26-0823a - Detailed Summary

Steve announced the title of the lesson: “For His Name’s Sake.” He immediately stressed that anyone who desires to open the heart of God or touch a sacred string in the divine character must learn to think and speak in terms of God’s name’s sake or the glorification of God. This, he said, is the conscious attitude that enables a believer to please God and to advance His reputation so that others will think of Him.

Turning back to the psalm just read, Steve quoted the New International Version rendering of Psalm 23:1-3, emphasizing the clause “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” He asked the congregation what that phrase means and what it should conjure up in the mind. The answer, he explained, is that God acts so that people will glorify Him, think good things of Him, and credit to Him whatever is righteous and upright. The Lord’s shepherding care—His divine intervention, providence, and preservation—is performed precisely so that His people will form a positive estimate of His character. God wants His people to think of Him in good terms.

Steve next observed that when God created the heavens and the earth He assumed lasting responsibilities for His creation. He did not abdicate those responsibilities after the six days of creation or after the flood. God continues to regard the welfare and well-being of the world highly; He desires that none should perish but that all should come to repentance, and He wants every person to hold a favorable opinion of Him.

To illustrate this ongoing concern Steve turned to Psalm 104. He read and commented at length on the psalm’s description of God’s majestic rule over the natural order. The Lord is clothed with splendor and majesty, wraps Himself in light, stretches out the heavens, and rides on the wings of the wind. He set the earth on its foundations so that it can never be moved, covered it with the deep, and then commanded the waters to flee to the place He assigned them, establishing boundaries they can never again cross.

Even in the present day God makes springs pour water into the ravines, waters the mountains, causes grass to grow for cattle and plants for people to cultivate, and brings forth wine, oil, and bread that sustain human life. The trees of the Lord are well-watered; birds nest in them; wild goats and rock badgers find refuge in the high places. The moon marks the seasons and the sun knows when to set. When darkness falls the beasts of the forest prowl and the lions seek their food from God. All creatures look to the Lord to give them their food at the proper time; when He opens His hand they are satisfied, and when He withdraws His face they are terrified and return to the dust. When He sends His Spirit they are created and the face of the ground is renewed.

Steve underscored that the bread on the table, the meat on the plate, the air that is breathed, and the water that is drunk are all supplied by the continuing providence of God. If God ceased this involvement, humanity would quickly wither and die. The entire created order exists and is sustained for His name’s sake, so that people will think good things of Him and ascribe glory to Him.

Steve then asked how often the phrase “for His name’s sake” appears in Scripture and proceeded to examine a key Old Testament instance. After the Israelites had been delivered from Egypt and had praised God on the banks of the Red Sea, they quickly turned against Him once they found themselves in the wilderness. Facing the threat of destruction, they accused Moses of having brought them out only so they could die in the desert.

God responded by telling Moses to step aside so that He might destroy the people and raise up a new nation from Moses’ own descendants. Moses, however, appealed directly to the honor of God’s name. He argued that if the Lord destroyed the Israelites, the surrounding nations who had heard of the exodus would conclude that the God of Israel was unable to bring His people into the promised land and would ridicule His name. God relented and forgave the people.

Steve applied the episode to contemporary believers. When facing personal crises, Christians should approach God with the conscious desire that His name be glorified. Solving the difficulty would allow God to show Himself strong, display His benevolence, mercy, and grace, and give the watching world reason to praise Him. Paul, writing in 2 Corinthians about the collection for the famine-stricken saints in Jerusalem, likewise expected that the recipients would glorify God’s name because of the generosity of the Gentile churches.

The sermon next moved to the New Testament and to Jesus Himself. In John 12, shortly after the triumphal entry and His confrontations with the religious leaders, Jesus declared that the hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified. He spoke of the necessity of a grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying in order to produce much fruit, and of the need to hate one’s life in this world in order to keep it for eternal life.

Jesus then confessed that His soul was troubled and asked whether He should pray to be saved from that hour. He immediately answered His own question: “No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” A voice from heaven replied, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Some in the crowd thought it had thundered; others supposed an angel had spoken.

Steve explained that Jesus’ willingness to go to the cross was for the Father’s name’s sake. Through the cross God would demonstrate His love by giving His only begotten Son so that sinners might be saved. The Hebrew writer later observed that Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him, knowing that His sacrifice would secure the justification believers need. In going to the cross Jesus was glorifying the Father’s name in a willing and deliberate act.

Turning to Philippians 4, Steve noted that Paul was writing as a servant of God whose entire ministry was aimed at glorifying God. He read the section in which Paul thanks the Philippian church for their repeated financial support, beginning in the earliest days of their acquaintance with the gospel. Paul affirms that he has learned the secret of being content in every circumstance—whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. The well-known statement “I can do all things through him who gives me strength” is therefore not a blank check for personal ambition but a declaration that God enables the believer to endure every situation.

The reason God strengthens His people, Steve insisted, is so that He may show Himself strong and so that His name may be glorified. When good things happen, family, friends, and acquaintances take notice; God desires that the credit be given to Him. Steve briefly alluded to his own personal circumstances, stating that he is able to endure them only because God supplies the necessary strength. Every difficult situation a believer faces may be a test to determine whether the person will abandon trust in God or will turn to Him for help. God wants the glory, and it is for His name’s sake that He continues to do good for His people and has not forgotten them.

Steve concluded by pointing to the Colossian letter, where Paul explains that one of the chief reasons people turn to Christ, are baptized for the remission of sins, and rise to walk in newness of life is the promise God holds out to them—the promise of heaven. The only hope any individual has of reaching heaven is found in Christ; that hope is the expression of God’s mercy, grace, and gospel.

He then extended the invitation. Anyone present who had not yet responded to God’s offer to become a child of God and to look forward to the promise of heaven was urged to come forward, name Jesus as Lord and Savior, and be baptized for the remission of sins. The congregation was invited to stand and sing as the invitation song began.