Friday, August 30, 2013

August 31, 2013

"......continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling...." Philippians 2:12b
 
The work of salvation is obedience!
 
Obedience allows Christ's work of salvation begins in your heart when you obey His conditions for salvation.

Once you have salvation you must obey faithfully!

Not only should you obey faithfully but also obey fearfully!

Romans 3:16-18 – Characterizes disobedient people:

·         "Destruction and misery are in their ways”:

·         And the way of peace have they not known:

·         There is no fear of God before their eyes. "
 
I hope that doesn’t describe you this morning.
 
The best reason for obeying God is out of love and a desire to please Him. But an equally effective reason is fear of what happens when you don't obey God, as these stories illustrate.
 
Charles Swindoll once talked with General Charles M. Duke, a former astronaut who went on the Apollo 16 mission to the moon. I asked, “Once you were there, weren’t you free to make your own decisions and carry out your own experiments. He smiled and said “Sure, if I didn’t want to return to earth!” He went on to describe the intricate plan, the precise instructions, the essential discipline and the instant obedience that was needed right down to a split second. He explained how they landed with sixty seconds of fuel remaining. Talk about being obedient! (Charles Swindoll, Strengthening Your Grip).
 
Their obedience to the plan allowed the plan to work! The slightest act of disobedience would have doomed the mission and them!
 
Consider the truths of these quotes:

“If God be God over us, we must yield him universal obedience in all things. He must not be over us in one thing, and under us in another, but he must be over us in everything.” - Peter Bulkeley, Leadership, Vol. 9, no. 1
 
Obedience doesn’t allow you to decide what you will and won’t obey. The Words of Christ are not suggestions or advice: they are commands! (Water Buffalo Theology)
 
How's your obedience?
 
Are you obeying fearfully?
 
How is your salvation working out?