In this sermon, the speaker addresses the question of how to reconcile the idea that God does everything for Himself with the belief that God is a loving God who loves people. He uses the analogy of giving someone a piece of gum to illustrate that God's actions can bring joy and gratitude from people. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the sovereignty and glory of God as the foundation for everything in life. He also challenges the audience to consider their own commitment to God and their understanding of missions, highlighting the need for a genuine heart for God and a desire to see the nations come to know Him.

It's a great privilege for me to be here this morning with all of you, a truly tremendous privilege. And I pray that God will help us, that His glory might be promoted, that His people might be edified, Christ might be exalted above everything, above everything. Let's turn to the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. Chapter 1, verse 6. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my respect? Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priest who despise my name. But you say, How have we despised thy name? You are presenting defiled food upon my altar. But you say, How have we defiled thee? In that you say the table of the Lord is to be despised. But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly? Says the Lord of hosts. But now, will you not entreat God's favor that He may be gracious to us with such an offering on your part? Will He receive any of you kindly? Says the Lord of hosts. O that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of hosts. Nor will I accept an offering from you. For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, my name will be great among the nations. And in every place, incense is going to be offered to my name, and a grain offering that is pure. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Let's go to the Lord and pray. Father, we come before you in the name of your Son. We pray, Father, that as you have always been, that you would continue to be merciful to us. We know, Father, that apart from your dear Son, we have no part with you. But that you have loved us even before the foundation of the world. And that you have a plan, Lord, in which you have sent your Son. You have satisfied justice through His death. You have raised Him from the dead. And you have called us forth, not only to be forgiven, but to bear the righteousness of God in Christ. Father, I thank you and I praise you. And I ask, Lord, that this series of meetings, they would be for the edification of your people, for the joy of your people. And to turn their hearts toward you, that you might be all in all in us. Lord, I pray for wisdom, because I need it, Lord. And I pray for your power to do, Lord, to preach, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. This may seem like an unusual text. We're talking today about missions. And missions for the glory of God. Now, throughout the world, I've been in several, many, countless mission conferences. And what you will find in most mission conferences that you are in, there is a call to missions. We must do missions. We need to do missions. But the reason given for such a call is always this. Men are lost. Men need Christ. Men are dying and going to hell. So therefore, we must do missions. Well, that's true. That is very true, and I'll take nothing from that. We must do missions because, why? There are places on this earth where the gospel is not preached. There are places on this earth where men are dying without the gospel witness. And there are many, many individuals going to hell. And that should drive us to missions. And that should be a motivating force in missions. Because if we do not care about people, we probably don't even know the Lord. But at the same time, that is not the number one reason for doing missions. It is not. It is not the prime motivation for going forth and preaching in far and distant lands. It is not. The greatest motivation for absolutely everything we do is the glory and honor of God. We do everything we do, whether it's the most menial task of eating and drinking. We are to do it for the glory of God. Why do we go forth? Why do we risk life and limb? Why do we take our families into danger? Why do we give our money sacrificially? Why do we do all the things as Christians in order to have the gospel spread throughout the world? It is not primarily for the sake of man, even though it is for the sake of man. It is primarily for the glory of God. Whenever I'm dealing with missionaries, young missionaries that are going to start out in the field, or missionary wannabes, or in missionary conferences where there are people burdened about missions, I always ask them this question. How many of you have ever passed a night without being able to sleep, pacing back and forth in your room, or on your knees, and praying for a certain people group or a certain country because you knew they were lost and without the gospel? Now, usually among a bunch of missionary candidates, almost everyone will raise their hand. Even those who have not done it will raise their hand because they'll be embarrassed. Many people raise their hands. But then I ask this. How many of you have passed a sleepless night because your zeal for the glory of God burns in your heart because