Remember the Sabbath and Keep It Holy

The first four of the Ten Commandments tell human beings how to relate to God.

It's very interesting that these commandments tend to be a little bit longer than the last six that deal with how to relate to fellow man. There's a lot of instructions in the first four of the Ten Commandments. It's also very interesting that two of them are many times ignored by much of Christianity. Graven images are common, and the rejection of the Seventh-day Sabbath are common. We've been going through the Ten Commandments, and we've gone through one, two, three, and then five. Well, we need to go back to number four. The fourth commandment is very interesting and very special in the way that it begins, because it begins with the word, remember.

For the Sabbath to be observed, it was going to have to be thought about.

People have to think about this. They're going to have to remember it, and for the commandment to be upheld. The Sabbath is one of two ordinances that were given to humanity at creation. This is very important, what we're going to start with, because this sets the stage for the understanding of a lot of what we're going to go through today. We're going to go through just an overview. We're going to cover a lot of ground. There's still a lot about the Sabbath we're not going to discuss. But I want to give an overview of the Sabbath, both in the Old Testament and in the teachings of Jesus Christ. And where you start isn't in the Ten Commandments. When you understand the Sabbath, where you start is in Genesis 2. So let's go to Genesis 2.

Genesis 2, verse 1. We have the creation account here. And verse 1 says, Thus the heavens and the earth, and all of the hosts of them were finished. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. What I really want to zero in here is on the word sanctify.

Sanctification is means to make something holy. Now, you and I do not have the power to make something holy. When God says something is holy, what he means is I take this thing, this person, this place, this time, and I set it aside and it is now his. And he abused that thing or place or time with something about himself, because he is holy. So if he is holy and he sanctifies something, he sets it aside and says, I take some of what I am and I put it into this. And he makes it holy. He sanctified the seventh day. That's the starting point of all discussion on the Sabbath. That God at creation, there's only two things he gave humanity right away. The Sabbath, as part of their relationship with him and marriage, is the foundation relationship between husband and wife. Remember, there was only Adam and Eve.

They didn't have to be told not to steal yet.

Don't covet your neighbor's wife. What's a neighbor? But their relationship with God and their relationship with each other was the starting point. So you have the Sabbath and you have marriage. Now there would be lots of other things they were supposed to learn along the way. Of course, it all got sabotaged when Satan came into the picture.

So this is really our starting point. And if you are really going to understand the Sabbath, and if we're going to renew our Sabbath observance and its holiness, then we have to recognize that it is a holy day. It is sanctified by God. And we must approach it that way. So now let's go to Exodus 20. Because Exodus 20 ties us back in to Genesis 2. In fact, you can't separate the two. This is very important because there are people who would like to say, the seventh day Sabbath was something given to ancient Israel. It's Jewish in nature and is something that Christians do not have to observe. And they go to Exodus 20. But Exodus 20 isn't where the Sabbath is introduced. And Exodus 20 ties us in directly with Genesis 2. So they're tied together. You can't separate them. Look what it says. Verse 8, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Once again, it is sanctified. It is different. God sets it apart and says, this is something that he imbues part of himself into. He's made 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. Now we could stop right there and say, wow, okay, I'm not supposed to work on the Sabbath. So I don't do my regular work. I don't go to my job. I don't get paid. This is the time of rest. But what's so fascinating is that the commandment doesn't stop there. The commandment reaches out, actually in love, to the people that you are in contact with. Look what it says. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gates.

He said, now, you can't say, well, I'm off work today, but you kids got to work. You can't say, I'm off work today, but my employee's got to work. You can't even say, your animals have to work. That's one of the most amazing things about this commandment that I find fascinating. He even lists the animals. You couldn't go make your animals work that day. They were supposed to rest. Can you imagine an environment where, at Friday at sundown, everything stops? See, you and I have never experienced that. When you leave here and you drive home, you'll drive through traffic as people come in and out of all the places where they're buying things and they're working and they're doing different things and going to all kinds of entertainment. And you have to fight that just to get home.

In the society that God wanted created, everything shut down. Even the animals rested on this day.

So he tells them that. Then he says in verse 11, for in six days the Lord... Verse 11 now, this is very interesting because this is where he ties it back in to Genesis. 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 hallowed it. Now there is an attempt by many people, many Christians, to take the seven days of creation and say, well, those days were millions of years long. They sort of tie... What they do is they take evolution in this creation account and try to merge them together. Exodus 20 doesn't allow us to do that. The Lord rested on the seventh day and blessed the Sabbath day. So either the seventh day he's talking about here is maybe millions of years long or it's a day. So you can't escape that Exodus 20 is a day. So it ties back in now to Genesis. That God rested on the seventh day and he hallowed it. He sanctified it. He made it holy from creation.

So this is a very special time that God created for humanity. And it wasn't just for Israel because he created it before there was an Israel. There was no Israel when he made it, the Sabbath day. Now what's really interesting is before the Israelites went into the Promised Land, the Ten Commandments were given again.

