Obey the voice of the lord thy god.
Of obedience to God’s revealed will
I. What is the rule of obedience? The written Word.
II. What are the right ingredients in our obedience to make it acceptable?
1. Obedience must be free and cheerful, else it is penance, not sacrifice (Isaiah 1:19). Willingness is the soul of obedience; God sometimes accepts of willingness without the work, but never of the work without willingness. Cheerfulness shows that there is love in the duty; and love doth to our services, as the sun doth to the fruits, mellow and ripen them and make them come off with a better relish.
2. Obedience must be devout and fervent: the heart must boil over with hot affections in the service of God.
3. Obedience must be extensive, it must reach to all God’s commands (Psalms 119:6). True obedience runs through all duties of religion, as the blood through all the veins, or the sun through all the signs of the zodiac.
4. Obedience must be sincere--namely, we must aim at the glory of God in it, in religion the end is all. The end of our obedience must not be to stop the mouth of conscience, or to gain applause, but that we may grow more like God, and bring more glory to God.
5. Obedience must be in and through Christ, “He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
6. Obedience must be constant, “Blessed is he who doeth righteousness at all times.” True obedience is not like an high colour in a fit, but it is a right sanguine; it is like the fire on the altar which was always kept burning.
III. Whence is it that men do not obey God?
1. The not obeying of God is for want of faith: “Who hath believed our report?” Did men believe sin were so bitter that hell followed at the heels of it, would they go on in sin? Did they believe there were such a reward for the righteous that godliness were gain, would they not pursue it?
2. The not obeying God is for want of self-denial. God commands one thing, and men’s lusts command another, and they will rather die than deny their lusts; now, if lust cannot be denied God cannot be obeyed.
IV. What are the great arguments or incentives to obedience?
1. Obedience makes us precious to God; we shall be His favourites (Exodus 19:5; Isaiah 43:3).
2. There is nothing lost by obedience. To obey God’s will is the way to have our will. (T. Watson.)
Implicit obedience
Implicit obedience is our first duty to God, and one for which nothing else will compensate. If a lad at school is bidden to cipher, and chooses to write a copy instead, the goodness of the writing will not save him from censure. We must obey whether we see the reason or not; for God knows best. A guide through an unknown country must be followed without demur. A captain, in coming up the Humber or Southampton Water, yields complete authority to the pilot. A soldier in battle must fight when and where he is ordered; when the conflict is over he may reflect upon and perceive the wisdom of his commander in movements that at the time of their execution were perplexing. The farmer must obey God’s natural laws of the seasons if he would win a harvest; and we must all obey God’s spiritual laws if we would reap happiness here and hereafter.
Obedience proceeding from love
The son of a poor man that hath not a penny to give or leave him, yields his father obedience as cheerfully as the son of a rich man that looks for a great inheritance. It is, indeed, love to the father, not wages from the father, that is the ground of a good child’s obedience. If there were no heaven God’s children would obey Him; and though there were no hell yet would they do their duty; so powerfully doth the love of the Father constrain them. (J. Spencer.)