Christ and the Law - Part I

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 5:17-18

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Well, it's good to good to be back. I Was was thankful that Brian came last
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Lord's Day to preach on thankfulness out of some 100 I thought it's very fitting in a lot of ways for one of the points that we'll make toward the end of this morning
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Well as we're continuing on and and the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 We're now heading to verses 17 and following which happened to be ranked among the most difficult
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Not only in the Matthew in the gospel of Matthew, but also in the whole New Testament and so I approach these verses with great trepidation and humility and Admit up front.
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There's very little we'll be able to accomplish today this will be Perhaps a glance a skate across the surface of laying down some building blocks
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It will be necessary for the next several weeks as we work through verses 17 through 20
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And so in Matthew 5 we have seen the the beatitudes that frame out what it means to be a
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Denizen of the kingdom of Christ what it means to be a true disciple He spoke to his disciples these blessings these beatitudes and then we considered over the past several weeks what it means for these disciples who are blessed in these ways to be the salt and the light of the world and Part of that as we pick up from verse 14 the following is
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Jesus says to let the light shine before men so that they may see the good works and Glorify the
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Father who's in heaven So we we have a bridge beginning really in verse 16 as we begin to talk about good works
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We're approaching this matter of righteousness of the law and really what begins in verse 17 as sort of the entrance?
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Into all that follows in the remainder of chapter 5 there's some one interpreter
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Johan Tom who argues that righteousness is in fact the Central theme of the whole Sermon on the Mount and he makes a pretty careful argument to sustain that I think he's probably right
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Righteousness is something that comes up in many different ways And so when we're looking at verses 17 and 18 as we approach the law
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We recognize it's very much carrying all of the blessings and that which is descriptive of the disciples of Jesus Christ Toward now how these disciples live and act testifying as salt and light the good works that will accord with God's law
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This is what it means to have light This is what it looks like to live as salt and he'll begin to unpack righteousness in some surprising ways
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We'll come up to a series of antitheses that begin in verse 21 and carry through to verse 48 you've heard of old but I tell you
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And here we see that Jesus main concern is that he's not Misunderstood as presenting something entirely different or separate from what has come before him indeed
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The law and the prophets lay down all that he will elaborate all that he will come to fulfill
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And so his hearers perhaps gathered around him as they are now encountering this teaching of the kingdom
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They may be tempted to think that he's presenting a new righteousness or an alternative righteousness
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But Jesus is clarifying here beginning in verse 17 The righteousness that he speaks of is not opposed to the law or the prophets
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In fact, they bear witness to it for they bear witness to him Who is the substance of the law and the prophets all of the promises of God finding there?
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Yes, and amen in Christ Jesus, and so he bears out the true implications of it
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This is this is what will sustain us for months to come And so we're not going to accomplish as much as I would want or perhaps as you would want this morning
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But let's pick up where we left off. I'll pick up in verse 14. We'll move forward from there All I want to accomplish today is simply to put down a couple bookmarks in verses 17 to 18 and Then and for application
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I want to introduce something of the distinction between the law and the gospel This is very vital and it will be vital as we continue on in chapter 5
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And so part of what we'll do is we'll consider the difference between obeying the law legally Versus obeying the law
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Evangelically or what's called gospel obedience very helpful. Very practical very crucial to what's ahead so picking up in verse 14 you are the light of the world a
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City that is set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket But on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house
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Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven
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Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill
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For assuredly I say to you till heaven and earth pass away One jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled
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So begin here in verse 17 do not think I came to destroy the law or the prophets
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The Gospels often speak of the law and the prophets or Moses and the prophets
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Even here where law is somewhat distinguished from the prophets It's the only place here in Matthew's gospel where we have the the phrase the law or the prophets
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We can still view this as a shorthand reference to the Torah as a whole toward the law as a whole you see that just by looking at verse 18
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Not one jot or tittle will pass from the law now He's just simply using the law as shorthand to speak of the entirety of God's revelation up to that point
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So this is a description of the scriptures of the people of God the Old Testament Sometimes the whole
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Old Testament can be referred to simply as the law It's clearly the way that law is used for instance in John 10 34 when
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Jesus asks Is it not written in your law and then he proceeds to quote? Psalm 82 he doesn't actually quote the first five books of Moses What would perhaps in a restrictive view be understood as the law?
