Sermon: Glory Be

#1702B
Ronny H. Graham
Given 08-Apr-23; 37 minutes 2023-04-08

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How many times have we witnessed a sporting event where the victors are celebrating their conquests with euphoria and gleeful celebration and everyone is ecstatic basking in the glory of the moment and no sooner have they won the grand prize and they began looking for something more. Ali and I witnessed this just this past year (and maybe you did too) shortly after Kansas City had won the Super Bowl. I do not remember which player it was, but he was being interviewed just after the game with a celebration of victory barely underway and he said, "Let's go win another one next year!"

Why is it so hard for many of these professional athletes to retire and walk away? How many times did Michael Jordan retire? How many times will Tom Brady retire? It seems he is willing to sacrifice his family, or at least his marriage, for the glory of playing just another game. How long before Tiger Woods decides that he just cannot compete anymore? And I did not hear if he would made the cut or not this week. Do they crave the glorious feeling of winning, being on top, so much that they just cannot stop?

Now, growing up in the state of Georgia, when it came to our professional sports team, we rarely had anything to cheer about. But in 1990 the time had finally come and the Atlanta Braves made it to the World Series. They would lose of course, but it seems the mindset of most of the state of Georgia had changed from one of despair for so many years, to one of hope. They would return to the World Series again in 1991 but the result was the same. Would they ever win the Big Dance? Lo and behold, in 1995 they would return to the World Series for the third time and all the speculation from the reporters was, would the Braves go 0 and 3 in the World Series, losing yet again? But this time, the hope of reward would return with victory and all the glory of winning the World Series soars in the State of Georgia. It was actually a fun time to live in Georgia and it seemed that we all had a bond that we could all relate to having the same goal—win.

I remember driving to church one Sabbath and people would be standing on the side of the roads waving their team logos and cheering on the Braves as another game was about to start. People would respond with cheering and honking their horns. It was a time that we could forget about all the problems surrounding us in the world and rejoice in the glory of victory.

And one last example that used to be one of my favorite sports to follow is NASCAR. Back in the day, as we like to refer to it, shortly after winning the Daytona 500 in 1998, I believe it was in victory lane, Dale Earnhardt said, "Let's go win another championship!" He had finally won the most coveted race in all of NASCAR after trying for 19 years and he still wants more. He had already won seven championships. Would one more really make a difference? To Earnhardt fans it would because it would have broke Richard Petty's record.

While the victories in life can be fulfilling, the euphoria soon fades; the glory dissipates and we want more or we do not ever want it to end. Now in the physical realm, perhaps it is like a drug that we just have to have. So for the purpose of this split today, let us take a look at the word "glory" in a few examples of how it is used in the Bible, and hopefully get a glimpse of the glory of God.

Now, depending on which source you use for the word glory in its various forms, whether glory, glorifying, glorious, or some other tense, it is used somewhere around 600 times. The word glory itself in most English versions is somewhere around 275 to 350 depending on the translation. In the book of John, for instance, the word glory is used 42 times. Needless to say, it is a large subject and probably one of the greatest in the entire Bible. It is a subject that we could probably study for a lifetime. (Hence, Ryan's split sermon.)

One thing I learned in this study was I do not think I ever want to be in a room full of translators.

Glory is one of those things that can be hard to grasp and perhaps even harder to get a real concrete definition. Maybe we can compare it to the word faith, as faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1, "the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." We find we need quite a bit of study and meditation to even begin to understand what faith really is but we still cannot see it. Glory, on the other hand, while it can be difficult to understand, at times it can be seen. In other cases, perhaps what we see is the effect of glory.

Now consider a diamond or some other type of jewel, if you will. If you look at them in a dark room, they probably do not look like much more than just another rock. But if you look at them in the light, wow! The many facets of color that are reflected explode in brilliant shades that seem to go on endlessly down into the stone. That is why jewelry stores have so many lights. So let me ask you a question. Is the glory in the diamond or is it in the light? We will leave that for now. Just keep it in the back of your mind and we will touch on it later.

In general, glory does indeed have something to do with light. But this is not a run of the mill Thomas Edison light bulb. This is a striking, bedazzling, and brilliant light, especially when referring to God. Glory is also described as being heavy, as something that carries weight. There are other types of glory as described by Solomon in Proverbs 20:29, "The glory of a young man is in his strength, and the splendor [or the glory] of an old man is their gray head." My glory is coming fast!

