Too bad the teenagers and kids have left,
because I want to begin tonight with this
question.
How many of you have ever played Nintendo?
Let me see those hands out there, or
computer games.
Well, a lot of us.
I've got a friend that recently purchased a
computer chess game, 77 degrees of difficulty, meaning
that he can have it very, very easy,
or very, very difficult, or 75 levels in
between.
You know, I'm afraid tonight that the advent
of the computer age has ushered in a
brand new type of Bible study.
And that means simply that it seems today
that the idea is we are free to
choose the level of commitment, we're free to
choose the parts of the Bible that we
want, basically now the tendency is to screen
the Word of God, to find those parts
of the Bible that apply to me, and
those parts of the Bible that don't apply
to me.
Of course, the parts of the Bible that
apply to me are those comforting truths that
will help make me a more balanced person.
All of them apply to me.
And, of course, the parts that do not
generally apply to me are those discomforting, uncomfortable
truths that make a demand upon my lifestyle.
I was speaking with a lady, and she
had had a Bible course in some secular
college, and she let out right off the
bat that she told me she said, well,
hell, I like Jesus, but I don't like
the Apostle Paul.
And then she went on to tell me
that the Apostle Paul was a bigot and
a woman-hater, and he had all sorts
of chauvinistic ideas and so on and so
forth.
And she said, yeah, man, I like Jesus,
but I just don't like Paul.
And I was sitting there thinking, I bet
if she ever really read what Jesus had
to say, she wouldn't care for that either.
But the idea was that it was a
pick-and-choose mentality, a cafeteria-style religion,
if you will.
And it kind of goes like this right
here.
Well, pastor, I'll attend church if I feel
like it.
I'll give when I want to.
I'll serve if I'm motivated.
I'll leave my Bible and pray if I
have time.
And I will work in the nursery if
there's a speaker I don't really like.
It's this approach to the Christian life and
the Christian faith that I think points to
the fact that there's been a massive misunderstanding
of Bible content.
A massive misunderstanding of Bible content.
I find tonight three things in the Word
of God.
Number one, there are facts.
Number two, there are commandments.
And number three, there are promises.
Bible facts are to be believed.
Bible commandments are to be obeyed.
And Bible promises are to be claimed.
Friend, I read nowhere in the Bible where
we are free to claim the promises while
ignoring the commandments of God.
Let me say tonight, the only thing you
can do with a Bible fact is believe
it or not believe it.
You cannot obey a Bible fact.
You cannot obey the virgin birth of Jesus
Christ.
You cannot obey the eternal damnation of the
lost.
You cannot obey the second coming of Jesus
Christ.
You see, facts are addressed to our understanding.
And all you can do with a Bible
fact is to believe it or not believe
it.
By the same token, you cannot believe a
Bible commandment.
Because commands are not primarily addressed to our
understanding.
They're addressed to our will.
And all you can do with a commandment
is to obey it or disobey it.
And tonight I want to speak on that
category of Bible content called commandments in general.
And the Bible commandment of obedience in particular.
I want to give you tonight three things
about Bible obedience.
Number one, the necessity of obedience.
I want you to take your Bible tonight
and turn first of all to the book
of Genesis chapter 2.
First book of the Bible tonight.
And I want us to study out tonight
something of the necessity of obedience.
Obedience is not optional.
The commandment to obey occupies a primary place
in the word of God.
I'm going to tell you tonight that obedience
was required in paradise.
Obedience was required before the fall.
It was required prior to the birth of
Christ.
And it is required after the death of
Christ.
Notice tonight the necessity of obedience.
It was required in paradise.
Genesis 2 and verse 16.
Notice carefully tonight what the scripture says.
Verse 16, Genesis 2.
The Lord God, what's that word right there?
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
Another tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat.
But of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of
it.
For in the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die.
Notice tonight, my friend, there was no sin
in the human race.
Yet the Lord God commanded the man.
Look in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 11.
Of course, we know that Adam unhappily disobeyed
God.
And look at what happened here in verse
11, Genesis 3.
The Lord said, Who told thee thou wast
naked?
He had no self-consciousness prior to the
fall.
Wouldn't that be wonderful?
No self-consciousness.
Notice what it says right here.
God said, Hath thou eaten of the tree
whereof I, notice that word, Commanded thee that
thou shouldest not eat.
My brethren, tonight, obedience was required in paradise.
I'm telling you tonight that obedience was the
one condition of man's abiding in Eden.
Andrew Murray called obedience the virtue of paradise.
It was the one thing that the creator
asked of him.
And God warned Adam and Eve that in
the disobedience would bring death.
For in the day that they would eat
thereof, they would surely die.
There was only one thing that could separate
man from God, my friend.
