Alright brethren, Isaiah 48. Notice how our text begins. This
is very important. Verse 9, For my name's sake. Now here's the point of this
passage. God declares in this text that
He saves His people for His name's sake. That's why God saves, for
His namesake. For His namesake. In scripture,
you know, we find that when God called somebody, He changed their
name. And most of the time, when He
changed their name, that name is reveals the person and the
work of the Lord. It conveys something of what
the Lord is to His people and what He's done for His people.
That's what the name was. It's God giving us His name.
That's what it was. For instance, Abram, his name
was changed to Abraham. God said, for a father of many
nations have I made thee. He's considered to be the first
believer. The father of the faithful. Well,
is that not Christ, our everlasting father? He's the father of many
nations. That's who Christ is. That's
his name. He's our everlasting last Adam. Our father forever. That's who he is. He put His
name on Abraham. Jacob's name was turned to Israel.
He said, for as a prince hast thou power with God and with
men and hast prevailed. That's what Israel means. Prince. One who has power with God and
with men and has prevailed. That's Christ. Christ is the
Prince of Peace. That's His name. He had power
with God and with men and has prevailed and shall prevail.
That's Christ's name. The Lord says of His elect Israel.
Look at Isaiah 62. Isaiah 62. He says of His elect
Israel. He said, The Gentiles shall see
Thy righteousness and all kings Thy glory. Isaiah 62. He said,
And thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord
shall name. You see that? Look at verse four.
Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land
any more be termed desolate. But thou shalt be called Hephzibah,
and thy land Beulah, for the Lord delighteth in thee, and
thy land shall be married. Hephzibah means my delight, and
Beulah means married. That's what the Lord did for
His people. That's His name He put on His
people. He put His name on His people.
Everything is for His namesake. Everything. Look at Revelation
3.12. Why don't you see Revelation
3.12. Revelation 3.12, he says, Him
that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and
he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name
of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New
Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and
I will write upon him my new name. What's this name that he's
given us? In those days shall Judah be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. He
said that's His name, and that's the name He gives us. So the
Lord's name is upon those that He calls out. His name's upon
us. And that's how it was with the
children of Israel. So when they sinned against God,
that profaned His name. When they sinned against Him.
And so he chastened them to restore them to himself, his true elect,
he chastened them. And the Lord declares he did
it for this one reason, for my namesake. That's why I did it,
for my namesake. God saves his people. He calls
us and He saves us by grace, He puts His name upon us, and
from then on, He chastens us, He corrects us, and He keeps
us, and He shall bring us to glory, and He does it all for
His name's sake. For His name's sake. Now in our
text, the Lord gives a word that correlates to a specific aspect
of His name. And as I give you these divisions
and we read our text, I'll show you what I mean. He gives you
a word that correlates to some aspect of his name, his person,
his work. Look here, verse 9. He's going
to use the word anger. And he says, and so this first
point we're going to see is it's for, it's because his name is
righteousness. You see, when you read anger,
it has to do with His righteous indignation, His righteous anger
against the wicked. He said, verse 9, For my name's
sake I will defer mine anger. He says there at the end that
I cut thee not off. So we're going to see Him doing
what He's doing for the righteousness of His name. Do you get what
I'm saying? Righteousness having to do with anger? Anger, righteous
indignation, righteous anger. So it's for the righteousness
of His name that He's going to defer His anger and not cut off
His elect. Number two, His name is praise. He'll have all His people praise
Him. That's His name. And He said, this is the second
thing, because His name is praise, He says, and for my praise I
will refrain for thee that I cut thee not off. He's going to have
us praise Him. And then thirdly, His name's
holiness. The word here that makes you
know He's doing this for His name being holy is the word polluted. That's the antithesis of holiness. The opposite of holiness is pollution.
corruption. So he says here, for this name
being holy, he says, Behold, verse 10, I have refined thee,
but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine
own sake will I do it, for how should my name be polluted? And then lastly, and this really
includes it all, his name's Glorious. And he said, verse 11, I will
not give my glory to another. So those would be our divisions.
