What Does It Feel Like to See the Beauty of Christ?

[Music] well John Piper is a big advocate for seeing glimpses of the peculiar glory of Christ in Scripture and those moments of discovery and his Bible are far more than mere intellectual discoveries they are affectional they feed within him his delight in God so the question then becomes well John Piper what does it feel like to see the beauty of Christ and this bold question comes from a listener named Josephine hello pastor John I love to read my Bible every day and get to know God better and I have heard you talk about the importance of not just reading the Bible but reading a such way as to see the peculiar glory of Christ shining from the pages into our eyes to stir our hearts it's a very unique type of reading requiring genuine faith regeneration and of course the power of the Spirit but I don't really know if or how or when this happens in my life sometimes I make discoveries in the text that really stir my heart sometimes I don't can you bring us into your own Bible reading and articulate for me the difference between simply reading the Bible and those precious times in which you are met with the glory of Christ shining in the pages of Scripture I presume this does not always happen but what's it like for you when it does okay as risky as it is I'll try to give you a glimpse into this morning's meeting with God in Scripture and I say it's risky because our fallen heart our sinful heart John Piper sinful heart is so primed for pride that to speak of our own experiences almost inevitably passes over into boasting as contradictory and insane as that is such is the nature of our remaining corruption but perhaps since you asked the good may outweigh the risk in this case one of the reasons we don't meet God profoundly in his word as often as we would like is because our hearts are so unprepared and out of sync with spiritual reality when we come Wesly dual in his book let God guide you daily page 77 said I have at times read as many as 50 chapters from God's Word before I was completely alone with God now don't hear me saying when I quote that here we have a nice neat daily prescription for how to get alone with God namely read 50 chapters of the Bible then you'll be in tune we all know that's unrealistic but I mention it for two reasons one is to point out the fact that we may be that out of sync spiritually and emotionally and psychologically with the Bible so that when we read our frame of mind and the disposition of our heart and the spiritual receptivity of our heart are so out of step with the spirit of the passage that we're reading that nothing happens it can't happen and the other reason is to say that even though reading 50 chapters of the Bible every day is unrealistic reading 50 chapters on a two day retreat in solitude and motel that your spouse gave you as a gift is not unrealistic have you ever pursued have you ever asked for it have you have you ever gone that hard after God so many people complain about God not meeting them they never they've never even conceived of what Wesley dual regularly does to find God in His Word one of the ways that I seek to have my heart prepared for Scripture is to sometimes spend fifteen or twenty minutes reading a book by someone who I have learned over the years has seen more glory in the scriptures than I have and they're very good at showing it to me their site than their experience prepares me for my site and my experience their taste prepares me for my taste so this morning I read this on page 159 of Volume one of the works of John Owen these words I'm sitting in my chair in complete solitude and quietness and here's what Ian wrote there is more glory under the eye of God and I think what he means by that is there's more glory in the sight of God that God sees and recognizes there's more glory under the eye of God in the sighs groans and morning's of poor souls filled with the love of Christ pursuing after the enjoyment of him according to his promises he sees more glory in their fervent prayers for his manifestation of himself unto them in the refreshments and unspeakable Joy's which they have in his gracious visits and embraces of his love then in the thrones and diadem's of all the monarchs on the earth nor will the poor sighing groaning seeking souls part with the ineffable satisfactions which they have in these things for all that is in the world or that the world can do for them or unto them when I read that this morning there rose up in my heart a strong yes yes Lord yes I am saying I am groaning I am mourning I am longing for these enjoyments for these refreshments for these unspeakable pleasures for these visits and embraces of the love of Christ I want them more than I want all the world or what it can do for me and in the very longing and crying out I tasted the love of Christ for me the visit of Christ don't you think that CS Lewis is absolutely right in what he says over and over again namely that the perfect fullness of the enjoyment of Christ reserved for the future when we meet him face to face and all our sin and all the hindrances to joy are removed as it says in first John 3 that perfect fullness of the enjoyment of Christ's presence is experience really