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?
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.
He'd be a bit nervous to do that.
But isn't it wonderful that God knows us
by name?
I know thee by name.
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, longsuffering, abundant in goodness
and in truth.
So he's gone up the mount with God.
Look at verse 29.
Oh pardon me, look at verses 6 and
8 first.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the
Lord.
The Lord, God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering 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 thou know'st the people that 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 we took a helicopter ride, or 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 remember right, he's about 80 years
of age.
He must have been pretty fit.
It doesn't say how long he stayed there,
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.
That the nations are as a drop in
a bucket.
That 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're all thirsty and I did it.
Good old me, Moses.
But instead of that, he's awed.
He bowed down and what did he do?
He worshipped.
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'll 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 passed by him and proclaimed,
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.
Amen.
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.
Amen.
Everything else would wither.
Everything else would perish.
All our values would change.
Here he is on a mountaintop.
I looked at the seventh chapter.
Don't look now.
The seventh 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 father.
The glory of God appeared to Abraham where?
In a hellhole called Mesopotamia.
A place that was full of idolatry.
A moral dungheap.
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 hellhole 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.
Sure, that's a command.
Be filled with the Spirit.
There's another command.
Be still and know that I'm 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'm
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
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 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 three, 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, that 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're drifting 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 setup 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, 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.
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, and you can argue
as you like.
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 mount, they couldn't gaze on him.
I was going to say, I have a
poem, I had it somewhere.
I've got part of it here, written by
Frieda Hanbury-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 holy of holies.
That's the only place that God came.
In the outer court, there was daylight.
In the holy place, in the holy of
holies, or in the holy place, there was
candlelight, a seven-branch candlestick.
In the holy of holies, it was pitch
black.
And unless a shekinah glory came, there was
no light.
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, 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 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.
Frieda 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 is fragrance poured upon thee.
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.
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
the 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 thee,
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.
Now 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 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 Edwards.
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 there in the family circle outside the
church.
They'll be playing ping-pong and fooling as
though the world's going to heaven.
I said before, if you take the view
of the politicians, Mr. President, I'm glad he's
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 eat 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
me 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, every church mill 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, anybody real?
You remember that, because you were there, you're
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 the question, the other brother,
I think with you, asked the question, is
anybody real?
I changed that, and now, sure I break
up.
My question is, does anybody care?
Do we really care the world is going
to hell?
Do we want to go 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 if you gaze on
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 all with open face, beholding as in
a glass, the glory of the Lord God,
changed from image, from glory to glory.
Or it says, it says they 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.
It 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 up 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 the scribe, 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 upper 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.
And we all get to have, wouldn't it
be wonderful not getting junk mail from all
these big evangelists.
You'll 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, see if 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.
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...
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 Caiaphas and John
and Alexander and many of the kindred of
the high priests, 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 eventide.
How many of them which heard the word
believe?
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 couldn't 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, 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 at 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 wrote, got all Israel to sing,
the horse and his rider hath he cast
into the sea.
They knew the devil's power was broken.
They've 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
praying.
I think in the upper room they were
saying, he's there, he's there at 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 men, they'd lost
all fear of death, they'd lost all fear
of consequences.
They lived in this world as though they're
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, what 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's been no good for 45 years.
He wasted his life.
Are you dead?
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, the first verse,
you did in time past, time past, something's
happened.
In time past 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, 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, 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, uh, 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, 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 you 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.
There 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.
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 saves, 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'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 that always
has oil on it and the mirror immediately
disfigures a 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 Henry 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.
I want 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, then 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 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.
Do 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.
And another day you see them and say,
morning.
And you think they're in morning, if
it's really true what we sang tonight.
My sin, oh 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, but 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.
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 the 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 and 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 poured 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.
They didn't shout.
They 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 all right.
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, though there's nothing 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.
But 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 say, 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 of glory, but him at
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've gone 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 and 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 a phrase, I intended to say
it the other night.
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've 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 the thread 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 like 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 say, I don't like your preaching.
I 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 dominated 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 doing 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, uh, 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
anytime you like.
Give me a chair, thanks Jacob.