Soli Deo Gloria

The Meaning of Soli Deo Gloria on Reformation Day

Have your Bibles with you you may open them with me to Isaiah chapter 6. The title of today's message goes along with the theme of the day as it is Reformation Day and it is also the final sermon in a series that we have done on the five solas and today the title is Soli Deo Gloria.

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest musical composers who ever lived. He was born in Isenach Germany and he lived from 1685 until 1750 and Bach lived very near a castle where Martin Luther after he was condemned at the Diet of Worms he was kidnapped but for a good reason because his life was threatened he was kidnapped and he was taken to Wartburg Castle where he would spend the next 18 months translating the Bible from the original language into German so that the German people would be able to read the Bible in their own language and that German translation is still used by many German people today the Luther translation but as I said Bach Johann Sebastian Bach lived not too far from that castle and he spent three years at the Latin school that Luther had attended two centuries prior so in a very interesting way Bach grew up in the shadow of Martin Luther and he very much appreciated the work that Luther had done.

Bach had a sizable library of theology books and many of them were Luther's writings and he considered himself a Lutheran musician in fact many today consider him the Lutheran musician. He devoted almost his entire professional life to the service of the Lutheran Church and at the end of all of his musical manuscripts and you can see this to this day if you were to go and look at one of Bach's manuscripts you will see at the end of his manuscripts three letters and the letters are S-D-G this was Bach's way of signing his work Soli Deo Gloria to God alone be the glory.

He said this he said the aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. So Bach saw himself as not only a writer of music not only a composer but he saw himself as one who was put on this earth to glorify God in all that he did.

Living Coram Deo and Giving God All the Glory

Well today we are going to look at this subject of glorifying God in all that we do. We're going to look at the idea of living Coram Deo to live every day as if we were in the presence of God himself and to live Soli Deo Gloria that everything that we do bring glory and honor to God.

Can we write on the end of our life's composition S-D-G that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's stand and read and I've chosen I there were so many passages I looked at this week trying to consider where to land and I chose this passage not because I am greatly familiar with it even though I am but because it says something that I think we need to understand regarding the glory of God.

It says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple above him stood the seraphim each had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one called to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory.

Father now as I seek to bring an understanding of this passage and of the glory of God and what it means when we say solely Deo Gloria God I pray that you keep me from error for I am a fallible man capable of preaching error and I don't want to and I pray oh God that you would open the ears of your people to the truth and protect them from any errors that I may say and I pray oh God that you would forgive my sin make me right and worthy to preach your word in this hour and God that you would fill me with your spirit as a man undeserved of your even knowing my name.

And I pray that you would open the hearts of believers to a better understanding of the glory of God and to live every day quorum Deo the presence of God and Lord. That you would take any unbeliever today and either comfort them in your goodness or terrify them in your wrath whatever it takes Oh God to save a soul we pray that you would do that in Jesus name amen.

The Many Meanings of Glory

What is glory. What is it when we say to God alone be the glory. What do we mean when we sing Gloria Gloria glory to God alone. What do we mean by glory. Often we equate glory with the idea of praise and it is rightly to be at least connected to the idea of praise.

Because when we think about people who win world titles such as the World Series of baseball or the Super Bowl of football or the world heavyweight champion of the world in boxing we say there is glory in that thing.

They have a certain glory having accomplished a feat that only one has accomplished or only one team has accomplished in that year. So we say there is glory in that. And some men will climb mountains fools but they will.

Some men will swim rivers or they will traverse long distances or they will fly overseas. And you say why did you do it. And they say for the glory. What did you say. Oh my goodness mercy. I don't know if I can continue.

Well some men will say it's for the glory. And in that sense when we think of glory we think of the honor and the praise that is earned by such an outstanding feat. And certainly glory is attached to that idea the idea of praise and honor.

But also glory can be attached to another idea. Glory can be attached to the idea of beauty and majesty. For instance if you walk out on a beautiful Callahan evening y 'all don't live in Callahan but I do.

And you walk out on my front porch somewhere between six and seven o 'clock you will see a beautiful purple and pink sky if the weather is just right and you might look at that and say how glorious is this beautiful sky.

