0939, Acceptance of Authority
Acceptance of Authority
#0939 Study Given by W.D. Frazee—March 15, 1963
Before we read our text, I want to say how happy I am that you are all here
tonight. I’m sure that it is by God’s appointment that each of you have been spared
to be here. I thank that Lord that I can be here tonight and for each one of you who
are listening to the message of God. Now, our text this evening is in the latter part of
1 Samuel 12:23. Speaking to Israel:
“I will teach you the good and the right way”
1 Samuel 12:23.
Samuel was a prophet. He was chosen as the Lord’s messenger when a boy.
That which he taught, of course, was what God taught him. And if we will listen to
the spirit of prophecy through the Bible and the revelations that have come in this
last generation, we too, like the people in Samuel’s day, will be taught the good way.
I want to walk that good way. Don’t you? So come and let us learn tonight a bit
more about walking in this good way. It is a good way. It leads from where we are
to where our Father is in the city of eternal life.
Now in Revelation 14:12, we are given a view of the people who walk this
road all the way to the end in this last generation. Would you like to repeat this with
me? All together:
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that
keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”
Revelation 14:12.
Those who welcome Jesus when He comes keep the faith of Jesus. They are
masters of the science of faith. In fact, they have such an understanding of faith and
such an experience in faith that they are linked with Christ in this experience. They
keep the faith of Jesus. Isn’t that wonderful?
“In the prayer of faith there is a divine science…”
Education, page 257.
So the prayer of faith is a what? It’s a science. What kind of science? Divine
science. You know, it was the study of science that enabled man to ride around the
world and look over everything out in one of those satellites. The study of science
did that. There may be somebody here tonight who would like to take a ride in one
of those. It’s understandable. Personally, I want to take the ride when we go farther
and safer and surer. Of that, I am certain, praise God! But my point is that it was by
a study of science that men achieve those marvelous results.
Here is a science. The science of what? Of faith—the prayer of faith.
“In the prayer of faith there is a divine science; it is a
science that everyone who would make his lifework a
success must understand” Education, page 257.
So if you and I want to be successful in walking the good way, if we want to
be successful in our lives, we must understand what? Science. And the science is
what? The prayer of faith.
Just praying isn’t enough. All around the world, people are praying. Over in
Tibet, they had (or did have until the communists moved in) used to have little prayer
wheels. Then Tibetan monks wrote out prayers on pieces of paper and put them on
the wheels so the wind would blow. And every time the wheel went around, it was
another prayer, you see.
But this is talking about the prayer of what? The prayer of faith. I wonder
what faith is anyway. Well, that’s what we’re going to study a little about tonight. But
at any rate, you see that it is a science that everyone who expects to make his life
work a success must understand. This isn’t for a few people then who go much
farther than others. What we are studying tonight is for every Christian. I want you
to see that. If you have been a Christian for only a few days, this is for you. If you
are a little child but old enough to understand what I’m saying, you will be able to
understand what I’m getting at in our little study tonight.
I invite every one of you to check yourself as we study some lessons in this
science of faith. For if you learn this science, get your master’s degree, you will be
able to make your entire lifework a total success.
Wouldn’t you like to be a success? So many people are failures. I heard
somebody say that when a man is 20, he builds a castle, and when he is 40 or 50,
he builds a dog house. Well, you know what they met. Very few people achieve
what they set out to do. But ah, you and I can have something far beyond the most
wonderful goal we ever dreamed of if we will just learn this science. It all depends
upon learning this science.
Hebrews 11 is a long and wonderful chapter on what men and women have
done through faith. It is a gallery of the famous who have made their lifework a
success through mastering this science of faith. I read:
“How to exercise faith should be made very plain”
Ibid., page 253.
Will you say that with me?
“How to exercise faith should be made very plain”
Ibid., page 253.
Suppose we were to divide this audience tonight into two classes—those who
understand how to exercise faith and those who don’t. Which group would you be
in?
Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean that anybody here tonight would claim
to be a master of this science. But this is talking not merely about the perfection of
Christian character. This is talking about how to begin the Christian life because, if
you’ll turn now to Hebrews 11:6, you’ll see that this faith that it’s talking about that we
must understand how to exercise is not something that comes years after we begin
the walk with God, it has to come right at the beginning.
It’s true that it can grow. Everything in the Christian experience grows as we
enter in. But the person who begins the work of God must understand how to
exercise faith.
