12 Revelation’s Sign of God

Good evening - welcome back. Tonight, we’ve got a really great subject - we’re going to look at one of Bible prophecy’s most important subjects. But before we get to that . . .

Question 1: Who is Michael the Archangel?

There are two prominent figured that appear repeatedly in prophecy — Gabriel and Michael. Gabriel is pretty easy to figure out—he’s the angel that explains things to Daniel, and he’s the angel that appeared to Zacharias to announce the conception of John the Baptist, and then to May to announce the conception of Jesus. He’s a prominent figure whenever there is news about the Messiah . It’s possible that Gabriel is also the angel that explains things to the apostle John in Revelation. One way or the other, when John bows down in awe in Revelation 19:10 the angel says this:

Revelation 19:10 NKJV

10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

It is clear that angels are create beings and are not worthy of worship. We’re actually going to explore one of the two primary things that makes God worthy of our worship—and angels, no matter how powerful, simply aren’t worthy of our worship.

The other prominent figure is Michael. He’s clearly not a human, but he seems to be something different than Gabriel too.

The first time we see Michael is in Daniel 10:13 when Gabriel admits he was having trouble getting to Daniel because the “prince of persia” held him up — presumably some supernatural prince — maybe Satan himself. But then Michael, the chief prince, came to help Gabriel. This phrase, “chief prince,” is a unique attribution to Michael.

Not only is he called the “chief prince” but in Daniel 10:21 Gabriel says to Daniel that Michael is his prince—the prince of Israel.

In Daniel 12:1 we find Michael again and this time it says this about him:

The New King James Version Chapter 12

At that time Michael shall stand up,

The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;

Most Bible scholars believe that Michael is a created angel, but probably the highest of all the angels—the chief angel.

The next place we find the name Michael is in Jude 9 where identifies Michael with a new title — archangel—and positions him in direct conflict with the devil. This title is not given to anyone else in the Bible. It is unique to Michael.

Lucifer was called a covering cherub—presumably the closest position to God since the covering cherubs in the earthly sanctuary were literally covering the ark of the covenant with their wings. Whether this was a position over other angels, or just a position of proximity to God, we don’t know, but when Lucifer became Satan and left heaven, he left as the leader of the evil angels. So, it’s not beyond reason to think that the covering cherub role was an influential role.

Gabriel is only ever called an angel. Never a covering cherub, and never an archangel.

What does archangel mean?

arch means chief, principle, greatest, or highest.

Angel literally means “messenger.”

And Michael means “who is like God.”

If you take the greek definitions, Michael is being called “the chief messenger who is like God.”

The last place we find Michael is in Revelation 12:7 where John says that war broke out in heaven and Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and his angels.

These possessive statements (Michael and HIS angels and the dragon and his angels) pit Michael in direct opposition to the Devil, just like Jude and Daniel seem to do.

Who is this Michael character? The Bible doesn’t explicitly say. We don’t have any origin story for him. All we have are a few moments in history where He pops up.

I have an idea of who he might be, but I’ll wait for another night to develop it a little bit further. For now, I’d love to get your feedback. If you’ve got an idea, or an additional piece to the puzzle, I’d love to hear it.

If you want to do some more study on this subject, you should do a search on blueletterbible.com for the phrase, “Angel of the Lord” and see what you come up with.

Our subject tonight: “Revelation’s Sign of God.” Bible prophecy talks about something that sets God’s people apart from the rest of the earth’s population. Tonight, I guarantee that some of you are going to see things in Scripture that you’ve never seen before.

On Sunday night, “Revelation’s Forgotten History.” There are things that the Bible says, and then there are things people THINK the Bible says. On Sunday night, we’re going to look for something most people assume is in the Bible, and we’ll see if it’s really there. And this isn’t just an exercise in Bible trivia; this is something that matters, and it’s directly tied to a big prophetic issue.

On Tuesday night, our subject is “A River Runs Through It.” We’re going to find a train of thought that stretches from the first pages of the Bible all the way into the book of Revelation, and people who discover this amazing thread unanimously report that they experience far more peace of mind than they used to. This is one of those nights when you’ll clearly see how reading the WHOLE Bible matters.

Then on Wednesday, I’ll talk about “Babylon Rising.” A lot of people, when they look at passages like Revelation 13, they become understandably concerned. It’s a passage that doesn’t sugarcoat the future, and it appears to be warning the human race about something very serious. But the problem that most people face is simply understanding the passage itself. So on Wednesday night, I’ll share some simple keys that will make reading that passage as simple as any other - and before we’re done, you’ll be able to tell ME what it’s talking about.

Then on Friday, what happens one minute after you die? I’ve probably heard a hundred different theories from a hundred different preachers, but on Friday night, we’re going to simply look at what the Bible actually says - and what it doesn’t say - and I think you’ll be amazed by the level of detail it actually gives.

