Is It Possible To Obey God?

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Category: Holiness

Published on Saturday, 09 October 2010 10:22

Written by Ryan Hicks

IS IT POSSIBLE TO OBEY GOD?

By Ryan Hicks

Is it possible to obey God? If you listen to the vast majority of preachers today you would think obedience is impossible. You would think that the grace of God is insufficient to enable one to obey God. The truth that God requires obedience and demands it from His people should be enough to settle the issue forever, but many are dedicated to sin and will never give up their excuses for sinning against God. We need to examine the Scripture and see if it mentions any people actually obeying God.

1 Kings 15:5
5 Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

1 Kings 15:11
11 And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.

2 Chronicles 14:2
2 And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God:

2 Chronicles 24:2
2 And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

Genesis 26:5
5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Joshua 22:2
2 And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you:

Haggai 1:12
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD.

Each of these examples is in the Old Testament, before the Lord Jesus Christ and before the fullness of New Testament salvation. Sadly, people claim to be saved and walking with God and yet they also claim to be wholly unable to obey Him? They claim to be His children and to love Him, but then double-mindedly say that they are not capable of obedience to God. Some even go farther to say that God does not require their obedience and ignores their disobedience. They will say that the unsaved will spend eternity in hell for their disobedience, and yet they will claim that because they profess to be saved they can sin with impunity and their disobedience will go unpunished, nay they will claim they will be rewarded with life eternal for their disobedience! Blasphemy!

Isaiah 1:19-20
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

One of the biggest reasons people are not obedient to the Lord is because they are unwilling to obey Him. They want the benefits of the gospel, the rewards, the blessings, and yet they want nothing to do with the obedience that goes along with any true salvation. There is no such thing as a disobedient Christian. The disobedient are the sinners who are lost and without Christ. They need repentance and faith toward God. While so many are disobedient and rebels to the doctrines of Christ, they still claim to be saved and have the Holy Ghost. But what saith the Scripture?

Acts 5:31-32
31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
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.

How many people are walking around merely professing faith in Christ and professing to have the Holy Ghost indwelling them, but they live a disobedient life that is contrary to the life lived by anyone who truly has the Spirit of Grace in their lives? We need to truly examine ourselves and be certain that we are in the faith, as the Scripture says, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Corinthians 13:5). A way to be certain of your spiritual standing with God is to do even the least bit of self-examination by examining what fruit you produce. Do you sin every day? Do you knowingly disobey the known will of God? Do you choose self over God regularly? If any of these things describe you then you are not a true believer. You are merely a professing Christian, but you have yet to attain to true faith in Jesus Christ. What must you do to rectify this situation if you find out you are not truly a believer? You must do what Jesus taught and "repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance" (Acts 26:20).

For a companion video that goes along with this article please click here.

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