Dr Greg Bahnsen - Loving the Law: Christ's Lordship and Law (Part 1)

Hope I'll see you tomorrow as well as we continue our conference that we're calling Loving the Law. Now, I'm already in trouble. See, I haven't even got started. But you know that I'm in trouble because loving the law is not the sort of thing Christians are supposed to do, you know. We're supposed to be against the law, aren't we? Isn't that what you have been taught? Haven't you heard that over and over again? Well, the reason I've come this weekend is that I'd like to change your thinking on that subject. I'd certainly like to see the general spirit of our times in Christian circles change with respect to this issue of the Christian's relationship to the law of God. Because I think even when our motives have been good, we've gotten it wrong, very wrong sometimes. And we are depriving ourselves not only of the joy of the Christian life and the clarity and the guidance that God gives us, but we're also failing to glorify God and to advance his kingdom and his rightful claims in this world when we don't see how we are to relate to his law and his requirements in our lives. You can look at this as basic training in Christian living. So let's get started. And just think about this. You've become a Christian. That's great. Now what? You come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You've said he is your Savior. He's your only hope in life and death, and you've given your life to Him. Now what? What does it mean to live the Christian life? And I don't pretend that what I'm going to share with you exhausts the answer to that question, or is the one and only way you can put it. But I want to begin this evening by suggesting that living the Christian life can be understood if we first stop and study what it is to be a Christian and who it is that we're following. Jesus claimed to be not simply the savior of men. Those claims are there, and praise God they are. But the one who claims to be our Savior said that he was the Lord. The Lord Jesus once said, you call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. You've got that exactly right. I am your master. And Jesus explained that the servant is not above the master. He often said, if I am your master, then I've set an example for you. If I wash your feet, then you ought to wash one another's feet. And so there's something very important about this concept of being The Master being the Lord. That ties into how we live the Christian life. If we know that our Savior is the Lord, then that's going to lead us to have a particular view of how we as Christians are supposed to live and this world. Peter called him the Lord over all in Acts 10:36, and John called him the Lord of lords in Revelation 17. Paul and James call him the Lord of glory in First Corinthians 2 and James 2. You can remember, of course, Thomas doubting Thomas in John 20, how when Jesus appeared to him, he went to his knees and said, my Lord and my God. Throughout the Scriptures, Jesus is identified as Lord. Paul tells us in Romans 14:9 that that was the very purpose of his death and his resurrection, that he might be the Lord. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord, both of the dead and the living. And if we are going to be saved by Though this is not popularly preached, it's not commonly heard, it is certainly biblical to say that to be saved you must believe on him as the Lord. Why do we need a Savior? I'll tell you why we need a Savior. It's because we've tried to lead our own lives. We didn't want a Lord, we didn't want someone ruling over us. And we rebelled against the One who had rightful claims over our lives. And so we have violated his Lordly prerogatives and now need to be saved. We need to be redeemed. The guilt of our sin and rebellion is upon us. And therefore it should be rather obvious that if Jesus comes and saves us from rebelling against the Lordly claims that God has in our lives, that we shouldn't go on living like rebels. Is that such a hard concept? And yet people will tell you that we shouldn't be preaching about lordship salvation. They'll tell you that we need to preach that Jesus is the Savior, but according to the Bible, to be saved, you must believe on him as the Lord. In Acts, the 16th chapter, we read the story of Paul in prison with Silas there in Philippi, and the jailer, as you know, realizing that he was in really deep trouble because the loss of his charges, his wards there, was about to kill himself. And Paul and Silas stopped him and explained the way of salvation. And these words are memorable. And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. They didn't simply say, believe on the Savior and you will be saved. Of course, that's obvious. If you're going to be Saved. He is your Savior. But the one who does this saving work must be acknowledged as your Lord. And that's why men who are saved confess him specifically as Lord. Romans 10:9 says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. You see how often Jesus is called Lord and he says, that's right, I am your master. You've got that correct. And the Bible says that if we're to be saved, it is specifically the lordship of Christ that we must bow to. We must be willing to acknowledge the day is coming when every tongue will acknowledge that. That indeed he is the lord. As Philippians 2:11 says, Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What is it that all Christians hold in common? That's a good question. I bet we get a lot of different answers to it. Have you ever stopped to ask what the biblical answer is to that? What is it that the Holy Spirit leads every Christian to say? You know what the answer is to that. It's found in 1st Corinthians 12:3. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. See, that's what's unique about being born again. Those who are in rebellion against God, those who are spiritually dead, those who live unto themselves and love themselves and don't care for their neighbor and God in the way that the Bible tells us they should. They don't recognize the lordship of Jesus Christ. But when the Holy Spirit changes our hearts and changes our directions, changes our minds, what the Bible says is he leads all of God's people to say Jesus is Lord. It's a sad thing that the Christian church is divided on so many issues. And some other time I might come and speak to you about that and what prospects for unification there might be in the future. I think there's better news than many of us believe. But right now there's a lot to be unhappy about. We don't see eye to eye in a lot of things. And so some Christians believe this, some Christians believe that, and so forth. But I'm here to tell you that the one thing every true believer will say, Jesus is Lord. And if you will not say that, you do not belong to the Savior. Now, I know that people don't like any kind of theology that cuts, you know, A real sharp line. Any kind of theology that makes black and white kind of statements that is absolutistic is not in the spirit of our day. We like to be more relaxed, more, you know, kind of laid back, more relativistic, get along and that sort of thing. And so I guess I'm not going to get along with some people, but I'm going to make it very clear that the Bible says that if you are born again, you say this. Jesus is Lord. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you would be saved. In fact, love for the Lord Jesus is the final test before God. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 16:22. Paul there says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. When everything is said and done. That's what God's going to be looking for who loves Jesus as Lord. Now, this is unfortunate, but I'm not going to be being faithful to the Lord Jesus as I preach to you. If you. If I don't tell you that there are many people who are not interested in this. What they really want is Jesus to get them out of their troubles and especially to get them out of their eternal woe. To put it simply, they hope that Jesus will prove to be a fire insurance policy for them so that when the day comes, when they face the prospect of the lake of fire where there will be torment day and night for those who have rebelled against God. They want Jesus to be the one who brings him through. Yes, Jesus saved me, but they don't. Well, they don't want to go to hell, but they don't mind living like hell in this world. If you don't mind me using that expression, they are hellions. And then they'll say, yeah, but I've called on Jesus to save me, so it's going to be perfectly all right. It's as though God our heavenly Father, has become the one who's going to pay, perpetually paid the debts for all the trouble we get into. And we never learn any lessons and never try to change our ways. I've got Jesus. He's my fire insurance policy. I don't have to worry about that. The Bible tells us, however, that if we do not live subject to the lordship of Jesus Christ, we'll be accursed by God. I'm not in the slightest way suggesting to you that you're living under the lordship of Jesus Christ as what is going to give you a right standing before God. I'm not suggesting that we can earn our Salvation. Nor am I suggesting that our good works, our obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be so consistent, so wonderful, that God will look at us and say, you know, you're quite worthy of my kingdom. Come on in. That's not going to happen. We don't build up brownie points, okay? Or as a stairway to heaven, if I can put it that way, by our acknowledging the lordship of Jesus Christ. But if we're going to be saved by this one who put himself in our place and died on the cross, if we're going to be saved by the one who has given us new life by sending the Holy Spirit into our hearts, we need to acknowledge that the one who saves us is Lord. So basically what I'm saying is if you don't live subject to the lordship of Jesus Christ, what you're really saying is I'm not saved at all. Because he is not a savior apart from being a Lord. Jesus will not take off his crown being the Lord, simply that you might enjoy the benefits of his cross. If you're going to live like hell, don't expect to go to heaven. That doesn't mean, of course, that if you live a good life or you attempt to live a good life, that that's what's going to get you into heaven. But those who are going to heaven are going to heaven through the work of someone who is the Lord. And that's why we have to change our lives. You've become a Christian. That's great. Now what? Now you need to live subject to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And this is what the Bible teaches us over and over and over again. In Matthew 7, 21, 23, if you have your Bibles, I'd like you to look at that with me briefly. Briefly, this evening we have some very stiff words from Jesus about salvation and his relationship to people on the final day of judgment. Matthew 7. And I'll begin reading at the 20th verse. Jesus concludes something he's been talking about by saying, therefore, by their fruit, fruits you shall know them. It's by the outward manifestation of their lives, the things they do, that you can visibly, publicly see that you'll have some notion of what's inside. And then Jesus says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. You say, but, Dr. Bonson, you've just been teaching us for the last few minutes that to be saved, we have to call on Jesus as Lord. And that's absolutely true. But here Jesus says, if you say it outwardly, if you call me Lord. If you sing my praise and include that term, and so forth, if you pray to me as Lord, but what not. Everyone that saith unto me, lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven, many will say to me in that day, lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy by thy name? By Thy name, cast out demons. By Thy name, do many mighty works. And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye who work iniquity. It would be the most heartbreaking thing a person could ever hear. Who has falsely expected that Jesus would be their Savior? That Jesus will say, who are you? I don't know you. You can call on Jesus as Lord and still