Time is the stuff that life is made of. God tells us in the Bible to show our faith in Him by honoring a percentage of time as holy. That is one of the commandments that has largely been forgotten - not only by the world but even by the church.

<p>Time is the stuff that life is made of. God tells us in the Bible to show our faith in Him by honoring a percentage of time as holy. That is one of the commandments that has largely been forgotten - not only by the world but even by the church.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Amazing Facts

Sabbath

Joe Crews

01 The Sabbath

The five-day work week may soon be cut down to 4 if labor leaders have their way.

Strange as it may seem, the most enlightened labor law in history was enacted before a single workers' union had been formed.

Hello this is Joe Cruz from the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, friends, the daily papers are crowded with reports of labor union promotion of shorter working hours and higher wages.

The last few years have seen tremendous changes in favor of greater employee benefits.

The average workman of today has more leisure time on his hands than any category of worker did in former years.

And if present trends continue to develop, the possibility of a four-day work week is altogether possible.

Such a development would not seem nearly so revolutionary as another bit of legislation did when it was enacted long before a single labor union had been formed.

Now, this law was put into effect a few thousand years ago, and it is still enforced today, believe it or not.

We read the actual wording of it in Exodus 20, verses 8-11, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

6 days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God.

In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle that is within thy gates, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

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

Wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath they inhaled it." Now there it is, friends, 1 of the oldest and most enlightened labor laws ever enacted.

It was written and sealed by the hand of God Himself and placed right in the heart of His great moral law of the 10 Commandments, which is still binding today, I might say, upon every creature under heaven.

Oh, what a world this would be if all men honored that law!

War, crime, and sin would disappear from our society overnight.

Every problem of nations and individuals would be solved at the same time.

If even 1 of those laws should be universally obeyed, this world would be a new wonderful place in which to live.

Well you say, with labor laws as they are now, everybody is taking at least 1 day a week from the job.

Yes, but notice God didn't say to take just any day off.

It was not left for man to decide on the day.

The Creator Himself chose the day, then He blessed it, sanctified it, and hallowed it so that men would be able to keep it.

No 1 can keep a day holy that God didn't make holy.

God commanded the seventh day of the week, because it was the birthday of the world.

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

And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.

Now friends, let's ask 3 questions about the Sabbath.

First please notice that Jesus Christ Himself is the great Creator of the world and He made the Sabbath.

Now this may sound strange to some of you because many people think of Christ as being born in the manger 2000 years ago.

Now that is true, of course, but He had already existed from all eternity in heaven, And He was here when the foundations of this earth were laid.

Listen to this text in John 1, 1, 2, and 3.

And in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

All things were made by Him, and without him was not anything made that was made, and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

And we beheld his glory, the glories of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Now friends, put that with the words of Paul in Hebrews 1, 1 and 2, God, who at sundry times and divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.

Now these 2 verses plainly tell us that Jesus was the agent of creation.

By Him were all things made in the whole of creation.

In fact, during those first 6 days of time, He commanded, and the world of matter appeared out of nothing.

He formed man and breathed life into that lifeless clay.

But on the seventh day, He did something very significant and very different, which we read about in Genesis 2.

In fact, we just read it there in Genesis 2, 1 to 3.

Notice that the seventh day was set apart by Christ, who blessed the Sabbath in the beginning and rested from the work of creation.

And that is why I love to preach about this subject, friends, because it is so closely connected and intertwined with the Lord Jesus Himself.

Now I have heard some people say that the Sabbath was a shadow which disappeared at the cross.

But, friends, there could be no shadow of anything before the entrance of sin.

Many ceremonies came later as shadows are symbols of the coming of Christ, but they were only necessary because of sin's existence.

Shadows were never needed before the first sin was committed.

And the Sabbath was made in the Garden of Eden before sin had ever entered into this world, so the Sabbath could not be a shadow.

Listen to the answer in Mark 2 27 and the words of Jesus Himself.

"...the Sabbath was made for man, " He said.

Now the word man is used here in the generic sense to include every person in all the world.

And by the way, the Bible says that woman was also created for man, made for man, revealing the fact that marriage and the Sabbath are the 2 institutions which come to us straight from the Garden of Eden.

They were both hallowed and instituted by Christ Himself in the days before the curse of sin had ever tainted the atmosphere of this world.

Now I realize that some people believe the Sabbath was made just for the Jews.

They don't seem to realize that Jesus made the Sabbath about 2, 000 years before there was a Jew even.

