For the Glory of God (Part 5 of 5)

For the Glory of God

1 Corinthians 6:12-20; Revelation 4:1-11

By Pastor Jordan Hines

This morning we're in first Corinthians, chapter six. So if you all stand, we're going to read verses twelve through 20. I'll go ahead and read and just follow along as you're able to.

Verse twelve. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any food for the stomach and the stomach for foods.

But God will destroy both it and them. Now, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord. For the body and God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who has joined a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

With him flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body. But he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we do praise you, Lord. We're thankful for your redemption. We're thankful for your son, Jesus Christ, who died, who shed his blood for our sins.

That we may be part of your body, Lord, that we may be part of the family, your family, Lord, and that we may be children of God. I do pray, Lord, that you would help us to focus on praising, glorifying you this morning. I pray that as Pastor Jordan teaches, that we will learn more about what you desire from us, that we would be able to do it and that we may be able to follow you, Lord.

I'm thankful that our salvation isn't limited to just being saved, Lord, but that we can serve you and we can honor you and we can glorify you with our bodies and with the things that we do. And even this passage this morning as we saw that what we do does glorify you or can tribute to us not glorifying you, Lord, help us to do the things that are right and the things that are good again, that we may be obedient children to you, that we may be pleasing to you, Lord, I do thank you for this time. I pray that you drown out all distractions, that we may focus on you and your word.

I pray that your spirit would lead us and guide us this morning. Lord, we are thankful for this time. Now we give it to you.

May you be honored in it. In Jesus name. Amen.

What a great song. The one of my favorite lyrics in that song is when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and see the brook and feel the gentle breeze. Then the chorus then sings, my soul, my savior God, to thee how great thou art.

How great thou art. When we look around at what God has done for us along our personal journeys, we can indeed sing how great thou art. And I want to begin today's sermon with a story that sort of illustrates that point very well.

This first picture here, as we walk through a few pictures, is the base of a mountain called Soldier Mountain. It's at a camp called Camp Ironwood, where I interned a few years ago. And what would happen as a counselor is every week you would lead tours, hikes up the mountain, and this is sort of where it would begin, where the trail would begin, and you move to the next slide.

There, if you would, you would encounter valleys and you would encounter these sharp spaces where you'd have to hike, and you'd go between the rocks. And some of the rocks were harder to climb on than others. At one point, the grade was like this, and you just had to keep focusing and climbing.

In fact, one of the things that we were taught at the beginning of the summer and that we had to teach the kids was you don't look down when you're going up that steep grade, because when you back up and you look up at this tall, steep portion and these big rocks you're climbing up, it's daunting, it's scary. It's terrifying because if I fall down, there's not much that's going to stop me from cracking my head open. But then as you move along, you find that every ounce of effort of getting up early, every ounce of energy that you took to get there was worth it.

Because this is where you get to the top and you go to the next slide as well. There. That's fine.

Right there. You get to see the glory of God, because you can't see the full picture, the full glory of that scene until you put in the effort of going on that journey, until you get to see what Jesus Christ has done in your life. Go to the next slide there at the top of that mountain, they put a cross to show this as the high point, as what gives us meaning, the goal, the purpose, the end, that destination is you go to the top of that mountain and you find the picture is salvation.

The point of this story is that as we have been going along in our walk through scripture, especially in this five week series, we've been able to see that it hasn't always been easy for the church. There's been persecution, there's been trials, there's been struggles. But God has been working through those steep grades and through those tough hikes and has gotten us to a.

He has gotten us to a point in our study where we can look over the whole landscape and we can see what God was doing. We're going to be doing somewhat of a review, but also a conclusion to the series. We're going to review some of what we have learned, but we're also going to see that the final piece of the puzzle here is that we're doing this for the glory of God.

So the series idea, the definition that we've been working from, is that the church is a covenanted group of baptized Christ followers who labor in the fulfilling of the great commission for the advancement of the gospel. And today, our focus, as we did in our song service as well, was for the glory of God. We're here for the glory of God, to show the magnificence of God.

That is why we're doing the great commission. That is why we are a covenanted group of believers. That is why we are here.

So it's my prayer that we would not shut our brains off this morning, but that we would go back in time in our minds just to think through what we have learned and think through why we are doing this. So let's ask the Lord for help that he might prepare our minds for the study. God, you have equipped us for this week so that we can understand why we do the great commission, why we go out, and why we advance the gospel.

God, help us. Help us to see the needs of our community and help us to love our community and help us to have hearts that are open to change personally, and that we're humble and teachable and willing to grow in you and not just stagnant in our walk with you. Help us to be disciples and help us to make disciples as a church.

