The Lordship Controversy, Part 3

Introduction: The Relationship Between Faith and Obedience

0:04 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, July 19, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 Now let us once again ask the aid of God the Holy Spirit as we continue in the theme that has been the focus of our meditation throughout the day and ask God by the Holy Spirit to grant peculiar help that we may have on the one hand the grace of honesty as we face both the nature of that obedience which accompanies faith as well as its source so that nothing of the influence of the false prophet will go forth from this pulpit, that influence described in Ezekiel 13.22 in which God indicts the false prophets for strife.

0:58 Strengthening and encouraging those whom God would discourage and they discouraged and disheartened those for whom the Lord had nothing but goodwill and favor. Let us pray that the spirit of truth and grace and discernment will so come that every heart that ought to be ripped open by the truth and humbled will indeed be ripped open and humbled and that every heart that ought to be healed and comforted and encouraged may know the consolations of the Holy Ghost. Let us pray together.

1:36 Father, we thank you for your presence with us as we have sought to worship you this night from our opening hymn in which we reminded ourselves of the praise of those who've gone before us and whom by grace we soon hope to join in praise that is untarnished by sin and adultery. We thank you for your word, the reading of which has come to us with power, drawing from our hearts the yearning and the cry that we may indeed know the spirit of Daniel

2:19 and even the faith of that pagan king. And that our God, as we have together prayed for grace to walk in the course of obedience, help us, we pray, as we come to matters, in which it is so easy to err on the left hand and on the right, may the spirit of truth and discernment so descend upon this place that every arrow that comes from your quiver aimed at the self-deceived heart may find its mark, that there may be no parrying of those arrows but the carnal shields of self-justification lying to our own hearts. O God, we acknowledge the frightening power,

3:04 the possibility of that horrible activity going on in this very place tonight. And yet we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. You know the tender hearts that would take of your balm in Gilead and turn it into bitter poison. And we pray you would keep them from that unholy alchemy that would take those portions of the word that ought to be meat and drink and balm to the soul.

3:34 And turn it into bitterness and gall. Gracious God, keep us from ourselves. Send your spirit to minister in power, we pray, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

3:50 Now for those of you who may be with us this evening and were not with us in the morning hours, let me simply state that the theme of the ministry of the word today has been that of the relationship between saving faith in Christ and a life of obedience to Christ. Or, if you prefer the subtitle, some perspectives on the Lordship Salvation Controversy. After mapping out the field of concern in the adult class hour in which we address the necessity of taking up this issue,

4:34 the identity of the heart of the issue, and the necessities, and the necessarily related issues, we then went on in the morning hour of worship and I sought to do but one thing. And that was to prove from the scriptures, namely six texts from Matthew 7 to Revelation 14, which demonstrate that all who truly believe in Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. Now, while we have seen the necessity for a life of obedience to Christ as proof of faith in Christ

The Nature of Obedience: Its Motive (Dominantly Evangelical, Not Exclusively Legal)

5:19 and a necessary accompaniment of that faith, there are now two vital questions that we must ask and answer from the scriptures if we are to complete the picture of this aspect of God's truth. Having established the inevitability, the necessity of that obedience which accompanies saving faith, we must ask and answer from the scriptures these questions. What is the nature of that obedience which is the fruit of saving faith? And thirdly, and much more briefly,

6:02 what is the origin of that obedience which is the accompaniment of saving faith? So then, having established the necessity of that obedience to Christ which flows from faith in Christ, now we take up the nature of the obedience which accompanies saving faith. And I would have you note with me four very crucial issues relative to the nature of that obedience. We'll consider its motive, its extent, its extent, its degree, and its standard.

6:44 And for at least about four or five sitting here, you'll notice a change in two of those words since last week. For as I've labored in this matter, I was not satisfied that the words I chose then most accurately embody the biblical concepts that I'm driving at. And so the four aspects which comprise the nature of the obedience which accompanies saving faith, have to do with its motive, why we obey, it has to do with its extent, how much do we obey, its degree, to what extent are we able to render a complete obedience in any given part,

7:29 and its standard. The standard is that obedience regulated. First of all then, its motive. And with regard to its motive, regard to its motive, I want to say this. After each part, I'll make a statement, explain the

7:46 meaning of the words, then open up the relevant scriptures. Its motive, when a man or a woman is doing the will of God, Matthew 7, 21, thereby possessing just claims to be entering the kingdom at the end of the road, when a sheep is hearing Christ's voice and following him, what is the motive for that obedience? And I answer, it is dominantly evangelical and never exclusively

8:22 legal. It is dominantly evangelical and never exclusively legal. Now, what do I mean by the terms? Well, let me take up the term legal. Legal obedience is obedience which has a primary

8:43 concern, a fixation of the eye of the soul, the one hand with respect to fear of punishment if I don't obey, and the hope of reward if I do obey. That's legal obedience. It's the obedience of the slave. He know who knows if he's been stabilize or not. It's the same thing with the slave.

