Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Trust and Obey Pt.3

Thank God for His work in our midst. It's always good to see those that have strayed come home. Amen? That's the heart of our Father. He's always waiting, always looking, for those prodigals to come home.

How many of you got to share the Lord with somebody, here in say the last week or so? Let me see your hands. Praise God. Amen. The night is coming when no man can work. The day is on us of the visitation of the Lord; the Day of the Lord is at hand, so let's just continue to be faithful, and as opportunity arises, shout from the housetops all the good things that Father has spoken into your heart in the prayer chamber, in His presence. The Scripture makes it so clear that freely we have received, freely we are to give, praise God, so just continue to give that opportunity.

I want to continue to deal with the power of faith and obedience and what it does, in these last days, to cause us to be able to stand against the evil one. It's going to be done through those two forces: faith and obedience. Those two things work together. We know that faith and hope work together, but you're going to see in the Scriptures, as we continue over the next number of sessions, that there is no genuine faith without obedience. Faith will always produce action in the direction of God's will. Faith will always produce action in the direction of God's will, where we become doers of the Word, the Scripture says, and not hearers only.

We're going to spend a little time in Hebrews and look at some of the great champions of faith and the things that they had in common. And realize that as we walk in obedience, God is going to pour His blessings out upon us-His presence, the blessing of His divine protection, all of the blessings of Deuteronomy 28. Has it been a while since maybe you've read Deuteronomy 28, and you see all the blessings that God wants to bestow upon us that are obedient? You see, the blessings of God are in direct proportion to our obedience-to God's favor, pleasure, in our life of exalting Him through obedience-that sweet smelling savor. For to obey is better than sacrifice, we saw in our last session. It's the sacrifice of the sweet smelling savor, as we're obeying God, as we choose His will and not our own. And that's all obedience is. It's what exalts Father in the heavens. In the spirit realm, it's what causes every knee to bow, praise God, and every tongue to confess that He's Lord.

Do you understand the warfare that we're involved in right now in this unseen world? The ultimate worship and the ultimate acknowledgement of Father's glory and majesty are inevitable, but I'd like to see Him get some glory and praise now, wouldn't you? There's a big audience of angels and demons. There's a big audience of the departed souls. And we realize, then, that we can bring glory to God in the midst of this great audience of the unseen world by every act of obedience, by every choice to do His will and not our own.

So we'll go back and look at a couple of verses here real quickly. Let's turn back to Deuteronomy 26, verse 16; I want to read just a couple of verses real quickly. "This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul." Keep them; do them. The keeping, of course, is a protecting. It's protecting them in our doctrine; it's protecting them in our community of believers, holding the standards up. And then there's the personal responsibility of you doing it. We keep it by requiring others to do it, and we do it by the habitual choice to subordinate ourselves to His lordship. I'm going to show you that a little more specifically in this evening's session. There are some things that I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to show the practical side of this life of obedience.

The fifteenth chapter of 1 Samuel, where we left off in our last session, verse 22: "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken [to be obedient, to listen, to be a doer] than the fat of rams." You see, this obedience is really for our benefit. It's something that we would be more ready to obey when we understand these two things. Number one, it is the greatest offering you can give Father in this unseen realm. There is no greater offering than your will. Obedience is the bowing of your knee, the subordinating of self-will, to do the will of God, the Word of God, the commandments of God.

Now, you see, the problem that most of us have is we think we want to be independent and we want to do our will, and what I want you to see tonight is you are never doing your will. You are either doing God's will or Satan's will. And the sooner we can realize that, and especially adolescents-we want this independence, and we want to have our say. It's never your say; it's never your will. You are a puppet of God or the devil! You see, man doesn't like that. We resist that thought even as believers. It just kind of goes against the grain to even give thought to that, but in reality that's where it is.

