Beholding our God in the Word

This recording is from our Grace Fellowship Church conference, Behold Our God 2026. Please visit our website at gfcedmonton .ca. You can also find us on Instagram at GraceChurchYag, all one word, or on Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church.

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The Glory of God Revealed in Scripture and Transformation

Recording. God's glory, which Paul picks up in 2 Corinthians 3. And Moses was forever changed by gazing upon his glory. How awesome must it have been for Isaiah to, as it were, be caught up into the very presence and glory of God in this vision that he received.

How encouraging, how obedience inspiring it must have been for him. What was his response to seeing the God of glory or the glory of God? Here am I, send me, send me to the most obstinate people possible.

What the message I'm going to preach isn't going to tickle their ears? Send me. He saw and he was transformed. And yet, as we heard last night as well, in John chapter 12, we also can see this glory. Now, do we have to be caught up, as it were, into this glory presence?

Do we have to have this ecstatic vision? Turn to John 12. Again, it was quoted last night, but I'm going to have you turn there, and I'm going to appeal to you to be a marker of your Bible, even if you have a fancy unicorn LSB Bible.

I'm only going to read one verse because our dear brother quoted a lot of this last night. But when Pastor Shane asked me to speak about this, this is the first text that came to my mind. Not Isaiah 6, but rather John chapter 12 and verse 41.

So we were, just as it were, in Isaiah 6, and we're trying to be there. Listen to what the inspired apostle John says. Isaiah saw these things, okay? We just saw that. The threshold of the temple shaking, the seraphim covering their eyes and their feet and crying out unceasingly, holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty.

The whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah spoke of these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Now, of course, we would say Christocentrically, Isaiah saw Jesus. But interestingly, what Isaiah saw, what was given to Isaiah was not just for Isaiah.

Isaiah is representing the people of Israel, an elect remnant whom God will call to himself through a holy stump, which we learned through Isaiah is Jesus Christ. Isaiah is seeing Christ, but Isaiah records these things for us that we might see Jesus Christ as well.

Sometimes we would say, if I only saw Jesus in all his resplendent glory the way Isaiah did, the way Moses did, surely I would live differently. And John is saying, you have, you do in the scriptures.

Isaiah saw and he spoke and he wrote. And so I want to encourage us that we, like Isaiah, can behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in all of the scriptures as they point to and are fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Beholding God's Glory in the Transfiguration

Second text I want us to go to is Matthew 17. This is New Testament, Matthew 17. Some of you know where I'm going and it's good to be stirred up by way of reminder, says Peter. And so I don't want to be preaching too many novel things to you, but we've seen the Old Testament saints looking to Jesus and enduring.

Brother, as you were preaching from Hebrews 12, I wrote in my notes yesterday, the cloud of witnesses, how did they endure? By looking to Jesus. How do we endure? By looking to Jesus. And so we have here in Matthew 17, what's called the Mount of Transfiguration, where the disciples see the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

Probably not going to happen to us, right? I don't know if he's going to catch you up, Ross, to the Mount of Transfiguration, where you can say, hey, let's make some tabernacles. Happened once, redemptive historically, I think it's done.

And yet, let's read what it says here in verses 1 to 8. Now after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, if you desire, I will make three tents here. One for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

He was still speaking, when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Of course, we call this the Shekinah glory of the Old Testament. Shekinah comes from the Hebrew word shekhan, which means to dwell with.

And so he's got dwelling presence with the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. And this cloud of the Old Testament we see is now overshadowing Jesus and the three. And the clouds speak, so they see, and they hear, just like Isaiah saw, and he heard, and he spoke.

I'm just trying to show us some of these connections, because we have in the Word of God a wonderful means by which we can behold the glory of God in the face of Christ. Sometimes we think, if only I was there, maybe that would give me some pickup to go to work on Monday.

Well, we have the scriptures here. And what does the cloud say? This is my beloved son. Moses and the prophets are there. These are men that Peter, and James, and John grew up esteeming, and learning, and memorizing.

They were the bee's knees, if you will. And this cloud speaks and says, this is my beloved son. This is the son of my love, with whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. Interesting. So they see, but they're to listen.

And as John Piper says, for us now in the New Covenant era, we see best with our ears. You don't need to be raptured up into these visions, these heavenly visions. But you can read Matthew 17 in light of all that Moses and Elijah pointed to, and you can see it in Christ.

