Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nivert. In Acts chapter 12, beginning
in verse 21, we read, And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal
apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout,
saying, It's the voice of a God, and not of a man. And immediately
the angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory. And he was eaten of worms and
gave up the ghost." Now this royal apparel that he was wearing
is actually described by the Jewish historian Josephus. He
gives the events of what we just read about. And the Bible doesn't
need extra biblical literature to prove it's true, but this
event is spoken of by Josephus and he talks about his shining
garments made of silver and it shined so much and sparkled that
the people shouted when they heard him speak, this is not
the voice of a man, this is the voice of a God. And he described
him dying and being filled with worms. That is a historical event
that, of course, it took place. But what about this man, Herod? I've entitled this message, He
Gave Not God the Glory. And I'm going to attempt to preach
upon the subject, the glory of God. and talking about a subject
that I feel utterly unable to deal with, as it ought to be
dealt with, but I'm going to try anyway. The name of this
message is, He Gave Not God the Glory. Now, there are three Herods
mentioned in the New Testament. There was Herod Agrippa, the
grandson of Herod the Great. This is the one we're talking
about right now. He's the grandson of Herod the Great. who was the
one who ordered the death of every child under two years old
when he heard about the Lord Jesus being born King of the
Jews. And he wanted to wipe everybody
out to make sure that didn't take place. And then there is
the Herod that became buddies with Pilate during the crucifixion
of Christ. And this is the same Herod that
had John the Baptist beheaded. He was the uncle of this Herod
we're reading of now. Now we read in chapter 12 verse
1, Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his
hand to vex certain of the church. He was an enemy of the church.
And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. That
means he beheaded him. And because he saw it pleased
the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were
the days of unleavened bread. He wanted to have Peter executed. He thought this would please
the Jews more, and it would add to his political power in that
region. And when he had apprehended him,
he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers
to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth. Now,
we know of Peter's miraculous deliverance from the angel in
the next few verses, and it's given to picture how God saves
a sinner. But at any rate, when Herod was
going to bring him out, verse 18, now as soon as it was day,
there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become
of Peter? How did he get out of prison?
How did he escape? Now we know it's because the
angel of the Lord delivered him, but the The soldiers didn't know
that. They were thinking he's vanished
into thin air. How did he get out of here? Verse
19, and when Herod had sought for him and found him not, he
examined the keepers and commanded that they should be put to death.
And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and there abode. All
these soldiers that were given the responsibility of keeping
him, he had executed because somehow Peter got away. Verse
20, and Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon.
But they came with one accord to him, having made Blastus the
king's chamberlain their friend, they desired peace." because
their country was nourished by the king's country. They got
with one of Herod's buddies in order to have that man, Blastus,
influence Herod to be on their side. It was more political maneuvering. You know, there's so much political
maneuvering all the time. I'm so glad God's in control
of everything. I mean, men have this end and
other men have this end, but God is in control of everything. That's why I'm not worried about
what any politician does. God rules and God reigns. And
God was reigning at this time over Herod. And evidently, Herod
was influenced by this because we read in verse 21, upon a set
day, Herod, arrayed in royal peril, sat upon his throne and
made an oration to them. He was going to let them know
that he's no longer at odds with them. And the people gave a shout
saying, it's the voice of a God and not a man. Now, I don't believe
for a second they believe that. This is what is called flattery. They knew that Herod would be
affected by this flattery, so they give him all they can. They even call him a god. And
evidently, he bit the hook. Verse 23, he should have said,
no, I'm not a god. I'm a man. I'm a sinful man. I'm certainly not the true and
living God. But he didn't do that. And immediately, he didn't
correct the people, and immediately the angel of the Lord smote him
because he gave not God the glory. And he was eaten of worms, I
suppose some kind of tapeworms. Some have said they were even
coming at his orifices at this time. He was eaten of worms. He went from thinking he was
a god, the most ridiculous, presumptuous self-flattery, and he turns into
a meal for worms. Why? Scripture tells us because
he gave not God the glory. He was a glory thief. Now, I want, as I said, to try
to speak on this subject, the glory of God. I love the way Stephen begins
the message in Acts chapter 7 that would end up costing him his
life. They stoned him after he preached
this message. But it began the message with
these words, the God of glory. The God of glory. Now the glory of God. Glory,
whatever it is, is essential to the being of God. It's not
essential for me to have glory. I might try to seek it through
my own sinful pride, but it's certainly not essential that
I have glory or that you have glory. We're sinners. But it
is essential that God have glory because of who He is. He's the
God of glory, and the best definition I could give for the glory of
God is Jesus Christ, His person and His work. He is the glory
of God. Now, I heard someone say once,
His glory is the sparkling of His deity. Well, that sounds
good. Do I know what that means? No,
I don't, but it sounds good. His glory is the sparkling of
who He is. God's glory is the infinite beauty
of the manifold perfections of His attributes and of His character. His glory and His holiness cannot
be separated. Now I want to talk for the next
couple of minutes, try to talk about God's glory and God's holiness. What is holiness? What is the
holiness of God? It's His otherness. That's a good way to describe
His holiness, His altogether otherness, His separateness. When the seraphims were flying
around His throne, they were crying, holy, holy, holy. It's the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of His glory. Now that has a way of showing
us that there's no way to separate God's holiness, His otherness,
means He's not like me and you in any way. There's nothing we
can compare Him to. His otherness and His glory.
