Behaving for the Glory of God

Introduction

I think there are really two approaches to this series. I think either someone can look at this series and see how difficult things are to see one’s own sinfulness, and one’s own idolatry

And with this morning’s message one’s own pride and think, “this is a lot of work”.

Or I think someone can look at this series and think, “I have so much opportunity in the word of God to behold God and to create meaningful change in my life”.

So the point isn’t to create more work or decrease your enjoyment in life, its to point out the fact that there are tons of places in Scripture where God is shown to be incredible enjoyable and magnificently excellent.

And that a natural consequence of beholding God is that we would be motivated to behave godly.

But as we mentioned it’s not automatic. There must be an intention and an attitude that person has when beholding God to behave godly for God’s glory.

So the goal this morning is to help instruct is more in the attitude that we should have so that we can behave godly for God’s glory.

I think two of the most difficult subjects to tackle are idolatry and pride.

Two things that are probably the essence of everything that is wrong with us. Which probably why it’s so difficult, because of how universal these two issues are to all of us and all of our issues.

Thankfully, there is a cure. And that cure is the eclipsing of ourselves with the glory of God.

Behold the Immensity of God

Recently, me and my family went to the zoo. And I couldn’t help but notice something rather interesting when we came to the polar bear exhibit.

Before getting there my older two kids were acting as they normally do. And before we even got to the zoo, my wife and

One of the best definitions for immensity is provided by our text this morning.

(ESV)

1 Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.”

Two things that God didn’t say are abundantly obvious in this verse. God did not say, my throne is in heaven. And he also did not say I sometimes put my feet on earth and walk around.

God is saying all of Heaven is His throne and all of the earth is where He puts His feet.

I think one of the greatest tragedies of coming to this verse of Scripture is seen by the lack of response in our hearts and minds of the magnitude of what this passage communicates.

One of the greatest tragedies is being unmoved by the revelation that God is so immense that God sits on heaven and kicks up his feet on the whole earth.

I don’t even personally have a grasp for the greatness of heaven. I don’t even really have a basic understanding for the size of the earth.

Let alone to then be able to grasp the concept of God sitting on heaven and resting his feet on the earth.

My family and I recently went to the zoo and I noticed something fascinating when we got to the polar bear exhibit.

I’ve noticed that as my kids get a little older that the

My two older kids have all kinds of energy they’re all over the place. But once they caught site of the polar bear, they froze.

And they demonstrated this rather interesting conflict of emotions. They were both somewhat frightened but also couldn’t look away.

Like, “wow that bear is awesome”, “glad he’s in the cage”, “but man that bear looks cool”.

And it was amazing at how radically different they behaved in front of the polar bear as compared to their behavior elsewhere.

That’s really what imagine the appropriate response to this passage of Scripture being. This tornado of two emotions, awestruck by a sense of fear but also totally not wanting to look away from God.

It’s like the sight of God is both terrifying and ecstatic.

It’s like waiting in the doctor’s office and you see a needle that also looks like a rose. And you’re like, “wow that’s scary and beautiful all at the same time”.

If we think about last week’s message relating to idolatry, the reason why we are impressed by this passage of Scripture has to do with something else impressing us more.

My kids have zero response to the polar bear when they’re not looking at the polar bear.

We have zero response to God when we don’t purposefully look at God in His glory.

The situation is even more complicated if we’re looking at an idea of God that is not God.

I can give my kids a stuff animal that is a polar bear and get the same reaction out of them as if there were no polar bear.

The actual sight of God is God sitting upon Heaven and resting His feet on the earth.

Heaven is His throne, the earth is His footstool.

Grasping this concept actually seems to be highly essential for proper worship of God. As the Psalms reveal,

(ESV)

(ESV)

5 Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!

And

(ESV)

7 “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!”

1 Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?

And you get the sense of worship at his footstool incorporates the idea of us bowing to Him in the way we worship.

But it also gives the sense in which if the earth is God’s footstool, then there is the ability for his worship to take place everywhere.

So is it taking place everywhere? Or have we confined our worship of God solely to this gathering, in this place? And are worshipping God, without being moved by His significance?

Furthermore, this section of Isaiah is also picked up in Jesus’ earthly ministry:

(ESV)

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’

34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,

35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

This is fascinating. An oath is swearing that you will do something. So has future implications.

And to swear by heaven or by earth these are all really expressions that basically say, “I swear I will do something or something will happen, and God is witness that I am able to bring it about”.

So when Jesus says, don’t swear by the throne of God or by earth, he’s saying don’t act like you sit on heaven and rest your feet on earth.

