Alright, brethren, let's go to
Philippians chapter 4. We're going to look at one verse. Paul says in Philippians 4.20,
Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's go to the Lord. Our God and our Father, we do
pray this morning that you would get all the glory. Pray that
your son would be honored and you be honored in him. Lord,
settle our hearts. Make us to Have our affection
and our attention set on nothing but the gospel. Make us hear,
make us understand, Lord, and give us faith to believe. We
ask it in Christ's name, amen. Now unto God and our Father be
glory forever and ever, amen. Our subject's glory to God our
Father. Every child of God who is saved
by grace, who's experienced the grace of God and knows full well
by experience that salvation must be by grace, that salvation
is entirely by grace. This is our confession. This is our desire, our testimony. Now unto God and our Father be
glory forever and ever. Amen. What is it to glory only
in God and our Father? What is that? What is it to glory
only in God? Christ teaches us to glory in
the Lord. He gloried only in His Father.
Gave all glory to His Father. Everything He thought, said,
and did. And He teaches us to do it. Let's go to Psalm 34. He said, you know, He said, I
will sing praises unto thee in the midst of the congregation."
And Christ teaches us. He not only glorified the Father,
but He teaches His children, His brethren in the house, how
to glorify the Father. David is saying this, he taught
David this, but it's really the words of our Lord Jesus. And
He said in Psalm 34.1, this is what it is to glorify God and
our Father. He said, I will bless the Lord
at all times. His praise, praise of him, shall
continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. Now let's look at this right
here, just what he said, and let's learn a few things from
these two verses in Psalm 34. One, to glory in God and our
Father is to glory in Him alone, is to praise Him alone. He said,
I will bless the Lord. I will bless the Lord. Paul said
now, to God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. We don't give glory to God if
we give ourselves credit for even one work in salvation. We cease giving God the glory
at all if we give ourselves credit for one work in salvation. Paul
told the Galatians, if you be circumcised, if you do that one
work, you're a debtor to do all the work. Keep the whole law
of God. To give God our Father glory
is to give him all the glory, all the praise for every aspect
of salvation. Everything about God the Father
chose His people in Christ, not based on anything in us, by grace. God the Father loved His people
in Christ even when we fell in Adam. And when we didn't love Him because
of our sin, He still loved us in Christ. God our father gave
his only begotten son the propitiation for our sin. Just sit and think
about that. We were ungodly, we didn't love
God, we hated God. It just wasn't that we didn't
have a good opinion of God and didn't love him, we hated him.
We were at the other end of the scale. And God loved His people
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God the Father
raised all His elect in Christ. When Christ had finished the
work of redemption, He raised all His elect in Christ, raised
us up together in Him, and made us sit down together in Him at
His right hand. And God our Father then sent
the Gospel to us and sent the Holy Spirit to us
and revealed what He had done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ
and gave us faith and repentance to stop looking to our vain works
and to believe Him. He did that for us. And God the
Father accepts His people in the Beloved. He accepts His saints
in the Beloved and He's preserving us in Christ Jesus and will one
day fully receive us into glory entirely due to what Christ has
done for us. You see why Paul said, now unto
God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Secondly, not only is it to give
God all the glory, but to glory in God and our Father is to glory
in Him at all times. At all times. In verse 1, Psalm
34 1, he said, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise
shall continually be in my mouth." That means in happy times or
sad times, good times or bad times, on the cross, the Lord
Jesus Christ bore shame. He bore the shame of His people's
sin. He bore our sin and He bore the
shame of that sin. He felt that shame. He felt it. And he bore sorrow like nobody
else ever bore. Talk about a bad time. Talk about
a sorrowful time. Never been one like it. He's
preeminent in everything. He said, is there any sorrow
like unto my sorrow? He's preeminent in everything,
even in sorrow. Is there any sorrow like unto
my sorrow? Listen, wherewith the Lord hath
afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Somebody will come
under some painful providence and men will look at it and say,
oh, the Lord's afflicting him. If somebody ever says that about
you, child of God, you remember this, the Lord only chastens
those he loves. They might say that meaning to
condemn you, but you can say, thank you for reminding me of
that. My Father sent this. Christ knew it was God who judged
Him. He knew it was God who afflicted
Him. He didn't look at just the men
that afflicted Him. He knew the Father was behind
it all and working it. But Christ justified His Father. He justified God. He declared
in Psalm 22, I am a worm and no man. That's what the Son of God said
from the cross. After he said, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He vindicated God for doing,
pouring out wrath on him. He said, I am a worm and no man,
and thou art holy. He justified God for the affliction.