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Or again 1st Corinthians 14 21 we find the law being descriptive of Isaiah 28 or in Romans 3 19 the law
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Never actually brings up anything from Deuteronomy or Leviticus. It actually is a cacophony of prophets and Psalms and So Jesus says do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets and again
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He's clarifying that though his teaching on the kingdom is radical to his hearers
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He's not abolishing or putting away the scriptures of old In fact, everything he seeks to do has already been made clear by Matthew's references to the
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Old Testament up to chapter 5 As you're reading Matthew's gospel How often do you come across a citation from the
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Old Testament and Matthew's explanation? This was done that the scripture might be fulfilled saying
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And so Matthew's already introduced us to this idea of promise fulfillment of Old Testament pattern and its realization
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In the person and work of Christ Jesus everything that Jesus is doing is in accordance with the scriptures
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That's the point. He's making don't think I've come to abolish the law or the prophets Everything is done in accordance with the scriptures
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This is what Paul says about the gospel as a whole Paul also One who would reference the law the scriptures of old one who's engaged in writing under inspiration of the
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Spirit That will become the New Testament And when he lays down the gospel that he preaches according to 1st
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Corinthians 15 He says I delivered to you first of all that which I received That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures
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So Paul's looking back at the Old Testament and he's saying this is all in accordance with the scriptures Paul says the gospel hasn't abolished or overturned or somehow become disparate from the
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Old Testament It's all in accordance with it. If you've read the Old Testament rightly, you'll understand exactly what the gospel is proclaiming
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He was buried. He rose again the third day according to the scriptures What scriptures the law?
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or the prophets The entirety of God's revelation which finds its yes and amen in Christ Now you should know that Jesus says he has not come to abolish the law of the prophets
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There's preachers and they're not even the really wonky preachers. Sadly the easily disregarded preachers sadly
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That essentially do abolish the law in the prophets Some of you may remember a number of years ago
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Andy Stanley a very popular preacher Who made the claim that Christians today needed to unhitch his words unhitch from the
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Old Testament We just need to detach from the Old Testament. Let's just kind of pick up from John and never look backward
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Let's just minimize our Bibles down by 60 % and just carry on from there
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He said this on on an interview where he was given opportunity to clarify what he meant He says well,
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I'm convinced that we make a better case for Jesus if we leave the Old Testament out of the argument That's Andy Stanley a very popular evangelical preacher
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We do better to explain Jesus if we leave the Old Testament out of it. He said
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Do you think Paul would follow that advice in his explanation of Jesus Do you think Peter or any of the other
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Apostles or New Testament writers try to explain the person and work of Jesus apart from? The Old Testament that's how they explain the person in the work of Jesus They appeal to the law and to the prophets.
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Would you make a better case than Jesus himself makes? When in Luke 4, he opens up the scroll of Isaiah and after reading that he says these things are fulfilled
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In your hearing. What is he doing? He's saying if you've read the Old Testament rightly these things testify of me and I have come to fulfill them not to abolish them
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Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets In fact, so many errors and dangers of the modern church arise precisely because Christians Wittingly or not have unhitched from the
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Old Testament in John 5 46 and following Jesus explains
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Listen if you had believed Moses You would believe me Because Moses wrote of me
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That's the claim of Jesus Saying well, the reason we don't accept you is because you know, we're following the authority of Moses We're being taught by Moses and he says well if you actually were being taught by Moses, you'd believe everything
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I'm telling you I didn't come to abolish the law of the prophets. I came to fulfill it when Moses was writing.
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He was writing about me That's what Jesus says And we come to this
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Word the all -important word in verse 17 do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets
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I did not come to destroy but to fulfill Where the ink is spilled that's generally spilled over that word that verb to fulfill
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There's a lot of weight on the claim that Moses wrote of Jesus Jesus is saying Essentially I am the fulfillment of the law and the prophets all of the revelation of God the entirety of God's Word to man
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Has been realized in my person in my work in my messianic mission That's why
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John introduces his gospel with the one who is the Word of God the one who was of God This is simply restating what
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Paul declares in Colossians 2 of the shadows and types of the law that do appear abolished
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We rather see that they've been fulfilled. Why Christ is the substance That's Paul's argument. And so as our
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Chief France Helpfully observes it may appear that certain elements of the law are all for all for not abolished
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How many of you enjoy Shrimp and oysters on the half shell how many of you wear mixed cloth and so on for all intensive purposes?
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It appears many elements of the law are for all All for not abolished, but this will be attributable not to the loss of their status as the
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Word of God This is RT France, but to their changed role in this era of fulfillment
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According to Jesus the Fulfiller notice what France is drawing on I came to fulfill
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I Came not to abolish. I came to fulfill Now again, there's no end to the debates about the use of this term
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There is one Commentary Davy Davis and Allison a very famous technical commentary.
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They list nine distinct arguments about how to understand this verb fulfill in verse 17 a
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More popular approach that I think is a little more realistic Philip Dutrois. He lists five major Arguments, I won't rehash them for you.
