The following message is by Pastor John Piper.
More information from Desiring God Ministries is available
at www.DesiringGod.org.
The scripture text this morning is Romans 8,
35-39.
Romans 8, 35-39.
Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Just as it is written, For thy sake
we are being put to death all day
long, we are considered as sheep to be
slaughtered.
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer
through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor power, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created
thing, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
Father in heaven, again now, as always, I
ask for your help so that I will
speak the word of truth according to your
scriptures in a faithful way, in a humble
way, in a spiritually compelling way, in a
loving way, in a God-exalting way, in
a Christ-centered way.
And I pray for those who hear that
their hearts would be supple in the hands
of the Holy Spirit, and that you would
make us tender to your truth, and that
you would help unbelievers in our room here
who are very welcome to be here, see
freely and embrace joyfully Jesus Christ as Savior
and Lord.
I pray for saints, imperfect Christians set apart
by God to be clothed with the righteousness
of Jesus, to be made strong and hopeful.
And so come, Father, and provide all the
help that we need in these moments as
we worship you over your word.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
So Tuesday night we focused on sorrow, and
Wednesday night we focused on self-humbling, and
this morning we focus on steady hope in
our Savior and King, Jesus Christ.
So how shall I strengthen your hope?
Shall I try to strengthen it politically by
saying we're all going to come together in
a great bipartisan show of unity to demonstrate
that the American way is unassailable and indissoluble?
Or shall I try to strengthen your hope
militarily and say there's no nation on the
earth as militarily powerful as America and no
foreign force will be able to jeopardize our
security?
Or shall I try to strengthen your hope
financially and say fear not, when the markets
open tomorrow morning it will be stable and
none of your investments will be in peril?
Or shall I try to strengthen your hope
psychologically and direct you to one of the
websites entitled Self-Care and
Self-Help Following Disasters, where you can read,
quote, individuals with strong coping skills maintain a
view of self as competent and avoid regretting
past decisions?
Or shall I try to strengthen your hope
geographically?
You live in the Midwest.
You don't live in New York and Los
Angeles.
Nobody knows we're even here.
Or shall I try to strengthen your
hope eschatologically and tell you you're not even
going to be here when the fireball blazes
in your town?
Now, those six questions are easy for me
to answer.
The answer is no.
I will not try to strengthen your hope
in any of those ways.
And there's a real simple reason why.
They're all false.
They're not true.
American political system is not imperishable.
The American military cannot protect us from every
destructive force.
The financial future is not certain.
You may lose all your investment.
The Midwest is not safe from the next
kind of terrorist attack, which may be more
pervasive and more deadly.
The psychological efforts to feel competent and avoid
regret are not healing.
They're fatal.
And an eschatological scenario that promises you escape
from suffering under the providence of God did
not work for the Christians in the World
Trade Center on Tuesday.
And it won't work for you.
So, I will not contradict my calling as
a minister of the gospel and try to
strengthen your hope in any of those ways.
Instead, I will strengthen your hope this morning,
first of all, by making you feel more
vulnerable than you already do.
For two reasons.
Number one, you are more vulnerable than you
think you are.
The next kind of attack, the next phase
of terrorism, probably won't be a replay of
Tuesday in Los Angeles or Atlanta or Chicago.
More than likely, it would be an act
of chemical warfare, which unleashes perhaps a deadly
gas or poisons the water supply.
And the death toll won't be 5,000,
it'll be 500,000 or 5 million.
That's very easy to conceive of.
I mean, if my little brain can come
up with two perfectly workable ways, then those
who hate could come up with probably more
insidious ones.
So, my first reason for first making you
feel more vulnerable than you already do is
because you are more vulnerable than you think
you are.
There's a second reason.
The second reason is biblical.
The Bible portrays the sufferings of Christians.
And here, I'm going to put in a
parenthesis, because I don't know who's in this
room, and I hope lots of people, I
hope lots of unbelievers are here, sort of
checking us out, see what we say.
I say Christians, and I want it to
be said loud and clear that is not
synonymous with America.
I listened to Kenny pray a few minutes
ago, and I just wondered whether every time
he said we and our and so on,
some ears in the room were hearing American
instead of followers of Jesus.
And I fear that, because I know it's
true, especially in the Muslim world, that America
and Christian are almost synonymous.
That's a real sad misunderstanding.
That I would just like to plead with
everyone not to make that mistake.
I personally am a Christian first, and American
way second.
Probably third, fourth, fifth.
I can think of some other things I
am before that.
And if America goes down, Christianity survives, big
time.
They're not the same.
But here's the point I'm making, close that
parenthesis.
In the Bible, the sufferings held out to
the people of God as something Christians will
walk through is far more extensive than anything
that happened on Tuesday.
