The Glory Of God - Part 2 — Leonard Ravenhill

God's Glory Revealed in Mesopotamia

Everything else would wither, everything else would perish. All our values would change. Here he is on a mountaintop. I looked up the 7th chapter, don't look now, the 7th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and that second, about the second verse, where that marvelous young man, the first martyr in the church, possibly not more than 19 years of age, Stephen, and he says, the God of Abraham appeared to our fathers, the glory of God appeared to Abraham, where?

In a hell hole called Mesopotamia. A place that was full of idolatry. A moral dung heap. And yet God appears to a man, there's no system, there are no priests, there are no altars, and yet the God of glory unveiled himself to a man in a hell hole like that?

You know, maybe the God of glory has appeared in some cells of those poor prisoners in Russia today more than in our life. We're so busy we can't, we haven't time to wait for him. Oh, we say, be filled with the Holy Ghost.

Stillness in a World of Chaos

Sure, that's a command, be filled with the Spirit. There's another command, be still and know that I am God. It's in the 42nd Psalm when the seas are roaring and the mountains are falling. Paraphrased, I guess, again by Isaac Watts, let mountains from their seats be hurled down to the deeps and buried there.

Convulsions shake the solid earth, our faith shall never yield to fear. But in a shaking world where everything is chaos, everything that's orderly has become disorderly, then God says, be still and know that I am God.

Outward Service Versus Worship

Everybody else is going mad. Christians today think if they knock on doors till their fingers bleed and give out tracts until they're dropping in the shopping mall, they please God. Let me tell you, I believe you could earn, you could win a hundred souls to Jesus Christ every hour on the hour in the day and still disappoint him.

Because that's service in the outer court. God says Aaron and his son shall minister unto me. Come on now, I know you nod your heads and say I'm right. How much ministering have you done to the Lord today?

You said your prayers, but it was request, wasn't it? Do this, do that, do the other. Again, prayer is our preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings. Worship is preoccupation with God.

Just God himself. I put that in the back of my Bible. I think I did anyhow. But I brought the wrong Bible. But it begins with my goal is God himself, not joy, not peace, not even blessing, but with thee my God.

Moses Encounters the Glory of God

Moses was confronted and he saw the glory of God. And he appeared where? In Mesopotamia. Again, I say as I prayed over this today, Mesopotamia is about the most corrupt place on the earth. It was full of idols, it was full of immorality, it was lawless, it was godless.

And yet almighty God comes to one man, only one saint, maybe in a whole nation of a million people, and he reveals himself to that one man. You say, why does he reveal himself to me? Because you don't stay still, that's why.

You give him a shopping list and get up and go out, and your prayers are over. I wish I had some more details about this. I could fill it in by imagination, but I won't. Moses standing there, and God, the God of glory, the God of the universe, unveils his majesty, unveils his glory.

Isn't this man speechless? Why does he bow down to the earth? Because he can't stand there. Because he can't keep looking, the glory is so great. And he bows himself to the earth, and not only bows himself to the earth, he worships.

Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth

And there's only one way you can worship, and that is to worship God in spirit and in truth. God is a spirit, I am a spirit. My spirit must connect with God's spirit. Most of our religion today, in Christian centers, is soulish, it's not spiritual, it's soulish.

That's why kids like to go to these rock concerts. Because it's soulish, it stirs the soul. And they go out and sin and do all the devilish things they want to do. There's no change there. You can't glorify God.

You can't have a vision of the glory of God and turn around and be mean to your wife or children. Oh, this is a marvelous scripture. But I've got to link it up with something else, yeah. Go to the second, where are we?

Beholding the Glory and Being Transformed

Second book of Corinthians. Oh, where do I want to go? Second book of Corinthians, chapter 3, I guess. And, uh, 2 Corinthians 3, 18, I think it is. I'll get there in a minute. Now, this is bringing it right down to earth, where we live.

2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18. But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed by the same image from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord. Now, he's talking about us, he's talking about the Corinthians that got lost in vanity.

And they drifted away from fundamental truths. They were turning to other things. But he says, we all with open face. Uh, Phillips translates that, we without veils on our faces. I didn't read the scripture, I should have gone on there.

Moses, the Veil, and Spiritual Sensitivity

And read where Moses came down the mount and his face so reflected the glory of God, he had to wear a veil. Now, in the 32nd chapter, when he comes down the mountain, he's blood red with anger. God is angry, and he's angry because he's in tune with God.

How often do you get angry? Are you in tune with the Holy Ghost? When the Spirit of God is offended, are you offended? Or do you just go on buying and selling and eating and drinking and all the normal things that the man next door does?

I'm supposed to be a spiritual man. I'm supposed to be in tune with the infinite. I'm supposed to be regulated by the Holy Ghost, not the traditions of my setup or denomination. Moses stood there until the very radiance of God shone on him.

The Glory of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration

Remember the Mount of Transfiguration? Well, the Mount of Transfiguration was not Jesus reflecting the glory of the Father, it was the inherent qualities of Jesus Christ. It wasn't a spotlight from heaven, it was the holiness and purity of God in him, being God, that flashed out.

But I noticed this, they never fell down and worshipped him. They fell down and worshipped him at the beginning of the Revelation because he was a different Christ in one sense. He'd accomplished his mission.

Christ's Victory and the Church's Unbelief

He'd led captivity captive, he'd given gifts unto many, taken the hinges off the gates of hell. He destroyed the power of the devil. Do you think the church will ever enter into that? I hear people saying, Lord, rebuke the devil.

He rebuked him 2 ,000 years ago, come on. Why don't we enter into what he did? There's only one reason that the world is going to hell tonight and that is the unbelief of the church. Now use your light.

We do not believe God. It's not the sinners that don't believe him, we don't believe him. We have a partial belief, not a full belief. But when they saw Moses come down from the mountain,.