Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

The heavens declare the glory of God, and that is why the study of astronomy is so fascinating.

It is constantly confirming what God has revealed in His word.

Many Christians look at God's revelation of the heavenly city and conclude that it must be symbolical and not literal.

A fourteen hundred square mile city of gold with the walls loaded with precious gems seems a little too extravagant even for God.

But then comes the March 1992 issue of Science News, and it is revealed that scientists have found literal jewels in the heavens.

They have found, not just the glorious light of stars, galaxies, and supernovas, but actual diamonds in the sky.

A NASA team in Hawaii, using an infrared telescope, found what they are convinced are real diamonds and three Milky Way clouds.

They knew there were diamonds out there somewhere already, for in 1987 diamonds were found in meteorites that fell to earth.

These researchers have concluded that the carbon dust that gives rise new stars is as much as ten percent in the form of diamonds.

They feel there is likely to be diamonds in every molecular cloud in the heavens.

The point is, when we read this description of the heavenly city made of gold and precious stones, we do not have to back away from the literal interpretation, as if God does not have the know how or the power to produce such an abundance of precious stones.

If man could get at them he could fill the Grand Canyon with diamonds that God has already created in stellar spaces.

The reason I take this picture literally is not just because of any scientific discovery, but because John tells us in verse 11 that the city shown with the glory of God and its brilliance was like a very precious jewel.

If this is not literal, then it has to be greater than the literal, for God's glory will never be less than the glory of the kings of the earth, who splendor will be brought into the city, as John says in verse 24.

I have seen pictures of the crown jewels of the royalty of the earth.

They are awesome in their glory.

It is a valid assumption that God, the king of the universe, will have a glory that is so superior to theirs, that it will take our entire vocabulary of words dealing with light and jewels to describe it.

Words like brilliant, magnificent, glorious, lustrous, regal, resplendent, dazzling, luminous, radiant, gleaming, glittering, glistening, and a host of others.

It's a city of gold and jewels,

For it's God's glory that we share.

Only the boldest of fools

Would want to miss being there.

In America The Beautiful, we sing the last verse--

"O beautiful for patriot dream

that sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam,

Undimmed by human tears!"

And in the chorus we sing, "May God thy gold refine," and, "Crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea."

All these terms of gold, gleaming, and shining are ideals of man.

He wants his cities to shine with the glory of gold and brilliant light.

That ideal will never be complete until God builds the city.

That is just what John saw in his vision of the golden city of heaven.

Man has done some impressive things in his cities, but only the city of heaven will shine with the very glory of God.

Emerson said, "I always seem to suffer some loss of faith on entering cities."

They can look quite impressive as you approach and see the new buildings on the skyline.

The vast array of gleaming windows can be awesome, but when you get there you are hit by the reality that the beautiful city is filled with corruption.

Aristotle felt the government should prevent people from accumulating in cities, for they become hot beds of corruption.

We see the truth of his conviction in every large city.

Jesus wept over the largest city He ever entered, the Old Jerusalem, because of it's corruption and resistance to the will of God.

That city and it's leaders killed the very Son of God, and revealed just how corrupt the city could be, even when the most glorious works of man are all around.

The beautiful temple with it's treasure of gold and works of art did not prevent such corruption.

Jesus loved all the beauty and glory of the temple, but he wept for the people, for they were rejecting the one all this beauty pointed to.

Hitler and the Gestapo leaders would feast in luxury with the world's finest art all about them.

Then they would enjoy the exquisite beauty of the best classical music.

Yet, from that setting of grandeur they could go forth to kill, in cold blood, millions of innocent people.

The glory of what man can create is impressive, but man cannot be changed by the glory of man.

Man can only be changed in any deep and permanent way by the glory of God.

What is the glory of God?

It is basically those aspects of God's character and power that we can see.

Contrary to the idea that all we know of God we must take by faith, the Bible says there is much that we can see of God's glory.

The heavens declare it, that is, they reveal it to man.

The works of God in His visible creation are of such conspicuous glory that God holds man accountable for seeing it, and praising Him for it.

Those who refuse to see the Glory of God in creation are willfully blind, and they will be judged.

Paul says in Rom.

1:19-20, " Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

What a paradox!

There is no excuse for not seeing the invisible nature of God.

The idea that non-Christians cannot see the glory of God in creation is a direct rejection of Paul's clear teaching.

We should expect just the opposite according to Paul.

We should expect non-Christians to be able to see and write about the glory of God.

Christians do no have a monopoly on seeing the glory of God.

We should be able to read the poetry of other religions and see that they too see the glory of God.

Paul makes it clear in verse 21 that non-Christians have knowledge of God.

He writes of the pagan world, "For although they knew God they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him." Paul says they knew God.

They blew it and lost sight of His glory.

They went after idols instead, but the point is, they did know God.

The implications of this are astounding.

For one thing, it means we do not need to be threatened by the wonderful things we can read about God in the religious literature of the world.

We are to expect to find such things, even in pagan literature, for it is inexcusable blindness for men not to see the glory of God in what He has made.

Sincere seeking pagans will discover a great deal of God's glory.

This ought not to be a surprise, for it confirms what Paul says.

The goal of life is to see the glory of God.

Moses said to God in Ex.33:18, "Show me Thy glory."

Moses had seen the wonder of God's power in delivering the people of Israel from Egypt.

He had seen more miracles than anybody in history, and yet he is not satisfied.

He wanted to see the very glory of God's being.

He saw the miraculous pillars of fire and smoke that led them by day and by night, but now he wanted the best.

He wanted to see the ultimate glory.

He wanted to see the very essence of God.

He saw the burning bush and he talked with God, but now he wanted God to come out from hiding behind his symbolic miracles and show himself directly.

He wanted a glimpse of God in person.

God responded to this request by telling Moses is was a request for death.

No person could look on God and live.

He did, however, let Moses get in a cleft of the rock, for protection, and get a glimpse of God from the back.

He got a glimpse of God's glory and that was the fulfillment of his greatest goal.

That is the ultimate goal of man, and that is the point of the heavenly city.

It is the place where we get to finally see the glory of God in all its fullness.

Like Moses, we only get a glimpse of that glory now, at best.

We can see it everywhere in His creation, but then we will see it in His person.

Gwynn McLendon Day, in Gleams of Glory, writes,

"As I stand in the glow of the rising sun and am drenched by

the other-world splendor of its golden flood, I see something

of the glory of God.

As I gaze into the jeweled heavens at

midnight and wonder at their sparkling beauty and infinitude,

I experience something of his glory.

The flaming sunset, the

flashing lightning, the silent snowstorm, the rolling thunder, and