Sermon Transcript — March 6, 2004
Four Sabbaths ago I talked about the concept of Sabbath keeping reflecting our relationship with God. We saw from the Old Testament that the book of Exodus talked about how God when he spoke caused the earth to tremble and shake, and the manifestations were absolutely awesome. And God said he came to deal with them and test them and that his fear may be before you that you sin not. So I showed you the importance at that particular time of the Sabbath and its relationship with God. We asked the question, how do we respond to these words? Because we are not talking about proving the Sabbath. We are really talking about what we need to do as members of God's church in keeping this particular day.
We have talked for many, many years about the fact that the Sabbath was a test commandment. The church many years ago called it a test for us. And as I mentioned to you, God measures the church by what it does with his law. And we have come to realize that judgment begins at the house of God. We are the people of God that he is working with and dealing with and showing us how to observe these days and to keep his laws in the way that he intends so that we can be prepared to enter his family. I think one of the most important things that we can understand about this particular subject is the fact that our job, as I mentioned before, is to continually grow in our understanding of the law, continually expanding our understanding of God's law concerning the Sabbath.
So I believe that what we said back four weeks ago was how we keep the Sabbath says something about us. It really does. It makes us understand that what we are doing is an ongoing, growing, and a developing thing. Because God wants to learn something about our character, what we are going to do with this particular command. How much do we understand about what he is doing? And I also mentioned to you how important it is for us to learn about his way, continue to grow in this ability to not only understand the letter of the law but to understand the spirit. We talked about Ezekiel and how they defiled his Sabbaths, and how they broke them, and how they disobeyed him.
And I showed you how we had a very special Sabbath covenant that God made with his people back in Exodus 31. And we see from that chapter, as I mentioned the last time, that the Sabbath is an identifying sign of God's people. It identifies people, not agreements. And so the Sabbath day is a very, very important day, not greater than the other nine commandments, but a part of the Ten Commandments and in a most unique way it is that sign that is between us and our creator, our God. And as we serve him on this day there is something very special that we learn about this particular day.
I am not here, and I think you know I am not here to create some kind of yardstick religion. That is not my purpose behind the sermons that I have been giving. But I have come to realize that over the last few years many of our ministers have asked that we be able to have a little bit more information and material on Sabbath keeping, because in the early nineties it was watered down. The observance of the Sabbath just simply became in many cases something not quite the same way that it was years before. People simply began to dress inappropriately. People had the Sabbath as simply another day. It was no longer a feast day, a special day. They didn't get involved as they used to in preparing for it and looking forward to it. And so all I am trying to do is to reemphasize some of these areas as to what happened to the Sabbath in the last decade. And as we are living in God's church and understanding how it was watered down, I am simply trying to help us better understand how we should keep it. I think the most interesting thing that happened after I gave the sermon four weeks ago was how many young people from age 18 to 30 came up and said they never heard things like that before. And that was shocking to me because it made me realize that we haven't spoken on that topic for a long, long time.
So what I am going to do is to try to help you understand. I am not here to judge the intent of your heart. Because I am here like you to try to strive to best understand how to keep God's law in the way that we should keep it every Sabbath day. And I take it as a basic premise that that's why you are here as well.
Now I said in the sermon before that there were four primary principles of Sabbath keeping. I said first of all the commandment was there to tell us not to work. The second was the commandment told us to rest. The third one was that we were told to assemble with others for worship. And I pointed out to everyone that we are required to congregate. It is a part of true Christianity. You really can't sit in your living room and be a living room Christian. Because there is a great part of keeping God's law that has to do with interaction and inter-involvement with people of God on a regular basis, but also on the Sabbath coming together. I pointed out to you that the scriptures said in Leviticus 23:3 that we have a holy convocation. And I pointed out to you from Vine's Dictionary what it meant. It was public worship, convocation. The word implied the product of official summons to worship. To put it another way, God said be here. And I pointed out to you the concept of a summons as one of our ministers so aptly did a sermon on and also gave some important points on, and that is this summons was a call by an authority to appear, to come, to do, to be a part of something, to summons an individual to be at a certain place. I talked about how when we receive a summons to appear in court, what do we do? We take that seriously. And so God has said to us that we should respond by being here. The fourth point I said is that we are here to fellowship. I went to Hebrews 10. Everybody knows what Hebrews 10 says, that we need to be gathering ourselves together so much more as we see the day approaching. We are here to learn from the other members, to hear the sermon, to hear the sermonette.
It is very important that we are gathered together to be of help and encouragement to the brethren, and for them to be able to give us encouragement when we have need during a bad week. Prayer updates, like we did today, we had a few of those. Some of the people here have situations and we talk them over with each other. And last of all, simply to serve the brethren. I think it's a great opportunity to do both physical and spiritual service in the Church of God as we understand.
