Lars Larson Live Stream

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says Romans 14, but we skipped over chapter 13 last week because of the time, and so he'll read for us
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Romans chapter 13. Romans 13.
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Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
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Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment, for rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad.
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Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval, for he is
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God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out
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God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid
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God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.
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Pay to all what is owed them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
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Owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
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For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word.
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You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
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Besides this, you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.
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The night is far gone, the day is at hand, so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
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Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality or sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the
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Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
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Let's pray. Lord, as we read this text, we do recognize that the time is near, that the time to wake from sleep is now.
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And Lord, we thank you that salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. Lord, we pray that we would walk properly, that we would walk in a manner worthy of our calling.
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Help us, Lord, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to make no provision for the flesh. Help us to live in a manner that is pleasing to you.
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We pray, Lord, that we would put off the deeds of the old man, that we would put on the new, that we would be renewed in the spirit of our minds.
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We pray, Lord, that our lives would be characterized by obedience. Help us, Lord, to walk in the same manner of life that Christ walked.
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Help us to follow his example and his pattern. And Lord, as we continue to behold you in the scriptures in our study of John, we pray that things would be clear to us.
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We pray that the Spirit would teach us what the text means and how we can apply it to our lives.
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We pray, Lord, that we would be focused on the word of truth and that you would keep distractions far from us.
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We pray that you would be with Lars and help him speak from his heart. We pray that the truth would go out and that lives would be changed.
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Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, today we want to look at John chapter 14,
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Lord willing, verses 12 through 17. John 14.
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As we continue to consider this passage, we, of course, are reading about our
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Lord's interaction with his apostles prior to his arrest, crucifixion, resurrection.
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His arrest would take place in just perhaps a matter of just a couple of hours from this point.
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We read of his preparing his apostles, his disciples, for their positions of leadership that they would be assuming to advance the kingdom of God in the world.
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Before us today, we may consider our Lord's promise to his apostles of their future success and accomplishments in his service.
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The Lord promised them they would be extremely successful in their service for him. The reason for this is that he was going to his father.
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This would ensure that their fruitfulness in their service. In fact, they would do greater works than he had even done among them, which is hard to even fathom, isn't it?
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He guaranteed them that prayers in his name would be granted them. He announced to them of the soon abiding and empowering work of the
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Holy Spirit that the father would give to them. This is a rich passage which really just introduces matters that we'll be expounding upon more fully as this gospel unfolds.
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And so here is John 14, 12 through 17, and this is from the New King James Version. Jesus spoke, most assuredly
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I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater works than these he will do because I go to my father.
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And whatever you ask in my name that I will do, that the father may be glorified in the son.
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If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.
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If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever.
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The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.
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The outline we will use as we begin to deal with this passage, and we only get partway through.
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Obviously the introduction of the Holy Spirit is going to take some time, and we have plenty of time.
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We don't need to hurry through this. We want to understand the details of this. But here is the outline.
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First, Jesus promises his disciples that they will do greater works than what he had done. Verse 12.
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Secondly, Jesus promises his disciples that their prayers will be answered. Third, Jesus commands his disciples to be obedient and faithful.
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And fourth, Jesus promises that his disciples will be assured and assisted by the
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Holy Spirit. And so as our Lord Jesus announced to his 11 disciples,
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Judas had of course departed from them shortly before, he was returning to his father.
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But he informed them that this would be to their great advantage, not disadvantage. They would not suffer loss by his departure, but rather their service toward him and his kingdom would become tremendously blessed with the results of their being fruitful beyond what they could even imagine.
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And so let's break this down. Jesus promises his disciples that they will do greater works than what he had done.
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Our Lord had just related to his disciples the truth that all the while he had been with them, he had been the revelation of God his father.
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They hadn't recognized it but it was true nevertheless. The words that he had spoken were his father's words.
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The works that he had performed were his father's works. All that Jesus had done, all that he had said, all that he had been before them was a true and full revelation of God the father onto them.
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And this was so because Jesus was in the father and the father was in him. And so as we pointed out last week, our
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Lord Jesus set forth in his words to his disciples both his deity, it must be so if he's in the father and the father is in him, there's only one
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God, but also he's a distinguishable person from his father.
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So in short, Jesus was affirming to them certain truths of what we refer to as the blessed holy trinity.
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At least the two persons, the father and the son are at first mentioned and then of course he brings in the third person of the trinity, the
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Holy Spirit. Then he began to encourage and instruct them with what was before them, that they would carry on his work in marvelous ways that would far surpass their expectations.
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And so verse 12 we read Jesus telling his 11 disciples, most assuredly
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I say to you he who believes in me the works that I do, he will also do in greater works than these he will do because I go to my father.