substantively authentically spiritually in the very longings for it it's an artificial thing to separate our deepest yearnings and aching Xand longings and crying's for Christ from his presence and his sweetness and the tastes of his visits and his love that's an artificial distinction the longings are themselves a sweet taste of the bread of heaven the yearnings are themselves a sweet detection of the aroma of paradise the inconsolable desires of your soul for Christ are themselves a divine work of the Holy Spirit communicating to you in advance some measure of the sweetness of Christ himself in heaven then having spent about 20 minutes reading John Owen I turned to the next reading appointed in my pilgrimage through the Bible so I'm using the dis apple ship journal reading plan that gets me through the Bible in a year and the next text appointed for me was Romans chapter 9 and I will tell you straight up that there are three other places appointed for me to read today Deuteronomy Psalms Matthew and I did not read them this morning I will do that this evening God met me in Romans nine in such a way that I felt that to walk away from Romans nine to Deuteronomy or Matthew or Psalms would be to walk away from God's work in my life now this is a very familiar chapter to me I have read Romans nine a hundred times and I wrote a big book on the first twenty three verses of this chapter and it is the curse of fallen man that familiarity breeds contempt or at least indifference and I am not immune to being callous to scripture because I know it so well but God had prepared me through his servant John Owen my heart was in a frame a disposition a tenderness a susceptibility a readiness and for some reason and I do not know why when I got to verse 14 15 16 God showed up in an unusual way and you're right this does not happen every time I read my Bible but now this this next sentence I'm gonna say really matters because so many people say well what's the use blah blah blah no when he does it's worth a year's reading for I mean if he showed up once a year it would be worth reading every day wouldn't it I mean come on are we real or are we fake so I read this what shall we say then is there injustice on God's part by no means for he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion so then it depends not on the one who wills or runs but on God who has mercy now Paul is raising the issue of God's justice here because of his choosing Isaac over Ishmael Jacob over Esau because or before they were born or had done anything good or evil and Paul's answer's no no God is not unjust in his choice of one over the other why because I will have mercy on whom I have mercy I will have compassion on whom I have compassion this is God talking in other words because I do what I do in freedom my doings my choosing are not governed by forces outside of me John Piper I am God this is part of my glory as God and it is always just to uphold God and to it act as God in His glory and then he interprets what he means when he says that in Exodus and says my doings my choices are not owing to man's willing or running not man's choices not man's deeds but our owing to God who has mercy and all I know to say is for the next half hour or so my mind moved back and forth back and forth through Romans chapter 9 as the absolute freedom and righteousness of God washed over me subdued me broke my humph shion's shut my mouth filled me with thankfulness caused me to weep for lost people very very close to me gave me sweet assurance that God can do anything he please in this world in absolute freedom and sovereignty and therefore there is hope so much more happen but time is up and I hope that gives you a little glimpse into what you were asking about insightful thank you for I think you for taking us into your experience this morning Pastor John appreciate that and at our online home at desiring God dot org forward slash ask Pastor John you can explore our almost when now over 1200 over 1200 episodes in our archive you can scan a list of our most popular episodes read full transcripts you can send us a question of your own like this very great question today and of course to get new episodes delivered to you three times per week subscribe to the ass Pastor John podcast in your favorite podcast app while speaking of great questions none other than CS Lewis himself seemed to see the God's glory and our joy were interlinked but he also seemed to say that the penny will drop on this connection for most Christians on the other side of eternity not in this life in other words most Christians will not grasp Christian hedonism in this life so with CS Lewis say that our Labor's @dg is aiming at goals that are pre mature wow I am so glad I get to ask the questions I'm euros Dodi ranky we'll see you back here on Friday you

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 21,391

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Ask Pastor John, APJ, glory, beauty, Christ, Bible, reading, joy, feeling, happiness, measure, test, feel, hearts, glimpses of glory, foretaste, book, devotions, prayer, Bible study, reading plan, Scripture, delight, fun, thrill

Id: PCX_ZBOMei4

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 26 2018