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Author Topic: Sabbath in Stone Approach  (Read 3776 times)

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Colin

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Sabbath in Stone Approach
« on: October 05, 2015, 05:53:55 AM »

Dear Forum

I have just read through once again a transcription of one of the topics of the Mobile Conference 2006  part 5 and in it I saw where Ray had addressed some of the themes that have appeared in recent posts.   I include the first portion of it for any who may have missed it.  Perhaps Kat can provide a link to it for us from her archives; I have searched in my limited listings without success.

Transcription of Mobile Conference 2006/part 5


How many have heard this poem, “If Jesus Came to Your House”?  It’s a little silly - in some ways, but not in others…that’s why I am going to present it to you.

If Jesus came to your house, to spend a day or two
If He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you’d do
Oh, I know you’d give your nicest room to such an honoured guest
And all the food you’d serve Him would be the very best
And you would keep assuring Him you’re glad to have Him there
And serving Him in your house - a joy beyond compare.

But when you saw Him coming, did you meet Him at the door
With arms outstretched to welcome in your heavenly visitor
Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in
Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where they’d been
Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t heard
And wish you hadn’t uttered that last loud nasty word.

Would you hide your worldly music and get some hymnbooks out
Could you let Jesus come right in or would you rush about
Oh I wonder if the Stranger came to spend the day with you
Would you just go on doing all the things you always do
Would you go right on saying the things you always say?
Would life for you continue as it does now day to day?
Would your family conversation keep up its usual pace?
Or would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace ?

Would you sing the songs you always sing and read the books you read
And let Him know the things on which your mind and spirit feeds
Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you plan to go
Or would you maybe change your plan for just a day or so
Would you be glad to have Him meet with all your closest friends
Or would you hope they’d stay away until His visit ends

Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on
Or would you sigh a great relief when He at last was gone
It might be interesting to know the things that you would do
If Jesus came in person to spend the day with you.

It’s kind of a silly poem and I even wonder if the person who wrote it, just wrote it because it was a sentiment.   Here’s the point I want to make about that; this is the way too many people and Christians look at religion.  It’s right to have the “right” magazines out, you make these physical changes – you clean up, you hide the whisky bottle, hide whatever risqué magazines and do this and get all “straightened up”.  And then you say, “OK, now I’m ready for the Lord” - but here’s a fact, though – think about it.  What if Christ would really come into your house today – are you ready, or would you scurry about doing some of these things to put on a fake façade?  Well….it’s too late!   

 He has already been to your house this morning…it’s too late.  In fact He’s at your house every morning, every afternoon, every night.   Because God is not a man…God is spirit and He’s everywhere – you are in Him and He is in you.  Remember the [analogy of] fish in the ocean, the birds in the sky [which I gave earlier].  It’s just so stupid to act like an ostrich and bury your head in the sand (they think because they can’t see you, then you can’t see them).  My cats do that sometimes…one goes and hides its head round the corner someplace and its whole back-end is sticking out and it thinks the other cats won’t see it.  Then they come and jump on it and it wonders, “How did you know I was there”?   
It’s just plain stupid to play games with God and religion - to think that you can fool Him.    Or that if you sin more at night, then He won’t see you because it’s darker.  But don’t think we don’t think that way, because I know I did.   For me, it was easier to sin at night, because if I couldn’t see God, He probably had trouble in seeing me too. Not exactly consciously think that, but it’s “kind of there”.  And you certainly feel that about other people.  If a man is going to cheat on his wife, he would probably do it at night, because it’s not so easy to get caught.  So if we have this mentality that somehow we can fool God, or play religion  - pretend to be something that we’re not – it’s just plain stupid.   Give it up.  God sees you for what you are, so if you’re having problems and you have some weaknesses….that’s OK, everybody does…but don’t pretend you don’t – don’t try to fool yourself or other people, or God that you don’t.   I don’t mean that if you have some problem that you should flaunt it, but don’t act as though it’s not there or nobody can see it.  You don’t need to be that concerned about what people think, because people don’t judge properly.       God does. 

Matthew 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.   

