Posts Tagged ‘obedience’

The importance of obedience

Posted: April 7, 2013 by Pam Larson in April, Devotionals/Commentaries, Joshua
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What happens when we do not obey God?  As we read through Joshua this month, we will come across many instances of disobedience. And we would be wise to learn some lessons about the importance of  obeying God’s word. When we think that we can continue to live as we wish, disregarding His command to flee temptation, to “put off the old”?  Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” We would do well to look to the example of the Israelites, who failed to drive out all the Canaanites, as God had commanded.  They began to live side by side, marrying into each other’s families, and eventually forgot God altogether.

  • Joshua 16:10 However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do forced labor.
  • Joshua 17:12-13 Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. Now when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.
  • Judges 3:5-7 So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.  And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

Just as the Canaanites proved to be a snare, a deadly snare, to the Israelites, so, too, sin that we keep in our lives can eventually take over and kill us. John Piper explains,

The great teacher of the church on this doctrine is John Owen. Nobody has probed it more deeply, probably. He wrote a little 86-page book called Mortification of Sin in Believers. “Mortify” means “kill” in 17th century English. Today it just means “embarrass” or “shame.” But Owen was talking about this verse – in fact, his whole book is an exposition of this verse, Romans 8:13. He put it like this: “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

My mother wrote in my Bible when I was 15 years old – I still have the Bible – “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.” Now Owen says, based on Romans 8:13, “Be killing sin or [sin] will be killing you.” We will see that these two mottos are very closely connected, because Romans 8:13 says that we are to put be putting sin to death by the Spirit – “If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” – and what is the instrument of death wielded by the Spirit? The answer is given in Ephesians 6:17 – “the sword of the Spirit, the word of God.” This book will keep you from sin – this book will kill sin.

To read or listen to the rest of the sermon, “How to Kill Sin, Part 1″  click here:

The main thing in life

Posted: December 5, 2012 by Pam Larson in December, Devotionals/Commentaries, Hosea
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Doug Goins, of Peninsula Bible Church, wraps up our reading of Hosea 14:

Verse 9 is an epilogue that serves as a conclusion to the entire prophecy of Hosea. It also provides the final step of returning to the Lord and remaining in fellowship with him: surrendering our will to him.

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the Lord are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.

The wise, spiritually discerning, upright person has discovered the main thing in life. In the movie City Slickers, the character Curly says, “There’s one thing in life, and you have to figure out what it is.”   Thank God we don’t have to see City Slickers II to figure out what it is! The prophet Hosea, guided by the Spirit, tells us what the one main thing in life is: that the ways of the Lord are right. Very simply, there are only two ways in life: Either walk in obedience to God’s revelation in the Scriptures, or stumble over it and fall. That phrase “stumble” at the beginning and end of this chapter doesn’t mean to just stub your toe. It means to fall to destruction or death. There is hell to pay in the life of transgressors who stumble. We can choose to relativize the word of God, trivialize it, try to manage it like we do everything else in life, and make it mean what we want it to mean. Or we can learn to walk obediently in the Lord’s ways, to surrender our will to him.

It struck me forcefully this week that Hosea chose to end this passionate book with an appeal not to our emotions or even to our intellect, but to our wills. There is a very simple choice before us, but just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. It’s very difficult. G.K. Chesterton once acknowledged how hard it is to return to the Lord, remarking about Christianity, “It has not been tried and found wanting-but found difficult and not tried.”

J.C. Ryle on knowing vs doing

Posted: November 23, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, John, November
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J.C. Ryle on John 13:17  If you  know these things, blessed are you if you do them…

We are taught, for another thing, in these verses, the uselessness of religious knowledge if not accompanied by practice. We read, “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.” It sounds as if our Lord would warn His disciples that they would never be really happy in His service if they were content with a barren head-knowledge of duty, and did not live according to their knowledge.

