Good Works Are Not Burdensome

Please turn your Bibles to 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5 can be found on page 1023 if you're using the Pew Bible. When you have that, please stand. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments.

And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the victory that you have given in Christ Jesus. We thank you that faith is the victory. We pray that today through the proclamation of your word that our faith would be strengthened.

Why God's Commands Are Not Burdensome

That we would know Christ more deeply. That He would be sweeter to us and so would be His commandments. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, we are here going through a series about motivations for good works.

And in particular, motivations related to the duties that we have to God. So we have looked at the fact that good works are permitted by God. They are commanded by God. And now the fact that they are not burdensome.

His commands are not burdensome. It might seem odd because commands, in many ways, are definitionally burdensome. Jesus said that His burden is easy, His yoke is light. It is something that is definitionally just a burden.

But it is not a burdensome burden. How can that be? Why is that the case? I believe this passage gives us some straightforward answers about why it is that they are not burdensome. It is not burdensome, not because the commands have no kind of sense of difficulty in any way associated with them.

Rather, it is because God gives the strength that is necessary in order to do the things He commands. And He gives the desires such that His people would be eager to do those commands. Our verse here is verse 3.

Now, we are looking particularly at the second half of this. And His commandments are not burdensome. But just to address this notion of love here. For this is the love of God. An important question to ask yourself whenever you come across the phrase, the love of God in the Bible.

Is that talking about our love for God? Or is it talking about God's love for us? Here, it seems very evident that it is talking about our love for God. It speaks before this and it says, This is repeatedly talking about our love for others.

Our love for God. Our love for our brothers and sisters. And so, when it says in verse 3, this is the love of God. It is talking about the love that we have for others. And we also know this, not just because of the immediate context.

But throughout 1 John and even 2 John and 3 John. John frequently alludes to or reframes things that came up in the narrative of the gospel of John. Here, it would be helpful to turn back to John chapter 14.

Go ahead and turn your Bibles there to John chapter 14. And we will see where this was addressed before. That the love of God, that the love of God has to do with keeping commandments. This is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.

John 14 verse 15. Maybe that's a familiar verse to you. Then jumping down to verse 21. Judas, not Iscariot, said to Him, Jesus answered him,. And we will come to Him and make our home with Him. Now, it does talk about God's love for us.

It is because He first loved us that we love Him. But ultimately, if we love Him, we will obey His commandments. And those commandments are not burdensome. So, first this passage speaks of love. And then this passage speaks of faith.

It says, Now, when it talks about victory and it talks about overcoming, there's something that's missed here when you read this in English. Because the root of both of these words is the same. This is the Greek word Nike, from which you get the brand Nike.

It means victory. And in its verb form is this word overcome. So, you might think of this as, and this is the overcoming that has overcome the world. Or this is the victory that victories the world. And what is it?

It is our faith. What it's talking about here is God, through the overcoming that has happened in Jesus Christ, through the victory that has been accomplished in Jesus Christ, us appropriating that victory, making it our own, by faith, we have the strength that overcomes the world and makes His commands not burdensome.

When it speaks of His commands not burdensome, it is not saying that there is no sense in which they could be described as great or as difficult. It is rather that He has given us the strength and the desire in order that they would be something that we are eager to do and able to do.

If you ever see a strong weightlifter speak of a set of weights as being light, he's usually not really suggesting that these are not heavy. Usually, if a strong weightlifter is able to lift something, he is instead bragging about the fact that it is burdenless to him because he is such a strong man that it's very easy for him to do and he's very eager to lift those weights.

Okay, this is the kind of thing that it's talking about here when it says that His commands are not burdensome. There are many things that are burdensome in this life. Many things that are burdensome.

Disobedience Makes Life Hard

First of all, disobedience is burdensome in this life. Jeremiah 6 .16 says, Thus says the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls.

But they said, we will not walk in it. So here God offers His people a way that is easy, the way of following His commands, a place where they will have rest and they choose something different. What is the implication?

But that the way of disobedience is hard. Sin is a hard taskmaster. Anyone who has experienced enough in this life knows that that's the case, that disobedience is always met with all kinds of hardship.

It might for a season seem very easy, but the rewards that it reaps later on are something of great difficulty. This is best illustrated when you think of the sins of one's youth. If you think of someone who gives themselves to the pleasures of the world and not to following the commands a parent might give in their youth, what happens to that son or daughter?

