Hello, friends, and welcome to Sabbath School Study Hour coming to you here from the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church in Sacramento, California. A very warm welcome to our online members and those joining us for our study time across the country and around the world, also very warm welcome to our regular church members here and those who are visiting with us here at the Granite Bay church this morning. Over the past few weeks, we've been studying just a really important and fascinating lesson dealing with preparation for the end times. Today, we have a very important subject that we're going to be looking at, and it's entitled, it's lesson number six if you are following along. It's entitled the change of the law.
And it's lesson number six. Now for our friends who are joining us, if you don't have a copy of our lesson quarterly, but you'd like to study along with us, you can download lesson number six from the Amazing Facts website. It's amazingfacts.org and you'll be able to get the information there needed to download and study along with us. Now before we invite our song leaders to come out and lead us in a song of worship, we want to let those watching know about a free offer that we have that we'd be happy to send to you. It is a sermon that Pastor Doug preached entitled "the lost day of history" and if you'd like to receive this dvd mail to your home, the number to call is 866-788-3966 and you can ask for offer number 844.
And we also have a new way for folks to download this special sermon series. If you'd like to digital download of the same dvd, you can just text the following. Just text "sh053" to the following number 40544. So I'm going to say that one more time. You want to text "sh053" to 40544, and they will send you a link where you'll be able to download our digital free offer today called "the lost day of history.
" I think you'll enjoy that, you can share that with your friends and neighbors as well. Well, before we get to our lesson, I'd like to again invite our song leaders to come and they will lead us as we lift our voices in praise. Above all powers above all Kings above all nature and all created things above all wisdom and all the ways of man you were here before the world began Above all kingdoms above all thrones above all wonders the world has ever known above all wealth and treasures of the earth there's no way to measure what you're worth Crucified laid behind the stone you lived to die rejected and alone Like a rose trampled on the ground you took the fall and thought of me above all Above all powers above all Kings above all nature and all created things above all wisdom and all the ways of man you were here before the world began Above all kingdoms above all thrones above all wonders the world has ever known above all wealth and treasures of the earth there's no way to measure what you're worth Crucified laid behind the stone you lived to die rejected and alone Like a rose trampled on the ground you took the fall and thought of me above all Crucified laid behind the stone you lived to die rejected and alone Like a rose trampled on the ground you took the fall and thought of me above all Like a rose trampled on the ground you took the fall and thought of me above all At this time, Pastor Ross will lead us in prayer. Dear Father in Heaven, once again, we are grateful for the opportunity to gather in your house and open up Your Word and study these very important prophetic truths that relate to our time. Father, we ask of the Holy Spirit to come and guide our hearts, lead us into a clear understanding of your will for our lives, and where we are in the stream of time, how we can be ready for that glorious day when Jesus comes.
Thank you for your promise to be with us, in Jesus' Name, amen. Our lesson this morning is going to be brought to us by our afco direct. Afco is the Amazing Facts center of evangelists, pastor marshall mckenzie, he is not a stranger to the Granite Bay church, he's actually a member right here. So, pastor mckenzie, welcome. Thank you for sharing with us today.
Well, we have quite the topic to study today, the change of the law. Have you ever, I'm sure you have, been to a buffet or you've been to a party where they're serving lots of food or church... You've been to a church potluck, and you just see all kinds of food, and your eyes get really big, and you kind of fill that plate full. And then you get back to your seat and you look at all the food that's on your plate, and you think, "I might have overdone it." But it's on your plate, and so you have to figure out a way to, what? Get through it, and finish it, and eat all that food that's on your plate. Today's lesson is kind of like that, entitled the change of the law.
And what we're going to be talking about is a lot of different things. You could have actually taken this whole lesson book on the preparation for the end time, and we could have taken this over a longer period of time. But they're crunching so much information together, and so I've been prayerful this week about this lesson because we talk about the little horn, we talk about the moral law, we talk about the seventh-day Sabbath, we talk about this perceived change which doesn't actually exist in Scripture but is believed out there, that's a lot to chew on. Matter of fact, we would study these things over a series of meetings together, so I would like you to bear with me, we're going to jump right in, and there's lots of things that we're going to cover in this lesson, the change of the law. Now the backdrop for this end time issue is Daniel 7.
