Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. I was studying a devotional the other day and a quotation really caught my attention. So I'm going to share it with you. But I hope you're ready to be convicted because this is one of those really convicting one liners. This is from a devotional from Paul David Tripp and he writes, "The problem with partial obedience is that it is disobedience masquerading as obedience."

When you really think about that, it can cut deep. And so looking in Scripture we find oftentimes various people in Scripture who who are obeying in part, or the Israelites who are doing some of what God asked, but not all not obeying fully. And I think a perfect example of this is in is of Moses in Numbers, the 20th chapter. The Israelites are once again complaining to Moses and Aaron because they need water.

They want water. And they are not shy about expressing or demanding their wants and their needs. And Moses is frustrated. He and Aaron are praying to the Lord. And in verse seven of chapter 20 of Numbers, it says, "The Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them. Thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.' So Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he had commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock. And he said to them, 'listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?' Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water came out abundantly and the congregation in their livestock drank." 

Okay, so here we have the Lord commanding Moses to gather the assembly and to command the rock to bring forth water. So Moses and Aaron take the staff as commanded by the Lord, they gather the assembly as was commanded by the Lord. But Moses struck the rock in his anger. He hit the rock. The Lord told him to speak for water to come out of the rock. So Moses partially obeyed.

He was partial in his obedience. And shouldn't that be good enough? But God demands full obedience. God's perfect and holy law demands full obedience. So was it good enough for the holy and sovereign God?

Let's find out. Continuing on in verse 12. "But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust in me to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites. Therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and by which he showed his holiness."

Moses partially obeyed the Lord, but it wasn't enough. He was to suffer the consequence of his disobedience, because in his partial obedience he was fully disobedient to God. And partial obedience, remember, is disobedience masquerading as obedience. And so Moses was in the wrong and he was not allowed to enter into the promised land with the assembly of the congregation. We know that the generation that entered into the wilderness first, that crossed through the Red Sea, they moaned and they groaned and they fought against trusting God, and they weren't allowed to go into the promised land. 

We find ourselves so often trying to convince ourselves that our partial obedience is pretty good. We're pretty decent because we partially obey God. But even partial obedience is not full trust of the Lord, and full listening and full following of the Lord. 

But praise be to God that he is God, and that because we cannot and do not fully obey him, he entered into creation the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, taking flesh upon himself so that he could live fully obedient under the law of God, fully obedient according to God's holiness and exchange his full obedience for our partial obedience or our full disobedience, exchanging his obedience for our disobedience so that we can have the full forgiveness all of our sin, whether or not we believe it's full sin, it is.

We are fully sinners and we are fully sinners who are fully forgiven by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. There is so much to be thankful for. And while we may be convicted when we hear about the partial obedience is still disobedience, we also can turn to the mercy of Christ and know that forgiveness is ours. Because we have a Lord who is good, who is merciful, and who fills our lives with his own obedience so that we can be connected with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit now and for all eternity. 

Heavenly Lord, we thank you that even when we try to talk ourselves into believing that our partial obedience is good enough. Lord, we thank you that you convict us, that you show us how our partial obedience is still disobedience. But we thank you that on the heels of that conviction, we also have the beautiful words that we are forgiven in Christ and Christ alone. Lord, we ask that as forgiven children that you would help us by your Spirit to live obediently to you; that you would help us by your Spirit to love you more fully each day and that you would empower us by your Spirit to share this good news that you came to forgive all of the world's sins so that any of those in our lives or those whom we'll meet who think that they're good enough because of their partial obedience, Lord, we ask that your Word would be upon our lips so that they would know that their partial obedience is still disobedience, but that the good news is that they too can be fully forgiven in Christ Jesus.

Lord, help us to keep this Word not only in our hearts, but keep it upon our lips so that we can love and serve you by loving and serving others today and always. Lord, we lift this to you with great thanksgiving and praise in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Have an amazing rest of your week and I very much look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday. Until then, God bless.

Pastor Malinak