The Sabbath

When we read through the Ten Commandments listed in Exodus 20, there is one listed that is often the most misunderstood, misapplied, or even skipped by most of mainstream Christians. You probably all have some guesses in your mind which one that is. Let's go ahead and turn to Exodus 20.

We'll read the specific commandment here. Another aspect as your turning of this commandment is that that is often misunderstood, is that many believe that the commandments as a whole, including the Seventh-day Sabbath, was established for the very first time at Mount Sinai when they were given in the presence of Moses. That's a common understanding, a common belief held by most in mainstream Christianity, that this was the first time that these commandments, and specifically that the Seventh-day, remembering the Sabbath, the Seventh-day, was ever given. But we're gonna look into that here in a minute. Exodus 20 in verse 8 says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God in it. You shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. The common held belief in many Christian circles is that this day, the Seventh-day Sabbath, has been done away with and replaced with Sunday as a day of worship.

Instead of following the belief that this day has changed, we in the Church of God believe that the observance of the Seventh-day Sabbath remains one of the core teachings or fundamental beliefs of not only the Church but of the Bible itself. From our UCG fundamental belief, specifically on the Sabbath, we state this. We firmly believe that the Seventh-day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord, our God. On this day we are commanded to rest from our labors and worship God following the teachings and example of Jesus, the apostles, and the New Testament Church. So you and I, we remember and treat this Sabbath day as special by refraining from work on this day and instead we use our time on the Sabbath to seek after God and to worship Him and to remember this day. So today I'd like to share a survey of type of message. We're going to work through quite a few scriptures today in kind of a survey pattern of what does God say about the Sabbath and an overview of the foundation of the Seventh-day Sabbath and why it remains a core teaching of the Church of God. We're going to dive into this in kind of a survey type, looking at a higher level. We're going to spend most of our time today in the Old Testament laying this foundation and I plan to build on this and maybe one or two additional messages on the Sabbath because there's more than we can cover in one sermon. Well, we could cover it in one sermon. We'd be here till late this afternoon and nobody would be happy with me. So there's a lot here and we're going to spend a lot of time today, though, in the Old Testament to lay this foundation because many have misunderstood this Sabbath day that we're observing. In the beginning of God's Word, the Seventh-day or a day of rest is one of the first principles of God that we come across in Scripture. Let's look at that in Genesis 2 in verse 1.

Genesis 2 in verse 1 is where we're going to start looking at this in more depth. We know that Genesis 1 is the creation account of the the six days of creation that is recorded in Scripture.

And then we get to chapter 2 of Genesis in verse 1 where we see the specifics of this day referenced. It says, "...thus the heavens and the earth and all the hosts of them were finished.

And on the seventh day God ended," some translations say, "...finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all of his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and he sanctified it." Some translations say, "...he declared it holy because in it he rested from all of his work which God had created and made." There are some things we can draw from this passage. The first one is, "...the seventh day is established as the last of set-apart days of time listed in the Genesis account of creation." That's the last one. All the other days God mentioned the first day, the second day, what he did on those days. The seventh day is the last one referenced that is set apart as a specific time period of the creation account. Another item we can draw from this is God himself rested from all of his work. God personally, we know, does he doesn't need a day of rest. He doesn't need to recharge his batteries, but he did this as an example to his people. God himself rested from all of his work. We also know that God blessed the seventh day.

We know that God is the only one who can provide the blessings in this way and set something apart, as we'll see here in a moment. The next item we can see is God sanctified the seventh day. Here, he declared this day holy or set apart. God is the only one who can define something as holy.

You and I, we can never define anything as holy. God is the one who defines set things apart as holy. In doing so, if sanctifying the seventh day, he declared this day holy and set apart.

Flipping forward to Leviticus 23, God lists the seventh day Sabbath as one of his appointed times and declares it a period of solemn rest and convocation. This is in, again, Leviticus 23.

We turn here often through the year as we consider the holy days that we are observing, as each one of those come across our calendars. But right here at the beginning of Leviticus 23, God includes the Sabbath day as being set apart along with the rest of his special holy days.

