Why Do You Want to Be Loved by God?
00:00:00.000 | Well, we all want to be loved by God.
00:00:07.000 | But why?
00:00:08.480 | Why do you want to be loved by God?
00:00:12.620 | Is it to escape eternal judgment?
00:00:15.880 | Is it to be freed from the guilt of sin?
00:00:18.540 | Is it to have a clean conscience?
00:00:20.920 | Or is it because the consequences of sin have made a mess of your life?
00:00:26.700 | Why do you want to be loved by God?
00:00:30.960 | This was the topic taken up by John Piper in a sermon nearly 20 years ago.
00:00:35.520 | A clip sent in to us from a listener out there.
00:00:38.760 | Here's Pastor John preaching in 2001.
00:00:42.880 | Now a certain man was sick, John 11, 1.
00:00:46.560 | Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
00:00:53.520 | It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair.
00:01:00.320 | So this is clearly a picture of sweetness and love.
00:01:05.640 | Mary loved Jesus and Jesus loved Mary.
00:01:10.600 | Mark that word "love."
00:01:12.720 | It will show up several more times.
00:01:16.160 | It was this woman whose brother Lazarus was sick.
00:01:20.300 | Verse 3, "So the sisters sent word to him, saying, 'Lord, behold, he whom you love is
00:01:31.520 | sick.'
00:01:32.520 | But when Jesus heard this, He said, 'This sickness is not to end in death, but for the
00:01:40.520 | glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified in it.'"
00:01:50.280 | So now you have two profound realities on the table.
00:01:56.840 | Love and glory.
00:02:00.120 | The love of Christ and the glory of Christ.
00:02:03.920 | And my question is, how do they relate to each other?
00:02:08.760 | Verse 5, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
00:02:19.200 | So," verse 6, "so when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two days longer in the place
00:02:29.720 | where he was and let him die."
00:02:37.680 | Notice three things.
00:02:39.120 | One, Jesus chose to let Lazarus die.
00:02:43.520 | Two, He was motivated in this by His zeal for the glory of God to be manifest.
00:02:55.840 | Verse 4, "Third, this motivation is love."
00:03:05.080 | Do you see the word "so" or "therefore" at the beginning of verse 6?
00:03:11.040 | Do you see what it's preceded by and followed by?
00:03:14.680 | It's preceded by, Jesus loved Martha.
00:03:19.800 | Jesus loved Mary.
00:03:22.640 | Jesus loved the dying man, Lazarus.
00:03:27.040 | Therefore He did not go heal him, but stayed two days longer where he was and saw to it
00:03:35.360 | that he died.
00:03:38.360 | Now what on earth could possibly turn that into love?
00:03:44.120 | Verse 4, "This is not going to end in death.
00:03:51.160 | This is all about the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified in Him."
00:04:00.600 | So here's my definition of the love of God based on this text.
00:04:05.480 | God's love is His doing whatever needs to be done at whatever cost so that we will see
00:04:16.880 | and be satisfied with the glory of God in Jesus Christ.
00:04:20.320 | Let me say it again.
00:04:22.840 | The love of God is His doing whatever needs to be done at whatever cost to Himself or
00:04:31.600 | to us so that we will see and be satisfied by the love of God in Christ forever and ever.
00:04:46.560 | Let me confirm this with John 17:24.
00:04:50.320 | Here's Jesus praying for us and He loves us in this prayer.
00:04:54.680 | Oh how He loves us in this prayer.
00:04:59.280 | John 17, 24, "Father, I desire that they also whom You have given Me may be with Me where
00:05:10.440 | I am so that they may see My glory."
00:05:19.880 | If Jesus loves you and prays for you, do you know what?
00:05:23.600 | He finally asks for you that you may see Him.
00:05:34.320 | The ultimate answer to the prayer of love is, "Show them My glory, Father.
00:05:40.280 | Show them My glory."
00:05:43.080 | And they will have arrived at ultimate satisfaction.
00:05:49.440 | So what does love do when we cry out, "Help Me!
00:05:53.120 | Love Me!
00:05:54.120 | Forgive Me!"
