Threefold Obedience — Jenny Daniel

The Threefold Call to Obedience

We cannot fulfill God's purpose in our lives. I'm going to call it the obedience of salvation, the obedience of full surrender, and the obedience of daily submission to God. The obedience of salvation, the obedience of full surrender, and the obedience of daily submission to God.

Salvation as an Obedient Response

Now, first of all, the obedience of salvation. You're going to say to me, well, salvation is free. What are you talking about obedience for? It is free. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

For you are saved, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But there are three calls in salvation where God calls us to obey Him.

The Call to Repentance

And the first call that comes to us in salvation is the call to repentance. But the times of these ignorance God went at, but now commanded all men everywhere to repent. Repent ye, and be ye converted, that your sins may be blotted out.

God calls each one of us to repentance. I want us all to turn to Amos 4 and to start reading from verse 6 because here God actually calls the nation of Israel to repentance and they disobeyed God's call to repentance.

Amos 4 from verse 6. And also God says, I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places, yet ye have not returned unto me, says the Lord. And also I have withholden the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city.

One feast was rained upon, and the feast whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet ye have not returned unto me, says the Lord.

I have sent among you the pestilence after the manor of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with a sword, and I have taken away your horses, and I have made the stink of your camps to come up to your nostrils.

Yet ye have not returned unto me, says the Lord. I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning. Yet ye have not returned unto me, says the Lord.

Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel, for lo, He that formeth the mountains and createth the wind and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is His name.

It is as if Amos couldn't believe that God had so clearly called Israel to repentance. He sent one calamity after the other over their path, and yet they didn't return. And he cries out, prepare to meet your God.

And then he says, do you know who God is? Do you know who the God is that you're going to have to meet one day, Israel? He formed the mountains. He created the wind. He declares unto man what is his thought.

This is the God that you've got to meet. And thinking about what Amos wrote, and thinking about us, years ago I wrote these words. Prepare, the earnest prophet cried. More time that day will be denied.

O man, take care. O man, beware. You'll surely meet God over there. God calls to you upon life's way. He's still His voice from day to day. You do not think, you do not care that you will meet God over there.

God's grace extends the midnight hour. His clarion voice goes out with power. O man, take care. O man, beware. You'll surely meet God over there. If you but turn, receive God's Son, repent. Thy soul is one, is one.

Too late, O soul, at heaven's door. Damnation falls forevermore. I remember years ago as a young missionary, I was in a meeting where different people had come out with the preacher preaching, and they asked me to sit with a young girl.

And when I sat with her, she said she would like to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior. She was a high school student. But when she started sharing with me, I began to realize that she didn't want a Savior from sin.

She just wanted a Savior from hell. She was in sin. She wanted to continue in her sin. She wanted a Savior with her sin. She was not obeying the call to repentance. We all know about the two prayers in the temple that the Lord Jesus spoke about, the Pharisee and the publican.

The publican was so conscious of his sinful state that he actually couldn't look down. He was just calling on God for mercy. He was in true repentance. But the Pharisee looked around and said, Oh, that publican is really a bad person.

I'm so much better than he. And he had no repentance in his heart. And the Lord Jesus condemned him. Sometimes when you grow up in Christian homes and we look around at the dreadful sins of the people around us, so much worse than we are perhaps doing, we start thinking of ourselves not in need of repentance because our sins seem so much whiter than their sins.

But in God's eyes, there is none righteous, no, not one. If we say we have no sins, we deceive ourselves. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar. The disciples spoke to the Lord Jesus about the Tower of Siloam that fell on those people.

And they said, Oh, they must have been so wicked for this tower to fall on them. They must have done dreadful sins. And what did the Lord Jesus say to them? He said, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Each one of us needs to repent. There's another call in the obedience of salvation, and that is the call to seek God. The Bible says, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near.

Seeking God Wholeheartedly

The Lord Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It also says, He shall seek me, and he shall find me, when he shall search for me with all your heart.