In your son's name we pray. Amen. So, if you remember, the first week, we were talking about the church being the covenanted bride of Christ, and this idea of being covenanted was a sacred bond.

This was something that was pictured in marriage. In fact, the only two points for that sermon was marriage and the church. It was those two things.

And when someone gets married, they become one flesh and their life, the lives that were separate now become one, and they take on a new identity, and they work together for the advancement of that marriage. We saw that from Ephesians, chapter five. And I think it was a beautiful thing that God uses these real life illustrations, these real life relationships, to show us what he wants from his church and from that message.

The application was that we ought to love God by confessing our sin, by obeying his word, by being close with him, by loving each other, by confronting sin. Notice that loving God, confessing sin, came before confronting sin and then discipling one another. This is purposeful conversation, not just about what the word says, but how the shortcomings in my life need to be overcome with the word of God.

We also need to be encouraging one another. Again, all these things happen in a marriage. All these things happen in the context of a covenanted relationship.

We're also to love our community, to love this community as a group of believers, but also to love the community around us, to be present, to be looking for opportunities as simple as just a conversation with a cashier and as complex as a seminar. We are to give the gospel to people with our actions first, because people don't care about what you have to say until they see your actions. And then the next week, we looked at acts chapter 16.

This was Paul and Silas in prison. And we saw that Jesus was adding to his church through the gospel, and that the gospel was not just in a church building or just in the tabernacle or the temple, but it was going to gentiles. It was going to this Philippian jailer.

It was going to him because this Philippian jailer saw a difference in Paul. You saw a Paul who was persecuted, a Paul who was. Was down in the lowest part of the prison, who was in stocks, who was in chains, and that Paul who would not give up on his joy for the gospel.

We are called to bring the gospel to people, even on our lowest of lows, even when we lose, even when we feel distraught. We're called to trust God, to praise him. And why we called to do this because he is still changing people.

He's still converting people. He's making baptized Christ followers who are disciplined, who love the Lord, who walk with him. He is doing this today as well.

And then we saw the great commission in week three from Matthew 28. And we saw that we are first to be converted, that if you are indeed without Christ, you are indeed without grace and mercy. You are to turn to him, admit that you are a sinner, believe in the name of Jesus Christ, receive the gift of salvation, allow him to work in you to be converted, but then to be connected with the local church.

Jesus uses the ministries of different churches in different ways. And God equips people sovereignly to serve different communities. And God has allowed us to be in this community.

God has allowed you to be in your community, in your social groups. We are to connect, to find someone even in this church that you know, that you can help them walk with God. And as a side note, every one of us, including myself, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best at this.

Finding someone who can mentor you, mentor me and mentoring someone else purposefully, not just allowing the schedules and the busyness of life to get to you and to take up all your time, but to prioritize those kind of relationships, join in accountability with your church family. Because we grow as a community, we grow individually, but we grow even more when those individuals come together and form a community. And we are to go to our neighbors with gospel centered conversations, pray for opportunities and take opportunities.

And then last week, we saw the general idea work out in the book of acts of advancing the Gospel, of how Jesus is advancing the gospel through his church. And it was an interesting study because it was starting from Jerusalem, a very religious center, a place where people would expect people to go to church and to worship God and to, to be religious. But then it moved to people who were hated Samaritans, to all regions, all Judea, and then to the ends of the earth, especially people who were enemies of the state of Israel.

And then we saw at the end of that study that it even got to Rome, the center of the known world. And we were to learn from the pattern that was set for us by these faithful men of God, by Paul and Peter, by Philip, by the other apostles and disciples who went on to preach the gospel and be pastors and deacons and ministers in their churches. We are to know that the gospel will advance only through the power of God.

It's not because Peter and Paul were special people. It's because they were empowered by a special God, by a great God, and they did their part. They were faithful.

They did what God called them to do, even though they didn't have all the answers. We don't have all the answers either. At the end of that sermon, we looked at a passage in one Timothy, chapter one, verses three through 20, and we talked about how the purpose of the command that we are given, and Timothy was given, was not just to go and advance the gospel as like an employee who just has to do something, but we are to be compelled or propelled by love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and a sincere faith.

See, the church here is called to go as a covenanted group. That means that when you are covenanted with someone, you have to really agree with someone. And if you're going to be truly one, you have to have that same purpose in mind.

We are covenanted. You cannot break it. And we are baptized Christ followers, people who pursue Christ and are not afraid to be identified as Christ's followers, as Christians who labor who we work.

