In the book of Exodus chapter
13, Moses besought the Lord. In verse 18
of Exodus 33, he said, Lord, I beseech you, I beg you, show
me your glory. And that word glory, when it
pertains to God, describes the majesty, the greatness, the awesomeness
of God in his nature, in his presence, just God himself, as
the Bible identifies and distinguishes him from all idols. It's that
which makes him so unique. There's no God like our God.
There's none to be compared with God. There's no way that we can
see any human representation of God. That guy that's on the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, that's not God. That's somebody's
conception of humanizing God. But his glory, show me your glory,
that's his majesty, his magnificence. But also the glory of God is
seen in his works. What God has done, what God is
doing, and what God will do are displays of His majesty and His
glory. And that revelation of God is
what the Bible calls light. Light means truth. Light means
seeing the glory of God. And we're gonna be talking about
this, the glory of God in the face, the person and work of
Jesus Christ. And so I've got in your lesson
here that everything that God reveals in his word, in the Bible,
is revealed to show forth the light of his glory in four ways. Number one is his glory in creation. And that's what we're gonna look
at a little bit today. In the beginning, God. And creation
shows forth God's eternal power and his Godhead, as Paul wrote
in Romans chapter one and verse 19, as the psalmist wrote in
Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament,
his handiwork. And what we see in that light
of creation is the eternal power and Godhead, the wisdom of God.
Think about the wisdom of God in the order of the universe.
The psalmist David used the human body, his own body. He said, how fearfully and wonderfully
I am made. You think about our physical
makeup and how everything works together in our organs and everything. God created that. And so that's
his glory in creation. And then secondly is his glory
in providence. Now that's God's governance of
this world. And that reveals his power and
his wisdom. God, think about this. I know
we're on this earth, we walk and day after day we see this
and we see that. Some things we might say they're
good, some things we might say that are terrible. But in all
of this workings, God is working after his own will to accomplish
his purpose. working all things after his
own will. He's governing this world. And he's in control. And so,
no matter what happens, we know it's God who's in control. Whatever happens on November
3rd, God's in control. Nothing has ever taken him by
surprise. No one's ever sneaked up on God.
It's all according to his providence. And we acknowledge that as believers,
and sometimes we can see it in ways that we never saw it before.
You know, when Job, after he'd gone through all of his trials
and the Lord brought him through, he made this statement. He said,
I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear. Now mine eye seeth
you. And I often wonder what did Job
mean by that? Some people say that was Job's
conversion. I don't believe that's the truth
because if you go back to Job one, chapter one, God declares
that Job was a just man and upright. Now what does it mean to be a
just man? That means a sinner justified before God through
Christ. And what does it mean to be upright?
It means to be a person of faith, God-given faith. But what I believe
Job is saying is this, he knew God was in control, every believer
does. And we say that and we know it's
true, but sometimes we go through an experience that makes us realize
it even more. And I believe that's what Job's
statement, I've heard of you by the hearing, I know it was
so. But now I've gone through all of this and I've seen it
firsthand and I acknowledge it. God is in control, God is sovereign,
that's his glory. Thirdly, and we need to understand
this, God reveals his glory even in the condemnation of the wicked. God reveals himself in his holiness,
in his truth, in his justice. when he punishes sinners eternally
for their sins. And I've got cited in your lesson,
if you don't believe that, read Romans 1, 18 through 32. Because that's God's glory in
the condemnation of the wicked. But here's the key, here's the
thing that we wanna realize even more. The fourth one is God's
glory in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ. And we have
to understand that that is the greatest revelation of God's
glory. Now, why do I say that? Well,
in creation, God reveals some of his attributes, his eternal
Godhead, his power, his wisdom. In providence, he reveals some
of his attributes. In condemnation of the wicked,
he reveals some of his attributes. but in the salvation of sinners
by his grace through Christ, God reveals all of his attributes
there. Every one of them on the cross.
