Wednesday: God’s Glory Fills the Earth
Read Revelation 4:11, Revelation 5:12, and Revelation 19:1. What words are associated with the glory of God that fills the earth as described in Revelation 18:1?
The great controversy between good and evil in the universe is also about God’s honor or reputation. Satan, a rebel angel, has declared that God is unjust, that He demands worship but gives little in return. The evil one declares that God’s law restricts our freedom and limits our joy.
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection exploded that myth. The One who created us plunged into this snake pit of this world to redeem us. On the cross, He answered Satan’s charges and demonstrated that God is both loving and just.
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
Charmed by His love, concerned about His honor, His end-time people reveal His glory — His loving, self-sacrificing character to a self-centered, godless world, and the earth is illuminated by the character of God.
Read Exodus 33:18-19. How does God reveal His glory to Moses? What is God’s glory?
God’s glory is His character. The earth will be filled with the glory of God when we are filled with the love of God and our characters are changed by redeeming love.
Revealing His love in our personal lives reveals His glory, His character, to the world. The last message to be proclaimed to a world engulfed in spiritual darkness carried by three angels in the midst of heaven is “Fear God and give glory to Him” (Revelation 14:7, NKJV).
There is no glory for ourselves in our good works, or our righteousness, or our goodness. “The message of Christ’s righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to the other. … This is the glory of God which closes the work of the third angel.” — Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 19. Ellen G. White also writes: “What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself.” — Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 456.
No glory for ourselves but, yes, glory to God instead.
(28)
Perhaps the most profound statement in this whole lesson study is this one:
For most of the 2000 years of what we call the Christian era, God has been abused by the use of his name to authorise control, selfishness, persecution, war, and bloodshed. Never mind the rest of the universe; what has happened in the last two millenia is so outrageously deceitful, that today even the use of the word "Christian" has evil connotations for many people.
We spend a lot of time picking out bits of evil to be afraid of, when in fact we are surrounded by it. So I think it is about time to repeat the parable of the peas.
A peapod fell to the ground one day and it split open revealing four peas. The first pea looked at the world outside the pod and said, "It is very brown and dirty out there, I am going to stay inside the pod where it is still nice and green and I can maintain my greenness!" and with a shiver, he pulled the sides of the pod shut.
The second pea looked out at the big brown world and said, "It is very brown out there, and look at me! I am bright green and stand out. I will be an easy picking for the birds!" And with that, he rolled out into the brown earth and covered himself with brown earth until he was just as brown as everything else.
The third pea looked out on all the brown earth. So he stood in the middle of the pod and yelled loudly, "Brown is bad and green is good! Hey, you are all brown out there, you need to turn green!"
The fourth pea surveyed the brown earth as far as the horizon. He said, "It is awfully brown out there and there is no green at all. I am going to change that. He rolled out of his comfortable pod, put down roots, and flourished into a beautiful green pea plant.
Need I ask: If you want to give God glory, what kind of pea should we be?
That’s a nice one! Romans 5:8 and 1 John 4:19 are the verses that come to my mind when I read it.
4th & and always thank you Elder Mourice for your illustration.
You are a blessing to us.
Thank you, Maurice, for this parable. It reminds me of the parable of the sewer. the seeds were probably more passive, but the people they represent, make choices similar to the peas.
As I said befpre: John saw more than just "Three Angels," in his vision. John actually sees about 38 angels in his "Revelation Vision." And those three angels in Chapter 14 are #'S: 27, 28, and 29 of all those 38 angels. Then, the one in chapter 18 is # 37. So, to me, if there are "Cosmic Mmessages" in the book of Revelation as per "Angels There," we should say that they are "38 Cosmic Messages," in that book.
You did well to count all those angels, Pete. When I was in a public speaking class in College days, my lecturer made the point that when you are preaching a sermon, you should make only 3 major points. He said that people can count to 3 and when they go home they are likely to remember them. He added that once you go beyond 3 your listeners go to sleep.