I've been reading the life story of Frances Ridley Havergill. I've just gone a bit into the book that somebody gave me. And it was just interesting to note, she had grown up in a Christian home, but it took her years of seeking to come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We don't just accept God, but we seek him with all our heart. And sometimes we can be disappointed by failures in others, and we say to ourselves, If Christianity doesn't work for them, why should I seek God?

It's not going to work for me. And we don't seek God. We've just repented, but we don't seek God. But the Lord Jesus said, as he said to the disciples, What is that to thee? Follow thou me. About two years ago, a mother phoned me, a widowed lady, and she was very concerned about her daughter.

She was conscious that something was not right, and she asked her to come to the house for me to counsel that lady. But when she knocked at the door, I opened the door, and there was this beautiful girl of about 23 standing there.

But something said to me, I must send Samuel further away, and let him do work where he couldn't listen. And when this lady started sharing, she said that she was involved with a married man. She'd come from a Christian home.

She had a praying mother, and yet she was involved with a married man. And what shocked me even more, that there was no consciousness of the ugliness of her sins. There was sympathy for the man. There was compassion for his loneliness.

It was mind-boggling to see somebody that had no awareness of her sin, that had no seeking after God, even though she was in the depths of sin. But God says to us, Seek me, and ye shall find me. Now the third call in salvation, in obedience of salvation, is to accept.

Accepting Christ as Savior

God calls us to repent. He calls us to seek Him in salvation. And He calls us to accept Him. Now all of us know the Bible story, the true story, of the rich young ruler who came and threw himself at the Lord Jesus' feet.

He was desperate. He ran in front of everybody, and he threw himself at the Lord Jesus' feet. But nowhere do we read that he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, we read in the Bible that he went away sorrowing.

And it is so sad if we can come so close to accepting God, but yet we do not accept Him as our Savior. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God.

We have to accept God. There's a song that I loved as a child. I used to think of different people that we were praying for. It was a sad song. It says, So near to the kingdom of heaven, and yet without the gate.

Isn't it so sad if we are so near, but we do not accept Him as our Savior. And then it is too late one day, when we enter death or the Lord Jesus comes. Why does the gate of God's mercy beckon? Oh, enter within.

High was the price paid on Calvary to conquer and cover all sin. Yet at thy heart, man, he standeth knocking. Oh, bid him come in. Years upon years he is waiting to free you from guilt and from sin. Tis God, mighty God, you've rejected.

His voice, tender voice, you have stolen. And slowly, with pride, degradation, your heart, heart, stony heart has been filled. One day when time shall be ended and God's knock shall never be more, you will be standing and calling, too late soul, at heaven's closed door.

Oh, may it not be said of somebody in this meeting, too late. They did not obey God's call to salvation. But now the second great obedience in our lives is the obedience of full surrender. And for those who do know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, who have obeyed the call to salvation, the second great obedience in our lives that is essential for us to fulfill God's purposes for us is the obedience of full surrender.

Full Surrender to One Master

The Bible says no man can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or hold to the one and despise the other. In Amos 3 verse 3 we read, Can two walk together except they be agreed?

Now if two walk together, one has to lead. Is that not correct? You cannot walk together unless somebody is telling you where to go. And so in the Christian walk, we need to totally give ourselves over to God so that we can follow where He wants to lead us.

I recently, the last two months in our Bible study at home, it was so beautiful to see God working in a young man's life where God brought him to this place of full surrender. He had a little bit of a foot in the world, this young man.

You could see that he was tugged by the world. And then every Sunday as we went to church, he sat opposite us. I could see that he went through a struggle. God was speaking to him. God was calling him to full surrender.

And you could literally see the struggle and the unhappiness and the desperation on his face. And about, I think two Sundays ago, we went to church and suddenly his face just shone. And you could just see he had one master.

His face just shone. At the Bible study, he couldn't wait to share about God and God's Word. You could see he's been delving in the Bible. He was just transformed because he had one master. Now if we read in the Old Testament about the love slave, that's actually a picture of full surrender because that slave had come to the point where he could go out free.

