42 years ago, back in June 1976,
I went to Ashland for a conference there, where Mayhem was pastor.
And it was the first of those conferences that I had attended.
And I heard a man preach by the E.W. Johnson. Brother Johnson
was already an old man when I met him. He pastored at Pine Bluff,
Arkansas, Calvary Baptist Church in Pine Bluff for over 50 years,
53, 54 years. And he made a statement. I jotted
it down. I haven't forgotten it. It had
an effect on me. Brother Johnson said, a lost
man can see everything a saved man can see, except this. He can't see the glory of God. We do. The lost man can see everything
a saved man can see, except this, he can't see the glory of God. We who are born of God and taught
of God do see the glory of God. The lost man can be very religious
and he can see doctrine, he can see true doctrine. sovereignty,
predestination, election, limited atonement, irresistible grace.
He can see it very clearly, but he can't see the glory of God.
The unregenerate man can see Bible facts, but he can't see
the glory of God. The unbelieving man can see good
works, but he can't see the glory of God. The lost soul can see
many, many things taught in this book. prophecy, church order,
baptism, all the various teachings of conduct and so on. But he
can't see the glory of God. We can. Believers do. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
four for just a minute. I want you to see this. It is the revelation of the glory
of God in the face of Christ that produces saving faith. And
if ever you see the glory of God in the face of Christ, you
will be saved. You will believe on the Son of
God and you will never be saved. You will never believe on the
Son of God until Christ is revealed in you and you see the glory
of God in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse
three. Paul says, if our gospel be hid,
it is hid to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Thank God
God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ. He's hidden the gospel from some.
He's blinded the minds of those who believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
God's servants don't preach for their own purposes, for their
own gain, they don't preach about themselves, they don't preach
from themselves, from their own intuitive knowledge, from their
own learning, from their own abilities, but rather we preach
Christ Jesus the Lord, for him, about him and from him, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. We serve your souls preaching
Christ for his sake, For God, who 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. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels. God has put this treasure in
us. We carry about this treasure wherever we go. that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. The greatest part of preparation
to stand in this place is seeking God's grace. Begging of God as I prepare the
message that he will speak through these lips to you and visit us
with his presence. For it matters not how well prepared
I am or any other preacher is. It matters not how capable I
am or any other preacher is. God speaks by his servants as
he will. And only as God speaks and makes
himself known in his son is the preaching of the gospel beneficial
to your souls. How I pray that the Lord God
will be pleased to grant us again tonight the revelation of his
glory in this place, this hour. Oh God, thou art my God. Early
will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My
flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is, to see thy power and thy glory as I have seen thee in
the sanctuary. Now commonly, when people talk
or write about the glory of God, they tend either to make it a
very emotional things with lots of glitter and little or no substance,
or a terribly mystical thing no one can really get hold of.
It's neither. Let me be crystal clear. The
words translated glory, both in the Old Testament and in the
New, mean abundance, wealth, treasure, and honor, dignity,
splendor, brightness, and majesty. When the Scriptures speak of
God's glory, They sometimes refer to the perfection of his nature,
his attributes, and his worthiness as the object of our faith, our
praise and our worship, the greatness and supremacy and excellence
of his being. And yet the revelation of God's
glory in this book is everywhere represented by one specific thing. Everywhere in this book where
God's glory is made known, The scriptures associate the revelation
of God's glory with the person and work of our Lord Jesus. Let
me remind you of a few examples. You'll remember when Moses begged
of God, I pray thee, show me now thy glory. The Lord answered
his prayer by revealing the person and work of Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer, showing Moses in the person of Christ and his sacrifice,
how that he could both clear the guilty and by no means forgive
iniquity, transgression, and sin. When Manoah and his wife
saw the angel of the Lord and made sacrifice, the angel of
the Lord did wondrously. The angel of the Lord did wondrously
before them. So that Manoah and his wife saw
God, as they said, face to face. They saw God in the face of Jesus
Christ, in the face of Christ crucified and worshiped to him.
