from John Piper

Ten Theological
Trademarks
from a Lifetime
of Preaching
Doctrine
Matters
2013 Desiring God
Published by Desiring God
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editors Preface i
1 God Is 1
1.1 Future-Creating Realities 2
1.2 God Absolutely Is 3
1.3 Understanding Exodus 3 4
1.4 Three Things God Says About Himself 6
1.5 The Truth Makes an Irrepressible People 7
1.6 Ten Things It Means for God to Be Who He Is 8
1.7 The Cosmic Outrage 11
1.8 Never Make God Peripheral 11
A. More About God
Seven Glorious Truths About God in Isaiah 6 13
2 The Glory of God 23
2.1 The Bible Is Clear About the Glory of God 24
2.2 Isaiahs Testimony to the Glory of God 26
2.3 How Glorify Is Different from Beautify 28
2.4 Why Did God Make This Particular World? 29
2.5 Five Points on Gods Glory and Christs Cross 30
2.6 Four Questions About Your Life 33
B. More About the Glory of God
Seven Examples of Gods Commitment to His Name 34
3 Christian Hedonism 41
3.1 Is Gods Self-Promotion Loveless? 43
3.2 Our Greatest Exhilaration and Gods
Greatest Glorication 45
3.3 The Realistic, Biblical Basis for Christian Hedonism 46
3.4 The Centrality of the Cross in Christian Hedonism 51
3.5 11 Illustrations of How Christian Hedonism
Changes Everything 51
C. More About Christian Hedonism
Eight Reasons to Pursue Your Satisfaction in God 56
What About Self-Denial? 59
4 The Sovereignty of God 64
4.1 What It Means to Be God 65
4.2 God Purposes All Things 66
4.3 A Straightforward Statement on Sovereignty 68
4.4 The Choice We All Face 69
4.5 Gods Sovereignty in the World Around Us 70
4.6 Gods Sovereignty in the Details 71
4.7 Gods Sovereignty in Human Actions 73
4.8 Gods Sovereignty in Your Own Life 74
4.9 Seven Exhortations for How We Live Because
God Is Sovereign 75
D. More About Gods Sovereignty
The Preciousness of Gods Sovereignty in Our Pain 76
5 The Gospel of God in Christ 82
5.1 What Is a Theological Trademark? 83
5.2 The Price and Prize of the Gospel in Romans 5 85
5.3 A Testimony from Church History 87
5.4 The Price and Prize of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15 89
5.5 The Love of God Is the Gift of Himself 92
E. More About the Gospel
How Is the Gospel the Power of God unto Salvation? 94
6 The Call to Global Missions 102
6.1 A Powerful Image of the Missions Effort 103
6.2 Do You Have a Compulsion to Go? 104
6.3 Ten Biblical Convictions on Global Missions 105
F. More About Missions
Four Motives for Missions from John 10:16 112
7 Living the Christian Life 117
7.1 Eight Crucial Things to See in 2 Thessalonians 1:112 118
7.2 A Panorama of the Christian Life 123
7.3 What It Means for the Everyday 124
7.4 Why We Should Be Grateful 125
7.5 Faith in Jesus Means Being Satised in Him 126
7.6 Six Examplesof Gods Promises in Your Life 128
G. More About the Christian Life
Build Your Life on the Mercies of God 130
The Life That Overcomes by Faith 134
8 The Perseverance of the Saints 137
8.1 Will You Endure in Faith? 137
8.2 A Theological Overview on Perseverance 139
8.3 Gods Unbreakable Faithfulness 142
8.4 How Is Our Perseverance Connected to the
Cross of Christ? 143
8.5 The Necessity of Community in the
Certainty of Security 144
8.6 There Is No Substitute for the Church 147
H. More About Perseverance
Settling Our Security in God Alone 148
9 Biblical Manhood and Womanhood 156
9.1 What Does Complementarian Mean? 157
9.2 The Wonder of Being Human 159
9.3 Gender Roles Are Not About Competency 161
9.4 The Testimony and Application of Ephesians 5:2233 163
9.5 A Specic Challenge to Men 168
I. More About Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Conict and Confusion After the Fall 169
10 Sorrowful Yet Always Rejoicing 176
10.1 What the World Needs to See in Us 177
10.2 Why Does It Matter What the World Needs? 180
10.3 Removing Obstacles in Three Steps 181
10.4 Six Amazing Paradoxes in Gospel Ministry 183
10.5 Prosperity Does Not Commend Us 184
10.6 Two Pictures of Sorrowful Yet Always Rejoicing 186
10.7 Salt and Light in This World 187
J. More About Suffering
Six Reasons to Keep on Rejoicing No Matter What 190
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EDITORS PREFACE
Systematic theology is glorious.
We know who God is. He has told us. In fact, he has
spoken so clearly through the Bible that we can produce
volumes of faithful literature about who he is and who
hes not, how he acts and how he doesnt, and what it all
means for life. We have these books, some better than
others, that have been given to the church for thousands
of years. We should read them and learn. We should
thank God for them.
And then there is preaching.
Tere is the week in, week out exposition of Gods
word to a particular people in a particular time with
a particular vision. Tis is where the theology is pro-
claimed and celebrated. Its where the truth of God is
held out for real people, for Gary and Lisa, for Ms. Verna,
for Joel, for Mike and Emily, for you and me.
Te preaching, you could say, is where the rubber
begins to meet the road on what a church believes. It is
the living statement of faith. Most of us get to see only
seasons of this unfold in the course of a pastors ministry.
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A few people get to experience the whole thing from the
pews. And then, in the case of John Piper, we have online
every sermon hes ever preached, for free, including a ten-
part series where he devotes a single message to the main
theological emphases of his 32-year preaching tenure.
Piper himself, refecting on three decades of pastoral
ministry, has extracted the most essential emphases he
wants to reiterate and bequeath to the fock and leader-
ship at Bethlehem Baptist Church in the Twin Cities. Pip-
er titled this series Tirty-Year Teological Trademarks.
Tese ten sermons, preached at the end of 2012, are in large
measure Pipers theological legacy manifest in and cher-
ished by a local church. But though the legacy is local, its
impact reaches much broader. Te theology here is for
Gods people everywhere, and thats why this ebook exists.
How to Use This eBook
Te original sermon series has been reorganized into a more
systematic outline, including edits that help the individual
sermons read more like chapters. Weve also removed little
things particular to Bethlehem and added headers with
the hopes of giving this resource dual functionality.
You can read each sermon through as stand-alone
chapters. Or, because the subject headers within each
chapter are hyperlinked in the Table of Contents, you
can reference specifc portions that have in-the-moment
interest for you. For example, say you want to know what
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Piper says about the sovereignty of God, which is Chap-
ter 4 in the ebook. Within that chapter is the header, A
Straightforward Statement on Sovereignty. Simply tap
this hyperlinked headline, and it will send you directly to
that section of the book. Or say you are thirsty for a prac-
tical word and you see the header, Seven Exhortations
for How We Live Because God Is Sovereign, with one
tap you can go there. Whether to answer pressing ques-
tions or to provide devotional fodder, the hope is that
this Table of Contents will serve you.
You will also notice that each chapter includes a section
of additional excerpts from Piper on the particular topic.
David Mathis, Tony Reinke, and I teamed up for a deep
dive into Pipers 1,200-plus sermons since 1980 to select
some of the best excerpts that re-highlight each doctrinal
emphasis. Te letters A to J signal these chapter appendi-
ces, which are also hyperlinked for your reference ease.
Doctrine Matters, Really
Before you get into the meat of this ebook, there are two
important things to keep in mind.
First, this ebook is about matters of doctrine
theological trademarks as Piper calls them. But that
doesnt mean they are new. Teyre not distinctive to us.
Teyre not niche or eccentric. [Tese doctrines] all have
wide foundations in the Bible and deep roots in the his-
tory of Gods people, Piper explains.
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When we say trademarks we mean truths that are
defning and shaping and precious.We dont mean
views that weve come up with and that set us of fom
the rest of the church of Christ.We dont want to be set
of.We want to be arm in arm with millions of faithful
followers of Gods word.Truth does divide.But it also
unites. And it is the uniting power of truth that we
delight in most. (fom Chapter 5, Section 1)
Second, the doctrines in this ebook matter. Tey really
matter. Dont think that these sermons are the memoirs
of a retired pastor. Dont think that these truths can be
shelved away to collect dust. Te vision of God in these
pages doesnt take a pat on the headit turns the world
upside down.
Tese doctrines are, as Piper says, wildly untamable,
explosively uncontainable, and electrically future-creat-
ing. Tey make a diference.
So consider this an encouragement, and a caution.
When you read these truths and immerse yourself in
this biblical vision of our great God, you will want to act.
You will want to build something. You will want to start
things. You will be compelled to dream big and risk bigger
for the glory of Jesus Christ. And we pray for nothing less.
Jonathan Parnell
desiringGod.org
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1. GOD IS
Ten Moses said to God, If I come to the people
of Israel and say to them, Te God of your fathers
has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is
his name? what shall I say to them?14God said
to Moses, I AmWhoI Am. And he said, Say
this to the people of Israel, I Amhas sent me to
you.15God also said to Moses, Say this to the
people of Israel, TeLord, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob, has sent me to you. Tis is my
name forever, and thusI Amto be remembered
throughout all generations. Exodus 3:1315
My ultimate goal in the ten chapters of this book is to
spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things
for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. In other
words, I aim to make so much of God the Father, and
God the Son, through God the Spirit, that youand
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thousands through youwill be moved to join me in
glad adoration of our triune God.
Under that overarching aim, my goal is to awaken
and strengthen a strong conviction in you that the last 30
years of ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church have been
preparation, not consummation. Or to put it another
way, I hope to help you see and feel that my transition as
the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem is less about land-
ing and more about launching. It is less about the great
things God has done, and more about the greater things
God is going to do.
Terefore it has seemed good to me, with the encour-
agement of the pastoral staf of Bethlehem, to turn our
attention to a battery of foundational realitiesdefn-
ing truths, thirty-year trademarks, biblical touchstones
that have profoundly shaped what Bethlehem Baptist
Church is for these last three decades.
1.1 Future-Creating Realities
Te summary of foundational truths in this book is like
a launch rather than land. Tey lead us to pursue prepa-
ration rather than ponder consummation, to lay hold on
the greater things to come rather than lingering over the
great things of the past. Te reason is that these foun-
dational realities, expounded in each chapter, are wildly
untamable, and explosively uncontainable, and electri-
cally future-creating. Tey dont just sustain the present
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and explain the past. Tey are living and active and super-
naturally supercharged to take this church where it has
not yet dreamed, in ways we have not yet dreamed.
And I should make clear before I launch into the
launch with these explosive truths, that I have little
doubt in my mindand the little doubt in my mind is
not of God, but of a lack of Godthat the next season
of Bethlehems life will be the greatest weve ever known.
We all know that many ministries have fourished for
decades and become signifcant, and then with a lead-
ership change, things fall apart and impact wanes, and
hope fades, and joy departs, and the ministry dwindles,
and maybe even dies. My deep conviction is that God is
not going to let that happen at Bethlehem. In fact, if I
had to, Id stake my life on that prediction.
And so we turn to this battery of foundational realities
these defning truths, these 30-year trademarks, these
biblical touchstonesthat have shaped what Bethle-
hem is for these last three decades, these wildly untam-
able, explosively uncontainable, and electrically future-
creating realities.
1.2 God Absolutely Is
Te frst theological trademark is thatGod is. Or to say it
the way our text says it,God is who he is. Or to say it more
philosophically,God absolutely is. Tis is the most basic
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fact and the most ultimate fact. Period. Of the billions
of facts that there are, this one is at the bottom and at the
top. It is the foundation of all others and the consumma-
tion of all others. Nothing is more basic and nothing is
more ultimate than the fact thatGod is.
Nothing is more foundational than that God is.
Nothing is more foundational to your life or your mar-
riage or your job or your health or your mind or your
future than that God is. Nothing is more foundational
to the world, or the solar system, or the Milky Way or the
universe than thatGod is. And nothing is more founda-
tional to the Bible and the self-revelation of God and the
glory of the gospel of Jesus than thatGod is.
1.3 Understanding Exodus 3
Te reality that God absolutely is stands as the point of
Exodus 3:1315. Let me set the stage for you. For several
centuries the people of IsraelGods chosen people
have lived as aliens in Egypt. And for a long time they have
been treated as slaves. Now the time of Gods deliverance
is drawing near. A Jewish child is born, named Moses. He
is providentially rescued from the edict of death by Pha-
raohs daughter and raised in the court. As an adult he
defends one of his kinsman by killing an Egyptian, and
fees to the land of Midian. And there God appears to him
in a burning bush, as we read inExodus 3:610:
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He said, I Amthe God of your father, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face, for he was afaid to look at
God.7Ten theLordsaid, I have surely seen the
afiction of my people who are in Egypt and have
heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know
their suferings,8and I have come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring
them up out of that land to a good and broad land,
a land fowing with milk and honey, to the place
of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the
Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.9And now,
behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me,
and I have also seen the oppression with which the
Egyptians oppress them.10Come, I will send you to
Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children
of Israel, out of Egypt.
So Moses is Gods chosen leader to bring his people out of
slavery and into the promised land. But he shrinks back.
As well he mightor Jason might, or you might. Verse
11: But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go
to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
And God said (verse 12), But I will be with you, and this
shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you
have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve
God on this mountain.
And then Moses brings us to one of the most
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important things God ever said. Tis is our text,Exodus
3:1315:
Ten Moses said to God, If I come to the people
of Israel and say to them, Te God of your fathers
has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his
name? What shall I say to them?14God said
to Moses, I AmWhoI Am. And he said, Say
this to the people of Israel, I Amhas sent me to
you.15God also said to Moses, Say this to the
people of Israel, TeLord[Hebrew: Yahweh],
the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to
you. Tis is my name forever [Yahweh], and thusI
Amto be remembered throughout all generations.
1.4 Three Things God Says About Himself
You ask me my name, God says, I will tell you three
things. First (verse 14) God said to Moses, I AmWhoI
Am. He did not say that was his name. He said, in efect:
Before you worry about my name, where I line up among
the many Gods of Egypt or Babylon or Philistia, and
before you wonder about conjuring me with my name,
and even before you wonder ifI Amthe God of Abraham,
be stunned by this: I AmWhoI Am. I absolutely am.
Before you get my name, get my being. TatI AmWhoI
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Amthat I absolutely Amis frst, foundational, and of
infnite importance.
Second (verse 14b) And he said, Say this to the peo-
ple of Israel, I Am has sent me to you. Here he has
not yet given Moses his name. He is building a bridge
between his being and his name. Here he simply puts the
statement of his being in the place of his name. Say, I
Amhas sent me to you. Te one who iswho absolutely
issent me to you.
Tird (verse 15) God also said to Moses, Say this to
the people of Israel, TeLord [Hebrew: Yahweh], the
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. Tis is
my name forever [Yahweh]. Finally he gives us his name.
Its almost always translated Lord(all caps) in the English
Bible. But the Hebrew would be pronounced something
like Yahweh, and is built on the word for I Am. So
every time we hear the word Yahweh (or the short form
Yah, which you hear every time you sing hallelu-jah,
praise Yahweh), or every time you seeLordin the Eng-
lish Bible you should think: this is a proper name (like
Peter or James or John) built out of the word for I Am
and reminding us each time that God absolutely is.
1.5 The Truth Makes an Irrepressible People
God absolutely is. Tis is amazing. God gave himself a
name (used over 4,000 times in the Old Testament) that
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presses us, when we hear it to think, He is. He absolutely
is. He is absolute.
Tis is the frst of the battery of foundational reali-
tiesdefning truths, thirty-year trademarks, bibli-
cal touchstonesthat have marked Bethlehem Bap-
tist Church for three decades. We are blown away by
the sheer fact that God is. Tat he is who he is. Tat
he absolutely is. Tis is the frst of the wildly untamable,
explosively uncontainable, electrically future-creating
realities that we embrace.
A people who are stunned that God is will be an irrepress-
ible people. Our triune God loves to show up in gracious
power where people are blown away by the fact that he is.
1.6 Ten Things It Means for God to Be Who He Is
What does it mean for God to be who he is? Here are
ten points:
1. Gods absolute being means he never had a beginning.
Tis staggers the mind. Every child asks, Who made
God? And every wise parent says, Nobody made
God. God simply is. And always was. No beginning.
2. Gods absolute being means God will never end. If he
did not come into being, he cannot go out of being
because he is being. He is what is. Tere is no place to
go outside of being. Tere is only he. Before he creates,
thats all that is: God.
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3. Gods absolute being means God is absolute reality.
Tere is no reality before him. Tere is no reality out-
side of him unless he wills it and makes it. He is not
one of many realities before he creates. He is simply
there as absolute reality. He is all that was eternally.
No space, no universe, no emptiness. Only God.
Absolutely there. Absolutely all.
4. Gods absolute being means that God is utterly inde-
pendent. He depends on nothing to bring him into
being or support him or counsel him or make him what
he is. Tat is what the words absolute being mean.
5. Gods absolute being means rather that everything
that is not God depends totally on God. All that is
not God is secondary, and dependent. Te entire uni-
verse is utterly secondary. Not primary. It came into
being by God and stays in being moment by moment
on Gods decision to keep it in being.
6. Gods absolute being means all the universe is by com-
parison to God as nothing. Contingent, dependent
reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow
to substance. As an echo to a thunderclap. As a bubble
to the ocean. All that we see, all that we are amazed by
in the world and in the galaxies, is, compared to God,
as nothing. All the nations are as nothing before
him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing
and emptiness (Isaiah 40:17).
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7. Gods absolute being means that God is constant. He
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be
improved. He is not becoming anything. He is who
he is. Tere is no development in God. No progress.
Absolute perfection cannot be improved.
8. Gods absolute being means that he is the absolute
standard of truth and goodness and beauty. Tere is
no law-book to which he looks to know what is right.
No almanac to establish facts. No guild to determine
what is excellent or beautiful. He himself is the stan-
dard of what is right, what is true, what is beautiful.
9. Gods absolute being means God does whatever he
pleases and it is always right and always beautiful and
always in accord with truth. Tere are no constraints
on him from outside him that could hinder him in
doing anything he pleases. All reality that is outside of
him he created and designed and governs as the abso-
lute reality. So he is utterly free from any constraints
that dont originate from the counsel of his own will.
10. Gods absolute being means that he is the most impor-
tant and most valuable reality and the most impor-
tant and most valuable person in the universe. He is
more worthy of interest and attention and admiration
and enjoyment than all other realities, including the
entire universe.
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1.7 The Cosmic Outrage
God absolutely is! We believe and cherish this. God is. It
is a wildly untamable, explosively uncontainable, electri-
cally future-creating realitythatGod is.
Terefore, it is a cosmic outrage billions of times over
that God is ignored, treated as negligible, questioned,
criticized, treated as virtually nothing, and given less
thought than the carpet in peoples houses.
Being the most signifcant reality there is, nothing is
rightly known apart from its relationship to him. He is
the source and goal and defner of all beings and all things.
We will, therefore, be a God-besotted people. To know
him, to admire him, to make him known as glorious is our
driving passion. He is simply, overwhelmingly dominant
in our consciousness. All must be related to him if we exist
to spread a passion for the supremacy of God!
1.8 Never Make God Peripheral
God helping us, we will not blaspheme him. We will
not blaspheme the God who absolutely is by taking him
for granted, or making him peripheral, or calling him
the assumed foundation of all the things while its the
things we are really excited about. We dread ever falling
under the criticism of Albert Einstein that Charles Mis-
ner wrote about twenty years ago:
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I do see the design of the universe as essentially a
religious question. Tat is, one should have some
kind of respect and awe for the whole business . Its
very magnifcent and shouldnt be taken for granted.
In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use
for organized religion, although he strikes me as a
basically very religious man. He must have looked at
what the preachers said about God and felt that they
were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty
than they had ever imagined, and they were just
not talking about the real thing. (Quoted inFirst
Tings, Dec. 1991, No. 18, 63)
When I read that, I said, O God, never, never let that
happen at Bethlehem! Tere are thousands of people
in this city and billions in the world who are starving to
know the true and living God who absolutely is. And we
have the good news that this God has sent his Son into
the world to die for God-belittling sinners like us so that
whoever believes in Jesus Christ may know this God with
joy forever. So we know our calling. We exist to spread a
passion for God who absolutely is.
Tis is where weve been. Tis is where we are going.
Untamable, uncontainable, this is an electrically future-
creating reality. I AmWhoI Am.God absolutely is.
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A. MORE ABOUT GOD
Seven Glorious Truths About God in Isaiah 6
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifed up; and the
train of his robe flled the temple. Above him stood
the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he
covered his face, and with two he covered his feet,
and with two he few. And one called to another and
said: Holy, holy, holy is theLord of hosts; the whole
earth is full of his glory! And the foundations of the
thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and
the house was flled with smoke. Isaiah 6:14
Here are seven glimpses of God I see in these four verses:
Glimpse #1: God Is Alive
First, he isalive. In the year that king Uzziah died. Uzzi-
ah is dead, but God lives on. From everlasting to ever-
lasting, thou art God (Psalm 90:2). God was the living
God when this universe banged into existence. He was
the living God when Socrates drank his poison. He was
the living God when William Bradford governed Plym-
outh Colony. He was the living God in 1966 when Tom-
as Altizer proclaimed him dead andTime magazine put it
on the front cover. And he will be the living God ten tril-
lion ages from now when all the puny potshots against
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his reality will have sunk into oblivion like BBs at the
bottom of the Pacifc Ocean.
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord.
Tere is not a single head of state in all the world who will
be there in ffy years. Te turnover in world leadership is
100%. But not God. He never had a beginning and there-
fore depends on nothing for his existence. He always has
been and always will be alive.
Glimpse #2: God Is Authoritative
Second, he isauthoritative. I saw the Lord sitting upon
athrone. No vision of heaven has ever caught a glimpse
of God plowing a feld or cutting his grass or shining
shoes or flling out reports or loading a truck. Heaven is
not coming apart at the seams by inattention. God is nev-
er at wits end with his heavenly realm. He sits. And he
sits on a throne. All is at peace and he has control.
Te throne is his right to rule the world. We do not
give God authority over our lives. He has it whether we
like it or not. What utter folly it is to act as though we
had any rights at all to call God into question! We need
to hear, now and then, blunt words like those of Virginia
Stem Owens who said in the Reformed Journal:
Let us get this one thing straight. God can do
anything he damn well pleases, including damn
well. And if it pleases him to damn, then it is
done,ipso facto, well. Gods activity is what it is.
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Tere isnt anything else. Without it there would
be no being, including human beings presuming to
judge the Creator of everything that is.
Few things are more humbling, few things give us that
sense of raw majesty, as the truth that God is utter-
lyauthoritativedoes. He is the Supreme Court, the Legis-
lature, and the Chief Executive. Afer him, no appeal.
Glimpse #3: God Is Omnipotent
Tird, God is omnipotent. Te throne of his authority
is not one among many. It is high and lifed up. I saw
the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifed up. Tat
Gods throne is higher than every other throne signi-
fes Gods superior power to exercise his authority. No
opposing authority can nullify the decrees of God. What
he purposes, he accomplishes. My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose (Isaiah 46:10).
He does according to his will in the host of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his
hand (Daniel 4:35). And this sovereign authority of the
living God is a refuge full of joy and power for those who
keep his covenant.
Glimpse #4: God Is Resplendent
Fourth, God isresplendent. I saw the Lord sitting upon
a throne high and lifed up,and his train flled the tem-
ple. You have seen pictures of brides whose dresses are
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gathered around them covering the steps and the plat-
form. What would the meaning be if the train flled the
aisles and covered the seats and the choir lof, woven all
of one piece? Tat Gods robe flls the entire heavenly
temple means that he is a God of incomparable splen-
dor. Te fullness of Gods splendor shows itself in a
thousand ways.
I used to read Ranger Rick. I recall an article on spe-
cies of fsh who live deep in the dark sea and have their
own built-in lightssome have lamps hanging from
their chins, some have luminescent noses, some have
beacons under their eyes. Tere are a thousand kinds of
self-lighted fsh who live deep in the ocean where none
of us can see and marvel. Tey are spectacularly weird
and beautiful. Why are they there? Why not just a dozen
or so efcient streamlined models? Because God is lav-
ish in splendor. His creative fullness spills over in exces-
sive beauty. And if thats the way the world is, how much
more resplendent must be the Lord who thought it up
and made it!
Glimpse #5: God Is Revered
Fifh, God is revered. Above him stood the seraphim;
each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with
two he covered his feet, and with two he few. No one
knows what these strange six-winged creatures with feet
and eyes and intelligence are. Tey never appear again in
the Bibleat least not under the name seraphim. Given
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the grandeur of the scene and the power of the angelic
hosts, we had best not picture chubby winged babies fut-
tering about the Lords ears. According to verse 4, when
one of them speaks, the foundations of the temple shake.
We would do better to think of the Blue Angelsthose
four jets that fy in formationdiving in formation
before the presidential entourage and cracking the sound
barrier just before his face. Tere are no puny or silly crea-
tures in heaven. Only magnifcent ones.
