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'm going to be preaching from the book of
1 Corinthians chapter 1. I've preached a couple of messages
on this before, and I want to pick up with verse 31. Now, I'm
going to read some verses before this, but my text is verse 31
of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and it says that, according as it
is written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. And the title of the message
is To Glory in the Lord. And what I wanna deal with is
what does that mean? How do we respond to it? How should we look at this passage
and the command that's given there? And it is a command, he
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. What is it to glory
in the Lord? What is the glory of the Lord?
all of those things. So let's go back, just read a
few verses here. Now that line that the Apostle
Paul wrote here by inspiration of the Spirit is a quotation
from the Old Testament. And we'll look back in the Old
Testament, it's Jeremiah chapter nine, the prophet Jeremiah. And
Paul was quoting the Old Testament. And of course, whenever we see
things like that in the Bible, we're always reminded of how
the Bible is one unit, one message of salvation by the free and
sovereign grace of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Because basically to glory in
the Lord is to seek and find and rest in salvation by God's
grace through the glorious person and the finished work of Christ,
His righteousness alone. So let's look at that. Paul had
been talking about the gospel and how different people respond
to it. He had said that the preaching
of the cross, now that's another way of stating the gospel message. It's not just, and of course
that preaching of the cross is not preaching a literal wooden
cross, even though Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he died,
he died on a literal wooden cross. But when Paul writes the preaching
of the cross, He's talking about basically how salvation in the
gospel is a message of how God saves sinners, again, as I always
say, through the glorious person and the finished work, his obedience
unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. His person being the
Lord of glory, being the second person of the Trinity, the God-man,
That's very important. The scripture tells us his name
shall be called Jesus. He shall save his people from
their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted as God with us. The word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. All of those, that's who Jesus
Christ is. He is God, man. Perfect God and
perfect man in one person. We see the union of the two natures,
God and man in one person, not a mixture now, not part God and
part man, all God and all man without sin. And that's what
the Bible teaches about Christ. Unto us a son is given, that's
the son, and a child is born, that's his humanity. So we could
go on and on about that. We're gonna be talking about
that. And then the finished work of Christ over 1 Corinthians
2 and verse 2, Paul wrote this, he said, for I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And in the Bible, to think about
the crucifixion of Christ, it means so many things. It means
thinking of Him as the representative and the surety of a people that
God chose before the foundation of the world and gave to Him,
placing all of the responsibility of their salvation upon Him and
Him alone. And how God sent Him into the
world to be the substitute of His people, taking their place
under the law. God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, His humanity, made under the law. and to redeem
them under the law. So as a substitute under the
law, to obey that law unto death, because the wages of sin is death. Now Christ was not a sinner,
but he had the debt of the sins of all of his people credited,
charged, accounted, imputed to him. And he became responsible
to pay their debt. He's our surety. That's what
a surety is. And so He did that to redeem
us, and that is a finished work. So when you hear Christ and Him
crucified, it's not just the crucifixion, the death itself
of Christ, but it's the death that accomplished the redemption
of His people. Hebrews 10 and verse 14 says,
for by one offering, the offering of Himself without spot to God,
He hath perfected, completed, finished, forever them that are
sanctified, those whom God set apart before the foundation of
the world. That's the elect of God. That's
the sheep of Christ. He laid down his life for the
sheep. And having finished that work, you know what happened?
God raised him from the dead. Sin imputed to him, demanded
his death. But righteousness that he worked
out as God-man and the one who kept the law perfectly and died
to satisfy its justice, the propitiation. He was raised from the dead and
His righteousness, His righteousness, that's the merit of His obedience
in the death has been imputed, charged, credited to all of His
people and that's how God justifies the ungodly. So understand this
now, That's the gospel, and that's what it is to preach the cross.
Well, Paul wrote here that the preaching of the cross is to
them who are perishing foolishness, unbelievers. Over in 1 Corinthians
2.14, I quote this verse all the time, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them,
they're spiritually discerned, spiritually understood. Unbelievers
cannot grasp the glory of God in the gospel message of Christ
crucified and risen from the dead. Now, they may claim to
believe those historical facts, but they cannot grasp and understand
savingly the glory of God in that, and that's what we're gonna
talk about. So what he says in verse 22, look at 1 Corinthians
1 verse 22. The Jews require a sign. Now
see, the religious Jews, they were looking for signs and wonders,
things like that. The word of God was not enough
for them. They had to go elsewhere. And
there are many people like that today. The word of God, what
God says in His word is not enough. They have to go by feeling, experience. They have to have peer pressure. They have to be accepted with
their peer, all of that. The word of God is not enough.