The lesson is one which deserves the continual remembrance of all professing Christians. Nothing is more common than to hear people saying of doctrine or duty–”We know it, we know it;” while they sit still in unbelief or disobedience. They actually seem to flatter themselves that there is something creditable and redeeming in knowledge, even when it bears no fruit in heart, character, or life. Yet the truth is precisely the other way. To know what we ought to be, believe, and do, and yet to be unaffected by our knowledge, only adds to our guilt in the sight of God.

To know that Christians should be humble and loving, while we continue proud and selfish, will only sink us deeper in the pit, unless we awake and repent.

Practice, in short, is the very life of religion. “To him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17.)

A pair of imperatives

Posted: November 12, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 John, Devotionals/Commentaries, November
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Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us —eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.  But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.—1 John 2:24-27  

John Piper, in a sermon,”Let What You Heard from the Beginning Abide in You“

In this long text there are only two imperatives. One is in verse 24: “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.” And the other is in verse 27 at the end: “As his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him.”

Let the Word abide in you!

Abide in the Spirit!

I can’t help but recall a similar pair of admonitions in Paul’s letters:

  • Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you . . . sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
  • Ephesians 5:18–19, “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks.“

“Let the word dwell in you!” is like John’s “Let the word abide in you!”

“Be filled with the Spirit!” is like John’s “Abide in the Spirit!”

Healing power accompanied the words which He spoke.

Posted: August 13, 2012 by Pam Larson in August, Devotionals/Commentaries, Luke
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    On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. —Luke 17:11-14 ESV

J.C. Ryle comments:

We are told that when the lepers cried to our Lord, He only replied, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” He did not touch them and command their disease to depart. He prescribed no medicine, no washing, no use of outward material means. Yet healing power accompanied the words which He spoke. Relief met the afflicted company as soon as they obeyed His command. “It came to pass that as they went they were cleansed.”

A fact like this is doubtless intended to teach us knowledge. It shows us the wisdom of simple, childlike obedience to every word which comes from the mouth of Christ. It does not become us to stand still, and reason, and doubt, when our Master’s commands are plain and unmistakable. If the lepers had acted in this way, they would never have been healed. We must read the Scriptures diligently. We must try to pray.

Spurgeon: The best proof of intelligence

Posted: May 18, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, May, Psalms
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Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalm 111:10

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;  all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!

IQ_curveMen may know and be very orthodox, they may talk and be very eloquent, they may speculate and be very profound; but the best proof of their intelligence must be found in their actually doing the will of the Lord.

  • The former part of the psalm taught us the doctrine of God’s nature and character, by describing his works:
  • the second part supplies the practical lesson by drawing the inference that to worship and obey him is the dictate of true wisdom.

We joyfully own that it is so. His praise endureth for ever. The praises of God will never cease, because his works will always excite adoration, and it will always be the wisdom of men to extol their glorious Lord.

How should we then live?

Posted: February 25, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, February, Leviticus
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We have come to the FINAL day in Leviticus!  Coty Pinckney wraps up our read-through with a challenge to see two big questions in Leviticus 26, “Who is GOD? ….and Who am I?”

We have seen that the book of Leviticus is not, as is so commonly thought, a book which lays down the law, saying, “Step over this line and I will zap you!” Instead the entire first half of the book details God’s provisions for the Israelites, God’s answer to every need of the Israelites, through the sacrifices and the priesthood. We have seen how God’s plan all along was to create “a people for his own dear possession,” a people to love and to cherish. We have seen that the sacrificial system is not a way of earning one’s salvation, but rather God’s gracious provision for dealing with the Israelites’ inability to keep all the law. The entire system is a picture of God’s grace,  foreshadowing all that Christ accomplished for us on the cross.

That is the message of the first half of Leviticus: God has chosen you as his people, God has provided for your every need, he overcomes your every weakness, so that you might become his dear possession.

The second half of the book asks: If this is so, if God has set us apart for this special purpose, how should we then live? And the answer is: This privilege is so great, that our character must become like God’s character. He has chosen us, he has given us every provision to make up for our weaknesses. Our responsibility — as pictured in the Sabbath — is to actively depend on him so that we might become what he intends us to be. Rest in him, in his power, turning our thoughts and attention to Him, every minute of every day.