And you too can be transformed from glory to glory, beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ by the Spirit. This is my beloved son, with whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. When their disciples heard this, they fell on their and they were terrified.

This is exactly what happened to Moses in Exodus 34. Lord, I'm not going unless you go with me. Show me your glory. How does he reveal his glory to him? He shows him his glory in the afterglow of Exodus 33, but the best way that he reveals his glory to him is, the Lord passed by and said, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, who will by no means clear the guilty, but will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

And Moses quickly bowed his head to the ground and worshiped. Same thing. So we're transformed. We're forever changed with Isaiah or Moses or Peter and James and John. They're terrified, and they were never the same because they saw God's glory.

And you're thinking, boy, I sure wish that could happen to me. I just read it for you. And what God has provided for us in the new covenant is the Holy Spirit who has sealed us for the day of redemption, who groans when you hear this.

The Holy Spirit says, glory, it's coming. More glory is coming. And you're now tasting it. You're seeing it in the word of God. You're beholding the glory of God in the word of God. Oh, how awesome it must have been for the disciples.

How encouraging it must have been for them. All of their troubles they probably were having that day. Maybe Peter's wife burned the stew or burnt the bread. I don't know. Maybe they're worrying about how little fish they caught.

I think that all dissipated with one glimpse of the glory of God in all of his radiance in the face of Jesus Christ. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. I'll prove this to you. Again, you probably know where I'm going, and that's good.

If you know where I'm going, praise the Lord. 2 Peter chapter 1. Let's do what Peter is encouraging. These scattered exiles of 1 Peter that are going through immense suffering. And Peter says something remarkable and astonishing to them.

In 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 16 and following. So Peter says, I want to stir you up by way of remembrance. As you gaze upon these precious promises which reveal the glory of God and his covenant-keeping love, you're taking on the divine nature.

We're going to see that in the points. I am getting there, but I'm just setting the table right now. And how are we transformed into this divine nature? It's by the word of God. And this is what Peter says later in verse 16.

He says, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter could have said, hey, just pray for a vision. It'd be awesome. If you could see what I saw, you'd be as awesome as I am.

We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. You might say we were eyewitnesses of his glory. His splendor, his beauty. All of these words, though different, they all sort of are interconnected. For when he, Christ, received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son.

So what I read in Matthew 17, Peter is himself alluding to, and he never forgot that day. But he's not humble bragging here. He's not saying, hey, this is why I'm an apostle. This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.

We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven. For we were with him on the holy mountain. This is the verse. And you would do well to commit it to memory, or at least sort of dog-ear your Bible.

This is what you have every morning when you read the Word of God. Let's do what Peter says. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. It's a wonderful Greek word that has the idea of a solid foundation.

You have a more solid foundation in the prophetic word. As God gives us this word, you have a better, more reliable foundation than if you were even on that mountain, says Peter. We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed.

Listen, to which you will do well to pay attention. Or maybe you might paraphrase in this conference, to which you might do well to behold, to pay attention. As to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men were carried along from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So let me give you a quick takeaway, and then I'll give you my three points. This is astonishing. Beloved, the Scriptures provide a more awesome and authoritative testimony of God's person and power and presence than the greatest of miracles and experiences.

And so maybe let me just apply it. Ask God to give you this kind of hunger to see Him, to behold Him in the Word. Not just to read words on a page, but that you would understand that God in His great love for His bride has provided for her a washing, a daily washing.

Oh, did I stink last night? Oh, did I need a shower this morning? But you know what I needed more than an outer shower? I need an inner shower. And I have something by which I can, as it were, wash myself in the glory of God as I read the Word of God.

God Made You to Behold His Glory

So let me give you three truths I want us to leave with this morning. One, God made you to behold His glory. What is my purpose? Why did God make me? Why am I here? God made you in His image that you might have the capacity to behold and reflect and enjoy His glory.

That's the first point. The second point is we behold Him primarily, not only. I can't wait to hear on prayer, on the church. So please don't hear me saying that this is the only means, but I would argue that this is the primary means by which the other means are directed and instructed, okay?

If you think all I can do is I can behold God's glory in prayer without the Word, you're going to be a heretic, okay? Or in the church. We have to be very careful. So I'm not saying this is the only way, but I want to say it's the primary way that instructs, informs how you behold God in prayer.

What does it look like? How do you learn to pray? In the Word. Well, what is the definition of a church? You find it in the Word, right? All these things are found in the Word. So this is the fount, I think our brother said, to which we must fly.

