Can My Good Works Outweigh My Bad?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | Can our good works outweigh our bad works?
00:00:08.000 | The short answer to this vital question is, of course, no.
00:00:12.000 | But why not? That's a question we must all be able to answer from Scripture.
00:00:16.000 | And it's a question John Piper answered from Romans 14, verse 23,
00:00:21.000 | in his message, "What is Sin? The Essence and Root of All Sinning,"
00:00:25.000 | preached on February 2nd of this year.
00:00:28.000 | Here's what John Piper said.
00:00:30.000 | The reason Paul says that whatever is not from faith is sin, in Romans 14, verse 23,
00:00:37.000 | is that faith is a receiving of Christ and God in Christ
00:00:45.000 | as a desperately needed Savior,
00:00:49.000 | a Lord with whom we are happily compliant,
00:00:54.000 | and a treasure that we esteem above everything.
00:01:00.000 | I'll say that again.
00:01:02.000 | Faith is a receiving of Christ for all that He is.
00:01:06.000 | It's a receiving of Christ as a Savior I desperately need in my sin,
00:01:11.000 | receiving of Him a Lord in whom I happily comply,
00:01:14.000 | and a treasure that satisfies my soul,
00:01:17.000 | and I treasure it above all other treasures in the world.
00:01:20.000 | That's what faith is.
00:01:22.000 | Therefore, whatever is not from faith is sin,
00:01:25.000 | because Romans 1 to 3 said,
00:01:27.000 | "The root of sin is preferring anything to God,"
00:01:33.000 | which faith doesn't do.
00:01:35.000 | Faith prefers God over all things.
00:01:41.000 | So here I am in Knoxville, Tennessee last summer,
00:01:45.000 | realizing as never before that a horrible and glorious thing was being shown me,
00:01:54.000 | the horrible and glorious truth that the reason my justification,
00:01:59.000 | my right standing with God,
00:02:02.000 | cannot be founded on 99.99% grace and Christ
00:02:13.000 | and 0.01% contribution of a good deed from unregenerate John Piper,
00:02:23.000 | or regenerate John Piper is that there are no good deeds before regeneration, none.
00:02:36.000 | After regeneration, they're all imperfect.
00:02:41.000 | So the question for the unbeliever is not,
00:02:43.000 | how many times have you heard people set this up?
00:02:46.000 | The question for the unbeliever is not,
00:02:49.000 | "Can I do enough good works to outweigh my bad works?"
00:02:56.000 | No, the question is, "Can I do one good work?"
00:03:03.000 | And the answer is no,
00:03:06.000 | which is why justification, our right standing with God,
00:03:13.000 | has to be not 99.99% grace and Christ,
00:03:19.000 | but 100% and that's the way he saved us.
00:03:26.000 | By grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone,
00:03:33.000 | through faith alone, to the glory of God's infinite,
00:03:41.000 | beautiful, superior worth alone.
00:03:46.000 | And so I experienced as perhaps never before,
00:03:52.000 | a devastation and liberation and sweetness
00:03:58.000 | that I have been praying for you for a long time.
00:04:03.000 | Amen.
00:04:04.000 | This clip was taken from John Piper's message, "What is Sin?
00:04:07.000 | The Essence and Root of All Sinning" at the 2015 Pastors Conference.
00:04:11.000 | The full message is on our site along with 1,200 other messages like this one from John Piper.
00:04:16.000 | See our sermon archive at DesiringGod.org.
00:04:19.000 | On Wednesdays, we like to dip into the archive to pull out a classic clip for the podcast.
00:04:23.000 | And I welcome your suggestions.
00:04:25.000 | If you have a favorite clip from a John Piper sermon, an old one or a new one,
00:04:29.000 | email us the name of the sermon and if possible, the timestamp of when and where the clip occurs in the audio.
00:04:35.000 | And if we post your clip, we will give you credit.
00:04:37.000 | Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:04:43.000 | And tomorrow we're going to hear from Bible Counselor Ed Welch on the topic of pornography addiction,
00:04:49.000 | its prevalent struggle inside the church and one Welch has helped many men face in their lives.
00:04:54.000 | I'm your host Tony Reiki. I'll see you tomorrow.
00:04:57.000 | [Silence]
00:05:00.000 | [Silence]
00:05:03.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]