When Self-Centeredness Is Loving

What I'm saying is that for God to be loving, He must give you what's best for you. And the answer to that question of what's best for you is God is best for you. Fellowship with God. In his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. If he offers you anything but himself, Why is That's the question John Piper answers in And truth in the previous episode. These words From creation to consummation, God's heart in everything He does is for God.

His unwavering purpose in all that he does is to magnify the worth of himself and the glory of his name. This episode originally preached at Churchill. Baptist Church in Wheaton, Illinois on September 18, 1988.

Now, there are good reasons for why what I'm saying doesn't go down well, besides the fact that it hasn't been uh spoken of much. There are biblical problems with what I've said. And I sympathize with them. I spent 18 or 20 years struggling with them before I put anything down on permanent paper. Here's the biggest one, I think.

If you were to raise an objection to what I've just said, it would probably come from 1 Corinthians 13, verse 5, where it says, Love seeks not its own. And you've just made God out to be a colossal egomaniac. who has himself square at the center of his affections, pursuing his own glory all the time, which means clearly from biblical teaching in 1 Corinthians 13, 5, he has no love in his heart from me. But only for himself. and it's a good And I want to try to respond to it.

Uh in fact, I'm I'm not going to respond tonight in detail about the exegesis of that verse. I'm going to do that. Uh probably tomorrow now. Uh what I want to do now is simply move ahead to show you why I think God is not unloving. When he has himself at the center of his mind. And his heart is the greatest heart for God. And the answer I think comes when we begin to ask certain things. about uh How God would be loving toward us. What would it be for you if God were infinitely loving to you?

Get clear in your own head right now what God would have to do for you so that you could say, God really loves me. Really loves me. I mean, no holds barred love for me. What would that be? Well I'll give you my answer, which I think is is the biblical answer, and and hope that your answer is the same. God would have to give me what's best for me and what would make me happiest. most deeply and uh happiest in the longest extent of time.

And if you would ask, well what's that, what would he have to give me? The answer would be himself. If God gave me all the money in the world, all the sexual fulfillment I could dream of, perhaps, all the career advancement you could dream of, He if he gave you a s a spread of houses, uh all the lakes in Minnesota, or whatever you prize in Illinois. Like a a better football team, maybe? Uh If he could... If he could uh give you whatever you wanted.

And and didn't give you himself, you would not be happy, nor would you consider him loved. Because he's best. Without God, nothing satisfies. This was a magnificent piece of music we heard at the beginning because of that message that was communicated. If we don't feed, we die. And the feeding is on God, not on what this world can offer.

So that's the first step to solving whether God is loving in having him himself at the center of his own affections. But I haven't finished the logic yet, so hang on. What I'm saying is that for God to be loving, he must give you what's best for you. And the answer to that question of what's best for you is God is best. Fellowship with God. In his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. If he offers you anything but himself, he's not loved.

Then you have to ask this. I I can't remember when I first asked this, but it was a long time ago and C. S. Lewis gave the answer with amazing power, and that's this is in the book. When a person is given what's best for them, when they are offered something magnificent or excellent or beautiful or precious, what do they do? How do they respond? And the answer is they respond with uh expressions of appreciation and valuing and praise.

Little baby is given to them, and they just hold this little baby and says, look, it's got five fingers. Hair on its head. This is beautiful. This little baby. Or they're given a beautiful fall day in Minnesota. Fall is the most beautiful season in Minnesota, and they walk out and the air is so crisp and clear that you see all the edges on the skyscrapers down. And it's cool on your face and warm on your skin.

And you you're walking with somebody toward the church and you you just have to say, This is a glory. Or you use your own illustration, whatever moves you. We praise. We express. What we value. Now let me read you the quote from C.S. Lewis that converted me at this point and showed me so much. It comes from his book on the Psalms. It goes like this. The most obvious fact about praise, whether of God or anything, strangely escaped me.

I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows in praise, unless Sometimes even if shyness is brought in to check it.

