SERMON: PHILIPPIANS 1:1-6 GODLY JOY FOR PERSEVERANCE

PHILIPPIANS 1:1-6

Godly Joy For Perseverance

AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST

I wrote this nearly 10 years ago when I was a "vulture" and still selling cars.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Because Christ has reconciled us to God, we have now become ambassadors for Christ. We ARE ambassadors. We represent the Lord and His glorious gospel. We speak His message and bear His name wherever we go. It's what we have been called to.

I thought about this truth heavily the other night when I was treated rudely by a person who walked onto our car lot. This lady and her husband militantly walked onto our lot. I approached them and greeted them courteously. "Hi folks. Welcome. My name is Josh and you are?" My greeting was met with nothing but silence. I didn't even get a look in my direction. They continued militantly walking through our lot...at a fast pace, too. So I hurried alongside them and said, "Hello folks, is there something I can help you with?" This time I got a glance, but no verbal communication. The body language said, "Leave me alone!" But it's kind of hard to do that. That's like somebody walking around on your front lawn at home...it's only right to say, "Can I help you?" I asked her another question, "Can I point you to a certain vehicle?" And finally I got some response! She said, "Where are your PT Cruisers?" The conversation had started. Whew! I was beginning to think they completely hated salespeople. But their reluctant conversations meant they mostly hated salespeople. Lucky me. I smiled and said, "Oh, they're over this way. Let me show you to them." Boy, do I hate sales sometimes.

So anyway, she was walking so fast that I was unable to pass her up and lead her to some cars. I almost had to do the Olympic speed walk that somewhat resembles the Ace Ventura stroll. Know what I mean? But my hips can't move that fast so I followed behind, somewhat prancing along to keep up. But in trailing behind her I noticed that her windbreaker said on the back, "Harbor Welcome Team!" It took about .5 nanoseconds to register in my head that she was probably the member of the greeting team at her church. The joy of irony! Ouch! I just got dirted by what seemed to be a Christian greeter. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was a pastor, so I mischievously asked her what her jacket meant...cause I'm like that.  She retorted, "That's my church," and she kept going.

Anyway, I have to say that this was probably one of the rudest guests I've had in a long time. I'm so glad that she didn't run into an unbeliever that night. What a bad ambassador that would have been! How credible does the gospel appear to be from kingdom representatives like that. Yet, I must stop and look at my own life and say, "Is there anything that misrepresents my Lord and Savior?" And the answer is "yes." I, too, fall short of Christ's glory and that is why I need His salvation. And though I sin greatly, my Savior is greater and I am therefore compelled to be a better ambassador for Him. The greater I understand my sin to be, the greater my Savior appears to me, the better ambassador I will be for Him.

Christ has reconciled us to God, not counting our sin against us. Now be an ambassador to the world and ask the Lord for the ability to represent and speak for Him well. Help bring people to the one who can save them. And for the sake of God's glory, be nice to unbelievers...even if they are in car sales.

THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING A FATHER

This post was written about 9 years ago when Macy was just 6 years old.  I found it in my archives and thought I'd share it with you. What a blessing it is to see God's faithfulness almost a decade later.


Today I again had the privilege of reading my daughter the Scriptures. We read the story of the Samaritan woman who met Jesus as Jacob's well. In examining the Scriptures I asked her, "Why do we drink water?" Her six-year-old reply was, "Because if we don't drink water then after a certain time we will die. We need it to live."

I said, "Wow, you're right." I explained the Scripture in which Jesus said that there was a such thing as living water which will cause us to live eternally. So I asked some questions to help her figure out what Jesus was saying.

I asked, "What is it that makes us live forever with God?" She replied, "Believing in Jesus...that Jesus died for our sin and rose again to life."

"So Jesus makes us to live eternally," I replied. My next question was, "What then do you think it means to drink living water and live forever?" She said, "Believing in Jesus."

"Yes!" I said. "But not just believing in Jesus, but believing the truth about Jesus." I went on to explain the rest of the story to her and how it is God who gives us spiritual life so that we can worship Him in spirit and it truth. She was in shock when I told her that there were people who didn't love God and didn't believe the truth about Jesus. She said, "That's crazy that God made this place and they don't believe in Him." I said, "Yeah, they even hate God." It was a blast see her connect with God and His truth.