you knew there were places where people were worshiping false gods and idols, but were not giving the glory due to the one God and Savior? No one ever raises their hand. You see, we have been taught to center absolutely everything around men. Our primary motivation is man. Man. Why do we go? Men are lost. Why do we do this? Men have needs. That is not a strong enough motivation. It's romantic. It's sentimental. It has feelings. But it is not strong enough to carry out world missions. Our greatest concern, even though it should be a great concern that men are going to hell, that should be a great concern. Our greatest concern is that to God is due all honor and all praise from every creature under heaven and in earth. And our zeal should burn when we look out on a countryside, whether it be our own neighborhood or a faraway land. Our zeal should burn when we see preachers created by God not giving glory to God. That should be what burns in our heart. And that should be what burns in our heart in every aspect. Now, I know that you are a sovereign grace church, and I do not need to sit here all day and preach to the choir, nor revel about how much we know about sovereign grace as opposed to everyone else who knows nothing. I want these sermons to make you see that what we call Calvinism, even though I don't really like the term that much, and I'll tell you why. Someone comes up to me and they say, Are you a Calvinist? I always turn around and go, Oh, no, I'd never baptize a baby. And I just walk away. And they go, Well, that's not what I mean. And I say, Well, what did you mean? Because most people, when they use that term, don't know what they're saying. And so I'm not going to allow you to call me something when you don't even know how that something is supposed to be defined. I am a Biblicist. I believe in sovereign grace because it's in the Scriptures. But what I want you to see is this. It is not just some high, useless teaching. It is the foundation for absolutely everything in my life. Not Calvinism, but the God of Scripture who is all sovereign, and all worthy of all glory. And that's what I want us to see. Now, I want to just point out a few things here that are very, very important. Let's look at our text. We start in verse 6. A son honors his father and a servant his master. Now, this is very difficult for those in America to understand because we do not see it. It's Malachi chapter 1, verse 6. We do not see this in the family structure much anymore. So it's hard for us literally to take many concepts in Scripture and apply them to our own lives because we don't even understand it. For example, if I begin to speak about the justice of God, how can I do that even in a university setting when university students no longer understand the concept of justice? So there was a sense throughout all of culture since creation that a father was honored, extremely honored. I remember as a little boy, you would be punished if you did not say yes sir and no sir. There was a sense of honor to your parents. And he's just taking something from culture, taking something from the human realm, saying of course you recognize that sons are to honor their fathers. Well, of course. I mean, anyone who says any other thing is wrong. And of course, servants are to honor their masters. Well, of course. That's accepted. And then he goes on and he says this, Then if I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my respect? says the Lord of hosts. Everything we do in life should be filtered through that one passage of Scripture in 1 Corinthians. Everything you do, whether you eat or you drink, you do it under the glory of God. What you need to see is there is not to be one secular moment in your life. There is not to be one moment or one thought in which God is not at the very center of it and the purpose of it. This is very important. It's not just about missions, because you can't just say, OK, I'm going to live for the glory of God in missions. You can't divide your life into a bunch of compartments. You have to have a life that says, I'm going to glorify God, and that will overflow into missions. Everything you do, you pick up a cup of coffee in the morning and the smell of it, the aroma, it brings pleasure to your nose. You should worship God. Everything is about Him. There is nothing for us that is secular now. There is no thought. Everything we do ought to be to honor Him. Ought to be to honor Him. I know of a woman who would have these dinners and stuff and entertain people. Her husband was a preacher, and she would always have such a fine table set, and she would always have the house such a way and so prepare everything for the guests and such. And it was amazing. Some people would take offense at this, but when they would compliment her and say, what a beautiful table, or what a fine dinner, or how the night was so beautiful, she would say, I've done all this to honor my husband. Now, that sounds so foreign to us today. It almost sounds wrong, doesn't it? But that's what she would say. You always look so nice. Your children are just to honor my head that God has placed over me, and in doing so, honor God. Now, that sounds foreign to us. But how much so should our attitude be, I do this to honor God. I dress this way to honor God. I live this way to honor God. My attitude is this way, to honor God. Everything