Jesus' Example of Sabbath Keeping

In Matthew 16, we will begin our two-part sermon on the Sabbath day.

You might remember that we covered quite a bit of ground, especially in the Old Testament, on the Sabbath. We saw that the Sabbath has been in existence from creation. Actually, the time of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, I'm sure had the Sabbath explained to them. Because God rested on that day, and we find that it's one of the, as I explained, the First Commandments that's actually articulated in the Bible because God created it, and it's recorded there. God rested on this day, and undoubtedly He instructed the First Couple.

It's interesting when you begin to look at some of the quotes from Catholic scholars, Protestants, that those who have integrity will acknowledge that the Sabbath is still the Sabbath.

Let me quote to you from one prominent Protestant minister. Many of you have heard of Dwight Moody.

He is one who's been around or had been around for a long time. Notice what he said here.

The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since.

The Fourth Commandment begins with the words, Remember, showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone in Sinai. How can men claim that one commandment has been done away when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?

And I think that's a very analytical, very clear assessment.

I could read to you a number of quotes, maybe we will as we go on through the sermon, but there are a number of quotes where many prominent Protestants, as well as Catholics, acknowledge that the Sabbath day ought to be kept. Now, it's not my purpose today to try to prove to you about the Sabbath, but we want to focus more on how we go about observing the Sabbath and keeping it. We went through some of the passage in the Old Testament to some critics of the Sabbath, try to use to say it's impossible for us in a modern-day society like today, 21st century, to keep the Sabbath. We're similarly confronted with issues today, those who try to demonstrate the New Testament, that the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday. And they will try to quote various scriptures. I think over the years you and I have seen that. We understand that, that there are those who will try to quote scriptures to say that the Sabbath has been changed. Let me just read you two or three quotes from some Catholic writers. This is taken from Catholic publication. It says, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath day. That is the seventh day of the week, Saturday. Today, most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the Roman Catholic Church outside of the Bible. In other words, the Roman Catholic Church changed it outside of the Bible. Bible has nothing to do with it. It's just what they did. Faith of Millions, Dr. John O'Brien says, but since Saturday, not Sunday as specified in the Bible, isn't it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Well, yes, of course. It is inconsistent, but this change was made about 15 centuries before the Protestants were born, and by that time the custom was universally observed.

They have continued the custom even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon explicit text in the Bible. So, the Catholics admit that and acknowledge it.

Faith of Our Fathers here, notice, you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctified.

That's James Cardinal Gibbons who made that statement. So, in other words, the Catholic Church never sanctified it, but the Protestants have no other authority for doing so, keeping Sunday, except to acknowledge the authority of the Catholic Church. And, of course, the Church then always comes back and says, if you acknowledge our authority, why aren't you with us?

And then one final quote here, form of a question and answer. The converts catechism of Catholic Dogma. Question, what is the Sabbath day? Answer, Saturday is the Sabbath day.

Question, why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Answer, we observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church at the Council of Laodicea transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday. So, you know, they freely admit it. Then I said, I have a number of other quotes from Protestants that say the same thing. As I stated, brethren, it's not my purpose to try to cover all of the scriptures that try to show, you know, why we observe it. But I want us today to take an overview of how did Jesus Christ and the apostles keep the Sabbath?

How did they observe it? Many who wish to trash the Sabbath tried to claim that Jesus Christ broke the Sabbath and taught against it. But is that true? Let's take a look at the Sabbath and see again how Christ and his disciples kept it.

Now, I asked at the end of the sermon last week if any of you had questions, a few of you did.

And I will try to inculcate those questions in the sermon today, likewise. Now, let's notice, to start with, that Jesus Christ was condemned by the Pharisees, the religious leaders, of his day for healing on the Sabbath. Christ and his disciples were condemned for his disciples plucking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and, you know, taking the chaff from the grain and eating the grain.

The Pharisees said this was harvesting. You're not supposed to harvest, you know, on the Sabbath day. That's how they looked at it. This account is found in Matthew 12. So let's go over to Matthew chapter 12, beginning in verse 1. And let's notice the story here. It's surprising how much is mentioned in the Bible, in the Gospels, about the Sabbath, and how Jesus Christ was constantly butting heads with the religious leaders of his day.

In verse 1, it says, at that time, Jesus went through the grain field on the Sabbath. Now, I want you to notice one thing here.

