Our text is Exodus 31, but I'd
like to look at a passage of scripture to introduce this message
in Mark chapter 3. I have entitled this message,
Doing What God Commands. Doing what God commands. Mark chapter 3, verse 1. And he entered again into the
synagogue, and there was a man there which
had a withered hand. He was dried up, shrank back,
deformed, powerless. And they watched him, whether
he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which
hath the withered hand, Stand forth. And he saith unto them,
Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, or to do evil, to
save life, or to kill? but they held their peace. And when he had looked round
about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their
hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out and his
hand was restored, old as the other. Did this man have the ability
to stretch out his hand? I mean, it was gnarled, dried
up, withered, deformed, and powerless. Did this man have the ability
to stretch out his hand? No. not in himself, it was withered. And he could not change that.
But when Christ commanded him to, he could. You see, the ability comes with
the command. Now we are commanded to do things
that we cannot do. You couldn't come up with faith
to save your life, and neither could I. It's the gift of God's
grace. It's not something that any natural
man can come up with. Yet we are commanded to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the ability comes with the
command. When He commands you to, you
can. Now when I command you to, nothing
happens. bounces off the wall, but when
he commands you to, you do. Lazarus, come forth. That was impossible. Lazarus
was dead. How could he come forth? That
was utterly impossible. But when Christ commanded him
to come forth, he that was dead came forth. And if Christ commands
you to believe, you will believe. If Christ commands you to repent,
you will repent. If Christ commands you to forsake
all and to follow Him, you will forsake all and follow Him. Now Moses was commanded by God
to build the tabernacle in the wilderness. Now would you turn
with me to Exodus chapter 31. Now, God told Moses, you built
it exactly as I command you to. No poetic license was allowed,
no creativity, no, I'm going to do it this way. No, he said
you built it exactly as I command you to. But look what God did
to enable Moses to obey this command. You think of all the
things that he told him to do in building this tabernacle.
We've been looking at it for I don't know how long. Now look
in chapter 31, verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uriah,
the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the
Spirit of God. in wisdom, and in understanding,
and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise
cunning works, to work in gold, and silver, and brass, and in
cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to
work in all manner of workmanship." Now, God says, I've called him
to do this. His name means, under the shadow
of God, this Belzeriel, under the shadow, under the protection
of God. Uri means fire, the spirit of
God, and her means white linen, the righteousness of Christ.
You can see how he was equipped by the grace of God. God gave
him something to do and he equipped him and enabled him to do it. He said, I filled him with my
spirit, all that God requires he provides, all he calls upon
us to do he enables us to do by his spirit. Bezariel was given
wisdom. understanding, knowledge, and
workmanship, and all that ability was put to use. He says in verse
6, and I behold, I've given with him a holy ab, that means the
tent of the Father, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the tabernacle, the tent of the Father. I have given him a holy
ab, the son of Ahissamac, that means aid or help of the tribe
of Dan, and the hearts of all that are wise hearted. I have
put wisdom. that they may make all that I've
commanded thee." He gave Moses these commands. He says, I'm
going to make sure these commands are carried out. I'm going to
give these men the ability to do this. And all that God calls
you to do, He'll give you the ability to do. You believe that? Everything He calls you to do,
everything He will enable you to do, When He tells you to believe
the gospel, He'll give you the faith to believe. When He tells
you to repent, He'll grant you repentance. When He tells you
to forsake everything, to take up your cross and follow Him,
He'll give you the grace to do it. All that God requires, God
provides. He provides the salvation. He
provides the righteousness. He provides the redemption. And
He supplies everything else. All that God requires, He supplies. He says, they're going to make
all that I've commanded thee, verse 7, the tabernacle of the
congregation, and the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat
that's there upon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle,
and the table, and his furniture, and the pure candlestick, with
all his furniture, and the altar of incense, and the altar of
burnt offering, with all his furniture, and the laver, and
his foot, and the clothes of service, and the holy garments
for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his son, to minister
me in the priest's office, and the anointing oil, and the sweet
incense for the holy place. We've covered every one of these
things. according to all that I've commanded thee shall they
do. Now God commands you and me right
now to do things that are beyond our ability. The simplest example is faith.
Faith is the gift of God's grace. But you're called on to believe.
You yourself must believe. And He gives the ability to do
those things which we can't do. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
19. This is a scripture that came to my mind while I was thinking
about this. You see, with men these things are impossible,
but not with God. For with God, all things are
possible. Look at Matthew chapter 19, beginning
in verse 16. And behold, one came and said
unto him, Good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have
eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God. But if thou will enter into life,
keep the commandments. The Lord met him on the ground
he came. If you will enter life, keep
the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus
said, thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. The young man saith unto him,
all these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I
yet? Now, you and I know that he did. But he thought he did. This man
had a pretty impressive resume. He said, all these have I kept
from my very youth up. And this was an impressive young
man. This was the rich young ruler.
Verse 21, Jesus saith unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and
sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven and come and follow me. But when the young
man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great
possessions. Now, when our Lord told this
young man to keep the commandments, he gave the second table of all
of our responsibilities toward men. The first commandments,
the first four have to do with God. The second six have to do
with men. Did you notice one, the one commandment
he omitted? Covetous. He didn't say anything
about coveting. This man who was so proud of
himself for keeping all the commandments was eaten up with covetousness. Had controlled his very nature
and he went away sorrowful. He couldn't part with his riches.
He didn't love his neighbor as himself. He said all of these
if I can't from my youth up, but he certainly didn't love
his neighbor. He kept all his money to himself. He was covetous.
He was eaten up with covetousness. He was a very impressive young
man. Then, verse 23, he said, Jesus unto his disciples, Verily
I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom
of heaven. And again I say unto you, it's
easier for a camel to go through the eye of an eel than for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now when his disciples
heard, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can
be saved? If this man can't be saved, who
can be saved? They were discouraged. They thought
this is somebody we ought to be getting and the Lord just
turning him out. Now look at our Lord's answer. Verse 26, But Jesus beheld them,
and said unto them with men, This is what? Impossible. With men, salvation
is impossible. With men, obedience to my word
is impossible. But, not with God. With God, all things are possible. He can take me and He can take
you. and he can make us just like
Christ he's done it when Christ died on the cross every believer
was saved and he can enable every single one of us to obey his
commands with the command comes the grace to obey that command
whatever he calls upon us to do in any aspect He gives us
grace to do what He calls us to do. Now, my mind was brought
to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I think this is a New Testament
commentary on this. Would you turn with me to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5? 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse
24. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. Isn't that encouraging? Faithful
is he that calleth you, he also will do it. Now, let's look at this chapter,
the things that he called upon them to do. Let's begin in verse
12. And we beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord,
and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for
their work's sake." Now here he's talking about our responsibility
toward our pastor. Now I have a pastor, you have
a pastor, and he gives us our attitude toward our pastor, and
this takes the grace of God to have this attitude. But he says,
we beseech you, brethren, know them which labor among you. They
don't loiter. They labor. They give themselves
to the ministry of the word and to prayer. Any true pastor does.
He gives himself lock, stock, and barrel wholeheartedly to
the ministry of the word. If he's not, God hadn't put him
in the ministry. Now he says, Know them that labor
among you and are over you in the Lord. Now, what does that
over you mean? It means they stand out before you. They say,
follow me as I follow Christ. And if a man can't say, follow
me, do what I do, believe what I believe, he has no business
in the ministry. He has no business. He says,
know them that are over you in the Lord, that stand before you.
And the next thing he says is they admonish you. Now, what is this
admonishing all about? Well, it means they bring to
your mind. If I'm a true preacher of the gospel, what my responsibility
to you is, is to bring to mind the gospel. All the time in the
preaching of the gospel, to bring to mind the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, He says to these people,
He says, We beseech you, brethren, to know them, to love them which
labor among you and are over you in the Lord and amass you,
and esteem them very highly in love for the work's sake. Now,
there's a command. God will give me the grace to
obey that command. God will give you the grace to
obey that command. All He commands us to do, He
gives the grace to do it. Let's go on reading. Next thing
He says is, Be at peace among yourselves. Be at peace among
yourselves. That's the opposite of competition,
competing with one another, trying to outdo the other, trying to
be grieved when somebody else is blessed. No, no. Be at peace
among yourselves. If you're blessed, I'm blessed.
