True Obedience to Christ

Introduction: The Necessity of Self-Examination and the Marks of True Sheep

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, June 26, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 Now as we ask God's blessing on the ministry of the word here, may I urge you over the next days until we meet God willing on Wednesday and can corporately pray for the probably 700 or so brethren who will be gathering in Dayton, Tennessee for the Southeastern Conference to pray that God will mightily own that ministry. I heard from Pastor Blaze that on Thursday and Friday, God was pleased to draw near in the preaching of the word, particularly as Pastor Huffstetler and Pastor Blaze ministered that word. And Pastor Blaze indicated that two teenagers came to him on Friday saying that they were up. They were up until three in the morning seeking the face of God and salvation in Christ as God dealt with them through the word. And I heard from my son-in-law, whose twin brother attended the conference, that while he sat there that night when Pastor Blaze was preaching, he could hear people audibly weeping under the preaching of the word. How we long for such days of the Lord's power.

1:27 And let us pray that God would grant such days, if that's what you want. That Southeastern Conference, that God would grant such days here. I've prayed that before I go to a better place, the time will come when I would have to stop preaching because people are so overcome by the power of God's truth. That's not happened in 32 years, but I continue to pray that it will.

1:54 Let us pray that God's blessing will rest upon his word, both here and there in Dayton. Our Father, we have sought to sing this hymn with intelligence and with actings of faith. And as we have followed the reasoning of the hymn writer, that if you have made our heavens secure, if you have overcome the greatest difficulties in your own character and in us, surely there is nothing you will withhold from your children. We therefore pray that...

2:32 That the good of your presence, the power of the Spirit attending the word, would be our portion tonight. And what we pray for ourselves and the many others for whom we have prayed tonight, we pray for those, many of whom are even now making their way to Dayton, Tennessee. Watch over them, bring them there in safety. And from the very opening meeting tomorrow night, may the unction and power of the Holy Spirit descend upon those hundreds of men and women and boys and girls.

3:08 And oh, may our hearts be made glad to hear that they have known a special visitation of your grace and mercy under the preaching of the word this week. Oh Lord, bless them, bless us here and every true assembly of your people wherever they may be gathered this night. Hear us and meet with us, we plead. In Jesus' name, amen.

3:35 Now this evening, what I plan to do is to bring what is in reality a supplemental and buttressing word of exposition and exhortation to that which was set before you this morning. And those who were with us will know that the ministry of the word this morning was the third in a series that I've entitled Are You For Real? And I'm addressing these messages particularly to all who profess the name of Christ, to all who profess to be believers in the Lord Jesus. And I have demonstrated from the word of God why such a season of self-examination is essential to the good of our souls. And I laid out in the opening two messages last Lord's Day, four lines of argumentation, to demonstrate why such self-examination is necessary for the good of our souls. And then this morning we turn to the first of many passages that we will examine in the course of this series of studies in which we have the Lord Jesus setting before us a description of those who are His own.

5:02 And we looked at John chapter 10, verses 26 through 28, in which the Lord Jesus sets before us the distinguishing mark of His true sheep. They are identified as believers. Then He speaks of the amazing privileges of His sheep. He knows them, and they are preserved by Him.

5:30 And then we focus particularly upon those descriptive actions of His sheep. They are described as those who hear His voice and who are...

5:49 What I want to do tonight is to demonstrate from what is called the analogy of Scripture, that is, the general teaching of Scripture, that what we saw in John chapter 10 and the principles that I ought to extrapolate from this passage, were indeed the universal teaching of the Word of God. All Christ's true sheep, whom He knows, whom He is living, so that He cannot perish, none can pluck them out of His hand,

6:28 who are hearing His voice.

6:36 Now remember, in thinking upon this issue, we are not answering the question, what is the ground of the sinner's acceptance with God? That ground, Christ, and His righteousness alone. We are not concerned with the question, how does one appropriate soul grow the sinner's acceptance with God? The answer of the Bible to that question is, by faith.

7:12 But rather, we are concerned with a thirdly important question, how is the real thing? Since the Bible speaks of a temporary faith, of a faith that is akin to that of the demons, since the Bible speaks...

7:33 speaks of a vain faith and a dead faith,

7:38 my faith is... And the end of the Bible is, that if my faith is real, I will continue to be a believer in Christ as the ground of my acceptance with God, continue to cling to Him in faith, and my life will be more and more molded by the dynamics and the motives of the gospel, so that the genuineness of the gospel of my faith will be manifested in the ways described in Scripture that grow out of a vital union with the Lord Jesus.

