Keeping the Sabbath Spirirtually

We're going to do something today that everybody loves to do. Think about what is it that you love to do? We're going to take a test. Actually, this test started last night. God is the one who actually is involved with this test. It's a spiritual test of who we are and what we're doing, especially on the Sabbath day. Every Sabbath that comes around is a test for us. The Sabbath pictures, as we know, are the Millennium and the future Kingdom of God. God has given us a seven-day week, and six days during that week we work. The seventh is a day of rest. The pictures are coming Millennial. Rest. As we have described in the past, we are the Church today, the Kingdom of God in embryo. When I say embryo, we're not yet born into the family of God or the Kingdom of God. But yet, let's go back to Colossians 1 and verse 13. Colossians 1 and verse 13. Where we read this, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. So we have been placed into the Kingdom of God, but we're not born into that Kingdom yet. And how do I know that? Well, the Bible says that you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God while you're still flesh and blood. And if you will sort of squeeze your flesh or your skin real tight, you will know you're still flesh and blood. Cut myself, I still have blood. I can see myself, I'm still fleshly. So we are not born into the Kingdom yet, but we are, in a sense, in the Mother, just like a child in development, fetus in development, and we are growing and developing toward the Kingdom of God. Now, I want us to take a look today at what God is looking for in the members of His family. And take a look at what God is trying to accomplish in our lives. Why is it that God has given us the Sabbath day? God wants us to show by our obedience, and that's true of any of the commandments, but the Sabbath is certainly one that illustrates that, that we put Him first, that we're willing to put Him first above everyone.

We need to capture the concept of how God thinks and why He does and is doing what He wants to do. When you look at the letter of the law, the bare minimum of what the law requires of you, you don't fully understand completely what God wants us to derive. The letter of the law might say, keep the Sabbath, but is that all that God wants us to do? Are there other lessons that God wants us to learn? God says, don't murder, but are there other things that we should learn from that or along with that? Well, let me give you an example.

Let's back up to Matthew, chapter 5, as you might remember, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. We have the law of God expounded by Christ. He magnifies it and He gives the spiritual intent of the law. And so here in Matthew, chapter 5, beginning in verse 21, He says, you've heard that it was said to those of old that you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. So we're told we're not to murder. But, He says, I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause, or without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment.

And whoever says to his brother, Raka, or you are empty-headed, is in danger of the counsel, and whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire or Gehenna fire. So what is He implying here? Well, He's implying that there's certain attitudes, certain approaches that might lead an individual to commit murder, and that we can begin to have a wrong spirit, wrong attitude, wrong approach toward our brother.

If we hate our brother, we're guilty of murder, as we find back in the book of John. So there's more that covers this. It's not just shooting somebody and taking their life, and they cease to live, but it has to do with our attitude toward our brother. And so we're told in verse 24, leave your gift before the altar, go your way, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift to God.

Well, God is trying to get across to us that there's a spirit and attitude behind this law, this principle, that we should understand. And every one of the commandments that God gives to us, including the Sabbath day, there's more to it than just the words on a page.

Jesus Christ used a lot more words here to describe the commandment, thou shalt not kill. He used a lot more to explain what the spirit of murder is and the approach. Now, what if Jesus Christ had taken the time here instead of expounding upon murder to expound upon the Sabbath? What would he have said? Well, maybe we can guess, but what I'd like for us to do today is to go through the Scriptures and see if we can't come up with what would Christ have said about the Sabbath day. We should have, once we come into God's church, you've been in the church for a year, a decade, two decades, three decades, four, five, we should have an ever-expanding knowledge of the Sabbath or any of the laws of God, our depth of understanding, and our ability to apply the principles of understanding should grow, should mature, and we should understand a great deal on how to keep and apply the law.

Let's go back to Genesis 2, Genesis 2, beginning here in verse 1. I want you to notice the fundamental principle revolving around the Sabbath day and why God gave it.

It says, Thus the heavens and the earth and all of 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 of his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day, and he sanctified it, or he set it apart, because in it he rested from all of his work which God had created and made. So even God rested on the Sabbath, not because he was tired, but to set us an example.

