God's Seven Glories

Thank you so much for that wonderful special music. So inspiring. What a wonderful way to prepare for the next message. I'm so glad God gave us such wonderful voices. It's actually the greatest musical instrument God has ever created, the human voice. And we're able to enjoy this with men and women combining their voices in such an inspiring way. I thought I'd let you know I got handed the offering. A very generous average person was $106.03. That's a record for me. I've never seen that in 295 in attendance. Thank you, brethren. It's an offering to God to carry out His work. He could have done a lot better with angels.

He doesn't need it. But He is a giving God, and He expects us to emulate Him and imitate Him as He's always giving. And you receive more every time as well. I thought I'd let you know just brief announcements about this Noah's Ark search. I've been letting the Garden Grove brethren know about it.

I'm pretty well connected with some of the people that have gone up in expeditions lately. And one of them is Dr. Joel Klink. He's an archaeologist centered in Miami, Florida. He has his own website. It's called PaleoOrk. That's P-A-L-E-O-R-C.com. He's the first archaeologist that went up there and confirmed that there is a three-story wooden structure about 13,500 feet up there on Mount Arad.

Now, he went over two years ago, and he writes such a detailed report. I had a chance to speak with him this week, and we have a common interest in archaeology. Of course, he's a Harvard train archaeologist. He did some of the digs in Israel. He's a very proficient writer. He's the author of several books. But the world hasn't paid any attention to this discovery. He mentions that even the Turkish government already knows where the site is. It's no secret to them, but the government is divided. What to do with it is fine. Because of the Armenian situation about a century ago, where they had a genocide.

The Armenians are the ones that live around Mount Arad. They consider it their most sacred object. If this is announced to the world, this could build up Armenian nationality again. They're concerned. There's another part of the government that says, this would be the greatest tourist attraction on Earth.

What are we waiting for? Let's announce it. Now there's an expedition this summer, which I've been in contact with the people there. They are taking a three-dimensional laser scanner up there, which is used to scan the topography. They're going to take that scanner and scan that structure. It's about 150 feet, which is half of a football field.

They know the structure has already been examined, but now they want to do a thorough scan of it, so people will not say, this is a fraud, or you took pictures in a studio. This is the big stuff going on now. This is very serious. I don't think it's a coincidence that now, after over 4,500 years, that arc is appearing to mankind. You know it is a warning to mankind that God intervened before, and that as violence was filled in Noah's day, and as in Sodom's day, it says that it's going to be the same before Christ comes back.

I just want to keep you appraised of it, because that is very important. There are no magazines, no newspapers who have touched it, and yet this is already something that is not speculative. It's just a matter of getting the political situation settled, and also to have the final scientific expedition, which could very well be this summer. We'll keep you appraised of it. Also, I'd like to mention that if you haven't made plans for the fees yet, certainly put over your yard is still open for those that would like to.

One little plug. A lot of the brethren here in Los Angeles have been able to go, and it's like being on a cruise ship, but on land. It should be on their bucket list, which means before you kick the bucket, at least try to put over your yard at once, because you really get so much bang for your buck. They even have Corona beer this year, so that's available. We look forward to that fee site. Now, we're going to the sermon today. This is the Pentecost weekend. It's always challenging now. I know things start going downhill after lunch, but I have made this a very prepared presentation to get you all stimulated, because God has a very important message for all of us.

All we do is we just bring out those golden nuggets from the Bible, so you can look at them and admire how God is carrying out His great plan of salvation. So, we begin here with a slide program, because we're going to go into the subject of seven of God's glories, or God's seven glories. Now, the word glory has always caught my attention. You see it throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. It talks about God's glory. What is it exactly? It means God's shining presence. In the Hebrew, kabbad, they even had a child named Ichabod.

Ichabod was meaning without glory, because that was one of Eli's grandchildren, that after the ark was taken, Eli fell backwards, his two sons were killed, and the wife of one of the sons gave birth. So, it was called Ichabod, because it means without glory. So, that is always a reminder of the word. In the Greek, it's doxa, and known to the Jews, this shining glory of God as the Shekinah, the shining cloud of glory in the tabernacle.

Glory also represents God's Holy Spirit emanating from him. It radiates out. And so, Pentecost has to do a lot with God's glory, as we will see. One of the common themes in the Bible is man striving for full access to God, and God working it out. Let's turn to Romans 5. Romans 5, verses 1 and 2, and then verse 5.

