Back here in Isaiah 45 where
we read, I want to go back and read the
last verse. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified, and shall glory." Oftentimes a question is asked, why are
we here? I know that a great number of
so-called scientists have offered their answer, and many more philosophers
have given their multitude of answers, and many preachers have given
their various answers. Why are we here? What is our purpose? But you see, most of all, those
questions such as that, they reveal both an ignorance of the
Bible, a willful ignorance of the Bible, and a willful unbelief. Those questions are asked as
if no one really has the answer. But in days past, and really
not all that many days past, but in days past, it was pretty
much understood that man's chief end is to glorify God. But there are very few that believe
that today. There are very few that understand
it. And I thought about this week
what a blessing it would be for young people especially, starting
out in life, making all their various decisions and plans,
what it would mean to them if they really understood that the
reason that we are here and our real purpose of life is to glorify
God. I read this week an article written
by an old preacher, and in it he was talking about A chief
goal of preaching being the salvation of men's souls. And I heartily
agree with him. That is the goal in part of preaching
the gospel. But it's not the first goal of
preaching. Because the first goal of preaching
is like everything else. It is to first of all glorify
and exalt God. And I know something else too. I know that by nature, you and I and every other person
that lives in this world, it is natural to us, it is even
essential to us, that we glorify someone. You're going to glorify
someone. And we see that demonstrated
every day of our lives, everywhere, in every part of society. glorifying of man, so many of
these stars, glorifying celebrities, athletes, actors, Can you imagine
glorifying, and this is so prevalent, glorifying somebody who acts
every day virtually as someone other than themselves? Glorifying
such people? And surely, glorifying of self,
glorifying of self under the guise of self-esteem, under the
guise of self-image. But I can tell you this, nothing
will ever satisfy you, nothing will ever fulfill you, no matter
what you do, No matter what you gain, no matter what you accomplish,
if you do not glorify God. It's like having a puzzle, and
you're able to put so many of these pieces of the puzzle together,
but you just can't finish it, because that one lacking piece
is the most important. And that is God Almighty. The Lord the Spirit directs a
man. That's all He was, a man. But God has set him apart from
old eternity to be one of His prophets. He was to speak for
God. He was to speak and declare what
the prophets called the burden of the Word of the Lord. And sometimes the Spirit of God
enabled them to speak, as I've often told you. Speak may be
one statement, in which is bound up the infinite grace and glory
of God." And verse 25 seems to be one of those statements. Because he speaks here the words
of God in verse 25, and he says that all the seed of Israel,
That's really an all without exception. And this Israel that
he's speaking of here, just by a little bit of examination,
we'd have to know he was not talking about the nation of Israel. But he's talking about that people
that that nation pictured and typified. He's talking about
that Israel that the Apostle Paul distinguished when he said,
they are not all of Israel that are of Israel. He's not a Jew
who is one outwardly, but he's one who is a Jew inwardly. He says that all this spiritual
Israel of God, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, all this spiritual
seed and offspring of Christ, these to whom He is said to be
the everlasting Father, These who were given to Him in that
everlasting covenant, described here as being in Him, these that
are the true people of God, true believers, God's elect, all of
them, all of His true church, all of His spiritual temple. They're all going to glory in
Him. As a matter of fact, the psalmist said this, the voice
of the Lord makes the hinds to calve. Everything happens because
of God's direct command. "...and discovers the forest."
In other words, all the natural creation declares His glory. But it says particularly, "...and
in His temple doth everyone speak of His glory." In His temple. Not in Satan's temple. Not among
all the false gods as he speaks of here in this text. But in
His temple, everyone speaks of His glory. But it says not only that, it
says, all the seed of Israel shall be justified. Being justified is like being
saved. We must be saved. And also, we must be justified. I went back again this morning
and re-read a couple of definitions from Strong's and other places. Always I want to make sure that
I understand what justification is. And each one defined it as
an act of God. It's an act of God. It's an act
of God. Which means, using really a term
of the court, it means to be declared righteous. To be justified is to be declared
righteous by an act of God. You remember when Insurance policies
and such as that used to refer to things that might be destroyed
or such as that, and they attributed it to an act of God. You won't find that anymore.
