The following is a short clip from a sermon on Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25 about the ongoing intercession of Christ on our behalf. In it, John Piper reminds us of our greatest problem and of our greatest hope. Here's what he said. "From what am I being saved? Now the reason I start with this is because in our culture, which is increasingly a post-Christian culture, you can't assume that the word 'saved' 'are you saved' means anything to anybody or that the word 'salvation' means anything.

They might fill those words up with meaning totally contrary to the Bible and so we have to get at least our heads and our hearts straight on this matter of what we are being saved from. Now let me pose the question for you. Don't jump around to other parts of the Bible, just stay right here with this verse.

If I say my ongoing salvation depends on Christ's ongoing intercessory work for me with the Father, what do I need saving from? The Father, God. Else I would not need an intercessor. Intercessors interpose themselves to help fix something that isn't fixed or to keep something fixed that is fixed.

The big issue is God's wrath. Now let's just get this real clear and real straight because I have the feeling we live in such a kind of touchy-feely day that Christianity is being so psychologized and so therapeutized that we really do believe this book was written for our mental health.

It wasn't. It was written to help us get right with a wrathful God. God is one great massive fire of holiness. He hates sin and cannot abide it. We are little ant-like sinners of sin and if we got within 10 trillion miles of this God, we'd be consumed. The problem in the universe is not our fragile marriages.

The problem in the universe is not my failing health. The problem in the universe is not my wayward children. The problem in the universe is not the conflicts at work. The problem that the Bible was written to deal with is I have no hope of drawing near to God without being consumed because I'm a sinner and unless there is some kind of priest who can wrap me around with all he is and take me into the center of this fire, there's no hope for me at all.

That's what the Bible is about. Now there are some spin-offs for our mental health and our marriages and our kids and our jobs but those are just spin-offs folks and if everything went wrong and this got right, you would leap for joy forever and ever and ever because God is the main issue.

Life is very short. Sin is very horrid. Salvation is so needy. So key. We need this reminder over and over again. This was John Piper in his sermon "Jesus from Melchizedek to Eternal Savior" preached on December 1, 1996. The excerpt was recommended from podcast listener Michael Mitchell from Nashville, Tennessee.

Thank you Michael for this clip. You can download the full message and over 1,200 others from our website at DesiringGod.org. And if you have a favorite John Piper sermon clip, please email us the name of the sermon and if possible the timestamp of when and where the clip occurs in the audio.

If we post your clip, of course, we will give you credit. So please put the phrase "sermon clip" in the subject line and send us an email. Send it to AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. Tomorrow we are back with Pastor John and he will explain one incredible way the local church trumps Twitter and Facebook.

I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you tomorrow.