Well, let's grab our Bibles and turn to Matthew 28. We'll begin with verse 20 in a few moments. But just a reminder, we're going through this series in Matthew 28, 16 through 20, called the reminder of purpose. We'll be going through different aspects of this Great Commission paragraph at the end of Matthew's Gospel, a reminder of purpose. And today we're looking at obedience, and that comes from verse 20. And that'll be our main text, but we'll go off from there and look at multiple texts to drive home this point of obedience. Obedience is learning and keeping the commands of Jesus Christ. That's what we mean when we say obedience, learning, and keeping the commands of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, is this not our chief aim in life? For the glory of God, and by the grace of God, by the spirit of God, according to the word of God, to learn and to keep the commands of Jesus Christ. That's obedience. Our goal is to be obedient in our individual lives. Our goal is to be obedient as a church. Our goal is to obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever we're instructed in the way of godliness, two things should be happening whenever we're instructed in the way of holiness, in the way of God's commandments for us. First of all, we're learning how to live. That's a pretty simple concept, right? This isn't speculation on how to live in order to please God. God has revealed His will. He's revealed His commands. He's revealed how we are to live to please Him. That's one of the things that happens whenever we're instructed in the way of godliness, is to learn how to live. But also, whenever we're instructed in the way of godliness, whenever we sit under the commandments of God, we also need to be reminded of our daily need for grace. because we are not fully sanctified. None of us is perfectly obedient. And so we're receiving instruction in the way we should live and the way we should walk. But we're also always being reminded of our need for grace, because if apart from God's grace, if we're not recipients of God's grace, we won't be able to follow the instruction we're receiving. So this is obedience, learning and keeping the commandments of Jesus. Look at Matthew 28, verse 20, which is our main verse, really like our starting block verse. Verse 20 in Matthew 28, in the middle of this Great Commission passage, Jesus says, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. That's our phrase, that's our clause for the morning. teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." That's the heart of discipleship. That's the heart of Christian living. Ephesians 5.8, God says, walk as children of light. Galatians 5.16, God says, walk in the Spirit. Ephesians 6, 10 and 11, God says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Do you want to stand against the schemes of the devil, brothers and sisters? Do you want to walk in the Spirit? Do you want to walk as children of light? Do you want to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might? In other words, do you want to learn how to observe all that Jesus has commanded you? Obedience. The main point is that sinners who are saved by Jesus are also sinners striving to imitate Jesus. I'll say it again, and instead of moving from right to left, I'll move from left to right. Sinners who are saved by Jesus, I see you Vince laughing back there, but I was being serious. I wanna say this twice to drive it home. Sinners who are saved by Jesus are also sinners who are striving to imitate Jesus, striving to obey Jesus. You cannot, Sever those two things one from another. You can't divorce those two things. In the Bible, there's no salvation. There's no changed heart apart from a striving and a longing and a praying for obedience. and imitation of Christ in our lives. First there's salvation and then there's discipleship. And you can't flip those two. You can't have discipleship first and then salvation. We don't obey God first and then God saves us. No, God saves us first with a free salvation. Salvation by grace through faith apart from works. Salvation first, but then obedience. But salvation is the root. Obedience is the fruit. Sinners who are saved by Jesus are also sinners striving to imitate Jesus. Now let me tell you something about your outline. I put this outline. All of your dreams are coming true. A 20-point sermon outline. Before we even get to those 20 points, I'm going to go through this phrase, this verse 20, and highlight the main phrases, and then we'll get to the 20 commandments. I didn't want to do that originally when I was mapping out this message, but as I was preparing and studying the Gospel of Matthew, it's the commandments of Jesus just really captivated my heart you understand we're in the last verse of Matthew's gospel with this verse that we're on is the last verse and he says teach them to obey all that I've commanded you which is looking back to his whole ministry and all of his teaching and all of the implications of his teaching he's looking back that's the function of this verse Matthew 28 20 And so it came upon my heart to just go back and read through Matthew and contemplate and zero in on the various commandments. So I just want to let you know I'm in no rush to get through this whole list this morning. Don't think I'm going to get through this whole list. You know better than that. You already were thinking there's no way he's getting through this whole list. But I don't intend to. But I wanted to get them all down on the outline. And wherever we leave off, we'll just pick right up whenever I come back. behind this pulpit by God's grace. But