It says, And so, we see this access. How do we arrive at having access to this perfect, holy, and all-powerful, and yet all-loving God? So, it is one of the biblical themes of how man is seeking to gain that access to God, and how God is working it out, because he wants to have full access with man. Notice in verse 5, it says, So, we see that the Holy Spirit is related. It's a bit of God's glory in us.

And as I have mentioned, God, because of man's human nature, can only give us, his Holy Spirit, a symbolful at a time. Because if he gives us much more, the person can become vain and cocky. Pride can set in, and it ruins so many wonderful people. The Luciferian complex. What happened to Lucifer? And how he just got so full of himself, and with pride and vanity, that he turned against his Creator. Human beings do the same thing.

So, God has to measure how much to give, because a person can abuse it, and can start using it for his own interest, and not for the glory of God. So, we see this very important main theme in the Bible. And we begin this main theme in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, we see mankind's great potential. I'll read it. It said, Very interesting. He said, Now, was it because man was going to be the strongest of all? No. Certainly, there are many animals that are far stronger. An elephant, rhinoceros, all kinds of creatures, a lion. But he gave man the great mind to be able to use his mind, and create all kinds of tools, and create all kinds of strategies that animals cannot do.

And so, we do have dominion over the fish. Now, you see the fisheries around the world, and they're slowly depleting the fish. But the fish can't fight against mankind. They cannot conquer mankind. It's mankind. Now, we have fish farms, we have all kinds of things. And not only fish, we have birds that include chickens and ducks, and so many others that are also domesticated. And over the cattle, certainly the dairies that we have, over all the earth.

And so, man for good or for ill is in charge of this earth, just like God said at the beginning. But the great potential is that God is reproducing himself through mankind. And that one day, man is going to be filled with his own glory, which is paradox because we are made out of flesh and blood, out of matter. And one day, he said, we will be glorified like he will be. And that's why we are here in church, because we have that faith.

That that is a promise that God is going to keep. That we do want to be glorified one day. We want to be part of that coming kingdom. And that small portion of God's Spirit that he gives us as a first deposit is just a sign of what he can give us in a far greater measure in the future. But again, God goes slowly. He doesn't give us everything right away.

He wants to see how we administer the spiritual gifts that he gives us. And if he sees that we don't abuse him, he'll give you more. Because he is a great educator, and he delegates, and he wants to have children that will be like him in the future.

So this is an artistic depiction of Adam and Eve, but we don't know what they look like. And here we come to God's first glory, the access to the Tree of Life, the first opportunity to have God's Holy Spirit. It was at the Garden of Eden. God provided the first chance to have full access to him through the Holy Spirit. Notice in Genesis 2, verses 7-9.

It says, And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. The Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow. Are we still on? Yep. Okay, let me get my light here. And God made out of the ground every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The Tree of Life was also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, he did offer man the Tree of Life, which we know would mean receiving his Holy Spirit, following his way, and eventually living eternally. But, as we also know, man failed at this first opportunity. He did not go God's way.

He followed Satan's way. And so, that first part was thwarted. Mankind showed it was not worthy to receive it then. Yet, God was committed to overcoming every hindrance to remedy this situation. Notice in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. He said to the woman, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He is talking to the serpent and referring to the woman, and talking about the future coming of Christ. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. That's the first promise. That this was not over. That Christ would come.

He would defeat Satan. Although Satan would injure Jesus Christ, which he certainly did, possessing Judas, and then causing the death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. But then, he was resurrected. And so, this was the first opportunity that man had. Man was cast out of the Garden of Eden, and then he did not have access to that tree of life, as it mentions. It says in chapter 3, in verse 24, So he drove out the man, and he placed caribim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

And he also mentioned before that in verse 22, he says, Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand, and take also the tree of life, and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden. So we see that the opportunity was there for man to have gone from the Garden of Eden to a millennial state.

But that was not to be. God has several plans, A's and B's, contingency plans. He knew also man's propensity, his human nature. Christ was already in the plans to one day have to come. But man was given an opportunity. Maybe it wouldn't have been Adam and Eve. Maybe it would have been some of their children that would not have gone the same way.