But they're slightly different. And there's reasons for it if you read through them. It's because they're about to go into a land. They've been wandering around in the desert for 40 years. Now they're about to go into a land. And there's certain things that are expanded like don't covet your neighbor's land.

They didn't have much land when you're walking, you know, wandering through the desert. Now we're going to have land. But there's actually something added to the Sabbath command that I want to look at. So let's go to Deuteronomy 5. Once again, as an overview, we're going to be going through a lot of scriptures today. And I'm going to be highlighting certain points. We could go through these same scriptures at another time and highlight different points. But I just want to highlight certain points in the concept of this is holy time and how do we view holy time.

What do we do with it? Deuteronomy 5. Starting in verse 12, you have observe the Sabbath day. It's not exactly the same Hebrew word. You know, remember observe is remember it and keep it, do it. So it's a very active verb. Then we go down to verse 15. Now remember, in Exodus 20, the Sabbath is a time to remember God as creator, right? God is creator. For in six days, He made the heavens and the earth and He rested on the seventh. So you keep the Sabbath to remember God as creator. Notice what it says here. And remember that you were a slave of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand with an outstretched arm.

Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Now that is very interesting because that simple statement is different than just remember God as creator, but remember God as Redeemer. Remember God as Liberator. Remember you were a slave. This ties back into the days of the bread that we just finished. It ties back into what I spoke about on that last day. Remember you were slaves, and every Sabbath you were to remember you were a slave, and that God liberated you.

God freed you. The idea of redemption is tied in dramatically with the Sabbath day, even more so when we get to the New Testament. Now let's look at Exodus 12. Because in Exodus 12 we have the covenant God made with ancient Israel about the Sabbath, and that this was a covenant between him and them forever. I'm sorry Exodus 12. Exodus 31. Exodus 31 verse 12. Exodus 31 verse 12. I'm not going to read, this goes all the way from verse 12 through verse 17, but I just want to read a couple verses here because there's one thing I want you to really see.

Now we're laying groundwork by pulling out these concepts. This is a concept sermon because at the end of the sermon, though, I want you to be thinking on how to make it practical. We have to take the concepts and make them practical. What would really be nice with my personality is that God would just give us a Talmud. And I could say, here's one hundred things you can do on the Sabbath, and here's one hundred things you can do on the Sabbath.

I would be real comfortable with that. If you just let us first of all rule the world, that's what we would do. But that's not what God did. It's filled with principle that we are to think about. And I fear sometimes our Sabbath-keeping does not involve thinking anymore. It simply involves we do it. If we're not careful, we are any different than people who keep Sunday. They go to church, have a nice meal, take a little nap. Why don't you put more game? Is that what our Sabbath is?

Because that's not what it's supposed to be. Look at verse 12, Exodus 31. 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. Now, notice the rest of the sentence. That you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

And say, do you remember, I am the Lord who sanctifies the day. You are to keep the sanctified day as a remembrance that you are sanctified. Everybody here is here because God sanctified you. God made you holy.

He declared you holy. You declare yourself holy. None of us can do that. You are here because God said, You are holy to me. I pull you out for my purposes. So God picked every one of us here, pulled us out and said, You are now for my purpose. You are holy. You are set apart for me and what I want to do in your life. And that's why you're here. And this day for the ancient Israelites was to remind them of that. How much more for those with God's Spirit, and what is God's Spirit called in the Bible? The Holy Spirit. How much more of those of us who either have God's Spirit or those of you who do not have God's Spirit, you can say, Oh good, I don't have to listen to the rest of this. God's Spirit is with you. You are here because God's Spirit is with you, even as a child God's Spirit is with you. So, no, you're here because God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit is with you. And has brought you here on this day, not just to remember that this day is holy, but to remember He who sanctifies you. This day is real important in understanding holiness, not only God's holiness, but what is supposed to be our holiness. And that's a whole series of sermons in itself about holiness. What does that really mean? And how do we live it if it's a reality? Now, if we go further into the Old Testament, we find Isaiah, one of the prophets, hundreds of years later, explains about the holiness of Sabbath-keeping. It's more than just not working. And it's more than just not having your children and your man sermons and your animals work. There's something else about this day that has to do with its holiness. So let's go to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58. Now, I'm just going through these four passages. There's a lot of other passages we could do, but these four passages really set the stage to be able to look at the Sabbath in principle, created by God at creation, given as one of the Ten Commandments to show that we are not to work and not to have those under, you know, that we have control over, to make sure they don't work. It is to help us understand that God is creator, is to help us understand God is liberator and redeemer. And it is to help us understand that those called to participate in this day are holy themselves. And so Isaiah 58, here the prophet was inspired to write verse 13, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, our pleasure, it is so easy to get caught up. I'm not much of a hockey fan, but I do watch the playoffs.

Nashville, I don't think has won anything ever, and they're winning!

