General Session 1: The Triumph of Obedience - John MacArthur
00:00:00.000 | Well, there are many wonderful things to come by way of the instruction of the Lord that's
00:00:08.680 | going to be given through those who will be ministering to you, and I count it a joy to
00:00:16.200 | kind of lead off this morning.
00:00:20.600 | In thinking about what I might talk about, I guess maybe just a bit of a preface.
00:00:27.120 | I have felt for, I think, the entire duration of my ministry that the church has suffered
00:00:33.760 | from an inadequate understanding of the doctrine that relates to sanctification.
00:00:39.720 | And even in recent years when we are pretty astute on the doctrine of justification, and
00:00:48.360 | we have that down pretty well, as you heard in the beautiful hymn that was sung earlier,
00:00:53.760 | Israel is for mine, we understand that.
00:00:57.960 | And there is uniformity on that among those who are faithful to the Word of God.
00:01:03.220 | We get that.
00:01:04.480 | We go back to the reformers, and we hold their flag and sustain their impact by holding the
00:01:14.560 | same convictions that many of them discovered in a time when it was obscured.
00:01:21.880 | So I think in general we do well with the doctrine of justification.
00:01:28.120 | We even do pretty well with the doctrine of the sovereignty of God.
00:01:32.480 | That's a comfortable doctrine for us.
00:01:36.820 | We want that to be true.
00:01:40.440 | But where the church seems to lose its way is in the matter of sanctification, and that
00:01:48.400 | is no small issue, because the function of the church is to address in the lives of God's
00:01:57.560 | people the issue of sanctification.
00:02:02.920 | I don't need to give you illustrations of the condition of "evangelicalism" with regard
00:02:08.960 | to sanctification.
00:02:12.020 | We have lots of unsanctified people, and we have apparently lots of unsanctified leaders,
00:02:21.760 | and lots of discussion about justification and the sovereignty of God, but very little
00:02:31.360 | interest in, at least in my mind, in the very foundational reality of sanctification.
00:02:39.600 | I want to see if I can reduce that to the most simple approach, and that is this.
00:02:46.840 | I want to talk to you this morning on the triumph of obedience.
00:02:53.340 | Now there's an odd word, obedience.
00:02:59.440 | Is that an oxymoron, the triumph of obedience?
00:03:05.480 | Can obedience be triumphant?
00:03:10.840 | Is submission some kind of victory?
00:03:17.480 | There is not only indifference toward the idea of obedience, there is resistance to
00:03:27.280 | the reality of obedience.
00:03:30.560 | A contemporary church leader who rejects outright the idea of obedience reduced the Christian
00:03:37.240 | life to this absurd question, quote, "What are you going to do now that you don't have
00:03:47.800 | to do anything?
00:03:52.760 | What are you going to do now that you don't have to do anything?"
00:03:57.520 | That's the latest version of the "let go and let God."
00:04:05.480 | Another author said, "We are not under law.
00:04:09.000 | We are not under law," repeating it.
00:04:11.560 | "You can't live under duty.
00:04:14.940 | You can't live under bondage of necessary obedience.
00:04:20.000 | You are free in Christ, free from necessary obedience."
00:04:28.600 | I know there are people who think they're protecting justification by faith with such
00:04:34.280 | an idea, and I wish I could give them the benefit of the doubt and think that primarily
00:04:41.240 | they're motivated by the desire to protect justification.
00:04:45.300 | But it seems to me a very convenient theology for those who are hiding a life of sin.
00:04:55.240 | To calm their tortured conscience, they come up with a notion that obedience is an offense
00:05:06.560 | to God if enacted under the sense of duty.
00:05:15.000 | Antinomianism is an old heresy, and it won't go away.
00:05:19.560 | It just won't go away.
00:05:22.760 | It survives in every generation of the church.
00:05:27.200 | You can go back to the early years in our ministry here and writing a book called The
00:05:33.740 | Gospel According to Jesus, which addressed a form of antinomianism where you could be
00:05:39.440 | saved and not be transformed, and not even necessarily continue to believe.
00:05:46.420 | There was no connection between repentance and salvation, no connection between good
00:05:53.500 | works as a fruit of salvation and salvation.
00:05:58.320 | Some of you remember those issues in the book The Gospel According to Jesus and The Gospel
00:06:03.600 | According to the Apostles, discussions about cheap grace and easy believism.
00:06:14.800 | There has been a sort of comfort with isolating justification from sanctification.
00:06:21.840 | And as long as you get justification right, sanctification doesn't matter that much.
00:06:29.480 | And again, the motive is to protect - at least externally, the motive is to protect the gospel
00:06:35.140 | from legalism.
00:06:36.140 | But again, I question that.
00:06:41.360 | Sinclair Ferguson has written a book called The Whole Christ.
00:06:45.480 | Listen to this statement, "The wholesale removal of the law seems to provide a refuge
00:06:52.840 | for the antinomian.
