Soli Deo Gloria and The Fall of Man
Genesis 3:1-24
April 15, 2018
Well as you know we have now begun the study of our final SOLA.
It is SOLI DEO GLORIA, or “The Glory of God Alone”
And I don’t mind telling you that this one SOLA makes my head swim.
Paul wrote:
Romans 11:34-36 “For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
When you are talking about studying the glory of God
You are talking biting off an enormous concept.
John Piper defined God’s glory as:
“the radiance of the intrinsic worth and beauty and greatness of his manifold perfections.”
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/soli-deo-gloria
So the study of the glory of God
Is a study of the depths of who God is
And all God is worth as He reveals all of who He is in all things.
I tend to agree with Charles Spurgeon who,
When commenting on Moses request that God would show him His glory, said:
“That was a large request for Moses to make. He could not have asked for more. “I beseech You, show me Your glory.” Why, it is the greatest petition that man ever asked of God!…“I beseech You show me Your glory.” Had he requested a fiery chariot to whirl him up to heaven. Had he asked to cleave the water-floods and drown the chivalry of a nation. Had he prayed the Almighty to send fire from heaven to consume whole armies, a parallel to his prayer might possibly have been found. But when he offers this petition, “I beseech You, show me Your glory,” he stands alone—a giant among giants—a colossus even in those days of mighty men! His request surpasses that of any other man—“I beseech You, show me Your glory.” Among the lofty peaks and summits of man’s prayer that rise like mountains to the skies, this is the culminating point. This is the highest elevation that faith ever gained—it is the loftiest place to which the great ambition of faith could climb—it is the topmost pillar of all the towering structures that confidence in God ever piled! I am astonished that Moses himself should have been bold enough to supplicate so wondrous a favor. Surely, after he had uttered the desire, his bones must have trembled, his blood must have curdled in his veins and his hair must have stood on end!”
http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols52-54/chs3120.pdf
To venture to see the glory of God is very intimidating thing indeed.
Beyond that, in the things in which God has revealed to us there is a depth that still cannot be fathomed.
When asked about the glory of God, it was Augustine who said, “I see the depth, but I cannot see the bottom.”
I don’t mind telling you that I am intimidated beyond my limits
To even approach this subject.
I am afraid of what I might find,
• No doubt a “Woe is me” moment as Isaiah did when he saw the Lord.
• Or like John who fell on his face like a dead man in the book of the Revelation.
You don’t just casually dig out the glory of God.
And I am also afraid that I might somehow mess it up.
• It is not false humility when I say I am in no way qualified to approach this.
• I’m not even really sure where to begin with it.
But here is where we are going to start,
And only God knows where we will go from here.
At least at the outset I want to study SOLI DEO GLORIA
As it is qualified by the other 4 SOLAS.
Certainly the glory of God far exceeds just the notion of justification
(As we noted last week.)
However, those other 4 SOLAS all speak in regard to justification.
We have even noted how they are not all necessarily true in regard to sanctification.
• Where we do not say Grace alone since man is clearly also required to work
out his salvation with fear and trembling.
Those SOLAS deal with regeneration and salvation.
And so I at least want to begin with our study of SOLI DEO GLORIA
As it relates to justification.
I WANT TO LOOK AT IT AS THE FITTING END TO THE OTHER 4 SOLAS.
And just to remind you of what we said last week.
SOLI DEO GLORIA requires that those first 4 SOLAS be true.
If salvation is not by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in God’s word alone, then it cannot be to the glory of God alone.
If you add any measure of human merit or works or inherent goodness to salvation then humanity can at least share in the credit.
THEY STAND OR FALL TOGETHER.
And because last time we read:
Isaiah 48:11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.”
We are supremely confident that the first 4 SOLAS are true
Because we know the fifth one is.
But let’s begin our discussion of SOLI DEO GLORIA,
Especially as it relates to the concept of justification.
And this we said last time as well.
The concepts of Regeneration, of Justification, of Redemption
Are all for the glory of God alone.
• Just as creation is not meant to glorify us…
• Just as judgment is not meant to glorify us…
• Neither is redemption meant to glorify us…
The justification of sinners is NOT a testimony to the sinner’s worth,
It IS a testimony to God’s grace and glory.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
There is no doubt from passages like that
Who deserves the glory regarding salvation.
IT IS ABOUT GOD REVEALING WHO HE IS.
And to kick things off, let me say it like this.