But the question is, is that a Sabbath activity?

He's, oh good, he's going to tell me whether I can do that or not. Now I'm going to tell you the principle. You're going to have to understand we're supposed to think these things through.

We're supposed to think these things through. I can only tell you I can't watch them on the Sabbath because why? It would be my pleasure and I'd be absorbed by it. Especially when a guy gives a guy a nice high check, drives him into the glass. I took a bunch. In San Antonio, none of the Hispanic kids in the church had ever seen a hockey game. So we took all the boys to a hockey game one time. We had a guy in a church here from Canada, and he's trying to explain it to them. I mean this guy grew up just loving hockey. And they're not interested at all. Until a guy high-sticks somebody and a guy turned around and punched him, and all of a sudden they're hollering and screaming. They later told me, this was the best sporting event we've ever seen! Every time there was a fight, they were just out of control screaming and hollering, this is great, this is wonderful. So we told them, I think you've missed the purpose of hockey, but at least you had a good time.

We are not to do our own pleasure, but we are to call the Sabbath a delight. Now this is real important because we're going to talk about family, too. It is, if we're not careful, we can make the Sabbath feel like a curse for children.

But that doesn't mean, oh well, okay, you can still do whatever you want. We have to teach the principle, and there's ways to do that, but we have to make it very practical. And call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, this is real important, and shall honor Him not doing your own ways or finding your own pleasures, nor even speaking your own words. Have you ever thought about, you come to services, you're 45 minutes early, you leave 45 minutes later, what did you talk about, though? What is it we actually do on this day? What I want to do here is just look at what we've covered so far, because this is just groundwork for what we're going to talk about here today.

Just looking at these four scriptures, and we've just pulled out sort of the main points. The Sabbath is observed as a commemoration of God as creator. So we need to be asking ourselves, what I do today, what I think today, how I act today, is it honoring God as creator? Me watching Nashville play hockey is not. I can only tell you that. It's me waiting for someone to get high-sticked. Okay. The Sabbath is a time to cease from work, the rest of the commandment is, and to love others by freeing children and employees from the burdens of everyday work. If we are free, we are to free others on this day.

The Sabbath is observed as a commemoration of God as liberator and redeemer. Now, that comes from the second giving of the Ten Commandments.

Those people were to celebrate their liberation and the freedom that they received. So you've got these three points. God is creator, free from work, but we also free others. And commemoration of God as liberator and redeemer. Also, we've been able to see the Sabbath is observed in holiness to worship the one who makes you holy. Keep the Sabbath days. Why? Remember what he told him. So you will know who sanctified you. This whole day is about God. Or do we make it about ourselves?

Oh, good. It's a day of rest. It's a day of eating food. Now, those things are part of the Sabbath, by the way. We are at a rest, and it's a feast day. But is that the whole center of this? The whole center of this is me. The Sabbath is a time to refrain from our own work, desires, and activities in order to honor God. Now, we just read that in Isaiah. So we take the four scriptures we've looked at, and we've simply pulled out the most central points to them, and this is what we come to. This is what the Sabbath was in the Old Testament.

Now, what happens when we move to the New Testament? We're going to look at a few places where Jesus teaches about the Sabbath.

Remember, Jesus was condemned by religious leaders as being a Sabbath breaker.

Part of that is because of all the restrictions the rabbis had added to the Sabbath. Now, the reason they added those restrictions to the Sabbath was because they believed God had made the Sabbath holy, they had broken the Sabbath, he had sent it to Babylonian captivity, and to make sure that never happened again, we're going to make sure nobody can break the Sabbath.

And they had all kinds of questions that they still argue today. Some of these questions we argue among ourselves today. Now, you get a group of Sabbath keepers together in this congregation, or if you added people from other congregations, or if you added people from other fellowships, and we started to talk about what should we allow or not allow on the Sabbath, we probably end up in a big fight, which shows a problem in itself.

The Jews did the same thing. Only they've done it for thousands of years. They're really good at this. They're really good at arguing over what you should and should not do on the Sabbath. And they debate it, and they wonder, and they worry. So Jesus comes along, and He keeps the Sabbath in the natural way that God wanted it kept, and they keep saying, there's something wrong with this guy. He's not keeping the Sabbath correctly. So let's go to Luke chapter 4. We're going to look at three places here. Luke chapter 4. Now, I read this at the sermon on the last day of Unleavened Bread, and I'm going to go and read it again simply because it picks up this point so well. Christ is about to launch His ministry, and it's on a Sabbath day. So what He has to say is real important. I'm going to launch my ministry. I'm going to tell everybody this is my ministry, and it's on a Sabbath day in a synagogue. So it's real important. Verse 16. So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. When He had opened the book, He found the place where it is written, and they believed this was a messianic prophecy, and it is a messianic prophecy. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, and He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who were oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all those who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. He began to say to them, today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. In other words, I am the Messiah. I am the one who is going to do this. But notice that His message is about liberation and redemption.