Our Lord's name is Righteousness. He is righteousness, that's who
he is. And so he says in verse nine,
for my name's sake will I defer my righteous anger, my righteous
and just anger. I'll defer it that I cut thee
not off. Scripture says God is angry with
the wicked every day. False religion goes around telling
sinners, well, he's angry with your sin, but he's not angry
with you. That ain't what God said. God said, I'm angry with
the wicked every day, their person. And all God's elect, you and
me who He saves, we're wicked. By nature, we're wicked. And
even those that have a new nature now, Paul said, when I would
do good, evil is present with me. We got a wicked, evil nature
with us all the time. So when God's elect, when the
saints in Israel sinned, what did God do? They began to slowly
turn to idols, and they began to be more taken up with the
things of this life, and their everyday wealth, and those things,
and their families, and their children, and they began to marry
heathen tribes, and they began to worship their gods, and all
these things slowly crept in. And what did God do? He said,
for my name's sake, I'll defer my anger. For my name's sake. He defers his anger, righteous
anger. When you think of God's anger
now, don't think of it as some mild thing. We're talking about
the strict, perfect, righteous anger of God. He said, I'm going
to defer it, and I'm not going to cut you off. Why not? Because
the Lord Jesus Christ and the place of his people took the
sin of God's people upon himself and he bore the fierce, strict,
perfect, righteous anger of God in our place. That's what it
took to satisfy justice. You may can't even imagine what
that is. Go over to Isaiah 53.8. Here's why He defers His anger
from you, because He put it all on His Son. Here's why He won't
cut off His elect, because He cut off His Son. He said in verse
8, He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall
declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the
land of the living for the transgression of My people was He stricken. How is it that this world can
preach universal atonement? when it's so clearly on every
page of this book. God said He was stricken for
the transgression of My people. My people. He said He shall justify
My people. His name is Jesus for He shall
save His people from our sin. That's why He defers His anger
from His people is because He poured out the fierce fury of
His holy righteous wrath upon His Son and cut Him off. Christ
said, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? To be forsaken
of God, cut off by God. That's what happened to our Redeemer.
And by that, brethren, He satisfied justice. I'm telling you, I tried
to put an article in the Bulletin It just states it as plenty as
I know how to state it. Over 2,000 years ago, I died
on the cross. Christ poured out His strict,
perfect anger on me, and I died. I died under the justice of God.
When Christ was buried and His lifeless body went in that grave,
my old man of sin was buried out of sight. And he that is
dead is freed, he's justified from sin. God says, before His
record book, before His law, before Him who knows all things,
He says, no sin. Justified. No record ever having
sin whatsoever. Because Christ justified me.
And I'm telling you, brethren, if you're one of His elect, and
He's brought you to believe on Him, that's so of you. That's
so of you. That's why God now, when we sin,
we don't want to, and we really and truly desire the day when
we will not sin whatsoever. We don't want to. That makes
you want to obey the Lord. That makes you want to do what's
right. Because you see how righteous He is. You want to walk worthy
of Him. I like that phrase. That's been
on my heart a lot lately. Paul said, walk worthy of the
Lord. Think about that. To walk worthy
of Him. That's our aim. We won't ever
meet it in this life, but that's our aim. We want to walk worthy
of Him. But now, brethren, when you fail
at that, and you do every day, the reason God defers His anger
is because that old man of sin already died. You've been justified. And I'll tell you this, when
your brother falls, you are perfectly just to be merciful to him because
he's justified. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? You gonna condemn him? God justified
him. Christ died for him. Christ's
interceding for him. You're just to be merciful to
one another. Defer your anger, just like God
defers his from you, for Christ's sake, for his name's sake, because
he's righteous, that's what he does. He's the righteous thing
to do. Now secondly, his name is praise. He said in verse nine, and for
my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off.
