So we're glad everybody is here tonight, and we hope that tomorrow you'll join us at 11,
and then again tomorrow at 7 o'clock in the evening.
But let's bow our heads and we'll get started here tonight.
Dear God, we thank you so much for bringing us through a week.
We've made it to the weekend, and as we gather together here tonight, we can just open up
your Word, and we can recognize all the grace that you have for us, all the message of truth
that you have for us, and we just pray for those that are in different places this evening.
Guide them, bless them, keep them safe, and may we all just see a better picture of you.
In your name we pray, amen.
So as we get going today, we want to start by sharing an allegory.
You guys know what an allegory is?
An allegory is a fictional story that has a little message of, hopefully a powerful
message, a powerful lesson to it.
So this allegory goes something like this.
It tells the story of truth.
Now truth had an appointment, and truth was going to visit at a certain town, and the
people in this town were excited for truth to come visit, and they wanted to hear what
truth had to say.
And as truth was traveling along, it wasn't like today, because it was a hot summer day,
he's walking down a dusty road, the sun is beating upon his back, and he's getting hotter
and hotter, and the sweat is starting to bead up on his forehead, and as he's walking down
this dusty road through the woods, through the trees, truth sees something.
He sees something shimmering, and he says, that looks like a nice pond.
And on a hot day today, I think it might be a refreshing time just to go and jump into
that pond for just a few moments and cool off.
And so he walks through the woods, he sees the beautiful pond, it looks perfect for a
nice swim, and so he takes off his beautiful white robe, and he carefully hangs it on the
tree, and he dives into that pond, and swims, and splashes, and cools off.
But as the story goes, wherever truth goes, you know that Lye follows close behind.
And so Lye was going towards that same town, down the same dusty road, with that same summer
sun beating upon him, and he too was getting hot, and he too was getting sweaty, and he
decided, as he was looking around, that he saw something through the trees.
He saw what looked to be a nice cool pond, and so he stepped through the trees wanting
to refresh himself, and just before he got to the pond, he came up with another plan.
Because he saw, hanging on that tree, the beautiful white robe of truth, and so his
plan suddenly became, instead of going swimming, I'm going to steal truth's clothes.
And so he took off his dirty, ratty garments, and he threw them in a pile, and he put on
that beautiful white soft robe of truth, and instead of going swimming, he carried on down
the path.
And the people in the town were waiting by the road, looking down the road, and they
said, here he comes, here comes truth, he's coming down the road.
And some of the elders of the town, the wise old men, they looked out and they said, hmm,
that's not truth, that's lie, dressed up in truth's clothes.
And everybody was very disappointed.
But about that same time, truth finished his swim and went back to continue his journey,
and when he went to the tree to get his robe, he couldn't find it.
He looked on this tree, he looked on that tree.
He looked on another tree, and then he saw there on the ground in a heap those dirty,
ratty garments of the lie.
And so truth had to make a choice.
He said, I can wear those dirty clothes, or I can just go as I am.
And he said, you know what, before I put on those clothes, I'm just going to walk as I
am no matter what people say, no matter even if they laugh at me.
And so he began to walk down that road, and the people in the town, they looked out and
they saw him and they said, here he comes, here comes the truth, here comes the naked
truth.
And so it was.
And we can laugh at a little story like that, but the truth of the matter is that we could
say that's kind of like our topic for tonight.
Here comes the truth, here comes the naked truth.
And sometimes when people talk about truth, some people get excited about it and some
people enjoy it and really appreciate it, but others, when you talk about truth, they
really don't, they don't want to hear it.
They don't want to have anything to do with it.
Some people love the truth, but others prefer to believe a lie.
So we're going to start tonight and go to Hebrews chapter four.
Hebrews chapter four.
So that's kind of towards the back of the New Testament.
Hebrews chapter four.
And it just reminds us of what the Bible says and what the Bible is.
Hebrews chapter four and verse 12.
The Bible says in Hebrews 412, for the word of God is living and powerful.
Some versions say living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to
the division of soul and spirit.
And so we see that the word of God is described as a what here?
A two-edged sword.
And it says it's going to pierce us with truth.
And we recognize that whether it's in the religious world or the secular world or even
sometimes in relationships, that sometimes the truth hurts.
But it hurts even more when we find out later that we've been deceived.
And so we can trust in God's word because even though it pierces us, it pierces us with
this living and active word of God, the truth.
And so Bible prophecy tells us about a power that does not like the truth, that does not
want to have anything to do with the truth, that wants to distort God's word and to lead
us in a totally different direction.
And we've talked about that night by night and that power is called the anti-Christ power.
So we've looked at a verse before and I want to go to Daniel chapter seven.
Daniel chapter seven.
And on Sunday night we're going to explore Daniel seven in great detail, but I just want
to read this one verse that we've read a couple times before.
