The Worth of Christ (Part 1) - Charles Leiter

I'm always afraid of
an introduction like that

where anything good is said about me,

lest God need to prove to you

that none of it's true.

We trust He won't have to do that tonight.

I have what is really in some ways

an introductory message tonight,

so it's not going to be quite as long

as some of the others.

So we're going to take some time here

to read actually two
short chapters of Scripture.

Revelation 4 and Revelation 5.

And so let's read through these now.

"After these things, I looked, and behold,

a door standing open in heaven,

and the first voice which I had heard

like the sound of a
trumpet speaking with me

said, 'Come up here,

and I will show you what must take place

after these things.'

Immediately, I was in
the Spirit, and behold,

a throne was standing in heaven,

and One sitting on the throne,

and He who was sitting
was like a jasper stone

and a sardis in appearance,

and there was a rainbow around the throne

like an emerald in appearance.

And around the throne were 24 thrones

and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders

sitting clothed in white garments

and golden crowns on their heads.

And from the throne
proceeds flashes of lightning

and sounds and peals of thunder."

I remember one time years ago

I was reading through
the book of Revelation.

There's a lot of thunder.

And thunder uttering its voice

and speaking and so on.

We had a terrific lightning storm

there in Kirksville at that time,

and it brought home to me a little bit

of the reality of what it's like

when thunder utters its voice.

And here at this throne,

lightning flashes are going out

and thunder's coming from this throne.

Verse 5, "And there
were seven lamps of fire

burning before the throne,

which are the seven spirits of God.

And before the throne there was as it were

a sea of glass like crystal.

And in the center and around the throne,

four living creatures full of eyes

in front and behind.

And the first creature was like a lion,

and the second creature like a calf,

and the third creature had a face

like that of a man,

and the fourth creature

was like a flying eagle.

And the four living creatures,

each one of them having six wings

are full of eyes around and within.

And day and night they do not cease

to say 'holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God, the Almighty,

who was and who is and who is to come.'

And when the living creatures

give glory and honor and thanks

to Him who sits on the throne,

to Him who lives forever and ever,

the 24 elders will fall down before Him

who sits on the throne

and will worship Him who
lives forever and ever

and will cast their crowns
before the throne

saying, "Worthy art Thou,

our Lord and our God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for Thou didst create all things,

and because of Thy will they existed

and were created.'

And I saw in the right hand of Him
who sat on the throne a book,

written inside and on the back,

sealed up with seven seals.

I saw a strong angel proclaim

with a loud voice,

'Who is worthy to open the book

and to break its seals?'

And no one in heaven or on the earth

or under the earth was able

to open the book or to look into it.

I began to weep greatly

because no one was found worthy

to open the book or to look into it.

And one of the elders said to me,

'Stop weeping. Behold, the Lion

that is from the tribe of Judah,

the root of David has overcome

so as to open the book
and its seven seals.'

And I saw between the throne

with the four living
creatures and the elders

a Lamb standing as if slain."

I don't know what that means -

"standing as if slain."

"Having seven horns and seven eyes

which are the seven spirits of God

sent out into all the earth.

And He came and He took it

out of the right hand of
Him who sat on the throne."

That's a fearsome thing, isn't it?

"And when He had taken the book,

the four living creatures
and the 24 elders

fell down before the Lamb,

having each one a harp

and golden bowls full of incense

which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song saying,

'Worthy art Thou to take the book

and to break its seals, for Thou was slain

and didst purchase for God with Thy blood

men from every tribe and tongue

and people and nation,

and Thou hast made them to be

a kingdom and priests to our God.

And they will reign upon the earth.'

And I looked and I heard the voice

of many angels around the throne

and the living creatures and the elders

and the number of them (these angels)

was myriads of myriads

and thousands of thousands..."

That's millions.

Millions of angels.

"Saying with a loud voice,

'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain

to receive power and riches and wisdom

and might and honor
and glory and blessing.

