Lordship Controversy #3

Q: What does the Bible say about obedience to Christ?

The Bible teaches that true saving faith is always accompanied by a life of obedience to Christ (Matthew 7:21). In Matthew 7:21, Jesus declares, 'Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.' This clearly establishes that genuine faith necessarily results in obedience. The nature of this obedience is dominantly evangelical rather than merely legalistic; it springs from love, gratitude, and a desire to please God, reflecting a transformation in the believer's heart.

Q: How do we know that obedience is necessary for salvation?

Obedience is necessary as it serves as evidence of genuine faith (1 John 2:5). Obedience is a vital component of true saving faith because it serves as the outward expression and evidence of a transformed heart. The Apostle John states in 1 John 2:5 that 'whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.' This implies that a life marked by obedience reflects the inner work of God in the believer's life, showcasing that salvation is not merely a matter of intellectual assent but involves a heartfelt commitment to following Christ's commands.

Q: Why is the nature of obedience important for Christians?

Understanding the nature of obedience helps maintain a healthy relationship with God (Romans 8:7-8). The nature of obedience is crucial for Christians because it clarifies the parameters and motivations behind their actions. Obedience should be dominantly evangelical, rooted in love for Christ rather than solely motivated by fear or reward. Romans 8:7-8 illustrates that the carnal mind is hostile to God, incapable of obeying His law. Therefore, true obedience reflects a spirit-filled life that recognizes God's grace and operates out of a sincere love for the Savior, leading to genuine intimacy in the believer's relationship with God.

Q: How should Christians view legal motives for obedience?

Legal motives are a part of a true believer's obedience but should not be the primary motivation (2 Corinthians 5:11). While legal motives, such as the fear of punishment and hope for reward, have their place in the believer's obedience, they should not dominate their actions. The Apostle Paul acknowledges in 2 Corinthians 5:11 that the fear of the Lord compels him but makes it clear that the overarching motivation for faithful service is love. Thus, while legal motives may play a role in holding us accountable, a vibrant relationship with Christ cultivates a deeper, more rewarding relationship based on love and gratitude, leading to genuine and joyful obedience.

Q: What does true obedience look like for Christians?

True obedience is universal, purposeful, and grounded in Scripture (Psalm 119:4). True obedience in the life of a Christian is characterized by universality — not selectively obeying certain commandments while ignoring others. It is purposeful, aimed at honoring God and aligning with His will, as seen in Psalm 119:4 which states, 'You have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently.' Furthermore, it must be scriptural, meaning that obedience should be informed by Scripture rather than personal notions or traditions. Such obedience is evidence of genuine faith and reflects the believer's desire to live in accordance with God's will, leading to a fruitful life.