You know what God's child's gonna do in affliction? He gonna justify
God. God's gonna give you grace to
say what Micah said, I bear the indignation of the Lord because
I've sinned against you. And at the same time, trust and
glorify God, but he will plead my cause. He will draw me to
the light, to Christ my light, and he'll make me behold his
righteousness. That's what Christ glorified God on the cross more
than anybody ever glorified the Father. Pre-eminently, perfectly,
he glorified the Father on the cross. Trust in the Father the
whole time. Let's go over to Psalm 22. I
want you to see this. Listen to what he says. Psalm
22. You see there in verse 2, he
cried, oh my, verse 1, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Verse
3, he said, but thou art holy. Verse 6, he said, but I'm a worm
and no man. But look at verse 7. Look at
verse 7. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they
shake their head, saying, he trusted on the Lord that he'd
deliver him. Let him deliver him, saying, he delighted in
him. You know who that is? That's sinners who were as lost and blind as
you once were. Just throwing it in his teeth.
But look what Christ did. Here's how He glorified the Father.
but thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make
me whole when I was upon my mother's breast. Look at verse 18. They
part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture, but
be not thou far from me, O Lord. O my strength, haste thee to
help me. You know what he's doing? He's
perfectly honoring and glorifying the Father as being faithful
to His covenant promise. He had promised the Son that
when He satisfied justice, God would deliver Him, God would
justify Him. And he's saying what he said in Isaiah 50. In
Isaiah 50, verse 7, he said, the reason He gave His back to
the smiters was this, for the Lord God will help me. He said,
therefore I shall not be confounded. I won't be ashamed for trusting
my Father. Therefore I've set my face like
a flint. I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifies me. You do see how He's glorifying
the Father? He's glorifying God's justice. He's glorifying Him for being
righteous. He's bearing what He's bearing on the cross to
manifest that God's righteous. And as he's bearing the curse
and putting away the sin of his people and justifying his people,
he's trusting the Father to justify him. He said, who will contend
with me? Let us stand together. Who's
my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold,
the Lord God will help me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? You see, to glorify God, Go back to Philippians 4. To
glorify God is to do all these things that we saw before that
Paul told us to do at all times. Look here, verse 4. Rejoice in
the Lord always. See that? Christ is on the cross
and He's rejoicing in the Father the whole time. Rejoice in the
Lord even when you're bearing a cross. And again, I say with
joy, let your moderation, your patience, your long-suffering,
your forbearance, just bearing it. Patiently, let it be known
to all men, knowing this, the Lord's at hand. That's what Christ
was doing on the cross for His people. Be careful for nothing. Don't be anxious. But in everything,
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God. You see Christ doing that on
the cross? He was calling to the Father, saying, Lord, help
me. and a peace of God which passes
all understanding to keep your hearts and mind through Christ
Jesus. You see, when we're murmuring and when we're complaining about
God's providence and about the suffering, and when we're not
believing God when we're doing that, and we're not glorifying
God when we do that, God's working it. And for me to complain about
anything God works in my life, no matter how painful it is,
is to say, God, I don't think you're doing a very good job.
That's not glorifying to God. But to rejoice in him, even in
the suffering? to know the Lord's at hand, to
make your request be known to Him, to trust Him. That's glorifying
to Him. That's glorifying His faithfulness
and His righteousness. That's what Christ did on the
cross. He gave God the glory by trusting in Him. And you know
what? God the Father, faithful, righteous,
He honored that faith. He honored that trust. Christ
had in Him. Look here, back in Psalm 34. He said, O magnify the Lord with
me, glorify Him with me, and let us exalt His name together.