GOD COULD NOT FULLY GLORIFY HIMSELF
APART FROM REDEMPTION.
To put it another way:
If God were to fully reveal Himself in all His glory, then He must be a God who saves.
After all, if there were no salvation, if there were no redemption,
Then 90% of our hymnal would be erased.
We sing of His grace, we sing of His mercy,
We sing of His patience, we sing of His forgiveness.
We could not know any of those things about God
If redemption never occurred.
And I’m sure everyone agrees with me at that point.
But it’s at that point that I want you to THINK A LITTLE DEEPER tonight
And in so doing begin to see not only how glorious God is,
But also how passionate God is about His glory.
You already know we are looking at the text which reveals the fall of man.
So I want you to think about
The necessity of tragic events as they pertain to God’s glory,
And think about God’s sovereign prerogative over them.
I want to begin by having you think of some rather difficult or harsh events in the Bible of which we know why they happened.
Think for a moment about the story of Joseph.
• It is a harsh story.
• A young Jewish boy about 14 years old sold into slavery by his brothers, and seems to get one bad break after another.
• Until ultimately he becomes the salvation of his entire family and of the kingly line of Judah.
Now the question, which you all know the answer to is:
WHO SOLD JOSEPH INTO SLAVERY?
Genesis 45:4 “Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come closer to me.” And they came closer. And he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.”
Well that verse clearly says that Joseph’s brothers sold him there.
Then we read:
Genesis 45:8 “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”
And that verse says it was God who did it.
We have here the doctrinal issue known as COMPATIBILISM
Compatibilism is the belief that: “God’s predetermination is compatible with voluntary choice.”
In other words it is the theological answer to reconcile that every event in history is ordained by God without violating the free will of man.
And that is what was on display with Joseph.
• God allowed Joseph’s brothers to do exactly what they wanted to do,
• Which was sell their brother into slavery,
• And yet it was also exactly what God ordained to happen.
• God didn’t force Joseph’s brothers
• God gave them full autonomy to do whatever they wanted,
• But in the end they did exactly what He would decree.
• They certainly did it for different motive.
• They did it to destroy, God did it to redeem,
• But regardless of the different motive, the action was exactly the same.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE would be the affliction of God’s people by neighboring nations.
Consider Isaiah 10 and what God said about bringing Assyria to afflict Israel.
Isaiah 10:5-7 “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet it does not so intend, Nor does it plan so in its heart, But rather it is its purpose to destroy And to cut off many nations.”
There you see the compatibilism show up again.
• It was God’s will that Assyria afflict Israel.
• It was Assyria’s will to afflict Israel.
Again, the motives were different, God was using them to discipline, Assyria wanted to destroy, for which God would judge Assyria.
But again you see sinful man doing exactly what they want,
And it is also according to the ordained plan of God.
But without a doubt, the GREATEST EXAMPLE of this is found in the cross.
Acts 2:23 “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”
Acts 4:26-28 “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.”
• There we have Satan and the sinful Jews all doing to Jesus exactly what they wanted to do to Jesus.
• And yet, it was the perfectly ordained plan of God.
• God didn’t force them to crucify Jesus,
• They fought to do it,
• And yet that is precisely what God had ordained.
It is God working out His sovereign plan
Even through the will of sinful creatures.
And this is a mind-blowing reality
That God can have such providential and sovereign control.
Paul put it like this:
Ephesians 1:11 [God] “works all things after the counsel of His will,”
Do you believe that?
Do you believe that God “works all things after the counsel of His will”?
“all things”?
Scripture certainly seems to affirm that.
He ordains the fall of the sparrow
Matthew 10:29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”
He ordains the casting of the lot
Proverbs 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.”
He ordains the decisions of kings
Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes.”
He ordains the handicaps of the human body
Exodus 4:11 “The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”
He ordains the sickness of children
2 Samuel 12:15 “Then the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s widow bore to David, so that he was very sick.”
He ordains the loss and gain of money
1 Samuel 2:7 “The LORD makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts.”
He ordains the belief and suffering of His people
Philippians 1:29 “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,”
He ordains the repentance of sinners
2 Timothy 2:25 “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,”
He ordains life and death
1 Samuel 2:6 “The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.”
He ordains the slaughter of His people
Psalms 44:11 “You give us as sheep to be eaten And have scattered us among the nations.”
So you understand then what we are saying when we say that God ordains all things?
That’s good because we’re going to push that a little tonight.
