Ministry by C. C. Elliott

• It is the very height of happiness for them to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes.

In Revelation 19 the armies in heaven follow Him, as He comes out to judge. That is taking up a very peculiar work – taking up the work of putting down God's enemies. The horsemen were clothed in white raiment.

• As it explains in another passage, the white raiment is the righteousnesses of the saints. So the saints follow Him in this holy scene too: the attraction continues.

And so we see that the greatest privilege we can conceive is to be with Him.

• The apostle refers to it: to depart to be with Christ which is far better; and then he says, speaking of the rapture,
  • "thus we shall be always with the Lord", 1 Thessalonians 4: 17.

• If we love a person we seek his company. In natural relationships, if two people are engaged to each other, and I find they hardly ever see one another, I should say there is not very much love there.

• You want the company of the person you love, it is quite natural. It is exactly the same spiritually; if we love Christ, we want to be with Him.

A happy and wonderful thing is that Christ gives us His company now, spiritually, but really; and so He comes to us, and we are with Him, and we find the highest spiritual delight to be with Christ.

• In the same way, when the Lord spoke to the disciples, He took their affections for granted, as well as His affections for them:
  • "That where I am ye also may be", John 14: 3.

• He knew it would be their highest delight to be with Him, as it would be His delight to have them there. It does not say what the Father's house is like. There is no description of it. We do get a description of the holy city, but that is not the Father's house.

• The Father's house is such as cannot be described, and I am not surprised. How can you describe affection? Enough to say, it is the Father's house. It could not be described, because it is a home of affection; and that is where He wants us to be with Him.

• The Father's house would not be anything to us if it were not for the love of the Father and the Son.

It is of interest too, that when the Lord gives the promise to the thief on the cross, He says,

• "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise", Luke 23: 43.

• Not today thou shalt be in paradise, but
  • "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise",

• and this to a soul converted a few minutes before.

• Do you not understand that there is a link between Christ and the soul that knows Christ? There is a wonderful attraction at once, and you want to be with Him.

I could adduce a number of instances. The demoniac desired that he should be with Him, not merely because he had got such blessings from Him, but there was something in Christ that attracted his heart

• If you have anybody dwelling in your heart, how can he be nearer to you? Christ comes near to us: and besides, He dwells in us –
  • "That the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts", Ephesians 3: 17.

• When the heart responds, then the greatest joy you can have is to be with Christ.

• I have even noticed that believers who are dying, and have not been walking with Him, say, 'I would like to be with Christ. Despite my unfaithfulness and worldliness, despite what I have been in my life, despite the way I have slighted the Lord, I am going to die, and I would like to be with Him', – because in the soul there is affection for Christ.

• I do not want that only: I desire that our souls may be really attracted to Him and His beauties. We may understand the attraction of Christ as down here; but this same Person is in glory and we can become acquainted with Christ in glory.

• Christ can be known to our hearts as He is. We do not have literal access to the glory now, but spiritually we have. As J.N.D. says in Hymn 74: –

And see! the Spirit's power
Has ope'd the heav'nly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour
When toil shall all be o'er.

We anticipate the joy of the Father's house, and the joy of the glorified position of Christ. We shall see Him and be like Him; but we now become acquainted with Christ, not only as He was but as He is.

May the Lord grant that He may become more attractive to our hearts. I am certain that if our hearts are more attracted to Christ we shall love His own more.

• We shall bear with each other: we shall love one another with a pure heart fervently.

• We shall seek in prayer for the spiritual progress of Christ's loved ones.

• We shall seek to help each other, not only in material matters, but in spiritual

• We should let believers feel 'someone cares for my soul'. A brother who occupied a position where he exhorted people, once said that no one seemed to care to exhort him. Let us care more for the things of others.

• If we love Christ we love His own, and seek the good of His own. May God bless His word.

The thought of the glory of God in some form or another appears very early in Scripture, and I may say that one of the main thoughts in regard of the term is that it may be described as

• the shining out of what is characteristic of a person, a condition, or a thing.

