The Sabbath & the Lord's Day

we're going through Dr. Lewis Barry Chafer's book, Major Bible Themes, and there's 52 chapters in that book. And so we've been at it for three quarters of a year, and Roger and I have been team teaching this, and we're down to chapter 41, looking at the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.

And when you look at this chart, yeah, you say, wow, we're Almost there. And what's incredible is that as I look at all of the notes that we've compiled, you know, we've got a book that's thick. And if you had sat down to do it in one month, you couldn't have done it. But it's just taking the time. Okay, so what we're going to look at this morning is the Sabbath day. What does it mean? When was it instituted? Who was it given to? Should you observe the Sabbath day? So let me just throw out that question. Should we observe the Sabbath day?

No response. Too many trick questions. Yeah, and I find it to be interesting when I do ask the trick question and then you find out it's a trick question. Then when I ask another question, it's just dead silence. No one will attempt to answer a question.

Okay, so we're going to try and resolve those questions and then take a look at God's rest. that He does have a rest. He has a rest, the Scripture says, for Israel. He has a rest for us. Then we're going to take a look at the Lord's Day. What is the Lord's Day? Why do we come together on the Lord's Day? Is it a command in Scripture that we do that? Is there something special that that we're supposed to do on the Lord's Day? Does Scripture say, hey, here's the prescribed thing that you're supposed to do on the Lord's Day? Does it even tell us that we're supposed to keep the Lord's Day? Is the Lord's Day our Sabbath day? Those are the questions. Hopefully we're going to answer them.

What I thought was best to do would take a look at the Sabbath first, and then take a look, first of all, at the history of the Sabbath. In Genesis chapter 2, Genesis chapter 1 talks about creation. Genesis chapter 2 talks about the fact that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and he rested on the seventh day.

It's interesting, as you take a look at this word, rest, in the Hebrew, it's the same word that is used for Sabbath. And the word that's used for Sabbath in the Hebrew is Shabbat. And Shabbat means to rest or cease from labor or from work. And it has the idea of cessation, to stop something. So that's the idea of it. The interesting thing is, if you take a look at the Hebrew, the word seventh is Shabbat, which is almost like Shabbat, and is the derivative of of the word that we use for Sabbath.

But simply stated, that's what Genesis 2, verses 1-3 states. Now, we tend to think, in our frame of reference, that, well, God rested on the seventh day, and therefore, from that time on, from Adam on, Man worked six days and rested on the seventh, right? Don't we tend to think that?

Scripture says nothing about that. So, as you go through Scripture, you find that there is no observance of a Sabbath day rest. So you go from Adam, C.A. means circa, about 4000 B.C. in terms of creation. All the way up through Moses, which is circa about 1500 B.C., there is no observance of the Sabbath. The very first time the word Sabbath is mentioned is in the wilderness journey, and in which you find that in Exodus chapter 16.

Israel is on their way from Egypt to Canaan, to the Promised Land. And what are they doing? They're wandering. What is characteristic about this about this journey that you're taking. As soon as they get across that Red Sea, what do they start doing? The Lord is leading them? But what's their response?

They're out in the wilderness, and they look back at the leeks and the garlic and everything they had in Egypt, and what do they start doing? murmuring and complaining, you know, what's the Lord done? I mean, he's taken us out of, he's put us in a worse place. We're in a worse place. And they didn't think about their freedom. They are free. Free from 400 years of slavery. They're free. And what did the Lord promise them? He promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, and that was their promise. And all He wanted them to do is to walk by faith, and there was the promise ahead of them. They murmured and they complained. And that's true, just like us. That is very true, and we're going to see that. So, in Exodus chapter 16, The Lord says to Moses, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to supply, every day, manna.

And they called it manna because it came on the ground like dew every morning. And it was a little wafer. And they could take that wafer and make bread and cakes out of it, and it had tremendous nourishment in it. It kept them going for 40 years as they wandered through the wilderness. And their question was, when they first saw it, they said, what is it? And what is it? The word for what is it is manna. Manna. What is it? So it was called manna.

