God Saves to Make Much of Himself — Doesn’t That Lessen His Love?
Chapters
0:0 Introduction2:22 Why does God love us so much
6:39 Prayer
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Good day everyone, and welcome to this sermon clip
00:00:06.840 | Wednesday on the podcast.
00:00:08.320 | As most of you know, for a few weeks we've been looking
00:00:10.960 | at a two-part sermon series Pastor John delivered
00:00:13.400 | in the spring of 2010.
00:00:15.520 | Historically, those sermons are interesting
00:00:17.080 | because they come in the days leading up
00:00:18.400 | to his eight-month leave of absence, away from the pulpit,
00:00:21.900 | to work some things out in his own heart
00:00:23.600 | and in his own family.
00:00:25.200 | We talked about that leave itself and the lessons
00:00:27.380 | he took from it on the podcast,
00:00:28.800 | particularly back in three episodes,
00:00:31.280 | APJs 138, 220, and 1227.
00:00:34.860 | It was a really defining eight-month season for Pastor John,
00:00:38.300 | but leading up to his leave,
00:00:39.500 | we get these two interesting sermons.
00:00:42.380 | In them, Pastor John explained what makes himself tick.
00:00:45.580 | Why does he do ministry the way that he does it?
00:00:48.780 | You might remember that.
00:00:49.620 | We heard that answer in APJ 1769.
00:00:53.440 | And then we looked at a related theme
00:00:55.160 | that God makes much of us.
00:00:56.840 | He really does make much of us.
00:00:59.380 | And the question is why?
00:01:01.400 | Why does God make so much of us?
00:01:04.520 | That was APJ 1772.
00:01:07.680 | And then we looked at how God makes much of us.
00:01:10.640 | In six or seven profound ways,
00:01:13.180 | God makes much of his children.
00:01:15.440 | Pastor John walked us through those points last time,
00:01:18.920 | last Wednesday, in APJ 1775.
00:01:22.280 | And today we return to that theme first brought up
00:01:26.080 | in APJ 1772, because there, Pastor John said this,
00:01:30.560 | that God makes more of you
00:01:33.680 | when he makes much of you for his sake
00:01:36.800 | than if he were to make much of you only for your sake.
00:01:41.800 | That's a profound point worth thinking about deeply.
00:01:47.060 | But it also raises a question in a lot of minds,
00:01:49.640 | because if God makes much of me, if he saves me,
00:01:53.260 | because he's doing it to make much of himself,
00:01:55.920 | doesn't that remove some of the luster of his love to me?
00:02:00.380 | That's the question on the table today,
00:02:01.840 | and it's gonna be answered in both sermons,
00:02:04.280 | in the one on April 18th and in the next sermon,
00:02:06.760 | the other sermon on April 25th,
00:02:08.320 | both of course preached in 2010.
00:02:11.120 | I'm gonna put two brief clips together here
00:02:13.620 | in this one episode.
00:02:15.600 | And so to begin, here's Pastor John
00:02:17.080 | near the end of his first message,
00:02:18.780 | that message on April 18th.
00:02:20.920 | Here's what he said.
00:02:22.600 | - Now, last question.
00:02:24.080 | The final decisive question,
00:02:25.680 | why does God, who loves us so much,
00:02:29.560 | who makes much of us so extremely,
00:02:32.880 | why does he remind us over and over and over again
00:02:36.280 | when he tells us how much he loves us
00:02:37.520 | and how much he's making much of us,
00:02:39.360 | how much he's making much of us,
00:02:41.040 | why does he keep reminding us
00:02:42.400 | that he's doing it for his glory?
00:02:44.120 | To ruin it?
00:02:46.520 | No.
00:02:48.740 | Why does God remind us over and over
00:02:51.960 | that he makes much of us in a way
00:02:53.520 | that is designed to make much of him?
00:02:55.420 | The answer is, loving you this way is a greater love.
00:03:00.720 | God's love for you that makes much of you for his glory
00:03:06.880 | is a greater love for you
00:03:09.040 | than if he ended by making much of you, period.
00:03:13.040 | If he just made much of you as your greatest treasure
00:03:17.280 | rather than him as your greatest treasure.
00:03:21.640 | If he did everything he could do
00:03:23.120 | to help you feel like a treasure
00:03:25.680 | rather than helping you feel like he's the greatest treasure
00:03:28.360 | he would not love you so much.
00:03:31.040 | And I'll tell you why.
