Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, let's take our Bible and turn to the book of Exodus chapter 20. We're going to continue our study on the, the next commandment. Actually, we're going to skip one and we're going to go to the fourth commandment in Exodus chapter 20. You might ask, well, why are we spending so much time in the Old Testament studying the Old Testament. Remember the Old Testament? The New Testament scriptures are built upon the Old Testament truth. The Old Testament is in no way lesser scripture than the New Testament. It just so happens that we live in what might be called the New Testament era. Right? In other words, the New Testament scriptures are not all of them, but the majority of the New Testament scriptures are directly intended for us, refer to us in the time in which we live. But remember when the Bible says, when Paul said to Timothy, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, when he said that he was referring to primarily the Old Testament because that was what was mostly in existence at that time.
[00:01:13] So that's why we're looking at it. And of course, in this study, talking about the law and the ten commandments, I do want to make sure that I look at this from a New Testament perspective because you can get really off on these things if you don't have that correct perspective. So let's look at Exodus chapter 20. We're going to look at the fourth commandment. We're going to skip the third commandment because back in November of last year, did I have my date? No, it was this year. So, yeah, it was in November when we were going through acts I covered the third commandment, which is, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. We didn't spend a whole lot of time on it, but it covered the basics of it. So if you would like to like a copy of that, of course, I can give you a link to that where you can listen to it. And if you just want to keep up with that and cover that in our study here. But we're going to look at the fourth commandment, which begins in verse number eight.
[00:02:13] The Bible says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
[00:02:17] Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is and rested the 7th day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. All right, let's pray together.
[00:02:52] Lord in heaven, thank you once again for the opportunity that as the church of God, to meet together, to see the faces of your people, to encourage one another to fellowship with one another, to pray for one another, to hear the burdens that we might pray, Lord, help us to be faithful, to pray for each other.
[00:03:13] Lord, I pray that you'd bless our time tonight. Thank you for the opportunity also to look at your word, and I pray that you would help your people, please. I pray the truth would be perfectly clear to their understanding and that you would help us, Lord, to know how to apply these things and that you would give us, just help us to cut through the muck that is so often found in religion that we might see the truth plainly. And so, Lord, bless our study tonight. Lord, please give me help and wisdom and grace to know what to say to your people and help them to have hearts to receive it and bless our time together. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:03:55] So the fourth commandment is regarding the Sabbath day.
[00:04:01] And how many of you have ever heard of the concept of the christian Sabbath? Have you ever heard of that? Okay, we're going to talk about that some as well. But the first thing we need to establish when we look at the commandment to remember the Sabbath day. Let me just say this from the outset, okay? Because some of the things I'll say tonight might come across a little od to you. Now I've said them. It's not like it's new information, because I've said these same things to you in different contexts when we talk about different things.
[00:04:33] But I just want you to be prepared, because there is an idea that somehow the Ten Commandments are a more important portion of the word of God than every other portion of the word of God. And I think a lot of it, to be honest with you, is cultural. I think a lot of it is cultural. After all, if you go to the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC, if you venture to go there, you will see above the entrance, above the columns, in the Supreme Court building, there's an image, a statue of. It's actually a bunch of different characters, but in the center is Moses, and he's holding the Ten Commandments. And of course, we know in recent history there's been a lot of debate about, in politics about having monuments to the Ten Commandments. And so the Ten Commandments, to many people's mind, especially, I'll use this kind of term the christianesque mind.
[00:05:34] Not to say they're true believers, but in the christianesque mind, the Ten Commandments are one of the most important parts of scripture. And that's not to say they aren't. They are. The Ten Commandments are very important. And they were really a pivotal point, as I said before, in the history of Israel, in God's relevatory program. In other words, when God gave the Ten Commandments, he was beginning a new chapter in his revelation. And so it's not that it's small, it's not that it's unimportant. It's actually very important.
