Jeremiah, chapter 9, verse 23. 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, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which
exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth,
and in these things I delight, saith the Lord. But let him that glorieth You
know, there's an irresistible urge in all of us to glory in
something. This is true of every person.
It's true of the highest and the lowest. It's true of the
richest and the poorest. It's true of the old and the
young, the learned and the ignorant, the free and even the enslaved. Every son of Adam glories in
something. Someone said one time, man will
glory in his place, he will glory in his face, he will glory in
his race, he will even glory, God help us, in his grace. What do we mean by glory? It
says, let him that gloryeth What do we mean by glorying in something? Well, it is to honor that thing
and to exalt it, whether it's a thing or a person or a talent
or whatever it might be. To glory in something is to rejoice
in that thing and to take pride in it. Yes, and even to worship
it. Now, through the ages, men have
gloried in vain things and had these things to turn on them
and become their destroyers. For example, Hezekiah took the
ambassadors of Babylon from treasure house to treasure house. He was
a vain man. He was a rich man. He was a man
who gloried in his possessions. And he took the ambassadors of
Babylon from treasure house to treasure house, showing off his
riches, boasting of his wealth and his possessions. and this
displeased the Lord. And these same ambassadors of
Babylon returned and carried away all his treasure and left
him empty." Herod, the king, allowed the people to praise
his speech and call his voice the voice of a God. They heard
Herod make a speech, and they said, this is not the voice of
a man, this is the voice of a God. And Herod did not correct the
people. He went on pretending that they
were right, that he was the voice of a God, and God Almighty proved
his humanity, filled him with worms, and destroyed him. When
our mother Eve gazed with rapture on her firstborn son, She said
with delight, I have gotten a man. You check the translations. The
Lord is what she said. I have gotten a man, the Lord. And this baby grew up to be the
first murderer and shed the blood of his own brother. Jacob, glory
in the coat of many colors. He was proud of that coat. and
he presented it to his favorite son with great delight. He gloried in that coat and presented
it to his son Joseph, only to have the coat returned to him
covered with blood. David gloried in the strength
and power of Israel, the greatest nation on the earth, the most
powerful nation on the earth, the greatest army on the earth,
and he numbered the people. And God slew 70,000 of his choice
men because of his pride. Peter gloried in his loyalty
to Christ. Peter gloried in his faithfulness
to Christ, and he said, Lord, though all men shall be offended
because of you, I'll lay down my life for you. I'll never desert
you, I'll never deny you, I'll lay down my life for you." He
was the only disciple who boasted of his strength and loyalty,
and he was the only one who verbally denied his Lord. Even Judas didn't
do that. Judas sold his Lord and betrayed
his Lord, but they said, show us which one is Jesus, and he
went up and kissed him, and he said, this is Jesus. But Peter
said, I don't even know him. I know not the man. And then
the rich young man gloried in his wealth. He gloried in his
possession when commanded by the Lord to sell them and distribute
them to the poor. And he died in poverty. Men have gloried in vain things,
and they have had these very things return unto them as their
destroyer. Now, God has prepared a cure
for vainglory, and I want you to listen carefully to this.
This is the most important point in the message. The cure for
vainglory, glorying in that which is temporary and that which is
carnal, And that which is empty, the cure for vain glory is not
to suppress the tendency on the part of man to glory. This is
with us to stay. We're going to glory in something.
It's our nature. We're going to glory in something.
It's our nature. And God does not cure vain glory
by suppressing the tendency to glory, but he gives us an object
worthy of glory. That's the key. possessions are not worthy of
glory. The things of this world, the
pleasures of this world, are not worthy of glory. The so-called
strength of a man, or wisdom of a man, or might of a man,
or riches of a man, these things are not worthy of glory. They
are vain things, and all this vanity Solomon said. The cure
for vain glory is true glory. The cure for vain glory in our
fame and wealth and strength and talent and possessions and
self is the glory in the Lord. That's what this verse says.
