(a): Seek to Please Our Heavenly Father

Introduction: The Call to Please Our Heavenly Father

0:00 Please now turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6, and I'm going to read this portion of the Word of God that is in the midst of what we commonly know as the Sermon on the Mount, Christ's manifesto of the kingdom of grace which he came to establish, and at many points in this sermon, the manifesto takes on what we might call house rules in the family of God. I will read the first 18 verses.

0:47 Take heed that you do not your righteousness, that's a literal rendering of the Greek word, but in the context, obviously, it's acts of charity. Take heed that you do not your acts of charity before men to be seen of them, else you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Wherefore you do your acts of charity, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you do your acts of charity, let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your acts of charity may be in secret. For your Father who sees in secret shall recompense you. And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Truly, I say unto you, they have received

2:04 their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your inner chamber, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret shall recompense you. And in praying, do not use vain repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like unto them, for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask him. After this manner, you shall therefore pray. Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from

3:11 the evil one. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when you fast, do not be as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast. Truly, I say unto you, they have received their reward.

3:43 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that you may not be seen of men to fast, but of your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret shall recompense you. Now let us pray and ask God's blessing upon the ministry of his word. Our Father, once again we pause to acknowledge. That the same Spirit who guided Matthew to record these words is the Spirit whose presence and power and mighty working we desperately need in this hour. We pray that your Holy Spirit would be given to the one who seeks to teach and preach your truth, that he may do so accurately, that he may be able to say that his speech and his preaching were not within time. words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And for your people, that they may be taught of the same Spirit. O Lord, come and have dealings with our hearts,

5:02 not only with our minds to illuminate them, but our hearts to warm them, to convict them, to bring us to the place where with all of our hearts we will respond to everything that you say to us in this hour. Hear us and answer our plea, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Review of Adoption: Place, Substance, and Blessings

5:29 As we come to the ministry of the Word this Lord's Day morning, we are coming to the tenth message in this series of studies that we've been engaged in, focusing upon that amazing provision of God's saving grace called adoption. And as we move into a new category of concern in our study of this gracious privilege of God's saving grace called adoption, let us take a few minutes to look backward at the ground we've already covered thus far. I began the series by setting before you three questions. qualifying observations, and a pastoral entreaty. Those qualifying observations were these. We must understand, if we're going to make sense of our Bibles, when we find the word adoption or children of God or born of God, that adoption is different but never separate from justification in the application of God's salvation. In adoption, God is dealing with us in the family court.

6:48 In justification, He's dealing with us in the criminal court. Both blessings rest down upon the work of Christ, but one is the declaration of God in the court of heaven with respect to the matter of our sins, and the other has to do with our status before Him. Secondly, adoption is different but never separate from regeneration in the application of God's salvation. There's an excellent little statement in one of the books that I've consulted quite frequently that focuses upon this distinction.

7:29 Adoption is a legal action taking place outside of us, whereby God the Father gives us a new status in His family. Thirdly, regeneration is a renewal of our nature occurring within us, in which the Father imparts spiritual life to us. Adoption involves a change of legal standing. Regeneration is a change of heart.

7:58 Both are the result of grace and occur in union with the Son of God. But then thirdly, adoption, I'm sorry, the fatherhood of God in our adoption is different from the other fatherhoods of God found in the scriptures. And I felt it was crucial that you grasp those distinctions. I hope you haven't let them go so that when you come across matters of God being Father and we being adopted, you will understand those distinctions.

