Soli Deo Gloria

I’m a master of plans that never make it into reality! Ask Laura! Every so often I will come up with some new scheme and try and convince people of how great it will be! With great gusto we apply our efforts initially, and then somewhat less enthusiastically, then begrudgingly, and before you know it the whole idea is dead in the water. In one case, literally.

I tried to start and aquaponics system, where i would breed fish in a tank and use the dirty water to fertilize veggie plants in a garden bed where the water would then be filtered for the fish. (show picture)

It’s a fantastic idea. I thought we’d start with a small system then expand to multiple systems, then before you know it we would be growing all our own fresh veggies and eating fresh fish every few nights! I was excited!

So, I did research, then I pulled together the materials I needed. Then I started building. Got it all together. Got a batch of fish. Planted some plants and away we went.

But after the initial enthusiasm, the drive started to fade. There was up keep. Feeding the fish. Testing the water. Adding supplements. Working out problems that arose. The growth was soooo sloooow...

As the weeks went on, my grand plan became a burden. Fish began to die. Plants became stunted and anemic. My grand plan fizzled out and died. My fish died. My plants eventually died.

Have you had any such plans come to a pitiful end? Maybe it was that time you were going take on some DIY project like I did? Or perhaps you planned to do something smaller, like clean the house? Detail the car?

Did you have plans and hope and dreams that have come to nothing? Planned to save that money for a house deposit, or pay off you credit card early?

What about your plans for your well being? To loose that weight? Or stop that nasty habit?

Plans to be consistent in disciplining the kids? Plans to be a better friend? To be a faithful spouse?

Plans to grow spiritually? Fast? Pray? Meditate on Scripture? Kill that sin in your life? Bear spiritual fruit?

You and I know, we don’t have to look very far to see the absolute inability of people to follow through with our plans and hopes. We suck at it. We are as good at following through as the <Ford Racing Team at Bathurst>! Every so often there’s a win, a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel, but then we fail, again.

Church, there’s good news for us this morning. There is hope. There is something for us that will trump all our self improvement and moral betterment programs that fall flat. There is something that will override our useless schemes to achieve the perfect lifestyle.

Before we get to that. I have a question.

What is the chief end of man?

The question essentially is, what is our purpose? What is the goal of our human existence? What is the answer to life, the universe and everything?

The reformed Scots of old gave us a great answer; the goal of our life is to glorify God and find joy in him forever.

This answer comes off the back of the reformation, started 500 years ago, where people in the Western Church sought to get back to a biblical understanding of Christianity. For the reformers, they went back to the Bible to uncover the Gospel. We mentioned last week that the Five Solae are a summary of the themes of the Reformation. The 5 Solae we are looking at over these few weeks encapsulate the outline of the Gospel that had been hidden and sidelined. We saw that firstly, we have to see that the scripture alone is our earthly source for God’s Word, and from there the other Solae spring out in beautiful clarity.

As we move on to another Sola this week, we see the capstone, the end, the icing on the cake of the Solae, and the purpose of everything. We are looking at Soli Deo Gloria; Glory to God Alone.

God’s Glory Alone, Soli Deo Gloria, is the answer to our purpose; our purpose as Christians, the purpose of life, the purpose of creation, the purpose of our Salvation.

You see, God’s grand plan that will not fail, is to bring Glory to Himself. Unlike our plans that are short-lived or stunted, God’s plans have been brought about throughout history and will never fail. His plans to bring glory to himself are illustrated in Scripture and in the World.

For the reformers, and for us, we want to see God alone receive Glory. So let’s investigate three areas where God alone receives glory. The three areas we will look at are

how God gets the glory from Creation,

how God gets the glory in Christ

how God gets the glory from Christian life.

Our investigation should make it clear to us that God Alone deserves and receives glory, and that our existence is part of that Grand Plan.

God’s Glory in Creation

When we start to ponder this idea; that the purpose of life, the universe and everything is to bring Glory to God, it’s not surprising to ask the question; “Is God self-centered?” or “Is God egotistic?”. No one likes vain, boastful and opinionated people, so the idea that God is like that might be a little disturbing. One of the ways to help you think about it is to think of an artist.

Artists set out to create something that is beautiful. They try to create something that reflects themselves. The artist creates something which tells a story, conveys emotion and flows out of themselves. And when we look at a piece of artwork we can interrogate it to a certain extent to see it as a reflection of the artist and see the meaning conveyed there.

