Good morning God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me Let's begin this morning by asking you to consider a question an extremely important question, I think and that is What is the ultimate purpose of the gospel I Of course, this question just presupposes that you understand that the gospel is good news in some sense, and it presupposes that you already understand the bad news that necessitates the good news of the gospel. But my question this morning that I want you to focus on is, what is the ultimate goodness of the gospel? Why is it good news that Jesus Christ was born in human form, lived a sinless life, died on a cross, and then rose again? If you were to ask 100 professing Christians that question in this country this morning, what kind of answers do you think you might get? I'm going to guess you might get answers like the following. To save us from going to hell. Maybe so we can go to heaven. To relieve us of our guilt. Maybe to be free from pain and sin. But I'm going to take issue with those answers this morning. To be clear, I certainly wouldn't deny that any of those are benefits of the gospel. They're not things that God doesn't secure for his children. He does. But I also don't think those are the ultimate good or the ultimate purpose of the gospel. In fact, you could add to this list our sanctification, our forgiveness, our security in Christ, even though all of these are very precious gifts that God has given us through the gospel. They are not the ultimate purpose or the ultimate good that God has purposed for us in the gospel. Even justification, what many would call the heart of the gospel, and I would certainly agree, us being declared righteous in Christ by faith and his effective substitutionary atonement on our behalf. Even justification is not God's ultimate or final purpose in the gospel. It is a key hallmark doctrine to be sure, but it is not an ultimate purpose. All of these are great gifts from God, but they do not stand on their own. They are not a purpose unto themselves. The ultimate good of the gospel, the ultimate purpose, is for us to see God's glory, for us to be in awe of Him, and for us to be in love with Him. Let's read our main passage this morning. 1 Peter 3. We're actually going to focus on one verse. I had Dave read some surrounding verses for context, but we're just going to read 1 Peter 3 verse 18 if you want to turn there. 1 Peter 3 verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. Now, just to provide some more background, Paul is writing here to encourage the church, warning them that they will suffer for Christ's sake. He is encouraging the church to not fear or to be troubled and to respond appropriately when these trials and tribulations do come. because they will. And this is where I see verse 18 is so key. It provides a grounding or a basis for why they should not tremble or should not fear that suffering when it comes, but instead to cling to Christ. Verse 18 contains in it first an extremely concise gospel message. First, it says that Christ suffered once for sin. Now, that word once is significant. That's what I want to look at first. It speaks primarily to the effectiveness of His suffering. In other words, once was all that was needed. That was it. In the Old Covenant, sacrifices were made again and again. The blood of bulls and goats and rams shed as part of the Old Covenant. But those sacrifices were not sufficient. Hebrews 10.4 even tells us explicitly that it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. But the blood of Jesus is different. His blood was sufficient. It was effective. It was shed once. He suffered once for sins and his work was accomplished. And it was accomplished because of the next clause in that sentence. The fact that he was righteous. That was the reason that his blood was effective. That was the reason the blood of the bulls and goats was not effective. It needed to be a righteous sacrifice. He needed to be a worthy sacrifice to satisfy God's wrath, to actually placate God's wrath in place of our sins. We, of course, being the unrighteous referred to in verse 18. Our sin required a righteous sacrifice. And of course, that's exactly what Jesus was. His sinless life was just as necessary as his death, because without either, he would not have been a worthy sacrifice. Without His righteousness and His death on our behalf, He would not have been a worthy sacrifice. So these two short clauses, Christ suffered once for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous, contain the heart of the Gospel message. But again, we must ask, for what purpose? What's the ultimate goal? Well, let's look at the next clause. It tells us precisely that. That He might bring us to God, That is the ultimate, final, decisive, crucial goal of the gospel. That we might be brought near to God. That we might love Him with all of our heart, our strength, our soul, our mind. That everything would be directed to Him. Because of the atoning death of Christ. Verse 18 is what gives the context to Peter's hearers in chapter 3. For why they should suffer gladly. Because Jesus also suffered, and that suffering has a purpose. It has an important God-centered, God-directed purpose. That Jesus might bring us, His elect people, to God. That is the ultimate goal of the Gospel. Not that we would escape suffering, either here or in hell. Not that we would enjoy heaven, either for its sake alone or for our enjoyment and pleasure. but that we would be brought to God, and that we would be centered on Him. God's goal in the Gospel is that our attention would be diverted 180 degrees away from what we were, that we were haters of God, rebelling in every way possible against Him, and instead turn to focus on Him, and brought to love Him, and adore Him, and everything that we are be focused in Him. Now, of course, this is the point of all Scripture. Not just described here in 1 Peter. Think of how many