How Can I Grow in Obeying God?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | In Romans 1 verse 5, the Apostle Paul talks about

00:00:07.680 | the obedience of faith, or more clearly,

00:00:11.000 | the obedience that comes from faith, as the NIV puts it.

00:00:16.000 | We obey God only by faith in God.

00:00:19.880 | Faithless obedience is a fiction.

00:00:23.000 | And this point in this text led to a late night

00:00:27.080 | life change moment for one of our listeners named Stephan.

00:00:30.320 | Stephan writes in to say this,

00:00:31.600 | I was listening to Piper's sermon on Romans 1.5

00:00:34.240 | late one night as I was battling to go to sleep.

00:00:37.280 | I'm gonna assume that he was up and needed something to do,

00:00:39.780 | not that he was trying to fall asleep.

00:00:41.800 | The whole week was one great struggle for me

00:00:44.860 | against my flesh.

00:00:46.120 | I heard this verse taught like never before.

00:00:49.200 | It completely changed the way I went about pursuing Christ.

00:00:52.300 | I was going about pursuing holiness the wrong way.

00:00:55.360 | The Lord spoke clearly to me that I had to stop

00:00:58.160 | making my number one goal holiness.

00:01:00.380 | My life goal is to delight myself in him,

00:01:04.000 | and from the joy I receive in him comes the grace

00:01:07.480 | which I received by faith to do good works.

00:01:11.980 | Thank you Stephan for that testimony.

00:01:13.560 | Here's the clip that Stephan shared in particular.

00:01:16.800 | John Piper preaching on Romans 1.5 back in 1998.

00:01:21.800 | Here he is.

00:01:23.320 | In the book of Romans, obedience is very important.

00:01:26.880 | Chapter six is gonna talk about obedience.

00:01:30.240 | You are a slave to the one you obey,

00:01:32.700 | whether to righteousness or to sin.

00:01:35.400 | Chapter nine, verse 32 says,

00:01:40.120 | by faith and not as though it were by works,

00:01:45.120 | we obey the law.

00:01:48.640 | Chapter 14, verse 23 says,

00:01:51.160 | whatever is not from faith is sin.

00:01:54.960 | Which means any attempt at obedience or any other act

00:02:01.720 | which isn't springing from a heart of faith

00:02:04.780 | winds up in just being sin

00:02:06.640 | because it displeases the Lord.

00:02:10.520 | Without faith it is impossible to please God,

00:02:12.960 | Hebrews 11.6.

00:02:14.920 | Well, because of those kinds of verses

00:02:17.160 | and because of this word obedience,

00:02:19.160 | I'm inclined to go with the NIV here

00:02:22.960 | and say that the meaning is the goal

00:02:27.000 | or the effect of Paul's apostleship and grace

00:02:31.760 | is to bring about faith which yields obedience

00:02:36.760 | or to bring about the obedience which springs from faith.

00:02:41.160 | Say it either way you want.

00:02:42.880 | Both are true.

00:02:44.160 | Faith is his goal and the obedience which comes from it

00:02:49.160 | is his goal.

00:02:52.120 | So Paul puts a very great premium on the fact

00:02:55.360 | that obedience comes from faith.

00:02:58.760 | All true obedience comes by faith.

00:03:02.080 | Why is it that faith yields obedience?

00:03:07.960 | Back up with me to point number one

00:03:12.400 | or the first part of the verse.

00:03:15.560 | There it says, "I receive grace for apostleship."

00:03:19.560 | And that means that the ministry of apostleship

00:03:23.760 | and the obedience of apostleship is the gift of grace.

00:03:28.120 | And I argued that you don't receive this grace by works

00:03:31.120 | but you receive it by faith.

00:03:33.320 | And therefore grace flows giving gifts

00:03:38.080 | and enablement for gifts and the obedience involved

00:03:40.920 | in fulfilling that gift through grace.

00:03:43.240 | And how is it received?

00:03:44.440 | It's received by faith.

00:03:47.040 | And therefore you have the obedience of faith

00:03:50.200 | already implicit in point number one.

00:03:52.440 | You get that?

