The Sabbath Day: Our Choice or God's Choice?

One of my favorite Bible stories is the one where God commanded King Saul to attack Amalek and kill everything - people and animals. Somehow, though, King Saul thought God would surely understand why he chose to spare the king and the best of the sheep and cattle. He explained to Samuel, the prophet, how he was going to honor God by using these animals to worship Him through their sacrifices to Him.

Samuel then said in I Samuel 15:22&23 - "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry..."

What does this story have to do with apostasy and lawlessness? I believe that disobedience in one thing makes it much easier to be disobedient in others. In fact, Paul said that if we break just one commandment - we're guilty of breaking all of them. Suppose you have a chain bracelet with 10 links - all hooked together around your wrist. If you break one of those links - the whole bracelet falls apart!

So, when God specifically says in Exodus 20:10 that "the 7th day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work...", then why do we as Christians think that keeping the first day of the week as the "Lord's Day" is going to be acceptable to Him? Aren't we sounding a little like Saul by justifying our disobedience to Him? What is it that makes it so hard for us to be obedient to the voice of the Lord our God? Is it because we "fear the people" as Saul said he did in I Sam. 15:24 or is it because we are "saved by grace" and have no fear of God before our eyes? At this point, it becomes easy "to do what is right in our own eyes" as the book of Judges reveals.

Before there will be a revival in the U.S., God's people must come to the realization that we are either slaves of righteousness (law-keepers, obedience) or we are slaves of unrighteousness (law-breakers, disobedient). There is no room for discussion when it comes to obeying the voice of the Lord our God. As the words of the old hymn say, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."

Apostasy and Uncircumcised Hearts

The problem with Christians today is that we all have "heart disease". Our "Want-Tos" are broken! We need to stop asking, "Why we don't go to church?" and start asking, "Why we don't WANT to go to church?" Stop asking, "Why we don't read our Bibles and pray every day?" and start asking, "Why we don't WANT to read our Bibles and pray every day?" Let's stop asking, "Why we don't obey God's commandments?" and start asking, "Why don't we WANT to obey God's commandments?"

One evening I was babysitting my 3 grandchildren. While I was reading stories to the 2 older ones, my almost 3 year old granddaughter kept climbing on the arm of the couch and sliding down it - very close to a lamp on their end table. Fearing the lamp was going to get broken and knowing her parents would not approve of this, I told her to stop. This is what came out of my darling, most-loved little granddaughter's mouth: "I don't WANT to and I don't HAVE to"! I think this is the perfect picture of the "heart disease" in Christianity today.

John 14:21 says, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me." Speaking of the last days we're in right now, Ezekiel 11: 19, & 20 says, "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God." If we have accepted God's grace shed for us on the cross through Jesus Christ, then we should have new hearts within us; hearts that WANT to do what God says instead of hearts of stone that continually rebel or question why we HAVE to do what He says in His Word.

Most theologians equate the Apostasy with "the falling away" mentioned in 2 Thess. 2:3. It's interesting that this "falling away" is linked with "sin/lawlessness". What are the Christians of today "falling away" from? They are falling away from not only their obedience to God's laws, but also from having hearts that WANT to obey the voice of the Lord their God and spending personal, quality time with Him. My heart's cry as I've been learning to do this blog is that I don't get so consumed with this blog that I forget to spend time with God in HIS Word and not someone else's word about Him! In order for there to be a revival in this land, God's people need to let God put "His knife" to their hearts and circumcise them. Only then will we have hearts to know Him and love Him no matter what He commands of us.

What Has Apostasy Done With the Love of God?

By this question, I'm not talking about God's love for us. What is the proof, according to the Bible, that we love God? The answer may surprise you as we don't hear it mentioned in our churches very often any more. In 1 John 5:3 (NKJV) it says, "For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome." What are the commandments that John is referring to? Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments." What are the commandments that Jesus is referring to? 2 John verse 6 says, "This is love, that we walk according to His commandments." Since the New Testament had not been written yet, both Jesus (Who is God in the flesh) and John had to be referring back to the Old Testament commandments - in particular, the Ten Commandments. God knows we love Him when we are obedient to His commandments!

I know as "New Testament Christians" we've been taught that there are only two commandments that we must obey: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." And, "Love your neighbor as yourself." However, if you look at Matt. 22:40, Jesus says - "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." I call this the "Curtain Rod of Love".

Remember my title to this post is "What is the Love of God?" On this "Curtain Rod of Love", I see a divider in the middle. On the left side of this divider "hang" the four commandments out of the Ten Commandments which refer to "Loving the Lord Your God with all your heart, etc." These four are as follows: 1) You shall have no other gods before Me; 2) You shall not make a carved image or bow down to it; 3) You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; and 4) Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.

On the right side of the divider "hang" the other six commandments out of the Ten Commandments which refer to "Loving your neighbor as yourself." These six are: 5) Honor your father and your mother; 6) You shall not murder; 7) You shall not commit adultery; 8) You shall not steal; 9) You shall not lie; and 10) You shall not covet.

If you notice, Jesus (Who is God in the flesh and Who wrote the Ten Commandments in stone with His finger) in no way whatever "did away with" the Ten Commandments. He just confirmed that they were ALL still in effect and we are still required to obey them today! He put them into two categories: Love your God and Love your Neighbor.

