The Rest Were Hardened - Part 6 — John Piper

God's Sovereignty in the Book of Daniel

Right now, I mean, Daniel, well, Daniel is a book all about the sovereignty of God. Right. And so you've got these four or five statements. God lifts up kings and he puts down kings. He brings the King Darius against the others and they fall and he comes up.

The Decree Against Daniel

And I mean, sovereignty is everywhere, just moving nations around. Daniel's the one who's communicating all of that sovereignty to the sovereigns on Earth. And it says they got this decree that anybody who praised any God, but the which one was it, Darius, will be thrown in the lion's den.

Daniel's Courage Before the Lions' Den

And you got this sentence when Daniel heard the decree, he went up, as was his custom, and knelt down in front of the window. Where'd that come from? That's crazy. That's suicide. Unless he really believed what he'd been preaching.

Trusting God's Sovereignty in Catastrophe

God puts up kings, God takes kings down, God shuts fiery furnaces, God shuts lions mouths. My prayer is that even if you can't see it, the wrestling with and the embracing of God's absolute sovereignty over all things, including your will, will sustain you in times when almost everything else is saying.

This will only be a catastrophe. So don't walk with God here. Rather, you'd be able to say. No, you're sovereign, you're able, no matter whose will seems to be opposed against me, you can triumph, nothing can stand in your way.

Confidence That No Human Will Can Trump God's Will

No human will can trump your will. I tell you, I think there's going to come into your lives sooner or later experiences where you're going to need that confidence. And I think I pray, I hope that this truth, as difficult as it may seem, will be a means of God's making you strong.

Loving Jewish People Toward Salvation

Oh, that God would grant us to make, as Peter says, our calling and our election sure by loving indiscriminately all peoples. And I say especially the Jewish people. The Jew first and also to the Greek stands yet today.

If you have any contact with the Jewish people, if you know any Jewish friends, love them with all your might. Lay down your life for your Jewish friends, that they might. Come to Christ and be saved.

Prayer for Grace Beyond Legalism

Father in heaven. We as a church in five services this weekend. Tremble before your sovereignty. We tremble with confidence that we have been made your own because there has been awakened in us a love to Christ and a trust in Christ.

And we have seen the gospel, not as foolishness, but as beauty and glory, our life, our righteousness, our redemption, our wisdom. And I pray now that as we close in song, everyone would see it. Would you take the blindness away?

Would you take the deafness away? Would you cause the table no longer to be a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a retribution? But may every good thing in our life send us up to you in Thanksgiving and not become an idol to us.

And oh God, may we not bend our backs under legalism, trying to impress you or work for you or perform for you as though we could do anything to commend ourselves to your sovereign electing grace. Oh God, grant, I pray that instead we would simply receive and that we would make much now of your great grace, grace that is greater than all our sins.