How to Rob God of His Glory - Isaiah 48:1-11

I was listening to a sermon a few days ago and I heard something that really caught my attention.  I’m not sure I’ve ever heard this said in this way before.  The pastor was teaching from Isaiah 48 and he said if God did not seek His own glory, He would be an idolator.  God would be guilty of idolatry if He did not glorify Himself.

Throughout our study of Isaiah, God has emphasized Himself as the one and only true God, the God of Israel.  He has also emphasized the lie of idols.  Repeatedly, as we read last week, Jehovah presents Himself as the only God there is.  There is no thing to which God can be compared because He is incomparably magnificent and glorious.  There is no god that can be compared to Him because there are no other gods.  

That is not what we hear these days.  Suddenly we find people in the news defending the right to worship God, or god, or whatever, as they please.  Governments grant certain rights to their citizens.  However, the right to worship whatever one pleases, however one pleases, legitimizes idolatry.  Freedom of religion either intentionally or unintentionally teaches us that what or who we worship isn’t important.  And the right to worship as we please has become more important than what or who we worship.  In America in particular, personal and civil rights are more important than truth.

I’m not suggesting our right to freedom of religion should be repealed and we should institute an official state religion.  But what I am saying is, in spite of what our founding fathers may have written or believed about freedom of religion, the God of the Bible never granted to anyone anywhere the right to worship anyone or anything other than Himself.  On the contrary, He simply temporarily tolerates idolatry until the day when every knee will finally and rightly bow before Him, the one and only God.

We would agree that even God would be guilty of idolatry if He shared the glory that belongs to Him alone with any other entity.  When God glorifies Himself, He is right to do so because only He is worthy of such glory.  In other words, contrary to how we may think of it, God is not self-righteous, or self-seeking, or narcissistic, or vain when He glorifies Himself.  In glorifying Himself, He is doing exactly what He demands of all men everywhere.

The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is, “What is the chief end of man?”  In other words, what is the primary purpose of our existence?  What purpose is supposed to be the driving force behind our lives as human beings?  The answer is, “Man’s chief end (or his primary purpose in life) is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”  That is also God’s chief purpose: To glorify and enjoy Himself forever.  Anything else would be idolatry.  Paul put it this way:

[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, [4] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, [6] to the praise of his glorious grace . . . .“

[11] In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, [12] so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. [13] In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, [14] who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.  (Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-14 ESV)

God is obviously concerned with the praise of His own glory.  We who are the guilty, underserving recipients of His predestinated mercy and saving grace are more than happy to give Him the glory for the great things He has done on our behalf.  We are happy to be enabled by His grace to both glorify God AND enjoy Him forever.  

What’s wrong with that picture?  What is wrong with God saving men for the sake of His glory?  What is wrong with God seeking to glorify Himself through the salvation of sinners?  Nothing.  If God has determined to save some people for the purpose of bringing glory and praise and honor to Himself, that’s His prerogative because He’s driving the bus and it’s His bus to drive because He created it.  Turn to Revelation 4.

[6] and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. 

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: [7] the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. [8] And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, 

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” 

[9] And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, [10] the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 

[11] “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.”  (Revelation 4:6-11 ESV)

God is worthy of glory and honor and power because of who He is: Our Creator and Redeemer.  It is not wrong for God to seek to glorify Himself.  It would be wrong for Him NOT to do so.  A proud, self-righteous, narcissistic, self-centered, self-glorifying attitude is only sinful if you’re not inherently righteous and holy and glorious.  But God really is all those things.  He IS Infinitely righteous and holy and glorious and He’s the only one who is.  By virtue of the fact:

• • that God is the creator and sustainer of all things, and 
• • that He is absolutely holy and righteous, and 
• • that we are none of those things, 
• • and He has granted us salvation from the condemnation of our sins, 

Then, yes!  He is the only “Person” in the universe who can look in the mirror and legitimately worship Himself without sinning in the process.  And that is hard for us to fully grasp here amongst our fellow, fully-imperfect sinners.  From our perspective, self-aggrandizement is repulsive.  Pride and conceit are disgusting.  In the introduction to the TV show Castle, the main character looks at himself in a store window, straightens his hair and says, ”I really am ruggedly handsome, aren’t I!”  And the legitimate response to that is, “Who does he think he is?”  

