January 22, 1989
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Bethlehem Baptist Church
John Piper, Pastor
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(1 Corinthians 10:31)
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,
do all to the glory of God."
Two weeks ago we began a series of messages to explain
the Biblical basis of the new pamphlet called "Quest for Joy". The reason we have put this pamphlet
together is that the Christian gospel is wonderfully good news. It is wonderful to know it and believe
it! It is meant for everybody. Everybody needs it, whether they know it or
not. And if you care about people you
will want to tell them this good news.
Our hope is that the pamphlet and the sermons will
give you a firmer grasp of Biblical truth, and give you a possible way of
making it clear to others. This is by
no means the only way to share the gospel.
The truth of God must be made plain to people in a thousand acts of love
and in words that suit hundreds of different occasions. But many of us have learned that confident
spontaneity with unbelievers grows out of firm, deep roots of
understanding.
The most creative portrait artist is the one who has
labored to master how you draw a chin and a nose and an ear. When the basics are second nature, then real
creativity begins. So it is in evangelism. So please don't think we want you to parrot
what's here. We want you to grasp it
very deeply. We want it to become
second nature in your own way of seeing life.
And then we want you to speak the good news in love -- and if it helps
to use the pamphlet, use it.
When you open the pamphlet all the way you see six
Biblical truths stated in bold type.
Each has a Bible verse quoted beneath it, and then a short paragraph of
explanation. The six truths are in a
very definite order so that each one needs the ones before it to make sense.
Two weeks ago we focussed on Truth #1, "God
created us for his glory" based on Isaiah 43:7. In other words if we are going to make the gospel plain, people
need to know something of God's power (he is Creator), something of God's
greatness (he is glorious -- stupendous, awesome, perfect in every way) and
something of God's purpose (He aims to make his glory known and admired). So we begin by saying, "God created us
for his glory."
Let me summarize why beginning here is so
important.
1) God is the
central reality in the universe. The
Bible says that "All things are from him and through him and to him, to
him be glory for ever" (Romans 11:36).
It says that "all things exist for him and by him" (Hebrews
2:10). Man is not the center of all
things. God is. If truth isn't at least on the table for
consideration, the rest of the gospel message will be warped to fit our natural
self-centeredness.
2) When we
come next week to the third point in the gospel, Romans 3:23 will make no sense
unless we have begun here with God's purpose to be glorified. Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God."
Now what would fall short of glory mean, and why would it be a problem
unless you had shown that God made us to glorify him, and that we have failed
in the very destiny for which we were made?
In other words the essence of sin cannot be understood unless you begin
with God and his glory. That's why
people don't experience contrition like they used to. Sin is seen as what makes me miserable not
what offends the glory of God. Our view
of sin today is basically psychological not theological. (More on that next week.) To know what sin is we must begin with God
and his great purposes.
3) It is
crucial that we show it is right for God to be God-centered and not
man-centered. Many people are happy to
let God exist if God will make man the highest value in the universe. But it is crucial to say that God is the
most valuable being in the universe. We
are quite secondary. And since God is
the ultimate value in the universe, it is only right and fitting that he be
honest about that. That he tell us so
and that for our own good he seek our love and admiration.
Sometimes people ask, why is it right for God to seek
his glory, but wrong for us to seek our glory?
Why would we be vain and God be righteous? The answer is that God's righteousness and our righteousness are
exactly the same -- God is righteous to esteem most highly what is most
valuable in the universe, namely, God.
And we are righteous to esteem most highly what is most valuable in the
universe, namely, God. There is no
inconsistency here.
Righteousness means having a right response to what
is infinitely glorious and perfect. And
that is God. For us to be righteous we
must love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. For God to be righteous he too must love
HIMSELF with all his heart and soul and mind and strength. Otherwise he would be an idolater. He would be giving supreme devotion to
something that does not have supreme value.
What we will see next week is that the root problem
of our human nature is that we do not want God to be God. We want to be God. And one clear piece of evidence for that is how rare the Biblical
God-centered vision of God is, and how widespread the unbiblical man-centered
vision of God is. So I repeat, it is
crucial that we lay the truth on the table that God created us for HIS glory
and that this is reasonable and right for God to do.
4. It is
helpful to begin with God's purpose in creation because that tells us why we
are here on the earth, and common sense says, that if you know what something
was made for you can get more out of it.
That's true for your life. If
you know that a lawn mower is made for cutting grass and not for a window fan
your life will be happier. And if you
know that you are made for God's glory, you will make better use of it and be
happier.
That leads us to Truth #2.
Of course Truth #1 and Truth #2 are very closely
connected. But they are not the
same. Truth #1 starts with God and
describes his ultimate design in creating us.
Truth #2 shifts from God's design to our duty. Let's read the text and the paragraph of explanation.
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,
do it all for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).
If God made us for his glory, it is clear that we
should live for his glory. Our duty
comes from his design. What does it
mean to glorify God? It means that we
love him (Matthew 22:37), trust him (Romans 4:20), are thankful to him (Psalm
50:23) and obey him (Matthew 5:16).
Now at this point you might appeal to Scripture (the
verses are listed) or to reason (or common sense), depending on how much common
ground you have with someone.
Let me encourage you not to get bogged down on any
one of these truths if someone rejects the truth. Don't think that the only way a person can be persuaded of the
truth of Christianity is by moving logically from premise to premise. That is not the way most people
function.
Suppose a person says, after you share Truth #1,
"I can't buy it. I don't even
think there is a God. And the theory of
evolution makes all that talk of divine design and divine purpose
meaningless." What should you
do? Should you give up because you
can't even get them to agree to the first foundational truth?
