*WHAT IS THE SABBATH?*
part 1 of 3
First of all, *salvation is by FAITH* (”believing”, ”trust”) only, please take the time to search out all these verses about faith:
–in Matt:21:32
–Mk: 5:36,9:23,42;11:24,16:17,9:23,16:16
–Luke8:12
–Jn.: 3:15-18,36;5:24; 6:29,35,40,47; 7:38; 8:24, 9:35, 10:26, 11:25-27,40; 12:36,44,46; 13:19, 14:1,12,29; 16:9, 17:20, 19:35, 20:31
–Acts: 3:16, 8:37, 10:43; 13:39,41; 14:9,22,27; 15:7,9,11, 16:5,31, 19:4, 20:21, 21:25, 26:18
–Rom: 1:5,8,12,16,17; 3:22,25,26,27,28,30,31; 4:5,9,11,12,13,14,16,19,20,24; 5:1,2; 6:8,23; 9:30,32,33; 10:4,6,8,9,10,11,14,17; 11:6,20, 16:26
–1Cor: 1:21, 2:5, 16:13
–2Cor: 4:4,13; 5:7, 13:5
–Gal: 2:16,20; 3:2,7,8,9,13,14,22,23,25,26; 5:5,6,22; 6:10
–Eph: 1:15,19, 2:8, 3:12,17; 4:13, 6:16
–Phil: 3:9
–Col: 1:v4,23
–1Thess: 2:13
–2Thess: 1:10
–1Tim: 1:16, 4:3
–2Tim: 2:13
–Heb:10:38,39; 11:6
–1Pet: 1:9,21; 2:6,7, 5:9
–1Jn: 3:23, 5:1,4,10-13
*Here are some statements from the above verses about faith and salvation:*
—Rom11:6 salvation ”is by faith, not by works”
—Eph2:8 we are not saved because of works, but we are saved for good works, also 2Tim1:9, Titus3:5
—Rom3:27 excludes the possibility of boasting before God with works for obtaining salvation
—Rom4:13,14 the promise made to Abraham was not made through the law but on the basis of faith, if it is by the law then faith is made void
—Rom6:23 salvation is a free gift through faith
—Rom9:30-33 righteousness is by faith, not by works
—Gal3:2-5,14 have you received the Spirit by faith or by the works of the law (Sabbath)? The answer is evidently ”by faith, not by works”
—Gal3:8,9 justification (to be declared just) and blessing are by faith
—Gal3:13 the law is not faith but the law is works; the law and faith are opposed systems; it is like the difference between a medal and a gift: a medal is deserved but a gift is free
—Col2:6 the same way you have received Jesus (by faith), so walk in Him (you don’t receive Jesus by faith and grace and then you continue by works)
*WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE LAW OF MOSES:*
—Rom10:4 Christ is the end of the law
—Gal3:23-25  the law was a ”paidagogos” = (greek) a boy servant who takes children to school, when faith came we no longer are under a ”paidagogos” (most translations use word ”schoolmaster”)
—Gal5:4 those that seek justification through the law are falling from grace
—Gal5:18 we are not under law
—Rom7:1-25 v4 we are dead to the law so that now we belong to Christ
—Jn1:17 for the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ
—Eph2:15 the law was abolished (”katargeo” in Greek means ”abolished”, ”done away”), also Col2:14 blotting out the ordinances
—Heb8:6-10 old covenant through Moses is removed and replaced with a second covenant in the blood of Jesus; it is ”removed”, not ”improved” by adding Jesus to the law of Moses;
—Heb12 speaks of 2 different mountains: Horeb where the law of Moses was given – v18, mountain which we have not approached as Christians, but we have approached mount Sion where Jesus died and reigns forever v22-24
—Luke22:20 Jesus said: ”this cup is the new covenant in my blood” – this covenant (”diateke” in Greek) is between the Father and the Son, we are just beneficiaries of this covenant through faith; ”diateke” can also be translated ”testament” or ”will”, not ”contract”! The law of Moses was a contract between God and Israel and no Jew was able to fulfill their part of the contract perfectly, see Rom3:20-23
—James2:17 faith without works is dead = true faith produces fruit (see good works or fruit in Gal5:22,23); good works come after salvation, not before it Eph2:10
—Gal3:10 those that trust in the works of the law for their righteousness are under curse because nobody can continue perfectly in the works of the law; those who trust in Christ for righteousness have Christ remove the curse of the law because he has been cursed in our place Gal3:13; if you can continue perfectly in the works of the law then you don’t need Jesus!

