Obedience to Christ

Introduction: The Crucial Questions of Human Destiny and the Deceitfulness of the Heart

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 26, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your Bibles to the 20th chapter of Acts, a passage I have read from time to time in this present series of studies. And I read in your hearing this morning Acts chapter 20, verses 17 through 24. Luke, recording the activities of the Apostle Paul, writes,

1:05 Which befell me by the plots of the Jews, how I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not in the Spirit, but in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not knowing the things that shall befall me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

1:48 But I do not hold my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Let us again pray and ask this help of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of the Word this morning.

2:14 Our Father, we do again pray that as the Apostle could say to the Thessalonians that his gospel came not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. O God, we pray, may that be true in this place this morning. We need you, Father. Grant to your servant, accuracy and incisiveness in the opening up and application of the Scriptures.

2:45 Give to everyone sitting in this place judgment day honesty before the Word. Strip away every last vestige of self-deception, of satanic delusion, of the harassment of the devil. We pray, O God, that your Word will run and have free course and be glorified this morning. We ask in Jesus' name.

3:10 Amen. The prophet Jeremiah spoke words that are not calculated to stroke our self-esteem when he said the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it. And nowhere is the human heart more desperately wicked and deceitful than it is with respect to the most Christ-like, crucial questions of human existence and of human ultimate destiny.

3:56 And what are those questions? The most crucial questions of human existence and ultimate human destiny can be reduced to two. The first is, how can sinful man be made right with God? And the second question, how can sinful man know for certain that he or she, is right with God?

4:23 You see, the first question points to the objective issue of what has God done to make a way of acceptance with Him possible? The second question has to do with the subjective experience of the individual. Have I embraced that way in truth? Or do I merely think that I have embraced that way?

4:48 The first relates to the, the ground on which sinners can be made right with God. That was the issue of the Galatian epistle. The Judaizers were saying the ground of your being right with God is Christ plus. Paul said Christ alone.

5:08 The second is a question addressing whether I am truly on that ground in my own experience and therefore ready to meet my God in the day that comes.

5:21 And the second is the question addressing whether I am truly on that ground in my own experience and therefore ready to meet my God in the day that comes. The second question is the question of judgment. And it's in connection with the second question that the human heart conceives a multitude of ways to persuade people that they are right with God by Christ alone, by faith alone, while they do not bring forth what the Bible describes as the necessary and inevitable fruits of saving faith. And the Bible asserts again and again, without the fruit of faith, there is no reason to believe one has the root of saving faith.

The Nature of Saving Faith and Its Necessary Fruits

6:00 And in the light of these sad and soul-damning realities, I have for several months been preaching to you on the subject of repentance and faith, the hinge on the door of salvation. I have read again in your hearing the Acts 20 passage where Paul summarizes the major thrust of his three years of ministry, among the Ephesians, by saying, this is what I preached, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Having preached eight messages on what repentance unto life is,

6:39 we have preached four messages, and this is the fifth, on what is saving faith. We examine from the Scripture, first of all, the necessity for saving faith, and then we have been opening up together with our Bibles in our laps, the nature of saving faith. And we establish, first of all, under its nature, its object. And the Bible is very clear that the object of saving faith is Jesus Christ Himself, as He is offered to us in the Gospel.

7:12 It is not some truth about Christ, but Christ Himself. But it is not Christ apart from the truth about Him. It is Christ in the uniqueness of His person as God and man, two natures in the one person forever. It is Christ in the sufficiency and perfection of His work, His sinless life, His substitutionary death, His triumphant resurrection, His glorious ascension to the right hand of the Father.

7:42 Saving faith has as its object this glorious person, in all the sufficiency of His saving grace. When we begin to open up what are the essential elements of this faith, and we saw, rather than looking at some philosophical or human logical definition or description, we went to the Bible and noted that faith is described as a receiving of Christ, a coming to Christ, an eating and a drinking of Christ. And then, last Lord's Day, further opening up the nature of saving faith, we move from, move from the object, the essential elements, to begin to consider the necessary fruits or the

8:27 inevitable accompaniments of saving faith. And I stated that according to the scriptures there are at least three such necessary, and I'm going to keep adding that word, these are not optional for super-duper sold-out Christians. If these fruits are not present, you have no grounds to say you are a true believer in Christ. Those fruits are love for the person of Christ, obedience to the word of Christ, and a pattern of growing likeness to the moral character of Christ. And so, last Lord's Day, I trust to the persuasion of your conscience we saw

Defining 'The Word of Christ' and the Fact of Obedience

9:11 from our Bibles that all true believers love Jesus Christ. And we looked at something of the nature of this morning, and we looked at the nature of this morning, and we looked at nature of that love. Now we come this morning to this second necessary fruit, this inevitable accompaniment of saving faith, a pattern of obedience to the word of Christ. And at the very outset, by way of introduction, let me just say a word. What do I mean when I say the word

9:39 of Christ? Some of you have a red letter Bible. That's a Bible in which they used red ink for any direct quotations of what Christ said. I am not saying that this obedience only has reference to the things that are in red letters in your Bible. For according to the scriptures, all of scripture

9:58 is the word of Christ. Peter could say in 1 Peter chapter 1 that it was the spirit of Christ in the prophets who were speaking and who were writing. Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 14.37, if anyone among you is...