It would be later that the Apostle Paul would write, you know, God created all things through the one who became Jesus Christ.

So honoring God, the Creator, on the Sabbath, also honors Jesus Christ, because He's the one by whom God did all things. If we honor God as liberator, and we honor God as redeemer on the Sabbath, we also must honor the person whom He does this with. You understand? Which now brings us to a few questions about Sabbath-keeping in this Sabbath passage. Did you get all this? My wife said I went through this too, too quick. Did you get it all? There's the first part again. Sabbath is observed as a commemoration of this from the Old Testament. God is Creator. Time to cease from work and love others. Sabbath is observed as a commemoration of God as liberator and redeemer. Sabbath is observed in holiness, the worship of the one who makes you holy, and the Sabbath is time to refrain from our own work, desires, and activities in order to honor God. So now let's look at Luke 4. Here's the questions that we come from this, what Jesus said. Do I understand the gospel and the holy relationship God has offered to me? You see, the gospel and the Sabbath are tied together. God sanctifies you and then calls you to come to Him once a week during a sanctified time. Now, actually, God calls you to come to Him every day. But there's one day of the week that He says, no, this time is sanctified specifically for this relationship. Actually, what you do on this day will determine how you interact with God the other six. How we interact with God on this day will determine how we interact with God the other six. So do I understand the gospel? Come, repent. I mean, this is the core of the gospel right here, right? In Luke 4. Do I understand this? And this is His message given on the Sabbath. Am I responding by becoming holy in thoughts and actions? Now, that's every day, isn't it? Do I observe the Sabbath as a loving response to God's holiness?

Do I keep the Sabbath because if I can figure out how to keep the Sabbath perfect, what, I earn something with God?

Observance of the Sabbath is our loving—is supposed to be our loving response to Him who made us holy. It's a response to Him. Oh, if I keep the Sabbath, that makes me better than Christians who don't keep the Sabbath. If that's why we do it, actually it doesn't. It is our loving response to God. This is why we are to do it.

If you go through all of Jesus' teachings about the Sabbath, you will find a profound understanding of our relationship with God. It's always tied in with the Sabbath. And He's usually being accused of being a Sabbath breaker. Let's look at one of those places in Mark 3. Mark 3 is one of my favorite stories. I use it to bring out a number of points. I'm just going to bring it out one point today, but you'll see me come back to it every once in a while because there's just so much in this story that's important. Mark 3.

And verse 1.

Speaking about Jesus again, and He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal Him on the Sabbath so they might accuse Him. They weren't against healing. They were against healing on the Sabbath because it was work. Someone was working. The point is God was working. I guess they had the idea that Jesus had the power to heal that made Him work. Well, if it's God through Him, then God's the one who's working. So they're watching Him. They want to accuse Him of being a Sabbath breaker because if you're a Sabbath breaker, then God will punish Israel because of you and you must be silenced. And He said to the man who had the withered hand step forward, then He said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they kept silent. You know why they kept silent? This was a question they argued about all the time. Well, what is it to do good on the Sabbath? Should you do good on the Sabbath? What about life? Should you save life? The Sadducees and the Pharisees both agreed, yes, you save life. Even the life of an animal. If your ox falls on the ditch, you go save it. The Essenes, which you don't see mentioned because they wouldn't associate with anybody else, the Essenes were, oh no, you can only save a man or a woman. You can't save an animal on the Sabbath. Animals aren't that important. And the Pharisees would come back and say, but we're told we can't make our animals work on the Sabbath. And in the Bible, there's other commandments about how they are to take care of their animals and not abuse their animals. So we must save our animals on the Sabbath. Then they had a problem. Well, can you do capital punishment on the Sabbath? Well, no. What if you're attacked by another army on the Sabbath? Yes, you could fight because you have to save the people of God. You see the questions they would have to face all the time? These things were argued over and over again. Some people wouldn't fight on the Sabbath. Then they said, no, we're supposed to fight on the Sabbath because all the enemies do is simply wait until the Sabbath and attack us. So they would fight on the Sabbath. These were the kinds of problems, the practical issues they had to deal with all the time. They're silent on this one because what are they going to say? Should you do evil on the Sabbath? Well, no. Should you do good on the Sabbath? Yes. Should you save life on the Sabbath? Yes. Should you kill on the Sabbath? No. There was no way they could argue with his question.

And when he had looked around at them in anger, anger because they weren't answering, he grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to them, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out and his hand was restored whole as the other. Verse 6 is very interesting. And the Pharisees went out and immediately plodded with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him. They saw him as a threat to the law of God.

They also saw him as a threat to their power structure. He was very much a threat to their power structure. He's got around a healing people, and who is he? Is he one of the great rabbis? Is he a member of the Sanhedrin? No, he's an itinerant preacher who all the, you know, there's all these rumors that he's illegitimate. And he's healing people? This can't be good.