[00:06:14] But when we look at the Ten Commandments, we already covered this. But one of the primary mistakes people make when they look at the Ten Commandments in other parts of the law. Sometimes people think the Ten Commandments is all there is in the law, and we know that's not the case. But sometimes people think, as we've already studied, that the Ten Commandments is God's way of salvation. You just try real hard to keep the Ten Commandments. And if you try really hard and you're sincere, then God will give you eternal life. And if you want to be a purist, you look at Romans chapter two. Maybe that would be true. But the problem is nobody does it. The flesh is just too wicked. Our nature is wicked. And so if it were possible that, as the scripture says, if it were possible to have eternal life through the law, well, then righteousness would have been by the law. But it's not because. And the problem and the weakness in that chain is us, is we. We are the weak links. We are the cause.
[00:07:15] And I say all of that to say when we talk about the fourth commandment, this is the only commandment that gives us trouble.
[00:07:23] We listen to the first and second, the third and the fifth, and the 6th and 7th and 8th and 9th and 10th, and we hardly agree. But all of a sudden there's like the scratch record or that they thing they do. When you stop suddenly. You get to the fourth commandment, and all of a sudden it's like, hold on. We believe all of them except this one.
[00:07:44] That's kind of the way it goes. So even the people who want the ten commandments to be put on monuments and stuff like that, they get to the fourth commandment, and all of a sudden it doesn't matter because they want to go golfing or they want to do whatever on Saturday. So let's establish a few things with this. In Exodus 20 and verse number nine, the Bible says six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But in the 7th day. But the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Now if you just stop there and just hang on. Okay, you got to really lock into this.
[00:08:20] But the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Okay?
[00:08:27] The 7th day. So here's the first principle I want you to get.
[00:08:31] The Sabbath is the 7th day, which is what day?
[00:08:37] Saturday. Okay? That's the first thing we need to understand. We're going to understand this principle. The Sabbath is not Sunday. The Sabbath is Saturday. There is nowhere in the Bible, even in your wildest stretches, that you might find a verse that says that the Sabbath is anything except the 7th day of the week. Okay? There is an idea that is pushed mainly by Protestants, that what is the Old Testament Sabbath has been in some way transferred into the Christian Sabbath, Sunday. And so therefore, and I know personally people that believe this, and so therefore, all of the laws regarding the Sabbath. Actually, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. But anyway, the Ten Commandment law, the fourth commandment about the Sabbath actually now applies to Sunday.
[00:09:38] The problem is they don't apply all the other laws regarding the Sabbath. There are a lot of other laws regarding the Sabbath, such as God not only forbid working on the Sabbath, he also forbid kindling a fire in Exodus 35, verse three.
[00:09:55] And does that mean you can't turn on your stove? Does that mean you can't turn on a light? Well, we have leds now. No fire involved, right? No more know as we've gone green.
[00:10:08] So what does that, can we start our mean? Unless you have a Tesla. That's an internal combustion engine. That's a know, it's funny when you start considering that, you start to understand that when God gave this commandment to Israel, there was a historical context that really mattered. All right, other things you can't do, you can't prepare food. Exodus 16, verse 23, which interestingly, that was a Sabbath law before the Sabbath law was given in Exodus 20.
[00:10:40] In the Sabbath law, you're required to allow your servants, your animals and foreigners all must rest.
[00:10:50] All of them must rest. There were also requirements. Later we'll find out that limited the distance you could go. A Sabbath day's journey. I'm telling you, it's not that far. It's not that far at all. It might be up to the public's. That's it. So basically, all of you violated the Sabbath. If Sunday is a Sabbath, Sister Karen, you're a lawbreaker you're a lawbreaker because Woodruff road is a long way from here. Trust me, you know that because you drive here.
[00:11:21] So that's the first thing we have to understand, is there are many laws. It's not just this portion. There are many other laws about the Sabbath and way. There was a Sabbath for the land, there was a Sabbath of years, all these other laws regarding the Sabbath. But it seems that when we want to christianize the Sabbath, the only one we care about is this one, and it's only a small sliver of this. That's not the proper way to interpret the Bible. You got to look at what the text says and not just add in and spiritualize whatever you think you want to apply and leave out the rest. You can't do that. But it is established then, based on verse ten, that the Sabbath has been and is always will be Saturday. Now, just keep this in mind. We know that Sunday is not Saturday. Sunday is the first day of the week, not the 7th.
[00:12:10] And just this alone clarifies a lot of confusion about the Sabbath.