They end up living a very hard life because of all the difficulties that are attended along the way when they did not obey their parents. But the one who obeys their parents usually has a much easier life ahead of them.

Now this is true with our obedience before the Lord. Those who disobey the Lord will find that though that may be easy for a moment, it is fraught with all kinds of burdens and all kinds of hardships.

Misguided Obedience Adds Uncommanded Burdens

Secondly, misguided obedience is also hard. It is very burdensome. Matthew chapter 23 verse 4 says of the Pharisees and scribes,. So this talks about people in misguided obedience. The Pharisees and scribes, different religious hypocrites who are eager to command people in all kinds of things that are not actually necessary end up saddling them with hard burdens.

So people who, because their conscience is warped either by false leadership or by themselves misunderstanding God's word for some other reason, as they try to serve the Lord in all kinds of ways that he has not commanded, whether it be the exceedingly ceremonially religious things that you might consider all kinds of pilgrimages that people of false faiths go on and all kinds of self-flagellation, those things are burdensome.

But there are all kinds of smaller things that are very common in the Christian life that are burdensome as people think they are called to things that God has not called them to. For example, many people think that God has called them to sorts of self-denials that he has not called them to.

One that is very common is many people think that they must just be very satisfied with their state in life when it comes to either poverty or singleness in such a way that it would be wrong to even pursue improving their condition.

In fact, there are many people who by religious leadership tells them that they need to just be satisfied with what God has given them and there's a hint of truth to that. You ought to be content with everything that God's providence brings your way.

But you are not called to mortify good desires and so many people think it's a good work in their life to mortify good desires, to mortify their desire for marriage, to mortify their desires for a greater kind of happiness and estate in this life.

These are not necessarily things that God has called every person to but often people are eager to throw those commands on people who are finding it difficult and so they heap a bigger command on top of them.

That is one thing that happens. Another thing that often happens is many, because they do not understand the ways that God has called us, in particular, we just heard about the Sabbath and the importance of honoring the Lord's Day, because they do not have such a place for the Lord's Day and their soul is not fulfilled in serving God the way he ought to be served, they end up coming with a lot of different additional things that are needed in order to serve the Lord.

Lots of other events throughout the week. There are many people who in their church community end up being incredibly busy with all kinds of additional things that God has not necessarily called people to and they feel a burden to do all those things and these are heavy things that God has not required.

Outward-Only Obedience Is Burdensome

So there's misguided obedience. Now on top of misguided obedience, there's also merely outward obedience. In Malachi 1 .13 it says,. This is describing the people of Israel finding God's commands of sacrifice burdensome and so they bring him just the bare minimum that's needed and they find it no joy and God is not pleased with it at all and so it's no benefit to either party.

No benefit to God, no benefit to man. This is how many Christians are. Many Christians render in many areas of their life a mere outward obedience because they believe, they understand they are called to certain activities of obedience.

They do not desire to serve the Lord as they ought and they find it because they're just doing the outward command and they are not changed inwardly serving God also with their hearts. It is very burdensome.

So mere outward obedience is an incredibly burdensome thing. You may think of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal, the prodigal son. Remember the prodigal son has squandered his father's inheritance and he's gone and lived a poor life and then he comes back and looks for mercy from his father.

His father grants it. But the older brother, who is the main point of the parable if you know the context, the older brother is the main point, he is very dissatisfied because he served his father faithfully all these years and he hasn't felt like it has been sufficiently rewarded in the way that the prodigal is being rewarded.

This is how many people are. They don't like, they haven't received enough reward. They haven't gotten enough thanks and they are jealous of others who seem to be more blessed in their service to the Lord and it just makes them miserable people.

So when outwardly obeying, they end up becoming worse off for it. But inward obedience, true obedience that is both outward and inward is something that is not burdensome. As it says in Matthew 11 verse 28, Jesus' burden is not burdensome.

It's a paradox. How can that be? It is because he transforms his people. He gives them the eager desire because he has already had the victory. It is through faith in Jesus Christ that one has victory and overcomes.

It is through faith in Jesus Christ that his commands are not burdensome. John chapter 16. Remember what I mentioned a minute ago, many of the things that John says in 1 John are elaborating on truths that came out in the gospel that he wrote.