If you're honored, I'm honored. If you're down, I'm down. This
is talking about love. Be at peace among yourselves. You know, we really are at peace
with each other. We have fellowship. We're in
the same gospel. We're fellows in the same ship,
believing the same gospel. Be at peace among yourselves.
Not strife, not division, not discord, not competition. Be
at peace among yourselves. We're all nobodies. Christ is
everything. He's all. We're all nothing.
And we like it that way. We're just plumb happy for it
to be that way. Be at peace among yourselves. Now, what He commands,
He gives grace to obey. Be at peace among yourselves.
Look what it says next. Verse 14, Now we exhort you, brethren,
warn them that are unruly, insubordinate. The word means literally not
keeping order, either by insubordination or laziness. The Lord will not
bless that. Don't be indifferent toward that. Warn them that are unruly. Comfort, secondly, comfort the
feeble-minded. Who are these people? The first
person I think of is me. You all thought that I'm feeble-minded.
But what that means is comfort the depressed. Comfort the despondent. Comfort the weak with the gospel. Comfort ye my people, saith the
Lord. Speak ye comfortably to my people,
saying to them, Her iniquity is forgiven, her sin is pardoned,
she hath received of the Lord's hand, and doubled for all her
sin. In other words, preach a gospel to them. That's how you comfort
the feeble-minded, the despondent, the depressed. We're in this
flesh, and I'll tell you what, anytime I'm not looking to Christ,
I start getting down. I mean, I experience it all the
time. I was preaching last Sunday morning on Let Not Your Heart
Be Troubled, and I spent that entire afternoon being troubled,
more so than usual. I just thought, man, what is
my problem? I pay attention to my own preaching.
Well, I need to be comforted with the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, comfort the feeble-minded. Support the weak. Support them. cleave to them
and hold them up. Be patient toward all men. Now that's a command. Be patient
toward all men. Don't get upset. Be patient. Knowing that the Lord is in control,
knowing that you're just as weak and sinful as they are, knowing
that if the Lord takes His hand off you for just a second, you'll
prove to be worse. And you really believe that.
And if you really believe salvation is by grace, you're patient.
You're patient with people you love, aren't you? If you love
them, you'll be patient with them. Be patient toward all men. Verse 15, here's another command. See that none render evil for
evil unto any man. Don't ever get back. Don't ever
revenge. There's no place for that in
the kingdom of heaven. The Lord said, vengeance is mine. I will
repay Sayeth the Lord. The Lord's always going to pay
his debts. You don't need to worry about paying them. He's
going to take care of everything. Never pay back. Remember, if
you're paid back, what will happen to you? If the Lord pays you
back for what you really got coming, He'll send you to hell.
He'll send me to hell. The Lord said, Vengeance is mine.
I will repay, sayeth the Lord. So see that none render to any
man evil to any man. Well, what God commands He gives
grace to obey. But ever, he says in verse 15,
follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Ever pursue that which is good
toward believers and unbelievers. What God commands, God will enable
to keep that command. Verse 16, boy, here's a hard
commandment. Rejoice evermore. at all times, under all circumstances,
no matter how bad things may seem. Now when it's saying rejoice
evermore, it's not saying that everything's great, you don't
have anything to be upset about. You realize the troubles of this
flesh. Man that's bored of woman is born to troubles, the sparks
fly upward. That's the way it is and we know that. But during
all these troubles, I'm called upon to rejoice. Paul put it this way in Philippians
chapter 4 verse 4, rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. That doesn't
mean not believing that these terrible things are happening,
because they may indeed be. I'm looking at poor old Geraldine
in the hospital on that respirator, and she was conscious, and she
was so uncomfortable and in pain. She's the Lord's children. She's
one of the Lord's children. She's called upon to rejoice,
even in that, because we can rejoice in the Lord. being in
the Lord, being united to Him, being found in Him, knowing that
when God sees me, He sees me in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
when He sees me, He sees me as holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. And if He sees me that way, that's
the way I really am. Now, I'm called upon to rejoice
at all times, no matter how bad things are, because God's the
first cause behind everything. He's in control of everything.
