PAULS’ DOXOLOGY OF PRAISE FOR HIS SALVATION
(I Tim. 1:17)
TEXT FOR THE DAY
17Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen . . . God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. (I Tim. 1:17, 6:15,16).
IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, GOD ONLY WISE
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most bless’d, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great Name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice, like mountains, high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.
To all, life Thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish; but naught changeth Thee.
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render; O help us to see
‘Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee,
INTRODUCTION:
WHAT IS A DOXOLOGY AND THE MEANING OF DOXOLOGY?
Doxology (from Doxa/glory and logos/word) is an ascription of praise to the One addressed, evidencing the completeness of the prayer. It is the highest point of verbal expression of the faith community.
Doxology: formulaic ascription of praise to God, encountered in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition. The best-know doxologies of the Christian church are Gloria in Excelsis or the great doxology; Gloria Patri, or the lesser doxology; and the closing stanza of Thomas Ken’s morning and evening hymns, beginning, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” sung to the tune Old Hundredth from the Genevan Psalter.
All people who use “The Book of Common Prayer” are familiar with what is referred to as Gloria Patri. Before and after the praying of the Psalms in the Morning and Evening Services the Gloria Patri is also recited at the end of the Canticles. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen
SOME NEW TESTAMENT DOXOLOGIES:
Question: Can you name any of the NT doxologies? What are the references?
14May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (II Cor. 13:14).
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Eph. 3:20-21).
20May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21).
24To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy– 25to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen (Jude 24-25)
TWO DOXOLOGIES IN I TIMOTHY
Read I Tim. 1:12-17, read I Tim. 6:15-16.
ANALYSIS OF I TIM. 1:17 & 6:15-16
1. BACKGROUND.
a. A poet wrote a song in honor of a leader that rescued his city: For other gods are either far away or have not ears, or do not exist, or pay no heed to us at all: but you we can see in very presence, not in wood and not in stone, but in truth. And so we pray to you. (From Alexander to Cleopatra, Michael Grant, and Pg. 96).
b. “The evolution of Ptolemaic ruler-worship was now complete, and by the end of the century there were priests not only of Alexander the Great, but also of each pair of deceased Ptolemies since his time, in addition to the reigning king and queen themselves.” (Ibid, pg. 97)
c. The ancient Greek kings sought to trace their lineage back to the Greek and Roman gods. Antiochous I Soter formally deified his father as Nicator (Conqueror). Not long afterwards a royal Seleucid ruler-cult was duly established, with high priests of the living king and his divine ancestors (ibid, pg. 97).
d. Kings gave themselves titles like Soter which means Savior, Theos which means god and Epiphanes which means manifest. So a name like Savior God Manifest would include the words Soter, Theos and Epiphanes. Theopater was also a name used, which means “son of a divine father.”
e. The Romans also had gotten into the deification of their rulers with the ascension of Augustus, the nephew of Julius Cesar.
f. The ancient world had no problem with deifying mere mortals. It seems to me that Paul used this doxology of praise to show the unique distinctness of the Christian community in their worship and belief about how God is.
2. THE KING (The blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, Lord of Lords)
a. The Weaknesses of a democracy. What are the weaknesses of a democracy?
b. Israel, originally, was a “Theocracy” where God was their only king. The people plead for a king and God gave them Saul. Yet there was constant awareness that only God was their King.
You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob (Psalm 44:4).
But you, O God, are my king from of old; You bring salvation upon the earth (Psalm 74:12).
For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us (Isaiah 33:22).
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zech. 9:9).
c. There will only be a valid and viable democracy when Christ sets up his viable reign on earth. In the meantime our final allegiance is to God. He is our king. He is our “King of kings and Lord of lords.”
3. ETERNAL
a. “King Eternal” is “King of the Ages”, beyond the fluctuations of time.
b. We have to remember that time and space were created. Prior to the creation of time there was no time or space. The “eternity” of God is a difficult concept for us to grasp.
c. The problem with the Greek kings is that they wanted to be eternal but they all had a beginning, a time of birth, there was always a “before” they existed. God has no past or future.
Thy life is one unwearing day;
Before its Now Thou hast
No varied future yet unlived,
No lapse of changeless past.
Thou comest not, Thou goest not;
Thou wert not, wilt not be;
Eternity is but a thought
By which we think of Thee.
Thy vastness is not young or old;
Thy life hath never grown;
No time can measure out Thy days,
No space can make Thy throne.
d. Understanding that God is “eternal” gives us a different perspective on our “time sojourn” on earth.
4. IMMORTAL (Who alone is immortal).
a. We use the word “mortality rate” but seldom refer to ourselves as mortals.
b. The old hymns referred to humankind as mortals often: Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned – “No mortal can with him compare, Among the sons of men.” The Comforter Has Come – “To wondering mortals tell the matchless grace divine.” When Morning Gilds the Skies – “Let mortals to upraise their voice in hymns of praise.” Rejoice, the Lord is King – “Mortals, give thanks and sing and triumph evermore.”
c. God alone is immortal; he never dies (unless He clothes himself in a human body as Christ did.) When we accept His salvation we too become immortal, but our immortality is a gift from Him, His immortality is inherent in His nature.
Father! the sweetest, dearest Name.
That men or angels know!
Fountain of life that had no fount
From which itself could flow!
Thy life is deep within Thyself,
Sole Unbegotten Sire!
But Son and Spirit flow from Thee
In coeternal fire.
d. The Greek/Roman kings had a second problem. We know their birth dates, they were not eternal, and we know their death dates. They were not immortal.
Illustration: Herod, in Acts 12:21-23 – “On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.”
- INVISIBLE (who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.)
a. Man’s inborn desire for a visible god. Any image of God was outlawed by in the Ten Commandments. This was a major distinction between Judaism and paganism for thousands of years.
b. The veneration of icons became a major issue in the Eastern Church
“I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. I will not cease from honoring that matter which works for my salvation. I venerate it, thought not as God.” (John of Damascus, 675-753).
As a result of a volcano in the Mediterranean the Emperor Leo in 730 commanded the destruction of all icons, mosaics, statutes and the iconoclasts (image smashers) went to work. The debate in the Eastern Church raged for years causing the death or injury of 100,000 Christians. In the end the iconoclasts lost the conflict and icons are an integral part of Orthodox worship to this day.
C. Do Evangelicals treat God as visible? How? Jesus setting in a chair next to me while I pray / talk to Him. Pictures of Jesus in churches, in movies, in homes. In Hebrews 11:27 we read,
By faith he [Moses] forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible (Heb. 11:27).
d. He is invisible because He is light, He lives in unapproachable light.
Enthroned among the radiant spheres,
He glory like a garment wears,
To form His robe of light divine,
Ten thousands suns around Him shine.
e. Show the hymn “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” and point to the “light” verses, especially the last stanza.
6. THE ONLY GOD.
a. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one” (Isa. 44:8).
b.6yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live (I Cor. 8:6).
c. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, … (I Tim. 2:5)
SO WHAT?
- You Greeks, our God is the only God. He is also our king. He is eternal, no birth date and immortal, no tombstone with a death date. And, yes, you cannot see Him. He hides himself in unapproachable light. Our knowledge of God is important.
2. A.W. Tozer said a people never rise higher than their knowledge of who God is. Could that be one of the problems with Islam?
3. Do you ever thank God for His attributes, who He is. Let’s meditate upon and thank him for being our eternal, immortal, invisible King, the sole God in our universe.