This sermon is one of the best I've heard in a long time. Of course I would highly recommend that you listen to it or watch it (not sure if its still available to watch). I hope and pray that this will help you. Listening and taking notes in this sermon has certainty been a great exercise for me and I praise God for that.
Main point: Seeing and savoring the supremacy of Jesus Christ frees you from the slavery of sin for the sacrifices of love.
Step 1: Saving Faith: Seeing, Savoring, and Believing
Piper sees that saving faith is seeing and savoring Jesus and being satisfied in all that God is for you in Jesus. Therefore, when you see and
savor Jesus, when you are satisfied with all that God is for you in Jesus, and when
you believe Jesus (saving faith) you outwardly are set free from the slavery of sin and the sacrifices of love.
The root of your
salvation glorifies God privately (seeing and savoring, being satisfied, and
trusting Jesus) and the fruit of your salvation glorifies God publically
(slavery of sin and sacrifices of love).
The first verse
he gives for proof of his main point is John 6:35: “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never
thirst.”
Coming to Jesus
and believing in Jesus are parallel statements meant to interpret each other.
The bread and the water are both images of Jesus. So, believing in Jesus is a
soul coming to Jesus to be satisfied in all that he is!
Next verse is John 1:12, “But
to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God.”
Receiving Jesus
and believing in Jesus are the same. Receiving or believing Jesus means you see
what he is, you want him, and you embrace him! You say yes, yes, yes!
Remember Piper is proving his definition of saving faith from the Bible.
Remember Piper is proving his definition of saving faith from the Bible.
The last verse is Hebrews 11:6, “And
without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to
God must believe that he is and that he rewards those who seek him.”
The only way to
please God is by believing. And he (the writer) unpacks what he means by believing. The
believing heart says you are my reward! You are the treasure of my life! Faith
is childlike, needy, and hungry. It is a desperate response to glory.
The fact that
seeing and savoring the supremacy of Jesus, being satisfied in all that God is for you in Jesus, and trusting Jesus
are equivalent realities is striking and threatening.
It means coming
to faith in Jesus requires a resurrection from the dead. You don’t by nature
see and savor him. You aren’t satisfied in all that he is for you, and you do
not by nature trust him.
Conversion or saving
faith is a gift of seeing and savoring! It is morally
impossible for someone who is in love with darkness to walk into the light. The new birth awakens
us from our deadness to treasure Jesus.
Romans 6:17-18, “But
thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient
from the heart, having been set free from sin, having become slaves of
righteousness.”
Having saving
faith does NOT mean you won’t struggle in this life. But in heaven there will be no struggle to
obey. We will all the way slaves of righteousness and the freest people in the
universe!
Step 2: The
supremacy of Jesus Christ.
Here Piper sets out to help us SEE so we can SAVOR the supremacy of Jesus by proclaiming who he is and why we should trust him. (Note: I did not include every aspect of what Piper talked about, otherwise it would have been too long.)
The supremacy of
his eternality: Jesus Christ never had a beginning. He always was.
The supremacy of
his knowledge: That makes all the information on the internet look like a 1940’s
farmer’s almanac.
The supremacy of
his authority: Without his permission nobody can move one inch. He puts up
kings and puts down kings.
The supremacy of
his providence: Without him not a single bird falls to the ground anywhere in the
world, including the deepest darkest jungle of the Amazon forest.
The supremacy of
his power: To walk on water, to open the eyes of the blind, the storms to cease,
and the dead to rise with a single word of his power.
The supremacy of
his justice: He will render in due time all moral accounts settled either on
the cross or in hell.
The supremacy of
his patience: To endure my dullness and your dullness decade after decade. And
hold back his final judgment on every land so that many can repent.
The supremacy of
his sovereign servant obedience: He kept the father’s commandments perfectly.
And then he embraced the pain of the cross willingly.
The supremacy of his grace: He gives life to the spiritually dead. He awakens faith in hell-bound haters of God. He justifies the ungodly with his own righteousness.
The supremacy of
his love: He willingly dies for sinners while we were against him, that we
might have ever-increasing joy in making much of him forever.
He is supreme in
every admirable way over everything.
“There is not
ONE square inch on this planet where Jesus Christ does not say, mine!”
Oh, that God would grant
you to see and savor the supremacy of Jesus.
Step 3: Seeing
and Savoring the Supremacy of Jesus Christ frees from sin.
2 Corinthians 3:18,
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
Beholding
(seeing, savoring) the glory of the Lord (supreme, glorious) seeing that you
are changed!! This verse says,
if I could just see with the eyes of my heart I would be changed.
Little hearts
give little lusts big power. Big hearts give little lusts little power. You have to see!
Your heart has to get bigger and bigger so that this little temptation looks
like the stupid, suicidal, insane little monster it is!
If you see and
savor the supremacy of Jesus Christ you will be progressively freed from the
bondage and slavery of sin.
Step 4: You will be freed from the sacrifices of love.
"For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one." Hebrews 10:34
What is it that
frees you to take risks with your life for the sake of others?
You look up to
Jesus, heaven, your inheritance, an eternity of everlasting and ever-increasing
joy, and you say that is enough! I don’t need it now. I’ve got it there and I’m
going here now. That is how sacrifices are freed by being satisfied in Jesus.
Closing: Isaiah
26:8, “Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.”
It takes a
miracle for a desire to be born for a supernatural reality that you can’t see.
May God Almighty
make the supremacy of the name of Jesus and the supremacy of the renown of
Jesus be your sight, savor, satisfaction, desire, and trust.
Great post
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