A sermon a day...

Romans 3:9-20 - All Jews and Gentiles are under sin

2011-06-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

Romans 3:9-20 - All Jews and Gentiles are under sin

Here are some Piper highlights and human lowlights

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One of the most important truths to hold up in the world is that all human beings, even though created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), are corrupted by the power of sin. We are not morally good by nature. We are morally bad by nature. In Ephesians 2:3, Paul says we are all “by nature children of wrath.” The attitudes and thoughts and actions that deserve the wrath of God come from us by nature. In Colossians 3:6, we are called “sons of disobedience.” We are so disposed to disobedience against God that it is as though “disobedience” is our father. We are chips of the old block of disobedience. We don’t just do sins, we are sinful. We are “under sin,” as verse 9 says. Sin is like a master or a king, and reigns over us and in us. Not that it coerces us to do what we don’t want to do, but makes us want to do what we ought not to do. We are not innocent victims of sin. We are co-conspirators with sin against God.

So as we look at Paul’s final, summary diagnosis in this section, keep thinking: this is good, this is good. Because for all this bad news about my true condition, there is a remedy. And the only reason for telling me the bad news is so that I will understand the remedy and take it—namely, the righteousness of God, freely given to those who really trust in Christ.

There are two main questions I want to try to answer in verses 9–18. One is: How does Paul support verse 9 and the sinfulness of all men on the basis of the Old Testament in all these quotations in verses 10–18? And the other is: How does he describe the state of being “under sin” in these verses? Or: What can we learn about sin, and about ourselves, and about the Gospel from the way Paul talks about sin in these verses?

How does Paul support the universal claim of sinfulness in verse 9 by quoting these six Old Testament passages which speak of righteous people as well as wicked people? He shows that both Jews and Gentiles are characterized as deeply corrupt and that the only way out of that corruption is by God’s gracious gift of faith and forgiveness that sets a person right with God (which, we know now, is) on the basis of the substitutionary sacrifice that would one day come in Jesus Christ.

How does he describe the state of being “under sin” in these verses? Or: What can we learn about sin, and about ourselves, and about the Gospel from the way Paul talks about sin in these verses?

1. Ruined Relationship with God

Being “under sin” is first and foremost a ruined relation with God. Not, first, a ruined relation with other people. Verses 10–18 begin and end with this point. Verse 10–11: “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God.” And verse 18: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Everything in between these verses has to do with the meaning of sin in human relations. But at the beginning and the end being “under sin” means that we have no fear of God and we don’t understand him and we don’t seek him. Verse 11: “There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God.”

2. Ruined Relationships with People

Being “under sin” means that our relations with people are ruined, even though God’s common grace may restrain us from treating people as badly as we might.

3. Good News for Those “Under Sin”

4. Finally, if this is who we really are by nature—people who are “under sin” and therefore, as Romans 1:18 says, under the wrath of God—then is it not the best news in the world that the entire point of the book of Romans and the whole Bible and of Christianity is that God, in his great mercy, has made a way of salvation from sin—the power of sin and the penalty of sin? We are just centimeters away from it. Romans 3:21–22—“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.”

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

2010-11-12T00:28:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-12T00:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-03T22:30:00.001-07:00

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

2010-11-01T02:38:00.002-07:00

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

2010-11-01T02:38:00.001-07:00

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

2010-11-01T02:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-20T06:12:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-08T01:31:00.002-07:00

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

2010-10-06T01:05:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2010-10-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

#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

2010-10-03T01:34:00.000-07:00

#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

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

#21 - Piper - Doing and Endorsing Evil - Romans 1:28-32

2010-10-01T01:08:00.003-07:00

#21 - Piper - Doing and Endorsing Evil - Romans 1:28-32

How do we share out faith confidently? I believe this sermon will encourage you with a new insight into how God created humans with the very understanding that they do know that there is a God and that not only do they suppress that truth, they also know that what they are doing is worthy of death. These are bold words by Paul and explained by John Piper that will/should change the way we approach sharing our faith...

In one sense, verse 32 brings chapter one to an end with a very bleak view of human nature. The point of the last half of the verse is to show that many people not only do things that they know deserve death, but also entice others to do them and approve when they do. “Although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” In other words, the end-point of depravity is not just the suicidal love affair with sin, but the desire to bring others with you to destruction.

1. The first observation is that verse 32 takes us back to verses 18–19 and teaches us that everyone not only knows God, but also knows some of the moral demands of God and what disobedience deserves.

Now in verse 32 we learn that this knowledge of God includes a knowledge of his moral law: “They know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death.” Paul is speaking here of people in general who do not have access to the Bible or any special revelation. This is an astonishing affirmation about human nature. Everybody has knowledge of God and the moral law of God, whether they have seen a Bible or not, or whether they live in America or in an undiscovered people group of Irian Jaya.

2. The second observation is that this knowledge means people are without excuse before God not only because of the way they treat God, but also because of the way they treat each other.

The point of verse 32 is to say that “practicing such things” (the very things that God handed us over to) deserve death even though we have been handed over by God to do them. In other words, God’s judgment on sin—that it becomes worse and worse—does not lessen the guilt of the sinner. On the contrary, verse 32 says, “we know” that the very things we do when God hands us over to our own depravity are “worthy of death.”

3. The third observation from verse 32 is that there is a real knowing of moral things that is deeper than consciousness.

I say this because there are, no doubt, many people who would say that they don’t believe in moral standards set by God, especially if they say they don’t believe in God. But verse 32 says, “They know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death.” Note the phrase, “ordinance of God.” Paul teaches us that, even if people don’t think they know ordinances of God, they, in fact, do know at least one, namely, that doing the things listed in verses 29–31 deserves death. This must mean then that there is a knowledge deeper than consciousness.

Now, on the basis of these three observations, consider the implications for our sharing the gospel with unbelievers. Consider what this means for apologetics—giving reasons for your faith—and for missions to, say, Muslim people or Jewish people.

What verse 32, together with verses 18–21, teaches us is that every person we know, and every person we will ever talk to, already knows God, deep down, and knows God’s law. That is an astonishing truth for everyone who wants to communicate the gospel. Think on it specifically for a moment.

Verses 18–21 teach that everyone knows God, in the sense that everyone knows that God exists and that he is “eternal” and “powerful” and “glorious” and “beneficent.” At least that much, Paul says, is made known in nature and is buried somewhere in the subconscious of every person—in some deep, and in some just beneath the surface. We may suppress it, but we know it. It is there, and it has effects on our lives.

Then verse 32 adds that everyone knows not only that God exists and is eternal and powerful and glorious and beneficent, but also that God has a “righteous ordinance,” that the sins of verses 29–31 deserve the punishment of death. Everyone, Paul says, knows this. Charles Hodge puts it like this: “The most reprobate sinner carries about with him a knowledge of his just exposure to the wrath of God” (Romans, Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1972, p. 45).

What Does this Mean for Evangelism?

Not that everyone you talk to will necessarily admit that he or she knows this. But you come to them with the tremendous (Biblical) confidence that you are not starting from scratch in establishing the truth in their soul. They are not blank tablets. They may have buried it, distorted it, hidden it, drugged it, run from it by overwork or excessive play and entertainment; but you know it is there.

What do you do? You don’t assume they don’t need to hear that truth. You don’t say, “Well, the truth of God and his moral law is in their heart, so I will not tell them about God’s glory and power and his righteous demands.” Rather, you speak the truth with the confidence that this reality you are describing is not utterly foreign to them. You speak with the confidence that what you are saying can ring true with something deep inside of them.

What if they say, “How do I know that what you are saying is true? How do I know there is a God, and that he is glorious and beneficent? What about Hurricane Mitch and Honduras? Maybe God should be cursed instead of thanked. Maybe he deserves death for breaking my law instead of me deserving death for breaking his law”?

Now there are a lot of possible answers to this kind of question. 1) One would be to take them to Luke 13:1–5 and say, “Those who die in natural catastrophes are not necessarily worse sinners than the rest of us. Unless we repent we will all perish.” 2) Or you could take them to the book of Job and show them how Satan is involved in some natural catastrophes, but that God maintains ultimate control and brings all the events of the world to serve his good and overarching purposes. 3) Or you could take them straight to the cross of Christ and show them that, whatever misery we must suffer here, God shared our misery in order to save us from the final judgment on our sin and bring us to everlasting joy.

But Romans 1:32 suggests another possible answer. You might say, “I know you doubt the reality of God and his glory and his goodness and his moral law and your guilt for disobedience. I know that. But the Bible teaches that you really do know these things already deep in your heart. Which means that if you would humble yourself and ask God to free you from the blinding effects of sin, these things could take on a self-evidencing authority for you. You wouldn’t be dependent on me or anybody else. You would know the truth because God has revealed it to you in nature and has written it on your heart.”

O ponder these things for yourselves and for the people you want to reach with the saving gospel of Jesus. Ponder them in relation to Jewish people, for example, and Muslim people. Romans 1:32 says that every one of them knows that he has broken the ordinances of God, and that he deserves death. But neither Judaism nor Islam has a satisfying way to deal with this kind of guilt and get right with God. Therefore, if God would be pleased, in answer to our prayers, this innate knowledge could make them ready for the gospel—the good news that because of Jesus’ death for our sin, God declares righteous everyone who simply trusts in him.

# 20 - Piper - The perils of disapproving God - Romans 1:18-23

2010-10-01T01:08:00.001-07:00

Wow. This message is penetrating and humbling. I have read this passage so many times, but I have never heard it as clear as Piper puts it. Take some time to reflect on some of the consequences of not putting God in your knowledge. It is a bit longer than most that I review, but I think you will find something in here that drastically change how you understand the judgment of sin on the world. I think it is obvious, but perhaps, so offensive to some, so unbelievable that we refuse to really believe that God would give us to the sin that repulses Him. At the end, there is a beautiful reversal that will encourage.

Paul’s teaching about why a society degenerates into unrestrained, debauched, destructive evil is unlike any analysis you would read today. One of the reasons for this is that when a society is sinking into moral decay, one of the traits of that decay is the inability to see what is happening. The social mind becomes so defective in the moral decadence that it doesn’t have the categories or the framework to recognize evil for what it really is.

We do live in such a day. The inability to render sound moral judgments is evident almost wherever you look. Which makes this passage of Scripture one of the most relevant and needed texts in all the Bible for our day—precisely because it seems so foreign. Today, if something doesn’t seem spiritually or morally foreign, it is probably part of the blind and decadent atmosphere we breathe, and therefore of no real use to us, no matter how good it makes us feel.

What we need is a word from outside our defective world and our depraved thinking. We need a word from God. And we may certainly expect such a word to be very strange, because we have become strangers to the reality of God in a very self-absorbed age.

So, that was review, but now he asks three questions:

1. Where Do these Evils in Verses 29–31 Come From?

2. What Is this List and Why Is it Here?

3. How Shall We Battle these Destructive Evils?

1. Where Do these Evils in Verses 29–31 Come From?

This is what Paul means by the wrath of God being revealed (verse 18): God’s wrath is being revealed against the world, as human beings all over the world set their affections on other things more than on God. God’s response to this worldwide disloyalty and treason against our Creator is not, first, to send us to hell, but to see that we sink into the swamp we have chosen.

First, he says that the root problem is that we don’t like having God in our knowledge.

he second step of God’s analysis is that God, in an act of judgment (recall the revealing of “wrath” in verse 18) withdraws his common restraints on our rebellion and gives us over to sink in the swamp we have chosen. This is what you will not hear in any social analysis today. Who today has the God-centered realism to say: The depth of our sin does not just deserve divine judgment, it is divine judgment? That is what Paul says. You can’t really understand America (or any other country) today without this revealed truth. Even if we tried to boast over God that at least we have our self-determination in rebelling against God, God would answer: you think so? Think again.

