Now there are several things,
several things that I desire and covet. I'm talking about in the spiritual
area. Several things that I desire
and covet. I desire a growth in faith, a
growth in love, a growth in the fruit of the spirit. in every
area. We're definitely poor and needy
creatures. I realize that more and more.
How often did David say that, but I'm poor and needy, but I'm
poor and needy, but I'm poor and needy, over and over again
he said that. And there are many areas where
we need his strength and his grace and his power But if I were to single out a
particular area, a particular area that is most vital, most vital
to my spiritual, and I don't mean well-being, but I mean my
spiritual being, being, it would be described in my text
here, in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 17 and 18. It says, but he that gloryeth.
Now what does it mean, the glory? I've been thinking about this
for two or three days. Often Paul talks about glory. He said, whether we eat or drink,
do it to the glory of God. And over there in 1 Corinthians
1, I read a moment ago, he said, you see your calling brethren,
And he described thus, the grace of God for us, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. That he that glory hath let him
glory in the Lord. And then in Galatians, Paul said,
God forbid that I should glory, glory, in anything except the
cross of Christ. My glory, God said, I'll not
give to another. Well, what is it to glory? We've
got to settle this first before we can get into the heart of
this message. Well, I believe to glory in something
or someone, whether it be a self or another person or an object, but to glory in something or
someone is to honor, to honor or exalt that thing or person,
to honor them, exalt them. to lift it up, to put it in a
prominent place, a very prominent position. And then it is not
only to honor and to exalt that thing or person, but it's to
rejoice in it, to find pleasure in that thing or person. And
it's also to take pride in that thing or person. That is, the
glory is to take pride in that object. And then not only that,
but it's to find satisfaction, a satisfaction in that object,
to the point of giving it praise, or seeking praise for it, or
calling someone else's attention to it. Now then, what do I need? Let's read the text again. And
Bob prayed the night back in the study, when he closed his
prayer. gave us a good reading, and then
he closed his prayer, and I often say this, and I hear you say
it. We ask these things in the name of Christ our Lord and for
his glory. We hope not for our own. And Bob, it's the very thing
I'm talking about. I hope not for my own. Because, verse 18
says, It is not he that commended himself that's approved of God.
It's not he that says, I'm a believer, or I'm a Christian, or I'm a
preacher, or I'm a teacher, or I'm a prophet, or I'm a servant
of God, or I'm this or that or the other. I'm a child of God.
I know I'm a Christian. I'm as sure for heaven as if
I was already there. It's not the man that approves
himself. It's not the man who accepts
himself. It's not the man who praises himself, it's not the
man who glorifies himself, it's not the man who rejoices in himself,
but whom the Lord commended, whom the Lord approved of. The
Amplified Version records 17 and 18 this way, but let him
who boasts, That's what I said while ago, it's to boast, it's
to honor, it's to exalt, it's to take pride in something or
someone, to find satisfaction, to find rest, to find an ease,
to find an ease in that thing. It says, let him who boasts and
glories, boast and glory, let him boast. We're incurably given
to boasting. But the way to do away with false
boasting and replace it with true boasting is to change the
object. So let him who boasts in glory
in the Lord. For it is not the man who praises
and commends himself who is accepted of God, accepted of God. And
Paul said we labor to be accepted of him. I'm not laboring to be accepted
of my peers. I'm not religious and attend
church and preach grace to be accepted of my friends. I trust
I'm not preaching or Mike's not singing or these folks that are
playing the instruments or these men who give that we're not doing
it to be accepted of someone else, to be approved of someone
else, even of my wife and children. But Paul said we labor that we
may be accepted of him, accepted in the beloved, loved and accepted
and approved and received of him. It's not the man who praises
and commends himself, it's not the man who claims this favor,
who's accepted of God, but it's the man whom the Lord approves
and the man whom the Lord accepts, whom the Lord approves, whom
the Lord accepts. Now, my friends, I want you to
listen to four things. And this strikes at the very
heart of what we're preaching and what I feel is the difference
in our message and the general message of today. There's no
miracle in making a man religious. There's no miracle in making
a man religious. The miracle is in making a man
righteous. There's no miracle at all in
making a man religious. In fact, men are religious by
nature. They want to be religious. Now
they want a religion that's convenient. They want a religion that fits
in with their lifestyle. But there's no problem to making
men religious. Men are superstitious and religious
by nature. Men and women are emotional by
nature. Men and women have some zeal
for God by nature. That's right, by nature. They
have some desire for some type of hope. Even the old Indians
talked about a happy hunting ground. That statement was born
out of total ignorance of God. But they longed, even the pagan
painted warrior longed for a happy hunting ground. And I'm saying
that the general population, the general population, I'm talking
about from the elite all the way down to the ignorant. But
especially, but especially the common people. They desire some
type of religion. It's not hard to make men religious. But the miracle is in making
a man righteous. Now that's a divine work. Making
a man righteous. Righteous before the law. Righteous
in the sight of God. Righteous before his throne.
