Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy

Thank you again, Mr. Shoemaker. Nothing like a rousing song to get you ready for preaching and for listening. And a good refreshing beverage is good for that, too.

Brethren, have you ever had this experience? I'm guessing most of you have. Of someone maybe it comes up in casual conversation or they notice something you're doing that's different and they say, well, what religion are you? It's not an uncommon question. What religion are you? And usually people are thinking in broad terms. They're looking for an answer like, well, I'm Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist or perhaps Christian. But since we live in a predominantly Christian country, usually the answer Christian isn't what they're going for.

You know, they want something a little more specific, which I find interesting. If you did answer Muslim, I don't know if they follow up and say, well, is that Shia or Sunni or Wahhabi or I'm not sure how many more variations there are. But, you know, they're looking for something a little more and that's not uncommon. Looking into this brought back a distinct memory for me of when I was a little boy.

And I'm not sure how young, but I was still living on the west side of Columbus, so it was before I reached, I think, 10. But I walked into the kitchen and my mother was washing dishes. I said, Mom, what religion are we? You know, and we weren't a very active religious family at that time, so it was a fair question.

And she paused for a moment and she said, well, we're Protestant. Okay, that's good. I had no idea what Protestant meant, but I had an answer. If someone asked me, I could tell them. Say, here in America, you know, not people want to know a little more than Christian and some churches might suffice.

If you say someone asked your religion, if you were to say Roman Catholic, they'd be with you. Eastern Orthodox, Baptist, even say Unitarian or Methodist. But if you gave the answer, well, I'm the United Church of God, they'd look at you and a lot of people, and I say this because I've had the experience, they say, well, yeah, that's your church, but what's the religion? What they want to know is what distinguishes you. You know, what about your system of beliefs make you different from these other churches out there?

And one of the reasons I've given this some thought in my previous job, I worked with a lot of educated people that I met a lot of new people, and sometimes things would come up that I wouldn't be at a program, say, on a Saturday, and I'd say, well, I won't be there, and the question might come up, oh, why not? Well, you know, I observed the Seventh-day Sabbath, and the question, well, what religion are you?

So I settled on the answer that usually works for people, and that was, I would tell them, I'm a Sabbatarian Christian. Sabbatarian Christian, this points out two things that distinguish us. One, that we believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and we worship Him as such, but also, we keep the Seventh-day Sabbath, and that distinguishes us from a lot of other people who call themselves Christian.

You know, only a few people will go into more detail, some might, well, does that mean you're Seventh-day Adventist? If they're familiar, no, we're not those. Seventh-day Baptist? No. Now, I worked out a longer answer. I thought, if people really want more distinction, and this one's a mouthful, but I thought, if people really want to know, to give them the theological answer, I would tell them, we are Sabbatarian, pre-millennial Adventist, non-Trinitarian, fundamentalist Christians, which to break down means we keep the Seventh-day Sabbath.

We believe Jesus Christ will return before establishing a thousand-year peaceful reign on earth. We believe that God is not a Trinity, but we do believe the Bible is the authoritative Word of God. And all that, there's words for that. Now, that's a mouthful. Most people are happy to stop when you and say, oh, you go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday. No, that's weird, but they move on from there.

Or I remember, I think I heard this from Mr. Armstrong, maybe in his autobiography or one of the booklets, he said somebody told him, oh, you keep Saturday for Sunday. And that's how they categorized what he did. A few of those people who might say that realize that actually we didn't swap one day for another. Now, the Bible establishes the Seventh-day as the day to worship, and other people swapped Sunday in there. But that's getting on to another question.

However other people may view it, we are Sabbath keepers. That's what we are. That's not the most unique thing about us, but it is a very clear distinguishing thing. It's a mark. It's often for most people the most noticeable thing about us. And so today I want to go into that more. I want to talk about keeping the Sabbath and about remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Now, there's a good reason to believe that the Sabbath marks us as different for people, and that's because God intended it that way, and He told us that it would do that. Let's go to Exodus 31.

We'll look at the words of God Himself and one of the things He intended for the Sabbath day. Exodus 31, and we'll begin in verse 13. I'm going to catch myself. I noticed myself running on, speaking a little quickly this morning, partly because I was thinking of getting here. So I'm going to slow down, not say these words too quickly, but these words are important.

Exodus 31, beginning in verse 13. Now here God is speaking to Moses, telling him to relay these words to the children of Israel. So He says, speak to the children of Israel, saying, surely my Sabbath you shall keep. For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I, the Eternal, I am the Eternal who sanctifies you.

And I say, you keep the Sabbath, it's a sign that you may know that I'm Him, I'm God who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death. You can see God doesn't take the Sabbath lightly. For whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Eternal. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

And He says here again, it is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For, or because, in six days the Eternal made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. That sums up an awful lot about the Sabbath. God says, six days I've made the heavens and earth, rested on the Sabbath, sanctified it. You keep it, don't work on it, and it's a sign. It's a distinguishing marker.

It's interesting. Why is it such a distinguishing marker? Well, because most people don't keep it.

If most people aren't keeping it, those who do stand out. And we see in the Scripture, He reminded us that He wasn't just making the Sabbath up as a new thing then. He shows that He established it back at creation. It wasn't new when He talked to Moses or when He thundered from Mount Sinai. The Sabbath is something we're to remember. And even then, it was something to remember. And when we do, it reminds us of a couple of very important things. Okay, first, first it reminds us God is the Creator. He made all things, including time.

And it's one of those things I've given thought to every now and then. My mind will wander, and I think of these abstract things. But what is time? Now, Einstein speculated that time and space are part of the same thing, and I'm not sure about that. But I know that if there's nothing physical that changes, you can make a case there's no such thing as time. We mark time by change, movement of a clock, decay, or some type of change. So when God created the universe, He also created time. But God can also make holy time. He set apart that seventh day each week. He can do that.

God can make something holy. None of us can. Okay, I said there's two things the Sabbath reminds us of. One, God is the Creator, and that He created holy time. And two, the second is that God frees us from bondage. God frees us from bondage. Let's see that in Deuteronomy chapter 5.

Deuteronomy 5, and we'll begin in verse 12. I'll remind you, this is where Moses was recounting to the children of Israel for a second time the overall law. And here he tells them about how God came down to Mount Sinai and gave the Ten Commandments. So he's repeating what God said. And I want to point out something that God told them as a reminder. Deuteronomy 5, verse 12, observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

As the Eternal your God commanded you. Six days you shall not labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Eternal, your God. In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, not even your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or the stranger that's within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

Very important, your servants, and even the word could be interpreted, slaves. They get the day off. And he says in verse 15, remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. You were slaves, and the Eternal your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand in an outstretched arm.

Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Just think, when they were slaves to the Egyptians, they couldn't say, oh, I've got to take a day off once in seven. Now, when you're a slave, you do what your master tells you, or you suffer from the whip. So God is saying, hey, you couldn't keep the Sabbath day when you're in bondage, but I freed you from bondage, and I'm telling you to keep the Sabbath and let your slaves keep the Sabbath.

Now, we're not in physical slavery, and none of it, I'm assuming none of us have been, that would be a very unusual thing. Children of Israel were in bondage thousands of years ago. We could look back in this nation, and it's still, you know, 150 years ago that anyone was legally, at least in bondage. But this still applies. There's an important way that all of us have been in bondage, and I think some of you know where I'm going. If you'll turn to Romans chapter 6, Romans 6 and verse 16, the Apostle Paul points out in a very important thing that there's more than one way to be in bondage.

But the fact that that's true reminds us of one of the important lessons of the Sabbath, that God is one who liberates from bondage. Romans 6 and verse 16, he says, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey? Now here, he's speaking an abstract, not of a person, but he says, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God be thanked, though you were slaves to sin.

You were in bondage to sin. It had control over you just as much as a taskmaster, maybe more than a taskmaster with a whip. You were slaves to sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. So having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. That's an important. We can be freed, and I want to make a further connection. Let's go to Luke chapter 4. Luke 4 verse 18 and 19 to see that there is a connection to God and that freedom.

And an important thing for us to remember on the Sabbath. Luke 4, and we'll begin in verse 18. This is the time early in Christ's ministry. He hadn't begun going around speaking much, but he goes into the synagogue that one day, and as was the custom, then they passed around the book of the law, and the men took turns reading. He turned to a particular passage in Isaiah and read this because it applied to him. He said, the Spirit of the Eternal is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, liberty to the captives, and the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So this should help us to understand if we've all been captives of sin, we've all been in that bondage, Jesus Christ provides opportunity for liberty. And just as he told the Israelites, remember you were in slavery, but you've been freed. We should remember we've all been in slavery to sin, but we've been freed. And that's one of the reasons we're commanded to keep the Sabbath.

It reminds us of God as creator. It reminds us of God as a liberator, freeing us from the captivity of sin. And that's another thing, of course, that it's all for all of us. Because some might read the passage I turned to in Exodus 31, where he says this is a sign between me and the children of Israel, and say, well, that's between God and the children of Israel. I'm a Gentile. Most people believe they are Gentiles, whether they are or not. So let's break it down and make sure we see that it applies to everyone.

We're in the New Testament. If we go to the book of Galatians in chapter 3, Connor's favorite word is no. I'm sure he wasn't responding to me, but when I say go to Galatians and he says no, you listen to me, not to him.

Galatians 3 and verse 6, Just as Abraham believed God and was accounted to him for righteousness, therefore know that those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. If you're of faith, if you believe God and know this law, he counts you as a son of Abraham, which means inheritors of the promise and thereby by children of Israel. We can see that further if we skip ahead to verse 28 in this chapter.

I've got a note here. In times past, we've often used the term spiritual Israelites.

And I've known some people have raised objections to that term on the semantics of it. So I don't want to argue the semantics, but I think you can say he's saying if you are of faith, your children of Abraham, and here in verse 28 Paul makes it very clear. He says, there is neither Jew nor Greek.

You know, a descendant of Israel or a non-descendant of Israel, he says that doesn't make a difference. There's neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. Now, there are male and female, and there are Jews and Greeks, but he's saying that doesn't matter from this perspective. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. When you become his, you're all in one group. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So if you know the truth, if God has called you, if you have God's Spirit, he lumps you all in that same group. And in his eyes, you're children of Israel, and he wants you to have that sign that sets you apart that he gave to the children of Israel. Now, that's not even addressing the fact that most of us here today are actually physically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I don't want to go into that today. And actually, as I was writing that, I thought, you know, I keep saying that, so I need to go get into that. I'm working... I started work on a sermon and said, let's go into that. Let's talk about the modern identity of Israel, but not today. In a few weeks, we'll get to that. But it doesn't matter whether we are or not. That applies to us.

But it's interesting. It's worth noting, though, that a reason that most of the descendants of Abraham don't know that they're descendants of Abraham is because they lost one of the clearest signs. You know, genealogy is great, but you can lose those records. But one sign that shows who you are would have been the Sabbath. And in ancient times, the people of Israel let go of that. They lost track of it and lost understanding of who they were. Let's see an indication of this in the Bible. If you go to Leviticus chapter 26... Leviticus 26 is one of two places that we call the listing of the blessings and cursings. Leviticus 26 is one and then in Deuteronomy 28. But God says, if you do these good things, you'll get all these blessings. But if you do bad things, bad things are going to happen to you. And Leviticus 26 will begin in verse 14. He points out some of what could happen if they don't obey. Leviticus 26... too fast... Leviticus 26 and verse 14. If you do not obey me and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise my statutes, or if your soul abhors my judgments so that you do not perform all my commandments but break my covenant, I'll do this to you. I'll even appoint terror and wasting disease and fever consume you. And let's skip ahead to verse 33. This is where I wanted to get to. This is part of what happens if you don't obey. It says, I will scatter you among the nations and draw a sword after you.

Scatter you out. Now that's going to come up again. Let's turn to the book of Ezekiel chapter 20.

Ezekiel 20 will begin in verse 19. I noted this morning this is one of those sermons where I want to limber up the fingers and go through the Bible a lot because there's a lot of good scriptures.

But we're going to read verses 19 through 24. And here's it. Basically, in Leviticus, he's looking ahead saying, if you obey me, these good things, if you disobey me, bad things. In Ezekiel, God will be looking back and reminding them what he told them and then explaining the bad things that had already happened to the northern kingdom of Israel and that would happen to the southern kingdom. So in verse 19, I am the Lord your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my judgments and do them. Hallo my Sabbaths. And there'll be a sign between me and you. A sign noting you're my people. That you may know that I the eternal am your God. Notwithstanding, though, the children of Israel rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes. They were not careful to observe my judgments, which if a man does them, he'll live in them. But they profaned my Sabbaths.

Then I said, I'll pour out my fury on them and fulfill my anger against them in the wilderness.

