Mark Finley

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

HopeLives365

06 Confidence Only in Christ

Thanks again for joining us for our Sabbath School Lessons.

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We're on lesson number 6, Confidence Only in Christ.

We are studying the books of Philippians and the book of Colossians, and God is moving through these books as we study them.

It's just really amazing to see the practical life-changing lessons in both the book of Philippians and the book of Colossians.

So let's pray as we study the lesson today, confidence only in Christ.

Thank you for his love, his grace, and his goodness.

Thank you that we can have confidence in Christ and we can be changed through his righteousness, saved by his righteousness, and we can enter heaven not because of who we are, but because of who he is.

We know salvation from the beginning to end is about Jesus.

So Lord, thank you for beginning a good work in us, and we know too you're going to finish it as we trust in your grace.

You know, there is something about each 1 of us that has a difficult time accepting the gift of salvation through Christ.

I think our author is right when he writes in that first paragraph in lesson 6, there's something about us that remains suspicious about salvation by faith alone, apart from the works of the law.

That is, for some reason, we all tend to lean on our works as if they could add to our salvation.

In a rather striking way, Paul deals with this point in a vigorous polemic against those who insist that circumcision is necessary for salvation.

When you think about it historically, the church comes out of the dark ages, the Christian church, the Apostle Paul in those early centuries preached that salvation came through grace by faith alone and that grace transformed our lives so that we could perform good works.

But during the darkness of the Middle Ages when church and state united, the traditions of men, the deeds of man, the church regulations and rules tended to supersede the simple faith of the gospel.

So God began to raise up people like the Waldenses, like John Hus, like Wycliffe, like Martin Luther, who began to share that the Word of God is the basis of our faith.

Sola Scriptura, the Word of God alone, that Latin expression, by God's Word alone and by faith alone.

A faith that grasps Christ's righteousness, a faith that accepts what Christ has done for me, a faith that opens its heart to receive God's grace and the gift of salvation.

The Reformation led the way in that and God is still revealing to us the majesty of his grace, still charming us with his love, still motivating us by the redemption of the Christ on the cross.

Our confidence is not in ourselves, but our confidence is in Jesus.

In Sunday's lesson, we read about rejoicing in the Lord.

In other words, when it's all said and done, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

We're rejoicing in his goodness, his grace, his mercy.

We're rejoicing the fact that he lived the perfect life.

He lived the life we should have lived, died the death we should have died.

He took upon himself what we deserve to take upon ourselves.

For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it's safe.

When you're walking down the street, look behind you?

No, well, it might be a good thing to do.

But in the New Testament, this idea of dogs was a term that was used for unbelievers.

So beware of unbelievers or false teachers is another way to put it.

It's beware of evil workers, beware of the Mutilation.

So the mutilation could have meant circumcision, that people were leading, false teachers were leading those saved by grace through Christ alone back to a works righteousness of circumcision.

These dogs are unbelievers, evil teachers.

They don't believe in righteousness by faith through Christ.

Evil workers, mutilation, those taking them back to the ceremonial law.

Because he says then in verse 3, we are of the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh.

Because the Holy Spirit has led us to a new understanding, an understanding that salvation is about Jesus.

We come to Jesus and his life was lived for us, his death was lived for us, he transforms us.

As in English, the 2 Greek words for these ideas are related.

And his word is a kind of instruction manual for true happiness.

The Bible is an instruction manual for true happiness and lasting joy.

These include receiving God's mercy, Psalm 31.7, placing our trust in Him, Psalm 511, receiving the blessings of salvation, Psalm 9, verse 14, adopting God's law as our way of life, Psalm 119, verse 14, including the Sabbath, Isaiah 58, verse 13 and 14, believing his words, Psalm 119, verse 162, and raising godly children, Proverbs 23, verse 24 and 25.

We rejoice in everything God has done for us.

Paul tells us why that rejoicing is so important and how we can rejoice.

He looks at his past life, he contrasts his past life, what he was to what he is now.

So when Paul looks at his past life, what does he really see?

