Approaching and Experiencing the Sabbath in Spirit and Truth

I'd like to give you the title of my message up front. I'm looking forward to bringing it to you, and I think it'll follow along with the first message of the day that we heard. And the title of my message is simply this. Approaching and experiencing the Sabbath.

Approaching and experiencing the Sabbath in spirit and truth. In spirit and truth.

So we are going to be speaking about something very near and dear to God Almighty, who has created this injunction for us to observe, and should be near and dear to each and every one of us as we observe it year in and year out. And to a degree, practice hopefully does make perfect as we are to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. So I'd like to mention this going just up front, and that is that Scripture informs us a lot about how we are to—are you with me?—to approach God on His terms. How to approach God on His terms, and not our own.

And what we're going to come to find as we learn about approaching God, that there is nothing casual about it. That even as we do, as we find from the New Testament, call Him our Heavenly Father, Abba. Near, dear, intimacy. Nonetheless, there is, to a degree, nothing casual about approaching God, or indeed what He has Himself made holy. Just going through the Scriptures for a few minutes allows us to understand approaches.

And approaches are important. You know, when you think of most accidents that occur with jets, they are normally too full, either on approaches and or takeoffs. Approaches are very important, not only on landing fields, on runways, but how we approach the Holy God above. Just going to kind of allude to these, just to kind of paraphrase, to kind of warm us up as we move through this. But let's think about different people at different times down through the ages. Covenant people like you, like me, by God's grace, that have been given the call to approach God.

You might want to just for a moment of Moses in Exodus 3, Exodus 3 2 through 5. We, I think most of us are familiar, where Moses is called up to the Mount, and he is drawn to this bush that is burning, but is not terminated.

It just keeps on burning, and it is the story of the burning bush. And remember the one thing that as he is moving towards that burning bush, that the I Am, he identifies himself as the I Am there, tells Moses to do something very specifically as he approaches the I Am. Can somebody help me out there? What was asked of Moses as he approached the burning bush? Paul? Take off your sandals, take off your shoes, and those were the shoes today.

So right there we begin to see a distinction even for a man that is being called into service of God, and somebody that's going to be used uniquely as they approach God Almighty, as they approach the I Am, they are asked to do something to be aware that they're moving from one space into another. Let's consider then for a moment Exodus 16.

I'm just going to kind of paraphrase these. You can look them up later. Exodus 16 4 through 7. Just a little bit later on, this is the famous story about the gathering of the manna, and that they were to collect that manna. Manna meaning what is it, but the food that God had supplied, they were to collect that manna daily. And then on Friday, which sometimes we call the preparation day, they had to collect double the manna because they were not to collect manna on the holy Sabbath day.

Now what's very important in all of this is not just Friday, but they became aware of moving, are you with me? Moving towards the Sabbath at the beginning of the week. The beginning of the week began their approach to the Sabbath, not sunset on Friday evening.

They recognized that God instructed them, you will collect, you will collect, you will collect, and as you get closer, like when we were kids, remember, hotter, hotter, warmer, warmer, colder, colder. By Friday, you are beginning to almost sizzle because you're coming up to the Sabbath. And God said, you are not to collect on the other day because I will be your provider. So we found, you might want to jot this down because you're going to begin to see where I'm leading. We see a week-long focus. That's something with special coming on the seventh day at the end of the week.

Exodus 19, 10 through 15, another story. God is about to speak to the children of Israel from Sinai, and he gives specific instructions to Israel, to the children of Israel through Moses, that there are certain things that are going to need to be done as I'm going to address my people, my children, and this is what you will tell them. Number one, you're going to take a bath. You're going to clean up. Not only that, but interesting in this specific area, he says you will not have marital relationships before that time when you come up against the mountain.

And by the way, as you do come up to the mountain, you will not touch the mountain. We're not used to this because we live in a world that has lost a grasp of what is holy.

