Lord of the Sabbath- Mathew 12:1-13

This is a sermon report on the Sabbath and what we are to do on this day.

V.1-2 Here on their way to the temple, the twelve disciples, who had probably not had time to eat before because of the teaching that had been going on before, were plucking and eating the heads of grain in the fields that they were walking through.

At this time there were laws that the religious leaders would take from the scriptures concerning the Sabbath and interpret them on their own understanding, without looking to other commands given in the scriptures to see what the laws really meant.

When the Pharisees see the disciples plucking and eating the grain, they start to accuse them of not acting lawfully on the Sabbath. In v.3-8 Jesus answers to the pharisees by telling them about David when he was running for his life from King Saul (1 Samuel 21:1-6).  We see that Ahimelech was afraid when he saw David coming to him alone. This was the David that slew the giant and was a famous warrior. Why would he be coming to him (Ahimelech?)

David then obviously lies to the priest about why he is there, and asks for food. The only food  in the temple was the show-bread, which David probably knew was there. The show-bread was reserved for the priest's use in their ceremonies. Ahimelech gives the bread to David which was an act of mercy on his part.

Jesus also gives the example of the priest's in the Old Testament. He talks about how they would do double the amount of work on Sabbath while all of it was for the Lord and in obedience to Gods commands. He shows through reasoning how they are always adding to the laws of God and condemning people when it was completely lawful for them to do simple things like obey the law of God in taking food to someones house to feast with them. While their law-book would say that they could not carry anything larger than a fig out of their house.That wouldn't be much of a feast if all each person had was a fig!

The rules that the religious leaders added to the true law of God are ridiculous and in no way seen in any part of the Bible. The commands of the Bible for the Sabbath always work together, but the religious leaders would take one command from the scriptures and take it to mean something else when if you look at other commands you would know the command differently and completely without you having to try to reason what it means. To interpret scripture you must look and search the scriptures. What God wants us to know, He explains in His word.

Jesus tells the pharisees that He desires mercy and not sacrifice. In  Mathew11:30 we see that the Lord delivers us from the burden that we carry when we are not saved.God made the Sabbath for man and not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not to be a burden for man. But when the religious leaders make a bunch of rules for the Sabbath that were not specifically commanded in the Scripture they make it a burden.
God did not desire that we make sacrifices to try to please God on the Sabbath. Instead, he desires to take one day and give it to man to rest their bodies and souls in the things of God. This is the will of God in giving us a day off from the work and burden of this world and to rest in Him. He also desires us to act mercifully to others, and to do the will of God in showing the love and mercy of God in our actions. Jesus demonstrates this later in healing the man with the withered hand.

Jesus in V.9-13 shows that we are allowed to do things that would be an act of mercy to others. Like maybe to go to the store and buy medicine for someone who is sick if you have no medicine available or no one to ask for some.

What we are to do on the Sabbath:  In Isaiah 58:13-14 it talks about not doing what we would and should usually do on  the other six days of the week. Meaning that we shouldn't seek the pleasures of this world for our own comfort. We are to do what God commands us on this day which is to think completely on Him the whole Sabbath and to do His mercies to others. This should be a delight to Christians. But this command is also given to all of creatures (Ex. 20:8-10) it doesn't just say those that are saved.
 In Nehemiah 13:15-18 we are clearly shown that to sell or to buy for our own gain is profaning the Sabbath. We are to trust God in providing for us on the Sabbath. We are told to provide and get ready for the Sabbath before it begins so that we will not be distracted from thinking on Him the whole day. Even though, because of our sinful nature, we cannot possibly think on God the whole day, we as Christians are to have a desire and make an effort to do just that. We who are sons of God have the gift of repentance when we do not obey this command perfectly. But we should have the desire to do this perfectly.

One other thing that I want to show is that God knows what we need. We also have a picture in the Sabbath of being freed from the penalties of sin. In Genesis 3:17-19 God punishes Adam and all future by saying that for the rest of time man will always have to work to eat and survive. On the Sabbath we are commanded not to work on this day. We are not held to work to survive on this day but to delight in God the whole Sabbath without being distracted by the things of this world.
When we say that it is okay to work on the Sabbath we are saying that God should be like Pharaoh in Egypt when he would not let the people of Israel rest on the Sabbath. This is blaspheming the name of God.

