Great time in Florida. The weather
was, it never hit 90 degrees. And so it was just, it was better.
And it was actually hotter here than it was there. And I was
thinking, I'm glad you're all suffering through this. I'm having
a good time. Would you turn with me to John
chapter seven. John chapter 7. I want to begin
reading in verse 14. Now about the midst of the feast, the Jews went up into the temple.
Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled. saying, how knoweth this man
letters having never learned? He never went to school. How
does he even know how to read? Jesus answered them and said,
my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man
will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be
of God or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true. and no unrighteousness is in
him. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would be pleased to manifest your glory to us for
Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen. I'm going to attempt, and let
me underline the attempt, to talk about the glory of God alone. What a subject, the glory of
God alone. And I hope that this is not simply
a theological concept to me, but I hope it's what makes my
heart beat. I hope it's what's more important
to me than anything else. God's glory alone. Now, the reason behind the scriptures
alone, the reason behind Christ alone, the reason behind grace
alone, the reason behind faith alone, is the glory of God alone. The glory of God alone. Not the glory of God and, the glory of God alone. That must be the reason. Now we have to begin with the
being of God. How glorious is his being? Moses said in Exodus chapter
15 verse 11, who is like unto thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful
in praises, doing wonders. God is altogether glorious. And the reason idolatry, and
that's not just talking about material images, any false concept
of God. The reason idolatry is so evil
is because it's an attack at the glory of God and trying to
bring him down into terms that sinful, stupid men can understand. I like what Luther said to Erasmus,
your God is too human. And any human God, human-like
God, is not the God of the Bible. He said, there is none like unto
me. And to attempt to compare him
on any level is to deny him. Now, think about his person. Holy. Holy, holy. And I love this. This is, I guess
this may be in my understanding, not that we can understand this,
but this may be in my understanding the best definition of holiness.
Other, other, other. You take any thought you have,
he's other. You take the highest concept
you can think of. He is other. Other, other, other. The whole earth is filled with
his otherness. Now think of his attributes.
He's absolutely sovereign. I don't know if I want to call
it the misfortune, because there's no such thing. God's in control
of everything. But at any rate, I had the misfortune
of being by a preacher on the plane yesterday when we came
home. And he said, oh, I believe in the
absolute sovereignty of God, and God and his sovereignty has
made it to where man has a free will. And I said, that's about
the most ridiculous, I've heard that before, but that's a denial
of the, who God is. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He is omnipotent. He has no limitations
whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he. He has no limitations. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? He is all wise. He's never gained
information. He's never been surprised. He's
never learned anything. He knows all. He knows all. He's omniscient. He is omnipresent. He's not bound by time the way
we are. We had yesterday, we've got right
now, and we're thinking about tomorrow. Not God. He's not bound
by time. He's not bound by space. We're
in this room. He is too, but he's everywhere
else. He's not bound by space. He's eternal. He never had a
beginning. He'll never end. He's independent. He said, if
I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. He has no needs. You and I are utterly dependent
beings. He has no, we're talking about
his glorious character. He's immutable. He never changes. Think how much
have you changed in the last 24 hours. The way you thought,
the way you felt. He never changes. He is absolutely just, absolutely
righteous, shall not the judge of the earth do right. He is
long-suffering. He's gracious. I love this scripture,
God is love. When Moses said, show me your
glory. Now, do you remember that in
Exodus chapter 33? He'd already seen the giving of the law. He'd already
seen manna come down from heaven. He'd seen the, he'd smitten the
rock, seen the water came out. He saw the 10 plagues. He saw,
but yet he says to God, show me your glory. I haven't seen
it yet. Show me your glory. I've seen glorious things. Show
me your glory. And God answered, I'll make all
my goodness pass. before thee." Now listen to me,
God is good and that's His glory. He's good all the time and everything
He does is good and we believe that and we don't question what
He does because He did it. It's good. I don't need to understand
God's reasons. God's good. I despise it when
men start, how could a good God let this happen? How could a
good God let that happen? My thought is how could a good
God not send me and you to hell? God is good. And you know the cross is the
greatest manifestation of his goodness? He gave his son. God's good. Then he said to Moses, and this
is all together, I'll proclaim my name before you. God's goodness,
the proclamation of his name, his name is his character, his
attributes, the person behind the name, the cross of Jesus
Christ is the declaration of the name of God. What a manifestation
of the goodness of God, every attribute of God. Every attribute
of God that he's been pleased to make known is manifest in
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why Paul said, I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The cross, oh, the declaration of the goodness of God, the name
of God. And then he said, in that same
statement, he said, I'll make all my goodness pass before you,
I'll proclaim my name before you, and I'll be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. and I'll show mercy to whom I
will show mercy. All that is seen, God's showing
mercy, God's showing grace, his sovereign mercy, his sovereign
grace in the cross of Christ, that is a declaration of the
goodness of God. God is good. Every attribute
is good. Now don't, you know his wrath
is a good wrath. You and I don't really know how
to enter into that right now, because we're still in this flesh. But when God sends someone to
hell, it's his goodness that does it, to
get this person out of the universe. If God sends me to hell, yes,
it's his justice, yes, it's his wrath, but it's his goodness
to rid the universe of somebody like me, so I won't be here.
