Why Jesus Came to Die

The Bible on your tables and turn to Isaiah 53.

And Ellie's gonna come and read that to us before Pete comes to preach. Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the lord been revealed. He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground, he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like 1 from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in lower steam.

Shortly, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by god, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds, we are healed.

We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way, and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its sharers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, yet who of his generation protested?

That he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.

By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the greats, and he will divide the spoils with the strong. Because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors for he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Thanks, Ellie. My name is Pete Woodcock.

I'm 1 of the ministers of the church, we're doing this series. We started this series, last week, based sort of roughly on a book by John Piper, an American writer, a really really good book called, 50 reasons why Jesus died, or, is that the right name, why why Jesus came to die 50 reasons, I think it is, and you can get that free online if you just go and look that up, which is great. And, we're not gonna do all 50, so we're not gonna be here for, you know, a long, long time, and we're not gonna do all 50 today tonight. Next week this is an advert for next week. I'm doing the 50 first, which isn't in the book.

So, come for next week if you want to extend, extend it. We're gonna look at Jesus and futility, and that's something I've been having to think about. Let me pray. Father help us, please help us to listen. There's some really great truths here.

And, we we we don't wanna just hear things. We want truth to be rooted in us and affect the way we live and how we praise and what we look to. So help us we pray in Jesus' name, amen. I want us to start by just sort of having to think about motivation, motivation. A dictionary definition of motivation is this, reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.

Seems pretty good definition, reasons, reasonable reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way, or here's another 1, a desire or willingness to do something, and then often with enthusiasm. So think about motivation. What motivates the university student to study? Do you think? What's the motivation to study?

You can shout out. Fear. Parents paying for it, fear. He's obviously talking from the heart here. Parents paying for it, fear.

Yeah. And and what's the motivation to study? Really? I think you've got a lot of, optimism there. Money.

Yeah. You you wanna get a good grade so you can get a better job. Now that doesn't work now. You're best to go and do a plumbing course, then go and do a computer course. But, yeah, there's all, you know, motivation.

What motivates you? You know, it's often I just gotta get through this or whatever. Here's another definition of motivation, a longer. I'll just listen to this. Motivation is the internal desire or the y behind your actions.

The driving force that initiates Guide sustains behavior to achieve a goal. It is the inner spark that pushes you to act. Whether meeting a need fulfilling a desire or pursuing a goal. There's some great words there, really good words about what motivation is, a desire, a driving force, an inner spark, the why of why you do something. Now with that definition in our heads, what was the motivation for Jesus dying on the cross?

What was his motivation? What was the motivation of god the father for sending god the son to become flesh and go to the cross? What's what's the what's the desire? What's the driving force What's the inner spark? What's the why behind that?

Well, I think when you read the Bible, it's the greatest motivation of all, and it's the purest motivation of all. It's love. Christianity is really all about love. And we need to get that. The whole central thing is really love.

And the great motivation is love, and that pure motivation is love. And that's what we see. But love for who? Love for us? Here?

Absolutely. We've just been singing about it. Here's some verses. Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. You don't need to turn to it.

Just listen. Here's poor writing. He says, I live by faith in the son of god, in the son of god, who loved me, and gave himself for me. You see? There's the spark there.

1 John chapter 3 verse 16. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. See, love laying down his life. Here's the great verse in the Bible that we should all know for god so loved the world that he gave his 1 and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

So god, the son's motivation, was love for you. The reason he acted, the reason he behaved in this particular way, the desire within him, the willingness to go to the cross, the enthusiasm for the sacrifice, was love for us. God, the father's motivation, was love for you. The driving force that initiates that guides, so sustains, giving his darling son, is love for us. That's a marvel, isn't it?

And we've sang some fantastic songs this evening. It's a marvel, isn't it? That that that we should be writing songs like this for all eternity, and I think we will be. What love? Never lose that.

Never let go of that. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the savior's blood died he for me who caused his pain? For me, who him to death pursued Amazing love. How can it be that thou my god should die for me? It's amazing.

Isn't it? But There is actually even a greater motivation behind the cross of Christ, a greater 1, a bigger, and a much more fundamental motivation, a bigger and more fundamental drive an internal desire, and why behind the cross, a bigger force that initiated and guided and sustained the whole plan of the cross. There's a bigger 1 than love for us. Now it's still love. I want to say that, but it's a deeper and a more fundamental love.