And every created thing which is in heaven

and on the earth and under the earth

and on the sea and all
things in them, I heard say,

'To Him who sits on the throne

and to the Lamb

be blessing and honor and glory

and dominion forever and ever.'

And the four living creatures
kept saying, 'Amen.'

And the elders fell down and worshiped."

As the Lord wills, I'd like to
speak to you these days

on the subject of the worthiness of God.

The elders here have given us leeway -

they kind of set a theme, but they gave us

leeway to speak on anything

that it seemed that the
Lord was leading us to.

And this is all I have.

I need your prayers.

It's a worthy theme to speak
on the worthiness of God,

but I'm certainly not
worthy to speak on it.

The worthiness of God.

In these chapters, and I've read them,

because they give us a glimpse

of just how worthy God is.

In these chapters, we see the Triune God

described in glorious symbolic language

surrounded by millions and millions

of worshipers declaring how worthy He is.

God the Father's described in v. 2-6

of chapter 4.

And He's seated on a great throne

with flashes of lightning
and peals of thunder

and seas of glass and emerald rainbows

and living creatures.

God the Son is described in chapter 5,

verses 5 and 6 and
following as a great Lion.

And once this Lion is introduced,

we turn to look at Him and we see a Lamb

standing as if slain.

And then God the Holy Spirit appears

in chapter 4:5 as these seven mysterious

lamps of fire.

And in chapter 5:6, He appears

as the seven eyes of the Lamb

which are the seven spirits of God

which are sent out into all the earth.

And then we see God's creation

from the very highest to the very lowest

worshiping prostrate before
this worthy triune God.

So I want to begin by asking a question:

Just how worthy is God?

How worthy is God?

And we can see the answer

just by pronouncing the
word a little differently.

How worth-y is God?

That's where the word worthy comes from.

It has the word "worth" in it.

How much is God worth?

The word "worthy" literally means

having worth, value, or merit.

So how much is God worth?

Is He worth a million dollars?

How much is God worth?

There was a time when the Holy Spirit

was moving in power there in New England

and Christ was very real and near

to various ones.

And Sarah Edwards was going through

such a time as that,

and one of her neighbors
was visiting with her

and said this:

"One smile from Christ

is worth a thousand million pounds."

"One smile from Christ

is worth a thousand million pounds."

And this is what she says,

"The words affected me exceedingly

and in a manner which I cannot express.

I had a strong sense of the infinite worth

of Christ's approval and love

and at the same time

of the grossness of the comparison.

It only astonished me

that anyone could compare

a smile of Christ to
any earthly treasure."

A thousand million pounds?

She said how could you
think of something so base?

She said, "Towards night I had

a deep sense of the awful greatness of God

and felt with what humility and reverence

we ought to behave ourselves before Him."

It only astonished me she said.

"Well, if a smile of Christ

is of infinite worth,

how much worth is Christ Himself?"

How much is God worth?

Well, He's of infinite worth.

He is infinitely worthy.

So that means that you take

the entire created order

and stack it all together at once

and multiply it by a million times

and put it in the balance against God -

it's nothing and less than nothing.

There is nothing whatsoever of comparison

because God is infinitely worthy.

Now, this one fact affects

literally everything in life.

And I hope that we'll
see this in a measure

during the next few days, but notice this:

God's infinite worthiness is described

in these two chapters that we've read

in terms of three songs,

or you might say three
outpourings of worship.

The first one might be called

the song of God's being.

Now notice this in v. 8-9 of chapter 4.

It says, "The four living creatures

each one of them having six wings

are full of eyes around and within

and day and night they do not cease to say

'holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God, the Almighty.'"

Day and night, they don't cease.

Twenty-four seven.
All the time. Constantly.

"'Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God, the Almighty,

who was and who is

and who is to come.'

And when the living creatures give glory

and honor and thanks to Him

who sits on the throne..."

