THE SABBATH
The Sabbath • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Does it make any difference WHICH day we observe - or whether we keep it?
Does it make any difference WHICH day we observe - or whether we keep it?
Does the Bible establish SUNDAY as the Lord’s Day?
Was the Sabbath given for the Jewish people only - while Christians are commanded to keep SUNDAY as the Lord’s Day?
Does the Bible establish SUNDAY as the Lord’s Day?
Was the Sabbath given for the Jewish people only - while Christians are commanded to keep SUNDAY as the Lord’s Day?
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a gospel from MEN about the PERSON of Christ. The GOSPEL OF Christ is Christ’s gospel - the gospel Christ preached - the gospel that God SENT by Jesus for mankind!
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Jesus came into Galilee, after John the Baptist was thrown into prison, preaching the GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM (or government) OF GOD, calling on men to repent and to believe. Yes, but to believe what? Believe this very GOSPEL which Jesus brought from God, so Jesus Himself said!
And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Jesus was teaching as part of His Gospel: how to observe the sabbath!
Let’s read this pivotal text again! Jesus said, “the sabbath was made”. It is one of those things that was made. It had to have a MAKER. Who, then made the Sabbath?
God is the Creator. But it is written in Ephesians 3:9,”…God, who created all things by Jesus Christ”.
Johns Gospel begins: “In he beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ....ALL THINGS were made by HIM; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men…And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him....” John 1:1, 3-4, 14-15).
And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Very few realize it today - but the Sabbath was MADE BY JESUS CHRIST! No wonder, then, He plainly said that he is Lord also of the Sabbath!
Notice Mark 2:27 again! It was not only one of those things that was made - it not only had a Maker - but it was made for someone. Now today the prevalent idea seems to be that it was made “for the Jew”. But what did Christ Himself say? He said it was made “for man”!
If it was made for mankind, we should suppose it was made when man was made. Bur we must not ”suppose”. we must have BIBLE AUTHORITY!
Let’s turn back to the description of the time when MAN was made.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Now when was this? Verse 31 says it was the sixth day of creation week. Further, man was the very last thing or being created on that day. Man came into being, then probably in the late afternoon of the sixth day.
Genesis 2:2–3 (KJV 1900)
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Notice now! When “God said, Let us make man,” who did the speaking? The original Hebrew word here translated “GOD” is Elohim. This Hebrew word for god is a noun plural in form, meaning more than one Person, yet one GOD. GOD is a Kingdom - A FAMILY - There is the Father. Jesus is the SON. Christ is also the WORD - that is, the Spokesman. He speaks only what the father directs him to speak. Christ created all things by Jesus Christ! Therefore, it was Jesus who SPOKE! It was Jesus who said, ”Let us make man.” It was Jesus who did the work of creation, as directed by the Father!
NOTICE AGAIN! Did Jesus complete His CREATING on the sixth day? does it say that on the seventh day He ceased to CREATE?
Not at all! Notice more carefully. “On the seventh day God ended “ - WHAT? Not creating! he ended “his WORK which he had made.”
There were a full seven days of creation! Not six - SEVEN! On the seventh day He MADE THE SABBATH! But the Sabbath was made, not by work, but by REST.
What He ended on the seventh day was the WORK of creation - that which was created by work! On the seventh day He rested! He created the Sabbath by resting.
Now why did Jesus Christ, who had done the WORK of creation, rest? Was He “all tired out”? Was he so fatigued He was forced to stop and rest? Absolutely not, for God “fainteth not, neither is weary! as Isaiah 40:28 tells us.
Yet, this was a real rest, because in Exodus 31:17 it is written:...”in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” Since He was “refreshed” by this rest, it was real rest. Yet He was not tired or weary!
Why did he rest?
To put HIS DIVINE PRESENCE IN THAT DAY! He Made the sabbath on that day by resting, whereas He had made all other things by working! NOTICE FURTHER! Also He “blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it! what does “sanctified” mean? Look in your dictionary. It means “set apart”, for HOLY use or purpose.” He set apart this day from other days - set it apart for HOLY use - for a day of physical rest, in which His people may assemble and worship God!
Also He “HALLOWED” the seventh day of every week (Exodus 20:11). He made it HOLY. It is, as we shall see in the Scriptures later, HOLY TO GOD. Now the Sabbath is a day. It is the particular seventh day of the week (Matthew 28:1) Therefore what God did - and God did it by Christ - was to make future TIME holy!