[00:12:15] All right? Our word Saturday comes from, essentially from Latin, and it means Saturn day, because, of course, that was the God of the Romans, Saturn day, Saturday. All right. But if you look at other languages, especially the romantic languages and some of the other european languages, the word they use is the word Sabbath for Saturday. Like Spanish, who knows it? Isaiah. What's the word for Saturday, do you know?
[00:12:47] Oh, man. Mary, it's Sabado. Sabado is essentially the same as Sabbath. All right? So that's the first thing we need to establish, all right? The Sabbath is the 7th day, which is Saturday, not Sunday, according to the scripture, all right? Anytime you see somebody change that fact and say it's the Sabbath, you've got a problem. You've got a problem. Okay? Notice what it says in verse number eleven.
[00:13:17] It says, four. In six days the Lord made heaven and earth. All right? Notice that the word four is a conjunction that connects this verse with the verse prior. In other words, God says, the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, for in six days. In other words, the commandment to remember the Sabbath is built upon the truth in verse eleven. Now, verse eleven says, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is and rested the 7th day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So the reason God gave them a command about keeping the Sabbath day and really the command that they were not allowed to work was really to separate the Sabbath, that one day, the 7th day from every other day, okay? That was really the purpose of it. The Lord wanted them to have one day and he created that for them, for them, for their animals. He was caring for them not to create a religious ritual that they were slaves to. And that's what the Lord says when he says in the New Testament that the Sabbath was made for man, not the man for the Sabbath, right? It wasn't made to serve. It was made to serve man. All right?
[00:14:33] But notice the Sabbath, the commandment here is built upon what we find in Genesis two. So look there, if you would.
[00:14:40] Genesis two, verse number one.
[00:14:43] I want you to pay close attention as we read it because it goes like this.
[00:14:51] The Sabbath is for all of us, for all time, because God gave the Sabbath command all the way back before there was even sin in the original creation, God gave a command to rest, right? So therefore it spans. It's not just about the Old Testament law. It goes way before the Old Testament law. Okay, look at chapter two, verse one. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the 7th day, God ended his work which he had made. And he rested on the 7th day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the 7th day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. All right, you see where in this verse, you see where God commands us to keep the Sabbath or to keep the 7th day? Do you see that? Don't sit there and nod at me. It ain't in there. There is no command in those three verses, is there? Look at it once again. Do you see any command in those verses?
[00:16:00] You don't.
[00:16:02] What does that mean? That means that when you get to Exodus 20, is the first time a command to keep the Sabbath holy and not work. It's the first time it occurs now. But you got to understand, that command that God gave to Israel was built upon the principle that God established by his example in Genesis chapter two. Do you understand that? So God gave us a principle by his own example in Genesis two, but no commandment to keep it.
[00:16:37] You see that?
[00:16:39] Now if you want to keep the Sabbath, and this is what we'll see a little bit later, if you want to keep the sabbath of other Ben, you can, you absolutely can do that.
[00:16:50] There's nothing in the Bible that forbids you from doing that. But you're not going to find a command in Genesis two, one through three. So here's the principle. The example of God's resting in Genesis two does not constitute a command. The command in Exodus 20 is built upon the example set.
[00:17:11] Now, if you would go back to Exodus 20 really quick, and then we'll look at a few other passages.
[00:17:27] You now, the thing you have to remember about the ten Commandments, and this is the part where I said, you might look at me funny, is that as important culturally as the Ten Commandments are to us, right, as a people? And I don't deny that, obviously it's important. And as important as the ten Commandments are to moral truth, what is right and wrong in God's sight. Right.
[00:17:54] The ten Commandments were not given to us.
[00:17:57] They were spoken at a particular time to a particular people. Okay, let me give you an example to kind of illustrate what I mean, because all of us in here, again, I've said this before, but all of us in here are basically non Jews, okay?
[00:18:14] We aren't even the descendants of these people that were given these commands. We're not even the descendants of them. We were completely separate. In other words, if you were to compare us, we were more like Noah and his family. We were under that group when God gave the law to Moses. At this time in Exodus 20, there were a whole lot of other people that weren't jews that had. They didn't even know about this. It was only given to those people in the middle of the desert, I mean, in the middle of nowhere. So there's only a select group that even heard about it. God dealt with other people in different ways.