Righteous before his perfect holiness. Righteous. That's God's
work. That's a divine work. That's
a miracle. Turn to Romans chapter 3 a moment.
That's a miracle. A miracle of God's grace in Romans
chapter 3. It says in verse 19, here's our
condition. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that's all of them, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty, guilty, guilty, subject to the judgment
of God. Verse 20, now here's our inability. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, by the works of the flesh, or religion, there shall no flesh,
no flesh, no flesh be justified in his sight, mama or daddy,
old or young, no flesh. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin, but now the righteousness of God, the righteousness of
God. Without the law, without my obedience,
Not without obedience, because it incurs Christ's obedience,
but without my obedience, for I've never obeyed it. But there's
a righteousness of God without the law which is manifested,
which is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the very righteousness of God, the very holiness of God,
that with which he is pleased, that which he approves. that
which he provides, that which he accepts, that holiness and
righteousness without which no man will see the Lord. And it's
by the faith of Jesus Christ, by the work of Christ, by the
faithfulness of Christ, and it's unto all and upon all them that
believe. There's no difference, for we
all sin and come short of the glory of God, but we're justified
by this righteousness and through this righteousness freely, with
no return on our part, by His grace. Now there it is. There's no miracle in making
a man religious. You can do it by baptizing him, you can do
it by getting a profession out of him, you can do it by the
Roman road, you can do it by soul winning, you can do it by
promising in heaven, you can do it all different ways, but
there's no miracle in making a man religious. The miracle
is making a man righteous before God, making him righteous. God moving, God moving for God's
glory by the merits of Christ upon that man in grace and making
him accepted at God's Word. All right, secondly, there's
no miracle in Reformation. There's no miracle in reformation.
The miracle is in regeneration. That's where the miracle is.
No miracle in reformation. People are going out here to
get the drunk to quit drinking. Really, basically, in his heart,
the drunk wants to quit drinking. He'll cooperate with you as best
he can. You see, if all we're going to do is reform the drunk,
AA does a better job than we do. They can reform the drunk. The harlot would prefer to be
pure. If she can be pampered and put up in grand style, she'll
go either direction. She'd rather be pure. The thief,
he steals to satisfy his desires and his wants. If you'll supply
them, he won't have to steal. He'd be glad not to. After all,
he doesn't really want to go to jail. So I'm saying there's
no miracle in reformation. There's no miracle in getting
people to reform, getting people to turn over a new leaf. Basically,
you see, the law of God's written on every heart. You go over in
Africa or in the heathen regions beyond and you can find pagan
people who've never seen a Bible or heard a gospel sermon who
know it's wrong to kill. It's against their conscience
to kill, but they do it. They know it's wrong to commit
adultery. They know it's wrong to steal. They know those things.
They know it's wrong. They'd do it anyway, but they
know it's wrong. So there's no miracle in Reformation. The miracle
is in regeneration. This is a divine work. This is
the work of God. This is a work the preacher can't
perform, mother and daddy can't perform, the sinner can't even
perform for himself. A man cannot choose to be born
again and effect it. That's the work of God. We're
born not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, we're
born of God. It's not of him that willeth nor of him that
runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy. We're born of God. The
wind bloweth where it listeth. You got any control over the
wind? About all you can do is stick your finger up and see
which direction it's coming from. You can't change it. You can't
change it. You can't direct its path. It'll
blow where it pleases. That's what our Lord said. The
wind bloweth where it listeneth. And you hear the sound thereof.
