#33 - Piper - Let God be true though every man a liar - Romans 3:1-8

 

In the next sermon, #34, he talks about how difficult Romans 3:1-8 is to follow and it is verses like these that people  spin and change and use for their own glory.  They do it now. They did it back then. 

 

So, here is the final paragraph of his sermon. I think it will help bring all the meant into one bite:

 

There is condemnation of Jews and Gentiles, and there is justice. And these two things do not contradict. This is where we began. Who are they whose condemnation is just? Those who play games with the Word of God. More specifically in this case: those who see two true things in the Word of God that they can’t reconcile and deny that this can be. For them it was, on the one hand, God is faithful and God is righteous and God is true to his glory, and, on the other hand, God judges his very own chosen people and condemns them along with the Gentile world. Two truths, for them irreconcilable. What advantage then would the Jew have? So they try to reject one of these truths. And the result is sophistry—tricky reasoning, word games. Today we might call it spinning. And to this Paul says, “Their condemnation is just.”

So my closing exhortation is: Don’t play games with the Bible. Be as careful as you can in handling the Word of God. And when you can’t reconcile one true thing with another. Wait and pray and study and seek the Lord. In due time, they will be reconciled.

 

This is so true... And the next sermon will explain why God allows hard texts.

 

#34 - Piper - "Why God inspired hard texts" - Romans 3:1-8

So, Piper takes a break from exposition of Romans and decides to deal with the question of why God gives hard texts (and I think this sermon was one of the catalysts for his “Think” conference and book that just came out:

 

“Instead, I want to do something I haven’t done before in the eleven months we have been working through this letter. I want to step back from the text and ask: what are some of the implications—for life and culture and history and worship—of the sheer fact that God has given Christianity a Book and a text like this and built the Church on it?

 

In other words, what was unleashed in the world by the fact that Christianity not only declares salvation from sin through faith in Jesus, but that Christianity also builds its message and its ministry and its mission on a Book, the Bible, and on books in the Bible like the Letter to the Romans, and on paragraphs in the letter like Romans 3:1–8? What personal and cultural and historical impulses were unleashed on the world when God inspired Paul to write a paragraph like Romans 3:1–8 the way he did?

 

Now you may ask, Why are you asking that question here? Couldn’t you ask it at any paragraph in the book, or in the Bible? What is stirring you to ask that question here? There are two answers at least. One is this: I found this passage to be about as hard a paragraph to deal with as any in this letter. The difficulty of following the train of thought in this paragraph is enormous. I just listened to a sermon on this text by Martyn Lloyd-Jones from forty years ago in London. He commented at the outset that this is one of the most difficult paragraphs not only in Romans, but also in the whole Bible.

 

I wrestled so hard trying to figure out how Paul’s argument worked here, and I prayed so fervently that God would give me light and guard me from error, that I felt forced to ask, “God, what does this mean, that you have ordained that such a difficult paragraph to be in your Word? What am I to learn from this?” Someone might say, The difficulty is our problem, not God’s; if we were more spiritual, and more docile, we would not find God’s Word so difficult (which is true up to a point). You must remember, however, that the apostle Peter said in his second letter, “Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him [not in folly of intellect, but in wisdom given by God!], wrote to you, as also in all his letters … in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15–16).

 

What God Unleashed with a Word Foundation

Let me mention four things and then balance them with the less complex side of the gospel. Four things: desperation, supplication, cogitation and education.

1. Desperation (A sense of utter dependence on God’s enablement). I see this in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” The natural man (all of us without the Spirit’s work in our lives) should feel desperation before the revelation of God. He needs God’s help. Well the same thing is true of spiritual—but finite and fallible and sinful—people like me, when I meet difficult texts of God’s Word. I should feel desperation—a desperate dependence on God’s help. That is what God wants us to feel. That is something he has unleashed by inspiring difficult texts.

2. Supplication (Prayer to God for help). This follows from desperation. If you feel dependent on God to help you see the meaning of a text, then you will cry to him for help. I see this in Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law.” Seven times in one psalm the psalmist prays, “Teach me your statutes” (119:12, 26, 64, 68, 124, 135, 171). Or as Psalm 25:5 says, “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me.” By inspiring some things hard to understand, God has unleashed in the world desperation which leads to supplication—the crying out to God for help.

3. Cogitation (Thinking hard about Biblical texts). You might think, “No, no, you are confused, Pastor John. You just said that God wants us to pray for his help in understanding, not to think our way through to a solution.” But the answer to that concern is, No, praying and thinking are not alternatives. I learn this especially from 2 Timothy 2:7, where Paul says to Timothy, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything.” Yes, it is the Lord who gives understanding. But he does it through our God-given thinking and the efforts we make, with prayer, to think hard about what the Bible says. So when God inspired texts like Romans 3:1–8, he unleashed in the world an impulse toward hard thinking. Alongside desperation and supplication there is cogitation. Which leads finally to …

4. Education (Training young people and adults to pray earnestly, read well and think hard). If God has inspired a Book as the foundation of the Christian faith, there is a massive impulse unleashed in the world to teach people how to read. And if God ordained for some of that precious, sacred, God-breathed Book to be hard to understand, then God unleashed in the world not only an impulse to teach people how to read, but how to think about what they read—how to read hard things and understand them, and how to use the mind in a rigorous way.

Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “What you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” Impart understanding to others, Timothy, in a way that will enable them to teach others also. In other words, the writings of the apostles—especially the hard ones—unleash generation after generation of education. Education is helping people understand something that they don’t already understand. Or, more accurately, education is helping people (young or old) learn how to get an understanding that they didn’t already have. Education is cultivating the life of the mind so that it knows how to grow in true understanding. That impulse was unleashed by God’s inspiring a Book with complex demanding paragraphs in it.

 

Balanced by Simplicity

Now, I said earlier that I wanted to balance this with another kind of impulse from the Bible that flows from the less complex side of the gospel. How shall we do this? Perhaps it would help to do it like this: consider that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and that God is God (Isaiah 45:22; 46:9). In the truth that God is God is implied that God is who he is in all his glorious attributes and self-sufficiency. But in the truth that God is love is implied that all of this glory is moving our way for our everlasting enjoyment.

Now those two truths unleash through the Bible very different impulses. And we will see that a balance is introduced here, lest we make of Christianity an elitist affair, which it definitely is not.

That God is love unleashes the impulse of simplicity, and that God is God unleashes the impulse of complexity.

That God is love unleashes the impulse of accessibility, and that God is God unleashes the impulse of profundity.

That God is love encourages a focus on the basics, and that God is God encourages a focus on comprehensiveness. One says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). The other says, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).

That God is love impels us to be sure that the truth gets to all people, and that God is God impels us to be sure that what gets to all people is the truth.

That God is love unleashes the impulse toward fellowship, and that God is God unleashes the impulse toward scholarship.

That God is love tends to create extroverts and evangelists, and that God is God tends to create introverts and mystics.

 

My prayer for this sermon is this: first, for believers, I pray that seeing these different impulses in Christianity—and particularly in the inspiration of a Bible with hard things and simple things—you will embrace both of them. If you lean toward one side (as all of us do), that you will be respectful and affirming to those toward the other side. And that you will cherish the fuller manifestation of God in his Church and in the world. And may we help each other embrace all that God means to unleash by his Word in the world.

 

 

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

 

 

#32 - Piper - Who is a true jew - part II

Piper continues a look at the true jew and answers the question, “Why do we want to be a true jew?”

 

Paul says in verse 26 that the uncircumcised man (the Gentile) will be regarded by God as a circumcised man (a true Jew) if he “keeps the requirements of Law.” “So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?” So it isn’t circumcision that makes you a true Jew, it is keeping the requirements of the Law—that is, it is understanding what the Law was really all about and being changed by it in the heart and living out God’s purpose for man taught in it (see 1 Corinthians 7:19).

 

This is amazing. The reason it’s amazing is that what Paul is trying to show is why Law-keeping—Law-fulfilling—makes one a true Jew, and his answer is all about internal change, not external activity. He says, in essence, that Law-keeping or Law-fulfilling makes you a true Jew because it is not mainly an external thing, but an internal thing. It has to do mainly with the sense of the heart and not the seeing of the letter. It has to do mainly with praise that comes from God in secret, not the praise of man in public (see Matthew 6:4, 6, 18). That is what the Law is really all about. Otherwise the argument doesn’t work.

 

So the point is that a person is a true Jew—a true part of God’s redeemed people—if he fulfills the Law, that is, if his heart is circumcised by the Spirit to love God. Deuteronomy 30:6 promised, “The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.” That’s what Paul is talking about here, and you don’t have to be a natural-born Jew, he says, for it to happen to you.

 

Without the Spirit we either reject the Law of God out of hand, or we change it into something we can manage. And in either case we lose, and the Law condemns us: you can become a transgressor of the law by rejecting it or by trying to keep it in your own strength. Paul calls the law minus the Spirit: “letter.” And he says in another place, “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6).

So let’s put two summary equations in the corner of our picture.

 

Law minus Spirit = 1) external religious ritual (like circumcision) 2) the need for the praise of man to keep you going 3) death, because the Law becomes mere “letter,” and that kills

 

Law plus Spirit = 1) internal circumcision of the heart 2) satisfaction in the praise of God, even if no man approves you 3) life, because the Spirit unites us to God in love

 

Now what’s the point of all this? The main point I want you get this morning is this: Seek and cherish the work of the Spirit of God in your life to make you a true Jew. Our salvation hangs on this—the work of the Spirit circumcising our heart to love the Lord (Deuteronomy 30:6) 2) writing the Law of God on our heart (Jeremiah 31:33) 3) freeing us from our need for the praise of man (Romans 2:29)

All of this is what Christ obtained for us when he shed his blood to seal the new covenant

 

 

 

 

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

 

 

# 29 - Piper - The effect of Hypocrisy - Romans 2:17-24

This is another great message.  There is much to quote and think about, but I felt like this the entire message was summed up in one paragraph that I didn’t want to see overlooked and thus will include only this paragraph (broken into shorter paragraphs):

 

The Gospel is the good news that God has sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to set this condition right—in three ways.

