Join Jeff Archie and Jay Webb on the International Gospel Hour as they delve into the profound teachings of obedience according to the Savior’s way. This episode unpacks the concepts of obedience from both the positive and negative viewpoints, drawing lessons from Biblical passages and inspiring stories. Learn why partial obedience is inadequate and discover the responsibilities that come with following God’s word fully.
It was the Hebrew writer that said, Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Let’s talk about obedience, the Savior’s way. Today from the International Gospel Hour, let’s study.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s time for our broadcast from the International Gospel Hour. I’m Jay Webb, and welcome to our study today as we embrace God’s Word to help us meet the challenges of today. Let’s open our Bibles and open our heart for this time of Bible study with our speaker Jeff Archie of International Gospel Hour, a broadcast of the Churches of Christ. Here’s Jeff.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, thank you to our J-Web and greetings to all of you. Always good to have you with us for our studies here from the International Gospel Hour. We love to share study tools with you. Everything that we share, send to you, or suggest you go take a look at is absolutely free. We’ve got a new website for you, friends. We want to mention our friends at addedtothechurch.com. That’s addedtothechurch.com. Added to the church is one word. This is a great effort by D.J. and Sarah Curry of Parkersburg, West Virginia. They have some exceptional articles by them and others. And get this, folks, you can subscribe free to their two digital publications, The Mountain Messenger and The New Testament Expositor. So check them out at addedtothechurch.com. Once again, that’s addedtothechurch.com. Send them a message and tell them you heard about them here from the International Gospel Hour. For this broadcast we want to discuss the Savior’s way concerning obedience. In Hebrews 5 verses 7-9 we read, “…who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear…” Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Notice, friends, how that obedience implies responsibility. Christ was asked, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? His answer was, And he said unto them, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. Matthew 22, 36-40 I suggest to you that in these statements are three thoughts relative to responsibility. First, if we love our neighbor as ourselves, it is implied that we should love ourselves. We are to love self, but we are not to selfishly love self. Our Lord endorses the fact that we should love ourselves mentally, physically, morally and spiritually. For in Luke 2.52, Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Secondly, These statements involve and imply our responsibility to our fellow man. Paul said in Romans 1, 14 and 15, I am debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome. I owe a great debt of responsibility to many faithful brethren, among whom are many older gospel preachers. I am enjoying much fruit from their labors. And thirdly, we have a responsibility to God. In Ecclesiastes 12, 13 and 14 we read, Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. It will be evil rather. Friends, I want to pause here, and we’ll be back in just a moment. But first, a few words about our social media from our J-Web. Friends, I want to continue these thoughts concerning obedience, but I want to do it from the negative viewpoint. I raise the question, what is not acceptable obedience unto our Savior? In the first place, I suggest that a mere promise to obey is not obedience. Christ said in Matthew 21, 28-31, But what think ye? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not. But afterward he repented himself and went. And he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not. Which one of the two did the will of the father? They said the first. Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. You know, preachers of many years ago quite often used the following illustration. There was a man from North Carolina who sent his son into East Tennessee when that part of the state was practically a wilderness to be a forerunner for the family. He was to build a house, a barn, and dig a well. He was also given a blueprint to follow in carrying out the orders which he had been given. He was instructed to build the house and the barn in a certain place. The location of the well was also specified. The young man studied the blueprint and said, I like where the father says to locate the house and the barn. These are good locations. But I don’t like where he says to dig the well. Therefore, I will move the location of the well and place it where I want it. Now, friends, those preachers then made the point with telling force that this boy actually did not obey his father in any point. The only reason that he placed the house and barn at the correct place was simply because that was where he wanted them. But at the very point where there was a conflict between his father’s will and his own, he disregarded his father’s will and acted according to his own desires. Now, a mere promise of obedience is not obedience. There are thousands of people today who think they have obeyed the God of their being because they said, Lord, I will obey you, yet have never done so. Secondly, the saying of pious words, even when reinforced with so-called good works, well, that’s not obedience. Some people think that they will be able to argue with the Lord on the day of judgment about this matter. In Matthew 7, 21-23, Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out devils, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. So the offering of pious words reinforced with so-called good works is not obedience. Now I emphasize so-called good works because they were not good works. They were works that the Lord had not authorized. Therefore, they were without divine sanction. Such work that is done in denominations or in any religious system unknown to the Bible is not obedience. In the third place, I call to your attention the fact that partial obedience is not obedience to God. An example is recorded in Leviticus 10, verses 1-2. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. If everyone died on the next Sunday that offered a substitute for that required by God in worship, I assure you there would not be an adequate number of funeral homes to bury them. Nadab and Abihu substituted. They were right on everything except one point. They were two-thirds right. They worshipped the right God, had the right incense, but they had the wrong fire. This leads me to say that one may be right in everything except one point. But by being wrong in this one point, one is no nearer being saved than if he were wrong in every point. Let me illustrate. Suppose you have a horse in a pasture, and the fence around the pasture is composed of a thousand panels. If the horse decided to jump outside, he would only have to jump over one panel. I now raise this question. Would it be necessary for the horse to return and jump over all the remaining panels in order to get outside? Obviously not. He is just as much outside when he jumps over one panel as he would be if he jumped over all of them. In James 2 and verse 10, the Bible says, For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all. Nadab and Abihu were right in two points, but wrong