The true church is a demonstration of God’s glory. It is through the church that God makes known in the world his great glory.
This is a great comfort; it tells us that the church will never be destroyed because it is through the true church, through the work of God in the lives of Christian people, converted people, that God makes his glory known throughout all ages. It will not end, ever; it will be changed. The world will end one day; according to the judgement of Christ, it will be destroyed. But particle by particle, somehow, it will be amazingly reconstituted. So yes, the world will end, but at the same time, the world will not end because it will be rejuvenated, remade, blended with all the spiritual essence of heaven and made the everlasting dwelling place for the resurrected people of God with Christ their Saviour.
Some people think that if a church can make a tremendous noise and racket and clamour, that is bringing glory to God. Bringing glory to God is to have an understanding of him and to think of him and to worship him in the context of that understanding, to direct intelligent thoughts or words towards him. That’s glory. Did you understand that? It isn’t to have, say, a gigantic orchestra just to make a noise – there is no intelligence in that, there is no thought, there are no sentiments, ideas, concepts. God is not appreciated, he is not exalted, he is not made known. To bring glory to God involves the mind and thought. Let us sing as enthusiastically as we can.