I talked a little while this
morning to a fellow on the phone, and he wanted to know what I was
going to talk about this morning. I said, well, I'm going to try
to talk about the glory of God. Well, he said, that's a big subject. And I reckon it is. Unto him be glory in Christ Jesus
throughout all ages, world without end. Unto him be glory. The chief end of man is to the
glory of God. I read to you there in the book
of Ephesians and tried to emphasize the fact that he was talking to those that
had been regenerated, quickened by the Spirit, and drawn to the
Father. They were those that God purpose
to save in eternity past. And he said, according as he
hath chosen us and him before the foundation of the world.
And I said he was talking to a specific people here. The Bible is, in particular the New Testament,
is for the people of God. It is for those that God is calling
out for His name. They are made to understand. They are taught of God. Over here in the book of 1 John, I think it is the last
chapter, it says this, Verse 18 says, We knoweth that
whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten
of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God,
and the whole world lieth in wickedness. But we are not of
this world. We are in this world, but we
are not of this world. Now, we know that the Son of
God has come and hath given us an understanding. When we read
the Bible, in order for us to know anything in regard to the
Bible, we must have an understanding. He hath given His people an understanding,
that we may know Him. To know Him is eternal life. That we may know Him, that is
true. And to know that we are in Him,
that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true
God and eternal life. Now turn with me to the 29th
Psalm. Psalm 29. Let me read a few verses here. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty. Now, I read something of John
Gill in regard to this word, mighty, and he said it could
mean the angels. It could mean of
the unfallen angels. but it also could apply to those
who are in Christ Jesus. And I rather think that it applies
to the children of man who have hope in Jesus Christ, who know
Him, whom to know is life eternal. So he says, Give unto the Lord,
O ye mighty, Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Well, I conclude by these two
verses, and verses that I have read, and other verses in the
Bible, that the chief end of man is to glorify God, to give
Him glory. That's what we're here for, is
to glorify God. Glorify God. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Well, what do you
mean by giving glory to Jehovah the Father? Now, I mean by that
that we are to celebrate the perfections of the nature of
God, who is glorious in Himself. the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is the temple of the living God. It is where the
saints of God meet from time to time, and they speak of the
glory of God. They speak of His divine perfections. They tell back to God what God
has said about Himself. And I have oft times told you
that to tell back to God what God has said about Himself is
what true preaching is, and it is also what true worship is. It is to tell back to God what
God has said about Himself. I said that the subject is the
glory of God. And the fellow I talked to said
it was a big subject. It was a big subject, and he
said not many men want to tackle a big subject like that. And he's right. It's too big
for me. It's so big, it's as big as I
am small. It's as infinite as I am finite. Now, we're talking about the
glory of God. The greatest thing in the universe
is the glory of God. Give unto Him the glory, which
is due His name. And I said it's a big subject.
It's as big as I am small. It's as infinite as I am finite. And it's as eternal as I am temporal. It's as spiritual as I am fleshly. It is incomprehensible as I am
ignorant. Glory, glory is His name. Jehovah, the glorious God, who
is in Himself all glory. Give unto Him what is doing. Well, let me go on with it and give you a definition that
you can remember. The glory of God. Tell me in
one sentence, tell me in one line, what the glory of God is. All right? This is it. It is
the exercise and the display of what constitutes the distinctive
excellence of His glory. Can I say it again? I must say
it again for fear that you'll not remember and for fear I'll
soon forget. Because over and over, the teaching of
one thing is how we learn. Repetition is how you learn. It's the exercise and display
of what constitutes the distinctive excellence of the subject of
which it's spoken. another definition. It is the
outshining of what He is. It is the outward manifestation
or shining of who God is. It is the outshining of what
He does. It is the outshining of what
He is like. What he is, what he does, and
what he's like is all bound up, tied up, wrapped up in the Lord
Jesus Christ. No man can know any aspect of
the glory of God apart from the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has been pleased to show
forth the light of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Now you know the glory of the
herb is the flower or the blossom. Now there is the lilac bush. There is only one lilac bush. only one in all the world, like
a lilac bush, and that's the lilac bush. And we put up with
the lilac bush for eleven months and two weeks in order to enjoy two weeks of
the fragments and the beauty of the flower. The glory of the
flower, or the glory of the lilac bush, is in its blossom. There's only one like it, Bob,
only one like it, and that's its glory. See what I'm talking
about? That's the distinctive excellence
of the glory of the flower is its and it's bloomed, it's blossomed. There's only one like it in all
the world. Well, let me go on with it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, chapter 11 of the book of 1 Corinthians, Let me find that. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 7, it says, For a man indeed, for a man indeed, ought not to cover his head. He is talking about praying here,
isn't he? Verse 4, Every man praying or
prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. For a man indeed ought not to
cover his head. So he is talking about praying
here, isn't he? You ought not to pray with your head covered.