And I want to spend this evening on this love. Because the staggering idea that god the father and god the son were motivated for love for us can sometimes blind us to this bigger vision of love. Now I wanna say it comes with a warning. You might hear some of the things I'm gonna say and think, woah, that feels really uncomfortable. I'm not sure if I quite like that, but I wanna show you in the end if you bear with me that this is really, really phenomenal.

And it should change our lives. The bigger mate motivation, he is the warning this is there's a warning here. You ready? May not like this. The bigger mate motivation for god the son for Jesus the Messiah to die on the cross was to please god the father.

That's a bigger motivation than love for us. Now we'll see the 2 merge in a minute, but we'll we'll have to get there. It's because he loved the father and he wanted to please the father. That's the bigger motivation. And the bigger motivation get this.

The bigger motivation forgot the father to send his son to die on the cross, was that it pleased him god himself. He's about his own pleasure. He's about his own pleasure. 3 verses. Listen to this.

Fhesians chapter 5 and verse 2. Christ loved us. Oh, great. We've seen that. Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

That's the thing that we normally dwell on, and it's fantastic, and so we should. Listen, Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to god. Some versions say a pleasing smell. Some of us know what a stink is, don't we? I mean, there are stinks that are very, unpleasant, aren't they?

And they fill a room and you wanna feel, you feel ill. But this is a pleasing smell, but hold it. It's a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to god, a pleasing smell to god, the cross of price, the smell of blood. And spit and bile. Isaiah 53, we read it, and we can so easily read that chapter and miss it.

Isaiah 53 verse 10, yet it was the lord's will, that's god, the father, It was the lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And some translations, you don't need to put that up. And some translations, have, it pleased the lord to crush him. It pleased the lord to crush him. Here's another verse.

This is Ephesians chapter 1 on verse 5. He predestined us. This is god, predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ. How? In accordance with his pleasure.

God's pleasure and will. Last week, we were looking at, the lord Jesus Christ absorbing the wrath of the father. And in 1 sense, this is a sort of other side to the to the coin, really. So Piper writes in that excellent little book, he says this about our subject. He says, this explains the paradox of the new testament.

On the 1 hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of god's wrath because of sin. But on the other hand, Christ's suffering is a beautiful act of submission and obedience to the will of god. So Christ cried on the cross. My god, my god. Why have you forsaken me?

And yet the Bible says, but the suffering of Christ was a fragrance to god. Oh, that we might worship. The terrible wonder of the love of god. It is not sentimental. It is not simple.

For our sake, god did the impossible. He poured out his wrath on his own son The 1 whose submission made him infinitely unworthy to receive that wrath. Yet the son's very willingness to receive it was precious in god's sight. The Roth bearer was infinitely loved. That's our subject.

Okay. Here's my first point then. Let's get let's sort of get into that and see. Let's sort of unpack that as well. First thing is, why Jesus died?

Why did he die? To please the father by doing his will. Now we see that reason why Jesus died clearly if you were to read through the gospels, and we've seen it when we've gone through John's gospel. So near the start, for for instance, of Jesus Ministry in John chapter 4, Jesus says this, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. My food, my sustenance, the the the very thing that gives me energy, the things that sustain me in this world, the thing that's gonna keep me going is to do god's will, the father's will, and to complete that work.

And so what is that work that the father wills for the for the son to do? Well, as you read through the gospels, it's it's clearly, you know, lots of things, but mainly it's to die on the cross. So in John's gospel, the chief reason Jesus completes that work and finishes that work and and goes about that work is for the glory of his father. The glory of his father, and the glory of the father pleases the father. John chapter 12 verse 28, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour.

Now the hour in John is always really referring to the cross. So it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Why is he going to the cross? Why is he going to this hour?

To glorify his name, and glorifying his name pleases the father. John chapter 17, verse 1. Father, the arrows come glorify your son, that your son may glorify you. That's what he's about. And then the whole movement, the whole journey of the gospel records, the the whole the the way it records the whole thing is is seeing Jesus resolutely setting his face to Jerusalem where the cross awaits him.

