GOD REQUIRES OBEDIENCE

by Rev. John J. McCave

Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, requires very little from mankind.  There is a specific thing that He really does want, however.  He told it to Adam clearly and succinctly.  He had given Adam everything.  He had given him the world.  He gave him authority over the world before He took him out of the dust of the ground.

God gave it to him because He decided to, not because Adam was a good guy.  God chose to give it to him.  It wasn’t because you were good that God has chosen to save you, either.  The Lord God Almighty gave Adam one requirement to prove his love.  He gave him one requirement that could keep him in the place that he belongs – the humble place, underneath the Almighty God who created all things and gave him all things.  It’s not very far down on the scale to be underneath God, but it is a place of humility.  He was to obey His command, to obey His voice.

Genesis 2:16 and 17:

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God not only gave him the command, He also gave him the consequence if he should not obey.  This was very loving of Him.  He told Adam exactly what that consequence would be.  God has chosen obedience as the test of an individual’s love, honor, and reverence for Him.

All throughout the Scriptures, God sought out men who would obey Him and, believe it or not, there were very few.  Compared to the billions of people who have ever lived, very few have really endeavored to do His will.

One of the great men of the Bible is Abraham, in the book of Genesis.  Abraham is set forth as a man of faith – the prototype of faith, the father of all those who have believed.  Every time God said something to Abraham, he did it.  He believed it and he obeyed it.  He walked out on it.  That’s what faith looks like.  Faith is not being told something and saying, “That sounds good, but I’ll do something else.”  That’s not faith.  Faith is doing what you have been told to do.  Abraham was told to get up and go, and he got up and went.  But the great test of Abraham is in Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22:1-3:

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt [test] Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

We are talking about an extraordinary man here.  He has such a relationship with God Almighty.  He has proven this God and trusted Him with everything.  God has given him a son, Isaac.  God gave Isaac to Abraham in his old age, with his wife Sarah.  God has proven himself to Abraham.

This test wasn’t the first one; it was one of the last.  Abraham had such an obedient relationship with God, he doesn’t even ask, “Why?”  He doesn’t ask God, “Are you sure that’s what you want?  Isaac?  The young boy you gave me?  The child I love?”  Abraham does something so remarkable.  He just gets up in the morning and he goes.

This is faith.  This is obedience.  This is why God says of Abraham, this is my friend.    Abraham is the only man in the Bible known as the friend of God.

Verse 4:

Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

He has had three days to walk- three days to fellowship with his son.  How much of a temptation would it have been to second-guess the revelation that he’s received?  I know what it would have done to me.  He has had three days to consider whether or not this is the right thing to do.  Is this what the Lord really wants?  Maybe I heard it wrong.  He has had three days to contemplate sacrificing the son that he loves.

Verses 5-7:

And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son.  And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

Isaac is about twenty years old at this time.  Abraham is about a hundred and ten.  And Isaac just wants to know, well, where’s the lamb?

Verses 8-11:

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

And they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

He is still peaceful enough to hear from his God, isn’t he?  He said, “Here am I.”

Verse 12:

And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou has not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

How does this obedience work?  God knows that you fear and reverence Him when you choose to obey Him.  That is the test and the proof.  That’s the real deal in your relationship with God.

Verses 13-18:

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.

And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord [Yahweh, the Almighty God], for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

This was a test.  Now, for those of you who don’t believe that God can tempt, it says very clearly in James that God does not tempt with evil.  It doesn’t say that He doesn’t test.  Your whole life is a test, in case you haven’t figured that one out.

In the church, we celebrate the last week of our Lord’s life.  We look at all the things that he’s done.  He gave up his life and God raised him from the dead.  Just as Jesus Christ was a willing sacrifice, I believe Isaac had to have been a willing offering because one hundred and ten-year-old men don’t chase down and wrestle twenty-year-old men.  Isaac obeyed his father.  It doesn’t say that in the scriptures, but I believe it is a type of what God would do with His son. God chose to give His only begotten son, but he had to die.  Abraham had reasoned it out.  Because Isaac was the promised child, the one from whom the Messiah would come, he had already reasoned that God would have to raise him from the dead.

Abraham knew God was going to have to do something, because this was God’s promised see.  And you know what Abraham is putting on the line?  As incredible as it is to put his son on the line, he’s also putting his eternal life on the line.  But this man so loves, honors, and trusts the Almighty God.  He knows that He is to be reverenced and obeyed, no matter what it sounds like.

Oh, that we would get to that place in our lives!  It is my great desire to be at that place.  And my prayer to God is to strengthen me.  And you know, God doesn’t start out with the test.  He starts with the promise that He is going to bless, prosper, and take care of us.  All we have to do is get up and go where He tells us to go.  It’s the same way he started out with Abraham.

