What is the Point of Obedience? (It's not what you think) | Kingsmen

The Motivation for Obedience: Mercy, Grace, and the Gospel

Welcome to the Kingsman Podcast, where we are reclaiming biblical manhood by training and equipping men for the work of the kingdom. I'm your host, John Moffitt. I'm the pastor of Grace Reform Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and one of the hosts of Theocast, a weekly podcast about Reformed theology.

Well guys, we're kind of bringing this particular thought to an end this week, just kind of summarize our first step in what does it mean to live in light of the King, and then we're gonna kind of work into some other areas.

Last week was important. I had the opportunity to go back and kind of listen to it and think through it in preparation for today, and today is... I've got a lot of coffee in me. I've had a lot of opportunities to think and preach and prepare, so if this comes off a little hotter today, I apologize ahead of time.

I'm gonna try and sudo my excitement, but we're gonna be talking about something that has crippled me for a long time. And I think it's crippled a lot of Christians in general, and that is, what are we doing here as it relates to the call to holiness, this call to good works?

It's so confusing. There is a lot of instructions in the Bible about how we should conduct ourselves, and you'll notice that the way we conduct ourselves is always in opposition. You've got evil versus good, right?

Light versus dark. And this is why you'll have commands to not do this and then commands to do that. And instructions are meaningless to us if we don't understand what they're for. I've often laughed about when I was a child and my dad would tell me to do something, and it seemed weird or strange, or I'm like, why does he want me to do that?

And as every good dad says, because I told you so, right? Well, that only works for so long as a little kid who's, you know, respectfully afraid of his dad. It's like, well, yeah, he's my dad. I probably should just do that.

As we get older, that doesn't work, and I am so thankful our Father does not say, you need to do this because I told you. On Sunday, I preached from John 15 about how Christ doesn't do that to us. In John 15, Jesus is about to go to the cross and he's about to leave, and he knows that all of these instructions that he's giving his disciples, they're very confusing to him, and so he gives them a metaphor.

He goes, I no longer call you my servants. You're not serving me as master, tutor, and teacher. He goes, I now call you my friend because I want to let you in on the inside. I want you to see this relationship I have with my Father and this relationship that I have with you, and then he gives them the instructions, and the motivation he uses is love.

He goes, the greatest example I can give you of what I need you to see is me laying my life down for you, and that's the motivation, and listen, we receive that as mercy. If you don't know what the word mercy means, it's really important because I'm going to use it a lot today, and grace.

Mercy is to not receive what you deserve. So we have violated God's law, and we deserve wrath, and to receive mercy is for God to withhold that anger and channel it somewhere else. So in other words, the wrath has been paid out.

It just was not paid out on you. It was paid out on Jesus. He received the wrath. We received mercy, and then the second aspect of that, which is the other aspect of the gospel, is grace, and grace is to receive the merit of someone else.

In other words, Jesus obeyed God perfectly, and God takes all the rewards that go to that obedience, that God earned this wonderful reward through Christ. Christ earned this wonderful reward, and he hands it to you and says, it's yours, and you don't have to do anything for it, and you will receive all the benefits of having this merit, which that's grace.

That becomes the why behind our obedience. Mercy and grace, the gospel, is why we obey. Unfortunately, in today's world, that has been diluted, confused, and changed. Yes, we're saved by grace. Yes, we're saved by mercy.

But that's the end point. Our obedience is now the way in which we add to it. And we don't like the word add, because, you know, again, we're against Rome. We use the word this way. It's the confirmation of our salvation.

No, Good Works are never used as a confirmation, because if we have to confirm something in our own strength, then we're doomed. We're done. It is not the confirmation. Now, it is true that we need to see Good Works and other believers to affirm who they are.

You would not want a pastor to be shepherding you, and there's no confirmation of his profession. You need to see a confirmation of his profession. And we, as fragile, not sovereign people, look at each other's obedience to determine whether or not someone is a believer.

But that's not the point of...not in the eyes of God. Your relationship with God is secured by Jesus. I mean, just go back to Ezekiel 36, right? It says that, He came and found us. Once He finds us, lost, dead in our sins, Ezekiel 37, dry bones.

He's the one who puts in a heart of flesh. He's the one who puts a spirit within us. So there is no us confirming, okay? God understands what He did. When He brought us to life, He knows we're alive. Then this is where it comes in.

