Preach on Piper!

For those of you who don't know, I love John Piper. He is such an amazing bible teacher that loves loves loves God's word. His preaching is amazing and God has taught me so much through listening to his sermons. For 7 1/2 years he taught through the book of Romans to his church.

For the past few years I have been doing a bible study with 4 amazing ladies studying the book of Romans. We are only half way through! Granted we have had moves, job changes, engagements, marriages, and pregnancies so we have taken breaks, but we are still going. I am so blessed by those girls and this study. Piper's sermons on Romans are one of the resources we use. James Montgomery Boice's commentary on Romans is the other. Anyway, this is something I shared with the Romans girls a couple weeks ago, but it continues to be on my mind.

Piper was preaching on what the root of sin really is. It is not just that we hurt others or ourselves when we sin, but it the fact that we are rebelling against the God of the universe, showing no regard for His commands, and trampling on His glory. Piper states it better.

"What makes sin sin is not first that it hurts people, but that it blasphemes God. This is the ultimate evil and the ultimate outrage in the universe...The infinite, all-glorious Creator of the universe, by whom and for whom all things exist (Rom. 11:36) – who holds every person's life in being at every moment (Acts 17:25) – is disregarded, disbelieved, disobeyed, and dishonored by everybody in the world. That is the ultimate outrage of the universe. Why is it that people can become emotionally and morally indignant over poverty and exploitation and prejudice and the injustice of man against man and yet feel little or no remorse or indignation that God is so belittled? It's because of sin. That is what sin is. Sin is esteeming and valuing and honoring and enjoying man and his creations above God. So even our man-centered anger at the hurt of sin is part of sin. God is marginal in human life. That is our sin, our condition."

Wow. That really hit home. I am angered at hearing of injustice in the world. Of children being mistreated, of horrible crimes committed, of families torn apart. I am enraged at these things...and rightly so. But why am I not equally indignant at sin because of its stealing of God's glory? I watch things in movies, or I hear someone tell me a story of something that is blatantly in rebellion against God. And I laugh. When it should disgust me. We should hate sin. It should make us angry because it is against the creator of all things. But before we get judgemental, the sin we should hate the most is the sin in ourselves. I hate my sin. But not enough. Otherwise I would turn from it at all costs. I have a long way to go. I love teachings like this. Piper's stuff is good stuff :)