6/04/06 - “GOD’S TEST OF LOYALTY” Part 10 - 22L  FM
Victory Ministries International presents:
Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts  
Treasures of awesome truths from God’s Word 
and facts that affect you!

Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today we will continue our series titled, “GOD’S TEST OF LOYALTY” and today’s segment will be Part 10. Before we begin, let us seek God’s guidance, “Heavenly Father, we have identified in your word the antichrist beast who will be the source of the mark that will cause those who receive it, to be lost. We have learned that you have a seal and that those who have that seal will be saved. Father, we desire the seal of God. Help us to understand what that is, so that we do not receive the mark of the beast. So once again we ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and we pray for wisdom, knowledge and understanding so that we may live in the center of Your revealed will, as we ask in Jesus Name, Amen.”
Right now, I continue to keep my pledge, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law.

As we have discussed in our last broadcast, the mark of the beast will cause every one who receives it to be lost, but all those who receive the seal of God in their foreheads, will be saved. And because He is the Creator of the universe and has all authority, God has a seal of that authority.  How and where does God show us His seal?  Seals are placed on documents.
God's legal document is His law—It's the one He wrote with His own finger on stone. The One the world knows as the Ten Commandments. Notice how exciting this is as these things come together in the Bible.  Exodus 20:8, Listen “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

 Now most of the Ten Commandments begin with "Thou shalt not". When God wisely saw fit to begin the fourth commandment with the word "Remember" what do you think He had in mind? That people would probably, what?  Forget!  Here God is saying Remember. Now where do you remember? You remember in your forehead!  Remembering is an act of the mind.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  (Now what do you work with?  Your hands!  So the fourth commandment itself has reference to the forehead and the hand right in it.)  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: (it's not the Sabbath of the Jews—it never has been) in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:” 

 Why?  Why should I remember the seventh-day Sabbath to keep it holy?  Why shouldn’t I steal?  Why shouldn’t I have other gods before Him?  If you look at all the other nine commandments, they are all rooted in the fourth commandment.  The reason why I don’t steal is because my Creator told me not to.  The reason I don’t kill is because my Creator told me not to.  The reason I don’t take His name in vain is because God told me not to.  Jesus is the Creator according to Ephesians 3:9, “God created all things by Jesus Christ.” It is the Sabbath that reminds us of the authority of God over this world. 

Without the Sabbath commandment, the Ten Commandments become the Ten Suggestions.  The authority has been removed.  

 And the fourth commandment shows the basis of His sovereign authority and beautifully, as we would expect it from our study so far, truly does contain the three elements of God’s seal.  “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:  wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

Now a seal of one who rules always has three basic characteristics.
1.The Name of the authority or law-giver or Sealer.
2.The Sealer's official office or title of authority
3.The kingdom or territory over which he has power or rules.
	
For instance, the seal of America’s president contains the following words:  George Bush, President, United States of America. When that seal is placed upon a law or an official document, it shows the president’s authority is supporting that declaration.

Now does the fourth commandment have within it the elements necessary for a seal? Yes it does in the 10 words, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth.
Name:  “The LORD”   Isaiah 42:8  "I am the Lord: that is my name . . ."
    Title:     “Made”   He is the Creator
    Territory:  “Heaven and earth”

One commandment, the one largely forgotten by the world, the 4th, which is also the longest one, enshrines all three elements that make for the characteristics of a seal. No other commandment has those three elements. God said remember and Satan says forget it. Why has Satan wanted you to discard God’s 4th commandment? Because it has God’s seal and it clearly show’s God’s authority!

According to the Bible, the Sabbath is God's special sign of Him sealing the law in our hearts under the New Covenant with Jesus. Without the witness of God's fourth commandment, no one could tell which deity is meant or who gave the Law.  The 10 commandments become the 10 suggestions because the authority has been taken away.  Looking at them alone, nobody would know who's in charge!

Now what's going to happen when the finger of God—the same finger that wrote all ten of those commandments on rock—what's going to happen brothers and sisters, when that same finger points to the world in the judgment day and says, "Why have you been transgressing My law, My holy document upon which I have placed My seal of authority?"  It's going to be a solemn moment isn't it?   

I'll tell you what's going to happen.  All of the Scriptures that men are now twisting out of their context to attempt to disprove the Sabbath; all of the vain and superficial arguments that are now hidden behind; all the deceptiveness that is used to try to persuade people to disregard God's Commandments— they will be worth nothing!   Those false arguments that say it doesn’t matter which day you keep holy will all fall apart like a house of cards and people will be brought face to face with the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

No wonder the Bible says, “Hallow my sabbaths and they shall be a sign (repeat) between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.”  Ezekiel 20:20.
	 
Paul said in Romans 4:11, “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised.”  
Notice how Paul puts these two together, sign and seal.  Sign and seal are used interchangeably.  

Now listen to Paul in Hebrews chapter 4, because he states very clearly that the Christian world should still be keeping the seventh day Sabbath. Remember Jesus created the Sabbath, which means rest. Hebrews 4:8 “For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.  In other words if the Sabbath were to change to Sunday, wouldn’t Jesus have said so? Listen now, time is surely running out and you need to understand what God’s word says and not what any man says.  Verse 9-11.
  4:9   There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.  
  4:10   For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.  
  4:11   Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Hebrews 4: 10 tells us that there remains a Sabbath rest to the people of God. And friends, the Sabbath will be the outward sign of God sealing His people with the inward New Covenant promise of writing His holy law in their minds and thereby sanctifying His children.

**Exodus 31:13
“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.”  
Did God want to sanctify only the Jews, or all people?

The Sabbath is the flagship of the Ten Commandments.  It's the visible part of the law.  An iceberg is said to be 1/10 above the surface and 9/10 below the surface.  The Sabbath is the 1/10 above the surface in God's law.  It's the part the others can visibly see you keeping and observing and sets God's people apart from the world.  

Now those who are ignorant about this in the past but loved the Lord enough to do all they knew to be right will be saved.  But once they know that the Lord wants them to follow this, and still would rather go according to their own way; that reveals where their heart is.  That reveals where their allegiance is. 

Isn't it just so sensible that God looking down the centuries and millenniums spotlighted the fourth commandment in particular by beginning it with the word “Remember”?  That is the one that the world as a whole and Christendom in particular has forgotten and been trampling upon, and doing it in the name of the Lord, and calling Sunday the “Lord’s day.” 
Again, the one commandment that God specifically told us to remember is the one the all Sunday-keeping churches are saying it’s okay to forget!  Wake-up! Don’t treat this matter lightly. Remember James 2:10 said if we break one commandment we break them all, and Proverbs 28:9 says, He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. God says if we reject this matter He won’t even hear our prayers, they are abomination. Listen, Sunday is nothing more than the continuation of Pagan tradition. It’s the Papacy that changed God’s commandment to Sunday with no Biblical authority. Sunday has never been blessed by God. It is tradition and Jesus said in Matthew 15:3, 6-9 listen now if you think it doesn’t matter. Hear what Jesus says, verse 3, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? Verses 6-9,Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.  Did you hear Jesus? Time is up so be listening Next week for “God’s Test of Loyalty” - part 11.
God bless you friends and study your Bibles daily,
Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Even so, Come Lord Jesus.