The Glory of God
Notes
Transcript
Inductive Approach
Inductive Approach
J I Packer saw a distinction the motivations for evangelism in our day. He feared that there had been a great shift in the last several hundred years away from a God centered gospel to a Man centered gospel. The difference is seen most clearly when you hear the two parties give their explanation as to God’s motivation in establishing the gospel. Why has God chosen to engage with the world? Why has God revealed Himself to mankind?
To save men from their sin? To bring salvation to sinful people?
Does God ever reveal Himself to man without the intention of provoking them to believe in Him?
When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Does God ever reveal Himself to man intending not to produce faith in them?
“You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land.
“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
So what is going on in these situations? Could not the Christ have knocked this guy down off his high horse like he did Paul and change his heart and mind with the truth? Could not God have softened Pharaoh’s heart to let His people go? Because His people went! God won. And is that not what you and I pray for every time you and I pray the gospel over a lost friend or family member? “God would you save this person?
The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord;
He turns it wherever He wishes.
It must mean that God has other purposes in those interactions other than their salvation or other than softening their hearts.
Big God Theology vs Big Man Theology. God centered Perspective vs Man centered perspective.
The Glory of God. What is the Glory of God? John Piper has helped me a lot.
John Piper points out:
Glory is not all that easy to define for one’s full understanding. It’s kind of abstract.
John uses the difference between “Basketball” and “Beauty”. Glory is like that.
And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
In this way Glory is very similar to magnification. Different types of Magnification. Microscope/Telescope.
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
How is he doing this?
God’s Plan to Glorify Himself
Revelation. in all it’s forms Ps 19:1-2. Colossians 1:16. Romans 1:20. Romans 3:19.
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
In the Humiliation and Exaltation of the Son. Phil 2:9-10.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
In the damnation of the Reprobate. Pharaoh. Romans 9
In the salvation of the Elect. Eph 1:6 . Eph 1:12. Eph 1:13.
to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
In the sanctification of His people. “Vessels for Glory” 2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Our pursuit of the Glory of God
Obedience. Our submission to God’s glory as our highest good and the ultimate end of all things. Matt 5:16, “Let your light shine”, “that they may see you good works and glorify the Father” 1 Corinthians 10:31
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Contentment. Our recognition that God’s working in us to conform us to His glory is amazingly gracious. Paul.
Evangelism/Right motives in Evangelism.
“Now this is a truth which at first we find hard to receive. Our immediate reaction to it is an uncomfortable feeling that such an idea is unworthy of God: that self-concern of any sort is really incompatible with moral perfection, and in particular with God’s nature as love. Sensitive and morally cultured people are sincerely shocked by the thought that God’s ultimate end is His own glory, and protest most heatedly against it. Why, they say, this is to depict God as essentially no different from a bad man, even from the devil himself! It is an immoral and outrageous doctrine, and if the Bible teaches it, so much the worse for the Bible! Indeed, they often draw this conclusion explicitly with regard to the Old Testament. A volume, it is said, which depicts God so persistently as a “jealous” Being, always concerned first and foremost about His “honour,” cannot be regarded as Divine truth, for God is not like that, and it is no less than blasphemy, real if unintentional, to think that He is. Since these convictions are widely and strongly held, it is worth while before we go further to pause and consider what validity they have.
We begin by asking: why are they asserted with so much heat? On other theological questions, men can disagree calmly enough; but it seems a universal experience that protests against the doctrine that God’s chief end is His glory are made with passion and rhetoric and even bluster. The reason is not far to seek, and it does credit to the moral earnestness of the speakers. Their outbursts of feeling spring, as passionate outbursts in conversation so often do, from a bad conscience. These persons are sensitive to the sinfulness of continual self-seeking. They know themselves well enough to see that a guilty craving to gratify self is at the root of all their moral weaknesses and shortcomings; they are, indeed, trying as best they can to face it and fight it. A condemning conscience continually reminds them that whenever they seek their own pleasure and aggrandizement, and use their fellow-beings as a means to this end, they do wrong. Hence, they conclude that for God to be self-centred would be equally wrong, and the vehemence with which they reject the idea that the holy God is supremely concerned to exalt Himself reflects their acute sense of the guiltiness of their own past acts of self-seeking.
But is their conclusion valid at all? On reflection, it appears to be a complete mistake. If it is right for man to have the glory of God as his goal, can it be wrong for God to aim at the same goal? If man can have no higher end and motive than God’s glory, how can God? And if it is wrong for man to seek a lesser end than this, then it would be wrong for God too. The reason why it cannot be right for man to live for himself, as if he were God, is simply the fact that he is not God; and the reason why it cannot be wrong for God to seek His own glory is simply the fact that He is God. Those who would not have God seek His glory in all things are really asking that He should cease to be God. And there is no greater blasphemy than to will God out of existence.”
“We must not imagine that the obligations which bind us, as creatures, to Him bind Him, as Creator, equally to us. Dependence, of whatever form, is a one-way relation, and carries with it one-way obligations. Children, for instance, ought to obey their parents — not vice versa! And our dependence as creatures upon our Creator binds us to seek His glory without in the least committing Him to seek ours. For us to glorify Him is always a duty; for Him to bless us is never anything but grace. The only thing that, as God, He is bound to do is the thing that He has bound us to do — to glorify Himself.”
“The only man in this world who enjoys a complete contentment is the man who knows for certain that there is no more worthwhile and satisfying life, no nobler or more significant life, than the life that he is living already; and the only man who knows this is the man who has learned that the way to be truly human is to be truly godly, and whose heart desires nothing more — and nothing less — than to be a means, however humble, to God’s chief end — His own glory and praise.”
“If you ask, ‘Why is this happening?’ no light may come, but if you ask, ‘How am I to glorify God now?’ there will always be an answer.” J I Packer
“A half truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.” J I Packer
“The proper aim of preaching is to mediate meetings with God.” J I Packer