You can go home and read your policies. I don't think you'll
find that still listed as a cause. But it is an act of God. And likewise, out of religion
has gone this whole notion of justification being what it is,
an act of God, by which He declares His people righteous in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He justifies them. It says they
are justified from all things from which they could not be
justified by the law of Moses. It says they are justified freely
by His grace. It says that they are justified
through God-given faith. It says that they stand before
God and are accepted in Christ just as if they had never sinned. They've been declared not guilty. They've been counted acquitted
of all charges against them. And he says, all the seed of
Israel, without exception, shall be justified." And their justification,
which is being accounted righteous, their justification, all their
righteousness being, what does he say? In the Lord. In the Lord. In nobody else. Just in the Lord. And that means
they are being brought to see the need of His righteousness,
and to look to Christ alone, who is the Lord our righteousness,
for it, and receive it from Him by faith, so as to be justified
in their own consciences. If I'm justified in the court
of heaven, and God has truly given me faith, then the justification
which satisfies the court of heaven will satisfy our conscience. And if not, then we truly haven't
believed. We truly haven't rested in what
God has done. And they will openly stand at
the throne of God before angels and men, not only now, but hereafter,
justified in the Lord. Only in the Lord. Some old writer
said something like this, he said, we never truly glorify
God until we have utterly discarded our own glory. It must therefore be regarded
as a universal proposition that those that whoso glories in himself,
glories against God." Is that right? Well, he said, my glory
will I not share with another. And this is true as Paul shows
us with everyone in the world. There are none who are made subject
to God until all the ground of their glory has been taken away
from them. You can't stop glorying in yourself. You can't stop of yourself trusting
in yourself, looking to your own self. But Paul says, now
we know that whatsoever things saith the law is saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty before God. That's all it can say to
us. There's a big uproar right now.
wherein by night, in various places around the country, these
city governments, county governments, places where the Ten Commandments
have been in a stone or something for years and years and years,
and they're slipping in by night without telling anybody and removing
them. I know their real motive. They'd
like God altogether gone. But I don't care if they remove
the Ten Commandments. Because He says, by the works
of the law shall no man be justified. All that law can do is condemn
us, and a wrong view of it only builds self-righteousness in
us. But notice the last few words
in this verse. It always comes down to this.
and shall glory." Now there's something understood in that. And I don't know who the dear
teacher was that taught me this a long time ago, but in the English
language, in statements, things can be said so that the subject
or the object is understood. So when he says, "...and shall
glory," It's understood that he's talking about the Lord. They'll all be justified in the
Lord, and they'll all glory in the Lord. And it seems that he's
saying that God's elect are justified by the Lord so that they will
glory in the Lord and nobody else. Because we're going to
glory. And he shows us the way in which
we are to glory in the Lord in verses 23 and 24. He says, "...I have sworn by
myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness,
and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every
tongue shall swear, and surely shall one say..." How are they
going to glory? In the Lord, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, have I righteousness and strength. Only in Him Only
in the Lord Jesus Christ, only in His righteousness, have I
righteousness and strength. And even to Him shall men come,
and all that are incensed against Him, they'll be ashamed. Any who glory in themselves,
they'll be ashamed. They'll be confounded. But several
times in the Scripture it says, he that believeth on Him, they'll
never be ashamed. They'll never be confounded. You see, it's a confession, as
I read it, by a solemn oath, which shows this confession and
this confidence of faith to be a real and genuine one, not some
kind of false humility. In other words, these, they won't
say, well, the Lord saved me, and then start talking immediately
about what they did. That's everywhere in our day.
Oh, I'm a Christian. Well, how did you become a Christian? Well, I did this and I did that
and I did all these things. No. It's all in the Lord. It's all by the Lord. That's
what it means to be in the Lord. It means all done by the Lord. And you see, if we hold to the
least idea of the least righteousness in us, that will inevitably lead
to some confidence in it and some glorying in it. Some glorying
in it. Absolutely, it's going to lead
us to boast in it. You know it doesn't take much
to make a sinner boast in himself. We all like to talk about what
we used to do, what we used to be. We like to think that we
have made some real progress, but we haven't. Absolutely not. Paul reminds these believers
at Ephesus sometime, I don't know how long it was, but sometime
after he first preached the gospel, they first believed the gospel,
and now he writes this letter to them, and what does he remind
them of? He says, Ye are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast." Any man should boast. Do you
know what one of the most subtle kinds of boasting is? when men and women talk about
the faults and the failures and the shortcomings of others. I remember hearing somebody say
years ago, they said, blowing everybody else's candle out won't
make yours burn any brighter. That's all it is, it's boasting.
