Fundamental Biblical Beliefs - Bible Study - Part 10 - The Sabbath

Part 10 The Sabbath Tonight we're going to look at Part 10, the Sabbath. And in the first section here, we want to just acknowledge that the Bible says the Sabbath is the seventh day of every week.

When that seventh day begins, where an individual is, God makes that time holy for the first time. It is a brand new hallowing that God does. In Genesis 2, we see a statement here of how the Sabbath came to be. Genesis 2 will begin in verse 1. Thus the heavens and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished.

And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done. And then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Because in it he had rested from all his work, which God had created and made.

So it's not just one day and seven. It's a specific day. It was the seventh day. We see in Matthew chapter 28 and verse 1 that these days are numbered. Matthew chapter 28, it says, Now after the Sabbath, as the first of the week began to dawn.

This is interesting. The first, the word day there, you'll see is in parentheses. It does not appear in the Greek. But the first of the week, or the plural, the weeks, the weeks, seven weeks leading up to the feast of Pentecost had begun. And so the first of the week is obviously following the seventh day, which is the last day of a week.

Now people say, well, how do we know today that which day is number one and which day is number six, which day is number seven? Maybe that's been lost, that knowledge. Let's go to Luke chapter 23 and verse 56. They returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils, and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. So we see up through the time of Jesus Christ, the Sabbath was known all the way through, and they were keeping it on the right day according to the Sabbath. Now if we go to the next, just keep following on through the chapter break to Luke chapter 24.

Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, so we find here that this unbroken, unlost tradition of when these things happen was well known. And they have since been preserved all over the world by the Jews through the various diasporas that have taken place in the persecution. The Jews have continued this. The Sabbath was given as a perpetual identifying sign to Israel, and we as the Church of God are the Israel of God. And so the seventh day Sabbath continues to be the Sabbath each week.

Now over to Wayne for part two. Yeah, part two is about the Sabbath. It is the Sabbath of the Lord our God. It is His Sabbath. From the beginning, God desired the hearts of His people to look to Him, to regard Him in a special way. Turn to Ezekiel 20 and verse 5. Say to them, Thus says the Lord God, on the day when I chose Israel, and raised my hand in an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I raised my hand in an oath to them, saying, I am the Lord your God.

See how God desires us to regard Him highly, to revere Him, for being the God that has brought us into existence, really, for providing every means for our entry into life. So it is vital, it is so vital that He created, He has created this special time for us specifically to do that.

And He wove this day into the covenant agreements that would establish His people as a special people to Him, as a sign between Him. Verse 12, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between them and me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. So I think it's easy to, you know, from this, it's easy to glean that since God made the Sabbath day long before there were any Israelites, that it was something He intended for all mankind to have, as that special time between them, between God and His creation of His own image, a time that creation to more deeply appreciate who God is for them, and that we appreciate that very special relationship that is available to them with God.

So it's not just a time, you know, it's not a time for us to be making our livelihoods, it is a time to be regarding God and our relationship with Him. Turn to Exodus 16, in verse 23, says, then He said to them, verse 26, then He said to them, this is what the Lord has said, tomorrow is a Sabbath, rest a holy Sabbath to the Lord, bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil, and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.

So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses says, eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord, today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none. So God pointed this out in His demonstration to them. So it's very serious for God and His purpose for the Sabbath. It was a very serious thing for Him.

It was so serious that He waited it with the death penalty. Turn to Exodus 31, and verse 14. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death, for whatever anyone who does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.

Verse 15, work shall be done for six days, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath, he shall be surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath and observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. In the six days the Lord made the heavens and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.

So the Sabbath, the Sabbath is serious business to God. He gave it to man as an really as an intrinsic part of their relationship with Him. It's a part of what makes us like He is. It makes us holy. Note that in verse 14, in fact, verse 14, you shall keep the Sabbath therefore it is holy to you. The Sabbath is holy, and the day is holy, and the convocation within it is holy. Turn to Leviticus 23, verse 3. It says, six days shall shall work be done, but the seventh is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. And the people within this convocation are holy. Turn to Deuteronomy 7, verse 6. Deuteronomy 7, verse 6. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. Actually, though, all of the commandments are a part of this, of making His people holy. Notice Deuteronomy 26, verse 18. It says, also today the Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above all nations, which He has made in praise and name and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord, just as He has spoken. But notice that this holiness was not intended to be an exclusive right to Israel. All those who joined themselves to the Lord by holding fast these covenant commandments, and specifically the Sabbath, would enjoy this holy status. Notice that in Isaiah 56, in verse 6. Isaiah 56, in verse 6. Also the sons of the foreigner, who joined themselves to the Lord to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast my covenant. Even I will I will bring, even them, I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings, with their center sacrifices, will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. And so, most definitely, the Sabbath is a time to be highly regarded, you know, as all who do, you know, in their covenant relationship with God, they become holy, as appointed by God, who God, who is holy. And so we must regard the Sabbath as a time to look to God and regard Him as our God, for all that He has purpose for our lives.

