The Glory of God in His Glorious Church

0:00 I invite you to pray with me before we begin the message. Well, Lord, our rock and our redeemer, my heart's desire now that beyond all human possibility and expectation, you would use this message to make hundreds of churches beautiful, glorious. Beyond all what these pastors think is possible for the kind of people they're serving, make them beautiful people. and may they know how to preach to that end, I pray. And may all of it, Father, redound to your glory through Jesus Christ, we pray.

1:00 Amen. There's a double strand running through John MacArthur's teaching concerning the glory of the church, especially in his commentary and sermons on Ephesians. One strand is to insist that the church exists to glorify God. The glory of the church is to show that God is supremely glorious above all human created glory. The other strand is to insist that the church is being made glorious. with the glory of God. So there's this twofold way of talking about the glory of the church. Her glory is that she is glorious, and her glory is that her gloriousness exists for the glory of another, her maker, her redeemer. So in the book of Romans, reaches its great climax at the end of chapter 11, verse 36, and says, From him and through him and to him are all things.

2:33 The all things includes the glory of the church. the glory of the church in all of its dimensions is from God, through God and to God. So when Paul soars in that last exaltation to him be glory forever it includes to him be glory through the glory of the church. so one glory is ultimate the glory of God and the other glory is penultimate the glory of the church the church is glorious for the sake of the glory of God and since we are that church it's just amazing to me that I get to talk to so many shepherds of flocks, hundreds of congregations, no doubt, represented at this conference. Since we are this and your people are this, we cannot talk dispassionately about this glory because it's your glory. This is not a theoretical thing. If we're going to talk about the glory of the church. We're talking about your glory, the glory of that people you left behind.

4:06 God has chosen to put his glory on display by bringing into being a glorious people. that's you that's your people back home but even that scarcely touches the heart of the matter better to say this God has chosen to put the apex of his glory which is what we saw last night the apex of his glory, namely the glory of his blood-bought grace. He puts the apex of his glory on display by gathering out of his hell-deserving enemies a people for himself. And he is making those people beautiful, splendid glorious at the cost of the death of his only son And we will have no defect at all in due time.

5:22 She will be splendid. He is bringing into being a suitable wife for his son. and when that happens there will be fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore Psalm 16 11 one of the great challenges for pastors is so to speak of these two strands that in the minds and the hearts and the feelings and the words and the actions of their people, they would weave these two strands together biblically. So how are your people to understand that they are glorious and yet they live totally for the glory of another? How does that work?

6:30 How is your church to understand that she is glorious when she looks anything but glorious? When the Bible itself says that the Christian life is fraught with tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, and when we will be hated, not glorified, in the world. we will deal with the ugliness of indwelling sin in our lives till the day we die the best among us may be called the scum of the world and the refuse of all things and when you come to die it will not be glorious sown in dishonor.

7:40 You're pastors. You know this. You've been to the hospital for an 80 or 90-year-old who's dying. It's not glorious. So how are our people to understand their glory? The church is being made glorious. So let's trace these two strands. through the Old and New Testament, and then ask, what are they? How do they relate to each other? And how do they affect our ministry? Strand number one,

8:19 the glory of the church is her existence and her mission to glorify God. The glory of the church is to show that God is supremely glorious above all created glory. So let's start at the beginning. The pinnacle of God's creation was people, persons, not animals, not mountains, not galaxies. The pinnacle of the creation was a pair of persons. That's hugely significant when you ask, what's the purpose of all this? Where's this all going?

9:13 God created man in his own image, man, persons, in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female. He created them, and God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Now, the purpose of putting images of yourself on display as the pinnacle of your creation is what? To draw attention to your glory, yourself. That's what images are for. Images image forth the one they are images of. That's their job. That's why they're made in the likeness of the one they are to image forth. God is both the artist or the sculptor and the one that's being commemorated by the sculptures and so he's doubly the one being pointed to by persons created in his image. The point, the main point of every human being is God.

10:39 just revolutionize your people if they get this they don't pass anybody on the street without knowing what's the main point of your existence answer God everybody has one main point in their lives to image forth God if God erects eight billion images of himself in the world. His purpose is unmistakable.

11:17 Think about me. Know me. Marvel at me. Enjoy me. Which you can call megalomania if you're of that mindset and most people are, which makes our job difficult, or you can call it love. because we were made to know him. We were made to be with him. We were made to love him. We were made to be satisfied by him. So to call attention to himself over and over and over is love. How else could an infinitely beautiful, all-satisfying God love his creatures?

