The Blessing of the Sabbath Day

Well, it is, again, a blessing to be here on God's Sabbath day altogether. And, you know, this day is not just like any other day, and that truly is why it is a blessing. When we look into God's Word and we study through the Scriptures which pertain to the Sabbath day, it is evident to us this is not just like any other day. And, of course, you know that, right? You're here. We've assembled together to worship God and to rejoice together on the Sabbath day. We have a recognition that this is not like all the other days of the week in which we have activities and various variety of things going on that take our time and focus. We've actually set those things aside and put on the brakes for a moment on a number of things happening in our lives. And we said this is the day to worship God, to assemble before Him. And, again, we are reminded that it is not like every other day.

But you know, as with so many other things, if we've been doing it for a while and if it's something that we do over and over, which the Sabbath comes around every seven days, it can almost become repetitive, right? It can almost in some way we go through the motions, we go through the actions, we fulfill the schedule of what we're going to do on this day, but we don't really have a focus behind it or our thoughts behind it because we're doing it so frequently. It just becomes, if we're not careful, routine. We know where we're to be, right? Right here. And what time we're to be here. And we know we're going to show up and we'll hear a sermon and we'll have some food afterwards and some coffee and we'll visit with our friends and we'll head home. And those are all good things.

But again, if we're not careful, we can actually kind of rush through this day and lose the emphasis really behind what God would have us to remember on His Sabbath day. Because that is the commandment related to this day, remember the Sabbath day. And so in association with this day, there are certain things we're supposed to specifically remember and to focus on as we observe this blessed day. So the title today is the blessing of the Sabbath day. We're going to see that it indeed is a blessing to have this day to observe, but also the things that God has called us to remember on this day. Those are incredible blessings to our lives as well. And so as we come up to this, every seventh day, we want to make sure our focus is where it needs to be, remembering what it is that God would have us remember as we worship before Him. So let's start in Exodus chapter 20. What we're going to find in God's Word is that from the beginning, He set this day apart, again, as special from all the other days, and He gave His command to His covenant people to remember it. And we find that in Exodus chapter 20 as Israel now has come up to Mount Sinai and God is giving His law and these words of life that they are to live by. And as we jump into the middle of this in verse number eight, we see the commandment for the Sabbath day expressed. And God says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. These are very important words. And, you know, maybe have them on plaque on our wall. We've read them frequently and we know the order within the other commandments. But again, it can lose its emphasis if we're just too comfortable in doing what we do on this day. God said, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Because, you see, this is a holy day. This was a day separated by God from the beginning as holy time. And as we understand, there's nothing that you and I can make holy of and by ourselves. It is God who is holy alone.

And so only God can make something holy. And God Himself has said, I declare this 24-hour period from sunset at the end of Friday to sundown at the end of Saturday holy time.

It's holy time for an incredibly important purpose. And the command begins by saying, Remember it. Remember this day. Remember that it is holy time. And remember it throughout the week. Because we all have our activities on, you know, Sunday through Friday that consume our life. But what God has called us to must consume our life even greater than that. And so this Sabbath and some of the things we are called to remember in this day is actually something we must remember each and every day of the week. Because we are looking forward to the blessing of this day. We're looking forward to what is ultimately going to be fulfilled that is represented by this time. It's representative in this holy time that we keep. Remember, God said this is holy and it is the presence of God which makes something holy. You see, God alone is holy and you and I cannot make anything holy nor can we withdraw the holiness from something that God has said and declared to be holy.

So anything associated with the active presence of God, the involvement of God, is holy. You recall when Moses was out tending Jethro sheep on the backside there in Midian and he sees this bush upon the mountain that's burning and he approaches this bush because it's burning but it's not consumed and the voice of God says to Moses, remove the sandals from your feet, the place where you stand is holy ground. Right? Moses had come into the presence of God and so now this area was holy and it was treated in a very special way, not because of Moses but because of God. And we find that all throughout the scriptures.

