Sermon on the Mount – Obedience to God’s Will

Hymn 92

Happy the man who knows

His Master to obey;

Whose life of love and labor flows,

Where God points out the way.

Rising to every task,

Soon as the word is given,

He doth not wait nor question ask

When orders come from heaven.

God’s will he makes his own,

And nothing can him stay;

His feet are shod for God alone,

And God alone obey.

Give us, O God, this mind,

Which waits but Thy command,

And doth its highest pleasure find

In Thy great work to stand.

THE HOLY BIBLE

Matt. 7:21-23 NLT

Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

I Sam. 17:1, 4, 11, 45-46, 50 NLT

The Philistines . .. mustered their army for battle. Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet tall. Saul and the Israelites . . . were terrified . . . . David replied to the Philistine, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. . . Today the Lord will conquer you.” So David triumphed over the Philistine.

II Sam. 11:2-4, 5, 6, 15, 27; 12:1, 7, 14, 16, 18, 20

Late one afternoon, as he looked out over the city, [David] noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. . . . and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, . . . the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. Later, . . . she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.” So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab . . . “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. But the Lord was displeased with what David had done. So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David . . . The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Then David . . . went to the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord.

James 1:8 KJV – A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Matt. 4:1-11 NLT

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” But Jesus told him, No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, ⁶ and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.” Jesus responded, The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’ Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” Get out of here, Satan, Jesus told him. For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’ Then the devil went away, and angels came . . .

Matt. 10:1, 5, 8, 16-17 NLT

Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness. Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: . . .Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received! Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as serpents and harmless as doves.

Matt. 21:28-31 – NLT

What do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway. Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But he didn’t go. “Which of the two obeyed his father?” They replied, “The first.”

Matt. 22:37 NLT

Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

Matt. 19:16, 17 KJV

Behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

Matt. 16:13, 16, 17, 19, 21-24 NLT

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things [and] he would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

Mark 14:1, 17, 27, 29-30, 43, 50, 53, 66, 67, 68, 69,-72, NLT

Jesus told them, All of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ Peter said to him, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.” Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me. Judas, one of the twelve disciples, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs. Then all his disciples deserted him and ran away. They took Jesus to the high priest’s home . . . . Meanwhile, Peter was in the courtyard below. One of the servant girls . . . looked at him closely and said, “You were one of those with Jesus of Nazareth.” But Peter denied it. [S]he began telling the others, “This man is definitely one of them!” But Peter denied it again. A little later some of the other bystanders confronted Peter and said, “You must be one of them, because you are a Galilean.” Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know this man you’re talking about!” And immediately the rooster crowed the second time. . . . And he broke down and wept.

Mark 16:9, 14 NLT

After Jesus rose from the dead . . . he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together.

John 21:15-17, 20-22 NLT

Jesus asked Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” Then feed my lambs, Jesus told him. Jesus repeated the question: Simon son of John, do you love me? “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.” Then take care of my sheep, Jesus said. A third time he asked him, Simon son of John, do you love me? . . . He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus said, Then feed my sheep. Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved. Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?” Jesus replied, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.

John 14:15,

If you love me, obey my commandments.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES, by Mary Baker Eddy

SH 183:21

Divine Mind rightly demands man’s entire obedience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty. Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength. Submission to error superinduces loss of power.

SH 329:21-23

Principle is imperative. You cannot mock it by human will. Science is a divine demand, not a human.

SH 167:32-3

Substituting good words for a good life, fair seeming for straightforward character, is a poor shift for the weak and worldly, who think the standard of Christian Science too high for them.

SH 239:12-13

Let it be understood that success in error is defeat in Truth.

SH 462:9

If the student goes away to practise Truth’s teachings only in part, dividing his interests between God and mammon and substituting his own views for Truth, he will inevitably reap the error he sows. Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian Science must abide strictly by its rules, heed every statement, and advance from the rudiments laid down.

SH 405:5-11, 26-29; 404:26-1

Christian Science commands man to master the propensities, — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success. If sin is not regretted and is not lessening, then it is hastening on to physical and moral doom. You are conquered by the moral penalties you incur and the ills they bring.

Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require the same method and are inseparable in Truth. Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth, make a man sick, and neither material medicine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body, unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind.