What is the Father’s will; how did Jesus do the Father’s will; how must we do the Father’s will?
Some of the high points of the Father’s will:  God is making mankind in His own spiritual image…that’s the big thing.  It was NOT completed back in the garden [of Eden].  That’s why we learn in the New Testament that we are to be fashioned into the image of His Son.  If we already were, then we don’t have to be - but we’re NOT!   We DO have to be fashioned into His Son.  He is the only One that has been spiritually fashioned into the every image of God.  God has given us the experience of good and evil.  He calls out a chosen elect from among the called to be spiritually converted and regenerated - become new creatures, begotten anew, to have the mind of Christ…to produce spiritual fruit, to come out of the world, grow in grace and knowledge….this is what God wants.  This is His will; it’s why He created the human race.
  All of these things “conversion”, “coming out of the world”, “growing in grace and knowledge” “producing spiritual fruits” - it’s all to bring you to the point where you are more like God all the time. That’s the way God is.   These are the principles by which God exists.

 Love….. and all of these things.   Love being the greatest of all the fruits of God’s spirit.

We can find a couple of scriptures in the Bible, which will tell us in a nutshell what it is that we are to do and what it is that God wants.
One main one would be in Romans 12.
Romans 12:1-2   I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable [intelligent] service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

In these two verses, here is the will of God for our life.  There it is – that’s the purpose for our human life.   Turn yourself over to God as a sacrifice.  If you sacrifice yourself to God, you can’t be concerned about all the “good things” you want to happen to you hourly and daily and by the minute.  All the scintillating and exciting things….just a happy, happy life and all of that. 

It’s not wrong to be happy  - God says He’s happy…the scriptures talk about the “happy God”.  The thing is, when you DO surrender, this brings more contentment than you think will make you happy.   Most things that you think will make you happy DO have a certain satisfaction while you’re doing it.  And afterward, they often have a “let-down”.   Depending on how gross a pleasure you’re seeking, they can have a huge let-down.  When you get into things that, say, will destroy a marriage – like where a man or a woman sexually cheats on their mate – where a woman wants somebody to adore her and her husband doesn’t show her any real affection …or the man thinks his wife is frigid and he wants somebody a little younger and sexy – whatever it is….and then they have this little interlude for an hour a day, a week or maybe for a couple of months on the sly – and every time they feel guilty and cheap and dirty ….but then as a day or two goes by, and their hormones regenerate … they look forward to the next encounter.
But then there’s the same “let-down”….

When you stop doing that stuff, and then you are even tempted… just don’t let yourself do it.  A day goes by and you say, “Wow, I’m so glad I didn’t do that…I was tempted; I’m glad, but I didn’t.
And you feel better…and that’s the way you should live.
If you want to start and have a little joy and satisfaction, fulfilment and peace in your life, clean up your conscience.
And the only way you can do that is don’t go anywhere you shouldn’t go; don’t do anything you shouldn’t do; don’t say anything you shouldn’t say; don’t think anything you shouldn’t think.     And pretty soon, you’re going to have a clean conscience and you’re going to feel good about that and the longer you feel good about that, the longer you will continue and want to feel good about that – and pretty soon you’re going to be living the spiritual life.   Because there are rewards for obedience.  And there are automatic judgments for obedience, not to mention the long-range judgments of God.  If you’re disobedient, you won’t be in the first resurrection, you’ll come up in judgment.
And that judgment will be much more severe and difficult than it is, if you volunteer now.   Some have said, “I thought that it was God who can’t volunteer”.    God volunteers and you volunteer.  It’s as simple as that.   So, there it is.
Romans 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed….
You have to renew your mind.  Your mind has to have Christ’s mind in you as a new mind.  You have to turn round…repent means to turn round to a different direction…and go in a new direction.  You have to be “born again” as they say; although most of the time that should be “conceived” or “begotten”.  You have to be begotten anew from above.   It says in the KJV “except a man be born again”   - but that “again” is only about half-right.  It means born anew, but the connotation is “from above”.  That word “again” doesn’t quite cover it.   You are begotten anew from above….from God.  From a spiritual conception. 
Here’s a great verse…..
Galatians 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:
This sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not.   This is spiritual…we are not crucified with Christ [literally].
Romans 6:3   Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death?
But we don’t really die…. Paul knew we don’t actually die.   He says, “reckon yourselves to be dead.
Romans 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So that when you live, you can’t sin ….why?   Because you reckon yourselves that you died to
sin….so - some of us forget to reckon.  We forget to reckon that we “died with Christ”.   We need to reckon!   If you’re dead, you can’t sin…if you’re reckoning yourself dead to sin, if you’re crucified with Christ, you can’t come up a sinner….you’re nailed to the cross with sin, with Christ.  He died for our sins, but remember that was only part of it.  He didn’t HAVE to die.  He did die for our sins, but He didn’t have to!   He died because He loves us.   How could God show us that He understands our low estate? Except that HE had been there himself?   That’s an amazing thing – that God, through Christ….I don’t think that God the Father could become a physical man; He is the ultimate divine deity of the universe – the creator of all.  Christ is His first creation.  And what can be created can be refashioned.  But He didn’t do it against Christ’s will. Christ agreed and so it says He emptied Himself in Philippians 2:7  But made himself of no reputation [Greek kenoo = make empty], and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
How did He do that?  I don’t know.  But it was done  - He was “made empty”, for a short time (33 years) lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
Hebrews 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little [Greek brachus = for a short while] lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
That’s the only reason He was made lower than the angels because they are spirit and they don’t die.   He “emptied Himself” of life beyond human life.  God put a spirit in Him when He conceived Christ in Mary’s womb, so there was spirit there; He was conceived; conception is life. He continued to grow until He was born.  But that was not immortality or the spirit life of God – it was only a spirit to keep alive that piece of flesh for a certain period of time like we all have.  Somehow God reduced Him down to be able to do that.   I don’t know how He did it - we have to accept these things on faith, because God’s word says it.   

