Matthew Stuckey here and I wanted to make a video on John Piper's teaching of
Christian hedonism. And John Piper, this has been his bread and butter for a long
time and he wrote the book Desiring God and he has Desiring God Ministries and
what he basically teaches, he says he's a Christian hedonist, that God is most
glorified when we take pleasure in him. That doesn't sound so bad on the outset
because obviously there is some truth to that which we'll talk about here in a
second but it is a very dangerous teaching. This is on my mind because I'm
actually preaching against the false philosophy of hedonism this weekend and
I'm kind of mainly looking at the aspect of going after the lust of the flesh
like adultery, fornication, drinking, things such as that. There's different
avenues to hedonism. For example, Buddhists try to remove suffering in
order to end up having happiness and I've never really heard of Christian
hedonism so much outside of John Piper but that's kind of outside the scope of
my sermon so I'm gonna deal with it in this video. And so first off let me say
that there is some truth to what John Piper's saying because the Bible actually
says that we are rewarded not simply for the works that we do but also what we
actually you know feel on the inside. It says in 1st Corinthians 4 verse 5
therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring
to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of
the heart and of the hearts. So what the Bible says is you know the counsel of
the heart it actually matters. It's not just that you do actions but you
actually supposed to do it for the right reason and God is going to make
that manifest. However I will say what's dangerous about John Piper's teaching is
he basically throws this all onto feelings and he's negating actually the
actions of reading the Bible, going soul winning, memorizing the Bible and he's
saying it's all about just having a desire or a love for God in your heart
but that's very subjective by the person and everybody feels like they love God
in their heart but the proof of your love is actually your actions because if
you love me keep my commandments and you always see in the Bible that you know
love implies action for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
and so in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 what the Bible says is and every man shall
receive his own reward according to his own labor. So the emphasis is on the work
that you do. Of course soul winning is a large part of that but also just you
know serving God obeying his commandments reading the Bible memorizing
the Bible laying down your life for other people and caring about them all
those things are attached to this so God is glorified by our actions the Bible
teaches this 1st Corinthians 6 verse 19 and 20 what know you not that your body
is the temple the Holy Ghost which is in you which you have God and you're not
your own for your bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and
in your spirit which are God. So the Bible says glorify God in your body
abstain from wicked sins once again if you love me keep my commandments. John
15 verse 8 hearing is my father glorified that you bear much fruit so
shall you be my disciples. God is glorified when you bear fruit when you
get people saved. Now John Piper is sitting here saying that it's all about
just having a desire and a love for God and that's when God is glorified yet we
just read a verse where he clearly says he's glorified by you winning souls to
the Lord bearing much fruit and earlier he talked about us glorifying God in our
bodies so us abstaining from sin obeying his commandments winning souls the Lord
God is glorified by that so it is not just having a love for God on the inside
but it's actually the actions that you do. Now I will say if you do have a love
for God then actions are gonna end up coming forth from that and so there is
some truth to what John Piper saying but it's dangerous because he's taken away
from your actions and just onto feelings and people can feel like they
love God and they can say hey it's all about loving God and I love him that's
how he's glorified while they're not doing any actions. One of the examples
that John Piper gives is this he says if I were to come to my wife and tell her
honey I love you I'm taking you out for dinner and I'm doing this because I love
you so much and there's nothing I'd rather do right now than just spend time
with you and he says no wife will be upset if her husband says what makes me
happy is just spending time with you but but here's the thing why that's a
misleading statement okay because of the fact you know your wife is gonna be
happy that you take her out for each she's take her out to eat she's gonna be
happy with the actions now I do believe we ought to express our words to the
people that we care about tell our our spouses tell our kids tell our parents
that we love them but the actions I mean haven't you ever heard of actions
speak louder than words now of course actions might be a manifestation of the
heart but they might not be a manifestation of the heart but the bottom
line is my wife's gonna be happy if I actually am doing things for her and
taking her out to eat so it's not just this feeling it's actually actions it's
not just saying telling your wife that you love her it's actually the actions
associated with it he says this about triumphing over sin I know of no other
way to triumph over sin long term than to gain a distaste for it because of a