Daniel seven verse 25.
It says, speaking of the anti-Christ power here, this passage is referring to this spirit
of anti-Christ.
And Daniel 725, notice what it says.
He, the anti-Christ, shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the
saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law.
Or the King James version says, shall think to change times and laws.
And so this anti-Christ power in this context wants to change times and law.
And in this context it's talking about God's times and God's law.
And earlier this week we talked about God's law and how it used to be a very popular thing
that you would hear people talking about.
Families would teach about it.
Young people would learn about it.
Churches would teach about it.
But in more recent times, as we explored, I believe it was Sunday night, that people
don't really talk about God's law anymore.
And we saw how as we've stepped away from those principles of happiness that we can
see the detriment that our society has faced as less and less people are following God's
law.
Because so many people today think, oh, God's law is archaic.
It's irrelevant.
Modern people don't need it.
And we explored that and said, no, it is important.
And we see that the spirit of anti-Christ is already trying to cast out and do away with
God's law.
And we've talked about that a couple times.
And even in our last night we saw how a particular law was set aside down through history in
that second seal and that third seal of Revelation chapter 6.
And so tonight we're going to discover another time, another way that this anti-Christ power
is wanting to draw people away from God's law, a specific part of God's law.
And so we're going to go now to Revelation chapter 14.
Revelation chapter 14 is a key chapter.
We've looked at it briefly.
And we're going to continue to look at it night by night because Revelation 14 has a
message that seems to be very important because of the way that it's said to go to Earth's
final generation of Earth's history.
So we're going to concentrate tonight on part of what the first angel says.
And if you've read this before, you recognize that there's three angels that are sharing
here.
We're going to look at those other angels in upcoming nights.
But in Revelation 14 verse 6, notice what it says, Revelation 14 and verse 6, the Bible
says, then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel.
And so this angel has the eternal gospel, the good news, the story of Jesus, the story
of Jesus dying for our sins.
So this angel has this gospel.
And notice what is to be done with it, to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to
every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.
So this seems like a very important message because it's supposed to go to everyone on
the earth.
It doesn't matter what nationality somebody is.
It doesn't matter what language somebody may speak.
It doesn't matter if someone is rich or poor.
It doesn't matter what denomination someone is or if they're no denomination.
It says this is a message for the entire world, for every single person.
So what is the message?
It goes on in verse 7 and it says, saying with a loud voice, and that loud voice, that
would be a word that we would call it megaphoney is the way that word is pronounced.
So if you could picture a megaphone, a megaphoney, it means a loud voice.
It's to be proclaimed to everyone loudly.
And here's the message, verse 7, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his
judgment has come.
Now this isn't about being afraid, being terrified.
It means having a respect for God.
Why?
Because it says the hour of his judgment has come.
And so it's talking about a time when Jesus is about to come again and so people can recognize
and respect who God is and what God is doing.
And then notice it goes on in verse 7 and says, worship him who made heaven and earth,
the sea and the springs of water.
So here in verse 7 it's a call to worship God as the Creator.
And you can notice down in verse 9 that there's a warning about worshiping something else,
worshiping the beast and his image.
And so we see that in this portion of Revelation there's a call to worship God as the true
God, worship God as the Creator of all things.
You think that's needed today?
At a time when so many, almost every educational institution is teaching something different,
teaching that there's evolution, that God is not the Creator, that the world came about
by some other means and it rejects God as the Creator.
And yet here we see a call to remember and to recognize God as the Creator of the heavens
and the earth and the seas and the springs of water and everything else.
So how are we supposed to do that?
How do we worship God?
How do we remember God as the Creator?
Can we do whatever we want or has God given us something specific?
In our society, in our world, often if we want to remember something, some event in
the past, what do we create, what do we do?
We maybe make a statue or a memorial.
Last month was another anniversary of 9-11, September 11, 2001.
And if you were to go to New York City, there's a 9-11 memorial in the place where those twin
towers horrifically crashed to the ground.
They have created a memorial to remember those who lost their lives on that day.
And you can go to many, many cities and you can see different monuments and memorials
that have been put up to honor those who have fought in the wars for our country, for our
freedom, for this land that we live in.
In fact, they've even created a day.
What do we call a day to remember those who have died fighting for our country?
Memorial day.
And, you know, I have not been to any community, any town or any city that recognizes Memorial
Day like right here in Ringgold, Georgia where they set up flags along all the streets.
And I'm pretty sure we're going to see it again in just a few weeks as they set it up
for Veterans Day.
So right here in our community, we remember and we have a day to remember.
And you can go to Veterans Memorial Park just up the road and there's more memorials that
have been set up to remember something.
And the fact is that God has set up a memorial day to help us to remember Him as our Creator.
