Motivation for Obedience: Legal Spirit or Gospel Spirit?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on

the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for

even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for

you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial.

Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and

glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth.

It is January 28, 2022.

Everybody�s getting ready here in New England for the big�what do they call them now?

�Bomb Cyclones.

Some type of Nor 'easter, I think, in one of the Bible translations there in Acts 27 or 28,

somewhere around there, �Euro -Clydon.

� That sounds kind of like a Clydon, like a cyclone, same words.

What else can I say about words?

In front of me, I have a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote,

and of course, Ralph Waldo Emerson was a New Englandite.

You can go up and see his home here, not too far from here, probably 30 or 40 clicks.

He said something that�s really famous, but not a lot of people finish the quote.

It�s like saying a verse halfway, Deuteronomy 29 .29.

I�ll just pull that up.

I think I have it memorized, but just in case I don�t.

People like to just give half verses.

I guess that would be a whole show, right?

I could make that a show.

After 3 ,000 shows, what do you end up talking about?

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and

people give half a verse, right?

That's not even in context, but you just give half a verse.

And 29 .29 reads, in the year 29 .29, �The secret

things belong to Yahweh, or the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed

belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the

words of this law.

� I always hear just this, �The secret things belong to the Lord.

� They don�t even say, �The Lord our God.

� They just say, �The secret things belong to the Lord.

� It�s a mystery we can�t understand.

Secret things.

Here, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed that He wants us to know,

we�re supposed to obey those things, right?

We�re supposed to believe them, and of course, the text here says, �Obey.

� Very, very interesting.

As you know, there�s two kinds of knowledge.

The knowledge that God knows of things, of Himself, and

we call that archetypal knowledge.

And then there�s another kind of knowledge that the Lord has allowed us to know.

It�s not the same knowledge as His knowledge, because He�s infinite, and we�re finite and

sinful, fallen.

Even as believers, we still deal with sin, the sin hangover, as we call it in seminary.

Archetypal, ectypal.

There is a knowledge we can know.

We don�t know everything, but God, I believe Calvin said, kind of

stoops and talks baby talk, right?

He kind of has a little lisp, so He refrains from giving us all the knowledge,

because we couldn�t take it.

It would like short -circuit our brains.

Here is the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

You didn�t think I was going to get back there, did you?

I didn�t think I was either.

I did not think I was going to make it back.

By the way, I showed up today at my study, and there

were like 30 hydroxychloroquine sitting there.

No note, some elderberry syrup, and it�s sometimes nice to be a pastor,

allegedly.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, lived in the 1800s.

Let me give you the truncated quote, then I�ll give you the rest.

�A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

� A foolish consistency.

That is, inconsistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, right?

You have a little mind, and you�ve got this little problem, and the problem is you can�t be consistent, right?

If you just start lying, then you�ve got to keep lying, and you can�t keep your stories and your lies straight.

Here, �A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

� I like that.

That�s a great little slogan.

I like to say it.

I�ve said it in the past.

I think I have said, �Inconsistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

� And that part�s true.

The only bad part is, there�s a full quote, the full sentence, because

after the word �minds there�s a comma.

Ralph Waldo Emerson�s full quote, �A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin

of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers.

Still not all the way finished yet, but statesmen and philosophers, they have little minds,

and it shows up because they�ve got this little problem, and it�s called inconsistency.

It�s hard to be consistent if you�ve got a little mind.

Remember the band Simple Minds?

I wanted more punk rockish than that, but Simple Minds.

I believe the lead singer of Simple Minds was married to Chrissy Hines

of the Pretenders for some time.

Not any longer, but.

Now here�s the full, full, full quote, and it�s to my shame.

�A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by statesmen and

philosophers and divines.

� Oh, theologians, they have little minds, and they�re inconsistent in so many ways.

I think not Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Where�s Waldo?

Well, his body is buried up there in Kankid, I believe.

He�s buried in Concord, is that correct?

You can look it up on funeralsites .com.

I don�t know if that�s the exact site, but you can find out where people are buried.

