A 6.000 Year Old Remedy for Tension
 by Mark Finley
Tonight, as we begin our Bible presentation, I invite you to bow your heads as we pray...... "Father, the goal of our heart is to be like Jesus, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Tonight, as we talk about what it really means to worship Jesus, I pray that your Holy Spirit would open our eyes. Teach us new things, and give us a willing heart to follow You. In Christ's name, Amen."
Our topic tonight is a 6,000 year old remedy for tension.
I often see her as I travel from my home in Thousand Oaks, California, to Camarillo, a little north, to Oxnard and Ventura. I see her in our neighborhood. We call her the Bag Lady. I don't know her name, but my teenage son tells me that she travels up and down between those California coastal cities regularly, walking with her long blonde hair sticking out over her overcoat. Whether it is winter or summer in California, she dresses the same way. The Bag Lady.....that's all I know about her. Sometimes she is sticking her head in a dumpster to get her meal. Other times, you'll notice her with her shopping cart full, pushing it down the street with her few meager belongings.
There may a bag lady or others who are homeless in your city. There is deep within the heart of this bag lady a longing for belonging, a longing to have a place she calls home. She seems always to be moving, always to be going somewhere, but never getting there. Deep within the hearts of men and women everywhere, there is a longing for home, a longing to connect with others who care and love, the longing for a warm embrace, the longing for home. There is a restlessness within all of us for home. Some of us manifest that restlessness in ways that the bag lady doesn't. We overwork on our jobs. We reach out and grasp for things.....a bigger home, a better car, finer suits or dresses. We attempt through overwork in a pressure and stress-filled society to fill that aching void within. But that aching void within, that void for belonging, that void to fill the emptiness inside, that is the same void that the bag lady has. It seems that the human race is on a journey. It seems that together we are moving ahead to try to find a place of peace, a place of comfort. And God has created such a place, a place of identity, a place of belonging in this stress-filled age, in this modern age of tension and pressure. Revelation has an answer for stress.
In fact, some time ago, I read about a European who came to the United States in the late 19th century. When this European was writing back to her colleagues in Europe, she said, "These Americans are so different than the Europeans. In fact, the Americans are so much on the move, they have even invented a chair that rocks when they sit down because they have to be moving!" Well, we Americans are on the move! And that's one of the reasons I enjoyed my five years living in London so much---because some of my European friends taught me to slow down a little bit. Indeed, we live in a society that's pace is absolutely hectic. What is God's answer to stress and tension? What is God's answer to this need that we have inside of ourselves to find refuge and belonging and peace and identity and connectedness? The book of Revelation describes God's last message to the world, and that's the message we're studying every night. We'll keep on going back to Revelation, chapter 14.
This message in Revelation 14:6 is a message given by God to prepare men and women for the coming of Jesus. It's God's last message to go to mankind. This message is as important for our day as Noah's message was in his day. The Bible says, "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven....." When the Bible describes an angel flying in mid-heaven, it's describing a message that is to go with rapidity and swiftness to the world. "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth --- to every nation, tribe, tongue and people ---" This message is a universal message. It leaps across geographical boundaries. It bridges language barriers. It goes beyond denomination. It's to go to every nation, tribe, tongue and people. "--- saying with a loud voice,....." The heavenly messenger announces it, not in soft tones that are unintelligible, but in, but with..... (what kind of voice, everybody?).....a loud voice, saying, ".....Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come;....." In other words, we're on the verge of eternity. In the hour of God's judgment, the destinies of the human race will be settled. But the message goes on: "..... saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of waters."
Here is a call to belonging. Here is a call to identity. Here is a call to home. Our hearts find rest as we rest in Him and worship Him. In the last days of Earth's history, a message is given to the entire world that has to do with worship --- and the final conflict between good and evil is between true worship and false worship. We either worship Him who made heaven, earth, sea and the fountains of waters.....(what do we call the One who made heaven and earth, sea and the fountains of waters? The 'Creator')..... So, we either worship the Creator or we worship the beast.
It's either true worship or false worship! And so the Bible, in the last days of Earth's history, calls us to worship the Creator. Why do we worship God anyway? What is the basis for all worship? Why worship Him? Why give God our praise? Why give Him our homage? Why give Him our deepest allegiance? The Bible says in Revelation 4:11, "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created." Why is God worthy of our worship? Why is He worthy of our honor? Why is He worthy of our allegiance? Why is it that we can find our home in Him? How can we find rest from tension in Him?