Wouldn't it be absurd to think that He made the Sabbath for a people who would not even appear for another 2 millenniums?

Did He hallow it at creation simply to wait until some Jew appeared?

If so, why did Jesus say it was made for man?

It was never intended only for the Jews, any more than the marriage institution was intended only for the Jews.

The truth of the matter is that the Scriptures never call it the Sabbath of the Jews.

It is always called the Sabbath of the Lord.

All right, now the third question, why did Jesus make the Sabbath?

It was to be a memorial of creation, a sign of His power to make something out of nothing.

It would forever testify that in just 6 days the world had been created for man.

In a sense, really, it was to be the birthday of the world.

The event for which it was instituted would perpetuate it as an everlasting memorial.

Something was done on that day, friends, which can never be changed any more than we can change our own birthday.

American Independence Day is July 4, 1776.

Now it would be foolish to designate some other day as Independence Day other than July the 4th.

We could call some other day by that name, but the declaration was actually signed on July 4, 1776, and there it has to remain.

Likewise, the Sabbath could no more be changed than our own birthdays without having creation done over again and another day hallowed by God.

What difference does Christ's blessing make on an event or on a person?

We pray for Him to bless our children and our homes.

Evidently everyone feels that His blessing will make a great deal of difference.

Even so, it did make that seventh day different from the other 6 days, when He blessed it, sanctified it, and hallowed it.

It would forever be different and distinct from the ordinary 6 working days of the week.

Now we will find in our study today that it has been God's own day down through the ages to this very hour.

Let's prove it by tracing the Sabbath through the Scriptures and seeing how God and Christ regards it.

In Exodus 20 we find the 10 Commandments recorded just as they were written by the finger of God.

In the very heart of the law is that fourth commandment we read a moment ago, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, 6 days shalt thou labour and do all thy work.

Now notice that this verse begins with the word remember.

The other commandments you know begin with the words Thou shalt not.

Listen, because the Sabbath was an institution already in existence, having been established in Eden, therefore God only had to remind man of that which he had already blessed and sanctified for a day of rest.

And that is why he just said, Remember the Sabbath.

Now friends, some people have been known to ridicule the Sabbath as something belonging just to Moses and the Jews back there.

But actually the 10 Commandment Law is the only part of the Bible that man had absolutely nothing to do with.

02 The Sabbath

Wilderness survival is now a standard part of certain branches of military training.

How to secure food in a desert is 1 of the basic lessons of that rugged course.

I'll be back in a moment with the most amazing story on record of wilderness survival.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz in the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, friends, the story of Israel's survival for 40 years in that desolate wilderness of Sinai is 1 of the epic stories of sacred history.

Probably there has never been another instance recorded of so many people learning to live in such primitive isolation.

Food became 1 of the most severe problems to face the million or more men, women, and children having to wrest their livelihood from that forbidding desert of the Sinai Peninsula.

Without the miraculous intervention of God, of course, the entire immigration would have ended in the stark tragedy of death by starvation.

In Exodus 16, verse 4, we begin to read the account of God's provision for those people through daily supplies of manna, which was a white bread-like substance that fell every day on the camp of Israel.

The people gathered it fresh right off the ground, and it tasted like wafers and wild honey, and has often been referred to as angel's food.

For 40 years that supply never diminished, and as they wandered in the wilderness, the manna was a constant reminder of God's care over them.

But there is 1 interesting fact about the way this food was given from heaven.

God made it a test for His people, and it revolved around the keeping of His 10 Commandment Law.

The particular point of the test, of course, was the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.

Verse 10, Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out, and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no.

And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gathered daily.

And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, 2 almers for 1 man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord.

Bake that which ye will bake to-day, and see that ye will see.

And that which remaineth over, lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

And Moses said, Eat that to-day, for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord, to-day ye shall not find it in the field.

6 days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.

And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments, and my laws?

See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of 2 days.

Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.

Now friends, notice that God worked 3 miracles every week to show the people which day was a true Sabbath.

First of all, He allowed them to gather just enough for 1 day.

Then he told them to gather twice as much on the sixth day, to keep it over for the Sabbath, and it would not spoil.

And he sent absolutely no manna on the seventh day.

So 3 times God worked a miracle on the weekend to show them which day should be observed.

Now some apparently wanted to keep a different day.

So they went out on the seventh day to gather the food, and of course there wasn't any.

But God met them, and He said, How long do you refuse to keep My law?

Now notice they were actually breaking God's Law by not keeping the specified seventh day.

Perhaps they were going to keep a different day.