You have later the tabernacle that was constructed and then the temple to follow that and you had that veil that separated the room behind the veil, right? It had the Ark of the Covenant which God's presence dwelled above the mercy seat and that room was called what? The Holy of Holies, right? The Holy of Holies, the most holy place. Why? Well, because God's presence was there and active among his people. And in fact, when you go through the scriptures, what you find is that we are called holy. We're called the holy people of God, again, not because of us but because of the presence of God in our life. We have his spirit. We are his covenant people that exist in relationship with God and that makes us holy as well. And again, not by our own standing but by God's standing of holiness applied to us. And so it's the same with this Abbot day. God is holy. God created this day and he set this day apart as holy time and literally his presence is in this day, his active presence. And so how we approach it and how we observe it and what we remember about this day is important to God because it's all tied to the holiness that he has and frankly that which he is bringing us along to as well. So we remember these things and we can't declare it holy, we can't withdraw the holiness, and sometimes you run into challenges because people might they might look at the Sabbath and the Bible and they say, well, okay, that's fine, but you know what? It's not a day that's holy. Anytime you want to spend with God is holy. And it's not a special Sabbath day. It's not a 24-hour period set apart as holy. But again, the challenge to that is the Sabbath was set apart by God from the beginning and applied as holy by, say, by his authority, not by the authority of any man. And therefore, it's not something we can change, that we can withdraw. The holiness of this day is binding by the authority of God. So in Exodus 20, verse 8, he says, to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter, your male or female servant, cattle, the stranger within your gates, basically anyone or anything that you had authority over. You gave them the rest on the Sabbath. Even your beast of burden had the benefit of the Sabbath in this. Verse 11, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. The word hallowed means to make holy. So God worked six days, he rested the seventh, and from the beginning he made this day holy. And so it can't be just like every other day of the week. And we can't approach it with the same attitude and perspective as the other days as well, because as God's own special people we are to recognize the holiness in this day and the purpose for which he has set it apart. As part of observing the Sabbath, God instructs his people to rest.

Right? This is a day of rest. It's a day of ceasing. It's a day of refraining from all the normal work-related activities, you know, all those things that make the other six days what they are, you know, busy and active. We are to be productive and we are to work hard. And whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. And, you know, having been self-employed for 22 years, I just can remember how consumed I was by trying to run and manage my business. And it honestly, it took me, I would say, it took me a few years to really get to the point where I could just shut it off on the Sabbath. And I remember, you know, rain was sort of my nemesis in the landscape business. So it might rain for three days and then it might be sunny and beautiful on the Sabbath.

And you're driving the church and I could actually enjoy the beauty of the sunshine on the Sabbath day for what it was without thinking or grumbling about all the jobs I hadn't finished that I was going to have to go do tomorrow because the day was sunny. So, you know, I understand we work through the week. We have goals. We have things that our life is deeply invested in and it consumes our focus in so many appropriate ways. But this is a time to actually set that aside to come into the holiness of God's presence and the holiness of this time and say, our focus is to be different today. And, you know, that actually is a, I would say, spiritual maturity that we come to. We can maybe take this and just set it on the shelf no matter what entanglements are wrapped up in that from the week. Just set it on the shelf. I'll get back to that. It'll still be there when the sun goes down, but this is the Sabbath God has called us to and we will approach it differently. So it is a day of rest and a day of ceasing and a day to give us physical break, and I appreciate that blessing that we have all been given. It refreshes us. We'll look at another scripture shortly that said, when God rested after all the work he'd done, he was refreshed. And it's not like God gets tired doing what it is that God does, but the fact is we need this day and he set the example for us by himself, resting. And frankly, I would say, he was... I can't put thoughts into his mind, but why would God be refreshed at creation with the seventh day? My thought would be he's refreshed in his thoughts about what this day portrays and what the Sabbath points to ultimately in what he has purposed. You know, he laid the groundwork for this and created man in six days, and now even God had time to reflect on what the fruits of his labor will ultimately be as reflected in this Sabbath. So it is a day of rest, it's a day of renewal and refreshing, but it's not necessarily a sleep the day away. In fact, it must not be a sleep the day away. Now, you know, this morning I set my alarm for an hour later than I said it every other day of the week, so get a little extra rest, and that's a blessing. But if we sleep the day away, we're missing as well the focus of the holiness we've been called to remember. This is time we spend getting to know God better, drawing closer to him, you know, studying his words. He has his mind, his thoughts, his purpose written in these words, and if we truly want to be like he is and develop his character, this is a day to deep dive into the Word of God, maybe in a way you haven't had time for necessarily the rest of the week. It's a time to spend in prayer, meditation, but it's not a time for isolation either. We have families, and so we bring one another into this process of worshiping God together. And so we don't work our job on this day, and we don't run our businesses on this day.

