Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
10, verse 31. Now this has been the verse we've
used for our study thus far. And it really wraps up everything
and puts it all into one capsule in the sense when it says, do
all to the glory of God. We're to do everything to the
glory of God. We're to glorify God and all that. I was thinking
about Thanksgiving. We're coming up to Thanksgiving
this week. And I'll probably mention this earlier, but I was
sitting there this morning just contemplating about Thanksgiving.
You know, the world makes a huge thing about Thanksgiving. But,
you know, Thanksgiving is a one-time or, you know, in American Canada,
they make a big, once a year, a big thing about Thanksgiving.
But I was contemplating this for we who believe. Thanksgiving's
every day for us. We're thankful every day. And
I just started to contemplate the things that we are to be
thankful for. We're thankful that God, God
who revealed himself to us, God chose us. I may write an article,
but all these things that we're, when we start to consider what
God's done for us, it makes us thankful. And it makes us want
to glorify him more and more and more and magnify him. So
let's look at our text today. And we'll be under the subheading,
it's Glorifying God Part 3, but the subheading will be, what
is it to glorify God? What is it to glorify God? In
1 Corinthians 10.31 it says, whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. So last
week we looked at how it's man's privilege or purpose. And the
reason that we were made vessels of honor is to glorify God. The reason we're made vessels
of honor is to glorify God, to bring Him praise and to bring
Him glory. Now we don't add anything to
Him, but we as His creatures, we glorify Him. We glorify Him. We don't add anything to His
intrinsic glory, remember, that which He is, but He desires us
to glorify Him, even though we don't add anything to Him. And
we should. He's worthy of that glory, isn't He? He's absolutely
worthy of it. When we ponder and when we consider
the great things the Lord has done for us, We ought to glorify
Him all the time. Now, unfortunately, we're sinners
and we fall far short of that. But when we do stop and ponder
what He's done for us, we are quick. As Brother John always
says, we're very quick to give you the glory, Lord. And that's
true. We are. We're quick to give Him the glory for what He's
done for us. So today, I'd like to look at
what it is to glorify God. And I'd like to consider this
from four points. Now, glorifying God consists
in four things, appreciation, appreciation, adoration, affection,
and subjection. Appreciation, adoration, affection,
and subjection. And the believer, we will see,
does all of these out of a regenerated heart. In our natural state,
we don't have any of these. We don't seek to glorify God.
But from a regenerated heart, These are things that we desire
to do and we enjoy to do. And it's because, again, it's
again, and I know I keep hitting this all the time, it's because
of the great things the Lord has done for us. And he has done
marvelous things for every believer. And he's done it in Christ, and
only in Christ. Nowhere else. So let's look at
the first point. Let's consider the first point
of today under the subject of what is it to glorify God. The
first point I'd like us to consider is this, appreciation, appreciation. To glorify God is to set God's
highest in our thoughts, to set him first in our thoughts, highest
in our thoughts. He's above all things, above
all things. We esteem him. greater than anything
or anyone else. He becomes, as Paul said, our
all in all. He becomes everything to us.
And I can testify to that. He's my everything, beloved.
He's my everything. I have nothing without Christ.
And when I think back of how I was before the Lord saved me,
how I thought, how I acted, how I spoke, and the change that
God has brought in me. It's not my doing. I didn't reform
myself. No. It's God who's made me a
new creature in Christ. And if you believe, it's true. He's done this great work. He's
done this great work. And therefore, out of a regenerated
heart, out of one being born again, We appreciate what God's
done for us. We see the things that He's done
for us and we never saw them before. Psalm 92.8 says this, but thou,
Lord, art most high forevermore. He's most high, beloved, forevermore. God is the most high. He's the
most high. And that is one of His names.
It means he's above all. He's above all. He dwells on high, and he looks
down upon the inhabitants of the earth. And he has mercy on
whomever he has mercy, whomever he's pleased to have mercy. And
contrary to what man thinks, he rules and reigns supreme. We're like grasshoppers to him,
scripture says. Nothing, and think of this. Think
of this. You know, you got people that
pop off all the time about God and pop off about believers.
