This sermon emphasizes the importance of beholding the glory and majesty of God, reflecting His character in our lives. It highlights the transformation that occurs when we spend time in His presence, absorbing His peace, joy, and holiness. The speaker encourages a deep intimacy with God, seeking His glory above all else, and living a life that reflects the beauty of Christ to the world.

Okay, let's look at the book of Exodus, chapter 34, 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 seest unto me bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, I know thee by name, and that thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he, God, said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Now if you wonder what rest is, it's answered for you in that verse. Rest is the presence of God. Never being afraid, knowing he's with us, he's guaranteed he'll never leave us or forsake us, and because of that we have rest. We can lean back as it were on God. My presence shall go with thee. And then this other wonderful verse, the end of verse 17. Or in verse 17, The Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. Do you believe God knows you by name? Hmm? You say so-and-so talks with the Queen of England, and when he goes in, he doesn't bow and say, Your Excellency, Your Majesty. He says, Hi Elizabeth. 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, long-suffering, abundant in goodness, and in truth. So he'd gone up the mount with God. Look at verse 29, or pardon me, look at verses 6 and 8 first. The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness, and truth. And verse 8, Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. In chapter 32, and verse 22 it says, And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. Now he's talking there to Moses. And now knows the people that they're set, and they're full of mischief. Okay, I'm coming back into this chapter now, into chapter 34, for this reason. The Lord passed by. What had he requested? He'd request, Show me thy glory. And now he's gone up a second time up on the mountain. You know, we kind of look at that as a helicopter ride, or as 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 makes, 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 the 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 I made a golden calf. Instead, I extended my mercy. I extended my mercy. I'm well past 70 years of age. People tell me sometimes I'm living on borrowed time. The only time I borrowed was the watch tonight, because I didn't have one. I borrowed time. But anyhow, living on borrowed time, America's living on borrowed time. We passed the safety line years ago. We're heading for hell as quick as any nation on earth. But if we saw the glory of God one Sunday in every church in America, we'd shake the country for God the next week. Everything else would wither. Everything else would perish. All our values would change. Here he is on a mountaintop. I looked at the 7th chapter. Don't look now. The 7th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and that second, about the second verse, where that marvelous young man, the first martyr in the church, possibly not more than 19 years of age, Stephen, and he says, the God of Abraham appeared to our father. The glory of God appeared to Abraham where? In a hell hole called Mesopotamia. A place that was full of idolatry, a moral dung heap. And yet God appears to a man. There's no system. There are no priests. There are no altars. And yet the God of glory unveiled himself to a man in a hell hole like that. You know, maybe the God of glory has appeared in some cells of those poor prisoners in Russia today more than in our life. We're so busy we 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 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 will 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 tracts 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 he 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 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 am a spirit. My spirit must connect with God's spirit. Most of our religion today, in Christian centers, it's soulish, it's not spiritual, it's soulish. That's why kids like to go to these rock concerts, because it's soulish, it stirs the soul. And they go out and sin and do all the devilish things they want to do, there's no change there. You can't glorify God, you can't have a vision of the glory of God and turn around and be mean to your wife or children. Oh this is a marvelous scripture. But I've got to link it up with something else here. Go to the second, where are we, second book of Corinthians, where do I want to go, second book of Corinthians chapter 3 I guess, and 2 Corinthians 3, 18, I think it is. I'll get there in a minute. 18. Now this is bringing it right down to earth where we live. 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed by the same image from glory to glory, even by the spirit of the Lord. Now he's talking about us, he's talking about the Corinthians that got lost in vanity and they drifted away from fundamental truths. They were turning to other things, but he says we all with open face. Phillips translates that, we without veils on our faces. I didn't read the scripture, I should have gone on there and read where Moses came down the mount and his face so reflected the glory of God, he had to wear a veil. Now in the 32nd chapter when he comes down the mount and 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. Now use your light. We do not believe God. It's not the sinners that don't believe him, we don't believe him. We have a partial belief, not a full belief. But when they saw Moses come down from the mountain, they couldn't 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 Hambry-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-branched candlestick. In the holy of holies, there was no light, it was pitch black. And unless the shekinah glory came, there was no light. You know, when men put Jesus Christ to death, they put out the light of the world. The only light in the world tonight is the word of God. Thy word is a lamp to my feet, that's to guide me in what to do. And the light to my path, that to me is, the light is the word of God, the lamp to my feet, is the word of God. And the lamp, to me, is the word of prophecy, that tells me not just what to do, but where to go. And the only light in the world tonight is the word of God, plus the glory that's reflected in your personality and mine. Romans 12, 1 and 2 says, present your body a living sacrifice unto God, and be not conformed to this world. Or as J. B. Phillips puts it so well, don't let this world press you into its mold. Come on, is it doing that? The style of clothes you wear, the style of life you live, is the world 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 if 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 faiths, 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 seriousest thing to preach in the gospel? Paul says more than once to Timothy, be sober, be sober, be sober, the end of the world is coming. Dear Lord, if it was coming 2,000 years ago, where are we tonight? Is the church sober? Go down the road and see how many are in the family circle outside the church. They'll be playing ping-pong and fooling as though the world's going to happen. I said before, if you take the view of the politicians, Mr. President, I'm glad he's getting better, he says there's a holocaust coming up because fire's going to come and destroy the nation. But supposing you don't believe what the politicians say, the word of God says Armageddon's coming and a system is going to come to destroy a third of the world's population, that should make us a nightmare. If we'd any gumption at all, if we're a fraction of spirituals as we think we are, both at last days and every church in town would have a prayer meeting 24 hours a day, at least a room in the church. If I ever get into a fellowship and have control of it, there'll be a room open 24 hours a day. And they'll expect you're a keeper of that 24-hour prayer barrage. 