12:24 How else except to say, look at me. Every one of you is a walking image of the point of the universe. Look at God Know God Love God Enjoy God That's why you exist That's what it means to be in the image of God It's amazing to me how many People talk today about the image of God And never, never make that point It's like being in the image of God It's a big deal for me I'm in the image of God Like what? image of God. It's about God, not about you. You're an image. You're a statue. When Adam and Eve sinned, the essence of that sin was the preference of self-exaltation over God-exaltation.

13:34 That's the essence of sin, the preference of self-exaltation over God-exaltation, which which is the condition of every human heart since then, until we're born again. How then will God move forward with his plan? If the plan was to create persons to image forth the glory of God in the world, and now those creatures have totally defaced, maybe the word totally is an overstatement, profoundly displaced, defaced their purpose for being and turned in on themselves and made themselves gods and delighted in self-exaltation more than God-exaltation, how's he going to move forward? What's he going to do? Give up?

14:35 One answer might be, the heavens are telling the glory of God. The rivers clap their hands, the hills sing for joy, the mountains and the hills break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands. The whole universe, according to Romans 1, is meant to be God, God, God, get it people. It's all about the maker. Maybe that's the answer. That's not the answer. Even though the whole universe is designed as a kind of helper to point people to God, the glory of God in his purpose is through persons. It's just amazing. He means to get glory for himself through persons.

15:40 Natural revelation is not God's main plan. for the glorification of his name in the world. He created persons for his glory, and he will get glory through persons.

16:02 This is his main plan. People. We're talking about the glory of the church. That's where we're going. We're moving toward this. A people for the sake of his name forever and ever. So what does he do? He does something wonderful and offensive. He chooses one people. How offensive can that be? It's wonderful that he chose one people group because he didn't have to choose any. He could have just said, I'm done. The whole thing aborted. And he didn't. So it's wonderful.

16:57 and it's offensive. He chose one. Not ten, not a hundred, not a thousand, one. You only, Israel, have I chosen, have I known of all the peoples on the earth. Amos 3, 2. Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and earth, and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on you, persons, above all the peoples, Deuteronomy 10. Why? Why did he choose Israel?

17:50 What was it about Israel? Abraham was a moon worshiper. Here's the answer, Deuteronomy 7. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. For you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loves you. Why did he set his love upon them? Because he set his love upon them. That's exactly what it says. He loved them because he loved them. Does that sound familiar?

18:44 Make you think of a text? I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Exodus 33, 19, Romans 9, 15. This is the election of grace. As Paul calls it in Romans 11, 5. the election of Israel according to sheer, sovereign, free grace. And since the choice of Israel is totally of grace, not deserved by any ethnic feature, any human trait, any spiritual qualification, it excludes all boasting. And as soon as any Jewish person begins to boast that God must show him or her favor because of Jewishness, the words of John the Baptist ring out.

19:55 Do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, because God can raise up from stones, children to Abraham. which means that when the Bible speaks of Israel as chosen and existing for the glory of God, which we'll see in just a minute, it means for the glory of his grace. Israel exists by sheer, sovereign, free, electing grace. Bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, Isaiah 43. The people whom I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.

20:54 Isaiah 43, 21. For my name's sake, I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you. 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. Isaiah 48. You are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified. Isaiah 49. I made the whole house of Israel cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. Jeremiah 13. I saved them for my name's sake. that they might make known my mighty power. Psalm 106.

21:53 You are the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. And on and on and on. God chose a people not mountains or galaxies or natural revelation a people human beings who have the capacity to glorify God like nothing else can they have feelings they have minds God means to be glorified that way.

22:32 The Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession, Psalm 135, which means he chose Israel for his glory, and specifically the glory of his grace. And then he spent 2,000 years mainly focusing on Israel with his revelatory word and his redemptive work. Amazing. That they might be for him a name, a praise, and a glory. A strand one as it's represented in the Old Testament. The glory of Israel was that she exists to glorify God.

23:36 And by and large Israel did not bear that kind of fruit. Not yet. And when the Messiah came, Israel's failure reached a climax in the rejection and the crucifixion of Messiah Jesus. And in the parable of the wicked tenants, the owner of the vineyard sends his son to collect the fruit of God-glorifying obedience from Israel and the tenants say, this is the heir, come let us kill him and have his inheritance. Matthew 21, to which Jesus responds with one of the most epic-making and decisive statements in the history of the world.

24:48 Jesus said, Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. Matthew 21, 43. That is one of the most important turning points in the history of the world. The 2,000-year-old focus on Israel ceases.

25:20 The times of the Gentiles begins. The God-appointed hardening upon Israel descends. Jesus sends his missionaries to gather the sheep that are not of this Jewish fold. And for 2,000 years now... God has been gathering a blood-bought church from every people and tribe and language and nation for the glory of his name and he will succeed I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come Thank you.