So, Moses told them that you gather that manna for six days. And on the sixth day, God's going to give you a double portion. And you take two vials, or two whatever you use, two umers, and gather two portions on the sixth day. Because on the seventh day, God said, I want the people to rest. I don't want to have them gather manna.

So, as you look at that passage of scripture, in Exodus 16.20 or 22, it says, Now it came about on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, this is what the Lord meant.

Tomorrow is a Sabbath. First time used in scripture. Tomorrow is a Sabbath, a rest, a cessation, a cessation from work. It's a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath. Holy means what? set apart. It's a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake, and boil what you will boil, and all that's left over, put aside to be kept until the morning, the morning of the Sabbath.

So they put it aside until morning as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul, nor was there any worm in it. And the thing is this, that there were some people that the manna fell in the morning, and they decided, ah, it's going to be there, I'll just wait until the end of the day before I gather it. But by the time the end of the day came, there was worms in it, and they didn't have any manna. So they were supposed to gather it in the morning. However, when they took that supply for the seventh day, it did not rot.

It did not of manifest itself with worms, as if you had left it out in the field. So here is God's provision for them. And Moses said, Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord today. You will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none." So, this is the command of the Lord. There will be none on the seventh day.

What do you think the people of Israel did? They went out on the seventh day They were supposed to rest to gather this manna. They said, well, more is better, right? So when God gives us His Word, do we often take it by faith and walk in His Word by faith? Certainly, they weren't walking by faith. So anyhow, to summarize it, the people then rested on the seventh day, which was this Sabbath. The next time Sabbath is mentioned in scripture is they come to Mount Sinai.

By the way, God in his faithfulness He provided this manna for them for the entire 40 years that they were in the wilderness. And God gets so upset with this wilderness crowd because they murmured, they complained, they weren't walking by faith. And He says, you know, He swore in His wrath that the first generation that came out of Egypt would not enter into his promised land. So it took 40 years for them to die off, and that first generation never entered the promised land except for two men. Who are they? Caleb and Joshua. The second time the Sabbath is mentioned, is in Mosaic Law in Exodus chapter 20, and simply stated, and I want you to take a look at it in terms of how it's stated. In Exodus 20, verses 8 through 11, here's what it says.

It says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, to keep it set apart. Does it say to worship Does it say to, you know, here's what you have to do in the Sabbath? It just says, keep it always, just set it apart. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work. Notice the stress is not to work, not to labor on the seventh day. So, it's not only to the head of the household, but look, it says, you and your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, so it takes care of all the servants, look at this, cattle, the animals are not to work, or your sojourner who stays with you, if there's somebody that had come and sojourning in this with you, they're not to work.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh." And so here's the pattern, if you will, that it goes back to the first six days of creation, just as God created the heavens and the earth in six days, so man shall work or labor six days and rest on the seventh. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Isn't it interesting that as you look at this, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. Now hold it. Did he really make the heavens and the earth in six days?

I mean, just as like man, when it says that man is to work six days and rest on the seventh, how many hours in a day are we talking about? 24 hours? Could it be a longer period of time? Does it make any sense to make a day in Exodus 20 a longer period of time than 24 hours? Isn't it obvious it's talking about just a literal 24-hour day? But then it uses the pattern that man shall work six days just as God created the heavens and the earth in six days, so that how many hours in that day were the Lord created the heavens and the earth?

Because some will say, well, in Genesis, it really means a longer period of time. Because, you know, Scripture says that a day is like a thousand years, or a day could be a... the word yom, which is used for day, could be an extended period of time, and that's absolutely correct. It can be an extended period of time. And so therefore, in Genesis, it could be a thousand years, it could be a million years, it could be whatever. So, now you've got evolution. where we could come about by evolution by just taking that word day and making it a longer period of time.