8:35 And then my pastoral plea was that since we would spend, a considerable amount of time examining this marvelous provision of redemptive grace that you would not allow it to swallow up all of the other aspects of God's teaching concerning who and what we are in Christ and what our responsibilities and privileges are as God's people. Then we moved into the first major section, and I called it the place of adoption in the plan of salvation. And we saw by opening up a number of passages that from God's predestinating purpose in Christ, Ephesians 1.5, to our glorification, adoption is central in the saving purpose of God. We saw that it's the very apex, the pinnacle of the blessings of salvation as purposed by the Father. Purchased by the Son and applied by the Holy Spirit. Then the second major division of our concern

9:47 was having seen the place of adoption in the plan of redemption, what is the substance of this gracious act of adoption? And we looked at the technical word that Paul is used to introduce into our Bibles that takes us to the place of redemption. And we looked at the technical word that takes us into the realm of the Roman practice of adoption. And we opened up some of the implications of that, and then we concluded by using the marvelous definition in the shorter catechism, adoption is an act of God's free grace whereby we are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. And I suggested this addition, we are received into the number, have a right to all the privileges, are responsible to embrace the obligations of the sons of God. So we looked at adoption, and we saw it was central in God's plan of redemption. We considered the substance, what does it mean to be adopted? It means nothing less

11:06 than to be paid. It means nothing less than to be paid. It means nothing less than to be paid. It means nothing less than to be placed in the status of a son or daughter of the living God.

11:13 Then our third category for several Lord's days was to consider those blessings and privileges of our adoptive state, and we opened up seven of them. We are irreversibly brought into the position of sons. Secondly, Christ is constituted our elder brother. Thirdly, we are irreversibly brought into the position of our elder brother.

11:37 Fourthly, we are made heirs of God and joined heirs with Christ. Fourthly, we are given the spirit of adoption. Fifthly, we have the Father's promise of His provision to meet all the true needs of His adopted children. Sixth, we are recipients of His loving, fatherly discipline. And number seven, we have the hope of our future glorification as the children of God. That's the ground we've traversed under the three major headings, the place of adoption, the substance of adoption, the blessings of adoption. We come this morning to a new category of concern and the final category, namely the responsibilities and obligations of the adopted children of God. With all of those privileges come,

Framework for Christian Obligations: Indicative-Imperative Structure

12:37 both responsibilities and obligations as the children of God. And as we take up this subject, I want to remind you by way of introduction of the basic pattern within which the ethical and behavior demands of the New Testament are set before us. And here I want you to think, because without grasping this, it's something I, emphasize again and again, but we need to be reminded of it. Before we actually take up the specific obligations and responsibilities of sonship, I want you to think afresh of the framework within which, in the New Testament, God lays obligations and duties upon us. And they come to us, first of all, as directives in the framework, reading one is the framework of the indicates of God's grace, which undergird and shape the imperatives of His grace. In grammar and indicated statement is the statement of.

13:52 What is I and standing behind this, but that's an indicative statement's statement of what is, and in God's word, God again and again comes to us would, see a statement. Exactly, which means that outward that coming to us, Jesus Christ was called a rational, statements of what is true of us if we are united to Christ. If Christ is ours and we are His, a number of things are true of us, whether we know them, whether at any given moment we believe them, they are true of us in virtue of our union with Christ. And it is those indicatives, the things that are true of us in terms of our study, as the children of God that form the foundation and shape the contours of our duties and our responsibilities. The imperatives are the things we are to be and to do in obedience to Christ and because of who we are and what we have in Christ. And I say, I want you to get hold of those concepts because they are so critical. Colossians chapter 3 is a beautiful illustration of this framework

15:12 within which our responsibilities and obligations as the children of God come to us. Colossians 3, if or since then you were raised together with Christ, that's an indicative. By God's grace, in union with Christ, we've been raised with Him, seated with Him. Seek the things that are above.

15:37 That's an imperative. Where Christ is seated on the right hand of God. Another imperative. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.

15:49 Now an indicative. For you died and your life is hid with Christ in God. So you see. This interplay between the indicatives of God's grace and the imperatives flowing from them.

16:04 They are foundational. They shape the contours of our responsibilities. Now I think I may have used this illustration some time ago, but I'm going to use it again. My backyard has all kinds of animals.

16:20 I have groundhogs and squirrels and rabbits and chipmunks and cats. Go on. I've been around looking for birds to devour. And every once in a while I see a black cat in the backyard with something in its mouth.