before we look back at these 20 commands of Christ, which by the way is just a sampling and it's just in Matthew, certainly not all of them and certainly not all of scripture. But before we get there, I want to look at three phrases or three items from verse 20 and meditate on them some more because of the importance of practical obedience in our lives. Look in verse 20, it says, them to obey, teaching them to observe, teaching them to keep. You can translate it in different ways. Teaching them to follow, teaching them to observe. Now, teaching implies learning. A big part of living for God is learning. We have to learn from God in order just to become a child of God. We have to learn that we're sinners. We have to learn that we need a Savior. We have to learn about the Savior God has provided. We have to learn how to properly receive that Savior that God has provided. We have to learn all of that. And then as we go on in our practical discipleship, we have to learn obedience. Teaching implies learning. And just as flowers require water and sunlight, living for Jesus requires, absolutely requires humility and a learning spirit. Once there's no humility, and once there's no learning spirit, a humble learning spirit that is desperate to be taught of God, once that's gone, discipleship crashes and burns. Why do we need Jesus to teach us? Why would we want Jesus to teach us? The answer is straightforward and very simple, so that we would learn how to imitate Jesus in our lives. That's what pleases God. That's what honors God. That's what's best for us in our own lives. That's what's best for the people around us, in our homes, in our workplace, in the world around us. The best thing we could ever do is to learn and be empowered by the Spirit to imitate Jesus in our lives. In Matthew 10, 25, Jesus says, it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and for the servant to be like his master. Brothers and sisters, that's the program we are on. By the grace of God, for the disciple, which means student, means follower, to be like his teacher. For the servant to be like his master. That's why we learn things from the teachers to become like the teacher. And we learn things from the master to become like the master. So that we would be representatives of the teacher on earth. Because where's the teacher? The teacher's in heaven. The master's in heaven. The master is enthroned at the right hand of God. But we are his servants. We are on earth. We are stewards of the kingdom. We are fellow workers in the kingdom of God, representatives of Jesus. And it is enough. In other words, it's sufficient for the students to be like their master and like their teacher. Praise God. Praise God. Glory, hallelujah, that God is powerfully conforming us to be like Jesus. Because what's the other road? To be more and more like sin? To be more and more like the devil? To buy more and more into the lies of the world? That's not what I want. I want to be mercifully, graciously conformed to the likeness of Christ according to the truth of God's Word. Water poured into a vase will take the shape of that vase. If the vase is shaped like this, the water becomes shaped like that. If the vase is shaped like this, the water becomes shaped like that. And likewise, life lived in fellowship with Jesus will be shaped like the character of Jesus. It's the relationship with Jesus by his might and by his mercy and by his spirit and by his word. It's the relationship with Jesus that transforms us into his image. Hopefully that's your view of Christian living. Children are natural born imitators. Natural born imitators. If a son watches his dad losing his temper for 15 years, the chances are you're going to have a 15-year-old with a temper problem. If a daughter listens to her mom gossip and speak ill of others for 15 years, the chances are you're going to have a 15-year-old with a poisoned tongue. But if mom speaks well of others for 15 years, and she speaks with grace and kindness and compassion for 15 years, that daughter gets 15 years of a living example of godly womanhood, a testimony to the transformative grace of God. And if a dad exercises self-control and leads the charge in forgiving, and leads the charge in admitting that he was wrong, and leads the charge of maturity, and that son will have witnessed 15 years living embodiment, living, breathing, walking, talking example of godly manhood, Children are natural-born imitators, and children of God are spirit-born imitators of Christ. Ephesians 5, 1. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Ephesians 5, 1. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. does not say, be imitators of God to become beloved children. Be imitators of God as beloved children, which means you have to be a beloved child first through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then we can get on with the business of being imitators of God. Teaching them to observe, teaching them to obey, teaching them to follow, teaching them to keep. Whatever else you do, Beloved of God cultivate within your heart and cultivate within your mind a humble learning spirit that hungers and thirsts for righteousness Desires to be taught of God that you might walk in the fear of the Lord not the fear of man Teaching them to observe but secondly in Matthew 28 verse 20 Says I have commanded you I have commanded you teaching them to observe and all I have commanded you. But I'm just isolating these four words or these five words rather for I have commanded you. I have commanded you. The point I wanna make is that obeying God's commandments is not contrary to grace. Please, if