Please turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, a passage which speaks about the motivation at the heart of everything we've been singing and worshiping this morning, the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 1, beginning to read at verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Father, we thank you for your word and I pray that you would enable me to give clear enunciation of your scriptures that our hearts might be drawn out to you. We love you. We continue to worship with the responses of our heart this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Well, today we're picking up the last of the five solas of the Reformation, and this one is going to be Soli Deo Gloria, to the glory of God alone. And the reformers to a man were all insistent that we must ditch all man-centered doctrines. One of the things that they were just passionate about was bringing a reform, a purging of the church of those things that had been man-centered, and it was a very I believe, well-grounded concern. And let me start by reading a tiny sampling of some of the scriptures that made them so passionate about this last sola. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31. Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. I want you to notice it's not doing some things to the glory of God. This is exclusive. This is solely Deo gloria. 1 Peter 4, verse 11. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Jude 25, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever, amen. Romans 11, 36, for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever, amen. And there are many other scriptures like that that speak of this doctrine of soli deo gloria. I don't think there could be any question about the fact that everything in this universe and every part of our salvation has nothing in which we can boast. It all gives glory to God. Even our faith and our repentance comes from God. I'll just give you some sample scriptures. Acts 18 verse 27 speaks, quote, of those who had believed through grace. It was grace alone that could enable them to believe. Romans 12.3 says, God has given to each one a measure of faith. Ephesians 1.19 describes every believer in these words who believe according to the working of His mighty power. We couldn't even believe if it was not God's grace and power working in our hearts. And what's true of faith is also true of repentance. Acts 5 verse 31, him God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Acts 11, 18, when they heard these things, they became silent and they glorified God saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. 2 Peter 2.25, in humility correcting those who were in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth. Our whole Christian life was designed by God to give glory to Him alone. Ephesians 2.10 says, we can't even take credit for our own good works, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Charles Spurgeon once said, to whom be glory forever, 2 Timothy 4.18. This should be the single desire of the Christian. I take it that he should not have 20 wishes, but only one. He may desire to see his family brought up well, but only that to God may be the glory forever. He may wish for prosperity and business, but only so far as it may help him to promote this, to whom be glory forever. He may desire to attain more gifts and more graces, but it should only be that to him may be glory forever. This one thing I know, Christian, you are not acting as you ought to do when you are moved by any other motive than the one motive of your Lord's glory. So take a look at our passage, 1 Corinthians chapter one. And the first thing I want you to notice in verse 26 is that Paul says, that the doctrine of soli deo gloria should be self-evident to anyone who has really tasted of God's grace. It says, for you see your calling, brethren. You see your calling. You understand it. You know it. It's obvious. Anyone who has tasted of God's grace knows deep down that there is nothing in which we can boast, and yet we find in this book that the Corinthians were boasting, And we're arrogant, and we're showing off their spiritual gifts, and we're acting as if they were something special and something very, very important. And Paul had to remind them in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6, your glorying is not good, or as some translate it, your boasting is not good. If we are even the least bit prideful, we need to go back to those Reformation doctrines, all of which were designed to humble the pride of man. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Martin Luther's most famous book was The Bondage of the Will. It was a book that the reformers said was the linchpin of the Reformation. If you once believe in the doctrine of total depravity and the bondage of man's will to his sin nature, well then the rest of the five points of Calvinism are obvious. And the rest of the five solas are obvious. They all fall into place. Now in that amazing book, The Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther argued with Rome's champion, one of the brightest guys around, a guy by the name of Erasmus. And he proved that man cannot take even the smallest step toward God in order to be saved because man is spiritually dead. He can't so much as lift the spiritual finger, okay? He proved that it's not man's free will that is