Now ask yourself, and answer: Does any man have authority to make future time HOLY?
No man is holy of himself. No man has power to make anything holy. GOD ALONE IS HOLY - or whatever God had made holy! No group or organization of men has authority to make future time HOLY!
The sabbath is a space of TIME. God set it as that space of time from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. Whenever that time comes to us, we are in holy time! It is GOD’s time, not ours! GOD MADE it HOLY - and in the ten Commandments, as we shall see in detail a little later, He commanded us to keep it holy! Many do not realize today that it is a SIN to profane that which is HOLY to God!
Praise God, Church! I find it to be no coincidence that as I stand here, in this sacred pulpit, to preach the Word of GOD, every Friday night, right about the time that the sun is setting, that we begin our weekly Sabbath by worshipping the Lord together as a Church family!
God’s presence is in His sabbath. he rested on that first Sabbath to put His presence in that day! This made it HOLY TIME! Four thousand years later, when He came as Jesus Christ in the human flesh - HE WAS STILL PUTTING HIS PRESENCE IN THAT SAME WEEKLY RECURRING SABBATH - HE WENT INTO SYNAGOGUES AS HIS CUSTOM WAS!
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Do you believe that? Is your Bible an AUTHORITY? Do you accept is as AUTHORITY? Unless Jesus Christ, in Spirit, is today living in your flesh - actually living your life for you - you are none of his - you are not a Christian (Romans 8:9) And if He is, He has NOT CHANGED - He is still putting His presence in His Sabbath!
Notice a prophecy - for our time right now:
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath,
From doing thy pleasure on my holy day;
And call the sabbath a delight,
The holy of the Lord, honourable;
And shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways,
Nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord;
And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth,
And feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father:
For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
We honor GOD by keeping holy those things that he has made holy! We dishonor Him when we speak our own words, saying, “Well, I think the ideas and ways of MEN, or of all of this world’s CHURCHES - might be right. I’d rather do as they do, and honor them, and be well thought of by them.”
God commands: “take your foot off my HOLY Time! quit trampling all over that which is HOLY and sacred TO ME! Quit profaning my HOLY THINGS - whether it be my name, my tithe of your income, or my HOLY DAY.
The SIN is in profaning that which God made HOLY!
God has never made any other day of the week HOLY! Man has no authority to make a day HOLY.
You cannot KEEP a day HOLY, unless God has first made it holy, any more than you can keep cold water hot - unless it has first been made hot!
God made this space of time HOLY - He commands you to keep it that way!
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Men evolve many arguments to evade the commandments of God - because the carnal mind is hostile to God, and is not subject to HIS LAW! When men reject the commandments of GOD, so that they may hold to their traditions, they must devise arguments to justify their rebellion. On of the arguments is that God’s commandments did not exist until the children of Israel reached Mt. Sinai.
But Abraham kept God’s commandments 430 years before his descendants reached Mt. Sinai.
Genesis 26:5 (KJV 1900)
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
GOD is speaking here. He is explaining why He made the great promises to Abraham.
SO, ABRAHAM KEPT GOD’S SABBATH!
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
We read in the New Testament that to break any one of the commandments is SIN.
OK, but now some may try to argue that “perhaps became lost. Perhaps they lost count of which day was the same seventh day of every week that God rested on.”
No, time was not lost down to the time of Abraham. But, after the death of Jacob, and of Joseph, the children of Israel (Jacob) became slaves in Egypt. “Therefore,” it is written: “they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens....And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage....” (Exodus 1:11, 13-14)
The Egyptians observed no Sabbath. They lashed the Israelites in their slave-labor, on the sabbath the same as other days. So, these Israelites, for some 150 to 175 years - several generations - were not permitted to keep the Sabbath. they had no priesthood. There was no Sabbath nor religious service. Probably there was no religious teaching -certainly none was allowed on an organized scale.
And there was no BIBLE - no written record of god’s instruction; or of God’s LAW! The Bible says, “the word of the Eternal endureth forever.” If any inspired Word of God had been written prior to Moses , it would be in evidence today. The first Scriptures were written by Moses, after the Israelites were delivered out of Egyptian slavery.
The generation of Israelites which Moses led out of Egypt had had no religious instruction or training. Probably they knew little about the Sabbath. Time could have been lost - to them. But, if so, GOD REVEALED IT BY AMAZING MIRACLES!
