Sermon: Is 'I AM' Truly the Lord Your God?

#1676A
Mark Schindler
Given 08-Oct-22; 34 minutes

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We are going to begin the sermon on this last of God’s weekly Sabbath rests before the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, with a scripture I would like you to keep in mind throughout this sermon.

Please turn with me to Matthew 12:

Matthew 12:46-50 While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and His brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside, seeking to speak with You. But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

Keep this very important declaration from Jesus Christ in mind throughout this sermon. Whether we have arrived at the various destinations where God has placed His name, or are still in the midst of our journeys, we have all stopped to keep His Sabbath as He has commanded. We understand that this holy Sabbath time is such a critical part of mankind’s relationship with our Creator that despite all the anticipation and preparation for this enjoyable but very busy time on God’s calendar, we stop! We stop to keep His holy Sabbath time, as we reverentially look to Him as the Creator and Sustainer of all things. As the subtitle of the Sabbath website the Church of the Great God states, “The Sabbath: God’s Gift To Us.”

All life belongs to Him, and the Sabbath is the exclamation point God placed on His creation as the One by whom all things have been made; this seventh day Sabbath rest is God’s signature on His creation for all men and angels to see.

However, for most of mankind at this point, even though they see the signature of the Creator on His creation, the most vital responsibility toward the Author gets lost within carnally driven free will.

I think I have shared with you in several other sermons or sermonettes, a specific conversation that has stuck in my mind. It is probably like many other conversations we have all had at one time or another, with people still not yet set apart from this world. But this one just stuck with me probably because it came from someone I consider a very fine man of sound moral character, who has been blessed by God with a very fine intellect.

One day in discussing God’s specific instructions regarding the seventh-day Sabbath, he said to me, “Of course it is obvious that the Sabbath in the Bible refers to Saturday, but so what?” (I know most all of us have had those “so what’s the big deal” conversations at one time or another.)

But today, as we keep this weekly Sabbath, I want to take the next little bit of time to point us to one of the things that must be a big deal for God’s elect, who should understand this is a big deal—a very big deal!

For those called now (within the carefully determined plan of the Father and the Word, who became Jesus Christ to create men in their image and likeness in a very specific order), we have a very important big-deal responsibility; a responsibility that must be taken seriously enough that we realize it might otherwise cost us our eternal life.

Please turn with me to Leviticus 18:

Leviticus 18:1-5 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, “I am the LORD your God. According to doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.”

While keeping in mind that all analogies eventually break down, I ask that you consider, in type, what God is telling us. Just as physical Israel was on a journey from bondage to the place God was preparing for them, so too are we. We cannot get hung up on any of the doings from where we have been, nor where we are going.

I mentioned analogies eventually break down, but I would like to make a bit of speculation here on how we can consider the doings of where we have been, and where we are headed. So, just a quick side-trip, turn with me to a place we were at in the sermon two weeks ago, that must always be in the forefront of our minds.

Please turn with me to Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6:10-18 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having your waist girded with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. and having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

Brethren, it is vital that we hang on to this reality. The same spirit that drove the carnal-minded doings of men, when we were in bondage to them and defenseless, are still driving the carnal-minded doings at this time. But now we have been able to put on the whole armor of God through Jesus Christ and advance directly behind Him, as He is leading us into the place He has prepared.

Therefore, I believe we can fit ourselves into an analogy in considering what God told Israel there in Leviticus 18. However, before we leave Ephesians and go back to Leviticus, I would like us to add the first three verses of Ephesians 6 into this, while considering our opening verses from Matthew 12.

Ephesians 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

Now with this in mind turn with me back to Leviticus, where will again read Leviticus 18, but this time I am going to read these 4 verses from the Amplified Bible:

Leviticus 18:2-5 (Amplified) "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, 'I am the LORD your God. You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, and you shall not do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes (practices, customs). You are to follow My judgments (precepts, ordinances) and keep My statutes and live by them. I am the LORD your God. So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which, if a person keeps them, he shall live; I am the LORD.

Remember brethren, the statutes and judgments include what Bill [Onisick] was talking about in the sermonette in how we keep the Feast.

For the purposes of this analogy, we are considering those doings that are being done ahead on the earth (where God’s throne will be set), are still done according to the practices and customs of Satan and his demons. This is what we must recognize, behind Jesus Christ, that we must be upholding the name of “I AM,” the Lord our God, not the name of Satan as the lord our god.

This may sound a bit over the top, but just consider what Jesus Christ said to Peter, when Satan’s influence got into his head. After the Father revealed to Peter that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, Peter (with what he considered the best of intentions, as recorded in Matthew 16, Mark 8, and Luke 4), ended up denying the truth of His Word. And Jesus immediately pointed to who Peter was following at that moment. As Mark wrote in Mark 8:

Mark 8:33 But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

Brethren, this is no little thing because it indicates to us how easily we can uphold the evil spirit driven mind of men and Satan, rather than the “I AM”, the Lord our God, if we are not careful!