And that was disobedience.
And we all know tonight that Adam fell.
And I'm here to tell you tonight, my
friend, it was not disbelief that caused the
fall.
It was disobedience that caused the fall.
Obedience was required in paradise.
But I'm here to tell you tonight that
obedience was also required under the old covenant
under Moses.
Let me just say tonight, God required obedience.
Exodus 19, verse 5, God said to Israel,
If you will obey my voice and keep
my covenant, you will be a peculiar treasure
unto me.
If you have any knowledge of the Old
Testament scriptures at all, you know that the
Old Testament is loaded with commandments.
And friend, when Moses came down from Mount
Sinai, he did not come down with the
ten suggestions under his arm.
He came down with the ten commandments.
Moses was instructed by God to build a
tabernacle.
And God told him to build it according
to a particular pattern.
And the Bible tells us in Exodus 39
and 40, it says this.
That Moses did according to all that the
Lord commanded him.
Nineteen times in those two chapters, you find
that wording or the equivalent of it.
That Moses did according to all that the
Lord commanded him.
They did all that God commanded them.
And the Bible tells us that after Moses
had done according to the pattern that God
had shown him in the mount, that the
glory of God filled the tabernacle.
My brothers and my sisters tonight, the glory
of God.
The presence of God.
And the glory of God is nothing short
of God's infinite presence among his people.
The glory of God filled the tabernacle when
their obedience was complete.
And I believe tonight that the glory of
God will fill the church and fill the
believer when our obedience has been complete.
I read in my Bible of a man
by the name of Moses, just to give
one further example tonight.
The Bible says that God commanded him, told
him to build an ark.
I remind you tonight that Noah acted on
what God told him to do.
Arks were unheard of in those days.
He had no seminar on ark building that
he could go to.
He didn't go around talking to other builders
to get ideas about how to build the
ark.
He didn't even go around preaching to others
about the necessity of building arks.
He simply did exactly what God told him
to do.
And the Bible says that Noah did according
to all that God commanded him.
Would you agree with me tonight that obedience
was required under the old covenant?
Would you agree with me tonight that obedience
was required in paradise?
And would you agree with me tonight that
obedience is required under the new covenant?
There are a lot of people tonight that
relegate this doctrine of obedience to the Old
Testament.
But it's the New Testament that says he
that does the will of God abides forever.
They're saying that he that believes the will
of God, he that does the will of
God, my friend, abides forever.
Jesus said, if you love me, keep mine.
Or you say, well, Brother Harold, don't you
know that was in the transition time and
we can't take that literally today.
My friend, we have gone so extreme in
some of our movements that we have done
more to clip out the word of God
than the liberals ever thought about clipping out
of the word of God.
I'm telling you tonight, we're obligated to obey
the Lord under the new covenant of grace.
How does the New Testament tell us?
How does the New Testament tell us that
love is spelled O-B-E-Y?
The book of Acts says that God gives
the Holy Spirit to them that obey.
Peter said in Acts 5, we must obey
God rather than men.
And folks, obedience.
There's no better in the world to describe
God's people than the children of obedience.
And there's no better way to describe the
children of the devil than the children of
disobedience.
Romans chapter 1, verse 5, the Bible talks
about being obedient to the faith.
Romans 15, verse 18, Paul talks about making
the Gentiles obedient in word and in deed.
I believe tonight that to escape the error
of salvation by works, we have fallen into
the opposite error, and that is salvation without
obedience.
But in the New Testament, I find there's
no contradiction between faith and obedience, but rather
a perfect unity.
Take your Bible tonight and look in Romans
chapter 6.
And one further scripture here tonight, Romans chapter
6, verse 17.
Romans 6, 17, notice what it says right
here.
Obedience required under the new covenant, Romans 6,
17.
But God be thanked that you were the
servants of Sihon.
And folks, we, the serving God, are serving
Sihon.
That's all there is to it.
It's one or the other, and you can't
do both simultaneously.
But God be thanked that you were the
servants of Sihon, but you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered unto you.
Notice it.
They obeyed from the heart that form of
doctrine that was delivered unto them.
James chapter 1 says, be doers of the
word and not hearers only, because if you
hear and don't do, you deceive your own
selves.
You know what A.W. Tozer said?
He said, the Bible recognizes no faith that
does not lead to obedience.
The Bible recognizes no faith that does not
lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any
obedience that does not spring from faith.
Revelation 22 in verse 14, blessed are they
that do his commandments, for they shall have
the right to the tree of life.
May I say to you tonight, I believe,
I believe in America, that we are so
afraid of works righteousness, that we have literally,
literally gone to an unscriptural, unscriptural extreme in
many, many cases to try to avoid the
error of salvation by works.
