A "Grain Of Wheat" Ministries publication

Written by David W. Dyer

INDEX

Chapter 1: NEVERTHELESS

Chapter 2: THE BAPTISM OF FIRE

Chapter 3: THE WAY OF CAIN

Chapter 4: THE SUBSTANCE OF FAITH

Chapter 5: SOME FELL AMONG THORNS

Chapter 6: THE PRIESTHOOD

Chapter 7: REMEMBER THE SABBATH (Current Chapter)

Chapter 8: THE SWORD AND THE KINGDOM

Chapter 9: THREE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES

Chapter 10: LOVING GOD

Chapter 11: ARE YOU DECEIVED?

Chapter 12: TRUE MINISTRY

Chapter 7: REMEMBER THE SABBATH

READ CHAPTER 7 ONLINE BELOW

The setting was awesome. The mountain was bathed in thick smoke produced by a raging fire. The ground quaked and a trumpet Voice, louder than anyone had previously heard, drowned out the rolling thunder while the lightning punctuated the pronouncements of God Almighty. The man, Moses, made his way up the mountain and disappeared into the conflagration.

No doubt he too was afraid. It would be only natural if his knees shook and his heart pounded within his chest as he watched the finger of God appear and inscribe His commandments on two tablets of solid stone. The Most High was making it more than plain that He was serious and that His commandments were not to be violated. This dreadful demonstration of God's power was intended to produce in those who beheld it a solemnity and holy fear which would cause them to obey Him.

Such is the origin of what we know as the “Ten Commandments.” However it is quite evident that they are not held in such high regard today as they were at the time in which they were first spoken. After all, many Christians seem to believe that Jesus came to do away with such frightening decrees and replace them with much more palatable, easier to keep admonitions.

In fact, it is often suspected among modern Christians (if not openly taught) that God's commandments to His people should really be regarded more as “little suggestions” rather than any kind of ironclad ordinances.

Furthermore, the assumption goes, the consequences of failure – the penalty for breaking any of God’s laws – has been entirely removed through Jesus, so whether or not we measure up to His standard is not really very important.

Underlying this present lassitude of modern Christendom toward God’s instructions and the evident lack of the fear of God among His people is a basic misconception concerning the gospel. What Jesus came to do for us and how He is accomplishing His objectives is not well understood and in fact is often misunderstood by far too many believers.

The notion of “consequences” of any sort concerning the behavior of Christians has been reduced to a fairy tale about how large or small a mansion we will receive or how luxurious a car we will drive when our Lord returns with His reward.

This sort of superficial gospel has produced equally shallow adherents. A lack of revelation concerning the Person and purposes of the Living God has resulted in a message which has very little power to change the lives of the hearers. The “fear of the Lord” which should form a kind of foundation in the lives of believers has been explained away and replaced with a broad, easy way which finds no place in any genuine understanding of the gospel.

This then brings us to the purpose of this writing. It is to attempt, in a manner which is both scriptural and enlightening, to present the gospel from a fresh perspective which will speak to some of the modern misconceptions so prevalent among us. Let us pray together that God will anoint and use this message towards His eternal ends.

To begin, it is important to state that Jesus did not come to do away with the law. Instead He came to fulfill it. Not only did He not eliminate the demands of God’s commandments, He actually raised them! In reality, Jesus’ teachings elevated the requirements upon God’s people instead of reducing them. A simple examination of a couple of the Ten Commandments will make this fact abundantly clear.

For example, the seventh commandment forbids us to commit adultery. Now it is possible for many people to keep this directive. They may entertain certain thoughts and desires about particularly attractive members of the opposite sex.

They may even have strong urges in this direction, but they, through their will power or other means, are able to suppress them and keep themselves from this sin. This abstinence would have qualified them to be judged as obedient to the law in Moses’ day.

But when Jesus came, He made things much more difficult. He declared that indulging in the thought is just as bad as having actually done the act. This made righteousness impossible from a human standpoint. If you are honest, you will admit with me that precious few have made it through life without one such thought. Here in just this single law, virtually everyone is found guilty.

The commandment against murder also forms a part of the picture. No doubt there have been times in our lives when others have offended or even egregiously wronged us, and consequently have made us exceedingly angry.

Hopefully, we have been able so far to resist the temptation to kill them. Perhaps the restraining influence of law enforcement forces, courts and jails have helped make the job of controlling our feelings somewhat easier.