If I'm always talking about the lives and the conduct and all
these other things in the lives of others, all I'm doing is boasting
in my own. We're like that Pharisee. When
the man went into the temple to pray, and the Pharisee, he
prayed like this, Lord I thank You I'm not like this man. What
was he doing? He's boasting. And pride and
self-righteousness not only leads men and women to boast before
others, but also before God. I thank you that I'm not like
other men, like this publican here. Well, how do you know that? Because I don't do these things,
and I fast, and I give, and I do all these other things. That's
just boasting. Just absolutely boasting. But Paul declares that God justifies
His people in order to declare His righteousness. Why? Because in the matter of
justification, God's glory has to be maintained. He can't do it in a way that
it would distract from His glory. So Paul writes in Romans 3 where
he tells us, he says, "...being or having been justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." It's
through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. It's through
His cross death. God's greatest glory is His grace
as it is demonstrated to sinners like us in the salvation, the
just salvation of His people through Christ crucified. He says, "...whom God has set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness." to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus." Now guess what Paul follows that with? Where is boasting
then? Where is boasting? There is one
thing that is salvation by grace. Salvation by grace through the
redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The purpose of it, outside
of ourselves. The accomplishment of it, outside
of ourselves. The revelation of it to us, but
by one outside of ourselves. Where are we going to boast? If we are lost sheep, And the
shepherd had to seek us and find us and carry us back and lay
down his life for us. If he had to do everything, where's
our boasting at? Paul says, it's excluded. It's excluded. And that's the
way it is with everything. Did you ever create anything?
Have you found out yet that you don't control anything? That
you didn't save yourself in any way whatsoever? Where's boasting
then? It's excluded. Absolutely excluded. And Peter, he comes along, he
says virtually the same thing. He said, but you're a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people. God has distinguished you. that you should show forth the
praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light." That we should show forth the praises of Him
who called us out of our darkness into His marvelous light. What
does that mean? It means that we should ascribe
to Him All the glory. One old man summed it up like
this. He said, the sum is that man
cannot claim a single particle of righteousness to himself without
at the same time detracting from the glory of the divine righteousness. In other words, Here's righteousness
like a jar of marbles. There's a hundred marbles in
it. You reach in and you take you out, let's say, three of
those marbles. You're going to put them over
here to yourself. Is there still a hundred marbles in that jar?
No. And that's the way it is with
God's glory. We can't take any part of it without it detracting. We can't claim any righteousness
of our own, anything of our own, without it detracting and deducting
from the divine righteousness. You see, the righteousness of
God, is not adequately displayed and therefore cannot be glorified
unless he alone is seen to be righteous and freely giving it
to those who don't deserve it. And it's not that our sin glorifies
God, but our acknowledging of it does. Ezekiel wrote and he said, "'And
there shall you remember your ways and all your doings wherein
you have been defiled, and you shall loathe yourselves in your
own sight for all your evils that you have committed. And
ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have wrought with you
for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according
to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord.'" I've got a surprise for some
folks, even some folks that claim to believe the gospel of grace. Not only did I never receive
anything from God except by His grace to the hour that He called
me out of that darkness into the light, but I've not deserved
anything since then. I didn't deserve it before, I
believed the truth. I haven't deserved it since I
believed the truth. Is that the way it is with you? You see, there's something in
us that always wants to steal the glory of God. And the least self-glory is an
infringement upon the glory of the Lord. Listen to Jeremiah. Thus saith the Lord." This is
what God says. This is not my approach to it,
my philosophy about it, my theological position on it. He says, 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, You wouldn't have any of it but for the grace of
God. But let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord
who exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord." Did you hear that? For in these things I delight."