There are some results. The wind accomplishes something. It brings forth results. And
you can hear the sound thereof. But you can't tell whence it
cometh or whither it goeth. So is everyone that's born of
the Spirit of God. God will regenerate whom He will.
And brethren, I'm simply saying regeneration is the giving of
divine life. Regeneration is the giving of
life. Where a man was dead, he now
lives. Where a man was blind, he now
sees. Where a man was deaf, he now hears. Where a man was in
total darkness, he's now illuminated and enlightened and understands. He understands. I read something
Brother Richardson wrote tonight, back there in the study, and
we were reading about that when you add a plus, the gospel is
not Christ plus anything. When you add a plus to the gospel,
you destroy the gospel. And Paul got on Peter's back
because Peter did one thing. You know what he did? He changed
tables. He changed tables. And Paul saw in the changing
of tables a threat to the gospel. He saw in the changing of tables
a movement to destroy the grace of God on the part of Peter. And the average preacher and
church member wouldn't understand what that means. Do you know
that? You say, I understand what he means. You better thank God
you do. Refreshing blood didn't reveal that to you. Somebody
else said, well, what was Peter doing? You see, salvation is
by grace through faith to Jew and Gentile. The error the Galatians
were plagued with was this. We believe sinners are saved
by grace through faith plus circumcision. That's all they had, a little
simple deed like circumcision, which God gave, which God approved. because of which God nearly killed
Moses, which at one time was very important, but of which
Christ was the fulfillment and it was only a type, and when
Christ came, it was put away. But these Galatians said, we
believe in salvation by grace through faith, plus circumcision,
plus baptism, plus anything. And what Scott was saying is,
you plus anything to Christ, you destroy the grace of God.
And when Peter was sitting there with those Gentiles who were
uncircumcised, down there at the church, and those fellas
came down from Jerusalem, the committee, and they walked in,
Peter saw them, and he jumped up and went over here and sat
with the Jews. And Paul said, Hold it! You're a threat to the
gospel. Now let me tell you something. Insight and understanding is
because God has given us life. Insight into his word, into the
types, into the patterns, into the pictures. An understanding
of the grace of God is by regeneration. Reformation will never affect
that. change from a drunkard to a sober
man, still be a blind man, a deaf man, an ignorant man,
a religious ignorant man. So the miracle is in regeneration.
The miracle is giving life to make a person in this life to
prefer the communion of God whatever the circumstances. All right? Now remember that there's no
miracle. There's no miracle in making a man religious. It's
going on all around us. They're flooding down the aisles.
They're praying the sinner's prayer. They're shaking the hand.
They're signing the card. They're joining the church. They're
trying to live the Christian life without Christ. It's pitiful. But the miracle is in making
a man righteous. The miracle is not in reformation.
And they're trying hard. They're trying hard. They're
reforming. They're reforming, they're trying hard. But you
see, this thing of regeneration is not a reformation. Regeneration
is God giving life that gives a man a different appetite. A
different appetite. It's starting from within. All
right, thirdly, there's no miracle in forming a refuge. There's
no miracle in forming a refuge, building a refuge, forming a
refuge. There's a way that seems right
to men. They said in Isaiah chapter 28, we have made a covenant with
death. We're not afraid to die. We're
at agreement with hell. We're not afraid to go into hell.
We go into heaven and we die. We're not afraid to die. We have a refuge. There's no
miracle in building a refuge. You can make a doctrine a refuge. And it can be orthodox. Saul
of Tarsus had that refuge. He was an orthodox theologian,
a Pharisee, a teacher of Scripture. Nicodemus had a refuge. There's
no problem in building or forming a refuge. None whatsoever. People find a refuge in the old
church. They find a refuge in the doctrine.
They find a refuge in a denomination. I'm a Baptist. I find a refuge
in that. Baptists are God's people. Baptists
have defended the faith. Baptists have done this, that,
and the other. I'm a Baptist. The miracle is not forming a
refuge. The miracle is Christ formed
in you. That's the miracle. This is what
Paul said to the Galatians, those works-conscious people. He said,
I prevail. Like a woman bearing a child.