When Isaiah tells us he saw the Lord in the year that King Uzziah
died, our Lord Jesus tells us plainly, Isaiah saw me. He spoke of me and of my day. He saw the Lord Jesus. seated
on his throne, portrayed in the mercy seat. He saw him high and
lifted up, having accomplished redemption by the sacrifice of
himself. And he saw there the glory of
God. The angels, the cherubim singing,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The thrice holy God
shows his glory in the sacrifice of his son. And the Lord Jesus
sends one of those angels to come with coals from off the
altar and touch his lips and declare to him his iniquity is
taken away. The throne of grace, turn over
there if you will to Jeremiah 14 just a minute, I want you
to see this. The throne of grace is called the throne of glory
here in Jeremiah 14, verse 21. I want you to read this because
this is an excellent way to plead your cause with God. Jeremiah
14, verse 20. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness
and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against thee.
Do not abhor us. Now listen to the plea, for thy
name's sake. Do not disgrace the throne of
thy glory. What a way to plead with God.
God, hear my prayer now. Do not abhor me for your name's
sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, break
not thy covenant with us. Now, this is the thing I want
you to see. Our Lord Jesus is the revelation
of the glory of God. The glory of God is revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ, specifically in Christ crucified, in all the
accomplishments of our crucified Redeemer. When the glory of God
appeared to Abraham, it was Christ who appeared to him. And if the
glory of God ever appears to you and me, if the God of glory
makes himself known to us, it will be in and by the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, I want you to turn to
2 Peter 1. Here, Peter's testimony, 1 Peter 1. Verse 15. Peter describing what transpired
on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moreover, I will endeavor that
you may be able after my decease to have these things, that is
the things of Christ, the gospel of God's grace, always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables. We have not followed the crafty
opinions of men. We've not followed the teachings
of men, cunningly devised fables. When we made known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. Peter says, with these eyes,
I saw the majesty, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. For
he received from God the Father, honor and glory. when there came
such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. Moses said, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. Peter said, we stood with Christ
in the mouth and saw his glory, the very glory that Moses asked
him to show. Sometimes we are accused, I am
and other preachers with whom you're familiar, of robbing the
Father and the Spirit of their glory by giving all glory to
Christ, by insisting on the preaching of Christ crucified, by insisting
that it is Christ who is the revelation of God in Scripture,
by insisting that the message of this book is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. But the fact is, God the Father
and God the Holy Ghost give all glory to the Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, as our mediator and our Savior. True faith puts all the
honor and all the glory of salvation on God's beloved Son, because
that's where God himself has placed it. You can find that
in Ephesians chapter one very plainly. God the Father gives
all glory to the Son. Pleads God that in him should
all, that he should have all the preeminence. And God the
Son glorifies his Father. He prayed, Father, glorify thy
name. God the Holy Ghost gives all
glory to the Son. He's come to show forth the glory
of Christ. He makes known the glory of Jesus
Christ to chosen redeemed sinners. And the Son of God glorifies
the Spirit. He spoke of the Holy Spirit as
that living water. that living water bubbling up
in a man's soul under life everlasting. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
he said, the flesh profiteth nothing. It is in the Son that
God the Father is well pleased, and he's well pleased with us
in his Son. Now this is what faith does.
It teaches believing sinners both to imitate and obey God,
giving all glory to the Son of God. to the eye of nature, Jesus
of Nazareth appeared as a mere man, a man who lived in abject
poverty, a man who was among the very lowest of men in his
life as he walked on this earth, poor, man of humble background
with a humble family. As Isaiah puts it, he was looked
upon as a tender plant, a root out of dry ground, having neither
form nor comeliness that we should desire him. But the triune God,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost gives Jesus Christ all preeminence,
all glory, all praise, and all honor because he magnified the
law and made it honorable by his obedience unto death, by
sacrificing himself for us, satisfying the justice of God, giving honor
and glory to every attribute of God, in the saving of his
people. So now, in Christ Jesus, God
shows himself to be what he declared by the prophet Isaiah, that he
is a just God and a savior. Here is the revelation of God's
glory. In that man seated yonder on
the throne of grace, the throne of his glory is the man In whom,
by whom, with whom? God is just in justifying such
things as we are. God is just in Christ to justify
sinners believing on him. Now, turn back to Leviticus chapter
nine. I wanna look at three verses
in this chapter one more time. Under a sight and sense of our
ruined nature, our innumerable sins, our horrible apostasies
from God. You and I ought to put honor
and glory upon the Son of God, giving all praise, honor, and
glory to Him. As we do, we give all praise,
honor, and glory to the triune God revealed in Him. With him,
with his person, with his work, with his salvation, God is well
pleased. God, the God of heaven, is completely
satiated. The God of heaven completely
satisfied with the person and work of Jesus Christ. Oh God,
give us grace then. that our consciences may be completely
satiated, completely satisfied with Christ so that we glory
in him alone. We are the circumcision who worship
God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. We boast in, we glory in, we
rejoice in, we trust in Christ alone. The Apostle Peter in that
passage we read in 1 Peter or 2 Peter chapter one, the man
who wrote those words was with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. He saw the Lord Jesus transfigured
before him. Try to get the picture. He saw
Christ, his garments glistening white. He's talking with Moses
and Elijah about the death he would accomplish at Jerusalem.
