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Question:

What is a Sabbath? Part 3:

Answer:

What we learnt is, every seventh day was a reminder that they were
living in a fallen world. Every seventh day was a reminder that they
had lost paradise. So the only way to regain a taste of paradise was
obedience to God: righteousness. And they therefore were to consider
the importance of obeying the Ten Commandments. They were to consider
the importance on that seventh day of examining their own lives and
looking at how they were measuring up against the law of God;
recognizing sin was the objective and bringing them to repentance. So,
the first seventh day identified God as Creator, but the institution
of the Sabbath in the Mosaic economy identified God as the law-giver.

The first view was to produce gratitude for the wonder of creation;
the second, to produce repentance for the forfeiture of all that is
right. And so, the Sabbath took on a new meaning. Yes, it still is a
reminder that God created, but it’s a reminder that the creation of
God, which was originally perfect, is now marred, and we are marred,
and the realm of His creation is stained by sin, and we are stained by
sin, and the creation, as Paul puts it, is groaning, and we are
groaning, as well.
The sign in the middle of the Abrahamic covenant of circumcision was a
way to say, “You need to be clean; you need to be cleansed.” And the
sign here - the Sabbath, in the middle of the Ten Commandments -
essentially said the same thing; you need to recognize that you have
forfeited paradise, and the only way to regain it is to be righteous.
Obviously, they couldn’t keep the law, but they were to be driven in
penitence to plead with God to be merciful to them as sinners.

So, we understand that this was unique for the people of Israel. When
Jesus came, everything changed; everything changed. He obliterated the
sacrificial system, because He brought an end to Judaism - with all
its ceremonies, all its rituals, all its sacrifices, all of its
external trappings, the temple, the holy of holies, all of it,
including the Sabbath; including the Sabbath. The Sabbath observance
went away with all the rest that belonged to Judaism. We begin to
understand this by watching Jesus and how He treated the Sabbath. How
did Jesus treat the Sabbath? Any way He wanted.
In the Gospel of Mark chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, in
which Jesus violated the Sabbath by the standards of the Jews, and
when they confronted Him, He said two things. He said, “Man was not
made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man” - which was to
say that the Sabbath was not to be a burden which men had to conform
to, but the Sabbath was to be a delight which men could enjoy. The
Jews had turned it into an almost unbearable burden.

The second thing He said, which was even more shocking, was, “The Son
of Man is Lord of the Sabbath,” and thus He declared His sovereignty
over the Sabbath.

The Pharisees charged Jesus with breaking the Sabbath law, making
Himself equal with God, and this led them to kill Him eventually.
Jesus never attempted to fit His activities into the Sabbath law of
the old covenant. He established His own authority as one with God and
as Lord over the Sabbath. The Pharisees were strict Sabbath-keepers.
They followed the old covenant and embellishments to the letter; and
yet they missed the whole point of the Sabbath.
They found no rest from their endless works-efforts at salvation. They
found no real honest repentance. The Sabbath laws were mere shadows of
hope, a weekly reminder that there was a paradise to be regained and
it was through the means of righteousness. There could be rest from
the endless struggle and the horrible burden of trying to earn your
salvation. When Jesus came, He brought the rest, the true rest. The
child of God is now a new person.

Under the new covenant, we are healed, and washed, and found, and
accepted. We have entered into rest with none other than the Creator
Himself. We have been given righteousness, and we rejoice in that
gift. We cease all effort to earn our salvation. Jesus literally did
away with the Sabbath.

Tomorrow we will see what the New Testament rest is.

Question:

What is a Sabbath?

Answer:

Part 2:

Every seventh day provides for us a reminder that God is the Creator, who created in six days the entire universe. So, when you go back to Genesis chapter 2, there’s no mention of Sabbath being a law, no mention of Sabbath being a day of worship.

The next time you even run into the word is in Exodus 16. Hundreds of years have passed, the patriarchs have come and gone - none of them worshiped, far as we know, on the Sabbath. That was not designated for them. It was not prescribed for them. It was not mandated for them - not Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the rest of the people of God. The first time the Sabbath is mentioned in some significant way is in the 16th chapter of Exodus, when God feeds the people manna from heaven as they wander in the wilderness.

