Falling in love with the holiness of God changes our view of sin, righteousness, and the cross, leading to a profound impact on our lives and our attitude towards missions.
This sermon emphasizes the love of God as His passion to sustain and exalt His holiness in His Son for our everlasting enjoyment. Putting ourselves at the center robs us of God's glory and enjoyment. A call is made for a generation passionate about God's holiness, which would transform views on sin, righteousness, and the cross, leading to a profound impact on missions and spreading Christianity through sacrificial love.
Full Transcript
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. 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. 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. 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. 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, in so many sermons, that there you can see how much you were valuable to God. 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 underfoot 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. 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.
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.
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.
Sermon Outline
- I. The Love of God
- A. God's passion is to sustain and uphold His holiness in His Son
- B. This is for our everlasting enjoyment
- II. The Problem of Sin
- A. Sin is not just damaging to man, but dishonoring to God
- B. Sin is the loss of pleasure, not the choice of pleasure
- III. The Righteousness of God
- A. God's righteousness is His unswerving allegiance to be right by Himself
- B. This means exalting His holiness and glory
- IV. The Cross
- A. The cross shows the value of God's holiness and righteousness
- B. It shows God's willingness to pay the price to make us happy in His holiness
- V. Missions
- A. Falling in love with God's holiness leads to a changed attitude towards the nations
- B. We will lay down our lives to spread Christianity, not take lives
Key Quotes
“Your enjoyment forever. That's the love of God.” — John Piper
“You would no longer think of sin as the choice of pleasure, but the loss of pleasure.” — John Piper
“You would see how infinitely valuable the holiness, the righteousness, and the honor of God is, that when you trampled it underfoot by your sins, God knew the only way to vindicate His righteousness was to slay His own Son.” — John Piper
Application Points
- Falling in love with the holiness of God changes our view of sin from a damaging choice to a dishonoring act.
- We should view the righteousness of God as His unswerving allegiance to be right by Himself, exalting His holiness and glory.
- Falling in love with the holiness of God leads to a changed attitude towards missions, where we are willing to lay down our lives to spread Christianity.
