God-Centered Self-Understanding

the Bible calls you back again and again not to reject the reality of bodies or brotherhoods or things but to Define everything in relationship to God to put God at the center of your self-understanding not to Define yourself in terms of things so in a world that labors to Define us what determines the Christian's self-understanding that's the question John Piper answers from First Corinthians 1 1-9 in this episode of light and Truth this sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on January 17 1998. almost all of Paul letters begin with his identifying himself in relation to God and his identifying Us in relation to God that's very different from what you'll see on television the automobile commercials on television will want you to identify yourself and Define yourself and get your meaning in relationship to a thing the beer commercials will want you to think of yourself and Define yourself in relationship to a Brotherhood at the pub or the cafe the life insurance commercials will want you to Define yourself and get your meaning as you think about the deep and significant meaning of your family and they'll show these Moody shots about the little baby being born and graduating from high school and getting married and having their first home and all the Soaps and deodorants and foods will want you to think of yourself in terms of your body and get your meaning by whether you fit that mold or could the Bible is very different the Bible calls you back again and again not to reject the reality of bodies or brotherhoods or things but to Define everything in relationship to God to put God at the center of your self-understanding not to Define yourself in terms of things look at verse one Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus I just love the strength and the stability and the clarity of Paul's self-understanding he knows exactly who he is Paul and there aren't any like him or you he knows exactly where he's going called to be an apostle an emissary a representative of Jesus Christ he knows exactly where he's coming from by the will of God in other words he has a self-identity or a self-understanding that is radically god-centered he's coming out of God's will he's going forward to God's glory he stands to draw in chapter 15 I am what I am by the grace of God and I think God intends for every one of you today to have that kind of clear deep strong unshakable god-centered self-understanding you ought to be able to take verse 1 and rewrite it slightly with your name in there David called by the will of God to be a financial planner for the glory of God Ruth called by the will of God to be a teacher to the glory of Jesus Christ Dennis called by the will of God to be an attorney for the glory of Jesus Christ Noel call by the will of God to be a homemaker for the glory of Jesus Christ you ought to be able to know where you're coming from out of the will of God where you're going to into the glory of God and under what Grace you stand so that you are a free agent in the world so that when the world whether it's on television or in magazines of the radio or just in the office attempts to leverage your decision by holding up an identity to draw you into it to make you feel inadequate incomplete because you don't have that body or ever will you don't have that bank account or ever will you don't have that car or those things or that Brotherhood and so leveraged into decision for the world you are a free agent if you know the grace in which you stand and who you are by the will of God for the glory of Jesus Christ that's the kind of self-understanding at the center of your being that God wants you to have god-centered and saturated with scripture and there are two questions this morning that I think if I if I could answer with you would cause your roots the roots of your god-centered self-understanding to go down deeper that's all I have time to do in these few verses I'm going to get I'm only going to look at three verses with you the two questions are these what happened in the past to make you a Christian and secondly what will happen in the future to keep you a Christian question number one what happened in the past to make you a Christian verse 2 let's read it to the Church of God which is at Corinth to those Sanctified in Jesus Christ called to be Saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ both their lord and Ours now do you see three things in there that happened in the past to make these people Christians number one they were Sanctified in Christ Jesus number two they were called to be Saints number three they called upon the name of the Lord Jesus so let's think about those three for just a moment and how they relate to each other and we'll start with this term Sanctified in Christ Jesus now most of you who are biblically oriented think of that big religious word as a reference to a lifelong process right it begins at conversion and then it is Progressive unto the day of Christ or the day of your death and Perfection happens so that we are imperfect and on the road and becoming more like Christ that's what sanctification means in first Thessalonians 5 23 Romans 6 19 first Peter uh 1 15. that's Biblical teaching it's Progressive that's not what this verse says nor what this verse means this verse treats sanctification as something past and decisive to the Church of God to those who are sanctified the verb could be translated more literally to those who have been and are now sanctify not who are being sanctified now the way you ought to approach things like this when you read the Bible is not to take this verse and say Well it can't mean that we'll have to plug it into those other verses and twist it around and make it mean something different what you rather should say is well let's let this stand and see how they fit together what this verse says I think you could say right off the bat is beneath and behind the process the lifelong process of sanctification beneath and behind that there is and has been in every believer's life a decisive break with sin and unbelief and a decisive Declaration of Allegiance toward a new Lord so that you call upon him now rather than calling upon all the other allegiances in life so that there is a decisive break and that's what I would call sanctification in this verse if you ask how these two relate together that is how does a decisive sanctification in the past relate to a process of sanctification the best answer would be just to read on and to let the next two terms in the verse Define this sanctification for us there are two terms one is what God does one is what we do God calls then in response we call let's read it again and I'll Point those out to those who are Sanctified in Christ Jesus and then I would insert the little phrase that is to those who are called to be Saints that's what God does he calls together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus that's what we do so the decisive Act of sanctification in the past is two things God called you to be a saint he called you decisively to sainthood and then you decisively broke off your old Lordships and began to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus a new God a new leader a new guide a new source of treasure and pleasure in your life so the answer to our first question what happened in the past to make you a Christian is the call of God upon you your call upon him which makes up a decisive setting apart or sanctification now before we ask the second question what will happen in the future to keep you a Christian I want to focus on a word in what we've been talking about namely call God's call it's crucial that we zero in on this to understand it more fully the reason I think the reason I think it's crucial is because this word call is picked up three other times in this chapter I think it is the central focus of the chapter verse 9 verse 24 verse 26 we're going to look at these in just a minute if you don't know what it means to be called by God then you don't know how you became a Christian you know I really believe there are a lot of Christians who when they testify as to what has happened they get it all wrong though they're really Christians God is so gracious to us he doesn't require a perfect understanding