Participants: Pastor Stephen Bohr
Series Code: CGC
Program Code: CGC000010
|
01:15 Shall we pray? Father, in heaven, as we begin this very,
01:19 important study from Your Holy Word, we ask that You will give 01:23 us understanding, and not only understanding, but that You will 01:27 give us the willingness to listen to Your voice, 01:30 and to put into practice that which we learned 01:33 from Your Holy Word. 01:34 We ask for the guidance of Your Spirit, and we ask for a 01:39 submissive and tender heart. 01:41 We thank You, Lord for hearing our prayer for we ask it in 01:44 Jesus' name, Amen. 01:47 I'd like us to begin our study today at the book of 01:52 Exodus 20:8-11, Exodus 20:8-11. 02:00 This is the fourth commandment of the law of God. 02:04 The law which God wrote with His own finger 02:08 on tables of stone, with, actually, flames of fire, 02:13 according to scripture. 02:14 It says here: 02:29 In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, 02:35 nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, 02:41 nor your stranger who is within your gates:... 02:45 And then we have the reason why God gave this commandment. 02:49 Notice verse 11. It says: 03:12 That is He made it holy. 03:14 Now there are two things that I want us to notice 03:16 as we begin our study. 03:18 First of all, the reason for the observance of this commandment 03:23 is creation. It says that God gave us this commandment because 03:29 in six days He made the heavens, the earth, the seas, 03:32 and all that is in them, and He rested the seventh day. 03:37 So this commandment is actually a creation ordinance. 03:42 The second thing that I want us to notice about this verse 03:46 is that it clearly tells us that God did three things 03:49 with the Sabbath. 03:51 First of all, we are told that He rested. 03:54 And I want you to remember these words: He rested. 03:56 Secondly, He blessed the Sabbath. 03:59 And in the third place, we find that God hallowed it, 04:04 or sanctified it; He made it Holy. 04:06 So three ideas: resting, blessing, and hallowing. 04:13 And it points us back to creation. 04:16 Now if this commandment points us back to creation, 04:19 where do you suppose would be a good place 04:21 to go to find out why God gave it? 04:23 I think it would be a good idea for us to go back 04:26 to the book of Genesis, because that's where 04:29 we find creation described. 04:31 This commandment sends us back to Genesis. 04:34 So let's go back to Genesis. 04:36 We have a couple of verses that I'm going to refer to. 04:39 I'm not going to read them, but I'm going to refer to them, 04:42 because we've mentioned them before. 04:44 First of all we have Genesis 1:1. 04:46 I don't think I even have to turn in my Bible to that one. 04:50 It says: In the beginning God created 04:53 the heavens and the earth. 04:54 We have three ideas: in the beginning, God, 04:59 created heaven and earth. 05:01 When we go to John 1:1-3 we find who that creator was. 05:07 It says very clearly there: In the beginning,... 05:12 See, the same expression. 05:13 In the beginning was the Word. 05:16 The Word was God. 05:18 And then verse 3 tells us that all things were made by Him; 05:23 and without Him nothing was made that was made. 05:28 So as we compare Genesis 1:1, with John 1:1-3, 05:33 there's no doubt whatsoever that the Creator of Genesis 05:38 was none other than whom? 05:40 It was none other than Jesus Christ. 05:42 So, if at the beginning Jesus created the Sabbath, 05:46 the Sabbath is the day of Jesus, because Jesus is the Creator, 05:52 according to scripture. 05:53 Now let's go back to Genesis 1 and discover what condition 05:59 this world was in before Jesus actually created it. 06:05 Genesis 1:1, 2: In the beginning God,... 06:12 That's Jesus; we've already seen from John 1. 06:14 In the beginning God created the heaven's and the earth. 06:18 And now comes the verse I want to underline. 06:24 How many problems did the earth have? two. 06:36 And the Spirit of God was hovering over 06:38 the face of the waters. 06:39 Now you notice that the planet before Jesus put it in order, 06:46 before He actually performed the work of creation of the 06:48 six days of creation week, we find that the earth was without 06:53 form and void. Now what does that mean, 06:55 without form and void? 06:56 Well, I like the translation in Spanish better, 07:00 because it's closer to what the original means. 07:02 In Spanish it says: Desordenada y Vacia. 07:07 What does Desordenada mean? 07:10 There's some of you who know Spanish. 07:12 It means in a disorderly state. 07:14 And what does Vacia mean? 07:17 It means empty. In other words, there were two problems 07:21 with the planet. It was in a disorderly state, 07:24 and it was empty. Now what the Bible means by a disorderly 07:29 state is that the planet, as it was, could not sustain life. 07:36 In other words, the planet was in a disorganized state. 07:39 It could not sustain life. 07:40 And so God, first of all, had to place the planet in order 07:45 to resolve the first problem, and then He had to fill it 07:49 to resolve the second problem. 07:52 And it's interesting, as we examine the story of creation, 07:56 that the first three days of creation week, 07:59 Jesus puts the planet in order. 08:02 And the last three days of creation week 08:05 He fills the planet with life. 08:08 Now, have you ever noticed that there was a progression 08:12 in the story of creation? 08:15 First of all God created inanimate things; 08:18 things that were not alive. 08:20 He created light, He created the firmament, 08:23 and He made the dry land. 08:25 None of those are conscious, or living. 08:27 Then he proceeded to create the sun, the moon, and the stars. 08:32 And then we find God creating vegetation, 08:38 and we find Him creating birds, and we find Him creating fish, 08:44 and we find Him creating human beings. 08:47 Now what Jesus did, was during the first three days of 08:51 creation, to prepare the planet for the living things 08:55 that He was going to fill the planet with 08:58 on the last three days. 08:59 Now let's review what Jesus did during creation week. 09:03 First Day: Jesus says, Let there be light, and there was light. 