A Life for God's Glory #1

Your unassuming love within the body of Christ, your thoughtful and yet in one sense thought less because you so naturally do it, acts of kindness and generosity and service and sacrifice, this is where we glorify God.

There is a portion of a poem by C.T. Studd that reads, Only one life will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. Hello and welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm Bill Wright and today Don continues a series titled The Glory of the Gospel. He'll show us how bringing glory to God is the first and highest calling of every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's find out more from our teacher right now as we join him for part one of a message called A Life for God's Glory, here on the Truth Pulpit.

Just like last time we looked at seven realms where the glory of God is the purpose of existence, we're going to have another seven realms here talking about daily life, talking about your life, things that you can take and appropriate and say, okay, I start to see how this fleshes out in my life and it's rather exciting to think about. And I think that when we're done you're going to be encouraged, as I was as I was preparing this, and just recognizing the things that you just unassumingly do, that these are the realms in which you are already glorifying God as a believer. Well, point number one is that you would seek salvation in Christ if you are not a Christian, that you would seek salvation in Christ because that is where the realm of God's glory begins.

You cannot glorify God if you are not a Christian, and so you must be a Christian in order to glorify God. It is in the realm of biblical salvation that we are introduced into the realm of God's glory. Ephesians chapter 1, I'm going to review these verses again just ever so briefly. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6, salvation is to the praise of the glory of his grace. Verse 12, we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory.

Verse 14, the Holy Spirit is given to us as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory. Now, here in Ephesians chapter 1, Paul is laying a foundation for everything else that he says in the letter. Everything else in the remaining chapters builds off of this foundation of the glory of God, and that's going to be very important to understand as we move forward, but we're going to hold that thought for just a moment. Okay, this is a foundation for everything else that he says in Ephesians.

Well, let me show you a couple of other passages. Flip back one book to the book of Galatians chapter 1, and you see Paul referring to the gospel of Christ, referring to the redemption that Christ purchased for us at the cross, and you see that here again, the realm of salvation is unto the glory of God. Galatians chapter 1 verse 3, he says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What did Christ do? He gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. And so Christ died to reconcile us to God, and this was unto the glory of God forever.

Now, turn onto the other side of Ephesians, to the book of Philippians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, and we see how the confession of Christ as Lord is essential to entering into the realm in which we glorify God. Having spoken of the humble death of Christ in verse 8 on the cross, verse 9, he goes on to say, 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, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. One day every man, woman, and child will confess that Christ is Lord.

There's a coming day where even those who deny him now will be compelled by force to acknowledge him as Lord before they're banished into eternal judgment. What we find here for us that helps us and encourages us, those of you that in the humble depths of your heart acknowledge Christ as Lord, those of you that freely confess him before men as your Lord and Savior, what Scripture is telling us here is that that confession brings glory to God. Your very confession of Christ as Lord is honoring to God. You are glorifying God as you confess him as Lord himself and as your personal Lord. And so as we gather together in this humble room, in this humble place, God is glorified. When, as, because, here in this place we gladly, openly, humbly acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. And that confession brings glory to God.

How could it do anything else? Christ was sent by the Father into the world to be the Savior of the world. Christ is declared at my Lord and my God by the confession of the disciples. And so we are joining in with the purpose of God when we acknowledge Christ as Lord, and that glorifies him, that brings honor to him. It is no small thing for you to confess Christ as Lord.

And so I have to ask you, those of you on the live stream watching the video later on, have you begun at that basic point? Have you truly confessed Christ from your heart as Lord? Have you received him as Lord? Do you rest in him as your all-sufficient Savior? Has Christ, in the language of the passage that we looked at from Galatians, do you know something of having been rescued from this evil world, from this evil age, and been delivered into the realm where Christ is openly acknowledged as Lord?

Do you know something about that? Because that is where glorifying God in your life begins. Now, that's the end of point number one. What I want to say in addition is just to say this. You know, Scripture acknowledges very openly that when it comes to the Christian church, the body of believers, that there are not many of us that are noble. There's not many men of fame that are Christians.

