I want you to turn back to that
passage in John chapter 2. I read something a little while
ago by a man by the name of Oswald Chambers. I jotted it down, thought
it was worth remembering. He said the best measure of a
spiritual life is not its ecstasies, but its obedience. The best measure
of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies. Those times when you
feel so good, those times when you're, as they say on the mountaintops,
when you're enjoying the smile of heaven and the blessings of
showers of heaven, the best measure of a spiritual life is not its
ecstasies. but it's obedience. And my subject
this evening is obedience to Christ. I want by the grace and
power of God the Holy Spirit to press upon my own heart and
yours the constraint of Christ's love that we may give ourselves
in unreserved ever increasing obedience to our Lord for the
glory of his name. seems to me that I am continually
made more and more aware of the fact that this existence upon
this earth, our lives here are so brief, so very, very brief. And I realize that in God's good
providence, should I be allowed to live the normal age of a My
life is better than half gone. And I've got a lot to do. I've
got a lot to do. I keep saying to myself, and
I'm saying to you now, some of you are older than I am, some
of you by a good bit, let's give it our best shot. Let's give
it our best shot to do what we can in this world, in the days
that God gives for the glory of our Redeemer, for the good
of his people, for the furtherance of his gospel, and for the increase
of his kingdom. Now my text this evening is John
2 and verse 5. His mother saith unto the servants,
whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. For thirty years Our Lord
had lived as a man in obscurity. He had lived under the rule of
his parents for 30 years, but now he was about to manifest
forth his glory as God, and he chose to reveal himself during
this marriage feast at Cana of Galilee. Now, we don't know who
the family was that hosted the wedding feast, but apparently
they were either relatives or very close family friends of
our Lord's mother, Mary. But we are told not that Mary
was invited to the marriage feast, but that she was there. Look
at verse one. The third day, there was a marriage in Cana
of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. And then in
verse two, we read, and both Jesus was called or invited to
come and his disciples to the marriage feast. The Lord Jesus
was specifically invited to this wedding and his disciples were
invited with him. Happy is that wedding party when
Jesus is there. Our delight in our homes is that
our constant house guest is the Son of God. Happy is that family
whose house guest is the Son of God. My wife and I got married
and both of us were believers and both of us were committed
to the cause of Christ, and both of us were seeking the glory
of Christ, and it has been a blessed, blessed, blessed home to have
Christ Jesus ever present with us. I pray the same for my own
daughter, and I pray the same for all of you young people,
you boys and girls, that God might grant the same to you.
Our Lord went to this wedding, and in so doing he gave his honor
to the wedding that took place. He gave his stamp of approval
upon it, for the Scripture declares marriage is honorable in all,
and the bed undefiled. Our Lord here performs his first
miracle, not out in some temple, not in some synagogue, but he
performs his first miracle at a wedding feast in a home where
there was happiness, where there was gaiety, where there was a
normal life going on, where two people were about to begin a
life together in a blessed bond of matrimony. And he said, I
approve of this. This is good. This is the way
it ought to be. This is the way God ordained it. This is the
way it's intended to be. Marriage is honorable in all,
and the bed undefiled. And our Lord's disciples were
also present. I found this interesting. The
Holy Spirit says to us, Jesus was called and his disciples. You see, wherever our Lord is,
his servants are. And wherever our Lord goes, his
servants go. He will not receive any honor
on this earth, nor will he receive any honor in heaven, but that
which he shares with and bestows upon all his disciples. Our Lord was called and his disciples
with him. Our Lord was given a special
place of honor. He was invited to come into this
wedding feast. Our Lord came. He said, if I
come, my disciples come with me. There was only five of them
at the time, but those five men were honored, honored by Christ
himself. honored with Christ, honored
to be identified in this place as the followers of Christ. And
so they shall be honored with him and honored by him forever. Now read verse three. And when
they wanted wine, they had prepared a marriage feast. And apparently
the family was just a poor family. They did the best they could,
but they had more guests than they had provisions. You ladies
can imagine what that's like, the consternation that took place.
They went to serve wine and somebody said, I'll have a little more
wine. And the man said, I'm sorry, we're out. We're out. Wine's all gone. When they wanted
wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, they have no wine. Now, shortly after this wedding
began, they ran out of wine. In an effort to help her friends
and help them to avoid embarrassment, knowing the divinity of her son,
she said to him, they have no wine. They have no wine. Now
for 30 years, her son had reverently obeyed her every wish. Two or
three days earlier than this, before it was time for our Lord
to show forth His glory as the Son of God, she might have said
they have no wine and well have expected Him to obey her wish
and see to it that wine was provided. As a man, He lived in perfect,
righteous obedience to His parents. But now He was about to show
forth to the world that He is God as well as man. And as God,
he was never in any way subject to or obedient to his mother
Mary. But rather as God, Mary is subject
to him. Surely this conversation is recorded
to show us the fallacy of Rome. The Spirit of God knew very well
that the apostate church of Rome would exalt Mary and give her
a position as an idolatrous object of worship, an object of prayer,
and make her a mediatrix, one who is a co-mediator with Christ
Jesus. And here he shows us the foolishness
of Mariolatry. You see, Mary had no power above
any other human being. She could not turn the water
to wine. She could not provide wine. That silly old man in Rome,
when he was shot a few years ago, he said Mary saved his life. Mary kept the bullet from killing
him. Why, that's absurd. Mary couldn't
keep a bullet from killing her, much less from killing the Pope,
nor would she be so inclined, I doubt. Mary could not have
turned the water into wine. She had no authority over the
Son of God. She couldn't even tell him what
to do. Mary was a sinner, saved by grace, just like the rest
of God's elect. But then read in verse 4. After
she said they had no wine, Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have
I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Now
the Lord Jesus here gently rebukes his mother. He rebukes her for
presuming to dictate to him what he ought to do in this circumstance. She thought she knew what was
best. And she came to the Lord not so much with a request as
with a command. When she said, they have no wine,
the implication is, you take care of that. They have no wine,
now you take care of that. You see to that. And when she
did, for this presumption, the Lord said, Woman, notice how
He addressed her. Woman, remember, you're a woman. You're just a child of Adam.
Remember that now. Woman, what have I, God incarnate,
to do with you? What is this that you're doing?
You're dictating to God Almighty what God shall do on this occasion? Our Lord says, what have I to
do with this, or to do with thee? He is saying, by what authority
do you presume to tell me what to do? I'm your God and you are
but a sinful woman. He says, mine hour is not yet
come. I have an appointed time to keep when I will show forth
to the world who I am and demonstrate the fullness of my glory as God.
But the hour of my full revelation has not yet come. And Mary quietly
submitted to the rebuke of her Lord. What a woman she was. She was a woman who was blessed
of God with saving grace. A woman whose heart was submissive
to her Lord even when she carried the Son of God in her womb. Even then she worshipped and
magnified and exalted the Lord her Savior. And now, as she stands
here before this man, this man who as a man is the fruit of
her own womb, but this man who is the God who made her womb,
she quietly, submissively submits to His word of rebuke and reproof. And now, if Mary, the mother
of our Lord Jesus, was not permitted to dictate to Him what He must
do, What folly and presumption it is for men and women today
to command and demand of God to do their bidding in every
circumstance of life. I hear these fellows on TV and
they come before God or they pretend to and I think it's mostly
pretense. They come before God and they
speak and say, I command this to happen or I demand that this
happen in the name of Jesus. Mary, the mother of Jesus, didn't
even speak to him that way. And you dare not speak to him
that way. Mary, the mother of Jesus, did not come and say,
now this is what you must do. But rather, she having spoken
even so as to imply this is what's expected of you, she got a rebuke
for it. You see, true prayer makes no
demands upon God. True prayer simply spreads our
needs before our Father and submissively in faith trust Him to do His
will for our good and His glory. That's what we do in prayer.
We come before the Lord God and spread our needs. And we submit
to His will, we acknowledge His dominion, we acknowledge His
supremacy, and in faith we wait for God to do what's best for
our good, the good of His church, and the glory of His name. That's
when you get down to something called prayer. We pour out to
God our heart's needs with faith, looking to him. With faith, submitting
to him. With faith, seeking his will,
the good of his kingdom, and the glory of his name. Now read
verse 5. And his mother saith unto the
servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Mary learned her lesson well.
She had run without being sent, but now she tells these servants
to wait and follow. She wisely admonished these servants
saying, whatsoever he saith to you, do it. Do not try to tell
him what to do. Do not urge him to do what you
want him to do. He knows what's best. So stand
still and wait for him to speak to you. And what he says, do
it. Now, I trust that God, the Holy
Spirit, will be pleased to apply these words to our hearts and
give us grace like these servants to obey the will and the word
of Jesus Christ our Savior. It's our responsibility to obey
the will of our Lord in all things. Let me try to show you what I
believe is the intention of the Spirit of God in this passage,
show you the lesson he intends for us to learn. and I'll do
so by raising and answering four or five questions. Number one,
to whom are these words spoken? It's important for us to notice
that these words were not spoken to the Lord's disciples, but
rather to the household servants in Cana. They were the people
whose responsibility it was to wait upon others to serve their
master and to serve their master's guests. They were not told to
leave their master. They were not told to forsake
their service to their master. They were not told to neglect
their responsibilities or change their lives. They were simply
told to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as their true master
and to do his bidding. to do His bidding without neglecting
their earthly responsibilities, abiding in the place where they
were called, abiding in the place of their calling so that they
in that place might do the will of Christ obeying Him. Now Paul
had something to say about this. Hold your hand here in John 2
and turn over to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Many times when people are called,
many times when they They first hear the Savior's voice, and
they first come to Christ in faith. Immediately, they want
to drop everything. Immediately, they want to change
their lives. Immediately, they want to give up their jobs and
go preach, or give up their jobs and go to the mission field,
or give up their jobs and go off to school so that they can
serve Christ. Now, that may be all right if God calls you to
preach the gospel, if God calls you to the work of a missionary,
if God calls you to do something, you do it. But you do not have
to make a radical change in your outward physical life in order
to serve Christ. But rather, use that which God
in providence has given you and serve Him in the place where
you are. Bobby Estes has been converted. Working for IBM. You've been at IBM a long time.
