your prayers. I think, I believe
I know Nellie, Nellie Arminchain-Taylor, I believe I know her, but remember
them in your prayers. Remember the others. Fred has
been, his cancer has come back and kind of with a vengeance
and he's going to start a new experimental treatment. When
are you going to start it? Well, are they going to do a
punch on the bone or just do it on your blood test? Oh, they're
going to take actual marrow, huh? That's nice. That's fun. Well, great. I'm glad. So remember
Fred as he's getting ready for this new treatment, and also
the bone marrow tap on him is going to happen. So remember
him in your prayers. Continue to remember Dee Parks.
Kathy Robinson, I talked to her yesterday. She has good days
and bad days, so continue to remember her. She says she really
wishes she could come up here and see everybody, but she can't.
The others who've requested prayer, the folks who lost their young
child. Remember them in your prayers also. Let's begin our
worship service with hymn number 62, Crown Him with Many Crowns. Hymn number 62. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake my soul and of him who
died for thee, and hail him as thy matchless king through all
eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky. ? Can fully bear that sight ?
The downward bends his wandering eye ? At mysteries so bright
? Crown him the Lord of life ? Who triumphed o'er the grave
? Who rose victorious to the strife ? For those he came to
save His glories now we sing, who died and rose on high, who
died eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die. Crown him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through him given
from yonder glorious throne. Also, Brother Wayne is in solid
care. He fell and broke his rib. uh... at the hospital so remember
him I think he's in room 102 if I'm not mistaken and Inez
Huskey is also in solid care now she's in room 274 I think
so remember those two in your prayers hymn number 127 hallelujah what
a savior Man of sorrows, what a name For
the Son of God who came Ruined sinners to reclaim Hallelujah,
what a Savior Bearing shame and scoffing rude In my place condemned
he stood, Sealed my pardon with his blood, Hallelujah, what a
Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was he, Full atonement can it be hallelujah
what a savior lifted up was he It is finished was his cry, Now
in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah, what a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring, ? Then I knew this song will
sing ? ? Hallelujah, what a Savior ? If you have your Bibles, turn with me
to Exodus chapter 20. We're gonna read verses eight
through 11. Title of the message tonight is The Seventh Day. Verse eight says, remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and
do all thy work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath
of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work,
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within the gates. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore, the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Let us pray. Our Father,
we thank you for your mercy and grace toward us. We thank you
that you sent your Son to this world, very God of very God,
to take on the form and fashion of human flesh and be made in
the likeness of sinful flesh. put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. He that perfect sacrifice that
satisfied your law and your justice and fixed it so your wretched
children born that way could be called saints and holy ones
and could be called your children and part of your blessed and
holy family. We thank you that it was all
done for us by the triune Godhead. We had no part in it, save that
we were recipients. We're thankful that you've given
us faith to lay hold of these things and believe. We praise
you. You're wonderful. Father, we
pray for those who are sick. Pray that you'd be with Brother
Fred. As he's awaiting this type of
treatment that they're going to do to him, we pray you'd be
with him throughout the whole process and be with those doctors.
You know our hearts, Father. You know what our desire is.