And the point is: not even they can look upon the
Lord nor do they feel worthy even to leave their feet
exposed in his presence. Great and good as they are,
untainted by human sin, they revere their Maker in great
humility. An angel terrifes a man with his brilliance and
power. But angels themselves hide in holy fear and rever-
ence from the splendor of God. He is continually revered.
Glimpse #6: God Is Holy
Sixth, God is holy. And one called to another, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! Language is pushing its
limits of usefulness here. Te efort to defne the holiness
of God ultimately winds up by saying: God is holy means
God is God.
Let me illustrate. Te root meaning of holy is proba-
bly to cut or separate. Aholy thingis cut of from and sep-
arated from common (we would say secular) use. Earthly
things and persons are holy as they are distinct from the
world and devoted to God. So the Bible speaks of holy
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ground (Exodus 3:5), holy assemblies (Exodus 12:16), holy
sabbaths (Exodus 16:23), a holy nation (Exodus 19:6),
holy garments (Exodus 28:2), a holy city (Nehemiah 11:1),
holy promises (Psalm 105:42), holy men (2 Peter 1:21) and
women (1 Peter 3:5), holy scriptures (2 Timothy 3:15), holy
hands (1 Timothy 2:8), a holy kiss (Romans 16:16), and a
holy faith (Jude 20). Almost anything can become holy
if it is separated from the common and devoted to God.
But notice what happens when this defnition is
applied to God himself. From what can you separate God
to make him holy? Te very god-ness of God means that
he is separate from all that is not God. Tere is an inf-
nite qualitative diference between Creator and creature.
God is one of a kind. Sui generis. In a class by himself. In
that sense he is utterly holy. But then you have said no
more than that he is God.
Or if the holiness of a man derives from being sepa-
rated from the world and devoted to God, to whom is
God devoted so as to derive his holiness? To no one but
himself. It is blasphemy to say that there is a higher real-
ity than God to which he must conform in order to be
holy. God is the absolute reality beyond which is only
more of God. When asked for his name inExodus 3:14,
he said, I am who I am. His being and his character
are utterly undetermined by anything outside himself.
He is not holy because he keeps the rules. He wrote
the rules! God is not holy because he keeps the law.
Te law is holy because it reveals God. God is absolute.
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Everything else is derivative.
What then is his holiness? It is his infnite worth. His
holiness is his utterly unique divine essence, which in his
uniqueness has infnite value. It determines all that he
is and does and is determined by no one. His holiness is
what he is as God, which no one else is or ever will be.
Call it his majesty, his divinity, his greatness, his value as
the pearl of great price.
In the end language runs out. In the word holy we
have sailed to the worlds end in the utter silence of rever-
ence and wonder and awe. Tere may yet be more to know
of God, but that will be beyond words. Te Lord is in
hisholytemple; let all the earth keep silence before him
(Habakkuk 2:20).
Glimpse #7: God Is Glorious
But before the silence and the shaking of the foundations
and the all-concealing smoke, we learn a seventh and
fnal thing about God. God is glorious. Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.
Te glory of God is the manifestation of his holi-
ness. Gods holiness is the incomparable perfection of
his divine nature; his glory is the display of that holi-
ness. God is glorious means Gods holiness has gone
public. His glory is the open revelation of the secret of
his holiness. In Leviticus 10:3 God says, I will show
myselfholyamong those who are near me, and before all
the people I will beglorifed. When God shows himself
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to be holy, what we see is glory. Te holiness of God is his
concealed glory. Te glory of God is his revealed holiness.
Now, what does this have to do with the gospel of
Jesus Christ incarnate as the God-Man and crucifed and
risen from the dead at the center of history?
Te gospel of John makes the connections for us
more clearly than anyone, in John 12. And I will put
it in a very brief statement. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah presents
God as high and holy and majestic and authoritative
and sovereign and resplendent, and God says in verse
10 that this message will harden the people. Tey do
not want such a God. But the chapter ends with a refer-
ence to a stump of faithfulness that remains, and Isaiah
speaks of a holy seed (verse 13).
In Isaiah 53 that seed is described as the sufering ser-
vant who had no form or majesty that we should look at
him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was
despised and rejected by men (Isaiah 53:23). Just the
opposite of the picture of God in Isaiah 6.
ButIsaiah 53:1says they rejected that message as well:
Who has believed what he has heard from us? (Isaiah 53:1).
Tese are the very two texts that John quotes in refer-
ence to the rejection of Jesus in John 12:38and40. Why?
John tells us in Isaiah 12:41, Isaiah said these things
because he saw his glory and spoke of him (John 12:41).
In other words, Jesus was the fulfllment of both the
majesty of Isaiah 6 and the misery of Isaiah 53. And that,
John says, is why he was rejected. He came to his own and
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his own did not receive him. Why? Because Jesus was
the glory of Isaiah 6 and the sufering servant of Isaiah
53. John says so in John 12:41, Isaiah said these things
because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
We beheld his glory, glory of the only Son from the
Father full of grace and truth and that glory was the
unprecedented mingling of the majesty of Isaiah 6 and
the misery of Isaiah 53.
And why was this incomparable Christ rejected? John
gives the answer inJohn 12:43, Te people loved the glo-
ry that comes from man more than the glory that comes
from God.
And because they loved human glory more than
divine glory they rejected Jesusthe embodiment of the
glory of God, both in his greatness as God and his lowli-
ness as the sufering servant.
But all this was part of Gods design. Te Son of Man
came not to be served but to serve and give his life a ran-
som for many. His rejection was the plan. Because his
death for sinners was the plan.
Does he then abandon his people Israel because they
rejected him? No. Tat too is part of the plan. A partial
hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the
Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be
saved (Romans 11:2526).
Or as Romans 11:31 says, So Israel too has been dis-
obedient in order that by the mercy shown to you Gen-
tiles they also may now receive mercy (Romans 11:31).
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Nothing has been wasted. Tere were no detours on the
way to this great salvation of all Gods elect.
And when Paul stands back and looks at the whole
plan, he worships:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his
judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who
has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been
his counselor? Or who has given a gif to him that he
might be repaid? For fom him and through him
and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.
Amen. Romans 11:3336
Tis is our God.
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2. THE GLORY OF GOD
But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O
Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for
I have redeemed you; I have called you by name,
you are mine.2When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you; and through the rivers, they
shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through
fre you shall not be burned, and the fame shall
not consume you.3For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt
as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for
you.4Because you are precious in my eyes, and
honored, and I love you, I give men in return for
you, peoples in exchange for your life.5Fear not,
for I am with you; I will bring your ofspring fom
the east, and fom the west I will gather you.6I
will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do
not withhold; bring my sons fom afar and my
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daughters fom the end of the earth,7everyone who
is called by my name, whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made. Isaiah 43:17
Afer the question in Chapter 1, Does God exist?to
which God answers, I Am (Exodus 3:14)the next
question that has shaped us most deeply is: Why did
God create the world?
Te short answer that resounds through the whole
Bible like rolling thunder is: God created the world for his
glory. Well talk in a moment what that means, but lets
establish the fact frst.
Notice the key verses in Isaiah 43:6b7, Bring my
sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the
earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I cre-
ated for my glory, whom I formed and made. Even if the
most narrow meaning here is I brought Israel into being
for my glory the use of the words created, formed,
and made are pointing us back to the original act of cre-
ation. Tis is why Israel ultimatelyexists. Because this is
why all things ultimately existfor the glory of God.
2.1 The Bible Is Clear About the Glory of God
When the frst chapter of the Bible says, So God created
manin his own image, in the image of Godhe created him;
male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27), what is
the point? Te point of an image is to image. Images are
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erected to display the original. Point to the original. Glo-
rify the original. God made humans in his image so that
the world would be flled with refectors of God. Images
of God. Six billion statues of God. So that nobody would
miss the point of creation. Nobody (unless they were
stone-blind) could miss the point of humanity, namely,
God. Knowing, loving, showing God.
Te angels cry in Isaiah 6:3, Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory! Its full
of millions of human image bearers. Glorious ruins. But
not only humans. Also nature! Why such a breathtaking
world for us to live in? Why such a vast universe. I read
the other day (cant verify it!) that there are more stars
in the universe than there are words and sounds that all
humans of all time have ever spoken. Why?
Te Bible is crystal clear about this: Te heavens
declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). If someone asks,
If earth is the only inhabited planet and man the only
rational inhabitant among the stars, why such a large
and empty universe? Te answer is: Its not about us. Its
about God. And thats an understatement. God created
us to know him and love him and show him. And then he
gave us a hint of what he is like the universe.
Te universe is declaring the glory of God and the rea-
son we exist is to see it and be stunned by it and glorify
God because of it. So Paul says inRomans 1:2021,
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His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power
and divine nature, have been clearly perceived,
ever since the creation of the world, in the things
that have been made. So they are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they did not glorify
him as God.
Te great tragedy of the universe is that while human
beings were made to glorify God, we have all fallen short
of this purpose and exchanged the glory of the immor-
tal God for images resembling mortal man (Romans
1:23)especially the one in the mirror. Tis is the essence
of what we call sin.
So, why did God create the universe? Resounding
through the whole Biblefrom eternity to eternitylike
rolling thunder is: God created the world for his glory.
2.2 Isaiahs Testimony to the Glory of God
Isaiah states plainly inIsaiah 43:7 that God created the
world for his glory. He goes on to press home the reality
over and over to help us feel it and make it part of the fab-
ric of our thinking:
Isaiah 40:45, Every valley shall be lifed up, and
every mountain and hill be made low; Andthe glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all fesh shall see it
together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
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Isaiah 42:8, I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory
I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
Isaiah 44:23, Break forth into singing, O moun-
tains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the Lord has
redeemed Jacob, and will be glorifed in Israel.
Isaiah 48:911, For my names sake I defer my anger,
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you I have
tried you in the furnace of afiction. For my own sake,
for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be
profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
Isaiah 49:3, And he said to me, You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorifed.
Isaiah 60:2, For behold, darkness shall cover the
earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord
will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon
you.
Isaiah 61:13, Te Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news
to the poor; to give them the garment of praise
instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he
may be glorifed.
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2.3 How Glorify Is Different from Beautify
God created the world that he may be glorifed. Which
does not mean: that he may be made glorious. Dont
take the word glorify and treat it like the word beau-
tify. To beautify means to take a plain room and make it
beautiful. We dont take a plain God and make him beau-
tiful. Tat is not what glorifying God means.
When God created the world he did not create out
of any need or any weakness or any defciency. He cre-
ated out of fullness and strength and complete suf-
ciency. As Jonathan Edwards said, Tis no argument
of the emptiness or defciency of a fountain that it is
inclined to overfow (Yale:Works, Vol. 8, 448). So we
dont glorify God by improving his glory, but by seeing
and savoring and showing his glory (which is the same
as knowing, loving, showing).
Or switch to the word magnify (soPhilippians 1:20,
that Christ be magnifed, megalunthesetai). We magnify
his glory like a telescope not a microscope. Microscopes
make small things look bigger than they are. Telescopes
make unimaginably big things look more like what they
really are. Our lives are to be telescopes for the glory of
God. We were created to see his glory, be thrilled by his
glory, and live so as to help others see him and savor him
for what he really is. To know, to love, to show his glory.
Tat is why the universe exists. If this takes hold of
you the way it should, it will afect the way you think and
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feel about everything. Now you know why everything
exists. You dont know everything. Tere are billions of
things you dont know. But you are never at a loss to know
something important about everything. Because you
know that everything exists for the glory of God. You
know something about everything. And this is one of
the most important things you can know about anything.
And so to know this one thingthat all things exist
for the glory of Godis to know something supremely
important about everything. Namely, for what purpose it
ultimately exists. Tat is amazing.
2.4 Why Did God Make This Particular World?
To just say God created the world for his glory is too gen-
eral. We cant leave it here. Its too disconnected from the
specifc persons of the Trinity and from the fow of his-
tory the way God is guiding it. Te question is not just,
Why did God create the world? but why this world?
why these thousands of years of human history with a glo-
rious beginning, and a horrible fall into sin, and a history
of Israel, and the coming of the Son of God into the world,
a substitutionary death, a triumphant resurrection, the
founding of the church and the history of global missions
to where we are today? Why this world? Tis history?
And the short answer to that question is, for the glo-
ry of Gods grace displayed supremely in the death of Jesus.
Or to say it more fully: Tis worldthis history as it is
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unfoldingwas created and is guided and sustained by
God so that the grace of God, supremely displayed in the
death and resurrection of Jesus for sinners would be glo-
rifed throughout all eternity in the Christ-exalting joys
of the redeemed. Or lets just keep it short: this world
exists for the glory of Gods grace revealed in the saving
work of Jesus. Which means that Bethlehem is not just a
God-centered church, but a Christ-exalting church and a
gospel-driven church. For us there is an unbreakable con-
nection between the glory of God, the glory of grace, the
glory of Christ, the glory of the cross.
2.5 Five Points on Gods Glory and Christs Cross
Let me show you, from the Bible, how Gods glory is con-
nected to the cross of Christ. We can do it in fve steps.
1. The apexthe high pointof Gods display of his
own glory is thedisplay of his grace.
God predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus
Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise
of the glory of his grace (Ephesians 1:56). In other words,
the glory of Godsgracewhat Paul calls the riches of his
grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians
2:7)is the highpoint and endpoint in the revelation of
Gods glory. And the aim of predestination is that we live
to the praise of the glory of this grace forever.
Tis is the endpoint of his glory, and everything else,
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even Gods wrath serves this. So Paul says in Romans
9:2223, Desiring to show his wrath and to make known
his power, God has endured with much patience vessels
of wrathin order to make known the riches of his glory
for vessels of mercy. Wrath is penultimate. Te glory of
grace on the vessels of mercy is ultimate.
2. God planned thisthe praise of the glory of his
gracebefore creation.
God chose us in himbefore the foundation of the world
to the praise of the glory of his grace (Ephesians 1:4,6).
Grace was not an aferthought in response to the fall of
man. It was the plan, because grace is the summit of the
mountain of his glory. And he created the world for his
glory. He planned the world for the glory of his grace.
3. Gods plan was that the praise of the glory of his grace
would come aboutthrough the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus
Christ to the praise of the glory of his grace (Ephe-
sians 1:56). Tis predestination to the praise of the glory
of Gods grace happened through Jesus Christ. In the
eternal fellowship of the Trinity, the Father and the Son
planned that Gods grace would be supremely revealed
through the saving work of the Son.
Again, Paul says in2 Timothy 1:9, God called us to a
holy calling, not because of our works but because of his
own purpose andgrace, which he gave usin ChristJesus
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before the ages began. So, before the ages of time began,
the plan was for the revelation of the glory of the grace of
God specifcally through Christ Jesus.
4. From eternity Gods plan was that the glory of Gods
grace would reach its high point in the saving work of
Jesus on the cross.
We see this in the name that was already on the book of
the redeemed before the creation of the world. Before
there was any human sin to die for, God planned that
his Son be slain for sinners. We know this because of the
name given to the book of life before creation. Everyone
[will worship the beast] whose name has not been writ-
ten before the foundation of the world inthe book of life of
the Lamb who was slain (Revelation 13:8).
Te name of the book before creation was the book
of life of the Lamb who was slain. Te plan was glory.
Te plan was grace. Te plan was Christ. And the plan
was death. And that death for sinners like us is the heart
of the gospel, which is why in 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul
calls it the gospel of the glory of Christ.
5. Therefore, the ultimate purpose of creating and
guiding and sustaining this worldthis historyis the
praise of the glory of the grace of God in the crucixion
of his Son for sinners.
Tis is why Revelation 5:3, 9 shows that for all eternity
we will sing the song of the Lamb. We will say with
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white-hot admiration and praise, Worthy are you to
take the scroll and to open its seals,for you were slain,and
by your blood you ransomed people for God from every
tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation
5:9). We will praise ten thousand things about our Sav-
ior. But we will not say anything more glorious than: You
were slain and ransomed millions.
So we ask in conclusion: Why did God create the
world? And we answer with the Scriptures: God created
the world for his glory. God did not create out of need. He
did not create the world out of a defciency that needed to
be made up. He was not lonely. He was supremely happy
in the fellowship of the TrinityFather, Son, and Holy
Spirit. He created the world to put his glory on display that
his people might know him, and love him, and show him.
And why did he create a world that would become
like this world? A world that fell into sin? A world that
exchanged his glory for the glory of images? Why would
he permit and guide and sustain such a world? And we
answer: for the praise of the glory of the grace of God dis-
played supremely in the death of Jesus.
2.6 Four Questions About Your Life
Te ultimate reason for all things is the communication of
the glory of Gods grace for the happy praise of a redeemed
multitude from every people and tongue and tribe and
nation. All things are created and guided and sustained for
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the glory of God, which reaches its apex in the glory of his
grace, which shines most brightly and the glory of Christ,
which comes to focus most clearly in the glory of the cross.
So I ask:
Is the glory of God the brightest treasure on the hori-
zon of your future? Paul expressed the Christian heart
in Romans 5:2, We rejoice in hope of the glory of
God.
Is the glory of grace the sweetest news to your guilty
soul?
Is the glory of Christ in your life the present, personal
embodiment of the grace of God?
Is the glory of the cross the saddest and happiest beau-
ty to your redeemed soul?
B. MORE ABOUT THE GLORY OF GOD
Seven Examples of Gods Commitment to His Name
What does it mean that God has pleasure in his name?
It means that God has pleasure in his own perfec-
tions, in his own glory. Te name of God in Scripture
ofen means virtually the same thing as Gods glorious,
excellent character.
But it ofen means something slightly diferent, name-
ly, the glory of God gone public. In other words, the name
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of God ofen refers to his reputation, his fame, his renown.
Tis is the way we use the word name when we say some-
one is making a name for himself. Or we sometimes say,
thats a name brand. We mean a brand with a reputation.
Tis is what I think Samuel means in 1 Samuel
12:22 when he says that God made Israel a people for
himself and that he would not cast Israel of for his
great names sake.
Let me point you to some other passages that bring
out this idea of Gods reputation or fame or renown.
1. Gods Waistcloth
InJeremiah 13:11God describes Israel as a waistcloth that
had been chosen to highlight Gods glory, but had been
found unusable.
For as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so I
made the whole house of Israel and the whole house
of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, that they might
be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory,
but they would not listen.
Why was Israel chosen and made the garment of God?
Tat it might be a name, a praise, and a glory. Te words
praise and glory in this context tell us that name
means renown or reputation. God chose Israel so that
the people would make a reputation for him.
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2. Davids Teaching
David teaches the same thing in one of his prayers in 2
Samuel 7:23. He says that what sets Israel apart from all
the other peoples is that God has dealt with them in such
a way as to make a name for himself.
What other nation on earth is like thy people Israel,
whom God went to redeem to be his people, making him-
self a name, and doing for them great and terrible things,
by driving out before his people a nation and its gods?
In other words, when God went to redeem his people
in Egypt and then bring them through the wilderness
and into the promised land, he was not just favoring the
people, he was acting, as Samuel says, for his own great
names sake (1 Samuel 12:22); or, as David says, he was
making himself a namea reputation.
3. The Point of the Exodus
Lets go back to the Exodus for a moment. Tis is where
God really formed a people for himself. For the rest of
her existence Israel has looked back to the exodus as the
key event in her history. So in the exodus we can see what
God is up to in choosing a people to himself.
In Exodus 9:16 God speaks to Pharaoh a word that
lets him and us know why God is drawing out the deliv-
erance to ten plagues instead of making short work of it
in one swif catastrophe. Tis text is so crucial that Paul
quotes it inRomans 9:17to sum up Gods purpose in the
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exodus. God says to Pharaoh, But for this purpose have I
let you live, to show you my power, so that my name may
be declared throughout all the earth.
Te point of the exodus was to make a worldwide rep-
utation for God. Te point of the ten plagues and mirac-
ulous Red Sea crossing was to demonstrate the incred-
ible power of God on behalf of his freely chosen people,
with the aim that this reputation, this name, would be
declared throughout the whole world. God has great
pleasure in his reputation.
4. The Testimony of Isaiah
Did the later prophets and poets of Israel interpret the
Exodus that way? Yes, they did.
Isaiah says that Gods aim in the exodus was to make
for himself an everlasting name. He described God as the
one who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand
of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make
for himself an everlasting name, who led them through
the depths. Like a horse in the desert, they did not stum-
ble. Like cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of
the Lord gave them rest. So thou didst lead thy people, to
make for thyself a glorious name (Isaiah 63:1214).
So when God showed his power to deliver his people
from Egypt through the Red Sea, he had his sights on
eternity and the everlasting reputation that he would win
for himself in those days.
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5. The Teaching of the Psalms
Psalm 106:78teaches the same thing:
Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not
consider thy wonderful works; they did not
remember the abundance of thy steadfast love, but
rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea. Yet
he saved them for his names sake, that he might
make known his mighty power.
Do you see the same gospel logic at work here that we
saw in our text of 1 Samuel 12:22? Tere the sinful peo-
ple had chosen a king and angered God. But God does
not cast them of. Why? For his great names sake. Here
it says that the sinful people had rebelled against God at
the Red Sea and failed to consider his love. Yet he saved
them with tremendous power. Why? Same answer: for
his names sake, to make known his mighty power.
Do you see that Gods frst love is his name and not
his people? And because it is, there is hope for his sinful
people. Do you see why the God-centeredness of God is
the ground of the gospel?
6. Joshuas Prayer
Take Joshua as another example of someone who under-
stood this God-centered gospel logic and put it to use like
Moses did (Deuteronomy 9:2729; Numbers 14:1316)
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to plead for Gods sinful people. In Joshua 7 Israel has
crossed the Jordan and entered the promised land and
defeated Jericho. But now they have been defeated at Ai
and Joshua is stunned. He goes to the Lord in one of the
most desperate prayers in all the Bible.
O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned
their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites
and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it,
and will surround us, and cut of our name fom the
earth; and what wilt thou do for thy great name?
Joshua 7:89
Do you cry for mercy on the basis of Gods love for his
name? Te great ground of hope in all the God-centered
servants of the Lord has always been the impossibility
that God would let his great name be dishonored among
the nations. It was inconceivable. Tis was bedrock con-
fdence. Other things change but not thisnot the com-
mitment of God to his name.
7. Ezekiels Witness in Exile
But what, then, are we to make of the fact that eventually
Israel proved to be so rebellious that she was indeed given
into the hands of her enemies in the Babylonian captiv-
ity during the time of Ezekiel? How does a God-centered
prophet like Ezekiel handle this terrible setback for the
reputation of God?
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Listen to the word of the Lord that came to him
inEzekiel 36:2023. Tis is Gods answer to the captivity
of his people which he himself had brought about:
But when they came to the nations, wherever they
came, they profaned my holy name, in that men
said of them, Tese are the people of the Lord, and
yet they had to go out of his land. But I had concern
for my holy name, which the house of Israel caused
to be profaned among the nations to which they
came. Terefore say to the house of Israel, Tus says
the Lord God: it is not for your sake, O house of
Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my
holy name, which you have profaned among the
nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the
holiness of my great name, which has been profaned
among the nations, which you have profaned among
them; and the nations will know that I am the Lord,
says the Lord God, when through you I vindicate
my holiness before their eyes.
In other words, when every other hope was gone and the
people lay under the judgment of God himself because
of their own sin, one hope remainedand it will always
remainthat God has an indomitable delight in the
worth of his own reputation and will not sufer it to be
trodden down for long.
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3. CHRISTIAN HEDONISM
I want you to know, brothers, that what has
happened to me has really served to advance the
gospel,13so that it has become known throughout
the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that
my imprisonment is for Christ.14And most of the
brothers, having become confdent in the Lord by
my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak
the word without fear.15Some indeed preach
Christ fom envy and rivalry, but others fom good
will.16Te latter do it out of love, knowing that
I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17Te
former proclaim Christ out of selfsh ambition,
not sincerely but thinking to afict me in my
imprisonment.18What then? Only that in every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is
proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
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Yes, and I will rejoice,19for I know that through
your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus
Christ this will turn out for my deliverance,20as it
is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be
at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as
always Christ will be honored in my body, whether
by life or by death.21For to me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain.22If I am to live in the fesh, that
means fuitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose
I cannot tell.23I am hard pressed between the two.
My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that
is far better.24But to remain in the fesh is more
necessary on your account.25Convinced of this, I
know that I will remain and continue with you
all, for your progress and joy in the faith,26so that
in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ
Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
Philippians 1:1226
Let me be clear from the outset that Bethlehem has not
been built around a slogan or a label. Te term Chris-
tian Hedonism is not in any of this churchs ofcial
documents. Its not in our constitution, or our church
covenant, or our Elder Afrmation of Faith, or Values
booklet, or our Ten Dimensions of Church Life. Its
catchy, its controversial, its not in the Bible, and you
dont need to like it just because I do.
So the point of this chapter is not at all to push a label
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or a slogan. Te point is to talk about the massive and
pervasive biblical truth that some of us love to call Chris-
tian Hedonism.
So this chapter is packed with some of the juiciest,
most wonderful things that I love to know and experi-
ence. We need to get to work. Heres the outline:
First, theres a problem that needs be solved because of
Chapter Two on the glory of God.