As we get to the final topics of this seminar, we’re going to slip in a couple of extra meetings to cover everything. So that Saturday morning we’ll be looking at “Secrets of Answered Prayer.” And this is no gimmick: there really IS a key in the Bible that ensures that ALL of your prayers get answered, all the time. How many of you would be interested in knowing that?

Then on Saturday night, we’ll be looking at “God’s Strange Act.” Before human history comes to a close, the Bible says that God does something completely out of character. In the Old King James Bible, it calls it “God’s Strange Act,” and when you understand what “God’s Strange Act” is really all about, you’ll discover a beautiful picture of your heavenly Father that you might never have seen before.

Then on Sunday night, the Bible talks about a prophetic moment when planet Earth is actually broken down and desolate. Some of you have been wondering when we’re going to be talking about the millennium, and this is the night. What we’ll do is gather a lot of the information that we’ve already studied, and we’ll line it up side by side - using the Bible, of course - and then we’ll step back and look at the big picture.

It’s a night you won’t want to miss, because this is one of the payoffs of all the hard work you've done.

Tonight’s subject: Revelation’s Sign of God.

We’ve been meeting together for quite a few nights now, so I thought that before we got started, we’d have a little pop quiz. How does that sound?

1. In the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream, what did the head of gold represent? Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire.

2. What about the legs of iron? What did they represent? The Roman Empire.

3. Okay, let’s turn to Daniel chapter 8. There was a goat with one notable horn on its head. What did the goat and the horn represent? The goat was the kingdom of Greece (remember: Gabriel named Greece by name!), and the horn was the “first king” or Alexander.

4. True or False: God’s law did not exist before Mount Sinai. False. The book of Genesis told us that Abraham was keeping God’s commandments long before Mount Sinai.

Okay. It’s time for tonight’s subject. Let’s pray.

Prayer

We are now in the very HEART of the book of Revelation. We have already studied Revelation 12, and we saw a war that began in heaven. The Bible says that Michael and His angels fought against the dragon and his angels.

And what was the issue that led to that war? The Bible says that Lucifer fell in love with himself. Ezekiel tells us he was “corrupted by reason of his beauty,” and Isaiah tells us that he coveted the throne of God.

He wanted to be worshipped.

But you and I both know that Lucifer can never sit on God’s throne, because he doesn’t deserve it. Only God is worthy of our worship.

Now that doesn’t mean that Lucifer wasn’t beautiful. That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t very creative and highly intelligent, because he was. But that didn’t make him worthy of our worship. Not even before he sinned.

According to the Bible, worship is reserved for God alone, because He is the only One who is worthy. And what, exactly, makes God worthy? You find the answer in the book of Revelation:

In Revelation 4, the 24 elders fall down and worship God - and here’s what they say.

Revelation 4:11

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You create all things, and by your will they exist and were created.

This is really very simple: the reason God is worthy to be worshipped is because He is the Creator. He is the only source of life.

That’s the bottom line. That’s what sets Him apart from everything else that people worship. In this world, you can worship whatever you want, but if it’s not the Creator, you’re frankly wasting your time. Because nothing else is the source of your life.

We worship God, because nothing would exist without Him. Our whole existence - our very being - is grounded in His existence - and when we worship God, we are deepening our connection with Him.

And you’ll find THAT reason for worshipping God all through the Bible:

Psalm 96:5

Fora ll the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens.

What’s the difference between the God of the Bible and the other gods that people worship? God is the Creator.

This is a VERY foundational issue, and it’s probably the biggest issue in the Bible. It’s not an accident that the theory of origins is such a hotly debated topic in this world - and it’s not an accident that (even in some Christian churches, unfortunately) the story of creation is constantly subjected to ridicule.

It’s not just an attack on an ancient story – it’s an attack on God Himself. It’s an attempt to downplay His worthiness. It’s an attack on God’s right to be worshipped.

Listen to the prophet Jeremiah:

This is something he wrote to people who were worshipping other gods.

Jeremiah 10:11, 12

Thus you shall say to them: “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.

He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.

This is something that comes up again - and again - and again - in the Bible: you can only legitimately worship the One who creates! That’s the reason the Ten Commandments forbid the worship of other gods. It’s not just an arbitrary rule; it’s not because God can’t stand a little competition.

There ARE no other gods. If you worship something else, in reality, you’re worshipping nothing. You’ll have a huge hole in your life, and you’ll damage an important relationship with the One and only source of life in this universe.

The reason the Bible says, “Do not worship other gods,” is because there ARE no other gods. This is a theme that shows up over and over. Pay attention to what the disciples said in the book of Acts:

Acts 4:24

So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, you are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them.”