He has given us a very similar promise, hasn’t He?  Those of you who have answered His call have passed the first test.  Now, as you keep going, there’s more.  There will be more promises and more information that you will become aware of as life goes by.  There will be more things that you know God wants you to do.  And you will come to that crossroads in your growth where you will have to decide whether or not you’re going to obey Him at that point.

Obedience is always what God has wanted more than anything else. The type of obedience that He wants is all-out.  It’s simple.  Just as my father used to tell me, “Just do what you’re told.”  And I’m telling you; just do what you’re told.

Abraham had already obeyed in his heart, before he sacrificed Isaac.  He had already killed that child in his heart, and then God stopped it.  Because Abraham went through that test, God said to him, I’m going to multiply your seed like the stars in the heavens.  And because of that one act of obedience, all the nations, all the Gentiles of the earth, are going to be blessed.

God swore that He was going to do this because of what Abraham had done.  Because of the way in which Abraham had honored Him, God swore by Himself because there’s nothing bigger by which He could swear.  That’s why no matter what happened to the children of Israel, no matter how much their roller coaster of unbelief and believing changed, God never swerved from fulfilling the promises that He had made.  Even when He felt like getting rid of them all, He was faithful to His promises because He had sworn to Abraham that He would fulfill them.

I John 5:2 and 3:

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

God’s commandments are not difficult.  They’re not irksome.  This is how an individual loves God.  You can’t kiss Him; you can’t hug Him.  He is spirit.  This is how He chooses to be loved.  This is how He chooses.  If you want to tell me that you love me, choose to obey me.  If you really love me, honor me by doing what I have said.

You know, I have two wonderful young adult children.  When they were very little, they would do things for me.  My daughter Christine would run up to me with a flower, or she’d draw me a little card.  She’d wrap her arms around my leg and say, “Oh, I love you daddy, I love you, I love you.”

All of those things were burned in my heart, and very much accepted.  All those things were acceptable and desired.  But the real proof of her love for me was her obedience to me.  That is what I really wanted.  That is what honored me as her father.

As the years have gone by, things have changed somewhat.  She doesn’t hug me around my leg anymore- I get it around my neck.  She’s taller.  But it’s still the same.  That outburst of emotion, that show of love and care… all of that beautiful heartfelt warmth would mean very little if she didn’t honor me by obeying me in the things that need to be done.

As my daughter gets older, that aspect of our relationship will change.  That’s where the analogy breaks down.  We never graduate from underneath the loving arms of Almighty God.  We never become adults with Him.  We are always His children and He wants us to obey Him.

That is how we show our love for Him.  All of our tears, all of our prayers, and all of our heartfelt words come to nothing unless we truly obey what He has said.  That is when we humble ourselves and place ourselves underneath the Almighty God who has given us all things, who has promised us all things, and who has given us everything.

He said it so clearly with Abraham.  It is in doing His Word that we prove our love, our dedication, our humility, and our faith to Him.

Our Lord Jesus Christ always did the Father’s will, didn’t he?  Now consider who he is.  What God wants is obedience.  What did Jesus Christ give Him?  He said, I have come to do Thy will, oh God.  He always did the Father’s will.  He said, my words are not mine but the Father’s, who sent me.

Jesus Christ came and lived his life in a specific way.  You and I are to follow his example.  Jesus Christ was the Lord, was he not?  When he told the wind to cease, there was a great calm.  When he chose to walk across the sea, no one argued with him.  When he laid his hands on those that were sick, they were healed.  The fevers left, the lame walked, the dumb spoke, the blind saw.  He was the Lord.  He was the King of kings, and Lord of lords.  He was God’s anointed Messiah.  Jesus Christ was the second Adam.  He is the one who has dominion.  You see this in detail in the four gospels. 

Jesus Christ was the master.  Everything obeyed him.  But he was doing the will of his Father and he did not come as the conqueror.  He didn’t come the first time as the one who was going to reign as the king over Israel.  The Jews couldn’t accept that.  They missed it in the Bible.  Isaiah wrote about His righteous servant, the branch that was to come.  He wrote about the one who would be rejected and die.  But the Jews couldn’t see it in the Scriptures.

Jesus Christ came to do a specific job.  He understood what that job was.  He understood that he did not come to reign as king this time; he came to preach the gospel.  He came to bring deliverance.  He came to preach this wonderful Kingdom of God and to make it known.

The first time, he came to die, to pay for our sins.  He knew this.

