There Remains a Sabbath Keeping for the People of God

When God started calling me—I was a teenager, this was in the sixties—I was at that time a Catholic. And I started—one of the first things that God made me is understand first place the fear of God. I remember at times when I would talk about the Bible, about literally, physically tremble—not that I was doing anything wrong, but it's just the respect that fear of God was of that physical level. And I came to realize the importance of recognizing the authority of God's Word, the Bible. Now, I say this because for a Catholic, normally they don't even read the Bible. And so I had to come to recognize the value of God's Word. So I then started studying the Bible, and I recognized that God's Word was the standard of what we needed to listen to. And I came to realize that there were a number of differences between what's in the Bible and what had been taught as a young man to practice. For one, we had to rely on the authority of the Bible, because as a Catholic, so what? It's the tradition of the Church that comes first, not the Bible. Then, to point about idols. You know, clearly, idolatry is wrong, and I don't have to go into more details, you know, the rest. That was a concern to me. And the other thing, you have to confess to a man. That, to me, was also strange, you know. I start reading the Bible and say, hey, that doesn't quite match what it's in the Bible. And then, that you would get forgiveness through repetitive prayers. You had to go around this rosary and say so many prayers, and then you'd be forgiven. And that, to me, could not be right. And so, I had to say to myself, this is not God's Church. Where is God's Church? And I had to search for a quick test. Let's call it this way. I would say it an asset test. Not that it will prove everything, but it would be a major test that will separate and identify or narrow down from thousands of churches to God's Church. A major test. And to me, that became to be the Sabbath. To me, the Sabbath was, if the Sabbath was indeed true, that will emanate practically 90-95% of the churches, or even more, 99%. Because God's Church, if the Sabbath is indeed the sign of God's people, or the sign of God's people, that would be interesting. And obviously, living at that time, I had just immigrated to South Africa. Well, at least I was studying in South Africa, and therefore being in a boys' hospital, you had a lot of influences, and talking to the other younger boys and things like that, they would tell me certain things. And when I would ask them questions about the Sabbath or just talking, they would say, there's no Sunday is a day. But I started questioning because they said, no, the day's been changed, and this and that, and that, as you know what the churches say. But I was questioning myself first. And I came across a booklet which I wish I had it, I had kept it, because being a Catholic, I had what it called a catechism. And for some reason, I got so upset at that time I flew it away. But I wish I had kept it, because I read something there in my own local Catholic congregation catechism that it was distributed to us that said, I can't remember exactly the words, but said something like that, we changed the Sabbath to Sunday. And those Christians that believe the Bible, and I was coming to the point says, okay, I've got to believe the Bible, and there's these other Christians telling me that Sunday is okay. And he says, those Christians that believe the Bible and the Bible only are following us, the Catholics, because we changed it. And that kind of hit me in the face, and I says, I've got to prove this.

I've got to prove this. And so my purpose today, brethren, is to share with you some of my thinking I went through as a young man, and in a sense how it led me into the church. But that's only one portion thereof, which is my searching to the Sabbath, how I went about through it.

And this, I was a teenager, and I want to share those thoughts with you. The first question that people would tell me, well, you know, time actually has been lost. The weekly cycle has been lost, you know, we really don't know. And so I thought about it, and I said, look, first, the creation was revealed to Jews, to Israel. The Jews were dispersed because they did not adequately keep the Sabbath. They were punished. They came back, and because of that, they learned a hard way. They made laws very strict to keep the Sabbath. So they definitely have not lost time. Because they were punished for it, and they've learned a big lesson. So time is definitely not lost.

Further, if the church changed, that whatever it is, then Jesus say, imitate me. Follow me. And Jesus definitely kept the Sabbath. Ami. If he did not keep the Sabbath, he had sinned. And if he had sinned, he could not be our sinless satium. So he had to keep the Sabbath. He was a Jew. He had to keep the Sabbath.

And so, at that time, it was known which day of the week was the Sabbath. Then, it is an historic record in 321 at the Council of Nicaea, and later at further council I think it was 365 or so, where the Catholics proclaimed the change Sabbath to Sunday.

And so, many Christians died, died, gave their lives for the Sabbath. So clearly the Sabbath has not been changed. Time has not been lost. And if people say, ah, but the Roman calendar changed, yes, the Roman calendar changed in 1582 by changing the 4th to the 15th the next day, but the weekly cycle was never changed from the Julian to the Concordian calendar.

