John Piper - A Love Greater Than John 3:16, Ephesians 2:4-5 We were dead, He made us alive!

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2009/3883_God_So_Lo...
This is called love—great love—in Ephesians 2:4-5: God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (cf. great mercy in 1 Peter 1:3). This is great love that goes way beyond offering to spiritually dead people that if they will believe, they will be saved. This love conquers our deadness. It gives new life, and brings us to faith, and unites us to Christ—all in one sovereign instant.

Let me read it again: God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Gods quickening love made you alive. Thats why you were able to believe (cf. John 10:16; 11:52).

C. Jesus Love for His Sheep

You can see this love going beyond John 3:16 in the way Jesus talks about his sheep in rest of the Gospel of John.

In the rest of the Gospel of John, the relationship between being a sheep of Christ and believing on Christ is not that we believe in order to become sheep, but that God makes sheep in order that we may believe. This is clear in John 10:25-26. Jesus says, The works that I do in my Fathers name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. So we dont first believe in order to be a part of Jesus flock; God makes us part of Jesus flock in order that we may believe.

This means that when Jesus says in John 10:11, The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, we know this is a greater love than John 3:16. He lays down his life for the sheep means that he dies not just to offer the sheep eternal life but to make absolutely certain that his sheep will believe on him and follow him and have eternal life. In John 10:16, Jesus looks beyond the present fold of believers and says, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. And John 11:51-52 says he died to gather them. He died in order to bring his chosen sheep to faith.

John 10:27-28: My sheep hear my voice [thats how you can tell they are sheep] and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. Why do they come? They come because the Father has chosen them and gives to Jesus. John 6:37: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. They come because God draws them. John 6:44: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. John 6:65: No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.

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[EZEKIEL3622]

see desc for entire sermon link

[mumpty]

heard the whole thing yesterday - brilliant stuff.

[vico100]

Amazing sermon.

[Glenforbes60]

Oh how we don't deserve a God like that. But gladly I will accept His gift of eternal life

[africanboybkman]

@africanboybkman light and would not come to the light because I hated it. The bible told me that I loved my sin and I was wicked. The bible told me I was dead in my sin. So what made me different from the other guy who rejected him? Nothing. ABsolutely nothing. And then after months of wrestling with God I accepted the fact that it was He who brought me to himself. And that he had an eternal love for me before he created the world. ANd once I accepted that there has been more joy in my heart.

[africanboybkman]

@apollos6640 UMm I dont know about all this Augustine or reformed Church stuff. But I came to a point in my Christianity where God kept showing me through his Word that he chose the ones who were righteous. Jacob (Chosen to be the seed of the promise land before birth) Ishmael ( CHosen to be the seed of wrath) . ANd I kept tying to fight the reality of God's Love. What made me different from the other guy who hears about Christ but rejects him. Bible said I hated him too. And that I hated the

[apollos6640]

@africanboybkman instead of attempting to "defend" your false theology by judging me as "prideful" and attacking a strawman, i would encourage you to study your Bible, Not the traditional teachings of the Reformed Church, nor the picking-and-chosing false teachings of Augustine. should i call you "prideful" for disagreeing with Richard Dawkins? you know nothing of me, yet you judge me before God,

[africanboybkman]

@apollos6640 O MAN such is your pride that you make yourself better than other men.

Such is your pride that you will take glory from your salvation. SUch is your pride that even though you were dead in your sins you say you had just enough life in to come to Christ by your own will. Such is your pride, knowing of your Heart of STone but still say that you changed your heart to want and turn to Him. SUch is your pride knowing you're evil but you say you had enough good to choose Lord of Hosts.

[apollos6640]

PIper is clearly guilty of Eisigesis, taking one verse and turning it around to text-prove "Unconditional Election".... John 11:51-52 goes hand in hand with 1 Jn. 2:2, "He is the Propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD." Piper says, @ 4:37 "why do people come to Jesus?" answer... because Jesus said, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, WILL DRAW ALL MEN TO MYSELF." Study the Scriptures and you will know that Calvinism is False.

[patrckhh20]

Where's the whole sermon?