Download John Piper’s 225 Sermons on Romans

John Piper preached 225 sermons on the book of Romans.

If you want to listen to them, you have to download them from www.desiringgod.org one at a time and keep yourself very organized.

Or, you can buy the mp3 CDs for $29.99.

Now you can also download the whole series by bittorrent.

Here is my rationale for making this torrent:

1. I had an interest in listening to this series anyway, and since I needed to do all the downloading, renaming, tagging, and organizing manually, I figured it would be valuable to make this available.
2. There are 225 sermons in this series, and downloading them all individually is extremely time consuming.
3. It is difficult to keep the titles and ordering organized when downloading from desiringGod.org
4. The 2GB of sermons consume a lot of bandwidth to download, and Desiring God has to pay for this bandwidth by the MB. Making them available through P2P sourcing can lighten the financial burden.
5. Buying, packing and shipping the series on mp3 CDs seemed like a waste to me other than the fact that a portion of this supports Desiring God. I consider Desiring God a very worthy cause for your financial support, so if this series is of interest to you I would highly recommend giving a contribution to the ministry or purchase other resources from their store.

Downloading this audio is explicitly permitted according to the Desiring God Ministries sharing policy.

Enjoy!

Download it Here

Please do your part and seed the torrent if possible. My computer is not on 24-7! If you are not finding peers, please contact me and I will seed.

Edit 9/2/2012: Due to the unreliability of torrent trackers, I’ve decided to mirror this collection on my Dropbox. If the torrent does not work for you, download it from http://db.tt/gK0E4yai.

What Do I Need to Be Saved From?

A Stubborn Old Man’s Blunder

There was a stubborn old man who had frequent headaches that were extremely painful. He discovered that taking painkillers, for the most part, would numb the pain. He took the painkillers, and continued on with his life normally. Turns out, he had a brain tumor and it killed him. If he had gone to the doctor and learned about his real illness, the doctor would have applied a different remedy than simply painkillers. Instead, since he did not have an accurate diagnosis, he’s dead.

Tell Me Straight, Doc

When we answer the question, “What do I need to be saved from?” we put ourselves in the same place as the man with the tumor. If we look for salvation from the wrong problem, we will never be saved from our real problem! Let’s go to the physician, Jesus, to find out.

John 3:17-18
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

We know that Jesus is talking about salvation, because he declares it outright: the Son did not come to condemn, but rather to save. The very next verse, Jesus explains that whoever believes in the Son of God is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in the Son is condemned already. These verses are connected to each other. Therefore we can see what Jesus is saving the world from: condemnation. Not only that, but we can see how he is doing it: through faith in Jesus.

If then, the world is under condemnation, two questions come up:

1) Who is condemning us?

2) Why are we under condemnation?

Who am I Condemned With?

We could take guesses and try to figure out who is condemning us on our own, or instead we could listen to the doctor and get an accurate diagnosis. It turns out that John the Baptist, speaking about Jesus elaborates later on in the chapter:

John 3:35-36
35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

The wrath of God remains on him. Remember verse 18? Jesus spoke that whoever did not believe in the Son was condemned already. It wasn’t something new, it was already there. Now we have verse 36. The wrath of God remains on him. Again, it wasn’t something new, but something old that remained; specifically, the wrath of God.

That answers the “who” question. It is God that condemns us.

Wait. I Thought God Loves Us…

He does. He loves us so much that he sent his Son to die on a cross so that whoever believes in him will not be condemned.

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

This is true love. Normal people can have affectionate feelings for others, but only God’s love can pay the ultimate price for people who deserve God’s wrath. God’s love does not motivate him to ignore wrath, but rather to satisfy it.

Why is the World Condemned?

If someone were to fire a gun at me, it would be painful and it would kill me, but it would not be condemnation. If I were guilty of a crime and put before a firing squad, it would be condemnation. What is the difference if the consequences are the same? The first case is merely an event, while the second case is a judgment.

To be condemned means that a judgment has been made. In order for the world to be condemned by God, it must have been judged by God. We’d be on a roll if John 3 addressed this question too. Good news, it does:

John 3:19-21
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Ok. What is the judgment now? Jesus, the light, is rejected by the world because the world loves evil works and therefore hates Jesus when he causes their sins to be exposed. We not only have an evil works problem, but we have a love problem. The rejection of Jesus is a symptom of loving evil. All of this is worthy of condemnation.

Get Me Saved!

We have the diagnosis: the world needs to be saved from the condemnation of God that was earned by our own wicked works and rejection of Jesus. What is the solution?