 

1) Jesus came to vindicate the worth of God’s glory by living for it with all his might (John 17:4) and by dying to show that it is worth the greatest possible sacrifice (John 12:27–28; Romans 3:25–26).

 

2) Jesus came to rescue us from the wrath of God against all that dishonors his glory. He did this by dying in our place and by becoming for us a righteousness that we could never achieve on our own (Romans 3:24; Philippians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 5:21)—the righteousness that we have in union with Christ by trusting him (Romans 3:21).

 

3) Jesus came to change us into the kind of people who value the glory of God above all things and who live to show his worth (Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Peter 4:11).

 

So, the reason I included this paragraph from Piper  is because it is the key to understanding where we have come so far. The issue from Romans 1:19-3:20 is God’s glory.  It has been ruined by both the gentiles and the Jews.  And it all leads to Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 

 

And, so I will end with this Piper thought to summarize this message:

 

That is where we are this morning. No one in this room loves the glory of God the way he should. We have all fallen short. We have dishonored God. We have exchanged his glory for images. He is not cherished and treasured and admired and loved with a fraction of the fervor that he deserves. So we have fallen short. We are under the power of sin. And we are guilty before God.  Our only hope is that Christ came to change that. To vindicate the God we have belittled. To clothe us with a righteousness that we cannot provide on our own. And to change us into the kind of people who delight in the glory of God and the honor of God above all things.

 

 

 

 

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

 

 

#30 - Piper - The effects of Hyprocrisy - Romans 2:17-24

What is the effect of hypocrisy in the Jews?

 

They know the word but they don’t believe the word. They make the word an obedience thing and not a law thing. They use their knowledge of the word to help others, but they don’t allow it to help them.

 

Piper writes, “Love uses truth to bless others; but sin uses truth to exalt self.^”

 

So, Piper preaches, “My point is simply this: one of the reasons Paul dwells on the demonstration of sinfulness in Romans 1–3 is that we are so resistant to seeing it and feeling it. We find ways of avoiding the issue and softening the indictments and escaping the evidences of our sinfulness. And there are endless ways, it seems, to admit to a little bit of it, while not being broken and humbled by it. But brokenness and humility are the gateway to paradise, and indeed they are the road to paradise. In this life, we never outgrow our need for ever-new experiences of brokenness and humility because of our sinfulness.^”

 

So, how does this apply to Christians today?

Piper writes, “These Jews are people of the book. And Paul agrees with that. But there is clearly something wrong. And we, who are Christian people of the book, should be all ears and on the edge of our seats to find out what went wrong, lest we make the same mistake. There is nothing wrong, in themselves, with relying on the trustworthiness of God’s law or boasting in God or knowing his will or approving things essential. But evidently there is a way that all that can go wrong. All of that good use of the Law can be a part of what shows a person to be a sinner.^”

 

Faith in God for his gracious gift of forgiveness, and a right standing with him, and the enablement to obey his commandments. But instead, you use the law to establish your own righteousness and thus rob God of the most basic thing he demands from you, humble trust in him for his mercy. And what is this but adultery as you give your heart and trust—that belong only to God—to another? And what is this spiritual adultery except the taking of the very idols of the world and making them your own—as if to rob their temples because God himself is not good enough for you.

 

Lord, may your Word humble us from faith to love...

 

 

 

 

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

 

 

#31 - Piper - Who is a true Jew - Romans 2:25-29

Romans 2:25–29

For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

 

The essence of the Christian life is to have your heart changed in such a way that you obey by faith the moral law that God gave to us. 

 

Here is what Piper says:

In other words, behind this language of “letter” and “Spirit” is Paul’s whole understanding of the Christian life as an expression of the “new covenant.” In the promises of the new covenant, which Jesus bought with his own blood (Luke 22:20), God promises to take out the heart of stone and give us a new heart and put his Spirit within us and cause us to walk in his Law. Listen to Ezekiel 36:37b: “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (see also Ezekiel 11:19–20).

 

This promise shows that keeping the Law and fulfilling the Law are something that God promised when the Holy Spirit was given to his people in the fuller measure of the new covenant. So when verse 26 says, “If the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision”?, we should understand this of the Christian Gentile who has been given the “Spirit” and has stopped treating the Law as a dead “letter” that kills. Rather, the Law now has become the expression of God’s good moral will for life that grows like fruit from a circumcised heart of faith that the Holy Spirit has brought about. In other words, keeping the requirements of the Law is a free gift of the Spirit.

 

Piper also makes clear that our heart should be changed so as to desire to obey the law:

This makes it clear that the idea of fulfilling the Law is a Christian experience and that it really does happen, and that it happens in the lives of those who walk according to the Spirit. Christ died for us and purchased for us the new covenant blessings of the Spirit, and now He is at work in our lives enabling us to live out—not perfectly, but enough to show we trust him—the moral law of God.

 

So, Paul is saying that we need to become like Jews, and though that sounds a bit weird, he clarifies with an interesting thought:

One Person knows who we are. God. He made us. He defines us. If we are ever going to know who we are in our essence, we will learn it from God or not at all. Therefore it is a great gift to us that he should tell us that an essential part of our identity is that we are true Jews if we fulfill the obedience of faith. Don’t reject God’s good gift because you can’t see the benefits of being a true Jew. That’s the first thing I would say: God is telling you who you are. Pay attention. Receive the gift. Don’t assume you know a better thing to be than what God says you are.

