There will be some in every church who, having made a decision for Jesus, live carelessly and sin presumptuously, and they carry on doing it, because they think that it really doesn’t matter. Then there are others who, feeling defeated by a sense of their own failure, falling many times for the same temptation, are overwhelmed by a sense of their own unworthiness. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I am David Pick. And so, Colin, today’s message is all about the gospel, how it frees us from having to be good enough, but it also compels us to live a life that honours Christ. Yes, we’re really about the place of obedience in the life of a Christian. Some people are starting from the place of, I’ve got to be, I’ve got to obey, I’ve got to prove myself to God. It’s impossible. I mean, how is it going to be possible to obtain everlasting life on the basis of my performance? My best is never going to be good enough. If it was, why would Christ have come into the world? So some people start that way and then throw up their hands and say, I can’t do that, so what’s the use of trying? Well, there’s the flip side. So, hey, I believe and live any way that I choose. And in both of these cases, the relentless trying to impress God and trying to win the favor of God and then the other hey I believe so I don’t need to bother. Both of these completely misunderstand the place of obedience in the life of a Christian. Only the gospel brings faith and obedience together. We’re going to see how that happens in the Bible today. So join us in Romans chapter one, as we begin the message, walking in obedience with Christ. Here’s Colin. We’re looking at the subject of faith. What faith is, and what faith does. And we’re learning together that biblical faith is clearly more than signing off on certain beliefs. After all, the devil knows that Jesus is the son of God. He knows that he died on the cross and certainly knows that he rose from the dead. Saving faith is more than accepting that these things are true. It is more than a decision. It is more than saying a prayer. We’re learning that faith is the bond of a living union with Jesus Christ, in which a man or a woman comes to love him and to trust him and to serve him. That’s what faith is, and we are using the analogy of the human body to help us think about what faith does. Faith has ears hearing the word of Christ. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Faith has hands serving with the love of Christ. Faith has a mouth feeding on the bread of Christ, a voice declaring the praise of Christ and knees last time we looked at praying in the name of Christ. And today we’re getting down to the business end of the series as it were. Feet. Feet walking in obedience to Christ, and that’s why we’re in Romans chapter 1 and verse 5. Look at that verse with me if you would, it’s through Christ. And for his namesake Paul said that we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the nations to the obedience that comes from faith. Or as some translations of have it simply, the obedience of faith. Now you’ll notice that in that simple phrase, the obedience of faith, we have a what and we have a how, we have an end and we have a means, we have an objective and we have a path on which it is pursued. Now the gospel always lives in the presence of two enemies. I’m going to give you their names, don’t worry about the names if you’re not familiar with them or are interested, you’ll soon recognize the reality. One is called Legalism and the other is called Antinomianism. Legalism simply says obey God’s command so that you may believe his promise. Or to put it another way, you have to start keeping the law in order to come to Christ. If you’re going to become a Christian, in other words, legalism says clean up your life first. Leave your sins in order to come to Christ. Don’t think that you can come to Christ unless and until you do. Now, the problem here is very obvious. If you have to clean up your life in order to come to Christ, how will anyone ever get to the position where they’re able to come? Now, antinomianism is the opposite error. And antinomianism says that you are to believe God’s promise so that you can ignore His command. Or to put it another way, if you come to Jesus, you don’t need to worry about keeping the the promise of God at all. Trust in Jesus and don’t worry about cleaning up your life. As long as you believe in Him, as long as you’ve said the prayer and made the decision, really, nothing else matters. And again, the problem in this error should be obvious. Paul deals with it in Romans in chapter 6. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the answer to that is no way. Well, why not? Answer? Because through the bond of faith we are united to Jesus Christ in His death and in His resurrection so that by Christ in us we are brought into newness of life. Now, as I say, don’t worry about the names, but the reality matters. In every congregation, in every church, there will be folks who fall into one of these two errors. And here’s what it looks like. There will be some in every church who, having made a decision for Jesus, live carelessly and sin presumptuously. And they carry on doing it because they think that it really doesn’t matter. Then there are others who, feeling defeated by a sense of their own failure, falling many times for the same temptation, are overwhelmed by a sense of their own unworthiness, lack of progress. And I want you to see today that the answer to both of these conditions is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ which says to us, believe God’s promise so that you may obey His command. Now, these two enemies of the Gospel, these two conditions of soul that are so often the ditches on either side of the truth as it were enough of which many people fall. They’re both wonderfully addressed right here in these very words in Romans chapter 1 and verse 5 that are opened before us, the obedience of faith. And I want you to simply see these two very obvious facts, I hope that they will become profoundly helpful to us, that the answer that the Gospel gives to antinomianism is that God calls you to obedience and the answer that the Gospel gives to legalism is that God calls you to faith. So let’s start here then. God calls you to a life of obedience, the obedience of faith. Big picture, God created Adam and Eve in his image. They reflected his glory, they lived under his blessing by listening to his Word. They walked in fellowship with him and were kept from all evil. Then Satan comes in to the garden. His great objective is to recruit the man and the woman and all who will follow from them into his own great rebellion against God. He wants to destroy every expression of the glory of God in the universe, he wants you to hate God, he wants you to defy God, he wants you to live as your own God. And this is why he came into the garden stalking our first parents. They listen to him, were seduced by him, they disobeyed God, and in that act of disobedience the power of this thing that the Bible calls sin got into them and through them it has got into all of us. Sin in it’s essence is disobedience to God. It is more serious than your mistakes and your failures. It is more damaging than our shortcomings and our lapses. The essence of sin is that we trust ourselves more than we trust God, that we love ourselves more than we love God, and that we serve ourselves more than we serve God. And because of this, God’s glory is obscured in us more than it is reflected in us which is why the Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is what we need to be saved from. But God knew what he was doing when he let the serpent into that garden. He knew that a redeemed creation would display the magnificence of his glory far more than an innocent one ever could. He had determined, God had determined from before the beginning of time that he would redeem sinners through his son who would come to us through a human birth who would redeem us by an atoning death and would lead us into newness of life through the power of his resurrection. God’s plan is that he will display the glory of his grace like light reflected through the facets of a diamond. In a great multitude of redeemed people gather together in his presence in heaven and that through his son and in his people he will reflect his everlasting glory and that will be our everlasting joy. So at the end of the bible story what you see is this gathering of this great multitude. Gods glory on display everywhere among his redeemed people who have experienced his grace in whom the full glory of the image of God is now being reflected. As we come to love him and rejoice in him forever. No one will be there who hates God. No one will be there who defies God. No one will be there who is their own God. And that is where history is headed. That is what God’s purpose will look like when it is complete in the new heaven and in the new earth. Now heres the point. What God will complete then, He begins now. What God will complete then, He begins now. And so the evidence that you are a person in whom obedience will be complete is that you are a person in whom obedience is begun. Think about this. When God completes in heaven what He begins on earth, or to put it another way, he begins on earth what He completes in heaven, the obedience and the holiness that will be complete in heaven is begun on earth and God calls us to pursue it now. The obedience of faith. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message, Walking in Obedience to Christ. And we’ll get right back to the message shortly. Message is a part of our series, The Anatomy of Faith, and if you tuned in late or if you’ve missed any of the other parts of the series, you can always catch up or go back and listen again online. Come to our website, openthebible.org.uk. Or you can find us as a podcast. Follow the links on our website or go to your favorite podcast site, search for Open the Bible UK, and subscribe to receive regular updates. Back to The Message now, we’re in Romans and chapter 1, here’s Colin. God calls you to a life of obedience. Now I want you to see how clear this is in the scripture, because it really is a truth that has been widely lost among evangelical Christians. Why is it that so many people really live in the illusion that if I just said a prayer, if