09:09 Second Day: Let there be the firmament. 09:14 And as He speaks the firmament appears. 09:17 By the way, that's the layer of oxygen. 09:19 Can any living thing survive without light? No. 09:24 Can any living thing survive without oxygen? Of course not. 09:28 And God knows that. 09:29 Some people say, Why didn't God create man first 09:32 if man was the most important thing? 09:33 Because he would have died without having any 09:36 oxygen to breathe. 09:37 See, God is pretty smart! 09:39 The first three days He organizes the planet, 09:42 so that then He can fill the planet afterwards. 09:45 And so the third day God said, Let the dry land appear, 09:49 because He knows that human beings are going to 09:51 live on the land. Hello! 09:52 He knows that the land animals are going to have 09:56 to live on the earth. 09:57 He knows that on the earth there are going to have to be 09:58 trees and plants, and so on the third day He makes the land 10:02 appear, and then He creates the vegetation. 10:06 And at the end of the third day He looks at what He has done, 10:11 and He says, It's good! 10:12 The fourth day He now fills the heavens with heavenly bodies; 10:17 with the sun, the moon, and the stars. 10:19 And at the end of the fourth day He looks upon what He has done, 10:22 and Jesus says, It's good! 10:24 Then comes the fifth day. 10:26 The waters are empty. 10:27 In the daytime the sky's are empty. 10:31 There's no songs of birds. 10:32 And so on the fifth day Jesus says, Let the waters produce 10:37 living creatures. And suddenly the waters are filled with 10:42 all sorts of living fish, and marine animals. 10:46 And then Jesus says on the fifth day, Let there be in the sky 10:50 birds. And suddenly the air is filled with birds 10:54 singing their songs. 10:56 Of course, at this point they didn't have anybody to sing 10:58 their songs to, but God is going to work on that. 11:00 Now, do you notice that at the end of the fifth day God looks 11:04 upon what He's made, Jesus does, and He sees that it is good. 11:09 Now comes the sixth day. 11:11 Do you know that on the sixth day Jesus worked more 11:16 than on any other day? 11:17 Allow me to review what happened on the sixth day of creation. 11:22 First of all, if you read the story in Genesis 2... 11:28 By the way, Genesis 2 is an amplification of certain 11:32 elements of chapter 1. 11:33 There were not two creations. 11:35 There's not the creation of Genesis 1, and the creation of 11:38 Genesis 2. Genesis 2 amplifies certain details that are not 11:42 contained in Genesis 1, particularly how the woman 11:47 who was created, how man was created, and amplifies also 11:52 several aspects about the tree of life, and the tree of the 11:55 knowledge of good and evil. 11:56 Now the first thing that Jesus made on the sixth day 12:00 were the land animals. 12:01 You can find that in Genesis 1: 25 and following. 12:08 Secondly He made man. 12:10 Have you ever noticed that when He made man He did not speak him 12:14 into existence, like He spoke everything else into existence? 12:17 He gave him the personal touch. 12:19 He took clay, He took dust, and He formed man 12:24 out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils 12:27 the breath of life. And the Bible says that man became 12:30 a living soul. Now I'd like to ask you, Do you suppose that 12:34 when Jesus created Adam, and suddenly Adam wakes up, 12:41 if we can use the expression, and he's suddenly conscious. 12:45 He wasn't there, and now suddenly he's there. 12:49 Do you suppose that Adam was somewhat surprised? 12:52 Do you suppose Adam asked, Where did I come from? 12:56 What am I doing here? 12:58 Where am I going? He must have had questions, because he wasn't 13:04 there, and now suddenly he's there. 13:06 Adam is surprised, but God does not explain to Adam, 13:10 at that moment, the source of His existence. 13:14 In fact, we find God saying after He created man, 13:20 that there's something in creation week that is not good. 13:22 Have you noticed that at the end of every week it says, 13:25 it was good? It was good, it was good, it was good. 13:27 When it gets to the part of the sixth day where God creates 13:31 man, He looks at Adam and He says, there is something here 13:34 that is not good. It is not good that man should be alone. 13:39 I will make him a helpmeet; a helper like unto him. 13:44 And so the Bible says that Jesus told Adam to name all of the 13:50 animals that He had created. 13:52 Now that's going to take more than five minutes. 13:54 That's going to take the better part of the sixth day. 13:56 And so Adam, and there's a purpose in this. 13:58 Adam starts naming all of the animals. 14:01 And as he names the animals, he sees that each one of them 14:03 has a mate, but he doesn't have a mate. 14:05 God wanted him to feel lonely. 14:08 And now in his loneliness, he's craving for a mate 14:13 like the animals have a mate. 14:14 And the Bible says that Jesus says it's not good for Adam 14:20 to be alone. And so you have the first anesthesia of human 14:23 history, general anesthesia, and Adam is put to sleep. 14:28 And then you have the first surgery of human history. 14:32 The Bible says that God, Jesus opened up Adam's side, 14:37 and He took out one of Adam's ribs. 14:40 And out of the rib He made a woman. 14:44 And now suddenly, you can imagine Adam shaking off 14:49 the effects of the anesthesia. 14:50 And, you know, he was sleeping. 14:54 He didn't know what was going on. 14:55 And then suddenly he wakes up and here comes Jesus, 14:59 walking along with Eve next to His side, 15:03 because the Bible says that God brought Eve to Adam. 15:06 See, you don't go out hunting for a mate. 15:10 God brings the mate to you. 15:12 If you go hunting you might run into trouble. 15:15 And so God, Jesus brings Eve to Adam. 15:21 And I can just only imagine somewhat what Adam 15:26 must have said. He must have said, Wow! 15:30 Where did you come from? 15:32 You're beautiful! You're just like me! 15:35 You stand erect. And you're able to communicate; 15:40 you're able to talk. 15:41 How wonderful! Where did you come from? 15:44 By the way, have you noticed that not once in all of this 15:50 creation story did Adam or Eve see God create anything? 