And finally, I would say, you ought to want to be a true Jew because “salvation belongs to the Jews” (John 4:22), and all the promises of God are yours if you are a true Jew (see Romans 11:17–18). What a great thing it is to be able to go to the whole Bible, Old and New Testament, and know that “this is my book.” I am a Jew. These are my promises. This is my story. This is my Messiah. This is my God (Jeremiah 31:33). You can say that today—Jew or Gentile—if you will trust in the all-satisfying mercy of God in Christ Jesus and repent of your sins.

 

 

#28 - Piper - There Is No Partiality With God, Part 2

Judgment. A great sermon to read through and wrestle with... Especially read the Bunyan quote. Brilliant. The rest of the text is Dr. Piper's sermon... Enjoy!



    Romans 2:11-16

    For there is no partiality with God. 12 For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; 13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, 16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

The gospel is mainly the message about how to be right with God at the day of judgment. The gospel is not mainly about good experiences here, but about safety at the judgment and glory beyond the judgment.

Whose judgment? God's judgment. According to Paul's gospel, "God will judge." If God renders a negative judgment against us, we will go to hell, and be tormented forever. And if God renders a positive judgment for us, we enter eternal life, and have ever-increasing joy in the presence of God. All the benefits and losses in this life are as nothing compared to the importance of this judgment. Our physical and mental state in these few years is like dust on the scales compared to the Mount-Everest significance of the judgment of God.

Note this very carefully in verse 16: it is the gospel that speaks of judgment here. This means that you can't feel the glorious seriousness of the gospel of Jesus Christ unless you know that it is a gospel about future judgment. The gospel is glorious not to the extent that it solves our problems with depression and cancer, but to the extent that it removes the wrath of Almighty God against us at the last judgment, and brings us to everlasting joy.

I saw old people hunting after the things of this life as if they should live here always . . . [and] I found [professing Christians] much distressed and cast down when they met with outward losses, as of husband, wife, child, etc. Lord, thought I, what ado is there about such little things as these. What seeking after carnal things by some, and what grief in others for the loss of them. If they so much labor after and shed so many tears for the things of this present life, how am I to be bemoaned, pitied, and prayed for. My soul is dying, my soul is damned. Were my soul but in a good condition, and were I but sure of it, ah, how rich should I esteem myself, though blessed but with bread and water. I should count those but small afflictions and should bear them as little burdens. (John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners [Hertfordshire, England: Evangelical Press, 1978], p. 36)`   

So I say, this phrase in verse 13, "the doers of the Law will be justified," carries a weight and seriousness and greatness and glory that we do not feel as we ought. But may God help us. Being justified by God, being given a positive sentence at the last judgment is greater than all our mental well-being and all our physical health in this whole life on earth.

But is Romans 2:13b a hypothetical statement? When Paul says, "Not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified," does he really mean: They would be justified if there were any, but there aren't any "doers of the law." Or to put it another way, Does "doers of the Law" refer to sinless, perfect law-keepers? Could Paul call a person a "doer of the law" who sins, but who loves God and loves the law and hates his own sins and confesses them and casts himself on the mercy of God revealed in the law itself?

I think he could. And I think he does. So I believe verse 13 means: Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the ones who will be acquitted at the last judgment will be those who 1) love God's law, and 2) depend on his help to live according to the truth that they have, and 3) trust God for his mercy when they stumble.

Now ponder this very seriously as you leave today. There is coming a final day of judgment. We will all give an account of ourselves to God. Faith in Christ as our righteousness will be our only hope for acceptance with God (Romans 1:16-17; 3:20-26). This is the essence and heart of the gospel. Christ lived for us, Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns for us, Christ intercedes for us, Christ will come for us, and Christ our advocate will be our final judge. Faith in him is key to assurance and life. But beware: faith that produces no hope (Colossians 1:23), faith that produces no love (Galatians 5:6), faith that produces no obedience (Romans 1:5) is no saving faith. Embrace Christ today as the One who forgives our sins and the One who empowers our obedience.

#27 - Piper - There is no partiality with God - part I - Romans 2:11-16

Romans 2:11–16

For there is no partiality with God. 12 For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; 13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, 16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

 

Piper had two goals in this message. He spends the message explaining how a divinely inspired Paul writes about a impartial God and a imparted man.

 

The Truth about God is that he is not partial. And what God’s impartiality means is that he judges not on the assumption that we all have access to the same amount of truth, but that we all have the truth we need to be held accountable, and that we will be judged by our response to what we do have, not what we don’t have. God is so committed to this dimension of his justice that he secures it by creating every human soul with the imprint of his moral law and with the capacity to know his glory revealed in nature. He is impartial not merely with what he finds in the world; rather he sees to it that what he finds in the world conforms to his impartiality.

 

So the second great truth (about man) is built on the first one (about God), namely, all human beings have the moral law of God stamped on their heart. Every human soul, as it comes to consciousness, knows that it is created by God, and dependent on God, and should honor and thank God (1:20–21), and should do the things that are written on the heart (2:14–15), and that failing to do them is worthy of death (1:32).