00:03:33.440 | The reason this is a greater love is that self,
00:03:37.920 | no matter how glorified,
00:03:41.120 | cannot satisfy the heart that is made for God.
00:03:46.380 | I'll say it again, bottom line answer.
00:03:51.700 | The reason it's a greater love to love you for his sake
00:03:55.500 | and a greater love to make much of you
00:03:58.900 | that he might be made much of,
00:04:00.700 | the reason that's greater is that a self,
00:04:04.500 | no matter how gloriously it looks in the age to come,
00:04:10.380 | cannot satisfy a heart that is made for God.
00:04:14.880 | If he is to satisfy the magnificence of the human heart
00:04:20.300 | which is made for him,
00:04:22.720 | he must make much of himself for you
00:04:27.340 | in making much of you.
00:04:30.340 | He will not let your glory,
00:04:36.740 | which he himself creates and delights in,
00:04:41.900 | replace his glory as your supreme treasure.
00:04:47.020 | He will not let your glory,
00:04:49.980 | which he creates and delights in,
00:04:52.820 | replace his glory as your supreme treasure.
00:04:56.900 | If he did, he would not love you so much.
00:05:00.060 | So Bethlehem, I'll be away in a little over a week.
00:05:06.740 | And I want you to feel this.
00:05:09.980 | I want you to feel massively loved while I'm gone.
00:05:17.260 | I intend to feel massively loved while I'm away.
00:05:22.260 | And I would like to know that here,
00:05:24.860 | because the Holy Spirit is coming down,
00:05:27.260 | there's a tide rising.
00:05:30.500 | What?
00:05:31.500 | How much?
00:05:32.820 | How much we are loved as a people.
00:05:36.400 | That's what I would like to know.
00:05:38.820 | You, Bethlehem, are precious to God
00:05:44.040 | and the greatest gift he has for you
00:05:47.120 | is not to let your preciousness become your God.
00:05:51.200 | Say it again.
00:05:54.120 | You, Bethlehem, are precious to God.
00:05:58.400 | I don't know if it would be theologically overstated
00:06:02.640 | to say infinitely precious since he paid Jesus,
00:06:05.760 | but let's just say immeasurably, unspeakably,
00:06:10.360 | gloriously precious to God.
00:06:13.280 | And his great gift to you,
00:06:15.080 | which brings his love to its apex,
00:06:17.440 | is that he will not let your sense of being precious to him
00:06:21.540 | become your God.
00:06:22.760 | He will be your God forever.
00:06:28.200 | - Amen.
00:06:29.040 | So that was near the end of sermon one,
00:06:30.680 | but the topic carries over.
00:06:32.080 | So I'll fast forward one week later
00:06:34.320 | and we'll pick up the same discussion
00:06:35.720 | in the beginning of his next sermon.
00:06:37.520 | And that's where we pick up right now.
00:06:39.400 | - Here's a prayer from Ephesians.
00:06:41.920 | You don't need to look it up.
00:06:42.760 | Just listen carefully.
00:06:44.360 | Chapter three, verse 18.
00:06:46.280 | "I pray," this is Paul now praying for the Ephesians
00:06:49.360 | in the way I pray for you, for myself, for my family.
00:06:52.340 | "I pray that you may have strength
00:06:57.440 | "to know the love of Christ."
00:07:01.640 | You can't know it without power.
00:07:06.480 | Does that strike you as odd?
00:07:08.440 | You should give a lot of thought to that.
00:07:10.200 | Why can't I know what it is to be loved without divine power?
00:07:14.760 | I'll keep reading that prayer.
00:07:17.760 | "I pray that you may have strength
00:07:20.560 | "to comprehend with all the saints
00:07:23.560 | "what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
00:07:25.540 | "and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
00:07:30.540 | "surpasses the powers of the mind
00:07:36.920 | "to comprehend and the powers of the human heart
00:07:40.640 | "to experience."
00:07:41.560 | It surpasses our fallen capacities
00:07:46.520 | to handle with our brain and to experience with our heart.
00:07:50.680 | It goes beyond what you're able to do,
00:07:53.540 | which is why Paul is praying
00:07:55.280 | and why I pray for myself this way and for you this way.
00:08:00.280 | "May you have strength to comprehend
00:08:06.040 | "the love of Christ."
00:08:07.800 | Soul strength, heart strength, mind strength.
00:08:12.360 | May God give this to us now.
00:08:15.500 | Now.
