Commandment #4: Because Jesus taught the people contrary to what the Scribes and Pharisees taught, He was continually confronted by them in an effort to keep the people’s attention on themselves and to discredit the carpenter from the lowly city of Nazareth. Recall that in John 1:46, when Nathanael learned where Jesus was from, replied: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Anciently, Nazareth would be compared to several modern-day American cities that are known for their low social standards and high crime rates. Evidently,

When asked by a Sadducee lawyer which was the greatest commandment in the Law (Mat. 22:36), Jesus did not downplay the Ten Commandments, but rather exalted them by replying: “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the (writings of) the prophets” (vss 37-40).

Christ’s answer, taken from two Old Testament sources (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18). Recall that when Satan tempted Him following His 0-day fast, He quoted Old Testament writers. This tells us that everything He did and said had an Old Testament foundation. Notice that He used THE LAW AND THE (WRITINGS OF) THE PROPHETS in order to declare what was important to Him and the Father. That statement, combined with Ephesians 2:20, sent a message that modern-day theologians refuse to accept. In Ephesians chapter two the Apostle Paul noted that the New Covenant Church was founded upon both the teachings of both the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles. Nowhere in the Holy Scriptures are we told that the Old Testament (Covenant) was “nailed to the cross.” Jesus Himself said that He did not come to destroy either the Ten Commandment Law or the writings of the prophets (Mat. 5:17). It was prophesied about Him that He would come to earth to “magnify the Law and make it honorable” (again)–Isaiah 42:21. What was nailed to the cross was Moses’ ordinances which he wrote by hand, thus “the handwriting of ordinances” were indeed “nailed to the cross” (Col. 2:14).

In Christ’s answer it is noted that He divided the Ten Commandments into two separate, but interrelated parts: man’s love for God and man’s love for his fellow man. By so saying, He showed us that both the Old Testament and the New Testament to come were and would be based on the same two commands. The first three commandments concerned the true worship of the Lord, idolatry and the correct use of His name. The fourth commandment completes the section of the Law that governs man’s relationship with God.

As I have noted in previous writings, the weekly Sabbath will soon be at the forefront of an international controversy which will reveal who honors God’s Word and who honors Satan’s word. God commands man to remember and honor HIS SABBATH DAY. Ironically, it is the day that the church rejects and tries desperately to forget. The “little horn” of Daniel 7:8-11 (modern Catholicism) is now stirring the coals of a fire that will soon involve every nation and their governments in a church civil war that will lead to the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord–a 3 1/2 year long time of terror, destruction and death unlike anything the mind of man can envision. Read about this war in the series titled The Soon-coming Global War Against God’s Church. Key word–Global.

Turn with me now to Exodus 20 where we find the God of the Old Covenant (Jesus) speaking to the recently-freed Israelites and the Gentiles who had become spiritual Israelites. Here the Lord is telling them about His Ten Commandments by which they had promised to abide, thereby making them “… a special treasure, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Earlier, through Moses, they had agreed to do whatever God would require them to do (19:5-8). Following that promise, God spoke to them aloud from the fire above Mount Sinai, clearly laying out His Ten Commandment Law by which He would rule them and their descendants forever.

Now we come to the central commandment–the final command relative to man’s relationship with the Godhead. Contrary to universal church opinion, there are two Gods in the Godhead–God and the Word Who came to earth as Jesus of Nazareth (Jn. 1:1-4,14). Read The Trinity. Key word–Trinity. Admittedly, because I have written about the Sabbath in several teachings, I had not planned to write extensively on the subject. However, as is often the case, I was corrected by the One Who makes all such decisions. With that in mind, we will view the Sabbath from a slightly different perspective at this time.

We will begin with the Words of the Almighty: “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six days you will labor and do all of your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you will not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your 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” (Exo. 20:8-11).

We cannot help but notice that the Lord had much more to say about His Sabbath Day than about any other commandment, or any other two commandments combined. Doesn’t that tell us something? It tells me that obedience to that commandment is vitally important to its Creator. It tells me that strict adherence to His commands must become a priority for men, women and children world-wide. Incredibly, the vast majority of people who have ever lived on earth have paid it any attention at all. This includes professing Christendom since Pope Sylvester I changed the Sabbath Day from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week at the Council of Laodicea in 364 A.D. in order to appease the sun worshipers who had been forced into the Catholic Church by the Roman Empire. For more information use the key word–Sabbath.

What is truly ironic is that since the middle of the fourth century religious leaders, with Bible in hand, have argued against this commandment more than against all other commandments combined. In fact, I have never heard a church leader speak against any of the other nine commandments. I have, however, heard and read a number of reasons why God supposedly changed His mind about the Sabbath and allowed man, whose reasoning abilities He obviously valued above His own, to determine for himself which day should be His (God’s) Sabbath. Biblical Sabbath haters contend that any day, or every day, can be one’s Sabbath if one so desires. All of their reasonings are included in the Sabbath series. There are several of them. I suggest that you read them because, as the Lord makes clear, the choice of and the observance of the correct Sabbath has life and death significance. For this reason, that holy day is permanently bound to a specific day of the week. Contrary to popular opinion, God’s grace does not allow man to eliminate one of His commandments, then to substitute one more to man’s liking. That act constitutes a double sin. Add to that the fact that in so doing, man defiles His (God’s) true Sabbath and we find that church people commit three deadly sins every week-end. And people wonder why the world is falling apart. L.J.