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Let's consider what he's saying and what he's not saying. Jesus opened with the familiar words, most assuredly
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I say to you. Here's one more example, the example of what we've seen repeatedly in John's gospel.
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John tended to uniquely introduce the most important sayings of Jesus with the
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English words here in the New King James Version, most assuredly. This is the translation of the two
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Greek words, amine, amine, which is translated in the King James Version, barely, barely.
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I think in the ESV it might be truly, truly if I recall. And this double word expression, truly, truly, amine, amine, amine, is found 25 times in John's gospel and believe it or not this is the 22nd occasion we've come across it now in our study.
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There's not many of these remaining. And so Jesus opened his statements to follow with these opening words that J .C.
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Ryle wrote. He commented about our Lord's dealings with his disciples. Here we have another comforting word to the disciples, they must not suppose there would be an end of miraculous works when their master was taken away and that they would be left weak and helpless and unable to do anything to arrest the attention of the unbelieving world.
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On the contrary, our Lord assures them with two emphatic verily's, there's emphasis here that Jesus was pointing out with what he was declaring that miracles would not cease with his departure.
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He would take care that believers should have power to do works like his own and to confirm their word by signs following.
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And then Jesus said the following, most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me.
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Our Lord again was speaking to 11 disciples but here it would seem he's broadening his audience to all disciples.
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He speaks about the singular he and then the verb is believes it's actually a participle, a present participle and so the emphasis is on a continuing to believe he who is believing in me and so a true believer, a true
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Christian is one who came to faith and continues to believe in Jesus Christ and here he's speaking of what his disciples would see accomplished in the world.
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True believers continue to believe, a temporary believer is not a Christian according to the
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Bible. He then declared the works that I do he will do also.
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Now in the previous verses, verses 10 -11, Jesus had spoken about his works and now
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Jesus speaks about the works of his disciples. Again as one expressed,
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Jesus transitions from the works of the son of God to the works of the children of God. A comparison between the father son and the son children is important to note.
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The father and son are mutually indwelling and interpenetrated whereas the children of God are dependent on the son.
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Moreover the father and the son share the same essence and function whereas the children and the son share only the same function.
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Obviously we're not of the same essence of Jesus. Faith in Christ is not merely a passive act, it is also active, it is to become a participant in the power and mission of God and in some way to share in the ministry of God through Christ.
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And so he caused us to become believers but then he has created us for a purpose and that's service and he would have us to enjoy fruitful service.
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Now Jesus then said greater works than these he will do.
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This is an amazing statement when you read about all that Jesus did in the
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Gospels, the four Gospels, all the miracles he performed. It's important to recognize that the comparison contrast is not actually between his works and the works of believers who came after him.
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The greater works would be done because of him and because he was going to the father. And so it's not like a contrast between his works and their works, his works and their works because he is going to enable them to do these things because he's going to the father.
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And so because the father would give them the gift of the Holy Spirit in answer to Jesus' prayer the works that they will do will be greater than what they had done and what they had witnessed having been done by our
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Lord Jesus during his earthly ministry. And we might ask the question again how can this possibly be when one considers all that is recorded of Jesus doing?
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How could the disciples have done greater works? Matthew Henry wrote of these greater works
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I think in a suitable way. Two things he Jesus assures them of first that they should be enabled to do such works as he had done and that they should have a more ample power for doing of them than they had had when he first sent them forth.
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Speaks about their short term missionary journey when he empowered them to perform miracles.
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Did Christ heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead? So should they.
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Did he convince and convert sinners and draw multitudes to him? So should they.
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Though he should depart the work should not cease nor fall to the ground but should be carried on as vigorously and successfully as ever and it is still in the doing.
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But secondly that they should do greater works than these and then
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Matthew Henry describes this. In the kingdom of nature they should do greater miracles.
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No miracle is little but some to our apprehension seem greater than others.
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Christ had healed with the hem of his garment but Peter with his shadow. Paul by the handkerchief that had touched him.
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Christ wrought miracles for two or three years in one country but his followers wrought miracles in his name for many ages in diverse countries.
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You should do greater works if there be occasion for the glory of God the prayer of faith if at any time it had been necessary and apparently it's never been necessary would have removed mountains.
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You have faith the size of a mustard seed. And then secondly in the kingdom of grace so first he talks about the kingdom of nature and now the kingdom of grace they should obtain greater victories by the gospel than had been obtained while Christ was upon earth.
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The truth is the captivating of so great a part of the world to Christ under such outward disadvantages was the miracle of all.
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They took the gospel to the entire world didn't they? And their enemies could declare in the book of Acts not long after this the whole world is turned upside down because of them.
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Now understand that this is not a promise that everyone who is a true disciple will do these greater works.
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I certainly never have have you? I kind of doubt it. But it is declaring that as he the
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Lord works through his people because they're empowered by the Holy Spirit that these greater works would be accomplished.
