To God’s Glory Alone
(Ephesians 2:8-10)
1. Some people do not get it. I handed the teller at my bank a withdrawal slip for $400.00
I said “May I have large bills, please”.
She looked at me and said “I’m sorry sir, all the bills are the same size.”
I explained it to her.
2. When we talk about God’s glory or glorifying God, folks have little idea what we are talking about. Sometimes because the people bringing up the subject do not know what they are talking about. Glorifying God, for example, is a much broader term than is the word Worship.
3. The 5th Sola, Solo Deo Gloria, is about the fact that God orchestrated salvation to bring glory to Himself. But this is best understand against the backdrop of glorifying God in general. So we will look at the broader subject of glorifying God, and then focus in upon how salvation does so.
Main Idea: Solo Deo Gloria — to the glory of God alone — means that the entire process of salvation — and creation, for that matter — has as its goal glorifying God.
I. God’s Glory is the GENERAL Reason for All Creation.
Revelation 4:11, “ “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
A. Glorifying God refers to broadcasting what is SPECIAL about Him.
1. Creation highlights His POWER and creative genius.
2. Some people highlight His grace, mercy and LOVE.
3. Other people highlight His JUSTICE.
• Many agnostics/ atheists are respectful & considerate of believers, but we see a growing animosity; mockery, condescending comments, contempt.
• C. S. Lewis wrote, ““A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”
B. Glorifying God includes ENJOYING His creation in a proper way.
• We don’t have to justify everything with do with a directly spiritual reason. Enjoying the life God gives us, with a thankful heart, glorifies Him.
• I Corinthians 10:31, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
• Ecclesiastes 2:24-26a, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy…”
• I Timothy 6:17, “God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.”
• Most people who are out of balance suspect this about themselves, but stifle it.
C. The Three PERSONS of the Trinity seek to bring glory to One Another.
Philippians 2:5-10, “ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 1so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
• John 16:14a, “He (the Holy Spirit) will glorify Me (Jesus).”
• John 17:5, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
D. Believers are primarily to glorify God by observing His COMMANDMENTS.
Matthew 22:36-39, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Ecclesiastes 12;13b, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
John 15:8, “ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”
II. God Receives 100% of the Glory for SALVATION.
A. It is ENTIRELY His work.
1. MONERGISM vs. SYNERGYSM
Monergism states that the regeneration of an individual is the work of God through the Holy Spirit alone, as opposed to Synergism, which, in its simplest form, argues that the human will cooperates with God's grace in order to be regenerated. [Wikipedia]
Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
2. We have no basis to boast even an INFINITESIMAL amount.
Romans 3:27-28, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. “
B. We are saved by God’s GRACE alone through the faith He instills directed toward Christ alone to the Glory of God alone.
1. Salvation highlights God’s grace and mercy.
2. Salvation highlights God’s love.
3. Salvation highlights God’s justice and holiness.
4. Salvations highlights God’s sovereignty and power.
C. The desire to glorify God is at the heart of being a SERIOUS Christian.
Revelation 15:4 , “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.”
D. Glorifying God requires us to HUMBLE ourselves.
1. We talked about how God gives grace to the humble, and this is why both repentance and faith are required for us to be saved.
2. King Nebuchadnezzar thought he was hot stuff; he was warned in a dream.
3. We cannot seek to glorify ourselves and glorify God both. One or the other.
