Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there-at.
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
In obeying God the right way, persons will have to be prepared to go it alone, if needs be, because the opening passage teaches us that true obedience will never become popular or mainstream on the earth.
When a person is convicted by The Holy Spirit, that person’s decision to obey or not cannot, and should not be hinged upon whether or not the majority will also believe and obey.
In some rare instances, the majority may, but, in other instances they may not and therefore, when God speaks to us individually, we should take it on the most personal level.
Sacred history teaches us that it was hardly ever the popular majority who were in line with God’s will. In the days of Noah, it was the minority, in the days of Lot, it was the minority, with the 12 spies, it was the minority, in the days of Elijah, it was the minority, in the days of Christ, it was the minority.
In the days of David and Goliath, it was the minority, in the days of Samuel, it was a minority, in the days of Daniel and the three Hebrew worthies, it was the minority, and in our day, the remnant people of God are also in the minority, accounting for 0.00275, or 0.275% out of approximately 8 billion people upon the earth.
Obeying God, especially in these last days of earth’s history, will call for the type of obedience that will go against the flow, and thus, persons should never wait to see how many folks will believe, before they themselves take up the mantle of obeying God.
The problem with going with the flow, is that the flow usually goes downstream, and never upstream and because of this, you have two types of disciples in Christianity that have emerged in our day.
One who obeys God partially, in everything that will not ruffle his or her feathers, and the other who will obey God, even when the truth might step on their toes. This dual discipleship has been brought about by the preaching of another Jesus, and another gospel. Let’s read:
2nd Corinthians 11:4 For if he that comes, preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him.
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel,
7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
2nd Corinthians 11: 13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
Just for the record, there’s only one true gospel that has ever been endorsed and certified by God, and it is the one which presents Christ as our Savior, who accepts us as we are, but does not leave us where we are, but who instead provides truth and His Holy Spirit to lead believers into obedience. Let’s read:
Ephesians 4: 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Any other gospel which does not lead to a radical change in the believer’s life experience, or does not require individuals to obey The Lord in everything, is designated a false gospel in the Bible, and is neither recognized, or endorsed by God.
In fact, to put it in the clearest manner possible, the first and the foremost reason why The Holy Ghost is given to the believer is to enable the person to obey God. Let’s read:
Acts 5: 32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
All other byproducts such as preaching, witnessing, giving out Christian books, feeding the hungry, and speaking in tongues, etcetera, are secondary, as far as importance goes. Even praise, and worship does not necessarily mean that God accepts persons, if the obedience factor is missing. Let’s read:
1st Samuel 15: 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 than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
There are many persons upon the earth who can do good things, and there are many individuals who do have a knack for preaching, but who would not even be considered as candidates for heaven.
The sole reason for this unfortunate outcome is that their perspectives and practice did not include the fundamentals of obeying God in all things, according to the light shed on their pathway. Let’s read:
Matthew 7: 21 Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine.
Just because a person might indeed have The Holy Spirit abiding in their hearts, does not mean that every aspect of obedience would be easy. There are some issues that are a breeze to overcome and then there are deeply seated latent tendencies which do strive for the mastery.
Some of these deeply seated cravings can be likened unto pulling teeth at the dentist, for they offer very stubborn resistance, and very often, we have to go back to Jesus over and over again, to confess our sin and the petition Him for the victory. Let’s read:
Galatians 5: 16 This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies.
The Cambridge English Dictionary: To Emulate: To copy someone’s behavior, or try to be like someone else, because you admire or respect that person. This includes fans of the various stars or celebrities, such as “Swifties”.
If persons endeavor to look like her, or to copy any one of the other stars, in their behaviors, gestures, styles, dress, appearance, and fashions, they are “emulating”
Galatians 5:21 Envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
We are not here to minimize anyone’s struggles, for we all have our different issues to confront, and to overcome, yet, God forbids that we tamper with His word, to make accommodation for our weaknesses.
With some people, food is not a problem, for they are not the type that may be affected by eating and drinking. But with others it can be a very real mortal conflict, where the smell of curry goat beckons you, and you can be driven to tears, trying to overcome.