Because God cannot save a person unless they themselves choose to follow his way. He cannot impose it on anyone. And so this first glory was at the Garden of Eden. We go on here to the second glory of God, the tabernacle in the wilderness. Although God used individual persons such as Noah and Abraham, God's glory with mankind was shown at the tabernacle in the wilderness, when he dwelt with Israel and manifested himself in a cloud and pillar of fire. Let's go to Exodus chapter 40 verse 33. Exodus chapter 40 and verse 33.

Talking about Moses, he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the screen of the court gate. So Moses finished the work of the tabernacle. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire over it by night in the sight of all the houses of Israel throughout all their journeys.

That vision, that image, was etched into the memory of the Israelite people. They were there watching this day after day, a miraculous appearance, the shining presence of God in the very tabernacle. And so, again, God is working things out. He chooses Israel. He places His glory in the tabernacle, and Israel would have access to Him in a limited way. But at least now, they did have the presence of God. They had His laws. They had the tabernacle where the priests could officiate, and to prepare a people for the Lord. So, this is the second time that God's shining presence is with mankind in this way.

But it's certainly not the end of the story. You can say it is the beginning of the story after the fiasco in the Garden of Eden, after man was cast out. God showed that he had not finished with mankind. He is getting closer, and you had access to God. Although now you had a sacrificial system, you had a priesthood because of the carnal nature of the Israelites. So, let's go to the third of God's glory. This is God's glory that enters the temple of God. That's the next manifestation of the glory with man at the holy temple in Jerusalem.

Let's read the account in 1 Kings 8 and verse 10. 1 Kings 8 and verse 10, it says, From a mobile tabernacle, now it is fixed in Jerusalem, the place where God is going to return to earth one day. Again, God gets closer to man. Now it's not just a tabernacle, but a permanent place. God is still working out his plan to draw nearer to mankind. Again, you see at the bottom the image of the holy of holies, where the Ark of the Covenant and the shining cloud that was there.

The high priest would be able to see every day of atonement when he came in. This would be the third time that God's glory comes down to earth in this way. Let's go to the next one. God's next manifestation of glory was when Jesus Christ, quote, tabernacle with man, and the angels announced it to the shepherds. So now God's glory is not in a temple, it's not in a tabernacle, it's not in the Garden of Eden, as a figure or symbol with a tree of life.

But now it is God entering and becoming man. Notice in Luke chapter 2, God's access now comes through Jesus Christ. His son. In Luke chapter 2 verses 9 through 10, it says, Great joy, which will be in all people, be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger. And suddenly there was the angel with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.

So now God draws even closer to man. Now it is God in the flesh, Emmanuel. That's what it's called. One of the names of Jesus Christ walking among mankind, the glory of God in Jesus Christ. And so this is his fourth glory that takes us now to the fifth one, which is the day of Pentecost, God's fifth glory. And a part of God's glory was sent as the power of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to begin the New Testament church. So it isn't just in Jesus Christ now, but a portion is in his people.

And we're getting close to celebrating the two thousand years since that time of Pentecost. It's just about fourteen years away from that time when Jesus Christ came as a Messiah. And then three and a half years later, Haiti 31, is when the Holy Spirit came down. In Acts chapter 2, we see God's glory now beginning to enter human beings. We take it for granted with baptism and the laying on of the hands.

This is one of the greatest achievements that God can make in mankind, giving him a portion of the Holy Spirit. Notice in verse 1, it says, When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord and one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they appeared to them, divided tongues as a fire, and one sat upon each of them.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. It wasn't just receiving God's Spirit, but God wanted it to be one of the signs, an outward sign, so that other people could see what had happened. The speaking of different languages as it was brought out this morning.

There were dozens of different languages at that time that people had come and everyone listening to their own particular language. Also, why are the gifts of God's Spirit called spiritual gifts? Well, they are spiritual because they are not physical. When he gives his Holy Spirit, they are then channeled through the different gifts. The gifts are the channels which God uses that through his Holy Spirit it is sent to his people according to his will, according to the needs of the Church. They are not physical. We are not talking about physical talents. We are not talking about how well you swing a bat or how well you can play the piano. Now, you can play the piano for God's glory, but there are a lot of pianists out there that never had done that.