When it comes to God, he is the greatest artist. He “who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them”(Ps 146:6). He made absolutely everything, and we marvel at the wonder of a flower, the complexity of DNA, the vastness of the Cosmos and the beauty of a sunset. The Bible tells us that the creation reveals God’s glory, and everyone can see it;

Psalm 19:1–2 ESV

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

God is the artist who is partially understood by viewing his creative work. If you look at enough Van Gogh, you eventually start to get a feel for the style of the man, his preferred way, you start to perceive the emotion of the man. As it is with God; if you are in this world long enough, you will see the characteristics of God shining through; “namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Ro 1:20). The world reflects God’s Glory, even though it is broken and corrupted by sin, God’s attributes are illustrated.

You can look out that window and see something of God’s glory. You can look into the face of a newborn baby and see something of God’s glory. You can hear the swelling sound of women raising their voices in a harmony and know something of the Glory of God.

This earthly dimension that we live in expresses God’s Glory. Everyone can understand it. And because everyone can perceive God’s Glory in creation, no one can say “oh, I didn’t know God existed.” No one can say “God hasn’t shown himself to me”. It is as plain as day. Literally, plain as day.

Yet even though it is so obvious, we take our built-in worship drive and direct it toward created things! We are built by God to reflect his Glory, yet because of sin we twist that glory-reflecting to reflect our own glory, or the glory of the creation. It the days of ancient Israel they reflected exchanged God’s glory for the lie of false gods and idols. They should have been giving glory to God alone.

For us here today, we aren’t likely to go home and bow down to the Baals and the Asherah, but we still mess up the glory-reflecting part of our nature and worship other stuff instead. For some of us that will be external things, like a house, or gadgets, or brands, but I think it’s the internal things that we worship that are most common; we worship at the altar of our own pleasure. We seek the glory of ourselves. We seek our own success. We seek our own identity. We seek our own comfort.

It works out differently in all of us; some of us are ready to seek our own glory at the click of a button on the internet, for some of us we will work at our own glory by slaving away for the perfect lifestyle, some of us seek our own glory in recognition for our great achievements in life. Look, whatever it is, I want you to be aware of it. You will in some way or rather be trying to reflect glory in a sinful way. We all are. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Ro 3:23). But the first step to addressing yours and my problems is to be aware of it.

God’s glory is revealed in creation, but we have ignored it, twisted it and misappropriated glory for our sinful purposes.

God’s Glory in Christ

But, even though we twist the glory of God revealed in creation, there is another place where God’s glory is more fully revealed! There again we will see that Glory goes to God alone.

Jesus is revelation of God’s glory to man. Now we can’t see God’s glory in it’s full radiance, other wise we would die! But Jesus is the God man; Son of God veiled in flesh who came into the world.

The writer of Hebrews says this about Jesus;

English Standard Version Chapter 1

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

In Christ we find the glory of God revealed as the one who would rescue us. God, in ages past planned to bring about the redemption of his people in love and mercy. Jesus willingly submitted to the father to bring that glorious plan to fruition!

The purpose of the universe is to bring Glory to God, and God worked throughout history, and still is working to bring that together. God didn’t create the world because he was lonely, he created us so that he could reveal his divine attributes of mercy and justice to his own glory and that finds it’s fulfillment in Jesus.

Through Jesus we find our redemption. He plucked us out of death to the glory of the Father.

It is worth mentioning, that God finds glory in bringing about our whole salvation, not in anything I attempt to contribute to it. You see, if I could contribute anything to my salvation, either by earning it, or choosing it, I would be taking away from God’s glory. Now for many people, they are quick to deny that we receive salvation by earning, by being good enough for God to bless us, because we know that is impossible, but some people will still argue that we each must choose God of our own accord. Sometimes people call it free will. But here’s the problem, if there is something in my salvation that relies on my contribution, then God can’t receive all the Glory. Instead, we know from the scriptures that God chose his people. He set his love and mercy on them, and then he sought them out!

God’s plan can’t be thwarted, so when he saves someone, he does not need to depend on the decisions of the individual to bring about his purposes. This is great news, because you and I are so thoroughly messed up, that if any part of our salvation rested on us doing something, we would find a way to ruin it. Instead, God regenerates our darkened hearts and reveals Jesus to us. Like Paul mentions:

2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Because God is the one who fully rescues us, he gets all the glory. He receives all honor and praise because he accomplishes a great salvation for us! In demonstrating his mercy God receives glory, not man.

What about those who don’t receive salvation? Well, its a tough one for us to talk about, but those who don’t receive the gift of salvation also end up glorifying God. They will be recipients of God’s Justice.

Justice is good. Justice is what we want in this life. We want justice for evil dictators and crazy gunmen, but it’s easy to forget that we are evil and broken to our core too. Sure, we are not as bad as we can be (like running around killing people), but we are corrupted to our core and we deserve similar treatment to evil dictators and crazed gunmen. If not for the grace of God, all of us face the righteous Justice of God. For the Christian, Jesus has dealt with the Justice of God for us. For the unbeliever, they must face up to God on their own.