He is worthy to be praised and worthy of our allegiance, because He created all things. We did not evolve. We owe our existence to Him. We are not some cosmic accident in the universe. The Bible says, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things."
I wonder, has God left a sign of His creative authority? I wonder, when the book of Revelation says, "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive.....honor" because You created all things, to whom is Revelation's call to worship? This is a special call to give homage to.....? Who really was the active agent in creation? Yes, the Bible says God created the heaven and the earth, but how --- by whom ---did God create the heaven and the earth? The Bible tells us in Colossians 1:16, "For by Him (that is, Christ) all things were created." So, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all participated in creation. God the Father was the master designer, the Holy Spirit provided the power, but Jesus Christ, according to Colossians 1, was the active agent in creation. So, when Revelation calls us to worship the Creator, it is calling us in the last days to give homage, praise and allegiance to Jesus.....to find our rest in Jesus, to find our home in Jesus, to find our security in Jesus.
Has Jesus left for us a special sign of rest in Him? Has Jesus left for us a refuge? Has Jesus left for us an emblem of His authority? What is the sign that Christ created the world? What indeed is the sign that God has given us a symbol of His creative power? Has He given us a refuge in this stress-filled world? As you study God's law, and you look back to the Ten Command-ments, does one of those commandments tell us how to worship Jesus as Creator of heaven and earth? Does one of those commandments tell us about a refuge, a sanctuary, a place where we can find an oasis in the stress-filled desert of this world?
Deep within the heart of God's law, there is a symbol of His authority, a symbol of His creative power, a symbol of refuge from stress and tension. In the Bible, deep within the heart of God's Ten Commandment law, written with God's own finger on tables of stone, never to be changed, never to be eradicated, never to be erased, the Bible says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." God says, "Remember," and most of the world has forgotten. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God." The Bible doesn't say that the first day is the Sabbath, or the third day is the Sabbath, or the fifth day. What day is the Sabbath according to the Bible, everybody? The seventh day.
Did God write that with His own finger on tables of stone? Human beings may write one thing in a book, but I'd rather accept what God wrote on tables of stone than what man wrote in any book. What about you, friends? The seventh day is the Sabbath. Does it say that it's the Sabbath of the Jews? What does it say there in the Commandments? It's the Sabbath of....whom?---in the commandments.....the Lord thy God. But why is the seventh day the Sabbath of the Lord thy God? Why worship Him on that day? The Bible says, "In it, you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates....." Then the Bible goes on....."For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them." Now, here you have the reason that Sabbath worship is so important, the reason that worshipping on the seventh day is so important! Do you remember in the passage that we read in Revelation 14:7, it says that the angel would say with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who.....' did what?.....'made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.'
John, in Revelation, was paraphrasing the fourth commandment. John tells us in the last days, in the judgment hour, just before the coming of Christ, there is a call to worship the Creator. The Ten Commandments tell us how to worship the Creator. We honor Jesus as Creator. We honor Jesus as Lord of Lords. As each Sabbath we come to worship before Him, as each Sabbath we acknowledge the fact that He created us, each Sabbath we leave behind the stress, the tension, the anxiety of this world, and we come to Him.
The Bible says, "For in six 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 hallowed it." The Bible does not say that God set aside the first day or the third day or the fifth. The Ten Commandments are plain! God set aside the Sabbath when He said, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Now I've had people say to me that the Ten Commandments were for the Jews. Well, is the commandment 'Thou shall not kill' just for the Jews, so all of us Christians can go kill, right? 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' Was that just for the Jews? Do you tell your teenage daughter, "The command 'Thou shall not commit adultery' was just for the Jews, honey, so don't worry about promiscuity?" You don't tell her that, do you?
Do you tell your teenage son who comes home cursing, "Oh, don't worry, son, the commandment 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain' was just for the Jews, so you can curse as much as you want in front of anybody you want." What about the commandment 'Thou shall not steal?' That commandment is just for the Jews, so go down and pull a 'haul' at the grocery store today. Is that what you say?
