Why Did God Create The World? - John Piper

to those of you who are worshiping at the North Campus and at the downtown campus thank you so much for being a part of this moment God is a God above time and so let's bow and pray together awesome in the sanctuary are you O God the God of Israel it is you who gives strength and power to your people and so I'm asking that you would manifest your awesomeness and your power on behalf of your people your strength on behalf of your people you are terrible and a wonderful God the death of your son is the saddest and happiest reality in the universe and I pray that you would come and manifest your glory and show us why you made all things from your holy word not from the lips of man I ask this in Jesus name Amen after the question does God exist which two weeks ago God answered I am the question that has shaped me perhaps us as a church most deeply is the question why did he create the world and the short answer that resounds through the whole Bible rolling like thunder across all of its pages virtually is the answer God created the world for his glory we'll talk what that means talk about what that means in a moment but let me establish it with some passages of Scripture I'm going to start with our text and then go all over the Bible Isaiah chapter 43 middle of verse six through verse seven bring my son's from afar my daughter's from the end of the earth everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory whom I formed and made now even if the narrow meaning of that is that I brought Israel into existence the multiplied words I created I formed I made are pointing us back to the original act of creation and Israel ultimately exists because Israel is part of all things that exists for the glory of God but we should establish that more carefully so first chapter of the Bible chapter 1 verse 27 God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them what's the point of that the point of an image is to image images are erected in cities to display the original person images point to originals images are there to glorify the original God made human beings in His image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of God images of God six billion statues of God and you should ask how you're doing so that nobody would miss the point god that's the point of humanity six billion people created in the image of God the point is God do you see it are you seeing it are you stunned every day in this world six billion statues to God lest anybody miss the point the Angels cry in Isaiah 63 holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory full of millions upon millions of human image bearers glorious ruins but not only humans right nature why such a breathtaking world for us to live in why such a universe I read the other day can't verify that there are more stars in the universe then there are sounds or words that have ever been spoken by all human beings in all of history that's a lot of stars why the Bible is crystal clear Psalm 19 verse 1 the heavens declare the glory of God this is not hard why God that's why if sometimes people say well if earth is the only inhabited place in the universe the only inhabited planet and man is the only rational inhabitant among the stars well I such a large place why so many stars galaxies billions of them why and the answer is it's not about us it's about God and it's an understatement God created us to know him and love him and show him and then he gave us a hint of what he's like called the universe and it's an understatement that's why it's there the universe is declaring the glory of God and the reason we exist is to see it be stunned by it and glorify God because of it which is why Paul says in Romans 1:20 his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since creation in the things that have been made so that I want to say we are without excuse for although they knew God they did not glorify Him as God they didn't get it how the Bible is clear as to why there is a universe and human beings the great tragedy of the universe is that while human beings were made to glorify God because of who they are what they see we have all fallen short of this purpose Romans 3:23 all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God which means we've done Romans 123 they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and in the twentieth century it is mainly the one in the mirror not on the mantel so why did God create the universe and you and the resounding answer rolling like thunder through all the Bible is God made you and God made the universe for his glory if you begin to fathom that which I did when I was about 22 everything changes everything changes if that becomes part of the fabric of your thinking and your feeling let me just listen to the Thunder with you a little longer let's just this has put our ear to Isaiah okay because we started in Isaiah stay with Isaiah for just two or three more minutes Isaiah chapter 40 verse four every valley shall be lifted up every mountain and Hill shall be made low and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord a spoken isaiah 42:8 i am the lord that is my name my glory i give to no other for my praise will not be given to carved idols Isaiah 44 23 break forth into singing o mountains o forests and every tree in it for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and will be glorified in Israel isaiah 40:8 nine-to-eleven probably the most god centered two three verses in the bible for my name's sake i defer my anger for the sake of my praise i restrain it for you i have tried you in the furnace of affliction for my own sake i do it for my own sake i do it how shall my name be profaned my glory i will not give to another as a49 three and he said to me you are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified Isaiah 60 verse 2 for behold darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people's for the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you one more Isaiah 60:1 one two three the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor to give them the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit that they may be called oaks of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified that's why we take good news to the to the poor so there it is God created the world that he might be glorified by us which does not mean that we might make him glorious that we might make him look better like he created us because he needed to be enhanced don't don't treat the word glorify like the word beautify when you take a plain room and beautify it you make it a beautiful room you don't do that for God okay nobody beautifies God nobody he is infinitely beautiful that's where it starts so when he makes us to glorify Him we're not making him glorious he's glorious well what does it mean then it means you are called upon to display his glory show that he's glorious act like he's glorious make much of him like he's the most valuable glorious thing in the universe which he is we are reflectors we are images we are calling attention to God that's why we live God is the reason for our living whatever you do with your eat or drink do all to the glory of God point to the glory don't improve on the glory point to the glory enjoy the glory because God is most glorified in you and you're most satisfied in him but that's another sermon when God created the world he did not create out of any need I grew up hearing God made Adam and Eve because he was lonely that's heresy that's absolutely heresy we serve a triune God who has been infinitely happy in the fellowship of the Trinity forever the Father enjoying the Sun the Sun enjoying the father the spirit surging personal energies of love between the father this was a complete Society of love and he didn't make us because he needed anything this was all gift or call it love Jonathan Edwards said it well tis no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain that it is inclined to overflow so we don't glorify God by improving upon his glory but by seeing it savoring it and showing it or if you prefer the words knowing it loving it showing switch the word to magnify and maybe I can make it clearer Paul in Philippians 1:29 the Lord Jesus by his body whether he lives or whether he dies so magnify magnifies a very dangerous word right because microscopes magnify and telescopes magnify and one is heresy and the others worship microscopes magnify by making teeny weeny weeny weeny things look bigger than they are so if you try to magnify God like that you're a heretic telescopes magnify things by making unspeakably great things begin to look a little more like what they are and if you do that to God then you are worshiping you are glorifying him so be a telescope not a microscope may made your family and your friends be able to put their eye to the telescope of your life and get some a little better sense of what God is like that's why you're here and you belong in all your professions this is not in any way calling anybody to be a professional vocational minister it's not about that at all God wants you out there everywhere in every vocation being like this doing like this thinking like this talking like this so why why does the universe exist it exists to make much of God display God glorify God for His glory this takes hold of you the way it should it'll affect everything about your life now if you embrace the scriptures that I've just presented now you know why everything exists think about that for a minute you are never at a loss to say something important about everything you know that everything exists for the glory of God which means you know something about everything in fact you know what is most important about everything there are a billion things you do not know and you'll go to your grave not knowing relax okay you're not God and you'll spend an eternity learning those things but you know a few things and I'm preaching on one of them you know why God made everything and therefore you know why everything exists and therefore you not only know something about everything you know the most important thing there is to know about everything that's amazing that's very comforting me because I know so little about so many things but I'll tell you I feel like I'm standing on granite at this point now that could be the end of the sermon however it really should not be the end of the sermon it's too general it's too disconnected from the specific persons of the Trinity it's too disconnected from the flow of redemptive history so we need to ask not just why did God create the universe or the world that is existence we need ask why this world and I mean the world that began to unfold with creation and then a horrific fall into sin and then a divine intervention with a people called Israel for a couple of thousand years and then the in breaking of the son of the Living God the death of that son on behalf of his enemies the triumph of the resurrection and the Ascension in his reign and the 2000 year global expanse of the gospel why that world that's a more specific question and perhaps a more important question and the answer to that is much more specific and no less clear in the Bible and here's the short answer why this history why this world why did God let this world happen sustained this will guide this world that we see and the answer is for the glory of God's grace displayed supremely in the death of Jesus for the glory of the grace of God displayed supremely in the redeeming death of Jesus which means that Bethlehem is not only a god-centered Church it's a Christ exalting Church and it's a gospel driven Church see if I'd ended after that first sermon God centered amen glory that's our hallmark but Jesus cross gospel so we got a second sermon to preach now and crucial passages to look at there is an unbreakable connection between the glory of God and the grace of God and the Son of God and the death of son of god the glory of God the glory of grace the glory of the son and glory of the cross an unbreakable connection and I want to make sure you see that connection I'm going to do it in five steps here we go number one the apex you know that word high point apex of the glory of God is the grace of God so if if the glory of God is Mount Everest the grace of God is the peak it's all going there it's all supported there this is the most magnificent aspect of God's glory and here's why I think that Ephesians