I'm okay. You're okay. I'm in. You're in. We're buds. We're bros. And so there kind of becomes a sameness, a sameness in today's culture. Let's consider another thought here in Exodus 28, 31 through 43. I'll just paraphrase this again. When God gave instructions for the tabernacle, he also gave instructions to Aaron and the sons of Aaron, who were all Levites, but it would be the priest that would come out of the family of Aaron. And they were given, stay with me, please, in this setting of Exodus 28, 31, 43. They were given specific details as to what to wear as the priest when they were in service to God. That when they came through that tabernacle, now this is going to be exciting. When they came through the tabernacle door and they were in the holy place, not the most holy place or the holy of holies, but just, just the holy place, which would abut against ultimately the most holy place, which would be the presence of God, God's throne on earth, on the lid of the ark, the mercy seat, but where God would reside in that sense, that as they came into the most holy place, which was the beginning, that they had to wear, you might say, designer clothes designed by God Almighty. And not only that, but in the hem of those clothes, as they entered into what that holy place, they had to have bells that rung them in, and that would also ring them out.

They were the original ding-a-lings, if you think about that, in that sense, you heard the bells come, and there was a reason because they were coming into that which is holy. And it says in this set of verses, if you you will do this, lest you die. Now that I've got everybody's attention, I don't know if you even need that prayer now after I mentioned that everybody might die. No, you don't have to wear that coming in today. That was for them. This is a different time in a different setting. We also see the example on in Exodus 33, 17 through 18, Moses again has gone up on the mountain, and he's very worried about, well, will God proceed them? Will God go forward for his people? God says, I don't want to. They have abandoned me. They have murmured. I will raise up somebody new. And the people got all that. Don't tell God, don't take his presence from us. And then Moses is up there wrestling with God. Don't take your presence. Show me yourself. So God says, I will show you myself, Moses, but you will have to get behind a rock as I approach. You know the story. I will have to get behind the rock when I approach. No man can look upon me in that sense, my holy presence and live.

The big list 16, the Vatican 16 verse 16 through 17 again, the day of atonement. We recognize that it is on that day that one individual came into the holy place, to the holy place, washed himself, cleansed himself, sacrificed for himself before he would sacrifice for the people. And then he would go into the holy of holies, the very room that was representative of the presence of God, the holy presence of God. And all of Israel on that day of atonement, they saw a man enter. Would he come back? Would he come out? Because he was about to experience in that sense the holiness and the presence of God in the very realm of where the Shekinah would come down and exist. As God said, I will be your God and you will be my people and I will be in the midst of you.

He who is holy. Interesting. First Timothy 6, 16. Let's open up for the Bible here. Just go to the New Testament for a second. First Timothy 6 verse 16. Again, interesting out of the book of Timothy, but here it is Paul writing, speaking of God, who alone has immortality, dwelling, and notice the unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can't see to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. God exists in unapproachable light.

Most interesting. You see, we just don't have the equipment at this juncture. We are promised that equipment in Scripture when this corruptible sheds the corruptibility and we take on incorruptibility. Then we'll have the equipment to fully be able to approach and experience God in that sense one-on-one. Interesting. When we see all of this, why is this so? Why is it important that we understand that approaching that which is holy? And I'm going to move to that which is holy regarding the Sabbath is so important to understand. Join me if we would in Isaiah 57. In Isaiah 57, and let's pick up the thought if we could in verse 15. In Isaiah 57 in verse 15, we notice this, for thus says the high and the lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and the holy place. I dwell in the high and the holy place. And he, it says here that he inhabits eternity. God is first cause. God is creator. God is sustainer. God alone, along with the word, has life inherent. He is the life giver. He is, to make it personal, he is our life giver. Nothing lives or dies apart from him. First Peter 1 17, building towards a point here. First Peter 1 verse 17. Again, God defines himself here. First Peter 1 verse 17.

Actually, let's pick up the thought in verse 16. Let's pick up the thought in verse 15. But as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy for I am holy. Self-disclosure. God says that I am holy. Now, let's build up on this a little bit. What does it mean to be holy? I'd like to share a few thoughts for you. You might want to jot a few thoughts down here. The word holy is used over 600 times in the Bible.

One might be enough, but when you mention it 600 times, we know that we're on to something. Are you with me? The term defines his distinct separation, that of being set apart from the creation. God is uncreated. The word is uncreated. He is set apart, unique, not of the creation.