Been there a long time. That's the place for you to serve
God. That's the place for you to serve Him. Look here in 1
Corinthians chapter 7, verse 20. Let every man abide in the
same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant?
Well, pay no attention to that. It doesn't matter whether you're
a servant, whether you're an electrician, whether you're a
carpenter, whether you're a doctor, whether you're a lawyer. Don't
pay any attention to those things. But rather, art thou called being
a servant? Care not for it. But if thou
mayest be made free, use it rather. Use what God does for you. Use
what God's put you in. Use it rather, for he that is
called in the Lord being a slave is the Lord's freeman. Likewise
also, he that is called being free, why, he's the Lord's servant,
he's the Lord's slave. So we're all in the same boat.
We're called of God. Now let's employ that which God
has put in our hands for the glory of Christ and the service
of Christ. Ye are bought with a price. Be
not ye the servants of me. not the servants of ourselves
or the servants of other men, but as we serve other people
in this world, the servants of Christ, so that our consciences
and our hearts and our lives are ruled by Jesus Christ, our
Lord and our Redeemer wherever we are. These words being recorded
by the Holy Spirit, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. They
are addressed now to you and to me, as much to us today as
they were to these servants in Cana. They are given by the inspiration
of God for our learning, for our admonition. They're given
so that you and I might spiritually profit by them. Let me address
the words first to you who are yet without Christ. Whatsoever
he saith unto you, do it. What does the Son of God say
to you? What does he say? What does Jesus Christ the Lord
say to you? Whatever it is, this is what
he requires of you. He says, look, look unto me,
look unto me and be you saved all the ends of the earth for
I'm God and beside me there is none else. Look to me for all
your righteousness. Look to me for all your redemption. Look to me for life, salvation. Look to me for acceptance with
God. Look to me alone to what I have done. Look to my life
of obedience. Look to my obedient sacrifice
unto death. Look to me seated upon the throne
of glory. Look to me and be saved. That's
what he calls you to do. The Lord Jesus says, come, come
unto me. Oh, you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest. He says, take my yoke upon you.
That is, submit to me. Bow down to my rule. Bow down
before my throne. Give your life over to my charge. Give your life over to my hands
as a willing bond slave. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Learn of me. Hear what I have
to say. Learn of me and you shall find
rest into your souls. He says confess me. Confess me. Confess me before men and I'll
confess you before my father. Now I say to you do it. Just
do it. There's no excuses. Why will
you rebel against him? Why do you refuse His Word? Why
will you perish, choosing death rather than life? The Lord Jesus
Christ is able to save you. He is willing to save every sinner
who comes to God by Him. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
most assuredly will save every sinner in this world who does
but look to him, come to him, take his yoke upon them, and
confess him. That's what it means to believe
on Christ Jesus. Look to me. Come to me. Bow to
me. Confess me. Follow me. That's
what our Lord requires. Now do it. But I address these
words now to you and to myself. to us who profess the Savior's
name. The Spirit of God says to me,
Don, Don Fortner, whatsoever he says to you, do it. Do it. Can you read it that way? He's speaking to you. He's speaking
to me, young and old. Whatsoever he saith unto you,
do it. You and I call the Son of God,
Lord and Master. Let us therefore live as men
and women whose lives are under the rule and dominion of Christ,
not by constraint of law or fear of wrath, but by the free, voluntary
constraint of his love. The love of Christ constraineth
us, does it not? Tonight, I'm calling for a renewed
consecration to Christ in a most practical manner possible. I'm
calling for obedience to Christ. Whatsoever he saith unto you,
do it. Now, secondly, what are we bidden
to do? In a word, the Holy Spirit tells
us to obey. To obey. To obey is better than
sacrifice. I speak to you, men and women,
who are redeemed by the blood of Christ and called by his grace. Take heed to this word of exhortation. Whatsoever he saith to you, do
it. Now, in this passage, I want
to be plain, practical, and profitable to your soul. So let me show
you six things about this matter of obedience to Christ. We're
not going to look a lot of places. I hope you'll pay attention.
I hope God will give me your heart's attention. I know what
I have to say is so very, very important. Our obedience to Christ
must be a prepared obedience. These servants were not told
at this moment to do anything. Mary simply told them to prepare
for obedience, to prepare their hearts and their minds by thoughtful
consideration. At first they did nothing. They
simply waited for a word from Christ. Mary said, now you can
bank on this. He's going to tell you something.
He's going to say something, the Son of God, I've been around
Him, I've been around Him now for 30 years, He won't allow
His friends to suffer need. I've been around Him, He's going
to tell you to do something. Now whatever He says to you,
do it. And I'm saying to you, children
of God, He's going to tell you to do something. The Lord Jesus
Christ, day by day, will tell you to do something. I don't
have any question about that. Now, whatever it is He tells you to
do, do it. Do it. Do it by preparing yourself
first to do so. I've learned over the years that
it's needful to make preparation to do anything. I've learned
that those who obey in spurts of emotionalism usually do not
obey law. It's not too hard to get people
worked up in a frenzy in an excited evangelistic meeting or by some
story or by some very great means of oratorical ability to stir
the hearts of men and women and get them to do something. It's
not hard to get folks on the spur of the moment to make a
commitment to do something. You watch these folks on television.
They've learned from the preachers over the years how to raise money.
You show a sad picture, you show them a picture of a starving
child, or you show them a letter that somebody's gotten, or you
show them somebody, an interview, and how good it makes us feel
to do this and to do that. And you tell them that, now call
right now. Don't put it off, call right
now. Call right now, make your pledge, do this right now. Because
they know that if people stop and think nine times out of ten,
they won't do it. They won't do it. Our Lord never
accepts that kind of obedience. He'll never do it. Our Lord requires
prepared obedience. You see, true obedience requires
thoughtful consideration and preparation. We must carefully
seek the Lord's will, weigh the Lord's words, and prepare our
hearts to do His bidding, whatever it is. Here are two of the most
difficult but necessary aspects of obedience to Christ. We must
wait. Wait, wait. The best part of
doing Lindsay oftentimes is not doing. The best thing you can
do many times is not to do, but to wait. How often people see
something and they get upset about it. They're in a frantic
and they want to help. So they do something. Somebody's
had a car wreck and the person is laying out on the streets
and the person looking at them sees them bleeding and they're
barely breathing and they want to do something. So they pick
them up. They don't realize the man's got a broken back. They
pick him up and kill him. Been better to wait. Been better
to wait until somebody who knows what's going on comes along and
says, now do this and do that and do the other thing. Our Lord
has much for us to do, but we must do what he bids us do and
wait. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Wait on the Lord. He'll direct
your steps. He'll direct your steps. So wait.
Wait until you move with confidence being moved by his Spirit. Wait
until you move with confidence being sent of God. And when you're
sent of God, then you can do what God have you to do. The
second thing that's so difficult is that we must count the cost.
Do not do whatever comes into your mind, but do whatsoever
he saith to you. And don't run before you sense,
but wait upon the Lord. Wait for the knowledge of his
will and wait for the strength of his grace and then do it. Do it regardless of cost, regardless
of consequence, do it. Our Lord said to Abraham, Abraham, now give me your son.
Take your son, Isaac, whom you dearly love, your only son, and
get up into a mountain. I'm going to tell you where it
is. And there offer him upon an altar as a sacrifice to me. But I want you to stop and think
about it for three long days and nights. Ooh, now there's
the real rub. There's the real trial. Abraham,
I want you to consider all the consequences. I want you to consider
to weigh all the costs. I want you to weigh all the difficulties. I want you to weigh everything
that your wife's going to think about it and everything your
servant's going to think and everything that how this is going
to affect the promises of God and how this is going to affect
the promise of a Messiah to redeem your soul, how this is going
to affect your immortal soul. I want you to weigh everything
for three days. And after weighing it all for
three days, I imagine every night as Abraham sat by the fire and
watched that boy sleep, he was weighing the cost. And he never wavered in what
faith, what faith. He simply obeyed his God until
at last he lay his son upon the altar and drew back the knife
to slay him. But you see, he had already killed
that boy in his heart. Our Lord always requires the
preparation of the heart because the deed of the heart is far
more important than the deed of the hand. Let me show you
this in this particular matter of giving that Paul mentions
over in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 15, or 16 rather. 1 Corinthians chapter 16 in verse
2. We give with spontaneous hearts,
responding to God's Spirit, responding to the movement of God's Word,
but we don't give without consideration. We don't give without forethought.
We don't give the leftovers. We don't give to God what we
can't use or what we don't have a need for. but rather we plan
and make our plans to give according to our own purpose of heart,
by the leadership of God's Spirit, according as God supplies our
needs, we make our plans to give. That's how we give to the cause
of Christ. Look at 1 Corinthians 16, 2.
Upon the first day of the week, Let every one of you lay by him
in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings
when I come." He said, now I'm coming and I'm coming to receive
an offering for the poor saints of God. Now you go ahead and
take care of this. You be making preparation so
that there's nothing lacking when I get there. But there's
something more involved in this preparation than just laying
aside the money. Look over in 2 Corinthians 8.
2 Corinthians 8 in verse 12. For if there be first a willing
mind, that's the important part. That's the important part, a
willing mind. Abraham, are you willing to give me your son? We'll find out in three days.
We'll find out in three days. If there be first a willing mind,
it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according
to that he hath not. In other words, it doesn't matter
whether you're rich or poor. It doesn't matter whether you're
able to give much or give little. It doesn't matter whether you're
able to do much or do little. The only thing that matters is
that you have a willing mind and do what God puts in your
hand to do as God directs you to do it. If there be first a
willing mind. Secondly, our obedience to Christ
must be perfect obedience. And I mean by that that our obedience
to Christ Jesus must be an entire universal obedience. We must
obey him in all things. Whatsoever he saith unto you,
do it. Unless our obedience to Christ
is universal, unless it includes all things, it's not obedience
at all, but rather rebellion. It is not for the servant to
pick and choose which of his master's commands he will obey.
We're to obey him in all things, in every aspect of life. In the
church of God, we don't have license and liberty to pick and
choose what ordinances we'll observe. We don't have license
and liberty under God to pick and choose what part of his word
we'll preach. We don't have license under God to pick and choose
what part of the commission we'll carry out. Christ Jesus rules
in his church and it's our responsibility to obey entirely as a body of
believers. in your homes. We don't have
the right to pick and choose what part of the Lord's Word
we're going to accept. Some man says, I like this thing
of the husband being the head of the house. Well, I like this
thing about the husband loving his wife as Christ loved the
church and gave himself for it. Some woman says, I don't like
the thing about a man being my head and me being in subjection
to my husband. You're his servant. You're God's
servant. You don't have the right to pick
and choose what He requires. We simply do it. Do what He commands. In every aspect of life, in our
relationships in this world, in our relationships with our
fellow men, in all the affairs of our daily lives, we're to
do what the Savior requires. Thomas Brooks said, He who obeys
sincerely endeavors to obey thoroughly. And I'm telling you that our
obedience to Christ is nothing unless we deliberately, willfully,
voluntarily, day by day, seek to obey Him in all things, in
all aspects of our lives. What I'm talking about going
down and doing business at the grocery store, or whether I'm
talking about doing business with a man, hiring him to do
a job, or whether I'm talking about hiring myself out to do
a job for a man, we deal with all things in the way that Christ
Jesus commands, or we do not honor Christ, we do not obey
Him. Our obedience to Him includes
everything. I don't mean to suggest that
we obey Him perfectly. You know better than that. I
do mean to say that our obedience to Him is a perfect, entire,
complete obedience including every aspect of life. We sing,
take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. Thirdly, our obedience
to Christ must be practical obedience. Whatsoever He saith to you, do
it. We must count the cost, but having
counted the cost, we must do it, no matter what the cost.
No matter what the will of the Lord is, at any risk, at any
expense, it must be done. Now, men offer lots of excuses
for not doing it. A friend of mine down in Albany,
Georgia, called a world-famous preacher, a man who has written
several books, very popular books. I have him in my office, a very
good writer. And this fellow is known to believe
and to defend the gospel of God's free grace, Calvinism, five points
of Calvinism. But he does some things every
now and then that are just, they just don't jab. Well, my friend
picked up the phone, called him up in Canada one day, found out
he was up there preaching. He was preaching with a bunch
of fundamentalist free will Arminians, and he said, how on earth can
you do this? How is it that you can identify yourself with these
people and embrace these people and call them your brethren?
He said, well now, if I preach like you think I ought to preach,
and if I just laid these things out plain and clear like we know
they are true, if I did that, then I'd lose my position. And
I ministry in a large range of circles, and I couldn't preach
in a Methodist church and preach that, or I couldn't preach in
an Anglican church and preach like that. That's not the condition
of our obedience. That's not the condition of our
obedience. And the same thing applies to you in your day-by-day
lives. You have responsibilities. You
have certain things that are required of you. You know them
to be the will of God, the mind of God, the purpose of God. You
say, well, that's going to cost too much. What's that got to
do with? What's that got to do with? That
doesn't have a thing on earth to do with obedience. Cost has
nothing to do with the will and the mind and the purpose of God.
It doesn't matter what it costs. It doesn't matter what the consequences
are. Our responsibility is to do exactly
what He says for us to do. David said, I will not offer
to God that which doth cost me nothing. And if there's no cost
involved, there's no value involved. We've done nothing for Christ
and given nothing to Christ until we've done and given that which
is costly to us. Fourthly, our obedience to Christ
must be a personal obedience. Whatsoever he saith to you, to you, Bob, to you, do it personally,
personally. You see, you cannot serve God
by proxy. You must do what the Lord tells
you to do, and it'll be useless for you to see to it that somebody
else does what the Lord God tells you to do. I know a good many
people who will willingly write out a check to feed a missionary
and his family, but will not speak a word to a perishing neighbor
about the gospel of Christ. There's something wrong. There's
something wrong with that. There are many who are very concerned
about what others are to do. Let me give you an example. Turn
over to John chapter 19, John chapter 21, rather. John 21.
You see, my concern, and I'm a pastor, I realize that I have
a responsibility to take the care of the churches upon myself.
I have a responsibility to try to motivate and encourage and
guide and direct God's people in many ways. But primarily,
my responsibility is not what would the Lord have Merle Hart
to do. My primary responsibility is not, what would the Lord have
James Rankin to do? My primary responsibility is,
Lord, what will you have me to do? And what I do, what I do
has nothing on this earth to do with what you do or don't
do. Nothing at all. My obedience
is not at all conditioned upon your obedience. My obedience
is not at all conditioned upon my wife's obedience. My obedience
is not at all conditioned upon my daughter's obedience. I have
a responsibility under God to seek and find what God would
have me to do and myself to do it for the glory of Christ. Does
that make sense? Look here in John chapter 19, or John chapter
21 rather, verse 19. This he spake signifying by what
death he should glorify God. The Lord told Peter, said, you're
going to die this horrible death. And when he had spoken this,
the Lord says to Peter, follow me. Now, that seems plain enough,
doesn't it? The Lord said, now, Peter, this is how you're going
to die. They said, they're going to crucify
you. They're going to hang you up on a tree like they hung me
up on a tree. Now, follow me, follow me. Boy,
it looks like Peter, looks like he would, sure enough, learn
his lesson, keep his mouth shut, doesn't it? Looks like this is
right after the Lord's come to him and spoken to him and gently
proven his love to him. He's gotten from Peter the confession,
Lord, you know everything. You know I love you. You know
I love you. Man, it looks like Peter'd learn.
Looks like I'd learn. Looks like you'd learn. The Lord
said, Peter, follow me. And then Peter, turning about,
sees that disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, following,
which also leaned on the Lord's breast at supper and said, Lord,
which is he that betrayeth thee? And Peter, seeing John, saith
to the Lord Jesus, and what shall this man do? Well, what about
Bobby? I know what I'm going to do.
I know what I'm going to suffer. I know what you've got laid out
for me, but what about Bobby? Listen to the Lord. Jesus saith
unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, that's none of your
business. That's none of your business.
If I will that this fellow lives in a life of peace and prosperity
and happiness with no sorrow until I come again, that's absolutely
none of your business. Now you follow me. You follow
me. What is that to thee? Follow
me. Our obedience to Christ must
be prompt obedience. Whatsoever he saith to you, do
it. Do it. As soon as the Lord makes his
will known, we must obey his will. When I was in school, we
had fellows that, well, you know how the religious world works.
Fellow makes a profession of faith and the The badder he's
been, the quicker they try to get him to volunteer to be a
missionary, volunteer to be a preacher, volunteer to be an evangelist,
or volunteer to volunteer to be a Christian bar attender these
days. I don't know. But we had fellows, they wanted to be missionaries. The Lord's called me to mission
field. The Lord's called me to, I remember one fellow we went
to school with, he and his wife, the Lord called them to be missionaries
in Honolulu, Hawaii. Boy, that's a good place to go.
They spent five years trying to raise money to go on debutation,
or went on debutation, spent five years trying to raise money
to go to Honolulu. And I thought to myself, it seemed
to me like if God called you to go to Honolulu, all you have
to do is go to Honolulu. Not go around spending your time
trying to raise money. Well, but you've got to have
some money to get there. They never went. They never went.
As far as I know, they're still on debutation. They never got
there. What I'm saying is this, if God
calls you to do something, you just go do it. You just go do
it. God'll take care of the needs. God'll take care of everything
else. You go do what God's called you to do. Not long ago, I was preaching
to some friends of mine without a pastor. The pastor called them
up. He said, I feel very much inclined,
very much led of the Spirit of God to come be your pastor. They
asked me what I thought about it, and I said, well, tell me
about the conversation. This fellow told him, said, well,
now I feel like God had me to come be your pastor, but I can't
come right away. I've got to wait a year. Oh,
got to wait a year? Why is that? Well, my boy's in
his senior year in high school. He plays football, and I wouldn't
want to move him away from football. I've got a rent house and I have
to fix it up and sell it and get rid of that. I've got to
take care of these things, and then I can come down there. But
I feel very strongly inclined that God had me come down as
your pastor, as I don't think God tells him to do all that.
