Major Ian Thomas emphasizes that Christ's mission was not merely to save us from hell but to bring God Himself into our lives, restoring the glory that was lost. He explains that true salvation is about having Christ dwell within us, making our hearts His glorious habitation. Thomas highlights that the life we will enjoy in heaven is the same life we can experience now through Christ in us, and that our purpose is to reveal God's glory through our lives. He stresses the importance of mutual availability between God and man, where we allow God to work through us as we submit to His authority. Ultimately, the sermon conveys that the essence of the Gospel is about restoring our relationship with God and living in His glory here and now.

Maybe I should just correct the quote that was made of what I had to say this morning. I don't believe any of the lies that are told about me. The fact the Lord Jesus came and died upon the cross was incidental to the fact that he didn't come to get us out of hell and into heaven, but to get not heaven, but Christ, God himself, out of heaven into us. Then there's heaven in us, but only when Christ is in us. That's the glorious truth. He didn't come to get us out of hell and into heaven, but to get God out of heaven into us. Then it'll be heaven on the way to heaven. You remember we quoted that verse in the first of Paul's two epistles to the Thessalonians, the fifth chapter, the ninth and the tenth verse. God hasn't appointed us to judgment. He's unwilling that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He did not appoint us unto judgment, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, on the earth or in heaven, now or then, here or there, we should live together with Christ. That's salvation. You see, the only life that you and I are going to enjoy in heaven is the life that we receive when Christ himself comes to dwell within us. This is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life that he has given to us, if we have been redeemed, is in his Son. He that has the Son has life. He that doesn't have the Son of God doesn't have life, and if you don't have life, you're dead. Dead in trespasses and sins. The Lord Jesus came to abolish death and bring life and immortality to life. He died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, in the body or out of it, on earth or in heaven, here or there, now or then, we should live together with Christ. That's heaven on the way to heaven. Because he is that life that we're going to enjoy forever in his presence, in the place that he's prepared for us, we should get so accustomed now to sharing his life on earth that when you get to heaven you won't even know you've arrived. You'll just look around and say, don't think I've been here before. Because the life there will be the life you've got now, if you're a Christian. And if you don't have his life now, you will not enjoy his life then. That's glory. Well, for the sake of some who may be joining us tonight who were not here this morning, let me refer you to the passage from which we launched in the 60th chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. God said, I will make the place of my feet glorious, to beautify the place of my habitation, the place of my feet glorious, so that where I live may be beautified, radiant with the glory of God. Fantastic. This is what God had in mind in sending his son, not to change our destination, though he does that, and I'm glad, but to restore man to glory. It became him. You remember that verse Hebrews in chapter 2, verse 10? You needn't turn to it right now, we'll be back there shortly. It became him. An old English word that means it was incumbent upon, it was necessary for, it was not just expedient, but imperative in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. It became him. We use the word still not very often, that word became or become. When a lady goes, you know, to the sale where some beautiful clothes are half price, she comes back very proud of what she has achieved in the purchase that she has made. And of course you can't wait for somebody to invite her around to the home so they can look at and say, my dear, how becoming. That's the word. It suits you to a tee. It's just your size, I mean, it's just your size. Becoming. It became him. It was compatible with the character of God in sending his son from heaven to make the captain of their salvation perfect, to bring many sons to glory. That was the whole purpose for the coming of the Lord Jesus, to restore man to his true function, who was created in God's image to reveal the glory in his perfection, so that your evangelization and mine will not take place until finally seeing him as he is. He looks at us and sees himself. That's the gospel. That's the good news. Not a change of destination, but a change of character. Restored to the image of God's dear son. Marvelous. Now we explored this morning as to what it means for God to have a place in our hearts for his feet. And we allowed the Bible, as it always does, to explain the Bible. And we turned, and you need not do now again, to the 11th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses was describing that place for which they had been redeemed and brought out, and to which God told him to take them in, and didn't. Because he only preached half a message and only did half a job, and left them with himself dumped in the desert there to die, for God buried them where they chose to live. As he'll bury every Christian where they chose to live. Redeemed, yes. But we weren't redeemed just to get out of hell and get into heaven. We were redeemed so that God might find in our hearts a place for his feet, and make the place of his feet glorious and beautified. The place of his habitation, his sanctuary. And you see, to gain in the land that God, as we heard this morning, pledged to Abraham, confirmed