00:05:57.200 | God says, "I will engage all My might and the life of My Son to give you what you need
00:06:10.680 | most.
00:06:12.680 | Me!
00:06:14.680 | A fellowship with Me!
00:06:18.800 | A sight of Me!
00:06:20.840 | An enjoyment of Me!"
00:06:26.120 | I said this in Orlando Friday night to a group called the Ivy Jungle.
00:06:33.960 | And a man came up to me afterwards and he said, "Now wait a minute."
00:06:41.680 | He opened his Bible to John 3, 16.
00:06:46.120 | He said, "This is the verse I know.
00:06:50.560 | This is the verse I love.
00:06:52.520 | How does what you just said fit into this verse?
00:06:56.600 | For God so loved, loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes
00:07:05.120 | in Him would not perish but have eternal life."
00:07:12.600 | And I said, "It fits like this.
00:07:18.600 | John 17, 3.
00:07:21.360 | This is eternal life that they know You, Father, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
00:07:34.640 | Why do you want to be loved by God?
00:07:38.440 | Yes, not to perish.
00:07:40.320 | Yes, not to go to hell.
00:07:42.200 | Yes, not to have a guilty conscience anymore.
00:07:44.800 | Yes, to have the marriage put back together.
00:07:47.400 | But if that's all you want, you don't know Him.
00:07:50.400 | You don't know Him.
00:07:53.880 | It's for life.
00:07:54.880 | And what is life?
00:07:55.880 | It is to know Him and His Son.
00:07:59.600 | It's to fellowship with Him.
00:08:01.040 | It's to behold Him.
00:08:02.480 | It's to be satisfied with Him.
00:08:04.440 | It's to enjoy Him until Christ becomes our treasure.
00:08:11.440 | We don't know what it is to be loved by God.
00:08:14.280 | Powerful.
00:08:15.280 | Yeah, that is why we want to be loved by God, to get Him, to enjoy Him, to be satisfied
00:08:20.400 | in Him.
00:08:21.400 | It reminds me of Pastor John's excellent book, God is the Gospel.
00:08:25.080 | If you have not checked out that book, God is the Gospel, do so.
00:08:28.720 | It's great.
00:08:29.720 | It's available right now.
00:08:30.720 | The free PDF is at DesiringGod.org/books.
00:08:32.720 | You can get it right now.
00:08:36.400 | This sermon clip today was sent from John Piper's sermon on 2 Corinthians 12 titled
00:08:41.040 | Thankful for the Love of God.
00:08:43.400 | Preached on November 18th, 2001.
00:08:46.040 | Stacy, a man in Charleston, North Carolina, sent it to us with this testimony.
00:08:50.440 | "I was a homesick freshman in college when I first heard this," he said.
00:08:54.520 | "It impacted me because it was the first time that I understood that the love of God for
00:08:59.080 | us is not primarily meant to save me from hell, but to bring me home to God.
00:09:05.640 | This was revolutionary for me, and now I see this more and more as I grow closer with God,
00:09:10.520 | and still in the midst of some homesickness six years later.
00:09:15.840 | But His keeping me from my earthly home has allowed me to know His love like I never even
00:09:21.720 | knew it before."
00:09:22.720 | That's so good.
00:09:23.720 | Thank you for listening to today's sermon clip.
00:09:26.680 | All of our clips are now crowdsourced.
00:09:28.760 | You tell us what bits of Piper's sermons have comforted you, and we share that clip with
00:09:32.760 | the APJ audience.
00:09:33.760 | If you have one, email me.
00:09:35.080 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, the timestamp of when the clip happens in
00:09:39.280 | the audio, and tell me how it impacted you.
00:09:41.760 | Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:09:47.440 | That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:09:53.200 | Well should a Christian juror be quick to acquit in the courtroom?
00:09:58.680 | We're of course going to talk about pacifism, particularly of a Christian's responsibility
00:10:04.040 | on juror duty.
00:10:05.640 | I'm your host Tony Rehnke.
00:10:07.200 | We will be rejoined in studio with Pastor John on Friday for that.
00:10:11.600 | We'll see you then.
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