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Remember the Sabbath Day

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Remember the Sabbath Day

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Remember the Sabbath Day

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Ten remembrances especially for the Sabbath day – what we ought to think about and remember when the Sabbath comes around.

Transcript

[Gary Antion] My early experience with the seventh day was: sleep in; watch TV most of the day, because Big Top was on, as I recall at that time – a carnival type of event. There was some college football on Saturdays. And, after I did some of my chores, I was able to watch TV and do whatever else – play sports. In short, I did my thing. That was Saturday for me. That was Saturday for me because I wasn’t in the church. Then my brother Dave had to go and listen to the World Tomorrow program and bring in the concept of the Sabbath, and bring in the Correspondence Course, and bring in booklets, and bring in the Plain Truth magazine, and I had to hear about the Sabbath and the Holy Days and God’s way of life. And frankly, when my brother finally met them at a baptizing tour, and they encouraged him to go to Ambassador College, I was glad. Now I was free, without any awareness, to do my thing. After all, the girl I liked was only two houses down the street. I had my own car – 1953 Pontiac. I had a full tuition scholarship to an accredited college. I was going to be a chemical engineer. Free ride! I just stayed at home and commuted back and forth, but all my expenses were paid except for my books. I had it made!

And then my brother came home for the summer. And then I didn’t like the Sabbath even more, because here he was at home, and he had been at Ambassador for a year and he learned to keep the Sabbath day, but he kept it very strictly. We hardly saw him on the Sabbath. He hibernated in his room all day – I don’t know, studying, praying, whatever. He would come down and eat something, and he would go back upstairs again. He would be up there for a while, and when it was time for lunch or dinner, he would come downstairs and eat, and then he would go upstairs again. And that irritated my parents.

So when he went back to College that year, I was thankful and grateful. Now I was free to pursue my own course – to play my sports, to do my thing on the Sabbath, without any awareness or any troublesome thoughts in my mind. I was going into my senior year of high school and I didn’t want any restrictions. I wanted to have my high school year great.

But you know what lingered in the back of my mind as I played varsity basketball for two years? We had a good team – man for man – but we couldn’t play together. And my dad never even had to ask me, “Gary, did you win or lose tonight?” when I came home Tuesday nights and Friday nights. I would come home, he would only look at my posture – which was this (laughter). He knew I’d lost. He didn’t even ask. And it was many of those poses more than the other.

Well, as time went on, I was pleased not to look into the Sabbath, but one year later, as I began to go to Washington and Jefferson College - a Washington, PA accredited school where I had my full tuition scholarship, I began to look at some of my brother’s literature that he left behind. I began to get convicted about the Sabbath. But first my attitude was, “Well, if I have to break the Sabbath – because I went Monday, Wednesday, Friday; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, to school – if I have to break it by going to school, I might as well go to the dances on Friday night and football games on Saturday afternoon. After all, I am breaking it anyway. Why not break if more? And I remember one day, praying in my closet…because, you see, I took the Bible Literally, and it said, “Enter your closet.” Now my closet was very small – filled with clothes and shoes all over the floor, and when you close the door you couldn’t see anything and you could barely breath – but I remember after becoming convicted that God’s Sabbath day did mean something, I promised Him, in heartfelt prayer, that I would never willingly break it again. Never knowingly.

I finished out that year and I tried everything I could to keep my full tuition scholarship. I’ll change my program. So I don’t need to be a chemical engineer. I will be a German teacher. Well, I was good in German at that time and I thought I would be a German teacher. I went and talked to all the professors...couldn’t do it. It was a Monday, Wednesday Friday; Tuesday, Thursday Saturday, and there were Saturday classes I had to take. I said, “I will not do this,” so I gave that up and applied to another couple of schools…found out some of their classes were on the Sabbath…wouldn’t work.

