Hey all, Pastor John here. Thanks for tuning
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Now let's dive into this week's message. Leviticus
1445. For I am the Lord who brought you up out
of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall
therefore be holy, for I am holy. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, your name be honored as holy.
These words that I've written down on this paper,
they are meaningless without your spirit. We
pray that your spirit would be present and active
and moving, that we would trust him, that we
would rely on him. to speak to us. That we would
be able to live out of the reality that there
is a God in the universe who cares so deeply
about us that he will be present with us. In
Jesus' name, amen. Nobody from first service,
give this away. Can you guess the largest practice
religion in America? You've heard it preached.
I know you have because it's all over your feeds.
It's all over the morning news. It's on a bunch
of church, not even church, but just counselors,
their couches. You will hear it consistently
proclaimed. It is not Christianity, but it gets
along with Christianity just fine. Many Christians
even say it's true. This religion, it plays nice
with about every religion. except those people
who are like really fanatical, it doesn't like
those people. Its claims are easy to understand,
easy to adopt. It offers love and fulfillment.
It encourages the shame and the guilty. Its followers
are some of the most kind, welcoming people you
could meet. As long as you don't disagree with
them. It has a major, it's been a major driving
force in our culture for decades. It's actually
the culture that I grew up with. Have you guessed
it? Moral therapeutic deism. Most people who
practice it don't even know it because its marketing
is so good. You hear it spoken and it just makes
sense, you know? But moral therapeutic deism
is the most practiced belief system in America.
It's actually statistically validated. This is
not me guessing it or making up stats. But moral
therapeutic deism, it's really more of a descriptor,
right? Could use a little bit of marketing on
its name. Moral therapeutic deism means believing
you should be moral. Good. You should feel good
about yourself, okay? And there's a God who exists.
Moral therapeutic deism may be a new term, but
its beliefs are not. Just this week, I heard
it preached by Christians and ex -Christians.
I saw it on social media, and I saw it on, like,
advertising for basic household goods. Like,
cleaning supplies should make you feel good about
yourself kind of thing. Commercials, really.
It's surprising how they get it everywhere. But
it has five core tenets. Let's see how many you
agree with. One, there is a God. Two, God ordered
the world and watches over it. God wants you
to be a good person. God doesn't demand to be
in your life day to day, but you can turn to
him when things go bad. And five, good people
go to heaven. Does it sound familiar now? Like,
doesn't it ring? Just, it's right there. This
police system is everywhere, and it sounds really
good. This system even uses a lot of Christian
vocabulary, but it is not Christian. Its followers
get along with Christians as long as what? We're
not too Christian. The claims aren't completely
wrong, but they are incomplete. And that's the
core problem with it. What it says is fine. It's
palatable. It's easy, but it's incomplete. It
will always lead you astray because it will never
actually reveal who God is. Let's take a little
test. You weren't expecting a quiz, but here
we go. Let's see how many you can get right on
this. Do you believe God cares more about how
you act than what you believe about him? Do you
avoid thinking about sin because it brings down
your self -worth? Do you ever act like prayer
is like an Amazon wish list for your life's needs?
Do you act like reading an inspirational quote
on social media is equal to reading the Bible?
Or maybe you believe that sharing a Bible verse
online is your form of evangelism. Is your vision
of bearing one another's burdens just listening
to your neighbor's medical history for 20 minutes
because you were too polite to walk away? Is
your intercessory prayer for the next young generation
mostly just asking God for them to get off their
screens and go outside so they're not around
you anymore? Do you assume the book of life is
mostly just a list of people who remember to
live, laugh, and love more? How many did you
get right? They're jokes, right? Mostly. We all
know this though, that the lies that are the
most pervasive are the ones that have a little
truth in them. Moral therapeutic deism sounds
great and can look like Christianity at first
glance, but moral therapeutic deism is not Christianity.
It is Christianity with Christ still in the grave.