He resolutely got does that. Now it's very easy, and it's good and fine and proper, for us to sort of Look at the motivation, for us, he loves us, and that's his motivation. But the love, that comes here is a bigger love. It's an eternal love. It's a love not just for me.

It's a love for the father's glory. His love for me, really, as we'll see later on, is the fruit of this root. This root is a deeper love, an eternal love. A love that's been around forever and ever and ever. A love before you and I were ever around or ever even thought of, a love before time itself.

Jesus is motivated by a desire to obey to please to glorify the father that he loves. That's his main motivation. And in the garden, we know in gethsemane, we've seen it fairly recently. He prays not my will, but yours be done, and he's doing that. To show us very clearly that he's about the will of god, the will of the father.

And then we're told a number of times throughout the gospel that the father looks at the son, and he says, this is my son whom I love with him, I'm well pleased. So the reason the big motivation for Jesus to die was love for the father to please the father. That's my first point. Okay? Second point is, the father's pleased with the cross.

The cross pleased the father. Now again, I don't know about you, but when you first hear this sort of stuff, it does feel a little bit uncomfortable. But I wanna say this that the cross is the highest display display of god's pleasure. You wanna know what pleases god. That's what you look at.

So Isaiah 53 verse 10 again, let me read it, yet it was the lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And as I said already, that the word will can be translated pleased. It was it pleased the lord in the old version. It pleased the lord to bruise him. It pleased the lord to bruise him.

Just look at the crucifixion and think about that. Think about the crucifixion of Christ. It was the lord's will to crush him. It pleased the lord to crush him. I think we should tremble at those words.

Extraordinary, extraordinary words, aren't they? But we mustn't misunderstand them. God doesn't delight in the wounds. He delights in what the wounds accomplish. A surgeon cuts into flesh, not because he likes cutting into flesh, but he likes what doing that will result in.

What it will accomplish. A refiner of gold casts the gold nugget into the refiner's fire, not because he particularly likes burning, and the fire, but because he delights in the pure gold that comes as a result of it. What exactly then is pleasing the gold to god? What is pleasing about the cross? In what sense does the cross please god?

And how does that bring glory to the father? Well, there's a number of things. Let me just go through. I think I've got 6 here. It proves, first of all, and demonstrates that god is faithful.

So if you go right back into the garden of Eden, which we have no time to go and do, you see the promise, you know, to Adam and Eve after they've fallen and listened to the lie and sinners come into the world, There's a promise that there's gonna be 1 who'd be bruised. And he'll do that in order to crush the serpent crusher to kill the serpent crusher. And then there's that promise is is promised again and again and again, as you know, throughout the bible, and If you've been, you know, a morning series in Hebrews, there's a gain and a gain in various ways where we see there's the promise, you know, the whole, the whole, sacrificial system, all of the, the priest system, and the faithful people of the Old Testament. They're all pointing. They're all pointing to the promised 1 to come.

There's this promise of 1 who will be bruised, but will actually bring life. And so the death of Jesus fulfills those promises, and we can see that all over the place. So there's a demonstration then that god is faithful to his word that he's gonna send someone who will be bruised and will kill the serpent at the serpent. And the Hebrews itself, we saw in Hebrews tender. He is faithful to his promises.

We see that very clearly. He's faithful to his promises. And when that is demonstrated, When people see, oh, all of those promises. Yes. He's absolutely faithful to those promises.

There's gonna become 1 who will be bruised on our behalf to bring salvation. He's faithful. When that faithfulness of the father's word is demonstrated, he's pleased with that. He's really pleased about that because his faithfulness is is glorified and seen. Something of the character of god, the father is seen to the world.

He's faithful to his promises, so he takes great pleasure when Jesus dies. Here's another reason. The law of god is seen as good and is obeyed. Here's the first commandment that is given in the 10 commandments. You shall have no other gods before me.

If Jesus death on the cross was solely or primarily motivated by love for us, there's a great danger of breaking that commandment. You shall have no other god before me. Jesus, as we'll see again in a minute, summed up the commandments as as love the lord your god, with all your heart. The first love is to love god. And Jesus is fulfilling that.