NOW NOTICE! These Israelites, some 3 or 4 million in total number (600,000 men above age 20), came to the wilderness of Sin two months after leaving Egypt, and some two weeks BEFORE arriving at mt. Sinai. Remember, this is weeks BEFORE God gave them the Ten Commandments. These people were griping and grumbling because of scarcity of food in the desert.
And here God revealed to them, by MIRACLES, which day was the sabbath, and whether it makes any difference whether it is kept.
“Then said the Eternal unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day” - WHY? - “that I may prove them, WHETHER THEY WILL WALK IN MY LAW, OR NO.”
This was more than two weeks BEFORE they received the Ten Commandments - BEFORE the Old Covenant has so much as been proposed - BEFORE the law of Moses. But GOD’S Law was in force and effect. God was going to prove them, whether they would obey one of its points.
Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord: for he hath heard your murmurings. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
Now notice the next miracle!
Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
But, DID IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
WAS IT NOT ALL RIGHT TO GO AHEAD AND WORK ON THE SEVENTH DAY, AND THEN REST ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK? JUST LIKE MOST PROFESSING CHRISTIANS TODAY, SOME OF THE ISRAELITES THOUGHT THAT WOULD BE BETTER.
NOTICE WHAT HAPPENED! Exodus 16:27
And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
These people thought it made no difference which day, or whether they kept it. BUT IT MADE A DIFFERENCE TO GOD ! On the six weekdays GOD had HIMSELF gone to the work of training down manna. But GOD HIMSELF DID NONE OF THE WORK ON THE SABBATH - HOLY TO HIM ! On this seventh day GOD HIMSELF rested from sending them manna!
DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
And so, after that blazing rebuke from God, the people rested on the seventh day! It certainly does make a difference to GOD! And God is the SAME today as he was yesterday, and will be forever (Hebrews 13:8)
After all those generations of slavery in Egypt, some might argue that the Israelites lost track of TIME.
But God revealed by these many miracles WHICH day is His SABBATH. He revealed that the blazing rebuke for not keeping His Sabbath. He revealed that the keeping holy of the Sabbath was HIS LAW, many days prior to the proposing of the Old Covenant, or giving of the Ten Commandments in the for God spoke them at Mt. Sinai.
Exodus 16:29 (KJV 1900)
See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Nowhere in all of God’s Word can you find any statement that says, The Eternal hath given you SUNDAY.”
Who, then, gave the professing Christian world its SUNDAY? You can easily find the answer in HISTORY - carnal MAN gave professing”Christianity” its SUNDAY - pagans cut off from God - men in rebellion against God! It came out of paganism! And the world follows the custom!
Which is the SOURCE of your religion? Is it MAN - and majority public opinion and CUSTOM of Man - or is it GOD Almighty the source of what you believe and DO? Which? Is your AUTHORITY human acceptance or is God your authority, and GOD’S WORD, the Holy Bible? Which is it?
Your ETERNITY may hang on your answer to that question?
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
This is the 4th Commandment that was spoken by God to Moses at Mt. Sinai
Deuteronomy 5:12-15 “Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 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.”
We can clearly see that the SABBATH day began with the very original creation week. That is when the Lord made the Sabbath. The Sabbath existed and was God’s holy day BEFORE the children of Israel arrived at Mt. Sinai. Exodus 16 shows us that God miraculously provided manna for six days with a double portion on the sixth day, followed by none on the 7th day which was to be a Sabbath day. Now, we see in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 that God has give us the 4th Commandment to honor the Sabbath. we also see that to the Ten Commandments that God added no more in Deuteronomy 5:22
These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
So, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Logos (Greek) or the YHVH (Hebrew) , who made everything that was made, did make the Sabbath, as Jesus plainly stated in Mark 2:27. It is one of the things that he MADE - and it was MADE on the 7th day of the very first week - creation week. The sabbath has existed from CREATION, and, more than two millenniums later, the same Lord, Person of the Godhead who became Jesus Christ, COMMANDED His people to keep it holy! And, about another 2,000 years after that, He said that He is the Lord of that day!
God never does anything in vain - that is, to no good and useful purpose. When God does anything, or makes anything, there is a reason - an important PURPOSE.
God created MAN and put him here on earth.
But mankind has lost knowledge of his PURPOSE.
God had an important REASON. You were put here for a very important PURPOSE.
God, through “the WORD” (John 1:1-3) who became Jesus Christ, made the Sabbath. He made it for man.
But why?
