Lordship of Christ in Salvation Part 3

Introduction: The Necessity and Nature of 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

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 inevitable, 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.

The Motive of Obedience: Dominantly Evangelical, Never Exclusively Legal

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,

7:23 to what extent are we able to render a complete obedience in any given part, and its standard. What standard is that obedience regulated? First of all, then, its motive. And with regard to its motive, I want to say this.

7:42 After each part, I'll make a statement, explain the 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 legal.

8:23 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 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.

9:00 That's legal obedience. It's the obedience of the slave. He know who knows if he does not obey his master, though he may hate his guts, he'll be out in the woodshed with a rod upon his back, 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.

9:43 That is legal 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 euangelion, the gospel.

10:11 They are gospel motives motives which are derived from a believing joyful 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 Ephesians 5 it is the fear of Christ.

10:42 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.

11:09 Motives that have their top roots in the believing acceptance of the privileges of the gospel. I am 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 2, if we say that we know him and keep not his commandments, we lie.

11:50 We know that we know him if we keep his commandments. 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.

12:17 Now they are not naked legal motives. They are tinged with the gospel but they are legal nonetheless. For example, 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?

12:38 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 is a legal motive, fear of punishment. And Jesus laid that on his disciples. 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.

13:04 2 Timothy 1.12 He also said in 1 Corinthians 9.27 I keep under my body and buffet it lest in preaching to others I myself should be reprobate. He feared being cast off as a reprobate.

13:23 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. That is a legal motive.

13:38 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. The last beatitude.

13:48 Blessed are you when men revile you, persecute you, say all manner of evil against you falsely. For my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for you shall see your Father face to face. No. He says for great is your reward in heaven.

14:06 For so 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.

14:26 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. There's a reward. Don't let anyone and be careful of even some current books that magnify grace that talk as though evangelicals motives are the only motives worthy of a Christian. It is not scriptural.

14:48 Do you hear me? It's not scriptural. And if you get so spiritual that you need only 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 warranted by God.

15:09 And that's why I've chosen to use in 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.

15:30 It has some legal motives but is never, never exclusively legal. So 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.

Evangelical Motives: The Love of Christ and Our Love for Him

16:01 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I've already quoted about 10 verses but now I want you to see them with your eyes as well as hear them with your ears. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Paul moves so easily and naturally from the legal to the evangelical without a spiritual burp in between.

16:23 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 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.

16:55 That's why I never, never bleed into backing off when people say, 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 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.

17:23 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?

17:37 For the love of Christ constrains us. Christ loved to me holds me in a vice-like grip. Would be a good paraphrase. The love of Christ not restrains me but constrains me.

17:55 It holds me in its grip 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 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 if one died for all therefore all died

19:09 then surely those who receive life from his death should no longer 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 it is given over to the curse of the cross therefore if through the death of Christ I and any others

19:53 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 motivation. And then you see another clear picture of evangelical motivation in John chapter 14.

20:23 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 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

21:08 rhapsodize in hymnody. We can't write even a couplet of anything that looks like anything other than cheap doggerel let alone acceptable poetry. 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.

21:37 Verse 24 he that loveth me not keepeth not my words and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's but the Father's 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 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 love him

22:20 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. We could add to this so many other gospel motives 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.

22:57 1 Corinthians 7.23 You were bought with a price be not the slaves of men. 1 Corinthians 6.19 and 20 What?

23:07 Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit which you have of God and you are a slave and you are not your own 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 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.

23:43 In my throat in my flesh if it's calories my belly was bought by the blood of Christ. My heart in 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 for motives. I can't starve my body through some idolatrous thinny thin idolatrous idolatry and being anorexic why? My body is the purchased property of the son of God.

24:25 That's gospel motives. Gospel motives meet me when I go to the refrigerator. Gospel motives meet me in my most elementary bodily appetites. Gospel motives.

Application: Examining Your Motives

24:40 Gospel motives. And I say to everyone sitting here tonight if you are a Christian then you are obeying Christ. In the first aspect of the nature of that obedience which accompanies saving faith is this in its motive it is dominantly evangelical and it is not exclusively legal. Now ask yourself what have you done today out of an evangelical motive?