So they wanted to destroy him. And so here we have another case where he says to do good on the Sabbath. Because what do we think about that? How do I look at Sabbath questions now by looking at this passage? Okay. Does the activity help me glorify God? That's what's really interesting about when you read Jesus' activities on the Sabbath. They were always designed. They always led to the glorification of God. Does this activity help my family glorify God? One of the greatest issues we face as parents and grandparents is how to keep our children excited about the Sabbath. It's interesting in the Jewish world, the Sabbath is the greatest issue that holds their families together. The whole family gets ready for the Sabbath. The whole family is involved in the Sabbath. Every meal during the Sabbath, they eat together as a special meal. They sing special songs together at every meal.

They like candles. It's not only do they have community rituals, they have family rituals that have to do with the Sabbath.

Does this activity help my family glorify God? Some people say we should never watch television on the Sabbath. Some people say we should never watch some television on the Sabbath.

Easy question to everything. Does this help us glorify God?

And that's why we're not going to create a Talmud today, because you have to ask that question based on the situation you're facing. Is this activity an example that may help others glorify God? Now that's a real important question. Just because something is lawful doesn't mean it's good.

Just because maybe you have the ability or the right to do something on the Sabbath, if it's going to be offensive to someone else, don't do it.

Will it help lead someone to God or drive someone away from God? The questions many times we ask about the Sabbath is, oh, this is what I want to do. Can I do this or not?

Which is the wrong question to begin with.

Why am I doing it? Because I am a sanctified person, and on this day, I remember the God who sanctified me. I remember the God who sanctified me.

We've got to start moving the Sabbath away from an absorption with ourselves, and to God as the center of the Sabbath, as Christ, his Son, is the center of the Sabbath. The last point here from the teachings of Jesus I want to go to is in Luke 13. Then I want to make some practical points. Luke 13, verse 10.

Another case that has to do with healing. Now, he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. Can you imagine 18 years? This woman was all gnarled over, bent over, can't stand up, probably deteriorating. He called to him and said to her, You are loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. And glorified God. See why he did what he did. 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 in which men ought to work, therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day. He quotes one of the part of the Ten Commandments. There are six days we ought to work here. This man should not be doing this level of work on the Sabbath. Then the Lord answered and said to him, You hypocrite, boy, now that's a slap in the face. Just right. You're just nothing but a hypocrite. Does not each one of you on the Sabbath lose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water?

Don't you take care of your animals on this? Well, of course we do. We're commanded to. We don't even let our animals work on the Sabbath. We lead them to water. We feed them. They rest.

Everybody rests in my family. Ah! This woman works every day just to get out of bed. This woman struggles every day in a way you can't even imagine.

And you'll let your donkey, you'll take it out to drink on the Sabbath, but you won't let her be freed. So ought, verse 16, So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound. And then you just think of it. You can almost see the passion in which Jesus turns to him and says, just think of this. This woman is bound by Satan in his painful condition. For 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?

The responses are interesting. And when he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame. The leader of the synagogue and those who spoke against him, he said, they didn't have anything to say. I was like, wow, that is true. They were ashamed. And all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

Jesus once again uses the Sabbath to glorify God.

The center of what this day is all about is the Lord who sanctifies you.

There's one other issue here that has to really do with redemption, the idea that Sabbath is about liberation and redemption, that we do not emphasize much.

We know, in fact it was talked about during the days of love and bread, we know that Jesus was resurrected at the end of a Sabbath. He was still on the Sabbath day towards the end of the day.

Because he died on a Wednesday afternoon, he was in the grave three days and three nights, he's resurrected on a Sabbath towards the end of the Sabbath. Because remember, you know, we talked about the wave sheaf offering before the days of love and bread. Sunday morning, he says, don't hold me back. I have to go present myself to God. He had to fulfill the wave sheaf offering. He had been resurrected. And, you know, when they showed up before sun up on Sunday morning, he was already gone. He'd been resurrected on the Sabbath. That's not by accident. From the very beginning, the Sabbath was to have an importance to humanity, to honor God as Creator. And what does Deuteronomy say? As liberator, as redeemer.

What is the ultimate act of redemption? The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When was He resurrected? On the Sabbath. It is the ultimate expression of liberation and redemption. And it's on this day that that happened. I've actually had people ask me, well, I don't understand. You know, we keep Easter to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

Sorry, no you don't, because He wasn't resurrected then. Well, what do you do to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus? To commemorate the resurrection of Jesus? I keep the Sabbath.

Every week. Every week. I'm sort of shocked by that one. How do you commemorate Jesus on the Sabbath? You go through the chronology, yeah, He was resurrected on the Sabbath. Why? If He was slain from the foundation of the earth, don't you think God had it worked out when He was going to resurrect Him? If the Sabbath was created from the foundation right there in Eden, this was all part of the plan. And that is very important.