He was out walking on the Sabbath. So the question, well, we'll get into that a little later. Can you go outside of your house on the Sabbath? It's certainly answered right here by Christ and his disciples. Not only are they going out here walking, but they're walking through the grain fields. They're not on the highway. They're walking through the fields. And his disciples were hungry.

So was Christ's retort? Well, you should have eaten more. No. It says, they began to pluck the heads of grain and to eat. Now, if this was wrong, this was a wonderful opportunity for Christ. Come along and say, uh-uh, don't do that. Throw that grain down. Let me tell you what you should be doing here. You don't find him saying that. In fact, you find him defending his disciples. And there are four examples or four things cited here. And it says, when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

Now, the question, you know, sometimes people get into trouble because they don't ask the right question. The right question here is whose law is being violated? The biblical standard or the Talmud or the teachings, the dos and don'ts of the Pharisees. Well, it's the dos and the don'ts of the Pharisees. It's not what the Bible says. So Christ clearly stated as we go through this that disciples did nothing wrong by satisfying their hunger on the Sabbath.

So he then cites these examples. And let us notice, he said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him? How he entered into the house of God, and he ate the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priest. Now, notice, David did something that you don't find anybody else doing. A person who's not a priest coming in saying, give me some bread, they said we don't have it. You know, many times we read examples like this. We really don't go back. You know, when you read something like this in the New Testament, you ought to go back and check it out in the Old. Let's go back to 1 Samuel 21, where this occurred. 1 Samuel chapter 21 verse 3, and let's notice the example here.

David is on one of his flaying episodes, and notice here in verse 3, David said, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women. And David said, well, we haven't been near women for three days. And then he went on to say, the last part of verse 5, these vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.

So the priest gave him holy bread, and there was no bread there, but the show bread, which had been taken from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. Remember, every Sabbath the bread was changed, and then the priest ended up eating the bread. Let's go back to Leviticus 24, where the original instructions are given. Leviticus 24, verses 5 through 9, verse 5 here, you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it.

Two tenths of an ephod shall be in each cake, and you shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. Now, I have a slideshow of all of this, which one day I'd like to show you of the tabernacle, how it was laid out, and how it ties in with the plan of salvation, and pictures that.

But notice, you're to put frankincense on it. Then, verse 8, every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord. So they changed it every Sabbath, continually being taken from the children of Israel for an everlasting covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in the holy place, for it is most holy to him from the offering of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statue.

So Jesus Christ is explaining to the Pharisees that if you're hungry like this, there's nothing wrong with picking an apple off the tree, pulling a tomato off the vine, plucking an onion out of the ground, grabbing a handful of grain and rubbing it and popping it into your mouth to satisfy your hunger. So he showed that to eat is good on the Sabbath.

One doesn't have to go hungry, you know, on the Sabbath day. Now, that's one example he cites. Now, let's go on in verse 5. He cites another example. Or, have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priest in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? Now, the priest worked on the Sabbath. Let's hold your place here again. Go back to Numbers 28 in the Old Testament. Numbers chapter 28. And you will notice beginning in verse 9. Chapter 28 lists the offerings that were to be offered throughout the week on the Sabbath day, Passover various other days.

And verse 9, it says, on the Sabbath day, two lambs in their first year without blemish and two tenths of an ephod of flour as a grain offering mixed with oil with its drink offering. This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath beside the regular offering with its drink offering. And you go back to verse 2, the regular offering. There was an offering to be offered in the morning and the evening. And it was to be offered.

Now, you might say, well, that doesn't sound like a lot of work. Have you ever killed a bullock or a sheep or a goat, skinned it, cut it up, drained the blood, burned it, disposed of the ashes, disposed of the gung, you know, the dung, you know, did away with the hide, and you know, and all of this. There's a lot of work connected with that. I've cut a number of deer up over the years. And believe me, you just don't do it like that.

And you know, it requires a lot of effort, a lot of work to be able to do it. But over the years, I would say that the Sabbath day has been one of the hardest work days that those of us in the ministry have. Now, you know, I would say for 40 years plus, my wife and I always had two churches, sometimes three. We would travel sometimes two or three hours between churches, speak in both places. I remember in the early days I led songs. I gave the sermonette.