Later in Mathew 12:14 we see the irony of all this when after debating with Jesus the pharisees break the Sabbath by plotting to kill Jesus and committing murder in their hearts.

These are some of the things that we are to do and not to do on the Sabbath. There are more commands concerning the Sabbath but I won't post about them now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy belated Thanksgiving!
These are some of the things that I'm thankful to God for:

1. First, I'm thankful for my salvation,
2. For the word of God,
3. For living in a country which somewhat does not persecute Christianity,
4. For parents who care for my soul,
5. For great siblings,
6. For a godly church,
7. For Elders and Deacons who care for their church congregation,
   
8. For friends,
9. For work,
   
10. For the technology that enables me to post this list for other people to read.
11. I'm thankful for the founders of this country and the heritage they left for future generations.
    

The Sovereignty of God in Affliction

My Elder, Mr. Scott Brown , wrote and e-mailed these points to the congregation from today's Sunday sermon.

• The presence of your afflictions are not according to chance.
• The timing of your afflictions are all part of God’s pre-ordained plan to sum up all things in Christ.
• The weight of your afflictions are carefully measured, to bring you forth as gold.
• The number of your afflictions are strategically appointed, to buffet you enough to change you.
• The length of your afflictions will be no shorter or longer than what pleases God, in order to enlarge your patience.
• The outcome of your afflictions are designed to address a God glorifying end.
• The arms which brought the afflictions will hold you through them.

This has really helped me to understand even more about the sovereignty of God in trials and sickness.I hope this will be a great help to you also.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

This month the Lord has given my Dad another year of life. Throughout this year I have seen how the Lord has sanctified and blessed my Dad.

I want to give some reasons for being thankful for my Dad, and in this way I hope to honor him.

1. First, I want to thank God for my father because my father is a godly man, and not ashamed to show and share it.
2. I thank God that He's given me a father that cares for my soul and salvation.
3. I'm thankful that my Dad strives to teach my family and I the Word of God, and so obeying the commandment in Deuteronomy 11:19.
   
4. I thank God that my Dad pushes me and teaches me how to be a man.
   
5. I'm also thankful that my Dad is an example to me of how a hard working man should look.
6. Lastly, My Dad doesn't leave me to live my life alone, he wants to be involved in my life and to help me walk in the way that the Word says that I should.

PICTURES OF MY DAD:

MY MOTHER AND FATHER.

DAD, MYSELF, AND MY LITTLE BROTHERS.

MY DAD AND I.
Happy birthday Dad.
I love you.

ALERT Cadet

Recently, my Dad and I joined a group that was formed several months ago in my church by Mr. J. Tsantels called the ALERT Cadets.

The purpose of ALERT is to strengthen the relationship of the fathers and sons in our church and also to bring them together with other fathers and sons to learn practical skills.

It's like a boy-scout kind-of-thing, but with fathers leading, and keeping the focus on the Lord.
We also has a new blog that I manage and update for our troop. Click this link to see it: Strong to Overcome.

The Lord's Prayer

Mathew 6:5-15
The Lord's Prayer

The first part of this section is where the Lord teaches His disciples how not to pray. The first way not to pray is to pray hypocritically. We do this when we pray in public so that the people who are around us can see how "holy" we are. We do so this to bring glory to ourselves. At that time, when Jesus taught this, the hypocrites he was talking about were the religious leaders. They loved to pray, to babble for hours... so that the people would be impressed. The Lord says here that the ones who do this will have their reward, but their reward will come from men.

The Lord shows that He will bless us when we pray in secret for the sake of taking our petitions and prayers to God. When we do this, the Lord says, He will even reward us openly.

These are several things that hinder prayer:

1. Secret sins,
2. Not hearing the law,
3. Obsession with ourselves,
4. The lack of listening and asking God for mercy,
5. Marital breakdown (1 Peter 3:7),
6. Faithless asking.

The Lord also tells us not to pray with many words thinking that that is the reason we will be heard.

In verse 8 we see that the Lord knows the things that we need before we ask for them. Some people say that because of this they do not have to pray. But God is our father, and like a father waiting for his struggling child to ask him for help, God is waiting for us to ask Him as our loving father.