We read this in Philippians chapter 3, verse 4 to 6.

So here's the things he could have boasted about, and he didn't boast about in his past life.

He says, Philippians 3, verse 4, though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.

Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel.

So eighth day circumcision, very special in Judaism.

And he then he goes on to say in verse 5, circumcised the eighth day of the Chastok of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Benjamin's tribe of course had 1 of the prime locations in the promised land, 1 of the larger territories, a Hebrew of Hebrew.

And I'm not a Hebrew, I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

You know, there weren't a great deal, a number of Pharisees when it looked at the, when we look at the majority of the Jewish population.

So Paul says, look, I'm circumcised the eighth day.

Not only do I have this pedigree, not only do I have this inheritance, this heritage, but look at my actions concerning zeal.

I took care of those people that didn't believe like we believed.

Then he says, concerning righteousness, which is the law, I was blameless.

History Records the Moment The Sabbath Changed

There is a question that refuses to go away.

What day did the earliest Christians actually keep holy?

Few questions stir more passion and more confusion than the Sabbath.

Now the Old Testament is particularly clear.

The seventh day of the week is the Bible Sabbath, given at creation, kept through the whole Old Testament.

What did Jesus teach regarding the Sabbath?

And what does early Christian history actually teach us?

And when you look at the first, second, and third centuries, is there evidence there that early believers kept the Bible Sabbath?

We're gonna look at those original sources and we're also gonna look at some original Catholic sources on the Catholic Church's acknowledgement that they changed the Sabbath and the challenge that the Catholic Church gives to Protestantism.

This may surprise you, but all of this was predicted in the Bible, in the prophecies of Daniel, particularly Daniel, the seventh chapter.

Now we're not going to rely on human opinion, we're not going to rely on tradition.

We will let the original sources speak for themselves.

You'll see evidence, plain, direct, undeniable, that the Sabbath was observed by Christians for centuries after Christ.

And then we'll ask the unavoidable question, If the Sabbath was changed, when did it happen?

First, the New Testament evidence by Jesus himself.

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus speaks of end time events.

He talks about wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, floods, strife.

He talks about lawlessness in our society, the gospel going to the end of the world.

And in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus blends to events the destruction of Jerusalem that's coming as a type of the destruction of the end of the world.

The disciples, sitting on the Mount of Olives, looking across the Kidron Valley at that beautiful temple with its massive blocks and stones that build the temple, ask Jesus, when shall these things be and what shall be the site of your coming and the end of the world?

In other words, when will Jerusalem be destroyed?

And Jesus, using the destruction of Jerusalem as this example of the end of the world, eventually says to his disciples, talking about their flight from Jerusalem as the Roman army's approach, pray that your flight, that is your flight from Jerusalem as the Roman armies approach, be not in the winter or on the Sabbath day.

Now Jesus was talking to his disciples just before his crucifixion in 31 AD, But the question becomes, why would he tell his disciples to pray that their flight from Jerusalem be not in the winter on the Sabbath, if indeed the disciples would not be keeping the Sabbath, because the destruction of Jerusalem didn't come until 70 AD.

Jesus made that statement precisely because if the Roman armies came and indeed the disciples were in the temple, they would easily be destroyed.

If the Roman armies came and they could find all the believers worshiping in 1 place, it would easily be possible for them to attack them and kill every 1 of them.

So Jesus was clear that the disciples would be keeping the Sabbath even 40 years after the cross.

What about the evidence in the New Testament?

Well, we see, for example, in the book of Acts, a number of instances where the disciples kept the Bible Sabbath.

Here in Acts chapter 13, the apostle Paul is preaching in the synagogue.

And somebody says, well, he did this for evangelistic purposes.

You know, he just went into the synagogue to preach to the Jews.

But we'll see something quite fascinating here.

But when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

Now notice, the Jews are in the synagogue.

The Gentiles leave the synagogue, and they say, preach to us the next Sabbath.

Does he say, you come back on Sunday and I'll preach to you?

