Soli Deo Gloria - God's Glory vs. Other Religions
Soli Deo Gloria – God’s Glory vs. Other Religions, Part 3 (Isaiah 40-48)
Isaiah 40 (NASB95)
1 “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. 2 “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.” 3 A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. 4 “Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; 5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 6 A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. 9 Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 Behold, the Lord God will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him. 11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes. 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales? 13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has informed Him? 14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge And informed Him of the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. 16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. 18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? 19 As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. 20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. 21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. 24 Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. 25 “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. 29 He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
PRAY
Isaiah 40-48 is a key passage showing how God deals with false religions while at same time uplifting God’s glory and God’s truth
These chapters in Isaiah would serve you well to read and re-read on your own and be very familiar with for a number of reasons:
- demolishes human pride, self-centeredness, self-sufficiency
- it corrects a lot false doctrines and theologies and cults and “isms” including anthropocentrism (big word for man-centeredness, or in a catch phrase “it’s all about me”)
- arminianism or pelagianism (or any limiting of God’s absolute sovereignty in saving and keeping saved all that He has called based on His will, not limited by man’s will)
- open theism (recent view of some evangelical scholars that God doesn’t even exhaustively know the future, much less his absolute control over the future)
- deism (that God is not actively involved in affairs of men)
- Mormonism in their multiplicity of gods, along with Buddhism, and Hinduism and all other forms of polytheism
- Catholicism with its idols and man-made devices that obscure the sufficiency and supremacy of God and that all glory must go to Him alone, and none to what man does
There’s really nothing new under the sun, and the book of Isaiah was written to Israelites who would also be surrounded by paganism and similar “isms” and false religions both before and after their captivity, and idolatry both inside and outside Israel.
It would be easy to fear or doubt God or be tempted towards pagan thinking or ways of life during such difficult times, and this section of the book in particular re-focuses their attention on the matchless majestic superiority of God against all else and is part of Isaiah's overall warning against idolatry and sinful thoughts of God.
READ Chapter 40:1-2 - this is the hinge on which Isaiah's door turns, after 39 chapters of woes and bad news, the door turns from darkness to light, from condemnation to comfort, from sin to the solution.
READ Verse 11. Tender picture of loving shepherd, gathering foolish lambs, carrying next to his heart, and gently leading the immature nursing little ones.
After pronouncing bad news and worse news and leaving no hope in humanity in 1-39, Isaiah 40-48 is a section saturated with the sovereignty and supremacy of God as the only hope, comfort, salvation, and true peace. The last sentence in this section, chapter 48 v. 22 however tells us some will never receive this peace – “there is no peace for the wicked.”
The comfort God gives in Isaiah 40 and following is God-exalting and man-humbling language to help Israel in their exile by focusing them on God and His plan for His people which cannot be thwarted. Note Repentance in v 3ff ... no peace for wicked.
Premise of this series: The “Five Sola’s” of the Reformation Must be the Central Truths of Christianity and Will Always Be the Key Issue With All Other Religions
First 4 of these “Sola’s” on note sheet are there for your reference and further reading, but for today we’re going to focus on:
Soli Deo Gloria – To God Alone Be Glory. Our chief aim is to glorify God, and this starts with knowing the right God in all His attributes - the One and Only God eternally existing in three Persons (co-equal as Father, Son, and Spirit) - and to love this God with all our heart, soul, and mind. In salvation and Christian living, God gets all of the glory; none to human works or merit.
This theme of God’s glory dominates Isaiah 40-48 and it was also in more recent centuries the overarching unifying all-encompassing center of the Protestant Reformation that sought to rescue the gospel from the church of Rome. See, the big concern was not just about indulgences, it was not merely about purgatory, it was not mainly about the relics and rituals, etc. There were a lot of things wrong with the medieval Roman church, but those were simply symptoms of a bigger problem: failing to glorify God.
God raised up men like the German Martin Luther and the French John Calvin and the Swiss Ulrich Zwingli and in the UK Knox.
If it’s fair to say Martin Luther was the Reformer most credited with the Reformation motto “faith alone” perhaps it’s also fair to say John Calvin contributed most to the motto “God’s glory alone”
Soli Deo Gloria was not just a slogan or bumper sticker or cliché to him, it was not just a important issue, it was the issue (still is)
John Piper tells the story this way:
‘In 1538, the Italian Cardinal Sadolet wrote to the leaders of Geneva trying to win them back to the Catholic Church after they had turned to the Reformed teachings … It was one of his earliest writings and spread his name as a reformer across Europe. Luther read it and said, "Here is a writing which has hands and feet. I rejoice that God raises up such men" (see note 3).