in one. They should have gotten the fire from the altar according to Leviticus 16 verse 12. I do not know where they got it. They may have reasoned that one kind of fire was as good as another. People argue today that one mode of baptism is as good as another, but in one sense there is no such thing as a mode of baptism. A burial is not just one way to baptize. Friends, it is the only way, for baptism is a burial. Also, many contend that one church is as good as another. They could not be further from the truth. The truth is people today are partially obeying just like Nadab and Abihu. The Lord will not punish them with death in a miraculous fashion today, but the day is coming when it will be worse for them than it was for Nadab and Abihu in this sense. The fires of hell will burn forever to torment those who partially obey the Lord. Partial obedience is not obedience. Remember how the Lord instructed Saul, the first king of Israel, to utterly destroy the Amalekites? You will recall that he went on this mission, but before he returned, the Lord had already informed Samuel that Saul had apostatized. The very thing Saul said upon returning was this, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Samuel then replied with this question, What do you mean then, or what means then, this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? It seems that the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen are saying in effect, Saul, you are telling a falsehood. You are advocating a lie. You have not performed the commandment of the Lord, and you know it. In 1 Samuel 15, verse 21, Saul blames the people by saying, But the people took of the spoil, sheep, and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. In the following verse, Samuel replies with this question, 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 than the fat of rams. Samuel is saying that the sacrificing of all these cattle is not to be compared with obedience unto the God of our being. Partial obedience is not acceptable unto God. Fourth, substitution is also not acceptable obedience to God. Cain substituted in his obedience. The offering of Cain may have been as costly as that of Abel, but the difference was that Abel offered his sacrifice by faith. Hebrews 11.4 says, By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witnessed born to him that he was righteous and God bearing witness in respect of his gifts, and through it he being dead yet speaks. But how does faith come? Romans 10, 17 says, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. In Jude, verse 11, we read of Cain, Woe unto them, for they went in the way of Cain. and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Substitution is not obedience. Now friends, today we have examined what is not obedience. Mere promises that are not fulfilled. for one to say and not do, partially obeying God, and substitution of God’s commands. Friends, none of us wish to take chances with our souls by approaching obedience in any of these areas. We need to think on these things, friends, as we have considered this study today, and we’re going to continue thinking of obedience and studying this further in another broadcast. But for now, friends, let’s review just for a moment, and I’m just simply going to mention what we have just studied of what is not obedience. When a person puts forth a promise they fail to fulfill, you and I would agree that is not obedience. If someone promises to do something for us and they don’t carry it through, that’s not obedience. That’s not meeting what they said they would do. What about saying and not doing? Just like those sons in the parable in Matthew chapter 21, who one said, I will not go, or I will not go, then later he repented and went. And one said, I will, but he did not go. We know the one that did the will of the Father. The one that said, I will, and did not. Now think for a moment how you and I would feel if somebody says, I will do that for you. A mother asks a child to pick up his or her clothes or to straighten up their room. I will do that. And they fail to do it. The child will be subject to punishment. What about if a spouse promised to a husband, promised to a wife, or a wife promised a husband and did not go through? You see, folks, this can work in any way with the world. And this can work even in our jobs. So we would agree there. What about partially obeying God? You know, think back of Nadab and Abihu. Two things they did correctly. Prepared their censer unto God, but they used a strange fire. They went with something that God said don’t do. Friends, would we not agree that if we do something that God does not give us the command to do, is that correct? And what about the substitution of God’s commands? You know, when God commanded Saul to destroy the Amalekites, but yet they held the animals, well, we can hold this to offer sacrifice unto God. Which one is more important? You see, friends, when we substitute God’s commands, and sometimes I’ve heard people, honest, sincere people, well, I know what the Bible says, but here’s what I think. Now, that’s dangerous, friends. I see what the Bible says. That’s God’s Word. But yet, I’ll do what I want. Now, friends, none of us would agree that any of those situations are obedience. And once again, none of us wish to take chances with our souls by approaching obedience any of these ways. Friends, we always want to prompt you to think on the broadcast we bring forth, to study the materials that we make available, Today I want to offer two options to you. One is an online option and one we will send to you by mail. The first one is a very special online study called Believe the Bible. Here is our J-Web with the details of how you can access that broadcast or that study online today. Here is our J-Web.
SPEAKER 01 :
Where did we come from? Looking for a purpose in life? Your answer to these fundamental questions is greatly affected by whether you believe in God, believe the Bible is true, and believe Jesus to be divine. Our friend and evangelist Rob Whitaker conducts a great study called Believe the Bible. Please allow us to send you the link and check it out. Just call toll-free at 855-444-6988 and leave your name, email, and just say Believe the Bible. You may also go to our website at internationalgospelhour.com, click on the Contact tab, and leave us the same information, name, email, and type Believe the Bible in the message blank. We will send the link right away.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now, friends, we hope that study will be of help to you. It’s a great video online study that you can study at your pace, whatever you wish to do. We’re grateful for Brother Whitaker and his good studies through his good work, and also for our friends at the World Video Bible School or wvbs.org. Now, I mentioned we would send this to you today. Friends, we’ll get it to you as soon as we can, that link, and we try to respond promptly. So bear with us. Now, we realize a lot of our listeners do not have Internet access, so we like to offer as much by mail as we possibly can. And our long-time free Bible study course by mail is always available, as Jay will mention in a moment. Our good friends of the Mount Leo Church of Christ help us with these Bible studies. You can always give them a try, and we hope that you’ll find them of great interest. So here is our Jay Webb with more details about how you can receive your Bible study course by mail.
