How Do You Keep the Sabbath?

Today, I want to talk about something that most people consider to be a horrible burden. And the reason why they feel it is a horrible burden is because they have been programmed to think that way. I mean, that is the way they've grown up to think. That's what's been sort of poured into their heads. You know, Mr. Armstrong used to talk about how students in college, you know, it's like they drill a hole in their head and they put a funnel up there and they pour the knowledge in. Well, that's what happens to everybody, isn't it? In the world, it's like people have knowledge that is poured in and people are programmed to think a certain way. The Ten Commandments to them would be just fine. You know, they don't see necessarily a problem with nine of the commandments. Not that they necessarily keep them, but they don't have a problem with them. And so, of the Ten Commandments, most of them would be fine if the Fourth Commandment was not there. You know, if you could take out of the Ten Commandments, you know, the Fourth Commandment, that would be a wonderful document according to them. You know, in some areas it seems like that they'd totally rewrite that particular commandment to say what they wanted to say. Well, that subject of a basic Christian that we want to talk about today is, how do you keep the Sabbath? Now, that is a loaded question, by the way. There it has two meanings. How do you keep the Sabbath? In other words, how are you keeping the Sabbath? And also, how do you keep the Sabbath? According to the Word of God. You know, what God instructs us to do. So, brethren, how are you keeping the Sabbath? Are you keeping it correctly? You know, the Sabbath is a wonderful, wonderful institution created by God for our enrichment. God intended to enrich us, to help us to grow. But it must be kept properly to have the desired spiritual effect. God wanted it to have a spiritual dimension and to have a spiritual impact upon us. And He certainly intended it to be one that is going to have a lasting impact upon us. Now, the Sabbath is a period given to pursue for man the highest spiritual goals God intended for humanity. It was intended to transform the man. It was intended to change the man. It is one of the first gifts that God gave and bestowed upon mankind after the creation. And it was the first thing that God taught Adam and Eve after they were created. Now, think about that. That God created man from the dust to the ground. He formed them. And the first thing that He taught him about was the Sabbath. Now, you would think that Adam, you know, he was this vigorous 30 probably year old body that he had that didn't have a flaw in it. He had all the energy in the world. And God says, okay, sit back, Adam. I'm going to tell you how to rest.

Now, the first thing God gave him was the Sabbath. And it was more than just how to rest. And thus, this is one of the first topics that a Christian should understand. You know, when we're called, the first thing we should understand is how to keep the Sabbath. Because, brethren, the Sabbath comes to us each week without fail. It's like the sun coming up in the morning. You know that the Sabbath is going to come every single week. And God has said it that we will learn through this weekly process. And indeed, that it is not. It never was a burden, but in fact, was a great pleasure if it is kept properly. It is intended to greatly enrich ourselves, spiritually speaking, and to help our children on the road to true spirituality as well. It's a day that God intends to draw the families together spiritually. And we grow in our relationship with our great Creator God as a result of the Sabbath day. That's a major part, again, of our growth is on the Sabbath day, and keeping the Sabbath day the way God intended it to do, us to do. Let's go to Leviticus 23. I always like to take people over here to Leviticus 23 because it gives us a thumbnail of the Sabbath. He's talking about here in verse 1 about the Feast of the Eternal. And one of the feasts of the Eternal, of course, is the Sabbath day. And down in verse 3, let's come down here to verse 3 of Leviticus 23. It says, 6 days shall work be done, but the 7th day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation, and you shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Eternal in all your dwellings. And so here we see that God commanded Israel that they were to observe the Sabbath. And it was a Sabbath of rest, a solemn rest, it says, and a holy convocation. And so the Sabbath is a day of rest, yes, but it's also a day of a holy assembly together. And sometimes people say, well, I've been keeping the Sabbath. And they may very well have been keeping the Sabbath as much as they understood. You know, when I learned about the Sabbath, I stopped working on the Sabbath. But in a way, I still was not keeping the Sabbath. And the reason was when I first began to understand about it, I needed to go to an assembly of God's people on the Sabbath in order to keep the Sabbath. And so it should be a Sabbath of rest and of the holy assembly together also. God did not intend for us, brethren, to sleep all day long, but to rest and do something spiritually oriented on this particular day rather than our normal, everyday business activities. So it would be a change of pace in our daily lives so that we would be observing a day for developing ourselves spiritually speaking. And one cannot keep the Sabbath just by resting, but must also keep the sacred assembly in order to keep the Sabbath. I say that, brethren, because we come into the church very often, and we know how often in the Protestant world people observe their Sundays.