I mentioned also that the Sabbath was designed to serve mankind. That we need to learn about life's purposes, why we're here, where we're headed. Most important is how to live. That is the importance of being here for the Sabbath day, to gather together with others of like mind to do that, to be a servant of God in that particular way. I pointed out that as you have the third and the fourth and the fifth commandment all meshed together in Leviticus 19, that we honor our parent God and we honor the Sabbath as a holy part of what we believe. And we simply establish, we develop, and we maintain a personal relationship with both the human family and the spiritual family of God, and proper Sabbath observance allows that to be so.
We talked a little bit about no fires for commercial use were started on the Sabbath back in the Old Testament. We saw that the only mention of this command was when it had to do with the type of thing that was being dealt with in building. And yet there were fires on the Sabbath that were kindled for the sacrifices, so there was a special time for fires but not for other things, for work.
We talked a little bit about the ox in the ditch concept. We talked about how sometimes people look at their job, they look at their situation as an ox in the ditch. And I would like to take a little bit of time before going on with this sermon to talk a little bit about some of the questions that came in from some of the brethren as a result of this. Here's what I said. I said emergencies, ox in the ditch situations justify work, but when one has a legitimate emergency life or death illness or accident, he is not condemned for doing what is necessary to meet the challenge of the emergency.
Let me amplify that just a little bit for you with a couple of the questions that came in this past month for the question and answer period. There was a lady who was a nurse in Vancouver, Canada. The Second Narrows Bridge between North Vancouver and the mainland collapsed. Hundreds of people were thrown into the water from this high bridge. Many died and some were badly, badly injured. This particular lady was asked to come into work. She was as nurse and she was asked to come in. She worked an entire shift during that time because there was death, there was mayhem, there was confusion. There was a problem where they needed to have people there. This lady had always told her boss that she could not come in from Friday night sunset until Saturday night sunset, and they honored that. But they said to her, we have an emergency that we have never had before. Will you come? And she said, yes, I will.
We had a man in the church who used to work high power lines. And what he had to do was he had to make sure he let his boss know that he would not be there to work. But there was a terrible, terrible storm that came one Friday night when I was still pastoring. And he had to go and he had to spend eight hours taking care of lines that were coming across roads that would have destroyed people. Now, he let his boss know. She let her boss know. These people recognized that if it were to continue time after time after time in asking them to come to work, then they would have had to face the question, what is a legitimate emergency and what is created by the boss?
So someone asked the question and I would like to read the question to you. It goes something like this, and I won't read the whole thing. It says, how do you handle situations when our job tempts us to compromise with our keeping the Sabbath? For example, responsibilities considered critical but the company encroaching into Friday evening sunset to do that? I think the answer to that is simply that we have to begin to plan ahead. There are some jobs that you know that will simply once in a blue moon come up with a problem. If your employer knows that and you can work around it, that's fine. But there are times when you recognize that if they continue to encroach upon the Sabbath sometimes you have to find another place to work because of that. But most cases, and I will say 99% of all the cases when people plan ahead and they talk to their employer, they explain to him their needs, you will find that the majority of the times it will all work out. And then there may be as we call it a legitimate emergency and you have to make a judgment then when it comes to those things. But we do prepare ahead just as you prepare for the Sabbath, just as you prepare your budget, just as you do all of those things. You will find that you can eliminate the majority of those problems.
Someone asked another question, and I thought it was a most interesting question because it comes down to the question of faith. Here's the question, and we're talking about the question of an ox in the ditch type of situation. If you could not find a way to survive because every occupation required you to work on Saturdays, is the Sabbath worth dying for? Strong question, isn't it? Well, I think there's a scripture that tells you. Mr. Antion quoted it several weeks ago. Let's go to Daniel 3. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a question of faith. It is a question of how far your faith will go. It is a question of what you believe you should be doing, and the question is how important is one of the Ten Commandments, not above, not less, but equal to all ten of the Ten Commandments. This is Daniel 3:12. He said, There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded you. They have not served your gods, nor worshipped the golden image which you have set up. And so Nebuchadnezzar decided, okay, let's take care of this problem here and now. Verse 16. Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego were told by the king that when the sound of the dulcimer and the flute and all of those sounded, then you are supposed to fall down and worship. Otherwise, I will cast you into a burning fiery furnace. They said the following. Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. Now notice the next line. And he will deliver us out of your hand one way or the other. And then it goes on to say in verse 18. But if not, be it known to you O king that we will not worship your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up. It comes down to a matter of faith in doing a number of these things.
