The Holy Spirit, in utter allegiance to this mission given him by the Father and the Son, will not quicken a heart to see nothing.

He will only quicken hearts to see Christ. Therefore, if Christ is not placarded, the Holy Spirit

will not open the eyes of the blind. He is utterly devoted to the glory of the sun. And therefore,

when we preach the Son, the Holy Spirit comes and says,

that is what I want people to see. I will open their eyes to it. There's a kind of preaching

that leaves you moved, but you're not sure exactly why. And then there's preaching that makes Jesus so clear, so beautiful,

that your heart knows it's the spirit at work. I'm Dan Kroover. In this episode of Light and Truth,

John Piper shows why the Spirit opens eyes only when Christ is held high. This message was originally delivered

in Wheaton, Illinois at the Act 3 Reformation Conference on October 28, 1999.

First, a word about man. Perhaps the title should be a little more crazy and radical than it is,

because if I was standing in the lobby of the holiday in about 30 minutes ago,

watching CNN while they cleaned our room so we could get in.

And after I watched it, I thought, you know, the title of this pre-conference should

probably be preaching God in a primate-centered age.

Because here is this demonstration against doing experimental drugs on monkeys

precisely because monkeys have no more right or less right to be treated with dignity than you do.

That's a serious change in the seascape of American culture.

We hold these truths to be self-evident and so on, that man, this or that.

So, preaching in a man-centered age

is more serious

than we thought it was.

It's really man-slash-monkey-centered

...