Sometimes I gave closing and opening prayer. I gave the sermon, announcements, conduct spokesman's club that evening, get back home at three or four in the morning, and think nothing of it. That's why I'm old and run down now.

I say I should have taken better care of myself. But that's one of the things that we have done for years and most of our ministers. I'm not tooting my horn. I'm just saying that the Sabbath is a day, and believe me, when you have to prepare a sermon and speak twice, drive, counsel, talk to people, and as we used to do, do clubs, then drive back home.

It makes for a long day. And so Christ said, look, the priests were able to work doing the work of God in the temple, profane the Sabbath in the sense of doing physical labor, not be held accountable by God for it. And the same is certainly true of the ministry today.

Now, Christ cites another example. Notice, He said, yet I say to you that in this place, there is one greater than the temple. Now, what was He referring to? Well, the temple was physical, physical building, and it was only holy because of God's promise.

Now, when the temple was destroyed, you find, go back to the book of Ezekiel, the glory of God seemingly departed from the temple when it was rebuilt during this day, there was not the glory of God in the temple that we know of. There's no reference to it by any of the historical writers.

What made the temple holy? Because the glory of God was there. It is the presence of God that makes something holy. Moses came, and God said, take your shoes off, you're on holy ground. Why? He was there. His presence was there. When God's presence is in something, it is holy, and His presence was not there at the time. But He was there. He was in their presence. Here was God with us, Emmanuel, and He was there, and yet they did not acknowledge Him. So He's saying, look, fellas, if you only understood, I'm God, I'm here, and I'm telling you how to do all of this. He gives that example.

Then He goes on in verse 7, and He says, but you know what this means, but if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.

For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. So He proclaimed the fact that He desires mercy. God wants mercy. He wants forgiveness. He doesn't want sacrifice. He doesn't require us to go out sacrifice bulls and goats. That's what they thought, and He wants us to do the weightier matters of the law. Then He proclaimed that He's lord of the Sabbath.

You might remember He had proceeded to heal people who were sick on the Sabbath, and He's trying to teach them that it's clearly a mistake to develop your own rules for the Sabbath, unless it clearly has biblical support. If it has biblical support, if there's clear statements in the Scripture, then that gives us guidance.

The clear statement is, thou shall not work on the Sabbath. That's mentioned many times, so we don't work on the Sabbath. The Pharisees had biblical commands that did not allow what they defined as work. As I mentioned to you last Sabbath, they had 39 categories of things that they had established as being wrong or sins, and then they elaborated on those. Point ABC, little ABC, one, two, three, four, on down the line. Everything you can think of from carrying a needle in your lapel if you were a tailor, to you were only able to carry one garment out of your house if the house burnt down at a time. If you could put 20 on and waddle out, that was okay. But what you had on you could wear, but you couldn't carry anything else. They had all of these silly regulations. Now, the fact that Jesus Christ made the statement, I am Lord of the Sabbath, what was He trying to tell them? Well, let's go over to Mark 2.

This is mentioned also in Mark 2. We'll come back here again, but Mark 2 is not. You'll notice verses 27 and 28. Mark 2, verses 27 and 28.

He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man. So the Sabbath day is a day that's made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. God didn't create man. So that, okay, here's the Sabbath, and for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is for us. It is God's gift to mankind. It was made for man. It's a day of rest, a day for us to worship God. But I want you to notice, He says, number one, the Sabbath was made. So who is the maker of it? Well, God is. That's why Christ said, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. When was it made? Well, as we found out last Sabbath, it was made on the seventh day at recreation. It was made at that time. And it's made for all mankind because, as we read here, He said the Sabbath was made for man. And the Greek word means mankind, athrohos, not just men. When it's talking about male versus female, it means mankind. So the Sabbath was made for man. And it was made for all peoples, all nations, for all times. Then He goes on to say that He is Lord of the Sabbath. The word Lord has the same meaning it normally does, meaning owner or master or ruler, one who exercises authority over. So He says, I'm the Lord or the master, the ruler, one who exercises authority over the Sabbath. So He's telling them, look, I have authority to say how the Sabbath should be kept, what you should do on this Sabbath. So the Sabbath was made for man. It's a tool for worshiping God. It's not an object of worship. We don't worship the Sabbath. We observe it and worship God. And it is a wonderful gift. It is a day of collective worship by the congregation, our spiritual Israel. The congregation of Israel would convene, and God has created the Sabbath as a day for us to worship on. Now let's go back to chapter 12 of the book of Matthew again, verse 9.