He said, I'm doing this for my name's sake. My praise. You know His name's praise. That's
the Lord's name. Go over to Genesis 29. I want
to show you this. Genesis 29. Judah's name means praise. That's
Judah's name. Genesis 29.35, it says, and Leah
conceived again and bare a son, and she said, now will I praise
the Lord. Therefore, she called his name
Judah and left bearing. The name Judah means praise. It means praise. Well, who is
the Lord Jesus? He's the Lion of the tribe of
Judah. Judah pictured Christ, looked down, at verse 8, I'm
sorry, Genesis 49, go to Genesis 49 and look at verse 8. Genesis
49, 8. Judah, thou art he, now everything
that's been said here is being said of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's who Judah pictures. But listen to what he says. Verse
49, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand
shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children
shall bow down before thee. Now catch this next word, very
important. Judah is a lion's whelp. From
the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched
as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? Verse
10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet until Shiloh come. Unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. What does all that mean? Go to
Revelation 5.5. Revelation 5.5, here's what it
means. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, one
of the elders said to me, weep not, behold, the lion of the
tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof. See, the Lord Jesus
is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He's who that was speaking of.
He's Judah, he's praise. He's Shiloh who came through
Judah. The scepter, the rule didn't
depart from Judah. Though Israel split off from
them and all the tribes revolted, God kept Judah together because
Christ came through Judah. And when he was born, what'd
they say? Where's he that's born king of the Jews? He came bearing
the scepter, bearing the rule. He's the lion of the tribe of
Judah and all his brethren shall bow down and praise him. That's
who he is. His name is praise. And so God
says, for my name's sake, for the sake of my son, Christ Jesus,
for the sake of praise, for the sake of him whose name is praise,
and for the sake of him whom you shall praise. He said, I've
done this. I'll refrain for thee that I
cut thee not off. You see, God the Father's purpose
in saving you and me is to bring us to praise His Son and give
His Son all the praise and all the glory. Everything's in Christ,
everything's for Christ, everything's to exalt Christ. He elected us
in Christ. We were redeemed in Christ. He
predestinated us to be conformed to the image of Christ. We were
adopted and brought into the realization of this adoption
by Jesus Christ Himself. He shall keep us and save us
that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted
in Christ. He's going to have all the praise.
It's the saving mercy of God. It's you seeing your fall, seeing
your sin, seeing your wretchedness, and God's showing you mercy for
Christ's sake. It brings you to praise Him and
give Him glory and praise Him and praise Him and praise Him.
And this is our cry. Save us, O God, of our salvation
and gather us together and deliver us from the heathen that we may
give thanks to Thy holy name and glory in Thy praise. And
really and truly, you could put there, for glory in thy praise,
you could put it with my glory in your son, whose name is praise. We're praising him. And God said,
for my name's sake, for my praise, I'll do this for you. Thirdly,
his name's holiness. That's who God is, holiness.
Holiness. And the antithesis of holiness
is pollution, corruption. Now look what he says, verse
10. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver. It means
I've refined you, but not with or as silver's refined. I've chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine
own sake will I do it, for how should my name be polluted? That's
why we're saying this has to do with his name being holiness,
because holiness is the antithesis of pollution. Alright? What does that mean to you and
me? Our sin pollutes. It pollutes us. It pollutes others. It pollutes everything you touch.
It pollutes. It corrupts. That's what sin
does. And that's all we are is sin. Everything we do corrupts
and pollutes. Really, you don't have to do
anything. You don't have to think anything.
You can just be. And God still is going to have
to cleanse your inward man and keep you looking at him because
your very sin nature is pollution. But because it is pollution,
what we do is sin and it pollutes us, it pollutes. But worse than
that, when we sin and anybody knows and the world knows, it
pollutes God's name before men. We don't want to do that. God's
child doesn't want to do that. That's the last thing you want
to happen. It's going to happen. Forget
the thought that you're going to stop people from approaching
the name of the Lord. You're not going to make that
happen. It's going to happen. Because men despise God by nature. And if they find any little excuse
they can, they're going to reproach their Lord. You just mark it
down. But that's not something God's
child wants to happen. Christ is holiness. And when
He creates a new man in you, Christ your holiness is in you.
And He purges your conscience. He purges you from this corruption
of your sin nature. Makes you know the gospel. Makes
you know Christ. Makes you know what He's done
for you. And because His name's holy, God's not gonna allow our
enemies to blaspheme His name. They're going to, but He's gonna
bring us, He's gonna bring this whole world in the end to bow
and confess He's Lord of Lord and King of Kings. That's what
He's gonna do. He's not gonna let His people
or the enemy count His name as common. He won't allow His children
to profane His name. Verse 11, He says in our text
in verse 11, He said, For mine own sake, for mine own sake, even for mine own sake will I
do it, for how should my name be polluted? Go over to Ezekiel
36. I thought about beginning with
this passage because it really lays it out really well. But
look at here. It particularly deals with God's
name being holy and how He won't let His holy name be profane. Ezekiel 36.19. He said, And I scattered them among the
heathen, talking about his elect Israel. I scattered them among
the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries. According
to their way and according to their doings, I judged them.