And what it shows is God's desire for mankind. But God says, Go ahead and work. Work six days. You've got six days to work. It doesn't mean if you take a day off and go do something such as fishing or recreation that you're violating the principle.

But he's just simply saying, In six days you've got that to do your thing, your work. But the seventh day belongs to God. And so God has given us this day as a day of rest. So one of the major things we do on this day is rest. You don't have to go to work. If you dig ditches and you get a day off, hey, that's a big thing. You get to rest.

And so God's desire for mankind. As you and I are in the church, I dare say our ability to keep the Sabbath and how we keep the Sabbath grows. Or should grow because we learn more and we pick up more. And we observe others. And we see how they keep the Sabbath. And we see how God applies his law. We need to grow to keep the Sabbath like Jesus Christ.

Let's go back to Ephesians chapter four and verse thirteen. Ephesians chapter four and verse thirteen. We discover here that God has set the ministry in the church to help teach and lead, equip the saints to edify the body. Why? Well, till we all come to the unity of this faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Now, I could ask all those who are perfect, please stand up. I better go sit down. We realize that we're not perfect yet, but the word perfect here doesn't mean sinless or flawless. It means to be mature. You and I are to be more mature in our approach to everything, spiritual, as time goes on. Should we not know more about how to keep the Sabbath after you're converted 20 or 30 years and you did the first year you tried to keep it? I remember learning about the Sabbath day when we were sharecroppers, and I could remember standing on our back porch, and I could see the sun still up, but if I went down in the yard, it had set. So I could go down in the yard and the Sabbath was over, go up on our porch, and it wasn't. Well, obviously, I was there waiting for the sun to go down. It was the wrong approach, as we will see. But over a period of time, we began to grow, we began to mature. God is interested in what we do, why we do it, the way we do it, and the reason we do it. God is very concerned about how we conduct ourselves. The Sabbath demonstrates to God our spiritual capacity, our spiritual understanding, and awareness. Because, as time goes on, you and I need to be able to observe it more closely, like Christ did.

We expose every Sabbath our degree of understanding to God. He looks down, he sees what we do on the Sabbath, how we keep it, and he begins to understand.

You see, it is a day of rest, but if all we do on the Sabbath is rest, meaning, eight o'clock, you go to bed, known you get up, you eat a big meal, come to church, and Sabbath's over, you go about your business. Have you really kept the Sabbath the way God would want you to observe the Sabbath? How we keep the Sabbath exposes also to God, are we really ready for the kingdom of God? Are we totally sold on Him, His plan? It tests weekly how we apply Christianity in our life. If we are not doing it correctly, we have every seven days an opportunity to rectify that situation. Let's go back to 1 Peter 4.17. These are some general principles. 1 Peter 4.17.

Where we read that the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? So the church today is in the process of being judged. We are being judged. That doesn't mean condemned. Sentence. It means we are in the process of judgment. God looks at us, and He's seeing how we obey Him, what we do. So our judgment is now. The world is not under final judgment yet. They haven't been called. How serious is the Sabbath day in our eyes? What do we think about it? We are judged for what we are doing now.

You see, today on the Sabbath, we are free of the world. We're free to do God's will because we're not encumbered with our job. One of the first decisions that every one of us had to make when you first learned about the Sabbath day was what? Will I work on this day or will I not work on this day? Am I going to rest from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset? Will I do what God said? When you were faced, possibly, with the loss of a job, faced with an uncertain future, as far as you didn't know how you might be paying your bills, there was a decision that had to be made. Now, hopefully most of us, when we learned what the truth was, said, that's it, I'm going to do it. And when you were baptized, you said that you would put God first in all that you do. And part of that is the Sabbath. Remember Matthew 22 and verse 36. Matthew chapter 22 and verse 36. We read where Christ was asked, teacher, what is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, as Mark says, with all your strength, power. This is the first and the great commandment. The Sabbath shows God if we love Him. If we love Him, we will be faithful to Him, will we not? If you love your wife, if you love your mate, then you're going to be faithful to that mate. You're going to honor and respect them. And the same is true about God. If we love God, we're going to put Him first, whatever He requires of us.

