Genesis 26:3-5 records God's visit with Isaac. There God spoke of His blessings upon the land and upon the people BECAUSE ABRAHAM OBEYED HIM. Oh, parents, doesn't your heart ache when you read how God promised to bless Isaac and his posterity because Abraham obeyed Him? What a blessing I have today because my earthly parents obeyed God. God has placed obedience on a high pedestal. What a better future there is for our children if we are known by God and men by this one mark---we have obeyed God.
Later in the history of the history of the Israelite nation when God brought them out of Egypt through the wilderness into the land of Canaan, God said in Exodus 19:5, "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine." This passage lets us know the premium God places on obedience. The peculiar mark of the Israelites was not circumcision or because they were of the fleshly seed of Abraham. Radio preachers are telling us that the Jews are all going back to Palestine to get a special favor from God because they are Abraham's seed. The one characteristic that made the Jews a peculiar treasure to God was their obedience.
In the last three chapters of Exodus, we read that Moses did all that God commanded him; and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle until the priests could not stand to minister. Don't tell me that God is not pleased when people obey Him! We can talk against the people of God all we want to; but when the glory falls, we can rest assured that someone around the premises obeyed God!
If we look at the temple built in the Old Testament, we will find the same picture. If we go to the New Testament temple, the Church of the living God, we will see it again. When people obey God, we don't have to pull and tug and plead to get God to manifest Himself. The glory of God and the presence of God will fill the place with His power and manifestations of His power.
The Scriptures tell us that God crowns the obedient with His favor and His presence. After wandering in the wilderness for forty years and reaping the fruits of disobedience, the Israelites stood on the banks of the Jordan River facing a new land. In Deuteronomy 11:26-28, we read what God held before them. I pray that God will imprint this indelibly upon our hearts and minds. We read, "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; (27) A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: (28) And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known." Here the Israelites were ready to enter the land of Canaan. Whether the land was to prove a blessing or a cursing to them all depended upon whether they obeyed or not. Some may protest that this was all back in the Old Testament, but God has never changed His mind. The key to a blessed life is to obey God.
Through Trials
We need to realize that right in the mind is where the battle is going on today. The very Spirit of God is urging us to obey God. I want to encourage us. We're in a time of trial. We're going to go through heaviness; and when we go through heaviness, we won't be happy. We'll have joy, but we won't be happy. Joy is an expression of greatness that flows from an inner fountain, but happiness is just a feeling that comes upon us because of circumstances. As circumstances change, we may be happy or unhappy. If we know that we've obeyed God though, we can have joy and rejoicing in our heart, even if we're in a trying place. We're in a trying time, and we'll be tried and severely tested. Someone told me, "The closer I try to get to God, the harder I'm tried." If I could tell you some of the things that were thrown at me just recently when I went to a certain place to preach the Gospel, you would know what I mean. I went there to preach the Gospel, to live the gospel, and to be true to God. I did so, and I came away with my "skirts clean" in every manner. How the devil wrestled and fought me for about three days and nights. The devil will make us feel that if we get close to God today, all will be easy sailing. Not So! The closer we get to God, the harder the devil will fight us.
We need to realize something. These people who are living in compromise, going the easy way, and are taking the way of least resistance are the ones whom the devil is not bothering. However, if we pick up the "Gatling gun" of truth and begin to uncover the devil's means of working and live for God in spite of the ungodliness right around us, we will feel the power of the enemy. We can be victorious in every bit of it and come out on top, still true to God.
God said, "You will be blessed if you obey." The keynote in a blessed life is obedience to God. We need to beware of praying for blessings, and we need to be more meticulous in obeying. Then, God will send the blessings.
Confusion Because of Disobedience
There's much confusion today coming from the devil working through many systems, but many times the confusion is brought on by ourselves. We bring confusion on ourselves when God tells us what we ought to do, but that's not always exactly what we want to do. Because we have much confidence in "Sister Cucumber," we go to her and ask her what she thinks about it. Maybe "Sister Cucumber" is not up to par herself, so she tells you what SHE would do. Well, she doesn't operate the gates to the city. Then, we run over to "Brother Cabbage" and again to someone else. The farther we go, the more confused we become.
Consider Daniel. I tremble every time I read his prayer. No one lived any better than Daniel did, but look at the prayer he prayed. He had the goods. You may say, "Well, I wouldn't rate Daniel too high." Well, let me take you over to the zoo and throw you in with just ONE lion! He was in a den of them!
