Sermon Transcript — February 7, 2004
Good afternoon, brethren - welcome to God's Sabbath day here in Cincinnati East. Our Sabbath-keeping reflects the relationship that we have with God. Let me repeat that so that we can work on a concept today that will perhaps help you understand better this principle.
Our Sabbath-keeping reflects the relationship that we have with God. Thousands of years ago the eternal God of the universe spoke in a loud and a thunderous voice the following words over in Exodus 20:8 -
Exodus 20:8 - "'Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.
Verse 9 - 'Six days shall you labor and do all (of) your work,
Verse 10 - 'but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male (man) servant, nor your female (maid) servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who (that) is within your gates.
Verse 11 - 'For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and (He) rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and (He) hallowed it.'" Going on in the same chapter we see that the Earth shook and it trembled, additional terrifying manifestations were witnessed. These were extraordinary demonstrations that were linked with the very presence of God on that mountain. The people knew He was there. It was His voice that they heard, not the voice of a man. Notice verse 18 of this same chapter -
Exodus 20:18 - And "…all the people witnessed the thunderings, (and) the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and (they) stood afar off.
Verse 19 - "(Then) they said to Moses, 'You speak with (unto) us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with (to) us, lest we die.'
Verse 20 - "And Moses said to the people, 'Do not fear; for God has come to test you, that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.'" That's from the "New King James Version." This event struck terror in the hearts of those who heard and saw it.
God could have chosen another way to reveal His law in a less dramatic way, but He didn't do that, but He did get the people's attention. Their eyes and ears were riveted on the mountain from whence came the sights and the sounds that day. This manner of revelation confirmed the significance of what God said. It was of all great consequence for the people of God. It was the only time in the history of man when God Himself spoke to a nation of people.
How do you and I respond to these words? We're not talking about the need to prove the validity of the Sabbath. You and I have done that a long time ago. What we're seeing is that we're talking about our keeping God's law and particularly, the Sabbath Day. This sermon today will give you the basic principles of Sabbath-keeping from the "Old Testament" and from principles of the "New." The second sermon that we will give will deal with the spirit, or the application of Sabbath-keeping.
If we come to understand our relationship reflected in the keeping of God's Sabbath, we will understand that the Sabbath is really a test commandment. Many years ago, the church stated that the Sabbath is a test commandment. It was right. Today the Sabbath God is giving us is simply a test. He is wanting to see how we begin to relate to Him, and this relationship that is to develop from the Sabbath-keeping is going to cause us to rise to a higher level of a relationship and a working, ongoing type of situation with God.
We're headed for the kingdom of God. We know that God has made these promises to us, and we know that the Sabbath pictures that kingdom. So what we are doing by working with the Sabbath day and the principles, we are learning to draw closer to God and have a deeper and a more meaningful relationship with Him because God is now measuring us. He is working with us. He's developing us.
I want you to notice over in I Peter 4:17-18 where the apostle Peter made this statement. Sometimes this is a statement that is not understood by people, but let's take a look at it.
I Peter 4:17 - He said, "'For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.'" Many times people think of this as condemnation. This is not what this particular word means. It simply is a word that we must understand that it's kind of like a process of evaluation, of learning, of growing, of walking with God and having Him speak to us and having God teach us of his ways. Our ears and our mind open to the principles that God has given, so we see that God is judging, or He is evaluating, He is measuring us, He is working with us in this relationship of keeping the Sabbath. So we see as He said that the judgment must begin at the house of God. "'And if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?'"
So we recognize that God is evaluating us; He's working with us; He's helping us to measure up. He's teaching us, and are we learning? Are we learning to apply what we learn? Are we seeing where we need to go with the keeping of the Sabbath in a growth process? I think we must understand that it's important that we develop that relationship in that particular way.
God measures our growth in several ways. One of them has to do with this very day that we are observing today, God's Sabbath. The way we observe God's Sabbath, what we do, what we think about, how we use these twenty-four hours shows God one way that we are preparing for His family and His kingdom. But also it shows that in the Sabbath there is a very close development of a relationship with God in a very positive way that He has with us. He's told us that the Sabbath is holy. He's given us law and commandments about the Sabbath. Our job is just simply to work with Him to continually grow in our understanding of the law.
In the last year or two, or maybe the last ten years, have we come to understand more fully about this relationship through the Sabbath? Can we see a pattern of growth? Is it reflected in the way we keep the Sabbath? Has our Sabbath observance changed, improved as a result of that? What we do and what we don't do on the Sabbath should be determined by a continually expanding understanding of God's laws concerning the Sabbath; but more than that, how He works with us in this particular relationship.
God expects us to grow in grace and knowledge both of the Sabbath and all of His laws, learning to keep the spirit of the law, as well as the letter. Remember what I said at the beginning of this sermon. I said our Sabbath-keeping reflects our relationship with God. It does grow, it does develop; we come to greater understandings as a result of this.