SH 242:15

Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error, — self-will, self-justification, and self-love, — which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death.

SH 25:13-16, 17

Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration, that we may understand how this divine Principle heals the sick, casts out error, and triumphs over death. . . . By his obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritually than all others the Principle of being. Hence the force of his admonition, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

SH 33:18-23

When the human element in him struggled with the divine, our great Teacher said: “Not my will, but Thine, be done!” — that is, Let not the flesh, but the Spirit, be represented in me. This is the new understanding of spiritual Love. It gives all for Christ, or Truth.

SH 9:17

Dost thou “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”? This command includes much, even the surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master, and material sense and human will have no place.

SH 451:19-26 – Every Christian Scientist, every conscientious teacher of the Science of Mind-healing, knows that human will is not Christian Science, and he must recognize this in order to defend himself from the influence of human will. He feels morally obligated to open the eyes of his students that they may perceive the nature and methods of error of every sort, especially any subtle degree of evil, deceived and deceiving.

SH 490:4-10

Human will is an animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul. Hence it cannot govern man aright. Christian Science reveals Truth and Love as the motive-powers of man. Will — blind, stubborn, and headlong — cooperates with appetite and passion. From this cooperation arises its evil.

SH 445:24

The human will which maketh and worketh a lie, hiding the divine Principle of harmony, is destructive to health, and is the cause of disease rather than its cure.

SH 241:1

He, who knows God’s will or the demands of divine Science and obeys them, incurs the hostility of envy; and he who refuses obedience to God, is chastened by Love.

SH 238:6-9

To obey the Scriptural command, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate,” is to incur society’s frown; but this frown, more than flatteries, enables one to be Christian.

SH 447:5-9 – In mental practice you must not forget that erring human opinions, conflicting selfish motives, and ignorant attempts to do good may render you incapable of knowing or judging accurately the need of your fellow-men.

SH 209:2-4

It is the mortal belief which makes the body discordant and diseased in proportion as ignorance, fear, or human will governs mortals.

SH 144:16-18, 20

Willing the sick to recover is not the metaphysical practice of Christian Science, but is sheer animal magnetism. . . . Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to disease, “Peace, be still.”

SH 147:32-1; 148:4; SH 149:3-4, 12

Jesus never spoke of disease as dangerous or as difficult to heal. … He prescribed no drugs, urged no obedience to material laws, but acted in direct disobedience to them. Mind as far outweighs drugs in the cure of disease as in the cure of sin. . . . If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life, — because you have not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine Science.

SH 182:9-12, 19-22, 32-4

We cannot obey both physiology and Spirit, for one absolutely destroys the other, and one or the other must be supreme in the affections. It is impossible to work from two standpoints. Obedience to material law prevents full obedience to spiritual law, — the law which overcomes material conditions and puts matter under the feet of Mind. The law of Christ, or Truth, makes all things possible to Spirit; but the so-called laws of matter would render Spirit of no avail, and demand obedience to materialistic codes, thus departing from the basis of one God, one lawmaker.

SH vii:27-4

Since the author’s discovery of the might of Truth in the treatment of disease as well as of sin, her system has been fully tested and has not been found wanting; but to reach the heights of Christian Science, man must live in obedience to its divine Principle.

SH 62:4

The entire education of children should be such as to form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law, with which the child can meet and master the belief in so-called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease.

SH 412:13

The power of Christian Science and divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to unclasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death.

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Hymn 6 – newest Supplement
Shepherd, show me how to go
O’er the hillside steep,
How to gather, how to sow,—
How to feed Thy sheep;
I will listen for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray;
I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way.
Thou wilt bind the stubborn will,
Wound the callous breast,
Make self-righteousness be still,
Break earth’s stupid rest.
Strangers on a barren shore,
Lab’ring long and lone,
We would enter by the door,
And Thou know’st Thine own;
So, when day grows dark and cold,
Tear or triumph harms,
Lead Thy lambkins to the fold,
Take them in Thine arms;
Feed the hungry, heal the heart,
Till the morning’s beam;
White as wool, ere they depart,
Shepherd, wash them clean.

Hymn 324
Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take my every thought, to use
In the way that Thou shalt choose.
Take my love; O Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
I am Thine, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.