Why God Sanctifies Us Slowly

**Chapter 1: The Daily Renewal**

Notice the implications of this word *renewed*. We are being renewed every day. If you are being renewed every day, what does that imply? It implies hope fades. Encouragement wanes. Your bucket leaks.

I find that unbelievably encouraging, that the Apostle Paul says, "I've got a secret" and it isn't a secret of how never to need renewal. You can have an experience where you don't need renewal anymore. That's not the message. In fact, the message is unbelievably realistic: day by day renewed. Which means every day you leak, every day you fade, every day you get depleted. That's what it says.

You wouldn't need to be renewed day by day if you could run your car on yesterday's gas, if your metabolism could function on yesterday's meal, if the pain in your head could be relieved on yesterday's dosage. You can't run today's life on yesterday's newness. This is just huge.

**Chapter 2: Avoiding Spiritual Burnout**

Those of you who've been Christians a while just know this. You think, "Oh yeah, I know." If you're a new believer, this is one of the most important things you can learn in your life, because it's so easy to think on the highs that come with Jesus moving into your life, "I've found it. I've risen. I'm there. I'm flying on eagle's wings." You will be.

So you gotta find ways to put the air under your wings every day. And he says, "I know how to do that. That's the secret I'm after here. I don't want to lose heart. Not a day. I want the secret of being renewed every day. Not a week, not a month. I want every day. I want to figure this out so that I can walk like this."

I know life is going to be a battle. That's the implication of renewed.

So, Paul, I really, really want what you say you have. And you say it takes renewing.

**Chapter 3: The Battle of Daily Life**

This is what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 6:34, "Each day has enough trouble of its own. Don't be anxious about tomorrow because tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own trouble."

Have you ever thought about that phrase, "its own trouble"? Like, what is today? Friday? Okay, there's Friday trouble. Guess what? There's Saturday trouble. That's what Jesus said. That's not like me being a prophet. Each day has its trouble. It's appointed. There's going to be Sunday trouble. I'm getting on a plane tomorrow, maybe the front wheel will fall off. I don't know.

**Chapter 4: New Mercies Each Morning**

Jesus said so, but you know what else Lamentations 3 said: "Sufficient for the day, the mercies of the Lord are new every morning."

Those two texts, I don't know how many years I've been using them for my soul, a lot. Every day has its own trouble. Every day has its own mercies. This is Lamentations 3:21-23 and this is Matthew 6:34. God has matched them. That's part of the secret.

Tomorrow will have its Saturday troubles and tomorrow will have its Saturday mercies. And those Saturday mercies must be tapped into by the secret here of renewing. Because I had some mercies this morning and they're not designed for tomorrow. They were designed for the day right now. I'm feeling them now. Tomorrow there's going to be new mercies.

And the secret that he's got here is, how do you get under those? How do you get in those? How do you experience those?

And I paused right here in my preparation. I asked myself the question, since this conference is under the banner of *Soli Deo Gloria* - To God alone be the glory - and I asked God, I said to Him:

**Chapter 5: God's Purpose In Weakness**

God, is there something in this text that would just give me a clue why did You set it up this way that I have to be renewed every day? I mean, You could have just bumped me up to maximum sanctification and kept me there.

You know how I know He could? Because He's gonna do it when Jesus comes back. I'll never sin again after Jesus comes back. So why am I sinning now? I mean, Lord, just do that. You're gonna do it then, just do it now.

And He says, not the plan. And just go back and borrow the text from this morning: "We have this treasure in jars of clay" for a reason. Clay that needs to be renewed every day. Clay that can't stand on its own longer than 24 hours or on yesterday's grace for 24 hours, so that the surpassing power will belong to God.

And you can get in God's face about this and say, "I don't like the plan. I don't like the plan that You leave me unsanctified and battling every day with depletion, having to be renewed on grace every day. I don't like the plan. I'd just like to be done with the battle."

And you say, "Well, that's the plan. And the reason it's the plan, I've given you some clues. I'm gonna get some glory in your life if you didn't do it this way. You know what you'd get? Pity about it. You'd think you had it made. You'd think it would start coming from you."

The fact that you can run out of gas every day puts you in the station. That's Me.

So God has His reasons for why He saves us in stages, sanctifies us slowly, makes us fill up every day at His pump, lest we forget where the gas comes from.

Affections Eternal

"Only human beings created in the image of God can enjoy God. Therefore, enjoyment matters. I mean, affections are who we are ultimately. The end of history, the end of creation, is not going to be merely rational creatures thinking rightly about God, little computers. It’s going to be people who are so perceptive spiritually of the glories of God that they are full of affections that are appropriate for those glories and can give expression to them. That’s what eternity will be.”