The commandments of God are the eternal basis of heavenly government. They are the moral cohesive element that holds all society together. When God says, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,' that commandment is given for all mankind. In fact, that is exactly what Jesus Christ said Himself. Read Mark 2:27 with me: "The Sabbath was made for the Jew....."Wait!!! Is that what it says??? Was the Sabbath made for the Jews? Well, is the Jew a man? The Sabbath was made for man, for all mankind! It was made for everybody, Jew and Gentile alike, because Jesus said, "The Sabbath is made for....." whom? ".....man." So, the Sabbath is a sign that God created the world. And each Sabbath, as we come to worship Him, we find a sense of belonging, a sense of identity. We find a sense of meaning and refuge in the God who made us.
The Sabbath is God's love gift to the entire human race. Every seventh day, a 'palace' from heaven descends to earth.....twenty-four hours of time. And God says, 'Flee from your stress. Flee from your anxiety. Flee from your frayed nerves. Come get connected again with the God of the universe. Come plug in again with the Creator of the universe. Come find belonging and purpose and identity and security and refuge.' The Sabbath is God's love gift to the human race. In fact, the Sabbath was given, in Genesis, when God created the human race. When God created Adam and Eve, that was 2300 years before the Jewish race, so the Sabbath was not given exclusively to the Jews.
The Sabbath was given when God created Adam and Eve. You recall back at creation, God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light, and God separated the waters from below the earth from the waters above, and the Bible says that dry land appeared. And God made the firmament. He enveloped this earth in magnificent air that was fresh and pure to breathe. God said to the waters and the tides, 'Come no further, that's far enough.....not one more inch shall you come.' And God said to the earth, 'Let the earth bring forth flowers. Let the earth bring forth fruit in abundance. Let the earth be covered with living green grass.' God went on, and He said, 'Let the waters abound.' What a wonderful God we serve! He could have made all the fish one color, but multi-colored fish were made for us, to enjoy the pleasantness of our earth. And God said, 'Let the birds fly in the air.' What a wonderful and glorious world it was! God said, 'Let the earth bring forth its living creatures,' and living creatures dotted the landscape. Oh, what a wonderful God we serve!
Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.' And the Bible says that, in the image of God, He made male and female (Genesis 1:26, 27). He created Adam and Eve, and after six days of creation, God said, 'On the seventh day, I will create a sanctuary. I will create a refuge. On the seventh day, I will give my people a symbol that I have created them, so that throughout their earthly sojourn they will never forget that I am their Lord, their Creator, their Maker.' Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day, and the first full day they lived was indeed the seventh day. And the Bible says in Genesis 2:1,2: "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." Does the Bible say God rested on the first day? Does it? Does the Bible say God rested on the third day? Does it? It says that He rested on.....what day?.....the seventh.
If I want to rest on the same day our Lord rested on, I rest on the seventh day, because that is the day He rested on and that is the day He commanded to be kept. The Bible says that He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. The Bible goes on: "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it, He rested from all His work which God had created and made (Genesis 2:3).
So the Bible says that God did three things on the seventh day: .....First, God rested on the seventh day. We rest on the seventh day as Christians in harmony with our love for Jesus Christ and our acknowledgment that He created the world. The Sabbath is a symbol of our rest in His love and care. .....Second, He blessed the seventh day. That is to say, God put a blessing in the seventh day Sabbath, but not on any other day. You can be blessed if you worship on the second day, the third day, and the first day. In fact, we have these meetings on varied days of the week, and as we come to "Discoveries in Prophecy," we are blessed. But if you want the Sabbath blessing, you can't get a blessing from worshipping on any other day. The special blessing of God you get by worshipping on the Sabbath day, where God put the blessing. The Bible says that God rested on the seventh day. It never said that He rested on the first or second. The Bible says that He blessed the seventh day. It never said that He blessed the third, fourth, fifth or the first. .....Third, the Bible says that God sanctified the seventh day. The word 'sanctify' is a word that is used for one woman set aside for one man. When a man and woman are married, she is sanctified for him and he is sanctified for her. The word 'sanctified' means 'set apart from all the rest.'
Now let's suppose it's my wedding day. I was married June 25, 1967. So suppose it's my wedding day, and I'm standing there at the altar, and I see my beautiful bride coming down the aisle.