Now this is what's going on:

Glory, honor, and thanks.

And these outpourings of worship

have to do with God's being.

Now, I want us to notice two things here.

First of all, this outpouring of worship

comes from those who
are themselves sinless.

They've never committed one sin.

And yet, they are around the throne

all the time constantly saying,

"holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God Almighty."

Why is that?

Because even though they have
not committed even one sin,

He is so much more holy than they are

that they worship Him for His holiness.

Now how in the world can that be?

They have never committed a sin

and yet God is infinitely
more holy than they are.

Well, because you know holiness

has to do with the idea of separateness

or separation.

(You had) holy vessels
in the Old Testament.

You had pots and pans and everything

that were called holy.

They had no moral character in themselves

but they had been set
apart from common use,

set apart for God.

They were separated out
from everything else.

That's the idea of holiness.

I think in the human realm,

we can see this a little bit.

I like to think about Babe Ruth.

You know, Babe Ruth's jersey -

he was number 3 -

and his number was set apart.

Nobody who comes to that team

and wants to put on his jersey

and say I'd like to be number 3 -

you can't be number 3.

You can't be number 3? Why's that?

Because that's holy.

That's been set apart

by this man's incredible
performance, you see.

Well, that's in the realm of sports.

I guess they did that with Michael
Jordan too, didn't they?

23 - that's set apart.

Nobody else gets that.

If you want to make it a little closer,

you could think in terms of the way

things have been
hallowed like Lincoln said,

that no one can hallow this ground

any more than what these guys have

by spilling their blood.

And when we think to stand on the spot

where people have died

so that we could have liberty,

that's holy ground in some sense.

Take it a little bit further.

I know some of you probably have read

about the Anabaptist's

and some of the things they suffered.

One of the things that happened was

that the people, when they were

being burned at the stake were preaching.

And so many people were
converted through the preaching

that they got a thing
called a tongue screw.

And it's a piece of metal -

maybe you've seen pictures of it.

They screw that on their tongue -

a big chunk of metal on their tongue,

so that they couldn't preach.

That shows the power
of the Gospel, doesn't it?

And so they screw that on their tongue

and after their bodies
were burned to ashes,

their relatives would
retrieve that tongue screw.

And they'd pass it down
through the family.

Now imagine being a wife

or being a son who your dad

died in the flames

wearing that tongue screw.

That thing takes on a different meaning.

You don't toss it around and play with it.

There's something holy about it.

Now these are weak analogies

in the human realm, but you see,

holiness is the idea of separation.

God is utterly separate.

He's infinitely separate from us.

He's the Creator. We are creatures.

If I could just get across a little bit

what a different realm God is in.

He doesn't have to exert Himself

in order to be.

They say that shrews are so voracious

that if you put two
shrews in a jar overnight,

in the morning, you'll
only have one shrew.

The reason is that they've
got to eat constantly

just to stay alive.

And beloved, that's the way we are.

My wife and I were talking
about this on the way down.

Basically, we're all like
people on a ventilator.

We've got to be kept going all the time

from power from the outside.

But what kind of Being is this

who lives on His own
power from the inside?

Who has no effort whatsover to be?

He just is.

You see, He's in a different
realm entirely than mankind.

He is the self-existent One.

He's infinitely set apart.

You see, when we talk about

the Creator-creature distinction,

we're not talking about
something quantitative.

We're not saying God's just a
lot, lot, lot bigger than we are.

No, we're talking about
something qualitative.

He's in a different realm entirely.

He is just as high above the archangel

as He is above the earthworm.

As you go up, you know,

I used to study math

and we'd make a very stupid statement.

They've stopped making that now.

They're much more careful,

but we used to say,
well, as that gets smaller,

the value of that thing goes to infinity.

It goes to infinity.

Well, that's a nonsense statement

because once you get out
there as far as you are,

you've still got that much farther to go.

I mean, when you even
say the word "infinity"

in your mind you draw a circle around it.

