I think by this time we all know the theme of this conference: “Thine is the kingdom, and the glory forever.” Now, you notice in the brochure that you received, we put this as the theme of this conference, but we did not put the Scripture verse quotation there.
This is because, in different versions, you will find there is a difference. For instance, in the 1901 American Standard Version, which is one of the most accurate translations, you do not find it in the main text, but in the footnote you find: “Many authorities, some ancient, but with variations, add, ‘For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.’”
Dean Alford, in his Greek New Testament, made this statement: “The doxology must on every ground of sound criticism be omitted.”
And then J. A. Bengel says, “No one denies that the spirit of the whole clause is entirely holy and incomparable, conformable to the doxologies which frequently occur in Scripture. But the question is whether the Lord prescribed it in this place in these words.”
Now, T. Austin-Sparks said, “Now, I am not going to have any argument with authorities, but I believe we have very good reason for retaining the second half of that verse. The whole Bible, especially the New Testament, is built upon these three words. ‘Thine is the kingdom’ stands over the whole Bible; ‘and the power’ stands over the whole Bible; and ‘the glory’—all the Bible is gathered into that. The New Testament is especially true to these three words. So that that half-verse, though questioned, is justified by the whole Bible.”
Now, for the sake of some people who still have some doubt, let me put it this way: we are using this phrase, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,” not in any sense that we insist it should be in that sixth verse, but rather we use it according to the spirit of the whole Bible.
Because, as you read the whole Bible, you will find the spirit there is, “Thine is the kingdom, and the power.” So I do hope that no one will ever feel that we are misquoting something which is questionable. We want to put this matter to rest before we go on.
Shall we have a word of prayer?
Dear Heavenly Father, we come into Thy very presence, not because we can, but because we come through Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. How we praise and thank Thee for the blood that is shed. We thank Thee for the new and living way that Thou hast opened for us.
We thank Thee that Thou art our High Priest, interceding for us. It is on this basis that we approach Thy presence with holy boldness and with confidence. We do praise and thank Thee that we may be together here, gathered together unto the name of our Lord Jesus.
We praise and thank Thee that we may be able to share together Thy precious Word. We do look to Thy Holy Spirit to quicken our hearts to Thy Word, and to quicken Thy Word to our hearts. Lord, that Thy Word and we will really come together.
We do desire to see Thy glory, because Thine is the glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We are not going to read Matthew 6:13. We have read that. And we are not going to read 1 Chronicles 29. We have read that. So we would like to read Acts 7—Acts 7, verse 2.
And he said, Brethren and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran.
Ephesians 1, verse 17:
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
My burden is, “Thine is the glory.” And, God willing, we would like to approach this matter in this way.
In the first session, we will speak on the God of glory. In the second session, God willing, we will speak on, “We beheld His glory,” which is the glory of Christ, the incarnate Son. In the third session, we will share on being transformed from glory to glory. That concerns our glory.
And the last session will be on the glorious church, which is the ultimate purpose of God that He purposed in His beloved Son. So tonight we will share together on the Lord, the God of glory.
Now, brothers and sisters, this word glory—in Hebrew there are eight different words translated into English as “glory.” We are not going to enter into all these words, but I would just like to mention these things to you to show that even the very word glory is an all-inclusive word. It includes many, many shades of meaning.
For instance, one Hebrew word translated into the English word glory actually means honor or weight. Now we find that in 2 Corinthians 4:17. Paul mentions “the eternal weight of glory.” So glory has the meaning of weight—something that is weighty.
And then this word glory in Hebrew also has the meaning of being majestic. In Isaiah 2:10, in Darby’s translation, you will find “the glory of His majesty.” The same word is translated “majesty” in Psalm 89.
It also means something that is prominent or conspicuous, as in Isaiah 13:14. It also means something that is grand, as in Psalm 45:3. It also means ornament, as in 1 Chronicles 29:11. And it also means something that is splendid and full, as in Zechariah 11:3.
So you find that the Hebrew words for glory include all these shades of meaning.
Now, when you look into New Testament Greek, the word is doxa. Primarily, it means opinion or estimate; therefore, the honor resulting from a good opinion. That is the word glory in Greek.
However, Brother Sparks, whom I will quote quite often tonight, in one of his writings said, “What is glory?” He said the Greek root, the root of the Greek word, actually has the meaning of proving. And this is in 1 Peter 1:7.
