I'd like to speak to you this morning from a verse of Scripture that to a child of grace and to those who believe in the doctrines of salvation by grace that we so greatly rejoice in, sometimes the verse of Scripture has been used to possibly put a damper on the things that we believe, that possibly that it could be damaging to the our theology that salvation is entirely by the grace of God, but that man must also be obedient unto God in order to have eternal salvation. Direct your attention to the verse of Scripture in the fifth chapter of the book of Hebrews in the ninth verse. It says, And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. A few years ago, I went to one of the churches there in our city who was doing a study on primitive badness. I live in Tyler, Texas, and they were doing a study on primitive badness, and they wanted me to come and speak to their adult Sunday school class one Sunday morning before our church services, and I gladly accepted. and went and tried for the time I could to speak to him about salvation but grace and the things we believed in and after that was over there was a man came to me that I know very well he's a computer operator there in town and he said I really believe what you're saying is right but he said there's I still believe that we must obey the gospel and he quoted me this verse of scripture not very long ago I went to another church and preached. It's been about five years ago. I went to another church in our city and preached that believes in salvation by grace. At least they feel or they thought they did. And I went and preached for them one Sunday night and tried to preach grace as we believe it to be. Again, I was confronted with this Scripture. And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. And as I say, brother, that simply says if you don't, he's the author of eternal salvation, all of them would obey him. Wasn't very long ago, this same man was wanting some tapes of Brother Bradley's meeting when he was there last fall. Not too long ago, I went over there one day at lunch to their church and I had a whole album of Brother Bradley's sermons and a whole album of Brother Harder's sermons on salvation by grace. And they were not there and I leaned them up by the door. And I called him back a few days after that, and he said he was rejoicing over hearing those sermons that those good brethren preached. And I rejoiced in taking them over there, because I tried in my weak way to preach salvation by grace to them, but I'd heard those sermons of Brother Bradley and Brother Harder, and I know that they were wonderful. But this text of Scripture could create a problem for those who believe in salvation by grace if you do not rightly divide it. This text of Scripture says that this, that he's the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. And a lot of people say, well, I believe you primitive Baptists are right that salvation is by grace and so forth, but I still believe that you must hear the gospel preached and you must respond to that gospel and that everyone will hear the gospel preached. This says he is the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. But it says, see, you must also obey him. I began to study that word obey and look into the things. As I began to study that, I found it just like so many other words in the Bible. It doesn't always mean now exactly what we think that it means. And as we began to study and look at the Bible, you find that the scriptures teach so many things about different words that a dictionary wouldn't teach you. You can go to the word baptism and if you go to your dictionary it'll say it's a religious ordinance and it's performed by pouring or sprinkling or immersion. But the Bible doesn't back that up. Baptism is performed by immersion only according to the Scriptures. You can go to the Scriptures, you can find words like saved and salvation and deliverance. And if you do not rightly divide that and realize that the Scriptures talk about more than one salvation, more than one being saved, and more than one deliverance, you'll never be able to rightly divide the Word of Truth. And that's what Paul told Timothy that we should do, is that we, as a workman not ashamed, that we rightly divide the Word of Truth. We're not trying to divide error from truth because there's no error here. But we must divide the truth itself to be able to have the right understanding of the Scriptures. So if you were going to study the word obey, you might take the definition that the dictionary gives of obeying something, and you might say, well, your will is going to be in compliance with some law or some order that's given, and you're going to obey that law or that order. You bring them in harmony one with another and obey. But the scriptures teach two different types of obeying. You know, you do not have to hound. necessarily one mind brought in harmony with the other. I do not have to follow this order from that standpoint. If you study the scriptures, you'll find all through the scriptures where there's people that's called to obey things and do things that they could not possibly do if it were not for the power of God who's given them the power to obey that scripture and in fact gives them the power or they never could obey the commandment. is you go to the fifth chapter here you find where the apostle paul is talking about the lord jesus christ he's talking about that he came from uh... uh... in the order of mckesson act and he said in the eighth verse though he were a son yet learned he'll be here the man told me he said there's one thing i have a lot of problem with all and that's understanding how that the lord jesus christ ever learned anything well there's something that you can learn uh... The way the Lord what's under consideration in this text? He said though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered The Lord Jesus Christ learned some things while he was on this earth By the very things that he suffered and it's easy for us to understand. I went to school for a long time trying to I took a lot of courses in accounting and business and a lot of things in college and I've knew very little about it when I've got out of there But once I got into business and by experience, I learned so many things about those that I never could learn in the classroom. My daughter that's with me on this trip teaches school. She graduated from college a couple of years ago, and they taught her how to properly or the way to teach children. But since she is now in the classroom, she's found by experience that she has learned so much more. The Lord Jesus Christ learned some things. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered while he was on this earth. He knew what it was not to have a place to lay his head. He knew what it was not to have a friend. He knew what it was to say, Father, why has thou forsaken me? There's some things that you learn. At one time in my life, I could thought I understood or possibly understood how it was to lose your mother or your father. But until I experienced those things of my mother and my father passing away, I learned some things from that. And the Lord Jesus Christ, in the eighth verse, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that believe. You have to be careful. I've heard that verse read before like this, and then being made perfect. See, and then being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation. The Scripture doesn't have then in there. He was, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation. So it wasn't that he became perfect. Let's go to the book of Mark, and we're going to find some examples in the book of Mark of people that are obeying and things that are obeying commandments. There was a person that was brought to the Lord Jesus Christ that was sick of the palsy. This person was being borne by four other people, being carried there sick of palsy. They got to the place where the Lord Jesus Christ was. There were so many people there they couldn't even get in the door. And so they removed part of the roof and lowered this person on their bed down through into the place where the Lord Jesus Christ was. And the Lord Jesus Christ told that person, he said, Arise, after some other things, he said, Arise and take up thy bed and go thy way. Arise and take up thy bed and walk. This person who obeyed the command that God gave them, that the Lord Jesus Christ gave them, did not obey that because they were willing to obey that. They obeyed that because the power of the Son of God gave them the power that they had in order to take up their bed and walk. I've heard many of these people who claim to be able to heal people and if people just have enough faith and that they'll do certain things that they can be healed of their problems. I would say that most everyone who has a problem, there's people here with walkers and canes and maybe wheelchairs, that would be very willing to lay those things down. They'd be very willing to do that. This person was very willing, but this person could not lay that bed down, could not arise and take up their bed until God gave them the power to do that. They were following and they were being obedient to the commands of God, but you see, they were passive in this obedience. Our forefathers, long before us, 250 years ago, knew that this subject must be rightly divided. And as we study this word obey, you'll find that the word obey in the scriptures carries sometimes a passive obedience or obedience and sometimes it's an active obedience. When you're not, sometimes you're passive in something. If you had your taxes done lately, the accountant's wanting to know if this is ordinary income or if it's passive income. What they think passive income is, is income that you haven't worked for. I disagree with them. You might have worked for it a long time ago, you might not be working for it now, but something that's passive is something you don't have to work for. This obedience That's taught many places in the scriptures and to obey Many times is talking about a passive obeying or a passive obedience and then many times it's talking about an obedience that that must be that is active you go to the first chapter of the book of Isaiah he says if you be willing and Obedient you shall eat the good of the land now if you be willing and obedient here he's talking about obedience and that you must not be passive in. You're active in this obedience. If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But we have to rightly divide which obeying they're talking about. Go to the third chapter of Mark. He said, He entered again under the sin of God, and there was a man there which had a withered hand. He told the man, I'm going to paraphrase these. He told the man, he said, Stretch forth thy hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. Now this man was obedient to what God said, but he was passive in his obedience. This man could not stretch forth his hand, that he didn't have a hand, it was withered. He could not stretch it forth, but he was passive in that, that God was the one who had caused his obedience, and God was, the Lord Jesus Christ was actually his obedience for him. Go to the next chapter of Mark, the fourth chapter, and you find where Again, the Lord Jesus Christ here comes to the place where his disciples and all of them are afraid because of the storm and The Lord Jesus Christ said why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith and they feared exceedingly and said one to another what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him and you see whenever you take obey when you rightly divide obey you find out it didn't have to be something that you cooperated with the wind and the sea did not have a mind they did not cooperate with the will of God but they obeyed him And whenever we obey this scripture that we're talking about and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. The Bible is very clear if you rightly divide it. The ones that obey Him were passive in that obeying. They were not active in that, but the Lord Jesus Christ was. Now, He goes to the next chapter of Mark. He comes to a damsel. And he tells this damsel, he said, arise. This damsel was apparently dead. And the Lord Jesus Christ told her to arise, and she did rise. She arose and walked. She was not walking because she was willing to do that. She was obeying the command of God, but she was passive in her obedience. As we go to the case of Lazarus, Lazarus was dead and the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to him and he said, Lazarus, come forward. So Lazarus was not, he was obedient into what God said, but he was passive into the obedience of what the Lord Jesus Christ said. So when he come to this scripture, he said, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that believe. Let me ask you this. I heard Brother Sonny Pyles ask this question to someone one time. He said, Is the Lord Jesus Christ the author, or is God the author, of eternal salvation unto anyone who does not believe? I mean, anyone who does not obey? Well, the answer would obviously be no. But if you say it is, that He's the author of the salvation unto all those that obey Him, what's going to happen to the little baby? What's going to happen to those of an infirm mind? What's going to happen to the handicapped children? What's going