10:15 Spiritual. Let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the entole, the commandments of Christ. So Paul's directives about public worship and how many should speak in tongues and how many should prophesy and when men should speak and women should be silent, he says, look, look, if you're in touch with spiritual realities and the facts of what really is true, you will acknowledge that what I write to you are not the opinions. of the Apostle Paul. They are the commands of Christ, the great prophet of his church. So when I say

10:52 that the second necessary fruit of saving faith is a pattern of obedience to the word of Christ, what I'm saying is this, that every precept and every command and every directive of scripture that responsibly handled touches you as a new covenant believer. is the word and the command of Christ. Now see, that excludes God's commands about not making garments of mixed cloth. That was a word of Christ to the covenant people of God in a particular

11:33 segment of redemptive history. However, when there are moral precepts that have no tap roots in the uniqueness of Israel as God's covenant nation, that's as much as the covenant people of God have in the covenant nation in the early Lord Jesus Christ, who has a portion of the covenant nation of God. So he's an original Bible scripture. So what I'm saying is, make sure to look and learn from the truth as much as you can. So when I say the second necessary fruit of true saving faith

12:03 is a pattern of obedience to the word of Christ, what I'm saying is, wherever you go in your bible and you find a command or a precept that responsibly handles the 신 butchery of the covenant, it's not the truth that's going to stop you from undulating Christ and Cruz. Now, that's not the truth. It's the truth that's going to stop you from doing what God says. There is no law of conscience or what you see in the Bible that's going to stop you from doing that. That's what you're saying.

12:16 handled in its context, speaks to you, it cuts mustard, regulates, it regulates motive, it regulates behavior. In the bathroom, in the bedroom, in the living room, in social interaction, on the phone, on the ice, it doesn't matter where you are, your life is a life governed by a pattern of conscious, deliberate obedience to the Word of Christ. So, having given the definition, now, in opening up the subject, heading number one, the fact

Positive Biblical Demonstrations of Obedience as a Fruit of Faith

12:59 demonstrated from the Word of God, secondly, the nature of this obedience described from the Word of God, and thirdly, an application of this teaching to everyone present in this world. Number one, the fact demonstrated from the Word of God. Where in the Bible is it stated clearly, unmistakably, unequivocally, that obedience to the Word of Christ, as I have defined the Word of Christ, is a necessary fruit of saving faith? Well, as I sat at my

13:38 desk, I felt an embarrassment of riches. Text upon text upon text came flooding into my mind, and I had to exercise what I used to call in the pastoral theology lectures, the discipline of exclusion. And I want you to consider with me, in a relatively brief fashion, three texts that speak of this issue and establish it unquestionably, unequivocally, authoritatively, that are positive in their statement, and then three texts that are negative in their statement. Where, then, do we see in our Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible, in the Bible, in

14:15 the Bibles, that obedience to Christ is a necessary fruit of faith in Christ? Our first text is 1 Peter 1. It was in 1 Peter 1 that we found one of our texts that joined together believing and love for the person of Christ, verse 8. Now we move back to the opening words, Peter's greeting, 1 Peter 1, verses 1 and 2. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the

14:46 elect who are sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. As Peter sits to write or to dictate his letter, most likely from the city of Rome, and he envisions the people of God scattered throughout Asia Minor, and he's going to describe how he envisions them in their true, their essential, spiritual identity. He, first of all, thinks of them as the people of God. He thinks of them as the people of God. He thinks of them

15:16 as the people of God. He thinks of them as the people of God. He thinks of them as the elect sojourners, those upon whom God has set his peculiar, sovereign choice of love and saving purpose. And they are sojourners, not necessarily in terms of their physical existence, but as the letter unfolds, they're sojourners in terms of their spiritual existence.

15:39 Their visas say that home is heaven. I'm sorry, their passports say home is heaven. Their visa says you're passing through this present world. Later on, he will say, I beseech you as strangers and sojourners. That's your identity. So he envisions all of the believers

15:59 as elect sojourners, verse 2, and they were elect according to the foreknowledge of God, that is, God's love set upon them beforehand. And now notice, in sanctification of the spirit, he does not envision any of them who are in their essential identity, elect sojourners, elect according to God's foreknowledge, that is, his love and saving purpose beforehand, but he also envisions them as those who've come within the orbit of the sanctifying influence and work of the Holy Spirit. Their election is manifested in their sanctification. He

16:43 knows them to be an elect people because the spirit of God is in them. He knows them to be an elect people because the spirit of God, through the gospel, has brought home to them the power of God's mighty gospel to deliver them from a willful, deliberate life of attachment to sin and to the flesh and to the world, and they are now a set-apart people unto God. That's the essential notion of sanctification. It is not internal moral purification. It

