God’s Passion for His Glory in History

From the God's heart. in everything he does is for God. God has a heart for God. Again, his unwavering purpose in all that he was The worst. and the glory of his name. God in all the universe. John Piper answers in this first episode of a 10-part series titled A Heart for God. Trinity Baptist Church in Wheaton, Illinois on september eighteenth, nineteen eighty eight. I would like to put tonight's message in the context of a word from the Lord Jesus and try to explain

what I think I'm here for in the next several days. And the word is from Matthew twenty four, verse eleven, and it goes like this. Many false prophets will arise and deceive many. And because lawlessness is multiplied, the love of many will grow cold. In other words, the flame of love is going to flicker. in the lives of many people and hearts are going to get colder and colder with less and less affection for God and for each other as evil and lawlessness spread toward the end of the age.

So I think that I'm here to fan the flames of affection for God in your heart, which the atmosphere around us is threatening every day. This morning's message at my church was based on a text in Hebrews 10, which I hadn't seen the connection before with what I just read. And that verse goes like this. In Hebrews 10, 24, let us consider how to stir up one another to love.

And good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more can you finish it? As you see the day. Do you see the connection? All the more meet to stir each other up to love because as the day comes, the day of the Lord comes. Things, as Jesus said, are going to become so bad that many hearts will grow cold. The love of many will grow cold.

Now if you look around America today or around the world and discern signs of the Lord's approach as I do, then you will say, we better meet together more often in small groups. of different kinds precisely to stir one another up to love and good works because Satan hates love. And he will do everything he can to undermine the love you have for God and the love you have for each other and the love you have for lost people.

So I think I'm here on a on a mission, a kind of an end-time mission, in order to stir up your flame of love to God and and to each other. Our theme is called A Heart for God. Considering Christian hedonism, a word about the phrase Christian hedonism. I don't care if you buy it or not. It's intended largely for shock value. G.K. Chesterton said that a paradox is a truth begging for attention by standing on its head.

And that's what the phrase Christian hedonism is partly intended to do. I don't think if I had written a book entitled Three More Steps to Happiness, anybody would have been interested in the least or bought the book.

Well before we get into tonight's topic proper, I'd like to pray and ask God's help. O Father in heaven, I long so much for your glory to be magnified. Because when we see your glory, Paul taught us, we are changed. from one degree of glory. to the next. And this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit, and so it doesn't come from me. And if you don't come into this room right now, by your Spirit and by your power, we meet in vain, no matter how persuasive the words may be.

So grant that I would have an anointing from you and that the ears of the people would be dug and that the hearts would be turned good for the sea. In Jesus' great name we pray. Amen. Well now the thesis tonight is that the most passionate heart for God in all the universe is God's heart. The most passionate heart for God in all the universe is the heart of God. I start here because I think we have to start with God's heart for God. Otherwise, if I

Launch into tomorrow night's message about my heart for God. It skews everything in a man-centered way such that we don't really know what we mean, or at least what I mean. by a heart for God. I want to set the stage and create an atmosphere tonight so that when I talk about my heart for God and then my heart for my people. that you'll have a very clear perception that it's all rooted in God's heart for God.

To do this, I want to take you on a survey of redemptive history very quickly and very briefly. What we're going to do is just quote passages of scripture that show that God's heart at every point in redemptive history has been a heart for God. Or to put it another way, that in everything he has done for us, he has been motivated by a love for his own glory.

Alright, I want you to just walk with me. I'll move too quickly probably for you to look all these texts up, but you can note them down or just think about them with me. Why did God create you? Answer Isaiah 43, verse 6, Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, says the Lord. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory. I think that's the clearest biblical answer you'll find. I created people for my glory.

And if you go back to the Garden of Eden and read the account there and ask, what does it mean to be created in the image of God? I think it means to be created as a mirror of the glory of God. Satan came along and tried to say being in the image of God means doing what God does. Having the worth of God. Making up your mind for yourself like God makes up his mind for himself. Running your own life the way God runs his own life. It's a very subtle thing when you ask

Should we be like God? Satan says, of course you should be like God. And good theologians say, Of course you should be like God. And discerning Christians must make distinctions. And Adam and Eve blew it. They didn't make those distinctions. To be in the image of God is to image forth God so that God gets the glory. It's to be a mirror of God. A prism of God's manifold glories. That's why we were made to be the prism of God's manifold perfections in the world.

Why did God then choose a people for Himself? Eleven chapters later in the Bible. Jeremiah thirteen eleven speaking about the election of Israel. I made the whole house of Israel cling to me, says the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. He chose Abraham, and he dealt with the people of Israel for 2,000 years for this main purpose, that they might be a people, a name, a praise, and a glory for me.