*THERE ARE THREE SIGNS OF COVENANT* between God and Israel, none of them applies literally to the Christian but they have spiritual applications:
*1.CIRCUMCISION* a sign between God and Jews only: “And you shall be circumcised…it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you” Gen17:11
–Application: circumcision of the heart is putting off the body of sins of the flesh, Rom2:29, Phil3:3, Col2:11.In Acts15 the apostles told gentile Christians that they don’t have to be circumcised and they didn’t tell them to keep the Sabbath, neither how to keep it. Jesus was circumcised as a baby just as identification with the Jews
*2.PASSOVER BLOOD* a sign between God and Jews: “And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live” Ex12:13,14, sacrifice was to be made ”throughout your generations” Ex29:42. Jesus is the Lamb of God, Jn1:29, therefore we don’t sacrifice lambs today
*3.SABBATH* a sign between God and Jews: Ex31:13-17; Ezek20:12 ”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”. Jesus is our Sabbath rest Matt11:28.The fact that Sabbath is listed in the 10 commandments given to Israel does not make it more important than the circumcision. All the laws of Moses are from God, not only the 10 commandments.

*SABBATH REQUIREMENTS ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF MOSES:*
*1.No work done at all* Ex20:10; Lev23: 3; Jer17:21-22. Not allowed to have a slave or and employee or an animal work for you on Sabbath.If you get in a car you have the driver work for you; if you use electricity you force the electricity company use workers to supply you with electricity (engineers, supervisors, staff).If you swim at the swimming pool you force the life guards to work to supervise you.No watering the lawn, no working in the yard, no hobbies, no surfing, no fixing flat tires, no luggages or other weights etc.By Moses’ law if a person did not stop all types of activity in honor of the Sabbath, he was breaking the law. In Num15:32-36 a man was caught collecting sticks on the Sabbath, and he received a rock concert from the people he knew.
*2.No kindling of a fire* Ex.35:3 No fellowship cookouts or barbecues.You can’t go into a restaurant and get a hamburger that’s been flame broiled, you can’t cook eggs, or pancakes in the morning because you’d be kindling a fire for cooking.To drive a car would be to “kindle a fire” In the combustion chamber of your engine.This command could kill Jews or adventists living at the North Pole without fire, where at 50 degrees under the freezing point adults can’t last too long, especially babies; I have experienced such colds.And by the way, no smoking allowed either on Sabbath!! 🙂
*3.No traveling* Ex16:29 Later the Jews added to this law, allowing only a half mile of travel on the Sabbath which we see observed in the NT (Acts1:12).But the pure law says “stay at home.” Actually, if you kept this part of the law, you could not travel to your church gathering unless it was less than one-quarter mile away from home.If you had an emergency you could not drive to the hospital.Matt24:20 Jesus says, ”pray that your flight will not occur in the winter nor Sabbath”, Jesus did not promote Sabbath this way to Christians but just stated that on winter it is difficult to leave far for a long trip and on Sabbath the neighbors might stone you for not keeping the Sabbath (by exceeding the allowed walking distance and for being loaded with personal belongings).Jesus in Matt12:1 crossed a grain field which was of course outside of the city and also allowed the disciples to clear grains, both of these actions were breaking the Sabbath, to which Jesus answered in his defense saying He is ‘Lord of Sabbath’ and therefore not under Sabbath, the same way as He is Lord of all Acts10:36 but above all, not under
*4.No trading* Amos8:5 If you happened to need gas to get to church service, you could not “trade” money for gasoline.You would not be allowed to buy a cassette tape of that morning’s message or a book at the store.There is to be no exchanging of money for goods.You could not exchange potatoes for tomatoes with your neighbor, for example
*5.No Marketing* Neh10:31; 13:15,19 Make sure you do no shopping whatsoever. You can’t buy any ice cream for dessert after dinner or anything else.If you run out of food or drink at home you can’t go out to purchase any, you can’t even buy a stick of gum
*6.A holy assembly* with double the daily offering along with the other offerings. In other words, you are to give twice as much on the Sabbath Num28:9 Do Sabbatarians really practice this law? I have yet to see people go to Shabbat and give twice as much each week
*7.New showbread* in the holy place Lev24:8 Of course this cannot be done today since there is no temple, so this part of the Sabbath cannot be followed by the sabbatarians
*The penalty for breaking the Sabbath is DEATH*

*Sabbatarians ‘keep’ the Sabbath the way they want and say grace allows them to keep it the way they do.* In fact, the only aspect of keeping the Sabbath is that they gather for assembly on Saturday (Sabbath day), they don’t respect any of the other aspects from the law of Moses.We also gather on Saturday, also on Sunday, also on Monday and so on all week for different Bible activities, Mat18:20 ”where there are 2 or 3 in My Name, I am there with them”. It does not say, ”gathered in My name on Sabbath”.
..end of part 1