John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
2Cor. 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Mankind is hurrying and scurrying in all directions, with his head blown all out of proportion as to the necessity of his doings. Hurry, get it done! We must accomplish this, and when we do we will be immortal. Hurry, run, do, accomplish, succeed! May I say to all, wait, stop, think, face the fact of the purpose for your being here a very short time.
What is the purpose of life? Is it to be born, grow, become men and women, work, make money, buy beans, get strength to go back to work, make more money, buy more beans, retire and live happily ever after? What a waste! Yet this is the natural man’s thinking. If God Almighty grants grace, perhaps we can rise above this idiocy. Think now about something besides this rotting flesh in which we live. It is of the Lord to have both beans and blessings, but in proper order.
1. The purpose of our existence is to know, love and to walk with our Creator; that is to see God. Man was created to delight in the Lord and respond to divine affection, to live for God and to do his will; to see God. How then shall man, who has not seen him at any time, see him?
2. Our scripture says that we see God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is enough to see him with the eye of faith. God is unknowable by man. The disciples wrestled with this great impossibility. Phillip said in John 14:8, “Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us.” Our Lord said to him, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Look at me and see God.”
3. Light is invisible unless it shines upon some object. I awake from sleep and my eyes see a ray of sunshine, or do I? NO! I see only the particles in the air upon which the light shines and which thus reveal the presence of light. Pure light cannot be seen. Neither can we see him who is pure light (1John 1:5). Since God is light, then he is invisible and unknowable unless he shines upon some object which will reveal him. This is Christ, God veiled in manhood. We look into his face, and there shines in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
4. Did you notice, not only the light of the knowledge of God, but the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. We see not only God, but his glory displayed. That face! Think now of the face of Jesus Christ. It was a marred face, spat upon and disfigured by the malice of sinful men. Isaiah said that his visage was so marred that it was astonishing (52:14). Religion says that’s not the glory of God, but of shame and disgrace. They have a “pretty” Jesus. But in that bloody face is glory as God counts glory.
5. When Moses said, “Show me thy glory,” God answered, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee,” his goodness, his glory is manifested in his grace. Ephesians 1:6 “To the praise of the glory of his grace.” This glory is seen in the marred, disfigured, broken, beaten face of our Lord Jesus Christ, for God gives grace only through his sacrifice of blood, the blood of God himself (Acts 20:28). Our Lord Jesus said in John 12:23, “The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” He said in effect, “This is the hour of my greatest glory, for it is the hour of my grace to sinners.”
6. What I have said is summed up in Col. 1:11, “Christ is all.” The word “all” is defined as “The whole quantity, as much as possible, any whatever, nothing but, exclusively, only, totality.” There is nothing but Christ. Family, job, home, country, world, politics, popularity, acclaim, and all else do not exist as we think of life. He is life! He is all there is to be known (John 17:3). We say of men, “He sure knows a lot.” Does he know Christ? If not, then he knows nothing. If we do not know HIM we know nothing, can do nothing, and are nothing, and we will realize this when we stare into the grave.
I will be 70 years old in a few weeks, and I can honestly say that this insane world is a great weariness. It is increasingly difficult to even look upon it. Prolong my life? NO! Lord, usher me into LIFE. “In him was life and the life was the light of men” Jn. 1:4. Give me the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. “Christ is all.”
Conclusion: Do you want money? Get it! Do you want houses and lands? Get them! Do you want acclaim? Get it! Whatever you desire in this awful, God-hating world, get it! Here is my all: “I have found him whom my soul loveth: I held him and would not let him go” Song of Solomon 3:4. To know God in the face of Jesus Christ! There is nothing else, NOTHING. It’s beans or blessings, and you can be assured, the beans will rot. |
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