Welcome to from the pulpit and classic sermons
each week We bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons for modern preachers,
too This week we have John Piper with
his message the cost of love and the
call to nations standing beside the tomb of
Lazarus Jesus said to Martha.
I am the resurrection and the life He
believes in me though.
He died yet, shall he live and And
he who believes in me and lives shall
never die You believe that you will never
die Never you won't die Jesus
said so He lives and believes in me
will never die Or chapter 6 that was
that was chapter 11 chapter 6 I am
I am the bread of life Whoever comes
to me will not hunger and whoever believes
in me Will never thirst this is the
true bread that comes down from heaven Which
if one eats he will never die Have
you eaten If you have eaten of the
bread of Christ if you have come to
Christ Who died for you and rose again
and lives triumphant if you've come to eat
as the satisfaction of your souls You'll never
die He said so you will never be
Dead Or chapter 8 He who keeps my
word will never taste death ever This
is the root of love and courage That
can finish the Great Commission at the cost
of our lives Paul said In one of
my favorite passages in life verses It is
my eager this Philippians 1 it is my
eager expectation and hope That I might not
at all be ashamed, but the now is
always Christ would be magnified in my body
Whether by life or by death for to
me to live is Christ and to die
is gain Gain Not death it is not
gain to be dead when you die you
will not be dead Whether by life or
by death for to me to live is
Christ and to die is gain To live
in the flesh means fruitful labor for me,
which I shall choose I do not know
my desire is to depart and be with
Christ for that is far better So you
won't be dead when you die You will
be far better The steadfast love of the
Lord is better than life No Christian dies
ever Death Has become not a room into
which you walk Not a dark Field it
has become a door and the door is
paper thin so Micro thin it has no
dimension You go through it without a millisecond
in it There will be no moment of
death You move from life to life with
nothing in between You do not give your
godly one up to see the pit Nor
let your Holy One see destruction You show
me the path of life in your presence
is fullness of joy at your right hand
are pleasures forevermore That's what's on the other
side of this thing called dying Pleasures forevermore
There's nobody in this room who could offer
me anything better in fact There's no one
in this room or in this world who
can even conceive of anything better than fullness
of joy and pleasure as pleasures at his
right hand forever Full There's nothing fuller than
full and There's nothing longer than forever So
if you come to me and say I
have a better deal for you than following
Jesus I would say go ahead try and
Then you would say and I say no
comparison Because there isn't anything fuller than full
and there isn't anything longer than forever And
that's what I get in joy in his
presence the one who loved me and gave
himself For me and rose triumphant over the
grave and reigns as a king in heaven
will come again to make the world his
own You can't improve upon it Paul said
in 1st Corinthians 3 Don't boast in men
All things are yours Whether Paul or Apollos
or Cephas of the world or life or
death Or things present or things to come
all things are yours you are Christ and
Christ is God's Death is yours Liberty students
death is yours It's your servant It stands
ready like an ugly Handmaiden with a rough
hand to lead you into everlasting pleasures You
Will never die You will spend now in
fellowship with Jesus and then on the other
side Intensified fellowship with Jesus growing in joy
forever and ever You cannot and you will
not die Here's the point Believing
that Down into the marrow of your bones
which a lot of you do not I
can tell and you know That you're scared
of little things let alone dying But if
God would be pleased to use your time
at Liberty and this little piece of it
right now To drive that truth down into
the marrow of your bones It will become
the root from which grows up a kind
of radical love that will carry you into
the face of Opposition at the risk of
your life to bring Christ to the unreached
peoples of the world And Confidence in Fullness
of Joy and pleasures forevermore in the presence
of Jesus on the other side of this
so-called Dying is the root of love
that is willing to lay down its life
for the sake of the nation's This Confidence
that you cannot die but only have increased
pleasures Produces Martyrs Who
die in love Not martyrs who kill in
hate And that's what I'm after If you
have a Bible I I invite you to
turn to Hebrews chapter 10 I'm going to
spend the rest of our time in Hebrews,
and I'm going to try to prove from
Hebrews the point that being totally Deeply fully
Satisfied in the reward of Pleasures at his
right hand and fullness of joy forever being
deeply Satisfied in Christ as your supreme treasure
forever is the motive power To lay down
your life in love for the good of
the nation's that's what I'm going to try
to to prove and it's a very Controversial
statement because if you're studying philosophy, you will
know that there have been Historical wise philosophers
who have said that is a defective motivation
You ought not do what's right for reward.
You should do what's right because it's right
That is an atheist talking Right for rights
sake is an atheistic statement Right For God's
sake is a biblical statement And when you
analyze to the root what for God's sake
means it doesn't mean doing him a favor
It means doing yourself a favor for his
glory you get the joy.
He gets the credit When you do right?
That's what we're going to try to prove
because it's very controversial So there are four
or five passages, it's amazing what you see
in Hebrews and I invite you to look
first at 1032 Recall the former days when
you went after you were enlightened and you
endured a hard struggle with sufferings So this
is or they were converted and as baby
Christians.