Speaking of hair, Paul says that a woman's long hair is a glory to her. It is her covering. Another one from Solomon in Proverbs 17:6 where it says, "The glory of a child is their father." There are also differing degrees or intensities of glory, as I hope we will see later.

Now, the Hebrew word used most often for glory is kahbode and it has about as many different spellings as translators that I looked up. But we are just going to say kahbode and it means heaviness or burden. It can be used in a good or bad sense. Simply put, when glory comes to someone so does responsibility. Wilson's Old Testament Word Studies describes it this way. "This kahbode is used to signify anything that renders a person, place, or thing of weight, respectable, adding such modifiers as power, wisdom, superiority, dignity, nobility and valor." They list quite a few more, but I think you get the point all these things carry a certain amount of weight.

If a person, for instance, is rendered praiseworthy and may very well be glorified, it is a weighty responsibility. Now, let us go ahead and look at a scripture with this one and it is not in the Old Testament, but in the New.

II Corinthians 4:15-18 For all things are your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Paul here once again is trying to reassure the Corinthians. Beginning in verse 15, he says, "For all things are for your sakes." Talk about weight! All things are for our sakes? Do we believe that all those things Ryan was talking about, God is paying attention to all those things just for us in our lives? Paul has been pretty hard on the Corinthians, as Richard described brilliantly on Thursday, but it seems here he is trying to reassure them that, even though they are suffering, it is only for a short time.

So many times we think of suffering, we automatically relate it to the physical and that way very well may be included here. But I think what is going on is the Corinthians are grieved at what they see going around them all around them in the world and even in the church. We know that previously in I Corinthians, they were a mess, and Paul says here, "Do not lose heart." While the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being strengthened and the light affliction will only last a short time. Then will we be given the eternal weight of glory.

The word weight as it is used here means abundance and authority, and in no way is it negative. Now, what will it be like to live in eternal glory? Moving on to the Greek, the main word we find use for glory is doxa. Glory, or doxa, according to Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words defines it this way, "It is used of the nature and acts of God in self-manifestation, what He is and does in whatever He reveals Himself, particularly in the person of Christ."

Now, we know that Jesus came to reveal the Father and He diligently glorified God at every turn.

Let us pick up one more scripture here.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and be we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus glorified God in everything He did. After the healing of the blind man, when His disciples asked Him who had sinned to cause this man to be blind, He replied, "No one had sinned. It was to glorify God." Lazarus was raised from the dead to glorify God. The Transfiguration took place before the disciples to glorify God. Have we ever considered that one of the reasons Christ came full of grace and truth is that without grace, we would all be dead. So the bringing of grace is to the glory of God. Most importantly, that we can glorify Him.

Now, extrapolating a bit more in regards to God's manifestation of Himself, I found another explanation and even though it comes from a Protestant source, it is a pretty good definition. "Glory is [the] manifested, visible presence of God often displayed in dazzling magnificence, radiant and shiny. It is His character, His attributes expressed, His inestimable worth, revealed in His creation. [As we just heard, we can certainly see it this time of year. Just walking outside, there is new life everywhere. And this year, I think the azaleas here are particularly nice, even though many of them got burnt by the frost.] The glory of God refers first and foremost to the sheer weight of the reality of His presence."

In addition, another commentator adds, "In scripture, the word glory is often used to represent the totality of God's nature, character, and attributes, whether we experience God's power, omnipotence, mercy, grace, knowledge, or whatever, what is produced is a vision of His glory." Perhaps we could simplify it a little bit more: The glory of God is the expression of all that He is, not just one attribute.

Now, since glory is something that can be seen, let us consider some of the men of the Bible who did indeed encounter the glory of God. Solomon says in Proverbs 27:20 that the eye is never full of seeing. He repeats it again in Ecclesiastes 1:8. Has there ever been a truer statement? Living near one of the main corridors for access to the Great Smoky Mountains, it seems that people are always traveling to see the mountains, and in the fall, there is so much traffic in these areas you can barely get around.

In California, on rare occasions when they do get sufficient rain, some of the mountain areas will be full of flowers covering the entire area for miles and people will flock to those areas to see. Now, this being one of those years, the officials in California are telling people to stay away. So many people wanting to see it creates a nightmare in some of the smaller communities with the unusual influx of looky-loos.

Speaking of California, we used to live there and it used to bug me to no end when you were driving down the freeway and all of a sudden traffic would come to a grinding halt all because somebody was changing a tire, and more often than not, it was on the other side of the freeway. But people have to see, slow down, and take a look.