It's Christ still in the grave because you don't
need Christ to get to God. And this isn't a problem
out there. It's not that. It's in here. Moral
therapeuticism is and was taught in youth groups
and churches across the nation. Again, it is
what I learned when I was growing up. I went
to a Christian church. I was in a Christian family,
but this was the culture that I was steeped in.
Well -meaning church leaders tried to make Christ
more palatable to generations of young people,
but all they did was set us on a trajectory to
remove Christ altogether. John has been using
a creation story as we walk through this series,
True and Better, and we're going to turn to Exodus
19 and see the creation of the nation of Israel.
God is going to come down to Israel and make
a covenant with them. He has just redeemed them
out of Egypt, slavery in Egypt, and he's brought
them to Mount Sinai to enact this covenant with
his people. And Exodus 19 is going to be on the
screen. But what we need to know as we set the
story is that God gives Israel this message.
If you will carefully listen to me and keep my
commands, you will be my possession. And out
of all the peoples of the earth, the whole earth
is mine, but you're going to be my possession.
And you will be my kingdom of priests and my
holy nation. And all of Israel says, yep, we're
going to do it. We will obey the word of the
Lord. And then this is what God is going to explain
to Israel, starting in verse 9. The Lord said
to Moses, I'm going to come down to you in a
dense cloud so that the people will hear when
I speak with you and will always believe you.
Moses reported the people's words to the Lord
and the Lord told Moses, go to the people and
consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must
wash their clothes and be prepared by the third
day for on the third day, the Lord will come
down on Mount Zion in the sight of all the people.
Put boundaries for the people all around the
mountain and say, be careful that you do not
go up on the mountain or touch its base. Anyone
who touches the mountain must be put to death.
No hand may touch him. Instead, he will be stoned
or shot with arrows and not live, whether animal
or human. I think I read an extra verse. And
then jumping down to verse 16. On the third day,
when morning came, there was thunder and lightning,
a thick cloud on the mountains, a very loud blast
from a ram's horn, so that the people in the
camp shuddered. Then Moses brought the people
out of the camp to meet God. And they stood at
the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was completely
enveloped in the smoke because the Lord came
down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the
smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain shook
violently. As the sound of the ram's horn grew
louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered
him in the thunder. The Lord came down on Mount
Zion at the top of the mountain. Then the Lord
summoned Moses to the top of the mountain and
he went up. The Lord directed Moses, go down
and warn the people not to break through to see
the Lord. Otherwise, many of them will die. Even
the priests who come near the Lord must consecrate
themselves or the Lord will break out in anger
against them. Moses goes down and then he warns
the people again. So he did that same cycle.
And then he goes back up the mountain and what
does he get? The 10 commandments. And this is
the people's response after they see all of this.
Exodus 20, verse 18. All the people witnessed
the thunder and lightning, the sound of the ram's
horn, and the mountains surrounded by smoke.
When the people saw it, they trembled and stood
at a distance. You speak to us and we will listen,
they told Moses, but don't let God speak to us
or we will die. What are you going to do with
God's holiness? That's my first point this morning.
What will you do with God's holiness? These people
experienced the holiness of God and they feared
for their lives. They saw it and their response
was, oh, this is not healthy for me. We are in
the exact same position. It's not a distant reality
for us. God's holiness is our biggest problem.
God's love and power and mercy and truth and
justice. Those are not our problems because those
are the things that we call on to help us with
our problems. But holiness, that's a problem.
Throughout the Bible, anyone who experiences
the holiness of God's presence, immediately,
everything about them changes. Isaiah captures
it well. I am ruined. So how do we humans deal
with this problem? It's an ever -present problem
for us. We create a new reality to explain God's
holiness. There's simple denial, just fill our
lives up with something, focus on something.
God doesn't exist, he's not holy, therefore I
don't have to worry about him. We just kind of
block it out altogether. But most of us, we rationalize
it in some way. We can bring God's holiness down
to our level, or we can raise ourselves up to
be equal with the Lord. The most common way,
I think, is to bring God's holiness down. And
that's what moral therapeutic deism does. To
make God less holy, make God less transcendent.
