Reading: John 11.
Out of that chapter we will just pinpoint two verses:
"But when Jesus heard it, he said, This sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son
of God may be glorified thereby" (verse 4);
"Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee,
that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of
God?" (verse 40).
"For the glory of God... thou shouldest see the
glory of God."
You probably know that chapters 11 to 17 of this Gospel
are chapters of summation, and consummation, that is, a
gathering up of everything into finality, and what comes
out with great clarity in this consummate part of the
Gospel is the priority which governed the whole life, the
teaching and the work of the Lord Jesus. It seems that
that is what John had in mind when writing, for he placed
this priority right at the beginning of his Gospel,
worked steadily along that line, and then brought it all
out in this full and conclusive way at the end. Although
the Lord Jesus had been governed by this priority for
thirty years and more, there came a crisis point in His
life at which He made a complete adjustment of everything
upon this one thing that we are calling the priority
where He determined that everything should be focused
upon it, and that there should be no deviation at any
point from it.
And what was His all-inclusive priority? It was the glory
of His Father - the glory of God.
As I have said, John struck that keynote right at the
beginning when, writing after it was all over and seeing
the whole content and significance of that life, work,
teaching and conduct, he started off by saying: "We
beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the
Father" (1:14). That is bringing the Father right
into view in the matter of glory. Then John went on
writing the Gospel, like a great harmony or symphony
tuned to that keynote, and all the way through he kept
true to it - the glory of the Father.
And I believe, dear friends, that that is the keynote
that the Lord wants me to strike at this time. It is a
very considerable burden with me in these days.
THE COMMITTAL OF THE LORD JESUS
TO HIS FATHER'S GLORY
Let us turn to the Lord Jesus Himself in this matter.
There was in His life that hour of His great committal,
which took place at His baptism. He there and then
committed Himself UTTERLY to the glory of His
Father. He gathered every detail of His life from that
moment and centred it in this thing, as though He were
saying: 'From this moment there is to be not one
deflection from that motive and object. My Father's glory
is to govern everything.' And it was so.
1. IN HIS INNER LIFE
Firstly, the committal was in His own personal, inner
life, in His secret walk with His Father. This is a most
impressive thing as you read through the Gospel. You find
all the way along that everything is coming out from His
personal, secret life with His Father. "The
Son", He said, "can do nothing of himself [or,
out from himself], but what he seeth the Father doing" (5:19). Mysterious language, but those who know
anything about life in the Spirit know what it means.
"For what things soever he doeth, these the Son
also doeth", and not in His own way, but
"in like manner." How meticulous and how exact!
His committal as to His own relationship with God His
Father meant that there was nothing out from Himself, but
only that which He knew in His own heart, and from His
secret history with God, the Father wanted Him to do and
to say. The background, inner sanctuary life with the
Father was maintained unbroken.
2. IN HIS CONDUCT
As to His conduct, He behaved Himself on this ground:
'How I behave, how I conduct Myself is going to be
altogether a matter of how it touches My Father's glory.
The impression I make upon others, what they see in Me
and about Me, must never for one moment veil the glory of
My Father, hide that glory, or detrimentally affect that
glory. My behaviour must always be for the glory of My
Father.' This was as to His conduct, His walk. You know,
John made a special note of His walk, for it was not just
an outward progress. John said: 'He that saith he abideth
in him ought himself also to walk even as He walked"
(1 John 2:6). There was something about His very
movements that was governed, and His walk, His movements,
His behaviour were always for the glory of His Father.
3. IN HIS WORKS
As to His works, we have already quoted Him: "The
Son can do nothing out from himself, but what he seeth
the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these
the Son also doeth in like manner." And His words:
"The word which ye hear is not mine, but the
Father's who sent me" (John 14:24).
4. IN HIS TIME
Then His times for doing things. Ofttimes we read that
He put back suggestions from others that He should do
things now, at this time. When something seemed to be
demanded of Him, and people expected Him to do it at that
time, He put it back: "Mine hour is not yet
come" (John 2:4), but He did it very quickly
afterwards. He was waiting and in His spirit He was
saying: 'Father, is this Thy time?' You know, dear
friends, you can do a right thing at a wrong time and it
just does not work out. We do a lot of things, and they
fail because it is not the time for them. You remember
the great incident in the Apostle Paul's life: "They
assayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of Jesus
suffered them not" (Acts 16:7). They were
"forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the word in
Asia" (Acts 16:6). Paul was diverted, for it was not
the time. They got to Asia and Bithynia subsequently, in
God's time, and when God's time is registered things are
very much more fruitful, for you do not waste time. When
we do things so often in our own time, we really are only
putting them off to God's time, for nothing happens until
God wants them done. That is by the way, but that is how
the Lord Jesus worked: "Mine hour is not yet",
and then the hour seemed to come so quickly afterwards.
5. IN HIS FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
Here He is, moving, speaking, working, timing, by His
fellowship with the Father. He brought everything else on
to that ground. He brought His family on to the ground of
the glory of His Father. The people came to Him after He
had been speaking in a house and said: "Thy mother
and thy brethren stand without, seeking to speak to
thee" (Matthew 12:47). Now that is a natural appeal.
