And those first three verses
is what I wanna look at, but especially that first verse.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory,
for thy mercy and thy truth's sake. Wherefore, why should the
heathen say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. I wanna Talk tonight about man's
purpose and man's privilege. And that's glorifying God. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory. God's the creator. We're just
the creature. It's by him that we live. God's
the only one that controls life and gives life and takes life.
He's the only one that does that. Nobody else can do that. And
it's by Him we actually live right now. We have our existence
right now. And it's by Him that we move. We have the ability to function
in this world. We can function with some sense
of health and vigor and promise. And we have a being. We have
a being. As I just said, it's because
of Him we exist. And we're here right now because
of Him. And in creating all things, God
made all things with a purpose. Everything that God made, He
made it with a purpose. And He has an end to all of them.
He has a purpose and He made all things to have an end. To
have a design and an end to it. And He made us with an end. He
made us with a purpose. And He gave us a blessed privilege
with that purpose. And what is that end? What is
that purpose? What is that privilege? To glorify
Him and enjoy Him forever. Now that's what we're gonna do
when we get into eternity. But if you start glorifying Him
here, and you start enjoying Him here. If you don't enjoy
Him here, you won't enjoy Him hereafter. But you know it's
a delight and it's a blessed thing to enjoy God. Enjoy Him. Enjoy His will, enjoy His purpose,
enjoy His word, enjoy His worship. I enjoy, God is glorious. What a blessing to know Him.
What a blessing to call on Him. And He made us with the end to
glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. And I want to talk tonight about
glorifying God. There's many ways to glorify
our Heavenly Father. And I want to look at just a
few, just a few. And I think I've got four points.
I believe I've got four points. And here's one way, one way we
can glorify our Heavenly Father, glorify God, glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you know what it is? By an
honest confession of sin. An honest confession of sin.
Now when I talk about sin, I'm not talking about sins, I'm talking
about sin. Confessing what you are. You
do what you do because you are what you are. A man don't become
a liar when he lies, he lies because he's a liar. A man don't
become a thief when he steals something, he's a thief is why
he stole it. And that's why we're talking
about sin. You know, confession of sin, let me give you a few
illustrations. That thief on the cross, he was
there on the cross, And he railed on the Lord Jesus Christ just
like both of them did. Both of them railed on him. They
both of them made fun of him. They both ridiculed him. They
both derided him. But there was something took
place in one of them's heart. And he looked at the other one
across. Now they're talking to one another
and they're dying. They're in their dying hours
and one looked over to the other and said, what in the world's
the matter with you? Don't you fear God? He said,
if you be the Christ, save yourself and save us with you. And he
said, don't you fear God? He said, we're here indeed justly. I'm here because of what I've
done. I'm here because of who I am.
I'm here because God put me here. And then he looked at the Lord
Jesus Christ, a bleeding, broken, naked man, on a cross beside
him, said, Lord! That's the first thing out of
his mind. Lord, where'd he find out he's Lord? Remember me when you come in
your kingdom. Not only your Lord, but you got
a kingdom. And you know what our Lord said to him that day?
Today, today, you're gonna be with me in paradise. Oh, listen,
I'm telling you, that's what I'm talking about. We're, We're
just telling the truth on ourselves when we confess sin. Let me show you something over,
and keep Psalm 15. Look over in Joshua. Joshua is
the book right after Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Bible.
Joshua's the next one. You got Deuteronomy, then you
got Joshua. And then look in Joshua chapter seven. Y'all know
the story, I'm sure, about Achan stealing that wedge of gold.
