The Glory of God, No. 2

RV184-01

I found it interesting recently to hear President Bush speak favorably about holding a world summit. I'm sure that the members of the Council on Foreign Relations (the CFR) and David Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission representing the international banking community are euphoric over that call by the president. At the center of such a call toward a unified world is the United Nations, which is increasingly being exalted among the peoples of this world. This is a movement, in fact, toward a socialist world government, and the vehicle for carrying mankind into such a world organization is the alarms which are being raised over the environment. That is the driving force that is trying to justify why we need more government controls: "The environment is collapsing around mankind. The earth will become unlivable."

Yet, scientists who do not have a political agenda repeatedly reassure us that the research is faulty, which suggests that the earth has some major environmental problems. Yes, it has environmental problems, but they are not catastrophic. The catastrophic environmental problems will come to pass during the tribulation. That's when they will know what environmental problems are. But it is a good vehicle to alarm people to say, "Let's have a more powerful government that can solve these matters. In all this drive to save planet earth is, of course, the hidden objective of exalting mankind to godhood in place of the Creator God. Who needs God as long as we have the cleverness and the wisdom of man?

Liberty vs. Equality

Redistribution of Wealth

I now get a better picture, I think, of how the United States simply phases out of the picture of the final years of this earth's activity before the return of Christ. The economists who study these things are regularly putting out the warning that even the Federal Reserve System, which is an institution that was created to be able to control the ups and downs of the economy, has now boxed itself in as one very knowledgeable writer said, "To where it is pure panic." And the greatest economic disaster now looms on the horizon, and the government cannot do a thing about it.

All of this is because men choose to violate the basic laws of God, not the least of which are the economic laws that God has established. The news media are oriented to disinformation; to slanted reporting; to socialism; to big government; and, to the exaltation of internationalism. We live in a day when Satan and demonic powers are now dignified as a new age of enlightenment, and a new expression of human potential.

So, I say, Christians: don't we live in a wonderful era? Who of us would have thought, in our lifetime, we would hear the president of the United States call for a world summit so we could get a world community organized. Before our very eyes, history is fulfilling biblical prophecy. The apostle Paul would be euphoric were he alive today. Satan is reviving the old Roman Empire, and people are ready for the emperor antichrist to arrive. We Christians who are well-trained in Bible doctrine are the only barrier to Satan's plans for mankind. As the Word of God tells us, once the Holy Spirit is removed, Satan will be able to go full-steam-ahead, and the Holy Spirit will not be removed from His restraint of evil until the church is removed, for He indwells us, and when we go, He leaves this earthly scene.

The angelic warfare is indeed in the intensified stage today, and we Christians are under the gun of Satan and society. I was told just before the service about an article in the "Dallas Morning News" (so I haven't had a chance to read it yet) that says that the professors in the theology department at SMU have written an article favoring and justifying homosexuality. Now, is the Bible the book of God; or, is the Bible the book of nonsense? Do we have any communication from God? Is He out there? Is He awake? Is He speaking; or, is he not? We Christians are under the gun. And even church people are getting mad at their spiritual leaders who are taking an uncompromising attitude toward false doctrine, and are devoted to pursue any divine viewpoint objectives. They don't like what they call "meddling preachers" – preachers who are throwing obstacles in the way of the expression of their sin nature ambitions.

We even have the sad scene of Christians in this intensified age of the angelic conflict – Christians who are fighting each other, under the guise that they are serving God in doing so. They are fighting each other in order to get people straightened out for Him, instead of striking against Satan. And I'm finding that Christians have eyes which are glazed over, and they can't see the things they should see. They have brains that have become numb, so they can't think through to the realities that they should be able to grasp for advancing God's work. I can tell you that Satan is dancing in the background with delight.

The apostle John tells us that, near the end of the future seven-year tribulation period, he suddenly sees in his vision an angel, high in the atmospheric heavens above the earth, who is proclaiming to all mankind the eternal gospel of the grace salvation. The people of the tribulation are warned by the angel to have a proper attitude toward God and to this gospel message. They are, first of all, he says, "To fear God;" that is, to have a healthy respect for God's holiness, and a dread of His judgments against evil. They're also told to glorify God, which means to recognize the unique, absolute perfection of His essence. The glory of God is His majesty and splendor. And this has often been seen in times past by an external brilliance of light which surrounds God. What He is, in His essence, is demonstrated by His external light, which we refer to them as the glory light.

