Lordship of Christ in Salvation Part 2

Introduction: The Manifesto and the Indispensable Elements 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, the very cacophony of the voices of men, and thank you that we come to words of truth.

2:10 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, to strip away the thin veneer of mere religious name and form. O Lord! May your Word, O Lord! May your Word, May your Word, 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 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

3:36 a series of studies entitled 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 what we hope to believe but have never truly believed but in a very real sense it is an attempt to bring into sharp focus those biblical those eternal truths of the word of God which have constituted

4:20 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 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

5:04 in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion conversion the 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 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

5:47 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 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

6:30 of an acute sense of need need that drives the hell deserving sinner out of himself and into 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 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

7:15 felt sense of their own sinfulness I am come to call such to repentance then we have said secondly that in every true conversion we are brought to a life long disposition of repentance and faith along with the inevitable fruits of that disposition whether gradually whether gradually or gradually or gradually dramatically 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

8:00 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 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 conversion of the Thessalonians as follows how you turned unto God to serve the living

8:44 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 must deal with his sin and he must deal with himself and he must deal with himself 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

The Central Thesis: Obedience as the Inevitable Fruit of Saving Faith

9:29 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 doctrine of faith or try to open up the biblical teaching on that aspect by couching the concern in this question 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 and God willing tonight we are going to take up three distinct lines three distinct lines of concern

10:12 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 according to the scriptures all who truly believe

10:56 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 and what I want to say 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

11:39 of that obedience to Christ which is the necessary fruit and accompaniment of faith in Christ so there's the central concern 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

12:24 if sitting here this morning your lifestyle is not one marked by obedience to Christ 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 you are Lord you're 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

13:08 no life of following in the steps of Christ 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 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

Proof from Matthew 7: The Wise and Foolish Builders

13:53 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 number one Matthew chapter 7 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 7 this marvelous portion of the word of God commonly called the Sermon on the Mount I heard from another preacher

14:37 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 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 pursue

15:21 and persuade them to embrace his message 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 every one that says unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven now stop right there 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

16:05 his institutions to call him Lord not everyone who says to me Lord Lord not everyone who claims to be savingly 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 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

16:49 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 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 pen knife 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 in your parenting in your role as a son as a daughter as a workman as a wife 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 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 intermittency

18:19 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 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 in your life in your home in the patterns of your lifestyle that are blatantly contradictory to the will of God

19:02 and yet you go on naming the name of Christ you don't believe this! you don't believe this! you don't believe this! you don't believe this!

19:08 you don't believe this! you better believe it or God will make you in the day of judgment 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 will say unto me in that day Lord we not only named your name but we so convinced others that we had legitimate clients that we had legitimate clients that we had legitimate clients claimed to that name that we were found among the community of your people and furthermore Lord we began to exercise and manifest unusual gifts

19:52 in the speaking of your name not only by profession 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 us 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 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 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 you had my works in your lives religiously and ministerially but your life was never brought into life with my name on it my father's will now notice verse 24 everyone therefore

21:20 there's a connection 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 he's the one who believes on Christ the rock 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 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

22:03 you look at the passage 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 and what is it?

22:46 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 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 Christ's word is exposed this word is preached this isn't liberals they don't hear the word of Christ

23:30 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 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 but here's the problem doeth them not doeth them not they hear husbands love your wives

24:15 and they go on month after month year after year mute silent narrow hearted uncompati- 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 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 let all bitterness and wrath and anger they don't stop they're bad mouthing of their husbands of their wives

24:58 of their kids they go on with ungoverned tongues ungoverned spirits they don't do the word of Christ look at the text it's written in your bibles not my forehead look at it everyone that hear it and doeth them not still stays close to the word still stays where the word is preached they continue to hear but they don't do it they liken to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand they profess to know Christ they have a house of Christian professing that stands in the row of those called Christians in Trinity Baptist Church and all the houses look to be the same on the outside but what happens

25:42 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 and you'll be among those who say Lord, Lord Luke 13 did you not eat in our street? and did you not teach your mother?