in Isaac and Jacob, a mercy to Abraham, truth to Jacob. God need never have said to Abraham what he did say. You'll find this in the last chapter of the book of Micah. The mercy to Abraham and the truth to Jacob. When God spoke in mercy to Abraham, saying, in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed, promising the birth of that little baby boy Bethlehem. The moment God said that, which he need never ever have said, but the moment he did it in mercy, it became the truth to Jacob and to a thousand generations forever. The land. But they didn't enter into the good of that which God had pledged until they were prepared to put their feet where their faith was. Not until they placed their feet in the land and began to walk did they enter into the good of God's provision. Occupied territory. Entering into their inheritance. And only when the Lord Jesus has gained in your heart and mind a place for God's feet, can he once more enter into his inheritance. And you and I in our redeemed humanity become occupied territory. Re-inhabited as the creature by the creator, whose presence as God in the man is indispensable to his humanity. That which alone makes man functional from God's point of view. For, said the Lord Jesus, of himself as of you and me now in his sinless humanity. Without my father, I can do nothing. Because that's how I as God made man. And without me now as God in you, you can do nothing. Until you're prepared to enjoy that relationship as between yourself and me that I enjoy as between myself and my father, it is morally impossible for you to accomplish the purpose which you've been redeemed. Only God in a man makes man functional. Because it takes God to be a man. And that's why it takes Christ to be a Christian. For Christ in the Christian puts God back into the man. It's all so simple. And bear in mind that's the gospel. Not getting people out of hell and into heaven, but getting Christ, God himself, out of heaven into man. So the father sent his son into this world nearly 2,000 years ago to gain a place in your heart and mind for God's feet. So that he might enter into his that which is his rightful inheritance, and your humanity and mine cleansed in the blood of our once crucified now risen Lord, might be reinvaded by deity and become occupied territory. So that as his hands once were theirs for the father to work with, your hands now may become his to work with. As the father on earth walked with his feet, so now the Lord Jesus walks the streets of our cities with our feet. He sees with our eyes, he hears with our ears, he thinks with our minds and loves with our hearts. Members of the new body corporate which the father gave to the son on the day of Pentecost, when on the grounds of redemption the first 120 members of the body corporate were raised from the dead and restored to life by the presence of a risen savior who by his presence in life abolished death. So the father sent his son to find a place in your heart and mind for God's feet. So that he God with a place in our hearts for his feet might make the place of his feet glorious and beautify the place of his habitation. He came to restore the glory but before ever the Lord Jesus could restore the glory he had to reveal the glory. For man long since since Adam fell had forfeited the glory. God could only write across the whole of a fallen race of fallen men, Ichabod, the glory is departed and before ever man can gain the fresh some understanding of God's glory and that which he has the reasonable right to claim of a man who was made in his image. The Lord Jesus had to come and demonstrate what God had in mind when he made you and me in his perfect likeness. But before ever the Lord Jesus could restore the glory he had to relinquish the glory that he revealed. And this is what we're going to talk about a bit this evening. And before ever he could reveal the glory to which he was to restore us he had to yield to his father as God a place in his heart for God's feet. Jesus, Luke chapter 4 verse 1 being full of the Holy Ghost. That doesn't mean he had some sort of psychedelic experience. You could rewrite that with the same validity, not just Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost but Jesus being man. That's normality. The fullness of the Holy Ghost isn't a luxury. It isn't a special experience. It's normality. You and I were created by God to be at all times indwelt, monopolized and full of the Holy Ghost through whom as the Lord Jesus made himself thereby available to the father. You and I thereby may make ourselves today available to Jesus. How did the Lord Jesus as man make himself available to his father as God? How did the Lord Jesus give to the father in his heart a place for the father's feet so that he the father in the son could make the place of his feet glorious? And those on earth looking at the son see God for said Jesus he that has seen me has seen my father. Why do you say then Philip John 14 show us the father? Have I been so long time with you and hast thou not known me Philip? Don't you believe that I'm in the father and the father is in me and without him I can do nothing. The father who lives in me he does the work. What I do he does. What I say he says. What I am he is look at me and see God behaving. Not Philip because I am God though God I am but because Philip being God as I am I was willing to empty myself, humble myself, make myself of no reputation and be born a human being and for 33 years demonstrating the sinlessness of my humanity the innocence of a pre-fallen Adam. Man as I my father and the Holy Ghost in the triune deity intended man to be when first we made Adam. But before ever the Lord Jesus could reveal the glory he had to give the father that place in his heart that he now as God demands in your heart and mine full of the Holy Ghost 24 hours a day unceasingly because that is