not be saved. Jesus says that you need to do the will of his heavenly Father if that calling on him as Lord is going to have any meaning, any substance, any. Any power, any effect, he will say, I never knew you. For all of what you say and for all the things you did religiously, I never knew you. So depart from me. And this is significant, you who work iniquity. It's because you call on me as Lord, but you live a life that is full of iniquity, lawlessness. It's because you continue to be rebellious and not submit your life to me that your calling me Lord means nothing. I don't know who you are. You've been playing a game. And although this is not politically correct in the Christian church to say these things in these days, do you think it's at all loving of pastors to not warn people about this? Is it really a manifestation of graciousness and love and concern for congregations when pastors will not say, of course you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, but it's the Lord that you must call on. And that means a changed life. You need to live a Christian life that shows that he is the one you follow, that you're a disciple of him, that he is your Lord. Turn with me to John, the eighth chapter. In John 8. 31, we read, Jesus therefore said to those Jews that had believed him, if you abide in My word, then are you truly my disciples? You know what's frightening about that verse? The word truly, Jesus says, if you abide in my word, then you are truly, genuinely my disciples. It's possible to think of yourself as a follower of Jesus Christ, a Christian, a disciple of the Lord, and yet you really are not. Jesus distinguishes between those who are truly his Followers and those who are not. And what is it that makes the difference? Jesus says, if you abide in My Word, if you live your life in the atmosphere of My Word, I bet many of you know from your own experience, personally, or maybe being parents, the experience of your own children. Often as we grow up, the thing we want to get away from is that voice of mom and dad, you know, always living in the atmosphere of what mom and dad say to do and what their attitudes are and how they look at things and so forth. And we look forward to growing up and getting away from that and being our own person. Right? Jesus says, if you're truly my disciple, you'll never have that attitude toward My Word. You want to live in the atmosphere of My Word. You want that to be the very atmosphere that you breathe. What informs your thinking, your evaluations, your assessments, your priorities, your guideline for life. If you are truly my disciple, you live in the atmosphere of My Word, you abide in My Word, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Why? What kind of freedom is that? Some people say, always got to hear Jesus talking. Always be living in his word. He says, that's right. Because when you live for yourself and according to your own wisdom and guidance, your own perverse pleasures, whatever it may be, you're not genuinely free at all. The only way to be free is. Is to become the bond servant of the Lord. Actually, no one really is free in the way that the world today would like to present freedom. We all serve some master. You all remember how Bob Dylan put it, you got to serve someone. You're going to serve someone. And if you're going to be free, the one you should serve is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can't serve two lords. Matthew 6:24 says, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve two masters. You can't have two ultimate loyalties. In 1 Corinthians 8, the fourth verse, Paul says, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many, and Lords many, but to us there is but one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. Paul says, we know there's only one Lord. We call him Jesus. And that means that when we take up the new life of a disciple of Christ, abiding in his word, when we enjoy the benefits of his cross and we're born again, we start following him. There is no other loyalty but to the Lord Jesus Christ. No other loyalty. Can I go home and bury my father? No, let the dead bury the dead. No other loyalty but the Lord Jesus Christ. But my family's not happy with my Christian. I came to bring a sword, Jesus said, and to divide families. No other loyalty. But it's going to be financially not to my advantage. You can't serve God and money. No other loyalty. For us, there's but one Lord. I don't like the philosophy of Sren Kierkegaard. Sren Kierkegaard was a Danish existentialist of the 19th century. Very influential in existential circles in our century, particularly religious existential circles. And I'm not happy with his philosophy, so I'm hesitant to even mention his name, as though I was giving some kind of endorsement. But there is a title of one of his best known works that I really appreciate, and that is Purity of Heart is to will one thing. Purity of heart is to have but one thing you live for. To will that, always that, only that. And for us as Christians, purity of heart means to follow the Lord singularly. So that everything else that I do with respect to my family, with respect to my friends, with respect to my vocation, my recreations, everything else that I do must be part of that pure, singular devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as we've talked through some of the New Testament theology about the lordship of Christ, we've come to the place where we see there's but one Lord Jesus, and we need to follow him in all things. Now, I'd like to jump backwards a bit as we think about this. In the Old Testament, this is the message that was given as well. Right? If you are saved, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can review your notes and what I brought you to see is, and he must be alone, your Lord, singularly your Lord, and your Lord in everything, if you are truly saved. In the Old Testament, there was a confession of faith that God's people, the Jews, were given. It's found in Deuteronomy, the sixth chapter. It's called by theologians the Shema of Israel, because the Hebrew word Shema means to hear. It's a command, give heed to this Hear, O Israel. And what was the confession of faith of God's people in the old Testament? Deuteronomy 6. Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God is what? 1. The Lord is one. And therefore what? You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind. Your entire life must be consumed with loving him. Because there are no other lords. He's one. He's the one and only. And you need to be obsessed with His Lordship. That's not the popular thing today in our culture. You know, you need to be kind of cool. You need to kind of be laid back about these things. You know, don't let your feelings show. Don't get, you know, a little extreme. Don't become fanatic. But that's precisely what Moses said. You need to be a fanatic about the lordship of God. That's why you write his law on your forehead and on your hand. Not literally. You write the law in the sense that it's the law of God that helps you to see the world and evaluate it. It's the law of God that governs your behavior in this world. And you need to teach my commandments diligently to your children. When you rise up, when you sit down, when you go through the gate, when you come back into the city, no matter what you're doing, Moses says you need to know the commandments of the Lord. You need to be a fanatic, because the Lord is one. And now this brings me to the subject of our conference. If we are Christians, we've believed that Jesus is our Savior. If we are Christians, we know we must now live subject to his lordship. If we are Christians, he must be the singular authority in our life that governs everything. The Bible tells us, if you understand what lordship means, you need to submit to his commandments. Shouldn't that be obvious? I mean, God does tell us that, and I'm going to prove it from Scripture. But let me just ask you just commonsensically, shouldn't that be obvious? What kind of Lord would it be who doesn't give guidance and expect it to be followed? How would you like it if you went to work? You know, you take a new job someplace maybe with IBM or something, right? You go to work and you're introduced to the person who is the boss. Okay? He says, now I'm going to be your manager. You say, okay, what would you like me to do? Whatever you want. Well, but don't you have any idea? Well, I can give you some ideas, you know, some thoughts that I have. And what happens if I don't do what you want me to do? Nothing. Well, then in what sense are you my Manager, what are you managing? If I can do just anything I want, there are no consequences for otherwise. You see, if someone is the Lord, if someone's the master, if someone's the boss, then that means they lay down the law. Now the way in which they do that I'm not reflecting on right now. I mean, there are mean spirited bosses and there are, you know, bosses that take seriously that they need to have a good relationship with their workers and on and on. But what I'm saying is to call a person master or boss or Lord just inherently contains the idea that you're going to submit to the rules or regulations or guidance that is given. Well, here's what the Bible says, Deuteronomy 7 at the ninth verse. Know therefore, that the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, and repays them that hate him to their face to destroy them. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I command thee this day to do them. If God is our Lord, if the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, we need to submit to his commandments. And the Bible teaches us that the Lord's very jealous about this. He doesn't allow us to blend his commandments, the lifestyle that he requires of us, with the ways of the world, with the wisdom, the foolishness really of the world. In Exodus 34:13 listen to these words and you shall destroy their altars, break their images, cut down their groves, for thou shalt worship no other God. For the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they go whoring after their gods. God says, I've got a lifestyle for you and I don't want you to mix it in with the world. And when you mix it in with the world, you are whoring after other gods, after other lords. And my name is jealous. Have you ever prayed to the one who is the divine? Jealousy. We sometimes think of jealousy as an evil quality. And when it's based on covetousness and selfishness and so forth, it is. But you know, jealousy for a covenanted relationship that is holy and good is virtue, not a vice. And God says, I'm very jealous over you, that you love me. Only me, only me, always me. And don't depart from that. I don't want Christians who get along well in the world. Yow. That's a hard thing to say, Dr. Bronson. Well, did I say it? You know, don't kill the messenger. This is what God has said in his Word. I don't want you making covenants with the inhabitants of of the land. I don't want you to go whoring after their gods. I want you to have a distinctive lifestyle. And so the Lord says in Leviticus 18 at verse 2, speak to the children of Israel. Say unto them, I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do. And after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you shall, shall ye not do. Neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgments, keep mine ordinances, to walk therein and notice how it's reinforced. I am the Lord your God. If I'm your Lord, then you don't follow another ethic. You don't have another standard. You don't have another lifestyle that you're trying to fit into. He says, I don't want you to walk in their lifestyle. That's what I'm saving you from. And so to the Jews, he says, don't try to go after the lifestyle of Egypt. Don't fit into the lifestyle of Canaan. I've made you a holy people, a distinctive people. I've set you apart from the world. Before Jesus went to the cross, we know that he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. We read of his prayer In John the 17th chapter, the high priestly prayer of Jesus, sometimes called. And Jesus there prays for his people and he says, sanctify