When we were done, it was time for her to hit the sack. So she hopped up in her bunk bed and it was time to pray. She always asks me to help her pray so I gave her a ton of things that she could pray for and I told her that I'd pray for anything she forgot. Her words were more precious to me than anything I've heard in a long time.

"Jesus, help us to believe the truth about you. Please protect those who get hurt for believing the truth about you."

I don't want to forget moments like these. My memory stinks. So this post is to remind me of the grace of God at work in my child's life.


Lord, save my little girl! Regenerate her litte heart if you have not already done so. Make her an outspoken and unashamed mouthpiece of the gospel. Let her live for Your glory. And when the time comes, let her die in a way that glorifies You. Thank You, Father, for the privilege of raising her. Though I fall radically short of being the perfect dad, work out Your good will in her life and let her always find her highest joy in knowing You. I may fail at a number of things, but let me not fail in leading her to know You. As Your child, Father, I ask these things for my child, for the sake of Your glory!

HOT TOPIC: THE EXTINGUISHING OF RACISM

Sometime God is weaving a wonderful tapestry before our eyes and it's important to take notice of it. The church where I serve has four pastors/elders. By God's providence He has brought together four men from different ethnicities. One of our pastors is of Jewish descent, another is of Lebanese descent, still yet another is of Mexican descent and the other is of European descent.

Four races, one body. Four careers, one Spirit. Four men, one Lord. Four ethnicities, one faith. Four backgrounds, one baptism. Four individuals, one Father. This is not a byproduct of political correctness because none of us sought this out. This is a natural outworking of God's providential work in our church.

When you look at our church you'll see all sorts of walks of life represented, all sorts of races and all sorts of differences. There are some you might consider wealthy or poor. There are most likely democratics, republicans and other parties people are affiliated with. But in Christ we are all united through His loving death, burial and resurrection that brings peace between us and God.

This love shown to us is then shown to others within our church and it is then taken out into the community, or at least it should be that way. Scripture constantly calls us to correct our sinful self-centeredness in order to move forward in Christ's likeness.

In light of recent tragic events in our country our hearts grieved. So we prayed and tried to do our tiny part to make a difference in our community. Last Friday several people from our church fed the Sheriff's department of Victorville to let them know we love them and are praying for them. Sunday, after church, several men went walking around a park handing out free pizzas to families, in the name of Jesus.

To each group we explained that our outward diversity is united in inward transformation due to the loving and saving work of Jesus Christ. And even though we want people to know Christ the way that we do, we know that not everyone will believe in Christ the way that we do. Nevertheless, we still have to live together in this community.

Protests can be helpful. Handing out free food to people who are different than you can be helpful. But only the cross and empty tomb of Christ truly unifies for all eternity.

The reason all human life matters in all stages is because God made us in His likeness. Sin wrecked that image. And Jesus' mission consists of forgiving that sin through the cross and resurrection and THEN giving us His Spirit to live in us to slowly rid us of sinful desires and actions and THEN finally restoring that broken image completely at His 2nd return so that sin will be extinguished in the new creation forevermore.

You see, salvation is more than just rescue from hell--rescue from God's judgment. It's also rescue from ruin, rescue from sin, rescue from Satan.

Those are pretty big things to be rescued from. And those in the church have all that in common and we can look at each other as former 'death row inmates' and say, "Wow, we are all blessed to be redeemed. We have such immeasurable riches in common. Let's work TOGETHER to pass this great news on to others as we love our Savior TOGETHER."

From leadership in our church to those being led, a wonderful tapestry is being knit together around the God-man, Jesus Christ.

JONAH 4:5-11, THE PERSISTENT SERVANT AND THE MISSIONARY

JONAH 4:5-11

The Persistent Servant And The Missionary

HOT TOPIC: A BRIEF THEOLOGY OF DECENCY, NAKEDNESS AND CLOTHING

Did you ever wonder why your being uncovered in front of other people is a shameful experience?  It’s because you were meant to be clothed.

Genesis 2:24-25 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Now at first glance at the text you may think that Adam and Eve were naked. They were naked in the sense that they did not have any material clothing on.  But I think that there is a sense in which they were “clothed.”