And so if this call here in Revelation chapter 14 is calling us to worship God as our Creator
to remember that, well, let's go back to that creation story.
Let's go back to Genesis chapter 2.
Genesis chapter 2 is where we're going to go.
So we've been in Revelation, the last book.
We're going to go all the way back to the first book, the second chapter, and we're
going to look at the very tail end of creation week and see what this memorial is that God
has set up.
So Genesis chapter 2, and we're going to look at the first three verses or so.
Genesis 2, starting in verse 1, the Bible says, thus the heavens and the earth and all
the host of them were finished.
If you were to read through Genesis chapter 1, it talks about what was created on each
day.
But here it says all the host of them were finished.
And then it says on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done.
And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
And then notice verse 3.
It says then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from
all His work which God had created and made.
And so it kind of lists three different things that God did here on the seventh day.
He blessed the day, He rested on this day, and then right in the middle there it says
He sanctified it.
Now what does that word mean, sanctify?
We don't use that very often.
But if you were to look up sanctified, it means that He set it apart.
He set it aside for special use or He set it aside for holy use.
And so in other words, from the very beginning, God is saying that this seventh day is supposed
to be set aside as a holy time for humankind to honor God as their Creator.
And so it's a special day for us to remember who gave us life, who created us, who created
all of this world.
Some have said that throughout the eons of time if people had remembered that God is
the Creator, if people had remembered this special day there would be no theories of
evolution, there would be no atheists, there would be none of these other things because
once a week people would be able to recognize that God created us, that God created all
of this world.
And Revelation is calling us back to remember that.
Now sometimes people say, well wait a second, I've heard of that but I've always heard
it known as the Jewish Sabbath.
Isn't that just for Jews?
Well let's look, where are we in time right here?
This is at the end of the creation week.
So how many people are alive at this moment?
There's only two, we actually know their names, Adam and Eve.
And so were they Jewish?
No, there were no Jewish people for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years after this.
And so we see that at a time when there was no races, when there was no ethnicities, there's
no nations, long before there's any denominations, that way back at creation that God meant for
this as he said here to be a blessing, a blessing of rest.
Now why would God consider this to be so important?
Well if you think about it, what day were Adam and Eve created on?
The sixth day, the last active day of creation.
And so we would call that Friday, the sixth day.
And so the seventh day, that was Adam and Eve's very first full day, complete day that
they could be with their creator, that they could be with God, with Jesus.
And so we begin to see that God is a very relational God.
God did not put Adam and Eve into the beautiful garden of Eden, create them and say, alright,
peace out guys, I'm going to be way on the other side of the universe, good luck, you're
on your own.
But we see that God cared about them, that God loved them, that God wanted to have a
connection with them.
God wanted to be a personal God for them.
And because God wants to be a personal God, to have a personal relationship, he created
this opportunity in time, this seventh day Sabbath, where he says every week I want you
to step back, I want you to rest, I want you to spend time in holy communion with your
creator and you can recognize all that God has done.
Because when Adam and Eve were created, did they know everything about God?
No, they learned just like we learn.
And they learned about God as they communed with him, as they spent time with him.
In Genesis there it says that God walked with them in the cool of the day.
And that's why God gave them this Sabbath, so that they could learn more about his loving
character, his loving relationship with them.
And if you think about the Sabbath in that way, then you can see why Satan or the Antichrist
would want to change it, would want to do away with it.
Because if we have an opportunity to spend time to learn about God, then yes, that other
force, that other power would want to wipe that out, because he would not want us having
a special time to spend with God.
And so we can understand why in Daniel it says that he would think to change times and
laws.
But in fact, this was an important aspect of this creation week, and we see that it's
so important that God put it into the heart of the Ten Commandments.
Let's go over to the Ten Commandments.
It's in the book of Exodus.
Does anybody remember which chapter?
Exodus chapter 20.
It's also in Deuteronomy 5, but we'll look at Exodus chapter 20.
Because right in the heart of the Ten Commandments, we see this concept that we saw in Revelation
pointing us back to Genesis, and then we see it again right here in the Ten Commandments.
So we're going to read from the Fourth Commandment, starting in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 8.
Exodus, the Bible says, 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.
In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant,
nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
And so these first few verses tell us, Remember the Sabbath day and everybody in your household
can remember, can keep it holy, shall set aside this day apart from work.
Why?
Well, verse 11 explains it.
Verse 11 gives us a reason that God wants us to do this.
Notice verse 11 as it goes on.
This is the tail end of the Fourth Commandment, Exodus 8 and verse 11.
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, therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
And so we begin to see these exact same words that were in Genesis chapter 2, where God
rested, where God blessed the day, where God sanctified it or hallowed it.
It says here in this verse, God considered it to be so important that He placed it in
His Ten Commandments.
And notice He clearly says, The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
He makes that very clear, the seventh day.