Remove his separateness and thus make him about
me. You know, he accepts me for who I am. He
just wants me to be getting better. He wants
me to be fulfilled. Great, you made God about
your life plans. Or you can bring yourself up
to be equal with his holiness. And sure, nobody's
going to say it out loud. Nobody's going to say
those words. But you ever heard this one? The
self -righteous, their actions, they reveal the
heart, you know? You know, I'm always just always
looking to serve other people. If it wasn't for
me, this whole place would be falling apart.
This is replacing a holy God with yourself. You
are now responsible for it to keep the world
spinning. You put yourself on his throne. And
if you look inside you all, And reinterpret God's
holiness to make it more palatable for you. And
I do it too because we're sinners. And that's
what sin is. So what is it? What's this thing
that I keep describing? God's holiness. How do
we understand something that is literally defined
as separate? That's an easy definition to get.
It's separate. It's different. It's otherness.
It's transcendent. It's like I'm he, me, they're
different. So I want to use a different definition.
It's a little bit hard. This is my definition
for us. The manifestation of the chief affection
God has for the Godhead. The manifestation of
the chief affection God has for the Godhead.
And I'm going to keep changing some of the words
in that definition because it's not about the
words. So you'll hear a whole bunch of different
words. I'm just going to highlight it now. I'm
going to use joy and delight and satisfaction.
And I'm just going to keep changing those words
because we all know the feeling. Here's Psalm
96, 8 and 9. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due
his name. Bring an offering and come into his
courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his
holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. The
worshipers are commanded to worship the Lord.
Why? Because it is due him. Worship the splendor
of his holiness. This isn't some lame, dull worship
set. This is like the whole band is there. Everybody's
on fire tonight. They're just feeling it, and
you got it too, and you're just like, I got to
just express this thing. The command is to enjoy
the Lord's holiness. Worship necessitates that
you find the object worthy, and if worthy, enjoyable.
These verses show the command to follow God's
example. We are commanded to follow his example,
which is enjoy the Godhead in its perfection.
So when the angels are singing, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord almighty in Isaiah 6, they are saying
their chief satisfaction is in the Lord, which
is exactly what God is doing in the Trinity,
right? God, three persons in one. He's expressing
joy and fulfillment and delight and satisfaction
and affection and love. And again, fill whatever
word you want in there. You got your preference
of word? Great, use that word. That's what he's
doing to the other members of the Godhead. Perfectly,
all of the time. The angels are just trying to
use their words. And when Isaiah sees the Lord
in this same vision, he immediately sees how
sinful and different he is from God. Woe is me,
I am ruined. Why? Because Isaiah doesn't have
the same level of affection for God as God has
for himself. Or when the Israelites saw the Lord
descend on the mountain, cover the mountain in
cloud and lightning and power and fire, why couldn't
they come close? Because a God that is singularly
focused, chiefly focused on loving the Godhead
will not allow sin or anything that looks like
death come near him. It's an act of judgment
on me. It's an act of honor and righteousness
for him. He is loving the Godhead and protecting
the Godhead. That is what he should be doing,
and I should be doing the same. So when God is
set apart, because at the core of his being,
he is chiefly, fully delighted in loving, celebrating,
enjoying the other members of the Trinity. Which
means as much as we delight in God, we become
holy. As much as you delight in the Father, you
become holy. As much as you delight in the Son,
you become holy. As much as you love the Spirit,
you become holy. But if we do not delight in
Him, if we say He is unworthy of our affection,
who are you to say that to Him? He is the Holy
Trinity. He is worthy, but you said he's not.