Genesis 3:8-11 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

When you read the text you’ll see that something changed after Adam and Eve sinned.  Sin brought about a change in their spiritual condition but also their physical condition.  The image of God was marred and death set in their bodies.  Is it possible that the marring of God’s image had a physical affect on them in such a way that they perceived their own nakedness when prior to the fall they could not perceive their nakedness?  Now I think one of two possibilities are at play here: either Adam and Eve got smarter after the fall and became aware of what nakedness was OR Adam and Eve’s physical appearance somehow changed so that they could actually see their own nakedness.  I think a clue to this perceiving of nakedness is found in the Lord’s two questions to Adam and Eve.  “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

In other words, “You were already naked, but if you were to know that then someone would have to tell you that because you surely couldn’t see your nakedness UNLESS you ate of the tree that I told you not to eat of.”  In simpler terms, nakedness had to be disclosed or revealed: either by someone who knew they were naked or by their sinning.  Since no one disclosed their nakedness to them we are left with the idea that somehow their sinful actions caused a revealing of their nakedness so that their eyes could actually see the nakedness that was already there.  The end result was their embarrassment and shame. It’s my opinion that prior to the fall, being in the perfect image of God, they were clothed with glory, with righteousness and with splendor.  When sin entered in, that glory was snuffed out so to speak so that they could see their nakedness.  Being unclothed or stripped of righteousness led to the affect of their eyes being able to see what was already there.  It’s like Adam and Eve were stripped of their spiritual glory and their nakedness was exposed.

Immediately after the fall we see God creating clothes for Adam and Eve.  That’s an important clue to glean from as well.  God didn’t tell them to adjust to their nakedness. He didn’t say, “Get over it.  It’s natural.  Just love your body.  Be proud of it.” Rather, He clothed them with skins from an animal or animals.  We were meant to be clothed with something.  Our natural clothing reminds us of our sinful condition.  Our need for clothing reminds us that we were meant to be clothed with something greater.

Take a look at Luke 9:28-32.  Jesus goes up a mountain to meet with the Father and notice what happens.

Luke 9:28-32  Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

Remember that Jesus was made in the likeness of man (Philippians 2:7).  There was a veiling of His deity when He became flesh.  On the Mount of Transfiguration we see that Jesus’ actual glory was momentarily unveiled.  We see that His face was altered and His clothing became dazzling white.  I think it’s safe to assume that if His face became altered and bright then so did his neck and chest and legs—the rest of His body.  This glory radiating through His skin caused His clothes to be dazzling white at well.  This was a brightness and whiteness that the disciples were not accustomed to.  Jesus’ glory was being unveiled.  Jesus is the perfect man and I believe this is what Adam and Eve may have looked like before the fall—reflecting the perfect glory of God as they were made in His image.  And when you look at Moses and Elijah you see that they appeared in glory too! So we see Jesus in glory and Moses and Elijah in glory…all three of them free from the effects of sin.

Now glance over at 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 and see that God has a future clothing for us to put on!

2 Corinthians 5:1-5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

A putting on of our heavenly, restored, glorified bodies is a reversing of nakedness.  The new body Christians will receive is called a “further clothing”.  I think the theme running through Scripture is that we were meant to be clothed with honor, righteousness, perfection, holiness and glory.  All this comes from God’s perfect image in us being restored in Christ.  I think this glory is real and physical, not just intellectual or a theological abstract.  The glory of Christ is physical in some sense in that it radiates brightness.  It is not a merely a spiritual reality described with earthly analogies.  He is bright…He is the true light!

Now there is some application for these truths. Do you ever wonder why it wrong for Christians to be indecent in their clothing, exposing their bodies in sensual ways?  It’s because you were meant to be clothed.  Exposing yourself for others to see is shameful, not because God made something bad but because our nakedness is a result of the fall which removed our righteousness and dazzling clothing! 

Do you see why endless hours of preparation adorning the outward appearance means nothing to the Lord?  He is concerned with inward holiness! Granted there is a modesty somewhere in the middle that is appropriate for God’s people.  We don’t need to be dressed for a runway fashion show, but we don’t need to don burlap either.  Scriptures focus is to take care of the spiritual above all.  We are to wear holiness and righteousness.

1 Peter 3:3-6 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. 

Now take a gander over at Revelation because ultimately Christ fixes our clothing issue.  If Genesis opens with the story of sin and nakedness, then Revelation ends with the story of righteousness and clothing. 

