My Glory or God's

I'll be preaching on the sin of 'selfishness' this afternoon.  At the heart of selfishness is the belief that I am at the center of the universe, but the truth is that God, alone, is at the center of the universe.  The world revolves around God; the world does not revolve around me.  Here is a sampling of verses, teaching that God is the center, and therefore God alone is worthy of worship...

Isaiah 43:6-7  

I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth, 

everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”

Psalm 106:8

Yet he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his mighty power.

Ezekiel 20:14

But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.

Exodus 14:4

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.

John 14:13

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 16:14

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Acts 12:23

Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

Philippians 1:9-11

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Psalm 23:3

He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Luke 2:13-14

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

John 12:27-28

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”  

2 Thessalonians 1:9-10

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10  when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Habakkuk 2:14

For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

1 Corinthians 10:31

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Isaiah 26:8

In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
are the desire of our soul.

Matthew 5:16

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.

Ephesians 1:5-6

he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6  to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Isaiah 43:25

“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.

Psalm 25:11

For your name's sake, O Lord,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.

Isaiah 48:11

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
 My glory I will not give to another.

Luke 21

In Luke 21 Jesus sits down his disciples and tells them about their future.  Their painful future.

(paraphrased) "The temple will be destroyed; earthquakes, famine, and disease will ravage you, people will hate you, you will terrified and beaten, and your own family is going to turn you in to be imprisoned and killed.  Others will be stabbed and led into captivity.  All of creation will seem to be working against mankind - the wind, the ocean, the sun, moon, and stars.  People will feel small and endangered.  The horror will be so great that there will be 'people fainting with fear.' "

Yet, in the middle of this daunting prophecy, Jesus ensures them that, even when life is its darkest, God is working for their good.

"This will be your opportunity to witness." (verse 13)
"I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict." (verse 15)
"By your endurance you will gain your lives." (verse 18)

With this confidence, Jesus calls them to "straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (verse 28) and to "watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with... cares of this life." (verse 34)

We too can raise our heads in the middle of relentless pain.

 

Temple Gatekeepers

I'm reading through the Bible this year, using the daily ESV Study Bible plan.  One of today's chapters was 1 Chronicles 26.  In this chapter, the author gives an account of David's appointing of gatekeepers for the sanctuary of God (known previously as the "tabernacle" and later in 2 Chronicles as the "temple").  The sanctuary is where the glory and presence of God would come down to meet with his people.

Most people worshipped outside the sanctuary as God was very specific about who could go in, and what could be done inside.  The gatekeepers were men responsible for safeguarding the sanctuary from unauthorized worshippers and defiling practices.

Today, God's powerful presence is not restricted to a temple in Jerusalem.  Rather, God's presence now dwells within every believer.  Christians under the New Covenant enjoy God's presence continuously and can commune with him without geographical limitations because "[we] are God's temple and God's Spirit dwells in [us]" (1 Corinthians 3:16). 

Assuming that God is still zealous for the purity of his temple, gatekeeping must not be discarded as an isolated need under the Old Covenant.  While its form will be different. God's temple (his people) can still be defiled and gatekeepers are still necessary.


Who or what is gatekeeping the temple today?

"Sin is Cosmic Treason" by R.C. Sproul

While preparing for the Respectable Sins sermon series, I came across this from R.C. Sproul's "The Holiness of God:"

“Is the death penalty for sin unjust? By no means. Remember that God voluntarily created us. He gave us the highest privilege of being His image bearers. He made us but a little lower than the angels. He freely gave us dominion over all the earth. We are not turtles. We are not fireflies. We are not caterpillars or coyotes. We are people. We are the image bearers of the holy and majestic King of the cosmos.

We have not used the gift of life for the purpose God intended. Life on this planet has become the arena in which we daily carry out the work of cosmic treason. Our crime is far more serious, far more destructive than that of Benedict Arnold. No traitor to any king or nation has even approached the wickedness of our treason before God.

Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the One to whom we owe everything, to the One who has given us life itself. Have you ever considered the deeper implications of the slightest sin, of the most minute peccadillo? What are we saying to our Creator when we disobey Him at the slightest point? We are saying no to the righteousness of God. We are saying, ‘God, Your law is not good. My judgment is better than Yours. Your authority does not apply to me. I am above and beyond Your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do, not what You command me to do.’

The slightest sin is an act of defiance against cosmic authority. It is a revolutionary act, a rebellious act in which we are setting ourselves in opposition to the One to whom we owe everything. It is an insult to His holiness. We become false witnesses to God.

When we sin as the image bearers of God, we are saying to the whole creation, to all of nature under our dominion, to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field: ‘This is how God is. This is how your Creator behaves. Look in his mirror; look at us, and you will see the character of the Almighty.’

We say to the world, ‘God is covetous; God is ruthless; God is bitter; God is a murderer, a thief, a slanderer, an adulterer. God is all of these things that we are doing.’”

–R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1985), 115-16.