And God made everything come to a standstill. Standstill. And here's Achan. He'd stolen
some gold and stolen some silver and hid it. And Joshua said here
in verse 19, he said this to him. He said, Joshua said unto
Achan, my son, give, I pray thee. Listen to this. Glory to the
Lord God of Israel. How you gonna do it? Make confession
unto Him. Tell what you've done, make confession
unto Him, and tell me now what thou hast done. Hide it not from
me. But the first thing He says,
make a confession unto the Lord. And that's what we do. Excusing
or justifying sin, our sin or anybody's sin, casts reproach. What an awful reproach it's on
God. You know, our first parents are perfect examples of what
most people are trying to do. Adam said, listen, I would not
have this fig leaf on, and I wouldn't be hiding from you if you hadn't
given me that woman. That's the whole problem is that
woman you gave me. If you would have just left her
out of the equation, I would have been all right. Well, Eve
said, listen, Adam. I'll take my part of it and say,
Lord, you know why I've got this fig leaf on? And why I've covered
my nakedness? Because that serpent beguiled
me. He bewitched me. He tricked me. He tricked me into believing
some things I wasn't supposed to believe. But they blamed everybody
else for the condition they was in. And I'll tell you what, beloved,
that's one of the awfulest things you can possibly do in this world.
Blame somebody else for what you've done. Now, I wouldn't
have done that if you hadn't have done this. I wouldn't have
said that if you hadn't have said this. Listen, we're facing God
for ourselves, not for anybody else. And I, you know, the scriptures
tells us, he that confesses his sins and forsaken them, but he
don't confess them, he shall not prosper. He won't prosper. I'm telling you this, and you
know, people, That's why when these guys get up and pray, they
say, Lord, forgive me of not only what I've done, what I've
done, but what I am. We do plenty. Oh, we do plenty. With our thoughts, with our hands,
with our imaginations, we do plenty. But oh, it's what we
are. And that's why we say, oh God,
have mercy on me. I confess what I am. I confess
that I'm a sinner. I confess that I have sinned. I confess that if I don't have
Christ, if I confess that if you don't help me, and if you
don't cover my sin, there'll be no hope for me. Oh my. Confession glorifies God. And
I tell you why it glorifies God, when a person confesses their
sin. And I'm talking about believers too. I'm talking about believers. I'll tell you what, there's times
we do have to come and say, Lord, forgive me. And we do it every
day. I do, I don't know about you,
but I do. Lord, forgive me. I need forgiveness. There's forgiveness with thee
that thou mightest be a spirit. Lord, if you should mark iniquity,
mark my minds, mark what I've said, mark what I've done, mark
what I've acted. You mark anything I've done and
there's no hope for me, but Lord, there's forgiveness with thee
that you may be feared. Oh, but confession of sin glorified
God because it clears him. What do I mean by that? When
you confess your sin before God, confess what you are before God,
you're acknowledging, saying, God, you're just, and you're
holy, and you're righteous, and in sinning against you, I deserve
nothing but condemnation. That's all I deserve. That's
what David said. He said, Lord, He said, it's
against you and you only that I've sinned and done this evil
in your sight, so that when you do judge me, when you come to
judge me for what I've done, for what I've said and how I've
acted, when you come to judge me, you'll be clear because I
am guilty. And that's what confession of
sin admits to. A free confession honors and
glorifies our Lord. It's like the prodigal. It's
like that prodigal. When he started home, you know
what he said before he got to the house? When he got to his
father, he said, Father, I've sinned against heaven and I've
sinned against you. You know what his father did?
Embraced him and kissed him and put clothes on him and shoes
on his feet. That's the only hope we have.
We got to come, we got to come. And He confessed His sin. And
let me tell you another thing. Look over in Romans 4.20 with
me. Here's another thing that glorifies God. Here's another
thing that glorifies God. And that's faith. We bring glory
to God by believing, believing. You know, I believe He forgives
me. And oh, we bring glory to God
by believing. Look what it said here. In verse 19 of Romans chapter 4. Now Abraham, God made him a promise
to be the father of many nations. And his seed was going to be
Christ. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his
own body, now dead, as far as having children, when he was
about 100 years old, and he didn't even consider yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. She was in her 90s. He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief. Listen to this now.