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We just don't have the time to do it I'll simply make a case to say I'm suspicious of any view that is mutually exclusive That essentially lands on one and argues against glosses or inferences from the others
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I think there's a lot of specialized special pleading that comes with with certain narrow views of how to understand the term fulfill in verse 17 and Especially when you come across something that is so voluminous and how it's being debated
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That usually is the key that the more narrow you are the more you're missing the mark. There's a reason it's it's so deep
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So broad so hotly contested and so for my purposes I think there needs to be some overlap and how we understand this term and the the use of it in verse 17
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I'm suspicious of any view that is completely exclusive. Let's give you a view.
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There's one view that argues Fulfill should be translated as confirmed and it shouldn't be understood as fulfill in the sense of overturning but really just affirming or confirming the validity of I Think that's woefully reductionistic
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Clearly, there's some element of fulfill that is Transcendent, but I'm also equally suspicious of a view that says we should translate it as fulfill and understand that as a radical overturning of all that has come before a
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Replacement a fulfillment that abolishes that which has come before now you're reading right out of the context
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So we have to somehow hold together the immediate context of verses 17 and 18
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But situate that in the storyline of Scripture as a whole what we call the redemptive historical flow
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As well as we have to take the doctrinal imports, we don't come to this merely as the storyline
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But we understand this is speaking to matters of covenant matters of law. What does it mean for Christ to fulfill the law?
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What does it mean for Christ to be born under the law? What does it mean for Christ to be the last Adam knowing the first Adam had the law written on his heart?
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So we hold all these things together as you can see it's no easy task But as I said
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Matthew has already geared us to consider what it means for Christ to be the fulfillment If we're reading the gospel of Matthew, we come across this language of fulfillment very frequently 15 times by my count and a dozen of those times this idea of fulfillment speaks to something about the
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Old Testament prophecies being realized in the activity or identity of Jesus Christ And with that we're introduced to this idea of an eschatological tension
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There's something now about this statement. There's something not yet Assuredly, I say to you until heaven and earth pass away
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Not one jot or one tittle will by any means pass in the law until all is fulfilled
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Different verb there, by the way, it's not fulfilled twice. It may be a better translation until all is accomplished
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So here you get the sense that there's movement There's momentum there's something that has not been accomplished that must be accomplished
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There's a goal. There's a telos Here we can think of Romans 10 Christ being the end or the goal the telos of the law for those who believe
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So without treading too deeply again my summary here the word fulfill has a number of Explanations and they are not all mutually exclusive some we can dismiss out of hand
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But I think we need to appreciate how deep this word is so we begin by plotting it in how
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Matthew uses the term Regularly, he uses it to speak of Christ fulfilling patterns and prophecies and promises of the
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Old Testament from that We also recognize Jesus loads it with a certain now and not yet tension
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We're already talking about the heavens and the earth in the same way that heaven and earth was held out to us in the beatitudes
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Receiving the earth inheriting the world One point maybe none of that is clear to you.
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Okay, that's all right. We're gonna be here for a few weeks This point should be clear to you If I've been
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Charlie Brown teacher to you all so far this morning, that's okay. Let this be clear Jesus did not come to diminish obligation to the law
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That has to be crystal clear. I did not come to abolish the law of the prophets
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Jesus did not come to diminish to eradicate man's obligation to the law that has to be our starting point and That has to be such our starting point that we filter any views that would suggest otherwise, okay
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Jesus did not come to diminish our obligation to the law of God.
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Now. Why does this matter? Why does this matter there was a false teacher a false preacher.
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I Was a two -minute excerpt from a sermon he prayed if you can call it a sermon a spew and he he said he was from Louisiana, I don't
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Gather from that that he was in Louisiana, but he had that thick drawl accent He was probably Methodist or Episcopalian if I had to guess that's not just a cheap shot
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I just looking at the setup there. I think it was either Methodist or Episcopalian But nonetheless he was off the charts off the rails when it comes to complete error and ignorance about these very things
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So, why does this matter case in point listen to this? We know that in Louisiana where I'm from They just passed the law that all public schools are required to post attend commandments in their classrooms
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And I've had friends come up to me and say hey, you're a Christian So why in the world are you opposing that and I tell them because I'm a
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Christian Well, one of them said to me. Well, can't we just love each other? And I was like you just quoted
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Jesus and even Jesus threw out the Ten Commandments Now you think
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I'm telling the truth or not Jesus said don't worry about all those things just love your neighbor and love
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God and at this point The whole crowd is clapping by the way, my blood is boiling Notice what
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Jesus did he took out all of the knots. He didn't say thou shalt not ten times
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He just said do this love just love just love just love and if you just love you don't need all the knots
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It doesn't matter where what holy book those come out of That's the sermon
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That he preached a great applause Why does that matter? Why does
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Matthew 5 17 matter? Why does rightly understanding the law rightly understanding the gospel matter?