John 3
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

God sent fiery snakes as condemnation against the Israelites when they sinned. Upon repenting, God had them look to a bronze snake that he had Moses lift up and he removed his wrath from all who looked upon it. Likewise, Jesus was lifted up on a cross and died such that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Confess your sin and believe in the Son of God: Jesus, and your sins will be forgiven and the condemnation of God will not remain on you, but you will have everlasting life!

You Need to Hear the Gospel Today (and Every Day)

This is probably the most important thread I have written for Founder and Perfecter. Not that it is any big deal to speak from my life, but this biblical message has had such a profound impact on me, that I must share it.

This message is the gospel.

Because you are on this blog, you probably believe you are a Christian. This message is for you. You may not be a Christian. You may already be a Christian. No matter who you are or what you currently believe, you need the gospel.

I grew up in a church that implicitly taught that the gospel is a message for unbelievers. Every time the gospel was ever told it was phrased, “maybe you have never accepted Jesus into your heart.” All the while, I, sitting in the pew would think, “I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was 7. This is just for the unbelievers.”

I was wrong. Oh how greatly I was wrong.

I commit sins frequently. So do you. If you don’t agree, you need to read the law of God. The 10 commandments are not fun to read. I did not enjoy reading James saying, “whoever knows what good he ought to do but does not do it, for him it is sin.” I especially hated reading Paul saying, “everything that does not stem from faith is sin.” Again James would chime in with, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” It didn’t help for Jesus to tell me that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully is guilty of adultery, and anyone who hates his brother is guilty of murder. If you don’t feel despair, you are probably feeling pride, and have been guilty of breaking the whole law the whole time.

My conscience bore witness against me that I needed to stop sinning. I wanted to. I tried to. I failed. Time after time. Like clockwork. I might once concoct some punishment scheme and for a short season stay clean until I relapsed. Another time I might manipulate my thinking. I failed in due time.

All the advice people would offer was no help. Everyone had some clever thought, or tried to pretend like they didn’t know what it was like to be tempted to sin. I got a whole lot of moralizing, but the more I was convinced that I needed to do better, the worse I did. The guiltier I felt. I just wanted to die.

Jesus was my savior. He saved me through the gospel.

What is the gospel?
The gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, an eternal person of the triune God, became a human being. He lived and was tempted in every way, but sinned not. Jesus willingly subjected himself to death on a cross. He was betrayed by one of his own, denounced by the others. He prayed to the point of shedding his blood in the hours leading up to his betrayal from one of the 12 people closest to him. He was beaten severely. God poured out his wrathful anger at my sins on Jesus Christ. It please the Lord to crush him. Jesus drank every drop of wrath that fell from the cup. The crowds jeered. He was blindfolded and struck, then mocked saying, “prophesy! which one of us struck you?” They mocked his kingly claim by pressing a crown of thorns into his skull. He did not open his lips except to forgive a man who sinned against him, to bewail the turning of God’s face from him, to state, “father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” and to say, “it is finished.” He was buried in a tomb. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, eternally defeating all of his enemies, and destroying the power of the devil. He walked among men for while longer showing his resurrected, scarred body to multitudes, then he ascended into Heaven that he may reign at the right hand of the Father. He sent a Comforter who was called the Interpreter, that is the Holy Spirit. By grace alone, through faith alone, he imputed Christ’s righteousness to all who believe and has made propitiation for our sins, so that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, only everlasting joy. All who believe will see his beauty face to face and not fall down dead from sin, but be eternally satisfied, forever.

That is the gospel. The gospel breaks the power of forgiven sin. I repent. I believe. I am forgiven. God uses the gospel to hold us close to him, and it is God that keeps us in the faith. I have the power to stop sinning without animalistic restraint or raw obedience. Glory to the lamb that was slain!

If you have never heard this message, I am truly sorry, believe it today and read about even more of the details in the Bible (I would recommend reading John). If you have heard it before but never believed it, believe it today. If you are like the rest of us who have believed this before, believe that this still applies to you today.

You never outgrow your need for the gospel. Ever. You don’t just hear the gospel, get saved and then devote the rest of your life to raw obedience! You get saved through the gospel and you get strong through the gospel. Don’t run away, don’t rebel, don’t put it off. Believe. If you do not believe, read it again. If you still do not believe, read the gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Read about it until you believe. Truly, God is merciful and I believe that he will show you the truth. Keep your eyes fixed on the one with the power to keep you from sinning and to save you from sin.