Psalms speak of the writer's long to be brought near to God. Psalm 42 verse 1 says, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Or again in Psalm 70 verse 4, may those who love your salvation say evermore, God is great. That's interesting there. The psalmist does not say that salvation is great or being forgiven is great. Not that those things aren't great. But the reality is they're great because God is great. Those are just the pictures. God is the reality. Those are the things that point to God. They're pointers to God's greatness, not ends in themselves. How else could Paul say in Philippians 1 that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain? He is centered on the ultimate hope of Christ. He is not just happy that his sins are forgiven and then free to go on living the American dream. He is focused, sold out, completely to do whatever he can to honor Christ on this earth and looking forward with eager expectation to be in God's presence in eternity. Now the whole tenor of scripture is pointing to God and ultimately His glory, His immense greatness and the fame of His name. What did Moses plead for in Exodus 33? He asked to see God's glory, right? That is what Moses longs to see. Even though he had been talking with God and as a foreshadowing of Christ, interacting with God on behalf of the Israelite people, it was something that made Moses want more. Just that glimpse. He wanted to see more of God. He wanted to know more. He wanted to see more of His greatness. His majesty. His glory. Who God really was. He wanted to see it. That's what we should be like. To see that glimpse of God and to want more. To want more of God's glory and His fame and His greatness to be proclaimed. Again, as the doxology in Romans 11 says, O the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, How unsearchable are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. Even just the fact that we call that the doxology. Doxo is Greek for glory. And Lagia is Greek for saying, so it's the saying of glory right there. That's saying who God is and the relation of this earth to Him. It's to proclaim that all of it's for Him. Right? There's no conditional language in that verse. All of it's for Him, through Him, and to Him. It's all about His greatness and glory. So why am I making a big deal about this this morning? I don't necessarily think that this idea of scripture pointing to God's glory or His greatness is a new thing to most of you. I don't think for most of you the idea that the gospel is centered on God is necessarily new to most of you either. But I do know that this is a radical idea to the world. It's a radical idea to most of what is termed Christianity in this country. And it is a radical idea to the flesh that remains in us. It's something that we need to be reminded of constantly. In so many ways, if you're a believer this morning, whether you've been one for 50 years or for five minutes, we remain, to some extent, not God-centered. Even though we have been born again and have had our affections changed, had our desires changed to love God, we also remain in danger of not loving God for who he is, but instead for what benefits we gain. for instead what focuses on us instead of Him. We are free from the guilt of sin. We feel the burden of guilt lifted, but we do not become automatically wholly God-centered. We enjoy the benefits of the gospel, but do not see and do not fully appreciate, do not fully pursue the end of those benefits, the ultimate giver of those benefits. And of course, the reason we do those things is because of the natural state of our heart. That's the flesh that is inside me and it's inside you. And even if we're truly converted and we are being slowly changed, we still have that flesh that lingers with us, that continues to distract us, that continues to tempt us and tries to stop us from pursuing the main goal of the gospel. Instead, our flesh wants to try to twist the gospel, use it as a means to ease our guilt, to try to twist it to make much of ourselves and our worth rather than God's greatness and His worth. Our flesh in no way wants us to drop all reliance on ourselves and instead glory and rejoice and rely wholly on God and His mercy and grace, and to revel in His goodness and mercy. We are so prone to make this mistake of loving the gift rather than the giver. If we're not God-centered, but instead focus on ourselves, It's a perfectly natural response. We see God's gifts, and because we think of ourselves more highly than we ought, we will love His benefits, His gifts, but not submit ourselves in love to the giver of the gifts. We twist them and make them about ourselves instead. Let me illustrate a little bit with this story. Say I've done something against my wife. I've said something unkind or done something unkind to her. And there's now a chill in the air, some disagreement, some tension in the air between us when we're in the same room. Our relationship has been injured by this sin of mine. And I know that I should repent, I should ask her to forgive me and apologize for what I've done. But why do I want to do that? Why do I really seek forgiveness? Is it because she makes me delicious dinners and I'm afraid she won't tonight if I don't apologize? Or is it because I don't want the feeling of guilt to ruin my day because I know what I've done and sinned against her? Is it because of a hundred other benefits she provides to me that I'm afraid maybe she'll stop doing if I don't apologize and seek reconciliation in the relationship? Or is it because I truly love her? There's a big difference between those things. Is it because I love her who she is, regardless of how it benefits me, and I want to be restored because of my love for her, and not because of the benefits or the things that it does for me, focused on myself? There's another diagnostic question that many of you may have heard before. And that is, if you died and went to