chapter one verses five and six God predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of the glory of His grace to the praise of the glory of His grace II he predestined us unto sonship and holiness so that praise would come not just to his glory but to the pinnacle of his glory the glory of His grace or as he calls it in Chapter two of Ephesians verse 7 the riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus so the aim of predestination he says is to live for the praise of the glory of His grace that's the end point everything else about God supports that serves that including his wrath take wrath I just read you this passage from Romans 9 22 and 23 God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience vessels of Wrath in order now notice the logic in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy wrath and mercy are not co-ordinate wrath is subordinate and serves mercy God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power and do it with much patience vessels of Wrath in order to make known the riches of his glory to the vessels of his mercy God's wrath serves the revelation of the riches of his glory to the vessels of mercy this is why I'm calling grace the pinnacle of the mountain of his glory because wrath is part of his glory it's not an ungodly be angry at sin it's a glorious thing but it's not the main thing it's part of the mountain but the top of the mountain is grace so that's point number one of the five that the apex of the glory of God is the grace or the mercy of God number two God planned this the praise of the glory of His grace before creation God planned that grace would be the pinnacle of his glory and to be praised God planned that before creation because it says in Ephesians 1:4 God chose us in him before the foundation of the world to the praise of the glory of His grace verse 4 verse 6 you put him together God chose us before the foundation of the world to the praise of the glory of His grace so grace was not an afterthought when he looked and saw Adam and Eve sinned like oh there goes my purpose I will now do grace to reclaim creation that is totally not the way to think about it the fall did not catch God off God and scratch his head and wonder what to do next it says God chose us in Christ in a redeemer before the foundation of the world to the praise of grace grace was the point of the creation number three God's plan was that the praise of the glory of His grace would happen through the Son of God Jesus Christ through the second person of the Trinity the Son of God he planned before the foundation of the world that this would happen through Jesus grace would come to us through Jesus let me read verse 5 again from Ephesians one he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to the praise of the glory of His grace so grace comes to us planned before the foundation of the world through Jesus Christ it's not I think unwarranted to ponder the fellowship of the Trinity and the father in the son conceiving together in no coercion whatsoever a plan whereby the father consults with the son of his willingness and the son consults with the father of his intention and a most magnificent agreement is reached that the son will after the universe is created and has fallen and God has shown everything he wants to show about his holy self for 2,000 years of Jewish history the son would then enter and he would die that was the plan 2nd Timothy 1:9 listen to this 2nd Timothy 1 verse 9 God called us to a holy calling not because of works but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began grace was given to you Christian before the universe was made and it was given to you in Jesus Christ this is why I couldn't leave the first sermon as the end point point number four from eternity God's plan was that the glory of His grace would reach its high point through the work of the son at his death on the cross so I've moved from glory to grace to Christ to cross and there's an unbreakable link between the glory of God the glory of the Christ the glory of the son another glory of the Cross now here's how I see this in the Bible that God from eternity as he was planning the display of his glory in the creation of the universe meant to bring it all to a climax with the glorification of His grace and he meant to do that through his son and he meant to do that through the son's death the reason I know that among other reasons is this one do you know the name of the book of life that existed before the creation the world in which your name was written Christian you know the name of the book it's named in Revelation 13:8 and it goes like this everyone in those days will worship the Beast except those whose name has been written before the foundation of the world in the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain and he say it more slowly whose name was not written before the foundation of the world in a book what's the name of the book the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain I was thinking this afternoon as I was just going over my my message I wonder if the Angels could see that Hey what what does that mean the Lamb who was slain there's no universe yet except for created angels I'm just speculating I don't know I don't know when the angels were created might have been the same time the universe was but if they if they saw that book is it what who what lamb slain what a slain mean God had all the answers to those questions and they were in his and the suns and spirits mind so I conclude that the purpose of this world this is this is number 5 in my conclusion the ultimate purpose of creating sustaining guiding this world this fallen world is the praise of the glory of the grace of God through the glorious work of the Sun on the glorious cross that's what I conclude so as you would expect or maybe you wouldn't I remember this isn't in my manuscript this is dangerous my wife tells me not to do this there was a book written a few years ago about one of these death experiences I got died went to heaven came back I put a big question mark over all his books not real impressed because because of this and he wrote there are no there are no sad songs in heaven there are no songs about sad