Choosing To Obey
Scriptures: I Samuel 15:22-23; Acts 20:25-31
Introduction:
In my previous messages the last two weeks I have shared some thoughts with you pertaining to the situations that are occurring across our nation as a results of grand juries choosing not to indict officers for the deaths of several young black men. As I mentioned last week, we have seen laws broken because of individuals choosing to destroy the property of others in their outrage. I told that as a Christian this was not something that we have the right to do. There is a different between disobeying an unrighteous law versus obeying the laws designed to keep everyone safe. I want to address the subject of obeying. Although some of this might be difficult to hear, if we teach our children this one response, it could potentially save their lives and the lives of others down the road. This morning I will approach this from the spiritual perspective because for us as Christians, if we can consistently yield to the Spirit of God we can keep our flesh under some control. Remember, it is that flesh part of us that causes us to really act on impulses in stressful situations. This morning, I want to approach this from a sense of what can be lost when there is disobedience in the equation. Before I go into the heart of the message, I want to review with you the definition of obey. The word means to “follow the commands or guidance of; to conform to or comply with.” Keep this definition in mind as I will circle back to this when I close. Let’s begin with a reflection on Saul who lost his kingdom due to his disobedience in attitude and action.
I. Saul
In First Samuel chapter fifteen the prophet Samuel received a message from God that Saul had disobeyed Him and that He (God) was regretting placing him as king. Samuel grieved for Saul all that night and rose early the next morning to go and meet with Saul to discuss his actions and to carry out what God had originally commanded. God had told Saul to destroy the Amalekites because many years before King Amalek came against the Children of Israel when God brought them out of Egypt (Exodus 17:8-16). Saul did not do as God had commanded and chose to allow the king to live and some of the best of the sheep and oxen to be sacrificed to God. Samuel told Saul the following in 1 Samuel 15:22 “….Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” Furthermore in verse twenty-three Samuel said “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.” Samuel told Saul that because he had rejected God, God had rejected him. Saul’s outward disobedience was a reflection of what was on the inside of him. He had started down the road of rejecting God and this final act was a confirmation of his full rejection. Whenever there is disobedience in the equation, it starts internally. There is a thought process that says “I am not going to do what I am being told to do!” This though process often does not include what the potential outcome could be – in this case, the loss of his kingdom and eventually his life. Samuel told Saul that rebellion was as the sin of divination and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. In other words, being disobedient carries a penalty, regardless of how people today try and tell us that sin is no longer an issue because of grace and our loving God. I have dealt with the issue of sin and how we are being lulled to sleep in our attitude towards it. We have made it so that sin is no longer an issue because everyone does it and no one seems to be concerned about hell. Likewise we have made the issue of being obedient non-important. We have given our children the right to be disrespectful in our homes because they have rights. Some parents allow their kids to do and say anything they want to them. In these situations, why would we think our children would act any differently outside the home? Let me continue before I get on another soap box. Let’s examine the first rebellion which has led to all other rebellions throughout history – Lucifer’s rebellion against God.
I. Lucifer’s Rebellion
When Lucifer persuaded one third of the angels in heaven to take a position against God, he was cast out of heaven. In Revelations 12:4 the angels are called “the stars of heaven.” What did he do to warrant such severe punishment? He was cast out of the place where eternal life dwelled because of pride and what it produced in his life – disobedience which led to his full rebellion. (Ezekiel 28:17a) Lucifer’s pride manifested itself in behaviors that have become the hallmarks of his presence today and led to him rebelling against God. As a quick review of what he did, the Bible tells us that:
• He began to think more highly of himself than he should have. (Ezekiel 28:13-15) See Romans 12:1-3; Psalms 10:4
• He began to murmur against God which led to his rebellion. He began to see things differently and thought that he could do a better job than God in ruling heaven. (Isaiah 14:12-14) See Numbers 14:27-30a
• He sowed deceit and false doctrine among the angels. (Revelations 12:7-9 – “deceiveth” – to cause to roam from safety, truth or virtue) See 2 Corinthians 4:1-2
Lucifer and his angels had turned their backs on an eternity that would have been lived in the presence of God. Now their eternity will be a separation from God with no possible reinstatement of life with Him. Having been stripped of everything that was dear to him, Lucifer’s rage increased against his Creator. Not only had he lost his battle against God, he was banished from the only home and position that he knew since he’d been created. In his mind I am sure that he thought “God had to pay for what he did to him!” Satan watched as God created the universe and then an earth that was inhabited with all forms of life. He saw the Lord God’s love and gentleness as God formed and made man. And when man took his first breath he saw an expression on the Lord God’s face that he had never seen before, one that told him that this newly formed being would be special to God. Can you see the devil looking on with anger and disgust as the bond between the man and the Lord God developed. He watched as the bond began to grow to the point where the Father brought all of the animals to His son and said “I want you to name them and whatever you decide that will be its name.” He saw the Father’s heart even more when He presented the son with his wife so that he wouldn’t be alone. The devil smiled. “Ah, now I know how I can hurt Him. I will go after the man and his wife.” (Revelations 12:12, 17) You know the rest of the story. Satan tempted Eve to disobey God and once she did Adam followed right behind her.
Satan approached Eve with the same seductive prowess that he used to condemn one-third of God’s angels to eternal damnation. He was like the strange woman in Proverbs 7, who from her window smiled as she saw her unsuspecting prey. He wooed Eve with much fair speech. His deadly doctrine was so easy to hear – “You will not die but you will be like gods.” In her mind she saw the pleasantness of the fruit. She saw how it could make her more like God. So she yielded. (Genesis 3:6) She never saw the dart his flattering lips produced until Adam ate. The dart struck, ripping through the very life of God. When Adam and Eve believed the serpent’s doctrine of death that sounded so much like life, they walked away from love. They had been obedient to God until this day when they chose a different way of life. They walked away from an eternity that would have been lived in the presence of God into a death and into a place where eternal life did not dwell. Had they’d known what this act of disobedience would cost them do you think they would have still done it? Eve was deceived because she listened to the voice from without that spoke deceit and death into her life. But to her, it didn’t sound like death. It sounded like “being more like God.” I can see her letting the serpent’s words roll around in her mind and smiling. “I know God loves me. I can feel it when I’m in His presence. Why wouldn’t He want me to know more of His love and be more like Him? The serpent isn’t telling me I can’t be more like God. In fact, he’s saying I can just by eating of the tree.”
Eve chose to listen to the voice from without that appealed to her soul and emotions. She was seduced and persuaded to believe in “a life” that was different from the life that God had “planned for her”. She was deceived into doing what pleased her rather than what pleased her Creator. In her mind, there was no difference. The serpent had convinced Eve that “roaming from the safety of truth” – ignoring God’s command to not eat of the tree – was not really that unsafe when in fact, it was deadly. The check in her spirit – the voice within – went unnoticed. (Romans 2:13-15) She didn’t hear the life in her that was just like the life in her Creator.
However, with one simple act of obedience, Adam could have preserved the course of human history. He simply had to obey God’s command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:15-17) He could have prevented the devil’s continual, free and unrestrained access to man’s soul and emotions. Adam ignored the check in his spirit too. The bible tells us in 1 Timothy that Adam was not deceived. Eve was deceived, but Adam made a choice to follow her – his disobedience was by choice! We often blame Eve, but she was deceived – Adam was not. He made an informed decision to disobey God! (I Timothy 2:13-14; Genesis 3:17) Again, all it would have taken to preserve eternal life for man was one man’s simple act of obedience. Romans 5:12 says “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Fortunately for us, our story doesn’t end with Romans 5:12. It only pauses. Another man’s simple act of obedience gave us an opportunity to choose life. (Romans 5:15-17)
I can only imagine what went through the devil’s mind when he saw the results of Jesus’ crucifixion. Once again, he was faced with men and women who were sons and daughters of the God he hated, the God he wanted to hurt. How could he lead them to eternal damnation this time? He knew that he had to do something different. There were simply too many children in God’s family to focus on one individual. He also knew, by observation, that to work his deadly deception he couldn’t do it with a voice from without. This time he had to have voices from within the family who were numb to the voice within – who were numb to the leading of their new nature. His new strategy: let the “so-called believers” lead the other “true believers” astray. Now you may ask "how can a “so-called” believer lead a true believer astray?" Well, let me tell you.