And in that sense, he's separate then from sin and from corruption and from impurity. He's perfect in all of his ways. He's exceptional in a category all by himself. That's what makes him God. Unmatched by any other being or any other thing in the universe. He is holy. Now, let's take it a step further. We're going to transition. And that which he chooses, and that which he breathes life into, and that which he alone sets apart, sanctifies to use a fancy word, sets apart, that too can become holy. He can imprint on time. He can imprint on space. He can imprint on things. And that's one of the things that we're going to understand as we turn to Exodus 20 and verse 8. Exodus 20 and verse 8. In Exodus 20 and verse 8, and we're in the midst of the Ten Commandments, we come to the aspect of the Fourth Commandment. I dare say that some of the information that I'm going to be sharing with you today is information that is familiar. Good. I'm not saying this to put you to sleep, but we are going to expand because remember what the title of the message is, approaching and experiencing the Sabbath in spirit and in truth, of which Dave addressed, and I'm going to expand upon. Do you know that you can know the truth about the Sabbath day? You can even count to seven and know what day the Sabbath is on, and you can even do this and you can do that. You can do this and you can do that.

But my challenge today to all of us as fellow Christians is, can we grow in the grace and the knowledge of approaching, internalizing, and experiencing the Sabbath day in even greater truth and understanding, and most importantly, in the spirit of the new covenant, which deals with the heart, which deals with not what everybody sees you doing right here and now as we assemble together, but what God alone knows, that you are stating that you understand His holiness.

We notice here, then, a point in Exodus 20 verse 8. Notice, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Our responsibility is not to make the Sabbath day holy. God alone created that, as we're going to come to see in a few minutes. God imparted His holiness upon the seventh day Sabbath. Our responsibility, the word there, when you see the word there of remember, the word is the car. That means to have a diligence about this day. Now, why did God give us the Sabbath? I remember many, many years ago, about 25 years ago, in listening to a lecture from a gentleman named Dr. Bakiyoki. Some of you might remember the good doctor back about 94 and 95, and he wrote books on the Sabbath, etc., etc. I had the opportunity to meet him several times and to be able to talk to him. So I want to give him due credit for this phrase that I'm going to give you, and you might want to jot it down. It's not long, okay? It's not the length of a Wikipedia article, and it's better than Wikipedia, okay? Because I think this is right. Here we go. A holy God gives a holy day to a holy people for a holy purpose. A holy God gives a holy day to a holy people for a holy purpose. Now, this is not rocket scientists and not too much multiple choice.

What word keeps on repeating itself in that line of thought? Word? Holy. And who is the engine? Who is in front of the train? God. Right. So what we're seeing here is that God has a purpose that's being worked out here below, and by His revelation has given us the opportunity to understand what He's doing, even through that which is the the Sabbath day. And sometimes what we'll say, well, we'll say, well, we understand that the the Sabbath day is the type of the millennium and points ahead, and yes it does, and we'll get to that in a moment. But it's not only, it's not only what it is representing ahead, but it is what we are representing to God as we observe the Sabbath day in a holy manner. With that thought in mind, join me in John 4. Please, John 4. And it's the famous conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4. John 4, and you'll remember that. He's at the well, and they're talking, and they're trying to, it's a little bit like this. Are you with me? Where, you know, you ever remember doing this in school? You know, who's going to be on top like this, and you keep on going up, and then then you run out of arms and say, oh, forget it. So you look at John 4 in verse 19. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, and we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. And God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. Now, here's the challenge that I have for all of us, is to simply think about this. Most of us know this conversation. Most of us are not estranged from this conversation, and we think it's simply a conversation over whose mountain is better and whose temple is better back and forth. But let's turn it around for a second. We that are Christian Sabbatarians, we can say, well, well, we keep the rest day on on Saturday, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

That's the best. And you're over here saying Sunday or some other day, and we can throw back and forth what we do know is the truth. Please understand. But we can miss something along the way. Just because we show up for the day or have that knowledge, have that understanding, and have that truth. Jesus Himself, your Lord, my Master, the Head of the Church, the Head of the Body of Christ, He who is the Lord of the Sabbath, says this, that the day will come when, when my followers will worship in spirit and in truth.