Second, Christian Hedonism is the biblical solution
to that problem.
C.S. Lewis and the apostle Paul give the basis for that
solution.
Fourth, this solutionChristian Hedonism
changes everything in your life, which I try to show in
eleven examples.
3.1 Is Gods Self-Promotion Loveless?
In Chapter 2, I asked, Why did God create the world?
and answered: God created this world for the praise of
the glory of his grace displayed supremely in the death of
Jesus.Te problem is that, at the heart of that answer is
Gods self-promotion. God created the world for his own
praise. For his own glory.
Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, the early C.S. Lew-
is, Eric Reece, and Michael Prowse, among others, all
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walk away from such a God. Tey stumble over Gods
self-promotion.
Oprah walked away from orthodox Christianity
when she was about 27 because of the biblical teach-
ing that God is jealoushe demands that he and no
one else get our highest allegiance and afection. It
didnt sound loving to her.
Brad Pitt turned away from his boyhood faith, he says,
because God says, You have to say that Im the best.
It seemed to be about ego.
C.S. Lewis, before he became a Christian, complained
that Gods demand to be praised sounded like a vain
woman who wants compliments.
Erik Reece, the writer ofAn American Gospel, rejected
the Jesus of the Gospels because only an egomaniac
would demand that we love him more than we love
our parents and children.
And Michael Prowse, columnist for the London
Financial Times, turned away because only tyrants,
pufed up with pride, crave adulation.
So people see this as a problemthat God created the
world for his own praise. Tey think such self-exaltation
would be immoral and loveless. Tat may be how you feel.
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3.2 Our Greatest Exhilaration and Gods
Greatest Glorication
God is most glorifed in you when you are most satisfed in
him. Tats the shortest summary of what we mean by
Christian Hedonism. If that is true, then there is no con-
fict between your greatest exhilaration and Gods great-
est glorifcation.
In fact, not only is there no confict between your
happiness and Gods glory, but his glory shines in your
happiness, when your happiness is in him. And since
God is the source of greatest happiness, and since he is
the greatest treasure in the world, and since his glory is
the most satisfying gif he could possibly give us, there-
fore it is the kindest, most loving thing he could possibly
doto reveal himself, and magnify himself and vindi-
cate himself for our everlasting enjoyment. In your pres-
ence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are plea-
sures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).
God is the one being for whom self-exaltation is the
most loving act, because he is exalting for us what alone
can satisfy us fully and forever. If we exalt ourselves, we
are not loving, because we distract people from the one
Person who can make them happy foreverGod. But
if God exalts himself, he draws attention to the one Per-
son who can make us happy foreverhimself. He is not
an egomaniac. He is an infnitely glorious, all-satisfying
God, ofering us everlasting and supreme joy in himself.
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Tats the solution to our problem.
No Oprah, if God were not jealous for all your afec-
tions, he would be indiferent to your fnal misery.
No Brad Pitt, if God didnt demand that you see him
as the best, he wouldnt care about your supreme
happiness.
No Mr. Lewis, God is not vain in demanding your
praise. Tis is his highest virtue, and your highest joy.
No, Erik Reece, if Jesus didnt lay claim on greater love
than your children do, he would be selling your heart
to what cannot satisfy forever.
No, Michael Prowse, God does not crave your adula-
tion, he ofers it as your greatest pleasure.
God is most glorifed in you when you are most satisfed
in him. Gods design to pursue his own glory turns out
to be love. And our duty to pursue Gods glory turns out
to be a quest for joy. Tats the solution to the problem of
Gods self-exaltation.
3.3 The Realistic, Biblical Basis for
Christian Hedonism
C.S. Lewis saw the basis in human experience. Te
apostle Paul shows it in his letter to the Philippians.
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Here is the great discovery as I frst found it in Lewiss
book, Refections on the Psalms. He is discovering why
Gods demand for our praise is not vain.
Te most obvious fact about praisewhether of
God or any thingstrangely escaped me. I thought
of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving
of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment
spontaneously overfows into praise unless shyness
or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought
in to check it. Te world rings with praiselovers
praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet,
walkers praising the countryside, players praising
their favorite gamepraise of weather, wines,
dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries,
historical personages, children, fowers, mountains,
rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians
or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest,
and at the same time most balanced and capacious,
minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfts and
malcontents praised least .
I had not noticed either that just as men
spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they
spontaneously urge us to join them in praising
it: Isnt she lovely? Wasnt it glorious? Dont you
think that magnifcent? Te Psalmists in telling
everyone to praise God are doing what all men do
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when they speak of what they care about. My whole,
more general, difculty about the praise of God
depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards
the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do,
what indeed we cant help doing, about everything
else we value.
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because
the praise notmerely expresses but completes the
enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.
It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on
telling one another how beautiful they are; the
delight is incomplete till it is expressed. (C.S.
Lewis,Refections on the Psalms[New York:
Harcourt, Brace and World, 1958], 9395.)
Tere it was. Gods relentless command that we see him
as glorious and praise him is a command that we settle
for nothing less than the completion of our joy in him.
Praise is not just the expression, but the consummation,
of our joy in what is supremely enjoyable, namely, God.
Inhispresence is fullness of joy; athisright hand are plea-
sures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). In demanding our praise,
he is demanding the completion of our pleasure. God is
most glorifed in us when we are most satisfed in him.
That Christ Be Seen As Great
And that is what we fnd inPhilippians 1:2021.
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It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not
be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now
as always Christ will be honored [magnifedto
cause to be seen as great] in my body, whether by
life or by death.For to me to live is Christ, and to
die is gain.
Paul says that his great passion in lifeI hope its your
great passion in lifeis that in this life Christ be seen as
greatsupremely great. Tat is why God created us and
saved usto make Christ look like what he really is
supremely great.
Now the relationship between verse 20 and 21 is the
key to seeing how Paul thinks that happens. Its going to
happen, Paul saysChrist is going to be magnifed in my
body by life or deathbecause to me to live is Christ and
to die is gain (verse 21). Notice that life in verse 20 cor-
responds to live in verse 21 and death in verse 20 cor-
responds to die in verse 21. So Paul is explaining in both
caseslife and deathhow Christ is going to look great.
He will look great in mylifebecause for me toliveis
Christ. He explains in Philippians 3:8, I count every-
thing as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord. So Christ is more precious, more
valuable, more satisfying than all that life on this earth
can give. I count everything as loss because of the sur-
passing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Tis is what he means when he says inPhilippians 1:21,
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To me to live is Christ. And thathe says is how his life
magnifes Christmakes him look great. Christ is most
magnifed in Pauls life when Paul, in his life, is most satis-
fed in Christ. Tats the plain teaching of these two texts.
When Our Death Is Gain
And it gets even plainer when you consider the death half
of Philippians 1:2021. Christ will be magnifed in my
body by death, because to me to die is gain (verse 21). Why
would death be gain? Te answer is at the end of verse 23:
My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far bet-
ter. Death is gain because it means a greater closeness of
being with Christ. Death is to depart and be with Christ.
Tis is why Paul says in verse 21 that to die is gain. You
add up all the losses that death will cost you (your fam-
ily, your job, your dream retirement, the friends you leave
behind, your favorite bodily pleasures)you add up all
these losses, and then you replace them only with death
and Christif when you do that you joyfully say,gain!,
then Christ is magnifed in your dying. Christ is most
magnifed in your death, when you are so satisfed in
Christ, that losing everything and getting only Christ is
called gain.
Or to sum up both halves of the verse:Christ is glori-
fed in you when he is more precious to you than all that life
can give or death can take.
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3.4 The Centrality of the Cross in Christian Hedonism
Tats the biblical basis for Christian Hedonism: God is
most glorifed in us when we are most satisfed in him.
And this really was already implicit in Chapter Two
on the glory of God. God created the worldfor the praise
of the glory of his grace displayed supremely in the death
of Jesus.Which means that the pursuit of his own praise
reaches its climax at the place where it does us the most
good, the cross. At the cross God upholds his glory and
provides our forgiveness. At the cross God vindicates his
own honor and secures our happiness. At the cross God
magnifes his own worth and satisfes our soul.
In the greatest act of history, Christ made it come
true for undeserving sinners that God could be most glo-
rifed in us by our being most satisfed in him.
3.5 11 Illustrations of How Christian Hedonism
Changes Everything
1. Death
Weve just seen how it changes death. If you want to make
Christ look great in your dying, there is no big perfor-
mance or achievement or heroic sacrifce. Tere is simply
a childlike laying yourself into the arms of the one who
makes the loss of everything gain.
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2. Conversion
Christian Hedonism changes how we think about con-
version. Matthew 13:44: Te kingdom of heaven is
like treasure hidden in a feld, which a man found and
covered up. Ten in his joy he goes and sells all that he
has and buys that feld. Becoming a Christian not only
means believing truth; it means fnding a treasure. So
evangelism becomes not only persuasion about truth
but pointing people to a Treasurethat is more valuable
than everything they have.
3. The Fight of Faith
Christian Hedonism changes the good fght of
faith (1 Timothy 6:12). John says in John 1:12, To all
whoreceivedJesus, whobelievedin his name, he gave the
right to become children of God (John 1:12). Believing
Jesus is receiving him. As what? As the infnitely valuable
Treasure that he is. Faith is seeing and savoring this Trea-
sure. And so the fght of faith is a fght for joy in Jesus.
A fght to see and savor Jesus is more precious than any-
thing in the world. Because this savoring shows him to be
supremely valuable.
4. Combating Evil
Christian Hedonism changes how we combat evil in our
lives. Jeremiah 2:13 gives the Christian Hedonist defni-
tion of evil: My people have committed two evils: they
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have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and
hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that
can hold no water. Evil is the suicidal preference for the
empty wells of the world over the living waters of Gods
fellowship. We fght evil by the pursuit of the fullest sat-
isfaction in the river of Gods delights (Psalm 36:8).
5. What Hell Is
Christian Hedonism changes how we think of hell. Since
the way to be saved and go to heaven is to embrace Jesus
as your source of greatest joy, hell is a place of sufering,
a place of eternal unhappiness, prepared for people who
refuse to be happy in the triune God.
6. Self-Denial
Christian Hedonism changes the way we think about
self-denial. Self-denial really is there in the teachings of
Jesus, If anyone would come afer me, let him deny him-
self and take up his cross and follow me (Mark 8:34). But
now the meaning becomes,
Deny yourself the wealth of the world so you can have
the wealth of being with Christ.
Deny yourself the fame of the world to have the joy of
Gods approval.
Deny yourself the security and safety of the world to
have the solid, secure fellowship of Jesus.
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Deny yourself the short, unsatisfying pleasures of the
world so that you can have fullness of joy and plea-
sures forevermore at Gods right hand.
Which means there is no such thing as ultimate self-deni-
al, because to live is Christ and to die is gain.
7. Money
Christian Hedonism changes the way we think about
handling our money and the act of giving.Acts 20:35: It
is more blessed to give than to receive. 2 Corinthians
9:7: Each one must give as he has decided in his heart,
not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a
cheerful giver. Te motive to be a generous person is that
it expresses and expands our joy in God. And the pursuit
of deepest joy is the pursuit of giving not getting.
8. Corporate Worship
Christian Hedonism changes the way we do corporate
worship. Corporate worship is the collective act of glori-
fying God. But God is glorifed in that service when the
people are satisfed in him. Terefore, the worship lead-
ersmusicians and preacherssee their task primarily
as breaking open a fountain of living water and spread-
ing a feast of rich food. Te task of the worshippers is to
drink and eat and say a satisfed Ahhh. Because God is
most glorifed in those worshippers when they are most
satisfed in him.
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9. Disability and Weakness
Christian Hedonism changes the way we experience dis-
ability and weakness. Stunningly, paradoxically, Jesus
says to the weak and thorn-pierced Paul, My grace is
sufcient for you, for my power is made perfect in weak-
ness. To which Paul responds, Terefore I will boast all
the more gladly [yes this is the voice of the thorn-pierced
Christian Hedonist] of my weaknesses, so that the power
of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9).
10. Love
Christian Hedonism changes the meaning of love. Paul
describes the love of the Macedonians like this: In a
severe test of afiction, theirabundance of joyand their
extreme poverty have overfowed in a wealth of gener-
osity on their part (2 Corinthians 8:2). In verse 8, Paul
calls this love. Abundant joy in severe afiction
and extreme poverty overfowed in loving generosity.
Still poor. Still aficted. But so full of joy it overfowed
in love. So Christian Hedonism defnes love as the over-
fow (or the expansion) of joy in God that meets the
needs of others.
11. Ministry
Christian Hedonism changes the meaning of ministry.
What is the ministry aim of the great apostle Paul?2 Cor-
inthians 1:24, Not that we lord it over your faith, but we
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are workers with you for your joy, for you stand frm in
your faith. All ministry should be one way or the other a
working with others for their joy.
Tats why God created you. Tats why Christ died
for you. Tats why we serve you as your pastors. And that
is why I have preached this message. We are workers with
you for your joy in God. Because God is most glorifed in
you when you are most satisfed in him.
C. MORE ABOUT CHRISTIAN HEDONISM
Eight Reasons to Pursue Your Satisfaction in God
Te implications of Christian Hedonism are pervasive.
One of the biggest implications is that we should, there-
fore, pursue our joy in God. Should! Not may. Te main
business of our hearts is maximizing our satisfaction
in God. Not our satisfaction in his gifs, no matter how
good, but in him.
Here are eight biblical reasons to pursue your greatest
and longest satisfaction in God.
1. We are commanded to pursue satisfaction.
Psalm 100:2: Serve the Lord with gladness!
Philippians 4:4: Rejoice in the Lord always.
Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord.
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2. We are threatened if we dont pursue
satisfaction in God.
Deuteronomy 28:4748: Because you did not serve the
Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart
therefore you shall serve your enemies.
3. The nature of faith teaches the pursuit of satisfac-
tion in God.
Hebrews 11:6: Without faith it is impossible to please
him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe
that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
4. The nature of evil teaches the pursuit of satisfaction
in God.
Jeremiah 2:1213: Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be
shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my
people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for
themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
5. The nature of conversion teaches the pursuit of sat-
isfaction in God.
Matthew 13:44: Te kingdom of heaven is like treasure
hidden in a feld, which a man found and covered up.
Ten in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys
that feld.
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6. The call for self-denial teaches the pursuit of satis-
faction in God.
Mark 8:3436: If anyone would come afer me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For who-
ever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For what does
it proft a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
7. The demand to love people teaches the pursuit of
satisfaction in God.
Hebrews 12:2: For the joy that was set before him [Jesus]
endured the cross.
Acts 20:35: It is more blessed to give than to receive.
8. The demand to glorify God teaches the pursuit of
satisfaction in God.
Philippians 1:2021: It is my eager expectation and hope
that Christ will be [glorifed] in my body, whether by
life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain (fnal and total satisfaction in him).
Terefore, I invite you to join George Mueller, the great
prayer warrior and lover of orphans, in saying, I saw
more clearly than ever, that the frst great and primary
business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have
my soul happy in the Lord. In this way, we will be able
to sufer the loss of all things in the sacrifces of love, and
count it all joy.
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What About Self-Denial?
Someone may say, How can you talk as if it is right to
be motivated by a desire for our own good? How can you
say, Make pleasure your aim, when the Bible so clearly
teaches we should deny ourselves and take up our cross?
Well, I have good news for you, if you think thats
what Jesus taught. Lets read the whole passage of Mark
8:3436:
If anyone would come afer me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever
would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses
his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For
what does it proft a man to gain the whole world
and forfeit his soul?
Te whole premise of this argument is hedonistic.
Nobody wants to lose his life. Tere is no proftno plea-
surein that. So here is how to save your life and have
infnite joylose it in a life of love. Every sacrifce Jesus
asks us to make, he asks us to make because he promises
something vastly better. Self-denial? Sure: deny yourself
the mud pie in the slum so you can have the day at the sea,
as Lewis has said.
Jesus asked a rich young man once to deny himself,
to sell everything he had, give it to the poor, and follow
Jesus. Now what do you think should have motivated
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that man to sell all his goods? Some kind of disinterested
benevolence? Te Bible does not know any such thing.
Jesus told two parables to show what his motive
should have been. Matthew 13:4446: Te kingdom
of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a feld which a man
found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells
all that he has and buys that feld. Te rich young man
should have sold all that he had because the prospect of
following Jesus into the kingdom was so exciting and
so joyful that all his possessions were no comparison.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search
of fne pearls, who, on fnding one pearl of great value,
went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Te only reason Jesus asks us to renounce our little
plastic beads of money and vain ambition and sensual
pleasures is because he has a real pearl for us.
Tere is no such thing as ultimate self-sacrifce in the
kingdom of God. Even Jesus, whose love was purest at
Calvary, endured the cross, as Hebrews 12:2 says, for
the joy that was set before him. Christian hedonism is
simply a fancy way of saying it is not the best when we do
things under compulsion, for it is cheerful givers, joyful
lovers, that the Lord seeks (2 Corinthians 9:7).
I conclude with a letter I wrote to one of my past stu-
dents who disagreed with me on this. He wrote me a note
and said, I disagree with your position that love seeks or
is motivated by its own pleasure Are you familiar with
Dorothy Day? She is a very old woman who has devoted
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her life to loving others, especially the poor, displaced
and downtrodden. Her experience of loving when there
was no joy has led her to say this: Love in action is a harsh
and dreadful thing.
I wrote back the following response:
You say of Dorothy Day: Her experience of loving the
poor, displaced, downtrodden when there was no joy has
led her to say this: Love in action is a harsh and dreadful
thing. I will try to respond in two ways.
First, dont jump to the conclusion that there is no joy
in things that are harsh and dreadful. Tere are moun-
tain climbers who have spent sleepless nights on the faces
of clifs, have lost fngers and toes in subzero tempera-
tures, and have gone through horrible misery to reach a
peak. Tey say it is harsh and dreadful. But if you ask
them why they do it, the answer will come back in vari-
ous forms: there is an exhilaration in the soul that feels so
good it is worth all the pain.
And if this is how it is with mountain climbing, can-
not the same be true of love? Is it not rather an indict-
ment of our own worldliness that we are more inclined
to sense exhilaration at mountain climbing than at con-
quering the precipices of un-love in our own lives and in
society?
Yes, love is ofen a harsh and dreadful thing, but I
do not see how a person who cherishes what is good and
admires Jesus can help but feel a sense of joyful exhilara-
tion when (by grace) he is able to love another person.
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Now let me approach Dorothy Days situation in
another way. Lets pretend I am one of the poor that she is
trying to help at great cost to herself. I think a conversa-
tion might go like this:
Piper: Why are you doing this for me, Miss Day?
Day: Because I love you.
Piper: What do you mean, you love me? I dont have any-
thing to ofer. I am not worth loving.
Day: Perhaps. But there are no application forms for my
love. I learned that from Jesus. What I mean is I want
tohelpyou because Jesus has helped me so much.
Piper: So you are trying to satisfy your wants?
Day: I suppose so, if you want to put it like that. One of
my deepest wants is to make you a happy and purposeful
person.
Piper: Does it upset you that Iamhappier and that I feel
more purposeful since youve come?
Day: Heavens no! What could make me happier!
Piper: So you really spend all these sleepless nights here
for what makes you happy, dont you?
Day: If I say yes someone might misunderstand me. Tey
might think I dont care foryouat all, but only for myself.
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Piper: But wont you say it at least for me?
Day: Yes, Ill say it for you: I work for what brings me the
greatest joy: your joy.
Piper: Tank you. Now I know that you love me.
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4. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
Remember this and stand frm, recall it to mind,
you transgressors, 9 remember the former things
of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am
God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end
fom the beginning and fom ancient times things
not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
will accomplish all my purpose, 11 calling a bird of
prey fom the east, the man of my counsel fom a far
country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I
have purposed, and I will do it. Isaiah 46:811
One of the most foundational of all the thirty-year theo-
logical trademarks is the priceless truth of the sover-
eignty of God. Lets go right to our text lest even from
the beginning we import something here that does not
come from the word of God. Tis matter is far too seri-
ous, and touches on so many painful realities, that we
dare not trust ourselves here to come up with truth with-
out being told by God himself.
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In Isaiah 46:9 God says, I am God, and there is no
other; I am God, and there is none like me. So the issue
in this text is the uniqueness of God among all the beings
of the universe. He is in a class by himself. No one is like
him. Te issue is what it means to be God. When some-
thing is happening, or something is being said or thought,
and God responds, I am God! (which is what he does
in verse 9), the point is: Youre acting like you dont know
what it means for me to be God.
4.1 What It Means to Be God
God tells us what it means to be the one and only God. He
tells us whats at the heart of his God-ness. Verse 10: What
it means for me to be God is that I declare the end fom the
beginning and fom ancient times things not yet done.
Two statements: One, I declare how things turn out
long before they ever happen. Second, I declare not just
natural events but human eventsdoings, things that
are not yet done. Verse 10: I declare from ancient times
things not yet done.I know what these doings will be long
before they are done.
Now at this point you might say, What we have here
is the doctrine of Gods foreknowledge, not the doctrine
of his sovereignty. And that is right, so far. But in the
next half of the verse God tells ushowhe foreknows the
end andhowhe foreknows the things not yet done. Verse
10b: I declare the end from the beginning and from
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ancient times things not yet done, saying, My coun-
sel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.
When he declares ahead of time what will be, heres
how he declares it, or says it: saying, My counsel
shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.
In other words, the way he declares his foreknowl-
edge is by declaring his fore-counsel and his fore-purpos-
ing. When God declares the end long before it happens,
what he says is: My counsel shall stand. And when God
declares things not yet done long before they are done,
what he says is: I will accomplish all my purpose.
Which means that the reason God knows the future
is because he plans the future and accomplishes it. Te
future is the counsel of God being established. Te
future is the purpose of God being accomplished by God.
Ten, the next verse, verse 11b, gives a clear confrmation
that this is what he means: I have spoken, and I will
bring it to pass; I have purposed, andI will do it. In other
words,the reason my predictions come true is because they
are my purposes, and because I myself perform them.
4.2 God Purposes All Things
God is not a fortuneteller, a soothsayer, a mere predictor.
He doesnt have a crystal ball. He knows whats coming
because he plans whats coming and he performs what
he plans. Verse 10b: My counsel shall stand, and I will
accomplish all my purpose. He does not form purposes
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and wonder if someone else will take responsibility to
make them happen. I will accomplish all my purpose.
So, based on this text, heres what I mean by the sov-
ereignty of God: God has the rightful authority, the
freedom, the wisdom, and the power to bring about
everything that he intends to happen. And therefore,
everything he intends to come about does come about.
Which means: God plans and governs all things.
When he says, I will accomplish all my purpose, he
means, Nothing happens except what is my purpose. If
something happened that God did not purpose to hap-
pen, he would say, Tats not what I purposed to happen.
And we would ask, What did you purpose to happen?
And he would say, I purposed this other thing to
happen which didnt happen.
To which we would all say, then, But you said inIsa-
iah 46:10, I will accomplish all my purpose.
And he would say, Tats right.
Terefore, what God means in Isaiah 46:10 is that
nothing has ever happened, or will ever happen that God
did not purpose to happen. Or to put it positively: Every-
thing that happened or will happen is purposed by God
to happen.
Now if that seemed a little too complicated, lets do
something simpler. Lets confrm this view of Gods sov-
ereignty by looking at some other passages of scripture.
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4.3 A Straightforward Statement on Sovereignty
Before we look closer at some important passages of
Scripture, let me refer to the Bethlehem Baptist Church
Elder Afrmation of Faith. My exposition of this doc-
trine is not me expressing a private opinion. Im simply
expressing and supporting a doctrine to which all the
elders of this church give their heartfelt afrmation.
3. 1 We believe that God, fom all eternity, in order
to display the full extent of his glory for the eternal
and ever-increasing enjoyment of all who love
him, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his
will, feely and unchangeably ordain and foreknow
whatever comes to pass.
3. 2 We believe that God upholds and governs all
thingsfom galaxies to subatomic particles, fom
the forces of nature to the movements of nations,
and fom the public plans of politicians to the secret
acts of solitary personsall in accord with his
eternal, all-wise purposes to glorify himself, yet in
such a way that he never sins, nor ever condemns
a person unjustly; but that his ordaining and
governing all things is compatible with the moral
accountability of all persons created in his image.
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3. 3 We believe that Gods election is an
unconditional act of fee grace which was given
through his Son Christ Jesus before the world began.
By this act God chose, before the foundation of the
world, those who would be delivered fom bondage
to sin and brought to repentance and saving faith in
his Son Christ Jesus.
So this is the way the sovereignty of God is expressed in
our Elder Afrmation of Faith. Now, consider with me
the extent of support for this in the Bible, and then some
closing implications, and why it is so precious to us.
4.4 The Choice We All Face
Te extent of Gods sovereignty may be overwhelming for
you. It is for me. And when were confronted with this
truth we all face a choice: will we turn from our objec-
tions and praise his power and grace, and bow with glad
submission to the absolute sovereignty of God? Or will
we stifen our neck and resist him?