That's scary to say that, but it's so. God is good, all of
his attributes are good. Now, should not this altogether
glorious being, God Almighty, God, one God in three distinct
persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit,
these three are one, should not all glory go to him? Should it not? of him and through
him and to him are all things to whom be glory both now and
forever. He said in Isaiah, I am the Lord. That's my name and my glory. I'll not give to another nor
my praise to graven images, false concepts of God. Now if we refuse to give God
all the glory, we will meet Herod's end. You remember in Acts chapter
12 when he was giving an oration and the people, in order to butter
him up, said, these are the words of a God and not of a man. And
what does the scripture say with regard to that? It's a God and not a man and
immediately the angel of the Lord smote him because he gave
not God the glory and was eaten of worms and died. Now God's eternal motive in everything
he does is his own glory. That's his reason. I have to go back to Revelation
13 8. Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
God determined before time began to manifest his glory in giving
his son to die for sinners like me and you. Somebody says, I don't see what
God saw in me. Well, nothing. This is for the
glory of his son. And we're the recipients of the
benefits of this grace, but God's glory is his motive in everything.
His glory, he created the universe for his own glory. The fall of
Adam was for the glory of God. Somebody says, how can you say
that? Because everything's for the glory of God. That's God's
purpose. If you leave out anything, you've
left out everything. God's purpose is his own glory. Now, the reason Christ came into
this world to die is for the glory of his father. That's his reason. The glory
of God alone. Now, every attribute God has
been pleased to make known is for his glory. That's what the
gospel is all about. It's about the glory of God.
And I love remembering this because it's not about me. And my life
is about me. Somebody says you're narcissistic.
Yeah, I agree. I agree. You're you're self-centered.
Yeah. So are you. So are you. Every
natural man is. But remember, this is not about
you. This is about the glory of God.
Now, in the creation, who gets the glory for this? Why, to think
anyone but God is absurd because there was no creatures to give
glory to. He dwelt by himself. He created
the universe, and he did so for his glory alone. Anything else is absurd. Well,
who gets the glory and salvation? Same way. God gets all the glory
in salvation. Whatever aspect of salvation
you're talking about, when we talk about election, who gets
the glory in election? God does. He chose me. And what is so, don't ever think
of election apart from the cross. He knew when he chose me, he
knew what it would cost him to save me. The death of his son. Christ knew when he agreed to
be my surety what it was gonna cost him. You can't divorce the
cross from any truth. The cross is the whole counsel
of God. And who gets the glory and justification? Do I have
anything to do with making myself just before God? No, that's God's
work. He gets all the glory. Who gets the glory in redemption?
God gets all the glory. He gave His Son. Christ by Himself
purged our sins. Who gets the glory in preservation? He said, I give unto my sheep
eternal life. Who gets the glory in regeneration?
Lazarus, come forth. Let's pat Lazarus on the back. He came forth. At least he came
forth. Well, why did he come forth? God willed it. It was the purpose, life-giving
call of God. In every aspect of salvation,
God gets the glory. Every aspect, let me repeat that.
Every aspect of salvation, God gets the glory. In that passage
of scripture we just read out in John chapter seven, if any
man will do his will, he'll know of the doctrine, whether it be
of God. Now, if you don't know the doctrine,
it's because of your unwillingness to bow to his will and see his
glory as everything. Now that's so, that's so. And he that seeketh his own glory,
we know God's not in that. If I'm seeking to give man any
glory, God's not in that. He is only in that which gives
all glory to Him. Now, I think about this in glory. Most religious people that claim
to be Christians really believe that there will be different
places in heaven. The more obedient, the more faithful, the more zealous,
they're going to have a higher place. They're going to be closer
to the throne than the people who less obedient and didn't
do as much as the other people did. And you know, there's something
in our flesh even now that finds an agreement with that. That shows how wicked and warped
and twisted the flesh is. But you know, if that were the
case, glory be to this one. Look how obedient he was. No
glory to this one. He just got here by the skin
of his teeth. I mean, just go on and just that whole line of
thinking. the beam of judgment. After there'll
be another judgment where rewards will be handed out according
to how faithful and how obedient and how good you... That is blasphemy. That is evil. That is an attempt
of robbing God of His glory. Now, one of the things I love,
and you love this too, God didn't let anybody rob Him of His glory.
