Verse 19 of Romans 16, once again,
for your obedience has come abroad to all men. I cannot think of
a higher commendation of a church than this. Your obedience, your obedience has come abroad. to all men. This is what is known
about you, your obedience. Now I've entitled this message,
Gospel Obedience. Gospel Obedience. Now if I asked you, if you obeyed
the law, the Ten Commandments. And let me say right off the
bat, I'm not saying, well, I try to. No, you don't. No, you don't. If you say you try to, I don't
believe it for a second. You're telling a lie. You don't try
to keep God's holy law. All you do is break it, as a
matter of fact. But if I did say to you, what is it to obey God's holy
law? You would know that that would
mean that you would have never put anything before God. It would have mean you have never
made an idol of anything. It would mean you would never
have failed to reverence his holy name. You would have never
taken his holy name in vain. And you know, I think that's
such a glorious commandment. God is so glorious that simply to
take his name in vain is great sin. If you kept the law, you
would have kept the Sabbath. You would have done no works
on the Sabbath day. Yesterday, you wouldn't have
worked at all, and you would have understood why. If you kept
the law, you would have always honored your mother and father
and never done dishonor to them. If you kept the law, you would
never have killed anyone. You would have never committed
sexual sin of any kind. You would never have told a lie. If you kept the law, if you obeyed
the commandments. You would never have stolen anything.
You would never have taken anything that did not belong to you. You
wouldn't have done it. And you would have never coveted
anything. You would have been perfectly
content at all times. Now that's how you would be if
you obeyed the law. And to break one of these laws
is to break the whole thing, according to James. Now, if I
said you were to obey the law, that is what is meant by obeying
the law. To obey the law is a state of
sinlessness. If you obey the law, that means
you have never sinned. Now, gospel obedience is to keep
the commandment of the gospel. It's not to try to keep it. It's
not to know you ought to keep it. It's not for you to know
what it is, but it's to actually literally keep the commandment
of the gospel. The gospel is a thing to be obeyed. In John chapter 14, verse 15,
if you love me, keep my commandments. Not admire them, not know what
they are, not try to keep them, keep them. John 14, 21, he that
hath my commandments and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me. If a man loved me, he will keep
my words. You are my friends if you do
whatsoever I command you. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Hereby do we know
that we know him if we keep his commandment. And this is his
commandment that we should believe on the name of his son and love
one another as he gave us commandment. For the love of God is to keep
his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. Be ye doers
of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. Now
I've given you a volley of scriptures that let you know and let me
know that the gospel is something that must be obeyed. It's a commandment
to keep, not merely to admire, not to try to keep it, but to
keep, to obey the gospel. Turn with me for a moment to
Romans chapter six, verse 16. Know ye not that to whom you
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to
whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto
righteousness. You see, obedience is always
unto righteousness. Obedience to the gospel. is always
into righteousness. The only way you're ever gonna
be righteous is if you obey the gospel. Now look what he says
in verse 17. But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin, the slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Now
I love the way this is stated, God be thanked. God be thanked. If you're obedient to the gospel,
God be thanked. If you're obedient, do I thank
you? Well, what a good person you
are. You've obeyed the gospel and you've done something that
the other person did not do that's put the difference between you
and them. And you're to be thanked and you at least get some of
the credit because you obeyed the gospel. But that's not what
Paul says, is it? He says, God be thanked. God be thanked first of all,
that you were the servants, the slaves of sin. And that's what
it says. God be thanked. This is something
to praise God for that you were the slaves of sin. Now, how in the world am I supposed
to thank God for that? Well, had you never been the
slave of sin, had you never sinned, your position would be a whole
lot worse now. than it was, than it is. You
see, had you never sinned, that means you would be standing in
your own righteousness. Isn't that so? Had you never
sinned, you'd still be liable to fall. Fall away. Had you never sinned, you would
never have this glorious, secure position you have in Christ Jesus.