And the manna comes every day except the Sabbath day, and the day before they get enough for that day, so that they don’t have to work on that day. And that gives them a little preview of what’s coming, because in the 20th chapter you have the Ten Commandments, and in the Ten Commandments, prescriptions are given that do set down laws for the Sabbath day. This is the first time any such laws have been given by God.
This is very important so that we understand that the Sabbath was not instituted for man in Genesis. It was instituted officially in Exodus, in the law of Moses. A further understanding of that comes from Exodus chapter 31. The Lord speaks to Moses in verse 12, and He says to him, “As for you, speak to the sons of Israel saying, ‘You shall surely observe My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

“‘Therefore you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

“‘It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever;’” - why? - “‘for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased, and was refreshed,’” - or rested. Here we find that Sabbath is a sign; it is a sign. That is to say, it points to something else. It is a symbol, if you will. It is placed in the middle, or near the middle, of the Ten Commandments because it is a symbol, connected to the Mosaic covenant.
When God made a covenant with Noah, He promised Noah that He would never destroy the world again, and God identified a sign. What was the sign of the Noahic covenant? Rainbow. When God made a covenant with Abraham, He made that covenant with Abraham and He designated a sign, and the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, participation among the covenant people Israel, was the sign of circumcision. And here you have in the Mosaic covenant another sign, and the sign this time is the Sabbath.

It was only a sign. Observing it with a duplicitous heart gained nothing. In fact, Isaiah 1:13 says, “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath.” The prophet Hosea pronounces a similar judgement on their hypocritical Sabbaths: “I will put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths.” It didn’t mean anything to observe it outwardly without a heart of love and devotion to God. But what was the symbol for? What was the sign for? Why this sign?

The Sabbath was a reminder of creation. The Sabbath was to remind the people of Israel that they had forfeited paradise; that man had forfeited paradise. The law said to them, “Obey this law and you will be blessed.” God said that repeatedly: “Obey this law and you will be blessed,” to show them that righteous behaviour would restore a taste of Eden’s paradise. Righteous behaviour would also point to a future, a future kingdom when paradise would be regained.
So, the Sabbath, every Sabbath that went by, when they rested, they were reminded of a perfect creation, a paradise of God dominated by righteousness, which had been forfeited by sin and could only be regained again by righteousness. God then institutes the seventh-day system - not for everybody in the world; in fact, specifically, it says, for Israel. Verse 17: “A sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever.” Every seventh day was a reminder that they were living in a fallen world. Every seventh day was a reminder that they had lost paradise.

Continued…

Question:

What is a Sabbath?

Answer:

To understand about Sabbath let us go to Genesis chapter 2. The chapter opens with the indication that creation is over. And we read these words, “Then the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts” - everything that occupies them.

“By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” You will notice in verse 3 the word sanctified. That word is essentially the word holy, and this is the first time holy is used in the Bible. The root means to separate, or perhaps better, to turn that into a vertical concept, to elevate; it is a separation that elevates or exalts.

So here, for the first time, we come across the idea of something being separated by being elevated; that is, God designates this seventh day as an exalted day, a day lifted above all other days. And God makes it holy and declares it to be so for three reasons. The three reasons are basically connected to the three verbs that make up the text. First of all, it is a day that is unique because “the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.”

That’s the first verb - the whole work of creation was finished. This work of creation was done in six essentially twenty-four-hour days by God, and since that close of the sixth day, there has never been any further creation, with the exception of those divine miracles that we have read about occasionally in the Old Testament, and the flurry of miracles through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which He creates wholeness and wellness within the midst of His now-fallen creation.

Apart from that, creation ceased on the sixth day. It didn’t go on for thousands of years, didn’t go on for millions or billions of years; after six days it was finished, it was completed. And so, this is a special day, because it signals that God’s entire creation is finished. Secondly is the verb rested. When it says in verse 2 that “by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested,” and then in verse 3 again, “He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

This is a unique day, because, the creation being completed, God stops and rests. It does not imply weariness: “The Lord does not grow weary,” Isaiah 40:28. The psalmist says He doesn’t slumber or sleep. He rested only in the sense that He ceased from work, not that He had to replenish His energy. But what it tells us when He rested is really that He was satisfied, and that takes you back to verse 31 of chapter 1: “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” It was a perfect work, and it was the rest of utter satisfaction.

Now, you do not hear in those three verses anything about people resting; there’s nothing here about man resting, nothing here about Adam resting. Because he was without sin and a perfect man in every sense, there was no depletion of his energies when he was doing whatever the simple tending of the garden called for. There’s no need to have a day of rest for man; what would he rest from? He’s living in a paradise, with no labor, and no sweat, and no expended and lost energy.

There’s no Sabbath law given here for Adam, none at all. Nothing is said about this day being a day of worship. It doesn’t say anything about that. It doesn’t prescribe anything for anyone. It is isolated completely to God. He completed His creation; satisfied with it, He ceased, which is constituting rest; and the third verb, in verse 3 “He blessed the seventh day.” He designed that that seventh day would be a special memorial to His creation and its original perfection.