about what I'm doing is to honor God, because if a father deserves honor, how much more the God who gives you every beat of your heart, every breath drawn in and let out comes from Him. He goes on and He says, Say the Lord, the Lord of hosts, to you, O priests who despise my name. Now, I want to say this with love, that there is not one person, including myself, in this building today that has not been guilty of this very thing, despising the name of the Lord. You say, yes, of course, when I was an unbeliever, of course, I despised the name of the Lord. No, I'm speaking as a believer. To despise is a violent word. It's a very harsh word. But anytime we do not attribute value to something, the value do it, there is a way in which we are despising that thing. Many times, for example, I've noticed I used to work with street people, even live down in a street mission for a while and things, and I noticed that some street people who were like either a prostitute or a crack addict or something, that was truly converted, they seemed to have this just remarkable outstanding zeal and passion for what God had done for them. Whereas I see some fine upstanding people who maybe are converted don't have quite as much passion. And I think that the man who knew the things from which he had been saved, he attributed such worth to what God had done for him. We have to be very, very careful as we grow in the Lord, as we grow in sanctification, as we work in this Christianity, as we minister in the church and all these things, we can reach a point where we become tired and we no longer have the zeal that we ought to have and in a sense, we despise the Lord. We do not attribute to Him the value that is due Him. We do not serve Him with the zeal and the passion with which we ought to serve Him. All of us are guilty of that. I know so many ministers who have been used mightily of the Lord in their young years, who grow tired, who grow tired. I know Christians who, when they were brand new Christians, they would seek the Lord's face, turn off the television, read their Bibles, commune with other Christians and talk about the Lord. But as they get older, other things begin to take precedent and their zeal begins to wane. Attributing value to other things that have no value in comparison to the only One who has value, the Lord Almighty. Now, He goes on and they say, well, how are we despising Your name? And in verse 7 He says, you are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, how have we defiled Thee? In that you say, the table of the Lord is to be despised. But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is that not evil? We look in the Song of Solomon and we see the love affair between the maiden and the king. And there's a part there where the king comes to the maiden's house and knocks on the door and she basically says, I've taken my shoes off. I'm in bed. I can't come to the door. And he goes on. I want you to think about something for a moment. There was a time when that maiden, she would have gone to the market a thousand times a day, carrying a 50 pound sack of apples on her head all day, walking around that market, if she could just catch a glimpse of this guy. There was a time when she was so jealous to know him, to see him, to meet him, so in love, so enthralled with who he was, she would have climbed a mountain, she would have swam an ocean, she would have done anything to be in his presence. But what happens? After a time, even the things most special become common and they seem to lose their value in our hearts. I'll never forget when I was a brand new missionary in Peru and went across the Andes Mountain in a train for the first time. And I was just enthralled at the majesty, the grandeur. The mountains were so large they were almost terrifying. And this old veteran missionary was seated beside me, asleep, snoring. And I thought, how can he pass through all this beauty and just be snoring? I mean, just not even care. Several years later, I was taking a group of young hopeful missionaries through the same mountains. And they were all looking around almost to pass out with the joy of it. And I was snoring. You see, the thing is is that when you're around something so much, it becomes common. And when it becomes common, it seems to have lost its value in your heart. It's the same way in marriages. We see the same thing. Men who would pursue and rightly pursue a woman that they are in love with, that they want to win, they want to have her and they just will do anything in the politeness and they'll go the extra mile to do anything. But then that begins to wane. And it's pouring down rain. He runs out of the car. She runs out of the car, stands there, waits for him to open the door. He's already in the car. He takes off. He's at Walmart before he even knows that she's not even in the car. But you see, this is what we can do with the Lord. And we do do it. It is a shame when we do it to our own lives or to our own husbands or when we begin to not even appreciate the beauty that's around us. It's quite another thing to despise, to undervalue the Lord's value. And we offer Him things. He says, Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? For would he receive you kindly? Says the Lord of Hosts. Sometimes they ask me to come in and preach on church and gifts and ministries and all kinds of things