You Don’t Know God If You Don’t Love Christ

00:00:00.000 | In 2015, Pastor John recorded a series of devotionals based on his 2006 book titled

00:00:10.680 | What Jesus Demands from the World.

00:00:13.440 | And it was in one of those devotionals that he made the point that you don't know God

00:00:17.080 | if you don't love Christ above all else.

00:00:21.580 | This point and this devotional really impacted a podcast listener named Tim, who lives in

00:00:26.880 | Australia.

00:00:27.880 | He suggested this clip for the podcast.

00:00:29.520 | I'm glad he did.

00:00:31.120 | Here now is Pastor John to explain.

00:00:34.600 | We all know what Jesus answered to the question, "What's the first and great commandment?"

00:00:40.080 | Matthew 22, 37.

00:00:42.880 | The first and great commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

00:00:46.760 | and soul and mind, and other gospels say, and strength.

00:00:51.680 | So loving God with your heart and all that you are is the first and great demand of Jesus.

00:01:01.240 | And then in Matthew 10, 37, it's interesting how these verses are rememberable.

00:01:07.680 | 22, 37, 10, 37.

00:01:11.480 | Whoever loves mother or father more than me is not worthy of me, Jesus says.

00:01:18.640 | Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

00:01:24.400 | So now you've got two powerful, deep, life-transforming commands.

00:01:30.500 | Love God the Father with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and love Jesus more than you

00:01:38.160 | love children, more than you love parents, surely more than you love anything.

00:01:43.400 | And my question is, what should we think about those loves?

00:01:48.320 | In fact, I have four questions.

00:01:50.700 | One would be, what's the relationship between them?

00:01:54.720 | Another would be, what's the nature of the love?

00:01:57.920 | Another would be, where does it come from?

00:01:59.680 | How do you get to be this way?

00:02:01.700 | And the last would be, how important is it?

00:02:04.500 | So let's take those one at a time.

00:02:07.120 | What's the relationship between loving God and loving Jesus?

00:02:13.160 | Now you may think, why is that a big deal?

00:02:15.800 | Well maybe the reason it's on my front burner is because it is massively relevant for Muslim

00:02:22.360 | evangelism.

00:02:23.360 | I bet you didn't think I was going to go there.

00:02:26.680 | Like what?

00:02:27.680 | Listen, one of the big issues we face over and over again in a multicultural situation

00:02:35.040 | where lots of religions are coming together is, don't we all worship the same God?

00:02:40.720 | You go through Jesus, I go through another prophet.

00:02:45.000 | So here's what Jesus says.

00:02:47.040 | John 8, 42.

00:02:49.360 | Jesus looked right into the eyes of the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, and said, "If God were

00:02:54.600 | your Father, you would love me."

00:02:57.320 | I mean, he's saying to the most religious, the most God-oriented, Old Testament-saturated

00:03:05.760 | people on the planet, you don't know him.

00:03:11.000 | He's not your father.

00:03:12.000 | In fact, he goes so far as to say, you're of their father, the devil.

00:03:16.640 | I mean, this is just mind-boggling.

00:03:18.480 | What's the litmus paper for knowing whether somebody is a lover of God?

00:03:24.360 | Answer, do they love Jesus?

00:03:27.280 | Do they embrace Jesus for who he really is?

00:03:30.280 | Not just some human teacher, not just some prophet alongside other prophets, but I am

00:03:34.640 | the son of God.

00:03:37.240 | So that's the first one.

00:03:39.880 | John 8, 42.

00:03:42.720 | What about John 5, 42?

00:03:44.840 | There it is again.

00:03:45.840 | 8, 42 and 5, 42.

00:03:51.080 | Jesus says to those same leaders, "I know you don't have the love of God in you.

00:03:56.560 | I have come in my Father's name, and you don't receive me."

00:04:02.600 | You see the implication?

00:04:04.880 | You don't have the love of God in you.

00:04:06.760 | How do I know?

00:04:07.760 | You don't receive me.

00:04:09.880 | So here I am dealing with a Muslim person who says, "Oh, I worship the true God just

00:04:14.520 | like you worship the true God."

00:04:16.040 | Jesus would say, "You don't know the true God if you don't receive the son of God."

00:04:22.720 | So the relationship, the answer to the first question, what's the relationship between

00:04:26.800 | loving God and loving Jesus?

00:04:29.480 | You can't have the one without the other.

00:04:32.160 | Loving Jesus is the test of whether you love God.

00:04:35.280 | Loving God is the test of whether you truly love Jesus.

00:04:39.680 | So here's the second question.

00:04:42.240 | What is the nature of this love?

00:04:46.720 | Now here's what I have in mind.

00:04:49.800 | Is love mainly doing what Jesus said?

00:04:55.360 | So you love Jesus if you do what he said?

00:04:58.120 | Or is it deeper and have to do with the heart and the affections?