That the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Trial, proving, glory. The glory of God is actually His own character—His character tested, tried, passed, and proved to be absolutely true.
Now we are concerned with this matter of the glory of God—the God of glory. Now, brothers and sisters, I have to make a confession. The more I think of this matter of the glory of God, of God’s glory, I feel utterly helpless.
God is the infinite God. He is the greatest mystery in the universe. When you touch upon this matter of glory, you really touch upon God Himself and who He is. Who is worthy to touch upon that? Who is able to fathom that mystery?
You find that it is far beyond human beings. It is far beyond what we can comprehend. So, this matter of glory—the glory of God, the God of glory—I feel I am totally inadequate.
Even Brother Sparks said, “What is glory? It cannot be done. We shall look foolish whenever we try to define the glory of God.”
To answer that question, “What is glory?” from the standpoint of Scripture means that we shall come to the understanding of a number of other matters. He gave a whole list of them.
To begin with, to understand glory will be to understand God, for He is the God of glory. It will also explain His creative intention, because He created with glory in view.
To understand glory, we have to know the meaning of the fall—not only the fall of man, but also the fall of the archangel. Why? Because the fall is the result of rebellion against the glory of God.
To understand glory, we have to know the meaning of eternal life, because eternal life is the potentiality of glory. To understand glory, we have to know the meaning of redemption, because redemption circles around glory.
To know the meaning of glory, we have to know all the meaning of Christ. He is the glory of God, and all the glory of God is centered and seated in Him.
To understand glory, we have to know our calling, for we are called into His eternal glory. To understand glory, we have to understand our vocation and our service, because all service to God and for God can be weighed as to its spiritual value by this word: glory.
Now, brothers and sisters, if this is what glory means, it really includes everything. Now how are we going to define glory? It is impossible.
We only know that God is the God of glory. It means that He is the originator, the source, the fountain, the force of glory. Glory belongs to Him, and to Him alone. He is glory. He is all-glorious, full of glory. That is all we know.
And if there is any glory in any creation or in any man, it comes from God. If it does not come from God, it is not glorious.
We find that people in this world seek for glory. They seek for glory in riches, glory in position, in power, and in all these things. But we know that these are vain glory, because any glory that we suppose we have, which does not come from God, is vain glory. It is an illusion. It passes away; they pass away.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we know that glory belongs to God, and to God alone.
When we touch upon this matter of the glory of God, you find in Scripture there seems to be a contradiction. On the one hand, you find in Scripture God says He will not share His glory with anybody.
For instance, Isaiah 42, verse 8:
I am the Lord, that is My name;
And My glory will I not give to another,
Neither My praise unto graven images.
And Isaiah 48, verse 11:
For Mine own sake, for Mine own sake, will I do it;
For how should My name be profaned?
And My glory will I not give to another.
So, brothers and sisters, you find on the one hand God says He will not give His glory to another. Glory is something exclusively His. He will not share it with anybody. It is His, and His alone.
And yet, you find in the Word of God another set of Scriptures which shows us that it is the desire, the longing, the heart of God, to give glory to us. He wants to give glory. Why? Because He is the Father of glory.
Now, being a father, you will find that it is the heart of a father to give. For instance, Romans 8, verses 29 and 30—we are familiar with these verses.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren:
And whom He foreordained, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
And in Hebrews 2:10, He is bringing many sons into glory. We are called into glory. So you find many Scriptures telling us that He is anxious to share glory with us.
Now there seems to be a contradiction there. How are we going to resolve that contradiction?
We know that, on the one hand, God will never share His glory with anybody. If anyone were to try to rob God of His glory, to take unto himself God’s glory, immediately you will find God’s hand stretched out. He will not allow His glory to be touched.
This aspect of the glory of God refers to His glory as God—in other words, His deity. So far as God as God is concerned, He is all by Himself. He is the only true God in the whole universe. There is none else.
If anyone dares to declare that he is God, he violates the very glory of God, and God will not allow it to continue. That is the reason why you find the archangel cast out of the third heaven. That is the reason why our forefathers, Adam and Eve, were cast out of the garden of Eden.
God as God, brothers and sisters, is all by Himself. His glory as God, He never shares with anyone.
But on the other hand, we find that His glory in the area of His divine life, of His divine nature, He is anxious to share with man. All that goes with this divine life—all the honor and dominion that go with this divine life—He is anxious that we partake of it.
