The Lordship Controversy, Part 2

Introduction: The Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church and the Doctrine of Conversion

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, July 19, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now I would be very surprised if there are not many of you who, with me, have greatly longed for this coming Lord's Day, when our ears might legitimately and joyfully turn away from the pompous, swelling, political pronouncements of men who talk in such messianic terms of their abilities to do this and the other,

0:43 that I personally have longed for this Lord's Day when we might turn to words that are more than empty, swelling words of men's vanity and pride, and hear together the words of Jesus who said, Though heaven and earth pass away, my word shall never pass away. Let us pray that God would grant us a great inward cleansing of our own souls and a fresh baptism of our minds with those things that are more than the pompous pronouncements of arrogant and proud and ambitious men, and we may hear the words of him who, who said,

1:28 The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Let us pray. Our Father, we do indeed praise you with all of our hearts for the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that he could say, Though heaven and earth pass away, my word shall never pass away. And we therefore come amidst the dimming, Parisian, the very cacophony of the voices of men and thank you that we come to words of truth.

2:11 And we pray that the Spirit Himself would be present to take those words and make them life-giving words to our hearts where they should be words to expose us and strip away the thin veneer of mere religious name and form. Oh, Lord, may your word come as a sharp, shearing knife this morning. Where we need words of comfort and encouragement, may your words distill upon our hearts, touching the deep springs where no man can go, there bringing the consolations of your grace.

2:53 We plead this morning in the words of the Apostle that your word may run and have free course and be glorified in this place. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

3:19 Turning away from the platforms of parties with all of their promises, we come again this morning in the course of our studies together to take up what we have been considering for approximately a year now, a series of studies entitled A Manifesto of Trinity. A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. And this manifesto, which by very definition is a formal setting forth of the principles, the aims, the perspectives of a group, and doing so in some public way, is not a manifesto of what we propose to do but have never done,

4:04 what we hope to believe but have never truly believed, but in a very real sense it is an attempt to bring the truth to the people of the world. To bring into sharp focus those biblical, those eternal truths of the word of God which have constituted the very life and soul of our existence together as a church for some 25 years. And we felt that the occasion of 1992 being our 25th year of life together was an appropriate time to bring into focus those central issues that have, as I've already indicated, been the very nerve centers of our life together.

4:49 And we are presently studying the ninth affirmation in that manifesto and I have expressed it as follows. We are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion and conversion. Conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. And for a number of weeks our attention has been focused on the first of those aspects, namely the biblical doctrine of conversion.

5:27 Having established from the scriptures the absolute necessity for conversion, the obvious diversity of the ways of God in the impartation of converting grace, we are now concentrating our attention on seeking to cull from the scriptures those things which are the indispensable elements of every true but diverse work of converting grace. And we have seen that in every true conversion, hell-deserving sinners are brought to an acute sense of spiritual need which they become convinced can be met only in the process of conversion.

6:10 And we have seen that in every true person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God never converted a sinner without first of all by various means and to differing degrees bringing that man, woman, boy or girl to the place of an acute sense of need, need that drives the hell-deserving sinner out of himself and into the divine. And this is the direction of Jesus Christ as he is presented in the gospel. And Jesus was very conscious of that for he said, they that are well have no need of a doctor,

6:54 but they that are sick I came not to call the righteous, those who have no acutely felt sense of need for me, but I have come to call sinners, those who not only are sinners in the reckoning, of God, and in the realism of what they are, but in the acute felt sense of their own sinfulness, I have come to call such to repentance. Then we have said secondly, that in every true conversion we are brought to a lifelong disposition of repentance and faith along with the inevitable fruits of that disposition.

7:38 Whether gradually, whether gradually, Whether in a rather ordinary or in an extraordinary way, God never imparted converting grace to any sinner without bringing that sinner to repent of his sins, to turn from them unto God, and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And for the last couple of weeks, we have been rooting around in the Word of God, seeking to grasp the major lines of its teaching with reference to this matter of repentance.

8:17 And we have seen from the Scriptures that repentance has as its primary object God Himself. Acts 20.21 says Paul preached repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul described the context.

8:35 Conversion of the Thessalonians as follows. How you turned unto God to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. But then we have seen that though God is the primary object of concern in true repentance, that repentance that needs not to be repented of, there are necessarily related concerns. For anyone who truly turns to God...

9:05 God must deal with his sin, and he must deal with himself, and he must deal with the great question of righteousness. How can I have a right standing with God? Now today, and those of you who are in the adult class will know where we are going, we are going to direct our attention to an aspect of faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, but a very special aspect of the biblical doctrine of faith. And I will couch that aspect, or try to open up the biblical teaching on that aspect by couching the concern in this question.

Thesis: All Who Truly Believe Upon Christ Will Be Marked by a Lifestyle of Obedience

9:47 Is it possible to exercise saving faith in Christ while not subsequently rendering a life of obedience to Christ? I set the field for that concern in the Sunday school hour. But now in this hour...

