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. Good to know that God calls. And I hope that when He calls, we hear Him, because this is a verse about the call of Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, I’ve got to ask you, did you arrange for that mobile phone to go off then? The cell phone always goes off at the wrong moment. I think that was the right moment actually, just trying to talk about the call of God and the call comes in. Spurgeon never had to put up with cell phones, but I suppose he didn’t have microphones either. God calls. We’re talking about the response to God’s call, which is the obedience of faith. Isn’t that a fascinating phrase? She talks in Romans about the obedience of faith. In other words, one of the ways in which you know real faith is that it moves in the direction of obedience. And where there isn’t movement in the direction of obedience, there’s no reason to believe that a person has genuine faith. We’re trying to get to the heart of what faith actually is. It’s so much more than saying, Oh yeah, I believe a few things, which, actually, the devil would also fall in because he knows them to be true. So it’s about being obedient out of a desire to serve God, not only out of duty or a checklist. Yeah, that’s the essence of what it means to become a Christian, to be a new creation to have the Spirit of God actually living in my heart. So that I don’t have a heart of stone towards God that says, Oh, I suppose I just have to do these things to please him. But I have a heart of love towards God that says, I want to delight in him as he has taken delight in me. So let’s take this further. Join us in Romans 1 as we continue the message Walking in Obedience to Christ. Here’s Colin. I was reading a Puritan writer with the delightful name of William Garnell. 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 which 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 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 now 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. Seek the Lord while he may be found Isaiah says, let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy. Now I plead with you today. If you were someone who just made a decision and said a prayer, but you are living a life that is in disobedience to what God calls you and accommodates knowingly, what God calls sin, and you are thinking that everything is all right, I’m here to say to you today it is not all right. Jesus said, cause it’s not just words it’s deeds. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven. God calls you to a life of obedience. There may be that today for some in a special way, you just know that God is speaking to me. Calling me right now, to repentance and to forsaking that which I have accommodated, cherished, justified, and defend it and hidden, thinking that it’s all alright and today I see from the Bible, it’s not. God calls you to a life of obedience. Now at this very moment, you may be asking, but how is this possible? Colin you don’t realize my sins have power over me. How am I going to live this life of obedience? You have no idea of how difficult it is what you’re saying for me. Listen, as soon as you see from the scripture that God calls you to a life of obedience, as soon as you see it, as soon as your eyes are open to it, as soon as you get that the Christian life is going to be a relentless war against sin, if you’re at peace with God, you’re at war with sin, if you’re at peace with sin, you’re at war with God, as soon as you see that God calls you to this life of obedience, Satan will change his whole strategy for tempting you. He will flip you and he can do this in a moment. He will flip you from the casual presumption that all is well with you that may have been where you were 20 minutes ago. But as soon as you see that God calls you for a life of obedience, he will flip you to a sense of despair that now there may be no hope for you. And I say it can happen in a moment. Maybe what you’re experiencing right now. So we need to hear the second part of what Paul says to us here as well as the first. That God calls us not only to obedience, but also to faith. And that the two are not separate, but that they are joined together for the obedience that he calls us to is precisely the obedience of faith. So just as the gospel answer to antinomianism is that God calls you to a life of obedience, so the gospel answer to legalism is that God calls you to a life of faith. Look at the scripture again with me. Through him, and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from your faith. You say, now, wait a minute. What is faith? Remind me again. Faith is the bond of a living union with Jesus Christ. So, the obedience of faith is obedience that flows from the bond of that living union. It is precisely what the Lord Jesus was talking about when he said I am the vine and you are the branches. It’s what the apostle Paul was talking about when he said I’ve been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I’m living in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and who gave Himself for me. And this is a life of faith. You see, not just a moment of faith or a decision of faith or a prayer of faith or whatever, we walk by faith, we live by faith, not by sight. And a life of obedience flows out of a life of faith. Or to put it another way, the obedience to which Jesus Christ calls me this week that lies ahead of me can only flow out of faith in him, out of that living union, his life and me. Now you will see then that the obedience of faith is very different from the obedience of works. The obedience of works is simply you making a bigger effort next week, and that will not get you terribly far because you’re still working with the same resources or absence of them. But the obedience of faith is the obedience that lies from the bond of a living union with Jesus Christ, which is why the new testament says, Christ in you is your hope of glory. Christ came to save his people from their sins, not just from the consequence of their sins in hell, but from their sins. That means he came to make obedience possible. That means he is able to deliver you, not only from sins, guilt, but also from its power. That deliverance will be complete in heaven. The war will be over then. But what is complete in heaven is begun here and now. And the obedience of faith is about pursuing in the power of Christ now the obedience that will be complete then by his grace and glory. Now, when you see this, immediately it opens the door of hope for all of us. Especially those of us who are despairing of ourselves. Which is what happens as soon as we see God’s call to obedience. God does not call you to obey so that you may come to Christ. God calls you to come to Christ so that you may obey. All the difference in the world. The obedience of faith. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message Walking in Obedience to Christ. We’ve been hearing about God’s call to a life of obedience and if you’ve missed any of the present series or if you want to go back and listen again, don’t forget you can always do that by coming online to our website, openthebible.org.uk or you can now find us as a podcast on your favorite podcast site or by following the link on our website. Simply go to your favorite podcast site and search for Open the Bible UK and subscribe to receive regular updates. Our podcasts are available on the podcast site immediately after the broadcast version of the message, so if you want to listen to any of the messages that have already gone out on air, you can do that by finding the podcast. Back to the message now. Here’s Colin. God does not call you to obey so that you may come to Christ. God calls you to come to Christ so that you may obey. All the difference in the world, the obedience of faith. On an important point, it’s always wonderful to see it expressed well. One of my favorite writers is a man by the name of Professor Donald McLeod, and he says it so well. Let me quote to you from him. He says, Christ is offered to us simply as sinners, not as prepared sinners, not as seeking sinners, not as interested sinners, awakened sinners, reform sinners, or anything else. He says, we need not, indeed, we must not delay coming to Christ until we have put away sin. If we do, we will never come. See what he’s saying? If you say, well, I’ve got a deal with what’s wrong in my life in order to come to Christ, you will never come to Christ. We must not delay coming to Christ until we have put away sin. If we do, we will never come, sin can be conquered only in union with him. It cannot be conquered before we come to Him. The obedience of faith. Now this is expressed very beautifully in some of our best evangelistic gospel hymns. We quote one of my favorites to you. Do you know this one? Come, you sinners poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready, stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power. Do we know that hymn? Maybe not, well I’ll tell you about it then, okay. All right, let me quote a couple of verses from it. It’s a great hymn, we need to sing it sometime then. Let not conscience make you linger. Nor of fitness fondly dream, all the fitness ye requireth as you feel your need of him. You see what the hymn writer’s saying? Here someone says I’ve got a bad conscience and he says don’t let your bad conscience keep you from Christ. Your bad conscience is a reason to come to Christ. Let no conscience make you linger. Nor of fitness, fondly dream. You see there are folks who think like this, here are all these wonderful people in this congregation and they’ve all got their lives so wonderfully sorted out and one day I’m going to get my life wonderfully sorted out and then I’ll be a Christian too. You’re fondly dreaming of fitness and you think you’ll come to Christ when you’ve got yourself sorted out. You will never come to Christ on that basis. The same hymn writer goes on in these words, come you weary, heavy laden, bruised and ruined by the fall, if you wait until you’re better, you can almost finish it for me. you will never come at all. And there are some of us I think who’ve been waiting until we were better and we’re still waiting until we’re better and if you go on waiting until you’re better you will never come at all to Christ. Hymn that you definitely know really well. Same point. Just as I am and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark blot To thee whose blood can cleanse each spot O Lamb of God I come. Now, you see how this opens the door of hope? As long as you think that somehow Christ calls you to obey in order that you may come to him, you never get them. The marvelous truth is that the gospel invites you to come to Christ so that you can obey. And so I want to end here on this very simple and yet this most important point that Romans 1.5 doesn’t only describe the obedience of faith, in the scripture God calls us to the obedience of faith. Notice that just one more time as we pull this together, it’s through him, Paul says, and for his namesake that we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the nations to the obedience of faith. God calls you to the obedience of faith in his son Jesus Christ today. He calls you to find in Christ what you do not have, to receive from Christ what you cannot offer, to accomplish through Christ what you cannot do, so today what I want to invite you to do is to believe in order that you may obey. That’s the gospel. Are you holding back because you think you cannot change? Here you are, you’re trapped in habitual sin. You’re holding back because you think you cannot change? You’ll be there forever. Listen, come to Christ, put your trust in Jesus Christ. Faith is the bond of hope. The bond of a living union with Jesus Christ. Not just believing things about him, it’s his life and you. You come to the bond of living union with Jesus Christ. You will