The God of Glory is revealed in three key instances: to Abraham at the commencement of his faith journey, to Moses in the wilderness during his leadership preparation, and to Stephen at the moment of his martyrdom. These revelations highlight God's presence from the beginning to the end of a believer's life, emphasizing His call, His guidance, and His ultimate glory. The sermon contrasts Old Testament revelations of God associated with specific men with New Testament revelations associated with virtues and Christ, underscoring that God is now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ultimately, the sermon calls believers to reverence God, to understand delegated authority, to acknowledge the sinfulness of their own hearts, and to reflect God's glory through transformed lives, especially in their love for one another.
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I will read this morning in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter six. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter six. And verse eight. Acts chapter six, verse eight. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians and Alexandrians, of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.
Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people. and the elders and the scribes, and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council. And set up false witnesses which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And all that sat on the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face. as it had been the face of an angel. Then the high priest, then said the high priest, Are these things so?
And he said, Men and brethren, and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charon, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charon, and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein you now dwell. And verse twenty. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months, and when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. Verse thirty. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel of the Lord, and a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight, and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers. the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
Now then verse fifty-four. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and lashed on him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the young man's feet whose name was Saul.
And they stole Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Edith, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Yesterday morning we were looking at one of the most beautiful titles of God in the New Testament, and that title is Our Heavenly Father. And I thought that during the mornings of this week I would like to look at some of the beautiful titles of God in the New Testament. And the one that we want to consider this morning for a little while, we find at the commencement of Stephen's address before the Sanhedrin, where he's called the God of Glory.
The God of Glory. Now we find three revelations of the God of glory in the chapter. And there's this threefold revelation of God in his glory that we would like to look at this morning. First of all, he appeared to Abraham when he dwelt in Ur of the Calvaries and he told him to get out and to go into the land that he had destined for him. It was the God of glory that appeared to him. Now the second man that Stephen mentions is Moses. And read of the revelation of the God of glory to him. The God of glory appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush. He revealed himself to him.
And he said, Moses, Moses, take the shoes off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest this holy ground. Now the third revelation of the God of glory is at the end of the chapter. And just before... Stephen passed into the presence of the Lord, at the last moment of his life, worried that the heavens were opened and worried that he saw the glory of God. Now, when we take these three passages together or these three revelations of the God of glory, it completely covers the Christian life. The one is in relation to the call. The God of glory appeared to Abraham and he called him at the commencement of his life of faith. And then in Moses' case, It was the God of glory that appeared to him in the middle of his life and gave him his call and his ordination to the work that he was about to do as the leader of the people of God in the wilderness.
And then at the end of the chapter we get the final consummation of the glory of God in a man who's just about ready to pass into the presence of the Lord. Oh, how beautiful this is. The beginning and the middle and the end of the life of faith we find the God of glory. I've often thought of the difference between the revelation of God in the Old Testament and the revelation of God in the New. In the Old Testament scriptures we read of seven men whose names are associated with the name of God. He's the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Shem, the God of Daniel, the God of Jezirah, the God of Elijah.
Seven men whose names are associated with the name of God. Now you will never find this in the New Testament. You never read there that he's the God of Paul or the God of Timothy or the God of John. There's only one name associated with the name of God in the New Testament. He's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the very fact that we are associated with him, we're linked with God's beloved Son, we are linked with God. He's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now in the New Testament, instead of man associated with the name of God, there are seven lovely virtues associated with God's name in the New Testament scriptures.
He's the God of love. He's the God of peace. He's the God of hope. He's the God of patience. He's the God of all comfort. And he's the God of all grace. But in the passage that we've read together this morning, he is the God of glory. It's the only time, as far as I can remember, in the whole of the Bible where we find this lovely title used, the God of Glory. It was the God of Glory that appeared to our Father Abraham and called him out of Ur of the Calvaries. It's nice to notice the different terms that are used in connection with Glory in the New Testament. We read of the Lord of Glory in First Corinthians chapter two.
We read of the Father of Glory. In Paul's great prayer in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. And then in the Old Testament scriptures, you remember five times in the twenty-fourth Psalm, we read off the King of Glory. But here in this lovely passage it is the God of Glory. Now it's the God of Glory that I would like to speak about this morning. On the threefold revelation to these three men. One at the commencement of a Christian life. The other when he's called to do a specific work. as the leader and the guide of God's people in the wilderness. And then thirdly, at the end of the Christian life, this dear man, this martyr, just before he passes into the presence of the Lord, we're either the heavens or open, and he saw the glory of God.