So just like the Jews who require a sign. And he says in verse
22, the Greeks or the Gentiles seek after wisdom, human wisdom. And that's what a lot of people
are looking for, human understanding. They go to science, they go to
philosophy. or even human religion and they
said the God, the preaching of the cross to them, it says in
verse 23, but we preach Christ crucified, which I've already
explained, unto the Jews a stumbling block. It's like a trap, you
know, they're trapped by their own ignorance. And he says, and
under the Greeks foolishness, but verse 24 says, but unto them
which are called. Now what is that calling? That's
the invincible, sovereign, calling of God by the Holy Spirit under
the preaching of the gospel. Christ spoke of that in John
16. He says when the Spirit comes he will convince or convict the
world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin because
they believe not on me of righteousness because I go unto the Father
and of judgment because the Prince of this world is judged. and what he's talking about is
the Holy Spirit's invincible, irresistible, powerful work in
the new birth whereby He imparts from Christ spiritual life to
raise us from the dead. You see, by nature, we're spiritually
dead. We fell an atom into sin and
depravity and spiritual death left to ourselves. We will not
believe Left to ourselves, we will not choose God or choose
Christ. That's why the Bible says in
Romans 3 and 10, there's none righteous, no, not one. It goes
on to say, there's none that seeketh after God, no, not one.
There's none good, no, not one. That is in the standard of God's
goodness. The natural man receiveth not.
That's why Christ told Nicodemus, you must be born again or you
cannot see the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. That means
you can't see it with the spiritual eyes to see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. Second Corinthians four and verse
six. And so, If you come to faith in Christ and faith which is
a gift from God now, if you have true God-given faith, that's
not the product or the result of your free will choice. Preachers
today preach that but it's not true. You don't listen. Man by nature will not choose
the right thing in salvation. he'll choose, he can choose to
be religious, he can choose to be moral in the eyes of men,
responsible, a good citizen, but he will not choose Christ. John 6 and verse 44 says, no
man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw
him and I'll raise him up again as the last day. And how does
the Father draw it? By the power of the Spirit sent from Christ
to give us new birth, to impart new life, spiritual life, a new
heart. eyes to see and ears to hear
the gospel as the glory of God and the power of God. So he says
in verse 24, he says, but unto them which are called both Jews
and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
In verse 25, he says, because the foolishness of God is wiser
than men. What the unbeliever calls foolishness
when he hears the true gospel, That's wiser than men. That's
the wisdom of God. And the weakness of God is stronger
than men. What men who are unregenerate,
men and women who are not born again and unbelief, what they
call weakness, that's the strength of God, the power of God. And
he says in verse 26, now look at this verse. He says, for you
see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Now, what
he's showing there is that those who rise to high levels of human
wisdom and human morality, human nobility, that becomes a hindrance
to many of them, not many now. Listen, God saves sinners of
all walks of life, rich, poor, smart, dumb, whatever you want
to say. He saves all kinds. His elect
is made up of God's people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. But He brings them under the
gospel and He reveals Himself to them. He reveals His glory
to them. And it says in verse 27, But
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty. In other words, it's the people
that the world do not hold in high esteem as far as religion
is concerned now. And it says in verse 28, the
base things of the world and things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, the things which are not to bring to naught things
that are. And here's the reason that God
has set it up that way. Look at verse 29, that no flesh
should glory in His presence. Now, what is it to glory? This word glory, sometimes in
the Bible, this word glory is a noun. The glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6 speaks
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Over in Isaiah
chapter 42 and verse 8. Listen to this, Isaiah 42 and
verse 8. He says here, I am the Lord,
that is my name. Now, he identifies himself by
his name. And His name is not just a title
or a label. His name indicates who He is
and what He is like, His nature. And that's what His glory is.
God is glorified in the revelation of who He is as He reveals Himself
in His word. So that whatever God says about
Himself in this word, If you're going to glory in Him, you've
got to believe it and submit to it. And if you say something
about God, what He's like, or what He does, that is not according
to the revelation of Himself in His word, you're not glorifying
God. That's an idol. God's glory is
made up of His attributes. We can speak of, you may have
seen books on the attributes of God. It'll speak of God's
singularity. He's a single being. You speak
of God's eternal nature. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
no beginning, no end. He's an uncreated being. Speaks
of God's sovereignty, that He rules over all things and determines
all things. He's in control. It speaks of
God's foreknowledge. That's not God foreseeing into
the future. That's God determining the future. He is the one who works all things
after the counsel of his own will. It's what the Bible says
in Ephesians 1 and verse 11. It speaks of God's holiness.
He is separate. There's none like God. Don't
compare God to anyone. That's why back in the Old Testament,
it was forbidden to try to paint pictures or to make images of
God. And it's still just as wrong
today. If you go to Rome and you go into the Sistine Chapel
at the Vatican, and you look up there and they have an old
man with a white beard, and they say, well, that's God touching
the house. No, it's not God. God is spirit. God is invisible. He has no human form. Christ,
the God-man, He had a human form when He became incarnate. The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. But we don't even know
what He looked like, so these so-called pictures or images
of Jesus, they're no good. There's no significance to them.
If you want to know Christ, don't look to a painting, a renaissance
painting. Don't look to Da Vinci's The
Last Supper or anything like that. Don't go and look at Michelangelo's
Pieta. Don't look at that. That's not
Christ. That's an icon. That's an idol.
