Battling Unbelief - Part 8 — John Piper

Prioritizing Scripture Over Breakfast

Keeping your nose in the Bible is a good idea. We have a little saying at Bethlehem, no Bible, no breakfast, and it's a commitment on our part, some of us anyway, that if you have to choose because you're a little bit behind schedule, you choose Bible, not breakfast.

It is interesting that most people don't make that choice. They say, I didn't have time for Bible this morning, but they ate breakfast. That's an odd choice, isn't it? Which food is more important? So, as I was reflecting this morning in my own soul preparation, which is as important as overhead preparation, it occurred to me I should probably clarify something from one of the last sessions and then make that the stepping stone into where we're going in this session.

Seeking the Kingdom Without Prosperity Theology

And the clarification regards the promise in Matthew 6 .33, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And one couple came to talk to me about that, and they are in a milieu where that verse is usually taken to justify the health, wealth, prosperity, name it, claim it, word of faith kind of Christian living, and it sounded like I was saying that to them.

And so let me say what I was saying, and then give you a verse or two, and then move into this session. All things there, and in 2 Corinthians 9, 8, and in Philippians 4, 19, does not refer to everything you want from time to time.

It refers to everything you need in order to glorify God. And God calls some people to glorify Him by dying. And so if you're dying in a prison, or in the guillotine, or on the rack, or of a disease, clearly some of the all things like food, and clothing, and drink to sustain life are missing.

So when He promises, all these things will be added to you, He means exactly the amount you need in order to do what I want you to do. Could be die, could be live, could be prosper, could be have a very simple Spartan lifestyle in the city for the sake of the kingdom.

It's not clear from that text that you can apply it to, I want a BMW, and God says all things will be given to me if I seek the kingdom, and so for the sake of the BMW, we lay hold on it. So clarification.

Rejoicing in God Amid Material Loss

The text that I quoted in a recent sermon, I think it was last Sunday in fact, that my wife and I chose is crucial. Chose for our wedding. Though the fig tree, this is Habakkuk 317, though the fig tree should not blossom, nor in the fruit of the olive fail, there be no food in the fields, and there be no flocks in the stall, and there be no herd, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will joy in the God of my salvation. That's an amazing statement. Food is missing both on the vine and in the field, and this farm is devastated, and I will rejoice. And he didn't say in the sure accomplishment of rescue.

He said, I will rejoice in God, the God of my salvation. There will be a salvation. This side or the other side of the grave, God is God, and he is mine. And when God is your God, you will live forever with ever-increasing joy, but not necessarily prosper here.

Prayer for Hearts That Burn Through Scripture

Let me pray again. Father in heaven, I want so much that your word be heard in its proper proportions. Grant, I pray, that as we unpack the practicalities of living by faith in future grace, you would help us to understand each other and mainly understand the scriptures.

I want it to be true of us what was true of those on the road to Emmaus. Did not our hearts burn within us when he opened to us the scriptures? So grant that our hearts would burn for Christ as we hear his word.

I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me give you an overview of where we've been so that you can see where we're going more clearly. Foundations or passions underneath this seminar were three, a passion for the supremacy of God in all things.

God's Supremacy, Christian Joy, and Practical Holiness

1 Corinthians 10 .31, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. Your whole life, every moment of every day should be making God look good. That's the point of it. That's the passion we should have.

Number two, rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. Philippians 4 .4, a passion for joy in the Lord should be moment by moment, steady state, daily passion and desire. I want to be more content in God, more satisfied in God, more happy in God, delighting more in God.

That should burn as a passion in our lives. Third, a passion for practical holiness or, we said, love. We're going to talk about both in these sessions. Pursue holiness without which you will not see the Lord.

So the question we asked then, what lifestyle, what way of living fulfills a passion for God's supremacy, fulfills a passion for joy, and fulfills a quest to be a holy and radically sacrificially loving person?

My answer is, living by faith in future grace has a key in it that does all three of those. And how that works is the aim of this seminar. How is it that living by faith in future grace does that? But what we focused on last time was the biblical dynamics, the biblical foundations of it.

Faith in Future Grace and the Defeat of Sin

Let me just summarize those for you, and then we move into the how questions in this session and beyond. We talked about the nature of faith. It works. It's not dormant. It works. It produces. Works of faith, Paul talks about.

We talked about its future nature. It's not just looking past to Jesus. It's looking future to his promises. In fact, the dynamic that severs the root of sin is the future orientation of faith. And we said it is a being satisfied in all that God is for us in Jesus.

So faith has a future orientation on the promises of God. It has an affectional essence, which is a being satisfied in all that God promises to be for us. And therefore, it severs the root of sin, which has power by virtue of lying promises, and it does works of love.

Then we talked about grace. Grace is not just God's disposition to send Jesus. It is power arriving moment by moment. We said it's good to look back at past grace, this river coming to us of promises from the future breaking over the present waterfall of our lives and gathering in a great reservoir of memory and history so that we stand here looking back with gratitude, looking forward with faith in future grace ever arriving to get us through this seminar and through eternity.

