Notice the verse with the picture above. The "body" is Christ, meaning, the ceremonial law embodied the work of Christ who was to come. So when you see a picture of Jesus, you can visualize grace at work for our redemption. When you see Jesus, you can also see the One who loved and obeyed His Father's Law, the Ten Commandments. So if we have Jesus, we also will have His love for His Father's commandments, which were really His also. "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." John 14:15

THE SABBATH TRUTH (STUDYING FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION)

This study is emphasizing the Sabbath commandment out of all the Ten Commandments, but not with the purpose of destroying the other nine commandments. And just because I am writing about the Sabbath, doesn't mean that I worship the Sabbath day above God. Why I am emphasizing the Sabbath in this study is because that is the topic under discussion. I am in no way putting the Sabbath day above Jesus Christ, but showing that Jesus Christ has given us the Sabbath day to be a blessing to man and not a curse, and showing that He did not change the day of worship by discontinuing the Sabbath, and substituting in its place another day. That is the work of a different power. I am showing that Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath day, because first He made the day, and secondly, He showed us how to keep it holy, and honorable, not doing our own works, but the works of Him that sent Jesus. It is the sign of God's power at work in our lives to recreate us back into the image of God.

1. God made the Sabbath day from the beginning of the world before sin entered. The weekly Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, according to the Bible. Though the word "Shabbath" meaning "Sabbath" is not in Genesis 2:1-3, however, the word "Sabbaton" is, which means resting or ceasing from work. "Sabbaton" is the root word for "Shabbath."
Genesis 2:1-3________________________________________________________________

2. Jesus made the Sabbath day, as He made all things.
John 1:1-3, 10, 14___________________________________________________________

3. Who did Jesus make the Sabbath day for?
Mark 2:27____________________________________________________________________
Note: Jesus said, that the Sabbath was made for mankind (to be a blessing to him), and not man for the Sabbath (i.e., man was not to be a slave to the Sabbath, where the Sabbath day would become grevious, a burden itself to bear. One thing Jesus did was to remove all the unnecessary, unbiblical restrictions placed on the Sabbath by the unfaithful Jewish leadership, who had made the Sabbath impossible to be kept holy. ).

4. Did the Sabbath Law exist before God gave it to Israel?
Nehemiah 9:13, 14; Exodus 16:4, 28
_______________________________________________________________________________

5. What did Moses teach the people when he judged them before God gave the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai?
Exodus 18:15, 16, 20, 21 _______________________________________________________________________________
Note: Since Moses taught God's Law before Mt. Sinai, then the Law was already in existence.

6. What is the Sabbath a sign of?
Exodus 31:12-17; Ezekiel 20:12-20; Luke 13:11-17
_______________________________________________________________________________
Note: The Sabbath is the sign of God's creative power to create in us a new heart, a new creature in Christ Jesus. It is a day to be released from Satan's power by God's creative power at work to relieve human suffering.

7. What is Sabbath-keeping opposed to?
Ezekiel 20:16__________________________________________________________________
Note: Sabbath-keeping opposes idolatry. Men polluted God's Sabbath by the practice of idol worship.

8. What man will be blessed who keeps the Sabbath from polluting it and keeps his hand from doing any evil?
Isaiah 56:1-8_________________________________________________________________
Note: Jew and Gentile are here included under the gospel age.

9. Did the coming of Jesus cause the light of God's truth to shine more brightly under the gospel age?
Isaiah 60:1-22________________________________________________________________

10. Under this gospel age of light, what shall be built up?
Isaiah 61:4-6; 58:12-14
_______________________________________________________________________________
Note: The Sabbath truth was destroyed when the Roman Catholic Church substituted Sunday for the Sabbath as the day of worship, which most of the world now agrees with her. But there is no Biblical support. The Sabbath has been polluted by the idolatrous pagan festival of Sunday. Many people are not aware of the transition, and that is why there needs to be those who will repair the breach made in the wall of truth.

11. When God creates the New Heaven and the New Earth, will we still meet for worship and keep holy the Sabbath day?
Isaiah 66:23__________________________________________________________________

12. What will happen to the idolaters?
Isaiah 66:17, 24______________________________________________________________
Note: God did not sanctify them--they did not keep the Sabbath as the sign of God's power to give them a new heart, but continued to sanctify themselves by their own works, which was an abomination in God's sight.

