042 God’s Goal Is Glory
John 9:1-3
April 29, 2018
Tonight we’re going to continue with our look at SOLI DEO GLORIA
As we have said, this is the CHIEF END.
It is why we are here.
But even more than that, we are learning that God’s glory
Is the driving force behind why God does what He does.
As John Piper put it:
“God has not merely acted so as to be worthy of praise, but more, he has made it his aim to win praise. God does not merely wait to be exalted for his power and righteousness and mercy, he has taken the initiative from all eternity to exalt his own name in the earth and to display his glory. Everything he does is motivated by his desire to be glorified. Isaiah 48:11 is the banner over every divine act: For my own sake, for my own sake I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another”
(Piper, John [https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/is-god-for-us-or-for-himself])
He goes on to say:
“God is praiseworthy, we ought to praise him, we will praise him – these are common truths among Christians, and we affirm them gladly. But less often do we hear the truth that the praise of God’s glory is not merely the result of his action but also the goal and purpose of that action. He governs the world precisely to the end that he might be admired, marveled at, exalted, and praised.”
(ibid)
That is the reality we are currently examining.
God does what He does to the end that His glory might be revealed.
God’s objective is to glorify Himself.
And we have learned that this is TRUE EVEN IF that revelation of glory is achieved through UNEXPECTED MEANS.
We discussed things like the fall.
• Where we learned that God did no merely allow the fall, God ordained the fall,
• For only through the fall of man could God be revealed as the Savior.
• Only after Adam and Even stumbled and fell could God reveal Himself to them as merciful,
• Only after they fell could God atone for their sin by clothing them in garments of skin.
God ordained the fall that He might reveal His glory as Redeemer.
We discussed things like the hardening of the Jews.
• Namely that God gave them a spirit of stupor and eyes to see not,
• That God hardened their heart from believing the gospel.
And God did this that He might reveal His mercy to the Gentiles.
We discussed things like the grafting back in of Israel.
• After killing God’s Son, they certainly didn’t deserve it,
• Yet God has also ordained this, that He might reveal His glorious mercy yet again.
And it doesn’t matter if you want to talk about
• The Fall
• The Hardening of Israel
• The Grafting Back in of Israel
• The Suffering of Joseph
• The Trials of Job
• Or any other incident
We see that it is the sovereign God who ordains all these things
That He might reveal and glorify Himself.
And because this is such an UNDER-DISCUSSED TOPIC, I just wanted to hit it a little bit more this evening before we move on from it.
And I want to start with one story, and then move on to several others.
But we’ll start here in John 9.
It is the story of the man born blind.
• In John 7&8 Jesus had been confronting the Pharisees during the Feast of Booths in the temple, and it was no small argument.
• In fact it ended with Jesus claiming to be the great I Am and the Jews picking up stones to stone Him.
And chapter 8 ends with:
John 8:59 “Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.”
Following that we read:
(9:1-3) As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
So Jesus and His disciples pass by this man,
And it reminds the disciples of a situation they want an answer to.
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”
That’s familiar to us isn’t it?
WHY THE CAUSE OF SUFFERING?
And we’ve said that many times the common evangelical answer
To the question would be for Jesus to say:
“It was actually Adam’s fault. It was all the fault of the fall. God didn’t want this, God didn’t intend this, it happened because of sin.”
And we’ve already discussed the dangers in that theology.
But the disciples actually had a different question in mind,
For they leave Adam out of the equation.
They only give Jesus two options.
Is this man blind because of his sin, or because of his parent’s sin?
Now first you need to understand that there is a theology in place here
And it is eerily similar to the one adopted by many today.
THE THEOLOGY IS THAT THIS SICKNESS IS THE RESULT OF SIN.
Evangelicals today say it is the result of Adam’s sin.
The disciples DON’T think that.
• They think it is either the man or his parents,
• But they still think the only possible reason why this man could have been born
blind is sin.
I want you to know where the thinking for this comes from.
Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
But their application is a little skewed,
For those verses speak in a national sense more so than a personal one.
It is obvious that if this generation blows it big time,
The next generation will suffer.
(See the Exile or the Wilderness wonderings)
In fact many passages in the Old Testament teach otherwise.
Deuteronomy 7:9-10 “Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.”
Deuteronomy 24:16 “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.”
