In this episode of the International Gospel Hour, we delve into the depth of obedience as exemplified by biblical figures. Led by Jeff Archie, we explore the profound obedience of Noah and Job, and the sufferings of Apostle Paul, highlighting what true obedience entails. The discussion includes recent lessons on discipline within the church, emphasizing the importance of maintaining God’s commands and the dangers of fraudulent obedience.
Friends, hear one of the finest definitions of obedience. Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Our discussion of obedience, the Savior’s way, continues. Today from the International Gospel Hour, we’ll be right back.
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Hi, this is Jay Webb for International Gospel Hour. Welcome to our broadcast today. For over 90 years, Churches of Christ have proclaimed God’s Word through our broadcasts. Just ahead is another Bible-based lesson with Jeff Archie of International Gospel Hour. Let’s begin.
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Well, thank you always to our J-Web, and greetings to all of you. Great having you with us once again for our broadcast from the International Gospel Hour. We’ve been on the air since 1934, and we’re able to be on the air all of those years due to the dedication of many a listener such as you. Thank you always for tuning in. Hey friends, got a new website for you to check out online. And allow me to mention our friends at AddedToTheChurch.com That’s one whole word, AddedToTheChurch, one word, AddedToTheChurch.com This is a great effort by our friends DJ and Sarah Curry of Parkersburg, West Virginia. They have some exceptional articles by them and others. And get this, folks. You can subscribe free to their two digital publications, The Mountain Messenger and The New Testament Expositor. So please check them out at addedtothechurch.com. Once again, that’s addedtothechurch.com. Thank you for checking out their good work, and we appreciate the Currys and so many wonderful people throughout West Virginia that are great encouragers of our broadcast of the International Gospel Hour. In our previous weekly broadcast concerning obedience, we studied what is not obedience. Mere promises not fulfilled, saying and not doing, partially obeying God, and substitution of God’s commands. These are four areas that we noted what is not obedience. Well, friends, what we’re going to do today is we will now approach this subject from the positive viewpoint. In Genesis 6 and verse 22, we have one of the finest definitions of obedience to be found anywhere. I mentioned it moments ago. The great text of Genesis 6.22, Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Indeed, it is a great text. And we’re going to continue these thoughts in just a moment. But first, a few words from our Jay Webb about our friends at GospelGazette.com.
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Thank you, Jeff. and a digital library with an enormous amount of material. Please check them out at gospelgazette.com. That’s gospelgazette.com.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Please note closely. Noah did all that God commanded him, not just part of it. Further, to be obedient is to walk by faith. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 7, For we walk by faith, not by sight. And again, friends, let’s ask, how does faith come? Well, this answer is supplied in Romans 10 and verse 17, where faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I suggest that to be obedient is to do things not only because they are commanded, but also to do them from the right motive. The Pharisees prayed and gave alms to be heard and seen of men. These acts were authorized by God, but the motives of those engaging in them were sometimes wrong. One can even preach with the wrong motive. As Paul said in Philippians 1, 15-17, Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one doeth of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. But the other proclaim Christ a faction, not sincerely thinking to raise up affliction for me in my bonds. When one is truly obedient, he will do that which God authorizes from a pure heart. Those who are sincerely obedient are ready to suffer the consequences. We frequently sing the song, Ready to Suffer, but how much are we actually ready to suffer? Some years ago, I was invited to a church in Harriman, Tennessee, a Baptist church, and while there, I had the opportunity to expose error. When the services began at 2.30, the local preacher requested all ministers to come up onto the stage. I did not intend to do so until one of them tapped me on the shoulder. I sat there from 2.30 until 5 o’clock with five Baptist preachers. One of the visiting preachers misquoted Acts 2.38 like this, Then Peter said unto them, Repent and pray every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Well, after all five of those preachers had testified, the local preacher arose and said, We have a young minister here from Oak Ridge, and now we are going to suffer with him for a while. I arose and said, Why didn’t this fellow read Acts 2.38 correctly? He knew what it said. He is a perverter of the gospel. I then quoted the passage correctly. At that point, the local preacher spoke up and said, I think that your time is about gone. They were suffering, not for righteousness’ sake, but rather they were being tormented before their time. Now, folks, you probably caught Acts 2.38 when the man said, Repent and pray, every one of you. But the verse actually says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I suppose Job is a wonderful example of a man of God being willing to suffer the consequences that resulted because of serving God. After all his possessions were gone and after all his children had been slain, we find these words in Job 1, verses 20-22. Then Job arose, and tore, or rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. He was so afflicted that his three friends did not recognize him. For in Job 2 and verse 13, they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great. At one point of his great grief, in Job 2 verses 9 and 10, his wife said unto him, Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die. But he said unto her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? And all this did not Job sin with his lips. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Job 13, verse 15. Job was willing to suffer the consequences that came to him because of his obedience to God. James tells us of the purpose of the suffering of Job. For in James 5.11 he said, Behold, we call them blessed which endured. You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity and merciful. What about the Apostle Paul who was willing to suffer the consequences of his obedience to Christ? In Acts 21 and verse 13, Paul answered and said, What do you, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Folks, I am confident by now that all of us can see what obedience involves. I now want to discuss obedience as it pertains to those who are within the church. Let’s begin with a command. 