We don't schedule our employees to work on this day. Again, whatever we have authority over, we bring rest to that. You know, we don't schedule somebody to come mow our lawn or fix our roof while we're gone at church, so you know, it's not a hassle to us. We set the bar very high on this day because God has set the bar very high. He says, this is holy time, and remember my Sabbath.

Anticipate it, plan for it, and keep it holy yourselves.

This day is about the one who made it holy in our relationship with him, and that's an important takeaway that I think we must always come back to, is that this day is about the one who made it holy, God, and our relationship with him. And so his focus is on receiving from us what we have to offer him in praise and worship as well on the Sabbath day. We acknowledge God as our creator when we keep the Sabbath properly. This is something to remember as well. The Bible gives us through, we're not going to go through nearly all the scriptures pertaining to the Sabbath, but you can do a study. But as you look at them, you see elements of what we're supposed to remember about God and his holiness on this day. And so what we have right here in Exodus chapter 20, we read verse 11. It says, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. We acknowledge God as our creator when we keep the Sabbath properly.

When we think about, you know, what he did those six days and why he did it and the fact that, you know what, our existence is caught up in what God did during those six days. And now the rest on the seventh points to what he's actually doing with us in continuing creation spiritually. Okay, but he is our creator and he made all that we see. The sun, the moon, the stars, the Sabbath is the time to slow down and to smell the roses, you know, literally.

Appreciate the creation around us and all that God has done because, as it says, he rested and we rest.

But it's not a blank slate. We look around with awe at the wonders of God and all that he has done and we rejoice in that. Darla and I in the mornings on Sabbath mornings on occasion, such as this morning, I didn't have to go out and run the circuit or travel at any distance, so we had some time this morning. And we have these two chairs set up by this bank of windows kind of in our dining room and we can turn these chairs around and just sit and look out the windows, look out over the valley and the mountains in the background and the horses out there grazing.

The neighbors have this really cool rustic barn set up against the hillside. And we just enjoy the beauty of the creation. We have our coffee together and we visit and, you know, it's not just about the things of the week, it's about the things of God and what he is doing. This rest is a blessing of the Sabbath day. So again, that's what we're called to remember, to keep it holy, but let's just remember even in all these things attached to it, they're all a blessing. The Sabbath is never ever a burden. To many people, it's, you know, life is busy and it is just you pass by the creation. But why did God make that? And why did he create us for the purpose he did?

You know, this is all part of reflection and our worship of him on this day. Properly keeping the Sabbath day focuses our attention on the greatness and the majesty of God. He created us to be sons and daughters in his kingdom for eternity in his image, right? That brings us back to creation, the starting point. But again, the Sabbath points very much to our ongoing creation as we are formed in his spiritual likeness, called by him, given his spirit. And the blessing of this day is that we see him more clearly. When we shut out the world, we shut out the clutter around us and just focus on him. We see him more clearly and we see more clearly who we are to be. So this day is a day to honor God as our great creator. It motivates our focus and it motivates our worship of him.

Let's notice God's focus on this day and the distinction he placed on the seventh day from creation. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 1. Let's take it back to the very beginning.

Genesis chapter 2 verse 1, because, you know, Exodus 20 is great, right? But you're down the road quite a ways. And the argument is, well, here's God, and here's where the Sabbath first shows up.

Exodus 20, it's to Israel, or the Sabbath of the Jews. This isn't for everybody. Well, let's just go back to the beginning where we see it clearly installed for everybody. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 1. Thus the heavens and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished. It says, And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. And so again, this day was different from all the other days of the creation week right from the beginning. It says, God blessed this day. As in, he says, my blessing is upon it. And for those actually who keep it as he keeps it, it is a blessing to them. Not only to have this day, but we receive blessing if we observe it in the way he intended. So he blessed this day and it says he sanctified it.

