And our lesson today is taken
from Ephesians. Jack read Ephesians 1.12. Talking about the design of salvation. That God's design of His salvation
is for His own praise and glory, isn't it? It's for God's own
praise. And in verse 12 there it says that we should be to
the praise of His glory. to the praise of God's glory. So we know that we ourselves
have nothing to do with salvation of and in ourselves. But salvation
is of the Lord and He is in control and He gives it to whomsoever
He will. And He lets people go according
to His own will. He has a permissive will and
He has a direct will. And I was thinking about everything
that takes place upon this earth. It's by God permitting it, even
the bad things of this world. And every good thing that's by
the grace of God that He directly not only appoints it, but He
directly works it, don't He? For His own glory. So we see
that nothing happens without God. Either God permitting it
or God directing it. God's in control. God's in control. He's over all. He's above all. And when I think about the The
God who is in control, I think about my feeble self, I can't
comprehend God. I can't. There's nothing we know works
without God. Him either allowing it or directing
it. And He does it for His own glory. He does it for His own glory.
God is glorified in His grace, ain't He? When He distributes
His grace, when He reveals to a sinner who He is and causes
him to fall prostrate and to see Christ and gives him a heart
to receive Christ and believe on Him. God is glorified in that,
ain't He? We see that we are nothing and
nobody and we deserve the eternal wrath of God Almighty. We do!
If we didn't, Christ would not have had to die. We are sinful,
wretched, miserable, disgusting creatures. We deserve the wrath
of God. But God was so rich in mercy
to call us by His grace. He set us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. He by Christ redeemed us. And
He, by and through Christ, works in us to give us Christ the hope
of glory, to give us a heart. As Roland said, He does all things
in and through and by Christ. But He did this all in and through
and by Christ to a people which He purposed to have in Christ.
It's when Christ stood as the Lamb slain, didn't He? And He
works it in the hearts of His people. And He just lets others
go. And we say, why did God work
this in my heart? It's for reasons not only to
God. Why didn't He choose someone else and work grace in him and
let me go? I don't know. But I do know this,
that God is glorified in everything that He is and does. God is going
to receive His glory. Even the evil men and women who
are by nature Sinners, flat out sinners who commit terrible crimes
are those evil people who profess to know Christ and self-righteous
within themselves and doing good things and being good people.
And before God they say, you know, and God is going to receive
them. They try their best and they
do all the good they can and God is not going to let them
go. God does not work His. in people. This is by nature that people
have this. This is what we did before we
come to know Christ. Didn't we? We tried to straighten
our lives out and to do what we could. And even in the things
we've done, we could see our shortcomings and we'd try harder
and harder and harder and say, well, God will receive us. We've just got to keep trying,
keep trying and pounding and getting harder and harder at
it. And doing all that we can Then the next thing that comes
up in their minds, man, I could have done this and I could have
done that. I didn't do all I could, you know. Well, we did. We'd done all we could. Or we
could have done something. But this is not God's will and
God's purpose in His grace toward His people. God will bring His
people down to despair of themselves. And they'll cry out for mercy. which only belongs to God. Lord,
have mercy on me, the sinner. If you will, you can save me. I know that. Work grace in my
heart. May I know who I am. May I see
Christ as my Lord and my Savior. May my heart bow to Him. Don't
let me just know it in my mind, but place it in my heart. Give
me a heart to receive it and to bow to Him in honor and praise
and glory and to magnify Him who is all and in all of His
people. So this salvation which is revealed
in the Holy Scripture honors God and God alone. Salvation
is designed for His praise. You see that? It honors God and
God alone. When we see ourselves for what
we really are, we have nothing before God. The way God has honored
it through and in by His people is by His Spirit. He gave them
grace in Christ and brought them to Christ and to see Christ and
to glorify Him through Christ. They don't look back at themselves,
do they? They look at Christ and they honor God through Christ,
don't they? Like Roland said, this is the
only way that we can honor God is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So that salvation is designed for the praise of God through
Christ and in Christ and by Christ. So this salvation alone is becoming
of the character of God. Salvation is not man being good
and doing good things for God. God don't need us to do good
things for Him. We can't do good things for Him.
