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, 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 said, 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 din, the very cacophony of the voices of men, and thank
you that we come to words of truth. 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 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. 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. Now turning away from the platforms
of parties with all of their promises, we come again this
morning in the course of our studies together to take up what
we have been considering for approximately a year now, a series
of studies entitled, A Manifesto of Trinity 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 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 in our teaching and expectations
concerning 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 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 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 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 lifelong disposition
of repentance and faith along with the inevitable fruits of
that disposition. Whether gradually, whether 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, 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 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 the great question of righteousness. How can I have
a right standing with God? Now today, and those of you who
are in the adult class will know where we are going, we are going
to direct our attention to an aspect of faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ, but a very special aspect of the biblical doctrine
of faith, and I will couch that aspect, or try to open up the
biblical teaching on that aspect by couching the concern in this
question. 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're going to take up three distinct lines of concern
relative to this whole issue of whether or not it is possible
truly to believe upon Christ and yet not to live a life of
obedience to Christ. And I want to take this simple
thesis and then come at it from three angles, one this morning
and two, God willing, this evening. According to the scriptures,
all who truly believe upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle
of obedience to Christ. Now that's not complicated, is
it? According to the Scriptures, all who truly believe upon Christ,
and that's all truly converted people, all who truly believe
upon Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. And what I want to do this morning
is to prove that obedience to Christ is the necessary and the
inevitable fruit of faith in Christ. Tonight, God willing,
we'll consider the nature of that obedience to Christ, which
is the necessary and inevitable fruit of faith, and then finally
the source of that obedience to Christ, which is the necessary
fruit and accompaniment of faith in Christ. So there's the central
concern. to demonstrate that all who truly
believe in Christ in this building set apart for the worship of
that congregation called Trinity Baptist Church. Every man, every
woman, every boy, every girl who's sitting here this morning
truly believes upon Christ to the saving of his soul. is marked
by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. To state it negatively,
if sitting here this morning, your lifestyle is not one marked
by obedience to Christ, and we'll deal with the qualifying aspects
tonight, God willing, I want to state it as bluntly, as simply,
as crassly as I know how, you are lost! 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. no life of following
in the steps of Christ, no right to believe you'll share the destiny
of Christ in heaven. Now 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 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 seven. Remember now, children,
what are we trying to do? We're seeking to prove that obedience
to Christ is the necessary fruit of faith in Christ. And we start with Matthew chapter
seven. This marvelous portion of the
Word of God, commonly called the Sermon on the Mount, I heard
from another preacher this week a thought that was greatly refreshing
to me, that often in the Gospel we begin with a river and we
end up in a lake. And earlier in Matthew's gospel,
there was a reference to Jesus teaching on the kingdom of God,
and that reference, which is the river, issues into this lake
of beautiful truth in the Sermon on the Mount. And after our Lord
has laid out the major lines of his concern, like any good
preacher, He's not concerned to just dump his wad of truth
and leave it. He starts pressing with earnest
application, telling people what they must do, and as they do
it, what they must fear, and seeking to motivate and persuade
them to embrace his message. And as we come to the end of
chapter 7, he does so in that area of concern with these very
sobering words, Matthew 7 in verse 21. Not everyone 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, 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, 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? 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 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 intermittence? 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 seriously. Because there are altogether
too many areas where you know the will of God and you just
plain don't care enough to do it. That's why there are chronic
areas in your life, in your home, in the patterns of your lifestyle
that are blatantly contradictory to the will of God, and yet you
go on naming the name of Christ. You don't believe this. You better believe it, or God
will make you in the day of judgment. 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 claim to that name that we were found among the
community of your people. And furthermore, Lord, we began
to exercise and manifest unusual gifts in the speaking of your
name, not only by profession, but by ministerial power and
authority. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy
or preach in your name? And by your name cast out demons,
and by your name do many mighty works." In other words, all of
our Christian work was done in the orbit of association with
claiming allegiance to you. It was in your name that we prophesied. 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. 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 line with my Father's will. Now notice verse 24. Everyone
therefore, 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 hears the word
of Christ and does that. 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. 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 blow
and beat upon that house, and it fell not, it was founded upon
the rock. And what is that house founded
upon the rock? It is true, genuine, biblical
conversion. that left the man not only saying,
Lord, Lord, hearing the words of Christ, but doing them. But
then our Lord gives a contrast. And everyone who hears these
words of mine and does them not doesn't say he curses them. 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 expounded! Christ's
Word is preached! This isn't liberals. They don't
hear the Word of Christ. Those are the churches where
the politicians can go in Sunday morning, campaign time, and be
given the pulpit. Wretched, profanation of Christian
pulpits. Republicans, Democrats, Paroites,
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. And they go on month after month,
year after year, mute, silent, narrow-hearted, uncompassionate! Husbands who don't love their
wives is the crisis 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 and everything, they don't do it. They go on
hen-pecking 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, 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 do it than not, still stays close to the Word, still
stays where the Word is preached. They continue to hear, but they
don't do it. Be likened to a foolish man who
built his house upon the sand. They profess to know Christ.
