Participants: Chris Holland
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201608A
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00:11 It has stood the test of time.
00:15 God's book, The Bible 00:18 Still relevant in today's complex world 00:24 It Is Written 00:26 Sharing messages of hope around the world! 00:39 I'd like to ask you a question. Let's say it's your wedding day. I want you to imagine that 00:44 everyone gathers together, everybody dresses really, really nice. And let's just say, for 00:51 example, that you got married and there were six bridesmaids - seven ladies all together. And 00:58 after the ceremony, after the pastor says, "What God has joined together, let no man put 01:03 asunder," all of that comes to the end, and after the wedding, you go to the reception, you 01:08 have wonderful cake, wonderful food, then it comes time to go home. And instead of taking your 01:15 bride, you take one of the bridesmaids home with you. Here's the question: How is your 01:21 new wife going to feel? She's probably not going to be your wife anymore! And how would your 01:27 new wife feel if, when she asked you, "Why did you go home with her?" And you said, "Well, I 01:35 mean, it's just one in seven. I mean, you all were there." I know this all sounds ridiculous, 01:41 but today in Christianity many are making these same arguments about a very special gift from 01:49 God to humanity. That gift was given at the beginning of time. 01:59 God reminded us of that gift, by writing it in His law. God's desire is that His law - His 02:06 desire is that we would have the law written in our hearts, because His law endures forever, 02:13 and He wants it to be in us forever. The fourth commandment, in Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 to 02:20 11, God begins the fourth commandment with what word.Remember God wrote the 02:30 word "remember." Why? Because looking down the centuries, he saw that man would forget the 02:37 Sabbath, and in particular, forget Him. You see, the instruction of God in Exodus 20 02:43 was: 02:53 The seventh day is the Sabbath. Now this may be a new idea or understanding for you. It was 03:01 new for me 20 years ago. And I'll tell you, as soon as I began to speak about the 03:07 Sabbath, for some people, flags go up. So if the flags have gone up in your mind, just bring them 03:14 down, and let's study together. What I will hear from many people is that we just need to 03:24 worship God one day in seven, it doesn't matter which one." Is that really what the Bible says? 03:33 The Bible continues on in Exodus 20: 03:51 Remember Revelation chapter 14, says this: 04:02 Exodus 20:8 through 11: 04:07 Revelation 14:7 says 04:14 Revelation chapter 14:7 is a direct quotation from Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 11. 04:23 The angel of Revelation 14 is pointing us back to the book of Exodus. And then, Exodus 20:8 to 04:32 11 is pointing us back to where? Genesis chapter 2. You see how the Bible works? We don't have 04:41 to go out looking around and researching and reading commentaries; the Bible makes 04:47 sense when we let the Bible interpret itself. You see, Revelation, the last book of the 04:54 Bible, points us back to Exodus, the second book of the Bible, and Exodus points us back to 05:00 Genesis, the first book of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible's message 05:08 is the same all the way through. Although written over 1500 years apart, Moses and John were both 05:24 on the same page. Because they were inspired by the same Holy Spirit.Both testify to the 05:31 origin of the Seventh-day Sabbath as to the Creator Himself. 05:40 Some will say to me "But Sabbath is a Jewish thing." How many Jews were there in the beginning 05:50 when God rested, blessed, and sanctified the seventh day Sabbath? None. It wasn't until 05:58 centuries later that Abraham, the father of the Jews was born Who did God create the Sabbath 06:05 for? In Mark 2:27 Jesus says, 06:12 "Man" is translated from the Greek word "Anthropos" which also means "people". It does not 06:19 reference Jews in particular. The Bible speaks of the Sabbath in other places. Isaiah 58, 06:26 says? 06:31 Everyone is the operative word. It includes all people for all time. God promises a blessing on 06:38 all who keep the Sabbath. 