The Glory of God and Missions — Paul Washer

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.

Malachi’s Rebuke of Empty Worship

Let's turn to the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. Chapter 1, verse 6. 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?

Oh, 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, Lord, to preach, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. This may seem like an unusual text.

Missions for the Glory of God

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.

Sovereign Grace as the Foundation of Christian Life

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, okay, 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 knew 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.

The Danger of Despising the Lord

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 any time 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 is 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 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 someone, a woman that they are in love with, that they want to, they want to win, they want to have her and they just will do anything and 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 wives 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? Or would he receive you kindly, says the Lord of Hosts.

Offering God Faithful Service

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, well, 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, 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 was 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, don't come back. I mean, just think about this for a moment. The service that we offer 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 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?

Now, let's go on. It says in verse 9, But now will you not entreat God's favor that He may be gracious to us with such an offering on your part? Will you receive any of you kindly, says the Lord of hosts?

And in verse 10, 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. I mean, we might not be doing a whole lot. We might not have much to do, 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.

He's worthy of... 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.

Divine Sovereignty and the Mission of the Church

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, 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. They're not concerned even about God at this point. But look what God says.

In verse 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 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 conference I've ever been in, 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... 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. 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, 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, for from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations.

God’s Glory as the Priority of Missions

Now, let's look at the difference, 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 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 you to see something. Have you ever heard people who will sing these songs, you know, I don't know why God loved me.

I don't know why God saved me. Well, every time I hear a song like that, I'm just sitting in the back raising my hand. Oh, oh, pick me up, I'll tell you. 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 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.

Understanding the Glory of God

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 that 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, God Himself. Now, for men to glorify God is simply for them to recognize these perfections, these excellencies, these 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.

God’s Glory and Divine Love

People always have this problem. They say, well, 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 and 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, 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 gum. You need serious counseling. But let's say you're dying. 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 the 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.