Another time when our kids were smaller, we were on our way back from Charlotte, probably a holy day, maybe a Sabbath, back to Atlanta. And of course, traffic came to a grinding halt just outside of Columbia. This time, there was indeed a bad accident. A car had crossed the median, gone under a big truck and exploded. And of course it was on the other side of this interstate, but everybody was coming to a grinding halt. Now, I could see the car burning under the truck and I told the kids not to look. I am sure they were glued to the back of the glass of the car by now.

But why is it when someone tells us not to look, it is practically unbearable. We have to at least get a peek. Remember Lot's wife. She just had to look, she had to see what was going on.

Now, let us go to another episode in Exodus 33.

Exodus 33:18-23 And he said, "Please, show me Your glory." Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me and live." And the Lord said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by that, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face you shall not see."

I did not take time to try and figure out how long Moses had been talking with God by the time we get to Exodus 33. But since the calling of Moses from the burning bush, it had possibly been quite a few years. Now, it is clear in reading through the book of Exodus, that Moses was in close communication with God practically all the time. From the first time he talked to God in the burning bush through all the plagues in Egypt, and now after spending 40 days and nights on the mountain with God, he still had not been able to get a peek at God.

By this time in his life, Moses had been through a lot with God and asked to see His glory. One of the translations interprets this verse as "Show me the real You." Moses just wanted to see God's glory. But God says, you cannot see Me and live. No man can. This reminds me of Hebrews 11 regarding faith being the evidence of things we cannot see. We can see the evidence of God's glory all around us in creation. But as mere man, we cannot see His glory, at least in full strength. The children of Israel could not even look on Moses after he had talked with God because of the reflection of His glory in Moses. In talking with Moses, God knew that if He appeared to Moses in all His glory, Moses would not be able to live and He knew perfectly well that if He did not cover Moses' eyes, he would just have to get a peek. He would just have to see what he could see. God knew he would have to look so He covered his eyes.

One more thing I want to pick up here in regards to Moses. That after spending 40 days and 40 nights with God on the mountain, he began to shine brilliantly, reflecting the glory of God. Not in its full intensity, but so much so that at when he talked with the Israelites afterward, he had to speak through a veil.

While putting this together and briefly looking back, referring to Lot's wife, a thought popped into my head. They happen every now and then. We know that she was told to flee with her family and not look back. Have we ever considered what she saw? Did she see God as a consuming fire coming down to exact judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah? We know that no human can look on God and live. Did she see Him? I do not know about you, but it never occurred to me about what she might have seen, just that she looked.

Now, the next episode we will consider is another calling. This one is the calling of Isaiah. If you could go ahead and turn over to Isaiah 6, we will look at this one.

Isaiah 6:1-5 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

Here we find that most commentators believe this to be Isaiah's original calling as God is preparing him to do a job. Now some have other ideas, but that is normal. Isaiah describes the vision that he sees and he describes it as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth. Now again, the commentators are divided as to why Isaiah places his calling in chapter 6 instead of the first chapter of the book. Then of course, you might expect that they cannot agree either on what is meant in verse 5. Some believe that Isaiah did indeed see God and he is now fearing for his life when he cries out, "Woe is me!"

Now, given the fact that he lived to write 60 more chapters, I do not think this is the case. If indeed Lot's wife is any indication that she saw God, we know that her death was instant. But Isaiah is still standing and perhaps gazing up into the heavens at whatever the vision God had shown him, but rest assured, it was not God in His full glory.

As we saw back in Exodus 33 it says, "No man can see Me and live." I do not think that is what Isaiah saw. Now, after seeing the vision of God, Isaiah cries out, "Woe is me." This woe here is one of greatly crying out. And it is also one of crying out, greatly desiring to be a part of what he saw. It is not one of fear as in terror, I believe. Now Isaiah, after seeing the glory of the King, was also greatly humbled and it was quite possibly at this time that he actually became converted because of what follows in verse 8.

Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

God asks, who can I send? And Isaiah, greatly desiring to serve God, seems to be like a kid jumping up and down, raising his hand, pick me, pick me, pick me, let me go. I will do it. I want to bat. This vision that God had shown Isaiah was life changing and he would go on to use the word glory in its various forms over 70 times in his writings. Isaiah would go on doing the work of God that God had given him to do. And it seems that He never wavered, suffering greatly before his death.

