The Glory of God — Bill McLeod

Moses, God’s Glory, and the Limits of Human Understanding

When Moses asked God to show him his glory, he didn't know what he was saying. I guess his concept of God would be limited because his concept of the universe would be limited too. They had no telescopes in those days.

They knew very little about this. And so he wanted to see the glory of God. So maybe he was thinking of God being, oh, maybe a hundred feet tall or something. But God is greater than the universe he has created.

And I don't think that Moses really understood that. So God said, no man can see my face and live. That's because the frame we have now is so weak in comparison to the God that is. There's no way. We don't have a powerful enough body.

We will have someday. There's a great weight of glory coming on us as Christians in a later day. And then it says in Revelation, and they shall see his face. We'll all see his face if we're a believer in that time.

Joshua had the same problem when he asked the sun to stand still and the moon to be silent. He didn't know what he was saying. And God answered him. He meant, of course, he didn't understand it because I guess he didn't understand that the earth was revolving around the sun.

And he did the best he could. But God said in Joshua 10 that God answered his prayer. And God said in the context there that this is one of the greatest prayers ever prayed. And obviously it was. But Joshua, like Moses, didn't really understand what he was saying because he didn't understand the local solar system as we know it today.

He knew a lot more than other people knew in those days, but not quite as much as we know now after the Hubble telescope and all of that. No man, John 118, no man has seen God at any time. We're told that clearly in the Gospel of John.

No man. But the Son of God, Christ, came and he told us who God was and what it was like. The Son of Man has told him. John 5, 37, Christ said, you've never heard his voice and you've never seen his shape.

And that's the God we worship. God is his spirit. He must be as great or greater than the universe he has created. And we have to think in different terms when we're thinking of God. He is not like us.

Nobody has ever actually heard his voice. Were we to speak at the fullness of his power, it would shatter the earth into little bits. And no man has ever seen his shape. We wouldn't have eyes big enough to see him.

It wouldn't be possible. You know, we can't look at the sun for very long without burning the eyes out of our head. If that's true, how can we look on the creator of the sun? We can't really when you think it through.

Christ Reveals the Glory of God

But the heavens declare the glory of God. When you understand the universe as it is, the immensity of it, the beauty of it, the glory of it, they declare what God has made declares the glory, the wisdom, the power of our God.

After the resurrection in Revelation 1, Jesus was seen in his resurrection body. And it says that his face shone like the sun. There's no wonder that John fell down before him at that time. And again in Matthew 17, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Christ appeared.

It says so. His face shone as the sun on the Mount of Transfiguration. But even that was, of course, not a full revelation. It could not be because there were men standing around, some of the disciples who could not stand to see him as he was.

Jesus was a man approved of God, it says in Acts 2, by miracles and wonderers and signs which God did by him. In the midst of you, God said. He was approved of God. People should have seen his miracles and understood he was from God.

But they didn't. Here's what Christ said. You saw the miracles, but you weren't moved by that. You were thinking more of having a full stomach. They saw him feeding the thousands. They didn't see the glory of his power there.

They were just thinking of having a full stomach. But there were thousands who followed him day by day to see the miracles that he was doing. But really they were hoping maybe on a second time to get a full stomach.

I don't know. He was approved by God by miracles and wonders and signs. And everybody should have seen this. Everybody should have known this and acknowledged it and worshipped him. But they did not. They failed, even as people are failing today.

The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is seen, the Bible says, in the face of Christ. You want to see God? Philip said, show us the Father. And Christ said, he that has seen me has seen the Father.

I don't know whether he got it or not, possibly. The Word was made flesh. We're reading John 1 .14. And we beheld his glory. The glory is only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. They saw it.

They didn't get it. A few did. I don't think fully. The Word was made flesh. We beheld his glory, full of grace and truth. New truths they'd never heard before. And the power of God. When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sores and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. They didn't get it. They didn't see it. They didn't realize who he was. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, and then received up into glory.

The Believer’s Coming Eternal Glory

The word glory speaks of heaven frequently in the Scripture. 1 Peter 5 .4. Well, first of all, Revelation 22 .4. They will see his face. We mentioned that before. And here's a reference to that great truth.

Someday we'll see him when we can stand it by his grace. We're going to receive those preaching the word of God in 1 Peter 5 .4. We'll receive at the return of Christ a crown of glory that will never fade away.

People, it isn't going to be like it is down here. We're going to have a new body. We're going to be like him, it says. Like him in 1 John 3. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

What a transfiguration will be, a transformation at that particular time. 1 Peter 5 .10 says that God has called us to eternal glory, to his Son. That's what he's called us to. Never mind the dimensions or the other things connected with it.

It will be eternal glory through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in Isaiah 66, Jesus, well, God said, and Jesus was God, we know. The earth is my footstool, the heaven is my throne. And then he asks this question, where can you build me a house?

It's impossible. If the heavens was God's throne, is God's throne, and the earth is God's footstool, how can we possibly build a house big enough for God? We can't. He's trying to get them to understand that, because they're saying, the minor prophets, that God, Israel, had forgotten God and was building temples, expecting to find God in the temple.

You can find God anywhere. God is everywhere. You can find him anywhere, anywhere you wish, except if you happen to be living in sin. He's called us, I say again, unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ.

And this means, of course, there will be no sorrow, no crying, no pain, no disillusionments, none of the stuff we understand and go through down here. That will all end when we get to the presence of God and his eternal glory.

