Today, again, we'll be starting
in a series called Glorifying God. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians
10. 1 Corinthians 10. Glorifying God. As I said, Scripture
declares that we are to glorify God. We're to glorify God in
all things. in all things. 1 Corinthians
10, we'll start reading in verses 23-33. Scripture declares, all things
are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. So all things
are lawful, but all things aren't good for us. They're not good
for us. All things are lawful for me,
but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own. But
every man another's wealth. So we're not to seek our own.
That's hard for us to do. It's not natural for us, is it?
But when God changes a sinner's heart, we seek the good for others. He changes our heart. The one
who we never glorified, now we seek to glorify. The one we never
thought of, now is on our mind all the time. And that being
Christ Jesus our Lord. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles
that eat, asking no question for conscience sake. For the
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. There is our God's sovereignty. right there before us in very
plain language. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. Everything is His. Everything
is His. If any of them that believe not
bid you to feast, and ye be disposed to go, whatsoever is set before
you, eat, asking no questions for conscience' sake. But if
any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols,
eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience' sake.
For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. Conscience,
I say, not thine own, but for the other. For why is my liberty
judged of another man's conscience? For if I by grace be a partaker,
why am I evil spoken of for that which I give thanks? So, in other
words, we know we have liberty. We know we have liberty to do
things. But if that liberty that you have causes your brother
to stumble, don't do it in his presence. You can do it on your
own. But don't do it in his presence,
if it causes him to stumble. That's what that's all about.
Because everything's the Lord's, right? And we know what's right
and wrong. The Spirit of God teaches us.
We know. We know. But look at this next
verse here. Whether therefore you eat or
drink, or whatsoever you do, so that's everything, isn't it?
That's everything. Do all to the glory of God. We
are to do everything to the glory of God. When we're at work, give God
the glory for having a job. He's the one who gave it to you. You have a loving wife or a loving
husband, children. Give God all the glory. He's
the one who gave them to you. Whether we're in sickness or
in health, and I know it's hard when we're in sickness to give
Him all the glory, but we ought to. And by His grace, we do. How many times have you been
just, I know, me, moaning, oh God, please deliver me from this.
Right? But it's been for my good. And
at the end, I see that God's glorified in it. Oh, we want
to get out of it fast. But God has a plan and a purpose. And usually, through those experiences,
we come out the other side stronger in our faith in God. This is how God works. So in
everything, everything were to do to the glory of God. Give
none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor
to the church of God, even as I please all men and all things,
not seeking mine own profit." So again, we constantly see this
vein in the epistles. Paul doesn't want any of the
glory. Now, we've got to fight that. Matt and I have talked
about that. And Brother John and Brother
Tim, when you're teaching, you've got to fight that. Because we don't want any preeminence.
We don't want any glory. We want God to get it all. But
man is man. We're sinners. But we constantly see what an
example Paul is for believers, for preachers, for teachers.
He constantly says, I want God to get all the glory. This is
the Apostle Paul. He wants him to get all the glory. And that's how it should be.
And all of us as believers. should seek to glorify God in
everything that we do. So I'd like to start today a
series on glorifying God. Glorifying God. And let's finish that verse in
33. I didn't finish that verse. Even as I please all men and
all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of
many, that they may be saved. Now the confessions of old state
that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him
forever. And we will enjoy Him forever
when we're in glory. Oh my. Oh my. But we are to glorify God while
we're upon this earth. And here in our text in verse
31, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do. And as I said, that covers everything.
That covers home life. that covers work life, that covers
our social life, we're to glorify God. We're to do it to the glory
of God. If you have friends, praise God
for them. Give God the glory. I'll tell you what, if you have
one or two true friends in this life, you're very blessed. You're
very blessed. And think of us as a church family.
We have something that no one else has other than the body
of Christ. We have a family of people who
love us, who pray for us, who we will spend eternity with in
glory. That's something to give God
all the glory for, isn't it? My, my. What a great God we have. So here in our text in verse
31, the scripture proclaims that believers in Christ are to do
all to the glory of God. We are to live our lives and
walk in our lives glorifying our great King and giving Him
all the glory for all that we have, for all that we have in
Christ. And think of the spiritual blessings
that we have in Christ. We've studied them many times.
You're chosen before the foundation of the world based upon nothing
of your doing. You're redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit of God. God, the Holy Spirit,
draws you to Christ. As I said, Christ purchased you,
paid for you on Calvary's cross, rose from the dead for our justification. My, what blessings. Doesn't it
make you want to glorify God? Oh my, it does. It fills our
hearts with joy. with joy. Now, glorifying God, what is the glorifying of God?