Like most of Leviticus, the passage we consider today is frequently misunderstood. A quick reading gives the impression that God is telling the Israelites, “Obey me and I will bless you; disobey me and I will curse you.” But God here is not concerned with outward obedience to a set of rules. In this chapter, the Lord tells the Israelites who he is, and presents them with two choices for what they might become. Given all the provisions he has made, as detailed in the first 25 chapters of the book, he asks: “Are you going to be all I intend you to be, all I enable you to be? Are you going to be a holy, special people for my own dear possession? Or will you reject me and abhor me? The answer to that question determines your destiny.”

Similarly, the question for us this morning is: Who are you? Who are you?…..

WHO GOD IS

Look at verses 13, 44, and 45 of Leviticus 26. Recall that the word “Lord” printed in all caps is a substitution for the name of God, pronounced something like “Yahweh.” This name connotes the covenant relationship between Israel and God, so permit me to make that substitution as I read:

I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high  I am Yahweh their God. But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am Yahweh.

God here emphasizes his relationship to these people. He says, “I am your God. I remember my promises. I took you out of slavery, I broke the power of the forces that controlled you. So do not choose to be a slave again! I enabled you to walk with your head held high — so don’t return to the disgrace of your former life! You are mine, you are special — so live up to that calling!”Furthermore, note that God says he brought the Israelites out of Egypt “in the sight of the nations.” God has chosen these people in order not only to save them, but also to display His glory, to show His character to all of creation. The actions of the people of Israel bring glory — or dishonor — to the very name of God! This is further incentive for the people to live up to their calling.Our situation is similar. God says we are his own dear children: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1 NIV) We belong to Him, we are his family. He rescued us from slavery, and enables us to walk with heads held high. We are the family of God! And he has done this, in part, to display his wisdom and grace to all of creation, including his enemies (Ephesians 3:10). What we do brings honor or dishonor to our God, our Father.

To read the rest of the sermon, click here:

God’s perspective is not limited to only a few hundred years.

Posted: January 16, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, Genesis, January
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Thanks to Coty Pinckney for his insights into Genesis 35-36.  He has a wonderful reminder that we need to consider the eternal perspective and do not look at the results of obedience in our own lifetimes.

Esau has been a central figure in Genesis since his birth in chapter 25. His actions and threats have had a major influence on Jacob’s life. The name “Esau” is mentioned 68 times in chapters 25-36. But he will not be mentioned again in the remainder of Genesis.

This chapter elaborates on what we have already seen: Esau went to the land of Seir (which became known as the land of Edom, named after him) and founded a kingdom. His descendants became wealthy and powerful. This nation was stronger than the descendants of Israel for many centuries. Indeed, as verse 31 tells us:

These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the Israelites.

God has promised that kings will come from the offspring of Jacob – but Esau produces kings much more quickly. Indeed, at this point it sure looks like Esau is more successful than Jacob. Both have large flocks, both have many children, but Esau has established his presence in a land with strong natural defenses. In just a few years his descendants become kings, ruling over a powerful kingdom. At the same time Jacob’s descendants flee a drought and end up as slaves in Egypt.

So for several hundred years, the descendants of the son who rejected his birthright are more powerful, have more wealth, and have more influence than the descendants of the son chosen by God. The brother who never gives a thought to God establishes a kingdom, while the brother who repents and turns to God, and obeys him, doesn’t.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Does obedience “pay”?

It sure doesn’t seem to pay in the life of Jacob, particularly when compared to Esau.

But the Bible gives two answers to this question.

First: God’s perspective is not limited to only a few hundred years. God’s perspective is of all time.

So about 800 years after these events, the descendants of Jacob, led by David, will conquer the descendants of Esau. And about 200 years after that, the kingdom of Edom will be completely destroyed, as prophesied by Obadiah. God sees that. He knows that. And He ensures that it will come about.

Friends, we must not look at the results of obedience in our own lifetimes. Indeed, our perspective must be an eternal one. All wrongs will NOT be righted in this world. But God promises that in the end, every sin will be paid for. Those who reject God will indeed suffer eternal punishment, while those who seek His face and lean not on their own obedience but on the blood of Jesus to cover their sins will spend eternity with Him, delighting in Him and coming to know more and more of His infinite goodness day by day by day, without end.

