Col No.22 Glorification

The 35th chapter of Isaiah's prophecy, one of the most descriptive poetic passages in the whole of the Old Testament, which speaks of an age yet to be. Isaiah 35, and perhaps you'd like to join me as we enjoy reading this scripture and feasting our eyes on the good things of God. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.

It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God.

Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense.

He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.

For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

And then highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon.

It shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Now though that's a predictive passage, a prophetic scripture, I believe that verse 10 should know its outworkings amongst the Christian community in these days.

The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. May that set the tone for our worship this morning.

Romans chapter 8, I'm reading from the New International Version of the Bible, and from the 18th verse. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself, that's the most important verse of scripture, that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has, but if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Amen.

Now you might like to turn in the Word of God to Colossians in chapter 3. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. This is the third occasion that I'm coming back to this particular passage, and I make no apology for so doing because what is in here is so vital for us to grasp and to apply in our Christian lives in the 20th century. If you were present a couple of weeks ago as I introduced these four verses in the context of Paul's great argument, you will recall how I made the opening observation that the Apostle is moving on from the doctrinal reasoning of the opening chapters to an application of what it means to be a Christian, how they should condition and control one's day-by-day living.

And in the opening verses of the third chapter, he makes reference to the fact that the Christian is a person who is risen in Christ. He is someone who is regulated by Christ. He's dead, the third verse tells us.

His life is hid with Christ in God. And what's more in the fourth verse, and this was the final comment in our introduction on this piece of scripture, we realize that one day we shall be revealed with Christ, risen in him, regulated by him, revealed with him. And that whole idea of the appearance of the Lord Jesus as referred to in the fourth verse compelled me to spend last Sunday morning in just dealing with in piecemeal fashion the glorious advent of the Lord Jesus and how that contrasts from his first coming.

It enabled us to take stock of that tremendous event which will be the climax of human history and which many of us believe is just round the corner. But now I want this morning, as time permits, to look at the coming of the Lord Jesus from the point of view as to what will happen to human beings, the effect that this will have upon ourselves. Obviously in our opening studies we touched on this, but now I want to gather all the grains of corn, all the stalks that fell as we were gleaning from this particular chapter, and I want to put them into one or two sheaths so that we shall understand something of what will happen to us on this great day when the Lord Jesus shall return.

And I think that there are two particular things that stand out as you dig deeply into the third verse and into the fourth verse. And so we'll look at these and then we'll apply the particular teaching. We are told first of all that what we are will be publicly revealed.

Look at that third verse, your life is hid with Christ in God. There's an area of hiddenness about the Christian community and the testimony that it makes in the modern world and in the world of the ancients. Well, all that the Christian church has been, which has remained hidden from view, that shall be revealed in the day of the coming of the Lord Jesus.

And then secondly, we discover from the fourth verse that what is promised shall be experienced. We are promised that we will be glorified when Jesus comes. And that promise, as I have shown you on past occasions, is repeated time and time again in scripture, the glorification of the believer.

And yet this is a doctrine which is very much misunderstood or completely and totally neglected by many within the so-called church today. So we'll look at these two things, these two mighty teachings which should really make a tremendous difference to the way that we live our lives day by day. And then if we have a few moments at the end, we'll apply the teaching to ourselves here in the tabernacle.

Well, look at this third verse, which refers to the fact that what we are will one day be revealed. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. It's that latter phrase that I'm looking at particularly, your life is hid with Christ in God.

Well, on the heavenward side, we appreciate this. We're secure in Jesus. We know that we have been given to him.

Jesus has made reference to this, has he not, in that high priestly prayer. The Father has given to him a group of people who he is preserving, the elect throughout the whole of the age. But on the human level, as far as unbelievers are concerned, the church and its potential is largely hidden from them.

P. T. Forsyth says that the church is the greatest and finest product of human history. And I think that that language is acceptable. The church is the greatest and grandest product of human history.

But does the average person recognize this today? What is the tendency in the evaluation of the church, as perhaps you hear it expressed by people who are unbelievers? Well, it's a crowd of folks who have a sort of religious orientation. They can't get through life on their own, so they need this religious prop. It's a community of people, for the aged in particular, who read the Bible just as though they're studying for their finals, believing that very, very shortly they may have to give an account of themselves to the Lord.

