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Voddie Baucham - The Basis for Biblical Ethics · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Open Romans, Chapter twelve and verse one. Romans Chapter twelve
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Speaker 1: and verse one. We're going to go a bit slow
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Speaker 1: here at the beginning of this last section of the
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Speaker 1: Book of Romans. We will deal with verse one on
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Speaker 1: this week and verse two on next week. Let's read
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Speaker 1: together Romans Chapter twelve, Verse one. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers,
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Speaker 1: by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as
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Speaker 1: a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
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Speaker 1: your spiritual worship. There is a mouthful there, amen. I
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Speaker 1: appeal to you, therefore, by the mercies of God, to
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Speaker 1: present your bodies living sacrifices. What a word picture a
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Speaker 1: living sacrifice in light of the temple worship with which
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Speaker 1: all's hearers would have been familiar, where sacrifices didn't live.
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Speaker 1: But to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
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Speaker 1: acceptable to God. Here we have the source and ground
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Speaker 1: and foundation of Christian ethics. How do we do what
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Speaker 1: is right? How do we know what is right? How
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Speaker 1: do we evaluate the rightness or wrongness of any action?
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Speaker 1: That is the question. There are many ways that Christians
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Speaker 1: have tried to approach this, but approach it we must.
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Speaker 1: Christianity is not a theoretical religion. God does not save
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Speaker 1: us merely to give us a new outlook on life.
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Speaker 1: Nor is our righteousness merely positional in nature. God actually
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Speaker 1: changes who we are. If any man is in Christ,
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Speaker 1: he is a new creation. All things have passed away,
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Speaker 1: new things have come. Therefore, we must move from the
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Speaker 1: theoretical to the concrete. We must move from principle to application.
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Speaker 1: Our faith must impact our everyday life. Therefore, Paul calls
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Speaker 1: us to present our very selves to God as living sacrifices.
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Speaker 1: James Edwards notes that this issue concerns not religious renewal
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Speaker 1: or increased spiritual consciousness, but the transformation of bodily existence
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Speaker 1: as an expression of spiritual worship. Changing who we are,
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Speaker 1: changing how we behave not just changing the way we think,
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Speaker 1: though we must do that, and we'll get to that
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Speaker 1: on next week. But this changes our very behavior. This
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Speaker 1: is where positional righteousness becomes actual righteousness, where faith meets practice,
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Speaker 1: where orthodoxy gives way to orthopraxy, where our calling is
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Speaker 1: reflected in our conduct. In short, we have moved from
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Speaker 1: the indicatives of the first eleven chapters to the imperatives
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Speaker 1: in the last portion of the book. Now as way
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Speaker 1: of reminder, remember whenever we read in the scriptures, whenever
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Speaker 1: we are reading here in the New Testament, whenever we're
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Speaker 1: reading in the epistles, we are on the lookout for
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Speaker 1: indicatives and imperatives. Indicative, this is a hymnal, I'm indicating
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Speaker 1: what the thing is. An imperative Open the hymnal. That's
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Speaker 1: an imperative. I'm telling you something to do. So when
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Speaker 1: we read in the scriptures, we have to be aware
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Speaker 1: of the indicatives and the imperatives. Why because the indicatives
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Speaker 1: tell us what God has done or accomplished in us,
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Speaker 1: what He has done or accomplished on our behalf. The
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Speaker 1: indicatives tell us who we are in Christ, and the
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Speaker 1: indicatives remind us of both the power and the motivation
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Speaker 1: to carry out that with which we're charged the imperatives.
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Speaker 1: That is all that God commands of us. But when
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Speaker 1: we see those commands, we do not go about trying
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Speaker 1: to accomplish them in our own strength and in our
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Speaker 1: own power. Instead, we point back to the indicatives that
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Speaker 1: show us who we are in Christ, what God has
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Speaker 1: accomplished in us, what God has made of us, And
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Speaker 1: we are thereby empowered and motivated to accomplish those imperatives.
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Speaker 1: If we confuse the indicatives and the imperatives, we end
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Speaker 1: up in works righteousness. If we confuse the indicatives and
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Speaker 1: the imperatives, we end up in legalism. If we confuse
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Speaker 1: the indicatives and the imperatives, we confuse what the Gospel
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Speaker 1: requires and what the Gospel produces. What the Gospel requires
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Speaker 1: his repentance and faith. What the Gospel produces in us
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Speaker 1: is obedience to all God's commands. So in the first
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Speaker 1: eleven chapters, Paul has painstakingly walked through the indicatives of
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Speaker 1: the Christian life, the indicatives of justification, the indicatives of sanctification.
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Speaker 1: He is showing us who we were and what God
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Speaker 1: in Christ has accomplished in us, for us, and through us.
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Speaker 1: And now we come to the second half of the
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Speaker 1: book and it gets skin on it. It's no longer theoretical.