Well, in John 16 verse 33, it says, Jesus has overcome. Now here in John chapter 5, it does not speak of Jesus overcoming, but it speaks of the one who is born of God overcoming. And how? It's because he believes in Jesus, who is the Son of God.

What is the implication? It is because Jesus is the Son of God who has overcome the world. As was said in John 16 verse 33, How has Jesus overcome the world? Jesus has overcome the world by conquering death.

He has conquered death. We who were, in a sense, as it describes in Romans chapter 7, married to the law, such that we are condemned on its grounds. Him dying, joining with us so that we die to the law.

Him uniting himself to us so that his obedience is credited to us, granting us a righteousness that we would not otherwise have. We stand in righteousness before God by Christ's overcoming. It is because he has been raised from the dead that we will be raised from the dead.

It is because he has great strength, conquering death, that we have eternal life. Us being in the vine, receiving strength from him. These are the blessings that he has given. Now this strength of Christ, him having overcome the world by his gospel, is appropriated by faith.

By appropriated, if you don't understand that word, that just means it's made one's own. It is taken for oneself by faith. When you trust in Jesus Christ, when you look to him, trusting in the work that he has done, it is by that that you abide in the vine and you receive strength from the vine.

It is by this faith that you are joined to him. It is by this faith that you have life from him. It is by this faith that you have sight and you see with eyes of faith, understanding the victory that has already been accomplished.

It is by this that your heart is filled with the kind of desires that it needs to be filled with in order to find his commands not burdensome. It is through faith in Jesus Christ that you have victory.

It is through faith in Jesus Christ that you have strength in life in order that his commands are not burdensome. Now I think there's a passage in Scripture, or two passages rather, that explains this in a very memorable way.

Faith Makes the Law Near and Doable

If you turn please to Deuteronomy chapter 30. Deuteronomy chapter 30 addresses the nature of the law. This is at the very end of the Torah, the law of Moses. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And here at the very end of Deuteronomy, he talks about the nature of the law and whether or not it's burdensome. And listen to what he says. Deuteronomy 30, beginning in verse 11.

So is the law burdensome? It is not burdensome if it is in your mouth and it is in your heart. It is not something that is far away that is hard to acquire and understand. Rather, if it is something that has been given to you in your heart, it is not burdensome.

Now, consider how that same passage is used by Paul in Romans chapter 10. Please turn now to Romans chapter 10. Of course, in Romans, Paul speaks frequently of the nature of the law and the great difficulty that there is of obeying the law.

In fact, the impossibility of obeying the law. And Moses had addressed the same, but then said that this law is not too hard for you to do. How do these things fit together? Paul explains in Romans chapter 10, beginning in verse 5.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law. He's appealing to that passage, to Deuteronomy chapter 30. That the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, by faith, faith appropriating the victory.

Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.

That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. So why is it that someone can obey the law? Why is it that Moses can say that it's not impossible for people to follow? Though elsewhere he said that it is impossible for people to follow.

How can it be said that it's not too far away, it's not too difficult? It becomes internalized by the Spirit working in the heart, writing faith in the heart, so that Christ is known. By faith in Jesus Christ, one has the law of God in such a way that it is no longer burdensome.

Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? Do not say, who will ascend into the depth or go across the sea? That is the mindset of someone who thinks of God's law as burdensome. These are things that we cannot do or are too hard for us, but if you trust in Jesus Christ, he is the one that is in your mouth and in your heart, transforming you, giving you strength in order that you can obey, making that law not burdensome.

It is through him that you have life. In this passage in John chapter 5, consider what it says as it goes on from this first paragraph here in John chapter 5. John chapter 5 verse 6, it speaks of the testimony that we have.

It says, This is the testimony of God that he has born concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has born concerning his Son.

And this is the testimony. Okay, so what is the testimony? That God gave us eternal life and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

He has given us his life. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever has the Son has the power in himself to do the law. Whoever has the Son has the faith that overcomes and God's commands are not burdensome to that one.

This is what testifies. God working through people who have Christ in their hearts that they would do his law not in a way that is begrudging, but in a way that is eager, eager to do his law that is not burdensome.

