How Do I Live Like a Son Rather Than a Slave?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Hello again, thank you for listening to Ask Pastor John
00:00:06.060 | with longtime author and pastor John Piper.
00:00:08.500 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:00:10.120 | Before we launch into today's episode,
00:00:12.160 | I have a pretty important programming note for you.
00:00:15.160 | As all of you know, or most of you know,
00:00:16.980 | Pastor John travels and he speaks a lot,
00:00:20.000 | even internationally, and he also blocks off weeks
00:00:23.080 | in his annual calendar for the purpose of writing new books.
00:00:26.680 | I'm really glad he does both of these things.
00:00:28.480 | I'm sure you're really glad he does both of those things.
00:00:31.200 | But it also means a good chunk of his time each year
00:00:34.040 | is bound up with those things.
00:00:35.240 | And so seasonally, sometimes these priorities
00:00:37.360 | take away his time from other things like this podcast.
00:00:40.480 | And in fact, after we record today's episode,
00:00:43.080 | Pastor John heads off to speak around Europe,
00:00:45.760 | and then he returns to the States to finish writing
00:00:48.280 | a very important book on God's providence,
00:00:51.240 | a book we've talked about before on the podcast,
00:00:53.780 | but one that looks back at all of the precious texts
00:00:56.840 | in the Bible that describe and celebrate
00:00:58.520 | the absolute sovereignty of God.
00:01:00.480 | He's writing a whole book on the sovereignty of God.
00:01:02.520 | It's a big book.
00:01:03.360 | He started it last year.
00:01:04.180 | He'll finish it this year.
00:01:05.400 | I can't wait for this book.
00:01:06.520 | I suspect it's gonna be one of those
00:01:07.920 | really big landmark works that will define his legacy.
00:01:12.920 | But that means also he will not be back
00:01:15.040 | in the studio with me, again,
00:01:16.140 | until early September, it looks like.
00:01:18.660 | So two things.
00:01:19.500 | Number one, pray for Pastor John Sommer.
00:01:22.260 | He has a lot of really great work ahead of him.
00:01:25.120 | And then second, that means that no new episodes
00:01:27.280 | will be published for about six weeks or so.
00:01:30.600 | Until then, you can subscribe to the audio podcast,
00:01:33.140 | and what we're gonna do is replay
00:01:34.840 | some of your favorite episodes
00:01:36.280 | and some of our favorite episodes
00:01:38.260 | three times a week on the same publishing schedule.
00:01:40.840 | You'll get those not through YouTube or DesiringGod.org.
00:01:43.840 | You'll get those through the audio feed,
00:01:46.040 | so make sure you have an audio podcast
00:01:48.080 | and you're listening if you wanna hear those episodes.
00:01:50.920 | Again, three times per week we'll be doing that.
00:01:53.760 | All right, but you're here today in the studio, Pastor John,
00:01:56.260 | and here's the question today.
00:01:58.320 | It comes from a listener named Jordan.
00:02:00.960 | Good afternoon, Pastor John.
00:02:01.920 | I was listening to episode 1322.
00:02:04.760 | What you said about the older brother jumped out at me.
00:02:07.400 | The problem with the older brother
00:02:08.940 | is that he lived like a slave and not a son.
00:02:11.840 | He related to his father as if his work
00:02:13.720 | would earn good things instead of enjoying
00:02:15.520 | the fellowship of the father's bounty.
00:02:17.840 | That's a great principle pulled
00:02:19.480 | from Luke chapter 15, verses 17 to 24.
00:02:22.880 | I often struggle with knowing in my heart
00:02:25.000 | that no good work can ever be enough to please God,
00:02:28.080 | but thinking in my mind that God
00:02:29.360 | is surely not pleased enough with me.
00:02:31.680 | I fear I live like this older brother.
00:02:34.160 | How do you live as a son and not a slave,
00:02:37.260 | and how would I know if I'm living as a slave?
00:02:41.360 | Okay, the first step in not living like a slave
00:02:48.440 | but like a son of God is to stop saying
00:02:53.440 | mistaken slave-like things about our father.
00:02:57.920 | Jesus said in John 15, 15,
00:03:02.800 | "No longer do I call you slaves,
00:03:07.880 | "for the slave does not know what his master's doing,
00:03:14.960 | "but I have called you friends."
00:03:19.120 | And you could say sons as well.
00:03:22.220 | Both pictures are in the New Testament,
00:03:24.080 | and both are getting at the same reality,
00:03:26.320 | but here the point is, "I've called you friends
00:03:28.980 | "for all that I heard from my father
00:03:33.580 | "I have made known to you."