Leviticus 23 and verse 1, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts.

We often pause here at this part to recognize that sometimes in life we'll go through and somebody will find out we're keeping the holy days or that we're keeping the Sabbath. And they say, Oh, so you keep the Jewish days. You keep the Jewish Sabbath. No? No, we keep God's Sabbath.

It doesn't belong to any of us this day. God did not set this day apart just for the Jews, or just for other tribes, the other 11 tribes of Israel. He set this day apart for all of humanity, because it is his day. This is his Sabbath. These are my feasts, God says here. And so we honor him when we keep his feast days and when we keep his Sabbath. Verse 3 says, Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it.

It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. As our fundamental belief study guide states, it says, As Christians followed this pattern of observance and worship, they were reminded of the Creator God, the one who brought them into being. This is part of what you and I do in this day that we remember and celebrate and worship as we worship God. But now I'd like to pivot a little bit and go back earlier in our Bibles to Exodus chapter 16.

This is a book of the Bible that many who feel like the Sabbath has been done away with or that it's been moved to a different day. They miss the depth of understanding that has been able to be drawn out of this chapter in Exodus. In this one chapter, there's another chapter in Exodus, chapter 31 we'll look at in a minute. Very few other places in God's Word, is there so much instruction and reference and setting apart on the Sabbath day as we see here in Exodus chapter 16, and then again in chapter 31 that we'll look at in a bit. There's a lot that we can draw out from here, and so we're going to spend quite a bit of time here in this chapter as we continue with the message. When God provided manna to the Israelites, he didn't just provide them food. He also provided them instruction about the importance of the seventh day. In truth, God could have easily provided food for the Israelites for all seven days. He could have said, every day you go out, here's food, I'm going to provide it for you because I know you need to eat, you need to survive.

And in my logic, my human logic mind, I'd say, well, that would be satisfactory. Every day God provides a meal for his people. He did, but he did it in a different way to make sure that this day was set apart as special. He didn't provide food for seven straight days because there was something great that he wanted them to also gain from the food that he was providing. He wanted to provide them a day of to rest and to treat differently than all other days. So here in Exodus 16, let's start reading in verse 22, breaking into the thought a little bit. And so it was on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. This is that preparation day, this would be a Friday on our calendars today. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, this is what the Lord has said, tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today and boil what you will boil and lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept until morning. So they laid it up until morning as Moses commanded, and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. You will remember as reading through this account in previous times, remember how they went out and they collected more than they could eat in one day. And they thought, well, we'll hold it over till tomorrow. It'll be our breakfast. We don't have to go out now. But in the morning, the next day, it stank and had worms. It was not edible because God said, collect each day what you can collect and eat for that day. Don't collect any more. But on this day, on this Sabbath day, when it rolled over, and again in verse 24, and they laid it up till morning because it was the Sabbath, it did not stink. There were no worms in it. Verse 25, then Moses said, eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day the Sabbath there will be none. Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day together, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, how long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

I kind of drop back for a minute and think through because if God's saying, how long will you continue to not do this? To refuse to keep my commands and my laws? Well, He must have already told them His commandments and His laws. It'd be like Kelsey coming in. Thankfully she's not here today so I can use her in this gamble. It'd be like Kelsey coming in the house and I say, how long are you going to break this thing I've asked you to do? And she stares at me and says, you've never asked me to do that before. I have no idea what you're talking about. So obviously God had already provided instructions. He's provided His commandments and His laws to His people. And He's asking, how long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? He says, see, for the Lord has given you the Sabbath.

Therefore He gives you on the six-day bread for two days. Let every man remain in His place. Let no man go out of His place on the seventh day so the people rested on the seventh day. A critical aspect to understand about the passage we just read is the biblical timeline in which it occurs.

As I stated at the beginning of the message, many Christians and other denominations feel that the commandment to keep the Sabbath was given at Mount Sinai when the 10 commandments were given for the first time. That's where many believe that in the presence of God that Moses gave Him these 10 commandments. But that's as we see in Scripture is in Exodus 20. We right now we're in Exodus 16.

This what we're reading right now occurs before the commandments were written on stone.