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And looking back over church history this has been realized. Understanding this verse is similar to the way that we understand the statement of our
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Lord in Mark 16 which is troublesome to some. There it's declared these signs will follow those who believe in my name.
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They will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues or languages. They will take up serpents or deadly snakes.
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And if they drink anything deadly it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
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And we might ask ourselves well I don't see that happening among our churches today. But this was not a statement to say that all believers would perform these great signs.
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Rather it stated that these signs would follow those who believe. And we would argue that they have.
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Look down through church history and these kinds of things that followed disciples of Jesus Christ.
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The apostles cast out demons. The apostle Paul was bitten by a poisonous snake
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I believe on the island of Malta but was unharmed. And there are stories about some of the apostles they could be just you know apocryphal surviving being forced to drink poison.
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And they are found in early Christian literature outside the Bible according to one commentator.
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And so these miraculous things followed believers. And so the same things could be said of these greater works.
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We look over church history and these have been seen particularly in the apostolic age.
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However there are many today in evangelicalism namely those, our charismatic friends, our
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Pentecostal friends, the word of faith movement and those who advocate the name it and claim it kind of Christianity call upon this verse and others like it to argue their views and practices that they perform greater miracles than Jesus did.
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It's quite a claim. Here's the opinion of J .C. Ryle who wrote at the end of the 19th century and we believe it's true today.
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I cannot doubt that this promise refers to the miraculous gifts which the first generation of Christians had power to exercise.
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As we read everywhere in the Acts of the Apostles that the sick were healed, the dead raised, devils cast out by disciples after the
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Lord ascended is quite plain. And this fulfilled the words now before us.
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I can see no reason to suppose that our Lord meant the promise to be fulfilled after the generation he left on earth was dead.
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In other words after the apostolic age. We have no right to expect miracles now.
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He's not saying that miracles don't take place now we have no right to expect them. God can do whatever he wants to do.
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He answers prayer in miraculous ways at times but we have no right to expect them now.
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If miracles were continually in the church they'd cease to be miracles wouldn't they? By definition.
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We never see them in the Bible except at some great crisis in the church's history such as the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, Moses' miracles.
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The Irvinite theory that the church would always have miraculous gifts if men only had faith seems to me a violent straining of the text.
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In Ryle's writing at the end of the 19th century and he was referring to Edward Irvin. I mentioned him recently.
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He was a very popular preacher in London back when there were a lot of big preachers in London.
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But he always advocated that he was going to be an end time witness and that during his ministry
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God was going to restore the miraculous revelatory gifts to his people.
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Speaking in tongues and the gifts of healing and revelations that kind of thing.
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He was the one who went up to Scotland and interviewed that teenage Scottish girl who claimed to have a vision that the church would not go through the tribulation that the second coming of Christ would be in two stages.
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A rapture and seven years later the second coming and Irvin took that teaching down to London and popularized it among his people and then also the
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Plymouth Brethren and that's how it eventually came to the states and now of course it's the most popular position held among sincere evangelicals.
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But Edward Irvin his declaration seemed to come true or so he thought people began to claim to have
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God speaking through them and so they would stand up in church service, interrupt his preaching. He was a great preacher I understand, had thousands in attendance.
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But a man would stand up, a woman would stand up, I have a word from the Lord. Or they'd speak in a supposed unknown heavenly language and someone would interpret and so basically
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Irvin would stop. The preaching of the word of God came to be viewed as secondary and less important because they were getting a real live word directly from God rather than this word from a two thousand year old book.
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And over the course of some months Irvin lost his ministry, his health was broken, he traveled off to Wales, he died a sick and broken man.
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But even to the end he thought God was going to raise him up and he was going to be one of the end time witnesses before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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That's what Ryle is referring to here, this Irvinite theory that somehow if people have faith we're going to see the same kind of miracles that are evidenced by the apostles in the apostolic age and we would reject that idea.
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The disciples of course after the resurrection of Christ in Pentecost saw in a very few months far greater works accomplished than even their
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Savior had achieved during his three years of ministry. And so F .F.
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Bruce who was a twentieth century commentator, I really like him, particularly his commentary on Hebrews, he wrote these words, his promise indeed came true in the first few months after his death and resurrection many more men and women became his followers through their witness than had done so during his personal ministry in Galilee and Judea.
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Remember the results of Jesus' ministry, there were a hundred and twenty disciples in Jerusalem just before Pentecost.
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Everybody else had forsaken him. But in short order Jerusalem was filled with disciples.
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The disciples knew that in themselves they were quite incapable of any such achievement but he went on to tell them of the coming of the paraclete, that's the
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Greek word for holy spirit, comforter, who would empower them and make their witness effective.