I just made the decision that everything’s all right with me, no matter how I live my life, and that is rampant in churches across our country. So will you follow with me? Let me just point you to scriptures. I just want to get a sense of the clarity of God’s call to obedience that runs all the way through scripture. Let’s start with the way that it’s put here in Romans chapter 1 and verse 5. The obedience of faith. If you look at the end of the book of Romans you’ll find that Paul uses exactly the same phrase at the end as he uses at the beginning. At chapter 16 and verse 26 the Gospel that is now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God so that all nations might believe and obey Him. Just slightly different translation but the words that Paul actually wrote, words that are there in the Greek, are exactly the same in Romans 1, 5 and in Romans 16, 26. The beginning and the end of the book, it’s about calling people from all nations to the obedience of faith. In other words, that single phrase frames the beginning and the end like the book ends of the book of Romans. This is what the book is all about. What living faith in Jesus Christ is and how it leads us into newness of life. That’s what Hebrews 11 is about. The obedience of faith, you know that chapter well. How it goes through men and women of faith. By faith Noah built an ark. There is his obedience. By faith Abraham went to another place. By faith Moses refused to be known as the son of pharaoh’s daughter and so forth and so on. Faith, the obedience that arises from faith. That’s the first way in which it’s put. Have you ever noticed that the scriptures call us not only to believe the gospel but also to obey the gospel? To obey the gospel. For example Romans chapter 6 verse 17. Thanks be to God Paul says there that though you used to be slaves to sin say that you used to be slaves to sin you whole-heartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. The gospel is not only to be believed. The gospel is to be obeyed. You have the same thing in 1 Peter 4.17 where Peter’s speaking about judgment that begins with the house of God and he says how will it then be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? See it is not as if Almighty God sends his son into the world and kinda says you know I’ve got something on offer for you guys, you know, if this is right for you, you know of whatever you think. No, Acts 17, God commands all men everywhere to repent. Acts chapter two, on the day of Pentecost, this Jesus who you crucified, Peter says, God has made him Lord and Christ. So the message is not, you know, hey what do you think you’re gonna do, and how are you gonna respond and so forth and so on. The gospel is not only promised to be believed, the gospel is to be obeyed. Obedience to the gospel. Third way in which this is expressed. Have you seen in the Bible that if you are a Christian believer, if you are in Jesus Christ, God has chosen you for the purpose of obedience. That’s 1 Peter 1,2. Peter introduces himself as an apostle of Jesus, to God’s elect strangers in the world who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the spirit, for what? For obedience to Jesus Christ. And for sprinkling with his blood. God calls us to pursue a life of obedience. And it is for this purpose that we are sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Made clean, so that you may live holy. Number four, not only are we chosen for obedience, but if we are in Christ we have been redeemed for obedience. It is for this purpose that the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood. Romans in chapter 8 and verse 4, having spoken about our justification by faith. Paul says, God condemned sin in sinful man in order that. So here’s not the purpose of Christ’s redeeming death, that the righteous requirements of the law may be fully met in us. Who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Now it’s wonderful that the righteousness of Christ has been given to us and that redemption is accomplished for us on the cross. But Paul is saying, now the purpose of this, is that now by the Spirit… He says that the law of God might be fully met in us who live according to the Spirit. That’s why you’re redeemed. It’s how it will be in heaven and what’s complete there is begun now. Number 5, the Holy Spirit is given to us for the purpose of obedience. You know well of Ezekiel Chapter 36 in verse twenty-six, where God makes this marvellous promise. I’m going to give you a new heart, He says, I’ll give you a new spirit. And then He says, I will put my spirit in you. Why? To move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep all my laws. So, God gives the Spirit so that gladly and freely we will walk in new paths of obedience. Number six, obedience is the evidence of our love for Jesus Christ. What is it to love Jesus Christ? Simply to say that we love Jesus Christ? No, the Lord Jesus makes this very clear. John 14, 15, if you love me, he says, you will obey my commands. He says it this way in chapter 14 and verse 24, he who does not love me will not obey my teaching. In other words, you don’t love Christ, you’ll never get into this life of