No, no, it is “Lord”; but that is no mere platitude. We do need things, and we need Thee this very moment. We can do nothing without Thee—neither speak nor understand.
Thou art the answer to our need. And we do not put the emphasis upon being blessed ourselves first, getting something for ourselves. By blessing us, Thou canst be blessed. That is the governing thing.
Lord, help us for His name’s sake. Amen.
One could spend minutes talking about ourselves, about our meeting again after this long time, and the joy of renewed fellowship. One looks upon places long remembered and sees others. But we want the Lord to have all the moments, so we shall not be engaged with what, after all, would be very sincere and a real joy in Him.
Let us get straight to His Word, shall we? And I believe He has something to say to us. Will you please take the Gospel by John, Chapter 11?
With a swift glance down the page, you will take in what is here on record. I just want you to pinpoint two places: Verse 4 and Verse 40.
“This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.”
—John 11:4
“Said I not unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”
—John 11:40
“You should see the glory of God.”
You probably know that Chapters 11 through 17 of John’s Gospel are the consummation—the gathering up of everything unto finality.
What comes out in great clearness in this consummating part of the Gospel is the priority which governs the whole life, teaching, and work of the Lord Jesus.
It seems that that is what John had in mind in writing. He places this priority right at the beginning of the Gospel, walks steadily along that line, and then brings it all out in this full and conclusive way at the end.
Although for thirty years and more the Lord Jesus had been governed by this priority, there came a point—a crisis point in His life—at which He made a complete adjustment of everything upon this one thing that we are calling the priority.
There He determined that everything should be focused upon this, and that there should be no deviation at any point from this priority. And what was it? The glory of His Father.
The glory of God. “Thou shouldst see the glory of God.”
That was His all-inclusive priority: the glory of His Father.
But, as I have said, John struck that keynote right at the beginning when, writing after it was all over and seeing the whole content and significance of that life, work, teaching, and conduct, he started off by saying:
“And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.”
—John 1:14
That brings the Father right into view in the matter of glory. Then John went on, writing the Gospel like a great harmony—a symphony tuned to that keynote. All the way through, it is keeping true to that: the glory of the Father.
And I believe, dear friends, that that is the keynote the Lord wants me to strike here today. It is with me a very considerable burden in these days.
Let us come to the Lord Jesus for a few minutes in this matter. There was, as I have said, the hour of His great committal. His great committal took place at His baptism.
He there and then committed Himself utterly—utterly—to the glory of His Father.
He gathered every detail of His life from that moment and centred it in this thing, as though He were saying, “From this moment, not one deflection from that motive, that object: My Father’s glory is to govern everything.”
And so it was. And so it was, firstly, in His own personal inner life—His secret walk with His Father.
It is a most impressive thing, as you read through this Gospel, to find all the way along that everything is coming out of His personal, secret life with His Father.
The Son, He said, can do nothing out from Himself, but only what He seeth the Father doing. “What things soever He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner.”
Mysterious language. Those who know anything about life in the Spirit know what it means: He sees the Father doing; that He does, and not in His own way, but in like manner as the Father. How meticulous. How exact.
His committal as to His own relationship with God, His Father, meant nothing of Himself—only what He knew in His own heart and in His own secret history with God that the Father wanted Him to do or say.
There was the background, the inner-sanctuary life with the Father, maintained unbroken.
As to His conduct, He behaved Himself on this ground: “How I behave, how I conduct Myself, is going to be altogether according to how it touches My Father’s glory.”
The impression He made upon others—what they saw in Him and about Him—must never for one moment veil the glory of His Father, hide that glory, or detrimentally affect that glory.
His behaviour must always be for the glory of His Father—to Himself, in His conduct, in His walk.
You know, John made a note of that: this walking business, not just outward progress. John said, “As He walked.” As He walked. There was something about His very movements that was governed.
His movements, His behaviour—always for the glory of His Father.
His work, too. As we have quoted Him: “The works that I do, I do not of Myself; it is the Father who doeth the works.” And: “The words that I speak, they are not of Myself.”
His times for doing things were governed in the same way. At times we read that He put back suggestions from others that He should do things immediately. Something seemed to be demanded of Him, and people expected Him to do it at that time. He put it back: “Mine hour is not yet come.”
But very quickly afterward He did it. He was waiting. In spirit He was saying, “Father, is this Your time? Is this Your time?”