They have a house of Christian profession that stands in the
row of those called Christians in Trinity Baptist Church, and
all the houses look to be the same on the outside. But what
happens? 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 streets? And
did you not teach among us? And he will 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 the will of God
and yet get to heaven, Jesus is a liar. You got it? If you don't do the
will of God as revealed in the Word of God and yet you go to
heaven, the Son of God is a liar. Because He said, no one will
enter but he that does the will of my Father. You 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 scientification, 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. Because Jesus said, no one's
going to heaven but those that do the will of God. Passage number
two. 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 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
two saints of God. This is in the Gospels what Romans
8, 34 and following is in the epistles. Pastor Lamar preached
on it in your presence a few weeks ago. Verse 27 of John 10. 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 am 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 unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, 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 if I'm a real sheep or just a religious goat with
a sign around my neck? He says, well, my sheep have
two. Two. Undeniable. Two. Consistent. Two. 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 as some of you know who've seen sheep, they don't brand
them like cattle. They dye them with different
colored dyes 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. 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 with it,
degrees, yes, but here means here. 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, dig the heels in. My sheep are deaf and they
dig their heels in, but I'll take them to heaven. Nonsense! My sheep hear. My sheep follow. I know 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. Who else 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. 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 plain! How can you
say you're hearing 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 weakly, as we'll see tonight. Sometimes more zealously. Sometimes more... 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 know best, and even if they don't, God tells me to
mind them anyway. They hear my voice, and they
follow me. I give to them eternal life. And he isn't promising eternal
life to any religious goat that has a sign around the neck saying,
I belong to Jesus, who's got cotton in his ears and chains
on his feet. Jesus has no cotton-eared, chain-feet
sheep. You say, Pastor, you speak like
something's really in your gut. I tell you folks, it's more than
in my gut. I feel it's a matter of the well-being
of the eternal souls of not a few of you are at stake. And I'm
determined, if this were the last sermon I preached in this
place, to go to judgment with my hands clean of your blood.
Stop hiding in the woods of your own self-made deception. 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. I haven't even
told you anything about the tenses that isn't evident in a good
translation. The old English hereth is an
attempt to give present tense. New translations will say hears
instead of hear or heard, past tense. Hebrews chapter 5, marvelous
passage concerning the Lord Jesus as a priest perfectly suited
to the needs of his people. In opening up this wonderful
truth of the priesthood of Christ, the writer to the Hebrews begins
in verse 7 to identify an incident in the life of the Lord Jesus
through which he was made a more competent, a more sympathetic,
a more empathetic high priest to his suffering and his distressed
people, verse 7. who in the days of his flesh,
having offered up prayers and supplications 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
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 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 crimes and tears in which
in the holy will of Christ, he says, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. He was learning experientially
what obedience is. You see, we never know what obedience
is until everything in us would go into course A. 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 to the wrath of God,
unmixed 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 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 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 Savior, go ahead and do
something. That's not what this Bible says.