9:07 If he knows who knows if he's been stabilize or not, he knows who knows if he's been stabilize or not. does not obey his master, though he may hate his gut, he'll be out in the woodshed with a rod upon his back. He has no delight in the person of the master. He knows if he will obey the master, he will be treated well, he will be given his promised periods of relaxation and recreation, and therefore he obeys with no love for the master, no delight in the will of the master, but only with hope of a reward from the master's hand. That is legal

9:45 obedience. Motives rooted in the fear of punishment if I do not obey, and in the hope of reward if I do obey. Evangelical motives are these. They are motives which have their top roots in the evangel, and that's just a transliteration of the Greek word, the gospel. They are gospel motives, motives which are derived from a believing, joyful

10:19 acceptance of the privileges of the gospel. Such motives as love for Christ, because he first loved us. Gratitude for Christ that he has come in mercy and has saved us. In the language of the Bible, that is, love for Christ, because he first loved us.

10:38 Ephesians 5, it is the fear of Christ. That is, a loving regard to please Him, and a jealous fear of displeasing Him. The sense of indebtedness for the goodness and the mercy of Christ. Romans 12, I beseech you by the mercies of God. Those are evangelical motives. Motives

11:10 that have their tap roots in the believing acceptance of the privileges of the gospel. And stating that the nature of the obedience which accompanies faith, that obedience concerning which Jesus spoke in Matthew 7, everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will lighten unto man who built his house upon the rock. The obedience of John 10, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. The obedience of 1 John chapter 2, if we say that we know Him and keep not His commandments, we lie. We know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.

11:54 I say as to motive, that obedience is not exclusively evangelical, and don't let anyone tell you that. It is dominantly evangelical, and never exclusively legal. Now, legal motives enter into the heart of a true Christian. Now, they are not naked legal motives. They are tinged with the gospel, but they are legal nonetheless. For example,

12:27 when Jesus said to His own disciples, if your right hand offend you, cut it off. From you, what motive did He give to enforce that duty? It is better to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell where the worm dies not and the fear is not quenched. That's a legal motive, fear of punishment. And Jesus laid that on His disciples.

12:55 The Apostle Paul who could say, I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. 2 Timothy 1.12. He also said in 1 Corinthians 9.27, I keep under my body and buffet it,

13:14 lest in preaching to others I myself should be reprobate. He feared being cast as a reprobate. If He gave up His passions and appetites to the service of sin and lust, He knew He would be damned. He knew He was safe. He knew He would be damned.

13:35 That's a legal motive. And likewise, the hope of reward. Is it wrong to have the hope of reward as one of our motives? If so, Jesus taught us to think that way.

13:47 The last beatitude. Blessed are you when men revile you, persecute you, say all manner of evil against you falsely. For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for you shall see your Father face to face. No. He says, for great is your reward in heaven, for so

14:07 personally. But persecuted they the prophets that were before you. He said, the motive of anticipated reward is to nerve you to face opposition. And Paul in his closing words in 2 Timothy chapter 4 said, I fought a good fight. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up

14:28 for me a crown of righteousness. There's a reward. Don't let anyone, and be careful of even some current books. That talk as though evangelical motives are the only motives worthy of a Christian. It

14:45 is not scriptural. Do you hear me? It's not scriptural. And if you get so spiritual that you need all the evangelical motives, you'll find you're so spiritual you'll end up as carnal as a goat and you may damn your soul. You need every complex of biblical motives

15:07 why? You're coming to the end of the world here. The Bible has this perfect law of obedience. You'll need to get to the end of the world. That's why all these words are so carefully

15:15 written down. And that's why I've chosen my words carefully, I labor to explain them. It's a matter of life and death. However, having said that, the nature of the obedience which accompanies saving faith is dominantly evangelical. It has some legal motives, but

15:33 is never, never exclusively legal. The only reason I'm talking now is because I know you're a Melbourneite. And so today's sermon is important to you. And I know you love church. You loved church. And I know you're

15:40 that if the only motives you've ever known to do what God says is the fear of hell and the hope of heaven, you've never, never known the obedience of faith. And what are those dominantly evangelical motives? Let us look at just two of them. 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

Evangelical Motives Explained and Illustrated

16:03 I've already quoted about ten verses, but now I want you to see them with your eyes as well as hear them with your ears. 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

16:15 Paul moves so easily and naturally from the legal to the evangelical without a spiritual burp in between. He says in verse 11 of 2 Corinthians 5, Knowing therefore the fear or the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, the terror of the coming day of judgment, fearing for their damnation, we labor to persuade them untold, unto salvation. But then he says in verse 13, In pursuit of this passionate endeavor to win men to Christ, there are times when people think we've gone out of our tree. That's why I never, never bleed into backing off when people say,

17:00 Pastor, if you preach with such passion, at times people will think you're crazy. I'm in good company. For whether we are beside ourselves, it is unto God. There are times when, when Paul was so drawn out in passionate entreaty to persuade men to run from the wrath of God, they thought he had gone out of his tree.

17:25 But he said, God knows I was in my tree with all of my marbles. Whether we're beside ourselves, it is unto God. Whether it is of a sober mind, it is unto you. Why?

17:38 For the love of Christ constrains us. Christ loved to me, holds me, and a vice-like grip would be a good paraphrase. The love of Christ not restrains me, but constrains me. It holds me in its grip.

17:59 And it is not a mystical concept of the love of Christ that kind of floats by and then drops out its spiritual lightning bolts to jag the heart into this impetuous action. It's rooted in very rational concepts because we thus judge. Love constrains while the mind is full of light. Do you see that?