And so you get these jibes, these cynical observations, these criticisms that are made. But as far as the Lord Jesus is concerned, as he looks upon the church, he sees it as the greatest organism that there is in this world today. But it's largely hidden from view.

Its potential, often ridiculed, as I say, by the unbeliever. So Lenin refers to those who go to church as weak-minded people. They have been given the opium of a capitalist regime.

And as a result, they have been fobbed off to accept certain problems, certain deprivations in their earthly life, with a belief that one day all shall be put to right in glory. Now, what are we to say to this? Well, this is what you would expect. You would expect that the church would be despised, that largely speaking, her potential would not be recognized in the society in which we live today.

After all, Jesus was not recognized. His potential, completely unacknowledged by the people in his day. He came unto his own.

His own received him not. There he was, the Son of God, the one who is the most authoritative person in the world. And yet, what did they do to him? Well, let the Apostle Peter say, tell you, in a sermon which he preached, one of his first addresses to Jewish people in Jerusalem, you have crucified the Lord of glory.

There he came, in all the majesty and the sweetness of his person, and you rejected him, despised and rejected of man, prophesied Isaiah. And this is what happened. Now, the New Testament makes it clear that the same reaction as the Master experienced will be reflected also in the case of those who are following him.

The church, its potential, its position in human history is largely ignored and sometimes ridiculed by secular authorities. Now, this hiddenness of the message of the church is appreciated even by the writings of the New Testament. People realize that unless there is a remarkable, enlivening, intellectual enlivening within the minds of men and women, then they will tend to reject the gospel message.

Look at 1 Corinthians and chapter 2, for instance, and there the Apostle is referring to this hiddenness as far as the world is concerned in its reaction to the gospel. I'll read from the ninth verse. As it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.

For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, say the Spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

And the fourteenth verse, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Again, you see the thought, it's one of hiddenness, the gospel message broadcasted to the unbeliever, but largely rejected. It's worth its value hidden, not disclosed, alas, to them because of their unbelief.

You want a stronger statement of this, well turn still in Corinthians, but to the second chapter, and to the second epistle, and to the fourth chapter. And here the illustrious apostle is dealing with this rejection of the great message of the evangel. And what does he say to those who refuse to acknowledge his proclamation? Well, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

So, you've got this idea, have you not, of hiddenness, the gospel message itself, not being appreciated by the worldling, by the unbeliever. Now, surely you have found this in your own experience. Perhaps you have been so bold to testify this week to your salvation, and you've got a curtry buff.

People thought you were a little bit beside yourself because you said in the words of the apostle Paul here that, you know, I'm really a dead person. My life, the life that I live is controlled by the Spirit of God. Have you ever told someone that? I don't really live, Jesus lives in me.

And they look at you as though you're bound for Graylingwell or some other institution, do they not? They're incredible. They're incredulous in the way that they respond to the blunt presentation of the gospel message. Now, again, let me repeat, we're not to be surprised at this.

Come back, will you, to Romans chapter 8. I think I'll go to the NIV for this because it makes it that much clearer. Romans chapter 8, that passage which we had read to us just a little while ago. Here is the apostle Paul, and he's talking about the way in which one day the identity of those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ shall be disclosed.

And he tells us in the 18th verse and the 19th verses of this tremendous happening, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. What does that mean? Who are the sons of God? You and I are the children of God.

But is this obviously so? Are we recognized as being the children of God? Do people appreciate what the church is? Do they see the power that is latent within her? Do they recognize her potential? Well, no, we have just said that this is not the case. But the day is coming, on the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, when those who belong to him shall be recognized for whom they are, the manifestation of the sons of God. It's C. H. Spurgeon who uses the analogy of the chrysalis, and he says that we as Christians in this world are just like that little creature that's in a cocoon in a chrysalis, and we're waiting for the bursting forth.

We're waiting for the redemption of the body. Spiritually we're saved. We recognize who we are, but the world doesn't realize.