Revelation 7:9-10 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 

Christ is the one who clothes us in white robes.  Now these robes may be symbolic and it’s possible they may be actual real robes that are dazzling white.  I tend to lean towards the symbolic use of white robes because of the counsel that Jesus gives the church at Laodicea.

Revelation 3:18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

The Lord is not telling this church to buy actual gold for actual riches.  He’s not telling them to buy ointment for their eyes so that they can actually see.  Jesus isn’t literally selling garments to people to make a profit so that they’ll have white garments.  Rather He’s beckoning this church to come to Him for healing, for salvation, for restoration, for righteousness, for real and eternal riches.  These riches are there to restore us to a righteous relationship with God that resembles the pre-fall relationship God had with Adam and Eve.  We need white garments…we need our sinful robes washed in the blood of the Lamb.  We need to be purified and not only declared righteous (justification) but we need an actual transformation (glorification). We need to be glorified. We need GLORY.  Scripture makes it abundantly clear that we will share in the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Timothy 2:10, 2 Peter 1:4, John 17:22). So in light of Adam and Eve’s fall and their awareness of nakedness, in light of our current need for clothing, in light of our embarrassment that comes from being exposed, in light of our future need to be clothed and glorified, let us consider our actions, decisions and thoughts.

This is why we must not parade our naked bodies around for others to see.  This is why pornography is wrong. This is why indecency amongst God’s people should never be named.  This is why calling others to notice the physical appearance of your spouse is sinful.  You are tempting others to consider people in an unclothed condition which God never intended.

This is why a restroom policy that opens the door for nakedness to be seen by the opposite sex is totally inexcusable.  Our President and world have no qualms about the possibility of seeing others naked.  Some will say that we are prudish for being so old school and outdated.  The world says, “If you got it, flaunt it.”  Social media sites are littered…LITTERED with images of Christians who are exposing their bodies for all to see as if it’s ok.  I have to say that they do not have a proper theology of clothing and nakedness.  It’s one thing for a husband and wife to see each other that way. But it’s quite another thing for everyone else to see you that way.

So if you’ve every wondered why you instinctively scream when someone accidentally barges in on your bathroom stall or you instinctively cover up if the bedroom door opens up while you’re changing, it’s not because any particular physical harm will come to you by someone seeing your nakedness.  It’s because God never intended you to be seen naked.  He always intended you to be seen covered with the glory of God---and when you are exposed without clothing it is a terrible reminder that we need the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.  Our embarrassment that comes with nakedness is a condition of the fall.  And our lack of embarrassment when we parade our nakedness for others to see simply means that we do not understand just how bad sin is. If we are OK with others seeing us in clothing that tempts others to lust then we don’t understand what a lack of clothing demonstrates. It shows that we are sinners without righteousness.  How we need the righteousness and glorification that only Jesus can provide us. 

Therefore, dress modestly and contend for modesty policies in our world.  Husbands, protect the privacy and decency of your wife and/or daughters.  Men, keep your eyes from evil things.  Women, protect the privacy and decency of your husband and/or sons.  Help them to see the connections between sin/nakedness and righteousness/clothing and what this all has to do with Jesus Christ.  And never forget to preach the gospel to sinners in need of white robes.

THE FIVE SOLAS: SOLI DEO GLORIA

You may be a little familiar with George Frideric Handel’s musical masterpiece “Messiah” (1741).  Most people are familiar with the following excerpt from the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

While these words may be very familiar to us, what is even less known about Handel is that he would sign the end of his cantatas with the letters “SDG.”  That was shorthand for Soli Deo Gloria—the overarching principle of the Protestant Reformation.

Soli Deo Gloria is Latin for “to God alone be the glory.”  Glory is one of the words that has a forgotten meaning.  People sling it around in their Christianese vocabulary without giving thought to what it actually means.  There is a well-knowing TV preacher that says, “Glory to God” all the time like verbal pauses. Some people will used this phrase jokingly or as an exclamation for just about anything.  People will use the phrase like this, “We ate ‘til we were ready to burst…glory to God."  The casual use of this phrase just shows that people don’t understand what they’re saying.  Few people may be able to explain what the word actually means.  So at this point, a definition may be in order to help you understand what SDG means.

