The Blood and the Glory #3
We’ve been teaching on the Blood and the Glory. And this is part 3 to our series.
I) Last time we talked quite a bit about creation.
A) In (Genesis 1:1) it says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” And in (verse 2) it says, “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”
1) In verse 2, it says that the earth was void and without form but in Isaiah (Isaiah 45:18) it says that the Lord did not created the earth in vain.
(a) The Word VAIN means, “formlessness, confusion, emptiness, chaos, and waste.”
2) God did not create the earth a formlessness wasteland, but as Isaiah also said, he created the earth to be inhabited.
(a) (Psalms 111:3) tells us that God’s work is glorious, meaning, it’s filled with His glory.
B) But something happened, something catastrophic, that caused the earth to fall into a total wasteland or as the Bible puts it void and without form.
1) In (Jeremiah 4: 23) it says that the earth had no light.
(a) The earth fell into total darkness.
(b) In (Isaiah 14) it tells us that Satan rebelled against God and because of that Satan was cast down to the ground to the earth.
(i) Jesus said in (Luke 10:18), “I beheld Satan as lightning falling from heaven.”
2) At that point from the earth became void and without form and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
II) Although it may have been millions of years between verse one and verse 2, we begin seeing a dramatic contrast between God’s glorious perfection of his creation and the darkness, which was upon the earth.
A) I wonder what all of the heavenly host thought about that one dark spot in all of God’s creation.
1) Turn to Genesis 1:2.
(a) I wonder what the Angels in heaven began to say now. Maybe it was, “There’s something going on there. God is beginning to move. The Holy Spirit is moving upon that dark spot.”
2) They all heard God’s 1st words and watched its fulfillment.
(a) Genesis 1:3.
(i) God wasn’t commanding the Son and the moon to come into existence. That didn’t happen until the 4th day starting in verse 14.
(b) God was talking about the light of Himself.
(i) God was returning to bring light and life to the earth. God removed his presence from the earth, but now he was going to begin to work there again.
B) God’s work was divided into divisions, which He called: the 1st day, the 2nd day, the 3rd day, the 4th day, the 5th day.
1) And then the 6th day. The day that was most astonishing of all especially to the Angels.
2) God made a declaration that rocked all of creation and probably thunder from one corner of the galaxy to the other.
(a) From that point, the Bible begins to take up a completely new tone. So let’s read it.
C) Genesis 1:26.
1) I imagine the Angels in heaven began to say one to another, “What is man?” “What is man?” “What is man?”
(a) This was something that had never existed.
2) One angel even dared to ask the Creator.
(a) We know that it’s an angel because the same verse is brought up again in Hebrews chapter 2 starting in verse 5.
(b) But the Old Testament reference is much more complete so let’s read that.
3) Psalms 8:3-6.
(a) This angel had just watched God’s creation and the creation of man. So, he began to complement the Creator.
(i) He said in verse 3. (read)
4) But then he asked the big question, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the Son of man, that Thou visitest Him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.”
(a) The word “ANGELS” is not correctly translated. The Hebrew word is “ELOHIM.” Elohim is the plural word for God, meaning God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
D) From eternity past, the Angels only knew the order of the triune Godhead, and the heavenly host.
1) Now there is a new order in creation. Man is ranked just under the Godhead.
2) But the word also goes on to say, that God “HAS CROWN HIM.”
(a) God himself arose and crown His man.
3) What was his crown made of? Of diamonds? Of gold?
(a) No. God paves streets with gold.
(b) The crown was made of the most valuable substance in all of creation.
4) Psalms 8:5.
(a) The crown was made of glory. God’s glory.
(b) The glory of God is God’s presence manifested.
(i) God’s glory sat upon man as his crown and clothed him as his covering.
III) And God’s Word had gone forth that man should have dominion over all the works of God’s hand.
A) But Satan challenged it. If he could stop God’s Word from coming to pass, he could defeat God.
1) He tempted man with sin and man yielded to that temptation.
2) Some of the saddest words in the Bible are found in Genesis 3:8-10. (Let’s read it)
B) (Romans 3:23) says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
1) That’s what happened in the fall. Man was crown with glory. Man sinned and fell short of the glory.
(a) Man fell from the state of glory that he once walked in.
2) Hebrews 2:10.
(a) You can word like this, “But the Captain of your salvation is bringing many sons to glory.”
(b) And there’s the CIRCLE OF GLORY.
(i) Man was crown with glory. He fell from the glory. But through Jesus Christ, he can return to the glory.
C) When man fell God wanted to reach out and holds man like a tender loving father, but it was consumed him.
1) (Hebrews 12:29) says, “For our God is a consuming fire.”
(a) It wasn’t that God didn’t want mankind in His presence. It was that man could not endure the glory of God. It now would destroy him.
(b) Remember when David brought the Ark of his Presence on a cart and Uzzah reach out to steady the Ark, and he died.
(i) He was consumed by the glory of God.
2) In the Old Testament God’s glory stayed behind a thick curtain in the Holy of Holies. The High Priest alone could enter their once a year on the Day of Atonement. And then only with great precautions.
IV) But God had a plan. The New Testament calls God’s plan a MYSTERY.
A) There are numerous references to the mystery of the Church.
1) God concealed His plan for the Church throughout the Old Testament.
(a) There were prophecies about it, but they didn’t know what to these prophecies meant. Even the writers of the gospels did not grasp the meaning of the mystery.
(b) Not until Paul came along and God revealed what He had concealed.
2) 1st Corinthians 2:6-7.
(a) When did God ordained the plan?
(i) Before the world.
(b) For what purpose?
(i) Unto our glory.
3) Listen to it from the Amplified translation (1st Corinthians 2:7). “But rather what we are setting forth is the wisdom of God once hidden [from the human understanding] and now revealed to us by God; [that wisdom] which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification [that is, to lift us into the glory of His presence].
(a) What was the purpose of the Church? So that he could lift us again into the glory of His Presence.
4) Let’s go on reading with 1st Corinthians 2:7-8.
(a) The Father of Glory, sent the Lord of Glory to lift up the man who had once been crown with the Glory, but had falling from the Glory, back into the Glory of His Presence.
(i) It’s THE STORY OF THE GLORY.
B) Turn with me to a couple scriptures before we close. Colossians 1:26-27.
1) From the moment that someone receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior he is Born-again.
(a) At that point there is a process of glorification that begins and continues to progress.
2) Look at 2nd Corinthians 3:18.
(a) The Amplified translation words it like this, “And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continue to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another.”
(b) In (Ephesians 5:27) it says that the Lord is going to present to himself a glorious Church. A church that is filled with his glory.
C) In the last days, God’s glory is going to be manifested in a greater degree in His Church.
D) And the blood of Jesus has everything to do with it. For it is His Blood that cleanses us, covers us, and enables us to stand in His glory.