And if he didn't fulfill that, If he loved us above everything else, then, actually, he's broken the commandment, and he'll never be our savior. But praise god, we see that Jesus death on the cross, had that greater motivation for pleasing god for fulfilling the commandment for having no other god before him. And that pleases god that that law is is obeyed. It glorifies god. It says that no 1 else in the universe is the motivation behind anything to Jesus than god, the father.

No other gods. That's the second thing. Third thing. It satisfies his justice. Now we saw that last week, so I'm not gonna go into that, too much.

But on the cross, we saw that, you know, sin had to be dealt with. And god's justice, his wrath is poured out upon Christ on the cross. That's it. And that pleases god because his justice is demonstrated He's not a god that can just let off sin. He's not a god that can just say it doesn't really matter or, okay, look, if you sort of do some nice stuff, it will outweigh the bad stuff.

Now he's a god of justice, a god of wrath, We saw that last week. And so this please is good because his justice is revealed when you look at the cross. People say, I know. I know what god is like now. He's faithful to his word.

Yeah. His, his word is obeyed. You must have no other god before me. And here's 1 that had no other god before before me. He's satisfied.

My justice is satisfied. And I'm pleased that scene it's displayed. Here's a fourth reason. It displays his love. Romans chapter 5, god shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That word shows in the modern version is not great. It's demonstrate, and demonstrate is out there on the streets with placards. It's showing it forth. This geez god is the god of love. How do we know?

Look at the cross. Look at the cross. God is a god of justice. How do we know? Look at the cross.

God is faithful to his word. His promises. How do we know? Look at the cross. And because he's glorified, and it's displayed, god is happy.

God is happy with that. Fifthly, it displays his sovereignty Acts chapter 2 verse 23 is an amazing sentence. It's just 1 of those great ones, isn't it? Where Jesus has died on the cross. He's risen again.

Pentecost has happened. Peter stands up to preach at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is upon him. There's a great crowd in front of him, and he says this man was handed over to you by god's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. So do you see that? Jesus was handed over by god's deliberate plan, and foreknowledge, and then you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him on the cross.

Are you got the same thing with with Joseph in the old testament, where his brothers sold him for harm? And, at the end of that story, Joseph says, you intended to harm me, but god intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. You wicked people. You absolutely were wicked. You're completely responsible for your wickedness.

You took Jesus and nailed him on a cross. You wicked people. Yeah? What you did is utterly sinful. You put him to death by nailing him on a cross.

Yeah? It's unbelievable wickedness. The son of god. You crucified. But god, in his power, can take all of the wickedness against him, all of the evil, and turn it round to be the place of salvation, and to reveal that god is sovereign.

Who else could do that? But a king, a sovereign, a powerful 1 who could take wickedness against him and twist it round and use it in his plan. There's a sixth thing. It glorifies the sun. In John chapter 13, now the son of man is glorified, and god is glorified in him.

So the cross is not not just a humiliation alone. It's it's It's the glory of sacrifice. And as Christ is glorified, he glorified and glorified glorified is to obey the father. God is glorified. The son of god reveals that he himself is full of grace and truth, and that pleases god.

John Calvin was a, you know, great theologian of the reformation. And he described the cross as a splen the splendid theater of god. And so that that's the image. You're going to a theater. You're going to the play.

Yeah. You're going to a play. And the subject is the glory of god. And you're sitting there, and you're west end theater, and you've paid your money, you got in, and the the bloke behind you has stopped eating the popcorn, and everything goes silent, and it goes dark, and all the phones are off. And the curtains are over.

And then suddenly, the curtains are opened up and there's a spotlight on stage. And the whole thing is the glory of god and the spotlight is on a man on a cross, a splendid theater of god. That's what god is like. That's who he is, It's the outshining of the inward character of god. That's what the word glory is.

Glory is the outward shining of the inward character of god, and there's the shining of god the glory of god. What is god like? Well, let's go and see. The cross. That's what he's like.

That is what god is like. He's the faithful god. He's the there's only 1 god. His laws are good. He's the god of justice.

He's a god of love. He's sovereign. There on the cross. The glory of god is revealed, and god's pleased. The people see that glory.

He's really pleased with that play. He loves that play. That's his number 1 play. Okay. You're you're happy, everyone?