Now, there's many other scriptures, especially the teaching of Jesus. You cannot take the teachings of Jesus and do away with the Sabbath. It's not possible. He supports it, but He supports a proper keeping of it.

So how do you and I make the Sabbath more holy? I'm not going to go through the scriptures that are used to, quote-unquote, prove that you don't keep the Sabbath. That's a whole other subject. There's a whole lot of things we could tie in here. The Sabbath is a representation of the millennial reign of Christ. I mean, they're just all kinds of things we could talk about. But I wanted to give this overview. Here's four scriptures from the Old Testament. Here's three from the teachings of Jesus. They give us the principles of how this is to be kept. How do we begin to make this practical? Well, the first thing is participate in a holy convocation.

Leviticus 23, verse 3 says that the Sabbaths are a holy convocation, which means a holy assembly.

We come to the Sabbath services as the holy people on the holy day because you've received the holy invitation. The holy convocation is a commanded part of the day.

We come together to assemble.

It is my invitation. God can resend the invitation anytime He wants.

And say, no, you can't come. That's a scary thought. That's a scary thought.

Remember, keep this day because I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

Hebrews 10 talks about this. Hebrews 10.

We usually read verse 25 in conjunction with assembling together, but let's start in verse 24 because this gives us a reference point. In fact, it's all part of one sentence in English.

Verse 24 says of Hebrews 10, And let us consider one another. So let us think about each other. Let us consider. Let us be involved with each other in order to, what? Stir up love and good works. There is no way to do that unless you are involved with each other. There is no way to stir up your love for each other if you're not involved with each other. There's no way to stir up good works in another person if you're not involved in that person. It's not possible. So now let's go in. That's the introduction to the sentence. Let's go into the rest of the sentence. Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. How can I we exhort each other if we don't assemble with each other? How can you do that? So notice the context of assembling together so that you may love one another, so that you may interact with each other, so that you may encourage each other, so that you may help each other do good works. This is all part of this assembly. Convoking together. That is one of the very important things we can do to keep this day holy. But we have to remember this is also a holy convocation. We come together to worship God. We come together to do these things.

That's why people call me and they'll say, what's the dress code for your church? I always give the same answer. And a very few times I have somebody get upset with it. Most people say, that makes sense. I'll say, look, if you were going before, if you started to get an invitation to go before the President of the United States, you would wear the best you have. Whatever it is that's the best you have, wear it. Oh, I don't have a suit, but I think maybe I should go get one. I've actually had people say that. It's like, wow, yeah, well, you put it in, okay, you're coming before God. You've been invited to come before God. Now, other people can only afford so much. Nobody's ever turned away because they're not meeting a dress code. Well, I suppose if somebody showed up immodest to the extreme. But I mean, you know, I mean, we don't turn everybody away. But the point is, the dress code is you're coming before God. What should you wear? The question should be enough. We should try to be here on time. Now, you can't always be here on time, but you try. You try to be here. You know, you pray about coming to church.

You pray about your condition, your mindset, the mindset of others.

The second thing we should do is what the Bible calls the Preparation Day. Now, the Preparation Day is not commanded in the Bible. It just appears. The people look on the day before the Sabbath as a Preparation Day. If we think, well, you know, I work, my wife works, and we have this responsibility and that issue, and we're so busy, we really don't have time to prepare for the Sabbath, then you need to step back and say, what is wrong with my life's priorities?

I know that's tough, but you have been invited to a holy time so that the God who made that time, you can be reminded that He is the Lord who sanctifies you. How important is that? We should go into the Sabbath emotionally, spiritually, physically preparing for it, as much as we can. You know, one of the most important things you can do on a Friday night is sit down with your family and have a special meal, a Sabbath meal, and just spend that time together. Boy, I tell you, in the Jewish world, I was reading a Jewish commentary this week, and they said, if you took away the Sabbath and all the things that Jewish families do on the Sabbath, there would be no Judaism. It would cease to exist. That was an interesting commentary.

Judaism would cease to exist because the whole thing that holds them together as families and as a community is worshiping God on the Sabbath. And what they do on that, and the meals that they have, and the things that they do, the family time they spend together. That's why you prepare for this day. You have to think about it. You have to prepare the day for the children. The children should have things to do to prepare. That this is a special time. And you know how much entertainment, how much TV should you watch, or what kind of music should you listen to? I don't have the answer to all that. I can only tell you this. Try a Sabbath where you turn it off and see what happens. Just turn it off.

And take that time and be together, and take that time and pray. Yeah, take the time to rest. And you know, it's not just physical rest. We have to rest our minds. We have to rest our spirit before God. That's what this is about. You prepare for it.

