The Rewards of Discipleship — Paul Washer

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Well, it's a great privilege for me to be here tonight. Tremendous privilege. And I'm going to continue on with the teaching I did this morning. But since we have a great big group of new people here, I want to touch on something before we go to our main lesson.

And let me go by way of testimony. I was in seminary and very zealous, evangelism and working with street people and all sorts of things like that, and preached the gospel, or at least what I understood of the gospel.

And a point kept coming up in my mind, in my heart often. How does the death of Jesus Christ pay for my sins? And why was it necessary? And if the answer that would basically be given all the time, well, God is holy.

Well, yes, but still, I never could put the connection together. And I went to a rather liberal at that time, a rather liberal seminary. And I would say, but how does how does the death of Jesus? I mean, the Romans beating him and putting a crown of thorns on his head and then nailing him to a tree and putting a spear in his side.

Although I marvel at the cost that he paid, how does all that make me right with God? And I would ask this question to people. And believe it or not, no one ever answered me. A lot of times they didn't even know what I was talking about.

And believe it or not, I'm sad to say it wasn't until after seminary that I began to look through scripture. And I learned something about the cross that isn't new. I assure you, it's what was always preached by by men of God down through the ages.

But I learned something about the cross that literally astounded me. I mean, it set me back for weeks and months. And until this day is probably one of the dearest things to me in understanding the gospel.

And since we've got some new young people here and things, I just want to share that just something I want you to think about before we go on to our main lesson. And I want you just to go for just a moment to the book of Exodus, the book of Exodus, chapter thirty four.

The Holiness of God and the Problem of Forgiveness

Now, all of this might be quite familiar to to most of you and well, then. Then just humor me. But Exodus thirty four. God does an incredible thing here. This is one of the most astounding passages in the Old Testament.

As God reveals, as we could say, humanly speaking, God reveals his back, so to speak, to Moses. And we see here in verse six, then God, then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness and truth who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgressions and sin.

Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Now, there's a great question here that in one place we hear that he will by no means. It's greatly emphasized. He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

And yet at the same time, we're told that he forgives iniquities, transgression and sin. There seems to be something of a contradiction here. By no means will he leave the guilty unpunished. Yet at the same time, he will forgive the transgressions, the sins, the iniquity of the guilty.

Now, to compound this problem, just look over for a moment at the book of Romans chapter four, verse seven. Listen to what David says. And if if you if you read these words of David in the context of what we know about Exodus thirty four and the justice of God, it seems that insult the injury.

Now, listen to what David says in verse seven, chapter four. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered, been covered by whom? By God. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.

Now, how do we balance this out with he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished? And countless other texts in the Bible that simply says that God will not just turn his face away from sin. He will not be apathetic toward sin, but that he will punish the guilty.

Now, one more thing that I just like to add to this, let's just go for a moment to a text that is not really addressing this subject, but it does function as sort of a wonderful illustration to get you to understand what the problem is.

And that's over in the book of Proverbs. Now, again, this simply illustrates the problem. He's not addressing this problem in the text, but if you go to Proverbs 17, verse 15. What a wonderful illustration is laid out for us.

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. He who justifies the wicked. Any judge or authority in this context in Israel that justifies a wicked man.

He's considered to be an abomination before God. Now, there is nothing I can't find. I don't think a harder word in the entire Bible. Anyone who justifies the wicked is an abomination before God. Now, go back to Romans again and go to chapter three.

Verse 23, for all have sinned. What does that mean? All are guilty, all are wicked. And this is what it says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And then speaking about the Christian, it says being justified.

Now, you heard what Proverbs said, that anyone who justifies a wicked man that is simply looks over his sin, does not take it into account, covers it up. Anyone who does that is an abomination before God.

And yet we're told that with regard to the Christian, God has done just that. Are you beginning to see the problem? Well, that is what the cross event is about, because if you continue reading on in Romans three toward the end.

He says in verse 26 about the cross for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. What is the cross about?

Well, here's what you must understand. Now, I've heard evangelists say this many times. If I had a nickel for every time I heard it, I'd be a rich man. They've said this. Now, instead of being just with you, God was loving.