18:25 The love of Christ constrains because we thus judge. One died for all, therefore all died. If man in his sin is of such a state in the sight of God that God judges him to be worthy of nothing but death, and in the procession the person of the representative Jesus, God puts him to death, then surely the self-centered, sin-centered life which Christ himself represents and for which he dies must be ugly and vicious and heinous in the sight of God. We thus judge.

19:07 If one died for all, therefore all died, then surely those who receive life from his death should no longer live. They should never live unto self, live unto the kind of life that God judged in the cross, that God assesses by the cross, that God condemns in the cross, but rather should live unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. And Paul says that gospel motive holds me in its grip. I see with the light of my judgment that the self-centered life is an abomination to God.

19:47 It is given over to the curse of the cross. Therefore, if through the death of Christ I and any others receive new life, surely it is not forgiveness given to live a life to the very thing which God condemned, but to live a life unto him who died and rose again, a life lived in the constraint of love. That's gospel motivation. That is evangelical, and then you see another clear picture of evangelical motivation in John chapter 14.

20:24 Our Lord refers to this again and again in the upper room discourse, but I limit myself to just several verses. John 14 and verse 23 and 4.

20:41 Jesus said, answered and said unto him, If a man love me, that is, if a man's heart's affections are set upon my person, he will rhapsodize in hymnody about the glory of my person. Well, that may be one way he'll show his love to Christ, but many of us cannot rhapsodize in hymnody. We can't write even a couplet of anything that looks like anything other than cheap doggerel, let alone acceptable poetry.

21:20 But he says, if a man love me, poet or not, he will keep my word. If a man love me, he will find himself constrained by love to a life of obedience. Verse 24, He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father who sent me. So here's another motivation, not only Christ's love for me, that constrains him to take my place and undergo the judgment of God for my self-centered, self-willed life,

22:04 thereby causing me to conclude that if he died for that life and I now receive pardon and new life, surely it must be lived unto him under the constraints of his love to me. But we, we love him because he first loved us. The second evangelical motive is our love to Christ, our love to him for his grace to us, his kindness to us, his patience with us, all that he has done for us, and all that by the revelation of the Holy Spirit he has become to us. And we could add to that so many other gospel motives,

22:48 the sense that we are, precious enough in God's sight to be purchased at the price of the blood of the incarnate God. That's a gospel motive. 1 Corinthians 7.23 You were bought with a price.

23:03 Be not the slaves of men. 1 Corinthians 6.19 and 20 What? Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit which you have of God and you are not your own?

23:16 You are bought with a price. Glorify God. Therefore in your body, what a gospel motive. I can't throw anything I want down my throat in any amounts in any circumstance.

23:30 Why? My throat was purchased by blood. I can't put anything I want in any amounts in my belly regardless of the effects on my brain if it's alcohol, in my flesh if it's calories. My belly was bought by the blood of Christ.

23:50 My heart and my arteries I cannot clog them unnecessarily with excessive cholesterol and make them labor pumping blood through mounds of blubber because they're bought with a price. I can't starve my body through some idolatrous thinny thin idolatry and being anorexic. Why? My body is the purchased property of the Son of God.

24:23 That's a gospel motive. That's gospel motives. Gospel motives meet me when I go to the refrigerator.

24:32 Gospel motives meet me in my most elementary bodily appetites. Gospel motives.

Application: Examining Your Motives for Obedience

24:42 Gospel motives. And I say to everyone sitting here tonight, if you are a Christian, then you are obeying Christ. And the first aspect of the nature of that obedience which accompanies saving faith is this, in its most exclusive motive, it is dominantly evangelical and it is not exclusively legal. Now ask yourself, what have you done today out of an evangelical motive?

25:21 What did you do yesterday out of an evangelical motive? What sins did you avoid because of the love of Christ, because of love for Christ, because of the consciousness you're bought by Christ? You have a debt to Christ. Oh yes, you didn't do that gross sin for fear.

25:44 It might lead to your physical ruin. That's a selfish, legal motive. You only feared punishment. Or you did this because you hoped for a reward.

25:54 Is that all you know? Legal motives? Then friend, let me say it lovingly, if your heart's devoid of evangelical motives, your heart's devoid of God and of Christ, you're an unbeliever. You're lost.

26:12 And that may be the reason why some of you can make no progress against certain sins. If God were to let you conquer those sins, it would seal you in self-deception. And perhaps the very reason he's allowed those sins is to show you the root of the matter is not in you. Because until gospel motives begin to be powerfully operative, those sins will never die.

26:44 And those graces will never be cultivated. For in the child of God, sins die and graces are cultivated. Ultimately, by the river of the water of life, it flows out from under the throne of God and of the Lamb, not the thunder and the lightning, the sparks and the clouds that come down from Mount Sinai.

The Nature of Obedience: Its Extent (Universal, Not Partial)

27:21 But secondly, the nature of the obedience which accompanies saving faith, its motive, dominantly evangelical and not exclusively legal. Though I say again, not exclusively evangelical, for legal motives enter in their appropriate place. But now secondly, what about the extent of that obedience, which is the accompaniment of the law? The accompaniment of saving faith.

27:54 To what extent do we obey? And I answer with this simple little couplet. It is universal and not, it is universal and not partial. Now I'll explain my terms.

