The Beauty of Reformed Theology

father I pray that whether in Life or in death your son Jesus would be magnified in our lives I pray that as we talk now about the beauty of reformed theology your beauty would shine through I pray there would be understanding that all misunder understanding would be banished and that light and not Darkness would hold sway and that deception and misdirection would be banished I pray that this would sink down deep Lord into our minds and into our hearts so magnify Christ clarify your biblical truth I pray and help me to be faithful to your

word I ask this in Jesus name amen I love reformed theology I love the doctrines of Grace I love the Five Points of Calvinism those three phrases all mean the same thing for me reformed theology doctrines of Grace 5 point t l i p total depravity unconditional election limited atonement irresistible Grace perseverance of the Saints I love reformed theology the way I love a cherished picture of my wife like this one that one you can't see it if I say I love that picture would you say to me that's not your wife that's a picture

you shouldn't love a picture you should love your wife if you said that to me I would say I know it's a picture I know it's only a picture I don't love the picture in instead of my wife I love the picture because of my wife I know the difference she's precious in herself pictures not it's precious because she's precious I get it the picture is precious because it reveals her it does the best that a picture can do and that's the way reformed theology is precious to me God is valuable in himself theology is

not valuable in itself it's valuable as a picture a portrait a window a telescope so I love reformed theology I do I would die for reformed theology because I love God I loved reformed soteriology because I love The Sovereign savior reformed theology makes me happy because God makes me happy I find in reform theology a vast Lake Superior which I can just paddle around making speechless discoveries every day of my life because it's a Lakes sized portrait of an ocean without bottom without Shores and that ocean is God few people have helped me paddle around

in this Lake of reformed theology and push toward the shoreless shores and to the bottomless depths few people have helped me more than Jonathan Edwards who wrote this the enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied to go to heaven fully to enjoy God is infinitely better than the most Pleasant accommodations here fathers and mothers husbands wives children or the company of Earthly friends are but Shadows God is the substance these are but scattered beams God is the sun these are but streams God is the ocean the truths of

reformed theology are shadows they're they're not the substance right God is the substance that casts the Shadow the god-shaped shadow he's the reality the beauties of reformed theology are the beams God is the sun the depths of reformed theology are streams God is the ocean the Delights of reformed theology are sweet but in God's presence is fullness of joy and at his right hand are Pleasures forever more reformed theology is beautiful because God is beautiful so I'm going to give you two reasons that God is beautiful and therefore reformed theology portraying him that way is

is beautiful number one reformed theology is beautiful because it relentlessly foregrounds the greatness of God the supremacy of God the centrality of God or the word that is most often used in scripture the glory of God gardis Vos dut American Theologian died in 1949 captured the central theme of reformed theology with these words reformed theology took hold of the scriptures in their deepest root idea the root idea which served as the key to unlock the riches of the treasuries of scripture was the preeminence of God's glory in the consideration of all that has been created

reformed theology begins with God God does not exist because of man man exists because of God this is what is written at the entrance of the Temple of reformed theology when we tried to craft a mission statement for our church in 1995 after a horrible season of collapse and immorality and no growth for four years it's still written on the wall of the sanctuary downtown where I worship we came up with this we exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of All Peoples within ass through Jesus

Christ that was our effort to give expression to what reformed theology saw in the Bible namely that God is first God is supreme god is Central and he should be named that way or more accurately God is not the first reality God is not the Supreme reality God is not the central reality God is reality we must be so careful with our language he is the only reality that absolutely is when God identified himself in Exodus 3:14 to Moses what's your name who shall I say sent me he said I am who I am what

does that mean I am who I am I absolutely am I never came into being when there was no Universe no space no time there was God and that's all there was absolute reality that is an electrifying thought just God nothing else absolute reality that changes everything the Bedrock the Capstone the all pervasive reality of your theology God is and he's the only thing that absolutely is everything else is secondary he carries the universe in his pocket like a peanut you seven or8 billion people are totally secondary and we think we're so important we think