A man, he ought not to have his hat on when he prays. He ought
to take his hat off. That's the understanding that
I get from this. Every man praying or prophesying,
every man praying or preaching, I ought not to preach with my
hat on. I don't wear a hat very much.
I ought to. When I'm out in the sun, I ought
to protect my head. For a man indeed ought not to
cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and the glory
of God. Man, he said, ought not to cover
his head, for he is the image and glory of God. But listen
to this last line. It says, For the woman is the
glory of a man. What do you mean by that? God has honored man by giving
him a woman to be his companion and to be his helper all the
days of his life. He has given man this woman. He caused a deep sleep to come
upon the man and took a rib from the man and made a woman. And
he said, But the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman,
but the woman of the man. The glory. The woman is the glory
of the man. And it also says here that the
woman's hair is her glory. A woman's hair is her glory. What does that have to do with
anything? Well, I don't know all that I maybe
should know about women. But I know a woman, unconsciously
maybe, or deliberate, a great fuss about their hair. Most women you know make a fuss
about their hair, don't they? A woman washes her hair about
ten times more than a man washes his. When a man washes his hair, he
generally says, well, I've got to wash my head, doesn't he? A woman always says, I've got
to wash my hair. And if a woman says, I can't
go, I'm not ready, I've got to fix my hair. Well, you can figure
another hour. Every time, it'll be at least
an hour. A woman's hair is her glory.
That's what the Bible says. It's her glory. If her hair's not fixed, it's
not complete. Isn't that right? The picture
isn't complete if the hair is not in place. Well, the glory of a man is a
woman. And the glory of God is in the
man and the woman and her hair. The glory of a king is in his
crown. Because there's only one crown.
There's one crown in the kingdom and the man has it, or the king
has it. Just one crown and he has it. He's the only one in the kingdom
who has a crown. And the glory of the man who
runs the race is in the trophy that he wins. Just one trophy
and he wins it. Like my grandson went fishing
over in Preston County with his uncle a week or so ago. And they had lots of people there,
invited all the kids in Preston County and nearby counties to
come and bring their dad and come and fish. We're going to
stock the lake with fish and we're going to give trophies
to those that Catch those that catch the first fish and those
that catch the most fish. And old Drew, who's a fisherman,
he's just nine years old, I think, in the third grade, going to
be in the fourth next year, but he's a fisherman. He's dedicated
to it. Dedicated to it. That's all he
wants to talk about is fishing. Well, he got over there and about
seven o'clock that morning, they blowed the whistle and said,
start fishing. And Drew Thirty is in. And the first cast, he
caught a fish. He immediately won the trophy,
just one trophy, one trophy, and he won it. All right, he
continued fishing. And he fished until the quitting
time, the blow of the whistle. And then the judge or judges
walked around the lake and viewed all the participants fish. How many did you catch? Lift
your stringer out of the water. They come clean around and they
got to Drew. And the man said, How many did you catch? Lift
your stringer up. And Drew lifted his stringer
up and he caught 30 fish. And the judge said, You're the
man. He said, You're the man. So you see what I'm saying? The
glory of the victor is in the trophy because it's just one
trophy. One trophy. All those fellas out there, it's
just one trophy. And the glory of the individual,
of the victor, is in that trophy. And old Drew, when he came home,
he called up his grandpa. And he said, I got two trophies. And I said, when am I going to
get to see them? And that was dark then, eight or nine o'clock.