Now I want you to pay very careful attention to that language, because you’re going to see it again - in the book of Revelation: God is the One who “made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them.”

This is not a small issue. This is the ULTIMATE issue in the book of Revelation - and in the rest of the Bible, for that matter. Lucifer has challenged the throne of God – he has laid claim to it – and he would do anything to take our worship away from the God “who made.”

The devil might have failed to seize God’s throne by force, but ever since that failed attempt, he’s been using deception - his other favorite tool - to distract the human race away from the Creator who DOES sit on the throne.

Tonight, we’re going to look at one of the devil’s most successful strategies. What he’s done is breathtaking, and when you see it.

Let’s go back in history tonight, to a moment when everything changed for the Christian church.

The Bible clearly predicted a “falling away” in the Christian church - a period of compromise.

In the year 312 AD - even though he was a pagan who worshipped Apollo - the Roman Emperor Constantine claimed that the Christian God gave him victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and helped him become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

Constantine is favorable to Christianity, even though it’s highly doubtful that he ever converted. But he DOES make Christianity acceptable and popular – to the point where the pagans of the empire start joining the Christian church in order to win favor. People are becoming Christians for all the wrong reasons: they’re doing it for the benefits. And at the same time, they want to keep their pagan beliefs, because they have no intention of actually surrendering to the Christian God.

So we got this mixture of people in the church, and eventually, the church began to compromise, roughly 300 years after Christ. Historically, we know this is true - and during this time, all sorts of little pagan customs started making their way into the church.

Most of them were harmless.

Have you ever wondered why we bring flowers to a funeral? It is really just to cheer people up? Well that might be why we do it now, but originally, it was a pagan custom.

Now there’s nothing wrong with it - please don’t stop bringing flowers to peoples’ funerals - it’s a nice thing to do – but originally, the pagans brought flowers in order to impress the gods. They believed that if somebody wasn’t popular here on earth, they might not make it into the afterlife. So they did whatever they could to make someone look popular, and they filled the room with flowers.

You and I are still doing that today.

The ancient Babylonians and Assyrians had something they called the “Ashteroth pole.” Ashteroth was a semitic goddess of fertility - and how do I put this delicately? - the Ashteroth pole was a fertility symbol.

If a young couple wanted to have a baby, the husband would sneak into town and chisel a small piece off the Ashteroth pole for good luck - and then when the baby was born, people would drop by the house, admire the baby and say, “Look at him! He’s a chip off the old . . . Ashteroth pole.”

A chip off the old block.

Today, we have all sorts of cultural artifacts left over from the days when we were pagans. For example, the Jews used to number their days – day one, day two, and so on - and some cultures still do that – but the pagans named their days after the pagan gods: Moon day, Tuesday, Woden’s Day, Thor’s Day, and so on.

Now most of these cultural artifacts are perfectly harmless. If you want to bring flowers to a funeral, that doesn’t harm anybody. Nobody’s doing it to impress the pagan gods.

But some of the things that crept into our Christian faith weren’t harmless. Some of them actually violated the will of God. For example: where do you think we learned to torture people and burn people at the stake because we disagreed with their religion? Did we really get that from the teachings of Jesus?

Or was that kind of thinking imported into the church from the pagan Roman Empire?

And honestly, we should have seen it coming. Remember: the Bible predicted that something bad would happen – inside the Christian church.

2 Thess 2:3, 4

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

The Bible predicted that eventually, someone would come along and try to do the same thing Lucifer did: someone would try to direct worship towards himself. (And just a few meetings from now, we’re going to look at that prophecy in a lot more detail.)

Paul said there would be a great “falling away” - a great apostasy - INSIDE the Christian church. And then, just a few verses later, he says:

2 Thess 2:7

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work…

The problem can be traced back to the very earliest days of the church. Someone would try to steal God’s worship, and Paul describes the problem as the “mystery of lawlessness.” It’s a problem that would grow and grow and grow until it eventually culminates in the final great crisis on planet Earth.

This is something that we already studied in our last meeting: apostasy IN the Christian church. Lawlessness. A disregard for the moral law of God.

So tonight, we’re going to pick up the story where we left off in our last meeting, because it’s going to help us understand one of the most amazing prophecies in the Bible.

If you remember, Revelation 14 describes a group of people who are standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb of God. They have the Father’s Name (or His character) written on their foreheads. According to verse 12, they keep the commandments of God.

That much, we’ve already studied.

Now tonight, we’re going to look at what those people preach - a message they give to the world just before Jesus comes. And I want you to follow this very carefully, because this is in the very heart of the book of Revelation.

Listen to their message:

Revelation 14:6, 7

Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—

to every nation, tribe, tongue and people—saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His

judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

Look at this very carefully. They’re using the same language you find in the book of Acts - and in Jeremiah - and all through the Bible. These last-day people of God are calling attention to the number one issue in the universe: who deserves your worship?