things in heaven and I just I just bolted out of my chair when I saw that the made song worthy are you to open the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ran some people for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation we will sing that song it's called the song of the lamb in Revelation 5 3 the song of the Lamb we will sing the song of the lamb forever there will be 10,000 things for which you glorified Jesus and you won't ever say anything higher than you were slain I don't like books like that try to tell me from person's experience what the Bible says is not the case let me summarize and we'll stop why did God create the world first answer God created the world for his glory revelation I mean isaiah 43:7 he didn't create out of need he didn't create out of deficiency nothing needed to be made up he wasn't lonely he was supremely happy in the fellowship of the Trinity he created to put his glory on display so that we might know it love it show it see it savor it show it that's why he did it and why this world why fall into sin long history of Israel people exchanging the glory of God for images for thousands of years and him intervening again and again why and the answer is for the praise of the glory of grace there wasn't any grace before creation realize that that is at least it wasn't in operation God was always who he is but there was nobody to show grace to before there was sin and he meant to show grace unto the praise of the glory of His grace which means that the ultimate reason for all things is the communication of the glory of God's grace for the happy praise of his redeemed people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation all things are created sustained guided for the glory of God for the glory of God's grace for the glory of the Son of God and for the glory of the Cross because so you can get this now this is the summary of everything the glory of God is reaching its apex in the glory of His grace that's the top of the mountain of his glory and the glory of His grace shines most brightly in the glory of his son and the glorious Sun reaches its focus most intensely and clearly in the glory of the Cross which means that the universe was created to display Christ crucified and risen for the most exquisite worship of God's grateful people let me close by asking you for questions just one sentence questions number one is the glory of God the highest treasure of your life on the horizon of your future as you look into your future is the glory of God fully known fully experienced fully displayed in your life is that is that the biggest treasure on the horizon of your life and the reason I put it like that is because of Romans 5:2 where Paul I think expresses the heart of a Christian like this we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God we rejoice in the hope of the glory aha how is your hope what is your hope your hope if you're a spirit transformed Bible shaped Christian would be to look into your future knowing all your other failures right now you fail to see him as he is you fail to enjoy him as he is you fail to show him as he is we all do right we feel absolute failures that's what we are compared to what we ought to be which is why the cross is so incredibly precious to us but we're looking we're looking out there there's gonna come a day when he prays for us that we would see his glory and we would be able to love it with the very love of the Father for the son Oh for a day when we will be done with sinning and not fall short anymore of seeing him as he is and loving him for what he's worth that's my first question to you is the glory of God the most precious treasure on the horizon of your future second question is the glory of grace the sweetest news for your guilt-ridden soul is the glory of grace god's grace the sweetest news for the guilt-ridden soul you brought in here tonight just feeling I know and he preaches I'm gonna feel guilty as can be right me too now what okay if that's all we did was help people feel guilty we would only do half the gospel right he made the universe to get glory for grace is it the sweetest sound taste of your guilt-ridden so number three is the glory of Christ in your life the present personal embodiment of the grace of God I mean do you know him do you love him is he close to you you talk to him you read the Bible he's talking to you when you pray you're talking through him to the Father he's a friend I'll be with you I'll be with you to the end of the age you know him like that he wants to be known like that and fourth is the glory of the Cross you see what I'm doing now moving from glory of God glory of grace glory of Christ now I'm ending with the blur because is the glory of cross of the cross the saddest and happiest reality in your life you're redeemed sole attorneys not going to be unhappy it's not but I do believe it's going to have a memory to it that puts an exquisiteness on our pleasures that could only come from a touch of sadness that will not be sad you'll just have to work on that one I'm groping for the glory here which is going to be those are my four questions now I'd like to pray the Father I ask for myself sermon is mainly for me and I'm glad others could listen in I want to treasure your glory as the most precious reality on the horizon of my future I want to taste your grace as the sweetest taste for my guilt-ridden soul I want to know and walk with Jesus as my friend and my Savior and my protector and my Redeemer and my guide every hour of my life as the beautiful expression of your grace and I want to feel the sadness of my saviors dying and the exquisite happiness of my redemption through that dying and his glorious resurrection so that you get glory from our lives I ask this in Jesus name Amen you you

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Keywords: John Piper, Desiring God Ministries, Why Did God Create The World?, Christianity, Christian, Christian Sermon, Expositional Sermon, Christian Preaching, The Bible, The Glory of God, The Scriptures, Isaiah 43:7, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, God

Id: YUz7G0whzoY

Length: 45min 35sec (2735 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 08 2014