Soli Deo Gloria

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme of Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Today is Tuesday, a nice summer Tuesday day. Steve Cooley's here. Guten Tag! And for Steve's sake, we're going to play a new game here.

A Musical Game Before the Topic

And the new game is, I'm going to play a song, and even though it's only through my iPhone speaker, it's not digitally enhanced through the mixing board. By the way, we have a mixing board, a digital caller, a digital recorder, a couple of microphones, that is No Compromise Radio.

And so I'm just going to play a tune, and then Steve is going to, I'm going to see how fast he can figure out what the tune is, and who sang it, and all that kind of stuff.

I can name that tune in three notes.

And it has a theological significance to it. Uh-huh. Okay, ready?

Yep, that's Elvis Costello, Sneaky Feelings. Close! Oh, it's Elvis Costello. Blame it on Cain. If a man and a man, yeah. Blame it on Cain. Can you imagine? Okay, well, yeah. Sorry, I got the wrong guy.

What do we blame Cain for? People raise Cain. What do we blame Cain for? How about killing Abel? That's pretty good, isn't it? Introducing murder? Am I my brother's keeper? Introducing murder? Yes. How would you like to be known as the father of murder?

You know, I mean, let's...

Yikes, well... Inventor. Steve and I, we have lots in common, but there are some musical differences that sometimes divide us. But there are a few musicians that help bridge the gap, and I think Elvis Costello is one of those guys.

I'm not angry anymore. Well, if I just keep waiting for the working week, then I'll be fine. I almost said watching the wheels, but that would be John Lennon.

Well, I certainly know that my name is true.

I thought about naming our first daughter Allison, but I changed it to Haley instead. Did you really? Is that true?

Well, I think if we wait much longer, Oliver's army will be on their way.

Well, Steve, I'm getting a sneaky feeling that this is going to be a lot of fun. But that's not going to be really happening. Today on No Compromise Radio, Steve and I are going to talk about the subject that has been very tardy in our program.

We have gotten emails and they have said, now you've got four solas, but you have forgotten the fifth. Or where is the fifth? Or I can't find the fifth on NoCompromiseRadio .com archives, iTunes archives, Facebook archives.

Sola Deo Gloria and the Reformation Solas

So today we're going to help you. Here's how we're going to help you. A, it's not on the internet, but B, it will be soon because today is Sola Deo Gloria. Steve, give us a little overview on the solas that we've gone through so far, and then let's talk about the final sola.

And I think logically, chronologically, rationally, it should be the last one. Well, it is. You know why?

Because we live in a black and white world. But the solas that we've covered previously are sola scriptura, or scripture alone, sola Christus, or Christ alone, sola gratia, grace alone, sola fide, faith alone.

I almost said something different. But anyway, the idea, if we were to summarize the Reformation principles, we would say that Christians are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and how do we know anything?

By scripture alone. So these are the key points of the Reformation. And now we come to the overarching purpose, and it's always for the glory of God alone, or sola soli deo gloria.

Could you have Christ not alone, grace not alone, faith not alone, scripture not alone, as would be the representation of the Roman Catholic Church? These are anti-Catholic statements. These are pro-Bible statements.

Could you believe in faith plus, grace plus, Christ plus, scripture plus, and then say, to God alone be the glory?

No. Why is that? Well, because, well, scripture would tell us that, but also we have, if there's any part of us in our own salvation, in other words, if we contribute something, then ultimately we are saying that, to God be the glory.

Plus, you know, if we're going to plus everything else, then we're going to have to, to God be the glory plus me, plus something else.

Yeah, then we would, as my brother would say, get to heaven, high-five God and say, we did it.

Or as I used to say when I was in the sheriff's department, we'd give somebody a low deuce. You know, we couldn't give them a high-five, we'd give them a low deuce.

Well, if you believe that it is God's work plus, even if you say to yourself, Steve, that my faith contributed to my salvation, that faith was efficacious, faith was meritorious, faith was something that I did because God had given me provenient grace due to Christ's death, and so I had to exercise my faith.

My friends didn't, but I did. Even that impinges upon the glory due to God. This isn't just a Catholic issue. This is an evangelical Arminian issue as well. To me, be the glory. I mean, that would be kind of...

To me, be the glory. Then, Steve, I would... Great things I have done. I would blame that on Cain. But only if you're wearing red shoes. Okay, moving around a lot. Salvation is only done by God. We believe in miracles.

We believe in monergistic salvation by God's will. Therefore, we praise Him. If we contribute anything, then we would only give Him partial praise. Maybe 99%, yes, but it would only be partial. And God will not give His glory to another.

Is that what passage you're looking up right now?