There are two reasons why I want each of you to get hold of this tonight. One
reason if for yourself, and the other reason is so you can teach other people how to
exercise faith. Why, dear friends, there are thousands of people who are trying all
sorts of things out of bottles and interviews with people who are supposed to help
them solve their problems. But if somebody could sit down with them and show
them how to exercise faith, it would be the answer.
Don’t misunderstand me. There is a place for certain scientific things. That
isn’t what I’m talking about. But those who have the most to do with the problems
both of the body and the mind agree that one of the great things that is making
thousands upon thousands of people sick and distraught is their lack of faith. So if
you know how to exercise faith and can make it plain to somebody else, you may be
able to help somebody (in fact, you will be able to help somebody) that all the wise
men of this world are helpless to help.
Wouldn’t you like to be able to help someone exercise faith? Well, you can.
“How to exercise faith should be made very plain”
Ibid., page 253.
Now, I come to my verse. You’ve all turned to it, haven’t you?
But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that
cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” Hebrews 11:6.
You see, the man who comes to God must have what? Faith, that’s right.
Without faith, it is what? Impossible. Would you like to try an impossible thing? Not
if God says it is impossible, friends. You just won’t succeed. And it is impossible to
please God without faith.
He that cometh to God must believe. Then what is faith? Faith is believing,
that’s right. It includes more than what most people think of as believing. You
remember that in John 3:16 (that oft-quoted and never too many times quoted
promise), it is written that everyone who believes will not perish, but what? Have
everlasting life. That is exactly true. We are told that if there were no other texts in
the Bible, that would be sufficient to make plain the way of salvation.
Paul summed it up in those words to the man in the prison as he cried out at
midnight, “What shall I do to be saved?” What did Paul say?
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved…” Acts 16:31.
There are those who take texts of that kind and forget other equally plain
texts, put a great deal of stress upon believing and narrow down the act of believing
and the experience of believing to simply say, “I believe.” Well, as we are going to
see, friends, that there is more to it than that. In fact, there is a page in Education
that I just read from, after saying how to exercise faith, it adds:
“To every promise of God there are…”
What do you suppose?
“…conditions” Education, page 253.
If you read a promise and it seems that there are no conditions, just
remember, friends, that there are some conditions; if they are not stated there on
that page, they are stated somewhere else. “To every promise of God, there are
conditions.” Will you say that with me? “To every promise of God, there are
conditions.”
So to believe God is to believe what He says when He says there are
conditions to His promise. To simply say, “Oh, I believe His promise, and I know it is
going to happen whether I do anything about it or not” that is not faith. That’s what?
Presumption. We are told that the path of presumption lies close beside the path of
faith. Now, I want to turn to Galatians, the third chapter, and the 24th verse. Here’s a
wonderful text. Of course, every text in the Bible is a wonderful text. But from time
to time, certain ones stand out like in a great chain. Oh tonight, my heart is heart is
happy as I think of the sweet spiritual truths wrapped up in the statement of the
apostle Paul:
“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ, that we might be justified by faith” Galatians 3:24.
The last word in this text is what we are studying about. Isn’t it? And one of
the important things that comes is to be justified by faith. That means to be
accounted righteous. Here is a man who is a sinner. He is on the way to hell. He is
going to die and lose eternal life. He deserves it. He has sinned. But oh, is there
escape for him? Yes. He can be justified by faith. Who will he have to come to?
Well, he’ll have to come to Jesus. Is Jesus the Savior? Sure.
“And thou shalt call his name JESUS: for He shall save
His people from their sins” Matthew 1:21.
Who will save us? Jesus will save us. But in order to be saved, we must
come to Him. Now here is somebody personified here to bring us to Christ that we
might be justified by faith. What is it? The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ that we might be justified by faith.
All right. Now here are some representations of those tables of the law—the
Ten Commandments, written by the finger of God upon the tables of stone. The law
was our what? Schoolmaster. To do what? To bring us unto Christ that we might
be justified by faith. Suppose I say, “I will skip the schoolmaster.” I will go to Christ
and pay no attention to the schoolmaster.” Can I do that? Some people think they
can. Yes, they want to skip this altogether. There is something uncomfortable about
this, they think. Is there something uncomfortable about this to the sinner? Why,
sure—there are two things. First, the law condemns him. Second, it offers him no
hope. The law was not meant to offer hope to sin or sinners. Oh, no. The law was
meant to condemn sin and sinners. Wasn’t it?
“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law:
for sin is the transgression of the law” 1 John 3:4.
Oh friends, I want to understand that in its simplicity and far-reaching
importance. Now watch carefully as I read you a sentence. As you listen to this, I
want you to think of how many people there are—thousands, millions of them talk
about Jesus and lift a cross but have no use for the law.
