Moses said: “Show me Thy glory; and the Lord said, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover your face with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:18, 22, 23)
The word Moses is the Old Perfective of the Egyptian verb “to be born.” You cannot see the face of God until you are “born from above.” He puts it into a cleft of the rock. The rock., we are told, is God. (See Deuteronomy 33:4; 1 Samuel 2:2; and 2 Samuel 22:32.) “The rock that begot thee.”
We are told, “the rock is Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:4) “Of the rock that begot thee thou art unmindful, and have forgotten the Rock that gave thee birth.” (Deuteronomy 32:18)
You are buried in a rock. I will tell you, that rock is your own wonderful skull! There is something there to be born, it cannot see the face of the Lord until it is born . . not until it’s born.
You and I are asked, in the meanwhile, to practice a principle known as Forgiveness or Repentance. Repentance is a radical change of attitude towards everything in this world. That’s repentance.
Now we will start with a story that happened this past week. A very dear friend of mine that I persuaded to do this work in San Francisco . . you know him, Freedom Barry. He now lives in Cambria. That is halfway between here and San Francisco. He has one consuming passion, and that’s music. He graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, but he felt that he was not equal to the concert field. It is highly competitive, and he really felt that he was not quite of that timber. He was born and raised in poverty . . extreme poverty. He was an orphan when he was simply a little child . . a little baby. Well, he came west and got a job, and when he came to my meetings, after about two years I met him. I rather liked him, and I asked him if he would like to do what I am doing, and he said, “Yes, I would, but I am not qualified.”
I said, “You only answered correctly. If you felt you were qualified, you’d be no earthly good.”
Today, I would say I am not qualified. If you asked me for my intellectual background, I couldn’t qualify: ask me for any background, I couldn’t qualify. I once met Damrosch in New York City at the Bohemian Club. At the Harvard Club they met once a month. And when I was introduced to him by this most outgoing person, he asked me what was my background. Was it Germanic as far as my teaching? Was it Germanic, was it French, was it English? I said, No, it all came by revelation; and the old man turned his back on me as though he was talking to the scum of the earth!
Here was a social gathering. He judged you by your background, based upon whether you were trained in the Germanic school, the French school, the English school, and he named it. Well, I could not have answered in the affirmative that question; so he turned his back.
So, I said to Freedom, “You do not need any background. You trust me. I like you. I think you are honest, and you will not deceive anyone. You will go north and you will teach.”
So he went north and he has been teaching successfully. He bought himself a home in Cambria, as I said, midway between here and San Francisco. It’s a modest home, but at least it’s his home. It’s all clear. But there is one consuming passion that he has; it’s music. He loves music, and he had this lovely grand piano, but something was needed. He had to have it, not repaired, but something must be done, and there was a moderate charge of $400 to do what he thought should be done, but they could only do it if he sent it back to the factory. It was sent to the factory.
They would not ship it back to him unless he first came down and tested it and tried it out. Everything ought to be just right as he thought it to be right. So he came down, played on it, and he accepted it. Then they gave him a date of delivery. So he waited at home, but there was no piano. The next day, no piano.
Then he called them, and they said, “Well, we were waiting for a full load; but now there is a full load, and so you will get your piano Wednesday” . . of last week . . not this week, Wednesday of last week. He waited in all day and there was no piano; so then when he called, they said strangely enough, “Our driver and the truck and its contents have disappeared and we cannot locate him. We cannot locate the truck or the contents.”
The next day when he called, there was no trace of the driver. So, in desperation, he called me. He said, “You know, I teach this Law, but, Neville, every penny that I have is really locked up in my piano. I have my home, but I have no income at the moment, and my one outgoing thing is simply to play. And it’s only insured for $2,000, and I could not replace it for $4,000. But long before I could get the $2,000, if ever, here I am strapped; and I am calling you to help. You are the only one to whom I can turn.”
I said, “Thank you for the confidence”; and then that was it.