00:03:54.560 | If our gifts and our ministry

00:03:59.920 | and the obedience of that ministry are given by grace

00:04:04.520 | and if grace is received by faith and not by works

00:04:08.960 | then that obedience is channeled through faith

00:04:13.240 | and is called in point number two, the obedience of faith.

00:04:18.240 | Faith correlates with grace

00:04:22.920 | and therefore the obedience that comes from grace

00:04:25.960 | also is the obedience that comes from faith.

00:04:30.360 | So if you want to be an obedient person

00:04:33.600 | and live the Christian life the way Paul conceives it

00:04:37.200 | then work on your faith.

00:04:40.320 | Don't try to work on your works

00:04:43.080 | because you'll wind up being a legalist.

00:04:46.120 | Work on your faith.

00:04:47.680 | Focus on the Lord.

00:04:48.760 | Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

00:04:52.400 | And so focus on Christ, know Christ, delight in Christ,

00:04:57.160 | meditate on Christ, get the whole Christ before you.

00:05:00.640 | Faith will rise because grace will be coming through it

00:05:04.440 | and then obedience flows out from it.

00:05:08.000 | Why does God set it up this way?

00:05:10.960 | Why does God have such a passion

00:05:16.280 | to be the giver here, the gracer?

00:05:19.840 | And why does he establish it so that works,

00:05:23.480 | our works do not get it,

00:05:26.120 | faith, like a little child receiving it, gets it.

00:05:30.200 | Why did he set up a salvation

00:05:32.280 | and why did he set up an apostleship,

00:05:34.360 | a motherhood, a singleness, a pastorate,

00:05:36.840 | a studentship, a nursery worker?

00:05:39.000 | Why did he set up the Christian life

00:05:41.040 | so that all of life is a believing reception of grace

00:05:46.040 | which then empowers obedience?

00:05:48.760 | Why did he make himself the origin of it all

00:05:53.360 | and the enabler of it all?

00:05:55.440 | And the answer to that is given at the end of verse five.

00:06:00.440 | Through Christ, we have received grace and apostleship

00:06:04.800 | to bring about the obedience of faith

00:06:07.880 | among all the Gentiles or nations or peoples.

00:06:11.240 | Why, what's the ultimate goal?

00:06:14.400 | For his name's sake.

00:06:19.320 | The ultimate goal of all God's dealings with you

00:06:22.320 | is that the name of Christ would be exalted in your life

00:06:27.600 | and in your job and in your family

00:06:31.080 | and among your friendships

00:06:33.160 | and everywhere you go this afternoon and tomorrow.

00:06:37.480 | Will Christ be exalted?

00:06:39.440 | Will people read the banner of Christ off your life?

00:06:44.440 | That's why you exist.

00:06:46.720 | If you wonder, why do I exist?

00:06:49.840 | State it in your mind right now.

00:06:53.440 | I exist ultimately because,

00:06:57.520 | now fill in the blank,

00:07:01.480 | and I pray that God would enable you,

00:07:03.480 | give you the humility and grace to fill it in

00:07:08.480 | that the name of Christ be exalted in my life.

00:07:13.480 | If you write that as the reason you exist,

00:07:18.600 | everything will be different.

00:07:20.560 | Now this is why God makes our salvation and our ministry

00:07:26.160 | and all our obedience dependent upon grace

00:07:30.480 | through faith.

00:07:32.640 | If our obedience, if our ministry were to come by works,

00:07:37.640 | we would get the glory.

00:07:43.560 | If I accomplish the pastorate

00:07:48.840 | in the strength that John Piper supplies,

00:07:53.400 | John Piper will get the glory and perish with it.

00:07:59.680 | If I accomplish the pastorate

00:08:04.000 | in the strength that God supplies,

00:08:07.280 | God will get the glory and I will get the help.

00:08:11.800 | That's why he says it's all by grace through faith.

00:08:17.880 | Let me read you, I'm gonna go outside Romans here.

00:08:20.560 | Only time I'm going outside Romans this morning,

00:08:22.840 | but it is so good.

00:08:25.760 | The way Peter says it just can't be improved upon.

00:08:29.200 | 1 Peter 4, 11 puts it like this.

