I wanna talk to you this morning
about glory. Five letter word, glory. What do we know about glory? What do we know about God's glory? In the Bible, it's a word that's
used often. Used as a noun, it means renown
or honor, distinction, eminence. praise, worship, adoration, magnificence,
splendor, grandeur, majesty, greatness, wonder, glory. And used as a verb, it means
to take pleasure in, to rejoice in, to delight in, to savor,
to praise, to worship, to adore one for their grandeur, for their
majesty, their greatness and their holiness. True glory is ascribed in this
book to God only. God is the definition of glory
and glory is the definition of God. God and His glory are inseparable. They're a whole lot more than
just synonyms. They're one and the same. God
is glory and glory is God. When Christ our Lord was born,
the heavenly host, Praise God saying, glory to God in the highest
and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. For the glory of
God Almighty, Christ came into the world to save sinners. And
in Christ there is peace and there's goodwill given to chosen
men and women on earth from God. David said, let them praise the
name of the Lord, for His name alone is excellent, and His glory
is above the earth and the heaven. So the first thing we see is
that God is the only glorious one, and He alone is to be worshiped,
praised, and adored, and believed, for He's God, and there is no
other. Salvation is of the Lord. He
gets all the glory. He gets all the honor. He gets
all the praise. God, for no other reason other
than it just pleased Him, loved, chose, called, saved, kept. Boy, that's a precious word when
you're prone to wonder. Kept. He kept me. And He glorified those who deserved
nothing but eternal condemnation. He did so for His own glory and
for His own great namesake. For the Lord will not forsake
His people for His great namesake. Why? Because He's glorious and
He's holy. Please the Lord to make you His
people. Why? For His own honor and for
His own glory. for no reason outside of himself.
God could have just passed by every fallen child of Adam. Actually, He should have. He'd
been just and right in doing so. It was only by an act of
mercy and grace and compassion, love, a love that was before
time ever was. And it was that love which caused
Christ to become a substitute, become a sacrifice, and become
a surety for those that God had given Him before the foundation
of the world. The question has never been,
how could God hate Esau? The question has always been,
how could God love Jacob? How could God love anyone outside
of Christ? I'm sure Jacob even wondered
that. Don't you imagine? But Jacob knew what kind of life
he had led. I'm sure he scratched his head
like we do and going, I can't believe the Lord loves me. How
could God love Jacob? Only in, by, and through the
sovereign love of God for Christ and for the glory of His own
great name. His glory. That's what we're
talking about. That's the only reason that He
showed mercy, grace, and compassion on anyone, including and especially
me. We say the word glory. We even,
with our finite minds, try to consider the glory of God. And
what do we who are by nature ungodly? That's what the Scripture
calls us. Let's take sides with God's Word
against ourselves. God calls us ungodly. How could
those who have ungodly natures know about true holiness and
righteousness and justice and glory? Only by what this book
tells us. And only by what God teaches
us. The scriptures tell us that God's too holy and too glorious
to excuse sin. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. The soul that sins must die in order for God to remain
holy and just and retain His glory. Remember, it's all about
the glory of God. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us. But unto thy name give glory.
Why? For thy mercy and for thy truce. We give glory to God for his
mercy. We give glory to God for his
truth. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. God is so holy that His glory
cannot be marred and He remained God. This is a no light matter. God's not going to just sweep
sin, your sin, my sin, anybody's sin, under a rug. It's got to
be dealt with justly and right. And if we miss that, then we've
missed the Gospel. He must provide a righteousness
in a just way to redeem a sinner without compromising His holy
justice and blemishing His perfect glory. Who is like unto Thee,
O Lord? Who is like Thee, glorious in
holiness? Those two things can't be separated. I'm speaking of God's holiness
and God's glory. And today we hear a lot about
the glory of man. We hear a lot about what man
is doing for God. But you know what the scripture
says about the glory of man? It says the glory of man is as
the flower of grass that withereth and falleth away. So I wouldn't
put any confidence at all in the glory of man. Turn with me
to Jeremiah chapter 9 if you would please. This will be my
text this morning, and it's from this text, that I hope to once
again declare to you Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We're talking
about the glory of God. Paul said, but God forbid that
I should glory, save, or accept in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. Now here in Jeremiah chapter
nine, look at verse 23, the Lord gives all who have any concern
for his glory some very wise counsel here. If you're concerned
about the glory of God, if you're interested in the glory of God,
look closely at these couple of verses. Verse 23, thus saith
the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Neither
let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory
in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this. He's going to tell us right here
what man ought to be glory in. Glory in this, that he understandeth
and knoweth me. That we understand and knoweth
him, the Lord. He says that you understand and
know that I am the Lord which now he gives us three things
here look at them that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness. The second thing he exercises
is judgment and then thirdly righteousness and he does this
in the earth it says right there. And then he says, for in these
things I delight, saith the Lord. Any of us that have lived with
ourselves for a while know that there's an irresistible urge
in all of us to glory in something. From a very young age, children
want attention. All of us, don't care who we
are, enjoy compliments from one another. Don't think for a minute
that any of us are extinct from desiring just a little glory
for ourselves. It's a part of our fallen nature. It's instilled in all of us because
of our fallen Adam. That doesn't excuse it. But it's
just true of all of us. The desire for glory is one of
the things that actually appealed to Eve before the fall, when
you think about it. It was first in her beguiled
interest to eat of the forbidden fruit. The serpent beguiled her
by calling God into question and his question was, hath God
said? Is that really what God said?