Owing to the length, I will need to stop at this point.....I can post the rest in sections, if desired.  I await to hear from the moderators for further advice.   To this point, approximately 40% of the transcript is supplied.         Colin
 



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octoberose

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Re: Sabbath in Stone Approach
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2015, 02:39:34 PM »

Really great post. Thank you.  :)
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Colin

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Re: Sabbath in Stone Approach
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2015, 12:35:21 AM »

Second part of transcript (with overlap)

He “emptied Himself” of life beyond human life.  God put a spirit in Him when He conceived Christ in Mary’s womb, so there was spirit there; He was conceived; conception is life. He continued to grow until He was born.  But that was not immortality or the spirit life of God – it was only a spirit to keep alive that piece of flesh for a certain period of time like we all have.  Somehow God reduced Him down to be able to do that.   I don’t know how He did it - we have to accept these things on faith, because God’s word says it.       

************************
 
Now, when we say we have to make ourselves a living sacrifice …we have to put on the new mind, the new creature, be converted, be regenerated, be begotten anew, grow in grace and knowledge, each of us is to produce spiritual fruit…how do we do that?

Well, don’t think that any of it can be done outside of Ephesians 2.
Ephesians 2:8-10  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship [achievement], created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

People get confused here; they say, “well, we can’t do it and then you get up there and say, ‘here’s what we have to do’…….but you say, you can’t do it …so, I might as well fold up my tent and go home.    I’ll go home and watch the football game.    If you want me to do something spiritual, you’ll just have to make me do it, that’s all!   Because I know I can’t do it - my works can’t accomplish anything….it’s God’s achievement in me?”

 Let’s back up a little bit here:

Nobody can come to Christ except God drags you (the KJV says “draws you”  John 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek helkuo = drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.)
God has obviously dragged you all here [to this Bible study].  Then we read that Christ said, “You haven’t chosen me” John 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.   And you respond, “I thought I did”.

No – He said, “I chose you - that’s how you thought you chose me”.  Since you understand, it’s both true.  He chose you and when He did, you thought you chose Him.  Well, you did!  But it was only because He did it.   But you had to do it!   People can’t understand that…how is it God tells us we have to do it and then He tells us we can’t (aren’t able to)?  That’s really got to be a contradiction….NO, it’s not.  It’s just a spiritual understanding that you need. 
God says in 1 Corinthians 1:21  For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Who get saved by the foolishness of preaching?  Those who believe.  How do you believe?