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The greater works of which he now spoke to them would still be his own works accomplished no longer by his visible presence among them but by his spirit within them and it was only by his going to the father that the paraclete would come to them.
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And that's going to be expressed and revealed in great detail in the next few chapters of John's gospel.
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And then he declared again the reason why they would do greater works because I go to my father.
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When Jesus rose from the dead he ascended into heaven and the father seated him at his right hand, the position of authority and power,
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Jesus is lord of lords, king of kings. Of course in his divine nature
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Jesus Christ was returning to enjoy the glory that he had with the father from eternity and later in John 17 when we read our lord's prayer to his father he expressed in verse 5, now father glorify me in your presence with the glory
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I had with you before the world existed, that's Jesus Christ in his divine nature.
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But upon Jesus' return to his glorious throne with respect to his divine nature, this divine nature of course was forever joined but separate from his human nature, our nature that he derived from his mother
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Mary. And so when the eternal son of God assumed a human nature came to the earth, lived, ministered, died, when he went back he went back not identical to the way he came.
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He came down as each of the eternal son of God, he went back as the God man.
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There's a man seated on the throne of God ruling over history even now.
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That's critically important as Christians that we understand that and that we believe that.
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Jesus has since his exaltation been able to bring his power to be with and upon his disciples as they continue to do his works in the world.
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He's one of us and we belong to him and he empowers us.
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Through his divine nature of course nothing has denied him that he acts of his father and because of his human nature he's one with us, he can take from the father, receive from the father and give it fully to us.
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He's our mediator, everything that we receive from the father comes through him because I go to my father.
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Well secondly then we see in verses 13 and 14 Jesus promises his disciples that their prayers will be answered.
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Jesus said to his disciples whatever you ask in my name that I will do that the father may be glorified in the son if you ask anything in my name
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I will do it. Now there are some verses which some
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Christians tend to give more attention and focus and this is certainly one of them. They see this is an unlimited promise of the
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Lord for you to obtain whatever you desire from the Lord if you but ask in his name.
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They might take this verse couple it with others that bolster this idea of God and his dealings with his people like Matthew 21, 22 is often cited, whatever things you ask in prayer believe and you will receive and this along with Mark 11, 24 is perceived really to seal the deal.
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Jesus said therefore I say to you whatever things you ask when you pray believe that you receive them and you will have them and so with these verses in hand bolstered by faith in what
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Jesus promised, I put faith in quotation marks, Christians name it and claim it and many self -proclaimed preachers proclaim this so -called promise to their people and by the way if and when these requests to God do not come to pass it's an easy out to conclude or assert you didn't have enough faith.
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That's a dynamic of course that takes place all over the world. But this approach and use of these verses is ill -founded.
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The context in which these verses are found are often ignored for they are lifted out and used to bear weight that the
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Lord never intended for them. For example consider the context of our passage, the verse in the context of John 14.
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The verse reads and whatever you ask in my name that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the
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Son. If you ask anything in my name I will do it. But our
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Lord's words were in the context of his assurance to his disciples. Most assuredly
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I say to you he who believes in me the works I do he will do also greater works than these he will do because I go to my father.
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He was speaking to his disciples about their work for the kingdom after he had gone to be with his father.
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He was promising them that they would accomplish great and amazing works for the kingdom further in the gospel of Christ because he was going to the
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Father. The context of our Lord's words whatever you ask in my name is not a blank check for whatever you ask but a word of assurance that whatever the disciples needed and desired in order to do the same works he had done and works even of greater sort whatever they needed to accomplish these works they would ask the
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Father in his name and they could be assured that he would do it. You can't just take the verse out of its context and then generalize it to everything.
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It's within the context of the disciples and the work that they were going to be doing further in the kingdom.
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One of my commentaries I regularly consult of the gospel of John he has theological notes interspersed and he has one on this matter,
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Edward Clank, he's a professor down at Biola University in Southern California I believe and he has this little theological note, does
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God give us whatever we ask? It is unfortunate that many use 14, 13, and 14 as an unconditional pledge that every believer's prayer of whatever content will be heard and answered by God and yet the language must be understood in the immediate context.
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Two things can be stated in this regard, first the point is not to suggest that the believer has a new and more powerful resource in God but that Jesus is not withdrawing from them by his departure but in fact by means of his departure is even more present and more powerfully so and second the kind of prayers believers should ask is also presented by this statement, they should pray in a manner befitting the mission of God, notice the works in verse 12, and the character of God denoted by his name in verse 13.
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Prayers expecting results outside of these parameters are not prayers at all but commands and are outside the bounds of the disciple of Jesus Christ.
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This final promise is not about the pursuit of self -seeking permission from God but is an invitation to participate in the fullness of life in God through Christ by the
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Spirit. So when a Christian prays then they are agreed to trust not only in God's sovereign and authoritative resources but also in God's perfect and providential results.