Now, that sounds good. Maybe it face value. And you're saying, yeah, I've heard that. That's pretty good. Well, there's a big problem there. Let's just follow it through. Instead of being just with you, God was loving.

That means God's love toward you was unjust. You see, it doesn't work that way. God is just and loving. And in order if God is going to justify men, he must be just in doing it. So you see, the cross, it does include.

And I never want to take away from the fact that when Jesus hung on that cross, he was he was terribly torn apart by men. He had he had thorn thorns on his on his brow. He had nails in his hands. He had a spear in his side.

And we don't want to take away from that. Isaiah shares with us something of the afflictions, physical afflictions of Christ. It was a bloody Calvary crucifixion. But if that is all you see, then you haven't really seen the cross.

And I'm aware that on Easter, pastors preach about the cross very often. But I've always marveled at this as when the passion came out, the movie, The Passion. I never saw it. I don't have anything against it, but I never saw it.

I heard a pastor come on national radio and he said, you know, there's been a lot of talk about the cross. So I am going to take the next hour and share with you the true meaning of the cross. And I stopped my truck.

I was out working actually on the farm. I shut my truck off, turned the key back and thought, oh, wonderful. Someone's going to clear this up. He spent an entire hour, almost like a medical doctor, explaining to us exactly what happened to Jesus physically on that cross.

Now, everything he said was true. But like so many, he missed, I believe, the fundamental point of the cross. What really happened there? You say, oh, yes, Brother Paul, he bore our sin. Yes, he did. He bore our sin.

He bore our guilt. As as some of the old theologians used to say, he stood in our law place. But what you have to understand is this. When he stood there and bore our guilt. The suffering he experienced was not merely the physical suffering of a Roman crucifixion.

Christ Bearing the Wrath of God

What did he suffer? Well, I want you to go for just a minute to the book of Psalms, chapter 75. Now, we're all aware that Jesus was in a garden and he cried out three times. Let this cup pass from me.

All aware of that. Now, I have heard any number of interpretations about that cup. I even heard a few years ago, a charismatic preacher say it was it was the devil. The the the antagonism of the devil.

Others simply say, well, it was that Roman cross and that cruel cat of nine tails and and all these things, all these things. Now, I want you to think about something for a moment, just a moment. We are told in Christian history that after the resurrection of Christ and the birth of the Pentecost and the book of Acts and on through the first century, second century.

We understand that many Christians were crucified on crosses, Roman crosses. Some of them supposedly were crucified upside down. And some of them, after being crucified, were actually covered in a crude form of pitch or bray and set on fire to provide lights for the streets of Rome at night.

Now, it's told in history and books like Fox's Book of Martyrs and everything that many of these people went to that cross singing, singing hymns, not not necessarily trembling, not crying out, take this cup from me, but embracing this death as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Now, let me ask you a question. Do you honestly think then that the captain of our salvation was in a garden trembling because he feared a cross, a Roman cross that his disciples joyfully embraced? There was something more in that cup than just a Roman cross.

And in Psalm seventy five, verse eight, for a cup is in the hand of the Lord and the wine foams. It is well mixed and he pours out of this. Surely all the wicked of the earth must must drain and drink down its dregs.

What you need to understand, and then we're going to go on to our text. What I want you and plead with you to understand is that when Jesus was on that cross, he bore our sin, he bore the guilt of his people.

And on that tree. He was handed the cup of the wrath of God. God is a just God. He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In order for you to be pardoned. Yeah. In order for you to be justified, to be made right with God, to have a right standing with him, to ascend to that holy hill in order for that to happen.

The justice of God had to be satisfied. It is not as many evangelists will say that he was loving with you, overlooking his justice. No, he was just and loving. Christ, when he died on that tree, died having suffered the wrath of God in the stead of his people.

And on suffering that he satisfied all the justice of God against them. He died paying the penalty. And now God is just and the justifier of the wicked. Because God in human flesh has satisfied his own justice.