We all seem to be ok with the tragic events in Scripture in which the human purpose is clearly revealed to us.
• We are ok with Joseph being sold because we see the human benefit to his family.
• We are ok with Israel being afflicted because we see the human benefit in their sanctification.
• We are ok even with the cross because we see the human benefit of salvation that comes with it.
But it’s the events of our world
Where the human benefit cannot be seen
That we struggle with.
When Carrie and I lived in Crawford a 90 year old great-grandmother pulled out in front of a pickup and had a wreck. She survived, but her two great-granddaughters were killed.
It is a seemingly inexplicable tragedy.
• Or we talk of young mothers who die of cancer leaving behind their families.
• Or we talk of young children with cancer fighting for life.
• Or other health deformities and such.
• Or we could talk about the more global issues like the tsunami or hurricane Katrina or the recent flood in Houston
They are difficult because we can’t see the human benefit in them.
More than one person has
Looked at those types of situations and blamed God.
We hear the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Or the philosophical argument which we referenced last time that:
If God is good He cannot be all-powerful and if He is all-powerful than He cannot be good.
And that rationale comes from tragedies like those listed above.
They don’t believe that a good God would allow such things to happen
If He had the power to stop it.
So based on the presence of inexplicable suffering
Either God’s goodness or His power is called into question.
Now MOST EVANGELICALS have tried to answer that question
And to absolve God of any blame by pointing to the fall.
They say, “Those things are not the way God intended it to be. He certainly didn’t create the world like this. Rather, sin did this, and now we are living in a society that suffers under those effects.”
(And I confess, in the past, I was one of them)
And that answer has seemed for the most part
To pacify believers who aren’t interested
In thinking any deeper about the subject than that.
But let’s look back at this fall for a moment.
(it’s an abbreviated look)
#1 THE CALL OF SIN
Genesis 3:1-7
Now certainly you remember the story.
Adam and Eve live in perfection.
What is more, Adam and Eve are perfection.
• They have been created in God’s likeness.
• Adam has no predisposition to sin.
Is Adam able to sin? Obviously
But Adam was not in bondage to sin.
Adam certainly had moral liberty to do whatever he desired.
And yet, here came sin.
It came in the form of a serpent tempting Eve to eat of the forbidden tree.
Satan sort of accuses God of being stingy by asking “Indeed has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
And of course you know that was an exaggeration.
There was only one tree of which they could not eat,
And Eve revealed that to the serpent.
Eve even revealed that if they ate of that tree, or touched it they would die.
To which Satan accused Eve of being too literal in her Bible interpretation, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like god, knowing good and evil.”
And then we read the awful event that Eve looked at the fruit
And saw that it was good,
And it appealed to her and she ate it
And gave some to Adam who was there with her.
And verse 7 reveals the immediate shame which resulted.
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”
Now I will tell you that WHY ADAM ATE has been a mystery to the church for centuries, and it will forever remain a mystery.
No one can figure out why Adam transgressed the command of God without having a sin-nature which would have caused him to desire it.
It’s simply a mystery and we are ok with mysteries.
It causes us to remember that we aren’t God.
But there are some things I want you to ponder about that story, especially as it relates to the concept of unexplained tragedy in our lives.
As we said, this is where theologians love to go
When looking for an answer for senseless suffering.
I remember a pastor I tutored under for a while who referenced a wreck where a young girl lost her life and while visiting with the family one family member said, “I guess it was just God’s will.”
To which he quickly replied, “It’s not the will of God to kill innocent children. God didn’t do this, sin did this.”
Well that certainly sounds good,
But IF THAT IS TRUE then we have a few more questions left to answer.
An Armenian, who seeks to maintain his belief in free will, will say,
“Well, Adam did this of his own free will, but that is not what God wanted.”
And so they pin the blame all on Adam.
And again, that sounds good.
So we ask our Armenian friends.
(as many atheists have done in debate over the years).
Could God not have prevented this?
An Armenian has to answer “yes” because he believes God is omnipotent.
The next question then is, why didn’t He?
• And the Armenian says because God was preserving the precious right of free-will.
• God was refusing to violate man’s free-will so even though He could stop it, He chose not to so that man would always have a choice.
And this is where Atheists point both barrels at our theology.
They simply say, “So God had the ability to stop cancer, or tsunamis, or hurricanes, or drunk-driving accidents, or miscarriages, or mass shootings, but He chose not to because He didn’t want to offend Adam’s sense of free-will”
And I’ve seen many evangelicals squirm under that scrutiny.