It's like, well, what's the rest of our life about? Just kind of hanging on until Jesus comes back? No, we're not just hanging on until Jesus comes back. I know that's how I have felt, like, well, I need to keep my life clean because when Jesus comes back, I'm afraid He's going to catch me in a sin.

And, you know, as my grandma used to say, you don't want to be wearing your dirty underwear when Jesus comes. Like, that's all I have is dirty underwear. Like, I don't have anything of value to present to God as far as what He's going to accept.

And when people hear me say that, they're saying, oh, well, then, John, you're saying good works don't matter. The exact opposite. Our works matter more than you can imagine. It has nothing to do with your relationship with God.

You cannot earn more of God's love. You cannot earn more of God's favor. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Because He loved us, He laid down His life. At your worst moment of who you were, that's when Jesus demonstrated His love for you.

It wasn't when you repented. It wasn't when you came to the realization of who you were. It's when you were His enemy, God says, okay, I will now lay my life down for you. I will now give you what you do not deserve.

So it's really frustrating to me when people are trying to do good works to either prove to God that they deserve this or prove to God—you have nothing to prove, okay? You're wearing the righteousness of Christ.

You cannot have more righteousness than Jesus. This is like when Jesus says, your righteousness must be greater than the scribes and the Pharisees, which is my righteousness. And everybody was like, well, nobody can have that.

He's like, I know. That's me. I am that. If you come to me, I will give you rest from trying to earn that righteousness. But then He says, I have a something for you to do, but it's light and easy compared to what you're trying to—you're trying to earn God's favor.

You can't do that. That's a burden that will drown you to the bottom of the ocean. But what I have for you to do, it is work, but it's nothing compared to what you've had before. So let's talk about this.

Ambassadors for Christ in a Different Kingdom

Paul and Peter use this language. I don't have a lot of time, so I'm going to try my best to get through this as fast as we can. Paul uses this language of this new position, this new kind of idea, like this new awareness of who we are.

Paul will use the word ambassador. It's a really important word. It's an old word, right? We've been using it for thousands of years. The word ambassador means that you're a representative of another country.

And technically, we're a representative of another world, because we are described that we are going to leave this world, and we're going into another world. So 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20, Paul is making this appeal to the Church.

He says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, and we know that Christ is a king, and He has a kingdom, and we are a part of that kingdom. Therefore, we are the representatives of that nation, that world, which is not this world.

So he says, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal. His appeal for what? To be reconciled to Him. God making His appeal through us. Just, guys, you've got to stop for a moment and just think about that.

The creator of the universe, the power that does not exist outside of anything else. I mean, God is the example of power. He's saying, I want you to represent me to the world. Like, you're going to represent me, and this is what you're going to do.

Paul says, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For whatever reason, God's sovereign plan and will is that His people who are weak and frail, who could not save themselves, become the mouthpiece of His glory to the nations.

And this is where I know some of you are like, oh, great, John's going to talk about evangelism. I am, but not in the way that you think. So just put your tracks away, put the bad experiences you've had away, and hear me out for a moment.

I want you to feel the weight of what Paul is saying we've been recruited into. By the way, this isn't optional. Like, hey, do you want to be an ambassador? You can be, for God. He says, you are one. Okay?

So it's not optional. It's kind of like, you don't get to decide whether you're going to be a disciple or not. There isn't, like, Christian and then disciple. All disciples are Christians. All Christians are ambassadors.

This is just who we are. And this is a good thing, not a bad thing, because God's saying, I understand your weakness, child. This is, right, Hebrews when he says, we have a sympathetic high priest who understands our frailty.

So we aren't ambassadors because God doesn't call us to be ambassadors because we're strong and good at it. That, first of all, we're horrible at this. We're so bad at being ambassadors. Let's just start there.

So God isn't saying, oh, hey, you're really strong, you're ambassador. You're not strong. Well, I don't, and you need to be quiet and go sit in the back room because you're useless. He says, if Christ lives in you, then you're an ambassador.

So gentlemen, it doesn't matter what your talents is, what your personality is. It doesn't matter what your income is. God's called you because he loves you. He loves you so much. His son laid his life down for you and then says, I want you to tell others about who you are now.