So grace is power arriving, and we talked about the function of gratitude and the dangers of trying to make gratitude do what it was never designed to do, namely empower your life in future obedience.

We need the assurance that there will be fresh grace for this hour lest we try to take past grace and make gratitude our engine for sustaining life. We can't do it by gratitude or any other means. We can only do it with fresh grace, and the human act that embraces and receives that grace is faith, faith in ever arriving future grace offered to us in the promises of God in the Bible.

The Holy Spirit Glorifies Christ Through Faith

We talked about that. And then we talked about the role of the Holy Spirit, got a little clarification on the agency of the Spirit, helped me to think about that a little bit. The Holy Spirit has a role in this dynamic of how faith produces the works of love, and He does so by being the agent that bears the fruit, but He has an instrument through which He works, and it is faith.

Does He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by... So the Spirit has a by, by works of the law or hearing with faith, hearing promises, hearing gospel, and believing. Does the Holy Spirit work in you love and miracles, hope, power, holiness?

Does He do it by this? No. By this, yes, hearing by faith. So the fight to hear the Word of God, no Bible, no breakfast, lest I not be filled with the Holy Spirit today because the Spirit works by hearing with faith.

Why does the Holy Spirit do it that way? We said because He wants to glorify Jesus. He doesn't want to arrive and become the main actor. He wants to arrive and be the quiet, humble, invisible member of the Trinity, calling attention to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He came to glorify the Son. Therefore, the Son and all that the Son accomplished, purchased, and promised is to be the conscious focus of our minds. And the work of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to that point.

And so we pray, O Holy Spirit, open my eyes to see the glory of the Son of God. Open my eyes to see the all-sufficiency of His purchase as a great foundation. And open my eyes to see the magnificence of His promises, especially the promise of fellowship with Himself.

And the Holy Spirit, when He hears a prayer like that, says, that's my job description. Of course, I'm going to do that. Yes, I will do that if that's what you want. And so He is absolutely essential in our living by faith in future grace.

We do not minimize the essentiality of the function of the Holy Spirit, even though we will make much now of the power of faith to sever the root of sin. I never mean that apart from the Holy Spirit. So that's a summary of where we've been, and I close by saying it's a fight, the fight of faith, and join me in it.

Examining Daily Devotional Habits

I just confronted a guy the other day because I wanted to know how he's doing. And I just said, kind of talk to me about your devotional life. So he gave me general comments, and I just felt and say, okay, this morning, tell me what you did before we met.

Did you have a season of prayer? And he said, no. Asking general questions does not always tell you where people are. They kind of generalize about their life. I try, I read the Bible, blah, blah, blah.

How about this morning before you came here? Just give me the breakdown of the minutes. You need to be in each other's lives like that because we deceive ourselves and each other, and I need people in my life to say, okay, you talk a lot about no Bible, no breakfast.

How about this morning, Piper? How about this morning? Let's go to covetousness. This is big for Americans and everybody, but we have a lot of stuff in America. So what's the definition of covetousness, and how does living by faith in future grace defeat covetousness?

Covetousness as Discontentment and Idolatry

Definition, desiring something not for God's glory or in such a way that we lose our contentment in God, and it can be anything, innocent or bad. It can be a wife or a potential wife, and it can be ministry.

There are desires that are out of whack. They're out of proportion to the value of the stuff desired, and it's called covetousness when we are not desiring something for God's glory, and when the desire for it and not having it tends to make us lose our contentment in God, or the desire for it and having it makes us lose our contentment in God.

So is it idolatry? It is. Colossians 3, 5, therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed. It's covetousness, which amounts to idolatry.

Isn't that remarkable? Now, I don't know if you've noticed that the connection between covetousness and idolatry is in the Ten Commandments as a bracket. The first of the Ten Commandments is, you shall have no other gods before me.

Don't commit idolatry. And the last of the Ten Commandments is, you shall not covet. What's the relationship between those two? Don't commit idolatry. Don't desire or cherish or treasure anything above me.

And that's the definition of don't covet. It's the same commandment, I think. And it puts the Ten Commandments in a living by faith in future grace sandwich, a Christian hedonist sandwich. The big battle in these stealing, lying, adulterous issues, the big battle in here is, do you value God more than stuff?

Don't let anything become your god. Don't covet. And if you succeed at those two, the ones in the middle are going to happen. That's the reason they don't happen is because we are not trusting, resting, delighting in God.

This verse right here is one of the clearest illustrations, Hebrews 13, 5 and 6, one of the clearest illustrations of the dynamic of living by faith in future grace in regard to covetousness in the Bible.

Probably the clearest in the Bible. So watch it. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money. The alternative of craving money is be content with what you have. And then comes the ground.