My question to you that only you can answer. I can't answer, and I have to answer for myself. Are you with me? Do we fully embrace as we approach the Holy Day of the Sabbath, the Seventh-day Sabbath? And as we internalize it, are we expressing this day not only, quote, unquote, truth, but are we existing in it? Are we internalizing it? Are we experiencing this 24-hour time set apart in the spirit that God wants us to be in? David alluded to it some. I wanted to build upon it, and I didn't ask him what he was going to speak on, and I'm very glad that he did. So that's kind of what I really want to do, because, you know, we can pride, and there can be pride in even covenant people, as we say in bad English, to make a point, I is one. We can take pride that, well, our standard is the Seventh-day, but that's not enough. That's truth. Even God said it's on the Seventh-day.

But how do we observe that Seventh-day? How do we keep it holy? How do we honor God? Because it's not a day. We do not worship a day. We don't worship a day. Sometimes people make that mistake. Well, you're worshiping a day. No, we worship God every day or ought every day of our existence. But God has set aside this holy time, this temple in time called the Sabbath. And that's what I want to explore, because we want to really understand what God wants us to get out of this. By doing so, let's go right now back to Genesis 1. Let's go right to the beginning, and then we'll move forward. Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, let's notice what it says here about what God did in the very beginning. That's why Genesis means beginning. We go back to the beginning. Chapter 1, verse 1, then God saw everything that He made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth and all of the hosts in them were finished. And on the seventh day, God ended His work, which He had done. He stopped that, which was His physical creation. He stopped. And all along the way, He said, it's good. All along the way, He built up to the sixth day where He said, it's very good. But now He stopped. He meditated. He reflected before He was going to go on to His next step. And therefore, He rested on the seventh day from all of His work, which He had done. He stopped. He ceased.

The Hebrew word is Shabbat. Sometimes people will say, well, you know the Sabbath isn't mentioned in the beginning. Well, it is Shabbat, but Sabbath, it's rest. That's what it is. And then God blessed the seventh day and He sanctified it because in it He rested from all of His work, which God had created and made. So there's two things that we see in verse three, very important. He blessed it and He sanctified it. The word blessing there comes from the Hebrew word barak, which means He declared. He made a declaration. And not only that, the word can also, barak, and also, I mean, He knelt to kneel. That means to honor because He was making something very, very special. A blessing is special, isn't it? It's wonderful to be blessed. It's wonderful to be able to bless somebody as a minister. It's a wonderful thing. It's a declaration. And we're kneeling because we're worshiping and we're honoring God. And then it says that He sanctified it. The word there is kadesh, which means He made it pure. He made it clean. He hallowed it. He made it sacred. He consecrated it. He dedicated it. In other words, think this through for a moment. He imprinted, as it were, He imprinted Him, as it were, Himself on this space and time, and a sense of temple of worship, to worship Him. Interesting.

And to recognize, then, that in Exodus 31, join me if you would for a moment, in Exodus 31, we see the bond here of how important this was. God is holy and He can make things holy. Remember the phrase by Dr. Bakiyoki, we worship a holy God who made a holy day for a holy people, for a holy purpose. You see the systematic approach to all of this. The key phrase being holy, and it's all coming from God. And we notice what it says in Exodus 31, and picking up the thought if we could, in verses 13.

Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Surely, my Sabbaths, you shall keep. For it is a sign, notice, between me and you throughout all of your generations that you may know. God gives a reason that you may know that I am the Lord, who not only sanctified the Sabbath day, this temple in time, but I sanctify you. God makes things holy. And how we approach, how we consider, as we come up to that which is holy, as we've seen the examples in the Bible, is very, very important.

Question, how did the covenant people of old approach and internalize and experience the Sabbath? How did the Jewish community do it? I'd like to read a few words out of you from a book entitled Simply Jesus. It's by N. T. Wright on page 136. Listen to this. Very interesting.

One of the few things that ancient pagans knew about the Jewish people was that, from the pagan's point of view, that they had a lazy day once a week.

From the Jewish point of view, it was not laziness. It was the chance to celebrate time in a different mode.