Sunday to people, they'll call it the Sabbath sometimes even. They do not observe Sunday you know, the way they even say that the so-called Christian, professed Christian, should do. So we don't keep the Sabbath, by the way, and should not keep the Sabbath the way that we used to if we were part of the Protestant world keep Sunday. The Sabbath is much different, much different. The reason why man is keeping a day that God did not appoint is so he can do his own thing. But the Sabbath is not a day to do our own thing. It is not a day the way the world observes their Sabbath, quote-unquote. But, you know, it's not really a Sabbath because it's not on the seventh day. It has to be on the Sabbath, but on the seventh day to be a Sabbath. But let's continue on. Let's go over to Genesis chapter one. Like I said, God gave to Adam and Eve the first thing he gave was the Sabbath day. In Genesis chapter one and verse 26 here, we see that God created man. And on down here we see that God created man and woman. And verse 26, let us make man our image according to our likeness. So man was formed and woman was formed. And notice down in verse 31, and then God saw everything that he had made and indeed was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And so as the end of that six days began, there was the seventh day. And then in verse one of chapter two, then it says, Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host 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 his work which he had done. And so God rested himself on that day. And then God blessed, or he sanctified the seventh day and set it apart, sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. So God sets an example for the man. The very first thing he did is set an example of resting on the Sabbath. That's the first thing that Adam and Eve saw of God. First thing that they saw of God that he rested on the Sabbath day. And God again has set us that example. You know, God is not a workaholic. Now I talked about how Adam was perfectly created. Eve were perfectly created. The first thing God gave them was the Sabbath, the day of rest. Well, God doesn't ever need to rest, and yet he rested on the Sabbath. So God is not a workaholic. He enjoys doing other things, and this was one thing that he did with Adam and Eve, and one thing he does every Sabbath with his people. Let's go to Exodus 31. Exodus 31. You know, sometimes people will say, well God intended the Sabbath for Israel. He didn't intend it for us today. You know, it's the way human reasoning is. You know, I would think, though, brethren, if the Sabbath was special to God, and he made Israel his special people and gave them the Sabbath, that no matter whether you were an Israelite or not, you would still want to identify with God. Wouldn't you? I would think you would, wouldn't you? I mean, whether you were, you know, someone who was not Israelite at all, you would want to identify with God.

And it's kind of dumbfounding, isn't it, that sometimes the so-called Christians of the world, the scholars and so forth, make this kind of argumentation. Oh, that's for Israel.

But there are a lot of things that God gave to Israel, didn't he? But I think we would want to identify with those things that God, you know, thought enough about Israel to give them those things. But, of course, he intended not just for Israel, but everyone, you know. But Exodus 31, down in verse 13, here it says, And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely, my Sabbath you shall keep. For it is a sign between me and you, throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sets you apart, or sanctifies you.

And it says, You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. And it says, And it says, And it says, And we see here that in verse 17 that, you know, God Himself rested on the seventh day, as we just read in Genesis over there as well. And we know here that it says, And when He had made it into speaking with Him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of testimony, tablets of stone, written with a finger of God. And so when God wrote the Ten Commandments, He wrote the fourth command with His own finger. You know, how God does that, maybe some sort of electrical charge or something, you know, Scotty, beam me up type thing, you know, that He wrote it right into the stone. And so God reiterated the institution of the Sabbath to the Israelites. And, brethren, it's a sign of God's people today as well. And the reason why that is so is because what are we called today in the Bible? What are we called today? What is the church called today?

The Israel of God says that in the book of Galatians. And I'm not going to go to it, but let's turn to Hebrews 10. I'm not going to go to this particular verse, but in Hebrews 4-9, there's a Scripture there that says, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God.

Now, a lot of people in this world of Christianity, they make the argument, well, that means just a rest in Jesus. Or that means a rest in the heaven. You go to heaven and you rest up there.

But it says, there therefore remains a rest for the people of God. Vine's dictionary says the word rest in Hebrews 4-9 is from the Greek word, sabbatismos, which means a Sabbath-keeping. In other words, it should read, there remains therefore a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God. And let's go to Hebrews. You know, here Paul made that argument in Hebrews 4-9, but in the book of Hebrews continually, let's go to Hebrews 10 in verse 23. You know, here over here we are told as God's people to hold fast our confession of hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider one another in order to stir up to love and good works. You know, we ought to buoy each other up. We ought to encourage each other about the Sabbath. In verse 25, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as is the manner of some. You know, Paul was dealing with people who were forsaking the assembly of the church together, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Well, I'll tell you, brethren, if you can't see the day approaching now, you're blind. And of course, I realize there are people in the world that are blind. I hope that we're not that way. I think God's people tend to be pretty sharp with those things, and they know that we are in the midst of some of the most momentous things that the world has ever seen. So we need the Sabbath. So as we see this day approaching, brethren, we need to have more spiritual rejuvenation, especially because of the times we live in are sinful, too. And iniquity is abounding and increasing.

And you know, we've got to be careful that our love for God and God's way of life does not wax cold like the world out here. And it's so easy to happen. We really need the boost every week of the Sabbath day to help us endure to the end. You know, if we didn't need it, then God would not have given the Sabbath, would He? But we need the Sabbath. It's something that we need and something that God not just encourages us to do, but He commands us to do.

