Sabbath Keeping and the Jerusalem Council

Sabbath Keeping and the Jerusalem Council Speaker: Shane Vaughn Date Delivered: 2016-07-21 Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBTDl39dX78 Transcript made from the video's YouTube captions. 1 [Music] h [Music] [Music] [Music] okay Saints we need to have a discussion now about a question that I received here at the ministry um that that really we need to deal with now you're going to need to get your Bibles as I always say don't believe anything I teach please get your Bible get this book and read right along with me what is the question that we've got to answer it has to do of course with the one of the arguments against the keeping of the Sabbath day if you followed our ministry very long you realize that we Are Holy Ghost filled seventh day Sabbath 2 Keepers um and and I had a brother that inboxed me and said that he had a brother that was this close to believing in the Sabbath Day message but there was one thing that was still hindering ing him from coming all the way and we want to deal with that one thing today uh the one thing has to do with the Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15 now we're going to go there and we're going to study the scriptures we're going to take about 15 minutes here and see why the Jerusalem Council made no command to the Gentile Believers to keep the Sabbath day uh and this is a hangup for a lot of 3 Christians but I believe as we begin to study that your eyes are going to open and you're going to see why there was no command to keep the Sabbath by the Jerusalem Council let me start off by putting it this way most preachers that are called to preach the gospel they have a responsibility to help keep the church on the straight and narrow the prophets always were tearing down Pagan altars in the Bible that was the role of the Prophet to bring Israel back to the Commandments of of Yahweh and that's still our job today so when we're preparing messages to preach to the church and we see that there's 4 something wrong in the church that needs to be dealt with uh we're going to preach what's what's wrong but if something's right in the church you're not really going to hear us address it because it's right there's no need to spend much time on what we're doing right there's an old saying that I've heard What's Understood need not be explained in other words if your children are cleaning their room correctly but they're not keeping the garbage out no need to harp on the room the room is fine you're going to harp on what's wrong when we come to the Jerusalem Council it is no different I want to say 5 this every member of the Jerusalem Council were keeping the Sabbath day I also want to say this every Gentile in the early church was keeping the Sabbath day um let's prove that statement before I go any further if you don't mind let's go and see I want to prove that the Gentiles were keeping the Sabbath because that's very important that we get that right um we're going to study that over in the book of Acts and we find that Paul was teaching the Gentile Believers in the book of Acts and he went uh to the synagogue and uh at the church service on the Sabbath 6 uh we find that the Gentiles had believed the gospel and they had repented and they were having church at the Sabbath Acts Chapter 13 Verse 42 if you want to go there with us acts 13 verse 42 and when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue the Gentiles besought that Paul would once again preach to them the next Sabbath now when the congregation was broken up many of the Jews that followed Paul spoke to them persuaded them to continue in the grace of God verse 44 and the next Sabbath day came together the whole city to hear the word of God so we know that there was no problem 7 with Sabbath keeping the Gentiles were keeping Sabbath the Jews were keeping Sabbath all of the early church which had been formed probably for 30 years now after the death of Christ were keeping the Sabbath no problem whatsoever so there was no need for the Sabbath to even be addressed it was being kept so what was the problem at the Jerusalem Council there was one issue and one issue only that the Jerusalem Council had had to deal with let's go find out what it was Acts 15:1 and certain men which came down from Judea taught the Brethren and said unless you be circumcised after the law of 8 Moses you cannot be saved wow those men were just like church leaders today adding to the law of God and making it a requirement for salvation you see there's one law The Ten Commandments that is required by Yahweh of every child of God there was another set of laws or instructions written by the hand of Moses not by the hand of God like the Ten Commandments were and these were temporary they were sacrificial law they were ceremonial law they were laws that had to do with circumcision it was circumcision in Moses's day it was circumcision that was their baptism their water baptism if you will it was their expression of their 9 faith in the blood of the coming Messiah however that law that custom was a temporary transitional custom until we could be circumcised in flesh by the Holy Ghost so the problem was that these Gentiles that had joined the church were being told by these Jewish leaders trying to enforce their customs of the church on them it's no different at all than when we get somebody in the church filled with the Holy Ghost get them baptized in the name of Yeshua Jesus and then we get some good old church sister or brother that says well have they gotten rid of their uh TV yet or have 10 they or you know are they have they uh cut their mustache off yet or see it's foolishness they were doing the same thing back then they were making their custom mandatory and equating it with the Ten Commandment law of God which the Sabbath day is in those ten command commandments so let's begin to read now and let's see what the Jerusalem Council decided on circumcision that was the only thing they were deciding was whether circumcision of the forkin was required verse two when therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small argument with them they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to 11 Jerusalem I love this the Gentiles went to their pastors Paul and Barnabas and said hey we've got these Jewish leaders that's saying we got to wear long sleeve I'm sorry I I apologize we've got to cut our mustaches I'm sorry we've got to be circumcised according to their Church tradition to be saved Paul now what I do love about these Gentiles is that they had enough fear of God in them that they were willing to do it if the headquarters said that they should they didn't come to Paul with this attitude bless God ain't nobody going to tell us what to do no no no no no they said go 12 to Jerusalem go to headquarters have a con they wern't like the church today they didn't believe they did that they didn't need no men telling them what to do they recognized the authority of men in God's true church they sent their pastors to Jerusalem to come to a decision and they would abide by it I love that I think that's beautiful now verse three and being brought on their way by the