Sermon Tone Analysis

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:

God’s Glory is His Alone

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:

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?

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.

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:

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.