John Piper Does Not Deny That God Makes Much of Us

Borrowed from the Desiring God blog, I wanted to re-post this since it clarifies a point made in Scripture. There is a love of God which is so wonderful that to deny His overweening love of man is, in essence, to deny His divinity. "I have loved you with an everlasting love" does not exactly exalt us, however. It really exalts Him who loves us in spite of our depravity. This verse in fact, from Jeremiah 31:3 glorifies God's faithfulness even though it most certainly lifts up the prisoner's head (ours) and puts it on high. If THIS is what we mean by "making much of man" then OK. I am still not a fan of the phrase, "make much of man." But Romans does say that whom [God] justifies, he also glorifies (Romans 8:30). This glory seems more suited to heaven's beauty than to man's intrinsic worth. Anyway, here's what DGM posted:
 
At Passion 2011 in Atlanta, Pastor John gave a message titled “Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy.” In it John clarifies if and how God makes much of us:

Let it be said loud and clear John Piper does not deny and and never has denied that God makes much of us. The question is ranking—what’s at the bottom of your joy. Where does it finally rest?

Yes, those amazing truths—that God makes much of you—should thrill your soul!  But why? The answer to that question makes all the difference.

If the answer is, "Because I'm at the bottom, and I love to be made much of," you're not born again. If the answer is, "Because it reveals more of God and makes me know him, treasure him, love him, be satisfied in him, more than I ever dreamed!" then you are born again.

That's the difference—what's at the bottom.

Listen or download “Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy.”

Denying Our Selfishness . . .

I was pondering just yesterday how selfishness leads so many believers to implode to their own detriment and the obvious harm done to the body of Christ. It, like pride, is so useless and unnecessary, really. Coincidentally, the Spurgeon site sent this out the same day. Touched (again) by his message, I have to pass it along to you with the beautiful photo as well! Spurgeon writes:

Our Lord Jesus Christ’s heart was expansive and unselfish. He gave himself for his enemies, and died breathing a prayer over them; he lived never for himself. You could not put your finger on one point of his life and say, “here he lived for himself alone.” Neither his prayers nor his preachings, his miracles or his sufferings, his woes or his glories were with an eye to himself. He saved others, but himself he would not save. His followers must in this follow him closely. 

Selfishness is as foreign to Christianity as darkness to light. The true Christian lives to do good, he looks abroad to see whom be may serve, and with this eye he looks upon the wicked, upon the fallen and the offcasts, seeking to reclaim them. Yes, in the same way he looks upon his personal enemies, and aims at winning them by repeated kindnesses. No nationality must confine his goodwill, no sect or clan monopolise his benevolence. No depravity of character or poverty of condition must sicken his lovingkindness, for Jesus received sinners and ate with them. Our love must embrace those who lie hard by the gates of hell, and we must endeavor with words of truth and deeds of love to bring them to Christ, who can uplift then to heaven. 

Oh that you may all be gentle, quiet, meek in spirit, but full of an ardent, burning affection towards your fellowmen; so shall you be known to be Christ’s disciples.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Call To Holy Living," delivered January 14, 1872. Image by Daniel Parks under Creative Commons License.

Seeking Substance in Scripture

“Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” John 5:39

It's funny. The longer I live, the more I see things must stay the same . . . that is, with regard to truth. God's Word boasts the exclusive authority necessary to rise above the cacophony of sounds which threatens to overwhelm the masses (and even the church itself!). How much we need to iterate and reiterate this fact! And why? Because it is the Word of God which projects the Son of God by the Spirit of God. Octavius Winslow said,

The word of God is full of Christ. He is the Sun of this divine system, the Fountain of its light and beauty. Every doctrine derives its substance from His person, every precept its force from His work, every promise its sweetness from His love. 

And . . .

It is the office of the blessed and eternal Spirit to unfold, and so to glorify, Jesus in the Word. All that we spiritually and savingly learn of Him, through this revealed medium, is by the sole teaching of the Holy Spirit, opening up this word to the mind. He shows how all the luminous lines of Scripture truth emanate from, return to, and center in, Christ- how all the doctrines set forth the glory of His person, how all the promises are written in His heart’s blood, and how all the precepts are embodied in His life.

