and
the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and in them was the names of
the apostles of the Lamb. It's a great wall, high. Now
there's a wall around this city that is impregnable. It is Christ. It is Christ in
the gospel. It is Christ in his sovereignty. It is Christ in his righteousness.
It is Christ in his blood. It is an impregnable. You're
not getting into this city any other way than coming through
Christ. He is the high wall and he is
the protection of the city, but he is also in that protection
supplies all the righteousness and everything that is required
by God is provided to the people, to the church, to God's saints.
as they're held in and protected by this great high wall. And then it tells us there that
it has a great wall and high and 12 gates and they're to the
four directions. And when we get there, I'm just
summing up a few things, but when we get there, we'll look
at where these gates point to. To every kindred, nation, people,
and tongue. No direction is withheld from
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. These gates are open
to every point of the compass. All right. Let's go back here
and look at verse 9 for just a few moments tonight. As we've
read up to this point, we've seen that the church is the bride,
the lamb's wife. It is a great city. It's a holy
city. There in verse 9, it tells us
that, excuse me, verse 11, it tells us, having the glory of
God. Now, I had other things to say
tonight, and I stumbled over that, and I said, there's something
there. I've just got to say a few things about that. Having the
glory of God. The church has the glory of God. Now, I don't know all that has
to say, and I'm not closing because I don't know it all. We're not
going home because I don't know it all. I want to say a few things
about it, but I certainly don't understand everything about having
the glory of God. The church, this city, has the
glory of God. Now, as I mentioned, in Romans
chapter 3 and verse 23, in the fall, we lost the glory of God. We're short of the glory of God. For all have sinned, Jews and
Gentiles alike, have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We come shorter every day. We realize more and more what
it took for God to save his people. It took all his grace, took all
his mercy, took all his love, took all the blood of Christ,
took all his righteousness, took all to save his people from their
sins. So this is a tremendous statement
made here with regard to the church. He has given it his glory. Now, we're gonna see that there
are some things that point to, but in reality, the glory of
God is Jesus Christ. He is our glory and he's the
glory of the church and he's the glory of God. Turn with me,
we'll not turn to Romans three, you know that verse, but turn
with me if you would over to Matthew chapter six. Matthew
chapter 6. There's an interesting verse
here in the middle of some sayings of the Lord, a message of the
Lord. I just want to read a couple of verses that here has to say
about Solomon. Matthew chapter 6. Now, I couldn't
hold a candle to Solomon's riches, Solomon's kingdom, Solomon's
dress, Solomon's house, the temple that Solomon built, how he lived,
his food, the order, the amount of food he served at every meal.
I mean, that is something, I just, there's no way we could compare
to that. Now notice this though, in Matthew chapter six. Matthew
chapter six, looking at Solomon in all his glory. Everything about Solomon. Matthew
chapter six, verse 28, We read these words that the Lord Jesus
said, and why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they
spin. And yet I say unto you that even
Solomon in all his glory, now he had all the outward appearance
of glory, just the dress, the people that waited on him, his
home, his food, his lifestyle, his kingdom, his temple, his
sacrifices, everything about him. Nobody could compare to
what he did and who he was and what wisdom God had given to
him. That Queen of Sheba came up there
and tested him and talked to him, and he answered her, and
she said, I've heard about you, but not half was told me. What wisdom he had. Now we know
he's a fool in certain areas, but what he was, and yet the
Lord Jesus Christ said, and yet I say to you that even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like just a flower. a tulip, a pansy, a nasturtium. I don't know where they got all
these names for flowers. A flower contains more glory
than Solomon. Now that makes a statement about
Solomon and about us. I can't even compare to Solomon
and his glory. And even Solomon couldn't compare
to just the glory of a flower. Now that's what God had to say
about his position before God after the fall. As dressed up
as he was, his glory couldn't compare to a dandelion. Now that's serious. So we're
in serious trouble. We have a problem. We have fallen
short of the glory of God and the best there is that walked
this earth, his glory is compared to a dandelion. So where does
that put us? In serious problems. And yet
this church, this bride, this wife, this city, great city,
holy city, is described as having the glory of God. Well, something's
had to happen. Turn with me back to the book
of the Psalms. Psalm 19. Psalm 19. Psalm 19 in verse 1. It's an interesting verse here.
