(upbeat music) In Romans 1 verse 5, the Apostle Paul talks about the obedience of faith, or more clearly, the obedience that comes from faith, as the NIV puts it. We obey God only by faith in God. Faithless obedience is a fiction. And this point in this text led to a late night life change moment for one of our listeners named Stephan.

Stephan writes in to say this, I was listening to Piper's sermon on Romans 1.5 late one night as I was battling to go to sleep. I'm gonna assume that he was up and needed something to do, not that he was trying to fall asleep. The whole week was one great struggle for me against my flesh.

I heard this verse taught like never before. It completely changed the way I went about pursuing Christ. I was going about pursuing holiness the wrong way. The Lord spoke clearly to me that I had to stop making my number one goal holiness. My life goal is to delight myself in him, and from the joy I receive in him comes the grace which I received by faith to do good works.

Thank you Stephan for that testimony. Here's the clip that Stephan shared in particular. John Piper preaching on Romans 1.5 back in 1998. Here he is. In the book of Romans, obedience is very important. Chapter six is gonna talk about obedience. You are a slave to the one you obey, whether to righteousness or to sin.

Chapter nine, verse 32 says, by faith and not as though it were by works, we obey the law. Chapter 14, verse 23 says, whatever is not from faith is sin. Which means any attempt at obedience or any other act which isn't springing from a heart of faith winds up in just being sin because it displeases the Lord.

Without faith it is impossible to please God, Hebrews 11.6. Well, because of those kinds of verses and because of this word obedience, I'm inclined to go with the NIV here and say that the meaning is the goal or the effect of Paul's apostleship and grace is to bring about faith which yields obedience or to bring about the obedience which springs from faith.

Say it either way you want. Both are true. Faith is his goal and the obedience which comes from it is his goal. So Paul puts a very great premium on the fact that obedience comes from faith. All true obedience comes by faith. Why is it that faith yields obedience?

Back up with me to point number one or the first part of the verse. There it says, "I receive grace for apostleship." And that means that the ministry of apostleship and the obedience of apostleship is the gift of grace. And I argued that you don't receive this grace by works but you receive it by faith.

And therefore grace flows giving gifts and enablement for gifts and the obedience involved in fulfilling that gift through grace. And how is it received? It's received by faith. And therefore you have the obedience of faith already implicit in point number one. You get that? If our gifts and our ministry and the obedience of that ministry are given by grace and if grace is received by faith and not by works then that obedience is channeled through faith and is called in point number two, the obedience of faith.

Faith correlates with grace and therefore the obedience that comes from grace also is the obedience that comes from faith. So if you want to be an obedient person and live the Christian life the way Paul conceives it then work on your faith. Don't try to work on your works because you'll wind up being a legalist.

Work on your faith. Focus on the Lord. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. And so focus on Christ, know Christ, delight in Christ, meditate on Christ, get the whole Christ before you. Faith will rise because grace will be coming through it and then obedience flows out from it.

Why does God set it up this way? Why does God have such a passion to be the giver here, the gracer? And why does he establish it so that works, our works do not get it, faith, like a little child receiving it, gets it. Why did he set up a salvation and why did he set up an apostleship, a motherhood, a singleness, a pastorate, a studentship, a nursery worker?

Why did he set up the Christian life so that all of life is a believing reception of grace which then empowers obedience? Why did he make himself the origin of it all and the enabler of it all? And the answer to that is given at the end of verse five.

Through Christ, we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles or nations or peoples. Why, what's the ultimate goal? For his name's sake. The ultimate goal of all God's dealings with you is that the name of Christ would be exalted in your life and in your job and in your family and among your friendships and everywhere you go this afternoon and tomorrow.

Will Christ be exalted? Will people read the banner of Christ off your life? That's why you exist. If you wonder, why do I exist? State it in your mind right now. I exist ultimately because, now fill in the blank, and I pray that God would enable you, give you the humility and grace to fill it in that the name of Christ be exalted in my life.

If you write that as the reason you exist, everything will be different. Now this is why God makes our salvation and our ministry and all our obedience dependent upon grace through faith. If our obedience, if our ministry were to come by works, we would get the glory. If I accomplish the pastorate in the strength that John Piper supplies, John Piper will get the glory and perish with it.

If I accomplish the pastorate in the strength that God supplies, God will get the glory and I will get the help. That's why he says it's all by grace through faith. Let me read you, I'm gonna go outside Romans here. Only time I'm going outside Romans this morning, but it is so good.

The way Peter says it just can't be improved upon. 1 Peter 4, 11 puts it like this. "Whoever serves," now let's just make sure we all put ourselves in there. I say pastor, father, husband, you fill in the blank, okay? Grandmother, aunt, uncle, Sunday school teacher, computer specialist, policeman, bricklayer.

You got your two or three things that you occupy your life with now? "Whoever serves is to do so "in the strength which God supplies "so that in all things God may be glorified "through Jesus Christ to whom belong "the glory and the dominion forever and ever, amen." Everywhere I go to speak, I was in Orlando on Thursday night, I spoke in video conferencing with Perth, Australia seven o'clock Thursday morning, I went up to Winnipeg a week ago.

Everywhere I go, almost, I quote this verse. And I say something like, at Bethlehem, the closest thing I have to a verse that sums up a ministry philosophy is 1 Peter 4, 11. Let him who serves serve in the strength that God supplies in order that God would get the glory.

And I always use those gestures. Like that. And that's my theology. Just like that. And if you get that, if you are deaf here this morning and can read my lips, perhaps, and you see, God, I need you. I need you for this ministry, I need you for this sermon, I need you for the baby dedication, I need you to make it good for Noel today.

Give it to me by grace, I trust you, I don't deserve this. I'll give you the glory, you get the glory, people will see the glory. You get the glory, I get the help, good deal. This is my theology. And I believe it's Romans 1, 5. If it's not Romans 1, 5, you need to write me a letter.

- Wonderful clip, wonderful clip at 2 a.m. in the morning when you can't sleep. Yeah, it's from John Piper's May 10th, 1998 sermon on Romans 1, 5, titled, "By His Grace, For His Name, "Through the Obedience of Faith." And if you're not able to get to sleep, you can find that whole message at desiringgod.org, 24/7, even at night, even at 2 a.m., you can find it there.

And if you've had an aha moment listening to a Piper sermon, send me the clip, give me the title of the sermon and the timestamp from when the audio of the clip begins and ends, tell me why it's impacted you, give me your story, tell me your name and the closest city to you.

Email me those details at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. And put the word clip in the subject line, please. Can't wait to hear what you've been listening to late at night. Well, how do I know if I'm completely surrendered to Christ? How do I know if I'm completely surrendered to Christ? It's a great question, and it's coming up next from a listener named Maria in the Netherlands, or Pastor John when he rejoins us on Friday.

I'm Tony Rehnke, we'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)