As some individuals walk down the aisles at Publix, where shopping is a pleasure, twinkies, Oreos, and chocolates can produce seductive mouth-watering sensations, and with some folks, they really have to think long and hard and make a firm decision by the grace of God, in order to resist the urge to indulge.
With others, the gravitational pull of their hormones and testosterone could be the elephant in the room, and the urge to merge could be quite strong, while with others, this is not a problem, since sexual drive and such feelings, do not phase them, for whatever reason and because of this, our struggles differ from person to person, just as our faces differ.
Yet, whatever might be your issue, and whatsoever may be our struggle, God has called us to obey Him in all things, and therefore, any other gospel that makes provision for the flesh, or that compromises truth and God’s law, to accommodate what persons prefer to do, contrary to God’s revealed will, could never produce the kind of obedience God is looking for.
The issue of partial obedience, which has become mainstream in Christianity is what caused five of the ten virgins to fall short of God’s glory, for they were content with a superficial work, and they recoiled at the personal struggles that would step on their toes. Let’s read:
[Christ’s Object Lessons pp 411]
The class represented by the foolish virgins are not hypocrites. They have a regard for the truth, they have advocated the truth, they are attracted to those who believe the truth; but they have not yielded themselves to the Holy Spirit's working.
They have not fallen upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, and permitted their old nature to be broken up. They receive the word with readiness, but they fail of assimilating its principles. Its influence is not abiding.
The Spirit works upon man's heart, according to his desire and consent implanting in him a new nature; but the class represented by the foolish virgins have been content with a superficial work. They do not know God. They have not studied His character.
“They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth, they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness.” Ezekiel 33:31.
The apostle Paul points out that this will be the special characteristic of those who live just before Christ's second coming.
Therefore, in this study, we will take up two issues which pertain to obeying God the right way, and as we study, let us remember what we had learned last week about obeying God from a positive view point.
[1] Obeying God the right way with your finances.
The word money is mentioned approximately 125 times in the KJV Bible. However, in the scriptures, words such as gold, riches, silver and wealth are often used to refer to money. Therefore, the number of times money or anything related to it is mentioned, comes out to over 2000 times.
So, if you want to know where a person’s treasure is you will have to pull their bank statements and their credit histories, for these would reveal where one’s priority lies.
One of the reasons why the folks in Malachi 3 were observed to be walking mournfully before the Lord of hosts is because of the issue of obeying God in tithes and offerings.
When scrutinized very closely, we see clearly the benevolent, selfless character of God, manifested in what He does, and in the laws and instructions He gives to us. As a general rule, He gives more than He keeps for Himself.
He gives us six days, and He keeps one just one for Himself, which is not really for Himself alone, for the Sabbath was made for man. He reserves 10% of our increase, and He leaves us with 90%. Run that by the IRS, and see what will become of you. He gives us the freedom to return of our own, something the Feds will never ever do.
He pours out all of heaven to save us, in the Person of Christ, and because of the benefits to the human family that were gained on Calvary, everyone on the planet including the godless and the wicked are now beneficiaries of His kindness, even though most folk do not acknowledge His mercies.
Therefore, when it comes to returning something to God’s cause, when it comes to returning a faithful tithe, the perspective should be one of great joy and thankfulness for all that He has done and continues to do.
Those who lived during the days of Malachi chapter 3, were apparently obeying God partially with their finances, and because of this, The Lord had to bring the matter to the attention of the prophet, so that His people would change their perspective on giving to God’s cause upon the earth.
They were not obeying God the right way with their finances, for some were grumbling and others were mumbling about the benevolence stipulated by The Lord. Just for the record, God does not need a single dime from any person.
The Lord has given to us the plan of returning tithes and offerings to help root out the inherently selfish nature in ourselves. He has also given us this plan so that we will not forget to acknowledge Him as the Great Benefactor to the human family. But as far as needing any money or anything from us, God does not. Let’s read:
1st Chronicles 29:13 Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.
14 But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.
Psalms 50: 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
Haggai 2: 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.
In fact, the correct perspective to cultivate, as far as anything we have, is that it has been lent unto us by God. That Mercedes you are driving, that brand new BMW and that beautiful Tesla you have parked up in your garage, isn’t really yours; you have borrowed it from Christ, for a while.
