The Glory of God (Part 1)

Just before we start, I want to pray, but before I pray, I want to just kind of excuse myself. I've been drinking from a fire hose. Well, it's a metaphor. Over Christmas break, I just finished Friday, well, Saturday morning at 1 o'clock in the morning, reading 1,400 pages. I've never read that much in my life, and so I haven't had time to really sort it all out yet.

My goal, though, is to present this information in a way that is easy for you to organize. And also, my thoughts are on application. But it's going to be a process. So as we go along, this is a six-part series. And I'll actually do the last slide first. So Tim's going to be doing the parenting thing for six weeks.

I'm doing God's glory for six weeks. and then there's going to be two weeks where Tim's gone. He's going to Romania, I think, at that point. And so everyone's going to be out here. We're going to talk about church planting for a couple weeks, and then Tim's coming back to finish up the last, I guess that'd be four weeks, with a different series for everyone.

But anyway, this is going to be a six-part series. Today's the first part. And as we go along, I welcome your feedback. I want this to be a dialogue. And I want it to be something we're taking home and mulling over. So if there's anything I can do to make this better for you to take home and think about and apply through the week, let me know.

If a handout would help you, if the PowerPoint helps you, let me know if things are working or not working. part of seminary well part of the trouble of seminary is I'm learning how much I don't know and how much I'm just not good at what I thought I was good at and so I want you to help me be a better teacher it's almost like it's almost like the world was so simple before and now that I've seen so much it's hard for me to read a text of scripture without wanting to spend like a month there, right? And talking about something systematic like this like what does it mean to glorify God it very difficult to make sure we doing justice to all the passages of Scripture So if something catches your attention you want to look at it more closely, if you want to dive in deeper somewhere, let me know that. If you have questions, let me know that.

If something would help you learn, let me know that. But, yeah, Herb? If you have dialogue back and forth, I ask one question for somebody speaking back here. I will do my best. And if I forget to do that, let me know. Okay?

Absolutely. Thanks for the reminder. Let's bow for a word of prayer and then we'll dive in today. So, Father, we... God, we come before You now and we ask for Your blessing on our time. We're talking about something that is so huge.

It's the theme of Your Word from the first page to the last. it's the reason we exist. What words can we use to describe this? What can we say that could even scratch the surface? So please, we ask that you would teach us. We pray that you would open our eyes to see it, to see your glory. If you'd be pleased to use these classes to that end, We pray that you would use these sessions to help us see your glory more clearly.

I pray that you'd use these times together to help us grow a hunger for your glory, a delight in your glory. That we wouldn't think of your glory in abstract terms, but that we'd be able to think of your glory in very practical, real, day in, day out, moment by moment terms. forgive us for not living for your glory forgive us for living for our own glory and I pray that we would not be intimidated by how much we've neglected your glory in the past that we would refuse to acknowledge how much we need to live for your glory now so please expose our hearts with your word and open our eyes to see your glory and may your name be praised because of what we learn in Christ's name, Amen So this first session we want to talk about, my goal is to kind of just scratch the surface on what is glory and in particular what is God glory Next week you can see it on the screen we going to talk about why does God glorify Himself Tim actually mentioned that this morning in the sermon, if you caught that. He talked a little bit about God glorifying Himself.

That will be next week's topic. The third week, how do we glorify God? God, you know, we're commanded to, so how do we do that? And then that's kind of the first section, talking about sort of more abstract ideas, like what is glory, why does God glorify himself, how do we glorify God. And then the next three weeks, the last three weeks, the second section, is specific applications of God's glory.

How is God glorified in creation? How is God glorified in redemption? And how is God glorified in fruition? And by that I mean in things future, in like the end of the plan. If creation is the beginning of his plan and purpose and redemption is what's happening now, how is God glorified in the future when his plan comes to fruition? So we'll look at his glory in sort of those three aspects.

Does that make sense? Any questions on where we're going? Hopefully it's a way for you to kind of bring this home. So, the glory of God, why is it important to consider this topic? I thought of four things. Fundamentally, we were created, we are created in order to bring glory to God.

So it's good to study this because we exist for this, for this reason. Why do people think they exist? What are some of the reasons people give for why they exist? If they can't say it, what do their lives show? What are some of the answers that people give to why we exist? Yeah, yeah.