8:21 And that's what we were doing this morning in studying the passage in John's gospel. We were looking at Jesus' description of a true believer. Under the imagery of the shepherd-sheep relationship, the true believer, the sheep, continually...

8:39 continually hears the voice of the shepherd, the Lord Jesus, and continually follows Him. Now, I want us to study three passages, one from the words of our Lord Jesus, one from the epistle to the Hebrews, and one from John's first epistle, specimen passages, which very clearly underscore precisely the same truth that is taught...

The Wise and Foolish Builders: Obedience in Matthew 7

9:10 that is taught in John chapter 10. Turn with me, please, then, to the first of these passages found at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7.

9:23 Matthew chapter 7.

9:27 And as the Lord Jesus brings the Sermon on the Mount to a conclusion, we read in Matthew 7 and verse 24,

9:40 1, therefore... Therefore, notice the particularity, speaking to a vast multitude, according to chapter 5, seeing the multitudes, He went up into the Mount, yet He individualizes and separates each man, as it were, alone with himself, and these words of mine shall be likened unto a wise man who built, descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not for... It was founded upon the rock.

10:29 These words of mine, and is not doing them, shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the flood came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof.

10:56 Examining this passage, consider with me, first of all, the contrast.

11:01 What is the contrast in this passage? Notice verse 24. Everyone therefore that these words of mine am, such a person is contrasted with the one described in verse 26. Everyone these words they hear, the very words of Jesus.

11:45 Context, it would be that vast multitude who had heard Him exhumed what weak men on the mountain described. It's of the...

11:59 The sons and daughters of the kingdom in the Beatitudes. They had heard Him speak of the relationship of the kingdom He is establishing with respect to the law of religion. How He engages in giving, in praying.

12:26 They had heard Him speak of how a true disciple relates to the world of necessary things, food and drink and clothing, and how to these concerns that He shares with all men. They had heard Him speak in chapter 7 of not taking the posture of unjust judgment upon others. They had heard Him speak of the necessity of earnest seeking and knocking and asking if we would receive of the Lord Jesus. They had heard Him pressing people to enter, warning all prophets, saying that in the day of judgment many would be found naming His name, having done many mighty works, and yet He will... His presence.

13:14 They had... precisely the same word from the one said in the very next verse it came to pass when He finished His words, the multitude that is teaching His words, they were all activated by His words.

13:41 It says, multitudes who heard were astonished, but within that vast same source had an immediate of being astounded those words identified in one area alone,

14:08 of those began registered the disposition of their hearts, the way they related to God and to men and to the world,

14:36 heaven and hell. Contrast is in one.

14:49 That's one class of person or people. And then the second, verse 26, have these words of mine not. So the...

15:04 is not between who hear the words of the words of Christ seem to believe the Son disbelieving them. That's not the contrast. The contrast is between those who having heard and being astounded and those who having heard and being astounded had no practical effect. The words had no practical effect in the outworking of obedience.

15:43 Do you see the contrast identified? I don't want to labor the point as though you were dense and unintelligent. But so...

15:55 and made of this passage. When Jesus brings his sermon to a conclusion, he says there is a contrast and he identifies it between those...

16:13 And then the contrast is illustrated. The contrast identified, then the contrast illustrated. How is it illustrated? He said in the case of the person who hears and who does, he is like a man who's going to build a...

16:30 He takes very substantially... substantially...

16:36 a rocky subsoil on which he constructs his house.

16:45 Who has no time structure or who feels there is too much inconvenience in having to worry about... He builds upon sandy soil.

17:03 Testing comes. Internally the same form coming to the same air where both houses are erected. Up until then, both houses looked equally stable. Equally trustworthy.

17:23 Equally trustworthy. Equally trustworthy. Had you been out looking for a house and a for sale...

17:27 You would probably have been inclined on as much as contrast to different houses. Both seem substantial and stable but it is not until the time is violent that reality breaks visibly before all.

17:58 Verse 25. The floods came.

18:01 Beat upon that and it did not fall. It was founded upon the rock. In the case of...

18:10 The rain descended. Verse 27. The floods came. The winds blew and smote upon that house and it fell and great was the fall thereof.