My heart begins beating faster and faster, my hands are shaking, I see Ernestine, or as I call her affectionately 'Teeny,' coming down the aisle. Beads of sweat are just pouring off my forehead. She's the most beautiful woman I ever have seen..... (You know we've been married thirty years --- somebody told me once it's not hard to be married thirty years, the difficulty is to be married thirty years to same woman! I am absolutely delighted and thrilled that I've been married to the same woman for thirty years, and we plan if Jesus doesn't come to make it thirty more, folks.) .....Let's suppose I'm standing here at the altar, and my lovely bride is coming down the aisle, and I'm all nervous. And then we're married, and the preacher says, "Do you?" And I say, "I do." And he asks my wife, "Do you?" And she says, "I do." And then after the wedding service, the reception is over, and I'm in the car, revving it up, getting ready for the honeymoon. I can't wait to see my bride! But let's suppose she has six sisters.....she is only one of seven girls.....and her sister jumps in the car and says, "Let's go!" And I say, "Nothing doing. I didn't marry you! Your sister was sanctified for me." And she says, "One in seven --- what difference does it make?" Would it make a difference to my wife? Would it make a difference to me?
Does it make a difference to God, if He has sanctified a day, if human beings try to make holy a day that God has never made holy? God has never called you to make holy a day---He has called you to rest on the day and to worship on the day that He has sanctified and made holy. In fact, when I say "What difference does it make?" the Bible says in Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of....." what? ".....death." Satan in the garden of Eden said to Eve, 'What difference does it make? It's just a little fruit. Trees don't make a difference!' And Satan is telling people today, 'Days don't make a difference.' The fruit of that tree was set aside for Adam and Eve not to eat, and when they took it, it made a difference because they disobeyed God. God has set aside the seventh-day Sabbath. He rested on it and blessed it. Indeed, it makes a difference!
In fact, the Jewish writer Philo said this, "Now the whole world has been brought to completion in accordance with the properties of a perfect number, seven. The Father invested with dignity the seventh day.....extolling it and pronouncing it holy." Yes, the seventh day was infused with dignity. God pronounced it holy. Professor E.W. Thomas said that man could not keep the original Sabbath and forget God. See, the Sabbath connects us with God. All through the Old Testament and on into the new, the Sabbath was a sign between God and His people. In fact, think back with me to the days of Abraham.....the Bible says that Abraham kept God's commandments. The Sabbath was given in Genesis before there was a Jew. The Sabbath was kept by Abraham, and the Sabbath was kept by God's people down through the ages.
When Moses led Israel out of Egyptian bondage, you'll recall that in the wilderness, the manna began to fall. God graciously fed Israel by letting manna fall from heaven. The manna fell on six days, but on the seventh day, the manna didn't fall. And God told Israel not to go out and gather the manna on the seventh day, but He supplied a double portion on Friday! On other days the manna would rot if they tried to keep it over from one day to the next. God said, 'I'll perform a triple miracle for you.....no manna will fall on Sabbath, and if you get a double portion on Friday, I will enable that portion to stay over and it won't spoil on Sabbath.' So, none fell on Sabbath. Twice as much fell on Friday, and the amount that fell on Friday was preserved for the Sabbath. Exodus 16:26 says, 'Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none.'
The Ten Commandments, ladies and gentlemen, were given in Exodus 20 by God, written on tables of stone, never to be eradicated. Before the giving of the commandments, Israel was keeping the Sabbath. Why? Because it was given to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were Sabbath keepers, and the Sabbath revealed a sense of connectedness between God and His people. When Israel broke the Sabbath, Exodus 16:28 says, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?" The commandments of God were important. When Israel broke the Sabbath, that was one of the reasons they had to wander in the wilderness for forty years. The Ten Commandments law was given by God on Mount Sinai.....for all people, at all times, in all places. And the scripture says in Exodus 20:10, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God." In fact, all through the Old Testament, the Sabbath was a sign.....a sign of allegiance, a sign of loyalty, a sign of obedience, a sign that Man is connected with His Creator. In Ezekiel 20:12, the Bible says, "Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a....." what? To be a what? A ".....sign between them and Me." So the Sabbath has always been a sign, a symbol of loyalty, a symbol of worship of the true God. Now there are some Christians that are confused. They have the idea that when Jesus came He in some way came to do away with the law, to do away with the Bible Sabbath. In fact, Jesus himself said this in Matthew 5:17: "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."