We have time off each week to see how we're progressing. God gives us a 24-hour period. And yes, it is a day of rest. If you've worked hard all week, it gives you a time to relax, be with the family, eat a nice meal, and be able to sleep, be rejuvenated that way. But it's also a day that gives you an extra time to pray and study that you don't normally have, and then to be able to fellowship with God's people. The Sabbath lays bare our total spiritual development to God, how we approach Him. It's a time to refine our obedience, a time to refine our love for God. It's a time to refine our love for each other. We should not want to hold on to the world and what we've been doing on the Sabbath. The Sabbath day comes, and it should be a different day. It's not just like the other six days, except you're not working, but there is a difference. We are living according to God's law. What are you doing on the Sabbath that you would not want to be to do in the Kingdom of God? I know we're not going to eat food in the Kingdom of God. I don't mean that, but I mean our actions, our attitude, and our approach. Let's go back here to Psalm 1 and we will begin to read here in verse 1. Again, these are just general principles, but Psalm 1, as the margin says here, the heading, the way of the righteous and the end of the ungodly. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, that that's not the way we are, but his delight is what? In the law of God. Now, when it comes to the Sabbath, do we delight in the Sabbath day? Is it a day that we delight in, that we look forward to? And in his law, he meditates day and night. See, the Sabbath also affords an opportunity to meditate more.

The Sabbath, God's law, meditating, if you want to call it that, is a thinking man's religion. God doesn't say just two things. Think about why you do them. What are the benefits of it? That's where meditation, reflection, pondering comes in. And when it comes to the Sabbath, you can stop and think about what if the whole world kept the Sabbath? What would the world be like if everybody kept the Sabbath? Well, I'll tell you one thing it would be like. You wouldn't have to drive 50 miles to come to church. You could probably walk down to the end of the block, and a few hundred people who live right there in the immediate environment would be meeting together. At a couple blocks down the road would be another church, and another group would be meeting together. And everybody would be doing that. All businesses would be closed. All restaurants would be shut down. There'd be very little travel unless somebody lived in an outlying area on a farm and had to come into the city. So we ponder. We think about the Sabbath. We ask ourselves the question, am I keeping the Sabbath the way it should be? Is this what God wants? Am I compromising? Am I letting down? I can remember years ago giving a sermon on the Sabbath where I went through a list of 30 things to do or not to do.

Is it okay to do this? Is it okay to do that? These were all questions that people asked.

Now, I learned a lesson from giving that sermon. It wasn't the best sermon I ever gave. But the lesson I learned was you can't legislate. You can do this, you can do that. You have to give principles, and you and I have to be mature enough to apply those principles in our lives. We have to be aware, and you do and apply what we have learned.

So how we live our lives is the application of our religion. How we live and how we keep the Sabbath. And we need to ponder what is it that God is trying to get across to us.

We are to leave the world behind when it comes to the Sabbath and not have any part with it.

We have 24 hours to prove to God that we love Him and that we are putting Him first. 1 Peter 1, verse 14. God is looking for something in His people.

Beginning here, breaking into the middle of the thought here in verse 14, is obedient children, not conforming yourself through your former lust, as in your ignorance. But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct.

What does the Sabbath commandments say? Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

So if we keep the Sabbath holy, then we will also be holy in our conduct because it is written, Be holy for I am holy. So you and I are to be holy. We are to be set apart and to obey God. We are to be like Him. Now in Exodus chapter 16, I mentioned about a test. Let's go back to Exodus 16, verse 4 again. You will, I'm sure, remember clearly the tests that God gave to Israel when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. And He revealed to them, which day was the Sabbath. He gave them manna on six days. And if they tried to save manna up, it bred worms and stank. But He said, look, on the sixth day you collect twice as much. And it won't stink. You'll have some for the seventh day because I don't want you to go out here gathering food on the Sabbath day. Well, as we know, some of them didn't obey.