Well, who does God think He is when He looks in the mirror?  It is not just His opinion, but the fact is God is God.  That is why we worship Him, and that is why we are commanded by Him to do so.  That is why worship and glory and praise and thanksgiving and honor legitimately belong to God alone, and when it is offered to any other thing, it is idolatry.  The Scriptures validate this in Isaiah 48.  

[48:1] Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel,

and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD

and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.

[2] For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel;

the LORD of hosts is his name.

 

[3] “The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.

[4] Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass,

[5] I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’

 

[6] “You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it?

From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.

[7] They are created now, not long ago; before today

you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

[8] You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened.  For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.

[9] “For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.

 [10] Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

 [11] For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned?  My glory I will not give to another.  (Isaiah 48:1-11 ESV)

Here is the situation.  God is saying to Israel that in the distant past, God sent His prophets to tell them of future things concerning them, things that actually came to pass.  The Jews heard God’s promises and they saw those promises take place.  The people of Judah to whom Isaiah is speaking in this text know these things are true and that it was Jehovah who both made and kept His promises to them in the past.  For example, in Genesis 15, God made a covenant with Abram and promised this:

[13] Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants [slaves] there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. [14] But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. [15] As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. [16] And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”  

This is exactly what happened to Israel.  God made these promises to the great grandfather of all the people of Israel who went down to Egypt during the days of Joseph  It was Abraham’s great-grandson who delivered Israel from death in Canaan and made a home for his extended family of 70 people in Egypt.  And they continued to live there for the next 400 years.  They became the slaves of the Egyptians.  But they also grew in number to about 3 million people.  God then sent Moses, delivered His people from bondage, and destroyed the nation of Egypt by means of the ten plagues..

Every Jew during in Isaiah’s day knew these things were true.  This was their heritage.  Jehovah was their God.  He chose them to be His people.  He revealed Himself to them exclusively.  He gave them the Ten Commandments, the Temple worship, the Law, and prophet after prophet after prophet.  He gave them the land of Canaan and drove out all their enemies.  They knew these things.  

So God says to the people of Judah here in Isaiah 48, and verses 3 through 5, “I told you of these things centuries before they happened, and I caused them to happen suddenly, for the specific purpose of preventing you from ever being able to say, ”My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.”  God did it this way so that idols would not get the glory that God alone rightly deserves for His magnificent deliverance of His people and God is not willing to share that glory with anyone, not even Charlton Heston.

On another occasion, at the end of Moses’ life, just before Joshua led the people of Israel across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land, Moses gave Israel the words of a song.  It was a prophetic song which served as a warning to them about their own future.  He begins by stating who God is, and he recaps how God called Israel to Himself and made them a great nation.  Then Moses starts talking about how God gave Israel the land of the Canaanites.  

Now if you’re paying attention, you say, “Wait a minute.  Moses doesn’t know that.  God hadn’t given the land to Israel yet.“  

That’s exactly right.  God gave the land to Israel after Moses died.  Moses is talking in the book of Deuteronomy about what will happen after he dies, but he talks as if it has already happened.  He talks about how they went into the land and conquered it.  Then Israel forsook God and went after strange gods and served idols.  Moses tells them how God became angry with them.  The Lord said, 

“They have made Me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked Me to anger with their idols.  I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend my arrows on them.  For they are a nation void of counsel and there is no understanding in them.  If they were wise, they would understand this; they would consider their latter end!”  (Deuteronomy 32:21, 23, 28-29 ESV).

Then Moses prophesies and speaking for God he says, “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”  (Dt. 32:39 ESV)

If you read the entire song of Moses from Deuteronomy 32, you quickly realize that Moses is speaking, in detail, of things that have not yet happened as though they had already happened.  He predicts the apostasy and the idolatry of Israel, as well as their destruction, and he speaks as though it is past history rather than the future.  