Did Jesus come to destroy the law that said "Thou shall not commit adultery"? Did Jesus come to destroy the law that said "Thou shall not kill"? Did Jesus come to destroy the law that said "Thou shall not steal"? Did He come to destroy the law that said "Remember the Sabbath"? Not at all. What then was Jesus' practice regarding the Sabbath? Did He destroy it? If Christ came to destroy the Sabbath, He would not have kept it, but the Bible says in Luke 4:16: "So He (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was (that is, as His practice was, as He did each week, the Bible says) He went into the synagogue (or the church) on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read." It was on the Sabbath that Jesus announced He was the Messiah by reading from Isaiah. Every Sabbath as His custom was, He went to worship.
Wouldn't Jesus have done away with the Sabbath in His life, if indeed He was going to introduce a new day to Christians? Jesus Himself was a Sabbath keeper. Adam and Eve were Sabbath keepers. Abraham and Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel, all were Sabbath keepers. Jesus Christ kept the Bible Sabbath in life, and He told His disciples that He would keep the Bible Sabbath even after His death. And they should, too, because Jesus said in John 14:15 (read it together with me, please): "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Do you love Him, friend? Do you love Him tonight?
Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." In fact, as Jesus' disciples gathered around Him, Jesus talked to them about the coming destruction of Jerusalem. He talked to them about the time that the Roman armies would destroy the city of Jerusalem, and Jesus said in Matthew 24:20: "And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath." That is, pray that, when you have to flee Jerusalem because of the Roman armies, pray that your flight from Jerusalem be not in winter or on the Sabbath day. When was Jerusalem destroyed? In fact, Jerusalem was surrounded by Roman armies and destroyed by Titus in 70 AD. Now, why would Jesus encourage His disciples to pray that their flight be not on the Sabbath, if at that time they wouldn't be keeping the Sabbath? You see, here it is 31 AD, and Jesus says that Titus is going to come down and destroy Jerusalem, so when he attacks, pray that you don't have to flee on the Sabbath. Why? Because all the Christians would be worshipping, and if Titus attacked on the Sabbath, he would destroy the Christians and the Jews in one swoop because they would be together. If he attacked on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, any other day, the gates of Jerusalem would be open, and the people would be working in the fields. What sense would it make for Jesus to say to the disciples, the Christian leaders, those who were carrying the torch of truth, 'Pray that in 70 AD your flight would not be on Sabbath,' if they themselves wouldn't be keeping the Bible Sabbath.
In fact, when you look at the New Testament, there are 84 mentions in the New Testament that the disciples were keeping the Bible Sabbath. The New Testament church kept the Bible Sabbath. The disciples loved Jesus enough to obey Him, because "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). In fact, speaking of the disciples in Acts 13:14, the Bible says, "They.....went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down." Oh, somebody says, 'Pastor, the reason that Paul and the disciples went into the synagogue on Sabbath was just to convert the Jews. They weren't really Sabbath worshippers themselves.' But the Bible says that the Gentiles, not the Jews, "begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." So, you have the disciples worshipping with the Jews, but then you have the Gentiles saying, 'We want to worship God as Creator. We want to worship Jesus as Lord of the universe and Lord of the Sabbath.' The Bible says in Acts 13:42, 44: "And the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God." You know, if the disciples were keeping the first day of the week and they went into the synagogue to worship, and the Gentiles said, 'We want to hear about Jesus and the grace of God,' the disciples would have said, 'Well, you come back tomorrow, on the first day.' But they didn't say that, and the next Sabbath day, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
Antioch was the place that this experience took place. It was the place that the Christians were strong and prominent as Paul preached. In Antioch, there are the ruins of two churches. The first is an early Christian church in which the Sabbath was exalted. You can see the ruins of that church where the whole city came to hear the word of God.....(here are the ruins of one of the earliest Sabbath keeping churches In Antioch.) Now, in another part of the city, there is another temple. This temple was erected in the days of Rome to the Roman sun god, the god of Sunday, the day of the sun. And so here in Antioch, you see this contrast: a temple to the sun god, worshipping on the day of the sun, the prominent god on the first day of the week.....and you see the Christian church, worshipping on the Bible Sabbath.
