If you have your Bibles this
morning, turn back with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. The book of Hebrews chapter 11. This past Wednesday evening,
we talked about the connection that faith has with assurance. And this morning I want to talk
about the connection faith has with obedience. Obedience unto
God. I'd like to read verse 8 of Romans
or Hebrews chapter 11. By faith Abraham when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive
for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing whether he went. This text is a very interesting
text, at least it is to my heart, and I trust it will be to you
By faith, Abraham, when he was called, he was called of God
to leave his father's house and to go out into a place that he
should after receive for an inheritance. God was going to give him an
inheritance, him and his seed. And so he called him to go out
into this place. And the Bible says that Abraham
obeyed the Lord. He obeyed the Lord, and he went
out not knowing whether he went. Well, the first question that
comes to my mind is, where did Abraham get this faith? This
is a tremendous gift of God, this faith that Abraham possessed. And all who are saved have the
same faith that Abraham had. Where does this faith come from?
Now the Bible says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. Faith must come and it must come
by the hearing of the Word of God. But we also know that the
Word of God teaches that election comes before faith. Now we know
that Mr. Arminius believed that it was
just the opposite. He believed that men had faith,
they believed God, and they were elected because they believed.
But the Bible teaches that we believe because we were chosen
of God in old time. The Bible says in Acts 13 and
verse 48 that those who were ordained to eternal life believed. Now it's not the other way around.
We have faith because God chose us in old eternity. And if you
think about a ladder and think about four rungs in the ladder,
the top rung is election. The second rung would be redemption. The third rung down would be
regeneration. And the fourth rung is faith
or the effectual call. Now, election is at the top.
Now, as far as man is concerned, it's just the opposite. Men say,
well, I believed, and therefore I was called, therefore I was
regenerated, therefore I was elected. But it's not that way. The order must be maintained.
God chose. God redeemed. God regenerated
and God affectionately called His people and gave the gift
of faith to them. So you believe because God has
chosen you. I believe one of the greatest
evidences that a person can look to in this life that they are
the chosen of God is that they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in John chapter
5 and verse 24 that Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me
hath everlasting life, shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death unto life. So the evidence that we are chosen
of God is that we believe God. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. They believed. And so do you
have faith in Christ? You say, I'm wondering if I'm
one of the elect. Do you trust Christ? Don't look
beyond that. Don't look beyond the today.
Do you believe Christ? Do you believe on the Son of
God? Have you faith in Christ? Do you believe in his substitutionary
redemptive work? Do you believe he died in your
place? Do you believe he suffered your
hell in your room and place? Do you believe that? Now this
is what's important. This is what is necessary. Because
faith is the evidence of election. It's the consequence of us having
been chosen of God in old eternity. And so Abraham's faith was a
gift of God and it came to him because God had set his love
and affection upon him in old time. Back before the foundation
of the world was ever laid, God had set his love and affection
upon Abraham and had destined and decreed that he would believe
him and his choice of him is what determined that he would
believe. Now we want to talk a little
bit about faith this morning and obedience. I recognize that
there are many who suppose that The doctrine of justification
by faith is opposed to the teaching of good works or obedience. Well,
there's no truth to that. Now the Bible says in Romans
5 and 1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God. Justification comes through faith. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. And we know that justification
is by faith, but that's not contrary to good works and to obedience
unto God. We preach the obedience of faith. We preach that if a man believes
God, that he will obey God. He will do what God leads him
to do, what God directs him to do, and what God spells out that
he's to do in the Holy Word. Faith is the fountain and the
foundation and the very fosterer of obedience unto God. Men obey
not God till they believe Him. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God, until they believe. It's impossible
for a man to please God until he believes God. If you come
to God, you only come as you believe that He is. and that
He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Are you
a diligent seeker of the Lord? Do you believe as you come to
God that He is? That He's all that He said He
was? He's all that the Word of God reveals Him to be? Do you
believe that? Well, you know, I was thinking
recently about what I might do different if I was to be able
to live the last 50 years of my life over again. And the thing
that was impressed upon my mind, and the thing that I think I
would most surely do, and that is that I would be more diligent
in seeking Him. seeking the Lord, more diligent
in seeking the Lord. You see, I believe that He is
more firmly today than I ever believed it before. I believed
it for many, many years since 1949. I believe that God is,
but Do we seek Him diligently? Well, we have sought Him. We
have sought Him. And we have come to Him. And
we've sought to find Him and His will. And we've sought to
walk in obedience to Him. But if we had it to do over again,
we would seek more diligently. And I want to tell you this morning,
that I think that that would be the thing that if you young
people here, if you just seek the Lord more diligently, give
yourself over, find you a place, make it a habit with your soul
to find a place where you can pray, pour out your soul into
God, and to seek Him fervently and earnestly, diligently, finding
to find His will, to find, to have a manifestation of God in
your own life and to your life. So diligently seek the Lord.
