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God Will Be Glorified
Text:
John 12:28 Father, glorify
thy name. Then came there a
voice from heaven, saying, I
have both glorified it, and will
glorify it again.
Intro:
Jesus closed a short prayer with
this request and the prayer is
answered immediately. The
reaction of those who were
present was typical. Some said,
"It thundered". Others said an
angel spoke to him. How little,
man understands of the Glory of
God! All too often, we expect
God to be glorified only in ways
which will elevate man to a
lofty position. God said on this
occasion, that he had both
glorified his name and would
glorify it again. The question
might well be asked, 'How had He
glorified His name in the past?'
It is as natural for God to be
glorified as it is for natural
man to be prone to sin. The fact
is, God WILL BE GLORIFIED
whether man likes it or not.
Note that the request of Christ
on this occasion was NOT that
man might glorify His name, but
that the Father, himself, would
glorify it. The answer was, "I
have and I will."
As we think back to the record
of man's earliest days, we see
man walking in the Garden, and
we see God Glorified as He
fellowships and communes with
the creature He created in His
own image. At this time man
walked in uprightness and
communed with his creator of his
own free will. Then a dark cloud
comes over the scene, as man
uses that divine gift of a free
will to disobey his God. In
doing so, he broke that
communion. The question now is;
'Will man, who was created for
the glory of God, now rob God of
that glory by willful
disobedience?'
The sad truth is that man, in
his sinful condition, has it
neither in his mind or will, to
glorify his maker. Yet God has
said, "I have glorified my
name." As long as Adam
walked uprightly, he walked in
fellowship with God and shared
in his glory.
Sin brought about a sad change.
Man not only does not walk with
God and share his glory, but
rather, is separated from God by
that very glory! Why? Because
now He is glorified by the
judgment and condemnation of
sin. Instead of being glorified
by the creatures walking by His
side, He is glorified by the
cherubim with the flaming
swords, which keep sinful man
out of his presence.
A quick trip through Bible
history reveals how, over and
over, God is glorified in the
goodness and merciful provisions
He made for His people, and the
sure and quick way His complete
holiness causes man to reap the
consequences of disobedience to
Him.
As He delivered Israel from
Egyptian bondage, He was
glorified in the mercy he showed
to those who applied the blood
of the Passover Lamb. For these,
the Angel of Death passed over
and left them safe. His glory
was also manifested in the homes
of the Egyptians and any others
who refused to apply the blood.
Into these homes the death angel
came. Not one escaped. From the
homes of the lowliest slave, to
the palace of Pharaoh ,the
first-born is slain.
As He led the Israelites to the
Red Sea, His glory is seen
equally in their delivery
through the deep, and in the
destruction of Pharaoh and his
armies in it.
He showed his glory to Israel in
the quail he gave them to eat
and in the serpents he sent to
bite them when they murmured
against Him.
As he led them to the plain at
the foot of Mt.Sinai, they
realized again that they were
being led by a God of great
power and glory. They saw the
thick darkness settle over the
mountain. They saw the lightning
flash, and the ground tremble
under their feet. They knew they
were in the presence of a
glorious God. Their reaction
was, "Moses, you go up and find
out what He wants and we will do
it". It was a rash promise,
which they would break over and
over to their great sorrow.
When God had written His Laws
upon the Tables of Stone and
sent them to His chosen nation,
they had a glorious Law which,
as one historian has said,
'Between the Law of Moses and
the laws of other nations, there
is a gulf which cannot be
spanned.' The reason is simple;
no other nation was ever ruled
by Laws which were written by
the Hand of God! When she obeyed
those Laws, she glorified God
and was blessed by Him. When she
turned away from obedience to
follow other gods, He glorified
Himself as he brought swift and
terrible punishment upon her.
That Law still stands as
testimony of God's perfect
righteousness, and as witness to
man's inability to measure up to
His demands. It stands as a
reminder of our sinfulness and
our need to throw ourselves upon
the mercy of our glorious God!
The New Testament opens with the
account of the birth of Christ.
The angels announced it with the
words, 'Glory to God in the
highest'.
From the earliest of times, when
a son was born, the father
caused a great celebration to be
made. Never before and never
since, has the birth of a son
been celebrated as it was on
this occasion. He did not gather
a chorus of beggars from the
back street of Jerusalem, nor
even hire the Temple choir for
the occasion. He sent forth the
angels and for the first time in
all eternity, the praise which
has been heard around the throne
in heaven, reached the ears of
men. The message was "Glory to
God in the highest."
It reminds us of the request
made by Moses many years before.
As he came into the presence of
God on the mount, he made a
request, "Show me thy glory?"
The answer was, "I'll show you
my goodness." No man can look
into the face of the glorious
God, and yet we can see that
glory manifested in His goodness
toward us in Christ Jesus. This
is why John said concerning Him,
(and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth.
John 1:14)
No prince was ever born, even to
the world's most powerful king,
who received such a grand
proclamation of his birth as did
the Son of God. There may have
been no twenty-one gun salutes
and no national holidays
declared, but the Father sent
His angels to announce his
arrival among men.
