SPEAKER_00: The scripture reading this morning is found in the book of Exodus, chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: I will be reading verses uh seven through twenty.
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to turn there.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh if you happen not to have your Bible with you this morning, you can find it uh in the Pew Bible on page 60.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are with us this morning and uh you don't happen to own a Bible of your own, I want to encourage you, that Pew Bible that is there that you're holding, uh, to please take it home with you as our gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we want you to have a copy of the Bible for yourself to read and uh to be able to study and uh join us each Sunday and study throughout the week uh God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words the Lord had commanded him.
SPEAKER_00: All the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.
SPEAKER_00: When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready for the third day.
SPEAKER_00: For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
SPEAKER_00: And drop down to verse sixteen.
SPEAKER_00: On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
SPEAKER_00: Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire.
SPEAKER_00: The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.
SPEAKER_00: And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
SPEAKER_00: Kent Hughes in his comment in one of his commentaries on the book of Genesis reminds us of uh something that Chuck Colson wrote in his book, Kingdoms in Conflict.
SPEAKER_00: And uh Hughes comments on what Colson wrote.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Chuck Colson in his Kingdoms and Conflict describes how during his political career he used the aura of the White House to moderate and pacify visitors.
SPEAKER_00: Colson would begin by hosting his guests in the executive dining room of the West Wing.
SPEAKER_00: Colson would escort his guests past saluting guards and down a long corridor lined with dramatic photographs of the president in action.
SPEAKER_00: And then at the door of the dining room, he would pause and point to the door at the right and say in hushed tones, that's the situation room, conjuring up visions of map-filled walls, computer screens, and busy generals, when in reality those functions were at the Pentagon.
SPEAKER_00: The ambiance of the executive dining room was overwhelming with its rich, hand-rubbed mahogany walls lined with a waiting row of red-jacketed Navy stewards, and most of the cabinet and senior staff huddled around the tables.
SPEAKER_00: Usually, even the staunchest adversaries began to soften.
SPEAKER_00: If someone needed more prodding, they were treated to a walk upstairs and a reverend tour of the Oval Office.
SPEAKER_00: And if the president was in, there was a prearranged, impromptu greeting and a gift of gold-plated cufflinks with the presidential seal.
SPEAKER_00: Colson summarizes the effect.
SPEAKER_00: Invariably, the lions of the waiting room became the lambs of the Oval Office.
SPEAKER_00: No one ever showed outward hostility.
SPEAKER_00: Most, except the labor leaders, forgot their best rehearsed lines.
SPEAKER_00: They nodded when the president spoke, and in those rare instances when they disagreed, they did so apologetically, assuring the president that they were personally respected, they personally respected his opinion.
SPEAKER_00: Ironically, none were more compliant than the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Of all people, they should have been the most aware of the sinful nature of man and the least overwhelmed by pomp and protocol.
SPEAKER_00: But theological knowledge sometimes wilts in the face of worldly powers.
SPEAKER_00: What Colson writes and what Hughes reminds us of is the fact that we are often impressed with human glory.
SPEAKER_00: When we think of people and politicians in their power, in this position that they have and presidents, we are, as Colson said, oftentimes those lions in the waiting room become the lambs in the Oval Office.
SPEAKER_00: We recognize human power and authority and position.
SPEAKER_00: And we're impressed by it.
SPEAKER_00: We are people that are so often impressed by it.
SPEAKER_00: Over the last several weeks, we've been looking at the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning I want us to consider the glory of God and the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing compares to God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in Isaiah 40, we're reminded that all of the leaders of the world are but dust on the scales.
SPEAKER_00: They are nothing, they are less than nothing in comparison to God.
SPEAKER_00: And we've been looking at this reality that Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us.
SPEAKER_00: And I fear sometimes that we become so familiar with the person of Jesus Christ in the gospel accounts and seeing him in the humility of the incarnation that we forget that Jesus Christ possesses all glory as God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to remind us first of all, as we continue to consider the glory of God and now move to look at the glory of God and the person of Christ, to remind ourselves of what we've looked at and think through a few other passages in the Old Testament regarding the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: We were reminded several weeks ago of the problem that we have.
SPEAKER_00: Our first parents, Adam and Eve, they sinned.
SPEAKER_00: And when they sinned, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: They were in the presence of God, dwelling in God's presence, in unhindered relationship with God until the moment that they sinned, and that sin separated them from God.
