Over the past few weeks, we've
been considering the simplicity that is in Christ. And we've
been doing so purposely because the Apostle Paul was very concerned
that the Lord's people, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, people
like us, might be beguiled by the subtlety
of Satan, might be corrupted by the errors of our age, as
Eve was, and that we might be deceived through vain knowledge. The Apostle knew that there was
a simplicity in the gospel, that there was a simplicity in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he advocated that the people
of God never become distracted, never be diverted, never be confused
or deceived into pursuing the complexities of mere religion
at the expense of the simplicity that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see that there was a validity
in his concern because we see that the history of the church
has been constantly to be beset by those who endeavour to do
it harm. And we've reflected upon that
when we were speaking to the younger ones already today. That whether it was outside of
the church and the persecution that came from the Saul of Tarsus,
or whether it was the confusion which arose inside the church,
even from the testimony, the identification and baptism of
men and women who had no interest in the truth of the gospel, but
we're seeking after things for their own ends and their own
well-being and their own wealth and promotion like Simon. And
so there is a confusion and there is a complexity even in religion,
a deceptiveness. And we find that there is brought
against this simplicity that is in Christ a complexity that
both compromises the purity of the gospel and conceals the beauty
that is in Christ from the sight of his people. Words and teaching
that is carefully crafted, smooth, and outwardly attractive. but is at the same time deceptive
and ultimately damning to the souls of men and women. There is so much religion in
this world and whether it goes by the name Christian or whether
it has some other name that is given to it, so much religion
and so many people that are following after mere religion. It's Job in chapter 15, verse
two, that speaks of vain knowledge, vain knowledge. And when he speaks
of that vain knowledge, he says it's like filling your belly
with the east wind. I wonder if that's the origin
of the saying, he's full of hot air. filling your belly with the east
wind. And many preachers are full of
hot air. Many play to their audiences,
play to their congregation. They play because they know that
people have itching ears. Congregations that are like the
men of Athens, who were eager to hear some new thing and susceptible
to cunning new doctrines. In Mark chapter 13 and verse
22, the Lord Jesus Christ said this, False Christs and false
prophets shall rise and shall show signs and wonders to seduce,
if it were possible, even the elect. That's not a maybe. That's
not a perhaps it'll happen. They are here right now, they
are around us right now. If the Lord Jesus Christ warned
his people that this is how it would be, we can pretty much
take it as absolutely true. Now someone might say, well what
makes you right and other people wrong? Maybe some of the young ones
that are here. Maybe some of those young ones
who see their friends going to other churches and see different
religion in different places. And maybe you hear about some
exciting things that are going on with the young people's groups
and days away and lots of music and exciting activities that
go on in this church. And maybe you think, you know
what, my church is a little bit boring. I wonder what makes them
think that they're right. I wonder why my mum and dad takes
me along there. I wonder why I go to that church
and not another one. Are you the only ones that are
right? Are you the only ones that have got true knowledge? No, not at all. Not at all. And as you grow up,
you young ones, And maybe you move away and maybe you start
making decisions about where you want to go to church and
where you want to take your children to church. Maybe you have to
go to college somewhere and you'll have to find somewhere to go.
You'll have to find a church of your own and you'll have to
think to yourself, which church will I go to? No, we don't have a monopoly of the
truth in this church. But all I would say to you is
this, wherever you end up going to church, find one where the pastor and
the people love and value God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty
in salvation. Find one where they preach unconditional
election. and understand predestination. Find one where particular limited
atonement is held up to the front as being the essence of the work
of Jesus Christ on the cross. Where accomplished redemption
is preached, a redemption that actually saves. Find one where
free and irresistible grace is preached from the pulpit regularly. Find one where people fix their
hope on the perseverance and the preservation of the people
of God through all the ups and downs and vagaries of the trials
and problems of life because God has his hands upon those
people and he is bringing them safe to glory. Find one like
that. Find one where the people of
God in that place, God's elect, rest upon Him amid all the troubles
and the trials of their life, that they rest secure and confident
in God's all-wise providence in their lives and in the affairs
of the world. And if some of those words sound
a little bit complicated, let me sum them up in this one little
single phrase. Find one where the simplicity
of Christ is preached. That's all I ask. This morning, I want to think
a little bit more about the simplicity that is in Christ and particularly
the simplicity that is in Christ's glory. Well, let me first mention
something, if I may, about the essential glory of God. We're going to think about Christ's
glory, but I just want to mention the essential glory of God, the
triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When we speak about
God, and we speak about the glory of God, or the glory of the Lord,
which is another phrase that is used often in Scripture. We need to realize that properly
speaking, glory belongs to God alone. Now, we will use glory
in other ways. We will speak about a glorious
sunrise that we saw when we were out camping. Oh, and it was beautiful. It was just glorious. It was
something that took our breath away, and it is glorious. Or maybe we'll think about a
glorious piece of music that we heard. that just seemed to
move our spirits, that seemed to get right inside our head
and touch something very deep down inside. And we'll say, that
was glorious. That was glorious playing. It
was glorious music. But you see, whether we're thinking
about a sunrise or something that we see or hear in the world
around about us, we need to remember that that glory is derived. It's only because God made it
like that. It's only because God enabled
that for his people's pleasure, for the pleasure of those whom
he loves. Only God is truly eternal. Only God is unchangeable. Only God is holy. And only God