God Glorified His Name in the
life which Jesus lived as he
walked among men. It was by the
power of God that Jesus
performed his miracles. Every
time blind eyes were made to
see, or deaf ears were opened or
withered limbs made whole, God
was glorifying His Name.
As Christ and his disciples were
in the little ship in the storm,
the disciples feared for their
lives. God's glory is shown in
an unmistakable way as Jesus
arises from the place where he
was asleep in the back part of
the ship. He made no great
production of what he was about
to do. There were no
announcements to get the
attention of the maximum number
of people, and no rituals
involved. He simply rebuked the
wind and the waves and issued
the command, "Peace, be
still". Immediately, there
was a great calm.
In every move Jesus made and in
every word he uttered while upon
the earth, the Father was being
glorified.
Parents are proud when their
children achieve great things.
As Christ came up out of the
water at his baptism, the Father
spoke of him, "This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased ." Jesus was
entering into the earthly
ministry for which the world had
awaited since the days of Adam.
Later, those who came to
question him, went away saying,
"no man ever spake like this
man!" God was glorified in
the wisdom of His Son. Those who
witnessed the healing of the
palsied man who had been let
down through the roof into the
presence of Jesus, went away
saying, "We never saw it in
this manner before!" God
was glorified in the power of
His Son. As Jesus stood before
Pilate at the time of arrest.
Pilate said, "I find no
fault with this man." and
God was glorified in the
righteousness of His Son.
"I will glorify it again."
was the promise. As the events
immediately following this
promise unfold, we might be made
to wonder if God had forgotten
or changed His mind. Christ was
lead as a sheep to the
slaughter. He stood after being
beaten and abused, with a crown
of thorns pushed down on His
brow. He heard the vulgar jeers
of the soldiers as they knelt in
mockery before the King of the
tiny nation they so despised. We
might be made to ask, "How is
God to receive any glory from
all this?"
They nailed him to the cross
between two thieves and taunted
Him, "He saved others but he
can't save himself!" His
disciples went away. The cry
fell from the parched lips,
"I thirst," and the final,
most agonized cry of all, "My
God my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" The natural
assumption for man to make is,
"Surely God is not being
glorified in all this!" But when
one realizes what is really
taking place, one understands
that this is not the sad and
gloomy scene of defeat it first
appears. Rather, it is the
manifestation of the glorious
triumph of the Love of God!
Ever since sin had entered the
world through Adam, it had held
man in its iron grip. There had
been no sacrifice man might
make, ritual he could perform
nor penance he could do, which
could break the power of sin's
hold upon him. It was At the
cross that the Love of God
triumphed over sin, death and
hell in our behalf.
God had, in the glory of His
complete righteousness,
pronounced condemnation upon sin
.and now, in the person of His
perfect Son, has again glorified
Himself by providing a remedy
for sin!. As Christ bare our
sins in His own body he did
something all the blood of bulls
and goats could never do. He
provided a way in which sinful
man could stand, in complete
righteousness before God.. The
promise of God had been kept. He
had glorified his name again.
Our thoughts progress next to
the empty tomb. The devil and
all his crowd have tried in
every conceivable way to
diminish its effect, but it
stands as a silent testimony to
the world that the one who had
been laid there, was not a mere
mortal. He had said, on the day
he had died,
John 10:18 No man taketh it
from me, but I lay it down of
myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take
it again. This commandment have
I received of my Father.
Because of that commandment of
the Father, all the power of of
the Roman government, her army,
the Sanhedrin court and even the
devil and his angels, could not
keep Christ in the tomb. In a
way never before even imagined
by any other, God had glorified
his name, as Christ broke the
power of Death, Hell and the
grave from the inside!
How is a king or ruler more
glorified? Is it by a great
palace bulging with riches
obtained at the expense of his
downtrodden subjects? Or is it
by his people dwelling in
safety, peace and prosperity, as
they enjoy the Royal Bounty of
the King? God is glorifying
Himself today, not by the
demands he makes upon us, as
much as by the provisions he has
made FOR us. While there are
things he demands and desires
from us, they are not to provide
Him more glory, but rather, to
elevate us so that we might
share His glory.
Paul made the statement. Gal
6:14 But God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto
me, and I unto the world.
We may all glory in the Cross of
our Lord because it is the
preaching of the Cross which is
the power of God unto salvation.
In our preaching of the Gospel,
God glorifies himself even more
than he did by the Law, which He
gave at Mt.Siniai.
The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to
pen these words;
2 Cor 3:7 But if the
ministration of death, written
and engraven in stones, was
glorious, so that the children
of Israel could not stedfastly
behold the face of Moses for the
glory of his countenance; which
glory was to be done away:
2 Cor 3:8 How shall not the
ministration of the spirit be
rather glorious? 2 Cor 3:9 For
if the ministration of
condemnation be glory, much more
doth the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory.
2 Cor 3:10 For even that which
was made glorious had no glory
in this respect, by reason of
the glory that excelleth.
2 Cor 3:11 For if that which is
done away was glorious, much
more that which remaineth is
glorious.
Every time the Word of God is
preached, God glorifies himself
by sending the Holy Spirit to
use that Word to convict men of
their sins.