Before the 10 tab or the two tablets were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, this event is occurring.

Not only this, but the instructions about keeping the Sabbath in Exodus 16, this was not, again, the first time these instructions would have been shared with God's people. Notice verse 29 again.

He says, "'See, for the Lord has given you the Sabbath.'" It doesn't say He is giving you or He will give you in the future the Sabbath. It's saying that He has given. God has already given them the Sabbath. This is why we also don't see Moses being confused in this moment with the command to keep the seventh day holy, nor do we see any questioning by Moses or the people about this being a new teaching. Matthew Henry's commentary on the passage we read shares this, the setting apart of one day and seven for holy work and in order to that for holy rest was a divine appointment ever since God created man upon the earth and the most ancient of positive loss. That's from Matthew Henry's commentary. Adam's Clark commentary says this, "'There is nothing either in the text or context that seems to introduce that the Sabbath was now first given to the Israelites, as some have supposed. On the contrary, it is here spoken of as being perfectly well known, from it having been generally observed. The commandment, it is true, may be considered as being now renewed, because they might have supposed that in their unsettled state in the wilderness they might have been exempted from the observance of it. Thus we find in e.g. three items, thus we find one, that when God finished his creation, he instituted the Sabbath.'" That's when he first did it. That's in the past. Then Adam Clark adds the second one, "'When he brought the people out of Egypt, he insisted the strict observance of it.'" That's the presence, present time. And then the third aspect that Adam Clark points out, "'When he gave the law, he made it a tenth part of the whole. Such importance has this institution in the eyes of the supreme being.'" In our timeline, that's future still, because he's referencing when the commandments would be given and codified, written down on stone tablets. So we have the past.

Adam Clark is saying the present and then the future. He is referencing here as the Sabbath being a continual part of God's plan for human beings. Again, that all came from the Adam Clark commentary. So contrary to the belief of many, the Israelites and God's people before this time would have had an understanding about the seventh-day Sabbath prior to the manna being provided and before the giving of the Ten Commandments. Something else that is interesting to note, and it's from the same passage in Exodus, is that we see the Sabbath is considered a test commandment, as some have come to call it. This is in verse 4 of chapter 16, so just a little bit before what we read previously. Exodus 16, let's read verse 4. "'Then the Lord said to Moses, "'Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.'" The new living translation says, "'whether or not they will follow my instructions.'" And so from this passage, we see that the Sabbath was a test commandment for the Israelites. It also remains a test commandment for us today. Do we set this day apart from all others as we walk in God's fall? Or does this day become muddied in the busyness of our days and our weeks? Do we get caught rushing up to this day, or even maybe crossing into the Sabbath day, finishing up some work that has to get done, or something around the house that needs to get accomplished before we can truly stop and rest and finish our work from the week? I have to be transparent and acknowledge I've messed up in this area before.

This has been a struggle at different times in my life, thinking, well, I have to get this done, or it's just a couple minutes more. I think we've all maybe have had this temptation at times.

Or in the inverse of rushing into the Sabbath, do we also then count off the minutes some year, or some days, until we can complete the Sabbath day at sunset to maybe rush off to a different activity or do something else? Do we ever get caught staring at our watches wondering, well, the Sabbath went 623. When is 623 going to get here? How do we work through this day? How do we set this day apart personally? How do we allow God's day, the Sabbath, rest, sit in our heart?

How do we allow it to change our mind and to stay focused on this day? This test comes in by how we observe this day and treat it differently than the other six days of the week. It also reflects the heart that is behind how we observe this day. An important aspect to remember is the individuality of us and the individuality of this day. Just like a regular test that one of us may take in school over the years, or I know we have some teens that are that still do tests and homework and have maybe some exams. If not now, they'll have them in the future still. Who can take your test for you? Can anybody just step in and take a test? Your driver's test. That's a great example for some of us.

You got to get your license and maybe it expired and now you got to go and take the test all over again. Can anybody just show up and take the test for you? We've seen this with Kelsey taking the ACT and the SAT college prep exams. Because of cheating in the past and things like that, she has to show a student ID, driver's license, or a passport. She has to have some kind of document that says that the person showing up is truly the one who's supposed to take the test.

