"four Important Vows To Keep"

1. Submission to the WOG is sadly lack in both the society and church today.

a. Illust: This past week we have seen more examples of modern Christians declaring their independence from the WOG. It was earlier this week the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination’s leaders vote 71% to 29% against, in declaring LGBT marriage acceptable and thereby redefined marriage! Now, that was no real surprise. PCUSA has been approaching an apostate church the last 20 years and this decision is the last gasp of a dying denomination. A more disturbing announcement this week was by City Church’s pastors and elders announcement. City Church is the largest evangelical church in San Francisco and has been a bastion of hope in a despondent sea of moral rot. City Church’s leadership declared that they would no longer require celibacy from those who feel homosexual in their orientation. Really?! Now listen, this is no rank congregation. This church was founded as a result of the influence of Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC! Illust: Franklin Graham said: “In His Word, the Bible, God has already defined marriage, as well as sin, and we should obey that rather than looking for ways to redefine it according to the desires of our culture. Marriage is defined as between a man and a woman—end of discussion. Anything else is a sin against God, and He will judge all sin one day.”

b. Illust: We need to be reminded today of what Gen. Wm. Booth said over 100 yrs. ago when asked the secret of his incredible ministry success: “God has had all that there was of me. There have been other men with greater brains that I…but from the day I go the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with me and them, on that day I made up my mind that God should have all of William Booth that there was.” William Booth knew that God’s Word judges our hearts and that we do not sit as judge over the WOG!

2. Are you and I completely committed to the WOG? Romans 12:1 starts with the word "therefore". There is a causal relationship to the preceding verses. It is because God is so incomparably great, beyond our capacity to understand or imagine, and because all things belong to God and are controlled by God, that we should offer ourselves as living sacrifices. (Note that I am here, and in the rest of this paper, deliberately broadening Paul's language. Where he speaks of offering our body, I think what God really wants is an offering of our whole self, of everything. We can't really offer him our body without offering our mind, will, emotions and spirit. They go together. I think other passages of Scripture will make this clear.)

C. Applic: The first commitment we make to grow spiritually is honor God’s Word.

II. 2nd Vow: Separation from the World. Neh. 10:28& 30

A. After Vowing themselves to the Lord, the People of God make a Second Vow in this passage.

1. In this vow the believers make a vow to be separate from the world.

a. v. 30 – Notice what their commitment of separation was: (Read). This commitment was not made out of some racial or ethnic pride or superiority, believing their gene pool superior to others. Rather it had everything to do with how they were going to worship God and honor Him. God wanted His people to be a missionary people and so it was vital that the message and sanctity of the nation not be corrupted by the insidious plague of religious syncretism that had previously undermined the entire country and ultimately led to their downfall and deportation.