Squeeze life dry, right? Live life to the fullest. Have fun while you can because it's over before you know it. A lot of people think, and I would say that's a dominant theme, that the reason I exist is to have fun, to enjoy my time, to live life to the fullest. Any other reasons people give for why we exist Mary Yeah It a lot of meaninglessness right You ever feel that?

Even though you're a saved person and you're a child of God and you know the answers, do you ever have days where you feel like you're drifting and like, man, this is kind of bleak, this life. It's kind of meaningless, right? I felt that today after a church this morning. I was walking out to my car. I was at the end of the street here, and I saw where Elgin West used to be.

You know, when I was there, it was like the biggest deal to go to all-day school, right? And then when I go back for harvest feasts, it looks so small, and now it's not even there anymore, right? And you're like, man, this life is so brief and bleak, and things are over before you know it, and it just seems so meaningless sometimes, right? and if I think the way you answer that would you agree that a lot of people live between those two extremes live in life to the fullest and when I can't have all the fun I want to have life is kind of pointless and meaningless right but fundamentally we were created to bring God glory it brings meaning to life and I and it also is we're going to find out it's it's the thing that brings us the most joy the way to have the most fun if you can put it in those terms is to live for God's glory.

But let's turn, would someone turn to Isaiah 43? And go ahead, if you get there, read verses 6 and 7. Isaiah 43, verses 6 and 7. Who's got it? Joyce? Joyce?

I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold. Bring my sons from the fall, and God is made. All right, so he's talking there about bringing the exiles back. Isaiah is prophesying this. But if you notice the language there in verse 7, look at these words he uses. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.

Those words, created, formed, and made, that should ring a bell, right? What does that point to that happened before Isaiah wrote? Created, form, made. What biblical event does that point to? Creation, right? God's talking here about bringing the exiles back, but his reference point is creation.

God created everyone for his glory. Ephesians 1, 3-14. This is talking especially about those of us who are God's children. I'm going to kind of go through this quickly. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will. Verse 6, why? To the praise of His glorious grace, right? With which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In Him we have also obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things, according to the counsel of His will, 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, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we all acquire possession of it. Why?

To the praise of His glory. So in this passage where Paul puts our redemption in terms of things that were ordained before God said, let there be light, it all has as its end goal the glory of God, right? So creation, redemption, it all comes to the point of its purpose is to bring glory to God. So it's important to study this. It's important to think about this because we are created to bring glory to God. the second reason is morally we're going to glorify something we are created to glorify things let me before we talk about romans let me just um put this into context i taught the little kids this morning the what ages are those kids pre-k and kindergarten it's wild in there right and so we were talking about christmas stuff still my mom recommended talking about Simeon you know meeting Jesus in the temple eight days after Christmas kind of where we are on the calendar And so I introduced it by talking about their favorite Christmas gifts And it turns out four of the girls in there had gotten Elsa dresses for Christmas And they thought that was just the best thing in the world.

Elsa from the movie Frozen, I guess it is. Yeah. And so I was trying to transition. And I said, so God gave us the best Christmas present ever, right? And it was actually the first Christmas present. And no one's ever topped it.

It's the very best Christmas present ever. What did God give us that is the best Christmas present ever? Elsa dresses, right? For those girls, they couldn't imagine a better Christmas gift, a more glorious Christmas gift, right, than an Elsa dress. Now, I didn't really share that sentiment, so I wasn't there with them, right? But they, for them, that was the best, the most glorious Christmas present.

Not everybody is a Buckeyes fan, right? Not everybody was rejoicing Thursday night, Friday morning, whenever that was. I think it was Friday morning at that point. But boy, if you're a Buckeyes fan, right, that was a pretty glorious victory, wasn't it? I mean, to be down 21-6 against the first-ranked team, and then to come back and win, right? That's glorious.

And it's okay to say that. It's glorious. It's glorious in a temporary sort of way, right? But it's glorious. But how much more glorious is it for Jesus when he beat death, right? So, yeah, Ohio State beat the number one ranked football team with a third string quarterback, but Jesus beat death, right?

I mean, no one's ever beat death. How much more glorious is it that Jesus rose from the grave, do you see? So we're created to glorify things. We're just created as creatures. You know, all of creation glorifies God. The heavens declare the glory of God.

