CHOOSE A BLESSING TODAY!
(OR A CURSE TOMORROW)
TEXT:
Deut.11:26-28 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
THESIS: To show that obedience brings God's blessings, disobedience brings God's curse!
INTRO.:
A. Israel is on the brink of entering the Promised Land (a picture of the victorious Christian life) & Moses gives some final & weighty instructions. In summary he says that God's blessings will come if they obey Him & God's curse will come if they disobey.
B. These principles are for every age & for all of God's people. Time never alters principles.
There are 3 categories of subject matter in the Bible:
1) Facts
2) Promises
3) Commands.
🔹Facts are to be believed.
🔹Promises are to be claimed.
🔹Commands are to be obeyed.
🔸Facts are addressed to the understanding & you either believe them or reject them. (You can't obey a Bible fact, e.g., the Virgin Birth or the Second Coming. These are facts to be received by faith.
🔸Promises are simply to be claimed. But...
🔸Commands are addressed to the will & are not designed simply to be believed, but simply to be obeyed.
ILLUS.: We have all seen Bible Promise boxes filled w/little cards w/Script. verses. You have never seen a Bible Commandment box. But it is useless to claim the promises w/out obeying the commandments.
I. THE MANDATE FOR OBEDIENCE:
ILLUS.: We have deteriorated into a Cafeteria-style religion where believers pick & choose what they will respond to from Script.
Though unspoken the underlying attitudes are:
🤢"I will attend services when I feel like it."
🤢"I will give what & when I want to."
🤢"I'll read my Bible if I have time."
🤢"I'll serve if the preacher can motivate me." etc., etc.
Biblically this Cafeteria mentality has no place in our lives...
A. O.T. Mandate:
1. With Adam & Eve it was not unbelief or failure to claim a promise that caused their fall, it was simple disobedience.
a. God warned that disobedience would bring death.
b. Adam deliberately & willfully disobeyed, knowing the consequences
2. Moses brought down from Sinai the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions.
a. Commands imply obedience.
b. The entire O.T. is loaded w/commandments.
B. N.T. Mandate:
1. Jesus made obedience synonomous w/love for Him.
Jn.14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. (KJV)
2. James made obedience a test of faith.
Jas.1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (& Faith w/out works is dead.)
QUES.: In attempting to escape the error of salvation by works we may have fallen into the opposite error of salvation w/out obedience.
3. John made obedience a criterion for the new birth.
I Jn.2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (KJV)
QUOTES:
Harold Vaughn: "It is not the profession of your faith, it is the practice of your life that proves your true spiritual character."
A.W. Tozer: "The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith."
TRANS.: CLAIM A BLESSING TODAY...NOT A CURSE TOMORROW! OBEY!!!
II. THE MEANING OF OBEDIENCE:
DEFINITION: Obedience is doing exactly what I'm told to do, when I'm told to do it w/the proper heart attitude.
A. Immediate Obedience:
Ps.119:60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. (KJV)
QUOTE: (Unknown) “Obedience is immediate. Delayed obedience is disobedience, and disobedience is sin."
B. Active Obedience:
1. A command implies obedience.
ILLUS.: Imagine a military man deciding which commands from his superiors he will or will not obey. Catering to the uncommitted has fostered a pick & choose mentality in the local church. We have allowed the world's mentality to infiltrate the church & we have become traitors to the cause of our Commander-in-Chief.
QUOTE: Evang. Tim Lee: "While I was fighting & losing my two good legs in Viet Nam, former President Bill Clinton was smoking pot & protesting the war on foreign soil. While my buddies were paying the ultimate sacrifice, Bill Clinton was urging everyone he could to dodge the draft & oppose the war. While we were in the foxholes in the jungle, he was in the pubs of England. Bill Clinton is no friend of America. The enemy occupied the White House."