Because here is what Armenians cannot escape.
The ability to do the right thing
Constitutes a responsibility to do the right thing.
That is basic ethical morality.
If you see a car wreck on the highway in front of you, you can actually be prosecuted if you fail to stop and render aid.
And this is where the Atheists tee off on God.
If God knew it would happen then why didn’t He stop it?
I’ll go farther than that.
• If God knew it would happen, why did He put that tree there?
• If God knew it would happen, why did He give Eve to Adam?
• If God knew it would happen, why did He allow Satan to enter the garden?
Have you ever pondered this?
Well certainly God did know it would happen, and yet He did all those things.
• He created the tree
• He created the woman
• He created the devil and turned him loose
Ponder that for a moment.
The Call of Sin
#2 THE CULPRIT OF SIN
Genesis 3:8-13
Now this we almost find humorous because here
God confronts Adam and Eve in the middle of their sin
And the blame game quickly commences.
And look, we CAN accurately say at this moment that God did not do this, nor did God cause this.
• Did God tempt Adam? No
• Did God make him eat? No.
• God didn’t do this, sin did this.
And to an extent that is also true of those senseless tragedies.
But what I want you to see here is that
EVEN ADAM IS AWARE OF THE DILEMMA
That we are now discussing.
Namely, If God knew it was going to happen, then why did He not stop it?
Did you hear Adam’s response to God?
(12) “The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
Adam is asking that same question as the atheist.
If you knew she was going to cause this, then why did you give her to me?
And you’ll notice that when God turns His attention towards Eve she says basically the same thing.
(13) “Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Now she doesn’t say, “The serpent that You let in the garden”,
BUT I THINK THAT’S HER POINT.
She also wants to know, why didn’t You stop this?
They are referring to who is the real culprit here.
And that is what we are asking.
Whose fault is it?
• If God could have stopped it, why didn’t He?
• If God knew it was going to happen, why did He let it play out?
The Call of Sin, The Culprit of Sin
#3 THE CURSE OF SIN
Genesis 3:14-19
And we are also familiar with the curses that are listed here.
• We know about the enmity of the serpent
• We know about the pain of the woman.
• We know about the toil of the man.
But the question we have to address here is the SOURCE of the curse.
As I said, we see tragedies in this world all the time
And the main question that people ask is why did God do this?
And someone will answer, “God didn’t do it, sin did, this is a result of the fall.”
But let me ask you, “WHO CURSED THIS WORLD?”
• God did.
• God pronounced the curse on the serpent.
• God pronounced the curse on the woman.
• God pronounced the curse on the man.
• God pronounced the curse on the ground.
Later, when Noah is born we hear his father say:
Genesis 5:28-29 “Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and became the father of a son. Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed.”
They knew who cursed this world.
God did it.
Do you see where I am going with this?
To blame all human suffering and unthinkable tragedy on the curse
DOES NOT GET GOD OFF THE HOOK.
Instead of cursing the world, why didn’t God just squash Adam and start over?
• It wasn’t the ground’s fault that Adam ate.
• It wasn’t my fault that Adam ate.
• It wasn’t that baby with cancer’s fault that Adam ate.
It’s starting to make God look bad again.
That’s why so many have tried to separate God from the event
And claim He didn’t want it to happen.
He just let man have free will and that’s what happened.
But even that answer doesn’t get around
Why God allowed it when He knew full-well it was coming?
Well, let me take you one step further.
Friend God did not allow the fall.
GOD ORDAINED IT.
• God didn’t just know it was going to happen, God predetermined it.
• God arranged it.
• God appointed it to occur.
The fall of man was as much the predetermined plan of God
As the sale of Joseph, the affliction of Assyria,
And the crucifixion of Christ.
Like those events, at the fall you have God allowing man to do what he wills, and at the same time he ends up accomplishing exactly what God predetermined to occur.
Paul Washer put it like this:
“God’s ordaining of the fall does mean that it was certain to happen. It was God’s will that Adam be tested, and it was God’s will to let Adam both stand and fall alone without the divine aid which could have kept him from falling. God could have hindered Satan from laying the temptation before Eve, or in the face of such temptation He could have given Adam special sustaining grace to enable him to triumph over it. From the testimony of the Scriptures, we understand that He did not.