The next day, Drew came to my house with two trophies in each
sack. And he said, Grandpa, here's
my trophies. See the glory of the victors
in his trophies. Just one trophy. All right? Now listen to me in
light of what I said. Talking about God. What does
He have that nobody else has? What does God Almighty over all
and above all, what does He have that nobody else has? This that
He has that nobody else has makes up His glory. Is that right? His glory is that which sets
him apart from anybody else. Nobody else has it. All right? Now, if we are to give unto the
Lord the glory which is due His name, then there in verse 9 it talks
about the temple, and I think that The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the temple of the living God. It says then that all of us are
to speak of His glory. That is, we do this in word,
we do it in prayer, and we do it in song. We give Him the glory. That is, we must tell back to
God. I have already said this. Repetition,
this is how you learn. We must tell back to God what
He said about Himself in the Word. Tell back to God what He
said about Himself in His Word. What does He think of Himself? What has He revealed about Himself? Now, we've said it before, but
I must say it again, that God is not like we imagine Him to
be. God is not like what most of
the churches say He's like, what most people imagine Him to be. He's not like that. But He is
like what He has revealed Himself in the Word. People of this generation, most
people of this religious generation, believe that God is trying to
do something, but He can't do it. He's trying to save everybody
in this world, but everybody in this world won't let Him save
them. In other words, they're saying
that God's trying to do something, But man won't let him do it.
What I'm saying is that the God that we have heard about all
of our lives is not the God of the Bible. Because God does not
try to do something. You try to do something. God
does something. Well, Job asked this question. He said, Can we, by searching,
find out God? No. No. Sorry to say that. Sorry to say that. But you cannot,
by searching, find out God. Matthew chapter 11, verse 27,
says this. It says, No man knoweth the Father,
or no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. No man, in an absolute
sense. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal it. He is known by revelation. No other way. You cannot find
God by searching. It comes by revelation. In Exodus
chapter 33 and verse 18, Moses, the meekest man upon the face of
the earth, a choice and highly valued servant of the Most High
God. He asked our Lord this question. He said, Let me see your glory. He asked to see the glory of
God. And the answer that God gave
him was this. He said, Moses, I will make all
my goodness pass before thee. First, he said, no man can see
God and live. He said, I'll just let you see
a glimpse. I'm going to let you see a glimpse
of my glory. He said, I'm going to put you
in the cleft of the rock. And when I pass by, I'll let
you see my hinder parts." Moses said, Lord, show me thy glory. And God said, I'll make all my
goodness to pass before thee. And here's a part of that statement
that a lot of people leave out. Most of them quote it like this
and say, I will make my goodness pass before thee. And he didn't
say just that. He said all my goodness. I'll make all my goodness pass
before thee. And I will proclaim, listen now,
I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. And I will
be gracious, now listen, to whom I will be gracious. I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy. Now, there's some things there
that I think ought to be said, we ought to be reminded of. The
first thing is He's good. the goodness of God. Now, He's
good, and He does good. If it teaches anything, it teaches
that. That God is good, and He does good. The Bible says the
Lord is God, and He's good, and He's a stronghold in the time
of trouble. Who is good? No one is good save the Lord.
He only is good. Nobody else is good. You're not
good and I'm not good, as much as we'd like to think we are.
Some of you have spent the biggest part of your life trying to be
good. I would like to say that, but
I can't say that. I haven't spent the biggest part
of my life trying to be good. I spent the big part of my life
doing what comes naturally, and that's evil and wicked. But I
wouldn't apply that to you, because there's a lot of you people out
there this morning. You spent a lot of hours of your
lifetime trying to be good. But I'm sorry to tell you this
morning, you never were good. never were good in your eyes,
in your children's eyes, or in God's eyes. You never were good. You never accomplished what you
tried to accomplish. Try to be good. Be a good boy,
is what your mother and daddy told you when you was born, or
after you was born. Learned to walk and to talk,
and you started at school. Be a good boy, be a good little
girl, and you tried to be good. But you can't be good because
good is not in you. Bad is in you. Evil is in you. You got a bad nature, a wicked
nature. And you just do that which comes
natural to you. There's only one good, and that's
God. Just one that's good, and that's
God. You remember that rich young
Ruler came to him and said, Good Master, what must I do to gain
eternal life? And our Lord immediately set
him straight and said, Why do you call me good? Now, either
you believe that I'm God, or you're very deceitful in what
you say. Why do you call me good, Master? He said, There's only one good,
and that's God. If we could learn that, that
would help us, wouldn't it? If we could learn that there's
only, there's six billion or so people in the world at any
given time. There's that many, six billion
people. And there's not one of that six
billion people that is good. You live in a world where everybody's
bad and there's nobody good. There's only one good and that's
God. You see, that's His distinctive,
excellent glory. That's what He has that no one
else has. He's good, and you're bad. The twentieth-century religionist
that has made his way to the vast religious organizations
this morning. They'd tar and feather you if
you told them that. They'd tar and feather me if
I was in one of their pulpits this morning and I told them,
there's all bad. You're all bad. You're evil. You're wicked. You haven't got
a decent thing. You haven't got a single solitary
thing that is credit worthy of raising up to God. You're bad. Well, that'd make people mad,
wouldn't it? But that's the glory of God.