 

And then Dr. Piper gives three great implications on how this affects our life, that we would see ourself with this divine handprint of knowing God, our children and then the everday people.  We need to understand our lives and others in light of this amazing truth that God is impartial to everyone because he has put His handprint in everyone. We need to see His creation and His images that reflect His creation, and evangelize and love them as they are His.

 

Impact of These Two Great Truths

Now these are great truths to know and will have an impact in your life if you will embrace them for what they really are. Here are three examples of the kind of difference it could make in your life—if you know yourself this way and your children this way and others this way.

1. An Implication of Knowing Yourself this Way

Consider one implication of knowing yourself this way. If God is impartial and judges by fixed standards that he has revealed, and if you, in the depths of your human nature as the image of God, have the moral law of God stamped on your being, then to know this and embrace this will give a tremendous gravity and solidity and stability to your convictions about God and about truth and right and wrong. Because you will see clearly that there are fixed truths and fixed moral standards that you do not make up. They are not mere human opinion, but come from God, outside of us. Life is not a cafeteria of equal options from which you can choose. Life comes with profound givens. God exists. God is impartial. God is and knows the truth. God has imprinted it on human hearts. It is knowable. We will be judged by it. Therefore life is not trivial. And our convictions about God and morality gain gravity and solidity and stability.

2. An Implication of Knowing Your Children this Way

Consider one implication of knowing your children this way. Look upon your children as beings whose souls God himself created in his own image and inscribed with the law of God. Look upon them as beings who are endowed, like no other creature, with the capacity to know God and, in fact, will know God—enough to perish by or live by. Ponder, as you look at your child, that here is a person who has been prepared specially to live according to goodness and truth. Here is a being not to be taken for granted, or trifled with, or neglected—a being whose main purpose in the universe has been set by God: that he or she know God and do God’s will. To know your children in this way will make you more serious about your parenting and the glorious privilege and responsibility of joining God’s inner work to bring these children up into Christ and make God known and loved.

3. Implications of Knowing Others this Way

Finally, consider two implications of knowing others this way. Everyone you know at work or school or in the neighborhood has the law of God written on his or her heart. Everyone you know, knows the impartial God. Whether they suppress this knowledge or not, they have it. They know their Creator at a profound level, and they know their duty at a profound level. God has dealt with them deeply before you ever came on the scene. God has gone before you in preparing them for himself and his will.

So here’s the first implication: therefore, be hopeful in 1999 as you do evangelism, not minimizing the blinding effects of sin, but also not despairing that there is no point of connection in the person you care about. There are points of connection, deeper than you ever dreamed. Speak the truth in love and God may be pleased to make the connection between what they know by nature, and what you tell them from the Word of God.

And the last implication is this: beware of despising anyone. Every time you disapprove of someone—a politician, a colleague, a church member or leader, a person of another culture or race—remember that God has written his law on that person’s heart and given him or her the knowledge of himself. This is to be marveled and wondered at, not despised. Human nature in the image of God, fallen and depraved as it is, should nevertheless spread the aroma of sanctity and reverence over all our repugnance or disagreement. There is an honor that belongs to man as man in the image of God, who wrote his law on all our hearts.

 

 

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

 

 

#26 - Piper - The final divide - Part III - Romans 2:6-11

Wow.  The sermons keep getting deeper and more convicting and more insightful.  I will need to revel in this one for awhile. Is there any more important message in the Bible to seek for glory and honor and immortality on this earth. I wouldn’t have really thought so until I read this sermon today. I quoted a lot of it because it is so essential...

 

Piper addresses in this “part III” of this same passage what it means for those “To those who seek for glory and honor and immortality, God will render eternal life.”

 

He clarifies right off the top:

The point here is this: eternal life is not earned by the merit of our good deeds. It is obtained for us by the death of Christ and based on the righteousness that we have by faith in him. When verse 6 says, there will be a judgment “according to deeds” and verse 7 says that eternal life is given to those who persevere in good deeds, the meaning is that the faith that justifies always sanctifies. A changed life—not a perfect life—always comes as the fruit of being united to Christ. So a transformed life is a necessary condition of eternal life, but does not earn or merit eternal life.

 

So a transformed life does not make a person a Christian. But a transformed life shows that a person is a Christian.

 

In summary then: in the last day there will be a judgment. It will settle finally and publicly who enters eternal life and who doesn’t. The verdict, “not guilty,” at this judgment will be based on the work of Christ on the cross. The guilt of all true believers was carried by Jesus: “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). But that verdict will “accord with our deeds”—our daily lives will give evidence that we trusted Christ more than money and that we loved him more than the praise of men.

 

So, Piper, after clarifying what it does not mean, he then launches into a brilliant exposition of what it does mean. He sets it up with three points:

1) A lot of people think this is a low and sub-Christian motive. Christians don’t seek glory and honor and immortality. That would be selfish. This was what C.S. Lewis reacted against so vigorously in The Weight of Glory.

