God commands us to obey Him. Sadly, in Adam we lost the ability to do so, all mankind fell into sin because of Adam's diobedience in the garden of Eden. Adam our federal head disobeyed the command of God his Creator in Genesis 2:16-17 we read; "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'" Later we read; "He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to gaurd the way to the tree of life" (Gen. 3:24), because of His sin (Adam's) Adam and Eve forfeited their right to the tree of life by disobeying God (this goes back to Genesis 2:9). They desired the tree of knowledge of good and evil, wrong tree; they should have wanted the tree of life. Disobeying God has very serious consquences, we must understand as Paul wrote in Romans; "no one does good, not even one" (Romans 3:12), because of the inherited sin nature from Adam God counts Adam's sin against us we read in Romans 5:12; "because all sinned." We look at a new born baby and we all say what a precious little thing, so sweet, so cute we all do it, Voddie Buacham disagree's he says babies are nothing more than "vipers in diapers" and he is correct. Now with that we must consider here the fifth commandment of the ten. it reads; "honor your father and mother" (Exodus 20:12), how many times have you disobeyed mom and dad? Me; many times I must confess; not to make excuses but that is our nature; we are sinners, and nothing in us is good. And i like you felt my dad's wrath many times when i disobeyed, my disobedience to my dad has consquences, my hindside was very sore. Look at Deuteronomy 27:10; "You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which i command you today." As Moses commandmed the people under the direction of God Himself; so we are commanded as well. Might we Obey the living and true God every moment of every day until our death and we are at home with Him. I am not a topical teachiug or preaching person; however I do believe at times it has it place. Our topic today is OBEY. There are three verses for our consideration today. In 1 Kings 2:3; "and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keepinh his statutes, his commandments, his rule's and his teatimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn." David gives to his son Solomon some great instruction concerning the Word of God and that is only source of wisdom in found in God's Word. This charge or to walk is a biblical idiom of faithful living out of one's covenant faith. YHWH's covenant requirements were like a well marked path. The best way for you and me to live obedient lives is to be saturated in the Word of God. Great are the instructions in it. we read in 2 Timothy 3:16; "All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for taininjg in righteousness, that the man of God, may be competent, equipped for every good work" We are so instructed to obey our parents for this is right, we are to obey the voice of our God, to keep his commandments; commandments that are from His holy Word. That which is very profitable. No earthly father can give to his son better instruction than David did to Solomon. Thinking upon this i thought of the instruction that Moses gave to the future kings of Israel in Deuteronomy 17:18-20; "And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical preists. And it shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, and he and his children' in Israel." Israel had many evil kings in their history all because kings did not obey the voice of the Lord God. And we see this within our own nation, not just presidents; but majority of the population itself. We have voted our bank accounts instead of biblical principle--ABORTION. I have a few questions here: 1st, wouldn't it be great if our political leaders would spend time in the Word of God. studying the Bible. May be a few do. Yet many more need to to in all three branches of our government. I will slao add here, while it is important to know where each candidate stands on the issues, i so it would be important for us to know if they are truly Christian. 2nd, Are we; me and you praying for those in authority over us? (1 Tim. 2:1-6; Romans 13:1), as a believer i and you are so commanded to pray for our President, those of Congress, Governor, Mayor and so on. 3rd, Do you read the Scriptures daily? Do you really read it. I'm not saying you read 4 chapters pray for 10 minutes and your covered, you have fulfilled your spiritual quota. Do you read it. Someone has said it doesn't matter how many verses you go through, how many verse go through you. And so David exhorts Solomon keep..."his commandments"" there are 613 commandments written in the Bible. We cannot keep the 10 Commandments written in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. As mentioned earlier the fifth commandment instructs us to honor your father and mother how many times have i broken this commandment, even as an adult i broke this commandment, and as James writes in 2:10; "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." We cannot keep one commandment there are no way that we keep the other 603. I dare say at times we do not care to keep any command, law or statute of the Word of God. Did Solomon obey his earthly father David? No' absolutely not. Look at 1 Kings 11:9-11; "And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Isael, who had appeared to him twice, and had commandmed him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded." Even