The Lord was transfigured before him. He heard the father speak
from heaven and say, this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased. And just a little while later,
he denied knowing him. He denied him with a curse, cursing
like a drunken sailor saying, I know not the man. And yet this
man, Peter, was immediately forgiven, fully forgiven through him who
is the glory of God. Out of Christ's fullness, Peter
received complete forgiveness from his horrible fall. He received
grace upon grace and was recovered from the fall, restored to repentance
and preserved in life everlasting. Oh, may the Son of God so look
in my heart and look into your heart. I mean, so look into our
hearts as he did into Peter's. Looking into us, godly sorrow
and holy love that we may say of him constantly, this is my
beloved Savior in whom I am well pleased. All right, here in Leviticus
9. God the Spirit gives us the word
of the gospel again in type, in picture, revealing the glory
of God in the face of Christ. May we behold it by his grace
in verses 22, 23, and 24. When Aaron and his sons were
consecrated to the priesthood, as the ceremonial sacrifices
began on the eighth day, on the day of new beginning, The Lord
God made a promise in verse six, a promise directly connected
with the priesthood, directly connected with the sacrifices
offered on this day, with the altar and the holy place, directly
connected with those things that are spoken of and portrayed here.
It's the very same promise that God makes in the gospel today. Leviticus nine, verse six. Moses
said, this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded that
ye should do. This is the thing the Lord has
commanded you to do, now do it. And the glory of the Lord shall
appear unto you. You remember what our Lord Jesus
told Martha at Lazarus' tomb? He said, said I not unto thee,
if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. I take those words to extend
as far as my mind will reach. If I will but believe God, then
may I see God's glory in everything he does. If I just believe God,
I'll see his glory in every experience of his providence. If I just
believe God as I read his word, I'll see his glory in his word. But principally, our Lord declares,
and this book declares, if you would believe, you'll see the
glory of God in the face of Christ. You will see the glory of God. In the mercy he bestows upon
your soul. Oh, my soul. What a wondrous
revelation. God is glorified in saving me. God is glorified in saving you. We sometimes sing, why should
he love me so? I found the answer. God is glorified
in saving such things as he finds in Bill Raleigh and Don Ford. There, God reveals his glory
in the face of his Son. This is the thing God has commanded.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And believing, you shall be saved. You shall see the glory of God
in the face of his Son. Now the command was given and
the promise was made early in the morning on the eighth day.
Now skip down to verse 22 and you'll see the promise fulfilled
at the end of the day. And Aaron lifted up his hands
toward the people and blessed them and came down from offering
of the sin offering and the burnt offering and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into
the tabernacle of the congregation and came out and blessed the
people. And the glory of the Lord appeared
unto all the people. And there came a fire out from
before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering
and the fat, which when all the people saw, they shouted and
fell on their faces. And those things, the Lord God
was giving Israel a picture of redemption. He was telling the
children of Israel in type, in picture, how that Jesus Christ,
his son, would come into this world and accomplish redemption
for the glory of God, for the revelation of God's glory. Now,
let me wrap this up to show you three things about Aaron and
his actions on this day, which portray our Savior and reveal
God's glory. First, Aaron came down. Aaron came down. He came down
from the place of sacrifice and lifted up his hands, those hands
that that day were made wet with blood. And he lifted up those hands
that were made wet with blood and lifting them up over the
people, he blessed the people. I can almost hear him say, the
Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace as he makes his face to shine upon
you. Our Lord Jesus did just that.