normality. Anything less than being filled with the Holy Ghost is to be subhuman, under power, abnormal. And the Lord Jesus as man was not an abnormality. He was man as he is God intended man to be full of the Holy Spirit. What was the consequence? Well let's just turn to the book and discover what it says in John's gospel in chapter one. Verses that you I'm sure would know by heart. In the beginning was the Word. That means the Logos. Capital W it should have. In the beginning was the Word. The Logos who spoke and the things that are were made of the things that were not. For in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God in total identity in co-equality with the Father and the Holy Spirit. By him the creative word were all things made and without him was not anything made that was made. And in him was life and that life God's life that was in him. Was the light of men. In other words it's only that life his life in a man that switches him on and gives him the moral competence to discharge the office for which man was created to reveal to all creation what God is like. The Word. And in the 14th verse of that 14 of that first chapter of John that Word the timeless eternal Logos was made flesh and dwelt among us. He was born a human being. Man of course can and never will become God. God is able and did become man. Emmanuel God with us. The Word was made flesh. I love the way that's put because it demonstrates the office of the one who was willing for your sake and mine so to empty himself and make himself nothing and of no reputation that he could play that role as man for which he is God created you and created me. In the Amplified New Testament, hope you've got one, puts it this way. No man has ever seen God. No man has ever seen God at any time. For a very simple reason. It's spelled out in the first of Paul's two epistles to Timothy the sixth chapter and the 16th verse. God alone hath immortality. In other words he alone is not subject to any form of death. And no man has seen God at any time nor can see God. Two attributes of deity. Incapable of dying and totally invisible to man. Does that arouse your curiosity? Do you believe that the Lord Jesus is co-equal in deity with the Father, the Holy Spirit and the triune Godhead? I do. Do you believe that he was creator in the beginning with God was God and by him all things were made? I do. And yet the Bible says nobody has seen God at any time. That he's not subject to any form of death. That Jesus died. And the apostle says the word in verse 14 became flesh, fixed his tent of flesh, he lived a while among us and we actually saw his glory. Such glory as an only begotten son receives from his Father full of grace and full of truth. So the Lord Jesus though co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit and deity, a God who cannot be seen nor die, was seen and died. But you see before ever the Lord Jesus could do that for us for which the Father sent him, he had to become a man. That as man he might do what as God he never could have done. That as man he could be seen, which of course being God could never have been the case. That's why he emptied himself, humbled himself and made himself of no reputation and was born a human being to fulfill in his humanity precisely that purpose which he first as God created man in Adam. Look at verse 18. Having in the 14th verse told us that the Lord Jesus became flesh, the word who was in the beginning with God and was God, he then goes on to say no man has ever seen God. At any time the only begotten God, the God who was born at Bethlehem, who is in the bosom in the intimate presence of the Father, he has declared him, he has revealed him, he our Lord Jesus brought God out where he God could be seen, he has interpreted him and he made him known. And in so doing of course the Lord Jesus in the sinlessness of his humanity that demonstrated the innocence of a pre-fallen Adam fulfilled that function for which man was made. Of whom God said let us make man in our image and in our likeness and the image and likeness of God made he him. And the Lord Jesus the God incarnate walked this earth so that he could bring an invisible God out into the open where God could be seen. He assumed that physical visible and audible body that he created for you and for me so that he himself as man on earth could give a physical visible and audible expression of an invisible and inaudible God. So that he could say he that has seen me as man has seen my Father. God in a man behaving. And of course that's what it means to be Christian. God in a man behaving. Nothing more complicated than that. You and I now as men making ourselves available to the Lord Jesus as God as he once as man made himself available to the Father as God so that he now as God can be to us all the Father then as God was to him. Isn't that simple? Mutual inter-availability. How did the Lord Jesus make himself as man available to his Father as God so that in him as man others could know what God was like? You'll find it in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 14. And you should look that up because it's important. You should underline it in your Bible. Hebrews 9 14. It speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God. Christ. Hebrews 9 14. Who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot without blemish to God. How did the Lord Jesus as man make himself available to the Father as God? By the same means that he always intended man should make himself available to God through the eternal spirit. For by mutual agreement between all three Father Son and Holy Ghost the Holy Spirit a person not a vague influence not a power not somebody who can sort of wave down that's all rubbish and nonsense childish. God the Holy God the Father God the Son in co-equality in deity but by mutual agreement between all three the Holy Spirit was to be the