This is the Chancellor's Program. At his homegoing in November 1997, Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. left a legacy of lifelong ministry to students as Chancellor and former President of Bob Jones University. He also left a wealth of recorded sermons which we now present on the Chancellor's Program. Today we present a message based on the Gospel of John, Chapter 1, verses 19 through 28. It's titled, Faithfulness in Obedience. It was delivered during a daily chapel service held on February 27, 1956. I'm reading some verses this morning from the first chapter of John's Gospel. I'll begin to read at verse 19. John, the first chapter, verse 19. If you have your Bible, you'll want to follow this. It's a good idea to bring your Bibles to chapel. And this is the record of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou? of thyself. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as did the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. Here it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latchets I am not worthy to unloose." These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptized. One of the ways in which the devil always tries to raise doubt and make trouble is by asking questions. Beware of the person who's always saying, Now, God's reasonable. God always says, let's reason this thing out together. But the man who always says, why, why, why, is in rebellion against something. A child, if you tell him not to do something and he wants to do it, he's going to say, why can't I do it? Well, a child has no right to ask the parent why. If he's an obedient, dutiful child, he'll realize that the parent must have a reason for it. I think parents ought to explain wherever possible why a thing is so. We try in our rules and regulations in the opening of the year to explain why we have rules. There's always a reason why, but when you go into your life and say to God always, why this? Why did I not be able to get that boy I wanted? Why can't I have that girl? Why mustn't I do so-and-so? Why did somebody I love have to die? Why can't I have the thing I want? You are beginning, in your own heart, to rebel against God. Why is the password of a backslider, always, this business of why? I say sometimes you can ask God one why and one only. Why does he love me so? If you know God's love and believe God's word, you won't have to ask God why. We are told that in that day we'll see and we'll know and we'll understand. It's not God's will for us always to understand down here. Understanding is for heaven, obedience is for earth. Let me say that again. The understanding is for heaven, the obedience is for earth. A finite mind can never understand an infinite God. But when you're in heaven, we shall know, even as also we are known." Now that's significant. I think what God's saying to us there is that down here, we can never know God as God knows us. But up there, we'll know Him in a sense as He knows us now. In other words, God understands our minds and our hearts. God looks on the inward man, and God understands us. We can't understand God, but when we are like Him in His glorious body, then we, having become like Him, will have His comprehension of things. So don't go around saying, why? Now, the devil always will try to get you upset by saying to you, why can't you? Why must? Why does? Why, why, why? Beware of a professor that's always saying why. You know, the modernists tell you, and the atheists, that the way to get a student to learn is to get him to have an inquiring mind. Now, it's one thing to have an inquiring mind, and it's another thing to have a rebellious mind. It may be all right to say how sometimes, but it's never good to say why. Now, you may want to know why a certain thing works mechanically, but the best word is how does it work, not why does it work. The how is the question of the inquiring mind. The why is the question of a rebellious mind. Now, these Pharisees came to John, and they began to ask questions. They began to ask questions not because they wanted to know, but because they wanted to have something that they could use against John. They were looking for evidence that they could use against this man who was pulling the people out from Jerusalem to the Jordan to hear him. Now these Pharisees asked John very definitely certain questions. They first wanted to know, who are you? And John was a very sensible man in the fact that he knew in the first place who he was not. Happy the man that knows his place in the world and the job that he's called to do. He said, first of all, I am not the Christ. Some had said, now here's the man of whom the prophet spoke who's appeared. This man's drawing the crowd. In Judea at that time there was a great anticipation of the coming of Messiah. The days before the coming of our Lord were in many senses and ways like the days in our time now. As you go close to the second coming of Christ, you find there's a growing anticipation. People, devout men, looking for his coming. In that day, there were devout men who longed for the hope of Israel. There was Simeon and Anna in the temple. They were typical of those who looked for the deliverance of Messiah to the land. And these Pharisees, being in touch with the situation they had to be, because their own influence depended upon knowing what was going on, and their own political and religious machinations had to be planned according to the sentiments of the country. These people were following everything, saying, could this be it? Now how can we head this off? What can we do about this? In other words, they determined