17:13 is a separation from and unto God. Unto, from the world, from the dominion of sin, unto God, and then it has its ethical outworking. But now notice, he envisions them not only as elect according to foreknowledge, in sanctification of the spirit, but notice, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ. God's love beforehand that has resulted in their being sanctified by the

17:46 Spirit has produced a people who are marked by commitment to a life of obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ. Peter's thinking is rooted in what happened back in Exodus 24, 3-8. We don't have time to turn back to the passage when Moses articulates God's covenantal commitment to his people. In the beginning and end of that incident, they say, all that the Lord tells us we will do. Moses writes the word of God. They again pledge

18:22 their obedience, and they and the book are sprinkled with the blood of a sacrifice. That's the imagery in Peter's mind, that when you were brought into the new covenant and the saving mercies of Jesus, it was unto obedience and sprinkling. No sprinkling without obedience. No obedience.

18:47 Without sprinkling. He envisions all of the true people of God, elect according to foreknowledge, in the dimension of the sanctifying work of the Spirit, as a people committed to obedience and sprinkling of blood. You sit here this morning and say, oh, I know the sprinkling of blood. Do you know a principled life of obedience to the word of Christ? If not, you

19:16 separate yourself from the Holy Spirit. You separate yourself from the Holy Spirit. You break yourself apart, and you separate yourself from the Holy Spirit. You separate yourself out of the nest of the dead. You separate yourself from the Jesus of my God. You separate

19:18 yourself out of the nest of the dead. You separate yourself out of the nest of the living God and of the living creatures. I want you to remember what God has forever joined together. Second text, Hebrews chapter five. The writer to the Hebrews is demonstrating the glory of Christ as a perfect high priest,

19:34 a divinely appointed high priest after the order of Melchizedek, not in the Aaronic order, and speaking of how Christ was made perfectly suited for His function as this high priest. Notice verse 7, who in the days of his flesh, referring to Jesus, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, most likely a reference to the agony of Gethsemane, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a son, and the sinless son of God is that,

20:16 yet he learned obedience. He learned what it was to live in this principled commitment to the revealed will of the Father. How? By the things which he suffered.

20:31 When the will of the Father was leading him into the fiery furnace of intense suffering, he learned the principle of obedience by deliberately saying, though everything in his holy human nature, had an aversion to drink the cup, he said, O my Father, if it be possible, let the cup pass. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. In other words, the path of obedience was not walked upon while whistling and listening to the birds and looking at the beautiful scenery.

21:07 It was in the agony of strong crying and tears and shedding, as it were, sweat drops that had blood mingling. He was mingled with them as some of the surface blood vessels burst in the intensity of his agony. And what's the result? He learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and, having been made perfect, that is, having been made fully complete to be a sympathizing, empathizing high priest in the crucible of his experience, with a people who would likewise be called to a life.

21:46 A life of obedience in which everything that the path of obedience would bring was contrary to natural desires and natural delight, having been made perfect. Now notice, he became unto all them that are obeying him. A present participle of the standard word for obedience, hearing and complying with the word of another. Having been made perfect in his saving work, he became the author of eternal salvation, not to everyone who says, I believe in him.

22:30 I trust in him. I'm trusting only in Christ and in none other. No, the writer to the Hebrews says, to all that are obeying him. And obviously he's not teaching that our obedience is the ground of our salvation.

22:47 For the whole point of this book is to teach that obedience is the ground of our salvation. For the whole point of this book is to teach that obedience is the ground of our salvation. The whole point of the larger context is, the only ground is the bloodletting of Christ, our great high priest. And while the only ground is his bloodletting, you're not on that ground if you're not obeying him.

23:03 Simple folks, explicit, then dishonor the salvation purchased at such cost. Not to have a bunch of people who say, oh yeah, I'm trusting Jesus. And they obey their passions. And their lusts.

23:26 And the dictates of the world. And of their peers. And of society. And they're molded far more by their peers and by society than by the word of Jesus.

23:37 And as I said last week, that is the potential curse of the future of this church and of many Reformed Baptist churches that I know of.

23:53 Knowing well the ground of salvation. Being propped up by cultural religion from grosser manner. Manifestations of sin. But not living a life of meticulous, loving, careful, diligent obedience to Christ's word in every facet of life.

24:14 Because you've never truly come to embrace that Savior in saving faith.

24:23 Third text. These are three positive statements. John chapter 10. In this chapter you have this wonderful disclosure of the Lord's heart.

24:42 Under the imagery of a good shepherd. And he is the good shepherd. He is the shepherd and all of his people are called his sheep. He says in verse 11.

24:53 As the good shepherd, he dies for his sheep. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Verse 14.

25:03 He says he knows them and they know him. There is reciprocal heart acquaintance with one another. I am the good shepherd. I know.

25:12 I know my own and my own know me. He died for them. Verse 11. He knows them.

25:18 They know him. Verse 16. He will infallibly gather all of them to himself. Other sheep I have that are not of this fold.