28:14 What is partial obedience? Partial obedience is obedience that is deliberately selective. It takes the disposition, either this commandment is of such a nature, that if I don't obey it, all will know and I'll be shown to be the hypocrite I am. Or, if I do this commandment, it brings such and such a reward or blessing to me.

28:40 It is convenient, it is natural, it is easy. But selective, partial obedience is consciously and deliberately selective and partial in terms of the commands that the individual must obey. That the individual will take seriously. Let me illustrate it from scripture.

29:01 Turn to Matthew 23. The Pharisees were the masters of the devilish partial obedience. Now there were many commands in the word of God that they took exceedingly seriously. But in all of their obedience, there was a marked partiality.

29:27 Matthew chapter 23, verse 23. Always easy to remember. Matthew 23, verse 23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye tithed mint and anise and cumin, that is, their current spices.

29:49 They were meticulous in giving to God his tithe of their spices, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. But these you ought to have done. It was your solemn God-given duty of obedience to do what the law demanded with respect to justice, with respect to mercy, and with respect to faith. Oh yes, it was your duty, once a year in the annual tithe, to give to God the first fruit of all of your years.

30:31 It was your duty to give to God the first fruit of all of your years. It was your duty to give to God the first fruit of all of your years. It was your duty to give to God the first fruit of all of your years. Yes, the other you ought not to have left undone.

30:41 It was right to be meticulous in the little, but it was wicked to be careless concerning the greater matters. You blind guides, and then our Lord uses a grotesque illustration. Kids, people who say the Lord Jesus never used humor. If this isn't humorous, I don't know what is.

31:02 You strain out the gnat. And you swallow. The camel. What's he referring to?

31:08 He's referring to the practice of what they did in Palestine with their wine. You remember the Old Testament speaks of treading out the wine press? Well, the wine press was usually a large stone hollowed out about the size of one of those little nine or ten foot round backyard plastic pools about so deep. Well, if you can imagine having one of those plastic pools and your daddy taking...

31:36 taken an exacto knife cutting out a nice perfect little hole about an inch big. And then taking some crazy glue and sticking in a one inch hose for about six inches, then throwing a bunch of grapes in there and you kids all going in and having a grape crushing party and jumping around on your bare feet squashing the grapes. And then you'd have a bucket of some kind at the end where you corned the juice that came out. Well if you did that out in the open air, no doubt, a few of the backyard fleas and flies and gnats would drop into the vat while you were trampling out the wine.

32:12 Well, back in those days, you didn't have plastic jugs to put it in, so you took a calf skin, or more likely a goat skin, that you had taken from a goat, carefully peeled back, tied off what would be his hind legs and his forelegs and his neck. Then you would take the wine and open up the neck and put the fresh wine into a fresh, supple goat skin, and then you would tie it off and hang it on a tripod, and then when it came time for your wine with the evening meal, Dad or Mom would go and untie one of the legs, open it up a little bit, take the cup, put a piece of muslin over the top,

32:53 and let the wine out very slowly so that when it dripped through the muslin, the cheesecloth, all the little gnats and bugs that got in when you were tromping out the wine, they would be strained out so you'd have a nice glass of clear, un-gnatty wine.

33:11 Now that's what Jesus said. Look at the text. You strain out the gnat. But here's the picture.

33:17 You very carefully have strained out all the gnats. You take your little piece of muslin, cheesecloth, and you pull up the four ends, and while you're shaking it out and washing it out, the camel gets loose from behind. It comes down your tent and steps right in your cup. And Jesus said, you turn to go get your nice, gnatless wine and you swallow it down, camel and all.

33:44 Now look at the text. I didn't say it. Jesus did. You strain out the gnat and you swallow the camel.

33:52 You say, Pastor, nobody can swallow a camel! That's the point. That's stupid. But our Lord is teaching the picture.

34:03 They had a selective, partial obedience. Oh yes! Straining out the gnat, swallowing camel-like moral evil, looking back at the requirements of God. Obedience.

Universal Obedience Explained and Illustrated

34:33 That's partial obedience. What is universal obedience? Well, it's not perfect obedience, but it's an obedience described by David again and again, or the psalmist in Psalm 119. And I want you to turn there with me.

34:48 Here is perhaps the most eloquent statement or eloquent statements of universal obedience to be found anywhere in the Word of God. In this psalm that celebrates the law of God,

35:04 the precepts of God. Notice what the psalmist says.

35:13 He says in the opening paragraph, verse 4, Thou has commanded us thy precepts, all of them, that we should observe them without discrimination. Observe them diligently. Oh, that my ways were established to observe thy statutes. Then shall I not be put to shame when I have respect unto all thy commandments.

35:45 That's it. That's universal obedience. Respecting all.

35:57 No putting down your glasses when you come to the one that pinches you where you're sinning.

36:03 No turning to look, out the window at the birds when you hear a duty that's distasteful. And God points out an area that it's not natural for you to do. Bridges commenting on that text. And I have respect unto all thy commandments.

36:22 Listen to his comments in his book on Psalm 119 and verse 6. The Lord expects our obedience not only to be diligent, but, here's our word, universal, willing, willing to dispense with the least of the commandments proves we have yet to learn the spirit of acceptable obedience. Grace is given suited for all, no less than for one of them, that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Colossians 1.10

36:59 One lust created in the heart is sufficient to keep possession of the heart for the tyrant, however others may be restrained. Even Herod, it is said, did many things, yet his adulterous wife cherished in his bosom too plainly proved that the sovereignty of sin was undisturbed. Saul slew all of the Amalekites but one, King Agag.

