Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 12, verse one. That was our starting point last week. But we're gonna be spending a lot of time in John and 1 John and Acts and some other places this morning as we continue or have part two of the Christian glorifying God by his life. Now, we've kind of broken away from Mark to do this. We've looked at the first 12 verses of Mark chapter 10 and laid the foundation for marriage and for divorce and what the scriptures teach about that. And I wanted to build upon that by looking at the wife, the bride of the Lord, meaning his people in general, his people, and how we should live our lives in such a way as to bring glory to God. Now, when I say something like that, that phrase bring glory to God, we need to understand something about that. God has all of the glory that he deserves. He already has that. We don't add to that. When we talk, though, when we say things like give glory to God, what we're really meaning is we are acknowledging the glory of God. We are putting in words the fact that God has glory. And we are giving that back to the Lord, that acknowledgement back to him as our God. But our lives should do that. Our lives should bring out things that point to the glory of God. And that's what we started last week and what I want to try to finish here this morning. And if the Lord is willing, next Sunday morning we're going to talk about how we should glorify God with our death, how in dying we should bring glory to God. Our text we looked at last week Romans chapter 12 verse 1 says I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy Acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service That's what we're talking about, living our lives as a sacrifice to God, a living sacrifice, an unknowing sacrifice to God, and that is our reasonable service. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, O Lord, we thank you for this privilege to be gathered here this morning in this place. understanding that there are some places right now in the midst of this crisis of this coronavirus that there are some people who cannot meet. And Lord, so help us to appreciate that and understand how precious this is. Lord, may we focus our attention and our thoughts upon you. as we look at these verses of scripture, and may we learn from them things that will help us to live lives that bring glory to you. We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen. Now just a couple of things from last week, I just wanna kind of briefly go over two points that we made, the two points we made last week. First, God created us for his own glory. The fact that we are created to glorify God gives a significance to our lives. And though He did not need us, but He did create us for a purpose, shows us that we have eternal importance to God. And secondly, this gives purpose to the life of the Christian. From God's perspective, we have been created to bring Him glory. From our perspective, we discover that in bringing Him glory, we have entered into a relationship with him that will bring great delight to us. And that is one of the great, I think, privileges of being a child of God, is to be in relationship with God and to experience the joys that that brings. And then that brings us to where we're going to pick up at this morning, and that is the key to glorifying God with your life. And there is a one-word answer to the question, what is that key? That key is obedience. Obedience is the key to glorifying God with your life. Now, for those who were in the adult Sunday school class this morning, we're going to rehash a few things that were brought up and discussed this morning, but that's okay because apparently God means for us to make sure we get this, so listen carefully. First thing I wanna say in regards to obedience is we obey God to please him. Turn to John chapter 14 and verse 15. John 14 verse 15, and then we're gonna be in John 15. So go ahead and turn there, because we're gonna be reading some scriptures there. John chapter 14 verse 15. We obey God to please him. It pleases God when we are obedient to him, when we obey his commandments. That's very pleasing to God. That's what he expects to see in us. and that brings him pleasure. John chapter 14 verse 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. Do you love God? The only way you can love God is first by being quickened, by being given spiritual life. And with that spiritual life comes a love for God. The old stony heart that we had before is replaced with a heart of flesh that is turned to God and desires to please God and loves God. The scriptures tell us that we love God because he first loved us. And in that love that we receive from God, we can give back then something to him. And Jesus ties that directly to obedience. Oh, keep my commandments, he says here. Now turn to the next chapter, John 15, verse 10. We'll read a few verses there. And I want you to read these verses. And as you should, whenever you read scripture, Read the Word of God carefully and don't jump to conclusions because some people quickly will twist God's Word into fitting their theology, their idea of theology. We have to be careful here. John 15 verse 10 says, if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. Now I want to clarify this, because there would be some who would say, if you don't keep God's commandments, he will stop loving you. That is not at all the truth. God's love for us is eternal. If we're going to say our salvation is eternal and rest our hope upon that, and the fact that nothing can take that away or do anything to that, then we must also look at God's love in that same way. But what our flesh will do is because of guilt, because of sin, our flesh will convince us sometimes that because we have sinned against God, he doesn't love us anymore. Or he doesn't love us like he once loved us. But that's just not true. So what this verse is teaching us is this, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, okay? That