No, it's not. Okay, go ahead. What one were you looking up? Well, I was thinking, you know, of maybe the quintessential passage to deal with salvation and the glory of God in it. And I thought about Ephesians 1, because here Paul is writing.

He starts writing a letter, much as many of the other letters he writes. And all of a sudden, in verse 3, he breaks out into this doxology, this praise. But listen to verse 5. I'll back up just a couple of words of verse 4.

In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, verse 6, to the praise of His glorious grace. And then again in verse 12, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

And then again in verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, talking about the Holy Spirit, until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. Ultimately, in every step along the way, as Paul lays out the work of the triune God in our salvation, he explains the purpose of being the glory of God.

It's all about the glory of God. So when we say, to the glory of God alone, we're just agreeing with Paul, who was agreeing with the Holy Spirit, who inspired him to write it. This is the work of God from beginning to end.

And why wouldn't he get all the glory and praise for it?

To the praise of the glory of the angels. To the praise of the glory of the saints. To the praise of the glory of the popes. To the praise of the glory of the Reformers. Of Mary. Yeah, see? And the list goes on and on and on.

We are creatures, and if you forget about depravity, if you forget about the Fall, if you forget about Adam, if you forget about the Garden, then you start compromising your position when it comes to, to God alone be the glory.

Because you see, O Compromised listeners, we don't worship Neptune. Think about the worship of Neptune and Poseidon. When I was a kid, I didn't know what Poseidon was until I saw the... Poseidon Adventure.

That's right. I think it came out, it was a new one as well. I said, when I was a kid, I would always love the Poseidon Adventure and the Towering Inferno. Now, I'm not recommending those because sometimes you go back and watch a movie you thought you liked.

Yeah, that's always a bad move.

But when it comes to Poseidon or Neptune, think about what these people would do. We're going on a long sea voyage, and we're going on a long distance journey, so let's give Neptune, let's give Poseidon some fruit, some fish, some this, some that, and then he will say, travel mercies.

But that's not what... Is there any way, shape, or form close to Christianity? It's not that at all. We are recipients of the grace of God, and therefore we respond with thanks and gratitude. There's nothing we can do to please God because Jesus Christ is the only one who could ever please God as the mediator.

Glory in Salvation, Creation, and All of Life

Yeah, a slight detour.

We just had some of the kids from Master's College Chorale at our house, and one of them was talking about a marriage they recently went to. It was a Catholic marriage. And the young couple, just married, went around to all these different statues of saints, and while the congregation, while everybody was watching, they prayed these prayers and made offerings to these saints during their marriage ceremony.

And everybody's like, what is that? Where is that in the Bible? This whole idea of having the saints intercede on your behalf and everything, it really does detract from the glory of God. Well, we would like it if saints.

Do intercede on your behalf. That is to say, saints who are alive, those saints called by God in 1 Corinthians 1 and other places, these set-apart ones. It all comes down to this. Does God deserve all the glory?

To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Does He really deserve the glory? And if salvation is all of God, then He gets all the glory. If creation is all of God, not theistic evolution, not evolution, then He gets all the glory.

And so I think there's one God and there's no other. There's no one like me, says the Lord. And when we look at, to God alone be the glory, I think it all has to do with your view of salvation. Steve, I think I had asked these questions before.

Did faith die on the cross for anybody's sins? No. Did free will die on the cross for anyone's sins? No. I cannot believe you brought up free will. Here we go again. Can you imagine? Let's just be clear.

If you believe in the freedom of the will, freedom from indwelling sin, freedom from Satan's influences, freedom from the world's influences, freedom from God's influences, then you are robbing God glory if you believe in that kind of free will.

How? Why? To what extent? To whom?

Scripture is so clear. People ask me from time to time, how do you know Christianity isn't a made-up religion? Well, I know that I know because there's a subjective knowing. But when you read the Bible and you see that the star, the consistent one who doesn't fail, who's always faithful, it's always God.

The bad guys in the book are some of the most faithful men. They fail. They're all failures. When we're talking about Abraham or Moses or whomever you want to name other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself who was God in the flesh, the men of the Bible fail.

Peter, John, they all fail. But Christ alone, God alone, are always faithful. They always do exactly what they say they're going to do. They don't sin. They don't stumble. They don't misstep. And it gets back to this idea of the glory being God's alone and really understanding that he's the creator, that he's the sustainer of all things.

When we see things like Genesis 1 -1, when we see Psalm 24 -1, the earth is the Lord's and all it contains, we understand that God sets the parameters. He sets the rules.

It is his world, his creation. We're living in it. When you think of the word glory, maybe you think of the manifestation of the Bema light of God, Shekinah glory, not Bema, sorry, the Shekinah glory.

But Steve, do you think when we're talking in this sola, to God alone be the glory, could we substitute as a synonym for glory, maybe honor? Would that be good? To God alone belongs the honor. Would that be fair, theologically?