Fascinating to celebrate time. You ever thought of it that way? To celebrate time in a different mode. The Sabbath was the day when human and God's time met. When the day-to-day succession of tasks and sorrow was set aside, and one entered a different sort of time celebrating the original Sabbath. Looking forward to the ultimate one. This was the natural moment to celebrate, to worship, to pray, to study God's law. The Sabbath was the moment during which one sensed the onward movement of history from its first foundations to the ultimate resolution. Right. Finish this up this way. If the temple was the place in which God's sphere and the human sphere met, heaven and earth coming together in the holy place, then the Sabbath was the time when God's time and human time coincide. The Sabbath was to time what the temple was to space.

I think that's true. Do I need to read that again, or did that stick with all of you?

I'm watching Mr. Fish's face. Again? You want it again?

This is called in biblical terminology the Second Coming. One of the few things that ancient pagans knew about the Jewish people was that from the pagan's point of view, they had a lazy day once a week. From the Jewish point of view, it wasn't laziness. It was the chance to celebrate time in a different mode. Because they're not only just celebrating time, they're actually celebrating the author of time, aren't they? The Sabbath was the day when human and God's time met where they synced. When the day-to-day succession of task and sorrow was set aside, and one entered a different sort of time celebrating the original Sabbath and looking forward to the ultimate one. This was the natural moment to celebrate, to worship, to pray, to study God's law. The Sabbath was the moment during which one sensed the onward movement of history. The Jews in that sense were not going around and around in circles, as do some societies. In their viewpoint, as the chosen people of God, are you with me? They were moving in a linear fashion. They were moving in a line towards the future, and they were moving out of this world and everything that was around them, just like their father Abram had done when he, and it says, and Abram, or Abram, departed. He was on a mission. He was being led by God. It was linear. It was not to be gone in circles, and it continues to move forward. And the Jewish people thought down through the ages, as we do today, as the spiritual Israel of God, that we are on that line towards the kingdom. We do not know when that line is going to end, but the line continues, and we are on that edge of intensity, looking forward to the ultimate fulfillment.

The Sabbath was the moment during which one sensed the onward movement of history from its first foundation to the ultimate resolution, if the temple was the place in which God's sphere.

Remember, God created what? The heaven and the earth. They're not separate. They're all part of God's creation. Jesus said, our Father, which art in heaven as that your will be done in heaven, as it is, what? On earth. That we think of revelation when God, the Father, comes down, and heaven and earth become one, and he dwells amongst his people. This, the Sabbath, gives us a sense of the holiness of the purpose that God wants to be intimate, and in the midst of his people now, and one day in the midst of all humanity. It's special. It is a temple, as it were, in time, just as the tabernacle itself was a temple in space.

People sometimes say, yeah, but wait a minute. Jesus came along. Let's go to Mark 2 27 and changed everything. Oh, did he really? Mark 2 27.

And he said, Jesus speaking, said to them, the Sabbath was made for man. It's a gift.

Wonderful. And not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Hmm. The term there is with a kai kireyos, which means Lord. He is the master. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the one that, in that sense, designs and gives the rules. Man, trying to outrighteous God and outdoing God, made more rules than God ever made about the Sabbath. The Sabbath is to be a day of liberty. It's a day of joy. It's a day of freedom. It's a day of doing good. Why did Jesus come to the earth in part to show humanity how to observe the Sabbath?

That it's good to be able to do good on the Sabbath day and not be imprisoned by man-made rules and traditions.

I never cease to find amazement in that some people will, like I said, make more rules than God makes.

But we need to understand what we are approaching. You know, one thing, and I'll just share this for somebody that might be newer to this understanding about this truth, then we're going to get into the spirit, is that there is more teaching from Jesus about the Sabbath than any other subject in the Gospels. You might find that interesting. Are you with me? You might find that interesting.

Didn't do away with it. He showed how God would keep it if he were a human being, to draw us a holy people to him. Here's the point that I want to share with you. I'm going to cut about two pages out.

Get to the end!

I've had the blessing of being able to observe the Sabbath for about 58 years.

I didn't say I'm 58. That's long ago and far away, but for about 58 years.