Now Daniel 7 is a parallel of Daniel 2. And in lesson number two, we kind of briefly touch on Daniel 2 and this image, this image that has head of gold, that has these chest in arms of silver, that has thighs of bronze, and that has these legs of iron, which we clearly knows Babylon, medo-persia, greece, and rome. And then we finally get to the feet, which has 10 toes. And then those 10 toes represents the divisions of europe because rome was never conquered by another power historically. It was actually divided from the inside out.
And this is the backdrop for actually getting into the change of the law because in Daniel 7 we see what is inanimate, in Daniel 2 become animate. In Daniel 7, we have a lion, we have a bear, we have a leopard with four heads and four wings, and then all of a sudden you get to the iron, okay, of Daniel 2. It's described in Daniel 7 as this terrible, ferocious beast that has these iron teeth. You kind of think that's something right out of hollywood, but it's actually something right out of the Bible. And in the midst, you have these 10 horns that are on its head, which go back to the 10 toes of the image in Daniel 2.
And notice with me, we're going to open our Bibles and actually read the Scripture reading for today's lesson. This is where we're going to start. Daniel 7, describing these 10 horns, Daniel actually zeroes in on specifically a little horn. Okay, Daniel 7:24, 25, we're going to look at this. It says, "the 10 horns are 10," what? "Kings.
" Who shall arise from this kingdom," that fourth kingdom, which is represented as rome, papal rome. And I saw him. Oops, excuse me, I jumped too far. "And another shall arise after them, and he shall be different from the first ones." Now you might ask yourself, "how is this little horn different than those other 10 horns that represent these Kings in kingdoms or rome as it was divided into what we know is europe today." Okay, notice it says, "and shall subdue three Kings." So this little horn has this attachment to these three Kings as a political power, but it's not only political, in other words, it uses the state to accomplish its purposes and 3 of these 10 were taken down by this little horn. And then it goes on in verse 25, as we get into our Scripture reading, it says, "he shall speak pompous words against the most high.
" Notice this, all of a sudden this horizontal attack that is occurring by subduing three Kings by this little horn, all of a sudden goes vertical. And who is this little horn after ultimately? God. It says, "he shall speak pompous words against the most high. And he shall persecute the saints of the most high, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a times time and half a time.
" So there's a little horn, this little horn power not only attacks politically, horizontally, but attacks vertically, specifically focusing on God and God's people. What's one way to really get to God? You attack his people, right? And so the goal of this little horn is, "listen, my goal is to attack God, but as I do so, I'm going to attack his people." You know, if satan changes our ideas, he changes, what? Us. He realizes that, "if I can mess with your mind, then I can mess with how you believe, how you live, how you act." And so not only we're going to find with this change of the law as that he's going to go after the very heart of God's law. God's law in general, and the fourth commandment. Now as we get into this, specifically this attack, the little horn's greatest attack is satan's greatest deception.
To literally take it to God if we're to put it that way, and he's going to do so, he does so by going after his people, but he does this in a way of intending to change times and laws. I'm actually going to start with Thursday's lesson. Thursday, kind of, breaks this down. But I'm going to start here with this phrase. It's an important phrase.
This concept to think or intend to change times and laws. Daniel 7:25. Now it's interesting that the word "times" is used twice here in Daniel 7:25 and there are two different words that are used in relationship to tHis Word "times." The first word "times" is the one we would say, it actually in the aramaic and in the Hebrews, `iddan. Okay, it's used to describe the duration of the little horn's persecution of the saints. So we're talking about time, the first definition is `iddan, which talks about a span of time.
