2Ti_3:12-17
Our Father we know by thy word :
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Therefore make us strong.
Let us not be deceived by evil men and seducers

which wax worse and worse, being deceived them selves.

Continue us in the things which we have learned of and have been assured of by thee:
Though we may have from a child known the holy scriptures,
allow them to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Profit unto us All thy scripture given by thy inspiration:
for our doctrine, for our reproof, for our correction, for our instruction in righteousness:
That we may be the men and women of God perfectly & thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Amen

Gal_4:1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Gal 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Gal 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

Gal 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

The Sabbath which we uses for Worship, is of a very small following or observation, but it is not new or a new idea, but rather a very ancient one observed by many people of antiquity in various ways, because it is based on the interpretation the language of the heavenly lights which all on earth can see, but because we are commanded and exhorted to understand all things by the word of God we see the system of the heavens as they speak by God’s Law.

Let me quickly lay forth the position I have laid forth thus far from the book of Hebrews, that the author was referring to the Assembly times of worship before ordained in the Law and of no new construction but of that eternal truth of reality established in the heavens which Our Lord Jesus him self observed, as well as the Apostles and disciples.

If you would please go to the book of:

Eph_2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

If you notice, this apostle also is speaking of that which was foreordained that one who is saved by Grace and has been given the gift of Faith is to Now in his living life WALK in.
The apostle is not appointing a ne thing for Christians to walk in, but is using clear language from the Law of God to contrast a life as ‘Gentiles in the flesh’, with a life as ‘the commonwealth of Israel’, in the very next verse, and all through out the law you will read things like this referring to the way one is to walk, and which way is good:

Deu_10:12-13 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good…

And so it is plain that those saved by YHWH God’s Grace are a people of Faith and that Faith walks in good works which God BEFORE ORDAINED that Israel should walk in. And those good works and therefore good walk is ordained in God’s Law.
In that Law among the first commandment we can positively identify for proper worship after God gifts Faith in his very own person and Name is a holy remembrance of the Sabbath day of YHWH thy God.

And I think I have laid out this point sufficiently, for me to now state it bluntly if I have not been blunt enough:
The Assemblies the author of Hebrews is speaking of when he says:

Heb 10:24-25 – Do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is…

which is according to a contrary and sinful manner, are the assemblies of God’s Law particularly arranged by the council of God in Num 28-29, and Lev 23 where they are laid forth plainly as Israel’s regulative and normative worship. These text must be understood by Natural revelation to know hat the calendar system is speaking of not an abstract reality.

So bluntly again, the Assembly in context of the book of Hebrews is not sunday or saturday or the 1st or 7th day of a modern system and day generically called the Sabbath, but by the system of the Law of God as revealed to Moses from Heaven.
Thus, whatever the Sabbath of Gen 2:1-4 is, as based on the decree of God in Gen 1:14 is the Sabbath of Moses, and the Sabbath of Moses is the Sabbath-rest that ‘remaineth …to the people of God. Of Heb_4:9. And is the Assembly schedule of the Temple in focus in Hebrews faulted by Human flesh.

So those of us who have taken upon our selves the reproach of a totally different calendar of worship as a greater reward to be had than the reward offered by Egypt or Rome should be doing so because we allow the Scripture to speak louder that the modern calendar on the issue of worship because of a doctrine called sola scriptura & omni scriptura. Scripture alone and all of scripture this is in line with the scripture in the spirit of 2Ti_3:12-17.

Weekly 7th day Sabbaths,
Monthly New Moon Sabbath festivals,
and yearly festivals which fall in accordance to the Sabbath & New Moon system.

Are our standard of worship as individuals, families, and covenant congregations, and our world of work and interface with the world revolves around this Heavenly light based system of time keeping.
In our world this is against the grain, I understand that, it is frankly the hardest change in my life I had ever made, but because the I know the scripture says “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

I count it as part of the cross to bear in life daily, yet it is the joy of knowing the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord more:

Php_3:8 … I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Php 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Php 3:16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

In these words I have expressed Paul is telling us though we have received Grace unto salvation, we never the less live our life as though we have not, though we have a perfect status as justified before the father, we never the less walk y the rule before ordained by the law of God.

To many this my seem life a contradiction because Paul says: “not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” , but because we know all righteousness come through Christ we see no contradiction. We know the Law condemns us and drives us to Justification by faith in Him, this is a settled matter. Even in living a lawful life by the rule of Faith in God’s Law we know we have no innate righteousness of our selves but this does not keep us from ” reaching forth unto those things which are before…” , and “follow(ing) after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended…”, or “press(ing) toward the mark for the prize…”, but rather we are empowered by it.

To many to live life by the calendar system of the common wealth of Israel as it was spoken by God and delivered to Moses for the nation of Israel as a kingdom of God is a life of no value, but what I want to express to you today is the value of such a principally regulated life in Christ, a walk in Christ, that may work as a tutor and governor to teach more about the Lordship of Father Son and Spirit.