16:34 And I see the little hunter has gotten its prey. Now suppose by some unusual gift I was able to learn chipmunk language. And I captured one of the little chipmunks. And I got him in a cage.

16:51 And I said to him, now Chippy, I'm going to give you some commands that have a wonderful promise. Chippy. I want you, Chippy, to sprout wings to mutate into a bird brain inside your little head. And with wings and a bird brain, I want you to fly.

17:13 All you need to do is sprout wings and somehow acquire a bird brain. And I said, come on, Chippy. Let's get with it. And the poor little creature looks up at me, trying to say to me in Chippy language, Sir, you have asked the impossible.

17:33 I can't sprout wings on my own and acquire to myself a bird brain with bird nerve centers telling me what I must do with the muscles of my chest to make my wings to work. But if I could perform an act of unusually delicate microsurgery and put wings on this little chipmunk and somehow...

18:00 With neurosurgery, placing him a bird's brain, having given him wings and a bird's brain, I then said to him, now Chippy, I've given you a bird's wings, I've given you a bird's brain, now fly.

18:19 You see the difference between the two? In the one, I'm asking him to do the utterly impossible. In the other, I'm furnishing him with the things essential. To be obedient to my command, now fly.

18:36 Now that's exactly what God does in the ethical and behavioral demands that he lays upon his people. He does not come to you as a chipmunk with no wings and no bird brain and say, fly. In his supernatural grace, he gives us wings, he gives us the brain of a bird, said, this is what I've given you, now fly. If, then, you have been raised with Christ, there's your wings and your brain, now fly.

19:10 Seek the things that are above. Set your mind on the things above. Why? You died.

Framework for Christian Obligations: God's Authority and Our Gratitude

19:19 Your life is hid with Christ in God. And so you and I must keep before us that reality. All of these seven privileges that are ours, because we are the sons and daughters of God, they form the foundation, the basis, the framework of our obligations and responsibilities as the children of God. And then, secondly, I remind you that the behavioral and ethical demands come to us not only in the framework of the indicative imperative structure of the New Testament, but in the framework of God's authority as God and our gratitude for His grace. And here again, I want to illustrate. Think of me, back in the days when there were absolute monarchs ruling nations, when kings had absolute authority, no parliament, no checks and balances, what the king willed is what was done. In that kingdom, there's a man who becomes a, a wicked rebel.

20:34 He utterly defies the king's authority and rule. He is brought into a state of abject poverty in his rebellion against the king's rule. He's disease-ridden. He's in league with others who are insurrectionists seeking to overthrow the righteous rule of a godly, righteous king.

20:57 The king has every right to track him down and to execute him. And to execute him. And to execute him. But instead, his heart is moved with compassion toward him.

21:09 And he sends out one of his ambassadors to track this man down to offer him a full pardon. And then he promises care by the king's physicians. And then he pledges to adopt him as his royal son and to totally give him his heart, his home, and his throne. And the man is overcome by this expression of the loving kindness of the king.

21:41 And it breaks him down. And he says, what a fool I've been to regard this king as a tyrant when this is his heart. And so he turns from his path of rebellion, defiance of the king and his rule and his government. And he comes embracing the king.

22:02 He's facing the king's pardon. He commits himself to the king's physicians. He is willing to accept the king's kind desire to adopt him and make him a royal son. Now, my question is this.

22:19 Since all of his present status as a king's son is all of grace, does he have any serious obligations to the king and to his government? Does he? He's a son. He has a shared throne, a shared inheritance.

22:43 Yes, he has two strands of obligation, and I want you to think carefully. If you miss this, you won't understand your Bible, and most likely, most likely you'll make a mess of your Christian life. The obligation of obedience to the royal authority of the king who is now his father has not in any way ceased because his father is still his king. You see, when he was a rebel, here was the father with his rightful throne, with his rules and regulations and demands as to how subjects should operate in his kingdom.

23:24 He was in defiance of them. He was in rebellion against them. He was a criminal worthy of the king's wrath. Now that he is under the king's favor, and he is the king's son, the king's authority as king, his rules and his government have in no way been altered.