NO! What you
should say is something like this: "O. K. I understand that you don't
agree with this first truth. But would
you hear me out and let me try to give you the big picture so you can make your
judgment based on how it all might fit together." Then you go on to truths #2 and #3 and so
on.
The reason for this is that most of us do not embrace
an idea or a cause because we have sorted out all its premises and tested them
logically one by one from the most basic on up. Most of us embrace an idea or a cause (or a person!) because the
whole thing or some crucial part of it causes lights to go on for us. It gives a flash of insight . It clicks with things we know already. It makes sense out of things that had been
confusing or troubling.
In other words if you can get the whole picture --
all six truths -- into a person's mind it may be that something in the other five
will hit home with such force that they would reconsider their rejection of the
first one. Or it may be that later --
sometimes much later -- a devastating experience will open them to reconsider
the truth of these things. If you have
given them the whole picture the Holy Spirit can then apply any part of it to
their need. And if they have a copy to
keep, all the better. Never think you
have spoken God's truth in vain. It
does not go out in vain.
So you go on to explain Truth #2. Here's one way to go about it.
Truth #1 said that God made us to reflect or display
or manifest his glory. We are supposed
to be like well polished mirrors of God's truth to the world. Or like prisms that take the beams of God's
greatness and break them up into lots of varied colors for the world to see in
our actions and words (Ephesians 3:10; Matthew 5:16).
So that is what every man and woman and child should
devote his or her life to. That is why
we live. That is our duty. Or you could say, that is God's law.
But for some people -- most people -- the words
"duty" and "law" are not happy words. They tend to sound oppressive and
burdensome. So it does't sound then
that God is very loving. That he
doesn't have our best interest at heart.
Maybe he is so interested in his glory that we don't really count except
as slaves to work for him.
That kind of objection has to be met. And it is not hard to meet. You meet it by asking this question: If God
is perfect, complete, all-sufficient, infinitely great and glorious, and didn't
create us to meet his needs, because he doesn't have any needs, then how do you
glorify a God like that?
Not by working for him like a slave. That would give the impression that he is weak or deficient. Not by cowering in uncertainty beneath his power. That would give the impression that he is unstable or capricious or cruel.
How do you bring glory to an all-sufficient, perfect,
infinitely beautiful, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, overflowing
God? Here you can use the texts in the
pamphlet or you can use illustrations from ordinary life.
For example, if you want to glorify a beautiful
painting, you don't feel a burden to work to improve it. You simply enjoy it. You love it. You talk about it excitedly to your friends. Or if someone makes a wonderful meal and
serves it up before you, how do you glorify the excellence of the meal? Not by putting on your apron and going out
to the kitchen to make a few more dishes or add a few spices. No.
You glorify a perfect meal by eating a lot and by feeling contended and
saying, ahhh. In other words if it is
your duty to glorify something infinitely beautiful and wonderful, that is no
burden. It is a pleasure. In fact when you take from it pleasure, you
show it's a treasure.
Or suppose it's your duty to glorify the strength of
a new metal alloy that holds up a bridge.
How do you glorify the strength of the metal? Not by working hard to provide some extra supports, but by
getting in your car with all your family and trusting the bridge with your life
as you peacefully drive across without any anxiety. You glorify strength by trusting it not by working to supplement
it. So the duty to glorify power is not a burden. It's a restful pleasure.
Or suppose your duty was to glorify someone's
generosity. Suppose someone was so rich
and so generous that they just spilled over in love and generosity and grace
and kindness to you. How would you
glorify that quality in them. Not by
trying to pay them back. That would
turn their kindness into a business deal.
It would treat their free gift like a trade. Tit for tat. That would
not glorify the wealth of their generosity.
No the way to glorify their generosity and their kindness is to be
lavish and genuine in your gratitude and thanksgiving. And that is no burden. If you get a billion dollar gift you do not
groan under the duty to feel thankful.
It is a pleasure not a hardship.
Finally, suppose it is your duty to glorify someone's
great wisdom? Say the wisdom of your
coach (if you're on some team) or your counselor (if you are in some kind of
therapy)? The answer is that you don't
glorify their wisdom by trying strenuously to help them figure out the answer
to some problem. You glorify their
wisdom by doing what they say. If you
want to show that your coach is really wise, you run and his drills without
doubting or grumbling. If your want to
glorify your counselor’s wisdom you do his assignments without doubt or
grumbling. In other words, glad hearted
obedience glorifies great wisdom. And
this is not a burden (1 John 5:3).
Now do you see what all this means? It means that God is love. It means that when he created us for his
glory, he also created us for our joy.
How so? Because the way he seeks
to be glorified in us is by making us satisfied in him. The good news of Christianity is that God is
the kind of God who is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
In sharing the truth of Christianity Truth #1 is that
God created us for HIS glory. Truth #2
is that this is therefore the duty of every man and woman and child -- to live
for the glory of God. And the wonderful
thing is that this duty is not a burden.
It is freedom and joy. You
glorify God's beauty and excellence by loving it and delighting in it. You glorify God's power by trusting him with
all the hard and threatening things in your life. You glorify God's bounty and generosity and kindness and grace by
overflowing with gratitude. And you
glorify God's wisdom by obeying his counsel.
And everybody knows that this is no burden. This is no heavy law.
This is love.
God is a God of infinite love because he wills to
share all that he is with us for our enjoyment and his glory.
This was the wonderful beginning of Christian
truth. And then something happened. We will turn to Truths #3 and #4 next week:
"Joy Exchanged" and "Joy Forfeited.”
Copyright
2001 John Piper
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