Thank God, it is His desire to glorify us. It is His desire to lead us into glory. It is His desire that we may be partakers of His glory—that is, of His eternal life, of His divine nature, and all that goes with that divine nature: His character, and all the honor and dominion that go with this divine character.
Now He is anxious to share these with us. But remember one thing: that never deifies man. Man is forever man.
No matter how much he receives from God of the glory of the divine life, no matter how much he is conformed to the image of God’s beloved Son, remember, he is still man. Amen. He is not God.
God, He is all by Himself. He is alone. So as we seek to know the glory of God and seek to enter into that glory, remember: it is only in the area of His divine life. It is not in the area of deity.
And I think this should be a safeguard for us, because there is misunderstanding—thinking that as God shares glory with us, we are so glorified that we become gods. No. We never become gods.
No one can ever see God and live. You remember God’s word to Moses: “You cannot see My face; for man shall not see Me and live.”
God is so glorious. He dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man hath seen, nor can see. He is God.
But there is an aspect of God’s glory that we can not only see, but actually can be partakers of. So this is something that we would like to share together.
Now, what we know of the glory of God is not the essential glory of God. Some theologians use this word essential. Others use the term “the naked glory of God.”
The naked glory of God is so bright that no man can ever see it. Because the naked glory of God, if you desire to see it, means destruction. No man can see God and live.
So when we are talking about the glory of God—what we know, something of the glory of God—we are actually talking about His glory that we come to understand through association, through manifestation, and through contrast.
These are the three ways that we come to know something of the glory of God.
We know something of the glory of God by association. He associates His glory with His name.
Now, you remember the story of Moses in Exodus 33. When Moses was in the wilderness, God appeared to him in a burning bush. He saw a bush, a thorny bush, and it was on fire, but it was not consumed.
This was a miracle because in the wilderness it is so dry, and these bushes sometimes burn themselves out and are consumed very quickly. But Moses noticed a burning bush—burning, but not consumed. So he tried to go there to observe it.
When he approached it, a voice came out of that burning bush saying, “This is holy ground. Remove your shoes.” In other words, God appeared to him in that burning bush.
And Moses knew God. God told him His name: “I AM THAT I AM. That is My name.”
And you remember, when Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, at Mount Sinai God again came down. The whole mountain was covered with clouds and burning with fire. Even Moses trembled. God appeared to the children of Israel.
You find that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel—God called them up the mountain, and they ate before God. They saw God, and they ate there, and they were not killed.
Not that they had really seen God in His essential being, but what they saw was a similitude of God, a kind of manifestation. Moses had all these experiences. He had seen some glory of God. He had seen God as fire, a consuming fire—holy.
But you remember, after Israel sinned against God and the Ten Commandments were broken before they reached their hands, Moses interceded for the children of Israel, and God heard his prayer.
Moses said, “Lord, in Exodus 33, if I have found favor in Thy sight, show me Thy glory.” Now Moses was not one who had never seen the glory of God. Maybe he had seen the glory of God more than anybody else.
And yet here you find Moses had a desire, a longing: “Lord, I have seen much of You, but that is not enough. I want to see Your glory. I want to see more of Your essential being.”
And God said, “No one can see My face. No one can see Me as I am. But I will declare My name before you. I will put you in the cleft of a rock, and when I pass by, I will cover you with My hand. As I pass by, I will declare My name. You will see My back, but not My face.”
And in Exodus 34, you find God did it. When God passed by, He put Moses in the cleft of the rock and covered him with His hand. Why? Because no one can see God in His essential being. He is God.
But God gave Moses grace to see His back. And what is that? His name.
Oh, brothers and sisters, when you are face to face with a person, you do not use his name anymore, because you are already there. But when you are away, then you may leave your name there. Your name actually represents who you are and what you are. So your name is actually like your back.
Seeing your back, through your name, you come to know something of that person. Now, of course, today people choose their names without any meaning to them. But in the old days, you find that when names were given, they were given with meaning.
Especially in Scripture, you find the names are given with meaning. Names show what people are and what their destinies will be. But anyway, you find God said, “You want to see My glory? All right. I will show My glory through My name. If you know My name, you know something of Me.”
Now, what is the name that the Lord declared to Moses? Exodus 34, verse 5:
And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth;
Keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
And Moses made haste, bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of God that is revealed to us is in His name. What is His name? The Lord—the self-existing One, “I AM.”