I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all
my fears. Verse 6, He said, This poor man
cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his
troubles. So to glorify God is to glorify
Him alone. To glorify Him is to glorify
Him at all times, continually, even when we're suffering painful
suffering. And thirdly, Psalm 34, to glorify
God and our Father is to do so from a new heart, in spirit. He said in verse 2, my soul shall
make her boast in the Lord. My soul. God looks on the heart. Christ glorified God the Father
with a perfect heart and did it in perfection. He did that
for his people. We believe and worship God in
the new spirit that God's created within us. And God's looking
on the heart. Those Christ's redeemed, those
born again of the Holy Spirit are given a pure, holy heart
by God, undefiled. that will never be corrupted,
born of incorruptible seed. And it's in that new heart that
we give God all the glory. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. That's why the Lord said, you
know, when you're fasting, and a true fast is when you're so
heartbroken that you can't eat, you're not interested in earthly
food, you're just wanting the heavenly manna. And he said,
when you're in that state, he said, don't put on a sad countenance
outwardly. That's just to make other men
see that you're sorrowing and that you're in trial and affliction. And that's just one man glorying in another man.
He said, clean your face up, put on a good countenance. In
your heart, in your heart, glorify Him and praise Him and trust
Him and look to Him in your heart. In the heart. Fourthly, Psalm
34, 2, to give God our Father the glory, here's what it really
is. It's to boast in Him. It's to
boast in Him. He said in verse 2, my soul shall
make her boast in the Lord. Make a boast in the Lord. We
have no reason whatsoever to boast in ourselves. We don't
have any reason whatsoever to boast in ourselves. And here's
why. Nothing's of us. Nothing about
salvation is of us. Nothing. Christ said, without
me, what? You can do nothing. But we have
every reason to boast in God our Father because everything
in salvation is of Him. Romans 11.36 says, For of Him,
and through Him, and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. What about spiritual life? Here we were dead. What could
a dead man do? We couldn't do a thing. Christ
said we must be born again of God the Holy Spirit. And he sent
the Holy Spirit and he gave us spiritual life. He gifted us
with life that we did not have. He said in John 1.12, John said,
as many as received Him, to them gave He the power, the privilege
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name,
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. What about faith? Everybody in this world and religion,
they've turned faith into their idol. Faith's their God. At least
I've got my faith. Well, my faith got me through.
My faith, my faith, my faith. Where'd you get your faith? Who
sustains your faith? By grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourself, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. We saw it in one of the Psalms
just here recently. God sustains our faith. What
about righteousness? You've got to be perfectly righteous
to be accepted of God. These filthy, dirty hands can't
have a part in that. We'd boast. We'd boast in ourselves. What did Paul say? Let me read
this to you. Paul said, he said, Talk about men constraining
others to do what they think they ought to do and all the
things they do in religion. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. The cross
is everything. Not that wooden structure, Christ
on the cross. Christ, what He accomplished
on the cross. He's the righteousness of His people. Paul said, I want to be found
in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faithfulness of my Lord Jesus Christ, that
which was imputed to me freely through God-given faith. I want
to be found in His righteousness. What about holiness and good
works? Boy, this is where men go off the rails right here. I'll tell you, I've searched
these scriptures, I've listened to what men have said in the
past on sanctification and holiness, and I've looked up the scriptures
they use to try to support what they say. It don't support what
men say. It wouldn't hold up in a court
of law, not in an earthly court of law. It sure won't hold up
for God. Holiness and good works are of
God. It's of God. It's of Christ Jesus
our Lord. Scripture says we are His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, and even concerning those good works, God already
before ordained that we shall walk in them. And He gives you
the grace to walk in them. It's God which worketh in you
both the will and the do of His good pleasure. The good works
and things that most men call holiness and what men use to
gauge how much they've grown in holiness are just the result
of what Christ did in God's people. And people that look to those
works, most of them, it ain't the result of what Christ did.
Even in Peter, when he got up from that table of sitting at
the Gentiles and went over and sat at the Jews, Paul said, if
we who claim to be saved from the dominion of sin and justified
in Christ Jesus, if we turn again and sin, did Christ work that? And he was talking about Peter
getting up from that one table and going over to that other
table. He said, no, Christ didn't work that. Men are looking to
themselves and air works and calling out holiness. Christ
didn't work that. Because Christ, when He's truly sanctified, here's
what He does. Christ is formed in the heart,
a new man's created of the Spirit of God, which makes you for the
first time be able to see Christ by His will, performing the will
of God for me, according to Hebrews 10, by His will He has sanctified
His people by His one offering on the cross. And see, it's this
inward sanctification that makes you behold your sanctification
is the Lord Jesus Christ. You're holy in Christ. You've
been made fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in might. You don't get more fit than that. And these things He's working
in our lives as we go through this world is Him teaching us
more and more. He's our holiness. Yes, it makes
you want to walk after godliness and makes you want to do good
works, and it makes you follow it more and more. But it also
makes you not put any confidence in those works. Because you see
more and more, my only sanctification is Christ, and He's my only sanctifier,
keeping me partaking of His holiness. Unto God and our Father be glory
forever and ever. Amen. That's what we're saying.