15:55 This is amazing! Even when He created Eve, 15:59 He put Adam to sleep. 16:00 In other words, the only proof, if you can speak of proof, 16:05 that Adam and Eve had that God was their Creator, was what? 16:09 The fact that God told them that He was their Creator. 16:14 They had no scientific proof. 16:16 They had no empirical proof. 16:18 They had no historical proof. 16:19 They had no proof whatsoever. 16:21 The only proof, or evidence, if you please, that they had 16:25 that Jesus was their Creator, is the fact that Jesus told 16:29 them that He was their Creator. 16:32 They had to accept it by faith. 16:35 They had to trust God's Word. 16:37 By the way, do you know that the whole controversy in human 16:40 history is over God's Word. 16:44 You can boil everything down to God's Word. 16:47 We studied that in our last lecture. 16:49 What the devil is trying to do in Genesis 3 is shake the trust 16:54 of Adam and Eve in God's Word. 16:56 And we notice that He uses five methods: 16:58 First method, signs and wonders. 17:01 You know, accept the sign and the wonder, instead of what I've 17:03 said. The second method is for the devil to actually change 17:09 God's Word. God has said, You can't eat of any tree 17:12 of the garden, to get Eve to exaggerate God's Word. 17:16 God told us not to touch it. 17:17 And later on we'll find that the devil will actually quote 17:22 God's Word correctly, but he'll leave certain portions out, 17:25 like in Psalm 91. See, he quoted Psalm 91 correctly, but he left 17:31 a portion of it out. 17:32 And so, if you leave a portion out, it can leave a totally 17:36 different, and wrong impression. 17:38 And then, of course, we find that the devil tried to get Adam 17:40 and Eve to follow their senses. 17:42 He tried to get Adam and Eve to follow their reasoning powers. 17:45 And he used Eve, a person, to tempt Adam. 17:48 So the devil uses five methods to try and get God's people 17:53 to disobey His clear, explicit, simple Word. 17:58 Adam and Eve were supposed to accept that Jesus was their 18:03 Creator, because Jesus told them that He was their Creator. 18:07 After all, there could have been other explanations, right? 18:10 Couldn't they have come into existence by a big bang? 18:14 I suppose so! Couldn't they have come into existence 18:17 by spontaneous generation? I suppose so. 18:19 And that's what the devil wanted Eve to believe. 18:22 He says, Oh, this story of God that He's your Creator, 18:25 and that when you eat from the tree you're going to die. 18:27 Oh, come on! You actually believe that? 18:30 You trust that? Oh, come on now! 18:33 You see, what God knows is that if you eat from that tree, 18:37 you're going to be just like Him. 18:39 You're going to be other gods around, and God doesn't want 18:41 other gods around. He's the only one who wants to be God, 18:44 and so He intimidates you into thinking that if you eat, 18:47 you're going to die. 18:48 You're not going to die, you're going to be just like Him. 18:51 And God doesn't want any rivals. 18:53 Do you see what this temptation really involves? 18:56 It's much more serious than what most people think. 18:59 Now we need to take a look at Genesis 2:2, 3, Genesis 2:2, 3. 19:09 Do you remember the three things that are mentioned in Exodus 20? 19:14 The fourth commandment of the law of God? 19:15 The three ideas? What did God do with the Sabbath? 19:17 He what? He rested. 19:19 Secondly He blessed. 19:21 And then the third, He sanctified, or made Holy. 19:24 Now is the Sabbath of Genesis the same Sabbath of Exodus 20? 19:28 Do you think so? 19:29 Notice Genesis 2:2, 3, Genesis 2:2, 3. It says: 19:59 Question: did Jesus in Genesis, do the very three things that 20:04 are mentioned in the fourth commandment of the law of God? 20:06 Did He rest? Yes. Did He bless? Yes. 20:10 Did He make holy or sanctified? Yes. 20:13 Is the fourth commandment referring to the same Sabbath 20:17 that was made at the beginning? 20:18 Absolutely. There's no doubt whatsoever. 20:20 The Sabbath is a creation ordinance. 20:24 Now let me ask you, do you think that God had to bless 20:28 the Sabbath for Himself? 20:29 Listen folks, God is the source of all blessing. 20:32 Why would He have to bless a day for Himself? 20:34 He's infusing the day with a blessing not for Himself, 20:39 but for others. Everything that God blesses is for others 20:42 in scripture. Never for Himself. 20:44 So God blessed the seventh day Sabbath. 20:47 He infused the day with life, health, and prosperity, 20:52 because anytime you find the word blessing in scripture, 20:55 it has to do with life, with abundance, with prosperity, 20:58 with that which is good. 21:00 Did God have to make a day holy for Himself? 21:04 He says, Oh, I'm going to make a holy day for Myself. 21:07 Listen, for God all days are holy, because everything 21:10 connected with God is Holy. 21:12 And so God didn't have to set apart a day, a Holy day, 21:15 for Himself. Did God really need to rest, in fact? 21:19 The fact is that we're going to notice in a few moments that 21:22 God did not have to rest. 21:24 Jesus did not have to rest. 21:25 I mean, how much rest do you need after saying, 21:28 Let there be light? 21:29 Let there be the firmament. 21:31 Let there be dry land. 21:33 Let there be trees, and plants, and grass. 21:38 Let there the be the sun, the moon, and the stars. 21:40 Let there be fish. 21:42 Let there be birds. 21:43 Let there be land animals. 21:45 You know, God at the end of creation week, He says, Wow, 21:47 I've really worked! 21:48 I need a vacation. 21:49 Is God resting because He's tired? 21:53 Is Jesus resting because He's tired? 21:56 Absolutely not! Then the question is, why is He resting? 22:02 We'll get to that in a moment, but before that allow me 22:05 to mention one other thing, which is extremely important. 22:08 Do you know that the story of creation says that Jesus 22:11 actually finished His work twice? 22:15 Now you say, how can you finish your work twice? 22:18 Well, let's notice Genesis 1:31. 22:21 There's a very interesting nuance here. 22:24 Genesis 1:31, and we'll continue reading through chapter 2. 