He is the self-revealing One, the One who reveals Himself. Unless He reveals Himself, no one knows Him. He is the One who loves covenant, who loves to bind Himself in legal documents to encourage our weak faith—the One who is faithful to His covenant.
The Lord—and His name, that is His glory. You find “the Lord” repeated twice: “The Lord, the Lord”—God, for emphasis’ sake.
Brothers and sisters, do we know God as the Lord? Do we know He is the great I AM, “I AM THAT I AM”? Do we know that He is the One who reveals Himself? Do we know that He has covenanted with us and that He is faithful to His covenant?
He is the Lord God—great, mighty, full of wisdom. He is merciful.
The word merciful in some versions is translated “lovingkindness”—tender mercies, tender affection. Some people say mercy is God’s attitude toward those in distress, and grace is God’s attitude toward those who are lawbreakers and rebels.
God is a merciful God. Brothers and sisters, if it were not for the mercy of God, we should all be consumed. We are what we are today by the grace of God.
So here you find, “merciful and gracious.” That word gracious means that there is something beautiful, something attractive, something that gives delight in knowing Him. He is One who gives so graciously, universally, and freely. He is gracious. Oh, God, He is a gracious God, and that is His glory.
“Slow to anger.” We would think that God should be the angriest Person in the universe. He has every reason to be angry. And yet Scripture says He declares Himself as slow to anger—oh, the longsuffering of God.
Sometimes we misunderstand His longsuffering. In Ecclesiastes 8:11, it says:
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
We think that we can continue doing evil because nothing will happen. But actually, the sentence is already proclaimed, though it is withheld and restrained. Why? Because God does not want any to perish. He wants all to be saved.
That is the longsuffering of God—slow to anger. That is the glory of God. Now, brothers and sisters, do you appreciate that glory? I do.
“Abundant in goodness and truth.” There are two Hebrew words that are translated “goodness” here. We will not go into these words, but Dr. Lightfoot explained it in very simple terms.
He said these two words of goodness represent, first, a kindly disposition toward others, and second, kindly activity on their behalf. Not only is there a kindly disposition, but also kindly activity toward those who are in need.
Now that is our God. Scripture says, “There is none good but One, even God.” You remember the story of that rich young ruler. He came to the Lord as “Good Master.” “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And the Lord said, “There is none good but One, even God.” He is the good One.
And not only good, but truth—true in the sense of eternal verity, eternal reality; truth in the sense of being truthful. He is ever truthful to His own Word. This is the glory of God.
And it says here, “Keeping mercy for thousands.” His mercy is broad and universal. It reaches even us.
“And forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Iniquity is unrighteousness. Transgression is overstepping the boundary. Sin is missing the mark.
Now, brothers and sisters, we find how we fall into iniquity and unrighteousness, how we have missed the mark that God has set before us, and how we have overstepped the boundary that God has given to us. And yet God forgives. He is a forgiving God.
Not only does He forgive, but, as our brother mentioned in the afternoon, He forgives and He forgets. That is the glory of God.
You know, man finds it difficult to forgive. And even if he forgives, he cannot forget. But God forgives, and He forgets.
But that does not mean that because of this He will not visit the iniquity. He said, “Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.” In other words, God is a righteous God.
He is slow to anger. He endures. But there will come a day, if there is no repentance, when He has to visit the iniquity.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is His name. This is His glory. And Moses immediately fell on his face and worshiped. Now, brothers and sisters, how we need to do the same.
Also, we find in Scripture by association that His glory is associated with grace. For instance, Ephesians 1, verse 6:
To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
The glory of His grace. And the gospel actually is the gospel of the glory of the blessed God—1 Timothy 1:11. The gospel of the glory of the blessed God.
We know the glory of God through grace. Brothers and sisters, the measure of your knowledge of the grace of God will be the measure of your knowledge of the glory of God.
And of course, by association, the fullest that man has ever come to know the glory of God is through the incarnate Son. Now, this we will leave for tomorrow.
So anyway, you find that what little of the glory of God that we come to know today is through association with His name, with His grace, and particularly with His incarnate Son.
Now secondly, we come to know a little bit of the glory of God by His manifestation. You read the Old Testament and you find, say, in the book of Genesis, the God of glory appeared to Abraham.
Now, we do not know in what form He appeared. God came to Abraham not in His essential glory, because no one can see the glory of God and live. It is too glorious.