And he turns to his master and he says, I don't want to go out free. I choose to be your slave. I want to be your love slave. And that's what we say to God in full surrender. I'm not only going to obey you because I have to obey you.

I'm not only obeying you because I want to get to heaven. I'm obeying you because I love to obey you. I want to obey you. Everything that I am is thine. George Miller said, there was a day when I died, utterly died.

Died to George Miller, his opinion, his preference, his faith, his will. Died to the world, its approval or censure. Died to the approval or blame even of my friends and brethren. And since then, I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.

One master, approved unto God. My granny said to us when we were children, if you have the cross in your life, if you have died to self, all it means, my darling, she said to us because we were still very little, is that Mr. I has been crossed out.

The cross is Mr. I crossed out. That's all the cross is. So she said, when your mommy comes home from Port Elizabeth and you don't go to mommy and say, what have you brought for us? What sweets have you?

You say, mommy, what can I do for you? Can I make you a cup of tea? It's what he wants, not what I want. It's the I crossed out. I mentioned at Rochester that there was a lad on the Solomon Island that Knight mentioned that a man came to who tried to influence him to gamble.

He was a simple lad, not a learned person. And he told him, I want to teach you how to gamble. And this boy said, I'm sorry, sir, but I can't gamble. I haven't got any hands. So the man said, don't be ridiculous.

There are your hands. You've got hands. What are you talking about? And the lad said, no, these hands are not my hands. They belong to Jesus. And in that simple way, that simple lad had grasped what we sometimes do not grasp, that when we surrender ourselves to God, we give every part of ourselves, every part of our being in one dedication of ourselves.

Surrendering Every Part of Life

We all know about F .B. Meyer, how God said to him, give me the keys of your life. And it was so literal to him, God saying, give me the keys of your life, that my dad said he read in a book that F .B. Meyer literally took out a bunch of keys and put it down on the table.

And then God said, there's a little key that's not there. And he said to God, all the keys of my life. And that's what full surrender is. When I surrender myself to God and I say, God, thou canst have every key of my life.

Romans 12 verse 1 and 2 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. And be not conformed to this world.

They would never do what I'm asking of thee. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove that good and acceptable and perfect will of God for your life.

There were so many little things. I gave up law to thee. So now I thought I'd sacrificed what was required of me. And then I read thy word anew, which said so tenderly, my child, I ask not little things, but every part of thee.

And that's what God asks of us. Every part of thee. Now we come to the third obedience. And the third obedience is perhaps the most difficult obedience. But if we have obeyed God in the call to salvation, if we have obeyed God in the call to full surrender, then the obedience of daily submission to God should not be difficult for us.

Daily Submission in Hidden Choices

But this obedience is obedience between us and God. It involves choices that only we know about.

It is choices between obedience between us and God. It involves choices.

That only we know about. It is choices between us and God. Choices that nobody else knows about. The choice to go the extra mile. The choice to be patient and compassionate with a difficult child or a sister or a brother, a father or a husband.

My mom told me the story that when she was a young girl in the valley that they lived at, there was a dear little lady. She was tiny. She was like a little bird, my mom said. And she was such a wonderful Christian.

She served the Lord. She always had missionaries in the home if there was somebody sick. This little lady would take a little basket of goodies to the person. She was wonderful. But she had a very difficult husband.

And he only got saved later in her life. But my mom said that sometimes she used to arrive at the farm and this little lady used to come running out to meet them. And she used to say, My dear, please be very careful how you speak to my husband today.

It's taken me hours to get him into a good mood. Let's keep him so. So there are many choices that we make that are only between us and God, that only God knows about and that he smiles upon. There's a choice to witness or not to witness.

A choice to answer back or not to answer back. A choice to defend myself when I know I'm right or just to be quiet that God can defend my cause. A choice that determines the way I dress. O child of God, thy steps, thy dress should God's allegiance claim.