He went through all of that, that he might procure a salvation
that would bring him a people who would follow in his train
of obedience, no matter what the cost. Therefore, though he
was a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered,
and having been made perfect as a Savior, he became unto all
that are obeying him the author of eternal salvation. You see,
their obedience doesn't earn their salvation. Not one act
of that obedience forms one thread in the fabric of the righteousness
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 external to us in the obedience unto death of the
Son of God. However, 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. Do
you see that? Look at it in the text. The salvation
He secured by His suffering and death? is a salvation that terminates
upon hell-deserving rebel sinners and makes them loving, trusting,
obedient subjects. 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. I didn't write it, folks. 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, but how else am I to put it? God doesn't put
25 qualifiers here. Why should I put them? Either
you obey Him or you don't obey Him. 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? 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, do
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 one. Is that what you do? What do you do when you're 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 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, it was only seven, eight
cuss words and only two or three sex scenes. Where do you live
in that, man? Where do you live in that, young
woman? Be holy, as I am holy. How many stains does God tolerate
in His holiness? That's just how many you're to
tolerate in yours. Be therefore perfect, as your
Father in heaven is perfect. Is that what you're striving
for? That's what it means to obey. You obeying? 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. I hasten to a fourth text, 1
John chapter 2. All we're trying to do is prove
one thing. Obedience to Christ is the necessary
fruit of faith in Christ. 1 John chapter 2. A book written with one of its
primary goals to bring professing Christians to a well-grounded
and more established assurance. That's the teaching of chapter
5, 13. Well, when John wants to help Christians to a well-grounded
assurance, how does he do it? Not by giving them a string of
promises 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, if, present tense,
we are keeping His commandments. In 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 one,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one, He is propitiation. Hereby we
know that we know Him, and unless there's compelling reason to
believe the pronoun refers to some other proper noun, Linguistically,
syntactically, grammatically, it refers 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 some of the qualifying
tonight, but I want you to feel the force of the text. You say
we believe in plenary verbal inspiration. Every word God 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 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 to death! It
doesn't say, if we keep the commandments that are easy, considering the
good parts of our background. and ignore the others because
we didn't bring much from our background. Shut that in the
Bible. I'm weary of it. I'm sick of
it. It doesn't wash with this book. These people were saved out of
raw, filthy, lawless, homosexual, power-greedy Roman backgrounds. One brought up in a home where
my mother was treated with dignity. So what? Does Christ treat you
with dignity? He's your standard for how you
treat your wife. You don't have to go back and dig up your background.
Start looking at Christ and say, God help me treat my wife the
way Christ treats me. That's what my Bible says. Husbands
love your wives. Parenthesis. If you had a good
model and good influences. Nonsense. Love your wife as Christ
loved the church and gave Himself for it. You say you're saved
because Christ loved you and gave Himself for you? You say
you're kept because He nourishes and cherishes you? Then you've
got all the model you need and forget all this cop-out in your
background. Forget it! Keep His commandments! 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. Show me. I've been studying this
book earnestly for 40 years. I ain't seen it yet. Show me. If we keep His commandments,
that is, in the areas where our background has encouraged us,
where our background has given us help. No! Hereby do we know
that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. Verse four,
he that saith, oh, I know him. Oh, you're not going to shake
my assurance faster. You're doing your best. I haven't seen you
get quite so worked up for a while, but you ain't going to touch
me. God have mercy on your friend. Look at the next verse. He that
saith, I know him. 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. 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? You see them? I don't. I don't. I don't see them. Do you see
them? When you find them, show them
to me. I'll make a public retraction. I mean that. That's not preacher's
blow. I mean that. I believe the time
has come for the lines to be drawn in this place, dear people.
And all of this carnal cop-out stuff must stop! or give up your
profession of being in Christ and being indwelt by Almighty
God, the Holy Ghost, and being motivated by gospel motives and
the example of Christ, if those things aren't enough to make
whole Christians, then God have mercy on us. This text says, if you truly
know Him, you're going to obey Him. And it says, if you say
you know Him and you don't obey Him, you're a liar. It doesn't
say you're backslidden. It doesn't say you're ignorant.
It doesn't say you're crippled because of your background. You
need a little more help. You need a little more psychology.
You need a little more psychiatry. You need a little more stroking.
You need a little more navel watching. You need nothing else
to get on your knees and say, oh God, this wretched pattern's
got to stop. And I believe Jesus Christ can
make it stop. 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. I've deliberately chosen text all the way from Matthew right
through so that you'll sense that this is the overarching
teaching of the Word of God. We have that beautiful picture.