So He came to Abraham, perhaps in some kind of form. Now, we do not know what form it was. In the book of Genesis, you find God appeared a number of times, sometimes in the form of an angel—the Angel of the Lord—and sometimes in the form of a man.
Actually, man is created in His image and according to His likeness. So you find that sometimes God appears in the form of a man to Abraham. You remember three angels coming, and the One in the midst of them actually is the Angel of the Lord, the Lord Himself, in the form of a man.
God appeared through the patriarchs in manifestations, and He manifested glory to them. When He appeared to them, He gave them promises. He gave promises to Abraham. He gave promises to Jacob.
And then you come to the book of Exodus. We have already mentioned how He appeared to Moses in a burning bush. He appeared to the children of Israel in the pillar of cloud and of fire. And at Mount Sinai, He appeared as the consuming fire.
When the tabernacle was finished and built according to the pattern on the mount, you find that the glory of God came upon the tabernacle as a cloud and took possession of it, to show that God was happy and satisfied with that work.
Again, you find the temple that Solomon built. During the dedication, a cloud filled the temple, and even those who ministered had to retreat because the glory filled the house of God. Oh, how I desire that it will come to us.
The glory of God appeared to Ezekiel. He saw “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” So you find that God manifests Himself in such glory.
But those manifestations only give us an impression or an atmosphere. As Brother George Patterson says, “The glory of God cannot be described.” So even when it is described in a kind of manifestation, you find it is still vague, still veiled, because it is indescribable.
All it does is give us an impression and an atmosphere. And the impression we get through these manifestations is that God is a holy God, like a consuming fire. He is light, bright, full of brightness, and yet covered with clouds. Why? Because we cannot see Him.
We know He is a God who gives promise. He is the God who leads our way. He is the God who supplies and protects. He is powerful, mighty, majestic. In other words, His manifestation gives us an impression of who He is, and that is His glory.
And thirdly, of course, by contrast. We will not dwell upon that. Sometimes you do not see the positive, but if you understand the negative, you see the positive.
Our brother read Romans 3: “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” Now, brothers and sisters, what is sin? Sin is falling short of the glory of God. Anything that falls short of God’s glory is sin.
And you also remember that when the presence of God departs, or where the presence of God is absent, that shows us what glory is.
You know, in 1 Samuel, when the ark was taken by the Philistines, and the news came, Eli, when he heard it, fell down, broke his neck, and died. And his daughter-in-law was giving birth. When she heard that news, she labored, and a son was born.
But she said, “Call his name Ichabod. The glory has departed.” The ark had been taken. The glory had departed.
And then you read the book of Ezekiel. From chapter 8 to chapter 11, you find how the glory of God departed from Jerusalem. How He lingered—He lingered. He did not want to depart. He wanted to be there with His people, but He could not. So finally, He departed.
But thank God, coming to the last part of Ezekiel, chapter 43, you find in that new temple the glory of God came back and dwelt in that house.
So the glory of God—you find the presence of God. When God is present, there is glory. When God departs, the glory departs. That is what we know, a little bit, of what glory is.
Brothers and sisters, in our personal life, when the presence of God is with you, there is glory there. You know it. But when you miss His presence, the glory is gone.
You know, it is very interesting. As you read Scripture, you will find glory is used to describe every Person in the Godhead.
God is the God of glory—Acts 7:2. He is also the Father of glory. And you find our Lord Jesus is the Lord of glory—1 Corinthians 2:8—because He governs all things with glory in view.
And the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of glory—1 Peter 4:14. He is the custodian and executor of the divine purpose. So you find that God is the God of glory.
Glory—we may put it this way: glory is what God is and what is revealed of Him. Glory is the presence of God. Glory is when God is satisfied. Glory is the sum total of God’s character.
In other words, in Scripture, sometimes you find the word glory is used as a substitute word for God.
In Psalm 106, verse 20:
Thus they changed their glory
For the likeness of an ox that eateth grass.
Now, the glory there refers to God Himself. So you find that sometimes the word glory is used as a substitute for God.
And then you find in Romans 1:23 how they became foolish and changed “the glory of the incorruptible God” into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
And in 2 Peter 1:17, Peter mentions how Christ “received from God the Father honor and glory, when there was borne such a voice to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
So, in other words, you will find glory is used as a substitute for God Himself. Now, brothers and sisters, after we have talked for quite a while, we have not defined glory yet, because it is beyond us. But thank God, we do know something of His glory.