Or you might go and look at something like Stone Mountain and in Georgia or the Smoky Mountains. And or if you can go all the way to California and see the Rocky Mountains and you might say how glorious.

And you're referring then not to something that it has accomplished but you're referring more to its beauty and its majesty. We even talk about this when we renovate something something that has been torn down something that has rusted or has withered or has rotted.

And we go in and we replace the wood and we replace the metal and we replace the paint. And we say we're returning it to its former glory. Right. We're bringing back its former glory its former beauty its former majesty.

See how this word has so many meanings. But we can also talk about glory in terms of radiance and light. This morning I introduced our worship team to a word efflugent. And I'm pretty sure I'm saying it wrong.

But it is in the dictionary I showed him. And the word efflugent or efflugent or however you're supposed to say it means the radiance of something the brightness of something. And if you remember your Bible well you'll remember when Moses was in the presence of God and he came down from the mountain his face shone brightly.

And and what did the Bible say. It shone brightly with with the glory of God. Not that Moses himself had a brightness in himself but he had. He had been so affected by the presence of God that the brightness of his countenance lit up so much that it had to be covered.

During the Exodus the people of God were led through the wilderness by a cloud and a pillar of fire at night. You ever thought about that. Have you ever thought about looking into the sky and seeing a manifold picture and manifestation of the presence of God in a giant ball of light.

They were led through the wilderness by God's manifestation of his own glory. Jesus Christ went up onto the mountain to pray and he was met there by two men you remember who it was. Moses and Elijah. And he had three of his disciples with him.

And what happened. But his face shone like what. Like the noon day sun the glory of God shone forth from Christ on the mount of transfiguration. So when we think of the word glory we think of praise and honor.

We think of beauty and majesty. We think of radiance and brightness. And all of those things can be applied when we talk about the glory of God the word in the Greek is the word doxa. And if you're familiar with the song that we sing we sing a song called the doxology.

You know what the word doxology means. It means words of glory because doxa means glory and logos means word. And so the words praise God from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly host praise father son and holy ghost.

We're singing a praise a word of glory to God in the Hebrew. When you go back to the Old Testament and you read in the Hebrew the word is not doxa obviously even though it's translated that into the Septuagint.

But the Old Testament Hebrew word is the word kabod. And there's an easy way to remember this. It's kind of a sad story but in 1st Samuel chapter 4 when the Ark of the Covenant was stolen from Israel one of the mothers who was a wife of one of the priests the sons of Eli gave birth and she named her son what Ichabod.

You know what Ichabod means. The glory has departed because Ichabod glory Ichabod no glory. Don't name your son Ichabod. And if you have I'm sorry but Ichabod means no glory or the glory has departed.

Capturing the heart of these biblical words is actually rather difficult. I told you earlier that there are ways that we define glory. We define glory as praise and honor beauty and majesty radiance and brightness.

But really capturing this idea of glory when it comes to God is actually difficult. Because when we talk about the glory of God there's actually two ways in which we talk about the glory of God. The first way that we talk about the glory of God is what we call intrinsic glory.

Intrinsic glory means the glory that is in him that radiates from him and it neither grows or diminishes at all because it is his glory much like his holiness or his love or his majesty. All of those things that are intrinsic in him are always that he's always glorious and that is his intrinsic glory.

Steve Lawson said this. He said God's intrinsic glory is the revelation of his greatness of his divine attributes to his creatures. It involves God's greatness and grandeur being manifest to sinners especially in the salvation of man from sin.

No one can add anything to God's intrinsic glory. God is who he is never diminishing never increasing forever. The same the sovereign ruler all-knowing all-powerful all present all true all wise loving grace giving merciful righteous and wrathful.

It is this intrinsic glory that God delights in making known to his creatures. When the Bible says in Psalm 19 the heavens declare the glory of God that's referring to his intrinsic glory. It's declared by what he's made it's shown forth and what he has made.

God’s Jealousy for His Glory and the Second Commandment

But there is also when we talk about the glory of God there is what we refer to as his ascribed glory. So intrinsic glory is that which is his by nature. But the ascribed glory is that glory that we give to him when we praise him when we magnify him when we live for him when we praise him in our songs when we sing praise God from whom all blessings flow.