2. Passive obedience is disobedience.
C. Complete Obedience:
1. Partial obedience is also disobedience. (1 Samuel 15:14)
ILLUS.: God ordered Saul to kill all the Amalekites, their cattle, etc. When Samuel came to check on Saul's obedience, Saul insisted he had indeed obeyed. Samuel's burning question penetrated Saul's disobedient heart: "What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? ...to obey is better than sacrifice..." His partial obedience cost him the kingdom.
2. What sheep are still bleating in your life? What cattle are still alive & lowing which should have been slain?
D. Proper Obedience:
1. In obedience attitude is everything.
2. Going through the motions of outward conformity is unacceptable.
ILLUS.: 👉Giving to missions & never witnessing to others is hypocritical. 👉Carrying your Bible to church & never opening it during the week is tragic. 👉Tithing grudgingly is frowned on by the Lord. External obedience & internal disobedience will bring a curse not a blessing.
TRANS.: CLAIM A BLESSING TODAY...NOT A CURSE TOMORROW! OBEY!!
III. THE MOTIVATION FOR OBEDIENCE:
A. Love.
ILLUS.: The willing servant is the one who loves his master. When set free the O.T. servant expressed his love by having his ear bored & an earring put in as a testimony of his love.
B. Blessings:
1. Every believer ought to covet the blessings of God.
2. Every believer ought to seek out God's commands as readily as the facts in the Bible & the promises in the Bible.
a. To be exposed to truth & not obey it is deadening to the conscience.
QUOTE: Del Fehsenfeld, Jr. "Conviction w/out commitment brings confusion."
b. Failure to act in obedience causes us to walk in defeat.
c. What most Christians need is not more teaching or preaching or more motivation, but simple OBEDIENCE!
NOTE: Make a list of things you need to act on, to obey: prayer, giving, witnessing, forgiving, loving your mate & children & brothers & sisters in Christ, devotions, baptism, cleansing, sanctification, separation, etc.
CONCL.: There is no revival w/out obedience. Obedience is not one of many things which reveals our love for the Lord, it is the main thing!
CLAIM A BLESSING TODAY - thru obedience –
OR A CURSE TOMORROW – thru disobedience!
Deut.11:26-28 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
THESIS: To show that obedience brings God's blessings, disobedience brings God's curse!
INTRO.:
A. Israel is on the brink of entering the Promised Land (a picture of the victorious Christian life) & Moses gives some final & weighty instructions. In summary he says that God's blessings will come if they obey Him & God's curse will come if they disobey.
B. These principles are for every age & for all of God's people. Time never alters principles.
There are 3 categories of subject matter in the Bible:
1) Facts
2) Promises
3) Commands.
🔹Facts are to be believed.
🔹Promises are to be claimed.
🔹Commands are to be obeyed.
🔸Facts are addressed to the understanding & you either believe them or reject them. (You can't obey a Bible fact, e.g., the Virgin Birth or the Second Coming. These are facts to be received by faith.
🔸Promises are simply to be claimed. But...
🔸Commands are addressed to the will & are not designed simply to be believed, but simply to be obeyed.
ILLUS.: We have all seen Bible Promise boxes filled w/little cards w/Script. verses. You have never seen a Bible Commandment box. But it is useless to claim the promises w/out obeying the commandments.
I. THE MANDATE FOR OBEDIENCE:
ILLUS.: We have deteriorated into a Cafeteria-style religion where believers pick & choose what they will respond to from Script.
Though unspoken the underlying attitudes are:
🤢"I will attend services when I feel like it."
🤢"I will give what & when I want to."
🤢"I'll read my Bible if I have time."
🤢"I'll serve if the preacher can motivate me." etc., etc.
Biblically this Cafeteria mentality has no place in our lives...
A. O.T. Mandate:
1. With Adam & Eve it was not unbelief or failure to claim a promise that caused their fall, it was simple disobedience.
a. God warned that disobedience would bring death.
b. Adam deliberately & willfully disobeyed, knowing the consequences
2. Moses brought down from Sinai the Ten Commandments, not the Ten Suggestions.
a. Commands imply obedience.
b. The entire O.T. is loaded w/commandments.