Therefore, nevertheless, I withdrew my hand and acted for my namesake, that it should not be profane in the sight of the Gentiles, in whose sight I had brought them out. Also, I raised my hand in an oath to those in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the Gentiles and disperse them throughout the countries. So the children of Israel were dispersed and scattered, because they had not executed my judgment, but had despised my statutes, profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their father's idols. So they broke the laws. But he points out two of them. Now, there's lots of various statutes and laws, but he said especially, they profaned the Sabbath and they worshipped idols. So I scattered them among the Gentiles. Now, when they were scattered, just think, if they did have the Sabbath and they hung on to that, they would have been able to keep track of who they were. But since they didn't, of course they'd already left the Sabbath, that's one of the reasons they were scattered, they lost track. They didn't know, and many still today have no idea that they're descended from Abraham. And I'll remind you, of course, there's an example to show what the difference could have been. Because long before this, remember in the days after Solomon died, and during the days of his son, Rehoboam, the northern kingdom rebelled. And so Israel divided into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom, which retained the name of Israel, the southern kingdom was called Judah. Israel was taken away captive under the Assyrian Empire, and we know they moved to the west, and then eventually north and northwest, and that's a long involved story, but they had no knowledge of the Sabbath. A couple hundred years later, the kingdom of Judah was conquered by Babylon. They were taken away, but then 70 years later, some were allowed to return. Many stayed where they are, but unlike the kingdom of Israel, Judah retained a knowledge of the Sabbath. They didn't always keep it perfectly, and haven't since then, but they kept the Sabbath. They knew that the Sabbath was important, and because of that, all through these centuries with Jews scattered all around the world, they know that they're Jews. So, I'm Jewish. I'm not Jewish, but I mean a person could say I'm Jewish. And they know that the Sabbath is part of their heritage. They retained that identity. The children of Israel might have been able to do that, but of course, I think it fulfilled God's prophecies. He knew what would happen. But once again, the Sabbath is an important sign for a nation. Now, some might ask, if all this is true, I'm making a transition here, if all this is true, why do so many people all around us worship on Sunday? You know, I've been looking at all these scriptures and talking about an important sign, and God wants us to do it.

Why are, why do so many people not keep Sabbath, the Seventh-day Sabbath? They keep Sunday.

Well, the short and simple answer in my mind is they're misinformed. Most of them think they're doing the right thing. I suspect that if you talk to most people who consider themselves Christian, would say that in here somewhere, it tells you to keep Sunday as the Holy Day. They just haven't studied thoroughly enough, and God hasn't opened their mind to see things. You know, some of them who do study and want to find justification in the scripture say, well, it talks about the Lord's Day.

And it does talk about the Lord's Day a few places in the New Testament, and some people have said, that must be Sunday. Well, I would say, yeah, maybe, but if that were true, does it say to stop keeping the Sabbath and keep Sunday as the Lord's Day? Now, to be honest, it's not. If you, if you want to be true, and I'm not going to spend all the time going through that because I, partly because I learned I didn't have that much time this morning, but there are some people who say, well, Jesus Christ was resurrected on Sunday, so that will make a switch. Well, this isn't Passover season, but many of you have been through a Passover season, and I'm sure I'll do this next spring. You can go through the scriptures and show that actually Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday, and he died late Wednesday afternoon, and he spent three full days and three full nights in the tomb and came back on a Saturday afternoon, probably not long before sundown.

So that, that excuse doesn't hold water, but what if it did? What if Christ did come up on a Sunday?

Well, does that mean all those commands we read in the Old Testament don't hold any water?

No, I don't think so. The Bible still says to keep the Sabbath.

Now, if we go into a historical study, we can find, looking back, even aside from the Bible, within the first couple centuries after Christ's ministry, the Roman Catholic Church that arose, and basically a dissension arose within the body of believers, and some began following doctrines that were not what Jesus and the original 12 disciples taught, and there began a rift, a division within those calling themselves Christian.

Some said, Sunday is the day we should go to church, and a large controversy arose over celebrating Christ's sacrifice and resurrection. There are those who said, we should worship, we should celebrate crucifixion on the 14th of Abib. Others said, no, it should be on what we call Easter Sunday. And what I'm leading to, as you all know, the dissension was great enough that a large council was called to meet in a city called Nicaea in 321. We call it the Council of Nicaea. And the Emperor of Rome, Justinian, had called that and put his authority in it. That council favored Easter Sunday and said, no, 14th of Nicene, or the the chordodesim in controversy, as it was called. They threw that out, but they also made some rulings regarding whether to go to church on Saturday or Sunday. They ordered people to rest on the venerable day of the sun. That's the terminology, the venerable day of the sun, and to not judaize or use a Jewish practice by resting on the Sabbath.

In fact, in some cases, they even ordered people to fast on Saturdays because they considered fasting to not be keeping the Sabbath. Now, we know there are some occasions where we might fast on the Sabbath. The Bible doesn't give us instruction there, but typically that's not so much a way to call the day a delight, but it's a way to draw closer to God. That's another story. But why did the Catholic Church make such a strong case against Sabbath-keeping? Historians have pointed out two reasons. First, they wanted very much to disassociate themselves from the Jews. The Jewish people were falling into disfavor with the Roman authorities, the government, and the government began therefore persecuting the Jews and anybody that looked like Jews. If you went to church on Saturday, they might just presume you were Jewish, and because the Jews were raising a rebellion in Jerusalem and causing trouble, some people to whom what the word of God taught wasn't so important, and they thought not getting in trouble with the government was important, so they said, let's ditch the Sabbath thing. That's getting us in trouble. Second, they were eager to lure converts. There were many pagan religions out there who worshipped the sun, and they did so on the day on the first day of the week, which they named Sunday. So they said, hey, we switched to going to church on Sunday. Maybe we can draw some of these folks in and they'll be part of us and everything will be happy.

Now, I'm sure this isn't news to most of you who have been around a while. I'll just mention there are a number of historical books looking at the documents, not looking at the Bible. My favorite is still Samuel Bakkioki's book, From Sabbath to Sunday, and I meant to stick a copy in my briefcase and I forgot, but many... How many people here have read that book? I'm getting quite a few of you. If you're interested, I'll be glad to loan mine out. It came out about 16 years ago and Samuel Bakkioki is actually a Seventh-day Adventist scholar. He's not a member of our church, but he was granted access to the archives of the Vatican. So he was reading the Latin documents and other ancient languages that belonged to the Catholic Church, many of which had been locked up for years and years and had not been seen, and he proved this thesis, I think indisputably. That's the reason the Catholic Church did these things. So it's a good read, and I find it interesting. Those who were controlling this increasingly powerful centralized church deliberately shunned a practice that God commanded in the Bible that he said would identify his people, and instead they adopted a practice widely... a practice of a religious system widely practiced by sun worshipers.