key to salvation, but God's free will in choosing whom he wants to choose for salvation. Martin Luther proved that there is nothing in man that can build even an inch of that bridge over the chasm of hell. It is 100% the grace of God. And the more we have tasted of God's grace, the more we see that our calling has nothing to do with our goodness. And I want to give you a little sampling of the scriptures that Martin Luther gave in that book. that demolished the pretensions of ancient Pelagianism and also Semi-Pelagianism, which is what Roman Catholics and Armenians believe in, they inject, Semi-Pelagians inject just a little bit, not much, but just a little bit of the goodness of man into the equation of salvation. And Luther pointed out that apart from God's grace, our entire heart is in bondage to sin. In other words, our entire mind and will and emotions or affections are in bondage. And let's take a look, first of all, at the mind. And I'm just gonna whiz through a bunch of scriptures. Romans 8, verse 7, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. Romans 3, 11, there is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. 1 Corinthians 2.14, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Until the Spirit opens up our understanding spiritually, God's ways seem foolish to us. It doesn't make sense. We think they're unfair. We think that they're things that we would despise, that we would not like. Until regeneration, it's almost as if there is a veil on people's eyes where they don't understand what the scriptures are talking about. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4. whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. So just with those few scriptures, and there's many more that Martin Luther gave, I think it's pretty clear that apart from grace, we cannot understand spiritual things. Now what about our will? John 6, 44, no man can come to me, so there is an act of the will, No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And he said, therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. There's no volitional movement of our will towards God unless God enables us to come. John 6 verse 40, but you are not able to come. You are not willing to come to me that you might have life. John 15.5, for without me you can do nothing. 1 Corinthians 2.14, but the natural man does not receive, there is an act of the will, does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So it's pretty clear That our mind is in bondage to our sin nature and our will is in bondage to our sin nature and cannot move to God apart from His grace. What about our emotions or our affections? John 3, 19, and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. That's where their affections are. They love the darkness, and they do not like the fact that God's light is exposing their sin. They try to hide from that light. They don't like it. Now, some people say, well, what about the Pharisees? They really like God's law. And Jesus said, not really. They pretend to love God and pretend to love his law. But he says, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. So Jesus was saying that the Pharisees, even though they tried to keep God's law, their affections were really inclined to evil. Ephesians 2 verse 3, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling, and here it is, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others. Now that's just a tiny survey, but I think it's enough to show that every part of man's being is bound by our sin nature, has no ability to come into the brilliant light of His holiness, and we don't love it. We can love a counterfeit, but we don't love the true thing. Roman Catholics who were seeking to inject a little bit of man into the equation hated the doctrine of total depravity because it made them totally helpless to God's mercy. And it does make us totally helpless to God's mercy, right? Apart from His mercy, there's nothing we can do. Let me try to summarize several pages of Martin Luther's book in one short paragraph. First of all, by looking at what we were called from. Apart from God's sovereign grace, man is corrupt And his heart is, quote, desperately wicked, Jeremiah 17, 9. Being born in sin, Psalm 51, 5. And, quote, a transgressor from the womb, Isaiah 48, 8. Being unto, quote, every good work, reprobate, Titus 1, 16. Even our so-called good works being considered as filthy rags, Isaiah 64, 60. our natures being such that, quote, we cannot please God, Romans 8 verse 8. In short, since there was nothing salvageable in man, God out of sheer mercy and grace, motivated by nothing in man, including faith and repentance, which we've already seen as a gift of God, God chose to take out of this filthy mass of humanity a saved people and make that people into a glorious bride without spot or wrinkle, thus bringing glory to His name. Can you see it? The doctrine of total depravity necessitates the doctrine of unconditional election. He didn't see any conditions in us that had to be met to elect us. There was nothing we could have provided. It also necessitates unconditional calling. And it necessitates the other God-glorifying doctrines of the Reformation. So when you see what we have been called from, It forces you to believe in soli deo gloria. And when you see what we have been called to, it forces you to believe in soli deo gloria. What have we been called to? Galatians 5.13, for you brethren have been called to liberty. Now He could have just left us as slaves to Satan and to sin, but He graciously called us to liberty. 