And that makes sense because that's exactly what it said in Genesis 2.
And God isn't going to contradict Himself.
And so we see the same words, we see the same day being used.
But there's something else unique about this commandment.
How do most of the commandments begin?
Thou shalt not.
Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, and so forth.
But how does this commandment begin?
He uses a totally different word.
It says, Remember.
And isn't it intriguing that the very commandment that God says, Remember, is the very commandment
that most of the world says to forget, that most of the world has forgotten, that most
of the world says it's not important anymore.
And so we're hearing voices pulling us in different directions.
God says, Remember, but the world says to forget.
The world says it's not important.
And I think that's why Revelation, there in that last message to the world in Revelation
14, it's specifically calling us back to remember this idea of the Sabbath.
Because if there's ever been a time in earth's history, if there's ever been a generation
that needed to remember God as the Creator, it's now.
If there's ever a generation in earth's history where we are so easily distracted from our
spiritual life, it's now.
If there's ever a time in earth's history where we need to set aside the busyness of
our week so that we can connect in our relationship with God, it's us right now at this generation.
God knows that this final generation before He comes is going to need the Sabbath probably
more than any other time in earth's history.
And the Sabbath, as we'll see in just a moment, actually points us to Jesus as our Creator
and points us to Jesus as our Redeemer.
But I want to put up two verses here.
We've read these already, but Revelation 14, 7, and then Exodus 20.
I'm just going to read these again.
Listen, read along.
Is there any similarities?
Revelation 14, 7 says, fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment has come
and worship Him who made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.
That's that call of the first angel.
And then Exodus 20, 11 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.
Do those look familiar?
Do those sound familiar?
We've described how 50% of the verses in Revelation are quoting or pulling from the Old Testament
verses and this is one of them.
It seems to be almost directly quoting this fourth commandment as we're called to worship
God as our Creator.
Revelation is pointing the final generation back to rediscover this blessing from God.
Now it would be way easier to skip this, to not talk about this, to act like it's not
there, but if God put it in Genesis, in the Ten Commandments, in Revelation, then it seems
like perhaps there's a blessing in this Sabbath that we can appreciate.
Does anybody need a rest as we run through this crazy world?
That special time of the Sabbath is one way that we can connect with Jesus.
And another prophet reminds us of the same thing.
Let's turn over to Ezekiel.
Now if you go to the book of Daniel, one book right before the book of Daniel is the book
of Ezekiel.
So Ezekiel is where we're going to go and we're going to go to Ezekiel chapter 20.
So go to Daniel and turn back one book and we'll be in Ezekiel chapter 20 and verse 20.
You could actually read verse 12 and it says almost the exact same thing.
Exodus 20 and verse 20, the Bible says, this is God talking, hallow my Sabbath, sanctify,
make holy my Sabbaths.
Why?
It says, they will be a sign between me and you that you may know that I am the Lord your
God.
It says honoring his Sabbath, keeping his Sabbath is going to be a special sign.
Maybe you have a sign with someone, maybe a sibling or a spouse or someone at work.
My wife and I kind of have a little sign.
I used to text her when I was going back home and I would just text heading home, heading
home, short simple text, heading home.
But I got lazy maybe is the word and so I started just sending the little emojis.
Some of those emojis are a head, a head.
So I'll send an emoji of a head.
There's a fireman head, there's a policeman head, there's a robot head.
And when I send her the head, she knows that that means I'm heading home.
I know it's pretty lame, I'm sorry.
But that's what I send her just because it's one thing.
It actually probably takes longer to find a different head to send her.
But God says that the Sabbath is a sign.
It's a way to connect with us.
It's a way for us to say I acknowledge God as the creator of the universe.
So there's a relational aspect of the Sabbath.
Now I have to admit it's very easy for people to get caught up in a list of do's and don'ts.
And like so many other things in life, we tend to make things legalistic as if we could
say okay, I'm doing this on Sabbath, God.
That means I get to go to heaven, right?
No, that's not what it's about at all.
Because there's nothing we can do to deserve to go to heaven, to earn to go to heaven.
But we remember what God says.
He says if you love me, we looked at this the other night, if you love me, keep my commandments
in order to say thank you for what God has done.
God has given us a day that we can specifically worship Him.
That we can be purposeful about growing our spiritual life.
That we can improve our personal connection with God, our relationship with Him, as we
want to spend time with Him.
Now imagine, let's use some human relationships as an example.
Ladies, we'll call you guys out a little bit.
Imagine that your husband, your boyfriend, whatever it is, says to you, okay, I am going
to dedicate one day of the week where we are going to spend the whole day together.
It is going to be me showing how much I appreciate you, how much I love you.
That would be kind of neat, wouldn't it?
You would feel special, I would imagine.
You would feel important.