00:06:55.140 | But the problem is not the law, but the heart that remains unchanged."
00:07:03.680 | This is the delusion.
00:07:09.320 | The antinomian thinks he is free from the law, but he is not.
00:07:16.360 | He is still bound to the law.
00:07:19.560 | He is still a legalist.
00:07:23.440 | He seeks in going the opposite direction of rejecting the law to be free from the law,
00:07:30.160 | but this is his delusion.
00:07:33.460 | The truth is the antinomian is still a legalist.
00:07:36.920 | Why?
00:07:37.920 | Because he is defining his relationship to God by the law.
00:07:45.280 | The legalist must keep the law to please God, and the antinomian must not keep the law to
00:07:51.980 | please God.
00:07:56.280 | And so he relates to the law.
00:08:01.640 | The antinomian is as much a legalist as the rigid law keeper.
00:08:06.440 | He has not escaped.
00:08:07.440 | He is not free from the law.
00:08:12.720 | True salvation - and this is the important thing - is never defined by someone's relationship
00:08:18.160 | to the law.
00:08:19.800 | It is defined by someone's relationship to Christ.
00:08:23.680 | Trusting, honoring, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, and especially loving Him and loving
00:08:34.680 | His Word breaks the bondage of the law.
00:08:40.420 | The antinomian who thinks he is free from the law, free from the duty to obey the law,
00:08:49.580 | usually reveals that he has no relationship to Christ at all.
00:08:58.180 | If you're defining your relationship to God by your relationship to the law, you may well
00:09:06.140 | be outside the kingdom of God.
00:09:12.300 | Antinomianism perverts the gospel by making nothing of the divine work of regeneration.
00:09:25.140 | It doesn't acknowledge that.
00:09:29.620 | Trying to earn salvation by indifference to the law is no different than trying to earn
00:09:34.540 | salvation by adherence to the law.
00:09:40.660 | The only way you can be certain of your salvation is to know that you have a relationship not
00:09:46.760 | to the law, but to Christ.
00:09:53.300 | Antinomians make duty and obedience a sin against grace.
00:10:04.100 | What a trap.
00:10:06.420 | If you don't obey the commands, you sin.
00:10:13.140 | And then if you do obey the commands, you sin.
00:10:19.340 | A true believer would have to deny the new birth to reject his duty to obey the law of
00:10:29.740 | God.
00:10:32.220 | And what drives that?
00:10:34.300 | Why is it that a true believer obeys the law of God?
00:10:40.740 | Well follow with some familiar portions of Scripture.
00:10:44.060 | Turn to John 14, and this is by way of reminder this morning, things with which you are familiar.
00:10:51.680 | John 14, verse 15, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
00:11:04.160 | If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."
00:11:06.520 | In other words, if you have a relationship with Me, you will be obedient.
00:11:15.200 | John verse 21, "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and
00:11:21.720 | he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself
00:11:26.640 | to him."
00:11:28.300 | This is intense, and this is saying obedience is directly related to love.
00:11:42.300 | Verse 23, Jesus said to one of His disciples, Judas Not-Iscariot, "If anyone loves Me,
00:11:50.080 | he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our
00:11:55.480 | abode with him.
00:11:57.520 | He who does not love Me does not keep My word."
00:12:01.360 | Or to say it in reverse, "He who does not keep My word does not love Me."
00:12:06.860 | I mean, this is foundational; we can't avoid this.
00:12:17.200 | Over in the 15th chapter, verse 10, in that upper room, Jesus again repeated the same
00:12:26.560 | truth.
00:12:27.560 | "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's
00:12:32.860 | commandments and abide in His love."
00:12:37.200 | Or verse 14, "You're My friends if you do what I command you."
00:12:44.700 | I know you know these, but I want them fresh in your mind, these wonderful statements.
00:12:53.480 | Listen to 1 John 3:24, "The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in
00:13:01.740 | Him.
00:13:03.360 | We know by this that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us.
00:13:09.320 | If you have no desire to obey His commandments, then you have no love for Him.
00:13:16.560 | You're not abiding in Him; you don't know Him."
00:13:23.160 | Once again in chapter 5, verse 2 of 1 John, "By this we know that we love the children
00:13:28.880 | of God when we love God and observe His commandments.
00:13:34.000 | For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are
00:13:38.520 | not - " what?
00:13:39.520 | " - burdensome, because they're kept out of love."
00:13:45.360 | That defines a true believer.
00:13:50.680 | His relation is to the Lord, not the law.
00:13:55.180 | But because he loves the Lord, he loves the law of the Lord, which Psalm 138.2 says, "God
00:14:00.920 | has exalted His word equal to His name."
00:14:08.200 | He loves because the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit.
00:14:14.200 | He has a love then defined by obedience, by obedience.
00:14:21.280 | That ought to be obvious from the Great Commission.
00:14:25.460 | The Great Commission states that in no uncertain terms, "Go, therefore, and make disciples
00:14:33.260 | of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
00:14:37.240 | Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you."