They endured a hard struggle Sometimes being publicly
exposed to reproach and affliction and sometimes being
partners with those so treated you've got a
Picture of that on the platform this morning,
right?
We're not in prison Say it is in
prison That's this right here verse 33 Sometimes
being partners with those so treated So what
happened when they partnered up verse 34 You
had compassion on those in prison and you
joyfully Accepted the plundering of your property So
what happened when they identified with the prisoners
is they they Got labeled as that kind
of person and people plundered their property or
confiscated their property That's what happens when you
do compassion.
That's what happens when you identify with the
right You might lose your property money might
scribble go-home Christian on the wall of
your dorm room or they might steal from
you or they might Malign you or they
might kill you.
That's what happens in the cause of the
mission and Did you notice that?
unbelievable word in verse 34 joyfully You had
compassion in prison on the prisoner of those
in prison and you joyfully Accepted the plundering
of your property Now this is what I'm
after here I'm after miracles This is a
miracle.
None of you is like this in yourself
This is a miracle somebody strips off everything.
You've got rips off your car rips off
your iPhone Rips off everything you've got and
instead of seething with anger You rejoice that's
a miracle.
That is crazy How Can that be and
the answer is in verse?
34 at the end Since you knew that
you yourselves had a better possession and an
abiding one Does that sound familiar?
Better and abiding full forever In your
presences fullness of joy At your right hand
our pleasures forevermore.
You have a better Possession you have an
abiding forever possession.
What is an iPhone?
What's a car what's a life You will
never die You will only have better and
Abiding That's where the joy came from.
That's where the compassion came from That's where
the visit to the prison came from and
that's where it will come from today, or
it won't be Christian These people didn't go
to the prison and joyfully accept the plundering
of their property out of raw duty It's
the right thing to do.
That's what you're supposed to do says so
in the book.
That's not what the text says The text
says they joyfully did it because they knew
they had a better Possession and an abiding
one.
So that's text number one from Hebrews.
Here's number two chapter 11 verse 24 By
faith Moses when he was grown up Refused
to be called Pharaoh's daughter I'm sorry refused
to be called the son.
There was a good thing not to be
called Pharaoh's daughter That's another sermon invite me
back I'll preach that one Okay, let's try
this again by faith Moses when he was
grown up refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter Choosing rather to be mistreated
With the people of God This is craziness
again, right?
This is just utter Counterintuitive Choosing rather to
be mistreated with the people of God than
to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin Fleeting
The whole world lives for pleasure, right?
The only difference is theirs is fleeting.
Ours is forever.
That's not the only difference ours is Jesus
So he checks out and weighs in the
balance all that Egypt could offer him All
that's serving with a people under the reproach
of Christ could offer him and he chooses
the reproaches of Jesus Why verse 26 he
considered?
the reproach of Christ greater wealth How you
doing is being made fun of part of
your treasure That you love He considered the
reproach of Christ greater wealth Than the treasures
of Egypt how for he was looking to
the reward That's where it came from.
The thesis of this message is if this
reward Pleasures at your right hand joy forevermore
goes down to the marrow of your bones
so that you know Instead of being dead.
I will be with Christ forever Joy forever
that will become the root of all your
love of the people of God and the
nations Of the world so that you can
embrace Reproaches for the Christ and call them
my wealth This is just utterly different from
the world That's number two.
Here's number three verse 35 chapter 11 Women
receive back their dead By resurrection.
Oh, yes, I believe in miracles of that
kind too And then middle of verse 35
some were tortured Refusing to accept release so
that they might rise again to a better
life.
Oh Where'd that come from Where did that
courage come from?
No, I'm not gonna renounce him I'm not
gonna renounce him to get out of jail.
I would rather rise to a better life
a better abiding joy But if you don't
have that you will cave Keep going Verse
36 others suffered mocking and flogging and even
chains and imprisonment They were stoned they were
sawn into they were killed with the sword
They went about in skins of sheep and
goats just to deflected mistreated of whom the
world Was not worthy, what does that mean
of?
Whom the world was not worthy They're wearing
skins and living in caves of Whom the
world was not worthy That means they were
a gift to the world and the world
didn't deserve the gift So that's what I
want you to be I Want you to
be a gift to the world And the
world doesn't deserve you it doesn't deserve you
You don't go to the world to the
Muslim world of the Hindu world the Buddhist
world of the Atheistic world of the secular
world.
