[Mark Welch] Well, not long ago, an elderly woman asked me to take her to the bank. She said she wanted to check her balance. So I drove her to the bank and I pushed her over. Well, I just wanted to follow the example of our pastor. Actually, this little story that I just shared, this joke, leads right into my sermon. Because some of you probably thought I was talking about a bank, like Chase Bank, when really I was talking about the bank of a river. And some of you may have been thinking that I was talking about checking a bank balance but I was really talking about, you know, how straight this woman could walk or how well she could, you know, maneuver things. So, it's easy to misunderstand things, isn't it? Do you get that?

You know, we can read the same thing and we can misunderstand. So that reminds me of the fact that many ministers and biblical scholars, they teach that God's law has but been done away. They teach it's been nailed to the cross. You know, they read the same Bible we read, but they come up with a different understanding, right? They teach that it's a curse to be subject to the law of God. They primarily use the writings of the apostle. Oh, by the way, before I forget, I have to give credit to Edie Rangel for that story. She shared that with me, and I would be remiss, I almost forgot, Edie, sorry for that. Forgive me. She's listening in, I think on the webcast. So, I thought it was funny. And some of you laughed, so that was good.

So anyway, back to my story about a misunderstanding when it comes to God's law. Some teach that it's a curse to be subject to the law of God. And they primarily use the writings of the apostle Paul to support their teaching about the law and the commandments of God. In fact, in the Worldwide Church of God back in 1994, 1995, 1996, you know, they were going to the book of Galatians quite a bit. You might remember that and other Epistles of Paul to support what they were then teaching. Well, was the apostle Paul a commandment breaker or was he a commandment keeper? And what did Paul teach about the commandments and the laws of God? Now, here's a book, The letter to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians by William Barclay, and this has to do with one of Paul's writings in the book of Colossians, where it has to do with Colossians 2:16-17, he says, "But now law is banished." That's his conclusion. "Law is banished and grace has come." So, there's no way law and grace can be together. Right? That's basically what he's saying. “Law is banished, grace has come, the law has been done away." We've all heard that argument before. So what did Paul teach about the commandments? What did he teach about the laws of God? The title of today's sermon is "The Apostle Paul: Commandment Keeper and Teacher?” Most people assume, but we're really not to assume, are we? But most people do assume many things.

The Bible tells us to prove all things. In 1 Thessalonians 5, let's read verses 19 to 22 together. 1 Thessalonians 5, we'll begin in verse 19. 1 Thessalonians 5:19, here Paul writes, "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test or prove all things; and hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." So this is what the apostle Paul wrote. He tells us to test all things, to prove all things. So it is a good thing that we're looking at Paul's writings today to see if he truly did away with the law. Did he teach that the law is banished, that it's done away? Actually, we know that Paul said God's law is good, didn't he? He said, later on, we'll get to the scripture, later on, he says the law is holy, and just, and good.

Well, here in this scripture, he says to hold fast to that which is good. Now that sounds like we should hold fast to the laws of God, not banish them or do away with them, and to abstain from every form of evil. What is evil when God's law is done away? You know, I don't get that. Does it make any difference to God whether or not we obey Him, obey His commandments, strive to keep His commandments, or is it just we're under grace and pretty much everything's okay? You know, God forgives everything, doesn't really worry about it. God is love. And, you know, we just don't need to think about those things.

Let's go to 2 Peter 3, And this is one of the reasons why people do have misunderstandings when it comes to Paul's writings. In fact, Peter says something here that's interesting about Paul and some of his writings. 2 Peter 3:14, “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to those things, be diligent to be found by Him, to be found by Christ in peace, without spot and blameless," that means without blemish. Blameless, that's what Paul says. "And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—  as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, by God, of course, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people…” I think that's interesting. Also, it's “untaught and unstable people who twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”