The book has already been written. The final chapter is already done. You have been given that final chapter. You know that it is there so that everything that you experience in this life, whether or not it is attended with various sorts of difficulties, you can do it all as one who is eager to serve the Lord knowing that you already have the victory and being strengthened to overcome everything.

Faith Works Through Love and the Law Is Written on the Heart

This is something that happens by love, faith working through love. So it is not just faith. So going on from faith in Christ, faith in Christ makes commands not burdensome, but that faith in Christ works through love and it is by that love that these commands are not burdensome.

It's by love that commands are not burdensome. How does faith work? Faith works through love. That's what it says in Galatians 5, 6. This love is something that happens because God in the work of salvation, when someone turns to Christ in faith, he writes the law not merely externally on tablets of stone, but he writes it on the heart that we would desire to follow it.

Second Corinthians 3, 3 makes this distinction. It talks about how with Moses, the law was written on tablets of stone external to the people so that it wasn't necessarily on their hearts. Remember Moses is talking to people who would have the law in their hearts saying that it is something that they can do.

But for those who it's not written on the heart and it's just written on tablets of stone, they have no capacity to. It is something that's burdensome. Those who do not look to Christ in faith will find his commandments burdensome.

It says in Hebrews 8, 10 that in the new covenant, God writes his commands on our hearts. Once again, that same notion, God writing his law on our hearts. What does that mean? That they don't become burdensome when they're written in the heart because the heart is eager to do what it wishes to do.

That's the nature of the heart. It's a desire. It's an engine that's moving in a particular direction. To write the law on the heart is to set the direction of the heart so that it's eager to follow the commands of God.

Psalm 119 .32 says, Walking slow and in a way that your head is hanging low and the commandments of God is not what he has called you to. He has given the power, the victory, working the word in you by his spirit so that your heart would be enlarged.

The law being written on your heart so that you would run in his commandments. I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. This love that he has given is what powers us. It is something that gives us a great motive in order to serve him.

You can look at the various examples in scripture. Think of Jacob. Jacob felt like the years that he served for Rachel were but a few days because his heart was so set on fulfilling that in order to have her as his wife.

This is the kind of love that one has when he has the law written on his heart. When he has the victory that is by faith. It is an eager desire to do such things. You can consider the example of a mother.

A mother loves to take care of her child. It is not something that is burdensome to her. She enjoys the cooing and everything, taking care of her baby. Yet if she were to do this for somebody else's baby, for someone that her heart weren't drawn to, it would not be nearly as easy a task.

What does that show? The difficulty that one experiences with following the law of God does not have to do with whether or not the command itself is difficult. The command is great. That is the nature of it.

God has given us great commands, but then he gives the strength to do them. What is the problem if we find it too burdensome? It is our corruption that makes it burdensome. If we were not corrupt, we would rise to the challenge.

We would be eager to do it. We would want more to do. The command itself is motivating. The command is like the actual engine that moves the thing in some ways. Think of a ship. A ship has sails. The sails direct the ship in the way it should go along with the rudder.

The rudder and the sails together. You could say that sails add extra weight to the ship. They are burdensome. But no, the sails give the ship the power to move. The ship becomes more eager to go in that direction because the sails are there.

The very thing that is steering it, the very law which it follows, is the thing that excites it and energizes it. This is how the law of God is supposed to be to the Christian. If the Christian has had his heart changed by the Lord Jesus Christ, Spirit working the word in him, Spirit writing the law on his heart, he will be eager to do the law of God.

Eager to. His heart will be enlarged. He will run in the way of the commandments. And it will not be, and it might be a great thing, but it will not be a burdensome thing. Because he will be eager to follow in all of God's ways.

Repent and Pursue Good Works Through the Means God Gives

As you look at your own life and you see different things that God has called you to and you have found them burdensome, know right now that that burdensomeness that you experience is not due to the nature of the commands being too burdensome.

Christ's commands are not too burdensome. If you find them burdensome, what is going on in your life right now, in your heart, is that it is corrupt and it does not have the law written the way it needs to be written.

There is a deeper engraving that needs to be there. There is a stronger faith that needs to be there in order for your heart to leap at the privilege that it would be to serve God and the various quote-unquote difficulties that he would give and various commands that he would give you.

This is how we will be for all eternity. Once we are glorified and our heart is made perfectly pure, we will desire to serve him in every way. Not a thing will seem burdensome because we will count it a privilege every time we are given a command to serve the Lord in some way that he has given us.