I'll make one more quote. In the church, we've often quoted from a book entitled Faith of our Fathers. It was written by a Catholic cardinal. So a high-up minister in the Catholic Church wrote, the quote goes as this. He wrote this. He says, you may read the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday.

The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify. When he says we, he means the Catholic Church. So the Roman Catholic Church said, we know the Bible teaches Saturday. We, on our authority, said Sunday's the day.

I love when people smile at me when I pause. Pauseing for effect is important.

So it's sad, looking back just historically. Many people claiming to be Christian now follow a religious practice that originates to trying to placate sun worshipers and try to avoid looking Jewish. So keeping the Sabbath marks our Church is different. It is a sign. It makes us stand out. But what I want to consider now briefly is that it will mark you personally as different. It marks our Church as different. It marked the nation of Israel, and then later the people of Judah is different. What about you as an individual person? What will the Sabbath do in your life?

I think it's worth considering. How about you and I? In our small part of the world, or in your small part of the world, are you known as a Sabbath keeper?

Now we're going to go in the scriptures later and talk about why the Bible says that, but what I'm sure most of you at least have some awareness because you're here today. You've been keeping the Sabbath. Do other people notice it? Your employer might notice. You won't go to work on Saturday, or if they have a special work party Friday night, that stands out. But, and some of you might have learned this the hard way in the past, if you compromise on keeping the Sabbath, suddenly they don't notice and it becomes meaningless to them. It's not much of a sign if you say something, but then you don't do it all the time. Now, I think, you know, that was at work a lot of teenagers in school and even younger people nowadays, you know, the people you go to school with might have noticed. You don't show up at those Friday night parties. They notice, you know, and you don't play sports on Saturday or Friday evening. The Sabbath marks you as different among them. And I'll, one other example, just to remind us of how different we are, and I thought of this, how many of you, and it might have happened today, how many of you have been going to church services or perhaps coming back and bumped into your neighbors? This used to happen to me, Sue and I had some really good neighbors in our former house, and, you know, we were close enough that we'd give them the key to our house to let the dogs out and vice versa. Every now and then, I'd come out dressed like this with my briefcase, and I see my next door neighbor, Ron, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, getting ready to watch the Buckeyes game. And he looked at me, and the funny thing is he never asked, what in the world is going on? Why are you dressed that way? Have you ever, thought of you've had that experience? And what I'm saying, even if they don't ask, they notice. The Sabbath makes you stand out. The interesting thing is, it might be the first thing they notice, but then they'll start taking note of other things about you. Oh, this guy, you know, or this woman, you know, they, something's different about them on Saturday, you know, they get dressed up and they go away, and hours later they come back. And they're never grilling it. Well, you could be grilling out in the backyard, but they're not having a tailgate party and watching the game, and you know, they're different. Then they start noticing other things about you, because they've noticed the Sabbath. You know, this happened to me and my former employee, you know, I noticed that people noticed this about me, and then they followed suit. They noticed that I don't use profanity, so they stopped using it in front of me. And every now and then, someone would slip and say a four-letter word, and they'd always say, oh, excuse me, or I'm sorry. I thought, well, they didn't apologize to anyone else but to me, because I stood out. And I'm not bragging on this, I'm just saying people notice. You know, they would tone down the political talk. Sometimes they'd reschedule meetings or events so that I could be there. You know, they knew I was religious, first of all, by the Sabbath, but then they started noticing those little things. And that's the way it should be for all of us. You know, people noticed the Sabbath, and then they start noticing the other things about us. So we want it to be a good and important witness. But they do see it. The Sabbath becomes a marker on each of us.

And since people might notice, and then they might ask, it's good for us to be able to tell them why we do that. I mean, we know in general why, and like I said, you're here, you believe it, but I thought it'll be good for us to take some time and let's go through some of these scriptures so that if someone asks, okay, I noticed you're not doing this or that, you are doing this, why?

Now, you know, it's going to vary. And one of the reasons I wanted to bring this up, remember, we've got the second round of the Kingdom of God seminars. And we want to be praying that we'll have a lot more people come and join us, but they might ask, why Saturday? And you guys do this every week? Why not on Sunday? You know, and I hope that, well, in the case of your neighbors, and I say this for young people especially, if you're school, if they say, why do you do this on Saturday? I hope that your answer won't be, my church makes me. You know, it's easy to do that, or just that's my church's teaching, and it is, but it'd be good for us all to be able to say, why is it my church is teaching? And then go into the book of the Bible and say, well, we believe the Bible tells us how to live, so let's look at the scriptures and see. So let's all do that now, and we'll start at Genesis. Genesis chapter 2. We already looked at some of Exodus, and I want to go back there, but let's look at the very beginning. In Exodus 31, God made a reference to this point, so let's read it. Genesis 2, beginning in verse 1. This is one I never have to wait too long to find, because it's right there. Thus, the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished. God had been creating or possibly recreating the surface of the earth, and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day, from all his work that he'd done. And then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. Okay, that's very, very simple, but it's good to read it right when it happened. God didn't delay. He didn't look back and say, oh, maybe I should have made that special. No, he did right then. He sanctified it. To sanctify is to make something holy, and as I said, God can do that. We can't. So let's turn ahead to the book of Exodus. We've established that. There's a lot of things I want to get into, so we'll go to where God makes some comments. Exodus 20 in verse 8, this is, of course, the first giving of the Ten Commandments. The account of, as I said, God came down and smoke and fire and scared the pants, well, not literally the pants off the children of Israel, but he scared them quite a bit. I was trying to think of a good way to say he scared them. And one of the things he said is, remember the Sabbath day. Remember the Sabbath day. This is in verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. Now, I'm going to stop there because I want to come back later and talk about some of what he says afterwards, but he says, remember the Sabbath day. It's already holy. We need to recognize that. Recognize the holiness of the time. It's not our actions that made it holy, but we're supposed to maintain its holiness, not pollute it.

And I made a point earlier, it's not just for the people that were there listening, Moses and the Israelites and their descendants. Let's turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 56, because as I said, if someone asked you this, they might say, oh yeah, that's Old Testament, that's done away with. Or it's just for the Israelites. Isaiah chapter 56, beginning in verse 6, we'll see that God never intended to be just for the Israelites.

God wanted everybody to join in his worship.