Don’t swear, because you’re not God. And swearing is an activity reserved for the one who actually sits on heaven and rests his feet on earth.

So having a right understanding of God’s heavenly throne and earthly footstool is necessary for proper living before God. And for avoiding the constant activity of trying to put ourselves in God’s place.

Jesus says instead let your word be in the present tense with either “yes” or “no”. Simple, present tense statements, those are what happens to a person’s speech when they behold God’s glory as God sits on his heavenly throne, resting his feet on earth.

(ESV)

1 what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?

Many have stated that this portion of Isaiah creates some problems. Because it proves that God changed his mind about having a temple or that God never wanted one to begin with.

And on that, proves that the OT writers were in contradiction with each other. But of course that’s not the case at all.

We saw in how Jesus Christ filled the temple and put His glory on display.

The fact of God saying this reveals two things:

The idea of God dwelling in a temple is for his people. Not for him. It’s God’s gracious condescension to allow worship to take place.

This passage is revealing to us the massive immensity of God, rather than denying that God wants a place to dwell with His people.

The question is for us to think about. What can we do that is ultimately pleasing to God? This has a purpose in our context, which will lead us to our third point.

God is basically asking what good can you do for me? And this form of argumentation from God continues into our second point:

Behold the Intellectual Property of God

So not only does God reveal our absolute insufficiency for being able to create the proper place for God to dwell and rest but God then reveals the fact that He has already created for Himself his dwelling place.

In fact he’s already created everything. And the contexts before and after even indicate that God is going to make a new heaven and a new earth.

(ESV)

2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.

This is the one handed creative power of God. Theologically we know God doesn’t have physical parts.

This is God communicating in ways that we can find him relatable. God created all things in a very spectacular way.

God spoke, and non-existence obeyed. It’s one thing to thing of God as exerting himself. As using energy to create.

And to think of God as straining himself creating everything. And it’s another thing to think of God has exerting basically no energy and creating everything.

It takes nothing of God for God to speak. And in speaking, without using any pre-existing material, all things came into existence.

Some might say, “If God didn’t exert himself, why did he rest?” God didn’t rest because He needed it, God rested because He earned it.

There’s a specific reason why God presented himself as not just reigning over and on all creation but as the one who created it.

He’s showing His sovereign rule and sovereign right over all creation. It belongs to him and he can do with it as he pleases.

And he’s bringing these things up so as to create an intended effect in the one who hears these words.

One of the most essential states that a Christian can be in, is in a constant recognition of God as creator and therefore as having sole rights to his creation.

(ESV)

7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

7 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

8 “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the Lord have created it.

Notice also

(ESV)

6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth,

7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

These first two points are necessary for establishing our third point. There’s a logical progression in the text, Beholding God’s immensity and creativity results in a feeling of one’s own smallness.

The concept of God as creator isn’t just a scientific question. It relates to sovereignty. I owe myself and my worship to the one who created me who didn’t have to create me but who did create me not for me but for his glory.

You will never have a correct understanding of God, a correct worship of God and proper enjoyment of God if you don’t start with the concept of God as creator and therefore as having sole rights to do as he pleases.

We are his intellectual property. It’s a copyright infringement punishable by eternal death to usurp God’s creative rights over his creation.

We are not here because God owes us existence.

We are here because God graciously created us for His glory. And the creation that ignores him fails to behave for his glory.

The whole point here is simply to acknowledge God is creator, we are creatures. There’s this fantastic definition of creature:

“A person or organization considered to be under the complete control of another”.

Older usages of the word “creature” just simply mean, “something created”.

So once we have that understanding, we can see our third point:

Behold the Intention of God

(ESV)

2 But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

What is God’s intention of revealing himself as high and lifted up and revealing himself as the creator of all things here in this verse?

He intends to create a very sincere effect in our lives. So that as we behold God we can behave godly for His glory.

And the way we end up behaving godly for his glory in this passage is through two very specific, very essential, and very difficult concepts to grasp:

Humility

Fear

But those concepts are presented in a vacuum. And that’s a very important concept to grasp because humility and fear aren’t very attractive to the world around us.

To society. Those are concepts that are easily viewed as weakness. There’s a lot of people who talk about humility outside the Christian worldview, but who cares about humility?

But again, God doesn’t simply say, “be humble”. God says, “I look to the humble”.

This even more astounding given the fact that to “look at” means to “behold”. Which is crazy because we’re in a serious that talks about “beholding God”.

And here’s a passage of Scripture that talks about God “beholding” someone.

The Greek translation uses the word ἐπιβλέπω which means “to gaze”.

God looks intently, accepts favourable, gazes at, and beholds a specific kind of person.