What we're saying in essence is this: "How we keep the Sabbath says something about us. It says something about our relationship with God." Let's notice over in Exodus 16 what God said concerning the Israelites of Moses' day.
Exodus 16:4 - And "… the Lord said (unto) to Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain (rate) quota every day, that I may (prove) test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.'" Prove, to test, to work with, to evaluate, to bring about a development between God and man. This is what He's talking about here.
Verse 5 - "And it shall be (come to pass that) on the sixth day that they shall prepare what (that which) they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
Verse 27 - "And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for (went out) to gather, and they found none (nothing).
Verse 28 - "And the LORD said unto Moses, 'How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws?'" So God uses the Sabbath as a test.
He uses the Sabbath as a development of His people - it was for Israel - but it is also for us as members of God's church. He gives us a test each Sabbath day as well. He watches us to learn something about our character. How we're going to develop this way of life and attitude toward Him as we keep this day. How much do we understand about what He is doing as reflected as well in the Sabbath day? How important is it for us to learn about His ways and to obey Him? Again it's all about a part of that growth and that development.
Today is not a day, as I said in the early going of the sermon, is not a day to prove the Sabbath, but is a day that we learn to grow in Sabbath-keeping and this way of life that God has given to us. Let's notice over in Ezekiel 20:11-13. The prophet Ezekiel talked about the problem of Israel, and we want to see here in Ezekiel 20 that the Sabbath is very important to God.
Ezekiel 20:11 - He said, "…'I gave them My statutes and (I) showed them My judgments, 'which, if a man does, he shall (even) live by (in) them.
Verse 12 - "'Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who (that) sanctifies them.
Verse 13 - But…"' the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they walked not in My statutes; they despised My judgments, 'which, if a man does, he shall live by them'; and …My Sabbaths (they greatly polluted.) Then I said I would pour out My fury on them in the wilderness, to consume them.'" So God was very serious about this thing of the Sabbath being a test commandment. It is a sign, brethren, that we are the children of God. How we keep God's Sabbath tells God something about how much we really want to be in His family.
Every Sabbath He sees something about us; who we are, what we are doing. God evaluates our spiritual development as He sees us keeping His Sabbath. He's very aware of what we do on His Sabbath, because He said, "In Israel, they greatly defile My Sabbath." The result, God poured out His fury on them. He's very serious about this day and truly, as the church has said for many years, it is the test commandment.
We, however, on the other hand have an advantage they didn't have. We have the Holy Spirit to help us think like God. We're supposed to keep the Sabbath diligently with every fiber of our being and the Holy Spirit gives us that particular ability. Let's go over to Hebrews 3 for just a moment. Notice in talking about Israel and what they went through - Hebrews 3:7 notice the Apostle Paul's words:
Hebrews 3: 7 - He said, "' Wherefore as the Holy Spirit said, Today, if you will hear His voice,
Verse 8 - 'Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Verse 9 - 'When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
Verse 10 - 'Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, 'They do always err in their heart; (and) they have not known My ways.'"
Verse 11 - Therefore, He said, 'So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.'" The land of Canaan, which is a type of the kingdom of God. So we see, they didn't have the mind, they didn't have the heart, but we do. We have that understanding. We have, in that sense of the word, a great advantage as the people of God as we sit here today learning and developing from the "Word of God." Notice, Hebrews 4:1 -
Hebrews 4:1 - He said, "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short…" So, we see God was talking about the Sabbath in the third and into the fourth chapter and with the "Old Testament" Israelite people. God is warning us the very same thing is possible for us to miss out on our inheritance, the kingdom of God just as some of them missed out on the "Promised Land."
Let's go over to Exodus 31 and begin by looking at something that is very important to us. This is Exodus 31. Something that some years ago people seemed to have lost sight of. It's a very beautiful special Sabbath covenant. Let's see how it relates to us. I want to turn our attention to this particular covenant because it is called "A Sabbath Covenant." Most people have never heard of this covenant. It was shocking when we had the final discussions and arguments with some of the people going back somewhere around nine or ten years, about the question of the Sabbath, and when we came back and we showed that this was totally different from the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20. It was something very special. This was a Sabbath covenant. It goes beyond just simply the law that was found in Exodus 20. It is a covenant that God had. It is an agreement that God had. There were conditions in this particular covenant and both parties would agree to do something in the case of the "New Covenant" it's God with those He calls, but here we have what we describe as the Sabbath covenant. It is a unique covenant. It is very different from the Old Covenant, because it is something very special. Let's notice Exodus 31:12 -
Exodus 31:12 - "And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying
Verse 13 - "Speak you unto the children of Israel, saying, 'Verily my Sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout (all of) your generations; that you may know that I am the LORD that does sanctify you.'" Remember what we said in the beginning? Our Sabbath-keeping reflects the relationship that we have with God. Remember? That was the opening thought. So He's saying here again that these Sabbaths that we keep every Sabbath, Sabbath after Sabbath, is a sign throughout all of our generations that we may know that God is the Lord that does sanctify us. It establishes a very unique and special people and a relationship with him.