Now, God is glorified in the church by the preaching of the
gospel. Turn, if you would, to 1 Peter
chapter 4. He's glorified in the church
by the preaching of the gospel, by the preaching of the Lord
Jesus Christ, by Him being exalted and lifted up, by sinners being
put in the dust, And God being exalted to His rightful place
too. We're so proud. And God puts
us in, He makes our headquarters in the dust. And then we lift
Him up in praise. And we glorify Him. Where He
rightfully is? Upon His throne. Upon His throne. Look at 1 Peter 4, verse 11.
If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any
man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth.
Now, this is something that I remember hearing Henry Mahan say a long
time ago. God makes the preacher. All my
studying, all that I do, it's God who has to grow me. I can't
grow on my own. God, the Holy Spirit, has to
grow a preacher, has to bring a preacher up. He has to. It's all Him. It's all His doing.
Because everything I learn, and everything I preach, I've learned. He's revealed it. I can't claim
it for my own. So He gives the ability. Let
Him do it as of the ability which God giveth. Which God giveth. That God in all things may be
glorified. There it is. That we might not
boast in who we are. We might boast in who God is.
and what he's done for us, the great things that he's done for
us. We were like that gathering demoniac and he came and released
us and now we sit at his feet in our right mind, clothed, my
clothed in the righteousness of Christ with the mind of Christ
now, oh my, there we are, there we are beloved. that God in all
things may be glorified through Jesus Christ." Now, through the
preaching of Christ and through the exaltation of Christ in our
praise and in our worship, to whom be praise and dominion forever
and ever. Amen. He gets all the glory. And think on this, beloved, when
the Gospel is preached, God's saints. Do you not glorify God
when the gospel is preached? Does it not warm your hearts?
Do your hearts not burn within you? Do you want to thank Him
and praise Him after you've heard a gospel message? Yeah. Oh my. We just want to glorify
Him, don't we? We're not glorifying the preacher.
He's just a messenger. We want to glorify the one He's
speaking of. And I'll tell you, every gospel preacher don't want
to get the glory. He wants you to glorify Christ. He wants you
to leave here saying, oh, what a God we have. What a Savior. What a Redeemer. And note that statement in 1
Peter 4.11, that God in all things, and remember our text, right?
Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, and
do all to the glory of God, look at the statement in 1 Peter 4.11,
that God in all things may be glorified, how? Through Jesus
Christ. Through Christ and Him alone.
God is glorified in and through Christ. Now have you ever wondered,
have you ever wondered about the reason for your existence
upon this earth? Before the Lord saved you, did you ever wonder
about that? I wondered about that. I wondered about that often. Why am I here? Before the Lord
saved me. I had no idea, to be honest with
you. I was aimless and hopeless and didn't have a care in the
world. Only cried out to God when I
was in trouble. And it's natural for human beings.
We're rational beings, aren't we? We are. It's natural for
us to think about things like that. Why am I here? What's my
purpose? Well, we find out when we're
saved that we have a purpose. Our purpose is to glorify God
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And think on this. Things all
around us have a purpose. Think on this. You have trees
out here. They have a purpose. Wood, paper,
right? It gives wood and paper. Cows
have a purpose. All around us, cattle all around
us, right? They have a purpose. They give
milk, food, leather. Their hides are turned into leather.
Butter, which every one of us use. Everything has a purpose. Now before we're saved, we don't
realize, I didn't realize that. I had no clue. Iron, think of
iron. Iron's taken out of the ground
and it's made into all different things. It's used to make steel. It's
used for all different things. Everything has a purpose, beloved.
Everything. We're not just passing through
this world. Man has a purpose. Man has a purpose. And man's
chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And what does
glorifying God mean? It means glorifying the Trinity. It means glorifying. The believer
in Christ is to glorify the whole Trinity. We're to glorify God. The three in one. Glorifying
the Father. Number one, we're to glorify
the Father. He's the one who gives us life. He's the one who
gives us life. And He's the one who gave us
to His Son in eternity. Just because it pleased Him.
Why? It makes us just want to glorify
Him. It makes us just want to praise Him. Number two, we're
to glorify the Son. We're to glorify the Lord Jesus
Christ, who's God. We're to God incarnate in the
flesh. God, the eternal everlasting
God, became a man to redeem us from all our sins. We're to glorify Him. Would it
glorify Him? The Word became flesh and beloved. One day, that Word, who's now
seated at the right hand of the Father, will present you and
I, believers in Christ, spotless, faultless, before the presence
of God with exceeding joy. Why? Does it not want to? Makes
us want to shout. My goodness. Glorify God. Look what He's done. See, this
is what witnessing is too. We just tell folks, this is what
Christ has done for me. Religion makes it this whole
mechanical thing, and you gotta, oh, I was talking to a guy, talking
to a guy yesterday, and he was going off about how Satan has
so much power and all this stuff, and I said, nah, my God has all
power. And we got talking a little bit
more, and he was talking about how the church is such a wreck,
and I said, oh, the church of God's not in a wreck, it's perfect. God's got him right where he
wants him. And you all know who I'm talking about. And I said,
and then we got on to election. I said, well, God's going to
get all the sheep. Oh, you got that again. Yeah,
because it's what the Bible says. My God's a successful savior.
