PAPERS F R O M T H E F A L L S C H U R C H LIVING UNDER THE MERCY 10. Christ the King: Soli Deo Gloria A sermon preached by The Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs, Missionary Bishop, Convocation of Anglicans in North America November 26, 2017 Romans 16:25-27; John 17:1-5 Here we are, Thanksgiving weekend 2017, and some of you might be breathing a sigh of relief, not because the eating is over, but because from September until now you have been going week by week through a study of Paul s letter to the Romans! Here, this morning, we close up this book. Well, I pray that the Bible and this epistle will not be closed, but rather made open by God the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher and our guide. I pray and trust that you will have learned to love this epistle to the Romans, or perhaps even better, that you will have learned to love more and serve the Lord who is at the very center of this epistle, the Lord of whom the epistle speaks from first until last. It was the translator William Tyndale, born in the late fifteenth century, the translator of the first English text of the Bible, who says in his prologue to the Epistle to the Romans, Go to, reader, and according to the order of Paul s writing, even so, do thou. How fitting for us, in these concluding verses this morning. Go to, reader, and according to the order of St. Paul s writing, even so, do thou. So I encourage you to open the Bible with me to Romans 16, wrestling with the word of God, learning from it, obeying it, going into it, and doing what the Lord says. When John Yates called me some weeks ago, he asked if I would preach from those last three verses in Romans chapter 16. Isn t it glorious that Paul s conclusion of this mighty sixteen-chapter epistle, a magnificent end, is a conclusion of praise? You can sense it, can t you, as you read the verses through, that at the back of Paul s mind all those great themes which he has been expanding verse after verse, chapter after chapter, are fleshing out and representing themselves in a sense in which he can t let them go. They are still there. The great themes of this epistle are before him. But much more than that, the great God of this letter is at the very center of Paul s concluding praise. In a moment, I am going to ask three questions. In a sense, I am going to ask them of the Apostle Paul, drawing out something of the truth of this weighty epistle, because clearly, the theme here of these last verses is glory to God! To God be the glory! Paul began his letter to the Romans by bearing witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of David. And at the end of the letter, just like Mary, he gives glory to God and magnifies his holy name. In the gospels, you will recall, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the glory of God was also the theme then. The shepherds, do you recall, were in their fields at night, and suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and peace to those with whom he is pleased. That was the theme of the heavenly angels. But here, in Romans 16, glory to God for Christ is the theme of men, the theme of one man, the Apostle Paul. But let me ask
2 you this morning: Has this theme of the angels glory to God in the highest and has this theme of the Apostle Paul glory to God for Christ has this become your theme, your anthem? You see, the Apostle Paul is never content in any of his writings simply to open his mouth and declare praise. He wants to be specific and definite, and he wants to set before us the very reasons for which his praise is given. And here in these verses he does just that. Here is my first question for the Apostle Paul, the writer of this epistle. Paul, to whom is glory due? Look with me at the passage. In verse 25, Paul answers immediately. To whom? To him! To God! This seems so obvious and apparent, and yet here in these final verses of Romans 16, Paul defines the character of his God and ours. He says, Glory to God, this God, and he says two things about this God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to this God who is able to strengthen you. He uses a word which means to make fast, to establish, to confirm. It s used of Jesus, when Luke describes his resolute determination to go to Jerusalem, even though our Lord knew he faced death when he arrived there. Glory to this God, who is able to strengthen you to stay the course, no matter what the cost. This is so important for us in our day and in our generation. God strengthening us to stay the course, no matter how severe the trial, no matter how difficult the pain. Right at the very beginning of this epistle, in Romans 1, Paul says in verse 11 to these same Christians, I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. And here, at the very end of the epistle, Paul writes, Now to God, now to him who is able to strengthen you. I long to strengthen you, and many verses later, To God be the glory. He is able to strengthen you. In my younger days, I loved to feast on McDonald s Big Macs. That s before I became a long-distance runner; that particular source of joy has been cut off from me now! But I notice as I reflect on those meals that there were three parts to them: a sesame-seed bread top and bottom, a meaty center, with salad (there was always a little bit of salad, so that was good), mixed together with a whole lot of gunge on the top. Oh, but it was so good! In Romans chapter 1, Paul lays his three-part foundation, not a sesame-seed bun. He says, I want to strengthen you. And from chapter 1, verse 12, through chapter 16, verse 23, he does just that. He feeds the Christians with nourishing, strengthening, satisfying food, and then he caps it off, not with gunge, but with glory: glory be to God. Glory to this God of the letter to the Christians of Rome, who is able to strengthen you to stay the course, no matter how severe the trial, or serious the temptation, or difficult the pain, or tragic the circumstances. Whatever it might be for you this morning, whatever it is that you are facing a challenging marriage, the intensity of a career, a reoccurring failure the God of the Bible, says Paul, the God whom we worship in this building this morning, he will strengthen you. Amen? Who is worthy of praise and glory? Paul s answer: It s God! The God who is able to strengthen you, notice, writes Paul, according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. Where do we find our strength? Where do we go to receive our encouragement? Where do we go to hear a word from God the Holy Spirit? Paul says here, it is from the gospel, from the written word of Christ. This, brothers and sisters, is Paul s counsel. He says, I want to encourage you, strengthen you. He feeds us with the gospel, with Christ, and we are strengthened and established to stay the Christian journey in life. It s so very reassuring.
