Bill was a carpenter, and whenever there were building materials left over from a construction job, he would bring them home for his son, Doug, to use in his building projects.
One time Bill and the other workers were tearing down a house because a new mall was to be built where the house stood. There were lots of good building materials from the house: boards, windows, shingles and all kinds of useful things. Bill gave them to Doug and his friend, and they made plans to build a tree house.
After they got the floor and walls built, the roof was next. Bill gave them instructions about how to lay the shingles. “Start at the bottom edge of the roof and lay overlapping rows until you reach the peak.”
All day Saturday the boys worked hard shingling the roof. They began at the bottom of the first side and worked their way up to the peak, then they kept right on going down the other side until they reached the bottom edge again. They were very tired at the end of the day, but very pleased with their work.
That night it rained.
In the morning they ran out to their tree house. It was all wet inside! They discovered that they had made a big mistake. They had laid the shingles on the first side exactly right. But instead of beginning at the bottom edge on the second side, they had gone over the peak and worked their way down. The shingles on the second side had acted just like funnels and directed the water inside the tree house. They were two very disappointed boys. They thought they were following Doug’s dad’s instructions, but they had not listened carefully.
God has instructions for us in the Bible too, and He wants us to listen to them carefully and follow them well. He wants “all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). But if we are going to understand God’s message to us, we must be like David and pray as he did: “Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me: for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day” (Psalm 25:5).
If Doug had thought over his dad’s instructions, he would have stopped at the peak and started again at the bottom on the second side, working back up to the top. The tree house roof looked nice and neat, but it leaked terribly. All the shingles on the second side had to be taken off and put on in an entirely different order.
In the Old Testament the children of Israel said, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:7). But we are unable to do that because we are born in sin and we are sinners through and through. God knows that, and so He brought in a whole new order of things. He sent His own beloved Son to bear the punishment of our sins on the cross, so we could be free from sin and live to please God. That is the only way we can become free of our sins. The ten commandments are good, but trying to keep them will not save us from our sins. And it is good to do good works, but doing good works will not save us from our sins. God tells us this in Titus 3:5: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His [God’s] mercy He saved us.” God’s instructions tell us to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Are you following God’s instructions?
ML-06/16/1996