Let me tell you something tonight.
I hadn't met a man or woman under
35 years of age trying to work their
way into heaven in the last five years.
Have you?
We are preaching things that to a generation
that doesn't exist.
And I'm here to say tonight, the danger,
the danger with our crowd is not trying
to work their way into heaven.
The danger with our crowd is that they
do not know that they are not going
to heaven, because they have no conviction of
sin, because we have abolished the moral law
of God.
Now, brother, there was grace in the Old
Testament, and there's moral law in the New
Testament.
Adultery is wrong under the new covenant.
Lying is wrong.
Stealing is wrong.
Taking God's name is wrong, brethren.
And my brethren, tonight, I believe we need
to come to a balance on this thing,
because the doctrine of obedience has been soft
-pedaled, but there's only one thing that our
God requires tonight, and that is simple, universal,
unchanging obedience.
The necessity of obedience.
It's required under the new covenant.
It was required under the old covenant, and
it was required in paradise.
Absolutely necessary, my friend.
Let me give you tonight a second point,
and that being the character of obedience.
The character of obedience.
I've got a little overhead here tonight, I
think, that's going to help us out.
Let's just read through this together tonight.
Let's read it out loud together tonight.
Obedience is instantly doing all God tells me
to do with the right heart attitude.
Let's read it one more time.
Obedience is heart attitude.
Now, notice tonight these several things I have
underlying.
Number one, obedience is instantly.
Obedience is immediate.
The psalmist said, I made haste and delayed
not to keep his commandments.
When Jesus Christ called his disciples to follow
him, you know what they did?
Immediately they dropped their nets and they followed
him.
Obedience, my friend, the character of it, it
is immediate.
Obedience is instant.
Now, my brothers and my sisters tonight, when
it comes to the character of obedience, Elizabeth
Elliott said, obedience is immediate.
Delayed obedience is disobedience.
And disobedience is sin.
Obedience is immediate.
Delayed obedience is disobedience.
And disobedience is sin.
You know, I've never seen God visit a
life, I don't think, or a church where
there was not radical obedience to God.
My wife and I pulled up in a
parking lot of a church in Maine.
Out in the middle of nowhere, we've never
been here.
I'm near Calpaster, a little white church out
there in the middle of nowhere.
And I said to my wife 12 years
ago, I said, honey, what in the world
do you think we've gotten into this time?
Well, little did we know, little did we
know that here was a divine setup.
And these people had been praying and seeking
God.
And I want to tell you, they had
had radical obedience.
Little did I know they had a deacon
in that church that had run every preacher
they had had there for the last 45
years.
Well respected by the congregation, nobody knew what
a scorner he really was.
Well, the pastor had been there a year
and a half and had eight people respond
publicly.
Not exactly setting the woods on fire up
there in Maine.
But this pastor had these people committed to
the authority of the word of God.
That if God said it, we're going to
do it.
Well, they had to exercise a little discipline
on this fellow.
And they went to this man with a
rife spirit and tried to get him to
repent.
He wouldn't repent.
They said, if you don't repent, we're going
to have to bring it before the church.
They hadn't brought anything before the church in
150 years since it had been in existence.
He didn't believe it.
Well, they brought it before the church.
It caused some real ripples, folks.
But you know, it's always right to obey
God in the long run, no matter what.
Amen.
Just about split the church.
But they did it.
And nobody left.
They had to shun the brother.
That was one thing.
Another thing, they were in a prayer meeting
on Wednesday night, crying out to God for
a revival.
And one of the men said, wait a
minute.
Hold it.
Quit praying.
He said, here we are.
And we've got this neighbor here, farmer.
And he was driving his tractor across their
parking lot and disturbing gravels in the parking
lot.
So you know what the church did?
They wrecked the defense to keep the farmer
and his tractor and big equipment off their
parking lot.
So they wouldn't wreck their gravels.
Well, this fellow stood up in the prayer
meeting and said, fellas, here we are praying
for revival.
Here we are more concerned about the grout,
the layout of the gravel in our parking
lot than we are the soul of our
farmer neighbor who is on his way to
hell.
He said, I recommend we quit praying and
go tear the fence down.
Amen.
There is a time to quit praying and
get with the program.
They went out and ripped the fence down.
Came back in and had a prayer meeting
after that.
And they did all kinds of radical things.
And my wife and I came into this
meeting.
I'm hearing from Al since the first time
we ever had a prayer room in a
whole ministry.
It was brand new.
I didn't know how it was going to
go.
But boy, we had to have a good
initiation.
Prayer room was packed every night.
And, you know, people would stay and we'd
have an afterglow in the basement in the
fellowship hall.
And, you know, there was about a hundred
people start coming at first and all hundred
would stay.
