hope_dies_last
Since Feb 10, 2010
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hope_dies_last
Since Feb 10, 2010
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God Bless you and keep you.
And on more thing... The Seventh Day is the BIBLE Sabbath!
Did you know what day will be observed in the New Heavens and the New Earth?
Isaiah 66:22-23 reads, “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain v.23 And it shall come to pass, [that] from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.”
In fact, the Sabbath was not only instituted as a memorial of Creation from the beginning, but also to remind you that you are a created being, which of course bears the need for us to accept God’s Word at face value—that God created the Heaven’s and the Earth in a literal week of Creation. God spoke the Heaven’s and the Earth into existence in six days, then rested on the seventh day or Sabbath.
And if the memoir of Creation weren’t enough, where God instituted a day of rest for Adam and his descendants to rest from their labors and have fellowship with their Creator, God also repeated the Sabbath as a commandment on Mt. Sinai and then reemphasized it numerous times in the book of Deuteronomy, which literally means “second law” or the restating of the first, as a reminder of Israel’s deliverance from the slavery of Egypt.
In essence, the Sabbath is more than just a memorial of Creation, it also a symbol of deliverance from the “slavery” of sin. Furthermore, it is a symbol of Grace and the redemptive work of Christ himself.
When we accept God’s plan of redemption through faith in Jesus, we enter His “rest”. This is the true rest the Sabbath is pointing us to. Christ himself said, “Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29. Please note the two operative words in this passage, “all ye who labour” and “rest”. Ultimately the “rest” spoken of here, is the “rest for your souls” and freedom for our weary souls from the bondage of slavery—or slavery to sin and its ultimate consequence, death.
Egypt symbolically represents sin, the world and ultimately death. We are born into slavery unto this world. As David the psalmist stated in Psalm 51:5, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”. We are “conceived in sin” and we are born unto this world as members of the fallen race under Adam’s curse. God’s redemptive work in Christ represents freedom from sin and death, so Christ is our true “Sabbath” or “rest” under the covenant of His “Grace” which we enter through faith.
This is not to say, as some would like us to believe that under the freedom of God’s grace, that we are loosed from observance of the Sabbath. There are many passages that point to the Sabbath or Seventh Day as a “perpetual” covenant, Exodus 31:16. Quite on the contrary, the redemptive work of Christ, and the “rest” that we gain from it are all the more reason for us to want to fully comprehend and appreciate God’s gift of the Sabbath. Both Christ and the Sabbath are God’s gifts to man. Christ himself again said, “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” Mark 2:27 and again Jesus said in Luke 6:25, “That the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath”.
Another interesting parallel, is that both Christ and the Sabbath were rejected by men. Jesus came to His own, and "His own did not receive Him" John 1:11. In the same manner, Sabbath observance is not considered as a current mandate in mainstream Christianity. Rather the Fourth Commandment is arbitrarily singled out and rejected; while on the other hand, the other nine commandments, it is said, still need to be observed.
There are many parallels between Christ and the Sabbath and there is one more that needs to be considered. When Christ was crucified, He was hung between two thieves, Matthew 27:38; one robber on the left, who despised Christ and mocked him; and one on the right, who pleaded for His remembrance of him in His Kingdom. You might ask yourself at this point what does this have to do with the Sabbath? The point is the following; what two other "holy days" exist in two major monotheistic religions in the world? The fact is that there is but two other major weekly holy days. Friday is a high holy day for Muslims and as is Sunday for mainstream Christianity, which includes Catholics and major Protestant denominations. It would be well to afford oneself the opportunity to consider that indeed the Sabbath or Saturday falls between two false--one mock and one substituted worship day, not as prescribed by Jehovah, but by the traditions of men. If you look at these days on a calendar in a linear fashion, Friday falls on the left of Saturday and Sunday on the right. Think about it just for a moment, and you can draw your own conclusion...
Now going back to our thieves on the cross, the robber on the left rejected Christ. Muslims reject Christ as their Messiah and the Quran speaks of an "al-Mahdi" who will grant Islam world domination over other religions. In contrast, the thief on the right accepted Christ, and Jesus assured him at that hour, the gift of His Salvation. Mainstream Christianity accepts the view that the thief on the right side of Jesus was saved, as is anyone who accepts Christ by faith. Please bear in mind, Sabbath observance is not a requisite for Salvation; rather it is our goal and destiny to enter God's true "rest" under His Grace, through faith in Jesus. The fact that Christians were saved throughout history by professing faith in Jesus, whether they observed the Sabbath or worshiped God on Sunday, does not make void God's institution of the perpetual covenant of the Sabbath, Exodus 31:16; Leviticus 16:31.
