TREASURY OF SERMONS
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To Glorify God and to Enjoy Him Forever
By Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow
(Preached at New Life BPC London, 15 April 2001)
Text: Titus 2:13,14
This is an appropriate theme chosen for our
meditation on this happy Easter Lord’s Day, "to glorify God and
enjoy Him forever." For the Son of God has conquered sin and death
for us by His death on Good Friday and our sins are now forgiven
because He has risen from the dead. What more endearing relationship
can there be, we who were God’s enemies but are become His adopted
children. Shall not our life be bound to Him, and He become our
delight, the motivation of our Christian life?
Thus the Apostle Paul instructs the Colossians,
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your
life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Col 3:1-4).
Such exhortation is it not to induce us to glorify God and enjoy Him
forever?
In practice, however, we have many dropouts in
the Church. These have left off coming to worship on the Lord’s Day.
There are the backsliders who come on and off. They are living a
defeated Christian life.
The troubles that hinder them may arise between
husband and wife, of infidelity, leading them to separation and
divorce. They may come from their disobedient children. The matter
of money is a very common cause. Quarrels ensue. They may have been
overspending which results in heavy debts.
Life may become so miserable that the thought of
suicide comes in. The older we grow the less we have the will to
live. Life, detached from the Lord who saved us, becomes more and
more burdensome. Familiarity breeds contempt. Couples may sleep on
the same bed, but, as the Chinese saying goes, they dream different
dreams.
Seeing through the misery that encompasses
dropouts and backsliding Christians, Paul beams the healing word on
them, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence,
and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the
wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye
also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put
off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put
off the old man with his deeds" (Col 3:5-9).
You who are here this morning, I hope you are
all living a victorious Christian life. You who attend Church
regularly without missing once in the year except for illness, I’m
sure you are glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. It is your
duty to visit the dropouts and absentees and find out what are the
troubles holding them back.
Once we had a middle aged Christian who had a
loving wife and two children. He became so zealous in the service of
the Church that he became elected Treasurer of the Sunday School.
After one or two years he resigned. From resignation of his job, he
resigned from attending church. This affected also his wife and two
children. No matter what the Church did to bring him back, he
refused. Later it was found out that he had succumbed to gambling.
Paul exhorts us to glorify God and enjoy Him
forever explicitly in his Epistle to Titus. "Looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works" (Titus 2:13,14). "To glorify Him" we must be
a people zealous of good works, and to "enjoy him forever", we must
be "looking for the glorious appearing of the Saviour."
Now that we have found Jesus our Saviour, is He
not become the centre of our life? Our life is hid in Him. We pray
to Him day and night. We worship Him. In trouble we come to Him. He
is a loving father to all. He is a husband to the widow. A lady who
was abandoned by her husband found the Saviour through my
counselling. She was no more sad. She said Jesus had become a
husband to her. Does she not now enjoy Him forever?
To glorify God, Paul exhorts Titus to nurture a
congregation zealous of good works. We are saved for a purpose. We
are saved to glorify God. We are to translate glorifying God into
practical terms, to be zealous of good works.
In the short epistle to Titus, Paul mentions good work six times.
This he also says to us. While Protestants are saved by grace
through faith, we are often delinquent in producing the good works
that are a fruit of faith.
Let me cull from the general teaching of
Scripture some of the duties we owe to God that will bring Him
glory.
1. Since the Great Commission is to the whole
Church, which I would call the First Command to the Church, let us
support it with all we can, giving particularly to missions. The
better part is to offer ourselves to become missionaries. When
William Chalmers Burns gave up law to become a missionary to China,
he said this was the greatest decision in all the world he made for
his life. Has God been speaking to you, young man or young woman?
What will you do with your life? Man’s chief end, is it not to
"glorify Him and enjoy Him forever"?
2. Let us take care of the sick and poor amongst
us. In so doing, do you realise you have done it on the Lord
Himself? We are called sheep against the goats which did nothing and
are totally rejected. A Christian if he says he loves the Lord must
have sympathy to the down and out. "If a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And
this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his
brother also" (I Jn 4:20,21).
3. In these last days when more and more false
Christs and prophets invade the Church, let us earnestly contend for
the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Like David waxing
strong for his God who was blasphemed against by Goliath, "Is there
not a cause?" The founding of the B-P Church is God’s blessing to
its leaders for the firm stand they take against Ecumenism and Roman
Catholicism. Now the battle wages around the Bible whether we are
for the good KJV or NIV, which is based on the corrupt text of
Westcott and Hort.
4. As it is our need to pray, let us come to the
Church prayer meeting, which is the least attended. God promises to
bless where two or three are gathered in His Name. One reason why
God has blessed our prayer meeting in Singapore is we give an
half-hour to members to testify of God’s mercies which bring glory
to His Name.
5. Tithing is the law of financial support of the Church (Mal
3:8-10). Be a regular tither. Are you among those who neglect God
with your over-commitments to your own programme? Is God glorified
with your leftovers?
6. There is a slogan with Life Church in
Singapore: "Do something good for Jesus everyday. Do something good
wherever you go." When put to practice the good that you do comes
back to you. "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap
also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also
bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so
let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a
cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to
every good work" (II Cor 9:6-8).
7. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you (Matt
6:33).
These seven points I have listed above in my
exhortation to good works will surely glorify God. If we do these
things we are in the centre of God’s will and we will enjoy Him
forever. For our Lord is a living Lord who is risen from the dead
this Easter Lord’s Day. May we walk and talk with Him and serve Him
with utmost devotion, for this is the chief end of man. Amen.
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