That's what that cross is all about. It's about the glory of
God in the salvation of his people by his grace through Jesus Christ.
And I've always said this, you know, when Moses asked that question
over in Exodus, He says, show me your glory. God's answer to him was, well,
I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll be gracious
to whom I'll be gracious. That's God's sovereignty, but
it's all his glory in the salvation of sinners. And one of the things
that I always go to is Isaiah 45, 21. I've got that cited in
your lesson. God expresses what the old Jewish writers used to
call the Shekinah glory. That's the greatest manifestation
of God's presence. At one point in time, to the
Jews under the old covenant, that dwelt in the tabernacle
above the mercy seat, where he said, there, I'll meet with you.
And of course, that's a picture of Christ. That's a picture of
God's grace, his mercy, based upon the blood. And so in Christ,
we see all that coming together. But the greatest way of describing
God's Shekinah glory, his greatest glory, is how he identifies himself,
I believe, in verses like Isaiah 45, 21, where he says, look unto
me and be ye saved, for I am God and there's none else. How
did he identify himself? A just God and a Savior. Because
what that's talking about is the answer to the question, how
can a sinner be justified in God's sight? And how can God
be just and justify sinners like us? How can he be both a just
God and a savior? How can he be a righteous judge
and honor his justice? and his holiness and his righteousness,
as well as be a merciful father in saving sinners. How can he
do that? And there's only one way, and
that's based upon the righteousness of Christ. So you think about
phrases like the righteous, a just God and a savior, and phrases
like the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. That's
God's Shekinah glory. That's his glory in the salvation
of sinners. That's how God reveals himself.
So God reveals his glory in creation, providence, judgment, in salvation,
and all of this to ultimately lead all of his chosen people,
all of his elect, to believe on him and trust in him as he
reveals himself in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now that's what's called the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now look at
Genesis 1 and verse 1. Listen, it says, in the beginning
God. Now you notice the Bible does
not start out with arguments and debates to prove God's existence. And I like that. It just No,
it just assumes. The writer, who's God himself,
we know, but Moses, I believe, who was the human instrument.
God is here. God is the creator of the universe.
God exists, and those who deny his existence deny the light
of creation. And why do they deny his existence? Because they don't want to be
held accountable their sins. They don't want to stand before
God as the judge but in the beginning God and some scholars say that
the word thee there should be left out just says in beginning
God. God is the first cause of all
things. He's the be-all the end-all and
everything in between and in our text he reveals himself here
in creation And when we view creation through Christ-centered
eyes, which is all these lessons are about, looking at the Old
Testament, Christ in the Old Testament, we can see a direct
parallel with God's revelation of himself in salvation, in beginning
God. God, nobody helped God create
this universe. You didn't help him, I didn't
help him, Adam didn't help him, Adam wasn't created yet. He was
in the mind and purpose of God, wasn't he? Well, the same thing
in salvation, in beginning God. Salvation begins with God. It doesn't begin with a sinner. It's not something that God does
in cooperation with you, but it's God alone. As some of the
old writers said, it's monotheistic. It's monergism. That means one
person, One being is the first cause of all things, well he's
the first cause of salvation. In other words, salvation is
of the Lord. It's not what you do for him,
it's what he does for his people. And it's not what God does in
response to you, it's what he brings us to do in response to
him. And so The Father, we see the
Trinity involved in the creation. In fact, I've got in your lesson
here somewhere about how the name for God here, Elohim, is
a plural. And what's it talking about,
many gods? No, it's talking about the triune Godhead, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They were all involved in the
creation. And I've got scriptures here that you can turn to to
see that. It says, in John chapter one,
that Christ, the Word, that he was involved in creation. Without
him, all of it was made, and without him, wasn't anything
made. He was there. We're going to see here where
it says the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters. The Holy
Spirit's involved. You could say it this way. God
the Father planned and purposed creation. God the Son did the
work of creation. and God the Holy Spirit energized
it unto life. And you see that in salvation.