The third step in Paul’s analysis (in verse 28) is that the effect of God’s giving us over and removing his common restraints (see Genesis 20:6) is that we are imprisoned by a “depraved mind.”

The fourth step of the analysis (in verse 28) is that our defective mind produces all kinds of evils. Paul goes on to list twenty-one of them as samples.

2. What Is this List and Why Is it Here?

So what’s the point of listing all these sins? The point, I think, is to give us enough examples to show that virtually every form of evil has to do with God and comes from failing to know him and approve him and love him above all things. In other words, he gives us a sweeping array of evils to waken us to the fact that the ruin of any area of life is owing to the abandonment of God. Verse 28: they did not want God in their knowledge, therefore … and then he gives his list of evils.

In other words: the point of the list is to connect God with every sin in the world. And we’ve seen that the connection is twofold: every sin is rooted in our preferring something else to God; and every sin gets worse as God takes away his restraints and gives us up to sink in the swamp we have chosen.

If America has the highest murder rate in the western world, it has to do with God. If our executives are greedy, it has to do with God. If our politicians are deceitful, it has to do with God. If we gossip about each other behind the back, it has to do with God. If our talk show hosts are insolent and boastful, it has to do with God. If our children are disobedient to parents, it has to do with God. If we are untrustworthy and don’t keep our marriage vows, it has to do with God. If we are blind to obvious wrongs and are unloving and unmerciful, it has to do with God.

That’s the point of this list. Wherever we are sinking in sin, it is because we have jumped off the rock of the glory of God.

3. How Shall We Battle these Destructive Evils?

Which brings us finally to the third and last question: What is the solution? How shall we battle back against these destructive evils in our own lives and in our culture?

The answer is what the whole book of Romans is about. But let’s close by looking at three great reversals. 1) We need the reversal of God’s wrath against our unrighteousness. 2) We need the reversal of God’s handing us over to a depraved mind. 3) We need the reversal of our mind’s moral decay so that it can be renewed for right and proper use in God’s service.

The good news is that God has provided every one of those reversals. You do not have to sink any further if you will embrace God and his provision. Here is the key verse for each of these reversals.

The key verse for the reversal of God’s wrath against us is Romans 1:17: In the gospel of Christ, “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ ” In other words, the righteousness that God demands from us, he freely gives to us, if we will turn back to him and trust him to be our greatest Good. And if you have the righteousness of God, you are not under the wrath of God any more. A very happy reversal!

The key verse for the reversal of God’s handing us over to a depraved mind is Romans 6:17. “Thanks be to God that, though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were handed over [same word as Romans 1:28].” This is the exact reversal of the hand-over in Romans 1:28. Here it is to a form of teaching that is true and holy, not false and dirty. And notice that it is God who does it. “Thanks be to God,” Paul says, that you became obedient to this teaching. God gives us over to truth and righteousness as much as he once gave us over to sin.

Finally, the key verse for reversing the defectiveness of our minds is Romans 12:2. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

When God has given us his righteousness by faith in Jesus, and when he has handed us over to a new teaching of truth and begun to make us obedient to it, then little by little we are transformed in the renewing of our minds and the long list of sins in Romans 1:29–31 becomes shorter and weaker to the glory of God.

This is the key to life. This is the message that we take to the neighborhood and to the nations. I call you and urge you to receive these three reversals from the hand of God by faith: 1) the reversal of God’s wrath through the gift of God’s righteousness; 2) the reversal of being handed over to depravity through being handed over to truth; and 3) the reversal of a depraved mind through the transformation of a renewed mind

#18-19 - Piper - The Other Dark Exchange - Homosexuality - Part 1 and 2 - Romans 1:24-28

2010-10-01T00:57:00.001-07:00

Glory. The one word that makes or break the universe. I am encouraged how Dr. Piper has worked this out and I hope it is an encouragement to you.

My prayer for both weeks is that we as a church, and I in particular as the preacher, will find a Biblical balance between clear conviction about the sinfulness of homosexual behavior, on the one hand, and patient compassion to come alongside those of you who have homosexual desires, and your friends and relatives, and seek your good. I have no desire to drive homosexual people away. On the contrary, I would like to be able to say of our congregation what Paul said to the church in Corinth: after mentioning “fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers,” he says in 6:11, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

I confess that my main aim in these two messages is not to persuade you that homosexual behavior is wrong. It is wrong. But you can believe that and not be a Christian. So what does it profit a man if he knows everything that’s wrong, and loses his own soul? My aim is much higher than to persuade you that there are many sexual disorders in the world—both homosexual and heterosexual. My aim is to transform the way you see Reality, and to put the glory of God back at the center, like the sun in the solar system of sexuality (and everything else) that holds all the planets of our passions in their proper order. When you exchange the sun for a man-made satellite all the planets leave their orbit and head for oblivion.

The root of all our disorders—sexual and social and physical and emotional—is the exchange of the glory of God for other things. The solar system of our soul and our society was made to orbit around the glory of God as its all-controlling sun. And the entire human race has exchanged the glory of God for weightless, substitute satellites that have no gravity and can hold nothing in its proper orbit. Therefore all the world is disordered and decaying and moving toward destruction.

The root of all our problems in this world is that the human race has exchanged the glory of God for other things and that God has handed us over to bear the fruit of this exchange in ten thousand troubles—all of which should call us to repentance and worship rather than rebellion and atheism. And when I say all our problems, I really mean all. I mentioned last week that even our physical diseases and our natural calamities are owing to God’s judgment on creation for our exchange of his glory for other things.

1. The deepest problem of our lives, whether heterosexual or homosexual, is the terrible exchange of the glory of God for images (verse 23). The exchange of the truth of God for a lie (verse 25). The disapproval of having God in our knowledge (verse 28). Failed worship is our worst disorder. This is beneath all the maladies of the world. Repairing this, not first our disordered sexuality, is our main business in life.

2. The sexual disordering of our lives, most vividly seen in homosexuality (though not only there), is the judgment of God upon the human race because we have exchanged the glory of God for other things. Sometimes people ask, “Is AIDS the judgment of God on homosexuality?” The answer from this text is: homosexuality itself is a judgment on the human race, because we have exchanged the glory of God for the creature—and so is AIDS and cancer and arthritis and Alzheimer’s and every other disease and every other futility and misery in the world, including death. That’s the point of Romans 5:15–18 and Romans 8:20–23, which we looked at when talking about Romans 1:18.

And what we saw there was that those who believe in Jesus Christ and are justified by faith and become the children of God are not taken out of this world of woe, but are given the grace to experience the very judgments of God on the human race as the merciful pathway to holiness and heaven rather than sin and hell.

3. The reason Paul focuses on homosexuality in these verses is because it is the most vivid dramatization in life of the profoundest connection between the disordering of heart-worship and the disordering of our sexual lives. I’ll try to say it simply, though it is weighty beyond words.

We learn from Paul in Ephesians 5:31–32 that, from the beginning, manhood and womanhood existed to represent or dramatize God’s relation to his people and then Christ’s relation to his bride, the church. In this drama, the man represents God or Christ and is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. The woman represents God’s people or the church. And sexual union in the covenant of marriage represents pure, undefiled, intense heart-worship. That is, God means for the beauty of worship to be dramatized in the right ordering of our sexual lives.

But instead, we have exchanged the glory of God for images, especially of ourselves. The beauty of heart-worship has been destroyed. Therefore, in judgment, God decrees that this disordering of our relation to him be dramatized in the disordering of our sexual relations with each other. And since the right ordering of our relationship to God in heart-worship was dramatized by heterosexual union in the covenant of marriage, the disordering of our relationship to God is dramatized by the breakdown of that heterosexual union.

Homosexuality is the most vivid form of that breakdown. God and man in covenant worship are represented by male and female in covenant sexual union. Therefore, when man turns from God to images of himself, God hands us over to what we have chosen and dramatizes it by male and female turning to images of themselves for sexual union, namely their own sex. Homosexuality is the judgment of God dramatizing the exchange of the glory of God for images of ourselves. (See the parallel uses of “exchange” in verses 25 and 26.)

Which leads us to one last word: The healing of the homosexual soul, as with every other soul, will be the return of the glory God to its rightful place in our affections.

1. Acknowledge the presence and pain of a disordered sexuality, with all the ambiguity of where it came from—much like other disorders and disabilities—and do not define your God-given personhood by your disordered sexuality.

2. Put your faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of all your sins and for the gift of God’s righteousness and for the fulfillment of all his promises to you (Romans 1:16–17). The only sinner who can successfully battle his sins is a justified sinner. In other words, you fight against sexual sins from relationship, not for a relationship.

3. Begin to reorder your entire life around the centrality of the glory of God as your highest treasure. Homosexual sinning, like all other sinning, is an echo of exchanging the glory of God for other things. So restore the sun of God’s glory to its place at the center of your soul and all the planets of your desires will begin to return to their God-given orbit.

4. Resolve to live a chaste and, if necessary, celibate life by the power of God’s Spirit, with the confidence that if God does not heal now, he will in the age to come; and all the patience of purity of will be worth it (Romans 8:18). May God grant all the single people (and married!) at Bethlehem a passion for purity.

5. Seek wholesome friendships with both sexes, especially in groups. Here the burden lies heavily on the church to be a place where this can happen. We don’t do very well at this. And so I call on us—especially families—to go out of our way to have people (especially single people) over for meals and other gatherings. The more we do things in groups rather than pairs, the more opportunities we create for wholesome non-sexual relationships.

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

#17 Piper - Displays of God remove the excuse for failed worship - Romans 1:19-22

2010-09-29T20:15:00.001-07:00

#17 – Displays of God remove the excuse for failed worship.

Romans 1:18–21

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

So, today Piper deals with the age old question: What about those who have never heard? I am so thankful for this sermon.

The objection is this: “You say, Paul, that the wrath of God is being revealed in history against humankind because the truth of God is suppressed by the human heart. Well, what about those who don’t have the truth of God? Don’t they have a legitimate excuse to protest God’s anger? How can it be right for God to be angry at people, and punish people for suppressing a truth that they never had?” That’s the objection that Paul is answering here, in verses 19–21.

So let me start first with his conclusion and work backward with you through the other three steps, and then we will turn around and move the other direction with a very

Step four: The conclusion—All men are without excuse and deserve the wrath of God.
Step three: This is because they do not glorify God as God or give him thanks.
Step two: This failure of fitting worship is not because of innocent ignorance of God, but in spite of sufficient knowledge about God.

Step one:

How did he do that? This is explained in the middle of verse 20 in the words, “being understood through what has been made.” God’s eternal power and divine nature—what can be known of God—have always, from the beginning of the creation of man, been “understood through what has been made.” When verse 19b says “God made [his power and deity] evident to mankind,” it means that God did something to make himself known. Knowledge of God did not just happen coincidentally. God makes provision for it.

What does he do to make himself evident? He made the world. He created—like a potter, or a sculptor or a poet, except he created out of nothing. In verse 20, when it says that God is “understood through what has been made,” the words “what has been made” stand for one Greek word (which you will all recognize), the word poiema. It’s the word from which we get “poem.” The universe and everything in it is God’s work of art. What’s the point of this word? The point is that in a poem there is manifest design and intention and wisdom and power. The wind might create a letter in the sand, but not a poem. That’s the point. God acted. God planned. God designed. God crafted. He created and made. And in doing that, Paul says in verse 19, God made himself evident to all mankind. The universe is a poem about God.

Now this too is extremely relevant for our day. Just as we saw that verse 18 was politically relevant, this text is scientifically relevant. Naturalistic evolution is treated as a given in our culture—the belief that the universe, and human life in particular, evolved by the sheer forces of matter, time and chance. Given enough time and some matter to work with, chance has brought about what we see in the universe and in the human species today. God as creator and designer is simply ruled out and thought to be an unnecessary hypothesis.

