This is the spirit of obedience displayed by the Apostles
said again and again, by His law and by His prophets, "Obey my voice." Do as you are bidden, and all shall be well. "Yet they obeyed not"'; and because they were resolved not to submit their souls to God's commandments they would not so much as incline their ears to them, but got as far as they could out of call. ''They walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart"', followed their own inventions. Every man did as his fancy and humour led him, right or wrong, lawful or unlawful, both in their devotions and in their conversations (see Jer. vii. 24). And what, then, can they expect but to fall under the curse of the covenant, since they would not comply with the commands and conditions of it? 'Therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant."' That is, all the threatenings contained in it, because they did not what they were commanded. The words of the covenant shall not fall to the ground. If we do not by our obedience qualify ourselves for the blessings of it, we shall by our disobedience bring ourselves under the curses of it.
6. THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE APOSTLES
This is the spirit of obedience displayed by the Apostles when after Pentecost they set the world ablaze by their preaching. They defy all earthly authorities, even those of the Sanhedrin, as did Peter and the other apostles (Acts v. 29 ff.).
They justify themselves in their disobedience to the commands of the great Sanhedrin, as great as it was (verse 29): "We ought to obey God rather than men."' They do not plead the power they had to work miracles. That spoke sufficiently for them. Therefore they humbly decline mentioning it themselves. But they appeal to a maxim universally owned, and which even natural conscience subscribes to and which comes home to their case. God had commanded them to teach in the name of Christ, and therefore they ought to do it, though the chief priests forbade them. Those rulers set up in opposition to God, and have a great deal to answer for, who punish men for disobedience to them, in that which was their duty to God.
Not all Christians even in the days of the apostles faced the enemies of Christ with the same courage and sense of loyalty. Some Galatian Christians were put off by the opposition. The apostle tells these Christians that whoever they were who hindered them, by hearkening to them they were kept from