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What makes the prayer Christian and not pagan is that God is not used to fulfill the desires of the person who prays and that's what you have in so much so -called
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Christendom. It's not Christian praying, it's pagan praying when you're asking just to consume it on your own lusts as the
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Bible describes it. But rather the person who prays submits his or her will to both the power and purpose of God.
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A Christian prayer is a paradox in that it seeks from God what one simultaneously surrenders to God.
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Asking from God therefore is also a letting go. It is letting God be
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God over all things even the things we want or need the most.
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But again what people do is they take this verse and they lift it from the context and then they generalize it.
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And that's not the way you read and interpret the Bible. And yes
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God invites us to pray. Pray for the things you need. Pray for the things you desire.
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But it's wrong to take a promise that is direct and limited in scope and make some kind of claim before God that he's under obligation to answer your prayer as you dictate to him as though you're in control.
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And that's often how it's presented. Command God. He'll do it is often the kind of message that's proclaimed and that's not good.
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Not biblical. It's not healthy. And it's going to result in a lot of disillusionment frankly.
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Now let's consider the individual phrases and clauses of this verse. Jesus said whatever you ask in my name.
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What is it to ask or pray in Jesus' name? It is to pray to God the
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Father as if Jesus were praying to his Father. You're praying on behalf of Jesus.
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For the sake of Jesus. For the cause of Jesus. If something is asked for in Jesus' name the request is probably viewed as addressed to the
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Father. Now that's an assumption. The Father denies nothing to the Son and a request made in the
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Son's name is treated as if the Son made it. That's the point. Do you pray that way?
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Jesus declared in another place. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly truly
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I say to you whatever you ask of the Father in my name he will give it to you. Until now you've asked nothing in my name.
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Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. To ask in Jesus' name is also to pray to the
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Father on behalf of the concerns, interests and desires of Jesus. We're asking the
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Father to do something for Jesus. For his sake. And then
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Jesus declared that I will do. It's not absolutely clear in this verse whether the prayer is to be offered directly to the
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Father or to the Son. It's not wrong to pray to Jesus. In fact
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I noticed, did you notice when we were singing that hymn a little bit earlier, Jesus shall reign. The beginning of the second stanza of the verse,
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I forget the exact words, but to him continual prayers are offered. Talking about Jesus.
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Offering prayers to Jesus in that hymn. It's not real clear here whether it's addressed to the
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Father or the Son. It's okay to pray to the Son. But even when we pray to the
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Father the content of that prayer is for the furtherance of the name of Jesus. And he declared, he promised, this
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I will do. And the reason, the purpose for this, thirdly so that the
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Father may be glorified in the Son. The primary and ultimate end is the glorification of God the
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Father in the Son. God the Father glorifies his Son, but in doing so the
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Son glorifies the Father. And here to glorify, what does it mean to glorify God?
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We don't add to God's glory. He's infinite in glory. You can't add to infinity, can you? So what does it mean to give glory to God?
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Well to glorify God is to enable others to see God for who he is and lead them to value and appreciate
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God for who he is. That's what it is to glorify God. And so when
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God is working through us to further his word and works, as a result our perception and our appreciation of God truly is increased, then
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God is being glorified to us and in us. That's what it is to glorify
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God, to enlarge our understanding of just how great he is.
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And not just our understanding, but to stir our hearts with devotion for how great he is.
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And that's what we try and do when we glorify God, to increase our understanding and enlarge our appreciation.
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And we attempt not only that in ourselves as individuals, but we attempt to do that, bring that about in the lives and thinking of other people about us.
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And that's what it is to glorify God. And the
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Lord Jesus said he would do that, so that the Father would be glorified in the
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Son. And then as if to add additional certainty to his promise to his disciples, we read our
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Lord's further words, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. Again, it's not clear whether the
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Father is directly asked or if it's Jesus to whom the prayer is offered, but again, most commonly the
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Christian prays to the Father. Jesus taught his disciples when to pray, when you do pray, pray in this manner, our
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Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Leon Morris, who died not that long ago, 14 years ago, addressed this in his commentary.
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As the subject is prayer, it's probably more natural that we should think of the Father as the object. We expect the same to be true of this verse.
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However, the true text appears to be, if ye shall ask anything in my name, the prayer may be addressed to the
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Son as well as to the Father. But it's still in my name. The basic condition is the same.
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Some object to the idea of praying to Christ in his own name, but there is good Old Testament precedent for this and that the
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Father is appealed to for his name's sake. As in the previous verse, the prayer will be answered by Christ himself.
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Indeed, there is some emphasis in this, in this verse. And then we read in verse 15, where Jesus commands his disciples to be obedient and faithful.
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Jesus declared in verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. The great desire and goal of the
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Christian is to order his or her life in righteousness. And by definition, righteousness is a life lived according to the law of God, the commandments of God.