37:35 And that single exception to universal obedience marked his unsoundness, cost him the loss of his throne, and brought, brought him under the displeasure of his God. And the one corrupt, unmortified member will bring the whole body into hell. Mark 9.43-48 Reservations to universal obedience are the canker upon godly sincerity.

38:07 A secret indulgence, the rolling of a sweet morsel under the tongue, the part of the price kept back. Acts 5.1-2 Stamps our service as robbery and not as an offering. See what he's saying?

38:25 He says what Ananias and Sapphires brought was not an offering. It was what they kept back that proved they were thieves.

38:34 And he says it's what you keep back in your obedience that shows the state of your heart. You're a thief of God who demands universal obedience.

38:46 We may be free, sincere, and earnest in many parts of our duty, but this root of bitterness renders the whole an abomination. Sincerity, therefore, must be the stamp of my Christian profession. Though utterly unable to render perfect obedience to the least of the commandments, and I'll come to that and say amen to that, though unable to render perfect obedience to the least of the commandments, yet my desire and purpose will have respect unto all. I shall no more venture to break the least than the greatest,

39:29 much less shall I ever think of attempting to atone for the breach of one of them by the performance of all the rest. They are indeed many commandments, yet like links in a chain they form but one law. And I know who has said whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all. Amen.

39:55 Where in my strictest walk and then he goes on to say in all of this my hope is still in Christ but it's a hope in Christ which is overlaid with an obedience to Christ that is universal in its extent.

Application: Commitment to Universal Obedience

40:14 Now I'm going to ask you folks I'm determined that this is the last sermon I preach I go to my God with clean hands do you know what it is to obey with universal obedience? To say with the psalmist I have respect unto all thy commandments verses 1, 27 and 28 I love thy commandments not some of them the convenient ones the ones that do not cross my natural passions and appetites and inclinations and the bad habits of my youth and the bad habits of my teenage years and all of us have those sets of things, none the less

40:59 when the commandments of God touch my habits touch my patterns it makes no difference it just means more vicious warfare against them and no copping out because of them. Verse 28 I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way is that true of you? Do you hate the false way of your self-justification? Yeah I know you were brought up and every time you got accused you justified yourself and your parents let you get away with it so you know it's wrong

41:38 yes I know growing up every time you wanted a snack your parents gave you and you got bad habits other than to nourish your body and your body shows it but so what? I thought you're in Christ and you have the Holy Ghost and the fruit of the Spirit is self-control then stop it and begin to have respect to the commandment that says let everything be done in moderation whether you eat or drink do all of you all to the glory of God and you can't stuff all those calories in your mouth and kill your body and ruin your testimony and say I'm glorifying God

42:20 now stop looking for some secret exotic key that will help you start having respect unto all God's command walk over the belly of your life it doesn't say I examine every false way to see all of its tentacles to understand all of its nuances it says I hate every false way that's what my Bible says. every false way tentacles or not

43:04 I see the beast and I go for its prey that's biblical and it's time some of you need to start saying am I committed to universal obedience how long are you going to go on playing games?

43:24 when I wasn't understood growing up so what? you got a bunch of people here that understand you and love you? I think you do you got people here who take you for who you are and what you are? I think you do you got a support community that love you and pray for you?

43:39 I think you do! what more do you want? get on with it you make it so simple well yeah as long as you can make it complicated then you can experience your present state and oh how we're masters of doing that and when Jesus gave a commission to his people what are we to teach people? Matthew 28 19 make disciples of all the nations baptizing them teaching them to observe all things intensive whatsoever extensive I command you that's what we got to do and how in the world are we going to succeed in teaching a Christian life

The Nature of Obedience: Its Degree (Purposeful, Not Perfect)

44:23 marked by universal obedience unless you who name the name of Christ in this place are committed to a life of universal obedience that's the nature of the obedience that follows faith in its motive it is dominantly evangelical and never exclusively legal in its extent it's universal and not partial but in its degree and this is what Bridges was referring to as to its degree it is purposeful but never perfect it is purposeful but never perfect now what do I mean by purposeful obedience? well we could look at many passages

45:07 I turn you to but one in the interest of time here's a statement of purposeful obedience in a context where a man knows it is never perfect obedience Romans chapter 7 Paul telling us of his own consciousness of struggle with remaining sin and this is what he says verse 19 the good which I would now that sounds like purpose I would do and in the context what is the good? the good is nothing less than keeping

45:51 the holy law of God in all of the spirituality and holiness and justness of its demands verse 12 the law is holy and the commandment holy and righteous and he says that my heart is set up I want to obey the law of God in the full extent of its holy righteous and good demands touching my deeds my thoughts my motives the first risings of the human heart but he says

46:34 for the good which I would I do not but the evil which I would not now there's a man purposing not to sin I don't want to sin if I could I would not sin once more till I die or go to glory that sounds pretty purposeful doesn't it? that I would I would not that's the positive that's the negative that's purposeful obedience verse 22