if Messiah came, he'd come out of their own ranks and be a man who'd work in the machine. But the Messiah doesn't work in the machine. God's man is never a man who can be adapted to the plans of man. God's man works in God's plan, not in the plans of man. Now God may sometimes use a man who's mixed up in the plans of man, and use that man to accomplish something of his purpose. But he's not God's man, he's God's servant under those circumstances. God's man is the man whose allegiance is only to God. You cannot have a divided allegiance and be God's man. You can't have any plans of your own and be God's man. You can't follow the plans of any other man and be God's man. You've got to say, God, here I am, surrendered. Your will is what I want. God's will is never contrary to God's word. Let me say that again. God's will is never contrary to God's word. Put that down and never forget it. If it's not Plain in God's word, it's not God's will. God's will and God's word are never contrary one to the other. So they came to John. They said, you the promised one. He said, right away, I'm not the Christ. By the way, the humble disciple is always the man who's quick to admit that he's only a man, just an ordinary man. That's what happened to the disciples when they came into that town, you remember? They tried to make offerings to them. They said, here comes Zeus and Mercury. They said, we are not. We are men like you are. Don't make offerings to us. We are the servants of the Most High God. So he first did not try to take to himself any of the claims of deity. Now wait. You say, well, I'm not going to do that. I'm not ever going to take to myself the attribute and the name of God. But I see a great many people who try to usurp the rights of God. For example, there are some people who say they have the rights to forgive sins for other men. Now only God has the right to forgive sin. And the man who tries to take to himself God's prerogative to forgive sin in other men, that man is trying to usurp the place of God. Not John the Baptist. He said, I'm not that Christ. A man who tries to sit in judgment upon your conscience and make your conscience sacrifice its convictions to fit in his ideas is trying to usurp the place of God if you're a free man under Christ. Now, I don't mean by that that the government is doing that when the government expects you to do certain things. For example, there are some people who say that you have no right, if you're a Christian, to make a salute to the flag, or to pledge allegiance to your country. That's perfectly silly. God tells you to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. So you're not doing any violence to the scripture when you do the thing your country tells you to do. Pledge allegiance to your flag? Certainly. Any man that's not willing to pledge allegiance to the United States of America This free country of ours ought not to be in the United States of America. There's nothing wrong or unscriptural about that position. If you are working in a business, if you stay in that business, you should follow the policies of the business. But if there's something in the business that you consider contrary to the word of God and a violation of your Christian conscience, then you ought to quit your job and get out. A fellow said to me once, said, Dr. Jones, I'm concerned about my wife, said she claims to be a Christian, but she works in a restaurant where she has to serve cocktails and beer. She's a waitress. What should she do? Well, I said, if she's violating her conscience and stays there, she's sinning. She ought to quit her job and get out, said, but she needs the money. Well, I said, which do you need most, the money or the approval of Almighty God? You know, if you have God's approval in your life, you don't have to have anything in it. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. That's God's word. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things. What things? Raiment, food, shelter, the things they've been talking about. All these things shall be added. You see, we put the non-essentials ahead of the essential. If you have the essential, all the non-essentials will be taken care of in the essential. Like a fella's gonna be electrocuted tomorrow, he's not gonna worry very much if he has an attack of appendicitis tonight. Be no point in operating on him today and taking out his appendix if he's gonna die at sunrise in the morning. His appendix won't kill him between now and tomorrow, he's gonna die anyhow. Why go to the trouble, take out his appendix? Now, if the big thing is coming, It'll take care of the minor things in itself. Now, if you'll do God's will, seek God's righteousness, God will supply all these other things. He said, I am not the Christ. Well, they said, are you a prophet? Are you Isaiah, one of the prophets? He said, no, I'm not. Now, I know many people who try to usurp to themselves the gifts of God, not for them and not for their dispensation. I hear these people preaching the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not to be preached in this generation. This is the day of the gospel of the grace of God. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in that day when the Lord's about to come back. I mean when He's about to come back with His church. Those Jews, during the time of the tribulation, go out to preach the gospel of the kingdom because the king will be at hand there. Our gospel, for this dispensation, is the gospel of the grace of God. Any man that's always talking about building the kingdom either doesn't know the scripture, or he's confused, or he's a modest. You don't build the kingdom. You preach the gospel of the grace of God. You get people saved. And as people are saved, God makes them citizens of the kingdom. But the kingdom is built by God himself when the king is established on his throne. You can't have the kingdom without the king. Now, we speak about bringing back the king. I suppose that expression's all right. Every time you get somebody converted, you prepare the way for the return of Christ. But that's not building the kingdom. Happy the man who knows what he's not. He knew it wasn't his business to be a prophet. The prophets were dead. He was alive. God hasn't called you to be a prophet. God doesn't call prophets in this generation. God's called you to be a witness for Jesus Christ. I've seen men try to do everything except the thing God intended for them to do, because they didn't know what God wanted them to do. I see good, sincere Christian young people who listen to some youth caravan that comes to that church, or some other group, who say, you know, we're going to build a peace program in the world. Well, God hasn't called you to be any dove with an olive branch in your mouth. God's called you to be a preacher of the gospel with a coal of fire on your lips and the love of God in your heart. Man says, you know, well, I think the Lord wants me to be a reformer. Well, where in the world does God tell you in the Bible to be a reformer? God tells you to be a witness. So he said, I'm not a prophet. It's not my business. I don't prophesy. I'm neither a prophet nor am I the promised one. They said, well, what are you then? He had enough sense to know what he was. He said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness. I don't think there's any stronger statement in the Bible that is at the same time a statement of such perfect humility as that statement. He doesn't say, I'm the one whom God has chosen to be the forerunner. Now, God tells you to magnify your office. It's easy to magnify your office. But God doesn't tell you to magnify your own importance in the fulfillment of the office. Young people, no man is as important as his task and as the obligation. When war's on, they speak of certain troops as being the kind to be sacrificed. They are the expendables. Every man is an expendable in his own opinion if he wants to see God's will done. Those missionaries who died down in South America were expendables. They counted all things but as refuse for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every man whom God greatly uses is a man who never tries to save himself. He tells you if you try to save your life, you lose it. No man can do the job by trying to save himself. John magnified his office, but he didn't magnify himself. He didn't say, I'm the one whom God's chosen. Now, young people, it's a great truth that God chooses man. God has chosen you for a task. God told Jeremiah, he said, I've appointed you, I've ordained you, I've called you. God's done that for you, God had you in mind from before the foundation of the world. But wait, the thought that God has chosen you should not be a thought to make you elevated and conceited. It should be the most humbling thought in the world. Why? Well, you turn to 1 Corinthians and read what God says about the kind of people he chooses. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, and base things of the world hath God chosen, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. God hath chosen the foolish things to confound the wise, so if God chose you, he says he's looking for dumb people, he picked you, you must qualify. Why get conceited? And God chooses weak things and dumb things and things which are so little they don't amount to anything to bring to naught the big things. He tells us why. That no flesh should glory in his presence. There's nothing of the flesh to glory in. And John, in his answer, absolutely ignores his fleshly existence. He says, I'm a voice. It's a wonderful thing to be a voice crying in the wilderness. when that voice speaks the word of God. I can imagine no higher calling for any man than to be willing to be simply a voice. You read a play sometimes and you'll notice in the stage directions a voice offstage. Nobody sees the face, they hear the voice. I think sometimes radio is more effective on certain type programs than television because your eye doesn't distract you. disembodied voice comes and you get the message. It's wonderful to be willing to be unseen and simply to be heard. John didn't go to the streets of the town. John went out to the wilderness. He said, I'm a voice. But notice this, while he was aware of who he was, even in his confession of his calling, he managed to make Jesus Christ be seen. Here is his answer. I'm a voice. crying in the wilderness, but this is what I cry, make straight the way of the Lord." And even in his answer as to who he was, he managed to point them to the Lord whose witness he was. It's a wonderful thing to be able to get your gospel in always. I deal with a great many people. I've asked the Lord to help me never to fail to get in a gospel testimony and witness. It's difficult sometimes. You have to look for an opening and sometimes you just have to plow righty and roughshod, clodhopper, and jump the forest. But the thing to do is always to get there. But notice how tactfully John took advantage. John took advantage of the devil's question to answer the devil, shoot him with an arrow and then break it off so he couldn't pull it out after he'd been shot. Who are you? I'm a voice crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord." Boy, the