Nothing escapes his watchful eye. Nothing. Absolutely. People think they're getting
away with stuff. Nothing escapes his watchful eye. Nothing. And one day, the wicked will
be held accountable for what they do. And so would we have
been, if not for the precious blood of Christ. If not for what
he has done for us. That makes us appreciate him,
because he, Christ himself, paid the price that God demanded for
us. For us. He's had mercy on us. And remember this, too. When
things come up in life, and they do, and circumstances come up
in the world, and they will. Remember this. Our God has reigned
from eternity past. Our God is reigning right now.
and our God will rule and reign in eternity future. He reigns
supreme and He will never stop reigning. Never. He will never
stop being the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Never.
Never. That's our Savior. Now think of that when we start
to doubt it, when something comes up. Brother Matty, I'm complete
in Christ. My rest and my hope is not in
what I've done. It's in what He's done. It's in what Christ
has done. And I thank God that my salvation
is not dependent upon my works, because I lose it a thousand
times a day. Is it so with you? I know it is with me. But it's
dependent upon Christ. And He is the one who reigns
and rules supreme. Now think of this. What a contrast.
The saints seek to glorify God. and to praise Him. And what a
contrast to the wicked who shake their fists at God, and one day
they'll stand before Him, though, and they'll be cast into hell,
and He will continue forever in all His greatness and glory
and majesty to reign. To reign. But thou, Lord, art
most high forevermore. Psalm 92, 8. Forevermore. His
reign never ends. Never. Never. And this, beloved, is the God
who has mercy upon we who believe. This is the God who has mercy
upon us. In Christ, it's always in Christ,
and it makes us appreciate the salvation we have, the mercy
we've received in Christ. And therefore, as a result of
that, we glorify Him. We praise Him. We give Him thanks. Psalm 97, 9 says this, For thou,
Lord, art high above all the earth. Thou art exalted far above
all gods. So think on this, beloved, when
you look up at the night sky and see all the stars and all
the constellations and the beauty, it's beautiful, the beauty that's
set forth just before us there. He's the maker of all that. He's
the one who spoke it all into existence. I remember going with
my daughter up to a place, it was Willow Lake, wasn't it? It
was Willow Lake, and it's up in Oregon, up in the mountains.
When you get up there, there's no, they don't have a lot of
lights like you do in the subdivision. We lived in the subdivision,
so that naturally blocks out some of the light from the night
sky. But we got up there, and I took my daughter one time,
we went down to the waterfront, and it was dark. And we looked
up there and it took, my daughter started crying. She was so overwhelmed
by the beauty of it. It took my breath away. You see,
you just see the majesty, you see the Milky Way, you see the
majesty of the stars and it takes your breath away. I've heard
on the ocean, when you're on the ocean, if you're on a ship
and you can see that night sky like that, it's supposed to be
the same way. Just take your breath away. He's the maker of
all. He just spoke it into existence. What a God. And looking at that,
the believer glorifies God. Look what my King has done. He
just spoke it into existence. My, oh my. He's high above all
the earth. He's exalted far above all gods. He is the one true God. And His
works are before us. False gods are made of wood,
mere wood or stone, figments of people's imagination. They
have no works that they've done, but our God's work is manifested
all around us. All around us. What a contrast. That's why the scripture says
in Psalm 97, nine, for thou, Lord, art high above all the
earth. Thou art exalted far above all gods. So we appreciate what
the Lord's done for us. We appreciate his creation, and
therefore, out of that, we glorify God. for what He's done. Turn,
if you would, to Romans 11. We glorify our great God when
we admire all that He has done and when we ascribe all the glory
to Him for what He has accomplished. Look at Romans 11, verses 33-36.
Oh, the depths Oh, the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His
judgments in His ways past finding out. You can't comprehend God. We can't. Brother Donny Bell
and I were talking on the phone yesterday about that. We can't
comprehend who God is. We're merely scratching at the
surface. And we just marvel when He reveals
Himself to us in Scripture. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? Who knows the mind of God? None of us. Who hath been His
counselor? No one. Who hath first given to Him and
that shall be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him and through
Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. He is the first cause of creation.
He is the first cause of our salvation. And He is the first
cause of all things, beloved. He's God. He rules and reigns
supreme. For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Verse 36. Believers in Christ have an appreciation
for the works of God, which we never had before the Lord sent
us. I never had an appreciation.