And just to be very, very honest with all of you, confession is good for the soul. I'm continuing to learn how to honor and to keep the Sabbath, just as a man, just as a human being. Susan and I continue to learn how to honor God on the Sabbath day. That's really been impressed on our minds recently, so when something's impressed on our minds, guess who gets it? All of you! But you know, we're all in this together as family. And to really recognize that I've had the blessing since I was 10 or 11. I can't quite remember in a game because we kept the Sabbath at home for a long time. We didn't know there was a church back then. Nobody was knocking on our door, but we kept the Sabbath at home until we found out that there was a church. You've heard me tell that story before. And I'm going to tell you a story about the and I find that observing the Sabbath more and more in this day and age where the whole world is just coming through our doors, coming through our windows, coming through all of our techno gadgets, and just everything that is coming at us and bombarding us, and distracting us, capturing our attention, tripping us up, all of this. You know, we look, look, car just went by. Just always movement, always motion. And there can be motion in our minds, there can be motion in our hearts. And I guess the message I'm trying to share and receive to you, you know, how we talk about fasting and we rid ourselves of food that we might humble ourselves, that we might develop intimacy with God. Here's the point that I want to kind of share with you, if there's any sticking point here in some of this. Have you thought about fasting from the world on the Sabbath? Have you thought about fasting, going without? What is it of worldliness? What is it about this world that we have seeping into our homes on the Sabbath day?

Now, please don't raise your hands right now until the message is chat. Okay, just. But I've come to realize and Susan has come to realize that we have some ways to go in further kneeling and honoring and getting back to that which was lost in Genesis. You know, the Sabbath, fascinating, the Sabbath was created before the fall, before the curse.

The Sabbath was before the curse, before man decided to reject God. And you and I, by God's grace and invitation, have an opportunity to keep it holy to, in that sense, almost go into that adinic world. That world before bad decisions, that world before we made our little gods greater than the big God. And you and I have an opportunity to do that, do that, every week, and then again, and then again. But we have to start by deceiving, beginning to consider our approach to the next Sabbath. I'm just going to ask you, how many of us find ourselves just bumping into the Sabbath and tripping into it? Tripping into the Sabbath, falling into the Sabbath, collapsing into the Sabbath. I remember a very fine message that was given by Dan Bates some years ago up in, and he's given many fine messages. You hear like, no, he's given many fine messages if you know Dan. But he talked about, you know, that a truck, you think of these commercial trucks, and you have to really know your stuff as a trucker, for those of you that are truckers. And, you know, you have the weight in the back, and you know, just because that weight. You have to stop a long way back, don't you? If you see a stop sign, or you see a car in front of you, you can't just slam on the brakes at the last moment. You're going to have an accident. You have to be visualizing. You've got to be looking. And the only reason why you do that is because you put a value on your life, on the human lives in front of you, and the cargo that you're carrying.

I am suggesting that as we consider the admonition in Revelation 18 and verse 4, it says, come out of this world and be not partakers of her plagues.

We have an opportunity to do that every week, but it takes preparation, just like the manna.

Just like the manna. We have to be, from the beginning of the week, thinking forward, and then on that Friday, collect double. Lest like some went out, and they gathered. My only question when we use the manna example is, what are you gathering on the Sabbath? What are you gathering on the Sabbath? That perhaps Christ never even thought about gathering. That we're bringing into our homes, that we're bringing into our hearts, that we're bringing into our congregation here. As we heard David speaking, that there are things that, like Moses, does everybody like shoes? I like shoes, and I like sandals on occasion. I don't wear them too often anymore, but is there something wrong with shoes? No. Is there something wrong with sandals? No. But there are some things that we leave behind when we approach God. He asked us to create a distinction, to set apart, and to consider, to rest. There was a time once, if any of you ever read Aesop's fables, Aesop's fables, he was playing with a bunch of boys in the middle of the Agoura marketplace in Greek. And some people began to scoff at him, saying, oh look at that, look at him, he's real famous, and look what he's doing down there, playing with a bunch of kids with bows and arrows. Look what he's doing.