Do you think it's possible for a dying saint to see inside before he arrives there? I'm quite sure it is. Before we go through, I want to mention some things connected with this that are so encouraging. Right at the end of life, I believe that it's possible for the heavens to be open. And before the Spirit leaves the body, I believe that it's possible, even today, to get a little glimpse inside and to see the God of glory. Certainly, Stephen did. And we read that as he did so, his face lit up like the face of an angel. Oh, how beautiful this is. We look at these three revelations, I think it covers the whole ground of our Christian life, the beginning and the middle and the end.
Now, just for a little while, I want to think about Abraham and how the God of glory appeared to him when he was an heir of the Calvary. Some people get the idea that Abraham was a very primitive kind of an individual, and he lived in a very primitive society. But I think that anyone who reads a little bit of archaeology and some of the things that have been revealed in recent years connected with Ur of the Caledys would put that completely out of their mind. It's perfectly evident that Abraham, when he dwelt in Ur of the Caledys, was an educated man. He wasn't a primitive individual at all. And when God said, get out from Ur of the Caledys, I believe he left a very high civilization.
a very sophisticated society. It was just like leaving Park Avenue and New York City and going to Timbuktu. I suppose that is a way that you could describe it today. Sir Leonard Woolley, in nineteen twenty six, he made some excavations at Arabicalities and he discovered some marvelous things. The National Geographical Society here in the United States and one of their publications was a very fine article on Ur of the Calvaries, on the kind of society that Abraham lived in and that he left. Of course, it was a pagan society that worshipped the moon God. But God appeared to his dear servant in Ur of the Calvaries a sophisticated, educated man, a cultured man.
And God said, get out. Get out. We get the account of that in Genesis chapter twelve. and read this when he heard the call of God, and the God of glory appeared to him worried that he obeyed, not knowing whether he went. You know the life of faith is a wonderful thing, and sometimes we only get a revelation for one day at a time. And any man that wants to obey God, when God speaks to him and reveals himself to him and gives him a specific command, Always. The man who tries to do that, he's always tried. Faith is always tried. And wherever you find a man of faith and a man that wants to obey God, he'll run into all kinds of difficulties.
Now I want to mention a few of the difficulties that Abraham ran into when he obeyed the God of glory. And when God told him to get out and go to the land that he had destined for him, The first difficult he ran into, it came from his family. It came from his own father. We read that when he left home and he obeyed the God of glory, when they came to the frontiers of the land, if you look at a map, you'll find that Mesopotamia at that time, that the western border was the Euphrates River. And on the Euphrates River, the border of the land was a place called Heron. In our version here, in Acts chapter seven, it's called Charon. But he left anyway.
He left early the counties. And when he came to her, his father Tira, who had gone with him, he said, Now, I'm not going any further. I'm not going to cross the river. I don't want to leave the land. I'm going to stay right here. Now, there was no friction between the father and the son. And, you know, very often, when a man wants to obey God... God speaks to him and gives him a specific command to do a certain thing. Very often the first difficulty comes right from your own family. We could tell stories about this this morning. We have met it again and again in our life, in missionary life. Sometimes a person wants to obey God and to obey the command that God has given to them.
And the very first difficulty, it comes from their own far side, from their own family. And certainly that was the first difficulty that Abraham ran into it. It's just fifty years now since God saved me. And at that time there was a young woman over in the old country, she was saved about the same time. She and I were baptized the same night. And just a little over a year ago, I had the very great privilege of taking your funeral in the city of Detroit. For fifty years she has been a very dear friend. And I found it a very great honor. and a privilege to stand over her open casket and try to speak a word of comfort to those that were sorrowing.
But that dear girl, the night that she was saved and she went home to her home in a place called Dramore in Counting Don in Northern Ireland, and when she told her father what had happened, her father said, Lizzie, if you want to follow that way, he said, you'll have to get out of my home. He says, there never will be two paths from my door. Her father was a hard man. He was a Unitarian. And he told her, Lizzie, he said, if you want to follow that way, he said, you'll have to get out. The poor girl was brokenhearted. She said, Dad, God knows I love my home. And she said, I love you, and I love my mother.
