back to indexDid God Save Me to Call Attention to Himself?
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Over and over in the Bible, it appears that God saves us in order to draw attention to himself. 00:00:13.000 |
This is nowhere clearer than in the first chapter of Ephesians. 00:00:17.000 |
There we are told that God predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. 00:00:24.000 |
Why? To the praise of his glorious grace, verses 4-6. 00:00:29.000 |
And again, just a little later, it says that God predestined us. 00:00:33.000 |
Again, why? To the praise of his glory, verses 11-12. 00:00:37.000 |
And then Paul even says our eternal security is sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit. 00:00:43.000 |
Why? To the praise of his glory, verses 13-14. 00:00:48.000 |
So why does God predestine us, save us, adopt us, and eternally secure us in order to draw attention to himself? 00:00:59.000 |
Here's how Pastor John explained it in a 2010 sermon. 00:01:04.000 |
You cannot, you cannot grasp, that is, you cannot experience consciously the love of God for you. 00:01:16.000 |
You cannot, apart from omnipotent, divine, supernatural power enabling you to experience it. 00:01:25.000 |
Here's a prayer from Ephesians. You don't need to look it up. Just listen carefully. 00:01:31.000 |
"I pray," this is Paul now praying for the Ephesians in the way I pray for you, for myself, for my family. 00:01:38.000 |
"I pray that you may have strength to know the love of Christ." 00:01:56.000 |
Why can't I know what it is to be loved without divine power? 00:02:03.000 |
"I pray that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 00:02:11.000 |
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge." 00:02:17.000 |
The love of Christ, the love of God, surpasses the powers of the mind to comprehend and the powers of the human heart to experience. 00:02:30.000 |
It surpasses our fallen capacities to handle with our brain and to experience with our heart. 00:02:39.000 |
It goes beyond what you're able to do, which is why Paul is praying and why I pray for myself this way and for you this way. 00:02:51.000 |
"May you have strength to comprehend the love of Christ." 00:02:57.000 |
Soul strength, heart strength, mind strength. 00:03:10.000 |
This is why Paul said in Romans 5 verse 5, "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." 00:03:25.000 |
The love of God pours into you not by any human agency, by the Holy Spirit. 00:03:38.000 |
It's a divine thing to know yourself loved by God. 00:03:46.000 |
Now, the question I posed last week was, "Why is it that the Bible reveals the love of God for us, including God's making so much of us?" 00:03:57.000 |
Why is it that he reveals his love for us, his making so much of us in ways that constantly call attention to his own glory? 00:04:14.000 |
If God didn't do it that way, if he didn't love us in a way that constantly called attention back to his glory as the source, as the essence, as the goal. 00:04:25.000 |
If he didn't do it that way, we would be so much more likely to turn the love of God into a subtle means of self-exaltation. 00:04:36.000 |
We would use his love to make ourselves the deepest foundation of our joy, instead of himself. 00:04:46.000 |
God would become the servant of our slavery to self. 00:04:52.000 |
We would take our preciousness to God and make that very preciousness to God our God. 00:05:08.000 |
We are so precious to him that he will not let that happen. 00:05:15.000 |
We are so precious to God that God in great mercy will not let our preciousness to him become our God. 00:05:26.000 |
We will indeed, hear this carefully, we will indeed through all eternity enjoy being made much of by God. 00:05:39.000 |
That will be a profound ingredient in our joy in God. 00:05:48.000 |
That he makes so much of his sons and his daughters. 00:05:56.000 |
But he will work in us such a holiness, such a sanctification, such a freedom from sin that he will protect us from making that the bottom of our joy. 00:06:15.000 |
The bottom of our joy will always be that he's the kind of God who delights in us. 00:06:22.000 |
The bottom of our joy will always be that he's the kind of God who makes much of the likes of me. 00:06:28.000 |
This grace, this grace will be the apex of my joy, the apex of my praise forever. 00:06:35.000 |
It will never terminate here, it will always go back there from him, through him and to him are all things. 00:06:43.000 |
God himself will be the beginning, the middle and the end in his love for me. 00:06:52.000 |
That was from Pastor John's sermon from April 25th, 2010 titled "Consider Your Calling." 00:07:00.000 |
Find the whole message online at DesiringGod.org. 00:07:04.000 |
And if you have a favorite sermon clip of Pastor John in a recent or an old message, send it to me. 00:07:10.000 |
Give me the timestamp from the audio clip of when it begins and when it ends. 00:07:14.000 |
Tell me why that clip has impacted you so much and then give me your name and the closest city to you. 00:07:20.000 |
If I use your clip, I want to give you credit. 00:07:23.000 |
And just email me all of that information at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. 00:07:28.000 |
That's the email address, AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. 00:07:33.000 |
And if you would, put the word "clip" in the subject line somewhere and I'll find it. 00:07:37.000 |
Easy enough. I'm always interested to hear which sermon clips have most impacted your life. 00:07:44.000 |
Well, how important is extra-biblical texts to how we interpret the meaning of our Bibles? 00:07:51.000 |
That seems to be the assumption behind the question that's up next time. 00:07:54.000 |
Although, the actual question is one about why does the author of Hebrews belabor Christ's supremacy over angels? 00:08:03.000 |
It's a specific question, but I think it gives a much broader topic that is very relevant to every Bible reader. 00:08:10.000 |
You won't want to miss this one. I'm Tony Reinke and we'll see you on Friday. 00:08:13.000 |
Thanks for joining us today. We'll see you then.