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Paul summarized the nature of the Christian life in 1 Corinthians 7, for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision but keeping the commandments of God.
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That's what matters in your life. That's what it is to live as a Christian, to keep the commandments of God, to order your life according to the law of God.
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And so here again, Jesus said to his disciples, if you love me, keep my commandments.
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And so here we have a couple of very important matters set forth. First we see that love for Christ should be the motivation for obedience to God's love, to obedience to God's laws.
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Love for Christ. Even in the times of the Old Testament, in the days of Moses, love for God was to be the motivation for keeping the law of God.
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Back in Exodus, it talks about the second commandment. And God speaks of his blessing upon those who love me and keep my commandments.
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People who love God keep his commandments. Deuteronomy 11, for if you be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the
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Lord your God, walking in all his ways and holding fast to him, we are to keep the commandments of God because we love him.
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And so frequently throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, loving the
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Lord is connected with keeping his commandments and walking in his ways. Now it's very important we understand what is the right motivation for keeping
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God's laws or commandments. This is extremely important. We are to obey
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God's commandments because we love God. This motivation for obedience is sometimes described by the term evangelical obedience.
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Obedience coupled with the gospel. Evangelical obedience. Evangelical obedience is often contrasted with the great error of legal obedience.
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There's evangelical obedience, there's legal obedience. Legal obedience is the desire and motivation to obey
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God's commandments due to fear of God's punishment rather than due to love for God. Legal obedience is enslaving and powerless to transform a person or to characterize a person as one who is holy before the
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Lord. Legal obedience does not produce a result in sanctification.
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When we are converted to Christ, we are to shift our understanding from our desire and motivation for obedience to God's commandments.
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We are to obey God because we love God but further we obey God for this is what it is to love
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God. How do you love God? You keep his commandments. Not because you have warm fuzzy feelings about Jesus when you think about him.
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You love God by keeping his commandments. It's what you do. Too many
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Christians still cling however to a sense of legal obedience rather than evangelical obedience and they'll continue in misery and defeat as long as they do.
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But when we're saved from our sin through the love of God manifested to us by the grace of God and Jesus Christ, we are to embrace the spirit of evangelical obedience.
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Pastor Jason's study of the law of God on Wednesday evening began this last Wednesday night. He gave a handout which shows the contrast between evangelical obedience and legal obedience and it's from the classic
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Puritan book by Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom. What is the limit of Christian freedom?
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And Bolton shows it's the law of God, the commandments of God. We have freedom within the realm of doing what pleases
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God and obeys God is what he's basically saying. But in this book, he contrasts evangelical obedience and legal obedience and I thought it would be helpful for us just to consider these two paragraphs.
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Previously, and what he meant is before conversion, the principles of obedience were legal and servile.
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You better do it or you're going to be damned. That was God's commandment to sinners.
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The day you eat of that tree is the day you die. In threats of judgment, obey because of fear of consequences.
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But now they are filial. That is an old English adjective meaning it has to do with the family.
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You obey God because he's your father. That's what he's saying. Filial and evangelical, in other words having to do with the gospel.
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As the law was given with evangelical purposes originally, so it is now kept from evangelical principles.
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Principles of faith, love and delight which causes the soul to obey and facilitates the whole of obedience.
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The love of Christ constrains yet is the obedience free.
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In other words because we want to even though the love of Christ constrains us and compels us and pushes us.
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It's not dragging us, it's compelling us. We want to love God and keep his commandments.
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Love knows no difficulties. Things impossible to others are easy to them that love. The grounds of obedience differ heretofore, in other words up to conversion fear.
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Now after conversion love. Previously the strength was our own. Now we have fellowship with the strength of Christ.
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Our works are said to be wrought in God by union with him and by fellowship with him. As we can do nothing without him so we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
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And this strength he has promised. The Lord hath vouched thee this day to be as peculiar people as he hath promised thee that thou shouldest keep all his commandments.
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He tells us that he works all our works in us and for us. The required works of grace in us and duty for us.
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The ends before, in other words the desired outcome before were for justification and life.
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People try and keep the law in order to come right with God, in order to earn eternal life. That's how we thought before conversion.
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Now they are for other ends. We don't keep the law in order to be saved. That's heresy, that's legalism.
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But rather now to glorify God and to dignify the gospel. Our obedience beautifies the gospel witness that we give forth, doesn't it?
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It adds weight to our witness. He's not just preaching to me, he's living it before me.
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There's weight to that. And so to dignify the gospel, to declare our sincerity, to express our thankfulness.
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Before, before conversion we obeyed but out of compulsion of conscience. I feel guilty if I don't.
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Now we obey out of the promptings of nature. It's natural for us now.