But if that is your decision, I have no other option. And the next morning she packed her bag and with a little bag in her hand she left home. It was her own parents that did that. I can't understand any father or any mother that would take an action like that, but that man did. She came down to the city where I happened to be at the time. I was quite young. I was in my teens at the time. On the next Sunday morning, Lizzie turned up, and a little company of God's people where we were remembering the Lord. I happened to know the circumstances. We were sitting in a circle. And while the meeting was going on, looking across the circle, I saw Lizzie sitting with her head down. And before very long, there was a little pool of tears between her feet and the floor.
But it was a very precious time. There were very few of us there that morning. And there wasn't hardly anybody that knew the circumstances I happened to know. But in any case, there was an old preacher there that morning. And after the breaking of bread, he got up. And he read a portion from the Psalms. And the portion he read was, When thy father and thy mother forsake thee, then the Lord will take thee up. Now he didn't know anything at all about the circumstances. Isn't that the way the Spirit of God works? Oh, it is. And that dear man spoke in a very affectionate way that morning. When thy father and thy mother forsake thee, then the Lord will take thee up. And it wasn't very long until a few puddles of tears around that little circle that morning.
Oh, how God works. But very often when a person wants to obey God, the first difficulty it arises, arises from their own family. And it was the first difficulty that Abraham ran into. His father, Tira, said, I'm not going any further. I'm not going to cross the river. I'm not going to leave the land. Our Abraham, he didn't fight with him. There was no friction at all. And he stayed there and he stayed a considerable time. But then his father died. He was removed. And as soon as he did, he crossed the river Euphrates, and he left Babylonia, and he left it forever. Now, he made mistakes later on in his life, but as far as going back to Babylon was concerned, he left it and he left it forever.
He never went back there. From that moment on, he was called the Hebrew. And that word Hebrew, it simply means the man from across the water. He had separated himself from that old environment, and from that time on he was the man of faith. I noticed a lovely thing recently in reading an account of Abraham's life by F. B. Meyer. He called him the first pilgrim father. Now, I think that's a lovely way to put him. He was the first pilgrim father. But from that moment on, he was the man of faith. Now, when he arrived on the land, he ran into a second difficulty. And the second difficulty was famine. He had a big God and had left a very civilized community and had gone into this land.
And when he arrived in Canaan, the first problem was that there was a famine in the land. It's the most interesting thing to notice the different famines in Holy Scripture. They're generally sent to try God's people. We don't know very much about this here. And as we were saying yesterday morning, to talk about famine in the United States or hunger, well, it just almost seems like a waste of time. But my dear friends, I want to remind each one of us here this morning that as about fifty percent of the world's population goes to bed every night hungry, I think we should be devotely thankful to our God for the wonderful way that he has prospered this land.
But this was the second difficulty that Abraham ran into famine. And as a result of that famine, he decided to go down to Egypt. Now, he never went back to Babylon. He never went back to Mesopotamia, the place that God took him out of. But he did go down to Egypt. And when he went down there, he ran into the third difficulty. And that was the difficulty of fear. Fear for his life. You know, his wife Sarah was a beautiful woman. And when he arrived there, he said, Now, I want you to do something for me. He said, I'm afraid of my life. He said, these people down here have nothing of the fear of God about them at all. And they'll probably take you. And they'll take you into the harem of Pharaoh.
Because she was a beautiful woman. Now he said, I want you to call me your brother. And I'll call you my sister. Now in one way that was perfectly true. Because she was a relative. And anyone who has lived among these people in the Middle East, they know perfectly well the language and the vocabulary that they use. Our Africans do the same. If there's any blood relationship there at all, they call each other brother and sister. Now I said, you call your, you say that you're my sister. And I said, then I'll be able to escape from this awful dilemma when I get down here among these people that have none of the fear of God among them. But you know, here is weakness and here is failure. It shows that Abraham was a man like ourselves.
On this difficulty, this fear that he had in his heart, God was very gracious in overruling. Just as he had feared, his wife Sarah was taken into the harem of Pharaoh. But God's hand was over that dear woman. And God spoke to Pharaoh. And actually the next day, Pharaoh, he had to call Abraham and rebuke him for what he had done. Now he says, you take your sister. You take your sister and get out and he gave them a present and he left. This is the third difficulty he ran into, fear. You know, this again may not be something that is very common among God's people in this country, but among other countries, sometimes among a Muslim community, or even among a pagan population in Africa, a person who becomes a Christian.