00:14:44.880 | What is discipleship?
00:14:46.860 | It's teaching people to be obedient.
00:14:51.300 | I get that; I understand that.
00:14:55.740 | I'm not very mystical.
00:14:58.500 | If you tell me, "Here is what God requires, and you are to obey," then I understand that.
00:15:12.540 | That's sanctification's pathway.
00:15:18.220 | So based on what we just saw, and wrapped up in Matthew 28, what should be the goal
00:15:26.460 | of ministry?
00:15:28.460 | To produce people who are what?
00:15:31.620 | Obedient, obedient.
00:15:36.300 | Not people who are chasing some sentimentalism or some esoteric experience, but people who
00:15:48.260 | are obedient.
00:15:50.300 | What is the goal of pastoral ministry?
00:15:55.380 | I'll give you some more, because I just want you to hear these familiar texts to refresh
00:16:02.580 | your mind.
00:16:03.580 | Paul said in Galatians 4:19, "My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ
00:16:17.180 | is formed in you."
00:16:21.260 | The goal of ministry is to be like Christ, right?
00:16:29.420 | Ephesians says essentially the same thing in chapter 4.
00:16:34.340 | He gave some as apostles and prophets, evangelists; some as pastor-teachers.
00:16:38.260 | "For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body
00:16:42.620 | of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
00:16:48.060 | of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness
00:16:52.740 | of Christ."
00:16:53.740 | So the whole ministry that you're engaged in is to take people on the pathway to Christlikeness.
00:17:08.780 | You are there to enrich their relationship to Him.
00:17:17.460 | In Colossians chapter 1, again, same thing, verse 27, talks about Christ in you, the hope
00:17:30.740 | of glory.
00:17:32.260 | And then Paul says in verse 28, "We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every
00:17:37.640 | man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.
00:17:43.760 | For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power which mightily works within me."
00:17:50.280 | Christlikeness is the goal.
00:17:52.340 | Again, the whole pathway of sanctification is becoming more like Christ.
00:17:58.700 | It's defined by one's relationship to Christ, not his relationship to the law.
00:18:10.940 | In 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 3, Paul basically said something very similar.
00:18:22.660 | And then we'll look at chapter 10, which is kind of where I'm headed.
00:18:27.420 | He says in chapter 11, "I'm jealous for you," verse 2, "with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed
00:18:35.780 | you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.
00:18:42.020 | But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be
00:18:47.180 | led away or astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ."
00:18:52.580 | There is sanctification right there.
00:18:55.820 | It's the simplicity and devotion to Christ.
00:19:00.100 | It's loving Christ.
00:19:02.860 | And to be like Christ is to be obedient.
00:19:08.140 | He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
00:19:10.780 | Hebrews 5, "He learned obedience by the things He suffered."
00:19:15.620 | He only did what the Father told Him to do.
00:19:17.460 | He only did what the Father willed for Him to do.
00:19:20.940 | He only did what pleased the Father.
00:19:26.860 | The goal that we have as shepherds and pastors is the sanctification of our people, conformity
00:19:36.740 | to Christ.
00:19:39.420 | And the more they know Christ, the more they love Christ, the more eagerly they obey His
00:19:45.100 | commands.
00:19:49.060 | Now to focus a little more on one text, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, chapter 10.
00:20:01.380 | This passage has been on my mind, and I hope I can make this helpful to you, looking at
00:20:08.380 | it in a number of ways.
00:20:10.020 | I'm going to read starting in verse 1, 2 Corinthians 10.
00:20:16.500 | "Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ," - again, the standard
00:20:25.580 | for all that Paul requires is Christ - "I who am meek, He's meek, so I'm meek when face
00:20:35.820 | to face with you, but bold toward you when absent.
00:20:40.100 | I ask that when I am present, I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose
00:20:44.820 | to be courageous against some who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh.
00:20:52.740 | For though we walk in the flesh," - we're human - "we do not war according to the flesh,
00:20:58.740 | for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction
00:21:04.340 | of fortresses.
00:21:06.220 | We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God,
00:21:11.620 | and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready
00:21:17.180 | to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete."
00:21:23.500 | Do you see your pastoral duty there?
00:21:30.260 | Your duty is to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and to punish the
00:21:36.980 | disobedient.
00:21:37.980 | I don't know if you've ever thought of ministry like that, but that's what Paul says God requires.
00:21:49.820 | Let's look at verse 5 for a moment.
00:21:55.860 | The last part of the verse, "We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of
00:22:02.080 | Christ."
00:22:04.340 | That's the goal.
00:22:06.480 | It's about obedience.
00:22:08.260 | It's about obedience to Him personally.
00:22:15.340 | And we know His will, because as 1 Corinthians 2 says, "We have the mind of Christ."
00:22:22.340 | That's not something personal like, "I think I know what Jesus feels."
00:22:27.380 | We have the mind of Christ because we have the Bible.