In Luke 24, we read last week or Sunday, I forgot which day
it was. In Luke 24, our Lord led his disciples out as far
as to Bethany and as he was ascending up to heaven, Having finished
all he came into this world to do, he lifted his nail-pierced
hands, the hands made wet with the blood of God's sacrifice,
and blessed his people. So he blesses us on the basis
of his sacrifice. The Lord Jesus, our great Savior,
came down. We cannot imagine what a stoop
he made. In John chapter eight, they brought
him that woman taken in adultery, taken in the very act, and were
told that the Lord Jesus stooped and wrote in the ground. Men
scattered, he stooped, and he spoke to that woman. He said,
where are your accusers? And she said, they're all gone.
They're all gone. And the Savior said, neither
do I condemn. They go and sin no more. For you know, you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. How that though he was rich,
oh, how rich. The riches of God in his ineffable
glory. Though he was rich, wanting nothing,
lacking nothing, needing nothing, yet for our sakes, he became
poor, poor. So poor that we hear him cry,
I thirst. We hear him cry, reproach has
broken my heart. My friends have forsaken me.
I'm left to scorn. I've become the song of the drunkard.
For your sakes, he became poor. So poor that at last he died
under the wrath of God as our substitute. He did this that
you, you who are his, you who believe, through his poverty
might be made rich. Paul seizes this and teaches
us how to live. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. He didn't look upon it as
something to be sought after, but being in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God because he is
God, but he made himself of no reputation. That's the word you would use
if you were talking about emptying a basket. You pick it up, you
turn it over, and you empty it out. He emptied himself and took
upon him the form of a servant. He came here as Jehovah's servant,
but he took on him the form of a servant. He even took a towel
on one occasion, wrapped it around himself, took a bowl of water,
and washed his disciples' feet serving them. He came not to
be ministered unto, but to minister and give his life a ransom for
many. In doing that, he was made in the likeness of man. Made
in our flesh that he might put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself and thereby bring upon us through
his coming down into this world coming down to the grave that
he might bring on us the blessings of God forever. We saw it Sunday
morning. Now once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself
and that which he came to do he has done. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law. He was made a curse for us. He
did that that we might receive the blessing of Abraham, the
promise of the Spirit, life eternal. Here's the second thing. Aaron
went in. He came down and he went in. He came down from the place of
sacrifice and went in to the holy place. We're specifically
told that Moses and Aaron together went into the tabernacle. They
went out of the outer courts. away from the altar of burnt
offering into the holy place. There in the holy place stood
the altar of incense, the table of showbread, and the golden
lampstand. Moses, always representative
of the law, went with Aaron, God's priest, and turned over
to Aaron all things pertaining to the worship of God. He took
Aaron by the hand and goes into the holy place and puts in Aaron's
hand, he who represents God's law, puts into the hands of Aaron,
Israel's sacrificing high priest, everything pertaining to the
worship and glory of God. What a picture. Aaron represents
our Savior. And this is what Moses is telling
us. If you would come to God, Christ is the way. If you would
worship God, Christ is the way. If you would be accepted of God,
Christ is the way. If you would obtain forgiveness,
Christ is the way. If you would do service to God,
Christ is the way. If you would be righteous with
God, Christ is the way. There's no way to God but Christ
Jesus. Moses took Aaron into the holy
place to make intercession for the people of Israel. to make
intercession on the grounds of the sacrifice offered and accepted
by God. Aaron went into the tabernacle,
into the holy place, praying for the people. I'm confident
he was praying for one specific thing. He went in to pray that
God would fulfill his promise and reveal his glory. that God
would do as he said he would do, that he would send his son
and save his people by the sacrifice of his son. That's exactly what
our Lord Jesus is doing today. With his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. And now he appears in the presence
of God for us, making intercession for us according to the will
of God. Here's the third thing. Aaron
came out again. And notice again, Moses, the
law, is still with him. Late in the evening of the eighth
day, Aaron and Moses, God's law and God's priest, came out together
and blessed the people. What a picture. Aaron and Moses
went in together. And Aaron and Moses come out
together. And on the basis of the sacrifice
made and accepted, Aaron and Moses together blessed the people. Aaron speaks the word with Moses
standing beside him. Soon, very soon, our great Savior,
the Lord Jesus, shall come again. And when he comes, we will fully
see what now we see by faith. We will see the glory of God.
revealed in him and revealed to wandering worlds in the salvation
of his people by him. So that God will show to the
world the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us by Christ Jesus. Soon everybody, everybody in
heaven, earth, and hell, is going to see the glory of God in saving
me by the sacrifice of his Son.