Jeremiah 31:29-30 “In those days they will not say again, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ “But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.”
Ezekiel 18:20 “The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.”
But through some perverted traditions, the disciples had come to believe
That all sickness was a direct consequence of sin.
And I think our study of the book of Job certainly reveals otherwise.
All sickness is not a result of sin.
Now it is beneficial to note that some sickness
Is indeed a direct consequence of sin.
1 Corinthians 11:29-30 “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.”
Romans 1:26-27 “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”
Even Jesus earlier in the book of John told the crippled man.
John 5:14 “Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
There is a natural law that governs our universe that says
If you do stupid things, you will suffer consequences.
So in one sense there are some sicknesses that are the result of sin.
BUT ALL SICKNESS IS NOT THE RESULT OF SIN
Exodus 4:11 “The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”
Now granted there are some who would read that and say, “Sure God causes the blind eye, but He does so as punishment to sinners.”
And that is DEFINITELY what the disciples believed.
BUT IN THAT BELIEF THEY HAD A PROBLEM.
WHAT WAS IT?
They couldn’t figure out whose sin caused it.
HERE’S THE PROBLEM.
• Had this man been born healthy, and then become blind at some point,
everyone would have agreed that he had sinned and thus God struck him
with blindness.
But the fact that the man was born blind left it all in confusion.
That would seem to indicate that the sin occurred before he was born and thus he was blind as a result of his parent’s sin.
• But if that is true, why not make the parents blind instead of this child?
Wouldn’t that be a case of God punishing the child for the sin of the parents?
DO YOU SEE THEIR DILEMMA?
HOWEVER THE REASON THEY WERE CONFUSED IS BECAUSE THEY HAD NO CLUE AS TO WHY GOD ORDAINED SOMETHING LIKE INFANT BLINDNESS.
This sickness had nothing to do with punishment,
And everything to do with God’s glory.
(2) “Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Contrary to their traditional theology,
This man’s sickness had nothing to do with sin, or consequences,
Or immoral living, or the sin of his parents.
This man was sick because God chose to make him sick.
God wanted to use him for the purpose of revealing His glory.
The best way this man could be used for God’s glory was to be born blind.
And there it is again.
That same truth that God ordained things which we can’t understand
And He does so for the purpose of revealing Himself and His glory.
This man was born blind “so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
In the simplest sense,
It was the “works of God” that were given to Jesus which allowed Him to reveal Himself as the One whom the Father sent to save the world.
John 5:36 “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works that I do — testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
In a very broad sweeping sense, every affliction Jesus encountered
Only allowed Him to demonstrate to an even greater degree
That He was sent from God.
Every cripple, every leper, every demoniac, every illness, every affliction that Jesus addressed only granted opportunity for Him to continue to reveal Himself.
Had there been no sick when He came,
Revealing who He was would have been much more difficult.
And so in a broad sense, this man’s blindness fits right in with that.
But this man’s illness is even more specific.
This man allows Jesus to fulfill specific Messianic prophecy.
Isaiah spoke of the reigning King and the conditions of His reign.
Isaiah 35:4-6 “Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.” Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah.”
It was prophesied that when the Messiah came, He would open blind eyes.
This is precisely the purpose for this man’s blindness.
This man allowed Jesus to specifically fulfill that prophecy.
And you can try to dance around this man’s blindness if you want,
But the unavoidable truth here is that
In order for Jesus to fulfill that prophecy
There had to be at least 1 blind man.
Someone had to be blind.
God had to ordain blindness in somebody.
It had to happen.
Here we find out it happened so Jesus could glorify Himself.
NOW LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION:
SUPPOSE GOD APPROACHED YOU AND SAID, “Is it alright if I use you as undeniable proof that Jesus is the Messiah” WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
In order for Jesus to prove He was the Messiah,
Someone had to be blind. Someone had to be lame.
Someone had to be mute.
As we have said many times: If there is no villain, then there is no hero.
• If sin isn’t there, you can’t know mercy.
• If sickness isn’t there, you can’t know healing.
• If poverty isn’t there, you can’t know provision.
• If fear isn’t there, you can’t know peace.
• If uncertainty isn’t there, you can’t know assurance
This man’s sickness was NOT contrary to the will of God,
GOD ORDAINED IT,
It was for the purpose of proving Jesus was the Messiah.