I think the main point is that the three angels in Revelation 14 are a special sequence of messages that relate together:
Those three ideas go together just like my breakfast that I am eating while I write this; Weetbix, So Good Soy milk, and banana. (Hehe! Australians will know that two out of three of those are made by Sanitarium. the Adventist food company)
It is not the numbers that are important, but the relationship.
Thank you Maurice Ashton. You and another fellow that also posts and his last name is "White," I also like his posts too. You mentioned something about the three angels in Revelation 14 particularly about their sequence etc. It is interesting to me that only the third one there is mentioned by John as being the "Third Angel." But the first one is only "Another Angel," and also the one that follows is also "Another Angel." It is only the third one there that is mentioned as a "Third Angel." Then, the author of this quarters' lesson goes on to make an issue of the three angels in Chapter 14 as being "Three Cosmic Messages," and then goes on to try to make the fourth angel of Revelation 18 to try to make that angel somehow be an extension of the second angel in Revelation 14. In my 50 plus yeas as a SDA I have noticed that there tends to be SDA Evangelists that make an issue of the three angels in Revelation 14 to somehow be a special message for SDA'S to take to the world as if the other messages of all the other 35 angels John saw there as none essential messages for the world. I am not so sure that going by the three items in a message to try to keep people from forgetting what they heard from the pulpit is a good point at all. Maybe SDA speakers should not be so eager to always try to have something to say each and every Sabbath Worship Service to try to keep SDA members interested to go back and hear more of the same subject that eventually becomes trite anyway to say the least, etc. and etc.
By the way Maurice, on your idea of "Three Items," to a talk so that people do not forget: Personally, I would say that we need to go by "Inspired Counsel," and not have sermons to each and every Sabbath Worship Service as per EGW counsel in the 6th and 7th Volumes of her Testimonies to the Church and even in her book entitled Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers. There she is very clear that (and she does not call it a Sermon there) if a discourse in needed it should be "Short and full of the Love and Love of Christ." But for the most part she indicates that our Worship Services should be "Testimonial Type Meetings," where the members are allowed to share their experiences with their Lord and Saviour for that week.
I rest my case Pete. Three is good!
Not for me, Maurice, three is not good because the angel number 37 of chapter 18:1 I do not see as an extension of number 27 in Chapter 14:6 but just simply a louder repetition of the same message that Spiritual Babylon is no longer used by God to lead people back to Him because it is now a habitation of every foul spirit etc. and etc. but it is no longer "Three Cosmic Messages," here but now even includes another angel and even a "Voice from Heaven," for God's people to "Come out of her," so that they will not experience her sins or her plagues, etc. and etc. and I am sure that it is not by hearing a sermon on this each and every Sabbath that God accomplishes this at all.
There are 92 naturally occurring elememts, Pete. When we study chemistry, we don't start at one end of the table and teach students each element in turn. We group them together in groups and study the elements in the group together, noting particularly what makes them similar to one another. For instance we usually study the halogens, Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine and Iodine together because they are chemically similar. Does that mean the other elements are not important? No! It is simply a way of grouping similar elements together so we can benefit from the synergy of systematic study.
Likewise, there is a benefit in studying parts of Revelation together. That does not make the other angel messages unimportant. There are multiple ways of studying Revelation and we have used several of them over the years. And to be fair to the author/editors of this series, they have shown the relationship of the Rev 14 messages to other parts of Revelation as well. It has not been a narrow study.
Hi Pete - I am glad you brought up this subject. I think that Ellen White's councel to the ministers and gospel workers that "our Worship Service should be "Testimonial Type Meetings' were the members are allowed to share their experiences with their Lord and Saviour for that week", should have been taken more seriously.
If they would have taken up her councel to structure the Sabbath gathering in this form, [they can still do this], I am certain that the relationship between God and His children would have received a great boost every Sabbath and at all the other occacions where the oportunity presents itself to decide 'who gets to talk to whom'.
I don't know what it is like in other churches but we had three teenagers take the service today. A ppwerful testimony as to where young people are at today.
Thank you Brigitte.
Actually, all the churches in every denomination are conducted by men. Faith in God conducting the meeting is greatly lacking.