00:03:36.620 | So one of the marks of a slave is we act like,
00:03:42.600 | we live way out on the edge of the plantation
00:03:46.720 | in slave quarters where nobody knows
00:03:49.640 | what the master's plans are.
00:03:51.680 | When you don't know what the master's plans are
00:03:53.960 | and how he does his business,
00:03:56.200 | you can easily say false things about him.
00:03:58.680 | So one of the first marks of a son or friend
00:04:03.680 | is that we know him.
00:04:06.000 | We're brought in to his counsels.
00:04:10.240 | We see how he works.
00:04:11.880 | We see how he makes his decisions.
00:04:14.940 | We see what he's up to.
00:04:16.560 | We begin to understand his way
00:04:19.320 | and how he goes about running the world,
00:04:21.080 | and we stop saying things about him that are not true.
00:04:26.080 | So Jordan, I love you, take this right.
00:04:31.880 | Here's one step you can take
00:04:36.200 | away from slave-like relation to God.
00:04:39.640 | Never say again what you said.
00:04:43.120 | I often struggle with knowing,
00:04:46.840 | knowing in my heart that no good work
00:04:51.840 | can ever be enough to please God.
00:04:56.280 | Don't say that anymore.
00:04:57.640 | Now I might be misunderstanding you, okay?
00:05:00.240 | I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here.
00:05:02.760 | But it sounds like you really believe this,
00:05:06.040 | like no good work can ever be enough to please God.
00:05:11.040 | That is slave talk.
00:05:15.040 | That's not son talk.
00:05:16.160 | So step one, don't believe that.
00:05:20.880 | Don't say that anymore.
00:05:22.920 | And I'm lingering on this
00:05:24.280 | because you're not the problem here.
00:05:26.920 | Thousands of people have been taught to say that
00:05:31.240 | by quoting Isaiah 64 6.
00:05:33.680 | We even sing it.
00:05:34.760 | In the King James, it says,
00:05:36.960 | we are all as an unclean thing
00:05:39.880 | and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
00:05:44.480 | Yes, how many Christians have been taught to say that
00:05:47.440 | about every one of their good deeds as a Christian?
00:05:50.640 | That's not, I'm gonna emphasize, read it in context.
00:05:54.960 | That is not describing the good deeds
00:05:59.200 | of the genuine believer
00:06:01.560 | and his good deeds done in the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:06:05.320 | Those were the hypocritical religious acts
00:06:08.640 | that made God hold his nose.
00:06:11.280 | When Jesus said, let your light shine
00:06:15.040 | that men may see your good deeds,
00:06:17.080 | he did not mean that they may see your filthy rags.
00:06:21.720 | He didn't.
00:06:22.560 | When Paul says that Christians bear the fruit
00:06:27.840 | of the Holy Spirit, Holy, Holy, Holy Spirit,
00:06:32.440 | he did not mean that the Spirit produces filthy rags.
00:06:36.720 | When Paul says Christ gave himself for us
00:06:41.000 | to purify for himself a people of his own possession
00:06:45.680 | who are zealous for good works,
00:06:48.080 | he didn't mean Christ died to create filthy rags.
00:06:51.640 | What has happened in our grassroots theology,
00:06:56.720 | why this is, is that our zeal to clarify
00:07:01.560 | the pervasiveness of sin
00:07:03.600 | and the perfection of justification,
00:07:06.680 | we have undercut the Spirit's work in sanctification,
00:07:10.720 | which is very real and very precious
00:07:13.240 | and should not be called filthy rags.
00:07:16.040 | One of the ways we know we are the children of God
00:07:20.560 | is that God has sent his Spirit to lead us, lead us,
00:07:25.560 | lead us, lead us into warfare with sin,
00:07:30.560 | lead us into paths of righteousness.
00:07:32.560 | Here's Romans 8, 14.
00:07:34.240 | All who are led by the Spirit are sons of God.
00:07:39.240 | For you did not receive the Spirit of slavery
00:07:46.280 | to fall back into fear,
00:07:47.840 | but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons
00:07:51.040 | by whom we cry, Abba, Father,
00:07:53.120 | the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit
00:07:55.240 | that we are the children of God.
00:07:57.280 | And that witness, bearing witness
00:08:00.240 | that we are the children of God,
00:08:01.240 | that witness that he bears,
00:08:03.240 | he's number one, by his power in us to work things
00:08:08.240 | that are no longer filthy rags.
00:08:10.800 | That's witness number one.
00:08:12.520 | I am working in you to produce my fruit, not your filth.
00:08:17.520 | Number two, to give us a sweet assurance
00:08:20.200 | that we have an all-caring Father.
00:08:22.000 | Abba, Abba, Father.
