(upbeat music) - Welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast. And before we look at today's question, just a note of update, Pastor John speaks Wednesday night at the Pipeline Conference, which is a gathering of pastors in Nashville, Tennessee. He'll be speaking on the topic of ministry succession. And I look forward to hearing that message.

Please keep him in your prayers as he finishes up his message prep today and travels out to Tennessee. And now onto today's question. As you know, Pastor John, new listeners are coming to our podcast every day. And many of them don't know what lies behind your answers to the questions that people are sending in to us.

And for example, your view on God is important. It's foundational, Jesus Christ, the Bible, the human condition, the future, all of those things are really foundational. And so we thought maybe it'd be helpful now and then to include a podcast, not addressing a question per se, but talking about a foundational reality, part of the deepest convictions that shape the way you think and approach all the many questions about life that our listeners send in.

So Pastor John, you've said many times before that you believe in the absolute sovereignty of God, that he finally and decisively controls all things, from the farthest galaxy to the smallest subatomic particle, including all the actions of human beings. I think what our listeners would like to hear from you is not only why you believe that, but mainly how does this truth make a difference in our daily lives?

- Well, that's right. That is precisely one of the foundational, pervasively influential convictions that I have behind everything I do and think. And let me give just one passage of scripture as to why, and then four really practical ways that this makes a difference in our lives. I just spoke recently to the new students at Bethlehem College and Seminary, and I shared with them what difference it would make in their lives as students this year, as they pursue rigorous studies, if they believe this.

So this is fresh on my front burner. So the text that gives a glimpse into why I believe this is the book of James 4, verses 13 to 17, where James says, "Come now you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town "and spend a year there and trade, make a profit.

"Yet you do not know about tomorrow, what it will bring. "What is your life? "You are a mist that appears for a little time "and then vanishes. "Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that, "as it is you boast in your arrogance." So there it is.

You ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live." So I conclude from that, if the Lord doesn't will, we die. If he does will, we live. The Lord is absolutely in control of everything that determines our life and our death. We don't live a second longer than he wills.

We don't die a second sooner than he wills. And I believe this brings amazing stability and strength and courage and boldness and risk-taking into the Christian life, if we believe that God is good and sovereign. And then he says, "Not just we will live, "but rather we will do this or that." That's James' way of saying everything.

And he's referring to practical things like, "Tomorrow we will go into such and such a town "and spend a year there and make a profit." Then he says, "No, no, you should say, "If the Lord wills, we will do this or that," which I conclude means we won't do this if it's not the will of the Lord.

And we won't do that, or we will do that, if it is the will of the Lord. So there's a text, that's especially verse 15 of James chapter four, which I think tells us to practically believe and govern our lives by the conviction that God is completely sovereign over all the details of life and death and whether we do this or that.

Now, does that make a practical difference in our lives? It is so amazingly practical. Let me give you four glimpses of why this undergirds everything I say on "Ask Pastor John." Number one, well, let me just list them off for you. It has to do with gospel joy and sacrificial love and fearless witness and confident planning.

Those are my four practical glimpses into how this is so personally relevant to our lives. So let me just take them one at a time and give one text and a brief word. So gospel joy, every day John Piper needs the gospel. That is, I need fresh assurances that my sins are forgiven, that God is for me and not against me, that I'm not destined for wrath, but everlasting joy.

I need the gospel preached to me with assurance every day. I need confidence that when Jesus died on the cross under Pontius Pilate, this was not a fluke of history. This was not random. This was God's sovereign plan to save John Piper. So here's the text that connects the sovereignty of God down to the details of sinners' doings and the gospel.

Acts 4:27, "Truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place." Amazing. Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentile soldiers, the crowds crying, "Crucify him, crucify him," all of them doing what God had predestined to take place.

Or to paraphrase, using the words of James, "Since the Lord willed, they lived and did this or that." Jesus' death, down to the details of the fulfillment of prophecy, like the throwing of dice for the choosing of his clothing, was under God's sovereign control. It was not a random event, which gives to me the strong assurance God was totally in charge saving John Piper's soul.

