Passionate for God's Holiness - Part 4 — John Piper

God Is Not a Worshiper of Humanity

God did not suddenly become an idolater when He created man, putting man where God belongs. God is not a man-worshipper. God is a God-worshipper. Or would you deny Him the highest joys of the universe?

The Gospel of Self-Exaltation

But we did not tell you that. We bred you on your self-centeredness. We taught you a gospel of self-esteem that heals all diseases. And we put God on the periphery as a means to your self-exaltation.

God's Glory as the Center of Redemption

So there's a great barrier. There's a great barrier here. My generation has failed itself and you in so many ways. You are not the center of God's values. The glory of God is the center of His value. You're not the center of His redeeming work.

The magnifying of Christ in your life is the center of His redeeming work. You are not the treasure of the gospel. God is the treasure of the gospel. Here's a test. Get ready. It's just a one-question test to see whether or not you know what it is to be loved by God.

The Test of What It Means to Be Loved by God

Whether or not you know what it is to experience the love of God in your life. Because my generation has sold you a bill of goods on what that means. We have told you in a thousand ways to be loved by God is to be made much of.

Loving God by Enjoying His Glory

Some of you can't even conceive of another definition of love than to be made much of. God loves me. He makes much of me. Now here's the test. Do you feel more loved by God when He makes much of you or when He, at the cost of His Son's life, gives you the ability to enjoy making much of Him forever?

The Cross and the Revolution of Worship

I'm going to state the test question again. You do the answering in your heart. And then you will know whether you have to experience a Copernican revolution at one day, 03. Do you feel more loved by God when He makes much of you or do you feel more loved by God when He undertakes, through the cross and the Holy Spirit, to enable you to experience a kind of inner revolution that you enjoy making much of Him forever?

That's the test question for this generation. My generation failed it. We still do. We're still delivering the wrong books, the wrong sermons, the wrong message to this generation all about me, all about my value.

The Cross Reveals Sin's Assault on God's Worth

We stand before the Holy Cross of God Almighty and take it as an echo of my worth instead of as an echo of the horror of demeaning the worth of God, which is what sin is and which is why the cross was necessary.

Christ as the Holy One and the Enjoyment of Holiness

I count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Jesus is the Holy One. That's what the devil has recognized. What do you have to do with us, Holy One of God? Jesus is the holiness of God made accessible.

Jesus is the holiness of God made tolerable. Indeed, Jesus is the holiness of God made enjoyable, if we can get low enough and tremble hard enough and rend our souls deeply enough that we understand what holiness is and required of Jesus.

God's Love Sustains and Exalts His Holiness

You were made to feast on Jesus. You were made to feast on holiness found in Jesus. So let me ask you, what is the love of God? What is it to be loved by God? And the answer is that God sustains and exalts His holiness.