Lavish Obedience

I'm going to consider those today, so let's open up our heart and ask the Lord to minister grace to us here, see if I can get the pause. I'll have you, if you don't mind, turn to Romans here this morning, chapter number 7. I'll try to be brief here. Someone had a desire to talk about the commands of Christ and obedience to His commands.

And let me just start off by saying that we are obligated, and you'll see here as we go through the motivation, but we are certainly obligated to keep His commandments. The last words that Jesus spoke before He ascended up to heaven are these, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

So the Lord gave His apostles the instruction to go and preach the gospel, baptize the converts, and then teach them, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And so as an apostle, you would understand that those men understood that everything Jesus taught them, they are to go out now and communicate to others. But notice it says, teach them to observe.

Teaching them, not just to teach them so they can have knowledge, but teaching them to observe, teaching them to obey, teaching them to fulfill God's commandments upon their life. And so I think one of the problems we have in churches is people believe that a Christian is supposed to come to a church on Sunday and listen to a sermon, and they fulfill their obligation as a Christian. The truth of the matter is we are to be teaching you to observe those things that the Lord has commanded.

In other words, teaching you to do them and to fulfill them. And it is not just your obligation to be here this morning because it's Sunday and listen to me for a half an hour or 45 minutes. Your obligation is to hear and to do and to fulfill what is spoken.

Obedience to authority. And by the way, the Lord is the supreme authority. But obedience to authority is the first thing that God teaches us as human beings.

Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. This is the first commandment that a human being gets. Children, obey your authorities.

Learn how to obey authority. And you're not going to get anywhere in life until you learn how to obey authority. And God lays that before you at the very beginning.

Children, obey your parents. And when you think about we as children of God, we need to learn to obey our Father in heaven. And so this idea that while I'm saved by grace, I don't need to obey commandments is simply a fallacy.

It's a heresy. And those who teach it are teaching heresy. The Lord is commanding us to obey His commandments.

I'd like to talk about the commandments and the motivation behind our hearts. And I trust this will be an interesting message for you. I enjoy the subject.

And so let's consider it. Let's acknowledge the Lord in prayer. And then we'll talk about the commandments.

Heavenly Father, we come to You this morning with a, I trust, an eager heart, a sincere heart. And You said, blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. And Lord, we do desire to understand Your will and understand Your Word.

And Lord, I pray this morning for grace upon my own heart and grace upon each one of our hearts. Even as was shared this morning, without You, Lord, we cannot go forward. We cannot prosper.

We cannot do anything. And so we look to You, Heavenly Father. Give us grace and convict our hearts and move us, Lord, in the right direction.

Conform us into the image of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right. Well, God, I want to start off with this. God gave us commandments in the Old Testament.

And unfortunately, in the Old Testament, and it's just the way it is everywhere, that the people could not live up to those commandments. The Lord said, you do these commandments and live. Do the commandments and live.

Unfortunately, because of the fallen nature of humanity, they could not do His commandments. And therefore, they could not live and have life. Man, because of his fallen nature, cannot fulfill all of those commandments.

And so turn with me here, maybe you're already there, to Romans chapter 7. Paul talks about this dilemma in the whole chapter. We're not going to read the whole chapter for the sake of time. But if you look down to Romans chapter 7, verse 9, For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived.

Talk about revival. Sin revived, and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death.

God gave the commandment in the Old Testament for life, but I found it to be death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good.

By the way, don't get a bad taste about the law and the commandments, and all these things are bad. No, these things are good. Verse 13, Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin, that's the problem, sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. And so the law is good. The law is spiritual.

The commandment is good. The problem is we are sinful. Our nature is sinful, and we cannot in our nature fulfill the commandments.

And so God has to provide some other way. And of course, we're going to get to that here in a minute. He did provide another way to give life to man.

But notice what it says here in verse number 8. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, all manner of stirring up of my lust, or without the law, sin was dead. I've told you this illustration many times. I'm going to tell it to you again.

You'll probably hear it another time or two. But I used to work for Denny's restaurants, and this principle came to light. Very much back then, I painted the entranceways oftentimes to the Denny's.

They're a 24-hour restaurant. And I was in there trying to paint while people were going in and out. Usually painted from like 10 in the evening till 6 in the morning where the traffic wasn't that heavy.