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So you don't walk into that kind of abject heresy Jesus threw out the
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Ten Commandments You come tonight. We're going to talk about the The law and the gospel the threefold use of the law some of these reforms
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Granite principles of how we approach the law of God over the next several weeks We're going to unpack chapter 19 in our confession as we work through how to rightly hold together what the
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Bible expressly teaches about the law of God and Let me tell you you may not be able to cling to all of that You should come and glean what you can to get the most out of where we are
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And that's only the only way to grow is to eat But let me say this
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If you come away from the next several weeks and Matthew 5 and your understanding of the
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Ten Commandments is anything close to that I'll be Alfred the butler to Batman and say
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I have failed you Failed you I've failed you God forbid anyone from GR BC comes away with an understanding of the
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Ten Commandments But essentially says Jesus just threw him out said it doesn't really matter. Just love everybody
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If that's your understanding of God's revelation, please talk to me after the service We'll take you back to the toolshed.
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No So some of these things we're gonna take up next week I want to shift gears a little bit and move towards some application as I said at the beginning
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I want to speak about the distinction between the law and the gospel That's really important and it's something that needs perennial clarification there's all sorts of ways that for different pressures and different motivations the law and the gospel begins to Merge and we end up parting ways with our reformed heritage the
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Puritans of course always distinguished between what they called legal obedience and Gospel obedience or evangelical obedience they all used different terms
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But they essentially all held the same principle and this you can trace through even before the
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Puritans They're getting this simply from the Reformation simply from Luther and Calvin musculus and all of the heirs in between The first and most important point
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I want to make is about legal obedience In fact, I'll make two points about legal obedience and two points about gospel obedience and then we'll close
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So the first point I want to make about legal obedience is this The demand of the law legal obedience the obligation of the moral law is a universal demand
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The obligation of the moral law is a universal demand Has to be clear that has to be clear
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That's exactly what this man from Louisiana does not understand The obligation to the moral law written upon the heart of man is a
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Universal demand that has not diminished that has not ceased This is the demand of God the
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Creator upon the creature The first and most important starting point for any discussion of the law or of obedience or of righteousness is that God requires?
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Conformity to his law across the board Okay full stop
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For God to be righteous for God to be just for man to be image bearer of God These things must be so behind the law is the
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God who gave the law Behind the law is the God whose perfections and character are refracted through the law
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God and his majesty God and his righteousness God and his ability to give commands because he is the source and the end of all that is
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His sovereignty derives from this very fact He gives the law because he made all that is is the source of all that is and is the end of all that is
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We as his image bearers then are meant to reflect the law because the law reflects his perfections
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So what God requires by the sheer fact that he is who he is is a flawless constant
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Conformity to his revealed will that is what God requires. This is true before the fall
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When it was inherent for Adam, he did this without thought he did this like you and I blink
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But this is also true after the fall This is where a lot of error begins as if God only expected conformity to his law
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When man was actually able to keep the law That somehow as a result of the fall when man is unable to keep the law that God says well if you can't keep it
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I guess it's no longer in effect. No, no, no God has not changed God's standard has not changed
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What defines righteousness has not changed the obligations of the creature to their creator have not changed in the slightest
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God doesn't begin to grade on a curve just because man has fallen into sin What he required from Adam he still demands from all who are born in Adam what
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God required of Adam When Adam was an original righteousness, it was instinctive inherent what
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God required of Adam He still requires of all those born to Adam. So obedience is not something unique to Christians You don't become a
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Christian and all of a sudden now you have to obey You've always had to obey the difference between the
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Christian and the non Christian is that you come from a place of abject disobedience with the inability to do anything but disobey
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It's now a place where you want to obey You want to obey you want to please
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God? We're gonna get into why that is and how that is The point
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I want to make here is that legal obedience is a universal demand And again, it's because of what the law of God is
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The law of God is not something arbitrary to God The law of God is something expressive of God's character as GI Packer wrote.
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The law of God is the permanent unchanging expression of God's eternal Unchangeable holiness
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God could not change this law or set it aside in his dealings with men without denying himself
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This is the moral law. So again
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This moral law this expressive law It's true of God in such a way that it's not just toward mankind
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Even the angels of heaven are required to conform to this law. It said in Psalm 103 they do his commands
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They hear the voice of his word It's required of all of his creatures to whatever extent it's applicable but uniquely in terms of God's purpose
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It's required of humanity. It was required of the Lord Jesus Christ when he took humanity to his person
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It's why he was born under the law according to Galatians. What do we see in Philippians 2 all those years ago?