In Isaiah, God says He has prophesied these things, “the former things I declared of old”, in order that Israel would know that Jehovah truly is God and it would be impossible to attribute the fulfillment of these things to anyone other than Him.  They are actually living in the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy against them.  If God hadn’t done it this way, the Jews are so stubborn, and so contrary, and so wicked that they would ascribe these great prophesies and the accomplishment of them to the idols they have created with their own hands.  

That is how evil men can be.  Men would rob God of the glory He alone deserves.  But God is jealous for His own glory, and He has worked in such a way so as to circumvent any attempt on the part of the Jews to legitimately say that anyone other than Jehovah could be responsible for the things that have come to pass.  He will not allow His fame to be given to a hunk of metal or a piece of wood.

In Isaiah 48 and verse 6, God speaks again and says, 

From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.

 [7] They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’  [8] You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.

Beginning now, today, Judah, you are hearing something that has never been predicted by anyone before.  What is He talking about?  What new thing is He saying to the people of Judah?  God is talking about King Cyrus.  Back in chapters 44 and 45, He calls this future king of the Medes and Persians by name, 100 years before his birth.  And He is telling the Jews this in order to prevent them from saying, “Oh, I knew that.  Yeah, my idols and my gods told me that already.”  

No they haven’t.  This is brand new information because the only Person who could know or say such a thing and actually bring it to pass is the true and living God, not some glorified stick of firewood.

And why does God do this?  Why is He so longsuffering with His people?  Why does God not destroy these stiff-necked, hard-headed, stubborn, idolatrous, wicked people of His?  Because He made a promise to Abraham.  Therefore His own name and His own reputation and His glory are at stake.

[9] “For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.

God is angry enough to annihilate the people of Judah.  Their sinful love of other gods is deserving of God’s wrath.  The only thing that prevents God from putting the people of Israel out of His misery is that God cannot lie, and that He is glorified in His patience with them.  He covenanted with Abraham that He would make a great nation of Abraham’s descendants forever.  And God will keep His promises.  He will accomplish all of His purposes, and He will do so, 

• • not for the sake of Abraham, 
• • not for the sake of Israel, 
• • not for the sake of us Gentiles who would one day trust in the Messiah.  

He does it for His own name’s sake, for the sake of His own glory and honor and praise.  In other words, Israel is not the center of the universe and neither are we.  God is.

Now the question I want to pose to you in light of the things we’ve just read is this: In what ways are we in danger of robbing God of His glory?  I think it is safe to say that none of us here today have idols.  I’m fairly certain none of us would ascribe the glory that belongs to the God of the Bible to a piece of wood covered with gold.  So it may seem that this text does not apply to us.  We are in no danger of taking God’s glory and giving it to another.  We are not in danger of idolatry.  Or are we?

I believe we are often in danger of robbing God of the glory He alone deserves.  Let me mention just a couple of things.  Some of them may seem minor, but they reflect an attitude that is the seed of idolatry.  One of my favorite pet peeves as most of you know, is the use of the word “luck”.  If you are a Christian, please strike that word from your vocabulary.  We don’t believe in luck.  

For example, lets’ suppose you’re driving downtown to meet someone for lunch and you’re running late.  This is a very important meeting and you can’t afford to show up late, but somehow every single traffic light turned green just as you approached it.  But because it’s downtown, you need to find a good parking space close to the restaurant.  Well, lo and behold, somehow, a car pulls out of the space right at the front door!  So you get out of the car and begin going through your pockets or your purse for a couple of quarters to put in the meter because the Meter Maid just came around the corner and she’s looking directly at you.  You’ve got six nickels and eight pennies, but no quarters.  Then you look down at the curb and somehow there are two bright and shiny quarters lying right there.  Wow!  So you pick them up, stuff them I the parking meter, run inside the restaurant and somehow the VIP you were supposed to meet walks in 30 seconds behind you.  

So to what do we attribute all of this good fortune?  Luck?  When we do that, we unwittingly rob God of His glorious sovereignty over everything in our lives.  Rather than thanking God, “Lady Luck” is given the credit and God is not recognized as the giver of our everyday blessings.  We cheat God of the praise He is due for His kind providences by effectively denying He has anything to do with such things.