It's not easy. It's labor in the fulfilling of the great commission. This is being and making disciples for the advancement of the gospel so that the good news that we once received can go out for the glory of God.

And in that advance, I think it's easy to just. To pass over that quickly and just see that timeline. But let's think through the fact that someone took the time to advance the gospel in my life.

Someone took the time to share the gospel with me. Someone took the time to leave their comfort zone, to talk about something they already knew to someone who they knew needed this gospel message. Remember how much joy was in your life in that moment when you changed? And I pray that that joy still exists in your life right now.

But remember when you first got saved? Remember when the gospel first impacted your life? It's easy. Even after, like a week of camp, like some of you have come back from who, when you're totally surrounded by the word of God and you're totally saturated with the word of God, to just have a spiritual high and just think through man. How can I.

How could I have forgotten how amazing God's word is when God's word hasn't changed? It's us that we tend to have weak spiritual lives because we don't meditate enough on God's word. And this week, I want us to really hit home on the point that the church here exists to glorify God by being and making disciples. We're here to glorify God.

And if you look in scripture, there's an interesting distinction that I think needs to be made here. There are two different terms that are close to one another. One of them is the glory of God, and one is to glorify God.

So I want us to look at what it means to what is the glory of God, because this idea of the glory of God will help us understand why we ought to glorify God. So I'm going to read a couple boring technical definitions, and then we're going to get to some practical ideas. One here is from the Lexham survey of theology.

It says, the glory of God is the splendor and brilliant beauty that shines through all the divine attributes. But it's especially evident in the crucified and risen Christ. Unger's Bible Dictionary says it is the manifestation of his divine attributes and his perfections, or such a visible splendor as indicates the possession and presence of these.

God's glory is the correlative of his holiness, that in which holiness comes to expression. God glory is the expression of holiness, as beauty is the expression of health. So those definitions are very, very wordy.

But in my estimation, what they're saying is the glory of God is essentially all of who God is on display in your life and for the world. It's the full display of God's character. It's also the brilliance and beauty of God.

It's showing God to people. It is the inherent beauty of God's holiness, of God's nature. It is the essence of who God is.

His glory shines, his glory radiates. He is the reason that all creation is glorifying him. So he is the beginning and the end point of this glorification process, because he is glorious, because he is holy, because all of his character is perfectly intertwined together.

And none of his character qualities, none of his attributes contradict each other. But they all work together in harmony and for the love and the good of us. His attributes, his characteristics are inherent.

You cannot take these traits away from him. So a simple example here. It is not that God did a good work alone.

It's that God is good, and therefore he did a good work, because that is his purpose. It's his essence, it's who he is. And God's glory is a concept that we have a hard time fully understanding.

And I don't think we'll fully understand until we are in his presence, where we are. And the term is glorified, where we share in characteristic and attribute with him. You see, there are two kinds of attributes.

There are communicable and uncommunicable. We can have in common these traits of love, joy, kindness, faithfulness, patience. We can take on these characteristics through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We can't be self existing, eternal, all powerful, all knowing and unchanging. We don't have the majesty, splendor and beauty of God as much as some people think that they do. We have the ability to understand, if we're humble, that this is not us, but because of who God is, because of the character of God, we are moved to the idea, our idea for today.

Glorifying God. This is exalting, magnifying, pointing people to God. It's holding up the magnifying glass and saying, look at this instead.

Look at this instead of the world. Exalting, magnifying, pointing people to God through your behavior, thoughts and your heart. Motivations were to glorify.

When people are glorifying God, often it comes with exclamation, with boldness, with joy. It comes with yelling and screaming and shouting, because people can't help but tell people what this God has done for them. Think of the people that Jesus healed, who he said, don't tell anyone.

And they couldn't help but go shout out what Jesus has done for them. God needs to be glorified. God should be glorified, and we will be glorified.

We will be like him. But first, God came down to be a man. In John ten, he said, I and the father are one.

They are united. And Jesus is by definition his name, Emmanuel, God with us. So now that we see who God is, we're supposed to glorify him.

We're supposed to extol him. We're supposed to make him look great, point to him, and our heart should overflow with this praise and adoration. We have a promise from scripture also that says in one John three, two, beloved, now we are children of God.

And it was not yet. It has not, has yet, has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him.

For we shall see him as he is. We will see him as he is. We won't be veiled.

He won't be veiled behind the sky. He won't be veiled behind the universe that he created. We'll be able to share in fellowship with him, in communion with him, because we'll be like him.

And the reason we can't be in fellowship with him in this way right now is because of the sin that exists in this world, the sin that exists in our heart. Because God has not yet made an end to all things. God has not yet called us home.

