God Loves… Himself

“The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God” (A.W. Tozer).

The first part of the above statement would be argued by a secularist, but that is only because a secularist has a different idea of what it means for a people to rise and then to rise to or above a religion. In fact, most secularists would say that a society will only progress when it raises above its religion enough to discard it. However, that being noted, we should realize that Tozer’s statement is self-evident. If the whole reason for a person or a people to be in existence and on this planet is to live for the glory of God, then of course it is true that no one has ever risen higher than its religion. In one sense the United States is living in a time of unprecedented military might (if it chose to unleash those) and its level of living in terms of comfort. However, in many other ways the United States is on a steep, downward spiral. Corporate greed and crime, political corruption, and all other types of dishonesty and crime are rampant. This is a nation that has forgotten God, even trying to get Him out, and the results are being seen. A nation cannot forget God who is the only objective standard of morality possible and expect to continue its standards of morality. Eventually, if there is no return, all the problems brought to bear by forgetting God will bring this nation to its knees.

It is again self-evident that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. We could also say, since it is Christianity that we are concerned with, that no church has ever been greater than its idea of God. The level of a church is not determined by how many people go there, the political status of it, or its budget. The greatness of a church is determined by what it really thinks of God regardless (to some degree) of its creed. No church will ever rise higher in terms of true greatness to any level above what it really (deep down) thinks of God. A church that is Calvinistic in its creed could still have a very low view of God deep in the hearts of the people. That church could actually think that they have God figured out and that He operates according to their notions. That would be a low view of God. That same church might also have little love for others and simply sneer at them as inferior. Again, in some ways the creeds of a church might matter very little if a high view of God is not held.

The worship of a church is not determined by the number of people or instruments in the band. The worship of a church is not determined by how old or how new the song is. The worship of the church is not necessarily true worship just because the songs are orthodox. The worship in the church is determined by how much God is loved and revered in the hearts of the people. I am aware that this is thought of as a nice theory, but we do not find all the arguments about worship in Scripture that we hear of today. If a person loves and reveres God, then s/he should be able to worship in old or contemporary music with some qualifications. Truly great churches are more concerned about God’s glory in the hearts of the people than if they are in giving a perfect external atmosphere for worship. Worship starts in the heart and the heart determines the object and quality of the worship.

It matters little whether the music or words are really good or just okay if the heart is right with God. The music can influence feeling, but the heart determines whether God is worshiped or not. The one worshiping could also be the worshiped if there are low views of God and high concentration on the feelings. A great church is one that tries to get people focused on God and to worship Him from the heart. He is to be exalted and He is to be lifted up in the hearts and voices of the people. We should also not think that worship is only in the music. Worship should also occur during the preaching. If worship does not occur during the preaching, then most likely worship of God is also not happening during the singing. Preaching, in many ways, is simply lifting up God and His ways before the spiritual eyes of men. Too often preaching is lifting up men in the eyes of men. But all that is done in the building that the church meets at should be done in worship of the living God. If true worship must have love and reverence in its adoration of God, then clearly the higher view of God leads to a higher degree of worship. A pure worship is when the hearts of the people are set on God and see Him as high and exalted. A base worship is when God is focused on for the sake of men and man is thought to worship God when his feelings are at a high level. That is a very low view of God. It is also a base worship to worship with low and wrong thoughts of God. He is infinitely glorious and deserves to be worshiped as such.

“If we are under an infinite obligation to love God supremely, live to him ultimately, and take everlasting delight in him, because of his infinite glory and excellency, then the least disposition to disesteem him, to be indifferent about his interest and honor, or to disrelish communion with him; or the least disposition to love ourselves more than God, and be more concerned about our interest and honor than about his, and to be pleased and delighted in the things of the world more than in him, must, consequently, be infinitely sinful, as is self-evident” (Joseph Bellamy, from True Religion Delineated).

We are taking a short break from the thoughts of Tozer and focusing on this quote from Bellamy as he reflects on the applications of the Great Commandment. Man lives a life going to school and then to work as he gets older. He has a cycle of life and most people do not really come to grips with the meaning and purpose of life. Most seem to go through life just wanting to have an easy life and so they avoid all problems that they can. But man is under an infinite obligation to love God supremely in all things and at all times. This is a huge responsibility and man wants to run from it. He understands that he cannot really do that and so denies the real obligations of it. However, the obligations of it are still there whether man wants to face them or not. The Great Commandment stands as it is and it will never be lessened in its obligations or privileges.