Rejoice always in the Lord. Again, I say, rejoice. I'm going
to say that too. Here, rejoice always. And again I say rejoice. Look what it says in verse 17.
Here's another difficult command. Pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. What do you pray about? You pray about that which you
have absolutely no control over. That you can't change. If you
could do it, you wouldn't even pray about it, would you? Well, what's
that cover? Everything. Everything. Pray without ceasing. That means
several things. Be in an attitude, a continual
attitude of prayer. That means a continual attitude
of dependence. You can't do anything about this. You know that. You
can't change it. I'm completely dependent upon
Him. And you know, the Lord encourages
us, men ought always to And not to faint, not to lose heart.
Pray without ceasing. Don't give up. You know, it's
amazing. I can think of things that I've
been praying about for years and years and years. And it seems
like the Lord hasn't answered them. I'm still asking for them.
Do I quit praying? No. Pray without ceasing. A continual attitude of prayer
before God. Now look what he says next in
verse 18. in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. In everything give thanks. I don't care. You know what that
means? That means if you break your leg, thank God for it. That
means if you wreck your car, thank God for it. That means
if your car won't start, Thank God for it. That means if everything
goes wrong that day, thank God for it. Now how in the world
am I supposed to thank God for that? Because this, whatever
it is I'm having such a hard time thanking Him for, this is
the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. It's exactly
what you need. It's what God has brought your
way for your good and His glory. So whatever it is, no matter
how painful it is, no matter how bad you can't understand
it, give thanks. You see, Lord's in control. And everything He brings my way
is best. I love what our Lord said. He
said concerning his father, when he said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because you've hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes, even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. You know, everything the
Lord does, it seems good in his sight. And if it seems good in
his sight, it's good, isn't it? It's best. And so in everything,
Give thanks for this, whatever it is, how difficult it is. It's
the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. It's what He
sent your way in His wisdom, His omniscience. He knows exactly
what you need. So, you really believe that?
You can give thanks. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. What He commands, He gives the
grace to obey. And right now at any rate, I'm
giving thanks for everything. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning me. Go on reading, verse 20. Quench
not the Spirit. How do you quench the Spirit?
You throw water on the fire of His influence. We read of grieving
the Holy Spirit. You know, the Holy Spirit is
a person. He is God the Holy Spirit. And He lives in the hearts
of His people. And He's grieved by our sin. He's grieved by our unbelief. He's grieved by our hardness
of heart and so on. Grieve not the Spirit of God
whereby you're sealed into the day of redemption. But he says
don't quench the Holy Spirit. Don't put out the fire of the
Holy Spirit. Now you know that doesn't mean that we can take
away the hope we can lose the Holy Spirit if we're believers.
He's with us internally. But we can certainly quench His
influences. And here's what it is. Let's go on reading. Here's
what it is to quench His influence. Verse 20, despise not prophesy. Here's what we do when we quench
the spirit by despising, setting it not, prophesying a word from
God. If the word of God is being preached
and I despise it, if I set it not, if I don't hear it with
reverence and fear, I'm not concerned to obey it, I quench the spirit
and I grieve him and cause him to withdraw his influences. That's
a needful warning. Quench not the Spirit. Be eager
to hear the Word of God. Be careful how you hear the Word
of God. Our Lord said, Take heed what you hear. Don't hear error.
Hear the truth. But He also said, Take heed how
you hear. Quench not the Spirit. Despise
not preaching, prophesying a word from God. Now let's go on reading. This is in context. He says, Despise not prophesying.
Prove all things. Test what you hear. Test what
you hear. Test it by the Word of God. Now,
when I hear a man preach, I'm going to make sure he's preaching
the Word of God. I'm going to judge what he's preaching by the Word
of God. Somebody says, don't judge. You better judge in that sense.
