Chapter 1: Submission to God

Chapter Introduction One of the most important things for us as Christians to learn is our proper place in God’s creation. There are many people today who call themselves Christians and say Jesus is the Lord of their lives who in actuality have no desire to give up their freedom to do whatever they please and submit to Jesus as their Lord. There are couples today who claim to be Christians, who are living together without the benefit of marriage, even though the Bible clearly teaches the sins of fornication and adultery are sins that are condemned by God and Jesus Christ. There are people today, who claim to be Christians who proudly boast they have never set foot inside a public worship service. They think they can do whatever they want and God and Jesus will accept them. But we want to notice what the Bible says about this.

DO WE NEED TO SUBMIT TO GOD?
Matthew 7:12-23 "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Do these verses indicate God does not care what His creation does? Clearly the answer is NO! Here Jesus speaking refers to what is commonly called the Golden Rule. In other words, Jesus is saying, “Do unto others as you would have them to do to you.” If you treat everyone in this fashion, you are fulfilling the Law of Moses and the prophets, because basically everything that is written can be summed up in these two commands:

1. To love the Lord your God with you entire body, soul, mind, and strength.
2. To love your neighbor as yourself.

But Jesus does not stop there, He continues on and tells us the path a Christian must take is strait (difficult) and hard to stay on, for wide is the path leadeth to destruction and many will go in thereat, while the difficult path is narrow and few will stick to it and find life. When compared to the vast numbers who are running rapidly towards destruction, only a few will head down the narrow path to righteousness. This does not mean you can count the number of people who will make it to heaven on one hand, because in a number of places, we find the Bible teaches very plainly the number of people who are God’s children and will be with him in Heaven is numberless. But what is meant is at any given moment, such as now when the world population is over 6.5 billion people, if you compare the number of people who really love the truth to the number who do not care, the number of the faithful is few.

As a matter of fact, Jesus goes on to warn against those who are false prophets. Many people would have us believe God does not care what we do. If that were true, why is so much of the Bible dedicated to warning against false prophets, to warning against wolves in sheep’s clothing, to warning against perverting or changing the gospel? The only answer that makes sense is it does make a difference.

Jesus continues on in these verses to warn about even the type of fruit that is produced, saying a Christian will produce good fruit for the Lord. If bad fruit is produced, clearly the one producing it is not living for the Lord, they are not a Christian. But just as important is for us to realize Jesus is also teaching implicitly if one produces no fruit it is the same in the eyes of God as if they produced bad fruit. The only type of person that is pleasing to God is a true Christian who produces good fruit.

The verses go on to say there will be many people who honestly think they are pleasing to God, who in the Judgment Day will be surprised to learn God never approved of the things they did. They will speak up in amazement proclaiming, Lord, Lord have we not done all of these wonderful things in your name only to be told by Jesus, “Depart from me ye that work lawlessness, I never authorized the things you did.” Or in very simple English, You will spend an eternity in the lake of fire, because you did not go to my word, the Bible, to find out the things that are pleasing to God. You did not submit to God.

1 Corinthians 11:1-3 "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God."

The only way we are to listen to men or follow any man is as they are following Christ. This means we as Christians need to make sure whenever we are listening to a preacher or any person, we have a responsibility to make sure the things they say are straight from the Bible. We need to check book, chapter, and verse for everything that is taught. In this sense, every one of us as a Christian need to be like the people from Missouri are, the SHOW-ME state. Whenever someone tells us something of a religious nature, we need to say “SHOW-ME” from the Bible.

HOW CAN WE SUBMIT TO GOD?
How many times have you struggled with trials and temptations in your life. All of us have temptations we have a difficult time overcoming. Fortunately God knows this and tells us how to overcome temptation. It is not necessarily easy, but when God tells us how to do something, we can be sure it can be done. Let us see what the Bible has to say.

James 4:5-8 "Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded."

James says the scripture tells us the spirit which dwells in us, our spirit, is given to temptation and failure. But God gives more grace, and He resists the proud. So we see the first thing we must do is recognize we do not have the power within us as humans to overcome temptation by ourselves. We need the power of God to help us.