18:20 It's difficult to know precisely what our Lord had in mind when he spoke of the coming flood and the rains and the winds but surely whatever there may be of temporal trials and testings that will lay bare whether or not there is a true substantial foundation of our professed relationship to God. The day of judgment will be the final storm and in that to the word will be shown to the entire moral was the fall and Jesus having identified the two classes having illustrated it then he gives them a specific name. Notice he says the person who from the rock who is determined not only is a wise man the person that hears and does them not is designated

19:48 a foolish man. So here in this place tonight you who hear the same word some of you week in week out you sit at the same table where the same father in the scriptures and you hear the same word at the same table in this place in your home in the Sunday school classes but Jesus says of his word and among us attachment to Christ some are wise and some are foolish the wise identified as those whose profession is founded like a house upon a rock that is a relationship to Jesus Christ that has bound him in faith and love a diligent meticulous commitment to a life of obedience to his word and the others of you are faithful to Jesus Christ fools who think hearing and by mere being temporarily to astonishment that you can build the house of a Christian profession

21:16 that is devoid of a sincere attachment to Christ in faith and love resulting in a meticulous obedience to his word and mark if you don't dismantle and now dismantle a way of judgment to your everlasting life and to your everlasting scorn Jesus and leave this place and in tenement you'll be in the foyer to stay to your soul

22:25 but if you sink because you built a part of a mere profession you won't be able to point your finger to me in the day of judgment you say you'll let me go to sleep in my deception why didn't you warn me why didn't you tell why didn't you liken to a wise man everyone that hears and does the liken to us that you people in this place here

23:30 there ought to be a lot more evident diligent meticulous obedience to that word if there's as much real and saving religion as is professed in this place I opened up John 10 this morning and said that Jesus here gives these identifying actions of his true sheep they hear his voice and they follow I was not forcing something out of that passage that contradicts the overall teaching of scripture I was demonstrating from that passage something perfectly consistent with Jesus own capstone and what the rhetoricians would call Jesus own at the end of an oration the orator gives his peroration in which he attempts to take all this said and hurling upon the consciences and wills and affections of his hearers to move them to action and Christ and says here and you're wise and you're a fool it's the word of Christ

Christ, the Author of Salvation to the Obedient in Hebrews 5

24:56 that you'll lay it to heart passage now we turn to the book of Hebrews the second of three corroborating passages the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be confirmed here in the book of Hebrews a book that in many places is difficult to understand structure and reasoning that at times is difficult to think steeped in Old Testament imagery and type and shadow set forth but we're going to look at a passage that's not difficult to grasp Hebrews chapter 4 we're in a section where the theme is the fact that we have a great high priest in the person of the Lord Jesus chapter 3 in verse 1 we're called upon to consider him wherefore holy brethren partakers of a heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our confession even Jesus holy brethren consider the apostle and high priest of our confession and then we come to verse 14 and the theme of our high priest is taken up again

26:25 in chapter 4 having then a grace to his past through the heavens Jesus the son of God let us hold fast our confession for we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but one that has been in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin we have a sympathetic an empathetic high priest and we have such a one because as he begins chapter 5 every high priest being taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins but who can bently with the ignorant in erring because he himself is compassed with infirmity he's demonstrating that Christ is our perfect high priest one touched with the feeling of our infirmities one appointed to his office by God himself quoting from the text thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and then when we come to verse 7 he describes how Christ was perfected or commanded and pleaded in his suitability for the work and the accomplishment of the work of a high priest in the crucible of learning obedience through suffering who in the days of his flesh having offered up

27:53 prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death an allusion to Gethsemane and having been heard for his godly fear he was able though he was a son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered and having been made perfect or complete it doesn't mean made morally perfect he was that in the sinlessness of his nature but if he's to be made a complete high priest he must pass through the crucible of suffering he must learn obedience in our nature and in our condition when everything in the path of obedience was that to which he was averse in his holy humanity oh my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me the path of obedience was not strewn with roses and lined with velvet and with thorns and made of cut glass and he said that's the path of my father's will and there's no way to do my father's will without suffering and he learns obedience in suffering though he were a son yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered and having been made perfect or complete

29:21 he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation now we've come to the heart of the text that I want to park upon for a few moments notice first of all that the general theme is Christ is our great high priest I've taken a few moments to show you the setting of the passage now within that setting we are told that he became complete as our high priest in the path of learning obedience suffering secondly that as our he is the word oscillated as the marginal reading has it in the 1901 but perhaps a better he became now do you see some overtones from John 10 I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man snatch them plunder them out of my eternal salvation and he is the cause of it