You know how you women go through such pain and agony and suffering. You're carrying that child in
your womb, and the child wants out, and it's time for delivering,
but you deliver it with pain, and it's such a struggle. You're struggling, the child's
struggling, and to give birth to that child and bring it into
the world is a travail, a travail. And Paul said, I experience this
same agony, I travail, my friends, till Christ be formed in you. We're not looking for disciples
to follow us. We're not looking for people
to join this church, to build a bigger congregation. We're
not looking for folks to come here who are financially well
off, who can give and help us pay our bills. We're not looking
for those things at all. The thing I'm looking for and
obsessed with and desirable of all things is these young people
and mothers and dads and older people. We're rushing toward
eternity. It's appointed unto me and wants
to die, and after that, the judgment. We're rushing to meet God like
a fast locomotive on schedule, too. And I want us to know Christ. I want Christ to be formed in
us. The living Redeemer. Not just
believe Him with our heads, but love Him in our hearts. Not just
to know something about Him historically, and biblically and scripturally
and all these other things, be able to answer the questions
of the game sayers and debate with the other denominations,
I want Christ literally in reality to be born in us, for us to be
pupils of the living God. Whether we're in this building
or we're out there at the steel mill, or on the street, or in
the kitchen, or the home, or the living room, or the yard,
or roasting wieners, or frying hamburgers, or fishing in the
lake, or wherever we are that Christ lives in us, that we don't
have to get together to worship Him, we carry Him all the time,
love Him, worship Him, commune with Him, fellowship with Him,
walk with Him, live in Him. He's my Lord. My husband, wife,
brother, friend, father, mother, wife, whole, everything. Christ
formed in you. Oh my soul, that's the goal,
that's the end of the gospel, the ministry, preaching, the
word, that Christ be formed in you. I don't want to be orthodox,
I want to be regenerated. I want Christ to be formed in
me. I don't want religion, I want regeneration. I want Christ to
be formed in me. And third, fourthly, There's
no miracle in learning doctrine. There's no miracle in that. Anybody
with any ability to read and reason can learn doctrine. Like the fellow said over here
at the school, I'd rather be a Calvinist and know I was going
to hell than be an Armenian and not know where the hell I was
going. There's no miracle in learning doctrine. Anybody with
any sense, if God's God, he's God. If God's God, he can do anything.
That just makes sense to me. If man's a sinner, he's plum
lost. He's a sinner. If God's perfectly holy, one
sin constitutes enough sin to damn a man. So he's totally,
totally corrupt and unchangeably so. And God's totally holy and
he'll never change. In order to get those two together,
God's got to do something for him. And he does it by sovereign
grace, and he chooses the person for whom he does it. If he's
God, he has to elect the people. I heard people singing on television
last night, Jesus never fails. They don't believe that. I do. He never fails. He never fails
in his purpose. He never fails in his covenant.
He never fails in his will. He never fails in his desires.
He never fails in his death. He'll redeem all for whom he
died. He never fails. He never died for anybody that
won't be englobed. Christ never fails. If he sets
out to save a man, he'll save him. If he wills to save a man,
he'll save him. So there's no miracle in learning
doctrine. Some of the most vicious, some of the most vicious, hypocritical,
cruel, covetous, selfish people who ever lived were Orthodox
theologians. Many of them were Calvinists.
And they'd murder you if you didn't agree with them. Just
kill you. Just wipe you out. Burn you at the stake. I'll tell
you the miracle. It's not learning doctrine. The
miracle is learning Christ. Learning Christ. Oh, Paul said,
oh, that I may know Him. That I may learn Christ. You
have not so learned Christ. Oh, that I may know Him. that
I may know the power of his resurrection. So this is what I'm coming to
now. There's no miracle in making a man religious. The miracle
is in regeneration. That's a divine word. There's
no miracle in reforming a rebel. The miracle is in regeneration,
making the rebel a son. That's a divine word. And there's
no miracle in forming a false refuge. Just pick it out, and
you'll find somebody to get in there with you. You can make
it up. Just have a little truth, just
a little truth, and a whole lot of error, and somebody will crawl
in there with you and feel just as secure. Thank you for saving
me. The miracle is Christ being formed,
and that's a divine work. That's a supernatural divine
work. That's the work of God. That's a miracle of grace. And
there's no miracle in learning doctrine. None whatsoever. People say, I know my Bible.