00:22:31.960 | We know what He wills, what pleases Him, what honors Him.
00:22:41.060 | And our calling is to bring our people to the place where every thought is captive to
00:22:50.820 | Christ.
00:22:56.140 | Now notice the beginning of the verse.
00:22:58.360 | He says, "We are destroying speculations."
00:23:06.600 | That's ideologies, philosophies, theories, viewpoints, opinions.
00:23:16.080 | Even - Kai, better translated "even" - even every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge
00:23:23.820 | of God.
00:23:26.740 | This is Paul's direct ministry.
00:23:32.240 | We destroy anti-God ideologies.
00:23:40.900 | He sees himself as a soldier, really.
00:23:43.460 | The terminology is military, smashing ungodly ideas, smashing ungodly ideologies, smashing
00:23:53.700 | lies.
00:23:56.940 | And they're called "fortresses" back in verse 4.
00:24:02.260 | That is a word that means "fortress," it means "prison," and it means "tomb."
00:24:10.020 | And people are fortified in anti-God ideologies that become their prisons and end up as their
00:24:17.540 | tombs.
00:24:21.420 | And the calling we have is to destroy those speculations, destroy those anti-God ideologies.
00:24:33.620 | And the only way to do that is with the truth, and then you take every thought captive to
00:24:38.940 | the obedience of Christ.
00:24:41.740 | Graphic language.
00:24:43.500 | The Greek verb there means to take prisoners with a spear, to take prisoners with a spear.
00:24:53.100 | It's like he's leading these people out of their smashed fortress to a new captivity,
00:25:02.140 | and they're being led with a spear.
00:25:05.660 | This is demanded of them.
00:25:10.040 | And every noema , that means "thought, reasoning, design, purpose."
00:25:22.300 | It's translated "minds" in 2 Corinthians 4.
00:25:28.660 | So Paul's objective in ministry is to destroy the anti-God lies and free the deceived minds
00:25:38.460 | from the bondage of those lies, and bring them captive to a new captor, Christ.
00:25:48.980 | He defines that state of conversion as being captive to the obedience of Christ.
00:26:02.520 | Just beautiful language.
00:26:04.660 | In Romans 6, Paul said, "You were slaves of unrighteousness."
00:26:15.360 | But when that form of doctrine came that transformed you, you became slaves of righteousness, from
00:26:23.980 | unrighteousness to righteousness.
00:26:29.560 | The rebellion has ended, and the Christian's life is a life of obedience to Christ, whom
00:26:37.480 | the Christian loves, not because he has the capacity in his humanity to love like that,
00:26:44.560 | but because he has been regenerated to love like that.
00:26:52.160 | John 3:36, "He who does not obey the Son will not see life."
00:26:59.520 | But the wrath of God abides on him.
00:27:04.840 | Whatever happened to obedience?
00:27:06.120 | I mean, you go back even to the gospel.
00:27:12.680 | Romans 1:5 speaks of the obedience of faith among the Gentiles.
00:27:20.720 | The obedience of faith is describing saving faith.
00:27:25.900 | It's an act of obedience.
00:27:30.200 | In Romans 2, unbelievers are those who do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness.
00:27:38.040 | And again, at the end of Romans, the obedience of the Gentiles is manifest in word and deed.
00:27:50.400 | Paul even wraps up Romans, if you look at the final sign-off in verses 25 to 27 of chapter
00:27:59.760 | 16, "Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of
00:28:05.620 | Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret
00:28:10.080 | for long ages past, but now is manifested; and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according
00:28:17.180 | to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading
00:28:22.860 | to obedience of faith."
00:28:26.500 | Saving faith is the first act of obedience a sinner makes.
00:28:35.900 | And you can give God all the glory, as verse 27 says.
00:28:44.340 | Hebrews 5:9 puts it this way, "He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal
00:28:52.300 | salvation."
00:28:55.780 | Peter offers us a beautiful picture of this saving obedience in 1 Peter 1, the first two
00:29:06.820 | verses.
00:29:07.820 | "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout
00:29:12.540 | Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge
00:29:19.060 | of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be
00:29:27.460 | sprinkled with His blood."
00:29:30.860 | The whole of salvation is an act of obedience.
00:29:37.380 | And what is the sprinkle of blood referring to?
00:29:41.660 | Well, that's taking you back to the Old Testament, where the people of Israel thought more of
00:29:48.440 | themselves than they ought to have thought.
00:29:51.700 | And when they made a covenant, they would never violate the law of God, and then they
00:29:56.540 | sealed it with blood.
00:30:00.580 | They were saying, "We will obey," but they were not faithful.
00:30:07.540 | It's the obedience of Christ that defines everything.
00:30:14.140 | That's how you define your Christian life, "Do I obey Christ?"
00:30:18.820 | It's not, "What would Jesus do?"
00:30:23.020 | It's, "What did He command me to do?"
00:30:30.100 | And it's time, Peter says in chapter 4, for judgment to begin with the household of God.