one by whom a man could make himself available body soul spirit mind emotion and will in the totality of his being available to God his creator and by him God the Holy Spirit God the creator would make himself available to man. Incredible. Mutual inter- and secondly he as God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. In other words all there is of God is available to the man who is available to all there is of God. How available was the Lord Jesus man to his Father as God? Totally. How available was the Father as God to his Son as man? Totally. Mutual inter-availability that's what it means to be being filled with the Holy Ghost. A body wholly filled and flooded with God himself. Third chapter the epistle to the Ephesians. That's a man in normality. A body wholly filled and flooded with God himself. Incredible. But this is the gospel this is the good news. This is that relationship the Lord Jesus came to restore. To find in your heart and mine a place for God's feet so that he could make the place of his feet glorious and beautify the place of his habitation his sanctuary. So that as surely then others looking at Jesus saw the Father behaving others now should be able to look at you and look at me and see Christ behaving. Then you're a Christian. I mean not just become one you've been one. And there's a world of difference between becoming a Christian and being the Christian you become. By and large the church today has settled for becoming and being what you become is at a discount. It's become a matter of irrelevance. But not to God. He came to restore the glory but he had first to reveal the glory to which you and I are to be restored because Ishabod the glory had departed. Look at Hebrews in chapter one. I'd love to read this passage in the Amplified New Testament. It puts it very succinctly and beautifully. Hebrews chapter one and verse one. In many separate revelations each of which set forth a portion of the truth. And in different ways God spoke of all to our forefathers in and by the prophets. In diverse manners God spoke in all times by the prophets. In your King James. But in verse two. In the last of these days. That is at the end of that age in God's timeless agenda and economy. In the last of these days God has spoken to us in the person of a son. Whom the Lord Jesus he appointed heir and lawful owner of all things. Also by and through whom he created the world from the reaches of space and the ages of time. That is he made, produced, built, operate and arranged them in order. And he, verse three, is the sole expression of the glory of God. He is the light being. He is the outraying of the divine. He is the perfect imprint and the very image of God's nature. And still God upholding, maintaining, guiding, propelling the universe by his mighty word of power. But when he had by offering himself as man accomplished our cleansing from sin and riddance of guilt. He, our risen Lord Jesus, sat down at the right hand of the divine majesty on high. The sole expression of the glory of God. The light being and the outraying of the divine. The perfect imprint and very image of God's nature. He revealed the glory. Now here's a riddle. Colossians in chapter one and verse 15. We know of whom the apostle speaks here in the 15th verse because he tells us in the preceding 14th verse. In whom, the Lord Jesus, we have our redemption through his blood, his reconciling act, his death upon the cross. For that means the forgiveness of our sins. Now he, this Lord Jesus through whom we have redemption through the shedding of his blood, the forgiveness of our sins. He is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He is the visible representation of the invisible. The Lord Jesus co-equal in deity with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the triune Godhead becomes on earth as man the visible representation of the invisible. How can a God who is invisible become the visible representation of an invisible God? Only because the invisible God was in Christ and was born at Bethlehem to play that role as man for which he is God created you and me. The visible representation of the invisible. So that all creation could look at the sun and know what God was like. As God first intended when he created Adam that all creation should look at him and know what God was like. So in the second of Paul's two epistles to the Corinthians in chapter four, a passage again with which I'm sure you're very familiar, the third verse. Even if our gospel be hid, obscured and covered up with a veil, a veil that hinders the knowledge of God it is hid only to those who are perishing. The man doesn't know God that's simply the evidence that he's lost. It is hid only to those who are perishing, obscured only to those who are actually dying, veiled only to those who are lost. For the God of this world this is his business. The devil himself is the God of this world. The God of this world has blinded the unbelievers minds that they should not discern the truth preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the gospel of the glory of Christ the Messiah who is the image and likeness of God. We preach not ourselves. We're not here to lord it over you says the apostle. We preach Jesus the Christ as Lord. Ourselves merely as your servants and slaves for Jesus' sake. For God who said in verse 6, let light shine out of darkness as shone in our hearts so as to beam forth the light of the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and the glory of God as it is manifest in the person and is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. He came you see to restore the glory but before he could restore the glory he had to reveal the glory to which we were to be restored so that we might on the grounds of redemption and a spiritual new birth reinvaded by deity governed and controlled filled where the Holy Ghost might fulfill that function for which he as God made us and he alone fulfilled the only man on earth since Adam fell and of whom alone the Father God in heaven could say this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Good very good. So turn to the 44th chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah the 40th chapter did I say 44? 