Hebrews 1 verse 3, just one verse this afternoon. I'll actually give you a little context. I'll actually read verses 1 through 3, and then we'll be focusing, though, on the first part of verse 3. So keep that in mind as I read. And remember, as I read, this is the Holy Word of God in Aaron and in Fallible. In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe. The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. And after he had provided purification for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. That will end the reading of the Word of God. Would you bow your heads with me? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we do pray that you would apply your covenant benefits this afternoon and that you would be faithful to us as we hear the Word preached. In Jesus' name, Amen. It's kind of an ambiguous word that could have many different meanings in our society. I remember at one time watching a 60 Minutes type show, and there was this athlete being interviewed. He had been playing probably for about 20 years, and he had won all there was to win. He had broken all kinds of records, but he continued to play. He insisted upon playing more and more. The interviewer was kind of puzzled by this, and he asked this athlete, Why do you keep playing? Is it for the camaraderie? He said, no. Is it for just to win another championship? He said, no. Then why do you continue to play? And the athlete says back to him, I play for the glory of it. That's why this athlete continued to play. And by glory he meant the pomp or the fame of it. Oftentimes we'll use glory in a different meaning. Sometimes we use it to refer to heaven. Oftentimes you'll hear in certain circles will hear, oh, I'm going to glory, I'm going to heaven. Other times the word glory can refer to kind of a golden age. The glory of Israel was when Solomon reigned or when David reigned, this was their glory. So what does the word glory mean within a scriptural framework? In our passage this afternoon, Jesus, the Son, is called the radiance of God's glory, or the radiance of His glory. the brightness, literally. What does that mean? How are we to understand that? How do we know Jesus as the radiance of God's glory? Well, this sermon I hope to convey to you more a biblical understanding of the concept of glory. And in doing so, I hope to allow you to see and behold the glory of Christ in a greater way. So in order to do this, the most natural place to start is by looking back at the Old Testament Oftentimes we call this the redemptive historical approach or biblical theology where we start with the Old Testament and as the revelation of God unfolds, we kind of track the progress of these certain doctrines or teachings. And so a good place to start would be from the Old Testament. And glory is an interesting word in the Old Testament in Hebrew. It's actually the word kavod. And the interesting thing about it is that Hebrew, which is a very concrete language, oftentimes will express very abstract concepts such as glory in concrete terms. For instance, the word for compassion is also the word for womb. You can kind of see how those things go together. will have compassion on her child and her womb. So you see how those things go together. In scripture we read that God is slow to anger, but it's literally he's long of nose. That one's a little bit harder to figure out, but you can see Hebrew will oftentimes tell an abstract concept in very concrete terms. And glory here is very similar. The word for glory is actually the word for heavy or weighty. In 1 Samuel 4.18, you don't have to turn there, Eli, the great judge of Israel, was said to be a heavy man, meaning that he was fat. But this was the same word actually used for glory throughout scripture, and that teaches us somewhat of the Old Testament concept of glory. It's a weighty matter. It's not something to be taken lightly. It's not something that you just kind of trivial thing. The glory of God is the weightiness of God. It's something that should be taken very seriously. So after that brief word study, let's look to the actual Old Testament information concerning the concept of glory so we can hope to get a better understanding of what the writer to the Hebrews means when he calls Jesus the radiance of God's glory. So the first place we'll turn to see that is Exodus 40 verses 34 through 36. If you would turn there with me, if you would, to Exodus 40 verses 34 to 36. And as you're turning, I'll give you a little context. Moses is coming down from the mountains. He's just received instruction on how to build the tabernacle or the tent of meeting. And now everything is ready and now we have come to Exodus 40 here. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled upon it. and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out. Here we see oftentimes what we think of glory. It's that glory cloud, that Shekinah glory, what we sometimes call, has descended upon where God dwells on earth. The physical manifestation of where God dwells, which was in this time a period of history, is the tabernacle. And God has come in this cloud. Now we have to make a little distinction here. It's not actually God there in the sense that that's the divine essence, you're getting a hold of it, but it's a physical manifestation of God. And in the Hebrew mind, the sign and the thing signified, the glory cloud, which is the thing signified and the sign, are always not smushed together, but you can't separate them. So when the glory cloud was there, God was actually present. Again, he wasn't the cloud, but that was a physical manifestation of God being present with him. And we see Moses here not being able to enter. Moses could not enter, it says, because the glory of the Lord is a weighty issue. Moses probably could not enter. He's probably, when he says this, he's probably reminded of what happened just a few chapters earlier in Exodus 34 when Moses says, Oh Lord, show me your glory. And what happens? God passes before him. Moses is put into the cleft of the rock, and God holds him there, and he lets him see just his back, says the scripture. And Moses comes down from the mountain, and people can't even look at him. So the glory of the Lord is a weighty matter, and Moses here is reminding us that it's not easily to be entered into. It's a holy thing. It's weighty. and it's God's physical manifestation on earth. Similarly, in 1 Kings 8, we have the passage where Solomon is dedicating the temple, and the temple, again, is the next step in redemptive history where God dwells. First, he dwelt in the tabernacle, and now he's dwelling in this temple. And again, we see a similar thing happen. If you would turn with me to 1 Kings 8, verses 10 and 11, and we'll see a similar thing happening. 