Unfaithfully Keeping the Sabbath pt 1

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for joining us on the program again today. We are pleased that you can make it and spend time with us as we unpack God's Word. And we look at this beautiful study today which we are calling Unfaithfully Keeping the Sabbath. Now this will be part of a two part series and this continues on from our program last week where we looked at the importance of faith and works and how people can get these two confused. Now today we can unpack that a little bit further and the Sabbath will be the center of how we understand this more fully. It's going to be a beautiful study as we normally do. According to our custom. We're just going to ask God to bless our study. So bow with us in prayer, if you will. Gracious Father in Heaven, we thank you for all your blessings. We're thankful that we again can open Your Word and come to a deeper knowledge and understanding of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior and Father. We just pray for Your Holy Spirit to be poured out on us and also on our dear listener today as we unpack these beautiful truths from Your Word is our prayer in Jesus name. Amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Now Braedan, last time as we were just closing the program, we went to a text, which is a fascinating little text and it talks about faith and works. And it actually says there in Galatians chapter five and verse six, it says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything. But what does avail something? It says, but faith working through love. So these things that the Jews were doing, they're the circumcision and saying that unless you circumcise, you couldn't be saved. Paul's actually saying whether you're circumcised or uncircumcised, that's actually not the important matter. He's talking about the deep spiritual matters of the law. He's not talking about the superficial stuff that are supposed to symbolize things that lie much deeper than that. He's saying circumcision uncircumcision. That wasn't that important. Now, to the Jews, we understand it was important. But if you say circumcised but you didn't have a faith that worked through agape love, which is that self sacrificing love, then he said that circumcision meant absolutely nothing. SPEAKER D That's so interesting. We have a fascination as human beings with the externals. Think about how much money is spent just on decorating our bodies and all this kind of stuff. We're very fascinated with the externals. We like to impress people by what we wear, what we do, what we say, and different things like that. Circumcision is an external thing. It's a little surgery process that removes a piece of skin. And it became so important for the Jewish people and they lost sight of what it actually meant. What I love about this, he says, it doesn't matter if you have or lack a little piece of skin. He says if you don't love people and if you don't have a faith in God, that means trusting in God and loving God and loving other people. He says whether you have that little bit of skin or not is really inconsequential. It really doesn't make a difference at all. But they had made a mountain and a massive test out of this. And the Jews were trying to get people to be circumcised, saying, if you don't get circumcised, you won't be saved. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And Paul is addressing this matter of fact. SPEAKER C There was such a big deal if we look at the church history, the early church history there, they had to call a Jerusalem Council together to discuss this because there were Jews and there were Pharisees coming together, says, even if you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, unless you circumcise, you're still not saved. And they were saying, well, this is a heresy. And then after the Jerusalem Council, they were very clear in regards to this matter, especially for the Gentiles. So this concept about circumcision and what it actually means, we can unpack that from the Old Testament because we think the New Testament gives us an insight into regards to what it really meant. But we already have Moses in Deuteronomy chapter we may as well start with Deuteronomy chapter ten and just read what he says there in Deuteronomy chapter ten and verse 16. SPEAKER D And before you read that, it's always important for us to remember why circumcision was given in the first place. SPEAKER C Yes. Good. SPEAKER D God made a promise. And we've been looking through our series of presentations that when God makes a promise, he will make good on that promise. And we can expect and depend upon Him that his promise will be accomplished. And that's faith. God said, Abraham, you will have a son. I'm going to give you. And Sarah A takes his wife Sarah's advice and takes Hagar, an Egyptian slave girl, to be his wife. And they have a child. SPEAKER C The reason they do that is because there's quite a delay between the promise being made and the son arriving. So then they're thinking, well, maybe because there's a bit of a delay, they get a little bit impatient and think, maybe God's expecting us to do something. So they decide to do something and what was it? Now you can unpack that further. Yeah. SPEAKER D So he takes another wife, which is actually contrary to God's plan that he established for humanity. And he thinks, you know what, if I have a child with her, then I'll have that child and that'll be the child of promise. And after that, God actually know, I don't actually recognize Him as your firstborn. I don't recognize Him as the child of promise. I promised you that you and your wife Sarah will have a son. And that's exactly what I plan to fulfill. And as a way to kind of safeguard Abraham and succeeding generations, he said, what I want you to do, it's going to be painful, but I want you to snip off your foreskin as a reminder that by the works of your flesh, trying to take my promises into your own hands and trying to fulfill them. It's always a road that leads down to pain and disaster. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D The real road is trusting me and not taking things into your own hands. And there's a painful reminder, just imagine being an old man and having that painful surgery done. A painful reminder of when we take God's promises into our own hands, trying to fulfill them, what happens, right? SPEAKER C And it's very important for us to actually understand the sequence of events and what led up to circumcision being added to the covenant that God had already made with Abraham. Because in chapter 15 and Abraham's called in chapter twelve, right? In chapter 15, god says, I will make a great nation from your body. And he says that when your descendants will be like the stars of heaven. And when Abraham heard this, he simply trusted God. That what God said will be the case, even though he couldn't quite see it. And it says there in Genesis chapter 15 and verse six, and he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. So simply by believing God and trusting God and expecting God to do exactly what he promised and said he would do, it was accounted in for righteousness. So if you looked in Abraham's bank or Abraham's bank at the time, what would you have seen? Righteousness, just because he believed. So what happens is now there's a little bit of a delay and then in chapter 16, he then listens to his wife and they try and help God fulfill his promise. So now there's faith working and there's works as well. But this faith and works combo actually showed an element of unbelief because they should have just relied on God to do exactly what he said he would do. They still believe, but now they think God needs a little bit of help. And this is the problem. This faith and work concept is actually an old covenant kind of response. Then in chapter 17, God meets with them. This is now ishmael is born. Right. And God says to him, listen, the way you try to fulfill the covenant, that was not the promise. I said I would do it. The Son of Promise would come. This is not a son of promise. This is a son of works based on works. This is the works of the flesh. Now, to demonstrate that, so that you'll understand that the covenant is not by works, we're going to cut the flesh off and we're going to allow you to trust in me like you previously trusted in me, because that symbolized no longer relying on the flesh to fulfill the promise, but relying on God to fulfill the promise. So this covenant of circumcision now becomes a sign of this new covenant that God had made with Abraham, but it's a continuation of the same covenant. But it was introduced because of the mistake with Hagar. SPEAKER D That's right. So it's a reminder, a painful reminder that when God makes a promise, you can trust Him completely and don't need to give Him a hand. SPEAKER C That's right. Never rely on the flesh to fulfill the promise, because we cannot. There's an impossibility, and we looked at that in some previous programs already. Now, I want to take that concept now and just see what God intended circumcision to mean. It's a sign of what it's not. The circumcision in itself was the thing that produced it's, what it represented. And we read in Deuteronomy chapter ten and verse 16 where God actually speaks to Israel. It says, therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff neck no longer, for the Lord your God is the God of Gods and the Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. So it's to remind them of God. Now, I want to go just to a few verses further, a few chapters further, deuteronomy, chapter 30 and verse six, and it gives us a deeper insight of what it really supposed to mean. Deuteronomy 30, verse six. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart. Now, who's the one doing the circumcision here? It's God. God is in the flesh. It was probably a rabbi or a priest that would do it, or a father perhaps would circumcise his son. But here it says, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants. Now, what would happen when God circumcised their hearts? It says there to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. Now, this live here is not just the temporal live, the life that we have here, which is maybe three score and ten to 70 or 80 or 90 years. This is talking about eternal life as well. And this is to happen through faith. SPEAKER D Now, this is so interesting. He talks about circumcising the heart. So he gets right down to the very core of the issue here. It'd be very simple just to think that God is satisfied to have a little bit of skin cut off the body. SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER D What he shows here is he says, what I'm really interested in doing some surgery on is your heart. I want to do surgery, a circumcision surgery on your heart. I want to cut away the flesh, cut away the earthliness, the worldliness. I want to cut away all the selfishness. And once I do that surgery on your heart, you will be able to love God and love those around you as well. And so this is getting right to the very core of the matter. Circumcision in God's mind, it's a heart matter. He says, I want to do something with your heart because it's interesting. With Abraham, when he had that little detour, that little excursion with Hagar, it was a heart issue. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D The delay in the promise, he started to get discouraged and started to get a bit restless. And his trust and dependence in God wavered and he took things into his own hand. He listened to his wife rather than listening to God. This was a heart problem. And as a result of that, the consequences were disastrous for the family. It broke the family apart. And then the painful circumcision was introduced as a reminder. So God's always been interested in the heart. The heart has always been the source of all of the problems. And so here he is. It's interesting. We're not reading from Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. We're reading from the books of Moses here. And the plan right from way back then was that God would change and circumcise the heart. God is presented as the surgeon and he's the one who's going to work to transform, to do a surgery on the heart to enable us to live loving God and loving one another. That's god's business. SPEAKER C Amen. Yes. So circumcision is to represent that love for God, and God will actually perform the circumcision of the heart. Now, the prophet Jeremiah actually talks about the New covenant. The first time we hear about the law being written in our hearts and our mind is in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 31. But in Jeremiah, chapter nine, we read something interesting that God actually says. And we're going to start in verse 25. It says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Now, if you take a mindset that some of the Jews had adapted there, if you were circumcised, you were saved, and therefore you shouldn't be punished because you're different to the other people. The uncircumcised were the unclean. If I'm circumcised, I'm obviously clean. But here God says that I will punish the circumcised with the uncircumcised. And in their mind, they're thinking, well, how is that possible? How can God punish clean people who are circumcised with the unclean? It doesn't make any sense. But then he starts listing who the uncircumcised are, talks about Egypt and Judah and Edom and the Ammonites and the Moabites from the farthest corners who dwell in the wilderness. Then it says there, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised, not in the flesh, but in the heart. It says they are uncircumcised in the heart. So what happens is, if you were circumcised in the flesh, but your heart did not change the symbol, the sign of the covenant, which is, God will give us a new heart. He will write his laws within our hearts, put them in our minds that he'll be our God and we will be his people. All that is counted as uncircumcision. So the text is very clear, because the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. That's why God could actually punish both circumcised and uncircumcised people in the flesh. SPEAKER D So this is getting right down to the core of the issue, which is not just a gentile issue. This is a human issue. We've got a problem with the heart, and we need God to do surgery in that area. We love externals and the history of Christianity. It's a beautiful one, but it's also a very sad one as well. Same with the people of Israel. A beautiful history, but also a very sad history because they got fascinated and content with the know. At one point, God says to these people, I'm sick and tired of your sacrifices. I'm sick and tired of you just coming to church and just singing my praises, while at the same time you're living a double life. You're mistreating the poor, you're neglecting the widows, you're taking bribes, you're using false balances, you're not being fair in your dealings with other people. He says, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the externals. On the outside, you convince everyone that you're fine, but I can see right through it. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D Jesus actually continued in one of the most sobering and emotional discourses that he ever had with the Pharisees. He said, you're like whitewashed tombs. He said, on the outside, you appear white and beautiful to everyone else, but on the inside, you've got dead men's bones. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D He said, you're dead. On the inside, you're absolutely dead. But on the outside, you give an impression that you're alive. And so this is a problem that has faced every human being. A sinful, rebellious heart, which we dress, we put a robe of trying to impress other people on it's. The religious externals, okay, I've done circumcision. I'm good. I've given a lamb. I'm good now. And God's like, you're missing the point. All of these symbols and ceremonies have a meaning that you don't really care to know the meaning. You're just happy to tick a box and hope, I'm good with that. God's like, unless you're willing to let me do surgery on your heart, which is very close and personal, open heart surgery. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D Unless you're willing for me to do that, you've got a terminal illness that I can't do anything about unless you let me change your heart. I need you to let me circumcise your heart. SPEAKER C That's right. Now, Jeremiah beautifully unpacked that, but if you go just a few chapters later, jeremiah, chapter 17 and verse nine, it actually tells us that the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And who can know it? Because quite often we think we know your heart. And there's even some jingles that just says, just follow your heart. It's disastrous because the Bible tells us that our heart is deceitful, it's desperately wicked, it's above all things. And then, of course, verse ten says that God is the one that will search the heart. He will test the mind, he'll make us aware of things within our own, I guess the resources of our heart, the hidden chapters of our heart that we didn't even know of. There could be some terrible things sometimes that come out and they surprise you, go, Where did that come from? I didn't realize. So God makes us aware of that. And in that same chapter, it talks about trusting God and also not trusting man. And we just looked at Abraham trusted God, but then he started looking more to himself, and he started trusting Himself to fulfill the promises, and we can be very careful of that. Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse five. Thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength. So the flesh had to be cut off, and that's where circumcision comes in. So man is cursed who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. Here the heart and the flesh comes together as well. And then in verse seven, it says, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord. So we see that very, very important connection there with the heart and with trusting the flesh and trusting humans, not trusting God. Now, I just want to make a connection here with Abraham. We've been talking about Abraham and how he was given the sign of circumcision after the Hagar incident. And we find ourselves in Romans chapter four and verse eleven. SPEAKER D Okay, we might start in verse nine. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D It says, does this and we're talking about Abraham. SPEAKER C There's a story of Abraham abraham's blessedness. SPEAKER D Yes. It says, does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised also? For we see that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How was it accounted? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. SPEAKER C Yes, we read that in chapter 15 of Genesis, and it's not until chapter 17 that he was circumcised. SPEAKER D That's right. So he was declared righteous before he was even circumcised. SPEAKER C That's correct, yes. SPEAKER D Verse eleven, it says, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had while still uncircumcised. That he might be the father of all those who believe, though they be, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D So it turns out that the thing that the Jewish Christians in the time of Paul, they had this agenda that if you want to be saved, you need to be circumcised. And they were thinking that you need to do this to be saved. Turns out that that very symbol circumcision, was actually a sign of righteousness by faith and was actually meant to be teaching them not to trust in themselves to tick boxes, but to trust in God who is mighty to save. SPEAKER C That's right. So God was the one who would circumcise their hearts. And we know that that circumcision ultimately was done, not made with hands, but made through Christ. In Jesus Christ, the flesh has been put up. Jesus denied Himself for our sakes. And when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ as his disciples, we are also to deny self, to take up our cross and to follow Jesus. But what I like in that text that you brought out in Romans chapter four and verse eleven, it says that we see the sign of circumcision. Then it calls it a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had. So sign and seal seem to be interconnected. Now, is there a New Testament seal or sign that tells us that God is the one who saves us? SPEAKER D Absolutely. It's the sign or the seal of the Sabbath. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D And so I want to read to you a verse which is found in Ezekiel chapter 20 and verse twelve. It says, moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between them and me that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. SPEAKER C Wow. Okay, so the Sabbath is a sign, and it's between God and his people, between them and Me, to give us a knowledge, it says that they may know. And what is this knowledge? That I'm the Lord that does what? SPEAKER D Sanctifies. SPEAKER C Wow. Now what does the word sanctify mean? SPEAKER D Because yeah, that's a Bible word that we don't use very often, but it literally means to make holy, to purify, to make righteous, and to make holy. And so this is really fascinating because a lot of people who I guess oppose the idea of the 7th day Sabbath that Jesus kept, that the apostles kept, that Moses kept right through Scripture, the Sabbath was kept and observed. People oppose that and they accuse people who keep the Sabbath as trying to earn their salvation and are trying to be saved by their works. Now, it's very fascinating because God sees it very differently. Yes, God says, I gave you my Sabbath in the first place so that you can know something. And this is what I wanted you to know. Every time that weekly cycle came around, every time we came to Sabbath, you would know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Another way to say that I am the one who makes you holy. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D So it's very interesting. Who is the one who makes us holy? We've been looking right through this whole series. It is God who makes us holy. It is not us who makes us holy. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER D It is God who makes us holy. And the Sabbath, apparently, according to this verse, is actually a sign or a seal that is a perpetual reminder of that fact. Just like circumcision was to be a sign or a seal to remind Abraham and his descendants not to trust in their own abilities to keep God's law or trust in their abilities to keep God's promises, it was a perpetual reminder to trust God. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D The Sabbath is a perpetual reminder to trust in God. SPEAKER C That's absolutely correct. What they could do and matter of fact, when they were to be circumcised at the age of eight, it was actually what their parents did for them or the rabbi or whoever it was when they were circumcised. That's what a man could do for man. It was a sign of their belief in God. Right. But ultimately, as we read in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse six, it says that the Lord your God will circumcise your heart. Ultimately, he's the one to do that. And also here we see that the Sabbath is a sign that God is the one who will sanctify us or make us holy. So really different symbols, but the same connection to salvation, that God is the one that does the work. SPEAKER D I've got here in Exodus Chapter 31 and verse 13. Again, this is just when Moses is about to come down from the mountain carrying the Ten Commandments. It says there in verse twelve and then 13, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak also to the children of Israel, saying, surely my Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout all your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. SPEAKER C Okay, wow. SPEAKER D So this is just when the Ten Commandments have been given and his intention, what he's trying to communicate, he makes a special note to tell Moses to tell the people, my Sabbaths are a sign and a seal for you to always be reminded. It's a perpetual reminder that I'm the one who makes you holy, that you cannot depend upon your own works, which is very interesting, which we're going to go into our next presentation. The Sabbath has always been a sign and a seal of what God has done for humanity and us. Embracing and acknowledging that fact, it's right from the time of creation right through to salvation, with Jesus dying on the cross, the Sabbath stands as like a memorial. It's a perpetual reminder that both in creation and in recreation or salvation, god is the workman. God is the one who is working. God is one who's creating. God is the one who is saving. And on that day we remember, embrace and acknowledge, and just totally accept the reality of what God has done and let that be. So that is what the Sabbath is all about. SPEAKER C Yeah. The Sabbath is obviously something that was introduced. The first time it was introduced was actually at the end of creation. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C God had worked and labored for six days. And then it says that when he'd finished his work, which he had done up to the fifth day, he would look at it and say it was good. And at the end of the 6th day, he looked at it and said it was very good. Then it says, then God rested from all the work which he had done. And then because he had rested, he then set aside the Sabbath day. He said he sanctified it and hallowed it. So sanctified is the word we just used that the Sabbath. SPEAKER D Holy. SPEAKER C Yeah, to make holy. And what's hallowed? SPEAKER D Same thing. SPEAKER C It's the same thing. So he's actually double emphasizing the importance of the Sabbath and how holy it is. Now, God works for six days, he rests the 7th day, and because he rested, he then gives that day as something special to Adam and Eve. The text you just read there before in Exodus 31, it actually says that God gave the Sabbath to the children of Israel. Now, what we'd like to unpack, dear listener, in our next program is whether the Sabbath was something that was given to Israel or the Jews only, or was the Sabbath given to all of mankind and does it have significance for all mankind in regards to how we are saved? So thank you for joining us today on the program. It's been a pleasure having your company and we look forward to catching up with you next time. Until then, God bless. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. 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