30:48 in his function as a great priest who is both according to the book of Hebrews so that the salvation of his people is a holy gratuitous salvation it is one which was procured by another he is the author he is the cause of salvation in its totality it is the perfection of his obedience obedience even to the death of the cross in which is all our hope and all salvation the cause of the eternal salvation of his people but now the third thing the text clearly teaches not only teaches he became complete as our high priest in the path of suffering that as our priest he is the cause of the eternal salvation of his people his people are described as those who live a life of obedience to him look at it in the text he became the cause unto he became unto all that obey him the cause of eternal salvation and the verb of the participle used all

32:16 in Matthew 8 27 when Jesus spoke to the angry in seas and they were still and they said what manner of man is this that even the winds and the waves obey him when he said peace be still they submitted to him it's the word used in Ephesians 6 1 children obey your parents give up your will to their wills let your will track of the expression of what they have willed except if they will something contrary to the will of God you are an incarnate son of God and was subject to his parents when Mary and Joseph gave orders he snapped to salute and did as he was told though he was their creator and their sustainer and their savior he was their obedient son pupo pupa cuo means submission obedience rearing up your will to another in Acts 6 7 it speaks of a great number of the priests who were obedient to the faith that is when the gospel was preached and called them

33:45 to forsake all of their Judaistic legalistic hopes and throw themselves upon the mercy of God they were as they repented and they believed the gospel now therefore what does this text tell us it tells us this Jesus Christ did not procure salvation for any other people but those who are brought by his grace to a life of real fundamental obedience to his revealed will that's what the text says and having been made perfect he became unto all that are obeying him the author of eternal salvation well what about those they better get another savior because Jesus is not theirs better find who was made perfect through suffering suffered salvation procured fully in the virtue of his own death but when applied to the heart of sinners makes them loving obedient subjects of his

35:13 Christ never procured a salvation by his blood that leaves the independent self-willed sinner independent and self-willed even though he claims to have received the saving mercy of God and it doesn't say those who obey him where it's natural those who obey him where it's easy those who obey him where it's convenient those who obey him where their background and their training make it likely no and never is obedience more tested than in the very thing in your temperament and your background and your training would incline you to disobey that's when you know doing for one reason not because I was programmed this way with my genes conditioned this way by my training guiding and back influenced me to walk in it but the word and the will of many of you your

36:35 were back if you're remade in Christ my friend you will be in Christ precisely at the points where you have no temperamental inclination to obey he learned obedience sinless son of God by the things which he suffered when everything in him was disinclined to go in the giving path and his love constrained him to say nevertheless not my will but thine be done and you embrace the virtue of an obedient son who procured your salvation by his obedience and the principle of that kind of obedience is implanted in your heart by the Holy Ghost so test yourself not by the commandment that it's easy to obey or relatively easy to obey because of temperament and training and background but by the commands

38:04 that cut across everything you are temperament background training and influence and ask yourself in those areas am I obeying you ready to do that it will be very revealing for some of you I don't often inject pressure a personal testimony very seldom but on my 60th birthday I received a very moving letter from my own mother and as she was reviewing her gratitude to God for his mercy in my life and she was highlighting the fact that by the grace of God when God saved me as an 18 year old that he made me bold for his truth and my life history has been a history of having many and dear and precious friends but in having many bitter and vicious enemies and she said son knowing the sensitive reticent fearful temperament of the little boy who came out of my womb I marveled at what the grace of God has done to make you faithful to his truth in spite

39:32 of all the opposition it's brought you you see some of you think that by nature and temperament I'm pugnacious I don't mind enemies you don't know me I'm the kid that when got his first football helmet and shoulder pads and they were just cardboard with a little paint sprayed over them we were too poor to have anything else but to me they were first class and I ran down so excited to the park where the guys played football and ten minutes later my mother says I came back crying like a baby and she said what's the matter son I wanted to play and the guys told me I'd have to wait till I got bigger and I cried like a little baby I'm I didn't stand up to them wasn't in me by nature temperament when I decided to earn a little money shining shoes and made my own shoeshine box and I can remember buying some liquid shoe cleaner I don't know if it was any good Ken but they told me that's what you ought to have and I got some good shoe polish and some buffing rags and some brushes and I walked a mile into town and thought I'm going to make me a few bucks there was a kid standing on the corner when I went to stand there and started to get up the courage to say shine mister that's what I heard the others doing he said hey boy what you doing here I'm going to shine shoes you know you ended in my corner I went crying all the way home

