Thursday, 7 March 2019

Are You Observing the Right Day of Worship?

https://www.thetrumpet.com/18556-are-you-observing-the-right-day-of-worship

Most Christians have never studied why Sunday is their day of worship. If you are one of them, you are denying yourself special blessings from God!

A Sabbath Covenant

Some time after God gave the Ten Commandments, He emphasized the Sabbath command by creating a special Sabbath covenant.
Read it in Exodus 31:12-13: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” This special covenant shows us why the Sabbath: It is a sign between God and His people.
A sign outside a business premise identifies the business. God says proper Sabbath observance identifies where God is and who His people are.
Notice, God says “I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” As He does with the seventh day, God sets apart for holy use His people who keep the Sabbath!
It might seem strange to you that God made a sign to identify His people. Isn’t it true that all Christians are God’s people and know God?
Well, is that what God teaches in His Bible?
God tells us that Satan the devil deceives the whole world (Revelation 12:9). The Apostle Paul calls him “the god of this world”—and then warns that “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness …” (2 Corinthians 4:4; 11:14-15).
Whether or not they realize it, people who say they are Christian—followers of Christ—yet keep a different day of worship than Christ Himself did, are practicing a counterfeit form of Christianity!
Do you believe that some who look like ministers of righteousness are actually Satan’sministers? That is a hard truth for most people to accept. But the fact is, Satan is a great counterfeiter.
Whether or not they realize it, people who say they are Christian—followers of Christ—yet keep a different day of worship than Christ Himself did, are practicing a counterfeit form of Christianity! We must be honest about this.
We must get to know the true God. The God of the Bible gave the Sabbath to man for the purpose of keeping us in the true worship of God.
Christ referred to His body of believers—those who stay loyal to Him and what He teaches—as a “little flock” (Luke 12:32). And Scripture says you could know those people because of a sign: God’s Sabbath day.
Notice the rest of that Sabbath covenant: “Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 31:14-15). When God initially delivered that commandment to ancient Israel, it was physical. He wasn’t working with them spiritually. But today, if we break the Sabbath, we must repent or we will experience eternal death! It is that serious!

A Day to Grow Spiritually

“Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed” (Exodus 31:16-17). This commandment wasn’t just a sign until Jesus Christ’s first coming. It is perpetual! It is forever.
The Sabbath is a day that refreshes God. It refreshes all those who observe it! It lifts your spirits. It is filled with blessings. Why don’t people keep it as God commands? It comes with awesome, stupendous blessings that we don’t receive any other way!
God created that day for a wonderful, inspiring purpose. It is to help man build righteous spiritual character. The Sabbath is holy time set apart that we might grow spiritually and build the very holiness of God! Of course, we should build God’s character on other days as well. But the Sabbath is vastly different from every other day because God’s presence is in it. We can fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ in a special way on the Sabbath through God’s Spirit (1 John 1:3).
The Sabbath is holy time set apart that we might grow spiritually and build the very holiness of God!
“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words” (Isaiah 58:13). The Sabbath is not for doing our own deeds, seeking our own pleasures or even speaking our own words. It is a special day—God’s holy day! We are to honor Him in our observance. If we do, we can expect blessings.
“Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (verse 14). That is truly an amazing promise to all people who will keep God’s Sabbath day!
We need to completely give ourselves to God on the Sabbath. If we do, He says we will ride on the high places of the Earth! The greatest blessings will be poured out to us. The “heritage of Jacob” is prosperity without limit! That is the promise God gives to us. That is the truth contained in His Word. That is the great abundance that comes from proper observance of God’s true Sabbath day!

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