The weekly cycle never broke. So time has not been lost. The seventh day is the Sabbath. And then I said, I'm Portuguese, and that means nothing. It's no special. But in Portuguese, the word for Saturday is Sabbath. There's no other word. So come tell me that the Sabbath is not the Sabbath, because the Sabbath is the Sabbath. There's no other word. But that's it. And then, also because in Portuguese, the second day of the week, which is Monday, is called the second day of the week. There's never name like Monday. It's actually second day of the week. The third day of the week in Portuguese is called, not Tuesday, it's actually called the third day of the week.

And so on till Friday. It's the sixth day. It's actually the market day, the sixth day of doing business. That's what it is. So it's the sixth day. And so time had not been lost. So when these people came to me with that, time had been lost. That's clearly out of the question. So the next thing is, does the Bible teach the Sabbath? So that was my thinking, because I was proving which one is the true church.

And I said, does the Bible teach the Sabbath? Yes. I mean, you and I can go to and let's go through it. Some of these scriptures, very briefly. Genesis 2 will stop. Genesis 2. Genesis 2, verse 2 and 3. And it says, And on the seventh day God entered his work, which he had done, and he rested. God rested. Now, interesting, the word in Hebrew for rested is Sabbath. You know, God Sabbath. That's what rest in Hebrew is, is Sabbath. It's a verb.

Resting is Sabbath. So God rested. So God Sabbath on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done. And then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. It's sanctified by God. No man can sanctify anything. I mean, God sanctified that day. He rested on that day. He Sabbath on that day, because in it he Sabbath. In it he Sabbath from all his work, which he had created and made.

So the Sabbath is right there, right there at the beginning, long before the Ten Commandments. In fact, you can read in Exodus 16, verse 23, before the Ten Commandments. Not coming there now. We'll go there a little later. But there is when the Israelites left Egypt.

They were moaning. God gave them manna. And then at that time he said, listen, tomorrow is the Sabbath and this and that. Now there's a manna, but on the seventh day there won't be any manna. But on the Friday, on the sixth day, you'll get double portion and things like that, so you can prepare for the Sabbath. So there it was before giving the Ten Commandments. They already had the Sabbath. And when we go to the Ten Commandments, and I want to thank you, Mr. Graby, for going into a very good sermon, introducing this specific point. Because, as you said, the God's law is for our good. And the Sabbath is for our good, as you also clearly explained. So in Exodus 20, verse 8, it doesn't say in chapter 20, verse 8, it does not say, let me give you something new that you don't know about it, and to keep it holy. And it's the Sabbath. No, it doesn't say that. It says, remember the Sabbath. So it was not a new law given, and people say, oh well, this is the old covenant, old covenant is done away, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, because it was given at the creation. God's Sabbath at the creation. It was given when they had the manor before. And as Mr. Graby gave an example, it also highlighted that our Isaac was told, Abram obeyed my laws and my commandments. So it was there all along. So the Sabbath has been in existence long ago, and the Sabbath is a sign. Turn to me to Exodus 31. Exodus 31 is a very powerful scripture about the Sabbath. Exodus 31, we're just going to read from 13 to 17. And it said, speaking to the children of Israel, saying, surely my Sabbath you shall keep. Interesting, it says Sabbath in plural. So it's not just the weekly Sabbath, but it's referring to also about the Holy Days, the annual Sabbath. But anyway, let's just continue with the theme about the weekly Sabbath, the Sabbath. It says, for it is a sign. Now, note the word a sign. It does not say the sign. It's not the only sign. It is a sign. It's like, I could have a sign outside my door, I could have another sign somewhere else, but it is a sign. So it's not only the only sign about God's people. It is a sign about God's people. There's another sign that Christ gave us about God's people. It says, in John 13, 35, He says, He that loves as loved for another is a Christian. He is like me. There is another sign there, a really important sign. So the Sabbath is one of the signs, a sign between me and you throughout your generations. And so, to me, at that time as a young man, I saw the Sabbath, I saw time had not been changed, had not been lost, and it was a sign. And when people were talking to me and I went on reading, and it says, you shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who professes it shall surely be put to death. And I said, well, death, put to death, which means breaking the Sabbath has a death penalty. Now, not many laws have a death penalty. I mean, murder has a death penalty, kidnapping has a death penalty, cursing the parents has a death penalty. Wow! That should be a lesson to today's society schools, cursing parents as a death penalty, rape under certain circumstances as a death penalty, and breaking the Sabbath has a death penalty. Therefore, Christ could have not broken the Sabbath, otherwise you would have had a death penalty and it could not be our Savior.