The English word “glory” comes from the Greek word “doxa.”  It is often translated into English as: glorious, honor, praise, dignity or worship.  Other ways to express this might be by saying that God has splendor, brightness, majesty or excellence.  This is intrinsic to God.  It is who God is.  He is glorious.  In every way God is perfect, beautiful, radiant, marvelous, splendid, majestic and bright.  He is wonderful to behold because He is glorious.  We do not make Him glorious--He just is glorious. So one way that we use this word is to describe what God is inherently.  And God, being who He is, displays His glory in the way that He interacts with mankind.  Regardless of what attribute is being displayed, it is glorious.

To be clear, there is nothing we can do to add to God’s glory or to take away from God’s glory.  Our sin does not take away from God what has always been, what is now, and what will always be His.  He is glorious no matter what.  Yet at the same time we are called to give God glory, to glorify Him, to live for His glory, to do all things for His glory and to be the visible display of God’s glory.  What is the world do these things means?

When we say that we are “giving God glory” it does not actually mean that we are giving God something that He is lacking or in need of.  What it means is this: we are called to use our thoughts, words and actions to tell of God’s greatness.  To glorify God is to magnify God.  Pastor John Piper has a very helpful illustration in bringing this lofty thought down to the bottom shelf.  He says that Christians are called to magnify God like a telescope, not like a microscope.  A microscope takes what is small and makes it appear to be larger than it is.  A telescope takes something that is enormously big, but appears small to the eye, and makes it bigger than the way the eye naturally sees it.

So it is with mankind.  We have naturally small thoughts of God.  We don’t see God as He really is.  He is a tiny speck of light in the night sky so to speak, not like the blazing sun.  We need to look at Him through the lens of Scripture so that we can see Him for as He really is.  God reveals Himself through His Word so that we can see His glory.  Our duty as Christians is to declare the glory of God for what it is.  Our duty is to think and live in a way that is consistent with a glorious God.  This is what we mean when we say that we are to live to the glory of God.

We eat and drink to the glory of God.  It is His splendor as Provider that ensures we have food in our bellies.  So we eat and say, “Thank You, Lord, for giving me this food.  And Lord, You sure have made some tasty stuff.  You are wonderful.  You could have make all food to taste like Nyquil, but you didn’t.”

We sleep to the glory of God.  “Thank You, Lord, that the world doesn’t depend on me to keep in going.  The fact that the world still spins while I sleep means that You are in control.  Thank You that I can lay down in peace tonight and be rested for the next day!  Some will be in pain through the night, but you have shown me goodness.”

We use money to the glory of God.  “Lord, help me to use my money to promote and spread Your Word across this planet so that others can hear of Your glory and come to Christ for salvation.  In giving away the money You gave me, the world will see that You are more glorious than the world’s goods that I can buy with this money.  You are my Treasure and this money will go towards helping others know of my Treasure.” 

We raise our children to the glory of God.  We teach them the Scriptures.  We discipline them when they sin knowing that this will help them see God’s hate for sin.  We are gracious to them when they sin knowing this will let them know of God’s grace to sinners.  We are called to think about, talk about and show God’s glory in our actions to our children.  When you rightly represent God in this world, You are giving God glory.

We sing in church to the glory of God.  This is why our songs must be declarations of the greatness of God, not just expressions of our feelings towards God.  God is glorious regardless of our feelings.  I don’t want to in anyway minimize our “feelings” for God—they are important.  But they are not often the first indicator of whether or not we are really giving God glory.  They are part of giving God glory, but the truth of God’s greatness must be declared first if our feelings are going to be anchored to His marvelous reality. 

Giving God glory is what the Christian life is about.  This is what it means to live a life of worship.  Worship is not something you do ONLY on Sunday mornings.  Giving God “doxa”, worship, or glory is to happen all the time.   Scripture tells us that we are to do ALL things to the glory of God.  We are to “make much” of God.  Pastor Mark Dever says that the church is to be the “visible display of God’s glory.”  We are to show God’s glory by not only declaring God’s glory but by representing it in our lives. 