Even if you’re finished paying for it, it still isn’t yours because all of the raw materials that went into the production of it, all belongs to God alone, as some across the U.S will soon find out. Not even your own body is yours. Everything and everyone on the earth belongs solely to God. Let’s read:
1st Corinthians 6: 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
Therefore, when it came time to return the faithful tithe, with freewill offerings, the folks in the days of Malach came up short, for they were obeying God on the matter of finances, grudgingly.
Malachi 3: 8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
Five promises to the faithful are made in the above passages, but like with anything else that God has promised, we must be careful in the application, lest we find ourselves obeying The Lord for the wrong reasons. Here are the five promises:
[1] I will open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
[2] And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land.
[3] And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.
[4] Your vine shall not cast her fruit before the time in the field.
However, these promises are too often viewed as a sort of contract between God and the giver and thus there are some persons who will return tithes, and offerings, with the singular, and highest purpose of reaping the rewards.
Others will return funds into God’s treasury with the expectation that the “Devourer” would be promptly rebuked, and if this does not occur as they expected their faith receives a shock and their hopes are now dashed to pieces. In some minds, God did not keep His end of the bargain.
The reason in most cases is that they were obeying God for the wrong reason. The right way to obey God in this matter is to return your tithes, and your offerings because you acknowledge God’s mercies and His gifts to you, we being unworthy. Great time should be spent in contemplation of the things God has given to us freely, salvation full and free, and if faithful, eternal life, and from this right perspective, we should give with sincere gratitude. This type of giving, God will be well pleased with.
But if persons were to give from the perspective of a binding contract, then it would not be giving at all, it will be pay to play, as often takes place among some of the politicians of the day. In other words, persons should not attempt to grease God’s hands in order to receive blessings. Let’s read:
2nd Corinthians 9: 7 Every man according as he purposes in his heart so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.
Malachi 3:16 Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
The right way to obey God on the Sabbath issue.
Before we get into the Sabbath issue, it is important that we understand how we got to where we are, as far as the substitute day of rest goes. Satan employs a combination of religion and science to try to make of none effect, the truth about the Sabbath.
He moved upon pagan and papal Rome to introduce Sunday, as a memorial of Christ’s resurrection which God never ordained, and then he employed science to try to discredit the Scriptural records of the true age of the earth.
Thus, by this two-pronged method, God’s work of creation, and the institution of Sabbath observance has gotten distorted and cloudy in the minds of the people. The study of fossils, and the science behind radio-carbon dating have contributed greatly to the fostering of the theory of evolution.
According to the “X-perts” radio-carbon dating merges chemistry and physics to develop a scientific method that could accurately determine the age of organic materials as old as approximately 60,000 years.
It is based on the science that living organisms, like trees, plants, people, and animals absorb carbon-14 into their tissue. When they die, carbon-14 starts to change into other atoms over time.
Scientists can then estimate how long the organism has been dead by counting the remaining carbon-14 atoms. The technique was developed in the 1940s at the University of Chicago by chemistry professor Willard Libby, who later received the Nobel Prize for his work.
But who is Willard Libby? We were just curious to know, for it seems highly unlikely that God would move upon a scientist to come up with a method for determining the age of fossils that would essentially debunk the great facts of creation. Let’s read:
Willard Frank Libby was born December 17, 1908 was an American physical chemist noted for his role in the 1949 development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology and paleontology.
During World War II he worked in the Manhattan Project's Substitute Alloy Materials Laboratories at Columbia University, developing the gaseous diffusion process for uranium enrichment.
Libby was also involved in the development of the atomic bomb, and his second wife, Leona Woods Marshall was one of the original builders of Chicago Pile-1, the world's first nuclear reactor.
But what about his religious persuasions? Libby was an Ag·nos·tic: A person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.
Therefore, we must now connect the dots, because if through radio carbon dating, science arrives at the conclusion that the world is several billion years old, then, that puts science squarely at odds with what the Bible teaches on the age of the earth.
And if the Scriptural record of the 6000-year age of the world is incorrect, then the great facts about the creation would have to be dismissed summarily, and that will include throwing out the Sabbath, marriage and God’s original instructions on diets and foods.
