Do Good On the Sabbath.

 Jesus asked this question…

"Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?" 

Mar_3:4  And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.

They weren't disputing the DAY - it was the Sabbath and Jesus was in full agreement with that fact. What a perfect opportunity Jesus had right then and there to change the Sabbath day if that was something He wanted to do. He didn't say… "Today is no longer the Sabbath day, so I'm not breaking the Sabbath laws."  

What Jesus did say was… IS IT NOT LAWFUL TO DO GOOD ON THE SABBATH DAYS…

The Sabbath day was NEVER brought into contention against Jesus, never. The Jewish leaders would have jumped on that point as yet another awful part of this man Jesus' rabble rousing. 

Jesus did things ON the Sabbath that the Jewish leaders had added to the rules and regulations of the day, things that Jesus never meant to be added to the day He'd blessed and sanctified. 

ON the Sabbath days we are to do GOOD and that should be our MAIN focus as it was HIS. Good towards God and good towards others- all within the keeping of His ten royal laws. The main thrust of those laws all ten of them was to that end-  Good to God, Good to Man. The good to God comes first because our being able to be good to man comes from our relationship with God. Jesus sought God all the time, praying and communing with God, He had to because God was His source of power in all things. He'd left His God powers behind when He became human, and He had to depend on the Father for everything- without Him Jesus could do nothing!

Joh 14:10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 

Joh 14:11  Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. 

Joh_5:19  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

Joh_5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Jesus wanted the Sabbath to be a blessing for all, not a day of pettiness and nitpicking. Jesus wanted man to LOVE keeping the Sabbath day holy in the way intended, not regard it as a day of restriction but a day of liberation to worship God! The blessing of keeping the Sabbath is so important God made it one of His ten royal commandments! 

How many people are reading this and feeling blessed that they keep the Sabbath by going to church on Sunday and resting from work? I'm sorry to tell you that you are NOT keeping the Sabbath day, but a day consecrated by a man, not God. And NO your intentions are good enough now that you have been made aware you are worshiping on the wrong day.  It does matter, it matter eternally, because God wants His laws kept, not the laws man has dared to alter. It matters because our God is a God of truth, not deception. It matters because our God told us the sabbaths would be a sign between Him and His people. God also told us that certain powers would think to change times and laws- the Sabbath is both- a law and a law connected to time. It matters and if you're sitting there shaking your head saying God wouldn't be that picky, that He knows your heart and you're doing good, keeping your own chosen sabbath day better than most keep theirs. God wants you to keep His commandments, His truth, His way. 

Rev_14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

May we, by the grace and mercy, the love of God  be among those saints.

All through Jesus Christ, our LORD and SAVIOR, now and forever!

Amen!

(Excerpt)

Christ and the Pharisees -OR Christ's Faithfulness in Sabbath-Keeping.

BY A. T. JONES.

[Religious Liberty Library, No. 18]

[Cont.]

Shortly after this we have the record in the second chapter of Mark, 23rd verse, to the third chapter 6th verse: it is also in the twelfth chapter of Matthew, and the sixth of Luke, verses 1-12; but Mark's record gives a point that is not in either of the others, and it is all-important:-

"And it came to pass, that he went through the corn-fields on the Sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day, that which is not lawful? And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him? 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 that were with him? And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." 

Now Matthew and Mark carry the record right on as though it was the same Sabbath day. Luke's record says it was "on another Sabbath;" but at any rate it seems not to have been later than the next Sabbath. Thus we read.-

"And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day; that they might accuse him."

Now notice; they were already persecuting him for keeping the Sabbath,-for breaking the Sabbath as they would have it,-and they were ready to kill him. The next time they have an occasion, they are watching him to see whether he will yield to their demands, and compromise the Sabbath, or compromise himself, in order to please them. They are watching him now to see whether their attempt to get him to compromise with them and yield to their ideas is succeeding; and so they watch him to see what he is going to do, so that they may accuse him if he does as he has formerly been doing. And if he does not now compromise and yield to their ideas of the Sabbath, they will accuse him, and follow it up in the way which the record shows.

And Jesus knew they were watching him, and what they were thinking about, and what they were watching him for. He knew that their attention was all on him. And that they might have the fullest evidence possible, he called to the man who had the withered hand, and said to him, "Stand forth in the midst." The man stepped out into the midst of the synagogue. This drew everybody's attention to Jesus, and the man standing there waiting. Then he asked the Pharisees and those who were accusing him, "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?" They could not say it was lawful to do evil, for that would be contrary to all their own teaching, and they did not dare to say it was lawful to do [original illegible], because then they

would sanction his healing this man on the Sabbath. "Is it lawful to save life or to kill?" They did not dare to say it was lawful to kill, and they did not dare to say it was lawful to save life. For he told them to their faces, and they knew it was so, that if one of them had a sheep that fell into a ditch on the Sabbath day, they would pull it out to save its life. Whether they would do this out of mercy to the sheep, or for fear of losing the price of it, matters not, they

knew it was so. Therefore, "they held their peace," and if they had done the same thing oftener, they would have done a good deal better.

"And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out; and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him."  (End Excerpt)