God finds something attractive. This is good news, because there’s not a single shred of doubt that all of humanity is unattractive to God, because we’re all sinful.

So what does someone need to be in order to be attractive to God.

God says that he beholds the one who is “humble”. The Hebrew term for “humble” means “afflicted”, “in need”.

A humble person is one who constantly recognizes their need for God. They recognize their dependent upon God.

The Greek translation uses a word that literally means, “low”. It’s someone who has a low social status.

The world does not view this person as attractive. And that definition is absolutely essential to grasp if one is going to grasp the concept of humility.

Because the reason why the humble person is unattractive to the world is so that there is no competition.

This person’s concern is solely upon living a life that is solely attractive to God. We can provide a definition of humility then as, “Humility is the quality of being attractive to God.”

The person who catches God’s attention is not only Humble but also contrite in spirit.

This is rather peculiar. The word for contrite is used to refer to God smiting or destroying something.

It also means, “lame” or “crippled”, “broken”. What would be the reason for the “Brokenness” of someone who is “attractive” to God?

It’s someone who is broken and destroyed in their spirit over their sin. Isn’t it interesting that God beholds not the person who achieved sinlessness, which is impossible.

It’s not the person who figured out how to stop sinning. It’s the person who has an attitude towards their sin of just simple, total brokenness.

The person who is humble and contrite is a person who sees themselves in the presence of their creator as a mere creature.

The Pursuit of Holiness Chapter 10: The Place of Personal Discipline

A verse of Scripture I often use in the face of failure with my own sins is Proverbs 24:16: “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.” The person who is disciplining himself toward holiness falls many times, but he doesn’t quit. After each failure he gets up and continues the struggle. Not so with the unrighteous. He stumbles in his sin and gives up. He has no power to overcome because he does not have the Spirit of God at work in him.

But who also sees in the presence of their Lord, that they are a sinner. The moment a person gives up all sense of self worth is the moment that that person catches the eye of God.

Humility is the exact opposite of idolatry

Have you ever known someone who acted a rather bizarre and out of the ordinary way? And the response to such behavior is, “Oh they’re just doing that for attention?”

What if we as Christians acted in the totally bizarre and abnormal way of hating sin and being humble, and we were doing it to get God’s attention?

Well those aren’t the only actions that the person who catches God’s attention performs.

God also behold’s the one who trembles at his word. The Hebrew term means anxious or frightened.

The Greek term means to shake involuntarily, to sense the impact of something transcendent, be in awe.

And what’s amazing is that God specifically said, tremble at his word. We don’t need to try to induce some sort of trance or vision, we have his word that we can this.

There’s a passage in the New Testament that has sparked this series.

(ESV)

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The point of this verse talks about how God removes the veil from our faces in order to behold the Glory of the Lord.

And it’s interesting because when you back up to verse 14,

(ESV)

14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.

So follow Paul’s logic here. We behold the glory of the Lord because our veil is lifted.

Some of the 1st century Jews couldn’t behold the glory of the Lord because they had a veil over their faces.

And the veil over their faces prevented them from seeing the glory of the Lord, when they read the Old Covenant.

The word of God is entirely capable of displaying the Glory of God. And the reader, who has been into right relationship with God through Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice,

Has had the veil lifted from their face in order to be able to see the Glory of God in Scripture.

And God tells us in Isaiah that he beholds the one who beholds him in His word and is awestruck by God and His glory.

And Paul tells us that that transforms us into the image of the glory of God.

This is how you behave you godly for God’s glory. By Beholding God and beholding His glory.

The best way to start catching the eye of God and being humble, contrite in spirit and someone who is awestruck by the word of God,

Either a person is indifferent, doesn’t really seem to care. And won’t respond with humility and fear towards God and His word.

Ultimately is to spend more time beholding God in the word of God. And to recognize that it’s not enough to read the Scriptures but that we hunt through the Scriptures for the glory of God.

And that’s the more natural response especially given what is said in verse 5:

And that by doing so, we experience a total transformation of our lives. Which for the person who is humble and contrite is the greatest thing to be experienced.

5 Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name’s sake have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy’; but it is they who shall be put to shame.

But if we don’t see ourselves as destroyed by sin then there really isn’t much of a desire to be changed by the Gospel.

And therefore, there really isn’t use for the glory of God, because our own glory is more important.

Which is idolatrous. Which is crazy to think about that humility is the quality of not being attractive to God an of not being an idolater.

Heaving is the throne of God, the earth is his footstool, he has created all these things and this great and magnificent God is attracted to those who are humble and contrite and who tremble at His word.