Read Ebook: The Lord of Glory Meditations on the person the work and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ by Gaebelein Arno Clemens

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We feel deeply impressed with this great call of God to us at the present time of increasing darkness and apostasy. Let each child of God act accordingly. Honor your Lord wherever you are. "Be thou not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord" . If you cannot publicly stand up and honor Christ then honor Him, speak well of Him, in the home circle or wherever you are. O child of God, walk close to Him! Sit more at His feet! Cast yourself more upon Him! Let Him be your all in all! And as He is the sole object of your heart you will honor Him in the day when He is rejected.

But this will mean something else. It means separation. God's call to His people is to stand aloft from all which dishonors His Son. This means much in our days. How can we honor the Beloved One if we have fellowship with that which dishonors Him? No child of God should go on with any institution, school or church where the written Word is set aside or belittled. The second Epistle of Timothy, which has special reference to our times is very clear on this separation. No one needs to wait for a special call from God to act and separate from the corruption of Christendom. It is all given before hand by the Holy Spirit. "From such turn away" . And those from whom God commands us to separate are persons who have the form of godliness and deny the power thereof. Again it is written: "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work" . Hear the Word of the Lord! Hear His call! Be faithful to Him! Keep His Word and do not deny His Name! Honor and glorify Him who is our Lord whom we soon shall see face to face.

Christ's Resurrection Song.

Many joyous expressions of praise to God are found in the Psalms which properly belong first to Him, who is the leader of the praises of His people . One of these sweet outbursts of praise is contained in the opening verses of the xl Psalm. The first three verses may be called "the resurrection song of Christ":

"I waited patiently for the Lord, And He inclined unto me And heard my cry. He brought me up also Out of an horrible pit, Out of the miry clay; And set my feet upon a rock, Established my goings. And He has put a new song in my mouth; Praise unto our God; Many shall see it and fear, And shall trust in the Lord."

But the sufferings of our adorable Lord are not so much before us in this Psalm as the fact of His resurrection. His cry was heard. The prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears were answered; His resurrection from the dead was God's blessed answer. While in other Scriptures it is stated that Christ Himself arose, here His resurrection is seen as an act of God. "He brought me up." This act of God bears witness to the completeness and perfection of the accomplished salvation. "We believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification" . But we read also that His feet were set upon a rock. "And set my feet upon a rock." He is the first born from the dead. Sin and death are abolished by His mighty work. "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God" . Upon that rock the feet of every believing sinner securely rest.

But His ascension is likewise mentioned in this resurrection song. "And established my goings." He "whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting" and who came from everlasting glory to walk in obedience to the cross and the grave has gone back into heaven. He was received up into glory; He ascended on high and led captivity captive.

And indeed "many shall see and fear and trust in the Lord." This reaches into the future. Israel too will be taken from the place of spiritual and national death, and raised to life to join the new song. Nations will see it and fear and trust Jehovah. At last the great new song of resurrection and the new creation will swell in its divinely revealed length and breadth, heighth and depth. Now He sings the song, and His co-heirs sing it too in feebleness, yet by His Grace and through His Spirit. Ere long in His presence all the Redeemed will praise in Glory with glorified lips. Heavenly beings will utter their praise and in a wider circle down on earth, every creature will join in.

May we follow the great leader of Praise, Him who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. May the path He followed down here become more and more ours. May we serve, be obedient, give up, wait patiently for the Lord, after His own pattern, suffer with Him, be rejected with Him, bear His reproach and through it all rejoice in Him and sing "the new song." How happy we ought to be as linked with Him, the blessed Christ of God. And as we walk in His fellowship the heart longs to see Him as He is. Even so; come Lord Jesus.

The Glory Song.

Rev. i:5-6.