Verse 14 - "You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; it is holy unto you: every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Verse 15 - "Six days may work be done; but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall (surely) be put to death.
Verse 16 - "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant." A perpetual covenant, this is what we see. We see from this particular section here that the Sabbath is an identifying sign of God's people. The Sabbath is not the sign of a covenant; it is the sign of a people. It is the sign of a people. It identifies people, not agreements. It identifies people, not agreements. Some have been confused and felt the Sabbath was the sign of the old covenant; therefore the old covenant becomes obsolete, so does the Sabbath. There is no statement in the BIBLE that ever declares the Sabbath to be obsolete or that the Sabbath is the sign of the old covenant.
Now when you begin to understand the importance of that and you remember the example from Ezekiel 20, you begin to realize that the Jews were convinced that the Sabbath was the primary reason why they went into captivity, but they proceeded to make rules for their Sabbath. They went from not doing the right thing, of going into the other ditch and becoming so pharisaical, as we use the term, that they had developed thirty-nine categories of activities that comprised work - everything from swatting a fly to helping an injured man. No wonder Christ condemned the Pharisees, but I think we have to understand that that ditch is wrong, but the other one is just as wrong as well. There is a balance; there is a soundness; there is a beautiful set of concepts that we want to look at today which will help us to keep this particular day holy as Christ has commanded.
I'm not here today to give you a yardstick. Today I'm not here to give you all physical dos and don'ts. I want to teach you the principles, the concepts, the attitude that comes in keeping the Sabbath. In the 90's a lot of people watered down the observance of the Sabbath. People began to dress inappropriately coming to Sabbath services. For many people the Sabbath day was simply another day; it wasn't any longer a feast day. It was not a special day in worshipping God and the discussions that people had, we began to notice, didn't mirror godliness, but more of a worldly attitude that did not reflect on the concepts of the Sabbath and how our words and our thoughts should be.
There had been increasing concern by us in the church over what has happened in the past, so some of us have begun to give sermons again and just reflecting on this particular attitude. I'm not here to develop atonement. I'm here to simply talk about the frame of mind, the attitude, the reflection that we must have on the Sabbath in our relationship with God. It seems like a lot of people have forgotten the day of preparation. They seem to have forgotten that - what does it mean to prepare for it in order to keep the Sabbath day? I think people have said, "Well, if the Sabbath is like any other day what do we need to prepare for that day for?" But I think we begin to realize that there is something very, very important.
Now I'm not here to judge the intent of anybody's heart. All of us, myself included, I think we have to understand that we've done things that we've come to see were wrong and not in our best interests spiritually. We've all had to make course corrections and have had to look to the ministry to help us with that. I've had to look to those over me to do the same, but looking back we're glad that we've been given that help and that we're going to find ourselves being put back on a stronger footing as we worship God.
So I take it as a basic premise as I preach and teach to you today that your desire is to please God, to nurture your children in the faith, to be a vibrant member of the body of Jesus Christ. My intent and purpose is simply to teach as a pastor would teach the importance of some very basic principles that I believe we have forgotten or that we've let slip in a way we should not let slip.
The book of Hebrews tells us this. It says, "Obey them that have the rule over you because they watch for your soul." I do believe that the ministry has the responsibility to watch out for the best interest of God's people spiritually. So what I have done is take this sermon and try to develop from this particular sermon the concept of Sabbath-keeping reflecting the relationship that we have with God. And I hope that this will be helpful to you; to instruct you, to point out these things to you, to put you in remembrance, and to help you, perhaps, if you've let some of these things slip, to get back on the proper footing, because we all want to be in God's kingdom.
Now there are four primary principles of Sabbath-keeping. So let's go through those to begin with today. I don't know how far we will get in this sermon, but let's start with these.
Number 1 principle - the command tells us not to work. The command tells us not to work. We quoted Exodus 20:8-11. You can go to Deuteronomy 5, and it simply says that you're not to do any work on the Sabbath; neither you nor your household, the men and maidservants who were living in that house, they were not to do that as well. So the first principle was that God tells we should not work. This particular day is set apart. It's very, very important that we start first of all at that basic level that we should not work. It means to make a productive increase from working so far as getting a pay or by reason of those things; that's what He tells us to move away from.