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Speaker 1: Now he demonstrates for us. He shows us what the
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Speaker 1: Christian life actually looks like when the first eleven chapters
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Speaker 1: are true of us. See, when the first eleven chapters
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Speaker 1: of the Book of Romans are true of us, it
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Speaker 1: doesn't just put us in a position to talk about
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Speaker 1: justification and to have theological, theoretical, philosophical debates. When the
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Speaker 1: first eleven chapters are true of us, it actually manifests
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Speaker 1: itself in the way that we live and in the
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Speaker 1: way that we interact with one another, so that that
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Speaker 1: idea of righteousness becomes a lifestyle that manifests and expresses
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Speaker 1: that righteousness that Christ has wrought in us. Let's go
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Speaker 1: here to our confession. What is an ethical act? Look
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Speaker 1: at our confession. Look on page six seventy eight of
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Speaker 1: your hymnal, probably six seventy nine of your hymnal, Chapter
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Speaker 1: sixteen of Good Works. We'll come back here to chapter
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Speaker 1: sixteen again, and I would commend the entire chapter to
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Speaker 1: you for the second time. We won't read it all
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Speaker 1: here today, but look with me, chapter sixteen, paragraph seven
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Speaker 1: works done by unregenerate men. Although for the matter of them,
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Speaker 1: they may be things which God commands and of good use,
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Speaker 1: both to themselves and others. Yet because they proceed not
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Speaker 1: from a heart purified by faith, nor are done in
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Speaker 1: a right manner according to the Word, nor to a
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Speaker 1: right end the glory of God, they are therefore sinful
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Speaker 1: and cannot please God nor make a man meet to
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Speaker 1: receive grace from God, and yet their neglect of them
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Speaker 1: is more sinful and displeasing to God. In other words,
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Speaker 1: if we are going to judge an action, here's how
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Speaker 1: we must judge an action. It has to be a
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Speaker 1: right action. It has to be done from a right heart,
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Speaker 1: purified by faith. It has to be done in a
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Speaker 1: right manner according to the Word of God, and it
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Speaker 1: has to be done to a right end to the
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Speaker 1: glory of God. Then and only then, do we have
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Speaker 1: a right and or ethical action. If someone does the
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Speaker 1: right thing from a right heart in the right manner,
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Speaker 1: but does it to the wrong end their own glory,
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Speaker 1: then their action is still unethical and sinful because they
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Speaker 1: are seeking to glorify themselves. If they do the right
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Speaker 1: thing from a right heart and they do it to
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Speaker 1: the right ends, but they do it the wrong way
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Speaker 1: in a fashion that is unbiblical, it is still a
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Speaker 1: sinful unethical act. If someone has the right heart, the
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Speaker 1: right manner, and the right ends, but they do the
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Speaker 1: wrong thing, it is still a sinful act. It must
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Speaker 1: be a right action from a right heart, done in
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Speaker 1: the right manner, and done for the right ends in
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Speaker 1: order for it to be considered an ethical or righteous act,
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Speaker 1: And if it does not rise to that level, it
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Speaker 1: is sinful, it is unacceptable. And let me just put
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Speaker 1: a little caveat here. You've never done an act like
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Speaker 1: this before, just in case you were wondering, You have it.
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Speaker 1: All of your actions have such a mixture of your
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Speaker 1: own faults and errors that none of them are ever
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Speaker 1: acceptable to God in and of themselves. But it is
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Speaker 1: only because you are positionally righteous in Christ that God
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Speaker 1: consider your actions acceptable and righteous and holy. But how
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Speaker 1: do we arrive at a proper understanding of biblical ethics,
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Speaker 1: a proper understanding of how and why we do the
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Speaker 1: right thing? Bear with me for a moment as I
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Speaker 1: go through a few of these possibilities before getting to
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Speaker 1: the one that Paul offers to us here in Romans
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Speaker 1: twelve to one. First, there is the Golden rule approach
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Speaker 1: to Christian ethics. The Golden rule approach to Christian ethics.
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Speaker 1: This approach is really based on the fact that Jesus said,
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Speaker 1: so whatever you wish that others would do to you,
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Speaker 1: do also to them, or do unto others as you
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Speaker 1: would have them do unto you. The Golden rule of ethics.
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Speaker 1: That idea is usually based in this foundational assumption that
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Speaker 1: we want to live in a world and we want
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Speaker 1: to be part of a society where people act in
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Speaker 1: a way that is appropriate. And if you want to
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Speaker 1: be part of that world, then your part in that
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Speaker 1: is to do things in a way that you would
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Speaker 1: want them done to you, so that you can perpetuate
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Speaker 1: that kind of ethic motivation. Here is the problem. This
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Speaker 1: becomes manipulative and it becomes man centered. Why did I
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Speaker 1: do that action because I wanted to receive it in return?
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Speaker 1: In other words, the source and foundation of my ethics
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Speaker 1: is myself, my pleasure, my comfort. The source and foundation
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Speaker 1: of my ethics is to manipulate you to live in
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Speaker 1: a certain way toward me. The source and foundation of
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Speaker 1: my ethics is to create a society and to create
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Speaker 1: an environment that does to me what I want. That
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Speaker 1: means that it is inherently self centered. So the ends
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Speaker 1: of it are not to glorify God. The ends of
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Speaker 1: it are to satisfy me. Therefore, the Golden Rule not
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Speaker 1: an acceptable foundation for Christian ethics. And remember that even
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Speaker 1: that text is found within the context of the Sermon
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Speaker 1: on the Mount, and that is not what Jesus is
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Speaker 1: arguing for in the Sermon on the Mount. Doesn't mean
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Speaker 1: that the Golden Rule is bad, it's just the improper
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Speaker 1: foundation for our Christian ethics. Secondly, the fear of God,
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Speaker 1: the fear of God, this is the Roman Catholic approach
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Speaker 1: Cavin rights. It is enough for the Papists or Roman
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Speaker 1: Catholics if they can extort by terror some sort of
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Speaker 1: forced obedience. Listen to this from the Council of Session six,
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Speaker 1: Canon twenty four and in Session six Canon thirty. By
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Speaker 1: the way, the Council of Trent is the Roman Catholic
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Speaker 1: response to the Reformation. It is the dogma and doctrine
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Speaker 1: of the Roman Catholic Church as it is considered infallible.
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Speaker 1: Vatican one did not overturn Trent. Vatican two did not
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Speaker 1: overturn Trent or Vatican one. This is the doctrine and
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Speaker 1: dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, and since it is
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Speaker 1: considered infallible, it cannot and will not be overturned. And
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Speaker 1: I quote if anyone says that the righteousness received is
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Speaker 1: not preserved and also increased before God by good works,
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Speaker 1: but that those works are merely the fruits and signs
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Speaker 1: of justification obtained, but not a cause of its increase.
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Speaker 1: Let him be anathema or cursed. This is a curse
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Speaker 1: of damnation upon the one who believes in salvation by
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Speaker 1: grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This is
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Speaker 1: another gospel. This is the ethics of the fear of God.
