When God Is Not Doing It For Us Series

THE PROBLEM: God’s name is being profaned among the nations because of God’s people.

- Ezekiel 36:22 (“My holy name, which you have profaned among nations”), 23 (“My great name, which has been profaned among the nations”).

- The Hebrew word for “profane” here can also mean “defile, pollute, desecrate.” God’s name was getting trashed among the nations because of God’s people.

- What did that look like? Something like this. God’s people were not acting faithfully to the covenant they made with God. They were living for themselves. They looked and acted like the world. Yet they were simultaneously claiming to be God’s special people. The world looked at that and basically responded, “Well, if you’re God’s people then He must not be much of a God!”

- Is this relatable to today? Absolutely. We see many refusing to believe in Jesus because of the weak witness of the church.

- This is something we need to be cognizant of - that our lives are a representation to the world of the God we claim. When we live lives that look just like everyone else, the world thinks, “He must not be much of a God!” When we live lives that are unchanged from who we were before, the world thinks, “He must not be much of a God!” We have an enormous capacity to damage the name of God by our behavior.

GOD'S MOTIVE: He will act not for the sake of Israel but for the sake of His name.

- Ezekiel 36:22 (“It is not for your sake . . . but for the sake of My holy name”).

- Not for the sake of Israel.

- Let’s start first with the fact that He is not doing it for Israel’s sake.

- What does that mean?

- It doesn’t mean that doesn’t love them or that He isn’t concerned about them. Rather, we can see that God’s people here are not crying out to have their lives changed. They are content in their hypocrisy. So He is not doing this because they are crying out to Him, asking for this change. Not at all.

- This is not true of every situation. There may be times when God does something for us for our sake. This is specific to this situation.

- But for the sake of His name.

- God is doing this for the sake of His name. What does that mean?

- God has put His name on the line in attaching it in covenant to Israel. So the actions and inaction of Israel impacts the reputation of God. Israel, as our passage clearly indicates, is in this situation damaging the reputation of God.

- Israel’s reputation is on the line but God’s reputation is on the line too. Israel isn’t doing anything to indicate they are the least bit concerned about the damage their hypocrisy is doing to their reputation. God is concerned, though, about the damage it’s doing to His reputation. And He intends to act.

- We see this concern about His name in the story of Moses as well.

- Look with me at Exodus 32:9-14.

- The Golden Calf incident is active at this point. God is ready to give up on Israel because of their disobedience. He’s ready to restart with Moses (v. 9). But Moses speaks to why God can’t do that: His reputation is on the line (vv. 10-14). He has aligned Himself with Israel and He can’t let Israel fail without it damaging His own name.

- (There are numerous interesting questions here about whether God really meant to do that or if he was just testing Moses but those are ones that we don’t need to address here. The point for this sermon is simply that here too we have the concern about God’s name as an issue.

- It may be helpful at this point to bring up some corollary passages in the gospels that focus on the glory of God.

- Let’s look at John 17:4, 5, 10, 22, 24.

- These all have references to the glory of God. Jesus is clear that He is working to bring glory to His Father. This is a worthy and important focus.

- Why pursue that?

- First, because God deserves to be glorified. He is worthy of praise and credit.

- Second, because we should live for that which is ultimately worthwhile, which is God.

- Third, we should want to bring honor and praise to the One who has done so much for us.

HOW WILL GOD REDEEM THE REPUTATION OF HIS NAME? By changing God’s people.

- Ezekiel 36:23 (“when I show Myself holy through you before their eyes”).

- So what is God going to do to redeem His reputation? Verse 23 tells us: He will prove His holiness through the Israelites.