about how to do a church. I always tell people, Alright, let's imagine that this was a corporation and I was the boss. You all work for me. And it's about December 20th and I want to find out some things about how the year has gone. And I hand out a piece of paper to every one of you. And I say, Here's what I want you to do. I want you to, on the first half of the first page, write out a job description. The second half of the first page, tell me what your plans were at the beginning of the year, what the goals were. Production goals, things like that. On the back, put what you've achieved. And on the last half of the back page, put what your goals are for the coming year. And let's say I go around and I give you half a day to do it. And I go around and pick up all the papers. And I come to you and I pick up your paper. And I go, What's your job description? You don't have it here. And you say, Well, you know, boss, I really don't know what I do here. But bless God, every time the doors of this company is open, I'm here. I don't know what I do when I get here, but I'm here. Bless God, every time the doors of this company is open. I go down there and I go, Well, what did you accomplish this year? Well, boss, I don't have a clue. I'm not really sure what I did. But every time the doors of this company is open, I was here. I go on, Well, you know, and we go on and there's nothing on the paper. After a while, I'm going to look at him, Bless God, and I go, Well, don't come back. I mean, just think about this for a moment. The service that we offered our secular employer with regard to zeal, with regard to dedication, with regard to whatever, can we say that we've offered as much to the Lord? Do you see that there is a real sense in which all of us are called? We're part of a body. And living for the glory of God means that in this body, there is a sense that we offer service, not just missions, but we offer service to the glory of God. What service do you offer in this church as a minister to the glory of God? What do you give? How do you minister? How do you bless God's people? How do you bless God? If you offered to a secular king or governor or even a small mayor of a small town the same service, would he appreciate the gift from your hand? let's go on. It says in verse nine, But now will you not entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us with such an offering on your part? Will he receive any of you kindly, says the Lord of hosts? And in verse ten, Oh, that there was one among you who would shut the gates that you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of hosts. We have this idea sometimes that God is so abandoned in the universe. So few people worship him. So few people care even about the things of God that he's almost like a little old man that's blind with a tin cup standing on the street corner. It matters not if we drop a ten dollars in, drop a dime in. At least it's a lot better than what everyone else is doing. And so I mean, we might not be doing a whole lot. We might not have much to you, but at least it's better than the great majority of the world. God needs nothing for man. He needs nothing even from the greatest archangels in heaven. He needs nothing. And yet, even right now, countless legions, millions, billions, trillions, we don't know, of creatures, each one of them so glorious that their presence on this earth would destroy it, are at this very moment bowed down in the presence of God and joyfully worshiping him. He needs nothing. If I were removed from the earth, if the ministry that I work in was totally taken off the planet, it would not bring any problem to God. It would not lessen his kingdom. It would not turn his government into a tailspin. No, not at all. He needs nothing. He doesn't even need our worship. He doesn't need our activity. He doesn't need this building. He doesn't need you coming in here, but he has granted the privilege of such. And we should come in here, not as church as usual, but come in here. And people always say, I hear this all the time, we need to come into church expecting God to do something. Well, that might be true, but I don't like that statement very much. We need to come into church thinking, I don't care if God does something, doesn't do anything. He's worthy of my deepest, most sincere praise and service. You see, you can conquer your emotions and even the deadness of your heart by just recognizing one thing. He's worthy. I don't have to, my heart doesn't have to be emotionally on fire. I need nothing. I just need to know one thing. He is worthy of the greatest worship that I can offer at any time. So, at any time, I should offer Him the greatest worship I can. I don't have to sit there and go, I don't know if my heart just seems so dead or this or that. No, it doesn't matter. Everything that breathes should worship the Lord. You should walk into this place, not just with a sense of expectancy that God's going to do something, but with this idea of, I am going to walk, I am going to finish the worship service physically tired. That's what I tell people. I want you to finish the worship service physically tired and emotionally tired. Just with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, worshiping the Lord, realizing that He could say to all creation, I don't need any of your fires. I could close the doors