06:44 The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, given to Adam and Eve at creation, reminded to 06:50 Moses at the Ten Commandments. But what about Jesus? There are some people who have the idea 06:55 that Jesus changed the Sabbath. But, let's see. What did Jesus do? Luke 4:16 says: 07:17 Jesus gave additional insights into the Sabbath throughout His life and even in His death. By 07:23 studying a little deeper, we see that there are two components to Sabbath Rest: We rest in a 07:30 completed creation and we rest in a completed redemption. What do I mean by that? Remember, 07:39 Exodus 20 is a part of the fourth commandment which says: 07:54 God says, "Remember the Sabbath day," and then tells us why. Why? Because God created the 08:01 earth in six days. But then later in Deuteronomy chapter 5, God says something a little 08:09 different. Deuteronomy chapter 5, also the Sabbath commandment, says this: 08:29 Now, sometimes when people read those two commandments, they say, "Oh, well, God changed the 08:34 commandment." Did God change the commandment? No. Because see, in Exodus, God called them back to 08:45 creation. But in Deuteronomy chapter 5, God calls them back to reflect upon what? Their 08:52 redemption to come out of Egypt. Throughout the Scriptures, especially in the book of 08:59 Revelation, Egypt is representative of sin. God wants us to remember the Sabbath both 09:06 because He created us, and because He redeemed us. And Jesus Himself said these words 09:14 in John 14:15 09:22 We don't keep the commandments of God to be saved; we keep the commandments of God because we 09:26 are saved. In the signs of the times given by Jesus and referring to the destruction of 09:35 Jerusalem, in Matthew 24:20, Jesus says these words, 09:48 Why is this important? Jerusalem wasn't destroyed until 70 A.D. Which was approximately 09:56 40 years after Jesus was crucified. And so here's the question. If Jesus came to this 10:01 world to change the commandments, and in particular, change the Sabbath commandment, 10:06 why would He tell His disciples to specifically pray about not fleeing on the Sabbath if He was 10:14 going to change it? 10:18 When we go to the story of Jesus' crucifixion, we find something extraordinary, that 10:24 even in His death, Jesus kept the Sabbath. Luke 23 verse 54 through Luke 24 verse 1, 10:38 speaking of the day in which Jesus was crucified, The Bible says, 10:59 The women came to anoint the body of Jesus, but he Sabbath drew near and they would not 11:03 have time to anoint His body, so they waited until the Sabbath was over. They rested on the 11:10 Sabbath according to what? The commandment. The Bible goes on to say: 11:26 But did they find Jesus in the tomb? No, because He had risen from the dead. Resurrection is 11:35 commonly called Easter. And Easter is on Sunday, which is the first day of the week. The 11:47 Bible clearly outlines the week, you have Friday, the preparation day. We call that Good Friday. 11:52 That is the day in which Jesus was crucified. Then Jesus rests in the tomb on the Sabbath day, 11:58 or what we would call modern-day Saturday. And then Sunday, the first day of the week, Jesus 12:05 resurrected. Sixth day of the week, Friday, The preparation day.Seventh day of the week, 12:12 Saturday, the Sabbath day.Sunday, the first day of the week. Now, here's now what some 12:19 people will begin to talk to me about. They'll say, "But pastor, you don't understand. Jesus 12:24 changed the worship day from Saturday to Sunday."." The word "Sunday," actually never appears 12:31 in the Bible, because they didn't use those names. They used "first day," "second day," 12:37 "third day," so on and so forth. There are eight texts in the New Testament that mention the first 12:42 day of the week, which is Sunday, and not one of them - not one of them - tells us to 12:50 worship on Sunday, in honour of the resurrection. But that doesn't mean that we ignore the 12:57 resurrection and that we are not to celebrate it. Paul has given us a beautiful picture of how we 13:05 are to celebrate and actually live out the resurrection in our own lives in Romans 6. 13:35 We do not honour the resurrection by worshipping on Sunday. We honour the 13:41 resurrection by baptism. When someone is baptized, they are placed under the water. When 13:48 they are placed under the water, they are symbolically buried with Christ in death. Then when 13:53 they are raised, they are resurrected with Him to walk in the newness of life. You see, 14:00 the Bible gives a very clear path to how we honour the resurrection. We honour the 14:08 resurrection every time someone is baptized to walk in the newness of life with Jesus. 