We are ascribing glory to God and beloved. This is the only rightful response to God is to give God all the glory. Did you know the Bible says that God is jealous for his own glory. The Bible says in Isaiah 42 8 I am the Lord that is my name my glory I give to no other nor my praise to carved idols.

Obviously the context there is God is saying I'm not going to share my glory with any idol. That takes us back of course to the reality that he said in the commandments have no other God before me. You ever wonder what the difference is between the first and second commandment.

First commandment have no other gods before me. And the second commandment is do not make unto thee any graven image. You know the Roman Catholics put that together as one. I'm convinced they do so because they make a lot of carved images so they're trying to slide it in slide it in but they separate the last two.

We talked about this at the fair. There was a lady who can disconnected the last two commandments the coveting between coveting your wife and the property. And they said that's to know that's one in the in the way that we count it.

And the two is have no other gods before the Lord and make not to under the any idols. And the difference is this having no other gods before the Lord means do not say that there is any other God but there is only one God have no other gods before me.

But the second commandment is do not take anything and call it God. Do not take a carved idol out of wood that you have overlaid with gold and that you have brought into your house and say that is God because by doing so you're taking the glory that belongs to God alone.

And you're pointing it at something else and you're saying that is God. Remember what happened when the Israelites were in the wilderness and Moses was up on the mountain. He was gone just a wee bit too long and they got to thinking well maybe he has died on the mountain.

What are we to do. They go to Aaron and Aaron rather than rebuking them instead said bring me all the gold that we have out of your ears and out of your wealth and we will melt it down and we will take from that and we will make a God.

And I always love the fact that when Moses came back he said I put the gold in and this in this cow came out like this is that you just kind of came out on its own the golden calf. Remember what the people of Israel said about that golden calf.

This is the God who brought you out of Egypt. Think of how desperately wicked that is to say that you were brought out of Egypt through a parting of a Red Sea which you watched happen you literally walked across the the basin of the Dead Sea on dry ground with water standing as a heap on either side.

And by the way that's one thing water doesn't do. Water doesn't stand up. But you walked through as water stood up on both sides and you got through to the other side and you were carried along by a cloud by day and a pillar by night seeing the manifold presence of the glory of God in your midst every day.

And now Moses has been gone just a little too long. And so what do you do. You say this cow. This is the God who led us out of Egypt. And you ascribe glory to a cow. We sure are dumb. Aren't we notice.

I'm not just pointing at them. How many cows you got. This message is for all of us that we do not need to ascribe the glory of God to another. There is one God maker of heaven and earth. Oh and by the way I'll point this out to you.

Notice this verse says I will give my glory to no other. This tells us that Jesus and the Father are one in their essential nature because Jesus is glorified along with the Father. If you don't believe me you go to John 17 and John 17 Jesus is praying to the Father and he said father glorify me with the glory that we shared before the world existed.

God doesn't share his glory with anyone but Christ and the Spirit and the Father are one in essence three in person but one in essence. And therefore the glory of God is shared in the Trinity. So we see this magnificence of Christ is also there.

God is jealous for his glory. And you know what's interesting. I don't know if you've ever heard this name Oprah Winfrey. She's kind of somewhat well-known probably one of the most famous people in the world.

You know she said that the thing that she had most trouble with growing up was she didn't understand why God would say that he was jealous and she felt like God saying he was jealous was a pettiness on God's part and therefore she had trouble worshiping God because he said he was jealous.

Well lest you give in to the thoughtness the thoughtfulness of mrs. Winfrey let me share with you something. God created the world God sustains the world and God is the purpose for the world. If there's anyone who when that is taken from him has the right of jealousy it is God for by him through him and to him are all things.

Or as Romans 11 36 for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever. So when his glory is robbed of him he has every right to look upon the earth with wrath because that which belongs to him has been given to another.

I don't want to get too far into this jealousy is not always wrong. My wife belongs to me she's mine. Another man tries to take my wife. I'm going to be jealous for her. And I will with great abandon because she is my wife not his.