Man is required to love God with all of his being in all things and at all times. Yes, I repeated that. It is hard to come to grips with it. I am to love God when I eat and when I sleep? I am to love God supremely as I go to the grocery store? Yes, He is the ultimate reason for all that I am to do. I am to take delight in Him because I am to love Him with all of my being. Surely, one may ask, “we are not to delight in God more than sports and sex and all of those other things?” Not only are we to love Him more than whatever we do, we are to do them out of love for Him. If we cannot love God in doing them, then they should not be done. Because of His infinite glory and excellency, it is right and good that He be loved like this.

But the Bellamy quote goes on and states the negative aspect as well. Loving God means that the least disposition not to esteem Him is wicked. The least indifference about His honor and glory is wicked. The least part of us that takes no relish in communion with Him is an act of wickedness. The least disposition within us to love ourselves or be more concerned about ourselves and our honor over His is wickedness. The delight and pleasure that a person has in the world and the things of the world more than in Him is infinitely sinful. The least disposition that we have not to do those things is infinitely sinful.

We can look at these using different words. Man is to love God with all of His being all of the time and in all that he does. Anything that is not love to and for God with the whole being is sinful. Just in case a self-righteous person is reading this, I hope that this crushes any self-righteousness that you have. Can it be that any man other than Jesus Christ has ever loved God with the whole of his being at any point in his life? How can man do anything but cry out from a humbled and contrite spirit that God is just in however He deals with us. How can man see any righteousness in him that is other than filthy rags (Isa 64:6). Oh how man needs the glory of grace as shown forth in the blood of the cross and the gift of imputed righteousness. How man should humbly cry out for God to be glorified through Christ because man is so weak in his love for the glory of God.

When this is applied to the Church, we can see why so many churches have given up trying to be God-centered. It is far easier to please man and do what it takes to soothe his conscience. It is hard stuff to proclaim the truth about the Great Commandment. It runs people off if they see the depths of their sin in light of the holiness of God and His righteous standards. It is easier to drop the standards of the church than it is to stand firm in order to please the living God. Whatever men may do in the name of love and of God, they cannot drop the reality of the standard of the Great Commandment. Until God changes the standard will remain the same. Just in case anyone has any hope for that, God is immutable in His holiness. It will not change. Worthy is He to be praised and worthy is the Lamb to receive glory, honor and praise.

“Were Christians today reading such works as those of Augustine or Anselm a book like this would have no reason for being. But such illuminated masters are known to modern Christians only by name. Publishers dutifully reprint their books and in due time these appear on the shelves of our studies. But the whole truth lies right there: they remain on the shelves. The current religious mood makes the reading of them virtually impossible even for educated Christians” (A. W. Tozer).

I would give a hearty “amen” to the above statement though I see the same thing regarding the writings of Jonathan Edwards, John Owen and Stephen Charnock. It is true that these men are sometimes read, but I am not sure that they are often understood. What is interesting to note is that Tozer thinks that the illuminated masters are not read because of the “current religious mood.” He even thought that that current religious mood made “the reading of them virtually impossible.” Okay, one might argue, “but that is because everything is being dumbed down in our day.” That is a good argument too, but Tozer says that the reading was virtually impossible “even for educated Christians.” What could he have meant?

Without trying to read Tozer’s mind, especially since he wrote his book about 45 years ago, we will try to think through this statement as it applies to today. There are many focuses and moods within Christianity today that make the reading and digesting of the illuminated masters virtually impossible. One, there is a branch of anti-intellectualism that tends to stay away from things that make one think. Two, there is a branch of intellectualism that tends to stay away from anything that sounds mystical. Third, there is the practical crowd which just wants to be involved in evangelism or social activities and thinks that all that reading just keeps people from doing good. Four, there is the moralistic crowd which focuses on morality and does not worry about hard thinking. Five, there is the hyper-spiritual crowd which will not read anything but the Bible. All of these are related in some way to the previous blog in which Tozer says that a high view of God is necessary for spiritual power and true morality.