But let's go down to verse 26. This verse, brethren, I think we need to meditate a lot more in regards to the Convocation. But in verse 26 it says, For if we sin willfully ... no, if we're willfully forsaking the Sabbath Convocation, after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there it says no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. You know, God cannot forgive something which we willingly do. And apparently there were those in Paul's day that were forsaking the assembly willfully. And Paul had felt compelled to warn them that forgiveness by the blood of Christ will not be there if you are doing so willfully. And so God puts that heavy responsibility, brethren, on us concerning the Sabbath law. And not just that law, by the way, but it would be saved. This would be true with the other nine commandments, too. If we break those commandments willfully, there isn't any sacrifice for willful sin. And we've got to be, again, doubly careful that we don't take advantage of that. We need to be careful also hearing and not apply. We need to be hearers of the truth as well as doers. It's so easy to fall in the trap, brethren, of being just a hearer. You know, when we get to the point when we come to church and we listen to the sermon and we say, well, I agree with that, that's totally right. That's wonderful. That's right down the line. You know, that's what we ought to be preaching. And then go out and not do it, then we, again, become hearers only. And that's a danger. That really is a danger for us. So we need to, again, respond to what God is saying. You know, there are some people, brethren, that will get up in arms if the minister diverts from what we believe and teach in the church, as they should. But they themselves are not living by it.

And, of course, that's always the case. They're going to be someone that's not going to do that, so we shouldn't be shocked by that. But, you know, if we forsake the assembly and sin willfully, there does not remain forgiveness by the blood of Christ. And when we understand how to properly observe the Sabbath, brethren, it is a wonderful source of spiritual life to us and rejuvenation.

Now, let's continue, brethren, looking at how God instructed the people of Israel about the Sabbath. Now, I'm not going to spend any time on this, but I do want to give you the scriptures, and you can write it down. In Exodus 16, in verse 22 through 23, you know, Mr. Willis gave a sermonette on this. I think he gave it over here about the preparation day, but how God gave Israel twice as much manna on the sixth day, and did not, of course, give any manna on the seventh day, and that how the reason that God does that on the sixth day, he instructed them to bake and to cook and to do all that they needed to do the day before the Sabbath, which was a preparation day. And so, God instructed them to prepare for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was so important that he gave a preparation day for it in order to keep it right and to keep it properly. And, you know, so we as God's people need to remember that there is a preparation day, which is Thursday sunset to Friday sunset. So Thursday, we need to begin thinking about the Sabbath day, and we need to be thinking about, in other words, preparing for the Sabbath. What all do you need to do, you know, in preparing for the Sabbath?

You know, over, by the way, in Mark 1542, you'll see that the day before the Sabbath is called the preparation day over there. And so, the key to keeping the Sabbath properly, brethren, for the weekly Sabbath is to utilize the preparation day in order to make sure that the Sabbath does not creep up on you. You know, you don't want to look at your watch at 5 30, and the sun went down at 4 45 and say, oops, the Sabbath, and you find yourself at your job.

You see, that would be the Sabbath creeping up on you. You're not preparing for the salary, you're not looking to the Sabbath the way that you should be doing properly. And so, what we have to do on the preparation day, and I'm sure that Mr. Willis covered some of these things, you know, you want to fill up the gas, you know, on your car as you know, traveling to Oakland. As we do, we come down. It's about a 45-minute drive down here. For us, of course, we run a circuit and we go down to San Jose. We got to go all the way up. I don't want to make sure I have enough gas to make it through the day. And you do all your heavy baking and all your cooking for your main meals on the preparation day. So that when you, you know, get to the Sabbath, you don't have to do a lot of cooking on the Sabbath. God wants you to enter into the Sabbath peacefully with peace and focus on the spiritual. So, this is the key, brethren, and making sure that we do not enter into the Sabbath distracted by physical things. We don't want to be distracted by, oh well, I forgot to fill up and I've got to go fill up.

I forgot to do this. I forgot to buy that. I forgot to purchase those things for the Sabbath. Well, we should not put ourselves in that kind of situation at all. I have more to say about that as we go along as to what's proper to do on the Sabbath in terms of buying and selling. But let's go to Exodus 20. Exodus 20. But over here in Exodus chapter 20, we are instructed, again, on what we should do in the commandment itself. Exodus 20, of course, when the commandments were thundered, they weren't just spoken from Sinai. They were thundered from Sinai.

And God, in other words, meant business with His commandments. But in verse 8, beginning there, it says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. So our job, brethren, is to keep the Sabbath holy.

You know, remember it to keep it holy. Now, God made it holy, so what we need to be doing is holy things. We need to be conducting ourselves in a holy manner. And it says, Six days you shall labor and do all your work. Six days is a preparation day. 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, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates. It says, For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and howled it. And so we howled that seventh day Sabbath. So most of the physical things, brethren, should be done before we enter in to the Sabbath day so that that day is simplified. It's like today you're not thinking about other things, you're thinking hopefully about what we're talking about right now. And I realize, brethren, when we come off the street, we get out of our cars, we made a trip, you know, we see physical things and physical situations in the world, maybe some things that, you know, somebody might have cut you off and maybe have done other things in the process, you know, you're liable to see just about anything out on the roads and highways. But you come in and you're sort of in a fog and coming into services. The sermonette, by the way, and the song service is supposed to lift you up a little bit, begin to get you to think on a little more lofty level, you know, than being so clued into the physical. And hopefully by the time we get to the sermon, you're really engaged and you're ready to begin to drink into the spiritual more than you were than at the beginning. And hopefully by the time we get to the end of the sermon, you know, you're there at a certain plateau and in a way you've had your Sabbath fixed.

