Now tonight we're going to start what will be probably, depending on our time, a four - or five -part study on the concept of the glory of God. The glory of God. It is critical for you to have a good understanding about the doctrine of the glory of God. In Acts chapter 18, verse 24 and 25, you don't need to turn. We find that the apostle was training a man who was instructed in all the ways of God. Romans 2 .18, the Jews were instructed in the law. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 4 .19, was saying it is better, 14 .19, he was saying, I am instructing you that it is better to speak five words a man can understand than to speak 10 ,000 that people don't understand. Now this word instruct is the Greek word katakeo, which means to learn by oral repetition. To learn by oral repetition. And of course, immediately, if I say katakeo, you think of the word catechism. Or to catechize someone was meant, and it was a term that began to come into usage during the days of the Puritans, that men would take the doctrines and systematize them and memorize them by asking questions about them, and the hearers would recite the answer orally. So to learn by oral repetition. And that's one of the best ways to learn. I personally learn better through the ear than I do through the eye. When I'm listening to sermons and Bible studies, I'll get up in the morning and take it with me in the car going down the road. And what I hear, I retain much better than what I see, because as a preacher, I guess, I'm used to hearing words, and they make an impression on me. So, that's one of the best ways that you can learn, is to say out loud the truths about the word of God, and to hear yourself say them back. Try learning to read the Bible out loud to yourself sometimes, and get copies of the New Testament on tape, on cassette, or on 8 -track, and get a tape deck in your car and listen to them all the time. I spend an average of about 24 hours a week in a car, and that's wasted time. So, I've got tapes, and a telephone, and sermons, and I'm just driving along doing things, and learning and assimilating all the time. I've killed two or three people, but other than that, it's been pretty good. Now, many of you, I've said that by way of introduction, I say that many of you in our church, of course, are from other denominations, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Catholic, and so forth, and you've joined First Baptist Church. I wonder tonight if anybody remembers the answer, or even the question, of the first question of the Shorter Catechism. The first question says, what is the chief end of man? That's a good first question, because that's the heart of life. That's the ultimate. That's the essence of everything. That's a good place to start, and whoever arranged it surely knew what they were doing. The first question of the Catechism that you have learned says, what is the chief end of man? Now, I know you've been Baptist for a while, and you haven't been looking at your Catechism, but let's look at it and see if anybody remembers, and if not, we'll at least learn one part of the Catechism tonight. Who knows? Does anybody know? The answer to the first question of the Catechism. All right, what is it? Glorify God. And? Enjoy Him. I give you a C+. That's how it is. What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Ah, that's beautiful. Let's say it together. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Now, this concept, this idea, can be well supported by Scripture. I want you, if you have your Bibles, to turn over to the book of Psalms. First of all, and we'll turn tonight, and this will be kind of a brief and informal introduction to the concept of the study for a few Sunday nights of the glory of God. How to glorify God. And we'll just quit when we're at a convenient spot and be able to pick it up pretty well anywhere. All right. Psalms chapter 16, verses 8 and 9. Psalm 16, verses 8 and 9. Now David, the great hymn writer, the great hymnologist, the great dispenser of praise, is saying, I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. I shall set, I have set the Lord always before me. That is a life that has a good concept of the glory of God. It means in everything I do that my attention is perpetually focused before the Lord and on the Lord. I see him always before me. In every decision, every juncture of life, upon rising, during the day, the last thing at night, always the presence of the reality of the glory of the face of God is over and above and around and beyond anything and everything that I do. That's what the psalmist said. Therefore, because of that, verse 9, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, and my flesh also shall rest in hope. I have set the Lord always before me. Therefore, because of that, my heart is glad. This, incidentally, is a messianic psalm because Peter quoted this psalm in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the aim of the life of David. It was the aim of the life of Jesus Christ, and certainly should be the aim of every one of us. Moses set the Lord before him. I want you to see what a marvelous thing Moses did when in the crisis decision of his life, he made the right decision because he set the face of the Lord ever before him. Now, young people, I hope you get a hold of this. The most important thing in