"I Beseech Thee, Show Me Thy Glory" (Exodus 33:18).
Every preacher, I think, has a "greatest sermon" when the anointing of the Spirit of God rests powerfully upon him. I have always loved and had a deep respect for Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones since reading his sermons on John 1:22 entitled "Joy Unspeakable". However I was quite literally floored when I heard him preach during his Revival series on this prayer of Moses. It is strongly still in the vein of God "breaking out" as I was writing yesterday, so I wanted to include some key portions here. But above all, I want to urge you if possible to get the series and HEAR this sermon! It will change the way you see God breaking out (or ERRUPTING as the Doctor puts it!) into history forever.
"It is possible for an individual on his, or her own to have any one of these experiences that we are describing and illustrating from Scripture". Note that - it will be important to remember in some of the other things the Doctor says.
"Do we know anything about these advancing steps and stages? As we look back across our Christian experience, do we know what it is to rise, like this, from step to step, and from platform to platform? Do we know increasing boldness in the Presence of God, this increasing assurance and desire for yet more and more?".
"I am asking whether we know anything about this, simply because I have an uncomfortable feeling that it is true to say of so many of us, yes even those of us who are evangelical people, that our main characteristic is self-satisfaction. We have the feeling that we have arrived because we are converted ... all we have got to do is maintain the position and we may even be feeling superior to those who have not come yet as far as we have".
"How much evidence is there of a striving, of a seeking, of rising on the wings of faith, following in the footsteps of Moses and saying, "Oh I thank You for what you have promised but show me now Your glory?".
"What is the matter with us my friends? We who like to boast about our superiority over the Old Testament saints ... how do we compare to them in actual experience?".
"There is no doubt that as we advance in faith and in knowledge and in experience, we shall more and more desire God Himself and not only and not merely the things that are given to us by God".
"Christianity is to know God".
"Ah, but someone says, that has only happened to men in the Scriptures. No, that is not so. This is something that has gone on happening to God's people who have realised the possibilities and who, throughout the running centuries, have sought God Himself. Have you ever read of Jonathan Edwards describing his experience on it in a forest while he was there kneeling in prayer for about an hour? Have you read of David Brainerd, the great apostle to the American Indians, experiencing the glory of God and literally sweating, though it was cold? What was causing the sweating? Oh it was the glory, the character and transcedence of the glory!".
"You will find that when God manifests Himself by an outpouring of the Spirit, whose special work and commission it is to manifest the Lord Jesus and His glory and through Him, God Himself. You will find that you will often read of this; that men and women in the Presence of the glory and of this presence, have literally fallen to the ground, have fainted".
Note this quote! It is my favourite Dr Lloyd-Jones quote EVER!"We were never meant to be content with a little".
Let me quote it again!
"We were never meant to be content with a little".
Oh go on - once more ...
"WE WERE NEVER MEANT TO BE CONTENT WITH A LITTLE"!
Dr Lloyd-Jones closes the sermon with some amazing quotes from Jonathan Edwards and C H Spurgeon. Let me indulge and quote Spurgeon:
"There is such a thing on earth as an infallible assurance of our election. Let a man once get that and it will anoint his head with fresh oil, it will clothe him with a white garment of praise and put the song of the angels in his mouth. Happy, happy man who is fully assured of his interest in the covenant of grace, in the blood of the atonement and in the glories of heaven!".
"What would some of you give if you could arrive at this assurance? Mark, if you anxiously desire to know, you may know. If you heart pants to read its title clear, it shall do so ere long. No man desired Christ in his heart with a living and longing desire, who did not find Him sooner or later".
Dr Lloyd-Jones has the last word:
"Are you on these steps? Hope, faith, assurance, full assurance, enjoyment, glory? Ask Him for it. Climb the steps. Follow the example of Moses. Enter boldly in faith and say to God, "Show me Thy glory" ... Seek glory. For yourself, SEEK IT!".
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1 comment:
Amen!!
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