Foundational Theology - The 5 Solas, Part 5 - Soli Deo Gloria

God Centered Theology

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Daily Bites Of God's Word - Part 6 - Psalm 119:6

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Hello there, and welcome back to Foundational Theology with Pastor Andy Cain. And we have been going through the five solas, and today we have come to the last one, which is

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Soli Deo Gloria, which means all glory to God alone. Soli Deo Gloria. Now, this is such an important one because it is so vitally foundational to not just how we do

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Christianity and not just how we live the Christian life, but to how we see the world. It's so vital to our worldview to understand that you are either giving and promoting and giving all the glory to God, or you're keeping it for yourself.

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You're worshiping yourself, ultimately, what it comes down to. We're going to see this by taking a look at the 115th

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Psalm, and then I also want to take a look at Revelation chapter 4. There are obviously many other verses and many other passages that deal with the glory of God and could be used to deal with Soli Deo Gloria and all glory to God alone.

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But I want to focus in on these two places, because as you will notice here, it says in verse 1, not to us,

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O Lord, not to us, but to your name, give glory.

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You see, so many people have idols and different religions and different things they worship, different gods.

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Some people even claim to be Christian, but have a completely different Jesus, a completely different God. But no matter what kind of idol you have, no matter what kind of tradition or religion you follow, any worship of anything or anyone other than the one true

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God is ultimately a worship of self. You know, I preached a message one time called self,

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God, or self, you're going to serve one or the other. You're either going to worship God and give all glory to him, or you're going to worship yourself.

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Now, people will say, well, you know, you can't worship man or worship God, but ultimately what happens if you're worshiping man or worshiping some idol, whether it's a career or your boss or your spouse or your children or whatever it is, you're ultimately worshiping yourself because you're going to do what's in your best interest ultimately.

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Notice that's why they say, not to us, O Lord, not to us as people, not to me, not to this idol, not to anything else, but to you,

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O Lord and O God, we give your name glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

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You see, all glory to God alone means we glorify

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God alone because he alone is worthy of that glory because he is steadfast.

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He has steadfast love, steadfast grace, and he alone is faithful.

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We can demonstrate faithfulness, but we can't claim to be self -existing faithfulness or have an eternal faithfulness of an eternal level.

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That's the key with Jesus Christ. It isn't just that he grants or gives eternal life.

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Jesus Christ himself is eternal life. He's the self -existing one.

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He is self -existing eternal life. We are created, therefore, to take any glory for ourselves or to give any glory to anything other than God, the one true

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God, is to rob God of glory that is justly due him. Says in verse 2, why should a nation say, where is their

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God? Nations and people groups and there'll be a lot of people that will mockingly say, where is their

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God? They claim to believe in him, but look at their lives. If he's so good, why does he let these things happen to them?

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Well, our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. God is sovereign.

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He is fully sovereign over everything. There is not one thing, one Adam in the universe that God does not have full control over.

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You say, well, Andy, how is that possible in the realm of us making choices and things like that? We will deal with that on a later edition of Foundational Theology, but just notice for this discussion, the reason

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Jesus Christ, the reason God, the almighty is due all glory alone is because he alone is sovereign.

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He is the all powerful, the all knowing one. He is the self existing eternal being. He is the one that was here before all creation.

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He is the one that created everything. He is in the heavens. He is above all things. That's why it should be surprising and flabbergasting really to think about the fact that a created thing would say to its creator, how dare you make me as such?

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How dare you even think that I would do such and thus and so? You're the created being.

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Our God is in the heavens. So not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be all glory.

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Notice it goes on and starts this contrast, and it looks at the idols that man chooses to worship rather than God.

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The idols that man chooses to give glory to rather than God, and what you're going to notice is what I said, that ultimately they're giving glory to themselves.

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It says their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. Notice that ultimately idol worship is a worship of self made with silver and gold.

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Created beings making a created idol out of elements and materials that were created things.

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Man did not create the elements and the materials, silver and gold in this instance that he uses to make his idol.

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He has to rely on the God in the heavens, the God that deserves all glory. He has to rely on that God to create things that he can turn and make idols into.

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It says the work of human hands. What do you think is going to be better? Something that God created or something that man creates?

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Well, God, obviously. God creates the very things that man uses to worship his idols.

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Think about how blasphemous and how sinful it is for man to worship anything other than the creator.

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Now, going back to verse 2 where it says, you know, where is your God? Man loves to speak away

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God, to ignore God, to act as if God doesn't exist because it makes it much easier for him to then go and worship his idols.

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And a lot of people claim, well, I don't have any religion. I don't have any God. There are no gods. Well, even a belief in nothing can be a belief system.

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There's always the worldview. And that's why I said, solely did glory is so foundational to our worldview. If you believe that not to us, oh

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Lord, but to your name goes all glory. That's a very foundational worldview. But if you believe that glory somehow goes to you because look at the work of my hands, look at what

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I made. Well, that's a worldview. It's an antichrist worldview. Notice it goes on, describes these idols.

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It says they have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes, but they do not see.

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They have ears, but they do not hear. Noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel.

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Feet, but they do not walk. And they do not make a sound in the throat. Those who make them become like them.

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So do all who trust in them. Wow. Notice it's describing the parts.

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And notice here that, and not in literally all cases, but in the vast majority of cases, the idols that man makes is made after his own image.

