10/10/17 – Eph 6:2-3, The Ten Commandments, Pt 13, 

The 4th Commandments, Pt. 5, Lesson #17-108

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K549mtXR1w&t=1494s

Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard

Grace Fellowship Church

www.GraceDoctrine.org

Before we begin, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, (If You have - Trusted in Him for Eternal Life), it is important to prepare yourself to: Take-in God’s Word and/or Participate in a Communion Service, so take a moment to name, cite, or acknowledge your sins privately, directly to God the Father. This will assure that you are in fellowship with God the Father & the Holy Spirit’s convicting ministry will then be able to teach you as the Holy Spirit is the real teacher.

1 John 1:9 says— “If we confess [simply name, cite, or acknowledge to God the Father] our sins [known sins], He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins [known sins] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [all unknown & forgotten sins].”

For those of you who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord & Savior, please see: The Salvation Message @ the end of this document.

2 Pet 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

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The Doctrine of the Ten Commandments Related to the Church Age, Part XIII.

The 4^th Commandment, Ex 20:8-11; Deut 5:12-15. Cf. Ex 16:23-30; 20:8-11; 23:12; 31:13-17; 34:23; 35:2-3; Lev 23:3; 26:2; Neh 13:16-19.

This is the 4^th and last of the Ten Commandments that directly relates to the worship and service of God. It was a mandate by God to honor the Sabbath Day and make it holy unto the Lord. It was a day during which the Israelites were to rest from their work, i.e., the normal activities and labors of the other six days of the week were to be avoided. 

New Testament Usage of Sabbath:

There are no grounds for imposing the Sabbath on the Christian who is free from the burden of the Mosaic Law’s demands. Paul was quite clear in the book of Galatians that the Church is not under the Law, Gal 3:1-5; 5:1-3.

In warning about the false teachers, the Judaizers who taught the Church needs to keep the Law, Paul taught the following in Col 2:8, 14, 16.

In the Church Age, it is the Spirit of Christ who enables him to fulfill God’s will apart from the external observances of the Law.

As shadowed by our Lord in the giving of the Law to Israel in Exodus 20, the first justification and emphasis of the Sabbath was on the Creator God, and then 40 years later in Deuteronomy 5, the emphasis was changed to His redemptive act. The Sabbath then emphasized His redemption over creation, of rest over cessation. As such, a work vastly greater than that of creation has now been accomplished by Christ, the work of redemption, and it provides the Church the theological justification for the observance of His redemptive work culminated in His resurrection on the first day of the week, where we now can enter into His rest, Heb 4:1ff. Therefore, we celebrate the first day of the week as commemorative of His triumphant victory over sin and death, as He is the “Lord of the Sabbath.”

Further, the Sabbath is mentioned along with the festivals and new moons, all of which are declared to be “only a shadow of what is to come,” Col 2:16-17. Therefore, to “observe days, and months, and seasons, and years,” is deemed to be slaves to “the weak and worthless elemental things,” Gal 4:9-10; Cf. Col 2:20.

Col 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the **elementary principles of the world,** rather than according to Christ.”

Col 2:20. “If you have died with Christ to the **elementary principles of the world,** why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as…”

Gal 4:9-10, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the **weak and worthless elemental things,** to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? ¹⁰You observe days and months and seasons and years.”

The ritual observance of days is a characteristic of “the man who is weak in faith,” Rom 14:1-6.

Therefore, these elementary principles or regulations from the Mosaic Law were promoted by Satan’s cosmic system in the sense that he, through these Judaizers, sought to put both Jewish and Gentile Christians back under the Mosaic Law, so that they would not experience their new found freedom in Christ from the Mosaic Law, that is based on their union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, and session at the right hand of the Father. Paul is in effect telling them that their teaching regarding the Mosaic Law is demonic and does not originate with Jesus Christ and is opposed to Jesus Christ.

Col 2:10, “In Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.” Nothing else is needed for salvation or to live the spiritual life, cf. Col 2:14-15.

At the Cross, Jesus fulfilled the Law so that we would not have too. The Law condemned Jew and Gentile, Rom 1:18-3:23. Christ’s death on the Cross paid the sinner’s sin debt which was incurred from breaking the Law. Therefore, it is not the 7^th Day which emerges as the critical theological issue; it is the role of the law, and our liberty in Christ, that is really the fundamental issue.

Therefore, this seems to be the reason for the shift in the Gentile churches from observance of the Jewish Sabbath Day, (Saturday), to worshiping on the Lord’s Day, (Sunday), cf. Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2; Rev 1:10.

Luke wrote in Acts 20:7, regarding Paul’s 3^rd Missionary journey when he came to Troas, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, (Celebrate Communion), Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.”

Though Paul and his companions were there for several days, no mention is made of any religious service on the seventh day of the week; but it is expressly stated that “the disciples came together,” and that “Paul preached to them” on “the first day of the week.” The object of the meeting is also stated to have been the “breaking of bread,” which clearly indicates the taking of Communion; the bread and wine ritual for the Church during the Church Age, which too will cease when Christ returns. Therefore, it was the first day of the week that they practiced their gathering together to worship God.

1 Cor 16:2, “On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.”

Here, they collected their offerings on Sunday when they met.

Rev 1:10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, (KURIAKE, “belonging to the Lord, HEMERA, “day,” which is a reference to the 1^st day of the week), and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet.”

John uses the phrase, “Lord’s day,” without otherwise indicating which of the seven days of the week he referred to; thus, evidently showing that when the book of Revelation was written, there was a day known and observed by Christians generally as the “Lord’s day.” That this was the first day of the week, which was kept in memory of the resurrection of our Lord, is abundantly evident from the history of the Church, as we will see below.

Further, there would be an apparent impropriety in calling a common supper the “Lord’s Supper,” just as there would be a similar impropriety in calling a secular day the “Lord’s day.”

It should be noted that, even to this day, the Greek word for “Sunday” is KURIAKE, Κυριακή, that means, “the Lord’s day.”

The New Testament reflects the observance of the first day of the week, instead of the seventh day, as the time of gathering together, breaking bread, taking offerings, and worshipping, because it was the day of Christ’s resurrection, cf. Mat 28:1-7; Mark 16:1-6; John 20:19-20.

We’ll continue w/ more of the 4^th Commandment – Sabbath topic in our next study on Thursday – 10/12/17.

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A PERSONAL NOTE FOR YOU

John 6:47 says: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.”

Notice again what John 6:47 says, “he who believes in Me [Jesus Christ] has everlasting life.” It doesn’t say, “will have;” it says, “has.” Therefore, the very moment you believe Jesus Christ’s promise of everlasting life, you have it, and it can never be lost or taken away from you [John 10:28-29]. Furthermore, the gift of everlasting life [also called eternal life in Scripture] is available to every human being; there are absolutely no exceptions.

John 3:14-18 says: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Eph 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am here to tell you that Jesus loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His life for you. God the Father also loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His only Son for you by sending Him to the Cross. At the Cross Jesus died in your place. Taking upon Himself all of your sins and all of my sins. He was judged for our sins and paid the price for our sins. Therefore, our sins will never be held against us.

Right where you are, you now have the opportunity to make the greatest decision in your life. To accept the free gift of salvation and eternal life by truly believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins and was raised on the third day as the proof of the promise of eternal life. So right now, you can pause and reflect on what Christ has done for you and say to the Father:

"Yes Father, I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ,
died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins."

If you have done that, I Welcome You to the Eternal Family of God !!!

Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher: James H. Rickard
23 Messenger Street, Unit 3
Plainville, MA 02762

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