 Algorithms and the Affections

John Piper (Nov. 2025): “If you had thought that your essence of humanness in the image of God was your reasoning capacity, over an ape or a porpoise, you’re in trouble. Because, guess what? ChatGPT is smarter than you are and more creative than you are in expressing things in language that is good. It can write prayers better than you can, and it can reason through hard problems better than you can. Therefore, there are people who are going to forsake the faith because they thought to be a human in the image of God was to be a reasoning person over against the animals, and they discovered a machine can do it better than they can. Crisis of faith. This to me is no crisis because of my Christian Hedonism. I do not think that my reasoning capacities are my essence. I think the soul’s capacity to delight in God is my essence. The soul’s capacity to enjoy God. No machine will ever enjoy, period. It will have the language of enjoyment. You can tell it to write a poem of enjoyment and it will use the language. That machine is not enjoying *her*. It’s not. It never will.

Only human beings created in the image of God can enjoy God. Therefore, enjoyment matters. I mean, affections are who we are ultimately. The end of history, the end of creation, is not going to be merely rational creatures thinking rightly about God, little computers. It’s going to be people who are so perceptive spiritually of the glories of God that they are full of affections that are appropriate for those glories and can give expression to them. That’s what eternity will be.” Source: Sovereign Grace Churches, Pastors Conference PreCon (November 2025)

Entirely Free Purpose of Election

 “Your election, your predestination, your adoption, your inheritance, are owing entirely, freely, gloriously to God’s purpose, God’s will, God’s good pleasure, God’s counsel in eternity, and not to anything in you.” —John Piper

Feel that Life is War

 “If we’re going to sustain a heart for prayer, we’ve got to believe and feel that life is war.⁠” —John Piper

Feelings are not God.

 My feelings are not God. God is God.

My feelings do not define truth.
God’s word defines truth.
My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives.
And sometimes – many times – my feelings are out of sync with the truth.
When that happens – and it happens every day in some measure – I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.

— John Piper, Finally Alive

MULTIPLE

 "As God at first gives faith through the Word, so He also exercises, increases, confirms and perfects it through the Word." - Martin Luther

"Faith is sustained by looking at Christ, crucified and risen, not by turning from Christ to analyze your faith… Paradoxically, if we would experience the joy of faith, we must not focus much on it. We must focus on the greatness of our Savior." - John Piper Faith is not built by preaching introspectively (constantly challenging people to question whether they have faith); faith is not built by preaching moralistically (which has exactly the opposite effect of focusing attention on the self rather than on...... Christ, in whom our faith is placed); Faith is built by careful, thorough exposition of the person, character, and work of Christ.- T. David Gordon; I cannot go anywhere without Christ; I cannot perform the least duty without him here to help me; without Christ in anything, I produce nothing but stenching smoke; I cannot take my next breath without Christ by my side or his permitting me to, and neither would I want to go anywhere or do anything without him. The loveliness of Christ shines through into the darkest of dungeons or prisons, and turns them into palaces. I would be mad to wish a second to be without Christ. (Covenanted Reformation) "Nevertheless, let me tell you, that trust, confidence, reliance, and dependence, for salvation, are all acts and very solemn ones too, of divine worship: and upon whatsoever you depend, whether in whole or in part, for your acceptance with God,and for your justification in His sight, whatsoever, you rely upon, and trust in, for the attainment of grace or glory; if it be any thing short of God in Christ, you are an idolater to all intents and purposes." - Augustus Toplady

First Words

 “Let the first words out of your mouth while still on your pillow be a cry to God: ‘I need you again today.’”

Scripture Every Day -- John Piper.

 

Absolutely Essential

I have never met a mature, fruitful, strong, spiritually discerning Christian who is not full of Scripture, devoted to regular meditation on Scripture, and given to storing it in the heart through Bible memorization — and that’s not a coincidence. So, what I want to do is persuade our new believing friend that it is absolutely essential, after coming to faith in Christ, to be radically, deeply, experientially devoted — unshakably, unwaveringly persuaded — that reading and meditating on and understanding and memorizing and enjoying the Scriptures is absolutely essential for the Christian life, which would include being in the word every day with the aim that we will meet God there and, little by little, the glory of his truth will fill and transform our lives.

And that may seem obvious to them or to others, but it isn’t obvious, because I know fairly well-along Christians who don’t do this. They don’t do this, and they’ve been Christians for years, and they’re lackadaisical. They think it’s optional because they know so much already and they read so many other books. I don’t regard that as a very good habit at all. I think it’s dangerous.

Ten Reasons to Read Every Day

So, I have ten reasons that I believe this — ten reasons to make Bible reading, Bible understanding, Bible memory essential to the Christian life. Resist feelings of self-sufficiency that say, “I don’t need the Scripture every day.” Here are my ten reasons.

1. Scripture saves.

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16)

“God saves us daily by Scripture.”

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Salvation has happened to God’s people, salvation is — at this moment — happening to God’s people, and salvation will happen completely at the resurrection of God’s people, and it is happening now by means. Paul says to hold fast to the teaching and thereby save yourself. God saves us daily by Scripture.