Because nobody else is allowed to take it on her behalf. When we consider this day and recognize that I can't take this test, the Sabbath test, for you, you can't take it for me either. This is the individuality of this day that you and I hold. That this is a day that only you and I, it's a test for you and I and you and I alone between us and God and how we set this day apart. Each of the Israelites were held responsible for gathering the manna for their own families and their own families alone. This was part of their test. Were they going to do it for themselves? It's gone to command it. Look at verse 16 in the same chapter. Exodus 16 and verse 16. We see this instruction that the head of the house, the man of each person, every man had to do it according to his household. Verse 16, this is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Let every man gather it according to each one's need, one omer for each person according to the number of persons. Let every man take for those who are in his tent. It was a personal responsibility that somebody went out and provided for their family in this way. They weren't allowed to provide for the family in the tent next to them on either side or for even another family that was extended family that was not living in their tent, that had their own tent. It was a test. Will you go out and will you gather the right amount? Not two omers for everybody in your household. One omer. And will you do it for everyone? There was an individual aspect to this day, to this test. Will they do what they've been asked to do? So we read and can discern from this. It remains the same for us, each individually, to set this day apart as a test of our obedience and the heart behind our keeping of this day. Staying in the book of Exodus, let's turn to now Exodus chapter 31 to understand another critical aspect of the Seventh-day Sabbath. Like I said, Exodus has a lot to say about the Sabbath. We looked in Exodus 16. Let's look at another aspect that's referenced here in chapter 31. This aspect is about the Sabbath being a sign distinguishing God's people from those who are not His. Exodus 31 in verse 12. It says, And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely, 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, 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, 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 LORD, 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. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days, the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

There are a couple words here that we've gone through that we need to explore more deeply from this passage to better understand the depth of what's spoken here. The first word is sign, which in the Hebrew is oath, O-T-H, and from the brown driver in Briggs dictionary, it means a sign or signal or a distinguishing mark, a banner, remembrance. It can also mean a token, or an ensign. I had to look up the word ensign to make sure I understood it right.

Insign can be a flag or a badge, and so you'll see an ensign on a lot of the Navy ships. So, I have a string of flags that are lined up going from stern to bow, and then they have different colors, and they mean and represent different things, but it's to distinguish that ship from others. Another example of being a badge is someone in the military or a police officer, and they have the badges, those little insigns that they would have on their collar or on their jacket that says if they're a sergeant or a lieutenant or a captain in these things.

So, another aspect of the word sign can be a token or an ensign. The Sabbath stands as an identifying mark or sign of God's people, and note the duration of time where the Sabbath remains this type of sign. Read again with me verse 16. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. Perpetual means forever or always, or a continuous existence, or everlasting, indefinite, unending future, eternity.

Notice that it was double emphasized there. God first called it a perpetual covenant, then He said it shall be a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.

There is no cap on the end of this. There is no at this point it is done or it will be done away with at a different time. When God says forever, it stands as forever. The Sabbath also stands as a sign of the one true God that set apart this day for worship. Notice again in verse 13 here in Exodus 31 it says, Surely my Sabbath you shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctified you.

So as you and I observe this day and we set this day apart and we honor God by keeping it to the best of our abilities to where we have our consciences are clear, then we reflect back to God as the creator, the one who made us from nothing, the one who set this day apart as from different from all other days, that He is the Lord of our lives. He is the God of heaven, the God of creation, the God of the universe. And so as you and I sanctify and set this part a day special, it goes back to we remember God in this as well.

In verse 17 it also was referenced in this way that we look to God. It says, verse 17, and kind of taking some parts out of it, it says, It is a sign, notice the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. Again, it's a reference back to God as being the creator, being the one true God that we worship on this day. Matthew Henry's commentary on this passage shares this, the nature, meaning, and intention of the Sabbath by the declaration of which God puts an honor upon it and teaches us to value it. A few things here are said of the Sabbath. One, it is a sign between me and you. The institution of the Sabbath was a great instance of God's favor to them and a sign that He had distinguished them from all other people.

