The Glory Belongs to God
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This past few weeks we have been at Isaiah 42, one of 4 “Servant Songs” in the writings of the prophet Isaiah. Each of these servant songs points to Jesus, and in Isaiah 42, as we have studied it so far, we have seen that the Lord’s servant is somewhat described, not physically, but as to His authority and his mission. God would put his Spirit upon him, and he would bring justice to a world in desperate need of justice.
He would not be a flashy person, seeking attention. He would not be one to taken someone who has been bruised and break them, he would not put out a faintly burning wick. He would go about his mission without becoming tired or discouraged by it. He was commissioned by God for this task, the God who gives breath and spirit to people. The servant of the Lord would be called in righteousness, given as a covenant for the people, and a light for the nations. He would open blind eyes, not merely physically blind eyes, but spiritually blind eyes. And that is exactly what he has done for each of us who put faith in Him. How could we have come to faith in Him, unless he had opened our blind eyes?
This morning we continue in Isaiah 42 with a look at verses 8-9, where we see that God does not share his glory, nor give his praise away to idols. Let’s take a look at 1-9 together, and see what we can take from it for the building of our faith and the living out of it:
Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.
Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”
I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”
God’s Glory is His Alone
God’s Glory is His Alone
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
God will not share his glory with another. Certainly now carved idols. Why would he? He is the author of life, he is the creator of all, and he is self-existent. If you want to take a moment to think about something that will make God magnified in your understanding of him, think about this for a moment. God is self existent. Meaning, he needs nothing to sustain him, he needed nothing to create him, he has always existed and in his self-existence he is also unchanging.
RC Sproul writes of God’s self-existence in the book “Holy, Holy, Holy: Proclaiming the Perfections of God”. He speaks of God’s Self-Existence by considering nothing. After all, many scientist have been saying for quite a while that the universe exploded into being. The Big Bang. Nothing was there, and suddenly something was there. And this does not make much logical sense, since nothing is the absence of anything, and we know that nothing can produce nothing by itself, unless something acts. Here is what Sproul says about nothing:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Proclaiming the Perfections of God Affirmations of Uniqueness
Nothing is so obviously the absence of something that philosophers cannot even talk about what it is, only about what it is not. But in the most basic categories, nothing is the absence of being. As I’ve said until my congregation is tired of hearing it, if there ever were a time when nothing at all existed, what could possibly exist now? Nothing. But if something exists now, that tells you indisputably that there never was a time when there was nothing—not twelve billon years ago, not eighteen billion years ago, not eighteen trillion years ago.
Everything that we know of, including the universe itself, had a beginning, which means it is contingent, derived, dependent on something outside of itself to lend being to it—except for God. God was not created. There was never a time when He was not. He derived His being not from something before Him or something outside of Him but from Himself. He has the power of being in and of Himself. I wish everybody had a chance to delve into the depths of the inquiries of Western philosophy to explore the concept of being, because there is nothing more profound to say about God than that which He says about Himself when He reveals Himself by the name “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14).
Why would God give his glory to anything or anyone else? Who can compare? And once we know who God is, how can we turn anywhere else?
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
Paul here is showing a little frustration in some of his students. You know the real God! How can you turn to idols? God will not give his glory to another. Throughout the narratives of redemptive history, God has shown how he will deal with those who try to take the glory that only belongs to him. He showed Pharoah, and Nebudkannezzar, and many others who thought they were pretty awesome. He showed them how he will not allow another to take his glory.
One very clear example of God dealing with one who would accept the praise that should only be given to God is Herod Agrippa, in Acts 12.
On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
Isaiah 42:8 (ESV)
I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
But we may say to ourselves in our pride, “I am not like Pharoah, I am not like Nebudkenezzar, I am not like Herod!” Well, perhaps. Maybe our own idolatry is not as open and flamboyant as these examples. Certainly we can name many famous names in our world today who seem to desire people to worship them. Maybe our temptation is not on the same level, but are we not prone to this pride of desiring worship as well? How many of us really want the recognition for something? I remember once when I was shoveling, working up quite an appetite clearing the driveway when i was young. And I had been working and working and was probably about 80-90% finished. And out comes one of my siblings to help me with the last part. And of course, that evening, that sibling told my dad “Jason and I shoveled the driveway!”. And I was mad! Why? Because I wanted the glory! I would rather have finished the driveway myself than accept the help if I had only known that I wasn’t going to get full credit!
And yet other times, I have played perhaps a minor part in something, but I still want the credit! I’m not the handiest person, but if someone if doing some real work, I am happy to be there to hand them their tools or carry away the garbage, but when the project is done, can I really say I don’t, at least a little bit, want to share in the glory? And so perhaps we are not so different than Herod.
This Herod, by the way, had big insecurity issues, so did another Herod, whose name comes up in the Chrismtas Story:
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
This Herod, Herod the Great, was very unstable and insecure. I just read a great article about this by Ryan Rotz, and he said of Herod’s insecurity:
“While the Romans favored Herod, the Jews did not. After returning from Rome with an Army, Herod usurped the throne from the Parthians, with whom many of the Jews had sided. Herod was not a pure Jew either; he was of a people group who were forcibly converted to Judaism. Despite his efforts to rebuild the temple, Herod was never fully accepted by the Jews.
Because of this, Herod lived in perpetual fear of revolt. He built multiple palace fortresses where he could defend himself in case of attack. His paranoia knew no bounds, leading him to kill six of his own family members, including his favorite and beloved wife Mariamne and three of his sons. Even the notoriously bloodthirsty Rome was shocked by his brutality. Augustus scoffed, “It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son,” riffing on the fact that Herod abstained from pork.