[00:18:54] So these commands were given to the children of Israel. So, of course, when I say that, the question then becomes, then why is it wrong to murder?
[00:19:03] If God didn't give those things to us, then why is it wrong to murder? So let me give you an illustration to help you understand. How many gods are there? We've already covered this, right? How many gods? It's not a trick question.
[00:19:14] Somebody's going to say, there'd be God's many and Lord's many, right? Brother Joseph?
[00:19:18] No. There is only one God, and he only has one law. He is the one Lord God, the creator of everything, right?
[00:19:27] So when God gave what we read in exodus 20, all the commands, not just the Sabbath command, but the first, the second, the third, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, all of those were given to Israel, okay?
[00:19:41] But because God is the true and the living God over all of creation, not just the Jews, it would be the equivalent of me.
[00:19:54] I went to the grocery store with Isaiah, okay? He's my son, right? We go into the grocery store, maybe not now, because he's. How old are you, 13.
[00:20:05] Yes, but when he was little, say he was four or five years old, and we would go in the grocery store, and you guys, as your parents have, know what I'm talking about. You go into the grocery store and you say, all right, listen, now, no running in the grocery store.
[00:20:19] I want you to keep your hand. This is the kind of things we did.
[00:20:22] I would tell our kids to put their hand in my back pocket, just to kind of hold on to my back pocket. And that's why I'd keep up with them. I didn't believe in putting leashes on my kid anyway.
[00:20:36] You say, well, I want you to hold this and make sure you don't touch anything. Those kinds of things. And so you give little commands to your kids, and that's the rules for your kids going through the store, right? So you give them commands.
[00:20:49] Now, there's other little kids in the store, too, and they might hear other parents. Other kids might hear the instructions that I give to my children. But who are those instructions for? They are for my children. I'm talking to my child.
[00:21:06] My child is obligated to keep those things. However, okay, that's the Jews and the Lord. That's the Lord talking to his people, his chosen people, giving the Ten Commandments. These are the things I want you to do. It included the Sabbath. Okay? Everybody with me. I'm not losing anybody.
[00:21:27] But then there's other people in the store who hear me give those commandments. Now, they might not be under those commandments like my own child is. Like there might be a little boy or a little girl in the store that's with their mom and dad. And here's what I say. And they might say, okay, they might hear what I say, and they're not under that law because I didn't give it to them.
[00:21:51] But what can they learn from my commandment to my child?
[00:21:58] Is there a lesson to be learned? Oh, yeah. They can learn a lot about me. They can learn about my values. They can learn about how I expect people to act, my children to act. They can learn about what's important to me while I'm in the store, even if the commandment is not to them. That's what they learn by seeing the commandment that I gave to my child. You see what I'm saying? And so that child might look at that and might say, man, he's a mean parent. He's so strict.
[00:22:28] But what he's going to go away with is it's important to him that the kids don't run around, and it's important to him that the kids don't touch things, and it's important to him. So I'm not talking to them, but they're learning from what I'm saying to others. This is the situation you have with the law. God didn't give the law to us, right? He gave it to Israel. But by our reading, the law, remember, our savior was born into the law. He was under the law, right? He was a jew born under the obligations of the law. And we read his life and he interact. You say, well, Jesus kept the Sabbath. True. And that's exactly what I would expect, because he was a jew under the law, right?
[00:23:17] But look at chapter 31 of Exodus. And I want to show you this a little bit more clearly. Chapter 31, verse 13. Look at what it says, chapter 31, verse 13. While I'm in numbers. That's not going to help me.
[00:23:47] Good book, but all right, 31, verse 13.
[00:23:53] Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, verily, listen closely. Verily, my sabbath ye shall keep.
[00:24:01] For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you. Everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death. Okay, whoa. We all like the Sabbath command, but nobody ever talks about that part. And they actually applied this in the book of numbers, chapter 15. They executed a man for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
[00:24:39] All right, keep reading.
[00:24:41] For whosoever doth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
[00:24:48] He says, six day. I'll just skip down to verse 16. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. Verse 17. This is the key. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.
[00:25:05] See that?