And the religious observance of the Sabbath was a great instance of their duty and obedience to Him. God, by sanctifying this day among them, let them know that He sanctified them and set them apart for Himself and His service. Otherwise, He would not have revealed to them His holy Sabbaths to be as a support of religion among them. So we see that the Sabbath, again, that was from Matthew Henry's commentary, so we see that the Sabbath is a two-way sign.

For those who hold the day as a Sabbath, it is a sign that we are God's people. And again, for those who hold this day as a Sabbath, it's a sign reflecting the importance and the value that we hold in our heart of the one true God that we worship, the one true God that created all the universe and that we praise, not other gods, not other religions, not other trees or other things that other people may worship, that we reflect back when we observe this day because He told us to do it and He gave it to us.

And as we observe it, we reflect back to Him as the one true God on this special day. The second word that I'd like to explore from this passage is the word keep. Keep is the Hebrew word shamar, and from Brown, Driver, and Briggs dictionary again, it means to keep or guard, to observe or to give heed, to have charge of, to keep watch, and ward.

I think ward is an important word here, too, because if I know the responsibility when somebody, well, I felt it today holding little Ian, when somebody gives you their child to hold or they say, hey, can you watch my children while I run this, Aaron?

That's a huge responsibility. That's now, that child has now become, in a sense, part of a ward to me because I may even care for them more than I care for my own daughter who's running around the house because this is someone else's child, and that's, it carries a specific weight of that to keep watch and to ward. Some other definitions of this word keep mean to protect or to save, to retain, to treasure up, to observe, or to celebrate, or to keep, as in a Sabbath or a covenant.

From Strong's Hebrew and Greek dictionary, it uses this to define this word keep, to properly, properly to hedge about as with thorns. That is guard or generally to protect.

I love the visual side of protect as with a hedge of thorns because any of us who have a garden and we have those pests that come in, if you can make a hedge of thorns around your garden at ground level and maybe a little bit higher, you'll keep out the raccoons. You'll keep the deer away because they don't want to get caught up in it. They don't want to get stuck. And so to put a hedge around as with thorns, you get the visualization that God is saying. When we keep this day, we protect it.

We look after it. We treat it with high value and with high regard. As we looked at in the previous point about the Sabbath being a test commandment, we must consider again the importance of how we keep this day. Because how we keep this day again reflects the way that this day is a sign of us being God's people and He being the one true God of our life. The New Living Translation starts out by this in verse 13. It says, tell the people of Israel, be careful to keep my Sabbaths. Be careful. Be careful to keep my Sabbath.

Special care must be taken as with something extremely valuable.

Vines Dictionary of the Old Testament says, the word means sign as a reminder of one's duty.

As a reminder of one's duty, this usage first appears in Genesis 9 and verse 12, when God references the rainbow as a token of His covenant that He made between me and all giving creatures. Let's go ahead and turn, since we're somewhat close, turn to Genesis 9 and verse 8 with me.

Genesis 9 and verse 8. Because remember, we'll see the word sign used here again as a reminder of God's duty that He promised that He would fulfill, and He has been faithful in His promise. He has protected and kept and been treated special, this promise that He made here in Genesis chapter 9. Genesis 9 and verse 8. Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, And as for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, all the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, that of all that go out to the ark, every beast of the earth, thus I establish my covenant with you. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the sign. This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. There's that word, perpetual, I mean again. I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. God set the rainbow as a sign of his covenant with men that he would never again shall there be a flood that would destroy all life on the earth. Every time we see that rainbow, it's a present and perpetual reminder of his covenant. Therefore, every time that we observe the Sabbath, it is a present and perpetual reminder that we are God's people and that he is our God. From our study guide, God's Sabbath rest, we share this. To God, his Sabbath distinguishes those who believe in keeping his commandments from those who rely on their own reasoning for determining how they should live and relate to him. Those who keep his Sabbath day the only day of the week God has ever set apart, proclaimed by their actions, their acceptance of him as the supreme authority over how they should live, think, and worship. That's again from our study guide, God's Sabbath rest.