superior satisfaction in God what he says is you will never be able to fight
against sin unless it's because of the fact you have a greater love for God
okay now look this is not a true statement because of the fact let's just
think of this logically if you go on a diet and you're trying to lose weight
you say man the only way I'm gonna be successful in this diet is if I just
love so much being on this diet that I'm just not gonna eat anything unhealthy
well look you can just wait for that feeling your entire life but you know
what it's probably never gonna come the actual secret is to remove all the junk
food from your house and to put not put yourself in the position where you could
actually eat the junk food if you're trying to get over drinking alcohol or
smoking cigarettes instead of waiting for the feeling what do you do not put
yourself in position to actually drink alcohol or to smoke Jesus Christ when he
was tempted by the devil what did he do he quoted the Word of God he quoted the
book of Deuteronomy three separate occasions and so that's something you
can do to fight against sin quoting the Word of God so don't put yourself in a
position to do wrong anyone quote the Word of God when you're dealing or
struggling with some sort of sin if you happen to be in a situation and so you
think of Joseph in the Old Testament who just ran out of that house he didn't
just say well you know I'm waiting for this feeling to love God so much he
didn't give himself an opportunity to commit that sin and when you do give
yourself an opportunity like David and Bathsheba that is what can end up
happening so giving people this idea that it's all about just loving God in
your heart and just have a satisfaction for God no actually you need to teach
people to avoid those situations and in the bottom line is what really sums this
up is that your feelings follow your actions your feelings follow your
actions and what John Piper is saying is basically the opposite he's saying you
wait for the feeling and you what then you're gonna have actions because of the
feeling but what does the Word of God say Job 31 verse 7 if my step hath
turned out of the way and mine heart walked after mine eyes he says mine
heart can walk after mine eyes so you allow yourself to see something you have
the wrong action and your feelings are going to follow that Ecclesiastes 2
verse 10 and whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them I withheld
not my heart for many joy so first Solomon says it enters into his eye and
then it enters into his heart and then he actually did the actions not just
looking but actually partaking in those and then it says you know Matthew 6
verse 21 for where your treasure is there will your heart be also so the
Bible says where your treasure is there will your heart be also so whatever you
know is your treasure whatever you invest your time and your energy and
your money into the Bible says that your heart is actually gonna follow I want to
express to you the hypocrisy in what John Piper's saying I'm gonna quote from
John Piper here and then just show you how he's a complete hypocrite with some
of the things he's saying he says God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves
referring to financially no matter how thankfully what we ought to be using to
alleviate the misery of unevangelized uneducated unmedicated and unfed
millions the evidence that many professing Christians have been deceived
by this doctrine is how little they give and how much they own so here John
Piper's talking about how we ought to just give money because if you really
love God you're gonna give money and so as much as he he preaches against the
Pentecostals it sounds like he's doing the same sort of thing saying if you
really love God you're just gonna give your money and says God has prospered
them and by an almost irresistible law of consumer culture baptized by a
doctrine of health wealth and prosperity they have bought bigger and more houses
never newer cars fancier clothes better meet in all manner of trinkets and
gadgets containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun they
will object does not the Old Testament promise that God will prosperous people
indeed God increases our yield so that by giving we can prove our yield is not
our God God does not prosper a man's business so that he can move from a
forward to a Cadillac God prospers a business so that 17,000 unreached people
can be reached with the gospel he prospers the business so that 12% of the
world's population can move a step back from the precipice precipice of
starvation and so John Piper says in this quote that when it comes to
basically you know the proof that we don't really love God is because of the
fact we're not giving money and this is really the root of it and the love of
money is the root of all evil but here's the thing about this if you're
gonna say that John Piper if you're gonna say that God is not happy when
you're withholding money then why is it that you are a multi-millionaire why is
it you you are worth more than 10 million dollars why is it that you have
a nice house why is it that you have nice things now I personally am NOT
against somebody having money I'm not against job I don't think job was a
sinful person because he had a lot John Piper made a lot of money through his
books and you know what that money belongs to him if I were to write books
and become a multi-millionaire then that money would belong to me but here's the
difference I'm not saying you've got to give all that money to the poor got to
