Passionate for God's Holiness - Part 5 — John Piper

God's Love and Our Everlasting Enjoyment

Your enjoyment forever. That's the love of God. I'll say it again. The love of God is His passion to sustain and uphold and exalt His holiness in His Son for your everlasting enjoyment. If you put yourself at the center, you're suicidal because it robs you of the very glory of God and His enjoyment.

A Generation Passionate for God's Holiness

Now, in closing, if this happens, and I pray it happens, that God would turn this generation into a generation passionate for the holiness of God, everything would change. Everything would change. Your view of sin would change if He gave you a passion for the holiness of God.

Sin as Dishonor Against God

You would no longer think in terms of sin as the damaging of man, but as the dishonoring of God. You would no longer think of sin as the choice of pleasure, but the loss of pleasure. It would change the way you view the righteousness of God.

God's Righteousness and His Own Glory

You would no longer think of the righteousness of God of simply doing what is right by you. You would think the righteousness of God is His unswerving allegiance to always be right by Himself, that is, to exalt what is infinitely worthy, namely, His holiness and His glory.

The Cross Vindicates God's Holiness

It would change the way you look at the cross. Oh, it would be precious. You would sing, I love the cross, I love the cross. But you would sing about your love for the cross, not like you're told in so many books and so many sermons, that there you can see how much you were valuable to God.

The Cross and the Worth of God's Holiness

But rather, you would stand at the cross and see two things. You would see how infinitely valuable the holiness, the righteousness, and the honor of God is, that when you trampled it under foot by your sins, God knew the only way to vindicate His righteousness was to slay His own Son.

That's how serious your sin is. That's how glorious God is. It's not about your worth. And the other thing that you will see at the cross is that this is how much He was willing to pay to make you happy in His holiness.

Missions and the Holiness of God

If you will be changed, I close with one last implication. Missions. If you fall in love with the holiness of God, trembling, it's a dangerous place to be. Your attitude towards the nations, the unreached peoples of the world will undergo a profound change.

Isaiah's Vision of God's Holy Glory

In the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, seated upon a throne, and His train filled the temple. And above Him stood the seraphim, each had six wings, and with two they covered their face, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

And one cried to the other, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And then the next missionary phrase, the whole earth is full of His glory. You see the connection between the intrinsic holy, holy, holy, and then the public fullness of glory.

Sacrificial Love in Spreading Christianity

If you become a generation, and I pray that this number would be the tithe of the 200 ,000, you will lay down your lives unlike radical Islam that take lives to spread their religion. You will not kill to spread Christianity.

You will die to spread Christianity.