You can't do that.

You can picture a line,

but you can't picture a line

that has no end on either end.

You can't picture that.

God is infinitely above us.

That means He's holy in an absolute way.

And here's these sinless creatures -

no telling what kind of power they had

in relation to us -

but there's an infinite gulf between them

and the Creator.

And so they can't do anything but say,

"Holy, holy, holy... holy, holy, holy."

He's infinitely separate.

Now notice this too,

that this outpouring of worship

mentions nothing about anything

God has done or may do.

The outpouring of worship

relates to who He is in Himself.

They're not thanking God for benefits

they've received from Him.

They're just worshiping Him for who He is

in Himself apart from
anything that He's ever done.

And I think this is an amazing phrase here

where it says in verse 9,

"The living creatures give glory

and honor and thanks..."

They're thanking Him

for being who He is.

Well, God being God can't be anything

but who He is.

But who are you going to thank

if you don't thank Him?

(incomplete thought)

Isn't this a fearful thing?

You're before God - and
have you ever felt this way?

If you're a Christian, you have.

God, I thank You, I thank You,

thank You for being who You are!

I'm so thankful that You are who You are.

I worship You for being who You are.

Apart from anything You do for anybody.

That has to do with God's being.

He's worthy!

He would be worthy if He had not

ever created anything -
He would be worthy.

But there's a second song here.

And that's the song of God's creation.

And that comes in v. 10-11 of chapter 4.

The 24 elders will fall down before Him

who sits on the throne
and will worship Him

who lives forever and ever

and will cast their crowns
before the throne

saying, "Worthy art Thou

our Lord and our God to receive glory

and honor and power,

for Thou didst create all things

and because of Thy will they existed

and were created."

Now think of this.

We're talking about worthiness.

He says worthy. They say worthy

right there in v. 11 don't they?

Worthy art Thou because You created.

The worthiness of God, beloved,

in terms of His creation.

The one who spoke by an act of the will

spoke all things into existence

out of nothing.

If there was some way that we could

just stand outside of everything

and watch it happen - God speak

everything into existence out of nothing,

it would be reason to
fall down before Him.

It would show His infinite
worthiness of worship

because He's the Creator of all things.

You know, one theologian said,

well, because the universe is not infinite

it displays God's power,
but it doesn't display

His infinite power.

Right?

You could say, well, look,

suppose God had just created this desk.

It would display His power,

but it wouldn't display
His infinite power.

But I'd like to ask you a question.

How much power does it take

to call this desk into
existence out of nothing?

If you don't think that's infinite power,

I don't know what it would be.

You see, He spoke.

He called things into being.

He called them into being by speaking;

by an act of the will.

Now, not only did He call
this desk into existence,

but He called the entire
universe into existence

a 15 billion light year radius.

They look at this and they worship.

And I say, if somehow you could
get outside of everything

and see it happen,

you would have infinite
reason to worship such a God.

But the fact is, we are
part of what He created.

We ourselves were
spoken into existence by Him.

Now you have even more reason -

if there could be even
more reason to worship Him

because you owe literally
everything to Him.

You exist!

You would not exist,

you would not be here

apart from God speaking
you into existence.

How much worship do you owe a God

that spoke you into existence?

You owe your being to Him,

not to mention your well-being.

The fact you've got clothes on,

you've got your sanity,

and whatever degree of health you have,

you owe Him everything -
literally everything.

So I say here again,

it's almost like can you
pile any more on this?

He's infinitely worthy just for who He is.

But how much more worthy is He

of the worship of those whom He has

called out of nothingness into existence?

I mean, you can't be any more

worthy of worship than
by your creatures, you see.

We owe Him literally everything.

And so how much more is He worthy

of all glory, honor,
and worship from those

whom He has called into existence?

But there's a third song
here, isn't there?

V. 8-12 of chapter 5.

And this is a song of God's redemption.

