Isaiah 40 and Our Incomparable God

I recently finished a series of teachings from the book of Isaiah. In the last four messages I preached through Isaiah 40, focusing on the incomparable greatness of God. (The third one, "Incomparable Craftsmanship" is probably the best of the bunch.)

The Incomparable Word from First Baptist Middleville on Vimeo.

Isaiah 40:1-8. Because God knows the future with certainty, His Word will stands firm and we can take comfort in it.

Behold Our God: Incomparable Might from First Baptist Middleville on Vimeo.

Isaiah 40:9-17. Behold our God who can hold the oceans in the hollow of His hand.

Incomparable Craftsmanship from First Baptist Middleville on Vimeo.

Isaiah 40:19-26. Behold the incomparable God who created the stars.

Incomparable Endurance from First Baptist Middleville on Vimeo.

Isaiah 40:27-31. Incomparable endurance comes from the incomparable God.

The Most Beautiful Painting in the World

Imagine that you were the owner of the most beautiful painting in the world. Without a doubt, this is the most beautiful work of art ever to be created. It brings joy and delight to everyone who looks at it. When people behold this magnificent work of art, their lives are forever changed because of the breathtaking beauty of this work.

Now, if you were the owner of this painting, what would be the more loving thing to do? Would it be more loving to take that painting and lock it in a big vault in your attic where it will be kept safe and where no one but you could every look at it? Or, would it be more loving to put the painting on display for everyone who is willing to come and delight in its beauty, and then to go out encouraging others to come and to behold the life-changing beauty of the painting?  

Now consider this: It’s not merely as if God has the most beautiful painting in the world; God is the most beautiful being in the world! Therefore, the most loving thing for God to do would be to put His magnificence on display for everyone to see. The most loving thing for Him to do would be to exalt Himself and insist that people come and find their delight in Him. God is the source of infinite and eternal joy.

God is glorified when people's hearts delight in Him. For God to be glorified is appropriate and God-honoring, because God deserves it. It is also the most loving thing for God to offer people.

"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord..." 

-Psalm 27:4

A God-Centered Philosophy of Discipleship

What are we trying to do in people’s lives? It is easy to talk about discipleship without having a clear idea what it is or why we do it.

Several years ago I developed this tool to train ministry teams. My goal was to help us think about the heart of discipleship in a way that is biblical and God-centered. There are hundreds of things that could be said about discipleship but my intent was to create something simple and memorable.

Our ultimate goal is to Glorify God by helping people to Treasure Christ as their Prophet, Priest, and King resulting in a continuous and life-long Change of their Thinking and Actions.

Glorify God 

First and foremost, the ultimate goal of discipleship is to glorify God. This is because the ultimate goal for everything is to glorify God. It is the reason God created us. It is the reason we exist. As Romans 11:26 states, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”

This is non-negotiable. It is crucial to have a God-centered view of discipleship rather than a man-centered view. We are not the center of the story. Although many great blessings often come as the result of growing in Christ, God is not a tool that we use to get something else that we really want. He is the focus. He deserves it. His glory is worth it.

So, what exactly does it mean to glorify God? The next part of this model is meant to help us grasp what this means by saying the same thing with different words.

Treasuring Christ 

But how do we glorify God? Do we do this by building a giant golden statue of Jesus or getting God the most “likes” on a social media site? No. The real way that human beings glorify God is by treasuring Him in their hearts. Whatever our hearts delight in the most is the thing that has the most worth to us. The more our hearts value God’s worth, the more God is glorified in us. As John Piper puts it, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Real discipleship aims at the heart. Real Christian growth is about what we love.

Christ is the focus of our worship, but what do we treasure Christ as? Is it okay to treasure Christ as our magic genie, or perhaps as the ideal humanist role model? As I thought about this, I recalled the three Old Testament offices that Christ fulfilled: Prophet, Priest, and King. I realized that Christian growth will always be deformed unless we treasure Christ in all three of these roles.

Prophet 

The prophet was the mouthpiece of God. The main function of the prophet was not to predict the future. The most important thing about the prophet was that God spoke His message through him. In Deuteronomy 18:18 God tells Moses, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.” Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this promise. In Hebrews 1:1-3 we read that in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son…the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. In John 1:1 Jesus is even called the Word of God.