40th chapter verse 3 the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness prepare you the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God every valley shall be exalted every mountain and hill shall be made low the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed all flesh will see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it God said it he did it when a little baby boy was born at Bethlehem and for 33 years on earth displayed the majesty the glory of God he revealed the glory of course you know where this is cited if you turn to the gospel of John and the first chapter and the sixth there was a man sent from God his name was John the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light John the Baptist not John the author of John's gospel John the Baptist who himself was conceived by divine intervention for his mother Elizabeth had been barren incapable of bearing all her days until she was well beyond the age of bearing and he was born six months before the Lord Jesus and yet of the Lord Jesus said he he came after me but was before me the latchet of whose shoes I'm not worthy to unloose I baptized with water as an evidence of your desire in repentance to be at peace with God but he's going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost he's going to restore life to the lifeless he's going to give you back the life man lost in the day that Adam fell he's going to reinvade your humanity and by his divine presence abolish death and restore you to life he was a man sent from God he was not that light of whom he bore witness in verse 8 he was sent to bear witness of that light and did for in the 19th verse we read in that first chapter of John this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who are you he confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ so they asked him what then are you Elijah he said I'm not are you that prophet or this he said no very aggravated it really frustrated they wanted to know who he wasn't all that he would tell them was who he wasn't it really made them quite angry so finally they said to him who are you that we may give an answer to them that sent us what sayest thou thyself we've been here to we've been sent here to get coffee and all you'll tell us is who you're not tell us who you are and John the Baptist said well if you really must know I tell you I'm the voice citing from the 40th chapter the prophecy of Isaiah I'm simply a voice crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet Isaiah just a voice in the wilderness bearing testimony to the light and the next day verse 29 John see if Jesus coming unto him he said behold the lamb the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world this is he of whom I said after me cometh a man who was preferred before me for he was before me in the eternal age of the past co-equal in deity with the Father and the Holy Ghost and the triune God again the next day verse 35 after John stood and said and two of his disciples why were they his disciples are we not sent to make disciples of Jesus but here were two who were disciples of John but that didn't flatter him men today in their egocentricity building their own petty little empires love to have disciples to exhibit their charisma John wasn't excited about having disciples except that he knew that if there was anything attractive about him it was only that that they could see in him of the one of whom he was to bear witness the light was reflected so looking upon Jesus as he walked he wasn't counting his congregation he was looking upon Jesus as he walked he said behold the lamb the lamb of God this is one of the most magnificent passages that indicates the nature of true evangelism here was a true witness a man sent from God preoccupied not with himself but preoccupied with the lamb the two disciples heard John speak and follow Jesus that's a true witness they heard John speak and follow Jesus they saw the light and when John looked around he'd lost his congregation and nothing delighted him more he'd preached himself out of business that should be your ambition and mind you know what Paul said in the second chapter of his epistle to the Philippians more in my absence than in my presence work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling don't lean on me I'm not your crutch I'm not indispensable to your spiritual well-being I've introduced to the one who alone cannot only be the foundation but sustain that which is built upon it work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it's God not Paul the apostle it's not your pastor it's not your mom nor your dad it's not your church it's God who works in you but to will and do of his good pleasure so said Paul my supreme ambition is that you might discover just how wealthy you became in the day that Christ invaded your humanity as wealthy as I became in the day that he invaded my humanity as the arch enemy of the early church when I was flung in that moment of revelation blinded by the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and fell sightless to the earth I want you to discover that you became as wealthy in that day that you receive Christ as I did when I received Christ so live it up in the power and resources that have become yours that are as much yours as mine you don't need me work out your own salvation not for it you can't only receive it and enjoy it live it up and all the good of what God has made available to you in Christ but it's God who works in you you're his workshop both to will and