Thus, we have science denying God on the one hand and the papacy discrediting His Creatorship, by the institution of a substitute day of rest that is entirely the brainchild of the beast in Revelation 13. So, for all intents and purposes, God’s original day of rest, the 7th day Sabbath is under attack on two fronts.
Therefore, the keeping of the original Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty to God, in these last days of earth’s history. In years gone by, the test of one’s allegiance to God was to believe, acknowledge, and accept, Christ, as The Savior of the world. But this is no longer a test of one’s loyalty, in and of itself.
The claim to believe in Jesus has gone mainstream, but has been so watered down in the process that it virtually means almost nothing today, whenever the popular majority in Christendom make this claim.
The other gospel, which teaches persons to believe, without obeying God’s commandments, has bred a multitude of professed believers, who now take to themselves the name of Christ, but who recoil from obeying His law.
But to reject Christ outright is the same as rejecting His commandments, because both are inseparable as far as the true gospel goes.
In other words, if you were to remove the law from the gospel, there’s no need for Jesus for He came to save us from the consequences of God’s broken law. Thus, the fact is, that if there was not a broken law, we would not need The Savior.
And therefore, the focal point of great departure in Christendom today, is the Sabbath, not merely the Person of Jesus, for it is this point in particular that draws a dividing line between those individuals who acknowledge Christ in His capacity as Creator, and those who do not.
Even though many are in ignorance about this issue currently, yet the facts are the facts, and because of the substitute day of rest that has been introduced by the man of sin, the servants of God must now be clear when presenting this issue to the people.
Christ is to be worshipped and honored as both The Creator and the Redeemer, and while Calvary puts our focus on The Redeemer, Mt Sinai focuses our attention on the Creator side of things, the fourth commandment being the only one which speaks of God in His capacity as Creator.
Thus, as we delve into the issue of obeying God the right way, on the Sabbath issue, let us bear in mind that the Sabbath commandment is the only one of the ten, which lets us know by whose authority the law has been given. Let’s read:
Exodus 20: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
However, there is a correct way to obey God in the keeping of the Sabbath, for it has to be kept, both in the letter and the spirit. In the letter is a reference to the Biblically stipulated time of sunset to sunset. Let’s read:
Leviticus 23: 31 Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.
In the spirit refers to having one’s mind unhinged from secular interests, and focused on God and the interests of His kingdom. Let’s read:
Isaiah 58: 13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words;
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Here is where great reform has to take place in many of the rank and file and also in the regular lay-persons of the remnant people of God, for there has been a great departure in keeping the 7th day holy, the entire day.
Not only have the edges of the Sabbath been profaned, but secular thoughts, conversations and work planning have been allowed to take place over the sacred hours. In fact, in some cases, persons now keep the Sabbath like how Sunday is kept, in a subjective manner.
Again, if we find ourselves in a hurry to close off the sabbath, if we are found counting down the minutes and hours to its close, because of some pressing temporal concern, we are not keeping the day as God originally intended.
Then again, you have the issue of relatives and family members who remain at home, while the heads of the family are at church. Any and every thing could be taking place under your roof, while you are at church singing hymns. There is great need of reform in these areas. Let’s read:
[Patriarchs & Prophets pp 307] Those who discuss business matters, or lay plans on the Sabbath are regarded by God as though engaged in the actual transaction of business. To keep the Sabbath holy, we should not even allow our minds to dwell upon things of a worldly character. And the commandment includes all within our gates. The inmates of the house are to lay aside their worldly business during the sacred hours. All should unite to honor God by willing service upon His holy day.
In closing, we are reminded that there is a right way to obey God in everything. Love is to be the motivating factor at all times, based upon an increasingly, intelligent understanding of His goodness and mercy towards us.
And to those persons who had not known, and had not understood that the commandments were given for our best good, now is the time, when God is calling on you to stand up and be counted, for it is those who obey God in spirit and in truth who will eventually be saved in His kingdom.
We therefore end with a passage of scripture that should encourage us to obey God the right way, for doing so with joy is the very essence of one’s relationship with Him, and would greatly enhance our understanding and appreciation of His character. Let’s read:
John 4: 23 But the hour comes and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
God Bless!