The doctrine of glorifying God, Part 16, John 15:8

Title: The doctrine of glorifying God, Part 16, John 15:8.

 

Point 3: The person and work of God brings glory to Himself.

 

a. God alone is worthy of glorification and this has been and will always be true whether there are creatures to acknowledge it or not, EPH 1:3.

 

Living in the plan of God for your life is the act of investing what you have been given at salvation into God’s system which together becomes the life beyond dreams.

 

God is glorified because of who He is. He does not need us. Yet He has given us assets by which we can bring Him glory by walking in a manner in balance with our calling. Therefore, why not invest those assets into God’s plan?

 

Luke 19:11 And while they were listening to these things, He went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

 

Luke 19:12He said therefore, "A certain nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return.

 

Luke 19:13"And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business with this until I come back.'

 

Each received one mina, which is equal privilege and equal opportunity. The mina was given by the nobleman in grace. It was not earned by the slaves or deserved.

 

These assets are given to each CA believer that he may invest them and invest his time in them.

 

So what are the things received at salvation?

 

Efficacious Gra-ace.

Sealing Ministry of God the Holy Spirit

 

An Eternal Inheritance.

Regeneration.

Eternal Life.

 

Imputed Righteousness o-o-of God.

 

These are a few of my 40 things...

 

Resultant Justification

Reconciliation.

Propitiation.

 

Unlimited Atonement.

Redemption.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

Created a New Spiritual Species.

Entered into the Royal Family of God Forever.

These are a few of my 40 things...

 

Equal Privilege and Equal Opportunity.

Positional Sanctification.

Election.

 

Predestination.

The Universal Priesthood of the Believer.

 

Royal Ambassadorship.

Indwelling of God the Father.

Indwelling of God the Son.

Indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.

 

These are a few of my forty things...

 

When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad, I think of a few of my 40 things and then I don’t feel so bad...

 

The Unique Availability of Divine Power.

The Unique Protocol Plan of God

 

The Filling of the Holy Spirit.

Distribution of Spiritual Gifts.

 

 

All Judgment Removed.

Deliverance from the Kingdom of Satan.

 

These are even more of my 40 things...

 

Transferred into the Kingdom of God.

We are a gift from God the Father to God the Son.

 

Delivered from the power of the OSN

We are given access to God.

 

All scar tissue removed from the soul

Escrow blessings

We are on a secure foundation.

 

I’m almost done with the 40 things...

 

We are related to God the Son by Biblical analogy

Recipients of Eternal Security

 

Guaranteed a Resurrection Body Forever.

Beneficiaries of Problem Solving Devices.

 

I’m finally done with my 40 things…

 

When my sin nature bites, when the world stings, when I’m under attack, I think of a few of my 40 things and then I know God’s got my back…

 

 

Luke 19:20"And another came, saying, 'Master, behold your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief;

 

Luke 19:21for I was afraid of you [infinitive - and have always been afraid], because you are an exacting man [harsh or severe]; you take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.'

 

Luke 19:22"He said to him, 'By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow?

 

God is not like this, yet the man thought Him to be so, so why didn’t he invest the mina? And if he did invest it wouldn’t he have found out who God was, a God of grace?

 

Luke 19:23'Then why did you not put the money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?'

 

Luke 19:24"And he said to the bystanders, 'Take the mina away from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.'

 

Luke 19:25"And they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas already.'

 

Those who don’t understand the grace of God complain about the grace of God.

 

Luke 19:26"I tell you, that to everyone who has shall more be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.

 

This in no way means a loss of salvation. The citizens are unbelievers whereas the slaves are believers.

 

Luke 19:27"But these enemies of mine [unbelievers], who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence."

 

We often don’t get a clear picture of what it may have been like for a Jewish believer in the infancy of the Church to invest his forty things, which naturally is also the call of the Gentile believer.

 

The Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, listened to a Hellenistic Jew named Stephen give a powerful message. Stephen was educated, charismatic, and difficult to argue with since he was fully knowledgeable in the Law and in grace. Stephen taught that the Law, the temple, the priesthood, and Judaism itself must pass away in the shadow of the increasing growth of the Church.