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Speaker 1: More specifically Canon thirty in Session six. If anyone says
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Speaker 1: that the guilt is remitted to every penitent sinner after
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Speaker 1: the grace of justification has been received, and that the
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Speaker 1: debt of eternal punishment is so blotted out that there
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Speaker 1: remains no debt of temporal punishment to be discharged, either
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Speaker 1: in this world or in the next in purgatory before
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Speaker 1: the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven can be obtained,
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Speaker 1: let him be anathema. I say again, this is another gospel.
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Speaker 1: So how does this work? Here's the source of your ethics.
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Speaker 1: God is holy, righteous, and full of wrath towards the wicked. Secondly,
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Speaker 1: you are wicked and deserve god wrath. Thirdly, you must
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Speaker 1: do all you can to assuage the wrath of God.
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Speaker 1: You will, not, however, accomplish that here in this life.
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Speaker 1: You will ultimately have to finish that work in purgatory
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Speaker 1: through paying for your sins. Of course, we know the
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Speaker 1: problem with this. Christ died for sins, once for all,
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Speaker 1: the just for the unjust, in order that he might
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Speaker 1: bring us back to God. It's not scripture, but it
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Speaker 1: is true. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn
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Speaker 1: from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose
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Speaker 1: all their guilty stains. We do not act because of
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Speaker 1: the fear of displeasing God. That is not the ground
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Speaker 1: of our ethics. Thirdly, the law of God, the law
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Speaker 1: of God. We act because God has said it is right.
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Speaker 1: This is much closer to where we are going to land.
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Speaker 1: The idea here is that first, God has laid down
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Speaker 1: a universal transcendent law, and the Decalogue the Ten Commandments,
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Speaker 1: universal transcendent law of God. Secondly, all actions are judged
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Speaker 1: ultimately by that standard, by the standard of God's law. Thirdly,
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Speaker 1: and here's from Confession, Chapter nineteen, paragraph five, the moral
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Speaker 1: law does forever bind all as well justified persons as
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Speaker 1: others to the obedience thereof, and that not only in
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Speaker 1: regard to the matter contained in it, but also in
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Speaker 1: respect of the authority of God, the creator who gave it.
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Speaker 1: Neither does Christ and the Gospel in any way dissolve,
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Speaker 1: but much strengthen this obligation, which is true. But is
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Speaker 1: that the ground of our ethics? What's the problem? If
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Speaker 1: we stop here and make the law the ground of
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Speaker 1: our ethics, what we can end up with is this
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Speaker 1: idea saved by grace, kept or sanctified by works. Justification
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Speaker 1: is of grace, sanctification through the law. I've heard that
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Speaker 1: precise statement, by the way, from one who holds to
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Speaker 1: this position. Look at the Sermon on the Mount. Is
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Speaker 1: that what Jesus is saying? You have heard it said?
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Speaker 1: And then what does he refer to the mosaic law?
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Speaker 1: And where does he go from there? But I say
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Speaker 1: to you there's a higher standard than just the keeping
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Speaker 1: of the written word. By the way, don't fear. Our
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Speaker 1: confession clears this up in chapter nineteen. Chapter nineteen does
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Speaker 1: not hold that this is the ground of our ethics.
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Speaker 1: I'll explain that later. The other problem, of course, James
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Speaker 1: makes it clear James chapter two and verse ten. Whoever
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Speaker 1: keeps the whole law but fails in one point has
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Speaker 1: become accountable for all of it. You have to keep
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Speaker 1: the whole law. We can't keep the whole law. So
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Speaker 1: what is left as the ground for Christian ethics? What
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Speaker 1: is left for us in determining what is right? What
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Speaker 1: is left for us in moving forward in obedience to God.
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Speaker 1: I'll tell you what's left for us, the mercy of God.
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Speaker 1: That's what's left for us. That is the ground and
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Speaker 1: foundation upon which we build our ethics. Again, I read
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Speaker 1: I appeal to you, brothers, And that word appeal is
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Speaker 1: not a strong enough word. The Apostle is not begging here.
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Speaker 1: He is exhorting here. Keep that in your mind, that
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Speaker 1: the Apostle doesn't go through the first eleven chapters and
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Speaker 1: then say, you know, in a lot of the eleven chapters, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I think it might be a pretty good idea. If
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Speaker 1: maybe I don't know you trust. No, that's not what
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Speaker 1: he's saying here. He is exhorting here. I exhort you
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Speaker 1: there for brothers, by the mercies of God, to present
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Speaker 1: your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable to God,
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Speaker 1: which is your spiritual service of worship. There's one thing
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Speaker 1: that he says here, here's the imperative. Give your body
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Speaker 1: to God, Give your whole self to God. Give everything
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Speaker 1: that you have and everything that you are to God
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Speaker 1: based on what his mercy in the first eleven chapters.
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Speaker 1: Listen to this from John Calvin. But Paul that he
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Speaker 1: might bind us to God not by servile fear, but
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Speaker 1: by the voluntary and cheerful love of righteousness. Allures us
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Speaker 1: by the sweetness of that favor by which our salvation
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Speaker 1: is affected. And at the same time he reproaches us
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Speaker 1: with ingratitude. Except we, after having found a Father so
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Speaker 1: kind and bountiful, to strive in our own turn to
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Speaker 1: dedicate ourselves holy to him. Paul says, in light of
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Speaker 1: the mercies of God, that's the ground of your ethics,
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Speaker 1: the Gospel. The ground of your ethics is the indicatives
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Speaker 1: what God has done in you, for you and through
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Speaker 1: you in Christ. That's the ground of your ethics. Who
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Speaker 1: God has made you in Christ. That's the ground of
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Speaker 1: your ethics. What God has shown you through what He
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Speaker 1: has done in Christ. That's the ground of your ethics.
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Speaker 1: That is where you derive both the power and the
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Speaker 1: motivation for your obedience. So what does that look like.
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Speaker 1: There's a mental image here that of the animal sacrifice.