10:06 And God willing, tonight we are going to take up three distinct lines of concern relative to this whole issue of whether or not it is possible truly to believe upon Christ and yet not to live a life of obedience to Christ. And I want to take this simple thesis and then come at it from three angles, one this morning and two, God willing, this evening. According to the scriptures, all who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. Now that's not complicated, is it?

10:49 According to the scriptures, all who truly believe upon Christ, and that's all truly converted people, all who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. All who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. All who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. All who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ.

11:07 All who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. All who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. All who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. All who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ.

11:07 a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. And what I want to do this morning is to prove that obedience to Christ is the necessary and the inevitable fruit of faith in Christ. Tonight, God willing, we'll consider the nature of that obedience to Christ, which is the necessary and inevitable fruit of faith, and then finally, the source of that obedience to Christ, which is the necessary fruit and accompaniment of faith in Christ. So there's the central concern,

11:51 to demonstrate that all who truly believe in Christ in this building, set apart for the worship of that congregation called Trinity Baptist Church, every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, who's sitting here this morning, truly believes upon Christ to the saving of his soul, is marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. To state it negatively, if sitting here this morning, your lifestyle is not one marked by obedience to Christ,

12:33 and we'll deal with the qualifying aspects tonight, God willing, I want to state it as bluntly, as simply, as crassly as I know how, you are in unbelief, you are dead in your sins, you have no biblical claim to being a Christian. Now can I state it more bluntly? No obedience to Christ, no salvation from Christ. No life of following in the steps of Christ.

13:14 No right to believe you'll share the destiny of Christ in heaven. I want to simply demonstrate from the Word of God, that that is indeed an accurate distillation of the teaching of Holy Scripture. That's the one thing I want to do this morning. Paul said, this one thing I do, this one thing I do as a preacher this morning.

13:40 One note Charlie. Plucking out all the other strings and just going to plunk that one all through the morning. So if you have any respect for this book, you better open your mind and your heart and cry to God, Oh Lord, help me to see if indeed I truly believe on the Son of God. We start then with the first of six passages that we're going to look at.

Passage 1: Matthew 7 – Doing the Father's Will

14:07 Passage number one, Matthew chapter seven. Remember now children, what are we trying to do? We're seeking to prove that obedience to Christ is the necessary fruit of faith in Christ. And we start with Matthew chapter seven.

14:28 This marvelous portion of the Word of God commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. I heard from another preacher this week a thought that was greatly refreshing to me, that often in the gospel we begin with a river and we end up in a lake. And earlier in Matthew's gospel there was a reference to Jesus teaching on the kingdom of God. And that reference which is the river issues into this lake of beautiful truth in the Sermon on the Mount.

15:00 And after our Lord has laid out the major lines of his concern like any good preacher. He's not concerned to just dump his wad of truth and leave it. He starts pressing with earnest application telling people what they must do. And as they do it what they must fear and seeking to motivate and persuade them to embrace his message.

15:24 And as we come to the end of chapter seven he does so in that area of concern with these very sobering words. Matthew seven in verse twenty-one. Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now stop right there.

15:47 That ought to make us all sit back and take note carefully. Son of God incarnate truth is saying not everyone who knows of him. Who has been close enough to his truth, his word, his church, his people, his institutions to call him Lord. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord.

16:14 Not everyone who claims to be savingly you. United to me in penitent faith. Not everyone who names my name and adorns the profession of my name. Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, shall actually enter the kingdom of heaven.

16:34 Not everyone who bears my name along his earthly pilgrimage will be in my place at the end of that pilgrimage. Now doesn't that set you back on your heels? If Jesus is to be taken seriously, not everyone in this building who says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But there is a great segment who will, and notice how he describes them.

17:04 But he that, present tense verb, he that is doing the will of my Father who is in heaven. And this verse clearly teaches no one is going to enter the kingdom of heaven who is not as a lifestyle doing the will of God. Is that what it says? Or must I come with a penknife and cut that out of my Bible?

17:34 I want to make it burningly, pressingly relevant and personal. Sitting where you are this morning, are you doing the Father's will in your life? Have you done the Father's will this past week? In your marriage?

17:52 In your parenting? In your role as a son? As a daughter? As a workman?

18:00 As a citizen? Have you done the will of God in your thought life? In the use of your time? The use of your money?

18:09 The expenditure of your energies? I didn't say have you done the will of God perfectly. Jesus didn't say that. Have you done it without any intermittance?

18:18 I didn't say that. But Jesus does say, No one is going to heaven but those who do the Father's will. Now, I didn't write it. Look at it with your own eyeballs in your own Bible and God helps some of you to start taking it serious.

18:34 Because there are altogether too many areas where you know the will of God and you just plain don't care enough. That's why there are chronic issues in your life, in your home, in the patterns of your lifestyle that are blatantly contradictory to the will of God and yet you go on naming the name of Christ. You don't believe this. You better believe it or God will make you in the day of judgment.