However, this abstinence which in the Old Testament would have been good enough, does not meet our Lord’s standard. In the New Testament not only are we not free to murder those who bother us, we are required to forgive them. Not only may we not harbor hatred and bitterness in our hearts, but our Lord actually insists that we love our enemies. How is this possible? Once again, self-restraint is not enough. An entire change of character is required.

And so it is with the rest of the Ten Commandments. The New Testament standards are actually much higher than that of the Old. Hopefully, this small sampling will be enough to demonstrate clearly that the righteousness required by Jesus’ teaching is far above that demanded by the law.

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

I believe that most people’s immediate reaction to all this is to inwardly wonder: “How is such a thing possible?” “How could anyone live in such complete perfection that not one ungodly thought, attitude or action could creep into their life?” We know that the ancient Jews strove for nearly 2,000 years to obey the Ten Commandments. It is also well documented that the history of this effort was one of continual failure.

So, since it has been clearly proven over millennia of experience, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that man is incapable of obeying God’s original ordinances, how are we to understand the fact that Jesus apparently made things even more difficult? What are we to make of the fact that what God today requires of us is so far out of our reach and beyond our abilities as to be entirely impossible?

The answer to this question is quite simple, yet utterly profound. To grasp it, it is imperative that every believer arrive at a deep, unshakable understanding of the following fact: There is only one person in the universe who is capable of measuring up to this incredible criterion – God Himself. His life is the only life which automatically and spontaneously expresses genuine righteousness. He is the only one who meets the test.

Do you realize that God does not have to try to be righteous? He just is! He does not have to try not to look at pornography on the internet or keep from indulging in romance novels. He is not straining not to lie, cheat, steal or take advantage of someone for His own profit. He spends no time wishing He had things as nice as His neighbors.

The truth is that God cannot even be tempted by sin (Js 1:13). He simply isn’t interested. In fact, He abhors it. God manifests righteousness simply because He is righteous and it is impossible for Him to be any other way.

It should be no secret to us that at one time in history, this supernatural life was manifested (I Jn 1:2). This incredibly righteous life came to earth in the person of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. We read: “In Him was [God’s] life” (Jn 1:4).* This man was the repository of the Father’s life. (*The Greek word “life” here is ZOÊ, referring to the Father’s life.)

Furthermore, while He walked on this planet, He did not function by His own life but simply lived out His existence by the inclinations of the Divine life which was inside of Him.

He disclosed this secret when He declared: “I live by the Father” (Jn 6:57). His actions and even His words were not His own but simply an expression of the will of Him who lived within Him.

He asserted: “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works” (Jn 14:10 KJV). So we see that Jesus was truly righteous as a result of God’s own life within Him which motivated Him.

A LIFE WHICH IS NOT OUR OWN

This then forms an illustration for us today. It is totally impossible for us to meet God’s standards. But if we are genuine believers, this same Jesus who lived on earth 2,000 years ago and pleased the Father in every respect, now lives within us. And it is the Father’s intention that His own Son, living within us and living the Father’s life through us would fulfill all of His righteous intentions.

Jesus Himself is to become our motivation. God’s own life is to become the source of all our thoughts, feelings and actions. Just as our Lord was animated by the Life of the Father, so we too can be an expression of Himself.

In this way, our lives will manifest righteousness. In this way, we can meet the standards given to us in God’s book. Yet it is a righteousness which is not our own (Philip 3:9). It is not we who are meeting the requirements, but Another who lives in us and through us. This is the real “righteousness of faith” (Philip 3:9). Our faith brings us into God and God into us in such a powerful way that our very manner of living is changed.

The genuine gospel is not a message of self-effort. True righteousness is not attained by the improvement of ourselves. Rather it is accomplished by a supernatural substitution. Just as Jesus pleased the Father by allowing Him to live through Him, in this same way we too can be pleasing to Him. This is the true Christian life. It is the narrow “way” of which Jesus spoke. Any other is just an earthly imitation. God’s desire is not that we should “live for Him” but rather that He should live His life through us!

Do you see this? Are you able to genuinely fathom the depths of what this means? What a glorious liberty! What a freedom and enjoyment. We are now free from the bondage of trying to please God. Now Someone who is infinitely more capable is going to do it for us. The living Jesus who pleased the Father while in this world will again please Him in and through us.

This is an essential revelation which every Christian should see. It is also something which should begin to have a profound effect upon their experience. It is a truth which should begin to alter our behavior on a fundamental level.

