HOW TO KEEP THE SABBATH
The fourth commandment says to remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy
God does everything in cycles. Cycles of "rest" are everywhere. The leaves and foliage die in the winter and the world looks dead for several months. God wants the world to rest this way once a year. Every night, we see another cycle of rest that lasts eight hours. The rest phase is embedded in all of God's creation. There is also a weekly cycle of rest. The fourth commandment says that we should remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. On this day we cease from work. The Sabbath begins at sundown every Friday evening and it ceases at sundown Saturday evening. This is how God counts His days. It makes sense...when one day ends, the next begins. You cannot just choose any day. He set aside the Sabbath as a holy time of rest. People say, "well, as long as you keep one day in 7, that is all that matters. But, God never said that...so that argument is carnal and not biblically based.
How do we keep the Sabbath specifically? The first thing to note is that God says that we should do all our work in six days but the seventh day is hallowed by God. We should not work on that day. You stay home from work. You can go to church that day. You take it easy. Relax. Make it a pleasant day, but you do not do your normal activities like shopping.
GOD'S INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO KEEP THE SABBATH HOLY
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:8-11
Even though we don't work on the Sabbath it is a "Feast Day". Which means that it is a pleasant day, a nice family day. Have a picnic, a nice meal together, talk, go for an easy walk, enjoy the day. It is the first feast day of Leviticus 23. God does have other Holy Days listed there, but keeping the Sabbath is the first step in beginning to obey God. You should be keeping the Sabbath first before you even think about keeping God's other Holy Days. The Sabbath is the test command. This is the commandment that shows God whether you are serious about obeying Him.
Some might say, well, the law is done away so I don't have to keep the fourth commandment. They say, "The Sabbath is done away." But, according to that, the law that forbids adultery is done away too?? No way. But, according to this argument, you can commit adultery because "the law is done away." According to this silly argument, you can also commit murder because "the law is done away." They don't understand that the law is not done away with, but the penalty for breaking it is. But let's expand this further.
Say you have a serious problem with speeding and you go to court, and the judge lets you off this time, you don't go outside and yell "Hey, I can speed all I want for the rest of my life now!" No, he just dropped the penalty for that offense. But you can't continue to speed just because the judge showed benevolence. Nor can we continue to break the Sabbath or any other commandments, just because God has pity on us when we slip up. God doesn't want us to slip up. The Bible says, "If you love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15) and "He that says he knows God and keeps not His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him." (I John 2:4) If you really love God, keep His commandments which include keeping the Saturday Sabbath. If you say you know God, then keep the commandments and the truth will be in you. Your heart will want to keep the law because you love God.
Keeping the Sabbath holy is the first step to having a real relationship with the living God. It is a lifelong commitment to obey God everyway you can. God gives His Holy Spirit to those who obey Him.
Acts 5:32
"We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."
If you start to keep the Sabbath, you will begin to understand the Bible more and more. Once you obey God, and you start to receive the Spirit of Truth, it is like a light bulb turning on in your head. You will begin to see truths you never saw before. Not one place in the Bible does it say to keep Sunday. Nor was Sunday kept at all until around 400 years after Christ died. Had He wanted you to keep Sunday, Christ would have put it in the Bible somewhere. He didn't.
Genesis 2:3 (New International Version)
So, we remember that the Creator rested on the Sabbath as an example.3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Jesus Christ never rested on Sunday. It was His custom to worship on Saturday, the Sabbath.
"He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read." Luke 4:16 Jesus Christ called Himself Lord of the Sabbath in Matthew 12:8 and Luke 6:5. Had He wanted you to keep Sunday, He would have said so. He was a Jewish savior. In Zechariah 14, we see the exciting return of this Jewish savior as king of the earth. The Bible predicts that in the future 10 men of different languages will grab the garment of a Jew and say we're going with you, because we have heard that God is with you!
Zechariah 8:23-9:1
"Thus says the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you."
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Copyrighted by the Churches of God A Mystery
2007