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University SDA Church- East Lansing

The Sabbath

David Shin

The Sabbath- Part 1

Father in heaven, we thank you for this Sabbath, this opportunity that we have to come together, study, to fellowship, most of all, to be in your presence.

And we ask that you would bless us now as we open your word as the words of that song surely Goodness and mercy shall follow me and that's the prayer of our hearts today as we seek to do and to know your will For we ask these things in Jesus name.

Amen The year was 2006 and there was a young Japanese engineer that worked for Toyota and he was feverishly working on a particular project for the Toyota Camry, the hybrid version.

He was working 80 hours overtime per month in addition to work 7 days a week.

He was very stressed, very overworked, and very intensely working on this project.

2 months into it he was found in his room.

They came to the conclusion that he had died from a phenomenon that the Japanese have coined since 1969.

It's called karoshi, which literally means death from overwork.

It's become a phenomenon, so much so that the Labor Ministry of the Japanese government has instituted law saying that, yes, you should work hard, but there's a limit to how much you should work.

Isn't it interesting that our Creator God, in the heart of the Divine 10 Commandments, has given us a blueprint for working and for rest.

And I'd like to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to this divine commandment found in the Decalogue Exodus chapter 20 verse 8 through 11 Exodus chapter 20 verse 8 through 11 page 83 in your pew Bible We go to the fourth commandment that divine commandment Given by God written with his own finger on tablets of stone, page 83, Exodus chapter 20, verse 8 through 11.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

6 days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

You nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

For in 6 days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hollowed it.

Here it is in the 10 Commandments, the command to rest.

Praise the Lord that God says work 6 days, but on the seventh you are given a day off from all your labors.

It's a time for spiritual, mental, emotional, physical renewal.

It's at the heart of the 10 Commandments.

And as we begin this series called the Sabbath, And as you endeavor to share about the Sabbath with your friends and neighbors, the conversation many times goes something like this.

You say, your friend, have you heard about the Sabbath?

And they say, oh, David, don't you know, we don't have to keep the law anymore.

Furthermore, the law has been nailed to the cross.

There's indications in scripture that say that the law has been done away with.

So I'm not going to hold back today, nor in our series.

We're going to actually go through some of these passages.

And first and foremost, you'll see them in your study guide.

I put them here on the screen, but 4 passages that indicate that the law has been done away with.

And any time you talk about the Sabbath, they always quote Colossians 2, verse 14 through 16.

Colossians 2, 14 through 16, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, there it is, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it, so let no 1 judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths.

It says the law has been nailed to the cross.

Here's another 1, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 15.

You can see them all in your study guide listed there.

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself 1 new man from the 2, thus making peace." Here's another 1, Romans 6, 14.

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, you're under what?

Our final 1, Galatians 3 23 through 25, but before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith, which would afterward be revealed.

Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor or no longer under the law.

Now, to confuse you a little bit, we'll try to alleviate this later, but here's a little bit of confusion.

Here's 4 passages that seem to indicate that the law has been done away with.

And then here's 4 passages that indicate that the law is still binding.

James, chapter 2, verse 10, for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in 1 point, he is guilty of all this.

This commandment, this verse says that if you break 1, you break them all.

This is a New Testament passage saying that the whole law is applicable.

The words of Christ, another New Testament passage, Matthew 5 or 17 through 18.

Do not think that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Some people say that that word fulfills, Christ is saying that the law has been done away with, but it doesn't make any sense because if that were so it would say I did not come to destroy the law but to destroy the law.

I did not come to destroy but to fulfill, for assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, 1 jot, that's a dot, or 1 tittle, that's a crossing, will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

If you have a red letter Bible, it's there in red.

I did not come to destroy the law of the prophets.

I came not to destroy, but to fulfill revelation.

And then the New Testament passage, Revelation, chapter 14, verse 12.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

There will be a last group of people living in the end of time that will keep the commandments of God by faith.

Here it is, John, first, John, chapter 2, verse 3 and 4.

Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments.

He who says, I know him, now listen to this part, and does not keep his commandments is a what is a liar and the truth is not in him.

4 passages that indicate that the law is still binding for passages that tell us that the law has been done away with.

How do we deal with this contradiction in scripture?

The answer is that in the Bible, there's actually 2 laws.

There's 2 commandments, There's 2 mandates from scripture, and the first 1, you can see it there in your study guide, was written by God.

I want to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus, chapter 31, verse 18.

You'll want to see this in your own Bible.

The 10 Commandments was written by God and it was written in stone.

And when he had made an end of speaking with him, Moses, on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses 2 tablets of testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

Did you know that this is the only part of the Bible that God wrote himself?