He's going to get his people. And his people are going to glorify
him. And they're going to give him all the glory. Oh my, what
a God we have. We're to glorify God the Holy
Spirit. He's the one who produces the new birth in us. We could
never do that on our own. He works the circumcision made
without hands. He regenerates us. We're born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. We're to glorify Him. Look what
He's done. That which we could never do.
And if you notice, all three of them are in action in our
salvation. And all three of them are doing things that we could
never do for ourselves. We never seek God, so therefore
we'd never choose Christ, but God chooses us. We can't pay
for our own sins, so Christ dies upon the cross, redeems us from
all our sins, and we'd never seek God. We can't make ourselves
born again. The dead man can't make himself
alive. But God can make us alive and
He does. He regenerates us. We'll be born again. The Holy
Spirit of God. So we're to glorify Him. We're
to glorify Him in all things. In all things. The Holy Spirit works in us.
The new birth. We're regenerated. And He works
out for us that which was all according to God the Father's
eternal purpose and decree. If you're saved, it's according
to God's eternal purpose and decree. I make you want to rejoice,
that does. My goodness. What a God we have. What a God we have. Now let's
look at this. God has a two-fold glory. When
we talk about God's glory, the question will be asked, how are
we to understand God's glory? How are we to understand God's
glory? Number one, one of the old writers
said there is his intrinsic glory, his intrinsic glory, which is
the glory he has in himself, his essential glory, his essential
glory. The glory is essential. Look
at Ephesians 1.17. This glory is essential to God. Because He's the Father of glory,
beloved. He's the God of all glory. Turn
also, if you would, to Acts chapter 7. So put your finger in Ephesians
1.17 and Acts chapter 7. And He has an intrinsic glory. Look at Ephesians 1.17. That
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. The Father
of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
and the knowledge of Him. So look, right there in that
verse, He's called the Father of Glory. And also, like the
latter part, may give unto you that which we can never obtain
on our own. Remember we looked at that in
1 Peter 2? May give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. He must reveal
himself to us or we'll never know him. Or we'll never know
him. He's the glorious father. So here he's called the father
of glory. He's the glorious father who is glorious in himself. He's
glorious in himself. We add nothing to God. He's absolutely
glorious in himself. He's perfect. His nature is perfect. He is a glorious Father to the
saints, to whom He's shown His love that He's had for us since
eternity. He reveals that to us. He adopts
us into His family. He loves His children. He loves
His elect as a Father loves His children. And He takes care of
them and protects them and makes glorious provision for them in
Jesus Christ our Lord. And therefore, all the glory
is due to the Father of glory. It's all due to Him. Now look
at Acts 7.2. Glory is essential to the Godhead. Acts 7.2. Glory is essential
to the Godhead. One commentator said this, God
cannot be God without glory. God cannot be God without glory,
as He is the God of glory. He is the God of glory. It's
essential to Him. Look at Acts 7, verse 2. He said,
Men and brethren and fathers, hearken, the God of glory appeared
unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before
he dwelt in Charan. The God of glory. This is who he is. He is the
God of glory. So let us remember this also,
that the creature's honor, our praise and our honor is not essential
to his being. This is who he is. As I said,
we don't add anything to God. Nothing. He is glorious in himself,
beloved. He's glorious in himself. Why?
Because he's God. And being God, he's the God of
all glory. Think of this. A king without
a crown is just a man. A king without a crown is just
a man. But God's glory is such an essential
part of his being that he cannot be God without it. He is the God of all glory. Thomas
Watson says this about God's glory. God's very life lies in
his glory. He's the father of glory. He's
the God of glory. This is who He is. It's essential
to His being. It's essential to who He is.
Turn, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 48, and also put a finger
in Isaiah 42. And let us think on this. This
glory, this intrinsic glory of God can receive no addition.