Maybe they had in mind to observe 1 of the other days of the week, but God said, No, you can't do that.

You are breaking My law when you come out here and try together on the seventh day, the Sabbath." Now this experience also reveals that the 10 Commandment law of God was known long before it was written at Mount Sinai.

Some disclaimers of the law try to show that the moral code was not known until Mount Sinai, that it was given only to the Jewish people at that time.

Please notice that this manna test took place before the commandments had been given at Mount Sinai.

The fact is that these 10 great rules of God's government had been in existence from the very beginning of time.

True, they had never been put into written form before, but they were known from generation to generation.

Now let's look at a few texts to prove this point.

The Bible says, Where there is no law, there is no transgression.

And again it says, Sin is a transgression of the law.

Sin is a transgression of the law, and the wages of sin is death.

All right, now put 1 more text, Romans 5, 14.

It says, Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses.

Now friends, if death reign from Adam to Moses, and if death is the wages of sin, and sin is the transgression of the law, and there is no transgression without a law, then there was bound to have been a law present even before Mount Sinai.

When man broke the law and sin, death passed upon him.

Otherwise how did Cain know that he had sinned after killing his brother?

Joseph knew that adultery was sin because he said, How can I do this great sin against God?

And then God said about Abraham, He kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my law.

Now all of these things were written before the giving of God's law, and yet it indicates the law was there even though it hadn't been written down before.

They had been passed along through 6 generations of men for 2, 500 years, not in written form but by word of mouth.

It would be just as illogical to suppose that they knew nothing about God because there was no written Bible as to believe that they were ignorant of the 10 Commandments.

Now you may be wondering if Christ continued to regard the seventh day, or if He later changed His mind about the binding claims of that law.

Listen to his words in Matthew 5, 17, and 18, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, 1 jot or 1 tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Now those are the words of Jesus, friends.

He did not do away with any part of that 10 Commandment law.

The seventh day is the Christian Sabbath not only because it is the Sabbath Christ made, and it is a part of the law that He gave, but it is because it is the only Sabbath He ever kept when He was here on this earth.

Notice in Luke 4, 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, and stood up for to read." Now what is the significance of this great fact that Jesus kept the Sabbath regularly as His custom was?

1 Peter 2, 21 tells us Jesus is our example in all things.

He said, For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.

Why friends, if I had no other text in the Bible about the Sabbath than this 1 in Luke 4, I would know exactly what to do about it.

Jesus said, I am to weigh the truth and the life, and He kept the Sabbath every week as His custom was.

Listen, I keep the seventh-day Sabbath because Jesus made it, Jesus blessed it, Jesus commanded it, and then He set us an example by keeping it Himself as a regular customary practice.

And He actually rested from His work of redemption on the Sabbath as He had rested from the work of creation in the beginning.

We have all heard, of course, about Good Friday and Easter Sunday, haven't we?

We know that Jesus did rise on the first day of the week, and He died on the day that is commonly called Good Friday.

In fact, Jesus actually died about 05:00 on Friday afternoon and was placed in the tomb before sunset.

He rose Sunday morning about the breaking of day, and thus he rested in the tomb over the Sabbath.

Now let's read it in Luke 23, beginning with verse 52.

This man went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.

And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.

And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on.

Now notice that He died on the day called the Preparation Day and the Sabbath was approaching.

And the women also which came with Him from Galilee, I am reading now in the Bible, the women followed after and beheld the sepulcher and how His body was laid.

Now Here is something very important, friends.

The women continued to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment even after the death of Jesus.

The commandment says the seventh day is the Sabbath, so these women then were continuing to keep the same seventh-day Sabbath even after Jesus died because it says they kept the Sabbath according to the commandment.

And then verse 56 says, And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

Series

Sabbath

02 The Sabbath

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

10 Repairers of the Breach

51m

Restoration 2023

Jesus Speaks on Religious Tradition vs Relevant Truth

1h 7m

God is Love?

09-God’s Signature

1h

Bricks Without Straw

02 Bricks Without Straw

28m

The Sabbath

The Sabbath- Part 2

31m

Prophecies of Hope

8. The Topic that Satan Hates

56m

Amazing Discoveries Reveal the Future

Sunday Deception Exposed: How the Sabbath Was Changed

54m

Worshiping the Creator

28m

A God Worth Knowing

07 The Reminder of Your Value

1h 2m

Apologetics

Defending the Sabbath

1h 1m

Which Way, America?

15 The Mark of the Beast

58m

Sound Doctrine