[Elder Frazee shows an illustration of a cross of two pieces of wood]
These two pieces of wood crossed over will help us to visualize the cross
where Jesus died. Can men be saved without the cross? Oh, no.
“Without the cross, man could have no union with the
Father. On it depends our every hope… Kneeling in faith
at the cross, he has reached the highest place to which
man can attain” Acts of the Apostles, page 209.
What is it that is to bring us to the cross? The law. The law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be what? Justified by faith. Oh
friends! Now listen while I read you a sentence. When I read this this week… I don’t
know if I had read it before or not, but if I did, it didn’t impress me as it did this week.
This is tremendous! Listen:
“Those only who acknowledge the binding claim of the
moral law can explain the nature of the atonement”
Selected Messages, Book 1, page 229.
Now, that’s so big I’ll have to read it again.
“Those only who acknowledge the binding claim of the
moral law can explain the nature of the atonement” Ibid.
Suppose that here is a man who does not acknowledge that the Ten
Commandments are binding. Can he explain the nature of the atonement? This
says he can’t, friends! I say it humbly but with all my heart—why on earth will men
wade through the volumes written by men who do not acknowledge the binding
claims of the law of God to try to understand the atonement? Will you tell me? You
young men who are seeking to understand how to teach the Word of God,
remember, friends, the only man in this world, the only book in this world that can
help you to truly understand the atonement is some book written by somebody who
acknowledges, what? The binding claim of the moral law. You can ponder on that a
long time, and there is still some more in it. I’ll read it once more:
“Those only who acknowledge the binding claim of the
moral law can explain the nature of the atonement” Ibid.
When I come to Jesus on the cross and watch that great sacrifice, looking at
that which the Father said the atonement is complete, unless I have been led there
at least by some understanding of the binding claims of the law of God, I utterly fail
to understand what is happening on the cross and utterly fail to understand what is
supposed to happen to me. Both are essential to understand the atonement.
Now, it isn’t a theological theory that I’m seeking to study tonight. I’m seeking
to study a practical lesson in the science of faith—how to come to the cross by faith.
And remember the schoolmaster that Paul says that’s to bring you to Christ so that
you can be justified by faith, is what? The law. And so, my subject tonight is, the
acceptance of authority. Now, that’s not a popular subject.
Truth is seldom popular. Jesus has plainly told us that those who finally arrive
at the pearly gates will finally walk on a very, what? Narrow way. But if there is
anything that the law stands for and teaches, it is authority. That is basic in law—all
law. And before you and I can appreciate in its fullness the love of Calvary and
understand what happened there, we must come to the place where we see the
binding claims of the law of God and accept God’s authority.
Let me make it very simple, friends. Unless we understand that, we will
suppose, as millions of people do, that somehow or another, the cross is a substitute
for the law and that what Jesus did was to make it unnecessary for you to do
anything in the way of obedience. In other words, to put it very bluntly, that Jesus’
life and death released you and me from the obligation of obedience.
Why my friends, if that were so, or anything like it, what a blot that would be
on the honor of God. Think of it. God makes a law that people can’t keep, and when
they break it, in order to handle things, He lets His dear Son come down here and
keep it, suffer, and die a most terrible death to fix things up so you and I don’t have
to keep that law that couldn’t be kept. What a blot on God’s wisdom and love? The
whole thing, if you get to thinking about it, is preposterous.
I don’t suppose anybody here would accept that idea in its bold, blunt
features, but there are shades of it that filter in from Babylon, my friends. We need
to be entirely delivered from it, and we need to accept authority and understand that
the purpose of the sacrifice on the cross is two things. Let me state it very simply.
First, it’s to endorse and acknowledge the authority of the law. When Jesus died,
He, the lawgiver, proved that the authority of that law was so important that His own
life must be sacrificed to sustain its claims. Oh, think of it! And also the second
thing that it is, that the purpose of that sacrifice on Calvary is to help you and me get
back to full obedience to that law. That’s the purpose. Thus you see, that there is a
double vindication of the law. Christ keeps the law and dies to pay the debt. Then,
through His atoning sacrifice, He works out (not only for but with) human beings a
righteous character. Those who let Him come to the place where they say with Him:
“I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within
my heart” Psalm 40:8.
Notice these two tables. The First Commandment starts out with that basis of
authority. Will you say the first commandment with me?
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” Exodus 20:3.