Now the thing is in Hebrew that when you had the word yom, both in Genesis and both in Exodus, the word yom for day, And if it's preceded by a numerical ordinal, like first, second, third, in the Hebrew language, it always means a 24-hour day. Always. Otherwise, you throw the language out. It always means a 24-hour day. It cannot mean an extended period of time. But the word yom, by itself, in and of itself, can mean an extended period of time. And there are many places in scripture where you find that, but you'll never find it meaning anything else but a 24-hour day when it's preceded by a numerical ordinal. Okay, so that is the second use or or use of the word Sabbath. And then there's a third one, the last one. The last one is in Exodus 23. God says this. He says, I want you to sow the land and reap what you sow, and do that on the land for six years. Do it for the first six years. But on the seventh year, on the Sabbath year, I want you to rest the land. The land is to rest.

What have we found out in our recent science here in terms of, you know, that a farmer just can't plant the same crop every single year because what happens is the land can't support that crop every single year. So they're finding out number one is you have to rotate the crops. Number two, you have to rest the land. The government now pays farmers for no crops to rest the land. I mean, Lindy has relatives and they're getting paid for not planting. And so we've come to find out that you need to rest the land.

Wow, God thought about that A long time ago. Isn't that amazing? Okay. The point is this. As you see from Moses, which is circa 1500 BC, all the way up to the cross, where God was dealing with Israel, you had the observance of a day of rest, or the Sabbath. Okay? For these 2,500 years, no observance of the Sabbath. Then, from the cross on, the Sabbath day is terminated.

You will not find in Scripture a command to keep the Sabbath in the New Testament. In fact, it's very interesting. Of the ten commandments, nine of them are repeated in the New Testament. except one. Guess which one is not repeated in the New Testament? The Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath day holy. Sabbath day is terminated.

Scripture tells us that Christ is the end of the law. And so then as you get into the New Testament, you see the term Lord's Day. But it's interesting. We talk about the Lord's Day. You only find it referenced once in the New Testament. That's in Revelation, and John uses it, that he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day in Revelation chapter 1. But it's used there.

But we've respected the Church, and the Church coming together, you always find, that they came together on the first day of the week. Why the first day? Why not keep the tradition and keep it on the seventh day? Celebrate about the resurrection. Okay. And today happens to be that day, isn't it? So just to quickly go through some questions.

Is the Sabbath number one? And here are the typical questions that are asked. Number one, is the Sabbath a day of worship? Answer, no. Israel was not commanded to worship on the Sabbath. It became a custom. Just like we'll see we're not commanded to worship on the first day. It's become a custom.

The Sabbath day was simply cessation or rest from labor. And as you go through all those passages in Scripture, that's all you'll find about the Sabbath day. It's just a day of rest. God wants man to rest. Did Christ keep the Sabbath? Here's the big question. What Christ was made came under the law. Did he keep the law?

Really? How about... No. Yeah. The Pharisees didn't think so. Right. And the Pharisees kept saying, here's a guy who's a sinner because he doesn't keep the Sabbath. Right? So who's right? Not the Pharisees. Not the Pharisees. But hold it. Hold it. The Pharisees are the religious leaders of the day. Those are the guys that you go to to find out what you should do, what you shouldn't do. They are the elite of the day. So hold it.

They're saying that Christ broke the Sabbath. We'll see that in a minute. So, what they did, as you go through Scripture, you'll see that Christ was totally faithful to the entire law, the entire law, the Sabbath included. The Jews, the Pharisees, distorted the Sabbath day. And what they did is they restricted man. They restricted man as to what he could do and what he couldn't do on the Sabbath day. So here come the Jewish scribes and leaders and Pharisees and the interpreters of Scripture.