It may be sentimental and quite a right kind of appeal,
but wait a minute. He answers: "Who is my mother?
and who are my brethren? ...Whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, he is my brother, and
sister, and mother." He puts it on another ground.
'How far do My family relationships, as far as I am
concerned, reflect the glory of God?'
6. IN HIS ATTITUDE TO MEN
He was governed in the same way in His attitude
towards men. As to the religious world, He would commend
what was sincere and go as far as He could with it in
sympathy. A young man came and told Him that he had kept
all the commandments from his youth up, and Jesus
"looking upon him loved him" (Mark 10:17-20).
He did not condemn. He was sympathetic to sincerity, but
bring hypocrisy into His presence and His commending
changed into condemning! There was nothing that brought
out His wrath more than hypocrisy in religion, because it
is a thing which robs God of His true glory.
7. IN HIS JUDGMENTS
These are all things that made up the life of the Lord
Jesus, and, as you see, His priority governed everything
and was over a lot of things. It was over natural
judgments - not always sinful or evil judgments, but just
natural judgments, when suggestions were made to Him,
when persuasion was brought to bear upon Him, and when
men projected their minds. But He knew the truth: 'My
thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your
ways. There are two worlds. I live in one and you live in
the other.' And so His concern for the Father's glory
often necessitated the setting of natural judgments on
one side and seeking His Father's judgment on the matter.
8. IN HIS FEELINGS
Natural feelings had often to be set aside. He
understood them all right. We shall come to that in this
eleventh chapter of John, with Lazarus and his sisters.
He was very sympathetic and He understood how they were
feeling. He truly entered into their human life, but when
they sought to persuade and influence Him to act simply
on the basis of natural feelings, He thrust it back. He
stayed away two days, and did not move until the fourth
day when, humanly speaking, it was all too late. The
sorrow had run its course. He was not unsympathetic, as
the chapter shows, and yet, because He has some greater
thing in view, He could not just surrender to human,
natural feelings. He had great principles which were
governing Him.
9. IN HIS PERSONAL INTERESTS
As for His natural, personal interests, He was all the
time thrusting them back. It would have been greatly to
His personal interest to accept the devil's offer of the
kingdoms of this world and the glories thereof, but He
repudiated the whole thing. When speaking of His Cross,
it might have been to His natural advantage if He had
listened to Peter when he said: "Be it far from
thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee" (Matthew
16:22). But He said to Simon Peter: "Get thee behind
me, Satan!" You see, personal interests must take a
back place: but He was not governed by these things, for
His constant motive was His Father's glory.
WHAT DOES GLORY MEAN?
Now before I can go on any further I must return you
to the definition of that word 'glory'. It may be that
you have heard me give this definition before, but I do
not know of a better. What does glory mean where God is
concerned? What is the meaning of that word 'glory' when
it relates to God? It just means the rebound of God's
complete satisfaction. When things have answered to His
nature, His mind, when He is satisfied, He is delighted,
He is well-pleased, then there comes back something of
His own satisfaction, His pleasure. You can put that to
the test in your own lives, in more ways than one.
Take your Bible and begin at the beginning. When God had
created all things for His pleasure, for His glory, and
all things were as He intended and commanded, and
everything was governed by: 'And so it was... and so it
was... and so it was as the Lord commanded and said it
should be', the end of that was: "And God saw every
thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very
good" (Genesis 1:31). I would like to have been in
the atmosphere of that, in the realm where everything
satisfied God, emanated from Him, and there was this
sense of His complete satisfaction and pleasure. That is
glory!
When we come into the new creation, are born from above,
on the ground of our recognition and acceptance of the
perfect, finished work of the Lord Jesus for our sin, for
our salvation (and very often we are better believers at
the beginning than we are later on!), when we come on to
that ground of the new creation in Christ where
everything answers to God's pleasure, do we not have the
sense of the glory? The beginning of the Christian life
is so often like that. While we could not explain it
theologically or doctrinally, we feel it! 'It is
wonderful to be saved! This is glorious!' It is something
that just wells up inside of us. And what is it? It is
the Holy Spirit bearing witness to God's satisfaction
with His Son whom we have embraced with all the knowledge
and understanding of Him that we have. We have accepted
the perfection of Himself and His work, and there is a
reflection, an emanation, of His glory, the satisfaction
of God in our hearts. When we get away from that simple
trust in the Lord Jesus the glory often fades - but I
must not go on to that for the moment.
Move on in the Bible, and you have God's mind completely
and perfectly revealed in pattern form in the creation of
the tabernacle in the wilderness. It was meticulously
prescribed to a detail, to a pin, to a thread, to a
colour, to a position, to a measure, and it was all given
by God. And the last chapter of that reads: "As the
Lord commanded Moses... as the Lord commanded Moses... as
the Lord commanded Moses." It becomes almost
monotonous! It was done as the Lord commanded Moses, and
the glory filled the tabernacle. God was satisfied! And
you and I know that that tabernacle was only a
foreshadowing in type of the Lord Jesus.
