Love Demands Obedience

Transcription

1 The following sermon was preached at Redemption Baptist Church on Sunday, 9 September We encourage you to look up the Scriptures that are referenced. May the Lord speak to your heart as you study His Word. 1 Love Demands Obedience As most of you know, our missions conference is now a month away; and the theme of this year s conference is Love: The Heart of the Great Commission. Now, as I searched the web to find materials and graphics relating to the love of Christ, I found that an interesting phrase kept popping up. I found that there are many web sites out there that offer their viewers a love test. Now, what is a love test? These love tests are tests that people have invented in order to help you figure out whether you are in love. I didn t waste much time looking at these sites; but in the few sites I did glance at, it was obvious that the people who wrote these love tests have no idea what real love is. To the world, love is a gushy feeling something that you can fall into or fall out of just as easily. In none of these tests was love said to be a choice or a lifelong commitment. As for sacrificial commitment (yielding your own rights), there wasn t a hint of such a thing. This should not be surprising. The lost world out there has no understanding of what real love is, because they do not know the Author of love, Jesus Christ. When a person repents of his sin and puts his faith in Christ, he begins to understand, for the first time, what true love is. In Romans 5, Paul wrote that Christians are justified by faith, and that they therefore rejoice in hope of the glory of God because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. As Christians grow in grace, they understand more and more just what godly love is, because God implants His own divine love in their hearts. More and more, Christians should find themselves motivated by love for God. Love is the halo that should surround every act of service that Christians do for the Lord and for others. At least, that s the way it should be. Sadly, though, many Christians tend, over time, to grow cold in their love for Christ; and their lack of sacrifice for Jesus shows it. That s why the focus of this year s missions conference is love. Love truly is the heart of the Great Commission that Christ has given us. You know, I really want to see an increase in the numbers on our Faith Promise chart. I would like to see our faith stretching and increasing, and our giving increasing, so that we may, in time, support a fifth missionary family. However, what I desire to see even more than increased Faith Promise commitments is God s people giving sacrificially out of a heart of pure love. That is what God desires. Do you love Christ, Christian? Do you really love Him? If so, then your love is about to be put to the test. Over the next month, I am going to give you The Love Test. In my messages, I will put to you some questions which will reveal whether you are really motivated by love for Christ, or not. Pay close attention! This may be a turning point in your life. This message isn t really about supporting more missionaries; it is about fulfilling the very purpose of your life! What is the purpose of your life? It is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbour as yourself. Prepare yourself for Love Test #1! The title of this message is Love Demands Obedience. Read Matthew 22:34-40.

2 2 I. Love constrains us to obey our Master. In the passage that we just read, Jesus stated the purpose of our lives very clearly. Your purpose, Christian, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This was not some new idea that Jesus taught the people: He was quoting the Law. God made it clear to the nation of Israel, all the way back at the beginning of His covenant relationship with them, that they were His servants. In Leviticus 25:55 the LORD told Israel, For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. The children of Israel were God s servants. Yet, God also made it clear that love for Him was to be the motivation behind all their service to Him. Let s look at that Scripture. Read Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Throughout the New Testament we are told that our purpose, as Christians, is to serve the Lord. This is just as true for us New Testament Christians as it was for the nation of Israel. Yet, our service should be founded upon love. If we be not motivated by love for Christ, then our service to God means little. Should our love for Him be growing cold, then our outward acts of service to Him will soon drop away, and fall by the wayside. Why? Because our service is not built upon the foundation of love. Jesus said that love for God is the greatest commandment. A heart of burning, passionate love for Jesus should compel you to serve Him with everything you ve got! Now, it s easy enough for a Christian to say, Oh, yes, I love God. Perhaps you would venture to say, Yes, I love God. If so, then put your love to the biblical test. The first biblical test of love for Christ is obedience to Him. Read 2 Corinthians 5: Paul says that Christ s love constrains us. What does constrain mean? It means to urge someone to do something passionately. It means to compel and persuade someone to do something, even though that person may be reluctant to do it. This is the same word that was used by Mark to describe how Jesus sent His disciples out into the Sea of Galilee. Read Mark 6: In verse 45, Mark makes it clear that the disciples were reluctant to go out into the Sea of Galilee on this particular night. It was only a 7-mile row across the lake to Bethsaida; yet, the disciples were afraid to make the trip. How do we know that they were afraid? Because Jesus had to constrain (urge) them to go. Remember, these men were experienced fishermen. They knew that storms arise very quickly and fiercely on the Sea of Galilee; and they could see that the signs of a storm were in the air. Yet, Jesus constrained them to go, anyway. Now, what would possess these experienced fishermen, who knew very well how quickly violent storms can arise on the Sea of Galilee, to go out into this dangerous situation? Love. Love for their Master. By the way, the disciples love for Jesus was coupled with faith in Him. True faith in Christ and true love for Him always go together. The disciples faith wasn t the strongest; but they did trust Jesus enough, and love Him enough, to obey Him! Christ s love constrained them to obey.