AN AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY

On the one hand this great fact provides us with tremendous release, yet on the other it also brings with it awesome responsibility. You see this means that God’s people are supposed to be truly righteous. They are meant to be holy. They are actually intended by God to meet not only the standards of the Old Testament law but also the exceedingly elevated standards revealed by Jesus.

In truth He did not come to do away with the law. Instead He came to fulfill it more completely and thoroughly than ever before. He came to cause multiplied thousands of men and women to become more righteous than previously thought possible. His intention is that what could not be done by the strength of man in attempting to obey God’s law, would now be accomplished by His divine power working through His people. Now God can have multitudes expressing true holiness to the world and defeating the devil through their testimony.

Hopefully, all readers will realize that there is a great difference between the idea of “keeping” the law and “fulfilling” the law. “Keeping” the law is something which involves the efforts of the flesh to obey a superficial standard. The “fulfillment” of the law is the appearance of the standard giver Himself.

Let me give you an example of this. Let us suppose that you had never met my lovely wife. To help you know a little about her, I could show you a picture. By examining the photograph, you could learn a little about her appearance, her hair color, her height and her facial features.

However, when you finally meet her face to face, she is the fulfillment of the picture. You no longer need to gaze at the photograph, she is now present with you. In fact, she would be offended if you continued to stare at the picture and ignored her.

In the same way, God gave us the law and the commandments. They are a verbal picture of Himself and His righteousness. They obviously are true and just and good, just as the photo of my wife is an accurate representation of herself. However, in many ways the laws and the commandments are incomplete, because it is impossible to describe in human words the totality of all God’s righteous person.

Now, however, the “fulfillment” of the law has come. The person depicted by the commandments appeared on the earth in the Person of Jesus Christ. This Person “fulfills” the law simply because the law was and is a kind of definition of what He is.

His actions and words are far above the law because it is a mere shadow of all that He is. At times, His attitudes and actions appeared to the Pharisees to be in contradiction to their understanding of the law. This is because they misunderstood what the law was and Who was really behind it. They only stared at the picture and ignored the Person.

Trying to “keep” the law only results in a human imitation of what God is. Even if the most strong-willed person could make themselves “do everything right,” this could never result in true righteousness. It would just be a mere, natural human being imitating God. We read, “by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Gal 2:16). Even if we could do it, it would not be acceptable before God.

What God is looking for is an actual expression of His own life and nature. This is what He saw in His Son. And this is what He is looking for also in us – the fullness of His life, saturating and permeating our being in such a way that we also become an expression of His holiness.

Yet, as we all know, the actual realization of this glorious truth is not quite as simple as it may seem. Somehow, even though we have this supernatural Life living in us, it is not always He whom we express. Far too often, low, earthly thoughts, feelings and actions – sin of every variety – work in us and are expressed through us. What then is the problem? Why is it that we do not always manifest the nature of God in our daily lives?

At the root of this dilemma lies the fact that we still possess our old life. Just as the Life of God is thoroughly and completely righteous, so our own life – the one with which we were born – is unalterably polluted with sin.

Therefore, when we allow ourselves to be motivated by it, we naturally express something which is less than supremely holy. When we live our own lives, when we permit “self” to be the source by which we live, the results are inevitably sinful and therefore rejected by God.

This then places the believer who is desiring to be holy and to do God’s will, at a kind of crossroads. Every day and in fact every moment of every day, Christians are required to make a choice. They must continually decide by which life they will live. Which life will they allow to fill them and motivate them – God's or their own? Which life will be their moment by moment inspiration?

Our Heavenly Father, in His great wisdom, has not forced His way upon us. Instead, if we do manifest His life, it will be a result of our perpetually choosing His way. If we do begin to exhibit His nature, it will be because we day by day chose to allow His life to fill and dominate our being. Additionally, it will mean that we at the same time decided to deny our own life its expression.

How holy and precious it is that our God and King is so sensitive to our desires. Conversely, how awesome a responsibility we have to choose rightly every day.

REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY

Now we come at last to an important aspect of this article, the remembrance of the Sabbath Day. In the Old Testament when Moses received the Ten Commandments, the ordinance of the Sabbath was a requirement concerning the enterprises of the seventh day.

God ordered His people to cease from doing most physical activities so that they could focus their minds and attentions upon the worship of Himself. Simply put, they were to stop what they were doing and rest.

While this seems like it should be an easy commandment to keep, it proved to be a virtual impossibility. There was always something within the lives of God’s people which was stirring them to action, even when it was in violation of His will.