So it isn't just Paul's teaching, you know, people, they twist other Scriptures as well, writings of Peter, writings of other men. It's not just Paul. But Paul does seem to have the preponderance of writings that are twisted. And, you know, Peter alludes to that right here. So some of Paul's writings are difficult to understand. I think we would all agree that some of Paul's writings, kind of difficult to understand. But are all of Paul's writings hard to understand? Is everything that he wrote about the law difficult to understand? Have you thought about that? Have you looked at Paul's writings from the clear scriptures that are in the Scriptures? What did Paul say about the law that is clear and without dispute? That's what we're going to look at today. I'm not going to go into the hard scriptures. I'm not going to go into the difficult ones. Now we have sermonettes and other sermons that cover the difficult scriptures. I'm going to go to the easy ones. I'm going to go to the ones that are plain and clear because I think that's where we need to start. You know, we need to start with the clear scriptures and we need to have those firmly in our minds.

We need to understand what Paul clearly says about the Word of God, the commandments of God. So we're going to spend a lot of time in the Scriptures, going through some of the very clear scriptures that Paul has written. Today we're going to test, we're going to prove the clear teachings of Paul regarding the law. Again, Paul's difficult writing should be understood in light of the clear scriptures. Isn't that the most logical approach to take? You start with the clear scriptures on any given topic, so then you can understand the difficult ones, not the other way around. So that's what we're going to do today. It seems that many do seek to circumvent the laws of God. They don't take the approach of looking at the clear scriptures. Instead, they ignore these scriptures or they quickly dismiss them without fully considering the importance of Paul's clear and easy to be understood passages. So we might ask ourselves, "Why is that? You know, why do people do that?"

Well, let's go to Romans 8, where we read from the apostle Paul, what he says. Romans 8, we'll start in verse 6. And here it says in verse 6 of Romans 8, "For to be carnally minded is death, to be fleshly minded, to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, the fleshly mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God." So man's fleshly, carnal mind, the natural way of thinking, it says it's not subject to God's law, nor indeed can be. “So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but you're in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.”

And obviously that's extremely important. You know, if God's Spirit is guiding you or if God's Spirit is in you, then you have a different understanding of many things, of what Paul has written and others have written. We know that God must call a person and reveal the truth to that person. God opens our minds through the power of His Holy Spirit. He brings us understanding through His Spirit. So even though this may seem very clear to you, it's not going to be clear to others unless God is opening their mind to grasp it, to understand it. So we need to understand that as well.

So let's look at Paul's direct positive and clear teachings regarding the Ten Commandments and God's law. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6, to begin, we'll find one of Paul's sin lists. This is the list of sins that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 6. That's what some people refer to these writings as sin lists because he lists a bunch of sins. 1 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 9, he says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous…" Okay, that's those who don't do the right thing. Well, what's the right thing? Well, the right thing is to do what God says to do. That's the right thing. That's the righteousness. You know, if you keep His commandments, you keep His laws, you do the right thing. So he says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" That's pretty clear, right? Now, if you're not an unrighteous person, if you think the law is done away, and it doesn't matter, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. "Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." Okay, that's a pretty clear statement.

If someone is practicing these sins, this unrighteousness, they're not going to be given entrance into God's Kingdom. He says, "And such were some of you…" He's talking to the Church at Corinth. He says, "And such were some of you, but you've come out of that. You're no longer walking in the flesh. Now you've turned and now you're walking in the Spirit. You've given up that former lifestyle. You've changed the way you live. Now you're no longer a drunkard. You're no longer a thief. You've changed all that." He says, "But you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." The Spirit of God sanctifies us and sets us apart. God works with us. And so we're able to keep the laws of God through the power of His Spirit. The more we yield to the Spirit of God, the more pleasing we're going to be to God, the better we're going to keep His commandments and His laws.

So, to me, that's pretty clear, and here we see that Paul mentions 5 of the Ten Commandments, 5 of them right here in these verses. He mentions idolatry. The First and Second Commandment, "You shall have no other gods before Me. Don't bow down to graven images." He lists idolatry here very clearly. He lists adultery and a number of other sexually immoral sins. He mentions stealing. And he mentions coveting. So right there is 5 of the Ten Commandments, and this is long after Christ had died, and long after anything that was nailed to the steak or the cross was nailed to the steak. And Paul is saying very clearly that if you are living this way, you're not going to inherit the Kingdom of God. You have to yield to God's Holy Spirit and change the way you live.

