“To the Glory of God Alone”
[I
Corinthians 10:23-33]
November 5, 2017, Second Reformed
Church
We turn to the final of the five
“solas” – “onlys” – of the Reformation this morning: Soli Deo Gloria – to the Glory of God alone.
Just as a reminder:
Scripture Alone: the Word of God Alone has the authority to tell
us God’s way of salvation and how it is accomplished.
Christ Alone: the works of Jesus Christ alone merit our salvation
– our works do not merit salvation.
Grace Alone: our salvation is completely a gift from God –
we did nothing to deserve it.
Faith Alone: we receive our salvation and all of God’s
Grace by means of faith, which is also a gift.
This morning we consider that
everything exists to the glory of God Alone – not to anyone else or with anyone
else – and we are to be glorifying God for everything – even the most minute
things.
This “sola” emerged out of a
teaching that came out of the Church in the Middle Ages. The conclusion was drawn – and it was taught
– that there are two levels of people, gifts, and acts – the sacred and the
secular.
For example, in the Middle Ages it
was thought, a priest held a sacred job, and the banker, the baker, and
candlestick maker held secular jobs. The
abilities the priests had and the acts they did were sacred, and the abilities
that the banker, the baker, and the candlestick maker had and their acts were
secular. The priests were better, closer
to God, the kind of work you would want your little Johnny to enter, rather
than be the banker, the baker and the candlestick maker.
And so, the clergy were considered
to be on a higher level. They were held
on a higher level – they were glorified above the people. As a result of that, the laity – the common
folk – were taught they had to go through the priests to God.
The reformers looked at this
teaching and scratched their heads – because this is not taught in the
Scripture. The only thing that is taught
in any sense of this is that those who are called to preach and teach the Word
of God will be judged more strictly than everyone else (cf. James 3:1).
Instead, the reformers taught what
is called “the universal priesthood of believers.” That doesn’t mean that everybody is a
priest. It doesn’t mean that there is no
distinct between being a priest or pastor and some other calling – a banker, a
baker, or a candlestick maker.
What is does mean is there is no distinction
between the sacred and the secular. And
you may shake your head and say, “Wait a minute, sacred music is worship music,
and secular music is all that rap and heavy metal stuff on the radio.”
Yes, there are categories of
“sacred” and “secular” in some things, such as music. But the point here, as one writer puts it, is
“all of life [is] to be lived under the Lordship of Christ. Every activity of the Christian is to be
sanctified unto the glory of God” (“The Five Solas of the Reformation” Gregg
Strawbridge, Ph. D.).
If that is true, then it is also
true that every Christian has direct access to God without a mere human
mediator. We do not have to go to a priest
to ask for forgiveness or to be told what constitutes acceptable repentance.
Peter writes of Christians, “But you
are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light” (I Peter 2:9, ESV).
And the creatures around the throne
of God say of Christians, “and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our
God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10, ESV).
All Christians are priests, in the
sense that we have direct access to God through prayer. And we are all called to recognize the absolute
sovereignty of God and to do all things to the glory of God alone.
First, God is Absolutely Sovereign.
Let’s look at the issue Paul is
writing to the Corinthians about: meat
that had been offered to idols and is now for sale in the market to eat.
“’All things are lawful,’ but not all
things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things build up. Let
no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.”
Some in the church were saying, “In
Christ we have Christian liberty – all things are lawful. There is nothing wrong with us eating meat
that has been offered to idols.”
Paul reminds them that “not all
things are helpful” – to the individual.
And, “not all things build up” – their neighbors. Yes, it is true that they can eat meat offered
to idols. What of it? Idols are nothing. However, eating meat can compromise your
ministry – your witness – and it can mislead others. The Christian is not number one – we must be
willing to restrain our freedom in love for the sake of our witness and the way
others are perceiving us and our Christianity.
“Eat whatever is sold in the meat market
without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For ‘the earth is the
Lord's, and the fullness thereof.’ If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner
and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any
question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, ‘This has
been offered in sacrifice,’ then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who
informed you, and for the sake of conscience—I do not mean your conscience, but
his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I
partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give
thanks?”
Paul tells them they are free to eat
the meat that is sold in the market, as the Psalmist explains – God is the God
of all meat and God has said we are allowed to eat meat. In fact, God is the Sovereign God over all
things. God created everything good –
for our use and enjoyment.
However,
there are times when – for our sake and others – we ought to put aside our
liberty and not eat meat offered to idols.
Why?
Paul tells them that, if a
non-Christian invites them to dinner and serves them meat, they ought to eat
what is put before them, not asking where it came from, but giving thanks to
God.
However, if a non-Christian invites
them to dinner and explains that they are going to have a wonderful meal, that
the meat had just been offered up to the god or goddess, so it was fresh off
the altar, they should not eat it. Why?
In not eating the meat, the
Christian is witnessing to the non-Christian that he rejects the god or goddess
the meat has been sacrificed to – he does not want to have anything to do with
or to support the idea that this so-called deity is worthy of worship.
Well, we don’t usually sacrifice
meat to idols in our culture, so how might we see this today?
Alcohol is one example. God, our God, the One Sovereign God, created
grapes and gives them to humans for food and drink. God gives humans the understanding to ferment
grapes and make wine out of them. God
even gives us wine as part of one of the Sacraments, and in His Word, we read
that Paul recommends that Timothy drink wine to help settle his stomach (I
Timothy 5:23).