to every tabernacle and temple and even in heaven itself. I need nothing from you, but I have granted you the privilege to worship me. Now, what we see here in this first part is a people, and this is very important for missions. Some of you are thinking, man, I thought we were going to talk about missions. We're going to talk about God, and missions is going to be the overflow. We're going to talk about our heart, and missions is going to be the overflow. But I want you to think about something. Here is a group of people. Do they care about the nations coming to know the Lord? Not at all. They don't even care about the Lord. I want you to look at this. Have you ever heard someone say, in most missions conferences, you'll hear someone get up there and he'll say, you know, the Lord just wants to do great things in the world, but His hands are tied because His people won't move and just go on and on as though God was this spreading deity unable to carry out a plan without our help? That is not true. It's not true. What we see here in Israel is a people who, they wanted the Gentiles to die. They did not like the Gentiles. We see that in Jonah. Jonah, go tell them to repent. No, I want you to kill them. These are not a people concerned about world evangelism. They're not concerned about the Gentiles becoming part of the people of God. No, they're not concerned even about God at this point. But look what God says in 11. For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, my name will be great among the nations and in every place incense is going to be offered to my name and a grain offering that is pure for my name will be great among the nations. I want you to look at this. Here is an apostate people who care nothing about missions, care nothing about world evangelism. They don't even care about God. And then God stands up in the midst of these people who will not move and says, I'll make my name great. I'll make my name great among the nations. I will do it. That's what I want you to see about missions. If you care not at all for missions, God will still do the work. Just like worship is not a need of God, but a privilege granted by God to you. So missions is not a need of God, but a privilege granted to you. God is going, has done it, is doing it, and will continue to make his name great among the nations. He will. The question is, the privilege. Do you want to be a part of what God is doing? That's what it really comes down to. Almost every mission comes It's all about if we don't do something, it's not going to happen. It has happened, is happening, will continue to happen. The question is, do you want to be a part of it? It's like Mordecai told that woman to be king, Esther. Esther, God can use you to save a people. But if you don't want it, know this, God will still save his people. And it's the same thing I tell you. God is doing a spectacular work. If we could get an honest reporting, even in this world today, on what God is doing, we would see that Christianity is the biggest thing going on in this entire planet. God is doing a great work. The question is, how much do you want to be a part of this great work? Now, talking about the glory of God in missions, let's look at a few things that are very important. First of all, It says in verse 11, from the rising of the sun, even to its setting. Well, that just about takes in the whole planet, doesn't it? He made this whole world. This whole world is his, and he's pulling the people out of it. I love what Abraham Kuyper said, talking about the sovereignty of God and the world belonging to God. He said, when Jesus Christ comes back, there's going to be one word on his lips. He's going to extend forth his hand and say, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. It is. It's all his. From the rising of the sun, even to its setting, it's all his. Those on the highest mountain, those in the lowest valley, those scattered where anywhere a man can be scattered, they are all his. And he will call forth the people out of all of them. Now, he goes on and he says, from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name will be great among the nations. Now, let's look at the difference between God's point of view and contemporary Christianity point of view. When God begins to talk about the world, he says this, I'll make my name great among the nations. We have missions conferences today. Primarily, it is not about the greatness of God's name at all among the nations. It's about saving men. The whole thing is about men. What's missions? Saving men. What does God say? He doesn't say, from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, I'm going to save all kinds of people. No, he says, from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, I'm going to make my name great among all kinds of people. Now, let me just stop here for a second. I am a missionary. I care about lost people. I desire for lost people to be saved. I desire to witness to people. It hurts, and I cry over people who are not saved. I want them to be saved. I will preach to them so that they might be saved. So, don't try to use what I'm saying against me, saying I'm preaching a cold-hearted God who does not care about people. No, I'm talking about God who for so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. But, what I want you to see is the priority. For so