1 Kings 8 verses 10 and 11. Again, this is in the context of Solomon's Dedictory Prayer. When the priests withdrew from the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord, and the priests could not perform the services because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple. Again, we see the glory of the Lord entering into the holy place. Before it was the tabernacle, now it's the temple. And again we see the priest, before it was Moses, but now it's the priest not being able to do their duty because the glory of the Lord was there. It was too heavy of a thing. It was too weighty. It was too holy for these people to enter into. The glory of the Lord is the physical manifestation of God on earth, and the people cannot enter into it, at least temporarily here, because it is such a weighty matter. It's so holy. This was this understanding that God is holy and his presence on earth is holy was brought home to me when I was at work one day. And what I do is I work at a parking lot and I collect money and I give people a ticket. That's all I do. And oftentimes my customers, I get to know them pretty well, they'll ask me what I do and I say, well, I'm a I'm a seminary student, I'm training for the pastoral ministry. And oftentimes I'll get one out of two reactions to that. Either they'll go as fast as they can and go park, or they'll start telling me how many good things they've done in the last week. And this was kind of a puzzling reaction to me. I didn't know what they were doing, but then it occurred to me that in some sense, because I'm training for the pastoral ministry, I represent God to them. Now, of course, in my office, not in my great behavior, but in some sense, I do represent God to these people. And they don't want to get near me, because they know that God is holy. They know that the divine nature has been clearly shown to them, and they have suppressed it in unrighteousness, if they are unbelievers. And they don't want to be around me, because the presence of God is a holy thing, or even the physical manifestation of it. And in the same way, These people could not enter into the presence of God because it is a holy thing. It is a weighty thing, as we saw earlier. And, of course, the glory cloud in the Old Testament is the physical manifestation of God on this earth. So that's the first thing we learn about the glory cloud in the Old Testament. The second thing we learn is that sacrifices were necessary in order to enter into this glory. Sacrifices were necessary. We see this very clearly in Leviticus 9, verses 5 and 7, if you'd turn there with me. Leviticus 9, verses 5 through 7. Again, the context is Moses has just received instructions about the whole burnt offering. He's received the ways in which Israel was to carry out their worship, their sacrifices, and now he's relaying it to his brother Aaron. Leviticus 9, verses 5 through 7. They took the things Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting, and the entire assembly came near and stood before the Lord. Then Moses said, this is what the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you. Moses said to Aaron, come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offerings and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and the people. Sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make atonement for them as the Lord has commanded. And we see here that a sacrifice, or many sacrifices in this case, were necessary for the people to enter, for the priests who represented the people to enter into the glorious presence of God. And we can see why that is the case. God is a holy God, and he cannot accept sin in his presence. So these sacrifices are offered on behalf of the people so that they might enter into God's presence, so that they might be purified, so that they might be ceremonially clean or clean in the sight of God, so that they could enter into God's presence. God, again, is a holy God, and he will not allow sin in his presence. Clearly, these sacrifices here are to purify, to sanctify, to set the people apart so that they might enter into the glorious presence of God. A similar thing happens in 1 Kings, you don't have to turn there, but again, it happens again at the temple when Solomon offers an enormous amount of sacrifices in order for the priest to be able to do their services there, because otherwise they wouldn't be able to enter. You remember on the Day of Atonement, the high priest was the only one allowed to enter, and he had to first make a sacrifice, and then he had to make a sacrifice, and then send a goat out. There are all these procedures for him to follow. because of the glory, the holiness of the Lord. His physical manifestation on earth was just too holy for a normal person to enter. They had to be sanctified and set apart by these sacrifices. And finally, the last thing we learn about the glory in the Old Testament is that when the glory left Israel, they were in trouble. When God's glory, when God's presence left them, they were cooked, basically. We see this first in 1 Samuel. Maybe you remember the story with Eli and his two sons, Hopni and Phineas, and they were doing lewd acts in front of the temple, or the tabernacle, and they were doing all these really bad things that are just almost difficult to mention. They were just so bad. And