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Speaker 1: They know what this means. So here's the picture. When
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Speaker 1: you come to sacrifice at the altar. What do you
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Speaker 1: come with? You bring your bull, or your lamb or
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Speaker 1: your goat. You bring it under the law in order
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Speaker 1: to be sacrificed. Its throat is cut, it dies. What
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Speaker 1: does it represent. It represents your failure to keep the law.
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Speaker 1: That's what it represents. So you come before God with
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Speaker 1: your bull, and you say, I have not kept your law.
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Speaker 1: I need to be forgiven because I have violated your law.
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Speaker 1: This bull is slain. It is killed without the shedding
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Speaker 1: of blood. There is no remission of sin. And therein
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Speaker 1: by faith you believe that God has accepted your offering.
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Speaker 1: And because He has accepted your offering, you are forgiven.
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Speaker 1: But what would it look like if you brought a
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Speaker 1: bull in light of the finished work of Christ. God,
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Speaker 1: I know that you have sacrificed your only begotten, perfect, sinless,
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Speaker 1: precious sun for the sins of your people. But I
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Speaker 1: just thought I'd add the blood of this bull, just
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Speaker 1: in case Jesus was lacking anything. How dare we? So
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Speaker 1: what do you bring? You bring? You? You bring you,
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Speaker 1: and you lay yourself on God's altar. This Paul says,
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Speaker 1: is your spiritual worship or your logical liturgy in the Greek.
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Speaker 1: This is the only thing that makes sense in light
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Speaker 1: of what God has accomplished in Christ. The only thing
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Speaker 1: that makes sense is not that you would bring another offering,
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Speaker 1: but that you would give your self to God, that
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Speaker 1: you would lay yourself on the altar, that you would
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Speaker 1: turn yourself over and relinquish all rights to yourself. That
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Speaker 1: Christ has now purchased you, that you are His, that
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Speaker 1: your life is now hidden with Christ. You were crucified
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Speaker 1: with Christ, and yet you live, not you, but Christ
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Speaker 1: who lives in you. Listen to this. All ethical systems
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Speaker 1: make some appeal to moral law and rules. Paul, however,
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Speaker 1: makes no appeal to moral principles. He appeals solely to
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Speaker 1: God's mercy. If Christian morality were simply a deference of
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Speaker 1: divine wrath, then it would not be morally at all.
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Speaker 1: It would simply be some sort of moral ransom rooted
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Speaker 1: in fear. If it were done in hopes of receiving
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Speaker 1: something from God, then it will be manipulative and ecocentric.
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Speaker 1: True Christian ethics. On the other hand, our ethics of gratitude,
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Speaker 1: the obedience pleasing to God is characterized by free and
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Speaker 1: willing submission because of God's prior sacrifice of his son
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Speaker 1: in our behalf. That's the ground of our ethics. That's
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Speaker 1: the ground of our ethics, because of what God has
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Speaker 1: done in Christ, because of what God has done in
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Speaker 1: you through the finished work of His Son, because of
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Speaker 1: who you are in Christ. By Jonathan Edwards writes, true
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Speaker 1: virtue must chiefly consist in love to God. We do
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Speaker 1: it because we're grateful. So what does this look like
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Speaker 1: when you break it down logically? Here it is one
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Speaker 1: go back with me to Roman chapter one, and we'll
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Speaker 1: look at this. First, We've been made righteous by God's
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Speaker 1: redemptive work. Looking chapter one, verses sixteen and seventeen. For
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Speaker 1: I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the
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Speaker 1: power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To
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Speaker 1: the jew first and also to the Greek. For in it,
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Speaker 1: oftentimes we look at verse sixteen, and we do not
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Speaker 1: look at verse seventeen. Verse sixteen is good, amen. But
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Speaker 1: look at verse seventeen, for in it the righteousness of
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Speaker 1: God is revealed from faith. For faith, as it is written,
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Speaker 1: the righteous shall live by faith. What does this gospel
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Speaker 1: produce in us righteousness. Secondly, this was accomplished through the
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Speaker 1: person and work of Christ. Look at Romans chapter three,
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Speaker 1: twenty one to twenty six. But now the righteousness of
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Speaker 1: God has been manifested apart from the law, although the
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Speaker 1: law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness
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Speaker 1: of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe,
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Speaker 1: the righteousness through faith for all who believe. For there
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Speaker 1: is no distinction. For all have sinned and falls short
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Speaker 1: of the glory of God, and are justified by His
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Speaker 1: grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ, Jesus,
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Speaker 1: whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.
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Speaker 1: Remember that word propitiation means he satisfied the wrath of God. Again,
27:37
Speaker 1: fear cannot be the ground of our ethics. There is
27:40
Speaker 1: no fear for us because the wrath of God has
27:43
Speaker 1: been fully assuaged by being poured out on his son
27:51
Speaker 1: to be received by faith. This was to show God's
27:54
Speaker 1: righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over
27:59
Speaker 1: former sin. It was to show his righteousness at the
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Speaker 1: present time, so that He might be just and the
28:05
Speaker 1: justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So
28:10
Speaker 1: God has accomplished this work in the person of Christ. Thirdly,
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Speaker 1: we cannot add to that which Christ has accomplished on
28:18
Speaker 1: our behalf. Look at the next part of the passage. Then,
28:22
Speaker 1: what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded by what
28:27
Speaker 1: kind of law? By the law of works? No, but
28:30
Speaker 1: by the law of faith. For we hold that one
28:32
Speaker 1: is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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Speaker 1: Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is
28:38
Speaker 1: he not the God of the gentiles? Also, yes, of
28:40
Speaker 1: the gentiles? Also, since God is one who will justify
28:43
Speaker 1: the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Four.
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Speaker 1: Christ's work makes us both judicially and actually righteous. Go
28:55
Speaker 1: to chapter five. Therefore, as one verse eighteen, therefore is
29:11
Speaker 1: one trespass led to condemnation for all men, So one
29:15
Speaker 1: act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
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Speaker 1: For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were
29:23
Speaker 1: made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many
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Speaker 1: will be made righteous. There's our positional righteousness in Christ.