Right after I hung up, I heard him play that piano. I could put my hands upon his shoulder, and I could feel Freedom. I could feel the piano, and I heard this lovely music. Then that night between 8:00 and 10:00 there is a lovely program that comes on KFAC, and it’s usually piano music, but it is lovely music all through the day, 24 hours a day. So any time of the day I can turn that on, which is really turned on all day anyway. And I heard this glorious concerto, and I imagined Freedom was playing it, and I simply put my hands upon him and thanked him for the joy he gave me in the playing of this concerto, and I could feel the piano.
Yesterday morning at 11:00 o’clock he called. I was not available but my wife answered. He said, “I would have called you at 4:30 this morning when the piano was delivered, but I thought it unwise to disturb you at that hour in the morning, at 4:30; but now I am going to call you, because you must be up.” He said, “I am going to give you all the details eventually, I can’t do it now over the phone. It was a strange, strange thing.”
He did say this much: the driver was arrested in San Luis Obispo. He refused to give anything concerning the whereabouts of the truck and its contents.
Only this past week I read in the paper that our banks lose from men who hold up the banks . . oh, maybe seven or eight million dollars a week, but the embezzlement that goes on within the banks from trusted employees runs into tens of millions; and then this enormous hundreds of millions between our ports, airports and warehouses in lost cargo . . all stolen. A man takes off, and everything disappears, the truck and its contents; and it runs into hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
But I don’t care what I read in the paper. I am remaining faithful to Principle. There is one infallible statement concerning the unforgivable sin. The unforgivable sin in the Bible is the sin against the Holy Spirit. Every sin in the world is forgiven but the sin against the Holy Spirit. What is that unforgivable sin? Doubt! He who created the universe and sustains it, and you doubt His power to do anything in this world? That is the one unforgivable sin.
Well, having reached the end of God’s plan for all of us, I will not doubt. I did not ask Freedom anything beyond his request. He wanted his piano, and all that I did . . I simply heard him play it. I put my hands . . my mental hands, my imaginary hands . . on his shoulder and thanked him for the joy I got from hearing him play it. And then when I turned on KFAC between 8:00 and l0:00 and heard this delightful piano concerto, I assumed it was Freedom playing it; and I so enjoyed the master who played it that I thanked him for the joy of having heard it, and then I dropped it.
Now I am waiting for the details, but I do not really concern myself with how it happened. In spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars that are lost every year and never recovered, that did not faze me for one moment. He had his piano back . . that is all that mattered, and so I simply lost myself in that act, and that was it.
We forget what we do. A lady who is here tonight . . she has forgotten. About two or three months ago she said to me, “Look how fat I AM getting . . bursting out of my clothes!”
I said, “You aren’t too fat at all.” Then she said, “I want to be thin.”
I said, “Well, you are thin. You are as thin as you want to be or even thinner.” And she left.
She returned tonight, and she said, “Look, I can’t stand it . . how thin I AM!”
I said, “Do you recall that two months ago, or maybe three months ago, you said to me how fat you are? I couldn’t see it, but to you it was fat, and you despised yourself for the fatness.”
And these are the words of Blake: “Oh, what have I said, what have I done, Oh, all-powerful human words! [From “Jerusalem”]
“All-powerful human words” . . yes, because man is God! God’s Word cannot return unto Him void. It must accomplish that which He sent it to accomplish. It must actually fulfill its purpose. Well, God is man! And man in his idle moments makes all kinds of statements. Then he reaps it and he doesn’t recognize his own harvest. So she comes back and she’s thin. Yes, she is thin . . obviously very thin. For a small, little lady, it is quite a loss of weight. You can do it with anything in this world.
Now what is the statement concerning Moses? “Show me Thy glory, and the Lord said to him, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by, then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
That is in the 33rd chapter of the book of Exodus. You will read it in the 18th through the 25th verses; and you ask, “What on earth does it mean?” Well, if you know the meaning of the word Moses, which means, “to be born,” there is something that is planted in the rock . . in the cleft of the rock . . that is to be born. When that is born, then God has brought His purpose to a climax.
