God doesn't demand your respect, he demands your obedience

I was watching a video, and the Pastor mentioned these words, "God doesn't demand respect, He demands your obedience." How true this is, where and in what verse of the Bible does it say, respect your God your LORD... no verse ever. But what we do see is the word obey, obedience, the call to obey His commandments and His statutes.

So what does it mean to respect, in the oxford dictionary we get

Here we see a man reading his Bible in reverence and obedience to the Lord.

"a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements."

and what does it mean when we obey, in the oxford dictionary it says

"submit to the authority of (someone) or comply with (a law)." So as we can see, they are completely different actions."

We can take the example of, if you remember in 2 Samuel 6 and in 1 Chronicles 13, that king David was transporting the Ark back to Jerusalem. We see a few cases of disobedience within these books and verse by king David because the as we know the Ark is to be carried on the shoulders of the Levites (Numbers 4:5-15) commanded by Moses y God. What we see in 2 Samuel 6 is that king David has made a new cart for the Ark to be transported on to Jerusalem, do you see the disobedience already. As they were moving along the cart with the Ark pulled by the Oxen, the oxen stumbled at the threshing floor of Nacon, the Ark began to tip. Uzzah being near, completely disregarding the holiness of the Ark in his own mind decided to put his hands on it to stop it from tipping. Now we can speculate he did not want it to touch the dirt as if the dirt was unclean, but what was truly unclean was the disobedient men.

The Ark Brought to Jerusalem

6 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. 3 And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio,[a] the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, 4 with the ark of God,[b] and Ahio went before the ark.

Uzzah and the Ark

5 And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs[c] and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. 8 And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah[d] to this day. 9 And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” 10 So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 11 And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.

How serious is God about obedience, deadly serious as we can see in history, that instantly Uzzah was struck dead. We can constantly think to ourselves that we can slip through life not obeying God, but we know God is watching, in fact it says in Jeremiah 17:10

“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

He is a just God, yet He is rich in mercy, but all who disobey Him will be punished. In our flesh we are torn to make our own ideas of justice... imagine the unjust making the definition of justice, crazy right, yet we do this all the time in the flesh. Even as born again believers we fight against the flesh. The flesh loves lust and pride and it does its best to make one slip. Oh and we slip don't we brothers and sisters in Christ. Just because we are born again doesn't mean we get a free pass, not at all in fact, we must struggle and work to be in constant worship and obedience to the Holy and Righteous God.

So as we read throughout the Bible, the incredible History of past man... what do we see... that they are like us all, sinners. When we fail to have reverence for a Holy, Righteous and Just God we put ourselves on a path to His wrath. Why is that when you test an atheists true faith on "everything was created from nothing" and tell them that is a scientific impossibility they religion is shaken and they becomes more like well "I don't really believe that part" Why? Because of the nature of man that is fallen, and loves their sin over righteousness. But as the title says, "God doesn't demand your respect, He demands your obedience" and this should shake you. Are you a person who would call themselves a "Christian" and you love hanging with those of the world over those who love biblical fellowship. Are you one that denies creation, that all came from nothing. To be honest they are one in the same really, one denies Christ by their lack of reverence and the other by folly and believing a lie told by man, implemented over 100 years in propaganda, brain washing (See upcoming blog on "The War of the Minds").

It's interesting that many take historical facts from secular marxist institutions of "education" as factual and concrete, let me ask you this as a non believer or even to someone that calls themselves "christian" but believes in "mans words".

We have the Bible, we have Jesus Christ and many say it's a fantasy book a man in the shadows of history... really!

Are the works of the roman historian Tacitus reliable, what about the greek historian Thucydides or Caesar's Gallic Wars, Aristotle?

1400 years lie between the actual writings and the oldest known copies of Aristotle's poetics, the original manuscripts don't even exist!

The same can be said for Thucydides and Tacitus. Are these men, these events only unverified shadows of history.

Over 5800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament exist, yes 5800, some as near as 120 to 90 years after the death of Christ.

Jesus walked this earth, He was here. There were eyewitnesses of His life, His death and His resurrection.

Science doesn't deny these facts, why are you?

I can go through facts and science all day long, but in the end one must go His way... Christianity in the true form is to follow Christ, His commandments, statutes and to die to self and carry one's cross as He did for us. It all starts with understanding you are a sinner just like me, that no matter what horrible things you may have done or how wonderful you believe you are in your one self made idea, you have lied, stolen and even if it's the smallest thing ever... you did it, and the God that made you is blameless and perfect and we are not. So what is a sinless God to do with such filth as us, well He must be just, so then He must punish us and as He is eternal so must the punishment or the blessing be. So as for this moment, you have not understood John 3 being born again, you have not repented, in greek "metanoia" meaning "change of mind" as Jesus preached constantly as in His first teaching in Matthew 3:2 & 4:17

Matthew 3:2

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4:17

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

So what do we need Jesus Christ, because we are broken, sinners, liars, thieves, fornicators, idolaters, murderers and haters of God. So how can bent be made straight but by a reforming, a cleansing but how can sinners do this with a Holy God, we can not.

But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love He loved us with, made us alive together in Christ. By grace you are saved. Ephesians 2:4-5

It is only by God's grace that we are saved, His amazing grace and love... a love so great that He died for us, for only He is perfect and holy and worthy. So the Lord Jesus Christ came in the likeness of us, born not of the human way but in an immaculate conception a miracle birth to keep sin from entering the baby Jesus, so that He could walk this earth with us but in perfection, being blameless and coming to die for the very enemies who would murder Him by beating, slapping, mocking, lashing, spitting on HIm and so much more.. but this wasn't the main point. The point was, He would be the substitution of the atonement for our sins, so that as

Romans 6:23 says "the wages of sin is death"

and we are all walking on death row but there is someone who paid that debt in full, and if you truly believe in your heart that He did what He did on that cross for you, that He is risen and is alive today and forever you will be saved, cry out to Him today and if you truly seek Him, you will find HIm. He is truly a God that is worthy of our obedience, our reverence.

I pray that your soul will be saved today from eternal hell. I may not know who you are, but I love you enough to tell you this and to continue to share this. May you find the true peace and joy through the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ today.

By God's Grace

Dean