23:45 And this son has just as much obligation now as he had when he was a rebel. His embracing of the king's mercy and kindness. And pardon and forgiveness in no way weakens, neutralizes, or dilutes the king's authority.

24:10 And dear child of God, you need to come to grips with that. You were and I was once a rebel against the God who made us. The king of the universe, whose law is righteous and holy and spiritual and good. Romans 7, 12.

24:30 And we stood out in defiance against it. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be.

24:40 And God could have squashed us in his wrath.

24:45 But he didn't. He was moved with compassion toward us. Sent his son to be our savior. And by his grace he broke down that rebellion and the misconceptions we had of him.

25:00 As a cruel taskmaster. And we say, no. He is a loving, gracious God. And all of his ways are right and just.

25:09 And he's brought us into his family. Adopted us as his sons and his daughters. But in no way does that alter our obligation to be submissive to and to love and embrace the laws. Of our savior king.

25:32 And furthermore, he now has the obligation to honor and obey the king. Under the constraints of gratitude and appreciation. For all that the king has done in adopting him. And the same is true of you and of me.

25:52 We're under obligations because the king's law abides. We're under obligation because the king's law abides. We're under obligation because the king's law abides. We're under obligation because the king's law abides.

26:00 We're under obligation because the king's law abides. We're under obligation because the king's law abides. We're under obligation because the king's law abides. We're under obligation because the king's law abides.

26:00 We're under obligation because the king's law abides. We're under obligation because the king's law abides. We're under obligation because the king's law abides. The King's grace constrains us.

26:04 Romans 12.1 I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God. Literally, through the mercies of God to present yourselves living sacrifices unto God.

26:24 The mercies of God constraining us are in the language of 2 Corinthians 5.14 The love of Christ, Christ's love to me constrains me to pour out my life in loving obedience to Him and to His Father and to my Father. Now it's in that framework of the indicative and the imperative that the directives to sons and daughters come to us. This is who you are as a son of God.

The First Obligation: Seriously Seek to Please Your Heavenly Father

27:01 This is who you are as a daughter of God in the light of who you are and what you have. This is what you are to do and to be. Likewise, we have the pressure on the one hand of the changeless authority of the God who has pardoned and adopted us along with the constraints of His grace so freely and lavishly bestowed upon us. Now, within that framework I have time this morning to identify just the first of the obligations and responsibilities of the children of God. And here is the first. It is seriously to seek to please your gracious Heavenly Father in all things. It is seriously.

28:02 To seek to please your Heavenly Father in all things. Seeking to please Him not to earn a status with Him. No! He has given us the status, the irrevocable, irreversible status of sons and daughters.

28:23 But in the light of His grace, this is to implant within us a serious commitment, not a serious commitment, not a sporadic commitment, not a half-hearted commitment, a serious discerning desire to please our Heavenly Father in all things. Now, in the passage I read in your hearing and I ask you to turn there, you will see how our Lord Jesus makes this emphasis to His people.

29:04 He is dealing with the giving of the Lord Jesus Christ. With the praying and with the fasting of His people. And in all three instances, what our Lord condemns is this. The Pharisees, they give that they may have glory or the honor or praise of men.

29:25 Then two times the Lord says that they may be seen by men, obviously seen in order to be praised, if not directly to others. That's the focal point of the hypocrite and the Pharisee when he gives, when he prays, and when he fasts. In other words, the whole orientation is to please himself. To please himself.

29:55 That he will be seen of men and therefore receive the praise of men. God doesn't enter the picture. But then, what does our Lord say is to be the focus of true disciples as they give, as they do charitable deeds, as they pray, and as they fast. Well, when I read the passage, I tried to emphasize the word Father.

30:24 You know how many times the word Father occurs in the 18 verses?

30:29 Ten times. Nine, it's your Father, and once, our Father. Ten times. Ten times.

30:41 The Father. The Father. The Father. The Father.