And they have the command from Moses, Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work and rest, work six days and rest on the seventh. Now, we've got to figure out what it means by not working on the Sabbath. Right? So, they define a whole bunch of laws and regulations as to what work is and what work isn't. to the extreme where it got ridiculous. For example, could you leave your property on the Sabbath day?

Is that considered work? Yes, that's considered work. But, if you took stakes from your property, wooden stakes from your property, and you went down the road and you put stakes every so hundred yards or so, then you would essentially be on your property and that was okay. Is that hypocrisy or isn't it? How about drawing water out of a well? Is that work?

Yep, that's work. I mean, that's work. How about a woman putting on a girdle? No, she needs to do that. So what we can do is take these straps from the girdle, tie them to the rope, and if we just manipulate the straps to the girdle, that doesn't work. We can take water out of the well. You see the hypocrisy? So we have now a book. It's called the Talmud. I'm sorry, but I have never seen one. I don't know how thick it is. Jim, have you seen the Talmud? Do you know? But, defining what work is in all the laws. So you see how restrictive they made the Sabbath.

And Christ comes along and he corrects their error. And he says, hey look, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. You don't have the Sabbath and now man is made for the Sabbath and he's got to do all this. No, the Sabbath was made for man. So, as we talked about, these Pharisees accused Jesus Christ, they said, this man is a sinner. and he's a sinner because he doesn't keep the Sabbath. And in their frame of reference, with their Talmud, he was not keeping the Sabbath.

So, here's the part I love. They accused him of not keeping the Sabbath because he was healing on the Sabbath. You know how he corrected the error? He kept on healing on the Sabbath day. And as you look through scripture and look at the healings that Christ did, you'll see that they were on the Sabbath day. It was like in your face. You know what I mean? In the sense that to show them their error.

So, when he heals the man lame for 38 years, Christ comes to him, and he's sitting by this pool, and normally, periodically, an angel would come and stir up the water, and if you could get down into the water, you would be healed of whatever illness you had. And so Christ comes along and sees this man sitting by the pool, and he says, gee, you haven't been to the pool? He says, no. He says, I've been lame, I'm lame, and every time I try, there's somebody that comes over, steps over me, and by the time I'll never get there. The waters are not starting anymore. And so I've been sitting here for 38 years. And Christ, and here was a man with no hope. Absolutely no hope.

Christ said to him, pick up your bed and walk. He picks up his bed and he walks. And he's got his mat folded under his arm. And he's walking. And the Pharisees see him carrying this mat. That's work. Come over here. Why are you working on the Sabbath? The guy says, I'm walking. Why are you carrying your mat on the Sabbath? I'm walking.

They were blinded. They were blinded by the miracle that happened because they were down into you cannot carry your bed on the Sabbath." And they missed, they missed the entire boat, they missed the one who healed that man. Okay? And so, then of course they want to know, and they said, well, how were you healed?

And he says, well, some guy came along and said, pick up your bed and walk. And so I did. And he's the one that healed me. If he says, pick up your bed, I'm going to pick up my bed. And he's got authority. And so the Pharisees started questioning him in terms of, who is this guy? He says, I don't have a clue. I don't have a clue who he is. Of course, Christ revealed himself to that man later on.

But the same thing happened with the man who had a paralyzed hand, who had a withered hand. And Christ says, put out your hand. And he put out his hand and it became whole. Now if you can think about that, if you know anyone that is paralyzed where the nerves and the muscles have atrophied and there are no nerves, and then in an instant that they could put out their hand and it's totally healed, I mean, that's a miracle.

But the Pharisees were watching Christ. And they said, I'll bet you he's going to heal that man today. And today is the Sabbath. He did. And then there was a man who was born blind. That's a wonderful story. We can't go through all these, but very interesting. Here's a man that's born blind, and Christ comes to him, spits on the ground. Christ spat. Could you believe that?