II. The New Strategy: Sin (Obedience) Is In The Eyes Of Beholder
You ever heard the term: “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder?” What this term means is what one might consider beautiful others may not. Each person can choose for themselves what is beautiful to them. Well, in our world Satan’s strategy is simply “Sin (and obedience) is in the eyes of the beholder.” This strategy enforces the idea that each person (or group of people) can decide for themselves what sin is and what it means to be obedient to God. Our obedience is not based on what God says, but what we believe our ‘rights” are. Turn to Acts chapter twenty. In Acts 20, the Apostle Paul calls a “Prayer and Power Conference” in Miletus with leaders of the church in Ephesus. His heart is heavy because he knows that he will never see their faces again and he knows that some of them will turn away from the gospel. He looks at them and says “And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock and from among your own selves men will rise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. (Acts 20:25-31) I can almost see tears in his eyes as he left them with the heart-breaking warning.
In verses twenty-six and twenty-seven he said that he was innocent of the blood of all men because he did not shrink away from declaring to them the whole truth and purpose of God. This should raise the question for each of us about the blood of others that might be on our hands when we stand before God. He goes on to say that grievous wolves will find their way into the sheepfold and scatter the sheep. Even worse, some of the very men in this meeting would be among those grievous wolves. I can see them looking at each other, trying to discern from their reactions, who it would be. It would not surprise me if there was not one person at the meeting who believed Paul was talking about him. You’re talking about those in leadership. You’re not talking about novices. These are men who have proven themselves capable of handling the word of God. What could possibly cause these leaders to do such a thing to God’s people? There were things working on the inside of them that they didn’t know about, that they had not dealt with. The Holy Spirit showed Paul the stronghold that would lead to some of them falling away from what they had been taught. Pride. A desire to have followers would eventually reveal itself in their character. A desire of wanting people who would depend on them versus pointing them to God. If the elders were listening carefully, they would have heard Paul tell them exactly how the grievous wolves would hurt the flock. They would have heard him talk about the importance of repentance to God and having faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. They would have heard him declaring the full counsel of God. The grievous wolves would hurt the flock by teaching a gospel other than the kingdom God. Are we not seeing this today? This is rebellion in the first order because these leaders are choosing to not obey the Word and thus not obey God. Let me give you two examples.
1. Beer-Based Worship Services Explore Post-Christian Fix
More and more churches are meeting in pubs or otherwise sanctioning a glass of suds during fellowships. One Church in Tulsa, OK is taking the concept to a whole new level, opening the door to worship Jesus with hymns and ale in their mouths at the very same time. The church organized "Beer and Hymns Sunday" as it kicks off a discussion about the future of the Christian church around the world.
"Everybody's welcome. No questions are banned. No holds barred," says [a] senior pastor at another church, which is also participating in a weeklong event during which several area churches are hosting Christian Piatt, who just put out a new book called postChristian. "Just come and respect each other's opinions, and just have a good honest conversation about God while having a few beers at the same time." The author of the article says the goal of [Platt’s] book is to fix what's wrong with the church—and God knows there's plenty wrong with the church—but inviting the community to Sunday night worship to get an alcohol-induced buzz is not the answer. It's just not.
"People are more curious than anything," says one of the host pastors. "It's not a big drunk fest. It's just going to a nice time to have a beer and sing some old hymns at the same time." The author of the piece asks: Why is it so necessary for the church and the gospel to fit into modern-day culture? Modern-day culture should not dictate the messages we preach or the outreaches we arrange. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not obligated to meet the culture where it is—the culture is obligated to bow a knee to Jesus Christ
2. Methodist Pastor Who Led Same-Sex Wedding Reinstated
This second example is one that we talked about a couple of weeks ago in Bible study. A U.S. pastor who was defrocked after officiating his son's same-sex wedding ceremony and later reinstated, can keep his ordination, a Methodist judicial council has ruled. The church had punished the pastor last year by defrocking him when he refused to say he would never perform another gay ceremony. But an appeals panel reversed the decision, and the judicial council upheld the appellate ruling. The decision by the church's highest judicial body was on technical, legal grounds and did not discuss the issue of gay marriage. The nine-member council ruled that it found "no errors in the application of the church law and judicial decisions."