And there is hope even (or especially) among the younger set. Carl Trueman from Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia says, 

I rejoice seeing the growing appetite among men and women under 40 for the great exponents of sovereign grace, Christ’s atonement, justification by faith alone, and the centrality of preaching. That these things are back on the agenda that could never have been anticipated ten years ago is a stunning testimony, both to God’s grace and the hard work and commitment of a generation of Christians.

So, I conclude urging, search the Scriptures. YES! But do so in such a way that Jesus Christ is central to everything you read. Glory in that truth. Many are beginning to rediscover this heart-swelling truth for themselves. I am happy that young folks are seeking out substance over the superficial.

Cultivating Private Prayer as a Pastor

The following is taken from the 2011 DGM Pastor's Conference. If you'd prefer to watch the video, you'll find it (HERE). Joel Beeke is the speaker:

Obviously, I hope, those of you who are not pastors will still watch/read this, given that personal prayer is for all believers.

Notes taken during the session.

It is always convicting to receive the assignment to speak on prayer to other pastors. And as I was writing the book that Dr. Piper referenced on prayer, I became increasingly convicted by the Puritans about how little I pray. So tonight, I am preaching first of all to myself. This topic is at the heart of revival of the church of Jesus Christ. My father told me when I was a teenager that the greatest problem of the church today is prayerless praying.

The sermons of the Reformers and Puritans are not that different than ours. We’re saying essentially the same thing. What was so different was their prayer lives. My aim is that we would truly pray in our prayers. So turn with me to Isaiah 64:6-9 and James 5:13-18.

True prayer is putting ourselves into our petitions, crying out to God Almighty and praying in our prayers. The problem is not that we don’t pray, but rather that seldom we truly prayerfully pray in our prayers. What is this praying? The primary exercise of faith. Private prayerful praying is the work of the triune God. It has more to do with God than with us. It is Heaven’s greatest weapon that we have at our disposal as a minister of the gospel. This kind of praying is supposed to be half of our vocation—giving ourselves to the Word and to prayer.

The giants of church history dwarf us because of the time and energy that they devoted to private prayer. They were Daniels in private and in public. Luther spent the first two hours of every day in prayer. He once said to Melanchton that he had so much to do that he needed to spend an extra hour in prayer. On the contrary, we too often see prayer as an interruption to our ambition.

Luther was not shy in is prayers. He would often pray loudly and boldly. He said praying was hard work. And he’s right. There is so much working against us in our prayers. Distraction arises in our cold heart and disturbance comes up in those around us.

In all of his busyness, Calvin spent hours in prayer every day. Unless we fix certain hours of every day in prayer, he said, it would slip from our memory. We must taste the sweetness of the fellowship of God in our prayer. We need to strive to grow in prayer.

The Puritans were the same way. They often would rise early, hours before sunrise, to fellowship with God in prayer. John Knox said that the prayers of the great cloud of witnesses rebuked us in our prayerlessness. In 1651, a group of Scottish ministers gathered together in fear of losing their spiritual vitality and wrote up a joint confession. Number twelve on their list was their prayerlessness. Tragically, our prayer life is often like a building closed for repairs.

We intend to do it better, to get more serious about it. We get down about it. Eventually we begin to call our prayerless praying real prayer. Prayerful praying pierces Heaven and warms the soul. We so often struggle in public prayer because we so rarely draw near to God in private. The problem with many of us is that our prayer lives have grown dull. We know that backsliding begins in the inner closet of prayer. Yet, we carry on with the commendation of people while not carrying on with God in prayer.

What we need to do tonight is not just confront this problem of prayerless praying, but search for conclusions. All of our excuses are obnoxious in the eyes of God. It is tragic when a minister of the gospel, who is called to be a man of prayer, can rest comfortably in this wicked prayerless condition. It is easier perhaps to riddle ourselves with guilt than to do something about it.

I do not aim to beat you with guilt but to awake you and me up to the need to lay hold of eternal life through the pursuit of a more faithful, more fervent prayer life with your Savior and your God. This will require us to take hold of ourselves and to take hold of God. How? 

Take Hold of Yourself in Prayer - Seven Principles

1. Remember the Value of Prayer. As ministers, we must remember that prayer is essential for our ministry and every duty we do as a minister of the gospel. Make it a rule to never engage in any activity in ministry without first seeking God in prayer. I have got to go to God in prayer. It is the most Christ-like thing we can engage in, brothers.