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I'm not saying it's easy for us now, but it's natural for us now. He's put that within our souls, our hearts.
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As naturally as stones move downward, in other words rocks fall downhill, and sparks of fire fly upward, thus then it is that we preach the law, not in opposition to but in subordination to the gospel as we shall show at length later.
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And then he shows the true bounds of Christian freedom, how the law of God continues to direct and guide the believer, but not in a legal obedience but an evangelical obedience.
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The problem is the world, the worldly Christians and ignorant Christians, whenever you talk about following or obeying the law, they wrongly accuse you and think you're a legalist.
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But that's errant. We obey the commandments because we love God. And Jesus declared, if you love me, keep my commandments.
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And so here we see that the motivation for keeping the law of God should be for love of God.
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For love of Christ. Top of page 8 in your notes, Bolton went on to write, and again forgive me for this little longer quote, but I think it's helpful for us.
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Lastly under this head, let me exhort you all to judge of the law a right, and then let it be your care to maintain it.
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You can fall back into this legal obedience kind of thinking. Let not
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Moses take the place of Christ. Don't go back to the law as a covenant of works, but see the law under Christ.
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But at the same time, make a right use of Moses. It still has application for us. When works and obedience take their right place, when the law is rightly used, then it is holy, just and good.
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That's a quotation from Paul in Romans 7. But if you use it as our life, in other words, if you think keeping the law is what's going to save your soul and bring you eternal life, then we trample the blood of Christ underfoot and make his life and death in vain.
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Let the servant follow the master. Let Moses follow Christ. The law follows grace.
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Obedience follows faith. I'm adding the words for clarification. Then all act their proper and design parts.
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Remember what Zachariah said, you were deemed that you might serve, that you might live unto him that died for you.
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Reason from mercy, God's mercy in Christ, to duty, not from mercy to liberty.
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Hey, I've got God's mercy. It doesn't matter how I live now. I'm not under the law. It doesn't matter what I do, what
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I think, how I live. He's saying don't go there. Oh, beware that the great things of Christ do not make you more careless.
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Take heed not to abuse mercy. It's a sad thing when Christians abuse the grace of Christ.
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The justice of God prevails with others. Oh, but God would have his tender mercies prevail with you.
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I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
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The reasonings of saints or Christians are to be from engagements of mercy to engagements in duty.
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Having such precious promises, let us purge ourselves from all corruptions of the flesh and spirit.
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Again, paraphrasing Paul, none but venomous spirits will spider -like suck poison from such sweets or draw such inferences from mercy as may be encouragements to sin.
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It would be a sad matter if believers should grow more slack and sluggish, if that which should quicken them slackens their hands.
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If a man should say in his heart, Christ died, I need not pray so much. Christ had done all, therefore
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I need do nothing. The doctrine we advance should strengthen and not weaken your engagement to duty, should heighten and not lessen your engagement to duty.
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It should quicken and not deaden your heart's affections. It should inflame and not cool your spirits.
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It's a wonderful book and it's free online, by the way. I have it at home.
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If anybody wants a copy, just send me an email and I'll send it to you. Well, not only should love for Christ be the motivation for obeying, but secondly and very similarly, true love for Christ is seen or evidence in obedience to the commandments.
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In fact, keeping God's commandments is how we love God and others. Oftentimes, Christians wrongly set love as opposite and contrary to God's law and that is not right, that is wrong.
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The way you love others is you order your relationships according to the law of God and the scriptures speak about this.
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John wrote in 1 John, by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.
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This is one of the ways of gaining assurance of salvation. I keep
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God's commandments, not perfectly, nobody does, but the commandments of the
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Lord govern my life. Why? I must know him is the right conclusion, that's evidence of salvation.
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Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar. You say you love
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God but you go through life a liar, a thief, an adulterer, a covetous person, you're angry because of what
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God hasn't given you and you're not content with what God has given you or not given you, you don't keep his commandments,
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I think you ought to seriously consider whether you really know the Lord. But whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected and by this we know that we are in him.
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And so the way that you love God is through obeying God. Those who claim to love
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God but refuse to obey God are deceiving themselves. They do not love and are not loving
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God. John wrote this is love that we walk according to his commandments and this is the commandment just as you've heard from the beginning that you should walk in it.
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And again everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, everyone who loves the
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Father loves whoever has been born of him, a true Christian loves other Christians because they're
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Christians. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments.
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Loving God and obedience go hand in hand. And the way we love
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God is by obeying his commandments, his law. The way that we love others is by ordering and governing our relationships according to the law of God, the commandments of God.
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And particularly the second tablet of the two tablets on which the ten commandments are written.
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We love our parents, the fifth commandment, by honoring and obeying them.
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We love our family members and others by not hating them, which is in accordance with the sixth commandment, thou shalt not murder.