00:08:17.360 | Holy Spirit, come.
00:08:19.360 | This is why Paul said in Romans 5, verse 5,
00:08:26.800 | God's love has been poured into our hearts
00:08:32.080 | through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
00:08:36.240 | The love of God pours into you,
00:08:41.160 | not by any human agency,
00:08:44.040 | by the Holy Spirit.
00:08:48.040 | It's a divine thing to know yourself loved by God.
00:08:53.600 | You're not able to on your own.
00:08:57.080 | Now, the question I posed last week was,
00:09:01.800 | why is it that the Bible reveals the love of God for us,
00:09:06.280 | including God's making so much of us,
00:09:09.480 | why is it that he reveals his love for us,
00:09:11.520 | his making so much of us in ways
00:09:14.640 | that constantly call attention to his own glory?
00:09:19.640 | Why does he do it that way?
00:09:22.920 | And the answer is this.
00:09:25.840 | If God didn't do it that way,
00:09:28.320 | if he didn't love us in a way
00:09:30.720 | that constantly called attention back to his glory
00:09:34.680 | as the source, as the essence, as the goal,
00:09:37.200 | if he didn't do it that way,
00:09:39.440 | we would be so much more likely to turn the love of God
00:09:44.200 | into a subtle means of self-exaltation.
00:09:46.900 | We would use his love to make ourselves
00:09:52.240 | the deepest foundation of our joy, instead of himself.
00:09:58.680 | God would become the servant of our slavery to self.
00:10:02.960 | We would take our preciousness to God
00:10:07.720 | and make that very preciousness to God our God.
00:10:15.200 | But I argued, God loves us so much.
00:10:21.560 | We are so precious to him
00:10:26.960 | that he will not let that happen.
00:10:29.320 | We are so precious to God that God in great mercy
00:10:35.960 | will not let our preciousness to him become our God.
00:10:40.560 | We will indeed, hear this carefully,
00:10:46.380 | we will indeed through all eternity
00:10:50.760 | enjoy being made much of by God.
00:10:55.040 | That will be a profound ingredient in our joy in God,
00:11:00.040 | that he makes so much of his sons and his daughters,
00:11:11.000 | but he will work in us such a holiness,
00:11:20.320 | such a sanctification, such a freedom from sin,
00:11:24.760 | that he will protect us from making
00:11:29.360 | that the bottom of our joy.
00:11:31.680 | The bottom of our joy will always be
00:11:36.000 | that he's the kind of God who delights in us.
00:11:40.840 | The bottom of our joy will always be
00:11:42.560 | that he's the kind of God who makes much of the likes of me.
00:11:46.040 | This grace, this grace will be the apex of my joy,
00:11:49.940 | the apex of my praise forever.
00:11:53.360 | It will never terminate here, it will always go back there
00:11:56.840 | from him, through him and to him are all things.
00:12:01.200 | God himself will be the beginning, the middle and the end
00:12:05.800 | in his love for me.
00:12:07.400 | - Profound truth being explained here.
00:12:10.200 | We are so precious to God that God in great mercy
00:12:13.740 | will not let our preciousness to him become our God.
00:12:19.720 | That is deep and worth meditating on.
00:12:23.160 | Today you heard sermon clips from two different sermons.
00:12:25.600 | The first one was from his April 18, 2010 sermon titled,
00:12:28.680 | "How Much Does God Love This Church?"
00:12:31.440 | And the second was from his April 25, 2010 sermon titled,
00:12:34.320 | "Consider Your Calling."
00:12:36.360 | And of course, both full sermons are available online
00:12:38.880 | at desiringgod.org.
00:12:40.740 | I found these clips, if you find one, email it to me.
00:12:43.960 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title
00:12:45.760 | and timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio
00:12:47.560 | and make a note of what stands out to you.
00:12:49.080 | Put the word clip in the subject line of an email
00:12:51.080 | and send it to me and askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:12:54.400 | That's our email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:12:59.000 | Well, we have a really sharp Bible question
00:13:00.760 | coming up on Friday.
00:13:01.720 | I'll just leave it there, no spoilers.
00:13:04.120 | I'm your host Tony Reike and we are rejoined in studio
00:13:07.480 | with Pastor John when we return on Friday.
00:13:09.560 | We'll see you then, thanks for listening.
00:13:11.480 | (upbeat music)
00:13:14.060 | (upbeat music)
00:13:16.640 | [BLANK_AUDIO]