What a blessing that we have been called to be men of prayer. Many other men have to work ten hours a day in their secular vocation and we get to spend hours praying. Again my father told me just to have a place to go with your every need is worth more than anything money can buy.

William Bridge said that a praying man can never be miserable because he has the ear of God.

Nothing is so valuable as prayer. The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel. This is Heaven’s greatest weapon.

2. Maintain the Priority of Prayer. Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing.” Prayer has got to be first. It has to be our priority in every need. Spurgeon wrote, “Your prayers will be your greatest aid in your preparations. And after the sermon, how can a preacher give vent to his soul if the mercy seat were denied him.” How hard do you pray after your sermon is over? They would pray after the sermon, “Please, Lord. Don’t let the birds take away the seeds of that sermon.”

I fear that the pressures of the ministry today to be a jack-of-all-trades, pressures at home, pressures in the media crowd out our time for the priority of this ministry of prayer. We lose our power and authority. You have to have windows of prayer between your visits and appointments. That is the way to do it. Keep prayer your priority, not just during your times when you feel like a sailboat gliding effortlessly but also when you feel like an ice breaker.

3. Prayer With Sincerity. Psalm 62:8. The way to pray is to tell the Lord everything about you like he didn’t know anything about you all the while knowing he knows everything about you. Sometimes praying with sincerity means praying briefly, “Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God!” God does not look at the logic of your prayers or the style of your prayers but the sincerity of your prayers.

Sincerity in prayer requires integrity in our marriages. Let your prayers be not hindered. Taking hold of our prayers may mean to take hold of our bad attitudes or our treatment of our wives. You have to do something about that. Perhaps praying first a prayer of repentance. We need to avoid professionalism in our prayers because it is not about our prayers but about our hearts. Spurgeon was asked how to get better at praying in public. He responded, “Pray more in private.”

4. Cultivate a Continual Spirit of Prayer. Isn’t it true that when you are really close to God that you have those “occasional prayers”? You pray your way through the day. You pray without ceasing. It is not just during your set times of prayer. We should be like a bird returning to its nest when we return to God in prayer. That is praying in your prayer—having the sense of relationship and knowing that your prayers reach the courts of Heaven.

It struck me how much Calvin used the example of a child crawling up into his father’s lap in relation to prayer. Pray continually. Ask God to help you do that. Whenever you have the least impulse to pray, pray! We have so few impulses to pray that we ought to take advantage of every one of them.

5. Work Toward Organization in Intercessory Prayer. We are ministers. We owe it to our people to pray for every single one of them. We know them and we should pray for them one by one. How? Be strategic. Have set lists that you have organized and categorized to pray for other people. Newton said his best friends were those who prayed for him. It will be encouraging to your people for them to know you are praying for them. I take the church directory and pray for the people on one page each day. You love your people and you know their needs.

6. Read the Bible for Prayer. Prayer is a two-way conversation. God comes to us in prayer and we return to him in prayer. Read verse-by-verse, and pray verse-by-verse. Pray your way through the Scriptures. Turn the psalms into prayer.

Fill your mind with Scripture and your prayers will gain life. In the house churches in China, they had no Scriptures in print but had so much memorized that their prayers were filled with it. When I get discouraged in my prayers, I often look to volumes of saints’ prayers from the past. I have found that they are filled with Scripture.

7. Keep Biblical Balance in Your Prayers. There are many different kinds of prayers in Scripture, aren’t there? We need to examine our prayer life from time to time and check to see if our prayers are repetitive. Are we covering the same bases when we pray? Listen to others pray. We can learn from others in how we pray.

Take Hold of God in Prayer - Three Principles

1. Plead God’s Promises in Prayer. David says, “My soul clings to you.” God is tender to his own handwriting. That is especially true of his own promises. It is no arrogance or presumption to pray to God his own promises. Prayer is nothing less than the promise reversed and retorted back to God. Beseech God with his own promises. Cast your burdens on the Lord and then trust him. Don’t take them right back.

2. Cling to This Glorious Trinity in Prayer. Like Elijah and Isaiah, cling to it. True prayer is not self-congratulatory but self-condemning and Christ-congratulatory. We should dwell on the Trinity and how the three persons draw us to God. We should meditate on who our God is. We need all three persons. We come in a Trinitarian fashion. We know our Father’s hands are full of grace because the Son’s hands were pierced for us. We can come boldly to throne of grace. As ministers, we can always say our time is a time of need. We are full of needs. Bring them to God.