There's some objections to this, and I'm gonna deal with some objections. This is a strange sermon in many ways, but here's the objections. At this point, I I wanna I wanna deal with some misunderstandings and objections to this and last week's sermon where Christ absorbs the wrath of god. There's some terrible accusations against this type of teaching in the bible. It's people really who don't want to to don't like this teaching and don't wanna read the bible properly.

And the accusations, I think, only show us that the, accuses, don't understand the Bible and don't understand the god of the Bible. The opponents of this stuff that I've just told you, accused this teaching of being divine child abuse. They hate it. Steve chalk is 1 of those. He he's sort of like a popular sort of preacher of this sort of thing.

He says this, atonement, that's coming getting right with god, based on penal substitution, portrays god as a vengeful father, and he talks about this child abuse. So Jesus this is how they would sort of bastardize what I'm trying to say. Jesus so wants to please his father who is really an abusive dictator and is only pleased by dominating and forcing people to do his will goes to the cross to appease his father and try to prove his love to him. That's divine child abuse. Jesus really is the victim here.

Therefore, that whole doctrine that I've just tried to show you is morally disgusting, It's unjust punishment. It's torture. It's relationally horrific, and it's bullying. And whoever could love a god like that. Whoever could love a god like that?

Who could ever call him father with freedom and joy in our hearts? That's that's how the argument goes. Now the argument doesn't understand a couple of things. The first thing it doesn't understand is the trinity that there's 1 god in 3 persons. It assumes 3 separate beings rather than 1 god in 3 persons acting in unity.

So that divine child abuse basically tries to separate, particularly god, the father, and god, the son. The Bible doesn't do that. In 2 Corinthians, the Bible says god was reconciling the word the world to himself in Christ. God, as the father, was reconciling the world, world to himself in Christ. He's acting in Christ.

We had a quote from, JI Packer from his wonderful book knowing god last week. Here's a quote. It is not a case of an innocent third party being punished. It is the judge himself who bears the penalty. This means the cross is self substitution, not external coercion.

The sun because these people don't understand the trinity, the sun is not a passive victim. He's not coerced child trying his hardest to please a brilliant, brutal, angry father. Jesus is not merely a child. He's the son of god willingly acting in unity with the father. Jesus says himself, no 1 takes my life from me.

No 1. No 1. But I lay it down of my own accord. Now this is really crucial. The cross is not an unwilling son being punished by a nasty, harsh father.

It's the self giving act of the triune god. In other words, god is both the judge as as as Pecker says, we've got is both the judge and the 1 bearing the judgment. So Jesus then, we've gotta get this. Jesus, the son is not motivated to go to the cross by fear of the father. But by eternal love, by a desire to glorify him in a way that is strange for us, but certainly does glorify him because of his love for the father.

He's not a coerced son. But that argument doesn't just not understand the trinity. It it doesn't understand a willing substitute. And we see that if we go back to the book of Hebrews, we've been seeing this in the morning. That the the the book of Hebrew shows us the difference between an animal sacrifice and and Jesus sacrifice.

Animals don't go voluntarily to be sacrificed. They just have animal instincts and that fact they would probably be wanting to move away from the knife and so forth. And there's a difference at Jesus willingly voluntarily, lovingly goes. His motivation's not based on abuse, but on love. Again, listen to these words, no 1 takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own re accord.

I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. He's not coerced, and I think we saw in in Hebrews chapter 10, when there's all of this counsel in heaven. Who will go? Who will go? Who will display my glory?

And Jesus is saying, yes, please. Yes, please. Okay. Onto my fur fourth point then. Let's get back to, not the negatives.

Why god's pleasure is the best news you could hear? Cause it still feels a bit odd, doesn't it? God is doing it for his own pleasure. Christ is doing it for god's own pleasure. Feels a bit awkward, doesn't it?

A little bit awkward. Christ died to please god. The father God, the father was pleased with his son because he did what pleased him. Well, hold it. Let's just sort of try and unpack this a little bit more.

God, is, first and foremost, for god. God is for god. Now that truth, 1 of the reasons we don't like that 1 of the reasons we yay. Yay. 1 of the reasons we don't like that is really that there's many reasons, but 1 of the reasons is it really strikes a a hammer at our idolatry.

It's like smashing an idol. God is not first and foremost for you. God first and foremost is for god. Jesus is not first and foremost for you. Jesus is first and foremost for god the father.