What was that? He says that he exercises toward
his people in saving them loving kindness, and I believe that's
just the Old Testament word we find so often, which means grace. Loving kindness, judgment or
justice, and righteousness. Don't glory in any of these other
things. Glory in this, that God in His infinite mind devised
a way to save you from all your sins, and at the same time maintain
His glory. He didn't defile His essential
glory, and if anything, He got even greater glory. Turn over to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Now Paul, in this first chapter,
is talking about preaching. He sets forth two things. Number
one, The preaching of the cross, or that which is preached. It pleased God to save men through
the preaching of the cross. And at the same time, it pleased
God to do it by this method. This method. But whether it be
the preacher, or whether it be the individual that believes
what's preached, listen to what it says. Verse 27, he says, "...but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught
things that are." He chooses preachers, and they're nothing. In other words, he's going to
take a crooked stick, and in his hands he'll take that crooked
stick and use it to mark a straight line. He's going to take this
method, this method of proclaiming this message to men and women
about himself, and that in itself is viewed as foolishness. And then he's going to take this
cross, this message that is so offensive naturally, so self-abasing,
so man-lowering. Why is he going to do that? Verse
29, that no flesh should glory in His presence. Nobody. is going to glory in
God's presence and get away with it. No flesh. No flesh. In the time of the Reformation,
there was these expressions that declared, by grace alone, in
Christ alone, By the Word alone. Scriptures alone. By faith alone. There was one more. Sola Dei Glorio. To the glory
of God alone. That's what salvation is. That's
what creation is. That's what providence is. It's
all to the glory of God alone. So no flesh. If you like those
nice universal phrases, there's your one. No flesh. Not the will
of the flesh. Not the works of flesh. Not associations
of the flesh. Religious exercises of the flesh. No flesh. No matter what. No matter what ethnic group you're
a part of. No matter what your rank is,
no matter what your station in life is, no matter what your
educational level is, no matter what your beauty is, no matter
what you accomplish, no matter what your gender is, no matter
what your religion is, the test will always be this, does it
glorify God? You know, that's really a very
simple test we can apply to about everything, especially that which
men teach, which people hold as doctrine. It can always be
weighed on this scale. Does it glorify God entirely
or man? This is what all of Arminianism
does. It glorifies man. It says God
has done this and He's done that. He's done almost everything,
but the final determination of whether you're lost or saved
is in your hands. It's up to you, they say. Well,
that's all wrong. Why? Because it doesn't glorify
God. It doesn't glorify Christ, who
is the author and finisher of faith. He says, No flesh can glory in
His presence. Let's just establish that no
flesh can glory in His presence. You say, well, everybody is hopeless.
No. The next word is, but. Verse
30, but of Him, of His will, of His purpose, of His grace,
of Him, Are you in Christ Jesus? I know this. That's the only
safe place to be. There's no glory in that place.
In His house. In His temple. Are you in Christ
Jesus? That means put in Christ by God. Viewed in Christ by God. Loved and chosen in Christ by
God. Predestinated to be conformed
to the image of Christ by God. Accepted in Christ. The Beloved by God. Of Him. If my salvation begins with me,
He doesn't get all the glory. True salvation always begins
with Him. We're all this way, but of Him are ye in Christ Jesus. Who? Of God. There it is again. Of Him. Of
God is made unto us. Wisdom. Writers and commentators try
to take this and they'll take the order of these words and
they'll move them around to try to get them to fit their theology
and whatsoever. No, the Spirit of God knew what
He was doing there. First of all, wisdom. That's
what Christ is called. He calls Himself that in Proverbs.
Our wisdom. Wisdom in every way. But not
only wisdom as far as essence, but wisdom in action. He's the
wisdom of God. He's the divine wisdom because
God, in His wisdom, set forth Christ as the one who could keep
God as a just God, and at the same time make Him our Savior. You remember when Daniel was
cast into the lion's den for his praying, his disobedience to
the civil authority of the day? That king, he loved Daniel. But it had a law of the Medes
and the Persians that once an order or an edict or whatever,
once it went out, it couldn't be changed. I called it one time, the dilemma
of Darius. How can he show mercy to this
one that he loves and at the same time demonstrate his justice? Well, justice had to be done.
He had to cast him. That was the law. He had to be
cast into the dental lines. But there wasn't one line that
nibbled him. And when they looked down there,
there was one who had bound the jaws of those lines. That's just
a picture of how God can be just and save a sinner. Christ had
to go through judgment. He had to satisfy justice. He
had to honor every claim against us. But in doing so, He showed
God's mercy and love to us, saved us, paid our debt and our stead,
He's made unto us wisdom. And not only that, righteousness.