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, for when he gets
old and gray he'll even forget his mother's name. Let not the
mighty man glory in his might. One of these days it will be
an effort for him to put his shoes on. And people will forget
even his name. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. Someday he may be standing in
a soup line. But let him that glory, glory
in this, that he understands and knows that I am the Lord. the same yesterday, today, and
forever. Four things I want you to see
from this message, the first of which is this. We are to glory,
that is, rejoice, exalt, worship, take pride in, only the Lord. The Apostle Paul said, God forbid,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of my Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. God forbid. And in our verse
we read a moment ago, he said, He that glorieth let him glory
in the Lord. Now when we glory in the Lord,
we are in accord with the true order of the universe. For the
Scripture says, the heavens declare what? The dignity of man. No, sir, the glory of the Lord.
All thy works, O Lord, shall praise thy name. Let everything
that hath breath, the Scripture says, praise the Lord. For of
him, and through him, and to him are all things to whom be
glory forever. Creation is a temple in which
everyone speaks of the glory of God. So when I glory only
in the Lord, I am in accord with the true order of this universe.
What is the chief end of man, says the old Westminster Confession? And the answer comes back to
glorify the Lord. And then when I glory only in
the Lord, I am in tune with the angels, the angels who watch
over us, the angels who rejoice when we repent, the angels who
minister to the heirs of salvation, the angels who are the messengers
of God. What is their cry? But one day
they came down here to this earth, and they appeared to the shepherds
on the hillsides of Judea, and they opened their songs with
this phrase, Glory to God in the high. and peace on earth, goodwill
toward men. We want to ring out with the
message peace on earth, the message goodwill to men, but it must
be preceded by glory to God. And then when we glory only in
the Lord, we're in accord with the blessed Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who in Gethsemane's awful gardens lifted his eyes
to heaven and prayed, Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son
may glorify thee. That was his desire, that was
his goal, that was his reason for dying. that glorify his Father,
his purpose, his will, his wisdom, his redemption, his mercy, his
righteousness, his law, his truth. Glorify thy Son. The hour has
come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
may also glorify thee. When we glory only in the Lord,
we're in tune with the Holy Spirit. When our Lord Jesus Christ announced
the coming of the Holy Spirit to this world, he said, when
he, the Comforter, has come, he will not speak of himself,
he shall glorify me. Brethren, any time you hear a
man sitting about talking of the Holy Ghost this, and the
Holy Ghost that, and the Holy Ghost the other, you can be sure
of one thing, not of everything, but of one thing. He doesn't
have the Holy Ghost, for the Holy Ghost will not speak of
himself. That's what Christ said. He shall
take the things of mine and show them to you. He shall not speak
of himself. He shall glorify me." And that's
true of a preacher, that's true of a singer, that's true of a
Sunday school teacher, that's true of a soul winner, that's
true of any gospel messenger. If he speaks of himself, he hath
not the Holy Spirit, because the chief end of man is to glorify
God, and a faithful messenger will do that. Turn to Revelation
19. Revelation 19, when I glory only in the Lord, I am in tune
with the heavenly host, and I am practicing the song of the redeemed. I am doing here on this earth
what men will do in heaven. Glorify God. Revelation 19 said,
After these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven
say, Hello, mother, glad to see you. Hello, dad, I didn't think
you'd make it. Lord, I served you on the earth
and did the best I could, and I want Jeremiah and Isaiah and
John and all of them to sit down and hear my testimony. That's
not what they're saying in heaven. Those people in heaven are saying,
hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power unto the
Lord our God. That's the occupation of the
redeemed. That's the very glory of the
redeemed, is to glorify their God. Under him who loved us and
loosed us from our sin by his own precious blood, to him be
glory! World without end. My friends,
God is great, and he fills all things. Whither shall I flee
from thy presence? If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, whither shall I flee
from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou
art there. Whither shall I flee from thy
presence? If I descend into the grave,
thou art there." God is great. He fills all things, and there's
no room for a competitor. No room. I don't care if it's
your family or your children. I don't care if it's your husband
or your wife. I don't care if it's your possessions.
I don't care if it's your fame. I don't care if it's your country.
To glory in anything other than God himself is to provoke his
jealousy. He says, My glory I will not
give to another. What we glory in today is going
to be gone tomorrow. Only the Lord, only the Lord
has no end. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. I want you to turn to Ephesians
1 a moment. About a week or two ago I brought
an outline on the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
in redemption. And I use the first chapter of
Ephesians. You remember the message? From
the first chapter of Ephesians, I brought a message on the work
of the Trinity. The Trinity being a unity in
redemption. What the Father does, the Son
does. What the Son does, the Spirit does. And I gave this
outline from Ephesians 1, beginning with verse 3. It says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. This is the Father. The Father
hath blessed us with what? Spiritual blessings. Salvation,
eternal life, repentance, faith, atonement, sanctification, justification. He blessed us. The Father did
it. The next verse said, According as he chose us in Christ. The Father chose us in Christ.