You see, the very first question is the question of what? Authority. You don’t
go any further until you meet that one. Do you accept the authority of God? Will He
be God to you? And do not think you can bypass that and run to Calvary and say,
“Oh, Jesus died for me, so I don’t have to let God be God to me.”
No, no. The purpose of Calvary is to bring us back into harmony with that.
The law can never bring us back, for we have broken it. But oh, it can point out our
failure.
All right. Now, I want to take this second table. What’s the first
commandment on that table? The fifth commandment. Repeat that with me:
“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be
long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee”
Exodus 20:12.
This is the only commandment with promise in the Decalogue. And notice—
watch—that as the First Commandment is the basis of all divine authority, the Fifth
Commandment is the basis of all human authority. Where does it come from? From
God.
“For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are
ordained of God” Romans 13:1.
And they derive their authority from the Fifth Commandment. Let’s put the
magnifying glass upon it:
“He who rejects the rightful authority of his parents is
rejecting the authority of God” Patriarchs and Prophets,
page 308.
If I reject the rightful authority of my parents, boys and girls and big-grown-up
boys and girls, I reject whose authority? The authority of God. Notice:
“This commandment also enjoins respect for ministers
and rulers and for all others to whom God has delegated
authority” Ibid.
God has delegated some of His authority. He has delegated some to parents,
some to teachers, some to ministers, some to governors and policemen, some to
supervisors and managers. Wherever I go in this world, I run into that. Don’t I?
Someone says, “That’s the trouble.”
Well, some people do run into a lot of trouble on that, friends. I wonder why?
I wonder if there is something fundamental about this lesson that we need to learn
about the acceptance of authority?
I imagine that in the army, a lot of men learn to obey for the first time in their
lives. I imagine it is one of the great problems the officers face. Yes. Children who
have been having their own way since they were old enough to cry are suddenly
brought face to face with the authority of the United States Army, and what a shock it
is. But friends, even though army discipline may be stern and even severe at times,
do you know that it is possible for a man to go clear through army training and never
learn this lesson? Because the lesson I am talking about tonight is the acceptance
of authority; coming to the place where we say, “Lord, I love your law, and I love the
authority of anyone You have placed over me as he exercises that authority in
harmony with Your will.”
Ah my dear friends, I pray that God may teach us that lesson in the quiet of
this vesper hour. Those who wait for the coming of Jesus, and welcome Him when
He comes, along with keeping the faith of Jesus, will keep the commandments of
God. While they will be condemned as breakers of the laws of men, they will really
be the only true citizens in the final crisis. They are loyal to God and loyal to every
divinely-constituted authority operating in its proper place.
Every child who comes to the cross receives an experience there and accepts
an experience there which means, “I bow my neck to the yoke. I accept the law of
God as the yoke of service.”
Have you done that?
Too many times, when young people and older ones get into trouble, they get
sorry and turn to God and then are led into the same temptation and test over again
and say, “Well, it doesn’t do any good. People make it hard for me even though I
have sought the Lord.”
Why, my dear friends, the cross of Christ was never intended to take the
place of obedience for you and me. It does as far as our past record is concerned
because we have no way to go back and do that over again. But listen, the only way
that thief on the cross was saved was by throwing himself on the side of Jesus and
His law. It is true that he only had a few hours before he died, but I believe every
moment of those hours was a conscious acceptance of the authority of God’s law
through faith in Christ. What do you say? And if he had come down from that cross
through some miracle, I don’t think he would have gone back to stealing. What do
you say? No, no. He turned from lawbreaking to loyalty to the law.
True, he could do nothing about it there on the cross except affirm his change
of attitude. And that is what I am talking about tonight, friends. It is the attitude, the
acceptance of authority.
Do you remember the story Jesus told in Matthew 21? A father said to each
of his two boys, “Son, go work today in my vineyard.”
What did the first say? “No, I won’t go.” But afterward, he repented and went.
The second son said, what? “I go, sir.” But he didn’t go.
I want to show you, folks, that there are two ways to disobey. May I get very
personal right now? Or rather, will you let the Holy Spirit get very personal with you?
Examine yourselves whether you be in faith—the faith of the acceptance of authority:
in the home, the school, the community, the church.
Which is your problem? Are you the one who openly likes to defy authority
and say, “I will do what I please, and who is going to make me different?” Or are you
the one who smiling agrees with those who talk with you, and after they are out of
sight, figure out ways to evade and fail to do that which is required?
I want to say to you, friends, very one of us has either one or both those
tendencies in our hearts. If we don’t know it, it is because we haven’t looked into the
law long enough. But thank God, friends, we don’t have to indulge those tendencies.