is all glorious. Everything else is derived from
Him. Furthermore, We read in Isaiah
42 verse 8, Thus saith God the Lord, I am the Lord, that is
my name, and my glory will I not give to another. The triune God dwells in glory. He is surrounded by glory. such that it is impossible for
the sinful man to see or to know God, such as His glory. The word we use for that is transcendent. God is beyond our comprehension,
beyond our understanding, such as His majesty, such as His power,
such as His dominion and His glory. His purity, His holiness,
that we can't even approach Him with our thoughts, with our bodies,
with anything about Him. That is His glory. And He dwells and lives in glory. It's incomprehensible to us. Another word that is sometimes
used is ineffable. It means that we can't even talk
about it properly. It's beyond the language that
we have to speak. 1 Timothy 6, verse 16 says of him
who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be
honour and power everlasting. And while all those things are
true about God, Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet there
is more to this message than that declaration. Because that
God who is unapproachable, that God who is incomprehensible,
that God who is all glorious, has nevertheless, while we could
not go to him, come to us because of his love for us and because
of his mercy towards us. He has revealed something of
his glory to men and women in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. the Son of God. Because God became
man, because God entered into our world, because he took upon
himself our flesh, we can know something of the unknowable.
We can comprehend something of the incomprehensible. We can
know something about God in all of his majesty and holiness and
glory because we see it. in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
we are going to think about the simplicity that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ's glory. Here's something. I need to say
it. Here's the first thing. Halfway
through my sermon, probably more than halfway through, but this
is number one. All right. I was just building
up to four or five quick points here. God's glory is seen in
the eternal Son. God's glory is seen in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul calls it the glory of Christ. We have glimpses of God's nature,
his character, his essential being, his divine perfections. in the Lord Jesus Christ. They
are revealed to us by the Lord. And insofar as we can see the
Lord Jesus Christ, we can behold something of God in the person
of the God-man. John 1, verse 14 says, And the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Hebrews 1.3 says, who being the
brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and
upholding all things by the word of his power. We can see something
of the triune God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
everybody can, not everyone did. John said, we beheld his glory. But there were many, many at
the time of the Lord Jesus Christ that didn't perceive anything
of the Lord Jesus Christ's true identity. The Lord Jesus Christ as God
is all-knowing, all-powerful, Omnipresent, he discerns the
hearts of men. He is holy God, completely God. Nature was subject to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He stood in the front of the
boat and he said, stop. And the wind stopped and the
waves stopped. He took bread and fish and he
fed 5,000 people, probably more than that. He went to a coffin
of a young man And he told them to rise. This is Christ. This is the God-man. We see something
of the essential glory of God in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The miracles he performed, the
doctrines he preached, the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ on the
mountain. Matthew says that, chapter 17, verse 2, that the
Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured before his disciples and his
face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the
light. Yet not everybody saw the Lord
Jesus Christ in this way. Isaiah says that he was despised
and he was rejected of men. Why was that? Well, here's the
second point. Because the glory was concealed
in the humanity of the Lord Jesus. Our Saviour did not give up his
glory when he came to earth. but it was concealed from most
who were blinded to it, such that only a few could see it. And that was spiritually discerned. Christ asked what men thought
of him. Whom do men say that I am? Simon
Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. It was spiritually granted, gifted,
bestowed that these few individuals should see something of the true
nature and the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man. be able to see beyond the mere
outward appearance of Christ to the very nature and essence
of the glory of God that dwelt in him. Jesus says, then charged
he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus,
the Christ, Jesus, the anointed one of God. The Jews, as fleshy men, they
looked for a mighty conqueror to come, a glorious king. But the Lord Jesus Christ said,
my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is a spiritual work,
a spiritual work of redemption from sin, of forgiveness for
sinners, of salvation from hell, of reconciliation with God. That's why I'm here. I'm not
here to establish an earthly kingdom and build castles and
palaces and fortresses and send my armies across the world. If
that was the kind of kingdom that I wanted, my servants would
fight. But I'm going to the cross because I've got a different
job to do. What we needed was not another
king. What we needed was not another
monarch. What we needed was not another general. We needed someone
to bear our sin. Someone to carry our sorrows. Someone who would substitute
himself for us and die in our place, who would carry our sin
before God, who would represent us and stand before God's just
law in our place and shoulder God's wrath against us. That's what we needed. And in the body of flesh, Our
glorious God and Saviour Jesus Christ dwelt amongst men to that
end and for that purpose. Here's the third thing I want
to mention. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ was revealed
occasionally to a few on earth. In the face of Jesus Christ,
We can discern his true identity and we can witness his works
and his words. We see it in the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see it in the fact that here
was a man, a man of flesh and blood and nerves and arms and
legs just like us. And yet death had no power over
him. That's the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the glory of God in him. In 1 Peter 1 verse 21, we're
told, God raised him up from the dead and gave him glory. In the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, we can see the glory of Christ. In the ascension of
Christ, we see him glorified. In Acts 2, verse 36, God hath
made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ. He was raised up from the earth.