From then on . . and this is a strange thing to tell you, but I mean every word of it . . you do not go forward from that moment on, you go backward! You go all the way back . . to the Source. He brought you towards the climax, and then you only see the back now until you go all the way back; and when you come all the way back, you see the face . . the Glory of God.
As we are told in the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the 4th chapter . . I think it’s the 6th verse . . to “behold the Glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)
You will never know your face until you see it in your Son’s face. So, in that poem of Browning called “Saul” . . Now Saul in Scripture was demented. He was the choice of humanity, the king of Israel; and he was mentally deficient. He wanted this lad to play on the harp to soothe his spirit, and Browning, by experience, wrote this beautiful poem, and Browning now calls it “Saul.” It is based upon the 17th chapter of I Samuel. And David stands before Saul, telling him of the coming of Messiah, and these are Browning’s words. And David said:
“O, Saul…
A Face like my face shall receive thee, and a Man like unto me Thou shalt love, and be loved by, forever. A Hand like this hand Shall throw open the doors of new life to thee! See the Christ stand!”
David stands before him.
Now Saul’s name was changed to Paul. Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin in the Old Testament, of Abraham’s descent. Paul of the New Testament was first called Saul; and when he confronted the Risen Lord, his name was changed to Paul, and he tells you. So, the poem is called “Saul.” And here, standing before the demented humanity who does not recognize his own offspring, like amnesia:
“A Face like my face shall receive thee; a Man like unto me Thou shalt love, and be loved by, forever. A Hand like this hand Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the Christ stand!”
Here is David, the Christ. He is the Christ, the Anointed of the Lord. So, we speak in Scripture of “the Lord and His Christ” . . His son David, who reveals him as the Lord. So Moses cannot see the face until now he moves backward . . see the back. You shall not see the face. So when divine history comes to its climax in what is known in Scripture as the Resurrection, then come these four majestic acts, which are culminating in the descent of the Holy Spirit in bodily form as a dove.
Now, the Gospels all begin the message of Jesus with the descent of the Holy Spirit at baptism. They all begin it, because “the last shall be first.” That is the end. That’s the climax.
So they all begin it. In the earliest Gospel, which is Mark, he begins it with the story of the baptism when the dove descends upon Jesus. John, the most profound and the most mystical . . he begins it with this descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus. We come now to Luke, and then Luke makes the statement concerning the descent of the Holy Spirit in bodily form as a dove. Then he goes right in and he has Jesus declare that he is the fulfillment of that which was announced in Isaiah 61:
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for He has anointed me to preach good news . . glad tidings to the afflicted . . to the poor, and to proclaim liberty to those who are captive, and to open the prison doors of all that are bound.”
Here is one. He proclaims that he is the fulfillment of that announcement in the 61st chapter of Isaiah.
Now he goes back. Read the story, and all the events, now, go back. Why? As he disappears from life . . he is buried in us! Now he tells us: “I have told you all these things before they take place, that when they do take place you may believe. And now your hearts are troubled because I said unto you, in a little while I will leave you. Again, in a little while I will return. And so your hearts are troubled. But I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for unless I go away, the Holy Spirit . . the Spirit of Truth . . cannot come, but if I go away, I will send him to you, and he will lead you into all knowledge and bring to your remembrance all that I have told you.”
Who, then, is this Holy Spirit? He is called the Spirit of Truth; and Jesus said, “I AM the truth.” It is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus who comes into man when the visible Lord disappears from man. He disappears completely. He is the teacher, and he disappears. He tells you what happened in him when he disappears. Where can he go, but back to the Father? There is no other place to go but to the Father! He said, “I came out from the Father, and I came into the world. Again I AM leaving the world, and I AM returning to the Father.”
Well, where is the Father? The Father is in you! Now, He is the Spirit in man.
Now, the Spirit of Truth called the Holy Spirit, against which you must not sin . . not doubt its power to do anything in this world, “He will bring to your remembrance all the things that I have told you.” Therefore, who is the Spirit of Truth, other than the Remembrancer? He remembers. The whole thing is done!
