Okay, let's look at the book of Exodus,
chapter 34, or maybe, let's see, I'll
go back a minute there into chapter 33,
sorry.
Now here's Moses talking, let's go to verse
12.
And Moses said unto the Lord, isn't that
lovely?
It means he's sitting and having a conversation
with the Lord.
Not with an archangel or some other being,
but with the Lord.
The Lord we sang about tonight, immortal, invisible,
God only wise.
And yet man talks with God.
In verse 12, Moses said unto the Lord,
See thou sayest unto me, bring up this
people, and thou hast not let me know
whom thou wilt send with me.
Yet thou hast said, I know thee by
name, I know thee by name, and that
thou hast also found grace in my sight.
Now therefore I pray thee, if I have
found grace in thy sight, show me now
thy way, that I may know thee, that
I may find grace in thy sight, and
consider that this nation is thy people.
And he, God, said, My presence shall go
with thee, and I will give thee rest.
Now if you wonder what rest is, it's
answered for you in that verse.
Rest is the presence of God.
Never being afraid, knowing he's with us, he's
guaranteed he'll never leave us or forsake us,
and because of that we have rest.
We can lean back as it were on
God.
My presence shall go with thee.
And then this other wonderful verse, the end
of verse 17.
Or in verse 17, The Lord said unto
Moses, I will do this thing also that
thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace
in my sight, and I know thee by
name.
Do you believe God knows you by name?
Hmm?
You say, so and so talks with the
Queen of England, and when he goes in
he doesn't bow and say, Your Excellency, Your
Majesty.
He says, Hi Elizabeth.
You'd be a bit nervous to do that.
But isn't it wonderful that God knows us
by name?
I know thee by name.
Hmm?
That's what I want the Lord to do,
know me by name.
I know thee by name.
And he said, Moses said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory.
Verse 2 of chapter 34 says, Be ready
in the morning and come up in the
morning unto the Mount Sinai, and present thyself
to me there in the top of the
mount.
Now this is a hazard, isn't it?
He'd done that in the 32nd chapter.
What happened?
While he was up there they fooled around,
they made a graven image, they got drunk,
they got naked, they did every crazy willful
thing to disobey God.
And now God says, Now come up on
the mountain again.
And verse 5 says, The Lord descended in
the cloud, and stood with him there, and
proclaimed the name of the Lord.
And the Lord passed by him, and proclaimed
the Lord.
The Lord, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in
goodness, and in truth.
So he's gone up the mount with God.
Look at verse 29.
Pardon me, look at verses 6 and 8
first.
The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed the
Lord.
The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth.
And verse 8.
Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward
the earth, and worshipped.
In chapter 32, and verse 22 it says,
And Aaron said, Let not the anger of
my Lord wax hot.
Now he's talking there to Moses.
And now knows the people that they're set,
and they're full of mischief.
Okay.
I'm coming back into this chapter now, into
chapter 34 for this reason.
The Lord passed by.
What had he requested?
He'd request, Show me thy glory.
And now he's gone up a second time
up on the mountain.
You know, we kind of look at that
as if we took a helicopter ride.
Or have stood on an escalator.
Instead of that, he has to struggle up
the mountain.
And I identify that with that word in
the fourth chapter of Hebrews.
When it said that we're to labor, to
enter into rest.
There's nothing comes easy in the Christian life.
Everything is a wrestling.
Everything is a striving.
We've got the world, the flesh, the devil
against us.
And Moses here now has gone the second
time onto the mountain.
If I were to underwrite it, he's about
80 years of age.
He must have been pretty fit.
It doesn't say how long he stayed there,
or how long it took the glory of
the Lord to pass before him.
But the Lord was merciful and gracious.
I believe in this instance, while there's no
time factor given, if all the glory of
God went past him, he could have been
there for weeks.
I believe he was transfixed.
Transfixed means motionless.
I believe he stood awed.
I believe he gazed at the majesty of
God.
Something that we've totally forgotten in our day.
The awful majesty of God.
As I said last week, you should read
at least once a week, the 40th chapter
in Isaiah, which tells you that God made
the stars, he counts them all, and he
knows every one of them by name.
But the nations are as a drop in
a bucket.
But he has all power and all authority.
You see, our God is so small, and
we have such a small concept of God,
the world outside isn't in any way staggered
by what we are or who we are.