And then along with the fellowship that adds to it as well. So, you know, today, in other words, we have to think about these things, brethren. So we don't want to have to be thinking about, oh, I got some heavy cooking to do. What we want to think about is, hey, I've already done that. It's in the fridge. It's in a crock pot. All I got to do is warm it up. If I had guessed over and, you know, you have laid out and you have a delightful family meal, minimal labor that needs to be done. And so that is the way it should be. That's the way the Sabbath should be for a peaceful day, a wonderful day. Let's go to Matthew 12. Matthew 12 over here. You know, maybe for the sake of those who are uninitiated, but, you know, we covered this before. I was going to just pass over it. But Matthew 12 in verse 1, it says, at that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. Of course, to the Pharisees, this was an abomination, what they did. They were breaking the Sabbath. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful for them to do on the Sabbath day. And, of course, they believed that you were not to do anything like that. And, you know, there, by the way, are still groups of Orthodox Jews in Israel.

I remember one Sabbath, my wife and I got lost together before we were husband and wife. And we got, we'd gone down on Friday afternoon to get with a number of students to get an ice cream. And we were headed, walked back to the Good Shepherd Hotel where the students were staying there in Jerusalem. And on the way got lost in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. And, and, of course, to walk in such a neighborhood is to take your life in your old hands. They might stone you. You know, throw, throw, if your car goes through there, they'll throw rocks at the car. You know, so there's some that are still ultra that way and have this Pharisaical approach to the Sabbath. But they believe that, you know, what his disciples did is they went through and they, they took this grain, you know, you sort of pull up on the wheat and, you know, you've got the kernels there and you rub them between your hands and you blow the shaft away and eat the grains. To them, that was a sin, what they had done. And it's unlawful. Now, Christ, of course, his disciples were accused of that. But this was not forbidden by the laws of God. You know, Jesus Christ himself said this down in verse 5. He said, or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests and the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? They're blameless.

So a priest does things on the Sabbath that the ordinary people of Israel could not do.

Now, the reason Christ is using this as an argumentation is because his disciples were being trained. They were being instructed. And probably they had attended a synagogue on one area and they were walking on the way to another synagogue, you know, as they often did, to teach.

And on the way, the disciples got hungry and they plucked some of those ears of wheat and ate them.

And so Christ thought this is perfectly okay because we're doing the work of God. And obviously, if Jesus Christ was not doing the work of God, I don't know who was or who could be doing it. And so he said, have you not read that on the Sabbath the priests of the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? The priests of the Old Testament, by the way, had to perform certain work on the Sabbath, yet were not blameable. They needed to bake bread on the Sabbath. That was one thing they had to do because they were commanded of God. That's in Leviticus 24, by the way, that chose that. And they had to sacrifice on the Sabbath. And this work of handling and killing animals, by the way, it's really work. It's not easy to do those things on the Sabbath day, but it was something that God commanded them to do on the Sabbath. In other words, there are exceptions to the letter of the law when there is a genuine need. As Jesus said here in chapter 12 of Matthew, in fact, he said David had a need when he was in hungered and he went into the temple and he took the showbread. And by the way, God was working directly with David and he was being used to God. And so therefore what he was doing was like unto a priest. And of course, David himself, by the way, was a prophet of God, as we know. You can't read the book of Psalms to not come to that conclusion. And so, you know, David was able to eat something that was not lawful. And so, Christ just point up there are exceptions in the Bible. And the priests of God had a need because they serve God in the temple. And there are genuine needs even today in the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Now, my wife and I do things on the Sabbath that you cannot do unless you're assigned to do it.

You know, if somebody came to me and said, oh, today I'm going to travel 200 miles on the Sabbath and preach two sermons and two Bible studies, unless they are authorized to do that, I would say, you can't do it. You're not assigned to do that. Not given that. And frankly, I wouldn't encourage anyone to travel 200 miles, you know, unless there was an absolute need for it. I realize sometimes there is a need for it even for God's people. But, you know, God does not want us to abuse the Sabbath. In a way, I have to break the Sabbath to keep it, you know, because of the things that we have to do on the Sabbath. But, you know, it is something where it is unto God. Again, I wouldn't do it otherwise. But also, brethren, there are needs that arise among the membership of the Church from time to time. However, there's a need for wisdom so that the Sabbath isn't profane, but rather is enriching to us as God intended it to be. It's like, go back again to show, as a minister, there are things that we are free to do. Obviously, I'm free to get in a car and drive a little further on the Sabbath than you would, and to do other things, but there are other things I'm not free to do on the Sabbath, either. I'm not free to do a lot of things on the Sabbath, you know, and I don't want the freedom, by the way. I like what God has given us with regard to the Sabbath. But again, we need to make sure the Sabbath isn't profane, but rather it's enriching to us as God intended it to be. Matthew, Mark, chapter 2. Let's notice Mark, chapter 2.