19:12 Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he that is doing the will of my Father which is in heaven. Then our Lord goes on to open up a scenario that's frightening. Many, verse 22, many, many, many, many will say unto me in that day, Lord, we not only named your name but we so convinced others that we had legitimate claim to that name that we were found among the community of your people. And furthermore, Lord, we began to exercise and manifest unusual gifts in the speaking of your name, not only by profession

19:57 but by ministerial power and authority. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy or preach in your name and by your name cast out demons and by your name do many mighty works? In other words, all of our Christian work was done in the orbit of association with claiming allegiance to you. It was in your name that we prophesied.

20:21 It was in your name that we cast out demons. It was in your name that we did mighty works. Verse 23, then will I profess unto them, you liars, you never professed to know me? No.

20:35 Then will I profess unto them, you liars, you never prophesied in my name? No. You liars, you never cast out demons in my name? No.

20:46 He does not dispute any one of their claims. But what he says is, depart from me, you that work iniquity. Your life was crooked and perverse with regard to doing my will. You had my name upon your lips.

21:03 You had my works in your lives religiously and ministerially. But your life was never brought into life with my Father's will. Now notice verse 24. Everyone therefore, there's a connection.

21:21 He's tying this all together by way of conclusion. Everyone therefore, that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man who built his house upon the rock. How is the wise man identified? Not as the one who believes on Christ the rock.

21:44 He's the one who hears the word of Christ and does them. You see that in your Bible? I'm sorry, children. I don't want to take away your lovely little song.

21:54 The wise man built his house upon the rock. So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a wonderful truth, but that isn't what's taught here. You look at the passage.

22:05 Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them shall be likened unto a wise man who built his house upon the rock. The house of his religious profession, the house of his religious experience was made up of a listening to the word of Christ and a heart commitment of obedience to that word. He has built his house upon a rock and the rains descend, the floods come, the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not. It was founded upon the rock.

22:46 And what is that house founded upon the rock? It is true, genuine, Biblical conversion that left the man not only saying, Lord, Lord, hearing the words of Christ but doing them. But then our Lord gives a contrast. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does them not doesn't say he curses them.

23:12 He denies their validity. He simply doesn't do them. He hears them, which means he's got to go where they're heard. He comes to churches like this where Christ's word is read.

23:21 Christ's word is exposed. This word is preached. This isn't liberals. They don't hear the word of Christ.

23:31 Those are the churches where the politics can go. The politicians can go in Sunday morning campaign time and be given the pulpit. Wretched profanation of Christian pulpits. Republicans, Democrats, Perroites or anyone else, Christ never gives his pulpit to politicians.

23:51 But these are people that hear his word. They're in the orbit of the Trinity churches of this world. They have respect for the word. They go where the word is taught, where the word is preached.

24:06 But here's the problem. Doeth them not. Doeth them not. They hear husbands love your wives.

24:14 And they go on month after month, year after year, mute, silent, narrow-hearted, uncompassionate. Husbands who don't love their wives is the chrysal of the church. They just plain don't want to take the trouble to do what Ephesians 5 says. Wives here, be subject to your husbands in everything.

24:38 They don't do it. They go on henpecking their husbands, bucking their authority, demeaning them. They don't do it. They simply don't do it.

24:48 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger, they don't stop. They're bad-mouthing of their husbands, of their wives, of their kids. They go on with ungoverned tongues, ungoverned spirits. They don't do the word of Christ.

25:05 Look at the text. It's written in your Bibles, not my forehead. Look at it. Everyone that hear it, and do it the not, still stays close to the word, still stays where the word is preached.

25:18 They continue to hear, but they don't do it. Be likened to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. They profess to know Christ. They have a house of Christian profession that stands in the role of those called Christians in Trinity Baptist Church.

25:37 And all the houses look to be the same on the outside. But what happens? And the rain descended, and the flood came, and the wind blew, and smote upon the house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof. My friend, the day of judgment is coming when your house is going to go down.

25:55 And you'll be among those who say, Lord, Lord. Luke 13. Did you not eat in our streets? And did you not teach your mother?

26:05 People say, I never knew you. They hear, but they do not. My friends, if this passage doesn't teach anything, surely it teaches this. The proof that you are truly believing in Christ is that you're marked by a lifestyle of obedience to the word of Christ.

26:31 And you have it upon the word of Jesus. If you don't do, get to heaven, Jesus is a liar. You got it? If you don't, as revealed in the word of God, and yet you go to heaven, the Son of God is a liar.

26:55 Because he said, no one will but he that does the will of my Father. Young people, you don't flee youthful lust. You make a playground of your body. You use your eye for the inlet of lust and passion.

27:14 You know it's wrong. You know you shouldn't. You just don't care to stop. You will not do the will of God.

27:20 This is the will of God. Even your sanctification that you abstain from fornication, 1 Thessalonians 4. You say, I don't care to. I like it too much.

27:30 Then go to hell. But stop saying you're a Christian. Because Jesus said, no one's going to heaven but those that do the will of God. Passage number two.