3 3 Folks, you cannot rightly claim to love God if you do not obey Him! You may say so all you wish; but words without obedience mean nothing. A little boy or girl may say I love you, daddy, or I love you, mummy : but should that child continually ignore and disregard his parents commands; and say No! to daddy and mummy; and do whatever he wants to do, regardless of what his parents say, and regardless of how much his disobedience hurts his parents hearts; then that child does not really love his parents! By disobeying his parents continually, he disrespects and dishonours them, and shows them contempt. So it is in your relationship with Christ. Should there be areas of your life where you are disobeying Him, how can you say, I love you, Lord? How can you tell your Saviour, I love you, Lord: but just don t expect me to obey you. I ve got my own life, you know? Jesus said, Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? (Luke 6:46). Should you be knowingly and wilfully disobeying Him, then your profession of love for Him rings hollow. Read John 14:15 and 15: If you have repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ, and in the power of His death, burial, and resurrection, then you are saved. This means that your life is no longer your own. You have yielded your life to Christ, and acknowledged His Lordship. The Apostle Paul wrote, What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Christian, nothing that you have is your own. Your time is not your own. Your money is not your own. Your relationships are not your own. Your body and spirit are not your own. Your life is not your own. Jesus died for the express purpose that you might not live for yourself any longer, but for Him who died for you. The love of Christ constrains you to obey Him implicitly. How can you not obey Him, when He loves you so much that He died for you? You cannot separate love from obedience. You cannot say, I love you, God, yet fail to obey His will. What is His will? Paul answered that question in a striking way in Ephesians 5. In Ephesians 5:25 Paul said that that Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it. Christ gave Himself for this church. He shed His precious blood for this assembly. And why did He shed His precious blood for Redemption Baptist Church? Paul answered that question, too. He said that Christ gave Himself for His church so that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Christ likens our little church to His bride; and the whole reason that He purchased this church to be His bride was that we might be made holy so that we might be presented to Him in a pure, spotless, white wedding dress of holiness and righteousness! In Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus referred to the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea as His seven golden candlesticks ; and He said that He walked in the midst of these churches whenever they assembled themselves together. Think of that! Every true church is like purest gold to the Lord Jesus Christ. The church is incredibly precious to Him. Why? Because He bought it with His own blood. In Acts 20:28 Paul said that pastors are to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. By the way, did you notice what Paul said? He said that God purchased the church with His own blood. Now, how could God have blood, when He is a Spirit, and not a man? There s only

4 4 one way that God could have human blood: and that is for God to take on human flesh! That is precisely what happened when Christ, the second Person of the Godhead, left His throne in heaven, and was conceived in the womb of Mary. God took on human flesh and blood. By saying that God purchased the church with His own blood, Paul was declaring that Jesus is God. Furthermore, Paul says that it is with His precious blood that Jesus, the God-Man, purchased His church. It sounds as though the church is pretty important, doesn t it? Now, being a member of a church does not save anyone. It is by faith in Christ alone, and not by church membership, that we are saved. Yet, the church is extremely important to Christ. It is so important to Him, that He shed His blood for it. The church is so precious to Christ that He refers to it as His bride, and as His golden candlestick. What does it mean, then, if a child of God refuse to join himself to Christ s assembly by way or biblical baptism, when Christ has commanded us to be baptised after we are saved? What if a Christian refuse to attend church services faithfully, when Christ has commanded us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together? What if a Christian refuse to give to God through His local church, when Christ has commanded us to do so? Can we say that we love Him? What about our attitude toward God s Word? The Lord commands us, Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Christ commands us to study His Word. How, then, can we say, I love you, Lord, yet leave His Word on the shelf for days on end, and not even come to God s House to study it and learn it? How can we say that we love Him, yet not obey His commandments? If you profess that you love Christ, yet do not obey Him, then it is as though you are handing God a nicely-wrapped gift box.with no gift in it! Your words and professions of love are like that nicely-wrapped box. To be sure, the box looks pretty: but there s nothing in it! If you were to give a friend or family member a nicely-wrapped box with nothing in it, would he be hurt? Of course he would. So it is when you tell God that you love Him, yet don t obey Him. You are saying, I love you God. I know you ve done everything for me; and I know that you deserve my obedience. But, the only thing I have to give you is this empty box. You see, I m just too busy to give you anything right now. To be honest with you, I have my own life to look after. But I do love you, Lord! How are you doing in the love test? Do you really love God? If you really love Him, then you will obey Him. His love for you constrains you to obey! Should you be disobeying Him, then perhaps you need to re-examine your love. As the hymn Living for Jesus says, Such love constrains me to answer His call, follow His leading, and give Him my all. II. Love constrains us to obey the Great Commission. We ve seen that the love of Christ constrains us to obey our Master. That means, then, that Christ s love constrains us to obey the Great Commission. If Christ s love, which He poured out for us on Calvary, mean anything to us, then we will be motivated to obey His Commission. The Great Commission isn t a nice suggestion that we can take or leave: it is a command from our Master, Jesus Christ. To disobey the Commission is to show Christ shocking ingratitude. If we love Him, we must obey. What is the Great Commission? Let s look.