They didn't collect manna or twice as much on the sixth day, so they didn't have anything to eat. Others collected twice as much or more on the second or third day to bred worms. So slowly and surely God got their intention. Now in verse 4, the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may feed them whether I may test them, God says, whether they will walk in my law or not. So God put them to a test. And it shall be that on the sixth day that they shall prepare that they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, at evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. So God put them to the test. Now as he said here in verse 6, that you'll know that God is the one who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. God is the one who brought us up out of the world, has he not? He's the one who's freed us from the slavery of Satan, from this world, human nature, and has called us to live his way. Now notice verse 29, For the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore he gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place, and let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. It didn't mean you couldn't walk outside your tent, but he meant to go out to gather bread, or to go out to work. So the people rested on the seventh day.

So the Sabbath is a gift from God, is it not? It's a gift that God gives to us. Now in Mark 2, 27, Mark the second chapter, in verse 27, let's notice that this principle is clearly brought out here. Mark 2, 27.

He said to them, the Sabbath was made for man. So God created the Sabbath day for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. So the Sabbath is God's gift to us. There's not a one of us here who doesn't really enjoy a gift. Somebody comes up to your door, knocks on the door, and says, you want a new car, or you want a new television, or here's $50,000. Here's a gift. We would all be very happy, would we not? Every seventh day, God gives us a gift. It is His day of rest, and He expects us to keep that day holy. It is also, as Exodus 31, 17 says, it is a sign between God and us that we are His children. So it's a test, and it's also a sign. So when God looks down, His people, one of the signs that God will look for is that His people will be keeping the Sabbath day and honoring Him. Okay, let's go over here to Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 18. Hebrews the third chapter and verse 18.

Chapter 3 and 4 begin to get into the Sabbath.

And verse 18, well, let's back up to verse 17. It says, Now with whom was he angry? Forty years.

Was it not with those who sinned and whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest? But to those who did not obey.

So He said they would not enter into the Promised Land, into the rest, if they did not obey. So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief. Unbelief leads to disobedience.

So they came short of the Promised Land. The Promised Land is a type of the kingdom of God. They are going to the Promised Land. Forty years in the wilderness. Forty is a sign of tests and trials. So it pictures our lifetime, the span that we have, no matter how long or how short, that we are in God's Church. That we are tested and tried, and then God brought them miraculously into the Promised Land. And so it is now. We go through our life, the tests, the trials that we go through. And then God will bring us into the kingdom of God. Now, going on in chapter 4 here.

Chapter 4 and verse 1. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, now what rest is this? Well, it's not just entering into Palestine, but into His rest. Let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

Now, here's a warning from the writer of Hebrews that we could come short, we could fall short of the rest or the kingdom of God that God has in the future.

For indeed, the gospel, the good news, was preached to us as well as to them.

But the word which they heard did not profit them. Why? Not being mixed with faith. That's why. And those who heard it. So when you hear what God says, it must be mixed with faith.

Faith is what motivates us to obey. Without faith, Hebrews 11.6, it's impossible to please God.

So we have to have faith in God to obey Him. Now, coming down to verse 8. For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not have afterwards have spoken of another day. Therefore, or there remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God.

So, brethren, this is dual. There is a weekly rest for the people of God. That's the Sabbath. And there is a millennial rest, the rest in the kingdom of God. That's coming in the future.

There remains, therefore, a rest to the people of God. Or, I think, as the King James Version says, a keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works, as God did from his. God never ceased from works of sin.

The only place we find where God ceased from works is he recreated the earth in six days and rested on the seventh.

And so, as God rested, so should we. We should cease from our own works.

So, we see the mind of God here. Why did God rest? We'll set us an example to show us what we should do.

But notice in verse 11, Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest any one fall according to the same example of disobedience. So, we could disobey, lack faith, and not make it into the kingdom of God.

We must do better than Old Testament Israel. We are the Israel of God today. But notice verse 12. I think it's interesting. Right on the heels of talking about the Sabbath, talking about the rest that we strive to enter in the future.

We have this scripture. For the word of God is living, and powerful, sharper than any toed sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit. of joint and marrow.

And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The word of God exposes our mind.

Exposes our attitude. Exposes who we are.

As we study the word of God, it begins to reveal. It's like a mirror, the Bible says.

That it begins to reveal to us our thoughts, our intents, what's in our heart, what our motives are, what our approach is. And so, therefore, God is able to see. And as we go on here in verse 13, there is no creature hidden from his sight. But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him, to whom we must give account.