of what's going on in our spiritual life for it to be real the understanding can Lag Way behind the heart in the reality of your relationship with God thank goodness because I'm sure we all are wrong on some things we're always looking through a glass Darkly in this age but the better we can understand what has happened to us the more Glory we'll give to God the more stable we will be in the face of false Doctrine and Temptation so I want to focus in on this term call with you let's go to verse 9 first of all what does verse 9 tell us about the call of God God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ Our Lord so what you learn in that verse is the the Target or the goal of the call he's calling you out of alienation from the sun which is death and destruction into fellowship with the son which is life and Glory but what what is the call what happened when you were called what's the dynamic between you and God in that moment that could be called your call turn to verses 23 and 24 of this chapter if you if you have to turn the page listen and ask the question what is the call of God as I read this these two verses we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and Folly to Gentiles but to those who are called those Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God now what do those two verses tell you about the call of God well it tells us some mighty important things it tells us first of all that the call of God is not identical with the preaching of the Gospel you see that I can call you to repentance call you to Faith just like Paul did Billy Graham can call eight million people to Faith at one time but what happens when I do that Paul does that Billy Graham does that you do that in Witness some people say that's hard I Stumble over that others say that's ridiculous that's foolishness but some say this is the very power and wisdom of God now who are they who responds to the gospel like that when it's preached the calm that's what it says we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews Folly to gentiles but among those Jews and Gentiles there are some who are called and the call is not my preaching because I preached to everybody I call everybody Billy Graham calls everybody we should call everybody but God doesn't call everyone because those whom God calls are changed Those whom God calls have the blinders taken off their eyes and become reasonable so that they see the beauty of Jesus Christ and believe and love him and sing the song Jesus christless treasure source of purest pleasure and mean it because they've been called by The Sovereign voice of God into life and Glory so what is the call of God it is something that happens by the work and word and spirit of God in preaching through preaching through your Witness whereby people have their eyes opened to see the irresistible Christ and close with him and believe and call upon his name someone might say why is this important to talk about what practical difference does it make if you believe these things about the call of God in the election of God there are so many people it just blows my mind who hear about these things and think that they are just academic topics to be discussed by theologians who can't agree with one another in whose lives these Grand Central biblical truths that turn up over and over and over again are irrelevant to their lives well let me try to show you why believing in the effectual call of God in your life is practical I could jump ahead two weeks and point you here to verses 26 to 31. and say consider your calling Paul does not commend impractical and irrelevant considerations he says consider your calling and if you ask why verse 29 would give you the first answer so that no human being might boast in the presence of God this Doctrine is intended to Humble us and guard us from boasting in the presence of God or negatively in verse 31 or positively in verse 31 let him who boasts boast in the Lord this doctrine of God's call and election is intended to make us boast in God and not in our helpless selves but we'll save that for two weeks from now the Practical meaning of the call of God this morning comes from considering this question what will happen in the future to keep you a Christian that's the second question of the morning what will happen in the future to keep you a Christian or let me ask it like this how do you know that the faith you have this morning you're going to have in 10 years for 10 days or tomorrow morning when you wake up how do you know you won't wake up an unbeliever tomorrow your security lies not in the fact that God will save you even if you stop believing he won't your security lies in the fact that God will keep you believing verse 8 is the answer to the question where our Assurance comes from chapter one of Corinthians First Corinthians verse 8. Christ that is the one from whom uh whom we're waiting for from heaven Christ will sustain you it means make you firm in Faith and Hope hold you he will sustain you to the end Guiltless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ now do you see what that says your Assurance if it is biblical and real is not the assurance that he will save you if you stop believing he won't you will simply prove that your faith was vain according to chapter 15 verse 1 he is going to give you Assurance this morning by promising you in verse 8 that he will keep you believing he will keep you firm in faith and steadfast to the end that's the promise that's so practical when you wake up in the morning and when you question at night whether you'll have the strength to Keep On Believing in God for all your life long under all the persecutions and disappointments that you're going to experience what's the basis of that promise verse 9 first phrase God is faithful That's the basis of the promise but wait a minute why why should God's faithfulness oblige him to keep you believing the answer is that there's a connection between the faithfulness of God and the call of God read the rest of verse 9. God is faithful by whom you were called now Paul hears a connection there do you hear it the connection is this if God has called you his faithfulness obliges him to keep you if God has called you his faithfulness obliges him to keep you the call of God is the outworking in my life of his eternal election of me unto glory and therefore his faithfulness is at stake in whether I make it to Glory if I don't make it to Glory when I've been called his electing purpose is broken Paul writes all of Romans 9 to 11 to say it cannot be broken that's the rock on which I stand when I shake at night and wonder whether I will have the strength to persevere God will keep me believing and keep you believing because the call is a commitment grounded in an eternal election of all his people unto Glory well I want to close now by simply urging you back to where I began and say don't let the world Define you today will you listen to those commercials between the timeouts on the ball game today don't let the world Define your identity by making you feel insecure because you don't have this bank account or this life insurance policy by making you feel second rate because you don't have that body by making you feel incomplete because things aren't in order the way the world says they should be in order be a free agent why how look back and say I came out of God God called me God's will makes me who I am I'm going into God's glory he'll keep me what happened to make me a Christian in the past God's call what happened to keep me a Christian in the future God's faithfulness this is light and Truth god-centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and treasure him truly I'm your host Dan Krueger thank you for listening on our next episode John Piper will preach a sermon on the truth of Christ and Christian unity in our series titled the transforming power of the cross I hope you'll join us for more resources visit desiringgod.org

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 7,866

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Light + Truth, L + T, God-Centered Self-Understanding, Self-Understanding, God-Centered, 1 Corinthians 1:1–9

Id: 3_DHc7nMipo

Length: 24min 13sec (1453 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2023