Could I just share a topic with you?
Since we grew up, certain speeches that say,
Shalom, shalom, are the same word.
And he said, and her, and his, and
hers.
And they're very much linked together.
They say, shalom, shalom.
And so that's what we're trying to do.
And that's what we've been doing so far.
Amen.
Thank you.
And Isaiah points to this.
He says, shalom, shalom.
Shalom, shalom.
He's trying to say it on the East
Coast, right?
We welcome you to the house of the
Lord.
Isaiah.
Thank you.
I'm going to start with my mom and
dad.
Back, back, back.
All right.
I appreciate those thoughts.
Appreciate the opening.
I think very much touches on a characteristic
of God.
He will not be angry forever, the scriptures
say.
He is very much able to hold his
peace.
Really appreciated the ending thoughts there, Norman, about
eternal rest and eternal unrest.
And it very much ties in with things
I want to talk about today.
I want to wrap up this series that
I started a few weeks ago about fulfilled
in Christ.
And this study has been a blessing to
me.
I hope it's been a blessing to you.
It's been big.
It's one of those things where I'm trying
to cram the most important of the things
in this message.
We could just keep going on.
About how Christ is the fulfillment of everything.
And this all started out with a study
of wanting to do a message of the
Sabbath.
Today's message is mostly about the Sabbath.
As for wrapping up, the ways that we
can be enlightened and inspired and encouraged by
how Christ fulfills, there is no wrapping up.
Maybe once Christ returns and wraps up the
sky like a scroll and we sit at
his feet, maybe then.
There is just so much.
Let's pray before we go on.
Father in heaven, we thank you for this
day, for this beautiful day and this place
to gather and people to gather with.
Thank you for the edification we've already received
this morning.
Help us to apply these things to our
lives.
We pray that you would help us now
as we continue to look into your word,
that your spirit could illuminate things
for us and guide us into your ways.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
So, I hope the skeleton we talked about
in the first message has some flesh and
hopefully we can blow some breath in it
today or get it to see how it
applies in our lives.
Especially how this subject of the Sabbath should
look today.
I hope in the other two messages I've
established that there is an old covenant and
that there is a new covenant.
Remember, a covenant is a relationship, it's a
partnership, it's a binding agreement.
And God communicates with his creation through a
covenant.
God did not break his covenants with Adam
and Noah and Abraham and Moses and David,
he's still keeping them.
They are not destroyed as in demolished, they
are fulfilled.
They're fulfilled in Christ with such a glory
that surpasses the glory of the old covenant,
that the old fades away like the moon
and the stars do when the sun comes
up.
I hope it is well established in our
minds that the new covenant is not just
a renewed covenant.
It is the fulfillment of the shadows, the
figures, the types and all those things of
the old covenant.
It comes with a new priesthood and as
it says in Hebrews of necessity, when there's
a change of priesthood there's a change of
law.
It comes with a new law and with
a new lawgiver.
And I hope it is established in our
minds that the old and the new covenant
cannot be heirs together.
Not any more than Isaac and Ishmael can
be heirs together in the promise that Abraham
had.
The old and the new covenant cannot be
heirs together.
I hope it's established that the old covenant,
its laws and precepts cannot lead us into
Christ's promise.
Any more than Moses was able to lead
Israel into the land of Canaan.
And that there's a distinction between the law
and the prophets and the things that Jesus
said.
It is through that framework that we'll take
a look at the Sabbath.
Before I get into the Sabbath I want
to talk a little bit yet about schoolmasters.
Paul says this in Galatians 3.
He says, but before faith came we were
kept under the law, shut up unto the
faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring
us unto Christ that we might be justified
by faith.
But after that faith has come we are
no longer under a schoolmaster for we are
the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus.
Every good schoolmaster will work himself out of
a job.
A good schoolmaster takes somebody without understanding and
he teaches and he instructs and he brings
him to this place where he has understanding
and then he's not needed anymore.
He's become useless.
The person has gained what the schoolmaster can
offer.
And now the schoolmaster has worked himself out
of this job.
And that's what the Mosaic law should do
for us.
It should work itself into uselessness for us.
The Mosaic law brings us to Christ but
not into Christ.
It brings a slave into freedom but not
a free man into a conqueror.
It brings us from negative to ground zero
but not above that.
So this is kind of how this works.
You've got a man who's in the negative.
He's a lazy thief and he goes around
and instead of working with his hand he
just robs for what he wants.
And he hears the law of Moses that
is severe enough to make the whole mountain
shake.
And he hears, Thou shalt not steal.
And it convicts him.
And it brings him from that place of
being a thief to this place where he
now works with his own hands.
And he gathers what he needs by the
sweat of his brow.
He becomes an honest man, a just man.
Or the murderer who went around killing people
and shedding people's blood.
He hears this trembling schoolmaster law says, Thou
shalt not kill.
And it convicts him and he comes to
this place where he quits shedding blood.
And you could do this down through all
these laws.
And if a man governs himself by these
laws, if we govern ourselves, if we govern
our families, if a nation governs by these
laws, they'll be blessed.
They'll really be blessed.
They'll receive blessings.
The law makes a man just, fair, right,
equal.
It is eye for eye.
It is tooth for tooth.
It is ox for ox.
It is ass for ass.
It is equal, just, and fair.
That's what the law is doing.
But here comes Jesus.
And he brings the faith.
He brings in the new covenant.
And he writes on our heart a new
commandment.
He said this thing to the apostles just
before he died.
He said, A new commandment I give you,
that you love one another the way I
have loved you.
And Jesus demonstrated that love by his selfless,
sacrificial life.
And he also taught about it.
And so this is what this thief that
had stopped stealing and now came to this
place where he's working and not stealing anymore,
he hears Jesus and he hears, If someone
takes your coat, forbid him not to take
your cloak.
If someone steals your possessions, don't ask him
back.
He's like, What?
You mean it's not good enough for me
to just stop stealing?
I'm also supposed to suffer it when someone
steals what I have?
That's what he's saying.
Or the murderer, he hears Jesus, who quit
murdering because he heard the schoolmaster.
He hears Jesus say, Resist not the evildoer.
If someone smites you on the right cheek,
turn the other one.
He hears him say, Be as a sheep
that goes to the slaughter.
And he's like, What?
I mean, it's not good enough for me
to just stop killing people?
Taking people's lives?
I'm supposed to suffer it if people want
to take my life?
This doesn't sound like blessings anymore.
It starts sounding like suffering.
Consider the rich young ruler who came to
Jesus and he said, What must I do
to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said, Well, what are the commandments?
Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear
false witness, honor thy father and mother.
And he's quoting Sinai, right?
He's quoting the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.
And this rich young ruler says, I've kept
all those from my youth.
Jesus knew something.
He knew that in spite of him keeping
all these things from his youth, within him
is a heart that has not been touched
yet with the new covenant.
He is not loving his neighbors as himself.
In fact, he's a very rich man and
he said something to this man that was
never ever quoted in the Torah.
He said, If you want to be perfect,
go sell what you have, give it to
the poor, come and follow me.
And it was too much.
This man walked away sorrowful.
This was too much.
This was not the blessing he was wanting.
