Can We Obey God Or Not?

[Chad]

Can We Obey God Or Not?
SermonIndex

If it is not possible for any person to obey God after Adam's sin, then how did these people obey?

1 Kings 15:5 Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

1 Kings 15:11 And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.

2 Chronicles 14:2 And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God:

2 Chronicles 24:2 And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

Genesis 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Joshua 22:2 And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you:

Haggai 1:12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD.

Did Adam or his descendants lose the ability to obey God after Adam's sin?

No!! The Bible tells the story of many people, some who walked with God and did what was pleasing in His sight and others who rebelled against God and did evil in His sight. It would be impossible to rebel or obey without the freedom to do so.

Joshua 24:15 "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." KJV

Isaiah 1:19-20 "If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land: but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it." KJV

These passages prove that all of Adam's offspring still had the ability to obey or refuse God.

What about Enoch and others who really followed Gods commands? Again, it would not be possible to obey God if they did not have this ability.

 

[Hekuran]

I don't understand the need to argue the case that this post makes. Are there really people out there who believe that it is not possible to obey God?

Lets also remember that even as we can choose obedience or disobedience, righteousness is always the gift of God received by faith. Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:3

 

[SpiritLedEd]

There have been posts here at TJ in recent months claiming that the predestination referred to in Ro 8:28-30 gives evidence that we, in effect, do not have free will; that God's power to predestine us somehow trumps our free will, thus rendering it null and void. How they explain that in light of the absolute perfection of His actions, I don't know.

SLE

 

[Trishann]

God has called us unto holiness;
Through the Spirit we do mortify the flesh;
Yes we can obey God, and if we make a mistake we have an advocate Jesus to ask for forgiveness;
God did not send his Son to die for us, so that we continue to live in darkness, but to bring light into our live.

 

[stephen]

These passages prove that all of Adam's offspring still had the ability to obey or refuse God.

What about Enoch and others who really followed Gods commands? Again, it would not be possible to obey God if they did not have this ability.

These passages prove that all of Adam's offspring still had the ability to obey or refuse God.

They did.....And what pulls me up at times is that some lost out on the blessing of the LOrd God Almighty....upon so little a transgression

Moses.....missed the promised land and why? A natural expression of anger as a result of the stubberness of folks.

What about Enoch and others who really followed Gods commands?

God spared Enoch from the persecution of that day. He had the favour of God upon his life.

Again, it would not be possible to obey God if they did not have this ability.

They chose to have that ability. To follow God. They chose to reject ungodly ways, pastimes etc. Today the world is different, but we still have to make a distinction as we follow Jesus

 

[Copper25]

The truth on Man's nature

I know you may not be able to catch what I am about to say, but the nautre of man after the fall became pure evil and the thing is that it was not just evil here and there, no, but rather evil ny their nautre in its entirety.

Genesis 6:5) And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

If all the thoughts that we ever thought in our lifetime were to be pulled out of us and expressed, we would be so God Hating, so heartless, so wicked, that the earth, she would have not the speck of peace.

Jeremiah 17:9) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Now the bible says in psalm 53

1The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.


2God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.

3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
And Romans 3 supports the same principle

in verses 11-18

Man by nature, by his nature cannot choose God. Why

1 Chorinthians 2:14) "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God"

Why? the answer is in the same verse saying "for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned"

The nature of a man dictates his will. Am I saying that he does not have it, no, simply no. But I am saying that the will is something that is constricted by the person's nature.

Why do you think that in Christ, the bible says that we are new creatures? The old creature, or the old us, with our old nature hated the things of God and certainly, we would not esteem them as near to the extent we do now.

This I say (Jonah 2:9) "Salvation is of the Lord", Why?

John 6:44) No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 16:8) And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

The only way a man will ever come to true repentance in their life and become born again, is if the Holy spirit moves upon their heart and convicts them, only if God does the supernatural working mentioned in Ezekiel 36:28) "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."

Unless this happens, which is by the working of Almighty God, then one can NEVER come to the truth because he is bonded, his will is bonded to the old nature which does not want to truly know the things of God.

And if it were not for the common grace of God, this world would be total chaos.

also to note

Isaiah 64:6) But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

This is exactly why, apart from Christ and trusting in His merit, we are good as dead.