How to Glorify God, Part 3
Selected Scriptures
Now, we found out last time that those people who bring no glory to God, do not answer the question of their creation, or the meaning of their existence. For man was created to the end that he might give God glory. We might as well say that people who do not give God glory find that time has not been used, time has not been spent, time has not really been lived. Time has only been lost. Bernard said, "Such peoples' lives are either sinful or barren. They are a useless burden on the earth."
Men were created for the purpose of bringing glory to God. That is why we were made. And a man who never brings glory to God never answers the meaning of his existence. In turn, God has promised, for those who give Him glory, He shall grant them the privilege of joy and enjoying Him forever...One day, perhaps, God will ask a question similar to the question asked by King Ahasuerus. You remember, in Esther 6:3, he said, "What honor and dignity hath been done to Mordecai?" And maybe something like that question is going to be the question asked by God at the end of every man's life. What honor, what dignity, what glory hath been brought to Me? That is the question upon which a man's eternal destiny hinges. What have you done to give glory to God?
Now, you say, "Well, maybe I have an excuse. I'm not aware of all of this. The Bible says, "You're without excuse." Romans 1 says that, "All men have the opportunity and the responsibility to glorify God, so that, if they do not give Him glory, if they glorify Him not as God, they are still without excuse." Now, this particular view of man's existence in terms of giving glory to God is really the theme of a very familiar parable in the Bible, which I would point out to you in Matthew chapter 25. we're not gonna read all of it, but we'll make several allusions to it. And if you want, you can look at it there in the 25th chapter beginning at verse 14.
Here you have the familiar parable known as the Parable of the Talents. Verse 14 of Matthew 25 says, "For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man traveling into a far country, who calls his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents...and somebody figured out a talent's probably worth about $160, but you can't keep up with that, 'cause you can't keep up with inflation, so whatever it's worth...to another two, to another one, to every man according to his ability and straightforward took his journey."
Now, the man simply divided up a certain amount of money to his servants. And he went away. And the object was the servant had certain capacity to bring honor to his master. Now, the...the servant who was a good servant would say, "I want to honor my master, and so I will do everything I can to take this five talent and to double it, so that when he comes back, I can show him that I have, indeed, honored him, that my love for him has caused me to work hard and diligently to multiply that which he gave me." And so with the other servants. That was the objective. The man would find out who it was that took opportunity and took privilege and multiplied it for his honor.
And you notice, very interestingly, in the parable that each was given a different number of talents. And that simply is our Lord's way of saying every man has been given by God different capacities. Capacities vary with people. We're all in different terms capacitated to give God glory. There are some cross the board generalities, but each of us uniquely designed by God to give Him glory in different capacity.
Now, though the capacities different...differed, the responsibility was identical. They were to take that which was given and use it to bring honor to their master. Well, you know the story. Some of the servants did, didn't they? They multiplied what they were given. And to them the comment is given in verse 23, "His lord said unto them, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the...what?...joy of thy lord." Now watch, when the servant honored his master, his master gave him joy. Now that is the very statement, really, of every man's relation to God. God is the master in the parable, and men are the servants. And the servant who gives God glory, in turn is given, not only glory himself, but joy when the Lord said "enter into the joy of thy lord," He was assuming the granting of joy to the faithful servant.
On the other hand, there are some people who have capacities, but they do not give God glory. They do not give the master the honor. They do not respond to opportunity and privilege and honor their master by doing what they can with what they have. To them, come the words in verse 30. "And cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping...as opposed to joy...and gnashing of teeth."
Now, here you have two different individuals. One enters into joy and becomes a ruler over many things. One enters into hell and weeps and gnashes his teeth. The difference is this. One gave glory to his master, to his lord. One did not. A man in this world can choose to give God glory or to hoard the capacities they have for their own ends. Those who give Him glory are rewarded with joy and eternal rule with Him. Those who refuse to give Him glory are cast into outer darkness.