Verse 43, now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

So they continued in God's grace, which led them to obey God's law and keep the Bible Sabbath.

So grace and law and Sabbath are not distinct or separate.

That's why Jesus said, if you love me, John 14, verse 15, keep my commandments.

But notice verse 44, the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the Word of God.

So the whole city comes to hear the Word on the Sabbath.

So it's obvious from Acts 13, verse 44, that the New Testament Christian believers are not worshiping on the first day of the week, they're worshiping on the Bible Sabbath.

When you come to Acts chapter 17, verse 1 and 2, you see that just like Jesus had a custom, you remember back in Luke chapter 4, verse 16, it says about Jesus as his custom was, he went into the synagogue to worship on the Sabbath.

When Acts 17, we find the apostle Paul had a custom, verse 1 and 2.

Now when they had passed through Amphibolus and Apollonina, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

And Paul, as his custom was, went into them for 3 Sabbaths and reasoned with them concerning the Scriptures.

So this was not merely an evangelistic strategy that Paul had.

In Romans 3, verse 31, we read, Do we then make void the law through faith?

So from the Old Testament, from the days of Genesis, 2, 300 years before the Jewish race, down through the 10 Commandment law, down through the faithfulness of God's people in the Old Testament, through the New Testament period, the believers, the faithful men and women of God, kept the Bible Sabbath.

Do we have extra biblical evidence, evidence outside the Bible, that in those early centuries, say the first century, the second, the third, believers were keeping the Bible Sabbath.

Josephus, the early Jewish historian, puts it this way.

He writes that there was no city, I'm quoting, where the seventh day Sabbath had not spread.

So here you have Josephus writing, there's no city in the first century where the seventh day Sabbath has not spread.

Then you have Philo, a Jewish philosopher, contemporary with some of the apostles in the first century.

He calls the Sabbath, and again I quote, a festival belonging not to 1 nation, but to the entire world.

And then you have an amazing description of what indeed is going on here, and that description reveals that God indeed has a Sabbath down through the centuries.

Let's look at the second to fourth century, for example.

He records almost all churches throughout the world, celebrate the Sabbath in its mysteries every week, yet the Christians of Rome and Alexandria do not.

Why do the Christians at Rome and Alexandria not observe the Sabbath?

Because in Rome you have the Roman Empire falling apart, and you have the attempt to disassociate from Judaism, and so church and state unite, as we'll show you a little later in the video, and as they do, Constantine passes the Sunday Law in 321 AD to close the workshops on the venerable day of the sun.

Now that wasn't a worship decree, it was a social decree, but by the time you come to the Council of Laodicea in 364, you come to a point where church and state unite, Sunday worship is introduced now into the Empire.

That's why here Socrates Scholasticus says, almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath every week, but the Christians of Rome, because they have begun to compromise, and Alexandria, where you have a very high influence there of Christianity and sun worship.

Sunday observance was the exception, not the rule.

Now, additional historical sources affirm that Gentile Christians observed the Sabbath, that the Sabbath united believers with the life and teachings of Jesus, that Christians followed not only Christ's example, but Christ's command.

For over 400 years, the historical record is consistent.

So that leads to a very serious question.

He says, if you love me keep my commandments.

The disciples couldn't do it because they didn't have the authority.

In fact, it was Peter in Acts 5, verse 29, it says we ought to obey God rather than men.

And God certainly wouldn't do it because in the book of Malachi, God himself says, I am the Lord and I do what?

Well, in Daniel 7 verse 25, the Bible talks about the change of God's law.

It talks about a power arising out of Rome that would claim the authority to change God's law.

Many Will Use the Name of Jesus and Still Be Lost

You know, names are very powerful things.

Names can give you entrance into places where you never could get entrance otherwise.

Names can get you into a physician's office much more quickly than if you didn't know the physician.

Let me tell you an experience that I had.

So when we were at home, He examined my back and he said, Dad, I need to do some work on your back.

You have a few spots that we need to care for.

I don't think they're malignant, but I need to cut them out.