SPEAKER_00: They could no longer be in the presence of a holy God in his glory because of their sinful condition.
SPEAKER_00: And God provided a covering for them, and God promised them that he was going to send to deliver, and yet they were expelled from the garden, and that state of separation is the state that we find ourselves in to this day.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the consequences of sin, this world and those who have not come to Christ find themselves separated from God, completely cut off because of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Sinful humanity cannot dwell in the unveiled presence of a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the New Testament, it says this very thing.
SPEAKER_00: Paul charges Timothy, Timothy, who had been saved by God's grace through forgiveness of sins because of the cross, he challenges him to live a holy life, reminding him that one day he is going to stand before God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he writes in 1 Timothy chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: He says this keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he will display at the proper time he who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.
SPEAKER_00: To him be honor and eternal dominion.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Even now that we have a relationship with Christ, the Bible tells us that we see through a glass dimly.
SPEAKER_00: That even now we do not see the unveiled glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk in a couple weeks that that is a future promise that we have.
SPEAKER_00: But even now, God's glory is veiled.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we're reminded of God's glory in this passage that we read in Exodus chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: And I won't read the whole thing, but just the last few verses.
SPEAKER_00: And what's fascinating when you go through the Old Testament and you look at the manifest presence of God, when God makes his presence known, it is a cataclysmic event, and people cower and they cover themselves, and there is a recognition of the awesome reality of the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it's no different here.
SPEAKER_00: There was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast.
SPEAKER_00: They stood at the foot of the mountain, and sm and and Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because of the Lord had descended on it in fire.
SPEAKER_00: And the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.
SPEAKER_00: Think of even when God makes his presence known, and there are times that we're going to see, even with Moses, that God had a relationship with Moses, and in some ways was even more so than all of the other people, and yet it was still a veiled glory that Moses saw.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 24, verses 9 through 11, it says, And then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and we talked about what happened to them later.
SPEAKER_00: And seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: There under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven, from c for clearness.
SPEAKER_00: And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel, and they beheld God and ate and drank.
SPEAKER_00: And even here it says they saw God, and yet they only saw a glimpse of his feet.
SPEAKER_00: In fifteen through eighteen it says, Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of the Lord dwelt on the mount on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days.
SPEAKER_00: And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
SPEAKER_00: Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
SPEAKER_00: And remember when we looked at Moses asking to see the glory of God in Exodus chapter 33.
SPEAKER_00: What's fascinating about that chapter in Exodus early there talks about the tent of meeting where Moses would go.
SPEAKER_00: There was a tent that was set up outside the camp.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses would go and he would meet with God and he would mediate between God and the people, and he would take his request to God there.
SPEAKER_00: And it says there earlier in Exodus chapter 33 of this of Moses speaking to the Lord, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
SPEAKER_00: When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
SPEAKER_00: So it says here that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, and yet we know that it was still, even in the intimacy of that relationship, was not the unveiled glory of God, because later, as you recall, Moses asked to see God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Show me your glory.
SPEAKER_00: That was the request that Moses had.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Moses says, Please show me your glory.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, will show mercy, and whom I will show mercy.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, You cannot see my face.
SPEAKER_00: And here it's God in his unveiled glory.
SPEAKER_00: Even when he saw in the tent of meeting, it was still not the unveiled glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For man shall not see me and live.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
SPEAKER_00: Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's just a glimpse, as it were, of the back of the glory of God, just a veiled glimpse of God's glory, because nobody could see God's glory and live is what God tells him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we see the glory of God and in the created order, there are times when God manifests his presence.
SPEAKER_00: He makes his presence known.
SPEAKER_00: In an unusual way, we talked about this.
SPEAKER_00: God is everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: God is omnipresent, the theologians would say.
SPEAKER_00: God will make his presence known, manifesting his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And we saw that when Moses approached the burning bush and he was told to take off his sandals, for he was standing on holy ground.
SPEAKER_00: And we see it there in the tent of meeting.
SPEAKER_00: We see it now in the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: And later we would see it if we were to trace it through in the temple of God.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God in Exodus chapter 40, and all of the description of how the temple was to be built, and that there was the holy place, and then there was a thick curtain, and behind that where the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat were, were the holy of holies.