So it doesn't matter if we've got suits on, dresses on, in God's eyes, when he looks into the heart, he looks into the mind, he looks into our motives, our attitude. We are stark naked in God's eyes. He sees, he knows, he understands. And so when it comes to the Sabbath, God is able to judge us. He's able to judge what we're doing, and he knows our approach.

On the Sabbath, God reviews our thoughts, our actions. How do we deal with time on the Sabbath? How do we use our time? How do we use our love? Do we show love for one another and fellowshiping? How do we deal with his law and the application of his law and the principles of his laws?

God is looking for us to apply those principles. Notice Psalm 111.

Psalm 111.

Psalm 111.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding of those who do his commandments.

We have a good understanding if we do his commandments. Part of that we're focusing on today is the Sabbath commandment. So if we do it, if we practice it, if we think about what is the best possible way to keep God's law, to draw closer to God, then God will bless us. And reveal more to us.

Back in the book of Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 18 and chapter 20, let's go over to Ezekiel 18.

God talks to his people about their approach. Notice verse 19. Well, in verse 19-20, God says, The soul that sins shall die, and that each one of us bears our own sins. As verse 19 says, Why should the Son not bear the guilt of the Father? Because the Son has done what is lawful and right, has kept all my statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. The soul that sins, it shall die. Now, in verse 29, notice, he goes on to say, The house of Israel says, The way of the Lord is not fair. You think God's way was fair, his law, his approach? Says, O house of Israel, it is not my ways, which are fair, and your ways, which are not fair. Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel. Everyone, according to his ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all of your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not be your ruin. So God tells them to turn to repent.

God expects us to do the exact same thing. That if we find out, or if we know that we're doing things that are wrong, and especially as it relates to the Sabbath, God is going to judge us according to our ways, our deeds, our attitudes, and our approaches, the spirit of the law.

Now, let's notice over here in chapter 20.

In chapter 20, verse 2, says, Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Have you come to inquire of me as I live? says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you. Will you judge them, son of man? Will you judge them? And then make known to them the abominations of their fathers, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, On the day when I chose Israel, and raised my hand in an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I raised my hand in an oath to them, saying, I am the Lord your God.

Let's apply this to the church today.

God has entered into a covenant with us. He entered into a covenant with ancient Israel. He tells us that we are His people. And notice verse 6. It says, On that day I raised my hand in an oath to bring them out of the land of Egypt, and into a land that I have searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, into the Promised Land. So God is doing the same for us. He is bringing us out of this world, out of spiritual Egypt, and we're headed for the Promised Land.

And we are not to bring Egypt with us. You go and read verses 8, 9, and 10 through here. You'll find that Israel brought Egypt with them.

They came out because God delivered them, but they still had in the back of their minds the approach of Egypt, the attitude of Egypt, many of the customs of Egypt. And so God said, don't worship me in that way.

Verse 18, But I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgment, nor defile yourself with their idols. I am the Lord your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my judgments, and do them. The application of this today would be that when God calls us, that we're not to look to our old religion, our old way of keeping Sunday as an example, and use that as an example of trying to keep the Sabbath. Most of us are way beyond that. Verse 20 says, Hello, my Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

Not from his standing, the children rebelled against me, did not walk in my statutes, were not careful to observe my judgment, which if a man does, he shall live by them, and they profaned my Sabbaths. Chapter 20, you can go through and read it, is an indictment against Israel for not keeping the Sabbath day holy. So, brethren, God commands us to keep the Sabbath holy. Part of that is, number one, assembling together on the Sabbath day.

Now, no two people will observe the Sabbath exactly alike.

Now, what do I mean by that?

Well, I know that there are people who would never turn on their radio or television on the Sabbath. You would never do that. And there are those who would think that only listening to classical music is Sabbatarian music. Others would think that you can only listen to your religious type of music on the Sabbath. And there would be those who would think country music is okay. And you'd find all kinds, you're just within the spectrum of that. What about turning your television on? Is it wrong to watch the news on the Sabbath? Well, there are those who think that it's a sin. I personally don't think so. You're watching the news and keeping up. Now, if you watch 10 hours of the news, I think that might be exaggerating the principle. But I had it on last night, following until about 6.30. I think it was 6.30 to 7, somewhere in that period of time, when the lightning struck and boom! You went silent. So those type of things occur.