00:05:02.840 | He said, "If you love mother or father more than me, you're not worthy of me.

00:05:07.840 | If you love son or daughter more than me, you're not worthy of me," which means he's

00:05:11.300 | thinking of the love of Jesus like the love of your children.

00:05:16.120 | Well you don't love your children by doing what they say, right?

00:05:19.840 | They are your treasure.

00:05:20.840 | You would die for these children.

00:05:22.400 | They are precious to you.

00:05:24.240 | You won't sell them for billions and billions of dollars.

00:05:28.080 | Your children are your treasure.

00:05:31.560 | If Jesus isn't a better treasure, a higher treasure, you're not worthy of Jesus.

00:05:40.000 | I had a teacher in college who made me read a book called Situation Ethics.

00:05:47.000 | And in it, the argument was made, and every student seemed to be so wowed by this argument.

00:05:53.440 | Love cannot be an emotion or an affection because it's commanded and you can't command

00:05:59.960 | the emotions.

00:06:00.960 | And I'm reading, I'm 20 years old, and I'm reading this thinking, "That doesn't sound

00:06:08.680 | right to me."

00:06:10.360 | Well it's not right, and the reason it's not right is because premise number one is false.

00:06:15.400 | Of course Jesus commands the emotions.

00:06:17.920 | The Bible is filled with commands of the emotions.

00:06:21.260 | We should fear, we should be thankful, we should be compassionate, we should be earnest,

00:06:26.480 | we should fear the right things, we should hope.

00:06:29.200 | All those are emotions.

00:06:31.600 | Of course God has the right to command our emotions.

00:06:34.820 | The fact that we're so corrupt and so dead that we can't do the right emotion is not

00:06:42.560 | God's problem.

00:06:43.560 | That's our problem.

00:06:44.920 | It's our corruption.

00:06:46.960 | So the question is, isn't love for Jesus more than doing?

00:06:52.340 | And people will quote what, I think it's John 14, 15, if I remember correctly.

00:06:57.960 | John 14, 15, which says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

00:07:02.800 | And I've had so many people say to me, "There, right there, it says so.

00:07:05.800 | If you love me, you'll keep my commandments."

00:07:07.840 | There it is.

00:07:08.840 | Love is obedience.

00:07:09.840 | It's not feeling any particular thing for Jesus, it's just doing what he said.

00:07:14.360 | To which I respond, "That's not what you just said it said."

00:07:18.800 | It says, "If you love me, then you'll do this other thing called keeping my commandments."

00:07:26.600 | Loving Jesus is deep and foundational and transformative because you treasure him above

00:07:31.200 | all things.

00:07:32.400 | And then because of that, you do all that he commanded.

00:07:37.480 | So my answer to the question, what's the nature of the love?

00:07:40.640 | Is yes, of course it would include obedience, but oh, it is not less than being transformed

00:07:47.480 | by a love of treasuring, admiring, delighting in, being satisfied by this most beautiful

00:07:56.920 | treasure of all.

00:07:58.040 | Like Paul said in Philippians 3, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing value of

00:08:03.800 | knowing Jesus.

00:08:05.360 | Third question, where does that come from?

00:08:07.880 | And let's just get one answer from Jesus.

00:08:10.160 | How do you get to this place?

00:08:12.920 | Remember the story in Luke 7 about the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to dinner?

00:08:20.680 | And so here he is, he didn't wash Jesus' feet, he didn't kiss Jesus, he didn't do anything

00:08:26.620 | to show affection for Jesus.

00:08:29.440 | They're reclined around the table.

00:08:30.640 | You remember how they ate in those days?

00:08:32.540 | The table would be about that high off the ground.

00:08:34.640 | You'd lean on an elbow, your feet would be sticking out behind you and you'd eat like

00:08:37.760 | that.

00:08:38.760 | And suddenly there's this woman of the street, a prostitute, leaning over Jesus' bare feet,

00:08:45.840 | weeping, and the tears are falling on his dirty feet, and she's taking her hair and

00:08:51.120 | washing Jesus' feet.

00:08:52.120 | I mean, this is incredibly provocative.

00:08:54.700 | And the Pharisee is bent out of shape and says, "If you knew what kind of woman that

00:08:58.920 | was, if you were a prophet, you'd know."

00:09:02.760 | And Jesus said, "Let me tell you a little story, Mr. Pharisee, Simon.

00:09:07.520 | A man had two debtors, one owed him $5,105.

00:09:12.040 | He forgave them both, which will love him more."

00:09:16.800 | And the Pharisee says, "Well, the one that he forgave more, I suppose."

00:09:20.980 | And Jesus said, "That's right.

00:09:22.760 | When I came in here, you didn't kiss me, you didn't wash my feet.

00:09:27.840 | She from the time I came in has wept over my feet, washed them with her tears, wiped

00:09:34.200 | them with her hair because she has been forgiven much."