00:08:23.560 | When that cry rises from the heart in childlike need,
00:08:27.960 | it is the Spirit in us.
00:08:30.640 | So here's the key to a non-slave sonship relation with God.
00:08:35.640 | Get to know God in his word.
00:08:41.960 | You are no longer slaves who do not know
00:08:45.760 | what the Father's up to.
00:08:47.320 | You are in the big house.
00:08:49.400 | Your slavery is over.
00:08:52.160 | You may walk into the Father's study at any time
00:08:56.080 | and interrupt him.
00:08:57.320 | His book is 1,200 pages long and full of gold and silver
00:09:02.320 | and honey for his children.
00:09:04.200 | That's where you know him and meet him in his word.
00:09:07.940 | Realize that because he gave his son,
00:09:11.640 | your sins are forgiven.
00:09:14.680 | And his Spirit enables you to please him.
00:09:21.400 | Camilla, stop there 'cause you said,
00:09:23.360 | you said you don't think you could ever do anything
00:09:26.360 | that pleases God.
00:09:27.580 | I could have misread what you said,
00:09:31.760 | but that's what it sounded like,
00:09:32.920 | and I want you to stop talking that way
00:09:34.720 | and thinking that way.
00:09:35.740 | Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:9,
00:09:38.560 | "Whether we are at home or away,
00:09:41.320 | "we make it our aim to please him."
00:09:46.040 | He did not mean, and so our whole life is futile,
00:09:49.240 | aimless, pointless.
00:09:50.800 | Christian life is a failure since nobody can do it.
00:09:53.840 | He didn't mean that.
00:09:55.560 | He meant what he said in 2 Thessalonians 1:11,
00:10:00.560 | "God fulfills every work of faith by his power
00:10:05.580 | "so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in us
00:10:12.440 | "according to the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ."
00:10:19.880 | Don't call that magnificent grace-based spirit-wrought work
00:10:24.880 | filthy rags and displeasing to the Lord.
00:10:30.080 | Christ did not die just for our justification,
00:10:34.800 | only for our justification.
00:10:36.920 | He died for our sanctification.
00:10:39.960 | He did not die just to remove the guilt of sin,
00:10:43.780 | but the power of sin as well now.
00:10:47.240 | Sons of God revel in forgiveness
00:10:52.240 | and trust the spirit of the Father to do good.
00:10:57.040 | And if there are imperfections in our spirit-empowered
00:11:02.040 | good deeds, which there are,
00:11:06.180 | that does not make them filthy rags.
00:11:09.120 | They are the fruit of the Spirit,
00:11:12.600 | and our Father is pleased with them.
00:11:15.920 | The day of perfection will come, oh, it will come.
00:11:19.400 | But till then, God knows what he's working in his children.
00:11:24.400 | Mark that.
00:11:25.380 | God knows what he is working in his children,
00:11:28.880 | and he is pleased with what he is working.
00:11:31.480 | Hebrews 13.21, I end with this.
00:11:34.060 | He is working in us that which is pleasing in his sight
00:11:42.880 | through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.
00:11:47.880 | Amen, that's the way a son talks, not a slave.
00:11:52.360 | - Amen, that's pure gold, Pastor John, thank you.
00:11:54.640 | That's really a great place to end for the summer.
00:11:57.960 | Many blessings to you, Pastor John,
00:11:59.600 | on your travels to Europe and on your final weeks
00:12:01.760 | writing your book on God's providence.
00:12:04.260 | And we are now going to break for six or seven weeks.
00:12:07.260 | Please continue to pray for Pastor John this summer,
00:12:09.540 | and please continue to send us your questions.
00:12:12.000 | We'll get all of those, so please keep sending those
00:12:14.200 | in the summer, and we'll work through those questions
00:12:17.200 | in the fall.
00:12:18.800 | And feel free, of course, to go back and listen
00:12:20.720 | to our 1,400 episodes that we've recorded
00:12:23.480 | and released to date in the archive.
00:12:25.040 | You can do all of that.
00:12:25.920 | Send us a question, listen to old episodes
00:12:28.360 | at our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:12:32.720 | And do remember to subscribe to the audio feed
00:12:35.140 | through our podcast app, and you'll be able to relive
00:12:38.160 | some of the best episodes we've released.
00:12:40.000 | I'm looking forward to it.
00:12:41.440 | I am Tony Reineke, grateful to God for you,
00:12:43.500 | for the listeners, for donors who fund this podcast
00:12:46.080 | and who make our work possible.
00:12:47.920 | We'll see you back here in six or seven weeks
00:12:50.040 | with new episodes.
00:12:51.000 | (upbeat music)
00:12:53.580 | (upbeat music)
00:12:56.160 | [BLANK_AUDIO]