Now in Galatians 5, we find another one of Paul's sin list. Galatians 5. So let's look at that. Galatians 5:9, here he says… Galatians 5, that doesn't look right. Oh, 19. I'm sorry. Galatians 5 yes, but verse 19, "Now the words of the flesh are evident,” again, the carnal flesh, “the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, all kinds of sexual immorality, idolatry again, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies." So he's not talking just about the letter of the law here, is he? He's gone way beyond the letter. He's talking about the spirit of the law. He's saying if you hate someone or if you're into witchcraft or sorcery, Ouija boards, you know, various different types of things that are into the occult, these things are not healthy. They're not spiritually good. They're not righteous.

He says, even contentions. Anyone had any contentions in this room? Contentions, you know, they're not of God. “Contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath.” Anyone ever had an outburst of wrath, ever get angry? He's saying you need to change that way of lifestyle. That's a prevailing way of your life. You need to change that. You can't continue to live as an angry person. You have to change. "Selfish ambitions.” Do we ever see anyone that's selfish and has ambitions beyond, you know, what a person ought to have that's truly trying to be humble, and obey, and seek God? “Dissensions, heresies, envy, murders,” oh, that's one of the Ten Commandments, isn't it? “Murders, drunkenness, revelries,” and guess what? “And the like.” Anything that's like it. I don't have to list everything here, do I, people?

He's saying anything that's like this “and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” So does it matter how you live your life? Does your conduct make any difference? Has the law been banished? Has it been done away, so it doesn't matter how you live? These are clear scriptures from the apostle Paul. This is what Paul says about the laws of God.

So here in this list, 4 of the Ten Commandments are mentioned, the Letter of the Law. Four of the Ten Commandments are mentioned here specifically. Again, idolatry, covering 1 and 2, 7, adultery, and then now murder has been added to this, the Sixth Commandment. So we now have 6 of the Ten Commandments listed and in force from the apostle Paul, long after Christ was dead. Of course, Christ was resurrected as well. He didn't stay in the grave.

Now let's go to another sin list, Colossians 3. And let's look at what Paul says here. You know, Paul's very consistent. Colossians, these are all writings of the apostle Paul. Colossians 3:5, he says, "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth…” He's talking again about the carnal ways in which people walk and do things in the world. He says, "Put these things to death… fornication, uncleanness, passion." He's talking about evil passion. "Evil desire, and covetousness," which is idolatry. "Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them." In other words, “you used to walk this way, but you don't walk this way any longer here in Colossae, you've changed.”

You're living a much different lifestyle now. You used to do this, you're no longer doing it. But now you yourselves are to put off all these things. Now, these people weren't perfect yet. Paul was admonishing them, warning them, encouraging them, basically, like I am all of you today. He's saying, "Put these things off: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy." Okay. Now that's an interesting word, you know, blasphemy. One of the Commandments is, "You shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." You're not to use God's name in an improper, irreverent way. That could be blasphemy. “Filthy language…” goes right along with that Third Commandment “out of your mouth. And do not lie.” Oh, that's another one of the Ten Commandments, isn't it? “Thou shalt not lie.” I think it's number Nine. “Thou shalt not lie.” “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds.” You've put that off.

Remember, now you walk in newness of life. You've “put on the new man who has renewed and knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, that Christ is all and in all.” And Christ set the perfect example for us, and He was a righteous, righteous man. He lived these laws perfectly. That's the example He set for us. So in this list, 6 of the Ten Commandments are mentioned, adultery, covetousness, Idolatry, covering Commandments One and Two on idolatry. And then blasphemy, which I believe covers Three and then lying number Nine. So two more of the Commandments are given here, taking God's name in vain through blasphemy and filthy communication, and lying.

So now we have 8 of the Ten Commandments that have been listed specifically by the apostle Paul. Does Paul mention any more of the Ten Commandments specifically? And I might mention, too, that in ancient times… And I don't have the source, I didn't have time to look all this up, but I've heard anyway, and I do need to clarify this, but it was pretty much understood that when someone was talking about 4 or 5 of the Ten Commandments, they really were talking about all of them. People understood that. You know, when Christ was talking about, you know, the rich young man came to Him, "What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?" And He mentions, I think, five or six of the commandments. He meant all of them. He didn't mean just part of them. He meant every single one.

