“And God said…yea, hath God said?”

Gen. 1:3 versus Gen. 3:1

Part 2

The Bible is filled with examples whereby when man obeyed the will of God “fully” (Numbers 14:24), he received God’s blessings, and other occasions where he fell short of “full” obedience he suffered for it.  This is seen from the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis.  It is not a matter of how great a thing a person may do, how much sacrifice they may make, of how much persecution they may suffer, but whether they honor God by taking care to follow His commands.  God gave them a two part instruction…something to “do” and something “not to do”.  They were to work the garden and keep it and they were not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  No where do we see any indication that Adam and Eve failed to do what God told them to do but we do have record of their failure to respect God in regard to that which they were not to do.

The only way we honor God is thru full obedience to His commands. Saving faith obeys.  Jesus made this point at the time of his temptation in the wilderness. When Satan challenged Him by asking him to change stones into bread Jesus answered: "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, But by every word that comes from the mouth of God’." (Matt. 4:4)

Moses failed to “fully” obey God’s commands in the wilderness of Zin.  The story is found in Numbers 20:7-11 – “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.”

Moses reminded the people of this experience and told them that he had asked God to let him enter the land on the other side of the Jordan but had been told he must die in the land of Moab. Notice God’s explanation to Moses in Num. 20:12, “…because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”

We learn an important fact about faith from this incident.  Faith which avails, obeys…FULLY!  Our obedience SANCTIFIES God also!  God is to be sanctified by His creation.  Man does so thru strict obedience to God’s commands!

Notice also in Numbers 20:24 what God stated to both Moses and Aaron: “Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah.

Their actions were called “rebellion”!  Again, in Numbers 27:12-14 God stated to Moses, “…get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered. For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes: that is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.”

Moses would warn the second generation of Israelites who were to be led by Joshua in conquest of Canaan with these words: “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” (Deut. 4:2)  In Deut. 12:32 Moses told them, “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

Joshua also told them in Josh. 1:7, “Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest.”

Notice the blessings that were promised if they took care to FULLY (COMPLETELY) follow God’s commands given thru Moses.  God is sanctified thru full obedience by man to His commands!  

Solomon also spoke on the necessity for FULL (COMPLETE) obedience to God’s commands in Prov. 30:5-6 as follows, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”

The lesson from these examples is that we are to take care not to alter IN ANY WAY, what God has commanded of us.  Doing so, dishonors God, constitutes sin and sin separates us from God.  Once separated, the way back into fellowship is thru Christ.

Christ has ALL authority and has given commands whereby ALL who have committed sin against God MUST obey in order to be restored to fellowship with God.  Christ gave those commands to the apostles.  They were to preach them to all.  We find them recorded at the end of the four gospels and in the book of Acts. 

Obedience to those commands constitutes the new birth of which Jesus spoke of in John 3:3-5 in the conversation with Nicodemus.  All people who have committed sin MUST be ‘born again’.

No one is “born” in sin, but rather COMMIT sin in choosing to obey Satan’s will instead of God’s (Joshua 24:15; Romans 6:16-18).  Yet, many preach from Romans 5:12 that sin passed from Adam to all.  The word of God does not say that; it says that death (the consequence or wage) of sin passed, NOT THE SIN! The reason death has passed is also stated in this text, BECAUSE ALL HAVE SINNED.  Careful hearers detect the perversion.  Because all have sinned (Romans 3:23), God commands all to repent (Acts 17:30) and to be immersed in water (Acts 2:38: 8:38).   

Yet people are deceived in regard to God’s commands on repentance and baptism thru Satan’s perversion of God’s commands.  Satan cleverly distorts God’s words by “adding to” or “taking from”.  He speaks as he did to Eve, suggesting what God MEANT by what He said.  By this means, people are deceived into reasoning as Eve did.

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