The Lord passed by him.
You know, if you put it into common
vernacular, I think Moses had a bit of
a nerve to say to God, show me
thy glory.
Boy, if I'd taken a stick and divided
the Red Sea, I'd thought I'd seen all
the glory I needed.
If I hit a rock and it split
open, and it followed the nation wherever they
went, I'd say, look at the magic.
Hey, I did that.
Remember when I did it that morning?
You were all thirsty, and I did it.
Good old me, Moses.
But instead of that, he's old.
He bowed down, and what did he do?
He worshiped.
And you know what?
If ever you see the glory of God,
you'll worship.
He bowed down.
But Moses was alone.
Aaron wasn't with him.
The highest moments of your life will be
when you're alone in worship and in adoration.
They surpass all the preaching you've ever heard.
Unless you heard mine, but apart from that.
We don't see the glory of God.
I've said to you often, when do you
tiptoe out of the sanctuary?
Because you've been overwhelmed with the mercy and
the glory and the majesty and the holiness
of God.
People go into church dirty, sing about Him,
and go out dirty.
You can't do that if you see God.
He goes on a mountain.
He climbs to the height.
Show me thy glory.
Lord, I've seen your miracles.
Show me yourself.
I want to get intimate with you.
That's what it means.
Show me thy glory.
And the Lord pass by him and proclaim,
The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious.
I think all the history of Israel must
have gone past him like you watch a
film go when God said that to him.
Remember my mercy.
I could have blotted you out with your
transgressions.
I could destroy you when you made a
golden calf.
Instead, I extended my mercy.
I extended my mercy.
I'm well past 70 years of age.
People tell me sometimes I'm living on borrowed
time.
The only time I borrowed was the watch
tonight because I didn't have one.
I borrowed time.
But anyhow, living on borrowed time?
America's living on borrowed time.
We passed the safety line years ago.
We're heading for hell as quick as any
nation on earth.
But if we saw the glory of God
one Sunday in every church in America, we'd
shake the country for God the next week.
Everything else would wither.
Everything else would perish.
All our values would change.
Here he is on a mountaintop.
I looked at 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 glory
of God appeared to Abraham.
Where?
In a hell hole called Mesopotamia.
A place that was full of idolatry.
A mottled 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 haven't time to wait.
Oh, we say be filled with the Holy
Ghost.
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 will become disorderly, then
God says be still and know that I
am God.
Everybody else is going mad.
Christians today think if they knock on doors
till their fingers bleed and give out tracks
until they're dropping in the shopping mall, they've
pleased God.
Let me tell you, I believe 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 was confronted and he saw the glory
of God.
And he appeared where?
In Mesopotamia.
Again, I says 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.
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'm a spirit.
My spirit must connect with God's spirit.
Most of our religion today in Christian centers,
it's 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 here.
Go to the second, where are we?
Second book of Corinthians.
Where do I want to go?
Second book of Corinthians, chapter 3, I guess.
And...
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.
Phillips translates that, we without veils on our
faces.
I didn't read the scripture, I should have
gone on there 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 set up
or denomination.
Moses stood there until the very radiance of
God shone on him.
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 but 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.
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 here's 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, they couldn't gain from him.
I was going to say I have a
poem, I had it somewhere.
I've got part of it here, written by
Frieda Handry-Allen which I think explains the
thing very beautifully.
She's talking about you and I going into
the holy place.
Not being in the outer court, not going
into the holy place, but really going into
the holiest of holies.
That's the only place that God came.
In the outer court there was daylight.
In the holy place, in the holiest of
holies, or in the holy place, there was
candlelight, a seven-branched candlestick.
In the holiest of holies, there was no
light.
It was pitch black.
And unless a shekinah glory came, there was
no light.
You know, when men put Jesus Christ to
death, they put out the light of the
world.
The only light in the world tonight is
the word of God.
Thy word is a lamp to my feet.
That's to guide me in what to do.
And the light to my path, that to
me is, the light is the word of
God, the lamp to my feet.
Is the word of God.
And the lamp to me is the word
of prophecy.
That tells me not just what to do,
but where to go.
And the only light in the world tonight
is the word of God.
Plus the glory that's reflected in your personality
and mine.
Romans 12, 1 and 2 says, present your
body a living sacrifice unto God.
And be not conformed to this world, or
as J.B. Phillips puts it so well,
don't let this world press you into its
mold.
