The Glory Of God - Part 5 — Leonard Ravenhill

The Glory of God in the Heavenly Places

They marveled at that. Oh Lord, I'm waiting for us some Sunday. I'm expecting the glory of God to come. We'll walk out of the sanctuary with a different attitude entirely, a revolutionized personality, a consciousness that even now with two feet on earth, I can be in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

That's what Paul says. We're seated with him. And that's where these disciples were. I went to a little Bible college, I've told you, with 35 students. No girls, they're too distracting. Both before and after marriage.

Thomas Cook’s Witness and the Presence of Jesus

But anyhow, 35 young men. And I sat here, and there's a picture of a saintly man here. At one time president of the Methodist Church, and president of the college before I get there. His name was Thomas Cook.

He wrote a very fine book on holiness, which is still printed these days. I used to look up at that when I couldn't answer questions. It didn't help me at all. But he had a marvelous saintly face. And he used to go around the village churches.

And one day a little girl went, the old-fashioned way, you know, they used to have a butcher's shop where all they sold was meat. You won't remember those days, you go to supermarkets. You see half a cow here, and half a pig there, and other pigs outside.

But anyhow, then you saw the butcher's meat. And this little girl was restless. And the butcher said, now Mary, come on, you're usually so quiet. Now don't step out of line, dear. But, but what? Oh, she said, we're having a visitor at the manse, as they call the pastor's house.

Having a visitor at the manse this week. Well, don't you have visitors almost every week? Yes. What's the difference this week? Oh, they've taken the furniture out on the lawn, and they've been beating it, and beating the mats.

And the little girl was 14, and she said, you know, sir, they're making such a fuss, as we say in England, getting excited so much. You'd think Jesus himself was coming. And the butcher laughed and said, well, Annie, that's a nice little thing to say.

Next week she went to the butcher's, and he said, well, Annie, how are you? She said, he's been. Who's been? I told you last week, they were making such a commotion at the house, you'd think Jesus was coming.

Well, he came. His name is Thomas Cook. Isn't that nice? The same man was going on a ship off the west coast of Africa. They pulled out from Spain and gone down the coast there. And the first night he was out, he went through the saloon where men were drinking and smoking and playing cards.

And suddenly everybody grabs their cards and put them under the table. Did you notice that? Yeah, sure did. I've been on this trip many times. What happened? Everybody grabbed their cards, stuck their pipes underneath.

Why did they do it? One man said, well, could you do anything less with a face like that that came through the saloon? He had a face like the Prince of Peace. It was engraved on him. There was a majesty about him.

There was something in his walk, something in his talk, something in his actions. And everybody took notice of him that he lived with Jesus. He did because he spent hours every day in the presence of Jesus.

They took knowledge of him. Within the veil is fragrance poured upon thee. Without the veil that fragrance shed abroad. Within the veil is hand shall tune the music which sounds on earth the praises of thy God.

The Moral Witness of a Transformed Life

There's something wrong. I think you said today when you were at the Vanity Fair the other day. Christian Booksellers Association, which is two doors from Babylon. Isn't it something when you have Christians with dogs, little coats on, dogs of Jesus saved?

And shirt buttons that have Jesus and other rotten stuff. The man said, well, it's the only testimony some people have. Well, why not get them saved? That's the only testimony they have? Boy, if your button comes off, has anybody seen my testimony around here?

That would be terrible. The whole thing was Babylon. They had little stuffed dogs with Jesus on them. That's degrading. It's Babylon as far as I'm concerned. Do we have to wear a badge, a sign that the living Christ is in us?

Isn't there a dignity about our language, about our attitude? I don't care if you're a deacon or a beacon or what in the world you are. I won't ask your friend what kind of a person you are. I'll slip up to the back door when you're away and ask your wife how you live.

Do you get wild? Do you get angry? Do you get distressed? Or do you live as calmly as Jesus would under those circumstances? After all, he has no other lights to shine in the world except you and I. Reflecting is in a mirror.

Do you know how to get a mirror so it won't work? Smear it with grease. If you want to put an inch thick, just smear it with your hand. It always has oil on it. And the mirror immediately disfigures the reflection.

And if there's something in your life of bitterness and strife and envy, or some other thing, the image will be marred. The image of God that should be in us, restored by the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and by the abiding Spirit of the Holy Ghost.

Holiness and Victory as the Normal Christian Life

You see, God only has one class for his people, only one, and that's holiness. I didn't write it. I like that verse in Hebrews where it says that we, we, we, we, on this earth, while we're here, as the hymn writer says, in this body pent or tied up, we, while we're here on earth, are supposed to be as holy as Jesus Christ was when he was on earth.

He didn't die to leave us, moral cripples, leaping around or staggering and falling and stumbling. The ordinary course of the Christian life is victory from morning time you get up to the time you go to bed.

It isn't that we can't sin, it's that we don't want to sin. It's not that it's impossible to sin, it's possible not to sin. There's a big difference. And what Jesus Christ expects that you and I to be a little Christ while we're here in this world.

Reflecting the moral and spiritual glory of God in the face, and not just our physical face, but in our display to other people as they read us, as they see us. We don't need veils on our faces. We don't have enough glory.

But it should be that the glory of God is reflected in our demeanor, in our actions, in our attitudes, in our personality. There's nothing more revolutionary than the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ made real in us, putting to death the old man and putting on the new man, and then being indwelt by the Spirit of God.

That's not, that's not super, that's the normal Christian life. Again, it's not impossible to sin, it's possible not to sin. What a difference when Moses was there in the presence of God, and God was angry.

Moses Radiating the Glory of God

He came down livid with anger, so much so that he threw the stones down. And he broke the Ten Commandments. But in the next chapter it's altogether different. He's a different Moses. When he comes down this time, his face isn't blood red with anger, his face is radiating a holy God.

The reflection of eternity is in the face of the man. And the people are speechless at him, no wonder. You know, if we ever get into the fullness of the blessing, the neighbors will wonder what in the world's wrong with us.

Changing the Atmosphere Through Holiness

I think about half a dozen going down a dark street one night, the street would light up. It's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm hoping it will work anyhow. It should be that we change the atmosphere in any place that we go to.

The Quakers used to say that. You remember that, dear brother, Dale? They used to say, a man is his own atmosphere. If you're on fire for God, you can go into a frozen atmosphere and it will change like that.

If you're holy, the atmosphere will change. You'll send some waves through that audience because they know the holiness of God is there. And it doesn't reflect on me, it reflects on him, not me. No, we don't have to put veils on our faces.

It should be the normal reaction of our lives that the grace of God is in us.