In the Old Testament, God reveals that His thoughts concerning the Sabbath are more than just a physical inactivity. In Isaiah 58:13 we are taught that the Sabbath even includes not doing what we want to do or even what we enjoy doing. We are not to be “finding our own pleasure.” Even further, we are not even to be “speaking our own words.” This is really impossible.

How is it possible that we could live without saying anything which springs from our self? How could we not seek things which are pleasureable for us? It is only when the Life of Another is motivating our entire living that such a thing is possible.

Interestingly, Jesus affirms that His life was a manifestation of just such a Sabbath experience. He says: “The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works” (Jn 14:10). He was not speaking His own words or doing His own works. Instead, He was resting and allowing the life of the Father to live through Him.

Now if the Old Testament decree was impossible to keep, what of the New Covenant standard? At that time God’s followers were forbidden to work one day out of seven, but now in the New Testament, we are required not to work at all! We are admonished to “cease from [our] own works” completely (Heb 4:10).

The standard of “resting” has been elevated far beyond the activities of one day. Now it is being applied to our entire existence. We are to enter such a rest that it is no longer “we” who are living. Not just the seventh day, but all seven days of the week are holy to God. Now there is no longer any room for us to do our own thing and be what we want to be. Now there is only room for Christ Jesus.

This then brings us to a proper understanding of the real gospel. It is a message which states that there is a “rest” for the people of God into which they need to enter (Heb 4:9). There is available to us the option to stop living our life by our own motivation and enter into the experience of being animated by God. The genuine experience of the Sabbath is none other than that about which we have been speaking. It is simply to allow God to be our life and cease from living by our own.

When properly understood, the Old Covenant mandates are seen simply as outward types of the coming spiritual realities. They were earthly illustrations given to us by God to help us understand spiritual things. Concerning the outward observance of the Sabbath Day, the scriptures teach us that this was simply a “shadow of things to come, but the substance [the spiritual reality of it] is of Christ” (Col 2:17).

Do you see this? In this light the true Sabbath observance becomes one of the most important revelations of the New Testament. Ceasing from living by our own life and yielding our faculties to the inspiration of Another is truly at the center of all the thoughts and intentions of our God.

This is why Jesus came and died for us. It was to impart to us the Father’s Divine Life so that we could become partakers of His nature and be truly righteous. No wonder the Sabbath is one of the most prominent of the commandments, being mentioned 137 times throughout the scriptures. It is little surprise therefore that its observance was taken so seriously by God and that it is emphasized again and again by the prophets when detailing the shortcomings of God's people.

The importance of this experience, the centrally of this truth is so profound that if a person does not understand it, then he has not begun to really grasp the message of Christ. The keeping of the true Sabbath, which results in the replacement of our old, perishable life with God’s new, eternal one is absolutely indispensable.

Do you keep the Sabbath Day? No, I don't mean to ask whether or not you hold a job or work in your garden on Sunday. Neither am I interested in any fruitless discussions about whether Saturday or Sunday is the proper time for worship. These things belong to another realm entirely. If you are caught up in them, it is proof that you have already missed the spiritual reality about which we have been speaking.

Paul, the apostle, was fearful of this very thing when he said to the Galatian believers, “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain” (Gal 4:9-11).

He was concerned that his hearers had only grasped the superficial appearance of the scriptures and completely overlooked the real message. His apprehension was that in keeping an earthly Sabbath ordinance, they were demonstrating that they had not understood its true meaning.

He understood that the Old Testament Law was weak, because it only operated through the efforts of the old man, the flesh (Rm 8:3). He also knew that it was only the divine life of God which could really fulfill (not keep) the Sabbath requirements

This then dear brothers and sisters is our present consideration. Are we entering into the true Sabbath day experience? Are we truly stopping our own activities and entering into the rest of God? Are we living by our own life, or allowing the Life of Another to dominate and control us? Who is our daily motivation? Whom are we expressing day by day?

Jesus is coming soon. Only those who have loved the Sabbath will be ready. Hear the promise of God!

“If you turn away . . . from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Is 58:13,14).

ARE THERE ANY CONSEQUENCES?

We have been discussing the sublime possibility of living by another Life. But why is this so essential both to us and to God? The important truth is that the old life with the old nature which we inherited from Adam is under God’s judgment. Just as breaking the Old Covenant Sabbath produced consequences, still today there are serious repercussions for us when we do not enter into the Sabbath rest.

