How Can I Keep the Great Commandment without Being Taken Advantage Of?

How can I keep the great commandment without being taken advantage of? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us with your question at 833-THE-CORE. You can always leave a voicemail there as well. You can post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

Well, first up today, let's go to Jay calling in from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Jay, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? I don't obey all 10, and I was referring to the fourth commandment, the one and only one that's got the word remember in front of it. That's my question.

Can I get you to, you know, invite me on that, please? Jay, thank you for that question. Why, you're asking, do we obey nine of the 10 commandments, don't obey the Sabbath commandment? At least we certainly don't obey it like they did under the Old Covenant.

And in the exact same way. Great question, and I'm happy to answer that. First, I think it's important to think about what the Sabbath is and was.

It's a gift for humanity. Jesus says, man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man to nourish us, for rest. And you think about the first Sabbath ever, if you will, in Genesis chapter two, beginning in verse one, it says, thus, the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in all of creation.

Now, one thing that's interesting about this, Jay, is on the previous six days of creation, you have the repetition of this phrase, it was evening and it was morning, the fifth day or the sixth day, but you don't have that repetition there with the seventh day was evening and it was morning. Some of the ancient rabbis, what they said is, it's because the Sabbath here is a picture of the day without evening or morning, a picture of eternal rest, if you will, rest in God himself. And that's one of the things I think that we see highlighted throughout the pages of the Bible and certainly when we get to the New Testament, especially with Jesus, our Lord, who identified himself as the one in whom the people of God have that Sabbath rest. And the way we enter into that kind of Sabbath rest, brother, is through faith in Jesus Christ. The author of the Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter four, verse three, we who have believed enter that rest as he has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again, in this passage, he said, they shall not enter my rest since therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly received good news fail to enter because of disobedience. Again, he appoints a certain day saying today through David, though David so long afterwards in the words already quoted today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

Then he says this in verse eight of chapter four, for if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. And so there's this picture of the Sabbath as this entering into the rest of God, that eternal rest that we come into through faith in Jesus Christ. And so when we apply that to us now under the new covenant, I mean, it looks like something in worship. I would think of the Lord's day or Sunday worship as this Christian Sabbath where we are called to rest in the Lord, to set aside the things that we're often consumed by and to gather with the people of God and to worship him. This is what the earliest disciples of our Lord Jesus did, gathering together on the first day of the week.

You see this in places like Acts chapter 20 in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. So you have this language of gathering together on the first day of the week on Sunday to worship the Lord in commemoration of the fact that Jesus rose again from the dead. I don't think that we've set aside this command to obey the Sabbath to rest in God. No, we can't set it aside.

It's God's law. We just understand it in light of what Christ has done. And we enter into that rest through Jesus.

And along with the church from the very beginning, we gather together to worship him, to rest in him on the first day of the week on Sunday in remembrance of the fact that he rose again from the dead together with all the saints. And so God bless you, Jay. Thank you for that question and appreciate your call. Great explanation of the Sabbath. Thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone number, if you want to leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day, is 833-843-2673.

That's 833-THECORE. We do our best to go through our voicemails each day and try to use as many of them on the air as we can. Let's go back to the phones right now and talk to Doug in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Doug, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hello, Bill and Pastor Adriel. I appreciate your ministry.

It's been a great blessing in my life. I have a brother who is a homosexual and he claims to be a Christian, but I haven't seen the evidence of salvation. So that's a whole other question altogether, but he's greatly deceived about what God says in Scripture about the subject. I recently received a wedding invitation from him. He's getting married to a man.

I've decided not to go. You know, I just feel it's going to be support for a sinful union. At the same time, I'm concerned that this is going to be taken as rejection from him and it's going to destroy any relationship that we have. We have a good relationship. He knows I'm a Christian. He knows where I stand, you know, according to Scripture and my beliefs. But I'm just concerned that he's, you know, this may be taken, you know, bad and we just won't have a relationship after this. I appreciate your counsel on this matter. Well, Douglas, thank you for giving us a call. Let me first just encourage you in the decision that you made.

I think that you made the right decision. It's interesting that you say that this brother, you know, professes faith in Jesus Christ. And I think that that's significant. There seems to be, as you've noted, a contradiction there, right? When somebody says, I believe in Jesus, I am a Christian, but they live in ways that are openly contrary to what Christ has called us to. I think it's our job. One of the things that we do as Christians is we say, no, that's inconsistent.

You can't do that. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 5, a passage that I'm guessing you're familiar with as you've thought about this, where he says in verse 9, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of a brother, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, revile or drunkard or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders?

Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? You're making a judgment here, and I think it's the right call, and it communicates something to your brother. He can take it a couple different ways.