Indeed, the Bible is plain. When there were instances that the disciples did not have a Christian church to worship with, Paul at times went out in the country-side, when he heard there were small bands of believers worshipping on the Bible Sabbath. Acts 16:13 says, "And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made." Paul had heard of Lydia. Lydia's household feared God---they were committed to the Lord Jesus---and they were worshipping, so Paul went out to be with them to worship on the Bible Sabbath. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God's people have worshipped on the Bible Sabbath. Acts 18:4 says, "And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks." Paul was interested in preaching Christ to the Jews and to the Greeks, and leading them to worship on the Sabbath, to worship the Lord of the Sabbath.
Revelation, the Bible's last book, calls us to obedience. Revelation calls us to worship Him that made heaven, earth, sea and the fountains of waters. Revelation calls us to worship the Creator. The Bible says in Revelation 14:12 (read with it me, please): "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." If we have the faith of Jesus, we love Him. We want to serve Him. We want to follow in His footsteps. We want to worship on the day that He worshipped on. In the last days, God will have a group of people, men and women who love Him enough to keep His commandments, who love Him enough to obey Him, who love Him enough to serve Him. The Sabbath was given in the Garden of Eden. The Sabbath was kept by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The Sabbath was one of the command-ments of God written with His finger on tables of stone. The Sabbath was kept by Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel. The Sabbath was kept by Jesus Christ and Peter and James and Paul.
And the Bible says (in Isaiah 66:22,23) that one day in heaven, "For as the new heavens and the new earth....." (I'm looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth, aren't you, friends?) ".....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 one new moon to another....." (you know the period between new moons is a month---and the tree of life will give off its fruits every month, so each month we will wing our way to the holy city and there we will partake of the fruits of the tree of life.....but look!) ".....and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says the Lord." This is in the new earth. This is when the old heaven is no more, and there are new heavens and a new earth. "And from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord." If we're going to worship Him on the Sabbath up there, wouldn't it be a good thing to start down here? The Sabbath goes from Eden in the past to Eden in the future.
But you know there are some people that say, "But -- but -- but, Pastor Finley, can we really tell which day the seventh day is? Now Pastor Finley, let me ask you this question, I mean, I think the calendar has been so changed you can never know what the seventh day is.....so it's just a matter of guesswork." Are you going to charge God with saying, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy? Six days shalt thou labor, the seventh day is the Sabbath." Would God give a command that was so complicated that nobody could keep it? Would God picture His last message as being carried by angelic messengers to earth calling everybody back to worship Him as Creator and Lord on the Sabbath, but make it impossible to know which the seventh day is? Friend, the Bible tells us which day the seventh day is. Astronomy tells you what the seventh day is. Language tells you what day the seventh day is, and history tells you what day the seventh day is. So, there is absolutely no question what day the seventh day is!
Do you remember that you read in the gospels that Jesus was crucified on Calvary's cross, and that the Bible describes that event.....it says that the day on which Christ was crucified was the "Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near." Christ was crucified on the day that the Bible calls the 'preparation day.' It was that day that they nailed nails through His hands, that day that they put a crown of thorns upon His head, that day that they hung Him on a cross. "And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils....." The Bible continues, ".....And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment" (Luke 23:54-56).
So you have the preparation day, the day Christ died.....and you have the next day, when the ladies wouldn't even embalm His body (obviously the command-ments weren't nailed to the cross, because here you have, on the day Christ died, His closest followers wanting to rest and worship their Creator as Lord.) Christ rested on the Sabbath in life, and He rested on the Sabbath in death. Here the Bible says that there were three days in succession.....the preparation day, the day Jesus died.....the Sabbath, the day He rested in the tomb.....and the Bible says, the next day in succession, the third day "now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared." (And you recall what happened.....) "But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb." Luke 24:1,2.
Now notice, there is the preparation day (that is, the day Jesus died) and there is the next day (the day the women rested and the day Christ rested, according to the commandment) and then there is the day that Christ rose from the dead. You have three days in succession. Do we know what day Jesus died? That's commonly accepted by most Christians as.....what day?.....Good Friday. So the preparation day was Friday.....the next day, the day the women rested, of course, was the Sabbath day, the day we in English call Saturday.....and the third day, of course, in succession is the first day, which is called Sunday. So, the Sabbath is the day between Friday and Sunday. It is the day between the sixth day of the week, Friday, and the first day of the week, Sunday.....the day we call 'Saturday.' The Bible is plain on which day the Bible Sabbath indeed is.