The old covenant can bring a man from
a self-destructive life to a self-preserving
life, but it cannot bring us to this
selfless life of Christ.
And it's where most people stop.
It's where most people say, I'm good, I
don't break the Ten Commandments, and life is
a blessing.
And they walk away from the message of
the new covenant.
It's why Jesus said, No one having drunk
old wine straightaway desires new, for he says
the old is better.
That is the Mosaic Law.
It is a schoolmaster, and if we are
to enter the kingdom of God, it will
work itself out of a job.
It will work itself into uselessness.
God can change his laws without changing his
will.
Just like we can change our rules for
our children without changing our will.
And we do this all the time.
I'm sure all of us parents do.
Let me give you an example.
If I live along a real busy road,
I make a rule for my little children,
You shall not cross the road.
Don't cross the road.
It's a precept, it's simple, it's understandable, and
that's my rule.
But my will is, I don't want my
child to get hit on the road.
In fact, once my child is older, I
not only allow him to cross the road,
I'll sometimes command him to cross the road.
I'll instruct him to cross the road.
It's because at the heart of what I
wanted was not that you can't be on
the other side of the road or cross
it, it's that I didn't want you hit.
And you were not at a level, your
heart, your comprehension was not there.
But once that's there, I'll command you to
do the very thing that I had commanded
you not, and I have not changed one
bit as a father.
It's the same way with positive commands.
I want my children to be thankful.
And when somebody gives them something, I want
them to say thank you.
And if they don't say thank you, they
can't have the thing that was given to
them.
But once they have a thankful heart, there's
no need for that rule.
They'll express their thankfulness in ways far beyond
thank you.
But I'm working towards something.
There's a will and there's a command, and
they're not always the same thing.
The command is a means to an end
and not the end in itself.
God had to give commands to a people
who were stiff-necked and rebellious and hard
-hearted in the old covenant.
But in the new covenant, there is a
change of law.
It says that in Hebrews that there's a
change of law.
Because we enter into this covenant with people,
God enters into this covenant with people who
have a willing heart and a willing mind
and have a heart of flesh and not
a heart of stone.
Here in Hebrews 7, verses 17 to 19,
where it's again talking about the priesthood, it
says, For it is attested of him that
you are a priest according to the order
of Melchizedek.
For on one hand, there is a setting
aside of a former commandment because of its
weakness and uselessness.
For the law made nothing perfect.
And on the other hand, there is a
bringing in of a better hope through which
we draw near to God.
Justin Martyr says, For we too would observe
the fleshly circumcision and the Sabbath and, in
short, all the feasts, if we did not
know for what reason they were commanded you,
namely, on account of your transgressions and the
hardness of your hearts.
All right, how does this pertain to the
Sabbath?
In the first message, we talked about Sinai,
Mount Sinai, where the children of Israel came
there in the wilderness and the shaking and
the thundering and the voice and how what
was said there should not be taken lightly.
The ten commandments that God orally spoke were
later written into tables of stone with God's
own finger.
And the fourth commandment says, Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all
your work, but the seventh day is the
Sabbath of the Lord your God.
And then he references creation and says, For
in six days God created heaven and earth,
and on the seventh day he rested.
A few chapters later there in Exodus, God
expounded this further to Moses, and this is
what he said.
In chapter 31 of Exodus, verse 12, he
says, Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
You shall direct the children of Israel, saying,
See to it that you keep my Sabbaths,
for it is a sign between me and
you throughout your generations that you may know
I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
You shall keep the Sabbath, because this is
holy for you to the Lord.
Everyone who profanes it shall be put to
death.
For whoever works on it, thou shalt be
cut off from among his people.
Work shall be done for six days, but
the seventh is the Sabbath, a holy rest
to the Lord.
Whoever works on the seventh day shall be
put to death.
Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the
Sabbath to observe them throughout their generations as
a perpetual covenant.
It is a sign between me and the
children of Israel forever.
For in six days the Lord created heaven
and earth, and on the seventh day he
ceased and rested.
It is a sign of a perpetual covenant.
God says this is a sign between me
and Israel forever.
There's not too much ambiguity there.
We know what this means.
In the first message we talked about maybe
there's ambiguity about what consists of work.
But even that, the scripture has some pretty
plain examples.
We know that gathering is work.
They were not to gather manna.
The man gathering sticks was killed.
You were not to kindle a fire, not
to start a fire.
That was considered work.
You were not to carry a burden.
That was considered work.
And if you want to know how serious
this is to God, let's look at that
short account in Numbers where the man was
gathering sticks.
It says, Now while the children of Israel
were in the desert, they found a man
gathering wood on the Sabbath day.
So those who found him gathering wood on
the Sabbath day brought him to Moses and
Aaron and to all the congregation and of
the children of Israel.
They put him under guard because they had
not decided what to do with him.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Let
the man be surely put to death.
All the congregation shall stone him with stones.
So as the Lord ordered Moses, all the
congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned
him with stones.
Whatever this thing is of keeping the Sabbath
is not something God takes lightly.
Or I should say of breaking the Sabbath.
He does not take it lightly.
This day is to be holy.
That means it's supposed to be set apart.
They were supposed to finish their work by
the end of the sixth day so that
on the seventh day it could be set
apart as a day in which they abstain
from their normal occupation.
The Israelites were to walk in all these
commands of the Lord and then they would
be blessed.
The blessings will find them, it says in
Deuteronomy.
You shall be blessed in the city.
You shall be blessed in the country.
Blessed be your ground.
Blessed be your herd.
Blessed be your flock.
Blessed shall be your storehouses.
You will lend to many and you will
not borrow.
You will be the head and not the
tail.
And you know what?
It still works this way.
If you put into practice these things, you
get earthly blessings.
If you work hard and if you are
honest and if you live in a cleanly
way and if you eat wholesome foods, generally
speaking, you'll receive earthly blessings.
It still works just like it did for
Israel.
But he also says this, in spite of
the fact that you can work and receive
all these blessings, your flocks, your herds, you'll
get rich, you'll abound, he says, but don't
forget me.
I want you to give one-tenth of
these blessings to the priests.
You can keep your 90% for yourself,
but I want 10% to go to
the priests.
And he says, I want you to take
one out of seven days and I want
you to stop your work.
And I want you to dedicate that to
me.
Very, very interestingly, these things didn't apply to
the Levites and the priests.
The priests, who were set apart to do
the Lord's work, they did not tithe and
they did really not keep the Sabbath either.
There were the daily offerings.
Every day they brought in sheep and they
killed them and they offered them up.
And they offered up drink offerings and grain
offerings.
And on the Sabbath, in addition to the
daily offering, they did more offerings.
This included catching these animals, it included killing
them, it included preparing them, kindling a fire,
putting them on the altar.
And any of you who have any experience
butchering animals know that it's work.
It is hard work.
We start seeing that God must not be
against laborious tasks on the Sabbath day.
There must be something beyond that.
It must be that that command, do not
work, is not the end in itself.
He must have a will that is greater
than the command.
And the prophet Isaiah starts eluding to this.
In chapter 58 of Isaiah, and most of
you are probably familiar with it, it's that
chapter where he talks about the fast.
He says, what is the fast that I
desire?