He blessed us with all these blessings because he chose us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and that we should be without blame before him. And
the Father, verse 5, predestinated us unto the adoption of children.
He predetermined that every one of those whom he hath blessed
and every one of those whom he hath chosen and redeemed shall
be just like Christ. That's the goal of redemption,
to make us like Christ. Now that's the work of the Father.
Now notice the next verse. Why did he do it? It says, "...to
the praise of the glory of his grace." The Father blessed me
with redemption and eternal life and the knowledge of Christ.
What I have I didn't earn, it was given to me. What I know,
I didn't come by it by nature, it was given to me, taught to
me by God as a gift of His grace. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings because He chose us and predetermined that we'll
be like Christ to the praise of His glory. He did it to glorify
Himself. Now look, beginning with verse
7, here's the work of the Son. Talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 6 says, He made us accepted in the Beloved. That's
Christ. We're accepted in Christ. You're
not accepted in your denomination, or in your religious merit, or
in your good work. You're accepted in Christ. You're
accepted because of another. Now, in whom, verse 7, we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin. That's
what the Son did. The Father blessed us. He gave
us life. He chose us. He predetermined
it would be like Christ, to the praise of His glory. And the
Son came down here and redeemed us, and gave us the forgiveness
of sin, verse 9, and made known unto us the mystery of His will. The gospel is a mystery. People
don't understand it. Go out and ask them. Ask them
how it is God saves the sinner. Somebody will tell you, well,
it's by doing the law. Somebody else will tell you,
by joining the church. Another will tell you, by being baptized.
Another will tell you, by something else. But the Scripture tells
us we are saved by the grace of God through faith in the Lord
Jesus. By his own mercy hath he saved
us, not of ourselves, but by his mercy through the atonement
of his Son. And he revealed this to us, this
mystery of his will. and then verse 11, in whom we
not only have redemption, in whom we not only are enlightened
But verse 11 says, "...in whom we have obtained an inheritance."
Christ said, I go to prepare a place for you. The Son said
that. He came down here and prepared
us for the place by his death and by his burial and by his
resurrection. Now he said, I've gone to prepare a place for you.
We have obtained an inheritance. Look at verse 12, "...that we
should be to the praise of what is His glory. The preacher says,
I won 350 souls to Jesus last year. You're looking for praise?
You're looking for glory? Brethren, we're not saved to
the praise of the glory of some church or some preacher, some
evangelist. We're saved to the praise of
the glory of Christ. He gets all the glory. All right,
look at the next verse now. Verse 13 says, "...in whom we
trusted after we heard the gospel of truth." The Holy Spirit's
the one that gave us ears to hear. He quickened. He awakened. He called us. We're called of
the Spirit. We're born of the Spirit, and
we heard the gospel by the work of the Holy Spirit. Verse 13,
the last line says, "...and we were sealed with the Holy Spirit."
He seals us like your mama used to put up preserves. Don't you
remember? She'd put the jar, I don't know a whole lot about
it, those old ball fruit jars, you know, mason fruit jars and
ball lids with a rubber cap, you know, and you'd put those
things in the hot water and fix it all up and then you'd take
it out and set it over there and wait to hear it pop. And when
it popped, you know, it's sealed and it won't ever spoil. Because
now if it doesn't pop, it's not sealed and it'll show a mold.
But when it pops, it's sealed. That means it'll stay fresh. And the Holy Spirit seals us. How long? He's going to seal
us forever, and He is the earnest, the token, the pledge of our
inheritance. Look at the last line, verse
14, to the praise of His glory. Southern Baptists had a slogan
a few years ago, Save to Serve. Well, that's pretty, but it's
not so. We're saved to the glory of his grace. The thief on the cross never
served. He never walked. His feet were
nailed to a tree. He never washed. His body was
dying on a tree. He never worked. His hands were
nailed to a cross. But he was saved, same way you
are, by the blood of Christ, and for the same reason, to the
praise of his glory." Now you take that chapter and read it
again. The Father blessed us, the Father chose us, the Father
predestinated us to the praise of his glory. The Son redeemed
us, the Son justified us, the Son enlightened us, the Son enriched
us, it says, to the praise of his glory. And the Holy Spirit
called us, and the Holy Spirit sealed us, and the Holy Spirit
is the earnest of our inheritance to the praise of his glory. Are you in tune with the whole
scheme of salvation when you start giving God all the glory?