Just as creatures, we're created to glorify God. But also as human beings who bear the image of God, we're created to bear the image of God in the world, right? To reflect the image of God in the world and so bring glory to God. We're created to glorify something. So morally, it's good to spend time meditating on God's glory so that we can glorify what we were created to glorify and so that we not just glorifying created things Is somebody there in Romans 1 Would you read 22 through 25 Emma Alright, so thank you, Emma.

So, these people that Paul is indicting in Romans 1 have traded, right? They've exchanged the glory of God for the glory of created things. You notice the words that go along with that? they worship and serve the creation rather than the creator. You know, people spent thousands of dollars to go watch that football game, right? Thousands of dollars. They spent their lives, right, working hours, using their money, right, that their time made that money and the strength God gave them.

They used all that to spend thousands of dollars to go watch that football game, right? Now, maybe that's not inherently sinful, right? I mean, you can't really say that everyone who did that is wicked and they need to ask for forgiveness or suffer the consequences. But what you can say is, by and large, the condition of people is they're willing to do that, but they're not willing to spend themselves in a similar way or in an exceeding way to serve the God who created them, right?

A fun experience. Bragging rights. I was there, right? I mean, that's, it gains you that. I was at, this is truth, truth. I was at the, in the 2002 season when Ohio State won their last championship.

Debbie got tickets to the Ohio State Michigan game. And she took me. I was there, right? Glorious. I didn't really know what I was doing there. My warmest jacket happened, it was a cold day. my warmest jacket happened to be a blue jacket, so I wore it because I didn't want to be cold.

And I'm not a super exuberant guy. Like, I don't get all kinds of, like, excited when things happen, typically, let alone, like, the Buckeyes. Like, I'm happy when they win, but it's not, I don't really throw a party. So everybody around us thought I was a Michigan fan. But nobody threw a beer at me. So that was glorious.

Yeah. All right, so fundamentally, we're created to bring glory to God, so it's good to spend time thinking about this so that we understand we have direction right Morally it good to spend time thinking about this because if we don focus on God glory we going to spend all of our time doing what God condemns in Romans 1 which is glorifying creation rather than the Creator. That's a big problem, right?

So it's good for us to spend time these next six weeks thinking about how does God show His glory? How do we glorify God? Jim, you have a thought? You know, where is the line where you are glorifying creation when you're into sports? Not going to go there today, but that is week three. Maybe we can get into that.

I have a clip. Pragmatically, okay? So pragmatics are like what difference does it make? And this is I'm thinking in terms of being a pastor and planting a church. If we're living for the glory of God, we have a common goal. Do you see how that changes a congregation? if we're not all living for God's glory, that means we're living for various kinds of glory, right?

We're living for ourselves and whatever we find glorious. It might be Elsa dresses. It might be football. It might be our hobbies. It might be our houses. It might be our work.

It might be our accomplishments, you know, like the boasting of what we have and what we do, like James talks about. But if we're not, pragmatically speaking, if we're not all aiming for the same goal, right, then we're not going to have the kind of unity that we need to be a strong, healthy, growing church. All we're going to have is our own dreams, our own hopes.

The things that we think are going to bring us strength and power and boasting rights and comfort, even if you want to put it in those terms. If we're glorying in just created things, the things that we happen to find glorious, we're all going to be headed in fundamentally different directions. but if we're all aiming for the same goal which is glorifying God then we're going to be an increasingly unified church right? and that's important as we're going through a church split in the next few months right? right? I mean those are negative terms but in planting a church right?

I mean there's going to be good separation right? how do we deal with that? how do we deal with that? well because we still have the same target, and that's glorifying God. The whole reason we're planning a church is because our goal is to bring more glory to God. So if you don't like the church, ahem! And Emma, if you don't like the idea of a church plant and some of us leaving, and I don't like it sometimes either, but the amount that I'm resisting that is the amount that I am living not for the glory of God, but for what I want.

I've gone to this church my whole life, longer than Pastor Tim. I've been here. I don't really want to leave. I'm comfortable here. I think you're dead, but that's okay. First Corinthians.

Yeah, Tim, you go plant the church. It's exhausting. All right. First Corinthians 1031. Does anybody know this? First Corinthians 1031.

Does anybody know it from memory? I'll start you. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God, right? One goal in the congregation. Here's another passage. 1 Peter 4.

Would someone turn there and read it? 1 Peter 4, 8-11. He owns it all, right? God owns all the glory. This passage is really cool because it's talking about how there's a lot of diversity in the congregation. We're not all the same at all.

