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Bobby Stafford	Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?

 

Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?

Introduction:

Read Exodus 20:8-11.  “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.  In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” NKJV  While Moses was on Mt. Sinai, Jehovah gave him what is commonly called “The Ten Commandments.”  The fourth one is the one under consideration today.  The question then for us is, “Should we keep the Sabbath?”  God’s Word will reveal the answer.

Body:

1. Sabbath Keeping Was For National Israel

·  Observing the Sabbath was a part of the Law God gave to national Israel when they were the chosen people of God.  It was not given to those patriarchal ancestors.  (Deuteronomy 5:1-4)  Those who lived before Moses were not told to observe the Sabbath.

·  Some mistakenly believe that the Sabbath was to be kept forever using. (Exodus 31:16)  “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.”  Now read Verse 17. “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”  The Hebrew word translated “forever” is also used in Exodus 21:5-6.  “But if the servant plainly says, I love my master, my wife, and my children;  I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him to the judges.  He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.”  Here the word is used of definite periods of time.  So the Sabbath was to be observed only until Israel was no longer God’s chosen people, after the crucifixion of Christ.

II.  Sabbath Keeping Was Nailed to the Cross

·  The Sabbath was a part of the Law of Moses which was done away with.  (Jeremiah 31:31-34)  “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah – not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord, For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”  Then note Hebrews 8:7-8.  “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.  Because finding fault with them, He says:  Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” –

·  The Ten Commandments, which included Sabbath keeping, was done away with.  (Romans 7:4-6)  “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another – to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.  For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.  But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”  Verse 7 reveals the law he was referring to was the Law of Moses.  “What shall we say then?  Is the law sin?  Certainly not!  On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.  For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, You shall not covet.”  ( Exodus 20:17)  “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

·  Christ’s death on Calvary ended the Law of Moses which included the Ten Commandments.  (Hebrews 9:15-17)  “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.  For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.  For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.”  These commandments were nailed to Calvary’s cross.  (Colossians 2:13-14)  “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.  And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

III.  Sabbath Keeping Is Not Part of the Law of Christ

·  Read Acts 15:1-2, 5.  “And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.  Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.  5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”  Circumcision was a command of the Law of Moses just like Sabbath keeping.  Paul further states in Acts 15:10-11, “Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers not we were able to bear?  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”  Then a decree is sent forth stating the following.  (Acts 15:24)  “Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your soul, saying, You must be circumcised and keep the law – to whom we gave no such commandment –”

·  When we read the New Testament, we see that there is not a single example of Christians keeping the Sabbath.  Rather we find them observing Sunday, the first day of the week.  (Acts 20:7)  “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”

IV.  Christians Cannot Mix the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ

·  The Pharisees mentioned in Acts 15 who were claiming that Christians had to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses had carried their false teaching to the churches in Galatia.  It had become such a problem that Paul wrote them the letter to the Galatians in order to correct this false teaching.  In Galatians 5:1-4, Paul wrote, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace" (NKJV).   The Judaizers had been teaching Christians in Galatia that they had to mix certain works of the law of Moses with their Christian faith.  Paul told them that to do that caused them to be bound to the entire law of Moses.  They could not mix the two at all.  Paul then went on to tell them in verse 4 that it caused them to be separated from Christ and to fall from grace.

·  Read Acts 13:39, "and by Him [Jesus Christ] everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses" (NKJV).  Mixing the law of Moses with the law of Christ carried the consequence of having to follow the whole law of Moses.  This meant they would have to bring back the animal sacrifices and everything associated with the Levitical worship system.  And we see from Acts 13:39 that even if they did this, they still could not be saved because the law of Moses was incapable of accomplishing justification.  Animal sacrifices were insufficient.  Hebrews 10:1-4, "For the law [of Moses], having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins (NKJV)
 

Conclusion:

Hopefully we have seen what the Bible teaches.  Sabbath keeping was done away with when our Savior died on the cross.  Now Christians look forward to the rest that awaits us in heaven. 

Bobby Stafford     

December 28, 2014