What PURPOSE does it serve? Mankind has lost knowledge of that important PURPOSE, too! Jesus Christ (Mark 2:27-28) said it was made for man, rather than man for the Sabbath. But at that time He merely told for whom he had made it - not WHY? - not for what PURPOSE, except to serve and benefit man.
That is why this special, separate SABBATH COVENANT is important. For it reveals THE REASON - the basic PURPOSE. God made ANOTHER TOTALLY SEPARATE and eternally binding covenant with his people! Therefore, it becomes very important for us to study it carefully.
Exodus 31:12–17 (KJV 1900)
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 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. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 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.
Notice, that this special covenant comes some 11 chapters after the Ten Commandments in the Book of Exodus. Now study this special covenant a little further. “…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.” So, WHAT IS A SIGN?
A sign is a badge, symbol, or token of identity. A sign in front of a building identifies whose establishment, institution, or office is inside that building.
God commanded His people to keep His sabbath as a sign. It is a sign between God’s people and God. “.... a sign between me and you” the commandment says. It is a badge or token of IDENTITY. It advertises, or announces , or proclaims certain identifying knowledge. But WHAT KNOWLEDGE? God answers: “…that ye may KNOW that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
NOTICE THOSE WORDS CAREFULLY!!! It is a sign that IDENTIFIES to them who is their GOD! It is a sign by which we may KNOW that He is the LORD!
IT IDENTIFIES GOD!
BUT DOESN”T EVERYBODY KNOW WHO GOD IS?
ABSOLUTELY NO! This whole world is deceived - so says your Bible in Revelation 12:9
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
This world has a god - a false god - Satan the devil! He pretends to be an “angel of light; 2 Corinthians 11:14-15
2 Corinthians 11:14–15 (KJV 1900)
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
But do they actually call themselves the ministers of CHRIST? Read the verse just before the two that we just quoted, which is Exodus 11:13, “ For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.” Yes, Satan is the great counterfeiter. He palms himself of as GOD. He is called, in your Bible, the “god of this world” in 2 Corinthians 4:4
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
But the true GOD is the one whom we OBEY. The world is NOT taught to OBEY GOD! Its false Christianity teaches that God’s law is “done away with” . It actually puts human conscience, actuated by Satan’s false teaching, in place of God’s law! It does not teach, as did Christ, that we must actually live by every work of GOD - of the BIBLE!
God gave man His Sabbath, for the PURPOSE of keeping mankind in the true knowledge and worship of the true GOD. It identifies God. But that is not all! The Sabbath also was given as a SIGN which identifies WHO are the PEOPLE of GOD and who are NOT!
Notice the tremendous meaning of that!
What does the word sanctify mean? It means to “set apart for holy use or purpose” On the seventh day of the very creation week, the ETERNAL, also sanctifies - SETS APART FROM OTHER PEOPLE AS HIS, FOR HIS HOLY PURPOSE - those are HIS people.
In Old Testament times HIS people were the congregation of ISRAEL. In New Testament times, HIS PEOPLE are those of God’s OWN CHURCH - the truly converted, Spirit-begotten Christians!s people.
But HOW does the Sabbath set them apart - separate them- from those who are not God’s own true people? Well, if you have begun to keep God’s Sabbath holy, as He commands, you have already found the answer, by actual experience. If you haven’t just start keeping God’s Sabbath holy as He commands you - and you will soon learn that you are automatically set apart from all other people. Yes, sir!
The Sabbath is GOD’S SIGN, which identifies not only GOD as CREATOR-RULER, but it also identifies those who are truly HIS!
How significant! The sabbath is the only one of the Ten Commandments which is a SIGN identifying who are the real and true Christians today! It is a real test command! The peole of the world are willing to acknowledge the other nine commandments - but the Sabbath command is the one they positively REBEL against! It is the one that is the crucial test of obedience!
IT IDENTIFIES those who have surrendered their wills to GOD - who OBEY GOD, regardless of persecution or cost!
Oh, it sets YOU APART, all right!
What a SIGN! It identifies the TRUE God on the very DAY He set apart for assembly and worship. It identifies the REAL people of God.
God’s SIGN is one you accept voluntarily - of your own volition, or not at all. But the “beast” (symbol of coming the resurrected, so- called “Holy” Roman Empire in Europe) has a MARK, which is soon going to be BRANDED ON by physical FORCE! And it has something to do with buying or selling - trading - business - earning a living - having a job!
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.
Yes, this is the test command - the one on which your very salvation and eternity may depend upon!