It can be hard to think about these kind of things, but Paul reminds us that when we get to stuff like this where it is hard to understand God’s plan, we can only trust that he is above an beyond us, and that it’s not our job to tell him how to run things:

Romans 11:33–36 ESV

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Even though Jesus reveals God to us, we still can’t fully understand God’s plan. We are created mortals, he is way beyond us. We can only respond in wonder and trust.

Through the work of Christ God alone receives Glory as the one who effectually saves believers, and condemns unbelievers.

God’s Glory in Christian Life

For the believer, the one who has been saved from death by the free gift of God in Christ to God’s Glory, what next? We live as renewed glory reflectors; people who glorify God in our way of life.

But what do you get someone who has everything?

Have you had that experience of trying to buy a gift for someone who already seem to have everything they need and want?

If it’s anything like my experience, it involves wandering around the shop aimlessly, looking at stuff outside my price range before buying a very average platter or vase and then hurrying home to wrap it before the party!

You know what I’m talking about?

Buying a gift for the person who has everything is not about adding anything to their life. We know that the gift itself isn’t going to improve their lifestyle or make them love us more. But gift giving springs out of a desire to show love and honor and appreciation to someone.

We can just give gifts because it is a social norm, or because we want to fit in, but best case scenario we give gifts as an external expression of an internal disposition. If we love someone, we want to illustrate to them how we feel by doing something tangible and visible. What good is love if it can’t be seen?

What about with God? What do you get someone who has everything?

We have a God who has come and met us in the lowly, rock-bottom mess of our life. Our God chose us in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the World, knowing the stupid and rebellious sin we would commit this very week. He in Love saved us from death and brought us life! God gave us everything, not just life and breath, but salvation by the gift of Jesus Christ!

God showers us with blessings and grace and mercy on a daily basis. What can we give him in return? What on earth could we give him in repayment?

It’s not like God needs our praise. He doesn’t need our honor. He doesn’t need our measly attempts at holiness or good works. He owns everything and everyone. Yet, he demands these thing from us, not as repayment, but as reflection. We reflect God’s Glory into the world, as recipients of Grace, and conduits of mercy.

Our whole lives should be glorifying to God;

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

But here are two areas I briefly want to touch on specifically as places where we reflect God’s Glory.

Worship

Firstly, we reflect God’s glory in our worship. This is demonstrated all over the Bible, but the Psalms especially show us what it looks like to give glory to God. You will notice how the Psalms give God Glory, they aren’t just vague love poems, they recount both the divine characteristics of God and His work in the world.

This is how our worship should also be formed, as reflectors of God’s Glory, we tell what God has done for us and what he has done in history. And secondly we reflect of the divine nature of God, dwelling on his attributes and characteristics.

If a worship song could be confused with a love song to bae, that is probably a sign that it is not reflecting the glory of God back to him. Our worship songs and prayers and meditations should be characterized by a deepness. This deepness is found in comprehending God’s identity and his divine activity.

Work

We also glorify God in our work. It flows out from us as both a reflection of glory towards God but also as the revealing of God to our neighbor. Peter talks about using our gifts, for each other:

1 Peter 4:10–11 ESV

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Bach, the great composer took this to heart.

Famously Bach would end each piece of music with SDG, and abbreviation of Soli Deo Gloria. Regardless of whether Bach was doing ‘secular’ or ‘spiritual’ music, he wanted God to receive the glory from his work

We too, whether we are serving other believers specifically, or out and about in the world in jobs or in the community, we serve by God’s strength so that he may be glorified. This also shows to other believers God’s glory in the way that your life is shaped, then they too can praise God for the way they have seen him at work in the world!

Famously, one of the great benefits of the reformation was the protestant work ethic. Communities where the Gospel went forth and lives were changed had greater productivity and more pride in their work as ones who served God, not only men.

So, we see that God gets the glory from our Christian life as well. It’s not about our own merit, but about reflecting the Glory of God we have received.

Bringing it all together

But like Scripture Alone, God’s Glory Alone isn’t just something recovered in the Reformation; it is something that has been marginalised even today. We need today to be constantly reformed to be brought into line with God’s plans and desires. We need our church, here at Eastgate, our church in Queensland, Australia, and our Chruch around the world to be continually reforming itself to the Scriptures. Afterall, we easily wander off into vain curiosities, quirky new teachings or forms of “christianity” that are easier to swallow than the hard hitting Gospel of Jesus in the Bible.

Why are we here today in this very building? To bring Glory to God.

Why do we go to work? To bring Glory to God.

Why do we serve each other? To bring Glory to God.

Why do we receive God’s salvation? To bring Glory to God.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

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