Okay, notice we see this in Daniel 25, at the very end, it says, "for a times, times and half a time." Now we don't have time to go into all of that, but that's actually 1,260 days or 1,260 years. This is a span of time. Now the other word used in relationship to this phrase is a little different than `iddan. It's the word z@man. And in the plural form, it's z@men, which is very interesting.
This aramaic word has more of a function of point in time, not a span of time. But in the plural form, it's actually repeated points in time. Now this little horn is attacking, who? Attacking God's people and ultimately through the process is attacking, who? It's attacking God. Remember when Paul was on the road to damascus. And he was on the road to damascus to persecute, who? The people of God.
He was going after the Christians, this is before it was Saul, before he was Paul, and Jesus meets him on the road, and says very clearly, "why are you persecuting me?" So in other words, by attacking God's people, God relates intimately with his people. This is what that covenant relationship, right, is all about, that connection with God. God is so intimately connected to his people that when you attack his people, you attack God directly. And Jesus made that very clear in relationship to Paul on his way to damascus. Now I'm getting back to this repeated point in time.
He's attacking God. Now notice the word here, in Daniel 7:25 says, "intend to change times and," what? "Law." Okay, "intend to change times and law." The word law here is singular. We're talking about the law of God. This fits best in this description. And the repeated point of time that you find in God's law is what law? What commandment do we find has to do with time, specifically a repeated point in time? The fourth commandment.
So we know this is a direct attack on God's moral law, but even more than that, it's a direct attack on the seventh-day Sabbath, the only commandment you find that deals with a repeated point of time, okay? Matter of fact, when you go back to creation and God creates all these things in six literal days, what does God ultimately do at the end? He rests on the seventh-day Sabbath. Now after this, he what? He blesses and sanctifies the seventh-day Sabbath for all time. And this is why Daniel points us out that he is attacking this repeated point in time. You know, it wasn't just that Sabbath that God blessed, it was Sabbaths throughout eternity that God was blessing and continuing to prove to us is valid even in our day. This is an end time prophecy.
This is a prophecy that relates to you and I in this day. And so we should take note of specifically this attack. Now we're going to talk about in this lesson, the law of God and its importance. Today, we're going to look at this issue of under law verses under grace, you know, we hear that a lot, okay? Some people kind of do away with the law, why, because we're under grace, we're no longer under the law. Well, Paul has some very interesting things to say that we're going to take a look at.
We're also... Some people have kind of pushed away the seventh or the fourth commandment, right? They've set away the Sabbath. While you're under grace and they specifically say, "there's no need for the Sabbath anymore." Remember Jesus nailed that to the cross. He kind of did away with it. Well, not according to Paul, when we actually look at all that Paul has to say.
And then we're going to look specifically at this change, okay? There's a lot of our Christian friends, who are keeping Sunday instead of the seventh-day Sabbath. Well, there is a change that this little horn has brought about to make people think it was changed. But Scripture doesn't actually change it. And we're going to look at the passages in relationship to this also. So getting back to the background and this attack, so this little horn is attacking the very moral law of God, specifically the fourth commandment, the commandment that has to do with time.
Now I have some readers, and I've asked to read some passages. In just a moment, we're going to read the first one from Romans 7. And so we get back to Sunday's lesson. Sunday's lesson is entitled the promise. This lesson as it is entitled the promise is really identifying the human struggle that we all face, that fleshly struggle, the pull of the flesh.
See, one must understand the reality of sin, and what sin is, and what sin is the opposite of. If they're going to understand the existence, purpose, and blessing of God's law. Speaking about this, Paul writes, Romans 7:17, 18, 20, 21. "But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good." This is a powerful passage as we start the series of lessons going through this lesson, the change of the law. Paul, from the beginning, starts to identify what his flesh is like, and he's not just talking about himself, he's actually talking about all of us. Remember in Romans 3:23, it says, "all have," what? "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." And I'm sure we all have stories where we have fallen short of the glory of God. And we could talk about them over and over again.