25:27 Them also I must bring. They shall hear my voice. They shall become one flock, one shepherd. What a thing to be a part of that people whom he calls his sheep.

25:40 To know he died for me. He knows. And I know him. And he's going to gather all the other sheep that he has throughout the Gentile world.

25:51 Gather them into his one body, the church, his one flock, under one shepherd. Now then, the question is this. Am I one of them?

26:01 Am I one of them? Do I have grounds to believe he died distinctly and personally for me? That I really do know him and he joyfully acknowledges he knows me. For remember, that's the great issue in the day of judgment.

26:15 Jesus will say, depart from me. I never knew you. Your profession to know me is irrelevant in that day. His open acknowledgment that he knows us is everything.

26:27 And he said there's a people he unashamedly knows. And they know him and he calls them his sheep. So the great question is, how can I be utterly, absolutely certain that I'm one of them? Well, Jesus tells us.

26:42 I want you to look further down in the chapter. John chapter 10. Look at verse 26. You believe not because you are not of my sheep.

26:54 Speaking to the Jews about him, he says, You do not believe because you are not my sheep. No believing, no sheep. So the way we come experientially into the relationship is by believing. Without believing, no sheep.

27:11 No faith, no sheep. But then the question is, is my professed faith real? And the Lord says, yes. I hear your question.

27:21 And I'm going to give you the infallible evidence that you are my sheep. Now those of you who have ever seen sheep, a flock of sheep, you know you don't brand sheep. You dye them on the back of the neck. But I want you to picture the Lord shaving off all the wool.

27:37 And if you've ever seen sheep when they've just been shorn, they are ugly looking peaced. I have seen them and often the shearers will clip a little skin and they'll have red marks where they've bled a little bit. But I want you to picture the Lord taking his shearing clippers and he's going to brand all of his sheep. And notice how he brands them.

27:59 Verse 27.

28:02 My sheep, those that I own, that I know and I will own now and in the day of judgment, present tense verb, my sheep are continually hearing my voice. In other words, they're branded. With the open ear, they hear, not they heard, and can tell me when they heard my voice saying to them, come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden. And I came, heard his voice saying him that comes to me, I'll in no wise.

28:39 No, they hear, present tense. Hearing does not make them his sheep. It manifests that they have been made his sheep by truly believing. Verse 26.

28:53 And he says, my sheep are all of them without exception, such as hear my voice, not selectively as we shall see. Hear my voice when it speaks in the litluous tones of the marvelous promises. Hear my voice when it speaks words of consolation, let not your heart be troubled. But when it speaks words that cut across the grain.

29:23 Of convenient, cultural, trinity, religion. He says, you want to be my follower, take up your cross daily. You want to be mine, be prepared to stand against the world. Whoever would be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.

29:43 That's the word of Christ. And when you sucker up to the world in its fashions, in its styles, in its standards of what is acceptable. Acceptable entertainment and acceptable use of your internet access, you, if you hear the word of Christ, you say, no, world you will not dictate to me, another has my ear.

30:13 One who loved me, poured out his life for me, shed sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane, not to make me a lover of the world with a ticket to heaven in my pocket, but to show the power of his grace by doing what Paul says in Galatians 1, delivering me out of this present evil world according to the will of God the Father. Galatians 1.4. I know what some of you are thinking.

30:45 There goes the old man, living back in the 19th century, doesn't even have a computer, not online, stuck in the mud with his... I know what some of you are thinking.

30:57 But listen, until you can show me that I'm mishandling the Bible, you're not dealing with this old preacher.

31:05 You're dealing with God. You're dealing with the Christ whom you'll meet in the day of judgment. My sheep hear my voice when it speaks hard things and many go back and follow no more. We say with Peter, Lord, to whom else should we go?

31:25 You alone have the words of eternal life. Look at the text. He brands them not only with the open ear, but with the winged foot. My sheep are hearing my voice and I know them.

31:40 Those are the ones I acknowledge that I know. And they, present tense verb, are following me. That is, what they hear with their ears of my voice regulates what they do with their feets. They hear and they are following.

32:02 That is, the path that is marked out by my word in every area of life, every relationship in life. My word consciously regulates them. That's what makes them who they are, is my sheep. Then read on.

32:24 And the Lord says, And I give unto them, who? To whom, Lord, are you giving eternal life? And the promise they will never perish. And none shall stretch them out of my hand.

32:36 He said, and my sheep. Lord, how are your sheep known? They hear and they follow.

32:46 Some of you don't like the pressure I'm putting on you right now. I can feel it. I'm engaging in spiritual warfare this morning. Because I'm going into the citadel of where some of you, if you're not rescued, mark my word.

32:58 It's only a matter of time before the world's going to have you 100%. Because propped up cultural, trinity, Baptist, religious, climate won't keep you forever.

33:12 And what you are this morning will be known to everyone.

33:19 And my heart's broken at that.