So the first point, God made us to behold His glory. Second point, we behold Him primarily in the Scriptures. Thirdly, I want to show us from Scripture, the more we behold Him, the more we become like Him.

And so God's purpose, as we sang, is to fill the world with His glory. The glory is then, as it were, seen most fully in Christ. And then what He does to His bride as He now gives her, as it were, He puts His glory upon her.

And the means by which Christ is glorified to the ends of the earth, the means by which Isaiah says that the glory of the Lord is going to cover the earth as water covers the sea, it's going to be through the church that is, as it were, linked, united, grafted in to this holy stump, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But let's get to our first point. God made us to behold Him. This is the great purpose of your life. Right? Whether you're going to school, or whether you're going to work, or whether, you know, you're a pregnant mom, or whether you have children, or retired, what is your purpose?

We can all say that our one purpose together, though it might look different lived out in our circumstances, your purpose, God made you to behold His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Genesis 126. You can turn there.

Genesis 126. Now, again, we're familiar with this. Listen to what Moses carried along by the Holy Spirit, writes, for us. Then God said, so we're on the sixth day, the pinnacle, zenith of God's creative works.

Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the seas, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created them, male and female. He created them, and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves over the earth.

We'll stop there. So in verse 26, there's two things that we see. That firstly, we're created in God's image. And it's no accident that the plural is used. It's not my image, but our image. And I disagree with some modern scholars that thinks God is talking to the angels in the heavenly council, perhaps.

But I would take this as reading in a redemptive historical hermeneutic, that this is the triune God speaking. And I want you to understand, as we get into God's image, we need to know who God is first, before we can reflect His image.

And God has always existed as the speaking God. As you study the Trinity, that you have the Father, and from the Father, there's this eternally begotten Son, or let's call Him the eternally begotten Word.

In the beginning was the Word. And so this Word is constantly being, as it were, emanated from the Father, the source, and the Spirit mediating this glorious triune harmony. But the God is a speaking God.

And the God has always been revealing Himself to Himself by the Word. I know that's heady stuff, but you need to understand that before we existed, God was speaking. The Word has always been proceeding.

He's the eternally begotten Son, the eternally begotten Word. He didn't just sort of, you know, begotten in creation. It's always been this way. The God whom we worship, the God whom we reflect, is the speaking God.

And as we behold the speaking God, or as we listen to Him in His Word, we too are then, as it were, being brought into this glorious triune fellowship, John 17 says. And so it says here that we're made in His image.

We're to be like Him. Now, most commentators would say, that only has to do in the immediate context of having dominion. And I agree with that. What does it mean, as it were, to be made in the image of God?

Well, it says in the next line, have dominion over. It says it again. I don't want to focus on that. I want to focus more on God's ontological nature. Who is God? And what is He like? And so here's my paraphrase.

God says, let us make humans in our image to be like us. What is God like? God beholds God. That's why we worship the triune God. God beholds the glory of God. The Son, right? Read the prayer in John 17.

The glory that I had as the eternal, emanating one, as the eternal begotten one, restored to me now as the God, man, that glory that we had before even creation came into existence. God beholds God. And if we're to image God, then we must behold Him.

And you will be miserable because you were made to behold Him. And if you're not beholding Him, you'll be miserable and unsatisfied. And as my brother prayed for me this morning, seek after broken cisterns that hold no water.

Be appalled, O heavens. Be dismayed by people who have done an insanely stupid thing. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and hewn out for themselves cisterns which hold none. It holds sludge, mosquito larvae, cancerous muck.

And so we see how practical this is, that God made you to behold Him. And so when someone is preaching the Word of God and the Spirit of God, you're beholding Him. And the Spirit within you is saying, more, more.

He's groaning. You're longing for it. So God made you to behold His glory. Parents, remind your children of this and wash them in the Word. How do you show them the glory of God? Yes, in your prayer life.

Yes, in your obedience life, family devotion life, which is another breakout session. God made humanity to be like Him. In light of this, I want to restate. I heard there's a Presbyterian brother here, and he'll know this answer.

What is the chief end of man? Question one in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy forever. Okay, so let me add to that. We can't add to Scripture, but I don't mind adding to a confession.

We have the 1689. We've already done that. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever by beholding Him. That's what we're being prepared for. When you read, whether the beatific vision, you know, in the time of the apostles or in the book of Revelation, what is eternity of eternities going to be?

