Lordship of Christ in Salvation Part 3

Driving home: Its motive. When a man or a woman is doing the will of God, Matthew 7, 21, thereby possessing just claims to be entering the kingdom at the end of the road, when a sheep is hearing Christ's voice and following Him, what …

Legal obedience is compared to a slave who obeys his master out of fear of punishment or hope of reward, without love or delight in the master's person or will.

It is dominantly evangelical and never exclusively legal. Now, what do I mean by the terms? Well, let me take up the term legal. Legal obedience is obedience which has a primary concern, a fixation of the eye of the soul, the one hand with respect to fear of punishment if I don't obey, and the hope of reward if I do obey.

8:23 - 9:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: For the love of Christ constrains us. Christ loved to me holds me in a vice-like grip. Would be a good paraphrase. The love of Christ not restrains me but constrains me.

Martin recounts how Paul's passionate entreaty to persuade men to flee wrath led some to think he was 'beside himself,' justifying his own passionate preaching style.

That's why I never, never bleed into backing off when people say, Pastor, if you preach with such passion at times people will think you're crazy. I'm in good company. For whether we are beside ourselves it is unto God. There are times when Paul was so drawn out in passionate entreaty to persuade men to run from the wrath of God they thought he had gone out of his tree.

16:55 - 17:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He expounds 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, showing how 'the love of Christ constrains us' to live for Him who died and rose again. He then turns to John 14:23-24, demonstrating that our…

The concept of the body being 'bought with a price' is applied to everyday appetites like eating and drinking, arguing that even these must be governed by gospel motives to glorify God.

Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit which you have of God and you are a slave and you are not your own you are bought with a price glorify God therefore in your body what a gospel motive. I can't throw anything I want down my throat in any amounts in any circumstance why? My throat was purchased by blood. I can't put anything I want in any amounts in my belly regardless of the effects on my brain if it's alcohol.

23:07 - 23:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second aspect of obedience's nature is its extent: it must be universal, not partial. He illustrates partial obedience with Matthew 23:23-24, exposing the Pharisees' hypocrisy…

Jesus' metaphor from Matthew 23:24 is vividly explained with the process of making and straining wine, then humorously contrasted with swallowing a camel, to illustrate the absurdity of selective, partial obedience.

of all of your increase yes the other you ought not to have left undone it was right to be meticulous in the little but it was wicked to be careless it was a grotesque illustration kids people who say the Lord Jesus never used humor if this isn't humorous I don't know what it is you strain out the mat

30:36 - 31:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Reservations to universal obedience are the canker upon godly sincerity, a secret indulgence, the rolling of a sweet morsel under the tongue, the part of the price kept back. Acts 5.1-2 stamps our service as robbery and …

An extended quotation from Charles Bridges' commentary on Psalm 119 is used to underscore the necessity of universal obedience, warning against 'reservations' and 'secret indulgence' as marks of unsoundness, citing Herod and Saul as examples.

The Lord expects our obedience not only to be diligent, but, here's our word, universal, willingly to dispense with the least of the commandments proves we have yet to learn the spirit of acceptable obedience. Grace is given suited for all, no less than for one of them, that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Colossians 1.10 One lust created in the heart, is sufficient to keep possession of the heart for the tyrant, however others may be restrained.

36:28 - 37:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if your obedience is purposeful, meaning you are dead serious about not sinning and delighting in God's law.

The alignment of heart, God's law, and actions is compared to landing lights for a pilot coming into Newark Airport, indicating being on the right path and altitude.

That's purposeful obedience. Verse 22 For I delight in the law of God after my inward man as purposeful obedience. I'm never more true to what I am as a new man in Christ than when my heart and God's law and my actions all line up like the landing lights for that pilot coming into Newark Airport that tells him he's on the right path at the right altitude. He says when those things line up I'm never more true to what I am as a new man in Christ.

47:14 - 47:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if your obedience is purposeful, meaning you are dead serious about not sinning and delighting in God's law.

Martin shares his personal desire to preach with perfect love and passion, and his frustration at his own imperfection and the glassy-eyed response of some listeners, to illustrate that even his obedience as a preacher is not perfect.

against me Galatians 5 says the flesh lusteth against the spirit the spirit against the flesh these two are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things you would what would I do I would love God perfectly I'd love to preach one sermon in which every thought of God so exhilarated me that I came to the margins of insanity for sheer love to this glorious God I would preach every sermon with such a vision of God as would bring my physical frame to the border of collapse that's what I would do but I cannot

49:20 - 50:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: he doesn't work for me he works in me so that I will and I work but all of my willing and all of my working I attribute to his causing and his putting man God's got his cake and eats it too you bet your boots he does bec…

The conscious effort required in obedience is compared to choosing to walk into a den of lions to do God's will, emphasizing that God causes but we must actively walk and keep.

so that the psychology of my obedience is that of a conscious intelligent human being who sees the commandment discerns its direction depends upon God choose the way necessary into a den of lions to do what God says paper eyes and then float into the empty the problem is the moment there's any blood and guts and gore you either assume

63:11 - 63:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: he doesn't work for me he works in me so that I will and I work but all of my willing and all of my working I attribute to his causing and his putting man God's got his cake and eats it too you bet your boots he does bec…

Christ's struggle in Gethsemane, where He chose God's will against His natural holy inclination, is used as an example of costly, purposeful obedience.

and unto him are all things to whom be glory forever and ever you don't like a salvation like that then go make your own and go to hell with it because there is no other there is no other you see that there is no other like obedience obey Christ didn't feel like going to the cross he wanted to go somewhere else he said if it be possible take the cup from me some of you got the idea Christ just went playing the violin and the fiddle through Gethsemane and Golgotha everything in his holy soul wanted to go another direction he chose the will of God against all of his natural holy inclination

64:40 - 65:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: he doesn't work for me he works in me so that I will and I work but all of my willing and all of my working I attribute to his causing and his putting man God's got his cake and eats it too you bet your boots he does bec…

Overcoming the desire for a pint of ice cream is used as a concrete, everyday example of purposeful obedience and the need for active effort, even if it means tying one's hands.

and that's what some of you have yet to become to learn to be yes when you go home tonight you've indulged yourself that pint of ice cream night after night week after week and everything in you is going to drool and you say oh well it doesn't work until I can walk by that refrigerator and have no desire for that ice cream God isn't working in me to willing to work nonsense you've got to ask your wife to tie your hands together until you go to bed do it and you get up in the morning and say thank you God one night's victory over the pint of ice cream you say pastor you're serious you bet your ...

65:24 - 66:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop stumbling over the same patterns of sin for a dozen years and get on with spiritual growth.

Martin contrasts typical counseling problems (e.g., being decent to one's wife) with 'wonderful problems' that arise from excessive love (e.g., spending too much on a spouse), illustrating the kind of spiritual growth he desires for the church.

and we've sought God and pleaded with God and we're not expecting anything from God and now we can say thank God I was here three years ago and my problem was I couldn't even be decent to my wife thank God we're like a couple of cool birds now now my problem is I'm too prodigal I love her so much I spend some of the money I'm supposed to be saving up for the car payment and get her little goodies can you give me some principles to help me to rein in that excessive expression of my dawdling love to my wife what a wonderful problem to have in a counseling session I don't know I don't know I don'...

68:21 - 69:05 Read in full sermon