Who maketh thee to differ from another? What do you have that you didn't
receive? Some men think that word receive
means, what do I have that I didn't go ahead and accept from God?
That's not what it means. I mean, what do you have that
He didn't give you and make you willing to receive? If you did receive it, why glory
is if you didn't receive it? If I start saying my works count
for something, And I'll tell you this, I know men who say,
well, I'm not justified by my works and I'm not made holy by
my works. But be careful, because if you're
not careful, you're saying, but my works count. Christ's works count. What Christ's
work counts. And what Christ's work is the
only thing that counts. Why glorify as if you didn't
receive, as if you weren't free to give everything He worked
in you? Why does God save this way? Why
does He save the way He saved? Go to 1 Corinthians 1.29. Here's
why He saves the way He saves. He uses a foolish gospel. He
uses foolish men who aren't impressive. Preaches a bloody cross that's
foolishness to men. preaches everything about our
gospel and the way God saves this foolish, tenacious man.
But here's why it says it this way, verse 29, that no flesh
shall glory in His presence, but of Him, of Him are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God, Christ of God, is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification. That's holiness. Same word translated
to other places, holiness. and redemption, that according
as it's written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. He's
quoting from Jeremiah. Jeremiah, the Lord said, don't
let the rich man glory in his riches. Don't let the wise man
glory in his wisdom. Let him that glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth me. That's what God said. I'm the Lord which exercises
loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. He's
the one that does that. In these things I delight, saith
the Lord. Be sure to get this now. Only
those saved by God and our Father alone, from beginning to end,
glory in God our Father alone. The only ones that do. Those
who claim to believe on Christ by their own will, they're glorying
in their will. They're not glorying in the Father.
Not glorying in Him who blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places according as He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. They're saying, I chose, I chose,
it's my will. Salvation is by God's will, by
God's choice. Those who claim righteousness
and holiness by their works, Those Judaizers that came down
there demanding that believers had to be circumcised and they
couldn't be saved, they weren't saying you're justified by your
works. They weren't saying you're made holy by your works. They
simply were saying, but except you be circumcised, you can't
be saved. Peter said, no. He said, except
us Jews. are saved like those Gentiles
that don't have the law, we can't be saved by grace, by grace,
by God's words. The glory in God and our fathers
to boast is to brag on God and what God's done. That's what
the preaching of the gospel is. I come here to this place to
brag on my God and tell you what He's done. He's salvation. back in Philippians 4. This is
something that's very important too. Very, very important. To
glory in God and our Father is to glory in what He has worked
in our brethren. Now get that. To glory in Him
is to glory in the good He's worked in our brethren. Now look here in verse 8. Philippians
4.8, we saw when Paul said, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any
praise, think on these things. Now, he said the same thing in
Philippians 2. You know, if there's any fellowship
of the Spirit, any vows of mercies, feel ye my joy that you be like-minded,
having the same love of one accord of one of mine. Let nothing be
done through strife or vainglory. In lowliness of mind, let each
esteem the other better than ourselves. That's what he's saying
here. Now listen, if you mark a brother's sins, or you just
pay attention and keep focusing on their shortcomings, And in
your heart, you're critical of it. Or you murmur about it to
somebody else. What they don't do. You're critical of God's workmanship.
Now get that. Critical of God's workmanship. Paul's telling us, behold in
your brethren the good that God has worked in them. Look for
the good, whatsoever things, look for the good and give God
the glory because they're God's workmanship. Christ, Ephesians
4 said Christ gives measure, he gives a measure of grace to
each of his people. He said, some bear this much
fruit, some bear this much fruit, some bear this much fruit. Not
all bear the same fruit, not all are at the same level in
grace, in growth. Just like if you look at people
in this room right here, not everybody is at the same level
in growth, just physically. Well, it's the same spiritually.