Well, brethren, the characteristic of religion today is glorify
man, glorify man, glorify man. The second thing I wish to say
quickly is this. We are to glory not only in the
Lord alone, but we're to glory sincerely in the Lord. Now, don't
do it if it's not sincere. Now, I know I don't praise God
as I should, with the fervor and zeal that I should, but I
do praise Him. And there's several reasons why
I praise Him. Number one, I praise Him for
His eternal love. The scripture says, I didn't
love God, he loved me. And I love him because he loved
me. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave himself for our sins. His love is unsought, his love
is unmerited, his love too often is unreturned. God commended
His love poured us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. So I praise Him for His eternal
love. And then I praise Him for the
gift of His beloved Son. This is eternal life. God hath
given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. And he that hath the Son of God
hath eternal life." Back during World War II, some of you remember
that they had these little white banners about so big that families
put in the window when they had sons in the service in the Army,
Navy, Marines, or Air Force, they could buy or the government
would furnish these little white banners that you put in the window.
And he had a star for each son you had in the service. Some
people had one star, some two, some three or four stars in the
window. Blue stars. The son was gone to war to defend
our country, to fight for freedom. If a boy was killed in the service,
his family got a gold star. And instead of the blue star
in the window, you would pass the house, and hanging in the
window would be a little white banner with a gold star in the
center. One evening, late, a father was
walking down the street with his little boy, and they passed
a house in the window of which a gold star was hanging on the
banner. And the little boy said, What
does that star in the window mean?" And the daddy looked at
him, he said, well, he said, that means that that family gave
their son to die in the war to preserve our country's freedom.
They walked on a little further and neither of them said anything,
and finally the little boy looked up and a star, the first star
of the evening, was shining in the sky. And he grabbed his daddy
by the hand and tugged it and he said, looky daddy, God gave
his son too. For God so loved the world that
he gave his son too. He gave his son that I might
live. And I thank him for it. I praise him. I believe I can
glorify God for the gift of mercy. Now let me tell you something.
The scripture says, the gifts and calling of God are without
change. Aren't you glad for that? I know
Abraham was. That day he denied that Sarah
was his wife. He failed, but God's covenant
mercy never fails. I know David was that day when
he sent his friend Uriah to his death, and Nathan came and pointed
his finger in his face and said, Thou art the man. He failed,
but God's covenant never failed. The last words of King David
were these, God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure, and this is my salvation and my desire. I know Peter was glad for God's
covenant mercies when they asked him, aren't you one of the disciples?
He said, no, not me. I don't know him. He failed,
totally failed, but the Lord Jesus Christ never failed. He kept his promise. He said,
Peter, I prayed for you. I prayed for you. Peter failed,
but Christ did. I know John Mark was glad for
God's covenant mercies when Paul started out on that missionary
journey the second time. He said, Let's go, Mark. Let's
go, John Mark. John Mark said, I ain't a-going.
You're not going, John. No, I'm staying home with Mama.
You're going, Paul. I can't take it. I don't like
you much anyhow. So he stayed home. He failed,
totally failed. John Mark, that's right. He stayed
home. But God didn't fail. God kept
His promise to John Mark, and John Mark became a great preacher.
And later in Paul's life, he wrote somebody, he said, when
you come to see me, bring Mark with you. He's mighty precious
to me. And let me tell you something,
my friend. The only reason you don't perish and go to hell tomorrow
is because God keeps His promise, not because you keep yours. That's
right. He said, I am the Lord. I change
not. That's why you sons of Jacob
are not conserved. If one sheep of Christ could
fall away, I would have already fallen this day. It's not me,
it's God that keeps me by the power of his grace. I fail, I'm
filled with unbelief, but thank God for his covenant mercies. Praise God for his holiness.