The first part of the prayer given by the Lord shows that when we pray we have to hollow the name of the Lord in words and the way we pray. In a sense, when we pray, we are glorifying God.

The second part of the prayer shows us we should pray for the kingdom of God to come. The kingdom of God, in this passage, is the true presence of God in His people on earth.

The Lord loves when we come to him with our everyday needs, just like any good father, except He is the best father.

When we come to the Lord in prayer, we should come in humility and with the knowledge that we are in debt to God. And because of our debt, we should come to Him begging for the forgiveness of the many grievances we have committed against Him and His law.

Nearing the end of the prayer, the Lord shows that we should forgive because when we don't, the Lord will not forgive us. In verses 14 and 15 we see that if we do not forgive the trespasses of others, the Lord will not forgive our trespasses.

When we become sons and daughters of Christ, we will not be free from the evil of this world. The Lord sometimes tempts us to test our love for Him. Also, the Lord, if we continually disobey Him may just give us up to the evil one.

Again, we see that we should always acknowledge God as the one with all power and glory.

The Four Speaches of Moses - Part 2

The fifth commandment commands us to honor our father and mother because the Lord has commanded us to do so and the promise if we do is that we will live long on the earth and it will go well with us. This is the first commandment with a promise.

All authority is come from God, even the most wicked authority is from the Lord. There are certain ways that we should treat all authorities: with respect, honor, and obedience. All authority starts in the family. If authority is not honored in the family, it will not be honored in the church, and if it is not honored in the church than the authority of the civil magistrate will not be honored. We see the continuation of this commandments in 16:18-18-22.


The sixth commandment states that we should not murder. When we think of murder we think about someone brutally taking the life of someone else. But in Mathew 5:21-22 it says that when you hate your brother you are committing murder in your heart. As humans, we see differently than how God sees sin. The continuation of this commandment in 19:1-22:8.

The seventh says that we should not commit adultery. Again, we can see that the Lords ways are not our ways. In Mathew 5:27-28 we see that when we look at a woman to think evil thoughts about her we commit adultery in our hearts. This is also found in 22:9-23:19.

You shall not steal is the eight commandment. There are many ways to steal from people. Some of the ways that you can steal are found in 23:19-25:12. Some of the ways are taking a newly-wed man into the army. In doing this you are stealing from him, if he dies in battle, the fruits of his wife, land, and life. You are also stealing the husband from the wife. When we use our life and our possessions for the glory and pleasure of ourselves, we are stealing from God what belongs to Him. When you do not tithe, you are stealing from God (Malachi 3:8).

The ninth of the commandments is that we should not bear false witness against our neighbor. If we do, then we disobey the command given by God which is that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.

The last commandment is that we should not covet anything that is our neighbors. The Lord decides what to give to His children and if we covet anything of this world that our neighbor has, we are declaring that God is not sufficient for us. We should do the most to glorify God with what we have(26:1-15).

The last of the three speeches is found in ch.27-31:13. If we love God we will want to listen and obey all that He commands. We do this as part of repenting of our sins and accepting God as our savior and allowing God to work in our lives. There are no carnal Christians. You either don't obey and the Lord curses you, or you obey the Lord and He blesses you in the way that He chooses.

Here are the links to sermon reports to the last parts of this chapter: The first sermon of the year, and The last days of Moses.

The Four Speaches of Moses - Part 1

Listen and Observe, That You May Live
Deuteronomy 1-34

This is the last sermon on Deuteronomy given by my elders in Hope Baptist Church. This sermon, by Mr. Brown (one of the elders at Hope,) is a review of the book of Deuteronomy.

The first of Moses' sermons can be found in Deuteronomy, chapters 1-4. The Lord desires to have control and authority over our time, our energy, our thoughts, our actions... even though all these things are His already. The Lord also wants to carry us through the wilderness...the times of trouble in our lives that we have to go through to get to the promised land. We must also take and let the Word of God change and take control of our lives.

Six things about the book of Deuteronomy:

1. Going through and studying this book, we can see that it covers our whole life.
   
2. It confronts the "sufficiency" of the "wisdom" and feelings of our heart and life.
   
3. It shows our deprivation: (spiritually and physically).
4. We can find the picture of the Gospel and the glory of God throughout it.
5. It shows the superiority of God and His ways.
   