to happen to those who might not have the ability to hear? So the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. This obeying here is brought about by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The Lord Jesus Christ said that all that the father giveth me shall come to me. We hear so much in the world today talk about coming unto the Lord. And as you rightly divide that, just like obey, you have to determine coming to the Lord. In the 11th chapter of Matthew, he said, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Of course, that's an invitation. That invitation is to a particular people, those who are labored and are heavy laden. But that is one that you can actively obey. But you come to hear in John 6, he says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. But he goes on to say that no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up again at the last day. You see, now go back to your text, or my text, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. how wonderful it is to rejoice in the great salvation of grace and that we ought to be obedient to the things that God has told us to do. I greatly believe in obedience. But there is some obedience in the scriptures that is brought about by the power of God that is brought about by the Son of God that we're pacifying and this is one of them he is the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him there's some coming to the Lord that's brought about by the Lord Jesus Christ himself he says no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day so here we have a coming to the Lord But this coming to the Lord here, you're not active in, you're passive in. No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him and I'll raise him up again at the last day. He said it's written in the prophets and they shall all be taught of God and every man that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Now listen, when someone Has been heard and they have learned of the father. He said every one of those are going to come to me I don't know if you've studied this little word of In some of most all of your dictionaries different words have a lot of different meanings sometimes words, you know, they'll generally have a half-inch to an inch of meanings and examples and so forth for a definition of a word but you go to the little word of you go find and look up the word of in your dictionary and it may take up a page in your dictionary because the word of has a lot of different meanings and one of those meanings has right here in the scriptures every man that hath learned and that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh unto me now he didn't say though this word of here is not learned about the father but it's learned from the Father. Everyone that hears, everyone that learns and hears of the Father, this is from the Father, not about the Father. Brother Harder and all these other brethren can teach you about the Lord Jesus Christ, but they can't teach you of Him in the sense of this. That is only to be taught by the Spirit itself. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up again at the last day. He every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh unto me. He said it's written in the prophets Yes, it's written in the prophets almost quoted exactly over in the book of Hebrews but in a prophet Jeremiah says they shall and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least unto the greatest so you see This obeying here, he's the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Primitive Baptists believe in obedience. We believe that you ought to be obedient to the commands of God. And I believe that you will be obedient unto every command that all that the Father giveth him shall come to him, they will come to him. We rejoice greatly in that. And while these people throw their scripture at me in order to try to weary me, it strengthened my faith as I began to study this word obey. And I began to find out that I was passive in this obedience. And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. you go to the continue over in John he said that every man that hath heard no man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him I love to study that little word draw and I think about the times when I was a little boy and I had a magnet stood up about six inches high and that magnet I could go around and I could just pick up all kind of metal objects with it and I enjoyed playing with that magnet because I could draw things with it Whenever I was young, there were some of the old timers at that time did not have running water. You'd still go to the well and that you would draw water. All the power there, that bucket is passive. Just like this person who's obeying over here because the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. That bucket was passive. That nail or whatever I picked up with that magnet was drawn there. I heard Brother Piles tell about him. no mountaineer uh... telling about the time that he uh... was telling Brother Piles about a preacher coming through there to preach and he told about uh... trying to uh... he got down in front and he took a little bitty magnet and he took a lot of little small nails and he could just take that magnet and pick them up real easy and then he said he got a uh... a big sixteen penny nail and he took the magnet and it just barely wouldn't move it wouldn't pick it up and he is his uh... Proposition was that whenever you're young and tender you see the Lord can draw you in but whenever you get old and hardened like this big nail That's harder for the Lord to deal with and that old mountaineer told brother piles that I think what the problem was Said the man's nail was too big and his magnet was too small and that's exactly correct Whenever you preach a God that's not big enough Are you trying to preach man? That's too big a center for God to reach you got it all out of proportion And whenever you have a magnet or you have a God that's big as our God is, He can, you will obey. He's the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. And every one of His children will obey Him. Every one of them will come to Him. They will not be short of one. No man can come to Me except the Father which is in Heaven draw him. Whenever, the same word that's used here, it's used wherever Peter drew that sword. The sword was passive. It had nothing in the world to do with coming out of that scalper, but Peter drew the sword. So whenever we come to this text, and he said being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. We were just as that sword was. We were just as those nails were. Our magnet is big enough, and whenever the Lord