them by the truth. Thy word is truth. Jesus great desire for us as people is that we would be sanctified. The word sanctify means to consecrate and to set apart unto a holy purpose. Jesus has sanctified them by the truth. Though word is truth, God says, I want you to follow my word. I don't want you to walk in the ways of the world. I want you to be a different people, a set apart people, a sanctified people. And thus Paul can say In Romans the 12th chapter that we are not to be conformed to this world, but rather transformed by the renewing of our minds that we might be able to approve of God's will. If we are God's people, if we are saved, then we need to have the Lord Jesus Christ govern our lives. We need to have a singular devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that means we're going to submit to his commandments. If he's The Lord, then he tells us how to live. And we don't tamper with those commandments. We don't negotiate them, we don't water them down, we don't try to make them fit into the ways of the world. Jesus command condemned the Jews of his day, even though they said they were following the commandments of God. Jesus condemned the Jews of his day, even though they made their pride and joy allegedly the law of God. Jesus condemned the Jews of his day. He said, because you make void the word of God by your traditions. Now, what I'm going to be sharing with you in our seminar about living the Christian life and loving the law of God is not going to be popular. I'm going to admit that from the very outset, it's not the sort of thing that Christians hear today. But you have to understand that if you are not willing to bite this bullet and to be different, to be distinctive, to be set apart, not to try to fit into the world, not worry about the ways of the Egyptians and the Canaanites and all the rest round about you, then it may be that you're not going to be acknowledged by the Lord Jesus Christ on the final day. After all, Jesus says, I don't want you to conform to the world and I don't want your traditions to get in the way of what God has required you to do. And we all have them. Dr. Bonson has them too. And I'm very sad about that. It breaks my heart all the more because it makes me a hypocrite when I preach this way. We need to constantly examine ourselves. How. How am I compromising? How am I taking what Jesus wants me to do and then watering it down to fit into my own desires and my expectations or my traditions, my ways of doing things? And all churches have their traditions, and Christian groups and schools and so forth, they have their traditions. And then when the word of God seems to come to shatter those traditions and to make us a new people, a different and consecrated sanctified people, we resist that and we rationalize and so forth. So I know we all have this problem. But you see, if we're going to live the Christian life, we must be willing to let God be the Lord. And that means he must give a law to us, commandments to us that we don't tamper with and we don't let our traditions make void. The Lord's distinctive ethic is universally binding. Now, that may sound a little bit strange, because if it's distinctive, how can it be universal? Well, let me Explain. It's distinctive in that God calls on us to live in a way that's distinctive from the world. It's set apart from the world. Nevertheless, what God has called on us to do as his people, that distinctive lifestyle he requires of us, he requires of all men. It's distinctive because not all men follow it, but all men are supposed to. So let's not make the mistake that is common enough in our day to think that, well, as Christians, we need to follow the commandments of God, but the world is not to be expected to do that. I mean, God can't speak speak to the world because the world doesn't acknowledge him as God. You know, once you say it, it just sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? And yet people do that, don't they? They say, well, you can't expect the commandments of God to be followed in the world. I said, well, why not? Well, because the world doesn't acknowledge the Bible. The world doesn't acknowledge God. Do you think God really cares about that? What kind of God do we have? You know, this kind of wimpish God that you see on the bumper stickers sometimes, oh, please give Jesus a chance, God. God doesn't stand back and say, oh, I hope you'll acknowledge me. I don't have any authority or sovereignty until you give it to me. He is the Lord. He created all mankind. And though he has shown his special people how he wants them to live, what he has told them about righteousness and justice and purity and truth is for all mankind. And so in Leviticus 18, read that when we get done this evening. Leviticus 18, 24, 30, Moses says that the land of Canaan will vomit out its inhabitants. That's what the Hebrew says. This is really gross stuff. The land will vomit out its inhabitants because they have defiled themselves by violating the laws that Moses is now delivering to Israel. Because the Canaanites have lived in the defilements that I'm forbidding you to live in. That's why the land will vomit the Canaanites out. And then Moses says, and if you. If you dare to live in this way, the land will vomit you out too. Which it did. See, God doesn't have a double standard. God expects all mankind to submit to him all the more. Those that he has saved and made a special people should be willing to do that. But what we are to do according to the commandments of God is not an idiosyncratic, unique thing for just Christians, for those who are the people of God, God is but one one standard of right and wrong. And I want to emphasize again that that one standard covers everything in life comprehensively, all areas of life, everything that we do. Deuteronomy 6 Once again and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, all of it, with all thy soul, all of it, with all thy might, all of it. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house, and upon thy gates I hope I have convinced you if you followed these passages of Scripture that I've been alluding to and reading for you, I hope I have convinced you that it's part and parcel of the Christian life to bow to the lordship of Jesus Christ and to keep the commandments of God. It isn't hard to see, and I'll tell you not with any sense of pride. I could easily stay here an hour or two and continue reading verses from the Bible that say the same thing. It is plentiful in the Bible. It's not some kind of arcade special between the lines insight that Dr. Bonson brings you says, now look, if you knew the Hebrew or the Greek, then you could see, oh yes, we're supposed to keep the commandments. It is big and bold and obvious in the Bible that God's people are to bow to him. And that means in loving him and serving him as Lord, bow to his commandments. We don't come to God via the Commandments, we come to the Commandments via God. It's because I love God, because I love the Lord Jesus, because I acknowledge him as Lord and Savior, that what he tells me to do, I want to do. But nevertheless, what the Bible says over and over and over again is that you need to follow the commandments of the Lord. In our day and age, however, the trend is to rid Christian ethics of any notion of any external rules. Repeatedly, you will be told we don't follow an ethic of external rules if we are Christians. In a booklet entitled Rightly Dividing the word of truth, C.I. scofield, the editor of the best known study Bible in the 20th Century, the Scofield Reference Bible, C.I. scofield wrote law always has a place and work distinct and wholly diverse from that of grace. The law is always wholly distinct from grace. So that if God's work is one of grace in your life, law has nothing to do with it. How many people do you think have read words like that and have interpreted the Bible in that way? Because of the Scofield references Bible. Joseph Fletcher, perhaps the best known ethicist from the 1960s who wrote the book Situation Ethics. I'm going to quote him. It's very short, very blunt, to the point. He says law ethics is still the enemy. Law ethics is still the enemy. Any ethic that says we have laws to follow, that's what we oppose. That's the enemy. We've got to get rid of that. Hendrick Hart in the Challenge of Our Age said biblical living can never be summed up in rules for faith and conduct or faith and morals. Louis Schmiedes, who is an ethicist seminary teacher who teaches ethics. One wonders what kind of of ethics as written. Moses was writing a rule book that specified precisely what men could or could not do. But Jesus was not writing a rule book. What was Jesus doing? He was proclaiming the will of God. Jesus was not making rules. He was not establishing Christian policy. In Moses time, however, life was directed by rules. In Christian time, life is not direct directed by rules. My point has to do with the ethics of Jesus within grace. The days of rule books have passed. Well, that's pretty amazing, right? Whether you look at dispensationalism or reformed ethicists, whether you look at liberal theologians, they all seem to be saying something very much like no rules, none whatsoever. And what can we say about that? We've already seen that. That certainly is not the spirit of Jesus, not the spirit of Moses. We haven't found that in the Bible. There's a lot about rules, rules understood properly within the grace of God and reflecting the character of God. A lot about rules that we should be positive interested in. But here we have people who say law ethics is still the enemy. No rules. Jesus doesn't write rule books. We don't want that kind of thing. Well, I'm tempted because of my interest in philosophy to make the first thing I say about that, well, that's an interesting rule, isn't it? Here's the one thing Joseph Fletcher says you need to know. Don't ever have rules. Rules. Except this one, of course. Except this rule that says don't ever have rules. Isn't it a sad thing when educated people self consciously make that kind of Mistake. Here's a man who lays down the law that there shall be no law. You will never escape having a law. Now, there are people who think, think, well, we do need to have guidance for the Christian life. But that guidance is not external. That is, the guidance for the Christian life is not something that comes from outside of man. It comes from inside of man. It's not external, it's internal. And so they'll say, what we live by, Christians, is not a law that's found in a book. We live by the guidance of the Holy Spirit within our hearts. Okay, well, now, first of all, let's ask, would it be correct to write down on a piece of paper, thou shalt follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your heart? Now, that's a rule, isn't it? And it seems to be the rule that speaks of the way in which they say we should live. So you don't get away from rules. But if your rule. I'm not buying into this, but just for argument's sake, if your rule is internal guidance, whatever that internal guidance is, can be written down. Can it? If there is internal guidance, it's externalizable. It can be made external. For instance, I can now take my conviction that I should live by the guidance of the Holy Spirit and write it down externally on a piece of paper. You shall live by the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit. Now, what does the Spirit lead you to? Do? You see somebody, perhaps, that is out in the middle of Texas at night and their car's broken down and you stop and you help them because the Holy Spirit leads you to have compassion on those who are in trouble. Now, is it somehow wrong to write down when you see someone that's broken down on the road, stop and help them? Be a good Samaritan? Oh, I guess I gave it away, didn't I? You see, if the Spirit leads you to live that way, the Spirit can also tell us about that in a book, can't he? Not only can he, the Bible says that's exactly what he did. I'll tell you very honestly, the problem I have as a pastor with people who say, I live by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the problem I have is that they think