That’s why I can say boldly: Salvation is accomplished! Redemption is perfect. No one can fail, because the Spirit . . the Remembrancer . . is now buried in man, and He can’t take you forward to God the Father. He takes you backward!
So, He rises at a point called the Awakening in you. The moment He awakens in you, you are “born from above.” They are the two sides of the same coin. Then He takes you backward. And when He gets all the way back, now you will see the “face of God in the face of Christ . . His son David. David is the Anointed of the Lord, and you will know what you look like by looking right into the face of your Son called David. And David is Christ! You are the Father, but you came out into the world.
Now he makes the statement: “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30)
“He who sees me sees Him who sent me.” (John 14:9) He has never left me.
Yet he makes this statement, which has confused all the priesthoods of the world: “My Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28) You read that in the 14th chapter of the book of John.
In the 10th chapter of the book of John he makes the statement! “I and my Father are one.” Now he makes the statements “My Father is greater than I.”
The Lord is not inferior as to His Essential Being, but as to His office as the sent. He and the Sender are one, but when the Sender sends Himself into the world to tell the story of Redemption, the position of the sent is less than the Sender. Yet, they are one!
So here, the Lord Jesus Christ is not inferior as to his own Essential Being, but as to his office as the sent in this world . . so he makes the statement:
“He who sees me sees Him who sent me.”
“I and my Father are one.”
Yet in this statement he shows you the difference between playing the part . . the office of the sent as against that of the Sender, and yet the Sender and the sent are one, because “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” They aren’t two, but they are different offices that the One fulfills. So in the office of the sent he is less . . he seems to be less, but he is not truly, in his Essential Being, less than God the Father.
So, “I came out from the Father, and I came into the world; again I AM leaving the world and I AM going unto the Father.” (John 16:28)
“And now your hearts are sad because I’ve told you this, but I tell you it is expedient, and it is to your advantage that I go away, for unless I go away, the Holy Spirit cannot come; but if I go away, I will send him.” (John 16:6, 7)
Now, he becomes the Sender, and he sends . . it’s still Himself, but this time it’s called by a different name, he sends Himself! And you may know Him as John, you may know Him as Mary; but it is still the same Sender. Now you know Him as Neville . . the same Being that was sent; and while I AM in the world as the sent; I play the inferior office to the Sender; but before I was sent, I was incorporated into the body of the Sender, and forever I AM one with Him, for “He who is united with the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.” But in the world where I am now sent I am subject to all the weaknesses and the limitations of the sent, and must subject myself to all the weaknesses of humanity. But on the dissolution of this little garment, I am not, then, restored to life; I AM one with the Father . . one with the Sender.
Those who have not yet experienced what I am talking about will be restored to life in a world just like this, in a body that is new . . gloriously new, unaccountably new . . in a world terrestrial just like this, to continue their journey until they reach the climax which is Resurrection, for you are buried in the cleft of a rock. You are that Moses . . something to be born. So, “in the cleft of the rock I will put you, and I will cover your face with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen.” It cannot be seen until my Son reveals it; and my “Son” is David!
No one will know the face that he truly wears until he sees it reflected in his Son David, for David is the image of the Invisible God. David is the reflection of God, and bears the exact image of the Invisible God. You are the Invisible God!
So here, this is what I mean by “the most profound truth,” and yet the most practical application of it: do not think for one moment, even though you are innocent of what you are saying, that it is an idle word. Because why? You are God, and God’s words cannot return unto Him empty. They must accomplish that which he purposed and “prosper in the thing for which he sent it.” So, even though you are ignorant of the Law, you are the operant power, operating that Law of which you may be totally unaware, but there’s no excuse. You will still reap the results, as my friend reaped the results of the loss of weight, which she could ill afford.