There's another passage of scripture that I think is helpful in demonstrating
this in Leviticus chapter 10. Now, in verse one, in Nadab and
Abihu, the sons of Aaron, they were the priests in the Old Testament.
They took either of them, his censer, and put fire therein,
and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the
Lord. which he commanded them not.
Now, the only fire that could be used was the fire that came
off the altar of sacrifice. Any other kind of fire would
be unaccepted by God because the only way he can be approached
is through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. But they bypassed
this. They thought, well, any old fire
will do as long as our hearts are right and we have the right
motive, this will be okay. And there went out, verse two,
there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they
died. before the Lord. You see, their
presumption was they thought they could approach the living
God apart from Christ and His precious blood. They were bypassing
Christ. And fire came out from the Lord
and devoured them. Now understand this. God will
not speak to nor be spoken to apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only way to the Father. He said, I am the way. Not a
way, but the way. The only way. The truth, the
life, no man comes as a father, but by me. When they dabbed him
by you, abandon that. They thought, this fire will
do, and fire came out and devoured them. And listen to Moses' response. Then Moses said unto Aaron, this
is that the Lord spake, saying, I'll be sanctified in them that
come nigh me. I'll be regarded as holy, is
what that means. I will be regarded as holy in
them that come nigh me, and before all the people, I'll be glorified.
And Nadab and Abihu failed to glorify God. They failed to regard
him as holy. And you know what the scripture
says about Aaron at this time? And Aaron held his peace. He
knew that what God did was right and what his boys did was completely
wrong. Now the glory of God is a meaningless
concept unless we have faith. I mean, you can hear glory, glory,
glory. You can hear preachers say glory.
How many times have I heard preachers say glory to God, and it almost
sounded like irreverence. It didn't almost sound like irreverence.
It was irreverence. Kind of like they're running
out of something to say, so they'll say glory to God or praise or whatever
it is. But that's not the way to approach
the glory of God. First of all, though, there is
no understanding of the glory of God without faith. The Lord
said to Martha, If you would believe, you would see the glory
of God. There's no seeing of God's glory
unless you're first given faith to believe. If you would believe,
you would see the glory of God. Now God's glory is what is most
important to Him. It's the reason He does everything
that He does is for His glory. That's why God does what He does. He does what He does for His
glory. And it's right that it should
be that way. Now, if I act for my own glory,
it's wrong. It's sinful. It's evil. If I'm
trying to promote myself, it's wrong. It's evil. It's sinful. If any man is trying to promote
his own glory, it's wrong. It's sinful. It's evil. But it's
only right for God to do what he does for his own glory. Any less motive would be beneath
the dignity and the excellency of his person. He said in Isaiah
chapter 42 verse eight, my glory I will not share with another. Why did God create the universe?
For his own glory. Why does God sovereignly control
all events? For his own glory. Why did God
save man? For his own glory. I love in
Ephesians chapter 1 when the work of the three persons of
the Godhead is outlined in verses 3 through 14. And after each
person of the Godhead's role is seen in salvation, the apostle
ends up with, he did this for his glory, for the praise of
his glory. to the praise of the glory of
His grace. God does what He does for His
own glory, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the glory
of God. I like saying that. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, is the
glory of God. Hebrews 1.3, he's called the
brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person. We read in 2 Corinthians 4.6,
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness,
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God. in the face of Jesus Christ. In John 1.14, we read, The Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. At His birth, the angels cried
out, Glory to God in the highest. And on earth, peace, good will
toward men. Now this concept of the glory
of God, listen to this scripture. All have sinned. Romans 3, 23,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The glory of God is such that
anything short of it is nothing but sin. All have sinned. and come short of the glory of
God. Listen to these words of the
Lord in John chapter 17. He said, Father, I will that
they whom you have given me be with me where I am that they
may behold my glory. To a believer, that is heaven,
to behold his glory. And the only people who can understand
that is somebody who has faith in Christ. And they understand
that heaven will be beholding his glory. Herod failed to give
God the glory. Now, how do we give God glory? Well, let me say, first of all,
we do not give God glory in the sense that we don't add to his
own essential glory. There's nothing we can do to
make Him more glorious than He already is. But we give God glory
when we acknowledge His glory. We acknowledge that all glory
goes to Him. And if we don't give Him all
glory, we give Him no glory at all. Now let me repeat that. If we don't give Him all the
glory, all the credit, I mean 100% in every respect, if we
don't give Him all the glory, We don't give Him any glory at
all. There's no glory that goes to
us. Now, if you're saved, you're saved because God chose you to
be saved before the foundation of the world. It's called election. God chose me to be saved. before the foundation of the
world. Now, did God choose me because
He foresaw I would be a good person, or He foresaw I would
be a preacher, or because He foresaw somehow I would help
out in His kingdom? A thousand times no. I'm nothing
but a sinner saved by His grace. He chose me to the praise of
the glory of His grace. You see, I'm a trophy of His
grace. When I'm brought into glory,
God will say, behold what I've done. Not what He did to get
here, but what I did to cause Him to be here. In my redemption,
the Lord redeemed me. I didn't have any part in paying
that price. He did it all. He by Himself
purged our sins. In me being justified, and that
means I'm before God as one who has never sinned. That's because
the righteousness of Jesus Christ is given to me, and it becomes
my personal righteousness. In every aspect of salvation,
He gets the glory. I didn't justify myself, nor
did God offer me justification to accept or reject. He justified
me. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. I don't have any glory in that.