• What is characteristic – generally, of course, in excellence, but sometimes the opposite – is the glory of the thing, and so we find this thought confirmed in the scriptures I have read.

• Now, though we are brought to see special aspects of it in Christianity, we may also gather up in our experience and see all the aspects in which this subject is presented in Scripture. For instance,
  • "The heavens declare the glory of God", Psalm 19: 1.

• That is, all the attributes of God in connection with order and light are exemplified in the heavens, and they declare the glory of God to anybody who can see them. All those special characteristics of God come out in the movement and the light of the heavenly bodies.

• Because we have further light, it does not mean that we should not consider this question. I think those who compose the assembly should observe, better than others, the glory of God in creation, and more especially in the heavens.

• In regard of the earth, of course, the glory of God still appears in the creation, but there is so much that has obscured it, yet not only do we know that the knowledge of God will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, Isaiah 11: 9, but we learn from Habakkuk 2: 14 that
  • "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea".

• So that, though we know that now
  • "the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together", Romans 8: 22,

• we recognise that not only will the physical universe be blessed, but the moral universe of men will have the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the glory of God.

• That is, men will know what is characteristic of God, and I may say that the greatest glory of man on earth is to know God. You could not have a greater glory or distinction attached to man than the knowledge of God. In fact, Jeremiah tells us so; he says,
  • "But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me", chapter 9: 24.

• God takes the spirit of man and so forms and influences it by His blessed Spirit that the knowledge of Himself comes into man's view; and what an honour that we should know God.

In Exodus we learn that Moses desired to see God's glory, but he could not see God's face, he could only see the back parts, but in the declaration that was made to him, the glory of God came out morally.

• In connection with that I would say that the greatest glory is what we perceive spiritually.

• No doubt there is in certain cases the accompaniment of an outward public sign of glory, as for instance when Moses' face shone, or when the face of the blessed Lord shone as the sun, and His shining garments were white and effulgent.

• Though there is thus sometimes recorded a physical shining forth that accompanies a manifestation of the glory of God, as impressing our mortal vision,
  • yet the greatest glory is the spiritual or moral, as, in this passage, the declaration of what God is in His attributes.

• In this wonderful passage, Exodus 34, you get the glory of God declared, as far as then revealed; that is, His essential characteristic attributes in regard to the revelation which He then made. In regard to that, it seems remarkable that the first thing said is,
  • "Jehovah, Jehovah God merciful and gracious".

• Other qualities are mentioned but He begins with that, no doubt in view of the condition of the people; God insists that His great glory is that He is merciful and gracious.

• It does say that He will not clear the guilty, which is surely right, for no one would believe in a God who would ignore sin; no one would respect or reverence Him, and it says that retribution follows to the third and fourth generation, but in describing the other side,
  • not only does it say that He shows, "mercy unto thousands" of those that love Him, Exodus 20: 6, but in Deuteronomy 7: 9 it says, "to a thousand generations" of those that love Him.

• It indicates the greatness of God's mercy that when it speaks of evil and the retribution of evil, it is on three or four generations,
  • but when it speaks of those that love Him, it remarkably says, "to a thousand generations". I believe that to be one great glory of God, and so with His other attributes.

I proceed for a moment to the glory of the future kingdom – for it is well at times to dwell upon that, when God will be known here in this world as well as in heaven, and when the peculiar character of His distinctive glory will be known by men,

• when "they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them", Jeremiah 31: 34.

• What a day that will be, when God is known and loved by the inhabitants of this world! When we see men's ignorance and hatred of God, to think that that will be displaced by the universal prevalence of the knowledge of God!

• The distinctive character of God will come out in that way, and the glory of God as then known will be seen; men will see it, and will believe and love it.

• It seems to me a wonderful thing, and so you get those beautiful Psalms which tell us of the glory of the kingdom. They all breathe the character of God.

• The King who then reigns will be the Lord Jesus Christ, and He reigns until He has shown the blessed characteristics of God, so that God's glory is known even on earth.