means you will experience God's love, okay? When we're disobedient, our experience with God, and we'll get to this later, is more that of chastisement and discipline, which is love from God, but just a different way. In this case, what he's saying is, obey my commandments and in that you'll experience the richness of my love. Just as Jesus did, no one obeyed the commandments of the father any more, any better than the Lord Jesus Christ while he was on this earth, okay? And he abided in the love of the father. if, and it's an impossibility, this is just put out there just to try to help us focus here, if Jesus had not obeyed the Father, then he wouldn't have been able to abide in the Father's love as he did. But again now, that's an if, it's an impossibility, because Jesus kept every commandment. And that's who he was, that's who he is. He keeps the commandments of the father. Everything the father directs the son, the son does. Everything the son is told to say, the son says, and did say during his ministry here on this earth. But if he keep my commandments, he shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. Verse 11. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full." Joy is something else that we get to experience in our relationship with God. We get to experience his love, but joy is in and of itself a whole other blessing, okay? The joy that we have in God, again, is something that we can have no matter what our circumstances are. We tend to associate joy and happiness as being the same thing, and they're not. You can be very unhappy because of life circumstances. and still be abiding in the joy that we have as believers in Christ. Those two things can exist at the same time and should for the Christian. When we're going through the most difficult times in our lives, we should still be able to experience the joy that we have because we are in relationship with God. And that joy remains in us, and it can be very full. Verse 12, this is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. That is a very important and a very serious commandment. He wants us to love others. as he has loved us. Do you love others with the love that Jesus has for you? That is not something that is natural to us. It is something we must work on and that we must develop in our lives. And even then we're gonna be very imperfect in our display of that kind of love. I think one thing we ought to keep in mind that his love for us is unconditional. And that's really what I was talking about moments ago when I said that God doesn't stop loving us when we sin Okay His love is unconditional. He loves us in spite of our sin It was while we were yet in those sins that Christ died for us the Scriptures tell us So we know that God loves us And he doesn't put any kind of conditions on his love the thing is though We will experience that love more, the more obedient we are, okay? And that's how we should look at this. He goes on and says, verse 13, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever, I command you. Once again, do we stop being friends with God when we're disobedient? We're still friends, but that relationship's not gonna be quite the same as it was before. One way of looking at this is like that of David, King David, after he had sinned, with Bathsheba, that sin had been brought before him. He will say in Psalm 51 that he had lost the joy of his salvation. That went away for a time because of his sin. It wasn't that God just took it away, it was that David separated himself when he chose to sin. We separate ourselves from God when we sin. from our perspective. You cannot finally and fully separate yourself from God if you're born again and you're one of his. And God is always there with us in those times. But to us, it's gonna seem like there's a separation. Have you ever felt like, I've heard people say, it doesn't seem like my prayers are getting past the ceiling, you know? And that's not God so much as it is the person and where they're at, okay? So we need to understand these things. Obedience is how we please God. So the idea here is that we observe and obey his commandments from a principle of love, not to be made his friends, but to show that we are his friends. Not to gain his love, but to show that we do have his love. Obedience is the way that we do this. So it's very important. Second, we obey God to be an example for others who may be quickened and believe. So part of the reason we should obey God is to be an example for people who maybe they've already been quickened and haven't come to conversion yet, haven't made a profession of faith in the Lord. They need to see our example, okay? It may be that someday, maybe a person is not quickened yet. They have not been given spiritual life. but they see you and I, they see the way we live our lives, they see obedience to God in us. Now they can't fully understand that, they can't grasp that until they are quickened. But I believe God plants that like seeds into their life so that when they are quickened, They can see the example that's been lived before them, and it helps them more quickly to understand that they have been given spiritual life, that they are now experiencing God's love and joy, and that they too should be obedient. We need to set examples for the Christians around us. Now, we're not perfect at that, are we? Now, we have our failures, we have our sins to deal with. But as best we can, we need to be living a life of example to all around us. The only way to do that is through the Holy Spirit of God. His indwelling in you will enable you to do this, okay? That provided, of course, you've been given spiritual life to begin with. I want you to turn to 1 John chapter two now. 1 John chapter two. So we need to obey God to be an example for others who may be quickened, who may believe. 1 John chapter two, verse four. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Now, I want to pause for a moment. If a person goes running around saying, you know, I'm a Christian, I believe in God, But there is no evidence of that in their life because of their lifestyle, because of their choices, because of the things they're doing and saying, then they're a liar. The truth is not in them. I don't think that's being preached enough. I don't think obedience to God is being preached enough. And I say this generally, Christian churches in general. Holiness is not preached enough. You get the idea from a lot of Christians that once they feel like they've joined the church, they're pretty much free to do whatever they want to then. That's not the case. It's not. In fact, that will give a lie to any kind of testimony that you've made about whether or not you believe in Jesus. So we need to take this obedience thing very seriously. The Lord does. His scriptures do. Verse five, but whoso keepeth his word. You see, it's in keeping his word. It's in obeying God that we give forth evidence that we are believers in God. If we've made that profession of faith, then there should be something backing that up in our deeds, in our words, how we conduct ourselves. There should be evidence accumulating there. But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. And that word perfected here means to be made complete. Hereby know we that we are in him. If we are obeying God, in other words, then we're gonna see that the love of God is made complete in us. That doesn't mean we are made perfect in the way we use the word perfect in our day and time. What it means is, again, there is evidence that God is working in us. There is evidence that his love for his chosen people is showing up in you, and that gives way to your testimony that you are a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hereby know we that we are in him. This is evidence for you too, by the way. You should be able to look at your life and see that you are doing things that honor and glorify God. That's our overall topic here. We're just focused in very narrowly on obedience for this message. But remember, we are to live lives that bring honor and glory to God, right? We are to glorify God with the lives that we live. Well, we do that when we show obedience to God. Verse six, he that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. I sometimes struggle, and try to understand how I'm saying this, I sometimes struggle with how easily people call themselves Christians. To be called a Christian should be a badge of honor. And we should be called Christians That means follower of Christ, after all, because we're doing the things that Jesus did when he walked on this earth. And people see that and call us Christians. Sometimes people have called others Christians, not as a way of, in a way of respect, but in a way of making fun of them because their lives are so different. Here's what I was trying to say a moment ago. There are way too many people calling themselves Christians, and there's no evidence of that. If you're gonna be a Christian, if you're gonna stand up and make a profession of faith in the Lord, then you ought to walk the way he walked, as best you possibly can. Now, none of us are gonna walk as perfectly as Jesus walked. He was without sin. We are gonna continue to struggle with sin as long as we are in this life on this earth. But by and large, people ought to be able to look at us and see some of the things that it is written of Jesus that he did, that he said, ways that he acted, if you're gonna call yourself a Christian. James chapter two, verses 17 and 18, you can mark that and turn to it if you can get there good. Here's what it says, verse 17, even so faith If it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. If you have been given faith, and we know faith is a gift from God, you don't conjure this up within yourself. You don't obtain it through careful reading and memorization of scripture and prayer, all of which is good, by the way. But that doesn't, you don't grow faith like that. Faith is given to us. It has to be. Because the only faith that is pleasing to God is that which his son demonstrated, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he walked on this earth. And it is that faith that is given to us. Okay, and if you are given that faith, then there's gonna be works. There's gonna be works. And if a person says they have faith, but there's no works present, then you have to question what kind of faith they think they have. It's not that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior's faith produced works, didn't it? When you think about the gospels, you talk about works. Look at what the Lord Jesus Christ did. And you know, he actually told his disciples, you're gonna do more than I did. You know that in the scriptures? I don't have that passage right in front of me. I'm pretty sure it's in John, not too far from where we were a while ago. But you're gonna do more than I've done. because we're gonna have his faith, and we're gonna have more time than what he had here upon this earth usually. 2 Timothy now, chapter two, verses 20 and 21. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore, Purge himself from these, hang on to that word, these, we'll talk about what it means in a moment. He shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Father's use, and prepared unto every good work. But in a great house, I think this means in a church, in a congregation, there'll be vessels of gold and silver, of honor, if you will. But also those of wooded earth and those of dishonor. Now, a few verses before this, you see, he had been speaking of Hymenaeus and Philetus, who were vessels of dishonor. And he points to them as an example. These are two people that are not of the Lord, and they are, their example is really bad. And he's point blank about this as he points this out to Timothy here. And when he says, verse 21, if a man therefore purge himself from these, that's who he's referring to, those two. We must purge ourselves from those vessels of dishonor that may come in