6. Lastly, it causes us to love what Jesus loved.

The second and longest speech can be found in Ch. 5-26.
The laws given in chapter 5 are given to us to protect and guide us in a land of idolatry. And since these laws come from God we must obey them. But the ultimate protection and guidance comes from God.

The first of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God is that you shall no other god but Him (God). There are many "gods" in this world and all have worshipers. There's entertainment, security, money, nature, "toys." All these things are gods that people can worship. There are many more Gods of this world, hundreds and thousands of more things that people can worship or take as a god. Our security should be in God, not in this world or the things that it can offer. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also(Mathew 6:21). We can see this played out in chapters 6-11. This is the first and greatest commandment.

The second commandment is that we should not make any image of God. I take this in a literal sense. I believe that we should not make any drawing, painting, or image of Christ. Why do people do this anyway? To try to make us "see" what Jesus did or looked like. It's also a way to worship the picture instead of the real God. Take, for example, the movie, The Passion. The creators of the movie tried to picture what Jesus did and how He died here on earth. When people watch this, they get emotional because they think that this is really how Jesus lived and was killed here on earth. This is simply not true! No one on earth can possibly picture how Jesus looked and how He was beaten and tortured. It is proud and disrespectful to think we can make an image of God. This is also true when people make images and miniatures of Jesus on the cross. The reason that Jesus suffered so much was not because of the abuse of men, it was because when He was dieing, He suffered the extreme wrath of God. He took all the punishment and guilt of every sin ever committed by every person ever born or to be born when He died. That was the true terribleness of the death of Christ and since this commandment connects with the first commandment, we, as Christians, are called to conquer all "gods" and images of God in this world. We see this in 12:1-13-13:18

The third commandment is that you should not take the Lords name in vain. There are many ways to take the Lord's name in vain, not just by swearing. One way we take the Lord's name in vain is when we call ourselves Christians and act like the world (14:1-21.) If we say we are a Christian we are to act and live like a Christian.

The fourth is that we must keep the sabbath day holy. This is the day that the Lord has commanded to be a day of rest. This is a day where we are to meditate on the word of God and to bring glory to God. When it says that we cannot work, it doesn't mean that we cannot prepare food or clean up from our daily living. If it will bring glory to God you are allowed to do it, for example having someone for dinner and cleaning up afterward. On the sabbath we are not supposed to sell or buy anything. We can find all of these guidelines in ch.14:22-16:17.

To be continued in Part II.

Happy Birthday!!

To my GRANDPA!
Who's birthday was last week.
Happy Birthday!!!
I Love You Papo!

The Last Days of Moses

Sermon Report from Sunday, January 23.

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

These verses speak about the last days in Moses's life. After he blesses 11 of the 12 tribes of Israel (the tribe of Issachar was absorbed into the tribe of Zebulun), he climbs to the highest peak of mount Nebo, where as the Lord willed, Moses died.

Before the Lord ends Moses life, He shows Moses the promised land from the top of the mountain where He again reminds Moses that he will not enter the promised land. One thing that I want to point out is that you see, in verse 1,2,and 3, the Lord showing Moses the land that the tribes will have. It may be that Moses prophesied or that the Lord actually showed Moses a vision of the land where each tribe would live.

After the sight seeing, the Lord takes Moses life and then the Lord himself buries him. Until this day no one has found the grave of Moses. One reason I learned from the sermon and I agree with is that the Lord did this because He did not want the children of Israel to worship the body of Moses as they may have been tempted to do. The devil has created many other "gods" for us to worship instead of the one true God. (Before the reformation and even now, relics and important dead people were worshiped.) In Jude 1:9 it says that the archangel Michal fought with the devil over the body of Moses. The reason the devil wanted the body is that he wanted Israel to have superstitions and glorify the body of Moses and turn them away from glorifying God to glorifying the acts of Moses.

I also want to point out that when Moses died, he did not die from bad health or old age. In verse 7 it says: "Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished." Think about this! This is amazing! It may be a blessing for a believer to die without having to pass through physical pain and sickness. God does bless some more than others. Also, think about this, Moses had to climb more than 3000 ft. in elevation and he was a 120 year old man! I don't know any 120 year old man who could do this today!