But imagine that that is what God does.
God says I love you so much that I want to spend this entire day with you.
I want our relationship to grow.
I want to have the time and the opportunity for our relationship to be deepened.
Now imagine, I'll use myself this time, that I have decided that I am going to have this
special day with Jolie, with my spouse.
And so maybe we've gone to the riverfront and gone for a nice walk down the paths, or
we've found ourselves a restaurant and we're having a nice dinner together.
But the entire day that I am supposed to be focused on her, instead I've had my phone
out, I'm calling someone, someone is calling me, they ring and she's like, Greg, sorry,
sorry, I've got to get this.
Or maybe I'm just checking the scores and seeing who's won the different games.
How do you think that would make her feel?
She would probably not be very excited about that day.
She would not want to spend another day like that because what I would be doing is saying
that all these other things are more important than my relationship with her.
And we need to make sure that our walk with God, our relationship with God, is the most
important thing in our life.
And so so far we've looked primarily at Old Testament passages.
And some would say, well wasn't the Sabbath done away with in the New Testament?
Well let's explore, let's turn to some passages in the New Testament.
So we looked at Revelation 14, let's go back there again and then we'll look at some other
examples.
Revelation 14, this passage of the three angels, notice Revelation 14 and verse 12.
Revelation 14 and verse 12.
The Bible says, here is the patience of the saints.
Here are those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.
So this is a description of God's people in the last days.
As we just mentioned in verses 9 through 11, it's warning about this beast and his image.
How can God's people overcome this beast and his image?
Well it says in verse 12, here is their description.
They have faith in Jesus, a saving faith in what Jesus has done for them.
And because of that faith in Jesus, they're keeping the commandments of God.
And so it doesn't mean they can say, oh well, five commandments, that's half, or eight,
I've done eight.
No, it says they're honoring God's commandments, not as a way to be saved, but because they
have this saving faith in Jesus.
So let's turn now to the Gospel of Luke.
Let's explore what Jesus' relationship was with the Sabbath.
We know that he was a part of creation.
We know that he helped inspire the scriptures and the Ten Commandments, but let's look and
see how Jesus responded while he was on earth.
So Luke chapter 4, we're going to read in verse 16.
Luke 4 and verse 16, it says, so he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and
as his, what's the phrase there?
As his custom was, Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.
So it was Jesus' custom.
A few years ago there was kind of a trend that people had.
It was a little wristband, and it would say WWJD.
Anybody remember what that stood for?
What would Jesus do?
That's a pretty good saying to follow.
It's a little better, I think, to say what did Jesus do?
And here we have an example.
We see what Jesus' custom was.
Now is a custom something that's random, it only happens sometimes?
No, a custom is something that's a regular occurrence.
A custom is something you do often.
Believe it or not, you all have some kind of custom.
You wake up in the morning and you have a custom of what you do.
Maybe you eat breakfast first.
Maybe you make something to drink.
Then when you put on your shoes, you have a custom.
Which shoe do you put on first?
Your left foot, your right foot, whichever one you find first?
Here's one.
What do you do?
What's your custom?
Do you put on both socks and then both shoes?
Or do you put on shoe and sock on the right foot and then shoe and sock?
We do things differently.
We have different customs.
And here Jesus' custom, what he did on a regular basis was go to the synagogue and he read
scripture here.
He had a custom of honoring the Sabbath day, worshiping in the synagogue, giving us an
example.
And in fact, if you look at verse 18, verse 18 as Jesus was reading from the prophet Isaiah,
he was proclaiming, this is about me.
I am the Messiah.
I am here to preach the gospel, to heal the brokenhearted, and so forth.
And so Jesus was acknowledging that this was not just for a particular religion or a particular
nationality, but this was for humankind that he was coming to save the whole world.
Now we would think if this was so important that we would see it not just in the days
of Jesus, but then we would see it throughout the disciples' ministry, the apostles' ministry.
We should see it in the book of Acts.
And so we do.
Let's turn over to the book of Acts, also written by the same author.
Luke wrote the gospel of Luke and he wrote the book of Acts.
And Acts tells the stories of the disciples, mostly Peter and then Paul, and how they interacted
as they went and shared the gospel and spread the gospel.
And we won't have time to look at all of them because it's all throughout the book of Acts,
but let's look at a few.
Acts chapter 13, and we're going to look at verse 14.
This is about Paul and Barnabas here.
And it says, but when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch and Pisidia.
These are some different towns and areas.
And it says, they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and they sat down.
And after reading the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying,
men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
Now we don't typically talk like that.
Say on, good brother.
But what they're basically saying is that if you have a message, preach it to us.
Give us the message from God, preach it.
And it goes on here and it says, yeah, they decided to preach the gospel.
And so we have Paul and Barnabas on the Sabbath day in a synagogue and they're sharing the
gospel.