But I found that if you didn't put any signs on, do not touch wet paint, that people would just come to the store and walk right in and not think anything of it. But as soon as you put up that do not touch wet paint, it automatically stirred people up. Oh yeah, it is wet.

And I, why did you touch that? I told you, do not touch it. I don't know. It just stirred me up to touch it.

That's human nature. And so the law, the law, Paul says, it also stirred me up. But notice here in verse 12, the law is good.

The law is good. What does the law do? The law shows us our condition. The law is like a mirror.

Mirrors show you who you are. And the law was given to show us our condition, our sinful condition. And that law was to bring us, we're going to see this verse in a minute, bring us to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, our condition before the law is guilt. I want to read to you back in Romans. I'm going to stay in Romans for you here this morning.

Romans chapter 3 verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

And so the law condemns us. By the way, every one of us are guilty for God. Because we've violated his commandment.

And so our condition is one of guilt. If you just take the beautiful law of God and all his commandments, no man can stand and say, I fulfilled them all. I'm guilty of violating his commandments.

The whole world is guilty. And so the commandment cannot save us. And I think this is something we need to just keep reminding ourselves.

The commandment cannot save man. You cannot be saved by commandments. And I love this passage here in Galatians.

I'm going to read it to you. You don't have to turn there. Galatians 3 verse 19.

It says this, excuse me, verse 21. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. Notice this.

For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. You think about this. God in heaven thinking, now here these human beings are.

They violated my law. I've already said that sin brings death. Can I figure out another law that can bring life? And God in all his wisdom and omniscience couldn't figure one out.

You know, and he went to the extreme of saying, I'll lay down my own life for the salvation of the souls of man. But he could not figure out, or he could not make a law that could bring life. Verse 22 says, But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed. And here's the important verse. Verse 24, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

The law was designed by God to bring us to the place of humility and repentance. You see the law of God. You see your own condition.

And you say, oh my, am I in trouble? Oh my, when I face God on the day of judgment, he's going to cast me into hell because I violated his law many times. And so that drives you to come to Jesus and say, Lord have mercy on me. And you bow at his feet.

Oh God have mercy. I'm a sinner. I'm doomed.

That's what I felt, by the way, when I got converted. So the law is a mirror. The law cannot cure you.

The law is what shows you the commandment, shows you your condition. The law is a schoolmaster. By the way, a schoolmaster was a slave that took the child to school between ages six and twelve and protected the child and led him to his tutor, led him to his school.

He said, it's a schoolmaster. The law leads you right to Jesus. So you might humble yourself and find salvation.

The law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. Notice the law cannot justify you. Oftentimes people who are brought up in a religious setting still think somehow that by doing commandments, I'm going to be made right before God.

It'll never work. And here's the amazing thing, and I know I've told you this many times, this is this amazing thing. Christ Jesus, God in a human body came here and lived a perfect life and he obeyed the law perfectly, every jot and tittle.

Then he got on the cross and took all of our sin on himself and then he's willing to give you his perfect righteousness. Well, that's a deal right there. I'll tell you what, if you stand before God someday and realize that you're going to go to hell forever and ever and ever as we were talking about here and that you had an opportunity to receive the perfect righteousness of Christ and to spend eternity in heaven with him in all the bliss and rest and peace and you rejected it, that's amazing.

You rejected it for some trinket. You rejected it for some money. You rejected it for whatever reason.

And so the Bible talks about God has given you an unspeakable gift. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Well, that's kind of an introduction to what I want to share here this morning, but most of you have come to that place where you've bowed your knee to the Lord and acknowledged your sin, you're a violator of the law, and you come to Jesus and you're justified by faith. Now, what do we do about this idea of commandments? We are justified by faith, and I'm speaking to most of you here today who have been justified by faith.

What do we do about the law? What do we do about the commandments of the Lord Jesus? Let's look at Romans 3 together here this morning. Romans 3, verse 28, And therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.

Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith, do we then make void the law through faith? Okay, so hey, the law couldn't save me, so it drove me to Christ to be justified by faith. Does that mean we just throw the law out? Does that mean we just throw the commandments of the Lord Jesus out? Well, it says this, God forbid. God forbid.