So, in effect, I was forced to go to Ambassador College. In the meantime, my brother Dave, in Pasadena – his senior year – he was making these recordings and he was sending them back. He had different co-eds on there saying, “Gary, we’d love to see here at Ambassador College.”  “Gary, we would like you to come. Why won’t you come?” Enticingly, but that didn’t work necessarily, but it…frankly, I couldn’t go anywhere else so, I said, “I will apply.” Now I wasn’t totally convinced of the church. I said, “You know what? If he is not going to preach the truth, I am going to find that out.” He says he will never charge you anything, so I will get all the literature I can and see if he ever charges me. Not once did he ever charge me. I had my brother’s old booklets that I was able to mark until they were marked somewhat and I was able to re-mark them my way, too. Plus, I ordered all the new booklets, got the Plain Truth magazine, got the Correspondence Course, went over the Correspondence Course, listened to the World Tomorrow two times a day – one at 3:30 in the afternoon on WPIT Pittsburgh, the other one at 10:30 at night as I was going to sleep, WWVA. And I would get the same program maybe a couple of days later and so the ones I really liked, I made sure to hear the second time. And I began to prove it. And I began to say, “You know what? God’s Sabbath is right. God’s Sabbath is good for me.” I applied and was accepted to Ambassador College in 1959. Roy Holliday is here. He is fellow classmate of that particular year. And I began to keep the Sabbath.

When I first started to keep the Sabbath I strangled myself. My wife can tell you – they were scared of me when I asked for a date – which was very rare. But if I asked a girl to be escorted – I would like to escort her to Bible Study – we had to walk a mile to get to the Shakespeare club in Pasadena. That’s where the Bible Study was. We’d walk a mile. They were afraid of me, she told me later on, because I either had my scripture cards along and would say, “Hey, let’s see how many scriptures we know” – that is a real charming date – or, they knew they were going to get quizzed on the world news or on how many points they could remember of the sermon on the way back. She said, “They feared you.” Well, I thought I could only talk about those things and so every time sunset would come, I would almost feel like the straightjacket was coming on, and the Sabbath to me was not a delight. I did not find joy in it. I found looking…”When is this going to be over so I can now have some happiness?” But that wasn’t what God intended. That’s the way I did it. Perhaps my self-righteous self.

But I went to Ambassador college. I proved the truth. I went in the fall of 1959 and in December of 1959 I was baptized and I began to see a better way. I began to learn from others, who have kept the Sabbath a whole lot longer than I had, some of the ways that you do on the Sabbath. You don’t have to be this strict on yourself. You should strictly keep the Sabbath from sunset to sunset, I am not saying, “Don’t do that,” but I was putting burdens on myself. I wouldn’t easure how far I walked, but I am sure I didn’t go more than seven eights of a mile - yes, I did, because of the Bible Study and the Sabbath services – but I began to appreciate the Sabbath in a more balanced way. I was learning to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy.

We find the commandment given in Exodus 20:8. I love God’s Sabbath day. We sang about it – God’s Holy Sabbath Day. Do you love it? There are many things about the Sabbath day that we should all remember every time it comes around. We read this:

Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Not one in seven. You say, I am going to extrapolate. I am going to read into it. This is eisegesis. I am reading into this, not reading out of it. What does it say? That is exogesis. I am reading out of it, and it says the seventh day is the Sabbath of God. Reading into it you can say, “Well, the principle here is one in seven, so you could pick whatever day you want. So Sunday is okay, Friday – whatever you want to do.” That is reading into it. That is not what it says. It says, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt you labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the lord your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, not your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your gates. If you have people staying with you in your house, you don’t make them break the Sabbath day. If you have people that you pay – your servants – they belong to you. You give them the day off. And he said:

V-11 - For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day - because He was tired? No. God never gets tired. It isn’t because He was tired, it is because He wanted to put His presence into the day. He wanted His people to keep it, and putting His presence into this day makes it holy. Are these 24 hours – from sunset last night to sunset tonight – are they any different in sunset from Thursday night to Friday night? Can you see any difference? You don’t see any difference but there is a difference. You and I just don’t see it and when you keep God’s Sabbath day with understanding it becomes a delight. It becomes a joy and it gives you so much hope for life.