Now, we will move on to our third one. And if there is anyone in the Bible that comes close to understanding or grasping the glory of God more so than anyone else, I would think it would have to be David. Let us read this one back in Psalms.

Psalm 8:1-4 Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, You have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?

What is man that you think of Him? David clearly understood the greatness of God and asks why does God even bother with us? Well, one reason is He wants to share His glory. David spent night after night gazing into the heavens. He clearly came as close to anyone to understanding how great God is. We can only imagine how bright and clear the night sky must have been without all the pollution that we have today.

When looking briefly into the stretching out of the heavens, I came across a video and some scientists (they might not be the same ones that Ryan's in connection with), are now beginning to think, or at least speculate, that there is no end to the universe, describing it as having as many stars as grains of sand on all the beaches on all the earth, if you could count them. David must have come to understand this, this great glorious God who knows exactly how many stars there are. He even has a name for them all! And He is focused on how He can glorify us in His Kingdom. What are we that He not only thinks of us but loves us dearly as the apple of His eye.

Now, I would like to try to bring this together and make sense of what I have been going through and try to wrap this up. Let us go back to another one of Isaiah's in Isaiah 60. This is one of my latest, greatest, favorite passages in Isaiah.

Isaiah 60:1-9 [the heading of my Bible reads The Glorious Zion in the Kingdom Age] Arise, shine; for Your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.

The multitude of camels shall cover your land, the camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall ascend with acceptance on My altar, and I will glorify the house of My glory. "Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their roosts? Surely the coastlands shall wait for Me; and the ships of Tarshish will come first, to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you."

Isaiah 60:14 "Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bowing to you, and all those who despise you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet."

Isaiah 60:19 "The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor the brightness shall the moon give light to you; but the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory."

Now it does indeed begin and end. It seems that Isaiah is describing the city of God and all the earth is coming to minister to this city. Looking through some of these scriptures, it does fit what Isaiah is describing as a city. But as it occurs many times in Isaiah, it is hard to figure out exactly where he is headed. Now in my mind, the further along he goes in the chapter, it seems that what he is describing comes down to a personal level and not just a city. But what is a city without its people? Verse 2 says, "The Lord will arise over you and His glory seen upon you." Of course, this could easily be a city. But is there something else?

Verse 4, "Lift up your eyes all around and see." Now this is a millennial setting and there are children of all ages everywhere, from nursing babies to your daughters carried on the hip and your sons who carry themselves. On down in verse 8, he asks a question, "Who are these who fly like a cloud, like doves to their roost?" Then in verse 14, "Those who despise you shall fall prostrate at your feet." Are we still talking about a city? Maybe. But now let us consider another city all the way back in Revelation 21.

Revelation 21:9-11 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." 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 crystal.

The angel that talked with John says, "Come, I will show you the bride," and he shows him a city. Isaiah describes the city but is he actually describing the bride? Did you notice there was the answer to our question that we began with: Is the glory in the diamond or the light? Having the glory of her light was like a most precious stone. The diamond is nothing without the light. God is our light. Are we reflecting that light?

Now, I want to close with a little story that I came across. Some of you may have already heard this one. I will try to tie this to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This story involves actor Kevin Bacon, many of you will recognize in one of his blockbuster movies, maybe his only blockbuster, "Footloose," which was made back in 1984. Kevin Bacon was being interviewed at some point in his life and he recalls the time when his six year old son watched "Footloose" for the first time. For the rest of this, I will be quoting his interview.

Now watching the movie, his son came in and asked, "Hey, dad, you know that thing in the movie where you swing from the rafters in that building? That's really cool. How did you do that?" Kevin said, "Well, I didn't do that part. It was a stunt man." "What's a stunt man?" his son asked. "That's someone who dresses like me and does things that I can't do." His son says, "Oh," and walked out of the room looking a little confused. A little later, he comes back and he says, "Hey, dad, you know that thing in the movie where you spin around on that gym bar and land on your feet. How did you do that?" Kevin replies, "Well, I didn't do that. He was a gymnastics double." "Well," he asked, What's a gymnastics double?" "That's a guy who dresses in my clothes and does things that I can't do." His son was silent for a moment and then he asked in a concerned voice. "Dad, what did you do?" Kevin sheepishly replied, "I got all the glory."

For our last scripture, let us turn back to Revelation 22.

Revelation 22:4-5 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no more night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

Our Savior Jesus Christ did what we cannot do so we could share in His glory. Glory be to our great God, for we shall see Him as He is and the eternal weight of glory will be ours!

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