Now, as Christians, we're not our own; we've been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus. But you see, you need to understand that the original sin-the cause was pride, but the sin was disobedience. "For as by one man's [say it] disobedience many were made sinners [sin entered into the world] . . . " (Romans 5:19). Now, think about that for just a moment. By one man's disobedience sin entered into the world. And so we realize, then, that the original sin being disobedience, all of us that are the sons of Adam, the tendency, then, is going to continue to move in that vein until we are regenerated and begin to not demand our own will. We begin to subordinate ourselves. We, unlike our father Adam, believe that God is right. We, unlike our father Adam, trust God to do us good and to bless us.

You see, Adam was duped by his wife and by his own self-will (and might I add here doctrinally, free will) to believe that God was holding out, that there was a better way, that self-government would profit him more-"For my eyes will be opened and I will be as gods." Your eyes shall be opened, you shall (plural) be as gods to everyone. So that self-government, self-rule, is what's in every person-"I want to govern myself." Now, who is behind the scenes selling this thing, that you could govern yourself? Satan, the god of this world. So he's selling this thing-"You can be your own man; you can be your own god. You'll be free." You know what's really being said? "You'll be my slave instead of God's." It's that simple. We can close the book and go home right now if we'd hear that message. No man is independent. None of us are free to originate any agenda, to have self-will. We are under the power of God (light, righteousness) or Satan (darkness, iniquity).

So when you get ready to make these independent decisions-"This is me. I thought this idea up, and I have this great plan."-that's the devil, if it's contrary to the Word of God, and that's the only other source it can originate from. Amen? Now, once we understand that God is good-Deuteronomy 5:29, "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me [reverence Me], and keep all my commandments [do My will, be obedient] always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever"

You see, God is back trying to put us on course by these passages and say, "You've believed a lie; you've been duped, man." Now see, let me give you a little idea of how independence thinks and how the perverted mind of man (who's under the power of Satan, thinking that he's under his own power, has his own will) thinks. In hindsight, we look back. Now, here's what God said; here's how this whole thing shook down. Listen: "Everything is yours. I want to bless you; I want to do you good all the days of your life. I want it to be well with you and with your children forever. That's what My intention is. So here's all of this domain, and it's all yours except this tree here in the midst. You can have everything else, but the day you eat that fruit, you're going to [What?] die." Now, everything we hear is, "If you'll eat that fruit, if you'll do it your way, if you'll govern yourself, you'll live." God said, "The minute you eat that fruit, you're going to die."

Now, here's how an adolescent thinks, here's how the perverted, carnal mind thinks, in looking back. Many of us would say this-when our parents tell us what to do, when spiritual authority tells us what to do ("Obey them that have the rule over you, [that watch, that care, for your souls] . . . " Hebrews 13:17)-the young man, the adolescent, the fool, thinks he deserves an explanation. "Here's what I want you to do." "Why?"

Now, we talked about that, didn't we, in the past? I came from a generation-you didn't ask why. Those were biblical principles, even in unregenerate people, because they work, because they're right. They weren't always administrated properly. They were many times administered in frustration, but we were made very aware, as young people, of two different things. One, I had no clue that there was a Romans 13, but I knew that the powers that be were ordained, and I didn't resist the power, openly. Even when I got stronger than my dad, when I got to that place that I was convinced, I knew in my heart-I always wanted to arm-wrestle my dad, growing up. I would want to arm-wrestle him, and so as I got bigger-and I got bigger early; when I was a sophomore in high school I had 16" arms. I was starting to get bigger, and I then kept getting bigger and stronger, and I'd want to arm-wrestle my dad. And one time we were arm-wrestling, and it was like a tie. Then shortly after that, I got stronger, and I knew that I could beat him, and I never asked him to arm-wrestle again. Why? I didn't want to beat my dad! Whenever I knew I could beat him, I never wanted to challenge him again. I respected him.