We have found over the 45-50 years that we have dealt with the Sabbath that most people who hold their ground and obey God find a way to be blessed and to make it through the problem. But it is a matter that you have to understand, this is not an ox in the ditch. It comes down to a matter of a choice about God's word and God's law. Now some people if they are weak in faith they may give in to something. But you will find that over a period of time you will be convicted, and you will be finding yourself having to either decide to justify or to realize that you are going to have to carry out that command regardless of what men say, or think, or do. Those three men decided, and they did not turn away. They didn't turn back from it. It becomes a very, very important principle. So when we deal with the ox in the ditch we are dealing with a legitimate emergency. But I say to you that if you find the time where you continue to have the Friday night emergencies or Sabbath emergencies, it comes down to the question of perhaps you need to make a move. Sometimes you have to make a move to another occupation or to another job, because we have found that when people have had to, we have had men and women who worked for the post office and Saturday was a work day. And many of them could not get off on Saturday. So they had to decide whether or not they would do that. In most of those cases we found that they had found jobs very soon after they made that decision or that choice.
I had a good friend of mine some years ago at Ambassador College who had to leave to go back to his area, and he could not find a job. He could not find a job. And the problem was that there was a Sabbath problem. Everybody was working on Saturday. Actually, most of the jobs were seven days a week. So he decided that he could not do that, but he needed a job because he and his wife were going to starve. He started fasting on a Sunday morning, and he told God, and this is kind of scary now, so please understand, but this was the way he felt, he said, right now, God, I am going to start fasting, and I am going to fast until you give me a job. He had to go somewhere around nine days, and he was a very hungry man. But you know what? He passed the test. He got the job, and he got the Sabbath off. I thought that was quite an interesting example. I could tell you his name. You would know him, because he was an evangelist some years ago. He was raised to an evangelist some years ago. I think that was a matter that the man had at that particular time that kind of faith and that kind of attitude that said, okay, this is the way I'm going to look at it. I think you have to come down to that when you understand the concept of reverencing God's Sabbath and keeping it holy.
We talked a little bit about reverencing God's sanctuary. We talked about respect in the way we dress and the way we observe time, getting here to church on time, to regard with awe and great respect and devotion and honor this particular time that we have here. We have often talked about the importance of people being too informal in their approach. And we see that people have come to understand that we do need to be here on time. We need to be in our seats. We need to be ready to be a part of the song service, to be a part of the sermonette and the sermon and to be there on time. We talked about how we needed to have our wedding garment on. We needed to be properly attired, just like the high priest on the Day of Atonement had a special garment that he wore to show the respect and the reverence for the Day of Atonement at that particular time. And I think we need to understand the thing of time and showing up on time is very, very important. But I think this is a part of the laxness we have had to work on and deal with.
Then we talked about the preparation day. We talked about the need for us to begin to work on the preparation day. Over in Exodus 20:8 I would like to add another scripture there, because I think it is a very interesting example of the word. Exodus 20:8. It says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It is interesting that the word "remember", when the Soncino commentary wrote in that particular section what it means, they said this. This verb "remember" is indefinitive and is so not limited to time. It meant simply to always keep the Sabbath in mind during the week." I thought Soncino made a very important point. That remembering was an indefinite verb and was not so limited of time in the sense of just for that one day, but always, they said, to keep the Sabbath in mind during the week. And so what we recognize is the fact if we are thinking about the Sabbath, then we will begin to do some of the modern day preparations that we need to do even though they at that time in the history of Israel did some things a little bit differently. We still can, instead of running for six days and all of a sudden when the sun goes down to stop, I think we must recognize that we have the opportunity to begin to switch gears early enough to think about what we are going to do. The shining of our shoes, the pressing of our clothes, the preparation of foods, the thinking about what we are going to do with our children.
I think one of the most enjoyable times for my wife and myself was when we had the Friday nights together. This was encouraging for us, because every Friday night we would decide who was going to have their meal. The first time it would be my daughter, the second time my son, the third time my wife, and last of all the old man. And so we would decide what foods we wanted that Sabbath, and what dessert, and then what we would have, and please do not be shocked by this, we did have a bottle of wine that we did serve a small amount to our children in growing up. And we had that Sabbath day when we sat down at the dining room table it was all about the Sabbath. Everything that we needed to do, we shut everything down and that became our time. Then we would go downstairs and sometimes we would play a game, sometimes we would sit in front of the fireplace and we would talk and have our dessert there. But it was something very special. But that went by the wayside for a lot of people, because it simply wasn't the thing that they would do. Now the nice part of that was, about 8:30 we would all go upstairs, my wife and I could do our reading, and the kids would use the telephone. Now you want to understand why that is important to a minister? Because his line is busy. That's the reason. His line is busy, and he can have a few minutes of rest. Usually on Friday night a lot of people call, and sometime Saturday morning. It is kind of funny that since we have been in United my telephone stops ringing about five or six o'clock. And it really has been very nice. We appreciate that. Now there are emergencies. Please understand. We have people calling on Saturday morning. I had three calls last week. I had one today. But the point is that it was a part of remembering the Sabbath day and starting it in that particular way, because I think we see the importance of what we are going to do. So my wife knew what we were going to have so far as our main meal. We knew what we were going to have so far as our dessert. And we knew what we were going to do as a family, except of course if we went away from home that would not be so. I think it shows us the importance of this concept of Exodus 20:8, and that is simply to remember, to always keep the Sabbath day in mind. I think that becomes an important thing. And if we keep the Sabbath in mind throughout the week, then we don't lose the perspective of its great meaning for all of us in God's church.