And here he begins, Isaiah 56 and verse 6, also the sons of the foreigner who joined themselves to the eternal to serve him. By foreigner, he means anyone not physically descended from Israel. So either you are descended from Israel or you're not. So if it's for the Israelites, and for anybody else, that's everybody. So for the sons of the foreigner who joined themselves to the eternal to serve him, and to love the name of the eternal to be his servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. That's interesting. It's easy to read over that when he says, I'll bring them to my holy mountain. But remember, mountains in the Old Testament often represent kingdoms. He's saying, I'll bring you to my kingdom, the kingdom of God.

One of the things you have to do is keep the Sabbath, observe my covenant, but you, even though you're not descended from Israel, can be in the kingdom of God.

You can have eternal life. He made it for everybody.

Oh, yeah. Sorry, I was looking. What did I mean there? I want to remember, God didn't create the Sabbath for himself. And I could have commented on this back in Genesis. He didn't rest on the seventh day because, boy, he was worn out and just beat, and he had to sit down for a minute. You know, Isaiah 40 verse 28, if you want to make a note, I'm not going to turn there.

But there's a place where God says, I don't get weary. I don't tire. I don't need to rest. God didn't make the Sabbath and then tell everybody else to keep it because he said, I'm resting and I'm too busy to pay attention to what you're doing. That's not at all the case. He, you know, I remember when I was in college and we sang the oratorio of the Elijah. One of my favorite songs was, he watching over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps.

And it's beautiful music. Mr. Shoemaker, you're probably familiar with that and some of the others. But he doesn't slumber or sleep. So why did he create the Sabbath? Why did he rest on the seventh day? Let's go to the book of Mark in chapter 2. Mark 2, and we'll begin in verse 27. He doesn't spell it out in long form, but he tells us an important thing about why God made the Sabbath. Who he made it for. And we're breaking. And of course, Jesus Christ had a lot of run-ins with the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day.

And it's interesting, they disagreed with him a lot and he corrected them. One of the things they disagreed about was how to keep the Sabbath. But they never disagreed about whether or not they should keep the Sabbath. They agreed to keep the Sabbath. Just the Pharisees had some unusual ideas about how they should keep the Sabbath. And he comments here in verse 27. He said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. And scientific studies by people who don't even believe in God have borne this out. They've done studies, and I should have printed some out to read, but you know, you can find them online or in books and magazines where they've done different studies and they find out we need a day off every seven.

We literally need to rest. God made us that way. And remember, He made Adam and Eve, and then He made the Sabbath. So He made them so they would need the Sabbath, and then He made the Sabbath. And then there's an important connection. In the next verse, He says, therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.

So He made us to need the Sabbath, and He gave it to us as a gift. And He points out that the Lord, Jesus Christ, is Lord of the Sabbath. He's in charge of it. But what I wanted to point out is that the Sabbath therefore becomes a link between God and man. God created everything. He made a man, and He made the Sabbath, and He's in charge of the Sabbath. So when we keep the Sabbath, we're reaching out and making a connection to our Maker. In a few moments we'll discuss what God asks us to do to keep the Sabbath, but I think it's significant.

And you, well, if you've attended other churches or read their literature, you know this. Most Sunday-keeping churches have no problem with nine of the Ten Commandments. They're in favor of not murdering, not stealing, you know, not committing adultery. They're all for not having idols. The Sabbath is the one they got to get around now. They don't like it. I think it's probably because if the Sabbath helps us to know God better, and it was created just after God created Adam and Eve, remember who He created mankind so that He could increase His family.

Doesn't it make sense then that Satan would want very badly to destroy that link between God and man? Satan knows that the Sabbath is a connection, that it's part of us being born into the God family, so he wants to hide it. He doesn't want people to be born into God's family. And because the Sabbath reminds us and connects us to God, you know, Satan's antagonistic to it.

And that antagonism, I think, goes all the way back to the beginning. Now, I want to make a point. I stuck that in, but we've seen several scriptures in the Old Testament, and we came to the New Testament to remind us of why God made the Sabbath. But I do want to emphasize the point that the Sabbath is not just an Old Testament teaching. Because, you know, there are people that would say, that's Old Covenant. The New Covenant is all about love, and that's all we have to do. But we can look in the New Testament and see that the Sabbath is there. Let's go to Luke chapter 4. Luke 4 and verse 31.

Because some people would say, remember the phrase, what would Jesus do? Well, let's see what Jesus did. And we'll see, He kept the Sabbath. Luke 4 and verse 31, this is still relatively early in His ministry, says, then He, that's speaking of Jesus, He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. And it says they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. It's interesting. He had, He was basically taking the authority, saying, I have higher authority than these Pharisees. You know, which means that if the Sabbath were something you didn't have to do anymore, certainly Jesus would use that authority and say, no, they're wrong. He corrected the Pharisees on a lot of things, but He didn't on the fact that you keep the Sabbath. He kept the Sabbath. And His followers would. Let's go ahead towards the back of Luke and verse, or chapter 23. Luke chapter 23, and we'll pick it up in verse 54.

And I know I'm going to take the Scripture slightly out of context because it's referring to one of the annual Sabbaths, but this is right after Christ was crucified. And I pointed out He was crucified on a Wednesday afternoon, and the following day was the first day of Unleavened Bread, which was an annual Sabbath. But it says in verse 54, that day was the preparation.

The preparation was a way of saying the day before a Sabbath. And the Sabbath drew near, and the women who had come with Him, that is, with Jesus from Galilee, followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils, and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. Jesus' death did not stop them keeping the Sabbath. They knew what He'd been teaching all along, and you could say, our Savior has died. Now, their understanding was going to grow, but they kept the Sabbath according to the commandment. And let's go to the book of Acts, chapter 17. We'll move ahead several years. The Apostle Paul, who wrote most of what we have for the New Testament, and we'll see Him keeping the Sabbath. Acts 17, beginning in verse 1. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, I love all these names thrown together, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths, reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, this Jesus whom I preached to you is the Christ. Remember, the Jews believed in the Messiah. They just, even today, don't necessarily believe that Jesus was that Messiah. But Paul went in on the Sabbath days, and he explained Jesus. He didn't discount all their teaching, and he didn't say, because He's the Messiah, we don't have to come here on Sabbath anymore. No, he kept coming back on the Sabbath. It was his custom to keep the Sabbath. Now, we're going to come back to the New Testament, but let's jump back to Isaiah, chapter 66, because we can see the Sabbath was established in the Old Testament. God intended it for all people, carried it on, was upset when the people of Israel didn't continue keeping it. But in the New Testament, Jesus kept the Sabbath. Jesus' disciples kept the Sabbath. His, you know, the apostles, long after Jesus was gone, kept the Sabbath. And we're going to see, going well into the millennium, people are going to keep the Sabbath. Isaiah 66 and verse 23. And keep in mind, I'm not going through these just to remind you, I know a lot of you have read these before and know them, but we want to be prepared to teach other people and to show them it's in the Bible. Isaiah 66, 23. It shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, which like saying from month to month, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before him, he says the Eternal. All flesh, everybody, is going to come and worship before him, and he says Sabbath to Sabbath. They're going to keep the Sabbath all through the millennium.