And they would stay till 11 o'clock
at night.
Our problem in this meeting was not getting
people to come.
Our problem was getting people to leave.
They would come and pray all during the
day.
And I would sit there at night and
people would come and share.
I'm talking about, I'm talking about barn burner
testimonies, brother.
I'm talking about real, real things.
And I sit there on the front row
and I was not used to having such
a good time in church.
I smiled and laughed so much.
The muscles in my face got sore.
I hadn't used them in so long.
And I was having the time of my
life.
And after about three days, I said to
my wife, I said, honey, God's here.
God's here.
I don't even know how to act.
Let's get ready and pray that we won't
mess this thing up.
And it's just like God had taken control
by the second Sunday of the meeting on
Sunday night.
In fact, we called off our service and
sent out squads to hit the neighborhood church.
We went to everything.
I went, I went to one over in
another place and they had them going 200
miles away, giving testimony.
And we told them, do three things.
Tell them what God did for you.
Number one, tell them what God's doing in
the church.
Number two, and invite them to come to
the meeting.
Number three.
So he sends me.
We're on for 15 days.
We have people come from 200 miles folks.
Just to see what God was doing because
of the testimony of the people in that
congregation.
But did you know why God visited that
small country church?
Obedience.
And my brethren, obedience is immediate.
We were in Whitfield, Virginia.
Brother Roberts was doing a prayer partner training
in the middle of the thing.
One of the prayer partners came under conviction
of sin that he was lost, sprang to
his feet, found his pastor, immediately went outside
and got saved.
My friend, obedience is immediate, but notice second
of all, tonight, obedience is instantly notice.
Notice these red lines here.
Anybody can pronounce that word right there doing.
Now that's the main word.
Obedience is active.
I think a lot of times we're looking
for a feeling.
We're looking for an experience and God is
just looking for obedience.
Obedience is not believing.
Listen to me tonight.
Obedience is not thinking.
Obedience is not taking notes.
Obedience is not knowing.
Obedience is doing.
It's when you activate your will to do
what God has told you to do.
Now, later this year, they had a problem.
They thought, thought they were rich and increased
with goods.
God had a different evaluation of their condition.
They thought they were in pretty good shape.
They said, man, we're rich and increased with
goods.
We have need of nothing.
They thought they were doing quite well.
But obedience is not what a person thinks.
Obedience is what a person is and what
they do.
You heard of the survey they took of
the five leading industrialized countries of the world,
the high schoolers.
They found that of all the students in
the world, the Americans thought they were the
best.
The Japanese high schoolers thought they were the
worst students in the world.
When the test scores came back, it was
the exact opposite.
The Americans who thought they were the best
turned out to be the worst.
And the Japanese who thought they were the
worst students in the world turned out to
be the best.
And my brethren, tonight, I believe, I believe
tonight the greatest mistake that you can ever
make is to think that just because you
understand some Bible doctrine that you automatically have
the experience of it.
The greatest mistake you can ever make is
just because you believe something in your head,
you automatically assume that you've experienced it in
your heart.
People think if they know about salvation, they
think they're safe.
If I know about forgiveness, I must be
forgiven.
If I know about the exchange life, I
must be living it.
If I know about humility, we think, well,
we must be humble.
If we know about transparency, we think we
must be transparent.
But brethren, tonight, obedience is not thinking.
Obedience is not knowing.
Obedience is not believing.
Obedience is doing.
Obedience is active.
Leave this third point tonight.
Obedience is instantly doing all God tells me
to do.
Obedience is complete.
And folks, aren't you glad tonight that God
doesn't require anything out of us?
Except what his grace puts into us.
Amen.
And folks, God has given us everything that
pertains to life and Godliness in Christ Jesus.
The Bible says it's the whole duty of
man to fear God and keep his commandments.
I'm here to tell you tonight, my friend,
it's your duty as a believer to love
your mate.
It's your duty tonight to be submissive one
to the other and to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ.
It's our duty tonight to be a witness
for Jesus Christ.
Obedience is complete.
Partial obedience won't cut it with God.
You remember in the Old Testament how that
Saul, God told him to go destroy the
Amalekites?
To utterly destroy and spare not.
Well, Saul started out well enough.
He raised up an army of 200,000
soldiers.
He went out to battle and, you know,
he wiped them out, but he did make
a few small exceptions.
He spared Agag, the king, and the best
of the cattle.
Obedience is complete.
Incomplete obedience is disobedience.
And disobedience is sin.
You know what Saul was really saying?
He was saying, now, I know God told
me to wipe out the whole crowd and
spare not.
But what he was really saying is my
way is just as good as God.
Pride is at the root of all disobedience,
friend.
And what he was saying is I know
better than God it's not going to hurt
anything.