00:09:41.320 | So where does it come from?

00:09:43.000 | What's your answer to that question?

00:09:44.840 | Where does it come from?

00:09:46.460 | It comes from being stunned by being loved by God, right?

00:09:49.760 | It comes from being overwhelmed by the person of Jesus dying on our behalf and rising again,

00:09:55.720 | though we have no merit at all in ourselves.

00:09:59.000 | When that grips you, then you will taste what it is to treasure Jesus and delight in Jesus

00:10:05.040 | and be satisfied in Jesus, which leads to the last question.

00:10:09.800 | How important is that?

00:10:11.520 | That Jesus said, "If you don't love me more than you love your parents, you're not worthy

00:10:16.380 | of me.

00:10:17.380 | If you don't love me more than you love your children, you're not worthy of me."

00:10:20.520 | What does it mean not to be worthy of him?

00:10:23.200 | It means you won't have him.

00:10:24.680 | If you don't love Jesus, you won't have Jesus.

00:10:28.000 | Paul put it just as starkly as possible in 1 Corinthians 16, 22.

00:10:35.120 | He who does not love the Lord, let him be accursed.

00:10:44.080 | Christianity, what Jesus demands from us is not most deeply and most fundamentally decisions

00:10:54.480 | of the will.

00:10:55.800 | That's later.

00:10:57.900 | Deeply and most fundamentally is this new birth, deep, profound transformation of what

00:11:05.360 | we treasure, what we love.

00:11:08.680 | And if it isn't Jesus, then we're not worthy of Jesus.

00:11:13.280 | And being worthy of Jesus doesn't mean deserving Jesus.

00:11:17.120 | It means being suitable to be in his presence.

00:11:20.920 | When he's your supreme treasure, that's where you belong.

00:11:24.480 | So Father, I ask that love would be awakened because of what you have done first.

00:11:31.280 | We love you because you first loved us.

00:11:35.380 | We praise you for that.

00:11:37.080 | And as these friends discuss this massive issue of loving you and loving Christ, make

00:11:45.360 | it happen.

00:11:46.360 | I pray in Jesus name.

00:11:47.680 | Amen.

00:11:48.680 | Yeah.

00:11:49.680 | Amen.

00:11:50.680 | This next quote is from a video that was sent to us by Tim in Sunshine Coast, Australia.

00:11:54.600 | That sounds like a beautiful place.

00:11:55.760 | Tim writes, "Hello, Tony.

00:11:57.520 | This clip is from John Piper's devotional that was transformational for me a few years

00:12:01.240 | ago and when I first came to truly understand how much I was loved by God and how I was

00:12:05.200 | saved despite my wretched past.

00:12:08.760 | I had always understood if you love me, you will keep my commandments as doing good works

00:12:12.960 | to prove that I love God or which I had failed miserably up to then to do.

00:12:17.600 | Oh, what a joy for me to discover that God had transformed my heart.

00:12:21.320 | I love Jesus.

00:12:23.000 | I long to do his commands.

00:12:24.560 | I'm saved.

00:12:25.560 | Thank you, Jesus.

00:12:26.560 | I hope this is an encouragement to others as it has been to me.

00:12:31.400 | Amen.

00:12:32.400 | Thank you, Tim.

00:12:33.520 | And you can download that full book, What Jesus Demands from the World, John Piper's

00:12:37.360 | 2006 book, What Jesus Demands from the World.

00:12:40.720 | You can download it right now at DesiringGod.org/books.

00:12:46.080 | Thanks for listening to today's sermon clip.

00:12:47.920 | Our clips are crowdsourced.

00:12:48.920 | You tell us what bits of Piper's sermons changed your life and we share that clip with the

00:12:53.040 | APJ audience.

00:12:54.040 | If you've got one, email me.

00:12:55.040 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, the timestamp of where the clip happens in

00:12:59.080 | the audio and tell me how it impacted you.

00:13:01.520 | Put the word clip in the subject line of an email and send it to me at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

00:13:07.000 | That's our email address, AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

00:13:11.880 | So we know that one day Christ will return to earth to physically rule over the nations.

00:13:17.000 | We long for that day when he rides on his white horse, his eyes like a flame of fire,

00:13:23.240 | clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and all in order to finally rule over the nations

00:13:28.300 | with a rod of iron.

00:13:31.240 | That's what we were told to expect in Revelation 19.

00:13:33.880 | But does Christ rule over the nations right now?

00:13:36.720 | And if so, how is that rule different from what it will be eventually?

00:13:40.600 | It's a great question.

00:13:43.280 | We are rejoined in studio with Pastor John for that when we return on Friday.

00:13:47.040 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:13:48.040 | We'll see you then.

00:13:48.360 | We'll see you then.

00:13:49.080 | [END]

00:13:51.080 | [END]

00:13:53.080 | [END]

00:13:55.080 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

You Don’t Know God If You Don’t Love Christ

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