While Paul says, here in Romans 7, as was read, you're going to notice he uses these phrases like, "sin dwells in me. In me, nothing good dwells." And then he says, "evil is present with me." So he's talking about his life without Christ here. And he's saying the human flesh, right... "Sin dwells in me, nothing good in me dwells," and then he says, "evil is present with me." Sin is the presence of evil, where nothing good dwells, okay? We see this again. Notice with me Romans 7:8.
Notice with me in your Bibles, Romans 7:8. We see this again. Paul writes, "but sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of," what? "Of evil desires." What did sin produce? All manner of evil desire, okay? Not the commandment, he's talking about sin. But commandments reveal what? The moral law reveals sin. It reveals evil.
But it's sin that produces in him all manner of evil desires. For apart from the law sin was what? Sin is dead. So if you didn't have the law, you wouldn't have a knowledge of what? You wouldn’t have a knowledge of sin. You know, we have rules in our homes. I'm sure you have rules in your homes, right? Especially those of you that have children, okay? You know, if you didn't have some sort of rule or some sort of standard, what would there be? There would be chaos.
And the kids would know that chaos is chaos, have you noticed that? Children can be chaotic and not even know they're being chaotic, until you stop and say, "wait a second, let's go back to the rule." And then they say, "oh, maybe I was being chaotic." Here Paul talks about sin and its relationship with the commandment, but he talks about it as evil. So he says, "sin dwells in me, nothing good dwells," where sin is, "and evil is present with me." Sin produced in me all manner of evil desire. Now thankfully Paul also writes... Now this is interesting, notice with me verse 7 of Romans 7. He says, "what shall we say then? Is the law sin?" Is the law what? Sin? "Certainly not!" He's emphatic on making this point that the law is not sin.
He says, "on the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "you shall not covet.'" So Paul's making it very clear that the law points out sin. And, friends, all of us have fallen, all of us have fallen short, all of us without Christ, you know, sin dwells in us, there is nothing good in us and evil is present with us. We need Jesus. We also need his moral law.
So what is sin? Sin is evil, where nothing good dwells. Now we're going to read here in just a minute another passage of Scripture in 1 John 3:4, but I want us to grasp and understand that without Christ, that human nature, that fall in fleshly nature is one that is inhabit... That sin inhabits, that evil inhabits, that nothing good inhabits. So sin is evil, where nothing good dwells. Another biblical definition is lawlessness.
What law are we talking about? We're talking about the moral law, okay? The law, that by the way has always existed, we're going to take a look at this, that has always existed. It didn't just come into being on Mount Sinai, that wasn't its first place. It actually came before that. But you know what? I thank God for the promise. What is the promise? "There is therefore no condemnation to those, who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but," what? "They walk according to the Spirit.
" Okay, now when Paul talks about the flesh, he's talking about those sinful desires, that evil that is present with us, and where no good dwells. So now we're going to jump into Monday's lesson. I'm, kind of, moving fast and I'm looking. So we're going to have to go through this quickly. But you'll notice with me, Paul, in his writings is actually, okay, writing consistently on the law.
And he writes from two different perspectives. You know, Paul is very balanced in his writing. The first perspective is that of a wrong relationship to the law, which is like pre-conversion. Now these are key phrases, pre-conversion. There's a wrong relationship to the law.
But then he also writes in support of a right relationship to the law, which is post-conversion. So when we talk about the law and we talk about Paul's writings, we need to understand he's writing with a balance, pre-conversion, post-conversion, which one is he writing about, at what time. And so he breaks this down. Pre-conversion, we read such verses like this, "I would not have known sin except through the law," Romans 7:7. He also writes, "moreover the law entered that the offence might abound," Romans 5:20.