We should be celebrating every holy day in worship to YHWH GOD in this Trinity: to understand the being of God more clearly, this should be all our desire is.
In this way we are orthodox Christians and of the Reformed Faith. We should believe as law keepers we are nothing more than an extension of the great reformation, which is but an extension of the historic European Christian Faith, which is but an extension of the apostolic united Faith, which is but and extension of the Israelite Faith and Abrahamic faith and so on unto Able and Adam his Father- Nothing more.

If we are more accurate in worship by the scripture it is to the glory of God, as was the doctrines taught by Luther more accurate to the doctrines of the word of God over and above that of the Roman catholic church of his day, it was to the glory of God in all regards.
This is all we are, ones who have taken up the champions torch is saying:

“Semper Reformanda”

“Keep Reforming”

Or as Paul had just said:

“forget those things which are behind, reach for those things which are before…”

While it may be hard for the programmed to understand that we commemorate and remember and memorialize ever Sabbath, every New Moon, and every festival time in the light of Christ. Every holy convocation, be it Sabbath, New Moon, Passover, Pentecost, trumpets atonement or tabernacles we worship that one true and living God who saved us by the blood of his son, we have holy convocation to worship as directed as all faithful saints have ever done. Nothing more.

Simply we desire to learn from the Law of God and apply it in our life in worship is our reasonable service, we are living sacrifices in applied doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: all That we may be perfectly furnished unto all good works.

And so I would like to lay a basis as I did exactly 1 month ago, that is last full moon, on Esther’s feast, Purim, but I want to show how the Calendar of the Common Wealth of Israel and the worship we are called to on Particular sabbath and times of holy convocation are the best and most effective teachers of the Gospel.

So let me say this: To know what worship is to be focused on specifically sanctified on particular Sabbaths, festival Sabbath and surrounding high Sabbath, is to know WHAT aspects of Creation and Deliverance we are to focus on through the years of our life and to know what to vocalize together in Assemble, in convocation to know what is to be preformed according to Scripture as to reveal to us what is to be remember on any particular season of the LORD.

And so when we speak of how a congregation is to worship together, as one principally regulated by the Scripture, the Sabbath day is the first command that speaks to this point in the 4th commandment, “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy…”
And So we believe in a Sabbath system that is integral with the week, a period of 6 days work followed by a 7th day,
a Sabbath system that is integral with the Month, that is the New Moon (which dictates months) is part of the Sabbath cycle, and the Sabbath is part of the memorial or remembrance of the new Moon.
a Sabbath system that is integral with the New Year

And so we use a Sabbath system for worship and assembly that is dictated by Signs, seasons, days and years.

Some folks think we use only the New Moon, because the New Moon is so pivotal in our determination, but if one would step back and see the moon and month as nothing more than a course of blocks in a whole wall thy would see that the week is as important to that system as is the year.
Like a great clock, the sun is the large hour hand and the moon the minute hand, and the Sabbath the second had ,to which we could add a daily hand as well, all hands revolve around a back ground of stars which our regions corresponds to agriculturally.
It is very much like a endurance runner racing year after 1000’s of years.

Not all will understand this but those who live it, and to that today I will speak. This system is better watched and lived than talked about or read in words because it is a system of reality, it is real and interacts with the time as a present object and not as an abstract thought as we are now use to.

But because this is a realistic, natural, agricultural, heavenly light based system which you can see, this system infact is part of the rudiments and elements of this world, like food, wood, gold, silver and all things our flesh can handle, see and know by the senses. And we then must acknowledge that while we can worship God by days, months, times and years according to his law and by his command, we can never believe our observation of them can save us in service to those times. Only YHWH God saves, he must save by his Grace alone, as he hath declaired in his word.
Yet we are commanded In the law to worship, and to worship in a regulative way, which acknowledges the signs, seasons days and years of God’s lights, and that interpreted by God’s Law.

What I believe I am about to do is to point our the Heavenly calendar that Moses received his pattern for the commonwealth of Israel’s Kingdom Law as a Nation, which we are called to as the kingdom of God which is a Kingdom of heaven.

The heavens are a Schedule of worship for offerings and sacrifices, the one we read in Numbers 28 and 29, which we read to further understand the statements of the book of Hebrews, which assemblies are the context of the tabernacles altar service when that system was standing, yet the times of that sytem were specifcly and significantly spoken of as having been Heb_8:5 … according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. Exo_25:40, Exo_26:30, Exo_27:8; Num_8:4.

Gen_1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
This is the simplicity of the matter, now let me read the way David reveals this to us more.

Go to:
Psa_148:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.
Psa 148:2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.
Psa 148:3 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.
Psa 148:4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
Psa 148:5 Let them praise the name of YHWH: for he commanded, and they were created.
Psa 148:6 He hath also Established them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.