Come on, is it doing that?
The style of clothes you wear, the style
of life you live, is the world's system
pressing me into its mold?
Do you feel unhappy if you go to
church and you have to design a dress
on?
Or the ladies' shoes?
Is the world pressing us almost unconsciously into
its mold?
Be not conformed, but be transformed.
It's the same word used of Jesus, be
transfigured.
Be transfigured by the renewing of your mind,
having the very mind of God himself given
to us.
Friedrich Allen says this, within the veil be
this beloved thy portion, within the secret of
thy Lord to dwell, beholding him until thy
face is glory, thy life is love, thy
lips his praise shall tell.
Within the veil, for only as thou gazest
upon the matchless beauty of his face, canst
thou become a living revelation of his great
heart of love, his untold grace.
Within the veil his fragrance poured upon me.
Remember the woman that washed the feet of
Jesus with tears, and then put that wonderful
ointment on, then dried his feet with the
hair of her head, what happened?
The fragrance she poured out on him came
back on her.
Do you know why you find prayer so
dry?
Because you don't worship.
Do you know why you come out of
a place of prayer the same as you
went in?
Because you don't gaze on his wholeness, on
his majesty, on his sufficiency, on his glory.
And then having tasted something of the other
world, you come back into this world with
a radiance that's totally un-understandable to the
world.
Be not conformed, be transformed.
Within the veil his fragrance poured upon me.
Without the veil that fragrance shed abroad.
Within the veil his hand shall tune the
music which sounds on earth the praises of
thy God.
Within the veil thy spirit deeply anchored.
Thou walkest calm above a world of strife.
Within the veil thy soul with him united
shall live on earth the resurrection life.
That's why we should be living now, not
after we die and shuffle off this mortal
coil, if you want to be Shakespearean.
But even now I should be, not I'm
going to reign with him, I should be
reigning.
If I'm not reigning with him, then the
world's reigning in me.
Either I have total dominion by the grace
of God over the world, the flesh, the
devil, or the picture is reversed.
I think there's a very wonderful verse here.
We all with open face.
We don't have to veil our faces, do
we?
I've quoted to you before that little daughter,
nine-year-old daughter of the man who
preached that hellfire sermon that still preaches, sinners
in the hands of an angry God, Jonathan
Edward.
And his little nine-year-old daughter says,
people mock my daddy, he's so gravel-voiced,
he's so serious when he preaches, well God
in heaven, what is the most serious to
preach in the gospel?
Paul says more than once to Timothy, be
sober, be sober, be sober, the end of
the world is coming.
Dear Lord, if it was coming 2,000
years ago, where are we tonight?
Is the church sober?
Go down the road and see how many
are in the family circle outside the church.
Are they playing ping-pong and fooling as
though the world's going to happen?
I've said before, if you take the view
of the politicians, Mr. President, I'm glad he's
getting better, he says there's a holocaust coming
up because fire's going to come and destroy
the nation.
But supposing you don't believe what the politicians
say, the word of God says Armageddon's coming
and a system is going to come to
destroy a third of the world's population, that
should make us a nightmare.
If we'd any gumption at all, if we're
a fraction as spiritual as we think we
are, both at last days and every church
in town would have a prayer meeting 24
hours a day, at least a room in
the church.
If I ever get into a fellowship and
have control of it, there'll be a room
open 24 hours a day.
And they'll expect you to keep up that
24-hour prayer, Does the devil go to
sleep?
You go to bed tonight, it happens to
be Friday night, folk don't have to work
tomorrow.
They'll be at the hell holes, the dung
houses till 12, 1, 2, 3 in the
morning.
Many of them don't start till about 2
or 3.
They go to these night clubs, night spots.
The church, doesn't the church, every church near
in town will be locked up tonight by
about 10 o'clock.
If the fire department did that, we'd raise
hell about it, wouldn't we?
If the hospitals did that, we'd be disgusted,
you can't do it.
I think I told you last week, two
men came into my office, and the first
thing they said is, Is anybody real?
You remember that, because you were there, you
were one of them.
That put you on the spot, Jacob, but
anyhow.
He doesn't mind, I know him.
I straighten him out every day, but he's
twisted the next day, but anyhow.
Just like Jacob, just like Jacob in the
Scriptures.
No, he's really coming on.