22:28 Genesis 1:31, and we'll go on to read chapter 2. It says there: 22:50 When did He finish? 22:54 It says it was the evening and the morning of the sixth day. 22:57 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them 23:01 were finished. He finished the sixth day, 23:03 according to this verse. 23:04 But then you read the next verse. 23:06 It appears to have a contradiction. 23:08 It says in verse 2: And on the seventh day God ended his work 23:13 which he had done;... 23:14 Now wait a minute. Did He finish on the sixth 23:19 or did He end on the seventh? 23:22 Maybe Moses forgot what he wrote in Genesis 1:31. 23:27 And he says, Oh, excuse me. 23:29 It wasn't the sixth day that He finished, it was the seventh day 23:32 that He finished. Actually, there's something else 23:34 that's going on here, and let me explain it. 23:36 I had the privilege of working for 41/2 years in New Mexico. 23:43 All of New Mexico was my territory, and West Texas. 23:45 I lived in Amarillo, Texas. 23:47 And one of the places which I really enjoyed visiting 23:50 was Taos, New Mexico. 23:51 Have any of you ever been to Taos, New Mexico? 23:54 Beautiful country up there. 23:55 Yeah, you know, that's God's country. 23:57 Wonderful! Especially in the winter. 23:59 It gets beautiful because of all of the mountains. 24:01 But, anyway, something which Taos has, which I'm sure other 24:06 places have, but it impacted me, is a huge number of art 24:11 galleries. They have so many artists. 24:15 Many of them are Native Americans. 24:17 And, you know, you can go to their shop, and you can see them 24:20 actually painting works of art. 24:23 And I had the privilege, while I was there, I had a series of 24:27 meetings for three weeks one time. 24:28 In fact it was on Genesis. 24:30 This was many years ago. 24:31 And I used to enjoy going to the art galleries, 24:34 and watching the artist work. 24:35 And do you know what they would do? 24:37 What they would do is they would, first of all, 24:39 take a frame, a wooden frame, and then they would staple 24:42 a piece of canvas over the frame. 24:48 They would make sure that it was nice and tight. 24:50 They would place it on the easel, and then they would 24:54 sit down, and I'm dramatizing for effect. 24:56 They would sit down, and they would put some colors on the 24:59 canvas. And after they finished the first day of work they 25:03 would look at the canvas and say, It looks good. 25:06 And then the second day they would come and they would 25:10 add a few colors there. 25:11 They would perhaps add a few clouds in the sky. 25:15 And then after a day's work they would look, and they would 25:18 say, Hum, it looks good! 25:21 Then they would come the third day and they would add some 25:24 hills, and they would add some mountains, and some trees, 25:26 and some plants, and some flowers. 25:29 And at the end of the third day they would look and they would 25:31 say, Hum, looks good! 25:34 Then the fourth day they would sit down, and they would 25:37 probably, you know, paint a sun in the sky, and they would add 25:40 a few more colors to the canvas. 25:42 And at the end of the fourth day they'd look at their work, 25:45 and they'd say, Hum, looks good! 25:48 And the fifth day they would have jumping out of a lake, 25:52 you know, some fish. 25:54 And they would color some birds flying through the air. 25:57 And at the end of the fifth day, they would look and they would 26:00 say, Hum, looks real good! 26:03 And then the sixth day they would sit down and they would 26:06 and some giraffes, and some elephants, and different kinds 26:09 of animals on the canvas, and then they would paint a woman 26:15 and a man perhaps, there enjoying the beautiful scenery. 26:18 And then they would add the final touches to the canvas, 26:24 and look and say, It is very good! 26:31 Now let me ask you, was the work of art finished? 26:37 I said they finished. I said he finished. 26:41 Is the work of art finished? 26:44 Yes, and No. The work itself is finished, but what is lacking? 26:52 The signature of the author of the work of art. 27:01 Without identifying who made it, (Hello), anybody can come along 27:06 and claim it. But the fact is that the picture was finished; 27:11 the work of art was finished. 27:12 But then the artist would take the brush. 27:18 See, I'm not an artist. 27:20 He would take the brush, and he would sign his name 27:24 to the work of art. 27:25 And then the work was finished. 27:30 If we apply this to creation, now we understand how Jesus 27:36 finished His work twice. 27:37 The sixth day He finished a work of art. 27:41 And, by the way, this work of art was not ecstatic that when 27:44 you look at it it's always the same. 27:47 This was a living picture. 27:50 It was a picture that changed at every instant, 27:53 at every moment. He made this beautiful world. 27:56 This beautiful work of art. 27:58 But Jesus knew that it was necessary to identify who was 28:04 the One who made this work of art. 28:07 And that's the reason why He created the Sabbath. 28:10 The Sabbath identifies the Creator. 28:14 The Sabbath is the signature of Jesus upon His work 28:18 of creation. It tells us who made all of these things. 28:23 Are you understanding what I'm saying? 28:25 Now, I mentioned that God wasn't tired, Jesus wasn't tired when 28:31 He finished creation week. 28:32 Let's go to Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 40:28. 28:39 Here we find an interesting declaration about creation, 28:43 and about the Creator. 28:44 And I want you to notice this interesting statement 28:48 of the prophet Isaiah. It says here: 29:12 Does the Creator get weary, according to this verse? 29:17 Was Jesus tired at the end of creation week? Absolutely not! 29:21 By the way, was man tired? 29:27 I don't know whether you've stopped to think about this. 29:29 Man was created on the second half of the first day. 29:34 So his first day on earth, first full day on earth, was the day 29:39 of what? It was the day of rest. 29:41 Now this is strange! 29:43 God rests, and He's not tired. 29:46 And man hadn't worked, and so he rests, 29:50 and he's not tired either. 29:52 Why would you have God and man resting on the Sabbath 29:56 if neither one of them are tired? 