47:19 for I delight in the law of God after my inward man as purposeful obedience I'm never more true to what I am as a new man in Christ than when my heart and God's law and my actions all line up like the landing lights for that pilot coming into Newark airport that tells him he's on the right path at the right altitude he says when those things line up I'm never more true to what I am as a new man in Christ I delight in the law of God after my inward man but I feel crosswinds getting me out of line with the landing approach and I feel updrafts

48:03 and downdrafts there's a law in my member warring against the law of my mind but doesn't change the set of my mind and heart I would delight in the law of God my obedience is purposeful but it's not perfect that's why it is always humble and penitent obedience it is humble obedience knowing that my best deeds are stained by imperfection it is penitent because I know if I did all I should do I am still but an unprofitable servant but I must confess

48:47 that I sin in thought and word and deed sins of omission and commission every day so my obedience is never that of the Pharisee who walks into the presence of God and preens himself like an ecclesiastical peacock and says I thank thee I am not his other man but the posture of my heart is God be merciful to me the sinner Lord I love you I love your laws I purpose to keep them but oh God forgive my sins as I forgive those who sin against me Galatians 5 17 the flesh lusteth against me the flesh lusteth against the spirit the spirit against the flesh these two are contrary the one to the other

49:31 so that you cannot do the things you would what would I do I would love God perfectly I would love to preach one sermon in which every thought of God so exhilarated me that I came to the margins of insanity for sheer love to this glorious God I would preach every sermon with such a vision of God as would bring my physical frame to the border of collapse that's what I would do but I cannot but I would God knows that I'd plead with every sinner as though I were holding your hand and looking into the brink of hell

50:15 and doing everything everything to persuade you to flee from the wrath of God if I would I'd paint such a picture of the cross that every orifice in your body would become a fountain of tears and you'd weep at the sight of a crucified Christ God knows I would do it and I look out into the faces of some of you and see you week after week and month after month as plainly and passionately and earnestly and clearly as I attempt to set forth Christ crucified I obviously for you sit there glassy-eyed and half asleep and go out and talk on the veranda with your buddies

The Nature of Obedience: Its Standard (Scriptural, Not Notional or Traditional)

50:59 about everything but yourself my obedience as a preacher is not perfect but God knows I wish it were is your obedience in its degree purposeful I mean are you dead serious about this purposeful not used with evangelical motives and that brings us forth in the nature of that obedience its standard what is its standard now hear me carefully

51:42 because if some of you don't I fear where you're going to end up this is critical its standard is scriptural and not notional or traditional now what do I mean by scriptural well I think you ought to know what that means Psalm 119.105 thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway he that hath my commandments John 14.21 and keepeth them he that hath my word and keepeth it I shall run in the way of thy commandments

52:27 when thou shalt enlarge my heart if we say that we know him and keep not his commandments the standard of the obedience that flows from faith is the word of God it is scripture it is not notional or traditional and what do I mean by that notional is doing what I think God would have me do that'll get you in all kinds of trouble and I fear some of you have an obedience that is primarily notional you spin out of the stuff of your own head what you think will please God you read a verse that says fathers you skip the first part

53:12 about not your children to wrath nurture them in the changing of the Lord and then you get your own notions to spin out a system of vicious child abuse in the name of disciplining your children I've heard of some of it until if I could I would have vomited in my elders meetings there's sitting in this room child abusers who think you're obeying God when you're brutalizing your sons and daughters some of you husbands read husband is the head of the wife that's me the head and you've got a notional idea of headship

53:56 no more reflects the gentle sensitive tender love of Christ than a monkey resembles an elephant and yet you stupidly and willfully and wickedly go on justifying your wretched way and some of you women wives be subject to your husbands in everything where you think he's wise and smart in the rest you can bad mouth him and give him bad body language you wicked woman stop it or give up your name of Christ that's notional as the church is subject to Christ out of love

54:39 and reverence and trust so ought the wives be to their husbands in every that's the word of God you've got a notional obedience when you read some of you young men and women in boy girl relationships flee fornication you've got a notional obedience to that that is stop short of sexual intercourse and anything else goes is that so where do you find that in the bible it says flee fornication it doesn't say simply abstain from intercourse it says flee fornication from the contacts the senses the relays

55:22 that make sexual impurity possible keep away from the girly magazines keep away from the 7-11 stores keep away from the TV shows and the movies that feed lust that's biblical obedience as to its standard the other is all notional you take an idea out of the bible and then you import to it what you'd like to make its obedience convenient to you that's notional God calls that will worship in Colossians 2 it has nothing to do with biblical obedience and others your obedience is merely traditional you've grown up with an idea of what it means love not the world that means don't smoke don't chew

56:06 and don't hang around with the boys that do if you just keep that dictum you're not worldly what a bunch of nonsense that's traditional that's not a biblical standard wasn't that the curse of the Pharisees in Matthew 15 they had come up with a very clever way of keeping their traditions while all the while what were they doing look what Jesus told them in Matthew 15 you verse 6 have made void the word of God because of your tradition and God calls them hypocrites

56:49 that's what Jesus said they had a convenient tradition that cancelled the commands of God and all the while they prided themselves in being the super obedient ones and our Lord focuses on but one aspect that had to do with their indigent parents honor your father and your mother implicit in that is if they have monetary physical needs that you can meet MEET THEM they said alright God we know you require that but you also tell us none shall appear before us empty what's greater to come to the temple with no gift or to walk by your mom and dad and give them no bread well they decided that