obedience. You will not obey my commands. Again in John 15,10, if you obey my commands you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my father’s commands, Jesus says, and I remain in his love. Second, John 1 and verse 6, the apostle puts it this way, this is love that we walk in obedience to his commands. That obedience is clearly the evidence that the new life of Christ is in us. And you see this most clearly in the first letter of John, we know that we have come to know him just pause there, see, how do we know that we’ve come to know him, a clear statement in one John, we know that we have come to know him, So a life pursuing obedience is the evidence that the new life of Jesus is in you and that you know him. A one John Chapter three verse 24, those who obey His commands live in Him and He in them. This is all through the scripture, couldn’t be clearer. God calls you, me to a life of obedience. I was reading a Puritan writer with the delightful name of William Gurnell. I would like to have been called Gurnell rather than Smith, you might understand, but I wasn’t. But he was and he has this marvelous little statement that just catches it, I think, really well. He says, do not say that you have royal blood in your veins and are born of God unless you can prove your pedigree by daring to be holy. Do not say that you have royal blood in your veins and that you are born of God unless you can prove your pedigree by daring to be holy. To be holy because God calls you to obedience and a man or a woman who cares little or nothing about obedience is not born of God. It’s only words, only words. Saving faith is the bond of a living union with Jesus Christ. And so by definition, if it’s a living union with Jesus Christ, it has to change not only what you believe but also how you behave. So I want to give to you this challenge today. If you are comfortable with a known sin that you even know are accommodating in your life, I want you to hear this challenge. If you are at peace with God, you are at war with sin. And if you are at peace with sin, you are at war with God. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message Walking in Obedience with Christ and we’ve heard that saving faith is a bond of a living union with Jesus Christ. It changes not only what we believe but how we behave. Our series, The Anatomy of Faith, is all about having a genuine faith, which changes not just our belief, but also our hearts and, leading from that, our behaviour. And if you’ve missed any of the series or if you want to go back and listen again, you can always do that by coming online to our website, openthebible.org.uk. Or you can find us as a podcast, that’s available on your regular podcast site, and just search for Open the Bible, UK and subscribe to receive regular updates. Open the Bible is only able to remain on the air and on the internet because of the financial support of our listeners. People just like you. And if that’s something you’d like to do, then we have an offer for you this month. For the whole of this month, if you are able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible, in the amount of £5 per month or more, we’d love to say thank you by sending you a copy or Spurgeon’s book, encouragement for the depressed Colin, can you give an example of Spurgeon’s encouragement? Well, the first part of this book is based on Zechariah chapter four, and verse 10, who has despised the day of small things. When the temple was rebuilt after the exile, people who remember the old temple that was very grand looked at the foundations and they said, is this it, you know, it just looks so small. And I think that speaks to us today, that many who really labour in serving the Lord have the question, is this all that’s really coming from it? Is this the extent of what we shall see God doing in our lifetime? Do not despise the day of small things. Well, Spurgeon takes that verse and applies it to the discouragements that we often feel when we look at our own lives and think that things are small. You know, I only have a little knowledge. I’m not as bright as other people, my faith seems very small. And to that, Spurgeon says, do not mourn that your faith is small. Thank God that you have any faith at all. I love that. That’s great. Thank God that you have this gift. It’s the most marvellous gift. He says, if you believe in Jesus, though your faith be small as a mustard seed, it will save you and over time, it will grow. So I find that Spurgeon’s writing is just nourishing to my soul. When I feel down, I often go to Spurgeon because I find that he picks me up. And I think that that’s what folks will find as they read this wonderful little book. Well, the book is called Encouragement for the Depressed. It’s by C.H. Spurgeon. And it’s our thank you gift to you for being able to support the work of Open the Bible financially this month in the amount of £5 per month or more. Full details or to give online, come to our website openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pyke. And I hope you’ll be able to join us again next time on Open the Bible. What kind of life does God call his people to live? Find out next time on Open the Bible.