He was placed in that position of dominion and rule over all
things. till his enemies be made his
footstool. And in the glorification of the
Lord Jesus Christ, in Luke chapter 24 and 26, we see this. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? That was what it was
all about. It was about Him coming and suffering. It was about Him enduring the
wrath of God, Him taking the place of His people, Him standing
in that gap on their behalf, carrying their sorrows, carrying
their pain. The Lord Jesus Christ says to
his Father in John chapter 17 verse 5, And now, O Father, Glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ,
having accomplished his work, having completed his duty, his
responsibility, his covenant obligations, having completed
and satisfied all of those great requirements that were placed
upon his shoulders by the eternal Godhead in the covenant of grace. Our mediator stands before God
and he says, glorify thou me with thine own self with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. Here we see the
Lord Jesus Christ being acknowledged with all that glory that is essentially
his. in this great mediatorial capacity
of the saviour of his people. He fulfilled that role of mediator. One God and one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He reconciled the elect, the
chosen people to God as was required of him. He saved our souls and
he brought us to God and he took the glory of success and accomplishments
that was due him for that great task that was set before the
God-man, successfully accomplishing the work that was given. He took
the crown of glory to himself as he deserved. This glorified
God-man, this mediator, now dwells in heaven, seated Unless you're
Stephen when you see him standing, seated at the right hand of God,
his work now finished. Stephen could say in Acts chapter
7, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God. And in Hebrews chapter 2, verse
9, we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour. The Lord Jesus Christ concealed
his glory when he came as the God-man and revealed his glory
when he spoke and taught and showed it to certain individuals
and it was seen in the way in which the unfolding of the plan
of salvation was accomplished. But here's something that's pretty
staggering, pretty amazing and I just want to draw your attention
to this. that the Lord Jesus Christ also
shares his glory. He shares his glory. And I want
to finish with this wonderful thought of the Lord Jesus Christ
sharing his glory. That saviour is now ascended
on high. That saviour is now crowned with
glory and honour. And as that mediator, he will
share that glory with his church and his people, with his bride. As his body is in heaven, so
the church is called his body here upon earth. and soon we
will be united with him and we will be joined to him and share
with him all that glory that he possesses as the mediator
of his people. All that his body will enjoy
in the eternal ages of glory, we will enjoy being united to
him. Everything that he has will be
ours. Everything that is given to him
of honour and glory by the Father will be our portion also. Romans 8 verse 30 says, Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Whom he called,
them he justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Glorified, what already? Yes,
yes. Why? Because we are already seated
together with him in heaven. That's what Ephesians says, chapter
two. God who is rich in mercy, for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. When Christ rose
from the dead, we were quickened together with him. By grace are
you saved, and hath raised us up together in the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We were raised up together with
Him. We who have faith, we who trust
in Him, were raised up together with Him and made in His ascension
glory to sit in heavenly places with Him. That in the ages to
come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. So all of that glory that the
Lord Jesus Christ prayed for of his father in John 17, verse
five, that glory which he had before in the presence of his
father, that is going to be ours. That is going to be mine. That
is going to be yours if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and
believe in Him, if you are one of those for whom all these things
have been accomplished. Christ is seated in heaven and
we are seated there with Him. Our glory is certain. There's no doubt, there's no
question about it. The children of God, the family
of God, the people of God are placed into the hands of their
Saviour and are absolutely secure. Romans 8, 17 says this, and if
children than heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So here's the final thought.
The Lord's people are called to suffering in this world. Christ must suffer and enter
into his glory. That's what he told to the two
disciples on the road to Emmaus. Christ must suffer and enter
into his glory. And like our Saviour, would you
have it any other way? Would you have it any other way
that you were unlike your Saviour? Like our Saviour, we shall suffer
and enter into our glory. Christ foretold his disciples
that in the world they should have tribulation. It is part of our being conformed
to him. These trials are not random. We've been thinking about some
trials that some of our wider congregation have been experiencing
in the past few days. These trials are not random. And they're certainly not futile. They're given as gifts from God. to conform us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. They throw us upon our Saviour. They lessen our love for this
world. And they exercise the gifts and
the graces of the Spirit of truth in our hearts. They make heaven
appear sweeter. to the saints of God than it
already does. May the Lord show us his glory
this morning and remind us that soon, very soon, we shall enter
into our joy and eternally share with him that glory which is
his in heaven. Amen.