Caller: I’m beginning to understand that the true Sabbath is the seventh day, but it seems like voices within my head are screaming outyou’d better disprove this business. My parents have been going to church on the first day and they’re doing fine and how could so many people be wrong, and all these different things.
Pastor Doug: Let me share with you that Solomon said “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death”. In other words, do not make any decision on feeling, or what seems. Base all your decisions on Thus saith the Lord. Jesus said He that hears these words of Mine and does them is building on the rock.
And so whatever conclusions you come to, if you know you have the support of Scripture you can sleep with peace. Don’t make your conclusions, and don’t build your house on the shifting sands of what everyone’s saying and what everyone’s doing because that’s always proven fatal in history. Make your decisions based on
What does the Bible say? If there’s anything in the Bible that God wanted to be clear about it was the Ten Commandments. He did not even entrust this to go through a prophet. He spoke audibly to the people. He wrote it with His own finger so there would be no confusion. We, from time to time, get criticized on this broadcast because we believe the Ten Commandments are still intact. I don’t believe we’re saved by the law. I don’t think we’re under the Law, meaning not under the penalty of the Law, but Christians are not free from an obligation to obey the Law. Paul says that’s absurd. And one of the Ten Commandments is still the Sabbath Day.
Caller: I keep thinking that if all that was necessary was for God to scrap the Law and give us a brand new one, Jesus would not have had to die on the cross.
Pastor Doug: That’s right. Sin is the transgression of the Law. That’s the New Testament. And there is still sin in the world. Paul says Where there is no Law, there is no sin. And obviously there’s sin in the world, there’s still a law. The devil hates the law very simply because Jesus came to save us from our sin, sin is the transgression of the law, when there’s no law there’s no sin, when there’s no sin you don’t need a Savior. And so the devil has been trying to undermine and erase and evaporate the law because in that way he negates the salvation that Christ provides.
Caller: So when Paul says Where there’s no law there’s no sin, Paul was not saying that there was a time without law?
Pastor Doug: God’s law has always been in existence. It’s eternal. It’s a reflection of His nature. You go to Genesis and it tells us that Cain transgressed. The Bible says that before God gave the Ten Commandments that Abraham kept His laws. Joseph said that adultery with Potipher’s wife was a sin. That’s long before the Ten Commandments were written.
It’s always been wrong to kill. It’s always been wrong to worship other gods. At the beginning of creation He established the Sabbath—for man. Not for the Jews. Adam and Eve were not Jews—for the human race. Jesus said The Sabbath is made for man. It’s something that every man needs. So God’s law is eternal. The devil hates it. He’s attacking all or part of the law, it doesn’t matter to him because it tells us in James that he that offends in one point is guilty of all.
I’ve probably said more than I need to but can I make a suggestion? Call our resource number. They will give you a study guide that deals with the subject of the Sabbath in particular and its called Things Are Not What They Appear. Tell them you’d like the study guide on the Sabbath. That number is 800-835-6747. Anybody listening, you can call too, we’ll send it to you for free.