To treasure Jesus as Prophet means to treasure Him as the one who teaches us what is true. We want to believe what Jesus believed and taught. This especially means that we believe the Bible as God’s Word. Jesus taught that the whole Old Testament was the Word of God (Jn. 10:35) and He told his disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to guide them in all truth (Jn. 14:26). Jesus confirmed the Old Testament and commissioned the New Testament. As followers of Jesus we need to adjust our beliefs to everything God teaches through the Bible.

Let me be clear, we need to believe everything the Bible teaches, not just the “red letters” of Jesus. Printing Jesus’ words in red letters is a modern invention. “All Scripture”—black and red—“is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Priest

In the Old Testament the priests were the ones who made sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. The book of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus is the final and permanent fulfillment of the office of priest. For example, Hebrews 4:14 states, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” Not only does Jesus present the sacrifice for us, Jesus gave himself as the sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 7:27). He took the wrath that we deserve when He went to the cross in our place.  

Treasuring Jesus as our Priest means treasuring Him as Savior. You are not a true Christian if you do not treasure Jesus Christ as the one who sacrificed Himself to pay the price for your sin and to make you right with God. As Christians, we never outgrow our need for God’s grace. We need to grow in our appreciation for it every day. We also need to realize that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:15-16).

King

In the Old Testament, the king was the one who rules with authority. In the New Testament, Peter declared, “let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36). Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:16).

To treasure Jesus as King means to treasure Him as Lord or Master. He is the one who deserves our obedience. He is the one with authority over our lives. He is the one who we must gladly bow the knee to. Jesus is the King and we need to recognize that fact and live like it—all the time. We need to stop living like we are on the throne.  

The problem is that the sinful human heart hates the fact that Jesus is King. That is why some churches neglect Jesus as King. It’s a big turn-off to rebels. It is much easier to fill a church talking about Jesus as a great humanitarian role model than as the Lord to whom we must bow the knee. We need to focus on Jesus as Prophet and Priest and King. If we neglect any of these three roles, discipleship will be unbalanced. 

Change, Thinking, Actions

When a person genuinely treasures Christ as their Prophet, Priest, and King there will be change in their life. Change may be dramatic, but usually it is a gradual process. It will be from the inside out—the way it is supposed to be. Lasting change is change that starts in the heart and flows outward to the rest of life. Romans 12:2 calls us to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The result that God is aiming for is to conform the believer into the image of Jesus Christ (Rm. 8:29). As we treasure Christ as our teacher, Savior, and Master we will grow to become more and more like Him in every way possible.

Please notice that life change is at the end of the process, not the beginning. This is important because, on the contrary, too often it is the main thing that people are after. For example, imagine some parents whose main desire is for their kids to stay off drugs and keep from getting pregnant. These are good things to desire, but it would be a shallow victory if their kids avoided scandalous sins but didn’t have hearts that cared about Jesus.

If you just change the outside, the change is fake and temporary. If you change the inside, the outside will follow. Don’t make the mistake of trying to change behavior without changing hearts. The true goal is not behavior modification, but heart change for the glory of God.

~

There you have it. My guess is that you could now take out a piece of paper and draw this diagram yourself. There is much more that could be said about discipleship, but I hope that this model will help you to think about Christian growth in a way that is (1) God-centered, (2) Heart-targeted, and (3) Biblically-balanced.

Related: A God-Centered Discipleship Reading List

In Michigan it is Illegal to Kill a Dog Using a Decompression Chamber

I’m not sure what people want to blow up dogs in decompression chambers, but in Michigan it is illegal.  There is actually a law specifically against this. I’m not making this up. I quote:

287.279a Killing dog or other animal; use of high altitude decompression chamber or electrocution prohibited. Sec. 19a. An animal control officer or other person killing a dog or other animal pursuant to the laws of this state shall not use a high altitude decompression chamber or electrocution for that killing.  

Sure, I agree. If you were thinking about doing this, don’t. No one wants to see Fluffy turned into Puffy. But what amazes me is the fact that someone was concerned about this enough to make sure there was a law against it. Was this once a big problem? Was this what people did to pass time before the internet? Or was there a very forward-thinking State Senator who said, “I know our society needs animal control officers, but we must not allow the possibility of them killing dogs using a high altitude decompression chamber! We need to nip this in the bud!” 

This law is fine. As I looked around online, I learned that this really is an issue. However, I doubt that many people would put this law in their top ten. If your state could only have ten laws, would you pick this one or would you save the spot for something more important? My guess is that this one wouldn't make the cut. I think the same thing is true for the Third Commandment, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Ex. 20:7). If you only had ten laws for mankind, would you pick that one? Why not something that seems more important, like “Thou Shall Not Commit Arson” or “Thou Shall Not Litter”? 