And so we only obey God when we believe Him. We're not going
to believe him unless we know who he is, and we're not going
to obey him unless we believe what he said in his word. We preach faith in order that
men may be brought to obedience. To disbelieve God is to disobey
God in itself. For a man not to believe, God
is for him to disobey God. Because we're commanded in the
Word to believe. And God certainly. Somebody said,
well, I think I'll just believe God. Well, that'd be a wonderful
thing for you to do. And God will never find fault
with you for believing Him. Because the Word teaches that
that's what you're to do. Believe Him. To trust in the
Lord with all of your heart. And lean not to your own understanding,
but in all of your ways acknowledge Him and He'll direct your steps. Trust in the Lord. Better to
put your trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men. One of the first signs, I believe,
of practical obedience is found in the obedience of the mind
and the understanding and the heart. And this is expressed
in believing the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting
to His work and resting in His salvation. This is where this
begins. It begins with us believing what
the Word of God says about the Gospel, what the Gospel is, believing
what Jesus did, believing what Jesus did on our behalf, and
believing what He's doing now, and believing what He will do.
in the coming and in his resurrection of men's souls and bodies. If we would work the work of
God, the Bible says we must believe on Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Do you believe on him? Do you
trust in Christ? Brethren, we do not give a secondary
place to obedience as some suppose. There are those that think that
we just somehow or other are not very much interested in people
minding God. We're very much interested in
it and we give no secondary place to it. We want to emphasize that
we believe that those who profess to know the Lord Jesus Christ
ought to walk even as he walked. We believe that those who profess
to know Him, that they ought to take the Word of God and study
it earnestly and apply the teachings of the Scriptures to their own
lives. We look upon the obedience of
the heart to the will of God as salvation. Now, think with
me a little bit. Matthew 7 and 21 says, Not every
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven. You see how important it is that
we do the will of the Father which is in heaven? Now what
that means is that those who are true believers on the Lord
Jesus Christ will seek to do the will of their Father which
is in heaven. And they will have it no other
way. They will do His will. They must do His will. They're
not comfortable unless they're doing His will. They will not
spend their life and not do His will. They will not do it. They
must do His will. Because the faith of God's elect
is in them. The faith of Abraham is in them. That faith which caused Abraham
to obey when God said, you go out. That faith is in them, and
so they, knowing that God has a will for their lives, they
will obey that will. They will seek to walk in that
will and to find that way which a holy God has mapped out. for
their lives. They will not be satisfied living
out their lives to the will of the flesh and to the will of
the world and after the worldly things of this time and place. They will not be satisfied. Jesus
said, He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
That is the man that will enter the kingdom of heaven. And so
you can just take it from the back to the front, or from the
front to the back, whichever way you want to take the text,
but nevertheless it spells out that there is no separating salvation
from doing the will of God. Doing the will of God is essential
to the salvation of the soul. That's just what the Bible teaches.
We regard sanctification and obedience as the great design
for which the Lord Jesus Christ was hung on Calvary's cross.