God loves a returning minister who grieves over not turning to him in prayer. When he takes hold of you, you can take hold of him. Let us arise from our prayerlessness and cling to God Almighty, trusting in him, believing in him. We have access by one Spirit unto the Father. John Owen said we ought to labor in prayer to know each person of the Trinity one by one. In our prayer lives, we need an experiential knowledge of the Triune God.

We do not just pray for God’s benefits but God himself. We need God intimacy and God dependency. When we come to our people when we have come out of our closets, they can sense the presence of God. Then our people will begin to understand what prayerful praying is all about.

3. Believe that God Answers Prayer. Too often I will cry out to God and am surprised when he answers. Faithless prayer is fruitless prayer. When we don’t trust God, we make a mess of everything.

Let me end by giving you cautionary conclusion. If you want to know something about a man, ask him about his prayer life. Beseech him for mercies upon the church. In prayer, you know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

My aim is not to discourage you. Don’t despair no matter how bad your prayer life is right now. Don’t compare yourself to the saints of past. Let them encourage you that there is more for you in prayer. Let them stir you up! That is the way to use Isaiah 64 and the prayer life Knox, Luther and Calvin. Battle unbelief and despair with prayer. We need not be crushed by demands to pray for hours but to pray with earnestness. Take hope in the almighty, Triune God who loves to be prayed to.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
 

The Grace of Confession-Part 2 Paul Tripp

Continued from yesterday . . . 

A properly functioning conscience is a grace

Many relationships travel a one-way road in the wrong direction—the direction of a hardened heart. In the early days of the relationship we’re concerned with winning the other person, being loving, kind, serving, respectful, giving, forgiving, and patient.

But before long we let down our guard. We quit being so solicitous. Selfishness replaces service. We do and say things we would have never thought of at the relationship’s beginning. We become progressively less giving, patient, and forgiving. We look out for ourselves more than for the other person.

At first, our conscience bothers us. Eventually our heart hardens and our conscience doesn’t bother us anymore. It’s a perverse ability that all sinners have: becoming progressively comfortable with things that should shock, grieve, and embarrass us.

It’s a sign of God’s grace when our consciences are sensitive and our hearts are grieved, focusing not on what the other person’s wrongs, but at what we have become. This sensitivity is the doorway to real and lasting change.

It’s only grace that protects us from self-righteousness

This is the other side of the coin. We must understand the dynamic that operates so subtly, yet so destructively, in our relationships. Because we all suffer from some degree of personal spiritual blindness—and because we tend to see the weaknesses and failures of the other person with greater accuracy—we begin thinking of ourselves as more righteous than the other person. When we do this, it becomes difficult for us to think we’re part of the problem, and it makes it difficult to embrace the loving criticism and correction of the other person.

This means that it is not only blindness that prevents us from change, but also assessments of personal righteousness. If we’re convinced that we’re righteous, we desire neither change (nor the help that can make change) happen.

When both people in a relationship think they are righteous and the other person isn't, each person becomes more dissatisfied, impatient, and bitter. Meanwhile. the condition of the relationship worsens.

But there is hope! Grace decimates self-righteousness. Grace opens our eyes and softens our hearts. Grace deepens our sense of need. Grace faces us with our poverty and weakness. Grace causes us to run after help and welcomes us with open arms. When we quit arguing about who’s more righteous and instead grieve over our respective sins, we can know that grace has visited us and that it will work change in our lives.

Confession shouldn’t be this scary thing we do our best to avoid. Sin, weakness, and failure shouldn’t be the constant elephant in the room that we all know is there but can’t (or won’t) talk about. Instead, confession is a wonderful gift that every relationship needs. It should be liberating, not understood as a moment of personal and relational loss. Our confession should be propelled by deep appreciation and gratitude toward God, who has made it possible for us to no longer fear being exposed.

Because of what Jesus has done for us, we do not have to hide or excuse our wrongs. We’re freed from posing as if we’re perfect. In our heart of hearts we know we're not. We can stare our problems in the face with hope and courage because Christ has made possible real, lasting, personal, change in our relationships.