29:30
Speaker 1: Now the law came in to increase the trespass. But
29:33
Speaker 1: where sin increased grace abounded, all the more so that
29:37
Speaker 1: as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through
29:42
Speaker 1: the righteousness, leading to eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
29:46
Speaker 1: Chapter six, verse one. What shall we say, then, are
29:49
Speaker 1: we to continue in sin that grace may abound meganuta?
29:54
Speaker 1: May it never be? How can we who died to
29:57
Speaker 1: sin still live in it? Do you not know that
30:00
Speaker 1: all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus,
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Speaker 1: have been baptized into his death. We were buried therefore
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Speaker 1: with him by baptism and to death, in order that,
30:10
Speaker 1: just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
30:12
Speaker 1: glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness
30:17
Speaker 1: of life, not just judicially righteous or positionally righteous, but
30:31
Speaker 1: actually righteous. Christ did not die so that I might
30:37
Speaker 1: have symbolic righteousness before God. He was the first born
30:42
Speaker 1: among many brethren. I am being conformed to his image.
30:46
Speaker 1: You are being conformed to his image. He did not
30:51
Speaker 1: die just so that you could be theoretically righteous before God,
30:55
Speaker 1: but in order to make you actually righteous and to
30:59
Speaker 1: increase righteousness in you. Because you are in Christ and
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Speaker 1: Christ is in you. Five. Therefore we have both the
31:10
Speaker 1: power and the motivation to obey. That brings us to
31:14
Speaker 1: twelve to one. I exhort you therefore by the mercies
31:24
Speaker 1: of God. Why because you should be made righteous, because
31:30
Speaker 1: the work was accomplished through Christ. Because you cannot add
31:34
Speaker 1: to it, because this work doesn't just make you positionally righteous,
31:37
Speaker 1: but actually righteous. In view of that, give your body
31:41
Speaker 1: to God. It's the only thing that makes sense. It
31:48
Speaker 1: is your spiritual worship. It is your logical liturgy that
31:53
Speaker 1: you would give your body to God. Now back in
31:57
Speaker 1: our confession, chapter nineteen, turn with me. If you have
32:01
Speaker 1: your hymno. Still open. Chapter nineteen, go to paragraph seven.
32:08
Speaker 1: Some of you were worried there by paragraph five and
32:11
Speaker 1: may have thought that there was some legalism being advanced here.
32:14
Speaker 1: Let's go to paragraph seven. That would be on page six,
32:17
Speaker 1: p't eighty one of the himal After speaking about how
32:25
Speaker 1: useful the law is in our lives in a number
32:30
Speaker 1: of ways, shows us what holiness and righteousness is, reveals
32:35
Speaker 1: the sin that is in us, all of these, and
32:37
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. Paragraph seven. Neither are the
32:40
Speaker 1: aforementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of
32:43
Speaker 1: the Gospel, But do sweetly comply with it. The spirit
32:47
Speaker 1: of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to
32:52
Speaker 1: do that freely and cheerfully, which the will of God
32:55
Speaker 1: revealed in the law required to be done. You see
33:04
Speaker 1: the fact that the Gospel is the ground and the
33:07
Speaker 1: foundation upon which our ethics built. And here's where some
33:11
Speaker 1: people make a mistake. Some people make the mistake and saying,
33:16
Speaker 1: you know, yes, here's this new law, the law of love.
33:20
Speaker 1: Because we have this new law, the law of love,
33:22
Speaker 1: we don't look at God's moral law anymore. But the
33:27
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is, as we've read again and
33:31
Speaker 1: again and again in Romans, the law is holy, The
33:36
Speaker 1: law is righteous, the law is good. So how do
33:45
Speaker 1: you connect these two things. Here's how you connect them.
33:50
Speaker 1: Because we are in Christ, we have both the power
33:55
Speaker 1: and the motivation to obey God's law. Don't believe me.
34:02
Speaker 1: Turn to the right and look at chapter thirteen, and
34:14
Speaker 1: eventually we'll get here. But again, this is the last section.
34:20
Speaker 1: Here are the imperatives. This is how we go from
34:26
Speaker 1: the abstract to the concrete, and we answer the question,
34:30
Speaker 1: what does that look like in the life of a believer?
34:35
Speaker 1: How do you live this righteous life to which we've
34:38
Speaker 1: been called, this righteous life that we've been enabled to live.
34:41
Speaker 1: How do we accomplish it? And what does it look
34:44
Speaker 1: like when it is accomplished. Do we accomplish it through
34:47
Speaker 1: keeping the law? No, we don't accomplish it through keeping
34:49
Speaker 1: the law. We accomplish it by Christ because of what
34:53
Speaker 1: Christ has accomplished in us. We accomplish it because of
34:57
Speaker 1: the motivation that we now have what Christ has accomplished
35:01
Speaker 1: in us. But when we accomplish it, what does it
35:03
Speaker 1: look like? Chapter thirteen, beginning of verse eight. Oh, no
35:07
Speaker 1: one anything except to love each other. For the one
35:10
Speaker 1: who loves another has fulfilled the law. See there, it
35:15
Speaker 1: is right. Those ten commandments thing, they're gone. All we
35:18
Speaker 1: got now is love. We just have to love each other.
35:20
Speaker 1: Let's just keep reading, shall we? For the commandments you
35:26
Speaker 1: shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall
35:30
Speaker 1: not steal, you shall not covet and any other commandment
35:34
Speaker 1: are summed up in this word. You shall love your
35:37
Speaker 1: neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore,
35:41
Speaker 1: love is the fulfilling of the law. Let me help
35:49
Speaker 1: you understand what Paul just said. It's all about the
35:56
Speaker 1: law of love. Love your brother. Amen, I'm glad we
36:01
Speaker 1: get rid of that ten commandment stuff. No, actually, you
36:06
Speaker 1: love your brother that way, but no, no, I got
36:10
Speaker 1: something better than the ten commandments. Really, let me see
36:15
Speaker 1: if I understand this correctly. You think you could love
36:18
Speaker 1: your brother, and now let's it's second table of the
36:20
Speaker 1: law here. Okay, first table of the law, our duty
36:23
Speaker 1: to God. Second table of the law, our duty to
36:25
Speaker 1: our fellow man. Second table of the law. You're talking
36:27
Speaker 1: about loving your brother. Okay, you love your brother, but
36:32
Speaker 1: you will not honor your brother, honor your mother and
36:36
Speaker 1: your father. That's the fifth commandment, first commandment, and the
36:39
Speaker 1: second table of the law, or the bridge between the
36:41
Speaker 1: first table and the second table. I love my parents.
