Delighting In Obedience

SERMON
1-28-07

Faith and obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God, trusts God; and he that trusts God, obeys God.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Prov 30:17

17 The eye that mocks his father,
And scorns obedience to his mother,
The ravens of the valley will pick it out,
And the young eagles will eat it.
NKJV (A VERY GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION EMPHASIZING THE IMPORTANCE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO LEARN RESPECT FOR, AND OBEDIENCE TO THEIR PARENTS)

IT IS SO CRITICAL BECAUSE IF WE DON’T OBEY OUR PARENTS WHO WE CAN SEE HOW WILL WE EVER LEARN TO OBEY OUR HEAVENLY FATHER WHOM WE CANNOT SEE

Thirty years of our Lord's life are hidden in these words of the gospel: "He was subject unto them."
Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704)
EVEN JESUS HAD TO “LEARN” OBEDIENCE
Heb 5:7-9
8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
NKJV

To be like Christ. That is our goal, plain and simple. It sounds like a peaceful, relaxing, easy objective. But stop and think. He learned obedience by the things he suffered. So must we. It is neither easy nor quick nor natural. It is impossible in the flesh, slow in coming, and supernatural in scope. Only Christ can accomplish it within us.
Charles R. Swindoll (1934- )

AS THE TWICE BLESSED CHILDREN OF GOD (ONCE BY CREATION AND ONCE BY ADOPTION, THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST) WE ARE REQUIRED TO OBEY OUR LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST

1 John 2:3-6

3 The Test of Knowing Him


Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
NKJV

OBEDIENCE TO HIM IS THE PROOF, IF YOU WILL, OF OUR SONSHIP

1 John 3:1-3

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

NKJV

BECAUSE WE UNDERSTAND THIS GREAT GIFT AND THE LOVE THAT HAS BEEN POURED OUT UPON US WE PURIFY OURSELVES AND DELIGHT IN OBEDIENCE TO THE FATHER
Ps 1
1:1 The Way of the Righteous and the End of the Ungodly

Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
NKJV

Ps 40:8
8 I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart."
NKJV

AND WHAT IS THIS OBEDIENCE THAT HE REQUIRES OF US???
1 John 3:10-12

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous.
NKJV

Matt 22:35-40
35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"

37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ' You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
NKJV

IS IT A HARD THING HE IS ASKING OF US??? NOT TO CUT OURSELVES AND INFLICT PAIN UPON OURSELVES, NOT TO BLEED --- BUT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER --- MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, IT IS A HARDER COMMAND TO OBEY THAN IF HE HAD TOLD US TO GO AND CUT OFF SIX FINGERS --- FOR YOU HAVE TO DIE DAILY TO YOURSELF

Luke 9:23-26

Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.
NKJV

Obey ... take up your cross ... deny yourself ... it all sounds very hard. It is hard. Anyone who tells you differently is peddling spiritual soothing syrup, not real Christianity. And yet, in a strangely paradoxical way, it is also easy. With every cross that we lift in obedience to Christ comes the strength to carry it. It is always a package deal.
Louis Cassels (1922-1974)

Rom 12:1-2
12:1 Living Sacrifices to God
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
NKJV

If for one whole day, quietly and determinedly, we were to give ourselves up to the ownership of Jesus and to obeying his orders, we should be amazed at its close to realize all he had packed into that one day.
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

It is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God doesn't want our success; he wants us. He doesn't demand our achievements; he demands our obedience. AND It is only by obedience that we understand the teaching of God.
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

IN THE NEGATIVE:
Lev 26:14-44

14'But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, 16 I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
18'And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21'Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate.
23'And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, 24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
27'And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, 28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you. 31 I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. 32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. 34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest — for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.
36'And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; also in their fathers' iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.


40'But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, 41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt — 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; they will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.
NKJV

IT IS OUR CHOICE --- HE WILL NEVER VIOLATE OUR FREE WILL --- HE WON’T FORCE US TO CHOOSE THE PATH OF PEACE AND JOY THROUGH OBEDIENCE
Deut 30:15-16

15 "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.
NKJV

Obedience to Jesus Christ is essential, but not compulsory; he never insists on being Master. We feel that if only he would insist, we should obey him. But our Lord never enforces his "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots"; he never takes means to force us to do what he says. He never coerces. In certain moods we wish he would make us do the thing, but he will not; and in other moods we wish he would leave us alone altogether, but he will not. If we do not keep his commandments, he does not come and tell us we are wrong. We know it, we cannot get away from it.
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

YOU CAN THANK JOHN MARK PHELPS FOR THE SERMON TODAY --- ON FRIDAY HE CAME OUT TO PAY US A VISIT --- I ENLISTED HIS AID IN FEEDING THE CATTLE --- THE PROCESS MANY OF YOU KNOW WELL --- SMALL SQUARE BALES ---- LOAD THE PICKUP ---- DRIVE TO THE FIELD --- UNLOAD ONE BALE AND SERVE --- DRIVE FORWARD AND REPEAT ---- IT IS SIMPLE, BUT THE DRIVER AND THE SERVER HAVE TO BE IN SYNC --- WHEN FEEDING HORSES YOU HAVE TO MOVE FARTHER APART BETWEEN BALES THAN WHEN FEEDING COWS BECAUSE HORSES ARE MEANER AND DON’T SHARE WELL --- AT FIRST I HAD TO TELL JOHN MARK EVERY TIME WHEN TO MOVE AND WHEN TO STOP --- BUT BEING THE BRIGHT LAD HE IS BY THE END I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TO TALK --- WE JUST WORKED IN UNISON

AS WE WERE FEEDING THE THOUGHT CAME TO MY MIND ABOUT OBEDIENCE --- (WE ARE SUBJECT TO FAR LESS CORRECTION WHEN WE ARE IN HARMONY AND UNISON WITH THE LORD) HE DOESN’T HAVE TO CORRECT US WHEN WE ARE DOING JOYFULLY WHAT HE REQUIRES OF US