Alcohol is a good gift of God. Yet, we know it can be abused, and there are
plenty of warnings in the Scripture against the sin of drunkenness. Still, alcohol is a good gift from God for
those who choose to enjoy it rightly.
So, three scenarios:
Imagine you have just been dumped by
your spouse, and your non-Christian friend finds out, and suggests that you
both go to your favorite bar. (Going to a bar is not a sin; drinking is not a
sin). But you drink yourself under the
table, and your friend no longer takes your Christian witness seriously. You should have put aside your liberty and had
no – or little – alcohol in this scenario.
Again, imagine your non-Christian
friend is a recovering alcoholic and really needs to talk with you, and you
suggest talking over lunch. But you like
to have a drink during lunch, so you ask him to meet you at your favorite
bar. Your friend comes, but no longer
takes your Christian witness seriously, because you have put him in a very
vulnerable position – on top of what he want to talk with you about. You should have put aside your liberty,
forgone your lunchtime drink, and met at a place that would not add stress to
your friend’s life.
On the other hand, suppose your
non-Christian friend wants to talk with you – maybe about Christianity – maybe
about his family – whatever, and you both enjoy having a drink, so you suggest
you meet at your favorite bar. You meet,
stay sober, and listen and speak with wisdom to your friend. After this, he will take your Christian
witness more seriously.
Do you understand?
Our Sovereign God created everything
that is and gives us the Creation to love and manage and enjoy. However, we are never to allow our enjoyment
of what God has given us and our freedom to enjoy it to compromise our witness
to the Gospel – to Christ being the One and Only Savior.
Second, we are to do all things to
the Glory of God Alone.
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever
you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to
the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not
seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.”
So, as far this issue of eating meet
offered to idols and Christian liberty – eat, don’t eat – what is most
important is that you do what you do to the Glory of God. Whatever we do – what we have for breakfast,
the car we choose to drive, the clothes we choose to wear, the way we speak to
people, the way we hold ourselves in worship, the ways we interact with each
other during fellowship, the jobs we pursue and our reasons for them, the
families we have and the life we share together – the most important thing is
that what we do and how we do it is done to the Glory of God.
What does that mean?
“[G]lorifying God means to acknowledge His
greatness and give Him honor by praising and worshiping Him, primarily because
He, and He alone, deserves to be praised, honored and worshipped. God’s glory
is the essence of His nature, and we give glory to Him by recognizing that
essence” (https://www.gotquestions.org/glorify-God.html).
We give glory to God when we recognize
that God is Sovereign and we are not.
God is God and we are not. God is
the All-Sufficient One and we are totally dependent on God. If it were not God’s Will we would not be
able to survive another second, much less enjoy it as we do. So, in humility, we ought to give thanks.
Like our wonderful lunch last week – it
was certainly right for us to thank those who cooked and served and cleaned up,
but Who brought the food into existence?
Who made us able to buy the ingredients and understand how to put the
ingredients together so we would have food to enjoy? Who gave us the income to be able to buy the
food? Who gave us this building for us
to enjoy food in? Who created the human
body so we can taste, enjoy, digest, and benefit from the food that is
made? In all these ways and more, we
ought to bow our heads in thanks to God for His provision for us – for His
Sovereign Will and work in our lives.
If we do – publically and privately, we
ought to reflect back our thanks to God – showing Him to have all the Glory for
Who He is and what He has done.
Others ought to be able to look at us and
hear us speak and understand our thankfulness and our total reliance on the One
Sovereign God. They ought to be able to
watch and hear us and know we are serious about Jesus Christ and His Gospel –
what He did in space and time to secure our salvation.
Like Paul says, we ought to be mindful
about what we say and do and make sure that what we say and do points positively
to Jesus Christ and His salvation. What
we say and do ought to let others know who we believe God to be. We ought to glorify God with our lives.
Have you noticed a pattern as we have
looked at the “five solas” of the Reformation?
By the Middle Ages, the Church had stopped
teaching biblical doctrine in some areas.
We have seen that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the Scripture
is not enough – commentaries and councils and popes have equal authority with
the Word of God. Jesus is not enough; we
must help Him by contributing our good works to secure our salvation. Grace is
not enough – we must be worthy of the gift of salvation by merit. Faith is not enough – we do not merely
receive salvation, we have to take it by mean of our works. And God does not deserve all of the glory –
how can He, when He is not sovereign in our salvation?
By the Middle Ages, the teaching of the
Roman Catholic Church became human-centered, rather than God-centered.
Yet, when the Scripture is read honestly,
people like Martin Luther object and say we have to reform the Church according
to what the Bible says. We have to
repent of our errors and teach them and hold on to them no longer.
Hear again what Paul writes about Jesus:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before
all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the
body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in
everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was
pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether
on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians
1:15-20, ESV).
Let us pray:
Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, You are the Sovereign God, our Creator, Savior, Advocate. Yours is the Creation – of which we are
part. Yours is the Church – of which we
are the Body. Help us to glorify You in
every detail of life that You would be known for Who You are and so we would
not cause anyone to stumble over the announcement of Your Gospel. Draw us to Your Word, for there, alone, do we
find the words of eternal life. In
Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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