One of these days, He's going to make us just like His Son. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless His holy name. And then in the third place,
we are to glory sincerely. Can you sincerely say, thank
God for His love? Thank God for His Son. Thank
God for His covenant mercies. Thank God for His holy promises. And can you grow, can you glory? Listen, increasingly in the Lord. One of the songwriters put it
this way, My Lord, I'll praise Thee while I live, I'll praise
Thee when I die, I'll praise Thee when I rise again, And by
your grace I'll praise you in the sky. The more I walk the
path of faith and communion with God, the less I'll be taken up
with the fleeting, fickle, foolish, changing things of this world,
the vanities of this world. Now, the less I walk with God,
the more I'm going to be taken up with these things. The more
I walk with God, the less I'm going to see in these things.
The more I enjoy his presence and his glory and his matchless
majesty, the more these things are going to lose, lose their
glitter. When I was a child, I speak as
a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when
I became a man, I put away childish things. A little girl here tonight has
a little rope ring. It's real cute. Her sister made
it for her. It's real cute. It's not an expensive,
valuable thing. It's just a little ring. It's
real cute. It's made out of plastic or twine
or something like that. When she's about 25, she won't
wear that. She'll have her a diamond. You'll
have a diamond. That little rope ring won't be
near as valuable. And I'll tell you, when you come
to walk with the diamond of Christ, the little rope and brass and
copper things of this world just don't shine like they used to.
The more I walk with Christ, the less I'll be taken up with
these things, earth's luxuries and earth's wealth and earth's
pleasures and earth's people and earth's fame and earth's
emptiness. That's all it is, just a lot
of emptiness. The more I see of his glory,
the less I'll be concerned with these things. When the great plants of our
city have turned out their last finished work, when our merchants
have sold their last yard of silk and dismissed their last
tired clerk, when the banks have deposited their last dollar and
paid the last dividend, and the judge of all the earth says it's
closed forever and asks for a balance, What then? When the choir has
sung its last anthem and the preacher has prayed his last
prayer, and the people have heard their last sermon and the sound
has died on the air, and the Bible's closed on the altar and
the pews are all empty of men, and each one of us stands and
faces the Lord God of glory and his book is open, what then? When the actors have played their
last drama and the comedian has made his last fun, and the crowd-seeking
pleasure has vanished and gone out in the darkness again, when
all our lives flash before us and we stand before Him, what
then? When the bugle call sinks into
silence, and the long marching columns are still, and the captain
repeats his last order, and they've captured the last fort and hill,
and the flag has been hauled from the masthead, and the wounded
afield have checked in. And a world that's had no time
for the Lord Jesus is asked for a reason. Lord, I was awful busy. I had
to make a living for my family, and I had to keep up with all
of the practical, political things of my day, and I had to serve
my generation. What then? And then in closing, let me glory
practically in the Lord. How can I do that? Well, first
of all, by owning publicly that he's my Lord and Savior. Now,
brethren, I think Milton Howard presented it effectively this
morning. I'm not trying to make Baptist
of anybody. I don't care what you call yourself.
You can call yourself a Mennonite or a Moravian. You can call yourself
a Presbyterian or a Pentecostal. You can call yourself a Catholic
or a Camelot. I don't care. But I'm interested
in whether or not you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Redeemer. I don't mean any Savior. I don't
mean any Jesus. I mean the Lord Jesus. I mean
the one who came down here from heaven's glory and gave himself
to die for our sins on the cross, was buried and rose again, ascended
back to the Father, where he is at the right hand of God,
our intercessor, and our Mediator and our High Priest and our only
one hope, do you know Christ? There's no moral men in this
congregation with sinners, every one of us. And you're not going
to glory because you lived a good life. You haven't lived a good
life. That's impossible. The Lord Jesus
said there's none good but God. Now your life may be good compared
to a few folks around town, but it's no good compared to the
Holy God, and that's the measurement by which you'll be judged. And
your life may be good compared to the standards of your community,
but compared to the holy law of God, you have sinned and come
short of God's glory. And that's the standard by which
you'll be measured at the judgment. And Jesus Christ is your only
hope. Jesus Christ is our righteousness. He is our Redeemer. He is our kinsman. He is the one that stands in
our place and stands. I don't want to stand before
God alone. I want to stand in Christ, don't
you? And so the first thing for you
to do if you want to glorify God publicly or practically is
to glorify Him publicly. He said, if you confess me before
men, I'll confess you before the Father which is in heaven.