Now as I say, I think we humans, we we we sort of recoil at that, and it's it's quite hard to handle that, isn't it? But we because we want a god that's all about us. We want a god that serves us. And this sort of breaks that idol, don't we? We're happy with a god that sort of comes and sacrifices himself for us, and and crowns our desires and all of that sort of stuff.

But the god of scripture declares for my own sake, even for my own sake, I will do it. He he doesn't ask permission of us. He doesn't get counsel from his creatures. He doesn't bend the need to people. God, the father lives for his own pleasure, not yours.

That feels so unfair, doesn't it? Because I want god to be about my pleasure. Yeah? God the sun doesn't live for your pleasure. He didn't die on the cross for your pleasure.

He died on the cross for the father's pleasure, first and foremost. And I think that sort of hits our pride because suddenly, it's not about me. The universe is not about you or me. Christ didn't save me because I'm attractive or I have something to offer him or I'm lovable or I have potential or I can even offer him his love. I mean, we have those songs, and I understand it, you know.

What can I bring him? I can bring him my heart. What is god gonna do with a filthy heart like yours? Yeah. He doesn't need it.

He doesn't need it. Now, no, I'd I'm not against that song. I actually really like that song. But but, you know, we sometimes just think, you know, oh, you know, of course, god loves me, or, you know, even if I was just a really, really wicked sinner, which I am, then, you know, he'll take something of my love back. I wanna say this is the best news possible that god is doing it for his own pleasure.

If god's ultimate goal was us, I think we'd be in massive trouble. Why? Because we're created. We're creatures. And for an uncreated, great eternal, to have as his ultimate love us at the center would be idolatry.

This doesn't work. We change. We fail. We fade. We die.

But god's pleasure is rooted in himself. And therefore, it's an eternal, uncreated pleasure. An unchanging. It makes everything secure. If a ship anchors in sand, it will be lost.

But if a ship anchors on solid rock, it will be safe. God's pleasure is anchored in himself. Where else can he anger it? If he anchors it in us, it's sand. If he anchors it in himself, it's eternal.

It solid rock, it's secure. See, there's a huge difference between us and god, and 1 of our problems with this teaching, this doctrine, is that we often think of god as little bit bigger and a little bit more nicer than us. He's just a sort of bigger version of us, and that's our problem. If people seek their own glory, if I seek my glory, if I seek myself first, I rob god. But you god can't rob himself.

If god seeks his own glory, he reveals truth. He's the most glorious 1. Because god is worthy. Listen to Revelation 4 11. You are worthy.

Our lord and god. To receive glory, honor, and power, we sang that this morning. You are worthy. You, and only you are worthy our lord and god to receive glory, honor, and power. Why?

For you created all things, and by your will, they were created and have their being. You see that? Everything else is made. God is the only eternal. There's nothing bigger than him.

He's the only really worthy 1. To direct your worthiness and your glory and your power, to anything other than god who made everything, is to direct direct your honor and power and glory to a created thing and it's lesser. Man climbs a molehill, and he could declares of conquered everest. And we laugh at him. Are you mental?

You're a foolry of cogadevres. God reveals himself as the supreme, and he's not exaggerating. Man conquers a molehill and says it's everest is a total exaggerator and someone who's a fool and mad, but god isn't exaggerating. He's just simply telling the truth to deny his supremacy would be a lie. God must delight in himself for there's nothing higher to delight in.

That's god. Think of the sun. You light a little candle at 4 in the morning. It's bright and wonderful, and you're glorying in it. Look at me, I have a lovely bit of light, a little bit of light around me, and the sun comes up, and you can't even see the candle.

The glory in the candle when there's a great fireball in the sky called the sun would mean that you have got serious issues. And you're blind. For god the glory in that which he's created would be like glory in the candle when he is the sound of the universe. And everything is lit and warmed and brings lot and and and is given life by the sun. There's nothing bigger.

If you glory in the lesser over the bigger, there's something wrong, isn't there? We're not the highest good. That's why it's wrong for us to go on about our glory and start boasting. But god is. If you have a compass that points to itself and not north, it is 100 percent useless, isn't it?