Anybody who thinks there's any religious power or significance
to those things, you're worshiping idols. How am I gonna know God? How am I gonna know Christ? Through
His word that describes Him, that reveals Him. Who is Jesus
Christ? Who is the Lord God of heaven?
That's how we know Him, and that's how we glorify Him, by acknowledging
the truth, submitting to it. This is God. And look at that
Isaiah 42, verse eight. He says, I am the Lord, that
is my name. And that Lord there, we have
an English equivalent to it, somewhat. And we say it's Yahweh
or Jehovah, something like that. And what it really means is the
Lord's salvation. He's the one who saves sinners.
And he says, I am the Lord, that is my name. And listen to this
now. And my glory will I not give
to another. neither my praise to graven images."
I'm not going to give my glory to another, God says. And it
is His glory to reveal who He is. So that's the glory of God. So there it's a noun. Speaking
of the effulgence and the revelation, the magnificence of who God is. And we could go on with those
attributes. We could talk about God's power.
He's omnipotent. Somebody says, can God do anything
he wants to do? Yes, he can. And some silly people
come up with this. You know, I've heard this, well,
can God make a rock that he cannot move? That's stupid. And that's
silly. Don't get involved in stuff like
that. Read the Bible. God can do anything
he wants to do. But what He wants to do is determined
by His holiness, His wisdom, His knowledge, all of that. You
see, we could talk about God's omnipresence. God is everywhere. He's spirit. He's the invisible
God. That's why he requires people to worship him in spirit and
in truth and not through pictures and statues and necklaces and
all of that. You see, we worship God from
our hearts. That's what the Bible says. We
worship in spirit and in truth by reading the truth of God and
the image of God that we have. It comes from the words of the
Bible. We could talk about God's grace.
That's one of his attributes, God's love. God is love, the
scripture says. Now that doesn't mean he loves
everybody. He's also judgment and justice, hatred. The Bible
teaches that. And I know people don't want
to hear that today because you've been told from your youth up
that God loves everybody. And the scripture doesn't teach
that. God hated Esau. The fifth Psalm talks about God
hateth all workers of iniquity. And what he's talking about there
is not just, we're all sinners, but workers of iniquity there
are the unsaved, the unbeliever who go through this life in unbelief
and die in that state. and they go under the wrath of
God. That's his hatred, that's his
justice. God is a just God. In fact, the Bible says God reveals
himself in judgment. Well, let's go back to 1 Corinthians
1 now. Verse 29, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. God has determined the way of
salvation for his people so that they have no room to glory. in His presence. Now, to glory,
this is a verb here. To glory means to boast. It means to have confidence.
And so you might ask yourself, in what, when it comes to salvation,
when it comes to justification, when it comes to a right relationship
with God, in what do you glory? In what do you boast? And look
at verse 30. Now, this is 1 Corinthians 1.30.
It says, but of him that is of God are ye in Christ Jesus. Now, who is in Christ Jesus?
Well, God's elect are in Christ Jesus from before the foundation
of the world. The Bible in 2 Timothy 1 verse
9 speaks of a salvation which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Ephesians 1 talks about God choosing
a people in Christ and predestinating them unto the salvation that
he's provided for them. So, but of him are you in Christ
Jesus, verse 30, who of God, not of man, not of me, not of
you, not of our own will, but of God, his purpose, his will,
is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption that
according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in
the Lord." That's what he's saying. In other words, when it comes
to my salvation, if I'm a believer and a believer is a sinner saved
by grace, a believer is one who has been given spiritual life
from the dead, A believer is one who has been given the gift
of faith from God through Christ and brought to repentance of
dead works. A believer is one who perseveres
in the faith because God preserves him unto glory. All right? All the wisdom that God requires
for my salvation, I find totally in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he is the very wisdom
of God. He's the embodiment of wisdom.
Proverbs 8 speaks of that. Christ, the Messiah. How can
God, think about this. How, God is a just God. And he
must act in justice in whatever he does. God cannot be unjust. If he saves a sinner, he must
be just in doing so. If he condemns a sinner, he must
be just in doing so. He cannot act without justice. And so, if I'm a sinner, that
means this, that I fall short, Romans 3.23 says this, for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What is the
glory of God there? Well, it's His glory and salvation
by His grace through Christ. And all of us, by nature, fall
short of that. It's the righteousness of Christ,
the merit of His obedience unto death, freely imputed, which
God brings a sinner to receive by God-given faith. And so, if
I'm a sinner, that means this, I don't deserve anything, any
blessing from God, and I cannot earn any blessing from God. You
see what I'm saying? Salvation is not by works. So the question comes. It was
asked a couple of times in the book of Job. How can a sinful
man or a woman be just with God? Well, no, listen, no religion
among men has ever come up with the answer. But the answer is
in the wisdom of God. because it's by the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of Christ to everyone that believeth. And
that's how God can be just and still save sinners and preserve
his glory. So he that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord. Now I'm gonna continue on with
this, so 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
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.