And once they stand upon their feet and be a testimony for God, sometimes they go in fear of their life. I could tell stories of people this morning that I know. People that we had intimate contact with that were poisoned by their relatives and friends, so-called friends, because they took their stand for God. This has happened again and again. And it was a practical difficulty that Abraham ran into it with fear. He came back from Egypt and he came back to the land. And the fourth problem he ran into that was a test of his faith was friction. Or if you want to put it in a blunter way, it was fighting. Now, it wasn't a case at all of himself and Lot.
I think that everything was going along beautifully as far as the two men were concerned, but it was the herdsmen. God had abundantly blessed his servants. And there was a friction, there was fighting, there was difficulty between the herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen of Abraham. And on the kind of what had happened, Abraham, he sent for Lot one day and now, he said, it's not nice, it's not good. He said, there's this friction among us. And he said, you lift up your eyes and look on the land. And he said, whatever you choose or whatever portion of the land that you want, he said, you're perfectly welcome to take it. He said, I think it's better to part company. And so Lot, we read, he lifted up his eyes, and when he saw the well-watered plains of Sodom, it was just like what he had seen in Egypt.
What he had seen in Egypt influenced him with this choice, and the two men parted company. And Lot, unfortunately, he went down to the cities of the plain with the result that we all know. Oh, how human this is and how modern it is too. Beloved friends, if there's one thing that has wrecked the testimony of God's dear people right around the world, is this very thing. Friction. Oh, I do hope that God and His mercy will preserve us. If there's one thing that should characterize the people of God, it's love and a little bit of mutual consideration. And sometimes for no reason at all, friction comes in. and all the heartaches and the trouble that has come in among God's people from this very thing.
Now these incidents are given in the Word of God to teach his lessons and not only in the Old Testament but in the New we find exactly the same thing. You think of two men, two of the greatest servants of God on the New Testament scriptures and exactly the same thing happened to them. Paul the Apostle and Barnabas. He's called a good man. And I love that expression. Barnas was a good man and he was full of the Holy Ghost and the faith. And certainly the Apostle Paul was a great man. But we read a friction that came between the two men over something that we would regard as comparatively trivial. That is whether they would take Mark along with him or not.
And read that the contention. And the word contention is a medical word. It means a malarial rigor. Did you ever have malaria? Well, if you ever have had it, you know exactly what happened between these two men. You know, when you get malaria and you're bitten by an Anopheles mosquito, some days later you get awfully cold and shivered. And your teeth chatter in your head and you shiver and the very bed shakes below you. You get so cold. And then there's a crisis and you're tempted to start shooting up. And it will shoot right away up maybe to a hundred and five or a hundred and six. And you're so hot, You completely forgot the cold that you had.
But when you get up to about a hundred and five or a hundred and six, then you don't know what you're saying. We could tell stories about this too. And some of the ridiculous things that men and women of God have said when they've had a malaria lager, they lose their head. And they don't know what they're saying. And this is exactly what happened between these two good men, the good man Barnabas and the Apostle Paul, and they parted company. We never read that these two good men ever were linked together in joint service. Now I think the Apostle Paul regretted that. I'm quite sure he did. And I think that the good man Barnabas, he regretted it too. These things are left on the Word of God for our instruction.
But we find that this difficulty that Abraham had between himself and Lot, it was a crisis in his experience on the two men part of company. Friction was the fourth difficulty. And then there was frustration. You remember God had promised him an heir, a son. But we remember that episode connected with Hagar on the birth of Ishmael. He just couldn't wait. God kept him waiting a period of twenty years before that promise they had made to him in connection with the heir, Isaac, before it was fulfilled. But frustration, again, was something that he just couldn't take. And he listened to the advice of Sarah, and he married the slave Gare with a result that we all know.