Passage 2: John 10 – My Sheep Hear and Follow My Voice

27:42 You heard this a few weeks ago. Therefore, I'll not take time to sit on it too long. Simply to underscore it, John chapter 10. John chapter 10.

27:55 In this marvelous passage where we have one of the three or four most encouraging sections in all of Scripture concerning the inviolable security of all the true saints of God. This is in the Gospels what Romans 8, 34 and following is in the epistles. Pastor Lamar preached on it in your presence a few weeks ago. Verse 27 of John 10.

28:24 My sheep hear. Present tense verb. My sheep are hearing my voice. And I know them.

28:33 That is, I regard them with distinguishing love and affection. I am unashamed to make it evident to all that I am committed to them. So committed that I'm going to lay down my life to secure their redemption. My sheep are hearing my voice.

28:52 And I know them. And they are following me. And I give unto them eternal life. And they shall never perish.

29:00 And no one shall snatch them. Out of my hand. Marvelous promise. There is a people called his sheep.

29:08 And he says, I so hold them that none can snatch them out of my hand. But I ask, O Lord, who are they? He says, they are my sheep. But I say, Lord, the Bible says there's an awful lot of goats in the world that just have a sign around their neck saying I'm a sheep who belongs to Jesus.

29:29 How do I know I'm a real sheep? I'm just a religious goat with a sign around my neck. He says, well, my sheep have two. Two undeniable.

29:41 Two consistent. Two universal characteristics. Wherever you find one of my sheep, these things are always there. Not one without the other.

29:51 Here they are. The open ear, they hear. And the willing foot, they follow. And if some of you know who've seen sheep, they don't brand them like cattle.

30:05 They dye them with different colored eyes in the back of the neck. But the Lord Jesus brands his sheep. He takes the clippers and goes right down through to the bare skin, and then he brands them on the neck. And the brand is the brand of the open ear and the winged foot.

30:21 Jesus has no sheep but those with open ear and winged foot. They hear my voice. Oh yes, sometimes they hear more distinctly. Sometimes more readily.

30:34 Sometimes with greater joy. I know all of that, and we're going to deal with that tonight. But my friends, you can't make hear into deaf. Whatever the degrees are, you can't take the word my sheep hear into my sheep are deaf too.

30:53 Now whatever you do with it, degrees, yes, means hear. And though they follow with different degrees of speed, different measures of alacrity, different nuance. I know, I know, I know, I know. But you can't make follow mean, dig the heels in.

31:15 My sheep are deaf, and they dig their heels in, but I'll take them to heaven. Nonsense! My sheep, them, I give to them eternal life. And my friend, if you aren't hearing and following, Jesus doesn't know you.

31:40 And if he's not giving you eternal life, pray tell who is. He has it to give to you. And there are many of you, I fear, you're not hearing. You're not hearing.

31:56 Christ's voice is calling you to deny yourself. You don't do it. When your likes and dislikes run counter to what would please your wife, you stiff arm your wife's feeling, run roughshod over. Some of the things we as elders are dealing with now are sickening and inconsistent with a Christian church.

32:16 And it's time to call spades, spades in this place. Some of you men, the way you treat your wives, you're not hearing Christ's voice, you better quit it or give up your profession. And some of you women, the way you refuse to respect and reverence and submit to your husbands, you need to give up your profession or get your act together. Just that plain!

32:41 Christ's voice! When someone looking at the way you treat your wife would think she's a piece of junk, rather than that precious thing for which Christ died and shed his blood. They hear my voice, not just my promises, not just my commands that are convenient, but they hear my voice! My voice!

33:12 Whenever, wherever, on whatever issue it addresses. And they follow, oh yes, sometimes more weakly, as we'll see tonight, sometimes more zealously, sometimes more...

33:26 I know all of that! But don't you go running to the qualifications to bleed away the words of Jesus. Look at it in your Bible. My sheep hear, my voice!

33:38 Are you hearing Christ's voice? You children, you say you hear Christ's voice? He doesn't say a lot of things to you as kids. He says, Honor thy father and thy mother.

33:47 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Do you hear His voice? Suck in all of your own childish arrogance and pride, and say, Yes, Mom and Daddy do know best, and even if they don't, God tells me to mind them anyway. They hear my voice, and they follow me.

34:12 I give to them eternal life! And He isn't promising eternal life to any religious goat that has a sign around the neck saying, I belong to Jesus, who's got cotton in His ears and chains on His feet. Jesus has no cotton-eared, chain-feet sheep. You say, Pastor, you speak like something's really in your gut.

34:39 I tell you folks, it's more than in my gut. I feel it's a matter of the well-being of the eternal souls of not a few of you are at stake. And I'm determined if this were the last sermon I preached in this place to go to judgment with my hands clean of your blood. Stop hiding in the woods of your own self-made deception.