And again, they’re using the language of creation.

Remember: two-thirds of the language used in the book of Revelation is actually borrowed from other parts of the Bible. So if you really want to understand what they’re saying - if you really want to get to the heart of the matter, and you want to understand this prophecy - then you have to go to the rest of the Bible.

And in this case, the most logical place to go to look for the language of creation is the story of creation itself.

We’re going to start at the very beginning.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The way the Bible states it is so simple: “In the beginning, God.” Not Lucifer, not the human race . . . just God.

That’s all there was. Everything else that exists came from God, and that’s the reason we worship Him.

If there is one part of the Bible - if there is one passage the devil hates and wants to obscure - this is it. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The Bible opens with a declaration of God’s worthiness.

The reason there is so much debate, so much confusion, about the origins of life (even among Christians) is because somebody wants to bury the truth and the power of this verse.

The debate over origins is not a small issue. The rise of Darwin and the theory of evolution? Not an accident. In fact, the ancient prophets who saw the future wouldn’t have been surprised by Darwin in the slightest – because the issue, for thousands of years, has always been the same:

Who is worthy of worship?

The story of Creation is a very important foundation for understanding the book of Revelation - and if you really want to get into the heart of the matter, you’ve got to dig deep into the story of creation to find the stuff that John was talking about. So that’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to review the story of creation.

The book of Genesis says that God created the world in six days.

On the first day, He divided the light from the dark – and that, by itself, was an astonishing feat. To this day, scientists struggle to understand the complex nature of light - is it a wave? is it a particle? - but God just spoke it into existence.

On the second day, God divided the firmament (or the sky) from the waters.

Then on the third day, He separated the dry land from the water, and He created plants.

On the fourth day, God developed the concept of light and dark just a little bit further, and He created the sun, the moon and the stars.

On the fifth day, He went back to the sky and the waters, and He made the fish and the birds.

On the sixth day: animal life . . . and the human race.

And the astonishing thing is that God just spoke all that stuff into existence. Psalm 33 tells us, “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

Six incredible days - and now creation is finished . . .

. . . except that it’s not. Most people come to the end of Genesis chapter 1, and they quit reading. But in the original manuscripts, there were no chapters and verses. The story keeps going.

Six is not the number of completion. SEVEN is the number of completion, which means there’s more to the story.

Pay attention VERY carefully.

Genesis 2:1-3

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work

which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which he had done.

then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

God did one more thing at the end of creation. Do you know what He did? He took a DAY OFF. He RESTED.

And why would God rest? Was He exhausted from all that work?

That CAN’T be the reason, because the Bible says that God doesn’t get tired:

Isaiah 40:28

The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.

He didn’t take the day off because he was tired. So why did He do it?

How many of you have children? When your children were really small, and they didn’t understand what you were telling them to do - how did you explain it? Sometimes, you have to SHOW them.

Sometimes, you have to set an example.

So if your child doesn’t want to stay in bed and go to sleep, sometimes, you have to lay on the bed next to them and help them understand.

When my oldest was a little baby she had a hard time sleeping because she had reflux. When she would wake in the middle of the night, I would change her and bring her to Joelle to nurse, then I would swaddle her, and then cradle her in my arms and bounce her and shush her to try and get her to fall asleep. But she would cry and cry and cry. So I would sit with her against my arm and jiggle her. I jiggled so much that I would be jiggling her in my sleep, even after I had put her in her cradle!

With Maxwell, he didn’t want to go to bed, so Joelle would often lay down with him, telling him stories, singing songs, and cuddling with him. But she would almost always fall asleep befor ehe did!

Could it be, when God rested on the seventh day, that He was setting an example for His creation?

I want you to notice something very interesting about the seventh day. According to the Bible, God did three things with it:

It says He rested

it says He blessed it

and it says that He sanctified it, which means that He set it apart for holy use. God made the seventh day different from any other day.

In fact, He made it so special - so different - that it actually shows up in the heart of His moral law. It’s the fourth commandment:

Exodus 20:8-11

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all yoru work,

but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, no

your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

God says, “I want you to rest!”

Why?

for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the

seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

The fourth commandment says the same thing as the book of Genesis. God did three things with the seventh day:

He rested on the seventh day - He blessed it - and He hallowed it, or sanctified it. It’s the same language as Genesis chapter 2.

At the very heart of God’s Ten Commandment moral law is a specific reminder that God is our Creator. It asks us to remember that, and to worship Him in a very specific way.

And not only is it the same language as Genesis chapter 2; it’s also the same language you find in Revelation chapter 14 - in that final message to planet Earth.

It’s the biggest issue in the Bible: worship God as the Creator.

Is it possible that this commandment is one of the keys that actually unlocks the book of Revelation?

