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01 A GENERATION PASSIONATE FOR GOD&AMP;APOS;S HOLINESS

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A Generation Passionate for God's Holiness

OneDay03

May 26, 2003

The aim of OneDay is the gathering and awakening of a generation passionate for God's renown-that is, his fame and his name. Only this time, three years after OneDay2000, the focus is slightly different. Instead of "renown," the key words are "sacred," "holy," and "his." It would not be wrong, I think, to say that the aim of OneDay is the gathering and the awakening of a generation passionate for God's holiness. Not to the exclusion of God's renown, but because God's holiness is the reason he is worthy of renown on every campus and among every people in the world.

When this generation wakens to a passion for God's holiness, all the campuses in America (not just southern ones, but campuses in the Northwest, like Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and all the campuses in New England, like Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts) and all the peoples of the world (not just accessible ones, but all the peoples in Iraq, Afghanistan, China, North Korea, Viet Nam, Algeria, Tunisia)-all the campuses and all the peoples will know, "there is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God" (1Sa_2:2). And his name is Jesus Christ!

A Sermon on Holiness Without Application

About 20 years ago I decided to do an experiment on Sunday morning. I decided to preach a sermon on the holiness of God with not a word of explicit practical application. I wanted to see what the response would be just from seeing the holiness of God.

The text was Isa_6:1-13.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

I made no applications. I simply argued that God is royally majestic in holiness beyond all imagination. I pointed to the throne and its authority and size. I pointed to the train of his robe filling, as it were, the entire city of Minneapolis. I pointed to the seraphim, not little fat cherubs hovering like cupid, but magnificent beings circling in grand array with six wings, two for covering their faces and two for covering their feet and two for flying. And I pointed to the voice so loud that the threshold of heaven shook-as if all of northern Texas would shake at the whisper of an angel. And I pointed to the words they spoke: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory." The whole scene is meant to stun us and silence us and shatter our complacencies and make us tremble with awe-filled fear and wonder.

The Two Towers Made Me Stand in Awe of Jesus

It is strange what we are moved by, isn't it? I wonder if it as that effect on you. I went to see THE TWO TOWERS last December, the second in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. What an amazing sequence of incredible scenes. I loved it: marching trees and flying, flattening boulders and Legolas the elf skateboarding down the castle steps shooting his bow as he goes, and Gandalf showing up at the last minute and plunging with his white horse into the hordes of Saruman.

It was my anniversary weekend (34th) and No'ebl and I went out to eat afterward. I said to her: "You know what I loved most about that movie? It made me admire Jesus and stand in awe of him." She said, "Why is that?" I said, "Because as I felt the trembling and the wonder and the amazement, I realized that these events, even if they were real, happened on something like earth, which is a small planet in our solar system which is about 7 billion miles across, which is a small part of our galaxy, the Milky Way. which has over 200 billion stars and is about 600,000 trillion miles across. And this galaxy of ours is one of perhaps 100 billion other galaxies. All of which Jesus Christ put into existence with the thought of his mind and the flick of his little finger." This helps put Tolkien and THE TWO TOWERS in their place. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made" (Joh_1:1-3).

The Vision of God's Holiness Sustained Them

I finished my message on the holiness of God with not a word of application to daily life. I simply wanted the people to see the holiness of God. Little did I know that in the audience that morning was a mother and a father who just that week had discovered that their daughters had been sexually molested for years by a trusted relative. It was the worst thing that ever happened to them. I preached. I made no application to their lives. I had no idea what had happened. I just lifted up the majesty of the holiness of God.

The father came to me about three months later and said something I will never forget. He said, "John, these have been the worst months of our lives. One thing has gotten me through it: the vision of the holiness of God from Isa_6:1-13 that I saw last January."

When your generation wakens to a passion for the holiness of God it will make a massive difference in you and in the world. When you live in the blazing brightness of the light of God's holiness, everything will be different. When you feel the weight of the rock of God's holiness like ballast in your boat, you will navigate storms of these troubled times and become a refuge for millions who are perishing.

1. Could it be that your struggle with pornography and masturbation or fornication would find here the power of freedom that you ache for-in the massive rock of God's holiness?

2. Could it be that your struggle with food and eating disorders would find here the power of freedom that you ache for-in the massive rock of God's holiness?

3. Could it be that, when you hear in the middle of the night, the horrible sound of your wife bludgeoning your children to death (a real life story in this week's news), what might get you through would be the massive rock of God's holiness?

4. And could it be that what might change the world and give two hundred thousand young people in this generation the passion and the courage to lay down their lives to complete the great commission would be a vision of the massive rock of God's holiness?

What stands in the way?

Few of Us Know What the Holiness of God Is

One thing is this: very few Christians know what the holiness of God is. It is sung about much and understood little. And there is a good reason for that. Definitions depend on similarities. They depend on putting things into classes. But God is one of a kind. You can't put him into any class.