1 Corinthians 1, 2, called to be saints. 1 Corinthians 1, 9, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. Now that's an amazing thought because God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had eternal fellowship with each other and Jesus was said to be in the bosom of the Father and yet that verse says we have been called into that same fellowship that Jesus has with the Father because of our union with Him. It's really an astonishing concept. Revelation 19 verse 9, blessed are those who were called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Amazing. We've been called to be the bride of His only begotten Son. And when you continue to read the scriptures that describe what we have been called to, we realize we don't deserve that. Not one bit. We have been called into the kingdom of light to inherit heaven, eternal joy, spiritual gifts, miracles of the Holy Spirit, and innumerable blessings. It's no wonder that Paul was astonished that these Corinthians were glorying in themselves rather than glorying in God. Those Corinthians knew deep down what they had been called to. Now turn back to 1 Corinthians 1. And we're going to be looking at how verses 26 through 27, we're going to be showing how this doctrine of soli deo gloria eliminates self-esteem. In fact, the more you dig, the more you realize why self-esteem is such a stench to God. He despises it. We have nothing in which we can boast. Paul says, for you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, dot, dot, dot, were called. Most of these Corinthians were not from the academically elite. They were not philosophers. They just didn't have the academic brights. Most of them didn't. Now, it is an act of mercy that God called some bright people, some philosophers in Corinth. Notice he doesn't say, if you're bright, okay, automatically you're excluded from the kingdom. He says, not many of you have been called. But those wise men had to be humbled into the dust to recognize that their wisdom counts as nothing before God. And in verse 27, Paul will go on to describe how God loves to confound the wise. How? By giving wisdom to the foolish. But all men, brainy or non-brainy, are dependent upon God's wisdom to live the Christian life. It is solely Deo gloria. He goes on to say that not very many Christians in Corinth were from politically powerful backgrounds, because he says, not many mighty. Now, praise God when he says, not many, it does not exclude the mighty men. In fact, there's coming a time, scripture says, when all kings, all nobles, all mighty men will bow before his scepter, but those mighty men have to come into the kingdom through the avenue of the Beatitudes, where they're poor in spirit and they recognize, I am nothing apart from Christ. They are humbled. solely Deo Gloria. He goes on to say that not many Corinthians were movers and shakers because he says not many noble position, power, influence must all bow before God. and announced that apart from Christ, we can do nothing. That's humbling for a noble person. Entering the kingdom immediately makes the regenerate heart want to cry out, soli deo gloria, at least in some measure. And in verse 27, he points out that their very existence is an illustration of God's unconditional election. But God has chosen. Let's stop there. God has chosen. This is a reference to God's predestination before the foundation of the world. Now, amazingly, I heard one Arminian defend self-esteem by saying there must have been some good in us for God to have chosen us. God would never choose junk. God would never value junk. There has to be something good in you. And he was arguing against singing that hymn, you know, about praising God for having mercy on such a worm as I. Well, it's taken right from the scripture. But he said, no, no, no, you shouldn't ever call yourself a worm. He said, don't look down on yourself. You are valuable to God and you should see yourselves as valuable. Now that's getting the cart before the horse. You are valuable before God because of who you are in Christ, right? Because he values Christ to what Christ is doing in you, but not intrinsically because of anything that is in ourselves. Ephesians 2 verse 3 says, we all were by nature children of wrath just as the others. just as the others. You look at the worst person out there that's been saved. By nature, we're unworthy just as the others. There is nothing intrinsically in us that would make God choose us. In fact, Isaiah 64 verse 6 says this, we have all become like one who is defiled and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted menstrual rag. That's the literal Hebrew. That's what he's likening us to. Outside of Christ, he says, you're an offense in my sight. God's unconditional election is solely Deo Gloria. Verse 27, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. I want you to notice God's choice was not to give us self-esteem. It does the exact opposite. It is designed to humble the pride of man. But that same verse illustrates God's power in our weakness. Look at it again. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. Now how does God do that? Well, when an ignorant man is supernaturally given wisdom from God that dumbfounds the philosophers, and he's done that many, many times, he gives it to a foolish person, a person who's not an intellectually elite, but he says profound things by the Spirit of God, God is glorified because only God's grace could produce that. When weak Christians are able to suffer joyfully in the face of persecution and love their persecutors and even win some of their tormentors and their persecutors to Christ, God alone gets the glory because God's the only one who can enable them to be able to do that. It is solely Deo Gloria. Now this doctrine is further illustrated in verse 28 where it says that God brings things out of nothing. He says, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. God picks up things that the world would have just discarded and despised. He picks it up and makes something out of it, and He makes something out of nothing. In fact, in terms of what Paul's talking about literally, he's making somethings out of nothings. Apart from His grace, we would have been nothings. At creation, God spoke and the light came into existence. He spoke and the land was formed. He spoke and life came into existence. And in the new creation, He speaks and that irresistible call in a person's life instantaneously turns a persecuting Saul of Tarsus into a devoted apostle of God. Only God's grace could achieve that. And the reason God works this way is given in verse 29, that no flesh should glory in His presence. Now that word for glory and the other word for glory, doxa, occurs over and over again in this book. It is one of the central themes of 1 Corinthians, the glory of man versus the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 8 says that He is the Lord of glory. In other words, he's the owner of it. He's the master of glory. He's the one who dictates how we relate to his glory. He is the Lord of glory. This book says we're to glorify God in our spirit. It says we are to glorify God in our bodies. It says we are to glorify God in worship. We're to glorify God in our marriages so that the name of God is not blasphemed among the pagans as they look at our marriages and say, that's what a Christian marriage is like? God's name is blasphemed when they look at that and see that. He says, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God. In fact, you cannot understand fully the book of 1 Corinthians if you do not understand this doctrine of soli deo gloria. It is at the heart of this book. And I want to just give one illustration, if you'd turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, I want to look at Paul's discussion of head coverings. And this morning I'm not going to try to settle for you, you know, whether you should believe in artificial head coverings or anything like that. It's an issue of liberty in this church. There are some who think that the head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11 refers to the long hair of the woman. There's others who I used to believe that. There's others who say, no, it's hair and there's another word that deals with fabric covering. There's some people who say, no, it's just saying you shouldn't have unisex hairstyles. There's others who say it's cultural. It applies to the time of Corinth. It really doesn't apply to us. And I'm not going to try to settle that this morning because my focus is going to be on Paul's passion for the glory of God in this chapter. And in thinking about the debate, I don't want you to miss that. So however you interpret the symbol talked about by Paul, it should be a powerful picture of soli deo gloria. In the church service, or as 1 Corinthians 1 passage worded it, in his presence, All glory but God's glory should be symbolically covered. That's what Paul is saying. And just so as not to complicate, you know, I could go through this and try to be fair to this side and to the other side, just so as not to complicate this, humor me, okay? I'm gonna interpret it through the lens of my understanding of head coverings, but I just want you to pinpoint your focus on glory. Don't miss that central point. Okay, look with me at 1 Corinthians 11 and verse seven. This speaks of two glories, the glory of God and the glory of man. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man. So husbands, fathers, elders, and deacons are all authorities in some way directly under Christ. As representatives of God, Paul says that they are symbolically the glory of God. Young boys are preparing for that. Now, it's not as if females lack any glory from God. They reflect God's glory as they become the glory of man. Well, one of the central themes in this book is that in God's presence, there should be solely Deo Gloria. God's glory alone should be visible. Now to me it's astounding that God would pick us husbands and fathers and church officers to represent His glory to the families. His choice of us to be His glory in no way represents anything that's important to us, because we've already seen that God alone gets the glory through all of the work that He has done. And so we men have nothing in which we can boast. It is a representative glory and nothing intrinsically in us. So in this passage on coverings, God says that the glory of man should be symbolically covered. But I want you to look at verse 3, because verse 3 shows a chain of command. But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. So