That was not given by God through the Holy Spirit. This is a spiritual gift. They are gifts because we don't receive them by our own efforts, though we can develop them. Not all the time. Does that mean that you receive a gift and that you are already fully mature in them? It is how you use it, how you develop them. It takes work. Just like what Edison once said that invention is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. So, it is with God's gifts. We have to work at it. He uses us, but the gifts are the different channels he uses to edify the Church.

That takes us now to the sixth of God's glory. This is what we are looking forward to. This is the one that is next on the agenda in God's plan of salvation. God will next show his glory when Jesus Christ returns in power and glory to the earth. First, for a thousand years and afterwards, during the second resurrection. Let's read in Matthew chapter 24 verse 30. Matthew chapter 24 verse 30. It says, It says, So, this is part of the message of Pentecost, God's first fruits from the Old Testament that have died. In those of the New Testament, we are the 21st century generation of that group that started in that day of Pentecost. It is like passing the baton, generation after generation. Sometimes it can dwindle. Then God will start again to revive the Church. Then it will multiply. Then Satan will start whittling it down again. It is an ebb and flow that we have had through these two thousand years of Church history. The important thing is to pass this baton to this younger generation. So, the light of God's Spirit will not be quenched. I read about a month ago something that struck in my mind. The greatest achievement that a person can have in his life is to be able to have his children receive the baton and pass it on to their grandchildren. As you are alive, as much as you can to pass this baton of God's truth, glory that can be passed on to the next generation. It is a difficult time. Satan is very active in society. He has so many hundreds of ways to distract a person. To keep them from looking at God's glory as the ultimate goal. Do you want to be glorified by God? I certainly do. My flesh is slowly wearing down. And I want to be clothed with God's glory. I don't deserve it, but I will certainly more than be thankful to receive it.

And so, one day, Christ's shining glory will come back here to the earth. We might be alive when we see this. That will be the time when we will be so thankful to have held firm, to have not given up. One of the saddest scriptures that I find in the Bible is found in 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. I dread, in a sense, reading this because I don't ever want this to be my fate. It says in 1 John chapter 2 verse 28, And now little children abide in him, that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. When you see other people being glorified, and you're staying on the ground, and you're staying in the flesh, and you were not glorified, and then you will be ashamed, and then you will realize what you lost. Just for hanging on some more years to be faithful to the end. And so this can happen. That's why it's in the scriptures.

And so this takes us to the seventh glory, but I want to cover the millennium first. With this sixth glory, when Christ comes back during the millennium, the world will become as a second Eden, and this state will continue into the second resurrection period. Satan will be put away, and God's Spirit will be made readily available. In Isaiah chapter 2, I'll go ahead and read this. Isaiah chapter 2, verse 1, shows a whole different disposition. Instead of people running away from God, as so many do today, people are going to be running to God. It says in verse 1, the word that Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills. And all nations shall flow to it. We don't see that. We don't see people flowing now to want to follow God's ways. We see them turning around. Many people shall come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. See, that veil of the seat will have been removed from their eyes, and now they are receptive. Now they are docile. Now they will follow God in humility. Going on, it says, for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So people are going to be receptive. And He will judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. So people will have a whole different attitude in the millennium. God's glory is going to be available. They're going to have access. They're not going to have competing religions. They're all going to go to Jerusalem. The temple is going to be there, and where they are going to keep the feasts, just like the Feast of Tabernacles, mentioned in Zechariah 14. But it also deals with the Feast of Pentecost and many others. Today, it takes a lot of effort to get people to come, just to be here for a couple of hours for Pentecost. But then, it's going to be millions and millions of people.

And just as God has worked with us, so He will work with them as well.

There will be healing waters, and all nations will come to adore Christ at the feasts, including at Pentecost. We even have in the Bible, where it talks about these feasts during the millennium, and they will be kept in Ezekiel 46. Ezekiel 46 verse 11. We see here, when Christ comes back and establishes His Kingdom, and He is in Jerusalem, with a new Temple there, in Ezekiel 46 verse 11. It says, and at the festivals and the appointed feast days. That's Pentecost. The grain offering shall be an ephah for a bull, all the different types of sacrifices that will point back toward Jesus Christ. And then in Ezekiel 47 verse 12. It says, along the bank of the river, right there in Jerusalem, on this side, and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine or for healing. And so the nations are going to not have competing philosophies and religions. Everybody will have the veil lifted from their eyes, and they will be receptive. It's so hard to motivate people now to keep that fire of God's Spirit alive. Just like he told Timothy that you have to strike up, you have to build up the fire of God's Spirit and not let it peter out. It just seems like very little zeal. People are tired, they're weary. It's not been easy to keep at it, to stir up God's Spirit. But that's why we are here, to motivate and to encourage. It's well worth it. Believe me, brethren, this is like having won the lottery ticket of the universe. All you have to do is keep it until Christ comes, whether you die with that ticket that's going to be cashed in, or if he comes, it'll be immediately cashed in. But you can throw that lottery ticket of being part of the first resurrection and being part of that millennium. Just keep at it, to keep faithfully this way of life.