Passage 3: Hebrews 5 – Christ, the Author of Eternal Salvation to All Who Obey Him

35:13 What are we trying to prove? Just one thing, that all who truly believe in Christ are obedient to Christ. Matthew 7, John 10, verse number 3, Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5.

35:33 I haven't given you any subtle meanings of Greek words. I haven't even told you anything about the tenses that isn't evident in a good translation. The old English, heareth, is an attempt to give present tense. New translations will say hears instead of hear or heard, past tense.

35:53 Hebrews chapter 5, marvelous passage concerning the Lord Jesus. As a priest perfectly suited to the needs of his people and in opening up this wonderful truth of the priesthood of Christ, the writer to the Hebrews begins in verse 7 to identify an incident in the life of the Lord Jesus through which he was made a more competent, a more sympathetic, a more empathetic high priest to his suffering and his distressed people. Verse 7, who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications

36:35 with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Now this is obviously a reference to Gethsemane. It speaks of that solemn, breathtaking, humbling incident that we had occasion to examine in some detail when we were preaching through the Gospel of Mark. When the Lord Jesus entered Gethsemane it says he began to be sorrowful and sore amazed and said my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto the point of death.

37:20 In other words, Jesus felt that the experience of sorrow into which he now entered as the Father as it were took the cup from afar. Which our Lord saw at his incarnation and which drew nearer and nearer with each passing day of his earthly pilgrimage. But now the cup is actually placed to his lips and he can smell the vile odor, the acrid, pungent smell of wrath unmixed with mercy. He can see the dregs, he can see the foam, the wrath of God against human sin.

37:59 That wrath would mean that in the depths of his soul he would experience abandonment by his Father. And the smell and the sight of the cup causes him to be crushed even to the point of death. And this passage says that with those strong cries and tears in which in the holy will of Christ he says if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done he was learning experientially what obedience is. You see we never know what obedience is until everything in us would go into course A

38:41 but everything God makes plain calls us into course B. Then we learn obedience as a principle. When our own desires and inclinations plus the will of God all go in course A you don't learn obedience. But when everything in us would go into course A but everything God has revealed for us goes into course B then we are learning obedience as a principle.

39:09 Walking over the belly of our own desire our own listen carefully even our holy inclinations it was holy for Christ to have an aversion to the wrath of God mixed with mercy. It would have been the height of impiety to say yes I will walk willy nilly carelessly into the raging inferno of the wrath of God and not blink an eye. That would be the height of impiety. Yet our Lord says not my will but thine be done.

39:42 And what was he doing? He was learning obedience as principle. All to what end? That he might be made a perfect savior.

39:51 Not morally perfect he was already morally perfect but that he might be made a savior perfectly suited to people whom he would save who with him would also face courses A and course B. When everything in them even holy desires would go in the direction of course A but the clear will of God leads to course B. Oh what a wonderful thing to have a savior who's been made perfectly suited to our need. He's been there.

40:22 He's been there. He's been there. He's been there for me. He's been there for you.

40:28 Now look at verse 9. Why did he go there? What was the great end he had in view? And being made perfect he became unto all that obey him the author of eternal salvation named of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

40:53 Jesus went through all of the terrors of Gethsemane and the intensified terrors of Golgotha. To what end? That he might have a bunch of people who piggybacking on that suffering can glibly bounce along saying I trusted Jesus in the Savior to go to heaven. That's not what this Bible says.

41:19 He went through all of that that he might procure a salvation that would bring him a people who would follow in his train of obedience no matter what the cost. Therefore though he was a son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered and having been made perfect as a Savior he became unto all that are obeying him the author of eternal salvation. You see their obedience doesn't earn their salvation. Not one act of that obedience forms one thread in the fabric of the righteousness

42:03 which is their salvation or he would not have prevailed in Gethsemane. He would not have been inundated by the wrath of God in the land of Golgotha. The ground of that salvation is totally external to us in the obedience unto death of the Son of God. However in its application he never applies it to any sinner but what he makes of that rebel sinner a joyfully obedient subject.

42:36 And if you claim to have eternal salvation in Christ and you're not obeying him you claim to have a salvation he never procured by his suffering and death. Do you see that? Look at it in the text. The salvation he secured by his suffering and death is a salvation that terminates upon hell deserving rebel sinners and makes them loving trusting obedient subjects.

43:08 And if you're not obeying the object of your professed faith your professed faith is a shan and you're under the wrath of God on your way to the judgment of God and it's time some of you faced reality and stopped glibly naming the name of Christ while living a life that is not in any sense of the word described as this obeying him. I didn't write it though. I'm not twisting the word of God.

43:53 There's no way you can wiggle away you can shift around the only salvation perfected in the sufferings of Christ is a salvation that comes to people by grace making them obedient subjects. Is that what you are? Do you obey him? You say I don't like the question.

44:20 How else am I to put it? God doesn't put 25 qualifiers here. Why should I put them? Either you obey him or you don't obey him.

44:32 You are either an obedient subject of Jesus Christ or a self-centered rebel. One or the other. You kids look faster in the eye now. Stop looking down at your fingers.