I love this man very, very much.
He's my new neighbor.
And if he doesn't buy that house, you're
in trouble.
But they asked a question.
The other brother, I think, with you, asked
a question.
Is anybody real?
I changed that, and sure I'd break up.
My question is, does anybody care?
Do we really care the world is going
to hell?
Do we want to go out on Sunday
and be nice and sweet and have a
nice little time and get a hug and
a kiss, and then go out to a
perishing world exactly the same?
You can't do that.
It's against His holiness.
The more you see His holiness, the more
you see corruption in the world.
The more you see His integrity, the more
you see of the deception and falseness of
the systems that we live in the church
as well as outside of the church.
We are with open face, beholding as in
a glass, the glory of the Lord God,
changed from image, from glory to glory.
It says to emphasize, that's a good Bible
to read, reflecting the glory of God into
the same image we are being transformed from
glory to glory.
So I showed you quickly there the glory
of Moses.
He had to drape his face because people
couldn't bear to see the reflected majesty of
God in him.
And I'm supposed to live reflecting we beholding
in a mirror.
You can't look on God.
And so you have to hold a mirror
and see Him that way.
We see His glory in the word of
God.
The more you know of the word of
God, the more you know of His majesty,
the more you know of His glory.
Look at Acts chapter 3 for a minute
or two here.
The more I read of this book, the
more trouble I get.
Sorry, it's Acts chapter 4.
Acts chapter 4 verse 13.
Now when they saw the boldness, now they
say, when they saw the coldness.
He says in the same chapter, I guess,
see how these Christians love one another.
Now they see how these Christians shove one
another.
Verse 13 says, Now when they saw the
boldness, who are they?
Well, look at the chapter a bit further
back.
Verse 5.
It came to pass on the morrow that
their rulers, they were the rulers and the
elders and described Annas the high priest and
Caiaphas another high priest and that's illegal anyhow.
The Jews weren't allowed to have two high
priests and they had them.
And John and Alexander and as many as
were of the kinnet of the high priest
were gathered together in Jerusalem.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter
and John, they conceived, they perceived that they
were unlearned and ignorant men and they took
knowledge of them that the glory of Jesus
Christ was shining in them.
The glory of Jesus shining in Moses up
on a mountain.
He's by himself.
These men are in a hell hole.
These men have been to prison and yet
the glory of Jesus Christ is there, though
they have a prison sentence hanging over them.
You don't need ideal situations to get the
glory of Jesus Christ.
All you need to do is to be
in his will.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter
and John, they perceived that they were unlearned
and ignorant men.
Isn't that something?
Just imagine those men in the other room
didn't have a PhD between them.
Didn't have a bank account between them.
Unlearned, unusual, unwanted, but boy before long the
world knew they were around.
They had no backing company, they had no
bank accounts, no newsletters.
Isn't that terrible?
Don't mention that please around here, but anyhow.
When we all get to heaven, wouldn't it
be wonderful not getting junk mail from all
these big evangelists?
You tell the evangelists when you get to
heaven very clearly you know the streets are
made of gold, they'll be digging the streets
up.
I'll be looking for you.
Isn't it a paradox this book?
If you want to go up, go down.
If you want to gain, throw everything you
have away.
Lose your life, you'll find it.
Keep your life, you'll lose it.
If you ascend, you'll be humiliated.
If you humble yourself, you'll be exalted.
If you want to be a somebody, be
a nobody.
It's so foolish, isn't it?
You better nod your head because you know
it's true anyhow.
When they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they took knowledge of them.
That gets under my skin.
It gets in my heart.
They took knowledge of them.
Go back and see why they should be
so happy.
Verse 1, They spake to the people, the
priests and the captain of the temple, and
the Sadducees came upon them.
Now you've got the whole load on your
back.
The priests, the captain of the temple, the
Sadducees, and then over in verse 5, you
have the rulers and the scribes.
Verse 6, Annas the high priest and Cephas
and John and Alexander and many as were
the kindred of the high priest, they were
gathered together.
And when they had set them in the
midst, fancy facing that gang.
How would you feel?
Huh?
If you were ushered into the high court
and you saw all the big shots there,
and you knew that your life was hanging
on a thread, would we have boldness?
When they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, verse 3 says, they laid their hands
on them and put them in hold for
the next day for it was evening time.
How many of them which heard the word
believed?