And, you know, it was a common practice
in those days for a conquering king to
take the conquered king, bring him home, put
him on a cart, parade him through the
streets.
All the citizens would come out and laud
and hail their king as a great military
strategist.
Perhaps tonight the thing that motivated Saul to
disobey God was his desire for the praise
of the people.
Pride is at the root of all disobedience
tonight.
Do you remember the story how Samuel, God's
man, God's prophet, comes running out?
God told him the whole scoop.
And Samuel comes out, and you know what
Saul did?
He came running out with a bunch of
religious talk.
I'm suspicious of people that come running out
with religious talk all the time.
You know what he did?
Saul came running out and he said, I've
obeyed the voice of the Lord.
We've wiped this crowd out.
Samuel perked up and said, What meaneth the
bleeding of the sheep and the lowering of
the oxen that I hear in my ear?
And old Saul said, Oh, the people spared.
Here he is, blame chicken.
The people spared the best of the cattle.
Of course, the sacrifice to the Lord, their
God.
And old Samuel looked at him and said,
To obey is better than sacrifice.
God rejected Saul.
You know why?
Because his obedience was not complete.
It was partial, partial obedience tonight, my friend.
And I'm here to tell you tonight that
complete obedience is not just for missionaries and
pastors and Bible teachers and evangelists.
Complete obedience is for every child of God.
I think we need a reformation in the
ranks, folks.
The very idea we got our churches loaded
down with people that don't even ever show
up and you can get them off the
church roll without splitting a congregation.
Our whole idea of the church needs to
be re-evaluated.
My brethren, tonight, plan the way that we
get off of the idea that we can
determine what parts of the Bible we want
to obey.
You're going to say, well, Harold, you're just
a legalist, man.
You're just one of them old fundies.
That's all you are.
Just a bigoted legalist trying to tell everybody
what it is.
You know what a man told me this
week?
He said, Brother Harold, we can't enforce our
opinion on people.
We can tell the people what the Bible
says about alcohol, but the church cannot draw
up a policy about alcohol.
We can tell them what the Bible says
about immorality and divorce, but we cannot have
a church policy on immorality and divorce because
we're imposing our views on them.
Did you know tonight, my friend, you don't
determine what's right and wrong by consensus.
You determine what's right and wrong by the
word of God, and if the Bible speaks
to an issue, thus saith the Lord, it's
where it's at.
Are you with me tonight?
Listen, folks.
This sloppy agape incognito, it ain't helping the
cause of Christ.
It's going to put us out of business
because the obedience is always complete.
Jesus said in Matthew 28, going to all
the world, teaching all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, and teaching them to observe all things,
whatsoever I have commanded you, and, lo, I
am with you always, even to the end
of the world.
Now, listen.
Obedience is instantly doing all God tells me
to do and doing it with the right
heart attitude.
The children sing that chorus.
Obedience is the very best way to show
that you believe.
No, sir.
It's the only way to show that you
believe.
You know what Jesus said in Mark 12?
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, with all thy soul, with
all thy mind, and with all thy strength,
for this is the first commandment.
You know what the right heart attitude for
obedience is, what our sister here shared tonight?
You know what it is?
You obey God because you love God with
a heart of love for God.
And I think what the Bible teaches is
that going through the motions is not enough.
Outward conformity is not enough.
Near external righteousness is not enough.
Listen.
It's not enough to be involved in a
missions conference if we never witnessed anyone during
the week.
It's not enough to have your tithes in
the offering plate if your heart is full
of covetousness the rest of the time.
It's not enough to have your Bible in
Sunday school if you never open it anywhere
other than that.
You see tonight, it's not enough just to
be faithful and never miss a church service
if you're having a cold war with your
neighbor in Christ.
You see tonight, man looks on the outward
appearance, but God is looking on the high.
And God is looking not only for outward,
external conformity to the word and will of
God, He's looking for the right heart attitude,
and that is love for Jesus Christ.
I want to tell you the bottom line,
folks.
Our major problem, our major problem, all of
our major problem tonight is we just don't
love God.
You boil it all down, and it comes
right down to that point right there.
It's a lack of love for God.
The right heart attitude.
Let me ask you tonight.
Is your spirit sweet with the Holy Spirit?
Oh, the right heart attitude.
Now, when I was a kid, Saturday morning,
I was a very active child.
I didn't like studying.
I liked to really do things, go places,
and very active child.
But on Saturday morning, I made an exception
because I had to watch the cartoons.
These were the good old days when we
had Christian cartoons.
Amen?
Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, and Fred Flintstone.
Christian cartoons, man, Christian cartoons, I'm telling you.
I got into a bad habit as a
youngster, laying on the couch watching these cartoons.