the world is so important the world is a passing dream on God is reality you're not you're totally dependent he blinks you're gone oh to be overwhelmed with the sheer being of the one thing the one person who absolutely is God Jonathan Edwards captured the supremacy centrality being of God like this all that is ever spoken of in the scriptures as an ultimate end of God's work is included in the one phrase the glory of God the refulgence shines upon upon and into the creature and is reflected back to the luminary the beams of Glory

come from God and are something of God and are refunded back again to their original so that the whole is of God and in God and to God and God is the beginning and the middle and the end of this affair that's a beautiful rendering I think of Paul's words oh the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God how inscrutable are his ways how unsearchable his judgments who has known the mind of the Lord who has been his counselor who has ever given a gift to him that he should be

repaid for to get this from him and through him and to him is everything I remember 10 years in into my pastorate so it was about 1990 reading in in First Things by chance if there was such a thing as chance the terrible indictment of Christian pastors from Albert [Music] Einstein and reading it I resolved so now I'm 10 years in to my 33-year pastor and I read it and I said oh God never never never lets this happen to me I'll read it to you written by Charles Meisner or it's quoting Charles Meisner who's

writing about Einstein I do see the design of the universe as essentially a religious question that is one should have some kind of respect and awe for the whole business of the universe it's very magnificent and shouldn't be taken for granted in fact I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion although he strikes me as a basically very religious man he must have looked at what the preachers said about God and felt that they were blaspheming he had seen much more Majesty than they had ever imagined and they were just

not talking about the real thing reformed theology is beautiful because it is an antidote to that kind of pragmatic manag jial howto therapeutic dumbing down of the glory of God I remember what a powerful moment and season it was for me in Reading David Wells Trilogy that began in the 80s with the book no place for truth still in print I think you can get it worth it the thesis of the book God rests lightly on the American Church everything in me said that's really true one of the ways that reformed theology portrays the glory

of God and the centrality of God Is by drawing attention not just to the Bible's God centeredness which it is cover to cover but God god- centeredness this is what I have found across the country over the last 30 years shocks people awake they think they think they love the centrality of God and then you you lay this on them and they say reformed theology foreg grounds and will not let us Escape that also cover to cover is is God's God centeredness there so many people who presume to be god- centered precisely because they believe

God is man- centered and that's why they are god- centered and thus self-centered reformed theology holds the great honor and the great beauty of reveling in God's God centeredness God's Zeal for his own Glory God's self-exaltation on page after page after page of the Bible for example Ephesians 1 he predestined us for adoption to the praise of the glory of his grace God plan from eternity his praise psalm 19 the heavens declare the glory of God who planned that Isaiah 49 you are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified that's why I chose

you that's why you exist it's about me Israel you get this Psalm 106 he saved them at the Red Sea for his name sake that he might make known his mighty power Ezekiel 20 I acted for the sake of my name that it should not be profaned in the sight of the Nations Ezekiel 36 thus says the Lord it is not for your s oh House of Israel that I'm about to act but for the sake of my holy name and I will vindicate the Holiness of my great name and the Nations will know that

I am Yahweh Isaiah 48 this may be the most significant text in the Bible about God's God centeredness Isaiah 489 for my name's sake I defer my anger for the sake of my praise I I restrain it for you for my own sake for my own sake I do it how should my name be profaned my glory I will not give to another Isaiah 43 I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake you pray like that you preach like that father forgive me for Your Great Name second Thessalonians 1 Jesus comes

on that day Second Coming he's coming on that day to be glorified in his Saints and to be marveled at in all who have believed why Jesus coming back to be marveled at right here I am marvelon John 17 Jesus prays father I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to behold my glory Jesus died for that that we might behold his glory Jesus is Jesus Centric he saves people to see him to love him to Delight in him to Center on him he is the center

now I know a lot of people thousands of people and I fear some in this room probably just because it's so big do not regard God's god- centeredness as beautiful and therefore they don't regard reformed theology as beautiful as far as they're concerned what I just described with those 10 texts is megalomania before CS Lewis was a Christian you remember he read texts like that and he was so put off that he said reading the Bible was like a vain woman wanting compliments when God said praise me praise me praise [Music] me Lewis found that

utterly offensive so does Oprah Winfrey when she was 27 years old she heard a sermon she tells this story in a YouTube clip you can go and find it when she was 27 she heard a sermon on God's jealousy for his name and she said quote something about that that did not feel right in my spirit because I believe God is love and that God is in all things and she walked away from Biblical Christianity because of God's passion for God and she made it up after that Brad Pit left for the same reason Brad