God be thanked! What would we know of the character
of God? What would we know of the beauty
of the forgiveness of sins? What would we know of the freeness
of His grace? What would we know of the greatness
of His mercy? What would we know of His infinite
wisdom? How that He had made a way to
be just and yet justify somebody like me? What would we know of
that without sin? I love the way God said to Adam,
in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. He didn't say
if you eat of that fruit. You see, that fall was all a
part of God's purpose and all a part of God's will. He willed
for that to take place. Are you saying God's the author
of evil? Well, you can say anything you
want out of it, but I know that it wouldn't happen unless God
was pleased to let it happen. He didn't say if you eat of that
fruit. He said in the day you do, you shall surely die. You know what I love thinking
about? Before that fall took place,
you know what was going on? The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Before the fall, we have the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's elect have never, ever
been viewed independently of Christ and His precious blood. Isn't that great? God be thanked! that you were the servants of
sin. If you had never been in the slave of sin, you'd never
be standing in the righteousness of Christ right now. You'd never
know anything about the riches and the freeness of God's grace. God be thanked. Can you thank
God for this? God be thanked that you were the servants of
sin, but you have obeyed from the heart. that form of doctrine,
the doctrine of Christ, the gospel, which was delivered you, which
was delivered to you and which delivered you. Both meanings
are there. Now, what's that mean? You've obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine, which was delivered to you. Does
that mean It's dropped, made that 18 inch drop from the head
to the heart, and now you believe with your heart what you formerly
once only believed with your head. Is that what that means? No. Let me say that very clearly. No. But I can tell you what it
does mean. If you believe with your heart,
That means you believe with your understanding, that means you
believe with your affections, and that means you believe with
your will. You've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine,
the gospel. Paul put it this way in Romans
chapter 10 verse 9, with the heart man believeth under righteousness. Now that's not talking about
some nebulous, ooey-gooey feeling that you have now that you didn't
used to have. That's not what that's talking about at all.
With my understanding, I understand that the only righteousness that
I have is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Do you understand
that? I understand that. Not only do I understand that
the righteousness of Christ is my righteousness before God,
and I have no other righteousness other than His righteousness
that God gave to me, and that's my standing before God. I understand
that, and I understand that clearly. I understand that clearly. I
know that my heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all
things. Who can know it? And I know that the only righteousness
I have is that of the Lord Jesus Christ. I really believe that.
But not only do I understand that, I love it. I've received by the grace of
God, the love of the truth. I love having his righteousness
as my only righteousness. I love having him as my standing
before God. That's better than standing in
my own righteousness. From the heart, you've obeyed the gospel,
that form of doctrine. Not only do I understand this,
not only do I love this, This is the way I want it. Let me give you a choice. Would
you rather be saved by your righteousness or Christ's righteousness? That's
a no brainer, isn't it? It's a no brainer. You have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which delivered you. Now, for
this kind of obedience, there must first be the grace of God
to precede it and cause it. We read in Romans 1, 5 of grace
for obedience. Aren't you thankful for grace
for obedience? Grace for gospel obedience, believing the gospel. And we read in Romans 15, eight
of Christ working through Paul to make the Gentiles obedient
by word and deed. Now for this kind of obedience,
turn to first Peter chapter one. I'd like you to see this. Verse 22. Seeing You have purified your souls
in what? Obeying the truth. How? Through the Spirit. Where does
it lead? Unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart, fervently. Now, in order to obey the truth,
you first have to have the truth. You can't believe something you
haven't heard. Any more than you can come back from a place
you've never been. Well, they haven't heard the truth, but
I hope their heart's right. It's not. It's not, I can assure
you of that. There's no obedience without
first the truth. You obey the truth how? Through
the Spirit. And where does that go? It goes
unto unfamed love of the brethren. Now this obedience is as a result
of having a holy nature. Now, when a believer is born
from above, when they're born from God, when he, that, that
which comes from God is called the holy seed in first John chapter
three, and you have a holy nature and it's that holy nature that
obeys the gospel. It's not your old nature. That
old nature, just as bad as it ever was, and it's not going
to ever be any better. But you have a new nature. Be
ye holy, for I am holy. The only way you can be holy
is if you are holy. There's not something you do
to become holy. Be ye holy. And the only way
you can be holy is if you are holy. And the only way you can
Be holy as if God made you holy. And if you're holy, if you have
this holy nature, this new nature, born of God, born of His Spirit,
you know how it will be seen? You obeying the gospel. Now turn with me for a moment
to 1 Samuel chapter 15. Verse 22. We're going to look
at several verses in this passage of scripture, but first let's
read verse 22. And Samuel said, hath the Lord
as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices as in obeying
the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice. and to hearken, to listen. Do you know that the word obey
in the New Testament comes out of the word to hear? To hear. Oh, would to God that everybody
in this room would hear what is being said. To obey is better
than sacrifice. Any sacrifice you could bring,
obedience to the truth is infinitely better. and to hearken than the
fad of rams. Now, why did Samuel say this? Look back up at the first of
the chapter. Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord has sent
me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel.