3 As you have journeyed through this sermon series from Romans, has God fed you? Paul s purpose in writing this letter which we have before us is that Christians like us here at The Falls Church Anglican in Arlington, Virginia, might be made firm and solid, rooted and anchored as Christians, not tossed about, not wavering, not swept here and there, but standing firm for Christ and in Christ. To God be the glory! He is able to do it. He is able to establish you. He is able to strengthen you by the gospel, the proclamation that Jesus Christ is the Anointed King. This is why, brothers and sisters, preaching the word of God must and it must always be a priority in our churches and in our lives, because we are strengthened by God himself as the gospel is being proclaimed. It s an incredible thing, isn t it? He is doing it right now, as the gospel is being proclaimed. By the power of his Holy Spirit, he is strengthening us for our work and worship in this world. But notice not only is God able to strengthen us. Look at verse 27. This is the only wise God. Yes, the one who can strengthen us, to him be the glory, to the only wise God. Charles Hodge, at the end of his fine commentary on this epistle says, God alone is wise. He charges his angels with folly; and the wisdom of men is foolishness with him... Men [and women] should not presume to call in question what he has revealed, or consider themselves competent to sit in judgment on the truth of his declarations or the wisdom of his plans. Why? To the only wise God be glory, who is worthy of our worship. So Paul, to whom is glory due? Glory to this God, to the God who is able to strengthen you, the only God who is wise. In her nineteenth-century hymn, In Heavenly Love Abiding, Anna Waring writes: His wisdom ever waketh, His sight is never dim; He knows the way He taketh, And I will walk with Him. Have you learned that very hard lesson of life, that God s way and God s path are right? This is such a hard lesson for so many of us, but one the Apostle Paul has learned through the church and through his own life. He knew that the Lord s way was wise, and Paul illuminates this theme of God s wisdom back in chapter 11. Can you recall it? Where, after what can only be described as the New Testament s most comprehensive teaching regarding the Jewish people, Paul says, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! So, to God be the glory! He is able to strengthen you. To God be the glory! His ways are wise. But Paul the apostle knew there was another reason to praise God. The wisdom of God is not just displayed by God s plan for the Jewish people, in a life, in your life, even in Paul s life. No, look. The wisdom of God is supremely displayed in another life. It s displayed in the life of Jesus Christ. This is where we see the wisdom of God, and Paul exhorts us here to look again to Christ. If you want to see what God is like, you need to look at Jesus. In him the invisible becomes visible. There is nothing of God that we need to know that cannot be seen in Jesus. The mind of Jesus is the mind of God. The words of Jesus are the words of God. The actions of Jesus are the actions of God. The attitudes of
4 Jesus are the attitudes of God. God is holding nothing back from us which will not be found in Jesus. In him the unknowable can be known. So look at him. Look at Jesus, Christ the King. Here he is, this Sunday morning, able to strengthen you, to establish you. Look at him. Worship him, the only wise God. To whom is glory due? Paul says, glory be to God alone. No wonder that Paul concludes on this note of worship and praise, because Paul knows that the gospel shows us who God is, the God who strengthens us, the only wise God, glory be unto him. Amen! Here is the second question that I would like to ask Paul. Paul, why do you praise him? This God who strengthens, the only wise God, why do you praise him? Why do we praise him this morning? We have gathered here in this building to praise Almighty God. Why? Look with me in our passage, in verse 26: because he has made known to us the gospel. Paul says, I ve preached the gospel. It s been entrusted to me. I ve shared the gospel. I ve proclaimed the gospel, and I worship him. I give glory to him because of the gospel. Yes, we praise God for answered prayer, in good times and in bad, and it s right that we should do so. And yet, brothers and sisters, we have a gospel, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. To God be the glory! The gospel leads us to worship him, and it s good news. The theme of this letter to Rome, the good news, is that it leads people to praise God. It reveals to us his written word. It is why we praise him. Since the sixteenth century, Reformation Anglicans have believed that the Bible contains all things necessary for salvation, that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not required of any person. That is why we praise him. He has given us the gospel. One of the clergy in my diocese sent me a report recently about the state of this gospel, about the Bible in the United States of America. The report was commissioned by the American Bible Society and conducted by the Barna Group. It reports