Now, you say, "Well, I have...I've certainly never willfully dishonored God. And I...I've never done evil things against God, and I've certainly not lived a vile, gross, sinful life like some debauched people in our world. Are you sure I'm not all right?" Well, that's interesting. If you study the parable, you find out the servant didn't do anything overtly evil. The servant didn't curse his master. The servant wasn't some kind of an immoral character. The servant just didn't do anything with the capacity God gave him to give Him glory. You see, the thing which damns a man is not necessarily what he does, but it's what he doesn't do...That's why you can't be justified by your own works, because you can't do what you oughta do by your own works. For what you oughta do is give God all the glory and none to yourself, and that eliminates the possibility of getting all wrapped up in what you do.
You remember that Jesus cursed a fig tree, don't you? Do you also remember that it wasn't an evil fig tree? It was just a barren one. See? It didn't have bad leaves, just didn't have any. That's the point. Now that brings us to our theme verse, which has been Psalm 16: 8 and 9. It says, "I have set the Lord always before me. Therefore, my heart is glad." In other words, if I put God's glory in my...in...in front of me, focus all on God's glory. Therefore, I'll know what gladness is. God gives joy in response to glory. You know, it's a simple thing, folks. If you're having trouble with joy in your life, it's because you're having trouble giving God glory. Because if you give Him glory, He gives joy in return. Or as the catechism put it, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and, consequently, to enjoy Him forever." That's what human beings are for. That's why this little piece of protoplasm exists. Did you know that?
You maybe just had a little baby in your house. We did. We've got one, six months plus. And you know what that little baby's for? You ask yourself, "What is this little thing for?" It's very clear. It's for the glory of God. And if that baby does not grow up to give God glory, then it never fulfills the meaning of its creation. That's basic. That's why we were made. And that's why to exist apart from that is such stupidity, because when we do what God designed us to do, we fulfill the meaning of our existence. God, in turn, responds by giving us joy in the knowledge of Him now and forever...And believe me, friends, that is not an intrusion on our independence. That's why we were made. Sin is an intrusion on our purpose.
Now, we saw two major points we were gonna talk about that you have in your little outline. One is to glorify God, and other's to enjoy God. We said that under glorifying God, there were three aspects: the what, the why, and the how. We've covered these in detail. We come to the how, and let's just start there and make a quick review. How do we glorify God? How do we really bring God glory? We've been created to do it. How do we do it? What is it that we can do that gives glory to God? First of all, by aiming at His glory. That's our first point, and you can just look these through as we go. By aiming at His glory. In other words, the first thing that I'm gonna have to do to give God glory is to recognize that's what I'm for. Right? And, therefore, to set the Lord always before me. In other words, whatever I do, whether I eat or drink, I do all to the glory of God. That's aiming at His glory. In everything that I do. That is the essence of everything. This is to aim at His glory. This is the purpose for which I exist. If I aim at God's glory, and He does something through me, then He has done it. If I do it myself, then, usually, I've done it, and it gets into problems. And so we aim at His glory.
What does that involve? Well, we saw many things. Aiming at His glory means the elimination of self. If you're gonna aim at His glory, you gotta get rid of you. None for you. It means preferring Him above everything. Family, friends, success, money, job, whatever it is. It means you're content to do His will no matter what the cost. It means you hurt when His glory suffers. If you really aim at God's glory, you hurt when God is not honored. You know, like when Jesus went into the temple. You know why He got upset? Because God was being dishonored. And He cleaned the place out. And you remember what He said? "The zeal of Thine house is heating Me up." You know what zeal is? It's a fantastic emotion. It's a compound emotion of opposites. You know what zeal is? Think of this. It's a combination of love and hate. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine anything being a combination of those? That's zeal. You say, "What do you mean?" It's total love for God, and it's absolute hate for anything that violates Him. That's zeal...A fired up Christian with zeal takes every dishonor to God worse than he would take a personal injury. Do you hurt more when people talk about you or when they talk about God? It's a good measure on whether you're really aiming at His glory or not.
