Who's THE REAL King? - #268

Yes—God loves you deeply. Yes—He is passionate about you. But ultimately your life is not about you. It’s about Him: He is THE REAL King! 

Transcript

God’s love for you is deep, personal, and sacrificial. If it wasn’t, He never would’ve died in your place. He is zealous for you. He is passionate about you. But here’s the tension we’re going to wrestle with today: in Isaiah 48:9–11, God makes it clear that there is something even higher—His name, His praise, His glory. And that’s exactly why He hates our worship of “King Me.” It robs Him of the glory that belongs to Him alone.

Welcome to The Point of Purity Podcast. A powerful weekly study filled to the brim with the all the tools from Scripture you will ever need to build a lasting life of Biblical purity and godliness. I’m your host Steve Etner – author, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #268 entitled “Who’s THE REAL King?” 

As I said in the opener, God’s love for you is real. It’s deep. It’s personal. In fact, you could say it’s at the very top of His priority list—because if it wasn’t, He never would have gone to the cross in your place. He is zealous for you. He is passionate about you. But… there’s something even bigger. When you come into Isaiah 48, you begin to see that while God’s love for you is incredibly real, there is something He places even higher—His name, His praise, His glory.

Let me read this to you. And as I do, I want you to listen carefully for what God emphasizes: “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. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. 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 48:9–11)

Did you hear that? “For my name’s sake…” “For the sake of my praise…” “For my own sake… for my own sake…” “My glory I will not give to another…” That’s strong. God is making it crystal clear—He is fully, completely, passionately committed to His glory.

Let me say it again, because we don’t want to miss it: “For my name’s sake I defer my anger… for my own sake, for my own sake, I do it… my glory I will not give to another.” (Isaiah 48:9–11)

God is always—and will always be—about His glory. Not yours. Not mine. His. And this isn’t just in one place. In Isaiah 42:8, God says, “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”

So, we understand this, right? At least intellectually. We get that God is about His glory. But if we’re honest… this is where we start to wrestle a little bit. Because we’ve been taught—and rightly so—that God loves us deeply. And Scripture makes that abundantly clear.

Jesus Himself said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” 

1 John 3:1 says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” And 1 John 4:9–10 says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love… that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

So don’t miss this—God’s love for you is absolutely real. It’s undeniable. It’s sacrificial. It’s personal. He is passionate about you. But here’s the tension we have to understand: as real as God’s love for you is… God is ultimately about His glory, not ours. And that’s exactly what Isaiah 48 is showing us.

So what does that mean? It means God’s love for you is not disconnected from His glory—it’s actually an expression of it. God loves you in a way that puts His character, His name, His greatness on display.

And this is also why God takes sin so seriously. This is why He hates idolatry. This is why He speaks so strongly against “King Me.” Because every time we make life about ourselves… every time we elevate our desires above His will… every time we worship something or someone other than Him… we are robbing God of the glory that belongs to Him alone. And He will not share it.

Psalm 8:1 says, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” Psalm 57:5 and 108:5 both cry out, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!” Do you see the theme? His glory is everything.

In fact, in Isaiah 6:3, the angels in heaven won’t stop declaring, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And David prays in 1 Chronicles 29:11, “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty… Yours is the kingdom… and you are exalted as head above all.”

Everything belongs to Him. Everything points to Him. Everything is about Him.

So, here’s where this gets really personal. Yes—God loves you deeply. Yes—He sent His Son for you. Yes—He is passionate about you. But ultimately… your life is not about you. It’s about Him. It’s about His name. His glory. His praise.

And when you begin to understand that—not just in your head, but in your heart—it changes everything about how you live. Because now the question isn’t, “What do I want?” The question becomes, “What brings Him glory?” And that… is where real transformation begins.

Alright, let’s keep building on this, because this is where it all starts to come together in a really powerful way.

God’s zeal—His passion—for His glory is not in competition with His love for you. It actually explains His love for you. Let me show you what I mean. Listen again to Isaiah 48:9–11, and this time really lean in to what God is saying: “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. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it… My glory I will not give to another.”

Did you catch that? God is saying, “I’m holding back My anger. I’m restraining it. I’m choosing not to cut you off.” And instead of consuming you—which would be completely just—He says, “I’m refining you.” He’s not destroying you… He’s working on you. He’s shaping you. He’s purifying you. That is unbelievable patience. That is incredible love.