It's simple. Simple. And Christ says, imitate me. For whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. And then he goes on, work shall be done, and on every six days, but on the seventh day of rest, it is holy to God. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath, he shall be put to death. So he says it twice. He emphasizes that. Verse 16, therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout the generation as a perpetual covenant. So when people told me, ah, the Sabbath is part of the old covenant, even if it was just part of the old covenant, yes, it is part of the old covenant, but if it was just, but Sabbath was before, but the Sabbath is also a separate perpetual covenant. There is a Sabbath covenant, and there it is. The Sabbath is a perpetual covenant. It is a sign, not this sign, but 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 Sabbath and was refreshed. God Sabbath and was refreshed. And as I mentioned, the Israelites were punished for the sovign, the Sabbath. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 20. Ezekiel chapter 20. Ezekiel chapter 20 verse 23 and 24. Ezekiel chapter 20 verse 23 and 24. Also, I raise my hand as in an oath to those in the wilderness that I would capture them among the Gentiles and disperse them throughout the countries. That happened. Israel, after Solomon, was divided into two kingdoms, the kingdom of the north, Israel, and the kingdom of the south, Judah. And the kingdom of the north, Israel, in 733 and 722 before Christ, went into captivity by the Assyrians, and thereafter they've been dispersed, and today they still dispersed, and it's known as the lost ten tribes.

Why? Because, verse 24, they have not executed my judgments, but have despised my statutes, profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their father's eyes, because they broke God's laws and specifically they profaned God's Sabbaths. So they never returned. Later, about a century and a half later, the house of Judah also went into captivity into Babylon. However, God showed them mercy, and they came back 70 years later, and then they legislated laws so that they would not break the Sabbath again. They added extra laws around the Sabbath, just like human beings today do, you know? People say, well, you can't drink and drive. All right, then what happens? People go out and still drink and drive. So they put laws, additional laws, like you've got to measure so much liquor in your blood, and this and you add little laws around, and that's what they've done. They added laws so that they would not break the Sabbath. In their zeal to now obey God's commandment about the Sabbath, they went overboard and put burdens around the Sabbath. That's what happened. So does the Bible teach the Sabbath? Yes. So as a young man, I asked myself, all right, which one is the true church? The Sabbath must be the true church, the one that keeps the Sabbath. Then, but people were saying, yeah, but, you know, as Christians we don't have to, and so I asked myself, did Christ keep the Sabbath? Of course He did, as I mentioned before, otherwise He would have sinned. He would have had a penalty of death. And there's just one quick structure, yeah. Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. It shows clearly that He kept the Sabbath. Luke chapter 4 verse 16. And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.

In modern, in modern lingua, let's call it this way, in a modern tongue, in a modern language, you'd have said, as He was His habit, He went to church on the Sabbath. That's really what it says there, you know, as always His custom. He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And not only when He was respected, they were allowing to read. He was one of the leaders in the church. And if you continue reading also in verse 31, and it says, then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. So Christ kept the Sabbath, taught on the Sabbath. Clearly, He obeyed the Sabbath. Yes, indeed, there was a conflict between Christ and the Pharisees about keeping the Sabbath. For it was not about whether you should or not keep the Sabbath, it was about those little extra burdens that they had legislated around the Sabbath. They added weights, as Christ mentioned about the Pharisees, you hypocrites, you added burdens around the law. Matthew 23 verse 4. And therefore, they did that in a sense to ensure that people would obey because they were carnal, but those were burdens. I've got out. I went to the church library there at ABC this week, and I found a small little book called Sabbath History I, before the beginning of modern denominations. And I found a little interesting quote there, and this book is by Hava John Clarence Bond. And I found an interesting quote, which I'm going to read to you there from page 14 and 15 that says, that God created the heavens and the earth, and at the same time instituted the Sabbath on the seventh day was a fundamental belief of the Hebrews. In this fight, Jesus was born, and of it he said, not one jotl or tittle would pass away till all is fulfilled. So if the roots of the Sabbath reach back to this ancient scripture, it is well grounded. And yes, it is well grounded, because it goes back to this. If Jesus said it cannot pass away till the earth passes, then in our Sabbath keeping we do well to hocken to the voice of the master.

