turn with me this morning to
the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and I want to read verse 8. Verse
8, we began a message last Sunday morning and we're not able to
finish and so I trust the Lord that it's his will that I continue
this morning and finish the message that we preached that we started
last week. But let me read verse eight of
Hebrews chapter 11. I hope that you're familiar,
most of you surely are. Those of you that have been in
the way, in the faith, for any length of time, surely are familiar
with the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. And one of the
things that's outstanding in this chapter is that the characters
of scripture They believe God, the Bible says that without faith
in verse six, it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh
to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. Those of you that are in the
faith and trust Christ have believed on him savingly. You will notice
that in the characters of scripture, that they all were moved by the
faith that the Lord had given them. He does not give faith
in order for you to store it up in a fruit jar on a shelf,
take it down and uncap it when you come to die. To live like
you please during your lifetime, go your own way, thumb your nose
at Him and His will and His way and His word, And then at the
last, take it down, time to die, the doctor says you have a terminal
illness and now we're going to take down our salvation off of
the shelf and we're going to uncap it and we're going to have
it to die with. Such as erroneous, it's been
preached or it's been That view has been by many, I remember
hearing early in my Christian life in the South, views that
are just very similar to that, that all so-and-so made a profession,
of course they lived like hell all of their life, but whenever
they come to die, they came back to it. Well, that may be so. That may be so. They might have
come back. They may be repented. Maybe God gave them space to
repent. Maybe He did. But if they repented,
He had to give them space. He had to give it to them. Nobody
repents of a life lived in sin without God giving you that repentance. He must give it to you. You won't
do it just because the preacher tells you you ought to repent.
Now God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. but you
will not do it genuinely where it counts before God unless God
gives you the gift of repentance. Now then, listen to this verse.
I'm saying that the characters of Scripture, they had faith. They believed God, but they did
something. They were moved by that faith.
God had a life. God had a will for them to live. And they were his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before
ordained that they should walk in them. Now what that all means,
you remember the brother read out of James 2 this morning that
faith without works is dead being alone. And as the body is dead
without the spirit, so faith without works is dead being alone. And that means simply that when
God lays hold of and saves somebody, that he has a life and a will
for that individual. And it's not that you're to go
out and manufacture that will or that life yourself. putting
your two cents in as the expression is, you giving your views daily
to God how you could best live and glorify God, but God himself
has a specific will and purpose for your life, and that is the
life that the Lord will work in you. You know, Paul said in
Philippians, it is God. He said, do all things without
murmuring and disputing because it is God that worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God has a will,
he has a purpose for your life. This is the reason why I believe
Now you can say what you want to about this, and I'm not trying
in any way to say that God doesn't have exceptions to the rule. But most of the people of God,
most of those who God uses in his kingdom, Most of those that
are found to be fruitful and useful living a life in this
world to his glory and praise, God normally lays hold of them
early in life. He normally lays hold of them
early in their life. Now it doesn't mean, I'm not
saying that God will save you before you're 15, or that God
will save you before you're 20, or before you're 30. I'm not
saying that. I'm saying that early in your
life, God will undoubtedly lay hold of you and direct you in
the way that you should go prior to your getting yourself involved
and, as it were, getting into a situation in your life where
that the evil days have come upon you and you have no pleasure
in the things of life or in the things of God. And this happens
when a person gets past a certain age. I'm not saying that God
don't save old people. because I've heard testimonies
that the Lord does save old people and I believe that he does. God
saved me when I was young and I know of others, many, many
others that God saved when they were young. And I believe that
it's in your youth that you ought to listen to the word of God
and hear the gospel. Oh, that every young person Every
young person could hear the gospel from somebody who's faithful
to preach it when they're of that age where that their lives
could be saved as well as their souls for the glory and praise
and to the doing of the will and purpose of Almighty God. And so if you follow the testimony
of the scripture concerning the character of scriptures, you
will find that these people had something to do. They were moved. God had a will for them. God
had a purpose for them. And this is very important for
us to see. But in verse eight of Hebrews 11, by faith Abraham,
when he was called to go out into a place, he was in heathenism,
he was in idolatry, But by faith, Abraham, when he was called to
go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance,
obeyed. He loved his father. He loved
his kinfolk. He loved them all, just like
you love yours. But God said to him, I want you
to go out into a place that I will show you. And he obeyed, and
he went out. He did not know where he was
going, but God said, you go. He felt the command of God in
his life was a paramount thing, and so he owned the command of
God and went out. Now, we've testified to you that
our preaching of justification by faith is not in any way to
slander what the Bible has to say about works, what it has
to say about obedience unto God. We said that we preach the obedience
of God-given faith. And I stand before you this morning
to tell you that when God gives a person faith, when God is the
author of the faith that a man or woman, boy or girl possesses,
that God's going to have something to say to that individual about
his life. about the ways to live, what
he's to do with his life. God's gonna have something to
say. Now let me just make this clear. In the book of Romans,
chapter four, the Bible says plainly, to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness. When God saves a man, he saves
him through faith, without any works. We're justified before
God we're told in Romans 3 and verse 24 We're justified freely
by his grace That means that there's no meritorious cause
on our behalf We do not cause God in any way to justify us
We're justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus and so salvation is is all together
by grace through faith without any works. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and the renewal that's brought about
by the Holy Ghost. It's not by works. in any way,
shape, or form. But once a man has received this
gift of faith that is imputed unto him for righteousness, immediately
that man's life, that individual's life, God begins to move upon
that individual, and that individual begins to live out a life. He
lives by faith, a just The Bible says, meaning the justified ones,
they live by faith and God moves them in a way of faith and they
trust him and walk in obedience unto his will. Now then, the
kind of faith which produces obedience, we talked about that
last week. Let me quickly just go back just
a little bit and just bring you up to date here this morning
on what we talked about very briefly. last week. Number one,
we said that the kind of faith which produces obedience in an
individual, the kind of faith, of course it's God-given faith,
but it's a faith in God's right to rule. It's a faith in God's
right to tell a man What to do in the fact that he owns his
people we said that we were bought with a price That's what the
Bible says in first Corinthians chapter 6 that we were bought
with a price that we're not our own We belong to God Christ laid
down his life Christ suffered in our room instead Christ answered
to God for us. Christ went to hell in my place. Christ suffered all of the judgment
of God on my behalf. God owns me. God owns all of
his people. They're his by virtue of his
choice of them and by virtue of the price that he paid for
them at Calvary, giving his own son, sparing not his own son,
but delivering him up for all of the sheep. And so God has
a right to do with his own as he will. He has a right to lay
out a life. He has a right to lay out a life
for you. It may be very mysterious to
you, and it may be in so many, many ways cross-grained to your
flesh, cross-grained to your carnal mind and your wisdom,
but God has a right to lay out a life for you that he would
have you to live in this world to honor and glorify himself. And so number one, the kind of
faith which produces obedience to God is the kind that says
God has a right to tell me what to do with my life. He has a
right to lead me and direct me in my life. Number two, it's
a faith in the rightness of His commands. Whatever God says is
right. Whether it is cross-grain to
my wisdom, if I have to repudiate my own understanding, my own
mind, my own fleshly mind, then I must do so. God, when He commands
something, it's right. The ways of the Lord are right. regardless of how they affect
me, regardless of where it puts me, on what side of the fence
it leaves me, whatever God says is right. And the Bible says,
let God be true and every man a liar. When God speaks, let
all of the earth listen. Let all of the earth be still.
When the voice of the Lord goes forth, it is with authority,
and men ought to listen to what God almighty says, because he's
right in his commands. And then number three, faith
in our personal obligation to obey the Lord. It is a faith
that tells me that whatever other men hear, whatever other people
know, whatever other peoples in other places, whatever they
think, I have a personal obligation. My brother or my sister may not
have any regard for the things of God. They may say we're saved,
and they may not have any regard. They may never have heard. They
may not be under the same obligation that I'm under. Only the light
which God has given me in my own soul, only to that measure
am I under obligation. And many, many times people just
don't have the same light that we have. But you and I, if we
believe God, whatever light we have, we have a personal obligation
to walk in that light and to obey God. And if God tells you
something and don't say a word to anybody else, I don't believe
God said anything to Abraham's dad. I don't think he said a
word to Terah saying this is what I want Abraham to do and
would you approve of it? Do you think this is okay if
I ask Abraham to do such and such and so and so? Absolutely
not. He came to Abraham, he revealed
himself to Abraham, gave Abraham enough light to believe in him
that is invisible and to endure whatever hardships and difficulties
necessary in the way and Abraham went out. He went out believing
that God had personally commanded him and obligated him to do his
will. And this is what I'm trying to
say. I'm trying to say that you're going to be lonely many times.