44:45 Look right up here. Are you obeying Jesus? Is that the way you live? And the guys want to tell you the latest dirty joke?

44:55 You say that wouldn't please the Lord Jesus. Sorry. And if you do listen to it you say oh God forgive me and go to your church. I'm a Christian.

45:05 My ears belong to Jesus. Don't ever tell me one of those. Is that what you do? What do you do when you're sitting there in front of the television?

45:17 You let your eyes see things you know displease the Lord. You say oh God wash my eyes. Forgive me for my carelessness for seeing that. Give me grace not to do it.

45:27 Or do you slough it off and say oh well consider all the raunchy stuff that's really on that ain't so bad. Go off and see things and hear things that you know or defiance of God's holy law and come out and say oh well it was only seven or eight cuss words and only two or three sex scenes. Where are you living at man? Where are you living at young woman?

45:56 Be as I am. How many stains does God tolerate in His holiness? That's just how many you're to tolerate in yours. Be as your Father in heaven is perfect.

46:17 What you're striving for that's what it means to obey Him. Don't answer out loud but answer. I know you say Pastor this is uncomfortable. I know it is but so will the day of judgment be and I don't want the discomfort of being read with your blood because I refuse to press the issue close to your conscience.

46:50 He became the author of eternal salvation to all that obey Him. Don't you profane your lips by saying I have eternal salvation and yes less your feet are walking in the path of obedience to Christ. All we're trying to do is prove one thing. Obedience to Christ is the necessary fruit of faith in Christ.

Passage 4: 1 John 2 – Knowing Him by Keeping His Commandments

47:19 John chapter 2 a book written with one of its primary goals to bring professing Christians to a well-grounded and more established assurance. That's the teaching of chapter 5 13. Well when John wants to help Christians to a well-grounded assurance how does he do it? Not by giving them a string of tests but by giving them a series of tests by which to evaluate their lifestyle in the light of the lifestyle of one who is truly a Christian.

47:56 And in chapter 2 verse 3 we read, Hereby we know that we know Him if present tense we are keeping His commandments. And the His there we know Him His commandments as primary reference to Jesus Christ He is the nearest proper noun antecedent notice the end of verse 1 Jesus Christ the righteous One He is propitiation Hereby we know that we know Him and unless there's compelling reason to believe the pronoun refers to some other proper noun linguistically syntactically grammatically it refers

48:41 to Christ Hereby do we know that we know Him we have a sense of Christ if we are keeping His commandments you say but nobody keeps them perfectly I know John didn't say if we keep His commandments perfectly no one keeps them at the same rate I know but it still does say if we keep His commandments I'm not going to qualify beyond what God does here I'll do some of the qualifying tonight but I want you to feel the force of the text you say we believe in plenary verbal inspiration every word God says and we're going to need to be more careful about

49:25 what God says and you say I believe that God is in the same way you do as a human being cop out in trinity church because of background i'm weary it doesn't say if we keep the commandments that are easy entering the good parts of our background and ignore the us we didn't bring

50:02 much from our background shut that in the bible i'm weary it doesn't wash with this book people were saved out of raw actual power brought up in a home where my mother was treated with dignity so what christ treat you with dignity he's your standard for how you treat your wife you don't have to go back and dig up your background start looking at christ and say god help me treat my

50:45 wife the way christ treats me that's what my bible says husbands love your wives parenthesis if you had a good model and good influences nonsense love your wife as christ loved the church and gave himself for it you say you're saved because christ loved you and gave himself for you you say you're kept because he nourishes and cherishes you then you got all the model you need and forget all this cop out in your background christ is your model christ is your motive and the word of god is your standard that's what my bible says you show me

51:28 anything that god lets you off because your background please help me show me i've been studying this book earnestly for 40 years i ain't seen it yet show me if we keep his commandments that is in the areas where our background has encouraged us where our background has given us help where no here we know that we know him if we keep his commandments verse four he that saith here that saith oh i know him you're doing your best remseen you gave which worked up for a while but you don't touch me god have mercy on me friend

52:13 look at the next verse who did say that i know him operation shape my assurance want to know and people obvious commandments john says something the most of us get their insult if anyone calls us this is a liar Christ. Your life is not a life of pattern of obedience to Christ in the areas that are easy, in the areas where you had examples, in the areas that aren't easy, in the areas where you didn't have any examples. I see no distinctions in my Bible.

52:48 Do you? Do you see them? I don't. I don't.

52:52 I don't see them. Do you see them? When you find them, show them to me. I'll make a public retraction. I mean that.

53:05 That's not preacher's blow. I mean that. I believe the time has come for the lines to be drawn in this place, dear people. And all of this carnal cop-out stuff must stop! Or give up your profession

53:20 of being in Christ and being indwelt by Almighty God, the Holy Ghost, and being motivated by gospel motives and the example of Christ. If those things aren't enough to make whole Christians, then God have mercy on us. The text says, if you truly know Him, you're going to obey Him. And it says, if you say you know Him and you don't obey Him, you're a liar. It doesn't say you're backslidden.

