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, I'm glad
you could join us today. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to continue preaching through 1
Corinthians chapter one, and my text is verse 31, which says,
that is according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Now the title of this message
is To Glory in the Lord, and this is part two. part one last
week, and I want to go back over. We see that the purpose of God
in the salvation of sinners is ultimately to the praise of the
glory of His grace. The Apostle Paul wrote about
that over in Ephesians chapter one. He was talking about salvation
by the grace of God, which was brought about in the eternal
mind of God before the world ever began. And how God chose
a people. And that's part of his glory,
I'm gonna show you that. He says in Ephesians one and verse three,
blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. There's election. God chose a
people to save, and He chose to save them in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this all took place before
the foundation of the world, before the world was ever created,
before Adam even fell. God had already chosen a people
to save. Now He didn't choose everybody
without exception. The Bible in Romans 9 speaks
of those who are vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, and vessels
of mercy, aforeprepared unto glory. I know people don't want
to hear about this, but I'm going to tell you something. This is
a big part of the glory of God. I'll show you that. But it says,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy, that is separate, and
without blame, justified before Him in love, having predestinated
us, verse five, Ephesians 1.5, having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will, and look at verse six. to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved." Now the Beloved there is Christ. Remember at
his baptism in the Mount of Transfiguration, I think another time God spoke
from heaven, the Father spoke from heaven, said, this is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And so
he says, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he
hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, his death, as the surety, the substitute,
the redeemer of his people, the forgiveness of sins by his death,
according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence. And so he speaks of all of this
salvation, that it's to the praise of the glory of his grace. That's
verse 12. That we, we who are saved, should
be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
all to the praise of the glory of His grace. Now, back over
in our text, 1 Corinthians chapter one and verse 33 says that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now,
what is the glory of God? The glory of God is the revelation,
the manifestation of who God is, His attributes, as He reveals
Himself in His word. the truth from Genesis to Revelation. If you want to know who God is,
don't go looking for statues and paintings and visions or
anything like that. He said before that the Jews
require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but they don't
find it. Man on his own can't find God
in those things. Now there are revelations of
God's glory in creation. Psalm 19 spoke of that. The heavens declared the glory
of God and the firmament His handiwork. In other words, this
creation is an evidence of the existence of a powerful and wise
God. Now, many people deny that, you
know, atheists, all of that, but they're just denying the
obvious. And what happens? What man does see of the glory
of God in creation, because of his sin and depravity and spiritual
death, having fallen in Adam, he turns it into idolatry. Romans 1 speaks of that. Romans
1 18 talks about that which can be known of God by the natural
man. What does he do with it if left
to himself and not being brought to faith in Christ? He turns
it into idolatry. He looks at the moon and the
glory of it at night. And what does he do? Well, he
worships the moon God. He looks at the sun and he worships
the sun God. He looks at the forest and he
worships mother earth. All kinds of things. And then
there are others who go a little bit farther there and they think
about God, the God, but they don't know about Him. They don't
know the truth about Him. They deny His word, what His
word says about Him. And so that's the glory of God.
Well, this is quoted from Jeremiah chapter nine. Let me go back
and read that for you. In Jeremiah nine and verse 23,
this was spoken to the people of Jerusalem in the southern
kingdom of Judah by the prophet Jeremiah, because even though
they were religious and even though they had the law of Moses,
and even though they had the tabernacle, the temple, they
didn't know the true and living God. You know, the old rabbis
used to speak of what they called the Shekinah glory of God. The word Shekinah means the dwelling
place. and the dwelling place of God.
Now, certainly God cannot be, God is spirit, God is omnipresent,
that's part of his attributes, that's part of his glory. He
cannot be contained in temples and buildings made with hands,
men's hands. Paul spoke that on Mars Hill
in Acts chapter 17 to the Greek philosophers and religionists.
But God's glory, dwelt in the tabernacle above the mercy seat. Exodus chapter 25 speaks of that. That doesn't mean that it contained
or confined God, put him in a box somewhere. But what that was
is the Shekinah glory was the greatest manifestation of God's
glory that could be found at that time. And where was it? It was in the Holy of Holies.