Chapter 12 verse 9 says, When he had departed from there, he went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand, and they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Now notice why they ask him. Are they genuinely interested? Is it okay to heal on the Sabbath? No. That they might accuse him. That's why.

They wanted to find something that they felt would go against their law.

Where in the Old Testament do you find the Bible says, Thou shall not heal on the Sabbath day?

Well, you don't. But let's go on. And then he said to them, What man is there among you, who is one sheep, and if he falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more value, then, is a man than a sheep?

Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. So he shows that it's good to do good. Now, several things you'll notice as we go through this. Number one, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He attended the place of worship that was established at that time.

Now, you might remember in Luke 4, verse 16, Luke 4, 16 says, As was his custom. Let's just turn over there because I want to read a few more verses. Luke 4, 16. The Bible tells us this.

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. So he stood up to read to them. So it was his custom to go to the synagogue. Now, the word custom from Loniada, Greek lexicon, means to carry out a custom or tradition to be in the habit of it, carry out a custom to maintain a tradition. So this was something that he traditionally did. It was his custom. If you might remember Paul's example back in Acts 17, verse 2.

I won't turn there, but Acts 17 too says, Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths, reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. So it was his custom. Likewise.

Now, let's notice in verse 17 here, he stood up to read to the people, and he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he has anointed me. These verses in red, the older you get, the harder they are to read. He says, 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 so he goes on and he reads this famous portion. Then he closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, sat down in the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So Jesus Christ clearly taught the Jews of his day about himself, that he was a Messiah, what his job, what his responsibility, what his duty was. But let's notice this. In verse 23, he said to them, you will surely say this proverb to me, Physician, heal yourself, whatever we have heard about you done in Capernaum, do also here in your own country. He said, assuredly I say to you, no profit is accepted in his own country. And that was certainly true. They doubted, they disbelieved, so he didn't do a whole lot of miracles among them at that time. And then he went on and said, Truly many widows were in Israel in the day of Elijah when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land. But to none of them was Elijah sent except to this one widow in the region of Zidin, a woman who was a widow. Many leopards were in Israel in the days of Elisha, the prophet, and none of them were cleansed except Naaman, the Syrian.

So he's pointing out things to them that should have been obvious, but wasn't.

So those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. Now why would they be upset? Was he teaching something contrary to the scriptures? No, he wasn't.

They rose up. They thrust him out of the city that led him to the brow of a hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff. And passing through the midst of them, he went his way. So they were trying to kill him because of what he had taught and what he had said on the Sabbath.

Now let's back up again to Matthew chapter 12. You might remember again about going through the grain field here.

One interesting point to notice is that when Jesus and his disciples walked through the grain field and the Sabbath, it ties in with the scripture I explained to you last week. Remember in Exodus 16 verses 27 through 30. Exodus 16, 27 through 30. It talks about not going out of your place on the Sabbath. Well, that's quoted by many critics of the Sabbath that's trying to say, see this shows that if you keep the Sabbath, you can't go out of your house. You've got to stay right there in your four walls, maybe walk out on your porch, your place, whatever's your property or your land, but you can't go any further. Yet here we see Jesus Christ coming out and walking through a grain field. Jesus Christ likewise not only walked through a grain field but walked over to the synagogue and taught them on the Sabbath day. God commanded Israel to walk around Jericho seven days. That's got to encompass the Sabbath. So here they are out walking around Jericho on the Sabbath day. Leviticus 23.3 tells us that the Sabbath is a commanded assembly. How can you assemble unless you come out of your house? In other words, anciently if you were in Jerusalem, you would go up to the temple and you would be there in the morning for the morning sacrifice. Hebrews 10.25 tells us that we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as a habit of some are. So basically, I'm just trying to show you that sometimes when people bring up these arguments, you and I need to be armed. And we need to realize, not just to argue with them, but to realize that there's nothing wrong for us to assemble together on the Sabbath. Because let's face it, many of us travel some distance to be here. What about Acts 1.12? If you remember Acts 1.12, we'll turn back and read this one. Acts 1.12 says, Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. Now, where in the Old Testament do you find a Sabbath day's journey? You don't. Where do you find the idea of a Sabbath day's journey mentioned?