The second thing - and I'll turn to this particular scripture with you, Exodus 31:15. The command tells us to rest. The command tells us to rest. It is important that this particular day is a recharging of your physical batteries and your spiritual batteries. Now it does not mean that we stay in bed all day. I do sometimes try to call people in the late morning on the Sabbath, and I find I have to drag some out of bed at about twelve o'clock noon, and I sit there and I shake my head. Of course, as you get older you tend to sleep less, and so therefore I would love to call them at six in the morning when I get up, but I don't do that. But the point is that it's to rest, but not to go to the opposite extreme and become loggy and become so, you know kind of bleary eyed the rest of the day because you overdo it. I understand that when you're younger you probably need more sleep and I understand that, but Exodus 31:15 says the following:
Exodus 31:15 - "Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest." So we rest from the labors that we have had the other six days. We don't rest by sweating, by getting involved in what we describe as excessive physical activity. We don't do that, but I do believe that we have a certain amount of physical work that is done on the Sabbath to prepare a hall so services can be conducted, I think that there's a little bit of work there, but it is done with an eye toward worship of God and serving the brethren's spiritual needs. But I think we understand that rest means to change the overall approach that you had from the six days of go, go, go and work, work, work to being able to just stop and enjoy something that we'll talk about a little bit more. It's a time of rest; so point number two is - the command tells us to rest.
Point number three - let's go to Leviticus 23. Let's notice what it tells us here in Leviticus 23. Now you already know this, but we have to go back and I want to rehearse it as I'm laying the foundation in this particular sermon for what I hope we can continue to build on. This is Leviticus 23:1 -
Leviticus 23:1 - "And the Lord spoke to (unto) Moses, saying,
Verse 2 - "Speak to (unto) the children of Israel, and say to (unto) them: (concerning) 'The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts." So He calls the feasts holy convocations, but the first one of his feasts is, notice verse 3 -
Verse 3 - "Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an (a) holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: (for) it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all (of) your dwellings." Now let's examine the topic of holy convocation. The principle that we are coming to here in verse two and three of this particular section is that we are told that we should have a holy convocation, which means assemble with others for worship, to assemble with others for worship. Most of the commandments you can do by yourself; but in the case of the Sabbath it tells us that we are required to congregate. To assume that you are obeying God in the Sabbath covenant by staying home is a great stretch of the scriptures.
I've found that people used to drag themselves to church at times when they were sick or when they were just in terrible shape where they would drag themselves in the door. And sometimes we had to tell them, "I think you'd better go home because you're contagious, and you need to quarantine yourself." And they'd hack their way through an anointing, and then they'd go home. And of course that did that to the ministry, as you all know, as you're praying over someone you're bowing down, and they're hacking and coughing, and I keep dreaming to myself, "Four thousand germs just across the top of my head on this particular anointing." But most of the time we in the ministry we have not caught those things, which we are appreciative of. So I think the purpose of this whole commandment is to congregate to worship.
Now the term holy convocation in the Hebrew language simply means public worship service. It means public worship service. Convocation - the word implies "the product of an official summons to worship." In one of it's twenty-three appearances this particular word refers to the Sabbath as convocation days. Now you can check that out for yourself in Vines Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words. So, It simply means public worship service, convocation - an official summons to worship. That is the basic meaning of the word.
Now let's take a look at the word summons from the dictionary. The word summons means "a call by an authority to appear, to come, or to do something." It means that there is a law, and the law says that you are to appear in court by issuance of a summons. Another definition of it is it means, "to order to take a specific action." A summons to summon the captain to surrender. The whole concept is something goes out, and you're supposed to do something.
How do we respond when we receive an official summons to appear in court? We stay away, right? I don't think so. We had summons back years ago to file for the draft. When I was a young man they had summons to file for the draft. I remember in the sixties when we had the Vietnam War. Remember how many people responded to that summons? They fled to Canada. They took it pretty serious, and they tried to take off and hide themselves from being drafted. So the point is that a summons shows you a concept that simply says it is a call by authority to appear, to come and to do something, and this is why we are here today. We are here because God commands us; He tells us, "Convoke together as the people of God."
Over the years I've been very impressed with people who've had to come in and use wheelchairs; they've had to use sometimes special lounge chairs in order to be there. I've seen people come who were doubled over in pain from just the very fact that their health was so bad, but they wanted to be there. There was a man in one of the churches here a few years ago that brought a portable dialysis treatment in his truck so that he could be in church, and he would have to go out to the parking lot to take care of that particular need; but he wanted so desperately to be there that he literally got himself a portable dialysis treatment machine.
People placed great emphasis on being in God's church years and years ago. How do we feel today? Sometimes people are tired. So am I. Sometimes people are depressed. So what? We all get that way from time to time. People want to stay home. They want to listen to a tape. They want to listen to a cybercast, but the question you have to ask yourself is, "Should we be here unless we simply have a health problem that would bring about a quarantine from God's church?" Am I saying that every last person should be here? No. I'm just simply saying that when we have the ability to be here, we should think about missing church. We should think about the importance about being together with God's people.
Point number four - we are told to fellowship. I do believe that sometimes after a week of having all kinds of things working out there and going through the struggles that you go through, there is nothing more refreshing than to hear the stories and the struggles of others and know that you're both in the same boat, and you're both paddling as fast as you can, and you are encouraged by that. You encourage them, and they encourage you by perhaps what you've gone through and struggled with. There're so many wonderful stories that we hear.