After Moses died, the people of Israel, according to tradition, mourned for Moses thirty days. We also see this happening when Aaron, Moses's brother dies. There is a certain way that Christians should treat the bodies of the deceased. We have to treat them with respect. The burial of Jesus and many others were placed in the tombs, which is part of the earth. The Bible does not say to burn the bodies to ashes, as some other religions do. The bodies of humans are the Lords temple here on earth.

The people of Israel had proved that they needed a leader, so the Lord chose Joshua as the next leader over Israel. Here in this chapter is a Biblical example of the passing on of leadership. To win the leadership in this age, the candidates make themselves look like the saviors of the generation, and when they win, they criticize the last leader and try to make themselves seem better than the last leader. But here in this passage we see a beautiful taking up and passing on of the leadership of the children of Israel. Throughout his life, Joshua was under the tutorship of Moses. Some of the attributes that Joshua had which qualified him for leadership are that he "was full of the spirit of wisdom," his commission was given by God, he was successful with the people, he was faithful to Moses and the Lord. Instead of trying to take the rule of the people and being jealous of Moses, like Miriam and Aaron, He submitted to God's plans for his life.

There are some special things that we see about Moses in the last two verses. First, we see that, like John the Baptist, there never has been or will be a prophet like Moses. Than we see that he was special because the Lord allowed him to know Him face to face(no one has ever lived seeing God face to face). Then the Lord used him to do His signs and wonders. In Numbers 12:3 it states that Moses was the most humble man on earth. Humility and meekness are the marks of true men of God.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30.

The First Sermon of the Year

My sermon report for the first sermon of the year on the first Sunday of the year by my elder, Mr. Scott Brown:

Nearing the end of Deuteronomy, we are now in the last two chapters of this amazing book.

Before Moses goes up into the mountain that God has called him to, he blesses the children of Israel.
Just to note that in ch. 34:7 we are told that Moses died in full bodily strength even though he was 120 years old!

In Numbers 12:3 it says that Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth.

The flaming law in the hand of God in v. 2 being given to us is an act of love even though it may cause us some pain when we sin.

Moses was an anti-type of Christ in the way that he blessed the children of Israel before he died, as Christ blessed His followers before He ascended into heaven (Luke 24:50-51). Men of God should be full of blessings.

There were three periods in the life of Moses, each of them forty years. We may be able to see our own life through the life of Moses. The first forty years of his life Moses spent as a prince of Egypt where he thought he was a somebody. Before we were saved we lived for the world and ourselves, always searching for our own pleasure. We believed we were able to govern our own selves and thought we were somebody.

The second period of Moses's life was the forty years that he spent in the desert where he found out that he was a nobody. God brings us hard times to show that when we are in those hard times we must be totally dependent on Him. God uses difficult periods to prepare and sanctify His people for the plans he has for us.

The third period was the forty years that he spent in the wilderness leading the people of Israel to the promised land. This is the time that many are in right now, and the place that we are called to bring other people to.

The reason that Moses was never to enter the promised land, although he saw it from the top of mount Nebo where he died, was because when the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock and Moses, because of his anger, disobeyed the Lord and struck the rock. In doing this, Moses was saying that the Lord was not sufficient for them and showed that Moses needed to do something to make it happen, giving the example of doubting the sovereignty and power of God (Numbers 20:8-11.)

At the end of this journey to Gods kingdom we will sit at His feet and be in awe of His wisdom and power. But we can do this even on this earth by the way that we live our lives. It is awesome how God will ordain our steps when we live in obedience to Him.

One of the amazing things that we see here is that Moses was very meek and patient with the people of Israel, and even though he was the most humble man on the earth there were some times when he wanted God to just take his life! The example that Moses gives is a life of faith and He proves that with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).

NEW YEAR OF 2011!

This last year has been been a year of blessing for me and my family. We have finally moved closer to our church. The Lord has also taught us many blessed and sanctifying things from His word.

Now we have begun a new year to serve God in all the things that we do. We should also be very thankful for the mercy that God has shown to us in giving us a new year. Even though we are terrible sinners that should have been destroyed in Gods wrath the moment we were born.
We should bless God for this wonderful new year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!