“And they shall come, and see My glory”.
(Isaiah 66:18b)
A man who has been called and has come, and has beheld the glory of God, has learned to know his lost condition in Adam, and when this happens, everything falls; he has nothing, nothing but guilt and sin. His work as well as his person is under the curse. Men seek to hold on to their own work, and the churches in our time confirm them therein, but it is nothing. It is only God’s work that must do it, for else the apostle would not have said in Galatians 3:4: “If it be yet in vain”.
The work man has without God, is nothing. Man will have to realize this, for then he learns to know himself in his mortal state. When he has learned to see himself in his mortal state, he realizes that he has done everything in a wrong direction, that he found himself in a state of enmity and aversion towards God and that he has occupied himself with that which is pure delusion.
In the second place, the one who has been called and has come, and has beheld the glory of God, has sought and has found it beyond himself. He has in his heart what the apostle testifies: “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
In the third place, such a man is renewed, so that his heart understands what the apostle expresses in these words: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). We may go through many changes without being renewed. When we undergo a change, but are not renewed, we do nothing but wandering, straying and moving always further away from God, saying with striking deeds: “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways” (Job 21:14).
Finally, take notice of all these things, for you are not warned about them anymore. You are being taught the very opposite. Be sure to take notice of the work of the Spirit in your heart. When you have learned to do that, you will find these things to be so. He who has beheld God’s glory, is brought to do God’s will and prays: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6).
(From: Meditations, 6 February. Sermon on Isaiah 66:18, 14 December 1926 in Rotterdam.)