He chastened them. He corrected them. That's what
this was. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they
went, they profaned my holy name. when they said to them, these
are the people of the Lord, and are going forth out of His land.
That's how His name was profaned. They said, these are the Lord's
people, they've left His land? If you leave the church where
He's preached, and you leave your brethren, and He's assembled,
and you go out, you're profaning His name, because the heathen's
saying, God couldn't keep them together. But God did it, God
sent them, into captivity to chasing them. Watch this. He
said, But I have pity for mine holy name, verse 21, which the
house of Israel hath profaned among the heathen, whether they
went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the
Lord God, I do not this for your sakes. You didn't merit this. You didn't do anything. You didn't
sanctify yourself and make yourself holy. I didn't do this for your
sake, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which
you have profaned among the heathen, whether you went. And I will
sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen,
which you have profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen
shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall
be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from
among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and
will bring you into your own land. This is how God operates. When the true elect in Israel
sinned against Him. He brought them out of Egypt.
He delivered them out. He sanctified His holy name in
their hearts and made them sin. But as they sinned and rebelled,
He chastened them and corrected them. And He sent them into Babylonian
captivity. That was a furnace of affliction
for them. He didn't do it to destroy them.
He did it to purge them. That's what He did, to refine
them. That's what the affliction is that God puts you and me through.
It's to refine us. It's to purge us. God promises,
He says, I'll remember your sin no more. As far as the justice
of God is concerned, as far as judgment and condemnation, God
says, I've put your sin away, I'll remember it no more. You're
not gonna be condemned. That's God's promise to His people.
But our Father knows the sin that's in us right now, and He's
never pleased with that sin, and He's gonna correct you to
keep you partaking of your holiness, to keep you focusing on Christ
only, and knowing He's the only thing that separates you from
this world. And he's the only one that's going to be able to
present you to God, accepted to God. So God's going to correct
you, Jake, so you're not swallowed up by your sin. But God's not
going to do it for anything that we've done. He's not doing it
for our sake. It's nothing we've done to merit
that. We didn't feel the chastening, and so we corrected everything
ourselves. And so God said, oh yes, I'm
blessed. You know, God does the whole work, everything. He said,
I'm doing it for my holy name's sake, so my name won't be corrupted. He said, whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth. Whom he loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening,
God dealing with you is with sons. For what son is he whom
the Father chastens not? Why does He do this? Why does
He do it? He said in Hebrews 12.10, He
does it for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness. We don't have any but Christ.
And He's going to keep you partaking of His holiness. He's going to
keep you running the race. set before you, looking to the
Lord Jesus, who's the author and finisher of your faith, knowing
He's your holiness. He commands you. Lay aside every
sin and every weight that so easily besets you. Have you done
it yet of your own? Never. And you won't. And when
you don't, you'll turn aside and you'll began to pollute his
name, and you know what he's going to do? He's going to chasten
you and turn you back to Christ your holiness and keep you separated
from you, separated from your sins, separated from the heathen,
and by doing so he sanctifies his holy name in your heart so
you know he's my sanctification. I'd have been swallowed up right
quick if he hadn't kept me separated. And it's painful when he does
it. Verse 10, Isaiah 48, 10, Behold, I will refine thee, but
not like you do with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. When he says not with or not
as silver, it means God's chastening of you. It's not as strict. It's not the strict fire of justice.
It's not fire that refines silver. It's as hot as you can get. It's
not that strict fire of God's justice. Now, it is indeed a
furnace of affliction. You better believe that if God
tomorrow turned this nation over and let the Iranians come in
here and take us or Russia come in here and take us and carried
us away captive, that'd be a furnace of affliction. I guarantee you.