Jesus Christ calls His people, every last one of them will live with Him in heaven. You go further in the book of John, and you find He says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. and I give unto them eternal life. My sheep hear my voice. I love that. I love the words he's using there when he says my sheep hear my voice. That's what the obedience that's talked about there. He says, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. There's the ones that obey. You say, well, that sounds like the resurrection to me. The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. No, it's not talking about the resurrection. It's three verses later. Three verses later he says marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all they that are in the grave shall hear his voice. But we're talking about a voice up here in the 25th verse that's going to be heard by every child of God. Every one of them is going to obey that voice of the Son of God. Verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. It'll not be Brother Harder's voice. You can hear Brother Harder's words. You can hear my voice right now. But I can quote the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can quote the words that's in this book. The words of God. But you can't hear the voice of God. And you can hear a lot of the words and the things that Abraham Lincoln said. As far as I know, I've never heard the voice of Abraham Lincoln. He said, Here the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. You see the difference in that? Every one of those that hears that voice are going to obey. That's the author of eternal salvation. When the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. And then you rejoice, and he says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Have you ever thought about that you actually hear the voice of the Son of God? Every one that will ever be quickened unto eternal life to hear the voice of the Son of God. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. We rejoice in these wonderful truths of salvation by grace. And when someone comes along and gives me a text of scripture that I might not readily be able to discern or to rightly divide, I know what the Bible teaches overall. I know that it teaches our eternal salvation is by the grace of God. I know that it teaches that man is passive in that, that we're born again of the Spirit according to the will of God. And when someone comes along and gives me a verse of scripture that contradicts the teaching of the Bible, then I just have to further go dig and dig and find out just what that's meant. I don't just take it. The fact that it does say obey, if you just read that, in being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. all they're just saying plain and simple like brother you better obey it's exactly what it said you better obey but you are going to obey all that hear the voice of the Son of God every last one of them hear the voice of the Son of God my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me so you'll find in the scripture that any time those that are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God when you find in the scripture that someone's being led that's someone that's got life Every time someone's being led, they have life. And when he talks about, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest, he's talking about a coming that you can do. You can come unto the Lord and you ought to come unto the Lord and you'd want to come unto the Lord. But then he says, no man can come to me, except my father is which in heaven draw him. He's talking about a coming to the Lord that he's going to take care of. He's going to hear the voice of the son of God. And all those that hear will live. All those that obey Him, He's the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him. But this obeying is not in the fact like that I obey. My hand is actually obeying me right now. Whenever I pull it up like this, it's obeying what my brain said to do. That's what I was calling a voluntary reflex, a voluntary muscle. But I've also got some muscles in my body that's obeying right now, and I don't have anything to do with it. My heart, that heart muscle is pumping. It's an involuntary action going on in my body right now. My heart's pumping. I'm asleep. Whatever I'm doing, it's still going on. It's involuntary. It's completely, I'm completely passive in it. And whenever we obey in the sense of this text, we're completely passive in it. It's brought about by the Spirit of God. It's brought about by the Son of God. We're born again by the Spirit. God has blessed us and given us the great truths, and we can greatly rejoice in these. If it were not that way, what would happen to the mentally incompetent and the babies and all those who never heard the Gospel preached? And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. And he goes and tells us about all those that obey him. The hour is coming, and now he is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. So we have the thought of obedience. We come to the scriptures that we rightly divide them. If someone throws a kink in your line of thinking, study, rightly divide the word of truth. And study it, a workman that needeth not be ashamed. We rejoice in salvation by grace, and I was thinking about that old song that Philip MacDodger wrote over 250 years ago when he said, grace does a charming sound harmonious to the ear. Heaven with the echo shall resound, and all the saints shall hear. Yeah, every last one of them will hear. They will rejoice in the great grace. All the world shall crown through everlasting days. It lays in heaven the topmost stone and well deserves the praise. Our Lord deserves the praise, the honor, the glory, everything for our eternal salvation. And while man in his feeble attempts many times tries to take the glory and honor that belongs to God, yet we obey Him. We are passive in our obedience and our standpoint of living and having eternal life. He's the author of eternal life unto all them that obey Him. I rejoice in that fact. So no man will be able to take that from me anymore or to be able to cause me to scratch my head because of the fact that he's bonus word obey we remembered the right divide that right divide when the scriptures talks about uh... baptism there's more than one baptism taught in the scriptures you know that there's more than one salvation taught in the scriptures there's more than uh... one obey and taught in the scriptures so that we have to write the divide the word of truth i thank you this afternoon for your good attention trust the lord will bless brother hunt as he comes before you always very much.