This is the first book

Some aspects of the glory of our Lord

For a few moments, well many, I would like to consider something of the glory of our Lord, His glory is spoken of many, many times in Scripture, we make mention of it in our prayers and also it is referred to in hymns but how does one define it? Now this matter is not very often opened up for us to understand it a little better, in Scripture there are so many different shades of meaning to the word and we will all understand it in a different manner, getting this clear in our minds let us now endeavour to open up the word a little. We are all different, our emotions are not the same, we do not all have the same mental ability, so let us remember this in our endeavour to open up this important matter a little. Now I think

Now the points that I am going to dwell on, as far as the glory of our Lord is concerned, are first of all in the life of Moses, then the togetherness of our Lord, after that in the life of our Lord Jesus from The Manger to The Cross. Then to consider the glory of our Lord, as He is at the moment, at the right hand of His Father God and then finally how the glory of our Lord should be reflected in our own lives and this is very serious indeed

In days of old, in the last dispensation, our Lord dwelt in buildings, in the tabernacle and temple and He spoke direct to man on a man to man basis. Moses was in 'the tabernacle talking to God, he asked our Lord to show him His glory, the reply came from God that and I paraphrase it, No man can see my glory and live'. Now what follows this is put in a language that the simplest person can understand, our Lord told him to stand in a cleft of as rock, as he was hidden there, then God in His glory passed by. It is from this experience that the hymnist wrote that lovely hymn, Rock Of Ages Cleft For Me, Let Me Hide Myself In Thee', no, no-one has ever seen the fullness of the glory of our God and was able to cope with it, such is His holiness. Jumping forward many years the three brethren on the Mount of Transfiguration just saw something, yes something of the transcendent glory of our Lord Jesus, not all of it, it was a little of His transcendent glory, that means that it went beyond anything that they had previously understood, now let us leave that point there for a moment, just dwell on it a little yourself

Let us now think of the togetherness' of the glory of our Lord, let us use our sanctified imagination a little and think of what it must have been before time came into being. There was there, before time, the togetherness of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The trinity was not just something that was thought up in the first century to try to make all things fit together, our triune God was there before time began. God the Father spoke and the world was created, there was power within His words to accomplish that for which they were spoken, however we understand the details of the way creation came into being, as I understand things according to my interpretation of Scripture took place many millions, yes billions of years ago, just read again and meditate upon the first two verses of Scripture please. Then after that first period many other things took place. At creation our Lord Jesus was there, did He not speak in John c17 v5 of The glory I had with You before the world was', this teaching to me is very clear. After that we are told that The Spirit moved upon the face of the deep, so before the beginning of time there was the glory of the TOGETHERNESS of God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit.

Now move forward many, many years up to the life of our Lord Jesus, let us pause for a moment on the banks of the river Jordan where John was baptising, what do we hear and see? On that day there were many, many folk being baptised in a baptism of repentance, at Jordan our Lord Jesus moved forward to John, He must of been, as The Son of God, a very striking person indeed, taking into account, the correct meaning, of Isaiah c53 and the end of verse 2, do be careful with your understanding of these few words, the words, There is no beauty we should desire of Him'. The correct understanding of these words is that to the natural man there is no beauty in the Master, was He not to them, just the Carpenter's son, and did they not say can any good thing come out

Now let us consider the glory of our Lord Jesus from when He was born right up to the time when He was crucified. As Jesus was born in The Manger do we not have the record of what the angels sang, the words were, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace towards men of good will'. Yes in that little Babe that was being borne in The Manger, at that moment, there was glory to our God. In the record in John's Gospel it is recorded that, The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth', this teaching to me is very clear, that right from the entrance into time of our dear Lord Jesus the glory of our God was expressed. At the same time there were the wise men who came from the East, they saw The Babe Jesus, in seeing Him, as a baby, we are told that they worshipped'. Let us now move forward a few days, Mary and Joseph the foster father of Jesus, took our Lord to the templ

Now consider the early days of our Jesus, in playing with his friends there must have been something very special about Him, when He was in His teens, His foster father Joseph died, so I understand as Jesus entered His teens, Jesus was the eldest Son, He had four brothers, two sisters and there was Mary His mother, just stop for a moment and think what this must have meant for our Lord. Jesus must have been the bread winner for the family

We now move forward to The Cross, to search for the glory of our Lord. We have the teaching in the commandments that we should honour our fathers and mothers, our Lord Jesus honoured His Father in The Cross work and in it was seen His glory in His obedience. It is not the will of our Father God that any should perish, but that all might have the opportunity of coming to repentance, so the glory of the obedience of the Son to The Father was expressed in The Cross work of our Lord Jesus, yes in His obedience. After that it was shown to the world and to us now, the glory of our Lord as He came through, not into death, to the wonder and the glory of the resurrection on the cross

