Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Do We Have to Enjoy God to Believe

Transcript

Do We Have to Enjoy God to Believe · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: If joy is so prominent and dominant and central to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the Book of Philippians, what's the relationship between joy and faith,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: joy and the Gospel. Because I think most interpreters of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: this book would arrive at verse twenty seven of chapter
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: one and say this is probably the main point of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the book. One twenty seven says, only lead your lives,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: walk or live worthy of the Gospel. So walking worthy
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: of the Gospel, being citizens of Heaven on the earth,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: as the Word implies, in a way that makes the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Gospel look valuable or worthy or beautiful is the point
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: of the book. Live like that, walk like that. And
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I think I'm okay with that, provided we understand what
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: walking or living as worthy of the Gospel means. So
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: if you, if you keep reading, it says only that
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: only let your matter of life be worthy of the Gospel,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: so that whether I come and see you or am absent,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: I may hear of you that you are standing firm
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: for the faith of the Gospel, which I take to
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: mean this is Paul's way of saying, how the Gospel
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: is shown to be magnificent or worthy, or beautiful or valuable. Namely,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: you are arm in arm pursuing the faith of the Gospel.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: It's when the gospel is believed that makes it look worthy.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: It's just the existence of the Gospel. But we connect
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: with it and show it to be worthy where and
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: we strive to advance the faith in it and deepen
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the faith in it. And my question is why is that?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Why does faith in the Gospel of Christ make the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Gospel look magnificent? Because the devils believe and tremble, and
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: they don't make the Gospel look great by believing the gospel.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: So there must be something about the nature of true
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: belief in the gospel, true faith of the Gospel, that
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: causes the Gospel to look worthy that the devils don't do.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: One clue is just back up two verses. I think
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: to verse twenty five where it says I want to remain.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Paul is talking about whether I'm going to go to
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: heaven or stay on the earth, and he says, I
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: am sure. I'm convinced I'm going to stay here for
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: your advancement. And joy of faith literal translation, joy of faith.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Now what is that is that joy? That is the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: fruit of faith? So joy and faith are different. And
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: as soon as you have faith, you have joy or
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: is joy a constituent element, an ingredient in what faith
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: really is? Now my answer to that is the latter.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I think joy in Christ is part of what faith is.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: And here's the reason. Let's go over to chapter three,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: verse eight, very central verse in Paul's Affections, he says,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I count everything is lost for the surpassing value of
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Indeed, everything is lost, so
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: that in order that I might gain Christ Jesus. Count
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: everything is lost, whinst them as loss in order that
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: I might gain Christ Jesus. Well, I thought we gained
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Christ Jesus through faith. And here's Paul saying, I value
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Jesus supremely, and I count everything else as less valuable
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: in order that I might gain Christ. And I want
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to ask, now, how does that relate to gaining Christ
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: by faith? Well, the very next verse says, in order
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: that I might gain Christ and be found in Him,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: not having a righteousness of my own that comes from law,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: but the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ Jesus.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: So in verse eight he says, I am counting everything
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: as loss and treasure in Christ above all things, finding
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: my full satisfaction in Christ in order that I might
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: gain Christ. And in verse nine he says, I gain
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Christ in his righteousness, not by works of the law,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: but through faith in Christ Jesus. And my way of
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: putting those together is to say that unnecessary, constituent, essential
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: element of saving faith is treasuring Christ above all things.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Now go back to chapter one, verse twenty seven. Only
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: that is, live in such a way as to call
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: attention to the worth of the Gospel. Do it by
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: linking arms and pursuing the faith of the Gospel, which
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I now take to mean not just believing that the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Gospel is true, not just even trusting that certain facts
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: and events will happen because of Christ, but rather I
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: also mean treasuring. I mean the Philippians three to eight
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: kind of satisfaction in Him is part of what saving
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: faith is. So my answer to the question how does
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: joy relate to the Gospel and faith is that joy
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: is an essential element of faith, and when we live
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: by that kind of faith, we show the Gospel to
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: me to be magnificent. There's another text, just one more,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: where this is drawn out this relationship between faith and joy.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: In Second Corinthians, Chapter one, verse twenty four, Paul says,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: not that we lord it over your faith, but we
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: are workers with you for your joy. And you would
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: have expected him to say, not that we lorded over
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: your faith, but we work with you for your faith.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: He really does say, only he switches words, not that
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: we lord it over your faith, but we are workers
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: with you for your joy. And I think you could
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: say joy of faith, joy, which is part of what
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: faith is. So the Gospel of Christ is most magnified
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: glorified in us when the Christ of the Gospel satisfies
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: us most deeply. So yes, I think verse twenty seven
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: of chapter one can be seen as the main point
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of the book, provided we pour into it everything in
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the immediate vicinity, as well as three eight and nine,