30:44 What's the Lord saying? He's saying to His disciples, the whole orientation of your external religious life, whether you are doing charitable deeds, whether you are praying, whether you are denying yourself legitimate imbibing of food for the sake of the kingdom of God, whether giving, praying, or fasting, your orientation, your invitation is to be what? The Father. The Father.

31:14 The Father. The Father who one time He says is in secret, and two times He says the Father who sees in secret, and He says this Father will give you the reward of grace. What's the Lord saying? The Lord is saying in the midst of this manifesto of the kingdom that mine is the reward of grace.

31:40 There is a kingdom where all who are subjects of the King are members of the family, and their passionate concern in all of their actions within that family is to please their gracious Heavenly Father. That's to be the dominant concern of the true disciple in all of his religious exercises that he may please the Lord. Please His gracious Heavenly Father and receive the reward of grace because He has done so. Do you see that from the passage?

32:22 Your Father, your Father, your Father, your Father. That's to be the concern. What are you here for this morning?

32:32 It's the dominant concern. I'm here because I want to please my Father who said, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, a command at one time that if I did not openly hate it, I was utterly indifferent to it. Who is God to mark out a day and claim it as His own and tell me what I can and cannot do on it?

33:01 Are you here because you want to please your Heavenly Father? Or are you here because you know if you're not here, it'll raise the eyebrow of your elders and they'll get on your case. Or are you here simply because you know as long as you live under your roof, there's no sense discussing it with Mom and Dad. It's a non-issue.

33:26 You under their roof? You sit here on the Lord's Day, like it or not. Thank God for parents like that. I don't care if the people under your roof are 20, 30, or 150.

33:37 As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. What are you here for? Can you say, I'm here at the end of the day because I want to please you? I'm here at the end of the day.

33:48 Because I want to please my Heavenly.

33:53 Is that the great passion of your heart? That's the first and the great responsibility of all of the sons and daughters of God seriously to seek to please your gracious Heavenly Father. But not just when you give, when you pray, and when you fast. But I want to demonstrate that the Scripture teaches this is to mark the entirety of our lives.

Pleasing the Father in All of Life

34:25 This perspective, not only in connection with our religious exercises, but it touches the whole of life. In the New Testament epistles, there are two families of words found in both the verbal and the adjectival form. And I'm not going to take you through and do a bunch of word studies. Take my word for it.

34:47 I've done my homework. I'm not misleading you. And both of them, both words that are basically synonymous about pleasing another are used in conjunction not only with pleasing Christ the Lord. They are used that way.

35:06 But with pleasing God, our Heavenly Father. They are used in conjunction with pleasing Christ as our Lord. 2 Corinthians 5, 9. Paul says, Wherefore we are ambitious, Paul had ambition.

35:23 And what was his ambition? We're ambitious to be well-pleasing unto Him. And in the context, the Him is Christ Himself. Similarly, in Ephesians 5, 10, where the word Lord is found in the epistles, unless there is a compelling contextual reason to think otherwise, it refers to the Lord Jesus.

35:47 And then you have the verbal form of that word in 1 Corinthians 7, 32 about the single person who's careful to please the Lord. But now I want you to look with me at several texts where this concept with both words, both families of words, is used not with respect to the Lord Jesus, but with respect to God the Father. 1 Thessalonians 4, 1. I'm seeking to demonstrate that, that one of the duties, one of the responsibilities of the children of God is seriously to seek to please your gracious Heavenly Father in all things. 1 Thessalonians 4, 1. Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you received of us how you ought to be received. How you ought to walk and to please God, even as you do walk, that you abound more and more.

37:02 For you know what charge or charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication. Notice the language of verse 1. We beseech and exhort you that as you received of us, he's speaking of his relatively limited time of ministry while he was personally there at Thessalonica, but he spent time telling them how they were under solemn obligation.

37:36 You ought, you ought, not it would be nice, it would be desirable, but how you are under solemn obligation to walk with what end in view and to please God. We didn't just give you rules that were detached. We didn't just give you rules that were detached and impersonal hanging out there saying those are the Christian rules. Don't do this.

