Love Jesus over Human Approval

00:00:00.000 | In the following sermon clip, Pastor John talks about what it means to have God's

00:00:08.760 | Word, His law, with us and His Spirit within us.

00:00:13.960 | The presence of the Holy Spirit changes everything about the Christian's obedience.

00:00:19.300 | The result is that we live off of the approval of God, not the approval of man.

00:00:26.280 | Here's what Pastor John said back in his sermon in 1999.

00:00:30.360 | I remember a day in seminary, 31 years ago, it was the fall of '68.

00:00:35.520 | My systematics theology teacher, Jim Morgan, was a big, strapping, strong 36-year-old man

00:00:42.320 | who died of stomach cancer in six months from this moment that I'm talking about.

00:00:46.520 | Shriveled up to nothing.

00:00:47.520 | It was the day of the Vietnam War and people were going barefoot to class and hitting the

00:00:51.900 | streets afterwards and Jim was a real radical.

00:00:55.920 | And one day we were in this heated conversation after class.

00:00:59.940 | I can picture it right by the refractory.

00:01:02.300 | I learned the word "refractory" at Fuller Seminary.

00:01:04.940 | It's where you eat.

00:01:06.160 | And there he stood and in the middle he stopped and he said, "John, I love Jesus Christ."

00:01:16.140 | It was an overwhelming sentence.

00:01:19.300 | I'd never heard a professor say that in my life.

00:01:21.660 | "I love Jesus Christ."

00:01:25.900 | It took my breath away.

00:01:28.820 | Do you feel some of that welling up inside of you?

00:01:32.020 | If you do, thank the Spirit.

00:01:35.740 | It doesn't come natural to love Jesus.

00:01:38.540 | Secondly, the law plus the Spirit results in an internal change of the heart that loves

00:01:43.180 | God and is circumcised.

00:01:45.060 | Law plus Spirit equals satisfaction in the praise of God, even if no man approves what

00:01:52.420 | you do.

00:01:54.220 | You can be content and satisfied because you know in Christ God says, "Well done, good

00:02:01.300 | and faithful servant.

00:02:02.380 | I can sweep all of your errors away because I paid for them with the blood of my Son.

00:02:08.500 | Well done."

00:02:09.500 | Isn't that great to know that even our sin-infected good deeds are going to be praised by God?

00:02:18.780 | That's awesome.

00:02:21.820 | You don't have to produce a perfect deed to get the praise of God because if you did,

00:02:26.340 | there would be no such thing as the praise of God.

00:02:28.820 | There won't be a perfect deed you've ever done until the twinkling of an eye changes

00:02:32.820 | you into the image of Jesus.

00:02:34.880 | But all the little contaminations or big contaminations of the good things you do are burned up in

00:02:42.300 | the fire of Calvary so that what's left, he will praise.

00:02:49.100 | And knowing that you will have his smile forever and there will be this mutual delight that

00:02:55.380 | goes on and on that so satisfies the heart of the saint that if nobody approves what

00:03:01.340 | you do, you're a rock.

00:03:04.580 | Don't be a second-hander.

00:03:07.220 | When I read "I and Ran Atlas Shrugged" twenty years ago, another thing emblazoned itself

00:03:13.780 | on my mind, her hatred of second-handers.

00:03:20.420 | Me too.

00:03:22.380 | That is, not the people, but the concept.

00:03:25.620 | That is, always choosing what you do and what you say not because of its intrinsic worth

00:03:34.820 | in the face of God, but because an eye is being cut to what they will think and say

00:03:40.940 | about it.

00:03:41.940 | That's a second-hander.

00:03:42.940 | Don't be that way.

00:03:45.340 | Be real with God.

00:03:47.940 | If you have God, if through Abraham you are a beneficiary of the covenant, I will be your

00:03:54.940 | God.

00:03:55.940 | You will be my people.

00:03:56.940 | Who cares what people think?

00:04:00.460 | So good.

00:04:01.460 | That was from John Piper's sermon, "Who is a True Jew?"

00:04:05.020 | Part 2.

00:04:06.060 | From his message on February 28, 1999.

00:04:09.320 | This clip was recommended to us by David Bolton.

00:04:12.300 | Thank you, David, for sending this in to us.

00:04:14.080 | You can download the full message and over 1,200 others from our website at DesiringGod.org.

00:04:20.380 | We've talked about this addiction to human approval back in episode number 141, an episode

00:04:26.300 | on why we can fall into the addiction of lying.

00:04:29.800 | You can find that in the podcast archive, episode number 141.

00:04:34.380 | We are going to close out the week with two important and very common questions we get

00:04:38.180 | from couples about marital intimacy.

00:04:41.700 | I'm your host Tony Rehnke.

00:04:42.700 | We'll see you tomorrow.

00:04:43.340 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Love Jesus over Human Approval

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