14:18 But here's another interesting point. In over 140 languages of the world, the word for the 14:23 seventh day is the word "Sabbath." Some will ask about a change in calendar. The Royal 14:36 Greenwich Observatory in Greenwich, England, wrote this: 15:01 Was the calendar changed in history? It was. We went from the Julian to the Gregorian 15:06 calendar, and here's what happened. October 1582, Thursday, October the 4th then 15:13 became Friday, October the 15th. Was there any change in the weekly cycle? There was no 15:20 change in the weekly cycle because we still went Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 15:24 Thursday, and Friday, and then Saturday, or the Sabbath. We didn't lose any days. The weekly 15:30 cycle was maintained. Friend, the Bible is quite clear. From creation to Moses, there was no 15:37 change in the Sabbath. From Moses to Jesus, there was no change in the Sabbath. And from 15:43 Jesus to the disciples and Jesus in His death, there was no change in the Sabbath. But then 15:51 in the early church there was no change, notice the apostle Paul in Acts 17:1 and 2: 16:14 Paul was preaching on Sabbaths. Acts 13:42 emphasizes 16:29 Just as it was the custom of Jesus to worship on the Sabbath day, to remember the Creator of 16:35 the heavens and the earth, so it was Paul's custom to also worship on the Sabbath day. Acts 16:41 13:44 records, on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the Word 16:47 of God. Notice these words from the apostolic constitutions: 17:11 Even the early church kept the Sabbath. The book of Revelation says, 17:23 Does it say, "Here are those that keep the nine commandments, the eight commandments"? No, it 17:30 says, "Here are they that keep the commandments." 17:37 Friends all of the commandments were inspired by God. All of those commandments were written 17:41 by God in stone. All of those commandments -Bible says that God has written in our hearts. 17:50 The Bible tells us that we'll keep the Sabbath in heaven. Notice what the Bible says in 17:55 Isaiah 66: 18:15 The Sabbath was given at creation. The Sabbath was reminded at the giving of the 18:22 Ten Commandments. Jesus kept the Sabbath. The apostles kept the Sabbath. And the Bible tells us 18:28 in Isaiah 66 that in heaven, we will keep the Sabbath as well. Jesus peering down time, knew 18:39 that His people would need a time to rest. He gave us the Sabbath not as a restriction, 18:44 but He gave us the Sabbath as something that we could look forward to. Matthew 12 says: 18:55 The son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all testify that what day 19:01 is the Lord's day? The Sabbath day is the Lord's day. You see, even in the giving of the final 19:10 book of the Bible, God visits John on the Sabbath. Archelaus of Cascar in Mesopotamia wrote 19:18 these words: 19:30 The Sabbath of the creator God in Genesis is the Lord's day of Revelation. From Genesis to 19:35 Revelation, we don't need to wonder what day is God's day; the Bible is clear that the 19:42 Sabbath is God's day, because the Sabbath was given at creation. The Sabbath was given 19:48 at Sinai. The Sabbath was kept by his people throughout time. The Sabbath was kept by Jesus. 19:53 The Sabbath was honoured by the disciples. The Sabbath is a sign of God's power in our life, and 20:02 the Sabbath will be kept on the new earth. 20:08 And so as we explore these things, the question we must ask ourselves is this: If God's day 20:14 is the Sabbath, what's happening in the world? What's going on all around us?. "What about the 20:21 church I go to? Well, what about my parents, what about my grandparents?" And those are all 20:27 very important questions, and they're hard questions. But today, Jesus appeals to us and 20:35 He says, "I understand human tradition. But today, I want to call to you to move beyond human 20:43 tradition and explore what God's Word says and accept what God's Word says," because here is the 20:51 key piece. The greatest hoax of history is this: craftily, through time, the Sabbath was 21:02 slowly transitioned. And it was slowly transitioned away from God's day, the seventh-day 21:07 Sabbath, and done often in sincerity. We read in history, the early Christians, some of 21:15 them began transitioning away from worshipping on the Sabbath. And why did they reason to do 21:23 that? Because the Jews were suffering severe persecution under the Romans. And if you're 21:28 worshipping on the seventh-day Sabbath, that means you're worshipping on the same day as 21:31 the Jews. In fact, Christianity early on was considered a sect of Judaism. The Romans could 21:38 