They're preaching, not just with Jews.
Some would say, oh, they went to the synagogue because that's where the Jews are.
But notice as we go on to verse 42, verse 42 in the same chapter, it says, so when the
Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached
to them the next Sabbath.
And so they were talking to Jews, but now the Gentiles have come in and they want to
hear the word of God spoken on the next Sabbath.
And it says, now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes
followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace
of God.
So these are Jews and Gentiles and they're teaching them about the living in grace, living
in the grace of Jesus.
This would be the perfect opportunity for Paul and Barnabas to say, you know what, that
Sabbath thing, that's done with.
We've got something different.
We've got something new.
But they don't.
They're preaching to Jews, they're preaching to Gentiles, they're teaching them to continue
living under God's grace.
And notice the very next verse, verse 44.
It says, on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
Jews, Gentiles, from one Sabbath to another Sabbath, they're teaching people to honor
this day, to honor Jesus as their creator, as their living life under grace.
And look at what it says there, almost the whole city came together.
Imagine if that happened, if almost the whole city of Ringgold came together, or almost
the whole city of Chattanooga or Dalton came together to study the word of God.
What a miracle that would be, what a revival would take place.
And I believe, I truly believe that that's going to happen, that the Holy Spirit is going
to cause that to happen, cause people to study God's word.
So this is one example.
Let's look at another.
Let's turn over to Acts chapter 18.
Acts chapter 18.
Paul is in a different place now.
Most of Acts, he's going from city to city, he's starting different churches.
And in Acts 18 and verse 4, Paul is now in the town, the city of Corinth.
The city of Corinth.
And notice what it says, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded
both Jews and Greeks.
Corinth is a pagan city and Paul is there teaching Jews and Greeks.
And in fact in verse 11, it says that Paul remained there for a year and a half, 18 months
he was there.
And it says he reasoned every Sabbath, honoring the Sabbath, worshiping the Creator, using
it as an opportunity to teach people about Jesus.
So we can go back to at least one more.
Let's go to Acts chapter 16, just back a little bit.
Now Paul is with Silas, he's with a different traveling companion this time.
And they're now in the community of Philippi.
Philippi is an awesome story.
There's at least three different conversions that take place here.
But notice in Acts chapter 16 and verse 13, the Bible says, on the Sabbath day we went
out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made and we sat down and spoke
to the women we met there.
So in Philippi apparently there was no synagogue.
To have a synagogue you had to have at least 10 Jewish males in order to form a synagogue.
So apparently in this town there was no synagogue, but that didn't stop Paul.
He went out to the riverside, he went out to find a place to pray, to commune with God
the Creator amongst the beautiful creation of God.
And he witnessed to people there and they became converted.
They joined the church, they became followers of Jesus.
Now let's look at, let's shift gears just a little bit.
We're going to go to Hebrews chapter 4 because this is one that sometimes people have some
questions about.
Hebrews chapter 4.
This is right here in the heart of this and we're going to look at two different sections
here.
Hebrews 4, we're going to start in verse 4.
And notice what it says.
The Bible says, for he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way.
And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.
And so the author here is pointing back to Genesis chapter 2.
He's pointing back to that creation week when God created all of the world and created the
Sabbath.
But let's skip down to verse 9.
Hebrews 4 and verse 9.
It goes on and says, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
Now that word rest is not the typical word of rest.
It's a word called sabbathesmos.
Sabbathesmos basically.
And it's saying that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
And then it says in verse 10, for he who has entered his rest, God's rest, notice it's
capitalized, for he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as
God did from his.
So what this is telling us is that the author here is comparing the physical resting on
the Sabbath to the spiritual rest that we get from Jesus.
Because of what Jesus has done for us, because Jesus died on the cross, we don't have to
work our way to heaven so we can rest spiritually in him.
And so we can recognize that as we physically rest during those hours of the Sabbath.
And so believe it or not, the Sabbath points us to Jesus and points us to the cross.
Because as we rest on the Sabbath, we remember God is our creator and we remember Jesus as
our Redeemer.
And that's why this antichrist power wants to change God's time and God's law.
So what are some things we've talked about?
We've looked at some different purposes of the Sabbath.
And so we'll just kind of review here and then we'll go and look at something else here.
So the Sabbath is about spending time with Jesus.
God gave us a time when he wants to spend with us and he wants us to spend it with him.
Why do we need time with Jesus?
Because it's an opportunity to further, to deepen our personal walk with Christ.
And as we're doing that, we are remembering, we're honoring God as our creator and then
it's giving us a beautiful symbol to rest in Jesus as our Savior.
So it's an incredible day to focus on what Jesus has done for us.
It's there in Genesis.
We've seen it through the Old Testament in the Ten Commandments.