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks this orderly, and not suffer the tradition which they received of us. This is a command. No Christian who sincerely desires to go to heaven is prejudiced against any of God’s commands. We also have the same command in 1 Corinthians 5.11. But now I write unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or an adulterer, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner with such a one, know not to eat. We must obey all of God’s commands, whether they refer to giving, Christian living, discipline, or any other duty. We are commanded in 1 Corinthians 5.13 to put away the wicked man from among yourselves. You know, that is just as much a command to the church as Mark 16, 16 is to the alien sinner. There are many congregations and many church members who ignore this command to discipline the disorderly as if the command did not exist. It does exist, and our responsibility is clear, friends. A failure to do our duty at this point can cost us our souls just as with disobedience to any other command of the Lord. In the Corinthian church there was the sin of open adultery. In 1 Corinthians 5, 1 and 2, it is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you has his father’s wife, and you are puffed up, and did not rather mourn that he had done this deed might be taken away from you? Not only are we commanded to discipline an adulterer, but also those who commit other sins which are specified in the fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians. A reviler, for example, is to be disciplined. This applies to those who are revilers of the truth and those who withstand the truth. These revilers need to be disciplined the same as the adulterers, and if we do not, we violate God’s will. Also note this, it must be done in the name of our Lord Jesus. In the name of our Lord Jesus, you being gathered together with my Spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, 1 Corinthians 5, verses 4 and 5. To do a thing in the name of the Lord means to do it by His authority. In Colossians 3.17 we read, And whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Please observe that this must be a public withdrawal. You being gathered together. I am aware of the fact that this is to be the last resort. You must have exercised all means possible, love, kindness, compassion, instruction, and rebuke. In fact, Christ instructs in Matthew 18, 15-17, And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church. And if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. We need to have fellowship among ourselves. And if we live the Christian life, we will. What is the purpose of a withdrawal? but it is certainly not in order to get even with someone. If I am a party to a withdrawal, I must have the right attitude. Incidentally, where I preach, we have withdrawn from perhaps 12 or 15 in the last few years. One of them has been restored. We withdrew from five erring brethren on one Sunday, and the next Sunday Brother Guy in Woods began a gospel meeting with us. Some people might say, oh, I suppose you didn’t have much of a meeting. No, it was not that way at all. That was the best meeting in many ways we have ever had. The Lord knows what is best for the church and friends who are we to doubt it. Here is another thought on this subject. When a withdrawal is announced from the pulpit, that is just the announcement of the intention to withdraw. The real withdrawal comes when you refuse to fellowship them. I want to say this, lest I fail to mention it later. Sometimes when an ungodly person is disciplined, his relatives and friends get together and say, we are going to fellowship him, we don’t care what the church does. And such a course of action is entirely wrong if such a person has been scripturally withdrawn from, and that is the only way it can correctly be done. In Numbers 16 we read of the rebellion of Korah, Dathah, and Abiram, and 250 princes of the assembly. famous in the congregation, men of renown. And in verse 3 of number 16, And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? And do you remember what followed when Moses finished speaking? We return to Numbers 16, verses 31 through 33. And it came to pass, as he has made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth and swaddled them up and their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods. They and all that appeared to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregations. Well, folks, several in that congregation did not like the discipline that the Lord had administered. Because in verse 41 of Numbers 16, On the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have killed the people of the Lord. And you know, friends, human nature has not changed. The Lord sent a plague among the congregation and killed those who sympathized with those that died earlier. Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred beside them that died about the matter of Korah, number 16, verse 49. Friends, we certainly should be very careful not to fellowship someone who has been withdrawn from, scripturally. Also, the congregation it takes in those that have been scripturally withdrawn from need to repent hurriedly. They have no scriptural right to fellowship them. if they cannot be fellowshiped in the congregation where it became necessary to discipline them. What is another purpose of discipline? 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 5 says, To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. If this became necessary in my family, I know that, due to the close personal ties, it would certainly grieve me. And yet, if I know my heart, I would want to do as the Lord directs. I would also strive to do the same thing if it were my family. Some people shield their relatives and friends instead of delivering them unto Satan, admitting that they are open and rebellious sinners in the service of Satan and not God. These people may cause their relatives to be in hell forever because they violated this scripture and shielded those that should be disciplined. Now I want to say at this point in our study that we do not add nor remove people from the church. That is the Lord’s affair. However, my responsibility is to tell you what our obligation is to the erring brother. The Lord has commanded us not to endorse sin, and we are to let people know that we do not fellowship a person whom the Lord does not endorse. The Lord adds to the church, and the Lord removes names from the book of life. That is not our responsibility. But it is our responsibility to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, Ephesians 5 and verse 11. Another purpose of discipline is that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Discipline is not a personal thing in any sense. Its purpose is not to injure or embarrass, but rather to direct those being disciplined to the point of repentance, If there is a person that is listening, who has hatred in his heart toward his brother, he is a murderer. 