57:32 God was more important than mom and dad so on the way to the temple to give God a gift they stopped infancy indigent hungry destitute mom and dad say Jehovah bless you Shalom blessings on you we'd love to leave you something but you see what we would give to you to buy your bread and put clothing on your back and protection over your head it's already marked out it's Corban it's a gift to God sorry mom and pop he says you hypocrites you have an obedience framed by your traditions which cancels the will of God that's what Jesus is talking about and dear people I fear that that's the kind of obedience some of you have your standard is true

58:14 it is notional but it is not radically biblical you're not ready to adjust anything and everything in your thought life in the use of your time your money your friends your associations your recreations wherever the word is wherever the word of God touches you you're prepared to bow before its authority and in the strength and grace of Christ to render that obedience which glorifies God well that's the nature of the obedience that is the accompaniment of faith it is evangelical universal purposeful and scriptural universal

The Source of Obedience: Not Self-Originating

58:58 but not selective and partial evangelical and not partial not primarily legal purposeful but not perfect scriptural and not notional and traditional and I close very quickly now on this all important question having looked at the necessity of that obedience which accompanies faith the nature of that obedience what is its source where's it come from and I have two simple headings negative and positive its source it is not self-originating how do we know it one text alone will suffice to answer Romans 8-7

59:42 it is not self-originating left to myself here I am here you are plunked right down in the description of Romans 8-7 the mind of the flesh the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be you are never going to render obedience to God if all you've got is what your mom and your daddy gave you when you were conceived I don't care what the church has given you in the way of instruction and privilege

60:23 I don't care what mom and dad have given you in the way of catechizing you training you disciplining you praying with you teaching you how to pray protecting you surrounding you encouraging you and motivating you if all you've got is what they gave you you cannot be subject to God that's what my Bible says the carnal mind's enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be it cannot be it cannot be and if God doesn't intervene it will sink into hell with the language of Luke 19 we will not have this man to reign over us

The Source of Obedience: Divinely Originated

61:07 in Luke 19-27 says the king at his return will say bring hither those citizens which would not that I should reign over them and destroy them the king will destroy every rebel who's never been brought to the life of the obedience of faith it is not self-originating but bless God it is divinely originated and the way God originates it in the heart is beautifully described in Ezekiel chapter 36 Ezekiel chapter 36 I only read the words they're familiar to many of you verse 26 a new heart will I give you a new spirit will I put within you

61:52 I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh I will give you a heart of flesh I will put my spirit within you now notice and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep mine ordinances and do them I will put I will cause but now notice and ye shall walk and keep don't mix those up I will put but you will walk and you will keep you say pastor what are you driving at simply this

62:36 if any man is walking in a life of evangelical universal purposeful scriptural obedience and keeping God's ordinances it's because God has put and God has caused but now hear me if God is put and God has caused the only way I'll know it is if I walk and I God doesn't walk for me God doesn't walk through me God doesn't keep on my behalf I walk and I keep so that the psychology of my obedience is that of a conscious intelligent human being who sees the commandment

63:20 discerns its direction depends upon God is the way of necessary into a den of lions to do what God says vaporize and then float into the empty the problem with some of you the moment there's any blood and guts and gore you either assume well that must not be the will of God that's so hard or I must not be a Christian because I gotta do something you bet your boots you gotta do something

64:04 you gotta walk and you gotta keep God doesn't walk and keep for you well how will I know just try it and if he isn't you won't be able to and if you do you'll say bless God he's working in me to will and to work for his good pleasure he doesn't work for me he works in me so that I will and I work but all of my willing and all of my working I attribute to his causing and his putting man God's got his cake and eats it too you bet your boots he does because of him and through him and unto him are all things to whom be glory forever and ever you don't like a salvation like that then go make your own and go to hell with it

Final Exhortation and Warning

64:48 because there is no other there is no other do you see that there is no other like obedience obeying Christ didn't feel like going to the cross he wanted to go somewhere else he said if it be possible take the cup from me some of you got the idea Christ just went playing the violin and the fiddle through Gethsemane and Golgotha everything in his holy soul wanted to go another direction he chose the will of God against all of his natural holy inclinations and that's what some of you have yet to begun to learn to do yes when you go home tonight

65:32 you've indulged yourself that pint of ice cream night after night week after week and everything in you is going to drool and you say oh well it doesn't work until I can walk by that refrigerator and have no desire for that ice cream God isn't working in me I need a woman to work nonsense you've got to ask your wife to tie your hands together until you go to bed do it and you get up in the morning and say thank you God one night's victory over the pint of ice cream you say pastor you're serious you bet your boots I'm serious this is heaven or hell folks either you get in the way of obedience at any cost

66:16 you have no grounds to claim you're a child of God the origin of that obedience it's not self originating so that tells you who are sinners who say I know I ought to obey but I have to obey I have no heart to obey no desire to obey then cry to God to cut out your heart of stone and give your heart of flesh for as much joy as you now find in choosing the world the flesh and the devil you'll find in choosing the way of God and if you sit here tonight and say by the grace of God with all my sins and all my failures I came through those four things and said God thank you that's true of me I do know what it is to have evangelical motives I do know what it is

