{"id":390,"date":"2011-04-24T00:46:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T00:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heavenslight.org\/?p=390"},"modified":"2011-04-24T00:46:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-24T00:46:00","slug":"heavens-light-4-23-11-the-display-of-gods-glory-and-excellence-the-ultimate-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/2011\/04\/24\/heavens-light-4-23-11-the-display-of-gods-glory-and-excellence-the-ultimate-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavens Light 4-23-11  The Display of God&#8217;s Glory and Excellence &#8211; The Ultimate End"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #1f497d; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 11pt;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b><span style=\"font-size: 20pt;\">The Sovereignty of God<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b><span style=\"background: yellow; font-size: 18pt; mso-highlight: yellow;\">God\u2019s Purposes<\/span><\/b><b><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The Display of His Glory and Excellence \u2013 The Ultimate End<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n<div>God has many purposes for which He made the creation. Indeed everything He has made has a specific purpose to fulfill in the grand scheme of His plan for the ages. Everything has a very wonderful and awesome reason for existing, and all things ultimately work out into conformity with the purposes of God as we have seen. In fact everything that God does has its own purpose.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\"><b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Proverbs 16:4 &#8211; <\/span><\/b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">4 <b><span style=\"background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;\">The LORD has made everything for its own purpose<\/span><\/b>, Even the wicked for the day of evil. NASB<\/span><\/div>\n<div>Consider these verses in Ephesians 1\u2026\u2026.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\"><b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Ephesians 1:11-12<\/span><\/b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"> &#8211; 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been <u>predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will<\/u>, 12 <b><span style=\"background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;\">to the end<\/span><\/b> that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. NASB<\/span><\/div>\n<div>In these verses, the salvation of the saints is seen to be <b><i>\u201cpredestined according to God\u2019s purpose,\u201d<\/i><\/b> but notice that this is not God\u2019s highest purpose. Oh no, here it says that the predestination of salvation is <b><i>\u201cto the end that we\u2026\u2026should be to the praise of His glory!\u201d<\/i><\/b> Learn then that the salvation of men is NOT God\u2019s highest purpose, but it is works to the higher purpose of the <b><i>\u201cpraise of the glory of God!\u201d <\/i><\/b>So when<b><i> <\/i><\/b>we ask the question, what is the <b><i>highest<\/i> <\/b>purpose of God in creating all things, what do you suppose would be the answer? What purpose is it which makes all purposes subservient to it? What is the chief end for which God created all things? I think it can be most clearly summed up in the statement\u2026\u2026<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/heavenslight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Gods-Ultimate-Purpose-20061.jpg\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"165\" j8=\"true\" src=\"http:\/\/www.heavenslight.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Gods-Ultimate-Purpose-20061-300x124.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>Dear reader, God is a being of such awesome wonder and infinitely profound beauty that the expression of His being is the highest and most glorious idea or concept that can be conceived. Further, the experience of <b><u><span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">knowing God in an intimate personal relationship<\/span><\/u><\/b> is the most fulfilling and exhilarating reality that exists, and it is the highest purpose for which mankind was created. As the Westminster Catechism states, <i>\u201cThe chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.\u201d<\/i> The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians \u2026\u2026<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\"><b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">1 Corinthians 10:31<\/span><\/b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"> &#8211; 31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or <b><span style=\"background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;\">whatever you do, do all to the glory of God<\/span><\/b>. NASB<\/span><\/div>\n<div>Here the Apostle sums up all our human purposes, he says <b><i>\u201cwhatever you do\u2026..do it all to the glory of God!\u201d<\/i><\/b> Dear Reader, here we have purpose, here we have meaning!<\/div>\n<div>This is in fact also what the Lord Himself taught us when He gave us the great commandments. He said all the Law and Prophets depend on these two commandments. In other words, you can sum up the entire Old Testament in this\u2026\u2026<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 0.5in;\"><b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Matthew 22:36-40 &#8211; <\/span><\/b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">36 &#8220;Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?&#8221; 37 And He said to him,&nbsp; <b><span style=\"background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;\">&#8220;&#8216;You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.&#8217;&nbsp; 38 &#8220;This is the great and foremost commandment<\/span><\/b>. 39 &#8220;The second is like it, &#8216;You shall love your neighbor as yourself.&#8217;&nbsp; 40 &#8220;On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.&#8221; NASB<\/span><\/div>\n<div>Here Jesus tells us the chief purpose for our existence. It is to <b><i>\u201clove God\u201d,<\/i><\/b> to worship Him with everything that is within us. Consider the meaning of worship, <i>\u201cto ascribe worth or value to something\u201d<\/i> in relation to God\u2019s highest purpose. God seeks to manifest or show forth the Excellency of His character, and we are commanded to \u201clove Him and praise Him and revere Him.\u201d This is why sin is such an abominable failure on the part of mankind, because he thereby fails to glorify God, the highest purpose for which he was made and also the highest purpose God has for making Him.&nbsp; This is also why one sin is considered a violation of the whole law\u2026 <\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;\"><b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">James 2:10<\/span><\/b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"> &#8211; 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and <b><span style=\"background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;\">yet stumbles in one point , he has <\/span><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;\"><b><span style=\"background: yellow; font-size: 10pt; mso-highlight: yellow;\">become guilty of all.<\/span><\/b><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"> NASB<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #1f497d; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 11pt;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">If you would like to know how to know Jesus Christ and be ransomed from your sins and&nbsp;enter&nbsp;into eternal life\u2026..click here to find out how&#8230;..&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gty.org\/Resources\/Articles\/2425\" title=\"http:\/\/www.gty.org\/Resources\/Articles\/2425\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">http:\/\/www.gty.org\/Resources\/Articles\/2425<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 14pt;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">Or read&nbsp;more<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">&nbsp;<strong><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;;\">about the Christian Gospel here:&nbsp; <\/span><\/strong><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ligonier.org\/welcome_whatisthegospel.php\" title=\"http:\/\/www.ligonier.org\/welcome_whatisthegospel.php\"><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">http:\/\/www.ligonier.org\/welcome_whatisthegospel.php<\/span><\/strong><\/a><span style=\"color: red; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">If you have comments or questions, please do respond to <\/span><\/strong><a href=\"mailto:shaan@heavenslight.org\" title=\"mailto:shaan@heavenslight.org\"><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">shaan@heavenslight.org<\/span><\/strong><\/a><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\"> <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: red; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 14pt;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><span style=\"color: blue; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;;\">If you would like to be added or add someone to this email list, just reply with <\/span><strong><span style=\"color: red; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;;\">&#8220;sign me up&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: blue; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;;\"> and the address you want it sent to. May the Lord bless you and keep you!<\/span><span style=\"color: red; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 14pt;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">Pastor Shaan Sloan<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: red; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 14pt;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">Heritage Christian Fellowship &#8211; ABQ<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: red; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 14pt;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">505-348-5092<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: red; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 14pt;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><strong><span style=\"color: black; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;\">The Lord is the Strength of My Life<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: red; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;, &quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 14pt;\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sovereignty of God God\u2019s Purposes The Display of His Glory and Excellence \u2013 The Ultimate End God has many purposes for which He made the creation. Indeed everything He has made has a specific purpose to fulfill in the grand scheme of His plan for the ages. Everything has a very wonderful and awesome &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/2011\/04\/24\/heavens-light-4-23-11-the-display-of-gods-glory-and-excellence-the-ultimate-end\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Heavens Light 4-23-11  The Display of God&#8217;s Glory and Excellence &#8211; The Ultimate End<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}