36:45
Speaker 1: I don't honor them, I don't obey them, but I
36:49
Speaker 1: love them. What does that mean? Sixth commandment, You shall
36:55
Speaker 1: not murder. I love my brother. I killed him, but
36:59
Speaker 1: I really do love him. Seventh commandment, you shall not
37:04
Speaker 1: commit adultery. I love my brother, my sister, and the
37:08
Speaker 1: Lord my wife. I cheated on her, but I love her.
37:20
Speaker 1: Shall not steal I love my brother. I took something
37:25
Speaker 1: that belonged to him, but I love him. You shall
37:31
Speaker 1: not bear false witness. I love my brother. I lied
37:33
Speaker 1: on him, but I do really love him. And if
37:37
Speaker 1: you could see inside of me, all you would see
37:39
Speaker 1: is love bubbling up for my brother. Do not covet,
37:48
Speaker 1: Do not desire for yourself that which God has given
37:51
Speaker 1: to your brother. I love my brother, but I want
37:55
Speaker 1: what he's got to be mine. I want to deprive
37:58
Speaker 1: him of it, but I love him. You see this,
38:03
Speaker 1: Paul saying, there's no disconnect between the two. But here's
38:08
Speaker 1: the difference. If you are not in Christ, there is
38:14
Speaker 1: no way in the world that you can avoid violating
38:17
Speaker 1: those commandments. You can't. You can't get there from here.
38:23
Speaker 1: But when you are in Christ, there is no way
38:28
Speaker 1: in the world that you can continue to be formed
38:32
Speaker 1: in His image and conformed to His image and pursue
38:36
Speaker 1: the breaking of those commandments towards your brother. You won't
38:42
Speaker 1: do it. You won't do it and pursue Christ simultaneously.
38:46
Speaker 1: You can't. Those things don't operate together. And so when
38:51
Speaker 1: I am breaking these commandments, what do I do do?
38:54
Speaker 1: I double down and knuckle under and try harder. Know
38:58
Speaker 1: why am I breaking the commandments? Because my flesh is
39:02
Speaker 1: prone to wander. Lord, I feel it prone to leave
39:05
Speaker 1: the one I love so what do I do. Do
39:09
Speaker 1: I try harder to make my flesh obey, or do
39:13
Speaker 1: I run and flee to Christ? Knowing that as I
39:18
Speaker 1: pursue Christ, and as Christ is increased in me, that
39:27
Speaker 1: the result of that is that I do not pursue
39:31
Speaker 1: the violation of these commandments. Do you see that? You
39:36
Speaker 1: see one of these things breeds works righteousness, the other
39:41
Speaker 1: breeds humility and faith. Let's apply this a little, shall we.
39:49
Speaker 1: Let's look for example that a husband loving his wife. Well,
39:57
Speaker 1: let's go through these grids a his wife and the
40:01
Speaker 1: way we pursue a husband loving his wife. Again, that's
40:05
Speaker 1: an imperative. It's an imperative in the Book of Ephesians
40:08
Speaker 1: that comes in the second half of the Book of Ephesians. Providentially,
40:12
Speaker 1: we just finished the first half of the Book of
40:14
Speaker 1: Ephesians today in our New Testament reading. The first half
40:17
Speaker 1: is all about the indicatives, and we just finished with
40:19
Speaker 1: that great chriscendo about the indicatives about who our God is,
40:23
Speaker 1: who Christ is, about who we are in Christ, about
40:26
Speaker 1: us being seated with Him in the heavenly places. We've
40:29
Speaker 1: just finished all those indicatives about what Christ has accomplished
40:32
Speaker 1: in us about this great unity between Christ and his
40:35
Speaker 1: body the church, how he exercises that headship over his
40:39
Speaker 1: body the church, and how the church brings glory and
40:42
Speaker 1: honor to Christ. That's the first half of the book.
40:44
Speaker 1: Now we get into the second half of the book,
40:46
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden we find these imperatives. And
40:49
Speaker 1: one of these imperatives is husbands love your wives. Well,
40:52
Speaker 1: what if we take the Golden rule approach to this?
40:55
Speaker 1: If we take the Golden rule approach to this, here's
40:57
Speaker 1: what it looks like when a husband and wife sit
40:59
Speaker 1: down before you you say, hey, would you just tell
41:04
Speaker 1: him how it makes you feel when he does whatever
41:07
Speaker 1: it is that you don't like it that he does. Well,
41:10
Speaker 1: it makes me feel bad, and it makes me feel unloved,
41:12
Speaker 1: and it makes me feel unappreciated, and it makes me
41:14
Speaker 1: feel unwanted. Okay, stop, do you hear what she's saying?
41:18
Speaker 1: That she feels bad and she feels unappreciated, she feels unloved,
41:21
Speaker 1: and she feels unwanted. Would you want to feel like that? Nope?
41:25
Speaker 1: So then don't you think you ought to love her
41:29
Speaker 1: in the way that you want to be loved? Golden
41:34
Speaker 1: rule ethics? How long is that going to patch up
41:39
Speaker 1: your marriage? What she really needs from you is this?
41:48
Speaker 1: What you really need from her is that here's a
41:51
Speaker 1: little secret. If you give her what she needs, she
41:57
Speaker 1: will be more likely to give you what you need.