John 5:36 “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works that I do — testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
Matthew 11:1-6 “When Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”
Part of the purpose of God was to allow Jesus to fulfill a Messianic proof.
But I DON’T even think that was the greatest purpose.
The greatest purpose was to allow Jesus to prove a spiritual reality.
Look at how this chapter ends.
John 9:39-41 “And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘ We see,’ your sin remains.”
There is no doubt that Jesus is showing His power,
But He uses this man to fulfill Messianic prophecy in a much bigger way.
For even in those prophecies in the Old Testament,
The opening of blind eyes spoke more of spiritual ailments
Than physical ones.
Isaiah 29:17-19 “Is it not yet just a little while Before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, And the fertile field will be considered as a forest? On that day the deaf will hear words of a book, And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the LORD, And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”
Isaiah 32:1-4 “Behold, a king will reign righteously And princes will rule justly. Each will be like a refuge from the wind And a shelter from the storm, Like streams of water in a dry country, Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded, And the ears of those who hear will listen. The mind of the hasty will discern the truth, And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.”
Now we know this passage speaks of a spiritual reality,
For it CANNOT speak of a physical one.
“Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded”
Isaiah 42:6-7 “I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”
Isaiah 42:16 “I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them And rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, And I will not leave them undone.”
Jesus was using this man to make a spiritual point.
This sickness wasn’t caused by sin, it was caused by God
To allow God to work physically and spiritually.
AND YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS THAT POINT.
Here we have a man who entered this world in a difficult condition
And Jesus flat out reveals that the reason God did it
Was in order to glorify Himself.
NOW THAT’S NOT ALL.
There are few more I want to show you quickly just to add to the foundation here.
TURN TO: JOHN 11:1-6
Everyone remember the story of Lazarus?
Again, the point couldn’t be clearer.
(1-3) “Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
There is not a doubt in our mind that Mary and Martha had a very specific expectation for Jesus.
• He was the miracle worker.
• He loved them.
• Certainly if He had the power to heal Him, and if He knew He was sick,
• Then certainly Jesus would definitely heal Lazarus.
• After all, He healed so many other people.
THAT’S A COMMON EXPECTATION AMONG CHRIST’S FOLLOWERS.
• We know He loves us.
• We know He can.
• So it stands to reason that He will.
And if He doesn’t, then we think something is terribly wrong.
But again, follow what Jesus says.
(4) “But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
Jesus didn’t say it wasn’t going to go through death,
He just said it wouldn’t stay there.
And then we get even more:
(5-6) “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.”
Did Jesus love Lazarus? Yes
Did Jesus have great plans for Lazarus? Yes
BUT THAT PLAN INCLUDED LAZARUS WALKING THROUGH DEATH.
Because the ultimate plan was what?
“that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
Jesus certainly could have healed Lazarus at any moment,
And He didn’t even have to travel there to do it.
But the comfort of Lazarus and the expectation of Martha
Was not the goal.
Jesus purposely allowed Lazarus to die
That He might use his death to glorify Himself.
And look at how Jesus glorified Himself.
(38-45) “So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. “I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.”
We read that “many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.”
• These were Mary’s friends.
• These were people that cared about Mary and people that I’m sure Mary cared about.
• And God used Lazarus to glorify Jesus and save them.
I’m quite sure that those people weren’t the total reason Jesus ordained the death of Lazarus, but they were certainly part of it.
It just reinforces to us that God is using us for His glory,
BUT ALSO for our good.
And it’s NOT LIKE Christ just lets His children suffer affliction
While He walks through life without a care.
TURN TO: JOHN 12:27-28
“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
That statement reminds of the prayer Jesus prayed in the garden.
• He is contemplating the suffering He is about to endure.
• He is about to suffer scorn and shame on the cross.
• He is about to endure the full fury of the wrath of God on sin.
• He is about to be cut off from the land of the living.
Unlike Lazarus, He knew He was being used for the glory of God
And His response.
“Father, glorify Your name.”
He knew the purpose.
Even in the next chapter,
• While in the upper room,
• After Judas departs to go and betray Him,
• And the entire process was set in motion, we hear Jesus say:
John 13:31 “Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;”
WHY DID IT HAPPEN?
