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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Siegfried Roeske

A Love Date with God

What a privilege it is to be in the presence of a holy God.

When I come to church many times, I have to picture the cosmic picture in my mind.

And lately, the last few years, I try to picture Jesus listening when I talk to him.

He has taken on the human nature, glorified, he's in heaven.

He's looking down on Advent Hope this morning, And he sent his angels, the guardian angels, for 1, they never leave us.

They're all here, quite a few angels here.

And besides the 1 that were doing the praying for the patients in the hospital.

And it's a wonderful thing to be in the presence of God and the Holy Spirit.

And as was mentioned Sabbath School and everything that was done so far, you know, it's all about Jesus.

Genesis 2, verses 1 through 3, very familiar text.

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 rested on the seventh day from all of 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.

The Sabbath and family are the twin institutions that have followed the human race from perfect paradise.

Through these 2 love gifts, God in a special way has designed to reveal his character, the character of love, goodwill, service, and all the wonderful virtues, they begin in the family, and they're nurtured in the family, and they begin on the Sabbath, and are nurtured by God's holiness on his beautiful love gift to the human race.

Someone has said that if you want to understand the Bible, in fact, I have a book with that title, Look for Jesus.

And then it has all the prophecies that were pointing to him, his love, his sacrifice, all those wonderful things.

Now this morning I say, if we want to understand the Sabbath, we look for Jesus.

It goes beyond which day, it goes beyond technicalities, it goes to the saving issue, the love of God for the human race.

The Sabbath is God's appointed love day for the human race.

Ephesians 5, Jesus' relationship to the church is represented by a young man, a single young man, who leaves his father and his mother, the authority and controlling figures in his life.

He leaves those and finds a bride and accepts a new relationship, a very personal 1 of love.

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the 2 shall be 1 flesh.

This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Cleaving in Genesis has to be preceded by leaving.

And I think father and mother while they may be loving and kind and wonderful I think there's a deeper lesson there that when we join Jesus We have to leave our other lovers who are not in harmony with this program of salvation and love.

But the big point in this text is this 1.

He leaves father and mother to join with his wife.

How 2 people from 2 different worlds, I was born in East Germany, my wife was born in Canada.

How they come together and have love and a happy family.

The family is used as an illustration for a greater lesson.

I believe, myself, that this earth is the only place where there's family.

And I think the family answers Satan's charges regarding the character of God.

And Satan knows it well and he has created havoc on this planet with a human family.

Right now there's great turmoil in understanding God's intention of oneness.

There's a special oneness that can take place only under certain circumstances.

And we should always strive for the ideal, even if we do not always reach it.

Now in Jeremiah 3, 14, and I don't know if you've studied this, probably you have, but in Jeremiah 3, verse 4, the Old Testament, you know, it's not all legalism, it's not legalism at all, but it has some of these beautiful thoughts of the New Testament you know they're building on the old that's all the Bible they had in the New Testament is the Old Testament here in Jeremiah 3 verse 4 it says God speaking to his backsliding people he says backsliding children says the Lord I am married to you How interesting.

And the International Version says, I am your husband.

And Paul says, he is a bridegroom and the church is the bride.

Jeremiah 3 14 I'm sorry did I give you the wrong verse?

Jeremiah 3 14 right and then verse 22 talks some more about bringing back, in verse 20 also, Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me.

O house of Israel, the Lord is crying because his bride is attracted by other lovers and not allowed herself to be bonded.

My favorite term lately, the last few years, in our relationship to Jesus is bonding.

Peter followed the Sabbath school teacher and mentioned Jesus Peter followed a little ways off so he could still manage his own life.

He did not want to be too close in the presence of God because his life was out of harmony with Jesus to a certain extent, but he was drawn step by step into this close bonding relationship.

As we consider the deeper meaning of Sabbath this morning, We want to keep in mind God's overall purpose and desire to draw you and to draw me into a bonding relationship.

Now, this morning, we'd like to look at 2 major points.

And 1 of them we dealt with quite a bit 2 weeks ago, but not, they didn't get into what I'd like to get into today, but I would like to review the biblical facts to show how the Sabbath is grounded in God's Word, which day is the right day.

Then the second part that we like to spend most of the time on is to explore the deeper meaning of the Sabbath from the perspective of bonding and get to some nice old-fashioned approaches that we have discarded too easily without going a little bit deeper and see its real value.

Now for the meaning of the Sabbath is really its best proof.

I like to think that the meaning of the Sabbath is a larger proof for its existence and its keeping than actually which day is the seventh day.

Like the proverbial saying, the test of the pudding is in its eating.

The Sabbath was created by God at the very beginning of the very first week of time.

God set the Sabbath aside by 3 special and distinctive acts as an example to the entire human family.

I would like to just comment on each 1 briefly.

He didn't rest like the ox and the horse.

You know, God had a baby on Friday afternoon.

There in the sand and the earth, he shaped Adam.

He must have had really fun, because father and mother enjoy having a baby.

Some find it difficult to have 1, and I tell you what, it's an agony.

You know, sometimes I wish it wouldn't have happened that way.

But God must have enjoyed shaping Adam there.

He must have had fun with all these things because he knew what he was going to make.

And he knew the product would be wonderful in the image of God himself.

In some way, God could see himself in that wonderful figure, that little baby 15 feet tall when he stood up.

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A Love Date with God

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