Negative Biblical Demonstrations of Obedience as a Fruit of Faith

33:30 Quivetly state that a pattern of obedience to the word of Christ is the inevitable, necessary fruit of faith in Christ. 1 Peter 1, 1 and 2, Hebrews 5, 8, John 10, 28, 29. Now, very quickly, three negative statements. If these three positive are not enough, God knows.

33:53 The human heart is so deceitful. He says, if the positive will not penetrate, I'll seek to pry and blast in with the negative. 1 John chapter 2, 1 John chapter 2. Again, let the word of Christ speak.

34:10 My little children, these things I write unto you that you may not sin. If any man sin, there's the realism. There's the biblical idealism. We don't want to sin.

34:19 Here's realism. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the propitiation.

34:29 The one who's turned away the wrath of God by the sacrifice of himself. He's the propitiation for our sins. Not for ours only, but also for the whole world. What a marvelous promise.

34:42 At the point that I sin, if I'm a true Christian, my advocate doesn't disown me. He's ready to go to work for me in the presence of the Father. Isn't that marvelous? I write these things that you may not sin.

34:55 And if any man sin, we have at the point of our sinning an advocate.

35:02 And the Father sees the Son and delightfully forgives us on the basis of that sacrifice. Ah, but for whom is this marvelous promise intended? Read on. And hereby we know that we know him.

35:19 And who is the antecedent of the pronoun him? It is Jesus Christ, the righteous. And hereby do we know that we know. We know him, parenthesis, and that he will acknowledge he knows us.

35:32 How? How? If we remember when we placed faith. If we remember when we sat with the elders and gave a credible.

35:40 No, no. Hereby do we know that we know him, present tense. If we are keeping his commandments.

35:50 Not if we are claiming his promises, though that's true. We looked at the promise of the first two verses. Hereby do we know. With a knowledge that is not the fruit of a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked.

36:04 But with a mind and heart impregnated by the truth of scripture. Hereby do we know that we know him. If we are keeping his commandments, plural. If our lives show a definitive pattern of conformity to the words and commands of Jesus Christ.

36:25 Come on, says that. But isn't there a little wiggling room? Look at. Verse four.

36:31 Look at it in your own Bibles, folks. I don't want just my thundering voice. I want God's own words embalmed in printer's ink to impinge on your retinas. He that says.

36:45 You're not going to this morning or anymore. And yet your life is not a pattern of diligent, conscious, deliberate obedience to Christ. What does God say? He that says, I know him and does not keep.

37:02 Again, present tense. His commandments is a liar. The truth is not in it. There it is, folks.

37:11 Truth in you. Oh, yes, it's floating around above you. You couldn't help but have it form a cloud above you in this place. In your Christian home.

37:21 In your Christian school. In your homeschooling context. The truth has gathered a cloud of all that has come up from the sea of your general influence. And there it floats around.

37:33 You can point to it and say, that's the truth. And I know. The truth. And I believe the truth.

37:37 But now the issue is this. Is your life a growing transcript of the commandments of Jesus Christ? Your thoughts. Your perspectives.

37:50 Your words. Your associations. Your use of leisure time. Your entertainments.

37:58 What you eat. How much you eat. Where you go. Where you don't go.

38:03 Folks, his commandments touch every facet of our existence. And the youngest babe in Christ, if he's truly in Christ, he begins to regulate his life by what he knows of the words of Christ. He hungers and thirsts to grow in the knowledge of and obedience to the words of Christ. And he never stops.

38:30 Because the text says, he that says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar. And the truth is not in him. In him. Second text, stated in a negative way, John 14, 24.

38:46 John 14, 24. He that loves me not, does not keep my words. And the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. We saw last week that loving Christ is a necessary fruit of faith.

39:06 He that loves me not, how does he show it? He does not keep. Present tense. Generic.

39:12 Generic verb. My words. He doesn't cherish them. He doesn't receive them.

39:18 He doesn't long for them. He doesn't search them out. He doesn't listen to them in preaching and teaching with the anticipation of increasing the corpus of his or her knowledge of what will please the Savior.

39:33 You don't keep his words, you don't love him. And then very quickly, Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7.

39:43 The end of the Sermon on the Mount. Filled with specific commandments. Not only descriptions of the character traits of the sons and daughters of the kingdom in the Beatitudes, but commandments. The remainder of chapter 5, based upon a proper understanding of the law.

40:01 Chapter 6. Don't be anxious. Don't pray to be seen by men. Seek first the kingdom of God.

40:09 Chapter 7. Judge not that you be not judged. Take the beam out of your own eye. All the commandments.

40:17 Now notice. Notice how the Lord concludes. Everyone therefore that hears these words of mine and does them. That is, commits himself to a life of serious, diligent, earnest obedience.

40:33 Yes, in dependence upon my grace and power we shall see. Yes, but he keeps them. He hears them. He keeps them.

40:40 He does them. He shall be likened to a wise man who built his house. That is, the house of his religious profession and experience. Upon a rock.

40:50 And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock. Most likely that's a picture of the coming day of judgment. Everyone that hears these words of mine and does not do them. Does not echo my words by a life of meticulous, diligent obedience wherever my words address anything in his or her life.