29:59 There must be a deeper purpose to the observance of the Sabbath 30:05 than physical rest. 30:08 Are you understanding what I am saying? 30:10 There's a deeper dimension to the Sabbath than physical rest, 30:15 because Adam wasn't tired, Eve wasn't tired, 30:18 and God wasn't tired either. 30:21 And, by the way, have you ever noticed in the creation story 30:24 that Adam and Eve did none of the work? 30:26 How much work of creation did Adam and Eve perform? 30:31 Nothing! And so when the seventh day comes around, God says to 30:38 Adam and Eve, I'm going to come down to the garden, 30:41 and I want you, Adam, and you, Eve, to spend the Sabbath 30:49 with me. I want us to rest together. 30:52 And you say, well, that's not what Genesis says. 30:54 Genesis says that God rested. 30:57 That's true, but notice what Jesus says in Mark 2:27, 31:02 Mark 2:27. And we'll read verse 28 also. 31:08 Notice Jesus, who was the Creator of the Sabbath, 31:12 what He has to say. 31:14 Mark 2:27. And He said to them: 31:28 ...and not man for the Sabbath. 31:31 Therefore the Son of man is also Lord of what? 31:38 Lord of the Sabbath. 31:39 For whom was the Sabbath made? 31:41 The Sabbath was not made for God, because God doesn't need 31:45 a Sabbath of rest. The Sabbath was made for man. 31:48 And yet God rested, and He invited man to rest. 31:52 Now why would they rest together? 31:54 Let me dramatize what happened that first Sabbath. 31:57 By the way, the last thing that God makes on the sixth day 32:02 is marriage. Do you notice that? 32:06 He calls Adam and Eve and He says, Adam, Eve, could you stand 32:11 right here in front of Me? 32:12 Ah, we're going to have our first marriage here. 32:14 And He pronounces those words: What God hath joined together 32:19 let not man cast asunder. 32:21 I declare you man and wife. 32:22 He didn't say that, but He married them. 32:25 And immediately after He marries them, the holy hours 32:30 of the Sabbath begin. 32:32 Now, have you noticed that during creation week, 32:35 the first six days God made things? 32:38 On the seventh day He made holy time. 32:43 This shows us that time is more important than what? 32:47 than things. In fact, during the sixth days of labor and work 32:54 we remember the things of God, whereas on the seventh day 32:59 the purpose is to remember the God of things. 33:04 Now, allow me to mention what happened on that first Sabbath. 33:08 God calls Adam and Eve. 33:10 He's resting with them. 33:11 It says so in Genesis. 33:12 And Jesus says to Adam, Well, Adam, what do you think? 33:19 Well, Lord, You could have made that tree a little bit taller 33:22 over there. I don't think so! 33:25 Jesus says, Do you like what you see? 33:29 What do you think Adam said? Wow! 33:34 How about those birds over there? Amazing! 33:38 How about this wife that I gave you? Wow! 33:41 How about this husband? Oh, marvelous! 33:45 In other words, on that day Jesus met with Adam and Eve 33:49 and they contemplated His work of creation. 33:53 God said, All of this that you see, I made for you. 33:59 It is My gift for you. 34:03 But you might forget where this came from. 34:08 So what I want us to do is every seventh day you're going 34:11 to interrupt your activities. 34:14 You're going to interrupt your endeavors. 34:17 And for twenty-four whole hours I'm going to come to the garden 34:22 and We're going to contemplate what I made for you. 34:27 The focus is going to shift from you to Me. 34:31 By the way, have you noticed that on the sixth day God made 34:35 Adam king of creation? 34:39 He gave Adam and Eve dominion, the Bible says. 34:42 But by creating the seventh day God is saying to Adam and Eve, 34:45 you are Lord's of creation, but the seventh day shows that I am 34:48 your Lord, because I made you; you're My creatures. 34:54 And so every seventh day Jesus promised to come and meet 34:58 with Adam and Eve so that they could contemplate His works 35:01 of creation; His marvelous works of creation. 35:03 And in this way their hearts would be filled with reverence, 35:06 and with love, and with gratefulness, because of the 35:11 love, and the wisdom of Jesus in giving them this gift. 35:15 Notice that they had not worked for it; it was a gift. 35:20 Is this true of salvation, too? 35:22 See, this is part two. 35:24 We're not dealing with the Sabbath and salvation in our 35:26 lecture today. We're going to deal with that tomorrow, 35:29 because the Sabbath has an additional dimension. 35:31 You see, the purpose of the Sabbath is to show that Jesus 35:36 works, and we simply receive His gift and accept it. 35:39 And keeping the Sabbath is a sign that we believe that He 35:43 is the Creator, and that we're thankful and grateful to Him, 35:46 and that we worship Him because He is our Creator. 35:49 How about it? Can you imagine Adam saying, You mean to say 35:55 that I have to take a whole day of the week out of my busy 36:00 schedule? And we have twenty- four hours to suspend all of my 36:05 things so that we can just talk about You, and what You've done? 36:09 How is it, Lord, that You deliver unto me this yoke 36:13 of bondage? You know what I think Adam said, what Eve said? 36:19 They said, Jesus, couldn't we meet every day? 36:25 Because if they loved Jesus, would they want to spend that 36:28 time of fellowship with Jesus? Yes! 36:31 The sixth day Jesus says, Adam I made you for Eve. 36:35 Eve I made you for Adam. 36:36 But the seventh day He says, Adam and Eve, I made you for Me. 36:40 I am your Lord. I am your Creator. 36:44 I made you for fellowship. 36:46 Suspend your things, and just come and enjoy rest with Me. 36:55 That was the original intent of the Holy Sabbath, 36:58 and God knew that people might forget it. 37:01 That's why, in the fourth commandment He says, 37:04 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 37:06 Do you think that if the Sabbath was necessary at creation, 37:09 in a perfect world, with a perfect Adam and Eve, 37:12 if it was necessary to remind them about their roots, 37:17 the source of their existence, how wonderful their Creator was, 37:20 how much love He had for them by giving them all of these 37:23 things free of charge, without their working for them. 37:26 Do you think that Adam and Eve needed to remember who 37:33 the Creator was? Obviously, Yes, 37:36 because the Sabbath was created for that purpose. 