Now therefore, hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the
Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. I remember that which
Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way
when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly
destroy all that they have and spare them not. But slay both
man and woman, infant, suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass,
everything that breathes, kill it." That's pretty intense, isn't
it? That's pretty intense. I know that there are people
who have said, well, the God of the Old Testament and the
God of the New Testament are completely different. Here we have this
violent, bloody God of the Old Testament. We've got the God
of the New Testament whose love, that's foolishness. God tells Samuel to kill every
Amalekite, even their babies, even their sheep, even their
oxen, put them all to death. Now, why? In the scripture, the
Amalekites represent the flesh. Turn, hold your finger there
and turn back to Exodus 17. This is the first battle Israel
fought after they left Egypt. They didn't have any battles.
God fought for them. They didn't help out in any of
this deliverance from Egypt, did they? Do you think they helped
God separate the Red Sea? Did they help God bring the manna
down or the water from the rock? All they did would be a spectator
in what God did. But now that they are delivered,
they have their first battle. And Amalek represents the flesh. You know when you're gonna have
your first battle? when you have life. Then you're going to see Amalek
and his danger and his evil. Then you'll see your old man.
Let's go on reading. And Moses said unto Joshua, choose
us out men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I'll stand
on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua
did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses
and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came
to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And
he went, let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands were
heavy and they took a stone and put it under him and he sat there
on an Aaron and her stayed up his hands. The one on the one
side and the other on the other side and his hands were steady
into the going down of the sun. Now let me say this. When Moses hands are held up.
And I can see Christ. I win. When Moses hands go down. And I can't see. I lose. And what did they do? They took
Aaron, the high priest. Her, his name means light. He
represents the spirit of God. They held up the hands of Moses.
And what happened? And Joshua disconfitted Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. Now, the Lord said
unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance
of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovanese, for he said, because the Lord
has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. Now this is a battle that as
long as their flesh, it's on. It's on. And so there's great
typical significance to this when he says, kill all the Amalekites. Don't spare one of them. Now, you and I are called upon
to do, to kill the Amalekites. To look to Christ only, your
flesh has nothing to do with your salvation. You believe that? Absolutely nothing. Now let's see what happened,
back to 1 Samuel 15. And Saul, verse four, gathered
the people together and numbered them in Telim, 200,000 footmen
and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came into the city of
Amalek and laid wait in the valley. God told him, wipe them all out.
And Saul said unto the Kenites, go, depart, get you down from
among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed
kindness to all the children of Israel when they came out
of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And
Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to
Shur, that is over against Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of
the Amalekites, alive. You know what Agag means? I will win. What is it that men spare in
the flesh? Man's will. Man's will. True man's sinful,
but he still has a free will. He can accept Christ as his personal
savior or reject him. Salvation is ultimately in the
hands of man's will. Agag was spared. And not only destroyed all the
people with the edge of the sword, but Saul and the people spared
Agag. and the best of the sheep, and
the oxen, and the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good,
and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was
vile, they destroyed utterly. Then came the word of the Lord
unto Samuel, it repenteth me that I set up Saul to be king,
for he has turned back from following me, and he hath not performed
my commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he
cried unto the Lord all that night, And when Samuel rose early
to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel saying, Saul
cometh to Carmel and behold, he set him up a place and has
gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal. And Samuel
came to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Did he? No, he disobeyed the commandment
of the Lord. He didn't perform the commandment
of the Lord at all. All he did was disobey the commandment
of the Lord. And Samuel said, what meaneth
in this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears and the lowering
of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, they had brought
them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of
the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God
and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Now, I think this
is so interesting. Saul won't take personal responsibility
for his sin. The people did it. Now, until you take and until
I take complete responsibility for my own sin, it's all my fault. Two things takes place. One,
I don't confess it. And number two, I'll never cry
for mercy. The only time you'll cry for mercy is when it's all
your fault, period. Verse 16, then Samuel said unto
Saul, stay, stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord has said
to me this night. And he said unto him, stay on.