But whatever God's given us, whatever gift, we serve others exercising those gifts with the strength that He supplies so that He is glorified. So even though there's diversity, since we're all aiming toward the same goal of bringing God glory, even though there's diversity of gifts, there's unity in the body, right? So pragmatically, what's going on, Steve?

I'm going to reconnect. It's searching. And the login code, I think I know it. What? Oh is it Oh look Nice Everyone else knows it too Can do it Steve Oh, you know, I've lost an internet connection. What's Leroy Baptist 1?

I have to re-enter it. All right. I don't know. Okay, while this comes back, the fourth... Well, I kind of need that to do it. The fourth one is relational.

Okay? What's my text there? Okay, yeah. Turn to John 17. So we have fundamentally, we're created to glorify God. What's the second one?

Morally, right? We're going to glorify something. Pragmatically, we're all aiming toward the same goal, which is glorifying God. And then this last one is relationally. John 17. John 17.

Okay. But relationally, we know how to relate to God and we know how to relate to one another when we relate to each other in the context of glorifying God. Right? There we are. Nice. So, John 17.

Jesus' high priestly prayer. John 17.1 When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You. Since You have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in Your own presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed. Skip down to verse 20. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me The glory that you have given me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me, and love them, even as you loved me.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me, where I am, to see my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. So we see the idea we just talked about. Look again at verse 22. The glory that you've given me, I've given to them. Why did Jesus give the glory that the Father gave him? Why did he give it to his disciples?

So that they may be one, right? This being united, understanding, seeing, and seeking the glory of God unites God's people. And it teaches us how to relate to each other. It gives us the kind of unity that the Father and the Son have, right? When we're seeing and seeking the glory of God, we're brought into that. That's a stunning thought, isn't it?

We're brought into the relationship that God in His own person, in His triune person, we're brought into that close relationship. It's a staggering thought, and I don't even know what that means. But I know what it means to long for relationship. I imagine some of you do also. There's somebody that you maybe have a broken relationship or maybe trouble in your relationship or ambiguity, like you're just not sure how they're taking you if you're a real introspective person.

Sometimes you're like that, like I just don't know how that turned out. Like a lot of times when I drive home from somewhere after being with people, I feel like a big oaf. I feel like I just blew it, right? I feel like that a lot because I'm just real introspective and I feel that disunity. But if we see and seek the glory of God, if we're brought into that, we have this kind of relationship with God himself, right?

That's unbroken, unfettered, the kind of relationship that Christ has between the Father and the Son, that kind of relationship. And so I think that's a fundamental thing that we long for as human beings, is to relate to God in an unfettered way. That was the picture before sin broke in, right? Of God dwelling with his people in the garden. It's also the picture at the end where God will be with his people.

It Jesus prayer here that God and his people would be united And that happens John 17 that happens when God reveals His glory to His people and His people live for His glory. That's when that relationship happens. Okay? Any thoughts or questions with these four? So we have four reasons why it's important to talk about this. Anything?

Let me just share with you, as I go to this next page, I want to encourage those of you who are students, study hard. Study well. God has chosen to give us knowledge of himself in a book. Right? So learn how to read. Learn how to read well.

Learn how to pay attention to what you read and to make sense of it. strive for that. Even if what you have to read today for school is kind of like I don't know, not fun. Learn how to do it so that you can understand God's word better. God has chosen to reveal himself through words in a book, right? The Bible. And so that's how I did this.

I want to kind of present this in a way that you can follow me in what I did here. What I did was I went onto a Bible gateway. You can also use a concordance. Does anybody have Strong's Concordance? Strongest Strongs? It's enormous, right?

You can still use that, but online it's great. I just go to Bible Gateway, and I typed in the word glory. I typed in the word glorified. I typed in the word glorify, right, those three words. And the word glory, with all its variation, shows up in the Bible 450 times in the ESV. You can just kind of tally it up quickly.

You see, this is a really common word in the scriptures, right? The Hebrew word for glory is kabod. And in the Old Testament, it pops up 200 times, right? The Greek word for glory is doxa. You've heard that word before. We sing it every Sunday, right?

The doxology, right? Doxa means glory. And it shows up 166 times in the New Testament. So the reason, those add up to 366 and that's 450 because it doesn't always translate over from the original languages. And we're going to talk about that in just a minute. But it's a common word.