This blessed Word of Praise is placed by the Holy Spirit in the foreground of the book which bears the name, the Revelation, or, Unveiling of Jesus Christ. In it is found the great unveiling of the future, the great coming tribulation and judgment period through which the earth must pass, events which precede the glorious manifestation of the Lord. But in this last great Bible book there is also a complete unveiling of the Person, the Glory and the dignity of Him to whom all judgment is committed. Not alone are in this book many of the prophecies, given of old by the holy men of God, rehearsed, but all He is, His Name, His power, His Glory, His work, and many of his titles are restated. Think of what He is called and how He is described in this book. We find Him called the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Almighty, the Lord, the Alpha, the Omega, the First, the Last, the Beginning of the Creation of God, the Amen, the faithful Witness, the First begotten from the dead, the Word of God, the Lamb, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the mighty Angel, He that liveth, He that was dead, He that is alive evermore, the Root and Offspring of David, the bright and Morning star, the Prince of the kings of the earth, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. What an array of titles. On earth great ones, kings and princes, have numerous titles. They concern only earthly glories; they are but for a moment. But His titles concern the earth and the heavens. They belong to Him because He is God, while others are acquired through His great work of redemption. His Glory and His dignity are indescribable. One who reads the Book of Revelation and reads it again will be increasingly impressed with the Glory of Him, whom John beheld in all His Majesty.

Before the Spirit of God records this Glory song, the utterance of praise to be used and to be enjoyed by redeemed sinners, He mentions three titles of our Lord. The faithful Witness; the First begotten from the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. These three titles take in His earthly life, His redemption work and His future Glory. On earth He was the faithful witness. He glorified the Father. He had come into the world to bear witness unto the truth. He was faithful and nothing marred His witness. He came as the Only begotten of the Father and the faithful witness, the Son of God went to the cross to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The open and empty tomb is the witness that it was perfectly and righteously accomplished. Now He is the First begotten from the dead as well as the First fruits. His death and His resurrection are, therefore, in view in this second title. His glorious future is beheld in the third title, the Prince of the kings of the earth. The kingdoms of the earth belong to Him; He has a perfect right and title to the earth and its government. Now still the god of this age rules, but ere long He comes "whose right it is" and claims His inheritance. In these three wonderful titles we behold all the Son of God as Son of Man has accomplished in His mighty work. He lived the path of faith and obedience on earth, as the faithful witness. He has put away sin and conquered death and the grave as well as him who has the power of death, that is the devil. In the future He will be King of kings and Lord of lords.

And then follows this outburst of Praise. The Holy Spirit, who is here on earth to glorify Him, breaks forth at once into singing and directs the heart to worship Him. Beloved readers if the Holy Spirit is ungrieved in us He will lead our hearts into such praise and adoration of the Lord; nothing grieves the Holy Spirit more than when a believer does not appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ and manifest this appreciation by praise and worship.

Three things are stated in this blessed doxology:

These three things correspond to the three titles which precede this doxology. Love it was, which brought Him down from the Glory to walk upon this earth in humiliation, the faithful witness, and that love knew and saw the cross. Love led Him there to die for such as we are. What love it was! Who can ever declare it!

Oh, the peace forever flowing From God's thoughts of His own Son! Oh, the peace of simply knowing On the cross that all was done!

Peace with God, the blood in heaven Speaks of pardon now to me: Peace with God! the Lord is risen! Righteousness now counts me free.

Peace with God is Christ in glory; God is just and God is love; Jesus died to tell the story, Foes to bring to God above.

"To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen." All glory and dominion to Him! Thou art worthy! Thou art worthy! This is the heart's cry, which really knows Him and is devoted to Him. "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power." Our crowns we cast before Thy throne. Amen and Amen.

Reader can you add your "Amen"--your, "be it so" to all this? Do you sing this Glory song? In a day when He, who is worthy, is but little praised, do you praise Him thus? Do you live in the daily enjoyment of His love? Do you give Him the pre-eminence to whom God has given the pre-eminence in all things? Amen! And oh the happy thought, which helps us so in these evil days, that soon He, who loveth us, who washed us, who hath made us a Kingdom and priests, may call us into His own glorious presence.

The Firstborn.