 

To say such brought the charge of blasphemy and Stephen was called to make his defense before the Sanhedrin. Stephen did not defend himself. He simply repeated what he had been teaching all along and he was sentenced to death. He was stoned to death while his clothes were laid at the feet of Saul of Tarsus who gave hearty approval. Whether Steven’s joyful face maintained during his death had any impact on Saul is not known. What is known is that Saul concluded that this Nazarene movement must be stopped, and by his fervency he was commissioned to chase down many of these Nazarenes who had fled the persecution to Damascus.

 

We know the story. The great persecutor became Christianity’s greatest proponent.

 

Paul then taught in the synagogues of Damascus and the surrounding areas. Many were converted but there were also many who hated his message and sent a delegation to the Arabian King Aretas IV who ordered his death and men were stationed at the gates of Damascus in order to seize Paul. But Paul was led down through a window in the city wall in a basket and escaped. It had now been three years since Paul made his journey as a bounty hunter to Damascus.

 

So Paul returned to Jerusalem and was found by a Levite named Barnabas who was from Cyprus and one of the leaders of the Nazarenes in Jerusalem. Barnabas introduced Paul to Peter and James where he fully interviewed them on all they knew about the life of Jesus.

 

The fact that Paul wasn’t trusted by some, even Christians, and the Jews hated him for his conversion, meant that God needed to provide Paul’s safety and the Lord appeared to him again and told him to get out of Jerusalem. Paul, as he was prone to due at this time in his life, protested out of his love for the Jews, but the Lord commanded again and Paul was snuck out of the city into Caesarea. From Caesarea he took a ship to his home town of Tarsus where he fervently taught the gospel in the synagogues and proving from his vast knowledge of the OT the fact that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.

 

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He was disinherited by his family, suffered 39 lashes more than once, and he was ridiculed and persecuted, but he kept going. Some years later, while Paul was still in Tarsus and old friend looked him up.

 

It all resulted from the persecution which broke out on the morrow of Stephen’s death. Some of the believing Hellenists who left Jerusalem at that time made their way to the chief centers of Hellenist Jewry in the neighboring lands—Cyprus, Phoenicia, Syria—and some arrived in Antioch, the Roman capital of Syria. There some daring spirits, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, took a great step forward. If the gospel message was so good for Jews might it not be good for Gentiles, too? At any rate they would try. So they began to tell the good news to Gentiles, and their enterprise met with imme­diate success. The Gentiles took to the gospel story as something that exactly suited their case, and many of them believed in Jesus.

 

So revolutionary a course could not be concealed; news of the Gentile response reached the ears of the apostles at Jerusalem. The shock was no doubt softened for them by a recent experience which Peter had had in a Gentile home at Caesarea.But this busi­ness at Antioch seemed to be moving on a scale which they had not envisaged, and they sent a trusted delegate to make investi­gations. The man they sent was Barnabas; they could not have made a better choice. When he came to Antioch he recognized that this was the work of God, and was delighted at what he saw. He encouraged his fellow-Cypriots and the men from Cyrene to carry on, and the work developed rapidly, until Barnabas felt the need of a colleague to share the responsibility of supervising it. But who had the necessary qualifications? Many excellent Jewish Christians would be unable to discard traditional prejudices sufficiently to take a wholehearted part in a mission to Gentiles. There was one man, however, whom Barnabas had in mind; and he made it his personal business to hunt this man out and enlist his support. This was Paul, the Tarsian, who had been act­ive for some years now in his native city and the surrounding district and had already had some experience in evangelizing Gentiles. What a delight it must have been for Paul to see Barnabas turn up in Tarsus looking for him. God had already told Paul that he would be sent to the Gentiles and God sent Barnabas to get him.

    Paul, then, returned to Antioch with Barnabas, and helped him in the building up of a strong Christian church.

 

Paul was given one mina. He invested that mina aggressively and gained 10 more and presented this fruit to His Master and King, the Lord Jesus Christ.