And the follow up statement was, you shall not surely die. He
just tried to tear down in her mind everything that God had
told her that would happen if they ate of that tree. If I may
paraphrase here a little bit, the serpent is saying, God didn't
want you to eat of that tree because He knows, first of all,
your eyes will be opened. Secondly, you shall be His gods
and you shall know good and evil. God wants to keep you down. God
wants all the glory for Himself. You know what? He does. He does. And He's going to have
it. Did He not say, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my
glory will I not give to another? His glory and His name are so
in such union that they cannot be separated. When it comes to
His glory, God is a jealous God. We've been studying in John chapter
11, how that the word was sent to Christ by Lazarus' sisters,
that he was sick. And the Lord said right up front,
He said, this sickness is not unto death. But we all know the
rest of the story. Lazarus died. His sickness was
not unto death because Lazarus would be raised from the dead,
and the sickness that took Lazarus' life was for the glory of God. He tells us that in the first
part of John 11. He says, it's for the glory of God that the
Son of God might be glorified thereby. I hate to break this
to those of you who don't believe it, but everything that happens
is for the glory of God and for the glory of His Son. I can't
explain that, I don't understand that, but it's nonetheless true. Thinking about Lazarus and the
death of all God's saints, the physical death of a believer
is for the glory of God when you think about it. We put a
brother or sister in the ground that knows and loves Christ,
we've seen that with several among our number in just the
last five, six years. The physical death of a believer
is not unto eternal death and condemnation, but it's unto everlasting
life. And that's the case of our spiritual
resurrection, the spiritual resurrection of every child of God. Our salvation,
our resurrection is to the glory of God that the Son of God might
be glorified in that perfect work of righteousness that He
did for us. That's the only reason that you
and I are going to one day have a glorified body is because of
what Christ has done for us. That's why death couldn't hold
the Lord. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter 15 with me. We'll go
back to Jeremiah if you want to stick your marker there. Look
at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'm not going to keep you long.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 42, Paul wrote this, 1 Corinthians
15 verse 42, So also is the resurrection of the dead. It's sown in corruption,
but it's raised in incorruption. And it's sown in dishonor. but it's raised in glory. It's
sown in weakness, but it's raised in power. And it's sown a natural
body, but it's raised a spiritual body. There's a natural body
and there's a spiritual body. And when the natural body of
a believer returns to the ground, oh, I'm telling you, something
miraculous happens. That body that was sown in corruption
will be raised in incorruption. And that body that was sown in
dishonor will be raised in glory, glorified bodies, without sin. And our flesh that is sown in
weakness will be raised in power. It's sown a natural body of flesh,
a body that corrupts and decays, as Lazarus even stinks. But it's raised a spiritual body. forever without sin. Oh, I suppose
if there's one thing I look more forward to than anything in life,
and that's to one day be without sin. Who shall change our vile
body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body,
according to the working whereby He is able. He's a sovereign God, able even
to subdue all things unto Himself. And Christ being able to subdue
all things, that includes sin, and that includes death, and
that includes the grave. This body that was sown in corruption,
it's gonna put on incorruption. This body that was sown in dishonor,
and wasn't it? My, it's gonna be raised in glory
in our flesh. It's sown in weakness. It's gonna
be raised with the same power that it took to raise Christ
from the dead. the same power that it took to
speak the worlds into existence. It's all for the glory of God.
God the Son might be glorified thereby. All our words, all our
worship, all our singing, all our reading God's Word, and especially
our preaching should be to that end, to glorify God and His Son. Everything we do, whatsoever
you do, do it all to the glory of God. Paul wrote, but of him
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That, because
of this, he says, that, according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. There's no other place to glory.
