OBEDIENCE
Greetings Brother Chet,
A wondering I've had many times about scriptures where God will say “obey me and keep my commandments and I will be with you” yet we know that in Adam this is impossible.
In 1 Kings 11:38 God is telling Jeroboam this, knowing Jeroboam is NOT going to obey Him? This runs throughout the whole bible. I could ask the same question about the 10 commandments. But it’s clearer to me with them because The Lord has given me to believe they were given to show we CANNOT keep them to lead us to the one who perfectly does. I can’t get the same understanding when over and over God tells everyone to obey knowing we can't. Knowing Jeroboam was created to make golden calves why does God say obey me and I will be with you? I try to make it an Old Testament thing but cannot. All the teachings of Jesus and Paul and Peter. The Beatitudes, pray without ceasing, go and sin no more. I've said I wish it added -- “these things will only be done as He gives you to do them”. Or, “remember dear child, it will be Christ in you doing these things as it pleases Me”.
I do believe His ways are not my ways and this is what Adam is after.
I will be grateful for any insight He chooses to give thru you.
Thank you for your time.
Dear _____________,
Thank you for your request I hope I may be able to assist you in your quest.
Obedience is the holy demand of God in all things. There is no such thing as partial obedience or 'doing the best you can'. The perfection of His Holiness demands absolute complete obedience from all His creation. In this there is compliance, not by the will or power of the creature but in the power of Almighty God who causes all things to work in harmony, one with another and each in their appointed time, to the glory of His name. Nothing in creation is out of sort or in need of alignment for all things come to pass by the counsel of His will. This Will is immutable and irresistible for as He has spoken so everything comes to pass and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What are you doing? Herein the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that man is without excuse (Rom. 1:20). He is supreme over all and as He has purposed in Himself, for there is none greater, so all things come to pass.
Adam was not so made. Obedience was commanded of him to openly manifest that he is not god. He is deceived by the pride of his heart to think more highly of himself than he ought whereby he thinks to dwell in the clefts of the rock whose habitation is on high and proclaim to all, ‘who shall bring me down to the ground?’ He exalts himself as an eagle and desires to make his nest among the stars (Ob.3f) but Yehovah God is a jealous God. He will not share His glory with another, especially with one of His creatures or the idols that he makes (Is. 42:8). Man’s inability to be obedient to the commandments of God prove that he is not God yet his actions were necessary to the purpose of God, thus the whole of creation, from the beginning is obsequious to the Will of God and man has nothing wherein he may boast.
The children of the Kingdom of the Israel of our God, however, cannot fail. They have the testimony of the finished work in the Anointed Salvation of Yehovah, they are faithful as He is faithful and they keep the Law of God perfectly for they are incapable of anything else. The Father cannot deny His children and the seed cannot disown or tarnish the eternal Father. They are Holy as He is Holy and are One in Him as He is One. They are obedient in all that the Father has given them because they are known of Him who has made them accepted in the Beloved. It has been granted unto them to be arrayed in fine linen clean and white, which is the imputed righteousness of Messiah to His people; the righteousness of the saints (Rev. 19:8).
The children, while they are partakers of flesh and blood, find that the good they would do they cannot do in Adam and the sin that they would avoid, they find ever before their face and great enjoyment in the flesh. They find the needs of the flesh and the cares of the world draw Adam away constantly for he has no faith. They are brought into the bondage of the inability of the body of this death which causes them to cry to the Father just as Israel did when God sold them into the hands of the enemies. He shows them their inability in Adam that no flesh should glory in His presence (I Cor. 1:29) and that they might know how exceedingly sinful that inability (sin) is.
The commandment of God is obedience which the flesh cannot do for the children of Adam are cursed children who cannot cease from sin and therein is frustration without hope. The inner man, that spiritual seed within, walks in the light of Yehovah because His Spirit dwells within causing him to keep the commandments (Ex. 36:27). This is why the dragon, that piercing serpent, is wroth with the woman and her children; because they keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12:17).
While in this earthen vessel the children have been made subject to this vanity (worthlessness) by reason of hope. That hope, which cannot be seen, is in the adoption, wherein they are ‘made like the Son’ when the tabernacle of this habitation is over. They are the ‘sons of God’ but in the time of this habitation, it does not yet appear what they shall be; yet they know that when He shall appear they shall be like Him. This is the hope of Glory.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation and the inability of man. It is the sovereign righteousness of the Lord God Omnipotent who reigns over all and the wretched man that Adam is. God did not create man able to be obedient and man became disobedient; He created him incapable that he might know God.
The children of the Kingdom rejoice in the beauty of their heavenly Father and groan in the corruption of the body of this death, waiting to be delivered. They are obedient in their Adam, which is Messiah, just as the flesh is disobedient in Adam. Adam knows not how to pray, the children pray without ceasing because the Spirit makes intercession with groanings and utterances which cannot be heard. These rise continually before the throne of grace in the smoke of the incense which is caused by the fire of God. This fire consumes the wood, hay and stubble, which is Edom (Ob. 17). The furnace of affliction, wherein He has chosen His people, manifests the corruptible and consumes it in the chastening of the Lord. The smoke of the Refiner's Fire contains the intercession of the Spirit. Man is condemned for disobedience in that he does not pray the children are justified because they pray without ceasing.
The natural man is not thankful for his eyes are full of covetousness. He desires and he has not so he labours more abundantly for that which he does not have. The children give thanks in all things as they offer up the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Ps. 116:7) in praise of His holy name.
The list can continue and the examples will have the same explanation and cause; for it is God who works in you both to will and do His good pleasure. There is no praise unto the axe or the saw for the work that is done (Is. 10:15) yet if man does something he immediately desires attention and praise, saying, Come see my zeal for the Lord! Herein is his sin revealed as he stands guilty before God. The redeemed of the Lamb sign His praises for He alone is worthy.
I apologize for my rambling. I hope there is truth herein and that the Spirit will give you understanding.
Your servant,
chet
February 2016
Wow,
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