It's often quoted in our prayer meetings when we pray for missions
and the spread of the gospel. John saw 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 photographer with an enlargement of that picture
and a celestial magnifying glass? And I want to go through and
see if I can find my face. 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? 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 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 labor, one
common labor, 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 better have the right clothing
on. I better have robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. I better
know what it is to say, oh God, I am vile. I am unclean in myself. Nothing in my hands I bring,
foul I to the fountain fly. Watch 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, In chapter 14, there's another part of the
description. All of those that have white
robes. Robes made white in the blood
of the Lamb. Something else is said about
them. Here we have a different picture of the redeemed. The
picture here is way back in Genesis. The ancient promise of the seed
of the woman, seed of the serpent. And here we read in verse 15
of chapter 12, And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the
woman. Water is a river that he might
cause her to be carried away by the stream. The earth helped
the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the
river which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon
waxed wroth with the woman, now notice, and went away to make
war with the rest of her seed. The redeemed here are the seed
of the woman. Now, how does he describe them?
Those that have washed their robes and made them white in
the 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! 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. 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 that
touch you where you live? I'm coming back to them. In the
home, marriages in this place, after round of round of counseling,
and you're no different after 10 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? My Bible says those who are protected
are those, the seed of the woman, who keep the commandments of
God while holding the testimony of Jesus. And if you turn to
chapter 14 in 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, 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 expound
that is a lamp to my feet. It's nothing but a confused maze
to lead me into the deep mist of confusion and death. You 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 pathway. 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. Now, where does that leave you?
Where does it leave you? Ah yes, but I have... Now stop
all the equivocation, all the rationalization. Where does it
leave you? Where does it leave you? And if you cannot say, by the grace
of God, with all my failures, with all my fallings, with all
my stumblings, God knows, even as Peter said, having come to
a painful awareness of how fickle his own intentions were. If all
forsake you, not me, Lord! This other weak bunch, not me,
Lord! Before the cock crow thrice,
thou shalt deny me twice. Twice thou shalt deny me thrice.
And 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 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's
in me. Though your conscience may smart
this morning, but the disobedience even on the way to church, when
you spoke, Such sharp words to your wife. And you got miffed
with your kids this morning, and it was so stupid and ungodly. Yesterday you watched something
on TV that you knew you shouldn't. But in spite of all that, can
you say, Lord Jesus, you know, I follow you. Lord Jesus, I do
obey you. Lord Jesus, I do. walk in your ways. 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 is going to wrench your false claims 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 solitude with you, and... Apart from me, I
never knew you. Yes, Lord, but... Apart from
me, I never knew you. You won't con God on the Day
of Judgment. You can go on conning us, 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, a few more heartbeats,
a few more breaths and it's all over. You're going to stand before
God and then hell will open. The yawning pit is going to suck
some of you down. God help Our Father, you know how frustrated
we feel when we've sought to lay out your word as simply,
as clearly as we know how, lovingly and earnestly press it upon consciences
only to know that there will be some that walk out of here
tripping merrily on their way to hell. Lord, what will it take? We cry to you, great God of heaven,
we cry to you. Do for willfully blind, stubborn,
self-deceived hypocrites what they neither can nor want to
have done for themselves. Unmask them, Lord. Oh, Lord,
unmask them. Humble them. Don't allow them
to go on with an empty profession. But, O God, so deal with them
that their hearts will be broken, their wills brought subject to
Christ, that they may find true release and deliverance and cleansing
in His precious blood. Thank you for those among us
who, in spite of being in the very state of a Peter by that
seashore, with a smarting conscience and with the bitter memories
of sins committed even in recent hours. Yet nonetheless, we can
say, you know that we love you. You know that we do hear your
voice. You know, Lord, that we do follow. We confess 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. O Lord, use the further ministry
of your Word to clarify those issues and those distinctions
which the Word itself makes, that none will leave tonight
without comfort who ought to have it, that none will leave
with comfort who ought not to have the comfort. Lord, draw
lines as sharply now as they will be drawn in the day of judgment
for the good of our souls, for the glory of Christ, and for
the preservation of true religion in this place. Hear our cry,
receive our thanks, and dismiss us with your blessing, we pray
in Jesus' name. Amen.