And if you don't recognize him every minute of
every day, that he is that way, you have failed
him. You have failed to correctly honor him,
and you are worthy of his judgment. And I know
I'm cutting against the grain here. I'm well
aware of that. God is not like that. He's like,
no, no, my God is, I wish a God was. We know
the words. You have them in your head. I know
you do. Think about this. Why is it so important
that God is not singularly focused on delighting
in God? Why do you want to change that? I change
it. I know I do. I sin. We are commanded to love
and worship him. Why do you want him to be focused
on anything else? Which leads me to my second
point. Why do you want to go to heaven? We all
think about it. Actually, I think it's a great
trick the Bible pulls on us, that it doesn't
really describe heaven. So then we are forced
to fit in whatever we wanted in the place of
heaven. And so then it really exposes who we
are. Actually, my hope is in having this. My
hope is in having that. You ever notice that
all the world religions and cults, they all choose
something that's good down here and then just
make it better in heaven? And celebrities, they
love to talk about heaven and they all assume
they're going. Oprah said this, heaven is going
to be a place where you do what you love with
the people that you love. I have so many questions
about that. I don't want to be locked in her
heaven. So what's your reason? Less pain? Good
food and drink? Finally get all your answers?
See your loved ones? Those are good things. Listen
to this, 1 John 3, 2. We know that when he appears,
we shall be like him because we shall see him
as he is. Philippians 1, 21. For to me, to live
is Christ and to die is gain. The reason to go
to heaven is to be like Christ. If living is
Christ, what do you get by dying? If your life
here is defined by Christ, what would be the
prize in the afterlife? It's the Sunday school
answer. Jesus. More Jesus. Paul is saying heaven
is how we get more Christ. Heaven is about Christ
being with him and being like him, which means,
use our definition, being chiefly satisfied in
him. I got feedback from somebody. I'm just going
to try to keep twisting like this diamond because
it's hard to put your mind around it. And I get
that. I've been meditating on this for weeks.
So I'm just going to keep trying to change it.
But don't get hung up on one definition or one
word or that kind of thing. Keep rotating it.
Keep mulling around in your head. John Piper
says this about heaven. Could you be satisfied
in heaven if Christ were not there? Because heaven
is ultimately about being satisfied and delighting
in Christ. Which sounds exactly like our definition.
The manifestation of the chief affection that
God has for the Godhead. So in heaven, we are
just finally able to experience it completely
and fully with no separation, no division, no
distractions whatsoever. We get to do the thing
that's the most satisfying. And if you keep trying
to put something else in there or keep trying
to add something to that idea of heaven, it's
real bad. Just to tie these things together.
If you bring God's holiness down, you're also
going to bring heaven down because it's going
to lose its splendor real quick. Because heaven,
if you think of heaven just like retiring early
with infinite money, you're going to get bored
real quick because it's all about you. The whole
thing revolves around what is your passion and
desire for that time, that day. And if you do
the opposite, raise yourself up and make yourself
equal with the holy God and make him some part
of your affection that he should be giving you
some, you're just going to create a little throne
next to his. Well, I should get some of it. You
get most of it, but I get some of it. We'll split
it. Heaven is where God's holiness It's fully
on display. And we participate in the enjoyment
of it. And again, if you keep adding anything
else to it, you're going to be really surprised
when you get there. You're not going to be disappointed,
but you're going to be really surprised. Moral
therapeutic deism, what does it say about heaven?
It says there is a heaven. And it says good people
go to heaven. The Bible makes it abundantly clear.
Justified people go to heaven. God is the one
who justifies us, not our good works. Good works
are not an end of themselves. It is the response
of a justified heart. And that order is so, so
important. And it leads me to my last point.
How will you be formed? Point one is... Actually,
I forget what it is. What is it? What will you
do with God's holiness? Second point. Why do
you want to go to heaven? Third point. How will
you be formed? So here's the application part,
right? Like, okay, Nick, team me up. Give me
the application. Give me the three steps. That
goes against what I'm trying to say. I could
say, yeah, don't smoke, drink, or chew, or go
with those who do. But I've been saying it's
not about the outward stuff. And sure, like,
the actions should be there. They should follow.
They need to be there. The Bible expects them.