Another thing that we had not discussed, and that is the question of eating out on the Sabbath. We have a paper, and I have a copy here in front of me. This was done by the doctrinal committee entitled, "Principles of Sabbath Observance, Eating Out on the Sabbath." The reason why I bring this is that it is a question that sometimes comes up. So I would like to let you know that I have made 20 copies of this, and it is also on the church web site if you wish to go there to get a copy. But it goes through all of the scriptures and all of the principles that have to do with eating out on the Sabbath. And you must understand the issue of eating out on the Sabbath has been raised occasionally over the years. The church has never taught that it was wrong or a violation of the Sabbath to eat in a restaurant on the Sabbath. Clearly Christianity involves an individual choice as to what you do. It is a judgment that individuals have to make.
The apostle Paul took certain positions about not eating meat if it made someone to stumble. But the point that we realize is that the act itself of going out to eat is not a matter of sin. This particular article goes through and explains to you the scriptures that are used, that we recognize the Sabbath or a holy day is a personal decision to go out. It is the view of the church that it is not a violation of the scriptures if one chooses to eat out. Those who object to purchasing a meal on the Sabbath usually base their argument from two principles, one causing someone else to work on the Sabbath, or exchanging money on the Sabbath. There are two scriptures. One is in Nehemiah 13, and the other one is in Amos.
But I think if you will look at these two scriptures with this particular article I think you will see why the church teaches what it teaches in this regard. The prohibition that you find in both places is against setting up a market on the Sabbath or a holy day. That is the principle that is found there. And the Jews had become a people that made the Sabbath a secular day where it was acceptable to go to a market. And we simply say to you that the teaching of the principle of God and what is said there is simply don't make the Sabbath a market day, or a day to do your weekly shopping. So you can get that paper, and I will let you read it because I think it is important for all of us to understand. We must extract principles and then not jump to conclusions in our comparison to modern life. Nehemiah 13 has nothing to do with eating out in a restaurant. This was not the problem. Again, the problem was the setting up of these markets that they had. I think the most important thing for us to realize, after you look at the scriptures on the subject, if you as an individual feel compelled not to eat out at a restaurant on the Sabbath, so be it. No one will look down, no one will criticize, no one should, no one should judge. We simply ask that individuals keep that as a personal decision and not make efforts to, shall we say, persuade others of their views because this is a teaching of the church. Now that has happened in some years gone by, and I think we must understand that attempts to persuade others simply makes a divisive issue, and that behavior simply would not be tolerated in the Church of God. We call that sowing discord, and that is something that we won't do.
Now, with the principles of the Sabbath that we have gone through in the first sermon, we must individually grow in the proper judgment, continually expanding our understanding of God's laws concerning the Sabbath. Now what I would like to do this afternoon instead of giving you the don'ts, I want to give you the do's. I want to show you some very positive things by which to judge based on one scripture and the teachings from that one scripture. I think it is the only place in the Old Testament that gives you the principles that God wants us to understand, what I call the positive principles.
I would like you to turn to Isaiah 58. We are going to spend a great deal of time here in the latter part of the sermon time that I have left in this area. If you remember, I said to everyone that I am going to try to teach the positive principles of how we observe this particular set of scriptures. This is Isaiah 58. I am going to read the scripture first, and then I am going to go through and give you some principles that are given from the scriptures. And then you take that and apply it with judgment. It says, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. That's a mouth full. We will understand that in just a moment. Then shall you delight yourself in the Lord. And I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
Now if we would look at the context of the scripture, please understand when you look at the early part of Isaiah 58 you see they were dealing with the question of fasting and the problems that they were having in the way they were fasting. They were going through the motions with this fasting. They were going through the motions spiritually. There were dealing and fasting for strife and debate, trying to get God's approval for their plans, fasting for the appearance sake. We saw also the fruits that were truly from a godly fast. And so in this context of the right kind of fasting and the wrong kind of fasting, God then addresses the Sabbath. As with fasting, God contrasts the right approach in his holy time and the wrong approach. And it would seem that the wrong approach will not cause God to take notice. That is basically what you are seeing by looking at the early context. The right approach will cause God to take notice, enhance our relationship, and cause us to take delight in the eternal. Now we have to be careful that our Sabbath does not degenerate into a meaningless weekly ritual. There is more to the Sabbath than simply acknowledging that it is Saturday and not Sunday, and not working, and of course going to church. The Sabbath is set apart for a particular purpose, and this is what I want to cover in the last part of my sermon. Because this is the important thing. This is the positive side of understanding what we should be doing with the Sabbath.