The other portions of Scripture, he inspired holy men and they were inspired by the Holy Ghost and they wrote Scripture.

But this part, God did not give to Moses to write down.

It was so important, so critical, so immutable, so unchangeable that he said, look, Moses, I'm not going to have you write this.

The Sabbath- Part 2

On the picture I have, on the screen I have a picture of a sculpture.

It's a sculpture of Aristotle, the famed ancient philosopher that influenced much of Western civilization.

Not many people know that he not only influenced and had an interest in philosophy and theology, but also had an interest in zoology and biology.

As a Matter of fact, in the year 350 AD, Aristotle made the pronouncement, the claim, that the spider was an insect that had 6 legs.

And because it was Aristotle, the brilliant, genius philosopher, no 1 took the time to actually sit down and count.

You don't need a master's or a PhD to do this.

And it's not like spiders are not readily accessible.

And just because Aristotle, the authority, said that, hey, spiders have 6 legs, they're an insect, For 2, 000 years, can you believe this?

2, 000 years, the textbooks quoted Aristotle.

Finally, a gentleman by the name of Lamarck, 20 centuries later, had the audacity to sit down and actually count the legs of a spider and revolutionary discovery that rocked the community.

They had to create a whole entire class of animals, arachnids, and the textbooks had to be rewritten.

Could it be possible that today we are basing our beliefs upon authorities and not seeing things for ourselves?

And friends, it's time that we read less books about the Bible and start reading the Bible.

And so many times we base our eternal salvation upon a theologian, a scholar, a pastor, and base our entire theology upon what someone else says rather than going to the Bible ourselves.

Acts chapter 17 verse 11 says, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica talking about the Bereans in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

He wrote the majority of the New Testament, and these Bereans had the audacity to check everything that Paul taught by scripture.

And see whether these things are so, amen.

We don't want to be like the community that trusted Aristotle and find out.

That we had not investigated for ourselves, I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the beginning of the Bible.

We're continuing in our series on the Sabbath.

Genesis, chapter 2, very beginning of the Bible, the beginning of creation.

On the seventh day, the beauty of the Sabbath, Genesis, chapter 2, page 2 in your pew Bible.

Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished.

And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work, which God had created and made.

You can fill in these blanks in your study guide.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

I'm going to make a few simple observations.

That may be news for some of you, but Abraham, Isaac and Jacob came came around much later.

Some people say all the Sabbath is for the Jews.

When the world was perfect, God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

You can see this in your study guide in Genesis chapters 1 and 2.

We discover that God did set a day aside as special.

This day was the seventh day of the week.

God did 3 very special things on this day.

You can list them below in your study guide.

He rested, he blessed, and he sanctified, which means set apart for holy use.

He rested, he blessed, and sanctified, set apart for holy use.

When you look at the literary structure in the Hebrew of Genesis chapter 2, 2 and 3, you'll notice something very fascinating.

Each complete thought, and on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done 7 words in the Hebrew The next complete thought and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done 7 words again in the Hebrew So God blessed the seventh day and hollowed it, 7 words again in the Hebrew.

It seems like Moses, under the inspiration of God, was trying to emphasize something, make a point.

But even more than that, you look at the literary structure of Genesis chapter 1 and 2.

It says The evening and the morning were the first day, evening and morning, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day.

Each 1 of these are mentioned just once, but then he comes to the seventh day and it says, on the seventh day, on the seventh day, The seventh day.

Do you think Moses, under the inspiration of God, is trying to emphasize something?

In the Hebrew mind, when they wanted to emphasize something, to say that this was important, they would repeat it.

Hierarchical scholars, when they were looking at the Hebrew language, thought, these guys are archaic, redundant.

Why are they repeating themselves everywhere?

When God said in the day that you shall eat of it, you shall surely die.

In the Hebrew, it does not say surely die.

This is the climax of the creation story.

The seventh day, the seventh day, the seventh day.

As we come to the 10 Commandments, we study this last Sabbath, and if you missed last Sabbath's presentation, I want to invite you to go online and listen to it or watch the video of it.

Some people say that the commandments were nailed to the cross and we did this last week.

We said that the 10 Commandments was 1 of the laws instituted by God.

It's the only portion of scripture that God wrote Himself.

This is so important that He decided He would write it Himself.

The other portions of scripture he inspired holy men and they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

It's still inspired but this is the only part of scripture that he wrote himself and he did not write it on parchment he wrote it in stone telling us this is unchanging immutable eternal written by God written in stone it was deposited by Moses, according to Deuteronomy 10, verse 5, inside the Ark.