And if you're ever out here some evening when it is absolutely
clear and not downtown, you'll get to see a little more of this.
Now, if you really want to see it, go between here and Dufur,
some clear night without any lights around. Listen to this. The heavens declare the glory
of God. Now, I was thinking about that.
How does the heavens declare the glory of God? Well, it tells
of the immenseness of His glory, how grand and great it is, how
big it is. The heavens declare the glory
of God. They tell of the perfections
of his glory. When we get out there and stand
out there and look up to the heavens and see that, we cannot
help but be stopped in awe, and that is telling us about the
glory of God. It is part of the glory of God,
but the glory of God far surpasses his creation. That's His creation
and we stand in awe. When I go down to my brother's
place and look at the Milky Way, it looks like you can touch it
because it's at 5,000 feet down there and the air is so clear.
You look like you can touch the Milky Way. The heavens declare
the glory of God. It tells of the power of his
glory. It tells of the wisdom of his
glory. It tells of the perfection of
his glory. They declare this and don't even
say a word. Then we find out we have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Solomon, his greatest excellency,
his glory is compared to a dandelion that we go through with our shoe
and kick out of the ground because we don't want it there. The church
has the glory of God. The heavens declare the glory
of God. It declares his great sovereignty. It declares his great mercy.
It declares his great grace. He did not have to, but he did. We get to stand out there, saved
or lost alike, we get to stand out there and stand in awe. of
the glory. The heavens declare the glory
of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Turn with me,
if you would, over to the book of John. John chapter 11. As we think about the glory of
God, I can't describe it. The heavens declare it. The gospel
declares the glory of God. Christ declares the glory of
God. And the church is dressed with it. The church has the glory
of God. It's more than a bright light.
It's more than just a position. It's a state of life. It is being
clothed with the person who has redeemed us. All right, here
in the book of John chapter 11, John chapter 11 and verse 40,
it says these words. John chapter 11, verse 40, Jesus
said unto her, said I unto thee, now this is at Lazarus' tomb.
If there's ever gonna be an opportunity to declare the glory of God,
the power of God, the greatness of God, the sovereignty of God,
here, Jesus said unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou
wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. Now that situation with Lazarus
to us is a picture. Now I'm sure we're all glad that
the Lord Jesus raised a physical man out of a physical tomb, but
to the church the Lord is telling us much more. He is telling us
how much he must be involved if we'll are ever to see the
glory of God. If we're ever to see the kingdom
of God, if we're ever to hear the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ
must be this involved in that situation. He did not send his
disciples to do this. The preacher can't do this. Nobody
can do this. Save people can't do this. This
is something Jesus Christ must be involved in in every case. And that's what we get from it.
It is great that he raised Lazarus. It's great that those two sisters
got their brother back. It's great that they got all
of that. It's great. But it wasn't very long, and
the Pharisees are taking counsel how to kill this man again so
that he will not be a testimony of the glory of God, the greatness
of God, the power of God, the mercy of God. the salvation of
God, the sovereignty of God, a lot of other tombs around,
a lot of other dead people. I can't think, but Lazarus was
the only person that had died for the last year there in that
town. There's a lot more. Sovereign grace. All right, it says here, said
I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest
see the glory of God, Then they took away the stone from the
place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes
and said, Father, I'm going to show the glory of God. He says,
Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that
thou hearest me always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, glory
to God. Lazarus come forth. I'm gonna
show you the glory of God. The heavens declare the glory
of God. We're here for one reason. God
put us there. Now I don't care all the people
that declare differently. I love nature films on TV. Last
night I was watching Bug Wars. Bugs eating other bugs. And I'm
glad they do because there'd be more bugs than we need. if
they didn't do that. And every time they were talking
about this, they had to tell how they evolved to this point.