in your walk of faith. You're not going to have everybody
jumping up and down, clapping their hands at what you say,
well, the Lord's led me to do. You're going to have a lot of
opposition. I suppose Abraham had a lot of opposition. Abraham,
we expected more of you than this. Abraham, we counted on
you in our old age to be here to take care of us. Abraham,
you know, it's very important to us that the family's close-knit
family, that we stay together, that we're not out here running
around. How are we going to get in touch with you? How are we
going to ever get in touch with you when something happens back
home here? All of this, you know, you have
to listen to all of that. Everybody's got their own opinion,
and they try to immediately, when you say, this is what God's
led me to do, they immediately begin to figure out how it's
going to affect them. How it's going to affect them, and where
it's going to place them, and just, you know, go through all
of that, which puts a lot of pressure on a believer that they
don't need. They don't need all of this,
but they're going to get it anyway. They're going to get it from
the unbelieving in the world and even sometimes from professing
believers. They're going to be questioned
as to whether or not they're in the right mind or not to make
a decision like this. But beloved, we have faith in
our personal obligation to obey God. And then this kind of faith
is a faith that It must be paramount that the
command of God has the paramount authority in our life. We believe that it's the most
important thing in our life. is to hear what God says and
to obey that command. That's the most important thing.
And as far as the chance, you know, people are always talking
about, you know, you just have so many chances in life. And
they say, well, I want to always be able to take advantage of
the chances that I have in my life. I want to be able to do
that. Beloved, the paramount thing, the predominant thing
in the life of a believer is not whether he misses his chance
or not. It's whether or not you find
the way the Lord will have you to go. And once God has revealed
that way, then we must walk in that way. And so I say, faith,
that the command is the most important thing in our life,
that whenever God tells us to do something, that we're gonna
do, and we're not gonna listen to anything else. That is the
will of God for us. All right? Now then, let us describe
another aspect of this this morning. And I want to get into this,
the kind of obedience which a living faith produces. The kind of obedience. We first talked about the kind
of faith which produces obedience. Now the kind of obedience which
a living faith produces. Number one, in the case of Abraham,
it produced a prompt obedience a prompt obedience there was
an immediate response to the command god said you go out and
abraham went out he obeyed god delayed obedience is disobedience
delayed obedience now you you must remember that we're in a
in a body of flesh and uh... we we have a nature that is contrary
to god We have a nature in us that is at enmity against God,
that is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And our nature is not going to
give up real easy to the wisdom of God. One of the greatest plagues
is our carnal mind, or carnal reasoning. And so if God says
such and such and so and so, we're prone to say, well, now
let's give this a little thought. I mean, you know, we don't need
to get serious about this right off. Let's give this a little
thought. Maybe we should wait a little
while. Well, continued delay of duty, somebody said, is continuous
sin. It's continuous sin. If I do
not obey the divine command, I sin, and every moment that
I continue in that condition, I just repeat the sin. If you
know what God wants you to do, somebody said, I made a perfection
of faith a number of years ago, and the scripture says that they
that believe shall not make haste. Somebody said I ought to be baptized,
but you know, I'm not gonna get in any hurry about being baptized. I'm not gonna get in any hurry.
Listen, if you believe God, if you trust God, if you have in
your heart the faith of God, let me tell you something. You
must obey when God speaks his word. The Bible says that they
that believe and are baptized shall be saved. They who believe
not shall be damned. It is the will of God for everybody
that believes God to be baptized in water, to be buried in a watery
grave. and to be raised to walk in newness
of life out of that watery grave. It is the will of God. The Bible
spells it out plainly. And so, beloved, when you delay,
every moment you delay, you continue in that condition, and I repeat,
that condition is sin. You repeat your sin as you remain
in that condition. To halt and consider whether
you obey or not is rebellion. It's rebellion in the germ, and
eventually it's gonna lead you to say, well, it's not necessary.
You're gonna keep looking around until you find somebody that
tells you, oh, it's really not important to be baptized. You're
gonna get some other mind, you know, some other thought. You
better listen to God. You remember when Paul was led
to the Spirit of God to go and preach? You remember the Bible
says that he didn't confide with flesh and blood. He had no conference.
with flesh and blood. He didn't ask his uncle or his
aunt. He didn't ask anybody what he ought to do. God said this,
and that's what he did. He went and he avoided all conference
with flesh. And we must be very careful that
we do that. To hesitate is to be disloyal
to God. Today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your heart, obey the Lord. Now the second thing, obedience
should be exact. And this obedience that faith
produces is an exact obedience. When he is called to go out,
he went out. And that which the Lord commands
us, we should do, and just that, not another thing of our own
devising. You know, immediately sometimes
we hear, we get a lot of advice and whenever we say we feel the
Lord wants us to do such and such and we get a lot of advice. Well, maybe you should do this
or do it this way. Somebody will say, well, maybe
you should do it another way. Well, there's many people that
try to give God something else instead of what he asked for.
Many, many people. And the flesh is always going
to try to give God something else than what he asked for.
Lord, you would have me to go out, wouldn't it be better if
I just stayed here in this comfortable place? And the beings that I'm
handling some money, wouldn't it be better if I just hired
somebody else that's in a worse position than I am to go for
me? Or to go and to serve the will
of God in that far off place? Wouldn't it be better for me
to do it this way, Lord? No, my friend, when God gives
you His will, shows you His will, shows you His mind, and the Bible
says they that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of
God, God does talk to His people. This is a talking book. God is
a talking God, and He speaks to His people, and He tells His
people what He would have them to do. My son, give me thine heart,
is the language of the Bible, and we'll give him something
else. A hundred times over, before we would give him our hearts.
To obey is better than sacrifice, the Bible says, and to hearken
than the fat of rams. If the Lord has given you true
faith in himself, you will be anxious not so much to do something
that you're going to receive a lot of notoriety for, or something
that's notable, has to do exactly what God would have you do. Attention to the little things
is a fine feature in biblical obedience. being particular,
listening to what God says, and doing it as God said. We serve
a heart-searching, a rain-trying God who observes thoughts and
motives. The God of the Bible knows what
goes on in inside of our hearts. He knows our motius, all for
a tender conscience before God. And then I think we know that
Abraham rendered what I'll call practical obedience. When he
received the command to leave his father's house, he did not
say, I'll think it over, he did not discuss the pros and cons
in an essay, he did not ask his father, as we mentioned earlier,
no, he went out. We have too much talk and too
little obedience. Brother, sister, the religion
of mere brain and jaw does not amount to much. It doesn't amount
to much. It's doing, going, doing. We want the religion of heart,
of course. But we also want a religion of
heart, hands, and feet. We want a religion that obeys
God and does what God would have us to do. Don't sit around and
jaw about it, but do it. It's also another thing I noticed
about this is that it's a foreseeing obedience. He was to go out to
a place which he should after receive foreign inheritance.
Many would obey God if they were paid for it on the spot. right
now if we can see some results right now if we can get what's
coming to us for obeying God we get it right now their heaven
must be had now they can't afford to wait until God is pleased
to give it to them in his own good time to inherit a country
after this life after this life is over, it's too much of a fairy
tale for their practical minds. They don't wanna wait on the
Lord. But Abraham was told, you're gonna receive this land for an
inheritance that I'm gonna give you, you and your seed. And he
believed that. Well, somebody said, will it
pay, preacher? Will it pay off to serve God? Will it cost me
anything? will it cost me my best chance
in life preacher if you feel that you are smart enough to
know what your best chance is nine times out of ten it's going
to cost you that you see we're just too wise and we're wise
in our own conceits we really believe that we know something
that maybe even God does not know and we need to be very careful
about that we need to believe that God knows and we don't know
a whole lot more than what we ever will know. Where your heart
is, the Bible says, will your treasure be. Set your affection
on things above, not on things of the earth. What will it profit
a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul?
What is it going to profit you if you miss the way, miss that
life that God would have you to live? Those who practice the
obedience of faith, they look for whatever reward there is.
in the here and after. They know that there is no reward. Now you get me straight on this.
Somebody said, oh preacher, I know it rains on my field, don't rain
on other people's fields. I know it does. I know God favors
me above other people, I know he does. Well, he may do that,
but I'm telling you that there is no reward for righteousness
in this life. I know the most righteous one
that ever lived and walked the face of this earth, you know
where he ended up? He ended up on a cross, that's
where he ended up. He died the death of the cross.
And do you know that those apostles, those faithful apostles that
served our Lord Jesus Christ in the early church, do you know
that they were martyrs for the cause of Christ? Do you know
that old Peter, according to what we understand, that he died
on the cross? with his head stuck toward the
ground, his feet up in the air. Do you know that John was, I
think he was beaten to death. Some of them, one of them was
boiled in oil. Brother, sister, if you walk
with God and you honor the Lord, that does not mean that you're
going to get any reward in this life. I know God's with these
people. We sang the song, Never Alone. The Lord is with these people.
Jesus said, you all have forsaken me, yet I was not alone. He said,
the Father was with me. We have the presence of God.
We have the blessing of God upon us here in this world. We have
the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. But whenever people say, well,
we get our reward here, they don't know what they're talking
about. They don't know anything they're talking about. It's later
down the road. This needs a faith that has eyes
which can see afar off across the river of death, across that
black torrent of death, and see over there on that other side
in the veil which parts us now from the unseen. We need a faith
that can see afar off. And the kind of faith God gives,
it is that kind of faith. Now, a man will not obey God
unless he has learned to endure, as Abraham did, as seeing him
that was invisible. You must endure in faith. Now, the next thing I want to
say is that this faith, this obedience which comes of faith,
of true faith, that is after revealed, it's revealed to a
man step by step. You notice that the Bible says
he went out not knowing whether he went. That means that God
can, he leads you day by day, step by step. It doesn't mean
that he's going to tell you implicitly all that there is involved when
you begin. You begin and you take a step
and a step and a step in the direction God had you to go,
but there's no way that he's going to give you all of it and
reveal his complete will and where you're going to end up
in any way, shape, or form. He did not know where his way
would take him. He did not know that. But he
knew that God had said, go. He knew that. And so don't say,
well, I'm confused. I don't see the whole picture.
Abraham didn't see it either. God said go and Abraham got up
and went. And that's what I'm talking about. Step by step we
go. Now even bad men will obey God
when they think that it's fit to do it. But true believers
will obey when they know not what to think of it. I just don't
know where this is going to take me, Preacher. I don't know where
it's going to take me. If God is leading, you're safe. Go on. Trust the Lord. Be brave and
courageous. The modern believer, he must
have no mysteries. No mysteries. He must have it
all planned out. And then still he won't go. He
still don't want to go to the vineyard. and uh... but let us
see to it that we don't have to have everything you know somebody
says well i don't know where this is going to leave me financially
my friend you're on the wrong street that's not the way of
faith that justified shall live by faith well last of all let
me give you some things here that i think very interesting
to me at least they were What sort of life will come of this
faith and disobedience to God? What sort of a life will you
have if you follow the advice of scripture on this subject? Well, I just said the word, safe. Safe. You have a safe life. If
you steer yourself and you never land on the rocks, so let us
say rocks or no rocks, the danger lies in the fellow doing the
steering. That danger lies right there. God save us from ourselves. God
save us from ourselves. We're no longer the master of
our own ship when we walk by faith. When we walk by faith,
God is at the helm and the Lord is doing the leading. Number
two, first of all, it's a safe life. because the Lord's doing
the leading. You're not the one driving the
vehicle. The Lord's taking care of it.