Because, you know, dear friends, you can do the right thing at the wrong time, and it does not work out. A lot of things may be right, but it is just not the time for them.
You remember the great incident with the Apostle Paul. He essayed to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus suffered him not. He sought to preach the Word in Asia, but he was forbidden of the Holy Spirit and diverted.
That was not the time. But Asia and Bithynia got it subsequently—in God’s time. And when God’s time is registered, things are very much more fruitful. You do not waste time.
When we do things so often in our own time, we have only put off things to God’s time. Nothing happens until God wants it done.
That is by the way, but the Lord Jesus was like that: “Mine hour is not yet.” And yet the hour seemed to come so quickly afterward. Here He is—moving, speaking, working, timing—all by His fellowship with the Father.
He brought everything else onto that ground. His family—He brought His family under the ground of the glory of the Father.
They came and said, “Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without, desiring to see Thee.” That is a natural appeal. It might be a sentimental appeal. It might seem to be the right kind of appeal. But wait a minute.
He answered, “Who is My mother? And who are My brethren?” Then He pointed to the will of His Father: “These are My mother, My brethren, and My sisters”—putting it on another than the natural ground.
How far do my family relationships, so far as I am concerned, affect the glory of God? God has got to be glorified in that realm.
In His attitude toward men, He was governed in the same way. As to the religious world, He would commend what was sincere and go as far as He could with it in sympathy.
A young ruler came and told Him that he had kept all the commandments from his youth, and Jesus looked on him and loved him. He did not condemn. He was sympathetic to sincerity.
But bring hypocrisy into His presence, and His commendation changed to condemnation. In religion, there was nothing that brought out His severity more than hypocrisy, because hypocrisy is a thing which robs God of His true glory.
These are all things that made up His life. You see, His priority governed everything.
His priority was over natural judgments. Natural judgment—not always sinful judgment, not necessarily evil judgment, but just natural judgment.
When suggestions were made to Him, when persuasion was brought to bear upon Him, when men projected their minds, He knew the truth:
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways.”
—Isaiah 55:8
There are two worlds. “I live in one; you live in the other.” And so this concern for the Father’s glory often necessitated that He set natural judgments on one side and took His Father’s judgment on the matter.
Natural feelings often had to be set aside. You understand, if you come to that in this eleventh chapter of John with Lazarus and his sisters. He was very sympathetic. He understood how they were feeling. He truly entered into their human life.
But when they sought to persuade and influence Him to act merely on the basis of natural feelings, He put it back. He stayed away two days where He was and did not arrive until the fourth day, when, humanly speaking, it was all too late.
Sorrow had run its course. Not unsympathetic, as the chapter shows; and yet He could not—He could not—because He had some greater thing in view. He could not just surrender to human feelings, natural feelings, natural feeling, but was governed by great principles.
As for personal interests, He was all the time thrusting them back. It would have been greatly to His personal interests to accept the devil’s offer of the kingdoms of this world and the glory thereof. He repudiated the whole thing.
When speaking of His cross, it might have been to His natural advantage if He had listened to Peter when Peter said, “This shall not come unto Thee, Lord: be it far from Thee.” But He said to Simon Peter, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.”
You see, personal interest—personal interest—no, it must take a back place. “I am not governed by these things.”
His constant motive—constant motive—was His Father’s glory.
Now, before I can go any further, I must return you to the definition of that word. Maybe in this place I have given this definition before; I do not know. But I do not know another better.
What does glory mean where God is concerned? What is the meaning of the word “glory” when it relates to God?
It just means this, dear friends: shall I call it the rebound of God’s complete satisfaction?
When things have answered to God’s nature and God’s mind, God is so satisfied. God is delighted. God is well pleased.
There comes out from that which answers to Him something of God’s own satisfaction, God’s pleasure. Now, you can put that to the test in all ways in your own lives.
Take your Bible. Begin at the beginning. When God had created all things for His pleasure, for His glory, and all things were as He intended and commanded—everything governed by what He had said should be—the end of that was that God looked on all things and said:
“Behold, it was very good.”
—Genesis 1:31
I would like to have been in the atmosphere of that, would you not? In the realm where everything just satisfied God, and there emanated from God a sense of complete satisfaction and pleasure—that is glory. That is glory.
You see, whenever we come into the new creation, are born from above, and stand on the ground of our recognition and acceptance of the perfect, finished work of the Lord Jesus for our sin and for our salvation, we are better believers at the beginning than very often we are later on.