Not only is God infinitely worthy

because of His own being

and because He is the Creator

as opposed to the creation,

but He's infinitely worthy because of

this glorious redemption that He has

accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice verses 11 and 12.

"I looked and I heard the voice

of many angels around the throne

and the living creatures and the elders,

and the number of them
was myriads of myriads."

Now we're talking about the angels here.

"And thousands of thousands."

Millions of angels singing here.

Brother Michael mentioned
this thing of the angels

watching with awe and wonder

as the second Person of the Trinity comes

down, down, down -

the infinite, holy One comes down to earth

and is born in a stable.

And they watch Him grow up as a little boy

working in a carpenter's shop.

And they see Him allow His creatures

to spit on Him and mock Him.

And they watch Him as He stumbles

under the cross

and somebody helps Him carry that cross.

And they watch Him as He dies

on the cross for those sinners.

And they look at this and they fall down

and worship Him for what He's doing.

They fall prostrate just for
what they've seen Him do.

Now beloved, what I
want to get at is this:

Those angels don't "get anything"
out of Him doing that.

He's worthy of worship

whether you end up
going to hell in the end,

He's still worthy of
worship for what He's done.

If you look at what He did on the cross,

if you look at the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ,

He owes no one anything!

He doesn't need to save anybody.

Everybody in this world

ought to bow down before Him

and worship Him

just because of what He's done

whether you get anything out of it or not.

He's worthy of worship

for that act that He did of redemption.

Well, if that's true in itself,

then again, pile infinites on infinites.

How much is He worthy of our worship

who have benefited from this redemption?

If the angels are worshiping Him

and they get nothing out of it

in terms of redemption,

how much more ought we who have

been cleansed by His blood,

how much do we owe Him?

How worthy is He of our worship?

He's infinitely worthy.

Time over time over time.

He's infinitely worthy.

Love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.

I mean, we deserve to die

and the death angel's coming in

and He interposes with His
blood on the doorposts,

and while we hear the cries going up

from the Egyptian households,

we're still alive!

Don't you think you ought to fall
down before Him and worship Him?

You see how it's just piled upon -

it's infinite.

It's not that God's worthy -
He's infinitely worthy.

He really is infinitely worthy.

Now these chapters end very fitly then

in verses 13 and 14

with the entire created order worshiping

the Triune God for the
totality of His person

and His works.

I haven't said anything up
to this point about this,

but I'm sure many of you realize

that the word "worship"

comes from this same word: "worth."

Worth-ship.

It's literally acknowledging,

declaring the worth of the one

you are worth-shiping.

And beloved, He is worthy.

Now, in light of God's
infinite worthiness,

we should not be surprised to find

that this has implications

that permeate literally everything.

That's what we're going to be looking at,

Lord willing, in the next few days.

That's what we would expect.

After all, God isn't one among many.

He's the center and the
foundation of everything.

And when He moves, everything moves.

So, what are some of the implications

of the infinite worthiness of God?

I just want to mention one tonight

before we close.

We'll be looking at several of these,

Lord willing, but tonight,

I just want us to consider one.

First implication of the
infinite worthiness of God is:

What is the reason that
God does what He does?

Or you might say,

what is the chief end of God's actions?

Why does He do what He does?

And the chief end of God's actions

is God Himself.

Because He's infinitely worthy,

it would be wrong, shall we say;

it would be irrational,

it would be impossible for Him

to center on anything as
being the ultimate worth

except Himself.

So the purpose for His actions

is always to glorify Himself

first and foremost.

The reason He does anything

is to glorify Himself.

The chief end of all God's acts

is to glorify Himself,

to do what pleases Him and glorifies Him.

Why did God create the world?

He created it for His own glory.

Why did He permit the fall?

For His own glory.

Why does He choose to save some?

For His own glory.

Why does He choose to
leave some in their sins?

For His own glory.

Everything He does.

Now what's God's glory?

It's the manifestation of
His excellencies.