If you deny me, I'll deny you. Why do we profess? Why do we
come forward publicly? Why are we baptized? We do it
to profess faith in Christ. We do it publicly to own our
position in Christ and to identify ourselves with Christ. We're
saying to the world, I have no hope in myself. I'm just a sinner
saved by grace. My hope is in Christ. When a
man is baptized, he's identifying himself with the Savior who died
and was buried and rose again. He's saying, Christ is my righteousness,
wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. And that way you glorify Christ.
You don't glorify Christ by sitting still and keeping your mouth
shut and not being identified with Him. Moses and Joshua said,
who's on the Lord's side, let him step out and declare it. And declare it. Ashamed of Jesus? That dear friend on whom my hope
of heaven depends? Ashamed of Jesus, sooner far
let heaven blush to own a star. Ashamed of Jesus Christ? Yes, I may, when I've no guilt
to wash away. I'm not that place yet, are you?
When I've no tear to wipe, when I've no good to crave, when I've
no fear to quell, when I've no soul to save, but till then. And my boasting is not vain,
till then I'll boast my Savior was slain. And oh, may this my
glory be, that he's not ashamed of me." If I was sitting in this
congregation tonight and I had any doubt about my relationship
with God, I'd stand up from where I'm sitting right now. When this
service was closed, I'd walk down this aisle. And I'd say
to this congregation, I want every one of you to know, I want
to go on record, that my hope is in Christ the Lord. When he
died on that cross, he died for me. I'm a sinner. I've broken
God's law. I'm unworthy of his love. I have
no right to claim his mercy. But Jesus Christ said, he that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and I believe. And I want
everybody to know that. And I want to follow my Lord
in believer's baptism. And then secondly, how can I
glory in the Lord practically? By standing up where he's opposed,
where his gospel of redeeming grace is ridiculed, where his
people are despised. I'd be identified with the people
of God. I'd find out where they are.
I'd find out who the people are who are glorifying God, and I'd
glorify God with them. I'd absent myself from those
people who are glorifying man, who are preaching the dignity
of man. Man has no dignity! I'll tell
you how much dignity man's got. A man in Japan a few days ago
got in business trouble. He took out an insurance policy
on his nine-year-old son and hired a man to kill him to collect
the insurance. That's the dignity of man. The dignity of man is when a
man takes his three- or two-year-old child and beats him to a pulp,
and he dies of injuries in the hospital. That's the dignity
of man. I like what that old monkey said.
Man descended the ornery cusp, but he didn't descend from us. He didn't descend from us. And
I can glorify God by trusting Him in time of trouble. I'm not
going to stand up and preach sovereignty to you and then sit
around with a group and complain about my lot. That's inconsistent. That's denying my faith. I'm
not going to stand up here and talk about divine providence,
the purpose of God, and then get out there and murmur about
everything that happens and complain about everything that happens.
Don't preach sovereignty to me and then start complaining. I'm
not going to preach Christ crucified and then sorrow of those who
have no hope. I'm not going to talk about his
righteousness and then brag on my own. I'm not going to talk
about his righteousness and then call attention to how pious and
holy I am. I'm not going to talk about loving
Christ and carrying grudges. That's not so. I'm not going
to talk about loving Christ and hating people. That's not so.
It can't be. I'm not going to talk about knowing
the Lord and then neglect the place of worship and the place
of prayer. I'm not going to talk about being
forgiven of my sin and be unable to forgive others of their sin. That's how you glorify God, practically
by walking in his steps. I don't mean you can perfectly
imitate the Son of God. That's foolishness for you even
to think that. But I'm saying that I'm saying that we can imitate
Christ in a measure, to a degree, as he gives us grace to a greater
degree. Glory in the Lord. Our Father
supply that which we do not have, the power to make this message not only words and reason and
logic, but life to the people. I can't do that. I feel my inability. I cannot convince people of sin. I cannot reveal the horror of
the human heart. I cannot show me in their inability. I cannot We cannot reveal to
them the beauty of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ, but thou,
Spirit, can do it. And may it please thee right
now, while we're waiting before thee to break our hearts, show
us what we are. Show us who Christ is and what
he did, his sufficiency, his ability to save. And give somebody
the grace to publicly confess the Lord Jesus. In his name we
pray, amen.