[00:25:08] So when God gave the law, which included the fourth commandment, that fourth commandment was assigned between two groups, God and the children of Israel.
[00:25:22] You see that?
[00:25:23] Now why am I saying this? Because it's going to really matter here in a minute.
[00:25:28] And now let's establish something else. Look at acts, chapter 20, if you would.
[00:25:45] Acts 20, verse seven says this. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to eat, break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight.
[00:26:03] What day did they have church, first day of the week. Let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. He's referring to an offering now.
[00:26:45] But if they're giving an offering, that means they're together, right? They're assembled again the first day of the week. Now, I want to read something to you. This is from the website of the 7th day Adventists.
[00:27:00] All right, here's what they say about the Sabbath. The fourth commandment of God's unchangeable law. Now notice how they describe the law of God, because they have a point with that. But God's unchangeable law requires the observance of this 7th day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry, in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the lord of the Sabbath. Notice they cite Jesus, but remember, we know why Jesus kept a Sabbath. Because he was a jew under the law, the lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath day is a day of delightful communion with God and one another. The Sabbath is God's perpetual sign of his eternal covenant between him and his people. Again, I'm going to say that again.
[00:27:48] The Sabbath is God's perpetual sign of his eternal covenant between him and his people. Is that true? Yes, we just read it in Exodus 31, verse 17.
[00:27:59] Except they left one little part out, didn't they? What is it? Brother Mark smiling. He knows what it is.
[00:28:08] Thank you. See, brother Mark, he's paying attention. I'm telling you, he's with it.
[00:28:12] Exactly. They say, his people. And instead of looking at the actual text of scripture, it was a covenant between God and Israel, which are his people. But they apply it to all of God's peoples. And by doing so in one little word, now, we're obligated to keep the Sabbath just like that. See how one little word changes it? They say this further, keeping the Sabbath is the fourth commandment found in God's eternal moral law. This change of the Sabbath was foretold in the Bible by the prophet Daniel. Now, this is where it gets kind of sideways, all right, they're quoting from Daniel 725. It says this, he shall speak words against the most high, and shall wear out the saints of the most high, and shall think to change the times and the law. Now, if you ever studied Daniel 725, which we will not study tonight, that passage of scripture is talking about the Antichrist, how he will change times and laws. And so they say, you see, they're changing the sabath day.
[00:29:19] They're changing it from the 7th day to Sunday. Now, we know that we already looked at that. The Sabbath is always an ever Sunday Saturday. When Jesus lived on earth, they say he kept the 7th day Sabbath. We say duh. However, listen to what they say. Just a few hundred years after his death and resurrection, early Christians began keeping Sunday as their day of worship, just as Daniel foretold.
[00:29:47] Okay, it wasn't a few hundred years because we just read acts 20, verse seven in one corinthians 16, two in Paul's day, the apostles were, almost all of them were still alive. And they were meeting on Sunday. They were meeting on Sunday from the time they were in Jerusalem. Here's the practical side of that. They were meeting on Sunday because remember, in Israel, Saturday, the Sabbath was a day of rest. You ever notice why they always meet at night? When you see the church meeting early on in acts, they're meeting at night, the Lord's supper. You know why? Because Sunday was a work day.
[00:30:27] In other words, their Sunday was just like our Wednesday night. They had to come from work.
[00:30:32] Saturday in the jewish culture, in the jewish law was a rest day, and that was the day they went to the synagogue, right? So remember, Christianity comes out of Judaism, right?
[00:30:46] And so this is why you see, there's a change in the day that they meet. They're no longer meeting on Saturday, the Sabbath, especially when the gospel starts to go out to the Gentiles. And that leads to our next thing.
[00:30:58] The scripture is clear that Christians are not bound to keep the Sabbath laws. Scripture is clear on this. So we're going to look at a few of these. Now here's why I say that. You say, but this is in the Ten Commandments.
[00:31:16] You see, that's the cultural thing. Well, if it's in the Ten Commandments, it must be something we have to do. Well, actually, the Sabbath is exactly the opposite, even though it is found in ten Commandments. Again, the ten Commandments were given to Israel. Look at, if you would, Colossians, chapter two.
[00:31:34] Colossians, chapter two, verse 16.