Yea, we establish the law. We hold it up. We continue.

And it's talking here about the law of the Lord Jesus Christ, those commandments that the Lord Jesus told His apostles, Go and teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And so we are obligated, those of us who have been saved by faith, we are obligated to cherish that law, love that law, love His commandments, and do His commandments. Now, we are not under the law with regards to its condemnation.

Christ has set us free from the law. We don't have any obligation as far as salvation is concerned. We are free from the law, but we have an obligation with regards to living out practical obedience to it, not for salvation.

Now, look at Romans 13 with me. I'm just going to keep you in Romans here. Romans 13, there's a lot about the commandments here but I love this part of it.

Romans 13, verse 8. And here's the message today. I'd like to encourage you to examine your hearts. I need to examine mine, but just open your hearts up to God's Word.

Romans 13, verse 8 says this, O no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Notice that. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

For this thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Verse 10, love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Two times in verse 8 and 10, it says that love is the fulfilling of the law.

Here's something that's beautiful and I've shared this with you before, but when you love someone, you're going to fulfill the commandments of Christ on their life. You know, love motivates you to fulfill all the commandments. For example, if I love my wife, I won't kill her.

That's pretty obvious, isn't it? Thou shalt not murder. If I love my wife, I won't commit adultery against her. If I love my wife, I won't steal from her.

If I love my wife, I won't lie to her. If I love my wife, I will obey the law just naturally. I mean, none of us here have to be fenced in and caged.

Don't murder your wife. Please don't murder your wife, you know. We don't have to do that because you love your wife.

You never think about murdering your wife. You never think about committing adultery against your wife. You never think about lying to your wife.

You never think about stealing from your wife. Why? Because love automatically motivates you to fulfill the law. Love is the fulfilling of the law.

And so you don't murder. You don't lie. You don't steal.

You don't get bitter. You're not unforgiving. All the things that the Lord has commanded, if you love someone, you just do it automatically.

You don't even have to read, Thou shalt not murder. Honey, we're married now and I love you. I just got to hold back.

This is hard to murder you. That's crazy. You never murder people.

You love them. Love equals obedience to His commandments. I tell my wife this, and I ingest.

Your wish is my command. You ever tell that to your wife? Your wish is my command. You know, love does that.

Love sees something. I think they might like this. I'll do it.

If I even perceive that you kind of would like this, this and this, I'll do it. And the motivation there is not some written commandment. The motivation there is a heart of love.

Love will lavish. I'll use that word this morning. Love will lavish the person with obedience.

That's what love does. You don't have to push or prod someone who is in love to do good to the one they love. You don't have to write some rules and standards for that.

You know, you've seen these courtships and these young married couples. You don't have to write all the rules. You have to do this, you have to do this.

Oh, they just love each other. And because they love each other, they just bless each other and do good things. And those good things are the things that Jesus commands.

So love, Paul says, is the fulfilling of the law. Love and obeying the commandments. I want you to know they're equal.

They go hand in hand. Remember what Jesus said? And you find this throughout the Scriptures. If you love me, what? Love, commandments.

We're going to see it in a number of different places. Love, commandments. Love will produce obedience.

So let me just share with you why you ought to love Jesus. First thing, you ought to love Jesus because He first loved you. We love Him because He first loved us and gave Himself for us.

So, not to go in a lengthy gospel message, but God so loved the world, and you ought to appreciate and love the Lord Jesus Christ because He was willing to die and to shed His blood for your sin that you might stand before God with a perfect righteousness. You ought to have a love for Him for that. Secondly, you ought to love Him because the Bible says the love of God was shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

The fruit of the Spirit is the number one love. You know why you ought to love God? Because you have the Spirit of God in you. And you ought to love Him out of that Holy Spirit that is in you.

And so the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. So that leads us to this conclusion. And I'm not done with the message.

Don't get excited. If you love Jesus and you appreciate what He did for you, and you've come to Him and you've received salvation, He's given you the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost shed love of God in your heart, then you ought to really have a sincere desire to love Him, and that love will produce what? It will produce obedience to His commandments. Oh, Jesus told me to do this.

I'm going to lavish Him with my love and do it. And not only do it, but go the extra mile. Well, go the extra mile for Him.