2 Chronicles 7:14-16 "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

These verses here in II Chronicles give several steps are necessary to submit to God and to receive forgiveness from God. First you must be a child of God, which means you must be a baptized believer. We know this because God is talking about His people, which are called by His name. This is part of a prophecy about the Church, Christians. Yet after they have become children of God, they can still sin and leave the Lord God through sin. The first thing a child of God must do when they realize they have sinned is to humble themselves, repent by turning from their wicked ways and pray to God and ask His forgiveness, then God will hear them from heaven and will forgive them their sins.

First one must come to the realization of their sin, next they must humble themselves by repenting, turning their life back over to God, then pray to God humbly asking Him to forgive their sins. This will bring about forgiveness from God, which is the only place that matters. So we see humility and submission to God must be such a part of the Christian’s life it is their natural character.

2 Chronicles 34:27 "Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD."

We see several things are necessary before one can be considered submissive to God. First one must possess a tender heart. In other words, they must be receptive to God’s word. They must also humble themselves before God. This is done through applying the word of God to themselves, and having a tender heart through changing anything they have been doing wrong. Then God will listen to their prayers.

HOW DO WE SHOW OUR SUBMISSION TO GOD?
I think a majority of the people in the country, if you asked them if they were obeying God and under submission to Him would say YES. But if you look at the lives of a vast majority of the country, clearly they are not living according to His will. One of the reasons for this discrepancy is most people have no concept of what being under submission to someone else entails, even if person is God.

John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

In this simple statement in John, we can see the importance of loving God, keeping the commandments of God as well as submission to the will of God. First we have to ask ourselves, “Do we love God the Father and Jesus Christ the son of God?” Is the fact we claim to love God enough? What should motive us to obey God and Jesus Christ?

1 John 5:3 "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."

In 1 John, the Apostle of love, John, words it even stronger when he says “For this is the love of God, we keep His commandments." Or to reword the verse without changing its meaning, If we do not keep his commandments, we do not love God. This statement may not be politically correct, but it is true.

Psalms 69:30-34 "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein."

Here in Psalms, David shows us several things that being under submission to God causes one to have in their lives. The first thing the psalmist talks about is one will desire to sing praises and tell others about the glory of God and the blessings they receive from him. If one truly feels under submission to God and think of him as Lord of their life, then it is natural for that person to talk to their heavenly Father in prayer. This pleases God more than any sacrifice we might make. The Christian who truly serves God in the way that is pleasing to God is a humble, joyful person, who seeks and searches through the Bible to truly understand what God wants them to do.

Psalms 34:2-3 "My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together."

Again we see the psalmist praising God and showing through example how a person who submits to God will humble themselves and the only boasting they will do is about God and everything they do is designed to exalt, glorify, and please God.

Psalms 10:17-18 "LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress."

Here in the tenth psalm, we have a prophecy regarding how things will be in the Kingdom, the Church. We see God will listen to the humble, he even prepares their heart to be such He will listen to the humble and their prayers. Then he goes on to say those who are fatherless and oppressed will not be oppressed any more. God cares very much for the humble, those who submit to him.

1 Peter 2:13-15 "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:"

Another sign one is humbly following God is they also submit themselves to the laws of the land in the same way they submit to God. This is what God wants His followers to do, to submit to every law of man except if doing so would cause us to be going against the law of God.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO SUBMIT TO GOD?
We have seen how we can tell if we are submitting to God. Now we want to see what happens to those who submit to God. What are the results to those who submit to the Heavenly Father?

James 4:5-10 "Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge."

We see the spirit that we have within us, causes us to lust for things we shouldn’t. But if we ask God, he will give us the grace to overcome. The problem is that we struggle and fight against Satan and we are still overcome, because we do not fight Satan as we should. The Bible tells us how to overcome Satan. We first must humble ourselves and submit ourselves to God, then after submitting to God, we need to resist the devil, and then he will flee from us. If we do not humble ourselves first, have a contrite heart and submit to God, we can never overcome Satan on our own. We need to also be careful with our mouth and not allow ourselves to speak evil of our brother because then we become judges of our brethren and of the law.