We believe that Jesus Christ died to separate us from the
world. To separate us from the world.
in order that we would not be condemned along with the world,
in order that we might be able to live out our days to His praise
and honor and glory, the glory of His name. And that was the
design for which He was manifested. The design for which He died
is that we might be separated, sanctified, set apart unto God
to do His will and His bidding. He shed His blood that He might
cleanse us from dead works and purify unto Himself, the Bible
says, a people that are zealous of good works. A people that
are zealous of doing good works, and that is the works which God
in His Word has set forth that His people ought to do. It is
for this that we were chosen, we were elected The Bible says
unto holiness. Ephesians 1 and verse 4 says,
according as we were chosen in Him before the foundation of
the world, and might I add that when the Bible talks about us
being anything that, when the Bible talks about us being in
Christ, or being put in Christ, or chosen in Christ, That's talking
about an act that took place in old eternity. We were placed
in the Lord Jesus. We were chosen in reference to
Him. And He said that you might be
holy and without blame before Him in love. And so it is for
this that we were chosen. We were chosen unto holiness. Now the Bible says in Hebrews
12 and 14, it says that we're to follow peace with all men
and holiness with that which no man shall see the Lord. Holiness. God's people are to live a holy
life. 1 Thessalonians 4 and 7 says,
for God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. God has called us to live a holy
life, and we're called, the Bible says, to be saints, and the word
saints means holy one. In 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, Paul
talked about our sanctification and about our calling, and he
says unto the church of God in chapter 1 and verse 2 of 1 Corinthians,
which is at coherent to them that are sanctified, and as we
mentioned earlier, the word means set apart, in Christ Jesus called
to be saints, called to be God's holy ones, called to be people
that are separated unto the character and to the will of our God. And then in Hebrews 3 and verse
1, listen to this, we're called holy brethren in verse 1 of chapter
3. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, Consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus. So we're holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, that calling which is not unto uncleanness,
but unto holiness, to a holy life, to a walk that's well-pleasing
unto our sovereign God. We know nothing of election to
continue in sin or rebellion against God. I quoted Matthew
chapter 1 and verse 21 this morning, where the scripture says, His
name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. I remind you that it's from their
sins that He will save them, not in their sins. but from their sins. Obedience is the grand object
of the work of grace in the hearts of those who are chosen and called. They are to become obedient children,
conformed to the image of the elder brother, the Lord Jesus
Christ, with whom the Father is well pleased. The Bible says
in Colossians, if we say that we know Him, we ought to walk
even as He walked. We ought to walk even as He walked.
Now, should we make an apology for that? Absolutely not. If we say we know Him, then we
ought to respond to the admonitions of the Word of God and we ought
to seek to be conformed to his image in this life, the grand
design of God in predestination is that his people will be conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and God by the Holy Spirit
and the work of redemption is working to that end in our lives
right now to separate us from the world and the sins of the
world and the sins of the flesh in order that we might be conformed
to His image. Now let me emphasize something
here. The obedience that comes of faith
is pleasing to God. What I mean by that is that the
obedience that comes A man believing that God wants him to do something
or whatever is spelled out for you, the way you're to take in
this world, then that is pleasing unto God. It's pleasing for a
man to seek and to search the Word of God. It's pleasing for
a believer to get on his face before God and ask God what He
would have him to do about the way he lives his life. It's fitting
that a young person should meditate and spend a great deal of time
in finding the way of the Lord for their lives. My friend, do
not go the way of the world the way of the flesh. Do not go the
way that's dictated by the council of the world. You're to seek
the mind of God. You're to pray over your human
relationships. You're to find the mind of God
as to what would be the end of a relationship that you're starting
in your young life if God allows that relationship to continue
to its very fruition. What's going to become of it?
Where will it land you? Where is it going to put you?
You're a child of God. You claim to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You claim to own Him as your
personal Lord. Then where is the bowing to His
will in these matters? My friend, you must bow and seek
the mind of God as to your relationships in this life. The Bible is clear
on it that we're to be separate from the world. Come out from
among them and be a separate, saith the Lord, and I'll be a
father unto you, and you'll be my children, saith the Lord Almighty. There is a need for the children
of God to take heed to themselves and to begin to seek the Lord
as to what becomes of their lives. The obedience of faith that comes
with faith is pleasing unto God. And the Bible says that which
is not of faith is what? Sin. And if a man doesn't believe,
or if a woman doesn't believe, a boy or girl doesn't believe
that this is what they ought to be doing, if they do it, it
is sin. And may God help us to turn from
the rebellion of our flesh and to seek the Lord with all of
our hearts. Now the obedience of a slave
ranks very little higher than the obedience of a well-trained
horse or dog for it is tuned to the crack of the whip. Now
I'm not here this morning to crack the whip and I'm not here
this morning to get you to come or to put you into bondage. If you're in bondage, my friend,
this is not what God would have. God would not have you to be
in bondage. We're not trying to get you to
be like we are. We're trying to get you to follow
your Lord. We're trying to get you to seek
out the will of God. That special, unique will of
God that He has for your life is what we want. We're not trying
to put you into under bondage or put you in a place where that
you're having to do something that you don't want to do. Obedience, which is not cheerfully
rendered, is not the obedience of the heart. and consequently
is of little worth before God. Obedience that loves God, if
a person obeys because he has no opportunity of doing otherwise,
and were he free, would at once become a rebel, there's nothing
in that obedience. Nothing whatever in that obedience.
A man, listen, if a man says, well, I just have to do this,
I have to do that, that's not the language of a believer. You
might say in your own heart, I must do the will of God, and
that is right. But for you to be conformed to
an image that a preacher cuts out for you is certainly not
your obligation. Certainly not what you have to
do. But I want to say this this morning, that the believer is
God's free man. He's God's free man. And the believer is the slave
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the obedience of faith springs
from a principle within a man's soul. Now I want you to get what
I'm saying. and not from compulsion without. It comes from a sense of our
great obligation toward our God and our love debt to Him. You
see, we have a love debt to the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, don't
you feel a sense of obligation to the Savior that hung on the
bloody cross of Calvary to redeem you from your sin and to redeem
you everlastingly that you have an eternal home in heaven? Don't
you feel an obligation of love? Don't you feel a love debt to
the Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, my friend, this is what we
need to feel. We're not here, as we said, to
crack the whip, but we're here to remind you that our Lord Jesus
Christ died the death. He died the death that the justice
of God determined that you would die if He had not died in your
place. You would have had to suffer
that death. And so my friends, seeing that
the Lord Jesus Christ has so loved you out of the pit of corruption,
and that he's brought you into a state wherein you have a standing
in the free grace of God, and are acquitted of all of your
past sins, Then, my friend, you have a love debt to Him to serve
Him and to obey Him. The poet said, Is there a heart
that will not bend to thy divine control? Descend, O sovereign
love, descend and melt that stubborn soul. Melt that stubborn soul. And if you're here this morning
and you're on the border, and you're dabbling around in the
world, and if you're attempting to conform to the ways of flesh
and to the ways of the world, my friend, I speak to you in
the name of the Lord. Your soul is yet in rebellion
against God. Come out! Come out and be a separate,
saith the Lord. It's time for you to grow up
in the faith of the gospel and realize there's an obligation
placed upon you that you must obey through faith our God. I preach to you obedience, absolute
obedience to the Lord God. I preach the obedience of a child,
not the obedience of a slave, the obedience of love, not of
terror, the obedience of faith, not of dread, not of dread. I urge you to seek after stronger
faith, for by faith Abraham believed God. By faith Abraham was willing
to cut himself off from his family. He was willing to do whatever
he had to do in order to follow in that strange and mysterious
path that God was calling him to. He was willing to do it. And in every case where Abraham,
the father of the faithful, obeyed, it was always the result of his
faith. He believed that God was right,
and we're going to talk a little bit about this. I'll probably
have to make two messages out of this, but we'll get half of
it maybe in this morning and the rest of it next week. If
you and I render true obedience to God, it will be the product
of faith. The product of faith. I say if
we render true obedience unto God, it'll be because you believe
God in your heart. You believe He's a kind, a gracious,
a loving Father. And you believe that He sent
His Son to die on your place. And you believe that He has a
will and a plan and a way that cannot be improved upon. And
He will lead you in that way. It'll be a product of faith.
if you obey the Lord. Obedience such as God can accept
never comes out of a heart that is denying His veracity, denying
His truthfulness and faithfulness. You must have faith in the God
of the Bible that He will not mislead you, that He will not
in any way, shape, or form lead you in a way that's contrary
to what is ultimately the very best thing for your life. You must trust in the Lord. We must believe in the truth,
the love, and the grace of our God and in our hearts never,
never turn from a faith in that. We must believe that God is right.
There is a free grace road to obedience, and that is by trust
and faith. This is God's way that we're
spelling out. This is the way of the Word of
God. The more faith in Him you have, the more obedience to Him
will you manifest. Just believe that God is right. Obedience naturally flows out
of faith. For as a man believeth, so is
he. And in proportion to the strength
and the purity of his faith in God as he is revealed in Christ
Jesus will be the holy obedience of his life. Now there's none
of us here that believe perfectly. Not a one of us here that have
a perfect faith. Now the object of our faith is
perfect. That is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And weak faith will save a black sinner. But we are not perfect
in faith, but the degree of faith, the proportion of faith that
we have determines our strength to go on in the Lord and to follow
Him as He reveals Himself in His Word. Now, let's talk a little
bit about this faith, and I guarantee you I won't keep you long, because
I don't want to give you too much at one time, because like
the fellow said, your mind cannot take any more than your backside
can stand. And I believe he was right. And
so therefore, listen carefully, because we will take up the rest
of it next week. We'll get it all in. The kind
of faith, let me talk a little bit about the kind of faith which
produces obedience. Well, first of all, it is a faith
in God as having the right to command our obedience. faith in God that he has the
right to command our obedience. Does he have a right to tell
us what to do with our lives? Does he have that right? Does
God have that right? Well, he's a sovereign. We all believe that, don't we?
We believe in the sovereignty of God. We believe in the Godhood
of God. We believe that God is on the
throne, that He's King of kings and Lord of lords. He's our God. He's our Maker. He's our Preserver. He's our Redeemer and Father,
and He should have our unswerving service. We unite in confessing
that we're not our own. I think we would unite in that.
Every believer in this place. Amen? We would unite in confessing
that we're not our own. That we've been bought with a
price. Peter talked about it in 1 Peter. About the fact that
we were redeemed not with corruptible things. such as silver and gold,
but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lamb without
spot or blemish or any such thing. We have been bought by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not your own. The Lord
our God has a right to us which we would not wish to question. Oh no! Anybody here wants to
question the fact that they've been bought? Every one of you
take great comfort and consolation in the fact that you have been
purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That your
sin debt has been paid, hallelujah, and that it's been cancelled,
that it's been removed, that it's been blotted out. You all
take great comfort in that. Now, my friend, when it comes
to God owning you and having a right to tell you what to do,
then, my friend, we cannot go back on this. We cannot go back
on it. We do not want to go back. We
do not wish to question that he owns us. He has a greater
claim upon our service than he has upon the service of angels. Now do you believe that? I say
that our God has a greater claim upon our service to Him than
He has upon the service of angels, for while they were created as
we, yet they have never been redeemed by precious blood. Never have they been redeemed.
And you know there's an old song that says angels never felt the
joys that our salvation brings, but yet God commands them and
they obey Him. God commands them. They're around
His throne. They're in heaven. And God has
sent them out on missions. And there's some of them here
this morning, right here in this building. Oh, you may not believe
that, but they're here. The angels of God are encamped
around about those that fear God. They're there. Their angels
are here. They're here. They do God's bidding
and God's service, and He has more right to your life and your
service than He has to an angel's service. Our glorious incarnate God has
an unquestioned right to every breath we breathe, to every thought
we think, to every moment of our lives. You know, I believe
that the standard of the New Testament is a higher standard
than the law of the Old Testament. I believe that. And one of the
individuals that has brought that out so well is John Riesinger,
who wrote a book on the tablets of stone and several other books
in which he discusses the fact that the standard of the New
Testament for believers far higher and superior to that of the Old
Testament saints. And mainly from the standpoint
of the fact that the people of God are the redeemed people of
God. They are the purchased people
of God. They have been regenerated. They are alive in the Lord and
the Spirit of God is upon them and in them. And they belong
to the Lord. The Lord is King. He's King and
He has right to every breath we breathe. We're to bring every
thought into captivity unto the Lord Jesus Christ. What we think
The way we act in all is to be under His Lordship. The Lord
is King. His will is not to be questioned. His every word is law. He has
a sovereign right to decree what He pleases and to fulfill the
decree and to command what He pleases and to punish every shortcoming. He has every right to do that.