Not only does the Bible tell you what day the Sabbath is, but you look at most common dictionaries.....(here is Webster's International Dictionary).....Saturday is the seventh day of the week. The dictionary knows what day it is---it's Saturday. The Bible knows what day it is---it's Saturday. The seventh day is indeed the Bible Sabbath. In fact, astronomy knows which day the seventh day of the week is. Ask the astronomers at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. You know, some people are concerned that the weekly cycle has been changed. Maybe the weekly cycle is all mixed up. Here the United States Observatory said this: "We have had occasion to investigate the works of specialists in chronology, and we have not found one of them that ever had the slightest doubt about the continuity of the weekly cycle since into the Christian era. In fact if you ask the astronomer, Larkin, he says there was no change in the weekly cycle. Indeed, the cycle of the week has come down to us in unbroken sequences of seven. The Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, confirms the authenticity of the weekly cycle.
Saturday, as we know it today, indeed is the true Bible Sabbath. Look at a common calendar in the United States and North America; Saturday is the seventh day. Now for my European friends.....There are those in Europe who say, 'Wait a minute. In our European calendar, Monday is the first day of the week!' Now, you'll recall that that is true in some places.....in fact in most places in central Europe, where they start with Monday. Most European calendars list Monday as the first day of the week, and this change was made recently in the 1950s and the 1960s. Calendars before the 1950s and 60s accurately placed Saturday as the seventh day and Sunday as the first day. So, for my European friends, if you're in Europe and you consult the orthodox religious calendar, Saturday is always the seventh day. If you're in a Catholic country, on the Catholic calendar in Europe, Saturday is the seventh day.
The change was relatively new. In fact, it's part of a master plan.....to take our world away from the true Bible Sabbath, because Daniel predicted in Daniel 7:25, that the enemy would think to change the times and the.....what?.....laws. (We're going to study more tomorrow night about how the true Bible Sabbath was changed.) But for all this business of trying to confuse people with some recent calendar changes, always remember Daniel 7:25.....that there would be this attempt to change the times and change the laws to confuse people.
In over 105 languages of the world, the word for seventh day of the week is 'Sabbath.' Do I have some Spanish folks here tonight in Orlando? Will anybody who speaks Spanish here, raise your hand? What is the name, Spanish folks in Orlando, for.....(oh, I didn't ask the question yet, and you gave me the answer!) What is the name for 'Saturday' in Spanish? 'Sabado.' What is that day? 'Sabado.' All our Spanish brothers and sisters have no problem. They look at the commandment which says, "Remember the Sabbath day," and they look on their calendar, and the seventh day of the week is 'Sabado.' They know it. In 105 languages in the world, the seventh day of the week, the name for that day is not 'Saturday,' but 'Sabbath.' Indeed, the Bible tells you that Christ died on Friday and rested on the Sabbath. Indeed, you look at language, you look at calendars, you look at astronomy, and the evidence is absolutely irrefutable.