I am going to read to you a couple of commentaries, a couple of comments, from commentaries. The first one comes from Jamieson, Fausset and Brown. Here is what he says under Exodus 20:8-11, commenting on this, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”. He goes on to say: “The word remember implies that it was well known and recognized.” You know what some want you to believe? They want you to believe that when God codified the Ten Commandments, it is the first time they ever heard of the Sabbath. That is not true. It harkens back to creation. Notice what also is mentioned – and this is from Adam Clark – “Thoughts about the Sabbath”. “The word shabbath means to rest or cease from labor and the sanctification of the Sabbath day is commanded.” But here is what he goes on to say: “Some have presumptuously inferred that there is no Sabbath under the Christian dispensation.” Our previous association used to say, “We will always keep the Sabbath, because,” they said, “Christ is your Sabbath.” See, we always believe in Christ. Christ is your Sabbath. You’re always in the Sabbath. It doesn’t say that. Christ didn’t say, “I am your rest.” He said, “I’ll give you rest,” in Matthew 11. “I will give you rest,”  not “I am your rest.” “I will give you rest,” but they said, “No, Christ is your rest. Therefore, as long as you believe in Christ, you can say, ‘I always keep the Sabbath.’” You don’t! It is the seventh day of the week.

But notice what this commentary says: “All types are of full force till the thing signified by them takes place. But in the thing signified” – Adam Clark’s commentary – “by the Sabbath is that rest in glory which remains for the people of God” – the rest – talking about the Kingdom of God. Notice what it says: “Therefore” – this is a man of the world; this is a commentary not written by us – “therefore, the moral obligation of the Sabbath must continue till time be swallowed up by eternity” – when there is no more need for keeping time, is what he is saying. But God says as long as there is human beings we will always need to keep time. The Sabbath day is still there and still in force.

So what I would like to share with you are ten remembrances especially for the Sabbath day –  what we ought to think about and remember when the Sabbath comes around. I’ll give you ten of them. You may not think of all ten of them every week, but maybe it will help you to think more about the Sabbath day. We chose this topic because this year we are ending our winter family week-end with the Sabbath day, and we’ve had some really good presentations, and I have seen some of the outlines of them here about the Sabbath and the joy of the Sabbath and all the rest. I wish I’d known that when I was a young person but anyway, here we go. I want to share ten remembrances. I will go quickly with them.

Number 1: Remember to honor God. The Sabbath day is a day to honor God.

Alright? Take a look at Isaiah 58:13. Here the prophet Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 58:13 – If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath – he means turn away not from keeping it, but turn away from doing your thing on it – from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shall honor him, not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure, (or your desires or purpose) nor speaking your own words:

But He says you shall honor Him. The Sabbath day is a day to honor God. It is a day set apart by God for us to have a relationship with Him – to pray, to study, to meditate on His ways, to think about the past week. How could I have done better? What can I do better next week? To analyze yourself and to look at, but more importantly, to praise God and to worship Him and to tell Him you love Him and to learn from Him. It is a day to honor God, to hallow Him because it is His
day, His day.

I want to share with you a quote. It is number 3 - this is a different translation - Isaiah 58:13. Yes, this is a Matthew Henry commentary, it says: “Nothing must be done that puts contempt on the Sabbath day. We must turn away our foot from the Sabbath from trampling on it” – he says –  “from living it large and taking a liberty to do what we please on the Sabbath day without control.” Going on, skipping down to another portion, he says: “On Sabbath day we must not talk of our own ways.” He goes on to say: “For you must then mind God’s ways. Make religion the business of the day in all we say and do. We must put a difference between this day and other days.”

The Sabbath day is special. It is special and we must be on guard to keep it special in our own lives and families. I was talking to a younger person and they were saying, “Well, you know, I’ve always been keeping the Sabbath – ever since I was a little kid – and I have just taken it for granted,” but those of us who had to fight to keep it, those of us who had to overcome something that was enticing us away, we realize how special that is. People who work hard all week long, they realize what a blessing – and you do too. If you’re a college student, you are working hard. Boy, that Friday night comes along – you’re delighted. You’ve been studying. You can take extra time for rest but it is a wonderful day for you when you’ve been going, going, going all week long.

So the first remembrance on the Sabbath day: Remember to honor God – hallow Him, give Him appreciation, and thank Him that He gave you the seventh day.

Number 2: Remember Him as Creator – one of the reasons we keep the Sabbath day.