Jesus says it this way before he left the world. This is John 1335. Jesus says it this way to his disciples as far as like being a representative. He says, by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

I think it's interesting how God uses the very means by which he drew us to himself, which is love. He says, that's what you're going to use to reflect me to the world. We often think it's boldness. Like we need to use brash street corner bullhorn guy yelling at people.

That's how the world will know that I'm a disciple of Jesus. You know, I'm going to get on the internet and I'm going to blow up Twitter and I'm going to show everybody by, you know, my boldness to and be brash and really crude at times.

That's how the world will know that I am not afraid of the world and I'm not afraid of the government and I'm not afraid of anybody. I'm going to, you know, what are you talking about? As a matter of fact, the definition of love is sacrifice, meekness and gentleness and kindness.

Jesus, when he describes himself, he describes himself as meek and lowly. That means his disciples who are loving each other should be meek and lowly in spirit and in heart, not angry, brash and harsh.

Being a real man is finding your confidence and being okay with being criticized. We do criticize meekness. Meekness is not weakness. Lowly in spirit, meaning that humble man who understands his place in the world, that's not weakness, but we describe it as that.

We have, somehow we respect people who are brash and loud, who are opinionated. I mean, I'm not getting into politics here, but it is interesting how a lot of the men that we choose for our president who are being presidents don't always have the attitude of humble.

Now, some of them have, but the most recent ones haven't. They are ones who know how to speak their mind, and I would say they're not speaking their mind. They're being unwise. They aren't being self-controlled, and that is not what we're called to.

I think this is interesting that sometimes we downplay our actions and say, well, God isn't really—it's what we say is more important than what we do. And listen, when it comes to our salvation before the Lord, or trying to confirm our salvation, yeah, our actions cannot matter.

But the way in which we treat one another and the way in which we treat the world, it does matter. This is Matthew 5, 16. Jesus says, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Remember that it's not God who's looking at your good works as a confirmation. He's saying the people around you are seeing your good works, and who are they reflecting, saying, wow, this is something other than this person.

So that means we have to reflect the nature of God. If someone's going to glorify God, it has to be that what we're doing is pointing towards the nature of who God is. And we've seen this in Christ, right?

So Christ is the reflection of love, and if we are embracing and loving Jesus, that's what ends up coming out of us. So we're going to just spend a little bit of time here in 1 Peter. Peter's writing to some people that are under persecution.

They're being killed. Some of them are being killed. There's a lot of pain and sorrow going on. And he's trying to help them understand, okay, how is this working? I am being loved by the sovereign God of the universe, but yet I am being hurt, right?

Or even when James tells people, he says, consider it all joy when you fall into different trials, because the testing of your faith is what produces steadfastness. Guys, I didn't have this in my note, but I'm going to take a pause right now before what I'm about to tell you, because I think it'll help us make sense.

See, we live in this world that was perfect, and then it was completely upheavaled by sin. And the moment it was upheavaled by sin, Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, sin entered in the world, the world was cursed, every human was cursed, and the first promise out of God's mouth was, I'm going to make it right, right?

I'm going to restore the world. Now, as it's being clarified throughout the rest of the Bible, what we learn is that the new world that God is bringing is unlike any other world in that unrighteousness cannot dwell there.

It's not accepted. This is why people ask Jesus, okay, when Jesus is describing his kingdom, he's describing it in such a way where sin doesn't exist there, because there's no pain, there's no death, right?

There's no sorrow. That means there can't be sin there. So, Jesus, how do we get into that kingdom? Like, how are we part of that? Because that's so different than...and he's saying, you can't be in the kingdom with me unless you're righteous, because we do not allow unrighteousness in the kingdom.

So, this is really important to understand that sometimes we think, oh, God's bringing the new heavens and the new earth here, and we're transforming it now. We're not transforming it now. We can't be transforming it now, because you can't remove sin by law or morality.

I'll just throw this out here now. There's this movement of, like, Christian Reconstructionism and the theonomy, which we're going to get into later, but there's this idea that basically God is bringing in the new heavens and the new earth by using the law to do so.

You cannot change the heart of men by the law. Colossians even says this. The end of Colossians 2 says it has an appearance of wisdom, but it's of no value of stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Okay, I say all of this for this reason.

The reason why there's still death, pain, and sorrow in the world is that the people to whom God is rescuing are here, and it is our responsibility to rescue them now, because when the new heavens and the new earth comes, they can't go into the new heavens and the new earth.