[The former pastor of a church] in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, was charged under United Methodist Church law for having officiated at the same sex-marriage ceremony of his son in 2007. An appeals panel in June said it upheld the church's decision to suspend the pastor last year for 30 days. But it reversed the defrocking, saying that was punishing him for what he might do in the future instead of what he had done in the past. The pastor said after a hearing before the council last week that he had no regrets.”
How could something like this happen in the church? Why would a pastor, let alone a group of pastors, believe that hosting a “beer party” in the name of saving the lost is okay with God? These are just two examples of the deceptive practices and doctrines that are creeping into the church. And they are coming into the church through the pulpit. I Timothy 4:1-2 say “But the Spirit explicitly says in the later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.” The devil knew that he had to do something different if he was going to invade the church. He knew, by observation, that to work his deadly deception he couldn’t do it with a voice from without – a voice from outside the family. This time he had to have voices from within the family who were numb to the voice within – who were numb to the leading of their new nature. By utilizing voices from within Satan was able to bring his hypocrisy into the Church through the pulpit which made it a lot easier for the Church follow along with. The voices speaking the lies, the deception, and the deadly doctrine of the enemy are more numerous than the voices speaking truth. Over the years the devil has slowly and methodically numbed our spiritual senses to the point that his leaven is what we now believe. So many of us have lost our way because the Prayer Closet is not the place we love or it’s not the place we know. I would love to say that all we need is simple obedience to the word but for the majority of the body of Christ, the word has not been hidden in their hearts. You won’t have the spiritual stamina to obey the word if it’s not living in you. You won’t have the spiritual stamina to affirm the truth of the word if it’s not living in you. And you won’t have the spiritual stamina to stand on the word without compromise if it’s not living in you. Eve proved that in the Garden of Eden.
Conclusion
I was asked “When will we move on from this discussion of sin in Bible study and from in my sermons” and I can tell you the answer is never. This is not something we can “move away” from as long as we accept the doctrine that sin and rebellion is okay as long as it does not harm anyone. But you know what, I do thank God for you who are truly seeking our Father’s heart. You want your heart to beat with His heart. It’s not easy and it’s not popular to be in a church that’s swimming against the tide of wrong doctrine. And sometimes it’s not easy to look around and see a church that can easily seat 100 people seating 30 or 40. But we are not called to easy. We are not called to be popular. We are called to one thing: simple obedience – to the word and to the voice of our new nature. That’s all our Father has ever wanted because that’s all He needs.
Remember the definition of obey? It means to “follow the commands or guidance of; to conform to or comply with.” Remember what Paul said in Romans 12:2? He said that we should not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. In other words what he said was that we should not obey the world – but change how we think so that we can come into the understanding of what it means to obey God.
Are you willing to obey? I am not asking you to obey me; I am asking you to obey God. Not Rodney’s interpretation of God, but what God says Himself. Read His word for yourself and decide what you believe or disbelieve. You decide for yourself if you’re willing to obey Him with compromise. You decide as you and you alone will stand before Him for how you walked on this earth. Not only that, but are you willing to teach your children to obey? To obey you; obey those in authority over them (i.e. policemen, teachers in school, and other adults telling them what is right.) Are we willing to secure our children’s future by teaching them obedience – to God first which will lead them to understand how to obey in this world?
During our Men’s breakfast last week, we briefly discussed the situation in Ferguson. One of the men made the point that both of the young men were asked to get out of the street and only one obeyed. The one who obeyed is alive today. We cannot minimize what it means to obey, even when we think we are in the right. We will not know or understand what Mr. Brown was thinking at the time and we will not stand in judgment of him. All I am asking you to consider once again is our ability to make choices that can lead to different outcomes.
I thank God for you and that you’re willing to take steps towards Him. I leave you with the words of Joshua which he spoke to the Children of Israel shortly before his death: “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!” (Joshua 24:15)
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
