Escaping the Love of Comfort and Safety
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Well, this podcast often addresses gospel boldness,
00:00:08.320 | and we talk about risk-taking,
00:00:11.800 | and we talk about personal suffering.
00:00:14.460 | And on occasion, those three themes,
00:00:17.040 | boldness, risk, and suffering,
00:00:20.040 | merge together like they do today
00:00:21.840 | in a sermon clip from the ministry of John Piper.
00:00:25.120 | Today, we look specifically at how the assurance
00:00:27.320 | of the hope of heaven releases us for radical,
00:00:31.160 | risk-taking love that makes people look at our lives
00:00:35.560 | and ask for the reason for the hope that is in us,
00:00:37.880 | as Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15.
00:00:41.080 | So how do we escape the natural love of safety?
00:00:44.960 | Here's Pastor John's answer from 30 years ago
00:00:47.280 | in a sermon on Revelation 21.
00:00:49.440 | Have a listen.
00:00:50.280 | - Richard Baxter was a very effective pastor
00:00:55.680 | in the 17th century in England.
00:00:58.440 | He's well-known for his book, "The Reformed Pastor."
00:01:03.840 | Not many people know, however,
00:01:06.440 | that Richard Baxter labored for all the years of his life
00:01:09.960 | under tremendous pain.
00:01:12.160 | He had frequent nosebleeds,
00:01:17.040 | constant cough, headaches, digestive ailments,
00:01:22.040 | kidney stones, gallstones.
00:01:25.280 | He believed in supernatural healing.
00:01:27.720 | He testified several times that God had delivered him
00:01:31.160 | out of a deadly disease to keep on ministering
00:01:34.440 | by a direct intervention.
00:01:35.960 | In fact, he told a story one time of entering the pulpit
00:01:39.400 | and he could see in the looking glass
00:01:41.280 | a big cancerous tumor on the back of his throat
00:01:45.760 | that vanished while he was preaching
00:01:48.400 | and testifying to the grace of God.
00:01:50.600 | And yet, all his life, from the age of 21 on,
00:01:55.160 | he testified, "There's never been an hour almost
00:01:58.560 | "when I have been without pain."
00:02:01.040 | One of the effects on Richard Baxter's life
00:02:03.760 | is that it made him keenly aware of how short life is
00:02:09.040 | and how certain death is and how precious heaven is.
00:02:14.040 | When he was 35 years old,
00:02:16.520 | he became what he thought was mortally ill
00:02:22.000 | and he was on his bed and he thought he was dying.
00:02:25.360 | And he formed a habit, which as it turned out,
00:02:27.800 | lasted for 40 years 'cause he didn't die.
00:02:30.920 | And the habit was meditating a half an hour a day
00:02:35.800 | on the glories of heaven.
00:02:38.200 | The reason he formed this habit and maintained this habit
00:02:43.800 | is because of the profound effect that it had on his life,
00:02:48.600 | keeping him awake to the things of God
00:02:52.200 | and to the brevity of this life.
00:02:55.080 | He wrote down those reflections in those days
00:02:58.720 | and they became a book called "The Saints' Everlasting Rest,"
00:03:03.560 | which is still in print 300 years later
00:03:06.160 | to testify to the power of this man's vision
00:03:10.480 | of what he had seen of God's glorious hope for the believer.
00:03:17.560 | He commended it to us,
00:03:20.000 | that we would take time each day to set our minds on heaven.
00:03:25.000 | This is the way he said it.
00:03:27.920 | "If you would have light and heat,
00:03:31.040 | why are you not more in the sunshine?
00:03:34.200 | For want of this recourse to heaven,
00:03:38.520 | your soul is as a lamp not lighted
00:03:42.400 | and your duty as a sacrifice without fire.
00:03:47.600 | Fetch one coal daily from this altar
00:03:51.800 | and see if your offering will not burn.
00:03:55.600 | Keep close to this reviving fire
00:03:58.760 | and see if your affections will not be warm."
00:04:03.760 | Now, that's good advice.
00:04:06.400 | I think it's the same advice that Paul gave in Colossians chapter 3.
00:04:13.600 | He said, following up on last Sunday's message, as it were,
00:04:18.400 | "If you have been raised with Christ,
00:04:22.200 | seek the things that are above,
00:04:24.400 | where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
00:04:27.400 | Set your mind on things that are above,
00:04:31.200 | not on things that are on the earth.
00:04:34.600 | For you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God.
00:04:41.400 | When Christ, who is your life, appears,
00:04:45.000 | then you will appear with Him in glory."
00:04:49.000 | Now, I want to ask you, do you do that? Do you obey that?
00:04:53.400 | How frequently do you set your mind on things that are above and dwell there?
00:05:00.400 | How frequently do you seek the future?
00:05:05.600 | Do you seek the age to come?
00:05:07.600 | Do you look to where your life is hid with Christ in God
00:05:11.400 | and anticipate the glory that will be you when you come with Him?
00:05:17.400 | And you, in your true life, are revealed.
00:05:21.400 | We are so addicted to the world.
00:05:25.400 | So, I just want to invite you, with Richard Baxter, to do what he did,
00:05:30.800 | and every day to set your mind on things that are above.
00:05:37.800 | And I want you to repudiate with me a lie that goes like this.
00:05:45.800 | Well, if you spend time thinking about heaven,
00:05:53.800 | if you dwell on the age to come and the glories of your hope,
00:06:01.800 | you're going to become of no earthly good whatsoever.
00:06:06.800 | Now, that's a lie. It's a common one.
00:06:10.800 | I think exactly the opposite is the case.
00:06:14.800 | It's the people who know their hope,
00:06:19.800 | who know that their destiny is rock solid and sure,
00:06:23.800 | who know that their destiny is glorious,
00:06:25.800 | who are free to take risks of love,
00:06:30.800 | free to let good and kindred go, this mortal life also,
00:06:35.800 | the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still.