what happened then? The Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant. And as Eli's daughter-in-law was dying, what did she name her child? literally, no glory, or the glory has departed. The glory departed from Israel, and what happened? They were routed. Eli's two sons died, and the ark was captured, and then Eli himself died when he heard that the ark was captured. When the glory left Israel, they were in trouble. When God's presence left them, they were just like the other nations, if not worse, because they had rejected their God. Again, this happens to the temple, too. You remember the story of when in Ezekiel, Ezekiel sees the vision of the temple and the cherubim, and then he sees the vision of the glory of the Lord departing from the temple. Ezekiel's in Babylon, he's one of the first captors over, but the city was still, when Ezekiel started prophesying, the city of Jerusalem was still intact. But then he saw this vision of the glory of the Lord leaving the temple, and Ezekiel knew at that time that the temple was going to be destroyed and that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. Much to the dismay of many of the prophets who were there, who were prophesying peace, they were saying, God can never leave us. The glory of the Lord will never leave us. We are the children of Abraham. We are God's chosen. But because of the disobedience of the people, The glory left and what happened? The Babylonians came and they destroyed the temple. And this is great application for us, very good application for us. These false prophets were telling Jeremiah basically that the glory would never leave them, that God's presence would never leave them because of their ancestry, because of the temple, because of their Israelite heritage, that God's glory would never leave them, that God's presence would never go away from them. And Jeremiah said, you preach peace, but there is no peace. And what happened? The Babylonians took over and destroyed the city, something that was unthinkable in the minds of the Israelites or the citizens of Judah at that time. And we as Reformed Presbyterians, this is especially a temptation for us who have such a glorious past. It's great to teach our children and the young people about the Scottish Covenanters, about the killing times, and about great people like Cameron and others who stood up to the wickedness of that time. But too often I see in RP circles that we put our trust in that and we look down on others. We kind of put our glasses like this and look down on others and say, oh, you were only formed in 1979. I mean, what kind of congregation are you or anything like that? We lose sight of the fact that the glory can even leave us, that it has left even many congregations the presence of God. And many of the liberal Protestant churches who have such a great and rich heritage, or even the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches who have even greater heritages, God has left them in the main because they have rejected God. And now it can happen to us too. We need to pass on the truth of God to the next generation. We need to do that so the glory will not depart from us, because we, just like Israel, cannot survive without the glory of God. Of course, it's not a physical manifestation anymore, but it is God's Spirit among us. It can leave us, too, as a denomination, if we reject the teachings of God, if we stray away from His holy ordinances. It can even leave the Reformed Presbyterian Church. So now that we've seen kind of the background for the concept of glory in the Old Testament, how that it is this glory cloud, the physical manifestation of God on earth, how that sacrifices were necessary for people to enter into it, and also how the Israelites, when they sinned, the glory departed and they were in trouble when the glory departed. Now we can go to our Hebrews passage this morning where Jesus is called the radiance of God's glory and maybe we can understand that a little bit better. So again, turn with me to Hebrews 1 verse 3 and we'll try to understand what the scriptures are teaching us by saying that Jesus is the radiance of God's glory. So the passage reads again, the Son is the radiance of God's glory in the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. So in the Old Testament, here we saw that the glory is the physical manifestation of God. But there's a difference here in the New Testament. Instead of the glory of God being the mere physical manifestation of God, this passage teaches us that the glory is God in the flesh. It's not a manifestation of God, it is God. Here again, let me read, the sun is the radiance of God's glory, and listen to this, the exact the exact representation of his being or person, depending on how you translate that word, sustaining all things by the word of his power. The exact representation of his being clearly means that the Son is divine. And he upholds all things by the word of his power. That's clearly a divine attribute. So unlike the Old Testament, the Son is God in the flesh. He is God's presence manifested on earth He's not merely God's presence manifested. He's also God himself, the second person of the Trinity, assuming a human nature to himself and coming to the people of God in the flesh. This passage is very reminiscent of John in his first chapter when he says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Then down to verse 14 he says, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." And then what does he say? "...and we beheld his glory." Again, there's continuity with the Old Testament, but there's also progression. Continuity is that the Son is the presence of God. He's God to the people. But the progression is that, unlike the Old Testament, where it was merely a manifestation, it's also, in the New Testament, God Himself coming to His people in the flesh and His people beholding His glory. I remember in Spanish class years and years ago, I had seen this painting. In Spanish class, you don't just learn the language, you also learn a bit about