Mark, chapter 2, in verse 27.

It says, 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, in His sagaciousness, in His wisdom, deep wisdom, gave the Sabbath to all mankind. And God created the Sabbath, you know, Himself, after the man. And so the Sabbath was created for a man, and not man for the Sabbath. And He intends, God intends, that we not abuse it.

Also, God gave woman after the man, didn't He? And God certainly doesn't want a man to abuse a woman.

But a woman, again, needs to be treated properly, in the right manner.

So the Sabbath was created to serve the needs of mankind. But if we don't keep it properly, what happens, brethren, if we don't keep the Sabbath properly, then we begin to look at it as getting in our own way. That's what happens. If we start doing things, we start fudging, and start doing things that we should not do on the Sabbath, then we look at the Sabbath as being becoming a burden to us, because we can't do what we want to do. And that can begin very small, you know, in us, and it can grow up in us and become a big thing, and can take us away from God further. It's like that oak tree that Mr. Killenia has talked about. We ought to be growing, you know, as as oaks and getting stronger, living longer. Well, evil works the same way. It can grow in us very small and get very big and can overshadow the good that God has put in us.

Now, Christ did not, though, however, come to give a a Talmud of do's and don'ts, either. He did come to give us principles to live by, principles to live by, and he did acknowledge that the Sabbath, though, however, was strict. It was strict. We believe in the United Church of God, brethren, in the strict observance of the Sabbath. We shouldn't break the letter to serve our wants, in other words. Christ never gave authorization for that, to break the letters to serve our wants.

That is why Christ gave principles in his life. He didn't intend his example to be used to abuse the Sabbath. Far from it. He also didn't restrict what were the needs of people. This is where often people get into judging, you know, other people, and we shouldn't get into ever judging someone.

But, you know, the reason why he didn't restrict the needs is because those needs differ between one person or another. You know, I might be able to go all day long without eating anything at all.

You know, you might, on the other hand, feel like you're starving to death and start clawing the walls. Hopefully not, if you've learned to fast and do that, but, you know, it's not quite that way. But, you know, sometimes when a young person begins to fast, though, you look at this after the end of the day, it's like you look at their eyes. It's like you're staring into death.

It's like, oh no, if I don't get something, some morsel of food, I'm going to die pretty soon. Well, they eventually learn as well. So, God wants us to distinguish, though, between what is a want and what is a need. Let's go to John 5. John 5, over here. John 5.

You know, the Sabbath is a day when we can do so many wonderful things that are certainly not against God's law at all. You know, to take a beautiful walk on the beach, you know. I was thinking of Vern Brownson up in Santa Rosa, you know, Deacon up there. He used to go out there on the beach out from Santa Rosa, and he told me he would go out there after services, and it would, when the sun goes down much later, and he would sit there reading his Bible on the Sabbath. What a perfect way to read your Bible and to enjoy the clothes of the Sabbath day. There's a lot of things you can do like that. John 5, in verse 1, though. No, this is after this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And now there was in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. And in these lay a great multitude of people, probably, you know, there, you know, in the shaded areas, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. And it says, for an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water, and were made well of whatever disease he had. Now, a certain man was there that had an infirmity for 38 years. That's a long time. And when Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been there in that condition a long time, he said to him, do you want to be made well? And the sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming, another steps right before me. And Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed, and walk.

And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked, and that day was the Sabbath. Of course, that's the most important thing about this story here, and the fact that Christ healed somebody on the Sabbath day. And the Jews therefore said to him, who was cured, it is the Sabbath. It's not lawful for you to carry your bed. And he answered them, he who made me well said to me, take up your bed and walk. So I just did what he told me to do. He healed me and made me well, and he told me to do that, and I did it. And then they asked him, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk? But the one who healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn a multitude, being in that place. And afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you have been made well, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. And the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. And verse 16, and for this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. And Jesus answered them, my father has been working until now, and I have been working. And it says, therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was his father, making him equal with God. And so they had it out for Jesus Christ at that time. You know, in the Greek, there is a word that is luo, spelled L-U-O, which means to loose or to loosen. And what Christ was doing, brethren, by doing these things on the Sabbath, and he was brought under fire over it, is he was loosening the artificial strictness that the Pharisees had put on the Sabbath. He was loosening it. They were illogically saying Christ broke the Sabbath, for crying out loud, because he healed somebody. Miracles that they hadn't seen before. Christ did this on the Sabbath day. And after he healed this particular man, they were headset on killing Christ and putting him to death. He was a marked man after this. Let's go over to chapter 7 and verse 21 to sort of finish off this particular discourse here. But in John 7 verse 21, Jesus answered and said to them, after they had made further accusations against him, Moses therefore gave you circumcision. Not that it was from Moses, but from the fathers. And you circumcised a man on the Sabbath day. If a man received circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? Maybe another word here we could use, made a man completely whole on the Sabbath. And so Jesus Christ here is saying, look, you're upset with me because I made a man whole. You know, you obey Moses's law even if the eight-day falls on the Sabbath day, and you're cutting something off of the individual in circumcision. But if I'm going to make a man whole, you know, I would think that would also fit into the same exception. There's some days going to be healed that, you know, that that would be also something that would be good to do on the Sabbath day. And, you know, they, again, were illogical in their thinking.