So if you�re ever traveling and you think, �Oh, I�d like to know where John Rogers, the great preacher who was killed

by the British monarchy because he was a Protestant, where�s he buried

� You can find it out, right?

You can find out, �Oh, George Whitefield, buried up in a church in Newburyport.

� Right up the way here, about an hour.

Had a very liberal church, by the way.

But not many people would have Whitefield, right, because he didn�t really go to churches.

So his friend said, �You can get married there.

� Yesterday�s show, we talked about visiting sick and praying for the sick.

I just was off the phone with somebody who was sick, and my prayers,

while heard by the Lord, were not as in scripture, didn�t have as much

scripture as the ones we did yesterday from the Common Prayer Book.

That was yesterday�s show.

Today�s show, I�d like to talk to you a little bit about motivation for obedience.

Motivation for obedience.

And you say, �Mike, how did you pick that topic for today ?

Well, the paper I have here has

got a quote about motivation for obedience.

The first paper had a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote on there that I could always use.

This one had that, and I have been preaching through Ephesians, and Ephesians

1 -3 -14 is one sentence in the original Greek.

Two hundred and two words, I believe, in the original language, without a main verb.

The main verb is implied, supplied.

Remember, �Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

� Remember, it talks about predestination and choosing.

I�d kind of be curious to know what the Message Bible says about that.

So before we get to motivation for obedience, we�ll read this.

The Message, quote, Bible, end quote, �How blessed is

God, and what a blessing He is!

He is the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in Him.

Long before He laid down earth�s foundation, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the

focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love.

Long long ago He decided to adopt us into His family through Christ Jesus.

What a pleasure He took in planning this!

He wanted us to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift -giving by the hand of His beloved Son.

� Hmm.

Now, there are some true things in there, of course, but no likey.

Oh, I almost spilled my coffee.

I have Pete�s Coffee.

Remember the other day we were doing the Moroccan Mint Tea?

I don�t know.

I think I�ve given up the Moroccan Mint Tea, and now we�re back to Pete�s Coffee.

There�s a man named John Cahoon, and you ought to get to know John Cahoon.

If you go to monergism .com, you can get free John Cahoon books,

Covenant of Works, Covenant of Grace, Gospel, Law Gospel, all kinds of books in that

vein, V -E -I -N, not V -A -I -N.

Now his name is pronounced Cahoon, K -A -H -O -O -N,

but when you look at his name, it looks like Cole Cahoon,

C -O -L, that�s how you spell his name, C -O -L -Q -U -H

-O -U -N, Cole Cahoon, Cole Cahoon, Cole Cahoon, Cahoon.

It�s kind of like Lemonster, Leicester.

I don�t know if we can track these words.

Here�s what he said, quoted by Sinclair Ferguson in the Whole Christ Book, by the way,

John Cahoon, Treatise on the Law and Gospel.

�When a man is driven to acts of obedience by the dread of God�s wrath

revealed in the law, and not drawn to them by the belief in his love

revealed in the gospel, when he fears God because of his power and

justice, and not because of his goodness, when he regards God more as an

avenging judge than as a compassionate friend and father, and when he

contemplates God rather as terrible in majesty than as infinite in

grace and mercy, he shows that he is under the dominion,

or at least the influence, of a prevalence of a legal

spirit.

He shows that he is under the influence of this hateful temper, when his hope of divine

mercy is raised by the liveliness of his frame and duties, and not

by discoveries of the freeness and riches of redeeming grace offered to him in the gospel,

or when he expects eternal life not as the gift of God through Jesus Christ, but as a

recompense from God for his obedience and suffering, he plainly shows

that he is under the power of a legal spirit.

� What about you?

You, I assume, for today, you listeners, are Christians.

Why would you listen to this show if you weren't a Christian?

To try to find out if you can get some foolish consistencies in the hobgoblin of

my little mind.

But if you're a Christian, you say, okay, I'd like to obey, right?

I think it's the desire for every Christian to obey God's laws.

They might not know what the motivation should be.

They might have a wrong motivation, but I think they want to obey, right?

Because when we think of regeneration

in the newer definition, we are new creatures, new affections, new appetites,

new displeasures, new affections.