And Aesop said, excuse me, come over here, I want to tell you something. I'm not, I'm not calling anybody. Nobody's, okay, so anyway, looks, looks, looks threatening. Bob, come forward, don't you? So anyway, that what happened is that he said, look, I could keep on doing again and again and again and just keep going and going and going, but you see this bow?

See this bow? I'm going to do something for a moment. And he unstrung the bow.

Are any of you archers out here? My name is Robin Hood.

Anybody remember of a camp where you learned how to handle a bow? You don't keep the bow strung all of the time. If you keep the bow strong and you get sloppy with the bow, the bow, the string is going to weaken. You have to unstring the bow to keep it strong for another day. God gave us the Holy Sabbath day, not only to unstring ourselves physically, but I want to take you deeper. He's given it to us to move into that world before the curse, a world where we are intimate with Him, where He walks amongst us, we talk with Him on this holy day, and that we unstring not only ourselves and relax, and there is obviously benefit to that, but what about our spirit? What about our heart?

What about our soul? What do we do about that? Do we allow that to come to full rest and worship before our God? What busy work? What gathering are we doing outside of what God would have us to do on the Sabbath day? Like I said, what Susie and I have done of recent data, we've gone back.

We try to start, you know, the truck when I mentioned about the truck, you know, stopping the truck, we have a little bit more opportunity than you do. Please understand with some of your work, but I start to pull the brakes about two o'clock in the afternoon. Pull the brakes about two o'clock. I start braking about two in my life. Right now, the Sabbath was at 5 12 last night. 5 12?

I don't do any church work that night. In that sense, I do a lot of church work on, trust me, on the Sabbath day. But that night, I just take it. Turn on the fireplace. Susan lights the candles. Susan lights the candles as a representation that Jesus is the light of our life. He's the Lord of the Sabbath. We put on music that's different the rest of the rest of the week. Remember, I grew up in the 60s. Hello.

We put on music that is harmonious, that is uplifting. Normally, that is praising God, either instrumentally or vocally.

We begin to approach. We begin to brake. We begin to stop. More and more, we found that, like these words that I've used about the kneeling and the worship, we don't just come to worship services. We can call them worship services. That's fine. I have no difficulty with that because we do collectively worship. But we worship God 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But on this appointed time in which he has imprinted his holy stamp and, in that sense, put his essence into this temple in time. We're all familiar with the Shekinah, right? The Shekinah presence coming down the cloud, coming down into the Holy of Holies, or being above the tabernacle, right? The tabernacle was God's temple in space, his presence where he abode. God did the same thing with the Sabbath day in which the Sabbath is his temple in time.

It's holy. And my encouragement is one Christian to another in the body of Christ, right? I was just saying, I think we need to pull back some. We need to really look. We can say, well, no, we can say, don't you know that in 325 Constantine did this and that, you know, we can put the encyclopedias like anybody else. That's understanding. And that's truth. But God says, and there's going to come a time when my followers are going to worship in spirit and in truth, where we divest ourselves, where we divest ourselves of our thoughts, our words, our words of this world. We have found more, especially with the world, the way that it is going and all the news that is out there. I remember many, many, many years ago. Oh, my, my. This must be about 40 years ago. One Friday night Bible study, maybe a few over there were there, and Herbert Armstrong came in to do the Friday night Bible study. And he had a big, he had a big wad of the Sunday Los Angeles Times. Remember how big that used to be? The you know how small it is? I think the cost has gone up, though, hasn't it? And he said, brethren, do you know what this is? People call it news. He says, I call it baths.

It's mostly bad news. And I'm here tonight on the Sabbath to give you good news about the kingdom. And that's what we do on God's Holy Sabbath day. We experience, we approach, think of the approach, we approach, we, we begin to internalize that holiness. We begin to express that we begin to talk about it with our mates, with our children. We come to church as David said, let's go to Isaiah 58 and wrap this up. In Isaiah 58, because Israel had some issues with the Sabbath.

And it's very interesting and with fasting too, but this part on the Sabbath is interesting, and we'll close with this. Isaiah 58. Let's take a look here.

Verse 13, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure, now I want to share something with you.