Now, as we begin to move towards the end of this message, one of the questions often asked by someone who begins understanding about the seventh day is, when does the Sabbath day actually begin and end? To answer this question, we need to go back to the beginning to when God rested on the seventh day. But a little bit before that, Genesis 1, let's look at Genesis 1 and we'll start reading in verse 3.

This helps us understand how God defines a day from the next day and from the next day, and we'll look at a couple additional verses to back this up as well. Genesis 1, verse 3, we're at the very beginning when God and God's creation account here, and it says, then God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. So he's adding two items together. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Again, in my human kind of interest and knowledge, I find that interesting.

On the very first day of creation, God created and set apart time for me and you. The day from the night, the cycle that it occurs on a regular basis, and that we appreciate to this day.

In my human mind, I think if I was in charge of creation, I would have kept everything in the daylight as long as I could, because then I can get a lot more work done, right? I can't count the number of times that I've ran out of daylight with projects working in the yard especially.

You know I love gardening. I'm out there. I'm doing something. I'm putting fence posts in, and I miscalculated how long it's going to take me to finish this project. I'm out there and it's starting to get darker and darker. I'm thinking, am I going to get it done? Then it keeps getting darker and darker. I break out the shop lights. Have you anybody ever done that? Some of the construction workers may have done that here. Yeah, you break out those big like thousand watt shop lights that you set up in your yard over your project so you can keep working. I know Laura's gone inside usually at that point because she doesn't want to see the neighbors faces when they're looking out like, what's this Yahoo doing still working and out in the yard? I want to get it done. I got all my tools out. I got everything out. In my human mind, I would think, okay, God, maybe time would be at the end of it. That way you can get a whole bunch of stuff accomplished, a whole bunch of stuff done. But God is not limited by our human ways. That's not how he thinks.

From the very beginning, God set apart time as the first day of his creation. He called the light day and the darkness he called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day, and they've been this way ever since. Forever. They've been this way from evening to the morning.

God references every single day of creation that he that in this creation account. Notice in verse eight, Genesis 1 verse eight, and God called the firmament heaven, and so the evening and the morning were the second day. Verse 13. So the evening and the morning were the third day.

Verse 19. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Verse 23. So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Verse 31. Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And all the commentaries I can find and I try to research and look through, I don't see any one commentary that differs with how the Bible counts a day beginning at sundown and ending at the next day at sundown.

I don't see any place in scripture as we go through. There's a different way to count the days.

This is a very universally understood concept and one that continues to be held by the vast majority of scholars today. If you ever find someone using a different calendar, someone moving to the Sabbath to the first day of the week. I've seen calendars like that. Instead of Sunday being on day one, they put the Sabbath so that the Sunday ends up on the seventh day. All these different ways that people can kind of move things in their head if somebody tells you that you can count the day at midnight, kind of like we do today, or at sunrise. This person is trying to convince you of an idea that is not held by those who have proper knowledge or understanding.

There really is no argument. The seventh day in scripture began at sunset and it ended at sunset the next day. As Psalm 74 verse 16 says, God is Lord of both the day and the night because both are His. God is the one who defines when a day begins and an end. To further demonstrate this point, we have about the day beginning and ending at sunset. God instructed that the day atonement should be observed accordingly. We see this in Leviticus 23 and verse 32.

Tied to the command that we should abstain from food and drink on this day and that we should fast, God outlines a time period specific for the state to be observed in this way. Again, reaffirming the way that we should count a day from the beginning and to the end. Leviticus 23 and verse 32.

It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest and you shall flit your souls on the night day of the month at evening from evening at evening from evening to evening you shall celebrate your Sabbath.

So again, we see the marking this time period, this 24-hour time period being marked from evening to evening. We also see in Nehemiah's time when this was marked as a time frame. This is in Nehemiah chapter 13. This is one that often we overlook or don't really think about and from this vantage point. But again, as we can look at all these different pieces and we put them all together and we can discern from Scripture what God's intent is because of the repetition, the pattern that we see in the keeping of this day throughout Scripture from the beginning to the end. Again, Nehemiah went back, rebuilt the Jerusalem and the walls around it. This is when he was serving our king Artaxerxes and he asked the king, can I go and rebuild? And he said yes, and not only that, but take supplies.