God’s ordaining of the fall also means that it was a part of His eternal plan. Before the foundation of the world, before the creation of Adam and Eve and the serpent that tempted them, before the existence of any garden or tree, God ordained the fall for His glory and the greater good of His creation. He did not merely permit our first parents to be tempted and then wait to react to whatever choice they made. He did not merely look through the corridors of time and see the fall. Rather, the fall was a part of God’s eternal plan and He predetermined or predestined that it should and would happen.”
https://austind90.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/did-god-ordain-the-fall-by-paul-washer/
Now, that DOES NOT mean that God ordains sin.
• He does not.
• God did not make Adam sin.
• God did not tempt Adam to sin.
• God is not the author of sin.
When we talked about the culprit of sin a moment ago,
The emphatic answer is that IT WAS NOT GOD.
He did not cause them to sin.
But He did ordain the fall.
It is that compatibilism we spoke of.
He ordains an event to occur and then
Brings it to pass through the willful sin of men.
God ordained the fall.
And if God ordained the fall, then we must say by extension
That all of the suffering and all of the pain and all of the tragedies
Which we see in this world were also ordained by Him.
How else could you possibly see it?
When a car wreck takes a young life are we really to say, “God couldn’t do anything about that, sin just beat Him there.”?
Are we to look at a tsunami and say, “God tried to stop it, but Satan was just too strong”?
CERTAINLY NOT!
What did we read earlier in Ephesians?
“God works all things after the counsel of His will”
GOD ORDAINED THE FALL.
And that most certainly brings up a universal question.
WHY?
Why would God do such a thing?
One more point:
The Call of Sin, The Culprit of Sin, The Curse of Sin
#4 THE CLOTHING OF SIN
Genesis 3:20-24
What occurred there?
It was the first ever act of grace and atonement.
(21) “The LORD god made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”
• It was the first picture of the coming death of Christ.
• It was the first picture of substitutionary atonement.
• For the first time God punished one who didn’t deserve it that He might benefit one who did deserve punishment.
Now think about this for a moment.
If Adam doesn’t sin and creation doesn’t fall.
• Then we never now of mercy
• And we never know of grace
• And we never know of redemption
• And we never see Christ exalted in death
• And we never see Christ raised in glory
• And we never see heaven exalting the Lamb who was slain
There is glory and truth about God that we never know without the fall.
And do you remember what we said at the very first of our sermon?
(which you agreed with)
“God could not fully glorify Himself apart from redemption”
Romans 11:30-32 “For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”
And this is true, not just for sin and forgiveness.
• If there is no sickness, we never know God as healer.
• If there is no danger, we never know God as protector.
• If there is no hunger, we never know God as provider.
• If there is no poverty, we never know God as sufficient.
But through the fall we know see God as the glorious redeemer that He is.
BEYOND THAT, through Christ our salvation and our glory is now more secure than even Adam’s was.
Adam was clothed in perfection in the garden,
A perfection that was NOT SECURE.
Adam proved that.
But now we are clothed in Christ
And our glory in Christ is secure, and CANNOT BE LOST.
John Owen said that God’s design through the ordaining the fall is: “to recover things to such an estate as shall be exceedingly to the advantage of his glory, infinitely above what at first appeared, and for the putting of sinners into inconceivably a better condition than they were in before the entrance of sin.”
http://thecripplegate.com/john-owen-on-why-god-decreed-the-fall/
According to Owen
• By reason of the Fall and the subsequent redemption that is found in Christ,
• Not only has God revealed more of His glory,
• But He has also succeeded in now placing us in a better condition than Adam
was in.
• Adam didn’t know about mercy before the fall, but after the fall he did.
• Adam couldn’t sing about grace before the fall, but after the fall he could.
• Adam couldn’t rejoice in the love of God before the fall, but after the fall he
could.
• Adam wasn’t secure in his status before the fall, but after the fall he was.
So let’s sum this thing up
And I’m sure we’ll come back to many areas of it later.
WHY DID GOD ALLOW THE FALL?
And here is the reason:
BECAUSE REDEMPTION
IS MORE GLORIOUS THAN CREATION.
God did it for His glory.
And we benefit from that.
Everything God ordains is for His glory.
• Even the fall of man
• Even the cursing of this world
We have trouble with it because we can’t see the human benefit.
(It’s there, we just don’t readily see it)
We benefit because we know have more knowledge of God,
And we have a more sure standing before Him through Christ.
It all works to the ultimate glory of God
And the benefit of man whose greatest satisfaction
Is to enjoy God who is glorious.
We’ll stop there and continue on next time.