long, man has been the focal point of absolutely everything in missions and in church. It's all about men. It's all about blessing men. It's all about the benefit of men. Well, I want to tell you something. God both blesses and benefits men, but it is all about God. And the only reason that men are even saved is because God first and foremost pursues His own glory. And if God did not pursue His own glory, men would never be saved. And you say, what do you mean by that, Brother Paul? Well, it's really a whole other sermon, but I just want to look for something. I want you to see something. Have you ever heard It had absolute... Stop asking that question. It's not a biblical question. Because in saying it romantically and full of sentimentality, what you're doing is you're basically saying, He found something in me. I don't know what it was, but He found something in me that caused Him to save me. That's what you're saying when you sing that song. You're trying to be humble about it. You're saying, I don't know what it was, but there was something there. I don't know what He saw in me. I'll tell you what He saw in you. A radically depraved, God-hating creature that ought to be put in the very lowest place of the bowels of hell. That's what He saw. That's the only thing He saw. When a holy, righteous, loving, just God looks at a radically depraved man who hates everything righteous, the only thing God could ever be motivated to do is judge Him. So why did God save men for His own glory? To demonstrate attributes about Himself that could not be seen apart from Him being merciful. God was merciful to the wicked. God did it for Himself in His own good pleasure, and He did it for His Son. And for His Son, He does all things. I always tell people, I say, if you've ever told your children, God made them because He was lonely. You blasphemed. God's never been lonely. God has no need. And here, the idea of Trinity also comes into this play. Throughout all of eternity, God taking absolute pleasure in seeing His own reflection in the face of His Son, needing nothing. Men were not created because of a need in God. Men were created out of God's overflow, and His desire to demonstrate Himself, and His desire to love. Now, I want to talk for a minute about the glory of God. We hear all the time God saying, I do this for my own glory, and I saved you for my glory, and I saved you for my own namesake. It wasn't because of you, Israel, that I saved you, but because of my name. Now, not too many people have a problem with that, because in modern day preaching, no one ever says things like that. But when typical people begin to hear some strange preacher like myself saying that reading passages where God says He does everything for His own glory, they walk out really disturbed. Isn't it amazing? If you preach an entire sermon on how God does everything for the benefit of man, everyone walks out rejoicing and happy. But if you even think about preaching half a sermon on God doing things for His own glory, it makes people mad. Now, let me talk for a moment, kind of in the way I would try to explain this to a youngster. What is this thing? The glory of God. Well, the glory of men is something usually external. You know, kings will put on glorious robes and crowns and dress themselves up and that will be their glory or something that title they wear or something like that. God's glory is not external in the sense that it's something outside of Himself that He puts on. The glory of God, the word literally means weight or weighty. Like we say something is a good argument or a sound argument. It's weighty. It has weight. It's important. It has value. Gold is heavy. The glory of God is talking about the excellencies, the perfections, the beauties of God. God Himself. Now, for men to glorify God is simply for them to recognize the qualities, perfections, excellencies, beauties of God and acknowledge them and live before them. For God to glorify Himself is for Him to take center stage and do everything so that all eyes are directed toward Him and His attributes are made known. Now, let me give you just a few examples that might help you understand this. People always have this problem. They say, God doing everything for Himself and for His own glory doesn't sound too loving. So how can we reconcile that God does everything for Himself and that God is a loving God who loves people? Well, I want you to look at some things. Let's say that I stand in the back here outside when the conference is being dismissed and you walk by and I let everybody pass by. You walk by and I pull out a piece of Wrigley Spearmint gum and I just put it right in your hand. Just like that. And let's say you go, and such a joy overwhelms you and you run around to everybody in the congregation going, look, Brother Paul gave me a piece of Wrigley Spearmint gum and you run out of here and you go to the newspapers in town, you tell them, you alert the media, you've got on television, thirty years down the road you're sitting there with your grandchildren on your lap and they say, you know, Mom, Dad, who's the four by four picture here? Who's this face? Who's this man on the mantle? That's Brother Paul. What did he do? One time he gave me a piece of Wrigley Spearmint. You need serious counseling. But let's say you're dying and you need a heart. And I go, and I give you my