the Holy Spirit says one thing inside here and another thing out here in this book. And that's real troublesome because that suggests that the Spirit can't get his act together. And so when people come to me and they say, well, the Spirit's leading us to get a divorce, and I say, well, the Bible tells You, you can't get a divorce. This is a lifetime commitment. And whatever it is that's keeping you apart, you need to repent of, you need to get corrupt and you need to glorify God in this relationship. They say, well, yeah, I know that's what the Bible says, but the Spirit has led us to do otherwise. I said, now wait a minute, who do you think wrote this book? It's the Spirit, right? And so how is it, I mean, what am I supposed to think? Did the Spirit get it wrong in the book or did the Spirit get it wrong in your heart? Well, I'm not inclined to trust the subjective inclination nations of people who are doing things that are to their own personal advantage to trust that over against what is public and available to everybody to read and provable from the writing of the scripture. If there are internal things, guidance that the Spirit gives us, if the Spirit guides us internally, the Spirit can also speak that guidance in external form in a book. And the Bible says he has done that. But now some Christians will say, yes, but you've forgotten, Dr. Bonson, that according to the Bible, the law of God that you like to refer to, this law that's found in the Bible will one day be written on the heart according to Jeremiah 31. Don't you remember the promise of the new covenant? The promise of the new covenant is that the law will be written on the heart. And so therefore we don't live out of an external book of rules. We now live out of our heart. I usually say to that, and if your heart is fully informed by the law of God, great. Just notice it's the law of God that is written on the heart, out of which are the issues of life. You know what that image of writing the law in the heart is all about? If you would read it in Context In Jeremiah 30, you will see that God said there that he had given this law at Mount Sinai, but his people had broken it. But the day is coming when he will give his law in a different way. God says, I'll take that law and I'll put it in your innermost being, so that now you'll live according to it. In fact, in Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27 we get an explanation of what this internal change that the new covenant will bring is all about. Look at that with me. Ezekiel 36, 26, the prophet says, a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. And I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my step statutes. And you shall keep mine ordinances and do them. That's what the new heart is all about. That's what the internalization of the law is all about. God is now going to make it so powerful in our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit that this law is not broken but kept. You'll walk in my statutes and do the things I tell you to do. Quickly check in the New Testament what Paul thought about that. Romans, the eighth chapter, Verse 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Why? In order that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Spirit. Excuse me, Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. What is it that defines the mind of the flesh? It cannot submit to the law of God. But God has now, through the work of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, brought it about that the ordinance of the law will be fulfilled in you who don't walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Oh, away with all this ridiculous heretical theology that tells us that the Holy Spirit has been given to us to prompt us as to how we're to live. And we don't have to pay attention to the Bible or to the commandments of God. The reason the Spirit has been given, the reason that the Spirit gives us a new heart and writes the law of God on our heart is so that we will walk in the commandments and statutes of God. This notion that Christianity does not have an ethic of external rules, rules is poison for your soul and it's destroying the church and taking away the power of our witness in the world. God has revealed his holy character in the law. If you would read through the law of God, the commandments in the Old Testament, I think you'll be taken at how often he intersperses with I am the Lord. I am the Lord. The reason why you live this way is because this reflects my character. Peter brings this out in his first epistle, chapter one, when he tells us we are to be holy as the one who called us as holy. For it is written, you shall be holy. Why? Because I am holy. We can't do away of the law that God has revealed, because what it reveals is God. It reveals his holy character. And he says, that's what I require of you. And now I will also graciously put that law in your heart so that you'll be able to do it. I will give you a heart that is desirous of these things. And if you don't have that heart, if you walk according to the flesh, you will not be able to be subject to it. But Christ Christians are not those who reject external rules. We should love them with all of our heart. Paul says in Romans the seventh chapter, that in the inner man, he says, after the inner man, I delight in the law of the Lord in the heart. That's what Jeremiah was talking about. That's what Ezekiel was talking about. In my heart I delight in the law of God. What did the psalmist say? Oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. What do you want to do? Dispensationally dismiss that and say, oh yeah, back then you could do that, but not today? Well, Paul did it. Paul said, I delight in the law after the inward man. His was the attitude of the psalmist. It's the very attitude of God's heart itself. If we would love God and with all of our heart follow after his desire, after his heart, we would honor his law. Now, the idea that we have a rul less Christian ethic is absolutely unbiblical and it has nothing but mischief that it promises to bring in our