Sex And the Supremacy of Christ!

John Piper from the Conference: Sex & The Supramcy of Christ

Piper said, based on the conviction that beholding, seeing, and savoring Christ as the blazing and glorious center to our solar system of existence, holding all of the planets—including the planet of our sexuality—in place in their perfectly designed orbits. We distort God’s gifts, especially our sexuality, when we do not consider Christ supremacy in all things. He claims in the first sermon that knowledge of God guards and guides our sexuality. He says that for a small heart satisfied with small things small lusts will have large power, but for a heart satisfied with the supremacy of Christ in all things, small lusts will have small power.
Therefore, in his second sermon on Sex and the Supremacy of Christ (the conference site can be found here; I strongly recommend that you go and get all of the sermons and prayfully listen to them) he says:
 
“We must know…

• the supremacy of his deity, equal with God the Father in all his attributes—the radiance of his glory and the exact imprint of his nature, infinite, boundless in all his excellencies;
• the supremacy of his eternality that makes the mind of man explode with the unsearchable thought that Christ never had a beginning, but simply always was; sheer, absolute reality while all the universe is fragile, contingent, like a shadow by comparison to his all-defining, ever-existing substance;
• the supremacy of his never-changing constancy in all his virtues and all his character and all his commitments—the same yesterday, today, and forever;
• the supremacy of his knowledge that makes the Library of Congress look like a matchbox, and all the information on the Internet look like a little 1940’s farmers almanac, and quantum physics—and everything Stephen Hawking ever dreamed—seem like a first-grade reader;
• the supremacy of his wisdom that has never been perplexed by any complication and can never be counseled the wisest of men;
• the supremacy of his authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch, who changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings; does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; so none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
• the supremacy of his providence without which not a single bird falls to the ground in the furthest reaches of the Amazon forest, or a single hair of any head turns black or white;
• the supremacy of his word that moment by moment upholds the universe and holds in being all the molecules and atoms and subatomic world we have never yet dreamed of;
• the supremacy of his power to walk on water, cleanse lepers and heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear and storms to cease and the dead to rise, with a single word, or even a thought;
• the supremacy of his purity never to sin, or to have one millisecond of a bad attitude or an evil, lustful thought;
• the supremacy of his trustworthiness never to break his word or let one promise fall to the ground;
• the supremacy of his justice to render in due time all moral accounts in the universe settled either on the cross or in hell;
• the supremacy of his patience to endure our dullness for decade after decade; and to hold back his final judgment on this land and on the world, that many might repent;
• the supremacy of his sovereign, servant obedience to keep his Father’s commandments perfectly and then embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly;
• the supremacy of his meekness and lowliness and tenderness that will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick;
• the supremacy of his wrath that will one day explode against this world with such fierceness that people will call out for the rocks and the mountains to crush them rather than face the wrath of the Lamb;
• the supremacy of his grace that gives life to spiritually dead rebels and wakens faith in hell-bound haters of God, and justifies the ungodly with his own righteousness;
• the supremacy of his love that willingly dies for us even while we were sinners and frees us for the ever-increasing joy in making much of him forever;
• the supremacy of his own inexhaustible gladness in the fellowship of the Trinity, the infinite power and energy that gave rise to all the universe and will one day be the inheritance of every struggling saint;

And if he would grant us to know him like this, it would be but the outskirts of his supremacy. Time would fail to speak of the supremacy of his severity, and invincibility, and dignity, and simplicity, and complexity, and resoluteness, and calmness, and depth, and courage. If there is anything admirable, if there is anything worthy of praise anywhere in the universe, it is summed up supremely in Jesus Christ.

He is supreme in every admirable way over everything:

• over galaxies and endless reaches of space;
• over the earth from the top of Mount Everest 29,000 feet up, to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 36,000 feet down into the Mariana Trench;
• He is supreme over all plants and animals, from the peaceful Blue Whale to the microscopic killer viruses;
• over all weather and movements of the earth: hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, earthquakes, avalanches, floods, snow, rain, sleet;
• over all chemical processes that heal and destroy: cancer, AIDS, malaria, flu, and all the workings of antibiotics and a thousand healing medicines.
• He is supreme over all countries and all governments and all armies;
• over Al Qaeda and all terrorists and kidnappings and suicide bombings and beheadings;
• over bin Ladin and al-Zarqawi;
• over all nuclear threats from Iran or Russia or North Korea.
• He is supreme over all politics and elections;
• over all media and news and entertainment and sports and leisure;
• and over all education and universities and scholarship and science and research;
• and over all business and finance and industry and manufacturing and transportation;
• and over all the internet and information systems.

As Abraham Kuyper used to say, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’ And rule with absolute supremacy. And though it may not seem so now, it is only a matter of time until he is revealed from heaven in flaming fire to give relief to those who trust him and righteous vengeance on those who don’t.

Oh, that the almighty God would help us see and savor the supremacy of his Son. Give yourself to this. Study this. Cultivate this passion. Eat and drink and sleep this quest to know the supremacy of Christ. Pray for God to show you these things in his Word. Swim in the Bible every day. Use the means of grace. Like God-centered, Christ-exalting books. Don’t go home without books to help you in this. Get John Owen on the glories of Christ and the mortification of sin. Get Mahaney on the Cross and the glory of God in marriage (men/women). Get Powlison and Patterson and Edwards. And with all your getting—whatever it takes—get the all-satisfying supremacy of Christ at the center of your life.
This is the blazing sun at the center of your solar system, holding the planet of sexuality in sacred orbit. This is the ballast at the bottom of your little boat keeping it from being capsized by the waves of sexual temptation. This the foundation that holds up the building of your life so that you can build with strategies of sexual purity. Without this—without knowing and embracing the supremacy of Christ in all things—the planets fly apart, the waves overwhelm, and the building will one day fall.

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