Pit was a good southern baptist boy like I was this is what he wrote I didn't understand this idea of a God who says you have to acknowledge me you have to say that I'm the best and then I'll give you Eternal happiness if you won't you don't get it it seemed to me to be about ego I can't see God operating from ego so it made no sense are you in that crowd what Piper has talked about up until now makes no sense it's just megalomania I don't like it it's pretty clear that many

people don't find God's god- centeredness God's self-exaltation beautiful and therefore they turn away from him and from reformed theology which which foregrounds God's Zeal for his own Glory just like George McDonald did George McDonald was one of Cs Lewis's main Heroes he said I fancy I've never written a book in which he's not influential and here's what George McDonald said I quote this because in my Seminary days when I was coming to understand the Bible I was reading all of McDonald's novels sir Gibby fantasties Lilith loving him and then to my utter dismay I read

this in his book Creation in Christ the infamous page 81 from all copies of Jonathan Edwards portrait of God however Faded by time I turn with loathing that was a gut punch to me you you could not have hit me at a more sensitive area the god I was falling in love with the God that was blowing my mind and making me want to get out of my face and worship that God was empowering everything as a 22y old wanting me to live outright for him and make much of him is a loathsome God to

many people you got to preach to them and you got to show them otherwise I've spent the Lion Share of my thinking in the last 50 years trying to show that baked into the Biblical Portrait of God's God centeredness is a beautiful answer to the question or the accusation of megalomania baked into the biblical revelation of God's God centeredness is an answer to the accusation of offensive Megalania what is it goes like this God's commitment to making much of himself to making himself Supreme making himself glorious making himself Central is not megalomania because unlike our

self-exaltation God's self-exaltation draws attention to what gives us the greatest and longest happiness namely God himself it doesn't work that way with us people can't make the switch cuz God's so small he's so insignificant they can't they can't escape the little the little teeny World in which they live it doesn't work that way with us we don't like human beings who make much of themselves and we shouldn't Jesus didn't he exalts himself will be [Music] humbled our lord Jesus said he did not like people like that they've got to change so what about God the

reason it doesn't work for us is because our self-exaltation draws people away from the one thing that can satisfy their souls God if I say come to come to Dallas and say look at [Music] me look at me I'm your enemy if I say look at me I'm your enemy when I say that if God comes to Dallas and says look at me he's your friend there's no place else to go that will satisfy the human soul if you obeyed me when I say come drink at the fountain of Piper's resourcefulness drink come you will

die you will die and if God says come drink at my infinite Fountain of resourcefulness you will live when God exalts himself he is loving us he is showing and he is offering the one thing that can satisfy our souls himself forever question if Psalm 1611 is true in your presence is fullness of joy at your right hand are Pleasures forever more what should he do I mean to be crude he's stuck with being the best [Laughter] he cannot not be satisfying he's God he's not one of us well what he should do if Psalm

1611 is true is he should stand on every mountain and in every Acts 29 pulpit and say I am that great I am that great I will satisfy and in our experience of that satisfaction that Supreme satisfaction it only comes from knowing and being in the presence of that God in that experience of satisfaction his ultimate goal is achieved namely the magnifying of his worth now that's simp sentence was a summary of my theology called Christian heathenism Christian Hedonism is the solution to the megalomania of God I don't know another one I don't know what

yours would be Christian heathenism says that when God begs us to make much of him and we discover that in being satisfied in him is precisely what makes much of him then his glory and our joy reach the Apex together and the so-called megalomania shifts and is now called love what's your solution I don't you don't have to call it Christian Hedonism I'm not campaigning for that name although I'm tempted to because I'm old and doesn't matter anymore what people think but I I I find I mean seriously I find that this what to me

