Step Back and Behold the Glory of God

Oh dear Christian, when was the last time you took a few steps back to behold the absolute glory of God and bathe in His sheer divine presence? To rid of the clutter of your mind and take your eyes off yourself for just a glimpse of His awesome majesty? If it is a neglected discipline in your life, then could now be the hour the Lord is impressing on your heart to do just that? I’d like to illustrate the absolute importance of beholding the glory of God in our lives because if you neglect this, your Christianity will be like an empty newspaper with no news on it.

It is so very easy for the Christian to become a busybody whilst involved in the everyday affairs of Kingdom business. You arrive at a place where God isn’t the primary motivation for everything and you find yourself in a routine. To become a busybody for God is not that difficult, you just need to get involved with the list of everyday tasks that need to be done in the Church. Going about doing the work of God in your lives at home, Church and work can become a routine if the great goal of God is unknown to the Christian. This can lead to dullness of heart. The Lord God desires our hearts to be alive in Him, excited in His presence and in continuous awe of Him.

Dullness of Heart
Let me give you an illustration from a story I heard. A mature and well seasoned missionary was taking a new, young and excited trainee missionary through the Andes Mountains. The young missionary just so happened to be Paul Washer. Now, if you like me have never seen the Andes Mountains before, then I’ve been told it is one of the most phenomenal and breathtaking mountain ranges to behold, towering over the clouds and leaving an imprint of majesty in your mind. Well, this excited young missionary capturing everything his eyes could take in swivels his head in the vehicle they are travelling in, to see his missionary mentor fast asleep, snoring away. ‘Get up, what’s wrong with you. Aren’t you amazed at the fascinating scenery? Where has your sense of imagination gone? Several years later, the younger trainee missionary is now wiser and more experienced and is taking several trainee missionaries through the same mountain pathway and this time its them exclaiming to this missionary ‘wake up, what’s wrong with you man’. The point of this story is this, that it is not the Andes Mountains which became less interesting; it is the hearts of men which become dull.

In Keith Green’s timeless song, ‘Lord Your Beautiful’, he begins with the following introduction:

“On Monday night this week, about midnight, I wrote a letter to the Lord. I didn’t know where to mail it so I put it in my Bible. And I asked Him, Lord You’ve got to do something about my heart, You know a lot of times gone by since I met You and it’s started to harden up, you know which is kind of natural. I want to have babies again Lord. I want to have skin like a baby again on my heart. It’s started to get old and wrinkled, callous. It’s not because of anything I’m doing; it’s because of a lot of things I’m not doing. And I stayed up to about 2am in the morning writing this song…Oh Lord Your Beautiful…”

Every Christian is prone to this dulling of the heart. However, even in this, I believe God can take all the glory and use it to glorify His great name. Keith Green did. To prevent this from happening in our walk with God we sometimes need to simply step back and behold the glory of God. We need to step back from the small details of our walk and behold His absolute glory. We need to step back and just see God for who God is and what His purpose for everything is. Why He has done everything, for what reason He has done everything and for what purpose we were made. By doing this God humbles us and reminds us of who is in control and who is God. Sometimes we need to step back and fall down in prostration too.

God is the Gospel
Just the other day, I was driving to work and was thinking about the Gospel in a nutshell. Instantly I was reminded of a short message I prepared for some University Students. A few months ago I was given the privilege of preaching Gods Word to the Brunel Christian Union. Behold, my topic was ‘The Gospel in a Nutshell’. Without getting into the details of it, I spoke about what I thought the Gospel was. I shared verses about the Good News and how we have sinned against God and how He sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins. Never in my short lived life of preaching have I ever left a pulpit feeling so beaten, broken and miserable. It was all over my face. I didn’t want to talk to anybody, didn’t want any feedback, I just wanted to get in my car, go home, shut the door and get on my face before God because I knew I had not done justice to the greatest story ever told. The Gospel is too great to be told in a nutshell and I realised that I had failed to do it justice. In fact no man can do it justice, not even eternity itself.