Now are we the sons of God? And yet within our hearts we believe that there's something beyond this. Out of the chrysalis we must burst forward. Now are we the sons of God, but it does not appear what we shall be.

But when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The manifestation of the sons of God. This is why I make this opening observation, dealing with this aspect of Paul's teaching, that the day is coming that what we are will be revealed.

So Paul, when he's writing in that passage to the Romans, refers to the whole of creation waiting for this. Do you appreciate that paradise which was lost by Adam in the fall, creation which also has been contaminated by the sin that is in the human heart, is yet to be regenerated. Paradise is to be regained.

What went wrong at Edom and has been put right at Calvary has yet to have its final application to the world as we know it. Are you aware of these things? The day is coming, says the apostle Paul, when who you are shall be disclosed at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall come in glory. You will appear with him.

Those who have died in faith, who shall come with him in the clouds. Those who are still alive on this earth, they too shall be transformed. They too shall know this tremendous quickening.

And the church of the redeemed shall shine forth as the sun. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. And Jesus shall reveal to the whole of the universe his own people.

So the apostle Paul makes reference to the fact that our life is hid with Christ in God, yet that which is undisclosed, which is unrecognized about ourselves and our spiritual heritage, shall be revealed to the universe in the day that is yet to be. What we are is yet to be manifested. But secondly, what is promised is yet to be experienced.

Now I am referring to our glorification with the Lord. Then shall ye also appear with him in glory. You shall share the very glory which the Lord Jesus has.

We realize in Matthew's gospel that when the Lord Jesus comes back, it will not be in the same fashion in which he appeared on the first occasion. Matthew 24 and verse 27 and onwards says, as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven. The powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.

And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The glorification of Jesus. Yes, but we share in that glory.

As Matthew 13 43 tells us in the verse already quoted, the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. So there are two things here that are necessary for us to latch onto and to appreciate. There is yet to be the glorification of our earthly bodies.

This, says Martyn Lloyd-Jones, is one of the great Christian doctrines largely forgotten and ignored by the Church. We are going to have a new body. Do you realize this? There has been such an invasion of Spiritist thought into the theology of the Christian Church.

It is just not true. We have some idea that we are going to exist in some nebulous state, some phantoms floating around in the universe, not a bit. The Word of God says that we who have borne the image of the earthly must also bear the image of the heavenly.

Listen to the Apostle Paul as he delights and almost is in ecstasy as he describes this. I am reading from 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead.

It is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor.

It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.

It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.

And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual.

The first man is of the earth earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy.

And as in the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we who are alive, we shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption.

This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. At this stage you should all be on your feet singing the hallelujah chorus.

Your body is going to be changed. You're going to have a body like our Lord Jesus Christ's body. We who have borne the image of the earthy will bear the image of the heavenly.

There's a new day coming, a new world which is yet to dawn, and in the eternal purposes of God, when the Lord Jesus in all his glory is in the center of the universe, and all intelligent beings behold him, then shall also appear the redeemed community in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, says the apostle Paul, comfort yourself with these words, as though he needed to tell the Thessalonians. There was that poor lady in Thessalonica.

She was wracked with arthritis. She'd spent her years ministering for the Lord, and her hope was being eclipsed, and the apostle writes her a letter, and he says, my dear sister, cheer up, the trumpet's going to sound, and we shall be changed and caught up to be with the Lord in the air, and ultimately the kingdom of righteousness shall dawn after the regeneration of the heavens and the earth. And that letter to the Thessalonians, my, it must have been passed around from hand to hand as people eagerly devoured its contents as they read the various promises and predictions which the apostle made.

What is promised is still to be experienced, the glorification of our bodies. It says the apostle, when he's writing to the church at Rome, the whole creation waits for this, the redemption of the human body. The soul is redeemed, but my body is not redeemed.

This is one of the fundamental principles that Christians today just fail to appreciate. I have not been finally saved as far as my spiritual condition is concerned. That is the case, yes, praise God, but the day is yet to be when the redemption of the body shall come about, and all those inbuilt tendencies towards disease that devour and create pain and problems for us, those no longer will be present.