They have to have the righteousness of Jesus. They have to be cleansed and clothed in his righteousness. So, the picture I would give you is that these sinners who had this beautiful ship, and it was handed to them and say, enjoy God's creation, took a Molotov cocktail, threw it in the engine, and exploded the thing because they thought it would be funny, and now the ship is sinking, and it's going to go down.

And God says, there's a new ship I've created. It's like this one, but better. It's a new heavens and a new earth. And we aren't trying to repair the ship. It's unrepairable. It's done. But what we are doing is God saying, I'm going to leave you on the ship.

You're no longer a part of this world. You're no longer a part of this crew, but you're a part of mine. I'm going to leave you here as an ambassador saying, hey, you can get out of here. You caused this.

It's your fault. You're loving this. You're trying to pretend as if you're not coming to a doom. And the whole world knows there's a doomsday. The world knows the ship's sinking. They know this. Why? Why are there so many prepper people?

They're trying to prepare for the end of the world. Because there's a sense where we kind of feel like this is not going the right direction. This is where 1 Peter comes in. He's preparing us who are on a sinking ship saying, you're not sinking with it.

You're going to be taken out of it. But the people who are here are going to sink in this ship unless you present to them an alternative. And that alternative is the gospel. How do we present this to them?

Sojourners and Exiles Under Mercy

So this is 1 Peter chapter 2. He begins with our motivation. 2 Peter 2 verse 10. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. This is important. Once there was no nation, there was no people of God, now there is a people of God.

And this people of God, they have a new leader, which is no longer Satan. It's Christ. And they have a new world. It's not this world, but the world remained. The world that will be redeemed. So this is the perspective that we have.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Okay, so God called you out to be a people and he put mercy upon them. And so this is how he urges them to live. This is the motivation they have, which is mercy.

And now this is how they live. This is verse 11. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles. Okay, that's the identity that they hold now. I don't belong here. Sojourner and exile means that you, like an ambassador, you're the representative of another country.

We are journeying through a world that is not our world. We belong somewhere else. He says, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against the soul.

Why would he say that? Abstain from it. Because it keeps us from doing what we're supposed to be doing. Not only that, it's possible for it to happen. This is going back to episode one, our weakness. We won't go there.

But because of this perspective, he's saying, you're a sojourner, but here's what you're going to be doing. Verse 12. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles—that's another way of saying the world—honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

I think it's important how we conduct ourselves, not for the sake of our relationship with God, but our relationship with other people. Okay? So let's back up. You've not earned that. Therefore, your actions post and present cannot manipulate that.

Number two, you have a new hope and a new identity. You are a child of God. You're going to a different place. You don't belong here. So what do we do while we're here? We're keeping our conduct pure because it reflects who we are.

And as we've already learned, God can use that as a light to draw people to himself. So then what about the culture? All right, this is where I'm going to step back into the Reconstructionism. I don't have a lot of time left, but Reconstructionism and Theotomy.

Somehow we've got an off-base where it's like, well, we need to be transforming government so the government reflects what the new heavens and the new earth looks like. Nope, that is not—God has a governmental structure.

There are two spheres. There's the sphere that God has put in sovereignly for the government, and then there's the sphere of the Church, and the two do not combine. How do I know that? Peter is a great example of this.

Look at 1 Peter 2, verse 13. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

Now, does this happen perfectly? No. And also, does the Church do its job perfectly? No. But I want you to pay attention. Peter is writing to people who are in suffering right now, who are under persecution because of the government, and he says, for the Lord's sake, you're going to do this.

Why? Because we're not killing the government for doing something wrong, right? They are in rebellion against God, and they need the gospel to liberate them from that. And we're seeing this everywhere around us, that, no, the government is not—and people who run the government are not under God's control, but how are they going to do that?

They're going to do that by when we shine the light of the kingdom to them. Let's keep reading. It says this, for this is the will of God, verse 15, that being doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Live as people who are free, not as your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. So we do have a sense where we live free from the condemnation and the fear and the dread of this world.

We don't have to be afraid of it. But we also use that as a means of serving God. I love how he ends it. This is verse 17. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. There's an essence where we understand that we don't live as other people live.