What does that word mean? Right, to sanctify. Christ said, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth when he's praying about the disciples, right? To sanctify is to set apart for a holy purpose. So from the very beginning, God set the seventh day apart for a holy purpose for all of creation. And it's not simply for our own benefit, it's for the benefit of all. You know, the it wasn't just the cattle of the Jews, you know, if you plowed the field with an ox, your cow rested on the Sabbath day. You know, God didn't intend it just for the cattle of the Jews.

He intended this to be the blessing for all of mankind and all that we put our hand to.

So we set apart this day as holy from creation. Also notice the Hebrew word that's translated rested in verse two, where it says, and on the seventh day he ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day. God rested. If you look at the Hebrew of that word, it's form of the word Shabbath. Shabbath. Okay, that's not Klingon, that's Hebrew. Shabbath.

All right? And where do you think, what do you think comes from the word Shabbath? What is that very, very closely sounding like to our English-speaking year? Well, Sabbath, right? So the Hebrew word translated rested, which is what God did, is this form of Shabbath, the root word from which we get Sabbath. And Shabbath means to cease or to rest. So again, this is where the Sabbath gets its meaning as a day of rest. This is the Sabbath. This is the day to cease, to rest. God Shabbath on this day from all his labors, and he made it holy from the beginning, sanctified, and called us as well to cease and to rest on this day. So you could paraphrase Genesis chapter 2. We could say that God Sabbath on the seventh day from all his work, because the Hebrew language in this word makes it very clear that that is the intent behind this rest and this word, and is where we get the Sabbath day from. And this is the day God created for the Sabbath for all mankind from the beginning.

It's not just the day of the Jews. It's not just the day of the Israelites. It was intended to be a blessing for all, for those who would embrace it and keep it. You recall that when Jesus Christ had some issue with the Pharisees, they were challenging him over what it was he was doing on the Sabbath day. He was doing good. And Jesus said to them in Mark chapter 2 verse 27, he said, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Okay, and it gives some insight into the blessing of this day. The Sabbath was made for you and me, and all of mankind wasn't that God created man to fulfill some purpose of the Sabbath. The Sabbath fulfills in us the purpose that God intends. And the point is, it was made to be a blessing and a delight for all those who would observe it. So as our creator, and as we again reflect on that relationship on the Sabbath, as our Father, our Creator from the beginning, God knew what his children needed in order to grow and to prosper and to have this specific time set apart to worship him. And he instituted the Sabbath from the beginning as a blessing, as a blessing to all those who would keep it. It's a time of refreshing and renewal and rejuvenation. It's a time to grow our relationship with him. And if we keep it as God intended, indeed, this day is not a burden.

It's never a burden, and it is an incredible blessing. It's a blessing and a gift from God.

Let's notice what God inspired Jeremiah to write about the blessings associated with this day.

Let's go to Isaiah chapter 56 in verse 1. Isaiah chapter 56 in verse 1, and we're going to at least catch somewhat of a passing glimpse of God's intent that this day would be a blessing to those who were not of Israelite descent. Isaiah chapter 56 and verse 1, thus says the Lord, keep justice and do righteousness. He says, for my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this. He says the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. So he says you're going to be blessed if you, number one, keep from defiling the Sabbath, which means you're going to be observing it as God intended, and it's going to be a blessing to you. Verse 3, do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying the Lord has utterly separated me from his people.

Nor let the eunuch say, here I am, a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant. Even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. God says even to those eunuchs who did not have descendants, he says I will give you a heritage that will not be cut off if you keep my Sabbath.

And oftentimes we see, like we're told in the scripture, the Sabbath is assigned between God and his people. Many places it says Sabbath's. Okay, and the holy days are referred to in God's word the Feast of the Lord as Sabbaths as well. And so keeping these things, the Seventh-day Sabbath and the holy days, God says it's a sign of the covenant between me and my people. And he says you who are eunuchs, okay, you have a heritage in me. You keep my Sabbaths in and you rejoice.

It will be a blessing in that way. Verse 6, he says, also the sons of a foreigner. So we're talking about people who are outside of Israel. They weren't Jews. They weren't any of the other 11 tribes of Israel. Okay, these were people from outside that came into Israel. It says, who joined themselves to the Lord, who served to serve him. Okay, so they've come in, become a part of Israel in a very, they weren't born Israelite, but they were to be a model nation. So someone from the outside says, your God is God, and we want that relationship. God says to those who come in and join themselves to the Lord to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord and to be his servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and hold fast my covenant, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. For their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. Okay, so this expands it outside of Israel. God says, you keep my Sabbath, you keep my covenant, you become a part of essentially my house, and my house will be a house of prayer for all nations.

