Until we feel the overwhelming sense of how corrupt, and rebellious, and sinful, and wicked, the human heart is.

We will not appreciate the words called of Christ Jesus.

What causes our hearts to worship upon hearing that we have been called by God?

That's the question John Piper answers from Romans 1, 6, and 7 in this episode of Light and Truth.

The sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on May 17, 1998.

Paul begins his letter, the greatest letter that's ever been written, the most influential letter in the history of the world, bar none, no doubt about it.

This is the most significant letter that's ever been written in the history of the world, and he begins it by identifying himself.

But he does that in a way that calls all attention to what has been done to him by God, rather than what he's done for God.

Paul, servant, or slave of Christ Jesus, in other words, I've been bought by the blood of Christ, I've been owned, I've been ruled, I belong to another, I'm a slave.

Secondly, called to be an apostle, I got called, I was on the way to persecute Christ, he called me on the Damascus road.

That happened to me, I didn't do that for him, he did that, he did that for me.

Third, set apart for the gospel of God, that happened before he was born, Galatians 115, set apart for my mother's womb for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So he didn't do that for God, God did that for him, so he introduces himself as one who has been acted upon, from which I get this lesson which will tie into verse 6 in just a moment.

Paul's grasp of grace, his understanding of grace in his gospel is so profoundly influenced by his own experience of grace.

So when he comes to talk about grace, or to talk about himself, or to talk about the church, he can't help but talk about what God does.

First, before he talks about what we do, and I don't mean to imply, I don't mean to minimize that what you do is unimportant because we saw last week from verse 5 that the aim of the apostolic ministry is the obedience of faith.

If we don't out of faith obey Christ, the apostolic ministry aborts in its intention.

So I don't mean to minimize it, what I do mean is it's not the main thing, what you do is not the main thing, it's not the first thing.

And Paul, in talking about himself, or in talking about the church here, talks about the main thing, first, namely what God did.

And he begins here in verse 6 with two magnificent loaded words to describe the church, start reading verse 6.

Among whom, and that refers back to the Gentiles in verse 5, let me stick in a parenthesis that I really should have put in last week with reference to that phrase among all the Gentiles in verse 5.

We divided verse 5 into three parts. Grace and apostleship was given. Why? What's the purpose? The purpose is to bring about the obedience that comes from faith. Among whom, and we indwell on this, among all the Gentiles, or all the nations, or all the peoples.

...