GLORIFYING GOD
D. E. Burr
John 17: 4, 5; 1 Corinthians 6: 17–20; 1 Peter 4: 11–16; Revelation 15: 2–4
I seek, with the Lord’s help, to say a word as to glorifying God. As always when we seek help for ourselves in relation to what we may take up, it is good first of all to see the pattern in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is good to see too that we are not being asked to do anything that He Himself has not done; not, of course, that we are capable of doing it to the same degree or to the same measure. The Lord is ever unique and perfect, but He was here as Man, and as Man He was undertaking services and a course of life that He wished to see extended in His own. So it says, “I have glorified thee on the earth”; that I think is something that the Lord would like to see continued. That is, not what He has done, or what He alone could do, but that there might be the continuation of the activity of glorifying God in human vessels.
So the Lord says, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gayest me that I should do it”. Work too may be given to us to do. To what extent any one of us could say that I have completed what was given me to do would be a challenge that we would each one have to answer for ourselves. But the Lord, in the glorious perfection that belonged to Him alone, was able to complete, and complete to God’s full satisfaction in every detail, all that had been committed to Him. What a subject, an infinite subject really to speak about and to contemplate, that there has been a divine Person here as Man who has glorified God on the earth. You think of the earth, not here I suppose exactly the earth as God created it, but rather the earth as dwelt upon by men, men of all tribes and nations and tongues, with propensities for evil in
their hearts; that earth that God had created for His pleasure, but into which sin had entered and over which Satan in large measure had taken control. There was one Man here who amidst all the opposition, and all the neglect and indifference of sinful men, was able to say He had glorified God on the earth. What a contemplation! A holy, harmless, undefiled Person in whom sin was not, moving amongst men, and able to glorify God in those circumstances!
That is, I suppose, that in every step of His way there was something that shone out that expressed God Himself in all His holiness and purity, and in which God could find His delight and satisfaction. We were reminded in the reading of the ignorance of men, and of the operation of man’s will in choosing to ignore God; there was nothing there in which God could be glorified. But, in Christ there was ever the outshining in perfection of manhood according to God, and there was that in which God could rejoice, finding His delight in a life that was totally contrary to all that marked man naturally, a life that had for its objective, the pleasure of God.
So it was in all those things in the life of Jesus that we read about. We read about Him being twelve years of age, hearing and answering questions in the temple; in every answer that He gave He would glorify God. He would draw attention to the One who alone was worthy of worship and praise and response. In all His activity of healing, His giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, raising the dead, in all these things God was glorified. On the mount of transfiguration God was glorified in having One there of whom He could say, and to whom He could draw attention, This is My beloved Son, hear Him. He could say, Hear Him, because He alone upon the earth at that time was able to fully express Himself, and in which life God found His pleasure and satisfaction. I believe supremely the Lord here is speaking anticipatively of the work that was yet to be accomplished in giving up His life as the perfect offering for sin. Although in manhood the Lord shrunk from that final expression of devotion, yet in obedience He went through to the end, loving His own. He loved them to the end, He loved them through everything. The Lord is the perfect example of the One who glorified God, and, as I say, anticipatively at this time, because His work in actuality had some little way to go. He says, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”. Well, we can speak of our Lord, we can look upon Him, we can trace the glories and perfections that were to be found in Him and Him alone, and we can wonder that it has been left on record—that it is within our capability, indeed within command given to us, that we also should glorify God. So the Lord says, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”. Nothing was left undone of that glorious work of redemption, all that it involved in all its aspects and detail, including the burial of the man that was under sentence, as we were reminded earlier, and being raised for our justification; all part of the work that was completed. The Lord, with assurance, and knowing fully that He was received and heard, had glorified God on the earth.
I come to 1 Corinthians 6 because it finishes up with this statement which is in effect a command—“glorify now then God in your body”. The whole section that I read, although somewhat delicate in its literality, but nevertheless something that has to be expressed, and, I may say, has to be taught, shows there are certain things in the “world that pass as an every day kind of thing, that are not to be known within the Christian circle. I take it we are intelligent, understand the plain meaning of Scripture, and there is what the believer is to flee if we are to be amongst those that glorify God. I suppose one of the things that Satan, at the moment, is most active in pursuing, and seeking to introduce as his own will and his own standard, is the breaking into the sanctity of human relationships; and they become so common in the world that there is the possibility of the same standards being introduced amongst the circle of the saints, but there is what is to be fled from.
