THE THREE ANGELS’ MESSAGES

16. THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD

COMMANDMENTS: OUT-LIVE & OUT-LAST REVELATION 12:17

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

• Dragon: Devil

• Woman: God’s [Pure/True] church

• Remnant of her seed: The remnant of Jesus

REVELATION 14:12

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

CONTRAST: HER SEED & THE BEAST

Remnant of Her Seed

• Worship Christ the LORD

• Keep God’s Commandments

• Honour God’s name• Have God’s Seal

• Hallow Sabbath Day

The Beast

• Worship the antichrist [Beast]

• Keep man’s commandments

• Honour man’s name• Have man’s seal• Hallow Sunday

EXPRESSION: “KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD...”

EXODUS 20:1-6And God spake all these words, saying, …Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God,…And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

WHICH OF THESE TABLETS…?

MATTHEW 19:17-20 [The rich young ruler]

…But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and [thy] mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

DID THE RICH YOUNG RULER KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD?

All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

Case in Point: MARK 7:9, 10

And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death...

• Which commandment is Moses referring to? – Fifth

WHEN WAS THE TEN COMMANDMENTS GIVEN TO ISRAEL?

EXODUS 19:3, 4

And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and [how] I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.

• Would it be just for God to ask Israel to keep his commandments while they were under another

master?

EXODUS 19:5, 6Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people...

EXODUS 19:8And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do....

DEUTERONOMY 4:10, 13The day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and [that] they may teach their children…

…And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, [even] ten

commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

-Did God give and instruct Israel to keep his Commandments?

-Did God expect Israel to love and obey his Commandments?

Israel said: “All that the Lord has said, we will do.”EXODUS 32: Israel worships the golden calf

LET’S REVISIT ISRAEL’S BONDAGE IN EGYPT

EXODUS 20:1, 2And God spake all these words, saying, I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

EXODUS 1:13, 14And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: …

EXODUS 2:23, 24…And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the

bondage, and they cried, …and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

GOD IS GOOD!

• God delivers Israel from slavery

• God sustains them in the dessert

• God feeds Israel with heaven’s food

• God quenches Israel’s thirst

• God preserves Israel’s clothes and sandals

• God shades Israel with a cloud by day and warms them with fire by night

Note: Israel saw God’s Ten Commandments…

JEREMIAH 31:31-33Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

A STUBBORN PEOPLE

• The Ten Commandments was given in 1400 B.C., and written on two tablets of stone

• A New Covenant: 600 B.C [By the Prophet JEREMIAH]…written in their hearts

• Between God’s Law and JEREMIAH’S writing: 800 years of rebellion.

NEW COVENANT: WITHIN NOT WITHOUT

OLD TESTAMENT RULES AND

REGULATIONS• Law: Tablets of stone• Ancient Israel’s

problem: Behaviour• Israel’s problem: Sin

[open]• Law: Foreign

NEW TESTAMENT COVENANT

• Law: Tablets of the heart

• Modern Israel’s problem: Heart

• Israel’s problem: Sin [secret]

• Law: Intrinsic

ALL HUMANITY: HEART CONDITIONGENESIS 6:5

And God saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.

JEREMIAH 17:9The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?

MATTHEW 15:19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

ROMANS 7:18-22For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

MATTHEW 6:21

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

MATTHEW 12:34O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

MATTHEW 5:27, 28Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

MATTHEW 15:18,19But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

PHARISEES: DASHING YET DEVILISHMARK 7:6

He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with [their] lips, but their heart is far from me.

MATTHEW 23:25, 26

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. [Thou] blind Pharisee, cleanse first that [which is] within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

WHY AREN’T SOME CHRISTIANS ABLE TO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD?

• Because they are drunk with Babylon’s wine

2 SAMUEL 11:13, 15 [David’s affair with Uriah] And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.

PSALMS 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

LOVE PRECIPITATES ACTION

JOHN 14:15If ye love me, keep my commandments.

EXODUS 20:6And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

JOHN 8:58Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

• Will the end-time remnant of her seed keep the Commandments of God?

TWO SURGICAL OPERATIONS WITHOUT VISIBLE SCARS

EZEKIEL 36:26, 27A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them].

PHILIPPIANS 2:13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.

ALL WE NEED IS LOVE : REALLY…?

ROMANS 13:8, 10Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love [is] the fulfilling of the law.

1 JOHN 2:4He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

1 JOHN 5:3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BECOME A PART OF GOD’S REMNANT PEOPLE?

REVELATION 14:12Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

PSALMS 119:11Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

2 CORINTHIANS 3:18But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.

CHARACTERISTICS: GOD’S REMNANT

JOHN 4:24

God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.

PSALMS 119:105

Thy word [is] a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

• If his word is the lamp, why don’t you walk in its path?

• If his word is the light, why don’t you search its pages for hidden truth?

THE ICING ON THE CAKE..

REVELATION 12:17And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of

God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. •NEW HEART•NEW SPIRIT

•BIBLE TRUTH•PART OF THE REMNANT [KEEP THE

COMMANDMENTS OF GOD]•TESTIMONY OF JESUS