This corruptible shall put on incorruption. This mortal shall put on immortality, and that shall occur, says the apostle, on the day when Jesus appears in glory, and you in a glorified state will appear with him. And when that happens, so also shall take place the glorification of the earth.

God is not through with this world. It is yet to be purged, renewed, regenerated. Creation, says the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8, is yet to undergo a tremendous transformation.

Indeed, says the apostle, this is why it's groaning. It's under bondage. It wants to be emancipated.

And so we read in the 20th verse of Romans 8, for creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. What does that mean? Well, you look at our world, and there are many things about it which fill you with absolute horror, even the created world. Think of the obscenity of the desert.

Think of the terrible catastrophes, which we refer to as natural catastrophes of earthquake, of deluge, of famine, and so on and so forth. All these things, how does the apostle Paul explain them? Well, he says the whole earth has been contaminated by the problem of human sin. And in one sense, says the apostle, and the reasoning here in Romans 8 is daring.

You'll find nothing like this in parallel literature, in Greek philosophy, or in the writings of any of the secular philosophers, even to this present day. Says the apostle, the very world has been contaminated by sinfulness. The effect of the violation of God's law in Edom is still being reproduced in the created world, but the time is coming.

And the world groans for this, when in earnest expectation of the manifestation of the sons of God, creation waits. You almost hear its groanings in nature, don't you? Each year comes the spring, and then the thought of summer, and of August, of autumn, and the thing dies again. And then the world is reborn, as though this might be the year when death, and decay, and pollution shall be taken away.

But it doesn't happen. The spring is followed by the summer, and the summer by the autumn, and the autumn by the winter. But the whole of creation, it seems to be groaning for that day when death and the seeds of corruption shall be expunged and taken out of it.

Now, says the apostle, if the created world is groaning for that day, how much more should Christian people be groaning for it? Says Judas, he writes his epistle, you should be expecting with enthusiasm the day of the Lord. Says the apostle Peter, you should be hasting unto the day of Christ. There's a new world coming, my friend.

God is going to regenerate this present heaven, this present earth. My time is well nigh gone, but just listen to one or two scriptures in this area which make the whole position very, very plain indeed. I refer to Isaiah chapter 11, and we read there of a day which is yet to be when the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, this is verse 6, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them, and the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the sucking child shall play on the whole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cottage's den.

Then shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the seas. I have got 10 scriptures I wanted to read to you in that area from the Old Testament, but beaten by the clock, I take you to 2 Peter, and to the words of the fisherman, as he brings hope and optimism into the lives of the early Christians who were suffering under persecution as a result of the political policies of the Roman Empire. It says, Peter, in the last chapter of his last epistle and the eighth verse, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promises. Some men count slackness, but he is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.

The elements shall melt with the fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.

Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And, says John, writing the final chapters of the Revelation, And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God. And I heard a great voice saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people.

And he describes an idyllic situation when heaven has moved unto earth, a society in which there is no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sighing, a regenerated, glorified earth, with heaven moving in on earth, ushering in the eternal age. I, and says the Apostle Paul, when that happens, when Jesus appears, you also shall appear with him in glory, for there's a new day that is yet to dawn. And what do you say about those things? Praise God.

Then why is the church today so despondent in its message? Why did the Methodist Conference spend so much time disputing as to whether they should send finances to undergird the guerrilla movement in southern Africa, as though you'll bring in the kingdom of God by a democratically elected vote, as though the purposes of God shall be revealed by politicians and political theologians and philosophers coming together to bring it about? No, the purposes of God shall ripen fast as he compels his wish for this world to come into fruition. And, says the Apostle, as we wait for that day, what are the sufferings of this present world to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed? And so he tells us to hold on and to look up. There's a new day coming when what we are shall be revealed and what has been promised shall be experienced.

To God be the glory. Let us pray. Father, we look forward to that day and we thank you for the stimulus that your Word is to us as we cope with life in the here and now.

Help us, Father God, to have the upward look and to realize that because we're on the Lord's side we have a place in the future program that you have for redeemed humanity and for a glorified heaven and earth. Amen.