When any view, doctrine, practice, or version of morality is stressed in a way that is out of balance, the view that drives it is driven by an aberrant view of God. The resulting view of God will also be taken even further out of balance. The religious mood that comes from these views as they tilt more and more out of kilter with the center of the true character of God is one that does not like to study those who are more balanced. The anti-intellectual crowd will not read the good works of the past because they are not exercising their minds and the older works are hard to read. Besides that, pride will keep them from admitting that their intellects are too lazy and underdeveloped to love God with their entire mind as the Great Commandment dictates. The intellectual crowd has become so enthralled with the mind that they have forgotten that man has affections and a spiritual sight as well. So when the older writers speak of spiritual things that the mind does not have full access to, their pride is such that those things are held in contempt. It is beneath a rational being to think like that, they think.

The practical crowd is too busy “doing ministry” to spend time studying old books. After all, those older writers were not all that spiritual or they would have been “doing ministry” instead of wasting their time writing books that no one wants to read anyway. After all, spending all that time on reading and all that effort on trying to understand is simply not practical in this day and age when there is so much good to be done. The moralistic crowd just wants to be moral in the present day and those old books written about the glory of God, well, they just don’t have any real value for what needs to be done in our degenerate age. The hyper-spiritual crowd is just too proud about its Bible reading to believe that God might teach them from men who are not alive any more.

The real issue behind these resides in two things. One, we are in an age where independency and pride is the order of the day. But the real issue (two) common to all of the previous views and of the pride mentioned in one, is that man has lost sight of the glory of God. Once the glory of God has been tasted, nothing else will satisfy the soul. The soul that wants God will wade through heavy writings in order to gain a glimpse of God that others have had in a more spiritual day. It is not necessarily more spiritual to read older writers, though some have fallen into that trap, but they were written in a more spiritual and God-centered day. Until our day or some previous day receives grace to turn from such hideous sin as self-centeredness and pride to seek God with all of our beings, we will be turned over to various religious aspects of pride that reveal a shallow concept of God. “Show me Your glory.”

“It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is” (A.W. Tozer).

There is a huge push for morality among conservative Christians in our day. While that is not bad, is morality the same thing as holiness and spirituality? Can people pursue morality for sinful reasons and simply be whitewashed tombs being clean on the outside while the inner part is full of dead men’s bones? Notice how Tozer links moral practices and the inward attitudes. To take this one step more, for there to be spiritual power in the lives of believers they must be lovers of the truth of God. The link, then, is that true spirituality is the Holy Spirit working His character in people’s hearts and lives. Spirituality is simply to partake of the working of the Holy Spirit. To the degree that one has the Spirit or the degree that the Spirit is working is the degree that a person is spiritual.

If the heart of morality is outward behavior, then the name of the religion does not matter. However, if true morality requires the proper inward attitude and the inward attitude is inextricably intertwined with one’s idea of God, then morality is really a different issue than what is normally thought. True morality requires a person to have some truth about God in order to love God. There is no true inward morality apart from keeping the Greatest Commandment which is to love God with all of our beings. The Pharisees were rigid moralists and yet hated God. There are atheists who pride themselves on being moral. But without the inward attitude there is no true morality and the very acts of righteousness of men are sin and likened to filthy rags (Isa 64:7). There can be no proper inward attitude of love and reverence for God unless the truth of God is known and understood to some degree.

Rigid moralists who are without true love always set up rules that go beyond the bounds of Scripture. Liberals allow for a morality that is far less than the commands of Scripture. For there to be true morality, then, there must be a balance. There must be obedience to the commands of Scripture and yet there must not be additions to the rules. It is hard to maintain that balance. However, the rigidity of the moralists would be softened with love and those who love God desire to be holy as He is holy. In fact, true morality is really nothing but holiness and God is the standard and the power of holiness. A holy person is moral and is therefore like God.

If the Church desires to be like God, it should take note of the life and practices of Jesus. The Pharisees were horrified that Jesus would break their rules. They thought of Him as violating the Sabbath because He did not follow their rules about the Sabbath. Could it be that there is a “far right wing” in the Church today that has more in common with the Pharisees than with Jesus? The Christian is commanded to love his enemies, pray for them, do good to them, and to overcome evil with good. It appears that many bearing the name “Christian” seem to hate people who are opposed to them. Jesus, on the other hand, was a friend of sinners and saved His anger for the religious people of the day. It is enough to make one think about morality and what is important in the Church.