He can say, you've cut me off, and I don't want to have anything to do with you, you don't love me, that kind of a thing, but I can tell even just by talking to you that that's not the sentiment, that you do love him, that you want to have this relationship, this friendship, still the open lines of communication. I think you should pray that the Lord gives you that and do whatever you can do, and need to communicate that you still want all of those things, but that you simply cannot support him in this, especially as someone who professes faith in Jesus Christ, and believe that the Spirit of God is able to work in him, to save him, to redeem him, to deliver him even from this. You think of what Paul says to the Corinthians in the very next chapter as he's writing to them, he says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you. In other words, there were people in the church there in Corinth who had been practicing homosexuals, and they experienced the grace of the Lord Jesus, and they turned from that. Now, that doesn't mean that they didn't still struggle with sin, I'm sure, but they have a new identity now. They were given this new identity through Christ. You have been sanctified, he says in verse 11.

Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. And so I think you pray that for your brother, and you continue to pursue him in other ways, and to extend, I would say, charity, but also I think being very clear here about what it is that you believe, and what he should be called to as someone who professes faith in Jesus Christ as well. Now maybe he just says, you know, I don't believe in Jesus, and he decides that, and says, I'm not going to try to identify as a Christian. Well, I think you pursue him in that, and you say, look, I want you to know, Jesus, I want you to know that I'm here for you. I'm not trying to shut down the doors of communication, but this is serious.

How we live is serious. What we profess is serious, and so I can't just pretend like everything is fine when I don't believe that it is according to what God's word has said. So Douglas, may God be with you and give you wisdom, and I just want to say a quick prayer for your brother right now that the Lord would be at work in his life as well. Father, we come before you. I lift Douglas's brother up to you, and I pray for him, Jesus, that that same grace that many of those in Corinth experienced, Lord, as they turned to you, were drawn to you by the Holy Spirit, that Douglas's brother would experience that grace, and that you would use Douglas to be a witness, a light, instrumental in that, Lord God, that you would give him wisdom as he speaks, a heart full of love, but also a heart, Lord, that doesn't want to compromise in your word, and I know that he has that, and so I pray that you would help him to be faithful to you, to be gracious, and God, that you would give him wisdom in all of his interaction with his brother, and that you would draw his brother to yourself, and that you would work mightily in his life, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Douglas, we also have a wonderful core guide that will be a big help to you. It's called Ten Things Everyone Needs to Know About the Bible and Homosexuality. You can find that at our website, corechristianity.com, forward slash, free downloads. And again, this would be for anyone who's dealing with this issue, or maybe trying to talk to somebody even within the church who has a very different perspective on this, Ten Things Everyone Needs to Know About the Bible and Homosexuality.

Yours free at our website under the free downloads link. Well, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our callers. This is from Ben. Here's my question for Pastor Adriel. Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. And Paul writes in Philippians 2 that we should put the needs of others ahead of our own needs. And I really try to do that, but I have a Christian friend who criticized me because she says I let other people take advantage of me. Where's the line?

When should I look out for my own interests, and when should I look out for the interests of others? Thank you, and God bless you. You know, God bless you, Ben, as you seek to follow Jesus and to love as Jesus has called you to love. And that does look like service, it does look like considering the needs of others, even as greater than our own. Is it what the Apostle Paul said?

You referenced Philippians chapter 2. And let me just say, and I'm sure you've experienced this, there is suffering there. There is pain there. I think of what C.S. Lewis said.

I just pulled this up right now as I was thinking about your question. He says, to love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything in your heart will be rung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries.

Avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken.

It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. I mean, that's what we're called to, is that kind of vulnerable love, serving the people around us, caring for their needs, and there is pain there. And the reality is, many of us, we just want to avoid that.

We want to build walls. We want to think about ourselves first and foremost. Now, are there instances potentially where we're actually not doing the right thing because we're loving others so much that we're not taking care of ourselves?

Usually that's not the ditch that we reckon, brother. Usually it's the exact opposite. Usually it's I'm just unwilling to lay down my life for the good of others.

I'm so focused on myself. And I think if you're striving to do that, to love others the way Jesus calls you to, there are going to be people who see that and think, oh, boy, you're doing too much. I mean, it's convicting. Oftentimes when we see other people seeking to follow Jesus the way we ought to, and we're not doing that, it convicts us. And we say, hey, take it easy.

Slow down. That kind of a thing. Now, there are ways, I think, in which loving others, quote, unquote, might actually not be what we think it is. I'm a pastor, right, so let's say if I loved the people in my church so much that I neglected my own family. And I justified it by saying, well, look at how much I love the church and the people in there, but I'm not caring for my own children. Well, that would be a huge issue, right?

So there is a way in which people can really mess this up. But ordinarily speaking, I think our problem is we don't want to follow Jesus' words. We don't want to heed what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter 2. Loving like God calls you to love is not easy. It's painful, but we love as those who have been loved.

And so that's the key. The reason we can do this is not to earn God's love. It's not because we're under this sort of legalism. It's because we have so experienced the mercy of God to us in Jesus Christ, undeserved. We've been washed by Jesus. You think of the disciples in the upper room in John chapter 13 when Jesus washed their feet, and he said, now you go and do likewise. Having experienced that as believers, if you've experienced the grace and the love of God for you in the Gospel, it should turn you into someone who looks outward and says, man, how can I love the people around me? We fall short of that, but I think we need to be encouraged in it.