When we come onto that ground of the new creation in Christ, where everything answers to God’s pleasure, do we not have a sense of glory? The beginning of the Christian life is so often like that.
Why, we could not explain it theologically or doctrinally, but, my word, we feel it. “This is glorious to be saved. This is glorious.” It is just something welling up inside of us.
What is it? It is the Holy Spirit bearing witness to God’s satisfaction with God’s Son, whom we have embraced. With all the knowledge and understanding of Him that we have, we have accepted the perfection of Himself and His work.
As a reflection—an emanation—of the glory, the satisfaction, the pleasure of God, it is in our hearts.
We get away from that, you know—that simple trust in the Lord Jesus—and the glory often fades. But I must not go on to that for the moment.
Come back. You move on, and you have God’s mind completely and perfectly revealed in pattern form for the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness.
Meticulously prescribed—to a detail, to a thread, to a colour, to a position, to a measure—all given by God.
And the last chapter of that is: “As the Lord commanded Moses, as the Lord commanded Moses, as the Lord commanded Moses.” It is almost monotonous. As the Lord commanded Moses, it is done, and the glory fills the tabernacle.
And, as you and I know, that typical structure is only a foreshadowing in type of the Lord Jesus.
You move on to the temple, and again the prescription, the pattern, is given to David. Through Solomon it is all perfected, and when it is finished according to the heavenly pattern, the glory fills the temple. Even the priests cannot abide. God fills everything with His satisfaction.
The Lord Jesus comes to His baptism and His great committal. Coming up out of the water, the Father’s voice pronounces:
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
—Matthew 3:17
That is a good foundation for starting your work, is it not? Your life work, as He did. God’s satisfaction—the glory. And John says, “We beheld His glory.”
Then think of His work by the cross. Nothing is left to be done after Calvary; it is all done. Oh, beloved, believe this. Believe it with all your heart.
There is nothing remaining to be done for your eternal salvation. Nothing. If you try to add something, you will lose the glory and get out of the place of God’s satisfaction.
But when the cross is accomplished, the work of redemption is a finished one—a finished one. The sacrifice is well pleasing to God.
Calvary finished, Christ is raised from the dead. It will not be long now before the temple receives the glory on the day of Pentecost. What filled the house of God? Why, Jesus was glorified.
“The Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.” But glorified, the Spirit is given.
Well, there you have your Bible background. The end of the Bible is seen in this glory coming in with the New Jerusalem:
“I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband, having the glory of God.”
—Revelation 21:2, 11
There is the perfected work in the Church, having the glory of God. It is all over. The battle is run. The course of Christian trial, discipline, and suffering is all over. The glory crowns everything at last because God is satisfied.
Have I, on the side of Scripture at any rate, proved the definition: that glory is the expression of God’s complete satisfaction?
Oh, I said, you can put it to the test in your own experience. Some of us have had to go through this experience to learn these things. They are not just theories.
What has been the most miserable time in your life? Well, I can tell you what has been the most miserable time—lacking in glory, and having all that is not glory in my life.
It was when I allowed the devil to succeed in putting me outside of the finished work of Christ by accusation: “The Lord is displeased with you. The Lord has it against you. The Lord is really displeased with you because of this affliction, trial, suffering, sorrow, or something.”
And you go down under that, and the glory goes. And while you stay there, there is no glory.
Simply because, you see, God’s ground is this ground of the absolute finality of the work of His Son for our redemption.
Get out of that ground by any accusation or condemnation of the devil; forsake the ground of Christ, and the glory goes. It will never come back while you stay there. Make no mistake about that.
Yes, all the while you are occupied with yourself—how long are you going to take the land? That is not the ground of glory.
It can take just so long as you stay there on the ground of this wretched, miserable self that God has dealt with in the cross of His Son.
We move over onto the ground of Christ—His perfection. By faith, put our feet down on that, and the glory will return.
Now, my time is gone for this morning, and we have only opened the door. But we have spoken about the Lord Jesus, and we have really got to apply all this.
I am not here to give you a lot more teaching for your heads. I have prayed the Lord to use His Word as a shaft, really to cut right in and do something.
And so we have got to apply this, dear friends. Do we—you and I—really, really want God to be glorified in our lives?
You say yes. You say yes. Well, as soon as you say yes, let us see what that means, and then say yes.
First of all, it means exactly the same as it meant with the Lord Jesus, for He was here as our representative Man before God. In the first place, then, it means a great and utter crisis committal. Committal.