Absolutely. And again, it carries through not just in salvation, but how can you,.

How can you think about just your own circumstances, rightly, and just, if you don't understand who God is and what he has done, that you owe your very breath to him. Everything. Everything. Not just your salvation, but everything to him.

And since you have received free grace, and you have received the gift of faith, and since you have received the scriptures, et cetera, received Christ, then now, as a Christian, shouldn't we want to live our lives to the glory of God at work, at home, at church, every place else?

Absolutely. Whatever you do, do all for the glory of yourself, for the glory of Mother Earth, for the glory of, you know, fill in the blank.

Johann Sebastian Bach. Not even for him. He would use the initials S-D-G. He didn't use S-D-A, by the way. He didn't. No, Seventh-day Adventism, he didn't do that. You're really on a kick here. I live in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

By the way, one of the reasons why I don't like that whole deal of Seventh-day Adventism is for pragmatic purposes. And that is to say for all the sports teams that should be playing on Saturday in my city so we could have the Lord's Day to worship as evangelical Christians.

Well, where I live, Sunday is the new Saturday because, you know, beige is the new black and so they get Saturday, the Sabbath, where the whole town shut down. Don't most, I mean, I think it's kind of shameful but I think most little leagues and all that kind of thing pretty much all do Sundays now.

I think it's all day, every day. Yeah. Handel, George Frederick Handel, he also would use that dedication S-D-G. And I also found, that... Are you sure that isn't German for this is really good? S-D-G.

Soli Deo Gloria, last time I checked was found on the face of the South African one rand coin. I didn't know that. I did not know that. Who did that? Did Nelson Mandela do that? Mandela. I did that on purpose for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever.

Amen. That's Romans 11. That's Soli Deo Gloria. And what could be more basic than that? If you have a right view of God, you would not want anything else than all the glory to go to him. And people say, well, you know, I believe in that aspect of the Reformation that God alone should get the glory, but it was my exercise of free will that gives God all the glory.

Robert Schuller, a famous theologian, as he's known in our house, Reverend Bob, said the Reformation, quote, aired because it was God-centered rather than man-centered, end quote. That's a beautiful quote.

That's so eloquent, so well put. Yale's George Limbeck said in the George Limbaugh on EIB, he said, in the 50s, it took liberals to accept Norman Vincent Peale, but as the case of Robert Schuller indicates, today, professed conservatives eat it up.

Like dogs returning to their home. It's true. I mean, it's just sad how we've watched, you know, falsehoods like this just creeping, actually, it doesn't even creep into the church. It just walks in the front door and announces itself loudly, and people have embraced it for the last several decades.

If this slogan, Sola Deo Gloria, was carved into the organ at Bach's church in Leipzig, then we would like it to be burned into you, and into the warp and woof of your soul, and into your very being, because that is why you live.

And the moment you no longer have a purpose to exist, God will take you home. So while you live, why don't you live to the glory of God alone? And that would include all aspects of life. As you were mentioning earlier, if you're working, have you ever thought of, you know, I'm going to be the best parent I can possibly be to the glory of God.

I'm going to be the best worker. I'm going to be the best boss. I'm going to be the best wife. I'm going to clean this toilet today to the glory of God. Did you ever think that, Mike? Well, yeah, I think that's a leading question.

Prosecutor, I object. Every question is a leading question. You know, that's one of the problems working with an ex-cop, because I always have to be on guard. Because when Steve is walking in the flesh, he might try to say things to me to lead me to where I don't want to go.

If he's walking in the spirit, he's just kind and nice. But I have actually cleaned toilets for the glory of God because I was a janitor at Grace Community Church, and when we would have bathroom duty, it would be midnight, 11 o 'clock at night on Sunday, and 10 ,000 people had been on the campus that day, and there's a lot of bathrooms to clean.

So I don't know about you, but I'm fairly, at least in my mind's eye, fairly sophisticated kind of person that I would rather pay other people to clean toilets than clean them myself. But I mean, there are people, and I won't name any names, but I've known people who've actually turned down jobs, professing Christians who've turned down jobs, and said, I won't clean toilets.

Well, when we cleaned them, what we ended up doing, Steve, is we would say, okay, for the toilets, this is called Philippians 3 duty, and that is every time you clean a toilet, you're reminded of what goes in the toilet, and then you're reminded that all your righteousness that you thought was righteous, all your best deeds, your CV, your curriculum, your resume, when it comes to the righteousness of Christ Jesus, by comparison, Paul said in Philippians 3, it's like dung, excrement, waste, scubalon, and so that is how we did it.

