The Glory Of God - Part 6

It's 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'er 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 and 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'd hand in 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 as fragrant 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 the 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 1,600 every Sunday morning, another 600 in Sunday school, running at the same time. God has used him round 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 a somebody and hang your hat up with the great preachers, or get some society behind your name, but just totally glorify him. And say, 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 this 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 go on like this, it'll take a thousand years to get the world turned round, 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, how big the house is, if the conversation is about Jesus, it's wasting time. When we travel, I don't travel much, I travel some, and when we go, every time we go, it's an inauspicious 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 haven't said a phrase, I intended to say it the other night. How many of you were there the night I preached on? David, 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? Somebody, 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 to be maturing. 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 thing 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. You say, I don't like your preaching. They 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?