Remember we say we used to, we now love what we used to hate and hate what we used to love.

You know, generally that's true.

And we are different and God is sanctifying us.

God justifies us.

He is sanctifying us.

And one day he will glorify us.

And we begin the journey.

Did I just say journey?

We begin pilgrim's progress and we realize we would like to live a holy life.

I just think that's what Christians do.

That's what they know, right?

It's because it's their nature.

The spirit of God dwells in them, dwells in me, dwells in you, dear Christian.

Well, at the beginning of your Christian life, I think it might be in some senses easier

to obey because you're all excited about it and you lived like a swine in the mud.

And then now you're free and you're redeemed and reconciled to God and you'd like to honor him.

You might not know exactly everything God requires, but somebody says, oh,

you should give to the local church, unto the Lord Jesus.

You go, okay, fine.

You should not look at pornography.

Okay, that's right.

You should make sure that, although equal in marriage, you each have a different

functional role.

Okay.

And you just kind of...it happens.

After you've been a Christian for a while, you say, what's the motivation to obey?

How can I do this for the long term?

Anybody can sprint here or there.

Anybody can have little victories short

term.

Anybody, meaning anybody a Christian, anybody.

Long -term motivation.

I would say that 95 of the listeners, maybe less,

are motivated by what Cajun says is a legal spirit.

There is something in us, dear Christian, that makes us think, if I do these

things, God will be pleased with me.

I hate it that that's built into my system.

I hate it less it's built into yours in the sense I just hate it more in mine.

And I don't want to be looking at other people when it comes to sanctification, but I'm sure you hate it to the same degree.

It should be hated by both of us.

See how I rescued that?

Doing something.

I mean, think about it.

There are reasons why we could think about God as Father, and even back to Ephesians chapter one with adopted as

sons, right?

This is out of His kindness.

This is because what the Lord Jesus has done, the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,

Paul says.

And now to think that after we're Christians, we're liked

more, loved more, thought of more when we're trying to obey.

First of all, let's just set the record straight.

That kind of thinking, what we call a legal spirit, it's

also a real antinomian spirit, anti -nom, anti -law.

Because who really thinks that they can live up to the law of God revealed in scripture, even as a

Christian?

What we end up doing if we think, okay, I can approach God now as a Christian because of what I'm

doing, my faithfulness, my obedience, my law -keeping.

We're basically saying it's law -light because we can't do that.

The reason why the Lord Jesus did His work is for our justification and sanctification.

This is called the double blessing, right?

Duplex gratia, double grace for justification, for sanctification.

And the Father accepts our weak, tainted,

sinful obedience.

Sin -tainted obedience, maybe that's a better way to put it.

Because He accepts us, because we're in Christ, union with Christ, Ephesians, in Him, in Him, in the Beloved,

in the Lord Jesus Christ, in Christ Jesus.

And therefore, since He accepts us, He accepts us, yeah, that's fine.

Then He accepts our works.

We do not obey to get our Father to love us more.

You say, yeah, but my dad here on earth, when I did things around the house, he seemed to be

pleased.

Okay, I'll grant you that.

That's fine by me.

But did you become more of a son when you were obeying, and less of a son when you were disobeying,

or less of a son when you were half -obeying?

You did it on the outside, cleaning up your room, but you weren't really happy about it on the inside.

We realize that dads on earth, sinful dads, moms, sinful moms

on earth, they're kind and compassionate, and they're not going to kick somebody out of the family

because of a particular sin.

Now, eventually, maybe a kid might get kicked out of the family or kicked out of the house because of drug use, or this, that, and the other.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about family love.

I'm not talking about somebody has proved they're not in the family, and therefore, they need some type of church

discipline.

We're talking about just a regular dad, regular mom, and they love their children, and they accept their children's feigned,

half -hearted obedience because they accept them.

That's the way we do it on earth.

And by the way, if we, sinful parents, would do that, how much greater love would the

Heavenly Father have for us?

We need every single Sunday, Luther said, and now I say, to be reminded

of this language of the gospel so we don't fall into a legal spirit.