53:52 It doesn't say you're ignorant. It doesn't say you're crippled because of your background. You need a little more help. You need a little more psychology.

54:00 You need a little more psychiatry. You need a little more stroking. You need a little more navel-watching. You need nothing else but get on your knees and say, Oh God, this wretched pattern's got to stop. And I believe Jesus'

54:15 Christ can make it stop.

Passages 5 & 6: Revelation 7, 12, 14 – The Redeemed Keep God's Commandments

54:22 And then I come in closing to two verses from the book of the Revelation. Trying to do just one thing this morning, dear people. Trying to prove from the Word of God that if you truly believe in Christ, your life will be a life of obedience to Christ. Turn, please, to Revelation chapter 7.

54:41 I've deliberately chosen text all the way from Matthew right through so that you'll sense that this is the overarching teaching of the Word of God. We have that beautiful picture. It's often quoted in our prayer meetings when we pray for missions and the spread of the Gospel. John saw a marvelous portrait of the redeemed in verse 9 of chapter 7.

55:05 After these things I saw and behold a great multitude which no man could number. Out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes and palms in their hands and they cry with a great voice saying, Salvation unto our God who sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb. What a picture. And I say, oh God would you send down some heavenly photographer with an enlargement of that picture and a celestial magnifying glass and I want to go through and see if I can find my face.

55:46 Wouldn't you like to be able to do that? He said, I saw a great multitude. All the redeemed are there. Wouldn't you like some angelic creature?

55:54 Wouldn't you like to come down with that picture? Imagine how big it would have to be. And then some celestial magnifying glass and see, am I there? Am I there?

56:03 Well you see, God's not going to let us do that. This much we know about them. One of the elders, verse 13 said, Who are they? Whence came they?

56:15 Verse 14, And I say unto him, My Lord, thou knowest these are they that come out of the great tribulation. Now notice they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. One thing we know about everyone in that picture, they've got white robes and they went to one laver, one common laver, the blood of the Lamb. And because they are there, purified by the blood of the Lamb, they are before the throne of God.

56:43 They serve Him day and night in His temple. God shall spread His tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, thirst no more. Glorious picture of heaven. You have these

56:55 manifold glimpses of the redeemed. But the thing I want you to fix in your mind is this. When you look at the picture and say, Am I there? You say, One thing is true of me. If I'm going to be

57:05 there, I'd better have the right clothing on. I'd better have robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. I'd better know what it is to say, O God, I am vile. I am unclean in myself. Nothing

57:20 in my hands I bring. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. Nobody will be there who's full of self-righteousness with a rotten garment made of the potato sacks and the onion sacks of His own works and efforts stinking up heaven.

57:39 They're all going to be there in robes made white in the blood of the Lamb. But you know, that's not the only description we get of them. For if you turn with me over to chapter 12 and chapter 14, there's another part of the description. All of those that have white robes, robes made white in the blood of the Lamb, then something else is said about them. Here we have a different

58:04 picture of the redeemed. The picture here is way back in Genesis, the ancient promise of the seed of the woman, seed of the serpent. And here we read in verse 15 of chapter 12, And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman. Water is a river that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. The earth helped

58:27 the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon waxed wroth with the woman. Now notice, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed. The redeemed here are the seed of the woman. Now how does he describe

58:45 them? Those that have washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb? Blood of the Lamb? No.

58:52 Here's how he describes her seed. That keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus. You see, this additional picture, all who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It's not a different group now. They are one

59:13 in the same group. They do what? They keep the commandments of God and they hold to the testimony of Jesus. That is, the testimony of which Jesus is author and primary focus and subject and object that is they are gospel believers who persevere in the faith of the gospel even unto death.

59:40 They keep the commandments of God and they hold the testimony of Jesus. Now what concerns me is this. There are people sitting here saying, Oh, I'm washed in the blood of the Lamb. My robes are white. I'm ready for heaven.

59:54 Oh yes, I hold to the faith of Jesus. But are you keeping the commandments of God? The commandments of God that touch you where you live? I'm coming back to them. In the home?

60:07 Marriages in this place? After a round of round of counseling and you're no different after ten years? Can you be said to be keeping the commandments of God? Some of you with areas of personal sin?

60:24 You've had counseling sessions? You've had books given to you? You've been prayed for? And there's no progress in keeping the commandments of God?

60:34 The Bible says those who are protected are those, the seed of the woman who keep the commandments of God while holding the testimony of Jesus. And if you turn to chapter 14 and verse 12 you have a similar description in that passage that our brother Mike opened up by the grace of God so powerfully a few months ago at the end of that horrible description of the damned who have no rest day nor night. By contrast in Revelation 14, 12 here is the patience of the saints and who are the saints they that keep the commandments of God

61:18 and the faith of Jesus. That is the faith of which Jesus is the central focus. Christ crucified, buried and risen. They hold, they cling to, they guard, they rest in the faith of Jesus.