that 81 percent of Americans believe this nation is in moral decline, but they see hope for change where? In the pages of the Bible. That s why we praise God. The Bible contains all things necessary for our salvation. I trust that you are reading the Bible daily, sharing the Bible regularly, studying the Bible often. This is the word of God, and it is why we praise him this morning. I have said on a number of occasions that I want to provoke a national conversation about the Bible. I wonder if you will pray with me in that? My aim is to inspire a widespread adult reading of the New Testament right across America. I want this nation to understand some of the issues that are at stake as we read the Bible. I want our nation to see what a surprising man Jesus is. I want to trace something of his impact on the world, and I want this nation to see that there is a trajectory that suggests there is more to come. Writing on verse 26 of this passage, the Reverend Dr. Lee Gatiss, an Anglican minister, theologian, and Director of Church Society in the United Kingdom, says this: This doxology acknowledges that the gospel is a mystery formerly kept secret for long ages past but now revealed in the coming of Jesus. This new disclosure of what was planned from eternity brings an aha! moment for all, but especially for the Gentiles, who see for the first time in the prophetic writings of the Old Testament their own place in the cosmic plan of God. What was there by command of the most wise God, but somewhat concealed in prophecies, now snaps into focus with the coming of the King, a glorious King, who commands the loving loyalty and obedient trust of all the nations under heaven.
5 That is why we praise him! So the first question, to whom is glory due? Paul answers, to the only God who is able to strengthen you, to the only wise God. Question two, why do you praise him? Because he has made known to us, he has made known to the nations, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now for my third question. If this is the God whom you glorify, Paul, if this is the God you worship, then who brings glory to God? Who? In John s Gospel, chapter 17, Jesus said, Father,... I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. Throughout this weighty epistle, Paul declares that Christ has brought glory to God and that the gospel brings glory to God, but, my brothers and sisters, so too can your response to the gospel your life, your singleness, your marriage, your speech, your business, the way you use your money, your time, your vocation it all exists, you exist to bring glory to God. Many of you know that 2017 marks the 500 th anniversary of the Reformation. The reformers sought to reorient Christianity upon the original message of Jesus and the early church: Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. It s God s glory alone that must be understood as the very center that draws all those other alones into a grand, unified whole. The fact that salvation is by faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, without any meritorious contribution on our part, ensures that all glory is God s. It s his, and not ours. The highest purpose of God s plan for salvation in Christ made known in the Scriptures is not our blessedness, wonderful though that might be. The highest priority of God s plan of salvation in Christ is God s own glory. What a privilege we enjoy in that God is pleased to glorify himself through the salvation of wretched sinners like you and like me, because that is what we are. And yet, in Christ, we are made instruments of the manifestation of the glory that belongs to God. It s incredible. It s why I believe that Archbishop Cranmer, in his 1552 Anglican Prayer Book, places what we call the Gloria not at the beginning of the liturgy, no, but at the very end. For when we gather in church, especially as Anglicans, Sunday by Sunday, to participate in worship, when we break bread together, we come to the table saying, We do not presume. We walk from the table saying, Glory to God alone. As God has been worshiped, as his word has been read and proclaimed, as sin has been confessed and forgiven and absolved, surely the only fitting response is to declare praise. Glory be to God on high, and peace to his people on earth. My dear brothers and sisters, on this Christ the King Sunday morning, as we conclude our study of this epistle, may God glorify himself in all his works. May our thoughts and our worship revel in the glory of the living Christ, even in the midst of this age of spiritual and moral declension. And may we, the undeserving yet ever-blessed beneficiaries of such a great salvation, live for his glory now, as we await the dawning of that day when he glorifies us together with his Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. An audio version of this sermon may be heard through a link on the church s website, www.tfcanglican.org. It is also available on CD if you or someone you wish to give it to would find that more convenient. CDs are available for $4.50 from the Sermon Ministry, email: bookstore@tfcanglican.org, or The Falls Church Anglican, 6565 Arlington Blvd., Suite 300, Falls Church, VA 22042.