The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.*

2) The second reason I stress this is that a lot of people don’t seek anything with eagerness, especially not spiritual life. They amble through life. They float. They coast. They are spiritually listless. They are captive to spiritual apathy. Do you remember that rare word I taught you more than a year ago when we were in the book of Hebrews? Acedia. It means boredom or apathy. This is deadly. Because Paul says that eternal life is given to those who seek, not those who dawdle. In 1 Timothy 6:12 he says, “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.”

3) The third reason I focus on this matter is that what it means to “seek glory and honor and immortality” needs explaining. And so to that we turn now.

 

And, now Piper explains what it means to seek glory, honor and immortality:

The point this morning is that it is a good thing, indeed it is a necessary thing, to “seek glory and honor and immortality.” Seek it. Want it. Pursue it. Crave it. Love it. Desire it more than you desire any earthly thing. That is the point. Don’t be a listless, apathetic, sluggish person when it comes to spiritual things. And if you are like that, then intensify your prayers that God would ignite your heart with the preciousness of glory and honor and immortality.

 

Let me get at it with three “E’s.” I use these three “E’s” to define glory and honor and immortality because I think glory is the main thing to seek and honor and immortality are simply aspects of it. The three “E’s” are Excellence, Echo and Extension. I’m going define “glory” as a kind of divine excellence. I think “honor” is the echo of that excellence in the regard of God and angels and saints. And “immortality” is the extension of that excellence forever into the future.

So picture a great and excellent person moving into eternity with no death. The extension of his movement forever and ever without death or any decay or corruption or diminishing is his immortality. And as he moves through eternity forever and ever, his excellence is seen by other excellent persons and is echoed back to him in honor and praise. So what I hope you can see is that the excellence itself is the main thing and that immortality is simply that it lasts forever and honor is simply that it is recognized and approved for what it is in the minds and hearts of other excellent persons, especially God.

So I want to focus on the meaning of “seeking glory.” That is the central thing. But there is something about “seeking honor” that begs for comment before I take up “seeking glory.”

 

So, Piper discusses Honor first:

Whose approval and whose regard and whose praise should we be seeking? The answer is given in two places: Romans 2:29 and 1 Corinthians 4:5. In Romans 2:29 Paul says, “He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” A genuine Christian is not pursuing praise from men, but praise from God. That is the honor he wants. In 1 Corinthians 4:5, Paul says that at the judgment God will “bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.”

 

And then glory:

That leads us to the final and main issue: what does it mean for us to “seek glory”?

Whose glory? And if we say, God’s glory, do we mean that we are seeking to see it or that we are seeking to share in it? And if we say, “see it and share in it,” do we mean share in it the way Satan wanted Eve to share in it in Genesis 3:5?—“God knows that in the day you eat from [the tree] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” Is that the way we should want to share in God’s glory? Absolutely not. So we have to be careful here. Huge things are at stake in the way we think about this, and the way we seek glory.

I think Paul’s answers to our questions go like this: We are to seek God’s glory. And seek it first in the sense of wanting to see it and enjoy it for what it is as we see it in God revealed in his word and works. Romans 1:23 says that the folly of ungodliness is that people “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image.” This is a failure to seek the glory of God. We are to seek it as the highest treasure of our worship—our admiration and delight and reverence—and not exchange it for anything.

Romans 5:2 says “Through [Christ] we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.” And verse 11 shortens it down to the absolute essence of our desire: “Not only this, but we also exult in God.” Not mainly the glory of God that we might share, but God himself, period. That is the essence of our seeking. We long for God. Or which is the same thing, God in his glory or God in his excellence.

 

So yes, seeking the glory of God means seeking to see it and know it and enjoy it as it is in God. But that is not all that is meant here, in view of what Paul says in Romans 8. Look at Romans 8:17. “If [we are] children [of God, then we are], heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” So here, our seeking is not just to see the glory of God but to share in the glory of God.

 

So this is how Piper sums it up:

Our glory is to know his glory. Our glory is to enjoy his glory. Our glory is to display his glory. And our glory is to do all of that not in our own strength, but in the strength that God himself supplies so that our joy may be full and his glory fully shown.

So I exhort you and urge you to seek glory and honor and immortality. Seek the excellence of God—to see it and to share in it—to know it and enjoy it and display it. Seek the echo of that excellence in the praise of God himself. And seek the everlasting extension of that excellence into all eternity.

 

                How Do I Seek Glory and Honor and Immortality?

And if you ask how, I leave you with two instructions.

 

1. Look to Christ

1. One is: look to Christ and the glory of his finished work on the cross for sinners. This is what we stressed at the beginning. Justification and eternal life are not earned by our deeds. They are freely given to those who look to Christ in faith. So if we are going to obtain the glory of God and be glorified we must trust Christ. We are justified by faith (Romans 5:1) and those who are justified will be glorified (Romans 8:30). Therefore faith is the first and indispensable key to seeking the glory of God.

 

But don’t treat Christ or faith as less than they are. When I say “look to Christ” I mean look steadfastly to the glory of Christ as your greatest treasure. I mean what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 3:18. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul says that the gospel of Christ is “the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” So to look to Christ for justification is to seek the glory of God in Christ. It is not something separate. This is what faith does. It receives Christ in the gospel as the glory of God. This is what faith feeds on in the gospel.