One story perfectly encapsulates the paranoia and insecurity of this aging tyrant. Shortly before he died, Herod invited a number of prominent citizens to a special event. He told them that following his death they would all be killed. He hoped that the people mourning in the streets over their loved ones would appear to be mourning for him. He was so convinced that no one loved him, he was willing to kill for it.”
Could we ever be so insecure? Without Christ we will be. Like Herod, desperate to find love and living in fear, the one without Christ is empty, unfulfilled. Only in Christ can we be secure. Only in the Prince of Peace will we find the lasting peace that every human desperately desires. I feel for the many people who don’t understand Christmas in this sense. Even a non-believer can find some enjoyment in the holiday season. Even the unrepentant may find some joy or temporary happiness in spending time with family or friends, and hearing the music and seeing the decorations and exchanging the presents. But the holiday will end, and the temporary high of the feelings will soon be gone.
And it will be winter in the Northern Hemisphere, with less daylight and the depression in January and February hits. The words of the song ‘I don’t want Christmas to end” express the sentiment well. But outside of Christ we will always be unfulfilled. How many people have thought, “if I get this vacation, or this gadget, or this raise, or this job, or this spouse, or this house, then I will finally be fulfilled?”
Ultimately it all comes back to not having a proper understanding of who God is so that we can give him the glory He deserves, and when we get focused on his majesty, power, justice, when we try to grasp what it means that he is self-existent, when we spend time contemplating all of these things, the bigger God becomes to us, the more secure we will feel.
And as this section of Isaiah 42 wraps up, God gives further evidence to increase the faith of his people: Isa42.9
Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”
What is he saying here? Basically this: Things I have promised before have already taken place. Things I have told you are going to happen will happen as further evidence of my faithfulness, and things I am still going to reveal to you are also going to take place. You see, God is the God of the prophets. The evidence of who was a true prophet of God was that the things they said aligned with his Word, and that the things they predicted came to pass. The book of Jeremiah speaks of those who prophesied and said “thus says the Lord”. And today there are plenty of false prophets as well. In fact, you have a great example in the last election. Many people said the Lord had revealed to them the former President would be reelected, yet he was not. If someone tells you the Lord has revealed something to them about something like that, and it doesn’t happen, scripture is clear. They are a false prophet. That’s why I would rahter spend my time showing you what God says in his word, because that is trustworthy.
The Bible is inerrant and infallible, and I wish I could say I was, but I am not, so my advice to you as always is don’t take my word for it, go to the source and see if these things are true.
So God has given evidence through prophecies that were already fufilled, and he has given prophecies yet to be fulfilled, and he has declared them to us through scripture so that we can learn from them and have our faith encouraged.
Throughout the Christmas story, we see many of these prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Isaiah7.14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Even the promise to Zechariah and Elizabeth, the promise to Mary and Joseph, God was proving himself. The former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them”
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Glory to God. Not Glory to the prophets. Not glory to King David. Not glory to Mary or Joseph. Not glory to apostles. Glory to God.
And it is in these truths that the very best of our Christmas songs ring out. I’ve been making mention of one each week as a sort of hook or connector for you. You know the song, most of you, and so sometimes it is helpful to connect scripture to the song. Two Sundays ago, I told you how the song, “O Holy Night”, originally called “Cantique de Noel” came about, how a priest in France asked a layperson to write a poem for the Christmas service, the lay person was not even a believer but wrote the poem in the back of a carriage during a bumpy ride. He was so impressed with his own work that he hired another non-beleiver, a Jew to put it to a melody. It quickly became a well loved Christmas son in France, but the Catholic Church found out that the man who wrote it was a non-believer had joined the socialists and that the man who wrote the melody was a non-believing Jew, the church banned the song from being played or sung in any church, but the song had already been popularized, so even though people could not hear it in church, they still sang it.
Last week I shared how the song came to the US, how John Sullivan Dwight, a preacher translated it into English, being especially drawn to the song because he was an abolitionist and he loved the message of Jesus setting slaves free that the song spoke of.
I promised there was more to the story and history of this song, but before I tell you the next part, I noticed some of you after last weeks service were eager to hear the next part of the story, and I fear that maybe someone is more concerned about hearing this than the rest of the sermon, so may I just say that the teachings from the Bible are more important for you to remember than the trivia about this Christmas song, but with that being said, there is nothing wrong with appreciating history. The next part of the story about this song tells of how at least, for a moment, it truly did bring peace in the midst of conflict. I quote:
“O Holy Night” seems to have a long history of uniting those in war. During the Franco-Prussian War, legend says that during a lull in the fighting, a French soldier stood up from his muddy trench with no weapon in hand and began singing “Cantique de Noel”. Upon hearing the beautiful rendering, the German soldiers were so moved, they began singing as well. Both sides lifted their voice in song, alternating between French carols and the hymns of Martin Luther. A Christmas truce of sorts had been declared.
That’s what Jesus came to do—redeem a lost world and bind our broken, shattered hearts into wholeness once again. He scatters the darkness. Hate cannot stand in the presence of Love. Darkness cannot last in the piercing force of Light. Where sin severed a filthy humanity from their Creator, Jesus came to connect and bind them once more.
There is one more bit of very interesting history to this song, but I’m afraid we are running out of time and we will have to learn that next week. Today, the Advent candles were again lit and the pink candle, the joy candle, was lit.