When Adam and Eve first sinned, they were condemned by the judgment which God had already pronounced: He said, “For in the day you eat the fruit of it, you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). Through their sin, this sentence of death has passed upon all men in the human race (Rm 5:12).

Now some may believe that, through Jesus, this judgment, along with all the rest of the Old Testament judgments, have somehow been annulled. They imagine that, since we have believed in Christ, we are no longer subject to this sentence.

However, this is not quite the case. Our old life which we inherited from Adam must surely die. We read: “For as in Adam all die” (I Cor 15:22).

The reason that this sentence must be carried out is that our old life produces sin. By nature we are sinful. Meditate upon the following question for a few minutes. How many sins were necessary to destroy God’s earthly creation? Just one.

Perhaps to us this sin does not seem to be of great consequence. Eve did not fall by committing fornication. She did not murder someone or steal. She simply was self-willed and disobedient. Yet this one sin destroyed everything that God had made.

Now with this in mind, let us reason together. How many sins would be necessary to destroy the new creation which God will make? Also only one. Therefore, if God allows sinful beings to enter, surely they will sin again. Sooner or later, intentionally or unintentionally, they would sin.

The only solution is not to allow any sinners in. To eliminate any possibility of sin entering the new creation, all the sinners must die. They must be terminated. In their place, God is substituting a new race – the children of God. These new creatures are “not of this world.” They have a heavenly Father, a new birth and a new life which does not sin (I Jn 3:6). These are the only ones who will be allowed to enter into God’s new creation.

Our Father’s plan is to fill us with His life and nature. But in order for this to happen, “we” must die. The sinful creature which we are by nature must be destroyed. Our old self-life must actually be put to death through the action of the Holy Spirit (Rm 8:13). Our “self” must be crucified.

Then, the new Divine life which He has given us will grow up to replace what we are. No, we do not escape death by believing in Jesus, we pass through it. In Christ, we can die and yet live (Jn 11:25). We can actually experience the death of Jesus working in us so that His life can be manifested (II Cor 4:10).

The necessity for us to die should not be foreign to our understanding of the gospel. One of the main tenets of our faith is baptism. After we believe, we should be baptized. But what does it mean? It means that we are “baptized into His death” (Rm 6:3). It is a symbol of drowning or dying.

When we are baptized, we are declaring publicly that we recognize that we are sinful and that as a consequence of our sinful condition, we are ready and willing to die.

Our immersion in water is an action which testifies to our willingness to enter into death and our faith in the resurrection power of Jesus. If you have been baptized without this most basic understanding, then you have missed the message of the cross of Christ.

It is on the cross that a life exchange was and can be made. There we can trade all that we are for all that He is. It is as we “carry the cross” that the death of Jesus is actually applied to our being. After this, the resurrection of Christ also becomes our experience.

As believers, we are not supposed to be engaged in an effort to reform the old man. We are not called to a course of retraining, restraining or re-education. No, the old man must simply die. In its place, we can receive a new Life which will become a substitute for the defective life which we received from Adam.

Our old life, which is under God’s judgment, will sooner or later be eliminated. It has to go. It is unalterably contaminated with sin. Therefore, we have before us two options.

One is that we can hang onto our own life, avoiding the cross and obedience to Jesus and lose our Adamic life when He comes. The other is that we can lay down our own life today and be filled instead with an eternal, indestructible life which is destined for glory.

Do I mean to say that what remains of our old life will be destroyed when Jesus comes? Yes, that is certainly the case. Jesus promises us clearly and repeatedly that “...he who saves his life, will lose it” (Mt 10:39, 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24, Lk 17:33; Jn 12:25). The word “life” here is PSUCHÊ in Greek and refers to our “soul-life” or our natural life.

Nothing could be clearer. From our Lord’s own mouth, we have the sure witness that we will lose our old life. If we refuse to cooperate with the heavenly plan to exchange our life for His today, we will ultimately lose what we have and be left with little when He comes.

Unfortunately, many Christians are confused about this. They do not completely understand the “whole counsel” of God. They have only heard part of the gospel. Although they have heard about the new birth and forgiveness of sins, they have not understood the preaching of the cross and all that it entails. They have not perceived the urgent necessity to follow Christ, carrying the cross, in order to be free from what they are and obtain all that He is.

But to miss this truth is to miss out on most of what Jesus died for. To ignore the greater consequences of His salvation is to neglect something infinitely precious which will be impossible to recover later. May God have mercy upon us to enlighten us to the fullness of His great plan.