Now as I continued driving to work I realised this, that when the Gospel is man-centred and revolves around man and not God, it loses its power. If God is not spoken of as the Good News to all men, then it is like an empty news paper with no story on it. Therefore I have arrived at the conclusion that God is the Gospel. He is the good news. The Gospel would not be Good News if God was not in it. The good news is this, God. He is the good news. Emmanuel, God is with us. Eternal life is not the good news, God is the good news. Let me illustrate this point. Sweet is not sweet, sugar is sweet. Hot is not hot, fire is hot. The Gospel is only the Gospel because of God. Good news is only good news because of God. Good news is not the good news, God is the good news. God makes the good news, good news.

When I stood back and beheld the Gospel with God as the centre and that all the glory of the Gospel belonged and revolved around God alone and that indeed He is the good news, suddenly an overwhelming sense of exuberant joy flooded around me. The Holy Spirit had truly come in and revealed a deep and rich truth in Christ by simply placing things in perspective and causing me to love my Saviour even more.

We have a very bright young lady in our Church who is growing in grace and maturity. She humbles me and sharpens me in all honesty. She came up with the following equation which I think nicely summarises it for all those logicians.

“Mathematically speaking, if the Gospel equals the good news according to Mark 16:15, and God equals the Gospel according to John 1:1, then God must be the good news. Similarly, if God equals the good news, then no God equals no good news, meaning bad news.”

Clearly she had some maths exams fast approaching. Now, you may think, well what is so unique about that? We have geared the Gospel to suit man and what man will take from the Gospel. The Gospel today is all about people getting to heaven and the great gifts and rewards of earthly life. We easily and quickly forget the very reason the Gospel and everything else exists in the first place. Seldom do we hear that the Gospel first and foremost is for the glory of God, that His name might be great. The glorious Gospel is the glorious work of God alone spread by instruments of His glory. If I was now to go and preach to the students at the University, I would rephrase the question from ‘what is the Gospel?’ and begin with ‘Who is the Gospel?’

God’s reason for everything
Here’s a worthy question. Why has God done everything He has ever done in creation and before creation? i.e. the garden, the fall, the cross, the final judgement? Why, well according to Scripture God does everything for His own name. He has done it for His own glory and for His own name. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that He has done everything to demonstrate His glory, His grace and His riches through the person of Jesus Christ, not only in this age, but the age to come and beyond what we now. That’s why He has done everything. Does that shock your Christianity? Did you think everything revolved around you? Oh how poor and miserable your Christianity must be then.

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:6

Through the Prophet Malachi, God reminds the Jews that He will glorify His name even amongst the Gentiles. Notice the emphasis upon taking all the glory for His name because He alone is worthy of all glory and because His name is great.

“For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every place incense shall be offered to My name, And a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations, Says the LORD of hosts.” 

Malachi 1:11

Salvation belongs to God, not man
In Ezekiel 16 we see a demonstration of the absolute glory of God in the work of salvation. These verses remind us of who is in control, who saved us and that salvation belongs to God Almighty and to no man. It is a supernatural work of God and we are simply the trophies of His grace. Notice the emphasis on ‘I’, as in I, God.

“And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,  says the Lord GOD.

Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you, says the Lord GOD.”

Ezekiel 16:6-14

It is God alone who saves men. It is God alone who justifies men. It is God alone who sanctifies men. It is God alone who cleanses men. It is God alone who has mercy and compassion on us. God feeds us. God clothes us. God provides for us. It is God alone who imputes His righteousness and splendour upon us. We need to step back and remind ourselves from time to time that it is God who is in charge and control. We need to step back from the day to day routines and remember that it is God who saved us. We need to step back and give God alone all the glory for everything that was, that is and that is about to come. It is Him alone who deserves the full glory for everything. If He were to remove His splendour, the monsters of iniquity that we are would be exposed and revealed. For this reason sanctification in the believers life is vitally intrinsic in the walk of a Christian.