He also writes in Galatians 3:23, "but before faith came, we were under the guard," "we were under guard by the law." Another way to put this is as he writes in Romans 7:14, "we were all sold under sin." And being under sin means that an individual is under the law, the condemnation of the law, this is how somebody relates to the law who is living contrary to the words of Christ, to the teachings of Christ. "To be under the condemnation of the law, sin being seen as it is exceeding sinful." Now it's interesting, notice with me in Romans 7:12, and in just a minute we're going to have another verse read, but notice Romans 7:12, Paul, in talking about the law, consistently, in these different ways... Notice what he says kind of in the end, summarizing the law. He says, "therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and," what? Good. "Good.
" So the law is good, but sin is where nothing good dwells. Are you understanding? They're literally separate. Sin and the law are not together, they are separate. Sin is where nothing good dwells, and yet Paul says the law is, what? Good. The law is good.
And it's shown as good because it shows me what sin is. Therefore, I understand it to be good, holy, and just. Now notice with me, we're going to look at post-conversion and one passage I'd like to read, we have a reader reading it, Romans 8:3,4, and 10. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Now this is a powerful passage because notice the promise from this lesson comes out of Romans 8. And if you continue reading, when he talks about this walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh, he talks about fulfilling the, what? The righteous requirements of the law. He says that they might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. So here he is talking about what? Post-conversion. He's talking about someone who has come to Christ, they have given their lives to Christ, they have laid all on the altar for Christ, and now they live by faith and they do live by grace.
But in the process, they are fulfilling by faith and by grace through Christ... What are they fulfilling? They're fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law. Now notice with me Psalms 119:172, okay. Psalm 119:172. Not only does the Bible define sin for us, but it also defines the opposite, which is righteousness, and this is what Paul speaks about.
He says... The psalmist writes, "my tongue shall speak of Your Word, for all your commandments are," what? "The righteousness." Okay? So when we, by faith, walk according to Christ and his example, believing, trusting in him, he gives us the grace that enables us to, what? Fulfill the law, which our flesh, by the way, couldn't do. There was no way. It's not possible, okay? Now you'll notice, the law is good. And this is important.
Matter of fact, let's go to Deuteronomy, I want to show you something. See, this is the basis of the covenant by the way. Notice with me, Deuteronomy 4:13, okay? We always talk about this covenant relationship, okay? That the Bible consistently speaks about God formed that covenant, by the way, with adam and eve, he formed the same covenant with Noah, he formed the same covenant with Abraham, and thereafter he continues to form the covenant with his people. Now he says what the basis of that covenant is. Deuteronomy 4:13 says, "so he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to perform.
.." The what? "The Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on tables of stone." So what is the basis of the covenant, this relationship, this right relationship to Jesus Christ? You know, there's a wrong relationship to Jesus Christ, and there is a right relationship to Jesus Christ, just like Paul's talking about here. And he's talking about this and the law. And notice it says here, the basis of that right relationship or a relationship that is based upon righteousness has the law at the foundation, okay? So as we believe in Christ, Christ teaches us more and more of his law. You know, what is the man, in Psalms it's told, we're told in Psalms 1, "blessed is the man..." And then it goes on to talk about how they meditate on the law day and night, it's like looking at Jesus. By the way, Jesus is the, what shepherd? He's the good shepherd.
Notice, he's the good shepherd, there is no sin that surrounds Jesus. Now he became sin for us who knew no sin. Therefore, he's the good shepherd, okay? He's the shepherd that keeps the commandments of God and all of his sheep hear his voice, okay? Matter of fact, notice with me Matthew 25:21. Matthew 25:21, this is a powerful passage, it's in the context of the second coming of Christ. Now Matthew 24 talks about the signs of his coming.
At the end of Matthew 24, what Jesus does is he says, listen, he asks a question. He says, "who then is wise and faithful?" You find this in verse 45 of Matthew 24. And then Matthew 25 breaks down in parable form the answers to that question. The wise, is the first parable and the unwise, the faithful and the unfaithful is the second parable, and the blessed and the cursed are the third parable, but now, going back to the second parable when Jesus comes, notice how he identifies his children. Notice with me Matthew 25:21, "his Lord said to him, 'well done, good and faithful servant.