00:08:32.800 | "Whoever serves,"

00:08:35.720 | now let's just make sure we all put ourselves in there.

00:08:39.280 | I say pastor, father, husband,

00:08:41.760 | you fill in the blank, okay?

00:08:44.320 | Grandmother, aunt, uncle, Sunday school teacher,

00:08:47.560 | computer specialist, policeman, bricklayer.

00:08:50.560 | You got your two or three things

00:08:54.880 | that you occupy your life with now?

00:08:58.120 | "Whoever serves is to do so

00:09:02.240 | "in the strength which God supplies

00:09:06.960 | "so that in all things God may be glorified

00:09:11.600 | "through Jesus Christ to whom belong

00:09:15.560 | "the glory and the dominion forever and ever, amen."

00:09:20.560 | Everywhere I go to speak,

00:09:23.520 | I was in Orlando on Thursday night,

00:09:28.440 | I spoke in video conferencing with Perth, Australia

00:09:31.720 | seven o'clock Thursday morning,

00:09:33.680 | I went up to Winnipeg a week ago.

00:09:36.320 | Everywhere I go, almost, I quote this verse.

00:09:40.920 | And I say something like,

00:09:42.720 | at Bethlehem, the closest thing I have to a verse

00:09:46.840 | that sums up a ministry philosophy is 1 Peter 4, 11.

00:09:50.880 | Let him who serves serve in the strength that God supplies

00:09:55.840 | in order that God would get the glory.

00:09:57.440 | And I always use those gestures.

00:09:59.040 | Like that.

00:10:03.040 | And that's my theology.

00:10:04.240 | Just like that.

00:10:07.800 | And if you get that, if you are deaf here this morning

00:10:11.280 | and can read my lips, perhaps,

00:10:13.320 | and you see, God, I need you.

00:10:16.640 | I need you for this ministry, I need you for this sermon,

00:10:19.560 | I need you for the baby dedication,

00:10:21.400 | I need you to make it good for Noel today.

00:10:24.000 | Give it to me by grace, I trust you, I don't deserve this.

00:10:30.520 | I'll give you the glory, you get the glory,

00:10:34.640 | people will see the glory.

00:10:36.160 | You get the glory, I get the help, good deal.

00:10:40.440 | This is my theology.

00:10:43.120 | And I believe it's Romans 1, 5.

00:10:46.280 | If it's not Romans 1, 5, you need to write me a letter.

00:10:51.120 | - Wonderful clip, wonderful clip at 2 a.m. in the morning

00:10:54.160 | when you can't sleep.

00:10:55.320 | Yeah, it's from John Piper's May 10th, 1998 sermon

00:10:58.520 | on Romans 1, 5, titled, "By His Grace, For His Name,

00:11:02.400 | "Through the Obedience of Faith."

00:11:04.280 | And if you're not able to get to sleep,

00:11:05.920 | you can find that whole message at desiringgod.org, 24/7,

00:11:09.520 | even at night, even at 2 a.m., you can find it there.

00:11:12.240 | And if you've had an aha moment listening

00:11:14.120 | to a Piper sermon, send me the clip,

00:11:16.080 | give me the title of the sermon and the timestamp

00:11:18.040 | from when the audio of the clip begins and ends,

00:11:21.280 | tell me why it's impacted you, give me your story,

00:11:23.660 | tell me your name and the closest city to you.

00:11:26.680 | Email me those details at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:11:30.560 | And put the word clip in the subject line, please.

00:11:33.240 | Can't wait to hear what you've been listening to

00:11:36.200 | late at night.

00:11:37.040 | Well, how do I know if I'm completely surrendered to Christ?

00:11:40.760 | How do I know if I'm completely surrendered to Christ?

00:11:43.720 | It's a great question, and it's coming up next

00:11:45.300 | from a listener named Maria in the Netherlands,

00:11:47.600 | or Pastor John when he rejoins us on Friday.

00:11:49.960 | I'm Tony Rehnke, we'll see you then.

00:11:51.760 | (upbeat music)

00:11:54.340 | (upbeat music)

00:11:56.920 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Can I Grow in Obeying God?

Chapters