Well, professing Christians and pastors and churches all over the world are undermining the glory of God's love. How so? By advocating for God's love in denial of his other attributes and actions. That's what Pastor John explains today in a clip from his 1999 sermon on Romans 5, verses 9-11.

Today's clip was sent to us from a longtime podcast listener named Grant Harms. And the sermon is based on Romans 5, verses 9-11. Let me read this glorious text first, then we'll listen to the clip. "Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." Pastor John is about to expound this main text in a moment after he makes a point from the book of Revelation.

Here now is Pastor John. Revelation chapter 20, verse 15 says this, "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." What's that? What's that like? Chapter 14, verse 10 of Revelation describes what it will be like in the lake of fire.

"They will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever." This is fire or like fire? I've heard some people say fire is just a metaphor. I say just a metaphor.

Just a metaphor. What are metaphors for? What are metaphors for? Metaphors are because you can't describe the reality. Metaphors don't overstate, they understate. Just a metaphor. It says fire, not because it's less than fire, but because we're groping for language to describe the horror of it. Okay, it's a metaphor, but if it's a metaphor, it's worse than fire.

And it's torment, and it's forever. No getting out. This is not purgatory, which doesn't exist. Forever and ever. It's the strongest word for eternity in the Greek language. It's a phrase. Phrase upon phrase. Forever and ever and ever. This is terrifying. Terrifying. Terrifying. And the question is, who will rescue us?

Who are you counting on to rescue you from the wrath of God? Because your conscience tells you, you have not lived up to his law, and you are under judgment. You don't need the Bible to tell you that, though it does. Who are you counting on to rescue you from the wrath of God?

Now the answer of the New Testament is that there is one person who can rescue us from the wrath of God, and only one. God. Only God can rescue us from the wrath of God. Let me show you why I say that. There are five main verbs in verse 9 and 10, and they're all passive.

Let's count them. Having now been justified, one, shall we be saved, two, if while we were enemies we were reconciled, three, to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled, four, shall we be saved, five. Five passive verbs where we are being acted upon. We are being justified, we are being reconciled, we are being saved.

So who's doing it? The Father or the Son? Answer, the Father. Why do I say that? God the Father is justifying, reconciling, and will save from His wrath. Why do I say that? Look at verse 10. It says, "We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son." Now you wouldn't say that if the Son were the actor here of the reconciling.

You don't say, "The Son reconciled us to God through the Son." You can't say that. That doesn't make sense. The Son reconciled us to God through His Son. You say, "God the Father reconciled us to God through His Son." And so I say, "Who is the Savior from wrath?" God the Father saves us from His wrath.

Oh, this is important. It shouldn't surprise us. Look at verse 8. We're not on verse 8 this week, but we've been on it. Verse 8, "God demonstrates His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God loves you. And God is so angry with you, that His love will rise to the heights of rescuing you from His anger.

Now let me make something really clear here, because this is so important. Don't make the mistake of defending the love of God by denying the wrath of God. Because what you do when you try to defend the love of God by denying the wrath of God is destroy the love of God.

Why? Because in the Bible, the highest point of the love of God is His rescue from the wrath of God. If there's no wrath, the whole fabric of the Bible unravels. The greatest love that God ever showed you was rescuing you from wrath. That's the point of verses 6 to 8, is it not?

Oh, there's so many people, there's so many people who try to rescue God as a God of love by denying the fabric of the Bible. By denying the wrath of God. You destroy it, at least the way the Bible conceives of it. The highest point of love toward you was the cross.

And the only reason there had to be a cross is because of the just wrath of God. Were there no just wrath about to be poured out upon the world, He would not have bruised His Son. And that was love. Oh, that was love. So please, please let's not join the crowd of liberalism.

I'm defining liberalism for you. If you wonder, "What's liberalism?" I'm defining it. Liberalism removes the just wrath of God and the substitutionary atonement that describes the love of God as the rescue from that wrath. It has a benevolent Father and a Son who sets an example of how much the Father loves in suffering.

That is a destruction of biblical religion entirely. Amen. Pointed critique, very necessary. That clip was from a John Piper sermon titled "Much More Shall We Be Saved by His Life" preached on December 12th, 1999. The clip was sent in by Grant Harms. Grant, thank you. "Hello Tony and Pastor John," he writes, "in the evenings my wife and I are listening through Pastor John's sermons on Romans." Great series.

We just finished sermon number 58, so we're only about 167 more to go. "This clip is great at explaining why portraying God as only a God of love and not also a God of wrath actually robs Him of His greatest demonstration of love, that is, dying to save us from His wrath." Amen, Grant.

Great find. Thank you. And thanks for listening to today's sermon clip. All our clips are not crowdsourced. You tell us what bits of Piper sermons caught your attention or changed your life, and we share that clip with the ABJ audience. And if you have one, email me. Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, and the timestamp of where the clip happens in the audio, and tell me how it impacted your life.

Put the word "clip" in the subject line of an email, and send it to me at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. That's an email address, askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. Well, if my repentance is genuine, why do I keep confessing this same sin? And if my repentance was genuine, wouldn't I stop committing the same sins? I don't know of any Christian who has not asked these types of questions before, and I'll ask it of John Piper next time.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We're rejoined in studio with Pastor John when we return on Friday. We'll see you then.