Number two, it's a successful life. If we do as God commands
and do not seem to succeed, it's no fault of ours. Now you listen
carefully to this. Failure itself would be success
as long as we did not fail to obey God. Somebody said, well
I don't know preacher, I'd like to be successful. You'll be successful
if you obey God, whether the world thinks you are or whether
you're not. Now in the eyes of the world, if the world says
you're successful, nine times out of ten in the eyes of God
you're not. And if the world says you're a failure, and because
the way you followed the Lord and tried to walk in obedience
to God's command and will, then you're a success in God's sight. And what difference does it make
what the world thinks about you? The world can neither bless or
curse you if you walk with God and obey His will. What comes
out of our life? Somebody said, what comes out
of our life, our life's course, must remain with the Lord. To
obey the Lord is our sole concern. Providence is God's business.
Obedience is our business. So what harvest will come of
our sowing, we must leave with the Lord of the harvest. Now
this is something I want you to get. To be a successful servant
of God is not in our power. Did you get that? To be a successful
servant of God is not in our power. We don't have the ability
to be a successful servant of God. You know, we all have ideas
about how we could glorify God. How we could best glorify God. And generally speaking, the Lord
just does the opposite with our life and ends up glorifying Himself. And we think all the time He's
doing it It's just a miserable failure. We're a miserable failure
at glorifying God. But all the time, the Lord's
putting the pieces together, and in the end, the Lord's name
will be exalted and glorified. He knows how to glorify himself.
He knows best how to glorify himself. And you, it's not in
you. It's not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. It's not in you and I to be a
successful servant of God. We don't have the power to do
it. And we shall not be held responsible for it. Faith and obedience is the way
of success to God's people and it's the success that we want
and in God's eyes it is success when you trust Him and when you
believe on Him. Just rest yourself in the Lord
and trust Him. And whatever comes of the course
of life, you must believe that God is at the helm. You give
your life over to Him. You trust Him to take it. He
purchased your life. He said, I've ordained a way
for you, and He will take you in that way, and you trust Him.
And regardless of who tells you that you're a failure, you don't
believe a word of it. You can say, well, in the flesh,
we're all failures, and we are. There isn't anybody here that
can say, well, I am a success. If anybody is, no. No, we're
all failures before God. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Every one of us. Man on his best day is
altogether vanity. On his best day! is vanity and
only if God work his will in me the will of God will give
honor and dignity to a sinner and the only way a sinner can
be really dignified in this world is for that sinner to bow his
knee to the will of God that's the only way that's the only
way to receive true dignity and honor And then I think also that
it's to have a life that's free from its heaviest cares. For a man to trust God and to
submit himself to God. When our only care is to obey
God, a thousand other cares are avoided. If I just got one thing,
One thing to be concerned about, obeying what God wants me to
do. Then, if we sin in order to succeed, we've sown the seed
of care and sorrow. If we forsake the path and try
shortcuts, we shall have to do a great deal of waiting through
mire and slough. We shall be weary to find our
way, and all because we just did not trust and obey. trust
and obey. There's no other way. Obedience
may appear difficult and will bring sacrifice but after all
it's the nearest and the best road. I have no cares, O blessed
Lord, for all my cares are thine. I live in triumph too, for thou
hast made thy triumphs mine. Now this is humbling to the flesh. We've mentioned the carnal mind,
we've mentioned human reasoning, And this is very humbling, that
a man or woman does not know how to guide their own ship,
and that every day they ask the Lord for leadership and guidance.
Every day they bow their knee. Every day they come before the
Lord as a blank piece of paper saying, stamp your will on my
life. Show me thy way. Point me in
the direction you want me to go. Help me to do just what you
would have me to do. Somebody said, isn't that awful
humbling to have to live that way? Well, this is the valley
of humiliation for the flesh. But the poet said, He that is
down need fear no fall, he that is low no pride, he that is humble
ever shall have God to be his guide. So come before the Lord
in that way and the God of all heaven, the God of the earth
will lead you. And we mentioned something about
this a few minutes ago that this is a life of highest honor. And
you know Christ showed us the way in this. You know the Bible
says he learned obedience through the things that he suffered.