SPEAKER_00: And we see in Exodus chapter 40, verse 34, it says, Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out.
SPEAKER_00: But if the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out till the day that it was taken up.
SPEAKER_00: For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day and fire by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see here that the glory of the Lord rested there in the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: We saw, and again, not to be redundant, but in Isaiah chapter 6, and there's a greater point I want to make in looking at this passage again, in relationship to the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah chapter 6, we see King Uzziah had died.
SPEAKER_00: He had been reigning and co-reigning for over a half century.
SPEAKER_00: He was the only king that most of the people in Isaiah's day would have ever known.
SPEAKER_00: And the king was dead, and when a king died, there would have been absolute potential for chaos because there was no authority.
SPEAKER_00: The throne was empty.
SPEAKER_00: And so Isaiah, here at the beginning of Isaiah's ministry, he receives his call and he says, In the year that King Uzziah died, there was no king on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah is reminded that there is a king on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And above him stood the seraphim.
SPEAKER_00: Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew.
SPEAKER_00: And one called to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah here is not in the in the earthly temple, he sees a vision of the heavenly temple of God and the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he sees the glory of God and the train of his robe filling the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And the temple itself, it says in verse 4, the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
SPEAKER_00: Here Isaiah has a glimpse again of the glory of God in the heavenly temple.
SPEAKER_00: And Isaiah's reaction is the reaction of any one of us who would be in even a glimpse of the unveiled presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah says, Woe is me, for I am lost.
SPEAKER_00: I am a man of unclean lips.
SPEAKER_00: I dwell among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah says here, literally, I'm coming undone.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming apart at the seams.
SPEAKER_00: I'm disintegrating before a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how does that relate to the glory of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Turn in the New Testament to John chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 12, but begin reading in the middle of verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: This was the unbelief of the people, and there was a judicial sovereign hardening by God because of the unbelief of these people and a confirmation in their in their ways.
SPEAKER_00: And John is writing here, he says, When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.
SPEAKER_00: Though he had done many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore they could not believe, for again Isaiah said, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.
SPEAKER_00: And he quotes from passages in Isaiah and 53 and in 6.
SPEAKER_00: And then look at what he says in verse 41.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him, of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What we see in Isaiah chapter 6, John writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said, Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus' glory.
SPEAKER_00: The vision of Isaiah in chapter 6, John tells us is the glory of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what Isaiah saw.
SPEAKER_00: He says he saw the glory of Jesus and spoke of him.
SPEAKER_00: And so he quotes these passages in reference to Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_00: And what we need to understand when we when we come to the New Testament and we've been looking at Emmanuel, God with us, and what we need to recognize is that when we see Jesus in his humanity, that Jesus Christ is, was, and always will be fully God, and he is glorious.
SPEAKER_00: And that when we see Jesus, that we see God, and in one way, Jesus reveals the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, even when we look in the person of Jesus Christ and his humanity, God's glory is yet veiled.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, and let me let me ex uh show you this in a couple passages in Philippians chapter 2, a very familiar passage to To many regarding the person of Jesus Christ and his humanity.
SPEAKER_00: And in Philippians chapter 2, it says this have this mind among yourselves who which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.
SPEAKER_00: So at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some people here look at this, and in verse 7 uh it tells us that he made himself nothing, uh, that he emptied himself, uh, some translations say.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that the word here that is uh translated, he emptied himself or he made himself nothing is a word that uh in the Greek is uh is uh kanao, which we they transliterate into the word kenosis, and some people they wrestle with, well, what did Jesus empty himself of?
SPEAKER_00: And some people have some mistaken ideas of what Jesus emptied himself of in his incarnation.
SPEAKER_00: What did he make of no effect?
SPEAKER_00: Well, which is literally what this word means, to be made of no effect.
SPEAKER_00: What was it?
SPEAKER_00: And some people mistakenly say, well, uh Jesus emptied himself of his divine power.
SPEAKER_00: Or some say that he uh emptied himself of the attributes of deity or he or he gave up his divine prerogatives.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a problem with saying any of these things, because to say that unwittingly is to undermine the full deity of Jesus Christ while he's on earth, if he gave up anything of that nature, if he gave up any of the nature of the attributes of deity, he would no longer be fully God on earth.
SPEAKER_00: So what was it that Jesus emptied himself of?
