25 And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? 26 How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? 27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: 28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
See 1 Samuel 21 and 22 to review what David did.
The Sabbath gave the Jew a day off from his labor, ordained by God. Here Jesus Christ claims to be the Lord of the Sabbath, therefore God in the flesh.
Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: 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:
The Christians met on the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection. Sunday is not the Sabbath. There are a lot of good reasons to set Sunday apart but it wasn’t even a day off from work until the 3rd century when Christianity was made the state religion. Our secular country, before it became dominated by Roman Catholics, even had mail delivery on Sunday until 1912. Sabbatarians, influenced by the Vatican, created “blue laws” and such forbidding being open for business on Sunday. Christians who insist that you not work on Sunday are hypocrites because by eating out, getting gas, and using the television, telephone, and radio on Sunday they are forcing others to work. It is good to have a day devoted to worship. If you can’t by your circumstances then you must devote much time during the day to worship.
But, on the other hand, remember, you need preaching. You need adjusting. You need correction, the kind you won’t get by reading the Bible yourself. Someone needs to preach the truth to you to help you to see things in a way you might not have previously. Of course, this won’t happen if the preacher is doctrinally butchering the text to make a point he wants to make. Good doctrinal preaching will leave you edified and uplifted. Preaching that is a confused mess will leave you feeling that the Bible is a closed book to you.
There is power in the Bible. Just reading it, letting God speak to you through His words will change you, strengthen, and encourage you. If you don’t read the Bible it doesn’t matter what version you ignore. Some of us have no capacity to resist temptation and sin on our own. Some of us are morally bankrupt and easy prey for the lust of the flesh, the trickery of Satan, and the wicked demands of the world system. The Bible changes you. It molds you into something useful for God. Read it from cover to cover. Read some every day. If you have been a Christian for ten years and haven’t read the Bible through, in English, ten times then I would like to know how things are going? Are you operating on your own willpower? Your desire to do good, to live right for Christ? Are you trying to live for God, to serve Him in the flesh?
God speaks to His people through His Book. Not through your conscience or your own good intentions. Let us enter into his rest. A real Christian wasn’t made that way by his own will. Just read John 1:12, 13.
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
You won’t be sanctified, set apart for God’s use, by your own will either.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
David, as a picture of the common Christian, took up that bread that was meant only for the priests. For many years only priests had access to the Bible. It was forbidden to the common man in his own language in many places. Like David, take up that bread, which is the word of God that many people were drowned for, burnt at the stake for, harried out of their home countries for, and lost everything for, and eat. You’re starving and you look like it right now.
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