If you don't understand that you ain't married that is important. Jealousy can be wrong. It can be missed you mishandled miss miss done mistreated. But when God says I'm jealous for what is mine his glory is his.

And he has every right to desire all of it because it all belongs to him. And when we give it to something else when we give it to idols when we give it to other gods and when we all how often we give it to ourselves that glory is misplaced.

And the intrinsic glory of God is not harmed because that cannot be harmed. But the ascribed glory of God is lessened. See that's the difference because we're ascribing glory to something else or someone else.

So all of this was an introduction to Isaiah 6. And as I said I there were so many passages I looked at this week and I knew the subject. And sometimes subject based preaching sometimes also referred to as topical preaching can be difficult because topical preaching you begin with the topic.

And that can be dangerous because you can sometimes read into passages things that aren't there that's called is a Jesus and it's not good. But Isaiah 6 is probably one of the passages I've spent the most time with just studying and looking at and examining and understanding.

And I felt like I would be fair to this text if we were to walk through it. And and there's more than just the first three verses. But I want to show you something in the three verses as pertains to the glory of God.

And then as time allows we will apply this to the five solas. So with our Bibles open it says in the year that King Uzziah died this is referring to the death of a good king. And this would have been a time of distress among the people.

And Isaiah references this as the marking post of time that this event happened in his life during this time of distress among the people of Israel during this time of sadness that a good king has died.

In the year the king Uzziah died I saw the Lord. So many men today say I saw the Lord and I gotta tell you I don't believe one of them. I ain't saying it can't happen. But when a man tells me I saw the Lord we had coffee together on my porch.

Listen I remain unimpressed by your visitation. I think a lot of people lie. I'll leave it at that Isaiah saw the Lord and notice what he says. He says I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. Oh by the way John chapter 1 says no man has seen God only the Son who makes the Father known.

And in John chapter 12 it says explicitly when Isaiah saw the Lord he was seeing Christ. So again going back to the understanding of the Trinity when Old Testament saints saw the Lord in their majesty they were seeing a pre-incarnate visitation of Christ.

So Isaiah sees the Lord and he is high and lifted up. And it says the train of his robe filled the temple. Now we are not familiar with this type of regalia in our modern day because in our modern day people of importance typically don't wear robes.

They wear suits or something else. But in this time in history a king was known for his royal robes and the length of his robe was to demonstrate the expanse of his majesty. And I know you're familiar with this.

When a wife bride is coming in what does she have behind her on her wedding dress. She has a train. And you ever seen those really long trains that's supposed to be expressing the importance of the bride.

What do we do when the bride enters the room. We stand right. The bride is the gift being given to the groom and the groom just sort of stands there. He's dressed like all the rest of them. She's the one that's different and she's different by the look of her gown but also by the length of her gown.

None of the other bridesmaids have a gown that drags behind them but she has the train of her robe demonstrating the uniqueness of the bride in the marriage ceremony. Well in this time in history a king would have a robe and his robe would have a train.

And the expanse and the width and the breadth of the train was intended to show his power and his majesty. So when God wanted to demonstrate his power and his majesty to Isaiah he gave him a vision of Christ seated upon his throne.

And it said the train of his robe filled the temple. Now the temple is no small place and I can't imagine what it looks like. But you can just think of all of the flowing robe that came off of the feet of the Savior and filled the area.

So as to say to Isaiah look upon the majesty of the Lord. And above him were the seraphim. The Bible describes different types of angels. The Bible describes the chair you beam or the cherub. The cherubs are described in different ways sometimes in great sort of scary ways.

And again to Ezekiel and other places when you start seeing the eyes and the wheels and all those things and you start to wonder. You know we always think you know so like highway to heaven. Michael Landon is not oh they're dated me.

But but that. But that's not the picture that the Bible gives of these angels these angelic creatures. These angelic creatures are known as seraphim. They are mentioned here in Scripture as the ones who surround the throne of God.

And they have one job. You know what their job is to proclaim God's glory. And how do they proclaim God's glory. Well first it says it says that the seraphim had six wings. It says with two they covered their face.

With two they covered their feet and with two they flew. Now again such an interesting picture of what an angel would look like that the creature would cover its face. Why would the creature cover its face.