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He humbled himself. He became obedient obedient to what? Why why did he become obedient?
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Well, this is what it means to be human This is what it means to be an image -bearer He became obedient not merely to the stipulations of some
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Mosaic code given on Mount Sinai But what that itself was expressive of? He came obedient to the moral law the moral law which
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Explains what it means to image God the Puritan Thomas Manton said
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Unless you mean to renounce the sovereign majesty of God and put him off his throne and break out an open rebellion against him
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You must do what he's commanded So it's a universal demand legal obedience is what
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God is due by all of his creatures second point about legal obedience
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And this is where we start to see the difference between legal obedience and gospel obedience Legal obedience is about merit
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Legal obedience is about merit. So obedience is demanded of God legal obedience says yes,
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I'll work really hard I'll try my best. I'll earn my way towards you climb my way
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I'll do better than most of the people that I know I'll do things are a little bit better than the rest and somehow
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I'll earn my standing with you Legal obedience is about merit about what you can earn. It's not about gratitude for what you've received
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So legal obedience then is not in reference to God so much it's in reference to us Legal obedience, of course was often used by the
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Puritans to distinguish those genuine believers from those that were outward hollow self -oriented
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What they would call a formalist someone who had the form but denied the power They had the outer trappings, but they didn't have the inner reality
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And All this outward externalized selfish way of obeying is not acceptable to God It was never acceptable to God the law not never accepted people on this basis
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You just begin at the first commandment and how that first commandment is understood and embraced
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Moreover, it cannot be acceptable because it's not done in faith Gospel obedience is an act of faith
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Not a not some selfish external act of merit and scripture says whatever is not of faith is sin
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It's in the language of Hebrews merely dead works Works no doubt good works even but dead works in that they're not referenced toward God and not born of faith and so legal obedience is about merit and not gratitude and Fundamentally when we boil that down we see this this vain attempt to merit
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God's acceptance to our weak Sin -marked obedience entirely misses the central issue of obedience and that we see very clearly
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From the first commandment you shall love the
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Lord your God Legal obedience can never obey out of love
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Because it's self -directed because it's Conformity to some external standard denying the power and the inner dimensions thereof.
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It never is born out of faith It's never born out of love. It's never done merely to please the one whom you love and the first commandment therefore
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Rejects all matter of legal obedience. You shall love the Lord your God Love with suction and stench that it it consumes your mind and your strength your very soul
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Everything that corresponds to who you are in the innermost depths of your being you're to love God comprehensively in that way
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So at the very very heart of the Ten Commandments is the summary of God's law that is to love
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Remember what we saw in Exodus unto thousands of those who love me and keep my commandment
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That's where his mercy goes. The most severe self -denial is
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Worthless in God's sight remember what Paul says in 1st Corinthians 13 Suppose you could go to the ends of the earth suppose you could give your body to be burned
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Suppose you could speak in the language of a suppose you could do things unimaginable If you lack love
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It's worthless. It's worthless It's of no value Because love is the very heart of the law love toward God and therefore love toward neighbor
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What does the Lord said if you love me Keep my commandments. That's the only reason you would keep his commandments is that you love him
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You know, this is a Christian instinctively don't you it's actually very hard You have to grit your teeth when you're trying to muster up some strength within yourself to obey in a way that's difficult
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To follow through on a command when it's cutting or chafing you But you get some glimmer some glimpse you draw some breath out of the loveliness of Christ And all of a sudden all of your heart is given over to obey
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It's like Isaiah. Just send me wherever I'll go I've drawn that breath from that heavenly courtroom.
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I've seen the afterglow of the glory That's enough to melt me into to loving service and obedience.
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It's a willing submission If you love me keep my commandments He says in John 14, he who has my commandments and keeps them he it is that loves me.
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Of course, that's true doesn't say You got to prove it.
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Tell me how many times you love me. Are you doing this really out of love? Keep discerning whether doing that's a lot. No, it's the other way around It's obvious that the one who loves me wants to keep my commandments the one who loves me will keep my commandment
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I liken this to the unwritten part of the prodigal son We know of course of the prodigal son's journey back to the father and Really?
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What a picture of legal obedience the whole way home. He's mustering up some sense of Servitude.
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Well, at least I'll have shelter at least a lot of food. I'll I'll just say yeah, I definitely was in the wrong
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I've sinned against you and and you know, here's what I'm willing to do I'm willing to be a slave and just kind of make sure that I get my you know, my immediate needs met
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He's working. It's all legal obedience. I'm gonna work my way back to the father. This will be how I bargain This is what I have going for me.