Do you remember what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:2? He said, "You've got one good thing about you, thou canst not bear them that are evil." That's good. They hated those things which violated the absolute glory of God. We saw also that aiming at God's glory means you're content if God gets the glory no matter who's the instrument. You're not in competition with other instruments.
Well, let's go to the second point reviewing. First of all, we give God glory by aiming at His glory. Secondly, by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't even begin, friend, to give God glory until you come to Christ, because the Bible says, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. Let him be accursed." So you can't even come to God at all except through Jesus Christ. You can't even give Him glory except through Christ who is His glory. You know, that every knee should bow to Christ to the glory of God. You can't even give God glory until you've come to Jesus Christ. That's how you give Him glory, first of all.
Now, thirdly, we saw that you give God glory by confession of sin. Remember, we said that when you confess sin, that glorifies God, because it exonerates God. Remember what Adam said when he sinned? He didn't take the responsibility. He said, "The woman...what?...You gave me. It's Your fault, God." Now, that does not honor God when you make Him responsible for your sin. When you confess that your sin is your own, you exonerate God. That honors Him.
We saw then, fourthly, that you honor God by trusting God. We saw in Romans 4:20, it said that Abraham believed God. He was strong in faith, thus giving glory to God. God is glorified when we believe Him. You say, "What does that mean?" It just means this. If you don't believe God, then the reason you don't believe Him is you question His credibility. Right? Sure. First John 5:10, "He that believeth not makes Him a liar." God says, "I'll supply all your needs." You say, "Well, I gotta worry a little bit." Then you're not believing God. And if you're not believing God, then you're making suspect His attributes. You're doubting His credibility. That's dishonoring to God...No, if you believe Him, you honor Him. Faith honors God.
Five, we honor God by fruitfulness. We glorify God by fruitfulness. John 15:8, "Hereby is My Father glorified that you bear much fruit." And, you know, if you have a life where there's no fruit, you dishonor God terribly. Where there's little fruit, you just dishonor God, because the world is gonna say, "Some kind of God you've got. Look at you. He's really done a lot for you, hasn't He?" You've heard the oldeola. If that's what a Christian is, no thanks. You dishonor God when there is not productivity in your life. You bring Him glory by fruitfulness.
Then, sixthly, we honor God or we give Him glory by praising Him. Psalm 50:23 says, "Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth Me." Praise honors God. You say, "What do you mean by praise?" Well, lemme just give you three things. One, reciting God's works. Reciting God's works. Oftentimes a new Christian will say to me, "John, is there any reason to study the Old Testament?" And I'll always say, "Yes, of course there's reason to study the Old Testament. First of all, God wrote it. And if anything that God wrote, I wanna read, 'cause I love God." I can remember when I was courting my wife, and she used to write me little notes. Oh, I loved every one of those notes. I read those things over and over and over again. When there's someone you love, you wanna...you wanna read the expression of that someone. And the same is true about the Old Testament. I love God. Therefore, I wanna read what He wrote. I wanna know everything there is to know about Him.
But, beyond that, if for no other reason at all, you know why you should study the Old Testament? Because you oughta know the history of what God has done, just so you can stand there and recite it to God and nobody else. You say, "Well, maybe I oughta study it so I should teach it." That's true, too. But you oughta study the Old Testament so that you might know the history of God's works, so that for, for no other reason, if there were no other reason, you could at least stand there and say, "God, You did this, You did this, You did this, You did this, You did this. What a God You are." You say, "Where do you ever get the precedent for that?" All through the Old Testament, and even in the New Testament. They recited the wonderful works of God...Reading the Old Testament, beloved, will give you insights into who God is and how He operates. That'll give you strength and confidence for trusting Him in your own life.
So praise, then, involves reciting God's works. Secondly, it involves thanks. When you thank God, you give Him glory through praise. Whenever you thank God, in effect, you're...you're acknowledging that He is the source of what happened. When you say, "Oh, something wonderful happened. Thank You, Lord." You're acknowledging the Lord made that thing happen, and that gives Him glory, because He did.
