Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Scripture lesson this morning is taken from Ephesians 1:3-23.

In the Greek, these twenty verse are one long sentence!

I am going to divide this lengthy text into two readings this morning.

As you are finding this text in your bibles, let me introduce our topic of “To God Alone Belongs All Glory”.

This morning’s message is the last in our series on the Solas of the Reformation.

On the surface, no one who claims to be a Christian would argue that all glory belongs to God alone.

Rome during the time of the Reformation would certainly not have debated against the idea that all glory belongs to God.

However, as we will see it is one thing to confess that all glory belongs to God and another thing to actually give all glory to God.

The theology and practice of the Roman church steals glory from God by making salvation a work of both God and man.

We have already spent much time in Ephesians 2 in this series.

In the last three sermons we have seen that God’s plan of salvation excludes all human boasting.

Verses 8-9 of that chapter makes this abundantly clear.

Why is God so concerned that “no one may boast” in their salvation?

It is because God will not share His glory with anyone or anything else!

When God explains to Israel why He will save them, He reminds them how sinful and undeserving they are and then He adds.

God has made promises to His people He will not break and we can bank on His mercy and grace, not because we are worthy, but because God is jealous for the glory of His Name!

This link between God’s grace and God’s glory is made clear in our text this morning.

If you were paying attention you would have noted that in the space of just 12 verses Paul uses the phrase, “to the praise of his glory” three times!

Clearly, God has devised His of salvation so that He will be praise and glorified.

But before we talk about why God has done this and how we can give Him the glory that is due His name there is something very important we need to understand about God’s glory and this is found in verse 17.

Paul calls God, “the Father of glory,” he does this to teach us that...

God is Glorious, in and of Himself

This is very important to remind ourselves of because we easily fall into the temptation that we make God more glorious by glorifying Him.

This is what happens on the human level.

For example: Consider the show American Idol.

The contestants are the best of the best, when Kelly Clarkson, the first winner of American Idol, competed and won, 10,000 people had auditioned that year! Kelly Clarkson won because she had a glorious voice and a winning personality, but until she received the praise of the American people she was a nobody—she was a failed actress working in a cocktail waitress at a comedy club!

The praise of others made her more glorious.

God does not need anyone to make Him glorious, He is glorious!

Hear what Jesus says about His glory.

Before people, before angels, before anything the Triune God was glorious—Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

However, as Scripture makes clear God delights in revealing His glory to His creatures.

All of God’s Works, Especially His Work of Salvation, Reveal His Glory

Psalm 19 is famous for teaching us that all of creation reveals the glory of God.

As glorious as the heaven are, the most glorious manifestations of God’s creation are angels and men.

Of course we don’t see that glory in man because humanity has fallen into sin, but not all is lost.

The author of Hebrews writes after quoting Psalm 8:

The great storyline of the bible is this: It is not through the heavenly beings in their untarnished perfection that God will most magnificently display His glory, but through His Son Jesus, who took on human flesh, in order that He might redeem sinners!

In the book of Revelation the curtain that hides heaven from us is draw back and this is what we see and hear:

It is Christ’s redemption of fallen human beings that most magnificently displays the glory of God!

The glory of God revealed in creation is a dim shadow compared to the glory of God revealed in the redemptive work of Christ!

The message of not only Ephesians, but all of Scripture is clear, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone so that God alone receives all the glory!

But there is more to the story.

Let me continue reading from Ephesians 1 where I left off.

God Glorifies His Elect, That They May Glorify Him

In a surprising turn of events, we find that God reveals His glory by glorifying us!

Twice in chapter 1, Paul speaks of our glorious inheritance, first in verse 14 and then in verse 18.

This is such a surprising turn of events that Paul prays that God would open his readers eyes “that they may know the hope to which they have been called.”

Earlier I read for the prophet Isaiah, who wrote that God will not share his glory with another.

On the surface it seems that God is contradicting Himself, how can God glorify us without sharing His glory?

The answer lays in what Paul says about Christ.

Just think about what Paul is saying: God glorified Jesus’ human flesh and raised Him and now HUMAN FLESH sits in the highest position of authority and glory!

The Apostle John had the privilege of seeing Christ’s throne and this is what he saw:

The glory of Jesus and His Father out shine the sun and moon!

But speaking of the moon, I think we have in the moon a good illustration of how our glorification does not steal glory from God.

A full moon gets its glory from the Sun alone.

A “new moon” cannot be seen because it has no light to reflect.

It is dark and without glory.

Mankind, was created in the image of God.

We were created to be “glory reflectors,” but sin through us into the dark!

Have you ever wondered why Adam and Eve, suddenly felt naked?

The Shechinah glory cloud of God which once covered them was gone!

Now, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Shechinah cloud of glory shines forth from human flesh not as a reflection, but in its full glory!

The hope that Paul wants us to see is that we will be covered by the Shechinah glory of God once again, but this time the reflection will be more powerful and more brilliant!

Paul speaks of this same hope to encourage the Corinthians.

And in the next chapter.

Do you catch the irony in this?

The only way to truly be glorified is to humbling accept the gift of salvation in Christ by faith alone.

We can only shine as the moon does.

As soon as we try to light our own candle, we are thrown into darkness.

There is no salvation, there is no glory, without all glory going to God!

Let us pray...