Yes it is. Let me show you. Let’s go back and look at some of the things we’ve already studied:

We have already seen that God’s commandments are very important to God’s people - especially in the last days. The Bible says that God actually writes those laws in our hearts and minds.

We have seen that the devil is angry with the people who “keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.” And the Bible showed us that the people on Mount Zion are the ones who keep the commandments and have the testimony of Jesus.

We have seen that the people with God’s name on their foreheads have a last-day message that calls the world to “worship Him that made.” In other words, they’re calling the world to worship God AS the Creator.

There’s no question what John is pointing to. The language of Revelation 14 is the language of the 4th commandment.

God blessed the Sabbath day, and He hallowed it. He set it apart for a special use.

So let’s ask some questions tonight - and I think you’re going to find this very interesting.

The Bible says that God set apart the seventh day of the week. So which day is the seventh day?

It’s Saturday. Check just about any calendar. Look it up in a dictionary.

But in the 21st-century western world, which day do most people use as a day of rest and worship?

Sunday.

So here’s another question: why do we use a different day?

Well, that’s easy. Some people will tell you . . .

. . . it’s because the Sabbath was for the Jews. They observed the seventh day, but Christians keep the first day instead.

But I’ve been thinking about that, and I think it raises some more questions that we should probably answer.

If the Sabbath was just for the Jews, then why do we find it in the Ten Commandment moral law instead of the ceremonial law that had to do with the rites and rituals of the Jewish religion? If the Sabbath was just for the Jews, why is it part of the moral law?

The Ten Commandments, as we have clearly seen, were not just for the Jews.

And I have another question:

If the seventh day was just for the Jews, what about Adam and Eve?

Tell me: were Adam and Eve Jewish? It might come as a surprise to you, but the answer is no. There were no Jews for thousands of years.

And yet God blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart for holy use all the way back in the Garden of Eden. In fact, God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it before we ever sinned.

And that means it CAN’T be part of the ceremonial law, because the ceremonial law was all about sacrifices for sin.

If the Sabbath was just for the Jews, why do we find it in the Garden of Eden?

Listen carefully to the words of Jesus:

Mark 2:27

And He said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.

Jesus didn’t say the Sabbath was made for the Jews; He said that it was made for all of us. He’s in complete agreement with the book of Genesis: the Sabbath is a gift for the whole human race.

Now here’s another question:

Why does the fourth commandment begin with the word “remember”? It’s the only one that does!

Could it be that it’s pointing back to ancient history - pointing us back to the creation itself? Sure - that much is clear when you read the whole commandment.

But when God says, “remember,” could it also be because this is the one commandment we always forget? When my wife tells me to remember to pick up groceries after work, that’s because she knows I’m probably going to forget!

The fourth commandment is specifically designed to help us remember our Creator. It’s designed to help us remember where we come from and where we’re going.

If the human race had only remembered this one commandment, the 19th century might have played out a whole lot differently.

Today, we’re teaching kids that human life is an accident - even though we know, scientifically, that life can never come out of non-life. An accidental beginning doesn’t even make sense.

Tell me: what are the chances that all the life in our universe just came into existence all by itself?

I’ll tell you what the odds are. Fill up a high school gymnasium with playing dice - and put a load of dynamite under that gym and blow it up. (Now don’t really do that - this is just a thought experiment!)

Now imagine all those dice raining down all over the city. Can you see it? Good. Now imagine that every single one of them landed on the number six.

What are the odds of that? Not very good. But statistically, that’s far more likely than life coming into being all by itself.

And yet, because some people don’t want a God who sits on the throne, we teach our kids that accidental life is a hard-core, proven, scientific fact.

And now our whole human race behaves like we came out of nowhere. I guess - if you tell people long enough that they’re nothing but animals - eventually people will behave that way.

And here’s what’s really interesting: Darwin actually published his key essay on evolution in 1844 - the very same year that Daniel chapter 8 tells us the judgment hour began - and the last message to worship God as Creator started spreading to the planet. Coincidence?

Do you see what’s going on? The issue is really very simple: if Lucifer can’t have the throne of God, he’s going to do everything in his power to remove the Creator from the throne of your heart.

And in the last days, he pulls out all the stops.

The big issue in Bible prophecy is who deserves your worship. Go to the heart of Revelation and see how many times the word “worship” shows up. I think it will surprise you.

Who is worthy of your worship?

This is the whole reason the devil hates the law of God. He knows that the moral law proves that God is love. He knows that it proves that God is the Creator, and deserves your worship.

And right in the middle of that law is a permanent reminder that only God has a right to be on the throne.

Just think about this for a minute. Have you ever wondered why we have a seven-day week? Every other unit of time has a rational explanation. A year is the time that it takes for the earth to travel around the sun. A month is the time that it takes the moon to travel around the earth. A day is the time that it takes for the earth to spin on its axis.