Is it for you to stop eating and
afflicting yourselves?
Is that the fast I've chosen?
He says, no, the fast I've chosen is
that you release the oppressed and you break
every yoke and you undo the heavy burdens
and the bonds of wickedness.
And then at the end of that chapter,
this is what he says.
If you turn away your foot from the
Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy
day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the
holy day of the Lord, honorable, and shall
honor him, not doing your own ways, not
finding your own pleasures, not speaking your own
words, then you shall delight yourself in the
Lord, and I will cause you to ride
on the high hills of the earth.
I really think it's interesting how he says,
don't seek your pleasures on my day.
He's emphasizing in this whole chapter, Isaiah is
emphasizing the spiritual and substantial value of these
things.
In fasting, he's saying, look, it's not so
much about you guys not eating.
What's really supposed to be happening is you're
supposed to be forgiving.
You're supposed to be releasing whoever you've got
oppressed.
You're supposed to be breaking the yokes of
people that are under oppression.
That's what's really supposed to be happening.
And concerning the Sabbath, it's not so much
about no work.
The real thing that's supposed to be happening
is that you stop from your own ways.
Stop, cease from your own pleasures and from
your own pursuits.
In other words, we should be resting from
our own works to enter into his work.
Let's look at one more prophetic word in
the Old Testament about the Sabbath, and it's
in Psalm 95.
The word Sabbath is not used here.
But in Psalm 95, starting in verse 6,
it says, Come, let us worship and fall
down before him, and let us weep before
the Lord who made us.
For he is our God, and we are
the people of his pasture and the sheep
of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not
harden your heart as in the rebellion.
During the day of testing in the desert,
where your fathers tempted me and tested me
and saw my works, for forty years I
was treated with contempt by that generation.
And I said, they always go astray in
their hearts, and they do not know my
ways.
So I swore in my wrath, they shall
not enter my rest.
Now, the reason we know that this is
a prophetic word about the Sabbath is because
it was revealed to the Apostle Paul, even
though the word Sabbath is not here.
So, yeah, you
would disagree with what part?
That it's not there?
Okay.
Fair enough.
Yeah.
So David here, he's making a reference to
something that happened in the past.
Back when God wanted to bring them into
the land of Canaan, and they did not
believe him.
And then in his anger, he said, I
swear in my wrath, they will not enter
my rest.
David is making reference to that while he's
also prophetically saying, we are his people, the
sheep of his pasture.
In another psalm, David says, the Lord God
has made us and not we ourselves.
We are his people and the sheep of
his pasture.
I want you to think about that.
He made us, not we ourselves.
We are his people, the sheep in his
pasture.
That should give us a lot of rest
for our soul.
God made us, right?
We don't have to make ourselves.
He made us the way we are.
He made our gender.
He made the color of our hair.
He made the color of our skin.
He made the color of our eyes.
He decided how tall we're going to be,
how many limbs we're going to have.
Caleb's limbs are shorter than mine, but he
made him that way because he wanted him
that way.
And he made us the way he wanted
to make us.
And then he wants us to be in
his pasture.
Being in God's pasture means we have green
pastures and still waters and everything is supplied
for us.
It should be a very restful thought that
he made us and we are the people
of his pasture.
He made everything in six days.
And in one place in the scripture it
says, he made it for his pleasure.
And then he rested from his creative works.
He rested from making things and began to
work at caring for creation.
And he partnered up with man in the
care of his creation to spread goodness over
the whole earth.
And David in this psalm is saying, today,
if you hear my voice, if you hear
this and if you want to enter this
pasture, if you want to enter this rest,
today, if you hear his voice, harden not
your hearts.
And what Paul writes in Hebrews about this,
I think is very helpful in understanding the
Sabbath.
In Hebrews chapter 4, we'll read verses 1
to 11.
It says, Therefore let us fear, if while
a promise remains of entering his rest, any
of you may seem to have come short
of it.
For indeed we have good news preached to
us, just as they also.
But the word they heard did not profit
them, because it was united by faith in
those who heard.
For we who have believed enter that rest,
just as he has said, As I swore
in my wrath, they shall not enter my
rest.
Although his works were finished from the foundation
of the world.
For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh
day, and God rested on the seventh day
from all his works.
And again in this passage, they shall not
enter my rest.
Therefore, since it remains for some to enter
it, and those who formerly had good news
preached to them failed to enter because of
disobedience, he again fixes a certain day, today,
saying through David, after so long a time,
just as had been said before, Today, if
you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts.
For if Joshua had given them rest, he
would not have spoken of another day after
that.
So there remains a Sabbath rest for the
people of God.
For the one who has entered his rest
has himself rested from his works, as God
did from his.
Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that
rest, so that no one will fall through
following the same example of disobedience.
So when should we keep the Sabbath?
Today.
Any day that you can call today, that
day, you should keep the Sabbath.
How should we keep it?
We should cease from our own works.
We should cease from making things for our
own pleasure.
And we should enter into this rest with
God.
And this rest does not mean no physical
work.
Not at all.
God kept right on working ever since he
created the world.
Like the priests in the temple, the work
of the redemption of mankind is a nonstop
thing.
God has been working 24-7.
He doesn't slumber.
He doesn't grow weary.
God keeps working every day, the work of
the kingdom.
Did you know that Jesus says that?
Jesus says that God works on the Sabbath.
There's that account in John 5, where there's
this man laying beside that pool of Bethesda.
And he's been crippled, ill for 38 years.
And he's laying beside that pool, and he's
wishing to get into that pool for healing.
But he never makes it in.
When the waters get stirred, he never makes
it in first.
And so he's laying there, and Jesus comes
upon him, and he sees this man, and
he says, you want to be healed?
And he says, yes, I want to be
healed, but I never make it into the
pool.
And Jesus says, rise up, pick up your
bed, and walk.
And this man, who's been crippled for 38
years, gets up, and he picks up his
bed, or his pallet, whatever it is.
Some versions say pallet, some versions say bed.
Some kind of a cot that he was
on all these years.
And he picks it up, and he takes
this burden and starts walking down the street.
And the Jews see it, and they say,
hey, it's the Sabbath.
It's not permissible for you to carry that
thing.
And he said, well, the guy that healed
me, he told me to pick it up
and carry it.
And once they figured out who had healed
him and who had said this, they came
to Jesus accusing him.
And what did Jesus say?
He said, my father works hitherto, and I
work.
There's no mistaking this language.
He is basically saying, my father is working
straight through, even on the Sabbath, and I'm
working too.
It made the Jews even more furious.
Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, he
was making himself equal with God.
Those are words from John, okay?
In case, unless John would just be trying
to say what the Jews are saying, John
himself says, not only did he break the
Sabbath, he made himself equal with God.
And this brings us to another thing that
Jesus said, and we'll read this in Matthew
12.
Starting in verse 1, it says, At that
time Jesus went through the grain fields on
the Sabbath, and his disciples became hungry and
began to pick the heads of grain and
eat.
But when the Pharisees saw this, they said
to him, Look, your disciples do what is
not lawful to do on a Sabbath.
And he said to them, Have you not
read what David did when he became hungry?