These were things that, in growing up in that generation, were so much different. Now, granted, there were times when those things-"Well, why?" You'd say that, and the answer was, "Because I said so," and that was the end of that explanation. "Why?" "Because I said so!" "Well, that's a poor explanation. I was wanting a little more detail." "OK, here it is. If you don't do it, I'm going to knock you out!" And there's a little more to the formula. But anyway, we think this way: "Give me a reason, and I'll weigh it out and I'll determine whether you're right or not. I'll determine whether your request is valid." Now, listen, because I'm talking about this spirit that we're in, because what you and I are combating is such a supernatural force that's in existence today. It's always been here from that first day in the garden of Eden until now, but I want you to know this thing is growing in its power and in its influence. It's called the secret power of lawlessness!

And that spirit of antichrist that is preparing hearts all over in this rebellious spirit, in this independent thinking, lawlessness-every man doing what's right in his own eyes, each of us entities to ourselves-what is that? "It's liberty; it's freedom." You know what it is? It's divide and conquer, because Satan gets every person out there on their own, and takes them. You see, he's had practice. But no, every generation thinks it's smarter than the last one, and not only generations but genders and many different aspects that have always been in conflict with the revealed will of God. There is an order. God has given divine order in His kingdom, and in that order is safety. In that order of designated authority, parents, the authority is yours. And so the Bible says it this way, "Children, [say it] obey your parents in the Lord . . . " (Ephesians 6:1). See, there's the order. There's no other way; there's no other method. It's the order of God. To break that is to put yourself under the lordship of Satan, to be dominated, to be killed. " . . . for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). The day you choose to go against God's wisdom, you shall surely die. Now, it may not manifest that very next day in a car accident, but you're going down, man, because God has a plan; He has order.

"Wives, submit yourselves . . . " (Ephesians 5:22)-the order of God. "Obey them that have the rule over you [in His kingdom] . . . " (Hebrews 13:17)-the order of God. Now, what is natural man's tendency, every one of us? I know it's mine; it's in you-we're all the same. We receive that admonition, and we want to know why. "Well, why? Explain it." There will be times when it can be explained, but you need to understand something. We need to come to the place where we have trained ourselves, we've chosen to subordinate ourselves, and obedience is our first response.

I've talked about it before, and I won't get into it tonight, but in the military that's what they do. They break your will down; they tell you, "You can't think for yourself. It's going to save your life to do what you're told." That's why; that's why they're doing this. "Oh, they're just wanting to take away all my fun." They're wanting to save your life! "Get down!" "Why? I don't have to obey . . . "-boom! Hmm? "Tell me why. Explain it to me."

Now, how many of you think it would have been different if it went something like this? OK, here's how it went. Here's what God did, and here's how God is today. "Don't eat of that tree. The day you do, you're going to die." That's all the info he got. How about, "Let me tell you something, Adam. You shouldn't eat of that fruit, because here's what's going to happen. If you eat of that fruit, you see, your fellowship is going to be broken; you and I will no longer be able to commune. The scales will fall off your eyes, you'll see that you're naked, [and] you'll run and hide. We'll not have any fellowship together. Your wife is going to rule over you from there on. Everybody born of you is going to be a murderer, is going to be a rebel. Your boys are going to go to war; they're going to kill one another. All humanity will be born in sin. My Son Jesus is going to have to come, die on the cross, and be made sin to bring about reconciliation. All of these souls are going to go to a devil's hell and be tormented without fellowship and . . . " How many of you think if Adam had the whole picture, he probably wouldn't have done it? He would have still done it!

Why don't we come back into the simplicity of doing what we're told, and not have to have the whole explanation and God in His foreknowledge, and God in His great ability to be omnipresent and omniscient, have to share with us His omniscience of why you shouldn't do that, why you ought to do what you're told? We'd never get anything done if God sat around and exhausted His omniscience into every one of us at all times. But we all think we're special and we deserve some kind of an explanation.