Glory to God.
Isn't that preaching?
That when you lock the preachers up, the
revival still goes.
If your revival isn't working in your church,
get the sheriff to come and arrest the
preacher.
Stick him in jail and see if he
comes round.
You know, the tragic thing about us today
is the world can put up with us.
It couldn't put up with the early church.
The early church was going that way, the
world was going that.
Now we're running side by side, and God
knows, nobody knows.
There's no line of demarcation.
We're as greedy as the world, as fashionable
as the world.
We want a place in the sun with
our jealousy, our envy, our pride.
These men were destitute of all that.
Why?
Because they gazed on the risen Christ of
God.
And even though they'd been in jail for
days, it didn't brush off.
They couldn't be intimidated.
It didn't matter what you said to them.
They'd seen Jesus.
And ungodly men said, there's only one reason
why these men are like this, they're like
their master.
We couldn't intimidate their master.
We tried to threaten him.
We tried to destroy him.
We pushed him over the edge.
I tried to push him over the edge
of the cliff.
And he was as calm as could be.
We got men to scream for his death.
And he was still the prince of peace.
He was still placid.
And these men have the same kind of
spirit in them.
They didn't just take notice of them.
Look what it says.
In the middle of verse 13, they marveled.
They marveled.
They were astonished.
They were dumbfounded.
They were saying under their breath, what in
God's name is the secret of these men?
They're no better than when we put them
in jail.
Their hair hasn't changed a different color.
They're not six inches taller.
They don't look stronger.
They had a living intimate relationship with the
risen Son of God.
That's why.
Preachers argue about what happened in the upper
room.
No argument about it.
Common sense.
What does it say?
The end of Luke where it says that
when they saw Jesus risen, what did they
do?
They went roaring back to the temple filled
with ecstasy, filled with joy.
Do you think they stopped?
I think that ten days that they waited,
the last ten days in the upper room
was the most ecstatic meeting that had ever
been in the history of the world.
I believe it exceeded the joy of Moses
when he got all Israel to sing the
horse and his rider happy cast into the
sea.
They knew the devil's power was broken.
They seen Jesus going up.
He says, I'll go up there to my
Father.
And when I get there I'll make perfect
your imperfect thing.
I think in the upper room they were
saying, he's there, he's there in the right
hand of the Father.
If we just pray he'll just communicate with
the Father.
He said, I go to prepare a place
for you.
He's got angels busy getting your mansion ready.
So why worry?
They'd lost all fear of man.
They'd lost all fear of death.
They'd lost all fear of consequences.
They lived in this world as though they
were already in the next world.
Well isn't that what it's about?
Why do you say, thy kingdom come, thy
will be done not on earth, in earth,
I am earth, I'm of the earth, earthy.
And the kingdom of God can start now.
That's where it starts, not right after I
die.
I read the other day somewhere about they
buried a man, or they say they buried
a man yesterday.
Or so and so died yesterday and they
buried him and somebody who knew him said
he died 45 years ago.
He'd been no good for 45 years.
He wasted his life.
Are you dead or are you alive tonight?
If they bury you tomorrow would you say,
well that man's already been dead about three
years.
Now there are two classes of people in
the world, not rich and poor, not black
and white.
Not bond slaves and free men, just two
kinds.
Those who are dead in sin and those
who are dead to sin.
There's no other cloud.
But either dead in trespasses and in sin
or that miracle has taken place in us
which had taken place in some of these
men, in fact all of them.
It says in Ephesians 2 doesn't it, the
first verse, you did in time pass, time
pass, something's happened.
In time pass you ought to go into
the prince of this world, the power of
this world, the prince of the power of
the air.
And yet at the end of that very,
very, very same chapter it says you're the
habitation of God.
You can't show me a miracle in the
world greater than that.
A man is the habitation of fear, the
habitation of sins, bondage to habits and God
gets hold of him and kicks the devil
out of his life and fills him with
God.
You know, if we gazed every day on
the majesty of the risen Son of God
you'd never backslide, you'd never be afraid, you'd
never get depressed.
After all, everything's going our way because it's
gone his way.
They took knowledge of the, 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.
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 there.
But what?
Oh, she said, we're having a visitor at
the manse, as they called 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 his fragrance poured upon me.
Without the veil that fragrance shed abroad.
Within the veil his hand shall tune the
music which sounds on earth the praises of
thy God.