easily identify the Jews because they went to synagogue on the Sabbath. But the Christians also 21:43 went to the churches, to the synagogues, on Sabbath. And so under persecution, early 21:47 Christians began to worship on different days. And they did it in sincerity. But Jesus in the 21:56 Jerusalem factor is looking for more than just sincerity. He is looking for a people who are 22:05 looking up to heaven where He ministers on our behalf in the sanctuary. In the sanctuary they 22:11 see the One who loves them. They see the holy law of God in the ark located in the most holy 22:18 place of the sanctuary. And while the world has forgotten the Sabbath and forgotten the 22:24 Creator of the Sabbath and the Creator of humankind, moral decay is on the rise, society 22:31 has become more fractured and the love of many is growing cold. Today, Jesus stretches out 22:38 his hand and says it doesn't have to be that way. The solution to the problem is found 22:45 in the Jerusalem factor, as written in Hebrews 8:1-2, 23:05 And out of their love for this High Priest Jesus, they desire to be obedient to Him. God's 23:14 moral standard has never changed. The Sabbath isn't about working for our salvation, it's 23:21 about resting from our work, because we are saved. The Jerusalem Factor is this, Jesus 23:30 is in his Holy temple in heaven, we don't need to look to literal Jerusalem, but to the heavenly 23:37 Jerusalem. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you in that Holy City. And by inviting Him 23:45 in your heart today, you can by faith, with the power of the Holy Spirit, you will be enabled 23:53 to live a life full of joy even now. Despite the challenges you may be going through today, 24:01 despite the upheaval of the world around you, you can have a calm assurance and a peace that 24:07 passes all understanding. Today, I invite you to experience the freedom and love 24:14 of God's law and to rest in the salvation that Jesus freely offers. Heavenly father we are 24:24 so grateful that you care for us so much that you've given us your law, that you have given us 24:33 your Sabbath, that you've given us Jesus. Today, dear Lord, I pray that you would accept us as 24:41 we draw near to you that we might enjoy your full presence and experience your full joy and 24:51 rest fully in you. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen. 25:08 The amazing blessing of God's Sabbath day. This may have been a new topic for you today maybe 25:14 you have a lot of questions, maybe you're feeling like you just don't quite understand. I 25:20 would like to give three offers to you today to help you in your understanding of not only the 25:25 Sabbath but what a deeper relationship with Jesus looks like. The first of those offers, 25:31 which is absolutely free, is the book "A bridge across time". In that book you'll be able to 25:37 answer questions about God's law, about God's Sabbath and about a more abundant 25:42 relationship with Jesus. The second I'd like to give to you for absolutely free is the 25:49 "Discover Bible Guides". The "Discover Bible Guides" will help you on your journey with 25:54 Jesus. There are several guides that speak about God's law, about God's Sabbath as well as 26:00 an abundance of other topics. And lastly I would like to offer you the full DVD set of the 26:08 "Jerusalem Factor" for any size donation. We will be able to review through all 8 of the 26:16 episodes and see how God in the Jerusalem Factor invites us to look to heaven to find our 26:23 answers. Here is the information that you need to receive today's offers. 27:30 Dear friend, God loves you so much that in eternity past he set aside an entire day - 24 27:37 hours - that you can spend in complete devotion with him, that you can rest completely in his 27:44 salvation for you. I hope you find that rest in Jesus. Maybe you have questions and you're 27:53 looking to further your relationship with Jesus Christ - I invite you to go to our 27:56 website www.ItIsWrittenCanada.ca and there you'll find resources to develop your spiritual 28:03 library. You can also like us on Facebook, you can also follow us on Twitter if you'd like to keep 28:10 up with me as I travel across this great nation and around the world - you can follow me 28:15 @Pastor Holland on Twitter. Dear friend I hope you have found joy in Jesus. I pray that you would 28:23 join us again next week. Until then remember, It Is Written man shall not live by bread 28:30 alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. |
Revised 2016-12-12