The glory of God!
And after Jesus walks through such suffering and rises from the dead
• And He calls His disciples back to Himself, we recognize this conversation.
TURN TO: JOHN 21:18-19
Here He is recommissioning Peter to tend His flock,
And then notice what He says.
“Peter, you’re gonna die,
And it’s gonna be a death you aren’t that excited about.”
John chimes in with some commentary on the situation.
“Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.”
Why would Peter die in such a way?
Why not just let the apostles rapture up into heaven?
Because through their death they would glorify God.
That was the purpose.
And listen to me, the apostles understood this.
TURN TO: ACTS 21:7-14
• Paul wasn’t running from affliction.
• Paul wasn’t grasping at any chance of comfort.
• HE KNEW WHAT THE GOAL WAS
The purpose of all his trials was the glory of God.
And this is what the apostles preached.
1 Peter 2:12 “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
1 Peter 4:16 “but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.”
• Do you not think that God could just reach down and stop the pain?
• Could God not prevent it from ever happening?
OF COURSE HE CAN!
So why does He allow it?
Because through it He reveals Himself and He glorifies His name!
It is all done for His glory.
That is why Paul wrote:
Philippians 1:29 “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,”
Two times Paul gives the purpose, just to make sure you don’t miss it.
Suffering has been granted to you by God “for Christ’s sake”
SOLI DEO GLORIA
That makes us more than just sufferers,
That makes us stewards of our suffering.
BUT THE POINT:
God ordains all things for His glory.
As John Piper said in the quote we read earlier.
“the praise of God’s glory is not merely the result of his action but also the goal and purpose of that action.”
Certainly we worship God for the revelation of who He is,
But we also understand that
Worship is the reason He chose to reveal Himself at all.
Now I’m happy to share with you, the article I read by Piper on this because he made such wonderful points.
You can simply google; “Is God for Us or for Himself?”
And the article will come up on the desiring God webpage.
But after making the claims that God does all things to glorify Himself Piper recognizes that this truth makes people uneasy.
In fact Piper calls it “God’s Cod-Centeredness”
(similar to if we said someone was self-centered)
And he recognizes that people stumble over this because
• After all we are called not to exalt ourselves
• Furthermore we don’t even like people who exalt themselves.
For people to spend time exalting themselves only indicates
A void inside them that lives and needs the approval of others.
And certainly that’s not God.
• He is all self-satisfying.
• All things come from Him and through Him and to Him.
• He doesn’t have some deficiency that needs accolades.
THEN WHY DOES GOD GO TO SUCH GREAT LENGTHS TO GLORIFY HIMSELF?
The answer is because He loves you.
Again to quote the article:
“The answer that I want to try to persuade you is true is this: because God is unique as the most glorious of all beings and totally self-sufficient, he must be for himself in order to be for us. If he were to abandon the goal of his own self-exaltation, we would be the losers. His aim to bring praise to himself and his aim to bring pleasure to his people are one aim and stand or fall together…In view of God’s infinitely admirable beauty, power, and wisdom, what would his love to a creature involve? Or to put it another way: What could God give us to enjoy that would show him most loving? There is only one possible answer, isn’t there? Himself!…For him, self-exaltation is the highest virtue. When he does all things “for the praise of his glory” as Ephesians 1 says, he preserves for us and offers to us the only thing in all the world which can satisfy our longings.”
(ibid)
The point is so true.
• God is the greatest that there is.
• We are incomplete without knowledge of Him.
The greatest thing God can give you is a revelation of Himself.
• To be able to draw near to Him through Christ is the highest honor.
• To be able to gaze upon His glory.
• To be able to meet Him behind the veil.
• To bathe in His mercy
• To stand in His grace
• To rest in His love
• To walk in His peace
• To rise in His healing
• To hope in His power
• To dwell in His comfort
These are the greatest treasures humanity can know.
And God must reveal them for us to know them.
• If God doesn’t reveal Himself, you can’t know Him.
• If God doesn’t ordain things like suffering or the fall, then He can’t reveal Himself.
• And it’s not God who misses out, for He is already fully satisfied with Himself.
• It is us who miss out.
GOD REVEALS HIS GLORY
And it is the most loving and gracious thing He can do.
Isaiah 48:11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.”