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't his power, it wasn't his attributes of deity, it wasn't his divine prerogative, it wasn't any of those things.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus made, what was made of no effect, or what was veiled when Jesus was on earth was his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, Jesus himself says this in the Gospel of John, chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: If you turn to John's gospel in chapter 17, beginning in verse 1 through verse 5, and this is Jesus' high priestly prayer right before his arrest and his crucifixion, and Jesus is talking here and he's praying for his disciples, and he says, When Jesus has spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.
SPEAKER_00: Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you.
SPEAKER_00: And the glory of Christ in his humanity is the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, Glorify the Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to whom you have given him.
SPEAKER_00: And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_00: And then look what he says here in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
SPEAKER_00: And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus here tells us that even in his humanity, while he reveals the glory of God, even then, though, the glory of God is in some way veiled so that we are able to be in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, think of John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 14 of John chapter 1, it says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: Now I pointed this out last time, but in light of what we have been talking about, I want to re-emphasize this.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_00: And I mentioned that the word there for dwelt is a word that the readers would have understood.
SPEAKER_00: It was a word that meant to tent or to tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: And so it says, and the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory.
SPEAKER_00: The glory as of the only Son from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 18 now.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 18, it says, No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus came to glorify the Father and to reveal God's glory, but even then we recognize that God's glory, even in the person of Christ and his humanity, is not his full, unveiled glory.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we we see this seeming contradiction, but it's not.
SPEAKER_00: It's a paradox in this sense.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus reveals exactly who God is to us, he reveals God's glory, and yet the glory of God is still veiled in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And let me show you some verses that explain that.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians chapter 1, and I'll just read them if you want to jot them down.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read a few of these.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 and 19.
SPEAKER_00: In Colossians 1, it says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
SPEAKER_00: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3, it says this.
SPEAKER_00: He is the radiance of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God that we saw in Mount Sinai, the glory of God that descended in the tabernacle and later in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God that is veiled because of sin, that we cannot come into the full presence of a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 14, verses 6 through 9, very again, a very well-known passage.
SPEAKER_00: The one when Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father but by me.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately after that, Jesus says, If you had known me, you would have known my Father also, for now you do know him and have seen him.
SPEAKER_00: And then Philip says to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answered him, Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?
SPEAKER_00: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus Christ, God incarnate, God in human flesh, reveals the glory of God to us, and yet we see that in his humanity this glory is veiled.
SPEAKER_00: It is glory in humility, veiled in the incarnation.
SPEAKER_00: And the glory of Christ is the cross where he glorifies the Father, and the Father glorifies him.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we're reminded in the Bible that we see glimpses of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew chapter 17, when we see what is called the transfiguration, Jesus takes his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He takes Peter, James, and John, and he takes them onto a high mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And it says there, and there he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
SPEAKER_00: And so for just a brief moment in time, it's as if a corner of the veil is lifted, and they see a glimpse of the true glory of God in the person of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And again, we see that in Revelation chapter 1, and I'll close with this.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 1, verses 12 through 18.
SPEAKER_00: John is there on the Isle of Pathus.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Lord's day, it's the 14th year of the reign of Domitian.
SPEAKER_00: He's exiled there, and he's and he sees this vision.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then I turn to see the voice that was speaking to me, and he he realizes that it was Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It says, In turning, I saw seven golden lampstands.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, hearkening back to Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: And the term that Jesus used so often to describe himself, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest, the hairs of his head were white like wool, like snow, his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, his voice was like the roar of many waters.
SPEAKER_00: In his right hand held he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
SPEAKER_00: For those who have come into a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith, who have recognized their sinfulness and their need for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that even now, in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 12, it says, For now we see in a mirror dimly.
SPEAKER_00: Even now, as we see the glory of God in Christ, we recognize that there is yet a greater glory that we long to experience.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For now we see in a mirror dimly.
SPEAKER_00: But then, in the future, but then, and we're going to talk about what this is, but then, face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
SPEAKER_00: That is Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is God with us.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray, and we're going to close and singing, O come all ye faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Father, help us to see the glory of Christ, the glory that he had with you for all of eternity, the glory in the humility of the incarnation, the glory of the cross where he is glorified and you are glorified, and the glory that he once again will have unveiled, and even now has.
SPEAKER_00: May we get a glimpse of the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.