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, Jesus saved, and
shirt buttons that have Jesus and other rotten
stuff?
And I'd say, 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'd 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.
You don't have 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.
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 Hinn writer
says in this body pen 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.
Jesus Christ expects that you and I to
be 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 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.
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 is wrong with us.
I think about half a dozen going down
a dark street one night the street will
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
his honest to its fullness that everybody knows
every time they see us there's an evenness.
You know, you see some people one day
they have a smile like this.
Excuse me, not quite as big but anyhow
it's from ear to ear nearly.
Then another day you see them and say
morning.
And you think then morning.
If it's really true what we sang tonight.
My sin or the bliss of this glorious
thought it doesn't have dominion over me I
have it under my feet by the grace
of God.
All the vain things that charm me most
have gone away.
The vain things charm me most and help
me least.
It should be that when we go into
an atmosphere that people welcome us not of
our station in life not that we're wealthy
or brilliant because the grace of God is
there and they know that we're people of
sound speech not critical speech not unkind speech
but holy speech.
They took knowledge of them.
The hierarchy the big shots religious leaders the
other leaders and these little nobodies come up
and they take notice of them and say
you don't see men like this every day.
What's the quality of them?
What's the quality of their living?
And somebody says they've been with Jesus.
Just one thing I remember when we lived
just outside of Manchester that's a place to
live.
It's one of the darkest towns in England
one of the wettest and it seems to
rain every day and I'd been visiting and
boy it was a pretty miserable day I
was pretty wet.
I saw a bus coming and I flagged
the fellow down and when I got in
oh mercy it was overbearing with perfume it
was just fantastic and then a lady put
up her money the fellow goes down the
middle corridor of the bus and you hand
him your money and this lady raised her
hand and she had a red cuff on
a blue thing like this and she gave
her money and as she did I suddenly
realized you know some of you guys have
some stuff called English leather and it's made
at the factory where the bus started and
those women had been in that atmosphere all
the day and just as you go home
where have you been I was on the
plane and they were all smoking and it
penetrates your clothes these women had been in
that atmosphere they hadn't put it on but
the clothing absorbed it and they were all
sitting there in the bus and when I
got out of that dirty atmosphere in Manchester
which is a dull atmosphere and stepped in
it was as fragrant as a garden it
didn't shout it didn't say look it spoke
for itself it should be the grace of
Jesus Christ the gentleness and meekness of the
Lord Jesus Christ I don't know maybe I'll
will David be here next week Paul well
you'll have a good preacher one of my
sons may be here and he'll be preaching
so I'll get the night off I won't
get paid but that's alright but David always
reminds me of that scripture the gentleness and
meekness of Jesus Christ he was the most
nervous boy I think I'd ever seen in
my life till the Lord got hold of
him and saved him and filled him with
the spirit now he's co-pastor in a
church of 1600 every Sunday morning another 600
in Sunday school running at the same time
God has used him around the world he's
on a trip around now I say that
not to boast of my son but there's
nothing wrong in boasting about him I guess
but because if you think it couldn't happen
to me it can listen it's not what
you can bring to God that matters it's
what God can bring to you you've got
to be a clean vessel a purge vessel
you're not wanting to be a somebody and
hang your hat up with the great preachers
or get some society behind your name but
just totally glorify him and so I want
to sit in your presence until the very
fragrance of eternity comes into my being into
my thinking into my acting into my talking
into my demeanor just like the fragrance got
into the clothing of those women well what's
this all got to do with praying well
if you see the glory of a God
like that in all his majesty you'll have
more confidence in prayer at least you should
I do I think of that bunch of
failures they almost all let Jesus down and
now they're standing up against you see the
greatest miracle was not Peter and John healing
the cripple at the gate of the temple
it's a miracle in John and Peter Peter
that ran away from the finger of a
girl and now he stands up against the
big hierarchy the big shots and he points
the finger and says you crucified the Lord
in glory but him hath God raised up
come on Jesus has nothing else to do
he's done everything he can for the church
it's just that we have to enter in
and we enter in by humility we enter
in by recognizing again our weakness and yet
his majesty what the church has had up
to this point hasn't shaken the world and
if we go on like this it'll take
a thousand years to get the world turned