So finally, knowing the glory of God and knowing the God of glory, what should be our response?
For me, I feel it is very simple. Here we know the God of glory. Our response is to glorify Him, because we know that glory belongs to Him.
Now, how are we going to glorify Him? First, we glorify Him by worshiping Him.
You find in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, whenever people see the glory of God, they always worship.
Job 42. You remember Job, that perfect man. When he comes to the very last, all that he has seen of the glory of God is by manifestation. God manifested Himself to him by His marvelous work of creation.
God challenged him with His marvelous creation, and by that Job came to know something of the glory of God. There he said in chapter 42, verse 3:
Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge?
Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not,
Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will speak;
I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me.
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
But now mine eye seeth Thee:
Wherefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.
Now, brothers and sisters, if we see anything of the glory of God, what will be our reaction? We will abhor ourselves. Why? Because this self of ours, that we take so much pride in, under the glory of God is corrupt.
The moment you see the glory of God, if ever you see the glory of God, brothers and sisters, you will abhor yourself. You will find yourself so terrible, so corrupted. You do not want to see yourself. And you will be in dust and ashes.
In other words, you take your proper place before God. Now, that is worship.
Worship is giving God His rightful place and taking your proper place before Him. That is worship. We do not worship until we see His glory.
You find the same thing with Moses. When Moses heard the name of the Lord proclaimed to him, what did he do? He fell upon his face and worshiped. He was so grateful to have such a God. He worshiped.
One day Daniel saw a vision of the glory of God. He fell down as dead. Daniel was beloved of the Lord, and he fell down as dead. He said, “When I saw You, my beauty was turned in me into corruption.” That is worship.
Now the apostle John, in Revelation 1, when he saw the glory of the risen Lord—the One upon whose bosom he had leaned, so intimate—and yet when he saw the glory of the Lord, he fell down as one dead. That is worship.
So, dear brothers and sisters, God is seeking worshipers. There is one thing that God is really looking for: He is seeking for worshipers who worship in spirit and truth.
But how can we be worshipers? What makes us worship? A sight of the glory of God.
And that is the reason why Moses wanted to see His glory. Oh, let us have that longing in our heart: “Show me Thy glory,” not with the thought that I may be glorified, but in the sense that I may worship Thee. Worship.
Now, how do we glorify Him? We glorify Him by praising Him.
Psalm 50, verse 23:
Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth Me.
We need to praise Him. And you remember, in the presence of God, the cherubim are always there praising God ceaselessly, day and night: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty.”
Praising God. And the twenty-four elders lay their crowns at the feet of the One who sits upon the throne, and they worship.
So, brothers and sisters, what can we do? There is nothing we can do but to praise. And whoso offers praise glorifies Him.
In other words, when we praise Him, it shows that we appreciate Him. We appreciate that we know something of Him. Bring into the house of God the sacrifices of praise. That glorifies God.
We glorify God by living for Him and bearing fruit for His glory.
In John 15, verse 8:
Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be My disciples.
Now, brothers and sisters, how are we to glorify God? If we live for Him, if we live by the Spirit of God, and there is good fruit—in other words, the life of Christ is manifested through us—that glorifies the Father.
Not so much in word, but more in our daily living. Whether we eat or drink, let it be unto the glory of God. In our daily life, brothers and sisters, live for Him.
And of course, how do we glorify God? In Romans 15, verses 6 and 7:
That with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wherefore receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God.
Now, brothers and sisters, we who are the Lord’s should receive one another as Christ has received us. We are members of the one Body. Therefore, we need to be of one mind, like-minded, with one accord.
When God’s people really exhibit that oneness, really exhibit the unity of the Spirit, really exhibit love for one another, you know God is glorified.
When you read the first few chapters of the book of Acts, in the early church, you find how they were all together and had one heart. You really see glory there. The glory of God is manifested in them, and God is glorified.
So, brothers and sisters, it is really our responsibility. Here we know a little bit of the glory of God and want to glorify God. Remember: diligently keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Here we keep that one spirit, one soul, one mind, one another. There will be glory. The glory of God will be manifested, and God will be glorified.
So may the Lord have mercy upon us. Shall we pray?
Our God and our Father, we do confess: the more we talk and speak of Thy glory, the more we hide that glory. Lord, it is up to Thee alone to reveal Thy glory to us.
And it is our prayer tonight: show Thy glory, that we may glorify Thee. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.