For example, in 1 Peter 4, 12 following,
it says, Beloved Christians, do not be surprised
at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you
as though something strange were happening to you.
But to the degree that you share the
sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that
also at the revelation of His glory, you
may rejoice with exultation.
If you are reviled for the name of
Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of
glory and of God rests upon you.
Make sure that none of you suffers as
a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer,
or a troublesome meddler.
But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he
is not to be ashamed, but is to
glorify God in that name.
Now watch what comes next.
For it is time for judgment to begin
with the household of God.
And if it begins with us, what will
be the outcome of those who do not
obey the gospel of God?
Therefore, as those who suffer according to God's
will, entrust your souls, Bethlehem.
To a faithful creator.
The assurances of God that the church, the
apple of His eye, the followers of His
Son will walk through fire on the way
to glory, are very great and vastly more
extensive than anything we experienced on Tuesday.
So for those two reasons, I begin my
foundation laying for hope this morning by making
you feel more vulnerable than you already do.
I'm not into unfounded hope.
I'm not into good feelings.
I'm not into glossing things over.
I'm into real hope, solid hope, biblical hope,
in pain, not from pain.
So now, what is our hope?
And what is the foundation of it?
Let me sum it up, then we'll go
to the text and see it from God's
word, not my word.
Our hope is this, nothing can separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord, not death and not suffering.
That's our hope.
The foundation of it, two things, the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf,
and secondly, the sovereignty of God.
Christ died, 33 AD, under Pontius Pilate, in
order, the Bible says, to bear our sins.
And become our curse.
And endure God's condemnation so that it wouldn't
have to fall upon those who are in
Him.
And secure for us an everlasting joy in
the presence of an all-satisfying, glorious God
of justice and grace.
That's the foundation of our hope.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on
our behalf, sinners though we be.
And secondly, the foundation of our hope is
the sovereignty of God over all events and
all persons.
Guaranteeing that what Christ bought for us by
His death will certainly become our inheritance.
Now let's go to the text and see
where I get that.
What is our hope in this text?
Our hope is not an easy, comfortable, secure
life on this earth.
Our hope is that the love of God
will so work as to enable us to
enjoy the glory of God through death into
eternity with ever-increasing joy forever.
Now I think it would be more helpful
to you if you were to look at
me right now, instead of looking at your
Bibles.
You heard it read, and I just want
to say it to you as an ambassador
of Jesus Christ.
I want to say it to you.
What shall separate us from the love of
Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, we are being killed
all day long.
We are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
No.
In all these things, we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation
will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That is the Christian hope.
Not to escape a hijacked plane, and not
to be found in a burning building.
And you know what?
Jesus would want me to say right now,
I know He would, to everybody in this
room, of every ethnic variety, of every descent,
and of every religion.
That hope can be yours, freely, for faith.
Because Jesus bought it, and you can't.
You can't earn it, you can't work for
it, you can't measure up to it, you
can't be American, or Arab, or any other
ethnic entity.
Those things will not count with Jesus.
Being American doesn't advance you one centimeter towards
God.
Being any other ethnic variety doesn't hold you
back one centimeter from God.
Belief in King Jesus as your treasured Savior,
and your all-surpassingly valuable King, is what
wins that hope for you.
That's the hope.
Now let's go to foundation number one.
We've seen it already, I'll pass over it
briefly.
The hope is, nothing can separate us from
the love of God in Christ.
What's the foundation for it?
Verse 32.
He who did not spare His own Son,
but delivered Him over for us all, how
will He not also with Him freely give
us all things?
You see the logic of heaven in that
verse?
He didn't spare His own Son, therefore He
won't fail to give us everything we need
in order to enjoy Him forever and ever
and ever.
The basis of our hope is that God
gave Jesus on our behalf.
I deserve to be in the building that
collapses, and I deserve to be in the
plane that crashes, and worse, I deserve to
be in hell.
It is sheer mercy that I was not
there and am here.
They were no worse than I am.
And the only way I will escape hell,
and I probably will not escape the plane
or the building, is because Christ was sent
by the Father to be the mediator between
me and a holy God, so that His
righteousness, not mine, would count for me, and
His death, not my condemnation, would count for
me.
And by faith in Him, the Father welcomes
me into His presence.
That's my only hope.
That's my only hope, and sheer only hope.
The last foundation I would mention, or the
last part of the foundation, is the sovereignty
of God.
Now, you may have noticed, I sort of
paraphrased verse 32 in a way that might
have puzzled you.
The verse says, He who did not spare
His own Son, but delivered Him up for
us all, how shall He not with Him
freely give us all things?
And I said, How shall He not with
Him give us everything we need in order
to enjoy Him forever?