I would marvel when I went somewhere and saw a lake and stuff like
that, but I never gave the glory to God. Now I go somewhere and
you just marvel. These great lakes, they're like
inland oceans. Marvel at the hand of the Lord
in making them. Up in Canada, we used to drive
along Superior, up northern Canada. And as you're driving, there's
these rock walls that they had to cut right through the rock,
the Canadian Shield. And you're going through, you're
just marveling at this beauty that God has made. Now, I never
appreciated that as a kid. But now, this is the work of
my master. It's incredible. So you see things
in a totally different light, and you appreciate what God has
done, what He's done. This is His work. We who believe
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. It's amazing. It's incredible. So when we admire His works,
and when we admire His attributes, and we admire His sovereignty,
and we admire His majesty, and we admire His holiness, and we
admire His grace, and we admire His mercy, and we admire His
promises, and they're all in Christ Jesus and Him alone. We
didn't do that before we were saved, but now we marvel in all
those things that He's done, and who He is, God, the one true
God. When I consider thy heavens,
the works of thy fingers, the moon, the stars which thou hast
ordained. It's all his work. It's all his
doing. So to glorify God is to have
God-admiring thoughts, one commentator said, to esteem him most excellent. To esteem him most excellent
and to give him all the glory and all the honor and all the
praise. The second part I'd like us to consider The second part I'd like us to
consider is adoration. We adore our great
King. We adore our great King. We hear
the Gospel preached and proclaimed. We hear what God has done for
us, how He's taken us out of the pit that we could never escape
from ourselves. We hear how our mighty Savior
left the glories of heaven and condescended and became a man
and went to Calvary's cross and died in the room instead of sinners.
And we adore Him. We adore Him. We didn't adore
Him before. But now we adore Him. We adore
Him for what He's done for us. We have adoration for Him. And there is no other God beside
Him. He is a sovereign, eternal, and
immutable God. Think of this. What man would
worship a God they could figure out? No one. No one. But our God's thoughts are not
our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. He's so far above us. As I said, He's the creator and
we're the creation. We're creatures of His creation.
And we give reverence to Him. And the more He reveals Himself
to us, the more we adore our great King. The more we marvel
that He had mercy on the sinner. Is it not so with you? Don't
you contemplate sometimes? God had mercy on me in Christ. Does it not cause you to adore
Him? To love Him? We didn't before, did we? But
oh my, what a great God and King. And we seek to serve Him. We
love Him and praise Him. And we worship Him. In Ezra,
bless the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered,
Amen, Amen. With lifting up their hands,
they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to
the ground. Nehemiah 8. We worship and adore our great
King. Divine worship. We are to give
worship to the one who's divine. We're not divine. We give Him
the worship. We worship the divine one. God. God. The King of kings and the Lord
of lords. And we reverence and adore our
great God and King. Think of this. And how do we
do that? By worship that is acceptable,
right? By worship that's acceptable. Now we have an example in Scripture
of two men who come before the Lord. One comes offering the
proper sacrifice. Abel. One comes offering the fruits,
the labors of his hand. King. One's acceptable, and one's not. One adores the Lord, and the
other does not. And he shows his adoration by
bringing the proper sacrifice. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ
for us. That's Christ. We're in Christ. We come before God the Father, In Christ, He's our sacrifice. We're only accepted in Him. And
we adore our great Savior, don't we? And we seek to glorify God
due to the appreciation and the adoration we have for our great
God and King. When we ponder the fact of our
salvation. Now, if you get down, and we
will, and we will, and we do. If you get down, just ponder
this, the fact of your salvation. Paul was writing to those Colossian
believers, and I know I hit on this Wednesday night, but what
a marvelous, Paul was, they had a three-pronged attack coming
at them, and Paul writes to them, ye are complete in Christ. Boom. I was talking to Donny
yesterday about that. Do you know you can take every
single error that comes at us as a church, every false doctrine,
and say, I'm completing Christ. And it combats them all. Because
what's the one thing that false teachers will want to do, will
have you do, add something to what Christ has done? No. I'm
completing Christ. He's my hope. Is he yours? He's
our only hope, isn't he? We don't have any other hope
but Christ. And so when we think about that, when we ponder the
fact of our salvation, the fact that Christ redeemed us with
His blood, it's not just words. For the believer, it's fact.