Those who purposely, knowingly stop their work on Sunday in honor of the resurrection of Jesus or for any reason, while at the same time knowingly work on the Sabbath day, disobeying the fourth commandment, while condemning those who keep the true Biblical Sabbath as the sign of God, are sanctifying themselves by their own works, which is an impossibility. It is God's word, the Ten Commandments, which condemns the guilty sinner of evil doing. Christ came to give us freedom the condemnation of the law, which is freedom from sin and its wages--death, but He did not come to give us freedom from the Law. Christ's death on the cross abolished the CURSE of the Law, which was death for sin [Romans 6:23], but unrepentant sinners are still under the curse of the Law, which is death. Jesus hung on the tree, showing that He was cursed of God because of my sin and your sin, fully condemned to death for us. See Deuteronomy 21:22, 23. We must be saved from sin through Him.

We do not put down the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, the resurrection is the creative power of God in action to raise the dead to life again. Jesus, the Son of God, did not raise Himself from the dead, until He had observed the Sabbath in the tomb, resting from the work of redemption for sin. After keeping the sign of His own Creative power, His then rose bodily from the dead to give us His life, that we might also bodily rise from the dead at the resurrection of the righteous. But now we rise to a new life with Him, being born again by the word, through faith in His promise. Galatians 2:20, 1 Peter 1:23.

13. Who only can enter the kingdom of God, and enter the city of God?
John 3:3-6; Revelation 22:14, 15; Revelation 21:24-27
___________________________________________________________________________

14. What sign will the people of God be keeping when the world enforces the Mark of the Beast Power?
Revelation 14:12______________________________________________________________
Note: See also previous verses in Rev. 14. The sign or mark has to do with the question of loyalty, whom are we going to worship and serve? The beast or government power which enforces the Mark of Sunday, or the Lord Jesus Christ who made the Seventh-day Sabbath as the sign of His sanctifying power in the life?

15. What has always been the sign of God's people?
Matthew 12:50; Rev. 12:17; Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14; Hebrews 8:8-12; Jeremiah 7:23
______________________________________________________________________________

16. Is God's testament (law, will) placed in heaven?
Rev. 11:19; 15:5, 8; Psalm 119:89
______________________________________________________________________________

17. Will God change His Sabbath day or the Ten Commandments?
Psalm 111:1-10, 119:144, 150-152, 160, 89-97
______________________________________________________________________________

18. If we are told to "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy", will God change it and not tell us?
Amos 3:7______________________________________________________________________
Note: Did He change the day or did He reveal to the prophet Daniel that someone else would change the holy time and law of worship? Read Psalm 119:142; Dan. 7:25. Just as God's righteousness is unchangeable, so is the Sabbath and the Law of God. Read also these verses. 1 Corinthians 7:19; John 14:15; 1 John 5:1-3; 3:22-24; 2:24, 17.

19. Did God change the Sabbath day by cancelling it?
Col. 2:14-17__________________________________________________________________
Note: No, compare to Hebrews 8 and 9 and 10, showing that the ceremonial law passed away at Christ's death. There is nothing in the fourth commandment, Exodus 20:8-11, as stated by God, that pointed to Christ's death on the cross for our sins. We have to conclude that the sabbath days mentioned in Colossians 2:14-17 are referring to the seven yearly sabbaths recorded in Leviticus 23, and Numbers 28, 29, and not the seventh day Sabbath.

Of course, the seventh-day weekly Sabbath is mentioned along with the yearly sabbaths in the Mosaic Law, but the two sabbaths are separate, for one is in the Ten Commandments, the eternal Covenant for all mankind that is to be written in the heart under the New covenant, and was placed inside the ark of the Testament (the same as the one in heaven), while the book of the Law of Moses, the Old Covenant made with Israel, was placed in the side of the ark for a witness against Israel. See Deuteronomy 31:24-27.

But the difference between the old and the new lies with the response of the people to God. If they accepted the blood atonement made in their behalf, they were forgiven and could receive God's mercy and help to overcome sin. They could do justly, love mercy, and walk in the Spirit (Micah 6:6-8), and not need to offer sacrifices for specific sins if they were overcoming. But the human heart is deceitful above all things and very wicked, and it needs daily cleansing by the blood of Jesus, as we surrender to Him on a daily basis. Therefore, daily sacrifices were offered for all Israel for sins. Keeping God's word fresh in their minds and hearts, and offering the daily sacrifices for the sins of the people, they could by the power of God receive a new heart and mind to love the Lord their God always, and keep the Ten Commandments, including the sign of the Sabbath.

Our next lesson will be The Book of the Law Against Idolatry and Sin. Click on the name below.

If you would like to comment, send your response to [email protected]