And we won't go through it today, but indeed that moves forward prophetically following the return of Jesus Christ, when all nations will come up to Jerusalem and all nations will worship the God of not just Israel, but the God of all mankind. But this is to be a day of blessing, and God says there are blessings associated with keeping it. Isaiah chapter 58 and verse 13.

Isaiah 58 and verse 13 says, if you turn your foot away from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, again, remember this isn't to be a day like every other day where we just fill it with activity. It takes our focus away from God. He says, then call the Sabbath a delight.

It says, the holy day of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Then he says, you shall delight yourself in the Lord. So call the Sabbath a delight and delight yourself in the Lord. You know, I just, I like that word delight. It's delightful, right? But, you know, I mean, something that is very pleasurable, something that is encouraging and uplifting and refreshing is just delightful.

You shall delight yourself 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. And so, God promises great blessings pertaining to keeping His Sabbath both now and in the future, as we'll see. And it's not a burden. This day is never, ever a burden. This day was set apart by God to be a blessing. Now, interestingly, when we look at the second giving of the law, we're going to go to Deuteronomy chapter 5. You can be turning there. Deuteronomy chapter 5, when we consider the second giving of the law now, then here in the book of Deuteronomy, we find an additional perspective that God's people are to keep in mind as we observe the Sabbath day. So we remember its holy time, remember God as our creator, remember this relationship that He created this day for.

What else? Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 12. It says, observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. It says, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter. And it goes through again male-female servants, your animals, the stranger within your gates, all those that you have responsibility and care and authority over you when it was within your power, release them on the Sabbath day. This is to be a blessing for all and all in your household. Verse 15, it says, and remember. Okay, so I've got that word remember underlined in my Bible. There's something we're to remember here on this day. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

And so part of the emphasis behind the Sabbath observance for Israel was to remember that they were once in bondage, right? In slavery and servitude, there was no retirement package at the end of your days working for Pharaoh, making bricks, all right? You got out by death. So this was a servitude unto death, a bondage in your to remember on the Sabbath. That's where you were, but God brought you out of that in deliverance, right? So if you're an ancient Israelite and you were keeping the Sabbath, this is what you were to remember and to focus on. I have been set free on this day. I've been delivered through the Sabbath, okay? It wasn't literally on Saturday, I don't believe, but the fact being that the Sabbath reminds you of freedom and deliverance, that God's blessing in your life brings, and that was to be a part of their focus. He brought them out of bondage and he was taking them to the promised land, which if they had entered in according to his purpose, it would have been rest. Ride a land flowing with milk and honey.

God would have just driven the inhabitants out before them. They would have walked right in to a land with houses built and mature trees grown up and crops planted, and the blessing would have been theirs, and after coming out of slavery, it would have been rest. Release from bondage. And he said, remember this on the Sabbath day. And for us today, we remember, don't we? At least I hope we do on this day that we were in bondage of sin and to sin leading to death, but God delivered us.

Through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ, he delivered us, and he brought us out from under that oppression, and he now leads us to the spiritual promised land, the land of rest, the kingdom of God. And the Sabbath day, it points not only backwards to creation, not backwards to the release of Israel only, but it points forward to the rest that God intends for all of us, ultimately as the people of God. But you know, we have rest today as well.

The peace of this day should remind us that God has set us free from bondage, that we walk in liberty by his grace, by the mercy that's been extended through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. And this day is a day of release. And that's what we focus our attention on. Remember on the Sabbath day. And what's interesting is when you come then to the time of Jesus Christ and the beginning of his ministry, what is it that Jesus taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath day?

Why did he say he came? Let's go to Luke chapter 4 and verse 14.

Luke chapter 4 and verse 14. Understand, brethren, release from bondage, freedom, the liberty that we walk in by the mercy of grace of God is rest. Salvation equals rest.