life, the essence of life, the purpose for your existence, why you are a living organism, a human being made in the image of God on this speck of dirt, set a swim in God's great galaxy of universes, is to live for the glory of God and to edify him forever. And that simply means to set the Lord in his face ever before your presence, and every decision is oriented around the fact of the centrality of the face of God in and upon your life. Now, that, reducing it to its most simplistic terms, is the purpose for your existence on this globe. We have the story about a young, red -blooded man just like us who was faced with that, and here's what he did. Turn over in Hebrews. Keep your Bibles open. We're going to be thumbing around at several places tonight. Hebrews, that's about two -thirds of the way through the New Testament, right? Just go to James and turn left, and it's right there, just beside James. 11, 26. Hebrews 11, 26. Now, we're talking about Moses, who had refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, who chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasure of sin for Caesar. He said, now listen, esteeming Hebrews 11, 26, counting, considering the reproach, making his values, the reproach of Christ, far greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured. How in the world did he do that? How did he refuse what he could have been for the sake of what he wanted to be? How did he forsake all of the wealth of Egypt to live in a tent and enjoy, yes, enjoy the affliction and rejection of God's people by comparison? How did he do that? Look, it's in verse 27. For he endured, how did he endure? As or by seeing him who is invisible. He saw the face of God. He set the face of the Lord. Him who is invisible was not invisible to him. You have a picture of God in your mind, don't you? What you think he's like. I'll tell you what he's like. You get a picture of Jesus and you've got a picture of God. That's what Jesus is like. That's what he came to show us. And you fix that image on your mind. And you, like Moses, can always do right. His attention was always focused on God, and in light of the centrality and the reality of the glory of the face of God set before him, it was not difficult for him to establish priorities in life at every juncture of his life. In the second chapter of 1 John, you don't need to turn. John gives us a kind of a spiritual progression. By faith, the new babes call him Abba, Father. You see, the beginning, the new convert, kind of we kind of say our spiritual dadas, but we begin to grow up, and he says, now you young men have gone a step further, and you have overcome the wicked one, and you're strong in the word. Then he says, you fathers, I write unto you because you have plumbed the depths of God. You have a real image and concept of who and what God is. Did you ever hear the story about the little boy who every day on the way to school for years used to stop and look at this great statue that was cut out of the side of a mountain of an image of a face that he just respected and adored, and they say that eventually through the years he became to look like that himself? You see, that's what he's saying. And he's not suggesting to us, I think, that God has come some kind of egocentric, egomaniac. No, it's not for God's good. It is for our good that we glorify him, as we shall see in subsequent weeks to come. All right, now, what does it mean, then, to glorify the Lord? Well, for three Sunday nights, we're going to look at two or three things relative to glorifying God. First of all, what does it mean precisely? And then we'll look on a Sunday night at why we glorify God, and then try to turn it into practical terms, and I'll give you 12 pointers and let you write them down on actually, tangibly, how we go about glorifying God. I don't know about you, but I have to have help. I can't just say, oh, go glorify God. Okay, so what do you mean glorify God, and why do we do it, and practically, how do we go about it? And so we'll look at that. Now, when I talk, we're going to talk just for a few minutes tonight about what it means, this glory of God. And I want us to suggest what we're going to say under two categories. First of all, there is the glory that God has intrinsically. And then there is the glory that we give to Him. And the glory that we give to Him is not an added glory, because God is the sum total of His glory, and man cannot add to nor take away from the glory of God. Now, you can't take away from the beautiful blue of the sky. You can allow a cloud to go over the blue sky, but the sky is no less blue, because the cloud is there. We may fail to give God the glory. We may fail to let His glory be revealed, but we do not take away from His glory. He is intrinsically still the summation of His glory. That's an important thing for us to try to see. And so I want to spend a little bit of time there. Don't turn here, but in Isaiah chapter 6, verse 3, the angel of the Lord cried to the Lord, and he said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. The whole earth is full, he adds, of His glory. If no man ever lived to declare the glory of God, God would still be a glorious God. If God had created no man to give Him glory, and no man had ever lived to the glory of God, or ascribed to Him glory, God would still be just as glorious. I