Let us explore this just a bit more. It takes a proper idea of God in order to live a life of true holiness. In fact, since God is the standard of holiness, there can be no true holiness without a proper concept of Him. To the degree, then, that people have shoddy or irreverent ideas of God is the degree that they are unholy people. That is true of rigid moralists as well. The ramifications for the Church are again enormous. As doctrine is thrown out and people are trying to unite around moral and social actions, God is being cast out of our thinking. We have a huge split along the lines of rigid moralists and liberal moralists. The one who loves God might have to separate with both groups. The Christian should never give up high thoughts of God and a great love for Him. He may be maligned, but this does not mean that he is not living in accordance with love for the true God. A high concept of God leads to a humble pursuit of true holiness. True holiness goes no further than true love for God and the neighbor. We must have a type of holiness that it is attractive to those who love God and yet might be hated by those who don’t love God. The Church must learn to pursue true holiness because it wants the glory and beauty of the holiness of God to shine forth from Her. If that is not pursued, the Church will have no spiritual power and it will slide into a cheap imitation of moralism as found in the Pharisees on the one hand and liberalism on the other.

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” (A. W. Tozer).

This is a shattering statement that should bring all men a view of reality for many reasons. While there is a context to this statement, and we will try to discuss it in later blogs, this statement should be reflected on as it stands. What do people really think is the most important thing about them? It might be their physical condition or perhaps even their hair. It might be their education or their financial worth. It might be how they think that others view them. It could be some form of stature in front of a certain group of people. There are many things that people view as the most important thing about them. But how often are we confronted with statements like this?

The context of this statement by Tozer tells us that he thinks this is true of the Church and of the individual. The reason that this statement is true, according to Tozer, is that we always live in accordance with our view of God. Now, if the most important thing about us is what comes into our minds when we think about God, we need to be careful to instruct our minds and hearts from Scripture as to the truth of the character and glory of God. The reason for his statement, I think, is that the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our being. If we are wrong about the character of God, then we are not loving God at all but loving something that we have dreamed up ourselves. That, clearly, is idolatry in the heart and mind of individuals and of churches.

If spiritual things are more important than anything else, then the character of God is the most important aspect of spiritual things. But, one might argue, “Paul preached nothing but Christ.” Perhaps, but what is meant by that? Paul did not preach Christ as to His human nature and nothing else. Jesus Christ came as the outshining of the glory of the Father (Heb 1:3) and was the very tabernacle of the glory of God in human flesh (John 1:14-18). Jesus Christ came to reveal God and His glory (John 1:18). If Christ is not preached in such a way where the glory of God is shining through Him, then Christ has not been truly preached. It is in Christ that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is seen (II Cor 4:4-6). So there is nothing contradictory about preaching nothing but Christ and saying that the glory of God is the most important thing. We cannot have a true knowledge of God unless we see Him through the lenses of Jesus Christ. The zenith of His glory will only come through and be clearly seen in one way and that is through Christ.

We can also see an underlying issue in Tozer’s statement. All that man does is really an outworking of what goes on in the heart and mind. All that man is and does is a reflection of what he thinks about. All that man does is a reflection of how he sees God. Man is either suppressing the truth of God or he is loving God. Man is either loving a true God or he is loving a false idea of God. But whatever man does he is always reflecting his idea of God in one way or the other. Man will always live out in life what he loves the most in his heart. In some way, then, what man thinks of God (of god) in his heart is the most important and basic thought that goes on in man whether it is a denial of God, a love for an idol, or a denial of God. Man is always reacting to or living out his thoughts of God.

It is utterly vital, therefore, for men to be trained in the truth concerning God and His glory. If man is always going to be living in some way as a result of his thoughts for God, then man must have correct thoughts of God in order to live and love in the way he should. Man is to love God with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength. All other things matter little in comparison to what man thinks within himself about God. Each moment man is thinking of God according to the truth of man is an idolater. Each moment man is either loving the true God or some idolatrous notion of Him. Each moment man is aiming at his greatest love and if it is not the true God, then man is not in obedience to the Great Command. Whether one agrees or not that the most important thing about a person is the thoughts that come into his mind when the thinks of God, surely it is obvious that nothing is more important.

“The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants. The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them” (A. W. Tozer).

“Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. 16 “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” 17 The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Exodus 33:13-18).