church they passed through Pho and Samaria declaring the conversion of the Gentiles and they caused Great Joy among all the Brethren and when they came to Jerusalem they were received of the church and of the Apostles and the 13 elders see there's a separation there of the church and the apostles and the elders see people don't they don't want to hear this they don't believe there's Apostles and Elders in the church they we all the same that's just not true get that anti-government Spirit out of your heart before it causes you to lose out recognize god- given Authority now the uh declare the things that God had done with them now they're telling how wonderful things are what a great move of God is happening they're telling how many people's being baptized they're given a report and here comes some good old church brother that stands 14 up in verse 5 who was of the sect of the Pharisees which believed now these were Believers but you see there they said uh it is now necessary I know they've been baptized I know they believed I know that they're keeping the Commandments of the Ten Commandments but now it's necessary for them to be circumcised and by so doing keeping the law of Moses well the Apostle said let us come together on this matter and see what the Holy Ghost will tell us verse 7 and when there had been much argument see one thing you need to understand the modern church is against debate they're against 15 arguing over Doctrine but yet that is all the early church did they argued Paul argued in one city for nine months I'm sorry three months night and day debating Doctrine with them cuz their Doctrine was wrong and here they go into a conclave to debate Doctrine and while they there there was much argument Peter rose up and said unto them men and Brethren it was me that first brought the gospel to the Gentiles now we always thought it was Paul but no it was Peter and that's the very reason why God had to give Peter the vision of the clean and the unclean food in Acts chapter 10 because 16 Peter was the man that would break he had the Keys of the Kingdom he was the one that would open the door to the nations of the world with the gospel message but if he would not have been set straight by Yahweh of his feelings about unclean Gentiles then the gospel would never have went outside of Jerusalem unfortunately people think that Vision has something to do with clean and unclean food when nothing could be further from the truth you need to watch our video that we did on Acts chapter 10 Peter's vision but I won't delayer the point now let's go uh to verse number uh 17 let's skip down to verse number number 10 now therefore why do we put a yoke upon the neck of these disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to Bear which is what is the Yoke circumcision of the flesh but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they then all the multitude kept silent oh I wish we could could learn that and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring What miracles and wonders God had worked among the Gentiles by them and after they had held their peace sometimes you got to be quiet and listen to the voice of the Holy Ghost 18 they were quiet after they heard all the arguments from every side I encourage those that's part of our movement the caci and of other movements to always be willing to debate and willing to listen and willing to hear the voice of the Holy Ghost after they did this James answered now James was the brother of Yeshua and said men and Brethren hearken unto me now thank God he wasn't part of the modern-day church because we would have spoke up and said wait we only listen listen to the Holy Ghost we're waiting on the Holy Ghost to speak but you see the Holy Ghost was speaking 19 through a man through a man that was about to be the voice of the Holy Ghost to set their Doctrine straight Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles and then he goes on to tell about what would be happening let's go down to verse 19 wherefore my decision is that we should not trouble them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God but that we write unto them now this is very important that you get this he said our decision is this that we should not cause them to be circumcised why because that was a law of Moses that was a temporary law until 20 they could be circumcised by the Holy Ghost and that was not part of the Ten Commandments he said so we're going to write a letter to the Gentiles telling them our decision is this that no you do not have to be circumcised to be saved but we are going to C C them and to teach them to turn from certain things now in the next verse we come to something that very few people understand listen carefully verse 20 we write to them that they Asain from idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood why those specific things see brother V he did not mention that they should keep 21 the Sabbath day hold your horses what he is telling them is for specific things that they should stop doing immediately and every one of those four things are associated with Pagan practices he tells them no you do not have to be circumcised in the flesh but you must turn from your former paganism one of the Pagan practices was the worship of Idols the next one was fornication because fornication was practiced among the pagans at their worship Services their sexual ories from things that are strangled they would sacrifice an animals to their false gods by strangling those animals and giving the blood of those animals to 22 their false gods here's what he told them no you do not have to be circumcised according to Moses but you must turn from your Pagan practices immediately and then let's go to the next verse to see something very interesting for Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read every Sabbath day what he's telling them is that no you do not have to be circumcised by the law of Moses but yes you do have to stop those Pagan practices that you hear preached about every Sabbath day you see the apostles knew the Gentiles were going to church on the Sabbath day they were hearing 23 Moses's instructions against paganism he said practice what your hearing preached on the Sabbath day oh I'm so sorry but to me that is as plain as the nose on your face how do you get from this that you're not going to keep the Sabbath day because they didn't mention the Sabbath day actually they did they told the Gentiles who were going to church on the Sabbath to listen to what the preachers were saying about paganism wow then pleased this all the apostles and all the elders with the whole church and now the rest is history I don't know where else to go with this I don't know how much pler to 24 make it acts 15 is a complete endorsement of Sabbath keeping why because the apostles and the elders told them the message you're hearing preached every Sabbath against paganism you should adhere to that even though Moses said it it's still what you need to do but no circumcision you're not required to do because if you have received the Holy Ghost you have been circumcised and made Jew inwardly by that circumcision hope that helped you today God bless you