In Exodus 24:16-18, this is referred to on the occasion when Moses goes up on Mount Sinai to receive the law from God for the Jewish people. In Exodus 24:16, we read, "And the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai." What does that mean? That means that at the top of the mountain was an explosion of enormous, brilliant light such as people could not even look into: "And the cloud covered it for six days. And on the seventh day, He (God) called to Moses from the midst of the cloud, and to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. And Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. And as you know, when Moses came down, this enormous, brilliant light, reflecting the glory of God, impregnated his body, so he was shown with the glory of God, and the people had to say, "Moses, please put a mask on. We cannot stand the light that shines forth from your face, which is reflecting the glory of God."

Compare that verse here in Exodus to Deuteronomy 5:24, where Moses is reminiscing, and says, "And you said, 'Behold, the Lord your God has shown us His glory and His greatness. And we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen today that God speaks with man; yet, he lives." Moses said, "Yes, I stood in the very presence of the glory of God, and yet I lived. I was not consumed, and I was not destroyed, because this God is making a way for us to come back into His presence.

You may also add to that Exodus 40:34-38 where this glory (this external brilliance) of God enters the tabernacle where God dwells among the people. Exodus 40:34: "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The glory of the Lord is the external brilliant reflection of what God is internally. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because of the cloud that had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And throughout all their journey, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of men would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel."

What a wonderful experience it is to visually see the evidence of God's presence in your midst. Yet these are the same people (who saw that), who could not wait for Moses to come down off that mountain with the laws of God, to guide them and to preserve their freedom. They could not wait to return to the phallic cult worship of the Egyptians that they had just come out of. How can that be? People sit there, and they see the very presence of God up on the mountain, and they're awed by it, and then they turn to the lowest, grossest kind of human conduct.

When the King James Version says, "Moses came down off the mount, and saw the people playing," they were playing in immorality. That's what they were doing. And they were not ashamed to do it in a public spectacle.

The Glory of God

7. Omnipresent

   He is also omnipresent. This also is part of the glory of God. What does this mean? This means that God is everywhere at the same time. How do we know this? How can we believe this? How can we grasp this? In our mental thinking, that's pretty tough. But we know, again on the basis of Scripture, the truth about this. In Psalm 139:8-10, we read, "If I ascend to heaven there, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol (that is, Hades), behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me." God is at the same time everywhere.

   Proverbs 15:3: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good." That's a good verse to remember. We are never out from under the surveillance of God.

   In Jeremiah 23:24, the omnipresence of God is taught: "'Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him?' declares the Lord. 'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the Lord."

   Then, in the New Testament, Acts 17:27: "That they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us." The apostle Paul is telling the wise men of Athens that God is everywhere. The whole being of God is everywhere in His creation at one time. But immediately we must stress that the New Agers are wrong, and Hinduism is wrong when they say that God and creation are one and the same thing. God is separate from His creation, but He is everywhere in it.

   Here again, in Psalm 139:7, this principle is laid out for us: "Where can I go from Your spirit, or where can I flee from Your presence?" This was the foolish mistake that Jonah made. He thought that he could get somewhere where God would not notice him.

   So, the omnipresence of God means that he can deal with individuals located in one place. He can deal with individuals located in many places. And God is present, consequently, in every single believer in order to give Him counsel. James 1:5-6: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him." Now, the wisdom that God gives us is how to use the doctrine that we have learned. And He can do that because He is present in each of you personally. So, God is an eyewitness to everything we do and say. You cannot hide from God. You can only ignore His presence.

8. Omnipotent

   The next of the three "omnis" is that God is omnipotent. God is all powerful, and there is no limit to His authority and to His ability. We have this again declared to us in the Word of God. Matthew 19:26: "And looking upon them, Jesus said to them, 'With men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.'" What was Jesus saying? He was saying that God is omnipotent. This is an important verse to remember. The next time you are struck with something that is impossible, remember it is not impossible with God.

   The omnipotence of God is also taught in Luke 1:37: "For nothing will be impossible with God." This is referring to the miraculous conception of Jesus without a human father.