Great orators have been able to
sometimes move men to action or
emotions by the use of words,
but here is something far
different. It takes no silver
tongued orator to effectively
present the Gospel. Any child of
God can be used by God to change
the destiny of others from hell
to Heaven, by the use of the
simple testimony of Jesus
Christ. Praise God for the glory
to Himself as he uses the
preaching of the Gospel to save
them that believe.
In the early part of his life,
Jesus was raised in an obscure
village in Galilee. When he
began his ministry and started
calling out his disciples, he
did it without fanfare. If man
set out to establish an
institution which was to endure
throughout the ensuing ages, he
would, no doubt, want to use
every means at his disposal to
advertise it. He would want the
best press agents, and get all
the advance publicity possible.
Yet as Jesus set out to build a
Church charged with the
responsibility of preaching the
Gospel to every creature, while
facing persecution from every
quarter and yet endure,
unchanged for all time, he did
it without any fanfare.
Luke 17:20 And when he was
demanded of the Pharisees, when
the kingdom of God should come,
he answered them and said, The
kingdom of God cometh not with
observation:
The first men he called to the
work were not the well-known
public figures of their day.
They were two lowly Galilean
fishermen. It is doubtful that
the Church of our Lord could
have had a more unlikely
beginning. Yet, He gave them the
promise, "Follow me and I
will make you to become fishers
of men" They were still,
but a small band of disciples
when he further promised,
"Upon this Rock I will build my
Church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it"
They still had not grown to be
very large, when He promised
again, "In this world ye
shall have tribulation, but fear
not, I have overcome the world."
God is still glorifying His
Name, for that Church with the
unlikely beginning, is still
here and is still preaching the
Gospel of Christ in all its
purity.
During the Dark Ages, he gave
her grace to preach and to grow,
even when doing so made her face
the sentence of death from her
persecutors. Every precious
teaching given her by her Lord,
has come under attack, and Satan
has tried in every way to cause
her to compromise. But God has
glorified His Name by preserving
her and her teaching pure,
exactly as He promised. The
gates of hell have not and never
shall, prevail against His
Church, the Body and Bride of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Every time a lost sinner answers
the Gospel call and comes to
Christ, there is rejoicing in
heaven and God glorifies himself
once again. Every time a New
Testament Church takes one who
has been saved, into the waters
of Baptism, in obedience to His
command, God glorifies Himself
again. When we are able to look
into the face of one who has
been ruined by the shame and
degradation of sin, and see
there, the radiance of joy in
Jesus Christ, we realize this
did not happen by the wisdom or
the power of men. It is by the
power of an almighty God and we
can say, "Praise God, He has
glorified Himself again!"
Christ now sits at the right
hand of the throne of the Father
making intercession for his
saints. Some day soon, he will
arise from that throne and come
in clouds of great glory to call
his people home. At that time,
the dead in Christ will be
raised in their incorruptible
bodies and those still living,
will be changed in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye to be
fashioned like unto his glorious
body. Then we shall all go to
meet the Lord in the air, and
God will have again glorified
His Name in a marvelous way. Not
only will he have proven his
ability to redeem lost, sinful
men, but to keep them and
eventually give them their
glorified, eternal bodies.
The Bible tells us of a time
when Jesus will sit upon David's
throne as King of kings and Lord
of lords, and rule over this
earth with a rod of iron. When
this takes place and even the
rulers of this earth bow down
before him, God will have again
kept his promise, "I will
glorify it again."
At that time, the words of the
prophet will be fulfilled,
Hab 2:14 For the earth shall
be filled with the knowledge of
the glory of the LORD, as the
waters cover the sea.
Again, when the wicked dead are
raised to stand before Him at
the Great White Throne judgment,
his promise as found in several
scriptures will be fulfilled.;
Isa 45:23 I have sworn by
myself, the word is gone out of
my mouth in righteousness, and
shall not return, That unto me
every knee shall bow, every
tongue shall swear.
Rom 14:11 For it is written, As
I live, saith the Lord, every
knee shall bow to me, and every
tongue shall confess to God.
Phil 2:10 That at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the
earth;
Phil 2:11 And that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.
There is no question as to, WILL
God be glorified by you? The
only question is WHEN AND UNDER
WHAT CONDITIONS YOU WILL GLORIFY
HIM. Will it be now as you
receive him as your saviour and
as you serve him? Or will it be
at the Great White Throne as you
bow and say, "Amen, and Amen!"
to you own condemnation?
In What Shall I Glory?
I gloried in youth.
It passed on.
I gloried in strenght,
then it, too was gone.
I gloried in wealth
I thought I might gain.
I gloried in health
and freedom from pain.
But gone is the hope
of silver and gold.
and health drifts away
as the body grows old.
In what can I glory
and not suffer loss?
I'll glory in Christ
and his death on the cross.
I'll glory in love
he showed for me there,
and in the home up above
He's gone to prepare.
I'll glory in this,
He's coming again!
I'll glory in bliss
I shall know when he reigns.
I'll glory in Grace
each day that I live,
then I'll see His face
and to God All glory give!
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