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 near in town will be locked up tonight by about 10 o'clock. If the fire department did that, we'd raise hell about it, wouldn't we? If the hospitals did that, we'd be disgusted, you can't do it. I think I told you last week, two men came into my office and the first thing they said is, is anybody real? You remember that because you were there, you'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 a question, the other brother I think with you asked a question, is anybody real? I change that and I, 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 are with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, our change from image, from glory to glory. It says to emphasize, that's a good Bible to read, reflecting the glory of God into the same image we are being transformed from glory to glory. So I show 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 his majesty, the more you know of his glory. Look at Acts chapter 3 for a minute or two here. The more I read of this book, the more trouble I get. Sorry, it's Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4 verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness, now they say when they saw the coldness. He says in the same chapter, I guess, see how these Christians love one another. Now they see how these Christians shove one another. Verse 13 says, now when they saw the boldness, who are they? Well look 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 described Annas the high priest and Caiaphas another high priest. And that's illegal anyhow, the Jews weren't allowed to have two high priests and they had them. And John and Alexander and as many as were of the kindred 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 is shining in Moses up on a mountain, he's by himself. These men are in a hell hole, these men have been to prison. And yet the glory of Jesus Christ is there, though they have a prison sentence hanging over them. You don't need ideal situations to get the glory of Jesus Christ, all you need to do is to be in his will. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. Isn't that something? Just imagine those men in the other room didn't have a PhD between them, didn't have a bank account between them. Unlearned, unusual, unwanted, but boy before long the world knew they were around. They had no backing company, they had no bank accounts, no newsletters. Isn't that terrible? Don't mention that please around here, but anyhow. When we all get to heaven, wouldn't it be wonderful not getting junk mail from all these big evangelists. You'll tell the evangelist when you get to heaven, very clearly the streets are made of gold, they'll be digging the streets up. I'll be looking for you. Isn't it a paradox this book? If you want to go up, go down. If you want to gain, throw everything you have away. Lose your life, you'll find it. Keep your life, you'll lose it. If you ascend, you'll be humiliated. If you humble yourself, you'll be exalted. If you want to be a somebody, be a nobody. It's so foolish, isn't it? You better nod your head because you know it's true anyhow. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they took knowledge of them. That gets under my skin, it gets in my heart. They took knowledge of them. Go back and see why they should be so happy. Verse one, 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 five, you have the rulers and the scribes. Verse six, Annas the high priest and Cephas and John and Alexander and many of the kindred of the high priest, they were gathered together. And when they had set them in the midst, fancy facing that gang. How would you feel? If you rushed 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 three says, they laid their hands on them and put them in hold for the next day, for it was evening time. How many of them which heard the word believed? Glory to God. Isn't that preaching? That when you lock the preachers up, the revival still goes? If your revival isn't working in your church, get the sheriff to come and arrest the preacher. Stick him in jail and see if he comes round. You know, the tragic thing about us today is the world 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, they 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 six inches taller, they don't look stronger. They had a living intimate relationship with the risen Son of God, that's why. Preachers argue about what happened in the upper room, no argument about it. Common sense. What does it say, the end of Luke where it says that when they saw Jesus risen, what did they do? They went roaring back to the temple, filled with ecstasy, filled with joy. Do you think they stopped? I think that ten days that they waited, the last ten days in the upper room was the most ecstatic meeting that had ever been in the history of the world. I believe it exceeded the joy of Moses when he got all Israel to sing, the horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea. They knew the devil's power was broken. They'd 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 prank. 