You see, that's the outshining of what He is. See? The outshining of what He is
is His glory. What He has that nobody else
has, that's His glory. He's good. God is good. Why callest thou me God? Unless
you believe I'm good, Our Lord said, unless you believe I am
good, or you are deceitful, one of the two. See? God is good. Well, listen now. Well, just for the sake of argument, we cannot be good by deciding
to be good. That does not make us good. We
have to be caused to be good. If it's an if or a because or
in case of, the reasons why we're good. But the good things that
you and I do, the good things that you do,
I don't think I do very many of them. So I can't include everybody
in saying, so I say the good things that you do, They're the result of what He
does in you. Isn't that right? If you have
any goodness, it's goodness lent, L-E-N-T, to you by God. He's the only one that's good,
see? If you have any goodness, it's because He lent it to you. Well, are you telling me then
this morning, here out of your own mouth, standing up there
before me, Are you telling me that I'm bad? Yes. Only God is good, and only God
does good. It's His distinctive excellence. He's holy, and He's the only
one really holy and the only one really good in this whole
world. His goodness is uncaused, and
He's not obligated in any sense of the word, to manifest His
goodness to you or to me. You can't buy His goodness and
you can't merit His goodness. He's never, and never will be,
obligated in any case to be good to anybody. And you've never
heard that many times, have you? God is not obligated. It's not
binding upon God. To be good to anybody. He's not under obligation to
be good to any member of Adam's fallen race. If He is good to
them, that's His grace. If He's good to you, that's the
grace of God. Grace is the unmerited favor
of God. And Timothy, in the book of Timothy
says that grace, he thanks God for the grace that was given
him in Christ Jesus before the world began. You read that in
the Bible? It's that distinctive excellence
that he has that no one else has. You say, And I would like
for God to be obligated to me. If that would be so, you'd rob
God of His glory. You'd rob Him of His glory. Well, this is the last thing
that this generation of religious people will do, is give God the
glory. They won't give Him no glory.
They take all the glory for themselves. I'm saved because of my decision.
I'm saved because I'm born again. Born again didn't save you. Being
born again is not your salvation. Being born again didn't die on
the cross. Being born again didn't suffer
and bleed. Being born again was not abandoned
by God and made the Son of God cry out, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? You believed and trusted in the
Lord Jesus Christ because you was born again. You didn't trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ to be born again. You was born again
to believe and trust in Him, see? Born again. That's not salvation. Salvation is in a person, and
that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's God's glory
because there's no other name given among men on this earth
whereby we must be saved except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's God's glory. And all these people that are
baptizing people to get them to be saved, making them change
over and do better and quit this and quit that and establish a
righteousness of their own that they might stand upon, let me
tell you what they're doing. They're robbing God of His glory
because His glory is in His Son. And that's a distinctive excellence
that He has in this world, that no one can save you. apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to do business with
Him. Well, listen, He said, I will be merciful to
whom I will be merciful to. His glory is found in His sovereign
mercy. He shows mercy to whom He wills. That's a fact. I'm talking about
the God of the Bible. I'm not talking about the God
of your imagination or the God of your mothers and fathers of
this 20th century religion. I'm telling you about God shows
mercy to whom He will show mercy. If you're a recipient of His
mercy, oh, blessed be the name of God. He's rich in mercy. But He said, He said, I'll show
mercy to whom I will show mercy. And He said, there's others I'll
hardeneth, whom I will hardeneth. Who art thou, O man, that replies
against God? His glory is found in His sovereign
mercy. And out of this word, goodness,
comes this word, righteousness, too. There is this thought, His
perfect righteousness. Over there in Romans chapter
3 and verse 10, it says, As it is written, There is none righteous,
no, not one. Is that what it says? There is
none righteous, no, not one. That is His glory because He
is the only one that is righteous. That is His distinctive excellence. that nobody else in this world
is righteous but Him. And the only way you can be righteous
is to be righteous in Him. And that's imputed righteousness. Righteousness charged to your
account, reckoned to you, credited to you. It's written that there
is none righteous. Then there's another thing about
God, too. That's His glory. immutability. That is His unchangeable
nature. He's of one mind, the Bible says,
and who can turn Him? Who can change God's mind? Huh? God is unchangeable. And you and I, we've changed
our minds a dozen times this morning. The religionist of our day, this
is about what he says, he says, I think I can change God's mind.