For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth and all that is there and the seventh day He rested. It hearkens back to God’s creation - Exodus 20:11, as we’ve already read. But – Genesis 2:1-3 –  at creation, God made something else. His creation did not stop after the sixth day when He said everything was very good. He made one more creation. In Genesis 2 - remember He had already set the heavenly bodies in such a way that they would give days and times and seasons and years but in Genesis 2:1:

Genesis 2:1 – Thus the heavens – and I am reading out of the King James, but modernizing it – and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day – on the seventh day, the day after creation – God ended his work which he had made – as a reminder of God’s creation – and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. And that sanctify means to set it apart. It is a special day that God has set apart, but He made it. He made it holy. How did He make it holy for us? He says, “God blessed it.” …because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

So we remember Him as Creator and bear in mind He made the Sabbath day holy. Can you keep any other day on a weekly basis, holy? You cannot. If I give you some cold water and say, “Keep it hot,” can you keep cold water hot? No. You can make it hot – put it on the stove – and then you can keep it hot, but unless it is hot already, you cannot keep it hot. You cannot keep a day holy that was not made holy. And who makes things holy? God does. God put His very presence into that day and, frankly, it is His day. It is God’s day. He made the Sabbath as part of His creation, and we need to remember God’s Sabbath day. And as we think about it, we need to think about creation often times – to go out on a walk, to take a look around to see what God has made, to reflect on the trees or the birds that are flying in the tree – the squirrels that are going up and down my trees next to our family room where we spend a lot of our time sitting there and looking around. It is awesome to realize God made all this. “God, you made all those animals. You made those birds - look at those birds!” Earlier on the black birds were getting ready to fly down South. They all flock and then come into your tree and all of a sudden the flock will take off again. I don’t know who is giving them the signals, but they all take off together. Who made that? Who made the trees so beautiful? Who made everything the right color? Who made it in such harmony and not disunity – harmony. God did. Every Sabbath day remember God is your Creator.

We used to do with our children. We had an encyclopedia of Wild Life books and what we would do is say, “Okay, let’s all pick out an animal” – or whatever you want – and so they would go and grab one and they’d pick one, read about it and give a report to each other on it – talk about the handiwork of God – what He had made. A lot of good things you can do on the Sabbath to remember the Sabbath day. So remember God as Creator.

Number 3: Remember who He is and who you are. The Sabbath is a day of remembering who He is and who you are. It puts us in perspective.

In Deuteronomy 5 – the companion chapter to Exodus 20 – Deuteronomy 5 – he brings this out:

Deuteronomy 5:12 – Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it. Set it apart as something special. To sanctify means to make it holy or set it apart for something special.

Do you set it apart? Oh, by the way I remember, my – oh, was it my first or second year? No, my second or third year teaching – anyway, I did a survey of all the elder’s children attending Ambassador College. Do you know how many there were? Over 150 from either ministers’ children or they were elders’ children – I did a survey with them and asked them, “How did their parents make the Sabbath special?” The vast majority said, “Friday night meals. It was always a special time.” Friday night meals together. It bonded them. It pointed them to the One who made everything and they made that day special. So he says, set it apart. Set it apart. Treat it special. And they said the mom made a special meal and they would made special deserts. Sometimes the kids would do the special deserts and sometimes they would pitch in and make the meals. They made it special.

V-13 – Six days you shall labor and do all your work: but the seventh day – notice again, it is not one in seven – is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your gates; that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out from there through a mighty hand and by a
stretched out arm: therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

The Sabbath helps us understand God. It helps us understand us – that we weren’t all strangers, but we were strangers to God. Do you remember on the Sabbath day…sometimes I’ll sit in my chair and I will think about, where would I be if I didn’t have God’s Sabbath day? What would I be doing? What would a lot of you be doing? “I want to do everything I can. I’ll work seven days a week. I’ll work every day. I’ll work every hour I can. I want to accumulate as much as I can.” Where would you be? Shocked – that is where you will be. Spiritually, you’ll be shocked. You’ll be distressed.

God set apart the Sabbath day so you can remember who you are. It is a humbling experience to say God had to bring me out from my own ways. It is a humbling experience to say, “You know God, I am sorry.” And in tears I said, “I am sorry. I trampled on your Sabbath day. I am so sorry that I did that to you.” It helps me remember who I was and also helps you remember who He is.