above the mercy seat. You remember the Ark of the Covenant,
that box made of Shittim wood and overlaid with gold, covered
with a golden lid, the mercy seat, had the cherubims on top. And once a year on the Day of
Atonement, the high priest would bring blood from the spotless
land that was slain on the brazen altar, and he'd bring that blood,
and he'd go into the holiest of all, the Holy of Holies, and
he'd sprinkle that blood above the mercy seat. All of that was
a picture of how God saves sinners by the glorious person and the
finished work of redemption accomplished for them by Jesus Christ, the
Messiah, the Savior of sinners, the Lord of glory. And that's
the highest Shekinah glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so Jeremiah, pointing the
people who were ignorant of that to this, he said in Jeremiah
9 and verse 23, listen to this. It says, thus saith the Lord,
let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Now I brought out
last week how that word glory can sometimes be translated as
boast, boast. In other words, when it comes
to salvation and when it comes to a right relationship with
God, making us right with God in what do you glory in what
do you boast many people today they boast they glory in their
decision you ask a lot of people are you saved they say well I
walked the aisle and I made my decision for Christ I was baptized
my friend that's some don't glory in that don't boast in that And
I'll show you something else about that. But he says, let
not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Don't boast. If you're
smart, don't boast in that because it's a gift from God. Those people
who are born smart, you know, they talk about they have a high
IQ and that's good, but it can be a curse too because many people
who are in that state, they deny God. So don't let the wise man
boast or glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Many people are strong, athletic,
and that's a good thing, but it can be a curse because it
gets people so hyped up about health and sports that they deny
God. So don't glory in your power. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. You see that? People who have
the knack, they're like King Midas. They have a golden, whatever
they say turns to gold. But that's a gift from God. Read
the book of Ecclesiastes. Going through life with a lot
of money and dying in unbelief, that's vanity. But verse 24 says,
but let him that glorieth glory in this. Now listen to this.
that he understandeth and knoweth me, that he understands and knows
God. Now, the only way that a sinner
who is fallen in Adam, all sinners are fallen in Adam, when Adam
fell, we fell into a state of sin, unbelief, spiritual darkness,
ignorance, depravity, spiritual death. That's how we are. all have sinned and come short
of what? The glory of God and that glory of God is revealed
in the face of Jesus Christ. The only way you can know God
savingly and have a right relationship with God is by His free and sovereign
grace based on and through the glorious person and the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lord your righteousness.
So listen to what Jeremiah says, that him that glorieth glory
in this that he understandeth and knoweth me and that understanding
and knowledge is a gift from God now you don't have it by
nature the son of God hath come and given us an understanding
that we may know him that is true that's what first john 5
says and knoweth me that i am the lord which exercise loving
kindness Now, he exercises loving kindness in his grace, his love,
and his mercy toward his chosen people in Christ, but he not
only exercises love and grace and mercy, loving kindness, he
says, which exercises judgment, justice. How can he do both? How can he be both just and justifier? How can he justify a sinner like
me who deserves nothing but death and hell? All right, he says,
he exercised an righteousness in the earth. Now, what is that
righteousness in the earth? Well, hold on to that thought,
for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Now, turn over
to Isaiah chapter 46, and I wanna show you this. He exercises loving
kindness. He exercises judgment and righteousness
in the earth. How does he do that? Well, Isaiah
chapter 46, look at verse 12. This is a command of the gospel.
Hearken unto me, you stout-hearted, that's self-righteous, that are
far from righteousness. Man cannot make himself righteousness,
not even in his religion, not even in his morality. Righteousness
by works of the law is a pipe dream, and it'll lead to eternal
damnation. And it gets you farther away
from true righteousness. Righteousness is the perfection
of the law that can only be found in Christ. And verse 13 says,
I bring near my righteousness. It shall not be far off. And
my salvation shall not tarry. And I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel, my glory. And he's talking about spiritual
Israel there. And they are his glory because
in spiritual Israel, God shows how he can be just and justifier
of the ungodly. Well, how's that possible? We'll
go back to our text now. First Corinthians 1 and look
at verse 30. Here's how God does it. But of
Him, of God, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God? This is God's work. You see,
if you're a sinner saved by grace, you're the work of God. Ephesians
2 and verse 10, for we are His workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, not because of good works, but unto good
works, they're the fruit and the effect, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. So who of God is made
unto us wisdom. I closed with this last week.
The wisdom of God in the salvation of sinners is found in His purpose. and his work to save sinners
by his free and sovereign grace based upon the glorious person
and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So who is
Jesus Christ? He's God manifest in the flesh,
the God-man. That's who it took to be the
savior of sinners. And only the wisdom of God could
come up with that. Man by nature couldn't come up
with that. He's God because He is able to create and give life. He's man, perfect man, not sinful
man. He had to be the lamb without
spot and without blemish because of the sins of His people charged
to Him, imputed to Him. He's man because He had to die
on the cross because the wages of sin is death. And having our
sins, the sins of God's elect, imputed, charged, credited, accounted
to Him, that debt, He had to die to pay the debt. That's called
redemption. He became the substitute of His
people and died on the cross to put away their sins. And He
accomplished it, and that's shown by the resurrection from the
dead. Out of His death comes life. You see that? Now that's the wisdom of God.