Okay, well, I'll turn part three back to Mr. Elliott. We are commanded to rest from our labors.

It is important that we follow God's commandment. Also, His example. He rested on the seventh day after creating all the universe, and He now tells us to do the same thing. We'll see how this comes together as we go on. But we need to respect and honor the Sabbath by being prepared for it, so that we don't have to do common labors, so that we can enter into a time of worshiping God and being about godliness on the Sabbath. So let's look at Exodus chapter 35 and verse 2, and 3. Work shall be done for six days. So all of our business throughout the week should be done for six days with the Sabbath in mind. But the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.

So any kind of customary work would be something that would separate us from God. In the next verse it says, as an example, you shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day. Now the word here is rest and no work and no kindling. A fire was used daily at the temple. Let's remember, however, they didn't have matches. If you had to create a fire yourself right now, if you went outside with just your hands, just what you have, and started to prepare a fire, how would you do it? Well, the first thing you'd have to do is gather together something to kindle and then something to burn. It would be quite a big event. It would honestly take you probably hours to create a fire from nothing in the climate that we're in right now.

And yet, fire was used daily at the temple on the Sabbath and the Holy Days. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 6 and verse 2 and see what God Himself says regarding fire and using fire on the Sabbath. Remember, it's not customary work and chores and things that are, you know, a burden.

Leviticus chapter 6 and verse 2, and the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it. It shall not be put out. So there's clue number one. When it comes to the Sabbath, people should already have the fire. They should be prepared. They should have a burning lamp or candle. They should maybe have a campfire that they keep warm all week. And just like at the at the tabernacle, the fire should be ready for the Sabbath. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning. He should have that wood ready for the Sabbath. Fire and wood. And lay the burned offering on it, and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. So it's the collecting of the wood, the manna, the fire, all these things that are common work, it would detract from a Sabbath observance, and it would really show God that it wasn't holy to us. Let's go to Exodus chapter 16 and verse 21 now. Exodus chapter 16 verses 21 through 28. Probably familiar with this passage where Moses is giving the instructions about the manna, and so they gathered it every morning and every man according to his needs. This is a great example of chores. Manna was about the size of a little bit larger than a grain of rice. That was quite small, smaller than a piece of popcorn, and you had to go out and gather approximately two to four liters per person.

So you think of a big Coke bottle, you know, or those plastic two liter bottles. You needed that for every single person in the family, and it's small. You had to go out and pick it up. People had to wander around and get it. So they gathered it every morning, and when the sun became hot, it melted. So it was on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much, two omers for each one. So here they had to get four liters per person, and so they did this. All right? Then in verse 23, he said to them, this is what the Lord has said, tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Now he says, bake what you will bake today and boil what you will boil. Okay, so on the Friday, he said, bake today what you'll bake and boil what you'll boil. Now that which you didn't bake and that which you didn't boil, he says, lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept till morning. Well, what was the difference? Well, if we go back up to verse 21, when the sun became hot, it melted. It wasn't there anymore, or if you tried to keep it, it stank. But he said, lay up for yourselves all that remains, evidently that you didn't bake and that you didn't boil until morning.

The command here is about gathering. It's about going out and doing that work, not enjoying a festival, a feast day, and preparing that on the feast. So they laid it up till morning. What did they lay up till morning? They laid up that which remains. And notice, this time it didn't stink. There weren't worms in it. And Moses said, okay, eat that today. Eat what? That which remains. For today is the Sabbath to the Lord. Notice, you will not find it in the field. So what was kept over would not be found in the field, which is just manna. Verse 26, six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day the Sabbath there will be none. So what happens here is people sometimes begin to think, oh, I can't do anything on the Sabbath. Well, but that's not the case. We're told not to kindle a fire on the Sabbath. We're told not to collect manna on the Sabbath, not to collect wood on the Sabbath. The restriction, remember, is about gathering. Now, in verse 28, notice, the Lord said to Moses, how long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? Okay, what are the commandments and laws that are refusing to keep? See, for the Lord has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Notice the command carefully, let every man remain in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day to do that common work of gathering. That's what we're not supposed to do. So kindling a fire, I mean, if you had to go create, break up, you know, just imagine what it was like then to wander around in the wilderness and find the stuff for fire and starting it from scratch. That would be a lot of work. It would be like breaking, baking bread from scratch. They didn't even have yeast back in those days. Imagine what that would be like if we were to bake cakes. It says in Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse 18, God here is condemning Israelites for doing things for a different God. But notice the description in Jeremiah 7 and verse 18, the children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire. What does that tell us? Well, the children gather wood because well, you gather wood before you build a fire. There was no fire. They hadn't prepared. And the fathers kindled the fire. And that's common work, and it would really show a lack of respect for God in his holy Sabbath day. Forbidden work and the use of fire are not the same thing on a holy day, and the Sabbath is a holy day. It's found in Leviticus 23 verse 25. Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 25. In one sentence, it says, you shall do no customary work on it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. So you see how those two are different on the Sabbath? You shall have a fire, but you shall do no customary work. Everything needs to be ready and prepared. We're to be prepared so we don't have to go out of your place, God says, for the things on the Sabbath. Remain in his place, you know. So we should have our necessities, whatever they are ready. Okay, over to Wayne for part four. And part four is, how about how proper Sabbath keeping actually forms a link between God and his people? I start out in Deuteronomy 5 verse 12. It says, observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy as the Lord God commanded you.

