How is radical obedience to God kindled, and what kind of preaching is needed to help kindle it? I mean obedience like the obedience of the early Christians described in Hebrews 10 who heard that their friends were in prison and went to visit them even though it cost them the plundering of their property.
The answer may surprise you.
A few years ago, I reread some portions of David Brainerd’s diary. I recalled that he had seen great repentance and contrition among the Indians at several times in his preaching. In 1745 he preached to the Indians of Crossweeksung, New Jersey, and made this observation: “It was surprising to see how their hearts seemed to be pierced with the tender and melting invitations of the Gospel, when there was not a word of terror spoken to them.
He preached on Luke 16 concerning the rich man and Lazarus. “The Word made powerful impressions upon many in the assembly, especially while I discoursed of the blessedness of Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. This, I could perceive, affected them much more than what I spoke of the rich Spring 1999 man’s misery and torments. And thus it has been usually with them … They have almost always appeared much more affected with the comfortable than the dreadful truths of God’s Word. And that which has distressed many of them under convictions, is that they found they wanted, and could not obtain, the happiness of the godly.
The same dynamic seems to occur in Luke 5. After teaching the crowds from a boat on the lake of Gennesaret, Jesus told the fishermen to push out into the deep and let down their nets.
Simon protested, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” When the nets went down they filled with so many fish that the nets started to break. Both boats were filled and started to sink.
Peter’s response was very unlike our modern self-esteeming response to grace. “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knee and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken.
Graceful conviction
What is remarkable here is that a miracle of grace, not a word of judgment, broke Peter’s heart and brought him to contrite, evangelical repentance. It was the same with the Indians of Crossweeksung and the fishermen of Galilee.
Why is that? Genuine contrition for sin is a sorrow for not having holiness. However, we must be careful here. Many a criminal will weep when his sentence is read, not because he has come to love righteousness, but because his freedom to do more unrighteousness is being taken away. To cry over the punishment for wrongdoing is no sign of hating wrong, but only hating pain. This is not true repentance, and does not lead to radical Christian obedience.
To truly weep over your sin, you must long for holiness. Genuine sorrow over un-holiness comes only from a love for holiness. True evangelical contrition, true repentance, must be preceded by a falling in love with God.
What kind of preaching produces this kind of repentance? Not only the needed biblical warnings, but even more the preaching that makes His holiness look so alluring that, by the grace of regeneration and illumination, people come to love it so much that they feel intensely its absence. Until God is our treasure, we will not grieve over falling short of Him.
The most powerful and painful acts of obedience are motivated by a supreme passion for pleasure in God. The preaching that kindles this must constantly portray God as supremely and everlastingly satisfying.
Preaching supreme pleasure
The calling of every preacher is to make the supremacy of God the theme of all his preaching so it will become the theme of his people’s lives, which shows up as radical obedience to Jesus. The source of that obedience is not a raw exertion of willpower or a sense of duty, but a passion for pleasure in God.
Why does faith produce obedience? To answer this we need to draw out the essential meaning of saving faith. Here is my working definition of the essence of faith: “being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ, especially what He promises to be for us in the age to come.
This statement emphasizes two things. One is the God-centeredness of faith. It is not merely the promises of God, but God himself that satisfies us. The other is satisfaction. Faith is not just a belief of facts about God. Faith is quenching the soul’s thirst at the fountain of God.
Growing in satisfaction with all that God is for us in Christ is the power that breaks the allurement of sin. Obedience comes from being satisfied that the pleasures of God’s right hand are better than the pleasures in the bosom of sin.
Therefore we lure people to God by portraying him week in and week out as infinitely superior to all the fleeting pleasures of sin. We cultivate in our people’s souls a thirst for God, and then satisfy it each week with refreshment from His Word.
This will make Him supreme, and this will make our people holy.
John Piper is senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church 720 13th Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN 55415www.desiringGod.org
Leadership Spring 1999 p. 41-2