Calvin's response to Sadolet is important because it uncovers the root of Calvin's quarrel with Rome that will determine his whole life – as well as the shape of this lecture. The issue is not, first … priestly abuses or transubstantiation or prayers to saints or papal authority. All those will come in for discussion. But beneath all of them, the fundamental issue for John Calvin, from the beginning to the end of his life, was the issue of the centrality and supremacy and majesty of the glory of God … Here's what he said to the Cardinal: "[Your] zeal for heavenly life [is] a zeal which keeps a man entirely devoted to himself, and does not, even by one expression, arouse him to sanctify the name of God." In other words, even precious truth about eternal life can be so skewed as to displace God as the center and goal. And this was Calvin's chief contention with Rome. It comes out in his writings over and over again. He goes on and says to Sadolet that what he should do – and what Calvin aims to do with all his life – is "set before [man], as the prime motive of his existence, zeal to illustrate the glory of God" (see note 4).
I think this would be a fitting banner over all of John Calvin's life and work – zeal to illustrate the glory of God.
[The rich legacy of the Reformation tradition] “… which served as the key to unlock the rich treasuries of the Scriptures was the preeminence of God's glory in the consideration of all that has been created" (see note 6). It's this relentless orientation on the glory of God that gives coherence to John Calvin's life and to the Reformed tradition that followed … When Calvin did eventually get to the issue of justification in his response to Sadolet, he said, "You . . . touch upon justification by faith, the first and keenest subject of controversy between us. . . . Wherever the knowledge of it is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished" (see note 8). So here again you can see what is fundamental. Justification by faith is crucial. But there is a deeper root reason why it is crucial. The glory of Christ is at stake. Wherever the knowledge of justification is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished. This is always the root issue for Calvin. What truth and what behavior will "illustrate the glory of God"?
For Calvin, the need for the Reformation was fundamentally this: Rome had "destroyed the glory of Christ in many ways — by calling upon the saints to intercede, when Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man; by adoring the Blessed Virgin, when Christ alone shall be adored; by offering a continual sacrifice in the Mass, when the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross is complete and sufficient" (see note 9), by elevating tradition to the level of Scripture and even making the word of Christ dependent for its authority on the word of man (see note 10). Calvin asks, in his Commentary on Colossians, "How comes it that we are 'carried about with so many strange doctrines' (Hebrews 13:9)?" And he answers, "Because the excellence of Christ is not perceived by us" (see note 11). In other words, the great guardian of Biblical orthodoxy throughout the centuries is a passion for the glory and the excellency of God in Christ. Where the center shifts from God, everything begins to shift everywhere. Which does not bode well for doctrinal faithfulness in our own non-God-centered day.’[1]
We can learn something from history, especially if he was right to be concerned with Catholicism’s root problem as being man-centered and not being focused on God’s glory, because can anyone deny that is a root problem with American Christianity today? The Reformers were not perfect, but they were right on this, and they would also want us to learn from Israel’s history as well.
Our passage in Isaiah is very much in line with this truth of Soli Deo Gloria. The Reformation certainly was not the first voice calling for this, in fact it was merely an echo of Isaiah’s plea for God-centeredness to the original people of God, a plea that needs to be echoed in our day again as well.
On your handout, I want to show you 6 key truths that flow out of this theme in Isaiah 40-48. I’m convinced that this God-inspired answer to the false religions 700 years before Christ, these chapters are still an irrefutable and answer to all cults and false religions 2,000 years after the Christ they deny.
#1 - God is jealous for & driven by His glory:
Isaiah 42:8 “I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.
Isaiah 42:12 Let them give glory to the Lord And declare His praise in the coastlands.
Isaiah 43:7 Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”
Isaiah 43:20 “The beasts of the field will glorify Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I have given waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen people.
Isaiah 43:21 “The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise.
Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.
Isaiah 44:23 Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; For the Lord has redeemed Jacob And in Israel He shows forth His glory.
Isaiah 48:9 “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off.
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.
The Father glorifies the Son
John 8:54, 11:4, 12:23, 16:14, 17:1, 5, Rev. 5:12-13
John 8:54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’;
John 11:4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
John 16:14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
John 17:1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,
John 17:5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Revelation 5:12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
Revelation 5:13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
#2 – “The First and the Last”:
Isaiah 41:4 “Who has performed and accomplished it, Calling forth the generations from the beginning? ‘I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last. I am He.’ ”
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.