But increasingly in our day this assumption of naturalistic evolution is being shown to be a philosophical prejudice rather than a scientific conclusion from evidence.

Most recently of all William Dembski has written The Design Inference (Cambridge University Press). He points out that many well-known scientists must constantly suppress the suspicion that there is design (poiema) in the universe. For example, he quotes Richard Dawkins, an “arch-Darwinian” who says, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” And he quotes Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA, who says, “Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved” (ibid. p. 21).

In other words, to use the words of the apostle Paul, the manifest truth of God’s poiema—God’s “designed things”—must be constantly suppressed, lest scientists be brought face to face with their Maker and have to glorify him as God and give him thanks as dependent creatures.

How amazingly true the at we suppress God’s poem with resistance to obedience and submission and humility.

#14 Piper - Proud people don't say thanks - Romans 1:16-23

2010-09-29T20:11:00.001-07:00

I have a feeling that I will say this often during the next 500 days, but this was my favorite sermon so farJ It is just so foundational and Piper really explains it well, giving his one point, in the context of his message, over and over again. PROUD PEOPLE DON’T SAY THANKS!!!!

He starts off the message by explaining the universal truth that God created all things and all things are for him, through Him and to Him. The only proper response is THANK YOU!

For those who, by God’s grace, love the truth and don’t want to suppress it, creation becomes a dazzling lesson book in theology. It teaches the open mind that there is a deity, an infinitely marvelous Being, who made the world. It teaches that this Being has stupendous power and that he is eternal. The world in its molecular and visible and galactic structure and order bears the mark of an Architect. And if he is the Architect of all that is, then he was not brought into being by anyone else and is eternal. An eternally powerful, infinitely marvelous Maker of all things is evident from the lesson book of creation. But that’s not all we can read in this book.

If there is such an all-powerful, infinitely glorious God who made all things, then I, too, am his creature. And everything I have is from him. Who but the Creator gives to all men life and breath and everything (Acts 17:25)? Standing before the irresistible logic of the lesson book of creation, I have to admit that everything is a gift. It is inconceivable that the Creator should ever owe me anything. For when could I ever give a gift to him that I should be repaid? “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:35–36). I am not my own; I belong to my Maker. My existence is owing to him, and therefore my existence must be for him.

But what can I give my Maker? If he were hungry he would not tell me, for the world and all that is in it is his. The birds of the air, the bugs in the field, the cattle on a thousand hills belong to him (Psalm 50:10–12). Everything that is, is God’s. I cannot improve him. I cannot enrich or add to him. I am utterly and inescapably and always the recipient. “He is not served by human hands as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25).

The question to all of this is:

How, then, shall I live for him? How shall I please him?

And the answer is:

The answer to that question, too, stands written in the lesson book of creation mirrored in our own conscience. I must be thankful to him! If I cannot add to his glory, then I must honor his glory. If there is an eternally powerful and infinitely marvelous God who made all that is, then there is only one righteous destiny for his creatures—to live for the praise of his glory … to join our Maker in his manifest purpose to make his power and glory known and loved among the nations. How shall a mere creature honor the glory of his Maker? We all know the answer to that question: We honor his glory by cherishing it and being thankful. “He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies God” (Psalm 50:23).

Gratitude honors God. Gratitude is the echo of grace as it reverberates through the hollows of the human heart. Gratitude is the unashamed acceptance of a free gift and the heartfelt declaration that we cherish what we cannot buy. Therefore gratitude glorifies the free grace of God and signifies the humility of a needy and receptive heart.

It is really amazing how much we can know of God and our duty simply by honestly pondering the lesson book of creation: that there is an infinitely marvelous Being who made all things, who has eternal power, to whom we owe life and breath and everything, and therefore whom we should glorify and thank from the bottom of our hearts day and night. Nobody who will own up to the reality in which he lives needs the Bible to know that he should glorify God and give him thanks. It is written in the sky and in every human heart—but nobody does it.

But we have rejected the truth about God so we can be wise in our fooliness.

The reason the human heart hates the truth that creation teaches is because it is too humbling. From sea to shining sea the creation shouts that God has eternal power, God is the infinitely marvelous Being, God is the Maker of all that is, and we are utterly dependent on his absolutely free choices to create and sustain our life or not, and we should therefore glorify him and not ourselves and give thanks to him and not take credit for ourselves. But proud people don’t say thanks. Gratitude is the echo of grace reverberating through the hollows of the human heart. But proud people don’t need grace. They don’t think their hearts are hollow without God. They are filled with wisdom! So “claiming to be wise, they exchange the glory of the immortal God for images.” Proud people don’t say thanks. Tight-lipped, they take the diamond of God’s glory, enter the pawn shop of pride, and hock it for the broken marble of self-reliance. Then they take this little idol home, set it on the mantle of their mind, and bow down to it in a hundred different ways every day. “Although we knew God, we did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him but became futile in our thinking … claiming to be wise.” Proud people don’t say thanks.

So, how do we receive that grace from humility? Consider His glory through His creation and let thankfulness ring through your life…

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

Piper #13 - How the gospel saves believers - Romans 1:16-17

2010-09-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here is Piper doing what he does best, simplifying it all to two things:

There are only two ultimate concerns in life. One is how to display God in our lives. The other is how to be happy in God forever. These are the great concerns in the world for every person and every people group, whether we are conscious of it or not. How shall a person think and feel and act so as to show the glory of God? And what must we think and feel and do so as to be fully happy in God for all eternity

And now he explains how we get there:

From our side the key to our being saved from the wrath to come is to go on believing and trusting God. The key, from God’s side, to our being saved is that he goes on revealing to us the righteousness of God in the gospel, month after month and year after year.

Justification (God’s righteousness completely imputed to us) is the foundation of glorification (God’s righteousness completely imparted to us).

In other words, the foundation for all our future hope of life and joy and salvation is based on God’s giving his Son to die as a substitute for us so that our sins could be on him, and his righteousness could be on us. It’s the same pattern of salvation in Romans 8:30, 32 and Romans 5:9 and Romans 1:16–17. This is the great theme and structure of this book.

All our hope for salvation (verse 16) hangs on beholding and believing the revelation of God’s righteousness as a gift to us (verse 17).

To fulfill all that is required of us to enter heaven, we must see it over and over again—the ongoing revelation in the gospel that the righteousness of God is given to us freely through faith. If we don’t know ourselves acquitted and forgiven and counted righteous now, we will not be able to walk the path that leads to life. Either we will despair and turn to worldliness; or we will try to earn our way into God’s favor with moral and religious performances.

Everything God requires of us as believers assumes that we are justified—accepted, forgiven, acquitted, counted righteous with his righteousness, not ours. From that secure position we must fight sin and unbelief. And the one who fights like that—as a justified sinner—will live.

So here in Romans 1:17 it says, “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” That is, when the revelation of the gift of righteousness meets with faith it leads to future faith. Faith is the initial window of the soul that lets the light of the revelation of righteousness in. And when the light of God’s gift of righteousness comes in by faith, it powerfully works to awaken and sustain and engender more and more faith for the years to come.

What saves is persevering faith (Mark 13:13; Colossians 1:23). If that’s true, now it makes clear sense why verse 17 explains how God saves believers by saying that in the gospel God reveals a righteousness for us that is first perceived and embraced by faith, and then has the effect of awakening all the necessary future faith that we need in order to be saved

The gospel saves believers because the gospel keeps believers believing.

So every time the Bible demands you to do something do not think, “I must do this to take away my guilt or to get forgiveness or to get a right standing with God.” Rather think, “I will do this because my guilt is already removed, I am already forgiven, I already have the gift of God’s righteousness, and so I know that God is for me and will help me. So I will trust him and obey him and display by my radical, risk-taking obedience the glory of God’s grace. And I will draw nearer and nearer to him in the fellowship of his sufferings and the joy of his companionship.

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

#12 - Piper - How does the Gospel save Believers? - Romans 1:16-18

2010-09-28T08:00:00.001-07:00

#12 - Piper - How does the Gospel save Believers? - Romans 1:16-18

One of the things that has most encouraged me in these early sermons is Piper recognition that Paul is writing to BELIEVERS in Rome about needing the gospel preached to them.

This is how Piper identifies himself with Paul in preaching to his own flock:

I say it with Paul: I, John Piper, am eager to preach the gospel to you who believe—exactly to you who believe—because this gospel which is laid out in the book of Romans, is the power of God to save you. You believers need to hear the gospel in order to be saved.

And then Piper lays out a quote worthy of the gospel hall of fame:

And I fully believe that the reason he does is that when believers know and love and live on the meat of the gospel, we will be so gospel-filled and gospel-shaped and gospel-dependent and gospel-driven and gospel-hoping and gospel-joyful that no one will need to tell us why we need to share the gospel or how to share the gospel. We will be so thankful and so desperately, day-by-day dependent on the gospel for our own hope of eternal life, and our own sanity, and our own stability, and our own marriages or singleness, that it will be impossible not to know that people need the gospel and why they need it and how it relates to their biggest needs—because we know we need it, and why we need it, and how it meets our biggest needs day by day.

Why comes of preaching the gospel to believers?

Paul was utterly convinced—and we should be too—that preaching the gospel to believers would bear fruit. Look back at verse 13: “I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far)so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.” When the gospel is preached among believers there will be fruit! All kinds of fruit. Righteousness, peace, joy (Romans 14:17)—and converts who hear and see the gospel from the people of God.

It’s true that we see in the gospel, day by day, all that is needed for God to be righteous, and to declare us righteous, and to progressively make us righteous. That’s what the gospel reveals to us day by day. That is what we grasp hold of by faith. That is what keeps us believing and helps us fight the fight of faith and persevere to the end and be saved.

What we need day in and day out, in order to make our way to heaven, is to see and receive and feed on this gift of imputed righteousness. This is the way God saves believers. This can be and should be grasped by children. Let me try to say it simply. We all do bad things and we all are bad in the sense that the bad we do comes from a deeply rooted badness. Our bad deeds come from a bad heart. But God says that we should be good or he cannot accept us, because his own goodness would be ruined by our badness. So what we need is for God to take our badness and punish it in the death of Jesus, and then take the goodness of Jesus—his own goodness—and make it ours.

That’s what he did. So everyone who believes in Jesus receives the gift of God’s goodness, God’s righteousness. That is called justification by faith.

Don’t miss this exhortation at the end!

Look to it daily in the gospel. Be relieved by it daily from the gospel. Be encouraged by it daily from the gospel. Be emboldened by it daily. Be empowered daily. You live by an alien righteousness. Not by your performances, but by God’s. This is the gospel we live by and this is the gospel we will share this week with family and friends. And this is the gospel that will save us and bring us safely home to God.

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

#11 - Piper - How does the Gospel Save Believers - Romans 1:16-17

2010-09-27T08:07:00.001-07:00

If there is one thing I am continuing to learn about preaching from Piper is that his sermons are based on questions from the Bible with answers from the Bible. Not exactly revolutionary, but brilliant nonetheless.

What’s the problem that we need salvation.

The answer in the book of Romans is resoundingly this: We need to be saved from the wrath of God. Look at Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” This is given as the reason why we need saving. God is very angry at our unrighteousness and the way we suppress and distort the truth to justify ourselves.

The gospel is mainly the good news that God himself has rescued us from the wrath of God. Not mainly from ourselves and the mess we make of our lives; but from his own anger and his own righteous judgment. The gospel is the power of God for salvation from the wrath of God—the power that brings us to eternal safety and joy in the presence of God.

How does the gospel save believers? How is the gospel God’s power for salvation?

Paul begins to explain for us how the gospel saves believers. He does not just say, “It shows the love of God.” Paul gets inside the love of God and shows how God deals with the real problems of the universe. We begin to learn what the real issues of the universe are.

The answer of verse 17 is this: the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes because “in it [that is, in the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.”