Human Smallness and God’s Regard for the Contrite

You see, all the nations of the world, if you don't really get it, read Isaiah 40, read it several times, and you'll probably get it. Because there we're told that all the nations of the world put together are like a drop in a bucket.

How many times does that drop have to be split before you get in the picture? Do you get it? Less than nothing. That's a mathematical impossibility, but that's what it says in Isaiah 40, that we're less than nothing.

How can we be less than nothing? Certainly, if we're less than nothing, there's no room for pride. There can't be. There are a lot of other things that we glory in down here on the earth. But God said in Isaiah 66, after telling us how great he was, and don't make the mistake of building me a house, he said something else very important.

He said, here's where I will look. He's not going to look at our temples, but he said, here's where I'll look, to him that's poor and of a contrite spirit, and the trembles of my word. That's where God looks.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus said that. So God looks at things in earth. The things that really move the heart of God is a person that is little and small in his own sight, and who is contrite, that is, he is repentant because of his sin, and the trembles of the Word of God.

That doesn't, you know, doesn't look at it lightly, but treats it as it really is. God's Word. In witnessing, you know, I had an interesting thing a day or two ago. I actually had my hair cut, and I got talking to the, there was a couple of gals there, and one of them said, how old are you?

Well, I said, I'm 93. You're what? What's the secret? Oh, what a glorious opportunity. I said, it started when I was 22 years old. Tell us. I told them how I found Christ, and he'd been with me ever since.

And one of them looked at me and said, that was a beautiful thing you did. And then, of course, it ended at that point. But I prayed for them since. Okay, where will God look? Poor in spirit. Contrite in heart.

God said that I revive. And who did He say He would revive? In Isaiah. Again, it was a person that was humble and contrite. Humble and repentant over his sins. Not sitting in judgment on somebody else for their sin and wickedness or failures.

But my own, and confessing them to God. You know, in Revelation 20, we read about the great white throne. And before His face who sat on the throne, the heavens and the earth fled. They disappeared. This is what Moses didn't understand.

God couldn't reveal Himself to him because of His greatness. Well, you know, 2 Corinthians 4 .17, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

No matter how bad your circumstances are, suffering, affliction, failures, disappointments, and all of that. It's a very little thing. It isn't right to compare the weight of our afflictions with the glory that's coming when Jesus returns.

That's Romans 8 .18. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed someday. So let them be severe trials and long-drawn-out afflictions. So what?

They're not worthy to be spoken of in the same breath as the great weight of glory that will be ours in that coming time. Our light affliction. Our body will be raised in incorruption. 1 Corinthians 15.

We'll have a powerful spiritual body, then we're told. And Peter said we're begotten by the resurrection of Christ unto an inheritance which is eternal, incorruptible, undefiled, and will never fade away.

It'll never get old. You'll never have to call anybody in to fix the roof. It'll be eternal glory in the presence of God by the grace of God. And someday every tongue, Philippians 2 .11, will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

The Lord’s Prayer and the Holiness of God’s Name

What a day that will be. How does the Lord's Prayer end? Do you remember? Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. That's how it ends. Thine, God's, is the power and the glory and the kingdom.

That's how it is. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You know, that's a good prayer to pray daily, because that's how it is. Hallowed be thy name. In Psalm 139, we're told that God's enemies take His name in vain.

When you hear people cursing and using the name of God and Christ, you know they are enemies of God. You can't do that. You must not ever think of doing that. Hallowed be His name. The angels know it.

Believers Belong to Christ

The cherubim and the seraphim, they know it. And they praise Him. And we should follow their great and godly example. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. If you are a Christian, you have been joined to Christ.

We have become, it says, one with Him. In 1 Corinthians 6. In Ezekiel 16, God was speaking about the origin of the nation of Israel. And how He found them as a baby that was born and thrown in the mud in a field.

And He was passing by and saw this baby. He said, and it was a time of love, He said. And He claimed this baby and He washed it and took care of it. And this is what He said to Israel, and you became Mine.

Now they violated this relationship as we know. We see it especially in Jeremiah. They've lost it by what they did. There's something much similar for you and me in 1 Corinthians 6. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.

And the worst sin of all is to sin sexually. You cannot have sex with a person you are not legally married to. Otherwise, you're committing what the Bible calls fornication. And in 1 Corinthians 6 we are informed it's the worst of all sins.

It's in the body. It's a violation if you're a Christian, certainly. It's a violation anyhow. And then He goes on to say in that context in 1 Corinthians 6. Your body is not your own. You are not your own.

You are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are His. Have you seen that? Clearly, rightly, you are not your own. You don't own yourself. Someone else does.

And we were like that baby found in the mud in the field as God described Israel. We were the same. He found us in our sin. He called us. He forgave us. He cleansed us. He changed us. He's still doing it.

Living for God’s Glory in Body, Time, and Possessions

When you look at the glory of the Lord, we're told in the Bible again, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of God. He is changing us. That's why we need to read the Bible a great deal and see the glory of Christ because it changes us.

And never forget, you are not your own. You belong to Christ. He paid the price on Calvary. It was a dear price He paid as God crucified on the cross. He paid a price for you and for me. And you're not your own.

And we should sing that, you know. Dear Lord, I give myself away to all that I can do. It's a wonderful thing. We have been called now, remember, unto His eternal glory by Jesus Christ. But we're not there yet.

And so we need to understand and recognize that now we are His. We're not our own. Your time is not your own. Your money is not your own. The gifts that you have are not your own. It all belongs to Him.

And we sing, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill toward men.