But here is the biblical explanation: you don't need one. And the fact of the matter is, as God is dealing in each one of our lives, I want you to see how important it is that this lie-and I'm going to say it again; I want to say it a number of times-this lie, "Hey, I'm my own man. I'm going to do my own thing." You're a puppet. That thought didn't originate with you. You know that thought right now, that one "that I independently thought, that I'm going to choose to show my independence; I'm going to choose to show that I have say over my own life"? If only your eyes could be opened and you could see that demonic power whispering into your ear, "You won't die. You won't die. You'll be as gods. He just doesn't want you to do it. Your folks don't want you have any fun. That's just the rules that these people have that are trying to control your lives." Every man that ever lived before you heard the same song, man.

What's the problem? We don't believe; we don't believe in God. If we believed in God, we'd believe in this principle and we'd do everything we could to run to the light, to protect ourselves from rebellion and disobedience and independence. We'd do everything that the Scripture says about following those who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises of God, about receiving the safety in a multitude of counsel. The real issue is, beloved, we don't believe in God, because those that believe in God believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. You see, the only reason we choose to go separate from what the Word of God says is because we believe that we have a better way; we're going to get more this way-when He says right here, "I'll never forsake you; I'll never fail you," as we saw in the study in Joshua, as we see here in Deuteronomy 5, "It's going to be well with you and with your children forever." No good thing will He withhold from those that walk uprightly, praise God! [Satan whispers,] "God is holding out on you. Your eyes will be opened. You'll have independence; you'll have self-rule."

Turn over to Romans, Chapter 6, for just a moment and look at the principle expressed in another way, from a doctrinal perspective. This is a very obvious, practical, general statement. Now, what's interesting is we're creatures that have received the great gift from our Father, our Creator, to have free will. But it's not an unlimited free will; it's a free will to choose between one of two choices. Free will in that we are not predestined; free will in that you don't have to go to hell. Amen? God is not willing that any would perish. Then why are we perishing? Man has free will. If we really believed this, how could any man choose hell over heaven? How could any man choose the devil over God, hate over love, torment over peace? "Well, of course that's not what I'm choosing. What I'm choosing is my way. I'm choosing my independence; I'm choosing to have control over my own life."

It's not one of the choices, and the deception of that falls over into that second choice. Paul says it this way in Romans, Chapter 6, as he's speaking to us and he's talking about the benefits of liberty from the power of sin and how, being crucified with Christ, we can now live lives of sanctification, or separation to God. We can become filled with the spirit, and in the midst of all of this, he says in verse 12 of the sixth chapter of Romans, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should [say the next word with me] obey it in the lusts thereof." You're going to obey the spirit or the sin that's in your members. You're going to obey God or Satan. You see, many of us hear the word "obey" and it even sounds like a bad word to the natural man. "Obey! Do what I'm told! Don't I have anything to say about it? I want to express my opinion. I want my feelings and my position known!"

When do we get to express our position? When it's done orderly; when it's done in proper order. Of course there's a place for us to speak; of course there's a place. You see, what we're talking about here is not tyranny; we're talking about relationship. You see, the problem is most of us see Father as a tyrant and not as a father. He doesn't have to be the schoolmaster; He doesn't have to be the one that chastens. You can know His favor, you can know His instruction, you can have input if you [What?] obey, if you have a heart, a spirit, of obedience. If you're not a rebel, God wants to talk to you. He wants to let you talk to Him; He wants to fellowship with you. If you are a rebel, He's going to discipline you, He's going to bring about a curse on you, according to Deuteronomy 28, to try to deliver you from yourself and from Satan, because the Lord chastens those that He loves. He loves you; He wants you out from under the power of sin-Satan, self.

There is no true expression of self under the lordship of Satan. The true expression of self can only be known under God's dominion, and it's very important for us to come to that awareness. Why do I say that? Because Satan is a usurper-he's a rebel; he is not the creator. Self is who God created you to be; that's who self is. Perceived self under Satan's lordship is his expressing his image, his purpose, his will, in conflict with the purpose of God, the reason that you're selfness exists. You and I were created for a purpose. Do you believe that? We're not just an accident. We are specific individuals who God has created to perform functions, to fulfill His will for His purpose, His glory, and your good. But when we want to control all of these things, we get in trouble, and man wants to manipulate.