And I don't know about you, but one reason I wanted to study this, and one reason why this really struck me as I was reading all those pages, a lot of what I read was on the glory of God, and as I was reading it, it struck me, because when people pray, like my dad prays this all the time, right? He closes his prayers with, in your most glorious name, right? And like, that's religious lingo.

That's Bible lingo. And it's real easy for us, with a word so common as this, to kind of feel like it belongs, but not really know what it means. You know what I mean? It sounds like it fits, but I don't feel the weight of it. It just sounds like the way to close a prayer. It sounds like what a pastor should say.

It sounds like the way Christians should talk to each other. But one reason I wanted to study this is I want to know what this word means. Why is it in the Bible so many times? What does it mean in day-to-day living when I'm at work, when I'm at a restaurant, when I'm grocery shopping, when I'm giving my dog a bath, right? When I'm playing with my daughter, when I'm talking to people, when I'm sleeping, when I'm eating breakfast.

What does this word mean? Because I'm supposed to glorify God all the time, not just when I'm feeling religious, right? So it's a common word. That's what this page kind of establishes. It's a real common word. It happens all the time.

All of us, I think, have heard the word glory. Speaking of kabod, so we've heard doxa before, right? That's the doxology. bringing glory to God. Kabod is also a word, you've heard this word, Ichabod. Right? Ichabod?

Ichabod Crane, maybe? But also, there's an Ichabod in the Bible, and it means inglorious. It means the glory has departed. That first, the prefix, i means without. So when the glory departs from the temple in Ezekiel, or when the ark was taken away from Israel in 1 Samuel, it was Ichabod. The glory had departed.

God's glorious presence had left. So that's the word kabod. We get the word Ichabod. And hence Ichabod Crane's character. The glory has departed. So what does glory mean?

This is kind of a word study. And again all I did was I went through all those times that the word glory popped up and I looked at the context You can do this You can go on to Bible Gateway or use whatever Bible program you have or use the Strong's Concordance and just look for the word glory and look at the context where it pops up and look how it's used. It's a really good thing to do.

You could do this with any Bible word that you're curious about and just kind of trace it through the Bible and see how it's used, see what it means in context. It was really edifying, especially my time in Job and the Psalms were just times of prayer and praise as I investigated this word. So I don't want to teach this as though you can't do what I did.

All I did was type in the word glory in the computer and I spent time reading those passages where glory pops up. So it's a word that can mean wealth and riches. Alright, we have I'm just checking my time there. We have about 15 minutes. It's a word that can mean wealth and riches. You can look up those passages but it describes mighty men, kings, rulers who have who have stuff.

Right? It can mean honor or a good reputation. And that's the word, the Greek word doxa does mean that. It's the name or reputation of something. And it's also related to the idea of heaviness. The idea of glory is this, that if you're in the presence of something glorious, you feel small, right?

If you're in the presence of something glorious, you feel maybe less significant than you felt a moment before. Right? If you're in the presence of something glorious, you feel like it's time to keep your mouth shut and just listen. What are some of the things that you experience that are glorious in those terms? We know God is supposed to be glorious in those terms.

But what are some of the things that we experience where we feel this? Something is in our presence. It could be a person or an event or a place where we are. Okay Yeah You working in Dublin Upper Arlington and they have these McMansions right And you making like you don have to tell me your salary but you're making like, yeah, yeah. Like you're hoping to find some loose change in the flower beds, because that would be a major increase, right, in your hourly rate.

And you don't want to break anything. You don't want to step on something you shouldn't or muck something up, right? because this is a person that has money and riches and power and they could crush you, right, if they wanted to. What else? What else do we experience? Jim? I just think when the lights come on in the living room.

Oh, oh, the police, yeah. There's a certain glory to law enforcement, right? I mean, they have a certain kind of power And when they speak, you should. You listen, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Jeremy? Uh-huh. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Like, I thought I was doing pretty good. Right?

Yeah. Mary? Yeah, that Steve put up there? The heavens declare the glory of God, right? These atheistic astronomers, they get something right. That we are really, really tiny.

Right? They get that right. They don't see the significance that man has as the image bearers of the living God. But they do get it right. That when you consider the stars, I like what the Lord says to Israel in Isaiah 40. We all know verse 31, right?

But those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength and mount up on wings like eels. But before that, the Lord corrects Israel. He says, why do you complain, O Jacob? Why are you so concerned, Israel? Why do you complain, O Jacob? My way is hidden from the Lord.