One look should tell a mocking world that thou dost bear his name. A choice in our dress. A choice to bear all things, to hope all things, to endure all things. Choices that nobody knows about. But we know because it's a choice that we know God is asking of us.

Submission in Family Responsibilities

A lady wrote to me recently and she spoke about a choice they made as a family. They were going to take in a very difficult, unsaved mother into their home. It was a choice they made. But that choice resulted in many more choices.

It was the start of many choices in which they had to be obedient to God. Difficult choices that they made and that they would continually be making. One of the most important areas of submission in our daily submission to God is in the area of our tongue.

The Tongue as a Test of Obedience

It is there that we can fail so deeply. Not so long ago, about a year ago, a year and a half ago, I was so saddened by Christian workers who were failing through the tongue. They were undermining each other.

They were accusing each other. Slanders were spreading from the one side of our country to the other and they were Christian workers. Young Christians were stumbling over what they were doing and what they were saying.

Their own children became bitter and the world started saying if that's how a Christian acts, where is Christianity? And in praying for them and thinking of them, I wrote a few verses on the tongue. There is a little member which is not hard to find.

It is a mighty weapon which cannot be confined. It can bring joy and comfort. It seals both hurt and woe. A balm to weary pilgrims. A help against the foe. A weaker brother stumbling is made to turn around.

A wounded sister bleeding is lifted from the ground. But ah, this little member can cause a world of pain. If not to God surrendered, His servant to ordain. It hurts, it cuts, it murders the lives of fellow men.

It dims the light of heaven. It makes the world condemn. Ah, little tongue, I beg thee, bend to thy Lord above that on the path you travel your ministry is love. May we guard our tongues and be obedient to God with our tongues.

Daily Obedience in Different Circumstances

But you know, each home is different. Each home has different choices. I don't know about you. Have you sometimes looked at the next home and think, oh, it must be so much easier for that person to be obedient to God in her daily?

Her circumstances seem so much easier than mine. It's much more difficult for me to be obedient and submissive to God. But there's an Indian proverb that you can probably quote better than I can, which says, if you haven't walked in another's moccasins, you don't know anything about their experiences.

And even though others might look as if they've got easier choices to make, each one of us, it's not easy to be obedient to God in daily submission in the home. Daniel is a wonderful example to us of daily submission.

Daniel's Perseverance in Daily Submission

We all know about Daniel. When he initially says, I will not, Daniel purposed in his heart, in Daniel 1 verse 8, not to defile himself with the king's meat. He was a young man, and he made that decision, I'm going to follow God all the way.

But that was the beginning of many choices, of many yes lords in his life. And the choices didn't become easier to make. They were more difficult. He ended up in a den of lions. But Daniel did not only say, I will not.

He continually said, I will not listen to the devil. I will obey God. I will not, Daniel purposed, and what a stand made he to all the dangers he had faced. He never swerved from thee. I will not, blessed purpose, to meet the tempting foe, for then my very will is schooled to firmly answer no.

I will not be your purpose, dear child of God today, so that no one, no thing, no call can tempt you from God's way. And so we have to daily say, I will not. I will listen to God, and I will not listen to Satan.

Faithfulness in the Small Things

What God is actually asking us in our daily submission to Him is really to be faithful to Him in everything that we do. He's just asking us to be faithful. We saved, we've dedicated our lives to Him, and now He says to us, my child, I want you to be faithful to Me in all the little issues of life that nobody else knows about, but you and I know about.

Just to be faithful, that's all I ask, not an impossible, grievous task, just to be faithful throughout the day, just to be following all of the way. That little word that I asked you to say was springing to harvest some far distant day.

That little visit you knew you should do has made a poor sister to take hope anew. That little arm you were prompted to give has given another the courage to learn. And so through your life I will whisper to you all the small things I would want you to do, and when you're in heaven, my praises shall sing, may you have been faithful in serving your King.