Will we see in the sovereignty of God our only hope
for life in our deadness, our only hope for answers to our
prayers, our only hope for success in our evangelism, our
only hope for meaning in our sufering? Or will we insist
that there is a better hope, or no hope? Tats the ques-
tion we will face.
Let it be said loud and clear that nothing you are
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about to read below, as paradoxical as it may seem to
our fnite minds, contradicts the real moral responsibil-
ity that humans and angels and demons have to do what
God commands. God has given us a will. How we use it
makes our eternal diference.
Lets divide Gods sovereignty into his governing
natural events on the one hand and human events on the
other. In the frst case he is governing physical processes.
And in the second case he is governing human choices.
4.5 Gods Sovereignty in the World Around Us
God is sovereign over what appear the most random
acts in the world.Proverbs 16:33, Te lot is cast into the
lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. In modern
language we would say, Te dice are rolled on the table
and every play is decided by God. Tere are no events so
small that he does not rule for his purposes. Are not two
sparrows sold for a penny? Jesus said, And not one of
them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But
even the hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew
10:2930). Every role of the dice in Las Vegas, every tiny
bird that falls dead in the thousand forestsall of this is
Gods command.
From worms in the ground to stars in the galaxies
God governs the natural world. In the book of Jonah
God commands a fsh to swallow (1:17), God commands a
plant to grow (4:6), and commands a worm to kill it (4:7).
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And far above the life of worms the stars take their place
and hold their place at Gods command: Isaiah 40:26,
Lif up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He
who brings out their host by number, calling them all
by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he
is strong in power not one is missing. How much more,
then, the natural events of this worldfrom weather to
disasters to disease to disability to death.
Psalm 147:1518, He sends out his command to the
earth; his word runs swifly. He gives snow like wool; he
scatters hoarfrost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals
of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He
sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind
blow and the waters fow. Job 37:1113, He loads the
thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his light-
ning. Tey turn around and around by his guidance, to
accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the
habitable world. Whether for correction or for his land
or for love, he causes it to happen.
4.6 Gods Sovereignty in the Details
Snow and rain and cold and heat and wind are all the
work of God. So when Jesus fnds himself in the middle
of a raging storm, he merely speaks, Peace! Be still! And
the wind ceased, and there was a great calm (Mark 4:39).
Tere is no wind, no storm, no hurricane, no cyclone, no
typhoon, no monsoon, no tornado over which Jesus can
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say Be still, and it will not obey. Which means, that if
it blows, he intends for it to blow. Does disaster come to
a city, unless the Lord has done it? (Amos 3:6). All Jesus
had to do with Hurricane Sandy was say, Be still, and
there would have been no damage and no loss of life.
And what about the other suferings of this life? Te
Lord said to Moses, Who has made mans mouth? Who
makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I,
the Lord? (Exodus 4:11). And Peter said to the sufer-
ing saints in Asia Minor, Let those who sufer accord-
ing to Gods will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator
while doing good (1 Peter 4:19). It is better to sufer for
doing good, if that should be Gods will, than for doing
evil (1 Peter 3:17).
Whether we sufer from disability or from the evil
of others God is the one who ultimately decidesand
whether we live or die. Deuteronomy 32:39, Tere is
no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and
I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
Or James 4:1315, Come now, you who say, Today
or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and
spend a year there and trade and make a proftyet you
do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your
life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and
then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills,
we will live and do this or that. Or as Job says, Naked I
came from my mothers womb, and naked shall I return.
Te Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be
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the name of the Lord (Job 1:21).
Te roll of the dice, the fall of a bird, the crawl of a
worm, the movement of stars, the falling of snow, the
blowing of wind, the loss of sight, the sufering of saints,
and the death of allthese are included in the word of
God: I will accomplish all my purposefrom the
smallest to the greatest.
4.7 Gods Sovereignty in Human Actions
When we turn from the natural world to consider the
world of human actions and human choice, Gods sov-
ereignty is still amazingly extensive. You should vote
in political electionson the candidates and on the
amendments. But let there be no man-exalting illusion as
though mere human beings will be the decisive cause in
any victory or loss. God alone will have that supreme role.
He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets
up kings; the Most High rules the kingdom of men
and gives it to whom he will (Daniel 2:21;4:17).
And whoever the next president is, he will not be sov-
ereign. He will be governed. And we should pray for him
that he would know this: Te kings heart is a stream
of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever
he will (Proverbs 21:1). And when he engages in for-
eign afairs he will not be decisive. God will. Te Lord
brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frus-
trates the plans of the peoples. Te counsel of the Lord
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stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations
(Psalm 33:1011).
When nations came to do their absolute worst, name-
ly the murder of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, they had
not slipped out of Gods control, but were doing his
sweetest bidding at their worst moment: Truly in this
city there were gathered together against your holy ser-
vant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
to dowhatever your hand and your plan had predestined
to take place (Acts 4:2728). Te worst sin that ever hap-
pened was in Gods plan, and by that sin, sin died.
4.8 Gods Sovereignty in Your Own Life
Our salvation was secured on Calvary under the sover-
eign hand of God. And, if you are a believer in Jesus, if
you love him, you are a walking miracle. God granted you
repentance (2 Timothy 2:24f). God drew you to Christ
(John 6:44). God revealed the Son of God to you (Mat-
thew 11:27). God gave you the gif of faith. By grace you
have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gif of God, not a result of works, so that
no one may boast (Ephesians 2:89). Te sovereignty of
God in our salvation excludes boasting.
Tere may have been a hundred horrible things in
your life. But, if today, you are moved to treasure Christ
as your Lord and Savior, you can write over every one of
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those horrors the words of Genesis 50:20: Satan, you
meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.
I conclude therefore with the words of Paul inEphe-
sians 1:11, God works all things according to the counsel
of his will. All thingsfrom the roll of the dice, to the
circuits of stars, to the rise of presidents, to the death of
Jesus, to the gif of repentance and faith.
4.9 Seven Exhortations for How We Live Because God
Is Sovereign
What does Gods sovereignty mean for our lives? Why is
this precious to us? I will state these reasons as exhorta-
tions. Because God is sovereign:
1. Let us stand in awe of the sovereign authority and
freedom and wisdom and power of God.
2. And let us never trife with life as though it were a
small or light afair.
3. Let us marvel at our own salvationthat God bought
it and wrought it with sovereign power, and we are
not our own.
4. Let us groan over the God-belittling man-centered-
ness of our culture and much of the church.
5. Let us be bold at the throne of grace, knowing that our
prayers for the most difcult things can be answered.
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Nothing is too hard for God.
6. Let us rejoice that our evangelism will not be in vain
because there is no sinner so hard the sovereign grace
of God cannot break through.
7. Let us be thrilled and calm in these days of great
upheaval because victory belongs to God, and no pur-
poses that he wills to accomplish can be stopped.
D. MORE ABOUT GODS SOVEREIGNTY
The Preciousness of Gods Sovereignty in Our Pain
Te deep inner-workings of the Christian soul are not
possible without the sovereignty of God. Te reason is
because the strength of hope and peace and joy and con-
tentment and gladness and satisfaction and delight in
God that sustain the soul in sorrows of life-long disap-
pointment are rooted in the confdence that God has
the authority, the freedom, the wisdom, and the power
to accomplish all the good he has promised to do for his
embattled children.
In other words, no obstacle in nature, no obstacle
in Satan, no obstacle in the failures and sins of man can
stop God from making all my experiences, all my bro-
kenness, all my adversaries, serve my eternal wholeness
and joy. If you listen carefully to that, you can hear that
my exuberance for Gods sovereignty rests not mainly
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on his causality in the past but mainly on his powerful
capacities in the future. In other words, the main reason
Gods sovereignty is precious is that he has power to ful-
fll impossible promises to me in my seemingly hopeless
condition. His ruling the past, including my brokenness,
is simply a pre-condition of this hope-flled power. So let
me give a very brief glimpse at this sovereignty.
The Whole World in His Hands
One of the most sweeping and foundational texts on
the sovereignty of God deals directly with disabilities.
In Exodus 4:11 God answers Mosess fear that his elo-
quence is insufcient for the task, TeLordsaid to him,
Who has made mans mouth? Who makes him mute, or
deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, theLord? Disabili-
ty of speech impediments, disability of deafness, disabil-
ity of blindnessall of these are in Gods hands to give
and to remove.
To which we may respond by asking: What about
natural causes? What about Satan? What about the
sins of others against us, or even our own sin? And the
answer is that these are real, but that none is fnally deci-
sive. If any of these play a role in our disabilityand they
dothey do so within Gods sovereign plan.
For example, Romans 8:2223 makes it clear that
our physical groaning with disease and disability is
owing to the fact that our bodies share in the fall of all
nature into futility.
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We know that the whole creation has been
groaning together in the pains of childbirth until
now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves,
who have the frstfuits of the Spirit, groan
inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons,
the redemption of our bodies.
So one cause of our physical and mental brokenness is
that we share with the whole creation in its subjection
to futility. But that creation is under the detailed gover-
nance of God. Te Bible tells us that the roll of the dice,
the fall of a bird, the crawl of a worm, the movement of
stars, the fall of snow, the blowing of wind, the loss of
sight, the sufering of saints, and the death of every per-
son are included in the word of God: I will accomplish
all my purpose (Isaiah 46:10). And in the word He
works all things according to the counsel of his will
(Ephesians 1:11).
So yes, there are natural causes for our disabilities, but
none of these natural causes is ultimate, none is fnally
decisive. God is.
Even Satan Is Under Gods Governance
So it is with Satan. He is real. And he is involved in dam-
aging and hurting Gods people, including physically
and mentally (Acts 10:38). But he is under Gods gover-
nance. In the book of Job Satan must come to God for
permission to hurt Job (1:12; 2:6). And when he has done
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his work, striking Job with loathsome sores (2:7), Job says,
Shall we receive goodfom God, and shall we not receive
evil? (2:10). And the inspired author of the book says,
In all this Job did not sin with his lips (2:10). And later
said that Job was comforted for all the evil thatthe Lord
had brought upon him (42:11).
So, yes, Satan is real and no doubt has a hand in caus-
ing many diseases and disabilities. But he can do noth-
ing without Gods permission. And what God foreknows
and permits, he plans. And what he plans for his children
is always for their good.
Sovereign Over Sin and Its Effects
And so it is with sins. We may smoke our way into emphy-
sema, or we may lose a leg because a drunk driver crashes
into us. But neither our sins nor the sins of another are
fnally decisive in what happens to us. God is. And the
Christian may write over every attack of nature, Satan, or
sin the words of Genesis 50:20, As for you, you meant
evil against me, but God meant it for good.
And the reason we can say this, even though we are
undeserving sinners, is that God said it frst over all the
sins that brought his son to the cross for us. Herod, Pilate,
cruel soldiers, shouting crowdsyou meant my sons
execution for evil, but I meant it for good (Acts 4:2728).
Tats the foundation of all the good God promises in
and through our disabilities.
And the good God has in mind for his children has an
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immeasurable number of layers. He means it for greater
faith: 2 Corinthians 1:9, We felt that we had received
the sentence of death. But that was to make usrely not on
ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He means it for
greater righteousness: Hebrews 12:11, For the moment
all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later
it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. He means it
for greater hope: Romans 5:34, We rejoice in our suf-
ferings, knowing that sufering produces endurance, and
endurance produces character, and character produces
hope. He means it for the greater experience of the glory
of God: 2 Corinthians 4:17, For this light momentary
afiction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison.
You, Satan, you, natural causes, you, sinneryou all
meant my disability for evil, but God meant it for good
the good of greater faith, the good of greater righteous-
ness, the good of greater hope, the good of greater glory.
Or, asJohn 9:3says, dont even consider secondary causes:
It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that
the works of God might be displayed in him.
Only God Is Decisive
Tough nature and Satan and sin may have a hand in dis-
ability, and should be resisted with prayer and truth and
medicine, nevertheless, they are not decisive. God is.
And therein lies, for us, not mainly a theological prob-
lem with the past, but an invincible hope for the future.
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If God is sovereign then nothing is too hard for him.
And by the blood of his Son he has promised infallibly:
I will meet all your needs according to my riches in glory
in Christ Jesus(Philippians 4:19).My power will be made
perfect in weakness(2 Corinthians 12:9).I will strengthen
you and help you and hold you up with my righteous right
hand(Isaiah 41:10).I will never leave you nor forsake you
(Hebrews 13:5).I will not let any testing befall you for which
I do not give you grace to bear(1 Corinthians 10:13).And I
will take the sting away fom your death with the blood of
my son(1 Corinthians 15:55f).And I will raise you fom the
dead imperishable(1 Corinthians 15:52),and I will trans-
form your lowly body to be like my glorious body, by the
power that enables me even to subject all things to myself
(Philippians 3:21). And I will do this without fail because
I am absolutely sovereign over everything and therefore, I
can do all things, and no purpose of mine can be thwarted
(Job 42:2).
Tis is the foundation of our hope and the key to the
inner-workings of the Christian soul.
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5. THE GOSPEL OF GOD IN CHRIST
Terefore, since we have been justifed by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.2Trough him we have also obtained access
by faith into this grace in which we stand, and
we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.3Not only
that, but we rejoice in our suferings, knowing that
sufering produces endurance,4and endurance
produces character, and character produces
hope,5 and hope does not put us to shame, because
Gods love has been poured into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.6For
while we were still weak, at the right time Christ
died for the ungodly.7For one will scarcely die for a
righteous personthough perhaps for a good person
one would dare even to die8but God shows
his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.9Since, therefore, we have now
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been justifed by his blood, much more shall we
be saved by him fom the wrath of God.10For if
while we were enemies we were reconciled to God
by the death of his Son, much more, now that we
are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.11More
than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
reconciliation. Romans 5:111
5.1 What Is a Theological Trademark?
When you read about these thirty-year theological
trademarks dont think niche branding. Dont think
thirty-year exclusives. I dont even like the word dis-
tinctives. It seems to connote a desire to be doctrin-
ally diferent from others. Our mindset is exactly the
opposite. Were suspicious of being diferent from the
historic teachings of the church.Te last thing we want
to preach is new doctrines exclusive to us.When we say
trademarks we mean truths that are defning and shap-
ing and precious.We dont mean views that weve come
up with and that set us of from the rest of the church
of Christ. We dont want to be set of. We want to be
arm in arm with millions of faithful followers of Gods
word.Truth does divide.But it also unites. And it is the
uniting power of truth that we delight in most.
So we are always testing our interpretations of the
Bible by looking back into church history. If we cant
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fnd our interpretations there, we would be very slow to
preach them in this pulpit. Cults and sects are born in
the minds of leaders who crave to be diferent.Jehovahs
Witnesses, Mormons, the Unifcation Church, Chris-
tian Sciencethese were born in the minds of teachers
who wanted new revelations and interpretations, and
found them.Tey were restless with the limitation of the
Bible and its historic understandings.
Tere is a lot of healthy and warranted warning these
days about historical hero worship.Warnings about inor-
dinate and uncritical admiration and imitation of his-
torical teachers like Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Luther,
the Puritans, Edwards, Wesley, Spurgeon, Barth, Ches-
terton, Lewis, etc.But we should be careful not to overdo
this criticism. People with great historical heroes tend
not to think of themselves as heroes. Teyre too busy
learning from them. Which means that, for all its dan-
gers, admiring a great line of historical heroes will at least
keep you from starting a sect.
Our instincts are much more in that direction. Our
thirty-year theological trademarks are not new, theyre
not distinctive to us, they are not a niche, they are not
exclusives, they are not eccentric. Tey all have wide
foundations in the Bible and deep roots in the history
of Gods people.And if any of them ever deserved to be
guarded from the distortion of novelty it is this trade-
mark, namely the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Te key phrase is that God in Christisthe price and
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the prize of the gospel.Te prize of the gospel is the Person
who paid the price, God in Christ.
In other words, the gospel is the good news that God
in Christ paid the price of sufering, so that we could
have the prize of enjoying him forever.God paid the price
of his Son to give us the prize of himself.
Tis is my thesis and to unfold its meaning and to show
how biblical it is I think it will be helpful to take three
snapshots from three diferent places:One from Romans
5, one from church history, and one from 1 Corinthians 15.
5.2 The Price and Prize of the Gospel in Romans 5
Keep in mind that the word gospel means good news,
and in this case, it means Gods good news for the
world.What is the price and the prize of that good news
according to Romans 5?Heres the price inRomans 5:68:
While we were still weak, at the right time Christ
died for the ungodly.7For one will scarcely die for a
righteous personthough perhaps for a good person
one would dare even to die8 but God shows his
love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.
Te price of the gospel is the death of Christ. Verse 6:
Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8: Christ died for us.
God loved us while we were sinners and paid a price so
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that we might have an infnite prize.Tat price was the
death of his Son. And what was the prize that he bought
for us when he paid that price?Verses 9-11:
Since, therefore, we have now been justifed by his
blood, much more shall we be saved by him fom
the wrath of God.10For if while we were enemies
we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be
saved by his life.11More than that,we also rejoice
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom we have now received reconciliation.
What did God purchase for us by the price of his
Son?Verse 9: We have now been justifed by his blood.
And more. Verse 9b: Because of that justifcation we will
be saved by him from wrath. What do we need to be
saved from? Te wrath of God. Much more shall we be
saved from the wrath of God (verse 9). But is that the
highest, best, fullest, most satisfying prize of the gospel?
Note that verse 11 begins with another much more.
Verse 10 ends: We shall be saved by his life. And verse 11
takes it up a level: More than that:we rejoice in God. Tat
is the fnal and highest good of the good news.Tere is not
another much more afer that. Tere is only Pauls saying
again how we got there.Verse 11b: through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Te end of the gospel is we rejoice in God. Te
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highest, fullest, deepest, sweetest good of the gospel is
God himself, enjoyed by his redeemed people.Hence the
thesis: God in Christ is the price and the prize of the
gospel. God in Christ became the price (Romans 5:68),
and God in Christ became the prize (Romans 5:11).Te
gospel is the good news that God bought for us the ever-
lasting enjoyment of God.Tats what I mean when I say
God is the gospel.
5.3 A Testimony from Church History
For fve hundred years protestant Christians have
summed up the gospel in terms of the fve solas, which is
Latin for only or alone. And all I do in giving you this
summary is add one that is implicit in the others. So in
these historical forms I would defne the gospel like this:
As revealed with fnal authority inScripture alone
the Gospel is the good news that
byfaith alone
throughgrace alone
on the basis ofChrist alone
forthe glory of God alone
sinners have full and fnal joy inGod alone.
All these afrmations are grounded in the Bible.
Scripture alone is the fnal authority for revealing
and defning the gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:9): If
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anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the
one you received, let him be accursed. Te apostolic
delivery of the gospel is fnal and decisive.
Byfaith alone(Romans 3:28): We hold that one is jus-
tifed by faith apart from works of the law. Faith plus
nothing is the way we receive the gif of justifcation.
Troughgrace alone(Ephesians 2:5,89): When we
were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive togeth-
er with Christbygraceyou have been savedFor
bygraceyou have been saved through faith.And this
is not your own doing; it is the gif of God, not a result
of works, so that no one may boast.
On the basis of Christ alone (Hebrews 7:27): Christ
has no need, like those high priests, to ofer sacrifces
daily, frst for his own sins and then for those of the
people, since he did this once for all when he ofered
up himself. (SeeHebrews 9:12;10:10.)Once for all and
decisively. Nothing can be added to the work of Christ
to cover our sins and that work cannot be repeated.
For the glory of God alone (Ephesians 1:6): God
predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus
Christ to the praise of the glory of his grace. God
saved us in such a way that there would be no human
boasting (Ephesians 2:9; 1 Corinthians 1:2631), but
all would show his glory.
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Full and fnal joy inGod alone(Psalm 16:11;73:25f):
In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right
hand are pleasures forevermore. Whom have I in
heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I
desire besides you. My fesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion
forever.
Tis is the gospel as millions of Christians have thought
about it for centuries, and we are happy to link arms with
this great Reformation heritage: God in Christ is the
price and the prize of the gospel.
5.4 The Price and Prize of the Gospel
in 1 Corinthians 15
Tere are six important elements in 1 Corinthians 15,
fve of which are explicit in the text and one of which is
implicit.Verses 14:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of thegospelI
preached to you, which you received, in which you
stand,2and by which you are being saved, if you
hold fast to the word I preached to youunless you
believed in vain.3For I delivered to you as of frst
importance what I also received: that Christ died
for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,4that
he was buried, that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
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Six Indispensable Elements of the Gospel
Here we see six elements of the gospel.If any of these six
were missing, there would be no gospel.
1. Te gospel is adivine plan. Verse 3b: Christ died for
our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. In accor-
dance with the Scriptures written hundreds of years
before he died.Which means the gospel was planned
by God long before it took place.
2. Te gospel is ahistorical event.Verse 3b: Christ died.
Te gospel is not mythology. It is not mere ideas or
feelings. It is an event. And without the event there is
no gospel.
3. Te gospel is the divine achievements through that
eventthat death. Tings God accomplished in the
death of Jesus long before we ever existed. Verse 3b:
Christ died for our sins. For our sins means this
death had design in it. It was meant to accomplish
something. It accomplished the covering of our
sins (Colossians 2:14), the removal of Gods wrath
(Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:13), the purchase of eternal
life (John 3:16). Tese are objective achievements of
the work of Christ before they are applied to anyone.
4. Te gospel is afee ofer of Christ for faith.Verses 12:
the gospel I preached to you, which youreceived, in
which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved,
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if you hold fast to the word I preached to youunless
youbelievedin vain. Te good news of Gods achieve-
ments in Christ become ours by faith, by believing, by
receiving.Not by giving a performance or by deserving
or working.What God has done is free to all who will
have it.It is received by faith. Without the free ofer of
Christ for faith there would be no gospel.
5. Te gospel is an application to believers of what God
achieved in the death of Jesus. So when we believe we
are forgiven for our sins (Acts 10:43); we are justifed
(Romans 5:1); we receive eternal life (John 3:16) and
dozens of other benefts (which is why I wrote a book
calledFify Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die).Te gos-
pel is the powerful personal application to us of what
God achieved for us on the cross.
6. Te gospel is theenjoyment of fellowship with Godhim-
self.Tis is implicit in the word gospel, good news. If
you ask: What is the highest, deepest, most satisfy-
ing, all-encompassing good of the good news? Te
answer is: God himself known and enjoyed by his
redeemed people.Tis is made explicit in1 Peter 3:18:
Christ sufered once for sins, the righteous for the
unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. All the
other gifs of the gospel exist to make this one possi-
ble.We are forgiven so that our guilt does not keep us
away from God.We are justifed so that our condem-
nation does not keep us away from God.We are given
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eternal life now, with new bodies in the resurrection,
so that we have the capacities for enjoying God to the
fullest. Test your heart. Why do you want forgive-
ness? Why do you want to be justifed? Why do you
want eternal life? Is the decisive answer: because I
want to enjoy God?
In summary then, God in Christ is Te Price and the
Prize of the Gospel. Te prize of the gospel is the Person
who paid the price.Te gospel-love God gives is ultimate-
ly the gif of himself.Tis is what we were made for.Tis
is what we lost in our sin. Tis is what Christ came to
restore.In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your
right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).
5.5 The Love of God Is the Gift of Himself
I ofer the below quote to you on behalf of Christ.Indeed
I urge you to receive it. Its free.All it takes is for you to
see the beauty of Christ and receive him as your Trea-
sure and your Lord and your Savior.Tis is what it means
to believe the gospel.To give you one fnal enticement I
will read the most beautiful description I have ever read
of what I mean by saying God is the gospel and that the
love of God is the gif of himself.It comes from Jonathan
Edwards in 1731 when he was 28:
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Te redeemed have all their objective good in
God.God himself is the great good which they
are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by
redemption.He is the highest good, and the sum of
all that good which Christ purchased.
God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion
of their souls.God is their wealth and treasure,
their food, their life, their dwelling place, their
ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor
and glory.Tey have none in heaven but God; he is
the great good which the redeemed are received to at
death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the
world.Te Lord God, he is the light of the heavenly
Jerusalem; and is the river of the water of life that
runs, and the tree of life that grows, in the midst of
the paradise of God.
Te glorious excellencies and beauty of God will
be what will forever entertain the minds of the
saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting
feast.Te redeemed will indeed enjoy other things;
they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one
1
Jonathan Edwards, God Gloried in the Work of Redemption, by the Greatness of
Mans Dependence upon Him, in the Whole of It (1731) [sermon on1 Corinthians
1:29-31] in: Wilson H. Kimnach, Kenneth P. Minkema, and Douglas A. Sweeney,
ed., The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1999), 7475.
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another: but that which they shall enjoy in the
angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever,
that will yield them delight and happiness, will be
what will be seen of God in them.
1
Amen.
E. MORE ABOUT THE GOSPEL
How Is the Gospel the Power of God unto Salvation?
Lets dwell on the words of Romans 1:16: for it [the gospel]
is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
I will take up only one question: What is this sal-
vation that the gospel so powerfully brings about? By
answering this question we will see how our faith relates
to the gospel in bringing about our salvation.
Te gospel is the power of God for [unto] salvation.