there is a chain of command, and each one represents the glory of the preceding one. So Jesus reflects the glory of the Father. The man reflects the glory of Jesus, and the woman reflects the glory of the man. But in this chapter, Paul ties glory and authority together. Both glory and authority flow from God's chain of command. In representing God's glory and authority, the men are to be uncovered. in representing the man's glory and authority, the woman is to be covered. Okay, now take a look at verse 10. For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. There are two things that are addressed in that verse. The first is that the woman has a delegated authority and since it is the man's authority that she is wielding, children must obey their mothers as if their mothers are giving commands with the father's authority. You see that? She has this authority on her head. It's not like she has less authority. If she's under authority, she has His authority. And when you understand that, it's a liberating concept. She has His glory, which means she has His authority. Now, the second thing to notice is that women lose protection and authority when they step out from under that chain of command. Actually, all of us lose that authority. We lose authority just like a captain in an army loses his authority when he steps out and contradicts the commands of the officer who is above them. And this is where it relates even to spiritual warfare. When men or women are in rebellion against God, we have no authority with angels in the spiritual arena. When we are under authority, we are in the cosmic army in an appropriate position. And God blesses us by sending angels as our ministering spirits. And I can't get into it in all detail. But it's just to anticipate the next point that when we reject all self-boasting, all self-serving, and we see ourselves as only having esteem in Christ and worth in Christ, then we also have the authority and power of Christ. Okay? We're actually seated with Him in the heavenlies. We're sitting on his throne. We're ruling over the nations, according to Ephesians. In fact, Revelation chapter two says, to those who are overcomers, in other words, to those who are willing to follow God's will, they are wholehearted for God. To those who are overcomers, he gives the right to wield that same rod, that iron rod of Christ, and to smash the nations with that rod of iron. It's an astounding authority that we have. But it's only ours, and the angels are only ours when we are in the chain of command. And though the symbol of coverings is simply a symbol and not the reality, it's still a powerful symbol. But we actually mock that symbol when we men have our wives wear head coverings, but we ourselves as men are not under authority. I mean, we're giving mixed signals when we do that. Or when you women wear the symbol of being under authority, but you're actually in rebellion to authority. There's a clash between symbol and reality that must bother the angels. Well, this brings us to the next glory in 1 Corinthians 11, and that is the glory of the woman mentioned in verse 15. But if a woman has long hair, It is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering." Now, it's a different word than the word for covering earlier in the chapter, and I don't want to get sidelined from glory by focusing on long hair. But just realize, however you interpret it, for the original Corinthians, the woman's hair was her glory. So there's three glories in this chapter. There's the glory of God, there's the glory of man, and there's the glory of the woman. Now the logic of Paul is that in a worship service, all glory should be covered except the glory of God. Since the man is the glory of God, he should not be covered. Since the woman is the glory of man, she should be covered with long hair. And since the long hair itself is the glory of the woman, in the worship service, the glory of the woman should also be covered. In other words, the long hair should also be covered. So long hair covers the glory of man, fabric covering covers the glory of the woman or covers her hair. And so Paul's argument in this chapter is just one of many applications of the doctrine of soli deo gloria. How does this work out in a worship service? And there's many other applications he makes in this book. Now where did he get this teaching? He got it from the Old Testament. For example, and there's many places where this is mentioned, but when the high priest went into the holy place to represent Israel, he temporarily was acting as the glory of Israel and had to put a covering on his head. Why? Well, because the glory of man had to be covered when he's entering into the presence of God. When he's in the holy place, he's not representing God to the people. In fact, the congregation is not even present. He's there all alone. In the holy place, he's a mediator representing man, but when the high priest came out of the tabernacle into the worship service of people, he was no longer representing man, he was representing God, and since he now represented the glory of God, the Scripture mandated that the priest take off his fabric head covering. Why? Because in the Old and the New Testaments, The worship services were designed in a God-centered way so that God's glory alone would symbolically shine through. I've written a book on 1 Corinthians 11 if