40:58 that I can look you in the eye and front you with the word of God is not my natural temperament that I have had to as a Christian man and a servant of Christ again and again take a minority opinion and stand ground it's great that took the timid retire in his temperament in his upbringing in his training it is great now that's for you to do look at if you can't point to specific things you better ask whether you have the salvation Christ procured for those who are obeying obeying it is the power of

Knowing Christ Evidenced by Obedience in 1 John 2

42:24 salvation unto all men it's going to judge you in the last day God not to slough it off it's just another one of Pastor Martin's ranting and ravings that you tolerated for another Sunday final passage first John chapter 2 what are we trying to do trying to establish are you for real and if you're for real you're really one of Christ's sheep says you're going to hear his voice and you're going to follow him that's not only the teaching of John it's the teaching of his own conclusion of the sermon in the mount it's the teaching of the Holy Ghost in Hebrews 5 now we come to the apostle of love many times you get the impression John the apostle of love was sort of a nearsighted old man who'd go around just patting people on the head saying peace love you love one another and you get the impression that was John now no my friends now if you read his epistles he loved people enough to tell them the truth about themselves and remember Murray McShane's famous where it should be famous but they are quoted

43:53 the man who loves you the most is the one who tells you the most truth about you that's the one who loves you the most and John is the apostle of love because he tells the truth and he sets out the truth in right angles and here in chapter two of his first epistle beginning the reading at verse three hereby we know that we know him if if present tense we

44:48 have by faith embraced him as my only righteousness and my only grounds of acceptance with God I know him in a saving vital way well he says if that claim is matched by a lifestyle of universal obedience then you have a right to say I know that I know him hereby we know know him in other words we can know with a certain knowledge that our profession to know him is not a sham we are keeping his commandments there's the premise made but now there's a conclusion drawn on the basis of that in verse five he that says I know him oh my do I know him I can still remember the goose bumps the first time I heard of salvation by grace and then I got the double goose bumps when I heard about election and I heard that he died on the cross for me in particular and oh I know that I know I he said look I don't care about your goose bumps single or double I don't care what you claim here's a conclusion I want you to reckon with he that says I know him present tense again and is not keeping his commandments that is obedience to all of his commandments as I know them and as I continue to

46:16 seek to know them as I long to know them as I long to such a person who says I know him and a life of universal obedience of intention and conscious effort is not his experience what does John call him he is a liar and the truth is not in him now that's pretty blunt language you want to get somebody mad call him a liar you say you know I think you stretch the truth a little they won't get mad as you say to them well I wonder is that really quite accurate that you say you know you're a liar that'll usually get the blood coming up on people's neck John wants the blood to come up on the neck of some of you tonight he not will shake all our people who've heard the gospel the knowledge is gospel language it's not the language of the unconverted who are openly unconverted who make no profession it's the profession of people who've heard the gospel we come to the knowledge of God and of Christ and here is the person that says I know very confidently he is saved and yet is not keeping his commandments he is not committed in

47:45 principle and effort to a life of universal obedience John says he's a liar the truth isn't in him the truth has swirled around his ears and he's picked up the language the truth has swirled around his external life and cleaned it up a little but the truth has never taken up lodgment in his heart it's not in him that's a governing controlling power in his life where do all liars go my bible says all liars have their part in the lake of fire you're a liar you say you know him you're not keeping his commandments so the premise is made hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments the conclusion drawn he who says I know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar the truth is not in him then an explanation is given in verse 5 but who so keeps his word there are those committed in desire and in principle and effort to a life of universal obedience obedience that means hacking off right hands plucking out right eyes in the language of John Owen walking over the belly of your own most darling whether it's for money or pleasure or rest or food or sex what it is

49:13 but who so keeps his word in that person verily hath the love of God been perfected hereby we know that we are in him you see how he brings it back to the gospel he says when you do find the person who not only says I know him but he is actually committed to a life that manifests that principled obedience universal obedience of intent and effort he says such a person is one in whom the love of God has been perfected that is the purpose of God's love in the sending of his son has done its work the gospel believed under the illuminating influence of the Holy Ghost has changed him from an independent self-willed rebel to a Christ dependent submissive servant of the Lord Jesus the love of God has done its work has conquered him as well as rescued him and my friend Calvary never rescues but what it conquers the love of God in Christ rescues the love of God in Christ conquers and if it hasn't conquered you it hasn't rescued you feel uncomfortable before that language it's not mine