My cause has been disregarded by my God. God's people are feeling like they've been forgotten. And he says, do you not know, have you not heard, the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth? He says, Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all of these? He who does not slumber because of his great power and mighty strength not one of these is missing but he calls them out each by name There glory to the heavens And that's what this exercise is.

As we think about things in our experience, that we feel some of the weight of the glory, we need to then use that as a springboard to say how much more glorious is the God who gave that policeman his authority. How much more glorious is the glory of God who created the stars. How much more glorious is the God who gave those rich Dublinites their money, right?

What else? Any other experiences where you feel, yeah? Yeah. You think about the lives of those men, right, who lived through those times. The glimpses today had a couple of those. Who was in the glimpses today?

Adams and Jefferson, right? Like the history, all the things that had to happen, the strength of those men and women who carried the day, right? I remember being in Germany in Erfurt, which is where Martin Luther used to preach. I was there visiting, and we were going in the old part of town, and there was a house. And my friend pointed it out to me. He said, that house is 700 years old.

That house was born before this continent was discovered. And there it was, still there in Erfurt. You feel small. You feel like, wow. If people can build things that last 700 years, it's incredible. I feel that way.

Yeah. It was still being used. I don't know used for what, though, right? Like it could be a museum or something. There were a lot of shops in those houses. I'm sure there were other houses that were that old that were being used for shops or living.

They've improved, though. It used to be that you wanted to live on top because that's where the fresh water was. As the water went down, it was more and more used, right? So they've improved that now. The houses each have their own plumbing. the floors do. I feel like you, Mary, I feel that sense of glory when I'm out in nature seeing something huge.

Like going to Colorado and hiking up on top of a mountain that's above tree line. You're 15,000 feet up in the air and you can just see everything. You feel really small. The sunset, right? Respect is really close to glory. These are some of the words that go with glory are honor, fame, respect, power, authority, fear, but also delight. right?

And that's what, one thing I really like to do when I'm up really high, I like to get close to the edge, right? I like to get close to the edge because then nothing's in your view. You just see it, but you wouldn't dare take another step, right? Right there, I think this is a good example of the kind of glory that God has, but how much greater is God's glory that you have all this joy and delight of being in awe of the beauty and the power of what's before you, but also the fear of I wouldn't dare take another step because it would destroy me, right?

God's glory is tied up in his name. We're not going to have time to look at all these things, but if you look up Exodus 33, that's a key text. Moses says, I want to see your glory. And the Lord says, you can't see my face, my glory, the glory of my face, so I'm going to hide you in the cleft of the rock and pass by you. And as he passes by, he declares his name to Moses.

The point being, God's name is glorious. And the name that he declares to Moses is full of his attributes. The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love to thousands of generations of those who love me. By no means acquitting the guilty but visiting the sins of the fathers on the third and fourth generation.

God declares his name, his attributes and in doing so he reveals his glory. So God's glory is wrapped up in who he is. Quickly, sometimes glory, again, you can do this. This is just by going through, I typed in glory in Bible Gateway and just looked at the context of where it popped up. Glory sometimes appears as an object. Like it's something that appears.

God's glory appeared, like an object can appear. Like those flashing lights appeared on my rear view mirror. God's glory appeared. Sometimes it would be in a fire on Mount Sinai, the fire in the cloud. sometimes it would fill things like the temple the glory of the Lord would fill the temple and the priests couldn't go in to minister in 1 Kings chapter 8 I think it is it can be something someone has somebody has glory something somebody gets or gives something somebody trades or seeks glory is kind of an object let's just move ahead it also described as an activity that somebody does Like we glorify God Jesus says in John 17 I glorified your name 1 Chronicles 16 says we glory in you It's this activity.

See how it's a verb then? It's something someone does. This is really important. It can be temporary or it can be permanent. All men are like grass and their glory is like the flowers of the field. One of my older lady friends at the towers yesterday heard this on the radio.

The preacher said, all men are like grass. They're sown, they're grown, they're mown, and then they're gone. Temporary. In Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar and his son, writing on the wall, Daniel says, let's just turn there. This is a really good example. Ezekiel and then Daniel, chapter 5.

This is a good example of glory, temporary glory, and also just what glory is. Daniel 5, starting in verse 17. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, this is Belt Shazar, I think, let your gifts be for yourself and give rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. Now, get this.