Let's go over to the book of Hebrews. You probably knew I was going to go there. Hebrews 10 - best scripture I think of all that points out especially as we move down toward the time of the end. How important it is that we fellowship together.
Hebrews 10: 23 - He said, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised;
Verse 24 - "And let us consider one another to provoke" or to excite or to spur on or to encourage one another. It is exciting to be able to be with God's people. It is encouraging. It's very, very important that we share these times together "to provoke unto love and unto good works:
Verse 25 - "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together," I think we see that apostasy did set in when Christian fellowship became lukewarm. Apostasy did set in when Christian fellowship grew lukewarm, and if it's not progressing you'll find that it is a problem because the world will continue to draw you back into its particular form of what it does, and you just simply have to have that renewal every Sabbath to be there with God's people. "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting (or encouraging) one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching."
I think we're all here to learn from the members. I appreciate the things that I have learned over the years from God's people. I hope that we can learn from the sermonettes. I hope we can learn from the special music like we had today, the sermon man, whoever is here speaking to us. If we're going to a Bible study for teens, or we're going to a special type of meeting that we're going to have; it's a part of learning. It's a part of growing. I think you receive encouragement from the brethren. I think prayer updates and realizing the needs of others and realizing how people are still being healed today. I think we had some wonderful examples three or four weeks ago of that particular thing. Serving the brethren, taking care of their needs, seeing them and being able to shake their hand and give them a hug and be able to say, "Hey, I'm glad to see you, and we're here today together." I think these are all very, very important.
Let's go over to Mark 2. There are other important scriptural principles that we would like to look at here now for just a few minutes. Mark 2:23-28 - Jesus Christ gave us some very, very important points. We probably won't read all of these, but He tells us:
Mark 2:23 - "And it came to pass, that He went through the corn fields on the Sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.
Verse 24 - "And the Pharisees said unto Him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day (do) that which is not lawful?" It goes right hand in hand with the special music today, doesn't it?
Verse 25 - And "He said to them, 'Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry?'" They that were with Him did that.
Verse 26 - "'…he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat (except for) (but) the priests, and also gave (some) unto them which were with him?
Verse 27 - "And He said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (day).
Verse 28 - "'Therefore (He said) the Son of Man is (also) Lord of the Sabbath (day)." The Sabbath is designed to serve us. The Sabbath is designed to serve us. It is designed to serve mankind. God as creator and we in this creation, we simply find a proper orientation for living. This whole principle of working six days and laboring and then having the Sabbath, I think we recognize how important it is because you have to come back into a relationship with God where we learn about life's purposes, why we're here, where we're headed. Most important, it tells us how to live.
The Sabbath day and the principles that we learn, we walk in the ways which the Lord, our God has commanded. It gives us the ability to be renewed in those things. As God miraculously delivered Israel from Egypt, we also are being delivered from Satan and his slavery. Over in Deuteronomy 5:14-15, let's notice over there one of the important principles.
Deuteronomy 5:14 - "But (He said,) 'the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord (your) God. (For) in it you shall (do no) (not do any) work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your (male) (man) servant, …nor your ox, nor your (donkey) (ass), nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who (that) is within your gates, that your male servant and your female (maid) servant may rest as well as you.'" Notice verse 15 now -
Verse 15 - "'And remember that you were a slave (servant) in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out ...by a mighty hand and by (an outstretched) (a stretched out) arm; therefore the Lord your God (commanded) (commands) you to keep the Sabbath day.'"
So, as God miraculously delivered Israel from Egypt, you and I are delivered from Satan. I call this a place of refuge. I call the Sabbath a time of refuge because that's what it is. It just gives us a completely different look at what we should be doing on this particular day.
Let's go over to Leviticus 19. I want to show you something interesting here in Leviticus 19 that has to do with God our Father or our parents. In Leviticus 19 we see a most interesting set of scriptures. We see that we have the fifth commandment and the third commandment tied together with this particular verse right here. We have the fifth commandment and the third commandment that are tied together. Let's notice it just for a moment; let's read it -
Leviticus 19:1 - "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,
Verse 2 - 'Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them: 'You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
Verse 3 - 'You shall fear (or respect) every man his mother, and his father, and keep My Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
Verse 4 - 'Turn you not unto idols, nor make (for) yourselves molten gods: (for) I am the LORD your God." So why do you see the fifth commandment and the third commandment tied together in this particular verse? Could it be that God is seeking to tie the honoring of one's parents with honoring our spiritual parent by keeping the Sabbath? That also, the whole concept, by honoring God we remove ourselves from the idols and from those things that take away our minds from the true God by establishing and developing and maintaining this personal relationship with the true and living God. It is the most important commitment we can ever make. So he puts all three commandments together for a reason because proper Sabbath-keeping ensures that personal relationship with God. God is very pleased when we amplify our relationship with Him and when we come out of this world during this particular seventh day from sunset Friday night to sunset Sabbath.