67:01 to be committed to universal obedience purposeful obedience spiritual obedience and my friend all the laurels belong at the feet of Jesus he's made you willing in the day of his power he's stretched out the scepter of his grace and he's brought you to himself and what he's begun he's going to complete and you can beg him and say Lord Jesus you didn't start this to lead me in this half baked mess oh Lord Jesus continue your work in me augmented in me augmented in me augmented in Trinity Church until all this nonsense of stumbling around over the same patterns of sin for a dozen years stops

67:43 and we get on and go from strength to strength from one stage of glory to another never attaining but being able to say forgetting the things that are behind instead of having to go back to one elder after another after a dozen years for the same stinking rotten things this ought not to be dear people we'll be going to our elders yes because new areas of obedience will open up and we're not sure what biblical principles apply and we've sought God and pleaded with God and we're not expecting our elders to do our work for us they're there to help us and we go but now we can say

68:25 thank God I was here three years ago and my problem was I couldn't even be decent to my wife thank God we're like a couple of cool birds now now my problem is I'm too prodigal I love her so much I spend some of the money I'm supposed to be saving up for the car payment and get her little goodies can you give me some principles to help me to rein in that excessive expression of my dawdling love to my wife what a wonderful problem to have in a counseling session huh but I believe that's the kind of problem we can have if some of you start having dealings with God don't sit there and say yeah yeah he'll hear that stop that you sit there and say God help me to hear

69:09 you go home tonight and don't say well if I see him tender that no no you say look if that hard hearted nut will sit through that I leave him with God but I'm going to be right with God and you go home woman and you take the initiative and you humble yourself and you man you humble yourself and you son daughter whoever you are I'm issuing a mandate in the name of the God of Heaven to Trinity Church we say we believe in Christ let's get on with obeying he's worthy of a measure of obedience he's not been receiving from us as his people and I start by saying us not editorial I point the finger here

69:51 dear people of God the mark of true evangelical faith is that it's a faith that issues in obedience to him who in the course of his obedience endured the cross suffered its shame is set down at the right hand of God isn't he worthy of a life of universal purpose purposeful biblical gospel motivated obedience and if you sit here tonight and none of this has moved you and you say well more preacher stuff I'm going to do my own thing

70:35 well just remember and I determined to close the service this way that's your mindset without anybody watching you just reach down and touch one of your knees I won't look just reach down touch one of your knees that very knee one day is going to thaw and touch the ground before Jesus every knee shall bow your knee shall confess that he is Lord touch that tongue touch that knee

71:19 they're going to be active one day the knee will bow the tongue will confess and with that reluctant bowing and confession as your last act in the presence of God and of the redeemed his last act of authority before your bowed knee and your confessing tongue will be to send you into hell young hotshot determined to throw your shoulders back and strut yourself you're going to meet a Christ like that you better count the cost you're no match for him oh you're a match for us preachers why

72:01 because we can't take you physically and batter you into submission to Christ if we could there'd have been a lot of bruised bodies around here a long time ago we can't do it but if the gospel we preach won't graciously bring you to the bowed knee and the confessing tongue there's a day in which the son of God in majesty and power will bend your knee and thaw out your tongue you can't hotshot your way through the day of judgment you're no match for God

72:41 and while that God tenderly invites you in the person of his son to come why don't you come he's a gracious master he's a loving God by his grace I've served him for forty years and not once as he caused me to say Lord Jesus you're an unreasonable master not his yoke is easy his burden is light there are others here who've served him equally as long would not that be your testimony

73:24 any of you here in your sixties and seventies who've served him for years that want to stand and bear witness and tell these young people I was a fool to serve such a rotten master don't do it anyone of you want to stand and say that you're free to how many of you have served him thirty forty years would stand and say an amen to what I've said raise your hand you didn't ask me to raise hands tonight ain't that a lot of raised hands kids yes I've seen at least ten twelve of them served him for forty years no regrets what else can I do to persuade you to go to such a master

74:08 stack on embrace the crucifixion the crucified lord who stands ready to forgive you and cleanse you pardon you and make you his child give you the power to obey him keep you through this wilderness of a world and then at last take you home to heaven where there's no more sighing no more crying no more tears oh if I thought by keeping you here and begging and pleading till midnight would do it I don't care if one by one you walked away if I could get but one of you precious saint

74:48 he waits to receive you oh our god what can we say as we bow in your presence we thank you for your dear son we thank you for his great salvation that takes stubborn rebels and makes them willing servants we thank you for the many who could bear witness tonight that by your grace they found him to be just the kind of master he said he would be that his yoke is easy and his burden is light oh have mercy upon the young and the old alike

75:30 who do not know that obedience that flows from faith may they this night come in faith to the son of god repenting of their wicked rebellion repenting of their wicked rationalization lord for those whose obedience has been legal and not evangelical partial and not universal whose obedience has been marked by selectivity oh lord expose them tonight show them what they really are don't let them go on in self-deception and then our father we pray for those whose obedience has not been purposeful

76:12 who've hidden behind its imperfection and yet in all the while they could never say I delight to do the will of god oh father expose the hypocrite and comfort the true saint draw the sinner lord do what only an omnipotent god can do with such pathetic means as the pleadings of mere mortals oh gracious god seal your word and may the final day reveal that this was the day of day to some hear our cry and answer our prayer and dismiss us with your blessing we plead

76:56 in jesus worthy name