heart and I die. And I do that. Then that type of reaction would be right, wouldn't it? I mean, if someone gave you a gift that big, it would be an adequate response to run around this church crying and telling people what I had done for you. It would be an adequate response to go to newspapers, television, everything else. That would be an adequate response. So that tells us that many times the love demonstrated, that love is demonstrated by the size of the gift. If I want to demonstrate great love to you, I give you the greatest gift. All right. If God wants to demonstrate the greatest possible love and kindness if He wants to demonstrate the greatest degree of love to His creation, what can He do? Give His creation the greatest gift. And what is that? Himself. And how does He do that? The greatest judgment God can ever bring upon His people is to hide Himself from them and leave them totally to themselves. The greatest gift He can give them is to take center stage of all creation and do absolutely everything He does so that everyone will look at Him and see His beauty. That's the kindest thing He can do for you. You think heaven is heaven because they have streets of gold and gates of pearl? I mean that gets old after a few weeks. Do you honestly think that? Do you know why heaven is this place of infinite beauty, infinite goodness, infinite holiness? Someone asked me one time, when we get to heaven, Brother Paul, will we know everything? No, you'll know a lot. But you won't know everything. Why? Even when you get to heaven, you're still a finite creature. Okay? You're still finite. God's infinite. Finite cannot comprehend infinite in its totality. So what does it mean? It means basically this. Let's say that there are days in heaven. Okay? There's not, but just for the sake of being able to explain this, let's say there are days in heaven and that you sleep there. You walk into heaven. Okay? You walk into heaven. You see God in a way, His beauty, His power, His goodness is so great that if you had not been supernaturally strengthened, it would kill you. It would drive you mad. You see Him and you are thrown down in such ecstatic joy and pleasure and you worship Him in a way you never even dreamed possible. And let's say you go to bed. You wake up the next day in heaven. Are you going to go look at the same thing? Yes and no. Your eyes are cast back on the same God, but a greater revelation of that God than you had even seen the day before. A greater revelation so great that it makes the other one look small. And it casts you down with a greater joy and a greater pleasure than you even experienced the day before. Throughout all of eternity, you are chasing down the glory of God. And every day brings greater... I'm using the term day loosely. Every day brings a greater knowledge of who God is and a greater pleasure and a greater joy. So this is the kindest thing God could ever do is do everything so that His glory, His worth, His beauty might be revealed to you. And that glory is an all-encompassing holistic glory. He does this one thing of saving a man, the scum of the earth, like myself. And He saves him. And people look at that and they go, oh, to the glory of God. I see something I've never seen before. And He takes another man, much more righteous than the one He just saved, and judges him justly. And He's cast into condemnation. And everyone says, look, He's not a tame lion, as C.S. Lewis used to say. And all these things He does, judgments and mercies, demonstrations of all these things of God, they're all for His glory, and they're all for your good. Now, He says, my name will be great among the nations. And this is something that I want you to think about. If you have tasted of the Lord, if you have an idea of His glory, one of the things that always follows is a desire for that glory to be promoted. I have never, and I want to use this term in a Biblical way, revelation. For example, I've been a Christian for 22 years, and you can look back on your life and see periods of time in your life when it's like God revealed more of Himself to you. There has never been a time when God had just revealed more of Himself to me that it didn't cause me to be more concerned about His glory and to be more desirous that His glory spread throughout the world. I mean, it's so big, His glory, that you just can't keep it to yourself. You want everyone to worship Him. Now, we're going to see where this passage really applies to missions. When you start out on the mission field, you are so idealistic. I mean, I remember thinking, I'm going to go down to Peru. I'm going to walk out there in that plaza with my little tracks and my little microphone with my little speaker I'm carrying, and I'm going to walk out in that plaza and I'm going to preach and angels are going to appear singing the Hallelujah chorus and massive conversions and then people when I die years later, all the country of Peru are going to come and honor me because I'm the man who brought the gospel. You know, you have all these crazy ideas until you're preaching for about the first five minutes and things seem to be going okay and then God raises up some person that begins to scream out that you're a demon and a heretic and they grab you, your tracks, your little microphone, and that little pulpit you have and toss you out on the street. It takes