In my new birth, I wasn't born again because I did something,
because I made a decision, because I decided to believe. I was born
of God. I didn't have anything more to
do with my second birth being born of God and regenerated than
I did my first birth. It's a miracle of God. The fact
that I've been preserved all this time and have not departed,
that's because He's preserved me, He's kept me. When I stand
before God in judgment, holy and unblameable, and I'm accepted,
you know who's going to get all the glory? The Lord Jesus Christ. We're his workmanship, not our
own. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. That is why David said, not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but into thy name, give glory for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. And it is monstrous to
try and rob him of his glory by taking credit for what he
has done and saying, I had something to do with this. You know, when
I hear preachers talk about getting higher rewards in heaven, some
believers, because of their personal obedience on earth, get a higher
reward than other believers and a higher position in glory because
of the things they've done. Well, number one, do you really
have that high opinion of your works that you think they're
that good? Let me assure you, they're not. They're not. You're
dead wrong. You're dead wrong. And could
you add something to the righteousness of Jesus Christ that would make
you higher up? Why, that's blasphemous. He gets
all the glory and salvation in every aspect. And well, He should. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7 says,
Who maketh thee to differ from another? Now, I have no doubt
that Paul was thinking of that passage in Exodus 11, verse 7,
where the Lord told Moses, against the children of Israel shall
not a dog move his tongue. against man or beast, that you
may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the
Egyptians and Israel." The Lord put the difference there. And
if I'm saved, I can't give myself the credit in any way. You know,
I hate when people say, I got saved. No, if you're saved, the
Lord saved you. That kind of terminology is just
foreign to the scriptures. I got saved or you need to get
saved. No, you need the Lord to save
you. You need him to do something for you. And it's the Lord that
makes the difference. If I'm saved, all glory goes
to Him. I don't give my free will the
credit. I don't give my reception of Him the credit. All glory
goes to Him in every aspect of my salvation. Now, we glorify
Him. when we worship Him for who He
is. We wouldn't change Him if we
could. We worship Him for who He is,
as is revealed in this book. This book reveals the character
of the living God. We can't know God apart from
what this book tells us. And you worship Him for who He
is, and in doing that, you glorify Him. I think of that passage
in Romans 1, it says when they knew God, They glorified him
not as God, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds,
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. You see, when they see
God, They change him into a God like a man, that's like them,
that they can understand. And to do that is to fail to
glorify the living God. We glorify Him when we worship
Him for who He is, as He's revealed in this book. Every attribute
we bow before. We love His sovereignty. We love
His holiness. We love His independence. We
love His justice. Every attribute is holy. One of the things I love, another
way I like to describe holy is it's the adjective of all the
divine attributes. Holy love, holy wrath, holy justice,
holy sovereignty, holy immutability, holy independence. We worship
him for who he is and we glorify him by faith. Now listen to this scripture.
Speaking of Abraham, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. And that's what he did in being
strong in faith. He gave glory to God, being fully persuaded
that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. Now, you have faith when you
believe in His ability to save you with no contribution from
you, and you're relying on Him to do it all, and you're going
to give Him all the glory. I love it in Exodus 33, verse
18, when Moses said, I beseech you. Show me your glory. Now, Moses had seen the ten plagues. He'd seen the parting of the
Red Sea. He'd seen the manna come down from heaven. He saw
water come out of a rock to quench the thirst of the children of
Israel in the desert. He had seen the giving of the law. He
had seen the giving of the Ten Commandments. He was there when
God wrote with his finger on tablets of stone. He'd seen all
these things, and yet he says, I've not seen your glory yet.
I beseech you, show me your glory. That's the highest request a
man can possibly make. I beseech you, show me your glory. Listen to God's answer. He says,
I'll make all my goodness to pass before thee. I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And I will show mercy to whom
I will show mercy. Now his goodness is his capacity
to save somebody as sinful as the children of Israel or me
or you. The Lord's good. Never look at him in any other
way, but he's good. And his name is his attributes.
All of his attributes are involved in the salvation of the sinner.
His holiness, his justice, his power, his love, his grace, his
independence. Every attribute is engaged in
the salvation of the sinner. And he says, I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. You see, His mercy is sovereign
mercy. He saves whom He will. Now, there
are people that object to that. That's a mighty dumb thing to
do. The thing to do is say, Lord,
have mercy upon me. How we love His glory. Herod
failed to give Him the glory. What about you? May God enable
you to do so. Amen. To receive a copy of the
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