IF Part 4
Scripture: Genesis 2:16-17; 3:17; Exodus 19:5-6; 23:21-22
This the fourth message in my series on the importance of paying attention to the word “IF” when we read it in the Bible. Although a small word, as we’ve seen in the first three messages, for a person who says he or she is washed in the blood of Jesus, who says he or she is a child of God, and who says that the Bible is God speaking to us today, the word IF shines a very bright light on whether or not a person truly believes what God has said in His Word. In the first three messages, I referred to this as having fellowship with God and not a relationship with Him. New Light, I made this distinction, and I will do so in every message of the series, because it’s very important for us to understand that who we are – God’s sons and daughters – is not a guarantee that we will be in agreement with Him. “Who we are” is relationship. What we do in that relationship – the degree to which we agree or disagree with our Father – determines our fellowship. And it’s in the fellowship where the blessings that are promised to us in the Bible come to pass in our lives. And this leads me to the message this morning.
This morning we are going to be looking at IF situations that pertains to our obedience to God. We will be examining the importance that God places on our obeying Him in the face of IF situations. Sometimes I don’t believe that we truly understand how critical it is to always say “Yes” to God. I don’t believe we understand that when it comes to the how we respond to God, and I mean primarily through what He has spoken in the Bible, that if we are going to be in fellowship with Him, then obedience – yielding to Him in all things – is our only choice. Obeying God is THE guiding principle that runs throughout scripture and we see this very early in the first book of the Bible. But before we go there, I want you see how important obedience is, especially when we are faced with IF situations. Turn to Matthew chapter 26. I want you to see something that Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane.
“And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, IF is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will’….. He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, IF this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.’” (Matthew 26:39, 42) When the time came for Jesus to be crucified, Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. As He prayed He asked His Father “IF” it were possible for Him not to go through what He was about to experience. Jesus knew what He was about to endure and His heart was heavy. Twice He asked His Father IF there was another way but He ended His request with “Your will be done.” I want you to see that in Jesus heart being obedient to His Father was more important than anything else! I will come back to this point later but for now let’s look at what was recorded in Genesis 3.
You know this story. The serpent enters the Garden of Eden and over a period of time convinces Eve to eat of the tree that God had forbidden for her and Adam to eat of. She eats and then she gives the fruit to Adam and he eats. The moment Adam bit into the fruit is the moment the human race lost its eternal life. Again, we know the story. God confronts Adam, then Eve and then circles back to Adam. In Genesis 3:17 we find out what it was that made God so angry and it’s something that makes all parents angry with their children. Verse seventeen says, “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’; ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.’” God says to Adam, “You knew what I said. You knew I told you not to eat the fruit from that tree. But you ignored Me. You didn’t listen. Instead, you sided with your wife against Me – you obeyed what she said rather than My face-to face instructions to you.” Do you see this? New Light, we are here today in this world needing a Savior because Adam failed to obey God – plain and simple! I want you to see in the second chapter of Genesis what God told Adam so that you understand why this was so important.
Genesis 2:16-17 says, “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, (now the next four words could be summarized with the word IF) for in the day that (for if) you eat from it you will surely die.” Remember IF sets up a condition that must be met in order for the result to follow. Here in these verses, the condition for Adam is “if you eat of the tree” then the results that would follow if he ate was death. Adam and Eve died because Adam disobeyed the command, the instruction, that God had given to him. Thank God for Jesus’ obedience!!!
Let’s look at another “IF you obey” example from Exodus 19. The Lord has called Moses up to the mount to give him instruction for the children of Israel. The Lord told him to remind the people how he had delivered them out of Egypt and “bore you on eagles’ wings.” I want you to see the image God is presenting to Israel. When He says “eagles wings” it would have reminded the people of God’s strength, but also His loving care for them. The eagle watches over its young in the most careful manner, flying under them when it leads them from the nest to prevent them from falling and being injured or killed. Now let’s read verses 5 and 6. “Now then, IF you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” After painting a picture of how he has delivered and cared for them, the Lord gave them an instruction that required a decision of obedience IF they were to see the outcome He desired for them. Even though God had delivered Israel from Egypt with signs and wonders, He knew that would not be enough to keep the people focused on staying in fellowship with Him. That could only happen if they heard and obeyed His instruction.
Now turn with me to Exodus 23. God is giving Moses and the people instructions about what He will do for them as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. The Lord said an angel would go before them, protect them and bring them safely into the place He had prepared for them. In verses 21 and 22 we read, “Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him. But IF you truly obey his voice and do all that I say; then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.” I want you to see something. God says I want you to hear the angel and I want you to obey him – and here’s the reason why – because My name is in him. In other words, God was telling the people when you hear and obey the angel; you are hearing and obeying Me. And if you don’t obey him, you will be punished. And we know how this plays out don’t we? The children did not obey and they wondered in the wilderness for 40 years, until everyone who rebelled had died.