give all that money in order to help you know for the gospel and things such as
that John Piper saying that people don't really love God because they're not
giving everything God has prospered you financially but the reason why is in
order that you can give for his work and things for him as opposed to for
yourself that sounds really good except for the fact John Piper is a
multi-millionaire John Piper is a hypocrite he's not actually living by
that if he was actually living by that and leading a very simple and minimalist
life then you know what I'd be like okay but the bottom line is John Piper is not
living that simple life John Piper is a multi-millionaire he's not giving it all
for the work of the Lord and so he is a complete hypocrite and he's teaching
this doctrine of you need to desire God and the proof is through you giving
money that's what he ties it down to and so this is a ploy for him to be able to
get a lot of money that people donate and you know what people actually do now
I want to read you John MacArthur's review of desiring God his of the
review of John Piper's book desiring God desiring God is a paradigm shattering
work that dramatically alters common perspectives on relating to God Piper
reveals that there really is no need to choose between duty and delight in the
Christian life in fact for the follower of Jesus the light is the duty as Christ
is most magnified in his people when they are most satisfied in him
constantly drawing on scripture to build his case Piper shows why pursuing
maximum joy is essential to glorifying God no actually sometimes you have to
decide on duty over desire because you know what I always tell people if you
don't enjoy reading the Bible read it and it will cause you to enjoy it why
your feelings follow your actions and look sometimes you have to do things out
of duty not because you have a desire to do it because it's right to do it look
if you make a vow or say you're going to do something you're expected to hold
that you know even if you change your mind and it's going to hurt you and you
don't want to do it you don't have the time you're expected to abide by that
because of the fact you made a vow and you sometimes have to choose between
duty and desire and the bottom line is if you're actually doing the works it's
going to actually cause you to love God say how do you know that well this is
what Jesus said if you know these things happy are ye if you do them now John
chapter 13 in the context he's talking about laying down his life for other
people and he's like if you know these things you know what the Word of God
says about caring about other people more than yourself if you actually do
this you're going to be happy and so the secret to a Christian actually being
happy is actually lay down their life for other people and this is what God
commands having the mind of Christ let this mind be in you which was also in
Christ Jesus and it talks about him laying down his life and this is right
after it says to not look on the things of yourself but look on the things of
others to care about other people more than yourself is what the Bible teaches
and so look this idea of Christian hedonism and we should be pursuing
pleasure and that's the ultimate thing and that's what's going to glorify God
that's actually not the emphasis in the Bible the emphasis in the Bible is your
works now of course people can be hypocritical and do works but not for
the right reasons of course we understand that and God will one day
make it manifest why people did their actions and if they did it just to be
seen of men then they have their reward here on earth but the bottom line is
your feelings follow your actions and what God emphasizes is doing the work
keeping my commandments and I can say as a personal testimony that when I threw
out my rock music when I throw out my worldly movies I didn't really want to do
it but I thought I should do it I had to decide between you know duty and delight
I still wanted to listen to the rock music but I did it out of duty and as
time went by and I sung the Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs I found myself
enjoying the godly music as opposed to the worldly sinful music that I used to
listen to when I first started reading the Bible I can't say that I
particularly enjoyed it that much because a lot of it went over my head I
didn't understand a lot but I started reading the Bible and I started to enjoy
it when I started going soul winning I was scared I was nervous but as you
start going and you start learning how to do it you know what it really caused
you to start enjoying it so look the bottom line is your feelings follow your
actions and what John Piper's teaching here is this is all about the feeling
that's a very dangerous teaching because of the fact there's many people
that feel like they love God but their actions would speak otherwise and you
know what the action your works are actually the proof and so trying to say
well we as Christians it's Christian hedonism it's all about seeking you know
pleasure in God you know it's it's about obeying God's commandments and doing
what he said and you know the great thing as a Christian is this that if you
actually obey and do what God says it will cause you to love God but to tell
people that they should just ultimately just go for pleasure in God no actually
you should be commanding people to obey God's commandments have a personal walk
with God and the great thing is the feelings will follow the actions thank
you and God bless