We were just talking about this. Greer said a whole bunch of people came up to her the other day and said, "Are you pregnant? Are you pregnant?" No, she's not pregnant, but we are going to have a baby, and unlike some of you, we know when. They're going to stir it up in a little dish, and that's how it'll be done. Now, in today's world they can go as far as having designer babies. Now, I know it's not real ethical for a lot, but they can. They can determine eye color and sex and these different things. So in those different areas, we were talking about if you're going to have a child, what would you want to have? Well, you want a good looking one. [Pastor's humor.] I didn't say what I was talking about; I'm just talking. But we're not going to go that way; we're not going to design something. God is in charge. Amen? Whatever Father reckons and desires to do in these different areas. His ways are right; His ways are beyond our ways, and it's always for our good.

Now, watch what He has to say here. "Let not sin therefore reign [rule, dominate] in your mortal body [your natural daily activities; this daily function that we call life], that ye should obey it . . . "-sin, that power, that force. Let's begin to see sin in this way; maybe this will help us in our study, in our discussion. Sin is Satan's will. OK? Don't let Satan's will, Satan's commandments-you have the commandments of God, the commandments of Satan-don't let Satan's will, the commandments of the devil, rule your life.

"Neither [verse 13] yield [see, self-will is involved in this] ye your members [your bodies, yourself] as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin [Satan's will, Satan's commandments, Satan's bible]: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you [Satan's will shall not have dominion over you; Satan's commandments are not to be the dominant force in your life if you are regenerated.] . . . Know ye not, [verse 16, and this is a passage that's powerful if you can catch the principle] that to whom ye [free will] yield yourselves [pursue, prepare] . . . "-yielding isn't just a decision; it's preparation. When I yield myself to be used of God, I don't just say, "Well, here I am, Lord." As I make myself available, I also have to prepare myself. The Bible tells me what to do. I need to sanctify myself; I need to cleanse myself with the washing of the water of the Word. I need to pray; I need to commune with God. I need to become a part of the family of God; I need to serve. I need to humble myself; I need to prefer others better. This is all yielding; this is preparation. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves [say the next three words with me] servants to obey . . . "-slaves is what that word means, slaves. "Don't you know that to whom you yield yourselves slaves, slaves to obey"-this begins to put the thing in proper perspective doesn't it?

How much input does a slave have? "OK, Mr. Slave, mow the lawn." "Why?" That's not slave talk, man. Can't you see the slave boat? They're all down there-"Stroke!" "Where are we going? When are we going to get . . . ? How come? Why? When are we going to eat? Here's the head of our union." Unions are of the devil. Amen! Some of you, I know, are in unions, and some of you are pretty high up in unions. I didn't say you're of the devil; I said unions are of the devil. It's man expressing himself, man wanting to control-"You're not going to tell me what to do! You will not tell me what to do! You just built this company! You just own it! You just pay my salary! You're not telling me what to do!" Thank you for the job.

You see, I understand the abuses. Baseball-dear Lord. It's human nature; it's in every area. I know it's in me, because even the way I respond to that thing- I believe God's grace would be sufficient, but I know what's naturally in me, and just coming to grips with that and realizing that on every turn we have to combat that self-will, that overvaluation of our personal worth, our own opinion, the worth of our opinion. There are others that seem to want to be more free to express it than others, but everybody has them.

So he says it this way, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves [slaves] to obey, his [slaves] ye are to whom ye obey; [I don't obey anybody; I do what I want.] whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" You're not doing what you want. Now, if you think you're doing what you want, if you think you're doing your will, you don't believe in God, because the Word of God very clearly tells us you're under one kingdom. And the wages of sin are death (Romans 6:23)-you're working for somebody.