He creates the world to
manifest His excellencies.

He saves people in order
to manifest His excellencies.

He judges unrepentant sinners

in order to manifest His excellencies.

Now the Bible is full of these things

and I'm not going to take the time.

I actually have a lot of Scriptures

that I could give you.

I'll just give a few.

I want to just look at three areas

and just mention some Scriptures

so you'll know that I'm
not just saying these things.

First of all, in the area of creation,

why did God create?

Well, let me give you some verses.

Colossians 1:16-17.

"All things have been created by Him

and for Him."

All things were created for Him.

Now what does it mean, "for Him"?

In order to meet some need that He has?

No, He doesn't have any needs.

Everything that is created is created

for His good pleasure;

in order to glorify Him,

to bring glory to Him.

Romans 11:36,

"From Him, through Him, and to Him

are all things."

So all things not only came from Him

and through Him, but they go back to Him.

They're for His glory, for His pleasure.

They exist for Him.

Paul ends that in Romans 11,

"To Him be the glory forever and ever."

Psalm 19:1,

"The heavens are telling
the glory of God."

(incomplete thought)

They're manifesting His excellencies.

Isn't that true?

They do that all the time.

They're doing what they
were created to do.

Daily, they do what they
were created to do.

Isaiah 6:3,

"Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God of Hosts,

the whole earth is full of His glory."

He created it to be full of His glory.

He created the universe.

Why would God create a universe

that has a 15 billion light year radius?

Why would He create such a big -

I mean, He could have had it half that big

or a third that big or a tenth,

or a millionth that big.

It would have still been big.

But He wanted us to get some idea

that He's an infinite God.

You know, get a little bit of a glimpse

of how big He is

and I'm sure we haven't
got to the end of it.

The whole earth is full of His glory.

That is, even the snowflakes

and the spring flowers
and all those things.

They're manifesting His excellencies.

Secondly in the area of salvation.

Why does God graciously save people?

Well, just a few verses on this.

Not first of all for their own sake,

but for His own glory.

Isaiah 43:6-7,

"Bring My sons from afar

and My daughters from
the ends of the earth,

everyone who is called by My name

and whom I have created for My glory."

That's what happens when
a person becomes a Christian.

God creates someone as a
Christian for His glory.

Isaiah 44:23,

"Shout for joy, O heavens,

for the Lord has done it.

Shout joyfully, you lower
parts of the earth,

break forth into a shout
of joy, you mountains,

O forests and every tree in them,

for the Lord has redeemed Jacob

and in Israel He shows forth His glory."

He shows forth His glory.

Isaiah 61:3.

He talks about the fact
that we'll be called

oaks of righteousness,

the planting of the Lord

that He may be glorified.

In Ephesians 1 going
right down through there,

"to the praise of the glory of His grace."

Over and over.

Romans 9:23, "...In order that He might

make known the riches of His glory

upon vessels of mercy

which He prepared beforehand for glory."

Wonderful things!

Why does God not cast
us off and destroy us

once we are converted?

Well, for His own glory.

Let me just read you one here

out of Ezekiel 20.

Ezekiel 20:13-14. He says,

"The house of Israel rebelled against Me

in the wilderness.

They did not walk in My statutes,

and they rejected My ordinances

by which if man observes
them, he will live.

And My sabbaths they greatly profaned

and then I resolved to pour out My wrath

on them in the
wilderness to annihilate them.

But I acted for the sake of My name

that it should not be profaned

in the sight of the nations
before whose sight

I have brought them out."

Now if He did that for Israel

in the Old Testament, how much more

will He do that for us?

He says My name's tied up in you.

I mean, that's why I've put up with you

as long as I have.

My name, My glory is tied up in you.

Remember Ezekiel 36 -

"Not for your sake, O Israel,

not for your sake.

For My own name's sake..."

Listen to what the
Psalmist prays in Psalm 79:9.

"Help us, O God of our salvation!"