The following message was delivered
on Sunday evening, July 19, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church
in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us once again ask the
aid of God the Holy Spirit as we continue in the theme that
has in 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 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. Our 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 dullness
and darkness of sight. 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 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 with the carnal shields of self-justification lying to
our own hearts. O God, we acknowledge the frightening
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
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. 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, the identity of the heart of the
issue, 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 and a necessary accompaniment of that faith,
there are now two vital questions that we must ask and answer from
the scriptures if we are to complete the picture of this aspect of
God's truth. Having established the inevitability,
the necessity of that obedience which accompanies saving faith,
we must ask and answer from the Scriptures these questions. What
is the nature of that obedience which is the fruit of saving
faith? And thirdly, and much more briefly,
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 degree, and its standard. And for at least about four or
five sitting here, you'll notice a change in two of those words
since last week. For as I've labored in this matter,
I was not satisfied that the words I chose then most accurately
embody the biblical concepts that I'm driving at And so the
four aspects which comprise the nature of the obedience which
accompanies saving faith have to do with its motive, why we
obey, it has to do with its extent, how much do we obey, its degree,
to what extent are we able to render a complete obedience in
any given part, and its standard. By what standard is that obedience
regulated? First of all, then, its motive. And with regard to its motive,
I want to say this. 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. 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, on the one hand, with respect to fear of punishment if I don't
obey, and the hope of reward if I do obey. That's legal obedience. It's the obedience of the slave. He know who knows if he does
not obey his master, oh, he may hate his guts. He'll be out in
the woodshed with a rod upon his back. Or, though he has no
delight in the person of the Master, he knows if he will obey
the Master, he will be treated well, he will be given his promised
periods of relaxation and recreation, and therefore he obeys with no
love for the Master, no delight in the will of the Master, but
only with hope of a reward from the Master's hand. That is legal
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. 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 that is a loving regard to please
him and a jealous fear of displeasing him. the sense of indebtedness for
the goodness and the mercy of Christ. Romans 12, I beseech
you by the mercies of God. Those are evangelical motives. Motives that have their top roots
in the believing acceptance of the privileges of the gospel. Now 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 chapter 2, if we say that we know Him and keep not His
commandments, we lie. We know that we know Him if we
keep His commandments. I say, as to motive, that obedience
is not exclusively evangelical, and don't let anyone tell you
that. It is dominantly evangelical and never exclusively legal. Now, legal motives enter into
the heart of a true Christian. Now, they are not naked legal
motives. They are tinged with the gospel,
but they are legal nonetheless. For example, when Jesus said
to his own disciples, if your right hand offend you, cut it
off, cast it from you. What motive did he give to enforce
that duty? It is better to enter into life
maimed than having two hands to go into hell where the worm
dies not and the fear is not quenched. That's a legal motive,
fear of punishment. And Jesus laid that on his disciples. The apostle Paul who could say,
I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day, 2 Timothy 1.12. He also said in 1 Corinthians
9.27, I keep under my body and buffeted, lest in preaching to
others I myself should be reprobate. He feared being cast off as a
reprobate. If he gave up his passions and
appetites to the service of sin and lust, he knew he would be
damned. He knew he was safe. He knew
he would be damned. That's a legal motive. And likewise,
the hope of reward. Is it wrong to have the hope
of reward as one of our motives? If so, Jesus taught us to think
that way. the last beatitude. Blessed are
you when men revile you, persecute you, say all manner of evil against
you falsely. For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly
glad, for you shall see your Father face to face." No. He
says, for great is your reward in heaven, for so 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've fought a good fight, I've
kept the faith, 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 evangelical motives are the only motives worthy of
a Christian. It is not scriptural. 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. And that's why I've chosen my
words carefully. I labor to explain them. It's
a matter of life and death. However, having said that, the
nature of the obedience which accompanies saving faith is dominantly
evangelical. It has some legal motives, but
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 dominant evangelical
motives? Let us look at just two of them.
2 Corinthians chapter 5. I've already quoted about ten
verses, but now I want you to see them with your eyes as well
as hear them with your ears. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Paul moves so easily and naturally
from the legal to the evangelical without a spiritual burp in between. He says in verse 11 of 2 Corinthians
5, knowing therefore the fear or the terror of the Lord, we