the culture. And there was this one painting that we kept reading about, it was called Las Meninas, this Spanish painting. And I kept seeing little black and white photos of it, and it was a little bit, it wasn't very impressive to me. I was like, why is this painting so, so popular? It's not that good. but I was just seeing a little physical manifestation of it, a little black and white picture. Years later, I got the chance to go to Madrid and visit this painting in actuality, the real thing, and it blew me away. It was totally different than I had expected, because I'd only seen the physical manifestation. Now, I saw the real thing, and it was that much more glorious, if you will. Again, the Old Testament had the physical manifestation of God, and it was glorious enough. People couldn't even enter into it. But now, we have Jesus Christ, who is the real thing. He's the second person of the Trinity, assuming a human nature, and coming into the world. How much more glorious is Jesus Christ? Jesus is the radiance of God's glory. He's God to his people. He's God in the flesh, present with his people. And you might ask yourself now, If in the Old Testament they needed all these sacrifices just to enter into the physical manifestation of God's presence, how could we enter into the presence of Christ now, who is the real thing, who is God himself? Well, fear not, brothers and sisters. The ultimate sacrifice has been made. The ultimate sacrifice is made on your behalf. Jesus Christ not only came into this world, but he also gave himself up once for all for the sins of all of his people, for the sins of those who would repent of their sins and believe in him. So therefore, we need not fear coming into the presence of the Lord. We have not come to the mountain where there's lightning and thunder where all the people in the Old Testament said, no, no, we don't want to go there. They told Moses that. We have come where? To Mount Zion, to the church of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to thousands and thousands of angels worshiping in joyful assembly, to the souls of righteous people made perfect, and to the mediator of a new covenant, Jesus Christ, whose sprinkled blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Brothers and sisters, boldly enter the presence of Christ. Yes, it is a glorious presence. Yes, you need to be holy. But if you have repented of your sins, and if you've trusted in Him, you are holy, because the sacrifice has been made on your behalf, and you are wrapped in His robes of righteousness. So fear not entering into the glory of the Lord, to the presence of God, especially as we go through our services on the Lord's Day. That's in a special way. The Lord is present with us. as we assemble together as the people of God on the Lord's Day, fear not His presence. Fear not His presence when you go into your prayer closets. The Lord is no longer angry with you because the sacrifice has been made on your behalf and God the Father's fierce anger toward you has been taken away, has been propitiated so you can boldly enter into the throne of grace. Brothers and sisters, on this planet, as we live right now, we can only behold the glory of Christ with the eyes of faith. But there will be a time when we will see that glory as John saw it, and even greater, the exalted Christ face-to-face. Turn with me, if you would, to Revelation 21, verses 22 to 27. Revelation 21, verses 22 to 27. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Notice the temple imagery. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." Do you see what's happening here? Again, we only see the glory of Christ with the eyes of faith. But there will be a time when we will see Christ and His glory will be so radiant that there will be no need for a sun. Brothers and sisters, do you live your life as if that's where you're going? Do you understand that your citizenship is in heaven, it's not on this earth? That one day you will see your Lord face to face in all of His glory, and you will be clean, and you will be righteous, and you will be able to enter His presence. And He will wipe away every tear from your eye. What would we look like if we lived like that? Oh, so often times we get caught up, myself included, probably more than most of you, get caught up in the day-to-day affairs of what's happening, not realizing that, or not at the moment understanding that this is where we're going. We're going to see the Lamb, whose glory is so bright that the sun is useless. And we are going to enter in as clean as Him, with His righteousness. That is where we're going. If we live like that, suddenly the traffic jams won't be that much of a big deal. Or even bigger deals like the death of loved ones. Not that they're not a big deal, they are. But brothers and sisters, we are going to see the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. And our loved ones in the Lord who have perished in the Lord. will be there, and they have gone to see their Lord. What great news that is! What beautiful, what beautiful news do we have coming to us. Oh, brothers and sisters, we need to live like we are going to see that beautiful glory of God. We're going to see Jesus Christ, who is the radiance of God's glory, the brightness of His glory, the One who in His very being is God Himself. We are going to see Him, and He will wipe away every tear from our eye. Bow your heads with me, please. Oh Lord, especially in this season where your incarnation is the focus of many Christians' minds, we do thank you for that. We thank you for your coming into the world. We thank you that the apostles beheld your glory, and they wrote of it, and they showed us the way to salvation in Jesus Christ through His sacrifice. And Lord, we do pray that we would live our lives knowing that we are going to behold your glory, that our loved ones who are lost in the Lord have already beheld it, and there will be a time when Jesus Christ, the radiance of God's glory, will wipe away all tears from our eyes. We pray this in his name. Amen.