You better judge what he's preaching and seeing if it's according
to the truth of the Scriptures. Now, prove all things. Test all things. Test what you're
hearing. Hold fast to that which is good. and abstain from all
appearance of evil. Hold fast to that. You know it's
glorifying Christ. And if something, when you're
hearing preaching, if it even smells bad, stay away from it. If it doesn't feel right, if
it feels, if something feels wrong about it, and you know
it's not, you can't even tell exactly what it is, but you don't,
you just, it's not getting you. Stay away from it. Abstain from
it. Say, I abstain. I don't want to have anything
to do with that. Somebody says, well, that means
you've got to stay away from anything that seems evil. Well,
no doubt you should. But what he's talking about here
is he's talking about preaching. Hold fast that which is good
and abstain from all appearance of evil. Verse 23. And the very
God of peace. Don't you love that name of our
Lord? He's the God of peace. He's a peaceful God. I love to
think of His peace. You know, the Lord's not worried
about anything. Nothing ever takes him by surprise. He's at
peace because he controls. You know, his will's always done.
He's in control. He's the peace. He's at peace
with his people. You see, he made our peace. Christ
Jesus made my peace with God and God's at peace with me. And
I'm at peace with him because I'm at peace with him when I
see his peace with me. Now, the God of peace, what a
name for our God. The God of peace sanctify you holy. Now that gives me peace to know
that this is God's work. The God of peace sanctify you
holy. It doesn't say you sanctify yourself.
It says God sanctify you holy all the way through. And I pray
God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth
you. He calls you to all these things.
He calls you to rejoice evermore. He calls you to pray without
ceasing. He calls you to in everything give thanks, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. He calls upon you to quench
not the spirit, despise not prophesying. He calls upon you to prove all
things, to hold fast that which is good, and to abstain from
all appearance of evil. And then He gives us this blessed
assurance, the very God of peace. Sanctify you wholly. And He's... Listen to me. I'm sanctified
holy. I can't be more sanctified than
I am. I can't grow in holiness. I'm as holy as I'll ever be.
I'm sanctified holy. Now I still got this flesh, and
that's what drags me down and brings me down, but when I put
that down, what a blessed day. What a blessed
day. But I'm sanctified holy. Did
God of peace sanctify you holy? And here's what he does. He preserves
us. He keeps us from falling, blameless,
because we're justified. I'm justified. I'm blameless.
God doesn't have anything to blame me for. Under the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, faithful is he that calleth you who also
will do it. He's called you to obey these
commands, and He'll enable you to obey these commands. He will
do it. He will perform it. You see,
He's faithful. He always does what He says.
Turn with me to a passage of Scripture in Jeremiah chapter
32. Jeremiah 32. I want to begin reading in verse 36. Now therefore, thus saith the
Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof you say, It
shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the
sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. Behold, I
will gather them out of all countries, whether I have driven them in
mine anger, and in my fury, and in my great wrath, and I will
bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell
safely. And they shall be my people.
And I will be their God, and I will give them one heart and
one way that they may fear Me forever for the good of them
and for their children after them. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good, but I will put My fear in their hearts, and they
shall not depart from Me. Yea, I will rejoice over them
to do them good. I will plant them in this land
assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. For thus
saith the Lord, like as I brought all this great evil upon this
people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have
promised them. God is faithful to his covenant.
He's faithful to sanctify every one of his people wholly, completely. He's faithful to preserve us.
That means to keep us from falling away. Now unto Him that's able
to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
His presence with exceeding joy. He's faithful to present you
blameless, faultless, and unblameable. All that God calls us to do,
He enables us to do so much so that David said in Psalm 57,
2, I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth. all
things for me. Now whatever he tells you to
do, do it. No questions, no objections,
and the ability comes with the command. And the blessing comes
with the obedience. Now let me repeat that. The ability
comes with the command. And the blessing comes with the
obedience. Obey the gospel. May God give us all grace to
do so. Let's pray together.