among us. So that we can make certain that our service is true and faithful to God. And I emphasize the word our, meaning that of the congregation. Individually, obviously, of course, but we serve together as a congregation and our service needs to be that of gold and silver, that of honor. So we could also say this, not only are we to be an example to those who may, the Lord may quicken and give spiritual life and they may come to conversion, but we are also an example to those who are not quickened. so that on judgment day, they will be without excuse. Our good works, our faithful service to God, our preaching of the gospel so that all can hear and all hear that they should repent and turn to God. For those who are not quickened, those people on judgment day will not be able to stand before God and say, I didn't know. Now it's not just because of us, there are many ways that God will make sure that they have heard, okay, and they know. In Romans chapter one, I believe we're taught that nature itself, that God's creation itself is enough for people to know that there is a God, they are responsible to him, and they should repent and obey him. But for those who are not quickened, and those who never do that, They will be without excuse. And it's important that we be that example. Now, we don't know whom God's gonna quicken or not. We don't know that. We can see evidence that they have been, again, by the works that they do, but we don't know whom God's gonna quicken or not. And that's not for us to know. That's for him to know and for him to carry out. So therefore, we must preach to all. As if everyone we see, everyone we know will be quickened and leave it to God to sort it all out, okay? That's our responsibility. That's why we cannot pull back and only preach to certain people that we think are of God's elect. We don't know. Therefore, we preach to all. God knows, and that's what's most important. Third, we obey God to have a clear conscience. Now, a lot of these things overlap together, but we obey God to have a clear conscience. 1 Peter 3, verse 16 says, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. Excuse me, in Christ. Good conscience. meaning a faithful discharge of your duty in your obedience to God, your service to God. You should have a good conscience there. Sometimes we don't because we know I didn't do what I was supposed to do. So we work to rectify that so that we can have this good conscience. And he says that, so that, and we need to make sure we do, so that anybody who accuses us of something false will be ashamed because of our good conversation in Christ. And remember, conversation in the King James means behavior. So people may falsely accuse us of things and then end up being ashamed because our good behavior demonstrates that we are being faithful to God, that we are being good, that we are doing what God wants us to do. So we obey God to have a clear conscience. Fourth, we obey God to avoid God's displeasure and discipline. God, when we disobey God, he is not pleased with that. He is displeased with that. And if you are his, that's gonna result in one thing, discipline, okay? Discipline is very important for the believer. Every one of us needs discipline. Every one of us. I get a little leery of students who say that, I've never had to get a whoopin'. I've never had to get in trouble. Really. The best among us need discipline, right? And so it is among God's people. I want you to turn to Acts chapter five for a moment. And as you do, scan over the first 10 verses real quickly and reacquaint yourself with this story. And I'm just gonna summarize it and then we're gonna read verse 11. We see the first example of God's displeasure and discipline in the church at Jerusalem in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. They were husband and wife. And they're there in that church at Jerusalem, and this is a time when persecution is developing, when there are people in their congregation who have needs, who are poor, who need assistance. And many of them were, as they were led of the Lord, selling possessions and giving that to the church to be used in distribution to those who were in need. Ananias and Sapphira come along, they sell a piece of land, and they make it known that they are giving all the proceeds of that sale to the church, when in reality, they kept back part for themselves. So here's their sin. You see, they were doing this not to please God. They were doing this not out of love for their brothers and sisters in Christ, they were doing this to draw attention to themselves so that somebody might say, boy, look at old Ananias and Sapphira and look at what they did. But their greed got the better of them. Now this is the first instance of discipline in the church, in God's people, after our Lord is crucified and resurrected and ascends into heaven. And here's the result of it. They come before Peter and the others, and they're questioned about this, and they lie. And they are struck dead right there. First, Ananias comes in. He is confronted. He falls dead. They take him out to bury him. A little later in the day, along comes his wife. Not knowing what's happened to Ananias, she's asked about the same thing. She's struck dead when she lies. And they take her out and bury her beside her husband. Verse 11. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. Great fear. Fear of what? Fear of God? We should have a healthy fear of God. Who he is, who he is in his person, and how he views sin. And that should cause us to not want to displease him. Should also cause us to understand that he will bring discipline. Now this may seem harsh to us, this experience here. I think it's to send a message. to make certain they know, and God doesn't always, it's up to him. He can deal with us as he pleases. Sometimes he's very strict in his judgment. Other times he shows mercy, or more mercy than he does at other times. He's not doing wrong when he does that either way. He is God, he can do as he pleases. The fact is we need to respect that. We need to respect that. And it needs to, we need to respect it so much it influences us in the way we conduct ourselves. From time to time, we forget it. And we have to be reminded by God about how serious sin is and the view he takes of sin. I can remember being reminded Many times, as a child, by my parents, not to do a certain thing or the other. After a while, we figure it out, right? What is this? Is this God being mean to us? Absolutely not. This is his way of demonstrating love to us. We were talking this morning about that famous saying that is passed through every generation going back to probably Adam and Eve. When a mom or a daddy disciplines their child, gives them a whoopin', sometimes they say, this is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you. Now only a parent can really understand that. You youngsters, you probably think that's the craziest thing you ever heard. I know I felt that way. as a youngster. It was my behind that was showing the world, so what do you mean this hurts you more than me? But as a parent, I came to understand it. I'm gonna tell you this. I believe that's absolutely true about God. I don't think God takes pleasure in disciplining us. but he loves us so much that he's not gonna let us get caught up in sin and it go too far. And he wants us to understand that. I know along the way, over the years, people have said that corporal punishment is not the way to handle discipline And I would agree that in some cases, some people can take it too far. I grant that. But I'm gonna tell you something. Sometimes pain's the only way we learn. And I have more respect for my mom and my dad, both have gone on to be with the Lord. I have more respect for them because they did take the time to discipline me. And they did want me to act right. and there's something about that. I think we'll have more respect for God when we look at it that way. Look at, we're in Acts, turn to chapter nine, verse 31 real quickly, and we're running out of time here. I want to point out one more verse for us along these lines. Acts 9, 31, then, have the churches rest. So when is this then? This comes after Saul, who becomes the Apostle Paul, has been quickened and been converted and stops the persecution of the Christians that he had been carrying on before that. He had been putting them in prison, he'd been having them killed, he was a part of all that. After that happens, then have the churches rest. throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." Now, I want you to notice the context here of the fear of the Lord. And this fear of the Lord is fear of His displeasure and discipline, okay? It is counted among some very obviously good things. Rest from persecution, edification, which means they were being, their learning, their knowledge was growing. They were being built up. Comfort of the Holy Ghost, and them being multiplied in number. Those are all good things. And in the midst of all that, there is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is a good thing. It's a good thing and should be counted as a blessing by God's people. Then lastly, we obey God to have a deeper walk with the Lord. Matthew chapter five, verse eight in the Sermon on the Mount says, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. They shall see God. John Gill says this, in this life, in joint communion with him, both in private and public, in the several duties of religion, in the house and ordinances of God, where they often behold his beauty, see his power and his glory, and taste and know that he is good and gracious. So what Gil is saying there, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Not someday, which we will, and we're blessed to see God someday in heaven, but right now. The pure in heart, though, indicates someone who is being obedient to God. There is a blessing with that, that comes with that. And that, I believe, can be described as a deeper walk with the Lord. Sometimes we feel like we've gotten away from the Lord, that we need to be walking more closely to Him. One of the most surefire, quickest ways to rectify that situation is to check out whether or not you're being obedient to God. First, is there some sin in your life that needs to be dealt with and gotten out of your life? Secondly, how much effort are you putting into walking in a way that obeys God, that shows obedience? The more we do that, the deeper our walk with the Lord is going to be. And I don't know that we fully appreciate just how close we ought to be to the Lord. You see, sometimes something might happen that startles a child, and if their parent is nearby, what do they often do? They run and get as close to mama or maybe daddy as they can. I mean, like right up behind them, wrapped around their leg. You know what I'm talking about? They won't be close. Well, you know what? We're going through a very dangerous world. There's a lot of things going on around us, and we need to be like that child wrapped around the leg of God. Close to Him and not let go. But we're only gonna do that if we're obedient. John 14, 21, we'll close with this verse. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. That's where we need to be. All of these things we're talking about here this morning glorify God. And all of these things, the Christian glorifies God with his life. May we bring glory to God as individuals, but also as a congregation. Glory be to his name. Let's bow our heads. Our kind and most gracious heavenly Father, oh Lord, we thank you for this time. In these verses of scripture that we have read here, we ask, oh Lord, that you would speak to our hearts more and more about obedience and how we should and must be obedient to you. And Lord, help us to see the wonder, the joy, the love that we will experience more and more as we are more and more obedient. Lord, I just pray all of these things in the name of Jesus, for his sake, amen. So I'll stand, what number shall we sing?