It ain't gonna happen. God is God. And I know this,
and I know every other believer knows this, when I'm in heaven,
I will be the biggest example of how all glory goes to God. And I'm the biggest example of
salvation by grace there. Every believer feels that way
about themselves. And we're to judge everything
we hear by this, who gets the glory. If any glory goes to man
in any way, it's false. False doctrine, devilish doctrine,
hellish doctrine. the doctrine from the devil. If God gets all the glory, if
it glorifies God, now there are some ways of saying God gets
all the glory and preaching something that doesn't really glorify God.
That's not true. But in true doctrine, the truth
of God, God gets all the glory. Now, here's something you're
probably, I've used this many times, but it's helpful to me. Let's take Judas and Peter. Judas was a child of perdition.
The Lord said he was. That's one of the things I asked
this guy on the plane yesterday. I used this, and so it's fresh
on my mind. It's in my notes, but it's still
fresh on my mind. I said, was Judas saved? And
he said, well, I'm not sure. And I said, well, he wasn't. the scripture, you know, the
child of perdition, you know, he was foretold in the Old Testament
and in Psalm 41 and Psalm 55 and Psalm 69 and his end, Judas
was not saved. Was Peter saved? Yes. Thou art Peter upon this rock
will I build my church. Now, when he says upon this rock,
he's not talking about Peter. He's talking about this confession
of me. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Thou art
Peter. And upon this rock, this confession
of me, I'll build my church. Now here we have Judas and Peter. Now, if God loved Judas and Peter, and Peter saved, and Judas is
not, Who gets the glory in that salvation, ultimately? If God
loved them equally, Peter gets the glory. There's something
he did that enabled God to save him. If God willed the salvation
of them equally, if he willed the salvation of Judas, God's
long-suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish.
This guy quoted all those scriptures, 1 Timothy 2. There's a lot of scriptures that
if you don't know what they mean, you can say that. But if God
willed the salvation of Judas and Peter equally, who gets the
glory and salvation? Peter does. It's ultimately because
of him. If Jesus Christ died for the
sins of Judas and Peter. He paid for Judas' sins, he paid
for Peter's sins. And Peter's saved and Judas is
not. Who gets the glory? Peter does. Now, I want to close with this
thought. He deserves all the glory because
he did it all. Amen. You believe that. But I have another reason for
wanting God to have all the glory. Yes, I want him to have the glory
because he deserves it all. And I don't know if I would call
this a selfish reason, but I guess I will. I want him to get all
the glory, because if he doesn't, that means there's some work
I need to do. And I can't bear that. If he doesn't get all the
glory and salvation, there's some responsibility of me to
do something in order to save myself, in some respect. I don't
care if it's free will at the beginning, I don't care if it's
my, you know, even the idea of we become more holy through our
efforts and through our effort at sanctification and our Bible
reading and our self-denial and our prayer, we become more holy
and less sinful. Well, okay, who gets the glory
in that? Man gets the glory. Through my
discipline, through my efforts, through my putting down the flesh
and my repressing the flesh, I get more glory than somebody
that said, well, you're saying sin's okay. I'm not. Not on any count
is sin ever okay. But I know that if I make myself
more glory, or more holy, I'm the one who gets the glory for
it. My diligence, my efforts, and that's contrary to God getting
all the glory. Or if in heaven I'm given a higher
reward because of my obedience, who gets the glory in that? Me! That's all you can say about
it. Now if God doesn't get all the glory in everything, that
means there's something I need to do. in order for me to have
something, something I need to achieve, something I need to,
and there is no gospel in that for me. You know, here's another thing
that came out. I guess it was good that I talked to the guy yesterday.
I said, what are you going to say to God when he says, why
should I let you into heaven? And he said, because I believe. I said, that's not a very good
answer. Matter of fact, that answer won't
do it all. The only reason I'll be in heaven
is because Jesus Christ died for me and put my sin away and
gave me his righteousness. Now, somebody says, I'll be in
heaven because I, listen, if I is the first word, because
I, it ain't no good. It doesn't work. I'll be in heaven
for this one reason, because God gets all the glory in my
salvation. Christ is all in my salvation.
And I don't want it to be any other way. And I love him having
the glory in my salvation. And I want to do, like Paul,
by his grace, whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And whatever it is I'm doing,
I don't care if it's digging a ditch. You know, I think that's
one of the reasons why a believer has a good work ethic, because
it's for the glory of God. Whatever I'm doing, I want to
do it for the glory of God. If I'm washing dishes, I want
to wash dishes for the glory. I don't wash dishes much. I mean,
Lincoln testified that. I should, but I don't. But whatever it is I'm doing,
when I'm preparing, May the Lord give us the grace truly to live
for his glory. The glory of God alone. So that's
the five solas, scriptures alone, Christ alone, grace alone, faith
alone, the glory of God alone.