In Daniel 9:7-10, we read Daniel's prayer, "O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. (8) O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. (9) To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; (10) Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets." These verses give the reason that the leaders of our land are confused. Our people have sinned against God. There's confusion of faces among us because we have not obeyed you, Lord. This is the tenor of Daniel's prayer.
King Saul Disobeyed God
Before we consider King Saul, let's read 1 Corinthians 10:11 which says, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." In 1 Samuel 10:6-7, we read the words which Samuel spoke to Saul: "And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man. (7) And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee."
This is a picture of what happens to you and me. In real salvation, a definite change takes place; the old man is gone and a new man comes into being. When I use the expression "old man," I'm not referring to the carnal nature; I'm talking of the man that we used to be. In Romans 6:6, Paul uses the term "the old man," the man that we were before we were saved. When the Spirit of the Lord comes on us and we are actually born of God's Spirit, we are changed into another man. Right here is where much of the confusion originates. We have men and women trying to understand holiness who have never been born again.
King Saul was given a solemn warning as to the necessity of exact and entire obedience in 1 Samuel 10:8: "And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings: seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come to thee, and shew thee what thou shalt do." In this verse, Samuel gives Saul explicit directions. Saul was to wait at Gilgal seven days for the prophet to come to him. Saul, however, waited until the middle of the seventh day. Samuel had not yet shown up, so Saul's human reasoning began to work. He thought to himself. "The people are all scattered. The Philistines will come on me and kill me, so I will just get my own sacrifice and go ahead and offer it." He had no sooner offered the sacrifice towards the end of the seventh day than Samuel showed up.
Now, I want us to note a few things from this passage. According to some present day conceptions of God, the God of Samuel would appear to be most unfair. All Saul did was to become hasty. All Saul needed to have done was exercise patience for two or three more hours. Through his impatience, Saul lost the kingdom forever. "Oh, God wouldn't do a thing like that," some people would glibly tell you; but God did.
Saul's excuse is similar to many that are offered today. It was a plea of necessity to disobey under the circumstances. As a pastor dealing with people, I have never been able to get over how people make such a plea of necessity for disobeying. All the pleas of necessity we can make won't satisfy God! We hear people say today, "It's better to steal than to starve. It's better to sin than perish." We live in a world full of deception. It's no wonder the preacher must preach so much on it. When I go into the hospitals, I meet deception nine times out of ten: "Don't tell them their true condition. They have cancer, but don't tell them" The attitude is "Whatever you do, don't let people know their true condition." The devil is working from every angle today. Such an age of deception this world has never seen.
Look at Saul's excuse in 1 Samuel 13:12, "Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering." Although we have a right heart, we still need victory over ourselves. Saul possessed the Spirit of God and had been turned into another man. The same may be true of us, but we still need to understand the necessity of obeying God no matter what!
To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice
Samuel laid down God's judgment in verse 14, "But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee." Saul lost the kingdom for lack of a little patience.
We see the same picture in religion that Saul presents. The Spirit of the Lord had come on him changing him into a different man. This was Saul's first failure, and so God refused to allow his descendents to keep the kingdom. However, God gave Soul another chance and told him to go down and destroy the Amalekites. Human reasoning rose up again and said, "I will spare the best of them." If we're not careful, the same reasoning will raise up in every one of us. We all will gladly destroy the sway-back steers and the knobby sheep, but the good ones we are tempted to spare. This is the thing that is clipping too many people's power---through their own human reasoning, they are keeping the good things.
When Samuel went down, Saul greeted him with, "I have obeyed the Lord. I have kept His commandments." How could he say that? Why, Saul had performed some of the commandments of the Lord; but he had not done all. The lesson before us is one of exact and entire obedience.
In 1 Samuel 15:21-23, Saul said, "But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. (22) And Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. (23) For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee..."
I pray that we will comprehend this point. In the season called "Lent," religious folk of every creed are trying to make some kind of sacrifice to the Lord. The message they all need to hear is: God will not accept any sacrifice short of obedience. Thank God for sacrifice. God wants us to make sacrifices; but if there hasn't been full-fledged obedience, sacrifice is meaningless to God. Don't take me wrong, now. Sacrifice is good, but it must be based on obedience. How serious this is today.
I see this same picture in religion today as in Saul's day. Saul had the privilege, when he obeyed God, of possessing God's power, of communing with God, and of being divinely directed by God. However, when Saul refused to obey God, he did what so many are doing today; he went over to see the witch. We see people today who have disobeyed God and, consequently, lost his power out of their lives. Now we see them turn to the unstable refuges of false religion and supposedly gaining power and getting understanding from God. There's plenty of power to take care of us in every way and to work every sign needed to follow us right in obedience to God's eternal Word. We need no outside channel of power whatsoever; but when we disobey God, we'll go seeking other avenues.