Why do I exist?
In the Westminster Larger catechism the very first question bluntly puts it like this ‘What is the chief and highest end of man? In other words, what is the purpose of man? What is the greatest reason man was created for? It usually comes in this question ‘why do I exist?’ So many people run around trying to figure this out and end up in all kinds of deception, disasters and confusion not realizing the answer, that the chief and highest end of man is to glorify God and to fully enjoy Him for ever. We are made for His pleasure.

“Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”

Isaiah 43:7

Many churches often sing the song at Church ‘I was made to praise You; I was made to glorify Your name.’ Let me ask you a question which Leonard Ravenhill often put forward to his hearers. Is what you are living for today worth Christ dying for? Are you living for the total glory of God? When you live for the glory of God, it is then that you fully enjoy Him. In everything you have been doing, have you been doing it with this motivation. That God may be glorified despite how much I suffer and lose as a consequence. The Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that their overall objective in everything they do must be the glory of God.

“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

1 Corinthians 10:31

I believe many churches today and Christians alike would have accused Paul for being too radical, too religious and too super spiritual. Eating and drinking, do all to the glory of God? That’s a bit much isn’t it Paul? He would have been accused of being super spiritual and too heavenly minded and no earthly good. But Paul understood that this was our reasonable service. That is what drives us and motivates us. We ought to live for the glory of God. I remember when the WWJD fad came about, it was really exciting and I remember being motivated to make decisions with Christ in mind? Christian, why don’t you make 1 Corinthians 10:31 your motivation? Is what I am about to do going to glorify God?

Creation Glorifies God
The Psalmist tells us that the very heavens and all of creation can not but help glorify God. All of creation sings His Praise.

“The heavens declare the glory of God.” Psalm 19:1

Creation itself declares and manifests to the world the attributes and perfections of God. All the creatures have some prints of God stamped upon them, whereby they loudly proclaim and show to the world His glory. How much more ought you to praise God and give Him glory, you who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus?

What is Gods great goal in our life?
This leads me onto the next questions. What is Gods great goal in our life? This can be found in my life verse of Philippians 3:10

“…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…”

Philippians 3:10

This is God’s great goal in our life. God is most glorified when we become more like Christ. As we become like Christ, as we know Him more and begin to conform to the person of Christ, through His resurrection, suffering and death. Why because the glory of God is in the face of Christ.

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

2 Corinthians 4:6

God has already told us that this world is not our home and we ought not to live in this world as if it were our home. We are no longer citizens of this world because we are told it is stored for judgement. Instead our home is in Christ, not in heaven, but in Christ and with Christ because even heaven itself would be hell if Christ was not there. God is preparing us for eternity with Him.

How then can I live for the glory of God?
This is the Bible verse that instantly found its way to me when I prayerfully asked God this question.

“Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

Psalm 50:14-15

Coincidence, I think not. God speedily answering, I am convinced. Need I say more? Offer to God thanksgiving out of a pure heart. Pay your vows to the Most High God and surrender your life to Him as you abandon and enslave yourself to His absolute will. Call upon Him in both distress and joy and through your delivery, He shall be glorified. God promised to Jesus that He has both glorified His name and will thus glorify it again through His death and resurrection.

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”

John 12:27-28

I’ll end with the story of two young Moravian missionaries who summarise living for the glory of God. The Moravians had learned that the secret of loving the souls of men was found in loving the Saviour of men. On October 8, 1732, a Dutch ship left the Copenhagen harbour bound for the Danish West Indies. On board were the two first Moravian missionaries; John Leonard Dober, a potter, and David Nitschman, a carpenter. Both were skilled speakers and ready to sell themselves into a lifetime of slavery to reach the slaves of the West Indies. As the ship slipped away, they lifted up a cry that would one day become the rallying call for all Moravian missionaries, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.” The Moravian’s passion for souls was surpassed only by their passion for the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.