There are not many that are acknowledged or respected by the world. And indeed, Jesus said, the world will hate you. Well, I find this very encouraging and very helpful to recognize that in the midst of your quiet, humble, unrecognized life, and a life that the world considers to be insignificant, the courts of heaven judge differently. The opinion of God the Father about your life, you who know and name Christ, is much, much different. As you acknowledge Christ in the humble realm of life that God may have given you, understand that God is greatly glorified and greatly pleased with that.

You are expressing the work that he first did in your heart, right? We are born again. We are born from above. God saves us.

God imparts new life. And as we confess him before men, as we acknowledge him before men, Jesus says in Matthew 10, I'll gladly confess him before my Father who is in heaven. And so, even if it seems like your life is on hold, or perhaps it seems insignificant from the eyes of men, we must understand and be encouraged and motivated by the fact that God doesn't see it that way, and to realize that in our humble realm of life, we are fulfilling the greatest purpose in the universe, that you as a Christian are fulfilling the reason that everything exists.

You're part of the real program, no matter what men may think about it. And so your salvation is a reflection of the glory of God, and if you are not in Christ, then the Word of God would come to you and call you and command you to strive to enter through the narrow door. Luke 13, verse 24.

You need to start looking for salvation in Christ that he might reveal himself to you. Well, that brings us to our second point, and it's this. And this one's going to surprise you.

This one will catch you off guard, I believe. But our point number two is to seek church unity. Now, it's well known that the Apostle Paul, roughly speaking, this isn't strictly the only way to consider the way that Ephesians is broken up, but in the first three chapters, Paul is basically describing Christian doctrine. In the context of praising God and honoring God, he sets forth the doctrine of salvation. In the last three chapters, he sets forth the duty that Christian salvation brings, and how it is that we live out Christian life. So, Christian doctrine, and then Christian duty. The first three chapters, the last three chapters. Now, here's what I want you to see.

I think this is very, very significant. Remember, going back to what I said earlier, that in chapter one, he makes it clear that he's building on the foundation of the glory of God as he expands and expounds on Christian salvation and on the doctrines of election and redemption and adoption and the sealing of the Spirit, all of those great realities of salvation pointing to and having as their aim the glory of God. Now, watch this. When Paul brings this first section of the book of Ephesians to a close, he closes with a prayer, and in chapter three, verse 14, having said everything that he had to say about Christian doctrine in the first half of the book, he begins to pray, and he says, For this reason, verse 14, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Stop there for just a moment. In light of all of these riches of salvation that he has expounded on, he prays for his readers, he prays for the church throughout the ages, that God would supernaturally illumine our minds so that we would understand and grasp these things, even though they are beyond human comprehension. You can think of it that maybe we've got a thimble full of knowledge, and Paul is praying that our understanding would expand to be a vat of 55-gallon drum of comprehension, that we'd go from one level of understanding to another, because that comprehension of the love of God is essential for the living out of the duties that he expresses in the final three chapters. Now, you say, what does that have to do with the glory of God?

And what does it have to do with church unity? I think he's lost his place in his notes. I think he's lost track of what he's trying to say.

No, just stay with me here. Look at verse 20. He says, Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, here it is, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

Amen. And so Paul here says that his aim in this prayer is the glory of God. The aim of his instruction to the church is the glory of God, the reason that he prays that we would be filled up to all of this abundant knowledge of God is the glory of God.

To him be the glory. And, my friends, what I want you to see is that you and I are included in the scope of this magnificent prayer, because we are members of the church, we are members of the body of Christ if we've been born again, and he says to him be the glory in the church, and he says to all generations. And so just as the Lord Jesus in John 17 prayed for those who would believe through the word of the apostles, the apostle Paul here is encompassing the entire future of the church in this great scope of this magnificent prayer that he has prayed, and it's all to the glory of God.

Someone might say, wow, this is magnificent. This is truly transcendent, what we are reading here. Now, so what Paul has done is he opened up in chapter 1 talking about salvation to the glory of God, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, chapter 1, verse 3. He repeats that theme three times in the first 14 verses, and then he circles back after he's done all of this exposition of the doctrine of salvation, and he concludes it with the glory of God. He started with the glory of God, he ends with the glory of God in these first three chapters, and the closing prayer makes it plain that he has the idea that the fullness of God would be empowering us as we live out our Christian life.