You know, you think if you've ever been to a circumcision, and my wife and I have been to circumcision before, and, you know, it is not necessarily a greatly pleasant experience for either the parents or the child that is involved. Perhaps less for the, I mean, more for the, it's an unpleasant thing for the parents. An uneasy feeling is very uneasy. But, you know, here you think about the feelings you have when somebody's circumcised, and the feelings you have when somebody's made whole and being healed are quite different, aren't they? One's a very uplifting experience. Again, not that we should not keep God's instructions about that, because even today it's important from a physical standpoint to do that. Let's go to Luke 13. So, again, Christ is showing us, brethren, it's not wrong to do something that is going to be helpful on the Sabbath, obviously. You don't want to, you know, to abuse that. But in Luke 13, in verse 10, let's notice this, Luke 13 and verse 10, it says, Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.

I remember a man, by the way, in Harrisburg, it was like that. And I thought of this woman when I saw him, but he was in a trophy shop, worked in a trophy shop. And everywhere he walked, I mean, he was like his upper torso was parallel to the floor. And he sort of looked up at you that way. So I can imagine how difficult it was for this woman in her life, and it had been going on for eighteen years. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, woman, you're loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. And he said to the crowd, there are six days on which a man ought to work. So this became a confrontational situation, didn't it? Therefore, come and be healed on them and not on the Sabbath day. Interestingly, probably he had never seen the healing before. Probably, you know, in that synagogue. But in verse 15, it says, the Lord then answered him and said, hypocrite, you're a hypocrite. Does not each one of you on the Sabbath looses ox or donkey from the stall and lead in a way to water it? So what, not this woman being a daughter of Abraham who Satan is bound? Think of it. For 18 years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath. And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. And so Christ used, again, these opportunities to teach that there are certainly exceptions on the Sabbath.

But over in Matthew chapter 12, Matthew 12, and down in verse 10, and just a couple of verses here, and behold there was a man who had a withered hand, and they asked him, saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? So this was, you know, intervening before the man could be healed, even, that they might accuse him. And then he said to them, what man is there among you who has one sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, and will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Or of how much more value, then, is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. It's lawful to heal on the Sabbath, Jesus Christ is saying. It's lawful to do good on the Sabbath. And then he said to the man, stretch out your hand, and he stretched out his hand, and it was restored as whole as the other. And, you know, Pharisees began to plot even more against Christ. Now, Christ does not say what to do, you know, what is doing good on the Sabbath. He doesn't say that here. He leaves that open for us. He did not specify. But he gives other, again, scriptures that show us that he doesn't mean it's a free-for-all to do whatever we want, but, you know, to show that there certainly are indeed exceptions. Luke 14. Luke 14.

Luke 14. In verse 1, and this does not happen, he says, "...who went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before him who had droughtscy. And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Now Christ is asking them the question.

But they kept silent, and he took him and healed him and let him go.

And then he answered them, saying, Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen to a pit, would not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him regarding these things." So there are certain reasons on the Sabbath where we should do something if it is doing good, if it's ox and the ditch. And he's talking, brethren, about duties of helping in certain cases. I'm not going to go back to Deuteronomy, but there it shows that Israel was commanded of God to help their brother, to help their neighbor, to watch after their brother and their neighbor if a real need arises. And the reason on the Sabbath sometimes that can arise is if something arises that is unforeseen. For instance, you are leaving to go to services. You've got your briefcase, and you've got all your books. You're ready to head to services, and you step out the front door, and you see your neighbor's house is mocha's coming out of the where it should not be coming out. You want to put your books down or whatever, and go over and alert your neighbor. Or if the house is burning down and the neighbor is out there and he's trying to put something out and you see he needs your help to do it, you should drop things and go and help that person, because it's unforeseen. Didn't expect that to happen. Hopefully that doesn't happen in your neighborhood every day. You know, it's something that is going to happen very infrequently. Or maybe you happen along and you feel like you can do this. Sometimes you've got to be careful about this, but you're in a circumstance where you can. Somebody's car breaks down and you feel like you can help them. You should stop and try to help them. If you get broke down on the Sabbath, and you know somebody that could help you, obviously, and they're in the church, if they could come and help you, even on the Sabbath, would not be wrong if you were stranded and there was no other way that you could do it. It would not be wrong to do those types of things on the Sabbath day.

But, you know, we've got to be careful as God's people again that we do not push the ox in the ditch. You know, push that old donkey in the ditch. You know, right before the Sabbath, they want to just push you right in there. And that way, when the call comes, I'll have a reason.

You don't think that carnally. Hopefully, nobody ever does. But if your employer needs your help, you know how sometimes that happens? This isn't an ox in the ditch, because you should have already told him that you don't work on the Sabbath. You should have already told him that you do not work on the holy days. And he should have made preparations for that. That's not your job, and that's not your duty. Again, make sure we don't push the ox in the ditch.