Exodus 35 - notice this particular scripture. This is the only mention of such a command. This is Exodus 35:1 - let's notice it for just a moment.
Exodus 35:1 - "And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, 'These are the words which the LORD has commanded, that you should do them.
Verse 2 - "'Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be (unto) to you a holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD (your God): whosoever does work therein shall be put to death.'"
Verse 3 - Then He says, "'You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations (upon) (on) the Sabbath day.'" Now this is the only place this is mentioned, this particular commandment. The con text is in the construction of the tabernacle. If you consider the construction phase of the tabernacle then you begin to realize what a massive undertaking actually was going on. No fires for commerce were to be started on the Sabbath. Over in Numbers 28 we see that fires were kindled; however, at the tabernacle for the sacrifices, the burnt offerings, and the act of lighting a fire was not seen as wrong, but it appears that the purpose in this particular place in verse 3 is different than what it was to be used for when it came to the tabernacle and the worship of God.
Now we begin to also realize there are other scriptures that tell us to rest, to keep the Sabbath even during the busiest times of the year like in the planting season and in the harvest season. We still are to keep it. Now, what does that mean to us? What does that mean to us? It means that whether it's the Sabbath that is in this time of the year, or whether it's the Sabbath in the summer, whether it's the Sabbath that's close to some particular thing with your job or something else; He simply says that no matter what the season is, the Sabbath is the important commandment, and we find ourselves tested sometimes during certain periods of the year.
Over in Luke 14 we read one other aspect of this that I'd like to talk a little bit about today. In Luke 14:1-6 we talk about a concept here in Luke 14 that is called the "ox in the ditch" situation. The "ox in the ditch" situation. If you remember I just told you we are to rest, to keep the Sabbath even during the busiest times of the year. He said in that particular place "in planting and in harvest time."
Luke 14:1 And "it came to pass, (that) as He went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched Him.
Verse 2 - "And behold, there was a certain man before Him which had the dropsy.
Verse 3 - "And Jesus answering spoke unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?'
Verse 4 - "And they held their peace. And He took
him, and healed him, and let him go;
Verse 5 - "And answered them, saying, 'Which of you
shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not straightway pull him
out on the Sabbath day?'" And then he put forth a particular parable
a little bit later. But the point was -
Verse 6 - "…they could not answer him (on)
again to these things."
Now sometimes from the past we have seen people talk about the "ox in the ditch." Some have used this example to work on their jobs on Friday night. Some have used this example to find something to do instead of relaxing. They call it an "ox in a ditch" situation. A true "ox in a ditch" situation is just that, an emergency that requires immediate attention.
We have had emergencies that justify work. For instance I had a man up in Calgary who was working for the power company, and he had to go out twice in the number of years that I had known him to take care of putting lines back up because what we had there was a genuine emergency of someone possibly losing their life if they touched those high powered lines. There's a tremendous demonstration of power that you can see sometimes when a wire comes down and when it begins to bang against the ground or against another wire - explosions of all kinds, and many people have been killed by that. This particular man went twice in his entire years of keeping God's Sabbath because it was a life or death situation. There was the possibility of somebody being killed by that.
We do have illnesses. We do have accidents and we recognize that one is not condemned for doing what is necessary to meet the challenges of the emergency. But there are times when people just simply push the "ox in the ditch" to pull it out. And you've got to ask yourself the question, "What am I doing about the Sabbath day?"
There are so many things that we can do to avoid that. We have had numbers of people who have held jobs, and they've had their own companies, and they've been able to work around all of those things simply because they recognized that by using their head they could set aside that time and not have the world interfere with them. So we see that we can do that, and I think it's important that we understand that this time is so Holy to God that we should be putting everything aside except there would be an emergency of some kind. I've been there. I've watched that happen. We had a childbirth situation that occurred in our family, and we had to take care of that on the Sabbath. I had to miss giving a sermon that particular day because that happened, and it's simply something that is not normal, but I do know that as you look at that you see how few times if you learn how to properly prepare for the Sabbath that you can avoid many of these things.
Let's go on to something else. I'm probably going to make a few people unhappy with me when I get to this section, OK? So be prepared, all of you. OK, we're going to talk about something that a lot of people don't like us to talk about. Leviticus 19:30, so I'm just warning everybody ahead of time. As I often say, please don't throw rotten tomatoes today. Wait until I preach tomorrow. Leviticus 19:30 -
Verse 30 - He said, "'You shall keep My Sabbaths and (at the same time He's saying) reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord.'"
Let's talk about two things. Respect, and what respect has to do with two areas, dress and time. Here we go, ready? Here we go. When we respect, we have a certain reverence. We have a certain attitude toward these things. To revere or to respect means to regard with awe, to have great respect or devotion or honor. You and I are told that we are to worship God in spirit and in truth. Now most of our churches, we meet in plain buildings, and sometimes I have sat on a metal chair and I have shifted back and forth to survive that metal chair. You probably remember some of those times in your days too. Sometimes it is not quite as easy to think of the fact that you're coming into, in a sense of the word, a relationship with God that's kind of like being in a sanctuary, but it is true. We have a lovely building here. I think God has provided this for us, and I think it gives us a high quality that we have here, but the point is in spirit we come before the presence of God. There is a relationship that we see.