The Lord, in one of His discourses also noted that not one “jot or tittle would in no way pass from the law”, even more so, one could easily speculate the unlikelihood of the Lord voiding the entire 4th Commandment to “remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy”. The Lord said elsewhere, "That the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Matthew 12:8, and then; "And he said unto them, And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17
Would the Lord do away with such an important memorial and most enduring monument of His work, the work of Creation and the work of Redemption? Hardly so, as both Creation and the redemptive work of Christ are to be perpetually commemorated through the Sabbath. This conmemoration is stressed after God inscribed the Ten Commandments with His finger, on stone, Exodus 31:18.
The Fourth Commandment, "Remember the Sabbath Day... is the only commandment that is prophetic and begins with "remember". In His foreknowledge, God foresaw the present-day foresaking, by His people, of the Seventh-Day Sabbath, except for a "Remnant", Revelation 14:12
Another point is that there is not even an astrological reason for the enduring existence of the 7-day week. For example, consider the following:
- The 24-hour day is comprised of the rotation of the Earth on its own axis
- The 30-day monthly cycle is comprised of the moon’s rotation around the Earth
- The 365-day yearly cycle is comprised of the Earth’s rotation around the Sun.
So why the 7-day week? The answer is this, that God himself perpetually instituted it at Creation.
Now let’s summarize the important points in relation to true Sabbath observance:
Creation– God’s purpose is to remind you on a weekly basis, since the Garden of Eden, that you are a created being. – Genesis 2:2-3
Freedom from slavery – Through faith in Jesus, God has freed and delivered you from sin and death, just like He freed Israel from slavery in Egypt which was a precursor of grander things to come, namely the redemptive work of Christ. “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and [that] the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day”. Deutoronomy 5:15
Christ represents our true Sabbath – “Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29. And Christ is not a “fulfillment” as in the doing away of the former Sabbath, but is as the rising “Sun of Righteousness", Malachi 4:2; that reaches its full shine or full measure at noon; so is the "fulfillment" of God’s Plan of Salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, revealed through the exact fulfilling of His Word.
Our conclusion is this:
“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience”. Hebrews 4:9-11. This interesting passage begins with “there remains”, hmm… Remember the “remember” in the Fourth Commandment, Exodus 20:8; to keep the Sabbath Day holy? You may now be asking, how can you bridge “there remains” in Hebrews with “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”, right? Hold on; let’s look more carefully at the fact that Hebrews 4:9-11 begins with the words, “there remains”. This means that something big has taken place and that after the fact, “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God”.
The event that took place, dear friend, was the Crucixion, Burial and Resurrection of Christ... Jesus, The “Lamb of God”, slain from the “Foundation of the World”, was led to the Cross of Calvary, "as a sheep led to the slaughter" ". The Foundation of the World" spoken of here is none other than "Creation". Evidently, this is reaffirming our belief that since Creation, God's redemptive work has been unfolding. God is extending His Grace to us, His Creation, until the appointed time when His perfect work will be restored.
"Remember" what took place at the end of that first week of Creation? “...and on the Seventh Day God RESTED”. God’s emblem of the Plan of Salvation, or the "Sabbath" had been set as the “cornerstone” of God’s continuing labour of LOVE. Christ declared himself to be the "Rock of Salvation", spoken of in Psalms 89:26 & 95:1; upon which He would build his Church, Matthew 16:18. This "Rock" had been founded at Creation when God instituted the Sabbath, even before Adam sinned and God declared the "enmity between the seed of Eve and the seed of the serpent" Genesis 3:15, which is actually the second reference to the Cross after God instituted the Sabbath, which was the first inference to Calvary.
Lastly, may we please note that after His burial, Christ "rested" in the tomb; after having been buried on the eve of the Sabbath and then rising to a Glorious Resurection on Sunday. Even at this momentous consummation of God's redemption of humanity, where Jesus experienced the second death on behalf of His redeemed, Christ rested on the Sabbath in the Tomb.
And furthermore, found in the last book of the Bible is this very candid declaration: “Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12
Worship Him, “Who made the Heavens and Earth” (Revelation 14:7) “…in Spirit and in Truth”…(John 4:24)