So no two people will keep it exactly alike.

Some people will sleep longer than others. Some will have certain rituals or traditions that they have. Others would never look at a newspaper on the Sabbath.

I know of a man who, at the time, was a minister. This was back in worldwide. Who, Friday evening, would sit down with his family and watch movies. They'd go out and rent movies. Now, these were not nature movies or anything of that nature. Maybe the last of the Mohicans or Star Wars or something of that nature.

And I had a little talk with him.

He's no longer in the church and left shortly thereafter because I felt that if he were going to continue in the ministry, that that was not the right approach. And it wasn't the right approach. But what we want to do is to make sure that we do not give ourselves license on the Sabbath to disobey. It's easy, over a period of time, to begin to stretch and compromise and let down. And first thing you know, we're sort of loosey-goosey with the Sabbath. And we're not real sure when it began. We're not sure when it ends. We do things that, 20 years ago, we might not have done.

The Sabbath day should have a great impact upon us. It should be the apex of the week, a day that we rest, a day that we walk away from Sabbath services and fellowshiping with one another, uplifted. We've had time to pray and study so that this is a day that helps to rejuvenate us. Recharges our spiritual batteries, I should say. Exodus 20. Let's go back to the commandment, as it's given here in Exodus 20, verse 8. Exodus 20 and verse 8.

Remember the Sabbath day. So we're told not to forget it.

How many used to be with us who have forgotten the Sabbath day?

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. So we're told to observe it holy.

Six days shall you labor, do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. So notice whose day it is. It's not your day, even though God gives it to you as a gift. He made it for man. But it's the Sabbath of the Lord. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servants nor your female servants nor your cattle nor your stranger that was within your gates. So I give all of my servants the day off.

I don't know how many servants you have, but most of us, obviously I'm joking here, don't have servants. It's talking about those that you're responsible for. If you own a business, you shut it down on the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother. Well then it goes on to talk about that. Let's notice verse 11. In six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and he hallowed it, or he set it apart. The word bless here means to bless. It should be a blessing to us. It should be something where we serve and help others. Now Isaiah chapter 58 and verse 13.

Isaiah chapter 58 and verse 13. We find a section here dealing with the Sabbath day.

Verse 13 says, If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, God means you feel the Sabbath is holy and you're not to use your feet walking or doing anything that would be detrimental to the Sabbath day. From doing your pleasure on my holy day. Now notice God says, My holy day. So it's God's day. And we're not to do our pleasure. The word pleasure here means, in Hebrew, our delight, our desires, our longings.

Maybe your longing is to get out and shoot around a gulf. You've been looking forward to doing that. Do you do that on the Sabbath day? No, that's something you put away from you. Things that you can do during the six days of the week, you try to forget those in the sense of, you know, you don't come home and spend the Sabbath rehashing the job or rehashing what you're going to do next week. You remember the Sabbath day. You keep it holy. So he goes on to say, I'm not doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight.

The word delight here means an exquisite delight or daintingness. You think, well, what do you mean daintingness is the Sabbath dainty? Well, it's referring. It would be a delight. What if your wife cooks this beautiful chocolate cake before the Sabbath begins? And it's sitting there. And it's so light that every once in a while it just sort of floats up and down.

It's a real dainty. And something that you can't wait to get into. But every time you go over and start to take a piece, she slaps you and says, no, that's for the Sabbath day. You've got to wait until the Sabbath. So the Sabbath comes around. You have this lovely meal. And finally, you've been looking forward to this. And you get that piece of cake. That would be a dainty. Something that you would really delight in. Now, I'm using a physical example.

But we are to delight in the Sabbath because we have the mind of God. We delight to see the sun go down Friday evening because we know for the next 24 hours, forget work, forget the business. We can rest. We have time with our families. We have time with our mate. We can have a nice meal. We can have extra time to pray and study and rest. So he goes on to say here that it's the holy day of God and honorable. We are to honor Him on this day by our actions and thoughts. You shall honor Him, not doing your own ways.

