BEHOLD HIS GLORY

Text: Isa 40:5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Thus Isaiah prophecied and John recorded the fulfillment;
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

To behold the glory of God has always been a great longing of man. His glory has always been declared in full view of man in his handiwork.
Psa 19:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Because of this, man has searched diligently into the things God has made, hoping to find him in them. Skeptics have used this hope to ridicule God's people. After one of the first Russian trips into space, one of their astronauts said, "I have swept the heavens and didn't find God there," An American astronaut replied, "If that is what he was searching for, he might as well have swept the kitchen floor!"

The expression of His glory can never be equated with HIM. It is like the bride in all her finery. She looks lovely, but the groom would rather have the girl than to have a dozen wedding gowns.

From the earliest of times, man has been impressed and fascinated by the precision and dependability of the stars. He has charted their movements, and examined them through telescopes and scientific instruments. He has sent probes out to examine them, and even begun his first steps toward going there himself. Yet with all this, he has never found God sitting on a golden throne in some far corner of the universe. All he has succeeded in doing is to enlarge his own conception of the glory of God!

It is good that man learns more of the vastness and perfection of God's universe, but he must keep in mind the declaration of Solomon upon the dedication of the Temple, "1 Ki 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?"

How can man ever define God or fully understand Him when he cannot even understand His creation?

We turn our eyes from the stars and look around. Behold! His glory is shown in all we see. The flowers of the field reflect glory.
Mat 6:28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Consider the tiny seed. It has in itself the spark of life which was placed there by the creator. We often see it even break through the pavement as it reaches upward toward the life-giving light. Behold the glory of God!

It is not, however in nature that the greatest glory of God is seen. There is a greater display than the sun, moon, stars, the northern lights or the giant redwood trees. Even greater than the mountain's grandeur or the desert's burst of blooms after a spring rain ,or the ocean at it's most magnificent raging, is the sight of a poor lost sinner who even with all his wasted life, has been made new by the Grace of God.

Look around you at those who were once ruled by drink, enslaved by their passions and degraded by their lusts, but are now dedicated to the worship and service of their God. Look upon their new natures and BEHOLD THE GLORY OF GOD.

Read the stories of the martyrs who were enabled, not by the strength of their own character, but by the grace of God, to pray for their murderers and to die with prayers and praise on their lips. Behold the Glory of God.

However, God never intended that man should see only the reflection of his glory in nature and redeemed men.
He sent his own Son to let the world know of his own great glory. Thus the words of our text and of Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;