37:58 Don't do that. Do this. Do that. We taught you how to walk with an eye to your heavenly Father.

38:07 We taught you how to walk so as to bring delight and pleasure to the heart of your gracious, loving Father. Philippians chapter 4, second text. And what we're going to see is how this touches so many different things. The immediate context of the Thessalonian passage is sexual purity, but now Philippians 4,

38:38 verses 18 and 19. Speaking of this gift that Epaphroditus brought from the Philippian church to Paul in a Roman prison, but I have all things and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, and how did Paul regard them? When Epaphroditus came through the door, perhaps he had some dry goods, perhaps it was just money, I don't know, but whatever he had, what did Paul see when Epaphroditus came through the door and said, Oh, Paul, this is from the church at Philippi.

39:16 He said, I saw an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well, pleasing to God. I saw something that brought pleasure to your heavenly Father. I saw something that gladdened His heart. It was that which was a spiritual sacrifice, and it was well-pleasing to God.

39:47 And then over to Hebrews, chapter 13,

39:52 this wonderful benediction. Verse 20, Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, make you perfect, complete in every good thing to do His will, now notice, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight, that's the Father, through Jesus Christ, the Son, the Mediator, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. What is the writer to the Hebrews underscoring?

40:31 He's underscoring that the totality of life is to be the outworking of God, what God works in us to the end, that it may be well-pleasing in His sight. Now then, I want to ask you some very simple questions. Do you see, child of God, your obligation to seriously seek, to please your gracious Heavenly Father in all things? If so, let me ask you, in your domestic relationships this past week, husbands and wives, parents, children, children to parents, did you once think when you were about to say this or say that, to do this or to do that, to respond in this or that way, did you once, did you once think, will what I'm about to say please my Heavenly Father?

41:38 Did you even think that way? You should have.

41:43 You should have.

41:45 If you're a son worthy of the place of a son and a daughter worthy of that place of a daughter of the King, then surely one of the great obligations that is upon you and upon me is that we seriously seek to please our Heavenly Father in all things, not only because of who and what we are as sons in His family who are to reflect the family likeness, subjects in His kingdom who though we are adopted sons and daughters are still subjects of the King whose law is upon us and governs and shapes our lives, but because out of gratitude we want to make God's heart glad when He sees that husband responding kindly to a provocative word from his wife and the father looks down and says, he's acting like my child.

42:52 Or does he look down and say he's acting like a child of the devil?

42:57 Responding tit for tat, dig for dig.

43:03 What about your domestic relationships? When you spoke to that child, did you speak in a way that fulfilled the father's directive? Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. That is, do not unnecessarily deal with them in a way that causes their sinful hearts to be agitated and resist you in anger.

43:28 It doesn't say don't ever make your children angry. It says don't provoke them to wrath. Don't be oppressive and cause discouragement. You see, Heavenly Father sees you as a parent, patient with that stubborn, with that at times bullheaded, opinionated teenager.

43:48 He looks down and says, I'm pleased with that patience. That's like me, the way I treat him, the way I treat her, the way I bear patiently with my child. My child is bearing patiently with his child, with her child. What about, what about your domestic relationships?

44:12 What about the things you call entertainment? Do you ever think when you sit and have the remote control in your hand and something pops up on the screen, will watching this please my father?

44:29 Do you even think that way? Or do you say, oh well, I have my Christian liberty to do what I want. You don't have liberty to displease your father. That's not your liberty.

44:41 That's sin. Do you even think in those categories? Will watching this please my father? My father who said whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are virtuous, whatsoever things are of good report, think on these things.

45:12 And when we do that, we do that. It pleases the father. But when we deliberately take into our eyes and into our minds and into our ears the raunchy, the filthy, the vile, the banal, the stupid, the non-elevating, can that ever please your father?

45:38 Come on, get honest in your heart. Can that please your heavenly father? Then if not, stop. Watching it.

45:48 It's just that simple. Stop it.

