August 29, 1982
Bethlehem Baptist Church Ordination Service for Tom Steller
John Piper, Pastor
THE GOD WE WORSHIP
In preparation for Steve Fuller's charge to Tom I would like to say three things about the God we worship here at Bethlehem and into whose service we ordain Tom Steller tonight. He is holy. He is righteous. And he is love.
First, God is holy. When we describe God as holy we mean that he is one of a kind. There is none like him. He is in a class by himself. Moses taught Israel to sing (in Exodus 15:11), "Who is like thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, majestic in holiness, terrible in glorious deeds, doing wonders?" Centuries later Hannah, Samuel's mother, taught Israel to sing (in 1 Sam. 2:2), "There is none holy like the Lord, there is none besides thee." And Isaiah quotes God saying (in 40:25), "To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One." God is holy in his absolute uniqueness. Everything else belongs to a class. You are human, Rover is a dog, the oak is a tree, earth is a planet, the Milky Way is one of a million galaxies, Gabriel is an angel, Satan is a demon. But only God is God. And therefore he is holy, utterly different, distinct, unique. All else is creation. He alone creates. All else begins. He alone always was. All else depends. He alone is self-sufficient.
And therefore the holiness of God is synonymous with his infinite value. Diamonds are valuable because they are rare and hard to make. God is infinitely valuable because he is the rarest of all beings and cannot be made at all nor was he ever made. If I were a collector of rare treasures and could somehow have God, the Holy One, in my treasury I would be wealthier than all the collectors of all the rarest treasures that have ever lived. Revelation 4:8-11 recounts the songs that are being sung to God in heaven. The first one says, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" The second one says, "Worthy art thou, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power." And these two songs mean the same thing: "God is holy" means that he is worthy. His holiness is his immeasurable worth and value. Nothing can be compared with him, for he made everything, and whatever glory renders a created thing valuable is found one million-fold in the Creator.
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory" say the seraphim above his throne (Is. 6:3). Habakkuk cries, "God came from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise." And the Lord himself said in Leviticus 10:3, "I will show myself holy among those who are near me, and before all the people I will be glorified." The holiness of God is the absolutely unique infinite value of his majestic glory. To say that our God is holy means that he is beautiful beyond degree in the magnificence of his glory and that his value is infinitely greater than the sum of the value of all created beings.
Secondly, God is righteous. At the root, the righteousness of God means that he has a right assessment of his own ultimate value; he has a just regard for his own infinite worth, and he brings all his actions into conformity to this right judgment of himself. God would be unrighteous and unreliable if he denied his ultimate value, disregarded his infinite worth and acted as though the preservation and display of his glory were worth anything less than his wholehearted commitment. God acts in righteousness when he acts for his own name's sake. For it would not be right for God to esteem anything above the infinite glory of his own name. Psalm 143:11 says, "For thy name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In thy righteousness bring me out of trouble." Similarly in Psalm 31, verse 1: "In thy righteousness deliver me." Verse 3: "For thy name's sake lead me and guide me." Similarly in Daniel 9, verse 16: "In accordance with all thy righteous acts let now thy anger turn away from thy city Jerusalem." Verse 17: "For thy sake, O Lord, let thy face shine upon thy desolate sanctuary." An appeal to the righteousness of God is at root an appeal to his unswerving allegiance to the value of his own glorious name.
That means that for God to be righteous he must devote himself 100% with all his heart, soul and strength to loving and honoring his own glory. And that he does. The main point of Ephesians chapter one is repeated three times. Verse 5: "God destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace." Verse 12: "We who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory." Verse 14: "The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory." All of God's work in creation and redemption is done in order to honor and display his own glory. He says in Isaiah 48:9 and 11, "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 … 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." And again in 60:21, "[Israel] is the shoot of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified." God is supremely and unimpeachably righteous because he never shrinks back from a right assessment of his ultimate value, a just regard for his infinite worth, or an unswerving commitment to honor and display his glory in all he does.
Finally, God is love. And this is not in conflict with his holiness and righteousness. On the contrary, the very nature of God's holiness and righteousness demands that he be a God of love. For his holiness is the absolute uniqueness and infinite value of his glory. His righteousness is his unswerving commitment always to honor and display that glory. And the way that his all-sufficient glory is honored and displayed most is by his working for us instead of needing us to work for him. And that is love. Love is at the very heart of God's being because God's free and sovereign dispensing of mercy is more glorious than the demand for humans to fill up some lack in himself. It is more glorious to give than to receive. Therefore, the righteousness of God demands that he be a giver. And therefore the Holy and Righteous One is Love.
Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God's love. And when he came he said, "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45). The Son of Man has not come seeking employees. He has come to employ himself for our good. We dare not try to work for him lest we rob him of his glory and impugn his righteousness. The apostle Paul said, "Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his right is reckoned as righteousness." For Paul said in Acts 17:25, "God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything." And even when we work out our salvation in fear and trembling we are told that the only reason we can will to lift a finger is "because God is the one at work in you to will and to do his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). When Paul works harder than any of the other apostles, he declares, "It was not I, but the grace of God that was with me" (1 Cor. 15:10). Therefore, in Romans 15:18 he says, "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has worked through me." For Paul is utterly convinced that no blessing in life is finally owing to man's willing or running but to God who has mercy (Rom 9:16). God aims to get all the glory in our redemption. And therefore he is adamant that he will work for us and not we for him. He is the workman; we stand in need of his services. He is the doctor, we are the sick patient. We are the weak, he is the strong. We have the broken down jalopy, he is the gifted mechanic. We must beware lest we try to serve him in a way that dishonors him, for he aims to get the glory. As Peter says (1 Pet. 4:11), "Let him who renders service render it as by the strength which God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
ORDINATION VOWS
Moved by your love for God and a sincere desire to teach and proclaim his Word among men, are you now ready to take upon you this holy ministry and faithfully serve in it?
Will you tend the flock of Christ committed to your care, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly, not for worldly gain but that men might come to trust in his free grace and give him glory?
Will you make faithful effort duly to administer the ordinances in purity; to preach the Word of the everlasting God; to proclaim the gospel of Christ; to lead disciples into the presence of God and his healing Spirit; to minister to them the truth of God as contained in the holy scriptures; to guide them in the way of life which is Christ, that they may be found in him and be claimed for the joy of service in his kingdom?
Do you promise to be diligent in prayer, in the reading of the Scriptures, and in such studies and devotions as will increase your knowledge of God and his kingdom?
Will you bank your hope fully on the promises of God, give heed to his warnings in all humility, and, for the joy that is set before you, strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord?
And will you, in the footsteps of our Master Shepherd, seek to love the people in your charge, to teach them, admonish them, warn them, encourage them, in public and private that they might cleave only to Christ and be found in him, your joy at the coming of our Lord?