We see it in the life of Jesus, in the life of the disciples, and we see it in the book
of Revelation.
We've read verse after verse.
And so a question that we need to figure out here is with so many verses in the Bible talking
about the seventh day Sabbath, what happened?
Because believe it or not, you can read all the way through and this is a challenge for
you, but there's not one verse that's going to tell us that this sanctity of the Sabbath
is moved to any other day.
So if the Bible talks about the Sabbath over and over, how did we get to this point where
so many people have forgotten it?
If we had more time in this series, we could do a whole other night talking about that,
but we're not going to do that.
We're going to kind of talk a little bit about what we mentioned last night.
So if you weren't here last night, we're going to cover real quick what we talked about,
but how the Sabbath was lost sight of.
So we're going to springboard here with 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Remember last night we talked about the seven seals, and there was two seals, the third
and the fourth especially, where different things began to creep into the church.
So here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul makes this statement.
He says, let no one deceive you by any means for that day, what day?
Well in the context he's talking about the second coming.
The second coming will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin
is revealed, the son of perdition.
Paul recognizes that when the disciples, when the apostles die, just like that third and
fourth seal prophesied, there was going to be some errors that were going to creep into
the church.
In fact, much of the New Testament are letters, are epistles that Paul and others wrote to
churches because already different false teachings were creeping in.
And so Paul says that before Jesus comes back, the church is going to slide away from truth.
And we saw that yesterday in the third and fourth seal.
We looked particularly at the second commandment, the graven images was one example that we
used down through the Middle Ages, and we see that that's the same thing that happened
with the Sabbath.
So in the first centuries, what was the empire that ruled?
It would have been this iron legs here, the Roman Empire, the iron empire of Rome.
Did the Roman Empire like the Jewish people?
No.
Did the Roman Empire like the Christians?
No, because they kind of thought the Christians were just kind of a subsection of the Jews
because they had something in common.
They both kept this seventh day Sabbath.
And so these early Christians, as Christianity was illegal, they were being persecuted.
They thought we've got to do something different.
We've got to differentiate ourselves from the Jews.
And if that one thing we have in common, what else can we do?
So they thought, well, what about a different day?
What about Sunday?
Because if we want to reach out to the pagans around us, well, guess what?
The pagans were already worshiping on the first day of the week.
They were worshiping the sun god.
And that's why that day is called Sun Day.
And so they thought this can be a good thing.
We can win this other group.
They'll just shift days, and instead of worshiping on the seventh day, they'll worship on the
first day.
And they can just in their minds say instead of worshiping the sun god, well, now they
can worship Jesus, the son of God.
That was kind of the thinking that they were going for.
And for a long while, the early church actually honored both of these days, the seventh day
and the first day.
But over time, it began to shift.
It began to change.
And one of the reasons why was because the seventh day, they made a day of fasting, fasting,
don't eat.
It's a day of fasting.
Whereas the first day became a day of feasting.
So I don't know about you, but I would prefer a feast day over a day of fasting.
And so as young people were growing up, they appreciated the first day more than the seventh
day.
And as time went on, less and less emphasis was placed on the true Bible Sabbath.
But what really picked up momentum, we talked about this guy yesterday, was Constantine,
the emperor of Rome.
And he converted to Christianity in 313.
We talked about that last night that as he converted to Christianity, he wanted to unite
his empire, pagans and Christians together.
And he began to bring in different illegitimate things into the legitimate Christian faith.
And he began to bring in these different pagan traditions.
And we've talked about how every truth that God has, that Satan has some type of counterfeit.
And so in 321, we can see a decree that Constantine issued.
Notice what it says in 321.
On the venerable day of the sun, let the magistrates and the people residing in cities rest, and
let all the shops be closed.
So this is one of the very first Sunday laws as a new day of worship is beginning to spread.
And when the emperor said something, do you think the people listened?
They sure did.
They began to follow along and listen to what the emperor said.
And as centuries went on, eventually a religious system came out of the Roman Empire.
We've talked about this, known as the Church of Rome or Papal Rome.
And that's when church and state united.
And we talked last night about the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, and Papal Rome began to include
this first day of the week in its teaching.
And again, I want to be very clear here.
I'm not talking about individuals.
I've had relatives that are the sweetest people in the world who are of the Catholic faith.
I'm talking about a system of geopolitical religious government that's taking place as
we're looking at the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
I'm not talking about people.
But notice the convert's catechism.
That's a teaching tool, a teaching method.
And it's written in a question and answer format.
So here's just one example.
Question, the convert's catechism.
Question, which is the Sabbath day?
Answer, Saturday is the Sabbath day.
You know what?
I would agree with that.
I like that answer.
But then it goes on.
Question, why do we observe Sunday instead of Sabbath?
Answer, because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
This happened at an event called the Council of Laodicea about 336 AD.