SPEAKER 01 :
Our long-time free Bible study course by mail is always available. Have you tried it yet? Just call us toll-free at 855-444-6988 and leave your name, address, and just say, Home Study. That’s it. You may also go to our website at internationalgospelhour.com, click on the Contact tab, and leave us the same information, name, address, and type Home Study in the message box. Study the Bible at your own pace. Again, it’s free from your friends here at International Gospel Hour.
SPEAKER 02 :
Again, dear friends, we hope that you will find one of those studies helpful. Maybe you can access both, and that would be good, but we would encourage doing one at a time, and we’re always open to help you here at International Gospel Hour. We’re thankful, and from time to time, we are able to speak with those of you who are searching, who are looking, and we’ll gladly help you with the Church of Christ in your area that will help you with your study of the Word of God. We are grateful to study this material that we are doing in this series called The Savior’s Way. And I thank my friend and encourager Paul Sain and his work SainPublications.com for the book of sermons that he reprinted a number of years ago titled The Savior’s Way. Now these are a series of sermons delivered by the late Garland Elkins in 1965 at the Morrison, Tennessee Church of Christ. The messages then are as relevant today as the Bible is relevant today as it ever was. We’re going to continue to look at these studies concerning obedience in our next couple of broadcasts. As a matter of fact, when you join us next time, we’re going to approach the subject from the positive viewpoint, that is, obedience. I’ll give you a couple of thoughts. In Genesis 6.22, we have one of the finest definitions of obedience to be found anywhere. It goes like this, Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Please note closely, Noah did all that God commanded him, not just part of it. And to be obedient is to walk by faith. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5, 7, For we walk by faith, not by sight. And faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, Romans 10, 17. We’ll continue those thoughts in our next broadcast concerning obedience, and we’re going to be looking from a positive viewpoint. You know, thinking about obedience, I’m reminded of the words by the late Furman Curley, who penned one time, of how a forest fire had spread throughout the woods, and firefighters were working intensely. and the wind shifted and the fire surrounded the firemen. They could see no way out. But other firemen in a plane saw their danger, but they could also see a way of escape. And so they guided the trapped men by radio through the fire. Those firemen were saved through their faith in their fellow firemen and their instructions. God’s mercy and grace through Christ’s death has provided for our salvation. A great wall of sin and unbelief will separate us from this salvation, and indeed it does. But the key to pass through the wall is faith in Christ Jesus. And when we believe Christ, His instructions will lead us out of sin and into salvation. John 3, verse 16. God’s grace instructs us how to escape sin and obtain salvation by denying ungodliness and living righteously. Titus 2, 11 and 12 When I believe Christ, I am going to believe in Him, for He commanded me to do that. John 3, 16 and John 8, 24 If I believe in Christ, I am going to embrace His command of repentance in Luke 13, verses 3 and 5, and the command to preach repentance in Luke 24, verses 44 through 47. I’m going to confess Christ before men because He taught us to do that in Matthew 10, 32 and 33. And with that mouth confession is made unto salvation, Romans 10, verse 10. And yes, friends, I’m going to be baptized into Christ because baptism is part of the Great Commission. For in Mark 16, 16, Jesus said, He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. He that does not believe will be condemned. When Peter stood and preached repentance on the day of Pentecost, he also preached baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. I am going to then walk a faithful life because I believe in Christ, and I am going to walk faithful and walk in the light as He is in the light. having fellowship with fellow Christians one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son will cleanse us from all sins. I am going to confess Him. I am going to walk faithful for Him. I will confess my sins, 1 John 1 and verse 9. Friends, we are able to be obedient according to the Savior’s way, and that is the only way that matters. For in John 14, verses 1 through 6, Jesus reminds us how He goes to prepare a place for us And then unto Philip he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. John 14 and verse 6. How grateful I am to my Lord to know that I can follow His way. the truth and the life. All I have to do, friends, is search the Scriptures and see the commands of my Lord in what I will do. I mentioned moments ago, it was Thomas who said unto him, Lord, to whom shall we go, or how can we know the way? John 14, verse 5. I want to make that correction before I tell you, let’s study together at another time. Thank you for bearing with me. Thank you for joining me today on the International Gospel Hour. I’m Jeff Archie, and friends, keep listening.
SPEAKER 01 :
God be with you, still be with you. Thank you for listening today. To God be the glory. And we hope that our study today will draw you closer to His Word to walk in His way. Feel free to listen to our other programs at our website at internationalgospelhour.com And join us next time. Till we meet again.