00:30:35.860 | And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel
00:30:41.620 | of God?
00:30:42.620 | There in a backhanded way he is saying, "If you're in the household of God, you came because
00:30:48.100 | you committed yourself to obey God, and you did in a sense symbolically what the people
00:30:58.020 | of Israel did when they took the blood oath to always obey.
00:31:05.180 | They failed."
00:31:10.380 | Saving faith is about obedience, and I don't know why we have to run from that term.
00:31:20.460 | So back to chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians, this is how the relationship to the Lord begins.
00:31:30.420 | You're taking a new allegiance to obedience to a new captor, and you don't have a choice.
00:31:42.340 | You've been brought there by spear, as it were, and your life now is defined by obedience
00:31:49.300 | to Christ.
00:31:52.240 | And to press that home, Paul says to the Corinthians, "And those of you who are disobedient,
00:32:00.940 | I will punish."
00:32:04.360 | I don't know if you've ever thought about that in terms of your ministry, punishing
00:32:08.880 | the disobedient.
00:32:11.960 | Now obviously, initially, this is salvation in verse 5.
00:32:16.080 | But by the time you get to verse 6, Paul is saying, "I'm going to come to that church,
00:32:20.980 | and I'm going to identify those people who perhaps claim to be Christians, but are disobedient,
00:32:28.240 | and there will be punishment for them."
00:32:33.420 | We talk about discipline in the church; I don't know that I've ever heard anybody talk
00:32:37.600 | about punishment.
00:32:43.000 | Obedience prompted by love is the character of the Christian faith and is the reality
00:32:48.960 | of sanctification.
00:32:51.200 | Now why am I emphasizing this today?
00:32:54.720 | Well, because again, I think this is the world in which we all live.
00:33:03.120 | The work of justification and glorification is all God's work.
00:33:13.040 | We have the responsibility in the middle for the perfecting of the saints to Christlikeness.
00:33:19.560 | And antinomianism comes in so many forms, and it's left such confusion about sanctification,
00:33:30.040 | all denying the believer's duty to obey the moral law of God.
00:33:35.520 | Let me suggest some that I noted.
00:33:42.160 | First there is a kind of a Gnostic dualism approach to antinomianism, and that says the
00:33:47.740 | salvation of the soul is all that matters.
00:33:52.600 | Bodily behavior is irrelevant because your body's not redeemed, so don't worry about
00:33:56.360 | it.
00:33:57.360 | That has played out in some gross transgressions advocated by pastors.
00:34:04.160 | I know one myself who suggested that couples who are preparing to get married have sex
00:34:10.280 | together because their bodies weren't redeemed anyway.
00:34:17.640 | So there is that dualistic antinomianism, and then there's I guess what you could call
00:34:23.560 | God-focused - although it's bad to say it that way, that's what they would say - God-focused
00:34:30.000 | antinomianism, which says He just requires love, He just requires love.
00:34:37.120 | And so because He just really requires love, you have to do some, you know, you have to
00:34:44.680 | do some editing of the Bible, because so much of it is not loving.
00:34:52.880 | But since God is concerned only about love, you have to hold back requirements in Scripture
00:35:06.080 | because that wouldn't be loving.
00:35:08.160 | And then there is Spirit-prompted antinomianism, trusting in the Holy Spirit to move inwardly
00:35:16.160 | so as to deny any need to be subject or obedient to the moral law of God.
00:35:21.680 | You're free from the law; just let the Holy Spirit do it.
00:35:29.240 | And if it doesn't happen very well, well, it's probably His fault.
00:35:36.020 | And then there's Christ-centered antinomianism.
00:35:39.500 | God sees no sin in you anyway, because Christ paid for your sin, and then He kept the law
00:35:47.360 | for you.
00:35:49.160 | So since He kept the law for you, you don't have to worry about keeping it for yourself,
00:35:54.760 | which you can't do.
00:35:59.560 | And then there is cross-centered antinomianism.
00:36:02.880 | No need to obey the law; just flee to the cross and preach the cross to yourself.
00:36:13.020 | And then there is grace-centered antinomianism.
00:36:17.980 | All sin has been paid for; you're free.
00:36:23.120 | Then there is something that I hadn't come across until recently, lesser-sins antinomianism.
00:36:29.580 | Committing lesser sins keeps you from greater sins by granting your flesh some satisfaction.
00:36:40.180 | All those seek to eliminate obedience to the moral law of God and His holy will, and all
00:36:47.740 | of it is an attack on God Himself.
00:36:50.580 | John Murray said, "In the denial of the permanent authority and sanctity of the moral law, there
00:36:57.140 | is a direct thrust at the very center of our holy faith, for it is a thrust at the veracity
00:37:04.340 | and authority of the Lord Himself."
00:37:10.660 | We all understand that the law has three uses.
00:37:13.860 | Use number one is to convict and condemn the sinner.