do of his good pleasure if God's going to do that which he wills of his good pleasure what's illogical about anything that God wills for your life if he is God is going to do what he wills but will not cannot and does not except in terms of your availability and that's what it means to be full of the Holy Ghost available for God to be God and behave in a man you reveal the glory the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ so back there to Hebrews in chapter 2 just for a moment Hebrews in chapter 2 and verse 9 we see an invisible God Jesus who made an invisible God visible because he assumed your humanity in mind we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man without exception because the Lord Jesus tasted death for every man without exception for God is unwilling that any should perish God commands all men everywhere to repent and be converted that their sins might be blotted out Acts chapter 3 verse 19 God commands all men everywhere to repent be converted because all men everywhere may repent and may get converted because Jesus tasted death for every man what else does it say of the Lord Jesus in that verse the ninth of the second chapter of Hebrews he was crowned with glory and he was crowned with honor is that describing the Lord Jesus as God in core quality with his father the Holy Spirit no that's describing the Lord Jesus in the perfection of his humanity if you want to know where that comes that comes in psalm 8 it's almost cited complete there in that chapter but let's turn to the original there in the eighth psalm first verse oh Lord our God how excellent is thy name in all the earth who has set thy glory above the heavens what is man verse 4 that thou art mindful of him that tiny little creature on that tiny little planet in space amidst the myriads of universes that God placed in the heavens what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and crowned him with honor thou madest him man to have dominion over the works of thy hands thou has put all things under his feet that's man in normality crowned with glory and crowned with honor but a glory that derived from the presence of the creator within the creature not a glory that man could imitate but a glory that derived from that illimitable source the Holy Spirit by whom God is prepared to make himself available to a man who is available to all that God is by the Holy Spirit and the honor that man was crowned with is the exercise of authority over all the works of God and that incredible that man this tiny little creature on this planet was made by God to have authority over all the works of his hands but the glory had to be derived from the presence of God in the man and the authority that man was to exercise could only derive from man's submission to God's authority both the glory and the authority were derived and that glory that the Lord Jesus displayed on earth as man derived from the presence of the Father in the Son without whom said he I can do nothing for it is the Father who lives in me who does the work the glory that the Lord Jesus revealed in the sinless sins of humanity was a glory that derived from the presence of the Father in the Son and the authority that he exercised on earth where he could command the winds to be still and they obeyed him was an authority that derived from his total submission to the Father's authority because he was man as he is God created man to be in normality we'll just take two minutes to look at that then we've got to quit look at John's gospel in chapter 10 10th chapter of John's gospel and right at the end of the chapter verse 37 said the Lord Jesus if I do not the works of my Father if it isn't demonstrably obvious that I as a man on earth I'm doing what my Father as God tells me take a deep breath don't believe me believe me not unless it's demonstrably obvious that I by my Father as God am being told what to do as man and I'm doing it don't believe me you don't have the right to believe me even though what I tell you may be true you don't have the right to believe it from me that's pretty startling you see you may have the truth in your head but unless Jesus Christ is reigning in your heart people don't even have the right to believe what you're saying even though what you say is true that's why there are so many sterile ministers in the pulpit because even though they may know the truth they've not yet submitted as the Lord Jesus did to the authority of God so that he's only one in their lives who calls a shot that's why Christian parents rebel kids because they've never seen the sovereignty of God exercised by their submission in the lives of their mom and dad the only authority that you and I as men may exercise not just in matters of religion but in your business downtown in your school where you may be teaching within your own family circle the only authority that you have the right to exercise is that authority that derives from your total submission to Christ's authority as that authority that he exercised arrived exclusively from his submission to his father's authority and derived authority but said the Lord Jesus verse 38 if I do if it's demonstrably obvious that what I do is my father doing it what I say is my father saying it I simply the human vehicle of his divine activity if I do though you believe me not me though you find it difficult to recognize who I am and I understand your problem because some of you knew me as a little baby nursed helplessly in my mother's arms you saw me as an apprentice at the bench learning my trade I came to your house and fixed the window I understand your problem so though you believe not me for who I really am believe the works recognize a quality of life that defies any possible human explanation but God in a man that you may know and that you may believe that the father is in me and I'm in my father that between myself as man