There's one other scripture I want to go to that's sometimes misunderstood, and that's going to Hebrews chapter 4, because it's actually what should be a very clear statement about us continuing to keep the Sabbath, the fact that it is a practice that New Testament Christians should keep, but it's been confused partly by the translation. When the Bible was translated into English, the meaning of this verse got a little garbled, or at least some people misunderstood it.

So we're going to go through here, and I want to point out that all through Hebrews chapter 4, and we believe the book of Hebrews was written by the Apostle Paul, and in this he's discussing the fact that it refers over and over again to entering into a rest. He uses the word rest, R-E-S-T. And in it, he's referring to the fact that our physical bodies are temporary, just as we recently kept the Feast of Tabernacles, and we're reminded our physical bodies are a temporary dwelling, and that when we finally rest, we'll be born spirit beings into God's kingdom. And Hebrews chapter 4 will draw a parallel between the fact that we're waiting for God's kingdom, and the fact that the ancient Israelites, as they wandered in the wilderness, were waiting to enter the Promised Land to cross the Jordan. So it draws a parallel and sort of says the Promised Land was a symbol of the kingdom of God. Now let's back up. You turn to Hebrews 4. I want to begin, actually, in Hebrews 3 verse 18. Because here he's speaking of speaking to the Israelites. It says, To whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not obey?

So we see then that they could not enter because of unbelief. This is the ancient children of Israel. He didn't let them go into the Promised Land, symbolize the term rest, because they didn't obey. And this is referring to the... Remember, Moses led the people up. They're getting ready, and they said, let's send some spies in to scout the land. He chooses 12, one from each tribe.

They go in, and they spend days, and they map it all out, and they bring the fruit. It's so big, they've got to put it on a pole. And then they come back, and 10 of them say, oh, it's a beautiful land, but we can't do this. We're like grasshoppers in their sight. They'll eat us up. Only Joshua and Caleb gave a true report and said, yeah, God will take us in there. The others said, no, we can't do it. And the people believed them and said, no, we're not going in. They refused to obey God. And so God said, fine, you're not going in. You're going to turn around and go back and wander in the wilderness 40 years, and after you're dead, I'll bring your little children in, and they'll inherit it. So that's where he said they couldn't enter the rest, the promised land, because they didn't obey. And we go forward, though. In chapter 4, verse 1, therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Now he's drawing the parallel. There's still a promise of us entering not the promised land, but God's kingdom. So let's remember we need to obey God so we don't suffer the way the Israelites did.

For indeed, the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. So the ancient Israelites didn't have trust in God that he could take them into the promised land. He's telling us we better have faith in God that he can deliver us into his kingdom so that we don't suffer a similar fate where he says, sorry, you're going to die, you won't go in. Now, I want to make a point here. He uses the term rest, and I'm saying how it's symbolized, the promised land. Rest symbolized the kingdom of God. Throughout this section, the same Greek word is used for rest. It's kataposis.

I could spell it for you if you like. I didn't think about that. It's k-a-t-a-p-a-u-s-i-s. And that's transliterating Greek letters, and I don't understand Greek letters, but kataposis has, well, it can be described as either rest or settling down, but it means to stop laboring, you know, to stop, to sit down, to rest. And that word's used over and over again, including in Hebrews 4 verse 4. Hebrews 4 verse 4, For he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way. God rested. God did kataposis on the seventh day from all his works. We read that earlier. God rested on the seventh day. And in Hebrews 4 verse 5, And again in this place, they shall not enter my rest. They won't enter the kataposis, the settling down in the Promised Land. Okay, so he's using the same word over and over again.

But in Hebrews 4 verse 8, For if Joshua had given them rest, kataposis, that's the ancient Israelites, if he'd given them rest, then he would not have afterwards spoken of another day.

Another day, meaning the Promised Land was a symbol of the ultimate entering the kingdom of God. So because they didn't get to enter the Promised Land just yet, we haven't entered the kingdom of God just yet. And in verse 9, here comes the key. Therefore, or there remains therefore, a rest for the people of God.

Now, this is the only place in this chapter where a different Greek word is translated as rest.

It's not kataposis. The word is sabatismos, which sabatismos might sound like Sabbath because it's based on the same word. Sabatismos means keeping the Sabbath. It's the only place. Now, why did the translators do that? Why didn't they say, well, he's using kataposis. It means rest. Why did they put rest in there? Well, I think, I don't think they were trying to pull a fast one on us. They knew that how do you keep the Sabbath? You rest. So maybe they were trying to make a play on words, but unfortunately, that could hide the true meaning of this. If you see, well, I'm doing a long, slow version of this because it's an important thing. What Hebrews 4 and 9 really means is that because we're still in the flesh, we have not yet inherited the kingdom of God, there remains a keeping of the Sabbath. Because we're still flesh and blood, the Sabbath command is still in effect. So, in essence, there is a clear command in the New Testament after Christ's sacrifice and resurrection that the Sabbath is enforced for Christians because until we're in God's kingdom, it applies. And it also points out another symbolic meaning of the Sabbath.

Now, what's that? It's one you're familiar with. Clearly, the weekly Sabbath reminds us that God is the Creator. And seven days, or six days, created the heavens and earth, rested on the seventh. But the Bible also tells us to God, and it says this in several places, I didn't make note of the scriptures, but to God, a thousand years is as a day. And a day is like a thousand years. Well, a thousand years is important to us. We recently kept the Feast of Tabernacles. We're looking forward to Christ's one thousand year reign on earth. We call it the Millennium.

Okay, and that Millennium is pictured in the weekly Sabbath. If God, as God, recreated the earth in six days and rested on the seventh, so it seems that God appointed man six thousand years to rule himself. Go create your own governments. Try to make yourself happy. But the seventh one thousand year period is going to be holy, just as the seventh day of the week is holy. Set aside, and God is going to be in charge during that seventh one thousand years.

No wonder Satan wants to hide the Sabbath from mankind. It shows us where we've been, and it shows us where we're going. Very important. And that's all the more reason why we should treasure the Sabbath. It's very important to us, and we should appreciate the blessing that it is.

Deep breath. There's one more thing left, then, and if I'm trying to be thorough in the Sabbath, then is that how do we do it? How do we keep the Sabbath day holy?