We desire him to be healed and brought back to a good measure
of health. We know that your will will be done in these things,
and he knows that too. We bow to your sovereignty, knowing
that you always do what's right. Pray you'd be with Arlene as
she ministers to him and the family also. his sisters as they
are consider this that you would be with them help us lord to
remember each other we pray for brother Wayne as he's been admitted
to solid care pray you'd be with him watch over him pray for Inez
pray for the Taylor family at the loss of this one we pray
for the others who've lost loved ones father we know that in this
world we shall have tribulation and trial We know for the child
of God the purpose of these things is to bring us to the feet of
Christ, to make us, to cause us, to call out to your name
for help. We ask for your help. We know you are able. There's
nothing too hard for you. Help us, Lord, now. We pray in
Christ's name. Amen. Now this command instituted the required observance
of the seventh day of the week as a day of rest. Now that time
period is called the Sabbath. In the Hebrew it is Shabbat,
it means rest. There is no mention of this as
to observance and the reason for it is it is not stated until
this point in history. Up to this point no mention has
been of this to observing a day as the Sabbath day. None of the
patriarchs or the fathers are said to observe this day until
it is here instituted at Sinai." This is where the day of observance
begins. Now, the concept of it, the concept
of the Sabbath in practice was put in place when the Lord rained
down manna from heaven back in Chapter 16, if you'll look back
there in Exodus Chapter 16. beginning with verse 23, I think
it is, it says this, 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
today, and seed that which ye will seed, and that which remaineth
overlaid 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 day,
for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today ye shall not find
it in the field. Six days shall ye gather it,
but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall
be none. Now he said that's the first
time that the concept of resting on a particular day is set forth
and it was when the manna was given. They were allowed to and
instructed to gather the manna for six days and and on the sixth
day they were to amass a double amount. And then on the seventh
day where no manna was to be gathered because none would be
laying on the ground. And so this was the first mention
of the conscience of a day where the people rest. It was there
called, as we just read, the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto
the Lord. rest unto the Lord. Its observance
had to do with the day's together manner, but the reason for it
was not defined in that passage. In this passage, the reason for
it is defined in our text. The importance of the day is
almost universal in languages, whether it be English or European
language or even some Asian language, this day is an important day. I noticed this in the years that
I've written Sabbath on my computer and started out with a lowercase
s. It always immediately capitalizes the word. So it's an important
enough word that in the English language, at least in Microsoft
Word, will be capitalized. So it's an important day. It
carries some considerable weight in people's mind. Now the Sabbath
began a twenty-four hour period that began Friday at sunset,
Friday at sunset and ended Saturday at sunset. Now to the Jews this
constituted the seventh day of the week. Now our Saturday begins
at twelve oh one on Saturday morning, twelve oh one a.m. and ends at midnight on the same
day. That's our Saturday. Now it's the seventh day of the
week. Saturday is still the Sabbath. It s the seventh day of the week.
Now, among most of what is called Christianity, the Sabbath, which
is Saturday, has been changed to the first day of the week,
which is Sunday. Now, those who practice this
are called Sabbath keepers, and they hold that it is a law in
the Church. I've run into several of them
over the years, and they've given me a fit. One of the pastors
here many years ago told me that the Sabbath was Sunday, and I
told him it was not and never will be. Saturday is the Sabbath. Sunday is the first day of the
week. Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. It's not the Christian
Sabbath. There is a Christian Sabbath,
and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Christian
Sabbath. The reason the Church meets on
Sunday and not Saturday is because that was the common practice
of the early Church in Acts. They met on the first day of
the week, which is Sunday. They met there to worship God.
Sunday is not the Sabbath day, but it is the day when the Church
gathers to worship God in light of and because of the MEANING
of the Sabbath. When we gather together to worship,
we re worshiping in light of the MEANING of the word Sabbath. Now, the Sabbath is not a day.
It is a declaration of a spiritual truth. remove the legal idea
of a specific day from the mind of the believer, and the believer
is set free to rejoice in the Sabbath every hour of every day,
of every week, of every year. Now Moses gives the reason for
keeping the Sabbath in verse 11 of our text. It says, For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that
in them is, and rested on the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath, and hallowed it. He blessed the Sabbath and
hallowed it. Now what does that mean, hallowed
it? It means he declared it holy. Now holiness is set forth basically
in three ways in Scripture. First, the word sanctified, holy,
or interchangeable. And it means when a person is
sanctified, it means he's regarded as holy. he's put in the category
of one who is holy, and he is set aside for the Lord, which
makes him holy. So this day was set aside. Now,
you and I can't make a thing holy. If it's made holy, it's
because God said it's holy. That makes it holy, but it's
holy unto the Lord. It's blessed and hallowed. Now,
I want you to hold your place there at Chapter 11 and go back
to Genesis Chapter 2. Because Moses has said that the
Lord hallowed that day when he rested from the creation. And
in Chapter 2, verse 1, it says, Thus the heavens and 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 in it He had rested from
all the work which God had created and made. You will notice there
is no command from that point all the way to the twentieth
chapter of Moses that anybody observe this day as a special
day to the people. It was holy, it was holy because
God said it was holy, but it was holy unto the Lord. Now it
is interesting to note that back in Genesis that on the seventh
day there was no accounting of how a day was described in the
six prior days. There is no accounting of that.