26:07 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 and you have it upon the word of Jesus if you don't do get to heaven Jesus is alive you got it? if you don't do it you just revealed in the word of God and yet you go to heaven

26:51 the son of God is a liar 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 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 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 then go to hell but stop saying you're a Christian

Proof from John 10: Christ's Sheep Hear and Follow

27:34 because Jesus said no one's going to heaven but those that do the will of God passage number 2 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 in this passage 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

28:17 Pastor Lamar preached on it in your presence a few weeks ago verse 27 of John 10 my sheep hear present tense verb my sheep are hearing my voice and I know them 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 and I know them and they are following me and I give up my life 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 and he says I so hold them that none can snatch them out of my hand but I ask oh 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 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 two consistent two

29:44 universal characteristics wherever you find one of my sheep these things are always there not one without the other here they are the open ear they hear and the willing foot they follow and if some of you know who have seen sheep they don't brand them like cattle 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 Jesus has no sheep but those with open ear and winged foot they hear my voice

30:29 oh yes sometimes they hear more distinctly sometimes more readily 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 now whatever you do 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 followed mean

31:14 dig the heels in 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 and if he's not giving you eternal life pray tell who is has it to give to you and there are many of you I fear you're not hearing Christ's voice is calling you to deny yourself

31:58 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 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 and 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 play

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 whenever wherever on whatever issue it addresses and they follow oh yes sometimes more weekly 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 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 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 no best and even if they don't God tells me to mind them anyway they hear my voice

34:10 and they follow me I give to them eternal life and I give to them 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 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

Proof from Hebrews 5: Christ, Author of Salvation to the Obedient

34:54 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 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 I haven't given you any subtle meanings of Greek words

35:37 haven't even told you anything about the tenses that isn't evident in a good translation the old English hereeth is an attempt to give present tense new translations will say here's instead of here or heard past tense 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

36:22 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 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 and it speaks of that solemn breathtaking humbling incident that we had occasion to examine

37:05 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 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

37:49 unmixed with mercy he can see the dregs he can see the foam the wrath of God against human sin 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

38:34 what obedience is you see we never know what obedience is until everything in us would go into course A 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's revealed for us goes into course B then we're learning obedience as a principle 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

39:18 to the wrath of God mixed with mercy it would have been the height of impiety to say yes I'll 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 and what was he doing he was learning obedience as principle all to what end that he might be made a perfect savior 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

40:02 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 he's been there he's been there he's been there for me he's been there for you 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

40:47 of eternal salvation named of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek 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 same God end that's not what this Bible said he went through all of that that he might procure a salvation that would bring him a people who would follow in his

41:31 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 which is their salvation or he would not have prevailed in Gethsemane he would not have been inundated by the wrath of God upon Golgotha the ground of that salvation is totally

42:15 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 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 you see that look at it in the text the salvation he secured by his suffering and death is a salvation that terminates a life

43:00 upon hell deserving rebel sinners and makes them loving trusting obedient subjects and if you're not obeying the object of your professed faith your professed faith is a sham 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

43:40 I didn't write it though I'm not twisting the word of God there's no way you can wiggle under no way 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 how else am I to put it? God doesn't put

44:23 25 qualifiers here why should I put them? either you obey him or you don't obey him 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 look right up here are you obeying Jesus? is that the way you live?

44:51 and the guys want to tell you the latest dirty joke? 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 buddies and say I shouldn't have listened to that rotten thing that wasn't right for me I'm a Christian my ears belong to Jesus don't ever tell me is that what you do? what do you do when you are sitting there in front of the television 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 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 plunk on whatever it costs to get in the movie theater now

45:36 and sit there and see things and hear things that you know are defiance of God's holy law and come out and say oh well there 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? 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 what you're striving for that's what it means to obey him

46:19 are you obeying him? are you obeying 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 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 lest your feet are walking in the path of obedience to Christ

Proof from 1 John 2: Keeping His Commandments as Proof of Knowing Him

47:00 the fourth text 1st John chapter 2 all we're trying to do is prove one thing obedience to Christ is the necessary fruit of faith in Christ 1st John chapter 2 a book written with one of its primary goals to bring professing Christians to a well grounded church 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 promises

47:44 to claim 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 and in chapter 2 verse 3 we read hereby we know that we know him in the name of the Lord if present tense we are keeping his commandments and the his there we know him his commandments as primary reference to Jesus Christ he's the nearest proper noun antecedent notice the end of verse 1 Jesus Christ the righteous one he is propitiation hereby we know

48:29 that we know him and unless there's compelling reason to believe the pronoun refers to him to some other proper noun linguistically syntactically grammatically it refers to Christ hereby do we know that we know him we have a saving knowledge 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 something else 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