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 were already in the next world. Well isn't that what it's about? When you say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, not on earth, in earth, I am earth, I'm of the earth earthy. And the kingdom of God can start now, that's where it starts, not right after I die. I read the other day somewhere about they buried a man, or they say they buried a man yesterday, or so-and-so died yesterday, and they buried him, and somebody who knew him said he died 45 years ago. He'd been no good for 45 years. He wasted his life. Are you dead or are you alive tonight? If they bury you tomorrow, would you say, well that man's already been dead about three years? Now there are two classes of people in the world, not rich and poor, not black and white, not bond slaves and free men, just two kinds. Those who are dead in sin, and those who are dead to sin. There's no other cloud, but either dead in trespasses and in sin, or that miracle has taken place in us which had taken place in some of these men, in fact all of them. It says in Ephesians 2, doesn't it, the first verse, you ought to, ye 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 ye are 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, 35 young men. And I sat here, and there's a picture of a saintly man here, at one time president of the Methodist Church, and president of the college before I get there. His name was Thomas Cook. He wrote a very fine book on holiness, which is still printed these days. I used to look up at that when I couldn't answer questions, it didn't help me at all. But he had a marvelous, saintly face, and he used to go around the village churches. And one day a little girl went, the old-fashioned way, you know, they used to have a butcher's shop, where all 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 sold 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. Suddenly, everybody grabs their cards, and put them under the table. Did you notice that? Yeah, sure did. I've been on this trip many times. What happened? Everybody grabbed their cards, stuck their pipes underneath. Why did they do it? One man said, well, could you do anything less with a face like that, that came through the saloon? He had a face like the Prince of Peace. It was engraved on him. There was a majesty about him. There was something in his walk, something in his thoughts, something in his actions. And everybody took notice of him, that he lived with Jesus. He did, because he spent hours every day in the presence of Jesus. They took knowledge of him. Within the veil his fragrance poured upon 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. There's something wrong. I think you said today, when you were at the Vanity Fair the other day, Christian Booksellers Association, which is two doors from Babylon. Isn't it something when you have Christians with dogs, little coats on dogs, Jesus saved, and shirt buttons that have Jesus, and other rotten stuff. And I'd say, well, it's the only testimony some people have. Well, why not get them saved? That's the only testimony they have? Boy, if your button comes off, has anybody seen my testimony around here? That'd be terrible. The whole thing with Babylon, they have 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. If you want to put an inch thick, just smear it with your hand. It 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 hymn writer 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's 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 meaning dwelt by the spirit of God. That's not super, that's the normal Christian life. Again it's not impossible to sin, it's possible not to sin. What a difference when Moses was there in the presence of God, and God was angry. He came down livid with anger, so much so that he threw the stones down. And he broke the Ten Commandments. But in the next chapter it's altogether different. He's a different Moses. When he comes down this time, his face isn't blood red with anger, his face is radiating a holy God. The reflection of eternity is in the face of the man. And the people are speechless at him, no wonder. You know, if we ever get into the fullness of the blessing, the neighbors will wonder what in the world's wrong with us. I think about half a dozen going down a dark street one night, and 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. Then another day, you see them and say, morning. And you think, then morning, if it's really true what we sang tonight. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, it doesn't have dominion over me, I have it under my feet by the grace of God. All the vain things that charm me most have gone away. The vain things charm me most and help me least. It should be that when we go into an atmosphere that people welcome us, not of our station in life, not that we're wealthy or brilliant, because the grace of God is there and they know that we're people of sound speech, not critical speech, not unkind speech, but holy speech. They took knowledge of them, the hierarchy, the big shots, religious leaders, the other leaders, and these little nobodies come up and they take notice of them. They 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 a lady put up her money. The fellow goes down the middle corridor of the bus and you hand him your money. And this lady raised her hand and she had a red cuff on a blue thing like this. And she gave her money and as she did, I suddenly realized, you know, some of you guys have some stuff called English leather and it's made at the factory where the bus started. And those women had been in that atmosphere all the day. And just as you go home, where have you been? I was on the plane and they were all smoking and it penetrates your clothes. These women had been in that atmosphere. They hadn't put it on but the clothing absorbed it. And they were all sitting there in the bus and when I got out of that dirty atmosphere in Manchester, which is a dull atmosphere, and stepped in, it was a fragrance 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 a 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 round now. I say that not to boast of my son, but there's nothing wrong in boasting about him I guess. But because if you think it couldn't happen to me, it can. Listen, it's not what you can bring to God that matters, it's what God can bring to you. You've got to be a clean vessel, a purge vessel. You're not wanting to be somebody and hang your hat up with the great preachers or get some society behind your name, but just totally glorify him. And so I want to sit in your presence until the very fragrance of eternity comes into my being, into my thinking, into my acting, into my talking, into my demeanor. Just like the fragrance got into the clothing of those women. Well what's it 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 hath God raised up. Come on, Jesus has nothing else to do, he's done everything he can for the church. It's just that we have to enter in. And we enter in by humility. We enter in by recognizing again our weakness, and yet his majesty. What the church has had up to this point hasn't shaken the world. And if we'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. I'll be in the house, you see the conversation is about Jesus, it's wasting time. When we travel, I don't travel much, I travel some, when we go, every time we go, it's an immense 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've said afraid, I intended to say it the other night. How many of you there 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 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, they'd 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, 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 eternally 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 die as poor as Jesus, he didn't have any houses he could share, he 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. As I say, you're free to leave anytime you like.