There's a lot of details that God gives us about holiness. What I'm about to share with you, I'm not giving yardstick religion. It will be up to you what you do in your, your households and in your heart hold here of what you do. But there are these principles that come out of Isaiah 58 that you alone can hang your spiritual clothing on. The rack is here and God hits at a high level and speaks to each and every one of us on this day, according to his word. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy, not Moses' day, my holy day.

So we are to notice from doing our own pleasure. Is it pleasurable to go to Disneyland?

Is it pleasurable to pay Disneyland prices these days? I think there is an affirmation on that. There are things that you do on the other six days of the week that you, God gives you the determination as to whether you are kneeling and adoring and honoring him in this temple in time and or you're gathering that which is worldly and continue to hold on to it on the Sabbath day. And that you call my Sabbath a delight. A delight.

You know, as we grow in grace and knowledge with the holy Sabbath day and with all the commands of God and what he asks us to do. And he's a loving God. He's our Father, which art in heaven.

But he does have demands. And it's not only the devil that's in the details, but God gives us a lot of details, too, as to follow him and to follow Jesus Christ. And it says here in the call the Sabbath of the light, when we first come into this, understand the truth. If I can use that phraseology, we say, well, we've got to do it. It's a commandment. It's a commandment. And it is a commandment. And even under the new covenant, God has expectations. We're not saved by commandment keeping. Commandment shows God that we understand that we are saved by him, and he is God, and Jesus is the Lord of our life, and the Bible is their constitution, and we are kingdoms, citizens of that kingdom, and thus we obey our sovereign. But somewhere in this transition, do we only observe the Sabbath because we have to? Because it's a rule? Or is it because it's a relationship?

And that we begin to transcend and move from simply duty to sheer desire. We recognize, we recognize the beauty and the power and the instillment of what God wants us to have, a time out from this world and an intimate time with him. Notice what it says here, to call the Sabbath a delight. Not because we have to, it's a delight. It's not a burden, it's a delight. The holy day of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him, not doing our own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. David covered this. Speaking your own words. This is the time we're here, as we even assemble, as David mentioned, that we come to speak the things of God. Oh, sure, we catch up. We love one another. We're family.

But how often have you been or I been in a conversation or started a conversation where it's all about us? I have two errors. I go through the congregation and it's always interesting to drop in for a moment and hear what people are talking about. Now, please don't go silent after church. Don't do that to me. Okay, but what I'm saying is, what are we filled with and what are we sharing? See, it takes a certain discipline, doesn't it, to observe this. The Sabbath does not come easily to human nature. Have you ever noticed that? I'm sorry. I've been keeping it for 50. It doesn't come easy to human nature of and by itself unless we are programmed and we recognize what we are entering into, which is holy time. Then you shall delight yourself. Notice in the Lord. The Sabbath is not about us. It's about in the Lord. And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

If we're very, very serious about observing and keeping the Sabbath in spirit and in truth, God says he will supply. He will feed us when we observe the Sabbath holy as he first always wanted us to be able to do.

That's speaking your own words. I'm going to come back to that for a moment.

I love always sharing my favorite test. It's the duck test. You all know what the duck test is, right?

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. Bill, what do we have? A little bit louder. They couldn't hear. They're not sure over on the other side. It's a duck! Well, God gives us that same test, as it were, every day of our life. As we approach, come up against, move into, internalize, experience, and express the holiness of a holy God who gives us a holy day to a holy people for a holy purpose.

My goal in my shelf life that I have left, which only God knows, we all know that our number is going to be up one day. We just don't know when. But that I want to be a citizen of one, to be able to honor Him more on one of the greatest gifts that He's ever given this guy in His life, and given you in this life, which is His holy Sabbath day. That He gives us an experience to go back, as it were, before the curse. Because by His grace, and by our faith in Him, that He is holy, that He is unique, that He is separated, that He calls us into union. He calls us into union with His Spirit in us, and we dwelling within this temple in time to be able to honor our Heavenly Father and to express our love for the Lord of the Sabbath. I'm just sharing some thoughts that I've been awakening to more.

I'm still in progress, and I hope you'll join me as you go back this week and these takeaways to look at Isaiah 58.