I wish you knew the author. Now boy, that's a white horse
of another color. You can know the words and not
know the message. Yes sir, anybody can read a letter
and not know the writer. The miracle is learning Christ,
Christ being formed. So this is what I'm saying. This
business then of glorying in the Lord, finding in Him my satisfaction,
finding in Him my delight, learning to glory in Him and give Him
all the praise and exalt Him and all the honor and the preeminence,
also is not a work to be done. It's the results of that divine
work that has already been done. Now that's it right there. Turn
back to what I read a while ago, 1 Corinthians 1. You say, come
over that again. Alright, I'll come over it again,
slowly. I'm saying this. Here's a man who loves Christ.
He genuinely loves Christ. Loves Him. never wearies of hearing
him preach, singing about him, loves his gospel. He loves Christ above all things.
Is that a work that he did, a place to which he came, something he
aspired to accomplish? No, sir. That's the result of
a divine work that God did in him. That's the reason he loves
Christ. And he's the only one who really
loves Christ. Another man may profess to love Him, claim to
love Him, brag about loving Him. But the man who loves Him is
the man in whom Christ has been born by the Holy Spirit. He can't
help but love Him. He can't help but love Him. Because
Christ lives within him. The Spirit of God lives. Here's
a man, here's a man who loves the people of God. He genuinely
loved. And you know what the Bible says?
If any man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Whatever he claimed. He may be
a preacher. He may be a theologian. He may be a reformed dopadity.
But if he doesn't love Christ, he's under the judgment of God.
A cursed anathema. But I'm saying the man who is
born again will love Christ. He can't help but love Christ.
Here's a man who loves the people of God. He genuinely loves them.
It's not a feigned love. It's not a hypocritical love.
It's not a love with lip only. But he genuinely loves them.
Delights in their company. Delights in their presence. Seeks
out their fellowship. Longs to be with them. Loves
them. In honor, prefers them. Lifts
them up in prayer. Weeps when they weep. Rejoices
when they rejoice. How did he get there? How did
you come to love people like that? He didn't come to love
people like that. God Almighty shed abroad his
love in that man's heart in regeneration and salvation. And he can't help
but love you. If I belong to Christ and you
belong to Christ and Christ lives in me and Christ lives in you,
if I hate you, Christ ain't in me. That's right. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. God loves us. And he that loveth him that beget,
loveth him that begot. That's right, Tom. That's the
reason you can go off to a Bible conference somewhere, or people
like us, a couple here from Australia, week before last, people say,
well, I just felt like I've known them all my life. You have. In
Christ. They've been in Him ever since
you have. Christ loves Christ. Christ's Spirit loves His Spirit.
That's right, that's what I'm telling you. It's a work of grace,
it's a divine work and you can't do it. But God can do it. Our Lord said it's as difficult
as a camel to go through an eye of an eagle. And the disciples said, well
who can be saved? He said, well me and it's impossible. It's
impossible for you to love anybody but yourself. And you're going
to keep loving yourself, me and mine. until you rot in hell unless
God sheds above his love in your heart by his Spirit. That's a
divine work. And I'm saying, I'm simply saying,
the man in whom God has done a work of grace, he doesn't love
like he wants to. He doesn't love like he ought
to. He doesn't love like he's going to, but brother, he loves
him. Yes, he does. Here's a man that gives. I tell people sometimes we don't
have a budget and I never have preached a sermon in 35 years
on tithing. They say, how do you pay your
bill? Well it's simple. It's so simple I hate to say
it. I really hate to say it. But you know all you have to
do is for God to save people. That's all. Here's a man who
gives. He just reaches down and he doesn't
count out that this is God's and that's mine. He knows it's
all God's. Because God loved him and bought
him. And he doesn't divide this thing
up. He just says, Lord, now what can I do today? He gives. He's generous because God's been
generous to him. He gives because God gave to
him. He's merciful because God was
merciful to him. He's kind because God was kind
to him. He can't help but give. It's
his new nature. That's exactly right. A greedy
man's a lost man. A miser's a lost man. That's
just so. Ain't no doubt about it in my
mind. A man who only cares for himself and prepares for himself
and takes care of himself doesn't know God. Because God so loved,
he gave. Huh? Oh, absolutely. I know this is so. And you just
give up, friend. Don't try. That's the thing to
do, give up and call on Christ for mercy. But if you're going
to try to buy your way to glory and you're going to try to tithe
and try to give and try to be generous, you can't do it. You
can't do it. The only way you can do it is
for God to put his grace in your heart. And if he ever does, your
wife will have to hold you down. You'll give away everything you
got. She'll have to say, now honey, you better save some for
the light bill. That's just so. They open-handed. And somebody
says, well, here's a man that forgives other people. He just
forgives. That's the way this church is.