61:35 But it's joined to a life of evangelical obedience to the commandments of God. Now friends if these six texts, Matthew 7, John 10, Hebrews 5, 1 John 2, Revelation 12 and 14, if those texts don't teach that everyone who truly believes on Christ is obedient to Christ, I mean it seriously. I'm packing it in. I'm through. I've got no

62:09 book to preach which conveys any reality. I've got no Bible to... That is a

62:17 lamp to my feet. It's nothing but a confused...

62:24 into the deep mist of confetti to call my Bible that over my dead body.

62:37 I believe this book to be a lamp to my feet and a light to my... And if this book tells me anything, it says Albert N., if you truly believe on

62:47 Jesus, you're going to be a man who does the will of Jesus.

Conclusion: Self-Examination and Urgent Call to True Obedience

62:53 And it says the same thing to you. Now where does that leave you? Where does it leave you? Oh yes, but I have... Now stop

63:05 all the equivocation, all the rationalization. Where does it leave you? Where?

63:18 And if you cannot say by the grace of God, with all my failures, with all my fallings, with all my stumblings, God knows, even as Peter said, having come to a painful awareness of how fickle his own intentions were. If all forsake you, not me, Lord! This other weak bunch, they... Not me, Lord!

63:43 Before the cock crow thrice thou shalt deny me twice. Twice thou shalt deny me thrice. Then the Lord goes to restore him. He says, Peter, do you love me?

63:54 Peter's not so cocky now. I love you. Peter, do you really love me? Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you.

64:03 How hard it was for him to say I love you when those very words a few hours before had taken solemn oaths in the presence of a little maiden girl saying by the name of the God of heaven, if I know him, may God strike me dead. The very mouth that said those words to say, I love you, Jesus. Oh, how hard it was, yet he could say it. And he said, Lord, what I say you know is true.

64:30 I love that. Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. While his own conscience was still dripping and smarting with the acid of the remembrance of his denial, he could still say, Lord, the root of the matter is in me. Though

64:48 your conscience may smart this morning, but the disobedience even on the way to church, when you spoke such sharp words to your wife, and you got miffed with your kids this morning, and it was so stupid and ungodly. Yesterday, you watched something on TV that you knew you shouldn't. In spite of all that, can you say, Lord Jesus, you know.

65:17 Lord Jesus.

65:22 Lord Jesus. I do.

65:29 If you can't, my friend, you're not a Christian. And if you're saying it, and your life doesn't validate it, and the word of God won't tear your false hope from your hand, I've got news for you. Something more powerful than this word preached by a poor fellow sinner in the last day is going to wrench your false claim clean out of your mouth and out of your hand, and you'll sink into hell with all the rest and say, but Lord, Lord, you ate in our streets, and we were in fellowship with you, and apart from me, I never knew you.

66:10 Apart from me, I never knew you. You won't con God in the day of judgment. You can go on conning us. Go ahead. You can go on

66:24 marginally staying within the boundaries of the things that'll keep you a member in good standing of Trinity Church. But my friend, a few more heartbeats, a few more breaths, and it's all over. You're going to stand before God, and then hell will open, and the yawning pit is going to suck some

66:48 of you down. When we've sought to lay out your word as simply as clearly as we know how, lovingly and earnestly press it upon consciences only to know that there will be some that walk out of here, tripping merrily on their way to hell. Lord,

67:31 what will it take? We cry to you, great God of heaven, we cry for willfully blind, self-deceived hypocrites, what they neither can nor want to have done for themselves. Unmask them, Lord. Oh, Lord, unmask them.

67:57 Don't allow them to go on with an empty profession.

68:02 But, oh, God, so deal with them, that their hearts will be broken, their wills brought subject to Christ, that they may find true release and deliverance and cleansing in His precious blood. Thank you for those among us who, in spite of being in the very state of a Peter by that seashore, with a smarting conscience and with the bitter memories of sins committed even in recent hours, yet, nonetheless, we can say, you know that we love you. You know that we do hear your voice. You know, Lord, that we do follow. We confess

68:46 we follow imperfectly. We hear imperfectly. But we thank you we do hear and we do follow. Gracious God, may the words considered this morning work mightily in every heart.

69:02 Spare us and bring us together again tonight to consider the nature of that obedience which is the accompaniment of faith that some who at this point may be uncertain as to where they stand. Some who may be confused. Some who ought to doubt and yet do not doubt. Some who are doubting who ought not. Oh, Lord, use

69:25 the further ministry of your word to clarify those issues and those distinctions which the word itself makes. That none will leave tonight without comfort who ought to have it. That none will leave with comfort who ought not to have the comfort. Lord, draw lines as sharply now as they will be drawn in the day of judgment for the good of our souls, for the glory of Christ, and for the preservation of true religion in this place. Hear our cry,

69:59 receive our thanks, and dismiss us with your blessing, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.