He wants us to glorify him on this earth. He wants us to go, therefore, unto all nations, teaching and preaching the gospel, making disciples of all nations. So you see the distinction there.

Because of God's glory, the glory of God, the majesty, the splendor of God, moves us to observe his goodness, observe his character, and that propels us to glorify, to exclaim, to make great the name of Jesus Christ. And we are to do this. And the reason why is because very basically, he is our creator.

You all know this text. This isn't anything new for you. Genesis one.

One. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You can go through the whole Genesis account of the first few chapters and see that God made the earth.

He is the author of creation. Go to Philippians two, you can go to Colossians one, you can go to revelation and sort of look back from the future, and you can see God is the center of all this. In the beginning, God created.

When you create something, you have the authority over it. He is the one who provides the intent and the purpose behind our lives. Because God has designed us for worship is our second idea of why we ought to glorify God.

First, we are his creation, but also God designed us for worship. There are numerous examples in the Old Testament. Think of the book of judges.

Think of the prophets. I think of Jeremiah, the first few chapters of idolatry, of people worshiping. You can think of King Nebuchadnezzar.

You can think of Babylon. You can think of your own life. You can think of America.

All these examples of people worshiping things. And even today you're worshiping something. Is it your time? Is it your money? Is it your comfort? Is it God? What are you worshiping Today? We all tend to worship something.

You see, we worship God, or we worship ourselves or the World or our possessions. This God made us. And yet sometimes we choose to worship anything but him.

We're also to worship God because he is the one true God, because he is real. He is true even. Think back to Exodus, chapter 20, and the ten Commandments.

The first two commandments are very clear on this. It says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.

God is jealous. That emotion, that reality, often hits us as sin. We think God is jealous.

Why is God jealous? Well, God is jealous because he is the only one who can righteously demand that he gets all of our attention. He's the only one that can righteously demand that we give everything we have to him. When we're jealous, it's often because we have misplaced desires.

It's often because we don't want the right things. God is jealous for our time. God is jealous for our attention.

He's jealous for our thoughts. We ought to be so captivated in him. Even linking back to the idea of marriage, you as a spouse should be jealous for your partner's time and their affection and their attention.

You should be jealous for your time with them and your relationship with them. Because if your spouse just chooses to never pay attention to you, you're going to wonder if they really love you. Sometimes we can treat God that way.

We can think, yeah, I'm a child of God, and then do our own thing for a little while, even for a couple days, and kind of forget and then realize, oh, I've abandoned my partner, abandoned my God. God is jealous. He wants our attention.

He wants us to serve him. He demands it. His righteousness demands it.

His character demands it. The glory of God demands it. And our love for him ought to propel us towards it, towards worshiping God, towards glorifying God.

Jesus in John 14 six says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes the father except through me. He is the only one.

He is it. This brings us to our main text for the day in revelations, chapter four, as we have seen or overview of where we have been and why we are here as a church and what we do as a church. And we've seen the distinction between the glory of God and what it means to glorify God, to make God look great in our actions and in our thoughts and in our lives, we have to understand that he is alone worthy of our worship.

Allow me to read revelation, chapter four, the full chapter. After these things, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this.

Immediately I was in the spirit. And behold, a throne set in heaven. And the one sat on the throne.

And he who sat there was like a Jasper and Sardis stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow above the throne in appearance, like an emerald. Around the throne were 24.

And on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes. And they were crowned. They had crowns of gold on their heads.

And from thrones receded lightning, thundering voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal.

In the midst of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures, full of eyes, front and back. The first living creature was like a lion. The second living creature like a calf.

The third living creature had a face like a man. And the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around them.

Within they do not rest day and night, saying, holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor. And thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne.

And worship him who lives forever and ever. And cast their crowns before the throne, saying, you are worthy, o Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.

This passage is so deep, we're not going to have time to pick everything apart. But I just want us to get the ideas of glorifying God. And seeing God and responding to it.

First, I want us to see from this text that there is a door standing open. There's an invitation to come in. And then there's a couple things going on here.

There's a throne, and then there's an area around the throne. The throne here is like Jasper, sword of stone. In appearance.

It's brilliant. And around the throne, a rainbow like an emerald. And 24 elders and 24 thrones around this big throne, this great throne.

And these elders have crowns on their head. And from these thrones proceed lightning, thunder and voices. Now, this is a very scary scene to just have no context for.

It's a very scary scene to not understand. But as we look before the throne, we see a sea of glass, like crystal. We see that there is somehow just this perfect majesty.