He and his companions, how he entered the
house of God, and they ate the consecrated
bread, which was not lawful for them to
eat, him to eat, nor for those with
him, but for the priests alone?
And have you not read in the law
that on the Sabbath, the priests in the
temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?
But I say to you that something greater
than the temple is here.
But if you had known what this means,
I desire compassion and not a sacrifice, you
would not have condemned the innocent.
For the Son of Man is Lord of
the Sabbath.
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.
If the showbread, which was to be holy,
meaning set apart for the priests only, if
it could be broken because of who David
was, because of the greatness of David, if
that law could be broken, or if because
of the greatness of the temple and the
priests, the Sabbath could be broken for that
purpose, Jesus is saying there's something greater here
than David or the temple.
He was the very Lord of the Sabbath.
He is the fulfillment of the Sabbath.
It was one of those many statements that
Jesus made where he injects himself into Scripture.
Jesus said these many things that seem like
really audacious statements.
When he says things like, I am the
way.
I am the truth.
I am the life.
I am the resurrection.
I am the bread of life.
I am the word.
Really?
Every scribe, every rabbi has the right to
expound on the Scriptures.
He has the right to say, this is
what the light is.
This is what the way is.
But no one has the right to say,
the way?
It's me.
You want to know what the truth is?
It's me.
Those are just big, big statements.
Here in this Matthew passage, I think this
is what Jesus is doing.
In fact, if you're open there to Matthew
12, remember, chapter breaks weren't there.
Look at the very end of chapter 11.
This was at the same time.
It says it's at the same time.
This is what Jesus says.
Come to me, all you who are weary
and heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your
souls, for my yoke is easy and my
burden is light.
Really?
On the Sabbath day?
To Jews who were having a day of
rest?
He says, hey you, come to me if
you want rest.
You guys that are heavy laden, come here.
I'll give you rest.
My burden's light.
Those were big statements.
He is Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus, the Son of God, he is the
fulfillment of all things.
He is the promised seed.
He is the rock in the wilderness.
He is the new lawgiver.
He is the priest, the prophet, the king,
the lamb, the manna.
He is our feast.
He is our drink offering.
He is our Sabbath rest.
It can't be said much clearer than how
Paul says it in Colossians.
No one is to act as your judge
in regard to food and drink or in
respect to the feast, new moon, or Sabbath
day.
These things which are a mere shadow but
the substance is Christ.
Okay, I want to talk about, just briefly,
talk about some of the common objections to
this idea.
It's one of the Ten Commandments.
Are we allowed to break one and keep
nine?
I hope I've sufficiently covered that in contrasting
the two covenants and the fading away of
the old with the coming of the new.
Objection number two.
It's from the beginning.
It's not just the Mosaic Law thing.
There was this thing in the beginning where
God worked six days and then rested.
I hope I've sufficiently covered that with how
God did not stop working.
He stopped from His creative works.
He stopped creating this whole thing for His
pleasure and He started working on the care
of redemption and the care of His creation.
Objection number three.
Jesus never broke the Sabbath.
First of all, that's debatable.
John says He did.
But regardless, He is Lord of the Sabbath.
He can make it.
He can break it.
He can change it.
He can render it.
He can render it useless and void and
He can inject Himself into it.
He's Lord of it.
He can do with it whatever He wants.
Objection number four.
Why did Jesus say, pray that your flight
be not on the Sabbath?
If He was intending that we would keep
the Sabbath, why did He say there in
Matthew 24, I think, pray that your flight
be not on the Sabbath?
First, let me say we've got to be
careful with that kind of reasoning.
I'm not saying it's not a legitimate question.
It is a legitimate question.
But we have to be careful when we
have an instruction and then we hear something
that we say, well, why would He have
said this if He meant this?
People do this all the time with the
thing that Jesus said about told His disciples
go buy a sword.
After He teaches everything about nonresistance and a
lot of people say, well, if He meant
that, He would not have said go buy
a sword.
You just have to be careful with those
kind of reasonings.
There may be a specific reason why Jesus
said something for a specific time and we
for sure can't build on silence.
I'll tell you what my opinion is on
why Jesus said that.
He was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem
and He's telling the people, these are the
signs that are going to happen before Jerusalem
gets destroyed and you guys need to flee.
But pray that your flight be not in
the winter or on the Sabbath and woe
to you who are pregnant at that time.
It's going to be real, real, real dire
times.
Now, the church at Jerusalem was mostly believing
Jews.
By becoming believers, it doesn't mean that they
immediately stopped the customs, the practices that have
been ingrained in them for generations and generations
and generations.
They may have had the liberty to do
things on the Sabbath, but it doesn't mean
that their conscience allowed it.
It's never saying that it's wrong for you
to rest one day out of the week.
It's not wrong for you to keep the
dietary laws.
Those things aren't wrong.
We don't see the disciples going around trying
to convince believing Jews that they need to
quit that.
What we see is them fighting to keep
the believing Jews from binding Gentiles and other
believers to those things.
Because it's not where salvation is found.
It's not where the kingdom of God is.
And I think, maybe that's all for that.
Objection number five, the apostles kept the Sabbath.
I don't know if they always did or
not.
But it really doesn't change that much.
For one thing, we know the apostles had
a practice of not putting an unnecessary stumbling
block in front of people.
Paul says, when I went to the Jews,
I became a Jew.
When I went to the Greeks, I became
a Greek.
I think when Paul was ministering to the
Jews, if they had a rest day, he
rested.
He probably ate what they ate.
And he did not eat what they would
not eat.
When he went to the Greeks, as far
as reasonably possible, he tried to adapt into
their, not into their sins in no way
at all, but he became a Greek.
He spoke their language.
He did not put an unnecessary stumbling block
in front of them.
And I think that's a good practice.
I think like, if we would go to
India and start ministering to the Hindus, and
we know they keep a cow sacred, we
should not go there and slaughter a cow
and invite them all to our beef roast?
That's not the way we do, right?
That's not the way the apostles did.
And I just think the believing Jews especially,
they kept on keeping these things.
And Jesus is telling them, like, you guys
pray that your flight be not on the
Sabbath.
What if someone comes around here and thinks
they should keep the Sabbath day?
First of all, I think we should try
to instruct him in the way more perfectly.
If he is teaching others to keep the
Sabbath day, that teaching needs to be withstood.
But if he, for his conscience sake, thinks
that he should keep this day just strictly
for personal reasons, he thinks there is some
virtue or some value that he gets personally.
Let me read you a quote from Justin
Martyr.
This would basically be how I feel about
this.
I don't know that I can say it
much better.
But if some, through weak-mindedness, wish to
observe such institutions as were given by Moses,
from which they expect some virtue, but which
we believe were appointed by reason of hardness
of the people's hearts along with their hope
in Christ, and wish to perform the eternal
and natural acts of righteousness and piety, yet
choose to live with the Christians and the
faithful, as I said before, not inducing them
either to be circumcised like themselves or to
keep the Sabbath or to observe any other
such ceremonies, then I hold that we ought
to join ourselves to such and associate with
them in all things as kinsmen and brethren.
But if, trifle, I continued, some of your
race, the Jews, who say they believe in
Christ, compel those Gentiles who believe in this
Christ to live in all respects according to
the law given by Moses, or choose not
to associate so intimately with them, I, in
like manner, do not approve of them.