 

Four verses earlier, in 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul says, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” In other words, looking to Christ in the gospel is a beholding of the glory of the Lord which changes us from one degree of glory to the next into his image.

 

This is where good deeds come in. Our good deeds are part of the likeness to Christ. And this likeness to Christ comes from seeing and savoring the glory of Christ in the gospel. This is why Paul says in Romans 2:7 that those who seek glory by perseverance in “good deeds” will receive eternal life. The likeness to Christ is evidence that we already now being “glorified”—not by works, but by looking to Christ in the gospel. To see is to become. To look is to become like.

 

2. Suffering Lies in the Path to Glory

2. The second instruction I would give in answer to the question how we seek the glory of God comes from realizing that there are many sufferings on the path that leads to glory. How shall we respond to them? And how will they help us on to the glory we seek.

The answer of 2 Corinthians 4:16–18 is this: “We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Here again the key is Where are we looking? We should be looking to eternal things gained, not temporal things lost (Philippians 1:21). This is the pathway to “an eternal weight of glory far beyond comparison.” Suffering is not incidental to our quest for glory. It is an essential part of it. And this suffering is not just persecution. It is “the decaying” of our bodies. Romans 8:17–18 says the same thing, even more forcefully, as part of how we seek glory: “If [we are] children [of God, then we are], heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

That suffering includes the groaning of verse 23 as we wait for the redemption of our bodies. It is not just suffering that comes from persecution, but all the futilities and miseries of this life. If we look to Christ in them, and suffer with him and not against him, then verse 17 says we will be glorified with him—now and forever.

So my answer to the question how we seek the glory and honor and immortality of God is: look to Christ. Look to him for the glory that he is in the gospel of his death and resurrection. See him and savor him as the image of the glory of God. And look to him in your suffering. Look to the things that are eternal. Look to Christ. Look to the glory of God. Taste him. Trust him. Be transformed by him.

 

#25 - Piper - The Final Divide - Part II - Romans 2:5-11

Brilliant, foundational, need to listen to sermon...

 

Piper helped answer a question in this sermon that I never really understood before in the clarity the he helped provide with the verse support and passion as only he can bring. 

 

The question is: if we are justified by faith, than why is eternal life in these passages accord with perseverance by doing good.

 

Romans 2:6-11 - ⁶He will render to each one according to his works: ⁷to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. ⁹There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹For God shows no partiality.

 

So, I appreciated his explanation of how we do not receive eternal life through works and the verses from Romans that confirmed this:

 

But here’s an urgent question. How does receiving eternal life or eternal wrath “according to works” fit with receiving eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ on the basis of God’s righteousness, not ours? In general there are two possible answers to this question. But before I give them to you, let me make sure you see what is in question and what is not.

Here is what is not in question. We are not questioning whether we are justified, set right with God, and eternally secured not on the basis of our deeds, but on the basis of God’s own righteousness imputed to us through our faith in Christ alone.

So, for example, Romans 3:28 says, “We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” Faith is the bond that unites a person to Christ, who is himself the foundation of justification.

The key of faith is even clearer in Romans 4:5, “But to the one who does not work, but believes in [that is, “trusts,” “has faith in”] Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” So faith functions to unite us to Christ before we have the good deeds of godliness, and this faith is treated as if it were our righteousness because it unites us to God’s righteousness.

Again Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” So justification—getting right with God—is through faith, not deeds.

And finally, Romans 8:33–34 shows that what is at stake here is indeed the final judgment and eternal life, as in Romans 2:7. “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? [Future tense, namely, at the judgment day!] God is the one who justifies.” In other words, no one is going to be able to override the judgment of God in declaring his elect ones acquitted on the basis of Christ’s death for them. Then he states that basis in verse 34, “Who is the one who condemns? [implied: nobody! Why? Because …] Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” So the death of Christ in my place, and the justification (the righteousness God imputes) is the basis of the gift of eternal life, not our deeds.

That’s what is not in question.

 

Piper than explained what was at stake and the written word doesn’t do it justice compare to listening to it on audio.

 

Here is what Piper says:

God never promised eternal life on the basis of good deeds, but always makes good deeds the evidence of faith that unites us to God in Christ, who is the basis of eternal life.

 

It means that God does indeed give eternal life to those who persevere in obedience not because this obedience is perfect or because it is the basis or the merit of eternal life, but because saving faith always changes our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit so that true believers persevere in doing good. In other words, a changed life of obedience to God’s truth (verse 8) is not the basis of eternal life, but the evidence of authentic faith which unites us to Christ who is the basis of eternal life.

 

Eternal life is always based on Jesus Christ and through our faith. But since faith, by the Holy Spirit, always sanctifies or changes us into the image of Christ (one degree at a time, 2 Corinthians 3:18), there will be deeds that “accord with” this saving faith. So while eternal life will be awarded only to believers, it will be awarded “according to”—there will be an accord with—their deeds. There will be a way of life that God can put on display to demonstrate to the world that this person’s faith was real.