You know, I've thought about it times, how difficult it was for my kids growing up and keeping the Sabbath. I was thinking about how when we lived in Houston, the two little girls, Chris was a baby, so he didn't see them. Well, he cried sometimes. But you know, at seven o'clock in the morning, we'd get them out of bed, or six thirty. They weren't even really awake. We'd stick them in the car, strap them in with their pajamas. And then we'd take off. And we'd drive. And somewhere around eight, eight thirty, we'd wake them up and hear, eat some yogurt, you know. And then you'd try to feed them and give them something to eat and take care of these poor little kids and then get them in their dresses while you're driving, you know. And then we'd get there. And we'd all go in, and they'd spend the next two hours sitting in services. Then with services over, they'd stand around for an hour while dad anointed and counseled into all the other stuff I had to do. And then after that, we'd load them back in the car. And off we'd go. We'd give them string cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And, oh no, you spilled your milk, you know, and try to clean them up and keep them. Then we'd get to another church. And we'd spend hours. And after it was over, we spent another hour and a half or two hours while dad did all the counseling and all the annoying and all the things that had to be done. And then at seven or eight o'clock at night, we're driving home. We had to work hard to make the Sabbath enjoyable for them. We had to work real hard. There were treats they only got on the Sabbath. There was Friday night when we got... We had Bible games that only were played on Friday night. Oh, well get out the Bible games. It's time for the Bible games. There was a meal every Friday night. We had to work real hard. We had to talk in the car. You know, I can remember as a kid, there was a time my family was rather poor. And I remember every Friday night, watching dad come home before sundown to see what he had. Because he either had this huge tub of potato chips or a half gallon of ice cream. That was Friday night. That's what you got. Now, it's hard to imagine potato chips being that important. Yeah, it was.

Potato chips! Tonight it's Friday night! And my parents would only allow certain kinds of music on Friday night. And they're telling you what kind of music to work on. Because you know what? A Talmud won't work. The principles work.

And you have to think that through, and I have to think that through. How do we do these things? The preparation is remembering the Sabbath day. It's thinking about it on Thursday. It's thinking about it on Wednesdays. Preparing for the Sabbath day. I remember the day's coming. And we've got to prepare for this day. So we go into this day right.

You know, when you keep the Sabbath day correctly, it revitalizes you. When you keep it wrong, we've all done it wrongly. Is wrongly the right word? We've all done it improperly. What happens? You feel terrible. Sabbath's over. You just feel restless. You know, you just, you missed it.

You missed the Sabbath. You missed what God wanted on the Sabbath. What He wants to do in our lives. Third point. We find in Nehemiah 13, remember that this should not be a day of buying and selling and doing our shopping. And we can start really compromising with this. Oh, it's just stopping on the way home. I just stopped at Walmart. I just got a few things to get. Of course, Nehemiah is a very interesting time here. They were rebuilding Jerusalem.

And Sabbath had become the farmer's market. Everybody came in, brought all their goods in. It is the day you go in and go to the temple. So it's a great time to load up the wagon, bring it in and sell your sheep. So Jerusalem had become this giant, just farmer's market on the Sabbath. In verse 14, Nehemiah says, Remember me, oh my God, concerning this, that you do not wipe out my good deeds. This is Nehemiah 13, 14. That I have done for the house of my God and for services. At those days, I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath, bringing in sheaves and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. Not only were the people working, but they were, they got their animals working. That was also against the law. And I warned them about the day in which they were selling provisions. Men of Tyre dwelt there also, who brought in fish of all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath through the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. And I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, What evil thing is this that you do by which you profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers do this, and did not our God bring all these disasters on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath. We have to be very careful how we keep the Sabbath, what we do. Now, having said all that, let me make another point that's real important here, and then we'll wrap it up.

You and I have to be very careful on how we judge each other on Sabbath keeping.

Because you and I face issues that are not in the Bible. There's all kinds of modern issues. By the way, that the Jews argue over, even to this day they face the same issues. Like, can I mail a letter on Wednesday? Because it may not show up to Saturday, and the postman has to work to deliver it. Now, how many of you go out and get your mail every day? I mean, every Sabbath thought anything about it. I know people who won't get their mail on the Sabbath. But to think about it, the postman's still working. I've heard these things. I've been in the... it says 1963. I've heard all this stuff argued over and over and over again. Should you turn on the stove on the Sabbath because it's lighting a fire? If you feel like you should not turn on a stove on the Sabbath, do not do it. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Don't judge anybody who does. And those who do turn their stoves on the Sabbath do not judge people who do not. Because sometimes I think our judging of each other is worse than the issues we're dealing with by far. Well, can you start a car on the Sabbath? There are Orthodox Jews that say you can't, because why? Well, every time that piston explodes, it starts a fire. And it sure does. You don't get your car. You don't get out and drive in your car unless there's all kinds of explosions in it. Here's the interesting problem. How far can you drive on the Sabbath and not be work? I know I'll drive over 100 miles. That's so easy for me anymore. Man, I used to drive so much more in Texas. About 100 miles on the Sabbath? Eh, it's sort of towards the end. It's sort of work. You drive a long ways, many of you, to get Sabbath services. Is it work? Yes. Is it acceptable work? Actually, yes. But there are people who think it's not. Why do we do what we do? See, that's the reason the questions we asked are why. See, well, I will never pay anybody on the Sabbath.