So how is this good news—that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel? Here’s the answer: God demands righteousness and we don’t have it, so the only hope for us is that God himself would give the righteousness that he demands. That would be good news. That would be gospel. And that is what he does. What is revealed in the gospel is the righteousness of God for us that he demands from us. The reason the gospel is the power of God for salvation—the way that the gospel saves believers is that in it God reveals a righteousness for us that God demands from us. What we had to have, but could not create or supply or perform, God gives us freely, namely, his own righteousness, the righteousness of God.

What is our hope to escape this wrath when we are ungodly and unrighteous? The answer is that God would intervene and supply us with a righteousness that is not our own. That he would give to us the righteousness he demands from us. If God would do that, then his wrath would be averted and we could be reconciled to him. And that is, in fact, what he did. And that is the gospel. That is the way it saves us.

And I just wanted to share one more quote from Piper on Martin Luther that puts passion and bones on this idea of righteousness:

But to close today I want to go back to Martin Luther. Maybe God will use his testimony to bring some of you from mere hearers this morning to those who love and live on this gospel reality of God’s gift of righteousness. You remember he said he hated Romans 1:17. But he goes on explaining his struggle with his own guilt and fear before the righteousness of God.

Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at [Romans 1:17], most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted. At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ ” There I began to understand [that] the righteousness of God is … righteousness with which [the] merciful God justifies us by faith… . Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. (Martin Luther: Selections, pp. 11–12)

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

#10 - Piper - To the Jews First - Romans 1:16

2010-09-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

#10 - Piper - To the Jews First - Romans 1:16

Piper starts off his sermon with the focus on the word EVERYONE!

Paul has just used that wonderful word “everyone” in Romans 1:16, “The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.” O, what an exhilarating word to those of us in this room who feel that there is something about us that rules us out! Wrong family, wrong background, wrong education, wrong language, wrong race, wrong culture, wrong sexual preference, wrong moral track record. Then to hear the word, “Everyone who believes.” Everyone! One thing can rule you out: unbelief. Not trusting Jesus. But nothing else has to. The good news that Christ died for our sins, and that he rose from the dead to open eternal life, and that salvation is by grace through faith—all that is for everyone who believes. Not just Jews and not just Gentiles and no one race or social class or culture, but everyone who believes.

He then does a magnificent job explaining why it is the jews first and then then gentiles. It can be summed up these six statements:

So when Paul says in Romans 1:16, “The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,” we should call to mind these six ways that the Jews have a priority over the Gentiles.

They are the historic chosen people of God.

They are the guardians of God’s special revelation, the Old Testament Scriptures.

The Messiah and Savior, Jesus, comes to the world as a Jew to Jews.

Salvation is from the Jews, since everyone who is saved is saved by being connected to the covenant with Abraham by faith.

The Jews are to be evangelized first when the gospel penetrates a new region.

The Jews will enter first into final judgment and final blessing.

He then addresses the question, then why does he say Jews first?

Being influenced by Romans 11:17–32, I think the answer is that Paul wants to humble both Jew and Greek and make them deeply aware that they depend entirely on mercy, not on themselves or their tradition or ethnic connections. To the Gentiles he says, in essence, salvation is of the Jews. You are not being saved by your Greek culture—or any other culture. You are being saved by a salvation that comes through the despised Semitic people called the Jews. “You do not support the root [of the Abrahamic covenant], the root supports you.” So do not boast over the branches (Romans 11:18). We Gentiles are saved by becoming, as it were, spiritual Jews (Romans 2:28–29). This should humble us and strip us of any arrogance and boasting in any presumed ethnic superiority. It also should vanquish anti-Semitism and fill us with zeal for evangelism to Jews.

Similarly, Paul says to the Jews, your salvation is not your own. It is God’s and he gives it to whom he pleases. He can raise up from stones—even Gentile stones!—children to Abraham (Matthew 3:9). The words “also to the Greek” in Romans 1:16 would have been as offensive to the Jews as the words “to the Jew first” were to the Gentiles. What they thought were Jewish prerogatives are, in fact, shared by the lowliest Gentiles who believe. Both of us are being humbled. We Gentiles must humble ourselves to be saved through a Jewish Messiah and a Jewish covenant. Jews must humble themselves to receive unclean Gentiles into full covenant membership and share all the blessings of the promise of Abraham.

The whole point is that God is the One who has mercy. Ethnicity is not decisive here. There is no merit with him. We are all sinners. So the real emphasis falls back on that wonderful word “everyone” that we started with:

“The Gospel is the power of God to everyone who believes.”

So, whether Jew or Gentile, believe! And receive the power of God to save you from your sins and guilt and death and judgment and hell, and bring you home to ever-increasing joy in his presence forever and ever.

# 9 - The Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation - Romans 1:16

2010-09-18T04:18:00.000-07:00

# 9 - The Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation - Romans 1:16

The insight in this message from Romans 1:16 is that the gospel that we are not ashamed of, the gospel that brings salvation isn’t conversion like I have thought about for all these years, but that the gospel brings us to eternity, the final triumph, into the presence of God. Brilliant. Enjoy! I’ll let Piper explain it from here:

So the question today is: What is this salvation that the gospel so powerfully brings about? “The gospel is the power of God for [unto] salvation.” Does this mean, “The gospel is the power of God to win converts”? Now I do think that is true, but I don’t think that is what this statement means.

I think he has in mind not primarily the first event of conversion, but primarily the final triumph of the gospel in bringing believers to eternal safety and joy in the presence of a holy and glorious God. There are four reasons why I think this is what he means. Looking at these reasons is the best way to unpack the meaning of the verse.

1. The power of the gospel is what frees us from being ashamed of the gospel

Jesus triumphed over shame by looking at the future joy that was set before him as he died. I think this is what Paul, as well, has in mind in Romans 1:16. You don’t have to be ashamed of the gospel because it doesn’t just make converts; it saves those converts utterly. It brings them to final safety and ever-increasing joy in the presence of a glorious and holy God forever and ever. This is what makes us bold with the gospel—not that it can make converts; any religion can do that—but that it is the only truth in the world that can really save people forever and bring them to everlasting joy with God.

2. “Salvation” is future-oriented elsewhere in Paul and the New Testament

Hebrews 9:28 says, “Christ … will appear a second time for salvation … to those who eagerly await Him.” This final, complete salvation happens at the Second Coming. 1 Peter 1:5 says, “[Believers] are protected by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” This salvation is “ready to be revealed in the last time.” It is not conversion. It is the last great work of God to rescue us and bring us to safety and joy in his presence forever.

In Romans 5:9–10, Paul talks about this future salvation as rescue from the final wrath of God: “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood [that’s the present reality of salvation!], we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son [here again is the present reality of salvation!], much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” In other words, the full experience of salvation, in Paul’s thinking, is still future. Romans 13:11: “Salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.”

So when Paul says in Romans 1:16 that “[the gospel] is the power of God unto salvation,” I take him to mean that the gospel is the only message in the world that powerfully can bring a person not just to conversion, but to everlasting safety and joy in the presence of a holy and glorious God.

3. Ongoing belief is the condition for this salvation

So the point is not that the gospel is the power for conversion to faith; the point is that the gospel is the power to bring about future salvation through a life of faith.

The tense of the verb “believe” here is crucial. It signifies ongoing action, not just the first act of faith when you were converted: “The gospel … is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who is believing”—who goes on believing. It’s the same as 1 Corinthians 15:1–2 where Paul says, “I preached to you [the gospel], which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are being saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” Faith that does not persevere is a vain and empty faith—what James calls “dead faith” (James 2:17, 26).

4. Paul says the gospel is for believers, not just unbelievers

The last reason I think this is what “salvation” means in verse 16 is that the verse is given as the reason Paul wants to preach the gospel to believers (not just unbelievers). We’ve seen this, but look again. In verse 15 Paul says, “I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” He is eager to preach the gospel to “you”—you believers—not just unbelievers. Then he gives the reason: “because I am not ashamed of it, because it is the power of God unto salvation to all such believers.”

So I conclude that the reason Paul is not ashamed of the gospel is that it is the only truth in all the world that will not let you down when you give your life to it in faith. It will bring you all the way through temptation and persecution and death and judgment into eternal safety and ever-increasing joy in the presence of a holy and glorious God. All the other “gospels” in the world that win so many converts will fail you in the end. Only one saves from the final wrath of God and leads to fullness of joy in his presence and pleasures at his right hand forever. Therefore, there is no need to be ashamed of it, no matter what others say or do. And O how eager we should be to speak this gospel to believer and unbeliever alike.

The gospel is the good news that God gave us his Son, so as to obtain for us everything that would be good for us. Therefore the gospel is the power that gives us victory over temptation to despair and to pride and to greed and to lust. The gospel alone can triumph over every obstacle and bring us to eternal joy. Whatever it costs, stand in it, hold it fast, believe on it, feed on it, savor it, count it more precious than silver or gold. The gospel will save you. And it alone.

# 8 - Not Ashamed of the Gospel - Romans 1:16

2010-09-13T21:21:00.001-07:00

Not Ashamed of the Gospel – Part 1 of 6

Romans 1:16-17 - ¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Piper breaks up this passage into six messages, focusing on not being ashamed of the gospel, in this first message.

I am so encouraged to finally really grasp what it means to not be ashamed. Piper does a great job explaining it! I quoted quite a lot, but I encourage you to read through it, because you will be thoroughly encouraged.

Piper says, “Today we will focus on the words: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel.” You see the link with verse 15. The reason he is eager to preach the gospel in Rome is that he is not ashamed of the gospel.”

Now when Paul says in Romans 1:16 that he is “not ashamed of the gospel,” is this (the idea that his preaching Christ is somehow kept him from public shame) what keeps him from being ashamed? Does he escape being ashamed because he keeps himself in the best light? No. Exactly the opposite. Believing and preaching the gospel constantly put Paul in a bad light. It constantly stirred up other people to shame Paul. He gives us a list of ways that he was shamed in the ministry of the gospel (in 2 Corinthians 11:23–26):

… in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren…

In other words, Paul’s way of not being ashamed of the gospel was not that he could keep himself in the best light or that he had enough savvy that people always liked him and approved what he did. When Paul looked out on the huge world of unbelief in his day he felt a debt to all. He didn’t look with utter disdain on the pagans of his day. Beware of doing this. Our conservative lifestyle has been so politicized in America that we slip easily into feeling disdain rather than debt to unbelieving people. Not so with Paul, though he hated sin. Rather, he felt so overwhelmed with undeserved grace that he knew himself a debtor to all—Greek and barbarian, wise and foolish.

The debt that Paul felt was not appreciated. Instead of people being glad to hear it, they shamed him. Instead of people understanding and feeling in debt, he was persecuted and abused.

Piper explains two ways that that the gospel brings out shame:

The gospel does two things: it brings out shaming behavior in those who will not believe it. And it gives freedom from shame to those who do believe it.

Paul knew both. He was like Jesus. Jesus was abandoned by his friends, falsely accused of blasphemy, beaten with rods, ridiculed and taunted, stripped of his clothes, scourged with a whip, tortured in public, and made to look like a fool as people hollered at him on the cross: “You who saved others, save yourself.”

So, what do we do with this shame? We learn from Jesus.

What did Jesus do with all this shame—this shaming behavior? What would you do with it? Hebrews 12:2 tells us what he did with it: “For the joy set before Him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus despised the shame. What does that mean? It means that when shame began to threaten his heart and to tempt him to abandon a clear and obedient witness to God and to the gospel, he said to shame, “Shame, I despise you. I will not yield to you. I will not give to you any satisfaction. You may do with me whatever you please—in the short run—but I will not obey you or follow you or give in to you. I despise you, shame, and will not let you rule me.”