We've touched on some scriptures already, but let's go back, because for the most part, we do agree. In the Church of God, or you could say the greater churches of God community, we generally agree that we should keep the Sabbath. No, I shouldn't say we generally. We absolutely agree we should keep the Sabbath. And we generally agree 95% on how. There are some little differences here or there, and I'm not wanting to bring up and start a controversy, just to let you know there is some controversy on some points, but not on most. In general, it's pretty easy to know what the Bible says. And I think I wanted to spend some time and just go through some of the clear-cut points of how the Bible says, keep the Sabbath. Because we do want to have some standards. We don't want to try to recreate a Talmud of a long list of don't do this, don't do this, don't you know, which the Jews, the Jewish rabbis tried to do centuries or millennia ago. But the Bible gives us some very clear instruction on some points that aren't a mystery. Let's go back to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus 20, and we'll begin in verse 8.

You'll remember when we were here earlier, I stopped after saying, God created the Sabbath, keep it holy, because I wanted to come back later and see how He tells us to do it. That's why I'm looking at the shadows outside. This time of year, you don't want to go along in your sermon, or the Sabbath will be over. Speaking of the Sabbath. One of my... I actually did a sermonette earlier this summer, I think, in another congregation on why it's sundown to sundown, and that's for another point, another time. But just so you know, we do keep it sundown to sundown, and there's a strong scriptural basis for that that I'm not going to go into. But because we want to focus on how do we keep it holy. Exodus 20 in verse 8, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but in the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God, and in it you shall do no work. Do no work. You nor your son nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle or the stranger within your gates. And he goes on to remind us that in six days he made the heavens and earth, but this is pretty simple. Take the day off. Don't work and give all your employees and your servants the day off. Don't require anyone else to work. Okay, that's a good one. And we can remember that. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 23.

We've got the first element of how to keep it holy. Don't work. Let's pick up another one.

Now, Leviticus 23 we commonly know as the Holy Day chapter. List all seven of the annual Holy Days, but before he gets into the annual Holy Days, God reminds us that the seventh day of the week is a Holy Day, and he describes it as something else. Let's pick it up. Leviticus 23 in verse 1, And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feasts of the Eternal. That's an important point to remember also. Not the feasts of Moses, not the feasts of the Israelites, but these are God's days. The feasts of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. These are my feasts. And he goes on with the first one. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. Don't work on it. It's the Sabbath of the Eternal in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Eternal, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. I've been trying to emphasize those terms. Holy convocation. Anybody else? What is a holy convocation? It sounds, it's got a lot of syllables in it. If I try to say it too many times, I'll mess it up. Well, a convocation is a gathering together. It's a meeting. And a holy convocation is a meeting together for holy purposes, for religious purpose. And I thought, well, the quick definition then is it's what we're doing here. It's church services. Come together for a holy purpose, to worship God. We come together, we pray, we sing praises, and then we study God's Word. You know, I get to do most of the talking, but we're all studying this together. So church services are a holy convocation. And if in your notes, you might want to note Hebrews 10 verse 25, which is where Paul said, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. So apparently they'd been doing it. He says, don't stop doing it. So now we've got two vital elements for the Sabbath. Don't work.

Go to church. I think if you had only those two, you'd be doing pretty good, right? Don't go to work. Do go to church. Let's add a couple of other things to refine it.

Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah 58 is a real good statement on the Sabbath day.

And we're going to begin in verse 13. Here we add a little bit more, or a lot more, depending on your perspective. Isaiah 58 verse 13. And here, I love it in the latter part of Isaiah, where God is speaking in first person. I thought you can't go wrong if these are God's words. He says, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Eternal, honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, not finding your own pleasure or speaking your own words, then you'll delight yourself in the Eternal, and I'll cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. So that's something. Don't put your foot on the Sabbath, which is a way of saying polluting it, trampling it, but call it a delight. And He says, don't do your own pleasure. Speak your own words. Now, here's where I said this could be a little tricky because you say, well, don't, you know, what if I enjoy coming to Sabbath services? Does that mean not do that? I enjoy breakfast more than most people, even though I eat the same thing a lot. I love breakfast. He's not saying don't do anything that's pleasurable, but He's saying don't do your own stuff, your normal activities that aren't necessarily work, but that you enjoy. You could say recreation. Just I thought of a quick list, maybe, of illustration because He doesn't give a long list here, but I thought, well, what are the things I like to do normally that I don't do on the Sabbath that aren't work? Well, one, exercise. I'm a runner, so three days a week I usually run and I do calisthenics or lift weights on the other. Other three, but on the seventh I don't do that. It's my own pleasure. I think that would be polluting the Sabbath. I don't watch movies or entertainment TV on the Sabbath. Now, and there's discussion of you don't want to draw a list. What exactly can you turn on the TV? Can you watch this or that? Well, you know, I'm not going to watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja. I should have picked a cartoon that's easier. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I don't know if they're on anymore, but I always thought the name was so cool if the cartoon wasn't, but I don't do that on the Sabbath. It's a fun thing. You know, I don't read comic books, which I don't normally read. I'm going back to when I was a kid, but that's when I first was learning how to keep the Sabbath.

Playing sports. That's a big one. And of course, we've got some young guys. I remember in high school I really wanted to be on the football team, and I think I would have made a decent safety, maybe line back. Well, I'm not big enough to be a linebacker, but I think I could have made the team. But Friday night, and I didn't feel that was right. Dirt bike riding. Now, I don't own a dirt bike anymore, but when we had the Teen Club a couple weeks ago and kids were listing things, I was surprised how many liked dirt bike riding. I didn't get a chance to tell you guys. I used to have a minibike. And boy, I loved riding that thing. But not on the Sabbath. That seems to be seeking your own pleasure. And one of the reasons I wanted to mention it, I had this incident. You know, we came to church when I was about 10 and 11, so I had some friends from before that. And I remember one of those friends came to visit me, and he stayed for most of a week. And we loved to go out riding the minibikes. But Saturday came, and no, we're not going to do that.

And he was dismayed. And it led to a long discussion. You know, when he was committed, he says, you can't show me in the Bible where it says, don't ride your minibike on the Sabbath.

So I got out my pen and I wrote, do not ride your minibike on Saturday.