Christ redeemed me. He paid everything God demanded
for my sins with His blood. It's a fact. He really did it.
My goodness. I just want to glorify Him. I
want to thank Him. Don't you? This is wonderful
news for sinners. It's incredible. And there's
the fact that Christ died for my sins. The fact of it. Oh, it brings hope to weary sinners. It brings hope. And then the
fact of our salvation, the fact of our forgiveness, the fact
that we'll be glorified one day, it's almost too much for us to
comprehend, isn't it? Oh my beloved, my. And then we seek to worship him
and adore him. And the believer in Christ will
worship him whether we feel his presence or whether we don't.
Right? Because of the fact of what he's
done for us. The third point I'd like us to
consider is this. And what it is to glorify God is affection.
Deuteronomy 6, 5 says this, And thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy might. Now loving God is part of the
glory we give to God. Who counts himself glorified
when he is loved. You see, it's the opposite when
we're lost. We hate God by our wicked works and our thoughts
and our words, but when God regenerates a sinner, who do we love? God. Christ. We're glorifying Him by loving
Him for what He's done, by loving Him for who He is. Matthew 22,
36 says this, 36 and 37, it says this, Master, which is the great
commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. Now when we think about that,
do we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind? Okay, now, but
think of it. Okay, now, I know when we hear
that, we go, oh my gosh, I don't know all the time, but we did
in Christ. When he fulfilled the law, we
did in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? He did
it all. Oh my. What a great God we have. Now, there's a two-fold love
which we as humans have. There is a self-love, and we
love someone because they love us or do good to us. And some
professors, some religious professors love God as long as things are
going good. As long as things are going good. When things are
going bad, they go off the deep end, don't they? We pray, Lord, give us as believers
grace and strength to love thee in the good times and the bad.
Give us the grace and strength. As we know, when we see circumstances
arise, all things are working out for our good and for his
glory. For our good and his glory. The
second part of the love, which the twofold love, which we as
humans, is a love of delight. A love of delight, just as a
man takes delight in a friend. We love our friends, don't we? We love our brothers and our
sisters in Christ. And this kind of love is illustrated
when it causes you to feel, one commentator said, this kind of
love is illustrated when it causes you to feel good inside and give
God thanks for their friendship. So, you have folks in your life
who you're thankful for? Do you have friends that you're
close to that you're thankful to God for? Oh, give them all the
glory. Give them all the glory. He's
the one who's knit your hearts together. It's wonderful, beloved. It's wonderful. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
chapter 6, verses 8 and 9. And we know in this vision that
Isaiah has of Christ, he sees Christ high and lifted up, and
he sees His state before Christ. In this chapter, a coal is placed
upon His lips, picturing the blood of Christ cleansing Him
from all sin and cleansing us from all sin. Before that, He's in the dust.
He sees all of mankind as wretched as He is and He cries out to
God. Look at verse 8. Here am I. Send me. Here am I. Send me. I got ahead of myself, everyone.
I'm sorry. This is in subjection. This is under the heading of
subjection. The believer in Christ seeks to dedicate himself to
God and stand ready for his service. And look at this. Look at this.
Isaiah says, Here am I. Send me. But before that, God
says, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah, out
of a regenerated heart, says, Here am I, send me. He doesn't seek it out of a gainful
heart. He seeks it out of a heart of
subjection to God. A heart of subjection to God. You can't bargain with God. Now
men can bargain with men, can't we? Man can bargain with men,
but we must bow to a sovereign. We must bow to a sovereign. We
can't bargain with God. He's sovereign. We're not. We're
just creatures. And we're in subjection to Him.
Acts 9.8 says this, And he trembling and astonished said, What will
thou have me to do? This is Paul after his conversion.
The Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it
shall be told thee what thou must do. Paul was in subjection
to the Lord. He wasn't before that, though. But after the Lord converted
him, he's in subjection to God in Acts 9, 6. And he says, Lord,
what will thou have me to do? He's in absolute subjection to
God. Now, as I said, Isaiah here in
Isaiah 6, he sees Christ high and lifted up. He sees His state
before him in this chapter. And he is in total subjection
to God. He does not say, I'm going to go do this, Lord. I'm
going to go do this job. As modern seminary students say
when they say, I remember hearing someone tell a story about he
was talking to, he's one of the grace missionaries, and he was
talking to some kids who were coming out of seminary, and he
had heard that one of them said, well, I can't get a job as a
pastor, so I'm going to become a missionary. It's a calling. It's a calling. It's not a job.