And in verse 15, and 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. Notice the connection God makes between keeping the Sabbath and his deliverance from slavery. As we know that the Sabbath was a weekly reminder for his people to stop and to regard him as their creator, as building a relationship. But more especially, we need to see this as a time to see God as one who frees us from bondage, and that he is the one who frees from bondage. This is what was given to us to see in Jesus Christ. Turn to Luke chapter 4 and verse 18. It says, Luke 4 and verse 18 says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, and he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed.

So there is a concept here for us to consider very strongly of the Sabbath representing a freedom, a release, and a rest. It's a concept most impressively demonstrated in God's deliverance of Israel in the Great Exodus from Egypt. So Christians really should regard this event, the Sabbath day, as a forerunner of the Exodus as a forerunner of the type of what Jesus has done for them, and liberating them from a spiritual bondage of slavery to sin. Romans chapter 6 and verse 16. 2-18. Romans 16-18 says, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves, whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God bethang that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. So the Sabbath, as a weekly event to remind, to remember that, you know, that God has set us apart, should then also be a weekly reminder of how God did this by freeing us through Jesus Christ from our slavery to sin and death. And in doing so, bound us to Him in a very special relationship with Him. Really, the Sabbath should then be really an impressively weekly event for us, really, because it is a time simply loaded with rich meaning and significance for us. It is far from just a day off. It has so much meaning. And we then need to remember, weekly, that we have a very special relationship intended between God and man in that day. Turn to Mark chapter 2, in verse 27. And He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also the Lord of the Sabbath. So God intended this for man. And remember, we need to remember that it is a day then for us to delight in. We need to delight in our Creator for the special relationship He is forming between us and Himself. Turn to Isaiah 58, verse 13.

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and calling the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, not doing your own gathering, nor finding your own pleasure, your own pursuits, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. And I will cause you to ride high on the hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your Father, the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So the Sabbath day is a day to be especially close with God, to joyfully really dwell in the special relationship with Him. And on the amazing purpose that He is working out for mankind, it is a wonderful day to delight in. Turn part five back to Mr. Elliott. The holiness of the seventh day Sabbath is confirmed through the example of Jesus Christ our Lord. We look in Luke chapter 4 and verse 16 and verse 31. Luke 4 16. So He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and He stood up to read. And then dropping down to verse 31, we find that this was His continual example. It says, then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. That's along the Sea of Galilee. And He was teaching them on the Sabbaths. So Jesus Christ had a custom. He observed the Sabbath. He confirms by His own example that the seventh day Sabbath is a holy day and a day for teaching. Now in Matthew chapter 12 and in verse 8, we find that He is Lord of the Sabbath. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Valid, we might say, the Sabbath is under the New Covenant as He is the Lord of it. How it is continuing to be the holy day of the Lord. It is His day. If we look in chapter 19 and verse 17 of Matthew, we find that this Lord of the Sabbath tells us to do something. Matthew 19, 17, He said to Him, Why do you call me good? There is no one good but one that is God. But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.

He is telling us to keep the commandments. The fourth commandment is to remember to keep the Sabbath day holy. Back to Wayne for part six. And part six is how the apostles and the New Testament Church continued to observe the seventh day Sabbath. This is confirmed through the example of His followers after his death and resurrection. Paul taught the Gentiles on the Sabbath. He was doing so following both the law and the example of Christ. Let's turn to Acts 13 and verse 42. Acts 13 verse 42 through verse 44.

When the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. When the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout prophetites followed Paul and Barnabas, who persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

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

You'd think that if there was going to be a switch to another day of worship, by now there would have been a considerable effort to teach it here now and set a new example.

Nothing like that happened. In fact, Paul continued to teach on this Sabbath, as was his custom.

Acts 17 and verse 2.