So, we do have 8 of them, though, that are specifically mentioned by Paul, but does he mention any more of the Ten Commandments specifically? Well, he does. In Ephesians 6:1-2, he says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise.” So right out of Exodus 20, he says, "Honor your father and mother." So now we have 9 explicit commands from Paul to keep the laws of God, the Ten Commandments, you know, the basis of God's law. Paul has admonished all of God's people to keep 9 of the Ten Commandments. What about that other commandment? There's a Tenth Commandment, right? Do you know which Commandment I'm talking about? See, a lot of people would say, "Well, you know, they're really not trying to get rid of all the law. They're only trying to get rid of one law, which is the Fourth Commandment," the commandment about, "Remember the Sabbath day. Keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work."

Well, for whatever reason, Paul does not list the Sabbath in the sin list. He does not directly address this, but let's look at Paul's example. And let's be honest with the Word of God. Was he a Sabbath-breaker or was he a Sabbath keeper? And did he teach people to keep the Sabbath? That's important. It's important to understand and know the answer to that question. So what about the Fourth Commandment? Did Paul continue to keep the Sabbath long after Christ's death or was that nailed to the cross? Was that the only Commandment that was really banished? Did he teach others to keep this Commandment by his own example?

Let's go to Acts 13. I've always been fascinated by this account in the book of Acts. To me, it's a very powerful account. It's one that, you know, if you ever get into a conversation… And by the way, I would suggest you go to these clear scriptures, if anyone challenges you on the apostle Paul and what he says about the law, and the law being nailed to the cross, go back to them and say, "Well, what about these scriptures? You know, can you explain to me what he meant? If the law's done away, then all these other verses that we've gone through already, you know, how do you explain that?" So, all of us, you know, we should be able to give an account of why we believe what we believe. And we should be able to go to these clear scriptures and rightly challenge people if they're trying to teach us something that's not true, and they claim it's from the Bible. All right, let's go to Acts 13. Now in verse 14 and 15, we see that Paul and Barnabas are in Antioch of Syria, and we see that Paul went into the synagogue.

Acts 13:14-15, Paul went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he sat down to hear the Scriptures read. Then he addressed the people, and he preached Christ to them. That's what verses 14 and 15 talk about. And then let's drop down to verse 42, and let's read this together in verse 42. "So when the Jews went out of the synagogue…" Here in Antioch, they were in the synagogue, Paul was there, Paul was teaching them about Christ, "the Jews went out of the synagogue, and the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next…” Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Oh, wait, it says the Sabbath, “the next Sabbath.” That's when the Gentiles wanted to come and hear about the laws of God.

“So when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath…” Okay, so a whole week had gone by. And by the way, I believe this is where they're with… or maybe they're not with Aquila and Priscilla yet. I think that's the next account I'll go into. But anyway, it's a week later, “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.” Jews and Gentiles alike came. “But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy,” and they weren't happy about the Gentiles coming to a knowledge of the truth, God opening up salvation to the Gentiles. No, they were envious.

Oh, isn't that one of the things Paul said we shouldn't be? “Envious, and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you Jews first; but since you rejected, and judged yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us.” And so, again, it was on the Sabbath that the teaching was being done. There's no indication that it was occurring on Sunday or any other day of the week. It was on the Sabbath. To me, that's a very powerful scripture.

Another powerful one is in Acts 17:1, "Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was…” Okay, it still is custom, right? This is many years after Christ had died, at least 20 some years after Christ was dead and anything that was nailed to the stake or cross, that was all taken care of. And here we find that “Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you He is the Christ. He is the anointed one. He is the Messiah.’ And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women,” so a lot of Gentiles, they were getting together on the Sabbath to hear what Paul had to say. “And not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.” So that's a very interesting account as well. For three Sabbaths, they were getting together and reasoning not on Sunday, not any other day of the week, but three Sabbaths in a row, they were coming together.