Well, let me quote to you here from the New American commentary, Volume 26, dealing with the book of Acts. And it says this, in verse 12, we learn the setting of the accusations, the Mount of Olives. Olivet lies to the east of Jerusalem on the opposite side of the Kidron Valley. The distance their walk was a Sabbath day journey, which was the longest distance one could walk without breaking the Sabbath. Now, who says so? Well, the Jews did.

The Pharisees did. This was part of their rules and their regulations. You don't find it in Scripture. The rabbinical tradition set this as 2,000 cubics, about three-fourths of a mile, as the NIV note indicates. Now, another one, the Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary, says, similar but gives a little different perspective. They say a half mile, three-quarters of a mile.

It is also referred to as the Sabbath day walk. The limit had been calculated by the rabbis on the basis of Exodus 16.29, not to go out of your place and interpreted by Numbers 35 verse 5. Okay, let's go back and read Numbers 35.5. See if it has anything to do with the Sabbath day's journey.

35.5. This is talking about the cities that were set aside for the Levites.

And there were cities that were set aside for the Levites, where they could live.

There was common land around the outside of the city, where they would have their cattle, could maybe grow a garden, you know, this type of thing. And you shall measure outside of the city, on the east side, 2,000 cubics, on the south side, 2,000 cubics, west side, 2,000 cubics, on the north side, 2,000 cubics. Cities shall be in the middle, and they shall belong to them as common land for the city. Okay, what does that have to do with the Sabbath?

Absolutely nothing. It's just talking about land that was designated as part of the city.

We'd call it a green belt today, or, you know, surrounding the city. It went out about a half mile, maybe three-quarters of a mile, where they, you know, if you lived in the city, you could have a garden, or you could run animals. And so, you know, that was referred to by the Jews to say, well, that's what a Sabbath day journey should be. You don't find that as a commandment of God. That's a man-made tradition. Okay, with all that in mind, let's go back to Matthew 12 again.

Matthew 12, verse 9. Notice what Christ did.

Now, when he had departed from there, again, he went into the synagogue.

He healed this man. We read that. He mentioned to them, you know, about the ox in the ditch.

So we find that it's permissible to heal on the Sabbath, even though the Jews viewed this as a violation. Christ, as the Lord of the Sabbath day, said it was not. The ox in the ditch, the Jews would pull an ox out of the ditch. They would go down and save the life of the ox.

But, you know, they weren't willing to see somebody who had an affliction or his demon possessed to be healed on the Sabbath. It shows their self-righteousness that they had.

What is an ox in the ditch? Well, an ox in the ditch is an emergency.

It's not throwing the ox in the ditch, so you can get out and do something.

Or you don't push the ox in the ditch, but you're driving down the road on the Sabbath, coming to church. You have a blowout or a flat tire. Plump, plump, plump, plump. You know, Jim, what did you call those? Maypops. Maypops, okay. You had the maypops, and you know, and it pops. So, you know, here you have to get out. Are you going to just sit there for the rest of the Sabbath and watch the traffic go by? Or do you get out, pull the tire off, put another one on, come to church? That's an ox in the ditch. You wake up in the morning and your appendix is trying to burst. Should you stay there and say, well, it's 15 hours of the Sabbath is over. I'll wait to go see the doctor. Or would you go see the doctor? Obviously, you'd probably go see the doctors. See, it's an emergency that would justify work being done. When one has a legitimate emergency, life or death, illness, accident, he's not condemned for doing what is necessary to meet the challenge of the emergency on the Sabbath day. But again, we don't push the ox in the ditch. We try not to create the problem. We try to avoid that. Now, I want you to notice, again, the attitude that they had over here in Luke 4. Luke chapter 4. Remember, Christ had entered into the synagogue. He had taught them. Let's notice in verse 31. Then he went down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. So Jesus Christ taught them on the Sabbath day, and they were astonished at his teaching. Now, in verse 38, now he arose from the synagogue and entered into Simon's house. So you find that Christ gets up from where he's staying. He goes over to the synagogue. He walks that far. I don't know where Simon's house was in relationship to the synagogue, but then he walks over to Simon's house. That's Peter. He enters into Simon's house, and Simon's wife's mother, his mother-in-law, was sick with a high fever, and then made request of him concerning her. So he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she arose and served them. Another example of Christ doing good on the Sabbath and healing the sick. Now, notice what the Jews did. Verse 40, when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. He cast out demons also.