We have a dual citizenship. Yes, I am a citizen of this world. I am an American citizen. Therefore, there are things here that I have the benefits of, but they also I have the obligations for. But it's not my final and ultimate hope.

I am not trying to change this government to be a government that is reflecting Christian values. Now, I would love to see everyone in our country come to know Christ. Is that God's will? I don't know.

But he tells me what his will is, right? To reflect by loving kindness and giving of these promises that I have to one another. I'll just go to the next chapter real quick in chapter 3. Paul makes it even down into the lower level into the families.

Just as an example for you, this is 1 Peter 3 1. Likewise, wives, submit to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word, so without a word coming out of their mouth, by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

I think this is why Peter also says, be ready to give every man an answer of the hope that lies within you, because they see something that's different about you. Like, wait a minute. Why do you act like this?

I'm intrigued by why you're doing this. Guys, somehow we think that it's the radical people who run into other countries or run on the street corners, and they're the ones who are proclaiming the gospel, and they're flying in, and they're the only ones who are ever advancing the kingdom.

No. According to Peter, the way in which that we do our role and we do our part is that we conduct ourselves in a way that reflects the love of God. I'll say to you like this. Why is it that Jesus was known to be the friend of a sinner?

It's because he loved sinners. He was described as a drunkard. Why? Well, because he was with them. He never once condoned their sin. Like the woman who was brought to him, and he sends her away. He says, don't sin anymore.

He's liberating people from their sin, but he went to them, and he showed the compassion. He showed them mercy. The woman at his feet who was washing his feet and weeping, she was a prostitute. Why did she feel comfortable enough to do that?

Because she knew who Jesus was. She knew that he loved her because of who she was. This is why Paul says, such were some of you. Before, you were these evil revilers against God, and God changed you and transformed you.

How? By his love, not by his anger. He removed his wrath from you. So we are the people who reflect that. We're not boasting in our good works. Our good works are so frail and weak and really useless in the eyes of God.

But to our brothers and sisters, when we're patient and kind and meek and gentle, and we reflect that humility to them, what we're saying is, I am showing you what God has done for me. Would you like to hear more about this?

Come with me. Come to our services. Come hear the good news of the gospel. And it begins by the way in which we see God's love for us, and then we reflect it to one another. All right, here's my challenge to you on a practical application, and we'll close this down.

Love, Meekness, and the Witness of Good Works

For those of you guys that are married, guys, this starts with your wife. She's your first person that you show this to. Remember when Jesus says, the world will know that you're my disciple when you love your wife.

I just changed the words a little bit. But when he says when you love one another, and your wife is a disciple. And so the world will know that you are a follower of Christ by the way that you love her.

And how is it you're going to find the energy to do that? You're going to find the energy to do that by looking at his love for you. Guys, the purpose of your life is not to pursue your own entertainment, your own desires, your own passions.

You've tried that. It's meaningless. It doesn't help you. No one is satisfied. You're angry. You're caught in sin. You've got bad habits. Or you could say there are people, well, I'll just say this. It's probably going to be a little bit of a shock, but the young lady who went into a school and took a bunch of lives here in Nashville, it is so horrendous to horrible to think about.

She was trapped in sin. The conclusion she came to, to solve her problem was to take the life of someone else. Do you know David came to that same conclusion? David said, well, this man is in my way of fulfilling my desire to sleep with Bathsheba.

I'm going to take him out. That's the power of sin. How are we going to liberate people from that? Are you just going to throw them in jail and give the law to them? No, they need the gospel. They need people to be compassionate, to be sacrificial, to be willing to sit with them and love them and hear with them.

And we're going to have to trust the Lord and his sovereignty to bring people to light. But guys, there's more to life than just pleasing yourself. There is so much more. So my encouragement to you is take serious this call to be a sojourner and an exile and ambassador and a representative of Christ.

And the way in which we do that is be a good employer, love your children, love your wife, be dedicated to the church, be refreshed and be renewed and realize that God is using that to shed his light and the salt into the world and be satisfied with that.

And know one day that God will use that. And whatever way he does, it doesn't matter. Paul says it this way, some water, some plant, God brings the increase. So just trust that your life is more than your bank account, your waistline, and the level of entertainment that you can find.

You are liberating people who are enslaved. I hope that was encouraging. Hope it's helpful. Send us some feedback. Let us know how this has been helpful to you. We're going to have a new episode for you next week.