the sins of God's elect imputed, charged, accounted to Christ,
for which he went under the wrath of God, and satisfied its justice,
and accomplishing the very righteousness of God, which God has imputed,
charged, accounted, reckoned to his people." What wisdom that
is. No man, you know, there's not
any other religion on the face of this earth that has come up
with that kind of a solution. They don't even ask the question,
how can God be just and justify? Well, Christ is made unto us
by God, wisdom. And then Christ is made unto
us of God, righteousness. Christ is the Lord my righteousness. I have no other righteousness
but Him. His righteousness is the perfection of the law that
is found in Him alone. Jeremiah said this twice. In
Jeremiah 23 verses 5 and 6, it says His name, He will come as
promised and He will accomplish judgment and justice and He will
be known as the Lord our righteousness. And then in Jeremiah 33 15 and
16, He says the same thing of the church. The church is His
bride, That's His elect. They're the ones whom He redeemed
by His blood and who are called out by the Spirit unto Him. They're
wedded to Him and they take His name. Christ is my righteousness. This is the very righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel. And that's His righteousness
imputed. You see, in salvation, God does
not enable us to save ourselves. And so we have no boast, no glory,
but the glory in God as He reveals Himself in Christ and He's our,
verse 30, He's our sanctification. This is what sets God's people
apart from the world. It's how God saves sinners. It's
the gospel we believe. We don't believe salvation by
works. We don't believe salvation by
the free will of men, as they say, because there's no such
thing. Man left to himself will not choose Christ, not the true
Christ. Now he'll choose counterfeits.
He'll choose idols that give him room to glory and to boast. No, we don't believe salvation
by baptism or by anything else, but the sovereign grace of God. Grace, as sin hath reigned unto
death, grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. For by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. That's what sets God's people
apart. We stand before God, forgiven
of all our sins by one ground, by one means, the blood of Jesus
Christ. And we stand before God, righteous
in His sight, having been declared righteous by God Himself on one
just ground, the imputed righteousness of Christ. And so we can say,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather is risen again, seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. Romans 8, one says, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus. So he's our sanctification. And then lastly, he's our redemption.
We're bought with a price. He redeemed us, His people now,
by His blood. That's believers. And so, the
redemption of our bodies in the end, when He comes back again
to glorify us with Himself, that's of Him too. Salvation is of the
Lord. That's His glory. And so, what
He's saying here is this. When God brings a sinner by the
Spirit in the new birth, raising Him from the dead spiritually
and giving Him spiritual life and knowledge, bringing Him to
faith in Christ and repentance of dead works, that sinner knows
that he or she has absolutely nothing to boast in, nothing
to glory in, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, this
is what Paul said in Galatians 6 and verse 14. He was talking
about the Judaizers who tried to bring believers under the
law of works. And they'd say something like
this, well, you're saved by grace, but you've got to keep yourself
by keeping the law. Oh no, you're not gonna, God's
not gonna share his glory. See, we're saved by grace, we're
kept by grace, and we'll be glorified by grace based upon the glorious
person. and the finished work of Christ.
That's God's glory. So Paul in Galatians 6.14, he
made this statement. He said, God forbid that I should
glory, save, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. I don't
boast in anything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified and
risen from the dead. And the world looks at me as
being cursed because I will not speak peace to them. But I look
at the world as being cursed because they don't believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the glory of God. Philippians
chapter 3 and verse 3 states it this way. For we are the circumcision,
Paul's talking about the new birth there, spiritual circumcision,
which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. That word rejoice is the same
word as glory. We boast, we have confidence
in Christ Jesus, not in ourselves, not in our works, but in Christ
who is the Lord our righteousness and have no confidence in the
flesh. We glory in Christ and in Christ
alone. And all of this is to the praise
of the glory of God's grace. When the Apostle Paul, as written
over in 2 Corinthians chapter three, was contrasting the new
covenant with the old covenant, he explained that this new covenant
is the ministration of the Spirit The old covenant was the ministration
of law. The old covenant, the law of
Moses that Israel was under for 1500 years. And it never was
a way of salvation. It was a way of convicting them
of sin, showing them the impossibility of salvation based on their works
and driving them to Christ as he was pictured and typified
in the sacrifices, the tabernacle, the priesthood, all of that.
the scapegoat, all of that. And so he says the old letter,
it was a killing letter. It was given to kill us, to show
us that the only thing that can come from our ideas of salvation
by works is death. But the new covenant, he said,
is the ministration of the Spirit that gives life. But how do we
have life from Christ, who is our life? Christ said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So he calls the old covenant
law, the ministration of death. And he calls the new covenant,
the ministration of the spirit and life. And then look at verse
nine of 2 Corinthians chapter three. He said, for if the ministration
of condemnation be glory. Now, how was that glory? It's
a ministration of death, of the law. Well, God revealed aspects
of himself, his justice, in that law, and there were glorious
things that happened to Israel under that law. Think about it.
Think about Moses on Mount Sinai coming down with the tablets.
Thinking about their journey through the wilderness, the manna
from heaven, the miracles that were performed. Think about their
life for 1,500 years, how many things happened to show forth
the glory of God's power and justice. But the new covenant,
he says, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. The new covenant in Christ exceeds
in glory because in that covenant we see every attribute of God's
nature working consistently together to save His people from their
sins by His grace based upon the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see that? Let he that glorieth
glory in the Lord. 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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today and may the Lord be with you.