lives. We need rules, we need regulations. And when anybody says no, no, no, never, never, never, we mustn't have rules do remind them that that itself is a rule. And so you're going to have to choose to follow the rule of Joseph Fletcher or the rule of Louis Mead's or the rule of somebody else, or you're going to follow the rules that God himself has given. Real quickly, before we finish tonight, I want to point out that if you don't follow the rules that God has given, I've already said this, you're going to follow a rule rule. And you need to know what the outcome of that's going to be. You see, you can't live life without rules. And so inevitably, all these people who are against rules in Christian living, they always offer Something else in the place of those rules. We've already talked about one of those ideas, and that is that the Holy Spirit prompts us to say what we're going to say and do what we're going to do. Well, that won't work. The Holy Spirit leads us to find follow the law of God. That's what scripture says. And then there'll be people who say, well, yeah, we need to follow rules, but we get them from nature. They'll say, we're supposed to go to natural revelation what God has shown us about himself in the natural order, and from that we'll live our lives. Well, the Bible certainly tells us that God has revealed himself in the natural order. Indeed, According to Romans 1, even homosexuals know the ordinance of God from the natural order, that those who commit such things are worthy of death. So that's true. God has revealed himself in the natural order. But Paul also tells us in Romans chapter one, that what God has revealed in the natural order is corrupted and distorted and suppressed by men who are in sin and rebellion. And so though God has shown himself out there, what most people end up doing is because they're suppressing the truth about God. They'll say, well, I think that the most natural thing to do is this. I think this is what fits in best into the world. And somebody else comes along and says, oh, I don't think that's so natural. And we can't really get any kind of resolution of that disagreement. We can't get any objective order because everybody has his own idea of what nature is telling us to do. Hitler had his idea of what was natural. Hitler had his idea of what was loving. It's hard to believe, I know, but here's a man who thought it was the natural loving thing to exterminate a whole ethnic group of people in the name of what's best for the human race. If you do not have a public, external, social standard of ethics, don't you understand that in the name of love, in the name of natural law, you are submitting to the tyranny of men? Now, if God is gracious and kind and patient, hopefully those tyrannical men will not do really bad things to us. And often enough people have gotten away with that because men haven't been as wicked as they might have been. But when you say the men can follow their external standards, that is to say what they think nature is telling them, then you're really putting yourself under the tyranny of men who are not regulated by anything that you can Appeal to. To show that they are wrong. And by the way, what does nature teach us? Should we be natural? I noticed, praise God, that you weren't natural when you came in here to you all put on clothes. You weren't born with clothes, were you? That's not the natural thing. And I'm also glad that human beings don't make babies the way that dogs do. We do believe there's a sense in which the sex act is private and dignified and intimate and that sort of thing. If we look at the natural world, how do animals resolve their problems? They kill each other, by the way. Often they eat each other. Anybody want to follow the natural ethic of the animal world? Now, when people tell us no, we'll get our laws from nature, you need to say, well, just how do you read nature given the fact that you're fallen, that you're suppressing the truth and unrighteousness and other men are, and given the fact that the natural world doesn't look real ethical. There is no law in nature. There is no law. And the natural man is not ever going to, by looking at nature itself, do what is pleasing to God. Okay, so you have people who will tell you, we follow the promptings of the spirit that isn't biblical. I mean, the promptings of the spirit where the promptings don't come from the holy word of God. God that's out there publicly to be consulted. And we have people who say, well, we don't go to internal guidance. We go to external guidance that comes from the natural world and that leads to tyranny. You have people say, well, what we ought to do is the most loving thing in every situation. We ought to do what is most loving in the name of love. Hitler killed the Jews in the name of love. People, people break their contracts in the name of love. Actually, just about every wicked thing imaginable has been done and can be done by human beings. It isn't enough to say, we do what is most loving if you don't have some standard that tells you what is and is not loving. Is it loving for children to sacrifice? Excuse me, for parents to sacrifice their children to Moloch? Well, there have been cases where that's what parents thought was the loving thing to do. God says, I don't love you in that way. I don't make your children go through the fire. If you want to know what love is, you need to have it defined. And that's why Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you want to know what love is. Look at my commandments. People who will not love the law of the Lord will not be without love law. But they will not have loving law, and they will not have healthy law. They will have either wickedness, our own promptings, or tyranny from others to live under. And so I give you a choice. This life and death. What do you want? You can know the life that God gives by his grace, and that means walking in his law. This do and thou shalt live. Or you can know the tyranny and the death in the wickedness and the oppression of having your ethic determined by other people.