When the LORD answered Moses and agreed to do what Moses wanted, the terminal desire of the heart of Moses is put on display. Moses prayed and wanted to see the glory of God. We can assume from the fact that God answered the prayer of Moses that Moses really meant this above all things. This is exactly what the Church must learn to do. All night prayer meetings accomplish nothing other than make people sleepy if the hearts of the people do not desire God for God’s sake. Short prayers from burning hearts for God’s glory are far more effective than long prayers with cold hearts or warm hearts for things other than God.

How did God answer the prayer of Moses? It is very curious how God answered this prayer and it is totally unlike what the Church in America can begin to comprehend. “And He said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion'” (Exodus 33:19). Here is the glory of God that was shown to Moses. God opened the eyes of Moses and displayed before Him that He was sovereign. Could it be that this is why so many do not really desire the glory of God in our day? When people desire God, they must desire Him as He really is and not as they imagine Him to be. The very glory of grace is that it is free and sovereign. Man cannot earn it in any way but simply be emptied of self and causes in self of merit in order to receive grace as free and sovereign. Most men hate this teaching in reality as doctrine and still others who hold it as doctrine hate it in practice.

What must the Church do to rediscover the glory of God? It must be like Moses who was ready to see the glory of God no matter what it entailed. Until the Church is ready to humble itself and deny self it will not see the glory of the one and only God who is perfectly and beautifully sovereign. Man wants to be in control of his life and of his eternal destiny. Man wants to use God for his own purposes and have an Omnipotent Being in a box ready to help him when he has a need. But that is not the sovereign God of Holy Writ. God will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. He does not respond to every prayer or every need. He responds as He wants to respond and in His own time. The very term “grace” demands that we understand that there are no causes in man to cause God to show grace. If grace is grace in reality and not just a concept, then it is sovereign.

As we face the facts of what the glory of God really is, it is readily visible of why the Church in America is not ready to see the glory of God. The Church is too full of itself, too full of confidence in its own power, too caught up with its own activity, and too enamored with the idol of free will. Until the Church is brought in humility and self-denial to seek the glory of God in truth and for His own sake, it will not rediscover the majesty of God. It is sad that when people seek God and His glory they are really seeking the god that they want to act for them. We must tear our hearts and cry out to God to tear the pride from those hearts so that we would be on our faces and ready to see Him as He really is. The sovereign God is the God that men will not honor as God (Rom 1:21). We can give lip service and so all sorts of religious activities, but until our hearts are ravished with God as God we are not going to rediscover the majesty of God. God is sovereign and He is free and utterly glorious to be gracious to whom he will be gracious. There is no shame in believing and loving that, it is simply how God has revealed Himself. Until the Church is ready to be like Moses and bow before God as God, it will be caught up with the activities of religion and the love of itself. But the majesty of God will not be there.

“The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants. The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them” (A. W. Tozer).

“Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. 16 “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” 17 The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Exodus 33:13-18).

In verse 13 we see Moses as a model for the Church. Moses wants to find the favor of God in order that he may know the ways of God. He wants to know the ways of God in order that he might know God. He wants to know God in order to know the ways of God. This is certainly a circle of desiring and knowing God. Notice that Moses did not want to know God or the ways of God for other reasons. He wanted to know God for the sake of knowing God and he wanted God for God’s sake instead of God for other reasons. The Church must learn to seek God simply to know and be in His presence rather than seek God for the blessings of nickels and noses.

Let us reflect on the concept of causation for a moment. Whenever a moral agent decides to do something, that agent has desire, intents, and motives. There may be many compound desires (plural desires that join), but there is one central desire that is the greatest desire of all. We will call that a “terminal desire” or motive. It is that for which other desires or motives are done. The other desires and motives we will call “instrumental desires.” In other words, the instrumental desires are the desires that are used to carry out what is needed for the terminal desire. For example, I may desire to find my keys. But I don’t want to find my keys just because I love to hold my keys. I want to find my keys in order that I may get in my car and drive to town. But I may not want to drive to town just to drive to town; I want to drive to town in order to go to the grocery store. But then again I may not want to go to the grocery store just to look at all the food; I want to buy food in order to eat. This could go deeper, but I hope that the point is clear. The terminal desire is to eat (though it could be to stay alive) and all the other desires and actions are simply instruments to do the deepest desire of the moment.

