Love as the Foundation of True Obedience

if you take the earlier catechisms the vast majority at least a third of the catechism were directly questions and answers relating to the law of God asking what does god require what is it that God expects to be for our rule of life and if you pardon me just just another quote from from John Murray in relationship to this he says that when we affirm the fact that the rule of our life is in the law of God quotes the statement of such a position is exceedingly distasteful to many phases of modern thought both within and without the Evangelical family [00:55:49]

we look for a God that we can use rather than a God we obey a God who will fulfill our needs meet our longingness than a god before whom we need to surrender all the rights to ourselves why is the evangelical church so flabby flabby you say oh it's not a nice thing to say but we are we're flabby I'll tell you why because we have neglected God's law the neglected his law John Newton writing in his Day to a correspondent suggested that a misunderstanding of the law of God lies at the root of most mistakes in the Christian Life [00:02:57]

Jesus says to them you know you guys your problem is that you outwardly appear righteous to others but within you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness so they were really big on rules really big on looking holy really big on looking righteous and Jesus says yeah you're doing a really good job on the externals it's very easy to pretend to be holy you just meet the required status of whatever your group is you wear the right clothes you say the right words you do the right things you attend the right times and so on and Jesus says the trouble with that is that although you appear righteous to others within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness [00:07:41]

they made an external show but without love their appearance of religion was actually just an empty form and so it is that the beginnings of loving God in the way that he says God is to be loved is with an internal cleansing not an external cleansing I'm still now in chapter 23 prior to what we just read but in verse 25 Jesus says woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence you blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside Also may be clean [00:08:28]

you see loving God starts with inward cleansing loving God starts with inward cleansing the question posed on behalf of his colleagues was out of a community that had rules and ritual if you like we might say that they had made an idol of their religion an idol of their religion because as I pointed out this quote from Deuteronomy 6. is if you like the positive side of the very first commandment of the Ten Commandments you shall have no other gods before me that's the negative what's the positive the positive is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind [00:09:19]

in other words God is looking for complete commitment and Jesus when he confronts people is also looking for complete commitment great cards accompanied him and he turned to them and he said to them big crowds it's going great if anyone comes to me and doesn't hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters yes and even his own life he cannot be my disciple you talk about lessening the demands of following Jesus Sinclair Ferguson has an amazing statement on this he says the higher the position something occupies the higher the position something occupies in the scale of divine blessing the more subtle is the temptation to worship it [00:10:16]

Deuteronomy 6 which is what we're quoting God had promised to his people a new covenant remember Jeremiah is prophesying Jeremiah 31 and God says through the Prophet Jeremiah I will put my law within them and I will rate it on their hearts I'm going to put it in them and write it on their hearts they were good at the externals they were good the law externally they were so good at it they had even added a bunch of Their Own but they missed exactly what the word of the Prophet had been the word of the Prophet was that I am going to wash you I'm going to cleanse you I'm going to forgive you and I'm going to make your heart the shape of my law [00:12:19]

I'm going to write my law on your heart so that to do my law will be a delight because you see the Ten Commandments are just the original plan of God for the well-being of humanity this is this is the this is what was written into the DNA of Adam and Eve if you like this this is why they had a sense of right and a sense of wrong that is why um you know when Paul is writing to the church in Rome and he says you know when the Gentiles who do not have the law by Nature right they they don't have the law the Gentiles did not grow up with the law of God he says they do not have a law uh by Nature but when they do what the law requires there are laws of themselves even though they do not have the law [00:13:13]

they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also Bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my gospel God judges The Seekers of men by Christ Jesus so in other words he's saying this that the natural law is written into the DNA of humanity the sense of oddness the sense of right and wrong so that even those who reject the law of God who reject the word of God know inside of themselves that something is out of line that something is wrong and so that great transformation that has to take place is internal to get changed from the inside I will write the law on their hearts [00:14:00]

the basis upon which all of this was to take place was a Divine dealing with sin you see why uh in in coming to this when you talk with your friends and they say well you know I think I do pretty well I try I try my best I I don't do anybody any harm they said they've reduced everything to I don't do anybody an arm and actually I'm quite a charitable person as well really well do you love God with all your heart all your mind all your soul all your strength no I wouldn't say I do that but I don't think that's really important is it oh yeah it's important it's the first commandment [00:15:00]

for this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and the basis on on which that is all taking place is the cleansing of their sins I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more how how the Lord proposes to do that Jeremiah doesn't actually go on to say but he says God this is what God is going to do he's going to cleanse people from the inside out and he's going to write his law on their hearts well of course maybe he thought that Isaiah had had covered it perfectly because Isaiah tells us that there is one who is coming who is wounded for our transgressions who was bruised for our iniquities [00:15:43]

the fountain from which our love for God flows is the Fountain of God's love for us there's a movie a golf movie and a conversation takes place between Bobby Jones who spent his entire life as an amateur and he's talking with one of the other guys who's a professional and the guy who's the professional who says to him Bobby why do you play golf he said because I love it because I love it why do you play he says for money lots of money that's why when I play you I'm gonna beat you true golfer who loves golf keeps the rules not simply because of the potential of reward not solely on account of the penalties that accrue to being out of bounds but he keeps it because he loves it [00:17:33]