5 Read Mark 16:15. 5 Our Master commands us to take the Gospel to every creature. Every soul must be reached with the good news that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again to pay our sin debt, so that we might be saved. If lost people do not hear this message and respond with repentance and faith in Christ, they will perish eternally in the Lake of Fire! Revelation 20:15 says, And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Christian, does the fact that lost people are heading to the Lake of Fire break your heart? It should! The Bible tells us that in the days just before Jesus crucifixion, He wept and sobbed over the city of Jerusalem, because they would not repent and believe on Him. Do you grieve in your heart over lost people around you? How can you say I love God, yet your heart is not broken by the things that break His heart? The love of Christ constrains each of us to do our utmost to win souls to Christ. However, even this is not the whole picture. Christ did not give the Great Commission merely to individual Christians; He gave it to His church. Every local, Bible-preaching assembly has been given this charge of evangelising the world. Let s look at the Commission in its entirety. Read Matthew 28: As Jesus spoke these words, He was speaking to the church to the local assembly. Now, maybe you re thinking, Pastor, how can we know that Jesus was speaking to a church, and not merely to individual Christians? We can know it for a number of reasons. First of all, in Matthew 16:18 Jesus promised His disciples that Upon this rock I will build my church. The word build means to build up, or to edify. In other words, Jesus was promising that He would continue to build up, or edify, the church which He had already established during His earthly ministry. In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus gave His church rules of discipline and order. He spoke of the church as something which already existed. Christ Himself was the Pastor of this first church. As Jesus travelled about, His flock travelled with Him, and sat under His preaching. The church already existed at the time of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection, and at the time of His ascension back to heaven from the Mount of Olives. Now, this brings me to my point. The 120 people who followed Christ to the Mount of Olives, and who received the Great Commission from Him, were His church, and not merely individual Christians! After Christ went back to Heaven, this church set itself down in one locality (in the city of Jerusalem), and stayed there. They became the church of Jerusalem; and they baptised people into the membership of their church upon their profession of faith in Christ. Read Acts 1:8, and 2:1-3, 14, 36-41, 47. Folks, the Great Commission was given to the church. The local, Bible-preaching assembly has the authority from God to preach the Gospel, baptise people into membership of the church, and then teach and instruct the new church members in all things that Christ has commanded us. First Timothy 3:15 says that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. In other words, the assembly is the place where God s Word is to be protected, guarded, and proclaimed. Christ has given this church the enormous task of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth! Jesus said,