41:15 Everyone, young or old, it matters not. These are the words of incarnate truth. Jesus himself, everyone who hears and does them not, shall be likened to a foolish man, built his house upon the sand. His profession, that he belongs to Christ, that he's a child of God.

41:32 The rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and smote upon the house and it fell. And great was the fall of it. May have reference to trials that come in this life, but surely in the day of judgment for Jesus had previously said, Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom, but he that is doing the will of my Father who is in heaven. Dear people, six texts of scripture in answer to your question, where does the Bible unmistakably, unequivocally state that obedience to Jesus Christ is a necessary fruit of faith if those six texts don't prove it?

42:14 And as far as I'm concerned, it's time for me to throw this book away, walk out of the pulpit and do something else before I die and go to heaven. Now, what are you going to do with those texts?

The Nature of True Obedience Described

42:26 I say, well, Pastor, it would help to know what is the nature of that obedience spoken of in all these texts? And that's what I want to address in my second heading. What's the nature of the obedience that is the fruit of faith?

42:41 Well, I want to summarize the teaching of the Bible under four subheadings. Four descriptive statements. I'm trying to back off and look at that faith that we've seen is indeed a necessary, that obedience that is a necessary fruit of faith. What's it look like?

42:58 What are its characteristics? What are its distinguishing elements? Number one, the obedience to the word of Christ, which is a necessary fruit of faith in Christ, here's statement number one, is evangelical and not legal in its motive and in its spirit. It is evangelical and not legal in its motive, faith and spirit.

43:26 You see, the Bible is concerned not only with what we do, but why we do it. Not only concerned with what we don't do, but why we don't do what we don't do. And what do I mean by legal obedience? What did the old writers mean by that term?

43:41 Well, that's an obedience rendered to the letter of God's law in order to attain or maintain our standing with God. That's a legal obedience. I do what I do. At least externally.

43:56 Because I either think by so doing it, I will gain acceptance with God, or I will maintain my acceptance with God. Remember the Pharisee? He stood thus in the temple and prayed to himself, I thank you, Father, I'm not as other men. I fast.

44:15 I give tithes. What's he doing? Whatever obedience he rendered to God's demands about tithing, God's demands not to be dishonest, so he could say, I'm not like this publican. He's not like the riffraff.

44:28 He doesn't break the sixth commandment, the eighth commandment. His obedience was all in its sum total a legal obedience, thinking he gained acceptance with God by his obedience to the commands of God. That's legal obedience. The rich young ruler.

44:47 All these things that I kept from my youth up, thinking that they would somehow give him acceptance with God. Evangelical obedience. In contrast, flows from gospel motives. Evangel.

44:59 Evangel. That's a transliteration of the Greek word for the good news. The euangelion. The good news.

45:06 Well, evangelical obedience has its tap roots in the realities of the gospel, having seized the heart of a sinner. And what are those? Well, love for Christ. John 14, 21.

45:19 He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves. If. If you love me, you will keep my word. Evangelical obedience flows out of what we proved last week.

45:33 The first fruit of saving faith is love for the person of Christ. And the first fruit of love for the person of Christ is obedience to the word of Christ out of love.

45:45 Or, an evangelical motive is gratitude for the salvation of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 14. Paul could say, the love of Christ constrains me. It holds.

45:56 It holds me in its grip. Christ's love for me manifested in his death for me. That overwhelms me. And I say with the hymn writer here, Lord, I give myself away.

46:08 It is all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and my burdens rolled away, it was there by faith I received my sight. Now I'm happy all the day. Happy with a happiness that brings me in the train of obedience.

46:25 To Christ. Or the desire to please Christ. Paul could say in 2 Thessalonians 4, 1. I taught you how you ought to so live as to please God.

46:39 Jesus could say, I do always the things that please my Father. When you love someone, what a delight it is to please them. Oh, how I've learned that lesson in new ways in recent months. I learned it in a totally different crucible.

46:54 In the long months of Marilyn's walk down to the, river. I'm learning it in whole new ways in the blossoming, of new life. The delight it is. Listen for every nuance of what will please my Dorothy.

47:09 And then do it with delight. Some of it ain't been fun. The thing itself, has been hard work. But it's been sheer delight.

47:19 Why? The motivation changes drudgery into delight.

47:25 Our obedience that is the fruit of faith is not legal, but evangelical in its motive and in its spirit. Secondly, it is universal and not partial in its scope. Universal and not partial in its scope. What do I mean by universal?

47:45 Remember what Jesus said in the Great Commission in Matthew 28? Look at it.

47:51 Going therefore make disciples of all the nations, Matthew 28 in verse 19, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you.