Does obedience lead to reward?

Posted: January 15, 2012 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, Genesis, January
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“Does obedience lead to reward?” asks Coty Pinckney in a sermon, “Obedience and Tragedy”

Last week we saw the dangers of putting off obedience. When Jacob returned to the land of Canaan after 20 years away, he should have returned to Bethel, the place where God had first met him. And he should have returned to his father. He does neither, spending ten years in Succoth and near Canaanite city of Shechem. In consequence of this delayed obedience, the ugly events of Chapter 34 take place: Jacob’s daughter Dinah is raped, and the city of Shechem is then raped by Jacob’s revengeful sons, Simeon and Levi.

So we concluded:

  • Obey promptly.
  • Trust God, even when obedience seems foolish.
  • “Know that your greatest joy comes in that trust and obedience”

In today’s text, Jacob at long last obeys God. He returns to Bethel, and afterwards returns to his father.And having obeyed, what happens?

  • Do they all live happily ever after?
  • Does all the family have great joy now that their father is walking in obedience?
  • Does Jacob now live in peace, without the stresses and strains seen in the last few chapters?

Not at all. As we shall see, the story of Jacob’s obedience is followed directly by the stories of two tragedies, and bracketed by the deaths two elderly people.

Why does God do this? Doesn’t He want to encourage us to obedience?

If you want to teach obedience, don’t you tell stories in which disobedience is punished and obedience is rewarded? Did your parents tell you stories like that when you were young? So why doesn’t God tell us stories like that?

My friends, God’s goal is not to bribe us into obedience. If that were His goal, He could accomplish it easily. After all, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. The whole earth is His.

And those of you who are parents know that bribing children into obedience works temporarily, but utterly fails in the long run, for it does nothing to change the child’s character, to change the child’s inner desires.

To read or listen to the rest of this sermon, click here:

Donkeys, Carrots, Sticks—And the Gospel

Posted: December 5, 2011 by Pam Larson in December, Devotionals/Commentaries, John
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In light of our Bible readings this month that have focused on obedience, a blog post by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds, really resonated with me and I wanted to share it. I had the pleasure of meeting Elyse Fitzpatrick and her daughter, Jessica Thompson, last spring and recommend their book quoted below:

 A common motivational paradigm for obedience:

First, you could dangle a carrot in front of the donkey, fooling the donkey into thinking that if he pulls the cart far enough, he’ll get to eat the carrot.

The second is to prod the donkey along the road by hitting him with a stick.

If the donkey is motivated by the ultimate reward of a carrot, the stick won’t be necessary,
but if he’s not really all that interested in carrots, then the stick will be employed.

Either way, through reward or through punishment, the cart driver gets what he wants.

Then they show how the gospel turns this on its head:

Because both parents and children obstinately refuse to pull the cart of God’s glory down the road, the Father broke the stick of punishment on his obedient Son’s back.

Rather than trying to entice us by dangling an unattainable carrot of perfect welcome and forgiveness incessantly in front of our faces, God the Father freely feeds the carrot to us, his enemies.

He simply moves outside all our categories for reward and punishment, for human motivation, and gives us all the reward and takes upon himself all the punishment. He lavishes grace upon grace on us and bears in his own person all the wrath that we deserve. Then he tells us, in light of all that he’s done, “Obey.”

Yes, we do have promises of rewards in heaven, but these are not earned by us through our merit.

Yes, there are promises of punishment, but not for those who are “in Christ.” All our punishment has been borne by him.

The carrot is ours.

The stick is his.

Manage [your children] with beans in a jar if you must, but be sure to tell them that it isn’t the gospel. And perhaps, once in a while, just fill the jar up with beans and take everyone out for ice cream, and when your son asks you, “Daddy, why do we get ice cream? How did the jar get to be full?” you’ll know what to say, won’t you?

Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus (Crossway, 2011) pp. 107-108

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