How do you get to be like that? How do you battle for contentment that frees you from the love of money, which makes you a loving person for others rather than a greedy, covetous person? Ground four, he has said something.

We're talking promises here, defeat covetousness. He said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. So now you, on the basis of that, we, on the basis of that, can confidently say, and then he quotes Scripture again, the Lord is my helper.

I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? So if you are tempted to love money, tempted to be greedy, tempted to lay up treasures on earth, one of the verses in your arsenal by which you put to death the deeds of the body is no.

He's told me something. He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. People can't do anything to you. I'm on your side. I'll meet your needs. Now, I said, I think, at the beginning of last session, or whenever it was, that I was going to show you a text for why, in Philippians 4, the all things of Matthew 6 .33 does not imply everything that you want, but everything you need.

Philippians 4 and the Meaning of “All Things”

Matthew 6 .33 says, seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And I've said, all you need to be a martyr, or all you need to minister in the city, or what you need to do God's will.

Now, watch this. Philippians 4 .19, my God will supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. So, all your needs, absolutely promised, no qualification. The question is, what's that?

What's needs? Now, back up, what, six verses in the chapter, so that we're in Paul's mind as we read that verse. Don't take verses so out of context. You don't know what's flowing in and what's flowing out.

So, let's back it up. Verse 11, not that I speak of want, need, for I have learned to be content, content, be content with what you have, God has said. I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am, whatever circumstances I am.

I know how to get along with humble means, and I know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, having abundance and suffering need.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. I can remember the early days when I saw this, I was teaching at Bethel, and I would use it in devotions in class to teach contextual interpretation.

Make sure you don't take a verse out of context. And so, I would quote a text that almost all my students knew. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. And I would say to the class, give me some examples of all things.

They would say, finish my homework, be a faithful witness, just all kinds of triumphs. They were all triumphs because that's the way we learned the verse. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

I triumph. And half of the ones he mentions here are not triumph at the external level. What does this all things include? I can do all things. I can suffer need. I can go hungry. I can live in humble means.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me, even die. Now, knowing that he has just said that, when I get to chapter 4, verse 19, and he says, my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

I take this all to be the same as that all. It would be totally unwarranted of me, having just read this, to say, He will give you the car you want. He'll give you the ring you want. He'll give you the suit you want.

He'll give you the house you want. He'll give you, give you, give you all this stuff. When in fact, the all things includes being without things and going hungry, because those are not what needs are here.

That's why I go to numerous other texts in the Bible, and I'm ready to be careful now that when Jesus says, seek my kingdom first, and all these things will be added to you, I'm real slow to say everything I want will be added to me.

And I'm very quick to say, very likely, He means something like that. And then you read the rest of the things Jesus says, and you know that's what He means, because He promises we're going to get killed.

We're going to get thrown into prison. We're going to be beaten in synagogues. And so the all things, this prosperity thing, don't count on it. In fact, don't even want it, but don't have covetousness, because He's going to meet everything you need.

He's going to do it. I'm going to skip these pages, I think. Gracious warnings about the dangers of desiring money and things. These are not promises, these are warnings. Warnings are the flip side of promises that say, if you don't embrace the promise of hope, here's what's going to happen, and that should scare you, scare unbelief out of you, and send you running to the promises.

Praying for a Heart Inclined Toward God’s Testimonies

So all these negative things said about money are there, and I'm going to pass over it. Go here. Pray for a heart for the truth and not money. Pray for a heart that falls out of love with money. Psalm 119 .36, incline my heart to your testimonies and not to getting gain.

Do you pray about the inclinations of your heart mostly? Teach your children, model for your spouse how to pray about spiritual things, because most people who are either unbelievers or immature believers or carnal believers pray not about spiritual things.

They do pray, but they pray about material things. Lord, help us to be healthy. Lord, give us safety on our trip. Lord, help the visit with Joe to go well. And on and on, all things that the devil would ask for.

They're not wrong, they're just no evidence that you're a Christian. So what do Christians pray for mainly? They pray for this mainly. Father, teach your nine-year-old to pray like this, because nine-year-olds by default do not pray like this.

There has to be a spiritual awakening and some instructional pouring in to the awakening so that a nine-year-old will learn how to pray about her little bent heart. She should learn how to pray about her heart, not about her stuff.

You don't condemn her for praying about her stuff, that's fine. Yes, we pray about our stuff, but mainly you want to say, Lord, my heart is inclining towards gain, money. Please forgive me and take hold of my wayward heart and incline it to your word.

That's the way Christians pray. They pray about their inclinations. They pray about their heart condition. They have language that is spiritual about what God needs to do on them to make them what they ought to be and what their spouses and daughters and what their church should be.

They don't just say vague things like, make it go well or give us a good service or all these words that say nothing about what you really want to happen spiritually. Be spiritual in praying toward heart inclinations towards God's word.

So, if you're battling with covetousness, pray that and go and get specific anti-covetous promises.