His passion is for his own name, his own heart, his own glory. Next point in Redemptive History: the Exodus. Why did God see fit to exert his omnipotent power to rescue the people of Israel who the Psalms tell us were rebelling against him in the land of their bondage? The answer is given in Psalm 106, verses 7 and 8. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider thy wonderful work.

But rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea? Yet he saved them for his namesake, that he might make known his mighty power. So he saved a people that he might make known his mighty power. Now you're going to pick up a theme here about the relationship between grace And God centeredness in God's heart. If you're discerning, you'll begin to hear this right now and right on through. He saved an unworthy people for his namesake. Very important.

Why did he spare them again and again in the wilderness? I mean if I had a grumbling people like this people were a grumbling people, I would have been done with them like he was almost done with them and started over with Moses many times. Why didn't he? Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 14. I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I brought them in.

God was so concerned with his reputation as he brought out his people that when they squabbled and deserved to be judged in the wilderness. He listened to Moses' argument. When Moses said, they'll laugh at you back in Egypt, they will say he brought them out and he couldn't bring them in. And God said, hmm, that's a good argument.

That's a good argument. He allowed Moses, for our sake, in Scripture, to apprise God of what was heaviest on God's heart, namely his own glory. That's exactly the way Moses argued. Why, here they are several hundred years later. They have rejected God as their king and said, We want a king like the other nations. We wanna be like this. Why didn't God just clean house at that point?

First Samuel twelve twenty, fear not, you have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, for the Lord will not cast away his people. For his great name's sake. Do you see the grace of security emerging from this radical God-centeredness in God's own heart? Next question.

Why did he bring them back after exile? He almost was done with them. He cleaned the pot, as it were, and scoured it, and sent them off to Babylon. But a couple of generations later he brings them back, like a wayward spouse brought home. Why? This verse I'm about to quote from Isaiah 48 is probably one of the clearest statements of God's God-centered grace. Isaiah 48 9 For my name's sake I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise I restrain it for you.

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. So to what was their rescue owing? It was owing to God's love for his name. Ezekiel puts it in more stark and humbling terms for our day, I think. Ezekiel 36, 22, thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to ask. but for the sake of my holy name.

And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name. The nations will know that I am the Lord. It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord God. Let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways. O House of Israel. Now, the amazing thing about those verses is he's talking to a people that he's about to save. This is salvation he's talking about here. This is the language of grace and redemption of unworthy people.

You see why I have to start with God? We will never, ever know what grace is until we get a handle on the fact that. The greatest heart in all the universe for God is the heart of God. Let's go to the New Testament for a few minutes. Why did Jesus Christ come into the world?

What was the goal of the incarnation? It said in many ways. But John 17, 1 says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee. You know what the incarnation was? It was a conspiracy of the Godhead to get glory for one another. Jesus Christ came into the world to get glory for his Father in the salvation of sinners. We could just spend the rest of the evening listing out texts in the New Testament, the Christian life, of course.

First Corinthians ten thirty one whatever you do, whether you eat or drink Do all to the glory of God. You exist for the glory of God. God appoints you. That's what it says, I think, in Ephesians 1.12. We have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory. Now, one last text. Why is Jesus coming back? Why is he going to wrap up history by the second coming? The answer given in 2 Thessalonians 1.9 is this.

Those who do not obey the gospel will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in all who have believed. So why is he coming? He's coming to be glorified. Among all the saints. So my conclusion from this little survey of redemptive history is that from creation to consummation, God's heart in everything he does is for God.

God has a heart for God again and again and again. His unwavering purpose in all that he does is to magnify the worth of himself and the glory of his name. He's very jealous for his reputation. And my experience in teaching this in the Baptist General Conference of which this church and my church is a part, as well as other places, is that it doesn't go down well.

And and and uh I'm not surprised, I don't fault people right off the bat that it doesn't go down well because uh you've never seen a Sunday school paper brought home. That says God loves himself more than he loves you. Though it is very profoundly true. And therefore, generation after generation of little evangelicals grow up with themselves with themselves at the center of God's universe.

And therefore, when they get to college and I go talk to them, or they come to conferences and I talk to them, they're stunned to be displaced like that. Having a heart for God is rooted in God's heart for God. I don't think we'll ever understand what it means to love God. Or serve God or love people until we let ourselves be displaced from the center of God's affections and allow Himself to be put there. God is not an idolater.

He worships God. If he were to worship anything less than God, he would be unrighteous and I die. This is Light and Truth, God centered preaching to help you. See Christ clearly and treasure him truly. I'm your host, Dan Kruver. Thank you for listening. On our next episode, John Piper continues our ten part series. Heart for God with a sermon titled When Self-Centeredness is Loving. I hope you'll join us. For more resources visit desiring God dot org.