2. Scripture frees from Satan.

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

And the context is that Jesus is showing the Jewish leaders that, though they think they are not slaves, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:44). Satan is your enemy, young Christian. He is a thousand times stronger than you are. So, John writes to the young believers,

I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God abides in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one. (1 John 2:14)

This is our only hope for defeating a supernatural enemy. Every time Jesus was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13), he struck back with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17), and he had it memorized, so he didn’t have to carry a book in the wilderness.

3. Scripture imparts grace and peace.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Peter 1:2)

Knowledge of God gained through Scripture is not identical with grace, but Peter says it is a means of grace. If we want to be made peaceful and powerful through divine grace, Peter says, it happens “in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” That knowledge is found in one place: Scripture.

4. Scripture sanctifies.

Jesus prayed,

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17)

“We’re all assigned in some measure to handle the word of God.”

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Sanctification is the process of becoming holy — that is, becoming more like Christ and like God, who is perfectly holy. This is not optional. Hebrews 12:14 says, “Strive . . . for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

We don’t become perfect in this life, but we do become holy. God sanctifies his people. And Jesus prays to his Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” It couldn’t be more plain, or more important.

5. Scripture gives joy.

You received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 1:6)

His delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:2)

Life without joy is unbearable. The Christian life is a life of many afflictions. But in them all, God sustains joy, and he does it by the Scriptures.

6. Scripture protects us from destructive error.

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God . . . so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. (Ephesians 4:13–14)

How do young Christians stop being leaves blown around by cultural and theological winds and opinions? Answer: “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” — knowledge that they experience not as the opinion of man, but as the word of God. That’s found in one place: the Scriptures.

7. Scripture is the hope of heaven.

And what I mean by this is that full understanding, full enjoyment of the truth of Scripture, will be experienced only in heaven.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

The knowledge of God — all the fullness that a created being can properly comprehend and enjoy — will not be withheld from us indefinitely. The frustrations of our present limitations of understanding and enjoyment will be removed. How fitting it is, then, that we be ever growing now in what will be our final joy in the age to come.

8. Scripture will be resisted by some.

The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. (2 Timothy 4:3)

In other words, we need to know the Scriptures so that we’re not taken off guard or knocked off balance or led away by false teachers. We need to receive the Scriptures regularly to be ready to meet those who refuse to receive the Scriptures.

9. The right handling of Scripture is approved by God.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

It is a precious thing to be assigned to do a very important task, and then to find the master worker approving of what he’s asked you to do. We’re all assigned in some measure to handle the word of God. And what a wonderful opportunity to be pleasing to the Lord.

10. Scripture gives and sustains life.

Man shall not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
    (Matthew 4:4)

Spiritual life — eternal life — just like physical life, must be fed, not by bread, but by the word of God. If you think that you have eternal life as a kind of vaccination against hell, which needs no nourishment, you don’t know what spiritual life is.

So, there are ten reasons for why young believers should resolve with all their might — all the might that God gives them — to make reading and meditating on and understanding and memorizing the Scriptures essential, nonnegotiable, in their Christian life.

LONGING TO BE HAPPY

Your longing to be happy is from God. Don’t deny it. Don’t resist it. Direct it to God, and he will satisfy it — forever.

Meaningful

[Not only is all your affliction momentary, not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there. But all of it is totally meaningful. Every millisecond of your pain, from the fallen nature or fallen man, every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience is producing a peculiar glory you will get because of that.

I don’t care if it was cancer or criticism. I don’t care if it was slander or sickness. It wasn’t meaningless. It’s doing something! It’s not meaningless. Of course you can’t see what it’s doing. Don’t look to what is seen.

When your mom dies, when your kid dies, when you’ve got cancer at 40, when a car careens into the sidewalk and takes her out, don’t say, “That’s meaningless!” It’s not. It’s working for you an eternal weight of glory.

Therefore, therefore, do not lose heart. But take these truths and day by day focus on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get alone with God and preach his word into your mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new and cared for.] -- John Piper.

LOOK AT CHRIST

‎"Faith is sustained by looking at Christ, crucified and risen, not by turning
from Christ to analyze your faith… Paradoxically, if we would experience
the joy of faith, we must not focus much on it. We must focus on the
greatness of our Savior." - John Piper

CHIEF END OF GOD

"The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever."

-- John Piper.

CONCEALS

"Religion is one of the chief ways that man conceals his unwillingness to forsake self-reliance and bank all his hopes on the unmerited mercy of God (Luke 18:9-14; Colossians 2:20-23)."

-John Piper-

FULLEST DISPLAY

Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ

~ John Piper

John Piper - Where are the faithful young men?

John Piper - The Pride of Attachment to Someone Special

NECESSARY

“Everything is necessary that [God] sends. Nothing can be necessary that he withholds.”

-- John Newton

"Pride is more fatal than death."

--John Piper

"Replacing the mercy of disapproval with tolerance is replacing medicine with poison."

--Robert Hart

“Boasting is the response of pride to success. Self-pity is the response of pride to failure.”

--John Piper

Four great quotes from a new FB friend.