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Man wants to make these things as the parts of a man. Mouth and eyes and ears and nose is describing an idol made in the shape of a man.

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And these people were worshiping this idol made after their own image, made with materials that they themselves did not create.

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And it says those who make them become like them. You always become like the idols you worship. Why do you think it's so vitally important in New Testament Christianity for us to be becoming

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Christ -like? For us to be getting further sanctified into Christ -likeness?

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Because we're supposed to be going away from sinfulness into Christ -likeness.

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So idol worship is a turning away from Christ -likeness and going further into sinfulness, creatureliness, and wanting to have idols and things we can follow and glorify that are made after us.

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That's why I said ultimately you're worshiping yourself. Because even if you don't make an idol after yourself, at least initially, you end up becoming like your idols because you become like that which you worship.

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The things that you follow, the things that you, think about that. Think about all these parts here. Think about this now.

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Mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands, feet. Then it says those who make them become like them.

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What you say, Jesus said what you say shows what's already in the heart.

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So if you speak and repeat things that you hear, if you take in things and see things that are not

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God -glorifying, if you have hands that you use to feel or touch or grasp after things that are not

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God -glorifying, if with your feet you walk after those things that you shouldn't be, all these parts, think about it, all those parts make up the body.

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They're all vitally important. They're all used singularly have purposes.

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Hands has a purpose that's unique from the foot and so on. But they're all together in one unit to form one body to accomplish many purposes.

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So if you have all those elements working together in idol worship and not glorifying

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God, why is it any surprise that you wake up one day and you become just like the idols you've been searching after and watching and listening to and walking after?

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And that is not how God gets his glory. You're robbing God of glory. And solely day of glory means that all glory to God alone.

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Notice when it goes on, it says, Oh, Israel, trust in the Lord. And notice this is repeated three times here.

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He is their help and their shield. Oh, house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.

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You fear the Lord. Trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.

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Three times told to trust in the Lord. Why? He is their help and their shield, not idols, not things made with man's hands.

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Things that are made with our hands, the works of our hands should be to glorify

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God. It says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, meaning that our good works, the things that we do in this life and Christianity in our homes and our jobs and our churches, all should be for the express purpose of glorifying

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God and glorifying God alone. Oh, Israel, trust in the

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Lord. House of Aaron, trust in the Lord. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. Oh, Christian watching this, trust in the

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Lord. Oh, pastor, trust in the Lord. Sunday school teacher, trust in the

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Lord. Single mom, trust in the Lord. Person working retail, trust in the Lord. Person in government job, trust in the

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Lord. Don't trust in anything other than the Lord God Almighty. For he alone is your help and your shield.

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He is steadfast love. He is faithful. He is worthy alone.

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Not that we can have comparisons and say, well, of all the options we have, God's the most worth.

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No, he alone is worthy of all glory, period.

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And then notice something that's repeated four times here. It says the Lord has remembered us. He will bless us.

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He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the

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Lord, both small and great. Your idols will not bless you. It's silver and gold.

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It's wood. It's whatever created thing you use to make it out.

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It can't bless you. It's not eternal. There's no salvation in it. The Lord remembers us.

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He blesses us. He alone can bless you.

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All glory is due his name. Not to us, oh Lord. Not to us, but to your name.

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We give glory. Now to finish this up, I want to take a look in Revelation chapter four, one of the most well -known scriptural verses here in verse 11.

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It says, worthy are you, our God, excuse me, our

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Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.

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Worthy are you, our Lord and our God. You see a worldview that glorifies

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God, a worldview that believes in soli deo gloria, all glory to God alone is a worldview that is going to have the

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Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and master. The God of the universe is our

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Lord and our King and our master. So worthy are you, our

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Lord, possessive, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things.

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How ignorant and how ironic really that man worships so many idols when he has to rely on the one true

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God for the materials to make his idols. Ironic when you think about it, that man wouldn't even have his idols if it were not for the one that he should be giving all glory to in the first place.

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By your will they existed and were created. God is sovereign. His will will be done in heaven and on the earth just because God has not showed up yet and he is not currently ruling on this earth because his word obviously tells us there will come a day when the second return or the second coming of the

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Lord Jesus Christ when he will do away with all sin and judge it and rule and reign for all eternity.

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And I do believe that day will come. But just because it hasn't come yet, they mock and they scoff.

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In fact, we read this back in Psalm 115 verse two and it said, why should the nation say where is their

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God? Where is he? You say he's coming. You need to be worried about bringing glory to God now because when that day comes, there's no second chances.

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There's no turning back. There's not going to be any more time and all your idols, all your religion, all these false gods you serve in your life, when the time comes, they won't save you.

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They won't be your shield. They won't be your help. They won't bless you and they certainly will not save you.

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Only one God can save you. Only one God can bless you and there's only one

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God that can be your help and your shield and he's not made of anything created because he is the self existing eternal creator of the entire universe and he is worthy of all your praise and all glory and all honor and all power.

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Amen. God bless you and thank you for joining me as we have taken a look at the five solas.

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I really hope you've enjoyed this series and next time when we continue foundational theology here on by his grace, we will pick up with a different subject.

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I'm currently studying a couple of different things and we'll see where we go from here, but for now I hope you will meditate on Psalm 115 and understand that soli deo gloria means not to us, oh

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Lord, not to us, but to your name be all the glory. God bless you.