(upbeat music) - Pastor John, over the years you have referred to the acronym Aptat, A-P-T-A-T, in your books and sermons and your classes. It's been with you for a long time, and it seems to be central to your understanding of how the Christian life should be lived each day.

And I know a lot of our listeners have probably never heard you explain Aptat and why it's so important. So today, introduce it to us and explain the big issue that it addresses for you. - Okay, here's the big issue. How do you go about living the Christian life in such a way that you are actually doing the living, doing the acting, doing the willing, and yet Christ or the Holy Spirit is decisively doing the living and doing the acting and doing the willing in and through your acting and willing and doing.

That's the key issue, it seems to me, of the Christian life. That's the way Paul says he lived. And he means for us to live that way. He says, 1 Corinthians 15, 10, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Now my question is, and I think everyone listening to me right now should ask, how do I do that? How do I work hard and yet be able to say, when I'm done, God's grace was the worker in and through me?

Now that's what APTAT, A-P-T-A-T, an acronym is intended to answer. Or to put it another way, how do you obey Philippians 2, 12? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is the one at work in you. What are the strategies that we take to make sure we can say that with integrity about our Christian life?

Or to put it another way, how do you serve others in a strength that isn't your own? 1 Peter 4, 11, "Whoever serves, let him serve as by the strength that God supplies." How do you do that? Or Romans 8, 13, "By the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body." So how do you put to death the deeds of the body?

Yes, you put to death the deeds of the body, the sinful deeds, and you do it by the Spirit. Now what does that mean? How do you do it? That's what I'm trying to get at. Or Galatians 5, 16, "Walk by the Spirit." 5, 18, "Be led by the Spirit." 5, 22, "Bear the fruit of the Spirit." 5, 25, "Keep in step with the Spirit." So my answer to all of that is APTAT.

It's what I did hundreds of times, sitting on the front pew in the sanctuary, two minutes before I'm supposed to preach, and I did APTAT. I walked through APTAT in my heart, because when I stood behind that pulpit, I wanted to preach by the Spirit. I wanted to preach in the strength that God supplies.

I wanted to preach in a way so that I could say, not I, but the grace of God that was with me. I didn't want to get up there and do nothing. It's my job, I'm supposed to preach. I must preach. And yet the devil can preach. People can preach without the Holy Spirit, but that's not the Christian life.

Okay, so here it is, APTAT, A-P-T-A-T. Each of those letters stands for an action that I take, and you can do this in one minute before you face some challenge. So A, admit. I admit that without Christ, I can do nothing. John 15, five, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you, John Piper, can do nothing. So I admit that, I say that, I believe that. I am helpless to do anything of any significance, any eternal value, any spiritual worth whatsoever in any way without Christ.

P, I pray. Of course, you pray, right? If you admit you can do nothing, you, oh God, help me. Ask and you will receive, Jesus said. You do not have because you do not ask, James 4, 2. Call on me in the day of trouble, Psalm 50, 15. So I asked the Lord, I sat there on the pew, and I asked the Lord for freedom from self-consciousness.

Give me liberty, give me memory, give me authentic emotion, protect me from error. I don't wanna mislead these people. Give me a prophetic anointing so that words come to my mind that are miraculously penetrating and liberating and saving and purifying and emboldening for the people. I wanted all of that to happen by the Holy Spirit, so I'm asking for it.

T, A-P-T, I trust a specific promise. I think this is right at the heart of the matter. I trust a specific promise that God has tailor-made, and it might not be just a preaching situation, it might be a financial situation or a sexual temptation or you name it, I need a specific promise to believe right now 'cause I just, I wanna trust Him, and I don't wanna just trust in general, I wanna trust that He promised to do something for me.

So I might say, generally, I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you. I use that when, I've used that good night in the last 40 years, a thousand times as I've faced challenges in my life. I will help you, I will strengthen you.

That's Isaiah 41, 10. I will make all grace abound to you. 2 Corinthians 9, 8. I am your God, I'll supply every need, Philippians 4, 19. Or in preaching, I might say, my word will not come back to me empty, John Piper. Isaiah 55, it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit who speaks through you, in Matthew 24.

So I take a promise and I trust it, I consciously preach it to myself and put my faith in it. So APT, A, I act, act. In obedience to God's word, expecting God to act under and in and through my acting so that it is decisively His acting. We act the miracle.

We did a whole conference on this and wrote a whole book about it called "Act the Miracle." In fact, my book, "Future Grace," is just nothing but an unpacking, you might say, of APTAT. So act, work out your salvation, Philippians 2. I worked harder than any of them, 1 Corinthians 15, 5.

I now live in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God, Galatians 2, 20. Put to death the deeds of the body, you, by the Spirit. So we do the acting, we are the actor, and God is the miracle maker. So APTA, and then finally, when I'm done and I sit down, I thank Him, T, thank.

I thank God for whatever good comes. I thank Him and I give Him glory. Give thanks always, Ephesians 5, 20. But the key, the key, the fulcrum in this sequence, where everything hangs, I think, is that point of trusting. Trusting God's promised help, future grace, for the next five seconds or five minutes or five hours.

It's called living by faith in future grace. It's called God will help you, I will help you, I will strengthen you, I'll meet every need, and you trust Him for that. That's APTA, and that's what I think it means to live by the Spirit and walk by faith and by the Spirit and work out your salvation and act the miracle of the Christian life.

And I'll just say one last thing. I was thrilled. I don't know how many years ago this was, maybe 15 years ago, 'cause I've been doing APTA for 35 years plus. I was thrilled on page 126 of J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, to find these exact steps.

I mean, it was uncanny. If you go to the top of page 126, anybody, and look at how he describes Augustinian sanctification. He gives APTA, and I just came out of my chair. You know, he doesn't use the acronym, but the steps are all there in sequence. So I just say that at the end here, lest anybody think this is kind of a quirky, quirky Piper thing, but I think it's just biblical through and through, and it's one of the most central and important discoveries I've ever made.

How do you walk by the Spirit? - Confirmed by Augustine and J.I. Packer. That's beautiful and deeply helpful and practical. Thank you, Pastor John. These are the types of practical questions that we address in the podcast every weekday, and for more information, go to our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

There you can download the apps and send us an email and sift through all of the, the entire archive of episodes that we have on hand. Well, next time we hear from a listener who is burned out, who finds life to be an unceasing grind, and who wants Pastor John to give him perspective to keep him going.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and I'll see you tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)