The world rings with praise lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game, praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians and scholars. My whole more general difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us.

As regards the supremely valuable, what we delight to do, what we indeed can't help doing about everything we value. You speak about what you value. The quote goes on, I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are. The delight is incomplete until it is expressed.

And ever since last uh October, I've been using uh a World Series illustration at this point. I mean the the the Metrodome which is four blocks from my house experienced decibel counts that just about ruined the foundations of the city. Now, I ask people to ponder this. Suppose on the seventh game, as all these

Swedish fans were walking into the uh the dome. They were given little pieces of paper that said Uh this is an official requirement of the City Fathers of Minneapolis that you may enjoy this game as much as you want, but you may not stand up or make any sound at all. Nor lift your arm. Now, would they have enjoyed the game as much? Lewis says no. I think he's absolutely right.

Because the joy, which really was coming objectively from the players on the field, was consummated subjectively by sending back some signals. that just about blew the roof off of the dome. We call it in the Christian church worship. They don't call it that. And when they lift their hands, they don't call themselves charismatics either. Yeah. But it's all the same thing.

Now let me see if I can round out the the logic with you of of what I'm trying to do is develop an argument. That shows you that even though God is radically self-centered. That self-centeredness is the very foundation and fountain of his love. Now let me see if I can let me see if I can make that plain by retracing the steps we've come. What we've said is that if God is going to love you, he must give you what's best for you, namely, fellowship with himself.

The beatific vision of his glory and the personal intimacy with himself and his son in the power of the Holy Ghost. Then I said, When you are given something glorious, you, in order to experience the consummation of the pleasure you have in God's presence, must Do something. You respond, you express, you relate in praise and gratitude.

In order for you to have a consummate experience of joy, Therefore, if God makes it his aim at every point in redemptive history to win from you for himself praise, is he loving in doing it? What he's doing is winning from you the one experience that will be the climax and consummation of your joy in him. Now, this has been the most wonderful insight I ever had in my life because I think it's the very heart of the gospel.

What it shows me is that attention I once thought existed no longer exists. God's passion to be glorified, which I see everywhere in Scripture, and my passion to be satisfied, which I became so keenly aware of at Wheaton College in nineteen sixty five, six, and seven. God's passion to be glorified and my passion to be satisfied are not at all.

But rather God is the kind of God who magnifies his glory in spilling over in grace and winning praise from people, and thus bringing their joy to maximal fullness. And so I hope that you begin to grasp tonight that God is the one being in all the universe for whom self-exaltation is the highest virtue. We may not copy him in this. He is God.

You do not copy God in everything that he does when Paul says, be imitators of God. You don't try to take his place. God is the one being in all the universe. For whom self-exaltation is the highest virtue, and I would add now, for whom self-exaltation is the most loving thing he could do for his creature. What he is doing in exalting himself and preserving his own glory at every point in redemptive history is displaying for you that which alone will satisfy your soul.

If you asked God to abdicate his love for himself, you would be asking him to forsake the passion which achieves your consummate joy. Now, I hope that you can see that the practical effect of getting a handle on this is that it makes grace understood. I don't think grace is clearly understood by many, many Christians. because of the rampant doctrines of human self-affirmation and human self-exaltation.

Perhaps I should close by just one or two practical statements about the effect that this doctrine that I've just tried to develop. has had on me. Let me mention two or three and then we're done. First, it humbles me very much to be told that I'm not at the center of God's affection. That I am secondary, that all the benefits that come my way come because there is another at the center of his affections, namely himself, or you could say his son, which is the image of his glory.

So it's a very humbling doctrine that puts us where we belong, outside the center of God's affections, so that he is not an idolatrous worshipper of men. The second thing it does is

And making this transition is so hard for so many people in my church. And I'm sure in your churches as well you run into this. I have people in my church who are so Either owing to their family life in the background or some experience they've had, they are so programmed To hear the negative that they cannot make the transition to the positive in a message like that.