And then in Acts 18, okay, now they're in Corinth, they were in Thessalonica, and now they moved through Athens, and now they're in Corinth. And in verse 4, here we read, and Paul, now, okay, he left Athens, he went to Corinth. Now he's with Aquilla and Priscilla, who are also tentmakers. That was their occupation. “And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and he persuaded both Jews and Greeks, both Jews and Gentiles.” Again, no reference of any preaching going on on Sunday or the day being changed. None of that at all mentioned anywhere. But again, it was happening on the Sabbath, and Jews and Gentiles were being taught. So “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, persuading both Jews and Greeks.” And then if we drop down to verse 11, it says, "He continued in Corinth a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." And I would say, presumably, on the Sabbath.

You know, he was doing it for a year-and-a-half on the Sabbath teaching both Jews and Gentiles. Again, it's likely he stayed with Aquilla and Priscilla in Corinth, He made tents during the week, and he preached on the Sabbath. I don't know if he was making tents on Sunday or not. But there's no evidence that they were gathering and they certainly weren't in keeping Sunday holy because Sunday's never been holy. But the seventh day, God sanctified and made it holy at creation. And that has never changed. Now, let's consider 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says in the King James Version, he says, "Be you followers of me even as I also am of Christ." He's admonishing all of us to follow him as he follows Christ. The New King James says, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ." So what was Christ's example regarding the Sabbath?

His example in Luke 4:16, “Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was,” yeah, He was Jewish. It was His custom. He was a part of the family, the children of God. You know, God is the one that sanctified the Sabbath and made it holy and revealed it to the Israelites, and the tribe of Judah. You know, Jesus was a Sabbath keeper, and He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read, to teach on the Sabbath. And Paul said he was an imitator of Christ. He did exactly what Christ did. And that's why we only hear of him teaching and preaching on the Sabbath day. Not that he couldn't give a little Bible study on Sunday, which maybe he did, obviously, when Eutychus fell out of the… he was long preaching into the night, and he fell out of the window, killed himself and was quickly raised to life. But the custom was the Sabbath day sanctified, kept the Sabbath. You know, we've had Bible studies on Sunday ourselves, haven't we? Some of us around the country. You know, I've given Bible studies on Sunday before. It's not a problem to do it on Sunday, but it's the Sabbath. That's my custom, and I do it because the Bible says I should. It's sanctified, set apart in creation. And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That's Hebrews 13:8, "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." Jesus Christ kept the Sabbath. Sabbath is going to be kept in the Millennium, isn't it? You know, there are verses that Isaiah 66 talks about the Sabbath, from Sabbath to Sabbath during the Millennium, during the reign of Christ, the Sabbath will be kept and will be observed.

In Matthew 5, let's go there, we read Jesus clear words. You know, I read from William Barclay, he said, "The law is banished." What does Christ say about the law? Matthew 5. And I only bring this up because, again, Paul was an imitator of Christ. "Follow me as I follow Christ." Because this is about what Paul taught clearly about the law of God. So in Matthew 5:17, "Christ said, "Do not think that I came to destroy…” You could put banish in there, if you want. "Don't think that I came to banish the law, or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” In other words, he came to fulfill them by keeping them perfectly, setting an example for us. He filled them to the full. He showed us how to keep the Commandments. That's what that's referring to. That's what it means, to fill it to the fold, to keep it perfectly. He was our perfect sacrifice. He came to magnify the law. You know, Christ came to show that it's not good enough to just keep the letter of the law. You have to go beyond that. And Paul taught that as well.

You know, if you harbor hatred for someone, you've murdered them in your heart. If you envy them, you've in a sense murdered them in your heart. If you're jealous, you've murdered them. You're thinking ill of them. You know, Christ came to magnify to make it more honorable, to show us just how deep the law goes into our hearts and our minds. So, Christ goes on to say, "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Till it's all observed and kept. You know, that's also with the millennial reign of Christ will be about. It will be about honoring Christ and the Father by keeping their laws, by showing them respect and honoring them.