I think it's very well stated. We do well to hocken to that instruction. And indeed, that's what he did. And let's look at that instruction in Matthew 5. Matthew 5 verse 17 and 18.

Matthew 5 verse 17 and 18, that's part of the sermon on the Mount. And it says, Do not think that I've come to destroy the law of the prophets. I do not come to destroy it, but to fulfill it. And there was to apply it, to make it full. For surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away. And I tell you, I think earth and earth has not passed away yet. I mean, if earth had passed away, I would not be Yahdul. Would you be Yahdul? So we are Yahdul. He says, surely I say to you, till earth and heaven pass away. And they have not passed away. Bad we know. But he says, until the apostle away, not one chock or one temple will by no means pass from the Lord till all is fulfilled.

So that's it. We'll do well to listen to his advice. As simple as that. Okay, so the Bible teaches the Sabbath. Time has not been lost. Christ kept the Sabbath. Obviously, we've seen that Sabbath is a sign. Now, what about the New Testament Church? Did they keep the Sabbath? Well, let's look at Paul. Paul, in Acts 17, verse 2, this is the time that he was doing his missionaries, missionary trips, and then he would stop writing his letters. So it's Paul, in Acts 17, the Ephesus of the various churches. So, yeah, in 17 verse 2, as he was forming these churches, he was instructing these churches. Yeah, he's in Thessalonica, for instance, in 17 verse 2. And he says, then Paul has his custom walls, went into them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating, etc. Has his custom, his habit to keep the Sabbath. He was there in Thessalonica, keeping the Sabbath. The church kept the Sabbath. That's why, in Colossians chapter 2, verse 16, Colossians chapter 2, verse 16, Colossians chapter 2, verse 16, it says, So let no one judge you, let nobody pass judgment on you on food or in drink, let nobody judge you in what you eat or you don't eat, let no one judge you regarding a feast. In other words, you keep the different feasts, let no one judge you. Let no one judge you about a new moon. In other words, about how you use them to work out the beginning of months and things like that. Let no one judge you how you do that, because you might not do exactly what others do, or let no one judge you about the Sabbath. Why? Why? Because they are a shadow of things to come. The point to something still future.

Yes, and we're going to see that in a moment. The point to something still in the future. Let no one judge you about those things which point to the future, but let the church, the body, the word therefore substance should be body, but the church of God, but the body of Christ. Let no one judge you, but God's church judge you. It's God's church that tells you, pointing you to God's laws about foods to eat or to drink. It's God's church that points you to God's laws and to God's principles about the feast days, about how to work the calendar, how to keep the Sabbaths, etc. It's God's church that judges you, not other men. Let no other men come out of their own ideas and do that, but it's God's church that does that. So, let's look a bit further about the Sabbath here, because Paul, about 30 to 35 years after Christ's death, this is long after he wrote all the other epistles, is probably the last epistle he wrote. That's Hebrews. A few years before 70 AD, maybe a year or two before he died, Paul wrote to the Hebrews a very important letter. And let's look at Hebrews chapter 4. So, this was long after he wrote all the other letters, all the other epistles. About 35 years of the Christ's death of the church, the church's existence in the New Covenant, the New Testament church, the church of God had been in existence now for about 35 years, and Paul wrote the following in Hebrews chapter 4. I'm not going to read all things, but I'm just going to give you a little bit of the context. As you read at the end of chapter 3, it's saying, listen, be careful, because those people were punished. Those Israelites were punished because they did not obey. As you can read in verse 18 of chapter 3, it says, and to whom be they swear that they would not enter his rest.