They waited until the sun went down.

Now, there are several accounts in the New Testament of Jesus Christ healing on the Sabbath Day. You see, the New Testament gives insight on the Sabbath observance. He violated many of the rules and regulations that were established by the Jews, but Jesus Christ never violated the Sabbath. How do I know that? Well, the Bible says he was sinless. He never sinned. If he had broken the Sabbath Day, guess what? We don't have a Savior, but we do have a Savior. He died, and his sacrifice was to cover our sins. Now, in Exodus chapter 35, we have another example. Let's turn back here, and we will see another reason why people are told not to keep the Sabbath. Exodus 35, verse 1. Moses gathered all of the congregation of the children of Israel together and said to them, These are the words which the Lord has commanded you to do. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day. So again, we find the Sabbath is holy time.

A Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work in it shall be put to death. Now, God doesn't come down and stone us today, but if we work on the Sabbath, we don't repent of it. We say, I'm going to do it anyway. Then we have the death penalty hanging over us. Verse 3. You shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day. Now, how many times have we heard somebody say that if you try to keep the Sabbath in the 20th century and you live in a cold climate and you're heating your house by a pop-elite stove, coal, or wood, and the fire goes out, you cannot light a fire on the Sabbath day.

You can't heat up your food or whatever. You have to sit there. You've got to go to bed. Wrap yourself up in heating blankets and so on, and just endure it. That's not what Exodus 35 is referring to. What is he talking about? Not working on the Sabbath day.

This is a reference to fire for work or for baking and boiling. A fire for warmth was not a problem. The critics of the Sabbath say if you freeze or you're freezing on the Sabbath, too bad.

You've got to freeze, but you can't make a fire. I want you to notice that the priests did light a fire on the Sabbath. They consumed the offerings. They had a fire there, and they had a fire for the sacrifices.

It is not wrong to have a fire on the Sabbath. Now, most of us don't have that problem. We have gas heat. Does that mean you can't flip your switch? You see, in the nation of Israel, I don't know if they still do it, but they used to. On the Sabbath, all the elevators were set on automatic. So if you were in a hotel that had 30 floors on the Sabbath, so you wouldn't have to push a button, it stopped on every floor so that nobody would have to push a button.

I mean, that was how far this type of a principle was being carried. So, brethren, it is not wrong for us to have a fire on the Sabbath. Last week, we covered Nehemiah 13. I'm not going to go through Nehemiah 13 verses 15 through 22, where we read about the fact that the Sabbath must not be treated as a market day. As I explained, Nehemiah clearly taught the people that they were not to go out and trade merchandise, go out and buy what we would call their weekly shopping on the Sabbath. Now, I explained that this was a discussion about doing your shopping, and it was not addressing whether you should eat out in a restaurant on the Sabbath.

What about specific questions, though, about eating in restaurants? This is where questions have come up this week, and I thought I might try to address some of these with you. Questions have come up concerning this topic, so let me address it.

One of the questions is, isn't it wrong for someone to serve you a meal in a restaurant on the Sabbath day? Are they not working for you on the Sabbath when they do that?

And the answer is no. The waitress, waiters, and cooks in a restaurant are not your employees.

They're not your servant. They do not live in your household. This was the principle that was given in the book of Exodus. Let's turn back to chapter 20. I want you to notice carefully what Exodus 20 says. Exodus 20, beginning in verse 8. 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, so you are not two, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servants, nor your female servants. So who are we talking about? We're talking about those that you have authority over, those that you can tell what to do. My children were at home and they were under my authority. They always went to church with us, and they had to sit there and be quiet and take notes and listen. And we taught them that. So it's talking about your male servants and your female servants, those that you have jurisdiction over, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gates. Now, those who live under your roof and under your control are not to work on the Sabbath day. Now, there are even occasions when someone under your roof cannot be forced to work on the Sabbath day. An example of that would be a son or a daughter who chooses to live at home and maybe they're 25 or 30 years old.