Excuse me. "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches man so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven." In other words, you know, that's not the way to go. You know, if Paul was truly a teacher of breaking the laws of God, he's not going to be in the Kingdom of God. You know, we would not look at Paul in a good light if he was teaching to break the law of God, right? He would be called least, you know, someone that would teach people to break the laws of God. You know, Paul's gotten a very bad rap over the years. I'm standing up for Paul today. He should be defended. So he says, "They will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great." I call Paul great. You know, I think Paul set a wonderful example for us. And, you know, I really admire and respect that Paul said, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver me from this body of death?" Paul struggled within himself to be a commandment keeper. It wasn't easy. He fought the good fight. He never gave up. He never reached perfection. I've never reached perfection. None of us have reached perfection in the flesh. And we will struggle against the flesh. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” It's not subject to the law of God. Yeah, this is a lifelong battle. We have to fight against that. We can't have people telling us it's okay. No, that's not healthy. It's not okay to break the laws of God. Paul taught to keep the laws of God, to honor God by being a commandment keeper, one who honors God through keeping the commandments. But, again, I truly love Paul for what he said hecause it's given me tremendous comfort. Because I need a Savior. I need a Savior. Jesus Christ is my Savior. Jesus Christ died for me. He laid His life down for me.

He was perfect. He never sinned. He's the only one that hasn't deserved to die. The rest of us deserve to die because the wages of sin is what? It's death. That's what we deserve. Christ is the only one who didn't deserve to die and yet He died for you and me. So yes, I need a Savior. Paul needed a Savior. We all need a Savior. And thankfully, we have a Savior. So, Christ said, "Think not that I came to destroy or do away with the law. I did not come to banish the law." You know, this William Barclay is a brilliant man. I give him a lot of credit. I mean, he's written a lot more than I ever did. And he gets a lot of it right too. You know we quote him. You know, we've quoted him for years in the Church of God. He gets a lot of it right. But, you know, he's not called. He was not called. He's dead now. But he was never called of God. You know, God never opened his mind to understand it. He contradicts himself. He says the law is banished in one breath, and then, later on, he's supporting the law because the Scriptures do. He's confused, very confused. If you read his books, you'll see he's confused. He doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to Galatians and some of those hard to understand scriptures because he didn't clearly look at the clear scriptures and realize, "Hey, I got to come up with a better answer. It's not that the law has been banished or done away." But God wasn't opening his mind. It's the power of God's Spirit that opens our mind. So, you know, I've benefited from reading William Barclay.

You know, I'm not here to diss William Barclay. I respect him greatly. He dedicated his life, he spent countless hours, I don't know how many hours writing books, and ministering, and doing what he understood to do. Yes, deceived, but he'll be in the Kingdom of God, I would presume. My guess. Now I don't believe in the first resurrection. I'm not God. So you know, God chooses all that. But it wouldn't seem likely, not from what I understand. The Sabbath is a sign between God and His people. As far as I know, William Barclay was not a Sabbath keeper. That's an important sign. That's 1 of the Ten Commandments. We're supposed to get that right.

All right, Hebrews 4:9, back to some of Paul's writings in regard to the Sabbath. Now, it's likely Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, but we don't know that for sure. I think he did. But I can't say I know that for sure. But whoever wrote it, and perhaps it was Paul, he says in verse 9 of Hebrews 4, he says, "There remains therefore a rest…” That word rest is sabbatismos in the Greek. It means a keeping of the Sabbath. I believe it's the only time that's used in the Bible, and it's only used like two or three other times outside of the Bible. But it refers to a keeping of the Sabbath. I think Thayer’s had a note here on… Thayer’s… I can pull it up here. Thayer’s, it says, number one definition, “a keeping Sabbath, a keeping of the Sabbath for the people of God." There remains a keeping of the Sabbath. Okay, in the Millennium, we'll keep the Sabbath, and that's a rest as well. So this rest that we're talking about is a Millennium rest. It's also a Sabbath rest. The people of God need to come into keeping the Sabbath. There's a lot of Sabbath-breakers that don't understand this law. It's an important law. It truly is a sign between God and His people. It's very, very important. It's one of the Ten Commandments. Paul kept it. Paul caught it. In 1 Corinthians 7:19, now this was a verse that meant a lot to me in 1994 and 1995. Because to me, it was extremely clear. Again, one of Paul's writings, Paul says, this is the New King James, "Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the commandments of God is what matters."