1 John 3.15 Friends, listen. Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. What a thought! If you have hatred in your heart, and you do not remove it, you will be lost forever. Friends, we’re going to continue and conclude our study of obedience the Lord’s way in our next broadcast. We have spent time discussing today concerning being disciplined. And we’re talking about within the church. And there are many people that would say, why would you do that? Well, friends, as we see, it is a command of the Lord. Number one, individuals choose to live ways that can bring harm to the church and to the body. And it is akin to where we have, for example, our boys and girls, if you will, our children growing up. I can remember the times that my parents disciplined me. I can remember doing something. I broke one of my mother’s plants while I was wrestling in the house with a cousin of mine, and my mother knew what had happened, and she corrected me. She grounded me, which was a horrible thought. But she did so to remind me that I must be punished when I do something that I should not have done. and it made me a better person. How many of us can remember being disciplined, maybe written up at work as the statement goes, or disciplined with the aim of being better? In our study of discipline, it is done to do that very thing. May I read Hebrews chapter 5, or Hebrews chapter 12, verses 5 and following. And I’m going to come back and read this in just a moment. But first, I want to pause and defer to our J-Web. Each and every broadcast, we try to share a free Bible study course, either online or by mail. And today, our Bible study course by mail is available. Here is our J-Web.
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Our long-time free Bible study course by mail is always available. Have you tried it yet? Just call us toll-free at 855-444-6988 and leave your name, address, and just say, Home Study. That’s it. You may also go to our website at internationalgospelhour.com, click on the Contact tab, and leave us the same information, name, address, and type Home Study in the message box. Study the Bible at your own pace. Again, it’s free from your friends here at International Gospel Hour.
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Now, friends, consider with me Hebrews chapter 12, beginning with verse 5, as we discuss discipline. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children. My son despised not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loves, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chastens not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers also. Now, no chastening for the present time seems to be joyous, but it is grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So, friends, discipline is not a bad word. It’s actually a good word to keep us in line, and that’s what the word discipline means. And when you think about it, we are all disciplined people in some way or another. We discipline ourselves. For example, you disciplined yourself when to listen to this broadcast. We disciplined ourselves when to wake up. We discipline ourselves to take our medicine on time, meet appointments, and so on. So we hope that our study today of obedience, as we look upon continuing our obedience in Christ and within the church. May I add one last thing here? There are so many of us that need to think about this. We need to think about how the world looks upon the church, and we realize that the world would come against the church. But then again, there are those who would look and say, well, at least they are standing for what they believe. And I may not agree with that, but I agree with their stance. And may it ever be. Friends, I want to defer to our J-Web very quickly. Have one more little offer that you may find of interest. It’s an online study through our friends at the World Video Bible School.
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World Video Bible School is at wvbs.org. That’s wvbs.org. You can check out over 2,400 videos on a number of biblical subjects, and you can also enroll in their online school and work at your pace. And friends, it’s absolutely free. That’s wvbs.org. Again, that’s wvbs.org.
SPEAKER 01 :
Friends, we hope that you will find those studies to your advantage there at the World Video Bible School. We’re grateful that we’ve mentioned to you about the websites at addedtothechurch.com, gospelgazette.com, as well as our long-time free Bible study course available by mail and the World Video Bible School study online. We love to supply good study material for our listeners, and we’re thankful for all of you that take advantage of these opportunities. Again, if there is something that you want to double-check or know more about, our toll-free number is 855-444-6988, and our website is internationalgospelhour.com. Before we go, the theme of our studies, The Savior’s Way, was a series of lessons delivered by the late Garland Elkins in 1965 at the Morrison, Tennessee, Church of Christ. The relevance of these lessons, they are just as powerful today because the Scripture is relevant for us to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3 and verse 18. I am continually indebted to our friend and brother Paul Sain and his good work at SainPublications.com for this book of sermons titled The Savior’s Way from which our study today has come forth. We have engaged in this in a number of lessons on our weekly broadcast, and at this point we will continue to do so with brief interruptions here or there due to something else that may arise. But I am grateful that we can look at these lessons and study them once again and allow Brother Elkins, through his faith and service, to continue to speak as in the spirit of Abel, Hebrews 11 and verse 4. The International Gospel Hour is brought to you under the oversight of the elders of the West Fayetteville, Tennessee Church of Christ, located, of course, in Fayetteville, Tennessee, about 20 miles due north of Huntsville, Alabama. And we will continue our studies together at another time, dear friends. It’s been a joy to be with you today and look forward to being with you once again. And thank you for joining me today on the International Gospel Hour. I’m Jeff Archie, and friends, keep listening.