Ephesians 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
It’s a gift of God.  But when He gives you the gift - you DO believe.  And how does He get you to think about doing things ….by the foolishness of preaching.  The foolishness of me getting up here and talking about this “stuff” will actually cause some of you to go out and DO these things.  But it’s not YOU doing it – and it’s not me causing you to do it – it’s all of God!   This is the thing that people “can’t get”. 

Well, if I can’t do it, and God says, “it’s only through Him that it can be done, then why must I even desire or think about doing anything” – because that‘s the way God makes you do it!           He makes you do it His way.  Even though you say, No, I’ve got this intellectually figured out now.  Ray says, I can’t do it - God says I should do it and that I CAN do it – so I’m not going to even think about doing it…..

You CAN’T not care!    If you think along these lines, you’re thinking carnally!  You can’t not care when scriptures are read out loudly and it goes in your ear…and the spirit of God is working in you – you CAN’T not care!   You can TRY not to care - God will MAKE you care.  GOD IS ABLE.
We have to understand that; it is not difficult – but it is spiritual. 

This is an email I received…. “Just wondering…if we don’t have free will, what is the purpose of our living our lives?  Also, if there’s no hell, how could Jesus have gone there…and again what is the purpose of our living our lives - if everyone will be saved ANYWAY? 

I’m going to do an article and entitle it “The dumbest question I’ve ever been asked”.
Not to sound haughty, I want people to realise just how dumb that question is.  And it is an embarrassment to anybody who would think anything so dumb.  That if God wants to save you, that somehow He needs your permission.  Or that if you don’t want Him to save you, then He cannot.  Or if He’s going to do it “anyhow”, you’re not going to worry about living His way etc etc.

All of this assumes that you are greater than God, which is not true!   When God decides to move in your life, not only is He moved …YOU MOVE!   You can’t NOT move.  I see my life and see how God has operated in my life -  He took me to places where I did some of the dumbest most embarrassing things that you could think of.  WHY?  So that when He started revealing truth to me, I would be embarrassed to tears for ever doing such “junk”.  I wasn’t all that embarrassed when I did some of that stuff, but when He showed me what it amounted to - then I was  - but that’s good!   So if you’ve done some dumb, lustful and nasty things in your life, be thankful that you see it as such, because if you don’t see it as such, you’ll never want to change.  God doesn’t MAKE you change.  God puts circumstances in your life so that He brings about things so that you WANT to change.   People say, “well, if I believe like you, then I’d just go out and get drunk and “wine, women and song”, you know. 
 
NO….if you believed like me, you would live exactly like ME.  How could you be so stupid as to say “if I believed like you, I would live different from you”?    No you wouldn’t!  If you were me and believed like me, you would do exactly like me.   How stupid can we get?   God is almighty.  When God wants to work a change in your life, you WILL change!   But He won’t force it on you.  He’ll make you WANT to.

I get these theologians all the time writing to me and just religious hobbyists who have not a spiritual bone in their body and they say “well, you say that we have no free will; are you saying God forces us to love Him?  I don’t think that God wants anybody whom He has to force to love Him.   If we can’t love Him by our own free-will….that [kind of] love…it’s got to be love from our own free-will, THEN it’s good love”. 

I write back and I say, “Do you have a wife?  Do you have children?  Do they love you?  Yes?
WHY do they love you?  Do you force them to love you?  Do you demand and MAKE them love you???   Or do they love you with some “fabled scriptural free-will” …is that how they love you? If I asked your wife (say Mary) “why do you love your husband (John)”?  How would you feel if she said, “I have no reason to love John at all”?   Well, what makes you love him?  “Nothing”
How would you feel if your wife said that?   “There’s nothing he does – there’s nothing about him that makes me love him”    Would you feel good about that?   I try to get people to think rationally. And the only rational thinking is spiritual thinking.   What makes your children love you?  “Nothing”
Well then, why do they love you?   
My children love me because I love them first.  They felt that love; my wife loves me – a lot of it, because I love her.  I show my love.  I do things for her.  I’m concerned how she feels; I ask her how she feels eight or ten times a day; I ask if she’s all right, ask if she needs anything….a drink, some juice…and I do this all the time and she feels that.   Those are things that make her love me.   You can’t help but love someone, when they do things that make you love them.  Why can’t you carry that idea over to God?  When God loves you and does good things to you, and for you, you will love Him because those are the things that make you love Him.