THE CONSUMING FIRE

When we appear before the judgment seat of Christ, we are told that our works will be tested by fire. Not only this, but what we are will also be analyzed by this supernatural flame.

I Corinthians 3:15 reads: “If anyone’s works are destroyed he himself shall be saved, yet so as through [the] fire.” You see, we shall all stand before our God. According to the scriptures He “is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29).

What will this fire consume? It will completely consume anything that is not of God’s own life and nature. It will burn everything that is old, natural and sinful. Only the new supernatural life will be able to survive this test. Just as Jesus promised, if we “save” our own life we will lose it. There is absolutely no possibility for it to survive and enter into the new creation.

BREAKING TODAY’S SABBATH

You see, breaking today’s Sabbath rest will also result in severe judgment, just as breaking the Old Testament Sabbath did. But this judgment is yet in the future.

When we fail to enter into God’s rest, ie. ceasing from our own living, there will be future, inescapable consequences. We will suffer irrecoverable loss of our own soul. It will be consumed by His burning presence.

Perhaps some will argue against these foregoing assertions by “claiming the blood of Jesus.” Perhaps they will insist that since we are forgiven, there can be no further consequences. What these dear brothers and sisters fail to understand is the purpose of forgiveness.

It is not to preserve the old man. God’s eternal purpose is to fill us with His life and nature. Our Father forgives us so that He can give us His new life. And it is His plan that this new life should fill and dominate us completely. Forgiveness was not given to let the old sinful man off the hook.

Instead it was to open up the way for us to have intimate fellowship with God. It is through such fellowship that He provides a way of escape, so that we can be free from self and sin today and avoid judgment tomorrow.

With all this in mind, let us return again to our discussion of the Sabbath rest. In the heart and mind of God, this rest is an extremely important issue. The end of ourselves and the exchange of our life for His is a very sobering matter with eternal consequences.

Hebrews 4:1 reads: “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.” Here we learn that, indeed, there is something to “fear.” This fear is exactly what we have been speaking about.

The experience of ceasing to live for ourselves and by our own life is not just something for “advanced” or “spiritual” Christians. God’s expectation is that all of us would experience the Sabbath rest.

This “rest” is so total, so complete, that it resembles death. When a person is no longer speaking their own words or seeking their own pleasure, they must be dead. This is actually what the New Testament Sabbath means. It is rest so complete that it means the end of ourselves. It signifies the death of our old “soul life.” Interestingly, when a person has died and is buried, we say that they were “laid to rest.”

Just as with the other commandments, the Sabbath commandment has also been elevated by Jesus. No longer is it sufficient simply to stop working a little on one day every week. Today, there is no room for “self” at all. We too must be “laid to rest.”

It is only by experiencing this death that we can know what the word resurrection means. It is only through the cross that we can genuinely walk in “newness of life” (Rm 6:4) being filled to overflowing with the life and nature of Jesus Christ.

But what about you? Are you using your time prudently to enter into all that God has purchased for you? Are you, as a wise and faithful servant, experiencing the true rest of God every day? Are you growing up into the full salvation of Jesus Christ? Or are you taking advantage of God’s goodness and grace?

Are you simply living for yourself and by your own life, seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own words? Is the blood of Jesus precious to you or do you or do you imagine it to be some easy way to escape the punishment you deserve for the lifestyle you are living?

I believe it was Jim Elliot who once said: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” What we cannot keep is our old, natural life. What we cannot lose is God’s divine life with which we wants to fill us.

Dear friends and brothers, let us all take a moment and examine our hearts seriously. Someday soon we will appear before His judgment seat. Wise and faithful servants will make themselves ready for His coming.

End of Chapter 7

Read other chapters online:

Chapter 1: NEVERTHELESS

Chapter 2: THE BAPTISM OF FIRE

Chapter 3: THE WAY OF CAIN

Chapter 4: THE SUBSTANCE OF FAITH

Chapter 5: SOME FELL AMONG THORNS

Chapter 6: THE PRIESTHOOD

Chapter 7: REMEMBER THE SABBATH (Current Chapter)

Chapter 8: THE SWORD AND THE KINGDOM

Chapter 9: THREE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES

Chapter 10: LOVING GOD

Chapter 11: ARE YOU DECEIVED?

Chapter 12: TRUE MINISTRY

Since this chapter is an independent subject from the rest of the book if you want you can download it as a PDF pamphlet here.