I have read your article/sermon at http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/90-379 and I must say you have mixed the good and the bad, you have made no difference between the holy and the profane. Unfortunately, you do not understand the new covenant.
I will make my comments simple:
The difference between the old and the new covenant is on the promises. What we call the old covenant was faulty on the basis of these words:
Exodus 24:6-8 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said,All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.
I think you understand fully that the people were not aware of their inability to keep God's laws - they thought they could keep them in their own strength, their own efforts. Thus this covenant was established on THEIR promises. Pretty soon after they broke the covenant and proved the worthlessness of their promises. The new covenant was established on better promises, but both covenants were based on the ten commandments:
Hebrews 8:6-10 6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
These are the same laws (Ten Commandments) of which the 4th - the Sabbath commandment is an inseparable part.
Exodus 34:28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Deuteronomy 4:13 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.
You seem not to be aware that the deliverance of the children of Israel and their journey to the Promised Land is a pattern of salvation. They had to be covered by the blood of the lamb to escape death (we are covered by the blood of Jesus, cf John 1:29); they passed through the Red Sea as a symbol of baptism (1 Cor 10) but they were not taken to Canaan straight away. They were justified then by faith but after hundreds of years in Egyptian slavery (we live in slavery to sin, cf John 8:34; Romans 6:16-19 NKJV) they needed to be reclaimed, undergo a culture change, a mind change, etc, which we call sanctification. They now had to unlearn all the Egyptian ideology and behaviours before they could be priests of God (Exo 19:4-6). They could not tell the world about a God they did not really know. That message is in the sanctuary (briefly: altar of sacrifice => Christ's death; laver => baptism; candlesticks => light to the world; manna/shewbread => His words; incense => prayers; Ark and Ten Commandments => God's basis of government - the mercy seat His throne, the laws His right to govern and standard of judgment. cf Eccl 12:13-14; Rev 14:6-7).
The Sabbathand not Sunday is a sign of Sanctification. Nowhere did God make Sunday (first day) a sign of anything.
Exodus 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.
Ezekiel 20:12Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a signbetween me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.
The Sabbath is a sign of Creation (that you understand)
The Sabbath is a sign of the perpetual or everlasting covenant
Exodus 31:16-17 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
The Sabbath is a sign of Redemption, not Sunday
Deuteronomy 5:15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.
After creation Christ rested and after He died He still rested on the Sabbath and then rose on the first day. In life and death He always honoured the Sabbath. And as for His contentions with the Jews. They had erected walls around God's laws (their traditions which God did not command) for it wasSabbath breaking which was one of the primary reasons for the destruction of Jerusalem. Read Jeremiah 17:19-27 and Nehemiah 13:15-19 for validation. It is not the only reason, of course. Christ's purpose was to deliver the people physically and spiritually, for man's traditions and doctrines (includes Sunday sacredness) cannot commend people to God and is vain worship.
Matthew 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mark 7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
God's endtime people keep HIS commandments. See Rev 12:17; 14:12; 22:14. Note this verse in particular:
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
If you compare it to Nehemiah 13:15-19, you will see that merchants were selling all kinds of wares on the Sabbath, men were treading the wine presses and doing all kind of work. After Nehemiah intervened the outside merchants were still trying to enter the city and he had to threaten them. They could could not enter because of Sabbath breaking. This is an endtime issue. The question is, just who will you worship and how, and why.
We worship God as our Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, and simply because He is our God. We keep His commandments by faith based upon His better promises to write His laws in our minds and hearts (to know and to love them). That is how He actually writes His name in our foreheads - the sealing. There will be a group that instead accepts the mark of the beast because they break God's commandments:
In the last days the devil will be leading people to break God's commandments, especially from the first table.
Commandment 1 is broken
Revelation 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who islike unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Commandment 2 is broken
Revelation 13:15And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Commandment 3 is broken
Revelation 13:5-6 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
So are we surprised if commandment 4 is broken?
Revelation 13:16-17 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Go back to Nehemiah again. Nehemiah prevented the buying and selling on the Sabbath and this was a victory for God. The two-horned earth beast will enact the devil's revenge. God's Sabbath keepers will be prevented from buying and selling if they uphold the Seventh-day Sabbath.
Rome claims Sunday worship as a mark of its authority, and you sir are willingly or unwittingly bowing to Rome in this, receiving its mark.
"Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. 'The Day of the Lord' [dies domini] was chosen, not from any direction noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church's sense of its own power..... People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become [Seventh-Day] Adventists, and keep Saturday holy." Saint Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995.
"Sunday is a Catholic institution and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles..... From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first." Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, August 1900.
"Sunday is our mark of authority..... The church is above the Bible, and this transference of sabbath observance is proof of that fact." The Catholic Record, London, Ontario, September 1, 1923.
You may also want to review the Biblical concept of Israel in the New Testament, but that is another issue. If you do, you will find that the new covenant you so want to be a part of is made with Israel only and that believers in Christ are Israel. You cannot separate the Jews from non Jews. Jesus the Saviour was a Jew and all the Apostles of the Christian church were. We are spiritual Jews and what applies to Israel applies to us.
Hebrews 8:8 I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 8:10 For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts:
Galatians 3:29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