[00:31:46] Actually, look at verse number 13.
[00:31:51] Colossians two, verse 13.
[00:31:55] And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Sister Judy, we had a conversation about that not too long ago, or, well, sometime in the summer, I think. On that question, remember that blotting out the handwriting of ordinances? That was against us. You know, that's talking about the law which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them, openly triumphing over them in it. Let no man. What's the next word?
[00:32:34] Therefore, because of what jesus did on the cross, and he took away the law, the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. It condemned us. Remember that we already looked at that. The Lord took it out of the way because he fulfilled the law completely right. Jesus obeyed the law in every respect, was not found at fault at all, but willingly and voluntarily took our sin and transgressions upon himself, and then died and took the penalty of the law that we deserved. So not only did he keep the law perfectly, he suffered the penalty of the law in our place, so we wouldn't have to.
[00:33:20] All right.
[00:33:22] Let no man. Verse 16, therefore, judge you in. Notice what he says in meat, that's food, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Notice what he lists. He lists food and drink what you can eat and not eat. That's why we don't observe the dietary laws of the Old Testament. Respect of a holy day. That's all the festivals, right? Or of the new moon. Also were festivals and different sacrifices included in that, or of the Sabbath days. And remember, there's more than just a weekly Sabbath. There's a weekly Sabbath, and then there's other special sabbaths as well. The Lord says, no man can judge you in those things.
[00:34:14] No man can judge you in those things. Look at romans 14.
[00:34:23] Look at Romans, chapter 14, verse number five.
[00:34:36] Romans 14, verse five says this, one man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord. For he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. I know to us in our time might seem a little bit confusing, but remember, you're a Christian who is believing a gospel that was largely jewish. With all the dietary laws and regulations and all those things, it's natural to have questions like, well, am I not supposed to eat bacon?
[00:35:24] I mean, the Bible says it.
[00:35:26] Listen, this is why our understanding of the scripture ought to be deeper than just be like, well, the Bible says it. See? I got it. That's what it says.
[00:35:35] No, that's not the way the Lord gave the Bible, and it's not how he expects us to just cherry pick things like that.
[00:35:42] We're supposed to have a greater understanding and rightly divide the word of truth. Now in this verse, he says, some esteem one day more important than the others, and the Sabbath would certainly fall into that category.
[00:35:57] And he says, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. So, Ben, if you want to keep the Sabbath, you can do it.
[00:36:04] You can do it. Now I'm going to tell you that your knowledge is lacking, but you can do it.
[00:36:11] Being judgy?
[00:36:14] Yes. I don't despise him. I just think he's the dummy.
[00:36:18] Look at acts 15, acts 15, verse 20 in our study, in acts. We'll get to this passage later, but I just want to point out one thing. This question of, are gentile christians supposed to keep the law? Was a big deal.
[00:36:36] There were people that were telling them, you believed in Jesus. That's good. But if you really want to be saved, you got to keep the law too. You got to be circumcised in dietary laws and festivals and all these other things. These Judaizers were saying this.
[00:36:52] What would you do if somebody came to our church and started saying, oh, well, you've done this. You also had to be baptized and go to church on Saturday, not Sunday, and add this and add that. What would you say? I sure hope you'd be like, no, you're adding to it. But see, that's exactly what was happening. Verse 20.
[00:37:10] This is what the group in Jerusalem, after having conferred with the leaders of the church at that time, here's what they came away with about this question.
[00:37:22] He says, verse 19. I'm sorry. Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God, the Gentile Christians, but that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols. So idolatry and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood.
[00:37:45] But the question is, why did they have these laws? In other words, this is the sum total of the Old Testament law that they were to follow.
[00:37:53] Okay, you might, huh? What about thou shalt not kill?
[00:37:58] I'll get to that.
[00:38:00] But the reason they said that is for Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogues every Sabbath, Sabbath day. You see that? They said, we want you to not do these things. Idolatry, fornication, blood, and all these things, because it offends the Jews.
[00:38:19] And we don't want the name of Christ to be marred by something that, were they allowed to eat things sacrificed to idols? Yes, because an idol is nothing. But should they? No, I have liberty. It doesn't mean you should use it.
[00:38:41] So here's the reality.