Daniel's talking to the king. he's translating the writing on the wall. O king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father, kingship. God gave him greatness and glory and majesty. God gave Nebuchadnezzar glory as a commodity. It's almost like an object. He gave it to him.

And it goes with these words, greatness and majesty, kingship, authority and rule. Glory is tied in with those ideas. and because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples and nations and languages trembled and feared before him. Trembling and fearing has to do with glory. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive. Whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled.

Nebuchadnezzar had that kind of power. That's the kind of glory he had. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne and his glory was taken away from him. Not all glory is permanent. The Buckeyes won a pretty amazing game and it made college football history but it not going to be remembered forever And people won be content next year if they go like you know four and eight on the season People aren't going to be like, oh, well, last year they pulled off that amazing win, right?

Like, they have to keep performing. Their glory is temporary. And more, all those verses there talk about the sense that some glory is temporary, some is permanent. Glory can be a place. Psalm 73, Hebrews 2.10 both talk about God taking us into his glory, right? Into his presence of majesty, his presence of power, and the place of delight, the place of this reverent respect and fear.

Ultimately, the glory belongs to God alone, right? Just like we read in Daniel, God had to give Nebuchadnezzar glory. This is a really good thought, a good corrective thought for me, is whatever glory I have, right? Like we read this morning, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, or the strong man boast in his strength, or the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who glories, let him who boasts, boast in this, that they know and fear me, right?

Whatever glory I might want to take in myself, I need to be careful to realize I only have what I have because God, who has all glory, gave it to me. Can you imagine a group of people, a church that lived under a deep sense, a deep awareness that whatever they have that they feel like boasting about, they stop because God's the one who gave them all that stuff? Right?

I mean, that's a good corrective thought. God is like the sun, and we are like those little solar-powered driveway lights, those LEDs that they, you know, they last about two hours and they, you know, people drive over them and they, like, the reason those shine is because the sun beat down on them all day. We're like those lights, right? God is the sun.

Our glory is derivative. It only comes from his glory. So that's a real practical thing, right? To be humbled in light of his glory. Whatever you feel like is so important in your life that you need to grasp onto it to the point that you're willing to sin to keep it, or that you want to boast about it, like tell other people without reference to God what you were able to do or what you have You need to be real careful about that Actually we need to repent of that right because all what I have whatever power whatever authority whatever riches whatever abilities I have that I could maybe boast in are just derivative They just come from God, right?

To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Romans 11, 33 through 36. We're not going to have time to go through this. Homework. Second Corinthians 3 through 4, those two chapters, check out the glory of God in those two chapters.

If you want a Bible study to do, look for how the glory of God is talked about in those two chapters, and I'm just going to give you a little preview for why I chose those two chapters. One, glory is mentioned all the time. Two, it's tied back to creation, which is what we saw earlier in the Scriptures. But also, this is a major reason why I've been studying this myself. he says at the end of this section chapters 3 and 4 are in a bigger section that doesn't finish until like halfway through 6 but in chapter 6 he says this to the Corinthians he says you're not restricted by us Paul's writing to them whatever restrictions you feel it's not from us ministering to you but you are restricted in your own affections right What we glory in, the thing that we're putting our delight, our hope, the thing that we're worshiping, will restrict us.

It's going to hold us back. Unless we're worshiping our Creator and Redeemer and Sustainer. And that's where Paul says in chapters 3 and 4, where the Spirit of the Lord is, the Spirit that brings the light of the glory of Christ in the Gospel, where that Spirit is, there is freedom. but where our affections are misplaced, where we're putting our delight and where we're worshiping and glorying in things that aren't God, we've just entrapped ourselves, right?

We're held back. We feel stuck when we're worshiping created things rather than the creator, right? But when we align our affections right, when we learn to delight in God's glory, as we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, That brings great freedom to our lives. So, really good text. You saw this already. Before we quit, I know it's 7 o'clock. but I want to point this out to you.

It's called the New City Catechism. Anybody ever heard of it? It's January 4th, good time to get started. This is from Tim Keller. It's tied in with the Gospel Coalition website. So you can just Google search that.

It's right here. It's primarily for tablets and smartphones and so forth. But you can download the PDF or you can actually access it online here. Open the web-based catechism. And here we are on January 4th, question four, right? And I thought this was fitting because it's for today.