42:02
Speaker 1: That pretty much sums up about ninety percent of the
42:06
Speaker 1: Christian marriage books out there on the market today. The
42:13
Speaker 1: Golden Rule ethic of marriage. Think of your partner. Am
42:20
Speaker 1: I saying that you shouldn't think of your partner? No,
42:21
Speaker 1: I'm not, But I'm saying if that's your motivation, then
42:25
Speaker 1: it's idolatry. Why Because your goal is what you can
42:32
Speaker 1: get from that other individual, and that's idolatry. Secondly, the
42:39
Speaker 1: fear of God, the fear of God approach love your wife. Why?
42:43
Speaker 1: Because God is watching. You're gonna have to give an account,
42:52
Speaker 1: so you just need to do it. The law of
42:56
Speaker 1: God rule love your wife. Why? Because God commands it
43:01
Speaker 1: and he does. The mercies of God. Rule of your
43:09
Speaker 1: wife why, here's why. Because Christ gave himself for his bride.
43:20
Speaker 1: The Church literally died for her. He was nailed to
43:29
Speaker 1: a cross for her, He breathed his last for her.
43:38
Speaker 1: You happen to be part of her. And He has
43:41
Speaker 1: said to you that your love for your wife is
43:44
Speaker 1: a living, breathing picture of what He has accomplished in
43:49
Speaker 1: the Gospel on behalf of his church. And so because
43:54
Speaker 1: of what Christ has done in you and for you
43:58
Speaker 1: and through you, you now have the ability and the
44:02
Speaker 1: motivation to turn that toward your wife because of the
44:07
Speaker 1: esteem that you have for Christ, and because you view
44:11
Speaker 1: her as a member of His body and desire for
44:15
Speaker 1: your love to be a sanctifying influence turning her back
44:19
Speaker 1: toward Him so that you give to Christ both your
44:22
Speaker 1: love for her and the fruit thereof laid before his altar.
44:32
Speaker 1: What if she doesn't love me back? When's the last
44:40
Speaker 1: time you loved Christ perfectly? When was the last time
44:44
Speaker 1: you satisfied him? When was the last time you gave
44:50
Speaker 1: him your all or your best? Then? How dare you
44:56
Speaker 1: expect from your wife as your bride what you've never
45:00
Speaker 1: given to him as his bride? Gospel centered, mercy of
45:13
Speaker 1: God centered That's how you get there from here. Yeah,
45:21
Speaker 1: but I just don't feel like it. Of course you don't,
45:25
Speaker 1: because you are a wretched, nasty, rank center. That's why
45:30
Speaker 1: you don't feel like it. But when you don't feel
45:34
Speaker 1: like it, where do you go, you run to the cross,
45:37
Speaker 1: so that you can be reminded of what Christ has
45:40
Speaker 1: accomplished in you and for you, and what He desires
45:43
Speaker 1: to accomplish through you. And what that does is it
45:46
Speaker 1: reminds you of your own state, causes you not to
45:50
Speaker 1: think so much of your ruined, rotten, unworthy self, and
45:55
Speaker 1: it allows you to turn back having been reminded of
45:58
Speaker 1: the grace that you have, so that you can then
46:01
Speaker 1: in turn allow God to pour out that grace through you.
46:10
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that sound way different from what she really needs?
46:16
Speaker 1: Is this? And if you give it to her, then
46:21
Speaker 1: you're more likely for her to give you what you
46:23
Speaker 1: really need, which is that. Do you see this the
46:35
Speaker 1: ground of our ethics? It's the gospel, the ground of
46:43
Speaker 1: our ethics, the mercy of God. But what do we
46:48
Speaker 1: see when we look at the mercy of God? I'll
46:50
Speaker 1: end with this. When you look at the mercy of
46:56
Speaker 1: God and what God has accomplished for us in Christ,
47:01
Speaker 1: the first thing you see is this, You see how
47:09
Speaker 1: holy and righteous God is, so holy and so righteous
47:16
Speaker 1: that he would crush and kill his own son for
47:20
Speaker 1: the sake of that holiness and righteousness. The second thing
47:24
Speaker 1: you see is this is that sin is never to
47:28
Speaker 1: be taken lightly. It cannot be taken lightly. The third
47:36
Speaker 1: thing you see is this is the value and dignity
47:42
Speaker 1: of human life. Think about this for a moment. For
47:49
Speaker 1: God so loved the world that he gave his only
47:52
Speaker 1: begotten son, so that whosoever believes in him should not
47:57
Speaker 1: perish but have eternal life. The God of the universe,
48:05
Speaker 1: who has existed eternally as the triune God, Father, Son,
48:12
Speaker 1: and Holy Spirit, knowing nothing but harmony and unity in
48:17
Speaker 1: the Godhead, turned and poured out his wrath on his son,
48:26
Speaker 1: on behalf of creatures like you and me. What does
48:33
Speaker 1: that say about his esteem for us? That we were
48:40
Speaker 1: created in the image of God. When you look at
48:47
Speaker 1: the mercy of God, you don't concentrate on the value
48:53
Speaker 1: of yourself. You concentrate on the value of mankind. Because
48:58
Speaker 1: of the value that gods on his son and the
49:01
Speaker 1: fact that his son was sacrificed on behalf of men.
49:10
Speaker 1: You must then respect people. You must. You must, And
49:20
Speaker 1: when you look upon the mercy of God, you cannot
49:25
Speaker 1: but recognize the weight and magnitude of the debt that
49:30
Speaker 1: you owe. How can you repay that you can't but
49:44
Speaker 1: listen to this again in the Confession of Chapter sixteen,
49:58
Speaker 1: six seventy eight, paragraph three. Here's how it all works together.
50:10
Speaker 1: Their ability to do good works is not at all
50:14
Speaker 1: of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ, and
50:20
Speaker 1: that they may be enabled thereunto Besides the graces they
50:24
Speaker 1: have already received, there is necessarily there is necessary an
50:29
Speaker 1: actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in
50:32
Speaker 1: them to will and to do of His good pleasure.