Exodus 31. When you keep the Sabbath you know who God is. You know who you owe your existence to and you know why – because He had to bring us aside from our way.

Exodus 31:12 – And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak you also to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Verily my sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am the Lord that does sanctify you. I am the One who sets you apart and makes you My children. I am the One who sets you apart and makes you part of My family – ultimately. I am the One, and I want you to worship Me.’”

The Sabbath day is about knowing God. “I want a relationship with you.” And if you don’t keep the Sabbath day you pretty soon begin to forget who the true God is – what He is all about. Remember the Sabbath because it helps you understand who He is and it helps you understand who you are.

Number 4: Remember that God wants us to obey.

The Sabbath day is a test commandment. Often times, when we wanted to find out whether somebody thought their previous baptism in a another church was valid, we would say, “Now when did you find out about the seventh day Sabbath?” “Well, I haven’t found out about that yet,” or, “Well, I found out about it but it didn’t matter to me back then.” Well, why? It is a test commandment. It is a test commandment as to whether you will walk in God’s law – not in the Sabbath law only. And notice, we read this over in Exodus 16. And by the way, Exodus 16 did occur before Exodus 20, not necessarily chronologically here talking, but before they got the codified Ten Commandments, the Sabbath was already known. Exodus 16 – notice, we will pick out a few verses. This was the time when the Israelites were murmuring about the lack of food. Remember? Poor Moses – finally he was denied going into the Promised Land – he’d had enough – struck the rock. “Do I have to give you water?” He slapped the rock. They murmured him into disobedience to God. He didn’t make it into the Promised Land. He got to see it. God said, “I’ll let you see it, but you are not going to go in because you listened to those murmurers.” But they were constant: We want food! We want food! We want food! God said, “Okay, I’ll give you food. And you know what you are going to call it? What is it? What is that? That is mannawhat is that?: That is what it was – what is it - manna.

After they were murmuring - you can see that in Exodus 16:2 – Exodus 16:3:

Exodus 16:3 – And the children of Israel said to them, “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for you have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
Man, wait a minute. We will be better off to be slaves, at least having cucumbers, than to be out here dying in the desert. There are no graves.” Well, they could have dug graves, if they wanted a grave, but the point being you brought us out here to let us die.

V-4 – Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. Okay, I heard them. I heard their complaints. I heard their grumbling. I heard their murmuring. I will give you some food. …and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I
may prove them” – what? – “whether they will walk in my law, or not.”

And here is how He proved them:

V-5 – And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” So they bring in double the amount they normally need for one day on the sixth day, so they don’t have to gather on the seventh. This didn’t sit well with some because you have greedy people.

V-19 – And Moses said, “Let no man leave of it…. Now when you get it, you eat it all, or burn it, but you can’t let it stay over till the morning. It will stink up the camp. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.” Notwithstanding they didn’t listen to Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses – was upset with them – was wroth with them. “So that is what will happen if you bring in too much, and if you don’t consume it all – what is it?” You know, “Give me some what is it?” Okay. “What is it?” “I don’t know. What is it?” “Can’t you catch it with my what is it? Maybe I could get a watchimicallit with my what is it?” And, “I could have candy and my what is it? too.”

Alright, let’s go down to verse 23:

V-23 – And he said unto them, “This is that which the Lord has said, ‘Tomorrow’ – this is the sixth day – ‘Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath’ – they already had God’s Sabbath before the Ten Commandments were given – codified. He said, ‘Tomorrow is the rest of the holy  Sabbath to the Lord: bake that which you will bake today and seethe that you will seethe – boil what you will boil – and that which remains over, lay up for you to be kept until the morning.’”
Now on Friday, the sixth day, it would stay two days and not stink, but on any other time, they can only get enough for one day and so they laid it up until the morning.

V-24 – And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses had said: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. It didn’t get worms. And Moses said, “Eat that today; for today is a Sabbath to the Lord: today you shall not find it in the field. God is not going to give you any bread on the seventh day. Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass … Do you have killjoys? Do you have people who don’t believe? Yes. Do you have people who don’t follow? Yes.