26:13 And as it comes, the full number of the Gentiles will be complete. The hardening of Israel will be lifted. A generation of ethnic Israel will en masse turn to Messiah Jesus. They will be grafted back into the rich root of the olive tree by faith in Jesus, and there will be one covenant people, the church of Jew and Gentile, to meet the Lord when he comes. What's the glory of that church for those 2,000 years? What's the glory of that church?

27:08 The glory of the church, like the glory of Israel, is to show God is supremely glorious. It is the glory of the church to exist and to have the mission to show that God is supremely glorious, above all created glory. First Peter 2 9, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that purpose, that you may proclaim the excellencies, God, the glory of God, the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's why the church exists.

27:58 That's the glory of the church to make the excellencies of God known. Like the glory, for example, of his wisdom in Ephesians 3.10. through the church, the manifold wisdom of God will be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Your church exists to show the wisdom of God to angels,

28:29 including fallen angels. But just as with Israel, the ultimate goal is not just the glory of God in general, it is the apex of his glory. Again, last night's portrayal of that moment. The apex of God's glory is the glory of his grace in the work of Christ. So Ephesians 1, 4 to 6, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. predestined us for adoption to the praise of the glory of his grace. That's just about the most ultimate verse in the Bible. Maybe it is. Election, predestination, redemption through Christ unto the praise of the glory of the grace, grace, the apex of the glory of God.

29:43 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. That's Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. So, summarizing strand number one.

30:10 Running through the Bible concerning the glory of the church, there is this insistence that her existence and her mission is to show that God is supremely glorious. Above all created glory, especially the glory of her grace. So your church will be glorious. to the degree that she does that, declares the excellencies of the one who is infinitely glorious. Now strand number two. she is being made glorious with the very glory of God. So the first strand is the church exists to glorify God, to make him look like he really is, namely supremely glorious above all created glory.

31:14 That's her glory. And the second strand is as a way of doing that, as a way of glorifying God, she is being made glorious with the glory of God. Her glory is that her gloriousness exists for the glory of another. Now we can just one quick glimpse of Israel in this regard, and then spend the rest of our time on the church in the New Testament. That's true for Israel as well. Israel was being made glorious for the sake of the glory of God. And here's the most moving passage in that regard that I'm aware of, Ezekiel 16.

32:13 your father was an Amorite your mother a Hittite you were cast out on the open field for you were abhorred when I passed by you he's talking about Israel when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood I said to you in your blood live When I passed by you again, behold, you were at the age for love. And I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord. And you became mine.

33:08 I bathed you with water and washed off your blood and anointed you with oil and you grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. Think of Solomon and the Queen of the South coming breathless to admire what God had wrought. you grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty and your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you declares the Lord but you trusted in your people.

34:02 and played the whore. That's the story of the whole Old Testament. God blesses and blesses and blesses and beautifies and beautifies. And instead of glorifying him for his grace, she dishonors him with her idolatry. and the mouth of the whole world is stopped. Our mouth is stopped, according to Romans 3.19, because we would have done the same thing. So, as we saw, the natural Jewish branches then were broken off. And for the last 2,000 years, God has been grafting in these wild olive branches, most of you in this room, into the tree of salvation, the Abrahamic covenant, making Gentiles into sons of Abraham by faith in the Jewish Messiah, Galatians 3 7, creating the church.

35:17 And now the church is being made glorious. Here's two pictures of it. One is the picture of a wife that you're very familiar with, and the other is a picture of brothers. You know both these texts.

35:41 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water and the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

36:12 God wants a beautiful bride for his son, and Jesus does too. He's going to pay his life to have a beautiful bride. now what about brothers that's a picture of a wife being made beautiful here's brothers from Romans 8 29 God predestined the church to be conformed to the image of his son that's beautiful in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined he called and those whom he called he justified and those whom he justified he glorified.

36:58 So our glorification, our beautification as the church is conformity to Christ and it is as sure as predestination. Those whom he predestined he called Doesn't mean called, he justified. Doesn't mean justified, he glorified. It is as good as done, even though it is happening incrementally, according to 2 Corinthians 3.18.

37:29 Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory, the same glory to another. Your people and you are already undergoing glorification. and its completion is absolutely certain. as certain as predestination is real.

38:10 We are being made glorious with the very glory of Christ. If we suffer with him, we will be glorified with him. Romans 8, 17. He disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. whatever beauty there is in us it is the beauty of his holiness his holiness his holiness and the day will come when our likeness to Christ will be perfected morally and physically when he appears we will be like him because we will see him as he is 1 John 3, 2. He will transform the lowly body, these lowly bodies, to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

39:16 When Christ, who is your life, appears, you will appear with him in glory. The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. A lot of people make a very big deal today out of the new heavens and the new earth, and they chastise. Evangelicals and fundamentalists because we believe in heaven. as if that were not possible to believe in both. And I want to stress the opposite.