You are faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.'" He's talking about the faithful. And notice what he declares them. He says, "well done thou," what? He doesn't use the word "good" by accident. If he is the good shepherd and the law is good, when Jesus Christ comes again, he's going to declare his children, what? Good.
How can he do that? What's the standard for good? The moral law. So in other words, he's in essence saying, "my people at the end will be like me. They will be good as I am good." God is not a liar. He's not going to make a declaration that isn't true. And so he's waiting for those people who will live by faith and grace, we're going to get into that in just a minute, that keep the commandments of God.
This is what Revelation 14:12... When we talk about Revelation, God identifies this group of people that have the patience of the saints who keep the commandments of God, okay, and the faith of Jesus. These two things are linked together, faith and commandment keeping. Now I'm going to run really quickly to the seventh-day Sabbath. This is huge.
Because if we're keeping the commandments, we're keeping, what? All of them because all of them are good. Now when God created the earth, right, what did he say the earth was? It was good. There was no sin in it. You can go to Deuteronomy 32:4, and he defines his work right there. And he's actually talking about creation, "this is my work," okay, "my work is good.
" So in other words, to call it good, that law had to exist because what is the law? The law is good. Jesus is good. God's people, when he comes back will be declared by him as what? Good. You can't get away from the law, you just can't, and neither can you get away from the fourth commandment. Now I want you to notice, go with me to acts.
Because of time, we can't really dive into all the passages, okay, that this lesson brings out. But I want you to notice acts 13. I thought this was a very interesting point. Acts 13, and then we're going to actually go to Ephesians, okay? But I want to go to acts 13, and then I have someone else that will read Ephesians in just a minute. But notice with me, acts 13, all throughout the new testament, Jesus, what was his custom? Since being a little boy, what was his custom? In Luke 4, it was to keep the seventh-day Sabbath.
That was his custom. You would always find him in the synagogue, like you and I here are in church today on the Sabbath, you'd always find him, right, in the sanctuary on the seventh-day Sabbath. Paul is no different. You can go to acts 17 and you'll read right in the very beginning there, verses 1-3 how Paul as his... Now get this, Paul's custom as a jew was to keep the Sabbath, was it not? And when he became a follower of Christ, by the way, acts 17 is after he became a follower of Christ, and in this context, what is he living by? He's living by grace.
He's living by faith, but what does he continue to do? And he teaches us about grace and faith, but what does he continue to do? Keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Now notice how this is all brought together right here in acts 13. I thought this was phenomenal. If you go to verse 14 first, it says, "but when they departed from perga, they came to antioch in pisidia..." I may mispronounce that, so forgive me. "And he went into the synagogue on," what? "The Sabbath day.
" Notice "the Sabbath day." He's not talking about all the feast Sabbaths and all these... He's talking about the seventh-day Sabbath. Now if you turn from there, so he's teaching, okay, in the synagogue on the Sabbath. And then you go to verse 42, okay? Notice with me verse 42, it says, "so when the jews went out of the synagogue, the gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them," what?" The next Sabbath." So Paul's making it a point to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, a teacher of grace, a teacher of faith, who is keeping the commandments. By the way, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, right? He also was a commandment keeper, and that's old testament grace, same as new testament grace, okay? Every time, by the way, God forms a covenant, you can go back in the old testament, it's very interesting.
Every time God forms a covenant with his people, like Noah, Abraham, the children of Israel, deliverance always came first. God delivered Noah from the flood. What would we call that? Grace. And then he forms a covenant with him. He delivers Abraham from the land of ur and then he forms a covenant with him.
And then all of a sudden he delivers the Egyptians from bondage, right, by his great power and his great might, and then what did he do? He gives them the basis again of the covenant, the law, and then forms a covenant with them. In every case, you always see grace, in every single example, you always see grace, and it's no different here. Notice with me what happens, verse 43, "now when the congregation had broken up, many of the jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in," what? Grace of God. I love this. I'm keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, and I'm going to encourage you to continue in, what? The grace of God.