I just think that's a reasonable approach that
we should have, even though there's always this
danger of somebody who does that to just
stray away from the foundation of Christ.
But, as Justin Martyr says, it's weak-mindedness,
but we need to be patient with weak
-minded people.
I don't really plan to expound much on
this, and I don't even think that I
need to in this congregation, but Sunday is
not the Sabbath.
I grew up thinking that.
I grew up being taught that.
And it would be, in the broad realm
of Christianity, it would be a belief that
somehow the fulfillment of the Sabbath is now
called the Christian Sabbath or the first day
of the week.
I don't think so.
I don't think so at all.
If you want to call this the Lord's
Day, and if you want to follow the
even Scripture and early Christian practice of coming
together that day to break bread, okay, that's
one thing.
But Sunday is not the fulfillment of the
Sabbath.
Is your Sabbath rest a day, or is
it a person?
Are you going to work six days for
yourself and devote one day to the worship
of God, or are you going to devote
every day that is called today to the
work that the Father and the Son are
actively engaged in?
Are you going to carry your own burdens
or cast them on Jesus and get in
His yoke and find rest for your souls?
Are you going to spend six days a
week gathering to store up for yourselves, or
are you going to forsake everything for the
furtherance of the kingdom of God?
Are you going to try to kindle your
own fires, meaning create your own spirituality, or
are you going to accept the fire that
Jesus already kindled?
The true Sabbath rest, as it already says
in the Old Covenant, is a perpetual sign
of having entered into the New Covenant with
Christ.
This is what Irenaeus says, and in Exodus
God says to Moses, You shall observe my
Sabbath, for it shall be a sign between
me and you for your generations.
But the Sabbath taught that we should continue
day by day in God's service.
For we have been counted, says the apostle
Paul, all the day long as sheep for
the slaughter.
This is consecrated, that is consecrated, and ministering
continually to our faith and persevering in it
and abstaining from all avarice and not acquiring
or possessing treasures upon her.
We are a royal priesthood who are actively
engaged in the work of God every day.
We ought to be.
But we need to be real honest with
ourselves when we ask ourselves, have we entered
into the Sabbath rest with the Lord in
the New Covenant?
Have we actually ceased from working for ourselves?
If we spend our life working and physically
laboring for the purpose of filling our barns
with earthly treasures and laying up a financial
retirement security or to use it for our
own pursuits and pleasures, we haven't entered His
rest at all.
It doesn't matter if we have the proper
understanding of the covenants and of the types
and of the shadows and of what the
real Sabbath is supposed to be.
If we just keep laboring away for our
own selves, we have not entered the Sabbath
rest at all.
It's like someone who gets a hold of
the fact that in the Old Covenant they
were supposed to tithe.
You were supposed to give 10% of
all these things you're blessed with.
You're supposed to give a tenth of that
for the use of God.
And it's like someone who gets a hold
of like, oh, in the New Covenant it's
not that way at all.
We're supposed to give it all.
And then you just keep on living, living
for yourself and you keep on gathering these
blessings and using them for yourselves.
And all that you have is an ideology.
All that you have is a neat and
somewhat proper ideology, but it's not the giving
that is meant at all in the New
Covenant.
It's a dead faith.
There's so much more that I was hoping
in the beginning to cover in this series.
The spiritual meaning of some of the dietary
laws and other laws in the Torah.
New wine in old wineskins and the blood
that ratified the New Covenant.
But time's just not going to allow for
all that.
I want to wrap this up.
These kind of things are treasures though.
And I would encourage you to dig them
out.
Jesus said, every scribe which is instructed in
the kingdom of heaven is like unto a
man that is a householder and he brings
forth out of his treasure things new and
old.
One of the early Christian writers, maybe Irenaeus,
said this undoubtedly means out of the Old
and the New Testament we can bring out
treasures.
We can bring out very, very valuable things.
And a scribe that is instructed in the
kingdom of God, Jesus said, will do that.
The conclusions that I have.
God is a covenant maker and He is
a covenant keeper.
He made the Old Covenant while He also
promised a New Covenant.
The Old Covenant were with signs.
For Abraham, the sign was circumcision.
Do we still need to be circumcised?
Yes, but not the shadow of the circumcision
which is the removing of the foreskin of
the flesh, but the circumcision of the heart,
the removing of the veil that blinds us.
That circumcision we still need to be circumcised
with.
The sign for the Mosaic Covenant was the
Sabbath.
Do we still need to keep the Sabbath?
Yes, but not the shadow of the Sabbath.
Not one day out of the week, but
the substance of the Sabbath.
The rest in Jesus.
What was delivered at Sinai when the whole
earth shook and trembled and smoked and there
was fire.
And that which was written in stone at
that time was a schoolmaster to bring us
to Christ and the New Covenant.
And the New Covenant is not like the
Old One where God takes Israel by the
hand and He takes them out there and
He tries to change their heart by taking
them first out there.
That's not the New Covenant.
That's the Old Covenant.
The New Covenant, He's going to start with
the heart and He's going to write that
new commandment into our hearts that we should
love one another as I have loved you.
And that glory of that new commandment so
far surpasses everything in the Old Covenant that
the old just fades away.
It's useless.
The glory of the new surpasses the glory
of the old so that the old disappears
or becomes obsolete as it says in Hebrews.
Our Sabbath rest is for today.
Every day that we can call today.
And it is a rest in Christ, the
only rock that cannot be shaken.
I'm going to wrap up by reading the
end of Hebrews 13 where it says, See
to it that you do not refuse him
who is speaking for if those did not
escape when they refused him who warned them
on earth much less will we escape who
turn away from him who warns us from
heaven.
And his voice shook the earth then but
now he has promised saying yet once more
I will shake not only the earth but
also the heaven.
This expression yet once more denotes the removing
of those things which can be shaken as
of created things so that those things which
cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore since we receive a kingdom which cannot
be shaken let us show gratitude by which
we may offer to God an acceptable servants
with reverence and awe for our God is
a consuming fire.
I just want to open it up for
people to share if they want to and
correct if it's needed and God bless you
all.
I was thinking based on what you were
saying that you were showing the law of
Moses that the one tribe out of the
twelve the Levites were still working on the
Sabbath they were doing spiritual things for God
as it was given through Moses, the shadows.
And then here Peter tells us that all
of spiritual Israel are priests.
He says in 1 Peter 2 verse 4
Coming to him as a living stone rejected
indeed by men but chosen by God and
precious you all also as living stones are
being built up as a spiritual house.
So we individually collectively are the temple and
yet he goes on to say that we
are a holy priesthood.
So we're also individually priests in this temple
that we collectively make up which is the
body of Christ as Paul tells us to
offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God.
So as you showed the priests do the
work in the temple on the Sabbath and
now, that was the shadow now the fulfillment
is we are priests doing the work in
the temple which is the family of God
on the Sabbath which is 24-7 as
I would understand it.
And one other thing I guess I wanted
to share was I think it's really excellent
the two writings that we have from Irenaeus
one of them is in the Antionicine Fathers
against heresies and then the other one was
found afterwards after it was published in the
mid-1800s.