God the Father planned and purposed salvation. He chose a people
in Christ before the foundation of the world, gave us to him,
made Christ our surety. In other words, made him accountable
for the sins of his elect from eternity. Christ was the surety
of the covenant of grace. That means our sins were imputed,
charged to Him. And then God the Son, He does
the work of salvation. He's the Redeemer. He's the one
who paid the debt. As our surety, what did He do? He became our substitute, stood
in our place, and died the death of the cross to satisfy the justice
of God. Bring forth everlasting life,
establish righteousness upon which all of us are justified,
all of God's elect. And then what is God the Holy
Spirit? He's the great applicator, as we might say, of eternal life. He makes it, in our experience,
to be real and powerful. He's the agent of the new birth
through the word of God. He gives us a new heart, new
eyes, new ears. And you can see the parallel
there in creation, see? So it all begins with God and
all the names of God. In the beginning, look at verse
one, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Everything
that's created was created by God. God himself was not created. He's the alpha and the omega,
has no beginning and no end. And so all of this begins with
God, just like creation. God spoke out of nothing. Look
at verse two. And the earth was without form
and without void. Now there's a lot of speculation
about things, about why the earth was this way or how it came to
be this way. And I'm not gonna do that because there's no use speculating and
trying to fill in a blank. You know, there's some people
who say, well, they believe what they call the gap theory and
you may hold onto that and that's fine. The things I've heard about
the gap theory are not necessarily anti-scriptural, they're just
extra-scriptural. In other words, it doesn't tell
us. But I believe this is simply saying the earth was without
form and void. I believe this is simply saying that when God
created this world, he created it out of nothing. There was
nothing, God spoke, and now there's something. As one old writer
said, God stood on nothing, spoke to nothing, and created something.
But that's what it is. And what I see in this, it says,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. I see this as a
parallel of man falling in Adam. In our fallen, sinful, depraved
state, we're nothing. As far as being right with God,
as far as having any relationship with God, we're nothing, we're
less than nothing. We fell in Adam, we're gonna
talk about that next week or the week after. How we fell in
Adam into sin and death and we're born dead, spiritually dead. There's nothing, listen, there's
nothing of spiritual life in us by nature. And so when God
saves us by his grace, he literally creates something out of nothing.
And we're called the new creation. It's said that if any man be
in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation. You can think
about Ephesians chapter two and verse 10, for we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. So it's not like that
in the preaching of the gospel. We come down here and say, now
God's done everything he can do. Now the rest is up to you.
Oh no. In the beginning, God created the heaven. In the beginning,
God created the sinner saved by grace. The sinner saved by
grace was without form. Void and darkness was upon him.
And what did God do? He spoke his word. through Jesus
Christ in the power of the Spirit, and what did he create? He created
a sinner saved by grace, a justified sinner. So all of this has that
parallel. The Spirit, look here, it says
the Spirit, verse two, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters. Now again, God the Holy Spirit
applied the power of God in the creation of this world. He was
the prime mover, you might say, sent from the Father and the
Son to bring life from God to a dead world. And so the same
thing happens in salvation. You must be born again, Christ
said, or you cannot see. You don't have spiritual eyes.
Your eyes are void and nothing and dead until the Spirit of
God gives you eyes to see. Now you have physical eyes. when God, when you were born,
but you didn't have spiritual eyes. Physical ears, but not
spiritual ears. Until the Spirit of God moved
as he was sent forth from the Father and the Son to give life
to the dead. And you know, the new birth,
in Ephesians chapter one, excuse me, I have to drink this water.
I'm on sinus medicine, it dries my mouth. But anyway, when the Spirit of
God moves, it's a resurrection from the dead, isn't it? Just
like Lazarus in the tomb. Christ stood there and he said,
and Lazarus was dead, been in the tomb, what, three days, he
said? And he said, Lazarus, come forth. The light, the power of
life moved upon the darkness, the death. and spoke life into existence. And so our new birth is a literal
resurrection from the dead. Somebody says, well, no, it's
a spiritual. It's a literal spiritual resurrection from the dead because
Christ literally gives us spiritual life. He gives us eyes to see,
ears to hear. He gives us faith to believe.