Now, not too many of us here fall into this category, but what if Bradley were still living at home? Thankfully, he's keeping the Sabbath. But what if he says, I'm not going to keep the Sabbath? You can't make me keep the Sabbath. Can you drag him to church? Can you make him keep it? Well, obviously not. When he becomes an adult, he's of age, and he answers to God at that time. Should you try to force him to keep the Sabbath, can you forbid them from working?

If they say, you know, you're going to go to church, I'm going to go to work, there's not much you can do about that, except you're not staying in my house anymore. I mean, you might say that, but that's other than that, you know, there's not much that you can do.

Wisdom would dictate who is considered part of your household. Those that you have authority over, who are under your jurisdiction. What about a mate that is not converted? A mate gets up in the morning and says, I'm going fishing. A mate gets up in the morning and says, I'm going to cut the grass. A mate gets up and says, I'm going to do a movie today.

Or, you know, I think I'm going to go out here and chop some trees down, or whatever it might be.

And you say, oh no, you can't. This is the Sabbath. I forbid you.

You might say that, but are they going to do it? So you have no authority for them. Can you force them to observe the Sabbath? Again, let's remember that in ancient Israel, God was dealing with a whole nation. He called the nation of Israel. He entered into a covenant with them. We call it the Old Covenant. And so, you know, the Sabbath was part of that. Now we have the New Covenant. Is the New Covenant made with one nation? Not one nation like Germany or France or the United States. God is not calling just people by nations. He's calling people out of all nations.

So there may be people in Germany. There may be people in France, in Ghana, wherever it might be, God is calling and working with those individuals. So God dealt with the whole nation when he dealt with Israel. So if you conclude that a waitress is working for you, and you have to make the same judgment about any number of other areas, such as the power plant. You know, many of these things are automated, but there are people who work at the power plant. When sunset comes, you go and shut all the power off your house so that you're not making somebody work.

Are they going to be working whether you shut the power off or not? Well, sure they are.

What about those who work at the water plant? Well, I'm going to turn all my water off. It's a Sabbath. I'm not going to use any water. And so you turn all of your water off.

What about those who work in hospitals and you break your leg? You've got to go to a hospital.

What are you going to do? Sit there until the sun goes down, and then again, you get your leg set? No, I think you would go and have it set. Now, to believe it's wrong to eat in a restroom because a waitress who will be working on the Sabbath requires, again, that you not turn on your electricity or your water to be consistent. The same would be true of mail delivery.

Here comes somebody delivering your mail, so you leave a note. Please deliver my mail five days a week. I don't want any on Saturday. Do you think they're not going to leave it on Saturday?

Now, if you have a whole community that keeps the Sabbath, you can do that. Notice College Deal. College Deal closes the post office on Saturday. Why? Well, basically, they're dealing with the Seventh-day Adventists, and they're something like five to eight thousand Seventh-day Adventists in the College Deal Uduwall area. So, they can control that, but the Uduwall post office doesn't do that. They go ahead and deliver mail. What about your paper being delivered?

The real question that should be asked is this. Who employs them? Who is responsible for hiring them? They're the employer. They're the ones who are responsible for that individual. If you own a business, clearly you must close the business down on the Sabbath. Clearly, you do not work your employees on the Sabbath. But what if you have an employee who works for you? You close your business on the Sabbath, and he says, well, I need some extra money. He goes over here and works at the 7-Eleven. Do you have any control over that? Well, obviously not. You only have control over what he does for you. So, if you don't go to a restaurant, the waitress, the cook, the owner, everybody who's working will be working whether you show up or not. You're not causing them to work. So, the question comes up, aren't you participating in a business transaction on the Sabbath? Well, I think if you order a meal, you would certainly be expected to pay for it. You couldn't get away with that. But this is not running your business or operating your business on the Sabbath, simply paying for the meal that you receive. There's nothing in the scriptures that you can read that violates that principle. We covered the two scriptures last week that talk about merchandising and trading on the Sabbath. It's actually less work for some people to eat in a restaurant and pay for the meal than have a group of people come over to their home.

Even though you've got everything prepared, you still have to put it out. You've got to serve. There are a number of things that you will probably be doing, collecting the dishes and putting them up. It involves a lot to entertain a person when they come over to your house. Let's notice if you apply that as a principle, the same thing has to apply to the Feast of Tabernacles. For example, when you go to the Feast of Tabernacles, you have to check out of your motel room Friday night and Saturday night come back. Where do you stay? In your car?