We don’t have to be like the mule that sets its stubborn will and says, “I defy you to
make me move.” Neither do we have to be like that boy who said, “All right,” but
when the day was over had not been in the vineyard.
Oh my friends, which one of those is your danger and problem? Some people
have such a strong will that they rise up against authority. Others tend to be more
peaceful and nice. Sometimes they have quite a nice reputation. But ah, those who
know them best are often perplexed because they are not really accepting authority.
They are figuring out their own way instead of the way they are asked to walk in.
Samuel said, “I will teach you the good way.” Oh, I pray that tonight we may
learn the good way, friends—the way of obedience, the way of loyalty. That is what
the cross is to bring us back to. And the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ
that we might be justified by faith.
What will you do about it, friends? Will you count yourself clever if you are
successful in getting around the authority you are connected with? Or will you go to
Calvary and weep tears of repentance because you had evaded the claims of
authority and have encouraged and influenced others to do the same?
Let me tell you, friends, one of the signs of the last days is that people are,
what? Disobedient. That is not just babies. It starts there, but the reason we have
so many disobedient children is that we are living in a generation of parents who
never learned to obey when they were children, friends. It is very difficult for them to
teach what they have never learned. It is amazing the unbiblical attitudes that are
manifested today by so-called Christians toward authority in the home, the school,
and the church.
I beseech you, friends, for I have only introduced this subject here tonight.
Come to grips with the fact that those who make a success of their life’s work will
learn the lesson of faith. They will master the science of faith. Faith means believing
God and meeting the conditions of His promises. Faith means coming to Calvary by
way of Sinai. Faith does not mean bowing down at Calvary and saying, “Oh Lord, I
am so glad You paid the debt, so I won’t have to do anything. I am so glad You died
for me so I can confess my sins. And no matter what I do afterward, I know I have
hope of Heaven.”
Not that at all. Ah rather, faith means seeing God’s law and seeing that the
basic, primary, first lesson of the law is the acceptance of authority—divine and
human. Then it is coming to Calvary and seeing that Jesus died to make plain there
is no way to set it aside. He, the lawgiver, died under the penalty of that law. Now
He offers to take His death and apply it to our credit if we—watch the point—will with
Him put our necks into service of obedience. That’s the basic lesson, friends.
Don’t misunderstand me. I do not mean by this that God will not save us until
we have demonstrated obedience. That is righteousness by works. I don’t mean
that at all. The penitent child cries to Jesus and says, “Oh Lord, I am sorry I broke
Your law. I’m sorry I was a rebel, either an open rebel or a subterfuging rebel. Lord,
I’m sorry! I wish that I hadn’t done it. But oh, Lord, I can’t pay the debt. Let the
death of Jesus pay for me. And now, Lord, please change my heart, so I accept
authority instead of despising it. So I accept it instead of rejecting it. So I work with
it instead of working against it.”
Do you see what I mean, friends? That choice of ours must come right at the
moment of acceptance. For when we accept the cross, we accept the authority of
the divine law. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might
be justified by faith?
Oh, let us let His holy law be our schoolmaster. What do you say, friends?
And let Him through this law lead us to Calvary with a new understanding and
appreciation of what Christ did for us there by that infinite sacrifice. He laid down His
life in that awful darkness that the law might be upheld and that you and I may be
brought back to harmony with that law here on earth and through the eternal ages.
How many of you (and I say this to you personally as if you were the only one
listening) as you see what the Word of God teaches tonight, you are ready with all
your heart to say to Jesus? I will accept Your authority both in Heaven and earth,
and I will look to Calvary, not to pamper my soul in disobedience and disloyalty, to
stimulate my soul to prompt and true obedience. Will you raise your hands if that’s
your response tonight? Ah my friends, that God will add His blessing.
Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee with all our hearts that Thou hast
spoken to us through Thy Word tonight. With humility, we acknowledge that we
have been disobedient children. Forgive us, dear Father. Oh, just now, strike the
arrows of conviction to our hearts. Where we have been defiant or evasive, where
we have said that we won’t or when we said that we would and didn’t do it, God,
forgive us and change our hearts. Let the precious blood of Jesus fall upon us from
the cross until we hate sin as He hates it and love His holy law as He loves it. We
believe and accept and thank Thee that as we accept Thee and Thy arrangement,
Thou dost accept us through Jesus our Lord, amen.
[Special music by Ben Glanzer and testimonies by some visitors]
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