Because it is in the presence of the glory of God not looking on the glory of God but rather covering its face. I always again these people all I had coffee with Jesus. You didn't burn up did you. The glory of God is efflugent.

It's bright it's radiant it's bright. And the angels cover their face in the presence of God's glory. And they cover their feet. Doesn't say why. We can extrapolate thoughts as to why. When Moses saw God in the burning bush what did the what did the Lord say to him.

Take thy sandals from off thine feet for the ground upon which you stand is holy. So they are in the presence of God having covered their face having covered their feet and two wings which are seemingly utilitarian because with two wings they fly and they circle the Lord and they say holy holy holy is Yahweh.

Notice its capital letters LORD. When you see that in your Bible a capital L capital O capital R capital D that's the sacred name of God. That's why it's translated with all capital letters and that is Yahweh the four-letter name of God what we call the Tetragrammaton the name of God that is is is often unuttered by many people.

Instead they would choose to say Adonai which means Lord or Master rather than Yahweh because Yahweh is the name that God gives to himself I am who I am and they say holy holy holy is Yahweh of hosts meaning hosts means all hosts means the the hordes or the the armies we say a great host of witnesses or a great host of people right he is he is Yahweh of all and notice what it says the whole earth is filled with his glory now I point that out and I've said this before maybe some of you heard me say this it would seem to me that what you would think they would say is holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is filled with his holiness because that's the subject holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is filled with his holiness but it doesn't say that it says holy holy holy the Lord of hosts the whole earth is filled with his glory.

The Holiness of God and the Five Solas

So, in this instance, it is referring to the manifestation of God's holiness in the world. What is God's holiness? God's holiness is who He is. It is the one part of His nature. It is the only part of His nature that is given to the superlative degree.

And you've all heard me say it before. And you know I didn't make this up, but you need to hear it. God is never called love, love, love. He is never called justice, justice, justice. He's never called mercy, mercy, mercy.

He's never called wrath, wrath, wrath. He's never given any other attribute to the highest degree. And this is, by the way, in the Jewish speak, this was the highest degree. You know, we talk about the comparative.

We say the declarative, the comparative, and the superlative, right? Which is good, better, best, right? The declarative, the comparative, and the superlative. Say something is good, that declares it good.

To say it's better means it's better than that, that means it's comparative. But to say it's best means it's better than everything. Well, in Jewish talk, when something was to be emphasized, it would be said twice.

Simon, Simon, Satan has sought to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you. Remember? Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Jesus would begin sentences that way because he was emphasizing by saying it twice.

But when something was said to the third degree, that created the superlative. Holy, holy, holy. Therefore, when we consider God's attributes, beloved, we consider his attributes in light of his holiness.

God's love is holy love. God's mercy is holy mercy. God's wrath is holy wrath. Because God is holy, holy, holy. And we see his holiness displayed in his glory. Because what does holiness mean? It means to be absolutely unique.

It means to be absolutely without compare. It means to be set apart, to be different. As Dr. R .C. Sproul so eloquently said, holy means other. There is none like him. I am God. Isaiah 43, I am God and there is none like me.

I am different. I am holy. Therefore, when we look out at the earth and we see the earth, it was created by one, the only one who could have done it. So it puts on to display the only one. The manifestation of his uniqueness is in his creation.

The manifestation of his uniqueness is in you because you bear the image of God. You are part of his creation and he created you to glorify him, to magnify his nature. And so we are the evidence of God's holiness.

We are the reflection of his majesty. We are. And we are supposed to be the reflection of his glory. That is what he created us to be. And so the whole earth is filled with his glory because the whole earth shows his nature and who he is.

How the Five Solas Lead to Soli Deo Gloria

Now I want to ask this question. How does this fit into the five solas? And the reason why I bring this up is because you remember we are at the end of a series and I haven't even really mentioned it today.

And those of you who are new or visiting, we have been looking at the five solas. The five solas, here they are. Salvation grounded, sola scriptura. Scripture alone is our sole infallible rule of faith.

That's what that means. We have confessions. We have creeds. We have all those things. But they are all subservient to and under the word of God. The word of God is our only infallible rule for faith and practice.