now feels so simple so basic So Glorious people don't get it at least if they say they get it they nod up and down their heads and they go away and they don't say it they don't say it they they don't draw attention to the fact that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him and therefore you preach and you pursue satisfaction in God 24/7 till you're dead and then for eternity why because it makes much of him right it makes much of him when your church is full of so

much satisfaction in God let goods and Kindred go this Mortal life also the body they make God's truth abide is still bring it on I will do God's will because he is my satisfaction God gets great Glory from that and when he exalts himself throughout the Bible it's not megalomania it's love it's God's Pursuit Of Your satisfaction in him reformed theology is beautiful because it foregrounds the centrality of God and it provides the deepest and longest satisfaction to the human soul but CS Lewis and Brad Pit and Oprah and that precious prodigal that you would

die for will never see it they'll never see the beauty on until Sovereign Grace takes away the deadness the blindness and opens their eyes which brings us now to the second reason why reformed theology is beautiful the first one was it's beautiful because it foregrounds God's god- centeredness and the second is that it exal s the sovereignty of Grace in the saving of Sinners let's start with the misery of everybody in the world without Jesus reformed theology takes seriously I mean blood Earnest seriously there is no other theology that takes the deadness the ugliness the

depravity the helplessness of human nature more seriously than reformed theology none which is why only reformed theology can make the beauty of sovereign salvation as good as it is it takes seriously the wrath of God and eternal punishment if God doesn't intervene we have have already charged Paul said we have already charged that all are under sin not just Sinners but under sin's power Dominion as it is written none is righteous no not one Romans 3:9 the Bible describes us before Christ changed us the Bible describes us as spiritually dead and unresponsive to God Ephesians

2 Hardened in our heart Ephesians 4 utterly unable and there's the killer oh how the world hates this utterly unable to save ourselves utterly unable to change ourselves Romans chap 8: 7 the mind of the flesh is hostile to God it does not submit to God's law indeed it cannot and those who are in the flesh cannot please God you can't that which is born of the flesh is flesh the mind of the flesh cannot please God cannot we are therefore according to Romans 6:17 slaves to sin and all this depravity makes us is blind

to the glory of Christ The Glory of Christ the beauty of Christ so to the natural human heart Christ appears therefore as foolish legendary mythological or just boring irrelevant without a miracle a Sovereign one-sided godone Miracle we are hopeless everybody you preach to is dead you're preaching in a graveyard to unbelievers they are dead and no theology in the world sees this more clearly than reformed theology which is why no other theology can portray salvation by Sovereign Grace more beautifully and we can we can I hope you do week after week make it Crystal Clear

how people are saved and they're not saved the way they think they are I dare say I I'm just could pick a number 90% of the Christians in the world don't know how they got saved and I don't mean don't remember the experience I don't remember the experience I mean they don't know what God did and one of our main jobs as pastors is week in and week out make crystal clear what happened to you what's happening to you what will happen to you so that you dance for joy because most people don't sing Amazing

Grace with anything like the amazement they would have if they knew how they got saved which means that our our rescue from the deadness and blindness and ugliness of depravity into life into Beauty into salvation is found that rescue is found in God's Sovereign will not Man's Free Will reformed theology does not believe in the existence of Man's Free Will if you define it as the power of ultimate self-determination are you with me that is a precise and I think clear I'll illustrate it definition of what does not exist the power of ultimate or you

could use the word decisive selfdetermination reformed theology doesn't believe it exists left to our free will we will die why is that because by nature which acts freely doing whatever it pleases we choose death we choose sin we choose unbelief the freedom to be the master of Our Fate make movies write poems Invincible or whatever the freedom did Master of Our Fate means death if you want to be free from God's Sovereign saving power you will die that's what your freedom will do for you if there is any hope for deliverance from our Rebellion against