I need the gospel, and I think that text says, "No sovereignty, no gospel." Here's number two. I am called upon, as a Christian now, to love people, to love even my enemies, to do good all the time to those who don't do good to me, to make sacrifices to my life and inconvenience myself and not be a selfish person.

Where in the world do you get the resources in your soul to do good to others when they're not doing good to you? In fact, when it may cost you tremendously to suffer in order to do good for other people. The New Testament is filled with summons to live that way, and here's 1 Peter.

This is Peter's argument or counsel or wisdom for how we are going to be able to do good when we are suffering, and his answer is, we must remember God's detailed sovereignty over suffering as we do good. Listen to these two verses. 1 Peter 4, 19, "Let those who suffer," here it is, "according to God's will," suffer according to God's will, "and trust their souls to a faithful creator "while doing good." Here's 1 Peter 3, 17, "It is better to suffer "for doing good, if that should be God's will, "than for doing evil." In other words, suffering is going to come, especially to those who are committed to doing good, especially doing good to those who don't do good to them.

But Peter says, take heart, God is sovereign over your suffering. No suffering befalls you apart from the will of God. He's your father, 1 Peter 1, 17, and your maker, 1 Peter 4, 19. He's faithful, and trust your soul to him, and get on with the tough, hard business of doing good, even to those who don't do good to you.

That's number two. No sacrificial love without sovereignty, as the Bible sees it. Number three, sovereignty, the sovereignty of God over my fearless witness. I'm called upon to bear witness to Jesus, no matter what the fearful circumstance is. How can I overcome fear and be a faithful witness? And here's Jesus' answer in Matthew 10, 28 to 31.

Watch how sovereignty figures in. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. Fear not. Therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

The absolute sovereignty of God over which bird falls dead to the forest floor is the foundation of my fearlessness in my witness. And I am precious to him, more precious than all those birds whose lives are in God's detailed sovereign control. How much more then is God watching over me in all my witness to take care of me and only let me fall dead to the forest floor precisely when it is best for me to fall dead to the forest floor.

And finally, number four, the sovereignty of God and confident planning. Planning. Not much happens of any use in this world without planning, and yet a lot of people think that planning might be pointless if God's will is always holding sway. That's not true. When you make a plan, which would you rather say?

Something like this, if I'm lucky, I'll live and do this or that. Or by chance, I may live or do this or that. Or as fate may have it, I'll live or do this or that. Or would you rather say, if the Lord wills, I will live and do this or that.

Luck, chance, fate, they're nothing. They're just words describing emptiness. But when you make a plan that says, I plan to do this, not that, if the Lord wills, you are building your life on an unshakable foundation, the sovereign will of God. The wise man in the Old Testament says, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps, Proverbs 16, 9, or Proverbs 19, 21.

Many are the plans of the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. So it's right to plan. We don't accomplish things without a plan. So if you rest in the wise, good sovereignty of God in all your plans, you will be a confident, peaceful person because you'll know that whatever details of your plan don't happen, God's will always happens.

And that's part of your plan. And that's the most important part, and therefore you can rest in sweet peace. So there it is, Tony. Joyful, gospel dependence every day. Sacrificial love every day. Fearless witness every day. Confident planning every day. Those are daily, practical realities every Christian lives with and needs help with.

And those texts that we just looked at, all of them point to the absolute, detailed sovereignty of God, that he's in full control so that we can say, if the Lord wills, I will live and do this or that. That conviction informs everything I say and everything I do on this podcast.

- Yeah, amen. And may those four realities become four priorities in each of our lives, and all with a sturdy foundation under it of God's sovereignty. This has huge ramifications for the Christian life. Pastor John, thank you for taking us into this one foundation. And thank you for listening and making the podcast part of your day and commute.

And three times a week we publish, and you can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our past episodes in our archive. Even reach us by email with a question of your own, especially if you have a question about the very foundations of what we do on this podcast.

We'd love to hear that. Do all of that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. Well, is racism the product of nature or nurture? Are we born racists? Or is prejudice something that we learn? This is a question that came up recently based on something President Obama shared on social media in the wake of Charlottesville this summer.

And it will be our focus when we return on Friday. I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)