You don't go to the world because they
deserve to have you come You go because
Jesus went and because going there will lead
you to a full and Abiding reward in
the presence of Christ Chapter 12 verses 1
& 2 this may be the most important
one of all have two more Therefore Chapter
12 of Hebrews verses 1 & 2 therefore
since we are surrounded by so great a
cloud of witnesses Let us also lay aside
every weight and sin which clings so closely
and let us run with endurance The race
that is set before us looking to Jesus
All right, we're looking to Jesus the founder
and the perfecter of our faith who for
the joy That was set before him endured
the cross Despising the shame and is seated
at the right hand of the throne of
God Now the reason this may be the
most important is because up until now I
Can imagine Though it's hard somebody saying The
motivation that you're commending namely looking to the
reward of as a sustaining and motivating power
for love is simply low and defective It's
a low motivation To want to move through
persecution and through death into the presence of
Jesus and experience his fullness of joy and
pleasures forevermore That motivation for enduring this is
low If you are thinking that you are
on the brink of blasphemy because of verse
2 of Hebrews 12 Because you are about
to say Jesus Christ the Lord of the
universe had a base low and defective motivation
on the cross and he didn't Here's his
motivation for the joy that was set before
him Therefore God Has given him a name
which is above every name that at the
name of Jesus Every knee will bow and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father that
therefore at the beginning of verse 9 in
Philippians 2 is based on he was obedient
unto death even death on a cross he
knew that He knew that was coming Rising
triumphant over death Gathering millions and millions of
people from every tongue and tribe and nation
Surrounded by them praising him forever Triumphant over
all of his enemies.
He knew that was coming and that hope
stayed his hand and kept him on the
cross he despised Shame For the joy that
was set before him.
He looked at shame.
He said I despise you make my day
Shame, I put no stock in you.
You don't govern me shame I embrace you
I own you strip me kill me bloody
me curse me you mean Nothing to me
I have a reward coming beyond Sunday for
the joy that was set before him.
He endured the cross Despising the shame and
was seated So if Jesus was motivated to
be and stay on the cross for the
joy That was set before him You should
be too It is not a low motivation
It is the highest Motivation to
want To be in the presence of God
in fullness of joy Taking as many with
you as you can Is the highest of
motivations one more chapter 13 verse 12 to
14 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate
In order to sanctify the people through his
own blood Therefore Let us go to him
outside the camp and bear the reproach That
he endured For here we have no lasting
city But we seek a city that is
to come So Liberty students Jesus
suffered outside the gate to sanctify you that
is to make you his own Set you
apart as a uniquely precious holy possession of
his own That's why he died And Now
he says join me Because to do that
I had to go outside the gate to
the cross and suffer and that's the way
my mission will be completed You know Among
the unreached peoples that are yet to be
engaged and to be reached most of them
don't want you to come and If you
don't have this mindset That will be enough
reason not to go But if you have
this mindset You will say well the Great
Commission didn't say go make disciples of all
the nations except the ones that don't want
you to come All is all you go
to the people's all of them And they're
outside the camp They're in the hard places.
They're behind the hard cultures.
They're behind hard languages and They're behind hard
attitudes towards the West the Satan of the
West and We are called to go.
So what's left to be done is the
hardest thing You know, there are some wonderful
mission stories about arriving there and through a
redemptive analogies the whole tribe gets converted and
you're a hero That's a rare story a
Wonderful story true story, but a rare story
God has a people among all the peoples
of the world and we go to call
them out call them out and It will
cost us our lives.
It will cost many of you your lives.
I I don't know I mean, you're a
very young school.
I don't know whether you have a list
of martyrs yet, but one day there'll be
a wall There'll be a wall here And
the pictures will be there They Went We
did it for the soldiers in the First
and Second World War Most churches old churches
have plaques and their names are listed and
they will be listed in churches.
They'll be listed in schools And that's why
I'm here.
I want to recruit martyrs who die in
love not martyrs who kill and hate And
I think That kind of love comes I
know it comes from being satisfied in Jesus
So deeply that you know, you can't die
So look at finally verse 14 Here's the
ground of going outside the camp and bearing
reproach with Jesus for here We have no
lasting city, but we seek a city that
is to come The reason we are willing
to go outside the camp and Suffer is
because this world is not our home We
seek a city that is to come now.
Here's I want to end on this because
I know that I know the kind of
school I'm talking to here and I love
what I see 90% of you 95
% of you are here Growing in knowledge
and skills That will enable you to serve
this city called the city of man the
city of the world this one We have
no lasting city that non-lasting city is
Lynchburg, it's America.
It's the workplace It won't last and If
anybody were to take my message about Loving
our everlasting reward to mean you just skip
the city and go to that You've totally
missed the point My point has been this
all the students at Liberty Aiming to pour
your life into the city of man for
her good for her everlasting good Will serve
her better if you love the other city
more if you love the city That is
to come the Lord that is to come
More than this city you will serve this
city better You'll be able to be so
different from this city So able to lay
down your life for the good the everlasting
good of this city that you will go
to the hardest Places on the planet and
the hardest peoples on the planet In order
to make plain the value of that other
city and that other King, let's pray father
in heaven, I Asked now that these passages
from Hebrews John 11 and John 6 and
John 8 in 1st Corinthians 3 in Psalm
16 Would be like a double-edged sword
that penetrates into the hearts of everyone in
this room for the sake of Finishing the
Great Commission in the hardest Places among the
hardest peoples of the world no matter what
it costs Because the steadfast love of the
Lord is better than life Yes You've been
listening to from the pulpit and classic sermon
series this week You heard John Piper with
his message the cost of love in the
call to nations Tune in next week to
hear Vance Havner talk about the country in
the church.
I'm from the pulpit and classic sermons