Does this mean, Te gospel is the power of God to win
converts? I do think that is true, but I dont think that
is what this statement in Romans 1:16 means. Te reason
I think it is true that the gospel converts peoplebrings
them to faith and repentanceis because Romans 10:17
says, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the
word of Christ. And 1 Peter 1:2325 says, You have been
born again not of seed which is perishable but imperish-
able, through the living and enduring word of God.and
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this is the word which was preached to you. So it is true
that we are born of God and converted by means of hear-
ing the powerful word of God, the gospel.
And its true that this conversion is called salvation in
the New Testament. For example, Ephesians 2:89: For
by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not
of yourselves, it is the gif of God; not as a result of works,
so that no one may boast. So conversion to Christ by
faith is called being saved. If you are a believer in Christ,
you have been saved. Te Book of Romans should be
precious beyond words to you, because, like no other book
in the Bible, it unfolds for you what has already happened
in Gods saving youyour election, your predestination,
your calling, your justifcation, your sanctifcation, and
the obedience of faith. Tese are all part of the salvation
that is already true of you through faith.
But what is the salvation that Paul has in mind in
Romans 1:16? What does he mean when he says, For [the
gospel] is the power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes?
I think he has in mind not primarily the frst event of
conversion, but primarily the fnal triumph of the gospel in
bringing believers to eternal safety and joy in the presence of
a holy and glorious God.
Tere 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.
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1. The power of the gospel is what frees us from being
ashamed of the gospel.
I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God
for salvation. But if this meant only that the gospel has
the power to make converts, why would that solve the
shame problem? Lots of religions make converts. Lots of
diferent religious and secular movements win people over
to their faith. When Paul said that the gospel has such a
powerful efect that you dont have to be ashamed of it, did
he simply mean that it does what other religions do? Is it
that the gospel simply win converts? I dont think so.
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 dont have
to be ashamed of the gospel because it doesnt just make
converts; it saves those converts utterly. It brings them
to fnal safety and ever-increasing joy in the presence of
a glorious and holy God forever and ever. Tis is what
makes us bold with the gospelnot that it can make con-
verts (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.
Te second reason I think salvation in verse 16 refers
to the fnal triumph of the gospel in bringing believers to
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eternal safety and joy in the presence of a holy and glorious
God is that the phrase for salvation or unto salvation
has this future-oriented meaning elsewhere in Paul and
other New Testament writers.
For example, in 2 Tessalonians 2:13 Paul says, God
has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through
sanctifcation by the Spirit and faith in the truth. Now
here, salvation is not just what happens at conversion,
which leads to sanctifcation, but salvation is what comes
later through sanctifcation, and is in the future. In oth-
er words, salvation is the future triumph that brings the
saint into Gods presence with everlasting joy.
Or again, in 2 Corinthians 7:10, Paul speaks to Chris-
tians who are already converted and saved, but need fresh
repentance for their sins: Te sorrow that is according
to the will of God produces a repentance without regret,
unto salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces
death. Here again unto salvation refers not to conver-
sion, but to the fnal, future state of safety and joy in the
presence of God. (See also 2 Timothy 3:15.)
Similarly, Hebrews 9:28 says, Christ will appear
a second time for salvation to those who eagerly await
him. Tis fnal, complete salvation happens at the Sec-
ond 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. Tis 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
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joy in his presence forever.
In Romans 5:910, Paul talks about this future salva-
tion as rescue from the fnal wrath of God:
Since, therefore, we have now been justifed by
his blood, [thats the present reality of salvation!]
much more shall we be saved by him from the
wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son [here
again is the present reality of salvation!], much
more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved
by his life.
In other words, the full experience of salvation, in Pauls
thinking, is still future. Romans 13:11: Salvation is near-
er 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 pow-
erfully 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.
Te third reason I think salvation in Romans 1:16 is the
fnal triumph of the gospel in bringing believers to eternal
safety and joy in the presence of a holy and glorious God is
that ongoing belief is the condition for this salvation.
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Notice that verse 16 does not say, Te gospel is the
power of God to bring about faith and salvation. It says,
Te gospel is the power of God for [unto] salvation to
everyone who is believing [present tense in Greek, signi-
fying continuous action].
In other words, Pauls point here is not that the power
of the gospel creates faith, but that, for those who have
faith, the gospel brings about 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.
Te tense of the verb believe here is crucial. It signi-
fes ongoing action, not just the frst act of faith when you
were converted: Te gospel is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone who is believingthose who go
on believing. Its the same as 1 Corinthians 15:12 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 per-
severe is a vain and empty faithwhat James calls dead
faith (James 2:17, 26).
So the point of Romans 1:16 is that you dont have to
be ashamed of the gospel, because it is the only truth in
the world which, if you go on banking on it day afer day,
will triumph over every obstacle and bring you to eternal
safety and joy in the presence of a holy and glorious God.
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4. Paul says the gospel is for believers, not just
unbelievers.
Te last reason I think salvation in Romans 1:16 is the
fnal triumph of the gospel in bringing believers to eternal
safety and joy in the presence of a holy and glorious God is
that the verse is given as the reason Paul wants to preach
the gospel to believers (not just unbelievers).
Weve 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 youyou
believersnot just unbelievers. Ten 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 per-
secution and death and judgment into eternal safety and
ever-increasing joy in the presence of a holy and glori-
ous God. All the other gospels in the world that win
so many converts will fail you in the end. Only one saves
from the fnal wrath of God and leads to fullness of joy
in his presence and pleasures at his right hand forever.
Terefore, there is no need to be ashamed of it, no matter
what others say or do. And oh how eager we should be to
speak this gospel to believer and unbeliever alike!
Do you feed your faith day by day with the promises
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of this triumphant gospel? Do you, as a believer, go to
the gospel day by day and savor its power in verses like
Romans 8:32, He who did not spare his own Son, but
delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with
him freely give us all things? Te gospel is the good news
that God gave us his son, so as to obtain for us everything
that would be good for us. Terefore the gospel is the
power that gives us victory over temptation to despair
and to pride and to greed and to lust. Te 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. Te gospel will save you. And it alone.
I love to tell the story; for those who know it best
seem hungering and thirsting to hear it, like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song,
twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.
I love to tell the story,
twill be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story
Of Jesus and his love.
2
2
Katherine Hankey(18341911), Tell Me the Old, Old Story.
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6. THE CALL TO GLOBAL MISSIONS
In 1890, Bethlehem Baptist Church (a 29-year-old Swed-
ish Baptist Church at that time) sent members Mini and
Ola Hanson to an unreached people group in Burma
called the Kachin. Tey were known as vengeful, cruel,
and treacherous.Te King of Burma declared to Hanson
when he got there, So you are to teach the Kachins!Do
you see my dogs over there? I tell you, it will be easier to
convert and teach these dogs.You are wasting your life.
Te Kachin were completely illiterate with no writ-
ten language. Over the next 30 years Hanson collected
25,000 words and published a Kachin-English dictionary.
In 1911 Hanson fnished translating the New Testament.
On August 11, 1926 he completed the Old Testament.
In a letter on August 14 of that year Hanson wrote: It
is with heartfelt gratitude that I lay this work at the feet
of my Master.Im conscious of the intelligible to all. Pray
with us, that our divine Master may bless this work to the
salvation of the whole Kachin race. Today virtually all
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Kachin can read and write in their own language, as well
as Burmese, the national language. And there are over
half a million Kachin Christians.
3

So the legacy of missions at Bethlehem goes back

over a hundred years. And it has been one of the high-
est privileges of my life, without any exaggeration, to be
a part of sustaining and growing this legacy.I have ofen
thought:O Lord, if we falter as a church, if we stumble, if
we drop the ropes, so many missionaries will fall. Main-
taining the strength of this church is not just about the
saints here or the impact that we have on the Twin Cit-
ies.Its about the hundreds of global partners who have
gone down in the mines on ropes held by this church.
6.1 A Powerful Image of the Missions Effort
Holding the rope has been a powerful image for us over the
years.It comes from William Carey who blazed the trail to
India in 1792 and saw his mission as a miner penetrating
into a deep mine, which had never been explored, with no
one to guide.He said to Andrew Fuller and John Ryland
and his other pastor friends: I will go down, if you will
hold the rope. And John Ryland reports: He took an oath
from each of us, at the mouth of the pit, to this efectthat
while we lived, we should never let go of the rope.
4
3
These details are based on an article from Tom Steller, February 28, 1995.
4
Peter Morden,Offering Christ to the World(Waynesboro, Georgia: Paternoster,
2003), 167.
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Now as I bequeath the leadership of the churchof
the mission, there are 109 families and single people (192
adults, 170 children, 362 souls!) that have put the ropes of
their support in our hands. Tat is amazing and fright-
ening and wonderful.What a privilege! We are all goers
or senders, or disobedient. Tere are those who drop into
mines,those who hold the ropes, and those who think its
not their business.Rejoice that you are part of a church
that doesnt justsupport, butsendsfrom our own number,
over a hundred families and singles to take the gospel to
the peoples of the world.
6.2 Do You Have a Compulsion to Go?
On an annual basis, Bethlehems weekly focus on global
missions has been a fashpoint in the missionary fres that
burn all year long.Every year I conclude with a message
where I invite a group of listeners to come to the front
of the auditorium. I invite them to come in order to bear
open witness to the wonderful work of God in their sense
of calling to long-term, cross-cultural missions, and to
seek clarity and confrmation and courage for that call-
ing as we pray for them.
And the question is: Has God been working in you
for twenty years, or twenty days or twenty minutesto
give you acompelling sensethat, unless he shows you oth-
erwise, you are moving, with his help, toward the nations
longer term? (We love short-term missions, but thats not
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what this is about.) Has God been working in you a desire
to go for at least two years and possibly more, crossing
a culture to spread the best news in all the worldthat
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to save
sinners by dying in our place and rising again?
So what I am going to do, as part of our series on
the thirty-year theological trademarks of Bethlehem, is
give you ten biblical convictions that drive our commit-
ment to global outreachto world missionsat Bethle-
hem.And as I give you these I pray that they will burn in
your soulfor some of you as a God-given compulsion
to go, and for others as a God-given compulsion to send.
6.3 Ten Biblical Convictions on Global Missions
1. God is passionately committed to the fame of his
name and that he be worshipped by all the peoples of
the world, and this is not egomania, it is love.
Missions, global outreach, is joining God in his passion
to love the nations by ofering himself to them for over-
fowing joy of their praise.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous
works among all the peoples! (Psalm 96:3).
Make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim
that his name is exalted (Isaiah 12:4).
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God sends Jesus on his mission in order that the Gen-
tiles might glorify God for his mercy (Romans 15:9).
He does his mighty works in history that [his] name
might be proclaimed in all the earth (Romans 9:17).
2. Therefore worship is the goal and the fuel of mis-
sions: Missions exists because worship doesnt.
Missions is our way of saying: the joy of knowing Christ
is not a private or tribal or national or ethnic privilege.It
is for all. And thats why we go. Because we have tasted
the joy of worshiping Jesus, and we want all the families
of the earth included. All the ends of the earth shall
remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of
the nations shall worship before you (Psalm 22:27).
Seeking the worship of the nations is fueled by the joy
of our own worship.You cant commend what you dont
cherish. You cant proclaim what you dont prize. Wor-
ship is thefuel and the goal of missions.
3. People must be told about Jesus, because there
is no salvation and no worship where the gospel of
the crucied and risen Son of God is not heard and
believed.
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given among men by which
we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
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Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the
word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have
the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:12).
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Mat-
thew 28:19).
Tere will be no salvation and no true worship among
people who have not heard the gospel.Missions is essen-
tial for salvation.
4. God is committed to gathering worshipers from all
the peoples of the world, not just all the countries of
the world.
Tis is what all nations means in the great commis-
sion. Nations like Ojibwe, and Fulani and Kachin, not
like the United States and Japan and Argentina.Tis is
what Jesus bought with blood:
Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed
people for God fom every tribe and language and
people and nation, and you have made them a
kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall
reign on the earth. Revelation 5:910
Te gospel has already reached all the countries. But,
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according to the Joshua Project (www.joshuaproject.net)
there are over 7,000 unreached peoples.Tat is why our
mission statement says: We exist to spread a passion for
the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of allpeo-
ples[plural!] through Jesus Christ.
5. Therefore there is a critical need for Paul-type mis-
sionaries whose calling and passion is to take the gospel
to peoples where there is no access to the gospel at all.
I am distinguishing Paul-type missionaries from Timo-
thy-type missionaries. Timothy lef his home and served
cross culturally in a city (Ephesus) diferent from his
own (Lystra). But Paul said in Romans 15:20, I make
it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ
has already been named. Tere is still much to do where
Christ has been named.But oh how we need to pray for
an army of hundreds of thousands with Pauls passion
to reach the utterly unreached and unengaged peoples
of the world.
6. We must send the global partners in a manner
worthy of God.
Tis is why we have a missions staf and a missions bud-
get and a missions nurture program and why we have
Barnabas support teams for our missionaries. You will
do well to send them on their journey in a manner wor-
thy of God (3 John 1:6).Tis is why senders are crucial
along with goers. We dont believe everyone is a frontier
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missionary. Frontier missionaries cross cultures and
plant the church where its not. But if we are not a goer,
there is a great calling: Sender.And John says, Do it in a
manner worthy of God.
7.It is tting for us to have a wartime mindset in the
use of our resources as long as peoples are without the
gospel, and we have resources to send it.
In peace time the Queen Mary was a luxury liner but
in the second world war she became a troop carri-
er. Instead of bunks three high they were stacked sev-
en high. Instead of 18-piece place settings, there were
rations with fork and knife.You allocate your resources
diferently if its wartime.And it is wartime.Te battles
are more constant than any in our world wars, and the
losses are eternal.
Te Macedonians in2 Corinthians 8:2are a model for
us in the face of great need: In a severe test of afiction,
their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have
overfowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. Oh
that we would deepen in our grasp of the urgency of the
hour and remember that ultimately we dont own any-
thing.God owns us and all we have.And he cares about
how it goes in the war efort to reach the nations with the
gospel Jesus died to send.
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8.Prayer is a war-time walkie-talkie, not a
domestic intercom.
I chose you and appointed you, Jesus said, that you should
go and bear fruit so thatwhatever you ask the Father in
my name, he may give it to you (John 15:16). I give you a
mission so that your prayers will be fruitful.Prayer is for
mission. It is mainly for those on the front lines of the war
efort to call in to headquarters to send help.
One of the reasons our prayer malfunctions is that we
try to treat it like a domestic intercom for calling the but-
ler for another pillow in the den rather than treating it
like a wartime walkie-talkie for calling down the power
of the Holy Spirit in the battle for souls.
9.Suffering is not only the price for being in missions,
it is Gods plan for getting the job done.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,
how much more will they malign those of his house-
hold. Matthew 10:25
Tey will deliver you up to tribulation and put you
to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my
names sake. Matthew 24:9
Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of
wolves. Matthew 10:16
Tis is not just the price many must pay. Tis is Gods
strategy for victory.His Son won the victory this way. So
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will we. Tey have conquered him by the blood of the
Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved
not their lives even unto death (Revelation 12:11).Tey
conquered (not were conquered) by testimony and death.
10. The global cause of Christ cannot fail.And nothing
you do in this cause is in vain.
Jesus said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Terefore go, make disciples (Matthew
28:18).Not some authority. All. He cannot be defeated.I
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not pre-
vail against it (Matthew 16:18).Tis gospel of the king-
dom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as
a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come
(Matthew 24:14). He has ransomed a people for all the
nations. And he will have them.I have other sheep that
are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will
listen to my voice. So there will be one fock, one shep-
herd (John 10:16).
Tere are more, but those are ten of our main bibli-
cal convictions that drive Bethlehems commitment to
global outreach. And for some of you, as you have been
reading, these convictions have become, again, a confr-
mation that God is leading you into long-term, cross-cul-
tural missions.
Amen.
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F. MORE ABOUT MISSIONS
Four Motives for Missions from John 10:16
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I
must bring them also, and they will listen to my
voice. So there will be one fock, one shepherd.
John 10:16
Tere are four things inJohn 10:16that should fll us to
overfowing with confdence in our missions dreaming
and planning and labor.
1. Jesus has other sheep.
Christ has people besides those already convertedoth-
er people besides us. I have other sheep that are not of
this fold. Tere will always be people who argue that the
doctrine of predestination makes missions unnecessary.
But they are wrong. It does not make missions unneces-
sary; it makes missions hopeful.
John Alexander, a former president of Inter-Varsity,
said in a message at Urbana 67, At the beginning of my
missionary career I said that if predestination were true,
I could not be a missionary. Now afer 20 years of strug-
gling with the hardness of the human heart, I say I could
never be a missionary unless I believed in the doctrine of
predestination. It gives hope that Christ most certainly
has a people among the nations. I have other sheep.
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It was precisely this truth that encouraged the apostle
Paul when he was downcast in Corinth. Acts 18:910:
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not
be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with
you, and no man shall attack you to harm you; for I have
many people in this city.
I have other sheep that are not of this fold. It is
a promise full of hope for those who dream about new
felds of missionary labor.
2. These sheep are scattered outside the present fold.
Te verse implies that the other sheep that Christ has
are scattered outside the present fold. Tis is made explic-
it inJohn 11:5152, where John explains a word of proph-
ecy spoken by Caiaphas, the high priest, He did not say
this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he
prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not
for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of
God who are scattered abroad.
Evangelism for the apostle John is the ingathering of
the children of God. Of course, in John 1:1213it says that
we become children of God by being born again and receiv-
ing Christ. Tis doesnt have to be a contradiction.John
11:52simply means that God has already predestined who
will be delivered from the slavery to sin and unbelief and
become children of God by faith; and so he calls these cho-
sen ones children of God because from the divine per-
spective they are certainly going to be reached and saved.
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But the point for our encouragement in missionary
strategy is that they are scattered. Tey are not all pock-
eted in one or two places. Tey are scattered everywhere.
Te way John put it when he wrote the Book of Revela-
tion was this: for you were slain, and by your blood you
ransomed people for God from every tribe and language
and people and nation.
Te ransomed children of God will be found in every
people reached by the gospel. And that is a great encour-
agement to get on with the task of frontier missions and
to reach the hidden peoples.
3. The Lord is committed to his lost sheep.
Te Lord has committed himself to bring his lost sheep
home. He will do it. I have other sheep that are not of
this fold; I must bring them also. He will bring them.
Tis does not mean, as some of the hyper-Calvinists
thought it did in Careys day, that Christ will gather in
his sheep without asking us! InJohn 17:18 and20:21Jesus
says, As the Father has sent me, even so send I you. We
continue the mission of Christ. So Jesus prays in 17:20, I
do not pray for these [his disciples] only but also for those
who believe in me through their word.
In other words, just as the voice of the shepherd called
his sheep from Jesus own lips in Palestine, so he still
speaks today through the gospel and calls his sheep by
name, and they hear his voice and follow him. He does it.
But not without us!
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Tis is the wonder of the gospel. When it is preached
truthfully in the power of the Spirit, it is not merely the
word of man. It is the word of God (1 Tessalonians 2:13).
In other words, even today in the gospel it is just as
true as it was in Jesuss day, My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27). It
is Christ who calls in the gospel. Christ gathers. We are
only witnesses. Tat is why Paul said in Romans 15:18, I
will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ
has wrought through me to win obedience from the
Gentiles.
So we can take heart: all authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to the Son of God and he declares, I
must bring in my other sheep. He will do it.
4. The sheep willcome
Tis implies the fnal word of hope from John 10:16: if he
brings them, they will come! I have other sheep that are
not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen
to my voice. None of Christs sheep fnally reject his word.
What else can keep you going in a hard and unresponsive
place of ministry, except that God reigns and those whom
the Father has chosen will heed the voice of the Son?
Consider the story of Peter Cameron Scott who was
born in 1867 and founded the African Inland Mission. He
had tried twice to serve in Africa but had to come home
both times with malaria. Te third attempt was especially
joyful because he was joined by his brother John. But the
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joy evaporated as John fell victim to the fever. Scott bur-
ied his brother all by himself, and at the grave rededicated
himself to preach the gospel. But again his health broke
and he had to return to England utterly discouraged.
But in London something wonderful happened. We
read about it in Ruth Tuckers From Jerusalem to Irian
Jayaa book that I hope all of you will read. He needed
a fresh source of inspiration and he found it at a tomb in
Westminster Abbey that held the remains of a man who
had inspired so many others in their missionary service
to Africa. Te spirit of David Livingstone seemed to be
prodding Scott onward as he knelt reverently and read
the inscription,
Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them
also I must bring.
Scott would return to Africa and lay down his life, if
need be, for the cause for which this great man had lived
and died.
Lord, put a thorn in our cushion and courage in
our hearts. And send us with joy and confdence to the
unreached peoples of the earth. Give us a passion to be your
instruments for the ingathering of the elect through all the
world. Amen.
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7. LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
We ought always to give thanks to God for you,
brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing
abundantly, and the love of every one of you for
one another is increasing.4Terefore we ourselves
boast about you in the churches of God for your
steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and
in the afictions that you are enduring.5Tis is
evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that
you may be considered worthy of the kingdom
of God, for which you are also sufering6since
indeed God considers it just to repay with afiction
those who afict you,7and to grant relief to you
who are aficted as well as to us, when the Lord
Jesus is revealed fom heaven with his mighty
angels8in faming fre, inficting vengeance on
those who do not know God and on those who do
not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.9Tey will
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sufer the punishment of eternal destruction, away
fom the presence of the Lord and fom the glory
of his might, 10when he comes on that day to be
glorifed in his saints, and to be marveled at among
all who have believed, because our testimony to
you was believed.11To this end we always pray
for you, that our God may make you worthy of his
calling and may fulfll every resolve for good and
every work of faith by his power, 12 so that the name
of our Lord Jesus may be glorifed in you, and you
in him, according to the grace of our God and the
Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Tessalonians 1:312
I preached on this text the last Sunday of 1985.Little did
I know that I was uncovering in verses 11 and 12 the foun-
dations of what would become one of our most practi-
cal and important thirty-year theological trademarks,
namely,living by faith in future grace.So what I would
like to do here is summarize these two verses and then
fesh out what it means to live by faith in future grace and
how faith in future grace becomes the conduit of Gods
power into your life.
7.1 Eight Crucial Things to See
in 2 Thessalonians 1:112
Tere are eight absolutely crucial things to see in Pauls
prayer.
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1. The Calling of God
First, there is thecallingof God.Verse 11: Tat our God
may make you worthy of his calling. Tis calling is our
glorious destiny in Gods kingdom and glory. Tats
what Paul says in1 Tessalonians 2:12: We charged you
to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into
his own kingdom and glory. Your calling is to be in the
kingdom of God and to share the glory of God, as we will
see in just a moment.
2. Being Made Worthy
Second, there is our being made worthy of Gods call-
ing.Verse 11: that our God may make you worthy of
his calling. Being made worthy doesnt mean being
made deserving.It means being made suitable or ftting
or appropriate because of the worth of another. So we
would say, I need to fx up this room because the Queen
of England is going to stay with us and the room needs to
be worthy of her dignity. It needs to be ftting, suitable,
appropriate.She didnt decide to come because the room
is beautiful.Te room should be made beautiful because
shes coming.So we are being made suitable for our call-
ing into Gods kingdom and glory.
3.Fulllment of Good Resolves
Tird, there is the fulfllment of good resolves. Verse
11: Tat our God may make you worthy of his calling
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andmay fulfll every resolve for good. Te Christian life is
a resolving, planning, purposing, intending life.We have
minds and wills and God expects that we will use them
to form resolves and plans andpurposes, according to his
will.Tese resolves are to be fulflled. But how?
4. Fullled by Gods Power
Tats the fourth thing: by the power of God. Verse 11:
Tat our God may make you worthy of his calling and
may fulfll every resolve for good and every work of
faith by his power. If our resolves were fulflled by our
power we would get the glory.But it will be plain in just a
moment, that God intends to get the glory for the fulfll-
ment of our good resolves.So he fulflls them byhispow-
er, not ours.So our duty is to tap into his power. How?
5. Living by Faith
Tats the ffh thing: by faith. Verse 11: Tat our God
may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfll every
resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.
When God fulflls a resolve for good, it becomes a work
of faith because the means by which we receive the power
to fulfll the resolve and turn it into a deed is faith. So
the deed or the work or the act is called a work of faith
or a deed of faith or an act of faith. So from Gods
side the resolve became a deed by Gods power.And from
our side the resolve became a deed by faithfaith in that
power. By faith we trusted God for the power to fulfll
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the resolve and, by that power, through that faith, the
resolve became a deed or work, a work of faith.Tis sin
was defeated.Te righteousness was performed, because
we looked away from ourselves to God and all his power-
ful efects in our lives.
6. Jesus Is Gloried
Te sixth thing to see in this text is thatthe name of Jesus
is glorifed when Gods power fulflls our resolves and
through faith turns them into deeds.Verse 12: so that
the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorifed in you. Tat
is, God fulflls our resolves by his power through our faith
so that the name of Jesus gets glory.Tis assumes that the
power of God is coming to us because of Jesus. Because
Jesus has died for us, Gods power is now not against us but
for us.So when that power enables us to turn our resolves
into deeds of love, Jesus and the Father get the glory.