And Samuel said, when thou was little in thine own sight, evidently
he was not little in his own sight anymore, was thou not made
the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee the
king over Israel. And the Lord sent thee on a journey and said,
go and utterly destroy the sinners. the Amalekites, and fight against
them until they be consumed. Wherefore didst thou not obey
the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst
evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea,
I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, it was at least partial
obedience, and have gone the way which the Lord has sent me,
and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed
the Amalekites, I did most of it. But the people took of the
spoil, sheep, and oxen, and the chief of the things, which should
have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy
God in Gilgal. He won't take responsibility
for his sin. It's somebody else's fault. You
can blame it on God's sovereignty. You can blame it on the people.
But he didn't obey. He didn't obey, and he blamed
someone else. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord
as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the
voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice. Now God calls upon me and you
to put to death every Amalekite and look to Christ That is gospel obedience. Believing the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And you know what he did? Scripture
says regarding that man, the Philippian jailer, he believed
in God. You see, when you believe in
Christ, you believe in God. You believe he's God the Son.
Now, partial obedience. Well, I've tried to keep his
commandments. I've done my best. Number one, that's a lie. No,
you haven't. Next time somebody says I've done my best, you know
they're lying. They haven't. Number two, God
doesn't require you to do your best. He requires you to believe
his gospel and to rely only on his son, period. This is the work of God. you
believe right now, not waiting for something to happen. Well,
I'm going to do it tomorrow. Tomorrow might not be here. Well,
what about when I had that experience? You don't even know if that was
real. The thing you and I are called upon to do now is to look
to Christ only. That is gospel obedience. Would
you turn with me to second Kings chapter five? You know, there's a song. We don't sing it here. It's in
our hymn book. It's called Trust and Obey. You ever heard that song? Trust
and obey, for there's no other way. To be happy in Jesus is
to trust and obey. To trust is to obey. You don't have a combination
of trust and obedience that makes it to where God can accept it.
That's blasphemous. To trust is to obey. That silly song goes on to say,
but we can never prove the delights of his love until all on the
altar we lay. What's that supposed to mean?
Where's that in the Bible? For the favor he shows and the
love he bestows are for those who will trust and obey. You gotta have faith, but you
also gotta have works to buttress up that faith, or it's not real.
That, my friends, is a mangling of the gospel. Nothing more. It has nothing to do with gospel
obedience. All it does is cloud everything
and muddy up the waters. Now here in 2 Kings chapter five,
Here's gospel obedience. Verse one. Now Naaman, the captain of the
host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and
honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto
Syria. I think that's really neat. Syria was over Israel and
how come Syria was over Israel? Because of the Lord. The Lord
had caused him defeat Israel. See, the Lord's in control of
everything. Don't you love that? Everything that's going on, he's
in control of. He was also a mighty man in valor,
but he was a leper. Now, Naaman believed himself
to be a great man who happened to be a leper. He didn't understand
that he was a leper who happened to be a great man by God's providence. Naaman was a leper. Verse two, and the Syrians had
gone out by companies and had brought away captives out of
the land of Israel, a little maid, And she waited on Naaman's
wife. Here we see God's providence.
And she said unto her mistress, would God, my Lord, were with
the prophet that's in Samaria, for he would recover him of his
leprosy. And one went in and told his
Lord saying, thus and thus saith the maid that's of the land of
Israel. And the king of Syria said, go to, go and I'll send
a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with
him 10 talents of silver and 6,000 pieces of gold and 10 changes
of raiment. And he brought the letter to
the king of Israel saying, now, when this letter is coming to
thee, behold, I have therewith sent name and my servant to thee
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to
pass when the king of Israel had read the letter that he rent
his clothes and said, am I God to kill and to make alive that
this man does sin unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?
He knew he couldn't do this. Wherefore consider, I pray you,
and seek out, he seeketh a quarrel against me. He's trying to cause
trouble. And it was so when Elijah, the man of God, had heard the
king of Israel had rent his clothes. Then he sent to the king saying,
wherefore has thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me. and he
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with
his horses and with his chariot, and he stood at the door of the
house of Elisha. I loved thinking about that.