But was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Strong in faith, giving glory
to God. Oh my, that's why David asked
this question. Why would the heathen say, where's
now their God? Where's our God at? He's in the
heavens. Do you know where God was when
Abraham believed Him? He's in heaven. Do you know where
God was when Abraham staggered not at the promise of God? He
was in glory. You know why Abraham believed?
Because God made him a promise. And he believed what God said.
And God said, you're going to not go childless, you're going
to have your own child. And I tell you what, faith glorifies
the Lord, for faith says God is true. We say God is true. You know, 1 John says this, He
that believeth not the record that God gave of his son, he
that believeth not makes God a liar. Wouldn't it be awful
to make God a liar? Wouldn't it be awful to say God's
lying? Oh my, Abraham believed God and
he staggered not at the promise of God. You know in Hebrews 11
it says, By faith the fathers obtained a good report. Now everybody
you read of in Hebrews 11 started out with Abel. was strong in faith. God pointed
to Abel. Then He pointed to Enoch. Then He pointed to Noah. Then
He pointed to Abraham. He pointed to Moses. And He said
all those men obtained a good report. Who reported on them?
God did. What did He report about them?
They believed. And you know what they believed?
They believed against everything that was natural. It'd be impossible. How can Abraham, when he's 100
years old, his wife and he's 90, have a child? God said they
could. He believed that. Abel, he offered
a more excellent sacrifice. He brought a lamb. He offered
a lamb. He offered the blood of a lamb.
God said he had faith. Cain brought the works of his
hands. God cursed him. And he walked with God. How'd
he do it? By faith. Noah, God said, it's
going to rain. I'm going to destroy this earth
and everybody on it. I'm going to send a flood and
I mean, I'm going to cleanse this earth of this abominable
bunch of people. And he said, I want you to build
a boat, build an ark. And boy, he'd never had rain
before. Didn't know what rain was. Nobody
knew what it was. Didn't even know what God's judgment
was. But oh, by faith he prepared
an ark. Why'd he do it? He believed God. And that's what I'm talking about.
Faith obtains a good report. Wouldn't you love God say, that
man's a believer. Wouldn't you love God say, He's
got faith. Oh my. And God says about these
saints over here in Psalm 115, look at this with me. Look what
God says about them. Now, first of all, he talks about
these false gods. And you know, they're all over
the place. You know, out here at this graveyard, out there
in the memorial gardens, they got that great big statue of
Jesus there. You reckon Jesus is made out
of stone? Can't see, can't hear, can't
walk. People go out there and get their pictures took in front
of him. Huh? He can't see, can't hear, can't
walk, can't do anything. You put a crucifix on the wall,
he can't do nothing. I don't care if he's made out
of gold, if he's made out of silver, if he's made out of wood,
he can't do anything. They're the works of men's hands,
and they look at their hands, and they look at their hands
and say, Boy, look what my hand's made. And then they go to worship
in it. But look what God says about us. Down here in verse 9. Oh Israel, trust thou in the
Lord. He's their help, and He's their
shield. Oh, house of Aaron, trust in
the Lord. He is their help, he is their
shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their
help and their shield. So I tell you, help and shield,
help and shield. And that's what he is. And I'll
tell you something else that faith does. Faith gives a real,
real, real, real good report about God too. Not only does
he give her a good report about those, but we turn around and
give her a good report about God. What do you got to say about
God? Well, our God's in the heavens, that's where he's at. What's
he doing? Whatever he pleases. That's why you know Timothy said,
Paul told Timothy, he said, Timothy, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded, I'm convinced,
that everything I've given to Him, I've trusted Him with, He's
able to keep it. He's able to keep it. And I tell
you, faith gives a good report of God. There's a fellow today,
come in, you know, and I was over at the gym, and he come
in today, and he said, boy, he said, it's a beautiful day. And
I said, it is, it really is. He said, God sure blesses us,
don't He? God is good. I said, he is. And he come on out there, you
know, and I was getting a drink of water and he come on out and
said, not only is he good when it's pretty, but he's also good
when it's bad. He said, God's good no matter
what he does. And I tell you what, that done
my heart good. He said, you know, he said, he
thought, boy, while the weather's pretty, God's really blessed