25:23 What did you do yesterday that you destroyed because of the love of Christ because of love for Christ because of the consciousness you are bought by Christ. You have a debt to Christ. Oh yes you didn't do that gross sin for fear it might lead to your physical ruin. That's a selfish legal motive you only have your hearts devoid of evangelical motives your hearts

26:08 devoid of God and of Christ. You're an unbeliever you're lost 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 of the matter it is not in you because until gospel motives begin to be powerfully operative those sins will never die and those graces will never be cultivated for in the

26:53 child of God sins die and graces are cultivated ultimately by the river of the water of life that throws flows out of the land not the thunder and the lightning the sparks and the clouds that come down from mount Sinai but secondly the nature of the obedience which accompanies saving faith its motive dominantly evangelical and not exclusively legal

The Extent of Obedience: Universal, Not Partial

27:37 though I say again not only for legal motives enter in their appropriate place but now secondly what about the extent of that obedience which is the accompaniment of saving faith to what extent do we obey and I answer with this simple little couplet it is universal it is partial obedience partial obedience is obedience that is deliberately selective

28:22 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 but selective partial obedience is consciously and deliberately selective and partial in terms of the commands that the individual will take seriously let me illustrate it from scripture turn to Matthew 23 Pharisees were the masters of the

29:06 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 Matthew chapter 23 verse 23 always easy to remember 23 23 woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye tithed mint and anise and cumin that is their current spices they were meticulous

29:51 in giving to God 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

30:36 of all of your increase yes the other you ought not to have left undone it was right to be meticulous in the little but it was wicked to be careless it was a grotesque illustration kids people who say the Lord Jesus never used humor if this isn't humorous I don't know what it is you strain out the mat

31:20 and you swallow the inside of a meal and then you swallow the inside of the food that you eat and you just continue to do what you can get out of your and your bare feet squashing the grapes, and then you'd have a bucket of some kind at the end where you caught the juice that came out. Well, if you did that out in the open air,

32:03 no doubt a few of the backyard fleas and flies and gnats would drop into the vat while you were trampling out the wine. 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,

32:47 open it up a little bit, take the cup, put a piece of muslin over the cup, 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 take it out, and you take it out, and you take it out, and you pull up the four ends, and while you're shaking it out and washing it out, the camel gets loose from behind 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. You say, pastor, nobody can swallow a camel!

33:55 No! That's the point.

33:58 That's stupid. But our Lord is teaching the picture. They have a selective, partial obedience.

34:08 Oh yes! Straining out the gnat, swallowing camel-like moral evil, looking back at the requirements of God. Obedience. That's partial obedience.

Universal Obedience: Respecting All Commandments

34:35 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. Here is perhaps the most eloquent statement or eloquent statements of universal obedience to be found anywhere in the Word of God.

34:59 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 hast 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.

35:50 Respecting all... 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. Listen to his comments in his book on Psalm 119 and verse 6.

36:28 The Lord expects our obedience not only to be diligent, but, here's our word, universal, willingly 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 One lust created in the heart, is sufficient to keep possession of the heart for the tyrant, however others may be restrained.

37:13 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 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 Sapphira 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. 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.

38:59 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 heart, my desire and purpose will have respect unto all the commandments.

39:25 I shall no more venture to break the least than the greatest, 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. But 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

40:09 in its extent.

Application: Commitment to Universal Obedience

40:14 Now I'm going to ask you,

40:16 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.

40:35 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 children, teenage years, and all of us have those sets of things. Nonetheless, 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.

41:12 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? I know you were brought up and every time you got accused you justified yourself and your parents let you get away with it.

41:32 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.

42:06 Whether you eat or drink do 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. Now stop looking for some secret exotic key that will help you. Start having respect unto all God's commandment. Walk over the belly of your life and say I examine every false way to see all of its tentacles

42:50 to understand all of its new nuances it says I hate every false way that's what my Bible says every false way tentacles or not 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?

43:21 How long are you going to go on playing games?

43:24 Well that 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?

43:35 I think you do. You got a support group a support community that love you and pray for you? I think you do. What more do you want?

43:45 Get on with it.

43:48 So 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.

43:59 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 marked by universal obedience unless you who name the name of Christ in this place are committed to a life of universal obedience.

The Degree of Obedience: Purposeful, Never Perfect

44:33 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.

44:59 It is purposeful but never perfect. Now what do I mean by purposeful obedience? Well we could look at many passages. I turn you to but one in the interest of time.

45:10 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.

45:33 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 the holy law of God in all of the spirit of God. Of the spirituality and holiness and justness of its demands.

45:58 Verse 12 The law is holy and the commandment holy and righteous and he says that my heart is set 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 for the good which I would I do not but the evil which I would not

46:43 Now there's a man purposing not to sin. I don't want to sin.

46:53 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.

47:14 That's purposeful obedience. Verse 22 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.