I tell you, I'm just, I'm so thankful for you people. You're
just so merciful and have such a forgiving spirit. But it's
not you. It's Christ in you. If it weren't
for Christ in you, you'd be pointing discipline committees every week,
kicking somebody out. Of course, we'd have to kick
you out pretty soon too, but we don't pay attention to that.
We can always get back in, you know. But forgiveness is born
of grace. And I'm telling you this, the
man who has Christ Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, on what basis? As God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you. And that's the reason I say most
of these church members are lost, most of these preachers are lost.
They don't know how to forgive. And natural men don't know how
to forgive. It's not a natural man's trait. It's the fruit of
God's Spirit. And where the Spirit of God dwells,
there's mercy. Where the Spirit of God dwells,
there's forgiveness. Where the Spirit of God dwells,
there's grace. Grace that abounds over abounding
sin. People are like their Lord. And the same thing goes for perseverance.
You say, well, I continue in the faith. If you say it, you
will. If you know Christ, you will.
That's what, look at 1 Corinthians 1 again, what I read a moment
ago. That's what he's saying here, verse 26. How can I glory
in the Lord? How can I give Him all the glory
and praise, exalt Him? How can I suppress pride? And
how can I be a humble? Here it is right here, verse
26. You see your calling? Do you? You see what God did?
You see where God found you? You see where God found you?
Well, that's what leads to this. And when you see that, verse
29, no flash of glory in his place. Now, turn to Jeremiah
9. I told you we were going to refer
to this again. Jeremiah chapter 9. And this is, you see, grace
is the answer to all of it. The mercy of God is the answer
to all of it. The work of the Spirit of God
is the answer to all of it. And this is why churches, you
see, there are so many preachers. Bet that they don't preach the
gospel of grace. The fellow said, well, I know
it, I know that's true, but if I preach it will split my church.
I'm going to be careful here. But a man who fears men does
not fear God. If you ever come to fear God,
you don't fear anything else. Is that right? That's just so. If you ever fear God. You don't
fear anybody else. Just don't do it. And I'm saying that if a person,
you talk about giving, if a person knows Christ, he'll give. If
Christ is formed in his heart, because that's the Spirit of
our Lord. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, what is
the Spirit of Christ? Let this mind be in you which
is also in Christ, that's humility. What's the Spirit of Christ?
The Spirit of Christ is forgiveness. The Spirit of Christ is grace.
The Spirit of God, Christ is kindness, and temperance, and
meekness, and love, and joy, and faith. And if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of His. And men who glory in themselves,
they don't know Christ. Because Christ in us glories
in God. Now look at Jeremiah 9, verse
23, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom. Well, he's going to, and I expect
him to. I expect the wise man to glory
in his wisdom until, listen to me, until, look this way, don't
move, don't move a muscle, until he learns that his wisdom is
foolishness. That's when he'll quit glorying
in it. It's just a bunch of nonsense. And Christ is the true wisdom.
Now that's when he'll quit glowing. I expect him to keep doing it.
I expect a man with some degrees and credentials and a little
knowledge of the world, science. These doctors all think they're
God. You know why? Because they don't know the living
God. Proud, arrogant, upper crust, look down on. They're going to
keep doing that until they realize their wisdom is foolishness.
Foolishness. And that's when they quit. A
man's not going to glow in foolishness. A man's not going to glow in
rags. You can strut around and discover
you've got rags on and you'll quit strutting. You'll go to
hiding. It says here, let not the mighty man glow in his might. Well, he's going to. And I expect
him to. I've got influence in this town. I've heard men say that. He glows
in it. in his might, strength of body,
strength of influence, all this sort of thing. He's going to
keep glowing until what happens? Until he learns his total weakness,
the weakness of his flesh and his inability in the presence
of an awesome, holy, almighty, eternal God. Oh boy, I tell you, and then
we realize without Him we can do nothing. Without him I cannot
raise this hand. Without him I cannot draw that
next prayer. That's right. And that's when
I'll quit glorying. And he says here, let not the
rich man glory in his riches. He's going to keep on doing it.