   In Revelation 19:6, this part of the glory of God is reiterated: "I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the sound of many waters, and the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns." God can do anything that He wishes to do, as long as it does not violate His Holiness. God never uses His power for evil or foolishness. God never abuses His infinite power over the weak. God made the universe as the creation of His power. That is important for us to remember, in a time when God is being dismissed in human thinking. He is the Creator. He's the one person that you cannot get along without.

   Abortion

   Isaiah 44:24 says, "Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the one who formed you from the womb: 'I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and stretching out the earth all alone.'" This verse points out to us that not only is God the Creator, and He is the one who put all this together, but I want you to notice that he says that He is the redeemer. He has solved human sin, and He is the one who formed you from the womb." What a chilling verse this is for the abortionists. What a chilling this is for those who dismiss a living unborn child as a triviality that can be slaughtered in the womb, because whatever is in the womb, God is the one who is forming it. He is the maker of that life, and it is in no one else's hands to dispose of that life but His alone.

   Please notice Psalm 8:3-4: "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man, that You take thought of him, and the son of man, that You care for him>" That is a good question. And how important it is for us to stand in the presence of an Almighty God, and ask ourselves that question: "Why do you even concern Yourself for a useless triviality such as I am? Why do you concern yourself, and go to do all this for my benefit?" Why? Because that's part of His glory as the God of love. God is so powerful that he can reverse death.

   In Ephesians 1:19-20, we're told that it is God's power that raised Christ from the dead: "And this is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe." These verses tell us the basis upon which you may live your life at every moment of time – the power base upon which you may live your life. In the Old Testament, when God wanted to have a frame of reference for the power for what He would do for people, and how he would act in His omnipotent, He would always use the crossing of the Red Sea. Do you remember what happened at the Red Sea? He would say "I am taking care of you with enormous power," and then He would compare it to pushing back the waters of that sea and permitting them to walk through on dry land. That was the frame of reference of the power of God in behalf of His people in the Old Testament.

   However in the New Testament, it's a totally different frame of reference. It is the frame of reference of the power of God that it took to raise the dead body of Christ to life: "And this is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe (you and me). These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places." There is no greater frustration than standing in the presence of a dead person that you wish were not dead, and you can't do a thing about it. There's no sense of helplessness like standing in the face of death, because you cannot reverse it. There's no possible basis by which that can be changed. You cannot even change it for a moment. You cannot change it slightly. It is impossible, except for God. God snaps that person back to life with just a statement of His Word.

   Ephesians 3:20: "Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us." Now, do you know what the power is that works within us? The frame of reference is raising a dead body. That's big power. So, what little difficulty do you face this week? What little fringe triviality are you struggling with this week that you just don't know how you're going to cope with? There is the power of God within you sufficient to raise a dead body to life. Do you know what your trouble is? Your eyes are glazed to the direction of God, and your brain has become numb to what He's trying to tell you, and you can't respond.

   Death is powerless in God's presence, so it can only touch those whom God permits. I'm happy to tell you that God never gets tired; He does not sleep; and, He never gets worn out. It is God who enables the Christian to have capacity for service because we draw on His power. When somebody tells me that they're just so burned out in Christian service, they're telling me more than they wish to tell me. Nobody gets burned out in Christian service. Nobody gets burned out in the Lord's work if you have the unlimited power of God to draw upon. What you got burned out on is your own investment in your self-centered trivialities that are going to be gone in a short time. As soon as you die, it's all over.

   It's always a terrible shock, and it happens so regularly that somebody comes up with a serious illness – an illness from which they may not recover. And immediately you kind of look at the life and the investment that is made, and you wonder whether that person is going to be very happy when they walk into the Lord's presence in maybe a few weeks. First, God gives you the direction. And if your eyes are not glazed, you see it, and you jump on it. If your brain is not numb, you will not be dumb. You will move with Him. Secondly, He gives you all the capacity you need to do that to which He calls you. You will mount up with wings as eagles. Your youth will be renewed far in comparison to your chronological age. God gives us the capacity to draw on His omnipotence. What an account!

9. Immutable

   God is immutable. This means that God doesn't change. God is unchangeable in all His essence. God is immutable. Malachi 3:6 puts it this way: "For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. That's good to know: "I, the Lord, who makes promises that I'm going to carry you through and do something for you," which you did for the Jewish people. He said, "Even though you are acting like a bunch of lowlife people, I don't change. I'm going to keep My promise. I'll discipline, and I may even have to take your life, but I'm going to carry you through." It's nice to know that God does not change. He is not a fickle friend.