Sometimes people don't recognize the importance of coming into the presence of God. They don't realize they're coming into the presence of God as we have these holy convocations. Some people come too informal. Their approach is such that it becomes somewhat informal. I watch the times when I recognize years ago that the man said that he wore the best that he had on the Sabbath day. He encouraged the men and women to wear the best that they had on the Sabbath day. To go out and find a way by which they could afford to be able to have the best that they could afford and have that worn on the Sabbath day because there is something very special about meeting with God. No one is saying to you right now, "You have to wear this, or you have to wear that." You haven't heard me say that yet, have you? I'm not going to dare go there, but I am going to come to the place where I tell you that you need to understand that when this individual who went to a wedding that God called him to - let's go read it for a moment, Matthew 22:1. …That when he came there, he didn't come prepared. He didn't come to reverence in that right way what needed to be.
Matthew 22:2 - "The kingdom of (God) heaven is likened unto a certain king, who made a marriage for his son,
Verse 3 - He "sent forth his servants and he called them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come." And then he asked for some more in verse 5 and finally, you know he had some come.
Verse 7 - And "when the king heard thereof, he was wroth (angry): and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Verse 8 - And "… he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
Verse 9 - "'Go you therefore into the highways, and as many as you shall find, bid to the marriage.
Verse 10 - "So those servants went out into the highway, and gathered ...as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Verse 11 - "And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Verse 12 - "And he said unto him, 'Friend, how came you hither not having a wedding garment?' And he was speechless.
Verse 13 - And so "the king said unto the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; (for) there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Verse 14 - 'For many are called, but (and) few are chosen.'" Now if you stop and look at this, you recognize that it's a far greater principle that is found in the parable, but I thought it was interesting to note that he had asked these people to come, but this individual didn't have on a wedding garment. They didn't have on the proper attire, which was symbolic of righteousness, was symbolic of a certain attitude, and so the end result was, they were cast out.
Now when we come before God and we come to reverence God's sanctuary we come to respect. We come in many different ways. We come with an attitude of mind to keep the Sabbath. I do believe that we show by our preparation for the Sabbath that we are going to respect this time, and I do believe that as the man pointed out many years ago, we should wear the best we have and come with the best that we have. And so, this is what we see -
Leviticus 16:4, you see the high priest performing his duty in that sense of the word at the congregation or at the sanctuary of God and he washed himself, and he put on special garments. You remember that? Chapter 16:4, he put on special garments. It was something that was different from any other time. And so the Sabbath is a very special time. We do have custom of honoring God through our dress. We do not come with an informal approach. We come with a respect; we strive to come before God with the best that we have. We clean ourselves up; we prepare ourselves. Just like the children of Israel when they were receiving the Ten Commandments. God said, "You wash yourself and your clothes, and on the third day you appear before God." And that's an attitude and a frame of mind and we in coming to the church are appearing before God.
Regarding dress, sometimes people feel casual is a display of their advanced maturity, but I don't think that that's what it means, I think it simply shows that we live in a society that just simply doesn't dress up any more. I used to go to funerals sometimes over in Missouri, and people would show up with all kinds of interesting garments and I said, "Wow, the honoring of the family, or the honoring of the dead." They would show up with their polyester slacks that they bought probably twenty years ago and they didn't quite fit into them anymore. And you know, they'd come to the funeral and I'd just sit there and I'd say, "Wow, you know, what is this?" We began to realize that it's a frame of mind. It's an attitude that we see that we need to be respectful of the God we serve and the best that we know how to do in wearing the clothes that we do have.
Let me take you to one other thought regarding being late. Are we showing respect for God when we miss the song service or the portion of it? How about the song leader's up there and people are trying to find seats? How about the sermonette man, he's starting into his sermonette and seeing people trying to find seats and all of the interruptions that go on. It's wonderful to be able to start our Sabbath services now where everybody rises, and we ask the prayer and the blessing on the particular service. It's wonderful to be able to have that because we're saying we should all be here; we should all be in our seats, and when the songleader says let's all rise for the opening prayer by whoever, that we're ready to go.
Why is it that it seems like it's always the same people who are late? Why is that? I don't know, but it happens in this congregation, it happens in a number of others. No one says that you have to be here before we get started in service. It'd just be nice if some of you would show up a little bit earlier so that you would not miss the song service or the sermonette or whatever it might be. It would be very nice if we would not have those interruptions. What kind of respect does it show in reverencing God's sanctuary? I think it does tell us that we need to simply, as they say in the vernacular, "pull up our socks a little bit" and begin to work on some of those things.
