Disobedience — Its Ways

Text: Hebrews 2:1-4

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Affirm that God has always blessed the obedient and condemned the disobedient.
2. Identify the four ways any command of God can be disobeyed.
3. See that there is only one way to obey God — to do what He says, as He directs.

Thesis

God has always blessed obedience and condemned disobedience; there is only one way to obey — to do what God says, as He directs — but four ways to disobey: refusing, adding, subtracting, and substituting, and all four stand equally condemned.

Burden

Man is the most disobedient of God's creatures — capable of honoring God above all, yet so often dishonoring Him. And here is the trap: most people think of disobedience only as flat refusal, as saying "no." But the shows there are four ways to disobey any command, and three of them wear the mask of obedience. A man can refuse outright, or he can add to what God said, or subtract from it, or substitute something else — and feel religious the whole time. This is the heart of the restoration plea: God must be obeyed as He directs, not as we prefer. The burden of this lesson is to expose the polite, religious forms of disobedience that ruin as surely as open rebellion.

Introduction

Man is the most disobedient of God's creatures — made capable of honoring God, yet so often the one who most dishonors Him. It is a sad thing that man, whom God loves, should be so disobedient. The outline builds the lesson on two premises about obedience, the one way to obey, the four ways to disobey, the condemnation of all disobedience, and the fact that any command can be broken in all four ways.

I. Two Premises (Hebrews 5:8-9)

1. God has always blessed the obedient. "To obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Sam. 15:22); "fear God and keep His commandments" (Eccl. 12:13); Christ became "the source of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him" (Heb. 5:8-9); the doer of the work is blessed (Jas. 1:25); souls are purified "in obeying the truth" (1 Pet. 1:22); "blessed are those who [do] His commandments" (Rev. 22:14).
2. God has always condemned the disobedient. "Rebellion is as the sin of divination" (1 Sam. 15:23); the wrath of God comes "upon the sons of disobedience" (Col. 3:5-6); He deals out vengeance "to those who do not obey the gospel" (2 Thess. 1:8; 1 Pet. 4:17); and the unbelieving have their part in the lake of fire (Rev. 21:7-8).

The whole Bible stands on these two premises: blessing for obedience, condemnation for disobedience.

II. The One Way to Obey (1 Samuel 15:22)

1. There is only one way to obey: to do what God says.
2. And to do it as He directs — in His way, by His means, for His reasons. Obedience that picks its own method is not obedience but self-will. Saul learned this when he spared what God said to destroy and offered sacrifice instead — and heard, "to obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Sam. 15:22).

III. The Four Ways to Disobey (Galatians 1:8-9)

Any command of God can be broken four ways — and only one of them looks like outright rebellion:

1. By stubborn refusal — simply will not do it. "You are unwilling to come to Me" (John 5:40); "you would not have it" (Luke 13:34).
2. By addition — doing what God said, but adding to it. "You shall not add to the word" (Deut. 4:2); "do not add to His words" (Prov. 30:6); "if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues" (Rev. 22:18).
3. By subtraction — doing it, but leaving part out. "You shall not... take away from it" (Deut. 4:2); "if anyone takes away... God will take away his part" (Rev. 22:19).
4. By substitution — doing something else in its place and calling it obedience. "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil" (Isa. 5:20-23); "even if... an angel from heaven should preach... a gospel contrary... let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:8-9).

Three of the four feel like obedience to the one doing them — which is exactly why they are so dangerous.

IV. All Disobedience Is Condemned (Isaiah 66:2-4)

1. Disobedience is rebellion, however polite its form.
2. It impeaches God's wisdom — it says, in effect, that we know better than He how His command should be kept.
3. One disobedient way is as bad as another. The man who adds, subtracts, or substitutes is as truly disobedient as the man who refuses — for all of them "chose their own ways" rather than God's (Isa. 66:2-4). God condemns the religious forms of disobedience as surely as the open ones.

V. Any Command May Be Disobeyed in All Four Ways

Take a plain example. A father tells his son to build a house. The son can refuse to build it; he can build it but add rooms never ordered; he can build it but leave out rooms commanded; or he can build something else entirely — a barn — and call it the house. Only one response is obedience: build the house as directed. So with God's commands — including faith and baptism. A man may refuse baptism; or add to it requirements God never gave; or subtract from what God said it is for; or substitute something else (sprinkling for burial, infants for believers, "faith only" for the obedience of faith) and call it baptism. There is still only one way to obey: do what God said, as He said it.

Application

Examine not only whether you are obeying God but how. It is not enough to be busy and religious; the question is whether you are doing what God said, as He directed — or whether you have quietly added to it, subtracted from it, or swapped in something of your own and called it obedience. These three are the respectable sins, the ones that never feel like rebellion, and they damn as surely as a flat refusal. Test your worship, your conversion, your whole religion by this: is it God's command, kept God's way? Add nothing, take nothing away, substitute nothing. Do what He says, as He directs — that, and only that, is obedience.

Conclusion

God blesses obedience and condemns disobedience, and He always has. There is one way to obey — His way — and four ways to disobey: refuse, add, subtract, substitute. Three of them wear the face of obedience, and all four are condemned alike. Do what God says, as He directs, and leave His commands exactly as He gave them.

Invitation

God's command to the sinner is plain, and it can be obeyed only one way — His. Do not refuse it, add to it, subtract from it, or substitute something easier: believe that Jesus is the Christ, repent of your sins, confess Him, and be baptized for the remission of your sins, exactly as He directs (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16). Obey, and inherit the blessing promised to all who do His commandments. Come while we sing.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 49. Doctrinal audit: core-framework — a central restoration-hermeneutic sermon (obey God only as He directs; the four ways to disobey — refuse, add, subtract, substitute — all equally condemned; applied to faith and baptism against sprinkling/infant baptism/"faith only"); no correction. The house-building illustration and the faith/baptism application are Boles' own. Style audit: OCR cleanup. All of Boles' citations verified and retained as given; no supplied references were needed.