you haven't heard this before, write this down so you can start the journey of getting this imprinted on your heart and imprinted on the way you think about Christian living. Obeying God's commands is not contrary to God's grace. That would be like saying driving the car is contrary to putting gas in it. That makes no sense. You put gas in the car so that you can drive it. First comes the gas, then comes the driving. It would be nonsense to say that driving the car is contrary to putting gas in the car. Likewise, obeying God's commands is not contrary to God's grace. God's grace enables us to keep God's commands. The goal of God's grace is to save us and enable us to keep God's commands. That's the wonder of grace. That's the glory of grace over against the law. The law cannot produce within us a true obedience. And the law makes no provision for the forgiveness of sins. We need the gospel for that. We need the life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension and poured out Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ to be able to be saved and become children of God. and then, so to speak, to drive the car in practical obedience. Do not think that commandments and keeping commandments is contrary to God's grace. God poured His grace upon us so that we would love and seek and learn practical obedience. Now, seeking to justify ourselves by obeying commandments. Yes, that's contrary to grace. Does that make sense? Raise your hand if that makes sense. Seeking to justify ourselves, seeking to save ourselves, or even seeking to sanctify ourselves by our keeping commands, that is contrary to grace. Because just like the gas must be put in the car first for the driving, the grace must be active in the heart first for the obeying. And we do not save ourselves by obedience. Romans 3.28, Paul writes, we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Justified. That means made right with God. Declared right in the eyes of God. Justified by faith apart from works of the law. So here's your faith. Here's your trusting in Jesus Christ on the basis of his death, on the basis of his resurrection. That's how we're justified. By faith. Now over here is works of the law. The message is not that works of the law are bad. The message is not that practical obedience is bad. The message is not that obeying commands is unimportant. The message is you're just not justified by that. You're not justified by obedience. You're justified by faith apart from the works of the law. But obedience itself, obedience itself, does not contradict the grace of God. And I know this because three verses later, in Romans 3.31, Paul writes, do we then overthrow the law because of this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. In fact, it's the grace that changed our hearts so that we would even care about obeying God. So why would we now say, since we're saved by grace, who cares about obeying God? The point of grace is that it drives us to obey God. Look at the promises of the new covenant. The core of the new covenant promises is that God gives us a new heart. He writes his law on our hearts. He puts his law on our minds. He puts the fear of the Lord within us. He gives us a new heart. He takes out the stony heart. He puts in a soft, obedient heart. He fills us with his spirit. Why? So we live for him and not ourselves. That's a part of salvation. Salvation is not just a free ticket to heaven. It is a free ticket to heaven. I'm not ashamed to say that publicly at all. That's just not all that it is. There's a whole lot more than that. Salvation includes a new heart that starts to grieve sin instead of revel in it. It starts to love God and pursue God instead of begrudge God and run away from Him. There's a new heart. Obeying commandments is not contrary to grace. And so when we see this phrase, I have commanded you, we should say to ourselves, yes, and thank God for that. Thank God for that. This is what instructs us in life to walk as those under grace. The miracle of the gospel is that God justifies lawbreakers by the blood of Christ. He makes rebels, lawbreakers, he makes them right in his eyes by the power of the blood of Christ. Now that's our salvation. Salvation by faith apart from works. It's salvation by faith that produces good works. Ephesians 2, one through 10. Now there's one word I have not yet, zoomed in on. First of all, teaching them to obey, which requires a humble learning spirit. Secondly, I have commanded you, just highlighting that obeying commands is not contrary to God's grace. And please don't ever believe the lie that it is. And thirdly, just in case you thought I forgot this word, three letters, very important, all, all. Read the verse again. Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. Reading through the Bible, figuring out how God wants you to live is not like walking through a salad bar. You just take what you want, and you leave those olives. Who eats the olives? Well, lots of people eat the olives. Not this guy. Listen, when there's cheese and there's bacon, Why would I waste volume with olives? Well, learning to obey Jesus is a way of life for all of life. It's a way of life for all of life. Just for example, Jesus does not just give us commands for church. but He gives us commands for all of life. We're to obey Jesus as a way of life in all of life. And we don't cordon off portions of our life and say, well, this is reserved for me. And Jesus, the rest is yours. That's not a biblical picture of discipleship, of obedience. He says, all, all, I've commanded you. What kind of parents would we be if we taught our children that it