There's also an element of this. Is that if you are an enemy of this God who is on this throne, that you ought to be in fear because there is great power. But if you are a child of God, there ought not be fear.

In the midst of the throne and around the throne. This is verses six through eleven. There are four living creatures.

There's an interesting idea here. There's some common features. They all have six wings.

They have eyes around them and within them. And they don't rest and there are some distinctions here. There's four of them.

The first one's, let's see, lost my spot. First was like a lion, and then the second one is like a calf. Third has a face of a man.

The fourth is like a flying eagle. And their message here is simple. The message here is holy, holy, holy.

Lord God Almighty, the God. These three. These three members of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

These are holy. God is holy. Lord God Almighty.

He is great. He is mighty. He is the one who saves.

And then he talks about his eternality here, who was and is and is to come. This is our God who has existed eternally in power, in strength. The one who we read about all in the Bible, about salvation, about justification, about sanctification, about glorification.

We read about God working in us. But we also need to see the bigger picture, that God is powerful, and that makes our individual salvation even more impactful, because this powerful God loves us. This powerful God cares about the details of your life.

And there are 24 elders here, and they respond. They fall down before the throne of God. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, holy, holy, holy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.

Why is God worthy of his honor and power and glory? Because he created all things, and by your will, they exist and were created. We ought to take this text and clearly apply it to our lives. We ought to think through the fact that because Jesus is our creator, because God made us, with the purpose of glorifying him, with the purpose of spreading the gospel to all nations, with the purpose of declaring his glory to the nations, we have no other option except to glorify.

There's no other way. There's no other thing we can do. I think it's at a pretty amazing command that we ought to be doing.

We ought to be fulfilling. The question here for us today, then, remains, how do we do this? How do we glorify God as a church? I think it starts with us individually. How do I glorify God? Well, am I living like a christian today? Is my thought life.

What it should be is my attitude toward my neighbor, toward my friends, toward my family, towards my coworkers. What it should be. If someone were to audit my life and see and ask questions of my life, what would they find? Would they find dirt? Now, we're all sinners, so I'm not asking you to be perfect, and God's word is not asking you to be perfect, but God's word is asking you to do is trust in the one who is, is to lean on the one who is and be a disciple by obeying God's commandments, by pursuing Christ, by loving him.

Jesus says in John 14, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Not that you'll be perfect, but that if you love me, it should be easy to want to obey. And when you don't obey, you'll be grieved.

You'll be sad because you disappointed your father. Get to know his character. Study his word.

If you're struggling with something, reach out for help. If you're struggling with something, don't just allow it to continue to exist in your life. If there's a sin that's complicating your life because you can't help, but just keep doing it over and over and over again, get help.

And if you notice something in your brother or sister's life that you see a sin issue, help them. Not in a condescending way, because you're not God, but love them by sharing God's word with them and just coming alongside them and encouraging them. Be a disciple, but also make disciples.

Now, this isn't a magical formula. Or to say that just, if you use this buzzword that it will magically change something. This takes work.

This takes not just today or tomorrow, this takes a continued effort in someone's life. This means being with someone who is not necessarily fun to be around because they're walking through some heavy, heavy things, heavy trials, heavy situations. This is an intentional conversation.

This is ministry. Some of the things that we're trying to do this summer, like throwing evangelistic events, like outreach through door to door evangelism, are very practical things that we can do just to engage people in conversation. And hopefully, by the grace of God, as we lean on his word, he will make a change in people's lives.

God will do this. I don't want us to get lost in the weeds of our definition and forget that God is going to grow his church. We have to rely on him, and we have to go into this commission, go into this challenge, this definition of what a church is, with the idea that we cannot do this without him.

So we need to pray that God would grow his church. We need to pray that God would grow us, that God would first just get ahold of our lives every single day. Remember that being a church member is a committed relationship.

Remember that guarding the church against false teaching is necessary because we are to be genuine followers of Jesus Christ, not those who are swayed by other doctrines, not those who are swayed by the whims of whatever teacher comes along. We're to be laboring in the gospel and advancing the gospel for the glory of God as a church. So allow me to read the series idea for one final time.

As we conclude, the church is a covenanted group of baptized Christ followers who labor in the fulfilling of the great commission for the advancement of the gospel, for the glory of God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. God, we ask that you would strengthen us.

We ask that you would prepare us to genuinely serve. Prepare us to go to our community, help us to get over any fears that we have. Help us to be humble and to be submissive to what your word tells us to do every single morning.

God, thank you for this church. Thank you for the time we have together. In your son's name, amen.