So this one here in chapter 96 it
says he's going through all these explanations of
all these shadows and prophecies and things about
Christ in the Old Testament and he brings
it to a bear as he's coming to
a conclusion.
He says, this is chapter 96 Wherefore also
we need not the law as a tutor.
Behold, with the Father we speak and in
His presence we stand.
Having been children in malice but now having
grown up strong in all righteousness and soberness.
So no longer shall the law say do
not commit adultery to him who has no
desire at all for another man's wife or
thou shalt not kill to him who has
put away from himself all anger and all
enmity towards others.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's field or
ox or donkey to those who have no
care at all for earthly things but store
up the heavenly fruits.
Nor an eye for an eye or a
tooth for a tooth to him who counts
no man his enemy but all men his
neighbors and therefore cannot stretch out his hand
at all for vengeance.
It will not require tithes of him who
consecrates all possessions to God leaving father and
mother and all his kindred and following the
word of God.
Therefore there will be no command to remain
idle for one day of rest to him
who perpetually keeps Sabbath.
That is to say who is the temple
of God which is man's body who does
service to God and every hour works righteousness.
I think that's a really great explanation as
well.
Thank you Brother Duane for three excellent blessings.
They were all blessings and learned some new
things and refreshed and bless you for expounding
or admonishing and warning us about the Sabbath.
Just like Paul did to Galatians who bewitched
you.
You've fallen from grace.
You're going to circumcise.
Well, you're lost.
You're lost.
You're gone.
Maybe if I'm taking this one out of
context brothers can help me.
In 2 Peter 3 verse 16 Peter says
that a lot of people they wrangle over
words and they teach things untaught and unstable
to their own destruction.
And I believe that would be all in
line with circumcision and the Sabbath.
If you're going to teach that you're going
to spiritual adultery.
Thanks Brother Duane.
Excellent lessons.
The Lord be magnified.
As you shared Justin Martyr's take there, that's
probably kind of the stand I have taken
for a long time.
If somebody has a personal conviction, they need
to do one of these things and he's
not going around teaching others that salvation lies
here.
But there was one instance when the religious
of the day were offended that a person
was helped on the Sabbath.
And the Lord became angry about that.
And so, I would just if you have
these convictions and you find a blessing in
them, praise the Lord, but don't circumvent the
greater blessing of helping another on the Sabbath.
That's a bigger blessing.
That's a better way.
So, if there are people that feel the
need to those things for their blessing, you
made a good point.
The disciples didn't go around making a big
issue out of these things for people who
had carried them from their previous religious settings
until they started trying to force them on
others and so on.
So, may the Lord give us grace and
help us to be watchful in these ways
and capture the greater blessing of the New
Covenant Sabbath of blessing wherever we can no
matter what day it is.
Don't let your personal conviction Sabbath get in
the way of doing good ever.
The Lord was very displeased with those who
would have had it that way.
It kind of turned on themselves because if
it would have been an ox and a
well or something, they would have broke their
Sabbath to deal with that.
But when somebody was healed, then there was
a problem.
So, may the Lord help us view these
things rightly and not be a stumbling block
to anyone.
I, too, am thankful for both messages.
Even before this morning when I was thinking
a little bit about Proverbs 21.3, I
thought, well, surely, there's some connection here between
to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable
to the Lord than sacrifice.
I think I see a connection.
I don't know if anybody else does.
Like, if we apply what we heard today,
I think it would cover this.
At least some of it.
I'm not saying all of it.
But I think I see a very good
start for sure.
So, may the Lord bless us.
Yeah, Duane, I don't have anything to add,
but I sure appreciated those three messages.
I found them instructional and maybe a better
understanding of the separation of covenants and yet
how some of the underlying principles blend together
is still, I guess, a fairly recent thing
for me to have gotten a better grasp
of.
And I just really appreciate it.
And the Sabbath in particular is something that,
it'd be one of those things that seemed
to carry over from maybe my evangelical days
as something taught that we ought to do,
ought to have a rest on the Sabbath,
ought to keep it, ought to do it
on the day.
Maybe the day of the week is not
so important anymore, but ought to keep a
day of special rest.
But I find that, especially your challenge at
the end of really entering into the true
Sabbath, resting from creative works, resting from selfish
endeavors is a huge challenge compared to not
working on a certain day.
Seems like the Sabbath in particular is something
that Jesus really wanted to drive home to
the point where he violated it.
I know you said, John said, specifically that
he violated the Sabbath, but it seems to
me like Jesus almost went out of his
way to do it on multiple occasions.
Particularly, I guess, my favorite time that he
made people angry on the Sabbath is the
man with the withered hand because in one
of the accounts it says specifically that he
was angry at their silence when they couldn't
even answer a simple question about wouldn't it
be right to do good on the Sabbath
to take life or to make somebody whole.
Anyway, I just thoroughly appreciated all three messages.
Praise God.
Yeah, I think I wanted to share my
opinion.
I would differ with the way the traditional
way of translating this passage in, let's see,
was it John 5, was it?
Where they say that Jesus broke the Sabbath.
The word doesn't mean break.
It means loose.
And in the Sermon on the Mount, it's
not a typical way, but there is one
occasion where it seems like it's using the
same word in Matthew chapter 5 where it
says if anyone looses, I forget what command
he says, and he goes on and he
talks in a way, actually maybe I could
bring it up, but talks in a way
where it would not be good for this
man to loose this command.
I forget what it was.
He says this in the Sermon on the
Mount.
So it's usually, but that's not the typical
word that's used when you're talking about breaking
commandments.
Usually it's a word that would probably be,
or a lot of times be translated as
transgress or trespass, a command as opposed to,
if somebody's not talking about a command, somebody
might use different words to say doing evil,
different types of verbs for doing evil or
working unrighteousness or something, whatever.
But when you're talking about a command, typically
it's transgress or trespass.
This is what I think is happening.
In Mark chapter 7, there's a passage where,
in fact I think I got it up
on my phone, I could read it, where
Jesus is correcting the, hold on one second,
correcting the experts in the law that they're
understanding something wrongly with regard to food laws.
And as he says what he says, he
ends up talking about it and it says,
thus purifying all foods.
So by Jesus making this statement, just in
this conversational exchange, he actually was annulling something
and legislating something.
Doing away with the shadow and putting something
in place for the fulfillment of that.
Similarly here, this idea of loose, I'll give
you one example of how it could be
used.
Like we would say, like John the Baptist
said that he would not be worthy of
loosening the shoestrings on the sandals of Jesus.
Same exact verb, right?
So it's the opposite of binding something on
someone versus loosening.
And so when Jesus, when this says, when
John says that he loosened, not broke, loosened,
using this same verb, loosened the Sabbath, I
understand that similar in Mark 7.
That he actually was legislating and when he
made that statement, he was actually loosening the
Sabbath foreshadowing and binding the fulfillment and basically
fulfilling it.
I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't
see it, because I know we all struggle
with the idea, wait a minute, did Jesus
transgress the law?
Then how could he be the pure lamb
of God and take away the sin of
the world and go to the cross?
It makes no sense.