The repercussions from that action has lasted to the present day. And Ishmael and Isaac, they're still fighting. All we need to do is to pick up our newspaper today and see what's going on in the Middle East. It came from that crisis in the life of Abraham. Now, the final test was the offering up of a son upon the altar. We're not going to go into this this morning, but the point that I want to make is this. Wherever there's a man who wants to obey God, wherever he wants to obey the command of God, the God of glory appears to him and tells him to do some specific thing, always there will be trial. Not faith will be tried, but at the end of his life, Abraham was a man of faith.
And all as we look at the eleventh chapter of the epistle of the Hebrews and find that marvelous commendation that we find of this good man, we find that he was the prototype of faith. And I want you to notice that it was the God of glory, the God of glory that appeared to him. Now we have this reflection that in the life of every servant of God, and by the way, I don't believe in using the term as servant of God of somebody that's giving all our time to the work. We all should be servants of God. And we all are servants of God. And the life that we live down here is a life of faith. And it should be the God of glory that has appeared to us and has given us the work that the specific work that we're to do.
And when we obey God and attempt to obey him, we'll always run into difficulty, always run into problems. Every man of God in the Bible, he has had that. And these are laid down in the Word of God for our instruction and for our health. Now the second man is Moses. and read that the God of glory appeared to him in a flame of fire and a bush. Now, again, the Grint of Moses' life, speak about it in any detail, would occupy a lot of times. But he was a man with a perfectly budgeted life. He lived for a hundred and twenty years. And you remember the hundred and twenty years is divided into three forties. Now, that word, that number forty, is very significant in the Bible.
The number forty is generally the number of trial and discipline. The first forty years of Moses' life was spent in Egypt, and God was preparing him and training him for the work that he had to do. In Egypt, he was training there was somebody. He had a foot on the steps of the throne, and he could have been the heir of Pharaoh. But he had to make a choice. And that choice was made and the second forty years of his life was spent at the back side of the wilderness, back side of the desert. And there he was learning to be nobody. And first of all he was in man's school in Egypt, but secondly he was taken into God's school and taught a few salutary lessons that we all need to learn.
And then at the end of that period of forty years he led God's people together. out of the land of Egypt, and he led them through the wilderness. He was the leader among God's people. He had a perfectly budgeted life, the three forties. Now, there's a little statement that Stephen makes here that I've often thought about in connection with the first forty years, where he that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in word, indeed. Now, these are three phases of his character. He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, I believe he went to the highest schools that Egypt had. And again, it wasn't a primitive society. Again, anyone that reads secular history of the time of Moses, we know that there are many, many things that we don't know today that they knew then.
And the remains of that primitive society. That early civilization, when we look onto today, we absolutely marvel the type of life that those people were living. He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He probably had a university education, the very best that Egypt could give him. And then he was mighty in word. You know, that some people have a good education. But when they get up and try to give it out, the hymn and the ha and the stutter and the difficulty in expressing themselves. But Moses was an orator. Now, I know perfectly well that at the end of forty years, he said, Lord, I can't speak. But did you ever you see a missionary who has spent forty years on the backside of the bush coming home and giving a report?
You know, it's awfully difficult. When a man has spent the most of his life in isolation, and he comes home and tries to speak our own language and give a report of his work, sometimes it's awfully difficult. And people are a little bit critical. That man, he's not a platform man. He's not able to talk. Why do you put him on the platform at all? But you know, they don't understand that forty years at the back side of the desert can do something to a man. And certainly did that to Moses. But the second phase of his character, after his forty years in the schools of Egypt, he was mighty in word. He could talk. And the third thing was, he was mighty indeed. He was a practical man.
Some people have a good education. And some people have an eloquent tongue. But as far as knocking a nail in a wall is concerned or repairing a table or a door or pulling the transmission out of a car and putting it back in again is concerned, they don't know the first thing about it. And the Luke idea was a blank expression on their face and they say, you know, I'm not mechanically minded. And of course, I'm a bookman. And I can sit down and I can read books and I can talk and I've had the education and all the rest of it. But you know, I can't dirty my hands. I'm not a practical man. Moses had that too. He was mighty indeed. Now, these were the three phases of his character that were perfectly formed at the first forty years of his life. And somebody would say, well, after all, that's all that he needs to engage in the work of the Lord.