[00:38:45] Gentile Christians are not under the law.
[00:38:48] They're not under the Sabbath law, and they're not under any of the law.
[00:38:54] Do you understand what I'm saying? You say, well, then how do we know what is right and wrong? Go back to our illustration.
[00:39:01] Go back to our. We can see in the law God's standards, right? We can see what he says is holy and unholy.
[00:39:12] Let me give you a few verses.
[00:39:16] Galatians six two says this, bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
[00:39:24] Okay, so Christ has a law, too. Galatians 514 says this, for all the law is fulfilled. Now remember, we're not under the law.
[00:39:33] But the Bible says all of the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. That's what the Lord Jesus taught us, right? So he taught us to love one another. And the reality is, if we obey what the Lord Jesus says, we don't have to worry about the law, because not only is it going to cover our actions, it's also going to cover our motives, you see?
[00:39:57] And the same is also true of our love to God.
[00:40:01] If we love God with all of our heart, like Jesus told us to, then there's not going to be an issue with idolatry or any other.
[00:40:09] Romans 13, verse eight. Listen to this. Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
[00:40:20] So we're just trying to love God and love each other, and the result is we are obeying the law. You see this? Even though we're not under it.
[00:40:30] For this, thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
[00:40:47] Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
[00:40:55] Now, I'm almost done, so I want to raise a question. Is it a sin to work on Saturday, the Sabbath?
[00:41:11] Everybody's kind of tentatively shaking your head no. Okay. The answer is no for the reasons I just specified. All right, let me ask you another question. Is it then a sin to work on Sunday?
[00:41:26] Why not?
[00:41:28] Number one, Sunday is not the Sabbath.
[00:41:33] Number two, even if it was, we're not under the law. And the Lord specifically gives us clear scripture to tell us that the Sabbath laws do not apply.
[00:41:45] None of the law applies except the law of Christ, the law of love, and all of the law falls under that. You see what I'm saying?
[00:41:54] So it's not a sin to work on Sunday. Now there's another question that comes up so I can work on Sunday. Well, hold on. There's other questions for a Christian that comes up, like, what are my priorities?
[00:42:06] Am I making the assembly of God's people a priority in my life?
[00:42:11] Those kinds of questions and anything that interferes with the assembly of God's people can quickly become a problem and be out of place in our lives. That's true.
[00:42:23] But as I had a family member, I'll close with this, I had a family member, I won't say who it is. I think my wife knows.
[00:42:33] Long time ago, back when the culture was a lot more biblical, I'd say biblical, but christianesque than it is now. And he actually went out on Sunday. And this particular person didn't go to church himself.
[00:42:48] It wasn't exactly all that super religious, but he had a form of religion and he saw someone, I think it was wrecking their leaves or mowing their lawn on Sunday, not the Sabbath, Sunday. And he walked up to this person and said, you know, you working on Sunday, you won't go to hell.
[00:43:17] Well, you don't go to heaven because you don't work on Sunday. Just like you don't go to heaven because you don't murder, because you don't lie, because you don't commit adultery. The law can't take you to heaven.
[00:43:30] It can't.
[00:43:33] Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So you say, well, if I work on Sunday, will I go to hell? People ask, well, if I drink beer, will I go to hell? Or if I smoke cigarettes, will I go to hell? Say, listen, you don't even have to answer that question.
[00:43:52] You don't have to answer that question.
[00:43:55] All sinners are going to be condemned. All sinners are going to stand before God and be condemned because they are iniquitous, unrighteous, unjustified, law breakers. It doesn't matter if it's this law or that law. We cherry pick the laws. That's why we like the Ten Commandments, because this is only ten. But what about all those other things? What about our motives. God's looking at all that, too.
[00:44:17] But here's the thing.
[00:44:19] I'm not trusting. And I trust you're not trusting in how you keep the law to get you to heaven.
[00:44:27] I'm not trusting in that.
[00:44:30] I'm trusting in Christ because I haven't kept the law. Amen. And you haven't either. That's why Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. I don't need to worry about keeping the law.
[00:44:45] I love God. I love my neighbor. I'll keep the law by default. My trust is not in that, though. It's in Jesus and what he's done for us. Let's pray together.