This is so important for you to understand. This is a day to be elevated above all other days as a memorial to remember the glory of God’s perfection in creation. Every seventh day from here on out would be a reminder that God in six days created the universe in perfection. Have you ever asked yourself why we operate calendars all over the world in sevens? It seems an odd number, does it not? There certainly is no rational reason for coming up with seven, then designating weeks, and months, and years to be in sets of sevens.

It’s actually kind of an awkward way to do things; it might be simpler to do them in tens. And yet it is universally adopted across the world and it is unique, and it is designed to be unique, because every seventh day is a reminder of the power and the glory of God expressed in the magnificence of six-day creation. To reject God as Creator, to reject God as Creator in six days, is to unbless the seventh day. To say that somehow God used thousands of years, millions of years, billions of years, is to desanctify the seventh day.

Continued…

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Eternal Happiness (Message 5):

Rejoice Always (Part 5):

Let me tell you what it is: Christian joy is an experience that springs from the deep-down confidence in the Christian that Christ is sufficient, and God is in perfect control of everything, bringing it all to our good in time and eternity. It’s that joy that’s unassailable, because it’s below the surface, unaffected by the winds and the waves of experience on a human level. It’s the joy that comes out of that eternal, unchanging, unalterable, rich relationship with God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, as we receive the Scripture in the midst of trials.

My joy is, first of all, anchored in my God.
There are many people who are Christians who struggle with joy, because they don’t understand God the way He’s revealed in Scripture. That’s tragic. We’ll talk about that in a few minutes. So what motivates me to be joyful in everything is my understanding of God and His sovereign love, and His infinite wisdom and grace.

Secondly, I am motivated to rejoice always in appreciation for the work of Jesus Christ, in appreciation for the work of Jesus Christ. Paul in Philippians 3 expresses this and it ought to be all of our testimonies, “We are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God, and rejoice in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”

That’s one of my favorite definitions of a Christian. What’s a Christian? Somebody who worships in the Spirit of God, rejoices in Christ Jesus, and puts no confidence in the flesh. It doesn’t matter to me what happens to the flesh. It doesn’t matter to me in the sense of what happens to the earthly thing. What is important to me is what happens on the spiritual level: worshiping God and rejoicing in Jesus Christ. What a tremendous, tremendous reality that is.

Thirdly, because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. “How can I not rejoice when I know the Spirit of God is leading me to understand the truth, when I know the Spirit of God is an anointing from God that teaches me all things so that I don’t need to listen to human teachers, because I have an anointing from God that teaches me all things,” 1 John 2.

Let me close with just some hindrances. If you’re not rejoicing, there are maybe some reasons. One, you’re not a Christian, you just think you are. You’re going through a trial, you’re cursing God, you’re mad at God. Or, you just generally don’t have any joy. Some of you are living with a spouse like that, or you’re living with a child like that, or some of you young people are living with a parent like that who maybe claims to be a Christian; but you just don’t see any joy.

Pretty good evidence that that person is not a Christian, because this is a gift from God through Christ planted in the heart. There’s a well of joy in the believer. If you don’t see it, start at that point questioning whether that person’s really saved. There may have been momentary joy in the past, you know, like the seed that went into the rocky soil, and it was received with joy and sprung up for a while; and as soon as trouble came – remember? – as soon as trouble came and tested that faith, it perished, because it wasn’t the real thing. That’s why trials are so helpful, because when you pass the test you know your faith is the real thing.

I think ignorance can steal your joy. Ignorance can devastate joy. I mean, for example, if I believed in this modern openness theology that says that God is not sovereign, God doesn’t know the future, God doesn’t determine the future because He doesn’t know it. God is just up there in heaven watching things happen like a film or a movie He’s never seen; and as it moves along He watches and says, “Wow, oh, hmm, never expected – that’s a surprise. Wow, that was a tricky ending on that deal,” and God doesn’t know any more about it than you do watching a film you’ve never seen or reading a book you’ve never read. If I believed that that was true of God, I wouldn’t have any joy. If I believed God had to react to the millions and millions of actions and events that go on in the world and try to sort out some way to make sense out of it all, I would have plenty of reason to fear, and my joy would be gone.

Continued…

Eternal Happiness (Message 4):

Rejoice Always (Part 4):

The joy of the world is connected to the desire of the heart. It’s very delusionary, because it just promises something it can’t deliver, because human lust is never satisfied. Sometimes you think if you just had this house, or that car, or this piece of furniture or that wardrobe thing, or whatever achievement or that job, or that position, or that degree, or whatever it might be, or that person, it would be the end of all your desires. , But it doesn’t. Because you never ever be ultimately or finally or permanently satiated.