Drop down now to Leviticus 18:

Leviticus 18:24 ‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.’

Leviticus 18:30 ‘Therefore you shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God.’

Leviticus 19:1-4 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them [God's instruction from Him through Moses]: ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. Every one of you shall fear revere his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves molded gods: I am the LORD your God.”

I found it interesting that as God is admonishing Israel here (specifically to physical Israel, but more importantly in type to spiritual Israel), God leads off with revering parents and keeping the Sabbaths.

God not only puts the revering parents at the head of this particular list, but in placement He ranks it right up there with the first, second, and fourth commandments in Leviticus 19:3-4 as directions toward holiness. But why?

Let us take a look at the word “revere.” “Every one of you shall revere his mother and father.” In others places within God’s Word we see the command to honor our parents tied to God’s Sabbath command. But here I think we may gain a bit of extra insight, as God ties reverence for parents and the Sabbaths together. I would also ask you to consider that this is right in the middle of the chapters where God gives instructions to Israel and the priests regarding holy conduct, as opposed to the carnal-minded doings of men, leading to the chapter where God proclaims keeping His holy day Sabbaths, as recorded in Leviticus 23.

Reverence comes from Strong’s #3372 yârê (yaw-ray) and a word study.

A verb meaning: to fear; to respect; to reverence; to be afraid; to be awesome; to be feared; to make afraid; to frighten. The most common translations are: to be afraid; to fear; to fear God.

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge," is a famous use of the noun form (Proverbs 1:7 NIV); the famous narrative of the near sacrifice of Isaac proved to God that Abraham feared Him above all (Genesis 22:12); people who feared God were considered faithful and trustworthy for such fear constrained them to believe and act morally (Exodus 18:21). The fear of the Lord was closely tied to keeping God's decrees and laws (Deuteronomy 6:2); people who fear God delight in hearing of His deeds for His people (Psalm 66:16). They were to worship and fear only the Lord their God (Joshua 24:14). Israel had an unnecessary and unhealthy fear of the nations of Canaan (Deuteronomy 7:19). In the sense of respectful fear, each person was to honor his mother and father (Leviticus 19:3).

As you can see, this word, within its various contexts, goes from cowering fear, terror, and dread, to such a deep and abiding respect that the one who has it can truly be considered faithful and trustworthy; to believe and act morally, right in line with the truth of God’s Word. Thus in upholding the Word of God, we uphold the Family name.

Therefore, brethren, here is the big deal responsibility that God has given to His elect, which must always be reflected in our conduct. Honoring parents and keeping God’s Sabbaths are inextricably linked because both are clear indicators to those around us are of the quality of the Family name (that we can very easily defile if we are not careful).

I would like to share with you a couple of short stories from previous Feast experiences that go to God’s point of upholding the Family name in conduct, and not just on the Sabbaths, or at the Feast days, but all the days of our lives.

Many years ago during the Feast of Tabernacles, Nancy, our children, and I were having dinner with another family and we were discussing all those things you usually discuss at the Feast, as we get to know one another. The other man had started attending WCG with his mother and sister while he was a child. But it had caused so much discord between his father and mother that they divorced. However, even at a young age this man, as a boy, had been enthusiastic about the truth of God’s Word. So, when he, his mother, and sisters and brothers resettled in the Pasadena area, he began to have the privilege to attend Imperial Schools.

He was very excited because he assumed that all the other kids would be walking around in the clouds. But his picture was dashed when he realized most of the kids were misbehaving and acting just like all the other kids he had known in other schools. However, he noted there was one girl that was distinctly different from all the others. Her friendly demeanor and righteous conduct, without being self-righteous, was so obvious that she stood out like a light among so many others. He determined he had to get to know her, because she was what he had thought every kid who had the privilege to attend the elementary school of the Worldwide Church of God should be. He told me he really wanted to get to know the family that had raised such a girl who so clearly upheld her family’s name in the way she conducted herself.

I never forgot that story because she truly revered her mother and father in the conduct of her life. The man told me her name was Carol Ritenbaugh.

Another story I would like to share with you about this point, and specifically to Feast conduct. Nancy and I were at dinner with a couple and their children a number of years later at very nice restaurant in a place where we had kept the Feast for a number of years. We had a very fine meal and wonderful evening of fellowship. I do not remember exactly when it happened, but the waitress at some point told us how easily she remembered the other family we were with from a visit to the restaurant during the previous feast a year earlier.

We presumed she may have remembered them for a number of different reasons, but when it came right down to it, the waitress told us she clearly remembered the family because of the fine behavior of the children, as opposed to how most children commonly misbehave. They were standing out like a light in the world of darkness because their parents had raised them properly, and they were reflecting the family name.

This, brethren, is what God expects from His children and we must always keep that in mind. Not just now but through all of our lives, as we uphold the Family name.

As we are here (in the final hours of preparation) to observe God’s Feast of Tabernacles (followed immediately by His commanded holy convocation and assembly on the Eighth Day), we rest as He rested. Do we realize that this day God created as a gift to us is really the very first opportunity He gives us to identify with Him, and reflect our firm belief in the LORD our God?