And remember, even though he's not writing in Hebrew, yeah, it appears not, although he may have been written this letter in Hebrew because it was to the Hebrews, but his rest is sabbath, and he says, they would not enter his rest to those who did not obey. You see, they didn't obey. For we see they could not enter him because of their unbelief. So you can see, now he's relating the word obey with unbelief. So the two are one. When you don't believe, you don't obey. As I mentioned before, whenever you see the word believe, see the word obey behind it because they did not obey because of their unbelief. The two go together, and then he is explaining to them about something very important. He's using the analogy that they were in the wilderness, and they did not, those people in the wilderness, for 40 years, they not entered the promised land. They were punished in the wilderness. The promised land was their rest. And then David, a lot like to say it, died an out rest, but their remains still a promised land for us, a rest to come, a promised land. So he's comparing how David, much later, still pointed to a future rest, to a future rest. And remember, those people were already in the so-called promised land. So he's equating to the millennial rest. And therefore, he's bringing this point of sign, the rest is pointing to a future, the millennial rest. And therefore, he gives that explanation, and you need to read Hebrews 4 to study it in your own time to get it clearly. But in verse 9, he says, their remains therefore are sabachismus for the people of God. And it was, their remains therefore the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God. Because the Sabbath points to that rest, which is a shadow of things to come, as we saw in Colossians. And therefore, it represents the millennial rest the seventh thousandth year, the seventh millennium day, let's call it, which is still to come, which will be the kingdom of God reigning on earth. But also, spiritually, it looks beyond to a spiritual life, which will be a rest, an eternal rest. So the Church of God has got an instruction now about Paul, saying that their remains therefore a keeping of the Sabbath for the people of God. It remains therefore a resting, that rest symbolic, which symbolizes something into the future. So the New Testament Church definitely kept the Sabbath. So when I look at it, I said, right, I have got to now keep the Sabbath, and I started searching for churches that will keep the Sabbath. That's where the analogy of my youth ends, but my question is, so what? So what for you and I today? Well, the point is that you and I need to re-examine ourselves how we keep the Sabbath. Some people say, oh well, we worship the Sabbath. No, we don't worship the Sabbath. You know, we don't worship creation. The Sabbath is a creation. The Sabbath was created. The Sabbath is not an end, it's a means to an end. In other words, we worship God by observing the Sabbath. But how we observe the Sabbath is important. So we need to examine ourselves to say, how do we observe the Sabbath?

And there's one key scripture about that, which is in Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58. As it was very well explained, honestly, gravy was that it is for our good, it's for our benefit. But let's look, Yah, in Isaiah 58. Let's read just two verses 13 and 14 about the Sabbath, telling the Israelites, yeah, applicable to us, if, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath.

In other words, if you trample upon the Sabbath.

So don't trample on the Sabbath. That's basically what it's saying. From doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight. The Sabbath is a delight, is a joy.

You know, brethren, not many weeks ago, and I'm not going to say where, because I don't want you to to start wondering who it was, but definitely was not in this congregation, so let's say that. But somebody in the church told me, when I was discussing with him and explaining to him something else, and he's been in the church for a long time, he told me, because I was explaining to him, and God does not add burdens. And as was very well explaining the previous split sermon, you know, it's not burdensome. God's laws are not burdensome. This individual said, you know what burdens are? The Sabbath is a burden.

And I was shocked. I was shocked. Because when you see the Sabbath as a burden, and not a delight, then there's something wrong with our approach to keeping the Sabbath. There's something wrong.

There's something wrong. There's something wrong in the heart. And out of the abundance of the heart, and out of the speech, sometimes we don't know, no, but it comes out somewhere in different ways. And so we've got to look at our heart. And that's what I mean. Let us re-examine how we keep the Sabbath, because I was stunned. I was like, as if I'd been given an injection that paralyzed me. I just went paralyzed, and a man that's been in the church for so long told me that. And therefore, I look at this and I say, it's time for us to re-examine ourselves. How we're keeping the Sabbath, we're keeping it the right way. And we've got to do that regularly. So it says, and call the Sabbath a delight. You know, it's not a burden. The holy day of the Lord, honorable.

As Mr. Grayby said, it's for our good. It's for our good.

And shall honor him, not doing your own ways. And he has three things that it says. Number one, not doing your own ways. So we need to re-examine ourselves. Obviously, it means not doing your own job, but it's more than not doing your own job. Maybe it's some house cleaning. Maybe it's some sewing. Maybe it's some physical maintenance. We've got to be careful. It's easy to creep in. Little things like that. And so we've got to re-examine ourselves not to do our own ways on the Sabbath. Nor finding our own pleasure.

Okay. We need to re-examine ourselves.

That means maybe going hunting. Going hunting might be on pleasure. Or golfing. And it says, don't do that. You don't do that on the Sabbath. You don't find your own pleasure. Or watch movies. Or watch TV. Or go boating. Or do different hobbies or pleasure-seeking. It says, don't find your own pleasure on the Sabbath. No speaking your own words.