V-27 – And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather, and they found none.

Notice what God said:

V-28 – And the Lord said to Moses, How long refuse you to keep – not just My Sabbath – my commandments and my laws?

God used the Sabbath day as a test commandment of obedience. “Will you listen?” God says. “If you gather too much during the week it is going to stink the next day, but if you gather on the sixth day enough for two days, it won’t stink. Don’t go out on the Sabbath. There won’t be any.” They go out anyway. God says, “I want to test them to see if they will walk in My law or not.”

God’s Sabbath day is a test commandment – whether we will obey His laws – not law – or not. So that is another remembrance.

Number 5: Remember to assemble.

God’s Sabbath day – on God’s Sabbath day, He expects us to assemble. Did you know that regularly missing Church for Catholics will send them straight to hell? It is a mortal sin to miss Sunday church. A mortal sin. A mortal sin sends them straight to hell. That is how strong they think about Sunday.

How do you think about the Sabbath? Now we don’t believe in heaven and hell type of things, but does that reflect an attitude? “I don’t care about the Sabbath. Who cares?” Someone will say, “Well, who cares?” Others will say, “Who cares? It doesn’t matter.” It does matter. It does matter. It shows God your loyalty and your faithfulness. Remember to assemble.

Leviticus 23 – here we find the Sabbath lumped in with the feast days, which we love. He says:

Leviticus 23:2 – These are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. So the Sabbath day is a holy convocation.

Here is what the Amplified Version says of Leviticus 23:3: Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation or assembly by summons; you shall do no work on that day; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.

Today’s English Version puts it this way – verse 3: You have six days in which to do your work, but remember that the seventh day, the Sabbath, is a day of rest. On that day do not work, but gather for worship. The Sabbath belongs to the Lord, no matter where you live.

That is God’s Sabbath day. So that’s how he puts it when you talk about Leviticus 23:3. The Sabbath day is a day of assembling. It is a day...in fact, Hebrews 10:25 says:

Hebrews 10:25 – Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together. If you check out the Greek on it, it says, “Don’t forsake assembling yourselves assembling.” It is a double whammy. And how do you assemble? You come together to worship God.

One lawyer in Canada lamented – he was not in our church, but he was our advisor in Canada when I was up there in the office – the national office coordinator. We had him. He advised our council. He advised us, but he lamented – he said – “You know, the world is getting into so many individual things. You know, you can have your own TV, you can have your own radio, you can have your own cellphone, you can have your own….” He said, “In our day, we had to gather around the radio. In our day we had to gather around the TV set. You didn’t have everybody going his own way.” He said, “I am afraid that in our world today, a lot of people are losing out on community. There is no coming together. That is, everybody doing his or her own thing.”

Sabbath is a day not to do our own thing. The Sabbath is the day that you do God’s things with God’s people. That is what the Sabbath is all about. So remember to assemble.

Hebrews 10:24-25 – and how do you help people? He said, provoke others to love. How do you provoke others to love? You see, if I just want to hear a sermon, I just go online. I can tune in to the webcast every week and I get fed, but you know what I wouldn’t do? I wouldn’t provoke anybody to love. You know what I wouldn’t do? I wouldn’t be able to help anybody, except staying out of their way maybe, if that would be a help to others! I mean, if I am in their way! If you keep the Sabbath, you are there to encourage.

The one lady told me in New York City – she came to church in a wheel chair – and she was lamenting to me, “What good am I? I am no good to God’s church.” I said, “Let me tell you what I feel. Every week I see you sitting there, smiling. That means the world to me. You inspire so many people by your diligence – to what you have to go through to get here and you are still smiling.” She could stay at home and listen to the webcast. I wouldn’t see her smiling, would I? She wouldn’t have an impact on me.

Our Bible study last night was excellent by Mr. Waterhouse. He talked about how we want to help others. Do you have an impact on others? You can only do it if you assemble.

Number 6: Remember the Sabbath day to be joyful.

The Sabbath is a delight. It is joyful day. The Psalms – Psalm 92 is a psalm – and I am not going to go there, but it is a psalm for the Sabbath. And it is about praises to God on the Sabbath. Now how do you praise God in an unhappy mood?