You're down in Panama City Beach. You ran a motel. You ran a hotel. They take care of it. You've paid for it. You paid for the room on Saturday.

Maybe you eat there at the motel. Where are you going to eat? On the Sabbath.

By staying in a hotel on the Sabbath, you're being served and you're being charged for the service. There's an entire staff of people who are there on duty 24 hours a day to serve you.

So, would you not stay in the hotel? Well, I think certainly you do. What about a nursing home or a hospital? You're in a hospital. Again, you had some type of operation, and it's over the Sabbath that you're there. Do you not eat on that day? Do you tell? I don't want anybody to come around my room and check on me. That's not going to happen in a hospital. They're going to be in there every 20 minutes to an hour checking on you, poking you, giving you something, taking your temperature, whatever it might be. You're in a nursing home, so you give orders to the nursing staff. I know my mother's 95, but I don't want her fit on the Sabbath. You can't change your bed. I don't care if she does something in her diaper. She's just going to have to stick it out for that 24-hour period. We all know that those are ludicrous examples, but this is the extreme that people will carry the observance sometimes of the Sabbath. If I could summarize, I don't see, and the Church has never seen anywhere in the Old Testament where it says, don't eat out on the Sabbath. It says, don't do your shopping on the Sabbath. Don't set up business on the Sabbath. Don't trade your merchandise on the Sabbath. In fact, sometimes eat out on the Sabbath with a group of people is a highlight. I've known church areas and I've passed through church areas where nobody lives in the city where the church is. It just happens to be a central location. We're so scattered nowadays that the only time a lot of people see each other is on the Sabbath. So in order to be able to see each other, many times people will go out, they'll eat, and they'll sit around in their old fellowship for two or three hours to be with God's people. It's not something that I say we do all the time, but it is something that certainly not wrong to do. What about listening to the radio watching television on the Sabbath?

It's not wrong to listen to nice music on the Sabbath. They would go to the temple, they would hear the singers sing on the Sabbath. Now, I know we all have different tastes for music, so some would never listen to anything but classical music. Others might like a little country. Now, I would not be listening to country music. You'd have to be extremely selective, in that type of music. But what about anything that inspires, ups, lifts, encourages? You certainly would not be listening to hard rock music. Are you anything of that nature? It's not wrong to hear the news, watch the news on the Sabbath, but you don't sit around all day and watch the news.

You know, I've got Fox on, you know, from seven in the morning to ten at night, you're just watching Fox News. Well, you don't do that. You see what's going on and you move on. I've known members in the past who said it's not wrong to watch movies on the Sabbath. When I asked them, well, what kind of movie are you talking about? You're talking about a wonderful, beautiful nature show that comes on and maybe describes God's creation. No, you know, the Planet of the Apes or the Return of the Mummies. I said, well, how can that be keeping the Sabbath? Well, it just inspires me, helps me to relax. I think somebody is kidding himself.

Children should not be watching cartoons on the Sabbath. We should try to make the Sabbath something that is different. And I don't mean a day that is unpleasurable.

You know, Isaiah 58 tells us that we are to take pleasure in God's Sabbath. We are to delight in the Sabbath day. And, you know, I've only really scratched the surface here on some of these issues. You know, we will have to cover this, not necessarily right now, but we will continue at some point with the Sabbath day. There's so much to learn about the Sabbath. It's a wonderful gift from God to mankind that He's given to us a day to be set aside for us to worship Him in private at home and collectively as His body. And generally, in our day, I think it's a tendency to take the Sabbath for granted for a lot of people. Many people seem to be a little too liberal when it comes to the Sabbath as compared to those who are too strict. I think at one time, the early days of the Church, probably a lot of people were extremely strict in observing the Sabbath.

I don't think that's necessarily true today. We need to take the Sabbath serious and not allow too many liberties on the Sabbath, or that the Sabbath is just another day to us. It is a day that we should devote to God, to prayer, to study, to fellowship, to coming together and encouraging and exhorting one another. Certainly, we can get extra rest, but we don't go to bed at seven at night and get up at twelve noon the next day and hurry and come to church. Now, we get extra sleep, we're refreshed, we study, we pray. We certainly have not exhausted the topic, brethren, and we will continue this in the future, but I wanted to cover some of these basic principles and guidelines on how should you keep the Sabbath.