The Sabbath

Bulletin

Dan Peters
12/18/22 - Sabbath

Many years ago, I was cutting the grass on Sunday and my landlord asked me about it. “I thought you were not supposed to work on the Sabbath”, he said, knowing I was a local preacher. First of all I had to explain that Saturday is the Sabbath, not Sunday. Secondly, the Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath (Exodus 16:4-30). A few more chapters later, they were commanded again to keep the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11) as part of the 10 commandments. After about 38 years, Moses reviews the 10 commandments with the Jews (not the Gentiles) but this time he introduces the 10 commandments with a historical observation.
“NOT WITH OUR FATHERS” says Moses. The fathers of the Jewish nation were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Acts 13:3). These three fathers of the Jewish nation were not commanded to keep the Sabbath. “The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today. The LORD spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire,” (Deut. 5:2-4).
TO WHOM? To whom was the 10 Commandments given? To the Jews at the mountain who the Lord spoke, “face to face”, and from that generation of the Jews onward. “So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever” (Exodus 31:16-17).
About 1500 years after Moses when Jesus dies upon the cross, Christians are to die to the Law of Moses. Just like a woman can’t be married to two men, so you can’t be in a covenant with Moses and Christ at the same time. Choose one or the other. If you are going to follow Christ, then die to the Law of Moses. “So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” (Romans 7:3-4).
Recently someone called the church building and requested the church to start keeping the Sabbath. That if we kept the Sabbath they would come and join us. But if we are going to bind one thing from the Law of Moses, we must keep it all (Galatians 5:3). If we did that, “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” (Gal. 5:4). We are not Moses’ disciples, but Christ’s. Dan Peters