How could he do that? How can you do that? Hebrews 12:2 says he did it “for the joy that was set before him.” Shame was stripping away every earthly support that Jesus had: his friends gave way in shaming abandonment; his reputation gave way in shaming slander; his decency gave way in shaming nakedness; his comfort gave way in shaming torture. So, if his present supports were all being stripped away in shaming persecution, how did he not capitulate to such shame? Hebrews 12:2 says, he set his heart not on the supports of the present, but on the joy of the future where very soon he would “sit down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Though he was being shamed, Jesus was not ashamed of his God and Father. Why? Because God had power to save him from death and give him all-satisfying glory at his right hand forever.

Now, I say Paul was like this. What did he say in Romans 1:16? “I am not ashamed”—in spite of all the cultured Greeks who mock me as preaching foolishness and all the unbelieving Jews who deride me as preaching a false Christ—I am not ashamed of this gospel. Why? “For it is the power of God unto salvation.” In other words, this message of Christ crucified for the sake of sinners, of Christ raised from the dead as the Son of God in power (1:4), of grace given freely to those who will trust in Jesus—this message will bring all who bank on it to everlasting salvation.

SO THE QUESTION OF THE DAY and THE ANSWER OF THE CENTURY!!!

How then do you overcome feelings of shame when you are shamed for believing and sharing the gospel? Answer: ponder the power of the gospel to bring forgiven sinners to final, everlasting joy.

So, how are we shamed today?

The greatest weapon of shaming today in the world of religious claims is the accusation that you are intolerant and therefore mean-spirited and egotistical.

To that we must steadfastly respond: It is the most loving thing in the world to tell the truth about the way of salvation. If Jesus has said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6), then, for the sake of love, we must pay our debt to the world, and despise the shaming of the “tolerant” ‘90s and tell them, “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The gospel of Christ alone is the power of God unto salvation.

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

#7 - Romans 1:8-15 - The Gospel in the Church for the Obedience of Faith through Spiritual Gifts -

2010-09-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

The Gospel in the Church for the Obedience of Faith through Spiritual Gifts

Romans 1:14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to
the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the
gospel to you also who are in Rome.[1]

This message has probably been the most impactful to me personally. The
word "under obligation" means to be a debtor. The question John Piper asks
is, "What is it about grace that makes me debtor? Who do I owe?"

The answer is: everyone. Because Christ had grace on me, (the word Grace
denotes that I didn't deserve anything I received) then I must give that
same grace to everyone else. Here is what Piper says about it:

The grace of God which calls us (verse 6) out of our darkness and bestows
eternal covenant-love on us (verse 7) creates what it commands. We don't
qualify for it beforehand.

So if you hold this grace back from others as if you are qualified and they
are not, you default on your debt to the world and prove that you have not
really known grace. Grace is precious beyond words. It is our only hope as
sinners. We don't deserve it from God. And no one can deserve it from us.
When it comes to us freely, we are debtors to give freely.

Because Grace came to Paul for free, he is free and indebted to give that
same grace away to everyone else.

Oh, to be gripped by the reality of radically free grace in our lives-past
and future! What a difference it would make! Dwell on this today, would you?
Ponder what it means about racism, ethnic slurs, and all kinds of
self-righteousness, demandingness in marriage. Ponder what it means about
how freely you share the gospel of grace. O Lord, open our hearts more and
more to feel the wonder of being called of Christ and the loved of God
(forever!)-not because he found something special in us, but because this
grace is utterly and absolutely free.

Piper continues to explain how grace isn't just for non-Christians. The
whole point of his opening remarks is that Paul is eager to preach the
gospel...to Christians. Here is what Piper says:

Consider verse 15 and see if this is not what Paul wants to do in Rome. He
says in verse 14 that he is debtor to every layer of gentile society, and
then he says, "So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also
who are in Rome." He is eager to preach the gospel to believers in Rome. We
don't usually think about preaching the gospel to believers. We preach the
gospel to unbelievers. But I just preached the gospel to believers. So I
hope you can see that this is not strange for Paul to say in verse 15-that
he wants to do this in Rome.... Our faith begins with the gospel of grace,
and our Christian lives are sustained by this same good news of grace over
and over again.

I love how John Piper reminds that the gospel is something to preached over
and over and over again:

It's the gospel of grace that converts and it's the gospel of grace that
sanctifies. We must tell people the gospel the first time; and we must
"remind" people again and again of the meaning and implications of the
gospel of free grace (15:15). So the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) is what we
preach to unbelievers, and the gospel of grace is what we preach to
believers. That is what Paul says in Romans 1:15. "I am eager to preach the
gospel to you [believers!] also who are in Rome." Not to get them saved, but
to keep them saved through sanctification. Our faith feeds off the good news
of the grace of God. And our obedience feeds off of faith. Therefore, to
bring about the obedience of faith, we must hear the gospel of grace again
and again.

I am so encouraged by this sermon to continue to give away the grace I
receive, by feeding my faith from the grace so that I obey by faith.

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

_____

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

Piper #6 - Romans 1:8-15

2010-08-24T21:10:00.001-07:00

“Paul would state his life mission like this: “I exist (by the grace of God) to bring about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles (or peoples) for the sake of the glory of the name of Christ.”

Now if that’s his life mission—to glorify the name of Christ by bringing about the obedience of faith among the nations—then we would expect that this would also be the aim of his greatest of all letters, the letter to the Romans. And that is what we see in verses 8–15. We see Paul making a case to the Romans that even though he has not yet come to visit them, he has been and is now utterly devoted to building the obedience of faith in their lives and fulfilling his mission in their lives.”

^{^[1]}

In verses 8-15, Piper identifies Paul’s life mission as bringing about the obedience of faith among the peoples for the glory of God. And then Piper shares how that will come about, by faith, through his prayers, for the glory of God.

“Surely we should learn from this that the great aim of our ministry should be the same as Paul’s—to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of Christ’s name and God’s glory. I said a moment ago that faith glorifies God in at least two ways. One we saw here: namely, that God is the Giver and the Giver gets the glory. The other is that faith by its nature depends on God and calls attention to his trustworthiness.^{^[2]}”

So he explains faith as coming from God, so we cannot boast, so that He gets all the glory. But the other is that when someone has faith, that faith becomes visible as it depends on the glory of God. So, truly faith is from start to finish, from the inception to the end. And in the midst of this faith, obedience, is the fruit of faith, that the world can see, the invisible becoming visible from the inside out.

But, what encouraged me so much in this message was how he longed for that faith by praying for them night and day that he could visit them and establish them with his spiritual gifts and be encouraged by their spiritual gifts. Everything is to the glory of God. Their faith. His praying for them. Encouraging them in His spiritual gifts. Them encouraging him.

This brilliant man, educated, passionate, the lead apostle of the church, not only expresses his humility through his love for these people, but clearly demonstrates that nothing he does is by himself. It is all grace. Even his longing for them to be established is from God.

This aim for the church is also a wonderful insight to us that it is by faith, through faith, in faith, which is a gift of His grace, for the Glory of His Name.

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

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

^{^[2]}Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1990-1999). Minneapolis: Desiring God.

Piper #5 - Romans 1:1-7

2010-08-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Called and Beloved, Part II

Dr. Piper looks at two words in the initial greeting. Called which was part I and Beloved which is Part II. He speaks of this word beloved as not just a general love like God has for the evil and the righteous, or a love for the world that he sent his son, but a called love, a specifically chosen love, like a man has for a wife. God chose us to love us in a special covenantal relationship. And I love this quote, “I argued that this means Christians are called by God to belong to Jesus Christ (Romans 8:30; 1 Corinthians 1:9); and that this call of God is not just an invitation, but is the kind of call that creates what it commands.”

It is the kind of call that creates what it commands. That is grace. He calls and in his love sustains us and changes us and transforms us.

I was moved by this quote:

“ to put it simply and bluntly: the love of God keeps us from being separated from the love of Christ. Will “the called of Jesus Christ” be separated from him? No! Why? Because God loves us! The covenant love of God triumphs in preserving his own…In other words, the special, covenant love of God for us will triumph over everything that tries to destroy our faith and pull us away from God.”

What an amazing thought. God’s love not only woos us, not only transforms us, but keeps us from being separated from him.

We are His beloved.

I like how he ends it.

“This is what Paul means in Romans 1:7 when he says, “to all who are beloved of God in Rome.” And it is what God means when he says to you Christians today: You are the called of Jesus Christ; you are my loved ones. I have chosen you for my own; I have called you; I have justified you; I will keep you; I will work in you what is pleasing in my sight (Hebrews 13:21); nothing will separate you from me; because I love you with an everlasting love. You are my beloved.”

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

Piper #4 - Romans 1:6-7

2010-08-19T21:48:00.001-07:00

Called and Loved, Part I

Piper focuses on the word called in this passage. I didn’t really realize how crucial this word is to this book. I knew the word was important in the bible, but after reading this sermon and the looking up the word called on Logos, I found some key verses in Romans:

Romans 1:1 - ¹Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Romans 1:6 - ⁶including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

Romans 1:7 - ⁷To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:28 - ²⁸And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:30 - ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Romans 9:11 - ¹¹though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—

Romans 9:24 - ²⁴even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Romans 9:25 - ²⁵As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”

Romans 9:26 - ²⁶“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

Romans 11:29 - ²⁹For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

So there definitely is an undeniable aspect of salvation that relates to God’s specific call.

“When (Paul) describes what it means to have a Christian identity in verses 6–7, Paul does not put the first emphasis on what we do. He puts it on what is done to us and for us, just as he did in describing his own identity as a slave and apostle and servant of the gospel.^{^[1]}”

Piper shares how difficult it seems that in a world so big that God’s call would be so specific. He writes:

“So today, whether it looks like it or not, all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Christ. And unless we know that and believe that with all our hearts, we will be overwhelmed by the apparent bigness of all that happens in the world. In the absence of that truth, Christianity looks hopelessly insignificant and Christians look foolish. So set your mind on the magnificence of Christ as the Lord of the universe, and on the power and wisdom of God the Father who created all this and plans all this and is managing all this, precisely for the building of his church—his people—by bringing about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.^{^[2]}”

So the purpose of our lives is to live out the calling that has redeemed, justified and given a new purpose and meaning in our lives. Whether we like it or not, agree with it or not, God has had mercy on whom he has mercy. He hast turned on the light for whom he has turned on the light for, according to 2 Cor 4:4-6.

“That is what Paul means in Romans 1:6 when he says, “You Romans are the called of Jesus Christ.” God has said in your hearts, “Let there be light,” and you have seen his glory and come to him and called on him, and he has saved you, and forgiven you and accepted you and poured out his love in your hearts. That is what has happened to you, Christian. Learn who you are. Learn how to thank your God, and live in the humble wonder of grace.

And say with me to every unbeliever, on behalf of Christ, and in the power of his Spirit: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14).”

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

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

^{^[2]}Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1990-1999). Minneapolis: Desiring God.

Piper # 3 - Romans 1:1-5

2010-08-17T20:55:00.001-07:00

“I linger over this because if you get it early, the book of Romans will open to you like a flower. And if you don’t get it, the book will not make sense. And I linger over it because this is the essence of how God means for you to live your life.”

What is this thing that Piper sees as the key to understanding Romans?

Grace.

Grace to both save and enable ministry.

Too often people only see grace as something that saves you, but Piper’s point is that “he means that God not only saved him from his sin, but he also gave him grace to be an authoritative spokesman for the risen Son of God in power.^”

So, what is grace?

“So we have seen that grace is a power from God for ministry (like Paul’s apostleship). It is free and cannot be earned or deserved. It is received as a gift by faith, not merited by works.”

Piper draws an important connection with Romans 1:5 with Romans 15:18.

He says in Romans 15:18, “I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me [that’s the power of grace], resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles”—which is the same aim as 1:5.