If we have the right motives, this will keep us from breaking the Sabbath. We won't be looking at ways to get around God's laws. The carnal mind wants to get around the law of God, but the spirit-led mind of a Christian is seeking to fulfill it. Wanting to fulfill it.

The carnal-minded mind, by the way, won't listen anyway. And again, I hope that you're not carnal minded. I hope none of us are carnal minded, that we just won't listen to what's being said. But let's go over to Exodus 35. Over here we see in Exodus 35 a Scripture that oftentimes comes up in questions. But chapter 35 and verse 2, it says, Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the eternal. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kentl no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day.

So what does that mean? Well, a lot of people wonder, can I not have a fire to heat up, you know, some coffee on the Sabbath? Of course not. God does not mean that. The Sabbath day, though, is not a day of business as usual. This fire he's talking about here had to do with an industrial type fire. Kendl to work on and build the tabernacle. You know, also it could refer to any other business thing that you're doing. It's not a day to do that. The kennel, that kind of fire, it's not a day to kennel the fire, you know, to go full bore in terms of cooking. Not that kind of day. But, you know, again, it's not wrong to start a fire to warm something up, to heat your food. Not wrong to do that. Again, you've done your preparation. The Orthodox Jews take the button of the refrigerator light because they feel it's kenneling a fire on the Sabbath.

I'm not sure the light inside of my refrigerator even works anyway, by the way, because every time I look in, it's on, but I can't know if it's close. I'm going to put a camera in there.

But the Orthodox Jews are pretty sticky about the Sabbath. Of course, what they do is not what God intended the Sabbath to do. You know, there is also a story. I'm not going to go to this story, but you might write down Numbers 15, verses 32 through 36, where a man went out and gathered sticks on the Sabbath. Remember the story? And he was judged, and he was put to death. Oftentimes, people say, well, God, that is so unfair that you did that to this man who was picking up sticks on the Sabbath. Well, the reason why he was put to death is because, number one, he had been instructed not to do this. Number two, it was done to put fear in people not to violate the law of God. And, you know, he was not, by the way, out there gathering sticks because of need.

If he had to go out there to get sticks to heat to keep warm, I'm sure God would not have made that judgment. But he was not out there to do that. He wasn't out there for need. He was out there for want. And we need to know what is a real need, lest we violate the Sabbath as well.

Deacons and elders, members setting up on the Sabbath is a need. You know, sometimes you have to pick up a chair, you know, you have to move things around, and it can turn into labor. But it's a need. Ministers, as I mentioned, working, traveling on the Sabbath speaking is a need.

Serving each meal at a home on the Sabbath involves some minimal work, and it's a need. You've got to eat. You know, most should be done on the preparation day. Getting the children ready, you know, for the Sabbath is a need. You don't want to send your kids to church naked, you know, obviously. God expects us to, again, show proper sanctity in regards to the Holy Convocation, and obviously we don't want our kids going around like that anyway. But the Sabbath, though, was never to be so rigid that it was impossible to observe. When we attend services each week, there is a need for travel. To services. Travel to the Sabbath services. To recharge the spiritual batteries is a need, and God commands us to gather anyway. Let's go to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58.

Isaiah 58, down in verse 13. God says here in verse 13, Isaiah inspired to write it down, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, you know, get your Sabbath, the foot off your Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, on holy time, get your foot off holy time, and call the Sabbath of the light. So this is what we should do, brethren. We literally should call the Sabbath of the light, not a burden. And it says the holy day of the Lord, the eternal honorable. We should call it an honorable day, and should honor Him, not doing your own ways. So here, again, we're clearly instructed not doing our own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. So on the Sabbath, brethren, we need to, again, think about what we are talking about on the Sabbath. What is your main fare of what you talk about on the Sabbath? Does it have any spiritual value to it? And then it says, you will delight yourself in the eternal, 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 eternal is spoken. So this is a key to being blessed, brethren, is if we do these kinds of things. You know, if we are treating the Sabbath in a right manner.

And, you know, one of the reasons that Israel and Judah went into captivity is because they didn't. They didn't keep the Sabbath in a right manner.

And, brethren, there is another scourge that is coming upon the earth, and that the world is going to go, you know, through horrible times of the tribulation, and modern Israel is going to go into captivity, and modern Israel has never kept the Sabbath. But, brethren, will you be among them? Or will you be different? Are you one who keeps the Sabbath, one who honors it, and honors God's holy days? Now, let's go to Nehemiah 13, another aspect of the Sabbath.

Nehemiah 13.

If you have any questions, you can submit them for Bible study, of course. But, Nehemiah 13, in verse 15, it says, In those days, here Nehemiah says, I saw people in Judah treading winecresses on the Sabbath, forbidden, right? Breen and sheaves, loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, and I warned them about the day in which they were selling provisions. And so, here they were doing this on the Sabbath day.

And so, he contended with them and says, what evil thing is it you do which you profane the Sabbath day? And so, you know, they were doing these things. He said, and disaster came on us, verse 18 there. And down in verse 22, And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should go and guard the gates to sanctify the Sabbath day.