48:14 He says to the apostles that in gathering together a people who are my own, attached to me in faith and in love, I'm assuming that because they truly believe in me, they desire to render careful, diligent, conscientious obedience to me, so give them the path on which that desire can express itself and teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you. In other words, teach them what a life of universal obedience involves. And dear people,

48:56 I'm not so stupid as to know one of the reasons these pews are not overflowing. It's because over the years, this pulpit has been marked by the determination to teach all things whatsoever. When you start touching what people do in front of their computers and what they do and don't do with their VCRs and with their TVs and with their dress and with their speech and with their leisure time and with what they do with their money, you're going to have people who say, I don't want Jesus Christ and his words sticking his nose, into every single detail of my life. Give me some space.

49:40 Space to do what? If you love Christ, the only space you want is blood washed space out by his commandments. And Jesus assumes that's the mark of the new covenant community. So he says, you teach them what the space is.

49:59 They want to know it. Teach it to them and hold back nothing. I don't hear any amens, but that's the truth. You see, David, understood this universal as opposed to partial obedience.

50:14 Psalm 119, five and six. In fact, as I began to speed read some read Psalm 119, there are handfuls of verses that teach this. This is just a sampling verse five and six. Oh, that my ways were established to observe your statutes.

50:31 You see, he's not drawing back saying, Oh, well, I hope that the Lord doesn't touch this and touch that and keep me coming. No, no. I want all my ways established. You, to observe your statutes, then shall I not be put to shame when I have respect unto all, all, all, all your commandments in every area of my life.

50:52 No area has a tag on it. Jesus don't touch a tag saying, welcome Jesus, welcome Jesus, welcome Jesus. You see partial obedience. That's what the Pharisees rendered just enough to keep up their Jewish, religious, cultural, religious respectability.

51:14 Jesus could say to them in Matthew 23, 23, you wretched Pharisees, you tithe mint and anise and coming. God never got that particular in terms of the yearly tithe, but you're going to be very meticulous, but you have left undone the weightier matters of the law, love and justice and mercy. These other you ought to have done and not to left the other undone. These you ought to have done.

51:40 You're under obligation, to render universal obedience. Thirdly, that obedience, which is the fruit of faith is not only evangelical and not legal in its spirit, universal and not partial in its scope. But thirdly, it is purposeful though, not perfect in its performance. It is purposeful though, not perfect in its performance by purposeful.

52:13 I mean, we are resolved. To embrace all of God's commands. We want every single command of God that touches us to be understood and by his power obeyed. But, but in performance, we understand the truth of the power and the influence of remaining sin.

52:36 You get this all together at the latter part of Romans seven. Remember what Paul said? I delight in the law of God with my inward man. Every bit of it, every commandment, every precept in my inner being, in my renewed self, I delight in it.

52:54 But I find another law warring against the law of my mind. Yes, our obedience is purposeful in its intent, but it is not perfect in its performance. Purposeful Psalm 119, 4, 10, 16, 24, 30. And that's when I stopped.

53:19 That's when I stopped speed reading. I said, I just blot. It's glutted with these statements. There is a passion to do all that God's revealed as his will.

53:29 But there is the recognition that the flesh lost against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. And these two are contrary, the one to the other. So you may not do the things that you will. That's part of the grievous nature of the obedience.

53:43 This side of heaven. That's going to be one of the glorious realities of being glorified. When it says of the redeemed in heaven, they shall see his face. They shall follow the lamb where so ever he goes.

53:59 Won't it be wonderful? Never to feel a dragging foot in following the lamb. You get up some days and your heart is following him with passion. And your weary body attacks the passion and you're as cold as ice by 10 o'clock in the morning.

54:19 It's going to be wonderful to have. All the renewed dispositions of rendering perfect purposeful obedience with competence. That'll take the most stayed and reserved among you. And I got a sneaking suspicion you'll join me in the dance.

54:42 But then fourthly, that obedience, which is the necessary fruit of faith, is graciously empowered and not self-generated. It is graciously empowered, empowered, and not self-generated in its dynamic. Now the dynamic of anything is the various forces operated in any given field, whether physically, morally, ethically. That which makes it go is its dynamic.

55:14 And what I'm saying is the nature of that obedience, that is the fruit of faith, is graciously empowered and not self-generated in its dynamic. And where do I get that notion? Very simply, Philippians chapter two, verses 12 and 13. Not as in my presence, but now much more in my absence.

55:36 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? It is God who is working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Think of it.

55:49 When I have a passion to do the will of God, it's because God has empowered me with that passion. And when I seek to move in the direction of that passion, the God who empowered me with the will gives me the power to do, not perfectly, but really and truly. And it all is according to his good pleasure. You see, that's what I mean by the dynamic is the gracious empowerment.

56:19 Jesus said in John 15, five without me, you can do nothing. That's why the scripture says Romans eight, seven, the natural man, the comes on me. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God.

56:34 Neither indeed can it be. You can't render true obedience from the heart with right motives. If you're still severed from Christ, you need to be joined to Christ by faith and in union with Christ. As we read in Galatians three, you receive the gift of the spirit and the empowerment of God's grace.