If you ever start this habit, you'll never
get out of it.
It's a bad habit, laying down on the
couch watching these cartoons.
Well, my mother, she always had lots of
chores, and she would often come when I
was laying down during the one time I
really was serious about television, watching these cartoons,
and she would often come and say, Harold,
would you take out the trash?
On one occasion, I said, yes, Mom, I'll
take out the trash.
Ten minutes later, she came back, Harold, have
you taken out the trash?
No, Mom, but I'm going to take out
the trash.
Ten minutes later, she'd come back, Harold, have
you taken out the trash?
No, Mom, but I'm going to take out
the trash.
Now, I had a good intention, but was
I obedient?
No.
Why?
Because obedience is immediate.
It's instantly doing all God tells us to
do.
Now, I remember one time she came and
said, Harold, would you take out the trash?
During commercial.
Leaped at my feet, ran to the kitchen,
got that garbage, ran outside, we had a
burning barrel in those days, threw it in
the burning barrel, rushed back in.
My mother came back ten minutes later, Harold,
have you taken out the trash?
Yes.
She said, did you take the trash out
of the bathroom?
No.
Living room?
No.
Bedroom?
No.
Was I obedient?
Why?
Because obedience is complete.
It's doing all we're told to do.
Well, my mother just persisted with this trash
thing on Saturday during the commercial times, and
on one occasion she came in and said,
Harold, would you take out the trash?
And I just got tired of hearing about
taking out the trash.
I said, yeah, I'll take out the trash,
Mom.
I leaned to my feet, ran and got
all the trash, put it all together.
I got some things that she wouldn't have
considered to be trash, some of those housekeeping
magazines, amen, and took the whole thing, went
outside.
I even put the trash can in the
burning barrel.
Man, I'm telling you, my attitude wasn't so
hot.
I threw it over here and burnt the
whole thing.
Was I obedient?
Not a chance.
Well, I did what I was supposed to
do, did I?
Yeah, but my attitude stopped.
So you see tonight, obedience is instantly doing
all God tells me to do and doing
it with the right heart attitude.
Now, folks, I don't think there's anything that's
more destructive to a person's wrath of God.
I don't think there's anything that can do
more to deaden a person's conscience than to
be exposed to the truth and not obey
fully.
I believe this is why so many have
been stunted and stymied and stagnated in their
walk with God.
And they have not learned the blessing of
obedience.
Point three, the blessing of
obedience.
Deuteronomy chapter 11.
God said, Behold, I set before you a
blessing and a curse.
A blessing if you obey the commandments of
the Lord, and a curse if you will
not obey the commandments.
Now, folks, in the Old Testament, obedience brought
blessing.
I'm here to tell you tonight that obedience
brings blessing.
Yes, even today.
You can't ever go wrong by obeying God.
Obedience brings blessing, and disobedience brings conflict, guilt,
worry, frustration, torment, fear, doubt, unbelief.
Disobedience brings all these things, but obedience brings
blessing.
Now, I want you to see one Scripture
verse tonight.
One more.
Isaiah chapter 1, verse 19.
Look at it this evening.
Why are so few apparently enjoying the abundant
life in Christ?
Well, this may be part of the answer.
Isaiah 1, verse 19.
God tells these people to come and reason
together with Him.
Though their sins were like scarlet, they were
going to be like wool.
But look in verse 19, Isaiah chapter 1.
God says to His covenant people, He says,
If you be willing and obedient, you shall
eat the good of the land.
Now, I want you to notice tonight, God
did not just, God did not say, If
you be willing, you'll eat the good of
the land.
He said, If you be willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land.
You know here on Tuesday night, I bet
you, I bet you, I bet my bottom
dollar tonight, 98, 99% of us here
tonight, we're willing, we're willing to obey God.
I bet.
I don't think tonight we've got a house
full of rebels.
I think tonight primarily there are people here
that are willing to learn how to pray.
People here tonight willing to learn to love
their mate.
People here tonight that are willing to give
and invest in eternal things.
People here tonight that are willing to make
restitution, willing to forgive, willing to join the
church, willing to get involved in a discipleship
group, willing to memorize scripture, willing to confess
their sin, willing to read the Bible.
But the Bible doesn't say, If you're willing,
you'll eat the good of the land.
It says, If you're willing and obedient, you
shall eat the good of the land.
Now, you should have got a sheet of
paper on your way into service tonight.
Get it out if you would and something
to write with tonight.
Did you get that sheet of paper?
We didn't.
We're going to fire the deacons.
All right.
Where are they at?
Trustees.
All right.
We're going to fire the whole bunch.
Where's the paper at, brother Larry?
About four of you grab those sheets and
hand them out, would you?
