Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
This is the chapter that I've been dealing with for the last
two messages on this subject. To glory in the Lord. What is
it to glory in the Lord? And that comes from verse 31
of chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, which says that as according
as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. And this will be the third message
on that subject and the last one. I've got a couple other
scriptures that I want to go to to hopefully help you understand
what it is to glory in the Lord. Now, that word glory means to
boast. It's a word, you know, we think
about bragging or boasting as something bad, and it is when
we brag or boast in ourselves. But this is bragging, you might
say, or boasting in the way of having confidence in the Lord
Jesus Christ for all salvation. And that's a good thing. The
whole construction here, and I've gone over these verses and
I'm not gonna go back over every one of them, but what the Apostle
Paul is doing is he's inspired by the Holy Spirit in these verses,
is to show how God has designed and he works salvation for his
chosen people in such a way that he gets all the glory and they
get no glory. You see, and what that's talking
about is that we have confidence in the Lord and no confidence
in ourselves. This word glory can be translated
in different ways, but one of the ways that I mentioned is
in the book of Philippians chapter three and verse three. And what
Paul wrote there, he was talking about the true Israel. He says, for we are the circumcision
in Philippians 3, 3. And that circumcision there that
he's talking about is not the physical circumcision, the right
of circumcision that God gave originally to Abraham, where
all the Jewish males were to be circumcised physically. But
Paul's talking about a spiritual circumcision when he says, for
we are the circumcision. And he's showing there the contrast
between the physical Jews who would boast in their circumcision. You know, the Jews had three
things, the unbelieving Jews had three things that they had
confidence in. So as to boast of their being
the people of God or being saved or being blessed. one of them
was their physical connection with Abraham, their physical
connection with Abraham and they said, we be Abraham's seed and
of course, the Lord Himself and the Apostle Paul and the whole
Bible shows that being physically connected to Abraham has no merit
or no value when it comes to salvation. In other words, just
because you're born a physical ethnic Jew, that does not mean
you're right with God. And the second thing they boasted
in was their circumcision. We be not uncircumcised. They looked at the Gentiles as
being heathen because they were uncircumcised. And so they boasted
in their circumcision. as being a sign of being right
with God. But the Apostle Paul wrote that
no physical circumcision does no good as far as salvation. And then the third thing they
boasted in was they kept the law of Moses, which they didn't,
but they boasted that they did. So that was their confidence.
Well, Paul in Philippians 3, he's contrasting that boast of
unbelieving Jews in their circumcision with what the true circumcision,
which is spiritual circumcision. Now that's the new birth. Christ
said, you must be born again. Paul wrote in Romans chapter
two and verse 28, he said, he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly
and circumcision is not that of the flesh, but of the heart.
That's circumcision of the heart. Now that's the new birth. And
that's when the Holy Spirit comes out from the Father and the Son
and gives spiritual life to spiritually dead sinners, gives us a new
life, a new heart, cutting away the filth of the flesh, which
is bringing us to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works.
So in Philippians 3 and verse 3, he says, for we are the true
circumcision, spiritual circumcision, the true children of God. which
worship in the spirit, that is, we don't worship in physical
ways that people have to have these visual aids or anything
like that, but we worship from the heart. So we worship in the
spirit and we have confidence in Christ. We glory in Christ
Jesus. We boast in Him. I'm boasting
today, but I'm not boasting in me or any human being. I'm boasting
in Christ. He's my confidence, and I have
no confidence in the flesh. And the same word is used in
Galatians 6 and verse 14 when he said, God forbid that I should
glory, boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. And then
in verse 15 he says, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision availeth anything but a new creation. And that
new creation is the sinner that's saved by grace, born of God. Well, that's the same thing he's
talking about here in 1 Corinthians 1 31. He that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord. And God has designed salvation
by his grace through the glorious person and the finished work
of Christ. He says in verse 29 here that no flesh should glory
in his presence. And so we've talked about that
in verse 30. But of him, of God, are you in Christ Jesus, who
of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. Everything that salvation is
is in Christ. It's merited, earned, accomplished
by him and not by us. If we're saved, we're saved by
grace. We're the recipients of a multitude of blessings. that
we did not earn and do not deserve. And it didn't come by our works.
It didn't come by our physical heritage. It didn't even come
by our will. You know, somebody says, well,
Christ died for everybody. Now you've got to be willing
to come to him. Listen to me. Salvation doesn't
come by our will. Now in salvation, God makes us
willing in the day of his power. And he does that by the preaching
of the gospel and the power of the spirit. And all that's designed
this way, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. And of course, all of this is
so honoring to God, to Christ, to the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit. Well, I want you to go to Romans chapter nine with me,
because I want to conclude it with this. And this is again,
it's another scripture that is so glorifying and honoring to
God. But this is a passage, this Romans 9 passage. It's a passage
of scripture that most preachers want to avoid. And when some
of these false preachers get into it, they deny it, actually
they twist it. rest it, W-R-E-S-T as Peter said,
rest it to their own destruction, because they don't want to believe
in the absolute sovereignty of God. They don't want to believe
in the doctrine of God's sovereign election, electing grace, that
God chose a people before the foundation of the world and gave
them to Christ. put all of the responsibility,
all the conditions, all the stipulations, all the requirements of salvation
upon Him and Him alone. And then they are His elect. That's what they're called. The
people of God are called God's elect. Some people say, well,
that's just referring to Israel. Oh, no. Oh, no. The elect of God were chosen
before the world began, given to Christ, and God does not charge
them with their sin. Romans 8 and verse 33 says, Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. Who can condemn it? It's Christ
that died, yea rather that is risen again, seated at the right
hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us.