So don’t miss this—God’s love for you is anchored in who He is. It’s rooted in His commitment to His name, His praise, and His glory—not in anything you and I could ever bring to the table. He’s not loving you because you’ve earned it. He’s not restraining His anger because you’ve been good enough. He says very clearly, “For my name’s sake… for the sake of my praise… for my own sake I do it.” That’s where your hope is found. Not in your performance—but in His character.

But at the same time, don’t let that truth cause you to minimize something else that’s just as real: God hates our sin. He’s furious at our idolatry. He’s angry when we choose “King Me” over Him. And yet… He restrains that anger. He defers it. He doesn’t cut us off. Why? Because there’s still work to be done in us.

Scripture uses this picture of “dross” to describe sin—those impurities that rise to the surface when metal is heated. You see that in places like Proverbs 25:4, Isaiah 1:25, Ezekiel 22:18–19, and Psalm 119:119. Dross is the junk—the impurities, the waste—that has to be removed so what’s left is pure. And that’s exactly what God is doing in your life. When you go through the heat… when life feels intense… when you’re being stretched… God is allowing that so the junk rises to the surface and can be dealt with.

Every time we choose to worship “King Me,” we’re treating God’s name lightly. We’re acting like His glory isn’t the most important thing. We’re living as if God exists for us instead of us for Him. And yes—that provokes His anger. It deserves His judgment.

Romans 1:18 says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…” And Colossians 3:25 reminds us, “The wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.”

So, here’s the tension: God’s wrath is real… but it’s being restrained. Isaiah 48:9 says, “For my name’s sake I defer my anger.” That word “defer” means to put off—to delay—to postpone. It hasn’t disappeared. It’s been held back.

And that raises a huge question… If God is just—and He is, as Isaiah 30:18, Job 34:12, and Deuteronomy 32:4 all make clear—then that wrath has to go somewhere. Justice has to be satisfied. And here’s the best news you will ever hear: it already has been.

1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love… that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” In other words, Jesus took the full weight of God’s wrath in your place. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And 1 Peter 3:18 tells us, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”

Do you see it? God didn’t just ignore your sin. He didn’t sweep it under the rug. He poured out His wrath—fully, completely—on His Son at the cross. That’s why 1 Thessalonians 1:10 says Jesus “delivers us from the wrath to come.” And 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And that’s why we can stand on this incredible promise: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

Romans 3:25 puts it this way: God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin, showing that He was perfectly just—even in holding back punishment in the past—because it would ultimately be dealt with at the cross.

So let me just slow this down for a second and let this settle in. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.” That’s not a maybe. That’s not a hope-so. That’s a promise. And Daniel 9:9 reminds us, “To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness.”

So what do we do with that? We respond. We come clean. We stop hiding. Because 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Friend… that’s freedom. That’s God’s amazing grace. That’s divine, faithful and steadfast love.

As we close out this episode let me encourage you to head over to ThePurityCoach.com. There are some great resources there—but let me point you to one that can really help you go deeper.

I’ve written a book called “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E. – the Dethroning of King Me,” and it’s available right now on Amazon. Let’s be honest here: life gets messy when “King Me” is sitting on the throne of your heart. You’ve felt that. I’ve felt that. When everything revolves around what I want, what I feel, what I think I deserve… things start to fall apart. Because life was never meant to be about us. God always gets top billing. This episode was entitled “Who’s THE King?” The answer should now be obvious – HE IS! 

This book (“Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E. – the Dethroning of King Me,”) is designed to help you wrestle through the deep questions: Why do I keep doing what I don’t want to do? Why do I struggle to gain victory over the same sins? Why can’t I stay consistent? How do I actually live a life that’s fully surrendered to God?

And here’s the key—this book doesn’t give you surface-level answers. It takes you straight into Scripture and walks you through how to actually apply God’s truth to your everyday life. Because if real change—lasting change—is going to happen, you’ve got to change who’s leading your life. Whoever sits on the throne of your heart… is calling the shots in your life. So it’s time to remove the “I” from L.I.F.E. and put God back in His rightful place.

So here’s my challenge to you—don’t wait. Go to Amazon.com right now, search “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E. – the Dethroning of King Me,” and grab your copy today. If you’re serious about real transformation, this is a step you don’t want to skip.

Well, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, let me encourage you to do so today so you won’t miss any of our upcoming episodes! So, until next time this is Steve Etner – author, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry – reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.