The Grace of Confession-Part 1 Paul Tripp

Today and tomorrow, I am sending out this excellent article by Paul David Tripp on the nature of confession and it's value. I first saw it on the Desiring God blog. Tripp writes:

I often wonder how many people are stuck in their relationships in a cycle of repeating the same things over and over again. They repeat the same misunderstandings. They rehearse and re-rehearse the same arguments. They repeat the same wrongs. Again and again things are not resolved. Night after night they end the day with nothing reconciled; they awake with memories of another bad moment with a friend, spouse, neighbor, co-worker or family member and they march toward the next time when the cycle will be repeated.

It all becomes predictable and discouraging. They hate the cycle. They wish things were what they once were. Their minds swing between nostalgia and disappointment. They want things to be different, but they don’t seem to know how to break free, and they don’t seem willing to do the one thing that makes change possible—confess.

They tell themselves they will do better. They promise they will deal with their issues. They promise they will seek God's help. They decide to invest more time and energy in the relationship. They promise they will talk more. But it is not long before all the promises fade away. It is not long before they are in the same place again. All their commitments to change have been subverted by the one thing they seem unwilling to do: take the focus off the other and put it on themselves.

Here is the point: no change takes place in a relationship that does not begin with confession. The problem for many of us is we look at confession as a burden, when it is actually a grace.

It is a grace to know right from wrong

Change is all about measuring yourself against a standard, being dissatisfied with where you are because you see that you have fallen short of the standard, and seeking the grace to close the gap from where you are to where you need to be.

James likened the Word of God to a mirror (James 1:22–25) into which we can look and see ourselves as we actually are. It is impossible to overstate how important this is. Accurate diagnosis always precedes effective cure. You only know that the board is too short because you can place it against a measuring instrument. You only know that the temperature in your house is too hot because you have a measuring instrument in your house (called a thermostat). 

The Bible is God’s ultimate measuring instrument. It is meant to function in each of our lives as a spiritual tape measure. We can place ourselves and our relationships next to it and see if we measure up to God’s standard. God’s Word is one of his sweetest gifts of grace, and open eyes to see it clearly and an open heart to receive it willingly are sure signs of God’s grace as well.

It is a grace to understand the concept of indwelling sin

One of the most tempting fallacies for us—and for every human being in this fallen world—is to believe that our greatest problems exist outside us rather than inside us.  Despite this, the Bible calls us to humbly confess that the greatest, deepest, most abiding problem each of us faces is inside of us, not outside. The Bible names that problem "sin." Because sin is self-focused and self-serving, it is antisocial and destructive to our relationships.

You know that you have been gifted with grace when you are able to say, “My greatest relationship problems are because of what's inside of me not outside of me.”

Trusting God's Gracious Foresight

Often--probably more often than we'll ever realize here on earth--our Lord keeps us from besetting troubles. We're likely to never know these, thus, we're also not likely to give God credit for them. One biblical example of this is found when God mightily orchestrated Israel's deliverance out of Egypt. In a sentence you could almost overlook, we read:

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17) 

Now, whether God said this aloud to Moses or we're allowed into the heavenly thought doesn't really matter. It wasn't up for a vote. Our Lord knows our weaknesses and will (it seems OFTEN) prepare the way before us, putting up protection even (or, perhaps especially) when we are unaware. But if we look with eyes of faith we might see it. If we meditate upon the works of the Lord, we stand a far better chance of recognizing his actions. What a blessing when we realize such things are the very work of heaven! These are not "flukes" but they are the very matter of the divine beneficence. The Lord God will take us through trials in order to mature us. True. "Yea, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me" is a well known supporting text on this. But he will also keep us from evil attacking us, if that evil will overwhelm us. Perhaps it is for this reason, and in light of such a wonderful truth, that Paul can write by the Spirit, that "no temptation has taken us but such as is common to man. But God will, with the temptation make a way of escape." Why? "That we may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. 10:13). 

Response?

Praise. Praise God's wisdom to know which is best. Praise his love to so care as to select the very trials we should suffer, and the ones we should avoid. Praise his power that can do any of this at will. Indeed, what manner of man is this that the wind and waves, and armies and nations obey his will? Good question. Great meditation. Wonderful praise. And we do well, very well, to be much about it. 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  (Jeremiah 29:11)

Amen.