50:43 it's here in the text the explanation is given whoso does keep his word the answer to that is not that he of his own volition has somehow screwed up this energy of soul and will and become obedient none true and perfected it has accomplished its desired intention it has by the work of the Holy Spirit overcome the rebel and made him a joyful subject Calvary has both rescued and conquered hereby we know that we are in him you see the turn from the truth is not in him to we are in him whenever the truth truly resides in us it brings us to the faith union with Christ so that we are in him and in union with him the virtue of his own death and resurrection not only is credited to us in the court of heaven but the very virtue and dynamics of that death and resurrection are applied with power to our hearts so that we can say with the apostle Paul God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ

The Transforming Power of the Cross and the Danger of Notional Affinity

52:11 by which the world has been crucified unto me and I unto the world the cross by which I am given a title to life and heaven is the cross which has severed me from my volitional attachment to this world it stands in the midst of the world its goals its values and frankly he said it has not only separated this world from me but it separated me from this world this world has as much love for and affinity for me as a cadaver hanging on a cross not only has the world been crucified to me but I to the world because I have a mind set on heaven and I have language that reflects the standards of heaven and I live by the laws of heaven you see I'm an ear into this world I'm a constant reminder that it is lying in the lap of the evil one and men love their darkness and they hate a man a woman a boy or girl who exudes the light of living in communion with God and by the norms of God they'll accuse you of being hyper sensitive in your conscience and over scrupulous in your standards honest to a penny and honest to a paper clip in the office Christianity my folks everything else is a damning delusion and as I said in the messages last week I fear

53:41 I fear for our present state as a church that there may well be altogether too many of you who have a notional affinity for the gospel and no more you know enough to know there's no hope anywhere else and you've reached out enough to give yourself some semblance of comfort that you're saved by that gospel but there's precious little evidence that the love of God has been perfected in you that is it has brought you to a fundamental whole soul commitment to a life of universal obedience in your intention and in your efforts notice I didn't say in your attainments I never once used that word for John in his first chapter says if anyone says he is without sin he's also a liar and self-deluded so you have the delusion of the one who claims sinless perfection and the delusion of the one who comforts himself with sinful indulgence and between the two is the true child of God who while mourning that he keeps no commandment perfectly and he must daily pray forgive my sins as I forgive those who sin against me yet he can say with the psalmist I will run in the way of thy commandments when thou shalt

55:09 enlarge my heart I esteem all of thy precepts not just the promises all of thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way I hate my eyes from beholding vanity and uphold me in thy statutes one man said the best test of religious sincerity is to see if you can pray through the 119th psalm with any sense of heart affinity with what the psalmist expresses in that psalm if you're serious maybe you ought to do that this week can I pray through the language of psalm 119 I've just quoted at random four or five verses from that psalm if the love of God has been perfected in you you can in conclusion we have seen from the word of God that when Jesus said my sheep the ones for whom I lay down my life my sheep have is their fundamental distinguishing trait they are believers they have amazing privileges I know them and I secure them in my grace but they always have these characteristics of action not notion action they hear they follow

The Nature of True Gospel Obedience

56:37 and the truth of John 10 is verified in many places of scripture but not but we've brought Matthew 7 Hebrews 5 1st John chapter 2 and before those witnesses what will you say are you prepared to come to me and say Pastor Martin I believe in your zeal to unmask hypocrisy and false hopes you really butchered the word of God I mean it sincerely please come and tell me because I've sought to handle these passages knowing I'll give an account to God and I'll give whether or not I've handled them with integrity and honesty but if you're not prepared to come and demonstrate that I've mishandled these passages you haven't just heard Pastor Martin you've heard the voice of Christ addressing your situation now what are you going to do with that to say Pastor how can I tell if my obedience is a fearful legal obedience trying to attain life or whether it is true gospel obedience but if I'm not well you need not look far in scripture for the answer the obedience of all of these passages is an obedience prompted primarily not exclusively primarily by love for Christ did not he say in John 15 14 21 he that hath my commandments