And he says that to him be the glory. Now look at chapter 4, verse 1 with that in mind, and he says, therefore, and with that word he bridges between what he has said about the glory of God and uses it as a governing transition to the rest of the letter. Now that we have settled that everything about Christian salvation is to the glory of God, let me tell you, therefore, how it is that you are to live this out in the practical aspects of life. And so what follows in the final three chapters is the consequence of the glory of God in salvation. Stated differently, what follows in the final three chapters is the manner in which we are to bring glory to God in the daily life of Christian living. Therefore, because everything is to the glory of God in Christian salvation, therefore, here are the implications of that. How does the church bring glory to God? How do we glorify God in our salvation?

Think about it this way. Where does that prayer, at the end of chapter 3, for the glory of God, where does that lead to? It leads to the final three chapters of Ephesians. And what does he start with? Having the glory of God reverberating in his inspired mind.

The words are actually what's inspired, but you get what I'm saying. What is reverberating in the apostolic mind? As he writes chapter 4 verse 1, it's the glory of God. What is the first theme out of his mouth when the glory of God is preeminent in his mind and in what he's instructing the church in? Chapter 4 verse 1, look at it with me. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

You see, he's reflecting back to chapter 3. He's told us about the call of God in our salvation, and now the consequence of that is, he says, I implore you to walk in a manner that's worthy of that. Walk in a manner that is worthy of the glory of God in salvation.

Powerful! And what does a worthy walk entail? Verse 2 and 3, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. The glory of God all over this passage. But what Paul is writing and saying is that the lead theme as we walk in a manner worthy of the glory of God by which we have been called is to preserve the unity of the church.

He doesn't start with your daily devotions or even prayer or anything like that. He puts the unity of the church at the head of the application of this teaching on the glory of God in Christian salvation. The unity of the church matters to God.

It matters to Christ. We are one body saved by one true faith, and we are brought into the one true body of Christ. And as a result of that, in a practical application of it, we show humility and gentleness and patience and tolerance to one another so that this realm of a local church would be a place of peace, a place of refuge for the true people of God.

And that means that we check our agendas and we leave them in the parking lot. It means that when disputes come up, we resolve them quickly. It means that when, as inevitably happens, someone sins against us or offends us somehow, that we are quick to forgive because we understand that there is this surpassing importance of unity in the body of Christ that we pursue, not just for its own sake, but it is because a unified church brings glory to the God who saved it. That puts a whole different perspective on this church unity thing, doesn't it? It puts a whole different level of urgency on resolving matters that might threaten to disrupt it, whether it's within your home or within the body of Christ itself.

It's urgent. It's important. The humble, unassuming love that you manifest to one another without even trying, without even thinking about it, what you need to understand is that unassuming, gentle love that you express within the body of Christ, it glorifies God. It honors Him for who He really is.

It is a reflection back as a light hitting the mirror. It is a reflection back to what our God is like, and it honors Him. Your unassuming love within the body of Christ, your thoughtful, and yet in one sense thought less because you so naturally do it, acts of kindness and generosity and service and sacrifice, this is where we glorify God. Look over at Romans chapter 15 as we look at one of the spokes that radiate out from these themes in Ephesians. Romans chapter 15 verse 5, the Apostle Paul says this, and remember he's writing to the church at Rome. He says, Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We honor Him through the unity of the church, the unity of the body. That's Don Green with the first half of a message called A Life for God's Glory here on The Truth Pulpit. Friend, if you'd like to hear this message again, or maybe you'd like to share it with a friend or loved one, we invite you to visit thetruthpulpit.com. While you're there, you'll find all of Don's teaching along with other helpful study resources. That's thetruthpulpit.com. Well, we trust today's time in God's Word has been an encouragement to you, my friend, and we hope you can join us again next time here on The Truth Pulpit. For Don Green, I'm Bill Wright. Take care and God bless.