For example. If I say, What is a rabbit? You might say, "It's an animal" and that helps because I know other animals. You might say, "It's a small furry mammal." And that helps because I know fur and small and mammal from other animals. You might say, "It has long ears and chews a cud." And that helps because I have ears and I know cows chew the cud.

But when it comes to defining God there are no analogies. He is in a class by himself. His goodness and righteousness and justice and truth and wisdom and grace and love and power may have echoes in his creatures, but in the end we are defined by him, not him by us. He is absolute, and we are contingent. He is utterly independent and without origin, we are utterly dependent and have our origin in him. The final and ultimate meaning of goodness and righteousness and justice and truth and wisdom and grace and love and power come not from us but from him. That is why he is so hard to define. He isn't defined; he defines.

In fact, it would be fair and biblical to say that the holiness of God is his "absolute uniqueness" (Gustav Oehler) which makes him the definer of all things and not the defined by any but himself. Another way to say it would be that God is incomparable. He said in Isa_40:25 hew:25 ew:25, "'To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?' says the Holy One." The Holy One is incomparable. One of a kind. In a class by himself. This is the way Hannah saw it in 1Sa_2:2, "There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God." There is none besides you-that is what it means to be holy. Absolutely unique. Separate from all that is not God. Creating, sustaining, and defining all reality. Created by nothing. Sustained by nothing. Defined by nothing. He is absolute reality, and all other reality is real as he holds it in being.

An Absolutely Unique, Morally Perfect, Permanent Accessible Person

But more must be said. To say God's holiness is his "absolute uniqueness" and his "incomparableness" doesn't give his holiness any moral meaning. But God's holiness in the Bible is a qualitative concept; it has moral content. If we ask: His holiness is unique in what, or incomparable in what? the answer would be in moral perfection. His goodness is holy goodness because it is absolutely unique and incomparable in divine moral perfection. His grace is holy grace because it is absolutely unique and incomparable in divine moral perfection. His wisdom is holy wisdom because it is absolutely unique and incomparable in divine moral perfection. His love is holy love because it is absolutely unique and incomparable in divine moral perfection.

God's holiness is his absolutely unique divine moral perfection. But there is another implication of uniqueness that must be drawn out of God's holiness. I asked my wife Friday night, "Why is gold so valuable? Why is it the standard of monetary value?" She said, "Because its rare." That's true and crucial. But I suggested that there are very rare fish that are just as hard to come by as gold. So she added, "Gold has some permanence. It doesn't rot and get smelly." Yes. And I would add one more thing: the value of gold is accessible. You can get at it. There may be metals and stones deep in the earth more rare than gold, but they can never function as a standard of worth for us because we can't get at them.

All three of these features of gold are implied in the biblical picture of God's holiness.

1. Since he is absolutely unique in divine moral perfection, he is rare-the rarest of all realities. There is only one of him, and nothing else is like him, and all else depends on him.

2. Not only is he rare, but he is also permanent. From everlasting to everlasting you are God (Psa_90:2).

3. And not only is he rare and permanent, he has made himself accessible. "For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit'" (Isa_57:15). Jesus is God's holiness made accessible and endurable.

Putting it all together, now we may say what is of the most powerful significance for our lives: Since God is absolutely unique in divine moral perfection, and is therefore the rarest of all reality, and permanent, and accessible, therefore he is of infinite value. More valuable than gold or silver or any precious stone or all the wealth in the universe, or any other created thing or quantity of things or any other person or groups of persons. God's holiness is his infinite value as the absolutely unique, morally perfect, permanent person that he is, who by grace made himself accessible in Jesus Christ.

Now we can see that when your generation wakens to a passion for God's holiness, it will be a passion for God's infinite value. When your generation sees God as infinite more valuable than anything else in life, then everything will change.

I ask again: What stands in the way?

The Man-Centered Legacy of My Generation

Not only does our ignorance of God's holiness stand in the way, but the legacy of man-centeredness that my generation has left to you makes it almost impossible for you to sustain a passion for God's holiness-God's infinite value. We have not served you well. And I grieve over what we have taught you. We have handed down to you an almost thoroughly man-centered view of God and the gospel that does not put the infinite value of God at the center of it. The Sunday School papers you took home seldom if ever said: God passion for his holiness is greater than his passion for you.

Were you ever taught a sequence of thought like this? That before you or I ever existed, God was holy. God was of infinite value. And since God is no fool and is righteous he treasured what is infinitely valuable before we existed, namely the beauty of his own holiness. From all eternity, God the Father saw the panorama of all his perfections reflected back to him in his Son-the one who is called in Mar_1:24, "The Holy One of God." And the Father loved the beauty of divine holiness in his Son. Therefore God was supremely happy and radically God-centered before we were ever created. Therefore, when we little human creatures arrived on the scene, God did not suddenly become an idolater and put our value above his. He remains radically God-centered. He is jealous for his holiness above all things, as he says in Eze_36:22 : " Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name."