The universe will see the glory of God in saving you by the sacrifice
of his Son. But this is a two-fold picture.
It pictures both our Lord's second coming at the end of the world
and his coming to sinners in grace, in the exercise and operation
of his grace. As the fire came out from the
presence of the Lord and consumed the sacrifice, so the Holy Spirit
was poured out on the day of Pentecost as cloven tongues of
fire. manifestly declaring God's acceptance
of Christ's sacrifice. That's exactly what was portrayed
on the day of Pentecost. And that's exactly what transpires
when God comes to sinners, convincing his people, wherever they're
found in all the world, of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,
because he has put away sin, because he has finished his work
and goes to the Father, because he has judged the prince of this
world. And Moses and Aaron went together
and went into the tabernacle of the congregation and came
out together and blessed the people together. And the glory
of the Lord appeared unto all the people. Christ will come
again and bless us with all the fullness of God's salvation.
Salvation obtained by His blood, by His obedience, by His death,
as our sin offering and our peace offering. And when Christ comes
today to bless His people, to bless sinners like you and me,
He does so with all the authority of God's holy law. So that the
law of God fulfilled and satisfied by my Redeemer, demands, as he
please, before the throne of grace, my everlasting salvation. How can a man make such a statement? God has accepted the sacrifice. I tried to picture the children
of Israel on that eighth day. Early in the morning, the sacrifice
is offered, and they stand there all day long. I don't know what
they were doing, but they're there in the court of the tabernacle
all day long, surrounding the tabernacle all day long, waiting
for Moses and Aaron to come out. After they'd been in there for
a good while, Maybe some of them got a little uncomfortable and
moved away. Maybe some of them forgot what
was going on and went about other business. I don't know. But I
have no doubt that many stood there with confident anticipation
of God's blessing upon his people. Why shouldn't they? Why shouldn't
they? They had brought the sacrifice
God required. They brought it to the altar,
God required. They offered the sacrifice in
the way, God required. They did it by the priest, God
required. They did it by the law, God required. Why should they not expect God
to fulfill his promise? The glory of the Lord will appear. They're standing there waiting
for God to show His glory. For God to show His glory in
His goodness to them, sinners, by Christ Jesus the Lord. That's
what faith does as we look to God our Savior. We are looking
for that blessed hope. and the glorious appearing of
the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, with confident
faith. Soon the Lord shall come and
call me to himself and call you to himself, either calling us
away from this time world into eternity by death, our friend,
and receive us where He is in the revelation of His glory. I fully expect it. I fully expect
it. I expect to enter into glory
with joyful, confident rejoicing. How can you? You talk about your
sin, your unbelief, your coldness, your indifference. How can Don Fortner expect God
to reveal his glory in me to wandering worlds? I have brought
the sacrifice God requires. I bring that sacrifice to the
altar God specified. I come to the place God ordained. I come by the priest God requires. I come in complete subservience
to the law God has revealed and God requires with complete satisfaction
to God that satiates my soul. Perhaps the Lord will come this
hour in the revelation of His glory. When He does, He will
come to show wandering worlds the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And before Him, every knee shall
bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. I read earlier today a good portion
of 2 Chronicles. And Solomon offered his prayer
to God. Twice he said, if your people
come to you and bow toward your altar and confess your name,
and confess your name, and confess your name. What's his name? His name is Jesus. Savior, Jesus the Christ, the
Savior who is anointed of God, Jehovah who saves the Christ,
the righteous one, hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and
receive them graciously. That's what God does. And when
he's done with this world, as men are received up into glory,
They will bow and confess his name with joy. This is the Christ. Here is the revelation of the
glory of God. Here I see God in all his glory. And the damned in terror shall
fall on their knees and confess, amen. He is the glory of God. God give us grace ever to look
to Christ, trusting Him, expecting everlasting salvation in, by,
and with Him. Amen.