Well, why should I?

"For the glory of Thy name...

and deliver us and forgive our sins

for Thy name's sake."

Isn't that amazing?

We can even pray that way as Christians.

Even when you've got sins

that have got to be taken care of

and you've got to be delivered.

And when you need help.

Help us, for the glory of Thy name.

Do you realize God gets glory

by helping miserable people like us?

I mean, it's amazing!

Thirdly in the area of judgment.

Why does God bring judgment
upon the wicked?

For His own glory.

Ezekiel 28:22,

"Thus says the Lord God,

behold, I am against you, O Sidon,

and I shall be glorified in your midst.

Then they will know that I am the Lord

when I execute judgments in her

and I shall manifest My holiness in her."

It's a terrible thing when God

has to glorify Himself in that way

by pouring out judgment

and manifesting His holiness.

One more, Romans 9:17,

the Scripture says to Pharaoh,

for this very purpose, I raised you up,

that I might show My power in you

and that My name might be declared

throughout all the earth.

Here's this man and his pomp.

And God says I just raised you up

so that I could be glorified

by putting you down.

I mean, it takes a lot of the wind

out of the sails of
earthly rulers, doesn't it.

I mean, Pharaoh thought he was God.

He was the most powerful man in the world.

God says I'm the one that raised you up.

"What if God although
willing to demonstrate

(this is verse 22 of Romans 9),

willing to demonstrate His wrath

and make His power known."

You see, manifesting. Manifesting.

The manifestation of His excellencies.

His wrath - that's one of
His excellencies? Yes it is.

A God without wrath

would be a wicked God.

Anyone who can see,

even to see the atrocities

that we've seen in our lives.

I stood there at the ovens in Dachau.

I've been there a couple times.

I don't know how many people died there,

but at Auschwitz they said

16,000 pounds of women's hair.

Suppose a god could look at that

and just say it doesn't matter.

You see, the wrath of God -

that's one of His glorious excellencies.

He hates wickedness.

He is so pure and holy and good

that He despises and loathes -

His wrath burns against wickedness.

So he says God is willing
to show His wrath

and make His power known.

He endures with much long-suffering

the vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction.

Why? That He might make known

the riches of His glory
on vessels of mercy

which He afore prepared unto glory.

I better quit. I'm getting
my words mixed up here.

And I'm ready to quit.

In closing, you understand

that for a man to seek his own glory

is a selfish and a low thing,

but because God is infinitely worthy,

for Him to act for His own glory

is the only reasonable and right thing

for Him to do.

And we shouldn't think of this

in some sort of contrived

and unnatural way,

like God's got to think through

what am I going to do now?

I want to do something
for My own glory.

That's not the way it is.

God acting for His own glory

is just God being Himself.

It's just God doing what comes naturally.

What could bring more glory to God

than for God to just be who He is?

And so this is not some
kind of contrived thing?

And that's why you can say,

why does God save His people?

He saves them for His own glory.

You can also say He saves them

because of the great love
with which He loved them.

They're not in contradiction at all.

It's just God being who He is.

He really does love His people.

It's not some cold mechanical thing:

"I think I'll save them.

I don't really want to,

but because of My glory,

it would bring more glory..."
That isn't it.

Because of His great
love with which He loved us

even when we were dead
in our trespasses and sins,

He raised us up.

And you can say just as well

He saved them according
to His great wisdom.

You see, every one
of those things is true.

God is one.

And there's perfect
harmony within Himself.

So the most glorious
display of God's glory

is just God being Himself.

But we've got to be clear on this.

The universe does not revolve around man.

I mean, if anything ought to be clear

from just what we've looked at so far

is that this little rebellious

defiled speck of dust,

finer than the dust in the balances

that's called man is not
the center of reality.

And that, as I said,
the fact that God is God

or that God is infinitely worthy

permeates all of reality.

And Lord willing, that's what
we're going to be looking at

in the next session.