He's going to keep on doing it until he realizes what Moses
realized, that the riches of Egypt are nothing compared even
to the reproach of Christ. That our riches are nothing.
Nothing. And all that I have and all that
I know and all that I am is by the grace of God. But all these
trinkets and material things are destined for destruction.
God's gonna burn it. And I expect the religious legalist
to glory in his morality, always has and always will. and glory
in his righteousness until he sees one thing, until he sees
the righteousness of Christ, which God requires. And if a
man ever sees that and looks back at himself, he'll say, woe
is me. I'm cut off. I'm paid as the
leave. My righteousnesses are dirty
rags. And he'll go to peeling them
off, or that I may be clothed in his righteousness. But we're
going to keep on glowing in the fact that we've never tasted
liquor and we've never danced and we've never gambled and we've
never committed adultery. We've never done this. We're
just and fast twice a week and pray and go to church and all.
We're going to keep glowing in that and rejoicing in that until
we see His holiness, which He requires and which He provides.
And if we ever do, we'll never again say, I've never done this. will say instead that if it wasn't
for God's grace, I'd have done worse. And the same goes for the folks
who glory in their family trees. I've done the same thing. Get
these family trees, you know. My great-great-great-great-grandfather
came over here on the Mayflower. Well, so what? You know, folks, I hear somebody
say folks that glory in their ancestors are like potato vines,
the best parts in the ground. That's the reason they glory
in them. Folks glory in their beauty. I see these, you girls,
think you're so pretty. If God had just twisted your
nose to the left, you wouldn't look so hot, would you? And people
glory in their gifts and their talents and all these things
that distinguish them. And it's just one cure for that.
Who makes your feet a dipper? What do you have that you didn't
receive? Now, if you received it, why
do you gloat? I don't understand it, Paul said.
I just don't understand it. I don't understand you ever saying,
this is mine. Mine, not yours. God loaned it
to you. My children, now they're God's
children. Oh boy, the cure for vain glory is the regenerating
work of the Holy Spirit. It's the saving power of a holy
God. It's a visitation of God in mercy
to your heart. Let him that glory. And we're
going to glory. It's just our nature to delight,
to take pleasure, to honor, to exalt, to praise, to find satisfaction
in something. Now, we're going to do it, we're
going to do it from the smallest child to the oldest man. It's
all right. All right, that's fine. But if
you're going to glory, you're going to rejoice, you're going
to take pleasure and satisfaction doing in this, that you understand
and know the Lord. Oh, I glory in that. I'm so glad
when I read that article by Scott while I go on to study. I'm so
glad I understood it. I'm so glad when I read this
book that I can see Christ, aren't you? Oh, I glory in that. I glory
in that. Glory, let him glory that he
understands. The Son of God has come and given
us an understanding, and he knows me. This is eternal life, to
know the true and living God, that he knows I'm the Lord. I
am the Lord. Do you know that? I am the Lord. I'm not this 10 cent store of
God they're preaching on television and down here at this joint on
Bath Avenue and all. That's not, that 10 cent store
of God can't save a flea. He's not that peanut Jesus they're
preaching. This God is the Lord. The Lord
who executes, exercises loving kindness. I'll be gracious to
whom I will. justice, he spared not his own
soul, and righteousness, he effected and perfected a perfect righteousness,
I exercise it, in the earth. And brother, he says this, and
in those things I delight. I delight. Do you? I delight
in those things. He that gloweth in glory in the
Lord. Our Father, may we constantly be overwhelmed and amazed and astounded and
say with David, who am I? And what is my house that the
Lord God in his mercy and grace should show such kindness to
us? Thank you for the gift of your
grace. Lord, water the seed and make it to grow. Make it to grow. May we win Christ and be found
in him. Tear down this rebellious nature
and heart. This resentment, this self-righteousness,
destroy it. Enthrone Christ in our hearts.
May Christ be formed in us. By thy grace, for thy glory,
in his name we pray. Amen.