49:13 God intended is there every word he didn't intend shouldn't be there ain't there and he says hereby do we know that we know him if we are keeping his commandments are you keeping his commandments not selectively the ones that are cutesy and easy and traditional but those that cut right across the grain of everything every single gram of your native temperament all of your background all of your training frankly I'm sick and tired of the wholesale cop out in Trinity Church because of background I'm weary of it doesn't say if we keep the commandments that are easy entering the good parts

49:58 of our background and ignore the we didn't bring much from our background shut that in the Bible I'm weary of doesn't wash with this book people were saved out of her she will 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

50:42 and dig up your background start looking at Christ and say God help me treat my 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 it? 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 anything that God lets you off because of your background please help me

51:27 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 faith has encouraged us where our faith has encouraged us where our faith our background has given us help where our no here we know that we know him if we keep his commandments verse 4 he that saith oh I know him oh you're not going to shake my assurance pastor you're doing your best haven't seen you get quite so worked up for a while but you ain't going to touch me God have mercy on you friend look at the next verse he that saith I know him

52:11 nobody's going to shake my assurance I know him and keeps not his commandments John says something that most of us get very insulted if anyone calls us this is a liar and the truth is not in him you say you know Christ and 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 do you do you see them I don't I don't I don't I don't see them

52:54 do you see them when you find them show them to me I'll make a public retraction I mean that that's not preachers 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 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

53:34 then God have mercy on us 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 doesn't say you're backslidden doesn't say you're ignorant doesn't say you're crippled because of your background you need a little more help you need a little more psychology you need a little more a 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 Christ

Proof from Revelation 7, 12, and 14: The Redeemed Keep God's Commandments

54:15 can make it stop 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 and 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

54:58 John saw the marvelous portrait of the redeemed in verse 9 of chapter 7 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 photography with an enlargement of that picture and a celestial magnifying glass

55:42 and I want to go through and see if I can find my face 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 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 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 who are they whence came they 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

56:25 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 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 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 there I'd better have the right clothing on I'd better have robes washed in the blood of the Lamb I'd better have the right clothes on

57:10 I'd better have robes washed in the blood of the Lamb I'd better know what it is to say oh God I am vile I am unclean in myself nothing in my hands I bring fowl 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 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

57:54 all of those that have white robes robes made white in the blood of the Lamb something else is said about them here we have a different picture of the redeemed and 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 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

58:36 and went away to make war with the rest of her seed the redeemed here are the seed of the woman here are the seed of the woman now how does he describe them those that have washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb blood of the Lamb no 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 in the same group they do what they keep the commandments of God

59:19 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 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 oh yes I hold to the faith of Jesus but are you keeping the commandments of God the commandments of God

60:02 that touch you where you live and I'm coming back to them in the home 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 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 the Bible says those who are protected are those the seed of the woman who keep the commandments of God

60:46 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 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

61:30 they guard they rest in the faith of Jesus 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 book to preach which conveys any reality I've got no Bible to

Conclusion: Self-Examination and Earnest Plea

62:14 that is a lamp to my feet it's nothing but a confused into the deep mist of confusion ready to call my Bible that over my dead body 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 Jesus you're going to be a man who does the will of Jesus and it says the same thing to you

62:55 now where does that leave you where does it leave you oh yes but I have now stop all the equivocation all the rationalization where does it leave you where if you cannot say by the grace of God with all my failures 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

63:39 this other weak bunch they met not me Lord 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 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 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

64:21 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 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 your conscience may smart this morning with 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

65:06 yesterday you watched something on TV that you knew you shouldn't in spite of all that can you say Lord Jesus you know Lord Jesus Lord Jesus I do 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 hands I've got news for you something more powerful than this word preached by a poor fellow sinner in the last day

65:49 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 depart from me I never knew you depart from me I never knew you you won't con God in the day of judgment you can go on conning others go ahead you can go on marginally staying within the boundaries of the things that will keep you a member in good standing of Trinity Church but my friend

66:34 a few more heart beats 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 of you down when we've sought to lay out your word as simply as clearly as we know how

67:17 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 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 don't allow them to go on

67:59 with an empty profession 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 sea shore 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

68:41 you know Lord that we do follow we confess 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 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 the further ministry of your word

69:26 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 receive our thanks and dismiss us with your blessing we pray in Jesus name Amen