He's sovereign God. Because we believe God as Lord
of all, we desire that in all things to say, Thy will be done
on earth, even as it is in heaven. Now the second thing we want
to say about this faith is we must have faith in the rightness
of all that God says or all that He does. We must have faith in the rightness
of what God says. I hope we do not think of God
as a sovereign, His sovereignty as being tyranny, or imagine
that He ever could or would will anything but that which is right. Would you agree that our God
is such a God, He's so holy that He cannot err? That He's right
and He will not will anything that is not right? Whether it
be for your neighbor or whether it be for you. Neither will we admit into our
minds a suspicion of the incorrectness of the Word of God in any matter,
whatever, as though the Lord could err. Now when you're reading
the Bible you should keep this in mind regardless of what all
the critics, regardless of what all the atheists and the agnostics
would say, you should not have a suspicion in your mind as you
read this holy book that there is any incorrectness. in this
Bible. Now this is fundamental, but
it's absolutely essential that you believe in the infallibility
of God and His Word. And what God says is right. God must be infallible. He makes
no mistakes in creation. He makes no mistakes in providence. And beloved, He makes no mistakes
in salvation. He saves His people. He saves
His people. He saves all those whom He has
chosen. He brings them into relationship
with Him. My brother, Jehovah never errs
in deed or in word. Mark it down. He does what is
right. May we enter into that true spirit
of obedience, which is the unshaken belief that God is right. That He's right. Now you know,
somebody said, well I don't know how long it would take me to
come to agree with that. Well, it may take a while for you to
come to agree with that. But I am going to tell you this,
that the sooner you come to agree with it, the better off you're
going to be. Now Lord is right. God is right. You study this
word, you believe this word, because God is right. Mark it down. Alright? Nothing short of this is the
obedience which the Lord deserves. It's for you to come to the place
where you say, God, you're right. You're right. Lord, there's a
lot of mysteries about all these things that I don't understand.
Lord, I don't know how to apply all this. Lord, I don't know
just exactly how to spell out all this and how to make my life
come into harmony with your word and your
will. But Lord, I know you're right. That's the place to start.
God is right and you begin there okay thirdly we must have faith
in the Lord's call upon us to obey that call the Lord's call
upon us now you see what we come down to is that we need to put
our name in here in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8 by faith John Mitchell By faith, Mitch
Opine, by faith, Conrad Whitkey, by faith, by faith, we were called
to go out into a place. Now Abraham went out from his
father's house because he felt that whatever God said to others,
he had said to him, you leave this place. and you go out and
to that place where I send you." Whatever he said to everybody
else. Doesn't enter into it. It's what He said to me. That's
the thing that's important. And I want to tell you something.
You will grow a foot in the Lord if you ever come to hear from
God as to what He wants you to do, and you obey Him as if He
spoke to you, as if He singled you out, and you were the only
person on the face of His earth. And he spoke to you and said,
this is what you're to do. And you don't look around and
say, well, what's he going to do? What's she going to do? Well,
nobody else is doing this. Nobody else is doing that. No,
my friend. It's having faith in what God
calls you to do. Obey God when he calls you. Abraham
could have said, well, what about the rest of my relatives? No,
no. He didn't say anything about that. No. He didn't have anything
to say about that. He said, God called me to go
out into a place and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to
do that. This was a special word of command
which the Lord had sent to his own soul. To his own soul. I like what Jonathan Edwards
said one time when he was 18 years old, I think he said this.
He wrote it in his diary. He said, on a Sunday morning,
he said, about to go to divine service, and I have determined
that I'll do the will of God with my life. And furthermore, I've determined
that I will do the will of God with my life, whether anybody
else does it or not. I like that. I like that. Because my friend, It's God's
special word of command, which the Lord has sent to our own
soul, that we must pay attention to, and that we must listen to,
and that we must obey the Lord. To the Lord, each one, I think,
should cry, Lord, what will you have me to do? What do you want
me to do? I've got a life. And Lord, I've
offered it as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto you.
Lord, what is your will for my life? Oh, that you young people,
you young men and women, that you would listen to what we have
to say about that. How blessed would be your life
if you could use it for the glory of God. Don't question for a
minute that God has a will for you. and a life for you and that
God's blessing it deserves to be sought and it's worth seeking
until you hear the small voice of God in your soul. This is
the way, walk you in it. This is the way, this is what
I want you to do. This is the path I want you to
take and in that path multitude of blessings multitude of blessing
and usefulness and fruitfulness that will come from your life.
We must be obedient to him who for our sakes was obedient to
death. Sure others are bound to obey.