Now, something's wrong somewhere. If God says do it, you do it,
and leave everything else to God. That's all. But you've got
to make plans. You've got to make preparations.
You've got to kind of look out for things in case this don't
work. In case this don't work out, you know, you gotta have
something to fall back on. If God says do it, just do it. That's
all. And if God in this assembly leads
and directs us by His Spirit to do something, we just do it.
We just go and do it. If we don't, we don't act by
faith. That's just right. That's just right. I don't mean
that we be presumptuous, but you're never presumptuous doing
for Christ. You're never presumptuous doing
for Christ. How many murdered resolutions there are around
the lives of most people. What they would have done and
what they plan to do. Oh boy, they'd turn the world
upside down to hear them talk about it. What they would have
done is a wonderful thing. What they plan to do is a great
thing to talk about, but it's all a proud dream, nothing else. God give me grace not to lament
my past failings but to forget those things that are behind
and not to plan for my future deeds but rather to do for the
present what you put in my heart the grace and put in my hands
the ability to do for Christ. That's what I want. And our obedience
to Christ must be perpetual obedience. Whatsoever he saith to you, do
it, and keep on doing it. I get real weary of hearing people
talk about all they used to do. Used to dos are all used up. What we used to do. I remember
when. I get real weary of hearing folks
talk about all that they have done. I get real weary of hearing
folks talk about all that they plan to do for Christ. used to
do, have done, and plan to do amounts to nothing but lip service.
That's all, just lip service. I get tired of hearing folks
say what they would do, what I would do. Let us do what our
Lord bids us do and do it now, and do it to the end of our days
for the glory of Christ. We drove by Sunday afternoon
up here at the armory, and I don't mean to make light of these fellows.
the reserves and the fellows who are involved in the reserves
who are on call for our service. But in the kingdom of God, there
are no weekend warriors. There's just no such thing as
weekend service. In the kingdom of God, there
are no part-time servants. In the kingdom of God, there
are no temporary callings. God's servants never retire from
their field of service. They never give up their posts. They keep the charge of the Lord
all their days. So let our lips and lives express
the holy gospel we profess. So let our works and virtues
shine to prove our doctrine all divine. Well, why? Why should we so meticulously
obey Christ? I don't need to answer that question
much for you, do I? He's worthy. He's worthy of perfect
obedience. He's the perfect God, perfect
man. What an honor to serve him. What
an honor. I thought of this very thing
a few weeks ago. He'd be embarrassed for me to tell you, but I'm going
to tell you anyhow. When Milton Howard found out I was flying
to Texas and then I had to go over into Sam's Port, Louisiana
and Ball, Louisiana to preach, he said, listen, I just picked
you up at the airport. I'll drive you over to Simsport, and I'll
drive you up to Baldwin, and I'll drive you back and pick
your plane up again out of Texas and save you a lot of driving
and save you the airfare however you're planning to go." And I
said, well, that's a lot of running for you to do. Anyway, along
the way, we headed out to Simsport, and about halfway there, I said,
Milton, I really appreciate you doing this for me. He responded
like this. He said, I'd be jealous of anyone
else getting to do it. Oh, that's the way to serve the
Son of God. What an honor to serve Him. What
an honor to do for Him. Saturday you're going to sleep
with those fellas, Friday night, what an honor to do for Him. So what, I'm just sleeping with
a couple of men? Yeah, but they're God's men. So they're not preachers,
they're God's men. You don't have to be a preacher
to be God's man. You don't have to be a preacher to be God's
woman. God's men. And anything done for the least
of these is done for me." What an honor to do for him. He doesn't
need us to do anything. You fellows have your sons. You
kind of miss it as they get older. Rex's boys are still young enough.
Maybe he still does this occasionally. You get out and you're working
on something. Those boys so anxious to help,
they can't do a cotton-picking thing. I mean, you know, well,
they can. They can bend nails and split
boards and break hammers, but putting them together, that's
another thing. But you let them help. Man, they're so happy,
especially if they happen to get a whole nail drove in that
thing. You look at it, oh, boy, you did good there. That's good.
Maybe I'll try another one. or a privilege just to get to
help out. Now as they get older, they get over that. God helped
me as I get older not to get over the honor, oh, the honor
of breaking that alabaster box and anointing his feet. The honor
of speaking a word for him. The honor of encouraging one
of his people. The honor of giving a word of
comfort. The honor of doing for Christ! For Christ! For Christ! Oh, he's
worthy of us serving him, obeying him. The Lord Jesus Christ has
redeemed us with his precious blood. You bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirits, which are God's. Our Lord's our only
hope for the future. He's all our prospect for the
future. Everything we hope for depends
on him. In fact, he is our future and he is our hope. Our lives
depend on him, but more than that, he is our life. And what
will a man not do for his life? Huh? Harold, you had this experience
with Nancy a little while back. That girl goes in the hospital. Doctor tells you it may be serious,
be cancer. You're ready to give up anything,
aren't you? Anything. Keep her alive. Anything. Whatever
it takes. Whatever it takes, doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter what it takes. Anything I can do, anything I
can give, why she's like my own wife. I've got to have her. He is my life. He is my life. Now, what will a man not do for
his life? For his life? Our Lord Jesus is our beloved
master. In Hosea, we're told his name
is no longer Bailey, a hard despot. His name is Ishi, our man, our
husband. We're his voluntary bond slaves.