So the grace of God is synonymous with Sabbath keeping here. They're not separate. They're actually one and the same. If you live by grace, through faith, you will keep the commandments. You will be encouraged, as you continue in grace, to continue in the fourth commandment, the seventh-day Sabbath.
Now Ephesians, we have someone that's going to read Ephesians for us. Now here's another passage I want to break down for you just briefly, Ephesians 2:8, 9. "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." Now we love these verses. And many of my Christian friends will quote this, listen, they bring out the fact that we are saved by, what? By grace, through faith. And then he says, "it's not of yourselves but is the gift of God, not of works.
" Now I want you to notice what Paul's going to do, and I don't want to miss verse 10, this is why I have asked only the two to be read, because that's what most of the time we point to verse 8 and 9, but notice with me verse 10, okay? Ephesians 2:10, and I'll get there. Here we go. It says, "for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for," what? Notice, we're back to this good works thing again. The law is good. Jesus is the good shepherd, okay? And notice, through Christ what are we enabled to do? Good works.
And he talks about his creative power in the life that actually fashions us to walk in good works. Notice he's making a distinction. Listen, you're not saved by your works, by your fleshly works, you're only saved by Christ and you're saved through grace. By the way, this grace, through this grace, he does a creative work in you that produces good works that you could never produce on your own. But what's the standard of good? How do we know it's good works? Because it's according to a good law, okay? Notice he goes on.
He says, and it takes us back to creation even, he says, "for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Where did God prepare beforehand that we should walk in good works? At creation. When God created everything and he created us, there was no evil, God only wanted us to know good, God only wanted us to walk good. But of course, we made a bad decision, and we chose to bring evil and sin into the picture. And so later through Israel's experience, later, what God has to do is remind them, first he delivers them and then he reminds them of that standard of good again. And says just like I delivered you out of the bondage of the Egyptians, I can create in you by my grace the ability to follow my moral law even the what? The fourth commandment.
The fourth commandment. There are so many passages that we could look at. I want to end with one here in Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4, Paul writes, "for we who believe do enter that rest, for he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way. And God rested on the seventh day from all his works that remains therefore a rest.
" And tHis Word rest, by the way, means a special religiously significant period for rest. What's he talking about? The seventh day. This repeated point in time that God has given us to rest and to focus on our creator that he's going to do the work. According to his law, we shall walk and be like him. Then it says, "for the people of God.
.." Paul writes, "for he who has entered into his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his." Hebrews 4:9, 10, the Sabbath Paul says still remains because as we rest on the seventh-day Sabbath and we break from all of our work, it's a representation of our faith in Christ that, you know what, I can't earn my way to heaven. But through faith in Christ and by grace, he can do a work in me and I can live righteously in Christ Jesus according to all of the moral law. And yet in the new heaven and new earth, where shall we meet? From one Sabbath to another, from one new moon to another. Isaiah 66. Friends, the papacy wants people to think that Sunday is the new Sabbath.
But, you know, when you read Scripture everywhere where we talked about the first day, never do you see it ever making a change from the seventh day to Sunday being the first day. Everywhere the first day is spoken about in the new testament, there is no evidence of any change by God or by his disciples. And regarding the papacy, lesson 10 gets more into that power. But no, the law is just as valid today as it ever has been in relationship to Jesus Christ, our relationship with him, and the seventh-day Sabbath is linked with grace and is just as vital today as it always has been. To remind you of our free offer, our free offer is the last day of prophecy, it's a special sermon by Pastor Doug Batchelor on this very topic, it's taken from the series, the last day of prophecy.
All you need to do is call 1866-788-3966, just ask for offer number 844, and you can receive this sermon. Also, we have a new digital download way that you can receive it, you just want to text the code "sh053" to 40544. Just text the code "sh053" to 40544 and receive this sermon, you want to get it as you continue studying His Word. And I'd like to have a word of prayer with you as we end this lesson together. Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for your many blessings.