It can receive no addition because it's infinite. Because God is
infinite. It's infinite. And we add, as
I said many times now, we add nothing to God. He is the God
of glory. He is. Period. And He will not share this glory
with anyone. He will not give this glory to
anyone. This is who He is. Now, when I was in religion,
and I speak of myself here, and I know other folks who are like
this, but I speak of myself. When I was in religion, I was
a glory seeker. to my shame. And I bragged about
the things that I did. And I call folks that do that
now, because I was one of them, glory hound. They seek to rob
God of the glory. But God will not share His glory
with anyone. And when God reveals grace to
you, when He shows you grace, when He points you to Christ, You become a new creature in
Him. You want Him to get all the glory. Everything changes. Everything changes. Look at this
in Isaiah 48, 11. Oh, He is to get all the glory
alone. Look at Isaiah 48, 11. For mine
own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it. For how should
my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory
unto another. God will not share His glory
with anyone. Salvation is either all of God,
and He gets all the glory, or it's not salvation at all. Because if man gets his hand
in there, or gets his works in there, we know, we know it's
not salvation. And we know that man will brag
about it. That man will say, I made a decision, because I
used to do this. Salvation is in Christ and Him
alone. Salvation is in the Lord. He gets all the glory. God will
not give His glory unto another, beloved. He will not share it. Look at Isaiah 42, verse 8. It's
proclaimed there too. Speaking about graven images. Oh, God will not share His glory
with anyone. Isaiah 42.8, I am the Lord, that
is my name. That's Jehovah, the self-existent
One. I am the Lord, that is my name.
In my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to
graven images. And then we're told in the New
Testament, in Colossians 1, verses 17 and 18, we're told this. And
He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And
He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have
the preeminence, all the glory. And He won't share it with no
one else. This is why we always say, We seek to give God all
the glory, and all the honor, and all the praise, because He
is worthy, and He alone is worthy. No one else is worthy of praise.
No one else. And God's people say, Amen, because
it's true. It's true. Oh my. God gives temporal blessings
to his children, doesn't he? He gives us temporal blessings.
He gives us wisdom and riches and honor. He'll give us spiritual
blessings. He does that. But we always give
him glory for that. We always turn the praise around
to the giver. To the giver. He gives his children grace and
faith. His love is bestowed upon us.
And one day, He'll take us to heaven. We'll give Him all the
glory. We'll give Him all the glory
while we're here on earth. And let me tell you, there's not
one saint, not one blood-bought saint in heaven that doesn't
give Him all the glory. It all goes to Him. He gets all
the praise. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the honor. Only in the throne will I be
greater than thou. He'll never share his essential
glory or his intrinsic glory, but he does bestow gifts upon
his people. And as I said, in return, we
glorify him. We glorify him. God will do much
for his people, but his essential glory he will not part with.
He will not part with. The second point and the last
point is this, the glory which is ascribed to Him and due Him
from us. We are to give God all the glory. And this is the second of the
two-fold glory of God. He is worthy of all our praise. He's worthy of it. He alone is
worthy of all our praise and all the honor we give Him. He
alone is worthy to be glorified by us because He is the God of
all glory. He's the God of all glory. And
the believer in Christ wants and desires to give it to Him.
Now think of that. We didn't before we were saved. Oh, what a change. The Holy Spirit
rots in us. What a change. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Bring an offering and come before
Him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 1 Chronicles
16, 29. He alone is worthy. He alone
is worthy. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto
us. But unto thy name give glory.
Why? For thy mercy's sake. Oh, turn
there if you would. Psalm 115, verse 1. Look at this marvelous verse. We've got to close here. Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us. Psalm 115, verse 1. But unto
Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake. Oh, what mercy, what mercy He
showed us at Calvary's cross. What mercy God showed us at Calvary's
cross. The truth, the one who is the
truth incarnate was sacrificed for our sins. My goodness, not
unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy name give glory.
You're bought with a price, beloved. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. He's the one who had
mercy upon us. And how do we glorify God? How
do we lift up His name? Turn, if you would, one more
scripture, Philippians 1.20, and we're close here. Philippians
1.20. How do we glorify God? How do
we lift up His name? How do we honor Him in this world?
How do we magnify Him in this world to others? Philippians
1.20 According to my earnest expectation and hope, that in
nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always,
so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by
life or by death. Paul here proclaims, Christ shall
be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. Give God all the glory. Give
Him all the glory in all the things you do. Give Him all the
praise. Give Him the praise for the mercy
which He showed you. Give Him all the glory for the
mercy which He shed upon you abundantly. And every day, every
day He sheds His mercy on you. His mercies are new every morning.
New every morning. What a great God and King. May
we give Him all the glory and honor and praise. Oh, Lord Jesus,
we come before You. We're so thankful for Your goodness
and mercy every single day to us. May we glorify You today. May You be lifted up high and
mighty in the preaching of Your Word. And may our hearts and
our minds be drawn to Thee. In Jesus' name, Amen.