There's no one else that can save. Jesus Christ has made our
wisdom. Let the wise man, not glory in
his wisdom, And the child of God doesn't. He glories in the
Lord. The Lord is His wisdom. We can't
glory in our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.
They were all gifts of grace given by Him to us. Oh, we've
got such a tendency to glory in things. We all have something
that we're proud of. We take pride in glorying in
something. And it seems very innocent. Maybe
it's even a little keychain or a pocket watch of your dad's
or your grandfather's. We're not going to make a big
deal about that, are we? We'd like to show them off. Some
folks glory in their children and in their grandchildren. We
glory in a lot of things. The wise man glories in his wisdom.
The mighty man glories in his might and his strength. And the
rich man glories in his riches. And the child of God, those who
are truly rich, they glory in the riches of God's grace. That's what we glory in. There
are some examples in Scripture of people who gloried in things,
not the Lord, but gloried in things that turned out to be
nothing but grief to them. In 2 Kings chapter 20, Hezekiah
was a wealthy king and he had treasure houses of diamonds and
gold and silver and precious stone. And you can read there
in that chapter of 2 Kings that some ambassadors from Babylon
came to see him. I believe he was even sick. Came
to just make a house call. I want to see how you doing Hezekiah.
And he was so proud of his possessions that he took these men from treasure
house to treasure house, bragging and boasting in and on his riches. No doubt that displeased the
Lord. Why do you think that displeased the Lord? Because the Lord had
given Hezekiah all these things. It was to the glory of God. He made Hezekiah rich for his
own glory. And God's not going to share
His glory with another. So these men to whom Hezekiah
boasted and took around and showed them everything, you know what
they did? They came back later and stole all of his treasures.
All of them. For the glory is the Lord's and
not ours. He will not share any of it with
us. One day Nebuchadnezzar walked in the palace of the king of
Babylon. I can just see him walking around and shaking his head.
Man, look at all this. I've done pretty good for myself.
Yes, sir. He gloried in himself and in
what he had. And he said, is not this great
Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the
might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? And the
Bible says, while the word was in the king's mouth, there fell
a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is
spoken. The kingdom has departed from
you. Just that quick. And you remember what happened
to him. He came as a beast in the field. He ate grass like
an ox. His hair and his beard grew out
like feathers. His nails were like bird's claws. And all that walked by said,
who and what is that? Well, that's the King of Babylon.
He took for himself the glory and the honor that belonged to
God alone. But God returned him to his understanding
and he praised and he honored God that liveth forever. Nebuchadnezzar
learned what all men and women need to learn. What is that?
God doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? And the king of Babylon said,
now I, Nebuchadnezzar, oh, I praise and I extol and I honor I give
all the glory. That's what he's saying. I give
all the glory to the King of Heaven. All whose works are truth,
and His ways judgment, and those that walk in pride, He's able
to. You remember Herod in Acts chapter
12. Herod gave a speech one day.
The scripture says that he was dressed or arrayed in royal apparel. He was putting on the dog and
pony show this day. He sat upon his throne and then
all of a sudden he began to make this oratory speech. Scripture calls it an oration.
He made an oration unto them. That word just simply means a
public address. Like most politicians, this was
done with great pomp and show. Wearing his royal garments, sitting
on his throne, thinking himself to be somebody. He was one who
lusted for the recognition and glory of the people. And he began
to speak with his great oratory skills, and they were so grand
that people began to shout out, this is the voice of God, not
a man. And immediately, the scripture
says, immediately the angel of the Lord smote him because he
gave not glory. He gave not God the glory. And
God smote him and he was eaten with worms and he died. He gave up the goats. Herod allowed
the people to brag on his great speech and his great powers of
persuasion, and they called his voice the voice of a god. And
God proved he was no god at all. Why? Because God will not share
his glory with another. Jacob gloried in a coat of many
colors, and he gloried in his favorite son, Joseph. But that
coat was returned to him in pieces and covered with blood. David,
with great pride, determined to count the people. And God
said, I know my people. I don't need you to count them.
But David, proud of his kingdom, and proud of his army, and proud
of all that he had done, he numbered them anyway. David, if God be
for us, who can be against us? It don't matter how many you
have in your army. The numbers of our army is not
the issue. The Lord is a man of war. Because of his actions, the Lord
sent a pestilence in Israel from the morning even to the time
appointed. And there died of the men of Israel that day 70,000
men. 70,000. Hezekiah gloried in his
riches. David gloried in his strength.