A spiritual friend and I wanted to study the Bible together at the Senior Center. As we started to read, God would show me something from His word. She easily received the message with me, since I hadn't seen it before. She said that she had a few friends who would like to hear these new insights as well. God seemed to start a Bible study through her, and she kept inviting others to come. We met on a weekly basis.
Since I could hear messages from God, He was able to have His Spirit lead the group. I never had to prepare anything to teach. The first thing we did was call upon the Spirit to lead us as we prayed for His guidance. I would then start to read His word where He led me. As I read, or had someone read, I would receive a vision of a message to teach. Sometimes it would take 2 hours to present the message as I spoke of what was coming through His Spirit.
Every session I encouraged everyone to listen to the Spirit, and bring to us what they are seeing.
There was one woman who, whenever she read the scriptures they would come alive and I would be able to relate them.
I always believed He would conduct the meeting, and He never failed to teach us, since I was learning through the visions with everyone else. I would say, always with excitement,"Oh I see something!" and God would give us His truth. This lasted for many years.
God has delivered to His children many different gifts. I believe His intention He was to use these gifts to conduct the meetings. If it is God working, there would be order without confusion.
always look forward to your graceful comments.thank you so much
Yes, God’s Glory fills the earth, but who can see it? In a way it is a matter of choice by the human mind to want to or not to want to see it, but ultimately it is not. Being able to see it is already an aspect of the Glory of God working to manifest Himself to this ‘seeing’ person, another aspect of His Glory is to understand it, but the most important aspect of His Glory and Grace is for man to accept it as the Light of God and apply it to his/her life – the ground in which he wants to be planted in order to be born again.
The parable of the 4 peas is a nice example for the world of peas and how best to propagate their species, but it is wholly inadequate to explain the requirement of the human living soul to be born again in order to live. We are entirely dependent on the Holy Spirit to reveal to us our Creator’s Truth and Light of Life – His Way of Life - for us to receive life. Man is not a pea!
We cannot ‘choose’ within ourselves the right ‘way’ without this having been revealed to us first. Actually, when I look at the story of the peas as conveying a truth, I can only find this truth to come from a humanistic point of view. All four peas make up their own mind which way they want to advance through life based on their genetic imprint, and this is were the error lies when comparing their ability to make a ‘choice’ to the Christian’s 'Life by Faith'.
Christianity has received its bad reputation from unregenerate, high positioned religious and political leaders who went about sharing their glory their way; motivated by their greed for power to establish a false religion - Babylon. These people gave and still give Christianity a bad reputation by using Christ’s name to disguise their pagan based, worldly ambitions. They speak the 'christian' language, say all the right things, but harbor evil in their heart because God’s Truth is not in them; they have not been born again by the Spirit of God - they are a counterfeit - wolfs in sheep’s clothing.
When the pea dies in the ground, all it can generate is more peas. But when the faithful believer dies, he/she dies to self. He/she will be raised a new creation which is formed after God’s Image. It is not the ‘old man [pea]’, it is an entirely new creation which did not exist before.
Ellen White –
“What is justification by faith? It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself.”
“The message of Christ’s righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to the other ….”
The lesson writer states: 'There is no glory for ourselves in 'our' good works, or 'our' righteousness, or 'our' goodness.' How can we truly say that God’s Glory fills the earth, if we can only see it from the perspective of a green pea who is successfully propagating itself and is happy when all the world turns a ‘beautiful’ green’?
Is it not because unregenerate man’s efforts have turned the world into a ‘beautiful’ green that it becomes more and more difficult to perceive GOD’S Glory? This is the effect of the great lie, the vicious deception – mankind has become satisfied with the color ‘green’.
Brigitte, one thing that we must understand about illustrations and parables is that they are not an explanation of everything. They illustrate a point. It was meant to be an illustration of attitudes, not the plan of salvation.
Amen, Amen, and Amen!
Today, I cannot add any comment better than repeating the phrase
"God's glory is His character. The earth will be filled with the glory of God when we are filled with the love of God, and our characters are changed by redeeming love."
That is so powerful! How can I be the same after meditating on these words? God, break me so that I can be rebuilt! Make me new!