Scores of people studying their Bibles have come to this conclusion: That to really follow Jesus, they must follow Jesus all the way. To really follow Jesus, they must follow Jesus beyond tradition, beyond what preachers teach, beyond what religious books teach. They must go by what this book teaches! I think of Anna.....Anna was studying her Bible. She was studying the subject of the Bible Sabbath, and she became troubled. She said, "I don't want to know what my church teaches. I want to know what God's word teaches." Then she decided to ask a pastor a question, so she called and said, "Pastor, I have a question to ask you. I've been studying the Bible regarding the Sabbath, and I saw that the Sabbath was given in the garden of Eden, that God rested on the Sabbath. God blessed the Sabbath, and sanctified the Sabbath. I saw that God gave it hundreds of years before the Jews." She said, "I read in my Bible that Abraham kept the commandments. I read about the seventh day Sabbath, written with God's finger on tables of stone. I read that Ezekiel said that the Sabbath was a sign between God and man. I read that Jesus kept the Sabbath every week as His custom was. The Bible says that Jesus said that the disciples should keep the Sabbath." She said, "Pastor, Pastor, I read that Peter and Paul kept the Bible Sabbath, and I read that we would keep the Sabbath in heaven." She said, "But I'm troubled. I have a question to ask you. I'm trying to find out what the true Lord's Day is because some Christians say that when Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, that we should keep that day. But Pastor, my Bible never said that Jesus rested on the first day, never said that Jesus sanctified the first day, never said that Jesus blessed the first day. Pastor, I'm getting confused." She said, "Pastor, I want to know what the true Lord's Day is. Although man says to worship on the first day, I don't find that in my Bible. Why is it that some things are in the Bible more than once?" The pastor was very wise. He said, "Some things are in the Bible more than once for this reason: God wants to emphasize it. If you miss it in Matthew, God wants to you get it in Mark. If you miss it in Mark, God wants you to get it in Luke. God sometimes includes the same passages more than once because he wants to you get it more than once. Why, what are you talking about?" She said, "Pastor, I do only want to go by the Bible. I want the light of Christ to shine from the word of God. Pastor, I read in Revelation 1:10, 'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day,' and I want to know what the true Lord's Day is, the day set aside for Jesus Christ." She said, "I want to only worship on the true Lord's Day. I read in Matthew 12:8, 'The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.' I read in Mark 2:28: 'Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.' I read in Luke 6:5: 'Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.' If the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, the true Lord's Day must be the Sabbath!" I've had people say to me, "Well, I keep the Lord's Day rather than the old Sabbath." Well, the truth of the matter is, the expression 'Lord's Day' is mentioned once in the Bible in Revelation 1:10. (There you see it.) "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." John is simply saying, 'I had a prophetic vision on the day the Lord set aside,' on the day that the Lord created as a symbol of His love and refuge. And he's saying, 'I had a vision on the Sabbath.' I would rather let Jesus define what day the Lord's Day is than man. What do you say, friend? When Jesus says that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, I believe it, don't you? This woman sensed that the Sabbath is the true Lord's Day, and she said to that pastor, "Pastor, what should I do?" and that Pastor looked at her and he said, "I counsel you to follow Jesus. I counsel you to follow the Word of God."
Friend of mine, I don't know what church you were brought up in. I don't know what your preacher says. I don't know what your pastor says. You may leave this meeting and some preacher may try to get you all confused. You may leave this meeting and friends may try to talk you out of following Jesus.
The only thing that I can counsel you to do is to follow the Bible. The only thing I can counsel you to do is to follow what God says. The only thing I can counsel you to do is to follow Jesus. Would you like to tell Him tonight, as you bow your head as Matt sings, 'I Will Follow Thee, my Savior,' "Lord, I love You so much that I want to worship You as Creator. I love You so much that I want to worship You as the One who made heaven and earth. I love You so much that I want to find refuge in You. I want to find belonging in You. I want to find identity in You! Lord, I love You so much that when You write with Your own finger on tables of stone, "Remember the Sabbath," Lord, I will follow You. Even if it means making a change in my life, I will follow You, Lord, wherever You lead."
In meditation, listen to this: "Tonight as we bow our heads to pray, from the quietness of your own heart,
would you like to say, 'Jesus, I really want to follow you. Jesus, if the Sabbath is right.....I love You more than anything else, Lord.....thank you, Jesus, for giving me this message. I love You enough to follow You.' Would you like to just slip your hand to heaven right now in the quietness and say, 'Jesus, give me the strength to follow You. I really want to follow You. I love You enough to follow You.' Just lift your hand to heaven. If you love Jesus enough to follow Him, if you love Jesus enough to serve Him, if you love Jesus enough to obey Him, just lift Your hand to heaven. Hundreds and hundreds of hands here in Orlando, and thousands of hands around the world.....tens of thousands! We're saying, 'Lord, I love You! Lord, I know I can only find my refuge in You. I can only find my security in You. I can only find my true worship in You. Lord, I love You enough to follow You.' Oh, my Father, tonight, thank You for Jesus Christ. Thank You that in Christ we can find refuge and security. Thank You for the Jesus who set aside a special day for us to have fellowship and to worship Him. And tonight, I pray that You would enable us to follow Christ. You've set aside the seventh day of the week.....Saturday.....the true Bible Sabbath. And Lord, we love You and long to worship You on the day You set aside, and we choose tonight to follow You. In Christ's name, Amen."
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