was important for them to behave properly at home? But when you go to church, just behave however you want. Don't worry about how you make the teacher feel. Don't worry about how you make people at school feel. Just go for what's yours. Take what you want. Behave however you want. All standards of behavior only apply within the home. That would be the worst parenting ever. I guess the worst parenting ever would be, say, all standards of behavior are off even within the home. It would be complete negligence and discipline and proper behavior. But my point is, good parents want to teach their children how to behave properly and speak properly and act properly, not only within the home, but also at school. and also in sports, also when they're at their friend's home, also when they're at church. It's not just for the home, it's for all of life. And that's modeled on God's plan for His children in His house, in His kingdom, all He's commanded. Learning to obey Jesus is a way of life for all of life. So there'll be commands for the home and family, absolutely. But there also will be commands for work and school. There also will be commands relating to the governing authorities and how we live in society and interact with the civil authorities. There also will be commands for how we interact with neighbors and commands for how we deal with and how we interact with those who are persecuting us. There will be commands for your private life, and God does care about that. When no one else is watching, when it's only you, God is watching, and there are commands for your private life and the inner life. Not just what we do and what we say, but what we think and what we feel and what we're dreaming about. There's commands for private life. There's commands for public life. There's commands for the inner life. There's commands for the outer life. There's commands regarding the words you speak. There's commands for the secret thoughts that you never speak. And there are commands for the church's teaching and the church's preaching and the church's practice and the church's purpose and on and on and on. All of life obeying Jesus is a mindset. It's a project. It's a program for all of life. It's a way of life. for all of life. So let us never race past Matthew 28, 20, when he says, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Obedience, reminder of our purpose, would be incomplete without major attention to practical obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. If we're not giving our lives in service to Christ, we will be giving our lives in service to something else or someone else, basically ourselves and the world in one way or another. Learning and keeping the commands of Jesus, obedience, You know, if there's only, I hope there's more than one prayer that I would pray each day, but if there were only one prayer that we were given each day, which you understand that's a hypothetical, right? But if we were only given one prayer each day, our prayer should be, God, help me to love and obey Jesus. Help me to love and obey Jesus. That's where it all starts, because if God answers that prayer, everything else will fall into place. All the details of that will get worked out in God's providence and God's timing. If God answers that, think about that if God continues to answer this prayer in our lives, God help us to love Jesus, help us to love and obey Jesus, everything else will start to iron itself out. our attitude toward people at home, our attitude toward each other at church, our attitude and the way we speak to and speak of people at work and out in the world, everything else will start to iron out if God would just grant by His grace and by His power this one thing that He would continue to cultivate in our hearts of love and obedience for the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, 20 commands of Christ will probably get through just a few. Again, that's the way I have it planned out. Number one, Jesus commands you to repent. Were y'all trying to guess this one word point and the one word is a blank? Repent. I also would accept believe, because the first repentance is belief in the heart. When we turn from unbelief to belief, Matthew 4, 17, From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The first word of Christ's preaching ministry is repent. Repent means, literally the word means a change of mind, but the practical meaning is turning from one thing to another. It's doing a 180. It's doing a turnaround. The first repentance is the heart turning from unbelief to belief in Jesus. I urge you, I plead with you, I invite you cordially, but soberly invite you to turn from unbelief to belief this morning, not on the basis of good works, not on the basis of good intentions. not on the basis of intellectual knowledge, but strictly, strictly, strictly, strictly on the basis of Christ's blood sacrifice on the cross and his glorious resurrection from the dead, put your faith in Jesus for the salvation of your soul. That's the first repentance. Be justified by faith apart from works. The works, worry about the works after that. God will give you the works. But repent, Jesus commands repentance Now, the first repentance is turning from unbelief to belief on the basis of the gospel. But then there's ongoing repentance, ongoing repentance in the heart. And don't you want these things more? Turning more and more from the pride and selfishness of the old life and turning more and more to the humility and the purity and the power of new life in Christ. There has to be an ongoing repentance in the heart of the believer. And then that ongoing repentance in the heart bears outward fruit, bears outward fruit. The Bible calls this fruits in keeping with repentance, or fruit in keeping with repentance. Remember John the Baptist said that? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. That's the outward fruit. That's change in words. That's change in behaviors. That's change in hobbies. That's change in habits, financial habits, time management habits. It's outward change that is the fruit of the ongoing repentance in the heart. The ongoing repentance in the heart is number one. It has to be number one. I've said before, that's the number one ministry in all of our lives, in any of our lives, is God's ministry in our hearts by the work of His Spirit. The Spirit gives us that ongoing repentance in our heart, and then that's born out in the way we live. outward fruit. Ephesians 4 24 Paul says put on the new self created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. That's ongoing repentance. That's another way of commanding ongoing repentance to the believer. Jesus commands repent. Number two, Jesus commands to follow him. He commands to follow him. I mean, I put that in the third person, but when Jesus says it, obviously, you know, he says, follow me. As a preacher, I say, you follow him. He says, follow me. Matthew 4, 19, and he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. What does it mean to follow Jesus? It means you go where he goes. do what he does, learn what he teaches, and learn to put into practice what he teaches. It means be a student, be a follower of Jesus. Follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. I'll make you evangelists. I'll make you preachers of the word, sharers, heralds of the gospel is what that means. I'll make you fishers of men. Matthew 16, 24, Jesus told his disciples, if anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. We cannot properly follow Jesus unless we deny ourselves. Before God saves us, we put ourselves first. After God saves us, we put Jesus first. That's how it works. And when you're saved, you're happy that it works that way. Before the grace of God changes our hearts, we delight that we are the center of our lives. And we delight that earthly things are our ultimate treasure and pleasure. But that changes when we're saved. We now grieve the time when we used to put ourselves first. And we're just happy that God has changed us so that now we put Him first. And now that we're gradually learning how to love others the way we would be loved, to treat others the way we would be treated. Follow Him. We follow Him. And again, I would stress on this. I think I've stressed this, but just in case it has not come across, obedience is the result of salvation, not the cause of salvation. Born again first, then follow Him. Saved by grace first, then we work on practical obedience in all of life. Jesus commands to repent. Jesus commands to follow Him. Jesus commands, number three, to let your light shine. Let your light shine. Now, if you're obeying number one and you're obeying number two, letting your light shine will already be happening. Matthew 5, 16. In the same way, let your light shine before others. That's what Jesus said. That's the command. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Letting your light shine means setting a good example. It means setting a Christian example for the watching world so that they may see your good works so that they may see the result of the work of God in your life. Brothers and sisters, don't we want people to see that? Don't we want people to see that God has changed us? Don't we want people to know that God has saved us? Don't we want people to come to know and come to learn and understand that God has changed our hearts? Don't we want people to see, when they look at us, to see the results of the supernatural grace of God in our lives? Let your light shine. Don't be afraid to set a good example. Don't be ashamed to set a Christian example for the watching world. It's one of the things that God uses to bring sinners under the conviction of sin. And The conviction of sin is the thing that God uses to draw people to Christ. And so please don't ever be ashamed of being a Christian, of speaking as a Christian, of setting a good example as a Christian. Let your light shine so that others would see. Not see that we are great, but see that we are sinners who've been changed by God. Jesus commands you to repent. He commands to follow Him. He commands to let your light shine. We're going to wrap it up here with this verse, Ephesians 5, 1 through 2. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love. as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. If you do not know Jesus this morning, turn to him and believe. For the forgiveness of sins, for a relationship with God, for the gift of eternal life, turn to Jesus and believe. on the basis of His righteous life, on the basis of His sacrificial death, on the basis of His glorious resurrection, turn to Jesus and believe and be saved. And if you're already saved, keep striving in the way of obedience. Keep praying. Keep calling upon the Lord daily, God, help me to love and obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you with all of our hearts for the great salvation that you've provided. When there was no way, you made a way. When the law made no provision for forgiveness, Jesus makes provision for forgiveness. When all of our sin and all of our rebellion only deserve judgment, yet you give the gift of eternal life, By your grace and your infinite love, you have done it. It is glorious in your sight. We lift this prayer in Jesus' name, amen.