The next time someone says, “well – if we don’t have free-will, then what kind of love can we love anybody with, if we are “forced” …..don’t use that word “forced”.  Forced is a bad word…it sounds like it’s against your will….you don’t love your wife against your will – it’s according TO your will.
But to say that there’s nothing in my wife that makes me love her is an insult; you would never tell your wife or your mother “there’s nothing about you that makes me love you”  WHAT??!

Yet people email me like I’m the stupid one!   And do you know that with everybody to whom I have sent back that analogy about their mother or their wife or their children – I never heard from any one of them, ever again.   Now they could have come back with “here’s where you’re wrong”; I don’t think I’ll find the place where I was wrong.  Or they could write back and say “what an a@@ I’ve been, to think that way.  I’m sorry – I see it”.   How many of those do you think I get?  I know of at least two or maybe three…out of nearly fifty thousand.  I got one from a person who was embarrassed that he had sent the email he did and admitted he had been haughty and was wrong. 
 
Everything has to be done according to Ephesians…..we’re saved by grace , through faith and that’s NOT out of you – that’s the faith that comes from Christ.  You read all the scriptures about the “saving faith” in the Bible and it’s always the faith OF Christ, not your faith IN Christ.  It’s the FAITH OF CHRIST that saves you.  HIS faith saves you  - NOT your faith in Him.

Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

That is NOT a proper translation.    The better ones have not that all things work together  -  NO, all things don’t work together;  God works all things….they left the word GOD out …theos should be in there.  It’s in the manuscripts.  Things don’t just “work out together”.  God works all things together for good, for those that love Him. That’s how it’s done.
God loves us and we have to love God.  We have to do His will.  His will, pretty much, revolves around loving Him.  You can’t do God’s will unless you love Him.  And you can’t love Him if you don’t do His will.  And if you don’t love Him or do His will, you’re not going to be in the kingdom of God - you’ll come up in judgment.

 You’ll get straightened out in judgment, but it’s not the best way to go.  That’s why the scriptures refer to the first resurrection as the better resurrection.

Hebrews 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
  It’s better.
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Colin

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Re: Sabbath in Stone Approach
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2015, 09:13:00 PM »

This completes the transcript  (includes overlap)

 You’ll get straightened out in judgment, but it’s not the best way to go.  That’s why the scriptures refer to the first resurrection as the better resurrection.

Hebrews 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
  It’s better.

***************              ******************


1 John 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Now we get a little more specific as to what the love of God is.

1 John 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1 John 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous  [not burdensome]
So, we used to talk in nebulous terms why God is love or why we should love God…that has a meaning.  There has to be something that represents love….what IS it?  What does it do?  If you love God, you’ve got to keep His commandments.
What commandments?   Whatever He commands us to do.

Now - we have a New Covenant.   Does a New Covenant do away with all the old commandments?  No - it really doesn’t.   Nowhere does it say, “I will give my people a New Covenant made up with new laws.   Think about it.    He doesn’t say that.   
What in a nutshell is the New Covenant?   As opposed to the Old? 
God says that we should love Him ….from the heart.  But you can’t love Him from the heart if you have a corrupt heart….while you have a carnal mind.    You can’t.  God gave Moses and Israel the commandments…the Ten Commandments are the Old Covenant.  There were other laws, but only the Ten Commandments were inside the ark [of the covenant].  All the others were on the outside of the ark.  And God says in Deuteronomy 5:29  O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

“O that there were such an heart in them…”   -  WHY?     That they would …. keep all my commandments always.
Didn’t they keep the commandments?    Well…sort of.    Not all Israel went around murdering – not all Israel went around fornicating with their neighbour’s wife – not all Israel sat back and cursed their parents  - they all pretty much rested on the Sabbath, except sometimes they got off that and got punished and ended up in captivity – most of them didn’t have graven images that they would bow down to.  So, what’s wrong?  Didn’t they do a pretty good job, overall, in keeping the Ten Commandments?    No – they didn’t.