God works it Himself for His own glory and by His own power,
and man has nothing to do with it. We're just recipients. You
see that? If He left us to ourselves, we'd
still be in religion. And when you hear this false
preaching, this false teaching, this false religion, man, you
can detect it from the time it starts. There's no God. There's no Christ. There's no
power, no work. There's nothing but men being
good people and doing good things. You want to be saved? Come up here and do this. Do
this. God will receive you if you'll
do this. That's all you've got to do is do what you can for
the God. He'll save you. That's not God. See that? That's not God. No,
God does according to His will. In the armies of the heavens
and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay
His hand or say unto Him, what are you doing? See that? He does
according to His will. If salvation doesn't honor God,
it's not the salvation of God. You see what I'm saying? Hearts
bow to God and rest in Christ. That's where hearts bow. Hearts
don't bow to the things of men and people, does it? In their
goodness, in their own glory. Don't bow to this. A true heart,
by the grace of God, knows who He is. He's deserving of eternal
wrath. That's what it is. He's a sinful,
wretched, miserable creature. And the child of God is so wretched
by His nature that He cannot, He cannot even in the Word that
I'm preaching, I can't even preach it in a way that God can receive
it of and in itself. I have to have a mediator between
me and God before God can even receive my worship, you see.
That's who man is by nature. Wretched, miserable creatures. And we are miserable in ourselves
even after we come to know God because we see our wretched selves
in conjunction and warring against the Holy Spirit. You say, I should
have done this or I should have done that. This was right and
that was wrong. I have done wrong. Why did you? Because of who you are by nature.
And you wouldn't see that except by the grace of God. So we say,
let all praise and glory and honor go to God who works grace,
who purposed it, who works it, who applies it, and who administers
it in us to His own glory and who receives it. God is honored
in all things, ain't He? God is. Not unto us. Gee, this miserable, wrecked,
rotten, corruptible person. Not to me, but unto Your Name. Give glory. Give glory unto Thy
Name. Why? Because of Your mercy towards
this sinful, wretched, hell-deserving creature. Give glory to Your
Name. See what I'm saying? Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Your name give glory. Give
it through us, yes, but by Your grace give glory to Your name
through these rotten creatures. And by Your power and Your Spirit
in them. Honor Your own name. Honor Your
own truth, say. People not honoring God's truth,
you know, the self-righteous religious people. They are honoring
themselves and exalting men. Exalting ruin and corruption. Sin. They are exalting sin. Exactly
what they are doing. These so-called preachers on
TV and so on and the people you hear, they are exalting sin. You don't understand what I am
saying, do you? They are deviating sin. They are sin and they are
exalting what they are in sin. Exalting sin before a thrice
holy God. God's not receiving it, no. But
they're exalting it and they're under the wrath of God if God
don't work in them to show Himself to them and they fall prostrate.
Do you see what I'm saying? The ultimate purpose of God in
all things is to give honor and glory to His own great name. That's the ultimate purpose and
glory of God. And He's going to give glory.
He's going to receive glory to His own great name. Even those
who die, even those who die, don't know Christ, do die in
sin. Through them, He's going to receive
glory. They're going to see who they
are by nature. When it's too late, they're going
to see who they are. They're going to see what they've
done. When they stand before God, when
they stand before God, they'll see who they are and what they've
done. And it says, every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Those who don't honor Christ
in this life by the grace and power of God, they will honor
Him, Roland. They will. It will be too late. They will not have it in their
heart like we do. No! But they will come to know
about it and to see that He is God. He is God. And God is going to do what He
will, with whom He will and when He will. God is in control. Nothing happens without God.
When we see all this evil, it bothers us, but we should think,
God's allowing that for some reason. It's for His glory. I
know that sin, that evil we see, is for God's own glory. I can't
understand that, can you? But that's true. God. He calls His sheep out for His
glory. And He allows that evil for His own glory. He does. It's all for His glory. In Ephesians
1-12 it says that we should be, we should be to the praise of
His glory, you see, who first trusted in Christ. We should
be to the praise of His glory. We should be. We are to the praise
of His glory to an extent, but we should strive harder and harder
and harder and harder by His grace to honor and to magnify
Him more and more, right? More and more we should be to
the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Our sins have
been put away, ain't it? Christ has put away our sin.
God trusted in Him and His Son. And as Rowland fairly well taught
in Christ, all sin has been put away. God is satisfied in Christ. But it's all in and through and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And God is going to be honored
by His people in their hearts by His grace, ain't He? His people
magnify Him. He saved them for His name's
sake. They ain't going to look to themselves.
Not whom God saves, ain't they? They ain't going to brag on themselves.
Not whom God saves, ain't they? They are going to brag on God.
They are going to brag on His Son, ain't they? His name is
going to be exalted in their hearts, right? by God's grace. He saved them for His namesake.
The reason He saves His people is for His own glory. You see
that? For His own namesake. That He
might make His mighty power to be known. You see that? God has
made His power to be known in the hearts that He gives to His
people. And He makes His mighty pair to be known unto others
through His people, Donny, when He works with them by His grace. So that's the end of all praise
and all glory and all honor. It's to His great name. It's
God who saved us and called us with a holy calling. It's not
what we've done for God. It's what God does with us and
in us. according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began.