And if there's a person like this here, I know the way they will go out of this room. I know the kinds of things they will say about a message like this, no matter how gloriously positive this message is for me and how full of hope it is. There are personality types and people with such distressed and broken and fractured backgrounds, they only hear one thing no matter how many times you qualify.

All that just to make a transition here to the positive and say not only does what I've just taught 半本目 Which all of these personality types here But it is so empowered. It is so strengthening and so hope-giving in this way.

How do you pray, for example, that God would rescue you from trouble, that he would pardon your sins, that he would lead you in life? How do you pray? To what do you appeal? Let me give you some Bible verses that show you what you might appeal now having heard this message. Psalm 143, verse 11. Let me read it to you. I don't have that one memorized. Psalm 143, verse 11. Goes like this. For thy name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life.

in thy righteousness bring me out of trouble. So to what do you appeal when you're in trouble and desperate? Do you say, Oh God, I am your valuable child. Bring me out of trouble. Now, that might be in a certain context all right, but I just want to commend to you another way to argue with God. And just pray, O God, for thy name's sake, bring me out of trouble. Or, Psalm 23, 3, he leads me in paths of righteousness. Finish it? For his name's sake. Why should God lead you tomorrow?

through your day and help you? What are you gonna pray when you get up tomorrow morning very practically and ask for his leadership? How are you gonna deal with the Almighty and commend yourself to him? You will say I'm a sinner, but I appeal to your love for your own name. I hide in you and ask that for your name's sake, as I take refuge in you, you will lead me through this day. And then one last illustration of that would be from Psalm twenty five verse uh no twenty nine verse eleven.

Pardon my guilt, O Lord, for thy name's sake, for it is great. You see the difference? You don't minimize your guilt in order to get hope. You maximize God's love for his glorious grace. And this is the point of the cross, isn't it, in Romans three, twenty five and twenty six? He put Jesus Christ forward as a demonstration of his righteousness, because he had passed over sins done beforehand.

He is put forward as a demonstration of his righteousness that he might be just and the one who justifies him who has faith in Jesus. Now the connection there is this When Christ died, he died to vindicate God's love for his glory. I mean, we're sinners in this room, right? We're sinners. We have no claim on God's goodness at all. If God were just, he could just smash us and drive us out of existence. So here we are. How are we going to appeal to God to help us tomorrow?

Because in former days he had just passed over sin, so that Paul goes like this and says, How could God be just and just pass over the sin of David and Bathsheba and call him a man after God's own heart and bring him into heaven? How could he do that and be just? And the answer comes thousand years later. Jesus bore the sin. And Jesus vindicated God's love for his glory. God sweeps no sins under the rug of the universe. He punishes every sin, either in hell or at the cross.

and therefore he vindicates his love for his name so that when you go to God, this is the most powerful appeal you can possibly make, you go to God and you say, I now take my stand. with your son. And your son vindicated your glory. Therefore, for the sake of your glory, forgive this sinner. And if that isn't hope giving, if that doesn't free, if that doesn't empower, I don't think it can be done biblically. Now here's the question for tomorrow night.

If God has chosen to magnify his glory by satisfying his people, then what must be the lifelong vocation of that people? And my answer is they must be hedonists. They must make it their lifelong vocation. And that's what I want to unfold tomorrow. O Father in heaven, please grant that we would love you as we are.

Grant, I pray that we would see you in your glory and not sense a kind of rending that there is somehow a uh psychosis in the Godhead between your pursuit of your own glory and your pursuit of our joy. May we see the unity of these things and how your own devotion to your name is the very foundation from which you redeem a people. For your glory and bring them into the consummate joy of your fellowship forever and ever. And I ask it in Jesus' name.

This is Light and Truth, God-centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and truly. I'm your host, Dan Kruver. Thank you for listening. On our next episode, John Piper continues our ten part of the first. for God with a sermon titled A Life Recording. Discovery. I hope you'll join us. For more resources, visit desiring God.org.