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Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Matthew 25:13 NKJV
What do you think of the word, “obey?” We have hymns where we sing of it, “Trust and Obey!” We have blessings promised by God when we obey, “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God… (Deut. 28:2)” The Lord delights in obedience, “Has 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 (I Samuel 15:22). Jesus tells us if we love Him we are to keep (obey) His commandments (John 14:15). A fiery vengeance is coming on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
It is evident that obedience is an important, even essential element of the Christian life. For whoever will not heed God’s command to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ will surely perish in hell fire for all eternity. And yet, it seems sometimes in some places that Christians shy away from the word and concept of obedience because they are afraid of being considered legalistic or preaching works based salvation. If obedience is used, it seems almost with apology. Grace grace some cry but often without or to the expense of the great commission of Jesus, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…
The “therapeutic theology” movement has in many places so effectively replaced the righteous Law of God that the idea of obeying God can be condemned as legalistic or abusive terminology which must be dismissed out of hand. The adulterer is surmised to have a mental issue. The drunkard is said to have substance issues requiring counseling. The man who hits his wife has a temperament disorder. The woman who considers murdering her child or follows through with murdering her child is considered a victim in need first and foremost of sympathy. The fourth commandment is used for comic relief. The ten commandments are referred to as “bad news”. The list could go on.
And yet, God does not avoid this word “obey” but rather calls all men in all places to obey Him at all times. He even wrote His commandments for us so that we might know how to obey Him and commit His commandments to memory. God who told Saul that He desires obedience more than sacrifice, still desires the same from us today. He who said, “if you love me, keep my commandments,” still means what He said. When will preacher bring these words again to the ears of the people – You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. Obey God and it will go well with you! Disobey God and it will go poorly for you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will surely be saved. Disobey and deny Christ and you will surely perish. It is the message throughout Scripture. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ leads the born again sinner to a life no longer of lawlessness but a life of obedience. Therefore Christian, obey the Lord!
Consider now the parable of the virgins and notice how the wise virgins are an example of obeying the Bridegroom’s voice. He told them to watch, to pray, to be ready for his return – and they obeyed! In obeying the Lord, they were not surprised or ashamed when He returned. They were not found lacking anything at that midnight hour. Instead, they welcomed the cry and were taken into His presence with rejoicing.
Personal obedience did not save the virgins. Christ alone saved the wise virgins. Because they had been given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and had been saved by His grace alone, the wise virgins desired nothing else other than to obey God, to submit to His will in all things even as the angels do in Heaven. What a blessing this submission was as evidenced by their entrance into the marriage supper of the lamb. They obeyed God and delighted in His glorious grace and redemption.
What of those foolish virgins? Perhaps they believed the teachers and ministers of their day who told them not to worry about obeying God because God is merely a God of love and grace, and He doesn’t want any slaves submitting to Him. Maybe they heard someone say, “No obedience, no problem. Christ came not to command but to love, not to receive from you, but to give things to you, not to rule as Lord and King but to serve your needs. Don’t worry about obedience, that’s law. Don’t worry about those messy sins, God made you that way. Don’t worry about obedience, God sympathizes with you and will not criticize the choice you have to make.” What happens when this line of teaching is followed?
This past week a woman in route to murder her child told my sons and me that she was a Christian, that God was a God of love and not of judgment. God would simply forgive her for killing her child whom she didn’t want as she “already had another one.” We asked her to show us that teaching in the Bible as the Bible we were reading said this, “Thou shalt not kill,” and “If you love me, keep my commandments,” and “But the murderers…shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire,” and “blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.” She refused to engage the Scripture but rather told us, “God doesn’t judge.”
Do you see how deadly the gutted gospel message is when removed from the obedience God requires? Do you see what happens when an indicative is given with a warped, withered, or wimpy imperative? That poor little child, made in the image of God, joyfully moving about in his mother’s womb, heart beating, hands moving, brain thinking, soul rejoicing, went in to that extermination chamber with his mother and never came out. That mother, under the slogan, “God doesn’t judge,” came out a murderer, having paid a demonic doctor to kill her own child. Even then, the gospel gutting preachers will not cry “Repent!” but “peace peace, God loves you!” How horrific such teaching proved for that mother and her little child. How terrible that teaching proved for the foolish virgins. When the door was shut, those foolish disobedient virgins were on the wrong side of it and they could not get in. It was too late.
Dear Friend, do not ignore the voice of the Lord who commands His people to obey Him. Rather, rejoice at the mercy of God who tells us to obey, how to obey, then gives us a new birth and new life that we might be able to obey! What god is as great as our God, I know not any! In the day of the Lord’s return, it was the wise virgins who obeyed the Lord who entered His glory. It was the foolish virgins who disobeyed who were kept out and cast into utter darkness. Obedience was not the way to salvation then. It is not the way to salvation now. Salvation is the way to obedience and only those who obey the Lord by calling on His name will be saved!
For the herald’s voice is crying
Johannes Olearius – Comfort, Comfort Ye My People vs. 3
in the desert far and near,
bidding all men to repentance,
since the kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey!
Now prepare for God a way;
let the valleys rise to meet him,
and the hills bow down to greet him.
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