And the best quote of the whole message:

“Paul serves Christ by the grace with which Christ serves Paul.^”

How do we apply this message?
“God wants you to read verse 5 and in the end put your calling in the place of the word “apostleship.” “Apostleship” is Paul’s—not mine and not yours. You might put, “Through Christ I have received grace and the teaching role.” Or: grace and singing. Or: grace and studentship. Or: grace and singleness. Or: grace and widowhood. Or: grace and motherhood. And what you should mean is: God has freely given me forgiveness and the power to do a calling, and fulfill a role which I accept by faith. There is not a role in life that can be lived the way God wants it lived apart from enabling grace. Being a godly mother or being an apostle is impossible without the power of grace. So when Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 15:10, that all his apostolic labor is by grace, you insert your own calling: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” The decisive, enabling power for all ministry and all service is God’s grace.”

As Piper does so well, he asks questions upon answers to give us more insight:

“But how do we receive and rely on grace? The answer is “by faith.” So you can see why all true obedience is the fruit of faith. It’s the fruit of faith because God’s grace is given to enable obedience, and faith is the way we rely on that grace, and so obedience is the fruit of that faith.”

So, I’ll finish off this with a practical application for me:

“So what we have seen so far is that God wants to be the Giver in this relationship. God wants to be gracious. God wants to be the fountain and the source of our service and our obedience and our ministry—whether apostleship, or pastor, or student, or mother, or any other calling. God intends to be the source of enabling, empowering, sustaining grace. Our job is to trust him and act in reliance on him. This is the essence of the Christian life.”

God has used this sermon in a very insightful way for me, to help me see, how truly destitute that I am in ministry and how much I really need his grace. It’s all about grace. From start to finish. I can claim nothing on my own

Piper - #2 - God's good new concerning his son - Romans 1:1-4

2010-08-15T21:35:00.001-07:00

The beginning of every message seems to be a quick review of the previous message and in this case. Sometimes these reviews drone on and on. In this message, it was a gem that I want to share. In speaking about Paul living to please God with his whole life, Piper writes:

In other words, Paul serves Christ in the power with which Christ serves Paul. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45; see also 1 Corinthians 15:10; 1 Peter 4:11). We will skew the whole meaning of Romans from the outset if we don’t see that Paul serves Christ in the power that Christ supplies, so that Christ gets the glory for Paul’s service

And then the next phrase says, “This sovereign, all-supplying Christ.”

I had never seen it phrased about Christ coming to serve is one who still serves. He really does continue to serve in ways that are power supplying and life altering. He is a serving God. And as Paul says, we will skew the whole meaning of Romans if we don’t see that the grace that Christ gives to serve Christ comes from Christ.

As for this second message, he starts off by saying it is about the gospel of God. It is easy to skip right over the beginnings but in this case, Piper doesn’t and I am glad. A couple of things jumped out at me:

First, I am in the middle of preparing an Old Testament survey course to the pastors class in Zambia and I have been really encouraged to see how the Old Testament is all about Christ and fulfilled in Christ and is typified in Christ. He is the reality of all that was written about “beforehand in the holy scriptures.”

Piper writes, “

1) The gospel of God is the fulfillment of Old Testament promises.

It is not a new religion. It is the fulfillment of an old religion. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. What he was preparing and promising then, he fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.

2) God keeps his promises.

Hundreds of years go by. The Jews wonder if the Messiah will ever come. They go through horrendous suffering. Then God acts and the promise is fulfilled. This means that God can be trusted. It may look as if he has forgotten his promises. But he does not forget. So verse 2 is not only a statement about the content of the gospel, but is also a reason for believing it. If we can see that God promised Christ centuries before he came and that in many details he fulfils these promises, our faith is strengthened.

3) These are holy, inspired writings we should reverence and believe.

Read the verse carefully: He [God] promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.” God promised in the Scriptures. God is speaking in the Scriptures. That is what makes them holy. This is Paul’s understanding of Scripture and should be ours. If you have ever wondered why our Bibles say “Holy Bible” on the front, Romans 1:2 is the answer.

Piper also talks about the fact that Jesus was born as a man and raised by the Spirit of Holiness. Another insight here was that he was born according to the prophetical writings of God (his promises came true) and it also says that he raised. To be raised you have die. And that was against all the hopes and dreams of the Jews. Piper quotes (Luke 24:21, “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel”

So, all in all, a good foundational start to the GOSPEL of GOD

Romans - For my 40th year

2010-08-15T02:57:00.003-07:00

I am turning 40 on this upcoming January 6. I was trying to think of something I could start and end during this 40^th year that would be significant and yet doable and encouraging. I feel led to go through each of John Piper’s sermons on the book of Romans, 244 sermons in a year. But I still have five months left before I turn 40, and I thought, why wait? So, I am going to give it a shot, starting now.… 244 sermons in approximately 500 days. Each sermon, every few days, I’ll give a short snap shot of what I am learning with a quote from Dr. Piper from the sermon. The beauty of this is that he has it in both manuscript as well as audio, so I will be taking advantage of each. Rather than give the link to each sermon each day, I will be just giving the link of the sidebar that will take you to every sermon on Romans. I am looking forward to this new challenge/goal. And just as the the book of Romans is more about God than Paul (see Romans 1:1), this goal isn’t about me. The whole sermon a day idea was merely an accountable tool to get me learning and growing in God’s word.

See ya on the other side and hopefully throughout it as well.

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

Piper - Roman 1:1

2010-08-15T02:57:00.001-07:00

“So verse one may look like it is about the author of the letter; but behind every phrase is Someone far greater. God bought him by the death of his Son, God called him to be an apostle (Galatians 1:15; 1 Corinthians 1:1), God set him apart from before he was born. And he did it all, “for the gospel of God”—which we will look at next week. In other words, even in the first verse we hear Romans 11:36, “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever.”^{^[1]}”

Appreciated this challenge to one see the sovereignty of God at work in Paul’s life to accomplish glory for God and I appreciate the challenge to reflect on my whole and see if I both recognize and believe that God is at work in the same way in my life.

Steve Allen

ACTION Zambia

www.aliveinafrica.com

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

Week 31 - Karl Payne - Breaking the Tape (Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons)

2010-02-12T02:48:00.000-08:00

Karl Payne (back row, far left) is a pastor at Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Washington, a chaplain of the Seattle Seahawks, an author of a very good book on Demon and Spiritual Warfare and a love of apologetics. I have met him a few times, as he is a good friend of one of my best friends. I commend to you then two of his talks he gave at The Downtown Church, just a few months ago. He spoke on how to converse with Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons about the Bible and their religion. Wow, what a simple, loving, productive way to share your faith with those from cults. I promise you that this will be a very insightful and encouraging talk. It is simple enough to listen to while driving, but it is also deep enough to warrant taking notes. He is simple, honest, real, funny... It is a great talk and you won't want to miss it. Or as He says, you have no excuse not to share your faith with others outside of the grace of Jesus and this talk shows you how.

Check this link for the Jehovah Witnesses talk.
Check this links for the Mormonism talk.
Check this link for Karl's website.

Enjoy!

Joel Beeke - Perseverance & Assurance

2010-01-30T13:52:00.000-08:00

Got one more for you from Beeke and I'm here to tell you that this one's even better than the first. Both come from a conference that Beeke did with Derek Thomas - you can find the full list of messages over on my blog.

Enjoy!

Week 30 - Joel Beeke on the Foundations of Assurance

2010-01-28T20:35:00.001-08:00

How many of you struggle over the question of whether you truly belong to God? How often are you tempted to give up because you see no evidence of any change in your life, no sign that the Spirit is at work in you?

I highly recommend this message given by Joel Beeke in which he brings together Scripture plus the witness of the Puritans to help us know that we are His.

Jayson Turner - The Letters to the Churches

2010-01-23T03:43:00.000-08:00

I just finished the first of the seven letters to the churches in Revelation. I have also listened to last one. For the church to Ephesus, I was very encouraged. Jayson is first a pastor, then theologian, historian, comedian and then over all that that he is a father who loves his five girls. The message is packed full, and you will laugh, be warmed with his honesty and personableness, shake your head in agreement, learn quite a few new things and be nicely challenged. Especially for those planting a church, you will love how Jayson interacts with his church. It is a great message and you will want to listen to it if you want to find your first love! Click here to find the message. For the rest of the podcasts, check it out here!

Week 28 - John Piper on Holy Ambition

2010-01-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Happy new year and all that. It's great to be back and I'm thankful to Steve for this opportunity to explore and discover the best of the best in preaching out there to share with you. Since it is still the beginning of the year, I can't think of a better way to kick things off than with some kind of a stirring, big vision message and I think I've got just the one for you. This was preached just a few weeks ago on New Year's Eve.

More to come...

By the way, Steve and I both would appreciate any suggestions you have for sermons or preachers. We'll be happy to check out any leads and share the goodness with the rest.

Week 27 - Chris Hodges on prayer

2010-01-07T23:50:00.000-08:00

I spent the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 listening to some great talks on prayer and fasting by Chris Hodges. Chris is the pastor at Church of the Highlands, a big church in Alabama that reaches many for Christ on Sunday and then equips them on Wednesday. These talks were for the Wednesday group and they were all encouraging, practical and personal. Chris reminds me a bit of Francis Chan, in that he really seems live what he preaches. Chris speaks with a nice southern drawl, contextualizes for a southern crowd, and has a real heart for the city and the nation. The more I listen to Chris, the more impressed I am by him. He is the read deal...

As you will learn on the talk on fasting, he started his church plant with a 21 day fast and they have done it ever since. He says it is the reason for any success they have experienced, and with four video churches and over 400 church plants, I'd say they have had some success.

So, be encouraged listening to the three talks on prayer and then the prayer and fasting talk. The first one is basic, lifestyle pray er, the second is a great talk on a style of prayer called tabernacle prayer and the third is prayer on Spiritual Warfare. The fourth talk is on Prayer and Fasting. I promise you will be encouraged by the personal nature, the down to earthness, the practicality and the heart displayed for his people.

Enjoy!

Welcome (us) back...

2010-01-06T00:17:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been awhile, but we here at aSermonaDay.com are excited about what lies ahead in providing great, biblical sermons to enrich and encourage. I say we, because the I is no more. My good buddy Pete Williamson, a church planter with ACTS 29 in Bellingham, Washington, pastor, father, and trainer of pastors has agreed to do every other week to help add a bit of flair to this blog. Just so you know that God can do miracles, and that their are no gentiles and jews, slaves or freeman, and that we are one in Christ, God has done the ultimate miracle in making friends of a University of Washington grad (me) and a Washington State University grad (Pete.) Yeah, amazing, huh? He has a sense of humor. I know you will be encouraged by him.

The goal of a sermon a day is give you a great sermon every day if you want it. But, we decided that instead of giving a sermon every day, that we would give at least one great sermon a week, and then week after week after week, eventually, with the sermons we already have, will have 365 great sermons... This keeps us fresh, motivated and able to do what we are excited to do...

So, sign up for the email, join us on RSS or whatever you can...

We love comments and encouragement and any info on broken links... Thanks again!

A new year comin'

2009-12-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Well, a new year is upon us and a bunch of new A SERMON A DAY sermons to come... A new year will bring a new look that I think you will find new and great! My good buddy Pete Williamson, pastor in Washington, will be joining force to help bring some great sermons to this blog...

But, until January, here is a great little PIPER YOUTUBE!!! ENJOY!

100,000 hits...

2009-08-18T01:01:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your support of A Sermon a Day.com. We have just surpassed 100,000 hits for the life of the blog and over 50,000 have visited here. As you have probably noticed, we have not been posting for awhile. It has been a busy transition into life as a missionary in Zambia and the internet has not been consistent, especially in the early day of our arrival. We are planning a revamp for this blog and adding a new team of pastors to review sermons to help you find a sermon you are looking for. So, stay tuned. The best is yet to come.

Tedd Tripp - Shepherding a Child's Heart

2009-02-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing series of talks on parenting. Tedd Tripp wrote "Shepherding A Child's Heart" and wow, it is an amazing series of talks. He gave them at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Here they are!