So let's start with a question that many, many people raise. How do I use my television set? What about my computer? What about a radio? What about printed material such as books and magazines and newspapers, etc., etc., etc. The world we live in comes into our home through many vehicles. It comes into our home through the electronic vehicles that I just talked about, TV, computers, radios, and the printed page. How we use these vehicles through our Sabbath observance will depend upon our interpretation of Isaiah 58:13-14. Now do we use these vehicles for personal entertainment? Do we use these vehicles for information? Possible education? The Sabbath turns out to be a day of highly positive import. It liberates man for meeting God. Do these vehicles help you do that? This is what you have to evaluate. These are some of the questions we much judge in our Sabbath keeping.
Now let me give you two sides to the story. Let's say that there are some people who spend 7 ½ hours on the Sabbath watching television. They also decide they are going to watch an R-rated movie on Friday night. Now to me that is one ditch. The other side of that might be simply turning it off and never using it at all, when there are some things on there that can be used in a proper way. The whole thing that you will come to realize is that as we look at Isaiah 58:13-14 you have to make those judgments how you and your family will use that television, or that computer, or the radio, or the printed page. You have to understand that I can't give you a set of do this, don't do this, do this, don't do that. Because how you observe that and your approach to it may be different from mine, but the principle that we go back to is Isaiah 58:13-14. It is the only place in the Old Testament that really gives us more of an insight into the keeping of the Sabbath and the things that are mentioned here in verses 13-14.
So let me start by taking you to the Seventh Day Adventist Commentary. Now why do I use Seventh Day Adventist Commentary? Because I think they have a very nice explanation of this particular section. It is going to take me a few minutes to read it but I want you to listen closely. I think you will find it is very helpful to depict and interpret what we need to understand in verses 13-14. And while they don't observe the Sabbath in the same way we do, I think that the overall concept is found here. He starts out by saying, "The high point of the Sabbath in Isaiah 58:13-14 must be seen as a part of the chapter as a whole and not an isolated fragment." That's what I just said a couple of minutes ago. "If it is taken as part of the large whole then a harmonious association between social interests and religious actions, the keeping of the Sabbath may be recognized. The combination of these concerns also attests to the Sabbath commandment. The ideal of Sabbath observance proposed here is found in no other passage of the Old Testament."
And so they begin to give us a translation, what they would describe simply as their translation of this particular section. I am going to read it to you. Some translations have it like this; some have it a little differently. It says, "If you turn your foot away from the Sabbath, from doing your business on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord, honorable, and you honor it by not doing your ways, nor by seeking after your business, or by speaking words, then you shall delight in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Now the keeping of the foot on the Sabbath means to profane and to dishonor it. To turn the foot away from the Sabbath means to turn away from doing ones business. That is a very broad term. So let's break that down. (They give us three points.)
Number one, refusing to engage in one's own business affairs on the Sabbath. The Hebrew word, hepes, is traditionally translated pleasure, gratification, diversion, enjoyment of the senses or the mind. In short, it is something that gives delight and satisfaction to which one devotes time to gain it. Recent writers have suggested the best rendering of this word in our test is Ôbusiness' or Ôaffair'. Man is not to engage in his own pleasure in the sense that he seeks his own business or affairs on the Sabbath day.
Point number two, not doing one's way. The term for this is derek, a word that has rich connotations and can mean understanding or enterprises. Without doubt, emphasis is placed on the pronoun YOUR in connection with ways. These are the ways of human endeavor, undertaking an enterprise. The keeping of the Sabbath involves a period of rest from such ways of human activity so that one can reflect on the ways of God."
So you begin to see the frame of mind that is beginning to be shown by what the commentary is try to get across by these words.
"The third word, refraining from speaking words on the Sabbath, this counsel in verse 13 is not aimed at maintaining total silence on the Sabbath. The vexing phrase in the Hebrew which is variously rendered as talking idly, speaking idle words, or in closer affinity to the original text with speaking your own words, if kept in the spirit of the immediate context appears to refer to any oral communication involved in the pursuit of man's secular affairs, enterprises, and undertakings. To put it another way they say, the Sabbath turns out to be a day of highly positive import. Sabbath observance is not a burden. It liberates man for meeting God.
That is the basic essence of what they are saying here. And therefore it is a day of joy. It is a day of delight. The person who calls the Sabbath a delight is one who delights in the Lord. So you begin to see how the thinking of the mind begins to shift, and during this particular period of time how it should be carried out.
There are a number of other things that are said here, but I think the main idea is the idea of delight with regard to the Sabbath combines both worship of God and finding enjoyment through and in him and in what he provides both spiritually and physically.