Well, listen to what he's talking about here. He uses Jacob and
Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah to illustrate this. And he says in talking about
Rebekah and Isaac, and in verse 11 of Romans 9, now listen to
this, he says, for the children, talking about Jacob and Esau,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, now that's
stated because the Lord wants us to know that it's not based
upon what they do, whether good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth." So it's not of works. That's the purpose of
this now. And it says, it was said unto
her, the elder, now the elder was Esau. He came out of the
womb first. And so even though they were
twins and born the same time and the same day, Esau was technically
the elder because he came out first. So the elder shall serve
the younger, that's Jacob, who came out second. And you know
in the Bible it talks about how Jacob was holding on to Esau's
heel. And it says in verse 13, and
this is a verse that most people either rest, twist, to their
own destruction or they just don't want to hear about it.
It says, as it is written, now this is written from the book
of the prophet Malachi in chapter one, Jacob have I loved but Esau
have I hated. And people say, wait a minute,
God doesn't hate anybody. Oh yeah, He hates Esau and I
know I've heard preachers preach on this sometimes and they'll
say this, that's not talking about individuals, that's talking
about nations. Well, first of all, it's not
talking about nations. He's talking about Jacob and
Esau. And secondly, if he were talking
about nations, what point are you trying to make there that
he loves a bunch of people and hates a bunch of people? Aren't
nations made up of people? And that's the case. You say,
well, Jacob, he deserved it and Esau didn't know. Jacob didn't
deserve it. And Esau didn't deserve, Esau,
listen, all of us. Now think about this. The Bible
teaches that because we fell in Adam into sin and depravity
and death, we're all sinners and we all deserve damnation. We all deserve condemnation.
We deserve it, we've earned it. So you can think about it this
way. If God gave Jacob or Esau what
they deserve to earn, both would be hated. And another thing is
that God's hatred is not like ours. Our hatred is sinful because
it's selfish. And it's egotistical, it's self-righteous. But God's hatred is His justice
against sin where sin is imputed, charged, accounted. But however
you want to tweak it, it says what it says. But now here's
the point. says in verse 14, now when you
hear this, Jacob have I loved, that's the unearned undeserved
sovereign love of God to Jacob and that's how God loves His
elect. Jacob was one of God's elect,
Esau was not elect, Esau was a reprobate from the very beginning. And you say, well, I don't like
that. I don't think that's fair. We'll look at the next verse
in verse 14. Paul anticipated your objection here now. If you're
saying that's not fair, that's unjust, that's not right. Well,
here's you right here. Verse 14, what shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? Is God unjust? Well, what's the answer? Well,
Paul says, God forbid. No, God is not unjust. God is
not unfair. God does what he does. And if
you want to argue and debate with him, well, you take it up
when you stand before him at judgment and see how far you
get. Now think about that. I suggest
you don't do that. I suggest you bow to his sovereign
will. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Well, look at verse 15. For he saith to Moses, Talking
about Moses, the giver of the law, I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. That's God's sovereign right.
If he chooses to show mercy to Jacob and not to Esau, that's
God's sovereign right. Later on down here, he talks
about it this way, God is the potter, we're the clay. But now
here's the point, verse 16 of Romans 9, so then it is not of
him that willeth, it's not of the will of man, nor of him that
runneth, not of the works of man, that's what that indicates,
but of God that showeth mercy. That's it. God gets the glory. Now, if you'll turn back in your
Old Testament to Exodus chapter 33, this is the passage from
which Paul quoted Romans 9, where God said, I'll have mercy on
whom I will, and I'll have compassion on whom I will. And it was in
answer to a question that Moses asked. And what was the question? Now, you're going to see how
this all fits together to the glory of the Lord, to the praise
of the glory of His grace. In verse 11, this is Exodus 33
in verse 11, it says, And the Lord spoke unto Moses face to
face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Now this is one of
the appearances, the pre-incarnate appearances of Christ to his
people in the Old Testament. Moses had already been up on
the Mount, Mount Sinai, and he'd already received the law. And
you remember he came down with the two tablets of stone, and
he saw the children, the Hebrew children, worshiping the golden
calf, and he threw those stones down and broke them. Well, he
goes back up on the Mount, and God makes two more tablets of
stone and gives to Moses. And those were the tablets that
were placed in the Ark of the Covenant covered by the mercy
seat. All a picture of Christ keeping the law unto death. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So
he spoke to Moses face-to-face. Well, God cannot be approached
and spoken to face-to-face except through God the Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so this is one of the pre-incarnate
appearances of Christ in the Old Testament. So verse 11, the
Lord spoke unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his
friend. You see, apart from God's grace,
apart from Christ, apart from his blood to wash away our sins
and his righteousness imputed to justify us, God could not
and you could not be friends with God. You'd be an enemy. But Moses was a sinner saved
by grace. And it says in verse 11, he turned
again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun,
a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. And Moses
said unto the Lord, see thou sayest unto me, bring up this
people, And thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with
me, yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also
found grace in my sight." So Moses is asking God through this
information, who are you going to send with me, all of this.