That didn't really convince him. I should have gone to Isaiah 58. Maybe that might have worked, but a 13-year-old doesn't care that much. But you guys are with me on this point. You know, we don't have to write a long list of everything we can or can't do. But, you know, that not profaning, call the Sabbath a delight. You know, these are just a few activities in my mind. And there are some we could have questions on. As a matter of fact, yeah, I did make a note. I wanted to mention, sometimes there are things that will vary for different people. Now, you know, I love to read. And reading history has always been one of the things I like the best. And so there was a time in my life where I would read biographies or certain histories on the Sabbath that would be relaxing. I'd be learning about how God's worked in the world. But when I was in graduate school, reading history books was my job. You know, I was doing it all the time. So I said, not on the Sabbath. That's work now. I'm not doing that. I'd put the history books away. And I still don't do it very often, even though now it's not my job. I look differently at it. But there might be something that's your job six days a week that isn't necessarily something that would be breaking the Sabbath for some people, but might be for you. And as I said, I'm just leaving leeway because some of these things in Isaiah 58, it's hard to give an absolute yes and no that applies to everybody in every case. But in those first three, we're pretty easy. Or the first two. Don't work. Come to church. Let's add one more before we're out of time. We're going to go to Nehemiah chapter 13. That's back towards the front. Nehemiah is what, shortly before Job?

Yeah. Coming up from Job, you get Esther, and then before that's Nehemiah.

And if you get swamped somewhere there in 1 and 2 Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and then you finally get to Ezra and Nehemiah, I say that because it seems like I always have trouble finding Nehemiah when I want it. Nehemiah 13 will begin in verse 15. And I'll remind you, the children of Israel have been taken captive, and then the emperor said, okay, some of you can go back to Jerusalem, rebuild that temple. And so some of them did, and they rebuilt the temple, and then Nehemiah was sent out as governor, and he rebuilt the wall. So he's the governor in charge. And after they'd established things, some of the children of Judah started losing track of what God wanted them to do. So here's Nehemiah speaking, chapter 13, verse 15. In those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in sheaves, loading donkeys with wine, grapes, and figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought in Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions. I warned them not to be selling provisions that day. The men of Tyre dwelt there also, who brought in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and I said to them, what evil thing is this that you do by which you profane the Sabbath day? And it reminds them, didn't your fathers do this, and did not God, our God, bring all this disaster on us and on the city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath. So he goes on, and he ordered the gates to be shut. And I love, I'm not going to read it here, but he says they came and camped out outside, and he shouted down, what are you doing here on the Sabbath? You come back here again, I'm going to lay hands on you. And I wonder if he said it like, basically, you're going to be a matric, we're not buying and selling on the Sabbath. So I think we can add that to our list. And there's a difference, maybe. I mean, work is work. But buying and selling, you know, nowadays modern business makes it so it might not seem like work, but, you know, are you negotiating prices, working contracts? You know, he says, let's not be doing that. Let's not do business on the Sabbath. And I made a note. I thought, well, it's funny, it might be different even from now, from the days of Nehemiah, because back then they had to load stuff on the donkey and come and sell and weigh the money. Nowadays, you can be sitting in your pajamas at home and log on the internet and do thousands of dollars of transactions. This morning I said millions, and I said, who in the world here has millions of dollars?

I said, I could do dozens of dollars of transactions. But I know I get the feeling from Nehemiah, that's not really what God has in mind for the Sabbath. He wants us to put our mind on his things, not on buying and selling and doing business.

Now, this could lead into murky waters, and I've already said, like, you know, are you reading books? What type of books? You know, what might, you know, not be so good for one person might be okay for the other. I thought, is it okay? You know, I don't watch regular programming on TV, but sometimes I'll watch the TV news. I want to be updated. I think a lot of us do that. I don't go for a run on the Sabbath, as I mentioned, but I might go for a walk.

Okay, and there you say, okay, how strenuous is your walk? What is your mind thinking of? Keep in mind you want to keep the Sabbath day holy without me giving you a list of dos and don'ts. I mean, if you're desperate, I can give you a list of dos and don'ts, but it would be Frank Dunkel's list, not necessarily God's. God's list is pretty short, but it has a broad application. Don't work. Don't seek your own pleasure. Don't do business, apparently. Do go to church. If something you're not sure if it is or isn't, I often say, don't violate your conscience. Matter of fact, in Romans 14, verse 23, let's look quickly and, as we're about to wrap up, I said I want to finish my sermon before the Sabbath finishes on me. Romans 14, verse 23, now, this is applying to something else, but I think it's important. Paul is talking about whether or not to... this is the one where he's talking about eating meats offered to idols, and later he talks about whether you should eat meat or only be vegetarian, but he says, he who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith, for whatever is not of faith is sin. We can apply that principle to the Sabbath. If you're not sure if you should be doing something on the Sabbath, probably best not to do it. And there's where I said there are disagreements, and one of the biggest ones, and I don't have that much time to get into it, is should you eat out in a restaurant on the Sabbath? And some people say, well, that's requiring servants to work, or it's doing business. And I don't want to get into it, but I'll just say, leaders in the United Church of God has studied that issue, and the official teaching of the United Church of God is that that is not breaking the Sabbath. But it's also our teaching is that if you're not sure, if it violates your conscience, do not do it. And do not condemn someone else if their opinion varies from yours. And I said, that's the official teaching of the Church, and I've heard very good arguments on one side and very good arguments on the other. And so I'm not going to tell you, you have to do this or have to do that. I'm saying, the Church, people who have been studying this longer than me, and I believe God is working through, have made an official decision.

Okay? And that's a good one to go by, but your conscience is a very important factor to go by. Don't violate your conscience one way or the other, and don't judge others. Paul later writes that, who are you to judge another servant? Don't judge God's servant because God can make him stand or fall, and we believe that God will lead us into more perfect understanding if we're lacking.

We should always pray that God will guide our conscience. And remember, that's something the Sabbath reminds us of God's power. God created all things. God is leading us to his kingdom. The Sabbath reminds us of what happened in the past and what's happening in the future. That's why I remind us, brethren, we are Sabbatarians. We keep the Sabbath. Now, we don't worship the Sabbath. Now, 15 or 16 years ago, someone told me, you're just worshiping the Sabbath. No, we don't worship the Sabbath, but we honor the seventh day and keep it holy as an important part of how we worship God, because that's what he told us to do.

We know that God made the Sabbath, and those who keep it, thus, by keeping it, say, I'm one of God's people. It's a sign. It's a marker. It was meant as a marker for the children of Israel. It's a marker for the church. It can be a marker for you as a person.

Our weekly habit of not working on the Sabbath and of meeting together here to worship God is a way of showing God that we want to be his people. And I think he notices, obviously, he sees that. We see it in each other, but let's make it a point that we want to be God's people, and all of you, what's left of it, have a very enjoyable Sabbath.