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We love our spouses and others by maintaining marital fidelity, not transgressing the seventh commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery.
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We love our neighbors and even strangers by not stealing from them, but rather promoting their well -being and happiness, which is in accordance with the eighth commandment, thou shalt not steal.
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We love others by not denigrating their name, running them down before others, but rather attempting to build their reputation in the eyes of others, which is a working out of the ninth commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.
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And we love others by not being envious or jealous of them, but truly desiring and delighting in their good fortune, even as we are content with what
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God has given us and has determined not to give us, which is the fulfillment of the ten commandments, thou shalt not covet your neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.
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And so the law of God is a reflection of God's holy character. He sent forth the way of life, the way of blessing for all mankind through his law.
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Would it not be a wonderful thing, I thought, you know, with the events of the last weeks in D .C., if everybody in D .C.
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ordered their lives and actions and reactions according to the law of God? Of course, only grace can enable us to do so.
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And then we see, and we need to close with this because of the time. I knew we weren't going to get to the end. I guess that's okay.
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The laws of God are Christ's laws. He describes them as my commandments.
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But there's a common objection to Christians viewing the law of God, the commandments of God, as the rule of life for believers.
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They say when Jesus spoke of my commandments, he is referring to something else other than the ten commandments.
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My commandments. They'll say we keep the law of Christ, which is only understood as the law of love.
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And they say Christ's commandments are different than God's commandments, the ten commandments.
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And this is how they deal. We're not under law but under grace. And therefore we are to look to the law of Christ, not the law of Moses, as a rule of life.
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That might sound okay on the surface, but it's not. And to show you how common this error is,
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I got a letter this week, anonymous. I get these once in a while in the mail.
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I assume it's a radio listener who must have been reacting to a radio program when we're emphasizing the role of the law of God to guide the believer in how he or she should live.
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And what it was was a declaration and a setting forth of 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter.
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And the argument was since there's all kinds of commandments and laws throughout the whole
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Bible, but it's all distilled in this love one another, and therefore we need to understand what 1 Corinthians 13 is.
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I know what he was trying to say. He was trying to set aside all the thou shalt nots.
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And as long as you have love, you're keeping the commandments of God. And that's just not biblical.
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1 Corinthians 13 described the Lord Jesus, right? The Lord Jesus ordered his life according to the commandments of God.
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1 Corinthians 13 is the way a person living according to the law of God relates to other people.
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The way you love others is you order your life and your relationships according to the law of God.
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And that's how Jesus lived. The law of God is not contrary to the Christian life. The law of God is what directs us in the
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Christian life, is empowered by King Jesus, who gives us the Holy Spirit, who gives us the power and the ability to do so.
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If you want to become Christ -like, you need to conform your life to the law of God.
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You can't do so by looking directly to the law of God. You've got to see the law of God through Christ, who alone can give you the
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Holy Spirit to enable you to do that. You take the law away from Christ and look to the law itself, just between you and Christ, you're going to fall into that trap of legal obedience, which is a dead end.
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Now we advocate evangelical obedience. The great problem or failure is to see the third use of the law.
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We're not going to go over it, but I set it forth in your notes, particularly on the bottom of page 9. There's three uses of the law set forth in the
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Bible. God gave the law as a mirror to reveal your sin to you. Look into the law, and what do you see?
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You see your sin. And then secondly, the law of God is intended to restrain evil, because when you see the consequences of breaking the law, there is a measure of restraint, isn't there?
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You know, you don't do something because you know the consequences. And even unbelievers, the law of God will restrain them in a measure, otherwise we would have total, total lawlessness.
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We're moving in that direction anyway. And then third, the third use of the law, the law reveals what is pleasing to God.
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God the Father is pleased with Jesus because he was always obedient to him, always submitted to him, and Jesus did so out of love for his
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Father, and that's how we ought to be. Love for our Father, an attempt and a desire to conform our ways to his ways that he has set forth in his word.
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The entire Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, and of course we realize that although he's put the desire within us when we were converted, the only way we can do so is when he gives us the power to do so by giving us the
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Holy Spirit. And so we pray for the Lord, give us the Holy Spirit afresh, fill us with the
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Holy Spirit to rekindle in me the right desires and motivation, as well as the power, the ability to do the things that I know
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I should do and want to do. And that's how we're to live the Christian life.
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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for the words of Jesus that we have before us.
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Help us, our Lord, to see these things rightly and clearly and order our lives accordingly.
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Forgive us, our God, when we fall into that dead -end trap of legal obedience.
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Help us, our God, to desire and seek to obey you because we love you. And help us, our
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God, to order our relationships according to your commandments. For we know this is the way you would have us live.
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This is what pleases you. And this is the way your Son, our Savior, lived his life.
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And we'll thank you, our God, when we see the results. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.