But why do we have a week? There’s only one reason, and you find it in the book of Genesis: God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day, He rested.

The Sabbath is a memorial to the creative power of God. It’s a permanent reminder that comes along every week.

And because it’s a monument in time, the devil can’t touch it. He can’t rip it down - he can’t destroy it - so instead, he tries to distract us.

And now I want to ask you some really big questions.

If the seventh day is Saturday, then why do we worship on Sunday?

“Well, that’s easy: Jesus changed the day!”

But did He? Let’s take a look at the Bible:

Let’s take a look at Luke chapter 4 and see what it says.

Luke 4:16

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.

I want you to notice what it says. Jesus’ habit was to go to church on Sabbath. And I know: some people will say that’s because He was Jewish . . . and He was.

But the fact remains: if you check the Bible carefully, you will never find Jesus changing the Sabbath.

Ever.

But don’t take my word for it: please, this is too important. Search the Bible for yourself.

I promise: you’re not going to find it.

Listen to something Jesus said when He warned His disciples that the Jerusalem Temple would be destroyed:

Matt 24:20

And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.

Now here’s what’s fascinating about this: the Temple was destroyed almost forty years after Jesus went back to heaven. This is long after the resurrection - and yet Jesus still expects His people to be keeping the Sabbath.

If you search the Bible, you’ll find that Jesus never expected a change. And do you know why He didn’t expect a change?

It’s because you can’t change the moral law of God. It’s a picture of who God is, and the Bible says that God never changes.

Jesus didn’t expect a change in the Sabbath, because God will always be the Creator, and the issue of who deserves your worship will never change.

God doesn’t change. Human beings change all the time, but God never changes.

“Alright. Maybe Jesus didn’t change the Sabbath, but I’m pretty sure His disciples DID!”

Well, I looked for that, too - and I couldn’t find it.

One thing’s for sure: they sure didn’t change it after the death of Jesus. Here’s what the Bible says:

Luke 23:56

And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

“Okay, but maybe they changed it after the resurrection!”

Well, let’s go through the book of Acts and take a look:

In Acts chapter 13, the Bible talks about the missionary career of the Apostle Paul, which happened a long time after the resurrection - and I want you to look at this carefully.

Acts 13:14

But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.

What day did they worship? On the Sabbath.

“But that was a synagogue - so this is talking about the Jews!”

That might be plausible, except for what it says just a few verses later:

Acts 13:42

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

Acts 13:44

On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the Word of God.

Go back and read the book of Acts. Read the whole thing. They worship on the Sabbath day - and Paul NEVER says they should switch to Sunday.

This is the missionary to the Gentile world - and he never breathes a word about changing the Sabbath - because there WAS no change.

Let me show you another passage, again from the book of Acts:

This is from Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18:4

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and greeks.

Let me ask you a question: this same chapter says that Paul stayed “a good while,” and STILL: he didn’t teach them to worship on a day other than the Sabbath.

If you go through the whole book of Acts and count up all the Sabbaths Paul kept, you’re going to find more than eighty of them. And in more than eighty Sabbaths, Paul never mentions a change.

Do you know why?

There wasn’t one!

And I know: it seems incredible, and it comes as a big shock to a lot of people. But I’ve been looking for years, and I can’t find it.

Here’s another interesting verse:

In Acts chapter 16, there isn’t even a church building. This has nothing to do with synagogues.

Acts 16:13

And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.

Read the Bible from cover to cover, and you will find no mention of a change.

“But surely, they changed the Sabbath in honor of the resurrection!”

If that was true, then you’d think that the Bible would mention it - but it doesn’t.

In fact, the Bible gives us two specific memorials of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus:

It gives us the communion service, and it gives us baptism - and it points out that both of those things are memorials to the death and resurrection of Christ.

But the Bible never mentions the first day of the week as a memorial to the resurrection. You just won’t find it.

“Okay, it’s the seventh day. But does it really matter WHICH day in seven you choose? Isn’t the important thing to set aside one day in seven?”

There’s a story in the bible about a young man who fled his home for fear of his life—his brother was out to get him. When he finally stopped running, he found himself near a well and there was a beautiful young lady there with her sheep. The two hit it off right away and before long the young man was working for Rachel’s father. He asked for Rachel’s hand in marraige, and then worked seven years for the bride price that her father required. Finally, the wedding day arrived, the party progressed, and the time in the festivities had come for the bride and groom to take their leave of the party. The next morning, Jacob woke up beside his bride and found that it wasn’t Rachel, but her sister, Leah that was laying next to him.

It’s the wrong sister!

“What have you done to me!” Jacob complained to his now father-in-law. Oh, it’s traditional for the older sister to marry first. It’s not really that big of deal. I mean, they’re both women. One is as good as the other!