and my father as God there's a relationship of mutual inter-availability this was the source of his authority full of the Holy Ghost allowing the father at all times to clothe his activity with his son Jesus that's the only authority that you and I can exercise when we're available as redeemed sinners to make our humanity available for his divine activity then there's only one person to be congratulated look at Luke 18 and verse 18 maybe this verse in the past has bewildered you it says in verse 18 of the 18th chapter of Luke's gospel a certain ruler asked the Lord Jesus saying good master and he thought thereby to flatter the Lord Jesus not insincerely what shall I do to inherit eternal life and instead of answering his question because the Lord Jesus knew perfectly well this man hadn't a clue what eternal life was thought it was a place not a person somebody living in somebody he didn't answer his question instead said he to him verse 19 why do you call me good none is good save one that's God and in that only God is good why do you call me good because I stand in your presence as a man was he saying he wasn't God oh no he never once denied his identity with the father in deity I and my father are one to the religious leaders of his day who sarcastically ridiculed him when he said Abraham rejoiced to see my day said they to him John 8 you want to tell us that you knew Abraham and you're not even 50 years of age said the Lord Jesus before Abraham was in your past tense I am in the timelessness of deity so what did he mean why do you call me good none is good save one that is God what the Lord Jesus simply saying is I'm playing that role for which is God I made you as man I'm allowing my father by his indwelling holy spirit to clothe himself with my humanity so that everything I do has its origin in my father as God all I say has its origin in him as God all I am has only one possible human explanation that is the God who created the universe is dwelling in a man who was willing one day conceived of the Holy Ghost to be born of a virgin not as you uninhabited by God inhabited only by sin but uninhabited by sin inhabited only by God don't call me good in my humanity which I'm making available through the Holy Spirit to my father as God all you see me do is what he does all you hear me say is what he says all that I am is what he is don't call me good I'm simply using my humanity to reveal the goodness of my God so that you in me can see the glory and that is normality so before ever the Lord Jesus sent by the father to restore the glory could restore the glory had to reveal the glory and he could only reveal the glory by giving to the father as God in the man a place in his heart for God's feet so that 24 hours a day he was occupied territory full of the Holy Ghost here's the last thing then we could before ever he could restore to you and to me the glory that he revealed he had to relinquish the glory and reclaim it did you hear the news this morning do you know what happened in the east the sun rose that's resurrection have a look at it in Ezekiel chapter 43 amazing book yes the Bible in its glorious consistency Ezekiel 43 afterward he brought me to the gate even the gate that looketh toward the east and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east sunrise but the sun rises in the east and that's a beautiful picture you see resurrection and that's where that glory derives from which the Lord Jesus restores to those who cleansed in his blood are reinvaded by him in the fullness and power of his resurrection but there's no sunrise without sunset that's why the sinless incarnate son of God hung upon a Roman gallows and the heavens were darkened in mourning for the son of God when he was made sin for us and cried my God why hast thou forsaken me that was sunset and the skies were darkened for there's no sunrise apart from sunset but Jesus rose again from the dead the earth shined with his glory the end of verse 2 and then verse 4 the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east the house was reinvaded with the glory of God a glory that derived from the place where God's son rose again from the dead after those awful agonizing hours of darkness when the sun set at Calvary so the spirit took me up verse 5 he brought me into the inner court behold the glory of the Lord filled the house and I heard him speaking unto me out of the house the man stood by me I think in anticipation of the event if you'd look very closely you'd have seen as the lamb slain before the foundation of the world the print of the nails in his hands and in his feet the man stood by me he said to me son of man this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever this is the place of my throne this is the place where I have the right to reign but it's also the place of the soles of my feet because until you've given me in your heart a place for my feet I'll never reach the throne that's the gospel he compels nobody he cannot even though he is omnipotent and is of total and utter and absolute sovereignty but God in his absolute sovereignty was willing for your sake and mine to limit himself in the exercise of that sovereignty and create a man who could say yes and who could say no because love cannot be compelled and God is love the only thing that satisfies love is to be loved but love must be offered for that which is compelled can never derive from love so he says to you tonight looking deep into your heart that's the place of my throne as the creator I made you to be inhabited by your creator the king in his kingdom but I'll never reach the throne until I found a place for the soles of my feet then your soul will be flooded with light but there'll be no sunrise without sunset I died not to get you out of hell and into heaven but to get God back out of heaven into you simple isn't it that's the gospel there is no other