So we see here, then, that it's to whom you yield yourselves slaves to obey. You're going to obey somebody. You're going to obey God, or you're going to obey the devil. You're going to obey somebody. The lie is that you're independent-"I just do what I want. I'm a freethinker." Yeah, like you ever had an original thought in your life! You need to understand something: there is no new thing under the sun. Amen? It's all been thought; it's all been done, and that's what God reveals to us.

"But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free [there it is-free] from sin, ye became the [slaves] of righteousness." See, whichever one you become free from, you become a slave to the other, to obey. That's the principle. Simple, I understand, but profound in that nobody's got it right yet. But the more we become aware, then the more we want to protect ourselves from the reproach that's brought on God through believing the lie of the devil instead of our Father Who's telling us, "This is for your good. If you do it this way, you're going to be blessed in your deeds. You're going to be blessed going in and coming out." And tragically, that's the thing that we haven't really come to yet-that obedience is that sweet smelling savor to God. The choice to obey, to subordinate our will to His will instead of Satan's, is the greatest form of worship. It's a free choice, because you're either going to honor God or honor the devil. So we're called into that communion; we're called into that fellowship.

Turn back to 1 Samuel for just a second, and let's take a moment and look back there. You know, as you read Hebrews and you talk about those champions of faith, the Scripture talks about Abraham, the father of faith, and it says that Abraham obeyed God. Interesting statement-just "Abraham obeyed God." Through one man's disobedience sin entered into all men, and through one man's obedience (Jesus) we were reconciled, we were justified, we are being sanctified, and we will be glorified. But it's by His obedience now; there's no merit in it for us. Man did sin, Jesus did righteousness. Man couldn't get it back. Man lost it; Jesus (God) had to get it back. Said another way, we mess everything up. Anything that's going to be good in your life is going to come from God; He's going to be the source. He's the source, He's the object, of our worship. He is the treasure that we pursue.

Now, back in 1 Samuel 15, let's look at a couple of other things here so that we can learn a little bit more from Saul's sin, from Saul's disobedience. A very simple thing was asked of him, "Go destroy everything that's opposing Me, My children." Isn't it amazing how many times we come up with better ideas? We want to add to what God said, we want to subtract, and we saw in Joshua you can't do that. You can't add to it; you can't subtract from it. Just do what you're told. Do it God's way. Don't do it part way! And I think that's probably the one thing that gets most of us in trouble; we don't see God's will through. We start off, our intentions are good, and then we want to somehow modify it. We want to be more gentle than God. We want to be kinder than God. We want to be more loving than God. As we begin to administer God's will, do it! Do what He told you to do!

And the thing that got him in trouble here, of course, was wanting to add to this. But as I was meditating on this today again, one thing that just jumped out at me that goes along with that whole doctrinal position that we took in Romans 6-we talked about the tragedy of deception, where Saul really thought he had obeyed. He said, "I obeyed. I did what You told me to do. Now, I made it a little better by adding my twist to it, because you see, You wanted to destroy stuff, and part of what You were wanting to destroy was really good stuff, so I saved it for You." Like God needs stuff. "Well, it was really good stuff, so I saved it for You. Special. It wasn't Kmart stuff, you see. This was good stuff."

Our perceptions, man! How many of you know that denim is denim? We had to go down to Tysons II the other day, so we parked outside and came in and were looking for this item we could only find down there, and the Lord blessed us. Greer lost a backing off of one of her earrings; they're a special type. I figured there was one store there at Tysons II that might have it. We went in there. They had one; it fit-Hallelujah!-and there we were. So the Lord ordering our steps, we went to The Cheesecake Factory. How many of you know that was God? Had to be. So we went to The Cheesecake Factory and we ate, and on our way out we were walking through "Needless Markup" [Pastor humorously referring to Neiman Marcus, an expensive department store] because we had parked out on that side. So we're walking through there, and there's this mannequin with these denims on, and the comment was made, "I'll bet those things cost $150!" That was Greg who made that comment. You can see he doesn't get out much. And so I found out I didn't get out much either, because I kind of laughed like, "Yeah, a $150? Those things probably cost like $300, man." So we go over there and it was a pair of Levi's with holes in them and a couple of sequins and a label that had D&G-the "o" was missing in the middle. I don't know what D&G is! I don't want to know, because these things cost $1,300! For a pair of Levi's! Denims! With holes in them! Thin gauge-you could-have you noticed we're paying more for our pants, our Levi's, and they're getting thinner, the gauge is getting thinner?