Okay, I was never a great mathematician, but I never figured out exactly why you needed to mix letters with numbers. But you know, some people are great at that, you know. Ben could explain it to me. But, you know, salvation equals rest. It is what God offers and it's what Jesus Christ brought. Luke chapter 4 and verse 14. This is just following his temptation 40 days in the wilderness, now tempted by the devil, and Jesus emerges from there. And in verse 14 says, Jesus returned in power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of him went out through all the surrounding region. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. So he came to Nazareth, where he'd been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written. So, okay, they handed him the book, but he says, I'm going somewhere specific. And there's a specific message he's going to deliver on the Sabbath, in the synagogue, at the beginning of his ministry. And if we can see it for what it is, it is a message of rest. So here's what it said, verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. That was his message. That's what he came with, out of the gate, with his ministry. This is why I was sent. And again, if we understand that salvation equates to rest from God, Jesus came to bring rest to the world, and that indeed is what he taught. Think of the times that he healed someone on the Sabbath day. And then there's the contention now with the Pharisees. Well, what are you doing? You can't do that on the Sabbath day. That's work.

And Christ says, well, you released your beast of burden on the Sabbath day. All I did was release this person from their bondage. You know, if you were the person that was, you know, had the issue of blood, or the person that had been bent over forever, the one that had been born blind, whatever it was that was your bondage. And Christ came along and said, be healed, rise up, and walk.

Was that not then deliverance from bondage unto rest? Indeed, it was, and it was a physical type of what God sent him to do spiritually. Verse 20, then he closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him, and began to say to them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So he literally began his public ministry by teaching about freedom, about liberty, about release from bondage on the Sabbath day, and this is the gospel message. This is ultimately the gospel message, a message of spiritual redemption and salvation, a message of healing, a message of rest, and it is a major part of what our focus must be on the Sabbath day. Physical rest is good, but understand the spiritual rest that God has given us through the deliverance by the sacrifice of his Son. It must be a part of our focus. This day is about rejoicing in that spiritual rest, because God is our liberator and our Redeemer. So this day is about blessing, and all things associated with this day are about blessing, and when we keep it, and we observe it, and we remember the Sabbath day, and all that it entails, we remember the blessing that God has poured out upon us in this day. This day is never ever ever bondage.

It's never bondage. To rest is a blessing. It's never a burden. To recognize that there's a God who is the creator of all things, and he holds all things together by the power of his will, and your life is in his hands, is a blessing. It is never a burden. To spend quiet time and fellowship with God and with each other is a blessing. It's never a burden. To focus on the liberty that's been granted to our lives through the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ is a blessing.

It is never a burden. To rest with your entire household. If we're able to observe this as God has given us, you know, when we're when we have children that are young, we can observe this in our whole household. As our children grow up, people make their choices, but our hope is that as a household, that's God's intent. Throughout your generations, this would be observed. So, observe it as a household is a blessing. For husband and wives to be together, focusing on the things of God on the Sabbath day, that's a blessing. Because if he's first in your life and he's first in their life and he's first when you come together, that will be a blessing even to your marriage union. There's three in that contract, actually. You and your spouse and God. For parents and children to come together on the Sabbath day and focus on the things of God is a blessing. You know, these are all things we must rejoice in as we should look forward to the Sabbath and anticipate the opportunity to do this. God instructs us as parents to teach his ways diligently to our children when you sit in your home, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

And what better opportunity than on the Sabbath day to speak of the things of God in our houses with our children, with all the members of our family. So, oftentimes, people will have a special Friday evening meal as the Sabbath is ushered in, and we come together and you sit around the table and you share a meal. And honestly, that is something that becomes so, I would say, many households. I certainly know ours during the week. It's not so structured at times, especially in the summertime. We've got a ranch and it's light late, and we're coming and we're going. But the fact is, when the Sabbath comes, you regroup, draw back together, you sit around the table, maybe light a candle or two, and you speak about the things of God and the blessing of this day as a family.

Those are wonderful traditions to have, and we should encourage those things. Don't let the Sabbath become routine, as in, it does come around as a regular routine, but don't let it become slack in our focus, in our observance.

Even though the Sabbath day is a day of rest, there are certain things we are instructed to do.

Christ did good on the Sabbath, and there's things that we can do that are doing good on the Sabbath.

We can visit someone who's a shut-in, maybe visit someone who's at the hospital, or you know of a specific circumstance personally. There are good we can do on the Sabbath, good things. And we must.

