You are welcome to another edition of Insights from Gods Word, a Bible study programme that is committed to sharing Gods Word by allowing the Bible to speak for itself. My dear friends, i greet you in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Today, i want us to consider the question: How do we observe the Seventh-day sabbath from the light of the Bible? This study happens to be the last in our Sabbath Bible Study Series. Our topic today is a very important one that cannot be overemphasized. Beloved, in our previous studies, we have proven from the Bible that Gods holy Sabbath Law, including the other nine in His Ten Commandment Law, are still binding on Gods children. Friends, after the Holy Spirit has graciously led us to know the Sabbath truth, our duty now will be to keep the day holy as the Lord requires from us. But the million dollar question is this: How do we keep the Sabbath day holy as God requires from us? In Exodus 20:8-11, we read about the sabbath commandment: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt 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. There is a lot of detail in these verses that require our contemplation. 1. First, we must remember the Sabbath day. This means that as we go through the week, we must have the sabbath time consciously embedded in our minds. We must remember that we have an appointment with no mean Person than the Creator of the universe on the seventh day. This act of remembering the sabbath, will help us to order our lives aright, as we wait to commune with God on this special day that He has uniquely blessed. Our remembrance of the day throughout the week will help us to prepare adequately to receive our awesome Guest on the day He has specially set aside for Himself. 2. We are also admonished to keep the sabbath day holy. The is basically because the Lord has sanctified the day or set it apart for holy use. (Gen. 2:1-3, Exod. 20:11) This is the only day amongst the seven in the week,that God claims special ownership. In Exodus 20:10, we read this: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: ... Friends the Sabbath day is not for any human being but rather God. It was this day that the apostle John referred to as the Lords day in Revelation 1:10. 3. Beloved, for us to be able to honour the sabbath day according to the commandment, we must know when the sabbath time begins and when it ends. The Bible clearly teaches that the Seventh day is the Sabbath. (Exodus 20:10) In our previous study, we proved from Scripture that the Seventh day is actually our Saturday. Friends, the sabbath arrives on sunset, Friday evening; and ends on sunset, Saturday evening. I believe some of you may be confused now regarding the reckoning of my time here. But that is the biblical reckoning of time. In Genesis 1, we read the account of the creation of our world. Through this account, we learn the timing of the begining and ending of the various days of the week. In several verses of Genesis 1, we encounter the phrase, And the evening and the morning. For instance: ...And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Gen. 1:5) And the evening and the morning were the second day. (Gen. 1:8) And the evening and themorning were the third day. (Gen. 1:13) etc. Friends, this phrase, the evening and the morning basically teaches us a very important truth. That is, from Scripture, a day begins from the evening and ends with the morning. The evening time is actually from sunset to dawn in the morning. To use our specific time reckoning which does not apply in all cases, the evening part of a day will begin from 6pm when the sun sets and end at 6am when the day begins to break. Now, that is evening time. During this time, all is darkness or evening. The morning time actually begin from daybreak to sundown. To borrow our usual time, 6am to 6pm. (which is subject to seasonal variations) This is the biblical day time, when all is bright and without darkness. It beats the imagination to think that the whole world has been deceived into believing this false reckoning of morning and evening time that we have now. In the worlds reckoning of a day, the morning time is actually 12 am to 12 noon, and the evening time from 12 noon to 12 midnight. This does not actually make sense as each section of the day contain part day and part night. How can we say it is day, at 1am, when darkness engulfs the earth? Or night, at 2pm, when the sun is at its peak. The Bible, Friends, is reasonable; and teaches us practical truths that we can rely on. With this biblical knowledge about how the evening and morning times of a day are reckoned, we are not surprised to find out that God actually commands His people to keep the sabbath day from sunset to sunset (Lev. 23:32) This is basically because the Seventh day, like all the other days, begins from sunset and ends at sunset. Now that we have a knowlegde of the true sabbath hours, we can go ahead with our study on how to keep the sabbath day holy. Beloved, to keep the sabbath day holy, we must observe the following: 1. As i explained earlier, the fourth commandment bids us first to remember the sabbath day throughout the week. As we remember the sabbath day, we are encouraged to begin preparing ourselves for the sabbath very early within the week. We must make ready our clothing, food and all necessities that will be needed for use on this special day. This preparation is vital as we do not want anything to take away the memorable time the Lord has decided to spend with us. On Friday, before sundown, we bring our preparation to an end, ready to embrace our heavenly Visitor. We enter the sabbath hours with beautiful hymns of adoration and praise, thanking and welcoming the One who created us, and loved us beyond what we could ask for or imagine. 2. To keep the sabbath day holy, we must refrain from carrying out any secular work that earns us a livelihood. For instance, the teacher, farmer, engineer, lawyer, banker etc must cease from carrying out their usual work and set the day aside for holy use. Buying, selling and trading should cease on this holy day. (Neh. 10:31, Neh. 13:15-22) This cessation from labour is not just for us to observe, but the commandment also extends to other people who work on our behalf. Such people must also cease from secular labour to honour the sabbath of the living God. (Exod. 20:10) As God rested on the seventh day from His work of creation (Gen. 2:1-3) , so He bids us to rest from our secular duties on the seventh day. We are however commanded to work on the other six days of the week. (Exodus 20:10) 3. Besides refraining from secular labour on the sabbath, there are other things we should consider avoiding so as not to profane the holy day. Isaiah 58:13-14 gives us clear guidelines on how we should observe the sabbath day. We read the account as follows: If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isaiah 58:13-14) In this text, we realize that we should not carry on with our own pleasure on the sabbath day. For instance, if it is a desire of mine, to play Tennis on any of the six working days, i cannot indulge in such pleasure on the sabbath. The day must be wholly consecrated to God. Again the sabbath day must be observed as a happy delightful day. (Isaiah 58: 13) It is not a day of mourning or fasting. It is a day to be kept with gladness of heart because heaven has reached down to embrace us. 4. We must realize that resting on the sabbath day does not imply lazyness, idleness or just sleeping the day away. As Christ gave us an example in Luke 4:16, we must go to the temple of God on the sabbath day; and together with other children of God, worship the One who made us. In Psalm 95:6, we read: O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. Friends, in the text above, we are encouraged to come and bow down, and worship the One who made us. The sabbath commandment is the only commandment that links our worship of God to the fact that He created us. We go to church on the sabbath to worship and adore this awesome God of creation. And beloved, this special worship service cannot be done on any other day of the week except the day God has specifically designated for us. 5. We must keep the sabbath as Christ gave us examples. We must relieve the needy, attend to the sick, show compassion and carry out acts of mercy. We must practice the teaching of Christ that t says the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath. (Mark 2:27) In the spirit of true sabbath keeping, acts of mercy and kindness should not be neglected because one is hurrying for sabbath worship service. when it becomes necessary that secular duties should be carried out to save a life, we must do so in perfect harmony with the example of Christ. Friends, the Lord has reserved special blessings for people who hallow the sabbath. In Isaiah 56:2, we read: Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. In saiah 58:13-14 , we read about another of Gods explicit blessings on those who hallow the sabbath. The quote reads: If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. Exhortation: 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. 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. (Isaiah 66:22-23) Have a blessed day and keep shining for King Jesus. Maranatha!!! You can insert your Bible questions, or prayer requests through our whatsapp number (+233243105287) or the comments section on facebook, so we can work on them at Insights from Gods Word. From: Samuel Nyarko Speaker/Director, White Throne Media
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 05:22:08 +0000