37:39 Now, it's interesting that some individuals say that the Sabbath 37:47 was okay in the Old Testament, but that the Sabbath does not 37:52 apply to Christians today. 37:53 I once had an interesting conversation with a pastor 37:57 friend. He was not a pastor of the same church 38:00 that I belong to. And just to play devil's advocate, 38:03 I said to him, You know what? 38:05 I believe that's it's perfectly okay for a man to marry a man, 38:08 and a woman to marry a woman. 38:12 Now, I don't believe that, but I said that to him. 38:16 And his eyes bulged, and he looked at me and he says, 38:20 You as a pastor would say that you think that a man can marry 38:25 a man, and a woman a woman? 38:27 I said, Sure, why not? 38:30 And he looked at me and he says, the answer is obvious. 38:34 The Bible says that at the beginning God made Adam and Eve, 38:39 and He performed the first marriage between a man 38:43 and a woman. And then I had him where I wanted him. 38:45 And I looked at him and I said, Okay, good point. 38:51 What else did Jesus make at creation week? 38:57 And boy, you should have seen him. 38:58 You could have heard a pin drop. 39:01 And I'm still waiting for his answer. 39:04 You see the Sabbath was made at the same time as marriage. 39:10 And so if you say that marriage still applies between a man 39:14 and a woman, and you argue on the basis of creation, 39:17 you must also argue on the basis of creation that the Sabbath 39:21 is still binding. And, by the way, some people say the Sabbath 39:24 was for the Jews. Listen up to what I'm going to say. 39:26 No place in the Bible does it say that the Sabbath was 39:30 the Sabbath of the Jews. 39:31 Furthermore, Adam was not a Jew, because the name Jew comes from 39:36 Judah, one of the sons of Jacob. 39:40 In fact the Sabbath, some people say, Well, the Sabbath was 39:42 a symbol of the rest that we have in Jesus 39:44 when He died on the cross to give us His spiritual rest. 39:46 Listen folks, when the Sabbath was created there was no need 39:49 for any Redeemer, because man had not sinned. 39:52 The Sabbath is part of God's original plan for man. 39:56 It is not an after thought of God. 39:58 Well, I'll give them the Sabbath now to show them the rest that I 40:01 am going to give them someday when I die on the cross. 40:03 There was no need for a cross when the Sabbath was created. 40:07 There were no Jews, so you can't say that the Sabbath was 40:10 made for the Jews. 40:11 Am I making myself clear? 40:13 The Sabbath is a creation institution. 40:17 Now I'd like to ask the question, when does the 40:20 Sabbath begin? This is very important. 40:23 You know, some people say I keep Sunday. 40:26 And what they do is go to church on Sunday. 40:28 It's not the same to go to church on Sunday, 40:31 or go to church on Saturday, as observing the Sabbath 40:36 the way the Bible says. 40:37 Notice Genesis 1:5, Genesis 1:5. 40:44 This is a formula that is used each day of creation. 40:48 It says there in verse 5: 41:02 Did you notice the order? 41:03 What comes first, the evening or the morning? 41:05 According to this it's the evening and the morning. 41:09 And, by the way, the word evening means sunset. 41:14 Go with me to Mark 1:32, Mark 1:32. 41:22 Here it's speaking about the healings of Jesus, 41:25 and these are the words that we find. 41:27 At evening...Notice the same word. 41:42 When is evening? When the sun what? 41:46 When the sun sets. 41:48 And it says in the Bible, from evening to evening 41:52 shall you keep, your what? your Sabbaths. 41:57 Now let me ask you, do you know why we have a week today? 42:00 Why does a week have seven days? 42:05 Do you know that every measurement of time that we have 42:07 has an astronomical explanation, except one? 42:11 Our year is the amount of time that it takes our earth to make 42:17 one complete revolution around the sun: 365 and 1/4 days. 42:22 It has an astronomical explanation. 42:24 Our month, technically speaking, is the period between one 42:28 new moon and another. 42:31 The day is the amount of time that it takes our planet to 42:35 make one complete turn on its axis. 42:37 Every one of those measurements has an astronomical 42:41 explanation. There's one measurement of time that has no 42:44 astronomical explanation, and that is the week. 42:46 Why does the week have seven days? 42:48 It could have ten. It could have five. 42:50 Why does it have seven days? 42:54 Simply because that's the way that God made the Sabbath, 42:59 that Jesus made the week, and the Sabbath at the beginning 43:02 of human history. And the weekly cycle has continued 43:06 uninterrupted since that time. 43:09 By the way, do you know that there are some people that say, 43:13 Well, you know, that's okay, but we don't know whether 43:16 the Sabbath today is the same Sabbath that existed 43:19 way back then. We don't know whether the weekly cycle 43:22 has been broken. Biblically we can show that the weekly cycle 43:27 has not been broken. 43:28 By the way, Christians have no problems saying that the Sunday 43:30 that we keep is the Sunday Jesus resurrected. 43:33 It's just the Sabbath that Adventist's keep 43:37 that isn't the same Sabbath. 43:38 But the Sunday that we keep today is the same 43:41 Sunday as the Resurrection. 43:42 You can't have it both ways. 43:44 If the Sunday that is observed today is supposedly in honor 43:48 of the resurrection of Jesus, then the day before Sunday, 43:51 the Sabbath, is also the same Sabbath. 43:53 Are you understanding what I'm saying? 43:57 And if the Sabbath today is the same Sabbath as it was 44:00 in the days of Christ, and Jesus kept that Sabbath, 44:04 because we find in Luke 4:16 that it was the custom of Jesus 44:08 to go to the synagogue to observe the Sabbath. 44:11 Now listen up to what I'm going to say. 44:12 If Jesus kept the same Sabbath, which we keep today, 44:15 which is true, astronomically and historically. 44:19 Even Christians recognize that, because they observe Sunday, 44:23 in honor of the resurrection of Jesus. 