persuade men, the terror of the coming day of judgment. Fearing
for their damnation, we labor to persuade them unto salvation. Then he says in verse 13, in
pursuit of this passionate endeavor to win men to Christ, there are
times when people think we've gone out of our tree. That's
why I never, never bleed into backing off when people say,
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.
But he said, God's 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? For the love of Christ constrains
us. Christ's love to me holds me
in a vice-like grip would be a good paraphrase. The love of
Christ not restrains me, but constrains me. It holds me in
its grip. 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? 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 die, 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 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. 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 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 loved me,
poet or not, he will keep my word. If a man love me, he will
find himself constrained by love to a life of obedience. Verse 24, he that loveth me not
keepeth not my words, and the word which you hear is not mine,
but the Father who sent me. So here's another motivation,
not only Christ's love for me, that constrains him to take my
place and undergo the judgment of God for my self-centered,
self-willed life 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 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 that 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. 1 Corinthians 7.23, you were
bought with a price. Be not the slaves of men. 1 Corinthians 6.19 and 20, what? Know ye not that your bodies
are a temple of the Holy Spirit which you have of God and you
are not your own? 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, in my flesh, if it's calories. My belly was bought
by the blood of Christ. My heart and my arteries, I cannot
clog them unnecessarily with excessive cholesterol and make
them labor pumping blood through mounds of blubber because they're
bought with a price. Gospel motives. I can't starve
my body. through some idolatrous, thinny-thin
idolatry and being anorexic. Why? My body is the purchased
property of the Son of God. 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
gospel motives. And I say to everyone sitting
here tonight, if you are a Christian, then you are obeying Christ. And the first aspect of the nature
of that obedience which accompanies saving faith is this in its motive. It is dominantly evangelical,
and it is not exclusively legal. Now ask yourself, what have you
done today out of an evangelical motive? What did you do yesterday
out of an evangelical motive? What sins did you avoid because
of the love of Christ? Because of love for Christ? Because
of the consciousness you're bought by Christ? You have a debt to
Christ? Oh yes, you didn't do that gross
sin for fear. It might lead to your physical
ruin. That's a selfish, legal motive. You only feared punishment.
Or you did this because you hoped for reward. Is that all you know? Legal motives? Then friend, let
me say it lovingly. If your heart's devoid of evangelical
motives, your heart's devoid of God and of Christ, you're
an unbeliever. You're lost. And that may be
the reason why some of you can make no progress against certain
sins. If God were to let you conquer
those sins, it would seal you in self-deception. And perhaps
the very reason He's allowed those sins is to show you the
root of the matter is not in you. Because until gospel motives
begin to be powerfully operative, those sins will never die and
those graces will never be cultivated. For in the child of God, sins
die and graces are cultivated ultimately by the river of the
water of life that flows out from under the throne of God
and of the Lamb. not the thunder and the lightning
and 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. Though I say again, not
exclusively evangelical, for legal motives enter in their
appropriate place. But now secondly, what about
the extent of that obedience which is the accompaniment of
saving faith? To what extent do we obey? And
I answer with this simple little couplet. It is universal and
not partial. It is universal and not partial. Now I'll explain my terms. What
is partial obedience? Partial obedience is obedience
that is deliberately selected. 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. It is convenient, it is natural,
it is easy. But selective, partial obedience
is consciously and deliberately selective and partial in terms
of the commands that the individual will take seriously. Let me illustrate
it from scripture. Turn to Matthew 23. The Pharisees
were the masters of the devilish art of 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. Warn to you scribes and Pharisees
hypocrites for ye tithe mint and anise and cumin that is their
current spices they were meticulous in giving to God his tithe of
their spices and have left undone the weightier matters of the
law, justice and mercy and faith, but these you ought to have done. It was your solemn God-given
duty of obedience to do what the law demanded with respect
to justice. with respect to mercy and with
respect to faith. Oh yes, it was your duty, once
a year in the annual tithe, to give to God the first fruit of
all of your 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 concerning the
greater matters. You blind guides, and then our
Lord uses a grotesque illustration. Kids, people who say the Lord
Jesus never used humor. If this isn't humorous, I don't
know what is. You strain out the gnat and you
swallow the camel. What's he referring to? He's
referring to the practice of what they did in Palestine with
their wine. You remember the Old Testament
speaks of treading out the wine press? Well, the wine press was
usually a large stone hollowed out about the size of one of
those little nine or ten foot round backyard plastic pools
about so deep. Well, if you can imagine having
one of those plastic pools and your daddy taking an exacto knife
and cutting out a nice perfect little hole about an inch big,
and then taking some crazy glue and sticking in a one-inch hose
for about six inches, then throwing a bunch of grapes in there, and
you kids all going in and having a grape-crushing party, and jumping
around on your bare feet, squashing the grapes. And then you'd have
a bucket of some kind at the end where you caught the juice
that came out. Well, if you did that out in
the open air, no doubt a few of the backyard fleas and flies
and gnats would drop into the vat while you were trampling
out the wine. Well, back in those days you
didn't have plastic jugs to put it in, so you took a calf skin
or more likely a goat skin that you had taken from a goat carefully
peeled back, tied off what would be his hind legs and his forelegs
and his neck. Then you would take the wine
and open up the neck and put the fresh wine into a fresh supple
goat skin, and then you would tie it off and hang it on a tripod,
and then when it came time for your wine with the evening meal,
Dad or Mom would go and untie one of the legs, open it up a
little bit, take the cup, Put a piece of muslin over the top
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. Now that's what Jesus said. Look
at the text. You strain out the gnat. But
here's the picture. You very carefully have strained
out all the gnats. You take your little piece of
muslin, cheesecloth, and you pull up the four ends, and while
you're shaking it out and washing it out, the camel gets loose
from behind 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. 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! That's the point. Of course you
can't. That's stupid. But our Lord is teaching the
picture. They had a selective partial obedience. Oh yes! Straining out little ceremonial
sins. but swallowing camel-like moral
evils, straining out little details, overlooking vast requirements
of God, partial obedience. That's partial obedience. What
is universal obedience? Well, it's not perfect obedience,
but it's an obedience described by David again and again, or
the psalmist in Psalm 119. And I want you to turn there
with me. Here is perhaps the most eloquent
statement or eloquent statements of universal obedience to be
found anywhere in the Word of God. In this psalm that celebrates
the law of God, the precepts of God. Notice what the psalmist
says. 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 all thy commandments. That's
it. That's universal obedience. Respecting
all of the commandments of God. No
putting down your glasses when you come to the one that pinches
you where you're sinning. 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. 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 tolerated
in the heart is sufficient to keep possession of the heart
for the tyrant, however others may be restrained. Even Herod,
it is said, did many things, yet his adulterous wife, cherished
in his bosom, too plainly proved that the sovereignty of sin was
undisturbed. Saul slew all of the Amalekites
but one, King Agag. 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. A secret indulgence, the rolling
of a sweet morsel under the tongue, the part of the price kept back,
Acts 5, 1 and 2, stamps our service as robbery and not as an offering. See what he's saying? He says
what Ananias and Sapphires brought was not an offering, it was what
they kept back that proved they were thieves. 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. Though utterly unable to render
perfect obedience to the least of the commandments, and I'll
come to that and say amen to that, though unable to render
perfect obedience to the least of the commandments, yet my desire
and purpose will have respect unto all the commandments. 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 in its extent. Now I'm going to ask you. Folks, I'm determined that this
is the last sermon I preach. I go to my God with clean hands. Do you know what it is? who obey
with universal obedience. To say with the psalmist, I have
respect unto all thy commandments, verses 127 and 28, I love thy
commandments, not some of them, the convenient ones, the ones
that do not cross my natural passions and appetites and inclinations
and the bad habits of my youth. and the bad habits of my teenage
years, and all of us have those sets of things. 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. Verse 28,
I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I
hate every false way. Is that true of you? Do you hate
the false way of your self-justification? Yeah, I know, you were brought
up, and every time you got accused, you justified yourself, and your
parents let you get away with it. So what? You know it's wrong. Stop it! Oh yes, I know growing
up, every time you wanted a snack, your parents gave it to you.
And you got bad habits, and you eat for a hundred reasons rather
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 of self-control! Then stop it! And begin to have respect to
the commandment that says, let everything be done in moderation.
Whether you eat or drink, do all 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
it! Stop it! Stop it! And stop looking
for some secret exotic key. It will help you start having
respect unto all God's commandments. Walk over the belly of your lust. I hate It doesn't say, I examine
every false way to see all of its tentacles, to understand
all of its nuances. It says, I hate every false way.
That's what my Bible says. Right there, I hate every false
way. Whether I understand its tentacles
or not, I see the beast and I go for its brain. That's biblical. And it's time some of you need
to start saying, Am I committed to universal obedience? How long are you going to go
on playing games? 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? I think you do. You
got a support community that love you and pray for you? I
think you do! What more do you want? Get on with it. 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. 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
it. That's what we've 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? That's the nature of the obedience
that follows faith. In its motive, it is dominantly
evangelical and never exclusively legal, In its extent, it's universal
and not partial. But in its degree, and this is
what Bridges was referring to, as to its degree, it is purposeful
but never perfect. It is purposeful but never perfect. Now what do I mean by purposeful
obedience? Well, we could look at many passages.
I turn you to but one in the interest of time. Here's a statement
of purposeful obedience. in a context where a man knows
it is never perfect obedience. Romans chapter 7. Paul telling
us of his own consciousness of struggle with remaining sin.
And this is what he says. Verse 19. The good which I would. Now that sounds like purpose.
I would do good. And in the context, what is the
good? The good is nothing less than keeping the holy law of
God in all of the spirituality and holiness and justness of
its demands. Verse 12, the law is holy and
the commandment holy and righteous and good. And he says, that's
the good I would do. My heart is set upon it. 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,
Now there's a man purposing not to sin. I don't want to sin! I would not sin! If I could, I would not sin once
more till I die or go to glory. That sounds pretty purposeful,
doesn't it? The good that I would, the evil I would not. That's the positive. That's the
negative. That's purposeful obedience. Verse 22, For I delight in the
law of God after my inward man. That's purposeful obedience.
I'm never more true to what I am as a new man in Christ than when
my heart and God's law and my actions all line up like the
landing lights for that pilot coming into Newark Airport that
tells him he's on the right path at the right altitude. He says,
when those things line up, I'm never more true to what I am
as a new man in Christ. I delight in the law of God after
my inward man, but I feel crosswinds getting me out of line with the
landing approach, and I feel updrafts 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
do good. I delight in the law of God. My obedience is purposeful, but
it's not perfect. That's why it is always humble
and penitent obedience. It is humble obedience, knowing
that my best deeds are stained by imperfection. It is penitent
because I know if I did all I should do, I am still but an unprofitable
servant. But I must confess that I sin
in thought and word and deed, sins of omission and commission
every day. So my obedience is never that
of the Pharisee who walks into the presence of God and preens
himself like an ecclesiastical peacock and says, I thank thee
I am not his other man. But the posture of my heart is,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. Lord, I love you. I love your
laws. I purpose to keep them, but oh
God, forgive my sins as I forgive those who sin against me. Galatians 5.17, the flesh lusteth
against 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. But I would. God knows I would. 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 to come. If I would, I'd paint such a
picture of the cross that every orifice in your body would become
a fountain of tears and you'd weep at the sight of a crucified
Christ. God knows I would do it, and
I look out into the faces of some of you and see you week
after week and month after month, as plainly and passionately and
earnestly and clearly as I attend to set forth Christ crucified,
I obviously am miserably bearing, for you sit there classy-eyed
and half-asleep and go out and talk on the veranda with your
buddies about everything that you saw. My obedience is a preacher, 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 convenient! Purposeful! Joined to universal! Suffused with evangelical motives,
That brings us fourthly, in the nature of that obedience, it's
standard. What is it's 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 not notional or traditional. Now what do I
mean by scriptural? Well, I think you ought to know
what that means. Psalm 119, 105, Thy Word. is a lamp unto my feet, and a
light unto my pathway. He that hath my commandments,
John 14, 21, and keepeth them. He that hath my word, and keepeth
it. I shall run in the way of thy
commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart." If we say
that we know Him and keep not His commandments, the standard
of the obedience that flows from faith is the Word of God. It is Scripture. It is not notional
or traditional. And what do I mean by that? Notional
is doing what I think God would have me do. That'll get you in
all kinds of trouble. And I fear some of you have an
obedience that is primarily notional. You spin out of the stuff of
your own head what you think will please God. You read a verse
that says, Fathers, you skip the first part, to walk not your
children to wrath, nurture them in the chastening of the Lord,
and then you get your own notions. You spin out a system of vicious
child abuse in the name of disciplining your children. I've heard of
some of it until if I could I would have vomited in my elders meetings. There's sitting in this room
child abusers who think you're obeying God when you're brutalizing
your sons and daughters. Some of you husbands read, husband
is the head of the wife. That's me in the head. I'll show
you boss. 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 ways. And some of you women Wives be
subject to your husbands in everything where you think he's wise and
smart. In the rest you can bad mouth him and give him bad body
language. You wicked woman, stop it, or
give up your name of Christ. That's notional. As the church
is subject to Christ out of love and reverence and trust, so ought
the wives be to their husbands in every That's the Word of God. You've got a notional obedience. When you read, some of you young
men and women in boy-girl relationships flee fornication. You've got
a notional obedience to that. That is, stop short of sexual
intercourse and anything else goes. Is that so? Where do you
find that in the Bible? It says, flee fornication. It
doesn't say simply abstain from intercourse. It says, flee fornication! Flee from the contacts, the circumstances,
the relationships that make sexual impurity possible. Keep away
from the girly magazines. Keep away from the 7-Eleven stores. Keep away from the TV shows and
the movies that feed lust. That's biblical obedience as
to its standard. The other is all notional. You
take an idea out of the Bible and then you import to it what
you'd like to make its obedience convenient to you. That's notional.
God calls that will-worship in Colossians 2. It has nothing
to do with biblical obedience. And others, your obedience is
merely traditional. You've grown up with an idea
of what it means. Love not the world! That means
don't smoke, don't chew, 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.
That's traditional. Wasn't that the curse of the
Pharisees in Matthew 15? They had come up with a very
clever way of keeping their traditions while all the while, what were
they doing? Look what Jesus told them in Matthew 15. You, verse 6, have made void
the word of God because of your tradition. And God calls them
hypocrites. That's what Jesus said. They
had a convenient tradition that canceled the commands of God,
and all the while they prided themselves in being the super
obedient ones. And our Lord focuses on but one
aspect, that had to do with their indigent parents. Honor your
father and your mother. Implicit in that is, if they
have monetary, physical needs that you can meet, meet them.
And I said, all right, 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 than mom and dad, so on the way to
the temple to give God a gift, they'd stop 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 you bread and put
clothing on your back and protection over your head, it's already
marked out. It's Korban. It's a gift to God. Sorry, mom and pop, he says you
have You have an obedience framed by your traditions which cancels
the work 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 traditional! 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. That's the nature of the
obedience that is the accompaniment of faith. It is evangelical,
universal, purposeful, and scriptural. Universal but not selected 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 does it come from? And
I have two simple headings, negative and positive. Its source, it
is not self-originating. How do we know it? One text alone
will suffice to answer Romans 8.7. 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
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. When my Bible says, the
carnal mind's enmity against God, it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can it be. It cannot be! It cannot be! And if God doesn't
intervene, it will sink into hell with the language of Luke
19. We will not have this man to
reign over us. 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 the king will destroy every
rebel who's never been brought to the life of the obedience
of faith. It is not self-originating, but
blessed God, it is divinely originated. And the way God originates it
in the heart is beautifully described in Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel
chapter 36. I only read the words. They're
familiar to many of you. Verse 26. A new heart will I
give you. A new spirit will I put within
you. I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh. I will give you a heart of flesh.
I will put my spirit within you. Now notice. And cause you. to walk in my statutes and you
shall keep mine ordinances and do them. I will put, I will cause,
but now notice, and ye shall walk and keep. Don't mix those
up. I will put, I will cause, but
you will walk 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 keep. God doesn't walk for me. God
doesn't walk through me. God doesn't keep on my behalf. I walk and I keep. so that the
psychology of my obedience is that of a conscious, intelligent
human being who sees the commandment, discerns its direction, depends
upon God, chooses the way of God, and then walks, if necessary,
into a den of lions to do what God says. Does it wait for the lions to
vaporize and then float into the empty? That's the problem with some
of you. The moment there's any blood and guts and gore, you
either assume, well that must not be the will of God, that's
so hard. Or I must not 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 if He's causing me to walk and keep? Just try it. And if He isn't,
you won't be able to. And if you do, you'll say, bless
God. He's working in me to will and to work for His good pleasure.
He doesn't work for me. He works in me so that I will
and I work. But all of my willing and all
of my working I attribute to His causing and His putting.
You say, man, God's got His cake and eats it too. You bet your
boots He does. Because of Him and through Him and unto Him
are all things to whom be glory forever and ever. You don't like
a salvation like that? Then go make your own and go
to hell with it. Because there is no other. There is no other. Do you see that? There is no
other! Sure, there are times when you
don't feel like obeying. But you're committed! Christ
didn't feel like going to the cross. He wanted to go somewhere
else. He said, if it be possible, take the cup from me. Some of
you got the idea. Christ just went playing the
violin and the fiddle through Gethsemane and Golgotha. Everything
in his holy soul wanted to go another direction. He chose the
will of God against all of his natural, holy inclinations. And that's what some of you have
yet to begun to learn to do. Yes, when you go home tonight,
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. 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 is 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 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 to those four things and
said, God, thank you. That's true. I do know what it
is to have evangelical motives. I do know what it is to be committed
to universal obedience, purposeful obedience, scriptural 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 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 of stumbling
around over the same patterns of sin for a dozen years stops
in this place. And we get on and go from strength
to strength, from one stage of glory to another, never attaining,
but being able to say forgetting the things that are behind instead
of having to go back to one elder after another after a dozen years
for the same stinking rotten things. This ought not to be
there. We'll be going to our elders,
yes, because new areas of obedience will open up. And we're not sure
what biblical principles apply. And we sought God and pleaded
with God. We're not expecting our elders to do our work for
us. They're there to help us. And we go, but now we can say,
thank God I was here three years ago. And my problem was I couldn't
even be decent to my wife. Thank God we're like a couple
of cool birds now. Now my problem is I'm too prodigal. I love her so much. I spend some
of the money I'm supposed to be saving up for the car payment
and get her little goodies. Can you give me some principles
to help me to rein in that excessive expression of my dawdling love
to my wife? What a wonderful problem to have
in a counseling session, huh? But I believe that's the kind
of problem we can have if some of you start having dealings
with God. Don't sit there and say, yeah,
yeah, he'll hear that. Stop that. You sit there and
say, God help me to hear You go home tonight and don't say,
well, if I see him tender, then, no, no. You say, look, if that
hard-hearted nut will sit through that, I'll leave him with God.
But I'm going to be right with God. You go home, woman, and
you take the initiative. And you humble yourself. And
you, man, you humble yourself. And you, son, daughter, whoever
you are, I'm issuing a mandate in the name of the God of heaven
to Trinity Church. We say we believe in Christ.
Let's get on with obeying. He's worthy of a measure of obedience
he's not been receiving from us as his people. And I start
by saying us, not editorially. 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, you say, well, more preacher stuff. I'm going to do my own thing.
Well, just remember, when I determined to close the service this way,
That's your mindset. Without anybody watching, you
just reach down and touch one of your knees. I won't look. Just reach down,
touch one of your knees. That very knee one day is going
to thaw and touch the ground before Jesus. Every knee shall
thaw. Your knee is going to hit the
ground before the Son of Man. Every tongue shall confess that
he is Lord. Touch that tongue. 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 stretch 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 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 dwell at your but it'll be
too late. You can't hot shot your way through
the day of judgment. You're no match for God. And
while that God tenderly invites you in the person of his son
to come, why don't you come? He's a gracious master. He's
a loving Lord. By his grace, I've served him
for 40 years and not once. as he caused me to say, Lord
Jesus, you're an unreasonable master. Not once. Not once. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. There are
others here who have served him equally as long. Would not that
be your testimony? Any of you here in your 60s and
70s who've served him for years that want to stand and bear witness
and tell these young people, I was a fool to serve such a
rotten master! Don't do it! Anyone of you want
to stand and say that? You're free to. How many of you have served him
30, 40 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, I've seen at least 10, 12 of them. Served him for
40 years! No regrets. What else can I do
to persuade you to go to such a master? Stack arms. Embrace the crucified Lord who
stands ready 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 by keeping you
here and begging and pleading till midnight would do it, I
don't care if one by one you walked away, if I could get but
one of you. Come to my precious Savior. He
waits to receive you. Let's pray. Oh, our God, what can we say
as we bow in your presence? We thank you for your dear son. We thank you for his great salvation
that takes stubborn rebels and makes them willing servants.
We thank you for the many who could bear witness tonight that
by your grace they found him to be just the kind of master
he said he would be. that his yoke is easy and his
burden is light. Oh, have mercy upon the young
and the old alike who do not know that obedience that flows
from faith. May they this night come in faith
to the Son of God, repenting of their wicked rebellion, repenting
of their wicked rationalization. Lord, for those whose obedience
has been legal and not evangelical, partial and not universal, whose
obedience has been marked by selectivity. O Lord, expose them
tonight. Show them what they really are.
Don't let them go on in self-deception. And then, our Father, we pray
for those whose obedience has not been purposeful, who've hidden
behind its imperfection, And yet, in all the while, they could
never say, I delight to do the will of God. Oh, Father, expose
the hypocrite. Comfort the true saint. Draw
the sinner. Lord, do what only an omnipotent
God can do with such pathetic means as the pleadings of mere
mortals. Oh, gracious God, seal your word. And may the final day reveal
that this was the day of day to some. Hear our cry and answer
our prayer and dismiss us with your blessing we plead in Jesus'
worthy name.

Lordship Controversy #3

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about obedience to Christ?

How do we know that obedience is necessary for salvation?

Why is the nature of obedience important for Christians?

How should Christians view legal motives for obedience?

What does true obedience look like for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

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Lordship Controversy #3

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about obedience to Christ?

How do we know that obedience is necessary for salvation?

Why is the nature of obedience important for Christians?

How should Christians view legal motives for obedience?

What does true obedience look like for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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