you want to look at it in more depth, but hopefully this sermon, this introduction, helps you to get a tiny insight into Paul's passion for God's glory. Now, with that as a background, why don't you go back to 1 Corinthians 1. All appeals to self-esteem are buried beneath the cross of Christ in verses 26 through 28, and the reason given in verse 29 is that no flesh should glory in His presence. But Paul moves from the negative to the incredible positive in verses 30 through 31. Instead of self-esteem, it is Christ-esteem. And being esteemed as sons and daughters and princes and princesses, that's a whole lot better, isn't it? Whole lot better. Instead of glorying in your wisdom, what you should glory in, hey, you've got access. Anytime you need wisdom, you've got access to the very wisdom of God himself on an as-needed basis. James 1 says, if any one of you lacks wisdom, just ask of God. Now you gotta ask in faith, but you ask of God and it'll be generously given to you. Instead of glorying in our strength, God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. Verse 30 begins, but of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God. Now he starts by pointing out that Christ came because of the Father, not because of us. Sorry to disappoint you, but he didn't save you because he saw anything cool in you. There was nothing cool in you, okay? It says, but of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God. Gordon Fee explains this so well in his commentary. He said the contrasts themselves, which stand out in the Greek text, are difficult to transfer into English. Literally, Paul says, but of Him you are in Christ Jesus. Paul's point is clear. In contrast to the world, you owe your existence to the prior activity of God, which has been affected in history through Christ Jesus. As in the preceding sentence, all the emphasis falls on God's activity, activity expressed most vividly in human history in Christ Jesus. So it is soli deo gloria because, as another commentator pointed out, God is the ground, the reason, and the cause for Christ doing anything for us. It all originates in the Father's plan from eternity past. Thistleton also said, remains fundamental. All this is no product of human effort. It is through the initiative of God, without whom the Christian believers at Corinth would have remained the nothings of verse 28, soli deo gloria. But the second thing in verse 30 that is clear is that our only hope is by union with Jesus. It says, you are in Christ Jesus. God's plan to bless us came through Christ Jesus. We do not get one single thing that was not earned by Jesus and mediated by Jesus. He is our life. In fact, we are so identified with Christ. that Jesus told the former persecuting Saul of Tarsus when he was persecuting the church, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Okay, you're so united to Jesus and identified with him that when somebody persecutes you, they're actually persecuting Jesus. This is why Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. Your whole identity, your whole existence, your future comes because you are in Christ Jesus. And then he lists four things that flow from Christ. Jesus became for us wisdom from God. Now I won't get into all of this, but when you start studying from eternity past to eternity future, all that's involved in the plan of salvation, it is so wise that it makes your heart want to cry out just as it made Paul's heart want to cry out in Romans 11 when he said, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counselor? Or who was first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him? For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. The incredible wisdom of God and his plan leads every regenerate heart to give glory to God alone. And it's my hope that even as I've been going through these scriptures, your hearts have been warmed and saying, yes, Lord, I do glorify you. It's amazing. I was brought to tears by your prayer earlier, brother. It's just an incredible prayer when I considered the dust that we filter out that's an irritant to us. And just considering that God made that dust into his image. And he values us because it's what he did, not what we are intrinsically in ourselves. Anyway, that was just a powerful prayer. Anyway, the text does not just show Jesus to be wisdom personified and to show forth the wisdom of God, but it says, that Jesus became our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Now the word righteousness deals with our justification. Our works, we saw under Sola Fide, our works had nothing whatsoever to do with our justification. It's Jesus and his works that became our justification. None of our works were included. The word sanctification refers to our ongoing growth in holiness. It's only through Christ that we can be sanctified. Even though we are working 100%, in other words, we are diligent, we're very involved in our sanctification, Philippians 2, verses 11 through 12, say we can only work out what God's already been working in. And so even in sanctification, God gets the glory. Yes, we're working, and we need to be working, but we're working out what He's already worked in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He alone gets the glory for anything that will last by us for eternity. And the word redemption has three elements in its meaning. It means to liberate