6 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). 6 Now, that is a staggering thought. There are more than seven billion souls on earth today! As just one church, we can t personally reach them all! But we can do everything in our power to reach as many people as possible. Right now, we support four missionary families. They are our ambassadors in places where we can t be (in Honduras, Hungary, Tallaght, and Carrigaline). We support them with our Faith Promise missions giving, so that they may preach the Gospel in the places where they are. Christian, you can have a part in that. You can ask God to show you how He would have you give to missions. You can also take time out of your day to pray for our missionaries, that God will empower them to reach people for Christ. By the way, I d encourage you to read Philippians chapter 4. In that last half of the chapter, the Apostle Paul thanked the church of Philippi for supporting him financially in his missionary work. He assured them that they would partake of the reward that God would give him for his service. He said that the financial and material support that they had sent to him was an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God. He said that their offerings were fruit which would abound to their account. In other words, they would be rewarded in heaven for their part in Paul s missionary endeavours! Does not the love of Christ constrain us to have a part in the soul-winning work that Evan Williams, Layton Kelly, Zoltan Kiss, and Kevin O Keeffe are doing? And what about our own back yard? Jesus instructed the Jerusalem church to begin the Great Commission right there in Jerusalem. Athlone is our Jerusalem. The love of Christ should constrain every Christian in this room not only to become a member of this church, but to be involved in this church s evangelisation outreaches (including praying for our evangelisation programme). Endeavouring to reach the lost is not an option; it is a commandment. Is not the love of Christ, who died for us and rose again, sufficient enough reason for us to obey that commandment? A missionary statesman named Oswald J. Smith once said, Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfil the Great Commission has forfeited its right to exist. Brethren, this is not a harsh, judgmental statement: it is the sobering, biblical truth. If a church will not support missions, and do its utmost to evangelise its own area, then that church is stubbornly opposing the will of God! The whole purpose of the church the whole reason for its existence is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and establish churches in regions beyond. As a church, we must carry out the Great Commission aggressively and fervently! Any church that does not obey this command is playing religious games, and has no biblical reason to exist. Does the Great Commission demand a tremendous amount of our time? It does. Does it demand a great amount of our resources? It does. Does it demand a great deal of inconvenience? It surely does. Jesus commanded us to go into the highways and the hedges with the Gospel. (That s not convenient!) Does obeying the Great Commission even involve danger? It certainly can! We are blessed to live in part of the world where there is minimal danger for preaching the Gospel. However, if that were ever to change (and I believe that it will change during our lifetimes), would we give out the Gospel anyway? If we will not obey the Great Commission

7 now, in a time of relative freedom, do we really believe that we would sacrifice our lives for Christ if there were to come a day when the penalty for following Christ is torture or death? 7 Love for Christ constrains us to obey the Great Commission! Are you obeying it? III. Love constrains us to constrain others to come to Christ. Read Luke 14: Did you notice that word compel in verse 23? That is the same Greek word that is translated as constrain in Mark 6, where we are told that Jesus constrained the disciples to go across the Sea of Galilee to Bethsaida. Compel means to urge. It means to plead passionately. It means to go up to the lost and say, You must be saved! There is no other option! It means to keep trying, and trying, and trying to reach people for Christ. Just this past week, we received a visit from a representative of an electric company for the third time this year! She rang our doorbell for the first time when we were still living at our old house; and since we moved to our new house, she has been at our door two more times! Do you know what she s doing? She s being persistent. She s compelling us. Now, perhaps you are thinking, Well, Pastor, of course she is trying to compel you; but she s doing it because it s her job to do. She s being paid to do it. That may be so: yet, isn t it our job to tell people about our Master, and about His wonderful plan of redemption? Isn t the nature or our job infinitely more urgent than hers? Isn t the nature of our job so important, that we should do it without being paid? If she is so persistent in telling people that they need to switch over to the electric company that she represents, because her company has a great price plan and great savings, how much more persistent should we be in telling people about God s matchless plan of salvation? Christians who are thoroughly convinced of the urgency of the Great Commission will have a sense of deep urgency as they try to persuade the lost to turn to Jesus Christ. The love of Christ constrains us to constrain others. As we try to win lost people, they should see a burning, driving urgency in us. They should see that this is not a matter of casual interest; this is a matter of life or death! When we tell lost people that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no man can come unto the Father but by Him, they should see, by the look in our eyes, that we are pleading with them. They should see that the love of Christ is compelling us to knock on their door, or to hand them that tract, or to go out of our way to have that conversation with them. This same love should compel us to give and pray sacrificially for our missionaries, so that we might have a part in taking the Gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. Conclusion: How about it, Christian? Did you pass the Bible s love test this morning? (If not, prepare your heart, because there will be three more love tests in the coming weeks!) Now, perhaps you have no idea what I m talking about, because you have never been born again into God s family. If so, you cannot even begin to share the love of Christ with others, because you yourself have never received His gift of love. You can t give something you don t have! You must repent of your sin (earnestly turn from your sin with all your heart), and trust solely and completely in Christ s sacrifice on the cross for your sins, and in His resurrection from the dead. Romans 10:9-10 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

8 be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 8 If you have never been saved, won t you believe on Christ today?