in disobeying his father Solomon broke all ten commandments, and Solomon even had other gods before the living ang true God--we all do (sad to say). David essentailly warned Solomon that his success was dependent on his obedience to God's law. This success isn't material or financail, it is spiritual which is of most importance. Now david says to his son Solomon; "that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn" obedeince comes with a promise and we just seen this in 1 Kings 11. Solomon if you obey the voice of our God prosperity or success is yours, again i am not of the belief that this is finanacail or material possessions, i truly believe that this is spiritual. Not that God will not pour out materail and financail blessings to us, He does, however, my greatest need isn't money in the bank, my greatest need is eternal life. And so is yours. "What does it profit a man to gain the world and forfeit his soul?" America has prospered greatly because one we have supported Israel. and two we were founded on Biblical principles. Now sadly we have truned our back on Israel with the "great leadership" at 1600 Pennsyvania Ave. God forgive us.in our person lives we will prosper according to his will, however i do believe that our prosperity coincidesw with our obedeince. Our second verse to consider in found in Joshua 1:8; "The book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."** So the letter, scroll, book, perhaps the Torah. Shooting an arrow, hitting the target to acheive specific goals. And these "shall not depart from your mouth" we know that Joshua fulfilled Jehovah's instructions to not let the Word depart from his mouth. How do we know? Because God blessed his leadership with prosperity and success. The instructions to Joshua meant that the law should never depart from Joshua as the dominate influence in everything that came from his mouth. God was not just instructing him to live by it, but to administer it so that the entire nation would be brought under control, that the Law might do it's intended work. Passing Thought: It would be great to have such leadership in Washington D.C. And i will also say it would be nice to have Bible saturated men preaching to us every Sunday morning. Joshua remianed faithful to carry out this practice even unto his dying day, great faithfulness was displayed by Joshua. And "shall not depart from your mouth" means that this book of the law should be a constant topic of conversation. WHY? "Because you shall meditate on it day and night." Whatever you think about all day and thinking about all night will show up in your conversation. So Jehovah is aying of Joshua should saturate himslef with the Word of God. It was to be dominate thing in life. He (Joshua) meditates on it, talks about it (better supernaturally) begins to live it out. Thought: How ofetn do you read or study the Bible? We must begin to read the Bible for all its worth, we need to cherist it, for words testify of Christ, hiding the words of this blessed book in our hearts. D. L. Moody said; "when we find a man meditating on the words of God, my friends, that man is full of boldness and is successful." "but you shall meditate om it day and night" it is one thing to say to anyone and that of a leader "be strong and couurageous" quite another thing to be enable him or her to it. Joshua's strength and courage was to come from meditating on the Word of God, from believing the promises in it, and from living in obedience to its precepts. Moses gave very similiar counsel to the entire nation (Israel) in (Deuteronomy 11:18-24), but now God's speaking this principle specifically to Israel's new leader, Joshua. Now i share this to share a thought: we have all sung the song; "Standing On The Promises of God" now i say this what a lie we sing. Again do qwe read the Bible, do we read it for all its worth. I'm not talking of reading 4 chapters and praying then going about our day and not thinking about the Bible again. Far from that. How do we stand on the promises of God when we do not meditate upon it? So let me encourage, read the WORD! Read it for all its worth. Turn off the television, put down your cell phone, turn off the computer, open YOUR BIBLE and READ. It's not difficult. How dare we say we love Him and do not spent time with HIM. This is how we become strong and couragous. So to medtate requires a personal investment of time and mental energy. However, even as God feeds the birds, He does not throw the food into their nests. The birds are still required to go and to bring in the food that God provides. In the same way, the Bible is like a table filled with food necessary for daily living (Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4). And God invited all to "Come and eat!" Far too often believers fail to heed this graciouus invitation. We depends on "substitutes" such as devotionals, Christian music, fellowship groups, ect. Meditation is the act of docusing one's thoughts of pondering, of reflecting, and of renewing various thoughts by mulling them over in the mind and heart. The picture is of "chewing" upon a thought, delibrately and tghoroughly, providing a vital link between theory and action. As we meditate we go over and over and over God's truth inour minds to deepen its impression on us to set it in our hearts. The word meditate indicated that Scripture is to be like a tune that we cannot get out of our minds. And this meditation is to be done "day and night" meditation was to be Joshua's continual practice. WHY? Because sustence from the living Word was his constant need. I say we are no different. Do not try to fight the good fight today without first "feasting" on the breakfast of the blessed Word. take time to chew your food. "so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it," so that--to ponder or to pause and the purpose is to be careful to do, so that you will faithfully do everything written in them. and as we do all that is according to what is writeen in the Bible, God will; "make you way prosperous, and then you will have good success" The source of such success is God as long as Joshua sought the Lord, God made him prosper (2 Chron. 