heaven, would you be happy being there if you knew that Jesus wasn't going to be there? If you could go to heaven and be free from sin, be free from pain and suffering and death, but if Jesus would not be there, would you be happy with that? I fear the answer for many who claim to follow Christ would be yes. J.C. Ryle says in one of his sermons, but alas, how little fit for heaven are many who talk of going to heaven when they die. While they manifestly have no stating faith, and no real acquaintance with Christ. You give Christ no honor here. You have no communion with Him. You do not love Him. Alas, what could you do in Heaven? It would be no place for you. Its joys would be no joys for you. Its happiness would be a happiness into which you could not enter. Its employments would be a weariness and burden to your heart. Oh, repent and change before it is too late." I think Ryle hits the nail on the head here. If you don't glory in God now and hope in Him and love Him above all His benefits and good gifts now, what is there in heaven for you? What do you expect to do there? If all of eternity would be spent enjoying God and worshipping and magnifying Him, how will that possibly be enjoyable for someone who has not been made to have that focus on earth? I think in this case, it's hard to imagine a person with this mindset being converted at all. Of course, God only knows our hearts. But even if we are truly converted, even if God has changed our hearts, we can still make a similar mistake, right? We can still love God, not primarily for who He is, but we love Him for what He gives us. We love Him for the Gospel's benefits and what He does for us, but not accurately in a way that ultimately makes much of Him. Our flesh continues to twist what I'll call our practical theology. Not that we wouldn't answer the catechism questions right. Not that we wouldn't say that the chief end of man is to enjoy God, is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. I almost got it wrong. But do we live like that? Do we live like that's our chief end? Our chief purpose? And though we don't live like that, I know the answer is that we don't. We don't because of the flesh and the sin that still clings to us. Does that bother us? Are we okay with that? Or are we content to go on enjoying God's benefits and not truly concerned for the centrality of God's glory in our hearts and in our practical lives? What does this do when we are not God-centered enough? The first thing it does is that it robs God of the glory that is due His name. When we stop short of the ultimate purpose God has for the gospel, He is not honored as He should be. He is not honored because we do not make Him out to be who He truly is, right? And we all do this. In some way or other, we all do this. Not that we intend to, necessarily, but we all have our own ways that we misconstrue who God is, the way our flesh wants Him to be. It may be that we're viewing Him as too much like ourselves, Or even that we're viewing Him as a genie who grants us wishes when we need Him. And you may think, well, I certainly don't believe God is a genie that does that, or that He's some benevolent grandfather that will help me when I need it. But do you live your life like that sometimes? Do you wait to really come to God until you need something from Him? How often do we betray our theological answers with the way we practically live our lives? The whole of scripture points to God's glory as the primary message. All of creation points to it as well. As Psalm 8 says, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Or again, as Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. You could read dozens of other psalms and other passages where the writer reflects on God's greatness and beauty and majesty and power. That's the message of God's word and the purpose for which he created the world. And yet, when we misconstrue the gospel to be about ourselves, we are in serious error. When we make the mistake of thinking that the gospel is primarily about how much God values us, that he sent his son to die, we are making a serious mistake. Now, God does love us, of course, but the gospel is not about how much he values us. It is about how much He values His glory and displaying His glory to all of His creation. It's displaying His character and His nature to us. Our text this morning says that Christ suffered once for sins, that He might bring us near to God. Not that God might be brought near to us. There's a huge difference in who we place at the center of our gospel descriptions. Is it about us or is it about God? On the flip side of the same coin, not being God-centered, not seeing that God is the ultimate goodness of the gospel, also misplaces our hope and shortchanges us of true joy, or at least more full joy. We read the first verse of Psalm 8 a minute ago. Here are verses 3 and 4. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? These verses make clear what our response should be when seeing God's greatness and glory, right? We should marvel that God even takes notice of us, that he even notices insignificant creatures like us, a God that great and glorious. That's what we are created for, to be insignificantly small in comparison to God. And because this is what we were created for, this is the position we were made in, this is the only circumstance that makes us truly happy. It is when we elevate ourselves and puff up ourselves and think too highly of ourselves that we will have little hope to have true joy. One of the songs that we like to sing at home with the kids is called, My God Is So Big. Oh, I hope that my kids will have changed hearts, that God will change their hearts to have that song sink in, that they will see how big God is. But you know what? That's what my heart needs as well. When I'm struggling with worry or with doubt about the current circumstances that I'm in, that's what I need to remember, is how big and how