We are to delight in God’s Sabbath day. It is to be a day of joy. It is like one of the feast days, right? It is listed in Leviticus 23. He tells us Deuteronomy 16:4 – regarding the Feasts – “You shall rejoice.” God’s Sabbath is a happy day. It is not a miserable day. It is not a day to being put in a strait jacket, like I thought it was. It isn’t a day of constriction. It is a day of enjoyment. We need to learn to honor and praise God on that day. We need to learn to share ourselves with
others and we need to learn to be joyful. It is a day to be joyful.

Isaiah 58:14 – He says, “If you do these things:”

Isaiah 58:14 – Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

If you call the Sabbath a delight, then you yourself will delight in it. It is a day to be joyful. It is a day to come and sing before God. It is a day to – the music was beautiful – it is a day to be uplifted. It is a day to uplift others. The Sabbath day – remember it, because it is a time to be joyful – to rejoice like we do at the feasts.

Psalm 119:24 – we’ll just pick out one of them. God’s law does not shackle us. God’s law does not forbid you from doing anything that is good for you. A loving father always wants what is good for his children. Will he give them 10 milkshakes at McDonalds all at one time? No. But the rule that I learned from…say, “Yes,” as much as you can to your children as long as it is good for them. Say, “Yes,” not no. Say, “Yes,” as long as it is good for them. And we’ve got a heavenly Father who says, “Yes,” to His children a lot. We do. It is a time to be joyful.

Psalm 119:24 – Your testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.

Notice verse 47:

V-47 – And I will delight myself in your commandments, which I have loved.

And one of those commandments which he delighted himself in was God’s Sabbath day. Be  joyful on God’s Sabbath day. When you think about the Sabbath day think about it with joy. “What am I going to learn this Sabbath? What am I going to need? I wonder if they got the job? I’ve been praying about them. I wonder how they’re feeling? Are they healthy again?” There is one lady I ask almost every week that I see her, “How are you doing?” She says, “I am good. I pray about you every week.” One lady I prayed about in New Zealand – I didn’t think I would ever get down there in 1990. In 2001 my wife and I ended up in New Zealand on the Sabbath and I met this lady. I didn’t know who she was, but I have been praying for her for years and I was so happy to meet her. And I told her, “I prayed for you all the time and I am so glad to see you. I didn’t think I would even see you here.” It was a delight. Delight yourself in the Lord and you will always have plenty to be joyful about.

Number 7: Remember to fellowship.

I want to read Acts 16:13-15. I am going to read it out of a different translation – the New Living Bible – but before I do that, let me tell you what “fellowship” means from the Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Here is what it means: “Sharing things in common with others. In the New Testament fellowship has a distinctly spiritual meaning.” Sharing with others. How do I do that at home? Get on the phone, call others.How do people tell me their issues? How do people say to me…confess to me their faults? Now I don’t have a confessional booth on the Sabbath, but I am going to say, “You know, I have been working on this., I have been trying to overcome this and haven’t been able to yet. Can you pray? Please pray for me.” How do you do that if you are not around them? How do you find that out?

Let me read to you from the New Living Bible – Acts 16:13:

Acts 16:13 – On the Sabbath, we went a little way outside the city to a river bank where we thought people would be meeting for prayer; and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there. One of them was Lydia, from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple
cloth, who worshipped God and as she listened to us – fellowship – the Lord opened her heart and she accepted all that Paul was saying. She was baptized along with all her household and she asked us to be her guests. Now here is the supreme fellowship. This is what she said to Paul,  because she thought Paul probably wasn’t going to come. She said: “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord” – how could he not? He had just baptized her – she said: “come and stay at my home.” and she urged us until we agreed.

Fellowship. Spend time with God’s people. Learn about them. Love them. Share with them. Share with them what is happening in your life. Share with them the stories of success. Share with them your cares and concerns and ask them to pray for you as you pray for them.

Number 8: Remember to rest.

