Does Christian Obedience Terrify You? It's Probably Because...

Obedience, Assurance, and the Order of Salvation

This is what's frustrating to me about obedience. People are emphasizing obedience, and we need to be out there and obeying. But I'm like, you need to stop for a second and ask yourself, why are you obeying?

To what end? And what is God doing with your obedience? Sure. You just are so focused on obeying, you don't even know why you're obeying. That's what Justin and I are trying to emphasize. Like, we're emphasizing the why and the how, and all you want to know is the what.

Do you know why most people don't even know how to answer the question, seek first the kingdom of God? What does that mean? Because they're more concerned about how it's done than why it's done. And who's the king?

And what is he accomplishing? The why for most people because of pietism and revivalism is, prove your salvation and earn your spot in the kingdom. It's so that I can be assured. That's right. The king says, you're in the kingdom.

I'm just trying to teach you how to work in the kingdom. This isn't earning your spot in the kingdom. That's granted you by grace. Take sexual purity or take anger. Those are two, like, those are low hanging fruit.

I mean, we all battle this stuff, right? So we're prone to think about, like, we need application in preaching pertaining to sexual purity or anger, where you extrapolate out 17 principles on what that looks like or what that means.

Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount

And that's application. It really isn't that complicated, fam. Like, right, I need a little bit of clarification of what that means. And then I just need Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, where he makes it really clear.

You've been told in the law, don't murder. Well, I'm telling you, if you're angry toward anybody, you've broken the law. You're told in the law, don't commit adultery. I'm telling you, if you lust after someone, you've broken the law.

That's all I need. It's like, oh my gosh, like, I haven't done this. And there are so many ways at the level of my mind and at the level of my desire and at the level of my, like, just thoughts and feelings and the things that I crave.

It's like all this stuff is going on and I'm wrong. And I need to fight that and pursue what the Lord says is good. It's actually really simple. If the Lord says it's good, I pursue it. If he says it's wrong, I flee from it.

You don't need 12 principles on what lust is or 12 principles on what anger is. What you need is, here's lust, here's anger. We all understand what these things are. Now you need power. You need to be told again who you are in Christ now.

You need to be told again about how you've been set free from bondage. You need to be reminded again of what awaits you in the new heavens and the new earth and that this God loves you and that Christ gave himself for you when you were his enemy and that this may be difficult today to deny your flesh, but man, is it worth it?

Right? And so that's how we talk. I think that is more effective application toward holiness than it could ever be for you or I to get up there and wax eloquent in our own wisdom about what anger and lust are.

Walking by the Spirit, Not the Flesh

Walk by the law and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now, walk by the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So we don't want to fulfill the lust of the flesh, right? And you described two lusts there.

So we don't want to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Well, what is the spirit? Well, he's talking about the person, the third part of the God, the Trinity that lives inside of me, that union I have from him through Christ to the Father.

If I walk believing in that relationship that he indwells me, he empowers me, if I walk by that, I'm going to say no to the flesh. What you're telling me you want me to say is fear and tips by means of the flesh to not obey the flesh.

It doesn't work. He's like, the only way you overpower the flesh is by the means of the spirit. And the only way that you can walk by the spirit is by the means of the gospel, right? Who Christ is for you, union in Christ.

Look at what God has done for you by faith, trust in his power. Now obey by faith, trust in his work. It's sufficient. Now obey the work is always in light of who Christ is and what he has done. It is not to gain or to maintain.

Pietistic Preaching Versus Gospel-Based Obedience

It's always, he is sufficient. I have the sufficiency. Therefore, now I obey. Pietistic preaching is very much geared on. You must obey or else you aren't legit. We're reading both Ephesians and Peter as examples.

Those are two and Romans. And it says you are legit by faith. Therefore obey. Oh yeah. Jesus is the Messiah. Trust him. If that's not the main emphasis of every sermon you preach from the gospels, I don't know what in the world you're doing.