The great problem of the universe is what does mankind make of the glory of God. That's the problem in the universe.

Behind our most profound problems there's always a failure to treasure the glory of God.

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper examines the far-reaching effects of this failure

by turning to Romans 1 21 to 23.

The sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church

on October 4, 1998.

Let's read verse 23. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of

corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Now note well, this is all about the exchange of the glory of God for other things, images, substitutes, copies. That's the concern. Now what I see here in this verse 23

especially as I see it relating to 323

all have sinned and fall short of what? And the word there for fall short is lack. All it is is another restatement of this exchange.

Sin is to trade the glory of God for anything. That's sin. That's the meaning of sin. So we're on to something

here. This text says that the great unifying reality of the Bible is the glory of God.

This is the meaning of the universe. This is the root problem of mankind that we trade it off. Let's make sure we see this.

Two times, two times in this text. If we jump back into last week's verse 21, you see that?

Even though they knew God, they did not literally glorify Him as God.

The fundamental problem in mankind is the failure to magnify the glory of God in the way

we think and feel and live. Now that's one. In verse 23 he says it again. We exchange the glory of God for images.

So the great problem of the universe is what does mankind make of the glory of God?

That's the problem in the universe.

And it is the problem beneath all marriage problems. It is the problem beneath all

parenting problems. It's the problem beneath all addictive problems. It's the problem

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