1 Peter 5:1-7 "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."

We see in I Peter, not only are Christians to be humble, but those who would be leaders in the Church must be examples of humility to the flock. As a matter of fact, the Elders and leaders in the Church must be examples the rest of the Church can look at and follow. Too many times the leaders in the Church are not the examples of humility they should be, but are filled with pride, boisterous, and arrogant. The Bible promises if we humble ourselves under the hand of God, He will exalt us. Too often we live as if this promise was reversed, if we exalted ourselves, God will exalt us. Humility is a necessary attitude for Christians to have.

Matthew 18:3-4 "And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

In Matthew the Bible goes on to teach that unless we become converted to God we cannot enter into the Church, the implication being if we are arrogant, we are not members of the Church, the body of Christ. If we want to be a member of the body of Christ, let alone a leader in the Church, we must have a humble attitude.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO DO NOT SUBMIT TO GOD?
We have seen what the Bible says happens to those who submit to God, now we want to take a look at what happens to those who arrogantly do not submit to God, those who are not members of the body of Christ.

Proverbs 6:2-4 "Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids."

When we do not humble ourselves, we end up entrapping ourselves with hasty words. Do you ever end up at odds with other people because of the words that are said? Do you find your mouth gets you in trouble? Then these verses apply to us, we need to humble ourselves and save our friendship, because the arrogant haughty person will have few friends.

Proverbs 16:18-20 "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he."

If we are filled with pride, we are headed for destruction, an eternity in the lake of fire. If we have a haughty spirit, we are going to sin and fall away from God. Better off is the man who humbles himself in the eyes of God, than one who is filled with pride. These verses go on to say if one humbles themselves and handles a matter wisely they shall find good in their friends and their lives. This is how one trusts in God is to humble themselves, or in other words, the man who is filled with pride does not trust in God at all.

Proverbs 29:23-25 "A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not. The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe."

These verses teach very clearly one of the main problems we as Christians have is pride. God warns us here in Proverbs, pride brings us down to sin, but if we are humble, we will have honour. The second problem is even if pride does not cause us to sin directly, it causes us to partner up with people who are sinners and will make us sinners by default. If we fear man, it will cause us to stumble and sin, where the fear of God brings about righteousness.

Isaiah 57:15 "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

Thus saith God who inhabits eternity, let him who has a contrite and humble spirit revive the spirit of the humble. When we stop and think about the fact the God we believe in and worship is the creator of the universe. Not only is he the creator of the universe, but God inhabits eternity, he was, is, and always will be, He is the Great I AM. This God takes time to listen to me every time I pray and he loves me enough to send His son to be beaten, crucified and die a horrible death for me. Isn’t this humbling and exhilarating at the same time. This should both humble us and revive our hearts.

Matthew 23:12-13 "And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."

Here we are warned against the religion of the Pharisees who went around bragging about how religious they were, and but they would not go into the Kingdom of Heaven themselves, and they would not allow others to go in either.

Chapter Summary

1. Submission to God is essential to pleasing God.
2. The path to heaven is difficult and few will find it.
3. God cares very much about what we do.
4. In order to make it to Heaven, Christians must produce good spiritual fruit.
5. Submission to God requires obeying His commandments.
6. Submission to God requires resisting temptation.
7. Submission to God requires us realizing we are powerless against Satan without God.
8. Submission to God requires humility on our part.
9. Submission to God requires us having a tender heart.
10. To love God means obedience to his commandments.
11. Submission to God is necessary to loving God.
12. Submission to God causes us to sing praises to His name.
13. Submission to God requires humbling our selves and giving God all of the glory.
14. Submission to God brings us grace from God.
15. The leadership of the congregation should be an example of submission to God.
16. Submission to God requires submission to one another.
17. If we do not submit to God, we are not His children.
18. If we do not submit to God, we will be lost.