And as we're doing it, there are going to be people who say, okay, that's too much. But I would say, brother, go with your conscience. Listen to the word of God, submit to it, and continue to love people as you believe God has called you to, so long as it's not taking you away from loving your family or that kind of a thing. And as you do it as an act of worship before the Lord, I think that's a wonderful thing. I think that's a beautiful thing, and so God bless. Thanks so much for your call, Ben, and we appreciate you so much for being a regular core Christianity listener. By the way, if you're a regular listener to this program and you believe in what we do, you find these programs helpful, we would want to encourage you to join a very special group of people.

We call them our inner core. Yeah, we are so grateful to have partners with us in this work that we're doing. Our desire is to help people grow in their relationship with the Lord, in their love for the Lord and their love for others.

We were just answering Ben's question there. And we want to do that by rooting you in the teaching of the Bible, what the Scriptures say. And if you've been encouraged in your walk with the Lord, would you consider partnering with us and becoming a member of the inner core? It's a monthly donation of $25 or more.

It's not a ton of money, but it really is a blessing for us and encouragement for us, and it's a way for you to be blessed as well as you partner with us in getting the word of the Gospel out. And as a thank you for signing up to be a part of the inner core, we'll send you a copy of the book, Core Christianity, written by Professor Dr. Michael Horton, a wonderful book, introducing you to the core doctrines of the Christian faith. All you have to do is go to our website at corechristianity.com forward slash inner core to learn more.

And there's also some special resources that we'll be sending you throughout the year as an inner core member. So check it out, corechristianity.com forward slash inner core. Well, let's go to an email we received. Adriel, by the way, you can email us anytime with your question about the Bible, Christian life, doctrine, theology. The email address is questions at corechristianity.com.

And this is a real practical question. This gentleman says, I believe in tithing, but my wife does not. I have to tithe behind her back for fear of an argument which has happened in the past and caused big problems in our marriage and trust issues financially. I show her scriptures on this and I pray for her so she changes her ways, but nothing helps. I don't like being disobedient to the Lord, but I know he wants us to have peace in our marriage.

What should I do? Yeah, it sounds like a discipleship thing here in terms of growing in our understanding of the grace of God to us and being free of worldly concerns, being individuals who don't store up treasures just here on earth, but store up treasure in heaven. And Jesus is where your treasure is.

That's where your heart will be also. And so we invest in God's kingdom as those who want to align our hearts with the purposes of God and with the things that God is doing in the world today. Now with regard to the tithe, this was something that was really specifically a part of the old covenant, bringing this tax, if you will, to the temple to support the priesthood there. But that doesn't mean that we're not called to give and to give generously under the new covenant. The apostle Paul says, here's how it's supposed to look in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6, The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart.

It sounds to me like your wife has not decided in her heart yet that she wants to give. And so how do we address that? How do we get to that? Well, I think it's seeing the goodness of God, the generosity of God, the mercy of God to us. You can never, I've heard pastors say this over and over again, and I've found it to be true in my own life, you can never outgive the Lord. God's grace, God's goodness to us is always more than we could ever give back, if you will. And so we ought to give out of a place of gratefulness, out of a place of, you know, we've received from the Lord, and so we give back with joy because we want to serve Him and we want to be a part of what He's doing in the world through missions and through the local church and all of those things. And so I think it's having those conversations, not so much viewing it as a lie, you know, we have to do this otherwise God is going to strike us down, but focus on God's goodness to you, brother, and to your family.

You know, paint a picture for your wife of God's goodness, God's mercy to her, of the significance and the importance of God's kingdom, of the Gospel advancing, of other people experiencing the grace of the Lord, the forgiveness of sins. And as that vision eclipses everything else, then I think little by little our hearts are softened and we begin to say, Lord, man, how can I give back for all that you've done for me? As the psalmist said, you know, what shall I render to the Lord for all of His benefits, His bounty to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. And so I would say as you have conversations with your wife, as you want to encourage her in this, because there is a blessing associated with giving. The apostle Paul goes on to say in verse 10 there of 2 Corinthians 9, He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. And you'll be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

We want that. It's just such a blessing associated with generosity and the joy of giving. Jesus himself said it's better to give than to receive. And so you're trying to paint that picture and have those kinds of conversations so that you get to a place together as a couple where you can say, yeah, how can we not serve the Lord in this way, be an encouragement to the saints in this way?

And have conversations. Maybe you start with a smaller amount and you can give that smaller amount generously and with joy and over time. As you see the Lord work in and through these things, you're encouraged to give more and more. Some people say it has to be 10%.

You don't have to stop at 10%, brothers and sisters. You can't outgive the Lord. And so may you be encouraged and may God bless you as you have conversations with your wife about these things and may he give you wisdom as you speak together and as you seek to serve him together. Thank you for your question, brother.

Have a wonderful day. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.