more than a romantic sentimental love for men to make you pick your tracks back up and walk right back in that pulpit, right back in that plaza and preach again. It takes more than a sentimental love for men to stay in a place for decades even and preach while people just ignore you as a fool. I'll tell you what it takes. A zeal for the glory of God and a belief that God is sovereign and that He is going to call forth for His own glory and the glory of His Son a people from every tribe, every tongue, every language, every nation. You see, a missionary who truly believes in the sovereignty of God, that God elected a people before the foundation of the world, that God sent His Son to pay for the sins of that people and that He is going to call forth that people with a powerful, effectual calling, that missionary is unstoppable. He knows He can go into that place and no matter how much they hurt Him, no matter if they grind His bones into the dust that sooner or later because He was sent there, someone's going to come to know the Lord. That God is going to get glory for Himself. And so you go, and you don't stop preaching, and you don't stop loving. Why? Because you're there. Let me give you a little thing on, and that might bring you a little bit of peace. We equate, and it's pathetic. Judgment Day will destroy it. But basically, a man today is, whether or not he's truly a man of God, is measured by the size of his ministry. That's just the truth. That's the way it's done. You're either deluded or lying if you say any other thing. That's the way men are measured today. How big is your church, how big is your ministry, this, that, and every other thing. That's a lie. That is a lie. That's not the way God measures men. I think someone asked, I think they asked, it was either Ian Murray or J.I. Packer, they asked them, who's the greatest preacher in the world today? And they responded, you don't know him. It's probably some little Peruvian up in the Andes mountains, or some little man from China working with the Lisu, preaching in a tongue you can't even understand, and probably stuttering at that. And yet the greatest preacher in the world Thank you. So one of the things that I want you to see about the glory of God that is so important for the person who is struggling on the mission field, struggling in working here in the States, we live in a world where you really got the power of God or you don't have the power of God depending on the size of your ministry. You really know God or don't know God depending on the size of your ministry. Everything is judged by the size of your ministry. God plants, I always ask this question to students, I go, okay, God plants the most beautiful rose that has ever been created in the middle of a forest in which no man will ever walk. How does he get glory from that rose? Students will say, well, I don't know, no one sees it. No one walks by there and sees the rose and says, hallelujah, no one can recognize its beauty, no one can find it, it's hidden away somewhere. I'll tell you how it gives glory to God. God looks at it and God rejoices and takes good pleasure in what he has done. That's what I tell missionaries and pastors all over the world. So many times, even though we know it's a lie, it creeps in on us. See, missionaries, they're struggling, there's no results, no church planted, they're struggling, they don't know what to do, they think they're a failure and they don't realize they might be the most precious flower God's ever planted on this earth. And that he gets more pleasure out of watching their faithfulness than he gets out of all the noise in the cattle stall. You see how the sovereignty of God and doing missions for the glory of God, doing everything for the glory of God, makes you strong? It transforms everything. I was preaching a while back and a state trooper came up to me later and just tears in his eyes and said, I've never heard anything like this in my life. I'm so happy. I said, what do you mean? He said, well, I sit in a patrol car all day. Many times I just sit there. And he goes, I'm thinking, my life doesn't glorify God. I'm nothing. What am I doing? I'm sitting in a car. But you told me today that from Scripture that if I'm working in a factory where the only thing I do is put bottle caps on the top of bottles, if I am doing it with all my heart for the glory of Almighty God, that He will push away every archangel in heaven to leave room to look through the floor of heaven just to watch me. You see, living for the glory of God makes you so strong. It takes a woman who has been confined to a nursing home who can only think in her mind but can hardly even speak anymore. And she's sitting there though and she's communing with God. She may be bringing more glory to God than the greatest evangelist in India. Everything we do, not just missions, is for the glory of God. Tis enough. Tis enough. He's not calling you maybe to do something spectacular in the eyes of men. Breathe every breath. Let every heart beat for the glory of God. And tis enough. Tis enough. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Father, I thank you for your word. And I thank you, for the prophet Malachi. I thank you for the example that you told him to write down. Lord, I thank you for your people and I pray that this has been for their edification. In Jesus' name, amen.