And Cajun talks about the power of the legal spirit.

There's a real power in that because now it's measurable.

I did this, therefore, I'm okay.

I didn't do this, uh -oh, better hurry up and do it.

The power of a legal spirit in the hands of a pastor that wants to manipulate a congregation, wow, that's

even worse.

And I know in my particular case, it's true, and so, therefore, I see other people, and I think it's probably the same reason.

When I personally, as a pastor, was under the power of a legal spirit, I preached the power of the legal

spirit.

And it's work, work, work, work, work, work, work.

And if we're motivated to obey because of the greatness of the Lord Jesus and what

He's done, and we respond with gratitude, the motivation now is Jesus

leads to gratitude.

That's the opposite of the legal spirit.

Both the legalist and the person that wants to do things biblically could

do certain things, but the reason for doing them is completely different,

and therefore, I think the outcome is different.

If you do it based on a legal spirit, you've lost.

You've lost joy, you've lost the reason for doing it, you've lost sight of Scripture, you've lost sight of the Savior.

A lot of this gets back to, you know, we talk about gospel -centered lives.

You don't need Jesus for salvation, i .e. initial salvation justification, and then

abandon Him for sanctification.

And then it's back to the law.

I mean, for Roman Catholics, how do you get saved?

Essentially, law.

And how are you sanctified?

Essentially, law.

Wesleyans, Arminians, the law shows you your sin as an unbeliever, and

the good news of Jesus received by faith.

Now you're a believer.

Now, how does a Christian live?

Well, I think it's like the Roman Catholics.

It's law.

It's law, law, law, law, law.

And I think you'd see the template in Reformed Christianity, in the Bible, in

Romans.

We see the law.

It shows us our sin, and we need a Savior.

The Savior is presented to us, and we cry out with faith, and now we are justified.

Now we are regenerated.

Now we are Christian children.

How do we live?

What do we do?

Well, God guides us with the law, that's certain.

But we're not under the law as a condemning agent, because we're sons now.

And the pattern for Christian sanctification, we

see the law, and then we're motivated to do the law, empowered to do the law

even, because of the gospel.

And if you want to get picky with me and say it's law gospel to get saved, and it's law gospel for

sanctification, that God uses stankify, and we respond with good works and holy

living, fine.

If you want to say it keeps rotating back and forth, that is to say under the category of sanctification,

it's gospel.

You remember what Jesus did for you, and then it motivates you to obey, or you see the law of God, and then

you think, how do I obey this?

But Jesus, you've done all this for me, therefore I obey.

You can just let that revolve around a little bit, as long as both are involved.

I'm not that picky at this particular time on this show about order, but I want both of

them there.

Law gospel, law gospel, and it just keeps repeating, repeating, repeating, and there is no

condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

It is the legal spirit, Cajun said, that says, I'm going to obey because

I dread God's wrath revealed in the law.

I fear God because of his power and justice.

God is an avenging judge.

God is terrible in majesty.

That's the dominion of a legal spirit, and I think to a large extent,

I know preachers these days, very, very motivated by this

kind of theology, and it dribbles down into their congregants by preaching, and

this is a, this is, if you're not careful, this is what a lordship person's going to do.

I don't mean Jesus is lord, lordship, but this, this legal spirit.

How are we motivated to obey God, Cajun says?

It's not by legal spirit.

It's by a gospel spirit.

When you, as a Christian, think, you know what?

I'm drawn, God, to you because of your love revealed in the gospel.

I realize how good you are.

I know you're a compassionate friend and father, and you are in, you have infinite amount of

grace and mercy.

That's not hateful temper.

That's not legal spirit.

That's free, rich, redeeming grace as a gift.

Today on No Compromise Radio, we talked a little bit about legal spirits and legal preaching.

I hope you're under a pastor that's not a legal spirited pastor,

but there's hope for everyone, because if there's hope for legal spirited pastor Mike Ebenroth, there's hope for your pastor too.

So you want to just pray for him and encourage him.

God bless you.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West

Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of

God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at We're right on route 110 in West

Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by

phone at 508 -835 -3400.