Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Isaiah 45:20-25; Isaiah 6:1-8; Hebrews 13:15-16

Theme: To God be the glory ... in our salvation, in our thoughts and in our behavior, and ultimately in our death and resurrection.

Date: 11/24/2019 File name: SolaDeoGloria-2.wpd

ID Number

This morning is the last Sunday in our emphasis on the 'five solas' of the Protestant Reformation.

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 bullet-points of protest to the doors of the church in Wittenberg, Germany, he sparked a Reformation that recovered the central truths of the Gospel.

In our own day—an era where each of us has our own bible in our own language; an era where we worship in a denominational tradition that has zealously preached that men are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Scriptures alone, it's hard for us to imagine that this was not always the case.

For a thousand years the preaching of that Gospel had all but been lost by the church—especially by the Church of Mediaeval Europe.

In it's place developed a hollow gospel, a manmade religion, full of unbiblical, mystical practices, invented doctrines, and superstitions.

As we approach our last “sola” we must be fair to the Medieval Catholic Church.

They did not deny the importance of Scripture, or faith, or grace, or the merit of Christ.

Church theologians spoke of them often and would have eagerly affirmed that there is no salvation without them.

So what is the issue?

Why did the Church need reformation?

The disagreement centered on the word sola ... alone.

It still does.

As much as we love our Catholic neighbors and friends and family ... as much as we’ll stand in solidarity with the Catholic Church on the great moral issues of our day ... as much as we’ll come together as a community from time-to-time in worship and fellowship, there remains a theological gulf that separates us, and it continues to revolve around that word Sola.

The last of the alone statements that comes out of the Reformation is Sola Deo Gloria— That all things done are to the glory of God alone.

This is the theological glue that binds the other four Solas together.

If ... IF a sinner is not saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as the Scriptures alone teach, then the sinner’s salvation does not fully rest in God’s hands.

If the first four Solas are not true then God cannot take sole credit for a man’s redemption since some part of it was outside of God’s control.

But if ... IF salvation is all of God and has been accomplished by God from beginning to end, (or as Paul writes, “from faith to faith), then God gets all the glory.

The result is that a sinner’s salvation gives glory alone to God.

I.

A GOD OF GLORY

“I am the LORD; that is my name!

I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

(Isaiah 42:8, NIV84)

1. Sola Deo Gloria—to the glory of God alone—is the motivation that ought to guide every area of the believer’s life

2. God is worthy of our honor, and our praise, and our worship, and our reverence, and our veneration, and our awe, and our adoration because he is a glorious God as revealed in His attributes, and His actions

"Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven," (Psalm 148:13, ESV)

"to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ!

Amen." (Romans 16:27, ESV)

"to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.

Amen." (Jude 25, ESV)

"Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."

(Revelation 15:4, ESV)

3. Sola Deo Gloria means that the sovereign God of the universe alone gets glory

a. God is clear about this: I will not give my glory to another

A. GOD WILL BE GLORIFIED BY ALL MEN

"By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear."

(Isaiah 45:23, NIV84)

1. it is so certain that men—all men—will bow their knee before a Sovereign God that the Lord has sworn by Himself that it will happen

a. God says, By myself I have sworn ...

1) literally the phrase in Hebrew is As I live and it is an oath

2) who else can God swear by since there is no one greater than He?

b.

God is about to utter a truth that cannot be revoked—it will absolutely come to pass

2. what has God spoken that will absolutely come to pass here in this passage?

a. God declares that Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear

1) all men will sooner or later be in complete submission to the Lord God

b. the day will come when all men will bow the knee, and give glory to the Father

1) some will do so in joy

2) many will do so under compulsion

3) but all men shall give glory to the God

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

(Philippians 2:9–11, ESV)

4) indeed, every living creature in the cosmos will glorify the Godhead

“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.

They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures.

They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: "Amen!

Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever.

Amen!" (Revelation 7:9–12, NIV84)

3. God is going to be glorified

II.

THE GOD OF GLORY REVEALS HIS GLORY IN HIS SOVEREIGNTY

" ... for I am God and there is no other."

v. 22

1. you will never experience the full blessings of God until you recognize that Jehovah is God and you ain't!

a.

He is supremely sovereign over all the created order

b.

He is supremely sovereign over you life

2. unfortunately the average American no longer has a reverence for or a holy fear of an awesome God

a. for many, God ranks right up there with Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Ferry, or Father Time

1) characters of sentimentality who pass out blessings when we are "good" and who leniently wink at the "indiscretions" of our life as if they were insignificant

b. others see God as a cosmic Charlie Brown

1) wishy-washy to the core

2) inept and never willing to carry through with what he says

3) never meaning what He says and never doing what he plans

3. the lost man looks at himself and thinks, "God can't be much different than I am."

a. this is what Israel thought and God condemned them for it

"These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself.

But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you."

(Psalm 50:21, ESV)

ILLUS.