Pastor Rod Thompson
Midland SDA Church
July 27, 2019
I want to start off this morning by asking you a question. Is God particular? In other words, does God have a certain expectation for us in our walk with Him. Is He looking for us to give all of our selves to Him, or is He ok if we give Him a part of our heart or a partial allegiance? Is God looking for total obedience or is He going to settle for partial obedience?
Well, fortunately for us we don’t have to guess. There are many stories in scripture that reveal to us God’s expectation.
I think it’s easy to see that God means what He says.
Read Genesis 3: 8-11
God had commanded Adam and Eve that they could eat from every tree in the Garden of Eden, except for one. They were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And if they did, they would surely die.
Confrontation P12
Adam and Eve were permitted to partake of every tree in the garden save one. There was a single prohibition. The forbidden tree was as attractive and lovely as any of the trees in the garden. It was called the tree of knowledge because in partaking of that tree of which God had said, "Thou shalt not eat of it," they would have a knowledge of sin, an experience in disobedience.
God had placed within Adam and Eve a knowledge of good. He had provided them with everything that was necessary for them to have joy and peace and a life of obedience to Him. He had not designed that they should know or experience evil.
Well, you know the story don’t you?
Christian Temperance and Bible hygiene p43
Eve was beguiled by the serpent, and made to believe that God would not do as he had said. She ate, and thinking she felt the sensation of a new and more exalted life, she bore the fruit to her husband. The serpent had said that she should not die, and she felt no ill effects from eating the fruit,—nothing which could be interpreted to mean death, but, instead, a pleasurable sensation, which she imagined was as the angels felt. Her experience stood arrayed against the positive command of Jehovah, yet Adam permitted himself to be seduced by it. Thus we often find it, even in the religious world. God's express commands are transgressed; and “because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do the evil.” [Ecclesiastes 8:11.] In the face of the most positive commands of God, men and women will follow their own inclinations, and then dare to pray over the matter, to prevail upon God to allow them to go contrary to his expressed will.
Child guidance P46
Where once was written only the character of God, the knowledge of good, was now written also the character of Satan, the knowledge of evil.
Disobedience may have started with Adam and Eve but it didn’t end there. And God didn’t leave them to suffer the consequences of their sin alone. God instituted the sacrificial system, He provided a substitute to cover man’s sin. Of course we know that this was a lamb, and the lamb was symbolic of Jesus who would become the Lamb of God and pay our penalty for us.
So Abel, the son of Adam and Eve brought the lamb to sacrifice and God accepted his offering. But there other son Cain sought to weave in his own man made element and he brought the fruit of the ground. And God did not accept his offering.
I want you to notice that both sons were worshipping. Both brought an offering, but Cain’s partial obedience did not result in the favor of God. God rejected his offering.
Then there is the story of a couple of young priests by the name of Nadab and Abihu. These were the sons of Aaron, and their job was to take their censor and put fire in it, put incense on it and present it before the Lord in the holy place. It was a fire that God Himself had kindled.
Read Leviticus 9: 23-24
So God started this fire and they were to keep this fire going and use the coals to put in their censors. But apparently these two young priests were drinking wine and they let the fire go out. So they started their own fire
Read Leviticus 10: 1-2
Did you notice the partial obedience of these two young men? They offered incense just like they were supposed to. But they didn’t keep the fire going that God had started. So, they had to start their own and the bible calls this strange fire. And their partial obedience resulted in their death. Apparently, God is particular.
We could also look to the story of King Saul to see an example of partial obedience. Samuel had been the judge of Israel, but they were clamoring for a King, just like all the pagan nations around them. So, God tells Samuel to go and anoint Saul as King. So, Saul begins to lead the people of Israel in various wars against their enemies.
Two years into his kingship the Philistines come up against Israel. So, Saul and the army were camped at Gilgal. Samuel told him that the Lord had commanded that he wait 7 days then I will come and offer a sacrifice before the battle. But on the 7th day Saul became impatient, so he offered a burnt offering and peace offering himself.
And you know the story, don’t you? (1 Samuel 13). Right after that Samuel shows up and he says to Saul, you have acted foolishly, you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you.
1 Samuel 13: 13-14 For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commended him to be over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.
Saul was partially obedient. He waited 7 days. But the king is anointed to lead the people, but he is not anointed to offer sacrifices. That is the position of the priest, and his partial obedience cost him the kingdom.
Of course, there is also the story of Moses who was partially obedient. God told him to speak to the rock in the wilderness, but he hit the rock and as a result of his partial obedience he was not allowed to go into the promised land.
And David was the man after God’s own heart that Samuel was talking about. He was a good King, He was a Godly king. But he too had his trouble. He committed adultery and murder
Read 2 Samuel 12: 7-10
Partial obedience is disobedience and David suffers the consequence of actions. But that wasn’t the only disobedience of David. It wasn’t the only partial obedience.
Right before his indiscretion with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 5 through 10 you have the story of the reign of David after Saul is killed and how he becomes the King over all of Israel.
As soon as David was established as King over Israel he begins to seek a more appropriate location for the capital of the kingdom. Twenty miles from Hebron there was a place selected as the future metropolis of the kingdom. Before Joshua had led the Children of Israel into the promised land it had been called Salem. It had been the home of Melchizadek, the priest/king of the Most High God. It had also been the place where Abraham had proved his loyalty to God in offering Isaac.