The heavens operate off of the decree of the LORD, a decree is Law, and even the stars obey YHWH’s eternal word as law which can never pass away.

As I said last sabbath, what a faithful God, a covenant keeping God!
He in eternity ordains and decrees his covenant swearing by his own self having none greater to swear by, and then he by his word speaks forth the light of heaven by his word and fastens his promises faithfully to witnesses that he endures with power to be faithful.
therefore:

Psa_19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Psa 19:2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
Psa 19:3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
Psa 19:4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

What is he talking about? what speech and language do the heavens declare ? what knowledge is spoken of? what voice is heard as words to the end of the world in considering the handy work of the lights of heaven?
In the ancient mind of David, how is it David then to connect those thoughts with:

Psa_19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
Psa 19:8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Psa 19:9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

When David considered this subject he understood the glory of the heavens as part of the decreed Law of God.

In the book of Genesis right after God has made Adam, we read:

Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

That system which was ordained and decreed in Gen 1:14… is the system by which the sabbath and its days are governed.
and that system is not by a counting from an unknown point, but by a counting in direct and overlapping conjunction with the lights of heaven which is ordained by law, for signs seasons days and years.
and the sabbath for worship in accordance with signs, seasons and days:

The 4th Commandment
Exo_20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God

Now all through Exodus the sabbath was spoken of in passing, as an established before ordained fact, but after this point specifically it is placed as part of a code of Law.

Now in conjunction with both Genesis signs and Ex 20 sabbath days, we also have:

Exo_31:13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, 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.

Also in conjunction with Genesis seasons or feasts and exodus 20’s sabbath days we also read:

Lev_23:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
Lev 23:3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

And Here is what David says about how those seasons are appointed to us:

Psa 104:19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.

And so he is the point I want to make today, to be continues and flushed out next Sabbath:

We keep the Sabbath according to the Heavenly Appointment and not by an abstract day with a name such as 1st or 7th or sunday or saturday. We do not do so because scripture does not sufficiently link those days to a calendar system for worship to God.

The Sabbath to be remembered is “of YHWH thy God”. The sabbath to be memorialized is “a Sign between YHWH and his people, a sign that YHWH offers covenantally not man.” Exo_31:13

And So, as we read in reference to the coming completed Kingdom of God in places like:

Isa_66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.

We know that this system, not only can be seen in the Heavens for signs, seasons days and years, but that it’s perfection is ordained by God in the Kingdom come, in the last day when men are alive in the flesh in resurrected redeemed bodies of flesh, they will come to YHWH’s temple from sabbath to sabbath weekly and from New moon to new moon monthly to worship.

In the restored Heavenly temple which Moses Law was patterned after resurrected men will also do as they did under the earthly tabernacles divine services at times of worship:

Eze_46:1 Thus saith the Lord YHWH; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
Eze 46:2 And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.
Eze 46:3 Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths and in the new moons.

This is why we can say, with the author of Hebrew and Ezekiel.

Heb_4:9 There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest to the people of God.

Do you notice in Ezekiel how he does not recognize the New Moon as one of the 6 working days?

This is why we see the Sabbath rest as in harmony with the New Moon.

Simply: If men do not work on the New Moon then it is a Rest, and if it is a rest it is as a sabbath-rest.

And what did GOD Command on the New Moons?

Num_10:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 10:2 Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.
Num 10:3 And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

And so let me point out the trumpet is used for war and assembly, here is one of those assemblies:

Num_10:10 Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months (LXX. your new moons,G3561 )…

The appointed times of assembly are before ordained in God’s Law, and are good to walk in (Eph2:8-10). Worship is established on the 4th commandment (Exo_20:8, Heb_4:9), that is on sabbaths, and sabbaths are established in conjunction with the heavens lights (Exo_31:13), the Sun, Moon and Stars (Gen_1:14). The Moon was ordained for Seasons (Ps 104:19), the new moon operates in conjunction with the Sabbath and new moons in conjunction with festivals of worship(Ezk_46:1), The feasts are the the seasons of the LORD YHWH, and are times of holy convocation, worship and assembly which occur at times of Sabbaths and New Moons(Lev 23).

Therefore, the times of Worship which are appointed and ordained are ordained by the lights of heaven, the lights of heaven are ordained by God’s Creation Word which shall never pass away. (Gen 1:14, Psalm 19, Psalm 148)

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pt.5 That Which Remaineth is that which was Before Ordained for Worship

“That Which Remaineth

Is that which was Before Ordained for Worship”

This study will be a doctrinal subject study with a focus on understanding the 4th commandment in ordaining the time of Assembly, and what times are uses to appoint the Sabbath for congregational worship (Holy Convocation) in accordance with Hebrew 4:9 and 10:23-25 as well as Galatians 4:10.

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Principally Regulated by the Scripture

Part 5

That Which Remaineth

Is that which was Before Ordained for Worship

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