soon find that you begin to hate what you used to love and love what you used to hate. Through this bond, Christ in you, think about that. He will give you new desires, new affections, new strength, new life. Are you holding back because you have got problems? Are you holding back because you’ve got hurts? Are you holding back from Jesus Christ because you have got wounds? There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people in our country who have wounds and hurts and they’re looking for the answer in themselves, and they’ve been doing it and they’ll go on doing it for years. And I’m here to tell you today that self is an empty, powerless, idol. And what you need is not union with self, you need union with Christ. You look away from yourself now. And you’ve been trying to sort yourself out all these years. You look to Jesus Christ who’s able to do for you what you cannot do for yourself, to bring to you what you do not have in yourself. Turn from the empty idol that has no power. God is calling you today to faith in Jesus Christ and to the obedience that will flow from this living union. Are you holding back because you have doubts and questions? Bring your doubts and questions to Christ. How do you think you’re gonna resolve them all standing out here on your own? Remember the man who came to Jesus and he said, Lord, I believe, help me in my unbelief. That’s a great way to come to Jesus Christ. How else do you think you’re gonna sort all this out? Is there someone here and you are holding back from Jesus Christ, because you do not think you need him? In your heart and with your conservative moral life, you think, well, it’s great that Pastor Collins says all these things, cause I’m sure there’s many people who need to hear them. But in your heart of hearts, you feel that you are a very good and respectable person. You just do not see your need of Jesus Christ. At least, not you. You’re not that bad. Listen my friend, your sins are much worse than you think. And your obedience is much less than you think. When you look at the Son of God, heaving, sweating, agonizing on a cross, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and you say you do not need him, you say you do not need Him, could there be anything more offensive and defiant and arrogant towards God than what you’re saying in your heart if you hold back from Christ because you say you do not need him? God calls you to Christ today. And then lastly, is there someone here and you are holding back for the opposite reason. You know that your sins are many. It’s just all too clear to you. And boy, you feel so weighed down by it all that it’s passed to the extent of my failure, the depth of it, the length of it. Your sins are many, you know it. Look to the cross. Look at the son of God with royal blood in his veins and that blood is being shed for you. He is there for sinners. He is there for sinners. He is there for sinners and that means he is there for you. And the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has the power to cleanse you from every sin. This Savior is able to take you from the slimy pit in which you find yourself and set your feet upon the rock. He is able to present you faultless on the last day with great joy in his presence and that redeeming work that he will complete there, he is able to begin in you now. He calls you to the obedience of faith. What a powerful way to finish this message to be reminded of all that the blood of Christ has done for us. Our message today was called walking in obedience to Christ and it’s part of our series the Anatomy of Faith. And if you’ve missed any of the series or you want to go back and listen again, you can do that by coming online to our website openthebible.org.uk or find us as a podcast, search for Open the Bible UK on your favorite podcast site and subscribe to receive regular updates. Open the Bible is supported entirely by our listeners. And if that’s something you’ve been considering doing, then this month we have a great offer for you. If you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of five pounds per month or more, we’d love to say thank you by sending you a copy of C. H. Spurgeon’s book, Encouragement for the Depressed. Colin, who is this book for? Well, this book is really for anyone who is discouraged or going through a dark time. And I can’t imagine that there’s any Christian who doesn’t experience that at some point in life. What’s so striking to me about this book is that it’s written by a man who was known for his extraordinary faith. I mean, the Spirit of God rested on the life and ministry of C. H. Spurgeon. And yet he knew what it was to go through times of extraordinary darkness and even a sense of despair at some points. You know, he suffered from smallpox, gout, rheumatism, inflammation of the kidneys, and his wife was bedridden for decades. I mean, this man really knew what it was to suffer, and yet he found in all of this that he was forced closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what he says. He says, I’ve learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages. I love that. Kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages. Here’s Biblical wisdom from a man of faith who knew what it was to really struggle in dark times. And I have found his writing to be wonderfully encouraging, refreshing and uplifting. And that’s why I’m really grateful that we have the opportunity of getting this book out this month. C.H. Spurgeon’s book, Encouragement for the Depressed is our gift to you, if you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible this month in the amount of five pounds per month, or more. For more full details and to give online, go to our website, openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I hope you’ll join us again next time. There are different degrees of faith. There are different descending circles Find out how to develop your degree of faith next time on Open the Bible.