Now I believe in change. We're in change all the time.
But God made them bugs. Every one of them. And he had
a purpose in every one of them. And they didn't evolve from a
plasma. They came from God. And that's,
I told some kids today, and I list, previewed a tape I had to show,
and I said, there's one thing in here that I want to share
that I disagree. I took offense at. The fellow that made the
films called me an animal. I take offense at that. And someone
says, well, what are you? And I says, I am a human being.
And when you are taught all your school years that you are an
animal, and then you go act like one, and you're in trouble, people
find fault with it. They're taught they're animals,
and then people can't put up with them doing animal work.
I'm a human being, higher creation than any animal. Don't tell me
that because a chimpanzee can pick up a piece of grass and
stick it down in a hole and get some ants on it and stick it
in his mouth that I'm related to him. He's just hungry. The heavens declare the glory
of God. This declares the glory of God. God coming up to a dead man's
tomb and raising him. And every time he saves somebody,
he does exactly the same thing, and he's involved exactly this
amount. He must be involved, or the man's
gonna stay dead, wherever it is. He declared the glory. I'll show you. You will see the
glory of God. The glory of God, I'm in charge. The glory of God, it's grace.
The glory of God, it's mercy. The glory of God, it is me doing
this action because I want to and for no other reason. And
what do I find with regard to the church? The church has the
glory of God. It was created on purpose. by
His grace, raised to newness of life. It has the glory of
God. That's what we boast in. Christ
in Him crucified. That's the glory of God. 2 Corinthians. Would you turn there with me?
2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The heavens declare the glory
of God. My goodness, the absolute immenseness
of it cannot be measured. And that's the glory at the tomb
of Lazarus. Nobody can measure it. When you raise a dead man to
life, no man can measure it. the perfections of his glory. When he raised that man, he did
not have his head turned around backwards. He didn't come out
of the tomb with only one foot. He didn't come out of the tomb
with no vocal cords. He didn't come out of the tomb
with no eyes. He came out of the tomb complete and was able
to sit down and visit with his sisters. Now, I don't know what
he had to say. It had been an interesting conversation. I'm
sure that one of the things they asked him, what was it like?
We have no record. What was it like? And maybe he
talked about it and maybe he didn't. But it took the glory
of God to raise him. The wisdom. Jesus Christ admitted,
I could have gotten there sooner and healed a sick man. But I stayed away on purpose
that you might see the glory of God. He could, if he had had
in his purpose, prevented the fall. But he stayed away. And now we see the glory of God
raising dead people to life. There's more grace in salvation
after the fall than Adam would have known in three lifetimes
without it. I'm not making God a sinner.
He's not the author of sin. But he's just like that with
Lazarus. He stayed away on purpose. And when it came to Adam and
his sin against God, he stayed out of it on purpose, with a
purpose. Now, you'll see the glory of
God. And that's what the church is
dressed with, the glory of God. All right, 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and
there in verse 6, for God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness. Isn't that kind of what happened
to Lazarus? He commanded, just like he put the stars in space,
he commanded it and it was so. He commanded light from those
stars. He commanded the light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
who was the first one Lazarus saw when he came out of that
tomb? He's standing right in the doorway.
He's the glory of God, and that's who Lazarus saw. And his two
sisters, I can just see them. I'm going to put one on the right
hand and one on the left. When that happened, their eyes are
drawn to the one who raised their brother. This is good. This is better. My brother is
raised. This is the one that raised him.