Beholding Him. I was talking with Sam yesterday, talking with John Owen, and it just blows my mind that the infinitely glorious One, who has always been infinitely glorious and is always revealing Himself, will be doing so forever in heaven and will have actually glorified bodies that are actually able now to be in that presence, but then also to forever and increasingly be transformed into it.

Like, I don't think we're going to be static, and the illustration that came to mind is that He's going to keep giving us bigger cups and then filling it, and then bigger cups and then filling it, and then bigger cups and then filling it, and in His presence, in His glorious fullness of joy and at His right hand, pleasures forevermore.

That's what God saved you for. You exist to behold Him and to be satisfied and to have joy in His glory. So what is the chief end of man? You can be snarky to your Presbyterian friends and say, we can one-up you.

The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever, by beholding His glory. And of course, as we're going to see, His glory is most clearly beheld in the face of Jesus Christ. John 1 .1. It's an interesting verse.

You probably know it. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word So there's an interesting, and some of my Greek friends have to be careful, I know Dr. Joel's here, but there's an interesting preposition that John uses in his gospel a lot.

It's the word pros, and it means toward, and it gives you an interesting word picture of what's going on within the Trinity. So what was God doing before He created us? What was God doing before there was time?

John 1 .1 says. I think it does. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was towards God. Okay, and so this is heavy thinking, I know, okay. I'm going to probably fall over soon and have an aneurysm as well.

But what John, inspired by the Spirit, is saying is that the Son, the eternally begotten Word, is beholding the glory of His Father and reflecting it perfectly. And we're to be made now into the image of Christ, who is the image of God.

And so even in eternity, right, we're going to see that. But Christ is the very imprint, nature. He's the very radiance of the glory of God. And so I just want us to think, what was God doing before us?

He was beholding Himself. The Son was toward the Father. He wasn't just with God, you know, like, you know, the husband's watching the football game and the wife's doing something. Yeah, I'm with her.

No, no, not kind of that with. Jesus was beholding Him, radiating, reflecting. This is why He's the eternally joyful one, even in His incarnate ministry. In John 5, that's why He's a man of prayer, a man of the Word.

He wanted to behold the glory of His Father as the incarnate man. And we're now to walk as He walked. We're to be made into His image. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward God. I like that, that He is emanating.

He is being, proceeding forth from, and yet towards by the Spirit. And that's important for us to think, because if that's how Christ is by His nature, and we're being conformed into His image, that means that we're being conformed into the image of Christ as we behold Him.

And as one of my points was, we behold Him primarily in the scriptures. So, do everything you can to be in the Word of God on your knees. Caveat, right? Our brother quoted it in John chapter 5, right?

Jesus says to the Pharisees in verse 39, you know, you search the scriptures because you think there's life in them. No, life is in Christ. The Word points to Christ. We find life through the Word, but in Christ.

The Word is the handmaiden, as it were, that shows us to Christ. Amazingly, also in John's gospel, God created mankind to share in this eternal life. Again, these are verses I hope you're well familiar with.

John 17, 3. Here's Jesus in His high priestly prayer. He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him.

And here's the verse, John 17, 3. Now, if you study John, he uses what you call double entendres. I'm not French, so I can't say it fancy. And there's always a double meaning. And this eternal life that he talks about isn't necessarily life in its duration, but rather in its experience.

And so he's saying this is what eternal life is. So I'm still under my first point. If you're trying to track with me, I'm still under my first point. God made us to behold Him in His glory. And I'm going to now say that to behold Him in His glory is life.

Let's see that in the text. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So how do you have eternal life? By knowing God. How do you know God?

By beholding Him in the scriptures. Right? Again, we can't go back and have Jesus, as it were, pray for us in the flesh. But you know what he says in John 17 later? I'm not just praying for these guys.

I'm praying for all who believe on me through their word. So if you're tracking with me, God made us to behold Him. We behold Him in His word. And to behold Him is life. But not just life is, okay, I die, now I go to heaven life.

But to experience the very life of the triune God. Beloved, we were made to know God, to enjoy God, to glorify God, to fellowship with God. And this is all accomplished by beholding God, which leads to my second point, which I've already betrayed.

We Behold God Primarily in Scripture

We behold God primarily in the scriptures. I'm only going to have you turn to a couple more. It is in the book of Exodus, and it's not 34, it's Exodus 24. Just turn there. One, I love the sound of pages turning, and two, it keeps you awake.