Isaiah 48:12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called; I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.
Revelation 1:17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,
Revelation 2:8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this:
Revelation 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
#3 - Other “gods” are not real:
Isaiah 41:23 Declare the things that are going to come afterward, That we may know that you are gods; Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.
Isaiah 41:24 Behold, you are of no account, And your work amounts to nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.
Isaiah 41:29 “Behold, all of them are false; Their works are worthless, Their molten images are wind and emptiness.
1 Corinthians 8:4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one.
1 Corinthians 8:5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords,
1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
#4 - One and Only True God
43:10 “You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me.
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.
Isaiah 44:8 ‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’ ”
Isaiah 45:5 “I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me;
Isaiah 45:6 That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other,
Isaiah 45:14 Thus says the Lord, “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush And the Sabeans, men of stature, Will come over to you and will be yours; They will walk behind you, they will come over in chains And will bow down to you; They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely, God is with you, and there is none else, No other God.’ ”
Isaiah 45:18 For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the Lord, and there is none else.
Isaiah 45:21 “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.
Isaiah 45:22 “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.
Isaiah 46:5 “To whom would you liken Me And make Me equal and compare Me, That we would be alike? …
Isaiah 46:9 “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Isaiah 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 10:21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
Jehovah or Yahweh is the only Supreme, He is the only Sovereign
#5 - Only Savior
Isaiah 43:11 “I, even I, am the Lord, And there is no savior besides Me.
The Jehovah's Witnesses cult has taken v. 10 as one of their key commissions to be evangelistic witnesses, but ironically this section is not so much focused on man or his responsibility but is a God-centered critique devastating to their theology. Jehovah Himself is the one witnessing against the false religions and any who misrepresent Him:
- Verse 11 makes clear there is no Savior besides Jehovah, yet even the Watchtower translation repeatedly refers to Jesus as "Savior." If Jehovah is the only Savior, and Jesus is the Savior, then Jesus is ____________
- Verses 10-11 make as clear as possible that there was no God or god formed before or after Jehovah's existence, yet the New World Translation says Jesus the Word was "a god" in John 1:1. In light of Isaiah 43:10, Jesus can only be a) false god, or
b) the only true God - there is no room for a "lesser true god"
Isaiah 45:21 “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.
The book of Titus interchangeably uses “God our Savior” and “Jesus Christ our Savior” 3x freely substituting one for the other when referring to both Father and Son as Savior (singular)
Titus 1:3 but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior,
Titus 1:4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Titus 2:10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
Titus 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
Titus 3:4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
Titus 3:5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
#6 - Only Creator
Isaiah 44:24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone,
Isaiah 45:12 “It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands And I ordained all their host.
Isaiah 45:18 For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the Lord, and there is none else.
Isaiah 48:13 “Surely My hand founded the earth, And My right hand spread out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together.
Hebrews 1:10 And, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the works of Your hands;
Hebrews 1:11 They will perish, but You remain; And they all will become old like a garment,
Hebrews 1:12 And like a mantle You will roll them up; Like a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.” (***Note context v. 3, 8, etc.)
Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
Colossians 1:19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
Colossians 2:9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
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[1] John Piper, “The Divine Majesty of the Word - John Calvin: The Man and His Preaching.” 1997 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. Online at: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/1471_The_Divine_Majesty_of_the_Word/
Original Footnotes:
3. Henry F. Henderson, Calvin in His Letters, (London: J. M. Dent and Co., 1909), p. 68.
4. John Dillenberger, John Calvin, Selections from His Writings, (Scholars Press, 1975), p. 89 (emphasis added).
6. Geerhardus Vos, "The Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology," in Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos, (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1980), pp. 241-242 (emphasis added).
7. Geerhardus Vos, "The Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology," p. 248.
8. John Dillenberger, John Calvin, Selections from His Writings, p. 95.
9. T. H. L. Parker, Portrait of Calvin, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954), p. 109.
10. Institutes of the Christian Religion, I, vii, 1. "A most pernicious error widely prevails that Scripture has only so much weight as is conceded to it by the consent of the church. As if the eternal and inviolable truth of God depended upon the decision of men!"
11. T. H. L. Parker, Portrait of Calvin, p. 55.