And I think the most reasonable understanding of
use of that verb is that he's loosening
the old, just like he did in Mark
7 about thus purifying all foods and stuff.
I was thinking about that word loose and
I remember, I think it was in, I
was asking Yolanda about the word loose in
Spanish and she said it meant light.
And I said well, maybe in the same
example it could represent bringing light into a
dark situation.
You know, Jesus was shedding light on this
established principle.
I think you're taking the Spanish word loose,
which means light.
Yeah.
The English word loose.
There's two different languages.
I know that, but it could be very
similar.
Yeah, but there's two different languages.
I understand that.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Yeah, I just want to say amen to
this message and the last two of the
whole series and I appreciate you doing this
and the effort that you put into it.
And I was sitting in pretty comfortable agreement
until we were challenged about whether we
just understand the Sabbath as an ideology or
whether we really have entered that Sabbath.
So that's, for me that's, it's not, I
mean the whole idea is not new, but
for me that's where, that's where the, where
the challenge is that I have to examine
myself and I certainly want to do that.
Anyway, God bless.
Yes, I want to give my amen just
in a very, very hearty way I guess.
Really just appreciate the efforts.
I like how the, seeing what Norman had
to say kind of flows with the Sabbath
rest that we heard of and some experiences
I've had in the past just kind of
came back to my mind being a young
boy growing up under a certain influence that
got you, I mean I never just heard
my parents say we're keeping the Sabbath, but
still direction was given in that way.
Like Saturday night comes around and it, not
always, but sometimes it was a flurry of
events of just getting everything precise, lined out,
brush and polish your suit, your shoes and
get your horse and get everything just nice
and ready and because of the day that
we can't do that and then we're really
ready to rest on that day, but then
still that day was not really that much
of a day of rest when you think
about things spiritually.
A little bit my experience, but so yeah,
so I liked how the two brother's thoughts
flow together and having rest, true peace of
mind.
Might sound like I'm speaking like I got
it now, but I don't.
I still have struggles in the area of
finding a true rest, just on a daily
basis, just finding confidence in going
forward.
It's just a hard thing to walk this
narrow path.
Appreciate the challenge at the end how that
we are.
I think Norman kind of covered my thoughts
there.
We're really comfortable up to this point of
being challenged on keeping the true Sabbath rest
and are we?
Am I doing this in all sincerity and
in truth?
And so I do appreciate that.
I wanted to, well, I guess it'd be
something like just let myself be stretched in
those areas and be more about focusing on
the, okay, I can easily agree with all
of the points were made good and right
and I can just easily agree with that,
but I want to take it to heart
how we are supposed to keep the Sabbath
as much as we're supposed to be circumcised
with the true circumcision from God, not the
shadow, but so I want to let those
things be a challenge for me and work
them out.
Praise God.
Yeah, Brother Dwayne, I thought that was excellent.
Thank you for your labors in that.
God bless you for that.
Also, I was definitely challenged as well, what
Otley and Norman just brought up there.
That's a good challenge for us to take
heed to.
I want to remind us what Paul writes
here in Philippians.
Speaking of people that would try to force
us to keep this old law, he says,
Beware of these dogs.
Beware of evil workers.
Beware of the concision.
You know, these people that try to force
you to keep this old covenant alive.
You know, John, the book of John says
that Jesus was the word made flesh.
He was the Torah made flesh.
He was the law made flesh.
And he was born under the law.
He walked in it.
He was it.
He was a representation of it.
And he was the fulfillment of it.
And what happened to him, he was the
old covenant.
And it was nailed to the cross and
died.
Just like Romans 7 says, A wife is
bound by that law of her husband as
long as he's alive.
Well, that husband has been dead, was crucified
and dead.
Just like the Scriptures say that we are
now dead to the law, that we can
be married to another, which was Christ, which
is Christ.
Christ resurrected the new covenant.
And there's one more representation that I just
love.
You know, several years ago, Katie asked me,
Dad, why was Jesus baptized?
Well, again, he was this old covenant in
the flesh.
And Jesus being baptized, it's not because he
had sin.
His baptism is a representation of this old
husband, this old covenant being put to death
and a new one being resurrected.
And that we can be with this new
Savior, Jesus.
That's one of my favorites.
But thank you very much.
Praise the Lord.
Yeah, I would like to say amen, Dwayne.
Thank you for your labors on this.
I was really blessed today by it.
Like Aaron was saying, woe to them who
tell people you have to keep this old
covenant Sabbath.
And I think that's so true because they're
misleading people to what it really is.
So now we can say, oh, you do
keep the Sabbath, man, but it's so much
better.
Look, it's every day, like when we truly
believe we're truly born again, like we have
this rest.
Like Jesus said, he that eats of my
flesh and drinks of my blood will live
forever.
So it's like by faith on them words,
by moving in righteousness, like there's this rest
that for the soul, not the peace that
the world gives, but like this eternal peace
is really, oh, it's so magnificent.
I think it overwhelms the heart.
You know, like it's like, oh, like God
is so wonderful.
It's like, I don't know how to explain
it.
He's so wonderful.
It just overwhelms the heart.
And I was very blessed.
So God bless you guys.
Yeah, I just had the idea that like
people today like not getting it.
Like, oh, what a blessing we can rest.
Oh, one day a week, oh, we get
to rest.
But it was a burden.
Like, oh my, I got this to do.
I got this to do.
Like, how am I going to get ahead?
Like I can't work today.
Like, man, that's a whole day wasted.
Like it was a tax for them.
Like every day they could build their own
kingdom, but that day, oh, they couldn't get
ahead that day.
Just like the 10%.
Like it was a tax.
Like it was taxing.
And like, I'm not going to try to
think of other examples, but like I think
there's lots of ways in which the old
covenant, oh, circumcision, like not a blessing.
Like there was ways that God taxed his
people and the new covenant were like free.
We're free of that.
There's no more, not just like we're free
of the tax, but we're free of the
whole monetary system, so to speak.
I had this idea that's pretty basic, but
it'd be like if every day we get
up in the morning and we play Monopoly
all day long and there's rules and you
land in a certain spot, you got to
pay money.
And if you buy this thing and you
can get ahead and every day you're trying
to win Monopoly, win Monopoly.
And then one day this guy comes along
and he's like, okay, stop.
Let's go outside.
And it's like real life.
And you're like, but what about Monopoly money?
Like it was a game.
Like it was, I was trying to teach
you some lessons, but it's not real.
Like it's, you're done with that stuff.
Like we're not, you're not trying to build
your kingdom anymore.
You're not trying to build your bank account
anymore.
That stuff, it's all, like if we have
the right mindset, like money is just this
stuff and a house is just, it's all
just temporary.
It's all just like this little phase that
God had them, this phase that he had
them in is I think about like a
temporary sort of game to teach lessons.
And if we think of it that way,
it'd be like, the misunderstanding of that, the
place of the old covenant, like how silly
it seems like to keep the covenant.
It'd be like, it'd be like me insisting
that, no, I'm supposed to collect $200 when
I pass go and be like, man, grow
up.
Like that was just a game.
Like we're done with that.
Like this is, this is real life.
Caring about, caring about monopoly money, like look
how much monopoly money I have.