58:06 and keepeth them he it is that loveth me if a man loves me he will keep my word and the assumption is that every disciple loves Christ that's why Jesus could say make disciples baptize them and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you because the company of my disciples are those described by Peter in 1 Peter 1 where he says whom having not seen ye love love for Christ is always the fruit of faith in Christ that's why in Galatians Paul can say faith works by love because faith in Christ always produces love for Christ and that love is never a dormant emotion it's an active moral principle that moves us into the path of universal obedience to Christ it is an obedience prompted primarily by love for Christ it is an obedience performed in the strength of Christ without me you can do nothing John 15 Philippians 4 13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me I the strength of mere resolute will no I obey in the strength of him who said my grace is sufficient for you my strength is made perfect in weakness Lord there's a path that your word

59:35 leads me into and everything in my temperament everything in my background everything in my training makes me averse but oh Lord Jesus I love you and you call me to that path give me grace to walk it it is an obedience prompted by love for Christ performed in the strength of Christ but an obedience that perpetually needs the advocacy of Christ if any man sinned we have an advocate with the Father what's the context of that he goes right on that's 1st John 2 and verse 1 these things I write unto you that you may not sin but if any man sinned we have an advocate with the Father who are the we we who truly know him who are keeping his commandments in whom the love of God has been perfected we don't have the attitude remember the words of old Rabbi Duncan nobody's perfect he said these words are the hypocrite's couch they are the true believer's bed of thorns for many of you nobody's perfect that's your couch on which you'll lull yourself to sleep until you wake up in hell unless you repent the true child of God says oh God nobody's perfect but with all my heart I want to be because my Savior says

61:05 be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect and I want to therefore you get rid of your toys and you get rid of all your marginal worldliness there's altogether too much of it in this church how far can I go in the exercise of my liberty your Christian liberty will damn you it isn't baptized in the spirit of self-denying regard for the glory of Christ the good of your soul in the advance of the gospel it's time some of you maybe turn the television off for a week gave up your normal recreations for a week and spent every spare hour alone with God read through the sermon on the mount in the light of the last paragraph and say Lord Jesus am I hearing and seeking to do what you've said in this sermon and ask and answer that question with the same honesty that will be forced upon you in the day of judgment take the time to read through Psalm 119 in the presence of God and say Lord is this me now you go out of here as you always have and go home and think well we've got another fiery passionate typical Pastor Martin

A Final Call to Honest Self-Examination and Repentance

62:34 brow beating God knows dear people I have no heart to browbeat you but I have no heart to let you sink into hell unworn the words that were ringing in my ears sitting on the platform tonight they watch as those that shall give an account I'm going to give an account for your soul God help you God help you to have dealings with your own soul and honesty and if you come up on the short end and say oh God I don't know who else you intended these messages for but they found me don't be angry with me with God say Lord thank you you found me now while the door of mercy is still open while a compassionate savior still stands saying come come all you that labor were heavy laden I'll give you rest him that comes to me I'll in no wise cast out oh everyone that thirsts come to the water don't be angry with God he'll expose you either in grace in this life or in judgment when it's too late but there is nothing hidden Jesus said that shall not be made no

64:01 may God grant that each of us will face the test of John 10 26 to 28 buttressed by these three texts and be able to say by the grace of God I'm for real by the grace of God I'm for real than I've ever been before I'm for real my savior's worthy of more obedience than I've rendered to him he's worthy of more out to him and by his grace I will be more obedient and thereby have an even stronger assurance that I am by the grace of God for real let us pray our father conscious that our days pass swifter than a weaver's shuttle and that if we are spared to live out our allotted threescore and ten for all of us those days will pass so quickly and should this building stand

65:30 others will sit in these pews and others stand in this pulpit but oh God this moment is the moment that you have given to us to serve you to hear you to be obedient and responsive to your word may the spirit himself descend upon our hearts may he constrain us to examine ourselves to prove ourselves whether we are indeed in the faith oh God may it please you to pull away the mask of self-deception and where there is the mask of willful hypocrisy pull it off Lord oh God in mercy unmask the hypocrite unmask the hypocrite unmask the hypocrite unmask the hypocrite unmask the hypocrite undeceive the deceived that they may flee to Christ and find mercy and embrace his salvation and become monuments of his transforming power hear our cry and may the last day reveal that you fulfilled your promise that your word would not return unto you void but would accomplish that where unto you sent it we ask in Jesus name Amen Amen