00:37:17.620 | Use number two is to provide law and order as a common grace in society.
00:37:24.140 | And three, to reveal the commandments that all Christians are to obey.
00:37:31.940 | But people who are antinomian want to get rid of the second and third use of the law.
00:37:41.360 | Listen to this quote, "The law of God is holy, just, and good.
00:37:46.800 | But it becomes a very great evil when it is perverted and used for something other than
00:37:53.260 | its divine purpose, one singular purpose.
00:37:59.860 | It expresses man's guilt before God, shutting him up to faith in Christ alone for salvation.
00:38:07.380 | To use God's law for any other purpose is to pervert and abuse the law."
00:38:20.340 | When you think of the law of God and obedience to that law as an act of abuse, you have a
00:38:30.120 | twisted view.
00:38:31.800 | You say, "Well, the law is old covenant."
00:38:35.800 | Well, the law is old covenant.
00:38:39.880 | Maybe I ought to take a few minutes and show you something.
00:38:42.600 | Let's go back to Deuteronomy 6.
00:38:45.880 | I want you to see that the law is old covenant because the law reflects God's will.
00:38:56.000 | Listen to Deuteronomy 6.
00:38:58.040 | "Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord your God
00:39:02.560 | has commanded Me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you're going over
00:39:07.080 | to possess it."
00:39:08.600 | Very familiar text.
00:39:09.600 | "So that you and your sons and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all His
00:39:15.080 | statutes and His commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your
00:39:20.400 | days may be prolonged."
00:39:22.280 | That's God's will, "Keep all His commandments all your life long."
00:39:26.820 | Be obedient, be obedient.
00:39:34.160 | That's the foundation.
00:39:36.920 | And to help you with that, you need to love the Lord your God with all your heart and
00:39:42.080 | soul and all your might in verse 5.
00:39:45.480 | And then verse 6, "These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart."
00:39:50.440 | This is the key.
00:39:51.980 | "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and talk of them when you sit down, when
00:39:56.480 | you walk in the way, lie down, rise up, find them as a sign on your hand and as frontals
00:40:02.640 | on your forehead, symbolic of having to think through the law of God when you work and when
00:40:09.000 | you think.
00:40:10.080 | Write them on the doorposts of your house."
00:40:11.840 | You know that.
00:40:13.640 | The command then is to obey the law of God.
00:40:19.400 | Or in Deuteronomy 30, just very similarly, Deuteronomy 30, and we'll just look at verse
00:40:33.600 | 1 and following, "So it shall be when all the things have come upon you," and after
00:40:39.800 | the pronouncing of blessing and cursing.
00:40:45.560 | After this, verse 2, "You will return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart
00:40:51.740 | and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons."
00:40:57.620 | This is again the same emphasis on obedience.
00:41:02.840 | Verse 8, "You shall again obey the Lord and observe all His commandments which I command
00:41:08.800 | you today."
00:41:11.040 | Verse 10, "If you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments and statutes written
00:41:15.160 | in the book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul."
00:41:26.360 | God wants obedience from the heart, obedience from the heart.
00:41:35.680 | Psalm 37:31, "Of the righteous God said this, 'The law of His God is in His heart.'"
00:41:44.840 | That's a divine work.
00:41:47.400 | Psalm 40, verse 8, David says, "I delight to do Your will, O my God.
00:41:52.440 | Your law is within my heart."
00:41:56.960 | The law was not just external in the old covenant; it was in the heart.
00:42:06.560 | Turn to Psalm 119.
00:42:07.760 | I don't know if you ever thought about the psalm, the way I'm going to address it.
00:42:16.720 | But Psalm 119.
00:42:20.880 | Just listen to a few of these wonderful verses.
00:42:26.280 | Verse 57, and you could pick any of them really, 57, that heth portion, "The Lord is my portion.
00:42:36.800 | I have promised to keep Your words.
00:42:39.560 | I sought Your favor with all my heart.
00:42:43.000 | Be gracious to me according to Your word.
00:42:45.160 | I considered my ways and turned my feet to Your testimonies.
00:42:48.520 | I hastened and did not delay to keep Your commandments.
00:42:51.520 | The cords of the wicked have encircled me, but I have not forgotten Your law.
00:42:56.280 | At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous ordinances.
00:43:01.320 | I am a companion of all those who fear You and of those who keep Your precepts.
00:43:06.000 | The earth is full of Your lovingkindness, O Lord; teach me Your statutes."
00:43:12.040 | Go over to verse 97, "O how I love Your law!
00:43:16.240 | It is my meditation all the day.
00:43:18.380 | Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies; they are ever mine.
00:43:21.520 | I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.
00:43:26.320 | I understand more than the aged because I have observed Your precepts.
00:43:29.440 | I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word."
00:43:33.760 | I love verse 103, "How sweet are Your words to my taste; yes, sweeter than honey to my
00:43:42.520 | mouth."
00:43:43.520 | Do you think that was written by a legalist?