us. But he come out and changed his tune. He said, God is good
when the good and in the evil and everything that happens,
God's good. And I tell you that, I said, yeah, you're exactly
right. You don't hear very many people
saying that. Give a good report about God. Oh, we want to give
a good report about God. No wonder Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory only in the cross, only in the death, only
in the blood, only in the righteousness, only in the resurrection, only
in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. And I know what faith
does. I do know this about it, and
it brings glory to God. Faith does. Faith flees to God. True faith always goes outside
of self. It comes to God. We've sung that
song, Here I come Lamb of God, I come, I come. And that's what
faith does. It comes to God. It flees to
God. It comes to His Son. He comes
to His mercy. He comes to His truth. And we
find a refuge in Him. Find a refuge in Him. We find
Him to be everything to us. I want you to Titus. That's a
little bitty tiny book. Three chapters. Right before
Hebrews. Look at this. Little old chapter. I want you to see this. I don't
know if you Titus. Right before, there it is. Right
before the book of Hebrews. Look in chapter 1, verse 1. I
tell you, you know, it's Brad Priest, when he preached, he
said, you know, when he asked the question, he said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? He said he
started out where he wanted to end up at. All those walked away,
and he said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You've got the words.
You've got the words. God give us His Word. And His
Word, how good is the Word of God? Our Word's good. If I tell you something by the
grace of God, I'm gonna keep my Word to you. If I keep my
Word, how much more will God keep His? Oh, my. But look what he said here in
Titus 1, verse 1, chapter 1, verse 1 and 2. Paul, a servant
of God, and apostle of Jesus Christ. Listen to this now. According
to the faith of God's elect. Did you know God's elect had
faith? And they're the only ones that's
got it? The only ones ever gonna get it? Listen to what he says.
And you know how you know you got the faith of God's elect?
The acknowledging of the truth after godliness, after the way
God is. And oh my, we acknowledge this
truth. And I tell you, this faith, what
it produces is hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie,
listen to this now, promised, promised before the world ever
began. That's a long time ago. You know, he which hath begun
a good work in you, he's gonna perform it in the day of Christ.
God honors faith, and faith honors God. Faith sees Him who is invisible
and loves Him whom we have not seen. That's what faith does. And then let me give you another
one here. Another way we glorify God. Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto Thy name be glory. God is glorified when
we stand true to His Word, to His truth. To always go about
by thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. When we
stand true to what he teaches us, what he has taught us. Under
thy name be glory. What for? For your mercy and
for your truth. That's the two things. Your mercy
and your truth. And the most precious thing,
one of the most precious, the most precious things we possess
is our souls. Our souls, we're living souls
inhabiting dying bodies. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. And we, most precious thing is
when we possess our souls. And let me tell you something
about these souls, this most precious thing. We trust God
with them. We don't trust man with them,
we trust God with them. We trust God with our souls. And I've often said this time
and time again, if I had 10,000 souls, I could trust Christ with
every single one of them. All of them. And so when I leave
this world, I belong to Christ here, and I belong to Him here. That's what I say, glorify God
and enjoy Him forever. You know, God has given us, and
you know what He's trusted us with? His truth. As God allowed us to be put in
trust with the gospel, even so we speak, even so we preach. You know, to trust us with truth,
you know, He used that parable of the pounds and He also used
that That parable of trusting a man, you know, if you can't
be trusted with the least, he'll never give you any more. And
that's the way it is with the truth, with the truth. And Jude 3 says, I've written
unto you. that you contend for the faith
which was once, faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
And what is faith? It's faith, it means all the
truth, all the truth. When we talk about faith, we
have a subjective faith, that's what we have, that believes God. And then there's an objective
faith, that's what we believe about the gospel. Everything
in the gospel's called the faith. Paul said, I kept the faith.