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At least own up that I haven't been entirely in the right Maybe at least then I can get some scraps from the table
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Is that gonna lead to gospel obedience? No way. He's already servile.
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He already has a slavish fear. He's already looking for crumbs and scraps There's no sense of mercy.
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No sense of grace. No sense of willingness. He's reluctant on his part Well here let's go into the unwritten part of this story
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The father Runs out closed him in this robe of righteousness gives him to the golden ring says kill the fatted calf spread the feast
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The one who's dead has now come alive. He's returned now what do you think it would be like in that almost miraculous awe of having been not just Reconciled in some flat demurring way, but actually embraced cherished celebrated and And he's just now beginning to recognize the mercy and grace of a father that he had estranged himself from and how humbling
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How hateful he would feel about his rebellion How could I have acted that way against this father?
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How could he have shown me this kind of love? Even still it would have been enough to accept me as a slave
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But to embrace me as a son to celebrate me to make as it were a feast a festival all around me
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To celebrate the fact that merely I sinned wished him dead and ran away from him and all
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I've done is mutter Why may back and and now he embraces me in this way. What do you think would be like a day a week a month?
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later When the father said my beloved son, will you go do this for me? My beloved son.
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Will you stop doing this? How would that prodigal son react and light of the mercy that he received it wouldn't be some servile slavish fear
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If he's aware of and cognizant of the mercy that he's received to say
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I Don't want to do anything that will upset you father. I want to do everything that pleases you
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I want to show you how much I love you how much I haven't taken for granted the mercy You've shown me how
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I still frankly don't understand it where it's come from and why it is I'm kind of waiting for it to end.
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I'm waiting for you to pull the rug out from under my feet Is this some prank TV show? That's the difference between legal obedience and gospel obedience
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If you love me Keep my commandments He who has my commandments and keeps them
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He it is that loves me if a man loves me. He'll keep my words For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.
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Do you see? Everywhere the Ten Commandments everywhere the moral law is brought up in Scripture. It's not far from this central idea of the love of God That's true of Paul.
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That's true of Peter. That's true of John Let me bring up two points about gospel obedience
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Gospel obedience is about gratitude not merit It's the other way around isn't it gospel obedience is about gratitude not merit
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This is such a great dovetail with what Brian preached on from Psalm 100 thankfulness as a response to God's grace.
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This is gratitude Why do I obey because of who God is toward me in Christ?
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Out of gratitude for him. I obey I desire to obey I hate when I fail to obey the more
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I see of his beauty and of his grace The more I mourn my own sinfulness and long for a new heart and a new strength
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To be more and more like him whom my soul loves Obedience is rendered to God as gratitude grateful law -keeping recognizing that Christ Was the perfect human expression of the fulfillment of the moral law and Sanctification in Christ is being conformed into his image into that express righteousness
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And so we're grateful because it's not even our work It's his work being wrought in us by his spirit the work that he's begun
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He's continuing and he will complete and so the whole Christian life is marked by thankfulness gratitude humility
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Essentially your life as a Christian never amounts more to than the to these two words Thank you.
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There's that modern, you know, we sometimes we cast a Aspersive I against modern worship songs
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There's that one sign even know which one it is, but the chorus is just a repetition of Jesus. Thank you
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Jesus Thank you, you know that song That's actually a pretty good song Jesus thank you.
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That's essentially the sum of your life Jesus Thank you. I Didn't do any of this.
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I Didn't ask for any of this. I fought tooth and nail against this. Thank you
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Gratitude Gratitude is gospel obedience gratitude is the fuel of gospel obedience.
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Listen to John Owen I call it gospel obedience not that it differs in substance from that which is required by the law
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Which enjoins us to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts But it moves upon principles and is carried unto ends that are only revealed by the gospel.
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That's why it's gospel obedience. Do you see? The law was weak.
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It couldn't do that which must be done What well, I'll leave that comment for a size gonna make a little joke that Kirk God made but that wouldn't be good
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Gospel obedience is strictly speaking not the obedience of Christ that is imputed to us as righteousness
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Gospel obedience is what leads to it that that's what leads to gospel obedience the obedience of Christ in His obeying the law as a covenant of works on our behalf
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He imputes that righteousness to us and therefore in gratitude. We obey the gospel
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Obeying the gospel looks like conforming to the law out of gratitude This is the obedience of faith.
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In other words To obey the gospel is to conform to the law as you're led by the
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Spirit of Christ It's true that when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he pronounces us. He declares us justified
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We now possess the righteousness that he carried out in his life perfectly fulfilling the law on our behalf
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We're declared justified not only by his atoning death, but also by his righteousness in life
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That is what justifies us. It gives us a positive credit a positive standing before the Lord That begins to bear fruit in our life.
