How Our Loves Bind Our Will
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | Once again, John Piper had the privilege of preaching
00:00:07.260 | at the Together for the Gospel Conference.
00:00:09.020 | His address was titled,
00:00:10.600 | "The Bondage of the Will, the Sovereignty of Grace,
00:00:13.160 | "and the Glory of God."
00:00:14.920 | The debate over the freedom of the will
00:00:17.000 | was not a secondary one to the Reformation.
00:00:19.180 | It was central, he argues.
00:00:21.220 | And the bondage of the will is worthy of our attention
00:00:23.380 | because it has everything to do
00:00:24.720 | with our loves and our affections.
00:00:27.740 | Here's a clip from John Piper's T4G message.
00:00:30.200 | John 3, 19 to 20.
00:00:35.620 | This is the judgment that light has come into the world
00:00:41.320 | and people loved.
00:00:44.200 | It's loved darkness rather than light
00:00:49.760 | because it works for evil.
00:00:53.440 | For everyone who does wicked things hates the light.
00:00:58.540 | It's a love hate issue.
00:01:01.020 | It's not a decision issue.
00:01:02.360 | Hates the light, does not come to the light
00:01:07.300 | lest his works should be exposed.
00:01:11.200 | So the bondage of the human heart
00:01:16.320 | that keeps it from coming to Christ
00:01:18.380 | is not that light is lacking,
00:01:21.160 | but that light is hated and darkness is loved.
00:01:26.980 | This is a real bondage.
00:01:30.140 | You cannot embrace as bright and beautiful what you hate.
00:01:35.140 | Cannot.
00:01:38.020 | You cannot repudiate as dark and ugly what you love.
00:01:46.620 | You cannot.
00:01:54.340 | Hate and love are not decisions.
00:01:56.960 | They are profound controlling preferences
00:02:01.960 | of the palate of the soul.
00:02:04.960 | You don't choose what you love and hate.
00:02:09.560 | You come into the world hating and loving.
00:02:12.280 | Darkness tastes good to the natural palate
00:02:21.520 | and light tastes bitter to the natural palate.
00:02:26.520 | You cannot enjoy as sweet what tastes bitter to you
00:02:32.540 | and you cannot have a distaste for what tastes good to you.
00:02:41.140 | You cannot.
00:02:43.480 | These are real cannots.
00:02:48.300 | They are real cannots and they are the kind of cannots,
00:02:53.300 | the kind of inability that are blameworthy and culpable
00:03:01.080 | because they are not things we are forced to do
00:03:08.360 | against our will.
00:03:09.600 | They are our will.
00:03:13.360 | What is it about darkness?
00:03:14.560 | Let's ask this.
00:03:16.160 | I ask, darkness, darkness, what's that?
00:03:18.280 | What is there about darkness that we love so much?
00:03:21.900 | It tastes so good.
00:03:24.320 | What is it?
00:03:26.240 | I think Jesus tells us,
00:03:31.760 | I think probably the deepest part of it,
00:03:34.780 | at least part of it.
00:03:36.120 | John chapter five, verses 43 to 44.
00:03:39.920 | I have come in my Father's name.
00:03:42.040 | You don't receive me.
00:03:46.100 | If another comes in his own name, you'll receive him.
00:03:51.100 | Now why would that be?
00:03:53.280 | This is the key sentence.
00:03:56.040 | It's a rhetorical question.
00:03:57.300 | What do you do with rhetorical questions?
00:03:59.940 | They don't have any answer 'cause what?
00:04:02.220 | He expects you to know the answer
00:04:03.900 | by converting the rhetorical question
00:04:05.260 | into a statement that's clear as day.
00:04:08.020 | So here's the question that he asks.
00:04:09.540 | How can you, the Jewish leaders, how can you?
00:04:12.100 | The word can, can, not whatever.
00:04:14.620 | How can you believe when you receive glory
00:04:19.620 | from one another and do not seek the glory
00:04:23.340 | that comes from the only God?
00:04:25.060 | Meaning you can't.
00:04:28.000 | Why?
00:04:30.820 | It tastes too good to be praised by people.
00:04:36.320 | I love this.
00:04:39.860 | And here comes Jesus on his way
00:04:41.500 | to a cross bidding me to follow.
00:04:44.960 | That's insane.
00:04:46.320 | That's foolish.
00:04:48.360 | I'll stumble over that 'cause I love the praise of men.
00:04:54.200 | Oh, I love this darkness.
00:04:56.360 | It tastes so good.
00:04:58.920 | That's what Jesus says is the heart of darkness.
00:05:02.300 | How can you believe on me, a dying,
00:05:08.040 | self-denying, sacrificial lamb?
00:05:12.640 | How can you believe on me when you love the praise of men?
00:05:17.640 | You can't.
00:05:19.360 | That's what you can't.
00:05:20.440 | This is bondage.
00:05:21.440 | This is called bondage to our loves.
00:05:24.940 | I am the light of the world that ends all this darkness.
00:05:31.840 | That craving is ugly in my light.
00:05:36.600 | That tastes wretched.
00:05:39.640 | That bondage, that craving for approval,
00:05:43.000 | that need of other people to make much of me,
00:05:46.480 | that tastes horrid in my light.
00:05:50.600 | This is a real kenner.
00:05:53.680 | You are in bondage to the love
00:05:56.520 | of the darkness of self-glorification.
00:06:01.000 | - Wow, can we hear that message too often?
00:06:04.080 | I have to be honest about that.
00:06:05.160 | This is good.
00:06:06.400 | And it points us to the sweetness of regeneration
00:06:09.440 | in giving us new desires to find our souls satisfied
00:06:12.040 | with the beauty of Christ.
00:06:13.680 | And that is, of course, the theme behind everything we do
00:06:16.360 | at DesiringGod.org.
00:06:18.640 | This clip was taken from John Piper's conference message
00:06:21.480 | at T4G titled, "The Bondage of the Will,
00:06:24.000 | "The Sovereignty of Grace, and the Glory of God."
00:06:26.640 | You can find the message at DesiringGod.org.
00:06:29.940 | Tomorrow we will return to talk about
00:06:31.520 | Pastor John's brand new book,
00:06:32.700 | and we will carry on this theme
00:06:34.240 | of how my affections expose the true me.
00:06:37.800 | We'll see you then.
00:06:38.760 | (upbeat music)
00:06:41.340 | (upbeat music)
00:06:43.920 | [BLANK_AUDIO]