Yesterday I received an email from my brother concerning his wife Sandra who recently had a liver transplant.  He said her most recent trip to the doctor was great and she is doing very well.  He did not say, “We’re very lucky she isn’t dead.”  On the contrary, he said, “God is good.  Praise the name of the LORD!”  And that is where the praise and glory belong.  Sandra is alive today, not only because of great medical technology, and not just because she had very skilled and competent surgeons and physicians.  She’s alive because God in His kindness spared her life.  God in His providence blessed her with a donor liver in time to save her from certain death.  God, in His wisdom and sovereignty, working all things according to His own plans and purposes, brought death to the one so that another might live.  

Then my brother went on to say this: “I will once again thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, cards, emails, visits, meals and all expressions of kindness!!!  YOUR testimony is that you allowed God to work thru you in ministering to us.  And we are forever thankful!”

Now I fully understand what he means.  I even called him and talked to him about this because I wanted to use this as a sermon illustration.  Because of how Larry worded his second statement, my brother unwittingly robs God of His glory.  This is why we need to be careful about the words we use, and how we say the things we say.  Listen to it again: 

“I will once again thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, cards, emails, visits, meals and all expressions of kindness!!!”

No problem there.  We should be grateful to people for their kindnesses to us in our times of need.  Then he says:

“Your testimony is that you allowed God to work thru you in ministering to us.”

Is there anything wrong with that?  How does that rob God of His glory?  Did God work and minister to my brother and his wife through their friends?  Yes!  No question about that.  Thankfully, their friends ALLOWED God to do so.  I mean, what if God had wanted to minister through them and they said, “No way, God!  I’m not taking any more meals over to the Doster’s house.  They eat too much anyway!  You’re just gonna have to find somebody else to take care of them.”

Beloved, when is the last time any human being allowed God to do something?  When was the last time a man gave God permission to do something?  The answer is NEVER.  God does whatever He pleases and He never asks for, or needs our permission.  But many Christians use this language fairly often as though God somehow needs to ask our permission to accomplish His work.  And in doing so, we inadvertently rob God of the glory and praise He is due for the things HE has done.

You say, “Well that’s still not the same as the idolatry we see in Isaiah.  That’s not the same as worshipping an idol.”  That’s correct, it is not exactly the same.  But you don’t need to fall down in front of a statue of Molech or Zeus or Ra to be guilty of idolatry.  What is it that makes idolatry sinful?  The sinfulness of idolatry comes from ascribing value and worth and greatness and praise that belongs to God, to someone or something else.  

In the case of us “allowing” God to do the things He does, we place the free will of man above God.  We actually believe God is subject to our wills.  Therefore human Free Will is exalted above God’s will.  To put it another way, we are guilty of idolatry when we think anything is as important or more important than God.  So, according to that definition, every time we sin, regardless of what kind of sin it is, it is an exercise in idolatry.  When we sin, we set aside God and His commands for the sake of the sin we pursue.  Our sin becomes more important than our allegiance to God.  And in doing so, we rob God of the obedience and the glory He deserves, and we give it to another. 

Christians are also guilty of idolatry by not giving all glory to God for their salvation.  One of the great doctrines that came from the Protestant Reformation was the doctrine of Soli Deo Gloria: Glory to God alone.  God alone deserves all the glory for our salvation because He alone saved us.  The only reason you and I have any hope of forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Heaven is because God alone chose to act on our behalf, and we contribute nothing at all to our salvation.

It has been taught by multitudes of pastors and Bible teachers that God sent His Son to pay for the sins of the world and that is all He could do.  Now, it is up to us to exercise our free will and choose to repent and believe the Gospel.  Then God will respond to our faith and save us.  God offers salvation to all and He will save whoever chooses to stretch out their hand in faith to accept the free gift of salvation and take it.  Have you ever heard the gospel presented in that manner?

That is not the gospel.  The gospel is not, “Jesus has done all He can do, and now He stands at the door of your heart and knocks, hoping and praying you will open the door and let Him in.”  If that was the case, then God would be sharing with us the glory He alone deserves for saving us.  Since the final decision regarding salvation is presumably dependent upon us, then we would be able to say, “I opened the door.  I accepted Jesus.  I chose to be saved.  I closed the deal.  I was seeking for God (in spite of what Romans 3:11 says), I found Him, I repented of my sins, and for all practical purposes, I saved myself because I was smart enough to figure it all out.”