44:24 If that's true, then we have to conclude that the Sabbath 44:32 that Jesus observed is the same Sabbath of creation, 44:35 because do you think Jesus would be observing the wrong Sabbath, 44:38 being the Creator of the Sabbath in His day? 44:40 Are you understanding my point? 44:42 If the Sabbath of Christ is the same Sabbath of today, 44:45 and Jesus kept it, and Jesus created the Sabbath. 44:48 It must be the same Sabbath that He made at the beginning, 44:50 because the Creator would not be observing the wrong day. 44:55 In fact if you look, and I'll just mention this, 45:01 at Luke 23:54 through Luke 24:1, you'll find the sequence 45:07 of days. It very clearly says there that Jesus died 45:10 on the Preparation Day, the day before the Sabbath, 45:14 it says there, Jesus died. 45:15 Then it says that the women rested on the Sabbath day, 45:20 according to the commandment. 45:22 And then we're told in Luke 24:1 that Jesus resurrected 45:27 on the first day of the week. 45:28 So there you have the sequence. 45:31 You have Friday, His death. 45:34 By the way, Christians keep Good Friday. 45:37 Isn't it interesting how the Sabbath gets lost 45:40 during Holy Week? They speak about Palm Sunday. 45:45 And among Hispanics Holy Thursday is particularly 45:49 important: Jueves Santo. 45:51 Oh, that's a very important day. 45:53 And, you know, Crucifixion Friday, and Resurrection Sunday. 45:58 Who ever says anything about the Sabbath? 46:02 It's lost in the shuffle, because there's one who doesn't 46:06 want us to remember the Creator. 46:07 Who would that be? Satan. 46:12 So you find the sequence of days is the same. 46:17 By the way, did you notice that in the commandment, 46:19 and in Genesis, it doesn't say keep one day in seven. 46:23 Every day is the Sabbath. 46:26 Worship every seventh day. 46:28 Because some Christians say, Yeah, I worship every seventh 46:32 day. That's not what the Bible says. 46:35 The Bible says that the Sabbath is the seventh day. 46:39 The same seventh day of creation. 46:41 The same seventh day that Jesus kept, is the same seventh 46:45 day today. And it's a day when Jesus wants us to suspend all 46:49 of our activities. 46:51 And He wants us to forget about our business, 46:53 and about our work, and about our endeavors, 46:56 and our recreation. 46:57 He says, forget the things that I have made, and now we're going 47:01 to reflect, and we're going to think about our relationship. 47:04 Quality time in the rat race of life. 47:08 How about it? Is this a blessing? 47:10 Do you need a break? I do. 47:14 Actually, I work harder on Sabbath than any other day, 47:18 but it's a different kind of work. 47:20 The priests offered double sacrifices on the Sabbath, 47:23 but it was a delight for them. 47:25 I delight to have all of the church family together, 47:29 and enjoy the fellowship, and the church programming, 47:33 and the corporate worship. 47:35 It's absolutely beautiful! 47:37 Now, do you know that the Sabbath is the only day 47:41 in the Bible that is declared to be holy? 47:45 By the way, some people say all the days are holy. 47:49 I keep every day. 47:50 The Bible never says you're supposed to keep every day. 47:52 It says six days you're supposed to work. 47:56 The seventh day is the Sabbath that we're 47:58 supposed to keep holy. 47:59 Listen, if all days are holy, then God would not be able to 48:06 separate the Sabbath as holy, because in order to separate 48:09 one day as holy, the rest of the days have to be secular days. 48:13 Hello! Are you catching my point? 48:16 In order to separate a holy day, that means that the other 48:19 ones aren't holy. 48:20 For example, I have a church hymnal, and I have my Bible. 48:23 Well, let's not use the church hymnal. 48:25 Let's use a history book that we use in college. 48:27 Are they different? 48:30 Yes! Do they have paper? 48:35 Do they have covers? 48:37 Do they have a name? 48:38 Sure, they're exactly the same, right? No. 48:42 What separates the Bible from other books? 48:45 It's God's Holy Word. 48:48 How about the tithe? 48:53 I put a dollar bill into the offering plate, 48:55 and I have a dollar bill in my pocket. 48:57 Are they the same? 48:58 Don't they both have George Washington? 49:02 Yes, they do, but are they the same? 49:04 No, because one is secular, and the other is what? 49:08 the other is holy. 49:09 You have this building, and you have other buildings. 49:12 You have city hall. 49:14 Is this building different than city hall? 49:16 It most certainly is, because this building is what? 49:20 It's been separated for a holy use. 49:23 And so six days are secular, and one day, which Jesus has 49:29 separated, is holy; the seventh day, according to scripture. 49:35 Some people say, well, hasn't it been changed> 49:39 Why would God change it? 49:42 Why would Jesus change it? 49:43 Nowhere in the Bible do you find that it says that 49:45 the day was changed. 49:46 No place do you find Jesus saying, well folks, 49:48 now we're not supposed to keep Sabbath anymore, 49:50 because I resurrected. 49:52 Now we're going to start keeping Sunday. 49:53 There's no thus sayeth the Lord; there's no command, 49:55 like the Bible commands us to observe the seventh day Sabbath. 49:58 Some people say it doesn't really matter, Pastor, 50:01 which day we keep, as long as we're sincere, 50:03 and we dedicate one day to the Lord. 50:08 Do you think God accepts a secular day that we offer Him, 50:11 instead of the holy day that He has established? 50:13 Do you remember the story of Nadab and Abihu? 50:17 God said, bring holy fire into the sanctuary? 50:22 And they were a little under the influence of alcohol? 50:24 The Bible says, and you can read this in chapter 10, 50:28 they entered into the sanctuary with common, ordinary, 50:31 everyday fire? not the holy fire from the altar? 50:34 By the way, if you looked at those fires, 50:37 would they look alike? Sure. 50:40 If you put your finger in both fires, 50:41 would your finger be burned? 50:43 If you analyzed the chemical qualities of the fires, 50:46 would they be the same? 50:47 Yes, so why was the fire from the altar different than the 50:52 fire that they used for cooking? 