He's all the righteousness there is. God counted us in His sight
as righteous in Christ Jesus. And sanctification. I picked up a book this morning.
I bought it, I think, at a yard sale or something like that.
I was just interested to see what the man had to say. It had
a pretty good title. And I read through it. It was good on one part, about
Christ's work being a finished work. Next chapter, sanctification,
a progressive work. Now, I realize that God's people,
by His grace, they are growing in grace and in the knowledge
of Christ. But they're not making progress
in holiness. Holiness is an absolute thing. You say, well, what about sanctification?
It says here, Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification. In Hebrews it says, "...all are
sanctified in Him." The only holiness that I will ever have
is that which I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And any honest
person, any honest sinner saved by the grace of God, living in
this body, they know They are not making any progress. Because
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. It can't ever be improved. And that which is born of the
Spirit, which is the revelation of Christ, it doesn't need to
be improved. You see, the one in whom we are
delivered from the penalty of our sin is the one in whom also
we are made fit altogether for the presence of God. In glory. That thief that Christ said today,
you'll be with me in paradise. He didn't exactly have time to
get better and better and better and better, did he? Well, how
did he get into heaven? Because he was sanctified in
Christ Jesus. Set apart unto God, by God, and
acceptable to God in the entirety of it, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now don't get me wrong. I pray
that I might grow in grace. I'd like to be a better person.
I'd like to clean up my act as they say some. But I'm afraid
that growing in grace is simply growing in the knowledge more
and more of our need for grace. And of how the only way we could
ever be saved is to be saved by grace. And growing in the
knowledge that all grace is in Christ Jesus. And redemption. Well, shouldn't
we have started redemption? That's what a lot of commentators
try to do. No, redemption here means the redemption of the body.
We're not going to be always like we are. We'll be made like
unto the Lord Jesus Christ. He's redeemed us lock, stock,
and barrel. Body too. We'll be made like
unto Him. We'll receive a new body. But
He'll still get all the glory. He'll still get all the glory.
Look at that 31st verse. That according as it is written.
It's always been the same. It's going to be the same. He
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. See, we are going
to glory in something or someone. But he that glorieth. This is
the distinction of the saints in light. They glory just like
everybody else. that they're going to glory in
the Lord. And glorying is not trying to make ourselves something
that we are not. Glorying is manifesting and declaring
God to be what He is. And that's everything. Paul wrote
to the Galatians, warning them of those who preach and who mix
works and grace. He said, for neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law. They don't really keep the
law. But desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should
glory. save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. 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." Paul, speaking of
this same Israel, the seed of Israel, all the seed of Israel,
all the true circumcision, circumcised of heart. For we are the circumcision
who worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. And when all the saved are gathered
up into His presence, It will be made manifest that all the
Father did, and all the Son did, and all the Spirit did in saving
this people. As Paul says in Ephesians 1,
it will be to the praise of the glory of His grace. And you see, if God saves us,
He's going to stain our pride. He's going to bring us down.
That's what He did with Nebuchadnezzar. That's what He did with Saul
of Tarsus and Zacchaeus and Naaman. All these He saves. They are
brought to submit. to the righteousness of God in
Christ and cease from going about to establish their own righteousness. He resists the proud, but He
gives grace to the humble. And when it's all said and done,
it will be obvious, clear, that the reason we were here, the
reason we exist, our purpose in life, is to glorify God. You have so many people in this
world, have so many things, and yet they can't understand why
they're not content and satisfied. But we never rest until we rest
in God. Acknowledging all things by Him
in grace as well as creation and providence, And if we never
do that, what good are we? We're fit to be cast into hell
just like all will be who glorify not God. Just a waste. So Paul says, whether therefore
you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, Do all for the glory
of God. The devil says, well, you'll
lose everything. No. You have nothing. But that's when you gain everything.
to believe the true gospel of God's free and sovereign grace,
to rest and trust in Christ alone, to plead only His righteousness,
and therefore in these things to ascribe to Him all the glory. That brings us to an unknown
theretofore joy and peace and contentment and rest that our
hope and our peace might be in the glory of God's Son. Father, we pray this day that
you might reach forth in power to our hearts and cause us to
be among this seed of Israel that you have justified. justified
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, you are alone,
all our glory. We glory in Him and we thank
you and pray for your people everywhere. We ask it in Christ's
name and for His glory. Amen.