On the seventh day, it is as if time was not a factor at all. On the six previous days of creation,
every day was defined as evening and morning, and the evening
and the morning were the first day, and the evening and the
morning were the second day, and so forth. These constituted
what is known as a day. No such application was made
on the seventh day when the Lord rested. Even in the beginning,
the Sabbath was not about a day. It was not about a day. It was
about a finished work. This relates to the state where
time is not considered. On the seventh day, it didn't
say anything about morning and evening, or evening and morning. This speaks of an eternal rest.
That's what it pictures and points to. So time is not considered. The Lamb is the light of the
eternal day. and he shines forever under the
law it was observed one day a week to remember that the lord had
finished the work of creation that's what it was it's a commemoration
for he said keep the sabbath day remember the sabbath day
and keep it separate or keep it holy so it's that's a matter
of remembrance As the Old Testament is the story of Christ and His
Salvation, the Creation mentioned and spoken of and recorded in
Genesis Chapter 1 and Genesis Chapter 2, that Creation is about
something else. It's about the New Creation,
the New Creation which has nothing to do with the Law, except that
Christ satisfied the Law in order that the New Creation would take
place. The Old Testament is the story
of Christ The creation is about the new creation, the salvation
of the elect, and the new creation, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
availeth anything, is what it says. So what does that mean?
Neither law nor no law means anything. What's important is
a new creature. The new creature, the redeemed
sinner, rests in Christ. He rests in Jesus Christ because
why? The work is done. Why did God
rest? He's finished creation. There's
nothing else left to do. He's finished creation, so there's
nothing left. Why do we rest? Because there's
nothing left for us to do. There's nothing for us to do
to begin with, and there's nothing that we can do. The new creature,
the redeemed sinner, rests in Christ because the work of salvation
is finished. The work of salvation. Now, I
know that if you hang around anybody who's in religion, they'll
tell you that Christ has done his part, now you have to do
your part. No, that's not salvation. Salvation is God has done his
part and there's nothing left to do. He has finished the work.
That's why we celebrate the Sabbath, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He finished the work. He said that in John 17. He said,
I finished the work. that thou sent me to do, John
17, verse 4. And in John 18, verse 30, 28 through 30, he says
that all things were complete, all the scriptures were fulfilled,
and he said to the cross, he cried with a loud voice, it is
finished. What does that mean? Well, if
it's finished, it's finished. There's nothing left to do. We
understand the concept of finished. We understand that. When Stan
goes out and surveys a yard, or surveys a piece of land, and
he gets all the points set, gets the parameters, the perimeters
are set and all that stuff, and he signs his name to it and said,
it's surveyed. It's surveyed. Now, wouldn't
it be foolish for me to come up and say, well, now I have
to add my part. It's not really surveyed unless I believe it's
surveyed. Come on. That's stupid. That's stupid.
When this thing is finished, it's finished and the Lord finished
the work of the new creation, so there's nothing to do. The
fact that it is finished is categorically established with the command
that no work is to be done by anyone lest the record of the
finished work be declared unfinished. To work on that day was to say
that salvation was almost done, that creation was almost done. There were just some things that
the individual must do to complete salvation, the new creation,
and that's the religion of this day. Christ has done His part. Now you have to make a decision.
You have to invite Him into your heart. Things like you have to
make Him Lord of your life. You have to untie His hands so
He can save you. You have to let Him do something.