   Hebrews 13:8-9 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. ... It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were thus occupied were not benefited." He stays the same, but you can get carried away by strange doctrine and trivialities. You are fickle. You are mutable – but not Christ. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And please notice that it says, "That Jesus (God) is the same." It does not say that He always acts in the same way.

   The charismatics love to quote this verse to you in order to prove that they can still heal people; still speak in tongues; and, still create miracles – because Jesus Christ is the same. But that is of course, not what the verse is saying. He Himself is unchangeable in His character, but His ways very definitely change.

   James 1:17: "Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." What a poetic way to say that God is immutable. There's no shifting of lights. There's no shifting of shadow. There's no variation.

   So, God is immutable. He cannot be better or worse from moment-to-moment like people are. People have good days and bad days. There is no point in your going to God and saying, "How are you today, God?" He is immutable. He is always everything right on top – that He should be. People are fickle, but God is the same. People learn more about God from their experiences in life, but God always was with full capacity. He does not have to find out anything. People learn more about Him, but He doesn't learn more about them. God always responds to any event in keeping with His Holiness, so He does not compromise His integrity in order to adapt to human evil.

   Do you know how many times we are tempted to play along to get along – to go along to get along? Very often, that's compromising with evil. But God never goes along to get along. He is immutable. All blessings from God require changes on man's part to be compatible to God's unchanging character. Do you remember when we talked about His love? His love has one object – His absolute righteousness. And until He puts that absolute righteousness in you, and until it's functioning in you, you're not going to be the object of His love, because God is unchangeable. You have to change. You had to come into line so that you become the recipient of His blessing.

   Those who refuse to become adjusted to God's character will suffer divine judgment. That is true of believer and unbeliever as well. Men cannot change God's moral laws to suit themselves. These express the character of God. The theologians at Southern Methodist University are in for a big surprise when they put out justification for homosexuality and lesbianism. It is a gross sin upon which was the penalty of death under the theocracy of Israel. You are not born with that kind of perversion. You choose that kind of perversion, just like you choose fornication and you choose adultery. You're not born with it. You cannot say, "That's just the way I am." That is the way you choose to be. You cannot change God's moral laws to suit yourself. He won't go along.

   Furthermore, God is the same every time you deal with Him. There are no surprises or switches. People complain that they just don't understand Mrs. So-and-so. One day, she's sweet and nice; but, the next day, she's horrid. She's never the same. You never know how she's going to be. You value a friend that's always going to be stable when you meet him. That's the way God is. He's going to be the same every time you deal with him, no matter what God does to us then, we know that it is consistent with His holy nature, and He can be trusted. So, don't go around whining. "Why is God doing this to me?" You sound as if, suddenly, He has double-crossed you and changed from what He has portrayed Himself as being with you.

   In Job 2:9, Job's wife says to him, "Job, why do you hold fast your integrity?" Now, that's a nice wife, isn't it? She has a husband of integrity, and she's mad at him for it. Here's a guy who is four-square solid, and she said, "Why are you such a jerk holding up your integrity?" And here's her here's her discerning advice: "Curse God and die." It would be a pity to marry that kind of a woman. But Job was smarter. In his pain, he wasn't going to be dissuaded by the voice of his wife to do that which was not compatible with doctrine, and Job knew his doctrine: "But he said to her, 'You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and not accept adversity?' In all this, Job did not sin with his lips."

   I don't like the phrase, "God has been good to us." God is always good to you. I don't like the phrase, "If the Lord chooses to be good to us." That's an insult, and I don't think you should use it. God is always good to us, even when He puts us in disaster and crises. And when people say to me, "God has been good to us," I'm always tempted to ask them, "When was the last time He was bad to you?" He never is. He's always good. He can't be anything else. He's immutable. And whatever comes is because He's good. Job knew this. Job said, "I hate this. I don't like this agony. I don't like the circumstance I'm in, but I'm not about to berate God; to curse Him; and, to turn my back on Him. He's the only friend I have.

   Now, the pagan god, who were spawned by Satan, are in Satan's image. Therefore, all the pagan gods of history and of mythology are always arbitrary. They're inconsistent; they're fickle; they'll double-cross you; and, they cannot be trusted. God is always at His best, and performing with total perfection, because that is consistent with Himself.