That's what it was initially. That's what he did. and he did
it. You know, can you imagine how
politicians and people would be blaming each other and everything
would be everybody else's fault and all this mess people would
be saying? But you know why God did that to Israel? One reason,
for his namesake. for His holy namesake, to teach
His children, I'm your holiness and I'm keeping you. And He kept
them through that. He sent down Cyrus and delivered
them out. Well, He sent Christ and delivered
us out. So when you, even in your little chastening that we
go through, it's like a furnace of affliction to us. Chastening
is not meant to be pleasant. It's a fire. It's supposed to
be unpleasant, and it is unpleasant. But by that, but it's not the
unrestrained strict fire of His justice. It's not like silver.
Listen to what Scripture says, Isaiah 27, if you want to see
it, Isaiah 27 verse 8. Look, in measure, he's talking
about here smiting his people, chastening his people. In measure,
when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it. He stayeth
his rough wind in the day of the east wind. By this, therefore,
shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit
to take away his sin. In other words, he's saying,
he doesn't deal with you as strictly as he could. He said when he
sends the rough wind, he's going to stay the rough wind. He's
going to keep it to where it's not as bad as it could be. Just
what you need to purge your sin, to make your dross be consumed,
your gold refined. That's what he's doing. He not
dealt with us after our sins. He's not rewarded us according
to our iniquities, for as the The heaven is high above the
earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us. So like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. He knows
our frame, He remembers where it does. He's going to chase
you, and it feels like a furnace of affliction to you. But He's
going to stay that affliction. He's going to temper it and just
do it in measure according to what you need to refine you and
purge you of your sin. That's why He's doing it. You
see, He's not going to lose one of His people. And He never ceases
loving His people. And as painful as chastening
is, He's doing it to make us know you don't have any other
holiness but Him. Holiness is to be perfectly pure. That's what we are in the new
man. You know, every believer born of the Spirit of God It's
not something you did, it's something the Lord did. In your new man
is no guile. Guile is deceit, lying, corruption. That's all we are in our nature,
sin nature. But in your new man is no guile. You know why? You
know what that means? The result is, you're the only
people on the top side of this earth that will confess, I've
never done a good thing, never. I can't please God by my works,
even when any good work I do. One, He worked the good work,
but two, my own sins mixed with it. If God marked my iniquities,
I couldn't stand. That's what it is to have no
guile. It's to be honest about what you are before God. The
other thing is, we're honest that Christ is all my righteousness. I have no other holiness but
Him. You see, that's why God's chasing
us. He's keeping that new man. the conscience purged so that
you keep knowing Christ is everything. And as he sanctifies him in your
heart, he's going to sanctify him before this heathen world
to let this heathen world know. And the heathen world recognizes
it. Unregenerate men recognize there's something different about
them people. They recognize that. There's something different about
them. And if they ask you, you tell them, I didn't make the
difference. God made the difference. It's His presence. He's the holiness
who separated us and made us different. We didn't do it. We
did not do it. All right, let's look at this
last thing. We'll wrap it up. His name declares His glory. That's His name. His name's glorious.
He said, for my name's sake, I'll do this. Verse 10, at the
end, He said, in Isaiah 48, 10, and I will not give my glory
to another. I won't have you turn. If you
want to, you can. It's Exodus 34. But when the
Lord showed Moses his glory, the Lord did it by proclaiming
his name. His name is his glory. His glory
is his name. So when he showed Moses his glory,
he proclaimed his name. God's name is his glory. And
His names revealed one place, in Christ His Son. That's when
Paul said, when the light shined, he said, I saw the glory of God,
where? In the face of Christ Jesus.
So what did the Lord do with Moses? Moses said, I beseech
thee, Exodus 34, 18, Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory.