When I was a kid, you could get a good pair-you know, those blue ones that could stand up? You'd bring them babies home, man, brand new, stand them in the corner, in the morning jump in there, and head to school, man. I mean, you'd walk like this. [Pastor walks stiff-legged.] And when you were little and you had to roll them up, you remember? Now, in my day, we were cool. We rolled them under, but if you rolled them under and they came up too far, you couldn't walk. So you had to get creative in how you did them, but those babies, those things would last for generations, man. That's when pants were pants, and the label, Levi Strauss label, meant something. How many of you know what's on the label? Anybody remember what was on the original label? What was on that label? Two mules doing what? No, there was a pair of pants in the middle, and they were each pulling opposite directions, and they couldn't rip the pants. Two mules get hernias trying to rip these pants. Now, that's pants! Those babies were worth the $5 we paid for them. I still have a pair. Can't wear them out, I'm telling you. Two things you can't wear out; two things will last forever: Levi's and Twinkies. Thin, little-$1,300!

Now, what's the point I'm making? I don't remember. [Laughter] But it had to be something with perception, I'm sure. Perceiving that something is worth more than it really is. It is what it is! It's denim! And so as Saul was putting this value on this good stuff, it was only good in his eyes. That thing is only worth $1,300 to a few folks-really sick puppies that have to somehow show their stupidity. So the worth of these things where Saul said, "I'm going to save this good stuff for God." What makes it good? What makes this stuff valuable, really? Now, we all know that certain items are better than others, and I'm sure that a machine didn't put that little sequin on there. It was probably somebody in Vietnam, and-Made in Italy. Right! Guarantee you that dude's name was Kim, not Alfonso.

So Saul is saying here, he's saying, "We saved this good stuff for You, God." God doesn't want your stuff! And I want to tell you something. God is not going to withhold the stuff from you. He wants to bless you! Read Deuteronomy 28. God wants to bless you if you'll be obedient! Now, not from the "faith camp." Read Deuteronomy 28 with the "faith camp" message out of it, and get the spirit behind what it's saying, that God wants to bless you. Amen? It doesn't say He's going to make you all filthy rich, but He wants to bless us. It's His intention for us, for our children, forever.

So here's Saul with his better idea, and we'll end with this for this evening. "And Saul said [verse 20] unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me . . . " How tragic this deception is of people who think they're obeying, who think they're in the will of God, and they're always adding their little pinch to the recipe-keeping this little part off, that one little section of our heart, reserved for ourselves. "I've obeyed!" And then, of course, always verse 21, right? You blame someone else-"But the people." "The woman thou gavest me," "the devil"-from the original sin. [God said,] "Adam, what have you done?" [Adam said,] "The woman, the woman." "Thou art the man." Powerful, powerful passage.

"Don't you understand that to obey is better than sacrifice?" (Verse 22) Now, we talked and took a lot of time to show you that obedience, we're slaves to obey God or Satan-the will of the Lord, the will of man. Look at verse 24, "And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: [he saw it] for I transgressed the commandment of the Lord [I didn't do the will of the Lord], and thy words [Samuel]: because I [What?] feared the people, and [What?] obeyed their voice." See, you're either obeying man-you're obeying people and buying those $1,300 pants, trying to impress the people. People are just a bunch of sheep. Somebody on Madison Avenue changes the style, and we all go, "Oh yeah, this is cool!" I don't know when it's going to happen, but when these guys look back on cockeyed hats and baggy pants and everything and go, "Why did you let us dress like this?" They're going to ask, "Why did you let me dress like that?" Every generation does something stupid, but we do it because everybody else is doing it. We obey their voices; we're fearing the faces of men. We are the children of Satan, influenced by popular demand, by the will of man, by majority, and it's the fear of faces, it's pride, arrogance, and it's death.