And my friend Freedom, distracted as he is . . well, what is a friend in this world for if you can’t call to him and ask him and stretch out your hand for help when that is necessary? So Freedom teaches this Law, and may I tell you, he teaches it beautifully. And he has been tremendously successful in helping unnumbered people in the use of this Law, but then came a test for Freedom, for his one consuming passion is music. He loves music. Give him music, and you’ve given him the whole day, and he can sit in his little place in Cambria and play that piano all day long and forget meals, he is so completely carried away with music . . he just loves it so.
But now the one thing to express it is gone, and here this very week comes the story in the L.A. Times of the hundreds of millions of dollars that we lose every year through theft between the wharves of our country . . the airports of our country and the interior areas where merchandise is placed upon vans for delivery. And there is a syndicate of stealing, but it runs into unnumbered millions.
Well, when you read that, even though you teach it and it’s so near and you cannot replace it . . the average person who has money will say, “All right, I am insured, I am under-insured for $2,000, but I will go out and buy another.” Well, he could not go out and buy another; he didn’t have the money. He was born a very, very poor boy, and Freedom has never really made money an object in life. He has never, really. He loves beauty. He loves music. He loves all the lovely things in life, and he enjoys them, but he has never really made money a goal in life. So, he could not go out and replace the $4,000 instrument. But I heard it clearly with the aid of KFAC, and I heard this beautiful concerto; and I simply used my imagination to see him. I could see him seated there, playing this lovely, lovely piece, and then put my hands upon his shoulders and thanked him for the joy I got out of having heard him, and then felt the solid, solid loveliness of his piano. And he called yesterday morning at 11:00. Now he is going to give me a detailed account as to how. The man was found and at least the piano. Whatever contents the truck held, I do not know, but I am not really interested in that.
I go to the end, and as far as the man goes, he too is God, although he played the part in this little incident of the thief. He may be working for a syndicate. I am not concerned. Still, behind that mask of the thief, he is my brother. That one who played the part of the thief is my brother. There’s nothing but Brotherhood in this world!
“Go, tell my brothers that I AM ascending unto their Father and to my Father, unto their God and my God.”
So we are all brothers behind these masks. We are One. There’s only God. So, if there is in this world today, because of imagining and the misuse of imagining, these horrible things in the world, may I tell you, God turns them all . . like the great artist will take discords and turn these dissonances eventually into beautiful harmonies? He will take every discord in the world, like stealing or murder . . everything in the world and resolve it, because He is the Great Artist.
And in us, everything is forgiven. The one who played that part tonight, or the one who stole that truck and the contents to embarrass my friend, who has no money to replace his great love . . suppose that one in the physical sense was my brother? Do you know what I would say? “Set him free.” I wouldn’t care what he did. I so love my brothers that if they were caught in any act . . I don’t care what it was . . if it was a violent act, I would ask the judge to set him free. That’s what I would do, and I would mean it because he is my brother. Well, behind the mask he is my brother. Every being in the world is my brother; and all my brothers together form God. They all form the Elohim . . a plural word: one made up of others. This is God!
So, we are here to learn a lesson. One of the great lessons is repentance: how to change my attitude towards a seeming fixed, unalterable state. It’s unalterable, and yet I want what that, if it could be changed, would produce. Now, learn to change it! Ignore it completely, and go to the end where it has been changed . . like: so he took the piano, maybe he sold it. Maybe he burned it, but I am going to hear him [Freedom] play the most glorious instrument and so enjoy it. So, I ignore the facts of life . . completely ignore the facts, and go in my imagination to the end as I want it to be and there I will see it. I tell you, this is profoundly spiritual and so directly practical!
So, he comes into the world and tells a story that the world does not understand, because he has reached the climax of God’s plan of salvation, and having reached the climax, he tells you he must go. He must disappear as a teacher. But where could he go, save to the Father? And where is the Father, but in you?
Now he’s going to send the Spirit of Truth. But he says, “I AM the Truth”, therefore who is he going to send but himself? But when he comes now he is going to be wearing a different name. He will bear a different name. He is one with the Father in control of The Whole, but he will now send himself bearing a different name to continue the teaching, and tell the whole vast world of God’s plan of redemption. There’s only God!