Like a little child might come up and
like, look at all my monopoly dollars.
And you'd be like, that's cute.
But like, it's a, in the real world,
it has no value.
And in God's world, you know, money, that's
the story of the unjust servant.
Like the guy just wrote off debts because
that wasn't really value.
What was really value was the relationships that
he was building with these people that he
was writing off their debts.
Another thing about, when you said the thief,
like the law can just bring him to
this even place.
But what exceeds that is when, is when
we start giving, like really, really just giving
our all.
And you can almost depict it as a
man that like, like just sets out to
look for people to help.
Like, like just look for homeless.
Like he's in his car, driving around.
And man, where are these homeless people?
Someone, surely someone needs to hear about the
Lord.
Just searching for people to help.
Yeah, I just had a thought.
I appreciate what Buddy was saying because that
kind of triggered some thoughts too.
Yeah, I mean, I spent two years in
Israel where every Friday, early afternoon, one, two
o'clock, everything starts shutting down.
Now, of course, I wasn't observing Shabbat as
a lot of the religious people were there
in Jerusalem.
but you can't, you know, if you need
to go shopping, you can't do anything.
You're like handcuffed.
And it made me think, partly what Buddy
was saying, is just how many people for,
you know, 1,500 years, at least since
the time of Moses up until the time
of Jesus, to where their neighbor on, on
Sabbath, on Shabbat said, hey, could you help
me with such and such?
Did this happen?
No, no, I can't, we can't work on
Sabbath, sorry.
So, there was this shutting down of doing
good and helping your neighbor, which is the
fulfillment of the law on this day.
And I'm sure how much God saw that.
That probably triggered a lot of what he
said through the prophet Isaiah in chapter one.
He starts off, all these works of the
law, fastings, sacrifices, circumcision, all these ordinances, and
then he picks it up and he really
gives light to it as Dwayne brought out
in chapter 58.
He's like, is this the kind of fast
that I want you to do?
Where you, you know, let's see, let me
read it actually.
It's really good.
And then he goes on and he ends
up, starts referring to the Sabbath as well.
He said, why have we fasted?
They say, and you have not seen.
They're saying this to the Lord.
Why have we afflicted our souls?
You don't take notice.
In fact, in the day of your fast,
you find pleasure and exploit all the labors.
That's what he says further down with the
Sabbath.
He's like, stop doing your own pleasures.
And anyway, verse four, indeed you fast for
strife and debate.
So you're fasting so you can apparently get,
you know, irritated because of lack of food
and you're in strife and debate with each
other and the fists of wickedness you bring
on each other.
You will not fast as you do this
day to make your voice heard on high.
In other words, you're not going to be
heard.
I'm not going to hear your prayers when
you're being this way towards each other.
Even though you're being idle or, you know,
when you're fasting and doing without food, you
think you're really doing something awesome.
Is it a fast that I have chosen,
a day for a man to afflict his
soul?
Is it to bow down his head like
a bulrush to spread out sackcloth and ashes?
Would you call this day a fast, an
acceptable day to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I have
chosen to loose, there's that word, to loose
the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy
burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and
you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with
the hungry and to bring into your house
the poor who are cast out?
When you see the naked, then you cover
him and hide yourself from your own flesh?
In other words, your fellow Israelites, you're hiding
from them?
They have need?
Kind of like John says in 1 John,
you see your brother in need and you
say, hey, go well, be warm, well fed.
You don't do anything to help him?
How can the love of God be in
you?
That's what he's saying here.
And he's showing clearly, this is not the
fasting.
And further down, this is not the Sabbath
that I want.
So I'm just thinking about, probably from my
own experience in Israel, I'm sure people, it
occurred to me while I was in Israel,
I'd never thought of this before, how ridiculous,
I know I've shared this with you all
before, I'll say it again, how ridiculous it
is for somebody to think that God was
saying, one day a week, I want you
to stop keeping the law, which is to
love your neighbor as yourself.
Don't keep the law on the Sabbath.
I mean, what a ridiculous interpretation of him
saying, do no work.
So anyway.
I did have a few more thoughts.
I wanted to emphasize a little more on,
or bring to our attention, a little more
the idea of, I guess I got a
little glimpse of like the will of God
and the whole law was not, I forget
how it got described now, and Buddy kind
of alluded to that too and it made
me think that this is very important that
we get a hold of the real thing,
what the will of God is, and not
get bogged down in keeping the laws, even
though those laws were for a time, but
to be free.
That was the other thing, like free to
what?
Free to serve Christ.
Free to walk in His light and free
to, or free from the law to do
the will of the Father.
I'm not sure if I'm getting that together,
but another thing I've been thinking about was
Paul kept the Sabbath perhaps, but in Acts
18, it just sounds like he was very
busy.
Every Sabbath he would argue in the synagogue
and would try to convince Jews and Greeks.
Like every Sabbath he was just arguing.
I don't know, maybe you all don't get
tired of arguing, but it makes me very
tired.
It's hard work.
Anyways, let's take advantage of these things.
I think that's what Paul was doing.
The blood of Jesus was purified.
Peace, perfect peace, find only
peace, friend.
You know where the peace has led
to, friend.
Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows
turning round, on Jesus, who
took up the compass round.
Peace, perfect peace, with love was
far away, in Jesus' keeping
we are safe and made.
Peace, perfect peace, our future
all unknown, Jesus we
know and He is on the throne.
Peace, perfect peace, there shall reign
just and right, Jesus Christ, and
Christians all in time.
Filled with guilty heart, first struggled to
just ease, and Jesus, Father
to confer, perfect peace.
Pray that nevermore the gateways try to
enter therein to, leave your flesh upon
the gate, for the sanctified and true,
press onward the prize and calling, things
forgiven which are behind, pearls of greatest
price, our promise, Jesus, see and you'll
find.
Lay aside each weight that hinders, on
yourself both night and day, stride with prayer
and prayer and crying, don't be fearful or
afraid, be ye strong and stride with courage,
though the devil and his foes, seem so
many yet remember, they with us are still
the most.
Be ye zealous, O dear brothers, be your
first love kindled bright, let your single
heart look bright on, let it not turn
left or right, Be ye zealous, O dear
sisters, though the world despises you, we
by meat and waters, found of sweet God's
beauty, shining through.
The love of God is greater power, there's
no more pen can ever tell, it goes
beyond the highest star, and reaches to the
lowest hell.
The guilty bear of hell prepared, God gave
his Son to win, his erring child he
reconciled, and pardoned from his sin.
The love of God, our rich and pure,
how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore
endure, the saints and angels' song, When holy
times shall pass away, and earthly thrones and
kingdoms fall, when man new here begins to
pray, on rocks and hills and mountains tall,
God's love so sure, shall still endure, all
measureless and strong, redeeming grace, pure and
great, the saints and angels' song.
The love of God, our rich and pure,
how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore
endure, the saints and angels' song.
When we leave the ocean bill, and where
the skies of parchment lay, where every star
on earth a quill, and every man a
scribe a train, to write the love of
God above, would any ocean cry, nor could
the scroll contain the whole, the stretch from
sky to sky.
The love of God, our rich and pure,
how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore
endure, the saints and angels' song.