TEXT: Romans 3:4

SUBJECT: Six Rules for Young Christians #6: Don’t Follow Your Feelings

This afternoon, with God’s blessing, we will finish our study and discussion of Six Short Rules for Young Christians. Brownlow North wrote the pamphlet about 150 years ago, and they’re as relevant today as they were then.

Before we get to the last Rule, I ought to say something about ‘rules’ in general, and in particular, the rules we find in the Bible. I know a man who says there are no rules in the Bible, other than believe the Gospel. Is he right? No; in fact, the Bible has a great many rules. The rabbis counted 213 in the Law; and many more could be found in the prophets, the Gospels, and the Epistles. I know these are not only rules, but still, they are rules, and God wants us to know them, and where appropriate, to keep them from the heart.

Why does He want us to do this? It is not to earn His favor; we cannot earn His favor, and thankfully, we don’t need to, because Christ has earned it for us! II Corinthians 5:21—

So…if obeying the Rules does not make us right with God, why did He give them to us, and why should we keep them? We keep them because they describe the kind of life that pleases God, and this is what we want to do—we want to please Him.

Do you want to please the Lord? Do you want to be more like Jesus who did—

You cannot do either by ignoring His Rules or replacing them with laws of your own making. These things don’t please the Lord. He wants us to do things His way. What does He want us all to do? He wants us to grow in grace. How do we do that? A lot can be said here, but the old preacher gives us a good place to start. We grow in grace by—

1. Praying every day,
2. Reading the Bible every day,
3. Doing something for Christ every day,
4. Keeping our hearts tender every day,
5. Imitating Christ every day,

And—today’s Rule—

Brownlow North lived in the Age of Reason. Reason, science, logic were trusted back then in a way they never were before, or since. Almost everyone believed Truth was a real thing, outside of ourselves, and not dependent on how it makes us feel. Morality was thought about in the same way: right and wrong were objective things, and applied to all people in all times and all places. Of course, not everyone agreed on what the truth was, or whether a particular thing was right or wrong, but they all believed that truth and morality were really there and could be known.

The First World War killed the Age of Reason, and the 1960’s buried it. Today, most Americans do not believe in absolute Truth or Morality. To their way of thinking, a thing can be true for you, but not for me; or your evil is my good. How often have you gotten advice or seen a movie or heard a song whose theme was—

What does this mean—follow your heart? Do you think it means, ‘Study the Bible and find out what God wants you to do’? Or, ‘Pray and discuss it with mature and wise believers, and take their advice’? You know very well it doesn’t mean either of these things. What it means is—

For many people—and some Christians—feelings have become organs of Divine Revelation. While the Bible and the church can have authority, the final word belongs to their feelings. Examples can be multitplied:

Several years ago, a young woman was coming to church, and one Wednesday night she told me, ‘I’m going to marry an unsaved man’. I asked her how she could square this with Paul’s command to marry only in the Lord. You know what she told me? Some things are hard to understand. I wanted to let that pass—believe me, I did—but I couldn’t: Hard to understand, or hard to obey? A knowing tear ran down her cheek and I never saw her again.

A girl I grew up with told me years ago, I feel God wants me to divorce my husband. I asked her why she felt that way, and all she could come up with is, Because I do. I knew the man well, and he was a sincere brother. She broke his heart, hurt their kids, dismayed her church, and put herself on the bad path she’s still on—and all because she felt something.

Also years ago, a family told me they were quitting the church. When I asked them why, they said, We don’t feel comfortable here any more. They were old friends of mine—maybe my best friends, and close to my parents too, and they quit the church and unsettled our friendships because they didn’t feel comfortable.

If feelings often assert the authority of heaven, they sure don’t deserve it. What causes us to feel one way or another? A great many things do, including: our health and diet and sleep patterns, even the weather.

Should you ignore God’s Word in favor of last night’s pizza, or this morning’s gray skies? Why trust unstable feelings, when you have a Word that remains firm, even when—

THE BIBLE

It is not easy following the Bible, especially when our feelings are shouting their demands at us. To help us do that, let’s remember some things we already know, but are prone to forget when our emotions run riot.

The Bible is God’s Word, I Timothy 3:16—

This means the Bible is not God’s Word about man, or even man’s sharpest and most insightful religious thoughts. It is God Himself who made sure every word Moses or Paul wrote was just what He wanted the man to say. The choice therefore, is not between my feelings and yours, but between my feelings and God’s Word.

The Bible is God’s Word to us, Hebrews 12:5—

The writer of Hebrews quotes Proverbs and says not only that God spoke it, but that God spoke it to you. Someone in the church might have said, ‘Why should I listen to the Proverbs? They were written to Solomon’s sons who lived a thousand years ago and in a situation far different than my own. My situation is not at all like his! He was being tempted by loose women and dangerous men, while I am being pulled back to the Temple, the House Solomon built for God! It may be true, but it has nothing to do with me.

But the writer of Hebrews says, it does. The Bible is not a dead word to dead people, but a living word to living people. Of course it has to be interpreted and applied to life in the 21s^t Century, but, allowing for all that, it still speaks to you and speaks with the same authority it had to the people who first heard or read it. So, once again, the choice is between a feeling that is sure to go away before long and the Word that speaks to every generation in every place.

The Bible is God’s good word, Psalm 19:7-11—

The Word of God is like food, not medicine. David, who had far less of it than we do—and not the best parts either—found it the best thing in the world, making him wise, rejoicing his heart, and other good things. No wonder he—

People who trust the Bible never wish they didn’t. Because the Bible is God’s Word, His Word to us, and His Good Word to us, it can never mislead us. Our interpretations of it do, even when they’re carefully thought out and sincere.

Can you imagine a Christian on his deathbed saying, ‘Oh that I hadn’t followed the Bible so closely! ‘If only I had let my feelings lead me more!’ It’s unimaginable. Talk to people who have denied their feelings to trust God’s Word and ask them if they’re sorry. They’re not sorry; they cannot be, for—

God has given us feelings to enrich our lives, to sympathize with others and to enjoy His blessings. What He hasn’t done is given us feelings to know His will. He has entrusted this office to something better than our feelings: His Word.