And the reason why, is because they understood the commandments like Moses gave them to them – chiselled in rock. 
When a US judge (Judge Moore) put up the Ten Commandments in front of the Courthouse, they were chiselled in rock…this big hunk of rock weighed about 2 to 3 tons…when they went to move it, one man had cried out, ‘you are taking away my God’.   That rock “was his god”, his idol.  The Ten Commandments hanging up can be an idol.  The church has made kind of an idol out of the Ten Commandments.   They want to display them and put them up [on a wall], chisel them in rock, shove them in your face.   That’s the way Israel understood them.   Jesus Christ came along and Paul came along and said, “whoa – you missed the boat”. 
 
Romans 7:14   For we know that the law [of Moses] is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
How do you carve a spiritual law in a block of rock?   But then in …..1 Corinthians…..   
It’s the same law.  You don’t keep a spiritual law the way you keep the letter of the law, chiselled in rock.
 
[The law says] you shall have no other gods before Me….you shall not make any graven images….so, people say OK, no graven images in my house….we’re talking SPIRITUAL graven images – other things, not statues or carved-out figures that look like some [imagined] god  -  it’s things that you put ahead of God….your work, your hobby, your pleasures - whatever they may be, THOSE are the idols.
You don’t take the name of God in vain by verbally saying Jesus Christ, or God in a damn-ful way – that’s the letter chiselled in stone; His name represents something and if you don’t live by what it represents you’re taking His name in vain.   It’s SPIRITUAL. 

The SDA’s and other groups virtually make a whole religion out of the fact that they know they keep the “right Sabbath day”….Saturday.   And they go so far as to say that Sunday keeping is the “Mark of the Beast”.   If you keep Sunday, you’ve got the mark of the Beast [they say]….. 
“You’ve got to keep Saturday…and that’s Friday sunset to Saturday sunset”.  That’s how you keep the Sabbath [they say].    That’s how you keep the Sabbath, in a “chiselled in stone” manner.

 But it’s SPIRITUAL.  Jesus Christ didn’t keep it that way.  He and His disciples went out and were walking on the Sabbath, probably more than a “Sabbath day’s journey” because they were out in the cornfields …out of the city…they were in the corn fields… they were plucking ears of corn…harvesting, which you were not allowed to do on the Sabbath …then He healed a man and said, “pick up your bed and carry it” and you weren’t allowed to carry a burden on the Sabbath day.    That’s the chiselled in stone approach.
They accused Him of breaking the Sabbath and He said, “I am the Lord of the Sabbath.”   He knew more about Sabbath keeping than they would ever know.  The Sabbath Day is SPIRITUAL and you’re all breaking it, He told them.
Sabbath is a rest…..when you keep the spiritual Sabbath – the fourth commandment, spiritually, you rest from your works.
What did we read in Ephesians?   Ephesians 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
People have the idea - “I will have brought about my salvation by my “Sabbath keeping works”. My work is the resting on each weekly Sabbath from sunset to sunset….that is “my work”.

No -  you can’t be saved by that.
If you keep the Sabbath chiselled in stone, you probably are breaking the spiritual Sabbath. 

People ask me, “Do you keep the Sabbath?”  I answer, every day.   I don’t stop “doing my work” and allow God to work in me only from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset  - that’s the chiselled in stone [approach].   But that’s not the way God wants us to keep that law.  He wants us to keep that law in our heart.   Because if you keep the law in your heart, you won’t do anything wrong and you won’t even have to have a physical reminder hanging on a wall.  I don’t need to have the Ten Commandments hanging on my office wall to remind me that I shouldn’t kill people.  The churches “hang it up there” on show - that’s all right to teach children.  Some ways you have to teach one-year-olds or two-year-olds that they shouldn’t lie, they’ve got to be good to mummy and daddy, and to share toys….they are not to covet your neighbour’s baby’s toy….sometimes you teach them that, according to the way they are “chiselled in rock”.   That’s for children.