A little bit later in the final part of the sermon I am going to take you to a lady who came back to some very basic principles of how to keep the Sabbath. And while she is not a member of God's church, I think she grasps some of the basic principles that we need to look at.
So what we recognize is that we take the principles that are found here, our ways versus God's ways. God claims the Sabbath day as his, and I think the Sabbath is to be a pleasurable and an enjoyable day. It is to be a day of happiness and cheerfulness. This is what it is all about. What makes us happy? Not the same thing that the world around us lives by. Not just physical pleasures. But we also focus on the spiritual aspects of the day, thinking about God, getting closer to God, learning about his ways. And therefore, in essence God says, pay attention to me on the Sabbath. Treat the Sabbath as an honor to me. And I think when you begin to do that then you find that television, radio, the computer all find their proper place. But their place is not in the same sense of somebody spending seven and one half hours in watching an R-rated movie on the Sabbath. It just doesn't seem to be the ditch the Christian should be in.
Now, God says also when we refer to honor, and power and influence, and inheriting the earth — like he says in verse 14 — I think we see that God demonstrates we are going to be a part of his kingdom of God. And I think thinking about those things on the Sabbath day and the life we have chosen becomes a very, very important thing. I think these two scriptures tell us to focus on God and not self. Secondly, it tells us to focus on the eternal things and not the trivial. That is basically God and the big picture. Because we are going to come down and talk about some things that we can do. But God and the big picture should dominate our thoughts. It is not saying it would be wrong to think about other things, more mundane things, but the big picture should take center stage. The Sabbath pictures the millennium. The Sabbath pictures the coming of Christ to bring that particular government. And so the concept of simply where your treasure is there will your heart be also, we recognize that if certain things are found only in our own interest, our own pursuits, and our own pleasures, then our focus will be on the self. And I think that is where we have to understand that a person's interests and pursuits and pleasures are of paramount importance, and they will find if they are delighting in the Sabbath it takes a completely different look when you look at Isaiah 58:13. Your ways — simply we would say it means the course of life, the mode of action, your employment, your enterprises, your finances, the serious business of making a living which we have to do six days a week. We don't involve ourselves in working at that on the Sabbath day. We do that the rest of the week. Those things by which you feed, clothe, and care for yourself physically, you put those things away. You remove yourself from that and you begin to think about those areas that are important spiritually. Your pleasure. Forsaking ones pleasure does not mean the Sabbath is a rigorous day of abstinence. I found that on that Friday night with my children that was a wonderful time. I found that being with the brethren after church service, or being able to enjoy something out in the park, a nice picnic, or a walk in nature, those things were very much a part of the thinking and the mentality of being with God's people and having our mind and our energies and all of that taken up in that Sabbath attitude. Your words. I think this is a spiritual application of the first two principles. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. What we talk about, what we are thinking I think is known every Sabbath day when we talk with the brethren.
Now let me give you some ideas about making the Sabbath a delight. I told you about one that my family did for many years when my children were at home. I think we look at a need to visit the sick. You know, when you begin to reach outside of yourself there is an amazing thing that happens. There is a wonderful relationship that can be established. I found some of the ABC young people have begun to visit the widows. We do need to visit the sick. I think there's a chance for many of us to take a half hour, 45 minutes, maybe an hour, I don't mean to overextend your stay, but visiting the sick is very important. Many people have used the time to write a letter or a card of encouragement to someone. I don't think there is anything that is more, shall I say, pointed than someone thinking about you and sending you a card. And it may only be a few words, but telling you how much they appreciate or they love you or they care about you and their concern for you. I think those are absolutely fantastic. How long does is take? Not very long. But just that thought, and using the Sabbath to reach out away from yourself becomes a profound thing.
Studying the word of God and reviewing God's plan, I think the holy day of God depicts the importance of getting our minds out of the mundane. It is a crazy world we live in right now. It has just gone bananas. We have got anarchy all over the place in the United States just over two things, the Ten Commandments and homosexual marriages. It is absolutely vile. We have that anarchy going on. And somewhere you have got to escape in what God is going to do, and realize that it is going to happen because he can't lie. So you take the time to review God's plan.
Talking about goals, about the future, considering the spiritual future ahead. Those are important things. I find that looking back on what God has done for us, and then looking forward to what he is going to continue to do because of the promise to be with us from back then to right now, and I think that becomes very encouraging. Putting this life and the world in the perspective of God's word and his plan, this is a day to think about the positive things, to reach forward or to reach upward. Again, it is talking about that in verse 13 and 14.
I find some people are able to read sections of the Bible that deal with God as Creator, the Sabbath theme, and then they watch videos or they watch cable channels like the National Geographic. I find that the Discovery Channel in some areas simply highlights the creation of God. I do feel that we have got some wonderful videos in the home office here that depict, from Moody Bible Institute, about different things like the ant, the creation, and those things. You can borrow them from us if you like, just to be able to take a Sabbath and show them to your children. We even have some videos that are for smaller children as well. Take that and use it. It becomes a wonderful teaching tool in your own home.