Let’s look at one more Old Testament example and then we will transition to the New Testament. We going to read from a passage that many in the church love to quote – Deuteronomy 28. See, some of you are smiling already! “Now it shall be, IF you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you IF you obey the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2) New Light, we love blessings don’t we? Blessings that come and overtake us! Look at you, you’re smiling again. But God just doesn’t give blessings without conditions folks. There is one thing we have to do in order to receive them and that is to be totally submitted to Him. And submission equals obedience. God is not being unreasonable. All He’s saying is “Just do what I ask you to do and the blessings are yours.” And so in the next 12 verses, the Lord does His sales pitch. He tells us what the blessings are and how those blessings will bless us. New Light, like all of us, the Church loves to read these verses
But the blessings stop with verse 14 and you don’t find hardly any sermons about verses 15 through 68. Do you know why? They describe the curses that come with being disobedient. In verse 15 we read, “But it shall come about, IF you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statues with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.” When we disobey God, when we purposefully put ourselves in God’s crosshairs, Deuteronomy 28 says curses will be just like the blessings – they will come and overtake us. Now you may say, “But Pastor, this is the Old Testament.” So, what you’re saying is this doesn’t apply to us? How is it then that the blessings apply to us but the curses don’t? Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” If this is the defining characteristic of one person of the Godhead, will this not be the defining characteristic of the Father and the Holy Spirit?
We’re going to end this message of ‘IF and Obedience” in First Peter 4. The verse I want to get to is verse 17 but, when you teach, it’s hard sometimes not to go back and provide the context for the verse you’re after. There are two or three verses that we can read that will help us understand verse 17. In 1 Peter 4:1 it says “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” How do we suffer in the flesh New Light? Let me give you an example. Instead of sitting down and watching your favorite TV program, you set up your DVR and record it and you spend that time in prayer and reading your Bible. How is this suffering in flesh? Everything within you will not want you to take that time to read and pray. In fact, you will have to fight your emotions, you will have to make them quiet down before you can earnestly pray and then read. You are making your mind and emotions obey you instead of you obeying them. And that is also how Christ also suffered in the flesh. Remember, He’s our example of how to live and function in this world. His suffering wasn’t limited to dying on the cross. Every time He made a decision to let the Father’s will be His will He had to battle His mind and emotions – just like we do. Do you think His mind and emotions wanted to spend all night in prayer before He chose the 12?
In verses 2 and 3, Peter talks the kind of lifestyle we left behind when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And in verse 4 he says that our old running buddies, who have not changed in the same way Jesus has changed us, now think we are strange because we no longer have fun with them. Beginning in verse 7, keeping this in context, Peter says we must exercise sound judgment and sober spirit – in other words, we don’t allow them to draw us back into that way of living. Why do we need to do this? It’s because we need to pray for them. And we see him stress this way of thinking in verse 11 with “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Remember in verse one the subject was Christ suffering in the flesh? Here in verse 12 Peter writes “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.” Do you realize what Peter is saying? He is saying that if we are truly living for Jesus, just as Jesus suffered in the flesh because of what happened to Him, so will we. Now we can read verses 15 through 17. “Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler.” Again, what is the context? Suffering in life as Jesus suffered in life. Why did Jesus suffer? The things that He said and did went against the culture of the time. He was out of step with the world. The suffering had to do with Him obeying the Father’s will for His life. Verse 16: “But IF anyone suffers as a Christian, (the person is suffering because he or she is agreeing with what the Bible says and not with what society says), he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” Now here’s the verse I’m after, verse 17. “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and IF it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)” New Light, the judgment of God will begin with us first because we are God’s sons and daughters. We have a relationship with Him. And when that relationship doesn’t lead to a deeper commitment to fellowship, we will be judged in those things where we fail to agree with God.
And Peter is talking about a different judgment than that of the lost person. The lost has already been judged sinners and are heading for the lake of fire. Remember Jesus says this in John 3:18. So how is the person who is born again being judged? The person is being judged each time he or she hears truth and disagrees with it. And if the person continues to butt heads with the truth, that person could end up walking away from truth altogether and joining the lost in the lake of fire. Obedience is crucial to our fellowship and relationship with God!
Remember at the start of this message that I shared with you what Jesus asked His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane – IF the cup could pass from Him? After making that request Jesus said, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” Jesus chose to go through all of that punishment because He was choosing to be obedient to His Father. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:8-11)
If Jesus was willing to be obedient unto death so that we could be saved, shouldn’t that drive our desire to be obedient for life – eternal life? New Light, we have no choice but to obey what the Bible says if we’re going to see the fruit in our lives that the Bible talks about. We will continue in two weeks.
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)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