Now I want to say something just before we go on. It's very important because some of you I know have read C .S. Lewis and especially you've seen the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on television or on cinema or whatever.

Well, there's there's one place before Aslan goes to make his sacrifice at the stone table where he's talking to King Peter. And this is what he says. And it's it's very wrong. He says, you know, Aslan here represents Christ.

He says that to King Peter, look, your brother has betrayed us. The witch does own him. Now, Peter, there is a principle even above me that I must submit to referring to a type of principle of justice.

That I can't simply take your brother back, something has to be done because there's a principle even higher than me. That's basically what he's saying that must be satisfied, must be dealt with, that even I can't go around.

When we say that in order to pardon us, God had to satisfy justice. OK, we're not saying that there was a principle of justice higher than God that he had to submit to. That's not what we're saying. We're talking about God's own justice.

He had to satisfy his justice. Do you understand that? There's not some higher ranking principle in the world that even God had to submit to in order to save us. The justice he had to satisfy was his own because God is perfect and in him there is no contradiction.

Now the cross becomes so much more splendid to us. I was teaching in Romania years ago and I came across a book. I was in a German seminary. I was actually in Ukraine or somewhere, but the seminary was all German and I don't read German.

And so I was looking for a book to read because I was well, I had a break. I finally found one in English and it was the cross of Christ. Now it wasn't John Stott's book. It was another book written by someone I'd never heard of before.

And so I opened it up and I started reading through it. And this is what he said. That God the father looked down upon the suffering of his son that had been inflicted upon him by the hands of men and counted that as payment for our sin.

Do you see the problem there? We are not saved merely by what the Romans did to Jesus on that tree. We are saved by what God the father did to his only begotten son on that tree. As in Isaiah 53 10, it pleased the Lord to crush him.

That doesn't mean that God gleefully crushed his son. It means that the will of God was fully accomplished in a people. A people, according to the plan of God. Is now redeemed because of what God had done through his son.

So I want you to see that in the cross. Now let's go to Romans. Back to our text. We've been in verse one of chapter 12 and we talked about Paul's pastoral passion. He says, I urge you, brethren, do not react with a stiff neck when someone urges you.

Now you say, yes, when someone urges me in love, I should not react with a stiff neck. Let me let me fill you in a little bit. When someone urges you with a bad attitude, don't stiffen your neck. Why?

Don't worry so much about their attitude. Just ask them. Just ask yourself this question. What they're saying. Is it true? I hear so many people escape biblical truthful rebukes because they say the one who delivered it didn't deliver it correctly.

Well, you just wouldn't believe the attitude they had when they told me that. Who cares what the attitude was? If it's true, it's helpful to you. As a matter of fact, my wife said when she came here to this country, she said the one difference that she noted between Christianity and Latin America and Christianity and in the United States, she said she's very inept in languages and she she speaks English so well.

She picks up colloquialisms and everything. She said, you Americans are so thin skinned. No one can urge you. No one can rebuke you. No one can correct you without you literally flying off the handle and leaving the church.

And yet that is that is one of the most spectacular gifts that God has given us in his economy. To help us. You see that. So I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God. Now, we go back to this. We talked about it this morning, that the motivation of the Christian life is the person of God, the person and work of Christ.

It's what was done for us on the cross. The mercies of God given to his people through the person and work of Jesus Christ is the motivation for the Christian life. Now, notice, I didn't say and I said this purposely.

I didn't say it was one of the motivations or even one of the top motivations. I don't want to say it that way. It's the motivation. Now, surely there are other things I ought to do things because I genuinely love people.

But all that is eclipsed by this. Who God is and what he has done for me in the person of Christ ought to be the thing that motivates everything in my Christian life. You see that. Boy, that's clean, solid, basic.

There's a just a firmness to it. You say that's right. Well, I don't need all these artificial things, these made up little mechanisms and five step principles to get my Christian life going. I just need to drink deeper and deeper from who the person of God, who God is and what he has done for me in Christ.

Presenting the Body as a Living Sacrifice

Now, he says to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice, the word body here, of course, the idea of being don't don't come with any of your super spirituality. And don't talk a whole lot about heart religion unless your body is going to be attached to it.

