The ultimate goal or purpose of God is the praise of the glory of His grace, which is incredibly

egocentric of God. So my whole theology began to take in an absolutely

Copernican revolution in 1968 when I saw this, that God is vain. Now that's just a provocative word to wake you up.

Self-centered, how about that one?

That's a little less offensive.

Let's just say, God is God-centered.

So what is God's ultimate purpose in salvation?

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper turns to Ephesians 1, verses 3 to 6,

to unveil how God's grace serves God's ultimate goal, the praise of his own glory.

This teaching was originally delivered on a Wednesday night at Bethlehem Baptist Church on September 17, 1997.

In these midweek sessions, Piper pulls back the curtain on his sermon preparation using a

Bible study method called arching to help his people see the relationships

between biblical propositions. Father we ask for your help tonight. It's wonderful to move toward a close inspection of your precious word in worship.

Preserve a spirit of worship.

To hear your word, to love your word, to apply ourselves to it and apply it to us, is high worship. And I pray that you would sustain us in it. Grant that we wouldn't err tonight in our understanding of it.

Grant that we wouldn't kick against it.

Grant that we wouldn't say yes, yes without understanding.

Forbid that it would be just line on line, precept on precept,

empty syllables.

And so work a profound, transforming preparation in our hearts right now and in our minds.

Guard us from the evil one, the great deceiver, the great liar. Oh, how well he knows this

word and how clever he distorts it.

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