Recently, I mentioned John Piper's massive sermon series on Romans titled The Greatest Letter Ever Written, 225 sermons in length, which took him eight years and eight months to complete. In that earlier episode, I played a clip from an early sermon from this Roman series and today I want to fast forward seven years and play for you another clip from later in the series.

This one is from February 20th, 2005, a sermon titled Do Not Avenge Yourselves but Give Place to Wrath. It's a sermon on Romans 12 verses 16 to 20, specifically verse 19, where Paul writes this, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay,' says the Lord." So how does faith in the future vindicating justice of God settle us and stabilize us and make it possible for us to live with sanity in a world that will cut us deeply?

Pastor John explains. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For, this is the ground, the basis, this is the way you're able to do it. For, it is written, 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay.' Now here's what that implies. That little word for implies that one of the motivations in our hearts for why we can't return good for evil, one of the motivations for why it's so hard not to strike back, not to plan vengeance, one of the reasons it's so hard is because deep down in our souls there's this warranted, justified desire that justice be done.

And it doesn't look like it's going to be done. If I just say, "Okay, I won't count it anymore, I won't think about it anymore, I won't seethe with it anymore, I won't hold a grudge anymore," we feel like, "If I do that, nobody knows except me how bad that was." That's unbelief talking.

God knows. How does it work? Is this saying, "Oh, I get it. If you want to get your enemy, let God get him." You kind of rub your hands like this, gleefully hoping that as you give the cup of water God will strike him with lightning? I don't think so.

Because, listen to Proverbs 24, 17, "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls. Let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. Lest the Lord see it and be displeased and turn away his anger from him." No, the way it works is this. All of you in this room, all of you have been wronged in your life.

Nobody has not been wronged. And many of you, let's reduce it down a little bit now, many of you have been seriously wronged by people who have never apologized nor done anything sufficient to make it right. And one of the deep hindrances to your letting hurt and bitterness go is the conviction that if you let it go, justice isn't going to be done and justice ought to be done.

The fabric of the universe is going to unravel if I just treat this person like I treat everybody else or even better than I treat everybody else. He's got everybody deceived. He's got everybody deceived. Thinks he's a good guy. He's a jerk. And nobody knows about it. He's getting away with it.

He's getting away with it. That's one of the hindrances to forgiveness. We just can't let it go. That's not the only problem we have in forgiving. It's just one. I'm dealing with one. We can't do that. We can't let this go, this wrong that we've been done. We hold on to the anger.

We play the story in our mind over and over again. It never should have happened. It never should have happened. It was so wrong. It was so wrong. And he's just happy as can be and I'm in misery. I'm thinking like a divorce. He's got that young chick. The kids like going there for Christmas.

I've got debts galore. This text is for you. All you who are carrying a seemingly legitimate grudge. You were wronged. Massively wronged. Justice ought to mean the death of the other person. It ought to mean that. You feel that to let it go, to lay it down would mean there's no justice or he's going to get away with it or no vengeance is in the world.

You're wrong. This text is in the Bible for you so that tonight, today, when you walk out of here, you can lay it down and know God's going to pick it up. If you lay down your rage, your anger, you're playing it over and over again in your head.

If you lay that down, it doesn't get lost. God picks it up. Vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord. Let me take care of it. That's huge. Oh, how I want you Bethlehem to enjoy this liberty because you know what? In the liberty of a laid down grudge, love can happen.

You've been wondering, "Why can't I love? Why can't I love? Why can't I love like I ought to love? There seems to be a blockage to my love." One of the answers is you just keep holding on to that wrong. You might even be making God the whipping boy or a husband or a son or a business partner or an old boyfriend just picked you up and dropped you like a stone, got you pregnant.

There's a hundred pains in this room of injustice that was done to you and you can lay it down because God's going to take it up. As you lay it down, you can walk out of here with a huge burden lifted. In that freedom, love can happen. Close with a testimony, my testimony.

In 1974, as many of you know, my mother was killed in Israel and as I've pieced the story together from those who were there, she and my dad were in a bus sitting in the first seat behind the driver and a VW minivan full of drunken Israeli soldiers with lumber on top loosely tied, swerved out of their lane and hit the bus in the front corner.

And the lumber came through like missiles. And ten days later when she was flown back to Atlanta from Tel Aviv and I read the death certificate, it said, "Lacerated medulla oblongata." And I said, "Thank you at least that it was quick." I nursed my dad back to health for a month, taping with scotch tape the lacerations on his back, pouring in hydrogen peroxide, pushing the wounds together, taping them with scotch tape so they'd heal from the inside out.

If you knew, as some of you do, the nature of my growing up years with my dad away and my mom, everything, you would know how big that loss was at age 28. But as a tribute to the mighty mercy of God, I can bear witness that I don't hate those soldiers.

I feel no hatred for them. I don't wish them evil. It occurred to me as I was thinking recently, probably most of them are about my age now. One was killed I heard. Most of them are about my age, a little younger, maybe five years younger. I was trying to compute.

I was 28. They're soldiers so they're probably in their mid-20s. So they're now in their 50s, somewhere in Israel today. And it occurred to me that the gospel might reach them and that they would be with me in heaven. And how do I feel about that? I feel really good about that, with my mom in heaven, with me in heaven.

How do you feel about your adversaries? Are you thinking, you know, if Christ got to them and saved them, they'd be with you forever. Are you relating to them now in a way that would make it hard to relate to them then? That's not a good idea. It's going to be so embarrassing to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and they say, "You?

I don't like you. I've been mad at you all my life." That's not a good idea. You should be praying that God would save them. So I commend to you, as one who has lived since 28, not carrying that grudge, I commend to you this life. It is a free and wonderful life.

And in the life of freedom, God, if there is some vengeance to be done there, I just hand it over to you. And if there's salvation to be done there, I pray that you would do it. May the gospel reach these men who in their drunkenness caused my mother's death at age 28 so that she only knew one of my five children.

Father, on this Lord's Day morning, I ask that burdens would be lifted. I pray that you would take this amazing promise, "Vengeance is mine. I will repay," and let every person in the hearing of my voice lay down every grudge, rage, anger, bitterness, resentment, story going through their head over and over, "It shouldn't have been that way.

It shouldn't have been that way. It was wrong. It was wrong." May they lay it down, and would you give wonderful liberty. And in that field of liberty, would you cause great love to grow so that we from the heart can give a cup of cold water to our adversary in the hope that our light would cause them to glorify our Father who is in heaven.

I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Powerful, powerful testimony of a crushing event from the life of John Piper, one we don't talk about a lot here on the podcast, but notice how this deep theological expectation of Romans 12.19, of God's coming judgment, notice how it roots and stabilizes us to keep our sanity in the midst of the tragedies and evils of this world.

Our steadiness demands robust theology. It's so important. Thanks for joining us. If you have not subscribed to Ask Pastor John, consider doing so in your favorite podcast app or in YouTube or in Spotify. And for our episode archive or to submit a question of your own, go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

So why can we not love pleasure and love God at the same time? Paul says we can't. At least it appears that way in 2 Timothy 3 verse 4. So why is loving pleasure and loving God at odds in Paul's mind? That is up next. I'm your host Tony Reinhke.

We'll see you back here on Friday.