I kept the gospel. I kept everything God taught
me. And I finished my course. And I'm ready to depart. So when
we talk about, you know, the faith. And that's what we're
talking about. You know, I contend for the faith
that God gave to the saints. Now I'll tell you what men will
contend for. They'll contend for their traditions. They'll contend for their ceremonies.
They'll contend for their works. They'll contend for their free
will. They'll contend for their goodness and their morality. But we earnestly contend for
the faith. I ain't got nothing to defend.
The only thing I'm going to stand true to is God helping me is
His precious word. Know thus saith the Lord. If
God said it, People said, well, God said that I believe and that
settles it. Whether a man ever believes or not, it's settled.
In fact, it's forever settled in heaven. And you know, I don't
want to get off on a tangent here, but we just talked about
the faith of God's elect. Thessalonians says, all men have
not faith. All men had not faith. When God
brought Israel out of Egypt, you know, it was just, they could
have been over in the promised land in just a few days. Could
have been in Canaan. But you know, and you look at
their travel, and they just went around and around and around
and around in circles. You know why? because they murmured
and complained and grumbled and didn't like anything God did.
They didn't like His food. They didn't like where He takes
them. They didn't like His water. They
didn't like anything. They didn't like Moses. They
didn't like Aaron. They didn't like nothing. And
God said, I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going
in a circle until every one of you die. And you know, out of everybody
that was over 20 years old when they left Egypt, Only two survived. You know who it was? Joshua and Caleb. And I tell you, people can wander
around the wilderness. They wander around the wilderness.
Well, I'm learning this and I'm learning that. I'm going here
and I'm going there. Listen, I ain't going nowhere wherever
God ain't. That's what Moses said. I ain't going, Lord. If you ain't
going, if God's not here, I better be here. Huh? You know, like
this pandemic, I said everything's got to have an end to it. When
this thing, when it serves God's purpose, it's going to stop just
like that. It will. It will. It'll stop just like that. And
I've told you before, I've never one moment, not one moment in
my life since this started, had any fear or trepidation about
that stuff at all. You know, it's God's. It belongs
to God. God started it and God will finish
it. Either He did or He didn't. Who's running this world? God
or man? Our man's problem is he's listening
too much to what the news media says and what somebody else says. Well, why don't you listen to
what God says? God said, believe me. Abraham,
believe God. Well, Abraham, you're going to
have a whole bunch of people, millions upon millions upon millions
upon millions of people going to come from you. Well, how are
they going to do that? I'm going to give you one son.
And he's a promised son. And you know what his name is?
Not Isaac. The Lord Jesus Christ. That was
Abraham, see. And I tell you, we're going to
contend for the truth. Oh, Lord, help us stand for the
truth. And then let me hurry. I take too long here. Here's
the fourth thing. We can glorify God by walking
cheerfully and contentedly in this world. I told you this time and time
again. People ask me all the time how the world treats me.
I said the world ain't never been good to me, but oh my. And I'm
one of the cheerfulest, happiest fellas you'll ever be around
in your life. If I ever got the low lip, if I ever got the hanging
lip, it's gonna be, well you can't see it, I'll tell you that.
You'll never see it. Surely they see it sometimes,
but you won't see it. No, no, no. When a child of God
walks cheerfully in the worst of times, in the worst of times,
oh, how it glorifies God. How it glorifies God. And we
have reason to be cheerful. You know, he said, happy, happy
is the people has the God of Jacob for their God. Happy, that
word happy means blessed. Paul stood before Agrippa. to
give an account of himself. They brought him up out of jail,
brought him up out of prison. He stands before Agrippa and
he said this, he said, I count myself most happy. He's in jail. He's held a captive. He stands
before this great king. sitting on his throne with his
royal robes on. And he said, I thank myself most
happy. And he had these chains on his
hands. I thank myself no happy. What are you happy about? I'm
gonna preach the gospel to this man right here. I know whom I believed. Oh my. You know, we are reasoned to
be happy, cheerful. We're justified and we're sanctified. We're adopted and we're going
to receive an inheritance. We're redeemed by the blood of
Christ. Regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And the very righteousness of
God is ours. And Christ has made unto us all
we need. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Oh my. We have grace for trials
and grace for the tried. You know, I was thinking about
this today. It's not in my notes, but I'll
give it to you anyway. You know, Paul said, I know how
to be abased and I know how to abound. I know how to be abased.