In connection with that, I read that verse in Revelation which says that the nations shall walk in the light of the heavenly city, and it says also,

• "They shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations to it".

• That, to me, is a very interesting statement, because the nations have honour and glory now. Certain nations are distinguished by certain kinds of glory, some by military glory, others by literary and artistic glory, and such like, and all those so-called glories are used for their own exaltation and adornment,
  • but in that day, though there will be still the nations in the world, they will bring the distinctive honour and glory – because the distinction between nations will be maintained – which distinguish them rightly, not wrongly, to the holy city; that is, where God dwells in the assembly.

• All that will be laid down, so to speak, before the God whose glory fills that wonderful vessel.

• Man seeks glory and honour for himself, or for his nation or race, and it is not brought to God; the distinctive glories which God has given him even in nature are not used to distinguish God. They are not used for the glory of God,
  • but in that day all the particular characteristics of the nations will be devoted to God and brought to the holy city.

• It will be a wonderful scene where man's glory is completely subordinate to God.

Now I want to draw your attention to the connection between sufferings and glory.

• Peter tells us in his epistle, which is full of the thought of the sufferings and glory of Christ, that
  • we exult "with joy unspeakable and filled with the glory", 1 Peter 1: 8.

• So our minds are filled with the glory while suffering, and, however great the suffering, the glory is what fills our souls, so that we can endure it.

• When we think of all the conflicts, and the sufferings that the assembly has gone through since the time Christ ascended to heaven, that great weight of suffering, we know perfectly well, has a compensating glory, and not only a compensating glory because of those sufferings, but a glory even beyond the sufferings.

• Paul speaks of the sufferings working
  • "an eternal weight of glory", 2 Corinthians 4: 17.

• The sufferings actually work a weight of glory; that is, each suffering is rewarded by a partaking of glory in greater or lesser degree.

That is one thing, but beside that, there is an admission in spirit to a vast scene of glory which is not necessarily connected with the reward of suffering, and that is most comforting.

• When we think of the present state of things in the world there is so much which would depress, but while we suffer in those things, there is always the sense that there is this glory system which is soon to burst upon our vision.

• It is not only most consoling, but elevating to know that just beyond us, so to speak, the next step may bring us into the manifestation of this glory, a glory to which morally we can become accustomed even now.

• So, too, in Romans 8: 18 we have that
  • "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us".

• If you have your eyes on that, I am perfectly certain that the sufferings are not worthy to be compared – they are small compared with that glory which shall be revealed to us, when the manifestation of the sons of God takes place.
  • The glory of the children of God issues in the fulness of sonship and that which is connected with it.

Now, quite a different kind of glory, in a sense, from what had ever been seen in the world came in when the Lord Jesus was here. That is,

• "a glory as of an only-begotten with a father", John 1: 14.

• As seen in a divine Person, that is a glory that is new; this was never seen before. It was not accompanied by outward manifestations, that is, of visual appearances. It was found in a wonderful, perfect, humble Man.

• It was "a glory as of an only-begotten with a father". What a glory that is! Think of the affections of "an only-begotten with a father", the bright and peculiar glories or excellencies that belong to such a position!
  • John says, "We have contemplated his glory".

• The apostles contemplated it, and handed on the report to us, and we see there the most wonderful thing ever known in this world, the glory of an only-begotten presented in a divine Person in manhood.

• The peculiar affections that exist between the Father and the Son are made known to us, and by means of what the apostles have told us, we are able to contemplate it. And what a blessed occupation that is! The excellencies that belong to that wonderful relationship.

Then further, excellencies that belong to that blessed Person engage our attention. We know that a special glory has been given to Him which is given to us;

• as He says, "And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them", John 17: 22.

• To think that the distinctive excellencies which belong to the position of Christ, now exalted, are ours! It shows the wonderful character of Man that God has introduced in Christ, and that He has associated men with Him, so that they share His glory. What a privilege!

• There are glories which we shall see. It says,
  • "That they may behold my glory which thou hast given me", John 17: 24.