Please let me refer you again to Leviticus 19, verses 1-4. Perhaps what is not said to this point is what God wants us to see within its conspicuous absence. In direction to be holy as the Lord your God is holy, He leads off in verse 3 with two towering positive commands with the fifth commandment—respect for parents—followed up immediately with the fourth commandment—keeping His Sabbaths. These, in turn, are followed by warnings against putting anything before Him (the first) and not creating any false images (the second), both of which men did, and continue in their doings.

Although the third commandment is brought into the overall chapter instructions on holiness in Leviticus 19:12, by its conspicuous absence in verses 3-4, I believe God is reminding us why honoring parents and keeping God’s Sabbaths are often knitted together within God’s Word. They both are exclamation points from God that the way we behave directly reflects on the family name.

Look down in Leviticus 19:

Leviticus 19:9-12 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shalt not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shalt you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shalt not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God. You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie one to another. And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.”

Brethren, it is very interesting that so much of God’s instructions from the Atonement offering in Leviticus 16 to the direction from God to keep His Sabbaths in Leviticus 23, have to do with exposing the doings of a Satan-driven world, and what God expects from those He has set apart to keep His statutes, judgements, and ordinances He commands.

Just consider the final two verses of the last chapter of the instructions to those who were to be priests, just before He proclaims His holy days in Leviticus 23.

Please turn over a couple of pages to Leviticus 22:

Leviticus 22:31-33 “Therefore you shall keep My commandments, and perform them: I am the LORD. You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am the LORD who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD.”

As God tells us there in Leviticus 22, “You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel (among His children). I am the Lord your God.” Brethren, in just those few chapters from Leviticus 18 through 22 in the directions for living as He lives—holy as He is holy—and leading up to the chapter declaring His holy Sabbaths, He reminds us “I AM the Lord,” 32 times. He reminds us either we live as He directs, or we are living with someone else as our Lord.

At this point turn to Amos 5:

Amos 5:4-6 For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live; but do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the LORD and live; lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, with no one to quench it in Bethel.”

We all are familiar with the fact that Israel was keeping the feasts at these places, but the main point could not be the Feast site, but rather seeking God. They had lost that vision.

John Ritenbaugh said in a sermon regarding these verses:

We are clearly commanded to seek God. "Seek," in this case, does not mean to search for something that is lost. We have already been invited [as Richard said during Atonement] into a relationship; we already know where God is. We do not have to search God out as if He is lost somewhere. Seek means, as The Expositor's Dictionary says, "Turn to Him in trust and confidence."

Barnes’ Notes comments: "It does not mean to seek to get something from Him, but rather to seek God for what He is in Himself." This hits the nail right on the head, because "what He is in Himself" is another way of describing "seeking to be in the image of God." Do this, and we will live forever, as He does.

When He says live, He means live abundantly and everlastingly. Regardless of how much we have in the way of material goods, we can still live abundantly, but this is directly tied to seeking Him. We seek Him to be like Him. We seek Him to build the relationship with Him.

The commentaries note that both seek and live are in the imperative. It is a command to be diligent, fervent, and persevering in following through in seeking.

Now we will look at a few other familiar verses in the same chapter in Amos 5:

Amos 5:21-24 “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”

Brethren, this is quite a stern warning from God about how we may be keeping our feasts. (God willing, we are not; I hope we are not, but this is what Israel was doing, and this is why God issued that stern warning.) But, because we are so aware of these verses, I think we may miss another very important, but often overlooked comment from God about the His holy days. This was brought to my attention recently because of the way someone had incorrectly quoted the following verse and I think it was because of concern over what we know God says there in Amos 5:21, “I hate, I despise, your feasts.”

The person quoted Deuteronomy 16:13-14 by saying, “You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall rejoice in [the] feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.”

Brethren, there is just a very little mistake here that you may not have caught that changes things quite a bit, and I think it very well have been driven by God’s fearful rebuke there in Amos 5 about despising your feasts.

Let us read Deuteronomy 16:13-14 right from the Book:

Deuteronomy 16:13-14 “You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.”

Did you catch it? God did not say, “the feast.” Brethren, God tells us these are your Feasts. They are not only our feasts to enjoy, but they are our living witness before all men by our conduct how much we truly revere God and uphold the Family name.

God has gifted us with His Sabbaths, so that they become our Feasts and they will reflect whether or not “I AM” is truly the Lord our God.

So we will close this sermon with God’s wonderful promise to His people if we will learn to live as “I AM” the Lord our God, as written in Deuteronomy 28:

Deuteronomy 28:1 Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you this day, that the LORD your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth.”

Deuteronomy 28:9 “The LORD shall establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.”

Deuteronomy 28:12-14 The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shalt not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful do to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.”

Brethren, let us make sure in every aspect of our lives, that we uphold the Family name, so everyone will see the “I AM” is the Lord your God.

MS/rwu/drm