OK, because just like the Bible says, you'll be judged for your words. Now, why would it say something like that? Because the content of your heart is revealed by your words. The content of your heart is also revealed by your actions.

Just so that, you know, as I said, I think that the day we started this, the idea of a book not being able to be judged by its cover, Jesus never said that. He said, you'll know them by their fruits. And so we know that you're offering yourself, your heart, your soul to God by what you do with the rest of you.

Sometimes our religion needs to needs to be a little less mystical and a lot more practical, a lot more real. I've given him my heart. Yeah, well, what about your eyes, your brain, your ears, your mouth, your tongue, your feet, your hands, your body?

Is there any evidence that you've given those to him? You say now he says a living and holy sacrifice, a vibrant sacrifice, as we spoke about this morning, and a sacrifice that is holy. You know, listen to me, Paul warned the church in Corinth, he says, you compare yourselves by yourselves, that's not wise.

Just because I'm I'm just as clean or just as dirty as my fellow churchmen doesn't prove anything, especially in this culture of ours today, especially in a Christianity that does not make holiness a priority.

OK, so if you're in a youth group, I wouldn't advise that you compare yourself to other youth to see how you're doing. I would suggest you compare yourself to scripture. And then I would suggest you talk about it because we look at scripture many times through our culture.

Had one Scottish young man tell me one time he goes, I can't imitate a Scottish man. But he he said, you Americans, because you interpret the Bible through your checkbook and your flag. And ways, well, I could have said the same thing about him, but I didn't feel like it was the right thing to do it at the time.

I might as well just take the rebuke. But the thing about it is, is we will interpret this stuff in here through through our culture. Through our presuppositions, what we already think we know to be true, that's very dangerous, very dangerous.

Now, he says, a living and a holy sacrifice acceptable to God. Now, this word also means well pleasing. Now, you need to ask yourself something. Just how are you going to figure this out? How are you going to figure out what's acceptable?

Well, I don't want to admonish you to do much figuring. A guy came to me one time in my office when I was pastoring in Peru. He says, there are just so many decisions to make in Christianity. I said, really, there's there's not.

He said, there's so many things you've got to make decisions on. I said, you know, really, there's not. And he said, why are you saying that? I said, because there's not. I said, God's basically made all the decisions, you only have to make one.

Are you going to find out what they are and submit to them? And you say, I see so many people, even myself, I want to offer something to God. It may be something God doesn't even want. We see that Leviticus 10, some men offered some strange fire and they were judged.

Holiness, Law, and Christian Obedience

You see, you and I, part of the Christian life. Now, we have to be careful with legalism here, but part of the Christian life is sitting down and looking at the word. And I don't want to put it too basic, but let me put it as basic as I can without danger.

Part of the Christian life is going in the word of God, just figuring out what he likes and what he hates. And then running as far away you can from what he hates and running to what he likes, what he considers acceptable, what he considers pleasing.

You see, this is this is so important. I hear people say, well, this is a love letter. This Bible, in a sense, that's true language, even though we have to be very careful of romanticism. But it also it is it is the revealed will of God.

There are precepts here. There are wisdoms here. It's propositional truth. It's things that maxims. I mean, there's actually things you can write down. Now, the sum of the Christian life isn't a bunch of principles, but principles are involved.

There are laws. I can think of 10 of them just right off the top of my head, but I'll tell you that the Christianity today in America has. It's almost divorced itself from anything that it would consider law.

You mentioned law today, you mentioned principles and automatically, especially from the 45 year on down, you're going to hear that sounds a little legalistic to me. That smacks of legalism. We need to be very careful how we use that term, because I think more of some of the Christians, if the whole bunch of Christians for the first 1800 years came back and looked at us, they would say, I think you guys smack of antinomianism.

That means lawlessness. You know, you hear preachers that want especially want to get in a building project or they want to build their own kingdom and they start quoting that passage where there's no vision.

The people perish. Have you ever heard that? I mean, you've got to have a vision. It's only one problem. Continue reading the passage. It's a Hebrew parallelism. What he's saying is people who have no revelation of God's law.

