#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

 

 

#23 - Piper - God's response to Hypocrisy - Romans 2:1-5

#23 - Piper - God's response to Hypocrisy  - Romans 2:1-5

 

Piper spends the first bit of the message reviewing why he is going through the book of Romans so painstakingly slow. 

It is worth it to give two of those reasons:

1. Romans is the best summary of the Christian gospel in all the Bible. Martin Luther called it “really the chief part of the New Testament, and … truly the purest gospel.” John Calvin said, “If we have gained a true understanding of this Epistle, we have an open door to all the most profound treasures of the Scripture.” In other words, if you get Romans you get Christianity.

 

7. Finally, the impact of this letter on the church and the world has simply been unparalleled. It was a quote from this letter that God used in 386 to convert St. Augustine, who became the most influential teacher in the history of the Church. It was Romans 1:17 that converted Martin Luther and unleashed in the sixteenth century what we know today as the Protestant Reformation. It was the exposition of this letter in 1738 that awakened John Wesley and unleashed what came to be known as the Great Awakening in England and America, with all its amazing transformation for the good of our two countries. And, to take just one 20th century example, an unconverted Greek Orthodox student, Dumitru Cornilescu, started translating the New Testament in Bucharest in 1916. In Romans he was overcome with the reality of the great truths of the gospel of Christ and was converted. He published his translation in 1921 and it became the standard Romanian translation, but he was exiled by the Orthodox Patriarch in 1923 and died some years later in Switzerland.

 

This sermon focuses on the moral critic who judge other hypocrites.  The response of God to hypocrisy is kindness and justice.  After examining the sins of the gentiles, he now turns to the Jew and those in this world who judge those who do such sins.  We are all sinners and we all deserve the wrath of God.

 

I thought this was an interesting illustration of our sinfulness of our age:

I preached in the park this summer, and when I came to the issue of how sinful we are, one of our women told me that a person near her said, “You don’t really believe that, do you?” Friday, I was in Orlando to give a message and heard the speaker before me say, It is a great irony that the twentieth century is the bloodiest century in history—not just because of the Holocaust, but because of millions killed under Stalin in Ukraine and millions killed in China under Mao, and perhaps 20% of the population of Cambodia executed under Pol Pot, and 800,000 Tutsis killed in Rwanda, 30 million by abortion in America—it is a great irony that at the end of the bloodiest century in history there are people who deny the existence of evil and there are still people who believe that human beings are basically good, and just need education, not salvation. If our century teaches anything it is that the uneducated have no corner on depravity.^[1]

 

So here are Piper’s two main points:

 

God Is Just

God is just. When Paul says to the hypocrites in the first verse, “You have no excuse,” he shows God’s concern with justice. If these people had a legitimate excuse for their sins of judgmentalism and hypocrisy, God would be unjust to judge them. But the whole point of this passage is to do exactly what we saw Paul doing in Romans 1:20 and 32 in regard to the Gentiles. He wants to show that they are without excuse. In other words, when judgment comes from God because of sin, it will not be unjust. No one will be able to raise any legitimate objection.

So the first thing to learn about God and his response to hypocrisy is that God is just, and his just judgment is coming not only on the so-called pagan people who live in sin, but also on the moral and religious people who disdain the pagan people, while doing many things that show they don’t trust and love God. That list in 1:29–31 includes things like “greed,” “envy,” “gossip,” unloving,” “unmerciful.” Has any of us been as merciful and loving toward others as he or she ought to be?

 

God Is Kind

But the second thing this text tells us about God and about his response to hypocrites is that God is kind. In fact, you will notice in verse 4 that Paul speaks of the “riches of his kindness.” That means that he is not just a little bit kind, but that he has huge resources of kindness to pour out on us. In fact, he is pouring them out on us all right now.

Isn’t that the implication of the other two words Paul uses to describe God’s kindness? He uses the words “forbearance” and “patience.” In other words, God’s justice does not demand that he punish us for our sins immediately. But his kindness leads him to forbear and to be patient with us. That word “patience” in the original Greek (the language Paul wrote in) is just like the English word “longsuffering.” It means that God may endure months and years and decades of our stubbornness and resistance to repentance.

The very fact that any of us is alive today is owing to this great kindness of God. He could have been done with us many years ago and taken us away to judgment. But here we are. And this should amaze us. Thursday is Thanksgiving. And today is a Thanksgiving Celebration. And O how thankful we should be for the riches of God’s kindness, and for his forbearance and patience. We are alive. We are present under the proclamation of his gospel. And we have this clear word from Romans 2:4, “The kindness of God leads you to repentance.”

 

 

 

 

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

 

 

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^[1]Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1990-1999). Minneapolis: Desiring God.