"THE Firstborn" or "The Firstbegotten" is one of the names of our blessed Lord. It is applied to Him after His resurrection from the dead. As the Only Begotten He came into this world, the unspeakable gift of God to a lost and ruined world; after the accomplishment of His work on the cross He left the earth, He had created, as the Firstborn. As the Firstbegotten He is now in the highest heaven and as the Firstbegotten the Man of Glory He will be sent back to this earth and rule in power and glory. Paul wrote to the Philippians "to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe" . Peter's preaching in the opening chapters of the Acts might have been called monotonous, for he knew but one theme. The Spirit of God filling him gave but one message and that was, the rejected Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead. In the Gospel of the Glory of the blessed God , as revealed to the Apostle of the Gentiles we have one theme, one abiding, ever satisfying, eternal object and that is Christ who died for our sins, risen from the dead, as Firstborn in Glory and our blessed union with Him. Paul who knew Him as the Firstborn so well found it not grievous to write the same thing. Indeed the more He knew Him the more His heart cried out "that I may know Him" . There is an attraction in Him which is supernatural. Every child of God will increasingly enjoy the contemplation of this old yet ever new and blessed theme, the Firstborn from the dead. Only in this our hearts can find perfect rest and abiding joy. And if your heart, dear reader, is not attracted and absorbed by Himself, it is because there is a broken communion between you and your Lord. Oh, return unto thy rest, my soul! The drifting masses of Christendom have no use for such a theme. The words written in 2 Cor. iv:3-4 find a fearful application in our time. "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this age 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."

God will bring the Firstbegotten back to this earth again. This is a very strong passage revealing the second coming of Christ to this earth. The same blessed Person, who walked on this earth as man, who is Emanuel, God with us, who died on the cross for our sins, who became the Firstbegotten from the dead, the Firstfruits of them that slept, He who is now as Man in Glory, the same Person, the Firstbegotten, will be brought back to this world by the power of God. Then worshipping angels will be His attendants and He will bring His Saints with Him.

Soon shall our eyes behold Thee With rapture, face to face; And, resting there in glory, We'll sing Thy pow'r and grace: Thy beauty, Lord, and glory, The wonders of Thy love, Shall be the endless story Of all Thy saints above.

The Waiting Christ.

As the glorified Man on the Father's throne He is waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. This does not mean, as so many believe and teach, that the Lord Jesus Christ is waiting till His enemies are gradually overcome, till the church on earth succeeds in converting the whole world. It does not mean that. His enemies will be made His footstool in a far different way. It will be a sudden event. All His enemies will be humbled, all things will be subjected under His feet at the time of His second Coming. As there was an appointed time by the Father for His first Coming, so is there an appointed time for His second Coming, when the power of God and His own power will triumph over all His enemies. As He is in His redemptive work subject to the Father, therefore is He waiting for that hour. Then the Father will bring in the firstbegotten into the world and He will receive the nations for His inheritance .

He is waiting for this great event. But He is also waiting for His co-heirs, which constitute the church. The church, His body, must be first completed as to numbers before the hour can come in which His enemies are made His footstool.

At the close of the one hundred and tenth psalm stands a word, which we should also remember.

"He shall drink of the brook in the way, Therefore shall He lift up the head."

It has puzzled many readers what this saying might mean. It speaks to our hearts of His humiliation and exaltation. One thinks at once of the three hundred of Gideon and how they stooped down to drink. The brook is the type of death. He drank of the brook in the way. His way was from Glory to Glory, and between were His sufferings. And, therefore, He shall lift up the head. Wherefore, God has highly exalted Him. May we all, dear readers, follow in His path and suffer with Him; ere long in His triumph and glory we shall triumph and glory.

"And if children then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ; if so be we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" .

A Vision of the King.

ONE of the most blessed occupations for the believer is the prayerful searching of God's holy Word to discover there new glories and fresh beauties of Him, who is altogether lovely. Shall we ever find out all which the written Word reveals of Himself and His worthiness? This wonderful theme can never be exhausted. The heart which is devoted to Him and longs through the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit to be closer to the Lord, to hear and know more of Himself, will always find something new and precious. The Holy Spirit can do this and reveals to our hearts from the inexhaustible Word of God the Glory of Him, whom to exalt the Spirit has come. Much depends on how we desire just Himself. And Christ alone and the heart knowledge of Himself can satisfy the believer, who has His life and is one Spirit with the Lord

"O Christ Thou art enough The heart to satisfy."

Soon we shall see Him, whom we contemplate now in faith. Soon we shall be in His own glorious presence and look upon that face, which was once marred and smitten, but which now shines out Heaven's and the Father's Glory.