You know, it's not about your flesh, the cutting of the flesh, circumcision, uncircumcision. Yeah, we need to be circumcised in the heart, but the flesh, not that big a deal. But what really matters, keeping the Ten Commandments, the commandments of God, that's what really matters. The NIV says, "That's what counts. Keeping the commandments of God counts." In Romans 7:12, I alluded to this earlier, Paul says, “Therefore" this is a conclusion. This is an important statement. He's wrapping things up. “Therefore the law is holy,” now, why would someone banish a law that was holy? This is what Paul says, "The law is holy, the commandment holy, just, and good." Paul's clear writings about the laws of God. And Romans 13:10, another one of Paul's writings, "Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Love is keeping the law. That's how we show our love to God. You know, the Ten Commandments, love toward God. The first four Commandments, the Fifth Commandment, a bridge, honor your heavenly Father, honor your earthly father and mother, you know, honor your parents. And then, don't lie to one another, don't steal each other, don't steal from each other, don't commit adultery with one another. You know, these are the Commandments of God. These are God's Ten Commandments. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of these laws. If you truly want to be one who truly loves God and His people, then keep His laws. Christ said that over and over, "If you love Me, keep My commandments. If you love Me keep My commandments." How clear does this have to be?

I mean, for us, I think it should be extremely clear. It's sad that so many people allowed themselves to be deceived, back what? How long has it been now? 1995, 25 years ago, when United Church of God started. So reminders like this are good. They're always good. You know, we have to understand what the Bible teaches about the laws of God. Now, Paul is very positive when talking about God's law as a way of life. He's extremely positive about the laws of God. When it comes to a way of life, he does come across negatively when talking about the belief that God's law will save someone. You know, we're not saved by the law. That's not what saves us. We're saved because we have a Savior. We're saved because Christ died for us because frankly, we're all sinners. Sinners need a Savior. Wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life. That's God's gift for us. Thank God for that. Praise God. That His gift is eternal life. So how can one be saved by the law, by law-keeping when everyone has broken the law? You know, that's not what… You know. Paul never taught that. Paul's never taught that we were saved by the law. The Church of God has never taught that we're saved by the law. You know, we're saved by grace. We are definitely saved by grace. But does that mean we should not strive to keep the laws of God? Certainly not. Paul said that too. We don't have time to go to all the scriptures. So was Paul a commandment breaker and one who taught against the laws of God? Surely not. Clearly not. Paul was clearly a commandment keeper. He followed Christ who set the perfect example regarding the law.

Paul didn't perfectly keep the law as Christ did. He said, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver me from this body? I thank God through Jesus Christ. I thank God because it's through God's Son, that I'll be given the gift of eternal life.” Paul realized that we're not justified by keeping the law. We're justified by the sacrifice of Christ, by the shed blood of Christ for each and every one of us. That's how we're justified. Again, “the wages of sin is death." So Paul did teach that we're saved by grace. That's another one of Paul's writings. Ephesians 2:8, "We're saved by grace." Paul said that. Christ, indeed is the unleavened bread who came down from heaven. We keep a holy day, the Days of Unleavened Bread, that picture Jesus Christ who still live in us, to help us keep the laws of God.

We should humble ourselves and allow Christ to live in us. Such were some of you, former life. Now, we walk in newness of life. We set a right example for each other. It's important. The example you set for one another is extremely important. Your eternal life could depend on how you live your life. It does depend on how you live your life. Obviously, we all must be repentant. And God grants repentance because He looks on our heart, And He sees whether or not we truly have a repentant mind and heart. So we want to become unleavened, right? You know, you want to be unleavened, I want to be unleavened. I want to follow Christ. I want to imitate Kim just like Paul who imitated Christ. Yes, Paul is a commandment keeper and he taught commandment keeping. He kept the laws of God and we should too.