But the Bible commands first that our affections
be aligned correctly. The thing God wants is
your holiness. He's not impressed with your rags
of righteousness. And your holiness is you having
affection that is found in him. That order cannot
be ignored. The thing we have to fight for every
day is doing the right things from the right
joy. Or if you need to hear it differently, from
the right motivation. Our culture, the air we
breathe, the sauce that we're baked in, takes
a scalpel to Christianity, acts like God's holiness
does not exist, that it's the cancer that needs
to be removed. But in reality, they're just operating
on themselves, cutting out their lungs, and are
surprised that they're out of breath whenever
they search for joy or satisfaction. Every time.
Why didn't that leave me more fulfilled? I saw
a comedian. He was talking about how wanting
is the fun thing and having is really, really
lame. And it's like this, like he didn't even
like say really clear words. It's just everybody
knows that I wanting is like this, I want to
be fulfilled. And then having is like, I don't
know, I have, like whatever. I can move on past
it. It doesn't mean anything. So moral living
pursued primarily to be a better person and love
people. That's not Christianity. It goes by many
names though. Codependency, radical compassion,
tolerance, and the religion of our day, moral
therapeutic deism. Doing actions to be moral
will always leave you filling the hole in your
heart with people and experiences and disappointed.
But be careful. Living focused on being more
like Christ through effort and personal sacrifice.
more spiritual disciplines, that's all I need.
I just need more discipline in my life, often
turns into legalism and white knuckling for Christ.
It has the right language, the right outward
appearance and probably some good intentions
in there, but often turns into a Christian that
is disappointed in Christ. There is no passion.
There's very little joy. You shame the name of
Jesus because that is literally the definition
of losing your first love. You're just saying
I can be like him if I work harder. Your affections
form you. A saying in a book that I'm working
through is you are what you love. The affections
form a person into something that's greater if
they are in Christ. It's not your actions, it's
not your goals that form you. It's the things
that you are willing to give up other things
for because you love them. You are what you love.
I'm going to try to use this example. It came
from this morning. I was listening to a podcast.
And I didn't even mean to. I just stumbled up.
And this is this guy. He was a senator for 10
years. Three months ago, he was diagnosed with
stage four pancreatic cancer. He's got like 90
days to six months to live. Just life hit him
hard, right? And he was speaking. It's not a
Christian podcast, but he was just speaking in
this way, in this tone, that he just loved Jesus.
He actually sounded like somebody who believed
moral therapeutic deism. He had those outward
trappings. But I could just hear in his heart,
in his speech, that no, no, no, there was so
much more there. And I highlight this because
we all know those people who are really holy.
And they just sound different, right? You come
at them with an attack, and they're like Teflon.
They don't even try to defend it. It just rolls
off of them. You come out with a complaint, and
they're just like, man, I'm so sorry. And they
just won't gossip with you. And you're just like,
I just want to gossip here. And they're like,
no, I don't want to. But they do it in the most
loving, kind, inviting way. That they're willing
to listen to your problems because they love
you, but they're not willing to be dishonoring
to other people. Again, fit in whatever example
you want to. You can hear that the person's love
and affection have formed them into being something
that is not of this world. And then you have
the other people. It could be yourself. It could
be somebody you know. They have all the outward
trappings. None of the inside. And they're always
doing the thing that they disagree with. And
you don't know why they have so many problems.
And now you do. So when you have true joy, True
delight. When Christ calls you, hey, come on,
let's go. Deny yourself, pick up your cross,
follow me. Let's go die. You're not sad. You're
not fearful. You're not doubting. You are saying,
this is going to be hard, but my affections are
for you, and so I'm going to expect good. I'm
going to expect more joy in the end of this.
Hard, yes. Joy, yes. And if you want to live
this out with holiness, you must be formed into
it. Your affections, your heart, your joy, your
delight. Again, pick the word that's best for
you. And that has to be the thing. And anything
that's not that, that's not towards Christ, that's
not towards the Godhead, you have to submit that.