Christ set that example. But do those things within the understanding of the context of the Sabbath.

Because you could fill the whole day with things that we could say are, quote-unquote, lawful to do on the Sabbath. And you can consume your focus with all those things, and not truly focus on what God has brought us to, and get in that relationship with Him. But we do do things.

So do good on the Sabbath. Another thing that we do on the Sabbath is we congregate. We congregate.

We congregate. We assemble together as the people of God on this day. And it's a very special aspect of His Holy Day, and it's important to God. Again, He's the one who set the day apart.

He is the one who says this is holy time. And actually, He is the one who says to assemble as well on this day. Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 1, we see this command.

Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. So we're going to have a list now of the feasts of God. I'm not going to go through them all, but the first one is the Sabbath day. And let's just, again, recognize whose feasts these are. Sabbath was made for man, but God says still, it is my feast. It is the feast of Yahweh, the feast of the Lord, the feast of the God of the universe, this Sabbath day. And He is called an assembly on it. Verse 3, Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work in it, is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. The term convocation literally means a commanded assembly. And the command is issued not by me and not by the home office. The command to assemble is issued by God as a part of observing this day. There's reasons why not everybody can assemble. There's reasons of distance or health or various things. But if we can assemble, and it's within our power to do so, we must. Because this is a very essential part of the Sabbath command, of fulfilling the day as God said. If we refrain from assembling when we could, then honestly, we're not keeping the Sabbath to its fullest extent that God intended. And frankly, we're missing out. We're missing out. The purpose of the convocation is to worship God together.

And you say, well, I can worship God, you know, you and me God. And that is true, and we do, and we must. It's a personal relationship, but there's also a dynamic of this form of worship that God says, I want you to come together and worship me together. And, you know, those of you who have children think about, you know, we have great family reunions and things we do together as a family. And think, think of all the families there, but maybe not this sibling or that person.

You miss not having everybody together. God wants His family together as we worship before Him on this day.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and 25 instructs us to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching. So the point is, you know, you can't fellowship with others, at least to the full extent that God intends, if we're not here, if we don't assemble. And, you know, I think sometimes there's things that we're looking for and we need. And maybe we say, well, you know, how is this abbot the blessing?

There's things I need, there's benefit I need. And God says, actually, you be there, and I'm sending the other person to the assembly who's going to provide the blessing that I intend you have on this day. But if you're not there, how can you receive, perhaps, what God sent in the hands of someone else to deliver on this day? And so we're all to come together and to edify and to encourage and to lift up. And this is a part of our worship together. There's a verse which talks about God listens to their conversation when his people, the righteous people, came together and spoke.

And God listened to the book of remembrance was written. Again, our conversations edify, they point us to God, and they are part of our worship before him. If the President of the United States summoned us to a personal meeting, would we not go? Okay, and I'm not assigning any individual to that office. I'm saying, the office, okay, you receive a letter from the office of the President to come for a meeting. Would we not go? And in fact, would we not maybe dress up in our nicest and make an effort to present ourselves well because of the authority that we're coming before?

Well, how much more the creator of the God of the universe who said, you are my son and my daughter, and he's the one who gave us life. He is the one who sent his only begotten son to die for us.

And he is the one who has given us this wonderful day of holiness with him. How much more important is it to him that we give the reverence and the honor to him when he calls? We are his children, and he's called us into assembly, and we must come in response to his call. So we owe him that, and we owe one another that. And again, we bring blessing simply by being here to one another.

There's people that encourage other people that if they aren't here, you know, who you're going to offer it to and who you're going to receive it from.

But God has bound us together in a way that brings joy and brings blessing.

One final thought I'd like to share pertaining to our focus on this day is that the Sabbath focuses our attention on the ultimate rest God has in store at the return of Jesus Christ. Okay, for to remember the Sabbath day and everything entailed with it, and there's so many more things you can go study out for yourself, but this is a big point. The Sabbath focuses our attention on the ultimate rest God has in store at the return of Jesus Christ. Again, this holy day is not just backwards looking. It is forward looking. It is a shadow of things to come. It is representative of what God will yet do when his kingdom is established. Hebrews chapter 4 draws an interesting parallel between the Sabbath rest and the future of God's people. Let's conclude here today. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 1.