Yeah. If we are people that point to ourselves and not god, chuck it away. Self centeredness for us is madness, but not for god. Because there's no 1 bigger, there's no 1 higher, there's no 1 greater. It would be like god valuing the less over the more, the inferior, over the superior, the lesser over the greater.

So this is why this is good news. He glories in himself, and Christ has come to bring glory to the father, the great pleasure. Now, listen. Hold it. Let's get this.

Because if the god of the Bible was Allah, we would be in trouble because Allah's a nasty god. I mean, Allah of the of of of of of the Quran. He's a nasty god. He he he doesn't want relationship. He's nasty.

If you read the quran, you'll see, I'm not exaggerating. It's a horrible thing, but he isn't. And this is the joy. I want us to see the wonder, and this is what I want to finish on. God's pleasure, you see, overflows from himself.

And here's the gospel. Here's the good news in this doctrine. If god was selfish like men, we would perish, but he's not. When we seek our pleasure, we often use others for our pleasure. We often put others down.

We often climb on what they've done and claim it for ourselves, we often ignore others. But when god seeks his pleasure, he does something completely and utterly radically different because he's the god of the Bible. His pleasure overflows. It doesn't just suck into himself. He's not a miser.

A miser holds his gold and keeps it in his bank and under his bed and in his treasure chest. God isn't a miser. Psalm 16 verse 11 says, in your presence, there is fullness of joy. The picture is of a fountain. There's fullness of joy in god's presence.

He's so full. He's so about his pleasure that he's this joy just overflows like a fountain. You can't contain it. It spills over. The joy is coming out.

The pleasure is poured out to others. Glory shines. Goodness glows. The sun is the most glorious thing in the universe or in our solar system, and it gives life and light, and warmth. God, the most glorious 1 in the universe.

Isn't just sucking in. Like we would. But he's pouring out. He's pouring out. So let me rub it in again.

I want to say god's highest aim is god because nothing or no 1 is greater than god. For from him and through him, and to him are all things says Romans chapter 11. So god's highest motivation then is his pleasure. The son's highest motivation in dying on the cross. Is because it pleased the eternal god and he loves in eternity.

Do you get that? Do you see how good news that is? Because if it's about us, it's gonna be so small. But it's about him. And in his eternal love, he brings us in because he is the eternal love, and the son loves the father and brings glory to him.

We're brought into that orbit of love. We're brought into the warmth of love. We loved. We loved. Greatly, magnificently, amazingly, We are loved because the father loves the son and the son loves the father, and the spirit loves the father, and the son, and out of that love, out of the display of love on the cross, it's for our good.

Let me just end then with a response. The invitation I think here is from self to god through the cross, and that's really good news. From self to god through the cross. Come and find your happiness in god. Psalm 37, delight yourself in the lord.

Yeah. But pay that commandment. Delight yourself in the lord, not in self. Not in the world, but in god. Jesus died to please his heavenly father so that you could live to please your heavenly father.

That's wonderful, isn't it? John Piper says this. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. We can bring glory to god by being satisfied in him. Jonathan Edwards wrote this.

God is glorified not only by his glory being seen, but by being rejoiced in. Rejoice. That the fundamental love of god is this eternal love that spills out to us. Now this helps us to live in all kinds of ways, I think, because Jesus said that the whole law of god, everything about god is summed up in in 2 laws, to love the lord your god with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. He says the first and greatest commandment is to love god.

The second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. I think this really helps us understand how to live because When we love god, when we put god first, we'll love our neighbor. Because that love overflows into our neighbor. When god is put first as Christ did, that he loves us, You see that? Those 2 always go together.

You love god first, and you will love your neighbor. You come to the source of love, and it will overflow to your neighbor. And that helps us with all our relationships. We need to be seeking this. So in family, it's often saying, well, you know, I love my wife.

You know, how can I love god more than my wife? And there's we have all these dilemmas. Love god and you love your wife. You see that? Love god and your love.

You'll know what to do. You know how to help. But love god first. Love god first, and you'll love your neighbor, and you'll love your wife, and you'll love your friends, and you'll love your church. Love is the center.

The motivation to love god, it really spills over in every relationship, and that's why this teaching of Jesus being motivated to love us, but in a bigger way. To love his father on the cross helps us live in this world. Well, there we go. Let's spend a few minutes just in quiet thinking about that, and then we'll hand over to Rory.