They will be sails to us. That law. Repent. If you are one who has not found God's commands, light. If you have found Christ's commands burdensome, repent of the corruption in your heart. Turn to him.

Recognize that your attitude and heart posture towards him has been one of a lack of faith and not one of his harshness towards you. Turn to him. Confess your sin and he will forgive. He will give you a heart that will desire to serve him.

And he has given you many ways, you who are repentant, who turn to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Keep in mind also that pardon that he gives is what enables us to serve him without fear, not worrying about the penalty of the law coming over us.

We are free to serve without any concern of the penalty of the law. But you who have repented and turned to Jesus Christ to be strengthened by him, know that he has given many ways for you to strengthen your faith.

He has given the word. He has given prayer. He has given this gathering of the saints here. There are many ways that your faith ought to be strengthened. Many people do not understand the nature of faith as needing to be strengthened.

They think of faith as just the intellectual ascent to things and of course you believe that God is all-powerful, of course you believe that God is good, etc., etc. It is very easy to say these sorts of things, but faith is something more than that.

Faith is something that needs to be engraved deeply in the heart, not just to have the law external, like any Jew can say, these are the Ten Commandments, etc. It is to have the law internally, to have it deeply engraved in your heart.

Go to those means that God has given to strengthen faith. Do not tell yourself that you are strong enough. You are not strong enough. You need the strength of Christ. You need to turn to him in order for him to continually strengthen you week by week, day by day.

And being strengthened, pursue good works eagerly, knowing that they are not burdensome and that they are a great privilege to pursue. You should be eager to find ways that you can serve the Lord, to serve the Lord in the ways that he has revealed to you by his law, not transgressing it, obeying it in the duties that it calls you to, and even listening to his spirit for other ways that you would be called, and being filled with the heart of Christ that you would desire to do such things.

Christ Eagerly Bears the Burden for His People

There is one passage I want to close with that I think is a beautiful picture of how this heart exists in Jesus Christ. And as we are joined to him, we're given the same heart. In Isaiah chapter 27, it speaks of God's people as a vineyard, very common metaphor that's used.

It speaks of the Messiah and his strength. It says in Isaiah 27, 2 through 4, In that day, a pleasant vineyard, sing of it. I, the Lord, am its keeper. Every moment I water it, lest anyone punish it. I keep it day and night.

Okay, so it speaks of his activity in keeping the garden, that he loves the garden, he cares for the garden. Now, listen to how eager he is to love the garden, how eager he is to care for the garden. I have no wrath.

Would that I had thorns and briars to battle, I would march against them, I would burn them up together. Now, if you've ever done some yard work, and you've ever had to deal with a lot of briars, I've had to do this before.

Growing up, we had enough land that we had different patches of land that were just full of briars, and having to clip all these things down and carry them away, getting cut up by these things, even with wearing gloves, that is a hard task.

But Christ, the Messiah here in Isaiah 27, is so filled with a love for his people that he is eager to face the thorns in order to demonstrate his love for his people. And so he did, so he wore the crown of thorns, bearing the curse for us.

He is the one who dealt with the heavy burden, the only true burdensome burden he dealt with because his heart was of its own so eager to love us. And then he, in joining us with him, has given us a love so that we love him.

And likewise, the things that he calls us to, which are not the great heavy thing that he bore, we should be eager likewise to go through all kinds of difficulties to demonstrate our love for God. Let us count it a privilege.

Let us find his commands, not a burden, but a great delight to the soul. Let us run in the way of his commandments as he enlarges our hearts, us looking to him in faith, having the victory because he has already overcome.

He has overcome the world. He has given the victory. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the victory that Christ has accomplished. We thank you that we may appropriate that victory by faith. And today, as we look to him, we ask that you would grant repentance for those who do not know Jesus Christ.

We ask that they would turn to him in order that they would not obey his laws in a burdensome way, that they would not disobey him or engage in all kinds of misguided obedience, but rather have hearts that truly desire to honor him.

And Lord, for us who do trust you, but still have some indwelling corruption that makes us not as joyful as we ought to be in serving you, we pray that you would mortify that corruption more and more, that we might more joyfully serve you.

In Jesus' name, amen.