The Glory Of God - Part 3

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 Hanbury-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's 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 as thou gazest upon the beauty of his face, canst thou become a living revelation of his great heart of love, his untold grace. Within the veil his 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. What happened? 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 that 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 where 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 face. 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 about God in heaven. What is the most serious 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 two thousand 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 praying ping-pong and fooling as though the world's going to heaven. I've 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 eat any gumption at all, if we're as flexed and as spiritual 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 in Rome 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 me to keep up that 24-hour prayer barracks. 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 nightclubs, 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 you, 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, 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 the question, the other brother, I think, with you, asked the 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 changed 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 showed 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.