Walk in the park. Sometimes, I don't know about you, but you never get a chance to smell the roses. And it's just great to be able to do that. But somebody said, yeah, but I've got allergies. You know, put your mask on then and go do it. I think one of the most enjoyable things was when I went out to visit my daughter and my granddaughter. My wife was there. I took some time to walk away from the house, and of course California is blooming everything all year around. I was able to sit down on a bench there and be able to look at these flowers that were there, and all the different veins in the flowers, different from one another. It gives you time to slow down and stop, because the world we live in runs so fast. Like Alvin Tofler said, we are stressing ourselves half to death to do that. Take a walk in the park.
Have interactive discussions with your husband or wife on newspaper articles and magazine articles. I am talking about simply the problems of the world we see and the solutions that God is going to bring. Wonderful thing to do that with some things in prophecy.
Videos from the library. As I said, Moody's films, and also Focus on the Family. They have some wonderful things on family. Discuss those various and sundry topics. The wonderful video we have, or DVD, that talks about the sex problems that we see in this society with the terrible diseases that are going on, I think she does a fantastic job. I recommend it for those of you with children that are old enough to watch it.
I think special meals, special family time at meals, is very important. I do believe that one of the most enjoyable things was having a picnic in the park after Sabbath service, where you just sit down, take off your tie, and visit with a group of brethren. Pull out -- they used to call it the hibachi back in those days. I don't know how many used to have the hibachis. But that kind of dates me, doesn't it. But we used to do that. Potlucks at home. Great time. Special friends over to spend the night on Friday night. Great stuff to do. It's all a part of that positive look at Isaiah 58 where it talks about the fact that it is a pleasure, it is wonderful, it is honorable. And you get away from all of these things. It is a wonderful thing.
So how much would you get involved with the world coming into your house then during that time? Probably a whole lot less. I would like to simply in the latter part of the sermon read an article to you. It will take a couple of minutes, but I would like to share it with you. It is about a lady who had a Jewish faith for years and she walked away from it. And she came back to the Sabbath. Now all of what she says obviously you don't agree with and I don't agree with. But I think it's called Ancient Wisdom. It was written by a lady by the name of Nan Chase. And I would like to share it. It will take me about seven or eight minutes to read it. But I think if you get the flavor of what she is trying to tell you, then you will understand the preparation day. You will understand the whole concept of letting your mind begin to drain of all the things that are going on in the world that you live in. She is a writer for some particular magazines, but she wrote in this one about personal growth. So let me share it with you. It won't take too long, but I think it gets the idea across. It said:
"In a moment of divine inspiration I decided to try an old fashioned cure for my space age blues. It is called the Sabbath. And it's a mental health tool that works as well today as it did 3200 years ago when the Hebrews codified a weekly day of rest as the fourth commandment. The beauty is that it can work for anyone. It has been said that the Sabbath is the Hebrew's greatest gift to humanity. (They miss the point of what the scriptures say in Exodus 20 and 31). Now if someone told you that there was a way to stop the onslaught of everyday obligations, improve your social life, keep the house clean, revive your tired marriage, elevate spiritual awareness, improve productivity at work, all overnight without cost, you would probably say the claim was absurd. I certainly did, but I was willing to see if some cosmic miracle cure might really work. After a year of earnest research I discovered that adherence to a seemingly arcane set of Sabbath rules yields a precious gift of time. I admit my secular observance was not those of the Orthodox Jews who engage in elaborate prayer and rituals, but instead my husband and I tried to honor the meaning of the Sabbath while adapting the practices to our tastes, our temperaments, and our times. (Again, remember what I said about everybody has to judge these things that you have to deal with.) Nevertheless, from sundown Friday night until Saturday night we symbolically joined the black-robed Jews of Jerusalem at rest. No cooking (now the Bible doesn't say you can't cook — I'm just simply saying that is what they did.) No shopping or paying bills, no pulling weeds or pruning shrubs, nor cleaning or repairing the house. Not even talking about or thinking about work and the office. The Sabbath is a day without labor, a time to savor the sweetness of life with a delicious meal, wine, and lovemaking, honest (excuse me for small ears, but I think the point is you understand what I am saying, I hope you do) napping, reading and strolling. My personal life, my professional life, my family life have all improved, and I plan to go on celebrating the Sabbath, the most powerful and illuminating discovery for me because of the sudden understanding of how an ancient edict can have such thoroughly modern applications."