I can lull you to sleep. Let me read to you verses 10 and 11. I don't have time to set the table of context, but here we have the 70 going up. So it's not just Moses, but it's Moses and the elders. I'll start in verse 9.

Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel went up. This is, of course, the mount of God. And they saw, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under His feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.

This is the verse. And He did not lay His hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. What does it say? They beheld God and ate and drank. And I could have given this example in my first point, that we were made to behold God in all of His glory.

And what I loved about this verse, if Cliff is reading in his LSB, rather than in verse 11, beginning with the word and, his probably begins with the word but or now. Okay, and so in Hebrew, this is something you call a vav disjunctive.

The letter vav means and, most likely and. But when it starts, the beginning of a sentence on a noun is drawing attention to something that is out of place or something like, hey, Ryan, wake up. Something's a bit out of kilter.

And so even the very inspired text is meant to make us wake up here in verse 11. Listen, they come to see God in His glory, but He did not lay His hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. In other words, He didn't kill them.

So I could be wrong, but God wanted them to see His glory. He wanted especially the leaders to see His glory. That preaches to us who are leaders, right? If God is like, nah, Moses, just you. But He actually wants all of them to behold His glory.

Now, it's interesting because the Greek word for saw, I was telling brother Ben, is chazah. Have you ever heard of it? Chazah! It's a Hebrew word that means to behold in a vision. The prophets often use this, like Habakkuk, right?

That they're given a burden, a chazah. You have a chazah moment. And so here they are, and they have this, but it's not for them. It's for the people of Israel. What they behold, they now speak. Look in verse 12.

This is the takeaway, right? Because they saw God in His glory. And I'm saying in my second point that we behold Him primarily in the scriptures. Can I prove that to you? I hope so in verse 12. If not, I probably won't be asked ever to come back here again.

The Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and wait there. Why? So you can behold more? Yes and no. Why did Moses go up the mountain? Because he had something for the people of God, right? We know that the people of God could not just come up to the mountain, right?

Even if the beasts of burden went there, they'd be struck with an arrow. And yet God wants to reveal His glory to all the people. How does He do it? How does He reveal His glory? What He is like? How they should live?

How does He reveal it to them? Is He like giving them visions every day? I think He gave them the word. The Lord said to Moses, come up to me on the mountain and wait there that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.

This is how God has always planned it. That what others beheld of His glory would then be written down and inscripturated for us years later. That the glory they beheld experientially in their person, we now can behold in the word of God in the scriptures.

And so we don't have, as it were, a lesser experience or a lesser revelation that God can speak as powerfully today as you open the word of God and the Spirit shows you Christ in the text. You, it's like you're there again.

God wants not just some, God wants all of His people to behold Him in all His beauty and glory and honor. And we see here that He reveals His beauty and honor and glory and majesty and kingly authority, not just in visions but in the scriptures.

Turn quickly to Psalm 19. I want to show you this point as well, is that God has many ways of revealing Himself but the primary way that He reveals Himself to His people is through the scriptures. It was prayed this morning so I'm not going to to really wax eloquently upon it other than to say God does reveal Himself to all people, right?

To the choir master, Psalm of David. Now, interestingly enough, David was inspired to write this psalm just like Psalm 8 as he was reflecting on scripture. Think about that. David is meditating on Genesis 1, 2, and 3.

He's meditating on the law, the Torah. And then God inspires David as he's reflecting upon the Word to write the Word. It's just amazing. I'm simple so that blew me away. But David writes the psalm by meditating on Genesis 1, 2, and 3.

And so in Genesis 1, the heavens are declaring literally the Hebrew is a scribe. It's writing it down and telling forth. It's preaching as it were the way a scribe would. The heavens are declaring the glory of God and the sky above is proclaiming, heralding His handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor other words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth in their words to the end of the world.

And so God is preaching. He wants to be revealed. He wants to show His glory and He does so in creation. However, David is also reflecting on Genesis 3. Something cataclysmic happened. That man fell into sin and that natural or general revelation is not adequate as it were for us to really behold the glory of God as we ought.

And so he goes on to say that nothing is hidden from the sun. Everybody knows from Romans 1 in the things that have been made that there is a God. We know His eternal power and divine nature and without excuse.

But what I want to focus on is not verses 1 to 6 from Psalm 19. It's actually verses 7 to the end. Okay and perhaps you've heard this. I'm certain when Pastor Shane was working through the confession as we're thinking through revelation in the confession.