This paper proposes an adaptive control method based on the feedback linearization technique and a proposed neural network,  for tracking and position control of an industrial manipulator. At first, it is assumed that the dynamics of the system are known and the control signal is constructed  by the feedback linearization method. Then to eliminate the effects of the uncertainties and external disturbances, the parameters of the proposed neural network are learned based on the Lyapunov method such that the sliding condition to be satisfied. The performance of the proposed method is compared with the sliding mode technique in presence of external disturbance, delay and uncertainties. The simulation results verify that the proposed method is effective and can be used in many applications.