Gene Getz - A look at the Church through three lenses

2009-01-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

Gene Getz, the church/pastor/author guru spoke at my church in Bellingham in the month of January. He met with the elder and then gave a great talk about the church. Here is the link!

Matt Chandler - The Church

2009-01-29T21:42:00.000-08:00

Matt has been a real spokesmen lately for our culture and it is no different here as he speaks about the church. Here is the link for this three sermons:
Our Church Universal
The Church Universal
The Church Local

Jeff Bucknam - A __________ Church

2009-01-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

My buddy Jeff is a pastor at Northview Community Church in Abbotsford, B.C. He just became the pastor in September of 2008 and started off with a vision for the future of what a/the/our church should be about... Here is the link to his series, in both video and audio!

Nov 2 A Compassionate Church
Pastor Jeff Bucknam
Oct 26 A Missional Church
Oct 19 An Equipping Church
Pastor Jeff Bucknam
Oct 12 An Authentic Community Church
Pastor Jeff Bucknam
Oct 5 A Prayerfully Dependent Church
Pastor Tim Klassen
Sep 28 A Gospel-Soaked Church
Pastor Jeff Bucknam
Sep 21 A Faith-Risking Church
Pastor Jeff Bucknam
Sep 14 A Bible-Believing Church
Pastor Jeff Bucknam

Jayson Turner - Five Stories for the City

2009-01-27T07:33:00.000-08:00

From beach with turners

My good friend Jayson Turner is planting a church in downtown Bellevue in Washington, appropiately named, Downtown Church. It is a very unique cross-section of life that is a very wealthy, lonely and hurting place. He has taken a very unique and fresh approach to setting a vision for this church plant by taking five stories from Jesus and creating a vision from there. You will want to listen to all five below... Very insightful, challenging and inviting...

10/26/2008	The Vine	John 15:1-11
11/2/2008	The Good Samaritan	Luke 10:25-37
11/9/2008	The Rich Fool	Luke 12:13-21
11/16/2008	The Talents	Matthew 25:14-30
11/23/2008	The Pearl	Matthew 13:45-46
11/30/2008	A Vision for the Downtown Church	Matthew 13:45-46

Here is the link.

The Church - What, Why, How and When?

2009-01-26T07:21:00.000-08:00

This week we are looking at the church. I have two good friends who are beginning their pastorates at two different churches. Both of them started with a series on the church. And then, my church had a couple of good talks regarding the church. Frances Chan and Josh Harris will round out the other two.

Starting off today will be Frances Chan and his talk on the church. Francis Chan and the church. I have been so encouraged by the journey that Cornerstone has been on as of late, committing 50% of all their income to the poor, monthly focusing on a ministry for giving, and building an outdoor amphitheatre so they can save money and yet still share the gospel at church. I really appreciate his ministry and I know you will as well...

You will find the first of six talks here...

Life...

2008-08-29T23:21:00.001-07:00

We just had our fourth baby and life is well, full and great... Hope to get some sermons out soon but it may be a bit. I would love to hear about some of your favorites as of late... Leave them in the comment section and why you like it... Thanks for being a part of asermonaday.com!

Speaking at a camp this week

2008-08-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

I am speaking at a camp this week, thus no sermons this week... I would appreciate your prayers!

Thanks!
Steve

Louie Giglio - Alive Pt. 2

2008-07-31T23:20:00.000-07:00

This is part two of his talk from yesterday... The next step after the human body and it is a fitting finale in his two part series.

Click here for video!

Louie Giglio - Alive Pt. 1

2008-07-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

You will have to watch this to get it free, but it is worth the time... An amazing look at the human body which proves that we are fearfully and wonderfully made as only Louie can tell it!

Click here for the video!

Frances Chan - Power

2008-07-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

A different way to look at power, but Frances talks about the power that we have in God to overcome sin and death. It is a pretty empowering message. I don't think you will want to miss it. There are lot of great messages to listen to, but this one will stick for a while, and you'll find yourself emailing this to friends.

Click here for the link!

Mark Driscoll - Creation: God Makes

2008-07-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

This a good comprehensive talk on creation. It covers not only all the angles, but it also deals with how to argue nicely as Christians. It is a perfect start for the theme this week on the Power of God!

Enjoy here!

A week off...

2008-07-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

I am taking a week off because of a family reunion and a wedding that I am officiating... Tune in next week for some more sermons. Just so you know, I love it when people comment about different topics they would like to see or recommend sermons that affected them...

Thanks for being a part of the community to better know and live God's Word!

Steve

Joel Harris - We must be constant worshippers

2008-07-19T21:28:00.001-07:00

Let’s be honest… nowadays, when someone mentions worship, most people think of music. You know, that time in the church service when everyone sings. Lots of Christian recording artists make “worship projects” with hit singles on them.
However, if we search God’s Word faithfully and look to mature Christians who possess wise insight, we will quickly see that worship is much more than songs. Worship is what we were created for, it’s what we’ll spend eternity doing, and it encompasses our hearts as well as our actions.
“Worship - whether an inner act of the heart, or an outward act of the body, or of the congregation collectively - is a magnifying of God. That is, it is an act that shows how magnificent He is. It is an act that reveals or expresses how great and glorious He is. Worship is all about consciously reflecting the worth or value of God.” - John Piper, Desiring God Ministries
From the beginning, worship has been an important aspect of the Rebelution. In the broadest sense, since everything we do as Christians is worship, all the hard things, both big and small, should be attempted for God’s glory. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)
But in the more narrow sense, Rebelutionaries, including the Harris family, have always been passionate about singing God’s praise. We love worship as it’s defined by the Psalmist, “Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Psalm 96:2-3)
Before The Rebelution, There Was Worship
In the summer of 2000, long before blogs, books and conference tours, Alex and Brett played keyboard and congas for a worship band that I formed in high school. They’ve been active members of the worship team at our church, and now as they head off to college on the East Coast, younger sister Sarah and younger brothers Isaac and James are stepping up to take their place.
Worship has always played a key role at the Rebelution conferences. From our very first conference in 2006, in Sacramento, CA, I‘ve led worship on my own or with a band accompanying me. We don’t include worship because teens like music. We don’t make room for it merely to bring variety to the day. We do it because it just wouldn’t seem right without it.
The reason Alex and Brett write blog posts and books, the reason our family travels across the country holding conferences, the reason the Rebelution even exists, is for the praise and glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ. But here’s the problem… because we are all prideful, sinful human beings, it’s very easy to lose sight of that.
We are far too quick to become focused on ourselves, focused on our accomplishments, focused on the task at hand, but forgetting the very reason for it all. That’s why it’s so important to open the day, and each session throughout the day, with singing. And that’s why it’s important for Rebelutionaries to be constant worshipers. It helps us keep the focus where it belongs.
Low Expectations in Worship
It also matters what we sing. It’s been established that our ungodly culture has low expectations for young people. But when it comes to worship, even the Christian community has low expectations for us. Worship songs targeted for kids, tweens, teens and young adults, have dumbed down the lyrical content because they think we’re too dumb to understand anything harder.
Sadly, in far too many cases this assumption is correct. Young people who don’t study their Bibles faithfully, who don’t read hard books, and who can’t sit through “grown-up” sermons, probably can’t comprehend the profound truths found in timeless hymns like And Can It Be That I Should Gain, or Rock of Ages.
Rebelutionaries, on the other hand, must not allow their worship to be dictated by low expectations, even if those expectations come from within the church. We should embrace songs that unpack rich doctrines like justification, atonement, sanctification, and assurance. We should love the old hymns, not for their cutting edge musical style, but for the wisdom and insight of godly Christians who penned those words centuries ago but were sinners who loved their Savior, just like us.
Why Not Just, Jesus Loves Me?
I realize this can seem counterintuitive. Wouldn’t the easiest and most efficient approach be to use simple songs which express love for God, or celebrate His love for us? Remember our motto, “do hard things”? It applies to this area as well.
When we exert ourselves, when we do the hard work of wrapping our mind around the glorious, profound, life-transforming truths of the Gospel, then the things we comprehend with our minds can spark deep affections in our hearts. We can tap into a joy in God, an amazement at sovereign grace, and a passion for His glory that would never have been possible under a diet of “worship lite”.
In the book Worship Matters, Bob Kauflin writes that “each of us has a battle raging within us over what we love most–God or something else.” He’s right. Worship is crucial, because every day there is a battle raging for our hearts. The enemy wants us to find our joy in the pleasures of sin and the distractions of this world. It’s vital that we fight back, for God makes it clear in His Word that if He doesn’t have our hearts, our outward service is wasted energy (Matthew 15:8-9).
We must fight for joy in God using the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. One way we do that is through songs which drive biblical truth deep into our hearts, so we can draw upon it in the midst of the fray. If the words are faithful and God-centered, they will provide fuel for our faith. And if the music is skillfully crafted, it will move our souls and ignite new passion for the cause.
Worship Challenges for Rebelutionaries
So, here are a few challenges for you Rebelutionary worshipers:
1. Sing. Start each day out with a song. Don’t be so dependent on CDs or data projectors. Learn the lyrics of songs by heart so you can sing as you get dressed, sing in the shower, sing in the car.
2. Expand your music-listening horizons. Most of you are probably familiar with artists like Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, and Passion. They have put out a lot of great stuff, but I encourage you to branch out. A lot of songwriters are writing theologically sound, doctrinally rich modern-day hymns, or giving old forgotten hymns another lease on life by composing new music.
Sovereign Grace Music
Come Weary Saints
Valley of Vision
Songs for the Cross-Centered Life
Upward: The Bob Kauflin Hymns Project
Worship God Live
Keith & Kristyn Getty
In Christ Alone
Indelible Grace Music
Beams of Heaven
Wake Thy Slumbering Children
3. Engage in your local church. If you don’t play an instrument, learn to play guitar, piano or something else useful. If you can carry a tune, volunteer to sing. Be a positive influence in the place God has you right now. Get a copy of Bob Kauflin’s outstanding book, Worship Matters, and after you’ve finished reading it, loan it to your pastor or worship leader (or both)!
4. Do the hard work of writing excellent worship songs. We need more of what my dad calls “poet-theologians” — like Isaac Watts, Fanny Crosby, and Charles Wesley. If you need help, consult Paul Baloche’s comprehensive worship songwriting handbook, God Songs. If you can’t come up with any ideas, use the lyrics to some old public domain hymn. Don’t have access to a hymnal? Check out Cyber Hymnal.
. . . do all to the glory of God.

Bob Kauflin - Corporate Worship as Pastoral Care

2008-07-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

My friend, Pete Williamson, posted this a couple of months ago, but seeing it fit the week, I wanted to bring it back...

Bob Kauflin is someone that I've been exposed to more recently through listening to Sovereign Grace material. Bob was at one point a member of the a capella group GLAD and has now been involved in pastoral ministry at several SGM churches. Most recently, he is the Director of Worship Development at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD (where Josh Harris pastors). I've found Bob's combination of experiences as a professional musician and a pastor really helpful in thinking through what worship - especially at the congregational level - should be about and look like.

Today's audio comes from a seminar Bob taught at SGM's Worship '06 conference.

Randy Alcorn - Living as if Heaven were your home

2008-07-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

I loved this honest, heartfelt, biblical sermon from Randy Alcorn. He shared his story, he talked about Heaven and he really encouraged me. This is a must listen from a man who has spent his life studying and living for eternity. Here is the link!

Frances Chan - Holiness

2008-07-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

This sermon by Frances Chan is sober and difficult to both preach and for many to hear. He takes the holiness of God to the very personal level and deals with sexual immorality. It is heartfelt and honest. Click here to listen!

Coming is a Conference near you...