56:55 So that when the writer to the Hebrews pronounces, this benediction at the end of Hebrews 13, 20 and 21, he knows what he's talking about. The God of peace who brought again from the dead, the great shepherd with the blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord, Jesus make you perfect in every good thing to do his will working in us. That which is well pleasing in sight. It's a wonderful thing to know God commands and marks out the path.

Personal Application: Searching Question, Sad Conclusion, Sweet Consolation

57:29 And then he says, in my covenantal commitments to you, I give you the grace and the power to walk that path. So those are the four characteristics of this obedience to the word of Christ. That brings me finally the truth of this assertion personally applied. That is the assertion that obedience to the word of Christ is a necessary fruit of faith to Christ.

57:59 And I'm just going to touch three things quickly. It leads first, of all, to a searching question, a searching question. Can you who say you believe was your life this past week and undeniable, inwardly experiential, outwardly observed commentary on this sermon. Would anyone get the notion if they could have read your thoughts, the thoughts you welcomed, the thoughts you rejected, the thoughts for which you confessed and asked the cleansing of Christ's blood.

58:34 If they could have watched, your actions in private, heard all your words on the phone in your interaction with your closest friends, if they could have followed you to every place you've gone, if they could have watched you when you sat at your keyboard with your computer, when you picked up your phone, when you related to this one or that one, would they have seen, ah, this is what it means for a man or a woman who believing upon Christ is diligent, constantly seeking to obey the word of Christ. That's a searching question. But you better ask it of yourself.

59:16 And you better be honest with yourself. Because we've seen from the scripture that is a necessary fruit of faith. And if you can't say yes by the grace of God, God was witness that when thoughts of envy and thoughts of lust came in, I didn't open the door because nobody else would see it. And nobody in the circle of Trinity Baptist Church, cult, religion, would know.

59:40 But my God knows. And I know he commands me not to entertain impure thoughts of lust, of envy, of murder, of pride. In obedience to His command I've confessed my sin. If I indulge them, I'd cry for grace if I hadn't let them in and I was warring against them.

60:03 When I spoke a hasty word that was tinged with anger, I owned my sin. Because Jesus says, ''Confess your sins one to another.'' Pray one for the other. Pray one for the other, Pray one for the other.

60:13 Pray one for the other. And when I did that which was marginally dishonest, the Scripture says, lie not one to another. I confessed my sin to God. I confessed it to the person against whom I...

60:25 Yes, my life, in all of its sin and failure, is a real transcript of a life subject to the commandments of... I don't know how to put the question any more pointedly and searchingly.

60:42 And if you can't answer yes to that, my friend, you have no grounds. I'm not saying you're not a Christian. I'm saying you've got no biblical grounds to claim you are. That's the searching question.

60:59 Then, sad conclusion. The sad conclusion is found in words such as Titus 1.16. They profess to know God, but by their works they deny Him.

61:11 And in the context, he then identifies some of the grosser forms of evil. But the principle is the same. That we can, by our works, deny what we profess. And James was facing this in his letter and said, Look, look, you say you believe.

61:27 Fine, the demons also believe and they shudder. But wilt thou know, O man, that faith without works is dead.

61:38 And the work of obedience to the words and commands of Christ is a necessary fruit of faith. And the sad conclusion, folks, is there's an awful lot of evangelical and Reformed religion...

61:50 that ain't the real thing.

61:57 The world is stamping its mold on some of you to an extent that is frightening.

62:05 You've got to go to the world's watering troughs to quench your thirst for a full life. You've got to go to the world's entertainment to be happy.

62:20 You've got to go to the world's council with regard to how to rear your kids. It's sad to see it, but it's a sad conclusion. But then, this word should be a sweet consolation to many of you. And I say that guardedly but honestly.

62:41 For many of you, what we've considered this morning ought to be a word of sweet consolation. Because when we've worked through these texts, you've been able to sit there, not under the influence of the remaining deceitfulness of your heart, but under the light of the Word of God and by the help of the Holy Spirit, and say, Lord, with all my failures and all the areas I need, I need to grow and make progress. Lord Jesus, you know, not only as we saw last week, you can look Him in the face and say, you know all things, Lord, you know I love you. You can look Him in the face and say, Lord Jesus, you know all things, you know that I obey you.

63:22 I obey you. Out of evangelical motives. Out of a purposeful commitment to obey you. With a desire for universal obedience.

63:33 And by the strength and power. That you give. What a wonderful thing. To be consoled and comforted that only God could have ever made me this kind of a person.

63:47 Do you have that comfort this morning? Bless God for it. If you don't, the only place you get it is not by starting to be obedient. It's by going to Christ and throwing yourself at His feet.

64:02 Embracing Him in faith. And in that faith, union with Christ. Then love. For the person of Christ.

64:10 Will be the first fruit. And then obedience to the word of Christ. Will follow close on its heels.

64:26 Our Father, how we thank you for the clarity of your word. And pray that the Holy Spirit who gave us that word. Will write upon all of our hearts the truths with which we have wrestled this morning. Oh God, seal that word to all of our hearts.

64:45 For our good. And for your glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.

64:52 Amen.