And he picks up some dirt and mixes it, puts it on his eyes, and he says, now go wash in this pool over here, and you'll see. And the man washes his eyes, He can see. And he is thrilled that he can see. And everybody knew that this man was born blind and that he can now see. So people went to the Pharisees. Do you know the guy who was born blind? Do you know that he can see now? He can. So they interrogate him. How come you can see now?" He says, well, all I know is that some guy came along, spit on the ground, and he picked up the clay and he put... He what? He picked up clay and mixed it in his hand? That's work. That's breaking the Sabbath. This guy, whoever he was, broke the Sabbath. Sir, I can see. Clay. Two handfuls of clay. But sir, I concede. You get the picture?

And then these guys questioned his parents. Because they were concerned that now everybody's going to be worshipping this guy who healed them. And not them, because they are the religious elite of the society. And so they called the parents, and they tried to trick them. They said, hold it now. Was your son really blind? That's our son. He was blind from birth. How was he healed? And they said, you got me. We haven't got a clue. But I'll tell you what. He's old enough to tell you. Ask him. Just ask him.

So, anyhow, the hypocrisy. They were more concerned about rules, and there was no joy. There was no joy in terms of the miracles, in terms of the healing. So their hearts, as you read these accounts of the healing, their hearts are just filled with hatred, hatred towards the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said, that's the epitome of religion. It's going to be religious. That's where religion gets you.

How about us? Should we observe the Sabbath? Key. Very, very key. The Sabbath is part of the Mosaic Law. It was given to Israel. To Israel only. It wasn't given to the Gentiles. It was given only to Israel. It was a sign between Jehovah and Israel. And if Israel didn't keep the Sabbath, it was a sin to Israel. Not a sin to the Gentiles. It was a sin strictly to Israel. terminated at the cross, keeping, as I indicated before, it's the only command that is not in the New Testament. So the believer, as Scripture tells us, we're not to observe days. We don't observe days, and we don't, it will never be judged and not to be judged according to a Sabbath day, as it says in Colossians 2, 16 and 17.

I want you to turn to your Bibles, to Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. I'm going to read down through this passage in Hebrews 3, starting at verse 7, say down through 19 says wherefore as the Holy Spirit said today if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of trial in the wilderness talking about the Israelites in the wilderness when your fathers put me to the test proved me and saw my works 40 years wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said, they do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.

So I swore my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest." Notice that the Lord has a rest. He says, they'll not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."

And he's talking about the sin of unbelief here. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. While it was said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, for who, when they had heard, did provoke?

Did not all that came out of Egypt by Moses? But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and to whom He swore that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not.

So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. So notice that in this passage that God provided a rest for Israel and the rest was this promised land, of Canaan. And that first generation failed to enter into his rest. They did not walk by faith. He provided them this land with milk and honey, and did they know, did they have any idea what was in that land of Canaan? Did they have any clue that it was a land flowing with milk and honey and every kind of food that they'd ever want. Did they have any clue? Remember what they did? They sent in some spies, right? They sent some spies into the land, 12 of them, and the spies came back and 10 of them said what?

There's giants in the land. There are giants in the land. But they came back with grapes as big as apples. And they said, but this is also in the land. And Joshua and Caleb said, hold it, guys. The Lord said, that's our land. That's our promised land. Go for it.

But the rest said, no, those giants are too big. They didn't believe that the Lord would have the power to conquer those giants, or that they would have the power through the Lord to conquer those giants. So God swears in His wrath that they're not going to enter into the land.

As we go on, into chapter 4. I'm not going to be able to read it, but here's the interesting thing. Chapter 4 in Hebrews says this, that God has provided you a rest. He's provided me a rest. And it's not a physical rest. But it's a spiritual rest. It's His rest. And in His rest, as it says in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 9, that we rest from our own works. And it's a rest from our own works. It's not a rest from His works. We continue to do His work because we're His handiwork. We're created. He created us unto good works. And we're never ever to rest from his good works. So we're to rest from our own works.