want you to understand that, for it's basic to the whole teaching on glorifying God. What we do when we glorify God is not to add to His glory. And what we do when we fail to glorify God is not to take away from His glory. We're going to see in Sunday nights to come, this is very important. God is a glorified being. God is glorious. Now what is the glory of God? In the 33rd chapter of Exodus, Moses asked God to see His glory. And what did God show Him in answer to His request? He showed Him His goodness. He showed Him His grace. He showed Him His mercy. And He said to Him, This, all that this is, is my glory. The glory of God is, God is, therefore, the sum total of His attributes, which are primarily contained in grace and mercy. The glory of God is the sum total of His attributes, which is primarily contained in grace and mercy. In John 1, verse 14, we beheld His glory full of grace and truth. The glory of God is His nature, and it is the sum total of all of His attributes. We cannot take away from it. We cannot add to it. God is innately, intrinsically, self -contained of Himself total glory. And all that He is and does adds up to one word, glory. The Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. And that doctrine, that philosophy, that teaching, that movement, that sermon, that music, which does not point to Jesus Christ, is not of the Holy Spirit, because His purpose is to glorify Jesus. And what did Jesus say His purpose was? To glorify the Father. So the sum total of all of the ministry of the Trinity is the glory of the Father. And should the church and her people be any less? You don't have to make the sky blue. It is blue already. You don't make water wet. It's already wet. Now in Titus 2, chapter 2, verse 10, he says that we adorn the doctrine of God. That means the teachings about God. Now we don't adorn God, but we adorn the truth about God. Now how do we adorn the truth about God? By the kind of an image about the truth of the glory of God that people have relative to their opinion of what they see of God in us. Now they may not see much of God in our behavior and in our lives. So they may not glorify Him. But He is none the less glorious. He does entrust to men the responsibility by their lives, by their behavior, of teaching the world the truth, the doctrines about the glory of God. But it is not an addition to the glory of God. It is merely an acknowledgement of the glory of God that is at stake. God is intrinsically glorious. What you do doesn't affect His glory. But it does affect the image that the world has of His glory. For God's glory is intrinsic in His being and can neither be adorned nor deprived, added to nor taken away from. Now kings have not an inherited glory. They have not an intrinsic glory. They have a glory that is added to them. You take a king and a pauper and you strip them of their clothes. You strip the king of his crown and his scepter. You wash them and scrub them and cut their hair and they both look alike and you can't tell which is which. But the king of the universe, the Lord's glory, is not one that is His because He has given a crown or a scepter. It is not added to Him. Strip away everything else from God and there's no question about who is the Lord. His glory cannot be diminished. He says, I want, well, look in 1 Chronicles first for a moment. 1 Chronicles chapter 16, verse 24. Oh, this is a wonderful Old Testament verse and then we'll see it again in the new. 1 Chronicles chapter 16. That's about halfway through the Old Testament. Just thumb through and you'll find it. 1 Chronicles 16, verse 24. Declare His glory among the heathen. Now that word declare means to announce. It means to reveal. It means to make manifest. To put on display. It doesn't say make Him glorious among the heathen. He already is glorious. It says by what you are and do, you display his glory. You see, that's our part. That's where we come in. We don't make him more glorious, nor do we make him none the less glorious. The less glorious. We merely reveal his glory or refuse to reveal the glory that already is his. Reveal, manifest his glory unto the heathen, among the heathen, his marvelous works among all nations. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And he also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Glory and honor are in his presence. Strength and gladness are in his place. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Now turn over in 1 Chronicles to chapter 29, verse 10. Oh, I really like this. The people had a giving record, a giving symbol, and they would bring their offerings and hold them up every Lord's day. And David would lead them in this testimony of praise. 1 Chronicles 29, verse 10. Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation. And David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. When you come to Isaiah 48, 11, Isaiah says, My glory will I share with no man. The Bible says, God will not share his glory with any man. But what he does is to plant his glory in the life of a redeemed believer to put on display to the world. But it is not the believer's glory. It is the glory of the Father. You know, I like what Billy Graham says. He says, When I preach the gospel, I am not on trial. I can neither fail nor succeed. The matter is between you and the Lord. And he says, I'm just a Western Union boy here to deliver the telegram. I'm just giving you the message. And what you do with it is between you and the Lord. Just so are you and I heavenly telegram deliverers. And the message that we are designed as believers to give to the world is the glory of God. And as we live to his glory, his glory planted in us is manifested and revealed to the glory. And God's glory is seen. And God is glorified when God's people let the glory of God shine through them. You say, what a glorious person she is. What a glorious saint of God that man is. Give God glory. It is the power of God. It is the glory of God on display. When his people sing, when the word is preached and the aisles are filled and the carpet stained with the tears of the penitent and the power of God is transforming lives. That's the glory of God. Oh, God doesn't share his glory with any single man. I want you to know something. God cannot divest himself of his glory. When his glory is on display, being revealed in the hearts and lives of willing men and women who choose to glorify and let reveal and manifest to the world the glory he has planted in them, there is no less of the glory of God in God in heaven. I don't know how that can be. You take 10 pounds of me and cut it off and put it somewhere else and there's only 190 of me left. Well, 185. There's 10 someplace else. You see, you take six apples and put one up in Arkansas and there's only five apples left. But you take God in heaven, the sum total of his glory, if that measures a million on the glory meter and he reveals his glory and plants his glory in 3 billion people on display in the world, he still measures a million in heaven. I don't understand that. But I'll tell you something. I sure do like it. Ah, the glory, the wonderful glory of God. If you have a King James Bible and we would all read, but we get a hundred different versions, share with someone there, and let's read Psalm 24, please, verses 7 through 10. You know that the 22nd, 3rd, and 4th Psalms are messianic, do you not? And they form an entity, a unit, a package. The 22nd Psalm, the King is dying. The 23rd Psalm, He is in the grave. The 24th Psalm, He is resurrected and coming King of glory. And in that 24th Psalm, David, this grand messianic Psalm, says this, Psalm 24, and verses 7 through 10. Let's read it together. Father, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. Oh, that's beautiful. Now just for a moment, I want us to look again at the fact that the sum total of the glory, two things I want you to remember tonight. One, God's glory is intrinsic in His being, can neither be taken away from nor added to. You do not add to it when you put it on display. You don't make it, you don't enhance it, you merely reveal it. And you don't take it away, you don't make it many less glorious when you fail to put it on display. Any more than you make the sun not be yellow when you cover it up with a cloud. So remember, it is intrinsic in His beauty, and He implants it in His nature, and He implants it in us to be revealed, not enhanced, not added to, merely exposed to the world. And the second thing, as I said, I want us to remember, is that the glory of God is the sum total of His works, His attributes, grace, truth, mercy, the light, and His power. Okay, now I want you to turn over to John chapter 11, verse 40. I love this. You remember that Lazarus had died, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John 11, 40. And Jesus loved him. And Jesus knew he was dead, and Jesus was weeping. Perhaps He wept in part because He was sad, but I think not. I think He knew what was going to happen. I think He wept because of their unbelief. And Jesus wasn't in any hurry. He got there, He took His time, He just let Him die. Why'd He do that? Because He wanted to do something greater than keep Him from dying. He wanted to raise Him from the dead. And John 11, 40. Well, let's go back to verse 38. Jesus, therefore, again, groaning in Himself, cometh to the cave, to the grave. There was a cave. And it's saying that we've been down that little side street and have walked down in, and it's down in Bethany, about four miles south of Jerusalem, the tomb, and you wind around. And it's a wonderful thing to know that that there is where Lazarus was raised from the grave. Jesus said, take you away the stone. A stone lay upon it there by the cave. Take you away the stone. Martha, the sister of Him that was dead, you know, they talk about the beautiful, you know, the Jews didn't embalm, and he'd been dead four days, and this beautiful, beautiful language of old English. Martha said, Lord, by this time he stinketh. Jesus saith unto her, listen, said not I unto thee that if thou should believe, thou should what? See the glory of God. I thought we were going to see a man raised from the dead. I thought we were going to see the power of God put on display. I thought we were going to see a resurrection from a grave to life. That's what we are going to see. And Jesus said, you're fixing to see the glory of God. The glory of God is not just something that God sits around and shines in heaven all day. He puts His glory on display through His grace and His truth and His mercy and His power in the lives of His children. That's the way the glory of God gets out to the world. We'll start there next Sunday night. Let's stand and pray.