And so, new establishments were being rebuilt. God's Word was being found again and reconfirmed.

And here in Nehemiah 13 verse 15, we see the Sabbath being reconfirmed and set apart even more specifically because those in that time had kind of lost track. Nehemiah 13 and verse 15, in those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses, Nehemiah says, on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves and donkeys loaded with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they had brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions. 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.

In verse 19, so it was at the gates of Jerusalem as it began to be dark before the Sabbath, as it began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded that the gates be shut and charged, that they must not be open till after the Sabbath. Then I posted some of my servants at the gate so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath day.

So we see here in Nehemiah's time, the setting apart of this day was important to him and to God's people. And he noted it began to be dark before the Sabbath when those gates would be shut. Another reference to the time period of when the Sabbath day begins. We also know that the Jewish people, during Christ's physical life on earth, observed the Sabbath from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. And nowhere in the New Testament do we see Jesus instructing anything different. If the Sabbath needed to be marked by a different time period, Jesus had every opportunity to say, well, this is how it's been done, but we're moving it to here. Or even, we'll get into this in a future sermon, we're going to move it to a different day.

We don't see Jesus doing that. In fact, we see Jesus observing the Sabbath on the same day from sunset to sunset that we still observe today. So, as we conclude, I hope that we see the Sabbath day was not first given at Mount Sinai when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, but this teaching was established at the beginning of creation and the seventh day set apart as the Sabbath. The Sabbath day remains in effect still today and should be observed by Christians who follow in Jesus' steps. There will come a time that you and I, if we haven't been already, will be tested on the keeping of the Sabbath day. For many of us, we have been tested at times, whether it be a job, whether it be a school event or school itself, or events that we were invited to go and hang out with friends like last week's football game between Michigan and Michigan State.

That could have been one of those events where somebody walked up and said, hey, I got a free ticket. Do you want to go with me? We will be tested at times how we will set this day apart.

For some of us, we were tested when the Worldwide Church of God changed our traditional teaching on the Sabbath and started to attend on Sundays and encouraging others to do so as well.

For all of us alive in a future time, there will come a societal change where, most likely, those who observe the Sabbath will be persecuted for setting this day apart.

It's really, in my mind, it's hard for me to realize the freedoms, the safety we've had in this nation, coming to an end and being persecuted for observing a day that we have been protected and God has blessed us to be able to have protected for us. But someday, we see in Scripture that this persecution will unfold, and Scripture speaks to this time. Let's turn to Revelation 12 and verse 17.

I don't know how and when it will occur, but most likely, you and I, if we're still alive, later on in our in these years, will come to a time where we are persecuted for what we're doing here today. For what we're came here not worrying about our persecution today as we drove our cars here, and we're thankful for a nice day and good roads and to be able to gather here. But this may not always be the case for you and me. Revelation 12 verse 7 speaks to a time. It says, And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

That's you and me, who keep the commandments of God, one of them being the Sabbath day.

And who have the testimony of Jesus Christ. We know this dragon is Satan, and he's going to create havoc and encourage leaders and society to persecute anyone who keeps the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So the Seventh-day Sabbath is one of these commandments of God that the dragon will be enraged with. And so we must never forget the instructions pertaining to this day and the importance of why we observe or keep the Sabbath holy.

The Sabbath day is a day of tremendous blessing for God's people, and is expressed so by our Lord and Savior when He Himself said in Mark 2, verse 27, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Again, as I mentioned, there's much more than we talk about in just one hour, 50 minutes or so of this message. I hope that we'll dive into this aspect of the Sabbath being made for man in a future message. It's my plan. We spent a lot of time today laying down the foundation in the Old Testament. What does God's Word say about this day? Because from that foundation, Christ then built upon that we'll look at in a future sermon. And there are things that we have seen throughout history of the day being changed, how that occurred, when that occurred.

And so again, my plan is to spend some other sermons, at least one more, diving into the subject of the Sabbath day being a day made for man as we continue to look into the special day that you and I observe.