00:43:55.920 | That was not written by a legalist.
00:43:59.840 | I think go back to Psalm 51, any more than Psalm 19 or Psalm 1.
00:44:09.880 | Psalm 51, this is the confession of David.
00:44:15.560 | And I think this is a salvation prayer; we've all probably preached on it.
00:44:25.160 | This comes from David's heart.
00:44:30.000 | I think this is a salvation prayer.
00:44:33.960 | It sounds like a salvation prayer, even if you put it in the New Testament.
00:44:39.880 | "Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness."
00:44:44.080 | It asks for grace.
00:44:45.820 | "According to the greatness of Your compassion, blot out my transgressions."
00:44:52.240 | This is the true sinner's prayer.
00:44:54.120 | "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
00:44:57.720 | Cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
00:45:05.400 | Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You're
00:45:10.040 | justified when You speak and blameless when You judge."
00:45:14.280 | He understands the depths of his sin.
00:45:16.000 | "I was brought forth in iniquity, and sin my mother conceived me."
00:45:20.640 | From his very conception he bore the fallenness of Adam's race.
00:45:27.360 | And I know what you want, God.
00:45:29.120 | You desire truth in the innermost being.
00:45:32.380 | That is not the prayer of a legalist.
00:45:37.680 | And in the hidden part, "You will make me no wisdom, so, Lord, purify me with hyssop,
00:45:43.440 | and I shall be clean.
00:45:44.960 | Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
00:45:48.080 | Make me to hear joy and gladness.
00:45:50.320 | Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
00:45:53.680 | Hide Your face from my sins; blot out all my iniquities."
00:45:58.200 | You want a sinner's prayer, that's it.
00:46:01.640 | That's a salvation prayer.
00:46:04.600 | And look at verse 10, "Created me" - what?
00:46:07.120 | - "a clean heart."
00:46:09.080 | David knew he needed a new heart, and he needed a new spirit.
00:46:15.320 | And that's the language of Jeremiah 31, isn't it?
00:46:21.640 | "Don't cast me away from Your presence.
00:46:25.440 | Don't take Your Holy Spirit from me.
00:46:28.800 | Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.
00:46:31.480 | Sustain me with a willing spirit.
00:46:32.960 | I need a new spirit.
00:46:34.400 | I need a new heart.
00:46:36.080 | And then I will be able to teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to
00:46:41.240 | You.
00:46:42.240 | I will be useful to You."
00:46:47.840 | That's the sinner's prayer in David's experience that led him to the reality of Psalm 119.
00:47:00.360 | And Isaiah 51:7 says that God desires His law in the heart, in the heart.
00:47:16.960 | And that's exactly what you have with David.
00:47:21.540 | So as Abraham is a prototype of faith in the Old Testament because he was justified by
00:47:26.240 | faith, he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, David is a prototype
00:47:31.680 | of a sanctified believer who was given a new heart and a new spirit.
00:47:42.240 | And what you have in, for example, Jeremiah 31 is the promise that that's going to happen
00:47:47.840 | to the whole nation of Israel.
00:47:51.680 | But it wasn't as if it never happened.
00:47:53.840 | You don't think for a moment, do you, that people in the Old Testament were converted
00:47:57.500 | in some other way.
00:48:02.720 | David knew what he needed - a new heart, a new spirit.
00:48:06.280 | He needed a new creation.
00:48:10.840 | And when that new creation took place in his life, Psalm 119 became the testimony of his
00:48:20.600 | love for his God that showed up in his desire for obedience.
00:48:32.120 | God wants the law in the heart.
00:48:33.360 | He always has.
00:48:34.960 | He always has.
00:48:36.640 | And David kept that law because he would rather do that than anything else.
00:48:42.360 | So if you are running from the law of God under some misconception of your spiritual
00:48:49.320 | condition, if you're fleeing from that, you need what David needed - a new heart, a new
00:48:57.640 | spirit, a new creation.
00:49:04.700 | So Paul's ministry was to destroy fortresses, and then to take prisoner those who had been
00:49:17.080 | liberated and make them obedient to Christ.
00:49:21.120 | In fact, it's so basic, it's so clearly the point that Jesus said, "Why do you call me
00:49:32.680 | Lord?
00:49:35.120 | Not do what I say."
00:49:36.120 | It's completely inconsistent.
00:49:41.060 | So let's take a look just in wrapping up 2 Corinthians chapter 10 again.
00:49:53.360 | How did Paul approach this ministry?
00:49:55.960 | We'll just touch lightly on it.
00:49:58.880 | First of all, he was compassionate.
00:50:00.680 | If you're going to be confronting people with their obedience or their disobedience, you
00:50:10.080 | find here a model for how to do this effectively.
00:50:14.860 | Number one, he was compassionate.
00:50:18.300 | He said, "I urge you" - speaking to the Corinthians with all their issues - "I who am meek when
00:50:26.600 | face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent," being sarcastic in saying that,
00:50:32.380 | because that was the criticism of him.