Here he comes with his mighty men, his horses, his chariots,
his thousands of gold. They park there, and they wait
for Elisha to come out to them. And what did Elisha do? I love
this. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him. He didn't bother to go to the door. Now, it wasn't because
he was proud and arrogant, but he knew Naaman was proud and
arrogant. That's exactly what he knew. And this represents
the preaching of the gospel. This messenger, God sends a servant. Now, Naaman didn't like this.
Why didn't he deal with me personally? Because you asked that question,
that's why. He just sends a servant. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him saying, go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall
come again to thee and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth and he went
away and he said, behold, I thought, Now that's where he got in trouble. It's not, Naaman, it's not like
you thought it was. Everything you naturally think
about religion and salvation and God and Christ, everything
is wrong. It's plum wrong. There's nothing
right about it. Do you believe that about yourself?
Everything you think about God, everything you think about Christ,
everything you think about the gospel, everything you think
about yourself, it's all wrong. Behold, I thought. That's where you get in trouble.
Instead of going with what God's word says, behold, I thought. He will surely come out to me.
and stand and call on the name of the Lord, his God, and strike
his hand over the place in a real powerful, miraculous manner that's
very impressive. And the leper will be cleansed.
He'll recover the leper. Are not Abana and Parfar rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash
in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in
a ray. You're telling me to ditch seven
times in that filthy river in Jordan, that ditch water river,
and that'll make me clean? There's nothing impressive about
this at all. I mean, you think about that, go in the river,
dunk down seven times, and when you come up the seventh time,
you'll be clean. I'm just going back where I came
from. I'm not gonna listen to this. Verse 13, and his servants
came near and spake unto him and said, My father, if the prophet
had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? You know, I was thinking, Matt,
you have the most children in the church, I think. If you heard that if you all
crawl on your hands and knees back to Richmond, Kentucky, you
would be eternally saved. If you believe that, you'd do
it, you'd make your whole family do it, wouldn't you? I mean,
it'd be rough. Crawl on your hands and knees,
it would hurt. It would not be a pleasant experience. But if
you really believed that it would save your eternal soul, you'd
do it in a heartbeat. If he would have told you something
great, would you have not done it? How much rather when he saith
to thee, wash and be clean. Then went he down. Gospel obedience is always going
down, isn't it? Then went he down. Once, twice, three times, four
times, five times, six times, still nothing had happened. The
seventh time he, and you know that was humbling to him. I mean,
he was a great man, so we thought. He's just having me go in a dirty
river and do this. One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven. The seventh time he came up and
his flesh was as whole as a baby's. And this represents being washed
in the blood of Christ. Seven, the number of perfection.
Doing what the prophet said, which represents believing the
gospel, going down seven times, he was made clean. Turn to Romans chapter four.
This is going to be our closing thought. Somebody's thinking, is there
something else to do? You just do this and everything's
going to be OK. All the other stuff will take
care of itself, I'll assure you. Romans chapter four, verse five,
but to him that worketh not. That's the first part of gospel
obedience. Quit working. Cease from your own works. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. Now that has something
to do with understanding what took place on the cross. The sins of the ungodly, Christ
was made to bear, and he put those sins away, and his perfect
righteousness is given to everybody he died for, and everyone who
believeth. Now if you believe, you're not
working. If you're working, you're not believing. Is that clear? If you're working, you're not
believing. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. There's the gospel.
God justifies. That doesn't mean he forgives,
although he does. But he justifies. If I'm justified,
that means I didn't do anything. That means I stand perfect before
God. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Now that is
gospel obedience. To not work. Can you do that? Not unless God the Spirit enables
you to. To not work at all. but to believe on him that justifies
the ungodly. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would grant
us by your grace, gospel obedience. And Lord, as we prepare to obey
your command of observing, the Lord's table. We ask that you
would enable us by your grace to do this in remembrance of
thee. Now, Lord, bless us. Please drive
away all thoughts that the preciousness of the broken body of thy son
and the preciousness of his blood and what he actually accomplished
for us. Oh, Lord, give us the grace to work not believe on Him that justifies
the ungodly. In Christ's name we pray, amen.