Let's go to Exodus 16. Let's take a look at another example of Sabbath-keeping. Exodus 16 - let's read about a particular set of principles here in Exodus 16 that I believe that in many, many ways over the last few years that we've lost sight of in God's church.
Exodus 16:23 - "And he said unto them, 'This is that which the LORD hath said, 'Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and that which remains, lay up for you to be kept until the morning.'"
Verse 24 - "And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
Verse 25 - "And Moses said, 'Eat that today; for
today is a Sabbath unto the LORD: today you shall not find it in the field.
Verse 26 - 'Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh
day, which is the Sabbath, (in it) there shall be none. So we
see that we have here a principle that has been given us; we call it the preparation
day, the preparation day. The principle of baking and boiling, whatever has
to be done in cooking in the day in preparation. I think we see it is very important
to do the heavy things ahead of time. Can you cook on the Sabbath? Yes. Why
did God ask that baking and boiling, or seething be done on the day before?
The principle is simply the amount of work involved that was not something they
could do on the Sabbath day. You cannot compare the ovens and the processes
of the 15th century B.C. to what we have today. I think there's a total difference.
In our modern day, however there still is a need for Sabbath preparation because in many cases both the husband and wife work and will need to have more of a conscious plan in order for a meaningful Sabbath day experience. You and I believe in tithing. We still believe it's the law of God, but we need to plan. We need to budget to make sure things work out properly. Well, it's the same thing with the preparation day. The Sabbath preparation might start even earlier for us than Friday. Sometimes for many people it might start on Wednesday, making sure they have their Sabbath wear properly washed, ironed, and ready to go. Taking care of the other details that our lives normally have distractions on the Sabbath day if they are not handled beforehand.
Clearly God gave man six days to pursue his interests, to pursue business and his pleasure, and even if we pursue these things we are told that the fourth commandment is to remember the Sabbath day. Can a man pursue, can a woman pursue their interests completely for the six days, blind to the meaning of the Sabbath and six days a week work at the business of taking care of themselves and then abruptly switch gears to avoid their pursuit on the Sabbath day? I don't think so. I think we have to remember that keeping the Sabbath we need to be thinking about it throughout the week.
What are we doing to prepare for it?
I remember the first week I was in Ambassador College, and I was busily on Sabbath morning shining my shoes. Now, please understand that I'm not saying to you that you can't do that. I'm just simply saying that what I had not understood that getting ready for the Sabbath. Now running a brush over your shoes, or whatever it might be, I don't think that's a problem at all, but I began to realize that I was paying attention to a number of things on the Sabbath that distracted us from the real meaning of the Sabbath. And so the young man told me, he said, "What are you doing?" And I said, "What do you mean what am I doing? I'm shining my shoes, can't you see that?" And then he began to explain to me how that the preparation day, that if we would work at it we could get most of these things done before we came to Friday night sunset. And it made sense; it made sense. And today I've come to realize that once in a blue moon you have a situation, which you simply forgot, and you have to take care of that. But the point is that if we are thinking about the Sabbath day and have it in mind throughout the week, then we won't lose the perspective of some things that need to be done, and that's a part of the preparation day that we need to be looking at.
So as we evaluate some of these things we begin to realize that…what of others beginning to prepare for the Sabbath; whether it has to do with the keeping of the Sabbath and observing it together in the sanctuary of God, all of these things need to be thought about and evaluated and looked at.
What we're going to do, is we're simply going to take the time over the next few weeks to evaluate some of the other things. I want to talk a little bit later about eating out on the Sabbath day; some of the things that we've had to face in times past. I want to talk a little bit more about some of those areas and how we can make the Sabbath day a greater delight, the positive side of it. But the whole point I'm making in the sermon to begin with today is that our Sabbath-keeping reflects the relationship that we have with God, and as we begin to think about the importance of it, I think you will see how all of these things will fit into the attitude and frame of mind that we have in being here; what we wear, how we look at the preparation for the Sabbath and begin to develop that frame of mind.
You and I are seeking God's kingdom and his righteousness first and foremost. I think remembering the Sabbath throughout the week reminds us of God's way of life and His kingdom. I think we have to understand that there are so many beautiful things that sometimes people have forgotten about we need to begin to focus on again. And so what I have decided to do is take a couple of sermons and focus on those for you and for me. You notice I didn't give you a lot of dos and don'ts. You didn't see me tell you that you have to do this and that and the other. I've seen people do that, but I'm not here to do that. I'm simply here giving you the principles of how you can apply that.
We will come back to that, not this next Sabbath, but the next Sabbath that I speak and talk about a number more of these principles and then most of all how to begin to appreciate the positive side of keeping the Sabbath. You're not doing the not do, but what can you do to enhance the Sabbath for you and your family? I think you'll find it helpful to understand that not only do we show you the things you shouldn't do, but we want to show you the things that you can do and should do. So as we do that, I hope it will help you to remember to reverence God, to remember to reverence his sanctuary, to reverence the Sabbath day and to remember that it truly is a sign between you and God.