TEN COMMANDMENTS

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TEN COMMANDMENTS

• LESSON FOUR
• GIVE IT A REST

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EXODUS 208-11

• Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
• Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work
• But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD
  thy God in it thou shalt not do any work, thou,
  nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant,
  nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
  stranger that is within thy gates
• For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth,
  the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
  seventh day wherefore the LORD blessed the
  sabbath day, and hallowed it.

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• This morning we are going to discuss a
  controversial subject -- the Sabbath.
• Many people believe you and I are sinning against
  God because we are in violation of this
  commandment in that we work and play on Saturday
  (the Shabbat) and worship on Sunday.
• Others, who call Sunday, "The Christian Sabbath"
  believe we violate it by watching or playing
  sports, eating out, or going to the lake.
• Is the Sabbath for Christians?

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• 1. The Sabbath day was for Israel

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a. The Sabbath was the sign of the covenant
between God and Israel.

• God said "It is a sign between thee and the
  children of Israel" (Exodus 3117).
• He reiterated through Ezekiel, "I gave Israel my
  sabbaths, to be a sign" (Ezekiel 2012).

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b. Violations of the Sabbath resulted in death
for the individual.

• Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word "shabbat"
  which means "to rest" or "to cease from
  exertion.
• This was the Law of God for Israel so that God
  said, "he who does any work on the Sabbath day,
  he shall be put to death" (Exodus 3115).
  

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c. If the Sabbath were still in effect it would
be the seventh day of the week.

• The seventh day of the week, later called
  Saturday, was, and is, the Sabbath.
• The Seventh-Day Adventists and the Seventh-Day
  Baptists have it exactly right
• "The great principles of God's law are embodied
  in the Ten Commandments, and His unchangeable law
  requires the observance of the seventh-day
  Sabbath as the day of rest."

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• 2. The Sabbath day has ended

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• Old Covenant laws which were "written and
  engraven in stone" are "done away with" or
  abolished (I Corinthians 37,11).
• The writer of Hebrews says that since there is a
  change in the priesthood (all believers are now
  priests) there is also "a change of the law"
  (Hebrews 712) so that we no longer sacrifice
  animals, keep sabbaths, etc. . . .
• The concept of a Christian Sabbath cannot be
  supported from the New Testament. "Men are not
  justified in returning to the rules provided for
  the Sabbath in order to secure directions for the
  observance of the Lord's Day" Lewis Sperry
  Chafer.

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• 3. The principle behind the Sabbath remains

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a. A person should rest from labor one day out of
the week.

• God knows our needs! He created man in His image.
  In Exodus 3117 we are told that God "was
  refreshed" when He rested from creation.
• It is a principle of creation, not Mosaic law,
  that a person should not work seven days a week.

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b. A person should rest in Christ everyday of the
week.

• Christ is the Lord of rest. "Come unto me all ye
  that labor -- I will give rest."
• Are you working to obtain the favor and
  acceptance of God?

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• Do you constantly seek to earn His blessing by
  doing, promising, serving, or striving?
• Do you? If you do, then you have not learned what
  it means to rest in the work of Christ.
• The fourth commandment foreshadowed the meaning
  of RESTING in Christ.

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