7. We Are Gloried in Him
Seventh, not only is Jesus glorifed in us, but we are glo-
rifed in him.Verse 12: so that the name of our Lord
Jesus may be glorifed in you, and you in him. In other
words, as Jesus glorifes himself in purchasing the power
of God to be made worthy of our calling, we too are being
glorifed.And the day will come when that slow process
in this world will be completed in the twinkling of an eye,
and we will be saved to sin no more. Tis is the calling
for which we are being made worthy, suitable.
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8. It Is All of Grace
Finally, eighth, all of this process of being made worthy
of our calling and fulflling our good resolves and doing
good works by faith in Gods power, is according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 12:
so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorifed in
you, and you in him,according to the grace of our God and
the Lord Jesus Christ. It was all of grace. Te power of
God that comes to us moment by moment fulflling our
resolves in works of faith is the power of grace.
Now let me put the eight pieces together in the order
that they actually work.Paul ended with the foundation
of everythingthe grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lets start with the foundation and build the structure
of the Christian life with these eight pieces.If you are a
Christian this is your life.
Everything starts with and is built on the grace of
God.Tat grace is expressed in Gods powertoward his chil-
dren.See the end of verse 11: by his power. Tat gracious
power which God exerts toward his children is appropri-
ated, received, tapped intoby faith.Te way we experience
the power of God is by trusting him to be for us everything
we need so that good resolves become deeds of faith.
Te efect of this power, as we trust him for it, is to ful-
fll our resolves for good and turn them into acts, deeds,
which he calls works of faith.Tus the life of the Christian
is lived by faith.Christianity is not a will-power religion.
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We will things. We resolve.We plan. We form purposes.
But as we engage our wills to act we look to God.And we
treasure him.We love him. We trust him that the power
will be given to fulfll the resolve.
7.2 A Panorama of the Christian Life
In this way, then, we are made worthy of our calling. A
life of God-dependent obedience is a life ftting, or
appropriate, or suitable for our calling into Gods king-
dom and glory. And this being made worthy is the frst
stage in our being fully glorifed in Christ and Christs
being fully glorifedthrough us.
So when you stand back and look at these two vers-
es they are an amazing panorama of the Christian life
and of the meaning of existence.Everything fows from
the free grace of God in Christ.And everything is mov-
ing toward the fullest glory of God in us and through
us. And between the foundation of grace and the goal
of glory there is the power of grace daily arriving in our
lives through faith turning daily resolves and plans and
purposes into deeds of faith, and ftting us for glory.Live
these verses!
Tats your life as a Christian. Daily, hourly, tapping
into the fow of Gods grace for the awakening and fulfll-
ing of your good resolves, so that as you are made increas-
ingly worthy of his callingftted for his kingdom and
gloryJesus gets more and more glory in your life.
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7.3 What It Means for the Everyday
Now let me step back and draw out of these two vers-
esthis amazing picture of the Christian lifewhat I
mean by the thirty-year theological trademark of living
by faith in future grace.Because what I mean is all right
here either explicitly or implicitly.
Grace, in the New Testament, as we have seen, is not
only Gods disposition to do good for us when we dont
deserve itundeserved favor.It is also a power from God
that acts in our lives and makes good things happen in us
and for us.Paul said that we fulfll our resolves for good
by his power (verse 11).And then he adds at the end of
verse 12, according to the grace of our God and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Tat power that actually works in our lives
to make Christ-exalting obedience possible is an exten-
sion of the grace of God.
You can see this also in 1 Corinthians 15:10: By
thegraceof God I am what I am, and hisgracetoward me
was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than
any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God
that is with me. So grace is an active, present, transfor-
mative, obedience-enabling power.
Terefore this grace, which moves in power from God to
you at a point in time, is both past and future.It has already
done something for you or in you and therefore is past.And
it is about to do something in you and for you, and so it is
futureboth fve seconds away and fve million years away.
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Gods grace is ever cascading over the waterfall of
the present from the inexhaustible river of grace com-
ing to us from the future into the ever-increasing reser-
voir of grace in the past.In the next fve minutes, you will
receive sustaining grace fowing to you from the future,
and you will accumulate another fve minutes worth of
grace in the reservoir of the past.
7.4 Why We Should Be Grateful
Te proper response to grace that you have experienced
in the past is gratitudea profoundly humble and trans-
forming spirit in itself.And the proper response to grace
promised to you in the future is faith. We are thankful
for past grace, and we are confdent in future grace.Tis
is where I get the idea of faith in future grace. Tats what
Paul is talking about in 2 Tessalonians 2:1112. We
fulfll our good resolves by the power of grace arriving
second by second as we trust God for it on the basis of
Christs work.And so we live in those moments by faith
in the constant arrival of future grace.
It is not wrong to say that we trust in past gracelike
the grace God showed us at the cross and in our new
birthbut what we mean by that is: We believe that
because of these acts of past gracethe cross and the new
birtha river of future grace will never, ever stop fowing
to us for all eternity.
I just read this week in my devotions: Christ is able
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to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God
through him, since he always lives to make intercession
for them (Hebrews 7:25). Christ died for us and he lives
for us. And because his death is all-purchasing, and his
life is all-providing, grace will never stop fowing to
us.Terefore to trust in past grace means to draw from it
confdence in future grace.
So even though our faith is founded on decisive acts
of past redeeming grace, the way faith works moment
by moment to turn our resolves for good into deeds of
purity and love (patience, kindness, meekness, goodness,
faithfulness, self-control) is by looking up and forward to
the boundless fountain of grace that comes to us through
a river of promises for every moment of the day.We live
by faith in the ever-arriving power of future grace.
7.5 Faith in Jesus Means Being Satised in Him
Heres another aspect of this thirty-year theological
trademark. When we speak of faithfaith in future
gracewe mean being satisfed with all that God prom-
ises to be for us in Christ.Jesus said, Whoever believes
in me shall never thirst (John 6:35). In other words:
believing in me means receiving me as the satisfer of the
thirst of your soul.Being satisfed with all that God prom-
ises to be for us in Christ.
Faith is not only a serious assent to the truth of Gods
promises, it is also a satisfying embrace of Christ in those
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promises. When Paul says, I count everything as loss
because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ (Phi-
lippians 3:8), he means that moment by moment in every
situation Christ satisfes.I have learned in whatever situ-
ation I am, Paul said, to be content.I know how to be
brought low, and I know how to abound.In any and every
circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plen-
ty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things
through him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:1113).
Paul is contentsatisfedin every circum-
stance. How? Because he has learned a secret. What? I
have learned to trust him for moment by moment
strengthening. I can do all things through him who
strengthens me. Te future grace of all that God is for
me in Christ, arriving every moment of my life, in every
circumstance, for every need, is enough.It satisfes.I am
content. Tat is what we mean by faith in future grace.
So when Paul says in 2 Tessalonians 1:11 that God
fulflls our good resolves by his power through our faith
according to his grace, he means that we defeat sin and
we do righteousness by faith in future grace, that is, by
being satisfed with all that God promises to be for us in
Christ in the next fve minutes, fve weeks, fve months,
fve years, fve decades, and fve centuries, and fve mil-
lion ages of ages.
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7.6 Six Examplesof Gods Promises in Your Life
1. If you set your heart to give sacrifcially and generous-
ly, the power of God to fulfll this resolve will come to
you as you trust his future grace in the promise: My
God will supply every need of yours according to his
riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).And
the promise: Whoever sows bountifully will also reap
bountifully (2 Corinthians 9:6). And the promise:
God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that
having all sufciency in all things at all times, you may
abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8).
2. If you set your heart to return good for evil, the pow-
er of God to fulfll this resolve will come to you as
you trust his future grace in the promise: Blessed
are you when others revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my
account.Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great
in heaven (Matthew 5:1112).
3. If you set your heart to renounce pornography, the pow-
er of God to fulfll this resolve will come to you as you
trust his future grace in the promise: Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).It
is better that you tear out your eye than that your whole
body be thrown into hell (Matthew 5:29). Much bet-
ter. Wonderfully better.All-satisfyingly better.
4. If you set your heart to speak out for Christ when the
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opportunity comes, the power of God to fulfll this
resolve will come to you as you trust his future grace
in the promise: Do not be anxious how you are to
speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say
will be given to you in that hour (Matthew 10:19).
5. If you set your heart to risk your life by ministering to
the needy in a dangerous place, the power of God to ful-
fll this resolve will come to you as you trust his future
grace in the promise: To live is Christ, and to die is
gain (Philippians 1:21).Dont fear those who kill the
body but cannot kill the soul Are not two sparrows
sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the
ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of
your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:2830).
6. If you set your heart to invite some for dinner who
cannot repay you, the power of God to fulfll this
resolve will come to you as you trust his future grace
in the promise: You will be blessed, because they
cannot repay you.For you will be repaid at the resur-
rection of the just (Luke 14:1314).
May God increase our daily faith in his inexhaustible,
blood-bought, Christ-exalting future grace!
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G. MORE ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Build Your Life on the Mercies of God
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies
of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifce,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
worship. Romans 12:1
I appeal to you therefore, brothers,by the mercies of God
Just think of this: Of all the things that Paul could
have picked out from Romans 111 as the root and foun-
dation of your new life in Christ, he picks outthe mercies
of God. What an amazing statement! Having written of
Gods wrath and righteousness and judgment, and of our
fall and sin and death, and of Christs death and resurrec-
tion, and of justifcation by faith alone, and of the com-
ing of the Spirit to sanctify us and keep us, and of Gods
absolute sovereignty in his faithfulness to the elect and to
Israelhaving said all of that, he picks out this one great
reality as the sum, or the height, of it all, and says, there-
fore, bythe mercies of God I appeal to you.
Tis is not careless. Look atRomans 15:89: For I tell
you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to
show Gods truthfulness, in order to confrm the prom-
ises given to the patriarchs, andin order that the Gentiles
might glorify God for his mercy. Tere it is. Te aim of all
11 chaptersall 16 chaptersis that we might make the
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mercy of God look great among the nations.
O Christian, lets build our lives on the mercies of
God. Lets say, Because of the mercies of God in Christ
I will live the life of Romans 1216. You know we are on
the right track here when you just walk down through
chapter 12 and look at all the mercy that is going to fow
out of us when we build our lives on the mercy of God.
Verse 8 (near the end): the one who does acts of mer-
cy, [let him do it] with cheerfulness.
Verse 9: Let love be genuine.
Verse 13: Contribute to the needs of the saints.
Verse 14: Bless those who persecute you.
Verse 15b: Weep with those who weep.
Verse 16b: Associate with the lowly.
Verse 17: Repay no one evil for evil.
Verse 19: Never avenge yourselves.
Verse 20: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is
thirsty, give him something to drink.
We are entering a world of mercy, as we move into
Romans 1216. Why? Because our lives are built on some-
thing. Rooted in something. Tey are built on the mer-
cies of God. Our lives are rooted in the mercies of God.
Our lives are founded on the mercies of God.
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Te word mercy here implies not only forgiveness for
the guilty, but especially tenderhearted compassion for
the helpless and desperate. Tis is what we expect afer
Romans 111. Look for it inRomans 5:68:
For while we were still weak, at the right time
Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die
for a righteous personthough perhaps for a good
person one would dare even to diebut God shows
his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
Did you hear both sides of mercy? We were weak and
helpless (thats one side), and we were sinners and guilty
(thats the other side). Mercy responds to both. Mercyfor-
gives the guilty and mercypitiesthe helpless.
Have you built your life on that? Or maybe I should
ask, Have you saturated your life with that? Have the
mercies of God in saving you sunk to the center and core
of your life, so that you are living from a deep spring of
humble, brokenhearted happiness in the God of mercy?
Would you pray for me to be this way? Tis is what I
long for. At the core of my beingwhere my unpremedi-
tated words and facial expressions and grunts and twitch-
es come fromat the core of my being to be swimming,
childlike, in the forgiving, compassionate mercy of God.
I will pray this for you too.
How else will we love our enemies at home and on
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the mission feld and return good for evil, when we are
slandered because of our stand on the inerrancy and
authority of the Bible, or on the meaning of marriage, or
on racial justice, or the horror of partial-birth abortion,
or the message that there is no way of salvation except
through Jesus Christ? If our lives are not built on and sat-
urated by the mercies of God in Christ, how will we stay
merciful and magnify the Lord?
And you know, dont you, that mercy is not spineless.
Look at the frst two phrases of Romans 12:9: Let love be
genuine.Abhorwhat is evil.
Abhor is a really strong word. When you love deep-
ly, you must hate passionately what destroys the beloved.
But mercy weeps while it hates. Mercy hates evil, but
in our personal relationships repays no one evil for evil
(verse 17). Mercy knows what its like to be hurt and
ofended, but does not avenge itself (verse 19). Mercy
knows what its like to have enemies, but says, If your
enemy is hungry, feed him.
Mercy is not weak. It has an unbreakable backbone,
but is very sof to the touch.
May God encourage you and enable you by his Spirit
to build your life on the mercies of God revealed in Jesus
Christ. Receive these mercies. Entrust your life to them.
Embrace them for the forgiveness of your sins and all the
help you need to live a life of mercy.
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The Life That Overcomes by Faith
How do we get to the point in our lives where the com-
mandments of God are not a burden but a joy?
1 John 5:45 gives the answer. Te commandments
are not burdensome because whatever is born of God
overcomes the world; and this is the victory that over-
comes the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the
world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Verse 4 says that two things overcome the world: 1)
that which is born of God, and 2) our faith.
Recall the relationship between faith and new birth in
1 John 5:1: every one who has faith has been born of God.
New birth gives rise to faith in the promises of Christ.
And this faith overcomes the world. And that takes away
the burdensomeness of the commandments of God.
How does this work? What is the connection
between the burdensomeness of the commandments
of God and the world? It seems to be twofold: the com-
mandments of God are burdensome to us on the one
hand because the world tempts us to believe that obey-
ing Gods commandments is not as satisfying as disobey-
ing them, and we tend to agree with the world, and on
the other hand, there is something in us that loves to
agree with the world. Before new birth we are of the
world (4:5). Anything contrary to the lust of the fesh
and the lust of the eyes and pride in possessions is a great
burden and folly to unregenerate man.
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Its a burden to be sexually chaste if you believe the
message of the world that fornication or adultery really
will give you more satisfaction. Its a burden to be hon-
est on your tax returns if you believe the message of the
world that more money would bring you satisfaction. Its
a burden to witness to a colleague if you believe the mes-
sage of the world that Christians are foolish and getting
egg on your face is to be avoided at all costs. Its a burden
to say, Im sorry; I was wrong, if you believe the message
of the world that more satisfaction comes from keeping
up the front of strength.
But if the world could be overcome, then the com-
mandments of God would not be burdensome. Tey
would be the way of joy and peace and satisfaction. What
can overcome the temptations of the world? What can
unmask the lies of the world?
Answer: God can. And he does it by causing us to be
born again so that we can see the infnite superiority of
the promises of Christ over the promises of the world.
Te result is that we trust Christ and by trusting him
overcome the temptations of the world.
Faith says to every temptation of the world: No. Be
gone! I know where true satisfaction is to be found. God
has loved me with an infnite love. He promises to work
everything together for good for those who love him. He
withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly.
Nothing you ofer can compare to the joy of his fellow-
ship now and the glory to be revealed hereafer. World,
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you have lost your power. I have become the glad slave of a
Good Master. His yoke is easy and the burden of his com-
mandments is light.
Te Lord holds out many good things to you here. If
you want to know that your love for others is real and
not just self-deception, if you want to have the power to
obey the commandments of God, if you want to fnd a
life that is loving and at the same time not burdensome,
if you want to overcome the deceptive power of the world,
then consider the infnite superiority of the Son of God
and put your faith in his forgiveness for your sins and his
promises for your future. Whoever has the Son has life!
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8. THE PERSEVERANCE OF
THE SAINTS
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil,
unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away fom
the living God.13But exhort one another every day,
as long as it is called today, that none of you may
be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.14For we
have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our
original confdence frm to the end.15As it is said,
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion. Hebrews 3:1215
8.1 Will You Endure in Faith?
Events of upheaval and turmoil around the world should
serve as a warning to us that the day will come, sooner or
later, when the hostility of man will not be containable
by human force. It will burst the dam of restraint and
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food to your very door.And the most urgent question for
all the followers of Jesus Christ will be: Will our faith
in Jesus endure?Or will we give way to fear and unbelief
and anger and vengeance?
Te prophet Daniel describes a time when one of
the rulers of the last days will speak words against the
Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most
High (Daniel 7:25). And in the Book of Revelation,
the apostle John describes the time like this: If anyone
is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is
to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be
slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the
saints (Revelation 13:10).
Te crucial question for you in these daysand those
daysis will you endure? Will your faith bear up under
the assaults that are coming? Or will you be worn out
and give up the faith and join the unbelieving illusion of
safety?Tis is the question of perseverance.Te question
of eternal security, the topic of this sermon.
Te doctrine we are talking about today goes by dif-
ferent names and has an urgent and practical application
to our life together. Some call it the doctrine of eternal
security. Some call it the doctrine of perseverance. And
the practical application is that, whichever you call it,
the process is a community project.Tat is, you and I are
essential in helping each other persevere to the end in
faith, and not make shipwreck of our souls.
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8.2 A Theological Overview on Perseverance
Te signature text that we have returned to many times
over these decades is Hebrews 3:1215.So I think it would
be helpful to sketch a three-point theology of persever-
ance on the basis of these four verses, and their implica-
tions for your life. And then, I will show the wider basis
for this in Scripture, its relation to the cross of our Lord
Jesus, and close with some practical applications to your
life in families and small groups.
1. The call to endure is real.
Hebrews 3:12, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any
of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away
from the living God. Tis is a clear call to all believ-
ers (brothers) to persevere in faith. Not to give way
to unbelief. Not to wear out. Its a call to endure. To
last. To keep the faith to the end. Dont let your heart
become evil, and unbelieving. Dont fall away from the
living God. Tis is a real danger spoken to the church.
Tose who blow it of because your doctrine of eternal
security wont allow it are in the most danger.
2. We each are a means for one anothers endurance.
Hebrews 3:13, But [in contrast to giving way to a heart
of unbelief] exhort one another every day, as long as it is
called today, that none of you may be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin. Ten in verse 15 he does what he
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tells us to do. He gives such an exhortation fromPsalm
95:7, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion.
So point #2 is that one of the essential means of not
becoming hardenedthe protection against an evil
heart of unbeliefis the other believers around you
speaking faith-sustaining words into your life.Your fam-
ily, your friends, your small group. Exhort one another
every day. Tat is, speak words of faith-sustaining truth
into each others lives.Paul said inEphesians 4:29, Only
let out of your mouth what is good for building up, as fts
the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
So the second point of this theology of perseverance
is that God has designed his church so that its members
endure to the end in faithby means ofgiving and receiv-
ing faith-sustaining words from each other.You and I are
the instruments by which God preserves the faith of his
children. Perseverance is a community project. Just like
God is not going to evangelize the world without human,
faith-awakening voices, neither is he going to preserve
his church without human faith-sustaining voices.And
clearly from the words, exhort one another (verse 13), it
means all of us, not just preachers. We depend on each
other to endure in faith to the end.
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3. Persevering in faith is evidence that we are in Christ.
Verse 14: Exhort each other, and help each other hold
onto your confdence, For [because] we have come to
share in Christ, if indeed weholdour original confdence
frm to the end. Tis is one of the most important verses
in the book of Hebrews, because it establishes that if a
personhas come toshare in Christ, that person will most
certainly persevere to the end in faith.Look at the logic
and the verb tenses carefully. Everything hangs on this.
Verse 14: Wehave cometo share in Christ, if indeed
weholdour original confdence frm to the end. Notice,
he does not say, if we hold our confdence to the end.
Which means that enduring to the end doesnt get you
a share in Christ. It proves you already had a share in
Christ.Perseverance is the evidence of being born again
in Christ, not the means to it.
Or to put the same point negatively: If you dont
hold your confdence in Christ to the end, what would it
show?It would show that you had not cometo share in
Christ. So the negative of verse 14 would read, Wehave
not cometo share in Christ, if indeed wedo not holdour
original confdence frm to the end.
So you see what this implies about eternal security?It
says: if you have come to share in Christthat is, if you are
born again, if you are truly converted, if you are justifed
and forgiven through saving faithyou cannot fail to per-
severe.Youwill hold your confdence in Christ to the end.
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Te logic is identical with1 John 2:19.Tey went out
from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of
us, they would have continued with us. But they went
out, that it might become plain that they all are not of
us (1 John 2:19).If they had been of us, they would have
continued with us, is the same as If you truly share in
Christ, you will hold your confdence to the end.
So heres the summary of our three-point theology of
perseverance.
1. Dont let your heart become evil and unbelieving,
because if you do, you will fall away from the living
God and perish forever.
2. As a means to protecting each other from such an evil
heart of unbelief speak sin-defeating, faith-sustaining
words into each others lives every day.
3. Tis warning and this exhortation is not because a
person who truly belongs to Christ can be lost, but
because perseverance is the evidence that you truly
belong to Christ.If you fall away, you show that you
never truly shared in Christ.And God will never let
this happen to those who have shared in Christ.
8.3 Gods Unbreakable Faithfulness
Tose whom he predestined he also called, and those
whom he called he also justifed, and those whom he
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justifed he also glorifed (Romans 8:30). Which means:
Between eternity past in Gods predestination, and eter-
nity future in Gods glorifcation, none is lost. No one
who is predestined for sonship fails to be called. And no
one who is called fails to be justifed. And no one who is
justifed fails to be glorifed. Tis is an unbreakable steel
chain of divine covenant faithfulness.
And so Paul says, And I am sure of this, that he who
began a good work in you will bring it to completion at
the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). He will sus-
tain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ.God is faithful, by whom you were called into the
fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthi-
ans 1:89).Tese are the promises of our God who cannot
lie.Tose who are born again are as secure as God is faithful.
8.4 How Is Our Perseverance Connected to the
Cross of Christ?
What is the connection between this securitythis
promised perseveranceand the cross of our Lord
Jesus?Just before Jesus shed his blood for sinners, he lif-
ed up the cup at the last supper and said in Luke 22:20,
Tis cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant
in my blood. What that means is that the new cove-
nant, promised most explicitly in Jeremiah 31 and 32, was
secured and sealed by the blood of Jesus. Te new cov-
enant comes true because Jesus died to establish it.
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And what does the new covenant secure for all who
belong to Christ? Perseverance in faith to the end. Listen
toJeremiah 32:40, I will make with them an everlasting
covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to
them.And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they
may not turn fom me. Te everlasting covenantthe
new covenantincludes the unbreakable promise: I will
put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn
fom me. Tey may not.Tey will not. Christ sealed this
covenant with his blood.He purchased your perseverance.
If you are persevering in faith today, you owe it to the
blood of Jesus.Te Holy Spirit, who is working in you to
preserve your faith, honors the purchase of Jesus. God the
Spirit works in us what God the Son obtained for us.Te
Father planned it. Jesus bought it. Te Spirit applies it
all of theminfallibly.God is totally committed to the
eternal security of his blood-bought children.
8.5 The Necessity of Community in the Certainty
of Security
Tis leads us now to this one point of application. God
has united the certainty of security with the necessity
of community.Hebrews 3:13, Exhortone anotherevery
day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be
hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Eternal security is
a community project. Or we can now say blood-bought
eternal security is a blood-bought community project.
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Tat may sound as though it were fragile, since our
communal life is always imperfect. But it is not frag-
ile. It is no more fragile than the sovereign ability of
God to bring others into your life and to send you into
theirs. God will sovereignly preserve all who belong to
Christ. And he will do it through the faith-sustaining
ministry of other believers.
If you are married it means that Godnot man
(what God has joined together)has already put you
in households designed for this very thingthe daily
faith-sustaining, sin-defeating ministry of the word to
each other.Husbands and wives. Parents and children.
Let me give you some examples of what this means for
husbands and wives.
For husbands:
Love your wife sacrifcially and cherish her as a refec-
tion of the love of Christ for the church (Ephesians
5:25,29).It will sustain her faith to see this.
Be alert to and discern your wifes spiritual, emotion-
al, relational, and physical needs, and make the efort
to meet those needsdirectly or indirectly (Hebrews
3:1213;1 Peter 3:7).
Seek to build up your wife with biblical knowledge,
through your own words, and by your encouragement
and help in connecting her with the teaching ministries
provided by the church (John 8:32;Ephesians 4:25-30).
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Encourage and help your wife engage in ministry at
church and in the world (Proverbs 31:20; Ephesians
4:11-12;1 Timothy 5:910).
For wives:
Be alert to your husbands spiritual condition and pray
earnestly for him (1 Samuel 25:135;Hebrews 3:1213).
Encourage your husband by afrming evidences of
grace in his life (Romans 15:2;Ephesians 4:29;Hebrews
10:2425).It will sustain his faith to hear this.
Support him in all his leadership eforts, and be
responsive to every efort he makes to lead spiritually
(Ephesians 5:2124;1 Peter 3:16).
Share from your life and your meditation the things
God is teaching you about Christ and his ways
(Romans 15:1314;1 Tessalonians 4:18).