Now when we refer to Soli Deo Gloria, we mean that God alone gets the glory (the worship, the praise, the honor) for everything that pertains to our salvation.  The Pope does not receive glory for our salvation.  Neither does Mary or any angel.  And we certainly cannot give credit to ourselves for any part of our salvation (not for the new birth, not for repentance, not for faith, not for justification, not for sanctification, not for glorification, not for election, not for adoption, not for predestination, not for anything).  To declare yourself wonderful for any part of your salvation would mean that salvation is a co-operation between God and man—which is synergism.  We believe that all of salvation is a work of God alone—monergism.  Consequently, God alone gets all the glory.  He alone is marvelous, splendid, majestic and wonderful for the salvation we receive.  We thank Him alone and not any other, for God will not share His glory with another.

When we examine the saving work of God, we see that from beginning to end, God does it all.  Notice the emphasis on what GOD does and notice the emphasis of His glory.  Follow me here:

God sends His Word to tell us who He is and how we fall short of His glory by sinning and breaking His Law.  His wrath abides on all who do not perfectly display His glory--that is us.  Then God’s Word tells us that His plan all along was to send His Son to be the perfect display of His glory.  Jesus proved that He was God and full of glory by perfectly adhering to the Law of God—He sinned not.  The Son dies in the place of all whom God has called to salvation.  Since we are all born dead in sin and could never respond to the message of Scripture, God sends His Holy Spirit to awaken us from our spiritually dead state so that we can believe in Christ with the gift of faith that God gives.  God saves us and then slowly but surely He transforms us to look more like Christ—who is the perfect glory of God.  This process is called sanctification and means that we are being transformed from one degree of GLORY to the next degree of GLORY.  In others words, God saved us in order to transform us to look more and more like Christ who perfectly displays the glory of God.  God’s goal in saving us means that this WILL happen to us.  This is a process that is not finalized until we either die or meet the Lord Jesus when He comes back.  This final transformation is called GLORIFICATION.  God will one day remove all our desire to sin and ability to sin.  Only then we will look like God originally intended us to look like.  We will finally be restored to His image in order to display His glory.  We will have a glory that comes from God’s glory.  Think about that for a second.

Do you see how much God has done for you in salvation and that you have done nothing?  He alone is declared glorious, marvelous, spectacular and wonderful for our salvation.

You must understand that God’s GLORY is what salvation is ultimately about!  In Genesis, we see that God created man to display His image---His glory.  Sin ruined that image—that glory.  That enrages God.  He hates when His glory is not displayed.  That is why sinners are punished.  Yet in God’s kindness He rescues those who do not display His glory through the saving work of Christ.  That work includes being restored to people who bear the image of God.  

Those of us that are saved are now to declare how great God has been to us in saving us and restoring us.  We are to declare all of God’s marvelous attributes as explained in Scripture.  We are to give God glory.  And knowing that His saving work is all because of His goodness to us and not because of anything we’ve done, we have to say that all glory, praise and honor goes to our God.

Soli Deo Gloria!  It’s hard to imagine that we could thank or give glory to anyone other than God for our salvation.  Yet there are those false teachers and religious systems that would love to deflect the glory of God to someone or something else.  Be careful of them.  They are subtle. 

At the heart of Reformation Theology and at the heart of Calvinism is this great belief of Soli Deo Gloria.  When you hear someone say, “Salvation is ultimately up to You and what You decide to do with God,” then you are hearing a jackhammer that is trying to break apart this foundational principle.  Yet this is how the average Christian talks. 

Ultimately, salvation is up to God.  And that is why every Christian, and I mean every Christian, prays like a Calvinist.  “Thank YOU, LORD, for saving me!”  “Thank YOU, LORD, for saving my friend!”  We know that it was all God or else we’d be thanking ourselves and our friends for getting saved.  And I’ve never heard anyone pray like that.

Martin Luther and other Reformers fought hard in their theological battles against the Catholic Church to recover SDG.  The Catholic understanding of salvation leaves all sorts of room for man to boast in himself—to give himself glory.  The Reformers risked their lives to promote Soli Deo Gloria because it is so vital to our love for God and it is what the Scripture teaches.

So the next time you feel like slinging around the phrase, “Glory to God,” or you hear a worship leader say, “Let’s give God glory,” or you sing the song, “To God be the glory,” stop for a moment and reflect on the saints of old that fought to uphold this truth.  Give pause for a moment and think about what it is that you are saying and doing.  Reflect on the word glory and it’s implications and then burst forth in praise that truly does make much of God and Him alone.