• There is that which we shall see, but besides that – and here our hearts bow down in holy reverence to Him – there is a glory which is incommunicable, and which is not to be seen by mortal eye. This the Lord speaks of in saying to the Father,
  • "The glory which I had along with thee before the world was", John 17: 5.

• Perhaps someone will say, 'If that is so, how can you speak of glory being a shining forth of anything, if we are unable to see it?' Well, we know it is there,
  • yet we must remember that there are untold depths in the Deity, and, while unknowable to us, this glory is known to divine Persons Themselves.

• WIs it not manifest, as it were, to them? Of course it is, so that the description I gave of glory still holds, that while we may not see it, while it is not shown to us, while there are these glories into which we cannot penetrate,
  • they are known to divine Persons between Themselves, for the Son, who is One of the Persons, speaking to the Father, who is Another of the Persons, speaks of this glory.

• It is, however, well to note that there is something beyond us, because it induces in us a most holy sense of reverence for these divine Persons,
  • and if the blessed Son of God has come out and is known as He is, and if the blessed Spirit of God has come out and speaks to us of the glories of Christ,

• it is for revelation, that we might know them; but then, there is that which is beyond.

Now, I just want to say a word about the condition of sonship, in that it underlies the complete moral transformation of a person spiritually.

• That is one thing; there is a moral transformation which goes on now, which I have no doubt is helped on by sufferings, and the dealings of God with us.

• What we think to be most untoward and distressing is no doubt meant to make us lose our hold of that which is after the flesh and what is natural, and to see that God has before Him a divine ideal, and that ideal is His Son, and that we are to share in that place of sonship.

• So that, first of all, you see there is moral transformation in the spirit, so that we assimilate, so to speak, the character which pertains to sonship. That is one thing, and is most important. God will see to it eventually that every saint is morally like His Son,
  • but there is a corollary to that which is of the utmost importance, and which fills our hearts with joy, that we are going to have glorified bodies like to His Son's body.

• There is a future state which we can only dimly envisage, but which is our hope and joy,
  • when He "shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory", Philippians 3: 21.

• Now, while that is beyond us, because we are not told exactly what it is, I can only say what a wonderful thing it is, that we shall have bodies of glory, bodies suited to the present glorified condition of Christ.

• When the Lord Jesus was down here, as I said, He showed forth the moral glories of God and of His own Person in a flesh-and-blood condition of body.

• Then He showed further features in His resurrection body. There were features of a glorious nature, connected with His resurrection body, which, of course, were very different from those which He showed in His flesh-and-blood condition. The resurrection body indeed showed glories of a kind, and had properties, which the flesh-and-blood body did not.

• When He was glorified a fresh accession of glory was added.
  • It says Jesus "had not yet been glorified", John 7: 39,

• and when He was glorified, I have no doubt it was not just the resurrection body, but there were added to it glories on account of which it could be described as a body of glory.

• Now the features of that we cannot tell, for they have not yet been told us, but does it not fill our hearts with joy to know that at any moment we may put off these bodies and be granted bodies like to His body of glory, suited to that glorious scene? How wonderful those bodies will be!

• Do we understand that may happen soon? – that at any time the holy scene of glory, which our souls have known in part now in these mortal bodies, is to be known by us in full enjoyment in our glorious body.

• It is a most sublime thought, to think that men should have that destiny, that God should have that before Him – of course, because of His Son, but that He should have it before Him in view of men who are to be with and like His Son. Every believer is to have that body of glory.

• Oh! how I respect you! How I respect my brethren! I feel they are worthy of the utmost respect, not only the respect that I give to other men, for Peter says, "Shew honour to all", 1 Peter 2: 17,
  • but the respect I give to one who is now morally being formed like Christ, and is to have a body like to that blessed Person's.

• All I can say is that I have the greatest respect for them. I feel that you are worthy, dear brethren, of all respect. It is God's holy, wondrous destiny for His own.

There is just one other matter I desire to bring before you, and that is in connection with the assembly, which is said to have the glory of God.

• This is not only individually but collectively, and the assembly is
  • "coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God".