We called it Philippians 3 ministry, cleaning toilets. Well, I think that's a great name for it. Did you have it emblazoned on your toilet brushes too? Yes, we put the SDG on the plunger, and we had it etched in a plunger.

Awesome. I actually think many pastors have been janitors, and certainly here at the church, I don't want to be above cleaning toilets, but I don't think if you're a member of the church, you want the pastors cleaning toilets.

I think you'd rather have them be on the radio talking about cleaning toilets. Excellent. I'm in great agreement. To God be the glory alone. I wonder if you could make that your family motto. Our marriage exists for the glory of God, it doesn't exist for ourselves.

Our children have been given to us as a stewardship for the glory of God, and so let's train them to be arrows in the quiver of God.

Living for God's Glory in Everyday Life

Well, you know, you were talking about sports earlier. I think what so many families have really focused on is sports. You know, we're going to, well, we'd like to be at church on Sunday, but we've got to get to, you know, a baseball game, we've got a basketball game, Billy's bicycle race is on Sunday morning, and we have to do that.

Billy, don't be a hero. Don't be a fool with your life. I wish that song wasn't in my brain, but it is. How about Billy, don't be a zero? Westminster, excuse me, shorter catechism. What is the chief end of man?

Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Why are you here, Steve? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I mean, I think that's pretty clear, and anything that fails to do that, if we fail to give God the glory in whatever we're doing, do you think it would be fair to say that we're in sin?

That's exactly, well, I think it would be very fair to say, and here we have a great Reformation principle, and it is in contradistinction to the Roman Catholic principle, we don't believe in secular sacred bifurcations.

We don't say, sacred stuff is Sunday morning and Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study and then I go to.

Work on Monday and that's secular, I change my children's diapers, that's secular. We have to God alone be the glory in every aspect of our lives, and here's the reason, Steve, and I know you know this reason, because we believe that God is sovereign over everything.

So if you believe sovereignty of God encompasses all of the world, then you can say to Him, be the glory alone. But if it only encompasses everything up to the point of free will or up to the point of whatever, then it's not to God alone be the glory.

I'm not going to read this, but if you look at Isaiah 40 through 49, you see passages again and again and again that say, you know, there's no one like me. God says these things, no one like me, that I'm able to declare from the beginning the things that are coming to pass, and no one's ever been able to do this, and why does He do that?

Because He wants the people of Israel to glorify Him, to view Him rightly, and the message to the church, the same, just as you read in Romans 11 earlier, there's no change in God's desire to be viewed rightly by His people and to receive the glory that He is due.

What else would we do with God other than to glorify Him and to praise Him for all that He's done on our behalf? The Lordship of Christ is so pervasive that it extends to the universes. It extends to every molecule, and Abraham Kuyper was right when he said, everything in this world, God looks at it and says, mine, and so if that's true, then we want to give God glory in every one of these aspects.

So I ask you the question, No Compromise listeners, how about you? Is this your great desire? Certainly you fail, and we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, but is it your desire to give God glory?

Can you imagine laying your head on the pillow at night and just thinking, how did I glorify God today? How was the Lord pleased by what I did, how I thought, the way I conducted myself during the day, or even when you wake up in the morning, you think, how can I glorify the Lord today?

Let's make it as practical as possible. How about this Sunday when you go to a worship service and the church meets together in a building, probably, or a tent, or wherever you go, and you say to yourself, instead of getting today, I want to get, I want people to say hello, I have a need to be met, and I want to receive, why don't you go saying, I'd like to give God glory, and I know he loves these people, and his son died for these people, so I'm going to go serve them and give God glory as I serve them.

That would be a unique approach. You know what almost the worst response to a sermon or a message or a service is, kind of like, I didn't get anything out of that today. Well the objective is not to get something out of a message, although that's good when we can, why don't we come to church?

We come to worship the triune God, to put off all of our outside thoughts, and to focus on what God has done for us as Christians. And if you don't go with that attitude, then one of two things is true, either you're not saved, or you're not thinking rightly.

The Final Sola: Worship, Service, and the Christian Life

No Compromise Radio, today the final sola of the Reformation, soli deo gloria, and since God has made this world, and he's made you, and this whole universe manifests all his attributes and all his greatness, then you should respond with thanks and honor and praise, and a focus upon the ultimate glory, the incarnate glory, the glory of God, Christ Jesus the Lord.

Steve, if people aren't Christians, there's no glory given to God, is there? No there isn't, and that's why it's so important, and I mean if you're even contemplating this and you're thinking, well I don't know if I really agree with this, well then there may be another issue, maybe you haven't received Christ, you haven't thought of yourself as a sinner, you haven't thought of God as perfect and holy, you haven't bowed the knee because you haven't accepted his perfect life, death, and resurrection.

No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WV &E, its staff, or management.