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It's not just that the debt has been canceled. The condemnation has been spared It's not even that we have a good standing with that good standing that positive
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Righteousness is beginning to bear fruit the fruit of the Spirit and this is all looking like a gospel Obedience in the life of the
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Christian now, the Christian is compelled to live by God's commands. He's like David I delight to do your will.
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Oh God. I don't like to look into your law to see the perfections of your law I delight to please you knowing that your law is the way to live righteously and so Christians Accepted for Christ's sake
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Conformed to Christ's image obeying the gospel Conformed to the law by keeping in step with the
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Spirit That's gospel obedience in a nutshell. All things will unpack in weeks to come saving faith works out in a life of Principled obedience to the
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God of all grace. Let me say that again saving faith the faith that saves works out in a life of Principled obedience to the
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God of all grace please notice that the antidote to legalism is not a few drops of lawlessness and The antidote to lawlessness is not a few drops of legalism.
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You never recover the balance that way Sinclair Ferguson It's very good on this point The only antidote to either lawlessness or legalism
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The only way to have gospel obedience is to actually run to the cross of Christ be clothed in his righteousness implore your soul to consider the gratitude you ought to have for this mercy that you've received and Therefore with this willingness that's born of his spirit seek to please him in all that you do second point in the last point gospel obedience
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Flows from the finished work of Christ Gospel obedience flows from the finished work of Christ there were some many debates in the 17th century around the times that Men like Owen were writing about gospel obedience versus legal obedience
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For many of the Puritans they were writing against Richard Baxter who himself was a
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Puritan and quite a reformer in the town of Kitterminster Richard Baxter unfortunately had some very
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Unbecoming views of justification and conformity to the law And he had this view that God is like a a landowner and We've been cast out of his presence cast away from him cast away from our right of life and his son
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Has willingly paid that debt and invited us to come back and now the landowner says well you can come back but first you you have to make a down payment and The down payment doesn't have to be a man that the debt has been covered
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But you have to give a down payment and in Baxter's words, even if it be but a yearly peppercorn, right?
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Just a peppercorn If you have one of those little grinders like I do, you know how small a peppercorn is so compared to the righteousness that God's law demands of you
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God and Christ has fulfilled it on your behalf Baxter said but now you come and as a Christian you Have to give him your peppercorn your down payment if you're gonna enter in the
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Puritan said absolutely not in fact If you put any hope at all if you if you see any merit and even a peppercorn that peppercorn will drag you down to hell
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It's exclusively the righteousness of Christ. That is your acceptance with God. That is your salvation
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You say well, why would Baxter be so off on that? Well, he was seeing legalism and then he was seeing all sorts of lawlessness and worldliness and he said all
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I can recognize the Danger of legalism. They think you have to earn your way. No. No Christ has satisfied the debt
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But then I look at lawlessness and antinomianism and well, you can't just kind of say well Let let grace be grace and I'll just kind of you know
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Let God be God let grace be grace and I'm just gonna do the best that I can he said no there actually has to Be some purchase some down payment, you know
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It might not be much compared to what Christ has earned but you better have a righteous life if you're gonna claim Christ Thankfully the
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Puritans saw right through that. No, that's an equal and opposite error on both fronts Gospel obedience doesn't flow from even a peppercorn of your effort
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No gospel obedience flows from the finished work of Christ emphasize finished
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Our obedience does not render any merit toward God Christ's obedience satisfies all that God has required for our justification
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The moment we believe on the Lord Jesus and we place our whole dependence upon his sufficiency
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His perfect obedience is reckoned to our account. God looks upon us as he looks upon his
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Son We are adopted in the Beloved One and God declares us righteous in light of the righteousness of Christ We're entitled to the reward of the law the inheritance the covenant blessing that Christ has procured
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There's this marvelous book by Ernest Kevin, it's hard to find Unfortunately, it's been out of print called the grace of law and Ernest Kevin writing about a century ago
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He's walking through how the Puritans understood this doctrine of the law particularly how they looked at The psalmist delight in the law of God and how to rectify that with Paul's consternation about the law but also at times his for his way of applying the law to the lives of Christian believers and Kevin boils all this down and he he simply presents the gospel in these terms.
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I love this This is Ernest Kevin. He says sin is the transgression of the law
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The death of Christ is the satisfaction of the law therefore justification is the verdict of the law and Sanctification is the believers fulfillment of the law.
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Let me say that again Notice that he's framing the gospel in terms of the law. That's a good move
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Christ's work with reference to the law Sin is the transgression of the law.