 

Here Piper gives some examples of this from scripture:

Consider Romans 6:22. Here Paul describes the Christian life and how it relates to holiness and eternal life. He says, “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit [literally: you have your fruit], resulting in sanctification [or holiness], and the outcome [the goal, telos], eternal life.” Now notice how eternal life is related to the life of a believer. It is the goal or the “outcome.” Of what? Of being enslaved to God (by faith, I would argue) which yields the fruit of holiness.

 

consider Galatians 6:8–9. Galatians is the book closest to Romans in the argument it develops about justification by faith. So we are in the same orbit of thought. As I read these two verses, watch for how eternal life comes to Christians. Paul is speaking to the church: “The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption [the opposite of immortality], but the one who sows to the Spirit [see Romans 8:13] will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap [eternal life] if we do not grow weary.”

This is virtually identical in thought to Romans 2:7. There God gives eternal life to those who persevere in doing good. Here in verse 9, if we don’t “lose heart in doing good” (which is the same as “persevering in doing good”) we will reap. Reap what? Verse 8: “The one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

Now, in none of these texts does it say that eternal life is earned by or merited by or based on good deeds. They simply say, in effect, that the final verdict of eternal life will accord with good deeds. They go together. And the reason they go together is not that works has replaced faith or that merit has replaced grace, but because the gospel of justification by faith is the power of God unto salvation. It is not a weak thing. The gospel does not come into a life and leave it under the dominion of sin. It comes in the power of the Holy Spirit. And where it is believed, trusted and cherished, it produces what Paul calls “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; 16:26). And eternal life always accords with that.

 

consider Galatians 6:8–9. Galatians is the book closest to Romans in the argument it develops about justification by faith. So we are in the same orbit of thought. As I read these two verses, watch for how eternal life comes to Christians. Paul is speaking to the church: “The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption [the opposite of immortality], but the one who sows to the Spirit [see Romans 8:13] will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap [eternal life] if we do not grow weary.”

This is virtually identical in thought to Romans 2:7. There God gives eternal life to those who persevere in doing good. Here in verse 9, if we don’t “lose heart in doing good” (which is the same as “persevering in doing good”) we will reap. Reap what? Verse 8: “The one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

 

Now, in none of these texts does it say that eternal life is earned by or merited by or based on good deeds. They simply say, in effect, that the final verdict of eternal life will accord with good deeds. They go together. And the reason they go together is not that works has replaced faith or that merit has replaced grace, but because the gospel of justification by faith is the power of God unto salvation. It is not a weak thing. The gospel does not come into a life and leave it under the dominion of sin. It comes in the power of the Holy Spirit. And where it is believed, trusted and cherished, it produces what Paul calls “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; 16:26). And eternal life always accords with that.

 

So, if you made it this far, it may be a simple sermon to you, but in essence, as Piper says, these verses eliminate the easy believeism that seems to strangle America.  If we believe, there will be persevering works that leads to Eternal life.  Now, there is the thief on the cross, the guy who obtains eternal life but escapes by fire, but in essence, the warning is there: You will know your life by your fruit. Only the Spirit can bring true, lasting, godly fruit...

 

If you can, listen to this talk. It will be worth it...

 

#24 - Piper - The Final Divide - Part 1 - Romans 2:1-6

#24 - Piper - The Final Divide - Part 1 - Romans 2:1-6

 

Romans 2:6–10

Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 2 And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. 3 But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who will render to each person according to his deeds: 7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; 8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

 

Piper starts off this sermon with a question for each age group in his church. Do you understand that the most important question is HEAVEN OR HELL?  He addresses them tenderly and convictingly, and it is beautiful.  He speaks about how we trifle with the world when there is a oil gusher or a land mine on the surface of what we walk.

                                                  

Whatever else this text teaches—and it teaches many things—one thing is abundantly clear and immeasurably important for us and for our mission in this modern, secular world: namely, when your life is over on this earth, and this present age is over on this planet, God will give you either eternal life or wrath and indignation. You will receive either glory and honor and peace or you will receive tribulation and distress. Heaven or hell awaits you when you die. And both will last forever.

 

I feel such a burden for us as a church to swim against the tide of almost every current in our culture. More and more and more, America is a nation given over to play. The industries of play are huge! Houses are built today with entertainment centers. Computers and videos and television and stereo all coordinate to give us ever more stimulating and captivating distractions from the realities of the world. When we need to be dreaming, for the glory of Christ, about how to spend our lives alleviating ignorance and sickness and misery and lostness, we are becoming more and more addicted to amusement.

 

Live in the light of eternity. And I do mean light, not shadow. When you have come to know your God, and love his Son so much that you can say, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,” then living in the light of eternity will replace your “fun” with deeper, higher, wider, longer, more unshakable, more varied, more satisfying, more durable, more solid pleasures than all the fun that entertainment could ever give. O come, and let us be a different breed of people for the few short years we have to live upon this earth! Dream some dream of making your life count for Christ and his Kingdom. “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

 

He then addresses the repeat approach in verse 7 and 10 and 8 and 9, heaven or hell, for all people, according to their good works.  He then goes on to say that the next message he will talk about the good works phrase... Does it mean what it says it means or something else?

 

Next message!

 

 

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com