2008-07-15T22:38:00.001-07:00

I typed out a list of the upcoming conferences for the 2008-09 year... There sure are a lot of conferences, and I didn't get nearly all of them. It is amazing how many conferences there are in America and how much money are spent at them... I think conferences are important, but I just wonder what would happen if every pastor who went to a conference would agree to teach one in a third world country where the pastors can't afford conferences let alone Bibles...

September 22-24

Northwest Pastor’s Conference-Calvary Chapel

Warm Beach Camp, Stanwood, Washington

September 11 – 12

Bible Conference for Pastors

First Pres Church, Columbia SC

September 26-28

Desiring God National Conference

Minnesota

September 29-October 2

Hume Lake Pastor’s Conference

Hume, CA

October 6-7, 2008

Expositors Conference

Mobile, Alabama

October 6-9

Hume Lake Pastor’s Conference

Hume, CA

October 8-10

Catalyst

Atlanta, GA

October 20-23

Ligonier Ministries Pastor Conference

Lake Mary, Fl.

November 6-7

John 3:16

Woodstock, Georgia

November 13-15

Lead Now

Dallas, TX

November 17-20

Preach the Word

Riverside, California

February 2-4

Desiring God Pastor’s Conference

Minnesota, MN

February 6-10, 2009
Jacksonville Pastors Conference

Jacksonville, Florida

February 10-13, 2009
National Pastors Convention
San Diego

February 19-20, 2009

Creative Pastors Conference

Grapevine, TX

April 6-8, 2009

Sovereign Grace Pastor’s Conference

Gaithersburg, Maryland

March 2-4, 2009

Refresh Pastor’s Conference

Pigeon Forge, TN

March 4-8, 2009

Shepherd’s Conference

Sun Valley, California

May 6-9

Regent College Pastor’s Conference

Vancouver B.C.

May 11-13

Basics – Alistair Begg

Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio

May 18-21, 2009

Moody Pastor’s Conference

Chicago, Illinois

May 26-28, 2009

Banner of Truth Conference

Grantham, Penn

C.J. Mahaney - The Holiness of God

2008-07-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

I listened to this sermon because of what my friend, Adrian Warnock wrote on his blog...

Here are his words: If you are an avid C. J. Mahaney listener, you may well have heard of a series of talks he did many years ago on people in the Bible who God killed. In which case, I've got a real treat in store for you! But first, let me set the context.

I would like to share with you a few sermons over the coming weeks or months that have impacted me so much that I still remember them. I am convinced that the gentle "drip drip" effect of being continually exposed to good teaching over many years is as important as the moments of great impact and decision. But, by the nature of things, we don't remember those sermons!

Some messages do consciously shape us, however, creating a moment of transaction between us and God. Often we remember how we felt when we heard them as if it were yesterday, even years afterwards. This is one such talk. I would love to hear from others about sermons they remember as having transformed them in a similar way.

To set the scene, I was still a young boy. I had somehow persuaded my parents to let me go into the adults' meeting in a tent at Downs Bible Week, an early Newfrontiers conference.

Mahaney was a phenomenon even back then. He was funny, engaging, easy to understand, and truly passionate. He was speaking about the holiness of God, and by honing in on the people God killed, certainly got my attention. This was a side of God I hadn't really given much attention to.

This talk was very well received. In fact, you could have cut the air with a knife that night because of the sense of the presence of God in the room. It was one of the very few times in my life when I caught something of the smell of revival. That night I experienced for the first time a sense of the weighty presence of God in all his holiness that both attracted and terrified me. I knew then that this was what a revival would feel like. If I had known how seldom I would experience the same sensation in the ensuing years, I would not have wanted to leave that tent. Sometimes today I cry out to God that he would reveal himself in such a way again. When we pray for revival, I'm not entirely sure we know what we are praying for.

Judging by the heavy sense of conviction in the room, many of us were totally undone that night. I know that for me, I would never be able to treat God as flippantly or irreverently again. That night kindled in me a healthy respect for God which has never left me. The Bible both commands us to fear God, and then tells us not to be afraid of him. Or, as Newton puts it:

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved.
One of my most enduring memories of that evening all those years ago was speaking to a member of our church who, with eyes brimming with tears, said that they felt they had just begun their Christian life all over again—if that were possible. There were many who felt the same way, wondering if they had ever been a Christian up until that point.

So, if are intrigued like I was when I read this from a guy I really respect like Adrian, I believe you will find it worth your time to listen!

Here is the link! I loved the sermon and I think you will love it!

Mark Driscoll - Worship: God Transforms

2008-07-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

This is a great sermon to kick off this week about the worship that transforms a believer. Pastor Mark really gets to the heart of the issue about what worship is and then makes it incredibly applicable. Powerful, insightful, convicting and encouraging... This is the 11th part of their Doctrine Matters series. Here is the link to the video!

Terry Virgo - Grace

2008-07-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

Grace. We all have specialties and I think this is his. And though we have already done three days on grace, it is good to put this here because it is it is geared towards teens and they are only 15 minute talks. So, perhaps this will be helpful for you!

Grace, Part I
Grace Part II
Grace, Part III
Grace, Part IV

Terry Virgo - Gideon, part I and II

2008-07-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

This two part talk on Gideon is insighful and helpful. I think you will appreciate his insight on this man and how practical his life is for ours. Check out part 1 here and part 2 here!

Enjoy!

Terry Virgo - Grace, part III - Free to Serve

2008-07-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the last of his grace talks... You will want to finish this series as his thought on dead works is pretty insightful. Click here for the talk.

Terry Virgo - Grace, Part II - Free Indeed

2008-07-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here is part two of three of his grace series. Good stuff found here!

Terry Virgo - Grace, part I

2008-07-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

This is a three part series on grace that is excellent. Terry has a unique style, part story-teller, part expositor and part human analyzer which enables him to speak with great authority and compassion and to make you see things in scripture which you wouldn't have normally thought about. So, enjoy the listen!

Terry Virgo - A Leader's Prayer Life

2008-07-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

I have decided to spend a week introducing you to Terry Virgo. Here is some information about him.

Terry is based at Church of Christ the King, Brighton, UK and is the founder of Newfrontiers, a worldwide family of churches together on a mission to establish the kingdom of God by restoring the church, making disciples, training leaders and planting churches. He and his team serve nearly 500 churches worldwide.

A well-known Bible teacher, Terry speaks at conferences internationally and hosts the annual Together on a Mission conference in the UK, which draws thousands of delegates from around the world.

Terry has written several books, including No Well-Worn Paths , which is his biography and the story of NewFrontiers.

I was encouraged to listen to him by a friend Adrian Warnock who knows him well and is a part of one of his churches. I am so glad I did. This talk on prayer was revolutionary for me as one who not only understands how to teach about prayer but also loves to pray. He invites on into his world and the real focus of prayer, which is glorifying God. Don't let the reformed/charismatic labels scare you a way this week. He is the real deal. Here is the link to this talk!

Voddie Baucham - The Value of a Family

2008-07-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

Voddie has had the most significant life changing impact on me in term of family than I think anyone else in terms of a speaker. He has literally changed our lives in some very practical, real ways. And I can't say enough about him if you want fresh, powerful, life-altering ways on raising kids and viewing the family. I have given you the link to his home page. You can purchase the websites off his link for only $1.99 which I believe will be an amazing investment or I am sure you can find them elsewhere on the web, but with not as good a recording. Plus, you need to pick up his book! Great Stuff!!!

Click Here for links!

John Piper- Marriage Is Meant for Making Children...Disciples of Jesus, Part 2

2008-07-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

I listened to this sermon quite awhile ago and it has stayed with me many days. I looked back at the sermon and I remembered most of it. That doesn't happen often to me, so I am confident that the sermon is profound and deep and penetrating, especially for the fathers who struggle with anger as I have in my life. I hope it encourages you as it did me.

Here is the link!

C.J. Mahaney - Cross Centered Parenting

2008-07-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

C.J. on parenting. Not much more I need to say. Humble, full of grace, and encouraging. You can't go wrong. Here is the link!

Gregg Harris - As for me and my house

2008-06-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

If you are a parent like me (I was just interupted by my four year old telling me at 9:28pm, "I can't go to sleep") you understand the demand and the guilt and the joy and pressure and the prayers that go into being a mommy and a daddy. Well, this week is for you. And I am going to start it off with a great talk by Gregg Harris at Bethleham Baptist (John Piper's church). You might know the last name better with a Josh in front of it (think I kissed Dating goodbye) or an Alex and Brett (Do Hard Things), but Gregg is pretty good in his own right. Actually, he is really insightful and listening to him and reading the Do Hard Things book, you get to see how and where these kids come from. It is by grace and a lot of hard work that parents get to see the fruit that they have seen. So, listen in, and stay especially for the end as he builds a foundation and then shows the fruit at the end. Intentional, grace-filled and solid. Here is the link for his blog!
And here is the message...

Don't Waste your Life - The series...

2008-06-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

Josh Harris and C.J. and that great church in Maryland put together a topical series covering a wide variety of messages that talks about how to not waste your life...

At this link you will find 9 great talks, such as Don't waste your sports, vote, humor, kids, ambition, mind and suffering... Don't miss out! There are some great talks here!

While we get where we are going - Steve Allen

2008-06-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

I preached this message at Crossroads Bible Church where I was youth pastor for seven years. It is what I ended up calling a "preachimony" as it was a testimony and challenge of my time in Zambia. After spending nine months in Zambia, I was challenged by the immense poverty, spiritual struggles and my own fears and inhibitions. I hope you are encouraged by the challenge that challenge me and may we all live lives that aren't wasted. Check out the link here.

Lessons from Uganda - Francis Chan

2008-06-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

I love this talk by Francis Chan. It is his reflections on his ministry trip to Uganda but quickly progresses into an amazing challenge to live a life life Africa is real. It is a great, challenging message which I especially appreciate having spent the last 9 months in Zambia. Check it out here!

I also wanted to plug his new book, Crazy Love. I just finished it and I loved it. It could be titled, "Don't Waste your Life as well" I recommend it highly.

Staying Focused on the Task - Francis Chan

2008-06-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

This talk given at a Cal Poly is a great addition to this week of "Don't Waste your Life!" It is classic Francis Chan in its passion, humor, great stories and illustrations. It is challenging for any age!

Check out this great talk!

They love us, they love us not.

2008-06-24T16:07:00.000-07:00

This sermon by my good friend Jayson Turner is a challenging, convicting sermon. It comes from from John 15:18-25 (ESV) which is all about how being a Christian isn't popular in this world. He not only talks about the early church, he also spends time talking about the church today and then the end is brilliant. It is as good as it gets when it comes to challenging us not to not waste our life here on earth. Click here to be challenged!

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. ²¹But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. ²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

Don't Waste your Life - John Piper

2008-06-23T15:54:00.000-07:00

The theme this week is based off of the great title by John Piper, "Don't Waste your Life!" Since then John Piper and the crew at Desiring God ministries have printed books, set up a website at www.dontwasteyourlife.com and he has spoke all around the world with this theme. So, what better sermon to start with than "Don't Waste your Life" by John Piper! (The sermon is at the website, Don't Waste your Life.)

Andy Stanley - The Will of God

2008-05-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Back in the day, TV shows used to be like once a week. You would have to wait a week to watch the next show. Not now, well, if you don't mind being behind a year or more at at time. You can get a season at a time, and if it is one of those shows that leaves you with a hanger of suspense, you say, "I will just watch and see what happens" and then before you know it, boom, it's 2:00am. Or so I have heard that is happens that way...

Anyway, the beauty of listening to sermons a series behind is you can have all of them at your fingertips, and this series on the will of God is something you don't want to miss... Simple and yet brilliant, he meets everyone at heart level. He builds on each lesson and especially, if you are needing to know God's will on a subject, this will be a great listen for you.

The only place you will find this series is on Itunes podcast - North Point Ministries: Andy Stanley... The title is: Discovering God's Will.

It will be worth the effort!