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The death of Christ is the satisfaction of the law therefore justification is the verdict of the law and Sanctification is the believers fulfillment of the law so in response to this
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Grace of Christ the satisfaction of Christ this gratitude that fuels our gospel obedience
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We recognize all of this as a result of the finished work of Christ Christ's work has brought about the fulfillment of all that God has promised and this includes our very
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Sanctification and conformity to the law. This is part of what Christ has procured for us the promise of Ezekiel 36
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I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my judgments.
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You will walk in my commandments That's part of what Christ has purchased for his people No longer do we live by the flesh, but now we live by the
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Spirit of God Who compels us and guides us and prompts us and even grieves when we fail to walk in the statutes and judgments and commandments of God?
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So notice that we're not left to our own Notice that there's not some external coercion put upon the
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Christian or yeah, you started by grace But now you have to finish by works of the law. No, that's the Galatian error who bewitched you
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Paul said you started out. Well What you forgot was that it's always been a work of the
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Spirit of God that flows out of the finished Accomplished work of Christ Jesus. Therefore we can confidently say he who began this work will continue it until the day of completion
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Because as completed as Christ's work is that great cry it is finished So it must be finished in the lives of his people
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One day the spirit work will be complete and when we see Christ will be like him and on that day
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In a way beyond even the first Adam will be like the last Adam confirmed in Righteousness and holiness with perfect conformity to God's law
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You'll never have to hear nor say ever again Thou shalt not thou shalt not or like the
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Louisiana preacher just love love love love love You'll do both of those perfectly Eternally because of the finished work of Christ on your behalf
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And so I say again the Christians life is simply summed up with the phrase Jesus thank you
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Believers are now enabled to a significant extent To keep the law as it is in Christ by the power of the
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Spirit of Christ This too was purchased by the blood of Christ Now I close with these thoughts
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All of this and I hope you'll see this as we begin part two next week still looking at these verses
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As we make our way to verses 19 and 20 And then as we look at these antitheses where Jesus intensifies the law
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I hope you don't remember you don't fail to remember the things that we've laid down this morning so important And come tonight where we talk about the threefold use of the law and talk about the difference between more of the difference between Gospel obedience and legal obedience, but let me simply close with this
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The more we ponder the more we're Enraptured by the finished work of Christ the more lovely the law of God will be to us in no small way did
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Christ die To make us reflect the law perfectly Christ died that we would be
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Lovely to be lovely is to fulfill the law To be glorious is to look like the
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Ten Commandments and everything that you live breathe think act and do To be glorious as the
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Holy One which the law reflects and refracts and so all of this makes a
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Love for the law in the life of the believer and this too is part of the work of Christ He doesn't just reconcile man to God.
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He reconciles the one who was against the law and the law against the man He makes them friends as a believer because of the finished work of Christ.
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Your life is now in harmony with the law of God You're freed from the curse of the law of God But you're not free to go away from it
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You're freed from its curse so that you can follow it though imperfectly and inconsistently You follow it out of a desire to please
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God out of willing servitude to Christ. It's part of his finished work And so I close with Romans 8 3 & 4 let me preface it
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Jesus came to fulfill the law That's what he says here in Matthew 5 17 Don't think
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I came to abolish I came to fulfill. Well, listen Jesus came to fulfill the law and Part of Jesus fulfilling the law is fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law in you as a believer
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That's part of it I came to fulfill the law and Part of that fulfillment is you as a believer having all of the righteousness held forth in the law being realized in your life eternally
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Listen to what Paul says For what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh
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God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin
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He condemned sin in the flesh So that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us
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Who do not walk according to the flesh? But according to the Spirit, amen Let's pray
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Father thank you for your word Lord. Bless it to us help us to be Doers Lord not mere hearers.
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Let us remember Lord the things that we have laid down Especially as they'll become very important guidelines for the weeks ahead we pray that we would bear these truths deep in our soul knowing that most of the errors of Church history have been a conflation or a disregard for Rightly putting the law and the gospel together or rightly distinguishing them
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And so we pray Lord that you'd give us discernment from your own spirit Help us
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Lord to rest upon the finished work of Christ Not mustering some obedience up from our flesh
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But rather just letting ourselves be captivated by who you are what you've done and what we've received
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Therefore Lord willingly keeping in step with your spirit who guides us into conformity to your law
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That Lord by walking with you by your spirit. We may fulfill this righteous requirement the law holds for Not just fulfill it
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Lord, but love it cherish it embrace it Lord Until we reflect you as your image bearers in all the ways that you've intended
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Knowing that the express image is Christ Jesus our Savior our