40:11 Remember, persons are the pinnacle of his creation, not galaxies. Persons are the pinnacle of his glory, not nature, not new heavens, not new earth. The son will have a beautiful bride, not mainly a beautiful estate. That's huge, brothers. Don't get this out of whack. Don't under or overemphasize the new heavens and the new earth. The new heavens and the new earth, according to Romans 8, is a footnote to your glory. That's what it says. The creation is waiting for the revealing of the freedom of the glory of the children.

41:07 Persons. The universe is about what persons do to glorify God. Not what heavens do or mountains. The beauty of the church was the plan from eternity. We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. The eternal plan was for the glory of a people, the church. Persons praising the glory of God's grace are the pinnacle of the purposes of God. A people praising the glory of God's grace is the pinnacle of the purpose of God.

42:10 Should be obvious now, I hope, as we turn to how do these two strands relate? We exist to glorify God and we are being made glorious. The first strand, the glory of the church is her existence and her mission to glorify God. Her glory is to make God look glorious. Strand, the church is herself being made glorious with the very glory of God. And the connection is that making the church beautiful with his own beauty, the beauty of his son. In doing that, God is putting his own beauty on display. So, the two strands become...

43:15 One. Sounds like a wedding, right? God is glorified in the very glorification of the church. The aim of God to be glorified and the aim of the church to be glorious are one aim. So let me draw this to a close by pulling out, I think, a very profound implication for the way we preach. Indeed, the way we do everything. Press in with me for a moment on the reality that is being created when the church is being made beautiful or glorious. What is it? The church is being made beautiful, the church is being made glorious. What is the essence of that beauty?

44:17 that glory. And I think Paul gives a clear pointer in Ephesians 1.6. When he says that the ultimate aim of election, the ultimate aim of predestination, the ultimate aim of adoption is the praise of the glory of the grace of God. So praising the beauty of the grace of God is close to the essence of our beauty. praising a people, praising the glory of the grace of God, I'm saying that praising is close to the essence of our beauty.

45:18 Why do I say close? So I ask you, what is the essence of praising? I'm not asking all that goes into what praise is. I just want to go to the heart of the matter. Go to the very heart of the matter. What is praising? Jesus said this people honors me with their lips and their heart is far from me which means the heart of praising, the essence of praising is not the movement of the lips in song, in prayers in preaching It's not the movement of any muscles at all.

46:15 Hands raised, lying on the ground, kneeling in prayer. None of that constitutes the essence. It's not even thoughts, right thoughts about God because the devil has those. So it's not the movement of muscles, it's not the movement of thoughts in the brain that constitute the essence of praising, which is the beauty of the church when she's praising the glory of the grace of God. The essence of praise is when those right thoughts about God give rise to right affections for God. I'll say it again. I hope it's obvious.

47:07 Like, duh. But maybe not. The essence of praise is when those right thoughts, right doctrines, right truths about God give rise. to authentic heartfelt affections for the beauty of God and Christ. The essence of praise, then, is the heart's gladness in the glory of God. The essence of praise, praising the glory of God's grace, Romans Ephesians 1-6, is gladness in the glory of God. You, God, are my gladness.

48:03 You are my joy. You are my pleasure. in your presence, his fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy.

48:24 Psalm 43, verse 4. There is no proper praise of the glory of grace that is not gladness in the glory of God. There is no proper praise if the essence is missing,

48:47 namely gladness in the glory of God. Therefore, I would be so bold as to say that the essence of the beauty of the church, not the totality of it, Thank you. But the essence of the church's beauty is that our hearts finally enjoy God above all things, and that in the last day, we enjoy him with no competing affections whatsoever. That will be the final goal of our glorification. That will be the final goal of God's glorification. which is why they are one. And the two strands of the glory of the church will be one strand. He will be supremely glorified in the church because the church will be supremely satisfied in him.

49:57 Spilling over in endless praise to the glory of God's grace forever and ever. Brothers, if you believe this, if you believe this the effects on your preaching for the gladness of your people in the glory of God will be profound and pervasive what God may be pleased to do this is why I prayed what I said at the beginning and this is my last sentence Thank you. What God may be pleased to do in the beautification of your people is incalculable. I don't think the world has seen yet what is possible in the beautification of the church even in this fallen age so now no doubt this is why Paul said it this way now to him who is able to do abundantly beyond what you can ask or think by the power at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever.