Mission 94 - Expressing our Faith in Obedient Living

In the year 1861 along the Mississippi River in the state of Illinois, General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army reprimanded a young recruit for deserting his post while on guard duty. Rather than punish the boy, the general gave him a stern lecture on the importance of following orders. “Orders,” said General Grant, “must be strictly and promptly obeyed at all times and without exception.”

A few weeks later that same soldier was posted to sentry duty. His job was to guard a steamboat that was loaded with ammunition. His orders were to prevent anyone with a lighted pipe or cigar from boarding the boat.

In due course, General Grant appeared on the dock, along with his headquarters staff, and began to board the vessel. The general had one of his famous cigars clamped firmly between his teeth. “Halt!” cried the recruit, raising his gun.

The general stopped dead in his tracks, dumfounded by the audacity of this young private. He demanded an explanation. The young soldier replied firmly, “I have been taught to obey orders strictly and promptly at all times and without exception. My orders are to allow no one to board this boat with a lighted cigar. You will please throw yours away, sir.”

All eyes were on the general to see what he would do. Grant paused for a moment, and as a smile crept slowly across his face, he took out his cigar and threw it into the river.

We’re here today to talk about obedience; the most important subject in all of Scripture. Indeed, the history of this planet, of the human race, and of you and me personally hinges on the question of obedience.

We have been considering the Mission of the church, asking the question “What has God called us to do?” We have seen that the mission of First Baptist Church is to exalt Jesus Christ and to equip believers to express their faith so that His Kingdom extends throughout the Lehigh Valley and around the world.

Over the last two weeks, we have examined the first two aspects of that mission: exalting Jesus Christ and equipping people with the Word of God. Now we come to the third - expressing our faith. Expressing our faith how? Expressing our faith in obedient living.

Here at FBC, we teach the Word of God so that people can apply it, because God has called us to obedience. He has not called us to become students of the Word, he has called us to become doers of the Word.

Back in the 1960’s, in the early days of the Peace Corps, American agricultural experts would go into some of the poorer countries of the world to teach the people better farming methods. They would round up all the farmers and put them in a classroom. They would give them detailed lectures on how to plant their seed and how to rotate their crops and how to avoid soil erosion. They even gave them expensive equipment paid for by the American taxpayer.

And you know what happened? Those farmers went right back out in the fields and kept farming the way that they had always been farming. They had become students of American farming methods, but they had not become disciples.

There’s a big difference between being a student and being a disciple.

A student is a learner, in the intellectual sense. A disciple is a doer, in the practical sense. A student absorbs a body of information. He can explain it, he can tell you all the details about it. He can even pass examinations on it. But a disciple is someone who puts that teaching into practice. He uses it, he follows it, he obeys it, he applies it.

In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

And that’s the sort of person the church is here to produce. Not students of the Bible, but fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. We’re not here just to teach people everything that Jesus has commanded, we’re here to teach people to obey everything that Jesus has commanded.

I fear that the church in North America has done a good job of the former, but not such a good job of the latter. Most Christians are educated beyond their obedience. There has been a great omission in the Great Commission. That’s why we, as a church, want to focus our mission on making disciples: people who express their faith in obedient living.

A few moments ago, I said that obedience is the most important issue in the universe. You may be wondering why?

The word obedience, as it is used in the Bible, is a word that comes from the word “to hear”. But it means more than simply listening.

As a parent, you may have had the frustrating experience of trying to get your child’s attention. He may be sitting in front of the television, when you ask him to please take out the garbage. He doesn’t move. So you ask him again a few minutes later, this time, a little more insistently. Now he grunts, so you know that at least he’s alive!

He’s listening to you speak, but he really isn’t paying attention. He really isn’t hearing you in the Biblical sense of the word. There’s no action being produced. Obedience, in the Biblical sense, means “to hear and to act.” Some of the older translations use the word “hearken”.

In the Hebrew, it’s the word “shema”. Deuteronomy 6:4: “Shema Yisrael…”

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Hear, and live accordingly. When God speaks to us, we are not only to listen, we are to hear and act. Jesus, in Luke 11:28, said “Blessed … are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

In the dead of winter, it’s nice to think about spring, isn’t it? One of the most beautiful parts of Allentown is the Rose Garden. A garden is such a lovely place. Peaceful, tranquil, a place where you can escape from the pressures of life. A place where not too much seems to happen. But did you know that the history of the world was actually decided by what happened in two gardens?

Adam and Eve heard the Word of God in the Garden of Eden, but they didn’t obey it. And their disobedience had incredible impact, not only on their lives but upon ours as well. Their act of disobedience affected the entire history of the world.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, obeyed the will of God in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said “Not my will, but thine be done.” And his act of obedience changed the course of history.

Romans 5:19 …through the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man (Jesus) the many will be made righteous.

Never underestimate the impact of obedience. Your obedience to the Word of God is vitally important in every area of life. Don’t be fooled into thinking that obedience doesn’t matter. There is no such thing as a little disobedience.