We move on to the temple, and, again, the prescription,
the pattern, was given to David, and it was all perfected
through Solomon. When it was finished according to the
heavenly pattern, the glory filled the temple, and even
the priests could not abide in it. God filled everything
with His satisfaction.
The Lord Jesus came to His baptism and His great
committal, and as He came up out of the water the heavens
opened and the Father's voice pronounced: "This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew
3:17). God was WELL pleased. That was indeed a
good foundation for starting His life work! God's
satisfaction is the glory, and John says: "We beheld
his glory."
Then we come to the perfection of His work on the Cross.
There is nothing further to be done after Calvary. It is ALL
finished. Oh, believe this, and believe it with all your
heart: there is NOTHING remaining to be done for
your eternal salvation. If you try to add something you
will lose the glory and get out of the place of God's
satisfaction. When the work on the Cross was
accomplished, the work of redemption was a finished work,
and the sacrifice was well pleasing to God. Calvary was
finished, that Son was raised from the dead, and it would
not be long before the temple received the glory of the
Day of Pentecost - and then what glory filled the house
of God! Why? Because Jesus was glorified. Until then
"the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not
yet glorified" (John 7:39). But when He was
glorified the Spirit was given.
There you have the Bible background. At the end this
glory is seen coming down in the new Jerusalem: "The
holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God" (Revelation 21:11). It is
the perfected work in the Church, having the glory of
God. It is all over, all finished, the battle is won, the
course of Christian trial and discipline and suffering is
all over, and the glory crowns everything at last because
God is satisfied.
Have I, on the side of Scripture at any rate, proved the
definition that glory is the expression of God's perfect
satisfaction?
WHY NO GLORY IN OUR LIVES?
Now I said that you could put this to the test in your
own experience. Some of us have had to go through this
experience to learn these things, for they are not just
theories. What has been the most miserable time in your
life? Well, I can tell you what was the most miserable
time, lacking in glory and having all that is not glory,
in my life. It was when I allowed the devil to succeed in
putting me outside the finished work of Christ by
accusation. 'The Lord is displeased with you. He has it
against you. The Lord is really, because of this
affliction, suffering, trial, and sorrow, not well
pleased with you.' Go down under that and the glory goes.
And while you stay there, there is no glory, simply
because God's ground is this ground of the absolute
finality of the work of His Son for our redemption. Get
off that ground by any accusation or condemnation of the
devil, forsake the ground of Christ, and the glory goes
and will never come back while you stay there. Make no
mistake about that! If you are occupied with yourself how
long is it going to take you to learn that that is not
the ground of glory? Well, it will take just so long as
you stay there on the ground of this wretched, miserable
self that God has finished with in the Cross of His Son.
If we move over on to the ground of Christ and His
perfection, and by faith put our feet down on that, then
the glory will return.
We have only opened the door to this matter, but we
really have to apply all this, for I do not want to give
you a lot more teaching for you to put into your heads. I
have prayed that the Lord will use His word as a shaft to
cut in and really do something.
IS GOD TO BE GLORIFIED IN OUR
LIVES?
Dear friends, do we, you and I, really want God to be
glorified in our lives? You say: 'Yes!', but there are
some who say: 'Well, let us see what it means and then we
will say Yes.'
First of all, it means exactly the same for us as it
meant with the Lord Jesus, for He was here as our
representative Man before God. Therefore it means the
great and utter CRISIS: committal. Oh, let that
word get hold of us! There are Christians, and there are
committed Christians - and I must just leave that with
you.
The great crisis experience in the life of the Lord Jesus
was when He made the great committal to the glory of His
Father and said: 'Everything from this day is going to be
judged by the value of how much glory there is in it for
My Father.' That was a crisis, and then, as I have said,
everything did fall into line with that where He was
concerned. He saw to it that His conduct, His own life
with His Father, His secret life which no one saw or
knew, and His life before the world, before people and
before His disciples, were governed by this one thing -
His Father getting the glory. His behaviour, the way He
spoke and the way He acted were all governed by this one
thing. If He had been a business man, it would have
governed His business transactions. Were they to the
glory of God? If not, He would not have had anything to
do with them. His family, His brothers, sisters, mother -
'Is My family to the glory of God?' Is the behaviour in
our families, in us, in our children, in our husband and
wife relationship, in how we go on as a family, to the
glory of God? How do people looking on view it? This is
searching!
But if you come to a position like that where you really
have a transaction with the Lord, do not think that it is
going to mean a life of loss. No, you are going to see
the glory of God. That is the upshot of this eleventh
chapter of John with Lazarus and his sisters at Bethany.
Difficult as the way to it was for them, the last picture
is of an emanation of the glory of God. What a delightful
scene that is in chapter twelve! Jesus came to Bethany,
where Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead, lived,
and they made Him a supper. Martha served, in a new
spirit of service, and Mary and Lazarus sat with the
disciples. It must have been a beautiful time - real
glory in resurrection life. But they had been through
something to get to that! They had been tried and tested
on this question: "Said I not unto thee, that, if
thou believedst, thou shouldest SEE the glory of
God?" Do you want to see the glory of God in your
own life? It is not going to mean a life of loss, for if
you have the glory of God you cannot get anything beyond
that, or better than that.