It goes on to say, “Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God”. In an earlier passage, there is the reference to the temple, “ye are the temple” (1 Corinthians 3: 16), which is collective in its bearing, but this section is individual. It is for you, it is for me, it is for each one of us, each one of us that has the Holy Spirit, and that would be normal for every believer to have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and our bodies, and that is literal, our physical construction provides the domain in which the Spirit can find temple dwelling conditions. Now that is on the one hand a very serious contemplation, that we have a divine Person dwelling within our physical frame. The Spirit, of course, is a spirit, and there is that in the believer that is spirit—he is body, soul and spirit, but, the body, the physical body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, a place where He dwells. Well, the question arises as to whether the Spirit of God, as dwelling in us, finds congenial conditions. It is intended that He should, for “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God”. Then it goes on to say something which we are a little loathe to accept perhaps—“ye are not your own”. Persons of the world seeking to degrade believers, especially young believers, will say to them, Well, it is your body, is it not? You can do what you like with it. But if you are a believer it is not so, it is not your own, you cannot do what you like with it. You cannot smoke, can you? Of course you cannot smoke, if you are the temple of God. Even men at large would not think of smoking in St Paul’s Cathedral, I would not think. And of course that leads to all sorts of other things, such as engaging in matters which involve the loss of self-control. One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control, and if we place ourselves in a position where we lose self-control, deliberately I mean, then the Spirit is not free.
So, “ye have been bought with a price” you are not your own. The young believer who is saved knows that he is going to be with Christ when he dies, however soon or long that may be. You are not your own, you cannot do as you like with your own body. You cannot make tattoos on it, obviously you cannot, and so on, you have been bought with a price. So it says, “glorify now then God in your body”. That is what we are called upon to do, glorify God; not to indulge in self-gratification, not to make a place where Satan can find a home. You know that passage about the evil spirit returning and finding the place swept and adorned, the last state it says is worse than the first (Luke 11: 25). Well, let us be warned that the Spirit dwells in us and we are to glorify God in our body. That is we express something of the Lord Jesus, express something of His manner of life—His conduct; His meekness; His gentleness; express these things, glorify God in your body.
Peter is more a collective situation, verse 11 of chapter 4 would relate to service, service in the assembly “if any one minister”. That does not just mean standing up like I am standing; there will be brothers standing up in the service of God tomorrow, if we are still here, free to celebrate the Supper; so you minister to God “as of strength which God supplies”. That is, you do not draw upon your own power, you do not draw upon your own skill, if you have any; you do not draw upon any natural resource, but “as of strength which God supplies; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the might for the ages of ages”. I think this has a bearing on the conduct of our assembly gatherings, that whatever takes place in them should have this character that God may be glorified. It extends beyond that of course, it says, “that God in all things may be glorified”. In all our relationships as brothers and sisters together, in our testimony, what is in view is that God may be glorified, and clearly this is something that is possible within the range of our ability, to glorify God.
Then it goes on to speak about other things that we might have to bear and suffer—“If ye are reproached in the name of Christ”. I suppose we all could cite instances in our own lives where we have avoided the reproach, and if we have avoided the reproach then the Spirit of glory and of God, in this aspect is not resting upon us, we have turned it away. But “If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you: on their part”, that is to say on the part of those who cast the reproaches “on their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified”. The acceptance of suffering, the acceptance of reproach, leads to some experience of God being glorified.
It goes on, “Let none of you suffer indeed as murderer, or thief, or evildoer”, I do not suppose any of those are really likely to be experienced in this company, but we might as “overseer of other people’s matters”. Let none of you suffer as a result of these things, but rather “as a christian”. Are we prepared to suffer “as a christian”? That is to suffer in some way for Christ, it does not express the degree. We know that some persons, particularly in some lands at the present time, are suffering as Christians. Maybe we would not be able to walk with them in fellowship, but nevertheless, there are persons suffering as Christians. Let us recognise that they are having their part in the glorifying of God, and let us ourselves be prepared for the suffering position that leads to God being glorified.
I just touch on the final scripture that I read in Revelation 15 where it clearly has in mind another dispensation from our own. But then we can learn from these things, we can learn from Scripture, and we can make applications, and what is going to take place in this day to come should have its answer in those who fear God at the present time. There are those who have harps of God and they sing the song of Moses and they are responsive, responsive to God, saying “Great and wonderful are thy works, Lord God Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, O King of nations”. How true that is, we can surely have our part in a contribution to this kind of response. Then he says, “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and do homage before thee; for thy righteousnesses have been made manifest”. Well, he is raising a challenge, a question, “Who shall not fear thee ...?” And who shall not “glorify thy name”? How about you? Are you amongst those who would fear Him and glorify His name? The psalmist, because this almost is like a psalm, is really saying, Well it is unthinkable that there should be any who will not fear Him, and glorify the name of God.
We come together tomorrow, God willing, and we have our part and we enter upon the service of God, we gladly glorify Him then. But, we are not really going to glorify God fully, just on Lord’s day morning, if we have not known something of what it is to glorify Him in our lives and conduct through the week. So let this challenge ring in our ears as we close this time of gathering—“Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy”. Let us be committed, beloved brethren, to having our part in the present and continuing service individually and collectively of glorifying God. May we be vitally in it, for His name’s sake.
Address at Glasgow
24 August 1996