We were made to boast and then sin came into the world and from then on we have hated to boast in God.

Sin and pride are that power that drags down our capacity for boasting from the galaxies of God's

glory and directs it towards the gutters of human achievement.

So how does the cross dress the impact of sin and pride on our ability to boast in God?

That's the question John Piper answers from 1 Corinthians 131 in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on January 31, 1988.

I hope that you'll agree with me this morning as we begin that in order to love deeply you have to

hate something deeply. You can think of examples I think. If you love children deeply you would surely

need to hate child neglect and child abuse deeply and if you love level headed clear minded respect

and kindness you need to hate alcoholism and drug addiction and if you love freedom you need to

hate slavery and totalitarianism. It just is psychological necessity that if you're going to love

something passionately and deeply you must also respond with hatred toward that which ruins and

replaces and destroys what you love. Now the reason I begin with that comment is because I'm

going to tell you that God hates something in a minute and I know that if I were to just start out by

talking about the hatred of God we are so programmed that the term hate carries with it negative

unattractive, distasteful connotations about whoever's doing the hating but I hope that having

set the stage like this you will hear the hatred of God as the echo of his love that is you will

recognize that the reason God hates anything is because he loves something so much. His hatred

is the reflex of his love the only reason I think any of us should ever hate anything is because

we love something else more that's being ruined or destroyed by what we hate.

Well what God hates more than he hates anything else in all the universe is human pride.

Jeremiah chapter 50 verse 31 Behold I am against you oh proud one says the Lord God of hosts

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