Now, why did I do that?
Is that a legitimate way to say it?
The reason I did is because of verse
35.
Verse 35 makes very clear that the sovereignty
of God does not guarantee our escape from
suffering.
It does not guarantee that we won't be
hijacked, or that we won't be in the
World Trade Center, or that we won't drink
the poisoned water, or that we won't breathe
the deadly gas.
There is no guarantee in the Bible whatsoever
that the people of God will escape those
events.
It says, Who will separate us from the
love of Christ?
Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, or peril, or
sword.
They're sweeping words.
They're meant to canvas the whole possibility of
trouble.
Take the word peril and the word distress.
They cover everything.
Every kind of possible calamity Christians will walk
through.
I don't want to give you an unfounded
hope this morning.
I want to give you a founded hope
this morning.
And I do not give you a hope
that you will escape these things.
But nothing can separate us from the love
of God.
Nothing can separate us.
Now you may ask, Why are you focusing
on the sovereignty of God as the other
part of the foundation?
Where do you see that in this text?
Does that just come from your theology?
Or is that here somewhere?
I don't see it.
Where is it?
Show us.
Look at verse 36.
Just as it is written, For your sake
we are being put to death all day
long.
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
Now why?
That's a quote from Psalm 44, 22.
Why did Paul say that?
I mean the text would flow just fine
without that quotation.
That's gross.
We're all counted as throat slit sheep.
Why did he say that?
For the same reason that I began this
sermon saying I wanted to make you feel
more vulnerable than you already are.
I learned it from Paul.
I preach the way I preach because he
writes the way he writes.
He said it because it's true.
And Christians need to be shocked out of
their expectations of comfort and security.
As though God owes us anything in this
land.
He doesn't owe you anything.
He doesn't owe me anything.
This is what Paul says we may expect.
Sometimes it's small.
Sometimes it's this serious.
But now here's where sovereignty comes from.
I went back and I read Psalm 44
in its entirety in the Old Testament.
Where he quoted.
Because I wanted to ask, okay, if you
say your people are counted as sheep to
be slaughtered and are being killed all day
long.
Is the portrayal of the text where you're
getting this idea that God has lost the
reins of the universe.
That he's lost control.
That he's standing either idly by or hand
wringingly by and cannot change this or doesn't
intend to.
How are we to think about our sovereign
God in relation to this event?
And let me just read you verses 10
to 13 and verse 19 from which this
quote comes.
Verse 10, Psalm 44.
You God cause us to turn back from
before our adversaries.
You give us as sheep to be eaten
and have scattered us among the nations.
You sell your people cheaply.
You make us a reproach to our neighbors.
A scoffing and a derision to those around
us.
Verse 19.
You have crushed us in a place of
jackals and covered us with the shadow of
death.
That's where I get it.
So when Paul says in verse 36, we
are being counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
He does not mean God has lost control
of the world or of his people or
of hijackers or of anything.
And therefore by the way.
No, it's not by the way.
It's right at the essence.
Therefore, radio commentators and TV commentators and Christian
spokesmen need to hear this.
Since he has not lost control of all
things and all persons.
Therefore, it is wrong to say.
He has no holy purposes.
And he has no gracious plans.
And he has no merciful intentions.
And he has no bright designs in this
dark and dreadful and God ordained suffering.
No.
What he does mean is, what Paul is
saying is.
That the God whose sovereignty reigns over all
things and all persons and all times and
all places.
Will make death and life and
angels and principalities.
And things present and things to come and
height and depth and powers.
And every other thing in all creation serve
the everlasting joy of those who trust in
Christ.
That's what his sovereignty means.
Everything is designed for the everlasting joy of
broken hearted penitent people.
Who freely receive what he has freely provided
in Jesus.
If he must kill them to do it.
He will kill them.
We are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
We are being killed all day long.
Oh may God grant you in the coming
days of trouble.
Sweet sorrow.
And self humbling.
And steady hope.
In your suffering savior.
And your sovereign king.
Jesus Christ.
And cause your minds to be stayed on
Jesus Christ.
And may the peace that passes all understanding
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Our God is an everlasting rock.
And I beckon you.
I summon you.
I plead with all of you.
Yield to the love, mercy, authority and sovereignty
of Jesus Christ.
And now may the Lord who is able
to keep you from falling.
And present you without blemish.
And with rejoicing before the throne of his
glory.
The all wise God.
Before all time.
Now.
And forever.
Bestow upon you a peace that passes understanding.
And win for himself.
Great honor.
Great majesty.
And great glory.
In the sacrificial service of your sorrowing.
Self humbled.
And steady hope.
Life.
And all the people said.
Amen.
You're dismissed.
Thank you for listening to this message by
John Piper.
Pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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