But he says, if I have found grace, God says to Moses, you
have found grace in my sight. That's salvation. This grace
is that which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. And look at verse 13 of Exodus
33. Now therefore I pray thee, Moses saying, if I have found
grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee,
that I might find grace in thy sight, and consider that this
nation is thy people. And he said to Moses, he said,
my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And
he said unto him, if thy presence, Moses said unto him, if thy presence
go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it
be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy
sight? And all of this, you see, this
is something else. He said, is it not in that thou
goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, this is verse 17, he said,
I will do this thing, Also that thou has spoken for thou has
found grace in my sight and I know thee by name Remember the false
preachers in Matthew 7 Christ said to them depart from me.
I never knew you Well, he knew the who they were God and Christ
The Father the Son and the Spirit God not not three gods now, but
one God in three persons. They know everything and But
they didn't know them in salvation, in an intimate, loving, saving
way. Because He didn't choose them.
He didn't bring them into the kingdom. But He says to Moses,
I know thee by name. And look at verse 18. Moses said, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. Show me your glory. Well look
at verse 19, he says, he said, I will make all my goodness pass
before thee, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee,
and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will
show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And then he put Moses
in the cleft of the rock as he passed by. And that is a picture
of being hidden in Christ. We see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. So back in Romans chapter nine,
in verse 16, why has God set it up this way? Well, first of
all, the Bible tells us that if God had not chosen his people
to save them, nobody would be saved. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
And secondly, salvation is when God reveals his glory to his
people, and a big part of his glory is his sovereignty in choosing
whom he will save. And why is it like that? Because
it's all by grace. Verse 16, so then it is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. Over in the book of John, the
gospel of John, chapter one, He talks about this in showing
the glory and power of God in the salvation of sinners in being
born of God. And he says in verse 11 of John
chapter one, it says, he, that is Christ, came unto his own,
and his own received him not. Now, a lot of people say, well,
that's his own nation, and that's true, his own nation, In His
humanity, He was a Jew, and His own nation received Him not.
But even His people, the elect, will not on their own by nature
receive Him, but they will be brought to receive Him by the
power of God. And it says in verse 12, but
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now that word power
there is not ability. It's not speaking of the ability
to do this because man by nature does not have the ability to
come to him, to receive him because he's unwilling. He said, John
6, 44, no man can come to me except the father which has sent
me draw him and I'll raise him up again at the last day. Again,
the natural man receiving not the things of the spirit of God.
But he says, those who receive him, they have the right to the
privilege of being called the true children of God, the people
of God, his servants, his disciples, His church, His sheep, we could
go on and on, His brethren. And how do you know that you're
one of God's elect, one of God's sheep, one of God's brethren,
Christ's brethren? He says, to them that believe
on His name. Well, how does a sinner come
to believe on His name? It's by the new birth. And if
they're born again by the Spirit of God, under the preaching of
the gospel, and that's what it takes, They will see and glorify
God in Christ, believe on Him, rest in Him, and repent of their
dead works. And how's that come about? Verse
13, which were born not of blood, that is not of natural birth,
as a blood relative of Abraham say. You remember they said in
John 8, he said, we be Abraham's seed. He said, well, if you're
Abraham's seed, you do the works of Abraham. And what did Abraham
do? He believed God. And it was imputed to him for
righteousness. That's Christ's righteousness. You don't believe
God. They were physical descendants
of Abraham, but they weren't spiritual descendants of Abraham. So they were born, which were
born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh." Now, I believe
that's talking about the works of the flesh. It's not of works,
nor of the will of man. It's not because you made a decision.
Now, don't get me wrong. When you're born again by the
Spirit under the preaching of the true gospel, you will make
a decision. You'll decide for Christ. You'll
believe in him. And he says, born of God, but
of God, not born of blood, not born of the works of the flesh,
not born of the will of man, but born of God. When you're
born of God, you will glory in the Lord. You will boast in Christ. You won't boast of your own decision.
You won't go around talking about, well, I'm saved because I made
a decision for Christ. because you'll boast that you're
saved because God chose you and Christ redeemed you and the Holy
Spirit has given you life. And you'll glory in the Lord.
You'll glory in his person. You'll glory in his blood. You'll
glory in his righteousness. That's what it is to glory in
the Lord. It's to glory in Christ alone as your whole salvation
from beginning to final glory. To know that salvation is of
the Lord. born of God, knowing that He
is your glory. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
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today and may the Lord be with you.