I know how to be full and I know how to be empty. Now, what do
you think he's talking about? He said, I know how to be full. When we're in front of the world
and we're out in the world, we're full. Well, I mean, we got everything. We ain't going to complain. We're
not going to ask for nothing. We are full. But when we're before
God, we're empty. We ain't got nothing. Huh? And
He says, I know how to be amazed and I know how to be exalted.
When I'm out in the world, I'm going to say, God done everything
for me. I'm where I am because God did it. And then when you're
before God, you're amazed. You're damned. Huh? Does that
make sense? Huh? Oh my. And oh, I tell you what. We glorify
God walking cheerfully because of what our Lord Jesus worked
out for us and what the Holy Spirit works in us. Now I know,
I know that we have days. I know that. I'm not I'm not
saying that there's not days that we don't get downcast. There's
days that I do. I've told you, boy, when it gets
dark at 4.30, oh, I get so depressed after a few days of that. That's
why I go on vacation so much. That's why I want to go where
the sun's shining. Oh, I tell you, we all have our
times. There's no denying it. But no,
we don't want to go around downcast and sad all the time. No, no. If we do, it reflects on our
Master. We don't want to reflect bad
on our Master. You know how many times our Lord told His disciples,
be of good cheer, be of good cheer, be of good cheer. He comes out to them in this
awful storm. Water's going over the boat.
I mean flipping that boat this way and that boat. Here comes
the Lord Jesus walking on the water and said, be a good cheer. What in the world is there to
be happy about? We're going to drown here if you don't do something
for it. He said, be a good cheer. And all I tell you, if we think
of Him and what He's done for us, And what a blessed God we
have, what a blessed Savior we have, what a blessed salvation
we have, what a blessed word we have. We have every reason
in the world to be cheerful and to honor God and to glorify Him. God enable us to do that for
Christ's sake. Oh, our Father, how blessed,
oh, how glorious Lord, we can't glorify you enough. We can't
speak of you highly enough. We can't think of you highly
enough. But Lord, oh, how we lift our hearts up to you. How
we lift our souls up to you. How we want to, oh, we'd love
to just be almost like a robot where you control us in every
way. But Lord, it's not that way.
You've left us where we'll seek you. left us where we'll try
to glorify you and honor you. You left us in this body, you
left us on this earth. You left us to trials, you left
us to heartaches and sorrows and grief so many times. But
oh Lord Jesus, help us to honor you, glorify you, and be cheerful
as we possibly can. And Lord, if we got a brother
or sister that's downcast, that's sad, Weak in body, weak in spirit,
going through a great trial. Help us to pray for them, stand
with them, and support them, and encourage them, and forgive
us of everything that's unlike you, and do it, oh Lord Jesus,
for Christ's sake. Amen, amen. Number 67 in the
hymn book. Let's stand and try this. Number
67. Everybody knows this one. Stand
with me. Three little old verses here. O Savior, as my eyes behold the
wonders of thy might untold, the heavens in glorious Light
of rain, the vast creation Thou hast made, And yet to think Thou
lovest me, My heart cries out, How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like
me? Oh, how can it be? As at the cross I humbly bow
and graze upon thy thorn-crowned brow, and view the precious bleeding
form in Cruel nails so bruised and torn, knowing thy suffering
was for me. In grief I cry, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how can it? I love this verse right here.
How can it be? Was ever grace so full and free? From heights of bliss to depths
of woe, in loving-ness thou didst go. From sin and shame to rescue
me, Oh, love divine, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how? Can it be? Amen. God willing.