I try not to pay anybody on the Sabbath, but the problem is if I open my refrigerator, the little thing out there says I'm using electricity, and I got to pay the electric company for that. And they don't care that I used it on the Sabbath or not. Same thing if I get a glass of water. So there are people that try to figure out how not to get water. You know, they never faced that in the Bible. On Friday, they went to the well, they got a bucket of water, they brought it in the house. That was it! These are brand new problems. How far can we drive on the Sabbath? That's a good, interesting question, because that's why we're doing it. You know, I have to admit, there's times in the past where I drove 250 miles because there was a basketball tournament Saturday night. I mean, yes, Saturday night. And then stopped doing it after a while, because I finally said, wait a minute, I'm spending five hours on the Sabbath driving, so I won't play basketball on the Sabbath. So I can play basketball after the Sabbath. So I stopped doing it. Why am I doing what I'm doing? What's the purpose? Why drive 250 miles to preach a sermon someplace? You bet. You bet. To go serve God's people someplace? Without a doubt. To play basketball? Well, at my age. It seems like a moot point. But I made that decision when I was younger, okay? Why do we do what we do?

Is it the glorifying God? But see, we can't judge each other.

You know, on the Sabbath, sometimes I love to put on some Mozart, or Bach, or Beethoven. I don't listen to classical music all that often, but on the Sabbath, I find it soothing. My wife finds Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven to drive her up a wall.

After about 10 minutes, it's like, can't we put on something else? You know.

Okay. I understand. That's why there's no Talmud here. Well, you should only listen to classical music on the Sabbath. Well, yeah. If you want to drive some people crazy, you should do that.

I mean, I like gospel music, which a lot of people would find offensive. So, you know. So the question always comes back to, why am I doing this? And it's my conscience. I can't judge another person on modern issues. We can't. But we struggle with it. You and I are supposed to struggle a little bit with the Sabbath. It's why there's no Talmud. If it was cut and dry, he would have just made a list. This is a learning process about holiness. And to learn holiness, you have to make decisions. And you have to remember.

Remember this. See, sometimes we don't even remember the Sabbath day, during the Sabbath day. We just sort of go through the motions.

It's like, oh, it's almost sundown. Is Nashville playing tonight? Right? We lose track of what this is all about.

The purpose, once again, of this sermon wasn't to build a Talmud. I mean, there's lots of things we can talk about. There are people in this congregation who will go out to eat on the Sabbath. There's people who will not go out to eat on the Sabbath. There's people who will go out to eat on the Sabbath in only very specific situations. I understand all that. You go according to your conscience and then leave each other alone.

Go according to your conscience and leave each other alone. This is part of the learning process. Now, I mean, how many... there's nobody here that goes out to Walmart and does all your shopping on the Sabbath. You know? We're not loading the kids up into the car and going to Six Flags on the Sabbath. That's not exactly glorifying God, right? You can't do that with that.

The issues we're talking about are modern issues.

We have to let each other have the leeway. You know why? Because God gives us that. That doesn't mean God doesn't have definite opinions about some of this stuff. I think we all do wrong things on the Sabbath sometimes. But He allows us to make the personal decisions as we learn, as we grow. Think of the principles. Let's go through, once again, just the principles as we conclude here. The Sabbath is to be observed to commemorate God as Creator. The Sabbath is a time to free children and employees from the burdens of everyday work.

The Sabbath is to be observed to commemorate God as Liberator and Redeemer.

The Sabbath is to be observed in holiness to worship the One who makes you holy. The Sabbath is a time to refrain from our own desires and activities in order to honor God.

You know, I didn't even list all the benefits. The rest, the healing of the mind. I mean, there's all these benefits I never even listed. These are just the principles.

Jesus is the Anointed One through whom God carries out His acts of healing, liberation, and redemption. The Sabbath commemorates God's work through Christ.

Jesus repeatedly taught that the Sabbath was a time to celebrate God's work in the lives of human beings. He never once taught that the Sabbath was no longer to be observed by His followers. Get our children to celebrate what God is doing in their lives. For all they see is the Sabbath as a restriction. That's all they see it as. It's just restrictions. It's just some kind of burden I carry around. And then Jesus was resurrected late on a Sabbath evening. The Sabbath is a weekly celebration of His resurrection and present work in the lives of His followers. You know what? The Sabbath isn't about keeping it more exactly to impress God. You and I can't impress God with our Sabbath keeping. What are you going to do? He's not easily impressed, okay? Not by us. We can't impress Him with our Sabbath keeping. The Sabbath is a gift from Him. It is a gift from God to teach us about Him. It is a gift from God to physically, emotionally, and spiritually give us rest to let it go.

And for one short period, be refreshed by God, which will change the rest of the week.

Rest with God on this day, and you will experience His presence the rest of the week.