So, let me ask you - how are you doing in showing your love for God? We need to remember that God is a Holy God. (Lev. 19:2) God has a Holy Name. (Isa. 57:15) God has a Holy Place. (Psa. 47:8; 48:1) God has a Holy People (Deut. 7:6; I Pet. 1:15,16), and God has a Holy Day - the Sabbath Day. (Ex. 20:8-11) A couple of years ago, God showed me that He never moved His rest day to the first day of the week. In fact, He was resting on His Sabbath Day in the grave, the day before His resurrection!! So if God never moved the Sabbath Day to the first day of the week, by what authority do we have to be moving it to Sunday or any other day of the week? God is a Holy God and expects His Holy People to honor His Holy Day - the Sabbath Day. Exodus 20:10 makes it very clear exactly what day that is: "But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work;"

Jesus (God in the flesh) is coming back very soon. He's coming back for His Holy People who show their love for Him by obeying His Ten Commandments - all of them! Isa. 66:23 tells us that we will be keeping His Sabbath when He comes and sets up His kingdom on earth. "Lawless Grace" tries to tell us we can be disobedient because these laws don't apply to us today. However, if we love Him as we claim we do - why would we not want to obey Him by honoring His Sabbath as a holy day and a day of rest?

Apostasy and Fearless Grace

I felt the need to do this post on "Fearless Grace" because it goes right along with "Lawless Grace". Prov. 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge". It seems once we take away the "fear of the Lord", it becomes relatively simple to then start taking away His laws. If we believe that God's grace saved us once and for all through the blood of Jesus Christ - then we no longer need to worry about being obedient to His laws. You know, "Once saved - always saved". Right? Well, maybe not.

I found a little phrase in Hebrews 10:29 that kind of bothers me, and maybe it should bother you as well. It says that we can be guilty of "insulting the Spirit of grace". How do we do that? By "counting the blood of the covenant by which we are sanctified a common thing." God said, "Vengeance is Mine. I will repay". (vs. 30) And again, "The Lord will judge His people." (vs. 30) In verse 31 it says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Since these verses are talking to God's people, why then would God be telling His people to be fearful of Him if grace will cover His people - no matter whether we are obedient or disobedient?

When we remove the fear of the Lord from our lives, we think we don't have to worry about being obedient to His laws. You see, it was because of the law - the covenant, that Jesus died for us. So when we treat the law of the covenant as a "common thing" - we are "trampling underfoot the Son of God". (Heb. 10:29) Also, when we remove the fear of the Lord from our lives, we have no urgency to tell others about Jesus Christ and the need to be saved from the fires of hell. We have been so deceived into believing that God is only a God of love, and therefore, we have nothing to fear! We then become lukewarm, complacent, and become compromising with the world system.

Philippians 2:12 says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." The two previous verses tell us why. Because "at the name of Jesus every knee will bow...and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord." Obedience and the fear of the Lord go together. Christians - Wake up! There is a Judgment Day coming both for the saved and the unsaved. Let's stop "insulting the Spirit of Grace".

Apostasy and the Worship of Two Gods

Let me ask you who you think of when you hear the phrase, "God of the Old Testament"? Now, who do you think of when you hear the phrase, "God of the New Testament"? How about, "He's a God of love" or "He's a God of wrath"?

A few days ago I had a revelation when I read Isaiah 29:18,19 - "In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." This is saying that JESUS is the Holy One of Israel! Jesus is the God of the Old Testament, and Jesus is the God of the New Testament. (By the way, God is not the one who divided our Bible into these two sections. The Bible is ONE Book (Testament) about ONE God!)

The "finger of God" that wrote the 10 Commandments on the stone tablets (Exodus 31:18) is also the "finger of God" that Jesus said HE used to cast out demons (Luke 11:20). Just think of it, the "finger of God" which touched the deaf ears and the blind eyes is also the "finger of God" which wrote the 10 Commandments! In John 8:58 Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." So when you read the Old Testament and read "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts" - you now know WHO is speaking to you. And, when you can grasp the magnitude of that statement - not only will your reading of the Old Testament become more alive, but your life will be changed forever!

Sin Is Lawlessness

If you are an evangelical, Bible-believing Christian - then you have heard many times from the pulpit that we are to "confess our sin" as part of our salvation experience. However, how often have we heard the explanation of "sin"? We're told we are sinners, but what is sin?

One day as I was spending time in the Bible, I came across I John 3:4 "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." (NKJV) In order for there to be "lawlessness" - there must first be a "law". What laws are we guilty of breaking in order for us to be considered sinners in God's sight? Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." (John 14:15) The 10 Commandments are part of God's Law that are still to be obeyed today.

The problem is that Christians today are being taught through various sources that God's law has been done away with because of God's grace. It's true that we are saved by God's grace through the blood of Jesus Christ, but in no way has that done away with God's law. If that were true, then God would be guilty of not only going against His own Word, but also guilty of advocating anarchy, rebelliousness, being law-breakers, etc. God would be saying, "It is OK to steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to covet, to not honor the seventh-day Sabbath, to dishonor your parents, to bow down to idols, to lie, to worship other gods, and to take God's Name in vain."

When someone who is convicted of speeding has someone pay his fine, that in no way means that the speed limit signs have now been "done away with". He is still expected TO OBEY the law. He is now expected to be a "Law-Keeper". There is a Judgment Day coming for believers and unbelievers. I have yet to see a court room with a judge - but no law. All of us will stand before God, the Judge, on Judgment Day and His Law will be The Standard for whether we are found obedient to His commands or whether we are found guilty of "lawlessness".