from bondage and slavery at great cost to God, that's the second part, and into the liberty of service to God. So we've been bought as slaves, we are slaves of Him. Now He treats us so well, He elevates us to sons and daughters, that's gracious, that's But the word redemption means to take out of slavery. So it not only deals with his ongoing rescuing of us out of bondage to various things that Satan wants us to be in bondage to, but eventually redeeming our bodies in the resurrection as well. And so you can see that those four words show that God planned our salvation to start in Christ, to continue in Christ, to be perfected in Christ. And since God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit planned our redemption from eternity past will carry our redemption to eternity future, our hearts ought to constantly be crying out solely, Deo gloria. And that's exactly what Paul cries out in verse 31. that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Now Thistleton points out that this verse brings into sharp focus the entire theme of the book of 1 Corinthians. Paul's passion, his heart cry is to do everything to God's glory and in worship to have nothing that does not point to his glory. Now, will he be successful in this? Yes, he will. Psalm 86 prophesies there's coming a time when all nations will glorify God. But in the meantime, we can model to a broken world the healing and the joy and the power that comes from glorifying God in everything that we do. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20 says we're to glorify God in our sexual purity, whether we are single or whether we are married. That means we can glorify God in our bodies. 1 Corinthians 10.31 says, therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. But Romans 2.23-24 says when we deliberately break God's laws, rather than glorifying Him, what happens is we are blaspheming the name of God among the Gentiles. We're blaspheming His name. God wants the church to showcase His holiness so that as Christ words it, they will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5, verse 16. So when we're not leading sanctified lives, the pagans look on and say, that's what it means to be a Christian. I don't see any difference between them and us. God's name is blasphemed. He is not being honored and glorified. 1 Timothy 6, 1 says, servants should go beyond the call of duty in serving their bosses well. Why? Because when they do that, God is glorified. And when they fail to do it, the text says God's name is blasphemed. Those are the only two results for everything that we do. We either blaspheme the name of God or we glorify the name of God. If God's grace is showcased, we're glorifying His name. If His grace is not showcased, we're blaspheming His name. We call ourselves sons of God. We wear His name. And we need to showcase His grace. Titus 2, 4 through 5 says the same thing about how women manage their homes, how they love their husbands, how they relate in day-to-day affairs. He says, you're either glorifying God or the name of God is being blasphemed. James 2, verse 7 says the same thing about how we treat the poor. Our engagement or failure to engage in mercy ministries either glorifies God's name or blasphemes his name. He says, do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? James 2 verse 7. And to me, it is such a tragedy that the name Christian no longer glorifies God today, but is a reproach to the name that we wear. And it's a reproach because the world is acting like the world. It reasons independently. It does not have its will and total submission to all of God's will. 1 Peter 4.16 says, how you handle adversity and persecution can either showcase God's grace or be an incredibly bad testimony about the fact you don't really live by God's grace. So Peter admonishes those undergoing persecution, yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. 1 Peter 4 verse 16, then he goes on to show them exactly how they can glorify God in the midst of tribulation and persecution. So the point is that living to God's glory is a practical doctrine that should impact everything that we do. Jesus said it should impact even the giving of a cup of cold water to you know, a visitor to your children, you know, when you're eating at the table after the worship service. It should affect how we discipline our kids, cuddle our kids, diaper them and, you know, and disciple our children. So may the scriptures that we have gone through this morning give you a renewed and a holy passion to live your lives solely Deo Gloria. Amen. Father, we recognize that many times we do not glorifies you as we ought. We do not even recognize the incredible extent to which you have ministered to us, that you have blessed us, that you have rescued us, that you have given to us so many beautiful, wonderful things. And we want our lives to be lived to your glory. We want our hearts to be constantly, as Kelvin said, on fire for you. Our hearts we offer you, Father. How can we do anything less when that you have given your only begotten son for us? Father, we want to love you more. We want the fierceness of our love to overwhelm anything, to keep us from being apathetic, to be totally sold out to you. And so we pray that as we respond to this sermon and song, you would be honored, you would be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen.