Would you turn to Romans 16 once
again? After the service, if some men
could help set up the tables for the Vacation Bible School,
that would be very good. I'll remind you again after the
service, hopefully. I've entitled this message, The
Obedience of Faith. And I know full well that What
I'm going to say tonight can be misused and twisted and used
as an excuse for sin. And I know that the elect won't
use it that way and anyone else probably will, but I can't do
anything about that. Men are always going to look
for an excuse for their sin, aren't they? But I want to say
what I'm going to say in a very unqualified way. I don't want
to guard it. I don't want to qualify it. I
want to say it as it ought to be said, the obedience of faith. Now imagine this scenario. You
wake up tomorrow morning, very ill. Very sick. And you know you need to see
a doctor. And you go to the doctor's office, sitting in the waiting
room, probably feeling some measure of anxiety because of the way
you feel, wondering what is wrong with you. You're sick. And you
finally get to see the doctor, and he asks you about your symptoms.
He looks you over, and he tells you what kind of sickness you
have. You're relieved. He says, I've
got some good news for you. I've got a medicine that will
work. It will heal your sickness, but
you have to be well before it'll work. This medicine is powerless to
heal you unless you're already well. What would you think of a physician
like that? Physicians of no value is what
Job called them. This is how I liken most preaching
in our day. Faith in Christ will save you
if You've turned from your sins and not returned to them and
are sincerely seeking to obey the law of God. Now, what difference is there
in that than saying that faith in Christ will save you only
if you're already healed? It's the exact same principle. And this is a complete denial
of what faith is in the first place. Like I said, I've entitled
this message, The Obedience of Faith. What is the obedience
of faith? Now let's look back at Paul's
doxology to this great book of Romans. He says in verse 25, Now unto him that's of power,
this is the power of God. That's what I need, how about
you? I need the power of God. Now to him that's of power to
establish, to fix you, to settle you where you can't be moved. And this establishing is according
to my gospel, the gospel that saved me. and the preaching of
Jesus Christ. That's the subject of the gospel,
the preaching of Jesus Christ, who he is, what he did, where
he is now. And this is all according to
the revelation of the mystery that we would have never known
had not God made it known, which was kept secret since the world
began, but is now made manifest and by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made
known to all nations for this purpose. for the obedience of
faith. Now, that's what everything here
that's written is written for, for this purpose, for the obedience
of faith. Now, what is the obedience of
faith? Now, most preachers would say,
well, if you have faith, it will be evidenced by obedience in
your life. And am I saying there shouldn't
be obedience in my life and your life? Of course not. But if you
look at the obedience of your life and conclude that you have
faith, you have no faith. You don't even know what faith
is in the first place. That has nothing to do with the
obedience of faith. Well, somebody says, well, doesn't
the Bible say faith without works is dead, being alone? Yes, the
Bible says that. And it will be evidenced whether
you really believe the way you deal with this thing of the obedience
of faith. Now, faith is derived from the
word to believe. To believe. It's kind of like
a child. When you tell them something,
they believe it. They haven't corrupted sufficiently
to become incredulous regarding what you
say and not trust you and all that kind of stuff. And they
believe what you say. Faith is believing what God has
said, and it also has within it trust. Belief, you believe
what you're hearing, and you trust. There's an element of
trust in all faith. You're entrusting yourself to
what it is you're believing. I believe the greatest example
of this is Abraham. This is the first time the word
belief is used in Genesis 15, if you'll turn with me there.
Now if you want to understand what faith is, I hope this will
be helpful. Verse 5, And he, God, brought
him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the
stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So
shall thy seed be. Now, Abraham was an old man.
Abraham didn't have any children. His wife was an old woman, and
he didn't have any evidence at all that this would take place
other than this. God said it. No other evidence than the naked
word of God. Abraham, look up at the stars.
You can't count them. That's how your seed is going
to be. Now, Sarah had been barren. Abraham was an old man, but look
what it says in verse six. And he believed in the Lord. He believed what he said and
he the Lord candidate to him for righteousness. Abraham believed
God. Now look over in Genesis chapter
22. Years later, Genesis chapter 22. Now the first element there
is belief. He believed what God said. He
really believed he was going to have that many heirs just
as God said. He believed what God said. That's faith. Now the element
of trust, verse one. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham. And
he said, behold, here I am. And he said, take now thy son,
thy only son, whom thou lovest. and get thee into the land of
Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of
the mountains, which I will tell thee of." Now, what did God say
to him? This child that you've had supernaturally,
that the Messiah is going to come through, that all the nations
of the earth are going to be blessed through this child, your
only son, whom you love. You take him up on a mountain,
cut his throat, and offer him up as a burnt offering to me. How many times have you thought
about that story and wondered whether you could comply in obedience
to that command? Abraham could. Why? Let's go on reading. And Abraham rose up early in
the morning and sat on his ass and took through his young men
with him and Isaac his son. And he claimed the wood for the
burnt offering and rose up and went into the place of which
God told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes
and saw the place of far off. And Abraham said into his young
man, his young men, abide ye here with the ass and I and the
lad will go yonder and worship. And what's it say next? We're gonna come again to you. Now, was he saying this to fool
these men? So they wouldn't know what his
true intentions were? So he could make it without them
trying to prevent it? No, according to Hebrews chapter
11, he really believed that God would raise him from the dead.
He was sure God would raise him from the dead. You see, God had
made the promise that the Messiah would come through Isaac. And he knew God never lied, never
went back on his word, and he knew if he did kill him, as painful
as that would be to kill a son, he knew that if he did kill him,
God would raise him from the dead. And so he says, me and
the lad will go yonder to worship and we'll return once again to
you. Now, if he would have said, I
can't kill him, then God's word wouldn't take place. All he would
prove by that is he didn't believe God. Nothing else. That's all he would prove. He
didn't believe God. If I tell you I can't kill him,
it's because the Messiah can't come. He demonstrated that he
trusted what God said when he was willing to offer up his son
and kill him, and he did it in his mind. It was a done deal
in his mind. He did it. He wasn't thinking
there's gonna be some loophole here. He raised up his hand to
slay the lad, as you see, but he believed, according to Hebrews
11, that God would raise him up from the dead, and he trusted
him to do that. Faith is Faith is belief, and
faith is trust. Turn with me to 2 Timothy 1.
Now remember, faith, it's impossible to please God. You think of Enoch. Enoch pleased God. God actually took him before
he died. Remember that passage of scripture
out of Genesis chapter four or five? And Enoch walked with God
and God took him, he was not. And Hebrews 11 tells us that
God took him while he was still alive because he had this testimony
that he pleased God. And most people think, well,
Enoch, was so holy and so righteous and so obedient in his life and
so good and just never did anything wrong and was so great that God
just broke into him. Enoch was just as sinful as I
am and as you are. He really was. You might not
believe that, but he really was. How sinful are you? That's how
bad Enoch was. You know what the scripture says
regarding him pleasing God? Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. Without faith, it wasn't Enoch's
conduct that pleased God. It was the faith he had in the
coming Redeemer that pleased God. Now, 2nd Timothy chapter
one, verse 12, with which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless,
I'm not ashamed. And here's this wonderful definition
of faith. For I know what I believe. No, I know whom
I have believed. What we believe is completely
predicated on whom we believe. Faith is not giving assent to
a doctrine that I see the Bible does teach. That is not faith. Faith is not saying, well, I
agree, I see that the Bible teaches that. Faith is in a person. I know whom I have believed. You know, I know whom I believed.
He's God. He's man. He's the God-man, Christ
Jesus. I was listening to Len practicing
some of the songs from Vacation Bible School this week, and one
of the songs is, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. And
you know, people sing that. I wonder how many people really
know what it means. This one, I believe, really does
have the whole world in his hand. And he's got you in his hand.
And what's gonna happen to you is up to him. He has complete
control over your salvation. If you're saved, or if he passes
you by, is in his sovereign will. That's who he is. He's holy. He's just. He's meek. He's lowly. He's the same one
who said, come unto me and I'll give you rest. The amazing Lord
Jesus Christ. There's nobody that can be compared
with him. That's who we believe. And what we believe is completely
predicated on him. For instance, it's impossible
to believe him and believe he can die for somebody and they
wind up in hell anyway. You can't believe that if you
believe him. It's impossible. You believe that he's incapable
of failure. Whatever he does must come to
pass, must be successful. I know whom I have believed. And you know, I know whom I have
believed. This is life eternal, but they
might know these. The only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. Now, do I feel like I know him
on intimate terms? Well, as far as the gospel goes,
yes. Yes. Do I feel like I know him very
well? About like a dog knows its master. No better than that. About like a dog knows its master.
But I'm happy with that knowledge, aren't you? A dog knowing his
master. I know who my master is. I know
who's in control. I know whom I have believed.
Look what he says next. He says, I am persuaded. And that is actually in the passive
tense. It's literally, I've been persuaded. You know, if God persuades you,
you know what? You're persuaded. He never persuades in vain. If
he persuades you something, you'll be persuaded. I know whom. I have believed." There's no
salvation apart from knowledge, the knowledge of Him. And Paul
says, I've been persuaded. And here's what I'm persuaded
of. And I love the simplicity of this. Here's what I'm persuaded
of. I'm persuaded that He is able. The Lord looked at those two
blind men and said, do you believe that I'm able to do this? And
they said, yeah, Lord. Do you know, I do believe in
the ability of Jesus Christ. Do you believe you're saved?
Well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but I always believe
in the ability of Jesus Christ. He is able. Abraham staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised
he was able also to perform. Now, I do believe this. I believe
that he's able to save me without any contribution from
me. I believe he's able to keep that which I have committed to
him. Now, that word committed is the
only time this word is found in the New Testament, and it
means entrusted. entrusted. Like you go to the
bank and you deposit your money. That's the word. You deposit
your money. Now you don't have anything to
do with the safety of it. You've entrusted it to the bank.
I've entrusted the salvation of my soul, the keeping of my
soul to Jesus Christ. Now here's what I mean by that.
Let me tell you exactly what I mean. I've entrusted all my
hope I'm vested in this. I bought in. That doesn't mean
I paid for anything, but I bought in. All my hope is found right
here. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am the chief. He came to save me. I fit that description. Are you
elect? Well, I hope so. Are you a believer? I hope so. Have you been born
again? I hope so. Are you a sinner? Yep, absolutely. That's me. And Christ Jesus came into the
world. Every sinner there is, he came
into the world to save. And I love that passage of scripture
in Romans 8 verse 34. Who is he that condemneth? And
there's only one answer that's given, it's Christ that died. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Now listen to me, my only hope,
and what a good hope this is, I don't want to have any other
hope, but my only hope of being saved is that Christ died for
me. Do you have any other hope? It's that Christ died for me. Well, how do you know he died
for you? Because I'm a sinner. That's how I know. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've
committed to him against that day. I'm relying on him. I'm
relying on this, that nothing can be laid to my charge. that
I stand not guilty before God because Christ died for me. My sins were paid for. He gave
me his righteousness, and that's the one singular reason. No other reason is needed. That's what faith is. I know
whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded. I've been persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed to him.
I've committed the salvation of my soul to him. This is not
talking about how personally committed I am. This means all
my hope, all my eggs are in this basket. I've committed the salvation
of my soul to him. I'm trusting who he is and what
he did as all that's needed to save me. That is faith. Nothing less is faith. But what
about this word obedience? The obedience of faith, because
if you ask 99 out of 100 preachers, they tell you, well, that's your
walk. If you have faith, it's gonna affect your walk. It's
gonna make you be obedient. It's gonna make you try to keep
the law. It's gonna try to make you do all these things. What is the obedience of faith?
Well, let's think for just a few minutes about what the word obedience
means, the obedience of faith. Well, what would be meant by
obedience to the law? That's the way we know what it
means. What would be meant by obedience to the law? It doesn't
mean you know the commandments. It doesn't mean you admire them.
It doesn't mean you try to keep them. Somebody says, I try to
keep the commandments. You do not. Ain't nobody believes you. You say that, but in practice,
no you don't. What is obedience to the Ten
Commandments? Well, if I was obedient to the
Ten Commandments, you know what that would mean? That would mean
I'd love God with all my heart and all my strength, and I'd
love my neighbors myself. That would mean I would have
never put anything before God. That means I would never have
had any false idea or imagination of God, not once in all my life.
It means I would always have perfectly reverenced His name
and never taken His name in vain. It means I would have kept the
Sabbath. It means I would have always honored my father and
mother perfectly. It means I would have never killed
anybody, not physically with physical violence, not by slandering
an innuendo, killing their character. It means I would never have committed
any kind of sexual sin at all, not even in my mind, not even
in my imagination, in my thoughts. It would mean that I would never
tell a lie. It would mean I would never take
what doesn't belong to me. It would mean I would never covet.
That's what obedience to the law is. It means you never sin,
you obey. Now you admire the law. Somebody
says, well, I got a copy of the law on my wall. Well, big deal. You keep it? glorify the character of God.
The glory of the gospel is I don't try to keep them, I've kept them.
If Jesus Christ kept them, I did too. I don't have to worry about
anything. But obedience means keeping. Cursed is he, the scripture
says, that in Galatians 3, quoting Deuteronomy, cursed is he that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. So obedience means obedience. It doesn't mean you try to obey.
It doesn't mean you give your best effort. Well, I tried not
to kill that person. Okay, you're off the hook then. I sincerely tried not to kill
him. No, no, obedience is obedience. The obedience of faith. The command of the gospel, the Ethiopian, I mean, the Philippian
jailer said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? You know what Paul's answer was? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shall be saved. What else? He gives me works to perform.
Now, if you believe, you'll fill in the blank. No, the command of the gospel
is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe who He is. Trust who
He is and what He did as all that's needed to make you perfectly
righteous before God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. What is obedience? The obedience
of faith? It's simply this. to believe
on Christ. Nothing less, nothing more, and
nothing else. It's to trust Christ only to save you. We're commanded to believe, we
believe. We are commanded to repent, and
we repent. We repent of the foolish thoughts
we've had about ourselves and about God. We repent of them.
We change our mind. I don't believe that way anymore.
I used to believe that if I was given the opportunity and put
in the right circumstances, I could refrain from sin and do right.
I don't believe that anymore. I know myself better than that. I'm commanded to love. I love,
I love the Lord. I love Him. He's altogether lovely
to me. Heaven is gonna be beholding
His glory to every believer. These are commandments that we
keep. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
five. This is the obedience of faith. Verse one. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. Now hold on for a moment. What's
that mean? The Christ is the Messiah. It's
his offices. God's anointed prophet, the word
of God. God's anointed priest, the one
who if he represents me, I must be saved. God's anointed King,
the one who rules and reigns. Do you believe that Jesus is
the Christ? I'm not asking anything else.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? Well, look what the
word of God says. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. You've been born again. You've
been birthed from above. You've had the work of God the
Holy Spirit. That sounds too easy to me. No,
it's not. It's impossible unless God enables
you to do it. But whoso believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth also, loveth him also that's begotten of him.
Now that's, you know, someone that God has given birth to and
life to, and they believe that Jesus is the Christ. You know
what? I love them. I love them. Go on reading. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. Now, there you go. You've got
to have works of obedience. Your life's got to be different.
Well, it should be. I'm not saying that, but I know
this. It doesn't say, try to keep his commandments or do your
best to keep his commandments. It says, keep his commandments.
You actually obey these commandments. Not just think, well, I'm going
to try not to lie. I'm going to try not to steal.
I'm not going to, I'm going to try not to covet. I'm going to do
my, no. Trying doesn't do anything. I'm talking about keeping. Look
in 1 John chapter three. We'll get back to 1 John 5 in
just a moment. Verse 23, and this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he gave us commandment. You know, I do
believe on the name of his son. I really believe that the name
of his son is gonna bring me into heaven. Nothing else is
needed. And I really do love his people. Back to 1 John 5. For this is the love of God that
we keep his commandments. We believe on the name of his
son, and we love his people. And his commandments are not
grievous. They're not irksome. What's more enjoyable than believing
on Christ? What's more enjoyable than believing
that Jesus is the Christ? What's more enjoyable than knowing
you're just complete in him? What's more enjoyable than to
love somebody instead of be mad at him and be aggravated with
him? No, love him, love him. What's
more enjoyable than that? Keeping his commandments is not
grievous, it's not vexing, it's not irksome. Verse four, for
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world? but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. Now, I'm gonna ask you a second
question. First, I asked you, do you believe
he's the Christ? Here's the second question. Do you believe he's
the Son of God? Do you believe he's the uncreated,
eternal Son of God, the creator of the universe, the only savior
of sinners? Do you believe he's the Son of
God? But this is the victory. Who is that person that overcomes
the world? But he that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Now we read, I'm gonna try to
close this up. We read in Romans 1, 5 of grace
for obedience. And you know, it is impossible
for me and you to trust Christ only unless he gives us grace.
You know that, don't you? Grace for obedience. Thank God for grace for genuine
obedience to the command of the gospel. And then Peter said in
1 Peter 1, 22, seeing you purified your souls and obeying the truth
through the spirit. Now, the only way you will be
obedient through the truth is by the grace of God and through
the work of God, the Holy Spirit in you. You know that, don't
you? You can't trust Christ alone
unless God, the Holy Spirit enables you to. I mean, trust Christ
so as you don't look anywhere else. You look to him only. You
don't look to your works of obedience and your evidences and so on.
You look to him alone. Only God, the Holy Spirit can
enable you to do that. And then we read in Romans 6,
17, where you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine,
which was delivered you. Obedience from the heart. What's that mean? Obedience from
the heart. Does that mean you're sincere?
Well, yeah, it means that, but that's not really what it means.
I mean, that could obviously be deduced from that. But when
you obey the gospel from the heart, that means you obey it
with your mind. You understand that the righteousness
of Christ is the only righteousness you have. With the heart man
believeth unto righteousness. You understand. that the righteousness
of Christ is the only righteousness you have. But not only do you
understand it, you love having his righteousness as your righteousness. You really do. I mean, you don't
have to, well, would I rather be saved by my righteousness
or his? That's a no-brainer. I love being saved by his righteousness. And the heart is the understanding,
the affections, it's the will. If given my choice, how I want
to be saved, I know how I want to be saved, by His righteousness,
by His grace, by Him doing it all. Now, there is a song in
our hymn book that we don't sing, thankfully. I've talked about
it in the study. It's called Trust and Obey. Have you ever heard that? Trust
and Obey. For there's no other way to be
happy in Jesus is to trust and obey. Now hear carefully, to
trust is to obey. To trust and obey is to disobey. That is disobedience to the gospel. I love what Paul said in Romans
chapter four, verse five. To him, listen real carefully
to these words. To him that worketh not. Are you working? Stop it. Stop it. To him that worketh not. Now if you're gonna obey the
gospel, here's what you're gonna have to do. You're gonna have
to work not. Is that what it says? Am I telling
you the truth? Is this the gospel? To him that
worketh not. But believeth on him that justifieth. the ungodly. Do you believe that
when Christ died, he actually justified the ungodly? Do you really believe that? That's
obedience to the gospel. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, His faith is canon
for righteousness. Now, here's my closing thought. There was a man by the name of
Jairus. And he came to the Lord with
his daughter, Di. And he said, come and heal her.
And the Lord followed him to her home. And Jairus' home. And while they were going there,
all of a sudden, Some people came to the Lord and to Jairus
and they said, trouble not the master, your daughter's dead. Too late, it's over. The Lord looked at Jairus and
you know what he said? Let me tell you first what he
didn't say. He didn't say, believe and obey. He didn't say believe and get
your life straightened out. He didn't say believe and stop
doing this or that. Here's what he said. Believe
only. Believe only. To believe only is the obedience
of faith. Let's pray. Lord, give us the grace to work not but simply to believe on him
that justifies the ungodly. Lord, that's our hope. Give us the grace to believe
on him. In his name we pray, amen.