Join him in serious conversation with respect and wis-
dom (Proverbs 31:26; Romans 15:2;1 Tessalonians 5:11).
Suggest to him people and resources that may be
of help to him (Genesis 2:18; Proverbs 31:12; Acts
20:32).No one knows him like you know him.
Humbly and hopefully help him be aware of unhelp-
ful habits or sins you may see in his life (Hebrews
3:1213; James 5:16). We are seeking to do Hebrews
3:13 for each other.
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I know this assumes that you are both believers, and
that you are both willing.And I know thats not true of
every married couple.But it is what God calls us to pray
toward and move toward for the sake of our spouses and
our childrens perseverance in faith. Eternal security is a
family project.
8.6 There Is No Substitute for the Church
Heres a fnal word to all of us, to the single and the mar-
ried.God did not design marriage to replace the church.
He didnt design families to replace friendships. Every
married man needs believing men in his life. Every mar-
ried woman needs other believing women in her life.Te
young people need other young people.And single people
need married people and single people in their lives.Fam-
ilies are not substitutes for any of these relationships.
Te blood-bought church of Christ is the new, super-
natural family. Single people, married people, old and
young, rich and poor, every ethnicity fnd brothers and
sisters here. Marriage is temporary. Parenting is tempo-
rary. But the churchthe new familyis eternal.
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H. MORE ABOUT PERSEVERANCE
Settling Our Security in God Alone
One obstacle to enjoying the security we have in Christ
is the hard texts in the New Testament that seem to con-
tradict it. Just when we start to feel that we are eternally
secure in his love, along comes a passage of Scripture that
threatens us and seems to rob us of security. And I dont
think there will be any deep, abiding sense of security in
God until we own up to these passages of Scripture and see
how they relate to the assurance of Gods love and power.
For example, consider this sampling from nine New
Testament books.
1. Romans 11:2021, Unbelieving Israelites were broken
of because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only
through faith. So do not become proud but fear. For
if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will
he spare you.
2. 1 Corinthians 10:12, Let anyone who thinks that
he stands take heed lest he fall. Also 1 Corinthians
15:2, I preached to you the gospel by which you are
saved if you hold it fastunless you believed in vain.
3. 2 Corinthians 13:5, Examine yourself to see whether
you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you
not realize that Jesus Christ is in youunless you fail
to meet the test!
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4. Galatians 6:9, Let us not grow weary in well-doing,
for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.
5. Philippians 2:12, Work out your salvation with fear
and trembling.
6. Colossians 1:2123, You who were estranged Christ
has reconciled in order to present you holy and blame-
less provided that you continue in the faith, stable and
steadfast, not shifing from the hope of the gospel.
7. Hebrews 12:14, Strive for peace and for the holiness
without which no one will see the Lord.
8. 1 Peter 1:17, If you invoke as Father him who judges
each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct
yourselves with fear throughout the time of your
exile.
9. Revelation 2:10, Be faithful unto death and I will
give you the crown of life.
Threatening Our Shallow Security
All of these passages above teach that the test of genuine-
ness for the Christian is perseverance in faith and holi-
ness of life. Tey warn us that the attempt to ofer secu-
rity apart from lasting faith and loving lives is perilous.
To ofer security without these indispensable realities is
to ofer security at the price of destruction.
But it would be a terrible misunderstanding if we
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thought that these Scriptures were written to threaten
our security in God. Exactly the opposite is the case. Tey
are written to threaten our security in everything but God.
If you fnd your security in health, the Bible is a threat
to you. If you fnd your security in your family or job or
money or education, the Bible is a threat to you. And in
threatening all these utterly inadequate foundations of
security, the Bible drives us relentlessly and lovingly back
to the one and only eternal and unshakable foundation
for securityGod. All the threats and warnings of the
Bible declare with one voice: sin is an efort to feel secure
in anything other than God.
Terefore, when God demands on the one hand,
Turn from sinning or you will die, and on the other
hand, Feel eternally secure in my love and you will live,
he is not demanding two diferent things. Sin is what you
do when you replace security in God with other things.
So when God threatens our feelings of security in the
world, its because he wants us to feel secure in his love
and power. Te threats and promises of Scripture have
one message: seek your security in God alone.
Security in God Alone
Ephesians 1:1114 is one of the clearest statements in the
Bible about Gods desire that his people fnd their securi-
ty in him alone, that we feel secure in his love and power.
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11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having
been predestined according to the purpose of him
who works all things according to the counsel of
his will, 12so that we who were the frst to hope in
Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13In him
you also, when you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were
sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is
the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire
possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Te frst and most important thing to see in these three
verses is that they begin and end with Gods ultimate
purpose to glorify himself. Verse 12: We were destined
and appointed to live for the praise of his glory. Verse 14:
he has guaranteed our inheritance to the praise of his glory.
Te most basic fact you can say about the righteousness
of God is that he has an unwavering commitment to his
own glory. Everything he does, he does to heighten the
intensity with which his people praise him for his glory.
Te second thing to see is that the people whose inher-
itance God guarantees are the people who believe the
gospel (verse 13). (You who have believed were sealed.)
Tere is a direct connection between believing Gods
Word and living for the praise of his glory. One of the
greatest ways to honor people is to trust them. And since
God is committed to his own honor above all things,
therefore he is utterly committed to those who trust him.
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Terefore, the third thing to see from this text is
just what you would expect. Since God does all things
for the praise of his glory, and since believing his word
magnifes that glory, therefore God takes decisive steps
to secure for himself the magnifcation of his glory
forever: he seals the believer with the Holy Spirit, and
guarantees that we will come to our inheritance praising
his glory. God is so passionately committed to having a
people for his own possession who live forever for the
praise of his glory that he is not about to let our eternal
destiny depend on our native powers of willing or doing.
He commissions his Holy Spirit to enter our lives and to
make us secure forever.
Sealed and Guaranteed, Forever
Tere are two great words here that aim to help us feel
secure in Gods love and power: the word sealed, and
the word guarantee.
Lets see if we can unseal this word sealed and look
inside. What does it mean that believers have been sealed
by the Holy Spirit (verse 13)? Te word is used at least
three diferent ways in the New Testament.
1. In Matthew 27:66 the tomb of Jesus was secured by
sealing it and putting guards around it. In Revelation
20:3 God throws Satan into a pit and seals it over so he
cant escape. So one meaning is locking something up,
closing it in.
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2. Another way the word is used is found in Romans
4:11 where Abrahams circumcision is called the sign
and seal of the righteousness he had by faith. And in 1
Corinthians 9:2 Paul says that his converts are the seal
of his apostleship. So a second meaning of sealing is
giving a sign of authenticity.
3. A third meaning of the word is found in Revelation
7:3 where the seal of God is put on the forehead of
Gods servants to protect them from the wrath com-
ing upon the world.
So what did Paul mean in Ephesians 1:13 when he said that
believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit? No matter which
of these meanings you use the basic truth is the same.
1. If the Spirit seals shut, the point must be that he seals
in faith and seals out unbelief and apostasy.
2. If the Spirit seals us as a sign of authenticity, then he is
that sign and it is the Spirits work in our life which
is Gods trademark. Our eternal sonship is real and
authentic if we have the Spirit. He is the sign of divine
reality in our lives.
3. Or if the Spirit marks us with Gods seal, he protects
us from evil forces which wont dare to enter a person
bearing the mark of Gods own possession.
However you come at this message contained in this
word sealed, it is a message of safety and security in
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Gods love and power. God sends the Holy Spirit as a pre-
serving seal to lock in our faith, as an authenticating seal
to validate our sonship, and as a protecting seal to keep
out destructive forces. Te point is that God wants us to
feel secure and safe in his love and power.
Te other word Paul uses to drive this home is the
word guarantee in verse 14. You were sealed with the
promised Holy Spirit which is the guarantee of our inheri-
tance. Nol and I ran out of gas recently at the intersec-
tion of 66th Street and Penn Avenue. I ran up the street
to a nearby service station and borrowed a can with two
dollars worth of gas. I said I would be right back and buy
15 dollars worth. But I had to leave my drivers license.
Why? Because it was a guarantee I would come back and
fnish my business. Tey knew that my drivers license was
valuable enough to me to give them a sense of security that
I would come back with their can and pay for my gas.
So then, what is God saying to us when he gives us his
Holy Spirit and calls him a guarantee or a down-payment?
He is saying, My great desire for those who believe
in me is that you feel secure in my love. I have chosen you
before the foundation of the world. I have predestined
you to be my children forever. I have redeemed you by the
blood of my Son. And I have put my Spirit in you as a seal
and a guarantee. Terefore, you will receive the inheri-
tance and praise the glory of my grace forever and ever.
And I tell you this here in Ephesians 1 because I want you
to feel secure in my love and my power. I dont promise
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you an easy life. In fact, through many tribulations you
must enter the kingdom. I dont promise always to speak
in sof tones of approval, but to warn you in love when-
ever you begin to seek security in anything but me.
Let me say it again: I have chosen you, says the Lord.
I have predestined you; I have redeemed you; I have
sealed you by my Spirit. Your inheritance is sure, because
I am passionately committed to magnify the glory of my
grace in your salvation. God says to us:
When peace like a river attendeth your way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever your lotI have taught you to say,
It is well, it is well, with your soul.
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9. BIBLICAL MANHOOD
AND WOMANHOOD
Ten God said, Let us make man in our image,
afer our likeness.And let them have dominion
over the fsh of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth.27So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God he created him; male and female
he created them.28And God blessed them. And
God said to them, Be fuitful and multiply and
fll the earth and subdue it, and have dominion
over the fsh of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over every living thing that moves on
the earth.29And God said, Behold, I have given
you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all
the earth, and every tree with seed in its fuit.You
shall have them for food.30And to every beast of
the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to
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everything that creeps on the earth, everything
that has the breath of life, I have given every green
plant for food. And it was so.31And God saw
everything that he had made, and behold, it was
very good.And there was evening and there was
morning, the sixth day. Genesis 1:2631
9.1 What Does Complementarian Mean?
One of the thirty-year theological trademarks of Beth-
lehem is the way we understand Gods purposes for how
men and women relate to each other in family and church
and society. If you want a name to put a name on this
understanding, we would say we are complementarian
based on the word complement. In other words, we
believe that when it comes to human sexuality, the great-
est display of Gods glory, and the greatest joy of human
relationships, and the greatest fruitfulness in ministry
come about when the deep diferences between men and
women are embraced and celebrated as complements to
each other.Tey complete and beautify each other.
Te intention with the word complementarian is to
locate our way of life between two kinds of error: on the
one side would be the abuses of women under male domi-
nation, and on the other side would be the negation of
gender diferences where they have beautiful signifcance.
Tis means that, on the one hand, complementarians
acknowledge and lament the history of abuses of women
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personally and systemically, and the present evils glob-
ally and locally in the exploitation and diminishing of
women and girls. And, on the other hand, complemen-
tarians lament the feminist and egalitarian impulses
that minimize God-given diferences between men and
women and dismantle the order God has designed for the
fourishing of our life together.
So complementarians resist the impulses of a chau-
vinistic, dominating, and abusive culture, one the one
side, and the impulses of a sex-blind, gender-leveling,
unisex culture, on the other side.And we take our stand
between these two ways of life not because the middle
ground is a safe place (it is emphatically not), but because
we think this is the good plan of God in the Bible for men
and women.Very good, as he says in Genesis 1.
In fact, I would say that the attempt by feminism to
remedy the male abuse of women by nullifying gender
diferences, backfres and produces millions of men that
women cannot enjoy because of their unmanliness, or
cannot endure because of their distorted, brutal manli-
ness.In other words, if we dont teach boys and girls about
the truth and beauty and value of their diferences, and
how to live them out, those diferences do not mature in
healthy ways but dysfunctional ways.And a generation of
young adults comes into being who simply do not know
what it means to be a mature man or a woman; and the
cultural price we pay for that is enormous.
Te way I would like to approach this is move from
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the general to the specifc: a word about being human, an
illustration about being male and female, and then a spe-
cifc text to show the biblical roots.
9.2 The Wonder of Being Human
Let me start by saying a word about being human. My
frst Sunday at Bethlehem, July 13, 1980 in the evening I
gave a message titled Life Is Not Trivial. In it I said,
Every human being now and then feels a longing
that life not dribble away like a leaky faucet.Youve
all tasted the desire that day-to-day life be more
than a series of trifes.It can happen when you are
reading a poem, when you are kneeling in your
closet, when you are standing by the lakeside at
sunset.It very ofen happens at birth and death.
I quoted Moses fromDeuteronomy 32:46, Lay to heart
all the words which I enjoin upon you this day, that you
may command them to your children, that they may be
careful to do all the words of this law.Forit is no trifefor
you but it is your life.
Deep in every God-created human being, bearing the
insignia of humanity in the image of God, there is a long-
ing for life, not to be meaningless. Not be trivial, frivo-
lous, inconsequential. I recently read this quote from the
crime novelist, Agatha Christie (18961976),
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I like living.I have sometimes been wildly,
despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow,
but through it all, I still know quite certainly, that
just to be alive, is a grand thing.
I think this is wonderfully true. To be a living human
being is a grand thing. Havent you all had those rare and
wonderful moments when you are standing by a window,
or door, or anywhere, and suddenly, unbidden, and pow-
erful comes the awakening: I am alive. I am alive. Not
like a tree or rabbit, but like a human being. I am thinking,
feeling, longing, regretting, grieving. Alive. Made in the
very image of God. And this is a grand thing.
It is a grand thing.And part of the grandeur of being
a living human being created in the image of God is that
you are either male or female. God created man in his
own image, in the image of God he created him; male
and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).Nobody is a
generic human being. Tere is no such thing.God never
intended that there be. God creates male human beings
and female human beings. And this is a grand thing.
It is a travesty of these human natures to think Gods
only design in the diferences was for making and nurs-
ing babies.Te diferences are too many and too deep for
such a superfcial explanation. A woman is a woman to
the depths of her humanity. And a man is a man to the
depths of his humanity. And this is a grand thing. So
my frst point is that God has done a grand thing in
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making us male and female in his image. Dont dimin-
ish this.Delight in it. Glory in being alive as the male or
female person you are.
9.3 Gender Roles Are Not About Competency
Let me create an illustration to portray some of the dif-
ferences between manhood and womanhood.A picture
may be worth a thousand wordseven a word picture.
Suppose among the young adults at the Downtown
Campus a young man and woman, say 20-years old, fnd
themselves chatting before the worship service.He likes
what he hears and sees, and says, Are you sitting with
anyone? Tey sit together. Tey notice how each other
engage with God in worship.
When the service is over, as they are leaving, he says,
Do you have any lunch plans? Id love to treat you to
lunch. At that point she can signal she is not interest-
ed, I do have some plans.But thanks. Or she can signal
the opposite: I do, but let me make a call.I think I can
change them.Id love to go.
Neither has a car, so he suggests they walk to Marias
Caf down on Franklin Avenue, about 10 minutes from
the church.As they walk he fnds out that she has a black
belt in martial arts, and that she is one of the best in the
state.At 19th Street two men block their way ominously
and say, Pretty girlfriend youve got there.Wed like her
purse and your wallet. In fact, shes so pretty wed like her.
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Te thought goes through his head: She can whip
these guys. But instead of stepping behind her, he takes
her arm, pulls her back behind him, and says, If youre
going to touch her, it will be over my dead body.
When they make their move, he tackles them both
and tells her to run. Tey knock him unconscious, but
before they know what hit them, she has put them both
on their backs with their teeth knocked out. And a lit-
tle crowd has gathered. Te police and ambulance come
and she gets in the ambulance with the young man just
regaining his consciousness. And she has one main
thought on the way to the hospital: Tis is the kind of man
I want to marry.
Te main point of that story is to illustrate that the
deeper diferences of manhood and womanhood are not
superior or inferior competences. Tere are rather deep
dispositions or inclinations written on the heart, albeit
ofen very distorted.Notice three crucial things.
First, he took the initiative and asked if he could sit
with her and if she would go to lunch and suggested the
place and how to get there.She saw clearly what he was
doing, and responded freely according to her desires.She
joined the dance. Tis says nothing about who has supe-
rior competences in planning.God writes the impulse to
lead on a mans heart, and the wisdom to discern it and
enjoy it on a womans heart.
Second, he said that he wanted to treat her to
lunch. Hes paying. Tis sends a signal from the young
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man: I think thats part of my responsibility.In this lit-
tle drama of life, I initiate, I provide. She understands
and approves.She supports the initiative and graciously
accepts the ofer to be provided for. She takes the next
step in the choreography. And it says nothing about who
is wealthier or more capable of earning.It is what Gods
man feels he must do.
Tird, it is irrelevant to the masculine soul that a
woman he is with has greater self-defending competen-
cies.It is his deep, God-given, masculine impulse to pro-
tect her.It is not a matter of superior competency. It is a
matter of manhood.She saw it. She did not feel belittled
by it, but honored, and she loved it.
At the heart of mature manhood is the God-given
sense (disposition, inclination) that the primary responsi-
bility (not sole responsibility) lies with him when it comes
to leadership-initiative, provision, and protection.And at
the heart of mature womanhood is the God-given sense
(disposition, inclination) that none of this implies her
inferiority, but that it will be a beautiful thing to come
alongside such a man and gladly afrm and receive this
kind of leadership and provision and protection.
9.4 The Testimony and Application of
Ephesians 5:2233
For those who disagree with this complementarian
view, the likely criticism would be that it is all culturally
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determined.Its not innate and its not from God. Com-
plementarians, they would say, are just refecting the
home they grew up in and the biases of their childhood.
Now thats possible. Everyone brings assumptions
and preferences to this issue.Te question is: Does God
reveal his will about these things in his word?
Lets look frst at a biblical text dealing with marriage
and then one dealing very briefy with the church. In
both texts, Christ-like, humble, loving, sacrifcial men
are to take primary responsibility for leadership, pro-
vision and protection. And women are called to come
alongside these men, support that leadership, and
advance the kingdom of Christ with the full range of her
gifs in the paths laid out in Scripture.
First, a text on marriage and the home. Ephesians
5:2233,
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the
Lord.23For the husband is the head of the wife even
as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is
himself its Savior.24Now as the church submits to
Christ, so also wives should submit in everything
to their husbands.25Husbands, love your wives,
as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for
her,26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed
her by the washing of water with the word,27so that
he might present the church to himself in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she
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might be holy and without blemish.28In the same
way husbands should love their wives as their own
bodies.He who loves his wife loves himself. 29For
no one ever hated his own fesh, but nourishes
and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30
because we are members of his body.[Ten, quoting
Genesis 2:24]31Terefore a man shall leave his
father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and
the two shall become one fesh.32Tis mystery is
profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ
and the church.33However, let each one of you
love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she
respects her husband.
Here are four observations in this text:
Marriage is a dramatization of Christs relationship to
his church.Verse 32: Tis mystery is profound, and I
am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
In this drama, the husband takes his cues from Christ
and the wife takes her cues from Gods will for the
church. Verse 25: Husbands, love your wives, as
Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
Verse 22: Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to
the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even
as Christ is the head of the church.
So the primary responsibility for initiative and
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leadership in the home is to come from the husband
who is taking his cues from Christ, the head. And
it is clear that this is not about rights and power,
but about responsibility and sacrifce. Verse 25: As
Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. No
abuse. No bossiness. No authoritarianism. No arro-
gance. Here is a man whose pride has been broken by
his own need for a Savior, and he is willing to bear
the burden of leadership given to him by his Master,
no matter how heavy the load.Godly women see this
and are glad.
Tis leadership in the home involves the sense of pri-
mary responsibility for nourishing provision and ten-
der protection. Verse 29: For no one ever hated his
own fesh (that is, his wife), but nourishes and cher-
ishes it, just as Christ does the church. Te word,
nourishes implies nourishing provision. And the
word cherishes implies tender protection. Tis is
what Christ does for his bride. Tis is what the godly
husband feels the primary responsibility to do for his
wife and family.
So a complementarian concludes that biblical head-
ship for the husband is the divine calling to take pri-
mary responsibility for Christlike servant-leadership,
protection and provision in the home. And biblical sub-
mission for the wife is the divine calling to honor and
afrm her husbands leadership and help carry it through
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according to her gifs.A helper suitable for him, asGen-
esis 2:18says.
We dont have time to develop the arguments
for how this applies to the church.So I will just
make some summary comments so you can know
how we as complementarians see it.In1 Timothy
2:12Paul says, I do not permit a woman to
teach or to exercise authority over a man. In
the context we take that to mean: the primary
responsibility for governance and teaching in the
church should be carried by spiritual men.Tese
are the two functions that distinguish elders fom
deacons: governing (1 Timothy 5:17) and teaching
(1 Timothy 3:2).So the clearest way we apply this
passage is to say that the elders of the church should
be spiritual men.
In other words, since the church is the family of God,
the realities of headship and submission that we saw in
marriage (Ephesians 5:2233) have their counterparts in
the church.
Authority (in 1 Timothy 2:12) refers to the divine
calling of spiritual, gifed men to take primary
responsibility as elders for Christlike, servant-leader-
ship and teaching in the church.
And submission refers to the divine calling of the
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rest of the church, both men and women, to honor
and afrm the leadership and teaching of the elders
and to be equipped by them for the hundreds and
hundreds of various ministries available to men and
women in the service of Christ.
Tat last point is very important. For men and women
who have a heart to ministerto save souls and heal bro-
ken lives and resist evil and meet needsthere are felds
of opportunity that are simply endless.God intends for
the entire church to be mobilized in ministry, male and
female.Nobody is to simply stay at home watching soaps
and ballgames while the world burns.
9.5 A Specic Challenge to Men
Te biblical picture of manhood and womanhood is a
call for men and women to realize it is a grand thing to
be a man created in the image of God, and it is an equal-
ly grand thing to be a woman created in the image of
God.But since the burden of primary responsibility lies
on the menlet me challenge them mainly.
Men, do you have a moral vision for your families, a
zeal for the house of the Lord, a magnifcent commit-
ment to the advancement of the kingdom, an articulate
dream for the mission of the church and a tenderhearted
tenacity to make it real? You cant lead a godly woman
without this. She is a grand being!
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Tere are hundreds of such men in the church
today. And more are needed. When the Lord visits his
church and creates a mighty army of deeply spiritual,
humble, strong, Christlike men committed to the word of
God and the mission of the church, the vast army of wom-
en will rejoice over the leadership of these men and enter
into a joyful partnership.And that will be a grand thing.
I. MORE ABOUT BIBLICAL MANHOOD
AND WOMANHOOD
Conict and Confusion After the Fall
God created us in his image as male and female. Tis
implies six important things: 1) equality of personhood,
2) equality of dignity, 3) mutual respect, 4) harmony, 5)
complementarity, and 6) a unifed destiny.
1. Equality of Personhood
Equality of personhood means that a man is not less a per-
son than a woman because he has hair on his chest like a
gorilla, and woman is not less a person because she has no
hair on her chest like a fsh. Tey are equal in their person-
hood and their diferences dont change that basic truth.
2. Equality of Dignity
Equality of dignity means that they are to be equally hon-
ored as humans in the image of God. Peter says (in 1 Peter
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2:17), honor all, that is, all humans. Tere is an honor
to be paid to persons simply because they are humans.
Tere is even an honor that we owe to the most despicable
of criminals just because they are human and not a dog.
And that honor belongs to male and female equally.
3. Mutual Respect
Mutual respect means that men and women should be
equally zealous to respect and honor each other. Respect
should never fow just one direction. Created in the image
of God, male and female should look at each other with a
kind of awean awe that is tainted but not destroyed by sin.
4. Harmony
Harmony means that there should be peaceful coopera-
tion between men and women. We should fnd ways to
oil the gears of our relationships so that there is team-
work and rapport and mutual helpfulness and joy.
5. Complementarity
Complementarity means that the music of our relation-
ships should not be merely the sound of singing in uni-
son. It should be the integrated sound of soprano and
bass, alto and tenor. It means that the diferences of male
and female will be respected and afrmed and valued. It
means that male and female will not try to duplicate each
other, but will highlight in each other the unique quali-
ties that make for mutual enrichment.
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6. Unied Destiny
Unifed destiny means that male and female, when they
come to faith in Christ, are fellow heirs of the grace of
life (1 Peter 3:7). We are destined for an equal enjoyment
of the revelation of the glory of God in the age to come.
So in creating human beings as male and female in his
image, God had something wonderful in mind. He still
has it in mind. And in Jesus Christ he means to redeem
this vision from the ravages of sin.
Understanding the Curse
I want you to sense very keenly what the confict is
between men and women and how great the confusion is
today about what it means to be a man or a woman.
Lets look at Genesis 3:16. Adam and Eve have both
sinned against God. Tey have distrusted his goodness
and turned away from him to depend on their own wis-
dom for how to be happy. So they rejected his word and
they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. God calls them to account and now describes
to them what the curse will be on human life because of
sin. In Genesis 3:16 God says to the woman, I will great-
ly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall
bring forth children, and your desire shall be for your
husband, and he shall rule over you.