The kingly Glory of our blessed Lord is one of the great themes of the Bible. The Man of humiliation, who here on earth walked in dependence on God, who did His will, suffered and died is now in the Father's presence and on the right hand of the Majesty on high. There He sat down with His Father in His throne, waiting for the moment when His work as the Priest and Advocate of His beloved people on earth is accomplished, and when the Father will establish Him as King, when He will receive the kingdom. Alas! that all this glory, which belongs to Him and which is still future, His Kingship, His kingly glory and rule, as it must be some day, is so unknown and even disowned in Christendom. It is but the uncovering of the condition of the heart of the great majority of professing Christians. They may talk of religion, of great reform movements, of service to mankind, world progress, but the Christ of God in all His Glory, past, present and future, has little attraction. Far different it is with the heart which knows Him and has given Him the place He is worthy of, the first place. That heart delights to meditate on all His Glory and longs for the time when He will appear, and when at last, crowned with many crowns, He will assume His righteous rule. Great is our joy and delight when we follow through the Scriptures His earthly life so full of His moral Glory. Or when we think of Him as He died for us and bore in His own body on the tree our sins; we praise Him for His mighty Love. But what joy to think of Him as coming at last into that which belongs to Him the Lord of Glory, by right of redemption, when He will take possession of this earth and claim its Satan ruled kingdoms for His own. Then it will be true, "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." Then the Seraph's song will be realized, "The whole earth is full of His Glory."

How much the Word has to say about the King and His Glory; and we have never yet taken hold of it with our dull hearts! Take the Book of Psalms, for instance, that book which has been so belittled by the destructive criticism. While we read so much in those precious productions of the Holy Spirit of Christ's sufferings, His humiliation, His prayers, His death, we may find there much more about Him as King and His coming manifestation.

"The King shall joy in Thy strength, Jehovah; And in Thy salvation, how greatly shall He rejoice. Thou hast given Him His heart's desire, And hast not withholden the requests of His lips. For Thou hast met Him with the blessings of goodness; Thou hast set a crown of pure gold on His head. He asked Life of Thee; Thou gavest Him length of days forever and ever. His Glory is great through Thy salvation; Majesty and splendor hast Thou laid upon Him. For Thou hast made Him to be blessings forever; Thou hast filled Him with joy by Thy countenance. For the King confideth in Jehovah. Through the loving kindness of the Highest He shall not be moved."

Then comes His future action, when He whom faith sees now crowned with Majesty and Splendor, who rejoices in the Presence of God, appears to execute the judgments of God.

"Thy hand shall find out all thine enemies; Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery furnace In the time of Thy presence. Jehovah shall swallow them up in his anger, And the fire shall devour them. Their fruit shall Thou destroy from the earth, And their seed from among the children of men. For they intended evil against Thee, They imagined a mischievous device, Which they could not execute. For Thou wilt make them turn their back, Thou wilt make ready Thy bowstring against their faces. Be Thou exalted Jehovah in Thine own strength; We will sing and celebrate Thy power."

"Lift up your heads, ye gates And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; And the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle."

And how rich are the prophets in telling us of the Glory of the King and the glories of His kingdom. "Behold a King shall rule in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment" . "Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is afar off" . "A King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth" . "And there was given Him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed" . "The King of Israel, the Lord, is in the midst of thee ; thou shalt not see evil any more" . "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth" .

These and many, many more utterances of God's blessed prophets give us a vision of the King, of the Glory of Him, who was crowned with a crown of thorns, the thorns of man's curse, and over whose cross it was written, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."

And the New Testament fully brings out the same Glory of Him as King. He is "King of Peace" ; "King of saints" ; "The Lord of lords and King of kings" .

At last the unfulfilled message of Gabriel will be gloriously fulfilled. "The Lord God shall give unto Him the Throne of His father David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end" .

Oh, Beloved readers! does it not warm our hearts! Does it not make us feel like falling down on our faces and confess to Him our indifference and our nothingness, and humble ourselves in the dust. How little, oh how little we enter into all this. The Lord help us to have through His Word and in the power of His Spirit a greater vision of the King and our blessed, eternal lot with Him.

They crown Him King on high; Shall we not crown Him here, The blessed Christ of Calvary, To ransomed sinners dear?

They worship Him above, Shall we not worship too, The Son of God, the Lord of love, To whom all praise is due?

Up there they see His Face, The Lamb who once was slain, And in a new song praise His Grace; Shall we not join the strain?

Yonder His servants still Serve as their Lord commands; Oh may we also do His will With loving hearts and hands.--M. F.

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