October 23rd, 1991 "Make His Praise Glorious" Bro. Joshua Daniel
Psalm 66:1-4. Verse 2, "Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious." "Make his name glorious." During these days, when people are agitating about hike in busfares and soaring prices, this whole place was full of people at our recent meetings. It shows spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst. But, have we made His name glorious? What is unique about our Lord Jesus Christ? First, He is a personal God. This is something which many cannot understand. He said, "My sheep hear My voice. They shall go in and out and find pasture. I shall head them in and out." What is the use of saying, "There is some power up there which has created this universe." In Christ we see a loving God, reaching out to each one of us in our particular need.
The Word of God says, "Make His praise glorious." Whatever you have tasted of Him, must be in keeping with His greatness. If we were to ask Moses, "What have you seen of God?" he would say, "I saw the sea flee before the Lord. The waters just fled." Now certain things never happened anywhere again. The world of those days heard these things. They said, "God is in their midst. God is with Moses." If you were to ask David, "What do you know about God?" he would say, "Even as a lad, I tasted the love of God. He banished fear from my heart." How many people in our modern days can say, "Fear has been banished from my heart."? They are afraid of something or of someone. They are slaves of fear. Now today there is retrenchment in many parts of the world. Many factory jobs are being lost and some people are saying, "I have never known unemployment in all my life."
There are many people suffering in the United States. But you know, somehow, in the times of want you have an opportunity to prove the faithfulness of God. That is our experience. If we had some rich people behind us, others would say, "Oh, their faith is very easy. They have rich friends and big donors to back them." In this Fellowship we do not have a single rich man, and many of you are learning to follow Jesus Christ. If you do understand what God is doing, you would say, "How did eight hundred people managed to live in this compound?" In Nungambakkam, for one night, you have to pay a lot of money and these eight hundred people were not charged anything for boarding and lodging. Some people cannot understand that. "How is it possible?" they say. If I were to tell Moses what a great God I have! He took care of eight hundred", he would say. "In the wilderness where nothing grew, He fed three million people everyday for forty years." Yes, many of us have made God very small by our consideration of money."
When you see so many millions of people in our cities what kind of God do you want? Do you want a God who will just fill your pocket? Do you want a God who just fills your belly? You cannot say that. When you look at the cross of Jesus, when you see He has died for all, how can you say, "I just want to fill my pocket?" It is impossible to imagine how much suffering is in this city! When I looked at the multitudes that are not aware of this great God, I feel sad. They have become believers in fate. They say, "This is my karma, I must suffer like this. There is no other way." They have never been made aware of a great God, who loves them. We have not made His praise glorious. If the great work of God happens in the western world, most of these people will be quite indifferent. They will say, "I have got my traditional religion. I go to this Roman Church or some other Church. This is enough for me." They are not shaken. But if anything really wonderful takes place in this country, we do not have to broadcast it over the radio. The people themselves will publish it. You cannot stop it. But inspite of the fact that such a thing is possible in our country, we have not made His praise glorious.
In John 20, we see Mary Magdalene weeping and searching for the body of Jesus. Verses 14-16, "And when she had thus said, and turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, If thou have borne him hence tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself and saith unto Him, Rabboni: which is to say, Master."
On the resurrection morning Mary Magdalene was weeping, seeking for a dead body. Some people say, "This is the hair of an old prophet, who lived and died long ago." And they worship it. They even fight over it. But here, we see a diligent woman who was delivered from seven devils. But she was searching for the wrong thing. She was blinded by her ignorance and unfaith. How clear Jesus had made it again and again. "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of sinners, He will be set at naught, He must be crucified but He will rise again the third day." They heard it. Here is a case of knowledge which was not perceived. How sad! How we have been blinded to the greatness of our Saviour. Our unfaith has blinded us. Jesus was speaking to her. She was a woman who served Jesus. She could not recognise Him. She saw Him, but she could not recognise Him- not even His voice. Verse 15, "Jesus saith unto her, woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." Then the Lord Jesus called her by her name. She recognised Him then. I suppose, she wanted to fall and hold His feet. In the Bible, falling at the feet of Jesus is often mentioned. But these pierced feet bore the wounds of the nails, bore the marks of the nails. And Jesus said, "Do not touch me, because I must go to my Father. I am going to be taken away. But I have completed the reconciliation. My Father is your father. My God, your God. My God has become your God. Jesus Christ said, "He that hath seen me has seen my Father." He was the perfect image of God.
So here is a very enigmatic situation. Jesus standing before a person and this worshipper could not recognise Him. If He were lifeless in the grave, she would have recognised Him. But when He stands before you and says, "All power is given unto me in heaven and earth," we find it so hard to receive it. What a false Christianity we have! It is a blind religion. We do not expect too much from our God. Even if we are facing problems on a small scale, our minds have become so small that we think, "This cannot be done by God. This must be done only by the dollar." That is not faith at all. That does not give any honour to God. If you have such faith that counts on money, you are lost. You better spend your days weeping. You will not see great things. You will not make His name glorious. I find that my faith also is very small. It makes me very sad. When there are millions of people yet to see Jesus, why is my faith blocking this mighty vision? May God help us.