Galatians 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

When you come to Christ, it says you then live by faith….and at a higher level.  Now when you go to grammar school, you learn simple mathematics and you learn grammar and you learn a little history, science….you learn all these things.  But when you go to graduate school, at University you don’t carry around in your bookcase or whatever a “times-table” with 2x2 = 4; 2x3=6; it was something that brought you to graduate school and now you’re going to learn quantum mechanics or nuclear physics.  You need that background but that’s not the way you live.  You don’t live in the background, you don’t live in your youth – you progress to something spiritual.
So, if somebody asks me, “do you keep the Sabbath”? ….my answer is “every day”!

Every day I don’t do my work any more.  God does His work in me; that’s how we rest and spiritually keep the Sabbath.  You let God do the work and you stop your work.

Ephesians 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast
I do keep the Sabbath, but not the way it was chiselled in stone.  The chiselled in stone approach is the “letter” and it kills.   The “written in your heart” is spiritual and it’s life.
Ephesians 6:6-7   Not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:

Don’t fool yourself that a lot of physical “Christian activity” means you are making spiritual progress.  It does not.  We’re talking about the heart and the mind being converted, regenerated.   Being begotten again – going in a different direction, being on a higher level….. as the servants of Christ. 
If you’re a servant of Christ, He’s your Lord. 
Luke 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
[Jesus says] Why pretend to be my servants…call me Lord, Lord…why do you do that and not do the things I say?  We have many, many pages of what God says….that’s what we are to do.  The way that Christ lived…that’s the way we’re supposed to live.  He set us the example.   Now, how do we do that?

 If God is calling you and God is selecting you out, God is working with you and you have the spirit of God – He will be doing these things in you; eventually you will have the victory.  It will come. I suppose you can have ups and downs – I haven’t had any real “downs’ since God has let me have dominion over sin, rather than sin having dominion over me.   I haven’t had any let-downs.   I don’t know if any are coming, but I haven’t had any. I have not gone “down in the doldrums” and spiritually thought “oh woe is me’ - I just haven’t and I hope I never do.   
There are many scriptures about how we are to love God.   If you want to know how you’re supposed to live – read the Sermon on the Mount, if you’re going to do the will of God.  The commandments are still there   - when the rich young man came to Him, Christ told Him “keep the commandments”   Which ones?  He started listing them…don’t commit adultery, don’t murder….we know where they came from ….  They’re the Ten Commandments.

 James talked about a couple of the Ten Commandments; Paul rattled off most of the Ten Commandments.  They’re not done away…they’re written in your heart.  You put them on a higher level.  There’s nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments…it says “thou shalt not murder – but you’ve got to take it further.  Christ said, if you’re angry at your brother without a cause you’re a murderer.  You see what happens when you keep the commandments up here in your heart, rather than down there on a rock… When you keep them “up here”, you don’t have to ever worry about murdering somebody, because usually murder is “step 3” or “step 4”. 
First you get angry at somebody – then you figure out how to get revenge – then you work out a plan to do it and then you say “well, I might as well “knock him off”.   But if you’re keeping the commandments (up here) in your heart you won’t even get angry with him.  How are you going to murder him when you have no reason in your heart to do it?  You’ll never progress to “step 3” or “step 4” and finally murder.  You nipped it in the bud by obeying “don’t be angry without a cause”.

Don’t have hatred in your heart.  You can be angry sometimes…you can be angry at a situation – just don’t let it spill over to where you start to hate the person.   Because then you’ll be getting out of line and losing your spiritual balance.  And then, maybe you won’t even go as far as wanting to murder somebody, but you’ll just hope he dies in a horrible automobile accident.
We try to “cheat God”.  I know people who are so meticulous about the “higher commandments” - the real “tough commandment” …..
Matthew 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Matthew 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
I know people who would teach that to the hilt.  That [kind of] person would never think to have a gun, that if an enemy approached he would shoot them…NEVER.    But he does have a mean Rottweiler.
So  - is there any difference?  You’ve got a gun…I’ve got a Rottweiler.   That’s fooling yourself, not fooling God.   Talk about a converted heart…the carnal mind will devise ways to pretend it’s keeping the “higher commandments” - it’s NOT.  People come up with trickery, tomfoolery, as they say.   



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