You have to let it go. Romans 12 .2 says, do
not be conformed to this age, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. I, for the longest
time, read this verse like, oh, my mind being
renewed is transformation. That's not what it
says. It says, be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. You are transformed in the whole
person that comes through the renewing of your
mind. So your body, your personhood, your psyche,
your spirit, your soul, your love, your actions,
they're all transformed and that comes through
renewing of the mind. And I have two points written
down, but a third one actually has come to me
this morning. The two things the Bible really
calls us to consistently are scripture and community.
And the third one this morning that really hit
me was prayer. Transformation comes through many
experiences, trials, and learnings, but the primary
way are those three things because they renew
our mind. Scripture, community, and prayer. Scripture,
what happens to the person who meditates on Torah
in Psalm 1? They become a tree, a well -watered
tree. They change the person. And community,
it's the proven ground, isn't it? It forced us
to be something different. And prayer does the
same thing where we submit our desires for the
future to the Lord. We submit our plans. We submit
everything kind of about where we're gonna go.
And we express our desires. And if those desires
are misaligned to him, then we're gonna be misaligned
with him. And that means our affections are misaligned
with him. So here's my example to try to like
flesh this out. What does it look like? Anybody
here have a successful workout plan? Anybody
here give up on their workout plan for the year?
Working out is one of those things that you have
to plan for. You have to think about it. You've
got to put it into practice. But if you start
working out with any of the earlier preparations,
you feel sick. You feel yucky. Or you have to
work harder because you're contradicting yourself
in another area by eating too much. But if you
work out more, do you just get the ability to
work out more? Is that all that happens? No,
it changes all of you, your desires. You physically
want to work out more because you get more endorphins
and your body changes shape. Isn't that nice?
And you want to eat different foods because they
make you feel good. You make plans, you change
your plans, you sacrifice for things. Working
out changes your emotions, your habits, your
outward appearance, your psyche, all of it. The
same thing goes for spiritual formation. It changes
All of us. All the way down. But it's also like
working out a little bit. Maybe there's some
ups and some downs, some spurts and starts, some
failures and some successes. It's not a clean
track record. But we know, and you have to submit
to it, the primary locus of spiritual formation
isn't inside of you. It's the church, it's scripture,
and it's prayer. And the thing about community
in particular, the church, is that in this place,
you will be known and accepted. And we all want
that. But that means you will be known and you
must be accepting. But there's no substitute
for these. Over and over and over, scripture
says, pray, read me, and go to church. There's
no conference, there's no experience, there's
no author, there's no friend group. Whatever
you want to put in there, it will not be as informative
as these. And 2 ,000 years of martyrs and discipleship
and worldwide growth is a really good track record.
So what does this look like in practice? Think
about your disagreements. Think about how, if
your affections are focused on Christ, and on
him and delighting in him and being satisfied
in him, what is that going to mean for your disagreements
with people? What is that going to mean for your
parenting with kids? Like your kids won't even
recognize you anymore. What about your boss or
your coworkers? Your emails are going to be like
the nicest, no passive aggressive emails there
could be. And you will actually want to help
them. Everything just starts to trickle out of
this. And you will see new things that you need
to work on and then you can work on them and
you can keep being formed. I'm going to end here.
If the Spirit is putting something on your heart
this morning, please listen. Pause whatever you
are doing and listen. Because repentance is simply
acknowledging that you've had disordered love.
Which if we use our definition, I'm going to
keep coming back into it. I need you guys to
know this. Our definition of holiness is the
chief manifestation of God's satisfaction in
himself. Which means God loves himself. above
everything else, and you are commanded to do
the same. And if you haven't, repent. Just say,
that was not my love, and I want it to be my
love. So if you see actions, attitudes, lifestyles,
whatever, repent. Because my hope this morning
is that I've just pulled back that curtain just
a smidge, just so you can see the Lord a little
bit better. And when that happened to Isaiah,
when he saw the Lord clearly, he repented. Woe
is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean
lips, because my eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of armies. And what is God's response? Forgiveness.
God's holiness moves him to forgiveness because
it brings him joy, and our response should be
worship.