Our finding our own pleasure.

Nothing wrong with pleasure. But we're not to do our own way. That would be work, remodeling the house, cutting the yard, those type of things. Finding your own pleasure or speaking your own words.

Our conversation should focus around inspiring, uplifting God's word, His plan, purpose.

It's not wrong to let people know about your health, how things are going. But we're not just speaking our own words, meaning we're out here talking about all of our plans for the week. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord.

I will cause you to rise right on the high hills of the earth, feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken it. So God has spoken it. We watch what we say, try to make sure that our conversation is uplifting, it builds, it's edifying, it strengthens others. The whole direction is focusing on God, on His holiness, His way of life.

We don't delight in ourselves, we delight in others, and we just have a wonderful day. In Luke 8, Luke 8 and verse 14, Luke chapter 8 and verse 14, I want you to notice a principle here.

Now the ones, and talking here about the parable of the sower, the ones that fell among the thorns, so the seed that falls among the thorns, are those who, when they have heard, go out, are choked with cares and riches in the pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity.

God is concerned that we bring forth fruit to maturity, that we become perfect, we grow up, we mature, and so we do not want the world, its ways, its approach, to choke out what we should be doing. The Sabbath is a day that should take us away from the world, not back into the world in its customs and traditions.

You and I should love God with our whole heart.

Let's go back to Psalm 119 here. We'll finish with this, Psalm 119. Notice why David is going to be in God's kingdom. Why David will be over the house of Israel, the 12 tribes. He said, Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day.

So God's law should be our meditation, especially on the Sabbath day, all the day.

We should be talking about God's law and how to apply it.

It's amazing what can happen when two people get into a conversation. Start talking about principles, iron sharpening iron. The first thing you know, somebody says something that clicks an idea in your mind and you begin to think about it. I do that all the time. I hear somebody else say something and I can be hearing a sermon. I hear something and I make a big circle somewhere on my paper. Sermon! I write down, this could be developed into a sermon. I hadn't thought of it in that way. So you take just a thought or an idea or a principle that's thrown out and then you begin to study it. I don't know how you study, but one way to study is not just by taking the Bible and reading, but it's by taking topics and subjects and going through and reading everything you can find on it and researching it and see what you come up with. If you pray, you'd be amazed at how God will expand your understanding of that particular scripture. Now notice in verse 98, You through your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. So God's laws, his principles, including the Sabbath, should ever be with us. I have more understanding than all of my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditations. I understand more than the ancients because I keep your precepts. I restrain my feet from every evil work, that I may keep your word. I have not departed from your judgments, for you yourself had taught me, David said. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my thought or my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.

See, when we're alone with God, he sees us as we truly are. When we're around other people, we're not always the way we are. We all set an example, and hopefully the way we are in front of one another is the way we are wherever we are.

But sometimes you find that's not true, and that people will sort of play act. Act one way in front of people because they don't want to be found out. And then when they're in their privacy by themselves, they do other things. Well, that's something that God says that we should not do. Let's back up and finish here, beginning in verse 1. Psalm 119 verse 1. It says, Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimony, who seek him with their whole heart. So God is looking for a people. He's looking for us as his church to worship him and seek him with our whole heart, with our whole fiber. They also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. You have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently. All that my ways were directed to keep your statutes, that I would not be ashamed when I look into your commandments. I will praise you with an uprightness of heart when I learn your righteous judgments. I will keep your statutes. O, do not forsake me utterly. So David was one who worked at keeping the whole law of God. That includes the Sabbath day. So, brethren, if Jesus Christ had in Matthew 5 or 6 or 7 given a section on how to keep the Sabbath, what would he have said about it? He had said something like you have heard that's been said that you shall keep the Sabbath day. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. But I say unto you, and then he would go and start giving principles on how to keep the Sabbath in a more spiritual approach.

Well, we have the whole Bible to help fill in some of those gaps. We need to capture the concept of how God thinks. We don't need a list of dos and don'ts, but we do need to apply the basic principles of God.

God is waiting for us every week to pass the test.