So if you're going to offer what is acceptable to God, you better not do it according to the way you see things in your own eyes. That own our religion is very dangerous. How many people, when you talk to them, they'll say, well, my way of worshiping God, this is my way.

Frank Sinatra and his song My Way has absolutely nothing to do with Christian life. Some of you are too young to even know what I'm talking about. That's pitiful. You see what I'm saying? OK, it's going to be acceptable.

Wonderful. Now, let's go on. Acceptable to God, which look, if God is holy and your culture basically isn't. Then stop whining when you're not acceptable to your culture and quit trying to be acceptable to your culture.

One of the reasons that the power of the church has been vacuumed out is because the church thinks it has to be like the world to be relevant to the world. The only way you're going to be relevant in the world is not to be like the world.

To be a distinct alternative in the face of your culture. Do you see that now? Now, he says, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And this word spiritual can also be translated rational, rational.

Do you want to be spiritual? I literally one time I was in the city of what us just like the foothills of one foothills, about 12000 feet or so. Eight thousand, ten thousand feet of what's got on, which is the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere down in Peru.

And I'm walking through the streets there. I was going to preach in church and I was in a part of town that I'd never been in before. I didn't really know. And I came across a sign that said something Baptist church.

And I thought to myself, well, I didn't know there was a church here. That's wonderful. And all of a sudden, somebody behind me shot it, shouted out. Hallelujah. And I literally almost jumped through the window of the church.

And when I kindly, you know, I got my composure back, turned around, there's this little Indian woman stand there. Hallelujah. I said, well, hallelujah to you. And she said, are you a Christian? Hallelujah.

I said, and I got into it. I mean, hallelujah. Yes, I am. You know, and she just kept going with hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And it took, I mean, just to find out what her name was, took me like 45 minutes.

And finally, I looked at her. I said, ma 'am, would you stop saying hallelujah? Just for a minute for me to find out who pastors this church. Now, that's that's an extreme illustration. But I tell you something, folks, it's not so extreme.

There is so much spirituality so-called based on that kind of stuff. And it's not spiritual at all. Spiritual. Is submitting yourself to the law of God out of love for God. Remember, if you love me, you keep my commandments.

That's spiritual. Now, let me share something to all you young radical street preachers. It's not hard to preach on the streets. Not really. It's not hard to really suffer for Jesus. It's not hard to put yourself in dangerous situations to preach the gospel.

What's hard? Loving your wife. Being kind to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Being a servant. Inward loyalty. As it says, blessed are the pure in heart. That means blessed are those who don't have divided loyalties in their heart.

So many times we want to do all these great things and these extravagant things. Oh, he's a preacher with power and he's this and that. That means absolutely nothing. It can mean something, but it doesn't necessarily mean something.

To offer your life. To be spiritual. Is to be a person who submits himself to the revealed will of God in scripture. Not someone that screams hallelujah or someone submits to some supernatural vision.

But someone who takes the commandments of scripture and submits his life to it. In humble, loving service to their Lord. Because of the mercies of God that's been revealed in their life. That is true spirituality.

And as a husband and a father, I teach a lot on marriage. I think because I need to hear it. But I find out that true spirituality. Well, let me put it this way. A young guy came up to me. Maybe you've heard this before from me.

Came up to me. He says, oh, I just want to be a missionary in China. I just want to be a missionary in China. I just love the Chinese. I want to give my life to the Chinese. I just want to be a missionary to China.

Because I love them so much. And I said, do you want to know why you love the Chinese so much? He said, why brother Paul? I said, because you don't know any. Now I'm not speaking against the Chinese. My point is when someone's 10 ,000 miles or so across the ocean.

It's really easy to love them. It's really easy to be spiritual with them. That's why girls know this. When a guy's courting you, he's going to be a whole lot more spiritual than after he marries you.

It's easy to love someone at a distance. It's easy to do things at a distance. It's easy to talk about the extravagant things and even perform them. But to do the simple submission to the commandments of God is quite another thing.