This is the end of predestination and election and adoption and
redemption and column. What's the end to it? All praise
to God. That's the end of all of it,
you see. Why did God determine to save
a people? For His own glory. It's for their benefit, yes,
but it's for God's glory. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. Why? To the praise of the glory of
His grace. Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. So
it's His praise. You see that? He done it for
His own praise. He made us accepted in the Beloved
for His own praise and glory. His election, the elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification
of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ? Obedience and sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ? I wasn't obedient unto God. I
was serving myself. I was religious, yes. But He
brought me to bow to Christ by His grace. This old undeserving
creature. How did He do that? He showed
me who Christ was. He showed me who I was. And He
showed me who Christ was as my substitute. And what happened
when He gave His life on the cross of Calvary for me? He shed
His blood for me. You see that? All of God's sheep, He shed His
blood for each and every one of them. And it's personal in
that regard, ain't it? I know He shed it for you, but
He shed it for me. And He shed His blood for me,
this worm. Through the adoption which is
in Christ, having predestinated us unto the adoption, adopted
into the family of God through the person of His Son, yes! He
couldn't be received any other way. We are enemies to God in
our minds and by wicked works. But through Christ, we are sons
of God in Christ. Can you understand that? I can't.
I know it, don't you? Sons of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ redeemed us unworthy creatures,
didn't He? He redeemed us from the curse
of the law. The wrath of God was against
us under the curse of the law. But He took God's wrath. He suffered
the just penalty of God. I can't imagine that. I try to. How can He suffer six hours on
the cross? What is equivalent to my suffering
eternity? Because of who He is. That's
it. He suffered it. He paid it. I believe that with
all my heart. He paid my sin debt. I have no sin against me.
No condemnation in Christ. I'm justified freely. I'm not
justified because I'm standing up here and preaching to you.
No! I'm justified freely by His grace through the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the only way I can be justified freely. But God
in His grace, giving me freely His grace and Christ freely taking
my place before God and giving His life for me and suffering
the wrath and condemnation of God against me. I'm justified. What does that
mean to be justified? That means just as if you had
never committed one sin. If I have one sin against me,
I have them all. But if I just had one sin against
me, then God could not be satisfied. But it's impossible to have one
sin. But God could not be satisfied if it was only one sin. You know
that? So when Christ took my place, He died for me. He suffered
the wrath and penalty of God against me. He put away every
sin, once and for all, by His own sacrifice, didn't He? He
put them all away. And I didn't choose God. In a sense you do, but because
He chose you, He didn't choose me. I wouldn't have chose Him.
I've still been going in the way of religion and self-righteousness
and my own goodness, which is evil. But He chose me to salvation. He chose me through Christ. He chose to save me for a reason
not only to Himself. This rotten, wretched, miserable
tramp. He chose to save me. And it is in His choosing, you
see. And in His work, in His choosing,
He is going to receive the glory part, you see. God is going to
receive the glory. Man is going to receive nothing
in the way of honor to God and glory to God apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ. God is going to receive all glory.
It was God who did it all. It was Christ that paid it all.
It was God that applied it. It's God that keeps it. It's
God that shall conform it to the image of His Son. It's God.
We are recipients of the grace of God, which God give us for
His own, for a reason not only to Himself, for His own glory.
So salvation should ever glory in Him, shouldn't it? That's
where salvation glories, in Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
does glory in man. Salvation sees man for who he
is and sees his undeservables. That's
what salvation sees. And salvation looks to and glories
in Christ. God receives His glory in His
Son. Salvation is glorified in and
through Him by Christ. Jeremiah 16 says, You have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, didn't
He? I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go forth
and bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. That whatsoever you
shall ask the Father, He may give it to you. For you see,
your calling, brethren, your calling. Who called you? God. He called you in particular,
didn't He? And you see that. He called you.
I wasn't going towards God. I couldn't go towards God. I
had done everything contrary to God. But God was rich in mercy. God called me. You see, your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many nobles are called. But God has called you. Nobody. He chose the foolish things of
this world to confound the wise. And we are all foolish by nature.
Some of us more ignorant than others. But we're all foolish
by nature. And God chose the weak things
of the world to confound the mighty. And God's people are
the weakest, ain't they, in themselves? That's right. They see themselves
as weak and miserable, don't they? To confound the mighty. And the best things of the world
which are despised. and things which are despised
have God chosen, things which are not to bring to naught the
things that are. And when God chooses His people and works
grace in His heart, He sees Himself in all these things. I am the
weakest. I am the basest. I am the most ignorant. I am
nothing and nobody. I deserve the wrath of God. Why
did He choose people like that and show them who they were?
That no flesh should glory in His presence. No flesh is going
to glory before God. It knows God. And no flesh will
glory in the end either. But not in this world flesh won't
glory in themselves if they know God.