In the following sermon clip, Pastor John talks about what it means to have God's Word, His law, with us and His Spirit within us. The presence of the Holy Spirit changes everything about the Christian's obedience. The result is that we live off of the approval of God, not the approval of man.

Here's what Pastor John said back in his sermon in 1999. I remember a day in seminary, 31 years ago, it was the fall of '68. My systematics theology teacher, Jim Morgan, was a big, strapping, strong 36-year-old man who died of stomach cancer in six months from this moment that I'm talking about.

Shriveled up to nothing. It was the day of the Vietnam War and people were going barefoot to class and hitting the streets afterwards and Jim was a real radical. And one day we were in this heated conversation after class. I can picture it right by the refractory. I learned the word "refractory" at Fuller Seminary.

It's where you eat. And there he stood and in the middle he stopped and he said, "John, I love Jesus Christ." It was an overwhelming sentence. I'd never heard a professor say that in my life. "I love Jesus Christ." It took my breath away. Do you feel some of that welling up inside of you?

If you do, thank the Spirit. It doesn't come natural to love Jesus. Secondly, the law plus the Spirit results in an internal change of the heart that loves God and is circumcised. Law plus Spirit equals satisfaction in the praise of God, even if no man approves what you do.

You can be content and satisfied because you know in Christ God says, "Well done, good and faithful servant. I can sweep all of your errors away because I paid for them with the blood of my Son. Well done." Isn't that great to know that even our sin-infected good deeds are going to be praised by God?

That's awesome. You don't have to produce a perfect deed to get the praise of God because if you did, there would be no such thing as the praise of God. There won't be a perfect deed you've ever done until the twinkling of an eye changes you into the image of Jesus.

But all the little contaminations or big contaminations of the good things you do are burned up in the fire of Calvary so that what's left, he will praise. And knowing that you will have his smile forever and there will be this mutual delight that goes on and on that so satisfies the heart of the saint that if nobody approves what you do, you're a rock.

Don't be a second-hander. When I read "I and Ran Atlas Shrugged" twenty years ago, another thing emblazoned itself on my mind, her hatred of second-handers. Me too. That is, not the people, but the concept. That is, always choosing what you do and what you say not because of its intrinsic worth in the face of God, but because an eye is being cut to what they will think and say about it.

That's a second-hander. Don't be that way. Be real with God. If you have God, if through Abraham you are a beneficiary of the covenant, I will be your God. You will be my people. Who cares what people think? So good. That was from John Piper's sermon, "Who is a True Jew?" Part 2.

From his message on February 28, 1999. This clip was recommended to us by David Bolton. Thank you, David, for sending this in to us. You can download the full message and over 1,200 others from our website at DesiringGod.org. We've talked about this addiction to human approval back in episode number 141, an episode on why we can fall into the addiction of lying.

You can find that in the podcast archive, episode number 141. We are going to close out the week with two important and very common questions we get from couples about marital intimacy. I'm your host Tony Rehnke. We'll see you tomorrow.