Soli Deo Gloria

October 13, 2024

Series: Solas

Book: Romans

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The children in our church made this video a few years back.

For much of life, it seems that many of us are seeking after our own glory. But this is a never-ending pursuit. This pursuit will never satisfy us, because we weren’t meant to seek our own glory.

Instead, we were made to glorify our Creator, because everything exists to the glory of God.

Romans 11:30-36 says:

As you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through their disobedience, so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.

Oh, the depth of the riches
and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments
and untraceable his ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
And who has ever given to God,
that he should be repaid?
For from him and through him
and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen.

This is our last sermon in our Solas series in which we’ve looked at the five principles of the Reformation. We’ve talked about Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Christus, and Sola Scriptura. So today we’ll be talking about Soli Deo Gloria, that all things exist to the glory of God alone.

God is the source of all things (v. 36a). God is the creator (all things are from Him).

You may remember George Washington Carver discovered hundreds of uses for the peanut.

But George Washington Carver actually didn’t take credit for his discoveries. He once said:

God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His.

He gave God the credit and the glory, because God is the source of all things. God is the giver of all good gifts.

We talk a lot about the importance of trees, but did you know about phytoplankton?

God is unseen, and yet He blesses us with good, necessary gifts all our lives. Every breath we take, a gift of life-sustaining oxygen, is something we receive from God’s creation without even realizing it.

God is the sustainer of all things (v. 36b). God not only created everything, but continues to sustain it all.

For example, our planet exists in what’s called the Goldilocks zone.

As a result, we have water we can drink, air we can breathe, and temperatures that are just right to sustain life on this planet. But God even sustains all of the universe! The observable universe contains over 200 billion stars, yet each one is held in place by the laws of physics God created and sustains.

Everything we do, we can only do because of God’s power working in and around us.

The glory of God is the end of all things (v. 36c). Everything exists to bring God glory (to Him are all things).

One of the greatest classical composers, Johann Sebastian Bach, recognized this.

Are you living that way?

I think that I often try to prove to myself that I deserve glory. Anytime that I exalt myself before others, it’s because I’m trying to convince myself that I’m worthy. Anytime that I boast in my strengths, it’s because I’m trying to convince myself that I’m strong. And this is a problem, because it’s not God’s desire that we steal any of His glory. Isaiah 42:8 says:

I am the Lord. That is my name,
and I will not give my glory to another
or my praise to idols.

God has all glory, He deserves all glory, and He will not share His glory with anyone else. And yet, when we stop attempting to take glory, we can receive it from God as a gift. Romans 8:30 says:

And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

When we humble ourselves before God, He exalts us. God’s goal for each of us is that we would say the same as Paul in this passage (v. 36d).

Is that the message of your life?