devil got his answer. The way to answer the devil is to always answer him boldly, never in a compromising way, and never by trying to soft-peddle. John's been like some folks I know. He's said, well, I'm just a humble servant. I have a message to give. Now, you may not agree with my message, but after all, we're all brethren. We all serve the same God. God's given you the big job in Jerusalem, and I'm just a little country preacher. Of course, you are highbrow Pharisees. All I am is just an ignorant man. I never went to your college in Jerusalem. Of course, you don't want the Messiah to come. You are old dead Orthodox hypocrites and whited sepulchers." He didn't say that. He wouldn't have if he'd been the kind of mealy-mouthed fellow I'm telling you about. But he didn't say, after all, I believe we can all get together, conservatives and liberals and everybody. Of course, we have to do it differently in the country. You do it your way and I'll serve the Lord in my way. Brother, that's what some of his descendants today that call themselves by his name are doing. You know, I'll bet old John, if he knew what was going on, he'd be so mad he'd kick his own head halfway across the dungeon. Call themselves Baptists like he was. Not speaking out bold. They're not the only ones. I could name, frankly, in denomination of the country, you'll find some guys like that. He said, I'm a voice crying. This is what I cry, brother. Make straight the way of the Lord." He knew who he was, he knew who he was not, and he got his testimony in when the devil came to ask him questions. And they asked him another question. They said, then, if you're not Messiah and if you're not that prophet, Elias, why do you baptize? In other words, if you're not any of these things, by what authority do you baptize? Now, this is what his answer was. at least the implication of it. He said, you can't even understand anything about this. I baptize with water because that was the thing he was called to do. But he said, there comes one after me, the latchets of his shoes I am not worthy to lose. Now his baptism is not going to be like mine. I baptize with water because I am the voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way. My baptism is a symbol, but his baptism is the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. If you weren't so ignorant in your dead orthodoxy, you'd recognize the fact that the reason I do baptize is because I am who I am, and called to be what God's called me to be. And I'm preparing the way of the Lord, warning men to repent, because he is coming who is the promised one. He was willing to do the job God gave him to do, and he knew that the calling and the task went together. When God calls, God wants you to do it in God's way. If God calls you to do a job, He doesn't call you to do it your way, He calls you to do it His way. You meet a student sometimes, occasional student, And the student says, well, I didn't do it like I was told to do it. I decided I could do it better this way. Well, if the rules say do it this way, then this is the way to do it. If God leaves something up to your discretion sometimes, then you do it according to your own judgment. But when you are called to do a job, you are called to do that job in God's way. You're not going to honor God by disobeying God. I keep coming back to this because I've seen so many signs of it in our day. I know a man who used to be an outspoken opponent of the National Council of Churches of Christ in America. He attacked their leadership. He said they were liberals and heretics and unitarians. I recently saw that he had written a pamphlet entitled, I was going to preach on the radio, on television, And his address was going to be, why I, as a Christian, support the National Council of the Churches of Christ in America. He's completely turned around. He turned around because it served his interest to turn around. Somebody asked him why. Well, he said, I decided I could win more souls by working with those boys than by standing against them. He decided. Well, what did God decide? God says, come ye out from among them and be ye separate. You can't have any share in the works of darkness. But he decided he knew more about it than Almighty God, I'm not surprised. That goes along with the religious conceit the man's had ever since I've heard of it. Any man who sets himself up to serve God in contradiction to the Word of God, That man's not serving God, he's serving himself. And I tell you, young people, I do not believe God gives you any reward for any results obtained contrary to the plain instruction of Almighty God. God's reward is the reward of faithfulness, not the reward of results. It's time some of these boys try to please the liberals and run with the crowd and say, well, I'm going to honor God. It's time they began to stop to think what God says about it. God doesn't give you a reward according to the number of souls you win. God gives you a reward according to your faithfulness in trying to win souls in obedience to the command of the gospel. God gives you the reward for faithfulness in obedience. and not for spectacular results in disobedience. You've heard a message by Dr. Bob Jones Jr., who during the latter part of his life served as Chancellor of Bob Jones University. This message, Faithfulness and Obedience, was recorded February 27, 1956. You can order a cassette copy from the campus store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. Please enclose a check for $6. Listen each week at this time for the Chancellor's Program, sponsored by Bob Jones University.