50:35
Speaker 1: So the Spirit is not only the source in general
50:38
Speaker 1: of all of your good works, but in particular he
50:40
Speaker 1: motivates you to desire and to do God's pleasure. Yet
50:48
Speaker 1: are they not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they
50:51
Speaker 1: were not bound to perform any duty? And I don't
50:54
Speaker 1: mean you just sit there as though there's nothing to
50:57
Speaker 1: do unless upon special motion of the spirit, but that
51:01
Speaker 1: they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace
51:04
Speaker 1: of God that is in them. I can do no
51:12
Speaker 1: good thing but by God's Spirit. Not only is that
51:18
Speaker 1: true in general, but it's true in particular, in that
51:21
Speaker 1: God's Spirit must motivate me both to will and to
51:25
Speaker 1: work for his good pleasure. But what that doesn't mean
51:31
Speaker 1: is that I sit down and wait until I sense
51:35
Speaker 1: some supernatural motivation. I can do no good apart from
51:41
Speaker 1: God's Holy Spirit. In general and in particular. It is
51:46
Speaker 1: God's Holy Spirit that must work in me to will
51:48
Speaker 1: and to work for his good pleasure. I have been
51:52
Speaker 1: redeemed by Christ. His spirit dwells in me, and God
51:56
Speaker 1: has told me what is good. So guess what. I
52:01
Speaker 1: pursue that which is good because God has made it possible.
52:07
Speaker 1: Not I sit here until I think. No. I pursue
52:12
Speaker 1: that which is good because God has made it possible.
52:18
Speaker 1: God has changed my very nature, and so I pursue
52:22
Speaker 1: the nature that God has now given me. I used
52:25
Speaker 1: to be an herb before. Now I'm an omnivore. Heymen,
52:31
Speaker 1: that's what I mean. To change your nature. You're an
52:33
Speaker 1: herb before you just go when you eat vegetables and fruit,
52:37
Speaker 1: because that's all you want, you won't even I mean,
52:40
Speaker 1: they put all kind of meat before you that they
52:41
Speaker 1: can put before you, but you won't eat it because
52:43
Speaker 1: it's not your nature. That was us, That was us
52:45
Speaker 1: before we were born again. Our nature was to sin.
52:49
Speaker 1: Righteousness could be put right there before us, but it
52:51
Speaker 1: was not in our nature to pursue it, and we
52:53
Speaker 1: weren't going to pursue it. Nobody had to force our
52:56
Speaker 1: will not to pursue it. Our will didn't want to
52:58
Speaker 1: pursue it. We weren't going to pursue it. We had
53:00
Speaker 1: every opportunity, but we didn't have the ability. Now, all
53:03
Speaker 1: of a sudden, we're born again, and our very nature
53:06
Speaker 1: is changed. So now I'm no longer the year before,
53:10
Speaker 1: I'm an omnivore. So what do I do? Do I
53:15
Speaker 1: sit and watch meet hoping that some of it falls
53:21
Speaker 1: in my mouth? Or do I go kill eat? God's
53:30
Speaker 1: changed my nature so that I can now desire and
53:37
Speaker 1: pursue the good and the righteous, the beautiful, the just,
53:43
Speaker 1: the holy. So what do I do? Sit here and
53:51
Speaker 1: wait for some righteousness to just pop out of me? Oh? No,
53:59
Speaker 1: I exhort you, brothers, don't just sit there in view
54:04
Speaker 1: of this mercy. The only thing that makes sense for
54:09
Speaker 1: you to do, your spiritual worship, your logical liturgy. The
54:13
Speaker 1: only thing that makes sense for you to do is
54:17
Speaker 1: to give your whole body to God that He might
54:22
Speaker 1: do with you, in you and through you, that which
54:27
Speaker 1: He foreordained and has called you to. That's what you
54:33
Speaker 1: do you pursue the good and the righteous because you can.
54:38
Speaker 1: That's what you do. And when you find yourself outside
54:43
Speaker 1: of those things, you don't just double down and gird
54:46
Speaker 1: up your loins and try real hard. You turn your
54:49
Speaker 1: face back towards the cross, recognizing that that is both
54:53
Speaker 1: both the source and the motivation for all of your ethics. Now,
55:03
Speaker 1: I recognize that this was the long way around, but
55:07
Speaker 1: I promise you we needed to get here because for
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Speaker 1: most of us, we've been hanging out in one of
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Speaker 1: these other realms. For most of us, we've been operating
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Speaker 1: in golden rule ethics, or fear of God ethics, or
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Speaker 1: law based ethics. For most of us, that's where we've been.
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Speaker 1: We have not been in mercy of God based ethics.
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Speaker 1: So here's what ends up happening. I do the right thing,
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Speaker 1: but I have the wrong motive. Therefore it's not right.
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Speaker 1: I love my wife, but I love my wife because
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Speaker 1: that's what she needs. And if I give her love,
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Speaker 1: then she will turn back around and give me submission,
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Speaker 1: because that's what I need. That I do what I
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Speaker 1: was told to do. Yes, I did what I was
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Speaker 1: told to do, But why did I do it? For myself?
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Speaker 1: And my own edification and desires, which means it's idolatry
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Speaker 1: and its sin. It's a non starter. Do it because
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Speaker 1: it's said so, non starter. I do it because I'm
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Speaker 1: afraid to displease God. Non starter. And if any one
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Speaker 1: of those is your answer, you don't understand the Gospel. No,
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Speaker 1: it is not just how you get saved. It is
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Speaker 1: actually the foundation of your ethics. It's how you live
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Speaker 1: the gospels, how you love your wife the gospels, how
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Speaker 1: you raise your kids the gospels, how you interact with
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Speaker 1: your brothers and sisters and Christ. It is all rooted
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Speaker 1: and grounded in the mercies of God, so that every
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Speaker 1: act whereupon you give yourself to God is done not
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Speaker 1: out of fear, not out of manipulation, not even out
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Speaker 1: of lawkeeping, but it is done because you are absolutely
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Speaker 1: overwhelmed by the mercies of God. In Christ. That's where
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Speaker 1: righteousness is found