Acts 17 verse 2. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them for three Sabbaths and reasoned with them from the Scriptures. Turn to Acts 18 and verse 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. So no example can be found in the writings of the apostles or the practice of the New Testament Church. It shows any hint of a change in the example or the teaching that they received from Christ. In fact, the New Testament writing shows that the Sabbath would remain intact as an observance for the New Covenant people. Turn to Hebrews 4 verse 9.

Hebrews 4 verse 9. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. A rest is a Sabbathism, a keeping of a seventh-day Sabbath for the people of God. So in UCG, in the United Church of God, we continue to teach this as a fundamental belief that the seventh day the week is the Sabbath of the Lord our God. On this day we are commanded to rest from our labors and worship God following the teachings and examples of Jesus and the apostles and the New Testament Church. It was given to man in the creation week. He said on the seventh day God ended from his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done and it was affirmed in the Mosaic Covenant in Exodus. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and it was maintained as a new covenant observance by Jesus as Mr. Eliot showed us and it was maintained by the apostles here. So we have absolutely no authority from the word of God for changing or abandoning this observance only example after example as maintaining it as the precious day that it is. Part 7 back to Mr. Eliot. Okay, thank you Wayne.

Sabbath keeping reveals deeper understanding about God's plan of salvation.

God created the physical realm in six days of a seven-day week. Let's go to 2 Peter 3 and verse 8. 2 Peter 3 and verse 8 says, but beloved do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. When we look at the seven-day week through this lens, we begin to see a better understanding about what God is doing in the time that humans are on earth and what's coming in the future. So in six days, these then can expand to picture 6,000 years of Satan's rulership. And just as man and you and me go about our business for the first six days of the week, we do what seems right and important to us, right? We all do. We get up, what am I going to do today? I've got to do this, I've got to do that. You know the Sabbath's coming, but I've got to do this and this. And so we go about it. Well, for 6,000 years, mankind has been going about doing what seems good and bad during his six prophetic days. And this has been a time that's an evil time, and it's a time that man has suffered. It's not been restful. You know, sin has kickbacks. Sin brings about all manner of stress. And so mankind, his 6,000 years could be compared to work as you would do for, say, a master by a slave. And that is really drudgery. Now, during the 6,000 years, God has been calling a few to be firstfruits. And he says, in many places, come out from among them and be separate. So we have this view that we've been given by this calling. And we say, oh, I'm in the six days, and this society is not right. I don't want anything to do with this. And man is in slavery to sin at this time. You know, how we then look at the seventh day of the week really shows God how we feel about Him, about His laws, about His ways, as we look and picture it as the seventh day. On the seventh day, God rested. He made the Sabbath. He continues to make that Sabbath.

And this, in that day, is like the thousand-year rest following 6,000 years of trouble.

Do we like society in our six days? And the Sabbath is kind of a burden to us, and we wish it didn't come along? Or do we say, you know, sufficient to the week are the six days thereof?

And I sure look forward to the Sabbath. I want to step out of this trouble and enter the peaceful, restful Sabbath, and be with God, and be with members, and be with His Word. So how we view the Sabbath, and how we honor the Sabbath, and how we prepare for it and get ready for it, physically and mentally, indicates how God-centered we are. So God made the seventh day, and He rested it, rested on it. And this pictures a time in the future when the day of the Lord, you know, the day of the Lord is coming. Obviously, it's a day when He will arrive, but the day of the Lord is a thousand years is the millennial reign of Jesus Christ and the saints. That's one future look, and it pictures people following God's rules about what is good and bad. And this wonderful day or millennial reign of the Lord is referenced by every Sabbath that we keep.

Mankind is currently blinded to godliness. He's a god to himself. He thus sees no need to honor God's reign or God's Sabbath. He calls this time, this period, the kingdom of God, because it's going the way he thinks it should. And consequently, those few keeping the Sabbath holy today make it a sign or an indicator of those who are gods now. And thus, we are indicated to God as being His in part by how we view that Sabbath. So in conclusion, each Sabbath looks back to creation, reminds us of our Creator. At the present time, it reminds us that this is not God's society, but it also reminds saints that God has redeemed us to be His children and future firstfruits.

The Sabbath day points forward to the seventh day, the seventh day or the 7000th year of the 7000 years, the thousand-year reign of Christ and the saints, a time that we should get really excited about it. You know, each Sabbath speaks to that period, but it also points even further than that.

It points to a rest when humanity will be resurrected, and they will have a rest, and they will follow God, and they will have a rest from Satan and the effects of sin as they live a godly life. And finally, the Sabbath points even further. Let's go in conclusion to 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 13. When we think of what the Sabbath pictures, it points all the way out there as well. 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 13, Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Righteousness brings peace. It brings rest. It brings no trouble. And in the kingdom of God, throughout all eternity, righteousness will dwell. And that will be the ultimate rest when and where only pure righteousness exists.