Faith is a gift of God. You don't have that in you by
nature. He gives us a new will that we didn't have before, a
desire and a will to believe in the Lord and to serve Him
and to honor Him. We didn't have that before. Oh,
we had a will to believe and serve false gods, idols, but
He spoke and He spoke through His word. That's what we do when
we preach the gospel. That's God speaking through His
word. And when He calls the name, of his people, and how does he
do that? By sending that spirit to give him life. And it's just
like Lazarus come forth. What'd Lazarus do? He came forth. Well, look at verse three. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. It doesn't
say, and God said, let there be light, and there may have
been light, no. Or if the world would cooperate,
there'd be, no. Let there be light, there's light. Let there be life, and there's
life. And you know what this shows,
is the invincible power of God's will and God's word. God, our
God, which is the one and only God, is not a God of unfulfilled
desire. He's not a God that leaves himself
at the whim of sinners, who by nature, if left to themselves,
left to ourselves, we would reject him. God's purpose is to glorify
himself in the salvation of his people through Jesus Christ alone,
by his grace. And he speaks light into existence. His word will not return void. His Word is quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword. And just as God spoke physical
light into existence and created, as He spoke this world into existence
and light into existence, when He speaks spiritual light, His
Word as it is in Christ, the revelation of His righteousness,
how He can be both a just God and a Savior by His grace through
Jesus Christ. When He speaks that into the
minds and hearts of sinners, it means He's created them anew.
He's given them a new heart. And no sinner can resist it.
Turn over to 2 Corinthians 4. Now this connects the power of
God in creation with the power of God in salvation, this verse. But if you look up here, start
in verse three of 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4, three, but if
our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. They're in
darkness, aren't they? That's what we are by nature.
In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest what? The light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine under them. Now God doesn't reveal himself
to everybody. Sometimes God judiciously removes
his any light from some. And Satan's goal is to keep us
from seeing that light, yet he cannot accomplish his purpose
if God is in the beginning. And so he says in verse five,
I think this is significant here. Well, we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. Salvation is not, it doesn't
center around or begin with or finalize with man. We're not
preaching ourselves. We're not preaching salvation
conditioned on man. But we preach Christ, it's all
conditioned on Christ, and here's the end result, look at verse
six. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
let there be light, hath shined in our hearts, that's the new
heart, our mind, affections, and will, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let there be light. The gospel
in John chapter three and verse 19, when the Lord said, this
is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men
love darkness and hate the light because their deeds are evil.
When this light comes on, it exposes our depravity, our sinfulness,
our evil deeds. Think about the Apostle Paul
on the road to Damascus when the light shone and it blinded
him. But for the first time in his life, he really saw. And
what did he see? He saw the light of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and it caused him to count all,
everything that he held dear and good and depended on for
salvation, he said, I call it now dung, it's all lost. that
I might be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. And so that gospel life, it reveals our sin, it exposes
us for what we are. It removes every hope we have
and every refuge we run to that is not purely 100% Jesus Christ and His righteousness
alone. It tells me and you that we cannot
find the righteousness that God requires, the perfection of righteousness
which is in the law, except by looking to the light of Jesus
Christ. And that's it. He reveals our sin because we
believe not on Christ. He reveals righteousness to us
because Christ has gone to the Father and he reveals the light
of judgment. How God says he is appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained and he hath raised him from the
dead. The light is the light of the
gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed as the glory
of God. in the face of Jesus Christ,
the person and work of Christ. And so as we look to Christ and
see more of his glory, just remember that this whole thing now is
a matter of salvation is of the Lord, God who said, let there
be light. And he did that for every one
of his people, or he does that for every one of his people.