That's who gets the honor and the glory. The one whose glory
is glorious for Lazarus to come out of the tomb, but it came
from the glory of God. He had no glory. He's given glory
by the one who is all glory, and that's who the church is
dressed with. That is what we read there as
we found in having the glory of God. It is as it mentions
there in verse 6, to give the light. of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. How do we know glory,
the glory of God? How do we know about the glory
of God? Yeah, the firmament, the heavens declare it, but we'll
never know this glory unless it's revealed. Lost people stand
in awe of the heavens. Lost people stand in awe of plants
growing, children growing up. Lost people stand in awe, but
the church sees the glory of God. All right, turn with me,
if you would, over to the book of Philippians. Philippians,
that church as it came down from God out of heaven, having the
glory of God. It was recognizable. It declared
the glory of God like the heavens do, only with a voice. The church's
voice says, salvation is of the Lord. I was reading over there
in, is it 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians? 1 Corinthians, a little later,
getting to talk about the unknown tongue. Unknown is not in the
original. It was supplied by the translators.
So there could be some confusion on that. That word should have
been translated language. The problem was people from all
over the known world at the time were coming into the church and
they were talking or preaching in a language that was not understood.
And Paul said, unless you have someone to translate it, you
might as well keep quiet because nobody's going to understand
it. And then he said, I'd rather speak five words with understanding
than 10,000 words in a language nobody understood. And I went
over there to Jonah. Salvation is of the Lord. Five words with understanding
rather than 10,000 words in a language we don't understand. That's a
pretty good message. Jonah said it from the deep.
Salvation is of the Lord. Now I don't know how many words
it is in the original. But in my translation, it's five
and it fit. Oh, the glory. Look here. Philippians. Philippians chapter two. Philippians
chapter two, verse nine. We've been over this, read this
many times. You've read it many times. What
glory is here, though, where it tells us in Philippians chapter
2, and I just want to read verses 9, 10, and 11, wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is
above every name. Now, that's the glory of God.
He has a name above every name. He's the only one that can be
called the Savior. He's the only one that can be
called the Christ. He's the only one that can be
called the Redeemer. He's the only one that can be
called God. Everyone else has to be a little
G-O-D. He's the capital. All right. Name above every name,
that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in
heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth. Now
I'm thankful that it doesn't take these knees to bow. It takes our heart and he makes
it bow. And we gladly bow at the feet
of the Lord Jesus. We gladly bow before his sovereignty. We gladly bow before his will. We gladly bow before his word.
We gladly bow, that's one thing that comes with salvation. We
gladly bow before him. We listen to his word and we
want to obey it. And we're thankful for his Holy
Spirit that enables us to obey it. We don't want to sin and
we're thankful for the Holy Spirit that he puts away, takes, well,
confess your sin. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sin, but he forgave us at the cross. It's not dependent
upon our confession. He forgave us at the cross. Now daily, he asks us, confess
your sin. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Where
did that happen? At the cross. If we don't happen
to confess one, he's not gonna hold it against us. I like what
one preacher said. What does God do when one of
his children sin? Nothing. Why? He was taken care of at the cross. He paid for it, the cross. He's
not gonna make his children pay for it with some sort of punishment. He punished his son over it.