I don't consider this a job. This is a calling, a high calling.
And we just had a president elected. And I remember Donny Bell saying
this years ago, and I firmly believe this now as a grace preacher.
He said, I would have to step down to be president of the United
States. That's how much of an honor it
is to preach the gospel of God's free grace. It's a step down
to be president. What an honor. What a privilege. And Isaiah here says, here am
I. Send me. In total subjection. God's preachers
are in total subjection to God's sovereignty. And in being in
total subjection, we glorify God. We glorify God. Isaiah 6, 9, and he said, go
and tell the people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and
see indeed, but perceive not. God's preachers, when God tells
them to go, they're gone. They go. They go wherever God
leads them, wherever he leads them. In total subjection. And as I
said, in being subject to God's will, we're glorifying God and
what He's called us to do. And it's the same for every believer.
Don't ever think that we all need each other. We're part of the body of Christ.
Matt and I were talking about how the cells all work and how
different cells have different things that they do in the body.
But they all need each other. I need y'all. You're my brothers
and sisters in Christ. We need one another. And isn't
it wonderful that we who are redeemed are bought together
by God's providence? And we're all purchased by the
same blood? And we're all born again by the
same Spirit? And we all worship and adore
the same God? And I know we could all sit down
and talk about where we were before the Lord saved us. And
as Brother Paul said to me back in Oregon, dear brother who went
home to be with the Lord, he said, we were all standing around
one day after church talking and he said, do you know, I never
would have hung out with you guys. I think I've mentioned
that to you all. He said, I never would have hung out with you
guys if the Lord hadn't saved me, but now I love you all. How can you explain
that? Only the grace of God in Christ.
Only the grace of God in Christ. The believer in Christ sings
with the hymn writer this, "...but drops of tears can ne'er repay
the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away.
It is all that I can do." The believer is in total subjection
to the will of God in his life. Lord, do with me what you will.
We're His vessels, aren't we? Created unto Christ Jesus. Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained. He's
ordained these things for us to do. Now, as I said, we never
know when we're doing them. If a person thinks they're doing
a good work, they're not doing a good work. Let's turn, if you would, to
Isaiah 40, verses 5 and 6. Do you know we glorify God when
we're devoted to His service? And when we're not doing it for
our gain? but that we're doing it for His
glory. His glory. Look at Isaiah 40,
verses 5 and 6, and we'll close up. And the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, Cry, and
He said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
godliness, goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
The Lord reveals His truth to us, He reveals what we are, and
we proclaim to others. what Christ has done for us.
We glorify God in devotion to his service and to his cause,
beloved, to his service and to his cause. And we cry, all flesh
is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is the flower of the
field. It's all going to fade away one day. It's all going
to be gone. But that which is eternal is in Christ. That which
is eternal is in him. And God's people glorify God.
We glorify God. Again, in our devotion to His
service and to His cause. Our heads study Him. Our tongues
plead for Him. We come and say, Lord, please. We come before Him. He's our
mediator between God and man. Our hands help His children.
And our hearts willingly submit to His will, both in suffering
and in service. And we glorify God through it
all. We glorify Him through it all. We fight under His banner,
under His incense, and we glorify God and Him alone. and we praise
and adore Him alone. So we have considered that glorifying
God consists in four things, appreciation, adoration, affection,
we have affection for our great God, and subjection, subjection
to Him. Now may God give us strength
in grace to glorify our great King as we pilgrimage through
this world. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Gracious Heavenly Father, we come before Thee, thankful for
Your goodness and grace. Thankful that You've given us
tongues to praise You and hearts to adore You and worship You.
We didn't worship and adore You before we were saved, but now,
O Lord, our thoughts are of You. We seek to give You glory and
honor and praise. And as I said, there was a time
when we didn't even have any thoughts of You at all. But now,
oh my, there's not a day that goes by where we don't praise
and worship You and adore You. We love You and praise You and
thank You for Your goodness and mercy to us in Jesus' name, Amen.