Notice they're not saying because of this Bible verse or that Bible verse, because of
this thing or that thing.
They're just saying, we changed it.
Man changed it.
And since Rome had the power of church and state for over a thousand years and people
weren't allowed to read their Bible, this new understanding replaced the old understanding
of the seventh-day Sabbath.
And it spread throughout the world.
And so Sunday simply became this man-made law replacing God's law.
Man authority over God's authority.
And so we have to ask ourselves the question, what are we following?
Which is most important for us?
Do I want to go by what the Bible says or do I want to go by what man says?
Now here's the challenge.
I don't want you to take my word for it, because I'm a human.
I don't want you to take any man's word for it.
I want you to study the Bible.
Look up the verses.
Look and see if you can find a verse where it's changed.
I don't think you can.
If you can, come show me.
I would love to know, because I want to follow what the Bible says.
But you can search from Genesis to Revelation, from Genesis to Jesus to John, and it's not
there.
Now, you might want to ask some friends.
You might want to ask some other people.
Do that.
Look, see what Scripture has to say.
But let me tell you that when you ask somebody else, there's a good chance you're going
to get one of a couple different responses.
So here's some responses you might get.
Somebody might say, oh, well, that Sabbath, that's just for the Jews.
Somebody will say that.
But we saw, we looked, it was from Genesis when there was no Jewish nation yet.
It was for every person from the very beginning, from creation.
Some would say, well, the law is nailed to the cross.
And we looked the other night and we saw that there are some laws, sacrificial laws, that
were nailed to the cross.
Those that talked about the lambs that were pointing forward to Jesus.
Because when Jesus died, you didn't need a lamb anymore.
But God's Ten Commandments, it was before, we saw it in Genesis the other night.
Remember what Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments.
Not as a way to gain salvation, but to say thank you for the salvation.
And then some will say, well, you can keep any day as the Sabbath.
And that's a good thought.
We do need to worship God and honor God every single day.
But we can't keep the Sabbath every single day.
Because on the Sabbath, you're supposed to cease from your labors.
You're supposed to cease from your work.
And I'm guessing most of us, we need a little income.
We need something to pay our bills and different things like that.
And God didn't give us a right to just do whatever we want.
He said it was a specific day.
The seventh day is the Sabbath.
And then some would say, well, we keep Sunday in honor of the resurrection.
And again, that's a beautiful thought.
But it's not in Scripture.
In fact, God gives us something to remember the death burial and resurrection.
And that's the act of baptism, is what God gives us as a memorial for the resurrection.
And then believe it or not, somebody might just say, well, don't go back to those meetings.
That's not what everybody else is teaching.
That's not the popular thing to say.
And I'll say, you know what?
That's right.
It's not the popular thing to say.
Because I've had people come to meetings like this and say, you know what?
I've learned more in these few meetings than I've ever learned about the Bible before.
But when somebody says, oh, that's something different, suddenly the idea is, no, you don't
need to hear that anymore.
But we need to ask ourselves, no matter what the subject is, that we can pray, Lord, help
me to fully surrender to you.
Help me to make sure that I'm not doing something because it's popular.
I'm not doing something because everybody else is doing it.
But I'm doing something because it's in the book.
There's a saying that says, if it's in the book, we're going to take a look.
And so that's what we're trying to do.
And so we can ask ourselves some important questions that we all need to think about
in our own life.
What value do I value my relationship with Jesus?
And we can ask ourselves, would I like to experience the gift of the Sabbath?
Maybe this is something brand new.
You've never heard of it before.
You've never even thought of it before.
Could this be something that Jesus wants to put into your life?
And then number three, would I like to experience the joy of spending holy time with Jesus?
Humans might say, oh, don't worry about that.
But Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments.
If you love me, here's an option.
And so we can say, we've got two different choices.
We can say, thank you, Lord, that you love me so much that you want to spend special
time with me.
And I don't understand it, but God, I want to learn more about this Sabbath thing.
Or we can just say, God, this is different.
This is bizarre.
I'm too busy.
God, this is inconvenient.
And we can go in a different direction.
It's my prayer that each of us, like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, would pray that
prayer, Lord, not my will, but your will be done.
And as we learn together that we can say, God, help me to surrender all of my heart
and all of my soul and all of my mind to you.
I hope that's a prayer that each of us can pray.
Let's bow our heads at this time.
Dear God, thank you so much for all you do.
Thank you for a gift of relationship, a gift of Sabbath.
Thank you that you want to know us better and you want us to know you better.
And God, I know this is new for some people here, but Lord, I pray that as they go and
open up their word, that you will open up their heart and that you will just help them
to find truth and guide them and lead them.
And Lord, I just pray for each one of us here that we will serve you and love you in all
that we do.
In your name we pray.
Amen.