26:5). in our lives as Christians, success or propserity are not to be measured by physical, material standards of the world. The issue is for us in spiritual prosperity. A continual meditation and obedience we will most likely prosper. So we ocme to our third vesre for consideration today and it is Hebrews 5:9; "And being made being perfect, he became the source of eternal life." Rush Limbaugh on his radio program years ago made this statement: "words mean something" but here in this verse the words do not mean what we might think-Jesus was born perfedt, without sin (1 Peter 2:22), Jesus did not need to be made "perfected" in the moral sense. The idea of made perfect was that He reached the goal for which He became Man, this gaol ultimately being consummated in His substitutionary death on the Cross which open "salvations door" to lost sinners. We read a similair description in Hebrews 2:10; "Fo rit was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering." And we read in Hebrews 12:2 Jesus is designated as the "Author and Perfecter of faith" where Perfecter is (teleiotes) Greek the Completer, the One Who reached the goal as to win the prize. Believer's Study Bibleexplains the relation between the obedience Jesus learned His "being made perfect". The phrase "learned obedience by the things which he suffered"(Heb. 5:8) does not mean that Jesus was ever disobedient but rather He learned through experience as a Man and through all His temptation and suffering what if meant to suffer and triumph in a way He did not experience before the Incarnation. His humanity was in the sense completed, which is the menaing of the greek word transalted "perfected" in this context. "to all those who obey him"physical hearing and apprehension of something withthe mind; literally means to listen under with attentiveness and to respond positively to what is heard. We need to note here: that this salvation is extended to all who obey Him. In this sense, all who obey Him is used synonymously for believing on Him-which simply assumes that believers will obey! And this obedience is brought about by faith: "according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith" (Romans 16:26). "the source of eternal salvation" this source of eternal salvation-is a radical difference from any benfits of the Levitical preistly work, for there meditorial works could only result in "covering" over the sins of the people (as on the Day of Atonement with the scapegoat sent into the wildernes picturing the potentail of forgiveness). Jesus efficacious work resulted in literal sending away of all the sins for all who receive Him as their High Priest and Savior. God is our "eternal source." Because He was the saacrifice once for all and thus He abides as Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. And from a practical standpoint eternal salvation both in time and eternity. The believer is safe forever (Phil.1:6). Charles Haddon Spurgeon: He is the designer, creator, worker, and cause of salvation. By Him salvation has been accomplished: "His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him." True security isn't found in temporal things, it is found only in Jesus Christ. I share here some concluding thoughts: 1. We are to obey God. we looked at Deuteronomy 27:10 earlier again. Obeying Him isnt an option. nothing in the Word of God is an option and we need to quit making the commands and the statutes an option. our live should be so pleasing to God. God most become our most coveted treasure. As a small child would want to please their earthly father and mother in obeying them, so should our lives please God by obedience. 2. We got to stop pursuing the earthly treasures. Oh how damaging the pursuit of things of this life destroy our relationship with Him. Joshua was strong and couragous because he sought to obey his God. and that is exactly we you and me as His children should be pursuing every moment. 3. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks: "What is the chief end of man? Answer: Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy HIm forever" i'm going to go off the scripted answers for this question, as John Piper will say: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." We prove satisfaction in HIm when we are obedient. Christ Himself was our greatest example. Jesus was obedeint to his Heavenly Father. His death on the cross was pleasing to His Father. His eternal redemptive plan was done. and so might we as His children obey. For the is our end to glorify God. Hope this is encouraging, any questions please message me through Facebook. Next blog August 6 on Holiness.