Anyone who has done this for me and given me eternal life and laid his own life down, I just love the Lord Jesus. And when He says to do this, I'll do it joyfully. Now, you find some of those Christians around every once in a while.

Hey, they love it. They love Jesus. And their love drives them to a... What's the word I was using? Oh, lavish obedience.

And so love is the New Testament motivation for obedience. You know, the Old Testament motivation for obedience was fear. Fear, you see that mountain sheep? Moses, get those commandments, come down.

Boom, boom, boom. And if you don't obey the commandments, we'll stone you. And Moses said, you know, the fence was built around that mountain.

Anybody touch that mountain, they were thrust through with a dart. That's the law. Fear.

Now we come to the New Testament. Here's a motivation I want to give you. You're going to see me lay my life down for you on a cross.

I want you to obey me because you love me. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Paul said it this way, the love of Christ constrains me.

You know, in Paul's heart, he said, I don't go off into sin. I don't look at pornography. I don't steal.

I don't pursue money. I don't do any of those things because the love of Christ is constraining. I love Him.

I don't do that stuff. Let me ask you this. How much do you need constrained? Do you need an accountability partner to call you every week? You're not going to murder your wife this week, are you? You're not going to commit adultery this week, are you? Are you not going to kill your children? Are you not going to steal from your family? Are you an accountability partner? We don't need those things.

You know why? Because we love. You love people. By the way, it goes farther than your family.

Love your neighbor. So the love of Christ is a constrainer on us. The Bible says that law is for the lawless.

I want to read this passage to you in 1 Timothy. Isn't it an interesting passage? Chapter 1 there. You don't have to turn there.

Verse 8, it says this. But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man. You got that? The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and the disobedient.

I don't need the policeman to tell me. By the way, I got picked up yesterday by a policeman. God bless him.

He came up to the side. He had to be a Christian. He called me brother.

I didn't know how he knew this. Brother. Yeah, I'm going to let you off on this one, brother.

Where was I? Oh, the law is for the lawless. The law is for the lawless. You know, that speed limit sign out there is for the lawless.

All these laws that are being written to keep people under restraint. Law is for the lawless. Knowing this, that the law is not made for righteous men, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured Persians.

And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, the law is to restrain hearts that don't love Jesus Christ. That's why we have so many laws. And by the way, the more lawless the people, the more laws they need.

That's why in America, there's more and more laws. And there's going to be more and more laws, more and more restraints, because people are lawless. You know, back in the early days, I didn't live there.

I don't, I'm not that old. Brother Waters here, he is. Back in the early days of America, you didn't need laws.

People loved each other. They feared God. They had respect.

Steal? I don't need some law in our town that we don't steal. We just don't steal because we love people. So the law is for the lawless.

Some people need laws. You know, there's some people out there that are lawless, that need a law that says, do not do snort cocaine. Do not steal from the store.

They need that and the threat of punishment in order to keep them from doing it. I hope none of you need that threat of punishment to keep you from snorting cocaine or robbing the gas station down here. I know a lot of it has to do with some of your upbringing.

So think about it this way. When the Word of God is preached, and I'm preaching it this morning. When the Word of God is preached, those who love Jesus in sincerity say, I want to keep His command.

As a matter of fact, if I get an idea He likes this, I'm going to lavish Him with even more. Praise God for that kind of heart. I love Him.

You know, you've heard this. I get to do His commandments, not I have to do His commandments. But now here's what happens.

When the love of Jesus starts to dwindle and we lose our first love, then we start to have problems. That's when people in the church say, Preacher, I know what you said is true, but I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it.

And maybe I'll do it, and maybe I'll come halfway, and you're going to have to push me and prod me to get me there, but I'm not coming that far. I know it says it. Yeah, you say it, and it's in the Word of God, but I'm not coming that far.

And we have a problem there. It's not a, you know, we need to raise up some standard or whatever and make some commandments. What we need is a change of heart.

You've left your first love, and the Lord says you need to restore that in repentance and go back to your first love. And so when the love of Christ fails, so do the commandments fail. We call it backsliding, leaving your first love.

So when love fails, the Word of God doesn't have the same effect upon the person it should. Don't you remember when you were first converted, hungering and thirsting for the Word, sitting on the front row? There's nobody on the front row here. What's that? Absent without leave.