Is that true? No. Jacob fell in love with ONE sister — Rachel. He showered his attention on ONE girl. He proposed marriage to that one very specific, daughter.

And that’s what God did with the seventh day. He rested on that day, and He blessed it. The Bible says He made it very special: He sanctified it.

That’s why the fourth commandment doesn’t say “remember A seventh day.” It says “Remember THE seventh day.” It’s not like other days.

Look: the Sabbath isn’t about rules and regulations. It’s about a relationship. It’s like that tree in the Garden of Eden. When God said, “you shouldn’t eat from that tree,” it wasn’t because the fruit was poisoned. It was a test of loyalty. It was all about relationship.

It was a rule that doesn’t make any sense UNLESS it’s about loyalty.

The Sabbath isn’t just a rule: it’s about keeping the Creator on the throne of your heart. It’s about having the Creator’s name written on your forehead. It’s about declaring your loyalty to the God of heaven!

“But I was told the reason we keep Sunday is because it’s the Lord’s Day! Doesn’t the Bible say that?”

Well, actually, the Bible only mentions the “Lord’s Day” once and it happens to be in Revelation:

Revelation 1:10

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet.

Now let’s be honest with that: it never mentions the first day of the week. In fact, it doesn’t tell us what day it is. If you read the WHOLE CHAPTER, it doesn’t tell you.

In later years, some people started calling Sunday “the Lord’s Day,” but the Bible never does. And if you read the Bible, it’s not hard to figure out which day IS the Lord’s Day:

Matthew 12:8 tells us “the Son of Man is Lord” of which day? The Sabbath!

“Hallow MY Sabbaths,” God says in the book of Ezekiel, “and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God!”

Which day is the Lord’s day? God says the Sabbath is His day!

“But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.”

When you read the whole Bible, there’s just no question: the Sabbath is the Lord’s special day. You can search the Bible from cover to cover, and you will never find a change.

And the reason you won’t find a change is because God’s moral law is a picture of His character, and God can never change. There is no way you can change just one part of the Ten Commandments.

Listen to this statement from the New Testament:

James 2:10, 11

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all, for He who said, “do not commit adultery,”

also said, “do not murder”, now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

James is clearly talking about the Ten Commandments, and he says - point blank - that you can’t remove a part of the law. You’ve got to keep the whole thing.

And you’ll notice, he doesn’t say, “Oh! Except for that Sabbath thing!”

Don’t forget what Jesus said:

Matt 5:18, 19

For assuredly, I saw to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven,

But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

There is no indication - anywhere in the Bible - that Jesus intended to change the Sabbath.

But isn’t this making a mountain out of a molehill? Surely, this can’t be THAT important.

Yes, it it. This is a HUGE issue. It’s about who you worship, and it’s about the throne of God.

This is all about a relationship:

Ezekiel 20:30

…hallow my sabbaths, and they will be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

When you keep the Sabbath, you’re telling the world - every week - that you believe that God belongs on the throne. You’re telling the world that you believe God is the Maker of heaven and earth.

It’s a matter of relationship. It’s a matter of loyalty.

“But of course, we don’t even know that Saturday is the right day, do we? Because the calendar has been changed!”

Well, if that’s true, then we wouldn’t know which day was the first day of the week, either - and we don’t seem to have any trouble with that! But just to be sure, let’s look at the calendar for a minute:

The calendar HAS been changed - but only twice since the apostles and the early church. And both times, the same thing happened. The big change came in 1582, when they discovered that the calendar was actually wrong by about ten days. After hundreds of years, the seasons were beginning to fall at the wrong time, so they made an adjustment.

But they never changed the days of the week. What they did was take out ten calendar numbers, (*) so that Thursday, October 4, was followed by Friday, October 15. They were very careful: ten days came out of the calendar, but they never disturbed the weekly cycle. Friday still came after Thursday.

There was another change in England, in 1752, to make England harmonize with THIS change - but again, they never touched the weekly cycle.

In the middle of the twentieth century, a preacher was studying calendar changes, and he wanted to make SURE there had never been a change, so he wrote to the US Naval Observatory. “Has anybody ever changed the days of the week?”

Here’s what they told him.

there has been no change in our calendar in past centuries that has affected in any way the cycle of the week.

God’s memorial still stands. And honestly, it’s only in English that people seem to have trouble figuring out which day of the week is the Sabbath, or the seventh day.

Because in more than 100 languages, the seventh day is still called “the Sabbath.”

Read through the list

Folks, there’s just no question. Saturday is still the seventh day, and the seventh day is still the Sabbath.

Let’s think about this very carefully.

The Sabbath was there in the Garden of Eden, when God blessed the day and sanctified it.

Centuries later, the Sabbath was still there for the Jewish people, and it was included in the Ten Commandment moral law - not the ceremonial law.

