By Steven J. Hogan
~ A Saturday Morning Post #29 ~
God is all glorious! That’s because of who He is – God is God, and He is the Creator of the world, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, and the Savior of sinners. “O Lord God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty God?” Psalm 89:8. God is glorious because of what He’s like – He’s supreme, holy, just, wise, loving, powerful, truthful, sovereign, forgiving, good, faithful, patient, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable and eternal. “His name alone is exalted; His glory is above heaven and earth.” Psalm 148:13. And God is glorious because of what He does, because of His awesome works. “On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.” Psalm 145:5
God is always glorified! There’s never a time when He is not glorified. Every single thing that God has ever done, or ever will do, gives Him glory. Not only that, but as Revelation 4 tells us, the four living creatures are continually and eternally giving glory to God. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty… Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things…” But there’s been a big problem.
Man is made to glorify God. But as Romans 1:18-32 says, man is worshiping the creation instead of God, His Creator, and this is his main sin, his root problem, resulting in all kinds of other sins. Yet, in His kindness, God sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to save man from his sin, to redeem those who believe He died and paid for their sins and then rose again. And why did God do this? For man’s eternal good, and so he would glorify God. The Westminster Confession sums it up, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”
As a Christian you are to glorify God – to worship, to extol, to exalt, to praise, to bless, to honor, to thank, to fear, to love Him. This is your main purpose, your primary duty during your life on this earth, and forever and ever. “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31. “To Him who loves us… to Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.” Revelation 1:5-6. O might you see this! O might your heart, soul and life be filled with praise to God, for He is worthy!!!
God made the heavens and the earth, the angels, plants and animals, mountains and hills, and men and women, to praise and glorify God. But as was said, man sinned and didn’t give Him glory. But God has reconciled people to Himself, and the Bible and all of history tells us stories of selected men and women giving glory to God. The Jews, for example, were a chosen people, and many of them worshiped God. As David said, “I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God… and will glorify Your name forever.” Psalm 86:11. But overall, the Jews did not honor God, and so He punished them, for “they worshiped a molten image. They exchanged their glory for an image of an ox.” Psalm 106:19-20. Yet God never gave up on the Jews, for though He exiled them and later scattered them all over the world, He promised to gather them back to their land (and now they are there), so they would give Him glory. “I will be glorified in the midst of Thee.” Ezekiel 28:22. “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.” Habakkuk 2:14
But now we’re in the church age, and the time for the revival of a remnant of Jews, and these promises to be fulfilled, is still to come. This is our opportunity and time to serve the Lord and give Him glory. Many verses tell us this – Romans 16:25-27, Galatians 1:4-5, Philippians 4:19-20, 2 Peter 3:18, Jude 24-25, Revelation 1:5-6, Ephesians 3:21 – “To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
Since we live in the end times, we know it won’t be long before Christians on earth “will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27), and before we will be “raised in glory” (1 Corinthians 15:42), and before all believers “will be revealed with Christ in glory” (Colossians 2:3). Do you realize what’s going to happen? And do you see that our primary message is God’s glory, and that our main purpose is to glorify Him, and to “tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among the peoples… to ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name?” Psalm 96:3, 7
It’s so joyful, exhilarating and fulfilling to glorify God with the saints during this church age, but I’m looking forward to glorifying Him in the next age with all the believers from the Old Testament and church ages, and from the millennial kingdom age. It won’t be long before “every knee will bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” and before we’re saying, and I believe singing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Philippians 2:10-11, Isaiah 6:3
P.S. I plan to have my new article posted early next week: “Replacement Theology : It’s Not True – Part 5.” Look for it then!