45:54 Stop it. Your father says, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Do you ever think when you sit down to do some browsing on your computer even though you've got all your filters and you're reasonably confident no filth is going to come up, but you spend precious time tracking down this area of interest and that area of interest and you haven't even spent a half hour in your pipe? Does that please your heavenly father who says, would you be like a tree planted by the rivers of water?

46:29 Then meditate in my law day and night. What about your entertainment? Ask yourself honestly the question, has this perspective of pleasing my heavenly father gripped me to such an extent that not only in all my domestic relationships, but also in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, in my life, but in the matters of my entertainment, pleasing the father is all important. What about your social relationships?

47:08 Am I pleasing the father in allowing myself to be drawn in and become interested in this man, this woman? Do they meet the biblical criteria of a godly young man, a godly young woman?

47:27 And in our relationship, if there's physical contact, if there's physical contact at all, are we pleasing our heavenly father who said, flee, flee, flee fornication. You don't toy with it by petting and embracing and engaging in physical intimacies to the point where you are stoking the fires of your passion. That doesn't please your heavenly father. And you know it.

48:00 That's why you don't think, are we pleasing our heavenly father? In what we're doing and in how we're doing it? Take it to every area of life. Paul said, I taught you how you ought to walk and to please God.

48:21 This obligation and responsibility of being a son or daughter of the living God is central to the Christian life. I hope I have established from the scriptures this duty established. Now I want to consider this obligation or duty amplified. The obligation established.

The Obligation Amplified: Guided by God's Precepts

48:49 Now the obligation amplified. The motive of pleasing the Father in all things, follow me closely now, I've been illustrating it, but now I want to identify it, the motive of pleasing the Father in all things is not self-directing. It is not self-directing. It is not self-directing.

49:11 directing. It needs the precepts and commands of God to give it direction and to validate what is really pleasing to him. It's not what I think and feel is pleasing, but what God defines as pleasing to him. That's why Paul could say to the Thessalonians, I taught you how you ought to walk and to please God. And then he gives them, he says, for you know what charges I gave you through the Lord Jesus. Then he gives another one, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication, that each one of you, know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and in honor. The passion to please my Father is not self-directing. It's not self-directing. It needs the precepts and commands

50:24 of God to give it direction and to validate that which is truly pleasing to him. And I want you to look at another text. On this line, it's 1 John chapter 3, verses 21 and 22. Beloved, if our heart condemn us, condemn us not. We have boldness toward God in whatsoever we ask we receive of him. Now notice, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight, and then he reiterates two of those commandments in the next verse. If we're to do what is pleasing in his sight, it is rooted in keeping his commandments. That's what's pleasing to God. What God has said, this, my child, is what you shall do. This is what you shall not do. It will not do for a child to come into the presence of a parent and having gotten out into the garage,

51:40 and gotten a bucket of paint and a paintbrush and slapped it all over the living room walls and down in the basement walls, and he comes strutting up to his mom or dad and says, look what I did. What did you do? Oh, I wanted to please you. I heard you say we need to have the garage painted and we need the living room walls painted. That kid ain't going to get praised by his parents. He's going to get a butt whipping. Why? He made his silly notions of the measure of how to please his parents. And some of you do that all the time. If you pray about it and you feel good about it, you figure God will feel good about it. When you may be utterly deceived. Utterly deceived. No, the desire to please God is not self-interpreting and self-directing. We need to have a mind and a conscience tethered to our Bibles.

52:41 Otherwise, otherwise, we may find ourselves like those in John 16 and verse 2. Listen to what Jesus said. So perverse is the human heart that when it takes its own impulses and desires and inclinations and makes them the measure of how to please God, it can go this far. Look at verse 2 of John 16.

53:08 They shall put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the hour comes. It comes that whoever kills you shall think that he offers service unto God. That's frightening. People can murder Christians and think they are pleasing to God, rendering priestly service unto God. That's the nuance of that verb in verse 2, service.