But everybody in the kingdom of God, in the house of God,
they are where they are by the measure of grace Christ has given
to them. And so if I'm going to be critical
of their shortcomings, that's like, now how would you like
this? How would you like somebody looking at you as a parent and
being critical of what your child don't do? You'd say, well, that
would offend me. Well, to be critical of somebody
that Christ is the master of, that Christ is growing, that
Christ is giving grace to, that he is from the head all nourishment
is ministered, to be critical of that child is to criticize
Christ's workmanship. What if you were a musician and
you played a great piece of music and somebody criticized the music? Or more exact to the illustration,
better illustration, what if you taught somebody how to play? Taught your child how to play
an instrument. And they had struck a few bad notes, you know, as
they're playing. And somebody said, your child's
not a very good musician. I heard those bad notes they
played. They didn't hear any of the good notes. Just heard
the bad notes. That's to criticize somebody,
criticize you and what you taught them. Well, the same with the
Lord. One time somebody told Brother
Henry, they were offended at something he said in a message.
He said, what I say before that? They said, I don't know. He said,
what I say after that? They said, I don't know. He said,
well, I'm glad I said that or you wouldn't have got a thing
out of it. That probably offended that person.
But you know what? It's just what they needed to
hear. Just what they needed to hear. You give God our Father
the glory for the good he's worked in your brethren. You look for
the good. Look for the good. You know what
it'll do? It'll do you good. It'll get you out of that negative
space. It'll get you knowing God's doing
all things well. That's what Paul said, and the
peace of God will keep your heart and mine. You want to have the
peace of God? Stop doing everything in your
world to grieve the Holy Spirit. Fight against it by criticizing
others. Glorify God for what he's worked
in you, brethren. Lastly, in all this, to glorify
God and our Father is to glory only in His Son, Christ Jesus
our Savior, because the Father trusted the whole work to the
Son, and everything that's done is being done by the Son. He's
the head. He said, I, my Father, one. He
said, He that honored not the Son honored not the Father that
sent Him. So believing on Christ, giving Christ all the glory,
glory to what He's worked in my brethren, glory in His providence,
what He's sent, trusting, though He's at hand, all these things
we've been seeing, boasting, bragging in Him, doing it at
all times. To do that toward the Son is
to do it to the Father. Give Him all the glory. with
glory in his name. Now listen, I know I give you
these names from time to time, but they're so, this is the name
of the Lord. We're saved by the name of the Lord. And I want
you to think about this. This is everything you need.
And there's more names of the Lord than just these in the scripture.
But listen to these names of our Lord. He's Jehovah Hasenu,
the Lord our maker. He's Jehovah Jireh, the Lord
will provide. Everything you need, He is. This
is Christ. He's Jehovah Nisi, the Lord our
banner. We preach one gospel, we raise
one banner. When Moses held up the banner,
the children of Israel prevailed. When his arms got weak and he
dropped the banner, the Malachi's prevailed. It's through this
banner, through this gospel, through this flag we're flying.
Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. Jehovah
Shalom, the Lord our peace. Jehovah Rea, the Lord our shepherd. He's leading us the whole way.
He goes before us and behind us, he said. Jehovah Sidcanu,
the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah Mkdesh, the Lord that
doth sanctify you. There's no synergism there. There's
no co-effort there between you and Him. He's just the Lord that's
sanctified to you. He does it. Jehovah Shema, the
Lord is there. Jehovah Jesus, the Lord our Savior. His name is Jesus for He shall
save His people from their sin. You see? Everything we need is
what He is. What He is is everything we need.
Those in whom God's revealed His Son, here's the fact of the
matter, they will glory in the Son. They will do all these things
I've been preaching to you. How do you know? Because God
said in Isaiah 45, 25, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel
be justified, and in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel
glory. They're going to glory in Him.
God said, everybody's called by my name, I created him for
my glory. I formed him, I made him to give
me all the glory. He said, let them shout for joy,
let them be glad that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let them
say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure
in the prosperity of his servants. So each of God's saints say from
the heart now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. And Paul said, whatever
you do, do it all to the glory of God. Let's go to him. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for this word. We pray you bless it. Thank you,
Lord. And we pray you have all the
glory. Make us to glorify you in all
our thoughts, our words, our deeds. And Lord, glorify yourself
in us. We thank you for your son. Thank
you for all the works being in his hand. And we pray, Lord,
that you'd make us glorify him continually. And forgive us,
Lord, for failing. We fail so miserably. Glorify
You alone. Help us to do so, Lord. Help
us to never, never, never glory in ourselves. In Christ's name
we ask it. Amen.