But my generation has said to your generation and to ourselves ten thousand times that you are at the center of God's values, not his own holiness. We have said that you are the center and goal of his creating and redeeming work-not the display of the radiance of his holiness which we call the "glory of God." We have said that you are the great treasure of the gospel. And that God is love because he makes much of you. And in speaking this way we have made it almost impossible for you to understand and enjoy the holiness of God's love, or even what love really is.

Is Your Sense of God's Love Man-Centered or God-Centered?

I'll give you a test to see if we have misled you or not. This is a test to see if your sense of God's love for you is man-centered or God-centered. Does it put your value or God's value at the bottom of your relationship with God? Here's the question: Do you feel more loved by God when he makes much of you, or when he bears the pain it takes to enable you to enjoy making much of him forever?

My generation has told you in a thousand ways-inside and outside the church-that being loved means being made much of. Some of you can't even conceive or feel any other way of being loved. You have sought this all your life. And now I am telling you: if you find it, it won't be love. At this moment I am speaking a foreign language to you unless the Holy Spirit wakens you to a new reality. And that new reality is this: You were made to feast on the holiness of God. Psa_65:4, "We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!" You were created to be satisfied with the absolute uniqueness of God's moral perfection. You exist to treasure with joy the infinite value of God above all other things.

Php_3:8 says, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." And who is this Christ? He is "The Holy One of God" (Mar_1:24). He is the holiness of God made accessible. He is the perfection of God made visible. He is the infinite value of God made knowable. "If you have seen me you have seen the Father" (Joh_14:9). "We beheld his glory-the radiance of divine holiness-glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (see Joh_1:14). "In him dwells all the fullness of deity bodily" (Col_2:9). "Whoever receives me receives him who sent me" (Luk_9:48).

You were made to feast on the holiness of God. Jesus is the Holy One of God. Therefore you were made to feast on Christ. To be satisfied with him. To treasure his infinite value. To enjoy making much of him all your days. Here is your fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Not in being made much of, but in making much of him.

Therefore what is the love of God? It is the preservation and the exaltation of his own holiness for your enjoyment forever. And what is it then to be loved by this God? It is not to be made much of, but to be given the ability, by the death and resurrection of Jesus, to enjoy making much of him forever. God loves me when he helps me be satisfied in God and not in me. God loves me when he helps me forget about me and be thrilled with Christ. God loves me when he dies in my place that I might know him and be satisfied with all that he is for me in Jesus. God loves me when he makes me passionate for his holiness. God's love for me is holy love. Therefore it exalts the infinite worth of God. It is radically God-centered.

Don't make the mistake we made. Don't put yourself at the center of the Gospel. Put God at the center and make his holiness your passion.

A God-Centered View of Sin

It will make all the difference in the way you view sin. Sin would not be seen first as damaging man but dishonoring God. And sin would not be seen as the choice of pleasure, but the loss of pleasure. Jer_2:13 : "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

A God's-Centered View of God's Righteousness

It will make all the difference in the way you view the righteousness of God. God would do right to the degree that he maintained an unwavering allegiance to his own infinite worth and did everything to magnify the beauty of his holiness.

A God-Centered View of the Cross

It will make all the difference in the way you see the cross of Christ. The cross will be most importantly the vindication of the righteousness of God in justifying the ungodly by faith alone. It would not be demonstration of my value, but of the dreadfulness of demeaning God's value. The cross is the revelation of God's terrible holiness and gracious protection from its wrath. The cross is the place where God's holiness changes from a fearful blast to a thing of beauty.

A God-Centered View of Love

It will make all the difference in the way you love people as God has loved you. You would not make it your aim to make much of people. You would make it your aim to help them enjoy making much of God. You would not spruce them up and give them a mirror. You would pick them up and, by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, put them on the glorious Himalayas of God's holiness for their everlasting and ever-increasing joy. Love leads people to the holiness of God for their joy and his glory.

And if we had time we would talk about the way it would make a difference in the marriage and money and deeds of mercy-and all of life.

Oh, Be That Generation!

But I close with this: When this generation wakens to a passion for the holiness of God, it will make all the difference in your engagement in missions. You can hear it in the text where we began:

The glory of God is the radiance of his holiness. He means for it to fill the earth the way the waters cover the sea. "Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!" (Psa_96:1-3).

When the holiness of God is your passion, you will be a generation who lays down your life to fill the earth with his glory. Oh, be that generation! For the vindication of God's holiness, for the reward of Christ's sufferings, in the power of God's Spirit, for the everlasting joy of your soul, be that generation!

For the glory of God's name!

For the reward of Christ's sufferings!

In the power of God's Spirit!

For your everlasting joy!

For the vindication of God's holiness in the earth!

In the name of Jesus the Holy One of God!

Oh, be that generation! Amen.

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Autor: John Piper

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