00:50:34.560 | But you start out, if you're going to call people to obedience, and that's going to be
00:50:40.040 | the direction of your ministry, there needs to be compassion, meekness, and gentleness,
00:50:46.080 | the very meekness and gentleness of Christ.
00:50:50.940 | Some in Corinth saw Paul's meekness and gentleness as weakness.
00:50:56.700 | He responded a little bit with sarcasm, but he had to be compassionate because the Lord
00:51:04.980 | was compassionate.
00:51:05.980 | But he was also courageous, verse 2, "I ask that when I am present, I need not be bold
00:51:14.740 | with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some who regard us as
00:51:20.560 | if we walked according to the flesh."
00:51:23.900 | He is not weak.
00:51:25.460 | He will be bold.
00:51:27.380 | He will be courageous.
00:51:29.580 | He will confront those who are undermining his authority and his ministry, those who
00:51:38.140 | are accusing him of walking in the flesh.
00:51:44.220 | So he kind of had it come in both ways.
00:51:46.500 | If he did nothing, they said he was weak; if he did something, they said he was fleshly.
00:51:51.180 | But the balance is there, and sometimes hard to achieve.
00:51:54.020 | On the one hand, the apostle said, "I can be courageous."
00:51:59.020 | On the other hand, "I can be compassionate," and finding the balance may be a challenge.
00:52:05.020 | Maybe more significantly, he was competent, competent.
00:52:09.980 | In verse 4, "The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful."
00:52:18.340 | If you got into an argument with the apostle Paul, if you were confronted by the apostle
00:52:23.260 | Paul, to do battle with Paul was to do battle with a man who had a massive arsenal of divine
00:52:29.300 | truth at his disposal.
00:52:32.060 | You didn't want to engage with him without realizing that your human arguments couldn't
00:52:40.720 | withstand the power of Paul's divine weapons.
00:52:47.380 | So he says, "In ministry I have been compassionate; I have been, when I needed to be, courageous.
00:52:55.700 | I am competent in wielding the truth with such effectiveness that it has destroyed the
00:53:04.460 | fortresses."
00:53:08.020 | Just two other thoughts here.
00:53:10.360 | He was committed, verse 6, "We are ready to punish all disobedience."
00:53:16.980 | Again, this is such an interesting statement, as if the pastor is to be the one inflicting
00:53:27.120 | punishment.
00:53:30.540 | But for the sake of the purity of the church, Paul would do that, did do that.
00:53:36.640 | So he was compassionate, he was courageous, he was competent.
00:53:42.560 | He was committed.
00:53:43.640 | He was ready to punish all disobedience.
00:53:46.720 | And one final note, he was cautious.
00:53:50.600 | He says in verse 6 at the end that punishment would occur whenever your obedience is complete.
00:53:58.480 | What are you waiting for?
00:54:01.280 | I'm waiting for the obvious, meaning all who are obedient are known.
00:54:08.200 | So what he is saying is, "The people who are obedient don't need to be punished.
00:54:13.320 | The people who are not obedient, they're the ones that need to be dealt with."
00:54:21.360 | He would put them to the test.
00:54:22.360 | If we had time, you can go through chapters 10 through 13 where he talks even more about
00:54:28.760 | that.
00:54:29.880 | So his pastoral ministry was about this issue.
00:54:34.240 | "I will be compassionate to you until I can't be, and I have to be courageous.
00:54:40.680 | And when the conflict comes, you will have to face the weapons of divine truth for your
00:54:46.840 | misdeeds, your rebellion.
00:54:53.440 | And I'm committed to do whatever I need to do for the purity of the church.
00:54:59.560 | But not until it's clear who are the obedient ones and who are the disobedient ones."
00:55:07.200 | He would be cautious and careful.
00:55:15.240 | So as we think about the triumph of obedience, I think we have to introduce that back into
00:55:24.920 | the vocabulary of the church.
00:55:30.920 | It's been absent.
00:55:34.520 | Father, we thank You for the time this morning to consider something so basic, so foundational.
00:55:46.800 | Lord, how can we possibly fulfill our calling?
00:55:54.920 | How can we possibly conform a congregation to Christ?
00:56:02.080 | How can we build them to the fullness of the stature of Christ unless, like Him, they become
00:56:10.480 | obedient to You?
00:56:18.040 | It's not complicated.
00:56:21.360 | We don't need to find some mystical path, some meditation or contemplation.
00:56:30.120 | We need to do what Paul said, "I beat my body to bring it into submission."
00:56:39.160 | Lord, give us the strength in Your Spirit to subdue the flesh and obey out of a heart
00:56:52.000 | of love, so full of love, that obedience is our highest joy.
00:57:03.480 | That's our prayer.
00:57:05.240 | In Christ's name.
00:57:06.520 | Amen.
00:57:07.520 | Amen.
00:57:08.040 | Amen.
00:57:09.040 | [applause]
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