It was God Himself who came down into the world of humanity and buried Himself in man, and only God can be redeemed, and God planned the process of redemption “before that the world was.” This is not an after-thought. This is not emergency thinking. This was “before that the world was.” This is how it’s going to be. You are going to go straight through to the end until you reach the climax. The climax is Resurrection from that little cleft in the rock, and you come out, and then you are going to go back.
So, the Evangelists . . the four of them . . they begin the story of the ministry of Jesus with the final act, which is baptism when the dove descends upon him in bodily form as the symbol of the Holy Spirit. And they all begin it that way, and then they go back.
John being the most profound, he goes back to the grave and he tells it in symbolism, and all the signs are really . . all the signs that he uses in that wonderful picture of the grave are all . . well, signs. They are all figures, but the things that they signify are literal. So, he tells the story of the birth by using the sign of a napkin, which means the afterbirth, the placenta. He tells you what took place in that concrete state called the tomb: that when you found that little napkin, then a birth took place. Well, this was a different kind of a birth; this was the birth from God. God was born in this state. So he begins it with the very first act, for there are four “mighty acts,” and the first act is the Resurrection. A few moments later it’s followed by the “birth from above”, John ends it with that, but he begins it with the descent of the dove. So the whole thing is showing you, it’s going to be backwards now.
So, we bring it to its climax, and then divine history is over, and now the great Spirit of God, called the Holy Spirit, takes us backward . . not forward, but backward to where? Backward to the Source, which is your Self, who is God the Father. It takes you all the way back; and when you go back, only one thing in the world can convince you that you are God the Father . . when you see your glory reflected in the face of Christ. And Christ is David! That’s the story.
Now you dwell upon it tonight, you who have recorded it. Play it over and over and over. I am not making any prophetic statement concerning when I will depart. Personally I cannot believe it can be too long, but I have no day, no month, no year; I have no . . because no one knows when he will take off this garment . . only when I have finished doing what I am supposed to do. I am supposed to tell it over and over and over, because in my case it has been finished. It came to its climax with the descent of the dove upon me and it remained there, and it’s still there . . the symbol of the Holy Spirit, clothing Itself with me to tell it, for He has all the knowledge . . not the knowledge of how to go to the moon, but the true knowledge of the mystery of God. He’s not concerned about all the things of earth; He is only concerned about God’s purpose and God’s plan. And so, He will reveal to me, as He has, all the things concerning His Word in Scripture; and He reveals it by allowing me to experience it, for He came to me seemingly as someone unknown. And then, in some strange, mysterious way, He allowed me to experience Who-He-Is in a first-person, present-tense, singular experience.
So, the whole story is my Self, going back towards it all, for it was in the beginning this way, but you come forward to the climax. Then it stops. Time stops, and then you move backwards to the Source, and there you are God the Father! And on the way back you tell it while you still wear a garment that is in contact with garments in this world, because when you shed this garment you’ve lost the contact. Because I will not be in contact, for my garment tomorrow is that Garment that is perfect. Wherever I AM, everything is perfect. There’s no reason for any argument, for that Body that you will wear in the Resurrection is a perfect body. And nothing is dead in your world; nothing can be imperfect in your world. Everything is perfect wherever you are. That is the Resurrection Body, and that is spoken of in Scripture as the “Kingdom of Heaven.” So, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a place, it’s not a realm; it is a body!
So, wherever you are, clothed in that Resurrected Body, everything is perfect. But those who die before the Resurrection here . . and all will be eventually resurrected, they are clothed in a similar body to the one that they have discarded, only that body is young . . unaccountably new, in a world terrestrial just like this, and they continue their journey.
I do hope you will not forget, for the one grand sin against it is to doubt the power of this Rememberer. For when” He comes into your life, He is the Rememberer. He remembers all that God has accomplished. So then, when he actually remembers all that God has accomplished in you, He takes you back, and you are the God who accomplished it. The whole thing re-enacts itself in you because of His Indwelling Presence. That’s the story.
Now, let’s enter the silence