Hebrews 4.1 says, Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. When it says, therefore, it's taking you back prior to this. So go back to the end of chapter 3, and you're going to find there's a rest that is discussed there. It was the one that was set before Israel that they fell short of.

That God was bringing them to the Promised Land as a place of rest. But because of disbelief, they went right to the brink of the Promised Land, but they did not enter in. And they did not receive that rest God intended. But therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, there is yet a rest ahead that God has laid before us. And it's a promise. And the question is, will we be like Israel and draw short, or will we indeed enter that rest? Verse 2, for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith and those who heard it.

For we have believed do enter that rest, as he said, so I swore my wrath they shall not enter my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Verse 4, for he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way. Okay, so now we're bringing the Sabbath into this discussion of rest. Okay, spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

And again, in this place they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and to those whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience. Okay, Israel. Again, he designates a certain day, saying in David, today, after such a long time, as it has been said, today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, okay, so Joshua was the one who ultimately led Israel into the promised land after the 40 years of wandering. But he says if Joshua had given them rest, and this true rest we look forward to, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day.

There remains therefore, verse 9, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God. The word translated rest here in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 9 is sabbatismos. Sabbatismos. And what do you assume, maybe it's not safe to assume, what do you know is linked with that word?

Sabbatismos. Again, it's a rest. It is the Sabbath. And the author of Hebrews says there remains therefore a sabbatismos, a rest for the people of God. It's the only New Testament occurrence of this specific word, and it literally means a Sabbath observance or a Sabbath rest. And so there remains therefore a Sabbath rest, the sabbatismos, for the people of God. Verse 10, for he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works just as God did from his. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

And so, brethren, there is yet a future rest that we seek at the return of Jesus Christ, but there's a present-day rest as well that we observe every seven days, and it is the Sabbath. And it points to the ultimate rest that God has set before us all at the return of his Son. For those who are called of God and have his spirit, and when Christ returns, those will enter in ultimately to that rest through the resurrection, through the change.

We will become as he is, and we'll see him as he is, and that will indeed bring us rest. We will be released from the bondage of the flesh into the liberty of all that God is and all that he has purposed for us. So that will be our day of rest, but additionally, this whole world will experience a period of rest as well for a thousand years following the return of Jesus Christ. And we celebrate that at the Feast of Tabernacles, don't we? Right? It's the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and the time when the water, the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as waters cover the sea.

There won't be a dry place on this earth where humanity does not know who their God is and what he has purposed for them, and they will be released from the same bondage through Christ that you and I have been released from as they receive the Word, and indeed they as well will have rest. The Sabbath points to this day. You know, a thousand years is as a day to God, and that day will be a day of rest for all of mankind. The Sabbath today points not just backwards to Sinai, not just backwards to creation, but it points forward as a shadow of things to come for the people of God and for all humanity who come to know the plan and purpose of God.

We celebrate that in the keeping of this day. So I hope we remember it. I hope it indeed is our focus. Brethren, as we keep the seventh day Sabbath, let us not lose sight of what our focus ought to be during this time. God wants us to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

In doing so, let us remember Him as our Creator, as the one who gave us life and sustains life and has fashioned everything we see that is beautiful around us. Let us remember Him as our Redeemer, as the one who has bought us out of death and brought salvation through the sacrifice of His Son.

Let us remember the future promise of true rest that He has in store, not only for you and I and His kingdom, but all of mankind who one day come into a relationship with Him. And as we keep this special day, let us remember to bring those things out in our Bible study, out in our prayers, out in our worship with God, out in our fellowship with one another. This is the focus of this holy time, because as I've called you to draw close to me in this and I've brought you together to edify one another in these things, let's remember them when we teach our children and when we encourage one another in the faith. This day was blessed and sanctified by God for His holy purpose from the beginning of creation. It is not just like every other of the six days of the week. Today is special, today is holy, and God's presence personally is in this day. So, brethren, let us love the Sabbath, let us look forward to it each and every day of the week, let us plan for it. Let's don't crash into the Sabbath as if it showed up at the last second and you weren't prepared. Build your week with the Sabbath as the focus. This is the day of joy, this is the day of blessing, and God has called us into assembly together that we might recognize and rejoice together in these things.