Tis is a description of the curse. It is a description
of misery, not a model for marriage. Tis is the way its
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going to be in history where sin has the upper hand. But
what is really being said here? What is the nature of this
ruined relationship afer sin?
Te key comes from recognizing the connection
between the last words of this verse (3:16b) and the last
words of Genesis 4:7. Here God is warning Cain about
his resentment and anger against Abel. God tells him
that sin is about to get the upper hand in his life. Notice
at the end of the verse 7: Sin is crouching at the door;
its desire is for you, but you must master it [literally: you
shall rule over it].
Te parallel here between 3:16 and 4:7 is amazingly
close. Te words are virtually the same in Hebrew, but
you can see this in the English as well. In 3:16 God says
to the woman, Your desire is for your husband, and he
shall rule over you. In 4:7 God says to Cain, Sins desire
is for you, and you shall rule over it.
Now the reason this is important to see is that it
shows us more clearly what is meant by desire. When
4:7 says that sin is crouching at the door of Cains heart
(like a lion, Genesis 49:9) and that its desire is for him,
it means that sin wants to overpower him. It wants to
defeat him and subdue him and make him the slave of sin.
Now when we go back to 3:16, we should probably see
the same meaning in the sinful desire of woman. When
it says, Your desire shall be for your husband, it means
that when sin has the upper hand in woman, she will
desire to overpower or subdue or exploit man. And when
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sin has the upper hand in man, he will respond in like
manner and with his strength subdue her, or rule over her.
So what is really described in the curse of 3:16 is
the ugly confict between the male and female that has
marked so much of human history. Maleness as God cre-
ated it has been depraved and corrupted by sin. Female-
ness as God created it has been depraved and corrupted
by sin. Te essence of sin is self-reliance and self-exalta-
tion. First in rebellion against God, and then in exploita-
tion of each other.
So the essence of corrupted maleness is the self-
aggrandizing efort to subdue and control and exploit
women for its own private desires. And the essence of
corrupted femaleness is the self-aggrandizing efort to
subdue and control and exploit men for its own private
desires. And the diference is found mainly in the difer-
ent weaknesses that we can exploit in one another.
As a rule, men have more brute strength than wom-
en and so they can rape and abuse and threaten and sit
around and snap their fnger. Its fashionable to say those
sorts of things today. But its just as true that women are
sinners. We are in Gods image, male and female; and
we are depraved, male and female. Women may not have
as much brute strength as men, but she knows ways to
subdue him. She can very ofen run circles around him
with her words and where her words fail, she knows the
weakness of his lust.
If you have any doubts about the power of sinful
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woman to control sinful man, just refect for a moment
on the number one marketing force in the worldthe
female body. She can sell anything because she knows
the universal weakness of man and how to control him
with it. Te exploitation of women by sinful men is
conspicuous because it is ofen harsh and violent. But a
moments refection will show you that the exploitation
of men by sinful women is just as pervasive in our society.
Te diference is that our sinful society sanctions the one
perversity and not the other. (Tere are societies that do
just the opposite.)
Different Movements in a Marvelous Dance
Tis is not the way God meant it to be before sin, when
man and woman were dependent on him for how to
live. Tis is the result of rebellion against God. How,
then, did God mean it to be? What was the relationship
between Adam and Eve supposed to look like before sin
entered the world?
Weve seen part of the answer: they were created in the
image of God according to Genesis 1:27 and so the rela-
tionship they have was supposed to be governed by equal-
ity of personhood, equality of dignity, mutual respect,
harmony, complementarity, and a unifed destiny.
But thats only part of the answer.
Its like saying to a man and woman ballet dancer:
Remember, you are both equally accomplished danc-
ers; you are equally regarded among your peers; you
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must seek harmonious execution; you must complement
each others moves; and dont forget you will share the
applause together.
Tat kind of counsel is very important and will deep-
ly afect the beauty of the performance. But if thats all
they know about the dance theyre about to perform,
they wont be able to do it. Tey have to know the move-
ments. Tey have to know their diferent positions. Tey
have to know who will fall and who will catch. Who will
run and who will stand. It is of the very essence of dance
and drama that the players know the distinct movements
they must make.
If they dont know their diferent assignments on the
stage, there will be no drama, no dance.
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10. SORROWFUL YET ALWAYS
REJOICING
We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his
appeal through us.We implore you on behalf of
Christ, be reconciled to God.21For our sake he
made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God.
1Working together with him, then, we appeal to
you not to receive the grace of God in vain.2For he
says, In a favorable time I listened to you, and in
a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now
is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of
salvation.3We put no obstacle in anyones way, so
that no fault may be found with our ministry,4but
as servants of God we commend ourselves in every
way: by great endurance, in afictions, hardships,
calamities,5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors,
sleepless nights, hunger;6by purity, knowledge,
patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine
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love;7by truthful speech, and the power of God;
with the weapons of righteousness for the right
hand and for the lef;8through honor and dishonor,
through slander and praise.We are treated as
impostors, and yet are true;9as unknown, and
yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as
punished, and yet not killed;10as sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as
having nothing, yet possessing everything.11We
have spoken feely to you, Corinthians; our heart is
wide open. 12You are not restricted by us, but you
are restricted in your own afections.13 In return (I
speak as to children) widen your hearts also.
2 Corinthians 5:206:13
Let me tell you here at the very beginning the main point
of this chapter. It is this:
What the world needs fom the church is our
indomitable joy in Jesus in the midst of sufering
and sorrow.
10.1 What the World Needs to See in Us
I have tried these thirty-two-and-a-half years to lead the
staf and the elders and all of Bethlehem in the expe-
rience of sorrowful yet always rejoicing. I turn with
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dismay from church services that are treated like radio
talk shows where everything sounds like chipper, frisky,
high-spirited chatter designed to make people feel light-
hearted and playful and bouncy.I look at those services
and say to myself: Dont you know that people are sit-
ting out there who are dying of cancer, whose marriage
is a living hell, whose children have broken their hearts,
who are barely making it fnancially, who have just lost
their job, who are lonely and frightened and misunder-
stood and depressed?And you are going to try to create
an atmosphere of bouncy, chipper, frisky, light-hearted,
playful worship?
And, of course, there will be those who hear me say
that and say: Oh, so you think what those people need
is a morose, gloomy, sullen, dark, heavy atmosphere of
solemnity?
No. What they need is to see and feel indomitable joy
in Jesus in the midst of sufering and sorrow.Sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing. Tey need to taste that these church
people are not playing games here.Tey are not using reli-
gion as a platform for the same-old, hyped-up self-help
that the world ofers every day.Tey need the greatness
and the grandeur of God over their heads like galaxies of
hope. Tey need the unfathomable crucifed and risen
Christ embracing them in love with blood all over his
face and hands.And they need the thousand-mile-deep
rock of Gods word under their feet. Tey need to hear us
sing with all our heart and soul,
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Ye fearful saints, fesh courage take;
Te clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
Te bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the fower.
Tey need to hear the indomitable joy in sorrow as we sing:
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming food.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
If you ask me, Doesnt the world need to see Chris-
tians as happy in order to know the truth of our faith
and be drawn to the great Savior? My answer is: Yes,
yes, yes.And they need to see that our happiness is the
indomitable work of Christ in the midst of our sorrow
a sorrow probably deeper than they have ever known that
we live with every day. Tey need to see sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing.
So lets put some of that rock under our feet now
the rock of Gods word. Lets go to the Bible and see if
these things are so.
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10.2 Why Does It Matter What the World Needs?
We will focus on2 Corinthians 6:310.Why have I put the
emphasis on what the world needs? Why have I framed
the main point of this sermon as: What the world needs
from the church is our indomitable joy in Jesus in the
midst of sufering and sorrow?Te answer is in verses 3
and 4. Paul says, We put no obstacle in anyones way, so
that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as ser-
vants of God we commend ourselves in every way.
In other words, Paul is saying: What I am about to
do in this chapter is remove obstacles and commend our
ministryour life and message. He wants the church
in Corinth, and the world, not to write him of, not to
walk away, not to misunderstand who he is and what he
teaches and whom he represents.He wants to win them.
If you want to use the language of seeker-friendly, watch
how he does it.
Its amazing what he does here. Many savvy, church-
growth communicators today would have no categories
for this way of removing obstacles and commending
Christianity.In fact, some might say: Paul, you are not
removing obstacles, you are creating obstacles.
So lets watch Paul remove obstacles and commend his
ministry. Tis, he says in efect, is what the world needs.
He does this in three steps: 1) he describes the suferings
he endures; 2) he describes the character he tries to show;
and 3) he describes the paradoxes of the Christian life.
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10.3 Removing Obstacles in Three Steps
First, he describes the suferings he endures for Christ (2
Corinthians 6:35):
We put no obstacle in anyones way, so that no fault
may be found with our ministry, but as servants of
God we commend ourselves in every way: by great
endurance, in afictions, hardships, calamities,
beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless
nights, hunger.
So you may be asking yourself: How is this removing
obstacles?How is this commending his ministry? Why is
this not putting people of rather than drawing them in?
Second, he describes the character he tries to show (2
Corinthians 6:67):
by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy
Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the
power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for
the right hand and for the lef [probably the sword
of the Spirit in the right hand and the shield of faith
in the lef,Ephesians 6:1617].
So instead of being embittered and frustrated and
angry and resentful by all the afictions and hard-
ships and calamities and labors and sleepless nights, by
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Gods grace, Paul has shown patience and kindness and
love. His spirit has not been broken by the pain of his
ministry. In the Holy Spirit, he has found resources to
give and not to grumble.To be patient in Gods timing,
rather than pity himself. To be kind to people, rather
than take it out on others.
And third, Paul describes the paradoxes of the Chris-
tian life (2 Corinthians 6:810):
through honor and dishonor, through slander
and praise.We are treated as impostors, and yet
are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as
dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet
not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as
poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet
possessing everything.
When you walk in the light and minister in the power of
Holy Spirit, and speak the truth in purity, knowledge,
patience, kindness, and love, some people will honor
you and some will dishonor you (verse 8a); some will slan-
der you, and some will praise you (verse 8b).And that dis-
honor and slander may come in the form of calling you
an imposter (verse 8c).Youre not real. Youre just a reli-
gious hypocrite.
Remember Jesus said, Woe to you, when all people
speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false
prophets (Luke 6:26).Which means that in Pauls mind
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a mixed reception (some honoring and praising, some
dishonoring and slandering) was part of his commen-
dation.It removed the obstacle that says, You cant be a
true prophet, all speak well of you.
10.4 Six Amazing Paradoxes in Gospel Ministry
Ten come six more paradoxes.If you arent careful, you
might take these to mean that Paul is correcting false per-
ceptions of Christians, but its not quite like that. Every
perception here of the outsider has truth in it.But Paul
says, What you see is true, but its not the whole truth or
the main truth.
Verse 9a: You see us as unknown, and yet [we are]
well known. Yes, we are nobodies in the Roman empire, a
tiny movement following a crucifed and risen king.But oh
we are known by God, and that is what counts (1 Corinthi-
ans 8:3; Galatians 4:9).
Verse 9b: You see us as dying, and behold, we live.
Yes, we die every day. We are crucifed with Christ.Some of
us are imprisoned and killed. But oh we live because Christ
is our life now, and he will raise us fom the dead.
Verse 9c: You see us as punished, and yet [we are] not
killed. Yes, we endure many human punishments and
many divine chastenings, but over and over God has spared
us fom death.And he will spare us till our work is done.
Verse 10a: You see us as sorrowful, yet [we are]
always rejoicing. Yes, we are sorrowful. Tere are
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countless reasons for our hearts to break. But in them all
we do not cease to rejoice, one of the greatest paradoxes of
the Christian life!
Verse 10b: You see us as poor, yet [we are] making
many rich. Yes, we are poor in this worlds wealth. But
we dont live to get rich on things, we live to make people
rich on Jesus.
Verse 10c: You see us as having nothing, yet [we are]
possessing everything. In one sense, we have counted
everything as loss or the surpassing value of knowing
Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:8). But, in fact, we are chil-
dren of God, and if children, then heirs of God and fel-
low heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).To every Christian,
Paul says, All things are yours, whether Paul or Apol-
los or Cephas or the world or life or death or the pres-
ent or the futureall are yours, and you are Christs, and
Christ is Gods (1 Corinthians 3:2123).
10.5 Prosperity Does Not Commend Us
Now step back and remember what Paul said in verse 3:
We put no obstacle in anyones way, so that no fault may
be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we
commend ourselves in every way. He has been removing
obstacles to faith and commending the truth and value of
his ministryhis life, his message, his Lord. And he has
done it in exactly the opposite way that the prosperity
gospel does it.
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What obstacle has he removed? He has removed the
obstacle that someone might think Paul is in the min-
istry for money, or for earthly comfort and ease.He has
given every evidence he could to show that he is not a
Christianand he is not in the ministryfor the world-
ly benefts it can bring.But there are many pastors today
who think just the opposite about this.Tey think that
having a lavish house and a lavish car and lavish clothes
commend their ministry.Tats simply not the way Paul
thought. He thought that such things were obstacles.
Why?Because if they would entice anyone to Christ,
it would be for the wrong reason. It would be because
they think Jesus makes people rich and makes life com-
fortable and easy. No one should come to Christ for
that reason. Enticing people to Christ with prosperous
lifestyles and with chipper, bouncy, light-hearted, play-
ful, superfcial banter, posing as joy in Christ, will attract
certain people, but not because Christ is seen in his glory
and the Christian life is presented as the Calvary Road.
Many false conversions happen this way.
So how is Paul commending his ministry, his life, his
message, his Lord?
Verse 4: As servants of God we commend ourselves in
every way. How? By showing that knowing Christ, being
known by Christ, having eternal life with Christ is better
than all earthly wealth and prosperity and comfort. We
commend our life and ministry by afictions. We com-
mend our life and ministry by calamities.We commend
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our life and ministry by sleepless nights.What does that
mean?It means Christ is real to us, and Christ is infnite-
ly precious, more to be desired than any wealth or com-
fort in this world. Tis is our commendation: When all
around our soul gives way he then is all our hope and stay.
10.6 Two Pictures of Sorrowful Yet Always Rejoicing
What does it mean (verse 10) that part of Pauls commen-
dation to the world is that he was sorrowful yet always
rejoicing? It means that what the world needs from the
church is our indomitable joy in Jesus in the midst of suf-
fering and sorrow.
Let me move toward a close with two pictures of this
sorrowful yet always rejoicing. One from Jesus and one
from Paul.
When Jesus said inMatthew 5:1112, Blessed are you
when others revile you and persecute you and utter all
kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice
and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, do you
think it is random that the next thing he said was, You
are the salt of the earth You are the light of the world?
I dont think it was random. I think the tang of the
salt that the world needs to taste, and the brightness
of the light that the world needs to see is precisely this
indomitable joy in the midst of sorrow.
Joy in the midst of health?Joy in the midst of wealth
and ease? And when everyone speaks well of you? Why
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would that mean anything to the world? Te world has
that already.But indomitable joy in the midst of sorrow
that they do not have.Tat is what Jesus came to give in
this fallen, pain-flled, sin-wracked world.
Or consider Pauls experience of agony over the lost-
ness of his Jewish kinsmen in Romans 9:23.Remember
Paul is the one who said in Philippians 4:4, Rejoice in
the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. But inRomans
9:23, he writes, I have great sorrow and unceasing
anguish in my heart.For I could wish that I myself were
accursed and cut of from Christ for the sake of my broth-
ers, my kinsmen according to the fesh.
Dont miss the terrible burden of the word unceasing
in verse 2.I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in
my heart because my kinsmen are perishing in unbe-
lief cut of from the Messiah.Is Paul disobeying his own
command to rejoice always? No. Because he said in 2
Corinthians 6:10, We are sorrowful yet always rejoicing.
10.7 Salt and Light in This World
Is this not what the world needs from us? Picture your-
self sitting across the table at your favorite restaurant
from someone you care about very much who is not a
believer. You have shared the gospel before, and they
have been unresponsive. God gives you the grace this
time to plead with them.And he gives you the grace of
tears. And you say:
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I want so bad for you to believe and be a follower
of Jesus with me.I want you to have eternal life.I
want us to be with Christ forever together. I want
you to share the joy of knowing your sins are
forgiven and that Jesus is your fiend.And I can
hardly bear the thought of losing you. It feels like a
heavy stone in my chest.
Isnt that what the world needs from us?Not just an invi-
tation to joy, not just a painful expression of concern, but
the pain and the joy coming together in such a way that
they have never seen anything like this.Tey have never
been loved like this. Tey have never seen indomitable
joy in Jesus in the midst of sorrow.And by Gods grace, it
may taste like the salt of the earth and look like the light
of the world. So I say one last time:
What the world needs fom the churchfom
usis our indomitable joy in Jesus in the midst of
sufering and sorrow.
Tis was Pauls commendation of his ministry.May it be
our commendation of Christ. It is no accident that Paul
concluded the greatest chapter in the BibleRomans 8
with words that are designed pointedly to sustain your
joy and my joy in the face of sufering and loss:
What then shall we say to these things?If God is for
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us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his
own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not
also with him graciously give us all things?Who
shall bring any charge against Gods elect? It is
God who justifes.Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus
is the one who diedmore than that, who was
raisedwho is at the right hand of God, who indeed
is interceding for us.Who shall separate us fom
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or
sword?As it is written, For your sake we are being
killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to
be slaughtered. No, in [not instead of, but in!] all
these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us.For I am sure that neither death
nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us fom the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:3139
So, Christian, let the world taste your indomitable joy in
sufering and sorrow.
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J. MORE ABOUT SUFFERING
Six Reasons to Keep on Rejoicing No Matter What
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fery trial when
it comes upon you to test you, as though something
strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar
as you share Christs suferings, that you may also
rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4:1213
Te command is found in verse 13: Rejoice insofar as you
share Christs suferings. Keep on rejoicing. When you
are thrown in the cellars of sufering, keep on rejoicing.
When you dive in the sea of afiction, keep on rejoicing.
In fact, keep on rejoicing not in spite of the afiction but
even because of it. Tis is not a little piece of advice about
the power of positive thinking. Tis is an utterly radical,
abnormal, supernatural way to respond to sufering. It is
not in our power. It is not for the sake of our honor. It is
the way spiritual aliens and exiles live on the earth for the
glory of the great King.
Count it all joy when you meet various trials, is fool-
ish advice, except for one thingGod. Peter gives six rea-
sons why we can keep on rejoicing when the sufering
comes. Tey all relate to God.
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1. Not a Surprise but a Plan
Keep on rejoicing because the sufering is not a surprise
but a plan.
Verse 12: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fery trial
when it comes upon you to test you, as though something
strange were happening to you. It isnt strange. It isnt
absurd. It isnt meaningless. It is purposeful. It is for your
testing. Look at verse 19: Let those who sufer accord-
ing to Gods will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.
According to Gods will. Sufering is not outside the will
of God. It is in Gods will. Tis is true even when Satan
may be the immediate cause. God is sovereign over all
things, including our sufering, and including Satan.
By why? For what purpose? Compare verses 12 and 17.
Verse 12: your fery ordeal comes for your testing. Verse
17 says, For it is time for judgment to begin at the house-
hold of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the out-
come for those who do not obey the gospel of God? Te
point is that Gods judgment is moving through the earth.
Te church does not escape. When the fre of judgment
burns the church, it is a testing, proving, purifying fre.
When it burns the world, it either awakens or destroys.
Verse 18: If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will
become of the ungodly and the sinner? Believers pass
through the testing fre of Gods judgmentnot because
he hates us, but because he loves us and wills our purity.
God hates sin so much and loves his children so much
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that he will spare us no pain to rid us of what he hates.
So reason number one is that sufering is not surpris-
ing; it is planned. It is a testing. It is purifying fre. It
proves and strengthens real faith, and it consumes per-
formance faith.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn had long been impressed
with the patience and longsufering of Russian believers.
One night in prison in Siberia Boris Kornfeld, a Jewish
doctor, sat up with Solzhenitsyn and told him the story
of his conversion to Christ. Te same night Kornfeld was
clubbed to death. Solzhenitsyn said that Kornfelds last
words were, lay upon me as an inheritance . . . It was only
when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed
within myself the frst stirrings of good Bless you, pris-
on, for having been my life.
We have strong hope, therefore, that the suferings of
our own day will bring purity and life to many. Sufering
is not surprising; it is purposeful.
2. Evidence of Union with Christ
Keep on rejoicing because your sufering as a Christian is
an evidence of your union with Christ.
Verse 13: But rejoice insofar as you share Christs suf-
ferings. In other words, your suferings are not merely
your own. Tey are also Christs. Tis is cause for rejoic-
ing because it means you are united to Christ.
Joseph Tson, a Romanian pastor who stood up to
Ceausescus repressions of Christianity, wrote,
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Tis union with Christ is the most beautiful subject
in the Christian life. It means that I am not a lone
fghter here: I am an extension of Jesus Christ.
When I was beaten in Romania, he sufered in my
body. It is not my sufering: I only had the honor to
share his suferings (undated paper: A Teology of
Martyrdom).
Keep on rejoicing, because your suferings as a Christian
are not merely yours but Christs and they give evidence
of your union with him.
3. A Means to Attaining Greater Joy in Glory
Keep on rejoicing because this joy will strengthen your
assurance that when Christ comes in glory, you will
rejoice forever with him.
Verse 13b: But rejoice insofar as you share Christs suf-
ferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glo-
ry is revealed. Notice: keep on rejoicing now, so that you
may rejoice then. Our joy now through sufering is the
means of attaining our joy then, a thousand-fold in glory.
First there is sufering, then there is glory.1 Peter 1:11,
Te Spirit predicted the suferings of Christ and the glory
to follow (cf. 5:1). Paul said, If we sufer with him we will
be glorifed with him. First the sufering, and then the
gloryboth for Jesus and for those who are united to him.
If we become embittered at life and the pain it deals
us, we are not preparing to rejoice at the revelation of
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Christs glory. Keep on rejoicing now in sufering in order
that you might rejoice with exultation at the revelation
of his glory.
4. The Spirit of Glory and of God Rest on You
Keep on rejoicing in sufering because then the Spirit of
glory and of God rest upon you.
Verse 14: If you are insulted for the name of Christ,
you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God
rests upon you.
Tis means that in the hour of greatest trial there is
a great consolation. In great sufering on earth there is
great support from heaven. You may think now that you
will not be able to bear it. But if you are Christs, you will
be able to bear it, because he will come to you and rest
upon you. As Rutherford said, the Great King keeps his
fnest wine in the cellar of afiction. He does not bring it
out to serve with chips on sunny afernoons. He keeps it
for extremities.
If you say, What is this?the Spirit of glory and
of God resting on me in suferingthe answer is simply
this: you will fnd out when you need it. Te Spirit will
reveal enough of glory and enough of God to satisfy your
soul, and carry you through.
Seek to be holy; seek to bring truth; seek to bear wit-
ness; and do not turn aside from risk. And sooner or later
you will experience the Spirit of glory and of God resting
upon you in sufering.
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5. Rejoicing in Suffering Glories God
Keep on rejoicing in sufering because this glorifes God.
Verse 16: If anyone sufers as a Christian, let him not
be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
Glorifying God means showing by your actions and
attitudes that God is glorious to youthat he is valu-
able, precious, desirable, satisfying. And the greatest way
to show that someone satisfes your heart is to keep on
rejoicing in them when all other supports for your satis-
faction are falling away. When you keep rejoicing in God
in the midst of sufering, it shows that God, and not oth-
er things, is the great source of your joy.
Remember Paul Brand, the missionary surgeon to
India. He tells the story of his mother who was a mission-
ary in India and who did something that symbolizes a life
devoted through sufering to the glory of God and not
self. Dr. Brand writes,
For Mother, pain was a fequent companion, as was
sacrifce. I say it kindly and in love, but in old age,
Mother had little of physical beauty lef in her. Te
rugged conditions, combined with the crippling falls
and her battles with typhoid, dysentery, and malaria,
had made her a thin, hunched-over old woman.
Years of exposure to wind and sun had toughened her
facial skin into leather and furrowed it with wrinkles
as deep and extensive as any I have seen on a human
face Mother knew that as well as anyonefor the
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last 20 years of her life she refused to keep a mirror in
her house (Christianity Today, Jan. 10, 1994, 23).
Twenty years of ministry without a mirror. Do you get it?
She was the mirror. God was the light and the glory.
6. Gods Faithfulness to Care for Your Soul
Finally, keep on rejoicing because your Creator is faithful
to care for your soul.
Verse 19: Terefore let those who sufer according to
Gods will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while
doing good.
Te degrees of sufering and the forms of afiction
will difer for every one of us. But one thing we will all
have in common till Jesus comes: we will all die. We will
come to that awesome moment of reckoning. If you have
time, you will see your whole life played before you as you
ponder if it has been well-spent. You will tremble at the
unspeakable reality that in just moments you will face
God. And the destiny of your soul will be irrevocable.
Will you rejoice in that hour? You will if you entrust
your soul to a faithful Creator. He created your soul for
his glory. He is faithful to that glory and to all who love
it and live for it. Now is the time to show where your trea-
sure isin heaven or on earth. Now is the time to shine
with the glory of God. Trust him. And keep on rejoicing.
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