And you enter that rest by faith, simply by walking by faith, where Christ is the object of that faith, of our faith. He's the object. As it goes on to say in the passage, that we find mercy, we find His compassion, we find His grace, we find His peace, and we're to be diligent to enter into that rest. In fact, in the King James it uses the word labor. It says, enter into His rest. It sounds like a dichotomy, doesn't it? But the word is buddhadzo, be diligent, be diligent in terms of entering into His rest.

Because if you don't enter into His rest, there's going to be unrest in your life. And the unrest is the fact that you're going to be walking in the self-life. And the self-life is total unrest, total unrest. The only rest there is, is in the person of Christ. And resting in him, and walking by faith in him, beholding him, that's where the rest is. And so I love Matthew. Chapter 11, verse 28, Christ says to each one of us, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And it's His rest. And we can get away from our unrest by entering into His rest. The Lord's Day.

Why do we celebrate it? Marilyn said, because Christ was resurrected the first day. Was she right? It's printed, so it must be right. Here we have a whole new era, if you will, And Christ is resurrected from the dead on the first day, on Sunday. And what a wonderful passage this is in John 20, verses 1-10, where Peter and John have a foot race, and they have a foot race to get to the tomb, because they just got word from Mary that the tomb was empty. And, pardon me? That's right, it's not the Sabbath. But I want you to look at something here.

In terms of the significance of the resurrection to you personally. Think about the significance of the resurrection to you personally. We're not going to be able to go through these passages of scripture, I've got them on an overhead, but I'm not going to be able to do it.

In 1 Corinthians 15, 17, it talks about the resurrection, and it says, if Christ hasn't been raised from the dead, if he hasn't been raised from the dead, guess what? Then you're still in your sins, and your faith is in vain. It's empty. You have an empty faith, because you're believing in someone who supposedly forgiven your sins, but your sins are not forgiven because the only way your sins can be forgiven is if Christ rose from the dead.

Back to the eternal, what? Eternal covenant. Hebrews 13.20, right? That covenant made in eternity past that God says to the Son, you lay your life down shed your blood for the sins of the world, and I'll..." What? "...I'll raise you up again." Eternal Covenant. That's the way we know that Jesus Christ is the one who's got satisfaction for our sins. Not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world because He was resurrected. There is no one else ever, ever, that has ever been resurrected.

Right? Okay? See, that's a trick question. Okay, but what about Lazarus? Was he resurrected? He was dead. He didn't have his new body. Okay, so the difference between anyone else coming back from the dead, they were restored back to life, right? They were restored. There was a restoration back to life, but only to die again physically. But the Lord Jesus Christ is the first one to be resurrected with a new body, a glorious body, one that went from corruption to incorruption, etc., as it's defined in 1 Corinthians 15. So if it wasn't for the resurrection, we'd still be in our sins. The resurrection is the basis which God imputes His righteousness to you in in Romans 4, 24, 25. He appropriates His power. The only power that you have in your life that is of any significance is His power. His power through you. The appropriation of the power of the Holy Spirit through you.

Ephesians 1, 19 and 20. And because of the resurrection, you're identified with the person of Christ. you are baptized, you are immersed into the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, seeding of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is that identification that you can't be separated, but all because of the resurrection. You died on that cross with him and you were raised, as it says in Romans chapter 6 verse 4, into newness.

You were raised into newness. And it's newness of life. And the source of that newness is life. And it's the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have his life. Question. Is that reason enough to kind of celebrate the first day of the week? Sure is. Okay.

Let's close in a word of prayer. Our Father and our God, we again are just thankful for your word. We thank you, Lord God, for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in knowing, Father, that without it, as you say in your word, we would still be in our sins. And not only that, Father, Our faith would be empty, of no value, because Christ hasn't been raised from the dead. And we thank you, Father, that we can come together to worship you on this day, to give you the praise and the honor and the glory that only you deserve. And we give you thanks in Christ's name. Amen.