I did it.  Admittedly, God did 99% of the work.  But eventually it was my decision to trust Christ that made all the difference.  According to my own free will, I figured out that I really do need a Savior, and I chose the salvation God offered me in Jesus Christ.

That is idolatry.  Or maybe we should call it I-dolatry.  “I accepted Jesus.  I believed the Gospel.  I made a decision to trust in Christ.”  That is the mentality that robs God.  He alone is the author of our salvation.  He saves us, and He alone is to be praised for it because it is His work, not ours.  

Beloved, God does not merely offer salvation to sinners.  God is not sitting in Heaven waiting for sinners to wake themselves up and realize who He is, respond to the offer of eternal life, and accept Jesus into their hearts.  

[8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV)

Someone will say, “Well there it is!  Paul says it is the gift of God.  God offers us a gift, and all we have to do is untie the bow, open the box, and take it.“  Beloved, it is not a gift offered.  It is a gift given.  A gift granted.  A gift bestowed upon us so that we have nothing in which to boast.  We didn't even open the box!  We contribute nothing whatsoever to our own salvation.  God does it all.

But also, God does not simply offer salvation and ask sinners to repent.  On the contrary, God COMMANDS all men everywhere to repent of their sins.  It’s not a request, and it’s not just a good idea.  It is a command.  It is an imperative.  God has issued an order, an ultimatum to the entire human race: Repent and follow Jesus Christ, or face the final day of judgment without a savior.

Listen to how Jesus explains this:

[18] Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. [19] And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” [20] And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” [21] Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” [22] And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”  (Matthew 8:18-22 ESV)

You notice that when these men express a desire to follow the Lord Jesus, He does not say to these men, “That’s great!  I’m so happy you’ve made the decision to follow Me.  Come on!”  No, in essence He says, ”Do you know what you are asking?  What is it worth to you to follow Me?  It will cost you to be My disciple.  Are you willing to pay the price to be my disciple?”  On another occasion, Jesus said:

[24] “. . . If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. [25] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. [26] For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? [27] For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.  (Matthew 16:24-27 ESV)

What is eternal life worth?  What does it cost to have one’s sins forgiven by Christ?  What is God worth?  What is entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven worth?  What is your soul worth?

A rich young man came to Jesus one day and asked Him what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life.  After revealing the man’s self-righteousness because he thought he had kept all the commandments, Jesus finally said to him, 

[21] “. . . If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” [22] When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.  (Matthew 19:21-22 ESV)

What is Jesus saying in these situations?  Why is He making it so hard for people to follow Him?  Who wants to “take up his cross and follow Jesus”?  Anybody?  Would a rich man be willing to sell all in order to follow Christ?  Well, it depends on what you think God and eternal life are worth.  It depends upon how much praise and glory you think your Savior deserves.  

The Jews in the days of Isaiah traded God’s glory for the glory of sliver and gold idols.  Inanimate objects that had to be carried from place to place by their makers were worshipped as gods, while the God who delivered Israel from Egypt by great signs and wonders was neglected and forgotten.

What things in our lives do we trade in exchange for God?  What things do we, for all practical purposes, idolize in the place of our Savior?  What things in our lives rob God of the love and praise and glory that we owe Him alone?  Money?  Comfort?  Family?  Career?  Sex?  Food?  Drugs?  Clothes?   Gadgets?  My friends on Facebook?  Houses?  Land?  Luck?  My spouse?  My family heritage?  My inheritance?  Sports?  

Again, Jesus said 

[37] Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. [38] And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  (Matthew 10:37-38 ESV)

Jesus Christ is worth everything, even my life.  Even if I must die to follow Him, He is of such infinite value that if I’m not willing to give up my life for Him, I’m not worthy to be among those who call Him Savior.  

What do you love more than God?  Who is deserving of glory and honor and praise more than Christ?  If Jesus is not worth everything to us, we are idolators.  If something, ANYTHING, is of greater value to us than God Himself, whatever that thing is, that is our god.  And God will not give His glory to another.