Well, you might say, “what a useless exercise that was.” Perhaps, but I think this can be used to make a very pertinent point. What is the terminal desire of the Church? Does the Church desire God and His glory as its terminal desire and so use all things for that end or does it try to use God as an instrumental desire and use Him to do what it really wants? Moses wanted God as a terminal desire. He did not desire to use God to obtain things that he wanted. I am afraid that in the Church there are many who try to use God in order to make churches larger and more successful. In that case, the very act of “doing church” is idolatry because all that is being done is not loving God but other things.

As we reflect on why the Church should want to rediscover the majesty of God, this can open up idolatrous hearts within all of us. Do we really desire the glory of God just because we love Him and His glory? Are we sure that we don’t want to use God in order to be more popular or more honored in certain circles? Is it any wonder that God will not come to a church that does not have Him as its chief love? Isn’t this part of what happened to the churches in Revelation? One had left its first love and others were lukewarm. What is leaving a first love for God if it is not trying to use God as an instrumental desire? What is being lukewarm for Christ but not having God as the terminal desire and motive in all things? I am not sure that it is possible to think of the Church in terms of terminal versus instrumental desires without realizing that the Church does not seek the majesty of God simply out of love for God. This is true in conservative circles as well. Idolatry can live quite nicely and gain strength within orthodox churches as well as liberal ones. The real issue is whether God is sought out of love for Himself or He is sought to help us do what we want. If we seek Him for what we want, then we are our own terminal desire. We are then idolaters and God will not visit us. We must repent and cry for hearts to love Him for Himself.

“The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants. The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them” (A. W. Tozer).

“Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. 16 “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?” 17 The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” (Exodus 33:13-18).

Exodus 33 shows us how to seek God. Moses desired the glory of God above all things. He also saw no point in going on if God did not go with them. Such the Church should learn. There is no point in doing church if God is not there. Each church is to be the gathered people of God who are each in one sense the temple of the Spirit and as a corporate body are being made into a dwelling place of God. What is the local church if God is not there? The very life, power, and reason of the church is gone. The majesty of God cannot be replaced by anything and the only reason the church should meet is to seek the glory of God to be manifested in and among them. The Church is a useless enterprise apart from the glory and majesty of God.

The Church must learn from Moses to seek God before it tries to go anywhere or do anything. It must seek to learn the ways of God in order that it may know God better. It must learn to cry from the heart like Moses for God to show it His glory. It must begin to seek God in such a way that it will begin to desire His presence before it will do anything. The Church in our day must learn that the rediscovery of the majesty of God is utterly vital. It must seek that if it is to do anything in the world of any value at all. What does the Church think it is doing when it does so much and yet has no sense of the majesty and presence of God?

What are the distinguishing signs of the Church? What is it that separates the Church from a social club of perhaps a philanthropic group? As Moses noted in verse 16, it is God’s being with His people that distinguishes them from all other peoples on the face of the earth. The Church must wake up to this truth! The Church is nothing but a social club or a group of people carrying out benevolent causes without the presence of the majesty of God. We have gotten so used to doing church without God that it appears normal. This is one reason the statistics show that the people in the Church live pretty much the same as those outside of it. Why is that? Because Scripture teaches that only God being with a people in His glory distinguishes one group of people from another. Isn’t that also true in the New Testament? Jesus Christ came and was the glory of God in human flesh. People who have Christ have His Spirit and they are different people who love their enemies and are known by their love for one another.

Unless the Church begins to seek to rediscover the majesty of God and to have His presence with it, the Church will continue its descent into the world. But since the Church is to be the salt and light of the world, the world will also slide into the ways of the pit. When will the Church wake up and see that all the user friendly ways of the world are hostility toward God? When will the Church wake up and understand that unless God is with it all of its efforts are useless in real terms? How our hearts should burn within us as we get a glimpse of what the Church has left behind in order to make gains in numbers and prestige.

Our hearts should ache within us when we see that the activities going on within the Church are really an attempt to fill the void of the absence of the majesty of God. The Church is crumbling from within because the pillars of the majesty of God are not there to sustain the truth of what the Church is. Eternal life is to know God (John 17:3) and yet the Church has virtually forgotten that fact. Instead, the Church thinks that God’s time is consumed with helping people. So the Church now thinks that God is simply all about people and their so-called needs. In focusing on people instead of God, people are led astray from the waters of eternal life which is knowing Him.