53:40 It could be rendered priestly service unto God. There's a sense in which their minds are so twisted by the impulses of a deceitful heart that they think they're pleasing God when they murder believers. And the seeds of that kind of deception are in your heart and in my heart. For the Scripture says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

54:09 Dear people, we, if we want to please our Father, will be... People with consciences and wills tethered to our Bibles.

54:26 Again, we go to 1 Thessalonians and see how these principles are just embedded in the data of the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians 4.9

54:49 Well, Paul says love of the brethren is taught automatically. Well, what he's referring to is that because these are true Christians, they've been regenerated by and indwelt with the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love. So wherever you find the Spirit of God resident in the heart of a child of God, there will be a natural, instinctive impulse to love the brethren.

55:16 But notice, notice, though he says, you don't need to have this duty spelled out, you're taught of God. What does he do? He says, but we exhort you, brethren, that you abound more and more. And then he gives them a definition of how love to the brethren will work itself out, that you be ambitious to be quiet, do your own business, work with your own hands, even as we charged you.

55:49 More precepts, more explicit directives that they might please the Father. And furthermore, when the Scripture says we're to abound in love one toward another, what is love? How does it work itself out? You don't trust your own heart to tell you. You go to 1 Corinthians 13, and you pour over that chapter, and you pray, Oh God, give me the love that seeks. Seeks not its own, is not easily provoked, is not puffed up, seeks not its own. Give me the love that is patient, that is kind, that believes all things, hopes all things. You learn even what love is from the precepts of God.

56:41 You don't just put your hand on your heart like a Ouija board and say, oh, wherever it'll take me, that's love. No, no, no. You take your definition and directions of love from the Word of God. So we have seen the obligation established, the obligation amplified, but now, thirdly, the obligation opposed and hindered.

The Obligation Opposed and Hindered: Self-Pleasing and Man-Pleasing

57:10 The obligation, what obligation? To please your heavenly Father in everything. It's opposed, and it is hindered. It's opposed, and it is hindered in the experience of the child.

57:21 In the experience of the child of God, there are two things constantly at work in the soul to hinder and oppose, seeking sincerely to please the Father in everything. You know what they are? You do. You may not be able to answer me off the cuff, but you know what they are if you're a Christian.

57:41 It's the desire to please self and the desire to please men. The desire to please self. Paul assumes that that's there. We're hindering this when he's dealing with the subject of Christian liberty.

57:58 The end of it, toward the end of it in Romans 15, notice what he writes, verse 1. We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. That's the native inclination within the heart of a true believer. We're once this dominated.

58:22 And what's the? The governing disposition of the soul. 2 Corinthians 5.15 And that he, Christ, died, that they who live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.

58:40 That fundamental change from a self-pleasing individual to a Christ, God the Father-pleasing individual, that change is wrought in any real work of Christ. If you have not been changed from a fundamentally self-pleasing to a Christ and God-pleasing individual, you're lost in your sins. The cross has never been applied with power to your heart. However, Paul assumes, as with all other sins, though their dominion is broken in regeneration, in conversion, in union with Christ, the remnants are still there, acting out in the same ways, though not to the same degree. So when Paul has been talking about the weak and the strong and the strong accommodating the weak, he recognizes the minute he says, we that are strong ought to put up with the infirmities of the weak, self-interest will rise up and say, wait a minute, why should I forego this meat? Why should I forego this drink? Why should I forego this activity and this relationship?

59:57 Because some people out there have got a conscience that's all tied up in knots. He says we're being like Jesus. He goes on to say, let each of us please his neighbor, for Christ pleased not himself. And he takes them right to the Savior and right to the cross.

60:15 The obligation is opposed in our hearts with this constant pressure to please ourselves. And we need to be honest with it. We need to say, oh God, my Father, you know my heart. You know that I sincerely long to please you in everything.

60:39 But oh Father, I feel this pull to please myself. Give me grace to say no to it, to reckon myself in union with Christ who hath died to that, that domination of self-pleasing. And I'm alive unto you to be like you.