Just soaking it in. I remember those days. Preach it.

I want to hear. I love Jesus. He just saved me from hell and the condemnation I was in.

I'm wide open. Let's have it. And I grew, grew, grew, grew, grew, grew, grew.

And you get to that place, you know, where your love starts to get a little cold, affections for the things of the world get in there, and then you sit here and, well, yeah, heard that before. So you maintain. You get to that maintaining level.

And then some people get to the maintaining level and start backsliding. And they start going back to where they were, little by little. It's an issue of love.

You know, we talk about obedience, and I'm going to share a little bit about how to get people to obey, but really obedience comes out of a heart of love for Jesus Christ. And if that's not there, you're not going to get obedience. I told you we'd stay in Romans, but turn with me just once here to Ezekiel.

Somebody mentioned the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, I think, here once today. But Ezekiel 33, this is not just a problem that is a New Testament issue, but it's in the Old Testament also. The children of God in Ezekiel 33.

Verse number 30, Also thou son of man, he's talking to Ezekiel here, God is, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses. Verse 30 of Ezekiel 33. And speak one to another, everyone to his brothers saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.

Come to church and hear the word of God. And they come unto thee as the people come, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them. Again, this is the Christianity of America.

Go to church, we'll bring friends, we'll sit and hear the preacher. He has some funny stories. He has good illustrations.

He teaches some truth. Come with us, we'll hear. But as far as doing and growing and being obedient, we don't go that far.

And here's why. The second half of verse 31, For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. In other words, the problem is a heart issue.

The problem is they don't love Jesus. They love other things. And if you're sitting here and you hear preaching and you're not growing and you're not going forward, you say, well, I've been a Christian for 30 years.

I need to grow anymore. That's not true. If you're a Christian and you're not going forward, it's in large part due to the fact that your heart is going after other lovers, their hearts.

Verse 32, And lo, thou art unto them as a lovely song, as one that has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. Ezekiel must have been a great preacher. He was a lovely voice and he had a good instrument.

He was an entertainer. They hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass and, lo, it will come, then shall they know that a prophet has been among them.

So I just want you to know, and God will tell you this here this morning from his word, that if you're not prospering in his commandments and growing, growing, growing, growing and obeying his commandments more and more, it's because you don't have a love for Jesus. You don't love him. You have other affections.

Other just, you know, that thing I like over here, the thing I like to do over here, that love of this thing over here, money and pursuit and my business and all this stuff and my trinkets and all this. And so I hear the word of God. Oh, it's the New Testament.

The seed that falls on the ground, it has lust here and affections here and loves money here and doesn't bring any fruit, doesn't bring any obedience. So love. It all gets back down to the heart, doesn't it? Where your heart is.

So the heart, going after other things. But love produces obedience. If you love me, keep my commandments.

And by the way, obedience does not produce relationship. Obedience is an evidence of relationship. That's a beautiful thing there.

Your obedience, your lavishing the Lord with obedience tells me one thing, that you love him. You love him. So people in the church start to compromise.

They start to backslide. They have a love for the world. Why do they do that? Because they need more standards and more accountability.

No, their heart is going to the world. That's why it is. They don't love the Lord.

They don't love him. They're starting to wane. They're losing their first love.

I'm going to read another passage. You have to turn there. We're going back to Romans here in a minute.

But 1 John, 1 John. By the way, these are oftentimes together, love and the commandments. 1 John 5, verse 2, By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.

For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. Oh, it's so grievous that I have to not steal from my wife. Anybody who's in love knows that your spouse's commandments are not grievous.

Oh, this is wonderful. Someone says, honey, would you do this? Oh, sure. I'd love to for you.

For you, you know. I love you. Of course I'll do it.

Jesus, for you, of course. I'd do anything. You died for me.

Of course I'll do anything for you. Love. His commandments are not grievous.

The idea of grievous means they're not hard. They're not burdensome. You show me a Christian, professing Christian, who says these commandments are hard.

They're difficult. They're grievous. I'll show you a Christian who's left their first love.

Good place for an amen there. I will. Sure as I'm standing here.

