I Give Up – Glory to God Alone
There are certain movie quotes and scenes that stick with you for the rest of your life. This is one of those quotes. Glory lasts forever. We love glory. We want to be recognized, celebrated and praised. Our heroes are those that have overcome, conquered and persevered. We crave that. I’ll be honest, when I give a sermon, part of me wants to hear “That was the best sermon ever pastor, you changed my life”. When you go to work you want your boss to recognize you as employee of the month. How many fights with your spouse come from the thought “If only they recognized how good I am to them?” How many times are you angry with your children because they are so ungrateful? As Walter Hagaen is famous for saying, “No one remembers who came in second.”
If we are not careful, this attitude creeps into our faith life. Probably the greatest error with regard to salvation is that we can get God’s approval based upon our own good works. That God will be impressed by our glory. If you were brave enough to go up to most people on the street and ask, “If you were to die and stand before God and He asked, ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’ what would you say?” You will most likely hear, “I’m a good person,” or something similar. Now, over the last few weeks we have talked about how we have been saved by faith alone, through the grace (alone) of God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (alone). All of this is told to us through the first sola, God’s Word, or the Holy Scriptures (alone). Among every believer who would proclaim Christ, there is part of us that wants to take credit for choosing Christ. Taking some credit; maybe grabbing just a little glory for ourselves. We want to argue with Romans 9:16 (ESV) when it says:
So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
We did not choose God, but instead He chose us.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. – John 15:16 (ESV)
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love – Ephesians 1:4 (ESV)
God chose us because of His grace. Yet we like to have glory. Our Old Adam, our sinful nature, wants the focus to be on us. The Corinthians boasted in their spiritual gifts. To correct them Paul asks in 1 Cor. 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” All that we have physically and spiritually is because God has blessed us. We were dead in our sins, children of wrath, when He graciously raised us up to new life.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body1 and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. – Eph. 2:1-5 (ESV)
All Glory is God’s, and God’s alone. We need to give up this idea that we make ourselves valuable to God. Instead we need to draw our value FROM God. We need to stop looking to this world for an identity that God has already provided for us. This world will give us opportunities to take glory for ourselves. We will want to build ourselves up. There will be accomplishments that we will want to bring into that identity. Think about that great sermon I so desire to preach. When I make it about my sermon, my words, and not God’s words, I am in trouble. When I make it about my actions, and not God’s actions do you know what I just did? I made an idol for my life. Now, thankfully God provided a means of forgiveness. It is fitting to remember the words of the psalmist in Psalms 115 (ESV)
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.
We will look to our accomplishments.
Our accomplishments might be great words, but they will not comfort the soul.
They may be beautiful works of art, but they pale compared to the splendor of the heavens.
It may sound amazing, but will never be as comforting as the words “I love you, you are my children (1 John 3)
It may be great works done with our hands. It means nothing when held in His nail pierced hands.
And all our great words will not provide excuse or defense for our sin. But the sound of Christ saying “They are my sheep, I have called them by name, I have paid for their sins.” should reduce us to tears.
Let us not become like our works, but like our savior.
Let us give up trying to collect glory for ourselves, and in all we do, let us give glory to God.
For look at how that psalm ends.
O Israel, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and their shield.
You, who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
He is their help and their shield.
The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us;
he will bless the house of Israel;
he will bless the house of Aaron;
he will bless those who fear the Lord,
both the small and the great.
May the Lord give you increase, you and your children!
May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth!
The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.
The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence.
But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
Praise the Lord!
Soli Deo gloria: “to the glory of God alone”
God is good my friends, all the time.
-Pastor Dan