00:06:39.800 | I've got a destiny, I've got a future, I cannot die.
00:06:44.800 | Mark it, it is not the people who have that hope,
00:06:49.800 | who have that security, who live in that confidence,
00:06:52.800 | who live their lives gathering treasures on earth and ignore the needs of people.
00:06:58.800 | It's people who are free, who don't need money,
00:07:02.800 | who don't need comforts, who don't need worldly acclaim,
00:07:07.800 | because they've got it all in Jesus,
00:07:10.800 | who are free to take risks for others.
00:07:16.800 | 1 Peter says,
00:07:20.800 | "When people ask you a reason for the hope that is in you,
00:07:26.800 | be ready to give an answer."
00:07:28.800 | Now, have you ever had anybody ask you a reason for the hope that is in you?
00:07:32.800 | Look at your behavior and say, "My,
00:07:36.800 | what hope must be behind that behavior?"
00:07:41.800 | I ask you, "What kind of behavior would that be?"
00:07:46.800 | If somebody jumps out of an airplane,
00:07:50.800 | you don't jump out behind them with no parachute.
00:07:54.800 | Two dead people aren't better than one.
00:07:58.800 | So, if somebody falls out of an airplane with no parachute on,
00:08:04.800 | you might jump out after them,
00:08:08.800 | if you have a parachute on,
00:08:11.800 | and you try one of those bullet dives to catch them.
00:08:16.800 | So, they're falling kind of loose and stopping a lot of air, 110 miles an hour maybe,
00:08:21.800 | and you go bullet-like, 150 miles an hour maybe.
00:08:25.800 | You might do that,
00:08:28.800 | because the security and the hope of this parachute
00:08:32.800 | free you for that kind of love,
00:08:34.800 | free you for that kind of risk-taking.
00:08:39.800 | So, if somebody's in the airplane, and they see you about to jump,
00:08:42.800 | and they ask you, "What's the reason for the hope that you have
00:08:46.800 | to jump out of this airplane to try to catch somebody?
00:08:48.800 | What's the reason for your hope?"
00:08:50.800 | You say, "The parachute. It's called the hope of glory.
00:08:54.800 | The parachute, that's my hope."
00:08:57.800 | And then you jump.
00:08:58.800 | Now, I want to ask you, what kind of lifestyle
00:09:01.800 | will move people to ask you questions like that about your hope?
00:09:06.800 | Gathering money?
00:09:08.800 | No, because they'll assume money is your hope.
00:09:11.800 | Gathering comforts?
00:09:13.800 | Comforts are your hope.
00:09:14.800 | Spending all your time watching television?
00:09:17.800 | No, television is your hope.
00:09:20.800 | Hope frees for a radical new lifestyle.
00:09:26.800 | So, I want to call you with Richard Baxter,
00:09:29.800 | and I want to call you with the Apostle Paul,
00:09:32.800 | if you have been raised with Christ.
00:09:36.800 | If your life is hid with Christ in God, out there, secure,
00:09:40.800 | it's done, absolutely.
00:09:42.800 | You cannot die.
00:09:44.800 | You cannot lose.
00:09:46.800 | If it's that sure, I want to invite you,
00:09:49.800 | set your mind on things that are above.
00:09:54.800 | Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated.
00:09:57.800 | Let your mind dwell on the glories of the age to come,
00:10:01.800 | and you know what will happen?
00:10:02.800 | You will become a free person.
00:10:05.800 | And free people are dangerous people to the kingdom of Satan,
00:10:09.800 | because they don't ask cautionary questions about what it will cost in this life.
00:10:15.800 | They throw that to the wind,
00:10:17.800 | and they love, and they sacrifice,
00:10:19.800 | and they go, and they serve,
00:10:21.800 | and they change the world.
00:10:23.800 | This world, of all things, of all things,
00:10:28.800 | can you imagine that?
00:10:30.800 | People in love with heaven are the ones that are free to change this world.
00:10:36.800 | Amen. Heaven changes our lives if we truly believe.
00:10:40.800 | That powerful clip was pulled from John Piper's sermon on Revelation 21, verses 1 to 8.
00:10:45.800 | It's titled, "Behold, I Make All Things New,"
00:10:48.800 | and it was preached 30 years ago on April 26, 1992.
00:10:52.800 | This clip was sent in by Brittany, a frequent listener to the podcast.
00:10:56.800 | Thank you for this clip, Brittany. I appreciate it.
00:10:58.800 | And thank you for listening to today's sermon clip.
00:11:01.800 | All our clips are now crowdsourced.
00:11:03.800 | You tell us what bits of Piper's sermons changed your life,
00:11:05.800 | and we share that clip with the APJ audience.
00:11:07.800 | If you've got a clip, email me.
00:11:09.800 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title,
00:11:11.800 | and the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio,
00:11:14.800 | and tell me how it impacted your life.
00:11:16.800 | Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email,
00:11:18.800 | and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:11:22.800 | That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:11:26.800 | Well, we're going to end the week looking at that mention in Galatians chapter 4
00:11:31.800 | about the cry, that cry, "Abba, Father. Abba, Father."
00:11:35.800 | So what exactly is that "Abba, Father" experience?
00:11:39.800 | What's happening to us, and what's happening in us?
00:11:43.800 | Is this "Abba, Father" cry my cry?
00:11:47.800 | Is it the Holy Spirit crying in and through me?
00:11:50.800 | And does this text, this cry, apply to the struggling believer?
00:11:56.800 | There's a lot to talk about.
00:11:57.800 | When Pastor John is back in studio with me on Friday,
00:12:00.800 | I hope to see you then. Thanks for listening.
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