Prime case of disobedience here tonight.
Amen.
All right.
Now everybody needs something to write with.
If you don't have a pen or pencil,
find a woman with a big pocketbook.
She's got lots of ballpoint pens that don't
write, hadn't written in years.
Just get something to write with tonight.
Get a piece of paper, a little exercise
that's going to help us out tonight.
Now, right at the top of your paper,
this word right here, willing but not yet
obedient.
Just write these words, five words, willing but
not yet obedient.
Now, we're going to have a little exercise
here.
We're going to take a couple of minutes
tonight and I want us to construct a
list tonight of things in which we are
willing to obey God.
We want to obey God.
We know we should obey God.
But for whatever the reason, we have not
yet obeyed the Lord.
You say, Harold, what are you talking about?
We're talking about those people that we need
to forgive that really did us wrong.
We're talking about getting reconciled with people that
have offended us or we have offended them,
getting our conscience clear.
We're talking about those instances where God has
prompted our heart to witness perhaps to our
neighbor.
In a church in Illinois, a guy that
lived next to the church, 80 years old,
God spoke to one man's heart about going
over and sharing the Lord with him.
He had never done it all the years
and he put on his list that he
wanted to witness to this neighbor, but this
man died in the middle of the night.
Never had the opportunity to witness to him.
Put down tonight those things in which you
are willing to do.
You know you ought to do.
You know God wants you to do.
You're willing, but you're not yet obedient.
You say, Harold, what are you talking about?
I'm talking about humbling yourself.
We're talking about going to the prayer room
if you need to.
We're talking about giving a testimony.
We talk about talking to your friends at
work and at school about Christ.
You know, the Bible says that those that
believe Jesus is coming again, he that hath
this hope in himself, in him purifies himself,
even as he is pure.
You know, the doctrine of the second coming
of Christ was not given so we could
guess when the date was going to be,
but it was given so that we could
purify our hearts and be ready when the
Lord showed up.
Amen.
What tonight would happen if God peeled the
roof off of this church right here and
let an angel down in the middle of
the auditorium?
He blew a trumpet, made an announcement, and
said three days from today, Jesus Christ is
coming back to earth.
Now, what if tonight you knew that Christ
was going to come three days from today?
Let me ask you tonight, if you knew
beyond a shadow of a doubt that three
days from right now all earth would be
behind you, all eternity would be before you,
I want to ask you tonight, how would
you spend these last three days on planet
earth?
How many of our friends tonight, family, parents,
children, would go to hell if Christ came
three days from tonight?
You know, tonight I think there'd be some
people, if we really knew Christ was coming,
there'd be some people that would never go
to bed.
They'd weep.
They'd fast, pray, stay up all night, plead
with the lost.
Some would unplug their television sets.
Some would throw away their cigarettes.
Some would get their conscience clear.
Some would obey God in scriptural baptism.
Some people would get saved.
Some people would be getting broken.
People would be witnessing.
I think we'd be doing everything we possibly
could to be thoroughly ready to not be
ashamed at the appearing of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I want you to write down tonight on
your list everything you can think of in
which you need to obey God about that
you would want to do before Christ comes
again and put it on your paper tonight.
Just take about two minutes tonight.
The things that you're willing to do, you
know you ought to do willing, but not
yet obedience.
And let's construct our list.
I'm going to be quiet for two minutes
tonight.
From now to the end of the message,
I want you to have the liberty to
add to your list as God speaks to
your heart.
Obedience brings blessing.
We're waiting on God to move.
And God's waiting on us to obey.
Folks, I want to tell you, if you
have no intention of amending your way and
bringing your life in conformity with the revealed
will of God, you're wasting your time in
praying for revival and God's blessings on you
and your family.
You know, a lot of people say, well,
Harold, I just don't understand it.
A lot of people are mad at God.
Why won't my mate get saved?
Why won't my kids get right with God?
Why can't I get anything out of my
Bible study?
Why do I get so little out of
church?
How come I can't find the will of
God?
How many people in Beckley, West Virginia have
gotten stuck and can't discern and find the
will of God?
How come I can't have victory over sin?
I think the answer might be this tonight.
Conviction without commitment brings confusion.
When we know what we ought to do
and we're not doing it, there ain't any
use to ask God what else to do
because God doesn't have anything to say to
you.
The Scripture says if any man will do
his will, he will know the doctrine.
And I'm telling you, sometimes you just need
to go ahead and obey God, whether you
know all the ins and outs or not.
If you know it's right, go ahead and
obey God and the understanding will often come
later.
Conviction without commitment brings confusion.
Jesus said, why do you call me Lord,
Lord, and you don't do the things that
I say?
The Scripture said, be doers of the word
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
You see, the only way to go forward
in continuous revival is continuous obedience because obedience
brings blessing.