Matthew 12:40:

For as Jonas [Jonah] was three nights in the whale’s [sea monster’s] belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Mark 8:31-33:

And he [Jesus Christ] began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

And he spake that saying openly.  And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.

But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

Jesus Christ began to make known that he was going to be rejected, that he was going to be despised.  He was going to be killed, and then God was going to raise him on the third day.

Peter said, that’s wrong, what’s the matter with you?  Don’t you believe God?  How could that be?  I don’t know what he said, but it wasn’t good.  He stuck his foot in his mouth and the Lord turned around to Peter and just said; “get thee behind me Satan,” because that’s where the attack was coming from.  You aren’t thinking about what God wants, you’re thinking about what you want and how life ought to be for you.

Well, I want to tell you something.  Abraham wasn’t thinking about what he wanted.  He just got up and went.  He didn’t even ask the question.  Jesus Christ is telling them the truth.  They don’t understand it.  That’s all right.  I don’t understand everything either, do you?  We’re all in good company.  We don’t understand everything.  But instead of rebuking the Lord, let’s just shut up and do what we’re told, and believe what we’re told to believe.  That would be a much better response.  God has made this known to Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ knew what was going to happen.  He knew what he had to do.  And yet, to Peter, it was all about men.  I don’t think he was thinking that when it came out of his mouth.  We’ll cut Peter a little slack because he’s a heck of a lot better man than me. 

Jesus Christ is the Lord.  Well, let’s just believe what he says.  That’s the wise thing to do.  Let’s just carry out the Word of God in our lives, because that is what our Lord did.  He was the King.  He could stop the rain, the wind, and the sea, and yet he was on a mission.  Jesus Christ knew he was the Lamb of God and that he was here to take away the sins of the world.

Jesus Christ knew that he would have to suffer and die.  He understood it, and he was going to accomplish his mission and give his life freely as a sacrifice for us.  For us!  Jesus Christ never forgot who he was.  Forty hours before they put him to death, he was standing in front of the high priest.

Matthew 26:62-65:

And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witness against thee?

But Jesus held his peace.  And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus saith unto him, Thou has said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.

The high priest said to Jesus Christ, “I adjure you in the name of the living God, tell me whether or not you are the Christ.”  And Jesus Christ said, “ I am.”  And I want to tell you something else, the next time you see me, Mister High Priest, I’m going to be returning in the power, and the glory of God in the clouds.  He never forgot who he was.  He never forgot that he’s coming back.

Then he stood before Pontius Pilate.  Pilate asked Jesus if he is the Christ.

John 18:33 and 34:

Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?

Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?

Did you learn this or did somebody else tell you?  Do you know this?  In other words, are you a believer?  Let’s find out if you’re a believer first.  And then Pilate kind of shows his colors.

Verses 35 and 36:

Pilate answered, Am I a Jew?  Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

Pilate couldn’t find anything wrong with him.  And he went back outside and told them, I find no fault in this man.  He’s not trying to usurp anybody; he’s not trying to overthrow the kingdom.  There’s no legal precedent for this.

Pilate does not want him to be put to death.  Pilate really wants this man to go free.  He knows that this is just envy.  He knows it’s just a religious thing, and he can’t find anything wrong with Jesus.

He tries to satisfy the crowd by beating him and having a crown of thorns placed on his head.  He tries to satisfy them so that they would want mercy for him.  But they just kept at it with bloody cries of, “crucify him, crucify him.”  Then finally, they backed Pilate into a corner.

John 19:10:

Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me?  Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?

Jesus Christ wasn’t really trying to give Pilate a helping hand here.  He wasn’t giving him good answers because he wasn’t buying into it.  Our Lord knew his mission.  He knew why he came and he did not forget who he was, even while he was going through this.

Verse 11:

Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

You couldn’t do a blessed thing against me Pilate, if God would not allow you to do it.  I’m here to die for these people.  I am fulfilling the will of God.

Our Lord willingly gave his life for us.  He willingly sacrificed himself knowing that His Father would have given him twelve legions of angels if he had asked Him, as he said to Peter in the garden.

Twelve legions are equal to seventy-two thousand angels.  When God judged Syria, and the camp came unto Israel, one angel went through the camp.  One hundred and eighty thousand men were dead in the morning.  That was one angel.

Jesus Christ did not forget who he was.  He never forgot his mission.  He never forgot any of it.  Jesus Christ was obeying his Father.  He was doing his Father’s will.  Our Lord obeyed God, even unto death, the death of the cross, it says in Philippians.  And he chose to do it because he loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Jesus Christ believed the promises that God had given to him.  He believed that God would raise him the third day.  He believed that God would cause him to sit on David’s throne.  Our lord believed the promises concerning the hope - the promises that were made to Abraham -  because he believed he was the anointed one.