All right. That at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow. Of things in heaven and things
in the earth and things under the earth. And that every tongue
should confess that Jesus is Lord. What? To the glory of God the Father. As the church comes down, you
can just hear it saying, Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory
of God the Father. And we will not stop saying that. He is Lord. We will not back
down from that. Someone will be declaring that
the very last day, when the last sheep is saved, someone will
be declaring. We hope there's more, but one
person at least will be declaring that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father. And as the church is pictured
coming down from heaven, it is said, having the glory of God. that body of believers believes
in their heart, every fiber of their being, Jesus Christ is
Lord, that he has raised them from the spiritual dead and they
were really dead. They weren't just in there playing
dead, they were really dead and it took him and an active part
on every one of them to be raised from that position. after the
preaching of the gospel, just as we read over there in Ezekiel
37, about the valley of dry bones. Ezekiel had to prophesy, preach
first, and then God did his business. Nobody is ever gonna be saved
without the preaching of the gospel. And that's not milquetoast
gospel, that's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he
is Lord. All right, now turn with me if
you would, over to the book of Revelation 21. Little farther
in this chapter verse 21 Now look at this with me revelation
chapter 21 and verse 23 There in verse 11 it says having the glory
of God and her light was like a stone most precious This is
a precious light Not everyone has it I was reading last night
about a huge stone was dug out of the mountains
in Tanzania. And they just discovered this
stone about 100 years ago. And the only place they found
it, and this worker, this native worker, wanted to sell it to
a gymnologist for $50, which would have been probably two
years wages for him. And that guy thought it was glass
and turned it down. And that piece of glass sold
for three million dollars. Didn't know what he had. Call
that one poorly. Fifty dollar investment, sell
it for three million? Hmm. Call that poorly. He didn't know what glory was
there. Now, this glory, is the glory
that most people pass up. All people will pass up by nature. We don't want this man ruling
over us. We don't want this man's glory. We've got our own glory
and yet we find that God said that that glory has fallen short
of His glory. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We just can't get there. We think
we can, but we can't. Fallen short, we're short of
it. The heavens declare it. It is
immense. It is sovereign. It is free.
How much do you have to pay to go out there and look at the
heaven? It's free. It's of grace. He didn't have
to put it up there. He could put clouds over us all
the time. It's free and sovereign and it's gracious. And it's immense. And that's the glory that we're
talking about. And it's God's glory stepping up to a tomb and
raising, I'm going to show you the glory of God. You believe,
I'll show you the glory of God. And he showed him the glory of
God, raised a man from the dead. That glory is the glory that
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. the Lord
Jesus to the glory of God the Father. The church is covered
with this glory and acquainted with this glory. He's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now notice here, Revelation chapter
21 verse 23, and the city had no need of the sun, neither of
the moon to shine in it. Now, I don't know about what
that's like. I know it's not going to be a flashlight. There
was light before there was the sun, and there was light before
there was the moon, and there could be light without the moon.
It's just reflected glory. It's just the church out there,
a dry stone, unless the light's shining on it, that's all we
are. Just a stone with light shining on us. Then it says,
for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof. The glory of God did lighten
it. And the Lamb is the light thereof. Who is the glory of God? The Lamb. And the church having
the glory of God. One of the greatest blessings
that God ever provided for the church is that it would have
the Lamb that the lamb would be with the church, they would
be synonymous. It would be the head, he would
be the head, and they would be the body. As we heard Rupert
read and we've read and you've read over there in Jeremiah,
one chapter calls the Lord Jesus, the Lord our righteousness. About
10 chapters later, the church is called the Lord our righteousness. And you know what that is? Having
the glory of God, raised by His grace, raised by His glory, confessing
the Lord, that Jesus is Lord. And here, as that church is pictured
coming down from God, it's a whole bunch of people, out of every
kindred nation, people in tongues. that God chose before the world
began, that were created in new life in Christ Jesus, and their
glory is the Lamb of God. He is their light. He is their
glory. He is their hope. He is their
peace. He is their all and in all. And throughout eternity, we'll
be able to confess from our very heart, now we have trouble with
this sometimes, We question it sometimes that he's Lord because
things didn't go like we had hoped that they would go. But
then we'll be able to say without any interference from our flesh,
worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive glory and honor and
praise. And not one bit of us will ever
hold back on that. We'll confess it with our whole
heart. This old flesh will be put away.
And that which God deposited in us on our new birth, we'll
be able to say it freely. It won't trip over the words.
It won't trip over the principle. It won't trip over it. We'll
be able to say it. Now, we believe it. I'm saying
that we believe. But oh, God, help my unbelief.
It's really great why things are going great. Oh, sometimes,
Lord, how could that happen? How could that happen? Well,
someday our old flesh will be taken away and we'll say, oh,
we're clothed with the glory of God. And every bit of that
is Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God.