When we were baptized, he bored our ears and we publicly avowed
a life of obedience to him. I don't know about you, that's
what I did when I got in that pool. I knew it. I knew that's what
I was doing. I lifted my hand to God and said,
I can't go back. I belong to Christ. I can't go
back. I'm his. I can't go back. He bored my
ear. Now, shall we not keep our vows?
The Lord Jesus is a good master as well as a wise and rightful
master. Remember, our Lord came to his
disciples And he said, lacked ye anything? We've left all apologies. What'd you lack? What'd you lack?
Everything you needed was provided. I ask you, children of God, what
have you lacked? What have you ever lacked by
doing what he bid you to do? Spurgeon said, you may lose for
Christ, but you'll never lose by Christ. And he's a wise master. Who but Christ could have met
the needs of the hour in Cana of Galilee? He knew what was
needed. He knew how to supply it. He
knew how to turn the water into wine. He knew how to manifest
forth his glory, and by turning this water into wine to make
his disciples believe on him, he knew how to take away the
disappointment of his friends, and he did. Well, how are we to obey him?
There's only one way. There's only one way. Whatever he says. Whatever he says. All that takes in a broad range. Whatever he says. Whatever he
says. Now, but one way you can do that
has to believe, has to believe. How on this earth could Abraham
draw back that knife and kill that boy? How could he possibly
do such a thing? How could he possibly do such
a thing? Isaac was his only son. Isaac was the one in whom all
hope of salvation would come. The Messiah had to come through
Isaac. The Redeemer had to come through Isaac. Isaac is the one
in whom all the promises of the covenant must be fulfilled. Isaac
was his mother's son as well as Abraham's son. How on this
earth could that man draw back his knife to kill that boy? Two
things. He knew God said it. And second,
he knew God promised him, promised to fulfill that covenant. He
promised a Redeemer through that boy. So he knew that God raised
him from the dead. He knew that fool went to that
mountain. He said, I and the lad will go yonder and worship
and we will return to you. He knew that God, who required
the sacrifice, would give life again. And he staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief. He just believed God. Now, Merle
Hart, you can do anything our Lord commands you to do if you
believe Him. And Don Fortner, you can do anything,
anything the Lord bids you to do if you believe Him. Anything,
anything, no matter what it cost, no matter how contradictory it
may appear, no matter how insane the world may look at it as being,
anything He calls you to do, you can do if you believe Him.
What's the result of disobedience? Well, I'll tell you this, it
gives satisfaction to your soul. It won't save your soul if you're
not saved by His grace. efforts at obedience are nothing
but a mockery to his sovereignty and his righteousness. But if
you're born again of God's Spirit, obedience gives satisfaction. I tell you what, folks can say
what they want to about it. On my deathbed, I want to be
able, with the Apostle Paul, to conscientiously, honestly
declare, I fought a good fight. I've kept the faith. I've finished
my course. That's the way I want to live,
James. That's the way I want to die.
I've fought a good fight. I've kept the faith. I've finished
my course. And obedience to Christ is the
foretaste of heaven's bliss and heaven's glory. These are they
which serve the Lord before his throne day and night. These are
they which follow the Lamb withersoever he goeth. Whatsoever he saith
unto you, do it. If you'll do it, he will turn
the water into wine for you. He'll give you the strength to
do what he tells you to do. Obey him and he'll provide for
you, comfort you. He'll be with you, protect you,
and he'll bring you home. I couldn't find a hymn book in
our hymn that I thought would express what I want to express
in closing the message. But I found one in Spurgeon's
hymnal, and I want to read it to you. This is my prayer. This
is my prayer. Lord, I desire to live as one
who bears a blood-bought name, as one who fears but grieving
thee and knows no other shame. as one by whom thy walk below
should never be forgot, as one who fain would keep apart from
all thou lovest not. I want to live as one who knows
thy fellowship of love, as one whose eyes can pierce beyond
the pearl-built gates above, as one who daily speaks to thee
and hears thy voice divine. with depths of tenderness declare,
Beloved, thou art mine." You see, I see the law by Christ
fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice. He's changed this slave
into a child and duty into choice. Whatsoever he saith unto you,
do it. Amen. God bless you. You're dismissed.