So come by the office at 11 o'clock on such and such a day and I'll fit you in.

Now what you need to know about my son is this, we have the same name.

So as I came to the office, the receptionist said, sir, can I have your name?

No, I don't want the name of the provider, sir.

She said, sir, not the name of the person that's treating you, your name.

No, sir, I could see she's getting a little bit agitated.

The name of Jesus is an incredibly powerful name.

The name of Jesus gives us entrance to the Heavenly Father and all the treasures of heaven.

The name of Jesus brings all the strength of the Father into our lives.

I remember reading this story on 1 occasion of E.P.

Scott was a missionary to India, and he was sharing the gospel in a very incredibly remote village.

And as he did that, the villagers became very hostile.

They raised their knives, they brought their spears, and they surrounded him.

And he had a violin, he was a very good violinist, and E.

And this is what he played, All hail the power of Jesus' name.

Let angels' prostate fall, Bring forth the royal diadrem, and crown him Lord of all.

Scott tells the story, the villagers dropped their spears.

Some had tears in their eyes when they heard the song played.

A mighty revival took place in that village, and there were many, many conversions.

What is it about that name that causes devils to tremble?

What is it about that name that causes the hosts of hell to flee?

Why did Jesus instruct us to pray in the name of Jesus.

You see, the name of Jesus speaks of the person of Jesus, the presence of Jesus, and the power of Jesus.

When we really understand what that name means, it makes an amazing difference in our lives.

When we grasp its life-changing power, we'll live lives of victory rather than frustrated defeat.

When we really grasp the name of Jesus and what it means in our prayers, we live lives of joy rather than despair.

We live lives of hope rather than discouragement.

When we let the name of Jesus be the very foundation of all of our prayers, a new peace floods into our hearts, a new joy floods into our minds.

Understanding the power of the name of Jesus will make all the difference.

So this morning I want to study with you 7 aspects of the name of Jesus.

And once we incorporate these aspects into our lives, our whole prayer life is changed, our Christian life is transformed, and we live those lives of joy and happiness and peace and power.

The first eternal truth about Jesus' name is this.

John chapter 13, the scripture reading for the morning, but I want to go back to it.

John chapter 13, or John chapter 14 rather, verse 13 and 14.

You're taking your Bible and we're looking at a couple passages in the book of John.

John chapter 14, looking there at verse 13 and verse 14.

The scripture says, whatever you ask in next 2 words, what are they?

My name, whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the father may be glorified in the son.

If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

When our requests glorify God, did you notice what our text said?

Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

When our requests glorify God, and we ask in Jesus name, we can have the absolute assurance that our prayers will be answered.

To ask in Jesus name is to ask according to His will.

It's His will to give us power over the enemy.

It is His will to give us victory over the temptations of the evil 1.

It is his will to give us wisdom and strength in witnessing because all that glorifies his name.

So when you pray in Jesus' name, we can know that our sins are forgiven.

When we pray in Jesus' name, we can know that victory over temptation is ours.

When we pray in Jesus' name, we can know that the wisdom that comes from heaven is indeed ours.

Jesus says, John 16, and in that day you will ask me nothing.

Why does Jesus say to his disciples, in that day you'll ask me nothing.

They will see him no more, but they are to approach the father in his name.

Verse 23, I say to you, whatever you ask the father again, in my name, he will give it to you.

Back to Menu

Presenter

Mark Finley

All Recordings

06 Confidence Only in Christ

23m

History Records the Moment The Sabbath Changed

30m

Many Will Use the Name of Jesus and Still Be Lost

47m

05 Shining as Lights in the Night

25m

05 The Triumph of God’s End Time Church

45m

04 The Shaking, the Sifting, and the Remnant Church

45m

03 The Rise of a Prophetic Movement

1h 2m

02 The Holy Spirit, Laodicea, and Revival

52m

01 Revelation’s Remnant

54m

04 Unity Through Humility

26m

03 Life and Death

23m

The Sabbath vs. Sunday: The Coming Global Conflict

33m

Sound Doctrine