We’re not talking about that. We’re not talking about that kind of joy. That is not supernatural joy. We’re talking about supernatural joy: something that is not natural; something that comes from God, not from our humanness. We’re talking about a joy that is impossible to a non-believer. It’s a joy that comes from God.

Let me give you a little bit of a paradigm as to think about this kind of joy we’re talking of. It comes from God. That’s where it starts. There are a number of passages that undergird that statement.

Psalm 4 would be sufficient, verse 7, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than where their grain and new wine abound. It says in verse 8 – “gave me peace, so that I can lie down and sleep. You make me dwell in safety, you take all the anxiety out of my life. You gave me more than when I got everything that the world could give me.” This is the joy that comes from God.

In Psalm 16 verse 11, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy.” So we’re talking about a joy that comes from God. It’s a full joy, it’s a spiritual joy, it’s a supernatural joy; it comes from God.

Secondly, it comes through Jesus Christ. God gives it, but He only gives it to those who are in Christ. It is reserved for those who are Christ’s. John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be made full.”

It is the very joy of which the angels spoke to the shepherds in Luke 2, “Good news of great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David has been born for you a Savior, Christ the Lord.” It is the joy that comes through faith in the Savior.

There’s a third element in this flow. From God, through Christ, this joy – God is the source, Christ is the mediator, and the Holy Spirit is the energizer of that joy. Romans chapter 14, and verse 17, a wonderful verse, and it’s a contrast: “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,” – the kingdom of God is not satisfaction from the physical – “but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” From God as source, through Christ as mediator, by the Holy Spirit as energizer. That is why Galatians 5:22 says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love” – what’s the second one? – “joy.”

That joy is only available through Christ. It comes into our lives through Christ: It is an unlimited, undiminished, full joy. It is as if God fills a well with joy out of which you can draw your whole life and never diminish the source.

But the drawing of that joy is dependent upon the Holy Spirit; that is to say, walking in the Spirit, obeying the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit. That’s what delivers that joy. But there’s a fourth element in this. First John 1:4, “These things we write unto you, that your joy may be full.” It is related to the Scripture. It is from God, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit, as we understand the Scripture.

And then one other element: it is enhanced and enriched through trials. James 1:2, “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” This joy comes from God, mediated by Christ, energized by the Holy Spirit, as we receive the Word in the midst of trials.

This is not natural joy, this is supernatural joy. This is what Peter calls “rejoicing with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” This is an inexpressible joy that has a divine glory to it. No circumstance affects it, no event affects it, no acquisition affects it, and no loss affects it. No gain affects it, no deprivation affects it. The kind of joy we’re talking about is not related to your position in life or your possessions in life.

Continued…

Eternal Happiness (Message 3):

Rejoice Always (Part 3):

You know why it’s possible and it’s commanded to rejoice in trials? Because trials test your faith; and when you’ve passed the test, you know you’re real, you know you’re genuine, you know you’re saved. An untested Christian is a Christian subject to doubt. The longer you live as a Christian, the more trials and troubles you have, out of which the Lord not only delivers you, but through which – listen – your faith endures, the more you know it’s real, it’s real. People who doubt salvation tend to be Christians who are immature and untested. When you go through trial after trial after trial that test your faith, and your faith stands – and the true faith will stand, and it will endure, and it will prove to be the real thing – then you know you’re saved.

Scripture says that true joy is to be great. It is to be abundant. It is to be exceeding. It is to be animated, Psalm 32:11. It is to be unspeakable, 1 Peter 1:8, that is you can’t even find words for it, it just wells up and just bubbles up in you. It is to be full of glory – Peter also said that. Psalm 2, it is to be full of awe, because you’re so overwhelmed with what God is providing for you. It’s a kind of over-the-top joy, it’s a superabundant joy. This should characterize our lives all the time. In fact, it’s commanded.

Now it should be obvious that the command to rejoice is not then dependent upon positive circumstances. We’re not talking about that kind of joy, that’s the world’s joy. And I’ll just define the world’s joy for you, I mean, you know this. It’s obvious to you before you were a Christian, it’s obvious to you as you look at the world around you.

You know, God has given a common grace, emotions. But people do, and God has as a common grace given human beings the ability to be happy; but it’s limited. The kind of joy that the people without the Lord have is derived from the fulfillment of earthly pleasure. In other words, it’s directly connected to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It’s what they want and get that makes them happy; and if they don’t get what they want, they’re not happy.