Because you don't get on the internet doing things like that. You're not called radical. Because you just seek out the commandments of God, the will of God and seek to submit to them. Now, not only is it spiritual, it's rational.

Well, let me say this. The most irrational thing you could ever do is follow a man. I mean, that's irrational. It's dangerous and it's irrational and there's no foundation for it. So if any man comes to you and says, look, I want you to present your body, a living and holy sacrifice to me.

You need to run. It's irrational. It's insane. It's dangerous, perilous. What other word can I use? Don't do it. But it is not irrational to offer your life as a living sacrifice to God. As a matter of fact, not to do that is insane.

I think when we talk about sin. Now, the old guys seem to do this a little bit more than we do. And I can't really don't remember their names. But I know I've read this because that's where I got the idea.

Sin labeled as insanity. It's insane. It's insane to hold back your life for yourself. To give yourself to self. To present your body to yourself as a creature and deny giving that to the Lord who made you and sustained you.

You see that? It's insane. We are insane people. Remember the prodigal son? He came to himself. That's what repentance is. To realize this is insane what I'm doing. To give myself over to him. Is not insane.

It's the only logical, rational thing that I can do now. He goes on in verse two and he says. Now, this is a command. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Resisting Worldly Conformity

Do not be conformed to this world. Do not be pressed into its mold. We make a lot of churches in Peru when I was a missionary. They would make them out of Adobe bricks. And believe it or not, all the bricks were the same size and the same shape.

Why? Because we could only afford one mold. They all came out of the same mold. Take a box. It's made out of wood. It's about four or five inches high. It's got a bottom to it. Doesn't have a top. You take some sand.

You throw it all over the box like this. And then you just pack it with mud. It's very simple. Get it real. Pack down really good. The sand is there to keep the mud from sticking. And then you flip the box over.

And then you've got a brick and you make another one and another one and another. And they all look alike because it's the same mold. When you look like the world. It's only because the world is pressing its mold on you.

And it's doing it because you're allowing it. And one of the reasons you're allowing it. There can only be really two reasons that I figured out. One is ignorance. That's why you need preaching. That's why you need Bible study.

That's why you need iron sharpening iron. One is ignorance. The other is a lack of the fear of the Lord. Now the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. And I want you to know there isn't a whole lot of that running around today.

There isn't a whole lot of wisdom. Because there isn't a whole lot of the fear of the Lord. And there isn't a whole lot of the fear of the Lord. Because not too many people really know who he is. Now let me put it this way.

You can be a Christian. A true Christian. But such a babe in Christ. A beginner. That you don't understand who this God is. And the more you grow to understand his attributes and his works. As they are revealed.

The more you're going to fear him. To reverence him. And that is a healthy, healthy thing. Now. It says do not be conformed to this world. Now I want to be a little practical. How is it that I see. Men being conformed to this world.

Well. If I had to pick the primary thing. And again. I'm going to sound like a 1950s or 1960s fundamentalist preacher. This is it. I would say the greatest tool of worldly conformity. Today. Is the television in your house.

I just want to be practical. I could sit here and be super spiritual all day long. But I want to tell you. That's what it is. It's one thing to have to walk in a world. Because we're not called to withdraw from this world.

And go live up on a mountain somewhere. Because if we were. I'd do it. But I want to tell you something. It's quite another thing. To pump the world's filth into your house. And. Gentlemen. It's quite another thing to pump the world's filth into the mouth of your own children.

Probably the greatest tool. The devil uses to conform men to the image of Christ. To conform people to the image of Christ. And families. Is the television. Now not only that. I want you. I just want you to hear some principles here.

I've discovered. Even with my own little children. That if. Now they're not going to. TV is. We got a DVD player. And things like that. That's it. They watch certain things. But I want you to know something.

They can watch. A very good. Little Christian film. Or something. Something completely moral. And something completely. Right. Right. Right before they go to bed for an hour. Let's say. And it creates a busyness and a nervousness in the house.

Whereas if I will substitute that for sitting down and reading. The same story to them. It changes the attitude of the home. It sweeps away the busyness and makes it personal and relational. It does. Test it.