You cannot rely on your obedience to the Law to save you, because it is only by grace that you are saved through faith (Eph 2:8-10). Always remember that we can do nothing apart from the Lord Jesus (Jn 15:5), and if you keep His commandments, you will abide in His love (Jn 15:10).
While the Lord commanded us to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy, as recorded in the fourth commandment (and we are instructed by Jesus to keep His commandments), the Sabbath was sanctified by God long before He gave the Law to Moses. The Lord sanctified the seventh day in the very beginning, after the six days of creation. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” (Gen 2:3).
The Sabbath is not just something that was part of the Mosaic covenant, which has now become obsolete. If you want to follow the Lord, you have to walk in His ways and do His will. It was God’s will to sanctify the Sabbath before the Law was put into effect. Later He simply commanded Moses and the Israelites to keep it holy, but He Himself had already made it holy. So this is not a legalistic thing, it’s the will of God and one of God’s ways.
If you want to follow God, you have to walk in His ways. If you want to please God, you have to do His will. "For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light." (Col 1:9-12)
Pray and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects. This is my prayer for you today.
Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.
Author's Note: If you enjoyed
this message, I also recommend reading David Wilkerson's message, Honoring the Sabbath, as well as Zipporah Mushala’s Second Testimony of Hell, in which she saw a man of God in hell for relying on His obedience to the Law to save him. You may also be interested in the other posts of mine on the Home page, especially Resting from Work, Walking in the Perfect Will of God, Keeping Sundays Holy, Keeping Sundays Holy - Part II, and The Lord's Day. I also invite you
to visit my collection of blogs at Writing for the Master.
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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.
He was based in Eastern Europe for four years,
making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making
disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal
of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States
with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.