around and we won't do it then because
we're working on the same old formula we
have to behold his glory we have to
behold his majesty we have to behold him
risen in all his glorious power and then
let this be absorbed in our lives that
people take knowledge of us not by what
we dress or the car we drive but
they take knowledge of us we've been with
Jesus I get bored to death when I'm
in with places no matter how nice and
smart they are how big the house is
if the conversation is about Jesus it's wasting
time when we travel I don't travel much
I travel some when we go every time
we go it's an Emmaus journey even if
it isn't a Cadillac you have to make
the best of it and you can sing
and praise and magnify the Lord come on
there's not much time left I said afraid
I intended to say the other night any
of you there how many of you were
there the night I preached on David and
Betty you weren't there that was the night
the glory came not because you weren't there
I preached on the judgment seat the other
night how many were there some of you
oh good wasn't it a gracious meeting I
preached that a hundred times but never with
as much joy and anointing I think as
that night but one thing I forgot to
say there'll be no maturing after we die
I believe as a tree falls it lies
I don't think a million years in eternity
will make a bit of difference to your
standing there or your maturity all the maturity
is here and that's a very serious thing
there's not much time for many of us
any of us really and to think that
between here and there that once a third
of life snaps I'm not going to be
maturing God has given me all I need
for maturity in this book and no man
however tall he was however strong he was
however great he was in the kingdom of
God ever had more than I have in
this book he just absorbed more of it
he dwelt on it more he meditated on
it Moses could have run away oh I've
seen the glory of God he stays there
he isn't caring what's happening what if they're
making another golden calf forget it he says
I'm absorbed with God's glory with God's majesty
with God's beauty and if you say God
liked that you won't care a hill of
beans if somebody leaves you out of some
special function they have they'd invite you to
a wedding or invite you somewhere else it
won't make a bit of difference the more
I'm absorbed in him the less I care
about the things round about I want to
be eternity conscious I want to be God
conscious I'm going to eternity not for the
weekend if you are well go but I'm
not going with you I'm going into his
eternal presence forever so what if I suffer
a little what if I'm not liked people
don't like my preaching I don't like your
preaching they say shake hands I don't like
it either you won't get one over me
saying that it could be a lot better
maybe it could be worse too come on
we're eternity bound people are we absorbing all
there is in the risen Christ of God
is your life reflecting his peace his peace
his joy his love it's all there to
be absorbed by us my peace I live
with not peace my peace joy no my
joy no man taketh it from you take
everything else take the shirt off your back
take the money out of your pocket take
your friends you can't take your joy joy
he says your joy no man taketh it
from you read the 16th chapter of John
it's his joy the joy that dominates in
his life under pressure when they threatened him
when they would have killed him but he
was dominated by joy by peace and I
leave you my peace by joy and his
joy was during the will of the father
this is his legacy to his disciples any
king dies poor as Jesus he didn't have
any houses he could share didn't have any
horses to leave them he didn't have any
money he says I give you my peace
I'll give you my joy these are worth
a million million times the other things you
have and if I'm living in less than
that I'm not living where God wants me
and if I'm not living there I won't
reflect his glory I won't reflect his beauty
ah yes and while we're rejoicing there's a
world outside perishing the more I see of
him the more I'll hate sin the more
I see of him the more I long
that what Jesus died for will be accomplished
in my generation it hasn't been accomplished in
any other you've got the greatest chance in
the world to make history and you'll only
do it when you're cleansed and filled with
the spirit of God we're going to pray
if you wish to go you're free to
go as we kneel to pray we leave
the service open ended because so often we've
let me find the watch I borrowed I
don't know whose watch was it don't all
put your hands up whose watch was this
some brother catch no pass
it over to him please thank you so
much it didn't help me too much but
anyhow let's pray we're praying for revival in
this community as well as other places we're
praying for revival in your church I felt
there was real blessing down there at what
do you call it Rose Heights Church of
God there's a lovely spirit a very precious
man there I learned to love him in
the few nights I was there and I
ask you to pray for that church as
well that the glory will come I don't
care where the fire falls but it must
fall somewhere so feel free if you're not
in the spirit if you say my life
doesn't reflect the glory of Jesus well cough
out what's wrong is it pride is it
envy what is it stubbornness jealousy what is
it don't say bless me Lord kill this
thing in me go to the cross and
die and get resurrection life so now we're
going to pray and as I say you
feel to leave any time you like give
me a chair please thanks Julian