We tend to think of the Third Commandment as a throw-away commandment. God doesn’t view it that way. He made it third on His list and He takes it seriously. If you don’t think so, read the account in Leviticus 24:10-23 where God directed a blaspheming boy to be stoned to death for breaking this commandment.

God takes His name seriously because His name is His reputation, His glory. Yes, YHWH is the most sacred name of God, but this commandment goes deeper than merely guarding some set of letters or sounds that identify God. The main point is not about the specific sounds. In English the word “bog” means a swampy area but in Russian it means “God.”  As Edward Clowney writes in How Jesus Transforms the Ten Commandments, “Using God’s name is a serious act not because certain sounds are holy, but because God himself is present in his name, and all his works reveal that name” (40). 

Consider how the Bible speaks about someone’s “name.”  For example, Proverbs 3:3-4 states, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” Proverbs 22:1 states, “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.” Thus when Psalm 8:9 states, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” it is talking about God’s reputation, his glory, and there is nothing more important than this.

This commandment diagnoses our disrespect for God’s reputation when we see some of the specific ways that we violate it.  For example:

A.       False oaths. Leviticus 19:12 states, “Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.” Now, not all oaths and vows are outlawed.  (See Deut. 6:13 and 2 Cor. 1:23.)  However we need to remember that when we pledge by God’s name, we are staking God’s honor on our faithfulness to this vow.

B.       Casual or disrespectful use of God’s name. How dare we use God’s name as a four-letter swear word? We barely even notice it when God’s name is used this way on a show. It’s also wrong when we use His name as a casual exclamation, as if “Praise the Lord” just means, “That’s neat.” When we do that, aren’t we using His name is a vain, empty manner? Finally, what about the constant use of the abbreviation “O.M.G.” by everyone from yahoo.com to Christian teenagers. Christians should not use that abbreviation. No one is going to think it stands for “Oat Meal Gopher.” 

 “Casual use of God’s name is prohibited precisely because it wears away our sensitivity to the enormous reverence we owe it.” -Michael Horton, The Perfect Lew of Freedom, p. 104. 

C.       False Prophecy. God does not like it when we put words in His mouth. Deuteronomy 18:20 says that a prophet who falsely presumes to speak in God’s name should be put to death. Jeremiah 14:14-15 declares God’s distain for the false prophets who were preaching “delusions of their own minds.” Their message of peace and safety was popular with the king and the masses, but it wasn’t from God. Today we have politically correct pastors and denominations who would rather proclaim what is acceptable than what is true. They claim God’s authority to justify sin and disobedience.

D.      False teaching about God. God is glorified when we see the truth about who He is and what He has done. Instead, false teachers claim that God doesn’t have the attributes the Bible says He has. He hasn’t created what the Bible says He created.  He hasn’t done all that the Bible says He has done. False teaching changes God and robs Him of His glory.

E.       Manipulative God-talk/ Using God’s name to advance our own agendas.  Everyone from politicians to sports fans to Survivor contestants wants to claim God for their cause. Marketers use God to sell their stuff. Everyday Christians claim God’s authority for their own decisions saying, “God told me” or “I’m being led…” Those phrases sound spiritual, and they are conversation stoppers. But in most cases, wouldn’t it be better to say, “I think this is what God wants me to do…”?  Don’t pretend you have a direct line to God if you don’t.

This command directs us to honor God’s reputation with our lips and our lives.  If you call yourself a Christian, you are identifying yourself with His name. How is God’s reputation being lifted up or dragged through the mud by the way you live your life? If you call yourself a Christian, live like it. Don’t be a jerk or a hypocrite. Don’t put a fish on your car and then drive like you’re the only person on the road who matters. Don’t say you’re a Christian on your business card and do sloppy work or rip people off. Don’t wear a youth group shirt to school and talk like a pervert in the halls. And remember, even the angels see what you do in secret.

Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” The good deeds you do, do in His name, for hHs reputation, not in your name for your reputation.

The Third Commandment isn’t a throw-away commandment. There are good reasons God make it #3 on the list. God’s glory is worth it.

And ask yourself, if this were the only commandment you had to keep, would Jesus still have needed to go to the cross to save you? If so, remember that His name is also your only hope, for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rm. 10:13).