It was even there BEFORE Mount Sinai - before the tables of stone. In Exodus chapter 16, the Israelites were told to gather manna every day of the week except for one.

Exodus 16:26

Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.

Notice: it was called “the Sabbath” before Mount Sinai. And, by this miracle, if there had ever been a need to do so, God himself identified the correct weekly cycle.

We know that Jesus kept the Sabbath, confirming the cycle yet again. AndJesus expected the Sabbath to still be in effect long after He went back to heaven.

We know that the disciples kept the Sabbath in the book of Acts.

And Bible prophecy ALSO says that you and I will be keeping the Sabbath after the second coming of Jesus.

Where does it say that?

Isaiah 66:22, 23

For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me,” says the Lord, “so shall your descendants and your name remain.”

“and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me.” says the Lord.

The Sabbath has always been there - and the Sabbath will always be there - so where did we get the idea nobody needs it right now?

Follow me carefully: the book of Revelation clearly talks about deception - it’s one of the biggest themes in Bible prophecy - a jealous dragon deceives the WHOLE WORLD.

So if you and I find something that everybody’s doing - and it runs contrary to the moral law of God - we shouldn’t be surprised in the slightest. It just means the Bible prophecy was right.

And of course, the big question is: how in the world did it happen?

Tonight, I’m just going to tease you with the answer. Tomorrow night, we’re going to look at the history in a lot more detail, and I’m going to show you something really surprising.

But for right now, this is what I want you to see: Daniel 7 predicted that someone would eventually come who . . .

“… shall intend to change times and law.”

And it’s as simple as that. Someone - without any authorization from God - changed the day of worship. Someone tried to change God’s “times and law.”

And if you think about it, there’s only one commandment that actually deals with time.

The question is: who did it?

Pause

… what if it’s US?

Some years ago, I came across a fantastic little book . . .

It’s a catechism, and it covers a lot of the historical teachings of Christianity over the centuries. It really makes for fascinating reading.

And one day, I found something really surprising . . . on page 50. Let me show you:

“Which is the Sabbath day?” the author asked.

The answer? Saturday is the Sabbath day!

Then it asks the all-important question:

Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?

“We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”

And folks, it’s really that simple. God didn’t change the day: we did.

This is something we did as the church started moving toward the Dark Ages.

But we didn’t ask God, and we didn’t check the Bible.

I like what James Cardinal Gibbons says:

This comes from his landmark book, “Faith of our Fathers.”

“You may read the bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday.”

You know something? He’s absolutely right. The fact is, the Bible never changed the day. WE did it, and we did it without God’s permission.

Listen to the historian Heinrich Holtzmann:

This comes from his book “Canon and Tradition,” where he tells us HOW it happened:

"The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of Scriptures, because the Church had changed… the Sabbath into Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority.”

God didn’t change it - because God doesn’t change. WE did it - and the question is: does it matter?

Yes, it does. In the last days, before Jesus comes, an urgent message goes to the whole world:

Revelation 14:6, 7

Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—

to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His

judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.

There’s a story of a boy who was adopted - and when he became a teenager, he wanted to know who his real parents were. He wanted to know where he came from. 



And he was a pretty bright kid, and using DNA evidence, he eventually found his real father.

Now let me ask you: what drove him? Why do we want to know where we come from? It’s because we want to know that our existence means something. We want to know that we actually MEAN something to someone.

And according to the Bible, you DO mean something. There’s no mistaking where you come from - and there’s no mistaking who your real Father is.

He left you a note . . . on the calendar.

Tonight, I have nothing to urge - except to ask you to check the Bible. The book of Acts says the Bereans were more noble because they checked everything against Scripture, and that’s what I’m asking you to do.

See if it’s true. Tomorrow night, we’re going to dig just a little bit deeper, and I think what we study will revolutionize how you look at the world. But for tonight: go and check your Bible. Never take my word for anything - just stand on the Word of God, because it’s the only safe place to stand while you wait for Jesus to come.

Special Music

Amanda, Birgitta and DJ are going to sing a timely song as we warp up tonight.

Prayer

Father in heaven: we have come to the end of another study, and there’s one thing we know for sure: we want YOU on the thrones of our hearts. Teach us to see the world and last-day issues the way YOU see them. Show us what the Bible says, and what it doesn’t say.

And tonight, we covenant with You that when we hear You speak, we will follow the Lamb wherever He leads. We understand that there is no more time on this planet to fool around. There is no more time for putting off decisions. We want You, because You are the One who created us - You are the One who gave His life for us - and You are the One who’s coming again.

We pray these things in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Tomorrow night, we’re going to push a little bit deeper before we move on to another subject. “Revelation’s Forgotten History.” God bless, and we’ll see you tomorrow night.