Benjamin Franklin highlighted what happens from a little disobedience, a little neglect, a little shirking of duty, when he wrote in Poor Richard’s Almanac:

“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the horse was lost; for want of a horse, the rider was lost; for want of a rider, the battle was lost.”

Obedience is dynamic. Every choice to obey or to disobey God holds within itself the seeds of future choices. Every act of disobedience sets the stage for further disobedience. Likewise, every act of obedience increases your propensity for further obedience. As the twig is bent, so grows the oak.

Sow a thought, reap an act. Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, and reap a destiny.

Many people think that obeying God is too restrictive. They think that submitting to His will means giving up their own freedom to choose to live life the way they please.

But there can be no true freedom without submission.

I read this week that Michael Jordan has now set his sights on becoming a major league baseball player. He has been spending three hours a day at Comiskey Park, the home of the Chicago White Sox, practicing hitting a baseball.

He said, “I’m not out here sweating for three hours a day because I like to sweat. I’m here to learn the game.”

An athlete, even as great an athlete as Michael Jordan, submits himself to the rules of the game, to the teaching of his coach, and to hours of practice in order to excel in a particular sport.

A great pianist submits herself to hours of hard practice, doing boring scales and exercises, in order to achieve real freedom of expression on the keyboard. There can be no real freedom without submission.

Suppose that a man decides that he wants to have total freedom from all rules and regulations and laws, including the law of gravity. So he goes up to the top of the World Trade Center in New York City and jumps off.

For the first few floors on the way down, he’s enjoying himself. The view is magnificent, and the ride is exciting. He’s totally free from all restraints. But by the time he has fallen about 75 stories, he realizes that he may have made the wrong choice.

The ground is approaching rapidly, and the consequences become obvious. He quickly runs through his options, and he realizes that he doesn’t have any. What began as an act of total freedom has ended up taking away all his freedom. He has become a slave to his fate.

Romans 6:16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

When you choose to obey God, you are offering yourself up to be his servant. That choice leads to life. But when you choose to live life your own way, you are offering yourself up to become a slave of sin. That choice leads to death.

A disciple of Jesus Christ is someone who has decided to obey Jesus. He has taken the anti-Frank Sinatra “I’ll Do It My Way” approach.

He has decided to do it Jesus’ way, not his own way. Now that decision is made by faith. It’s not always obvious that Jesus’ way is better than your way or my way. In fact, I’ve found that Jesus’ way is usually the opposite of the way I want to do things.

If you want a definition of a defeated Christian, it’s someone who is trying to live the Christian life his way, not Jesus’ way. You can’t do it.

So if I’m going to choose Jesus’ way, it’s going to be a choice of faith. That’s what we mean when we say in our Mission Statement “expressing our faith in obedient living.” Obedience takes faith.

But what are the results of obeying God by faith? Let me give you three major results:

1. Salvation.

You would be amazed at how many times in the Bible salvation is described in terms of obedience. I never realized that until this week as I studied for this message. There are all kinds of verses which describe salvation in terms of obedience…

Romans 1:5 …we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

Acts 6:7 …a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Hebrews 5:9 Jesus… became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

2 Thessalonians 1:8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Acts 5:32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Please hear me well. The Bible does not teach that we obtain salvation by our obedience. But it does teach that obedience is the hallmark of someone who has been saved.

Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” (John 14:23)

2. Blessing

Isaiah 1:19-20 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.

Obeying God brings tremendous blessing to your life. When you live in disobedience, your life is full of stress, anxiety, and tension. You’re discontent, you’re depressed. The way of the sinner is hard. Sin complicates your life.

But when you are living in obedience to God, you have that peace that passes all understanding. You enjoy a tranquility of soul that comes from knowing that all is right between you and your God. You experience real freedom to enjoy life.

Obedience brings blessing.

3. Cleansing

1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

A friend of mine was a helicopter pilot in the US Navy. He holds the record for the most air-sea rescues. Back in 1958, he rescued 108 Chinese refugees from the decks of a freighter that had gone aground on a reef in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines.

Those poor people had been on that boat for weeks, and they were filthy. None of them had had a bath or a shower all that time. When my friend winched them aboard his helicopter in the rescue sling, he said that the stench was overpowering. It was all he could do to keep from throwing up from the smell.

When you live in disobedience as a Christian, that’s how you smell spiritually to God. You stink. And other people can smell it too. They don’t want to be around you. They don’t want to get close to you. You’re life repels people.

But if you get busy and obey God, it’s like taking a bath - a bubble bath, with that nice fragrant bath oil that the ladies like to use. Then you will give off a pleasant aroma, an attractive aroma that will lead people to Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who … through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

Cleansing is the result of obedience.

As a church, our mission is to exalt Jesus Christ, and to be equipped in the Word of God to express our faith in obedient living, so that Christ’s kingdom will extend throughout the Lehigh Valley and around the world.

We’re hearing a lot about outcome-based education in our public schools these days. We’re looking for an outcome in our educational ministry as a church. The outcome is obedience. Remember, we’re here to help you become a disciple of Jesus, not just a student of the Bible. We equip for obedience.

And when a congregation seriously makes up its mind to obey the teaching of the Master, that congregation will make a tremendous impact on its community and its world.