God Will Givwe an Obedient heart
God Will Give an Obedient Heart
We need to realize that only wholehearted obedience in even the smallest details will satisfy God. Let's let nothing else satisfy us. We're in a most dangerous position when we can be satisfied with something that God is not. This is that which we war against today. I'm not putting you in Saul's sandals, I'm merely sharing God's eternal Word which says that God commands, demands, and furnishes the ability for perfect obedience. God doesn't require a thing out of us which He doesn't give us. He will give us an obedient heart. He will take the disobedient spirit out of us. Ephesians chapter 2 teaches that if we will come to Him in old-time repentance, confessing and repenting of our trespasses and sins, He will take the disobedient spite out and put an obedient spirit within. He will give us an obedient heart. Is God requiring too much, then, after giving us an obedient heart...to expect us to obey Him?
We may sum up these thoughts by defining sin as "self wanting to have self's own way contrary to God's will." This was the case in the Garden of Eden, In Saul's life, and in everyone's life who has disobeyed God and sinned. It wasn't the fact that Saul couldn't do it. Adam didn't have to sin. It wasn't because Eve couldn't obey God. Saul could have said, "Look, we're going to kill all that cattle and Agag, too," and they would have died.
Sin is just desiring to have our own way and having it contrary to God's will. We can be "saved 'n sanctified," but we're still human. There's something about every one of us that the devil can work on, just as he did Adam and Eve. We must let nothing short of that which satisfies God, satisfy us. Saul said, "I have obeyed God's Word." God said, "You have rejected my Word."
Many say, "that was such a small part that Saul disobeyed in." But look at the terrible results it brought!
Please allow me to bring a few more Scripture passages that deal with obedience to our attention. In Jeremiah 7:21-23, we read, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. (22) For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: (23) But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God , and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."
Now, God is working for one thing. He said that when He brought them out of Egypt, He didn't ask them for burnt offerings and sacrifices. These offerings and sacrifices were for the forgiveness of their sins. What God wanted was for the Israelites to come to a place of complete obedience. God said that only if they obeyed His voice would He be their God and they be His people. The same is true today.
We need to note that all sacrifices, even the sacrifice of His only Son, are subordinate to the one thing of having the creature restored to full obedience. If we don't live in full obedience, the sacrifice of God's Son does us no good at all. The Bible tells us that if we claim the sacrifice of God's Son for our sins and still don't come to a place of full obedience, we live crucifying the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame. In so doing, we heap the torments of hell upon our heads. No sacrifice is any good without obedience, not even the sacrifice of His Son.
Someone may say, "Why, don't you know that God smacks me because I'm His child? He corrects me every day." That's right. Hebrews 12:7-10 tells us that we have earthly fathers who correct us for their pleasure. Then, the Hebrew writer draws a parallel by saying that God corrects and chastens us for one purpose---that we might be partakers of His holiness. God smacks us that we might come to the place of obedience.
Someone may be thinking, "What will happen if we don't obey?" The above Scripture tells us that if we don't obey, we aren't His sons. Yes, we surely need to be corrected by God as we go along, but not over the same thing time after time. He chastens us for one thing, that we might be partakers of His holiness.
"If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments"
In the New Testament, we are taught that obedience is the very essence of salvation. Jesus closed His Sermon on the Mount with these words, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
Someone told me once, "Love is the distinctive theme of the New Testament." I will admit that love is distinctively taught in the New Testament, but Jesus links it with obedience! In John 14:15, 21, 23, we read, "If ye love me, keep my commandments. (21) He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (23) If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." I want us to note how Jesus wrapped love and obedience together. He said, "He that hath, keepeth, and loveth shall be loved." Now, tell me who gets loved? He that hath and keepeth my commandments is he that loveth and shall be loved."
Certainly, I preach the golden text, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son..."; but that's the extent of God's love. When we turn down Jesus Christ and real salvation, we have run the limits of God's love; and nothing but wrath awaits us. On the other hand, when we accept real salvation and find that experience where we can obey God, then as we go on and God gives us His commandments and we keep them, we show (manifest) that love to God by obeying Him and He in turn loves us.
John 15:10 says, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." This secret of how to abide continually in Christ is one which many people have never discovered. Someone said, "It's not that strict. Oh, I know that God was strict on Jesus, but He was my daysman you know. God was strict on Him, but He won't be on me." Read John 15:10 again, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even (just the same as) as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." The same kind of standard is held on you and I.