How and why did God create us? And I really like this website, this catechism. It just quotes a passage there, right, a verse. God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them.

And the next verse, verse 28 says, and God told them, be fruitful and multiply, right? Fill the earth and subdue it. Spread my image and my glory through the whole earth. That's what Adam and Eve were tasked to do. God created us as his image bearers to spread his glory in the whole earth, right? That's Bible verse, answers the question.

But then you can click on here, there's commentary. And this commentary is from J.C. Ryle, I think? Bishop Ryle? Yeah, it's from Bishop Ryle right here. And oh, it's so good.

I won't read it to you now, but you can go home and read it, all right? New City Catechism? Is there any good? I didn't... Yeah, all Ryle is good, right? So I'll just read some of it.

The glory of God is the first thing that God's children should desire. That's what Ryle says. It is the object of one of our Lord own prayers Father glorify your name It is the purpose for which the world was created It is the end for which the saints are called and converted It is the chief thing that we should seek that God may be glorified We read that in 1 Peter 4.

He alone deserves to receive all glory. We give him all honor and praise and rejoice that he is King of kings and Lord of lords. Where are our hearts? What do we love best? Are our chiefest affections on things in earth? or things in heaven. Singleness of purpose is one great secret of spiritual prosperity.

If our eyes do not see distinctly, we cannot walk without stumbling and falling. If we attempt to work for two different masters, we are sure to give satisfaction to neither. It is just the same with respect to our souls. We cannot serve God and the world at the same time. It is a vain thing to attempt it. So it's just really good.

And the king theologian, The reigning king theologian of glory is who? What current theologian talks about God's glory more than any other current theologian? Piper? Yeah, so you click. I think each of these have a video, or a lot of them do anyway. You can get John Piper talking about glory, right, for three minutes and 37 seconds.

It's a good little sound bite. And then they've got a prayer, and this prayer is from Jonathan Edwards. I pray God for the sake of Christ to receive me now as entirely your own and to deal with me in all respects as such, whether you afflict me or prosper me or whatever you please to do with me, because I'm yours. Now, henceforth, I'm not to act in any respect as my own, but I shall act as my own if I ever make use of any of my powers to do anything that is not to the glory of God.

And do not make the glorifying of Him my whole and entire business we are created and then redeemed to bring glory to God So really good resource New City Catechism Families, right? This isn't the parenting class, but a great parenting tool, right? Go through the New City Catechism and it's good stuff. So, lots to think about. Any questions or thoughts from this introduction?

Yeah, God has... Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Yep. Yep, absolutely. If you watch that Piper clip, he goes into that in more detail. You're right on the same wavelength as him. Now, we have to be careful with that because God gets the glory whether or not anybody recognizes it, right? But when we talk about why we exist, it is for precisely that reason, is to bring glory to God.

Glorifying, yeah. Yep. We just read that in Jesus' prayer, right? I had glory from the Father before the foundation of the world, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

It's a relational thing. And that's true, too. If you ever see something amazing, don't you want somebody to be there to talk to about it? Like, you want to tell them about it? Like, this was really cool? Yeah, I mean, you're right.

It's a social, it's a relational thing. So that a really important thing for us as a church right As we interact with one another it needs to increase that we interact with each other in the context of bringing glory to God We're going to only find more and more spiritual maturity, more and more unity as we relate to each other on the basis of bringing glory to our Father. Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yeah, there's a refrain in Scripture. the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the seas cover the ocean floors, right? As the water covers the seas. We're going to get into that in the last week of fruition, that God's glory is everywhere. He's going to accomplish it, that his glory is spread through the whole world. Yeah, so anyway, good stuff.

Anybody else? All right, let's close in prayer then. Father, we thank you for this time of study and meditation. I pray that we would continue this now. that you would be at work in us, bringing conviction to our hearts when we are not interested in glorifying you. Bring conviction, Father, to our hearts when we are just glorifying ourselves. Or when we're glorifying created things rather than you, the creator, the source of all glory.

Father, we pray that you would help us to learn to love your glory, to see it and to rejoice in it and to long for it. Help us to see your glory so that we can respect you, fear you as we ought, so we can honor your power, so that we can see your beauty, so that we can worship you as we ought, so that we can serve you, and so that the watching world would see that you are God and there is no other. So Father, please bless us.

Bless the next few weeks in this study. We pray that you would be glorified. In Christ's name, amen.