I've never fully understood that. I've never met anybody that fully
understood that. But he never struck out on an
original course. Christ did not. Christ said,
I come, and in the volume of the book it is written of me,
I come to do thy will, O God. He came only to do the will of
God. He came only to follow the will of his Father. And this
is an example to us. He did always those things which
pleased the Father. To a soldier, it is a greatest
honor to have accomplished his sovereign's command. It is no
dishonor for you to yield your intelligence to a higher intelligence. Remember that. It is no dishonor
for you to take this mind of the flesh and crucify it before
God and to repudiate the thoughts of your mind and the will of
your own flesh Repudiate! It's no dishonor for you to do
that because you're giving in to a higher wisdom and a higher
intelligence. He does not debase his manhood
who subjects it to honorable command. No, he is exalted thereby. You exalt yourself by submitting
yourself to a command that cannot err. We believe in a God who
knows all things. We believe in a God who has all
wisdom, a God who knows the end from the beginning. It is a life
which may be safely copied, this life of faith that we're talking
about, in obedience. And I wanted to impress this
on you as we close out here. As parents, we always want to
leave our children an example to follow. Well, if that be the
case, then let them see in and through you the obedience of
faith. Let them see you seeking the
mind of God when you're at a crossroads in your home. Whenever you're
in a situation in your home where you don't know what to do and
you come before God, let your children hear you tell God Almighty
as you're on your face before Him, Lord I do not know the way. I do not understand the way,
but I look to you, and Lord, you show us the way and we'll
walk in it. I'll guide this house after you. Just direct me in the way. Give
me understanding. Show me what I'm to do, and I
will lead the way for this family. Let your children see this example
of the obedience of faith, and when God is showing you as the
head of the house, What to do? Then you take the lead and the
wife submit herself unto her husband in the fear of God. The
children obey their parents in the Lord and follow as they're
directed, as they're led in the home. It's a life, we will admit
this, it is a life which needs a lot of grace. It needs a lot
of grace. Not every professor of religion
is going to live this way. He won't. He won't do it. He says, I got it. But he won't
live and trust God. He won't walk with God. He will
not. His money is his own. He'll do
with it what he wants to. His life is his own. He'll do
with it what he wants to. His own situation, he's always
going to look out for. He's number one, and he's the
one that's important, and he's going to follow in a path that's
best for him. That's a professor of religion.
And that's all you got there. That's all you got. But somebody
who knows the Lord is going to watch this way. Because we need
to be watchful. We need to pray. We need nearness
to God. We need to maintain that faith
that's needed to walk with God. We need to feed our faith. We
need to hear the Word of God. We need to read it. We need to
study it. We need to meditate upon it all the time. Our meditation
should be in the Word of God. Study to know the mind of God. Believe more instead of less
in, number one, the pardon of your sin. Number two, the work
of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. Number three,
you need to believe more in the everlasting covenant, that covenant
that is ordered and all things ensured. Number four, you need
to believe in the love that has no beginning and will never cease. Obedience unto God, which comes
of a faith in these things, I say believe more instead of less,
is a rehearsal of eternal bliss. And so may God bless these thoughts
to your heart and encourage all of our hearts, and may there
be a growth in the faith that leads to obedience to God in
every one of our lives. May the Lord be glorified. Father,
in his name, the name of Jesus, we come, we ask that you may
receive the worship of our hearts. We feel in our hearts a going
out, a going out of our very souls toward thee, and toward
your will, toward your purpose, toward your way. And Father,
I ask this morning that it may please you to give a lasting
remembrance in the hearts of these that have heard the Word
today, of this message, and especially we pray for the young people
here. Father, we pray for them, that they may hear the voice
of God, the voice of Christ, raising them from spiritual death
unto life, and that they might, our Father, also be led of the
Spirit of God into a study of the Word, into a place of crucifying
of the flesh, and obedience to God in all of their ways. Forgive,
we pray, all of our failures and our shortcomings, and grant
that our lives may truly be led of Thee, and that we would truly
be fruitful in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord. For
Jesus' sake we pray, amen.