You see something, you want it, you go shopping, you get it, you buy it; you find there’s a certain high, there’s a certain euphoria in that experience of getting what you wanted. But this kind of joy not only is derived from earthly pleasure, but it’s a delusion, it’s a delusion, because it never really satisfies, because lust never ceases, desire never ceases; and it can never be ultimately fulfilled. So it isn’t long after you have what you thought you really wanted, and it only brought you a moment of happiness, and you find out what Proverbs says, “The end of joy may be grief.”

You’re going to find out that what was such a thrill for you at the moment may be a serious pain for you. That’s why people move from material thing, to material thing, to material thing incessantly. That’s why they move from partner, to partner, to partner, to partner in relationships incessantly, because the momentary thrill in the fulfillment of their lust dissipates very fast, is delusional, and they look one day at the person they wanted so badly and they don’t want them anymore, and now the grief comes: “How do I get rid of this person to move on to what my lust wants now?” And that’s how they live their life, controlled to some degree by conventional expectations and the expectations of people around them.

But it’s a delusion. They wanted it so badly, and then they got it, and all that thrill was gone very fast.
It’s short-lived, Job 20, verse 5, “The joy of the godless is momentary.” The joy of the godless is momentary; it comes, it goes, it’s that quick. Ecclesiastes 7:6 says, “Like kindling, it burns up fast.” Isaiah 16:10 says, “The joy of gladness is taken away.” That’s the joy of the world.

Continued…

Eternal Happiness (Message 2):

Rejoice Always (Part 2):

And in that wonderful Philippian epistle, “joy” is mentioned, some form of the word is mentioned, sixteen times. What makes that, I suppose, remarkable is that that was written as one of Paul’s prison epistles. It was written while he was a prisoner, while he was suffering the direst of conditions, and persecution and hostility from other Christian evangelists who were accusing him of iniquity and sin. And that’s why he was in prison, because God was chastening him. His reputation was being attacked and sullied by those who also named the name of Christ. And in the midst of that sort of personal persecution from other believers as well as the hostility and suffering at the hands of the Romans, he mentions joy sixteen times.

And joy is continually stressed throughout the New Testament, the Gospels. Throughout the book of Acts we find the disciples and apostles rejoicing that they were counted privileged to suffer persecution for the cause of Christ. We find it in emphasis in the Epistles, the great responsibility to rejoice no matter what is going on, no matter what the conditions. It’s kind of an unconditional joy that is incumbent upon believers.

Even in times of great adversity, in fact, particularly in times of great adversity are we called to this consummate joy. And this really starts all the way back in the Sermon on the Mount early in the book of Matthew at the beginning of the New Testament. When Jesus comes to the end of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, verse 10, and says, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Me.” – then this – “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great.” In the midst of the worst possible circumstance, severe persecution, even to death, rejoice. And don’t just rejoice, be glad; rejoice over the top, because this is earning for you a reward in heaven which you will enjoy forever and ever.

In Luke 6, and it’s really an irresistible passage to read because of the expression here: “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you” – Jesus said – “and cast insults at you, and spurn your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day” – I love this – “and leap for joy.” It’s not just a marginal joy again, it’s not just a minimal joy, it’s joy that you really can’t find an outlet for, so you wind up jumping. “Jump for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.” When they hate you, when they ostracize you, when they insult you, when they spurn your name as evil and it’s all for the sake of the Son of Man, you ought to be jumping for joy, because you have a reward that’s going to be yours forever in heaven. Get the heavenly perspective on this.

Paul says in Colossians 1:24, “I rejoice in my sufferings. I rejoice in my sufferings.” He obeyed this command, and his sufferings were great. You read 2 Corinthians chapter 11 – we’ll read the whole epistle of 2 Corinthians, this long litany of things that he suffered: shipwrecks and beatings and whippings and stonings. And in all of it, he says, “In all my sufferings I rejoice.” He obeyed this command. It is possible.

In fact, James emphasizes, James 1:2, “Consider it all joy,” – again, not a marginal joy, not a minimal joy, but a consummate joy – “my brethren, when you encounter various trials, because these trials test your faith, and they therefore produce endurance.” Tested faith is faith that endures. “And endurance has a perfect result, it makes you mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” You want to be a strong Christian; you want to be resolute, persistent, enduring, patient, faithful; then you have to suffer. You have to go through the difficulty.

In fact, Peter says it this way, 1 Peter 1:6, “In this you greatly rejoice,” not just rejoice again, but greatly. You see, there’s always these adverbs and adjectives that are added to this. “You greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you’ve been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Continued…