The third way you can praise Him is not only in reciting His works and giving Him thanks, but in giving Him credit for everything. When you give God credit for everything that happens, you're...you're really praising God. Listen to 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10. Paul says this, "But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace, which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all." Now, that may sound like a little proud thing there. "I worked harder than anybody else. Yet, not I, but the grace of God which was with Me." He gave God all the credit for everything.
Joab, remember, fought against Reba, and he won a victory. You remember what he did? He sent for David, that he might give David the crown. I've often thought, maybe that's a good illustration of how the Christian acts. You win a victory in your life. You don't wear the crown. You send for the Lord Jesus Christ, and you give Him the crown, because He, through you, has won the victory. You know, it's kind of like the silkworm. I read about...interesting things about the silkworm. The silkworm, when it weaves its beautiful work, hides itself under the silk so that it is not seen. And you and I as Christians, as God through us, weaves the silk of righteousness, should be totally hidden from view, so that the glory belongs only to God.
Well, seventh, we glorify God by loving Him enough to suffer for Him. We saw this, didn't we, with Peter in John 21, when Jesus said by...when He spoke of the death of crucifixion, and he said, "This was the death that Peter would die, by which he would glorify God." You...you really give God glory when you love Him so much, you'd even die for Him. That gives Him glory. And then Peter recited to us the principle of that in 1 Peter 4, which I'll simply read to you. Verse 14. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the Spirit of glory and God rests on you." Verse 16, "Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God for this reason." In suffering, we glorify God. Even in death, we glorify God when we love Him enough to die for Him.
All right, let's go then from there to number eight. And this'll beginning...this will beginning to add to your outline. We glorify God by contentment. Now, listen, who made you the way you are minus your sin? God did, right? So you oughta be content with yourself. Who put you in the situation you're in? And all of its circumstances apart from the sin in it. God did. You are what you are where you are because God put you there. If you're content, then, you're acknowledging God's sovereignty in your life. That gives Him glory. If you're discontent, malcontent, your real gripe is with God's wisdom. Got that? And if you sit in it, in a state of discontent, you are, in effect, blaming God. And you are questioning God's permission, which allowed that thing to happen. Contentment acknowledges God's sovereignty, and God, therefore, is glorified.
Lemme show you an illustration of this in the life of Paul. Turn to Philippians 4 just to give you an illustration, and then we'll go to another passage and look at both ends of it. I'll show you a man who was content. Now, Paul had just received an offering from the Philippians. They'd sent him some money. And you say, "Well, it's easy to be content in that situation." Well, he was content. But I want you to see the attitude of his contentment. Verse 10, Philippians 4. "I rejoiced in the Lord." He didn't say I rejoiced in the money. You know, if you're gonna rejoice in your circumstance, then you're gonna change all the time. If you're gonna rejoice in the Lord, you can stay the same, 'cause He doesn't change. "I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; of which you were also mindful, but lacked opportunity." In other words, "I'm so excited in the Lord because of the offering you gave. And you woulda done it sooner, but you didn't have the opportunity." "Oh," says, "not that I speak in respect of want."
In other words, it's not because I needed this thing. It's not because I'm...I'm just glad because I got it for myself, for I've learned in whatever state I am...in this to be...what?... content. I know how to be abased. I now how to be brought down. I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I'm instructed to be full and to be hungry, to abound and suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. In other words, I...it doesn't matter to me if it's up, down, if I have, I don't have it. It's fine. "Notwithstanding, he says in verse 14. "I don't wanna minimize your gift, he says. Don't want you to feel bad. You have well done that you did share it with my affliction. And you Philippians know, also that, in the beginning of the Gospel, which I departed from Macedonia, and no church shared with me as concerning give and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica, you sent once and again under my necessity." He said, "You were the only ones who came to my rescue. Oh, not because I desire a gift...watch this...but I desire fruit that may abound to your account."