You know, there's one lesson he hadn't learned in that forty years, and that was self-control, self-discipline. At the end of forty years, he went out one day and he saw a man oppressing his brother. And, you know, he tried, first of all, to intervene. He saw two Hebrews, first of all, with an argument between them, and he separated between them. And then he went out another day, and he found an Egyptian oppressing a Hebrew. And he was so mad, and so much upset that he picked up something, and he knocked the man down, and he killed him. And he buried his body in the sand. Now, he knew all about education. And he was a good talker, and he was a practical man, but he hadn't learned self-control.
On any man that goes into the work of God today that hasn't some self-discipline, has never learned that lesson, he still has something to learn. I know a man today is in the United States. He was given a commendation and sent out to a foreign country. He had never been out of the United States before. And he got into an argument in a customs house. with an official in a foreign country and of course the man was being unjustly accused of something in that custom house. And you know what he did? He lifted his fist and he hit the customs officer and he was arrested and after a little while he was sent home.
Now he had his commendation and he was sent out to the foreign field but he had never learned to control himself. And you know sometimes it takes a long time for a person to learn this lesson of self-discipline. Now the period between the first forty years and the second forty years we find that God takes a dealing with him. And after forty years at the back side of the desert when he became a shepherd and became a father. And mind you these two experiences can teach a person an awful lot. Minding sheep at the back side of the desert to be a shepherd and a father. At the back side of the desert the God of glory appeared to him. Now when the God of glory appeared, he appeared in the flame of fire in a bush, and Moses was curious, and he went to see what it was.
He didn't realize that it was the God of glory that was about to speak to him. And as he approaches, the word comes, Moses, Moses. He said, take the shoes from off my feet, for the place where on our stand is this holy ground. Beloved friends, the first thing that God does to him is teach him the lesson of reverence. Take the shoes off your feet for the place where you're standing is holy ground. The first lesson was a lesson directed to a seat. You know, I think we all need to learn this lesson today. I've been upset a little bit in moving around the country and hearing the language that some people use in connection with God.
My dear friends, we all need to have a revelation of the God of glory, the God of holiness, and I believe that in the presence of God we should be reverent. I was at a conference last year and there was a man, a young man, and he was speaking to the conference meeting and whether he thought he was talking to young people and talking their language or what. I don't know. But some of the language he used, it just made me cringe. Among other things he said in speaking to the Lord, he said he called him that guy. You know, it just made me cringe when I heard that. Beloved brethren this morning, in all our relations with the God of glory, Let's be revered. On the language that we use on a public platform or anywhere, let us be dignified.
And on speaking about God or speaking to God, oh, do let us learn the lesson of reverence. Take the shoes from off thy feet, for the place where on our stand is this holy ground, and never, never conform to the vocabulary that we hear today that is so irreverent, particularly in reference to the God of glory. May the Lord help us in all our dealings, not only with each other, but also particularly in the ministry of the word and in prayer, to learn this lesson. Take the shoes from off my feet for the place where on our stand is this holy ground. Now the second lesson was, Moses, what do you have in your hand? A rod. Cast it on the ground. And it became a serpent.
And then the word comes, take it by the tail. And he takes it by the tail and he holds it up. And again it becomes the rod of God in his hand. There's a very important lesson here. The lesson is a lesson of delegated authority. That rod was the shepherd's rod that later was to become the symbol of authority of the servant. It later was the priestly rod and ultimately it became the scepter. The golden scepter and the iron rod. These are all different aspects of the rod that was in his hand. Cast it on the ground. It becomes a serpent. Take it by the tail. And when he does, again, it becomes a rod in his hand.
The lesson of delegated authority. Now the third lesson is, Moses put your hand in your bosom. Put his hand in his bosom, take it out. And it's leprous, it's white as snow. Put your hand in your bosom again. It puts his hand in his bosom. And when he takes it out, it's restored the way it was before. What is the lesson here? Oh, I think that every servant of God, every child of God, has to learn this lesson. My dear friends, Paul, he speaks about it in Romans chapter seven. In me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. I could tell a lot of stories this morning about sad, sad cases of breakdown and failure and discipline.
It wouldn't be profitable to speak about these things. But at the same time, I believe we should be reminded of them. In my heart I have what would completely destroy my testimony. I thank God that I have the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is dwelling in my heart. But at the same time I have the flesh. I have the old man. I have the body of sin. And as we look at our own hearts today and realize that there's not a sin in the book that we couldn't commit if it wasn't for the grace of God. Oh, beloved friends, the hand on the bosom, the leprous hand, and then put again on the bosom, on the confession of sin, and when it's withdrawn, it's restored again as it had been before.