47:52 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 and downdrafts as 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 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

48:36 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 that I sin in thought in word in deed sins of sin sins of sin 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

49:20 against me Galatians 5 says the flesh lusteth against the spirit the spirit against the flesh these two are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things you would what would I do I would love God perfectly I'd 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

50:01 but I would God knows I'd plead with every sinner as though I were holding your hand and looking into the brink of hell 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

50:45 as I attempt to set forth Christ crucified I obviously and for you sit there glassy eyed and half asleep and go out and talk on the veranda with your buddies about everything but just 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

The Standard of Obedience: Scriptural, Not Notional or Traditional

51:25 used with evangelical motives and that brings us forthly in the nature of that obedience it's standard what is it standard now hear me carefully because if some of you don't I fear where you're going to end up this is critical it's standard is scriptural and it's not 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

52:09 unto my pathway he that hath my commandments John 14 21 and keepeth them he that hath my word and keepeth it I shall rise on in the way of thy commandments 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

52:52 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 skip the first part 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 they're sitting in this room child abusers

53:35 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 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 and everything

54:20 where you think he's wise and smart and 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 and reverence and trust so walk the wives be to their husbands in memory 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

55:05 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 release that makes 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

55:49 God calls that will worship in Colossians too 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 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

56:34 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 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 they 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

57:19 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 God was more important in mom and dad so on the way to the temple to give God a gift they stopped in to see 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

58:03 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 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 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

The Source of Obedience: Not Self-Originating, But Divinely Originated

58:48 of the obedience that is the accompaniment of faith it is evangelical universal purposeful and scriptural universal but not selective and partial evangelical and 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 has it come from and I have two simple headings negative and positive

59:31 its source it is not self-originating how do we know it one text alone will suffice to answer Romans 8 7 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're never going to render obedience to God if all you've got is what your mom and your

60:15 daddy gave you when you were conceived I don't care what the church has given you in the way of instruction and privilege 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 minds 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

60:59 it will sink into hell with the language of Luke 19 we will not have this man to reign over us 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 and 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

61:43 to many of you verse 26 a new heart will I give you a new spirit will I put within you 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 we will put but you will walk

62:28 and you will keep you say pastor what are you driving at simply this 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 has put and God has caused the only way I'll know it is if I walk and I God doesn't walk and I walk for me God doesn't walk through me God doesn't keep on my behalf I walk and I keep

63:11 so that the psychology of my obedience is that of a conscious intelligent human being who sees the commandment discerns its direction depends upon God choose the way necessary into a den of lions to do what God says paper eyes and then float into the empty the problem is the moment there's any blood and guts and gore you either assume

63:56 well that must not be the will of God that's so hard or I must not buy a Christian because I've got to do something you bet your boots you've got to do something you've got to walk and you've got to 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 on me 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

64:40 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 because there is no other there is no other you see that there is no other like obedience obey 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 inclination

65:24 and that's what some of you have yet to become to learn to be yes when you go home tonight 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 to willing 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

Call to Repentance and Continued Growth

66:09 either you get in the way of obedience at any cost 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 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 world 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

66:53 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 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 leave me in this half-baked mess oh Lord Jesus continue your work in me augmented in me augmented in Trinity Church until all this nonsense

67:37 of stumbling around over the same patterns of sin for a dozen years stops and we get on and go from strength to strength from one step to the next 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

68:21 and we've sought God and pleaded with God and we're not expecting anything from God and now we can say 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 I don't know I don't know I don't know what 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

69:05 yeah yeah he'll hear that stop that you sit there and say God help me to hear 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 you go home woman and you take the initiative 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

Final Exhortation: Bow the Knee Now or Later

69:49 I point the finger here 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 purposeful biblical gospel motivated obedience and if you sit here tonight and none of this has moved you then you say well

70:33 more preacher stuff I'm going to do my own thing well just remember when I determine 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 bow and touch the ground before Jesus every knee shall bow your knee shall confess that he is Lord touch that tongue

71:18 touch that knee 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 because we can't take

72:02 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 draw out your tongue you can't hotshot your way through the day of judgment you're no match for God and the Lord

72:46 will tenderly invite you in the person of his Son to come why don't you come he's a gracious master he's a loving Lord 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 any of you here in your city in your sixties and seventies who've served him for years that want to stand

73:31 and bear witness and tell these young people I was a fool to serve such a rotten master don't do it any one 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 and I should raise hands tonight think got a lot of raised hands kids yes here no regrets what else can I do to persuade you to go to such a master Stachar embrace the crucified Lord who stands ready

74:16 to forgive you and cleanse you pardon you 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 you were 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 save he waits to receive you

74:59 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 and we thank you for the many who could bear 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 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

75:43 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 our Father we pray for those whose obedience has not been purposeful who've hidden behind the wall they could never say I delight to do the will of God oh Father expose the hypocrite comfort

76:28 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 day to some hear our cry and answer our prayer and dismiss us with your blessing we plead in Jesus worthy name