So, you know, here what was happening is the Sabbath was like any day, any business day.

If you've ever been in Israel, you know, gone into the old city, boy, it is bedlam. You know, you got people hawking things. You got goats hanging from hooks. And I mean, they're going crazy selling stuff there. But this was the way it was on the Sabbath, by the way, in the time of Nehemiah. The Sabbath is not a day to buy and sell. So, we shouldn't do our grocery shopping or any other type of shopping on the Sabbath day. These merchants, by the way, are carrying on a business as usual on the Sabbath. And they're setting up produce shops, you know, during the time of Nehemiah, and the meat markets, and all of those things. And the Jews were violating the Sabbath by going and purchasing their goods on the Sabbath day. And the comparable to that, brethren, would be like us, you know, popping into the grocery store and doing our grocery shopping on the Sabbath. I know I bumped into people in the church from time to time that do that, shop on the Sabbath, and brethren, that is condemned in the Bible.

That is condemned in the Bible. And yet, there can be, brethren, a need to eat in a restaurant from time to time. You know, so that is not necessarily forbidden on the Sabbath day.

Sometimes you can have an unexpected guest come on the Sabbath, and there isn't time to prepare something. And so it would be appropriate to eat out in a circumstance like that. Hopefully, it's not every Sabbath, though, you know, that it's occasionally. Sometimes on the Sabbath, mother needs a break also from cooking due to her heavy schedules, and a meal out would be a benefit to her if she's, you know, tired and down to a frazzle. Now, some have wondered, well, if you eat out, then someone else has to work when you do that. Well, that's true.

But the person serving you will be working whether you come in or not. They're going to be doing. Same thing about electricity, you know. That's why you don't have to tape your, you know, icebox light so it doesn't come on and keep it sit in the dark all day long and be cold all day. Everyone is still working at the power plant. You can check it out. Turn everything off, go down there and say, are you guys working down here?

Because I turned my lights off, but they'll be working. Another thing that can happen is sometimes people can forget to refuel for the Sabbath. You know, I would say, go get some gas. You know, come on to church if it's an emergency like that. But, you know, I always refuel on Friday. I don't want to make that mistake.

I mean, sometimes the only thing that happens to me sometimes is I run out of gas on the Sabbath because the distance is too long, just too far. We've got to be careful, brethren, about being careless. God is not mocked. He's not mocked, and He knows our hearts as well, and we're being judged right now. Now, over in Acts 1, Acts 1 and verse 12, I'll try to wrap this up shortly here, but Acts 1 and verse 12, you know, we see a phrase here that is used in the book of Acts, and it says, then they return Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.

And so, someone was allowed in the time of Christ to go a Sabbath day's journey. You know, there was, in other words, a certain amount of time. And the way we would translate that today, brethren, it certainly would be different today for us than for them, because then the synagogue was maybe down the trail, not very far from where they would be. And, you know, when we travel on the Sabbath to come to church services, that's our Sabbath day journey.

That's what it takes to get to where the convocation is. God commands us to keep the sacred assembly, and this is a definite need to fulfill what God has instructed us to do. But this is not, brethren, carte blanche to go anywhere on the Sabbath we desire. You know, we should not strike out on a long trip, heavy driving on the Sabbath. It just should not be done. You know, I would even say to you that flying on the Sabbath is not something that should be done.

Unless you're going somewhere to preach a sermon, you've got to... sometimes that does happen. I know I used to fly up to Las Vegas to speak up there from time to time from Phoenix. Obviously, to drive up there would be a headache. But, you know, generally flying on the Sabbath, just for our own purposes, should not be done. How far can we go with a letter of the law? I guess I would say is what is our attitude? What is our attitude about it? Christ came to emphasize the spirit of the law and it has to do with our internal motives.

Is something conducive to the Sabbath? And does it help you draw closer to God? That's what you need to ask about, you know, what we should do within the letter of the law. How about watching TV on the Sabbath? Many have varying approaches to what should or shouldn't be done on the Sabbath when it comes to the boob tube, you know. Here's some questions we need to ask ourselves. Is it conducive to the Sabbath? What you would have watched on the Sabbath? Are you killing time on the Sabbath? Are you doing it to satisfy your wants, whatever the wants are?

Is the program you're watching going to help you watch world events? Will it help you understand more about nature? You know, there are nature programs that are wonderful and inspiring. Will it help you to better fulfill the purpose of the Sabbath, which is a day of rest? It's a day of spiritual rejuvenation, of drawing closer to God and closer to God's people. And so, brethren, these are the things we need to think about with regard to these things.

There is no helmet. You know, God's Spirit should lead us to the right knowledge so that we will do the right things. This Armstrong always felt that if God's Spirit was working in us, and, you know, we have the right attitude, that God's people will do the right thing. They simply will do the right thing.

And so, Jesus said this, brethren. He said, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbaths. Let us, brethren, collectively set our minds and hearts to make this holy time of the Sabbath enriching as God fully intended it to be when He gave it to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eve.