Here we get the great lesson of the human heart and what it is, on any man that goes forth into the work of God that hasn't learned this lesson. I believe it's a very, very great life. Now there are other lessons there for the sake of our time this morning. We just have to leave them. But first of all, God dealt with his feet. Then he dealt with his hand. Then he dealt with his bosom. And then he dealt with his mouth. And the final thing he dealt with was his face. He took them up to the mountain top. And for forty days Moses was upon the mountain. And when he came down, his face was radiant. He was completely transformed. Now I do believe, beloved Brown, that the Lord deals with her face too, with her features.
And if you see anybody going around with a hard face, critical in their outlook and suspicious on wanting to cut God's people to pieces, there's something dreadfully wrong. They've never been on the mountaintop. Any man who has been on the mountaintop with God, when he comes down, he's completely transformed. Here is God's dear servant. And the lesson here is in connection with our service for God here below. It's the God of glory that dealt with Moses. Now, it's just a word in closing about Stephen. You know, I've been very much blessed, and looking at Stephen's home call, there's a dispensational lesson in the chapter, of course.
I think that he was the servant that was sent. After they, you remember the Lord, he sends a servant to the vineyard and he sends back again to the Lord of the vineyard and the answer is we will not have this man to reign over us. That's Luke chapter nineteen. I think that dispensationally Acts chapter seven is a crisis in the history of the people of Israel. Stephen was sent back into the presence of God. We will not have this man to reign over us. It's a crisis in the Acts, and it's a crisis in the history of Israel. But the lovely picture we get here is the end, the martyrdom of this dear man. And if you look at it, you'll find that there's a tremendous resemblance between his death and the death of the Lord Jesus.
Now there is a difference. We can never compare any man. However godly he may be or however simply may he be with that unique death of the Lord Jesus. But there are some very distinct resemblances here. The way he prayed, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Notice what the Lord said. Father, forgive them. Do not know not what to do. And read here that when he was dying. And just before he passed into the presence of the Lord, the heavens were open. And he sees the Son of Man standing. Now this is the final time that we get the term son of man before the first chapter of the book of Revelation.
It's a lovely term. And we get the human name here, Jesus. He said, I see Jesus, the human name. And then the term son of man is used. And he said, he's standing at the right hand of God. Now we know that when he went in, he sat down. I wonder why the Lord Jesus stood up. Oh, I think we're not dogmatizing here, but here is God's dear servant going into the presence of the Lord and Jesus stands up. What's he doing? He's there to receive the man that's laying down his life for his sake. How beautiful this is. But he sees right inside. He said, I see, he said, the glory of God. He said, I see Jesus standing on the right hand of God.
He gets a vision of heaven before he enters there. Now, my time is more than gone, and I'm not going to impose or abuse my privilege, but I just want to say this, that I'm quite convinced that many of God's dear children, before the Spirit leaves the body at all, I believe that the heavens are open, and I get a vision of inside. At all of these meetings, the name of Harald Sinjin has been mentioned. There's a little story. At the end of his life was given by his daughter Patricia that I think is well worth the price of the book. Mr. Harold Singon was dying, and the whole family were gathered around his bed. He already was in a coma, and they thought, well, just any moment he's just going to pass away.
But while they were standing around the bed, he suddenly opened his eyes, and his face lit up. And he said this. He said, I have discovered the secret of the solution of all our problems. He said, it was love all the time. And he closed his eyes and went into the presence of the Lord. You know, I think that's well worth the price of the book. I've discovered the secret of the solution to all our problems. It was love all the time. Oh, beloved friends, let's love one another. And the little time that we're down here, before that time comes when we go into the presence of the Lord, let us really love one another, and so that when we see him and when to see him, we'll be able to worship in the door that one who has done so much for us upon Calvary's cross.
Shall we pray? Our God is Father. Again, we bow before thee and lowly worship and praise and thanksgiving. We thank thee for these beautiful pictures of thy word. We do thank thee for the God of glory. And our Father, we pray that as we come into thy presence, that thou reveal thyself to us in this way. We pray that the glory of God may shine upon our pathway. And not only that, but we pray that it may be reflected in our lives.