There's so much food on this plate today. And, Lord, I pray that we will spend our times studying, growing closer to you, drawing closer in our relationship with you. We thank you for your law, we thank you for the seventh-day Sabbath, and we thank you for Jesus who enables each of us to follow it. Lord, we thank you that we can come together on this Sabbath to worship you, may you be glorified in all that we do and say and thank, in Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.
Can't get enough Amazing Facts Bible study? You don't have to wait until next week to enjoy more truth-filled programming, visit the Amazing Facts media library at aftv.org. At aftv.org, you can enjoy video and audio presentations, as well as printed material all free of charge. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, right from your computer or mobile device, visit aftv.org. Friends, we're out here in the pacific ocean, not too far from the island of fiji, and we're getting ready to look at some wonders in the deep. The Bible says God made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and there are things under the sea that are beautiful that many people have never seen.
Some folks might just skim along snorkel on the surface. But if you want to see the real majesty of the ocean, you've got to go deeper. Because people don't have gills like fish, we have to do something extraordinary to be able to breathe below the surface, and because you have to breathe all of the time, we need this special equipment. In the same way, the Bible says, "a Christian needs to pray without ceasing." We need to always be breathing the atmosphere of heaven, if we're going to lead a Christian life in this world below. Wow, what a wonderful world.
Let's face it. It's not always easy to understand everything you read in the Bible. With over 700,000 words containing 66 books, the Bible can generate a lot of questions. To get biblical straightforward answers, call into Bible answers live, a live nationwide calling radio program where you can talk to Pastor Doug Batchelor and ask in your most difficult Bible questions. For times and stations in your area or to listen to answers online, visit bal.
amazingfacts.org. What can be more irresistible than a kitten? These guys might look cute now but some of their ancestors have grown into man-eaters. We're here in a lion park in south africa now where we can view these creatures in rail of the safety, but there's a reason they're known as the King of beasts. So what is it that people find so enchanting and frightening about lions? Is it their speed, their claws, their sharp teeth, or all of the above? Might also be some of the stories about man-eating lions. Like in 1898, right here in africa, they were building a bridge over the tsavo river in kenya, and two brother lions terrorized the construction process eating a 135 workers.
Did you know lions are mentioned in the Bible over a hundred times? And you can find them all the way from Genesis to Revelation. It's usually in reference to their ferocity and how dangerous they are. Of course, Samson killed a lion with his bare hands, David killed a lion, there are man-eating lions in the Bible. The way that they punish criminals was by throwing them in the lion's den. And early Christians were even fed to lions.
But amazingly, as the Bible mentions not all lions are to be feared, there have been a few friendly lions in history. For example, in the 1950s, a couple, george and margaret westbeau who lived up at a ranch near seattle, Washington adopted and abandoned lion cub. They named it little tyke 'cause they felt sorry for it. But they discovered as they tried to feed her, she refused to eat any meat at all. They were concerned thinking there was no hope for this little lioness to survive and everybody told them the same because we know in the wild, lion survive on almost entirely meat diet.
Then someone showed the westbeaus that verse in the Bible that talks about in heaven, the animals are vegetarians, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. That encouraged them, and so they began to feed little tyke a purely vegetarian diet. Not only did she survive, she thrived growing into a lion that was over 352 pounds and over 10 feet long. In fact, zoologist that examined little tyke when she was full grown said, they had never seen such a perfect specimen of a lioness in their life, a pure vegetarian. You know, when we hear incredible stories about that of little tyke, it reminds us that God's original plan was to make a world of total peace.
It describes it here in the Bible on Isaiah chapter 11:6, "the wolf also will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child will lead them." Nothing is going to hurt and destroy in the new heavens and the new earth that God is going to create. Wouldn’t you likes to live in a kingdom with his perfect peace where there is no more death, or killing, or pain? God says that he wants you in that kingdom. The lamb of God made it possible for you to have an encounter with the lion of the tribe of Judah. Wouldn't you like to meet him today?