Sunday Sermons
Willing Obedience
Bring up the word obedience, tell people that they need to read the Bible vigilantly, that they need to take every word from God seriously, that there are no optional commands, that we cannot add or subtract from Scripture and that we need to pray persistently – and sure enough the culture will respond back with the accusation “Legalism!” Yet the Christian must have the attitude of “never mind” – I am standing on God’s authority on this one. The Bible is filled with passages that make it clear that no one has a warm relationship with God without obeying Him:
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“Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession” (Exodus 19:5).
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“You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him” (Deuteronomy 13:4).
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“Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go” (Joshua 1:7).
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“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).
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“If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land” (Isaiah 1:19).
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“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
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“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word” (John 14:23).
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“And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5:9).
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“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22).
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“And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him’, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4).
Obstacles to Obedience
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“What’s that, Lord?”
Ever notice sometimes your children cannot seem to hear you tell them to do something they really do not want to do, yet they can instantly hear even the smallest whisper from mom and dad when something is said about “ice cream”, “candy” and going to their favorite restaurant? Far be it that we become like this when it comes to God and His commands! May it never be that we pick up the Bible, read God’s clear will and say something like:
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“Of course, God, I am willing to obey you, but could you just define “all” a little more clearly? Do you mean “all” as in, everything? Or “all” as in giving up some of the sinful stuff I don’t really enjoy anyway?
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“Do you have a timeline for this? Can I get it done after High School or college, marriage, having the kids, getting the house...?”
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“Perhaps I can obey this command if I just read another book on this subject?”
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“I see what you are saying, God, but I need to talk to my minister about the context here”
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“I am Confused”:
Yes, there are times when a person needs some help to understand a text (Acts 8:30-31), and yet Soren Kierkegaard observed, “The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand... We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly”.
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“I have another question”
There is nothing wrong with asking questions, yet sometimes our question asking is nothing more than a delay tactic:
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“But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor’?” (Luke 10:29).
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In Matthew 19 the rich young ruler had asked Jesus the question, “What good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life” (19:16). Jesus then told him – keep God’s commandments (19:17). Then he asked another question, “Which ones” (19:18). So Jesus told him which ones (19:18-19). Then he asked a further question, “All these things I have kept; what I am still lacking?” (19:20). Dietrich Bonhoeffer offers the following insightful view of this situation:
“Doubt and reflection take the place of spontaneous obedience – it is a retreat from the reality of God to the speculations of men, from faith to doubt. The rich man of Matthew 19 had hoped to avoid committing himself to any definite moral obligations by forcing Jesus to discuss his spiritual problems – Keep on posing problems, and you will escape the necessity of obedience”. Questions can be good, yet they can also serve as delay tactics or obstacles. “As long as I keep the teacher busy with my questions – I do not have to obey what the text says”. May I suggest that the following may sometimes be nothing more than delay tactics when it comes to obeying the text:
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“There are so many different interpretations”
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“Everyone looks at the text through different cultural lenses”
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“This person says this – and that person says that”
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“Even knowledgeable Christians disagree about this”
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“This has been debated for centuries”
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“This has always been a controversial issue”
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“How do I know...”
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“How do I know that you are giving me the right interpretation?”
The Benefits of Obedience
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“Your life depends on it”
“Has you child ever been in a situation where his life depended on his immediate cooperation, no questions asked? Maybe you had been remiss in training him in instant obedience – you had allowed him too many times to engage you in negotiations; you had gone into lengthy explanations to justify your demands to his satisfaction so that he would see the reasonableness of compliance. Now you are in a life-or-death moment, no time for the usual rigmarole: ‘Make one false move and you’re dead. It is very important that you do exactly what I say – right now’. The child does not see the truck careening around the bend, doesn’t see the rattler five feet behind him” (No Questions, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com). Have you ever considered God’s point of view. Here we are all like children unaware of what is coming around the bend or what might be behind us, and God sees the danger! Let’s obey swiftly.
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“Obedience is Necessary for Knowledge”
It is true that in order to obey one must first be taught what to obey, yet there is another side to this, one that we often neglect. Notice what David said in Psalm 119:99-100: “I have more insight than all my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have obeyed Thy precepts”.
The first part of this Psalm we get. David has a better understanding of Scripture than his teachers because he is spending more time in Scripture and meditating deeply upon them. It is the second part of the Psalm that is easy to read over, or assume it is saying the same thing as the first part. Notice, David does not say that he understands more than the aged because he spends more time in Scripture than they do. Rather, at this point he says, he understands Scripture better than they do, because he obeys it. The lesson is that obedience to Scripture is necessary for the understanding of Scripture. “We generally think that knowledge precedes obedience. But here is a word from Scripture that teaches the contrary – that obedience precedes knowledge. I can study theology books till the cows come home, and I can graduate from the best seminaries, but fully understanding will not come from any of these. It will come from the obedience that even a soda jerk can render... Isn’t it just like God to be so democratic about His offerings? Isn’t it marvelous that biblical insight is as accessible to the simple as to the scholarly? Wouldn’t it be sad if God had configured the world such that there was a correlation between IQ and knowledge, instead of a correlation between obedience and knowledge?” (A Verse for Me, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com). “We like to think that only he who believes can obey, but I believe Bonhoeffer was profoundly right: ‘Only he who is obedient can believe’” (Only Those who Obey, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com).
A Final Challenge
“You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God” (Joshua 24:19). What was that Joshua? Obedience will be impossible? Actually, Israel and the Church could not hear a more beneficial word than, “You will not be able to serve... for He is holy”. Jesus gave the same message when the bandwagon was going great guns (Luke 14:25-26). He immediately said, “Who” cannot follow Him. Therefore, do not serve Him lightly, do not make any flippant promises, but instead count the cost (Luke 14:28). Before we say we will “lay down our life for Him” (John 13:37), lets ponder His, “Do you love me?”(John 21:15-19). “One of the healthiest things a Christian can do is to doubt and question his easy expressions of commitment” (Joshua, No Falling Words, Dale Ralph Davis, p. 196).