And he said, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee, and
I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. You see, get
what I'm saying? I'm trying to make the connection
here. God said, I'm going to do this for my name's sake. He said,
and I'm not giving my glory to another. His name and his glory
are one and the same. And he said, when Moses said,
show me your glory, he said, I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord to you. I'm going to make all my goodness pass before you,
and I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and I'll show
mercy on whom I'll show mercy. Moses was praying for God to
be merciful and gracious. He was praying for everybody
in Israel, Lord, be merciful to them, show them, be gracious
to them. He was praying for all of them. You can go back and
read that on your own. And God said, He said, I'm going
to show you my glory, Moses. I'm going to reveal my name to
you. He said, but I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and
I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful. Don't tell me who
to be gracious to. That's his glory. Now, verse
21, where are you going to see this glory? Where are you going
to see his name? Verse 21, the Lord said, behold,
there's a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock. and
it'll come to pass while my glory passeth by, I'll put thee in
a cleft of the rock and cover thee with my hand while I pass
by. That rocks Christ. You're gonna see his glory in
the face of Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is the fullness
of the Godhead. All the glory of God's in him.
And all the glory of God's holy name is revealed in Christ Jesus.
When God says I'm gonna do it for my namesake, his namesake
is Christ his son. Ben, your namesake is Ananias.
He can carry forth your name. Christ's name, God's namesake,
God the Father's namesake is His Son. That's His namesake. And He's doing everything for
His namesake. Verse 5, Exodus 35, 5. And the Lord descended
into the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the
name of the Lord. This is His glory. And the Lord
passed by before him and proclaimed, The existing one, the Lord God,
the covenant God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And he's also just. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
upon the children's children, upon the third to the fourth
generation. And when Moses saw his glory and heard his name,
you know what he did? He made haste and bowed his head
to the earth and worshiped. He hid His face before God. That's
what we do when God reveals Christ in us. We see God's glory, we
see His name, and we hid our face. Christ is that rock. He's
that rock. In that day there shall be a
root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people.
To it shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious. He's our glorious rest. Christ
is. So, here's the question. Have
you beheld God's glory in the face of Christ Jesus? Have you
beheld God's name in Christ? His righteousness is in Christ.
His praise, He's praise, He's Judah, He's the Lion of the tribe
of Judah. Have you seen God's holiness?
Christ is the holiness of God. Have you seen His glory? Christ
is the glory of God. God's name is in Christ Jesus. And it's for the glory of His
name that God's saving us. And so God's teaching you and
me, for the glory of His name, do what you do for the glory
of His name. Do what you do for the glory of His name. Let that
be the aim of your life, to glorify the name of the Lord, our Savior,
our Lord Jesus. You don't want to pollute His
name. For the glory of His name, go and sin no more. For the glory
of His name, look no more to idle gods of this world." Don't
look to the things of this world that we put so much preeminence
on. For the glory of His name, delight
to do His will. For the glory of His name, keep
yourselves from everything impure and unclean. I mean, it's as
simple as this. Right now, to those little ones,
Ben and Sarah are Superman and Wonder Woman. They stand in all
of them. They want to please Him. Don't
they? They want to please Him. It's
that simple. We see the glory of His name,
and when you do, you just want to please Him. You want to please
Him. If somebody has a problem with
preaching that, you know, oh, now you're trying to preach law.
Men won't have a problem with that. They're just going to have
to have a problem. Because that's true. God's people want to glorify
His name. Because we stand in awe of Him. We reverence Him. We want to
do it for His namesake. And when you fail, look at Jeremiah
3. I'm going to close with this.
When you fail, this is the good news. God will never stop saving
for His namesake. I love this right here. This
is talking to you who know Him when you fall, when you sin,
when you fail, and everything you attempt to do for His name's
sake. It's the grace and glory of His name working effectually
in the new created heart that does this right here. This is
what He says to you. Jeremiah 3.21. A voice was heard
upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children
of Israel. They're in the depths now. For
they have perverted their way, they've forgotten the Lord their
God, but behold this glory of God's name." Behold what he says
right here. Verse 22, return ye backsliding
children, and I'll heal your backslidings. And here's what
they say, Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our
God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped
for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains. Truly
in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. Do you see that? That
right there, those, what is that, three verses? And those three
verses is what you and me encounter just about on a daily basis,
isn't it? Crying out to God, oh, we perverted
our way, Lord. We've forgotten you. God says,
return to me, child. I'll heal your backsliding. And
then we cry out, oh, Lord, we come to Thee. Oh, it was vain
looking to these vain hills and mountains. We was looking to
Your salvation. He keeps teaching that every
single day. That's the glory of His name.
All right, Brother Greg.