That's all God asks of us, just to be faithful. We do not press realize that even though our choices are only between us and God, secret choices, yet those choices are witnessed by those in the home. And they know if we are obedient to God.

They sense if we are disobedient to God. They know if we are submissive to His will, and they do know if we are not. And Paul speaks about that when he says in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 2, he says he calls the Corinthians an epistle known and read of all men.

What does that mean? They are a letter known and read of all men. And that's what we are in the home. We are a letter, an open letter, where our disobedience or obedience is read by those in the home.

A letter in the home am I, my life is written bold in every action, every word, a message is being told. What is the message I portray from week to week, from day to day? Is it a round of constant strife or Christ in every sphere of life?

A letter. What a solemn thought. A letter good or ill hath wrought. O God may mine obedience bring to bring my family to you. I was always struck by those words of the Lord Jesus about Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus said, I would but he would not.

Choosing God's Will Each Day

And I've thought a lot about that and I've thought how sad it is if God looks at our lives and he says I would but he would not. And I don't know about you but when you get towards the end of the year which we are getting to I often look back over the year and I look at the year and I say, Lord did I obey thee?

Was thou able to fulfill thy purposes in my life for this year? Or will thou write across my life, I would but he would not. What sad words they are if we were disobedient in our daily obedience to God, in our daily submission to God, that he would say across our lives, he would not.

I would my child this year that you had grown, that you my word had better known I would have led you higher on the way, I would have fashioned o 'er the broken clay but he would not. I would that you a tender mother be knowing your child my special gift to thee taking the time to let him learn of me, teaching the sacrifice of Calvary but he would not.

Will you heed all that I do ask of thee? Will you reveal what I still long to see? Will you respond to mine own agony? Will you obey your master's tender plea in daily submission? Or will you not? There's still part of the year left.

Joshua's Renewed Commitment to Serve God

Joshua is another biblical example, a wonderful example of daily submission to God of continual submission to God. Joshua stood with Moses in his youth he was the one that was with Moses when the other Israelites turned from God to do the golden calf.

Joshua was one of those spies who said we must trust God he stood with Caleb. Joshua led them through Jordan he obeyed God with Jericho, marching around he was willing to have Achan killed because he was disobedient to God.

Joshua followed God through his life but suddenly in the Bible we get Joshua in his old age he's an old man now he's not young anymore he'd been obedient, but now he stands before Israel as an old man he knows there isn't much time left for him and what does Joshua say?

Ye today whom ye shall serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. What was Joshua actually saying? I've served God all my life, but today again I reiterate my determination to serve God, and that is actually what daily submission means we need this in the morning when we wake up to say as for me, I will serve the Lord today just as Joshua did.

Joshua said to the nation of Israel choose ye today whom ye shall serve and I think in a sense that's what God says to us every morning when we wake up. My child choose ye today whom ye shall serve because it's so easy to not serve him.

O wondrous day when thee I chose and mercy reached my deepest woes and I in sorrow clung to thee to save my soul eternally. My choice was made the battle won with sin with the past forever done and yet each day I make a choice as silently I hear thy voice so tender saying whose art thou in this small matter wilt thou bow?

The bed seems oh so warm and sweet another sleep for him I'll meet ah then I'm robbed of inner power. I choose to miss that sacred hour. At school I choose to linger near when dirty words I know are here or else I turn and run away so that my heart can purer stay at work I choose to compromise and drift along with sin and lies or else I stand for truth and right although it is a harder fight I find the world that beckon me to places I should never be and I must choose to stand alone if I would reach that higher home.

Temptation comes to me each day to lead me from the narrow way and I must ever cling to him to keep my choices free. God called us to obey him in the call to salvation he calls us to obey him and to give our bodies as a living sacrifice to him in full surrender and thirdly he called us every day of our life to bow to him and to say not my will but thy will be done.

May God help each one of us to be obedient to him in these calls so that we can shine for him in our home and in our surroundings. Amen.