Because we talk. What are we thinking about? Because out of the mouth comes our thoughts. So what is it that we need to do? We need to put our mind on the positive purposes of why the Sabbath was made.

The positive purposes.

Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. Then you'll enjoy the Sabbath. It'll be a pleasure. It'll be you'll feel good about it. And it'll be, ha, I enjoy it.

I'll pause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you the energy of Jacob your father and the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. So you'll enjoy the Sabbath. Now, you can't enjoy the Sabbath by being hypocritical about it, by being self-righteous about it, by being pharasical about it. That's why Christ elsewhere said, and he had the bites with the Jews about that because, well, let's look at an example in Luke 14.

Luke 14.

And yeah, in talking about a man that was healed on the Sabbath. And there was a certain man in verse 2 before him who had dropsy, and Jesus answering spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal in the Sabbath?

Now, he was kind of, he was pulling them aside, you know, like in the bite and says, right, now, tell me, is it lawful to heal in the Sabbath? In other words, is it right to do good on the Sabbath?

They kept silent. They knew better, but they just shut up.

And he took him, and he healed him, and let him go. And then he said to them, which of you, having a donkey or an ox that is falling into a foot, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath side?

You see, you could say that's work. So if you legislated it down to so many calories of work or energy, then you could not do it because whatever. But there is a balance. You see, you can become fat as cycle, and that's what Christ was telling them. There's a balance. And as was very clearly described by Mr. Graby, the Sabbath is made for man. Mark 2, 27, don't have to turn there, we turned it to it a little early on. And there's something very deep in that statement. And there's something very deep in that statement. There's something very deep in that statement. The Sabbath is made for man.

God's laws are made for man.

For our good, in other words. And the Sabbath is made for us, for our good. And so, it's not to be a burden for us, not to be something that you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do that. Yes, you can't do your own ways. You can't do your own pleasure. You can't do your own words. Why? Because now you have time, free time, from those daily activities. And you have, therefore, time. God is giving us payment on a free day. To actually be able to have extra time for prayer, for meditation, for Bible study, and for Christian fellowship. And to think about the right things and help, whatever it is, and encourage other brethren and be uplifted. And physically, yes, rest. But spiritually, we have time to do other things. It's not a day that we sit and lie in bed the whole day because we can't do anything. No. But it really is a day to learn and to teach God's ways, and to sharpen one's iron by having Christian fellowship. And like it was mentioned, to assemble, not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as it was mentioned earlier on. But it's a day to be together because the Sabbath was made for man. It is such an important principle that people just don't understand.

And I fear that I don't fully understand it as well. Do you know what? I don't think we all fully understand exactly what it's meant by the Sabbath is made for man. It's an important, deep, profound spiritual principle. And as much as for the Sabbath, it's for the Holy Days.

Those days are made for man. It's not to bind us with things. Those days, God has made them for our good. And so, there is value in that. And we need to understand it's not to be legalistic. It's not a burden, but it's based on outgoing concern and love because God is love. That's the trunk of the tree. God is love. And it's not washing it away by saying, oh well, lovey, lovey, lovey, lovey, lovey. No, because God's laws show us the way to love, how to love. God's laws shows us like 10 little rivers where the water flows through that shows how to love the fellow man. And the Sabbath is just one of those. So, brethren, as a young man, being in another church, I wondered how to identify God's true church. And clearly, to me, at that time, the Sabbath was one of the identifying signs. Then, I came into a church that kept the Sabbath, but then I still needed more additional things to prove which one was true church. But the Sabbath was like one of the major tests that narrow it down. We have seen days have not been changed. God teaches us about the Sabbath. The Bible teaches about the Sabbath. Christ kept the Sabbath. The days have not been changed. The Catholic Church openly admits it that they changed it. If you look here in our Sabbath booklet, there are quotes from the Catholic Church openly admitting it. They changed it. And I had it in my own catechism, but there is quotes there. You read it. Take your time to read it. It's unbelievable. So, the Sabbath has not changed. But the question is, so what? How do we keep it today? Brethren, you and I need to re-examine ourselves daily. That we're keeping it in a way that it's pleasing to God. Not for a cycle, but on the other side, not watering it down. Doing it just right. That right balance that's pleasing to God. Let us all continuously examine ourselves to obey God, to please God, to keep the Sabbath, and all these other laws, because they are, as was very well said in the first split sermon, for our own good.