Salvation is explained. We looked at this last week. By grace alone, sola gratia. Through faith alone, sola fide. In Christ alone, sola Christus. But salvation applied. And I'm going to say something now that may spin your head and you may leave a little less in love with me than when you came.

God saved you. Let me say this. Make sure I say this right. God saved you for his own glory. People say, well, I thought God saved me because he loved me. Oh, he loves you. And you can sing Jesus loves me.

I'll lead it because I love it. Jesus loves me. This I know. I know it. But God saved me because in saving me, it demonstrated the praise of his glory. I'll show it to you if you want. If you go to Ephesians chapter 1, it says, In him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined.

All Calvinists said amen. Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

We received an inheritance. We received a salvation. We received that so that in the age to come and even now, we can say all glory be to him. And by the way, going back to the five solas, that's why you must believe all of these.

Because if you don't believe that you are saved through scripture alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, if you think that you've added anything to that, if you think you've added to God's grace, you're minusing out the glory of God.

If you think you've added anything, even your own faith, which is a gift from God, you are minusing out the glory of God. And if you think that you're saved by anyone except through Christ alone, you're minusing out the glory of God.

You understand why it ends with soli deo gloria? Because all three of the ones that came before it point up and the foundation of it all is scripture alone. Not man's wisdom, not man's confessions, not man's creeds, but scripture alone.

And God's glory is at the top and all the rest point to him. And if you think you're saved by what you do, you are robbing God of his glory. If you think you're saved by your works, you're saying to God, your work wasn't enough, I've got to add my work.

And therefore, you're not saying soli deo gloria, you're saying give me some glory. That's the problem. That's why these five go together. And it's why they end with soli deo gloria. Our salvation is meant to glorify the goodness of God.

And therefore, our lives are to be lived before the face of God. That's this word, I've been saying it all day. I want to get it into your lexicon. This is one of Dr. R .C. Sproul's favorite phrases. Coram Deo, Latin.

In the presence of God or the way he would say it, before the face of God. Before the face of God. Do we live our lives coram deo. Westminster Shorter Catechism, no I ain't becoming Presbyterian, but this is good.

Westminster Shorter Catechism says, what is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Here's the great thing. And I tell you what, I agree, some of y 'all may disagree, I'm going to say it.

I agree with John Piper on this one. God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in Him. God is glorified in us when we find our joy in Him. God is glorified in us when we find our satisfaction in Him.

God is glorified in us when we rest in Him. God is most glorified when we're most satisfied in nothing else but Him. So when you ask me, what does it mean to live coram deo? What does it mean to live soli deo gloria?

What it means is to live in the presence of God where He is your delight. All of Christ for all of life. I heard that recently, I liked it. Because that's how we should live. There is no compartmentalization to the Christian life.

You don't get to have your Christian life on Sunday and everything else Monday through Saturday. All of Christ for all of life. When you live daily, you live coram deo. When you live going to your job.

Whether you're working in a business or you're working from home. Whether you're going out and you're making money or you're staying home and you're caring for the home. And you're living to the glory of God in your home as a homemaker.

You're doing it to the glory of God and you're doing it before the face of God. And you ought to be doing it to His glory. So ask yourself this, beloved. What am I doing to rob God of His glory? When we worship and it's focused on us, that's robbing God of His glory.

When our lives are lived for self and self-promotion and self-aggrandizement and pride, we're robbing God of His glory. And probably the most desperate, and this is happening in churches all around the world right now today, when God's gospel is corrupted, we're robbing God of His glory.

If you say you are a believer and the glory of God doesn't matter to you, there's a problem in your heart. And maybe you are a believer and you worry that you don't glorify God enough. I will tell you that you don't and neither do I.

And that is why every day we seek to cling to Christ and look to Him. Understanding that in clinging to Christ, we're actually glorifying God because we're glorifying the one who saved us and not ourselves.

And if you're an unbeliever and on this day you have no desire to glorify God, I want to warn you, every man will glorify God in one of two ways in the end. You will glorify God as an object of His mercy and love, or you will glorify God as an object of His justice and wrath.