And here in this place where you have
such excellent Bible teachers and excellent Bible teaching,
I'm convinced tonight the need to be out
is not for more knowledge.
It's not for more doctrine.
It's not for more teaching or more motivation.
The need right here tonight is for more
obedience to Jesus Christ.
That's our need tonight.
We already know more than what we are
able to live up to.
We don't even know anything else to become
accountable for that.
We need to act on what we know
right here tonight.
Listen, if you're lost, you need to pretend
and get saved.
If you've not followed the Lord and linked
up with a Bible preaching church and identified
with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection,
you need to go ahead and obey God,
friend.
You see what I'm saying tonight?
We need to give up God's program.
What would happen tonight if an usher came
flying down the aisle, pushed you on the
shoulder, handed you a three-by-five card,
and you read that card and it said,
President George Bush is on the telephone and
he wants to speak with you right now?
You know what would happen?
Your eyes would bug out of your head
and you would read it one more time.
President George Bush is on the telephone and
he wants to speak to you right now.
You know what you'd do?
You'd casually pull out a pen out of
your pocket, turn that card over right on
the back, tell Mr. Bush, I'm busy listening
to an interesting sermon, tell him to call
me back in fifteen minutes.
Hand it to the usher.
Is that what you'd do?
Not a chance.
I'll tell you what you'd do.
You'd fly out of that seat.
You'd walk these pews here tonight.
You'd think you'd be in a Pentecostal meeting.
You'd walk down these pews.
You'd rattle every chair.
You'd call attention to yourself.
You'd have such a commotion going on.
And on the way out of the auditorium,
you'd scream out at the top of your
voice, President George Bush is on the phone
and he wants to talk to me.
And you'd probably hurt yourself running back to
get on the telephone.
That's what you'd do.
But you know something?
You'd come to a church service like this
and you'd let the boss of President George
Bush speak to your heart about something that
you're living in disobedience about.
You know what we'll do?
Lord, not now.
Not here.
We're embarrassed to fully obey Jesus Christ.
Embarrassed to witness to your lost family members.
Afraid you're going to run them off.
They're going to hell.
You can't run them off.
There's nothing you can run them off from.
We're afraid.
Well, I don't know how they'd take it
if I really got my conscience clear.
It don't make a difference how they take
it.
Are you willing to obey God tonight?
That ought to tell you your heart's out
of tune with God.
If you could even entertain these kinds of
suggestions tonight, folks.
Brothers and sisters tonight, I was in a
meeting in North Carolina.
God spoke to my heart.
You know, I had a list.
I've got one here tonight.
Somewhere.
I had a list of things that I
needed to obey God about.
I want to confess of sin, do you?
It's stated in my Bible for close to
a year.
I was willing.
I had every intention of obeying God.
And I was waiting for the right opportunity.
You know, sometimes you need to quit waiting
for the opportunity and make one.
Well, this was one of those situations.
I'd lied to my father when I was
a teenager.
He'd ask me about a certain thing that
happened in a certain place, and I knew
exactly what it was.
I'd done it.
And I said, well, I don't have so
much idea about that thing, Dad.
I lied to my father.
Dad at that point was 79 years old.
79 years old.
And I got to thinking, I wouldn't want
him to go on into eternity.
I never told him this.
So I excused myself from the meeting.
I didn't stay for prayer meeting.
I didn't stay for lunch.
I went home, got with my dad, went
walking down the road, him and my son.
I said, Dad, you remember when I was
a teenager way back when, you asked me
about this situation that happened up here, and
I had to explain the whole thing.
And he didn't remember a thing.
I tried to reconstruct it for him.
I said, well, Dad, I want to tell
you that you asked me about that, and
I want to tell you I lied to
you.
You know something, folks?
I needed to say that.
It wasn't for him.
It was for me.
And I want to tell you something.
My conscience was freed.
Came back to the meeting that night.
That old tension wasn't there.
That old weight wasn't there.
That old burden wasn't there.
Obedience brings blessing, folks.
And I'm here to tell you that revival
is obedience.
And obedience is doing exactly what I'm told
to do, when I'm told to do it,
and doing it with the right heart attitude.
You say, well, Brother Harold, I don't even
know where to start obeying God.
Well, let me recommend that you pull out
that list and start with number one.
Right there.
And as God speaks to your heart, you
might be able to add to it, but
let me tell you something tonight, folks.
Everything on your list tonight is disobedience.
And everything on that list is sin.
Because obedience is instantly doing all God tells
me to do.
And doing it with the right heart attitude.
Let's start right here tonight.
Let's stand together and talk to the Lord
for a moment tonight.
Would you pray with me this evening?