This commandment's not grievous. As a matter of fact, Jesus said, my burden is me and my yoke is life. You find two people in love.

They do things for each other. They obey each other's commandments. Oh, you want that? I'll get that for you.

It's light and easy. You know, on your honeymoon, honey, would you do this? Oh, so grievous. I got to do that for you.

So grievous. What a burden. Is that the way it was on your honeymoon? It's not that way.

Not from a heart that is in love. You'll experience that, young people, if you've not been married yet. All in love.

Everything is light and easy. Isn't that right, Arlen? He's back there smiling. That's why I used to call him out.

Everything is easy. But if you don't love someone, you get hard. Grievous.

His commands ought to be easy and light. If you have a heart that's in love with Him. So we could say it this way.

All sin issues and commandment issues are really heart issues. Really hard. They're really a love issue.

And I love the counselor. I told you about this up at Ben and Lizzie's when they're up there in counseling. And I asked this lady who was overseeing there.

I said, what is your counseling philosophy? I'd like to know what is at the heart of why you do what you do. And beautiful answer. She just looked at me and she said, we believe every issue is because of a broken down relationship with God.

Drug addicts, depression, you name it. Every sin comes out of a broken relationship with God. You mend that relationship with God and their life will come in line.

I said, I like this place. Pretty simple. God gave His Son.

He loves you. He sent His Spirit to fill your heart with love for Him. And now you walk in that Spirit.

And His commandments are easy. His commandments are light. And you have a joyful life.

Well, I want to remind you that God is looking for hearts like that. And I think it was our brother here this morning that shared God is looking for a willing heart. He is looking for what we call a free will offering.

He is looking for a love offering. Free will. I want to do this for you, Lord.

So as he reads the Bible, he sees something in the Bible. Or she. I'll use this as an example.

As she sees modesty. Oh, boy. I'm going to do that one for the Lord.

I'm going to go to the extreme. I'm going to just lavish the Lord on this one. Or any other commandment.

I'm going to lavish. Unfortunately, in church life, it doesn't work that way, though. Often.

Some people, you watch their lives and they're just lavishing the Lord. I mean, they're just taking the commandment and let's go. Others, they're digging in.

They're not going. Well, you're exposing your heart. This passage was read and I actually preached on it last week.

But I want to read to you what Paul said regarding preaching the Gospel here in 1 Corinthians 9. For though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. Now listen to this. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward.

But if against my will, a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me, in other words, Paul said, if I'm doing this out of a desire of loving Jesus willingly, I'll get a reward. But if someone's behind me saying, you've got to preach, you better get out there and preach. Oh, I don't want to preach.

You've got to preach. Okay, I'll do it. Against my will.

Let me ask you this. Are you obeying the commandments willingly? Do you have a desire? Do you want to please the Lord? Or is it against your will? Out of church. You know, the church says we've got to do this.

Well, I'll do it. Giving. I'm going to talk about that next week.

The Lord loves it. What kind of giver? Cheerful. But don't give out of necessity.

Don't give, you know, grudgingly. That attitude, that hard attitude is very important to the Lord. But God loves a cheerful giver.

You mean to tell me we can give to the Lord? Praise God! I love giving to Jesus. Willingly. Our obedience to Christ's commands ought to be willingly.

I get to, not I have to. You know, the Jews in Jesus' day, they were bound by this grievous rules and regulations, the fear of man, the fear of being thrown out of community. Everything was done because we have to, we have to, and it is grievous.

Finally, the Lord came and He says, listen, you people worship Me with your mouth, but your heart is far from Me. Just this whole religious system is built on an unwilling heart. Outwardly, you look good, but inwardly, you don't love God.

So as a minister and an elder for many years, you face these realities. Number one, there's problems in the church. Right? Every church goes through this type of thing.

There's problems. We have people's hearts right here who are backslidden. They're leaving their first love.

They're going toward the world. There's affections that are robbing their spiritual life. What do you do? What do you do? It's been a challenge.

We've had back and forth over and over. What do you do? Well, if you go back and you read the church at Ephesus where Jesus said you left your first love, His answer is this. Tell them to repent and get back to the first works.

Amen. You know what the first works are? Get back to the honeymoon. Get back to where it was at the beginning.