great my God is. And by the way, when I'm not struggling with worry and doubt, when I'm content with my situation, my current circumstances, That's also when I need to remember how big and how great God is. Because instead of that doubt causing me to stumble, my pride will cause me to stumble. And I'll think my contentment is because of my own worthiness and my own credit. When I need to remember how great and how good God is in giving those things. And of course, that's also precisely what Satan wants us to question and to doubt. In hard, difficult circumstances, He wants us to doubt God's greatness. He wants us to doubt His power and His goodness that He's able to control. He wants us to question all the attributes of God that essentially comprise His glory. And again, then, in good times, times of plenty in our lives, He wants us to ignore those glories of God, to instead gaze at ourselves and compliment ourselves for the goodness we supposedly have. for the good fortune we have created for ourselves. The answer to both of these seemingly opposite circumstances is the same. In good or in want, we should be God-centered. We should seek to incline our hearts to God and continually remember and recount His glories and majesty and greatness. That is where true joy is found, in remembering our true position, our true small stature before a great God, Again, back to the Psalms. Psalm 16 starts with, Oh God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you. And after that profession of David saying that God is his only source of good, he ends with these words in verse 11. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Look around and see in the world what happens when we elevate ourselves and make life about exalting ourselves and not about exalting God. Does this create happiness? Does this make for fulfilled, truly satisfied people? Is that what we see? Of course you know the answer. And yet our flesh continues to lie and tell us that all we need is more. more self-glorifying, more pleasure-seeking, more focusing on ourselves. It's so unnatural for us to think that exalting and glorifying something other than ourselves is what will make us truly happy, but that is the truth. That's the only way to gain true joy. Blaise Pascal once said, there's a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by a created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ. Now let me conclude this morning with a couple of points of application. How should our being God-centered work itself out practically in our lives? I could probably make this the point of a whole different sermon, but I'll just leave you with three short points of exhortation. First, we should repent of loving God's gifts more than we love God. I think the first step to doing this is to examine our hearts and realize how much we do this. This essentially boils down to realizing how self-centered we really are. And no doubt this is a painful process. I think in so many ways this is the process of sanctification, that we see how self-centered we really are over a long period of time, but we gradually come to realize how self-focused we are. But as we continue to have our ties to our flesh severed, and our love purified and placed wholly on God alone, we find more and more joy and happiness in Him. Second, we should continually remind ourselves that true joy is found only in God. How often we forget this as well, right? Again, not intellectually, it's not that we would get that question wrong, someone asked us that question, but practically, do we live like that? We just read Psalm 1611 a minute ago. Let me read it again. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is a promise of God. It's not qualified in any way. There's not some limitation placed on it. There is fullness of joy in God's presence. And so why do we seek it elsewhere? Why do so often we ignore that and seek it elsewhere in things of this world? Finally, let me exhort us to continue to seek eternal things and not things in this earth. We need to remember the big picture, that we were only on this earth for a short while. We are aliens and sojourners in this world, and we have citizenship in another country. Hebrews 11, 13 to 16, the Hall of Faith chapter tells us about these all died in faith, not having received the things promised, But having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged them, having knowledge that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared them a city. That's what we're looking forward to, the city that God has prepared. Finally, let me close by reading a quote from Jonathan Edwards that I think sums it up well. The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints. He is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory. They have none in heaven but God. He is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world. The Lord God is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem, and is the river of the water of life that runs and the tree of life that grows in the midst of the paradise of God. The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things. They will enjoy the angels and will enjoy one another. But that which they shall enjoy in the angels or each other or in anything else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness will be what shall be seen of God in them. Let's pray. Father, will you make us God-centered this morning? Will you change our hearts that we would be brought to repent of our of our worldliness and self-centeredness, all that distracts us from being God-centered and centered wholly on your glory and goodness. Give us, Lord, grace to see you more clearly, that we would know you, that we would love you more, and that we would ultimately be looking forward to that heavenly city that you have prepared, that we might be with you worshiping and magnifying and exalting in you for eternity. We pray all these things in Christ's name, Amen.