1 John 3:18-22 tells us a little more about this little known secret of abiding in Christ continually. "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. (19) And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. (20) For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. (21) Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. (22) And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."
These verses tell us how we know that we are of the truth and how we know that we are saved today. The way we know that we are of the truth and that we love God is not in word, neither in tongues. Even though Pentecostal people say that they show their love for God by speaking in tongues, John said differently! We love in deed and in truth. The King James Version says, "Hereby we...assure our hearts before him"; however, one Greek translation said, "Hereby we persuade our hearts," by keeping His commandments.
Here is the one certificate of the Christian character. First of all, if we know that we obey God, we can have our hearts persuaded before Him. This in itself is a wonderful thing. Secondly, when we know that we have obeyed Him and done those things that are pleasing in His sight, our prayers are answered. We can ask what we will, and we can know that He hears us. "And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" (1 John 5:15).
Resist the Devil
Let's not be overcome by the spirits of this age. The devil is ready to convince us that we can still live for God and not obey Him. This has been his plea and his move ever since the Garden of Eden. He tried to convince our foreparents in the garden, and the same enemy of souls is working in these last days through the realms of false religion trying to make men believe that they can serve God and still not obey all things. The spirits of this devil are loosed in all the world. They are surrounding the camp of the saints. They are courting you and me and trying to make us feel that we can be pleasing before God and live as true Christians while not obeying God.
I'm not trying to lay down any hard rules for us to follow. God doesn't require one thing of us until He gives it to us. I told a man the other day who was worrying about entering the ministry, "Now wait, brother, God doesn't require of us what He doesn't give us. If He wants you to preach, He will "put the preach in you!" Every man's gift makes room for him. That doesn't sound like we're supposed to work it up ourselves, does it? No, it's a gift of God. The reason that God requires explicit, exact obedience from His children is because He has given them an obedient spirit and an obedient heart.
Now anyone is able to disobey. I can disobey God today just as freely as I did when I was out in sin. My will hasn't been worked over or taken away. I still have a free will. Why don't I sin, then? I don't want to sin! I did many things out in sin that I didn't want to do. Some things I was so sorry for doing that I made restitution while I was yet a sinner, but I had no power whereby I could say, "No" when the temptation came. Thank God, through real and full salvation, God delivered me not only from my past sins; but He broke the power of sin in my life so that I can say, "No" to the devil. Even if the devil hangs on, I still say, "No!"
The Bible still says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). We have to resist the devil until he flees! Sometimes God will allow the devil to hang on and really rough us up and tear us down physically if he can. However, thank God, through the grace of God, we can tell the devil, "I am worn out physically, but my strength is not in the flesh. My strength is in God! And He is as powerful as He ever was."
Be Ready When He Comes
We can obey. There's nothing any sweeter than obeying God. When we disobey God, it brings such condemnation. Not only does disobedience bring condemnation here, but when Jesus splits the clouds one of these mornings, it will bring condemnation there at His Judgment Throne and condemn our soul to a lost and torment-filled hell.
We stand at the very brink of the Second Coming of Christ. The signs of His coming have been and are being fulfilled. God is speaking to His people, whether it be from the Gospel, prophecy, or revelation, in a warning trumpet sounding out to His people telling us to "Be ready! Be ready! Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." We are ready for the second coming of Christ when we've done everything that He left us to do.
Many act the same as we did when we were children. When mom and dad went away, they left us work to do. We said after they were gone, "Well, that won't take too long. We'll play ball awhile, and then we'll get busy and do it." We became so busy playing that before we knew it, it was time for dad to come; and we didn't have the work done. About five minutes before he was supposed to come back, we got busy; and we worked ourselves dizzy. When he showed up we hid because we weren't ready. The same is true of the attitude which many have concerning the second coming of Christ.
Let's not let the devil deceive us!! We're not ready to meet Him, nor will we rejoice in His appearing if we've disobeyed. We'll stand condemned with our head down. The sad wail of many will be, "I'm not ready, Jesus. Oh, You gave me enough time, but I was too busy with other things. I was too busy enjoying myself to do the work that You ordained for me to do."
I trust God will help us today. To us who are in sin, I advocate a Gospel that will save us. The Gospel doesn't tell us about the power of God; it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. God will break the power of sin in our life and the power of the old habits. God will make a new creature out of us and give us a conscience void of offence toward God and man. He will put an obedient heart within us.
I want to help us who think that we can't live like we've just described. True, we can't live this way if we've not the experience of salvation. It takes a supernatural experience within our heart and life. When we gain the experience, we can live the life. When we're quickened from that dead state, the, we can live pleasing in God's sight.
[The End]