The Sabbath day is a day of rest and what I find is that sometimes I may rest more than others. Sometimes my body says to me, rest more. Sometimes my body says to me, fellowship more! Sometimes my body says to me, study more, pray more. Sometimes one – they are not always equals – not always one third, one third, one third. Sometimes when your body is really tired you may end up getting more rest. You feel guilty. “Oh, I should have studied more. I should have
prayed more.” No, you probably needed more rest. So some days you may exercise the rest and, of course, Exodus 16:23 does talk about the Sabbath as a day of rest, but look at Luke 23: 56. They had just been preparing the various ointments for Jesus Christ’s burial. Luke 23:56 – is that the one I want? Yes, I do want Luke 23:56.

Luke 23:56 – And they returned and prepared the spices and ointments – that was on the preparation day – and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. They rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. That means physically, spiritually being rejuvenated. The Greek word is hesuchazo. That means to stay still; to refrain from labor – to relax, to take it easy, to put on some nice comforting music, to have a hot chocolate in front of a fireplace in the winter time – to relax; to take it easy. The Sabbath is a rest day. Six days you labor. The Sabbath is a Sabbath of rest. In fact the word Shabbat does mean rest.

Number 9: The Sabbath, every week that comes along, keeps us in remembrance of God’s Kingdom to come.

It’s a picture of the thousand year period and many recognize that rest day. Jamieson Fausset and Brown put this out in their commentary about Hebrews 4:9. Listen to what they say: “This verse indirectly establishes the obligation of the Sabbath”. It says: “for the type continues until the antitype supersedes it:” He goes on to say: “The typical earthly Sabbath must continue until then” – when the Kingdom, when Jesus Christ comes to set up that anti typical rest, and that’s the 1,000 year rest. This is what the commentary, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Hebrews 4:9 says. “The typical earthly Sabbath must continue until then. The Jews call the future rest ‘the day which is all Sabbath’” – when God’s Kingdom is going to be here.

You see, in Hebrews 4, he uses the Sabbath as a type of the Kingdom. He says:

Hebrews 4:4 – For he spoke – I believe it is Paul writing to the Hebrews – in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

Let’s skip down to:

V-9 – There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.

You know what is interesting? In this whole chapter the word katapausis is used for rest all the way through, except for verse 9. In verse 9, the Greek word there is “sabbatismos” - a keeping of the Sabbath. Now of course the Sabbath pictures the future, but it also is for us today. There still remains, and as he said, it always will be here until the antitype shows up. What is the antitype? The Kingdom of God. The 1,000 year reign of God.

So Hebrews 4:9 - every Sabbath that comes around should be a reminder to all of us, needs to be a reminder to all of us, of God’s Kingdom to come, what we all look forward too.

Number 10: finally, the Sabbath day remembrance: Remember that the Sabbath is a gift from God.

If I gave you a gift and you threw it on the floor, stomped on it, how would I feel? Very disrespected. God gives us the gift of the Sabbath day. He made it for human kind. He gave us the gift. What do you do with it? What do we do with the Sabbath day? Genesis 2:1-3 - He made it for us. He made the Sabbath. He set it apart. He didn’t need to rest, but He put His rest into it, so He made it holy and only He can make things holy. We keep it holy. It has been holy to start with and you keep it holy by how you treat it, by how you look upon it, by how we honor it, by how we glorify God in it.

Notice in Mark 2:27-28, He gave them the Sabbath, and remember, too, that every good and every perfect gift comes from God.
Mark 2:27 – And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

God didn’t say, “You know what? I’ve got this Sabbath day now, but I don’t have anybody to keep it. I guess I am going to need some men. I am going to make some humans because I have this Sabbath. What am I going to do with it? But He gave it to us. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He goes on to say:

V.28 - Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

Remember the Sabbath. It is a gift from God. God gives us that gift. How do we treat it? With respect. Do we prize it? Do we honor Him on it? It is a gift from God as every perfect gift is from Him.

So, every seventh day of the week I hope we will remember the Sabbath day. I hope will remember to honor God, that He is the Creator, to know Him and know who you are. I hope we will remember that it is the test commandment to whether you will obey Him in any other thing. It is a time to assemble and to delight in it. It is a time to fellowship with one another. It is a time to rest. It is a time to picture the Kingdom. And it is a blessing from God to us.

So brethren, students, young people, old people, middle aged people, any others that are here, preteens, babies, may we always remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.