Sermon Tone Analysis

Sola Deo Gloria is one of the five solas propounded to summarize the Reformers' basic beliefs during the Protestant Reformation; it is a Latin term for Glory to God alone.

The doctrine states essentially that everything that is done is for God's glory to the exclusion of humankind's self-glorification and pride.

Christians are to be motivated and inspired by God's glory and not their own.

To constantly, consistently, and habitually give glory to God alone is another way to achieve the humility we are to strive for as believers.

God, through the Prophet Isaiah reminds us that all things must be done to the glory of God alone.

God decrees in this passage that a time is coming when every knee will bow in homage and every tongue confess that in the Lord alone are righteousness and strength.

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I.

A GOD OF GLORY SWEARS BY HIMSELF

* /“By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.”/

(Isaiah 45:23, NIV84)

#. it is so certain that men—all men—will bow their knee before a Sovereign God that the Lord has sworn by Himself that it will happen

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God say, By myself I have sworn ...

#. literally the phrase in Hebrew is As I live and is an oath

#. who else can God swear by since there is no one greater than He?

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God is about to utter a truth that cannot be revoked—it will absolutely come to pass

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God says /“ ... my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked ... “/

#. again the original Hebrew actually says, there has gone out from the mouth of righteousness a word, and it will not return

#. the mouth of righteousness is God’s mouth—it is a voice that speaks only right-ness

#. the emphasis is on God’s revelation

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God’s word is /efficacious/

#. efficacious means having the power to produce a desired effect

* ILLUS.

We see the efficaciousness of God’s word in the Creation Account—God merely spoke and things that were not came to be.

We also see the efficaciousness of God’s word in the Word—the incarnation of Jesus.

He became flesh and dwelt among us and in his life he accomplished exactly what God planned to accomplish—the redemption of sinners.

#. what has God spoken that will absolutely come to pass here in this passage?

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God declares that Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear

#. all men will sooner or later be in complete submission to the Lord God of Israel

!! A. ALL MEN WILL GLORIFY GOD

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God testifies that /“ ... Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear.”/

#. this declaration comes on the heels of God’s condemnation of idolaters where He reveals their folly in worshiping gods that cannot help them, and neglecting a God that can

#. in Isa.

45:20 He refers to those who pray to gods that cannot save and then, in Isa.

45:22 encourages all you ends of the earth to turn to me and be saved

#. the day will come when all men shall give glory to the Father

#. some will do so in joy

#. some will do so under compulsion

#. but all men shall give glory to the Godhead

* /“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”/

(Psalm 46:10, NIV84)

* /“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.

They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures.

They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen!

Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever.

Amen!”/ (Revelation 7:9–12, NIV84)

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Sola Deo Gloria—to the glory of God alone—is the overarching principle found throughout the Scriptures

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God is worthy of our honor, and our praise, and our worship, and our reverence, and our veneration, and our awe, and our adoration because he is a glorious God as revealed in His attributes, and His actions

* /"Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven,"/ (Psalm 148:13, ESV)

* /"to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ!

Amen."/ (Romans 16:27, ESV)

* /"to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.

Amen."/ (Jude 25, ESV)

* /"Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."/

(Revelation 15:4, ESV)

!! B. THE GLORY OF GOD IS REVEALED IN HIS SUPREMACY

* v. 22 /" ... for I am God and there is no other."/

#. you will never experience the full blessings of God until you recognize that Jehovah is God and you ain't

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He is supremely sovereign over all the created order

#. the average member of our society no longer has a reverence or holy fear of an awesome God

#. for many, God ranks right up there with Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Ferry

#. creatures of sentimentality who pass out blessings when we are "good" and who leniently wink at the "indiscretions" of our life as if they were insignificant

#. others see God as a cosmic Charlie Brown

#. wishy-washy to the core

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inept and never willing to carry through with what he says

#. never meaning what He says and never doing what he plans

#. like the un-believers of the first century, they scoff

* /"knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

4They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation."

5For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,"/ (2 Peter 3:3-5, ESV)

#. the lost man looks at himself and thinks, /"God can't be much different than I am."/

#. this is what Israel thought and God condemned them for it

* /"These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself.

But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you."/

(Psalm 50:21, ESV)

* ILLUS.

A.W. Pink, in his book The Attributes of God, writes, /"The 'god' of this ... century no more resembles the Supreme Sovereign of Holy Scripture than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun.

The 'god' who is now talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of in the ordinary Sunday School, mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day, and preached in most of the so-called Bible Conferences is the figment of human imagination, an invention of maudlin sentimentality."/

#. what’s even more amazing is that A.W. Pink wrote that in 1930! —can you imagine what he would say in 2011?

#. if you really want to know God you must catch a glimpse of the supremacy of God as Isaiah did

* /“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”/

(Isaiah 6:1–3, NIV84)

#. no where is God’s supremacy and sovereignty more clear than in the infinite distance that separates God in His Holiness and man in his sinfulness

* /“Woe to me!” I cried.

“I am ruined!

For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”/

(Isaiah 6:5, NIV84)

* ILLUS.

The Gospel Hymn—At Calvary—tells us, /"Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan!

Oh, the grace that bro't it down to man! Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span At Calvary."/

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God is absolutely supreme and sovereign

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He is supremely sovereign over the universe

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He is supremely sovereign over the affairs of nations

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He is supremely sovereign over the lives and will of men