John 5, 41 to 47, for a sermon I've entitled, Seeking Glory, Ours or God's? This is Jesus speaking to the religious leaders, and he says this, I do not receive glory from men, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I've come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you'll receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you've set your hope. For if you'd believe Moses, you'd believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Motif. Motif. Are you familiar with that word? According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, the word motif refers to a recurring theme, a dominant idea, or a central element. You know, nations have cultural motifs. But what do you say is the dominant, central, political theme for Americans? I think it would have to be the idea of liberty. I mean, much of our political discourse is framed in and sold to us under the banner of freedoms and rights. And even evil things are couched in those terms, like the right to choose, or the right to die, or sexual freedom. For the French, their national motif is summed up in three words, Egalité, Liberté, and Fraternité. Equality, liberty, and brotherhood. These ideas from the revolution still infuse the souls of those who are on the political left. In America, we praise what we call rugged individualism, but in Japan, they prize group conformity and harmony. There's a popular proverb that's used in Japan that says, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. If you want to get along and not be hammered down as a Japanese person, you know that you have to conform your thoughts and your actions to that of the group. Now, that leads to better social cohesion, but it can stifle creativity and innovation. Not only in the modern world, but also in the ancient times, countries and cultures had motifs and dominant ideas and central themes and national pursuits. I mean, to the Jewish mind, the dominant motif was light. That was the first thing God created, wasn't it? Indeed, we're told that God is light, and in Him there's no darkness at all. And looking forward to the redemption of the nation of Israel in the future, the prophet Isaiah wrote this, And then in the New Jerusalem, Our eternal home, we're told that there will be no more night, there will be no need of any light from lamps or the sun, because the Lord God will shine upon them." Now for the Greeks, the pursuit was for Sophia, which would be wisdom or knowledge. The Greek philosophers wanted to know how things worked. I mean, what was everything made of? They were convinced that everything came down to one and four matters, or a combination of elements, which was earth, air, water, and fire. But what's that fifth element, the quintessential element, which holds everything together? Inquiring minds wanted to know. Greek minds, that was. One more. What was the cultural motif of the Romans? What did they pursue above all else? It was glory. The glory of Rome. The glory of the empire. Their own glory as Roman citizens. The singer Madonna played in a movie entitled, Desperately Seeking Susan. The Romans were always desperately seeking glory. Now, we have a term for people such as that. We call them glory hounds. That's a person who constantly seeks attention and recognition or fame, often in a self-serving manner. Well, here in this passage, Jesus suggests that all people actually seek after glory, but the question is whether it's our own glory or the glory of God. And to help you understand how seeking your own glory is actually incompatible with the love of and faith in God, we want to consider this passage. So let's pray. Get in the text file. And God, I do pray for grace and mercy. Open up our minds and our hearts and focus our attention on your word this morning, because there's nothing more important that we could think about. So bless us to that end, for we're asking Jesus' name. Amen. Well, there's glory for you. Well, I don't know what you mean by glory, Alice said. I mean, that's a nice knockdown argument for you. But glory doesn't mean a nice knockdown argument, Alice objected. When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, it means what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less. Now we're going to be talking about seeking glory. I suppose we better define the term. The Greek word for glory in the New Testament is doxa. which has and carries the idea of honor, renown, reputation, splendor, majesty. Glory is the display of greatness which brings forth praise from those who observe it. So when a quarterback at the end of the game, and they're down by a touchdown, throws a Hail Mary pass to a receiver who makes a one-handed catch at the back of the end zone and just barely gets his two feet inbounds, and the crowd erupts with joy and screams of praise. it's because of the display of glory they just witnessed. Well, this whole issue of pursuing glory and how it relates to God's love and our faith in Him is what Jesus is addressing here. So the outline to this text can be written down in three pairs of words. So the first pair you can put down are glory and love. Glory and love, that's 41 to 43. Secondly, glory and faith, that's verse 44. And finally, Moses and Christ, and that's 45 to 47. Now speaking to the religious leaders who were rejecting his claims to be the son of God, but rather considered Jesus to be an egotistical blasphemer, our Lord responded by saying this in verse 41. I did not receive glory from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in you. Matt Walsh is a conservative podcaster for the Daily Wire. Last week in one of his shows, he talked about a growing popular trend on TikTok where women make videos where they trash and criticize their husbands. He said in these, the wives almost always are bitter, petty, patronizing, and deeply insulting to their husbands. On one which he referenced was a woman who said she was happy when her husband actually spontaneously asked to take her out to a movie. But then afterwards, they went out to eat, and while they were eating, she was trying to relate to him how much she liked the movie, and he said, well, it was just a movie. And she was offended, and she was hurt. And so she shared that on TikTok and on YouTube with 32 million people. Now, most of the comments left by those who saw her video joined her in trashing her horrible husband. Some suggested she should dump such a man. But here's the question. Why? Why did she post this? Now, obviously, it wasn't just to share her feelings. She could have called her mother or her sister to dump on them. But why did she do this? And how do you think she felt when she saw that 32 million people had saw her rant? Do you think she was pleased when so many of them praised her, glorified her for trashing her husband in public? Proverbs 14.1 says, The wise woman builds up her house, but the foolish woman tears it down with her own hands. There's a lot of narcissistic people seeking the praise of men, even at the cost of the pain of others. Jesus disclaimed the idea that he was seeking praise from any man, because his goal was ever and always the glory of God. Now, the religious leaders thought that they knew Jesus. They didn't. But he certainly knew them. What was in their heart, or in this case, what wasn't in their heart? Look at what it says in verse 42. I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. Now, does that woman on TikTok love her husband? No, not if she has no qualms with trashing him like that in front of millions of people. Did the Jews love God? Not if they have no problem trashing God's Son, who the Father sent into the world. By the way, these were Orthodox Jews who would have prided themselves on keeping the commandments. But did these religious leaders, didn't they proclaim the Shema and recite it every Sunday or every Sabbath? Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. The Lord is our God, and the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. These words that I am commanding you today shall be on your chart. But hold it, that passage is commanding the Israelites to love the Lord their God, not some carpenter from Nazareth who blasphemously claims to be the Son of God. But that's the question. Is he who he claims to be? Now, Jesus had brought forth four witnesses to establish and vindicate his claim. The testimony of John the Baptist, the evidence of the miracles that he performed, the testimony of God the Father, and the witness of the Old Testament prophecies. All these validate and establish Jesus' claim that he made in verse 43. I've come in my Father's name, and yet you do not receive me. But then he goes on to say this. If another comes in his own name, you'll receive him. Then Jesus warned his disciples, saying, See to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ and will mislead many. Leon Morris points out that around that time there were some 64 different individuals who had claimed to be the promised Messiah. And about a hundred years after this, there was a man who arose, Simon Kosiva, as a military leader who waged war against the Romans. Now many wondered whether he might be the promised Messiah, and one of the leading rabbis of the day, Rabbi Akiva, declared that Simon was indeed the Christ. He gave him the title Simon Bar Kokba, which means son of the star. Remember there was a messianic prophecy that was made by Balaam saying that a star would arise out of Jacob. Well, initially Simon and his guerrilla army had much success, but then the Emperor Hadrian sent one of his best generals, Sextus Julius Severus, who crushed the rebellion. And according to the Roman historian Cassio Dio, 580,000 Jews were killed in the overall war operations across the country. Some 50 fortified towns and 985 villages were razed to the ground, while the number of those who perished by famine and disease and fire was beyond finding out. Another self-proclaimed messiah rose in the Ottoman Empire in the 1600s, a man named Sebeli, Zevi, claiming to be the messianic age had already arrived and that the mosaic law no longer applied. He married a prostitute named Sarah, who he said God had told him to marry in a vision, just like God had told the prophet Hosea to marry Gomer, who was also a prostitute. By the way, he also said he had the power to fly, but he wouldn't demonstrate it to his followers because of their lack of faith. Now most of the Jewish leaders of the empire originally and initially rejected him as the Messiah, but as his fame increased and the number of his followers multiplied, some began to wonder, is Sabbatai Zevi really our Messiah? Now one of the guys who was convinced he was, was Nathan of Gaza, who claimed that he himself was Elijah come back from heaven. After a while, some prominent rabbis from across the Middle East and Europe came to believe that Zevi was indeed the Messiah. They referred to him as our Lord and our King, His Majesty be exalted. Evidently, Zevi, or eventually Zevi, made his way to the capital city of Constantinople, where he planned to crown himself as king of the empire. Yeah, but the sultan didn't really appreciate that planned power grab, and so as Zevi was arrested, he gave the self-proclaimed messiah a choice. He said, you can either convert to Islam or die. And Zevi thought about it for a while and decided it was better to be a live Muslim convert than a dead Jewish martyr. So he converted. to Islam with a number of his followers. Of course, we know there's at least one more false messiah coming, don't we? The one we call the Antichrist. In the book of Zechariah, in chapter 11, we're told that because the people will reject the good shepherd, God is going to send them a foolish shepherd who will destroy the flock. That brings us to our second pair of words, though, glory and faith. Now, Jesus asked his interrogators, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another and you don't seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Look, listen, if you're living a life focused on yourself so that you're self-serving, self-promoting, seeking self-aggrandizement, self-esteem, and self-centered, by definition you can't be God-centered. If it's the praise of men that you want, you cannot be seeking the glory of God. And Jesus said here that if you're seeking man's praise, you're not actually a believer. Do you remember when Jesus condemned the religious leaders who practiced their piety to be seen by men? He said that when they give, they give to the poor, they sound the trumpet so that everyone can hear and see. He said that's what they wanted, they've got their reward in full. And he said this, when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they might be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. Remember what Paul wrote to the Galatians. He asked for, am I now seeking the favor of men or God? Am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Galatians 1.10. So you have to understand, the world is at war with God. And its values are diametrically opposed to the values of God's kingdom. And so it's not just that the Christians march to the beat of a different drum. We're not even in the same parade as the world. And that's why John wrote elsewhere, Do not love the world nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but from the world. The world is passing away, and also all of its lusts. But the one who does the will of God abides forever." 1 John 2, 15-17. What does it say in Romans 12 too? And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you might prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Imagine you're floating down a river on a lazy summer day. Everyone's having a good time, drinking and laughing. But then someone from the shore shouts out, hey, there's a huge waterfall ahead with jagged rocks below. You've got to get out of the river. All who are on the river hear the man yelling, but they think the guy's crazy. And so they just keep floating along. You, however, heed the warning. But the current is starting to pick up speed, and so you have to struggle paddling as hard as you can going against the current. Well, that's the whole of the Christian experience increasingly in our culture, this godless age. And what do the unbelievers think when they see us swimming against the moral current of our culture? They mock us. They despise us. They revile us. But if you're seeking their praise and approval, aren't you going to compromise in order to please them? Do you understand why Jesus asked, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory which is from the one and only God? They were looking for the applause of men rather than the praise of God. You know, in the last few years, we've seen a lot of well-known pastors compromise. Now, some have fallen into sexual scandals, but others compromise by embracing elements of left-wing politics. One prominent evangelical pastor closed down his church for COVID, but then he urged the members of his church to go out and march with Black Lives Matter protesters, the communist group dedicated to overthrowing the nuclear family. What motivates such pastors? What's the desire for the praise and approval of men? Max Lucado is a long-time pastor who's written over 100 books and has sold 150 million copies. Back in 2021, he was invited to preach at the Washington National Cathedral, but that sparked a protest because people were outraged by some comments he made in an article that he had written 15 years earlier. According to the Episcopal News Network, Lakato voiced concerns back then that the same-sex marriage might lead to a slippery slope to legalized polygamy, bestiality, and incense. And he concluded the article by describing, quote, homosexual activity and gay lifestyle as sins that can be changed by pastoral care with simultaneous compassion and conviction, echoing the language of conversion therapy, which gay rights advocates warn could lead to depression and suicide. But what Max Licato said was true and backed up by the scripture. So, Max, stand your ground. Don't back down and then rejoice that they set all manner of evil against you for Christ's sake." Is that what he did? No. Instead, he wrote a letter to the leaders of the Washington National Cathedral, which read as follows. In 2004, I preached a sermon on the topic of same-sex marriage. I now see that in that sermon, I was disrespectful. I was hurtful. I wounded people in ways that were devastating. I should have done better. It grieves me that my words have hurt or been used to hurt the LGBTQ community. I apologize to you and ask forgiveness of Christ. Faithful people may disagree about what the Bible says about homosexuality, but we agree that God's holy word must never be used as a weapon to wound others. To be clear, I believe in traditional biblical understanding of marriage, but I also believe in a God of unbounded grace and love. LGBTQ individuals and their families must be respected and treated with love. They're beloved children of God because they're made in the image and likeness of God. Over the centuries, the Church has harmed LGBTQ people and their families, just as the Church has harmed people on the issues of race, and gender, and divorce, and addiction, and so many other things. We must do better to serve and love one another. I share the cathedral's commitment to building bridges and learning how to listen, to really listen to those with whom we disagree. That work is difficult, and it's hard, and it's messy, and can be uncomfortable. But we need it now more than ever. Respectfully, Max Lucado." Now, later on, in John chapter 12, 42 to 43, we're going to read these words. Many even of the rulers believed in him, meaning Jesus. But because of the Pharisees, they weren't confessing him. for fear that they'd be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. Now, what's ironic is Max Lucado wrote a book entitled The Applause of Heaven. Evidently, it was the approval of men, godless men, that he wanted even more. That brings us to our third and our last point though, Moses and Christ. This is verse 45-46. Now keep in mind that this wasn't tax collectors and drunks that Jesus had a conflict with that day, but the religious leaders, those who were the guardians of the true faith. And yet when he, the way, the truth, and the life stood before them, they wouldn't believe the truth and they were unwilling to come to him that they might have life. But we know who we are. We're the children of Abraham. We're the disciples of Moses. Moses gave us the law, the law which we defend, and you, Jesus, break. But then Jesus parries the thrust of that sword and stabs back with his own accusation. Look what he says. Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who's going to accuse you is Moses, in whom you've set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you'd believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Moses gave them the law, rather God gave the law through Moses. What was the main purpose of the law? Was it to provide a ladder so the Jews could climb their way to heaven through their effort and religious devotion and commitment? No. It was given to be a mirror to hold up to our lives to see how dirty we are and how desperately we need to have our sins washed away. And what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is that flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Why were the Israelites in Egypt commanded to put blood on the top and the side of their door frames on Passover night? It was so that the angel of death, when he saw the blood, would pass over that household and the firstborn wouldn't have to die. Well, God sacrificed his son on a cross to be our Passover lamb. There he placed the sins of all who would ever trust Christ on him and punished him in our stead. And then three days later, he raised Jesus from the dead to show that his sacrifice was accepted and that death was defeated not only for himself, but for Christ's followers. And willingly going to that cross is how Jesus sought to glorify God. And by making Jesus a star in this drama of redemption, God glorified His Son. And by opening up the hearts and minds of those who believe, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Father and the Son. Now Moses, through the law, pointed to Christ. Galatians 3.24 said, Romans 10.4 tells us that Christ is the end or the goal of the law, for righteousness for everyone who believes. Did you ever hear Jesus said, Moses wrote about me? Well, where did he write about Jesus? Listen, Deuteronomy 18, 18 to 19, where God says this, I will raise up a prophet from among your countrymen like you, Moses, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I commanded. And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will be required of him. It says in Hebrews 1, 1-4, God, after He spoke to our fathers through the prophets in many ways and in many portions, in these last days He has spoken to us through His Son, whom He has appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. And He, that Son, is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and He upholds all things by His powerful word. When He had made purification for sin, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. So as we apply this, let me ask some questions. God has spoken through His Son. Have you listened? Are you listening to Him? Whose approval are you looking for? God or man's? From where are you hoping to hear praise? From heaven or earth? Whose glory are you seeking? Yours or God's? You know, I talked about motifs. It's interesting because those three motifs in the ancient world, the Romans and the Jews and the Greeks, Paul sums them all up in one verse when he says this, For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For the God who said, let light shine out of the darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts, listen, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ. What I'm saying is make the glory of God the motif, the central theme of your life. Live to that end. And when you come to the end, you'll be glad you did. Because everything else is going to pass away. But the glory of God will remain forever. May God give you the grace to see the truth. Let's pray. Our Father in God, I do pray for grace and mercy. I heard one time that the measure of the greatness of a person is what it is they pursue. And for a lot of people, it's nothing more than their own egos or their fleeting pleasures, sports, just being lazy. Pursue everything but your glory. But for those of us who've had our eyes open to see the greatness of Jesus, and because you've shined in our hearts, we're to live for your glory and for the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray that you'd help us to do that. Give us opportunities to give the gospel to other people. Make us diligent to pray that the gospel will spread and help us to live in all manner so that everything we do brings glory to you through your Son. So bless us that end. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to be singing