You know, when you were in love with Me and you did whatever I said you joyfully did it and you hungered and thirsted as newborn babes for the Word of God. Go back to that place. It would be a good place for all our marriages to go, wouldn't it? Go back to the first beginning principle.

Go back there. And that's where the Lord directs us. And as a minister, some of you want to know my philosophy, why I do what I do.

But if there are hearts that are backslidden, my encouragement is to get them back to where they love Jesus. Get them back to where they love Jesus. And you don't have to fuss with them.

You don't have to struggle. Just get them back to where they love the Lord. I want to ask you to turn to one more here.

Jeremiah. This is a good one. Jeremiah chapter 2. And I'm getting close to finishing here.

Jeremiah chapter 2. Jeremiah chapter 2. The Lord had the same conflict with the Israelites and He called Jeremiah to preach to them. And here's what He says. And I'm not going to read the whole thing.

You can read it later on. But Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 1. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals. Remember back then when we were courting? Remember back then during our espousal? We just were in love with each other.

And if I even hinted that I liked pink roses, I had a dozen the next morning. You know that? When thou wentest after me in the wilderness. When you got up early in the morning and you sought me, you went after me.

Oh, you remember those days when you rose up early and got on your face and you felt so close to the Lord and you had such a deep relationship? You didn't have a form of godliness as Eli was talking about. I mean, your morning time with God was real. It gave you a real rest and a peace in your heart.

God opened up His Word, and every time you went to the Bible, it was like this thing is just alive. And it's just speaking to me all the time. Yeah, when you went after me in the wilderness.

Jump down to verse 5. Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone from me and have walked after vanity, and have become vain? You've gone after other things in your hearts. Verse 13, For my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. You know, a lot of times we think that these love and affections that we have, they're going to satisfy us.

But we find out that that doesn't satisfy us. It doesn't do it. It's like a cistern.

You know what a cistern is? A place where they catch water when it rains, maybe out of the gutters. They have cisterns. Well, those cisterns get stale after a while.

You go to drink from it. It's like, ah! Better get drinking out of that fountain that comes out of the ground, that fresh, cold water. Chapter 3. Jump ahead here.

I'm not going to read the whole thing. Chapter 3, verse 12. It's kind of the conclusion.

Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, Return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. Backslidden. You've left your first love.

Don't you remember when we were espoused when it was at the very beginning? I brought you out of Egypt, brought you into the wilderness. It was a good time. And you left your first love.

You know, my heart is, most importantly, that we call people to a restoration of their relationship with the Lord. Your first love. Now, here is a caution that I want to share with you.

I've shared it before, but just it's a good place here to bring it in. One of the tendencies in elders is to say, Okay, you're not going to obey. We'll get you to obey.

We'll get you to obey. And one of the tendencies is to get people to obey by force. And the Bible warns us not to be lords over God's heritage.

Now, I think it's a good thing to bring our children into obedience and force them by discipline. And children are children, but when they get to be 20, 21, 22, 25, you know, it's time for a free will offering. Son, do you love Jesus or not? Daughter, do you love Jesus or not? Time for you to express it.

You can't force an unruly heart. And by the way, let me just say this. If this book right here, which is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword, if this book doesn't bring you under control, my rules and commandments aren't going to do it either.

If this book doesn't bring you into a place for your obedience, all the commandments and doctrines of men and traditions will never do it. So I'll take modesty, for example, because we're familiar with that. Someone sees modesty in the Bible and they lavish the Lord with it.

Beautiful thing to see. They even go farther than everybody else of their own free will offering. Lord, I'm just going to go way up for You.

Others see modesty in the Bible. They don't want to go. And then the minister gets behind him and starts... And then there's usually a conflict.

And you know that kind of stuff stirs up backslidden hearts even more. You remember what those laws do to those people who are walking through denny's to try to get them to not touch my paint. Now, this is what I believe, and I believe the Bible teaches this, that honesty is the best policy.

My mother used to tell me that. Honesty. I think you ought to be who you are.

Is there ever a time when you shouldn't be who you are? I think it's always good in the economy of the Lord and the Bible teaches us to walk in the light. Light is honesty. Light is transparency.

I think honesty is always the best policy. Be open with who you are. In other words, if you're backslidden, be open with your backslidden condition.