God the hope will be in God's Sovereign total rescue reformed theology does not believe that God contributes a helpful 90 9% to our conversion and we contribute 1% it doesn't believe that picture this when we get to heaven all of us and we lay our crowns before the feet of Jesus no one no exceptions no one is going to say thank you Jesus thank you for the 99% that you contributed to my conversion but there is one Crown I'm not going to lay at your feet namely the decisive 1% that I contribute by my free

will my self-determining will that Crown belongs to me no one's going to say that you know why it didn't happen that way reformed theology bows to the beautiful humbling precious reality that the blood of Jesus the blood of the New Covenant Luke 22:20 purchased a new heart for his bride the blood purchased decisively a new heart for the bride I will give them one heart and a new spirit I will put within them I will remove the Heart of Stone and I will put in a heart of Flesh it's tender and alive to God do

you have a new heart tonight if you do that's what happened he took out the Heart of Stone might have been when you were six 16 36 and he put in a new heart he took away the blindness he caused you to see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ he caused you to see Christ as compelling I mean the night before I've heard so many testimonies the night before in the dormatory room or the motel room or the bedroom he meant nothing to you and in the morning he was your lord

and your God that's what happened to CS Lewis was on a bus and he couldn't explain it he became your treasure Matthew 13:44 you found a treasure right and you look up and said I got to have this field sell everything thing he became your treasure you experienced Faith as a gift it happened you didn't make it happen he gave you the Holy Spirit he gave you the down payment the seal the guarantee and he speaks these words over everyone of his blood bought children I will put the fear of me in their hearts that

they may not turn from me I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they will not turn from me I will rejoice in doing them good with all my heart and with all my soul Jeremiah 32:40 are there there any more beautiful words for a 78-year-old sinner I won't let you turn from me I don't care how you die I won't let it happen that's sweet folks it's also sweet to an 18-year-old who's got a whole life to live and might be pulled away by the devil are there any more beautiful words

than you are mine I'll keep you you will not make shipwreck of your faith I won't let it happen no one can snatch you out of my hand I bought you I called you I own you I'll keep you that's firm that's beautiful I wonder if there's anything more firm or more beautiful and my answer is yes there is one more stroke to be put on the canvas of sovereign salvation that brushstroke makes the firmness of your salvation as deep as it can possibly be remember preaching one time from Romans 8:30 those me predestined he

called those me called he justified those me Justified he glorified I preached four weeks on that every step and I compared it to a skyscraper that was being built in Downtown Minneapolis and before they built it they they dug the foundations and I remember driving by thinking I can't even see the bottom of this Foundation this is going to be 52 stories high that's a lot of weight and I said the these four things that's how deep your security is so here's the here's the verse that puts the final brush stroke on the firmness of

the saving keeping power of Christ first second Timothy 1:9 God saved us and called us to a holy calling not because of our works but because of his own purpose and Grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began when did God give Saving Grace to You In Christ crucified before the universe existed that takes it back as far as it can go that takes it down as far as it can go it can't be shaken he predestined me and you believer to believe and to be his child to the praise of

the glory of his grace before the foundation of the world so depraved chosen purchased called kept t u l i p total depravity unconditional election limited atonement irresistible Grace perseverance of the Saints is a beautiful portrait of our savior's work to save Sinners so my concluding prayer blessing on Acts 29 is oh that The Sovereign God oh that The Sovereign God would look with such favor on Acts 29 that nothing absolutely nothing could move you from holding and heralding this beautiful and beautifying reformed theology father I ask that that would come true I pray that

you'd get your arms around this Global movement that you brought into being and that you hold in being and that is a trust for the leaders of this movement and all the pastors and the people I pray that you get your arms around them and Grant that they would not move from the beautiful and beautifying truth of reformed theology I pray that it would be foregrounded that nobody would be ashamed of it that everybody would see to the unbeliever and the unregenerate This is highly offensive and to those who are born of God to those

who are called it is the power of God and the wisdom of God so God make the preaching faithful and then come down Holy Spirit on these churches and Open the Eyes of millions of people all over the world to see and say that's beautiful that's a great savior that's a great salvation that's a great satisfaction I pray that for this movement in Jesus name amen