Jesus Christ so believed it.  There was only one time in all of that, that he went to God three times and said; “ I really don’t want to do this, but not my will, but Yours be done.”

Jesus Christ didn’t want this.  Who would?  He was a human being, a man.  He felt it.  He felt not only the agony of the physical pain, but he also felt the rejection.  But he never forgot who he was, and he never forgot what was coming.

Hebrews 12:2:

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

He endured that cross.  Why?  Because of the joy that was set before him.  Eternity!  Paradise!  He will come back to rule as King of kings and Lord of lords - and he will look that high priest in the eye, just as he had said.

Jesus Christ trusted God.  The Scriptures tell us that God is going to raise us, also.  Unless our Lord comes back in our lifetime, none of us are getting out of here alive, right?  He either shows up in our lifetime, or the clock’s up.  I don’t know if he’ll be back in our lifetime.  But I have no doubt in my mind that God will raise us and change us, and we will be with the Lord forevermore.

Do you really believe that?  Really?  If you really do believe it; that means that you are an obedient servant to Him.  In your daily life, you obey Him and His Word, you honor Him, and you do everything in your power to do as the gospel instructs.  You hold forth that Word to others, pray, and rely upon Him.

Because you have been bought with a price, your life is not your own.  You’ve been bought with the price of our Lord and Savior, and he gave a command.  If you love me, obey my words, he says in John chapter 15.  And then he says, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  That’s a new one.

Now, if you do that, your life is going to be filled with a lot of sacrifices.  It’s not going to be about you, is it?  It’s going to be about ministering to others.  It’s going to be about preaching the Word.  It’s going to be about doing the Lord’s business, not your own.  That’s what Jesus Christ’s life looked like.  That’s how he loved them.  This is our choice.  Do we really, truly love the Lord?  He did.  Abraham did.

The only begotten Son gave his life and trusted the Almighty God.  We trust Him, too.  We ask Him to grow us up and to help us and give us strength.  We are to honor Him with our obedience and to live a life that looks like the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Even though you will reign with him in eternity, that’s not what it looks like now.  It looks like his life.  He has asked us to walk in his steps.

I Peter 2:1:

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

Just lay them aside.

Verse 2:

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

That is what you should desire.  All that a baby wants is mommy’s milk.  We are to be just like that.  Desire the milk of the Word of God.

Verse 3:

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Have you tasted that the Lord is good?  If you know that the Lord is good, desire the sincere milk of the Word of God.  He wants you to seek it with your whole heart.

This chapter in I Peter tells us that Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone.  But those who disobeyed the truth threw that stone away.  The builders didn’t want to build with it.  But God made him the keystone.  He is the block from which every other measurement would be taken, and from which every other angle would come.  The first stone!  But the builders didn’t like that one.  They didn’t like the Messiah that they received.

But he is the one that we live for and obey.  We are to live our lives in light of all that God has done for us.

I Peter 2:11 and 12:

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Why would we want to be anything less that a good example of what God has done?  In Romans chapter twelve, verse one, God has asked us to be living sacrifices.  Do you know why?  It is so that other people will have nothing bad to say; so that no one will blaspheme against God because of our behavior.

How many famous Christian ministers have disgraced the Almighty?  Unbelievers use this against the seriousness of the dignity of our Christian walk.  They won’t take it seriously because of these bad examples.

I have told God that I’d rather die, before I disgrace Him.  I’ve prayed that prayer many a time, because I’m just a man, and men fall on their faces.  But when men, who are just sinners, set themselves up to be something more than what they really are, then God gets a black eye.  Then His Word and His Name are blasphemed among the unbelievers.

God has asked us to live a Christian life.  That’s not so we can get in good with Him.  It is to show our obedience and love so that the gospel can move.  We are living sacrifices so that our Lord can be honored as we give and live for Him.

It is not a suggestion that we live a Godly life.  Do you really believe that Jesus Christ is coming back to get you?  Do you really believe that God is going to raise you from the dead, or change you if we’re all standing here alive?  Then you’ve been called unto a walk of obedience to Him.  That obedience will magnify God and honor Him in the eyes of all that see you, even if they don’t believe it.

I Peter 2:21-23:

For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:

Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

Jesus Christ just committed his life to God, no matter what the circumstances were.  Even when he was reviled, spit upon, and crucified, he chose to live for God, the One who judges righteously.

Verses 24 and 25:

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

Jesus Christ has paid the price for us.  Let us honor him, and let us honor our God.  All God has ever wanted from us is to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  The way we do that is to obey His Word and to love one another.

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