That's your part. That's saying the work ain't
complete. And listen, if the work's not finished, nobody's
saved. Nobody's saved. To call uncleaned
is to call unclean what God has made clean. No work is to be
done in the remembrance of the Sabbath. That's what he says
in verse 10 back in our text. He says this, But on 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, thy manservant,
nor thy maidservant, nor your cattle." Your cattle can't even
work on that day. What does that mean? That means
just leave them alone. Don't feed them. Don't hook them
up to a yoke and plow. They are idle. nor the stranger
that is in thy gates." Nobody works on the Sabbath. That's
the mark of the Sabbath. This is the edict imposed on
all eight Sabbaths in Scripture in Leviticus and Exodus and Leviticus. These eight Sabbaths, and there
are eight of them, they end up in the Sabbath of the Jubilee,
which was the great Sabbath at 50 years. But all eight Sabbaths say exactly
the same thing in every instance Every one of them says, There
shall be no servile work. Why? Because the Lord has finished
the work. The Sabbath is blessed of God
because in the Sabbath, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, all
spiritual blessings are freely given to the elect. That s what
it says in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in Christ. All that you ever will need or
all that you'll ever have is in Jesus Christ the Lord. It also says the elect are placed
in Him. They are placed in Him. That
means they are in Christ and therefore the Sabbath is hallowed,
therefore all who are in Him are hallowed also. They are sanctified
the elect are placed in Him, of Him are you in Christ, who
of God is made to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
which is holiness, and redemption. Christ entered into His Sabbath
and all His elect, which is His Body, His Mystical Body, entered
into that Sabbath with Him. What does that mean? He did His
Work, and then He rested, having finished the Work that he did.
That's the language of Scripture. That's the promise throughout
the Old Testament. Let's look at a few instances
in Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 11, it speaks of Christ being the Ensign.
In verse 10 it says, In that day there shall be a root of
Jesse, that's the son of Jesse which is David which Christ would
uh... uh... occupy his throne which
shall stand for an ensign of the people to it shall the Gentiles
seek and his rest his rest shall be glorious his rest. Then over in Isaiah chapter 28
our Lord talks about preaching the gospel to people and them
not receiving it but he says that in Isaiah 28 verse 9 whom
shall we teach in homage? And whom shall he make to understand
doctrine? Them that are weaned from the
milk and drawn from the breast, mature. For precept must be upon
precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and
there a little. For with stammering lips and
another tongue will he speak to this people to whom he said,
this is the rest, wherein ye may cause the weary to rest. and this is a refreshing yet
they would not hear it goes on to say that they believe in the
falsehoods and lies but they would not hear but that was the
message there's a rest a rest religion says there's work to
do there's work to be done the gospel says enter into this rest
what did christ say come unto me all you that labor and are
heavy laden and I'll give you what rest take my yoke upon you
and learn of me and you shall find rest for your soul rest
for your soul, that's the Sabbath, same word, the Shabbat, the same
word. Now look over at Hebrews chapter
four, in Hebrews chapter four, in verse
one it speaks of those who the gospel was preached to back in
what we just read in Isaiah 28, who would not hear it. It says,
let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into
his rest, Any of you should come short of it. For unto us was
the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said. As I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into rest, although the works were finished
from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place
of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh
day from all his works, and in this place again, if they shall
enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first
preached entered not because of unbelief, Again, he limited
a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time,
as it is said, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, they would not have
afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore
a rest. for the people of God. For he
that entered into his rest, that is Jesus Christ, he is also ceased
from his own works as God did from his. Let us labor therefore
to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example
of unbelief." That is that rest. Sabbath-keeping. What is Sabbath-keeping? It is believing on Christ. Those
that did not believe did not enter into the rest. those who
did believe entered into the rest. That is as plain as you
can see, and if you look back at chapter 4 and verse 9, it
says, There remaineth a rest for the people of God, and if
you have a marginal reading in your Bible, it says that rest
means keeping of the Sabbath. There remaineth therefore a keeping
of the Sabbath for the people of God, for the people of God. Every day, every day, the believer
keeps the Sabbath. He keeps the Sabbath because
he is entered into the rest of Jesus Christ. Father, bless us
to understand Him, we pray in Christ s Name, Amen.