10. Veracity

    There is one other aspect of the glory of God, so that you have an appreciation for who God is, and to understand what the angel means by saying, "Give glory to God:" God is veracity. That means that God is absolute truthfulness. John 3:33: "He who has received His witness has set his seal to this, that God is true." Anybody who believes the Word of God is proclaiming to all the world that: "I believe God tells the truth." Anybody who reads the Bible and proclaims it as the Word of God, and acts upon it, says, "I believe that God is telling the truth."

    Titus 1:2: "In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago."

    This same concept was very clearly taught in the Old Testament in Numbers 23:19: "God is not a man, that He should lie; nor, a son of man, that he should repent. Has He said, and will not do it; or, has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" There is no question in the Bible that it describes the glory of God as including absolute truthfulness. God is always true, both to Himself and to others. God can, therefore, be fully trusted in what he says, and He should be believed. Nothing false can come from Him.

    John 14:6 tells us that Jesus Christ is the truth.

    1 John 5:6 tells us the Holy Spirit is the truth.

    In John 17:17, we're told that God the Father is the truth. All members of the Godhead are the truth. God does not adjust His message to adapt to human evil. That's why He's the truth. God cannot diminish or compromise the truth. He is true truth. We are willing, as human beings, to compromise the truth, and to adjust ourselves to someone who does not like the truth. We are we are willing to soft-pedal a truth because it disturbs someone who is in the wrong. God does not adjust His message down.

    God's truthfulness, of course, is primarily expressed to us in Bible doctrine, all of which is true. Christians acquire the mind of truth through doctrine, via the grace system of perception. Man, by nature, follows Satan in the quality of being a liar. The easiest thing for a child to do is to lie. It is innate in a child to be a deceiver, because he has the quality of Satan through the sin nature to do that. In Romans 3:4, we read, "May it never be. Rather let God be found true, though every man is found to be a liar. As it is written, 'That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you are judged." God is always truthful in contrast to human beings.

    In John 8:44, Jesus puts this in a very explicit way when He says, "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." In the last session, I was talking to you about a preacher who was arguing with me about the reality of the charismatic movement that he has found, even though he's not in the charismatic group. He told me about the information that he had received through his wife, and through the revelation of the person that he saw healed by the act of a preacher.

    I said, "Has it ever occurred to you, and have you forgotten (as a minister), that Satan is a liar? And has it ever occurred to you that a demon can make a person sick, and that when the charismatic preacher does his bit, Satan says to the demon, 'Get out,' and the person gets well, so that you think that this preacher, who is giving you false doctrine about the Holy Spirit (the one doctrine you cannot afford to be wrong on in the church age), and that Satan, the liar, has caused you to believe him by that subtle act?" I'm amazed how people are willing to believe what comes from the spirit world – the information that demons will give, not realizing that they are listening to liars. You're not listening to God when you listen to them, because God is always truthful.

    So, man must adjust his thinking to God's truth through the gospel, and through the learning of doctrine, and through the confession of sins. God's truthfulness, as revealed in Scripture, enables man to live in keeping with reality and integrity. We don't live in a dream world when we live with truth.

Let God be what He is

Don't Think too highly of Yourself

In John 5:41-47, Jesus says, "I do not receive glory from men, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me. If another (namely, the antichrist) shall come in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?" I've noticed that people who assume godhood like to complement each other on their divine qualities, and they encourage one another in their assumed godhood. They are trivial worms, and they are so slimy that they can't even keep their crowns from slipping off their heads. But they complement each other.

And Jesus says, "How could you appreciate the glory of God when you're so hung up on getting glory from men? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses (that is, the Word of God), in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses (that is, if you believed the Old Testament Scriptures) you would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how would you believe My words?"

God's glory (or essence) comes to the aid and the protection of His true servants? In the recorded Scriptures, some of the most magnificent examples we have of people who respect the glory of God are the examples where God's glory comes to your assistance. And if there's anything a Christian needs to know in this age, where we're on the final run, we need to know how to be compatible to the glory of God so that we are giving Him His due respect; we're saying out of His way; and, we're enabling His glory to come down to our assistance, and our (get the word) protection. Today, we have the protective capacity of the glory of God.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1993

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