We also know that the other law, the ceremonial law, was written by Moses.

God's law was written by God, the Mosaic law was written by Moses, it was written not in stone, it was written in a book And was deposited by Moses or even by the Levites by the side of the ark.

You can see that in Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 26.

Matter of fact, let's turn there very quickly.

This is different from the 10 Commandment law.

Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 26, page 238 in your pew Bible.

Deuteronomy chapter 31 and verse 26 to 39.

It says, take this book of the law and put it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, your God, that it may be there as a witness.

What does your Bible say against you is to be against the people.

It was a book of blessings and cursings, meaning that if they kept the book of the covenant, they will be blessed.

If they did not, these terrible things would happen to them.

And we said last week that This is the exact blueprint, the exact law that's mentioned in Colossians 2, verse 14.

The Sabbath- Part 3

Gary Chapman in his book entitled the 5 languages of love If any of you read this book It's a great good book for married couples, especially it talks about the 5 ways that we as human beings tend to express our love not only in the context of marriage but outside in a relationship as well to those that we come in contact with on a regular basis our family and our friends.

The 5 languages of love are gifts, acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation, and quality time.

He says that the way that you find out your love language is to ask yourself, what is the way that I tend to express my appreciation for someone?

I worked for an evangelist a number of years ago, and I found that each and every week, he would give me something.

It wasn't something large, but he'd say, hey, here's a tape, here's a piece of literature, I really appreciate you, David.

Every week he's giving me something, and I found out that his love language was gifts.

That can be an expensive love language, by the way.

In my home, it was not a home of verbal appreciation.

It was a home in which my family would express their love for each other by doing things for each other.

My mom would do things for me and I knew that that was the way that she communicated her love.

Some individuals feel very loved when they are given words of affirmation.

Or you ever find someone's complimenting you a lot?

By the way, I want to stop and just express my appreciation for you." Or they give you a card.

The fifth language of love is quality time.

You always know a quality time person because it's not about what you are doing, it's just about being together.

Have you ever been around a person like that?

It's not about the activity, it's about the togetherness, the connection, the time being together.

In my dorm room when I was in high school, I went away to school.

There would be certain people that would come in my room and they would just sit on the chair.

They wouldn't do anything and they would just want to hang out, just to be in your presence.

For those of you that don't understand quality time, people, it can be a little bit unnerving, but it's okay.

I believe that God is a quality time God, amen?

Because time is the building block of any relationship.

You need to spend time together and God has placed a temple in time.

A temple in time that he has given us in our relationship with God to spend time with him.

In Genesis chapter 2 verse 2, 2, and 3 we said in our Sabbath series, and on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

We said that when we look at the literary structure of Genesis 1 and 2, you have day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, and then it comes day 7 and it's the seventh day, the seventh day, the seventh day.

God is emphasizing a point in the narrative of creation.

Because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

And we said that in our series, God did something special on the seventh day.

He blessed it, he sanctified it, and he rested on the seventh day, a sanctuary in time.

We said that when God gave the 10 commandments, he wrote it in stone and he began the fourth commandment with the word what?

God does not want us to forget about the Sabbath.

He begins it with the word remember, and he says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

That every 7 days, he says, you can have the day off.

You don't have to work physically or spiritually.

It's a reminder that we're not saved by works.

And every Sabbath, it's a memorial that we cannot save ourselves, we can rest in God's salvation.

We said that Jesus kept the Sabbath as well in the New Testament, so he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.

We also said that the apostles kept the Sabbath and we said that when we get to heaven, won't that be a glorious day?

For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain, and it shall come to pass that from 1 new moon to another, from 1 Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the Lord.

Sabbath in Genesis, Sabbath at the heart of the 10 Commandments, Sabbath with Jesus, Sabbath with the apostles, Sabbath in heaven, and we said that the Sabbath is still a time that God wants to spend with us today.

We've seen all throughout the Bible that God has the Sabbath from creation all the way up until the new earth.

This is a poignant question for us as we continue in our series and conclude in our series on the Sabbath.

How is it that today the majority of the Christian world has lost sight of the biblical Sabbath?

And I want to be very clear here at the beginning that I believe that there's people that love Jesus with all their hearts that are going to be in the kingdom that are from every denomination.

This is about following truth and the Bible says walk in the light lest darkness come upon you.

So this is about what God is calling you to do as an individual.

God may be revealing something else to your brother, your sister, or your mother, but God is calling you individually, and as our personal, individual part to walk in the light that God has given us.

When God says, look, I wanna have a special time with you, it's important for us to know how this change happened in the Christian world.

It was a time in which the Roman Empire was struggling.

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