It held a central and elevated position in the country and would provide easy access to all the tribes of Israel. But there was one problem. It was now called the city of Jebus and was occupied by a remnant of Canaanites called the Jebusites.
Up to this point the city had been considered impregnable, but David and his men took the city and the changed the named to Jerusalem. So, David became stronger and made an alliance with Hiram, the King of Tyre. But this excited the hostility of the Philistines, so they made war with Israel.
They twice attacked Israel, but David sought council from God and Israel defeated the Philistines both times.
Patriarch’s and Prophets P705
Now that David was firmly established upon the throne and free from the invasions of foreign foes, he turned to the accomplishment of a cherished purpose--to bring up the ark of God to Jerusalem.
For many years the ark had remained at Kirjath-jearim, nine miles distant; but it was fitting that the capital of the nation should be honored with the token of the divine Presence. David summoned thirty thousand of the leading men of Israel, for it was his purpose to make the occasion a scene of great rejoicing and imposing display. The people responded gladly to the call. The high priest, with his brethren in sacred office and the princes and leading men of the tribes, assembled at Kirjath-jearim. David was aglow with holy zeal. The ark was brought out from the house of Abinadab and placed upon a new cart drawn by oxen, while two of the sons of Abinadab attended it. The men of Israel followed with exultant shouts and songs of rejoicing, a multitude of voices joining in melody with the sound of musical instruments; "David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord . . . on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals." It had been long since Israel had witnessed such a scene of triumph. With solemn gladness the vast procession wound its way along the hills and valleys toward the Holy City.
But when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, the oxen stumbled and Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his rashness; and there he died by the ark of God." A sudden terror fell upon the rejoicing throng.
David was astonished and greatly alarmed, and in his heart, David questioned the justice of God. He had been seeking to honor the ark as the symbol of the divine presence. Why, then, had that fearful judgment been sent to turn the season of gladness into an occasion of grief and mourning? Feeling that it would be unsafe to have the ark near him, David determined to let it remain where it was. A place was found for it nearby, at the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
I want you to notice what Ellen White says about this incident.
Patriarch and Prophets P706
The fate of Uzzah was a divine judgment upon the violation of a most explicit command.
Read Numbers 4:15
Through Moses the Lord had given special instruction concerning the transportation of the ark. None but the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were to touch it, or even to look upon it uncovered. The divine direction was, "The sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die."
The priests were to cover the ark, and then the Kohathites must lift it by the staves, which were placed in rings upon each side of the ark and were never removed. To the Gershonites and Merarites, who had in charge the curtains and boards and pillars of the tabernacle, Moses gave carts and oxen for the transportation of that which was committed to them. "But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none: because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them was that they should bear upon their shoulders."
Thus in the bringing of the ark from Kirjath-jearim there had been a direct and inexcusable disregard of the Lord's directions. David and his people had assembled to perform a sacred work, and they had engaged in it with glad and willing hearts; but the Lord could not accept the service, because it was not performed in accordance with His directions.
There was a partial obedience. Yes brothers and sisters, God is very particular.
You might say, but what about the Philistines. They had captured the ark (1 Samuel 4-6) but then God inflicted judgment upon them so they returned the ark to Israel. Do you remember how they did it? They put it on a cart that was pulled by two milk cows. So if the Philistines could transport it by cart why couldn’t Israel.
Patriarchs and Prophets P706
The Philistines, who had not a knowledge of God's law, had placed the ark upon a cart when they returned it to Israel, and the Lord accepted the effort which they made. But the Israelites had in their hands a plain statement of the will of God in all these matters, and their neglect of these instructions was dishonoring to God. Upon Uzzah rested the greater guilt of presumption. Transgression of God's law had lessened his sense of its sacredness, and with unconfessed sins upon him he had, in face of the divine prohibition, presumed to touch the symbol of God's presence. God can accept no partial obedience, no lax way of treating His commandments. By the judgment upon Uzzah He designed to impress upon all Israel the importance of giving strict heed to His requirements. Thus, the death of that one man, by leading the people to repentance, might prevent the necessity of inflicting judgments upon thousands.
Brothers and sisters, I don’t know about you, but I am glad that we have these stories, and many more like them in scripture. And I love what Paul tells us in
Romans 15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the ages have come.
So, we have all these things recorded so that we learn from them. But that also means that we are going to be held to a higher standard than those who didn’t have this information.
So, let’s apply this to ourselves. Is God particular? YES! Is God going to accept from us a partial obedience? NO!
God has given us the new covenant promise. I will write my law in your mind and in your heart. So, if God’s law is written in your heart are you going to want to keep His commandments? YES!
But the question is, are we?
We pride ourselves that we are the Remnant church that keeps all the commandments of God, but do we?
Read Malachi 3: 8-10
Do you realize that if you don’t return to God the tithe and give Him offerings that you are stealing from God and breaking the 8th commandment?
Are you stealing from God?
Read Exodus 20: 8-11
Story of people in California going out to eat on the Sabbath
Brother’s and Sisters, God is not going to accept from us a partial obedience. But there is good news
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness
John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you