It'd be good for you to get up here and say, I'm in a backslidden condition and I just want to be honest with everybody. That's the best place to be, right? If you're backslidden and you hide it, that's not a good place to be. Just be honest.

If you don't love Jesus, you don't want to lavish him with your obedience, then be honest. And the truth of the matter is we ought to know it. We can watch you.

You can see your life. We know it. And that's a good thing.

Why try to hide it? I don't think it's good to hide it. I don't think we ought to foster an environment here where people are hiding under a guise of clothing, acts that inside they're a totally different person. And that is laying the foundation for hypocrisy.

And I don't think we should be forcing people by rules and standards to do that, which is not in their heart. Forcing people who don't love Jesus to abide by church standards only produces hypocrisy. You talk to the Jews.

When Jesus talked to the Jews, he said, you hypocrites. All you're doing is just outwardly you're conforming, but your heart, not there. Don't do it.

Don't do it. If you're backslidden today, just acknowledge it. I don't want to put a cloak on you to make you look good, and you're in a backslidden state.

That deceives you. And you're deceiving others. I'm going to ask you to look to one more verse, and I'll be done.

Matthew chapter 21. Matthew 21 and verse 28. I'll read this, and I think we'll close.

Remember, that's what preachers say. We're getting close to the end. Okay, Matthew 21, verse 28.

Look what it says here. Jesus is talking to the Jews in verse 28 of Matthew 21. But what think ye? Now notice this.

A certain man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not. Well, that was honest, wasn't it? Go work in the vineyard.

I'm not going to do it. I'm honest. I'm just not going to do it.

But afterward, he repented and went. There's a guy that was honest. He came to the second and said, Likewise, and he answered and said, I go.

You want me to go? Okay, I'll go. I'll go. But he didn't go.

Oh, yeah, I believe that, preacher. Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, sure.

But the heart, he's not being honest. Verse 31, whether them twain did the will of his father, they sent him to the first. Jesus said to them, Verily I say unto you, here's an example, the publican and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

You know why they go in before you? Because they're honest. The harlot out on the street corner is dressed, looks like a harlot. She acts like a harlot.

She's honest with who she is. She's a harlot from the outside in. The Lord says, I can deal with that one.

They get to the kingdom before those of you who are outwardly appearing righteous, but inside your heart is far from God. You're playing a hypocrisy game. And I can't even get you because you're not honest.

With who I am. So he says these harlots and these publicans, these people, they go into the kingdom of God before you do. So the Jews were living a dishonest life.

And these Gentile heathens were at least being honest. I'd rather you just be honest with who you are. God can get to you if you're dishonest.

If you want to dress like a harlot, then dress like a harlot. That way we'll know you're a harlot. But if you dress modestly and you have a harlot in your heart and you don't like this dress, you're deceiving everybody about who you really are.

So just dress like who you are. Just be who you are. I'm going to read to you one verse and then I'll finish.

I have a verse written down here and I don't remember what it's referring to. Let me read to you this. 1 Corinthians 16.

And I think you ought to listen to this one carefully. Paul concludes his letter to the church at Corinth, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. You know what that means? Let him be cursed when Jesus comes.

If any man from his heart does not love Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Someone mentioned this morning, what does God want you to do? Love Jesus. And out of that love for Him, appreciation for what He did, out of the Holy Spirit of God in your heart, shedding the love of God abroad in your heart, you will love the Lord Jesus and lavish His commandment.

You know, when people struggle with obeying the Word of God and following the teachings of the Scriptures, I realize that they have a heart problem. They don't love Jesus. And I have to go to the heart.

Why don't you love Jesus? What's the issue? What do you love more than Him? And why is those other affections there? And just call them to return, O backsliding church, from your condition. And I don't believe that to try to set up rules and standards, to try to get people to do what you want them to do when it's not in their heart, is in the best interest of anyone. Because it is promoting a hypocrisy.

I am not who I really appear to be. I'm just doing this to conform to the church. That's called hypocrisy.

And so let's all be honest with who we are. The Lord can deal with us and help us in that condition. So with regards to obedience to the commands of Christ, let's search our hearts and see whether or not we really love Jesus in sincerity.

Is that truly in our hearts? Let's close this morning.