They are bound to obey. You say, well I don't want to
be out here on a limb all by myself. Well others are bound
to obey, but we should attend most to our own personal obligation
and set our own house in order. That's what we ought to do. And
leave everybody else with the Lord. Leave them with the Lord. You seek the Lord yourself. You find the way. Set your own
house in order. The last thing that I'll talk
about this morning we're just about through here for this portion
of the message, is faith is to us to be the paramount principle
of action in our life. The paramount principle of action. The true believer believes in
God beyond all his belief in anything else. Now is that true? Is that a true statement? The
true believer believes in God beyond all of his belief in anything
else and everything else. Now, if you're able to latch
on to that, you see, I don't know what it is that's driving
you. I don't know what it is. What is it that's driving you?
Especially I'm thinking of you young people. What is it that's
motivating you? Is it your belief in the world? Is it your belief in the council
of the world? Is it your belief that everything
is going to turn out in this world just fine and that you're
going to be able to get married, have a good job, have a good
home, have a family, and all is going to be well with you?
forever, that everything will be fine. Where's your faith and
your confidence? What are you trusting in? What's
motivating you? What's pushing you? What is it
that keeps you in the ruts that you're in? You're in some ruts. Some of you are in ruts. Kind
of like the fellow said, used to be years ago on the Alaskan
Highway. Used to be a sign at the beginning
of the highway saying, choose your rut carefully because you're
going to be in it for the next 60 miles. And so my friend, let
me tell you something. Some of you are in a rut. You're
in a rut. Well, what is it that's pushing
you? What is it that's keeping you? My friend, your faith in
God should be a greater faith than your confidence in anything
else and everything else. Your faith in God must be paramount. It must be. And if you would
lay aside all of these thoughts, you know, I don't know about
you, but I've been around here longer than most of you. I've
been around this world a long time. I've seen a lot of things
happen. I've seen a lot of hopes dashed.
I've seen a lot of people that thought they were going up on
the mountainside and all at once they found themselves clear back
down the valley again. I've known a lot of people who
had a lot of confidence in a lot of things, didn't pan out, didn't
work. But I want to tell you what,
you believe God beyond your belief in all things and everything
else, you believe God paramount with a superior faith in God. We can say, let God be true,
but every man a liar. Let this world be a liar. Let
what you read in the newspaper be a lie before you question
God. what you read in books, what
you get from your counselors. You reckon them to be wrong and
God to be right. To the genuine believer, the
Eternal is as much above the temporal as the heavens are above
the earth. Is that a good statement? I believe
it is. The Eternal God is as much above the temporal things
of this world as the heavens are above the earth. Where's
your faith? Is it in God or is it in the temporal things of
this life? Change and decay in all around
I see, the song says. But thou who changest not, abide
with me. To the genuine believer, the
eternal is reality. God is reality. God's truth is
reality. By thy command I stay or go.
Thy will is my will. Thy pleasure is my pleasure. Is that alright? I think it's
alright. I believe that's right. That's
what I believe. You must have this paramount
faith in God or else the will of God will not be a paramount
rule in your life. If you do not believe that God
is right, and you do not believe that He ought to have the say
as to what happens in your life, then my friend, you have thrown
aside the rule of obedience. You've thrown aside the faith
which moves men to obedience. God grant us a supreme, over-mastering
faith, for this is the kind of faith which we must have if we're
led to obedient lives. So this morning, we're going
to end right there. And then next week we will take
up this subject again. There's a lot more that we want
to try to say about it. And I do hope that the Lord has
kindled some desire in your heart to hear these things. And that
if there is in your heart the seed of faith, even if it be
the size of a grain of mustard seed, God has put it there. And it's there because God chose
you in old eternity. And it's there because God would
move you to trust Him and that He might work out His good will,
acceptable will in your life. And that you'd be fruitful and
happy and joyous in this world and in the life to come Blessed. Oh, it's a rehearsal. Doing the
will of God in this life is a rehearsal, my friend, for the bliss of heaven. Doing the will of God. May God
enable us to do this. Father, we thank You for this
privilege we've had this morning, Lord, of being able to talk about
Abraham's obedience and about our obedience unto Thee. Do Thou
bless, Lord, what has been preached, and I do pray, Father, that if
there be a stubborn will, if there be a rebellious will, O
Sovereign God,