B. N.T. Mandate:
1. Jesus made obedience synonomous w/love for Him.
Jn.14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. (KJV)
2. James made obedience a test of faith.
Jas.1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (& Faith w/out works is dead.)
QUES.: In attempting to escape the error of salvation by works we may have fallen into the opposite error of salvation w/out obedience.
3. John made obedience a criterion for the new birth.
I Jn.2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (KJV)
QUOTES:
Harold Vaughn: "It is not the profession of your faith, it is the practice of your life that proves your true spiritual character."
A.W. Tozer: "The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith."
TRANS.: CLAIM A BLESSING TODAY...NOT A CURSE TOMORROW! OBEY!!!
II. THE MEANING OF OBEDIENCE:
DEFINITION: Obedience is doing exactly what I'm told to do, when I'm told to do it w/the proper heart attitude.
A. Immediate Obedience:
Ps.119:60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. (KJV)
QUOTE: (Unknown) “Obedience is immediate. Delayed obedience is disobedience, and disobedience is sin."
B. Active Obedience:
1. A command implies obedience.
ILLUS.: Imagine a military man deciding which commands from his superiors he will or will not obey. Catering to the uncommitted has fostered a pick & choose mentality in the local church. We have allowed the world's mentality to infiltrate the church & we have become traitors to the cause of our Commander-in-Chief.
QUOTE: Evang. Tim Lee: "While I was fighting & losing my two good legs in Viet Nam, former President Bill Clinton was smoking pot & protesting the war on foreign soil. While my buddies were paying the ultimate sacrifice, Bill Clinton was urging everyone he could to dodge the draft & oppose the war. While we were in the foxholes in the jungle, he was in the pubs of England. Bill Clinton is no friend of America. The enemy occupied the White House."
2. Passive obedience is disobedience.
C. Complete Obedience:
1. Partial obedience is also disobedience. (1 Samuel 15:14)
ILLUS.: God ordered Saul to kill all the Amalekites, their cattle, etc. When Samuel came to check on Saul's obedience, Saul insisted he had indeed obeyed. Samuel's burning question penetrated Saul's disobedient heart: "What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? ...to obey is better than sacrifice..." His partial obedience cost him the kingdom.
2. What sheep are still bleating in your life? What cattle are still alive & lowing which should have been slain?
D. Proper Obedience:
1. In obedience attitude is everything.
2. Going through the motions of outward conformity is unacceptable.
ILLUS.: 👉Giving to missions & never witnessing to others is hypocritical. 👉Carrying your Bible to church & never opening it during the week is tragic. 👉Tithing grudgingly is frowned on by the Lord. External obedience & internal disobedience will bring a curse not a blessing.
TRANS.: CLAIM A BLESSING TODAY...NOT A CURSE TOMORROW! OBEY!!
III. THE MOTIVATION FOR OBEDIENCE:
A. Love.
ILLUS.: The willing servant is the one who loves his master. When set free the O.T. servant expressed his love by having his ear bored & an earring put in as a testimony of his love.
B. Blessings:
1. Every believer ought to covet the blessings of God.
2. Every believer ought to seek out God's commands as readily as the facts in the Bible & the promises in the Bible.
a. To be exposed to truth & not obey it is deadening to the conscience.
QUOTE: Del Fehsenfeld, Jr. "Conviction w/out commitment brings confusion."
b. Failure to act in obedience causes us to walk in defeat.
c. What most Christians need is not more teaching or preaching or more motivation, but simple OBEDIENCE!
NOTE: Make a list of things you need to act on, to obey: prayer, giving, witnessing, forgiving, loving your mate & children & brothers & sisters in Christ, devotions, baptism, cleansing, sanctification, separation, etc.
CONCL.: There is no revival w/out obedience. Obedience is not one of many things which reveals our love for the Lord, it is the main thing!
CLAIM A BLESSING TODAY - thru obedience –
OR A CURSE TOMORROW – thru disobedience!