• She is such a vessel that she is adequate to set forth what God is, in so far as can be known by men, in all His attributes, such as love, righteousness, goodness, faithfulness, truth, mercy – whatever attribute may be known of God.

• Not His almighty power in the Deity, of course, but nevertheless, she has the glory of God. The assembly is to have that which characterises God in the distinctive way He can be known and displayed.

• What do I respect now? I not only respect my individual fellow believers, but I respect that wonderful assembly of God which is to have such a distinguished destiny – think of it having the glory of God!
  • "To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages", Ephesians 3: 21.

Now, Psalm 45 applies, as we know, primarily to the earthly bride;

• it says, "All glorious is the king's daughter within".

• Now, that does not mean within herself, but within the royal palace; she is not outside, but is all glorious within, and then it describes her gold and embroidered garments.

• I only want to draw attention to it, because I am sure it applies also to the assembly, for there is a glory of the assembly, given of course, which is within – what is for the King's eye. So, beyond the fact that
  • He is coming "to be glorified in his saints, and wondered at in all that have believed", 2 Thessalonians 1: 10

• – that is true, so that all can see it – there is for the heart of Christ a private glory which He alone is going to see.

• This glory is within, that is, in the royal palace, where He is, and He will rejoice in seeing in the assembly the glories which, of course, are His own, and which the work of the Spirit has brought about.

• That is why I think that passage in Ephesians, so well known, is so beautiful when it speaks of the assembly as glorious. All that distinguishes her in His eye will be there for Him to see.

• There will be much that will be seen by men at large, as quoted in that verse, "glorified in his saints", but for the eye of Christ there will be that which is peculiarly precious to Him.

• Now, I think, that has a present application to us, that Christ desires to find moral and spiritual glories in us which are for His eye alone. Putting it in another figure from the Song of Songs,
  • it says, she is a "fountain sealed", chapter 4: 12.

  • In other words, she cannot be opened by anybody; the seal is to be broken by the owner of the fountain.

• So there are beauties in the assembly which the Lord delights to find and to see, which are open only to His inspection: beauties connected with intimacy and affection, beauties connected with a close view of those beauties and affections.

• You cannot describe a person as persons are described in that wonderful book – either the bride or the bridegroom – by a cursory view in the street, but you need intimate knowledge and close attention to be able to draw such pictures as are drawn there.

• So, for the eye of Christ, there is that which He sees and which He can describe, and which He loves to see. And the obverse of that is the intimacy that leads to such a knowledge of Christ in which we can rejoice.

I end on that note, except for just one word, which, if I may, I will speak to the young believers here, and that is this.

• What is the glory of the world compared to this?

• Satan showed the blessed Lord all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. Are we going to be deceived by that glory? Are we going to sacrifice spiritual welfare and spiritual progress and knowledge for the glory of the world? Is it worth it? I just make that appeal. It is not worth it.

• I believe the more we are occupied with the glory of Christ, and with all the special features that come out in divine Persons as made known to us in their excellence, the less the world and its prospects will allure us. Instead of it being a great luminary which Satan would have it be for us, to attract us by its false glitter, we see the thing shrink to a mite.

• Does it attract us in one form of ambition or another? I would say this to young believers, Get acquainted with the glory of Christ, and the world will have no attraction for you, and then you will be devoted to the will of God.

• I have felt it much that this great system of glory connected with the excellencies of divine Persons and the excellences of those whom divine Persons have blessed should be more before us, for we are soon to step into it in our glorified bodies, and in connection with this holy and beautiful assembly
  • which Christ will present to Himself "glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things", Ephesians 5: 27.

I just wanted to indicate these matters to you, so that you might be on the tip-toe of expectation, and meanwhile we are to do all things to the glory of God, that is, to exalt God.

• So the time that remains is extremely important in every action of our lives. Whether in domestic service, or in shops, or wherever we work, we can do everything to the glory of God. Do not let anyone take that thought away from us.

• So may the Lord keep us on this tip-toe of expectation, till we find the whole system here disappear from our vision, and we are with and like our beloved Lord.