"So why are you getting all those tattoos and piercings and purple hair?" "Because I'm an individual like those 7 million people." And we convince ourselves that it's an individual expression; it's free choice. Now, I'm not saying that dressing like an idiot is sin. I'm just pointing out the natural tendency of men. I mean, you look back at the way we dressed when I was younger and again, it was just style that was totally different. Why? Pegged pants. I mean, dear Lord, our pants were like that, man. [Pastor folds his pant leg over to represent skintight style.] If your pants weren't that tight and you didn't have pointed shoes and high heel stiletto type, man-we were bad. Don't you mess with Nicky Cruz and the boys! It's just different. I'm not talking about fashion. I don't want anybody to misunderstand that. I'm talking about everybody following everybody else and thinking, "I'm a freak." And there were some people that would always say, "OK, the majority is doing that; I'm going to do this." "Oh, they're rebels. Look, they're into-" And as much as you'd like to convince yourself that you're free, you're Satan's slave. That's the point we're trying to make.

If you could get this tonight, somehow, all of us, then it would make obeying your parents worship to the Lord; it would make submitting to your husband worship to the Lord; it would make obeying those that have the rule over you worship to the Lord; it would bring peace into your life, the blessings of God, life and not a curse. And the good news tonight is you're free to make a choice, and you can be free tonight to know the blessings of God, to make decisions habitually to say, "I'm going to do what the Word of God says. I'm going to do what this straight and narrow path dictates. I'm going to pursue God with all my heart, soul, body, mind and strength. I'm going to keep His commandments. I'm going to meditate upon them day and night, and then shall my way be made prosperous, and then I'm going to have good success. I am going to become habitually a slave to God's will and His righteousness; I am going to present myself habitually. I'm going to do everything possible to allow no other-as the utterance came forth tonight-no double-minded thinking, no human philosophy, wisdom, to enter in, because the double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. But the single eye, the single-minded man, the man that says, "God's Word is truth; let everyone else be a liar," you're going to know the supernatural presence, peace, and power of God. Then we become candidates to know that force of faith that we're going to talk about in our next session. Obedient hearts make us candidates for the power of faith to operate in our lives.

Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight, and we just ask that simply You would show us there's nothing new. This thing that we think is a dilemma and has to somehow be worked out and I've got to think through it and I've got to work my way through it-there's nothing new. There have been generations for thousands of years. We don't reinvent the wheel. There is no special exception clause to anything we're involved in. We're called to obey, to keep Your commandments, to worship You with our obedience, because obedience is the highest sacrifice, the highest worship-to bow our knee, and to say, "My Father is good and His purpose for me is good."

Make it real we ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord. Take just a moment, as Gary plays for us-the next time you say, "I'm not going to obey my parents. I'm going to do what I want," get the picture. You are not doing what you want; to not obey your parents is to do what Satan wants, not you. "I'm not going to submit to my husband." You're not choosing your will; you're not expressing your independence. You're worshipping Satan. See it for what it is. That's the reality of it. Present yourselves slaves to one or the other. "Well, how do I know who's Lord? If I can't be my own man, then how do I know who's the Lord of my life?" By whom you obey, by the one you're agreeing with, the one you're following, the one you're serving, the one you're bearing fruit for. The choice is yours as to who you yield your members to this evening. Let's sing it together. "Lord, You are . . . "

The secret power of lawlessness-perceived independence, perceived liberty-supernaturally blinding the eyes of men. Believing there are no consequences, that somehow it's our right; kicking against the pricks, but the law is for the lawless, the Scripture says. Don't be lied to. "Your eyes will be opened." Don't be lied to.

Turn to somebody next to you and say, "To obey is better than sacrifice." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print