Oh, that that word would get hold of us.
A while ago I was in Scotland, staying in a hotel. A man came into the room, and I looked at him. He rather impressed me, and I said to myself, “Now there is something about you. I want to make contact with you before long.”
He was just dressed, as we say, in civvies—ordinary dress, perhaps a little more holiday style. But there was something about him that made me feel I wanted to contact that man, and I watched for the opportunity.
It came when everyone else went out of the room, and I was left with him. So I put one or two leading questions. I said, “Are you on holiday?”
“Well,” he said, “not exactly. I have been on my back for some long time with a thrombosis, and the doctor told me to come and have a rest and let my wife have a rest. So we are here.”
I said, “Then have you come from some distance?”
He said, “No, I live locally, in this town just by.”
“Oh,” I said, “that is interesting.”
He said, “I am the minister of such-and-such a church,” mentioning one of the most important Presbyterian churches in the west of Scotland.
Well, I knew that church very well. I knew it from boyhood. So I said, “Oh, are you? I knew your predecessor.” I did not mention who I was; we got on very well.
We went over the history of the town and the church and so on. Then I referred to a certain family that had lived in the neighbourhood: a minister and his family, a family of fine sons—five or six sons and a daughter—all of them who sang in the choir and seemed to be so promising in their youth.
I used to attend them. I knew them all so well. And I felt at one time that they were going to really mean something for the Lord.
But they all went away into the world. Not one of them, except the daughter, went on with the Lord in any way. They became successful men in the world.
I mentioned it to this man. I said, “That family—tragedy, tragedy.”
He said, mentioning the name of one whom I knew very well, “Whenever he comes back here, he comes back to the church.”
I said, “I quite think he may do, but I know them right up to date, and I know that he is not a committed Christian.”
“He is not a committed Christian.” I noticed his ears pricked up. That struck him. Something he had never thought of before.
We went on, and then he said, “A little while ago, I invited a certain man, whose name might be known to many of you here—one of the Keswick speakers. I invited him to come and speak at my church, because I felt that something new was needed in my church.”
Then he said, “You know, I think that he is what you might call a committed Christian.”
The thought dawned upon him—the idea in that word, “committed.” “It is quite a new idea,” he said. “I think he might be what you would call a committed Christian.”
Now, Christians and committed Christians. I must leave that with you.
The great crisis experience in the life of the Lord Jesus was when He made the great committal to the glory of His Father and said, in effect, “Everything from this day is going to be judged of its value by how much glory there is in it for My Father.”
That is the issue.
And then, as I have said, everything did fall into line with that with Him. He saw to it that His conduct, His own life with His Father behind where no one saw, and then His conduct before the world, before people, and before His disciples, was governed by this one thing: the Father getting His glory.
His behaviour, the way He spoke, the way He acted—if He had been a businessman, His business transactions—were they for the glory of God?
If not, He would have had nothing to do with anything in business that was not for the glory of God, if He had any say in the matter.
His family—brother, sister, mother—yes, family. Is my family to the glory of God? Is the behaviour in my family, toward my children, in husband-and-wife relationships, for the glory of God?
How we go on as a family—is it for the glory of God? People looking on, how do they view it?
Everything—it is such, it is such.
If you come to a position like that, where you really have a transaction with the Lord, dear friends, do not think that that is going to mean a life of loss. A life of loss? You are going to see the glory of God.
That is the upshot of this eleventh chapter of John at Bethany, over Lazarus and his sisters. Difficult as the way to it was for them, the last picture is one of an emanation of glory—the pleasure of God.
What a delightful scene that is in Chapter 12, is it not?
“Jesus therefore six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead. So they made Him a supper there; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at meat with Him.”
—John 12:1-2
Martha in a new spirit of service, Mary at His feet, and Lazarus sitting there. It must have been a beautiful time—real glory in resurrection life.
But they had been through something to get to that. They had been through it to get to that. Oh, they had been tried and tested on this question:
“Said I not unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”
—John 11:40
“Thou shouldst see the glory of God.” Do you want to see the glory of God in your own life?
It is not going to be a life of loss. Get the glory of God. You cannot get anything beyond that, better than this.
But, you see, we get out onto big things. We will leave it till the afternoon.
Father, take this word and use it to the end which is in view—Thine own glory, Lord, Thine own glory.
And for all to face this issue in all its practical implications, make the great committal, and see the glory of God.
In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.