And so that takes us to God's seventh and final glory. God's final glory will be when God the Father brings the New Jerusalem to this earth. All will be filled with God's glory, and then the true beginning can start. The Tree of Life will be there to symbolize full access to God and to His Spirit. Notice in Revelation chapter 21, Revelation chapter 21 verse 1, It says, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

Also there was no more sea. Everything had been purified of all of man's sins. No more shed blood on the earth. Everything had been purified. And then He says, Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. The final and complete access to God. We are limited now. God is not manifesting Himself openly to us. It takes faith now to walk this way of life. But God is going to accomplish His purpose. What He started to do in the Garden of Eden, He will complete. He will fulfill. He will not be thwarted. He will not be frustrated. And man will be with God. There will be no more need for a temple to separate one or a priesthood. We will all be a family together. Notice what it continues to say in verse 10.

And He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystals, like a diamond that He manifested here. The glory of God. God is not going to be frustrated. Despite human nature, despite the ingratitude, God is going to carry it out.

And we are here as part of those first fruits of all the billions of human beings that God could have called. He gave us this wonderful understanding. This is the greatest of all truths that mankind can ever receive. The greatest of all messages. It's not about going to heaven. It's not about immortal soul. It's not about pagan philosophy. This is the pure truth in God's Word. And yet, what are we going to do with it? Notice in verse 22 of this chapter, It says, but in that New Jerusalem, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

This right here should knock it in the head. Any idea of Trinitarianism? It doesn't talk about the Holy Spirit being a person. Who are in that New Jerusalem? God the Father and the Lamb, Jesus Christ. There's no third person. That's false religion. Just for these scriptures, you can refute hundreds of years of all kinds of Greek philosophizing over the point.

If they would just take God's Word literally and not have to embed it with all kinds of philosophical ideas that are extraneous to God's Word, it says, the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. So here God is there. Jesus Christ is the same way. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light. And the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor to it.

That's not talking about physical kings of history. It's talking about those future kings in God's kingdom that are part of God's government at that time. And those are part of the first fruits, and they are part of the ones that are still serving the nations at that time.

Verse 26, and they shall bring the glory and the honor of all the nations into it. And so we see here God's glory, which is part of the message of the day of Pentecost. We have a little bit of that God's glory. We've got a little bit of that power in us. And as we cultivate it, we can make it grow. We can develop it, just like it was brought out. All of these ways of serving in the Church are gifts that God provides to us. But we are all going to be glorified one day if we remain faithful. Let's go to Romans chapter 8 as we wrap this up. I know everybody is happy to wrap it up right now. Hang in there just a couple more moments. Keep those eyelids open.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 30, it says about God's people in the Church. He says, Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called, whom He called, these He also justified, which means being forgiven through the blood of Christ, and whom He justified, these He also glorified. That is the term for the final stage of man's role that God called him to be, to be a glorified son and daughter forever. Can you imagine looking back maybe 10,000 years from now and looking at these 70, 80, 90 years of our life, and looking back and saying, how little, how insignificant? And yet God in that time was able to call us and look what we have in comparison. If we just keep that faith, if we keep looking toward that coming Kingdom, and we want to be part of it, that is so important. One last scripture in Daniel chapter 12, in verse 1, it talks about that glorification. And again, this is not something invented, this is something we read from the very scriptures in Daniel chapter 12 in verse 1. We believe this time is very close by when it will be fulfilled. It says, at that time, Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that time, and at that time your people shall be delivered. And everyone who is found written in the book, the book of life, the person is baptized and receives God's Spirit, his name is written in that book. And he says, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. They will be glorified. It is the ultimate destiny that God prepared man from that first time he appeared in his glory to the final time when his plan of salvation will be fulfilled. Happy Pentecost to all!