50:53 Because the fire on the altar, God made what? holy. 50:57 And God said, bring holy fire. 50:59 And so they bring common, ordinary fire, 51:01 and they present it to the Lord, and God says, Oh, who cares? 51:05 Fire is fire. No way! 51:10 The Bible says that the glory of the Lord 51:13 destroyed Nadab and Abihu. 51:15 It's one of those references that people don't like to read, 51:17 because they say, Eew, you know, God destroyed them! 51:23 What was the principle? 51:24 They took something which was common, and they presented it 51:28 to God as if it was what? holy. 51:30 How do you suppose God feels when we take a common day of 51:33 work and present it to Him as if it were holy? 51:36 Is it the same principle? 51:38 The first day of the week is a day of work: 51:41 Six days you shall labor. 51:43 The first day is the first day of labor. 51:44 To bring that day and present it to Him as a holy day, 51:48 is the same principle. 51:49 God, if we know what His will is, will not accept that. 51:54 Some people say, Well, pastor, we're under grace, 51:56 we're not under the law. 51:57 So does that mean that you can commit adultery now? 51:59 You can go out and kill someone, right? 52:03 You can lie, you can covet, you can worship idols. 52:10 Can you do all of those things? 52:11 Is it okay? Oh, no, you can't do that! 52:13 Than why does a different principle apply to the Sabbath? 52:18 He who offends in one point, is guilty of all, 52:21 according to scripture. 52:22 So just because we're under grace doesn't give us the 52:25 license to disobey God's holy law. 52:27 Some people say it was for the Jews. 52:29 Never once does the Bible speak of the Sabbath as 52:31 the Sabbath of the Jews. 52:32 There was no Jew when it was established. 52:34 Oh, but isn't Sunday the Lord's day? No it isn't. 52:37 Twenty-three times in Scripture we are told that the Lord's day 52:41 is the Sabbath. The seventh day is the Sabbath 52:45 of the Lord thy God. 52:47 The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. 52:52 Never once does the Bible present the first day of 52:56 the week as a day of rest. 53:00 Some people say, Well, Jesus broke the Sabbath. 53:03 We'll deal with this accusation tomorrow. 53:06 Listen, if Jesus broke the Sabbath, 53:08 and the Sabbath is one of the ten commandments, 53:09 Jesus was a sinner, and Jesus needs a redeemer. 53:14 Are you understanding what I am saying? 53:18 Serious implications! 53:19 And, by the way, if Jesus broke the Sabbath, 53:21 then the Pharisees were right. 53:23 Are you going to take the side of the Pharisees? 53:29 Are you going to accuse Jesus of sinning? 53:31 Jesus did not break the Bible Sabbath, 53:33 He broke the Sabbath of the Pharisees, 53:36 which is not the same Sabbath, because the Pharisees 53:40 had made it a yoke of bondage. 53:42 It was a day of restrictions, and rules, and regulations 53:46 that made people miserable. 53:48 The original intention of just enjoying the whole day in 53:51 basking in God's presence, and taking a break from our things, 53:55 and just resting in God, and enjoying what He has done; 53:59 what He has given, that had been lost. 54:01 The delight had become a day of misery, and bondage. 54:05 And Jesus came to deliver the Sabbath from bondage. 54:08 Some people say it was beyond repair, so He got rid of it. 54:12 Well, the fact is that marriage was also beyond repair, 54:17 so I guess we've got to get rid of marriage, too. 54:19 Jesus addressed the issue. 54:22 You get divorced for any old reason, Jesus said. 54:24 So if you apply it to the Sabbath, 54:26 you have to apply it to marriage. 54:28 We can't pick and choose. 54:30 Some people say, but pastor, how can the majority be wrong? 54:35 Well, you show me one time in history when 54:36 the majority was right. 54:42 In the days of Noah how many were right? Eight! 54:48 The Bible says only one, the others tagged along. 54:54 Let me ask you, in the days of Daniel, did he stand alone? 54:59 did he stand alone? Yes he did. 55:02 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, when the multitudes 55:05 met in the valley of Dura, did Daniel stand alone? 55:10 He most certainly did. 55:12 How about Elijah? Did he stand alone? 55:16 He sure did. Did Jesus stand alone? 55:19 He even felt that His Father had forsaken Him. 55:22 My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? 55:25 The fact is, folks, that the majority is never right, 55:30 because the majority, as a general rule, does not want 55:35 to order their lives in harmony with what God teaches. 55:38 It takes too much effort. 55:41 It cramps our lifestyle. 55:44 And so people, instead of following what God says, 55:48 they follow the crowd. 55:50 They follow peer pressure. 55:52 They trust their religious leaders. 55:56 Folks we cannot blindly trust our religious leaders. 55:59 I'm not saying that we should not respect our pastors. 56:03 What I'm saying is, we should not blindly follow them. 56:06 We should compare what they teach, with what the Holy Word 56:09 of God says. And we should follow the Word. 56:14 We can always trust the Word. 56:17 Some Christians say, Well, we have signs and wonders. 56:22 Don't you believe it! 56:23 Some ministers quote the Word out of context. 56:27 Be careful, go check it out for yourself. 56:29 Some people follow their reasoning. 56:32 Well, I honor Jesus on Resurrection Day. 56:35 That's human reasoning. 56:39 Some people follow the testimony of their senses. 56:41 Some follow the peer pressure of others. 56:44 We can only follow and trust the Word of God. 56:47 Do you remember that in our last lecture we said that the genuine 56:51 always comes before the counterfeit? 56:53 Now let's apply that principle to the day of worship. 56:57 Which was the original, genuine day of worship that Jesus made 57:01 for the human race? 57:03 There's no doubt. Do you think the devil, later on in history, 57:06 would have another day to rival the Sabbath? 57:10 The devil has a counterfeit for everything that God has true, 57:13 So the devil would obviously want to have a different day 57:18 of worship. I pray to God that we will all choose to spend 57:23 this time with Jesus. How about it? |
Revised 2014-12-17