And I say, well, how are you going to do it? Well, he says,
I think I can by some good works I'll do. That will change God's
mind. I think I'll change God's mind by praying. This generation
of church people, as I said before, will take you and tire you and
feather you if you tell them that you can't get God to do
anything He has already made up His mind to do. Well, you say, well, have you
ever heard of a person who wouldn't change his mind? Well, there
isn't any but God. There isn't any person on the
face of the earth who ever has been or ever will be. Only God, He won't change His
mind. He never has, never will. He's
God. He knows the end from the beginning.
He's omnipotent as well as immutable. He's all-wise, got perfect knowledge,
knows everything before it happened, all the details. The fellow hears that about Him,
why, he wants to say, Well, I don't believe I know anything. I know
that I don't know anything. It's the glory of God, isn't
it? Well, listen, I'll quit here in just a second. I already told you that it's
the glory of God to conceal a thing, didn't I? Well, you know, people
who think they have God all figured out, people who think that they've
got the answer for all the questions, they've got the answer before
they even ask them. Well, that kind of people has robbed God
of His glory. God is seeking His own glory.
And one thing about the revelation of God to a man, to a woman,
to a boy or girl, the revelation of Himself to these individuals,
one thing about it, it will leave a man standing in awe with his
mouth open at the God who has all the answers. And He's got
them all. He's got all the answers, and
that's His glory. You haven't got all the answers,
I haven't got all the answers. Well, the glory of God can only be
seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Man doesn't know that he needs
a Savior, does he? Man, by nature, He thinks everything
is going to be all right. He thinks somehow, someway, God
is going to show mercy to him in the end. That somehow something
will come up. And when he stands before God,
God is going to compromise his justice and say, well, let that
fellow go. He didn't mean what he said or
didn't mean what he done. Let that fellow go. It's going
to show some sort of mercy to him, but that's not so. God will
not compromise His justice. He will not compromise His holiness,
not compromise His righteousness. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. And this is the good news. This
is the good news. There is good news. There is
good news for a man who will acknowledge himself, strip himself
of his own claims and rights, and stand before God naked. Stand there as he is. without
anything in his hand. Nothing in his hand. Empty-handed
before God. I've got nothing. I've got no
merit. I've got no merit at all. I've never thought a good thought
in my life. I've been going about all my
life doing wrong. I've got no good thoughts, no
good deeds. I'm nothing. I'm a leper. I'm
full of sin. If you stand on the ground of
your sinnerhood, then there's good news for you. There's good
news. And the good news is that Christ,
the sent one of God, came to make atonement for you, the poor
sinner. He came to atone for your sins. That is, to pay for them. You
see, God and His justice cannot bestow mercy at the expense of
His justice. He can't show mercy until justice
is satisfied. Justice is satisfied in the Lord
Jesus Christ. because the Lord Jesus Christ
rendered unto God perfect obedience in the honoring and the keeping
of His law. Every jot never did a lot of
it. He kept it all. He kept it all as our representative. And not only did He keep the
law, but He became a curse because of the broken law. And the curse
fell on Him. All the wrath of justice, all
the wrath of God against sin fell on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, Whosoever believeth
in me hath eternal life. Man believes in Him. He has eternal
life. That's good news, isn't it? Now
listen, if you ever get the good news, if the good news ever falls
upon your ears, The good news that you have eternal life, the
good news that Christ is your substitute, Christ is your high
priest, He ever lives to make intercession for you, He suffered
your penalty, He clothed you in His righteousness, and you
stand before the throne of God in Him, and you'll never suffer
for your sins or never be judged See, if you ever have that good
news, then there can never be any bad news. See? If you have the good news, there
can't be any bad news. What bad news can you have? Huh? You can't have any bad news if
you hear the good news. That's the glory of God. All
right, let's stand. We'll be dismissed. Meet again
this evening.