Herod gloried in his voice. What are you glorying in? Or
who are you glorying in? Now back in Jeremiah 9, again
verse 24, the Lord said, let him that glorieth glory in this,
that he understandeth and knoweth Me. That's a good reason for
glory. Glory in the fact that God revealed
Himself to you. Didn't have to. Glory that God
in mercy and grace has caused you to understand some crucial
things concerning Him. Glory that God hath chosen you
and called you and crossed your path with the gospel. Made you
a new creature in Christ and gave you life from above. That's
something to glory in there. And this is life eternal that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. That's something to glory in.
God gives His people an object worthy of glory, and that object
is the Lord Jesus Himself. Let man glory in this, that he
understands and knows that I am the Lord. The heavens declare
the glory of God, and the firmament show His handiwork. The heavens
declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory.
It's written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught
of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of
the Father, Christ said, cometh to me. When God does the teaching,
men hear and learn of the Father and they come to Christ. And
according to verse 24 in our text, we're made to know and
understand that He is the Lord which does at least three things,
as I mentioned earlier, in the earth. I wanna look at them real
briefly again. He exercises loving kindness. That word loving kindness means
unmerited favor. That's what the actual Hebrew
word means. It is love and kindness just
rolled together. You can be kind to someone without
loving them, but you can't love someone without being kind to
them. Loving kindness means grace,
it means mercy, it means pity. God exercises these things toward
sinners. The word exercise here means
to bestow or to grant or to present, to freely give, to entrust with. Christ came into the world to
save who? Sinners. Christ died for who? The ungodly. Christ came not to call who?
The righteous. Who did He call to repent? Sinners.
And the second thing mentioned here is judgment. That's the
second thing that God does and exercises. The holy God of glory
must exercise judgment. He can by no means clear the
guilty. It's appointed unto men once to die, but after this,
the judgment. God's gonna judge sin. His justice
demands it. His holy law requires it. And we should glory in this judgment
that God exercises. You see, His glory is seen in
the judgment of the wicked. And His glory is seen in the
sparing of those chosen from out of the wicked. The glory
of God is seen in His justice. In justice, He cannot spare or
clear the guilty. And in justice, He cannot slay
or condemn the righteous either. Those who are in Christ have
been given His perfect righteousness, and they're spared. And those
that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on them. And this is all to the praise
of God's glory. And then the third thing mentioned
here is righteousness. Our righteousness doesn't come
by a work that we do, does it? It's God that exercises righteousness
in the earth. Perfect acceptance with God comes
not by works of righteousness that we've done, but according
to His mercy He loves. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. This righteousness
comes by the washing of our sin by His blood. This righteousness
comes by the renewing, the making of a new creature in Christ,
in whom old things have passed away and all things have become
new. And then the last part of verse 24, we see that in these
things, loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, the Lord delights.
These three things are to the glory of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. These are the things that Christ
in the earth did for the glory of God. Before the foundation
of the world, God loved and chose a specific people. He gave them
to Christ to redeem from their sin. And Christ came into the
world to save those that God gave Him. And all those shall
come to Him, and none of them will be cast out. That sounds
like a pretty secure salvation to me. What was it that drew
them? God says, yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
thee. In John chapter nine, the Lord
Jesus said for judgment or for verdict, for sentencing, I'm
coming to the world. And here's the sentence, here's
the verdict, the twofold judgment of Christ, that they which see
not might see. And secondly, that they which
see shall be made blind. Now what does that mean? Simply
means all who believe themselves to be sinful and cannot see why
God would in any way be mindful of them and save them, Christ
gave them sight. They're the ones that truly see.
And all who can see why God would save them, they're blind. Just
that simple. The gospels for the needy, those
that are whole have no need, Christ said. But they that are
sick, Paul wrote in Romans chapter 14 verse 10, but why dost thou
judge thy brother, or why dost thou set it not thy brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
My only hope of heaven's glory. You see, heaven's glory is only
because who's going to be there? The God of glory. My only hope
of heaven's glory will be if Christ died for me and if Christ
was made to be sin for me. Because see, He knew no sin.
He was made sin so that you and I and all who trust in Him might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And therefore, Paul
said in Romans 8.1, there's no judgment, there's no condemnation. To who? To those that are in
Christ Jesus. Why? Because we've been freely
given His perfect righteousness, made the righteousness of God
in Him. Conformed to His image. Perfect
by our union with Him. Why would we glory in anyone
or in anything else? Let him that glorieth glory in
this, that you know God. That you understand what this
book teaches. That in order to be reconciled
to God, you've got to be perfect to be accepted. And then to know
that you are accepted. Accepted in Christ, God's beloved
Son. To the praise and the glory of
what? His grace. Wherein He hath made
us accepted in the blood.