Then she begins to talk about how she started to have problems. She said,
"My quest began at a marriage counselor's office. After 22 fruitful years of marriage my husband, Saul, and I found ourselves deadlocked over crises of time management, of growth and change. Our children began to leave the nest, to have wonderful adventures with new friends and interests, but I wanted to try myself and with Saul, but we had a lot of responsibilities, new business, construction things. We needed to work extra hours. We were caught in a net of squabbling. So we just decided to get some outside help, and the next week I came across a book about Jewish holidays and started reading the chapter describing the Sabbath. Yes, it's a holiday, a special event that occurs not once a year but once a week. A day so significant it is inscribed among the Ten Commandments along with thou shalt not murder and thou shalt not steal. The simple textbook description electrified me. The Sabbath, it says, marks the difference between man and all other creatures that live in the universe. This day of rest was to be strictly observed in order for humans to cease the everyday struggle for existence and enjoying life's material and spiritual gifts."
Then she talked about how they began to break out of that. And I will read it to you because I think it is very helpful.
"Like so many people of Jewish heritage in the modern United States, we never really learned what it meant to observe the Sabbath. We knew the outlines. Approach of the sundown on Friday was to be heralded with an especially good holiday meal including the best wine, and not one but two loaves of that special bread, that Jewish rich braided egg bread. The house was to be spotless, and all the work was to be completed. There was more. No lighting of a fire. If we were going to be thorough, no carrying of money or riding in the car."
Again, this is the types of do's and don'ts that are there by the Jewish people, but we talked about what God's approach would be. So she goes on to sayÉ
"What does it all mean? The answer proved to be an exciting journey. The first Sabbath I took Friday afternoon off from work to clean the house from top to bottom. If a family with three teenagers is going to get a day without work, we should start with everything extra clean. This practice proved to be an instant winner, and I have permanently changed my workweek to the benefit of our home life. I also baked bread for the first week, two loaves according to the injunction biblically. The second loaf underscores the day's importance as a day of rest. Along with the bread I cooked enough stew to last through Saturday and Sunday. A day's worth of cooking and cleanup had disappeared. Saul came home from work Friday afternoon, cleared away a stack of bills, and before the sun went down finished all that he had to do. What next? We felt duty bound to try the wine. And the lovemaking rules. And yes, even romance took on a profound and delightful new aspect. How marvelous to be told to make time to enjoy the physical and emotional pleasures of a mature relationship. And what about Saturdays? That first week after rising extra late Saul and I took our coffee into the back yard and I absent-mindedly began to pick weeds. And he said, ÔStop, don't do that.' And thus began our continuing exploration of the meaning of work. He was right to stop me, it turns out. We try now to read every week from a book of Biblical commentary on the way to learn the theology. On the Sabbath our book says, humans should exist in a state of perfect harmony with the natural world, and that means letting the weeds and lawn grow without interference. (Oh, I like that, I really like that.) We are both passionate gardeners that work in the garden every spare moment, and leave no time to enjoy its beauty. We soon gave up shopping on Saturdays, and now that is a day when the commercial realm has no hold on our family. Even though we hedge a little bit and take the car on a spiritual journey. (Whatever that may mean.)"
So, what did they do with the time gained? Sleeping, enjoying their garden, doing things they have put off for a long time. Their children now are beginning to come home. They relish on Friday night getting together with their friends at our home, etc. So I think you begin to see again one of the points that I made about inviting someone over to stay over on Friday night.
"Most of all I look forward to my weekly holiday. As the sun goes down I simply change. And I move away from all the things I have been doing. (I thought this was interesting. She took off her wristwatch.) For a night and a day, time stands still."
I'm not necessarily saying that you have to do that. But I think what I tried to do in this particular article is to show you the attitude that comes back to Isaiah 58:13-14. Not a bunch of do's and don'ts, but I think something that is very important. The Sabbath is a wonderful gift that God has given us in worshiping him. Generally in our day and age the tendency to take the Sabbath for granted is certainly true, and we are hoping we will get back to remembering these important things. More people seem to be, obviously, too liberal with the Sabbath as compared with those that are too strict.
Ezekiel 20:11-12. I would like to conclude with that in the sermon today. Notice what the prophet says to us. I gave them my statues and showed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them. Moreover, I also gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them. Here these two verses simply show that the Sabbath is a sign between God and his people. Israel forsook God and the holy time that he set aside. They paid the price for it, a very dear price to pay. Can we assume that if God is going to hold a whole nation accountable for breaking the Sabbath that he would spare one individual? I think we have to realize that we as a church need to take the Sabbath more seriously. I think we need to understand that probably in the 90s we let some things slip because "they" sent us down that road and we didn't pay close enough attention. We must take the Sabbath more seriously. We must keep it holy because our salvation depends on it. I hope that in these two sermons you have at least picked up some basic principles that maybe you have forgotten, that I hope you will bring back to your Sabbath keeping and allow it to make your Sabbath day most enjoyable and most delightful.