Let us now take another step forward in our understanding of the glory of our Lord and we are going to look at the vision that the Apostle John had of our Lord on the Isle that was called Patmos. Now I am very careful when I think of visions and let us use this word with care, as I hear a person speak of a vision' they have had I consider it very carefully, many a time it is only an idea. When folk, in the Scriptures, had visions their circumstances were far from easy, think of Paul, he was shipwrecked, put in prison, received strips and he also had the care of the churches, it was not fun for him in any way but he had a special experience, it was a vision, we are told that he was caught up into the third heaven and saw things that it was not lawful to be uttered.' Paul had a vision of our Lord and we have no further record of it yet it must have effected his ministry for the rest of his life. Then there was the Apostle John, because of his love of our Lord Jesus he was taken away, when he was well over ninety years of age, taken away from his family, his friends and fellow believers who were in the seven churches in Asia Minor with whom he had had responsibility. John was placed on the Isle of Patmos and had to work hard, he lost all his home comforts, could not have had much food and our dear Lord Jesus appeared to him as we have it recorded in the first chapter of the Revelation from verse thirteen onwards. We have a record of this vision for us to understand, to understand it correctly we must see it through the thinking of the mind of an Eastern person

Let us now start a new paragraph for this important matter. In Revelation c1 we see that our Lord had upon Himself the garment of a King, I like to think that it was the colour blue, I also like to think that He had a sceptre in His hand. The garment, we are told went down to His feet, it covered the complete body. This garment was, to the Eastern mind, the garment of a king and would speak of his authority and of course our Lord is The King of Kings and Lord of all and He has authority over His body which is the church, the company of the redeemed, the mystical body of Christ, all those who have their names written in the Lambs Book of Life. Then there was the girdle about His breast which would indicate His perfect love. A person in the East could be told of his standing in life by the material of which his girdle was made, in the vision that John had of our Lord the girdle was of gold, indicating the high position

We come now to the record in Revelation of the vision that we are considering, we read that His voice was the sound of many waters', this to the Eastern mind would speak of power. Just think back, as I always do when considering this point, I think back to the nineteen fifties, one Friday evening we were out with a good number of young people, we were boating on the local canal, it started to rain and rain and rain, we got soaked. When we got back home we heard, on the radio, of the storm that there had been at Lynton and Lynmouth in Devon, the waters surged forwards, carrying with them everything in its path, buildings came tumbling down, cars were washed into the sea and so much more, in those waters there that evening there was power. The voice of Jesus was as the sound of many waters', when He spoke, it became a reality, there was power within the words to accomplish that for which they were sent, He spoke just three word to Lazarus as he was in the tomb, He said Lazarus come forth' and he did. When Jesus was in the boat on Galilee, there was a storm, He spoke as few words and the storm was stilled, when on The Cross, Jesus said to the thief Today thou shalt be with me in paradise' and in that eternal day he was, yes His voice was as the sound of many waters

The next point in the vision was that He had seven stars in His right hand, the seven stars were the angels of the seven churches with whom John had been in touch with during his ministry, but let us consider what it must have meant to have something in ones right hand'. To the Eastern mind, when it was stated that a person had something in his or her right hand, it would mean that they had it in their control. Now our Lord has everything in His right hand, in His perfect control, even Calvary was in the perfect control of our Father God. God was not at panic stations when Jesus was crucified, it was all in, The determinate counsel and foreknowledge' that it should have happened as we are taught in The Acts, Our God did not have to think up something to get Himself out of a jam when Jesus was at Calvary, that was not the case. Now let us apply this teaching to

In the vision that we are considering we read that Out of His mouth went a two edged sword', this speaks of His perfect truth. Our Lord Jesus was never economical with the truth, he always spoke it in love and we know that God so loved the world that He gave His ONLY begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on His will not perish but have everlasting life'. Now just think of that for a moment, there are two ways we can go, just consider them for a moment, that is the truth, but it is also the truth that our Lord Jesus was given, given to the extent of The Cross, that we might be saved, that is, and I say it again, it is the truth. After that point we note in the vision that,. His countenance was as the sun, shining in all its strength' and this spoke of the moral glory of our dear Lord.

Now all that was the vision that John had of our Lord Jesus, as He is at the moment, of His glorious character, now what did John do?

We are told that he fell at His feet as dead', this means that all his natural ability became ineffective. I now touch on a point that has concerned me deeply, John did not fall backwards and start to make animal noises o

Now let us consider the last point of the glory of our God, the last point that was mentioned at the beginning of this discourse, this being the glory of our Lord within our own lives. Now this matter is very serious and I record it carefully, with humility as I recognise my own short comings in this way so much. We understand that, as we believe, that our bodies become the temple of His Holy Spirit, so that,

Jesus you are changing me

By your Spirit you are making me like you;

Jesus, You're transforming me,

That your loveliness may be seen in all I do

You are that potter and I am the clay;

Help me to be willing to let you have Your own way;

Jesus, You are changing me

As I let you reign supreme in my heart

Now finally let me quote some lovely words that where passed to me recently

For me, t'was not the truth you taught,

To you so clear, to me so dim,

But when you came to see me, you brought a sense of Him

And from your eyes He beckons me,

And from your lips His love was shed,

Till I lost sight of you and saw the Christ instead, Amen

This is the first book