Obedience to the Truth
A Sermon on 1 Peter 1:22
Scripture
22Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
Sermon Description
The gospel tells how people can be delivered through repentance. In this sermon on 1 Peter 1:22 titled “Obedience to the Truth,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones appeals to the listener to obey God’s truth, for it is far greater than the law. To not repent is to disobey—this is sin. The essence of sin is a refusal to believe God. If a person does not submit to the gospel, its truth will confront them in eternity. All should obey this truth as it is the way of salvation. The work God wants His people to do is to believe in Him whom He sent. Do not resist the free gift of God in Jesus Christ—no one can fulfill the law by their own works but should submit themselves to His righteousness. The mystery of the gospel is profound, but it must be believed. God justifies the ungodly, not the righteous. Everyone should believe this message now and come exactly as they are: “All the fitness He requires is to feel your need of Him.”
Sermon Breakdown
- The business and object of the preaching of the gospel is, after all, to call men to obey the truth.
- The gospel calls upon us to obey the truth because it claims that it is God's truth.
- God commends us not only to listen to it, but to obey it.
- The very essence of sin is to disobey God and to rebel against him and his commandment.
- Ultimately, what leads to perdition and to hell is just this refusal to listen to and to believe and to obey God's word in the gospel.
- Obeying this truth is the way of salvation.
- This, I say, obedience unto the truth is the way of salvation. It is not good works. It is not just living a good life.
- It is not just being religious or a member of a church. It is not doing religious duties. It is not making sacrifices.
- It will never come that way. There is only one way. It is this way which is unfolded and expounded to us in the scriptures.
- This is, I say, the good news of salvation in Christ, that what we couldn't do by our own efforts is possible in this way, obedience unto the truth as it is in Jesus.
- Our danger always is to approach the gospel in a purely subjective manner instead of realizing that it is something that is objective, that comes to us from God.
- Far too often we approach the gospel in some such way as this. We are feeling unhappy and we'd like to be happy, or we are miserable and want joy, or something's defeating us in our lives and we want to be delivered from it.
- Now we say, oh, well, I've tried various other things. Well, the gospel seems to be claiming to put us right in these respects and to do these things for us. Well, I'll try the gospel.
- You see, you start with yourself and you're thinking about yourself the whole time and you're going to take up the gospel because it seems to be something that can help you.
- As a man buys quack medicines, as a man buys various pills and potions, because he wants to have a certain amount of relief, we tend to regard the gospel as just a sort of agency or a Medicare that can do something for us.
Other Sermons
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.